//------------------------------// // Social Experiment // Story: Blind // by GjallarFox //------------------------------// I stood in what felt like a stone hallway of some kind, the floor cold and hard against my hooves. My eyes gave me some degree of sight, but it was almost too blurry to be useful at all, and all I could really detect was light and motion. I could not distinguish color, nor shape, nor distance. I may as well have remained completely blind for all my eyes could do now. I saw some sort of light coming from directly in front of me, and it flickered like the warmth of a fire. With no other idea what to do or where to go, I decided to move towards the light. As I was accustomed, I paid incredibly little mind to my "sight" in favor of the senses I had honed over the past several years. The loud, resounding, percussive sound of my hooves on stone set the rhythm of my more legato breathing. The smell of a freshly polished floor permeated the hallway that echoed with my hoofsteps. I could detect what I assumed to be windows allowing a soft light into the room. When I arrived at the source of the light, I stared at it, wondering what it could have been. Its light wavered like a leaf in the breeze, but gave off no warmth. I could smell nothing other than the lemony scent of the floor polish, and the only sounds in the room were my breathing and the last echoes of my hoofsteps as I finished approaching the light. However, as soon as I stopped walking, an immense pressure made itself present on my horn. What felt like a vice gripped at my horn, sending pain shooting through my head, drawing tears that worsened my already terrible sight. Magic began to leak from my horn, and I could have sworn I heard a faint crack from just in front of my ears. I screamed for help as the pain in my horn became known in my eyes, the tears burning like acid. There was a swift shift in light that flew across my field of view. "Help! If anyone is there! Help!" I called out to whoever or whatever my eyes had detected. Magic spewed from my horn like steam from a release valve on a train. The pressure was almost unbearable, and I was certain that my horn would crack, or even break should it build any more. My knees buckled from beneath me, refusing to hold me up with my magic going haywire as it was. I shrieked in agony, raising my hooves to my head trying to wipe away the boiling tears. The floor beneath me began to rumble, though I couldn't have cared less about that at the time. But when I lifted my head to listen, I heard the sound of marble columns crumbling and the roof cracking above me. I opened my eyes, knowing that even though they were severely impaired and painful to open, they would help me see where I needed to step should the ceiling collapse. The rumbling intensified, several columns collapsing, but the roof refused to give way so far as I could see. I could hear a few shards of stone hit the floor somewhere in the giant room, but not near enough to me to concern me. But no sooner than when I sighed in relief, did the roof begin to move. I lifted my head to see if it was falling, but the columns that hadn't already been destroyed remained unbroken. It's moving up‽ The roof, which I saw only as a blurry blob in my vision, seemed to move further from me before it shifted to my left. It slowly floated away from the walls and columns that supported it, slamming to the ground as soon as it was clear of them. The resulting seismic wave was enough to knock my chin against the floor. There will come soft rains, I felt myself tense up, remembering the last time I heard those words. I was already in significant pain from my horn and my still stinging eyes, and I felt like any more would drive me to insanity. From the heavens above. I could feel the air around me grow colder as moisture gathered above the open-roofed room I was laying in. The moonlight was soon obscured and then blocked entirely by the formation of clouds that I knew would rain Tartarus upon me. And when the rain stops, Rain began to fall from the clouds, having condensed enough to descend in tiny droplets to the ground. But unlike the blood-rain from the last dream, these drops of liquid were different. They were still searing hot like before, but they did not smell of copper and iron. I dared reach out and taste the rain. The salty flavor not unlike tears of grief greeted my tongue. so, too, will the pains. Hurricane-force gales whipped through the stone room, the rain of tears soaking every last inch of me. The way the gusts weaved through the halls made the illusion of someone crying. The solid stone pillars seemed to crack with the voice of the winds, eventually collapsing like somepony completely overridden with despair and anguish. Chunks of stone the size of hooves began to bash against me, the first of which started at my jaw. The next four hit my ribs, and I could feel them snap and tear at the flesh they were suspended in. One more hit me square in the nose. -- My eyes shot open, and I immediately wished that that particular instinct of waking up had died with my vision, as pain shot through my eyes to force them closed again. A partially muffled scream escaped my throat, a loud burst escaping before I was able to bring my pillow to my face and bite down on it. Everything felt freezing cold to the touch, especially the air. As a cold wind floated by, making every hair on my body feel as though it were standing on end. "Nightmare again, Twilight?" Spike's voice whispered in the night, his footsteps approaching my bed. I nodded my affirmation to the small drake. A few seconds afterwards, I heard the distinct sound of him sending a letter. Were I not still in pain, I'd have told him that I didn't need the