Filly Eyes

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 26: Echoes

Oh, golly! You ever have one of those days? I honestly didn’t know whether to cry or giggle hysterically as I stared at the green filly, now with wings at her sides… I widen my eyes, “What happened to you?”

Misty at my right cranes her neck down to stare at Jessi’s left wing, “You didn’t have those, earlier!”

She stares at me with wide orange eyes, “Yeah, I know! Apparently, that staff thingy is attracted to this funky plate and they joined forces to give me wings! I am now a winged unicorn!”

I blink, “Aren’t those called alicorns?”

Jessi frowns, “But I’m not an alicorn. I’m a unicorn…”

I nod, “You’re a unicorn with wings now, right?”

“Yes?”

“You know what you call a unicorn with wings?”

Jessi visibly grimaces at this point, “I’m not an alicorn!”

I nod, “You’re a unicorn, right?”

Jessi goes back to a normal frown, “Well, yeah!”

I nod again, “And you got wings now, right?”

Jessi flexes her left wing and turns her head towards it, “Also true!”

I frown as I can think of no other way to put this, “You know what you call a unicorn with wings?”

Jessi goes back to grimacing and repeats herself, “I’m not an alicorn!”

I turn my head right further towards Misty, “Maybe you need to join Misty here in Pon-Egypt? Cause you’re both in De-Nile!”

Misty turns her head towards me, “What?”

Jessi sighs… And stares at me before asking with genuine fear in her eyes, “What am I gonna do?”

I frown, “What do you mean?”

Jessi stretches her wings out to her sides, “These! I uh…” she blinks and begins breathing through her mouth…

I widen my eyes, “Are you okay, Jessi?”

Jessi shakes her head as if to recompose herself, “I-I’m sorry Twinkle… This is all so strange and new to me… I never asked for wings…”

“Didn’t you say you flew with them earlier? Didn’t you like that?”

Jessi centers her gaze on me, “Well, yeah! Yeah, I did… But the more I think about it, the more I think having wings is gonna be a hassle!”

I stretch my pink right wing out and turn my head towards it, “Actually, having them is kinda handy, if you ask me! Which is a good point! I need to teach you how to preen your feathers soon!”

Jessi frowns and asks me, “How do you feel about me, Twinkle Shine?”

I put my wing back and stare at Jessi while frowning, “What do you mean?”

Jessi blinks, “Well, I got wings now!”

I nod, “That is true! You’re a winged unicorn! Also known as an alicorn!”

Jessi cringes for a moment before adjusting her face, “You don’t think of me differently?”

I widen my eyes at this thought, “Well, as a matter of fact, I do!”

Jessi can only blink at me in silence.

“I think you need some help!”

Jessi frowns and widens her eyes, “What?”

I smile at the new alicorn, “Yeah! Having wings is new to you! You gotta learn how to preen and groom yourself, like I do every night! And how to sleep properly! And we also need to teach you how to control yourself in the air!”

“Oh, gosh!”

“Hey, relax bestie! I already know this stuff! It’ll be like another adventure, okay?” I say before nodding as I think to myself that there’s a LOT we don’t know here. Those artifacts were created by somepony to contain power, but for what purpose? Regardless, now Jessi seems to have that power!

“Hey, where did Little Snack go, anyway?”

<*****>

I stare up at the yellow stallion and smile, “Gee, thanks for letting me crash at your place, Hitch!”

He smiles down at me, “No problem, squirt! I mean, I can’t let you go homeless!”

I widen my eyes, “Well, probably not, no? I don’t think you’d want that?”

He widens his eyes, “Hey! Go sit down! I’ll get us some cocoa!”

“Okay, Hitch!” I say before trotting over to the round wooden kitchen table and setting my plot down on the seat of the chair facing the kitchen…

Hitch trots out with two big black mugs on his snout and he trots around the table on my left and sets the mugs down before me and turns to get a chair with his mouth and sits down next to me as he stares down at me and smiles…

I look up at him and smile back nervously… I don’t know what he wants from me?

“So, Little, I know it was fun and interesting and all, but I REALLY don’t want you running off without me anymore, okay?”

I widen my eyes and begin to frown, “What?”

He clears his throat, “Ahem! I mean to say is, uh, well, I don’t want you to get hurt! You’re still just a little filly!”

I blink, “You care about me and don’t want me to get hurt?” I stare up and say to myself. “Well, it seems to check out?”

He suppresses a giggle as he smirks slightly, “Um, yeah, that Little Snack! I just don’t want you out there without me, okay? So if anything like that ever happens again, you need to wait for me to return, okay?”

