The Day of No More Eyes

by Argembarger

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spike, Big Macintosh, Random, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Granny Smith, Sweetie Belle, Main 6, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Nightmare Moon
Length: 5345

A tale of overcoming adversity, and learning what it means to be a true hero.

It was a day like any other day, and yet, it wasn't.

Published 2012-02-06 22:59:48 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-06 22:59:48 UTC

Acknowledgements

Ponies ==> Hasbro

Dedicated to

My mom. May she always be my mom.

Thanks To

CloudySkies, for the idea to add this Thanks To section.

Prologue

The Day of No More Eyes

Chapter 1: The Applejack Chapter

Applejack stopped near where she thought Applebloom's door was, and kicked out. The house rattled as drywall crunched beneath her hooves. She had missed the door and hit the wall because she couldn't see where she was or what she was kicking due to her blindness, as has previously been established.

She heard a thump and a squeak, and then Applebloom spoke out. "Howdy, Sis. Looks like I can't see today. Do you think I could get an echolocation cutie mark?"

Chapter 2: Applebloom's Echolocation Cutie Mark

"What? No," Applejack snorted, "Just get out of bed and help me find Mac 'n' Granny. They need to know that no one in Equestria is able to see anything."

Applebloom let out a high-pitched skree, and Applejack heard her running around her room in a slaloming pattern. After a couple of moments, the sound of crunching drywall slid through the Applejack's-hoof-sized hole in Applebloom's bedroom wall.

"Ow, I put my head through the wall," Applebloom said, "I guess I'm not gettin' an echolocation cutie mark, after all."

Chapter 3: Applebloom Earns Her Echolocation Cutie Mark

"Guess not, sis. Now, follow the sound of my voice and climb through this hole, so that we can keep looking for Granny 'n' Mac," Applejack snorted.

Applebloom used the door instead.

Chapter 5: Scootaloo goes away

Scootaloo went away, and Rainbow Dash continued sleeping, as per her established character trait of laziness.

Chapter 6: Time for Books and Learning and Magic to Save the Day

Scootaloo flew around, enjoying the feeling of flying for a while. It was amazing! She almost didn't even realize that she was completely blind, as her unleaded joy was an effective distraction. She felt disappointed as she regarded Rainbow Dash's sleepy ways, but she mentally steeled herself to the impossible task of staying away until everypony could see again, and then demonstrating her newfound powers of flight to her favorite egocentric rainbow-themed pony. It was a good plan, and one that would end in success and free flying lessons for her.

It was right about then when Scootaloo blindly flew into the airspace of the Everfree Forest.

Chapter 8: Big Mac Solves the Blindness

"Eeyup," Big Mac said, "We're all blind."

Applejack snorted. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Eeyup."

"Granny?"

"Why, Ah taughtcher bruvver everfing Ah knobout'd' blindniss s'whidoncha jus' askim 'n' leave me t'mah nappin'!?"

"Mac, let's get out of here," Applejack snorted, "and leave Granny alone."

"Eeyup."

"N'goodriddans!" Granny Smith snapped.

Granny Smith was very cranky because it was Tuesday.

Chapter 9: The End

The three ponies, Applejack, Applebloom, and Big Mac, trotted outside. They felt the warmth of the sun, and heard the rustling of the apple trees all around them.

"Sure is a nice day to be blind and unable to see anything," Applejack snorted. She felt Applebloom shift restlessly next to her.

"I wonder what Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are doing right now..." Applebloom asked.

"Probably nothing important. Especially nothing plot-relevant."

Chapter 11: Now Introducing: Fluttershy

Twilight Sparkle woke up to Spike shaking her hoof.

"Twilight, Twilight! Wake up! I can't see! Am I blind? Is this what blindness is like?"

Twilight woke up and couldn't see, either. "Yes, Spike. I'm blind too. This is what blindness is like. Please stop shaking me."

Spike didn't stop shaking her. Insubordination. "Where are our eyes, Twilight?"

Twilight sighed. "What do I look like, a private eye?" She laughed at her own hilarious joke. "I just woke up. I don't know where our eyes are. Probably getting more sleep than I got..." She closed her eyes and tried to ignore Spike shaking her.

