Going blind is certainly neither easy nor pleasant. However, a special friend can definitely help make all the difference.
Dragon-Duckling, Yosh, is afflicted with a disease that blinds him. Now all he sees and feels is total darkness inside-and-out.
Searching for hope, Yosh finds himself mysteriously transported to a place where a very special friend helps him to learn how he won't need his eyes to find his place in the world.
Yosh sat on his bed in quiet solitude. “Why?” he thought while staring into total darkness. “How?”
The dragon-duckling thought back on what had happened a week ago. It was a normal day. All was as it always was until his eyes felt like they were on fire….
***
“Yosh?” asked his best friend, Dawnbreak Horizon. “Are you okay?”
The dragon-duckling removed his hands from over his eyes. However, the light quickly brought back a sharp pain that caused him to scream in agony.
“Don’t worry!” panicked the brown Unicorn as he lifted his friend onto his back. “Ponyville’s just a quick, teleport away!”
***
The very blurry figure of Nurse Redheart was the first thing Yosh was able to faintly see as he struggled to open his eyes. “I know it hurts, sweetie,” she said. “But, the doctor needs to see your eyes so we can help you feel better.”
The pain he felt from forcing his eyes to open was beyond anything he had ever felt in his entire life. Tears streamed like waterfalls as he felt a wave of nausea that brought him to both scream and dry heave at the same time.
“close!” cried Nurse Redheart. The terror felt by the green-and-white dragon-duckling was far too much for her to bear.
“Well?” pressured Dawnbreak. “What’s wrong?”
“His eyes…,” the doctor said with disbelief. “They’re…”
“They’re what?” barked the Unicorn. “Tell me!”
The doctor shook his head. “He needs to see Dr. Oculous in Fillydelphia as soon as you possibly can get him there.”
Dawnbreak wasted no time in using all of his magical power to teleport Yosh and himself to Fillydelphia. It was here that they quickly made way to Dr. Oculous’ office.
***
Blood-curdling screams could be heard throughout Dr. Oculous’ office as she examined Yosh. The pain the dragon-duckling felt was excruciating. She eventually had to have her nurses come in and administer sleeping medication in order to complete the exam and provide a diagnosis. This being that Dawnbreak’s friend and travel companion was afflicted by ‘Moon Eye’.
‘Moon Eye’ was a very aggressive condition that quickly clouds over the eye until the one afflicted loses every last bit of their eyesight. It is unbelievably painful as the condition transforms the eye from its normal luster into an ice-blue version of its former self.
Dr. Oculous immediately admitted Yosh to the hospital as the Pegasus and her team worked day-and-night to save the dragon-duckling from ‘Moon Eye’. They tried magic to no avail. They tried special, eye drops that did nothing more than add to the pain he was experiencing. They tried medicines that made him twitch, scratch, unable to sleep, and throw up. They even tried surgical procedures that involved cutting into the eye to attempt to rid it of ‘Moon Eye’. However, nothing worked.
Once all had been lost, Yosh was released from the hospital. His vision was completely gone. The only thing left to him were words of sympathy as Dawnbreak Horizon brought him back to their home in Canterlot.
***
“And this is where I am,” Yosh spoke somberly as he took in the pitch-black room. The sound of a songbird now coming from outside of the nearby window.
“Day, or night,” he said while lowering his head. “It’s all the same to me.”
Yosh got up from his bed and tried to make his way to where he knew his window was.
BAM!
“Ouch!” he cried as his forehead slammed hard into a nearby wall.
“Ugh,” he moaned while stumbling back. It was then he suddenly felt as if the floor had given out from underneath him and he fell haplessly further down into the darkness.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!” Yosh sputtered as he tried to keep his footing. However, the apparent fall was too much for his disorientated body and he soon found himself falling flat on his bottom.
“Who’s there?” called a soft, female voice.
The beaked, duck-dragon gasped upon hearing the voice. Had someone come into his room? Was he still in his room? “H-hello…” he nervously replied.
WHOOSH
“Eep!” squeaked Yosh as a gust of icy wind blew over him. It was now that his body registered that he was apparently sitting upon a snowy surface that was quickly chilling his exposed legs.
“Ah!” he cried while stumbling to his feet. Another icy blast greeted him in which caused him to pull his legs in tightly as he huddled in on himself for warmth.
