Filly Eyes

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 2: Barrier

I lay in my bed, snuggling my huge Pinkie Pie on my left side in the fetal position in a completely non-cute manner, when I can’t help but hear snickering coming from the air in front of the bed… I then hear a cheerful voice whisper, “You’re right! It’s the most adorable thing in the universe!”

I open my eyes to behold the blue unicorn with the wavy mop mane of a darker shade who made the comment, standing to the left of an orange alicorn. I say, “What are you two doing in my room!”

Izzy starts and widens her eyes while bringing her neck back a few inches, “Well, we weren’t watching you adorably snuggling a plushie in your sleep or anything, that’s for sure!”

I squint at the other unicorn, “Good! Because that’s definitely not what was happening!”

Sunny smiles and giggles slightly, “Really? Because that’s what it looked like to me!”

I move my eyes to the winged pony, “Shut up, butthole alicorn!” I shake my head, “Alright, you two! Get out of my room for a few minutes and I’ll be out shortly!”

Izzy smiles slightly, “Well that’s fine, Jessi! Uh” she widens her eyes, “don’t take too long though! I brought your best friend Twinkle Shine with me!”

I raise my eyes to the bedpost as I continue to lay there on my side, “Oh, golly!”

<*****>

I sat there at the table, thinking to myself… I see a picture of an older gray earth stallion across the room from me, and I can’t help but wonder who he is? I shake my head after quickly realizing that that’s probably not important… I then hear snickering and talking coming from the other room across the area from me…

I frown as I wonder, what could they possibly be doing in there? The assignment was simple! Get Jessi! What the hay is exactly taking so long?

Then, the door on the other side of the room opens, across from the coffee table and a blue unicorn appears first out of the door, she smiles at me while widening her red eyes, “Jessi was sleeping in the fetal position inside her pillow nest while snuggling a big Pinkie Pie plush and it was just the cutest thing ever!”

I frown at this unicorn, “Okay uh, but she’s coming out soon?”

Then, a feminine voice says from behind Izzy, “I’d like to exit too, you know?”

Izzy widens her eyes again and says, “Whoa! Sorry Sunny!” before trotting all the way out the door and to my right as her wavy mane shakes with each nuance and an orange alicorn trots into the room from behind her…

Sunny looks at me, “Regardless of “she rolls her eyes, “how cute she may or may not be, Jessi will soon be out, Twinkle Shine!”

I widen my eyes to the orange pony, “Oh golly gee, that’d be just swell, Sunny!” I blink, “Uh, the trot here sure was exhausting! Do you have anything to drink, please?” I say before smiling adorably and tilting my face to the left to ramp up my cuteness and force the other pony to comply…

Sunny blinks at me, “Oh uh, sure! How does orange juice sound?”

I smile as sincerely as I can before nodding my head to the orange pony, “Oh golly, that’s perfect Sunny! Thank you so much!”

<*****>

I use my horn to cause the knob to glow and the door opens inward to my right as I hear two ponies talking in the living room…

I trot closer to the door to see what I can hear when Izzy says, “So, what were you and Jessi gonna do today?”

I hear my friend say back to the unicorn, “Well, I thought a trip to the park would be fun and that way, we can be out of your manes while you and Sunny are spending time here!” before I hear her gulping down liquid.

Izzy replies, “Oh Twinkle! You’re so considerate!”

“I know!” She burps, “Um, excuse me!”

At that point, I scrunch my brows and think, Oh geez! What is that little devil planning now? Before magically opening the door all the way as I step back to avoid getting hit, and I trot out into the living room and stare at the pink pegasus, “Hiya Twinkle Shine!”

She smiles at me and sets an empty glass down on the table to her left near the wall before she begins walking in my direction and as her wavy bluish-white mane bounces on her head, she says, “Hiya Jessi! I’m here again!”

I widen my eyes and reply robotically, “Yes! You certainly are!” as the other filly trots all the way to me and embraces me in a tight warm hug with her forehooves and I squeak, “EEP!”

She whispers in my left ear while holding me, “I missed you, friend!”

At that point, I feel a warmth in the pit of my body, but I repress it to stay resilient. However, I do return the hug with my own forehooves so as not to seem weird as I whisper back, “I missed you too, friend!”

She releases and returns to her hooves before me and gazes my direction with her wide auburn eyes before smiling and saying, “Hiya Jessi! Wanna go to the park with me and play?”

I grin back at the other filly, “Sure thing, Twinkle Shine!”

<*****>

I trot to the left of the teal filly and look at her and smile as I say, “Golly, that sure was fun last time!”

She looks back at me and smiles, “Yup! It sure was! So uh, what’s the plan?”

I frown while keeping pace with her, “What do you mean? We were gonna go play at the park, remember?”

She nods, “Well, I know you said that, but seriously, what are we gonna do instead?”

I widen my eyes. “Well, uh, we were gonna go to the park and play, like I said we were…”

She grimaces, “So, no crazy adventures this time?”