"But Twilight, what about your studies? How are you going to read without any eyes?"

Twilight yawned. "Oh, Spike. I'm sure I have a spell somewhere in one of my books that will let me read without seeing." She rolled over and pulled her covers over her head.

Spike shrugged and attempted to make his way back downstairs. The chores still needed to be done, after all.

Chapter 12: This Chapter Is Also About Fluttershy

Fluttershy squeaked when she woke up. It was awfully dark! She shuffled her way to the windows and pulled the blinds open. The fact that she still couldn't see perturbed her somewhat, and then she had a realization.

She didn't have eyes anymore! Or, at least, she didn't know where her eyes were. That was an important distinction.

"Oh my goodness," she whispered to nopony in particular, "it will be very difficult to take care of every single animal in Equestria, like I do all the time, without the gift of sight to help me. I sure hope my eyes come back by the end of the day!" Rarity had made waffles.

Fluttershy decided to go ask Twilight for help. The animals were counting on her, and she couldn't let them down, lest natural selection take its course in Equestria, like in the Dark Times.

Chapter 13: Cutie Mark Crusaders Echolocators Yay

There was a tap at the window. "Sweetie Belle," she heard, the voice muffled behind a pane of glass, "Hey, Sweetie Belle!"

Sweetie Belle turned to look at Applebloom through the window, before remembering that that wasn't a thing she could actually do, because she couldn't see. She headed over to the window and opened it.

"Sweetie Belle! It's me, Applebloom!"

"Yeah, I know. I recognized your voice, Applebloom."

"Butcha can't even see me," Applebloom protested.

"Oh, right. You're right, Applebloom," Sweetie Belle said before clearing her throat. "Hello, who is it?"

"It's me, Applebloom!"

"Oh, hi, Applebloom."

"We're blind! Like, everyone. Blind!"

"I know, Applebloom."

"We can't even see!"

"I know, Applebloom."

"Isn't that just crazy??"

"I know, Applebloom."

"What do you think, Rarity?"

Rarity considered the question for a moment. "Yes, dear, I suppose it is very 'crazy'. Is Applejack with you? I'd like to have an adult conversation about the matter."

"I'm an adult!" said Applebloom.

"Well, regardless..." Rarity began.

"Yeah, I'm here, Rarity. So's Big Mac. He's gonna watch over... well, not... not watch, 'xactly, but, uhh... The little 'uns. He's gonna keep them outta trouble while we go round up the rest of the girls and get to the bottom of this being blind business," Applejack snorted.

"That sounds simply marvellous, doesn't it, Sweetie Belle?"

"Yeah! I can't wait to play all kinds of fun blindgames. Do you know any fun blindgames, Big Mac?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Eepossibly. Ah'll hafta think about it," Big Mac stoicismed.

"Where's Scootaloo?" Applebloom asked.

"Where do you think, sis? With Rainbow Dash."

"Oh yeah!"

Chapter 14: Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie isn't even in this story.

Chapter 16: Pinkie Pie

Twilight trotted downstairs. She was somewhat hungry, but figured she ought to get everypony's sight back first, so that she could tell Spike to make her breakfast. She could hear Spike sweeping the floor, so she called out to him.

"Spike, hey, Spike," she called out to him, "Come over here!"

Spike kept sweeping. Insubordination. "I can hear you just fine, Twilight. What is it?"

"Find my book of ocular magic for me, so I can reverse this blindness, so that you can make us some breakfast," Twilight ordered.

"I can't do that, Twilight..."

"And why in Equestria not?" Twilight asked.

"I can't see anything. I can't see any of the books."

"Well, how are you sweeping the floors, then?"

"Probably not very well," Spike admitted. "I'm kind of just guessing where the dirt might be." He continued randomly sweeping.

Twilight sighed. Looks like she was going to have to find that book herself. She rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and went to work.

Chapter 18: Reunited in Blindness

Applejack and Rarity and Big Mac and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom headed off to look for Rainbow Dash. She was probably napping on a cloud, as usual. The infinite skies above Equestria beckoned. Where could Rainbow Dash possibly be? It was impossible enough to find her when they actually had the gift of sight, since the clouds always hid her sleeping form from the ground. How would they ever find her? The situation seemed utterly hopeless.