I finally begin to smile faintly up at Hitch, “Um, okay!”

He finally smiles all the way and gets out of his chair to take a pace towards me and hugs me…

“EEP!” I squeak as his forehooves go over me!

“I care about you, Little buddy!”

At this point, I can only gasp out, “I do need to breathe sometimes, you know!”

He lets go of me and gets to the floor while staring at me wide-eyed, “Oh, sorry squirt! Guess I don’t know my own strength? Uh, you have some cocoa!”

I nod, “Right! So don’t go out without you anymore!”

He nods back, “Right!”

I blink, “I mean, assuming you're not captured or being held prisoner, somewhere?”

He frowns, “That seems oddly specific?”

My eyes dart to him, “You’d think so, right?”

<*****>

And so, I trot into the kitchen towards the coffee pot on the other end of the shelf… SEWs365W544wt55555555555 tares at me, “Hiya Jessi! How do you like your new wings? Are you coping okay?”

I stop just short of the table and stare up at the larger orange alicorn, “Twinkle doesn’t see me differently!”

Sunny frowns at me, “Why would she? I mean, you’re still the same you! You just have wings now!”

I sigh from my nose, “Well, I know that! But uh, what about all this power I seem to have now?”

“The power you never use?”

I nod, “Right!”

“The power that doesn’t really affect your life in any way shape or form?”

I nod again before frowning, “Um, that, yes!”

“Why would that really affect your life?”

I widen my left eye when I honestly reply, “Well, I have been snuggling those weird spiders in bed at night with my plushies?”

Her eyes widen, “Wait, what?”

I shake my head and look at her again, “Oh, never mind!”

She blinks, “You really worry about these things, don’t you?”

I nod and honestly reply, “Well, right! Because change always just pushes ponies away…”

Her eyes widen, “WHAT?” she blinks. “My friends stayed with me when I became an alicorn! Why wouldn’t yours?”

I frown, “But I’m not an alicorn… I’m just a unicorn… With a new pair of wings…”

“Jessi!”

I straighten my mouth and look back up at her, “Y-yes?”

She smiles dimly, “You have a LOT of power with that staff and a new pair of wings… I think you’re an alicorn?”

I breathe slowly out of my nose… I finally move my eyes up to her, “I uh, think you’re right?”

She whinnies from her nose and asks, “Wanna sit down?”

I look at her, “Actually, I kinda wanna take another look at that staff and plate?”

She nods, “Okay, I’ll go get them and put them on the table… We can look together! It’ll be uh, mother/daughter bonding time!” before smiling…

I smile up at the orange alicorn, “It’s okay! This is kinda new to me too, after well, everything!”

<*****>

I REALLY want to get to know my new roommate, but she’s just so standoffish and won’t talk to me! She usually keeps to herself in her room and reads, or smokes dope, while listening to music… I throw my curly mane out of my face as I stare up at her imposing red door and gulp… Well, here goes nothing! I think to myself before knocking on it with my right forehoof…

BAM BAM BAM!

I hear a squeaky voice from inside say, “Um, yeah! Misty or Izzy? Which one is it, this time?”

I raise my neck to yell back, “Misty! Uh, can I come in?”

I hear a faint, “_{Oh, golly!}” come from the inside before the door opens for me a few seconds later…

I look up at Twinkle as she’s flying in the air and pulling the door back with her forehooves in the air and she stares at me with the movable barrier at her left, “Um, yes?”

I look up and smile at her… “Hiya Twinkle! Can I come in?” and hope I don’t look too awkward… I probably look super awkward, though?

<*****>

I continue to flap my wings in the air and hope she doesn’t smell the herb in the air that I was just smoking as I stared down at this strange blue unicorn foal, “Uh, sure thing Misty!” before releasing the handle and twisting around clockwise in the air to fly back towards the center of my room where I land on the ground with a small clack noise, and turn to face the intruder… I smile and hope I don’t look weird… I bet I look weird?” But you know, she does looks super awkward with that big dumb grin on her face, and so I guess we’re even?

<*****>

Twinkle has this incredibly strange grin on her face as she stands there on her hooves staring at me from the center of her room… I finally trot inside the danger-zone and shut the door behind me using my magick… I stare at her and gulp before smiling and saying, “Hiya, Twinkle!”

“Uh, hiya Misty!”

“So uh, we live together!”

She nods, “This is true!” and stares at me with a confused look in her brown eyes.

I blink and continue to smile in a way that I hope isn’t too weird.