princess. "Need something to kill the pain?" he asked, placing one of his scaly hands on my shoulder. I lowered the pillow from my face, releasing the breath I didn't remember I was holding. "Yeah." My small companion gave me a quick hug before padding off to grab a glass of water and a painkiller. Once I was alone, I tried to open my eyes again. I took it slowly, like my first kiss with Fluttershy. I prolonged the result with the process, making the journey the objective more than the destination. And by taking the words of a fictional character I'd read about once upon a time to heart, my eyes opened smoothly. "Got some aspirin," Spike's voice whispered as his footsteps patted up the stairs. As soon as he passed the top step, I grasped the tablet of aspirin he'd brought up with him, as well as the glass of water in his other hand. The tasteless tablet left a bitter, chalky aftertaste after I swallowed it, but I could feel its relief within minutes. "What time is it?" I asked, perking my ears towards the grandmother clock hanging on the wall, its constant ticking too monotonous to distinguish the time for myself. "Five seventeen and thirty." "Might as well stay up." I lazily rolled out of my warm bed, noting that the cold sweat from my nightmare would eventually start to make the blankets smell. With all of the time at my disposal until my usual wake-up time, I decided it would be prudent of me to wash the linens immediately. I gathered my magic, pulling the sheets and blankets from the mattress and rolling them up in a similar manner to scrap paper, though I treated it much more gently than that. Ball of cloth in tow, I ambled downstairs to where the laundry machines were. After an hour and a half, there was a knock on my door. I recognized immediately who was there based solely on how gently the pony rapped on the old wood. I abandoned my laundry virtually instantly, suddenly feeling like one of Fluttershy's wonderful hugs or kisses could finally set my mood straight. When I opened the door, Fluttershy's angelic voice greeted me with a "good morning" just before her lips met mine. Even though it was just a light peck, I still felt my heart flutter a little bit. "Sleep well?" she asked softly, wrapping her wings around me, her nose pressing against mine tenderly. "No, but I'm okay now…" I breathed. She pecked me again, offering a sympathetic hum. "Well, I was thinking maybe we could go for a picnic today." "I would love that," I replied. She pulled away, letting me return to my laundry. She followed me closely, her hoofsteps a little heavier than usual, as though she were a little nervous about something. And how closely she followed me led me to believe that she had already prepared the picnic and was now just waiting on me. I pulled my linens from the dryer, and folded them neatly with my magic, before setting them all in a basket sitting atop the machine. I turned back around and pecked Fluttershy just as she lifted her head from looking at the floor. It took her a moment and a gasp to process it before she melted into it like chocolate. Her wings lifted themselves, probably subconsciously, and spread wide. Her hooves lightened their pressure on the floor, and I could feel her pulse in her lips slow down. "So, shall we prepare our picnic?" I asked, half breathless from kissing her. "I've um… I've already done that. The basket's at my cottage," she answered softly. "I also had a destination in mind… We'd reach it by lunchtime if we leave soon." I pecked her cheek and gave her a smile. "Let's go, then." So we left the library, side by side, her wing over my back pulling me close to her. I loved that feeling of her wing holding me, and it made me want to just lay down and cuddle with her in the warm embrace of her wings. It made me want to lay down in bed with her, and kiss her until she forgot whose breath she was holding. It made me want to actually see her. We arrived at Fluttershy's cottage relatively quickly, the animals there flocking to her as though each and every one of them were her foals. From the ponderous stomps of bears to the tiny hops of bunnies, there wasn't a creature there that didn't immediately gravitate towards her. And as we kept walking, she greeted every single critter by name, greeting Angel bunny first, and letting him hop up onto her back. When she reached the cottage entrance, she pulled the door open for me with her other wing, allowing me to enter first. I tentatively entered, clicking my tongue once to try and make a sound map of the room. It was a wide open room with a doorway to my right that probably led to the kitchen and a fireplace straight ahead. To the left was a staircase that spiraled up towards what I could assume was the master suite. And with a second click, I could tell that the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of the same piece of wood, leading me to believe that her cottage, like my library, was carved into a living tree. It took a few hours to reach the spot, by which point the sun was just reaching its zenith. Fluttershy set down the blanket and basket, starting to take out the food she'd prepared for the date. The smell of simple daisy sandwiches, fresh carrots and lettuce, juicy apples from Sweet Apple Acres, and plenty of other delicious-smelling food immediately wafted up from inside the basket. She sat down on the blanket and patted a spot next to her with her hoof. When I sat down I clicked my tongue again to find out how much I could hear. The main echoes bounced back from a few scattered trees far off in the distance, and the most minor echoes returned only with the position of grass blades. The rest of the sound was lost in the distance. However, there were no shortages of other sounds and smells