“I’m coming!” the female voice called out.
FOOF-FOOF-FOOF
The chilled duck-dragon heard soft steps quickly making their way towards him through what sounded like a snow-covered field. His instinct was to run, but he felt too cold to do more than let out a frightened whimper.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked. Her voice seeming to be right beside him.
“Why, is, it, so, cold?” shivered the dragon-duck.
“Cold?” the girl wondered. “It’s not cold here.”
Yosh was confused. He decided to try and feel around the darkness to see if he could find the girl . “Ah!” he screamed upon touching something that felt very soft that was no more than a foot away from him.
“Oh,” the girl giggled as Yosh’s hand pushed through her mane. “That’s just me.”
Yosh stumbled around with his arms wildly feeling about the void as his head looked aimlessly towards the direction he moved his hands. “”Who are you?” he asked nervously before feeling another bone-chilling gust of wind.
“Oh!” she laughed bashfully. “Sorry. My name is Snowdrop. What’s yours?”
“I’m Yosh,” chattered the cold, dragon-duckling. “How are you not cold?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Perhaps it is the full moon tonight that is keeping me warm?”
“Full moon?” wondered Yosh. “So you can see?”
“Well…,” Snowdrop sighed. “No.”
“Then how did you find me?” he asked. “How do you know the moon is full?”
“I used my other senses,” she chirped. “You don’t need eyes to find your way, you know.”
Yosh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Don’t need your eyes?” he asked with a hint of annoyance. “How can you say that?”
“Because,” she stated warmly. “I’ve learned to believe in myself.”
The dragon-duckling felt another gust of frozen air brush over him. “Belief?” he asked with frustration. “Belief isn’t going to help me be useful to any pony anymore! I’m totally worthless!”
The filly giggled. “I once felt the way you do,” she said while trotting herself alongside Yosh. “Come under my wing and I will show you the magic of the twinkling stars.”
Yosh felt a bit warmer as the Pegasus maneuvered her wing around his back.
“Close your eyes and listen,” she said. “Do you hear them?”
“Hear what?” asked Yosh.
“The twinkles,” replied Snowdrop.
It didn’t matter if Yosh had his eyes open, or closed. Darkness is all he could see and wind was all he could hear.
“They’re here,” assured Snowdrop. “There isn’t a single cloud in the sky. Millions upon millions of stars are twinkling down upon us right now.”
“There’s no way,” doubted Yosh. “If anything, the sky is covered by snow clouds brought to Canterlot by the Pegasi of Cloudsdale.”
“Canterlot?” wondered Snowdrop. “We’re right by my house in Cloudsdale right now.”
The dragon-duckling gasped. “Why am I not falling?” he panicked. “How did I get up here?”
Snowdrop chuckled. “I imagine you flew here,” she stated. “You don’t feel like a Pegasus, but you do have wings.”
“Wings…?” baffled Yosh as he felt at his back. Sure enough, a pair of tiny, feathery wings were now protruding from out of his scaly shoulderblades. “I must be dreaming.”
“Or,” suggested Snowdrop. “You have just needed some pony to believe in you to help you believe in yourself?”
Yosh didn’t know what to say. However, his ears did begin to pick up on a most interesting sound. “What’s that?” he wondered upon being totally distracted by the foreign sound.
TING TING-TING
“What sound?” Snowdrop strained as she allowed her ear to flick up a bit.
“It’s like a chime,” stated Yosh while he moved his hand blindly outward and looking in the direction he thought the sound was coming from.
“Oh!” Snowdrop smiled. “I think you’re starting to hear the twinkles.”
“Really?” asked Yosh.
“Yes,” she replied. “You’ll find there’s many things you can see when you don’t limit yourself to what you’ve always known, or heard.”
TING-TING TING-TING-TA-TING
More chimes filled Yosh’s ears as images of a starlit sky flooded into his mind. “I…,” he said with disbelief. “I see them!”
Snowdrop beamed with joy. “That’s just the beginning,” she assured. “Soon you will see everything that makes our world beautiful.”
“But… how?” wondered the duck-dragon as his ice-blue eyes looked up towards a sea of stars. “How is this possible?”
“Belief,” remarked Snowdrop. “It doesn’t take much to be able to see when you forget that you don’t have eyes.”
