After meeting Spike the baby dragon, something I had to check for myself by placing my hands on his head and immediately feeling the rough texture of scales, and mapping out Twilight’s house, which was remarkably rounded, with only minimal injuries from tripping over the stairs up to the second room, I finally settled myself down on one of Twilight’s couches in her living room to let the soreness drink itself into my body.

“So, if it’s not unfair for me to ask, what do you look like?” I wondered aloud as the sound of four footsteps told me Twilight had approached and jumped up onto the couch next to me to settle in and do some light reading.

“Me?” Twilight was probably gawking at the sudden question. “Well, I don’t really know where to begin.” she added, giving me reason to sigh. “My mane is perfectly trimmed to remain out of my eyes, dark purple in base but with a pink and magenta streak through it. The same is said for my tail.” She apparently did know where to begin. “I have purple eyes and my horn juts out through my mane. My fur is a much lighter purple than my mane and tail and is kept clean at all times.” she added before stepping onto my lap and sitting to face me. “Here,” she finished, magically lifting my hands to her face to let me feel her face and head.

Slowly roaming her head, my hands slid along her muzzle, cheeks and up over her eyes to under her mane to her horn. Twilight gasped when I touched the horn which had me flinch away again and continued on over the crown of her head and to the softness of her ears.

Tracing out her head in my mind lead to tracing out her neck and further down, reaching her shoulders and to her forelegs. Her neck was about as wide around as a mini watermelon, give or take, and her shoulders rolled under my touch as she lifted her forelegs to let me feel them.

Taking one leg in both hands to create a feel for how big around they were, I had to estimate they were a fair couple inches around similar to my wrists; just large enough that I could barely touch my middle finger to my thumb. As my hands went down the leg, the width continued to get smaller till it ended at the hoof wall.

Taking the hoof in my control, I ran the palm of my hand over the wall of her hoof and noted how smooth it was and that it didn’t seem to have a spec of dirt on them. Running my thumb along the underside of her hoof, I seemed to have gently tickled a bit of flesh in the middle of the hoof, making Twilight slightly jerk away at the touch.

“Easy there, that’s sensitive material.” Twilight warned as I dropped her hoof to return to her sides.

Lifting her up under her forelegs, I pulled her in for an embrace to get an idea of how wide around her barrel was. I could touch both my elbows with my hands with plenty of room to spare. Letting her go again, I gradually ran my hand continually backwards till Twilight told me to stop; just at her flanks.

“Are you good?” Twilight hopped down from my lap to return to my left where she curled up with her book.

“Yes, thanks. I notice you seem to have a bit of a pudge going on near your stomach.” I replied and the comment earned me a smack on the leg.

“I do not!” Twilight defied angrily before turning her snout away with a huff.

“Your soft and squishy to the touch. Not fat squishy, but more like… untoned muscles. I don’t suppose you do any kind of rigorous exercise routines, do you?”

“Nothing more than occasionally running around or walking, no. Most of the time I prefer to lie down with a good book.” Twilight reported back, no longer sounding angry with my judgements.

“And it shows. It may be healthy for you to get some proper exercise in every now and then.” I suggested with a yawn and after ensuring that I wouldn’t clock myself on the couch by falling sideways, allowed myself to fall to my right and curl up on the couch. “I know for a fact that I’ll be getting an early morning workout in tomorrow…” I added in a grumbling tone of voice. The laying down and tired nature of me was soon cut short with the grumbling of my stomach, making me sigh at the notion of having to get up and find sustenance.

“I suppose neither of us has actually eaten anything today, have we?” Twilight remarked to herself and from the noises of doing so I figured she’d climbed down from the couch to make her way to the kitchen. “Can I get you something as well?”

“How well stocked is your fridge?” I called back and allowed myself to feel lazy while Twilight did the work. I was tired and sore from my deaths today so I was more than content just laying where I was, head resting on my arm.

“I’ve got a lot of vegetables,” the pony called back as she pulled her refrigeration device open to take a look. “Don’t know what suitable protein you’ll eat though…”

“Beans, eggs, nuts, cottage cheese,” I listed off without thinking. At least I had all that information left over from the first death.

“Don’t know what cottage cheese is, sorry.” Twilight remarked and began pulling things from the fridge to set up and start putting something together.

“Don’t worry, hated cottage cheese anyways!” I grinned to myself and drew in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it and most of my worries out in one fluid movement. “Could probably build some kind of salad with beans and nuts and other vegetables though.” I offered up in suggestion while getting myself comfortable, knowing I would have to get myself back up again in order to eat.

