Author's Note

Hi there; it's me, Fireflower here once more ready with a new chapter of Ocular Spectral Therapy on the way: suffice to say, the past chapters from before were by far a strong note for you all and it will only be a taste of what's to come later on as I write them all them at my fingertips.

As usual, My Little Pony, or rather Friendship Is Magic, including its settings and characters belong to Lauren Faust and Hasbro; however, this concept of my fanfic still belongs to me so I will say this line one time only: please do not steal this story or I will sue.

Lastly, let me also say that I hope you can stomach this chapter now even more than the others before it and still have the strength to continue onward in staying tuned though the passing times; henceforth, I will now leave you with but one saying only: thank you once again.

Jaundice

The sounds of water dripping about against a flat surface were permeating throughout the otherwise limited atmosphere as its identity in question had already been made known to many past, present, and even future occupants from all walks of life so to speak at this moment in time. The entire place had walls and ceiling painted in a grayish blue for every being to notice whereas the flooring was a cluster of tiles dress in white save for the occasional red, green, and yellow. There were a set of glass panes being strewn across on the room’s one side, having simply painted a basic complex and highly resolute picture depicting what had remained in front of them all: they were a series of lanky stalls at the other end, all of which being in a dark forest green. Beneath these mirrors were about several sinks resting into hardwood, each of them sharing equality in many aspects they all possessed: depth, material, structure, cleanliness, and purpose. The otherwise few lights that were shining bright above the solid porcelain ovals still remained stationary, providing only illumination to the very room in question so as to help guide the many persons unknown to and from every passing hour on the hour with no end in sight suffice to say. For all that stood by, the only things found resting on the walls were two sets of dispensers: one is giving away paper through a thin crevice and the other having a tubular nozzle sticking out.

Within moments, the roaring of liquids quickly overlapped the faint splashes as they drowned out the sounds of footfalls making contact against the already hardened surface; of course, they were signs to show one occupant ready to depart: a tanned blonde soon exited the stall in seconds. Walking slowly out from there, she was found to be dressed in a simple white gown with matching sandals as weary jade orbs were pointing downward to the floor where those feet were. The tanned blonde had her rough and tumble hands now resting on the ligneous surface a tad few centimeters away from the porcelain sink as she started to look at the reflection of herself. Staring into it, she had found that outside of her irises and pupils, the majority of these very eyes were painted in a faint drab of gold and outlined with deep carnation rims bleeding into them. Taking sight away from the mirror in front, the blonde took notice of the handles resting on each side of the metal faucet and turned them towards herself slowly; as a result, the water poured out. Her ears perked up to the new sounds of a rushing downpour that she was definitely responsible for yet only took little time whatsoever to run her hands underneath the spigot above the pair.

It wasn’t even long when the blonde had just felt her palms become soaked by the running water; of course, there would be simply no way at all that this one action alone would stop at there. Drawing one of those hands away from the active faucet, she found a thin spout nearby the handles and pressed onto its base slowly; in doing so, a scant few droplets of a thick and viscous colored liquid had landed upon the few fingertips before suddenly subsiding instantaneously. Returning that same hand back into the stream of water, the blonde had then ran it against the now moistened hand and rubbed them both vigorously against one another within moments. When she did so, her tanned hands became lathered in a thin coat of a lukewarm frothing whiteness, bubbles of all shapes and sizes now adorning them amongst the very skin as the constant friction of such activity gave them such significant qualities all at once at this moment. Soon, they were all quickly washed away by the very downpour which the blonde had created earlier, restoring the skin back to its dampened yet otherwise original condition they were in. Taking this very time at once, she soon stepped away to get ahold of a brown paper towel nearby, pulling out a few sheets at a time to dry both of her hands as the water was absorbed by them; afterwards, she returned to turn both handles back to the original spot so the stream would stop.

As the paper towels remained firmly into the blonde’s tighten grip, she took the time to walk out of the very space around her, using them all to grab on a metal handle before pulling towards it; in doing so, she was introduced to a new sight that became apparent to her as an exit was made. Instead of the grayish blue that had once surrounded the female earlier before there were now sides covered in a coat of pale teal residing from every angle possible for her jade eyes to see. Rather than mirrors below a light such as the one that was greeted to the blonde from earlier ago there were a few windows providing sunshine and oxygen throughout and within suffice to say. In place of small tiles were the ligneous floorboards that emitted creaks here and there in response to the footfalls from herself and perhaps a few others as well with patches of carpeting. Caught within the visage of the blonde were many sets of plastic tables being occupied by a few chairs from many sides; out of many, there were only a scant few that had people sitting in them. Right off in the distance was an obsidian square box with thin gray poles sticking out of the top, being obscured by chair as another individual sat in front of it all while she seen it with her eyes.

This change of location brought the blonde no satisfaction of any form or fashion to say the least although it never even filled the observer with whatever kind of dread at all to begin with either; nevertheless, she started to stand up nearby a window to take in details provided very carefully. For starters, within the big blue sky to forevermore the female found a series of clouds traveling across, each of them varying in size and shape as she strove to find a silver lining within them. Resting beneath them all was the brilliant green which was standing tall and proud like a crowd of a million men marching in a linear path as a gust of wind surfed across the very thin blades. Standing furthest away from the blonde were a small set of houses within every shape and size whatsoever, all of which their various colors reflected by the sunlight raining down upon them. Within close range was a metal fence of a small height and being of rather minimal fortification in its very wake to say the least, having only but a single pair of doors standing onto the dirt trail. She soon seen a sizeable patch of trees slowly rising out upon the fertile soil in various heights and widths imaginable, each of them all bearing some fruit amongst the otherwise green leaves.