Yosh suddenly noticed he was actually standing on a snow cloud. He could also swear he could see the filly beside him. Her colors were blue and her mane as white as snow. “I… I can see!” he awed with amazement.
“Hmm-mmm,” Snowdrop hummed proudly. “And you’ll always see so long as you believe that you can.”
SHING! TING-TING-TING
“Oh, wow!” awed Snowdrop. “It’s Luna’s star!”
“Luna’s star?” Yosh asked as his mind started to formulate the vision of a giant star twirling and shining before them.
“Yes!” cheered Snowdrop. “It’s very special.”
“Can I…?” asked Yosh. “Can I touch it?”
Snowdrop nodded. “Yes,” she replied. “We should touch it together.”
Yosh reached out his hand and met with Snowdrop’s hoof. The two then touched the shimmering, twinkling star.
SHING!
“Remember,” Snowdrop’s voice echoed. “You will always see so long as you believe.”
The dragon-duckling found himself bathed in warmth as the twinkling star grew louder and brighter. He then felt as if he were falling through the clouds, but only briefly as his hands seemed to catch hold of something. “Huh?” he wondered. “Snowdrop?”
“Snow, who?” asked Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s friend and number-one assistant, as he came up from behind his dragon-duckling friend.
“Spike?” Yosh asked as he turned around. His eyes seeing the purple and green dragon almost perfectly.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Spike as he watched his friend’s hand just miss landing upon his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
The vision of Spike got hazy. However, it was just for a moment until Yosh received another vision of where his friend was standing. “Did you see her?” he asked. “The filly Pegasus?”
“…?” baffled Spike. “I just came in here to check on how you’re doing and saw you staring out the window.”
“Huh?” wondered Yosh.
“Yeah,” added Spike. “You were totally zoned out.”
Yosh thought for a moment. As he did, he realized he was getting visions of his room that he hadn’t had before.
“What are you doing now?” asked Spike while watching his friend move straight towards a nearby dresser. He then observed how the dragon-duckling placed his hand upon the surface and knocked over a few action figures that were upon it. “What’s going on?” asked Spike. “Are you doing okay?
“Actually…,” trailed Yosh as he worked to pick up the action figures he at first didn’t see, but now clearly saw as he put them back in place. “I’m doing surprisingly well.”
“You seem like your old self,” stated Spike curiously. “Given having gone all blind and such.”
“That’s just it,” remarked the dragon-duckling as he just missed giving his friend a hug. This was soon corrected as he stated, “I can see.”
“Uh…,” sighed Spike. “Do you need me to call dawnbreak and twilight in here?”
“Not yet,” grinned Yosh. “I need a moment.”
“A moment for what?” asked Spike while following his pal towards the window.
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Yosh asked while feeling a cool, evening breeze blow into the open window.
“What?” asked Spike as he surveyed the sunset.
“The stars,” stated Yosh. “You can hear them twinkling, right?”
Spike didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t see any stars yet. Let alone hear a star genuinely ‘twinkle’. “Maybe you need to lie down?” he suggested. “It’s been a really rough time for you, Yosh.”
“I will,” the dragon-duckling replied. “But first, I want to listen to the stars.”
“Okay,” said Spike. “Twi, Dawn, and I will be waiting for you out in the living room. Okay?”
“Be there soon,” acknowledged Yosh.
***
Yosh listened to the stars ‘twinkle’ for a few more minutes. As he did, he swore he could hear Snowdrop whisper to him to check his vest pocket.
“Huh?” he wondered as he pulled out a warm, pointed charm that had been attached to a necklace.
“It’s yours,” Snowdrop whispered from somewhere in the sky. “Wear it proudly and treasure it as a reminder of our friendship and how we both can still see even without our eyes.”
Yosh effortlessly fastened the necklace around his neck and tucked its attached charm under the collar of his t-shirt. “Thank you,” he said out towards the twilight sky.
***
Yosh, more confidently than ever, made his way out of his room to join Spike, twilight, and Dawnbreak. He was proud to feel a sense of self-worth for the first time since the terror of losing his vision had begun. It was a feeling that would only continue to grow with each passing moment that he reminded himself of his mysterious trip to Cloudsdale to meet the Pegasus who taught him that one could see even without their eyes.
