Rain fell overhead, pouring through the trees and onto the roof. The pitter-patter of raindrops ringing on the roof was a calming sound for some, while for others it was a nervous background noise. For Kirins, however, noise used to be all there was for a time.
Sitting alone in the modest little cabin, a blue-furred, brown maned Kirin stared out the window, watching the trickle of rain. He watched as it caressed the trees, sunk into the dirt, and smeared his freshly cleaned windows. A low grumble left his mouth, an action that would have gotten him stares and glares back at his home village. He tapped his hoof on the wooden floor, eyeing a shape moving through the rain outside. Standing up, the Kirin rushed to the door and threw it open with a smile.
On the other side was a pony, black coat with a white mane and tail, his Cutie Mark a log with a saw lodged in it. The Kirin smiled widely and yanked the sopping wet stallion inside. Cast in magic, the Earth Pony sighed as he was set down by the fireplace.
"Sorry I'm late, Blue Flame," he said.
"Aw, don't worry about it, Woody!" the Kirin said, booping the pony's snoot.
His friend scrunched up and huffed as he was magically placed on a towel. Blue tossed some logs into the fireplace, and furrowed his brow. A hoof reached into the logs and he grit his teeth.
Red
A flash consumed his brows and hoof, a flickering flame consuming the wood in a near-instant. Stepping back, Blue waved his hoof until the fire was out, and he took a deep breath. The blazing brow went out, and he smiled.
"Much better," he said.
He turned around and laid next to Woody, snuggling his way into Woody's side as he levitated a blanket over them.
"Ahhh, nice. So, Woody, how was your day?"
Woody tucked his hooves into the blanket, shaking off a bit of the rain water in his mane as he smiled.
"It was alright. Daisy and Petunia freaked out when the Pegasi announced an emergency downpour. We had to scramble to get all of their art show stuff inside before it started raining, and we just barely managed to get it all in before the first few drops fell. Should have seen Daisy's face when it started, she was mad. At first, it was because there was so little rain, she thought that they oversold it and they could have just set up a few tarps or umbrellas. Then the actual rain started pouring, and she was even angrier that they planned all that a day before an art show and didn't tell them until it was almost too late."
"Oof, that could have been nasty if they'd have been late with that message," Blue said. "I'm glad it turned out alright, though."
"Yeah, same. They put a lot of work into that event and if it'd been rained on before anypony could enjoy it, well I'd be red in the face too!"
As the pony stared into the fire, Blue looked over his friend.
"'Red in the face'?" he said. "Ponies have expressions like that too?"
"Hmm? Oh, uh yeah, we do," Woody said.
"Where did ponies get it from?"
"I... I have no idea, it's kind of just... a phrase? I mean, why's the sky blue? Or the ocean?"
"Well, because they're colder than most things, naturally."
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow."
"Well, how do ponies normally see color?"
Woody paused for a bit, pawing at the blanket.
"I'm... not entirely sure how to describe it. I mean, you just kind of... look at things, and they're made of colors."
"Right, but how do ponies see colors?"
"... with our eyes?"
The Kirin booped him again, causing Woody to shake his head in frustration, his ears waggling aggressively.
"Can you do a 'stop it', please?"
"No promises," Blue winked. "But seriously, I don't think I ever thought about how ponies and kirins see colors differently."
"Wait, are you colorblind?" Woody said, eyebrows raising quizzically.
"No, at least not in the way you're thinking. I'll explain more in a bit, but can you kind of describe how you see everything? I've never really understood some of the things that ponies use colors for."
"Like what?"
"Like..." Blue shuffled his front hooves anxiously, his brain racking back and forth with each little tilt of his head, the pinballs of random thoughts shuffling around. "Tell me what color you think the cabin and the blanket are."
Woody paused, blinking as he processed the question. He idly turned the corner of the blanket in his hooves, pondering the meaning behind this line of questions. Nevertheless, if he wanted answers, he needed to provide some in turn.
