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1. Lost2,713 words
2. Sightless2,047 words
3. Prognosis1,969 words
4. The Cakes2,193 words
5. First Night3,111 words
6. Morning Routine2,783 words
Non-canon: Happy Holidays!10,666 words

2. Sightless

Lost and Blind
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Chapter 2: Sightless.
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Pinkie had scarcely heard the creak of her cart’s wheels since she had left home, but now the sound had somehow become uncomfortably loud as she pulled it.

Her new friend was now sitting with all her belongings, looking as miserable as a whatever-he-was could be. He hadn’t said a word since she’d managed to calm him down, and had barely moved since she had helped him climb aboard.

The more Pinkie thought about him, how lost and confused he was the worse she felt.
There were already a million questions she wanted to ask like what was he, where he came from, and what was his favorite kind of cake. However, there came the question of how to ask these questions without making him feel uncomfortable and therefore a zillion times worse?

Try as she might nothing in Pinkie's vast reserve of jokes seemed appropriate to break the ice.

The longer this awkward silence went on, the more Pinkie felt like taking the risk of blurting out something that might upset him. Thankfully, her strange companion was the one to break the silence.

"Sorry if I'm heavy, miss." He said quietly.

Pinkie nearly beamed at the destruction of that uncomfortable malaise, regaining much of the lost spring in her step.

"No, you're fine. I'm just glad I'm able to help!" She beamed, "By the way, you never told me your name."

The long-limbed creature shifted in the cart but looked to be just as despondent as before.

“...Jonathan.” He said.

Pinkie tilted her head at the strange group of syllables he had croaked out. Everypony she’d ever met had a name that clearly meant something but that just sounded like somepony just smashed a bunch of letters together.

A stone in the road collided with Pinkie’s hoof. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it was a reminder to pay attention to the road and not just walk the whole way to Ponyville with her head turned over her withers.

That, and she might develop a nasty kink in her neck like when she had got that ‘How to be a contortionist in five easy lessons!’ book and forgot step four. Sometimes on cold mornings she still felt like she didn’t have her spine completely straight.

“Ja-na-thin.” Pinkie repeated slowly, “Never heard anything like it but I like it!”

It didn’t seem to comfort him much, but Pinkie liked that she at least knew his name.

That gloomy silence began to descend again, but with the ice officially broken Pinkie spoke again, “You really don’t remember how you ended up by the lake?”

He shook his head, “I just remember climbing in bed, falling asleep, the next thing I knew I was laying in the dirt.”

Pinkie had often had ponies tell her that her sister Maud was hard to read. She had guessed that was because they hadn’t known Maud as long as she had. What others saw as impossibly subtle changes in Maud’s mood or tone of voice, Pinkie saw them clear as day. She could hear the difference in inflection and could read Maud and the rest of her sisters like a book.

Even with those few words that Jonathan had said, Pinkie could hear exactly how devastated he was. She knew how much he needed a friend right now. She thought of the extra bits she’d saved not taking the train, maybe she could help.

“Well, how far from Ponyville do you live? I’d be glad to help you get back home.” Pinkie offered.

“You ever heard of Columbus, Ohio?” He asked, sounding skeptical.

Pinkie thought for a second, trying to remember the names of all the different places around Equestria the Pie family farm supplied with stone. Most of them were quiet hamlets and mildly noteworthy cities but aside from a few orders of crystal to Canterlot they were all definitely pony settlements. She was sure that she’d remember a city of not-ponies like Jonathan.

She had no idea what ‘Oh-hi-oh’ meant, but Pinkie chose to believe it meant ‘friend’ until he told her otherwise.

“No, but just because I don’t know doesn’t mean that somepony else doesn’t.” Pinkie said, “I’m abso-posi-tively sure somepony in Ponyville can help you get back to Coal-bumpus!”

He sighed in a way that reminded Pinkie of Limestone. More accurately it was when Limestone was more disappointed than annoyed. Maybe she needed to switch to a different topic for now.

“I think we’re only about an hour from Ponyville.” Said Pinkie, “I’m headed there to stay with my cousins, the Cakes and learn how to cook cakes and pies and cookies and all kinds of yummy things.”

Jonathan looked confused, “But you’re a pony, how would you hold… anything?”

Pinkie giggled, that was such a silly question. “With my hooves of course.”

“Right...” Jonathan muttered, “I’m guessing you haven’t heard of humans either, huh?”

Now that word Pinkie was certain she’d never heard her parents say, “No, but I’m sure you could get a plate of them in town too.”

Jonathan recoiled against the back of the cart, “Pinkie, I’m a human.”

Pinkie nearly stumbled as she realized what she had just implied, “I-I didn’t mean that! I thought it might have been a tasty snack… or a game, or a hat! I didn’t mean anything like that! And if someone does try to take a bite out of you I’ll show ‘em! …”

When she saw that he still looked like he was going to jump right out the back of her cart, Pinkie quickly added, “Please don’t be scared of me...”

Her pleading seemed to reach him, as he slowly sank down into the cart once again. She couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like something had distracted him from her cannibalistic insinuation as he slowly brought his muddy not-hoof to his face.

The thin, multi-jointed wiggly things looked so fragile to Pinkie, like they could snap like dry twigs at the lightest pressure. She wondered if he walked on his hind-legs to keep from breaking them.

The last thing she expected was him to bite it.