I probably look super weird though…

<*****>

I stood there and watched the strange filly, as she stood there with the weirdest smile I’ve ever seen, trembling on her four hooves, and visibly sweating from her forehead, underneath that familiar curly two-toned mane of hers, swept to the right, the way she normally keeps it… Honestly, she looked like she was about to fall apart!

I smile at her and begin trotting towards her…

She noticeably gulps as I approach and widens her eyes at my sight, “Uh, Twinkle?”

“Misty!” I happily reply as I’m a mere few feet away at this point and continue to gaze and trot her way…

Her eyes enlarge all the way, “Twinkle?”

I then embrace her in a tight warm hug with my forehooves…

“EEP!” She squeals!

I whisper, “It’s okay, Misty… We’re all friends here!”

She sniffs the air, “You’ve been smoking again, haven’t you?”

I whisper back, “It’s a possibility!”

<*****>

I narrow my eyes while the pegasus continues to lovingly hold me in her forehooves, “Twinkle’s been burning dope again!”

“I’ll alert the media!” She whispers in my ear before snickering…

I can’t help but giggle at how silly she’s suddenly acting, “Twinkle, why the hay are you all huggy now?”

She giggles, “Well, you looked nervous… I don’t want you to be nervous…”

It finally dawns on me what she’s doing, “Y-you’re trying t-to comfort me?”

She disengages from me and stares into my eyes and squeaks out, “Well, golly gee, you looked like you were falling apart and I thought you needed some reassurance! Uh, “she smiles. “Heh heh!”

I smile and can only giggle…

Her eyes widen, “What’s funny?”

I let out a sigh, “Well, this whole time, I was worried, you know? I mean, I’ve been here for about a week now and we rarely ever talk!”

She frowns, “Is that a problem?”

I widen my eyes, “Well, we’re living together, right?”

She nods, “This is true!”

“Well, I mean, shouldn’t we hang out and do stuff together and stuff? I mean, us being roommates and whatnot, right?” I say before smiling back at her...

She blinks, “I don’t know? Maybe?”

“You’ve never had roommates before, have you?”

“Well uh, no!” She admits before shrugging her shoulders and staring wistfully to the right. “But I mean, have you?” She says before staring back at me with big brown eyes and a curious frown.

I blink and narrow my mouth, “Well, no! But uh, I mean, shouldn’t we uh, be doing stuff together, if we’re uh, living together?”

“How would I know?”

At this point, I can only smirk at how ridiculous everything is as I giggle faintly, “We’ve both never done anything like this before!”

<*****>

At this point, I can only widen my eyes and state the obvious, “Gee, sure looks that way, huh?”

Misty grins at me, “Okay uh, lets just take it slow, okay?”

“You know, that was what I was doing by keeping my distance, right? I didn’t want you to think I was intrusive!”

Misty widens her mouth in surprise, “Oh, wow!”

I nod, “Well, that and I sometimes actually forget that you’re living here now… You don’t come out much!”

Misty smirks slightly, “Well, I’m not used to living with other ponies, you know? Well, “she looks up. “ponies I can talk to anyway!” she stares back at me. “I mean, you’re not gonna bite my head off if I say something weird or dumb, you know?” before smiling much wider…

At that point, I can only giggle because of how I used to be and smile at her as I say, “Well, not really, no?”

<*****>

I stared at the silver staff with the pointy blue crystal gem at the end of it, pointing away from me on my right… The staff was roughly 8 inches in length, including the gem, which was about 2 inches long and an inch wide by itself. The shaft was about three quarters of an inch wide… I turn to the golden plate with inscriptions on it on my left at the table, with the orange alicorn standing on the same side… The plate itself is about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide and while the inscriptions look old and I can’t quite make out what they say, I do notice a strange indentation on the plate that I didn’t notice earlier… It’s a groove that goes vertically up the center of the plate and appears to be about three quarters of an inch wide itself… I frown in thought…

“What do you think?” Sunny asks while staring at the artifacts on the table and standing over me…

“Well, it would probably be better if I just showed you?” I say before turning my head right towards the staff and forcing both my horn and it to glow sky-blue and magically raising it from the table and then moving it onto the plate with the strange inscriptions on the other side and positioning the staff in the groove down the plate…

Both our eyes widen when we see an older transparent magenta unicorn appear before us… This unicorn is about 8 feet tall and has bluish-violet eyes with bags underneath them, a somewhat disheveled looking wavy purple mane over her shoulders about 8 inches down with baby blue streaks in it and a smile on her face as she says, “Is this thing on?” her eyes widen. “Oh! Hello! My name is Starlight Glimmer and you’re probably wondering what these artifacts are?”

(To be continued...)