Right Before Your Eye
Right Before Your Eye
by Present Perfect
"...And then that little purple dragon whips us with the reins and goes, 'Yah!' Can you believe it?"
"Yeah, I shook my hoof at him and said, 'If you weren't friends with our neighbor Rarity...!'"
"Haha, yeah, what I woulda done to that little twerp if we weren't helping Rarity! The nerve!"
They share a hearty laugh. I do my best to get in on it. "You guys better be careful. When he grows up, he might remember you said that!"
"Pff, Sy, as if. I ain't afraid of dragons!"
"Yeah, me neither! He's just a pipsqueak, he'll probably be a shrimpy dragon when he grows up."
"All right, you guys, suit yourselves!"
"Hey, it's not like you woulda done any different if Rarity'd asked you to pull her carriage."
He has a point there. What hot-blooded stallion can resist the charms of the lady Rarity? Not Caramel or Lucky; certainly not me. It's just a shame that even though they would never have a chance with her, they still have a better shot at getting her attention than I ever could.
Oh, where are my manners, I ought to introduce myself. I'm Silas Clops, O.D., Ponyville's resident optometrist. Everypony calls me Sy. I've got a cozy practice in the downtown area, but I live in the same apartment building as these two, right across from Rarity's Carousel Boutique. They're good enough neighbors, even though I get the feeling that we might not have gotten along so well had they gone to school with me. We wouldn't be meeting up to chat like this on a regular basis, let's say. I suppose that's the advantage of time: it tames the wildness of youth, even if we never do rid ourselves entirely of all that foalish energy. It's the foalishness of youth which leads us into situations where we pull a carriage for a tiny dragon taskmaster, just to impress a mare.
It was not quite the same foalishness that made school difficult for me. Birth defects in Equestria are rare, and most of my peers simply didn't know what to make of me. I drew stares; I was shunned more often than not. This gave me lots more time to study, when others were busy being social, but it was a lonely way to live. I suppose I could have had worse, though. At least all that studying got me where I am today, let me fulfill the potential heralded by the pair of thick spectacles that adorn my flank.
It was my problem that ultimately made me decide... Oh, goodness, I haven't been holding out, have I? I'll just say it: I was born with only one eye. I can't say that my life has been difficult because of this, aside from the prejudices of others. But I've always tried not to be too harsh on my fellow ponies. After all, as I was saying earlier, I knew that because of my condition, I wanted to help others who had vision problems; it was the realization of that desire which got me my cutie mark. Optometry was the obvious answer.
My first glass eye was my very own design. I have a functioning eyelid, lacking any organ beneath, and so I can blink and whatnot with the best of them while the prosthetic is in place. As I grew, so too did my skill with matching the fake to my good left eye, although the overall effect tends to leave me looking wall-eyed, as they say, not unlike a certain patient of mine. But it is certainly more pleasant for others to view than a shriveled eyelid over a blank socket.
Speaking of Miss Doo, she's my first appointment today. Corrective lenses are not helping her lazy eye, so the next step is an eye patch. I tell her this; she doesn't react. Frankly, it's very hard to tell what she's thinking about at any given time, or even if she's paying any attention to you. She is a good friend after hours, though, never passing up an opportunity to chat if we run into each other on the street. Once or twice, we've even meet up for smoothies or sandwiches. I'll say again, we are just friends, but I at least think she enjoys my company because we share some similarities, if solely physical.
After Ditzy leaves, I call to my assistant to ask about the day's schedule. I tend not to be able to remember more than one appointment at a time, which is where her help is invaluable.
Okay, that isn't entirely true. I hired Crystal Clear first of all because she's the most amazing lens grinder in all Equestria. This isn't to say that there are many in the first place, but I really don't think that anypony else can do what she can do quite as perfectly.
Crystal and I met during my final year of optometry school. I was getting set to graduate, she was an incoming student, and I ended up taking her under my hoof, so to speak. The lingering sense of ostracism we had both endured our entire lives, to whatever degree, was what brought us together. Crystal is an albino, just as rare a condition as my own, and so her foalhood and mine had similarities. Adding to that, the poor filly was a blank flank until well into her adolescence; at least, she had thought she was, pulling double duty as a social pariah. In actuality, her cutie mark is transparent: a lens barely visible on her pale fur. She's told me that there have been papers written about her by ponyologists, who had previously thought such a thing impossible. I tried reading one once, but I'm sorry to say it rather went over my head. Not my field, after all.