"There she is!" yelled Applebloom.

It was true. They found Rainbow Dash almost immediately. How fortuitous!

"Rainbow Dash, wake up and get down here!" snorted Applejack.

"Whuh,... guh, what? What is it? I'm very busy up here," yawned Rainbow Dash.

"We are about to travel to the library, to ask Twilight to restore our sight with magic," Rarity explained, "Why don't you come with us? Everything will be much more convenient with eyes."

"Naah, I'll pass, guys. Sleeping's never been easier!" Rainbow Dash waved them away, but they couldn't see her hoof because they were blind.

"Dash, if you don't come with us, we're going to consider you very unloyal."

"Oh no," Rainbow Dash thought out loud, "I am the Element of Loyalty. I can no longer resist accompanying you on this quest." She flew down from her cloud and landed on Big Mac's back.

Big Mac shifted slightly under the weight. "Howdy, Rainbow Dash. That's my back. Couldja get offa me?"

"I'm over here, Big Mac," Rainbow Dash said in the void of blindness.

"Hi, Big Mac! Thanks for catching me. It's so great that I found you guys!"

"Hi, Pinkie Pie," everyone said at once.

Chapter 19: Pinkie Pie

Scootaloo drifted along happily. She had smacked into about a dozen trees, but that didn't matter, because nothing mattered but flying anymore. No more scooter, no more helmet, no more being a groundbound blankflank! Now she was a skyborne blankflank.

She had heard some growling from somewhere below her. Just some dog. There were some gross crunching noises, too. That dog must really like that bone!

Scootaloo wondered briefly where she was. For flying in a straight line, she sure ran into the library a lot. Maybe she was circling around? It was hard to tell, because she couldn't see. But, wherever she was, it was likely completely safe, and she was most likely in absolutely no danger.

She flew ever deeper into the forest, to places where pony heroes of ages past feared to tread.

Chapter 20: Pinkie Pie

"Alright, well, now that we're all together, shall we go to see Twilight?" Applejack asked the group.

"Well, is everyone present and accounted for? I am, of course."

"Me too."

"Eeyup."

"Me three."

"Ooh, I'm here, too! Whee!"

"Cutie Mark Crusaders present and accounted for, yay!"

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go."

"Alright, wonderful. That's me, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Big Mac, and the two Cutie Mark Crusaders. And I guarantee Fluttershy beelined for Twilight's house as soon as she woke, so we'll find her there."

"Sounds 'bout right, Rarity. Alright, Macintosh, d'ya think you could stay here with the girls while we go fix all this?" Applejack snorted.

"Eeyup." Big Mac said.

"Good thing we aren't forgetting about absolutely anyone."

"Yeah!" yelled every single member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders together.

Chapter 23: The Water Runs Out

The ponies walked to the desert outside of Ponyville.

It was extremely hot and as they clambered over the 30th dune, they realized they were out of water.

"We didn't bring any water?" Fluttershy asked.

"Guess not," Rainbow Dash shrugged.

"Maybe we should head back," Applejack snorted.

Twilight turned on her. "No! We go on. The cure for blindness is out here, I just know it." She turned back around and kept walking,

Rarity complained about fashion or being tired from all of the walking or something.

Just then, they found the all-powerful magic genie.

Chapter 24: Gasp

"Until our face is blue!"

"There's nothing that we fear!"

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"The waiting is the hardest part!"

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"We'll have to figure out what we'll do next!"

"oh celestia please help me"

"Look here are two little ponies!"

"When the time is really right!"

"no no no no why no"

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"Do you girls want to play Blindpony Ball?"

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle cut into silence at Big Mac's words.

"Blindpony Ball? How do you play that?"

Big Mac revealed a yellow rubber ball that nopony could see.

"I'm going to throw this ball, and then you blind ponies have to find it. Sound fun?"

"Yeah!!" the girls squealed.

And with that, Big Mac's sanity was spared for almost an entire three minutes.