“What kinds of vegetables do you like in a salad?” Twilight called back, her voice aimed directly towards me rather than bouncing off walls to me.

“Iceberg and/or romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, shredded cheese, throw red beans in there I guess… Bell peppers except for the green ones…” I thought first to myself, then once more out loud for the chef to hear. I could hear the clicking of Spike’s claws as he went about his own business around the place, working on other things that an assistant would do; whatever that was wasn’t my problem. “Depending on the salad, you could also throw in peeled oranges into the mix…”

“Oranges, really?”

“Yeah, goes really well with grilled chicken strips.” I remarked before realizing I'd never actually get to eat something like that without having to source the chicken from out of country. “Which I realize is off the list of options.” I sighed and rolled onto my back. I suppose one benefit of being blind was that I could literally sleep anywhere that was comfortable, no matter what time it was.

“Yeah, sorry. I’d suggest that if you were able to do so to buy your own chickens and… prepare them how you like yourself…” Twilight remarked casually, up until her voice changed to one of disgust. “Or you could meet Fluttershy and have her prepare some fish for you. I know that's what she gives her carnivorous animals.”

“Fish is an option?” I asked back for clarification. Twilight ‘mmhmm’d’ in return as my innate soldier mentality kicked in and made me bored enough to get up and try to navigate myself into the kitchen. “Note to self then.”

“What’re you doing in here? I don’t need a bumbling blind human destroying my kitchen or getting blood on everything when he cuts off a hoof.” Twilight demanded as I approached where I remember feeling the counter was. Exploring the work top, I found the knife block I was looking for as well as a couple vegetables that felt distinctly like bell peppers.

“I’m blind, not an invalid. You may not realize this, but there is a difference. Blind people can live and operate on their own if they learn some tricks.” I explained and set the edge of the blade safely against my finger to guide my hand in cutting the stem out of the pepper and begin chopping it into strips.

“And I suppose you know these tricks?” Twilight guessed as she watched me slowly cut the pepper. “Apparently so…”

“When I was younger, I taught myself how to operate in the dark so I could go about my day if the power went out at night.” I explained and slid the cut pieces aside to retrieve the next pepper to keep working. “Seems it’s stuck with me.”

“Probably best you did learn such a skill at the time.” Twilight sounded like she was smirking. I think she was smirking. “Okay, I think that’ll be enough peppers, I don’t typically add these to salads anyways.” she requested once I reached for a third but was held short by a tingling. I retrieved my hand and instead snatched up a couple of the pepper slices and dropped them into my mouth, though one was left hanging out from my lips like a straw in a farmer’s mouth.

After a bit of nonsensical twirling of the strip in my lips and a slight giggling from Twilight, she lead me to the table with the bowl of salad in her magic. That, or she left it behind like an idiot. “Come on, let’s eat.”

The Next Morning

Shoulder rolling off the couch I slept on netted me the unpleasant welcoming of a morning faceful of floor and as such, jolted me awake rather suddenly.

Seeing as I wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor and it would take to much effort to try and fall back asleep on the couch, I just prayed that it was actually a decent time of the morning to get up and get started on that morning workout.

Navigating myself to the bathroom by finding the nearest wall and tracing it past the stairs up to Twilight’s room, I got myself cleaned up and mostly fresh in a few minutes. Stepping back out into the main room, I eventually found myself at what I hoped was the door out of the place and stepped through to an early morning air.

“Well,” I gasped to myself as the biting air nipped at my skin. “That’s fresh…” Pulling the door shut behind me as quietly as I could, I stepped out from the home a few feet before taking to a quick jog in place. I’d love to have warmed up with a proper run around town, but since I couldn’t see anything this would have to do.

Switching from jogging in place to mountain climbers to really get warm, I transitioned into a set of pushups and counted in my mind. Once I’d hit two hundred, I pulled my legs in as tight as I could to roll onto my back and work towards the same number of various styles of sit-ups.

Bringing my rear over my head to roll onto my feet in a low crouch, I could distinctly hear the sound of movement near to me but figured that it was just locals going about their day. Beginning a cycle of crunches, 500 in total at different heights each, I could clearly feel the pleasant burning in my legs and figured that my arms had had enough of a rest to start the push-ups all over again.

Crouching down low enough to plant my elbows into the crook of my knees, I let myself tilt forward onto my hands and balanced myself out slowly to keep from tipping over. Once balanced, I stretched myself out flat and began a shorter cycle of pushups carrying my entire bodyweight.

