She was staring at me. I was staring back. We'd spent a week planning the entire thing, I had learned the layout of her cottage, and the route to and from it. We decided it would be best if we lived together for the duration of our little social experiment, as my expertise on being blind and living with it would be invaluable to her safety and comfort. I had, of course, informed the Princesses to ensure everything was legal, and to have somepony with more powerful magic than my own there in case it needed to be reversed early or some accident happened. I had carefully studied the spell, its effects, duration, cost, and most importantly, its Ambient-Magic Interference rating. The AMI was slightly higher than most spells, but that was easily explained by its higher difficulty rating and mana cost. And after talking it over with Fluttershy and the Princesses, Fluttershy deemed its five-percent AMI rating acceptable.
So there we were, in the middle of the library, staring each other in the eyes, or at least it felt like that was what was happening. Her breathing was deep and meditative, almost as though she were asleep. Her wings ruffled every minute or so from her nerves, and I could smell the anxiety on her. But nevertheless, she persisted, holding my hoof and daring to stay still and see this through.
"Are you scared?" I asked softly.
"A little, but also excited," she replied just as softly. "I want this."
"I'm going to start now. It's going to take a minute or two for me to channel enough energy for this to work properly," I said, talking her through the whole thing. "Feel free to stop me if you get cold hooves."
She nodded and pecked my cheek. With that I began casting the spell, charging energy into my horn. The mana cost for the spell was higher than most spells I'd tried before, and I could feel the energy draining from my body, leaving me painfully aware of my own anatomy. I could feel all of my bones as the magic in me was pulled from everywhere else in my body. I could feel my stomach quickly sapping every calorie from the breakfast I'd eaten just a few hours ago, squeezing them out like water from a sponge. I could feel the heat stop radiating off of my body, all of that thermal energy being converted into magical energy to be used in the spell.
Within a few moments my horn began to radiate mana, and an audible hum resonated throughout the room. I lowered my horn to touch her forehead, as I needed direct contact for the spell to work, and I wanted this spell to work perfectly. With my horn to her head, the magic began to flow through my horn and into her.
The spell, though not complete, began taking effect nearly immediately. The air began to feel different to me, and I felt something resting on my back that I knew was not there. She began breathing a little heavier, and I could feel her face tense up as though in pain, but she didn't cry or even make the slightest vocalization of pain. She resisted the pain of my restrictive nervosa setting in, and the heightened sounds and smells trying to give her a migraine, which would only become a vicious cycle from the increased sensitivity to tactile physical pain. She held my hoof tighter, biting her lip and taking another deep breath. Meanwhile, the sounds and feelings of what was happening to me began to dull.
And then the spell was done. I cut flow of my magic, and lifted my head slowly. A low, dull feeling of nausea asserted itself in my abdomen, which made me stop and lower my head onto my hooves.
I dared to open my eyes, and found that I could see blurs and colors as my eyes finally could relay the sensory input back to my brain. It took a few minutes for the image to sharpen, and I saw Fluttershy in front of me, holding rigidly still like a stone support column. I placed my other hoof on hers.
"Are you okay?" I whispered. I felt her grimace a little bit, raising one hoof in a gesture that meant 'One moment, please.'
As I waited for her to get used to everything, my eyesight gradually sharpened until I could see everything in crisp, sharp detail. But for all it was, it was next to worthless to me. I couldn't remember the names of colors, so I couldn't even tell Celestia what color my marefriend's coat or mane were. For all I knew her mane was pink.
But I focused my vision back to Fluttershy, taking in what she looked like, savoring it for the short time I'd be able to. I drank in the soft but bright colors of her coat and mane, admiring the velvety texture they looked to have. I took in the sight of the way her body was shaped, lying down in front of me with her hoof holding mine. I could see the way her face looked squishy and soft, but firm and taut from her youth, even with her eyes screwed shut the way they were.
She put her hoof down and her facial features relaxed, and she began to open her eyes. She took her time, not wanting to rush into it, opening her eyes a little at a time until they were fully opened and staring back through mine. I didn't have the words to describe them. I couldn't tell the Princesses what color her eyes were. I couldn't do justice to the way they gleamed even though I knew they were now sightless. I couldn't describe how or explain why I was so fascinated and entranced by them. I wanted nothing more than to gaze into her eyes for all the time I had with my borrowed sense of sight.
"How do you feel?" I asked softly.
"I... can't see..." she murmured, looking down at her hooves. Her face brightened and a smile curled onto her soft-looking lips. "I can't see...! Twilight you did it!"
She reached out and pecked where she thought my lips were, only to miss entirely and get a mouthful of my mane, at which both of us giggled and settled for a nuzzle. "Does your head hurt at all?" I asked again.
"Not anymore," she answered quietly. "It did for a little bit, but it's gone now. How about you?"