to be had. A few cicadas wailed wildly off in the distance, along with a few rare crickets. Birds dominated the soundscape with convoluted melodies and patterns they used to signal to others where food was plentiful and where to find nesting supplies. In my head I began counting the rhythms of the birdsong, conducting subconsciously with a hoof their symphony in eleven-eight time. And all the while, the smell of plentiful blooming flowers, tulips and daisies and dandelions and poppies, all mingled with the aroma of the picnic. "So what do you think of this place?" Fluttershy asked softly, undoubtedly trying not to interrupt my conducting. "I love it!" I replied swiftly. "It's so lovely here. What is this place?" "We're in Monarch Meadow," Fluttershy said. "This is where I landed when I first fell from Cloudsdale." "Wait you fell from Cloudsdale?" I asked sharply. If I remembered reading about it correctly, Cloudsdale was a mile above the surface. Falling from that height would kill a pony. "I did. I wouldn't be here if the butterflies hadn't caught me," Fluttershy confirmed softly. "Nopony really frequents here, so I was lucky the monarch migration was passing through." "Wow. I never knew that," I said. I knew it was cheesy and awkward but what else was there to say? I didn't know how else to respond. We sat in silence, eating the delicious lunch Fluttershy had prepared. It all tasted the way it smelled, the sweetness of the flowers mixing wonderfully with the savory flavors of the peanut butter, all wonderfully balanced by the tangy lemonade. I couldn't help but enjoy all of it, even though eating was always more of a chore to me. "Hey... Twilight..." Fluttershy murmured. Even with my heightened hearing, it was difficult to hear her. "I, um... I have a question..." I turned to face her as best I could. "I'm all ears." I waved my hoof in front of my eyes and added, "No, seriously. I'm all ears." My attempt at humor was... not poorly received, but I didn't get much more than an awkward giggle. I was hoping to lighten the mood, but something heavy was on her mind, and there was only so much in books I could read about dating or social interaction. I don't think there was anything that could be done to make that moment less tense. "I know I've already asked, and I don't want to rush it..." She paused for a moment. "Have you, um, found the spell...?" "I have," I said feeling myself begin to blush. "It's... different than I first thought..." She took a deep breath and whispered, as though she were telling a secret in a crowded place, "O-oh... what... what kind of different?" I took a moment to think before I replied, "It's a bit, um, risqué... It's a sensory-swapping spell, used to swap the senses of two ponies so one would sense things the way the other does and vice-versa." There was a minute of silence, or rather fifty seven seconds, but close enough. The birds and the cicadas and the soft breeze all fell silent, as though to eavesdrop on our conversation like wallflowers. "Is... oh gosh... is it legal to use...?" she pressed further. "Yes, actually, but um..." I began to feel my cheeks heat up, and I had to turn my face away from how awkward I was feeling. "Its primary use is to swap tactile sensory input between... sexual partners..." Sight was not necessary to know she was blushing. Her blush's heat made mine seem like a moderately cool spring day compared to her summer heat wave. She turned her head, likely hiding her face behind her mane, and after some struggling, let out a tiny squeak: "...oh..." "...which... um, we are... not..." I finished slowly. "R-right..." she murmured. "N-not that I don't want to be," I blurted out with the impulse to not hurt her feelings if that was why she was asking before the awkwardness returned in full force, "I mean, um, oh gosh... I just..." "Twilight," she said, sudden confidence in her voice, which thankfully helped shut me up. "Is it possible to use it to swap all of our senses?" "You mean, us, swapping all five senses, not just sight?" "That is exactly what I'm asking." "May I ask why?" "I want the whole package, right down to the way grass feels beneath your hooves, and the way things smell and taste. I want to really walk a mile in your hooves," she said, placing her hoof over mine. I could feel her gaze on me, determination and confidence, normally hidden away behind her mane and shy demeanor, now out on full display just for me. She wanted this, genuinely. She reached up with her other hoof and turned my face towards hers, "I want to know you better." There was something about her in that moment that made me feel confident about using the spell, even though I knew the implications and the history behind its use. It took all of two hours to learn the spell after the initial six-hour search to find it. I'd originally planned on using the self-defense spell, but after some midnight correspondence with Princess Luna, she recommended that I use the sensory-swap instead, and I immediately agreed. "I've learned the spell. It usually lasts about two weeks, though sometimes ambient magic can make it last longer than intended." I told her as I placed my hoof over hers. "Only for you, Fluttershy." As I felt her face shift into the widest grin, I could only mimic it myself. Her happiness radiated like the warmth of the sun, and washed through me like a midsummer night's breeze. I wanted nothing more than to make her feel that kind of happiness as often as I could manage. I wanted nothing more than to feel that smile grow on her face. Sure, the barrage of kisses and ecstatic 'than-yous' were awesome, but that was mistaking the trees for the forest. Her happiness was my goal. That was what I wanted. And for her... For her I would do anything.