Fifteen minutes of working out in various forms, I ended in a sturdy Karate horse stance, arms at my side and fists at the ready. A good cool down for me was always running through various levels of kata before moving into a bit of Muay Thai shadow boxing. Standing up straight, I took to my personal favourite Kata, Enpi and began the routine.

Half way through, the sound of the door opening alerted me to someone from within approaching me, though they remained silent.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked from in front of me and to my right.

“Karate Kata called Enpi for cooling myself down after a workout. It’s not about fighting or combo moves you can use to defeat someone, it’s about the perfection of the style and positions.” I explained as I continued without falter.

“Not you, I was asking Rainbow Dash.” Twilight replied. The comment did falter me and I froze in place to look over my shoulder to find the little blue light associated to Dash floating nearby and behind me, otherwise almost out of ‘sight’. “What’re you doing?”

“Well…” Dash’s voice sounded uneasy, as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “I was in the middle of a morning exercise with the human before you showed up.”

“This is news to me.” I announced and faced forwards again to resume my kata in otherwise silence. “You could have said something.”

“Yeah, but I figured you were busy with whatever you were doing. You looked so unbelievably focused that I didn’t want to disturb you. The crowd seems to be thinking the same thing.” Dash explained as her little flame drew closer to where I was, now in plain view for me.

Dropping the kata entirely, despite that I was right near to the end in the first place, I whirled around on the flame that was Dash for point of reference. “I have a crowd?”

My answer came in the sound of numerous confirmations of varying degrees from around me almost all at once. I let out a sigh of exasperation and dropped the firm posture of a soldier as I thought of what I could do next.

“I can’t really have been that interesting to watch. Besides,” I turned fully towards Dash. “I thought we were only meeting after you got off work.”

“We are, yes, but it still early in the morning that I have some time to kill before I actually have to go to work in the first place. I saw you here from overhead doing your workout, and after watching you for a while, I thought I’d join you.” Rainbow Dash admitted, her voice getting smaller as her words grew longer. “I didn’t say anything or announce my presence because I didn’t want to disrupt you.”

“Right…” I drew out with a long breath while in thought. “Then,” as a thought occurred to me, “Why don’t you join me for a run? I need a pair of eyes to keep me from running into anything and you’re apparently free…”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about your blindness actually.” Twilight spoke up over the sound of the gathered crowd dispersing.

“And? Have you some way of fixing it?” I inquired with a blank hopeful gaze and a raised eyebrow.

“No,” Twilight admitted, leaving me to groan back in despair. “But I have been thinking about this thing about a little flame showing you where Rainbow Dash is.”

“What about it?”

“Well, it’s been bothering me that you’ve only been able to see such a light over Rainbow Dash. I figured that it may actually be something similar to a… certain… biological system we ponies have…” Twilight began, sounding more and more distressed as she went on. Whatever this biological system was, she apparently wasn’t comfortable speaking about it.

“Go on,” I requested with a wave of the hand before crossing my arms over my chest.

“Well, when two ponies develop feelings for each other, they begin to… sort of… mix their souls together… It’s a magical defence thing that helps to show other ponies that those two are interested in each other, or are in a relationship. Problem is…” Twilight’s voice drifted away on the morning air.

“Marking should only occur between two ponies who’re attracted to each other. It doesn’t happen one-sided.” Rainbow concluded for the unicorn. “And since I have no attraction towards you, this shouldn’t even be a suggestion.” she added, aiming the comment at me.

“Exactly, and this is what bothers me.” Twilight spoke up again, sounding filled with enthusiasm. “Because as far as we know, Rainbow doesn’t see a similar light around or in the human, correct?”

“Nope.” Rainbow announced firmly and from the sounds of it, likely sat herself down to look defiant.

“Okay, so this is where my hypothesis comes in. The human seems to have a deeply rooted connection to that little statue of you,” Twilight began as her magic pulled me down to her level before I felt the figurine in my pocket move and be removed from my possession. “It is entirely possible that whatever reason he has for keeping that statue, is because of the sentimental value he’s placed over it.”

“Your point being?” I requested while reaching out into the air to try and retrieve the small item. The statuette returned to my outstretched hand and the tingle of magic closed my hand around it for me.

“My point being, what if I could replicate that effect for other ponies? I could theoretically make it so that you see a small light for everypony, allow you to ‘see’ everyone in some way?” the magician suggested with what sounded like a smile on her voice.

“Could you actually do that? Wouldn’t that take the manipulation of his connection with the figurine and disperse it among the populace?” Rainbow chimed in from my right.

