Filly Eyes

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 8: Testing!

I laid there deep inside my love cocoon with many stuffed equine friends, when I hear the familiar voice of my best friend calling from outside the bed, “Twinkle, exactly how many stuffed ponies do you have now?”

I lowly reply, “I don’t know!” while busily snuggling the purple alicorn held in my forehooves… I feel like she should be my enemy and for that reason, I just wanna cuddle her more! Golly, that’s weird!

“Where did you get all of these, anyway?” I hear the same voice ask.

“I don’t know!” I repeat while clutching the winged pony to my floofy chest and moving my head right so as not to get poked by the horn…

“Twinkle Shine!” The voice sternly says to me…

“Yes?” I timidly reply…

“Did you get Pipp to buy you all of these stuffies?”

“Um, maybe…” I retort.

I hear the voice snickering before it says, “You really like plushies, ever since I gave you Rarity, don’t you?”

“No I don’t…” I respond, while continuing to snuggle my new winged violet friend…

“Oh yeah? Then why are you currently snoozing deep inside a little nest of them, huh?”

I smile underneath the blankets and say, “I’m not snuggling plushies underneath the covers! It’s just your imagination!” before cuddling the purple pony to my chest again as I happily move my face left and right with a smile on my freckled visage…

“Twinkle, would you stop lying and just come out already?”

I giggle and reply, “Just a few more minutes!”

“I’m coming in there after you!”

“Oh, you wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me!”

I grimace when I realize that she’s probably not bluffing, “Okay, fine! And since you already know about my habit, I’m rolling up and smoking a joint!”

“Alright, fine! I’ll just get some more coffee then!”

“Are you sure you should be drinking coffee, as little as you are?”

“Are you sure you should be smoking dope?”

My eyes widen before I say, “I won’t say anything if you won’t!”

“Deal!”

I sigh, “Alright! You just head to the kitchen and do your thing and I’ll meet you on my floor!”

<*****>

I trot into the kitchen towards the coffee pot from Twinkle’s room and I see Izzy there at the table with her own cup of warm caffeinated beverage. I raise my head and say to her while trotting, “Hiya Izzy!”

She magically sets her cup down in a blue glow, which soon dissipates from the cup on the table, “Oh, hello Jessi! Your sparkle seems dimmer now. Come for another cup of coffee?”

I trot up to the counter at her back right and look up at the coffee pot before forcing the white cabinet over it to open to fetch a white coffee cup in my own azure glow. “No…”

The coffee mug floats to the counter before me as the cabinet magically shuts and I turn my head to the coffee pot slightly to the left of it as Izzy replies, “Looks like you’re getting another cup of coffee to me?”

I force the carafe to glow and exit the machine before it floats over my cup and slowly begins to pour, “Well, it’s not! I assure you!” before smiling slightly while I levitate the spoon and add two spoonfuls of powdered creamer to my cup from the burnt brown plastic bottle next to the maker as the carafe flies back to its spot on the machine.

I hear her snickering as she says, “Okay, Jessi! I’m guessing Twinkle is waiting on you?”

I begin to trot back across the kitchen while passing Izzy and the table on my left as I say, “Yeah, pretty much!”

<*****>

As I stood there on my haunches with the burning stogie in my mouth, I stared at this strange brown motley serpentine creature. He had two yellow eyes with different sized red pupils, a lion paw on his right side and an eagle talon on his left with two very different horns on his head and a distinct snaggle-tooth mouth… I feel like I should hate him, but I’m not sure why as I take a draw from the burning joint in my mouth…

“Hello, Cozy Glow! Or should I say, Twinkle Shine, now?” He says in a smarmy voice to me before smiling as his big tooth forms a diagonal angle from his mouth…

I remove the joint from my maw with my left forehoof and exhale smoke between me and this creature before asking him, “What the buck are you?” and then, I bring the joint back to my mouth to inhale again while lowering my head and begin to narrow my eyes as I feel feel the warm relaxing vapors from the burning end making their way through my mouth and down my gullet…

The end glimmers as he smiles and says, “I’m Discord, the lord of chaos! And you are or rather, were Cozy Glow, yes?”