"I'm feeling just fine," I said. For a few minutes, we just stayed there, on the floor of the library, holding each other with stupid smiles on our faces. The normally sharp tick-tock of my grandfather clock
"Twilight I really want to kiss you," Fluttershy said, breaking our peaceful silence.
I didn't bother replying with words, instead simply moving my lips to hers to grant her desire. I don't know why my eyes closed as our lips connected, but they did. I don't know what color she was or her mane was, or what color our blush was, but that wasn't important. The familiar sensory inputs were more important to me. The way her impossibly soft lips seemed to melt against mine, the way she pressed closer as though we were too far apart, the way her warm breath intoxicated me as I inhaled it. That was real. That was important.
She stirred, not breaking the kiss, but lifting herself and pushing me back until I was on my back and she was lying down on top of me, her hooves on either side of my face. Though she was putting her full weight on me, it wasn't uncomfortable, even against the hard wooden floor. Her entire body felt nearly as soft as her lips against mine. Her fur was silky smooth and felt extremely well-kept, as though she went to the spa on a weekly basis. Her mane was somehow softer as I ran a hoof through it. And the soft noises of her breathing and holding back muffled gasps made me feel the tickle of butterflies in my belly.
Eventually she pulled back, our lips disconnecting with a sharp pop and a drunken giggle from her. "You're the best," she mumbled under the breath we were trying to catch. But she didn't stand back up. She stayed there, lying on top of me, her chest pressing harder and softer against mine as she breathed. Though we didn't use our tongues as I'd read was fairly common in a few romance novels, I still got a lavender aftertaste from the kiss.
After a few minutes of lying there doing nothing, she finally got up and helped me up, holding out a hoof for me. It was weird being able to see. I could see the wooden coffee table I had been afraid of bumping into, but I didn't remember how to judge the distance by sight. I could see all of the books, but I couldn't tell anypony their titles without giving them a smell. I could see her, but I couldn't tell you what colors her fur and mane were other than soft.
She placed a wing over me, and I guided her to the kitchen, where I then proceeded to make lunch for the both of us. The strange part about it was that I could feel the wing as though it were my own, and the contact from the perspective of the wing. I couldn't really explain it, but it felt like I had her wings, and could feel with them and everything, even though I didn't have wings myself.
I made a pair of simple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It wasn't much, but I was no culinary specialist, so I made do with what I knew. I set Fluttershy's plate down just in front of her, making sure it made enough noise for her to hear where it was, before sitting down with my own. The clock struck one, and Fluttershy jumped at the toll of the grandfather clock's bell. I felt her leg bouncing anxiously under the table, and I could see her hoof shaking a little bit as she reached out for her sandwich. She missed a few times, but she eventually got the sandwich in her hooves, and from there she was much better. She was very attuned to where she was in relation to herself, but her navigation in respect to other objects was lacking. To be fair, it took me the better part of three months to learn how to navigate Canterlot Castle without memorizing it by brute force.
The taste of the food was different, all tasting just a bit less sweet than usual. The jelly tasted somehow fresher than I remembered it being, and the peanut butter tasted oddly less earthy. The bread tasted mostly fine, except for the fact that it felt slightly more grainy than I was used to.
We ate our lunch in relative silence, occasionally interrupted by my neurotic check-up questions. I could swear if she had a bit for every time I asked her "How are you feeling?" she'd be rich enough to buy Blueblood's Canterlot Estate. But I couldn't help it. I couldn't help but feel like something bad was either happening or about to happen. I could feel something was wrong, but I couldn't see it, and my other senses couldn't pick up on it, but something in my belly knew.
"Hey Twilight?" Fluttershy asked after she'd finished her sandwich.
"Yes 'Shy?" I replied.
"Could we, um, go to my cottage for a bit?" she requested softly. "I want to visit my animal friends."
"Sure thing," I said. I stood up and moved the plates next to the sink to be washed later. And then I turned back around to find Fluttershy tentatively reaching out her hoof towards the floor in an attempt to not fall. "Here, let me help you."
I took her hoof in mine and gently helped her down from the chair. She murmured a soft 'thank you' before draping her wing over me for guidance as we walked through the main lobby of the library and out the front door.
The sunlight was far brighter than I ever remembered, nearly blinding me again instantly upon opening the front door and stepping outside. Every color present was far too bright, overloading my eyes with stimuli I didn't know how to handle. I squinted in a sad attempt at lessening how much light was entering my eyes, but it was in vain. A migraine began to set in, and my head began to feel like it was being hit with pickaxes. A faint ringing overlaid all of the normal sounds of Ponyville in the day, slowly getting louder as the migraine intensified. At that point, I decided it was a better idea to just close my eyes and navigate like I didn't have sight.
So we walked together, her wing draped over me, my eyes closed as the blind lead the blind. As we got closer, I tried again to open my eyes, and again found it to be a bad idea.
And all the while, I felt as though I was being watched.