Chapter 25: Could It Really Be So Simple

"Hello, my little ponies. I am the magical and all-powerful genie of the desert. For what purpose have you sought me?"

"What." Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight hushed the lazy bigmouth before addressing the genie. "Oh all-powerful genie, could you please restore our vision?"

"No."

"But... but why?" Twilight cried out. But all she heard was the sound of sand and dunes and desert. The genie was gone.

Chapter 26: And Just Then

Pinkie Pie bounced around the sand dunes, marvelling at how soft and slidey the sand was. "I bet if this dune was made of sugar, it would be the sweetest sugar sand dune in the whole desert! Or, I guess it would be a dessert if that happened. That would be tasty! Could you girls imagine an entire dessert desert? I think I would want to live there forever, there would be even more sweets than Sugarcube Corner! And Sugarcube Corner has a lot of sweets. I'm always eating them because there isn't much to eat there. Sometimes I get tired of sweets, but then I remember how sweet they are and I start eating them again! Sometimes it's chocolate, sometimes it's ice cream, sometimes it's a fruity fruitcake, or a spice cake, or a caramel cake, or... some other cake! I can't wait until I can see again, so I can see what I'm eating. It tastes kinda like sand, but that would be crazy! I mean, we just got out of the desert, and it didn't take very long. I don't even know why we went in there in the first place. Do you girls know? I don't think it really did anything. I still can't see. Can you girls see? Are you still blind? It stinks not having eyes, kind of. I can't Pinkie Promise anymore, because I can't stick a cupcake in my eye, because I don't have any! All I can do is stick a cupcake in the part of my face that filled out where my missing eye used to be, but that's not really a Pinkie Promise. It's more like a Stinky Promise. So, until we are able to Pinkie Promise again, let's all promise not to lie anymore, okay? We can make today the Day of No More Lies!"

Chapter 29: Luna Was There, Too

But, who cares?

Chapter 30: In Which The Mystery Is Solved

All of the ponies blindly wandered back to where Big Mac was.

"No luck, Big Mac. I fear we're blind f'rever," Applejack snorted.

"Don't worry girls, I can see again," Big Mac stated.

"What? Huh? How!?" the girls shot dozens of inquiries at him at once.

"Nevermind that. Come on, Twilight. I'll read your spell for you."

They all headed back to the library.

Chapter 31: The Villain Unmasked

Big Mac flipped through the book of eyesight.

"It says here that there's no such thing as not having eyes," he reported.

"Well, explain this, then!" yelled Twilight, pointing at her face where there were clearly no eyes.

"Open your eyes, Twilight," Big Mac said.

Twilight opened her eyes. "Oh."

"Now the rest of you."

Everypony opened their eyes, and they were able to see again. It was a miracle!

Chapter 32: Monologues and Explanations

Big Mac chuckled. "See, it was just that we forgot to open our eyes. That's all."

"Oh," everypony said.

Chapter 33: Introspection

Never again would any pony forget to open their eyes. It was a valuable lesson learned.

Chapter 34: Outerspection

Uh, there isn't really any more story here. It's... it's over.

Chapter 35: Outerspacing

...Fine. Luna got banished to the Moon. It (the blindness) was all her fault, somehow.

Chapter 36: Crossovers and Surprises

Littlepip and Nyx and Surprise and lots of other ponies were there, too.

Chapter 37: Cliffhangers

The Mane Six went around to every town and village and pony in Equestria and reminded all of them to open their eyes. Soon, every pony could see again.

I guess this is the epilogue.

Chapter 38: Plot Twists Aplenty

Uh, okay. How about this? Discord showed up, and laughing a maniacal laugh, put eyepatches on everypony's left eye. Now, everypony could only half-see, except for the ponies who only had a right eye, who were unaffected, and ponies who only had a left eye, who were rendered completely blind. It was a terrifying time of tribulation, it took the combined strength of Celestia and the Elements of Harmony to restore order to the land.