“Uh, we’re not gonna do mischievous stuff, all the time, you know?”

She replies, “Well, they haven’t caught us, yet?”

I nod, “Exactly! And if we wanna keep from getting caught, we’re not gonna be bad, that often!”

<*****>

I look over at the pink pegasus as we both stand there in the dirt road and she asks me, “So, tell me again how you talked me into this?”

I look back at her to my right and smile, “Come on! It’ll be fun!” before looking back to Sunny’s house before us. “So uh, you wanna knock, or should I?”

She smiles, “I think you should be the one to knock! Since, you know, it was your idea!”

I look back up at the porch and it’s three imposing steps to the landing on top and gulp, “Well, okay Twinkle! You stay here for moral support and just run with me to the bushes after I knock!”

She nods, “Got it, Jessi!”

I trot up all three steps to the landing and take two paces towards the door before, knocking as loud and hard as I can and then, widening my eyes before I turn back to dart off the porch swiftly and fly towards the bushes on the other side of the road as fast as my hooves can carry me!

As I’m moving across the road composed of dark earth, I can’t help but notice that I don’t see Twinkle Shine anywhere!

I crash into the bushes just in time to hear the telltale click of Sunny’s front door unlocking and it swings open to reveal an orange alicorn.

I gaze from behind the bushes as Sunny raises her chin and turns her neck left and right to look around, “Hello? Is anypony there?”

I smile and snicker silently to myself as I watch this…

She shakes her head and closes the door while the knob glows golden and then, it stops shining after the door shuts…

<*****>

I climb out the back window with my prize in my mouth, a bag of fresh chocolate chip chocolate cookies! I turn around and squat before launching myself to fly over the house and gaze at the bushes just beyond the dirt road and smile around the bag as I spot the green unicorn filly with the grayish-white mane and tail skulking back there.

She widens her eyes as she suddenly spots me and I slow my flapping to descend as I glide closer to the bushes and land on my hooves, just beyond the road with a slight skidding.

I bring my little wings to my body and look at the unicorn before saying through my teeth, “Look what I found!”

She smiles, “See? I knew you’d figure out a way to make this fun!”

I nod, “Yeah! Now we just need to get our hooves on some milk!”

I suddenly hear a mare’s voice behind me shout, “Twinkle Shine! I thought you were going to the park?”

I widen my eyes and drop the bag to my awaiting right forehoof and quickly turn around on my haunches while carefully hiding the bag behind my back with both my forehooves and smile at the alicorn, currently trotting towards me across the street. “Oh, golly gee Sunny! I just thought it would be swell if I got some cookies for us to eat!” before staring up at her cutely with my eyes as big as I can make them and tilting my head adorably to the right so my long wavy mane falls to my shoulder.

She widens her green eyes at me, “Oh gosh, Twinkle! That sounds like a terrific idea! Uh, hang on! I’ll go back to the house and get you some!”

“Um, if it isn’t too much trouble, can we also please have some milk, Sunny?” before widening my brown eyes and making them quiver with hope to entice the alicorn to do my bidding as my mouth gives a solemn and pathetic frown.

She smiles, “Of course, Twinkle! Can’t have cookies without milk!”

I smile, “Oh golly gee, Sunny! This is gonna be fun!”

<*****>

I burp at the pegasus, currently sitting on her haunches with me, a few feet away in the big open grassy field with lush blades of lawn swaying in the breeze and the cool cloudy sky overhead, and say, “Whoa! Excuse me! Uh, how did you know she had so many cookies?”

She narrows her eyes to me while taking a deep breath through her nose, “I was just in there, remember?”

I nod, “Uh, right! And you asked for peanut butter cookies because you didn’t want her noticing the chocolate cookies are gone, right?”

She smiles, “Well, duh! It’s best to take their attention away from whatever you just did!”

I give her a big smirk, “Right! You’re pretty good at being bad, you know that?”

She suddenly widens her eyes and lowers her grin, “Y-you think I’m a bad filly?”

I shrug, “Well, I don’t see you trying to take over Equestria, or anything! But stealing cookies and filching milkshake money, seem to be right up your alley!”

She noticeably gulps and frowns, “Uh, how are we gonna make this up to them?”

I frown, “What do you mean?”

She blinks, “Well, I don’t want to be a bad filly, you know?”

“Twinkle Shine! Are you okay?”

She blinks before stammering out, “Uh, I gotta go!” she stares back up at me with wide eyes, “I’ll see you later, okay Jessi?”

I widen my eyes and frown, “Twinkle! Let’s talk about this!”

She stares up at me with her massive auburn eyes while breathing heavily through her mouth before finally saying, “Jessi, I don’t want to be bad anymore, okay?”

“Uh, Twinkle! What are you talking about?”

She breathes out her nose while looking down in the field there at the park, before raising her gaze back to me and saying calmly, “Jessi… Uh, well, you know how they say, truth is stranger than fiction?”

