For all intents and purposes, Aura Specter is a pretty happy pony, or at least she thinks she is. She laughs, she enjoys the company of her family and friends, and she also has a pretty common hobby as far as she is concerned. People collect stamps, and she just collects letters whole. They are her only contact with the rest of the world, so naturally she wanted to keep them forver.
Oh, didn’t you know? She can’t see anyone.
She isn’t blind, far from it. She has excellent sight actually! No, this is a different kind of blindness. No pony knows why, but Aura Specter can’t see or hear any living thing except plants and fungi. She can collide with them and touch them, but she can’t feel anything beyond that. Her family always suspected a heinous hex casted upon her at birth, but why would anyone do something so cruel?
Aura does know the face of her parents and friends, and how they sound of course. Thankfully inanimate objects and technological devices aren’t affected by this strange affliction, so photographs and records are not included by these restrictions. She has photos of herself with her family and friends, the little number of them that they wanted to keep tabs with her at least, and many more of the most common of things like strange animals or just pictures showing a café or restaurant full of ponies. She doesn’t mind that other ponies don’t want to keep writing to her, not really at least. It was natural that ponies didn’t want to go through so many loops just to keep a friendship.
This understanding comes from her formative years as a little filly, being taught by her parents with the aid of notebooks, a blackboard and a puppet. She quickly learnt how to write to communicate with her family, and soon she found herself the center of attention for some time, even with lots of foals wanting to talk to her too! Even if most just found her as a novelty, it was nice to talk to so many new ponies, but as soon as they came most of them left. This was a bit disheartening, but she recovered. She never felt alone, not even once.
From her perspective, she saw many things floating and moving, manipulated by ponies around her. They quickly discovered that she was able to see any objects touching any pony as long as they were being manipulated. This meant that she was able to see tools, coins and lots of things, but not hats, clothes and other worn accessories. This made mimicking the work of other ponies a pretty easy task, so she learned many useful skills for her own benefit and comfort. Her parents always instilled in her a sense of independence since she was unable to see them, so they trusted her to do things on her own more often than not.
Even when other ponies would scorn her parents for being so off-hooves with her, she loved her parents, and while she was unable to see or hear them, she was able to hug them and being hugged by them. The warmth of bodily contact and the feel of the coats of her parents and friends was the only reassurance that the world was actually filled by living, moving ponies and creatures of many kinds. She didn’t mind that she was unable to see or hear them though. For all purposes, she was born this way so she didn’t know any better, and she was able to see how many things worked and moved around her, so she never felt alone. Wherever she put her eyes on, she always saw something moving in some way, always reminding her that someting alive was around.
The nails and hammer of a pony building or repairing something; the leaves being cleaned by a rack manipulated by some pony prettying up the garden, the books being perused and read at the library… And many other little things in motion always reminded her that someone or something would be always nearby. Even as the droplets of the starting rain were falling, she knew that it was caused by something or someone, and that this seemingly empty world was actually full of wonders.
In this, she rationalized, she was a very weird pony. By what she read on books and talking to her parents through her trusty notebook, most ponies had a primal need of being near other ponies, being in a herd if you will. This was for safety, comfort and survival, and was a remnant of a more primitive way of life that never went away. Aura didn’t feel like having that impulse at all, and she never felt that in her life. Not even once.
Sure, feeling that some pony was nearby was pleasant, but she didn’t feel like it was something she craved to the point of having a mental breakdown. In fact, she pondered about these things a lot while reading away from others. Since she was unable to see them, she was prone to collide with someone so she figured that being out of the way would be best. They can always find her, even if she was unable to do find them. So, she knew she didn’t need that to live, and she sure employed her reading time on philosophy and ponder on these things. She had time after all.
She tried to work on several common jobs, but it was very hard when you were unable to see your customers or coworkers, so that was quickly crossed off the list of things to do. At least she got by with the grants that the government gave her to let researches study her curse and how to cure it, so at least she was a productive adult!
Oh, seems like we wandered a bit! These details may be superfluous, but they are important since her interest on them was what, in the end, gave Aura the opportunity to get her cutie mark! An energy sphere surrounded by a pleasant rainbow aura. Pretty neat if you as Aura about it. She got it while reading and comprehending that while she was unable to see any other ponies, she understood the concept of the ponies themselves, and felt them for their desires, their wills and their minds. They might be just entities that she collided with, but these entities did have dreams, aspirations, families… just like her, even if she never saw one herself. That, or she just got it because the waffles she was eating. Who knows?