Chapter 39: Pinkie Pie

After everything resolved, Pinkie Pie returned to the simple life of a wannabe baker and sweets-consumer. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 40: Fluttershy

After everything resolved, Fluttershy returned to the simple life of an animal-helper and hermit. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 41: The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything

Chapter 42: Rainbow Dash

After everything resolved, Rainbow Dash returned to the simple life of a weather pony and lazy. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 43: Applejack

After everything resolved, Fluttershy returned to the simple life of an apple-bucker and hick. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 44: Rarity

After everything resolved, Rarity returned to the simple life of an fashion-designer and hick. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 45: Twilight Sparkle

After everything resolved, Fluttershy returned to the simple life of a magic and bestpony. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 46: Luna

After everything resolved, Applejack returned to the simple life on the moon and evil villain. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 48: A New Hope

Scootaloo was perfectly fine and made it back home without any problems, but she tragically forgot how to fly.

The end.

Chapter 15: Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie bounced down the main boulevard of Ponyville happily. At least, she thought it was the main boulevard. She might have lost track somewhere back near the tree, or maybe when she crashed into the mailmare, or possibly when she got lost in Canterlot Castle's hedge maze, or it could've been when she crashed into the mailmare again.

The mailmare seemed to be the only pony who didn't seem so affected by the ubiquitous blindness, probably because her vision has always been rather impaired.

Pinkie Pie tried to remember the mailmare's name, as she bounced in the sunlight. Was it Drippy Hoof? No... Darty Halves? Naah, but maybe it was... Drizz't Do'urden? Datzy Der? Dharma Hackle? Dermanaphyxinerckle Holfynakierplocan? Roseluck?

That's right. It was Roseluck. Pinkie congratulated herself for having such an astute mind for names and faces.

Pinkie bounced merrily along, stopping only when she reached all of her friends. She couldn't wait to hear Twilight's brilliant plan to restore their sight!

Title

The Day of No More Eyes

Shouts-out

I'd like to give a shout-out to my North Marberry Avenue crew. Keep it frizzle-fresh, fellas.

Also the Ohio Bronies and all my friends there. Best group.

Introduction

One fateful day, everypony in Equestria woke up to discover they no longer had eyes. It was not merely that their eyes were missing -- it was as if they had never had eyes at all. The space where their eyes had once resided had become flesh and bone, their cheeks extending to cover the now useless spaces on their face.

"Consarn it, not again," Applejack snorted. She climbed out of bed and edged herself down the hallway. "Just when I was appreciatin' havin' the gifta sight."

Chapter 4: Apple Family Reunited

Rainbow Dash surveyed her surroundings. Being a pegasus pony meant she always had the most fantastic views of the countryside. She rode a tepid gust of wind upwards and focused in on the fact that she actually couldn't see anything, because she was completely blind and had been for several hours. It was as if she had never had eyes at all.

She settled down on a fluffy cloud that she managed to locate via echolocation and took a nap. She slept for a couple of hours, and in her dream, she used echolocation to find a fluffy cloud and take a nap. Pony Leonardo DiCaprio was there, and it was awesome. After a while, she woke up, because she heard someone calling her name and telling her to wake up.

"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash, wake up! Look at me, I'm flying! I'm flying! Wheee~!" she heard.

"Go away, Scootaloo. Everypony knows you can't fly. Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I'm gullible," Rainbow Dash enunciated.

"Aww... But, Rainbow... I really am flying..." Scootaloo whined.

"I said go away. I don't have time for your shenanigans. I'm very busy," Rainbow Dash exasperated, "so, go away."

Chapter 7: Deadly Danger Drama

Rarity was ecstatic. She loved not having eyes; it meant she didn't have to apply eyeliner or eyeshadow, thus shaving entire seconds off of her morning routine! She merrily trotted downstairs and into her workroom, stumbling over Sweetie Belle's sleeping form.

"Sweetie, how many times have I told you? It is unladylike to sleep on the floor. You have a perfectly serviceable room just upstairs!"

Sweetie Belle didn't respond. In fact, she didn't stir at all. Rarity listened closely, and silence filled her ears where the sound of her sister breathing should have been.

"Sweetie? Sweetie Belle!?" Rarity dove on Sweetie Belle, shaking her motionless body. "Wake up! Please, please! Say something... Anything..."