<*****>

And so, I recanted my story to this bewildered unicorn filly… She stared on in wide-eyed amazement as I told her the tale of the filly who tried to take over Equestria and she stared in shock as I told her about the demon child who attacked the castle with the centaur lord and changeling queen… I told her all these things…

I took a deep breath before telling her about how I don’t really know what made me bad in the first place, nor do I have any idea what woke me up from stone in that abandoned courtyard, all that time ago…

I talked about how I traveled to nearby Bridlewood and met Izzy there, and we soon became very good friends…

I also added the story about how Princess Twilight, with her final act, preserved my statue while the other two were allowed to slowly crumble to dust over 2000 years…

She could only stare back at me in open shock before stammering out, “No way! You’re yanking my hind hoof, here! Uh, “she blinks, “right?”

I sigh slowly and stare back at her, “No, I’m actually not, Jessi… You can ask Sunny or Izzy and I’m sure they’ll tell you all about it…”

She shakes her head slightly before staring back at me and saying, “Well, that’s kinda neat actually! And hey, Twinkle! I don’t care about what you did two thousand years ago alright?” she smiles, “You’re my first real friend outside of the butthole ponies and you make me happy!” she blinks and lowers her grin somewhat, “But no more trying to take over Equestria, alright?”

I smile kindly back at the unicorn, “Sure Jessi! It’s a deal!”

She nods, “Well, turnabout is fair play, so let me tell you about my story!”

<*****>

I then told the pegasus the story about how my parents died in a tragic accident that they wouldn’t tell me about… I told her about how I lived alone, by myself, and only had myself to rely upon in Tanglewood Forest… I told her about their graves and how I haven’t been there in years…

She seemed visibly shaken when I mentioned that I had spent all that time alone, with only myself to rely on…

I then proceeded to tell the tale of when magic came back… How amazed I was at everything I could do with my new improved horn and how I quickly learned about forcefield and barrier magic… I told her how I’d practice for hours out in my yard since you know, it’s not like I had anything better to do!

I smiled as I added about how convenient it is to be able to freeze ponies at my whim if I ever need to escape a situation…

She widens her brown eyes massively and frowns, “Golly! So uh, what happened? Why are you here and not there, now?”

I breathe deeply through my nose, in and out, and stare at the pegasus severely, “Well, Sunny and Izzy found me when they went on an adventure west of Equestria!”

“Oh golly!” She raises her left eyebrow, “What sort of adventure?”

I sigh again and stare at her, “Well, they found one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Uh, apparently, she was so distraught about the way Apple Bloom died that she was punishing herself by forcing herself to wear a chicken costume!”

She shakes her head and leans towards me and frowns before saying, “Uh, Cutie Mark Crusaders? That sounds familiar… Uh,” she shakes her head again and corrects her mouth and says, “never mind! I’ll tell you later! Uh, so they got her to take off the costume?”

I nod my head and smile, “Yup! They sure did! They got her to finally realize that Apple Bloom’s death wasn’t her fault! Anyway, she left with the other Crusaders to go to the land of the dead…”

She widens her eyes again, “W-wow! So uh, you live with Sunny now and I stay with Izzy!”

I blink, “Yeah, pretty much!” I stare at this other filly carefully as something new and alien wells up deep in my gut… I think about how we just shared our stories… I think about how I suddenly felt more connected to this other pony…

I quickly blink again and widen my eyes while narrowing my mouth when I realize that it’s happening again and quickly muster my resolve and suppress it!

<*****>

I smile at the teal unicorn as I think about how she’s accepting of me, despite my past and memory issues. I think about how I suddenly felt more connected to her…

I suddenly grin wider and warmer at this other filly I just let into my heart, and I grow excited just thinking about how our friendship is going to grow in the future!

I happily say to her, “Oh, golly! This is gonna be fun!”

(To be continued…)

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why didn't you make this squeal about Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle? I'm you already did one with Scootaloo, why not complete the set?

[Betty_Starlight]

11202169
Not a bad idea? Although the premise behind Chicken Scootaloo was that she was forced to wear that costume over the guilt and shame she felt about Apple Bloom... (Which mirrored how I felt about my dead mother!) I would need an entirely new premise for each of the other Crusaders? Well, Apple Bloom was turned into a birch tree in my scenario and those live for about 40 to 50 years. And so, the question becomes, what was her spirit doing after the tree died off? Then again, it would probably work better if she somehow met up with Sweetie Belle along the way? Sweetie Belle could be the one crusader who had a boring transition into death!

Thanks! I'll probably start writing this story, further on down the road! Uh, it's nowhere near ready yet! I'm thinking I should title it When a Tree Blooms... What do you think?

PS: Okay, I'm thinking a good opener for this would be a monologue by Apple Bloom describing her life as a tree... And then, she'll become enveloped in mist and arise in the land of the dead, with no idea of who she is, how she got there, or why she was there... And then, the story continues as Apple Bloom solves mysteries, that are in fact, allegories that I draw from my own life!