I frown as I feel the hot smoke traveling down my throat and then, I slowly remove the stoge from my mouth again with my left forehoof and exhale smoke between me and the creature before coughing slightly and saying, “Cozy Glow is dead, Discord… I am what remains… My name is Twinkle Shine...”

“We shall see…” His voice chimes before he begins to grow transparent before me and soon disappears...

I could only stare there blankly and take another drag from my burning joint as I think to myself, I have been stoned, in more ways than one in my life, but I think I should know that guy?

Suddenly, the door to my right opens up towards the far wall from me and Jessi soon trots in with a white coffee mug in her blue glow.

<*****>

I trot in to see my best friend there sitting on her haunches with the still burning half-joint in her mouth and two very wide auburn eyes on her face. I stop right in front of the door before using my horn to force it to shut behind me as I look at her and ask, “Uh, Twinkle! Are you okay?”

She purses her lips on the burning cigarette and takes a draw as her eyes narrow on her face with the chemicals now entering her body. This forces the cherry to burn brighter before she slowly exhales smoke out the left side of her mouth, away from me and then, turns her gaze my way and says, “There was a brown serpent-like creature just here! He said his name is Discord!”

I widen my eyes and ask, “Okay uh, where is he now?”

She exhales smoke out the other side of her mouth again before frantically responding, “I don’t know!” and then, enlarging her eyes again and saying, “Uh, Jessi! You have a beard!”

I turn my eyes down to my muzzle and I can’t help but notice there's a LOT more hair there, that happens to be grayish-white like my mane and tail and not green like my coat! “AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!” I scream!

I see her ashing the joint in her glass ashtray in my periphery as I stare at the new growth around my mouth and she says quickly and calmly, “Calm down, Jessi! It’s probably just Discord messing with you!”

I look at her and can’t help but notice that she now has extra bushy bluish-white brows over her eyes and say to her, “Oh yeah? Well, now you have big eyebrows!”

She adjusts her eyes skyward to gaze at her new fluffed up and big eyebrows as she brings the joint back up to her mouth to take a draw and says, “Oh, wow! So I do!” before pursing her lips and making the end glow. She soon takes the burning stogie out of her mouth with her right forehoof and ashes it into the glass ashtray on the table at her right again by flicking while raising and lowering her new bushy eyebrows in rapid succession.

I keep my eyes large and peeled on the other filly, “You seem pretty calm about this?”

She smiles at me before bringing the roach back to her mouth and raises her huge eyebrows as she says, “Well, Izzy can just magically clip it all off whenever she gets back and you know, freaking out won’t really help matters? Besides! I like your new beard! It makes you look distinguished!” before chuckling and pursing her lips to take another drag.

I frown at her, “So uh, you wanna play like this now, I’m guessing? Hey, maybe I can role-play an old stallion now?”

She grins while exhaling smoke from her mouth, “I wanna role-play too, but I feel like I should have a big mustache now for some reason?” before pursing her lips for the final drag off the burning nub on the cardboard tip underneath the last remaining bit of rolling paper.

Suddenly, a brown snake-like thing appears floating on my right suddenly after a blue flash and he floats in the air and points at me with his eagle talon, “You’re not freaking out!”

Twinkle calmly puts the empty paper filter, now burnt out as it’s out of fuel, in her ashtray and smiles up at this bizarre creature before raising her eyebrows, “I always wanted big eyebrows! Thanks, Discord!”

He rolls his differently sized pupils inside his eyes before snapping his lion paw and suddenly, her eyebrows and my beard disappear and he says in an irritated tone, “You haven’t seen the last of me!” and then, surrounding himself in a pale azure glow again to disappear…

I see her grin with her brows back to normal as she snickers at where the strange creature was and says back, “Come and get me, Douchecord! I’m not scared of you!”