But I digress. The fact is, as much as she tends toward being a bubbly scatterbrain, Crystal has amazing focus when it comes to... well, focus. I don't know much about magic, being an earth pony, but I've heard her say that while she could pin a fly to a wall with a toothpick, she would have a hard time trying to fry it or turn it into a flower. The magic she works is incredibly delicate, and results in the finest eyewear one could ever ask for. I've yet to see her make a mistake, and I owe my success as an eye doctor to her precise work.
"Rarity's your two-o'clock, Doctor. She scheduled a checkup at the last minute, as usual." This last bit is said under her breath, and passes me by.
"R-Rarity, you say?"
"Yeah... She told me she's been getting headaches and wanted to make sure her prescription hasn't changed."
"Well, that's good! Two-o'clock, you say? Yes, all right then, I suppose we'd better clean the place up if nopony else is coming in today."
She pauses for a moment, looking intensely at the calendar.
"Ohh, yeah, and Berry Punch is bringing her filly in for her first eye exam at one."
"Ahh, yes, yes, of course. Well, there's no time like the present, I suppose! Let's make use of what little we have this morning."
Berry Pinch's first exam goes swimmingly: a clean bill of ocular health and no corrective lenses needed. She's entranced, for lack of a better word, by Crystal's appearance; not unusual, in my experience, for a foal. Crystal seems uncomfortable with the attention at first, but by the end of visit, gives little Berry a lollipop for being a good filly. I do believe a tiny friendship has been formed.
I sort of overdo it on the cleaning after they leave, so that by the time two-o'clock rolls around, I'm looking rather disheveled, which means that I'm completely unprepared for...
"Miss Rarity! How nice to see you!" Crystal sounds strained.
"Hello, Crystal, darling! And a good afternoon to you, Doctor!"
"G-good afternoon, Rarity! How are we feeling today?" Thank Celestia for doctor's patter; my insides are screaming at me.
You foal! You're a mess, you can't let her see you like this, what are you thinking? You're going to ruin everything! It goes on. The rest is perhaps best left unmentioned.
"Why, I'm doing just fine, thank you, dear!"
"What can we do for you today?"
"I've been doing a lot of late-night work recently, using a magnifier and all that. I feel like my eyes are getting tired far quicker than they used to, so I thought I'd move my annual checkup ahead just a teensy bit. I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not! It's always a pleasure!"
Ahh, that's just like Rarity: always concerned about being in top form, knows what her assets are, and takes care of them. I wish all my patients were as conscientious about their health. We make small talk as I run her through the checkup, and I try not to stutter too much. Her being here really is distracting. I feel sweaty despite my best attempts to remain outwardly composed. I run the tests. Her left eye has decreased one point; her right, one and a half. Not a major change in her prescription, but enough to account for the eyestrain. I recommend that she switch sides every few hours, to give both eyes an equal workout, so to speak.
Then I, with my hooves shaking, drop her frames.
No serious damage, thank Celestia, but she'll most likely need new ones, and I most likely won't charge her for them. As I bend over to retrieve them from the floor, I whack my head on the counter -- did I mention I have poor depth perception? -- and something else clatters onto the ground. Whatever it might be doesn't register immediately. More concerned with the eyeglasses, I grab them and sit back up. Rarity is fussing over my noggin, and her sudden care for my wellbeing is making me feel flush and content. But as I turn to hand the frames back to her, she suddenly screams and faints cold away.
Oh dammit.
I check with my free hoof; sure enough, my glass eye was that second thing that fell onto the floor. Great, now she'll have that image burned into her head for the rest of her life. She's not the kind of pony who should have to deal with something like that, and I'll most likely always be tainted in her mind.
Crystal comes to see what all the screaming is about, and I have her see to Rarity while I go disinfect my eye. No sense in having her see it out again once she wakes up. As it is, when she does come round, everything gets awkward.
"Oh my goodness, Doctor, I'm so sorry, I had no idea..."
"Please, Miss Rarity, it's all right, so long as you're all right."
"Well, yes, I-I'm fine, thank you."
"Do you need anything?"
"Just some tea, if you would, Crystal, you're such a dear. Where were we, Doctor?"
I'm impressed she's able to jump back into business after a spell like that, but that's Rarity for you. I go back over her prescription change, slowly, tell her I'll replace the frames gratis -- this requires some insisting on my part -- and give her a time frame for the lens work. It shouldn't be very long, actually; Crystal can work awfully fast when she's in the 'zone'.
But the whole time, Rarity's got this look, a tenseness, about her. She's seen the real me now, in a manner of speaking, and that's always going to color her perception. I'm kind of used to it by now, but... I hadn't expected it to happen with her. My heart might be breaking.