But, Sweetie Belle didn't say anything. Her body was stiff and cold. Rarity then realized that Sweetie Belle was just a filly-sized fashion mannequin, and she suddenly felt very foolish. Sweetie Belle was of course upstairs, sleeping in as usual.

Rarity trotted to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Chapter 10: This One Actually Has Twilight Sparkle In it

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was just waking up. She was mildly concerned about being unable to see, but she didn't let it get her down. Sweetie Belle didn't let anything get her down, because being happy was more fun than being sad. She hopped out of bed and bounded down the stairs to see (or, as was the case, not see) what this big beautiful new day had in store for her.

The first thing she didn't see was the stairs, and she almost tumbled down them. The second thing she didn't see was the wall at the bottom of the stairs, and she nearly crunched her head through the plaster. The last thing she didn't see was Rarity's delicious breakfast, so she followed her nose to the kitchen. Rarity had managed to lay out two plates of something delicious-smelling, despite her complete blindness.

"Good morning, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity exclaimed.

Sweetie bounced in the general direction of the table. "Morning, sis! What's for breakfast? Smells good!"

"Why don't you taste it and find out?"

The tension is completely unbearable. Rarity's choice of breakfast will be revealed in Chapter 12.

Chapter 17: Pinkie Pie

It wasn't hard for Fluttershy to find Twilight's house. Lots of little animals lived in the branches of the library tree. She just had to imagine the tree catching fire, and her natural caretaker instincts handled the navigation. She circled the tree until she found the door, and then knocked on it.

From inside, she heard lots of cursing and shuffling. It almost sounded like Twilight clambering blindly over piles of books, but that would be silly. Twilight is far too organized to leave her books on the floor in piles, and besides, it wasn't even Thursday. It was Tuesday.

After a few more moments, the door opened. "Who's there?" Twilight said.

"Its, um... it's me. Fl-"

"Good morning, Fluttershy. Do you need something?"

"Um, well, if it isn't too much trouble, I'm afraid that I don't have eyes today, so if you could, um... fix me, with magic? The animals need me."

Twilight shrugged, but nopony noticed because it was an entirely visual gesture. "Well, I'm working on that. I'm trying to find my ocular magic book."

"Would that be under 'O'?"

"Cute, Fluttershy. Well, yes, it would ordinarily be, but I decided to have a shameful fling with the Bliss bibliographic classification system last night, and I can't even begin to imagine where the book is now." Twilight sighed, her voice taking on the sharp edge of resign.

"How have you been looking for it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, all I know about the book is that it has an engraving of an eye on it, so I've been rubbing every book against my face. So far, no luck. Plus, all of the bookdust and bookdirt is making the place filthy, but Spike's handling that."

From somewhere in the library, Spike grumbled.

Fluttershy made some kind of adorable pony noise before asking, "Can I help?"

"Alright, Fluttershy. The books on the floor have already been checked. Just reach around in the shelves until you find a book. Make sure to check both sides."

"Alright, Twilight. How many books have you gone through already?"

Twilight paused, and Fluttershy heard her friend's efficient brain calculating the total. "About 00.05% of my library."

Fluttershy's where-her-eyes-weren't widened in shock. "Oh my, that's... not very much. How long have you been doing this?"

"About two hours."

Fluttershy gulped, but shuffled into the nightmarish world of books and dust and wood and cloth and paperboard bindings. After just a couple of books, she could feel the book rot layered filthily on her face. "Twilight, do you ever clean these?"

"No. Spike does that every single day, diligently."

"Oh."

From somewhere in the library, Fluttershy heard a muffled dragon-giggle.

Chapter 21: Getting to the Bottom of Things

Big Mac stood somewhat awkwardly with the two fillies he couldn't see.

"So, uh... What d'you Cutie Mark Crusaders like to do?" he inquired.

"We quest for our cutie marks!" Applebloom said.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Sweetie Belle added.

"We'll never stop the journey until we get our cutie marks!" Applebloom added.

"Every day we fight the fight!" Sweetie Belle added.

"It's not easy when your flank is very bare!" Applebloom began screaming.