"Well... the cabin's made of a nice mahogany, my grand dad built it back when the town was founded. Mahogany's a nice mix of red and brown, so it's pretty vibrant against the forest. The blanket here, well, mom knit it for you after we met, and it's uh... just kind of a light cyan."
"Cyan?" Blue asked, tilting his head.
"You know, like a light blue? Like the sky?"
"Weird, it looks pretty brown to me."
Woody's head shot up, eyes snapping to the Kirin and a weirded out look spreading across his features. His ears flicked around to clear themselves of debris and aimed at the half-dragon.
"E-excuse me? How do you see that?" Woody said.
"Well," Blue started, "it's just the way we perceive color. You see, Kirins don't have that powerful senses like ponies or dragons do. In fact, we're sort of blind."
Woody's mouth gaped in shock. It was the first time he'd ever heard of this phenomenon. After years of knowing Blue, he'd have never guessed that he had any sort of impairment, especially with how well he does in particular aspects of work in the fields. He could tell when certain plants were starting to decay with only the barest hint they were doing so, and could tell if a pony was injured by only a passing glance, even if the wound wasn't visible under the fur.
"I... I'm so sorry, I had no idea."
"Hmm? Oh, no, we're not completely blind to things, just certain spectrums of light. You see, ponies and dragons used to be kind of close in the territory where our village is, and when some creatures started to get married and started some families. After a time, things sort of... drifted apart, especially after the Princesses arrived. Ponies started flocking under Equestria's rule and the dragons sort of got mad at them for it. All the foals that grew up in the village refused to leave, so that just left the Kirins there. But, Kirins have always sort of had this problem, way before the split happened."
Blue's horn lit up and pulled in a tray with a set of drinks and sandwiches. He passed a plate to Woody, who graciously accepted the daffodil delicacy.
"Yeah, forgot to set the food out, sorry," Blue said.
"It's alright," Woody said. "Can you continue?"
Blue nodded.
"Sure. Anyways, let's just shorten it to say that pony and dragon genetics don't exactly mix well, it turns out. A lot of magic that resides in either species kind of try to fight for control in the body, and it results in some places being a little weaker than others. For instance, when it comes to resistance to fire and stuff, Kirins can rely on dragon magic. When it comes to levitating stuff with our horns, pony magic plays the biggest part. But, magic in and of itself is always effected by emotions."
"Right," Woody said. "I learned a lot about that in class. When I trained to be a Guard, we learned how the spectrum of magic is mainly influenced by thought and intent. Emotions are intents based off of a specific string of thoughts, and that can lead to some pretty hefty consequences. In the best case scenarios, love and friendship result in a powerful loop of magic that can grow stronger the more creatures are involved in it. It's the principle of the Harmonic Effect."
"Right, but then the opposite is true as well," Blue said. "If one's anger and hatred end up being reflected and looped through a large number of creatures, the magic swelling in them end up rallying others to that line of thinking. It results in a magical feedback that can automatically trigger certain reactions in spells and latent magic. Especially, in the case of Kirins, the loop of pony magic feeding into dragon magic and vice versa. You see, pony magic has a more powerful connection to the Harmonic Effect than other species' magic, so when a crowd of ponies get into an idea for what a spell should do, it's inherently more powerful to link together than other species. When a Kirin becomes enraged, the pony part of our magic makes us link up and get easily mad at the slightest provocation, and the dragon parts start flaring up as well."
"So, is that how..."
"Yes, that's how Niriks work," Blue said, nodding somberly. "It's an expulsion of too much reactive Harmonic resonance between dragon and pony magic in our bodies."
"Wait, how exactly does this play into why you're sort of blind?"
"I was about to get into that, but I just wanted you to know the context for how it happens and why it's important."
"Alright, then by all means, please continue," Woody said, gesturing with a hoof.
"Thank you. Now, as I was saying, the Nirik form is triggered by a mass reaction of both types of magic in a Kirin's body. The expulsion is sometimes twice as much, or in some cases five times as much, as the body can normally handle. You see, another reason why pony genetics matter is because we all have horns, which act as a way to expel excess magic from our bodies. It's sort of an evolutionary feature to keep us from cooking ourselves with our own magic."