Or maybe it's my perceptions that are changing. It's funny how a single event like this will affect your opinion of a pony. After she leaves, all I can think is how wrong I was about her. Silas, I tell myself, it's time to face the facts: you're not in school, you're not even in college; you're a grown stallion with a schoolcoltish crush. It's time to start acting like a grownup and leave these foalish desires behind. After all, she seems awfully shallow; you really should have expected that, what with the whole fashion designer gig.
This consumes my thoughts from the time she leaves until the next morning, when Rarity shows up in my shop bright and early. I am just as surprised by her sudden appearance as by my forgetting everything I've been carefully repeating to myself throughout the night.
"Oh, Doctor, I feel just awful about the way I acted yesterday. I wanted to make it up to you in some little way. I do hope you'll both accept these."
A shopping bag floats up onto my desk, then a long, thin rectangular box from out of it.
"Why, thank you, Miss Rarity, it really wasn't..."
"I won't take no for an answer! Do please open it, Doctor; I really hope you'll like it."
I do so. Inside the box is, I have to admit, a very fetching necktie.
"Allow me!"
Without another word, she begins fussing over me, tying it about my neck and so forth. I'm rather embarrassed, though I'm not sure if it's from the attention she's giving me or by the fact that I'm blushing furiously under her ministrations.
"There, take a look in the mirror! I think I picked just the color to go with your coat!"
It really looks great on me. She certainly has an eye for these things.
"Thank you very much, Miss Rarity. I suppose I needed a new tie after all!"
She nods. "The last time I was here, your necktie just seemed so disheveled; I thought you could use a new one. Oh, I'm so glad you like it! Now where is Crystal? Crystal Cleeeear!" she calls out, ducking her head into the backroom, the bag floating along behind her. "Oh, there you are, sweetie!"
She really shouldn't be back there, of course, but my tongue is as tied as my new present. What an idiot I am, having decided all that about her, and here she is, being unnecessarily generous. I don't think anypony has ever apologized for such a reaction to me before. I feel that schoolcoltish crush rising back up to full strength. From the back, I hear rustling, and then indistinct voices, followed moments later by a pink streak as Crystal dashes out of my office and down the street. I'm fairly certain she's weeping. Rarity appears in the doorway a heartbeat later, looking distraught.
"Oh my goodness, what's the matter? Was it something I said?"
I'm at a loss. "What happened?"
"I only bought her some mane dye." She looks truly hurt. "I thought she might be able to... Well, never thought she might react so poorly! If only I'd known... Oh, do go after her, Doctor, I don't want to make a bad situation any worse! I'll stay here in case anypony comes in."
I clear my throat. "Umm, yes. That sounds like a good idea! Thank you so much, Rarity, for the bother. I won't be long, I hope!"
It takes a little questioning, and although Crystal is a far faster runner than I, tracking down an albino unicorn in Ponyville is not exactly difficult. I find her in the park, beneath a picnic table. Her eyes are red, or more so than usual.
"Crystal? What's wrong?"
She starts. She turns her back to me, rubbing at her face, and says, "I'm sorry, Doctor Clops, I know it's not very professional of me..."
"Forget professional! I want to know what's wrong, Crystal. Did she say something to upset you?" What am I doing? I'm not a counselor, I'm no good at private relations. I hope I don't make things worse.
After taking a few moments to compose herself, she turns to me. Her voice wavers. "I've spent my whole life being made fun of for the way I look! I'm not about to take it from... I mean, I'm sure she didn't mean it, but..." Her lip quivers.
"Crystal, please, calm down, it's all right. You're right, I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it."
"It's just that she said, 'I thought this might be just the thing to help with your mane! The bleached look really isn't in season, you know.' And that was just the meanest..." Her eyebrows pinch together and she heaves in a breath. I think she's going to start crying again.
The past evening's consternations come back full force.
"And after yesterday, when she freaked over seeing you without your eye... It just really hurts when I see you looking at her the way you do, because she's not the kind of pony who's going to be comfortable around somepony like you... or me."
Oh my goodness! Silas, get hold of yourself, she can't possibly mean...
"I'm sorry, Doctor, I'm a mess, I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry." She breathes in deeply and seems to settle. "I'm okay now. I just... I might need some time to myself, you know? I'd rather not go back to the office while..." Her lip quivers again, and not knowing what else to do, I step forward and nose her gently. She blushes.
"Crystal, it's okay. I'll go back, let her know you're all right and send her on her way. Why don't you take a long lunch? I should be able to hold things together until then."
Surprisingly, she begins to nuzzle my face. I let her. Goodness gracious me, all this time, has she really...
"I'm sorry, Silas," she whispers. "It's just really hard being like me sometimes."
All along, I never had noticed. Right before my eyes...
Eye.
It doesn't matter.
"I know just what you mean."