“Technically yes; he’d very likely begin to feel similar, deep rooted connections to the entire town but you’d be able to see. It would take me a while to actually work out how to do it as a spell, but it should be possible. If you want me too, that is…” Twilight concluded as she turned the words on me.

“Vision at the cost of destroying the sentimental value of this figurine, or darkness for the sake of keeping something special…” I muttered to myself in my thinkings about my options. In all honesty, and I’ll never admit this to anyone, but I was leaning more towards remaining blind simply because I didn’t want to give up whatever connection I had to whoever gave me the statue.

“Look, just think about it for a while, come back to me when you have an answer.” Twilight suggested helpfully, placing a hoof on my shoulder for support. “There’s no need to rush. Besides, I still have to figure out if it’s actually possible to do all that.”

“I’ll be sure to do that, then.” I mumbled back then released a heavy breath before yawning.

“So, what are you going to do today? I’d suggest finding work, but I don’t know what kind of work we’d have in town for someone who’s blind.” Twilight wondered in complete disregard for the last topic of conversation. I suppose in all fairness we may have reached the end of such conversation, but Twilight drew up an excellent point: what would I do with myself until Rainbow Dash came to get me from work?

“I honestly don't know. Even if I was blind, I don’t think my usual activities would be viable given that I don’t think your world has firearms for me to practice on.” I slumped forward and crossed my legs where I sat, trying to think of something to do. “I suppose that this world has other blind people, how do they read?”

“We do have places to go that blind ponies can go to to be read too. There are also spells that unicorns can use to have a book read to them at home.” Twilight replied after a moment of thought. “I suppose another option would be playing music if you have the skill.”

“I don’t think I was very good where I came from, but I think I remember playing the guitar a bit…” I offered back in suggestion, looking up in the vague direction of where Twilight’s voice came from.

“Then try this!” Twilight announced and with a pop in the air, something landed in my lap which startled me a bit.

Feeling it out had me identify the item as a guitar of sorts, it certainly sounded like one when I ran my fingers over the strings, but had a slightly different sound than normal. Adjusting myself to get more comfortable, I picked up the guitar and flipped it over to suit my right-handedness and gave a couple random plucks of the… five… strings.

“Well, what’re you waiting for? Play us something!” a random female voice requested from before me. Apparently not all the crowd had gone.

“Give me a second while I figure out what I'm doing…” I requested in return and let my fingers and ears do the work. The random pluckings and scales gradually shifted into an acoustic rendition of Hallelujah with the remaining crowd offering up their hooves as drum machines to provide the beat.

The words came as easily as cutting my head off apparently did, which here means that I fumbled past most of the words save for the verses I could adequately remember. I could still get the chorus, but how hard is that to forget when it’s just the word Hallelujah repeated? Hell, it was so easy that I even had a herd of ponies acting as a chorus for the later repeats of the chorus. All in all, it sounded pretty amazing, even if I couldn't remember most of the words and just mumbled through it.

Still, it seemed to have entranced everything around me well enough that as my fingers ceased strumming, everyone’s voices fell away from melody in a gradual radiance.

“Despite there being not many words, that was beautiful.” Twilight announced, breaking the silence just before the crowd around us erupted into some kind of applause which took the form of whistling, cheering, and stomping on the ground.

“Couldn’t remember most of the words.” I explained and rested over the guitar in my lap, turning my head to where I heard Twilight’s voice while the applause died off and encore requests were made.

“So, think you’ll continue playing all day?” Twilight inquired, trying to be helpful.

“Probably not all day… I’m liable to get bored sooner than later and end up with nothing more to do…” I shrugged back and reset my position on the guitar, trying to see what else could come up and be played. Instead of playing anything particularly recognizable, I merely took to threading notes together in some semblance of quality of sound beyond just a mess of notes.

“Well, not that this hasn’t been fun, but I really need to get to work now.” Rainbow announced, her voice rising above my head in suggestion of flight. “I’ll come get you later, okay bud?”

“Sure, I’ll probably be around here when you do.” I nodded back and abruptly halted the finger movements to set the guitar aside and stand myself up. While the sound of wings and hooves told me everyone was leaving, I reached out towards Twilight in a silent request that she lead me back inside so I could attempt to try and piece together some other music I could play. With one hand tingling and the other grasping at the neck of the guitar, Twilight and I returned to the warmth of her home’s interior.

Author's Note

My internet is going in and out almost every couple minutes... If this posts, then fuck yes! That being said, I'll keep trying to post more chapters as I'm able to (thank god I've got these stories on offline mode, amirite?)

Also, if I haven't already made this clear, Soren's not meant to remain blind for much longer.