"Aww, and here I was about to ask if I could rile you up until you were well done," Woody joked, poking the Kirin's fluffy mane.
Blue playfully feigned an overdramatic sigh, hoof to forehead.
"Alas, I will never resemble a grilled cheese, woe is me!"
The two shared a chuckle before Blue cleared his throat.
"Right, so, the Nirik form uses way too much magic for our bodies to endure. What happened early on was a lot of arguments about why our ancestors left us during the infancy of the village. A lot of us said it was the ponies' fault, some said dragons, some suggested it was our own fault for being the way we are, and it made everyone mad. And I mean, everyone. Niriks became our basic form for years, from what I read. Everyone got into so many fights that we nearly threatened to burn down the whole forest. But, what no one realized was that after such prolonged exposure to the Nirik form, the magical output kind of... messed up stuff in our bodies."
"Oh," Woody said, taking a sip of tea. "So, is that why you're sort of... blind?"
"Yes, it is. From what I was able to learn, the body can only handle so much magical power flowing through it at once. There's a hard limit to what can be processed or pushed out in a small amount of time, but that changes depending on the creature and what kind of magic they possess. Changelings have various methods of output, given their shapeshifting and ability to fly and cast magic at the same time. Ponies have different methods of pushing out magic, depending on the tribe. Yaks store most of theirs to keep warm in their homeland and can grow pretty massive depending on how much they can store. Dragons have enormous stores that, while they can stockpile massive amounts of power and expel them with relative ease, take a long time to recover. That's why some of the larger ones can sleep for decades, or even centuries. The body takes time to recuperate the magic lost."
"And, shot in the dark here, it's the line between dragon and pony that makes Kirins' magic a dangerous one."
"Exactly!" Blue said, booping his friend again. "You know, if you didn't have a lumber-based Cutie Mark, I'd think that you could pass for a teacher with that big ol' brain of yours!"
Woody blushed and nuzzled the Kirin's neck.
"Thanks. So, continue?"
"Right. Anyways, because of the nature of the magic and how Kirins have two different ways of gathering and expelling magic, it sometimes makes the magic in our bodies collide with itself. Imagine, say, a traffic jam in the big city."
"I've never been to Manehatten."
"Oh, we should absolutely go one day! You'll love it!" Blue said. "Anyways, back on track. So, imagine a couple of rivers flowing down a mountain. One river ends up overflowing and spilling into another one. The waves from the impact could spill a ton of water out over the edges, and flood everything nearby."
"And that's like what happens to Kirin magic during the Nirik transformation?"
"Essentially. With all of the outpouring of magic, it floods everywhere else in the body. It just so happens to be that one of the quickest way to get out of the body includes going out the eyes."
Woody shuddered.
"Y-yeah, I see that every time you light a fire. Or turn on the grill. Or lose in Jenga."
"You know that Rocky cheats!"
"He has a degree in architectural engineering."
"And that's cheating!" Blue said, a spark passing over his eyebrows.
"Alright, alright, let's not light this blanket on fire."
"Right, yeah. This is a nice blanket," Blue said, tightening it around them both with a tug of magic.
"Right. So, when all of that Nirik magic pours out, it damages your eyes?"
"Well, over generations of it, our bodies sort of adapted to have less leniency on actual sight, and more of a sense of magic around us. So, we don't really see things, at least not the same way ponies and most other species do. We're sort of in the same boat as Changelings, being able to view spectrums outside of just visual with our senses."
"Really? So, can you see emotion?"
Blue shook his head.
"No, that's a trait for Changelings since they evolved into emotivores. We see magic as it ties into nature itself. Our perception of color, as a result, stems from how our ancestors learned how to view in the magical spectrum. All of our knowledge on colors was rooted in pony teachings, but perspective plays a key element in our evolution. We knew what colors were what before our vision started to change, so we adopted the concepts of shades and hues from the visual spectrum and applied it to the magical spectrum. Easier to understand later down the line, I suppose."
"Uh huh," Woody nodded. "So, can you tell me why you see certain colors where they're not? Like, you said this blanket was brown, even though it's the same color as the sky?"