I blink at Twinkle, “I should go get Sunny and Izzy for this!”

She frowns at me, “You really think we need them?”

I nod and frantically respond, “Yes, I do! This is clearly some sort of powerful magic and we need extra help to deal with it!”

<*****>

Izzy widens her red eyes at me as she stands there in her paint splattered workroom with the splashed red and white easel behind her as she says, “Are you sure you know what you saw, Twinkle? Your mind wasn’t just playing tricks on you? I know how you get, sometimes!”

The green filly pipes up from my back left at the other unicorn, “No, she’s not lying! I saw this Discord, myself too!”

I nod, “Right! There was a strange serpent creature with parts of different animals on him and he called me by my old name at first, before Twinkle Shine again… I don’t know what he wants, but he knows who I am and clearly intends to do something? The real question now is, why did he make his presence known?”

Izzy frowns at me, “What?”

I smile slyly, “Well, think about it! If I didn’t know he’s here, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted! So, he had to have some reason for suddenly appearing to me like he did!”

Her red eyes widen, “You have a point, Twinkle… I’m going to call Sunny!” she raises her head, “Jessi!”

I hear my friend reply, “You don’t need to worry about my parents! It’s Saturday, so I’m cleared to crash here tonight!”

Izzy nods, “Right! Uh, my phone is in the other room!” before trotting around me on my right, opposite to Jessi and towards her door. She stops in the doorway, “Alright fillies! Buddy system! You two can’t leave each other’s sight until we know what’s going on!”

I turn my head to the right and snicker, “Alright, mom!”

I then hear her trotting out into the hallway as my friend says to me from my other side, “Well, she’s also got a point, Twinkle!” and suddenly, I’m held in her forehooves as my body contracts and I let out a little EEP, noise, “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you!”

Suddenly, I’m enveloped in blackness and I feel like I’m falling! I quickly go prone and stretch out my forelegs before me to begin flapping so I don’t suddenly hit the ground! As I fly through the now empty open air, I see a platform dimly lit approaching as I continue flapping that way through the black void…

I soon land on this platform, ready to take off at first as I don’t immediately trust it… I notice that my hooves are holding on the stone pavement and I’m in fact, not falling! I breathe heavily out of my mouth and cautiously move my little wings inward to my sides as I look up at the black void and call out, “Hello?”

The brown serpent from earlier materializes before me, floating off the platform maybe 15 feet as he smiles his snaggle-tooth grin and says, “I offer you this choice to make! One of two options, you must take! One brilliant move and one big mistake! So come now, and seal your fate!”

I smile as I stare up at him, “No!”

His misshapen eyes widen as his smile lowers, “What? What do you mean, no?”

I giggle, “Okay, first off, just who are you to test me, anyway? Why should I even take you seriously? And secondly, I am reformed, simply because I left my past behind and now, I have friends and a life here in Bridlewood! Bottom line: you’re not important and not needed! So just kindly deposit me back to where I belong and be on your way then, you weird brown snake thing! Because I don’t care about you or any choices you want me to make!”

He bends his neck down towards me as he smiles once more and floats in the air, “So, you’re not Cozy Glow? You believe you’ve completely reformed?”

I nod my head, “Yes, I do Discord! Now put me back!”

He giggles slightly before disappearing in a puff of smoke as I hear his smarmy voice say, “Well, let’s see the actions of everypony else then! Let’s see what they think of you and if you’re truly being the best filly you can be, then, hmm?”

“Bring it on!”

He chuckles more, “Oh, but it’s not quite that simple now, is it, Twinkle? No, your track record as Cozy Glow speaks volumes of you secretly manipulating ponies, and so, I’m going to make this more interesting!”

I raise my right eyebrow, “Oh?”

He giggles while continuing to smile down at me, “Yes, little Twinkle Shine! We’re going to see just how good you actually are and soon, everypony else will know about it as well!”

(To be continued...)