And the ponies… This was the main point of contention for her during her musings. The photos and the records were the only proof that the other ponies exist beyond their ethereal physicality, but… what if they were being tampered with, and they actually are doctored material for her eyes only? She rationalized that it was silly, since she saw posters and photos on other houses and cities, so this wasn’t a grand plan to make her think ponies were real. Plus, she saw herself in the mirror every day, and that light blue coat and foam green mane with electric blue streaks has been always the same, just changing with the years and mane styles. She was proud of her current double braids ended in big blue ribbons. But the question snaked her way into her mind from time to time. Those were the moments where she was not at her best, but she was able to see reality for what it was and bounced back to her usual peppiness.
And boy did she try to share her happiness with everyone, in the limited ways she had available.
She wasn’t an artist nor a poet, her skills didn’t fall there and never claimed to be the best or even good, but she tried to leave encouragement notes and small cartoony pony pictures to improve the mood of people around her, and sometimes they did reply to them with thankful messages. She felt pretty happy when that happened, but she was content with just leaving them for others to find. The felt that those little notes and sketches validated her own existence to the apparently invisible world, at least to herself.
She felt, as she wrote in her personal diary, that even if she was unable to see anyone, they would be able to see her and her notes around the little town. Felt that they will always remember the silent but smiling mare with pretty braids that left encouraging messages for them. Her copper-red eyes open and sparkling with intelligence and brilliance, wanting to share even a little of how happy she was to be alive, in a world ever moving while she sat, observing and taking notes. Notes for herself, and for everyone else.
She thought of how awful must be to not see the world, but only ponies around. By what her parents told her, it did seem to be a pretty busy world out there, full of creatures moving around. What a concept!
The world was a pretty wonderful place after all. At least, that’s what she thought.
Iron Anvil and his wife Puffy Clouds were again in front of a magical researcher specialized in curses and hexes. This was no novelty and their tired and hopeless faces were a testament to that.
They just didn’t know what to do for their darling daughter. Aura Specter always seemed so joyful, but it was difficult to keep their spirits up when they were unable to cure Aura of her ailment.
“Please don’t be disheartened, Mrs. Clouds. We are sure that we are on the right track. With current procedures we might not get any results, but they did give way to new ones that the team is theorizing as we speak. We even got the ears of the princesses on this case, since they did notice the uniqueness of this case. We expect to do great strides in the coming weeks!” the doctor explained while the couple just looked between them, unsure of the news.
“Will this be enough? Will be finally able to…” Iron started, his voice cracking while his wife comforted him rubbing her wing over his back.
“We… we hope so. Not going to lie, but Aura’s case is nothing like what we are used to deal or study. We have been on this case for almost twenty years and just now we barely have the technology and arcanology required to even scratch the surface of this issue…”
“…So we are still on square one,” the pegasus mare said, exhaling as she slumped on the seat.
“Not so, Mrs. Clouds. While we don’t have anything solid at this time, we at least have now where to look, and with the privileged minds of the princesses looking on the case when possible I’m sure we will hit our stride and solve this sooner rather than later,” the doctor said in a happy voice, even if some nervousness was still clearly seen in his eyes. The married couple just hugged themselves, not feeling even the slightest happiness that the unicorn doctor was expressing at the moment.
“Please don’t give us hope. For the love of Celestia, if there is really nothing you can do about this do not give us false hopes only to pull the rug under our hooves. We…” Mrs. Clouds said, her breath hitching a bit before continuing, “We are ready for living like this with our daughter. We have been for many years, but if you give us hope it will only break us down further. Please…”
“I am one hundred percent sure, and I’ll say with my career on the line, that we will find a way to help your daughter”
The couple just hugged each other, crying softly with small smiles, daring to hope just a bit that the future might be just a smidge brighter.
In the seat besides them, a floating notepad was being scribbled on, and soon a page was torn off it, and showed the cute and cartoony version of the married couple besides a cartoony Aura besides them. They all held hayburgers, and there was a question written in bold letters:
“HAYBURGERS? I AM HUNGRY”
They just picked the note and laughed softly.
“Even if we can’t look at her or hear her, I can see how she takes after you, Iron. She has quite the appetite…”
“I know hon… I know…”
The three ponies just looked at the floating notepad, wondering what its owner was musing while it was being scribbled on. Only the sound of the pencil being used could be heard inside the doctor’s office.
One pony could only imagine the horror of not being seen or heard by anyone, only touched when noticed.
The ponies just cried a bit more, her smiles now tainted with sadness. The world seemed so ugly and uncaring to them for treating a beautiful and smart filly in such a cruel way…
Author's Note
Just experimenting a bit here. The idea came to me as I was waking up the other day and I just HAD to write it.
A friend told me he wasn't against more stories with Aura, maybe add some slice of life with fluffiness, working on her strange affliction. If I start on this it will be in an episodic manner with the overall arc of the illness as the background that's for sure.
As usual, any corrections or misspellings please let me know via PM. Don't want any spoilers or flood at the comment box. I know my writing is usually pretty messy 
I hope you like it!
