A blind perspective

by Light Heart101

The first hurtle.

The next day the doctor replaced Fluttershy's bandages and then she was discharged. Eagle Eye let her borrow a wheelchair so she could get around town until she was comfortable walking while blind. The walk back to the train station was uncomfortable to her. She did trust Pinkie, but she was surrounded by so many noises. She felt like she had an army of ponies talking around her. When they got to the train station the conductor helped her and Pinkie on board. Fluttershy found these new sensations unnerving. She smelled the smoke from the engine; the perfume from the pony a few seats in front of her. She felt the leather seats under her; the soft carpet under her hooves; the soft breeze against her hair. She heard the wind blowing outside; the engine going full force; the whispers coming from the other passengers.

"Isn't that Fluttershy?"

"What happened to her?"

"Is she blind?"

"I wonder what will happen to her."

"So much for the element of kindness."

Fluttershy tried blocking the voices out of her head, but the whispers kept coming.

Pinkie Pie could tell she was starting to get stressed, so she decided to distract her. "Hey, why don't we play a game? How about Eye Spy? Oh, sorry, bad idea. How about hide and... Nope. Uh. How about... No. Maybe..."

Fluttershy stopped her. "No thanks."

Pinkie instantly regretted her suggestion. After a few moments of thought she had an idea. "Hey! How about when we get back we go to the bakery and play guess that flavor cup... Err, muffin."

Fluttershy gave a soft smile and nodded. When they got back to Ponyville she felt a bit more comfortable. She had a hard time finding out where in town they were at. She once again heard the whispering from the other nearby ponies. It was difficult to try to ignore them. The smells were harder to discern. For a moment she could smell the nearby trees, then she would smell wood polish from the antique store, and then she could smell fresh apple pie. The smells kept changing every few seconds. The ride on the wheel chair was very bumpy on that dirt road. She never knew how bumpy the road was until now. Maybe it was the small wheels that placed a greater emphasis on the small details of the road. She felt a sudden bump and then the ride was smooth.

Pinkie smiled as she parked Fluttershy at a table. "Well, here we are. I'll let the Cakes know that we're here and then we'll play guess that flavor muffin."

Fluttershy gave a smile and a small nod. Fluttershy didn't feel as alone as she did when the nurse left her alone. She could smell the cakes and other sweets that were baking in the other room. She heard the few customers talking to each other. One of them sounded a bit like Octavia. She sounded like she was lecturing Vinal about classical music again Fluttershy jumped a bit when someone bumped her shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." Fluttershy recognized the voice as Derpy Hooves.

"Oh, it's quite alright Derpy. At least I think it's Derpy. I'm sorry. I'm still trying to get used to this." Fluttershy said as she gestured to her bandages.

Derpy gave a smile. "It's alright. I've been getting used to my eyes for a long time now."

As Derpy tried to walk away Fluttershy spoke up. "What is it like looking through your eyes? I don't want to sound rude but I want to know if I..."

Fluttershy couldn't finish her sentence. The fear of losing a part of her eyesight, let alone all of it, was still egging at her.

Derpy sighed as she sat down. "I don't think that your problems are the same as mine. I have a lack of depth perception; it's why some ponies think that I'm always clumsy. It took me a long time to get used to seeing like this. I wish I could tell you more about what you are going through or what you might end up going through, but your mind is stronger than you think. You might see things you never seen with your eyes. Don't give up on yourself yet."

Fluttershy wasn't too happy about the response she got. Everything was still an unknown for her.

Suddenly she heard Pinkie enter the room. "I'm back! I've got a nice selection of muffins here for my good friend. Oh, hi Derpy. It's good to see you. Thank you for keeping one of my my best friends company. I'm guessing the regular order for you today?"

Fluttershy listened as Derpy got up from her seat. "I'm sorry but I'm running late on my deliveries. I need to get going."

Fluttershy stopped her before she could leave. "You can have the muffins Pinky made for me. I can always wait for more."

Both of them were taken back by Fluttershy's request. Derpy tried to back out but Fluttershy insisted on making up for taking all of Derpy's time. After a game of guess that flavor muffin they left for Twilight's castle. The long hallways echoed the small squeaks from the wheelchair. Pinkie Pie knew that the school was still in session so she grabbed a random book from one of the shelves. She was glad that Twilight kept her spell books in another room.

