Beyond Blind Eyes

by Lunaric

Dry

A pegasus stalked through the hallways. Like a ghost, she barely hovered off the ground. Her wings silently flapped to keep her even quieter. As she rounded a corner, she spotted her current target. Cotton continued towards the door in view. The door was practically glowing to her. Getting close, she touched down before coming in contact with the door. Silently, she pushed in the doorknob. Just enough for a crack between the wood. Peering through the barely-open door, she had her true interest in sight. A blue and white filly, sleeping soundly. Not for much longer... Silently opening the door the rest of the way, then almost closing it just the same, she laid her bag down. After, she crept forward. Nearing the bed, the pegasus tensed up and spread her wings, reading for a fight. Once suitably ready, she jumped into the air.

A loud poof filled the air as hooves met cloth. As Cotton hit cotton. Cotton nuzzled the sleeping filly and whispered, "Wake up Aqua... It's tomorrow!"

A delayed response of a twitch and an incomprehensible sound, "Mn..."

Cotton giggled and leaned back. "Wake up sleepy-head."

Another, "Mn," as the filly began to stretch out in all directions and tremble a little as she stretched. A small sigh followed by her leaning forward and opening her eyes, staring at nothing. She began to blink rapidly and wipe her eyes. At that failing to fix the problem, she licked her hooves and wiped again.

"It's time to get up you little filly."

Aqua continued to stare but turns to Cotton with a slight tilt instead of straight ahead. "Mn. Mornin'"

The pegasus giggled again, "Well, guess what?"

Nothing but a simple, "Mn."

"You can use magic again today!"

A single quiet laugh from the filly and a small, "Yeah," before she yawned. "You're right."

"Considering how excited you were last night, I'm surprised you aren't waking up faster..."

"Hey... Sleep is good." Another yawn. "The wake-up process takes time... Anything interesting?"

Cotton put a hoof to her chin. "Not really... Oh! That filly, I think you called her scissor filly, asked about you. I told her you were resting."

"Ah yeah, her. She's a weird filly. Really likes those scissors of hers. Cute, though."

"I suppose..."

A knock on the door took both their attentions.

Aqua was the first to respond, "Come in!"

Solid peeked through the door, "Ma'ams?"

"Come on in, Solid. We ain't doing no- heh- Girl talk."

Solid walked inside and stood off to the side of the door before saluting and giving a nod.

"So yeah Cotton. Am I clear for takeoff?"

Cotton's brow furrowed. "What?"

The filly waved it off, "Ah. Nothing. I'm good to use magic again, right?"

"Yes. I need to watch for any signs you're not okay, though. They told me what to look for."

"Fair." With that, Aqua leaned back to her pillow and put a hoof underneath it. Pulling her hoof out, Aqua held one of her training balls.

What? "Aqua..."

Aqua, now sitting back up, held the ball in front of her. "Huh? Yeah?"

"Why do you have one of those underneath your pillow..."

"Oh..." Aqua looked confused. "I... I don't know. Just in case?"

Cotton facehoofed. "You can't call others weird when you do things like that, Aqua."

Aqua looked smug. "Psh. Yeah, I can. Just as they can call me weird. It makes sense." Aqua focused back on the ball in her hooves.

Cotton gave off a long-suffering sigh and she thought she heard one from solid as well.

"Okay, gonna start now." Aqua's horn began to glow.

"Okay. I'll say if something's wrong." Seems to be normal.

The ball began to glow.

Normal.

The ball slowly began to rise and then hover in place.

Also normal, if a bit slow.

Aqua then slowly let the ball down before letting go it fell the last hoof off the bed as the glow faded from the ball and her horn. The filly mumbled to herself, "Damn... Can never get that distance right."

"Well, it seems to have worked out fine from what I saw... Want to give that light spell a try?"

"Yup, will do. Gimmie a sec to remember it. Also, tell me if you see any light." Aqua closed her grey eyes and sat still.

"You've got it."

Once more, Aqua's horn began to glow.

Normal.

Aqua's horn still continued to glow without any other light.

Normal, but slow.

Aqua's horn continued to glow as she scrunched her eyebrows.

Noticibly slower.

Light began to coalesce from the filly's horn as she grunted.

Concerningly more effort than used to be. "I see light, Aqua."

Suddenly, the glow and the light ceased as Aqua began to sigh audibly. "Well, that was significantly harder than it used to be... At least it's not a particularly useful spell."

"I suppose... It's still concerning, though."

"True. Okay, next is the warming spell. You got anything I can test it on?"

I should have something that should be fine... Cotton hummed and looked to the door for her saddlebag. Spotting it near the door, she called out. "Solid, could you hoof me my bag?"

Solid grunted and hoofeded it over.

Looking in, Cotton spotted her green sponge. She pulled it out and hoofed it over to Aqua, "This should be fine."

Aqua held it and slowly turned down to face it. "Cotton." Aqua deadpanned at her. "Why do you have a sponge in your bag?"

"Just in case," Cotton said back in a smug tone with a grin.

A snort and a smile from the filly. "Well, whatever. I'll try not to break it..." Confusion erupted on her face as she began to speak to herself. "Can you break a sponge? Or is it just considered to be ripped? Maybe shattered if it was frozen? Wait, then broken would work again..."