"Because it's in the magic of what it's made of. The materials the blanket's made of, cotton, came from the ground. All magic pertaining to Earth and growth of plant life is either green or brown. Green for things like grass and flowers, and brown for trees and harvested crops and such. Your mother's also an Earth pony, so her magic was sewn into it as well, leaving traces of her own essence into it. As a result, it looks like a faded brown along most of the length, but whenever we pull it close to our bodies, I can see a tint of lighter browns and some pinks, showing how much love she put into it."
Woody eyed a corner he idled with, and closed his eyes, rubbing it against his cheek.
"Well, that's sort of comforting to know that a little bit of her's always here then."
Blue smiled.
"Yeah."
"Alright, but what about other colors? How do you perceive everything else?"
"Well..." Blue said, leaning his head back, eyes rolling a bit as though linked to the gears in his mind. "I guess I could kind of explain the colors a bit more. Let's say, for example, blue. Blue's always in something that's either cool or loose. And when I say 'cool', I don't mean 'cold'. I mean, it's more like something that's meant to sort of help relax in a way. The ocean is a darker blue since it gets colder down further, and some of that seeps upwards a bit, and the sky's pretty light since it's always flowing. Green means life, and it's how we can determine if a place is capable of living in, or sometimes we can tell if something's injured. The less green there is in a single spot means there's not much life in there."
"Wait, you said earlier that brown showed Earth related magic, right?" Woody said, ears tilting. "How many colors do you see looking at a pony?"
Blue's head turned to Woody, his eyes narrowing as his lips pursed in concentration.
"Hmm... I'd say a few dozen, but sometimes it's hard to make out. You're brown and green all over at the same time, though..."
Blue blushed and looked away.
"What? What's wrong?"
"N-nothing wrong," Blue stuttered. "It's just, uh... s-so anyways, more colors! Um, what else do you want to know?"
"Well... what about red?"
The Kirin's ears flopped against his head, and his shoulders slouched a bit.
"Oh. Red. Red, uh... red's not a nice color."
"Really? I would have thought that it just meant 'hot' or something."
"Eh, sort of. Red is intensity. The more red something is, the more... I don't know how to describe it properly, honestly. It's like, passion, but can be a warning as well. Whenever a Kirin turns into a full-blown Nirik, there's some signs. They start to turn red, at least in our vision. When a full-blown transformation occurs, it's like a beacon. The red... it spreads. It can turn anything it touches into red, regardless of what it was before. Any color that exists can be tainted by it. It's not always bad, sometimes you get a little red when you're building a big project, and it's always nice to see the red fade into whatever you actually made. But... we Kirins have a long history with wanting that color gone."
Blue started to shiver as he looked into the fire. Woody wrapped a hoof around Blue's barrel and pulled him close, resting his head on top of the Kirin's. He hummed in delight, the warm embrace soothing his nerves.
"Thanks," he said.
"Don't worry about it," Woody said. "You went through a lot in the village, didn't you?"
"Yeah... the Queen, she... she thought we could totally eradicate the color from us. The Stream of Silence, it... it took away all of the color. So many greys, everywhere. She said that it was a necessary sacrifice, but... I just couldn't go back, even after everything changed."
"Hey, you don't have to," Woody said.
"I know, thanks," Blue said.
They sat for a moment in silence, watching the flames flicker and twirl.
"So, what color is the fire?"
"White," the Kirin answered. "White means heat. The brighter it is, the hotter the source. And before you ask, snow's black. Black means cold, or the absence of heat."
"Huh, weird," Woody said. "So, what was that last color I had?"
"Hmm?"
"You were listing off colors you saw in me, but didn't exactly finish," Woody said, now straddling the Kirin's back.
"Oh, uh... p-pink?"
"Hmm. I don't think I need a lecture to know what that means," Woody said, smirking as he gazed into Blue's eyes.
"Such a beautiful pink," the Kirin whispered.
The two fell asleep snuggling one another, the Kirin's cabin filled with a rainbow of emotions.