Fluttershy wasn't sure why Pinkie thought it was a good idea to grab a book when she wasn't going to be able to do any heave reading. "Um, I'm guessing you're just going to read it by yourself"

Pinkie smiled. "No silly! I'm going to read it to you. Just because you can't read it yourself doesn't mean you can't enjoy it."

Fluttershy didn't like the idea of inconveniencing her friend, but she knew that Pinkie just wanted to cheer her up. Pinkie accidentally grabbed an old play off of the shelf, but that didn't stop her. The story was about a pirate who left his crew because his nurse was hard of hearing when he was a kid. The story was nonsensical but very funny. Fluttershy almost laughed a few times when she heard Pinkie's impressions whenever she switched to a new character. When her friends came in Pinkie was singing "with cat-like tread". It was a song about being quiet, but it was sung fairly loud. Everybody sat down next to Fluttershy as Pinkie continued her performance. After Pinkie was done with her play they spent the rest of the day talking about how school was going. They brought all of the get well cards and gifts that the students and townsfolk sent her and read them to Fluttershy. Most of them were along the lines of "get well soon". Fluttershy kept thinking with each letter how she might not get better.

About halfway through the letters Fluttershy stopped them. "I'm sorry, but I think I want to go home now. I'm pretty tired."

Rainbow Dash was the one who took her home. The closer they got to the house the more comfortable Fluttershy felt. All of the animals who spent their time around her were waiting for her in her home. Dash didn't spend much time there because she had Wonderbolt practice in the morning. Fluttershy thanked her as she left, but soon was met with a new challenge. She had to navigate blindly around the house. Fluttershy started to make her way into the living room. She couldn't see but she had a decent memory of where everything was at. As she sat down on her couch she heard Angel complaining to her.

She leaned over to his general direction. "Oh! You all haven't had dinner yet. Oh dear."

She didn't think about how she'd be able to feed the animals, but she knew that they needed something to eat. Fluttershy slowly made her way into the kitchen. She searched through several drawers knocking stuff on the floor until she found a bowl. She nearly slipped on a rolling pin just trying to find the fridge. As she started to get frustrated about the mess she was making she managed to find what felt like a bag of carrots. The only problem was that it was a sealed bag. Rarity said that it would last longer, but Fluttershy didn't know how to open it without seeing. After searching in the fridge and bumping a few things over she realized that it was the only bag left. She grabbed one end with her teeth and the other end with her hooves. She pulled on it more and more until the bag split in two; scattering the carrots across the floor. As Fluttershy searched across the floor for the spilled carrots Angel yelled at her for dropping his favorite food. Fluttershy was finally fed up with the mess she made, being yelled at, not being able to see, and basically everything else that made her once calm life miserable.

Fluttershy slammed her hooves on the floor as she screamed at Angel. "I'M TRYING, ALRIGHT?!?"

As soon as those words left her mouth she realized what he did. She screamed at her pet, her friend. Fluttershy knew that there was no one to blame but herself for her outburst. Fluttershy curled into a ball and started crying. Angel was quiet when he saw his caretaker break down in front of her. All of the animals there came in to see what happened. Angel lowered his head when he realized that his master was hurting and the first thing he did was yell at her for a meal. Angel slowly walked up to Fluttershy and gave her a gentle hug. Soon the other animals followed suit. Fluttershy stopped crying when she felt her animals doing what little they could to help her. The bear decided to pick her up and take her to her bed. As Fluttershy tried to go to sleep she felt grateful for her friends who tried to help her, but she didn't like where life was taking her. She found the smallest tasks impossible. She never wanted to see her friends so badly, and she wondered if she'd ever see anything again.

Comments

[Artist]

I really love this

[TheFlint44]

Fluttershy wasn't sure why Pinkie thought it was a good idea to grab a book when she wasn't going to be able to do any heave reading. "Um, I'm guessing you're just going to read it by yourself"

A period seemed missing at the end.

Angel you little devil, how could you yell at Fluttershy when she's in such a condition? I can't help but feel sorry for Fluttershy.