"Aqua..."

"Huh?"

"It doesn't matter."

Another snort. "Right. Okay, I'll start." Aqua held the sponge in her hooves as she did with the ball. Aqua's horn began to glow again.

Normal.

Eventually, the sponge joined her horn in glowing.

Normal... Not that I can really tell.

Aqua slowly furrowed her brows as sweat began to form on her forehead.

Haven't seen her cast it much, but I think it's working.

Aqua visibly began to tense up as she sweats more intensely.

Or maybe not.

Aqua gasped as the glow cut out. Panting, she sat there, glaring at nothing. "I can't do it."

Author's Note:

This one's later than I wanted. Sorry. The schedule's hard to keep up with, despite it literally being an entry-level habit. I just gotta keep trucking through it till it becomes routine.

I've been debating on a major choice, story-wise, much later on in the story.
On an unrelated note: Mercury or Venus?

Comments

[Lunaric]

11437515

Ah, I understand.

Hey, maybe you'd be able to teach yourself to echo-locate. Iirc, it's possible to do, but hard.

[Drathus]

Interesting fanfic. Looking forward to see how it developes :)

[Fireeaters]

F, she lost some of her magic muscle conditioning

[Vaguely Demented]

Wonder if this is temporary fatigue or if there is a risk for permanent damage from before.

[Phoenix999]

Venus

[GlitchyFox]

11443491
na cyclopse can see

[Goldenclouds]

Mercury because it gets a little smaller every year.

[MissingGlueX]

Venus is interesting because everything about it gives off "post-apocalyptic Earth" energy. I'm pretty sure it's hotter than Mercury (which is literally being "melted" by the sun so that's impressively hot).

[Lunaric]

11442557

Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoy.
It's quite a bit of a slow start, but I plan to speed it up soon.

[Lunaric]

11442585

o7

[Lunaric]

11442629

For now, it's not stated. Obviously, fatigue is preferable to an injury as in any injury, there is a chance of full recovery, and permanent damage.

When hurting your leg, you may just learn to walk slightly differently to avoid the pain that only pops up after being rotated to a certain degree.

[Lunaric]

11442708

:)

[Lunaric]

11443498

Correct.

Still, it is a cool idea of being able to have lasers shooting out of your eyes.

Being blind too that kind of power is, honestly, to be expected. If your eyes generated temperatures close to the surface of the sun, I cannot see your eyes fairing too well, health-wise.

[Lunaric]

11443538

:)

Also, does it?

I just looked it up. Apparently, it does. Learn something new every day.

[Lunaric]

11446349

:)

Looked it up and:
Mercury's average temperature is 354 in American numbers or 178 in Others numbers.
Venus's average temperature is 847 American or 452.778 Others.
That's pretty cool.

Mercury does have a day and night cycle, without a thick atmosphere, so the average temp is taking into account both the scalding days and the frozen nights at the same time.
The days average around 775f/412c, with the nights around -330f/-201c.
That's also pretty cool.

I do love the early ideas we had about aliens living on Venus. Taking a glimpse into, not what aliens would actually be, but what we think aliens would be. Especially before we truly began to theorize. Such as Silicon-based life forms instead of Earth's Carbon-based life forms. Honestly? Aliens are just cool no matter what...

[Lunaric]

11451730

Thanks for the clarifications.

It personally feels weird if I'm the one giving hints and stuff, or pointing someone in the right direction because I'm the author. If someone doesn't get it, it's obviously my fault and it feels cheap and scummy for me to essentially give information in comments.

If you also read some of my other comments, I tend to talk and ramble about topics, but specifically, avoid talking about the scenario in the story. Also, if anyone else has noticed, it is intentional. I've read some stories where the author wrote in the comments about their story in circumstances that might happen. That's perfectly okay, but then some of them go into depth with information that the reader hasn't seen in the actual story. It's even worse in my opinion when said author goes even further and explains things, in extreme depth, about the world that doesn't pertain to the story itself. This is entirely my opinion, but it bugs me sometimes... It's ended up with me not reading many of this site's authors' notes nor users' comments under the story till I'm actually done with reading the entire story. It's a little sad, now that I think about it.

Maybe I'm just being too careful, but I think I'll stay conservative in terms of story explanations for a while, as I get used to it all.

And I hope you enjoy reading and continue reading this story.

[Vaguely Demented]

11451832
That can often be the worst part of an injury. If you change your habits of movement to something unnatural it can lead to other repetitive stress injuries.

[Lunaric]

11451893

Exactly.

[Lunaric]

11452063

Thanks! To me, the two most important things about a story are how a character is developed by their world and how the world is developed by characters made from the world. The story itself is secondary to the 'everyday stuff.' Sure a story can be good with extremely good writing, but if the characters feel like they aren't even from this plane of existence, you're not gonna pay attention to the story. You're gonna notice the character acting like bricks are edible.

In time I wish to become one of the authors who masters those rules, so I learn how to break them. Because nothing's ever fun without a little chaos.

[Lunaric]

11452642

I know right? xD

[Winter Star]

Caught a typo.

She began to blind rapidly and wipe her eyes.

blink

[An everfree rat]

could you hand me my bag?"

*squints at.*