You’re quick to head out the door today. You can’t wait to ‘see’ Rainbow. Ever since the night on the cliff last week, she’s been lurking in your thoughts. Every night she’s in your dreams; you finally realize it.
You like Rainbow Dash.
You both love racing, you both love flight, you both love speed. She’s everything you’d been looking for, all in one. Relationships had never worked with you. Blindness made it difficult with some mares more than others.
“How do I look?” the fancy ones would ask. You never cared about that as you couldn’t. “Does this dress make my flank look big?” “Does my makeup look good?”
You could never answer, too many, “I don’t care how you look, you look fine to me” ruined it for you. Others found it weird how you never took you shades off around them. After a few to many of those relationships you stopped taking off your shades all together. Even around your parents.
After you both finish your weather duties you head to the park.
“You up for a game of horseshoes, rook?” Rainbow asks.
“Sure, I’ve got nothing planned today.”
You retrieve the shoes and pound the stakes in. Rainbow goes first. The shoe lands a few inches from the stake.
“Ha ha, think you can beat that?”
“Oh yeah,” you grab a shoe and toss. It lands two inches closer than Rainbow’s.
“Hmph, this game has just begun, hotshot,” Rainbow says with a grunt. She tosses her last shoe.
CLANG
“Yeah baby, Ringer!” she cheers.
Your turn. You toss, “Oh horseapples, I over did it,” the shoe lands two feet past the stake.
“Nice one, rook,” Rainbow chuckles
“Best two outta three,” you smile at her.
What was supposed to be two out of three turned into best nine out of seventeen.
You toss your shoe, “Ringer, I win this one, Dash.”
“Best ten outta nineteen,” she says. The clock tower in the center of town rings. The sound resonates loudly within your head, disorienting you slightly.
“Oh sweet Celestia, I forgot,” Dash says in a panic, “I was supposed to meet Twilight and Applejack for lunch today, uh sorry, I have to go,” there’s regret in her voice, is it from nearly missing her date or leaving you behind? “I’ll see ya later rook, we should hang more often; go hiking again or something, I had fun,” with that she speeds off.
You head home, a cloud over your head. You’d been looking forward to spending the day with Rainbow. You make a daffodil and hay sandwich for lunch, carefully smelling each ingredient before you assemble your lunch. When you’re done you sit in the living room and eat.
Today is quickly becoming boring, but then again most of your summers were just you exploring the area around Ponyville, but with most of it explored, there’s not much to do. Why was your summer suddenly not a bummer? Rainbow Dash. So far this entire summer you’d hung out with her. She’d brightened up every one of your days so far.
Suddenly you remember something.
What was that book series Rainbow wanted you to read? Daring Doo was the name; maybe Twilight had some braille versions of the series. Couldn’t you just say they were for your cousin or something? She would believe that, after all everypony else who heard that believed it. Ok, you’ll try it out.
You grab your saddle bag and fly out the door.
You land at the library just as the clock strikes 3:00. Good, Twilight should be back from lunch by now. You open the door and walk in.
“Hi, welcome to the Ponyville libr- hey I know you,” Twilight says, “You were the stallion that Pinkie threw that party for last week. You name was… uh… Storm that’s it. What can I help you with?”
“Uh do you have the Daring Doo series,” you ask unsure of how to approach the subject.
“Sure, I have every book in the series. The next book Daring Doo and the temple of dreams comes out next month, if you want I can order it for you once you’re finished with others.” She hands you the books.
“Um, I kind of need them in braille. I’m just… uh picking them up f-for my cousin, yeah that’s it. He has a sight problem.”
“Ok, no problem, I’ll just be a moment. You know, Rainbow really appreciates you helping her with her weather duties. She says you really know your stuff.” She walks through a door and downstairs. Without even stepping foot in the place you can tell the basement is spacious. More shelves of book and equipment line the shelves.
She shouts up the stairs, “Spike, can you get that ancient spells book? The one with the invisibility spells in it.”
A small creature, Spike, you remember him from the party, trudges down the upstairs stair case, “Do I have to? That book weighs a ton.”
“Yes you do, now please get it.”
“Fine,” he retrieves a ladder and pushes it over. He climbs up the ladder and grips a large object. You walk over, trying to get a better ‘look’ at the book. It’s huge for the little guy.
“Spike, do you have it yet?”
“Yeah yeah, I got it Twilight, don’t get you mane in bun-whoa!” he falls off the ladder with the book in close behind.
THUD
“UGGHHH!” you yell. Someone is running up the stairs.
“Oh sweet Celestia, are you ok?”
“yeah,” you feel your face, NO, where are they, NO NO NO, “my glasses, oh horseapples where did they land?”
“Here they are; you know, they almost look like Vinyl Scratch’s Dj gla-ooohhh,” your glasses hit the floor.
You stand up, “Twilight, I can explain, I, um I, oh, my, they just,” you stutter, covering you face with your hoof.
“You…your….blind,” she stutters.
“I, I,” you don’t know what to say. Absolutely no one had ever learned your most closely guarded secret. You never even planned for what you would say if someone found out. No accept you parents knew. Not even you grandparents or cousins or aunts and uncles knew. But now, this purple unicorn who you’d’ met only last week knew your largest secret.
You feel something on your face. Your glasses. Twilight slid your glasses back onto your head.
“T-t-thanks,” you say.
“You're blind, how? I mean, how do you do all the things you do? You can’t see,” Twilight says, the astonishment still in her voice.
You sigh, “Yes, I’m blind. I don’t want anypony to know so please don’t tell anypony.”
“Sure, I pinkie promise.” She makes a sign over her chest and head with her hoof.
“What’s a pinkie promise?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she says, chuckling, “How can you fly? I mean being blind, and everything. Yet you do everything like a normal Pegasus.”
“I have this ability to hear a lot better than most ponies, I also feel better than most ponies. I can hear any vibration in the air and build an image in my head around it. That’s how I see.”
“That’s so interesting, how’d you learn that? How accurate is it? Oh, I’d love to test that.”
“It’s accurate most of the time, nine times out of ten. It doesn’t help when Pinkie sets off a party popper right next to my head.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were talking to the ice sculpture at the party,” Twilight laughs.
“Yeah,” you say embarrassed.
“Oh I can’t wait to tell the others, they’d love to see your ability-”
“Wait, you can’t tell ANYPONY, not Rarity, or Pinkie Pie, or Applejack, or Fluttershy, and especially not Rainbow Dash.”
“Why ever not?” she asks.
“Because I don’t want any of them telling Dash, if she found out I might lose my job on the weather patrol, or she might think I’m a freak. I just don’t want her finding out; she’s the first pony I feel like I can be myself around.”
“Ok,” she says disappointed.
“I can come in and do experiments with my hearing,” you say. As long as it keeps her from blabbing.
“Uh, my head. What happened?” Spike says as he rises from the floor.
“Oh sorry, Spike, I was… helping Storm up, and I guess I forgot about you, sorry,” Twilight lies.
“Looks like that book knocked you out little dude,” you say.
“Uh, tell me about it later, I’m gonna get an icepack. Ow,” he says holding his throbbing head.
“So, I take it these books aren’t for your cousin?” Twilight asks, handing you a stack of books.
You put them in your saddle bag, “No, they aren’t. Rainbow recommended them to me.”
“Well they’re a great series, I’m glad she recommended them. She never used to read until this series.”
“Cool. So I’ll see you later, Twilight.”
“Bye Storm,” she waves as you fly out the door.
Oh Celestia, this is just great…