Now, the blonde took her weary jade eyes away from the sight of the outside world in front, turning her head back to the inner tables with a deep sigh escaping out of her lips in the process. Walking a scant few steps across from the very window in front of her, a empty table was now within sights with only a chair now gotten ahold by a wayward hand stretching beyond reach. Pulling out of it, the blonde started to sit down onto the chair and rested her very hands onto the table in front of her, staring into the blank void of whiteness with a squinting stare sewn together. Slowly, both of her elbows had now made its ways onto the tabletop as she started to slouch forwardly on as they soon acted as a makeshift pillow to rest her weary head upon them all. Turning on its side, the blonde turned her jade eyes over to the left with worn out gaze as these eyelids began to slide over them slowly, a few small precise measurements away from darkness. Just when it had seem that she was heading off to sleep, the occupant quickly snapped back up to reality and looked around herself to find that nothing has changed even so much as a single bit.

“Ah need to find a way to keep mahself awake fer the taim being; Ah bet they must have a pen and paper ‘round these parts…” the blonde spoke to herself as she stood up from the tabletop. As she started to walk away from the chair, her eyes started to pay attention to what was around her: the tables, the chairs, the people, and the black box were among the only things of interest within the room; of course, what she had found could basically outweigh any potential interest. Standing next to a desk, the blonde caught sight of a small silver bell resting nearby a wooden corner underneath the thin metal framework and pressed it down quick in not a moment too soon.

The acute ding was heard in an instant, bringing out only another observer who also took notice of the brief reverberation with only a simple question, “what’s going here; what do you want?”

“It’s nothing at all…” she had quickly answered, “Ah was just wondering if ya have anything that Ah would like to rait down here, please…”

“Oh, alright then; just wait right here for a moment…” the voice spoke back as the sudden sounds of fervent footfalls made its way from the other side of the desk.

As the blonde turned away from the bell, her ears took note of the sounds from the other side making its way back with a mechanical pencil and white paper as she gasped faintly, “huh…?”

“Here you go; just please bring back the pencil when you are done…” a simple response was made as she gotten ahold of both objects altogether, “I need that to help me with some calculus equations, okay?”

“Thank ya kindly; Ah will give it back to ya soon enough…” the blonde whimpered before returning back to the table within moments, leaving the donor behind at once.

Sitting back down on the table, she placed the paper on there flatly and began to raise the pencil up with her right hand, the thin graphite now ready, willing, and able to do so. As the blonde started to touch the sheet at once, her jade orbs started to squint already, trying to make sense of what would be written down while watching the tip remain there. Slowly, she started to scribble out a simple letter within seconds, slightly set out to script even a short sentence at the summit of the paper sheet. The eyelids began to widen open to give the blonde’s eyes more room to see what was being written down already as there was a harmony of words making its way out from the graphite trail sure enough. Upon closer inspection, she was starting to see them very closely as the scribbling of letters being made out from the same mechanical pencil earlier now read out this: Dear Apple Bloom. Shutting away the weary eyes, the blonde then decided to take in a long deep breath of fresh air as she slouched back onto the chair and started to look up towards the ceiling above her.

Soon, she began to return her gaze towards the paper in front of the table as the words left upon the upper left hand corner still remained, unchanged by inaction on her part alone save for an additional comma. Taking back up the mechanical pencil within the fingertips, the blonde then had the graphite touched down upon the sheet once again and started to put down some more letters directly below the first batch. Finding the little strength to begin where she had already started off, the synthetic inscription grew steadily onward within each passing second that was given out here and there. With the eyelids locked in a tense squint, the blonde started to focus on what she had to write down; of course, they were not without the occasion where a certain word or two met its untimely end at the black eraser. Despite the rather faint smudges being left behind by the very erasure at her hands, she continued to put down some calligraphy upon the white paper with a shred of newfound fortitude within her grasp. By the time that the blonde was finally finished, her set of sentences had now made itself across by only half, each adorned with a set of neatness being out of place but otherwise easy to read aloud nonetheless.

When she put the mechanical pencil down onto the tabletop, she started to take some time in studying what was written down since the beginning: a white sheet of paper that grew beyond three simple words. Starting with the indenting, the constrained yet fluid wall of text was started to be read out in an instant: “Thank you very much for finding the strength to talk to me; I’m sorry for causing you all this grief. I’m touched too that you still haven’t lost hope in me after what we had both experienced in the past; a youngster such as yourself should’ve never been forced to see such horrible nasty things, let alone experience them. I am happy that you are regaining your eyesight despite all the poison that was once inside you; I wish that the first thing you had seen wasn’t my tears staining your face or my hands around your neck. I hope that Zecora is taking care of you very well; I did not intend for any of this to happen to all of us nor explain to you the details. Now that the fighting is over, all that should matter now is that you please stay strong and in school; it’s what ma and pa would have wanted for you. Don’t forget to listen to your mentor while I am away from you; she would need for you to continue on with your life and help you move on past this, you understand?

Sincerely yours,

Your Dear Sister, Applejack.”

A flash flood of tears were now making its way through Applejack’s eyes as she struggled to wipe them away and keep them from staining the writing she had just put down this very instant. This passing moment made her acknowledge the air of loneliness that was hanging around on the blonde’s presence as her hands were now slowly pressed against the moistened visage all at once. Tilting her head forward, she silently wept to herself as the paper and pencil were left alone to their own devices, the only members of the otherwise small audience forced to watch the sadness unfold.