"Being younger ponies!" Sweetie Belle screamed.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Applebloom screamed.

Big Mac dropped to the fetal position and rocked back and forth softly.

"Your talent comes to light!" Sweetie Belle screamed.

"We test our talents everywhere!" Applebloom screamed.

"Listen up, 'cause here's our story!" Sweetie Belle erupted in a cacophony of sound.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Applebloom erupted in a cacophony of sound.

Chapter 22: Desert Denoument

After some more time, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack made it to the library, and Twilight Sparkle explained to them what she already explained to Fluttershy, and everypony went inside to help with the book-finding effort.

It was really painstaking and filled with descriptions of rough wood and cloth bookbinding against smooth pony skin, and the filthy dust and dirt from the former staining the pure coloration of the latter.

After a few hours, Pinkie Pie found the book. It turned out that it was under E.

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, Pinkie. And all of you," Twilight praised them, as she levitated the eye-book to herself. "Now stand back, and let me study this."

Twilight opened the book and peered inside. She flung the book across the room in frustration.

"I can't read a single word of this! I'm blind!" She groaned in disgust. "Fine, alright. Let's just... go to the desert. I'm sure the answer is in the desert."

"Uh, Twilight? Why?" Applejack asked.

"Don't question me, let's go! It'll be fun and we'll learn a lesson about friendship in the desert."

Everypony shrugged and followed Twilight out the door.

Spike continued cleaning, but didn't do a very good job, because he couldn't see anything.

Chapter XXV: Revelations

Jiminy Frankenbrull, the Pony Wizard, sat at his table with all of his miniature ponies. He had all of them, the entire all of them, right there. It was magnificent, like a completed trophy collection in Super Smash Bros. He just had to start making them into customs and selling them on Ebay for mad profits. The profits were mad because they were crazy, and crazy because they were profits.

What could he say? He had a skillset that was in high demand. Hasbro wasn't making the ponies people wanted, and the ones they were making were typically of an unsatisfactory level of show-accuracy. He was there to fix 'em. He was the fixer, the maker, and he was the best. Some called him a pony god, a title he wore with no small amount of pride.

He reached over for his bottle of acetone that he used to bleach ponies. He was getting ready to turn a Coconut Creme into a Colgate, when his hand slipped.

He could do nothing but stare in abject horror as the bottle of concentrated solvent flipped into the air. Unbelievably, every spilled drop of acetone landed exactly on his ponies' eyes. The acetone bottle landed back upright in its original spot on the table, as if it had never been disturbed.

He tried to wipe the acetone off of the ponies before it did irreversible damage, but deep down, he knew it was too late as soon as he flipped the acetone.

Every pony was blind. It was a tragedy; one that he would always remember as the Day of No More Eyes.

Chapter 27: Chekhov's Everfree Forest

The ponies accidently walked into the Everfree Forest. That's where Scootaloo, the fourth Cutie Mark Crusader, was flying. They didn't randomly run into Scootaloo, and they had a completely uneventful journey through the forest back to Ponyville.

Chapter 28: Celestia Swoops In And Solves Everything Out Of Nowhere

"Where's the ball, Big Mac?" Applebloom whined. "This game is too hard. We can't find it!"

"Just keep lookin', girls," Big Mac said, smiling.

Suddenly, Celestia swooped in.

"Here's your ball, girls!" she said, giving the ball to Applebloom.

"Thanks, Celestia!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

"Not a problem, My Little Ponies. Be more careful! It's hard to find things when you don't have any eyes!"

"We know. Lesson learned!" Applebloom said with strength and resolve.

Big Mac sighed. "Yeah, thanks, Princess."

Celestia swooped over to Big Mac's side. "Oh, Big Macintosh, my most favored subject, I bestow upon you the gift of eyesight."

Big Mac could see! How wonderful! "Many thanks, my leige," he said, bowing deeply.

"Anything for you, Macintosh, but don't tell anyone about this," Celestia winked, before flying away majestically.

Chapter 47: Celestia

After everything resolved, Celestia returned to the simple life of a princess-queen and Celestia. She never forgot the important lesson she learned during the Day of No More Eyes.