He let out a welp as his teeth sank into the large flat part of his not-hoof, and Pinkie stopped the cart as she saw pinpricks of red showing up in his mud-streaked skin.

Long ago Pinkie had seen her sister Marble break her leg and heard her wail and cry. Another time Limestone had cracked her hoof in a fit of anger and had to have it bandaged for a week. Never once however, had Pinkie seen somepony intentionally hurt themselves so abruptly and so intentionally.

If she hadn’t been so firmly strapped in the harness’s straps she would have jumped up into the cart with him.

“W-why’d you do that?” Pinkie stammered out, at a loss to understand what she’d seen.

Her friend slumped back into the cart, looking like his heart had just broken into a thousand tiny shards.

“This… isn’t a dream.” He whimpered in a voice so quiet that Pinkie just barely managed to hear it.

“A dream? He hurt himself because he thinks this was a dream?” Pinkie’s ears pinned against her skull as she tried to process what she’d seen and how she could help.

A quick glance in her cart was all Pinkie needed to remember everything she had packed and sadly nothing seemed capable of lifting somepony this hurt inside.

This certainly did not seem to be a day for muffins.

After she had settled into Ponyville, she’d make sure nopony would ever get this sad.

Pinkie resumed walking at double her normal pace. The sooner she got to Ponyville, the sooner the doctors could tell her hew-min friend he’d be fine.

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That uncomfortable silence reigned throughout the rest of their trip, and Pinkie was relieved to hear the sound of other ponies as they arrived in Ponyville. All around her were clean, cheerful buildings with thatched roofs. The road had slowly turned from dirt to cobblestone, making her cart jostle slightly as she pulled it along the streets.

“Sorry for the bumps...” Pinkie apologized.

“Don’t worry about it...” Jonathan said, his voice as dull and cheerless as Pinkie’s early childhood.

Pinkie looked around, the sheer amount of buildings was far more than she was expecting. Most of them looked like houses, but some were a bit stranger in shape. She was used to just a few structures and a great expanse of empty rock fields but Ponyville was shaping up to be quite a lot more than that.

A quick glance at the sun and a rumble in her stomach had Pinkie guessing it was nearly lunchtime. The Cakes would be expecting her soon, but she couldn’t just wander around town until she happened upon the hospital. She could explore later, her friend needed to see the doctor.

A few ponies were looking at her, no doubt surprised to see a new arrival in their town. With every fiber of her being Pinkie wanted to bound over there and learn every one of their names, but she held herself back.

“Wait, I can’t just dump Janathin off at the hospital and leave him there. Suppose he can’t find his way to Sugar Cube Corner?” Pinkie sighed, things weren’t going to be simple were they? “But I can’t just sit there all day and make the Cakes worry.”

She tapped her chin, thinking of how she might solve both her problems. Ponies around her were still moving about on whatever task was at hoof, but Pinkie straightened up upon seeing one of them. From around a corner came a mare, a gray pegaus wearing the familiar uniform of the post office.

“I’ll be right back, Janathin!” Pinkie shouted, quickly squirming out of her harness to grab a pad and pencil from her cart.

The hew-min raised his head at the mention of his name, but quickly resumed slouching in her cart.

“It’s not like I can do anything else...” He muttered to himself.

Pinkie galloped across the street to the mail mare, somehow managing to scribble out a note while running on three legs. The mailmare had turned her head away from Pinkie as she approached, only looking back in time to suddenly have the pink mare virtually nose-to-nose with her.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie said with most of her usual cheerfulness.

The mailmare blinked, looking totally nonplussed at Pinkie’s lack of personal space before smiling back.

“I’m Derpy, Derpy Hooves.” She said, offering her hoof to shake, “Are you new in town?”

“Yeah, well, I just got here. Just moving from the Pie rock farm to the west.” Pinkie’s smile slowly faded as she reminded herself of why she was in a hurry, “Look, I’ve got a bit of an emergency and I need some help. Can you tell me which way to the hospital? I need to get there.”

Derpy blinked her eyes, one of them seeming to drift a little as she quickly pointed with her hoof down one street. “Just go down that way and make a left at the park. You can’t miss it.”

Pinkie took a moment to follow Derpy’s outstretched hoof and nodded in understanding, “Oh, one more thing, have you been to Sugar Cube Corner yet?”

“Every morning!” Derpy said happily, “They make great muffins, their lemon surprise is my favorite!”

Here at last was a pony who liked muffins as much as Pinkie did, “But are you going there again soon?”

Derpy blinked, realizing what the other mare actually meant, “Oh! Yeah, it’s coming up on my route.”

“Good, here.” Pinkie slipped the note into Derpy’s bag, “Please give that to Cakes, it’ll explain why I gotta run to the hospital.”

Derpy frowned, it wasn’t exactly legal to do this. A letter needed to be processed and at the very least needed a stamp. But, if this was a medical emergency then maybe she could overlook it just this once.

Derpy nodded and continued walking, catching sight of the pink mare hitching herself up to a cart with what looked like a shaved chimp covered in mud in the back.

The mailmare shrugged it off. Ponyville had seen stranger things.

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To be continued…
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Author's Note:

New chapter? YUP. It lives. The next chapter, The Cakes is the next to be rewriten so it'll become the new chapter 3.
It took a while but I'm keeping my promise to come back to this story.

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