Title:           Now you're a cyclops
Author:          Pocket_Compass
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/6Ee1VZ6n
First Edit:      Monday 9th of November 2015 07:32:40 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Last edit on: Thursday 12th of November 2015 08:48:04 PM CDT

"What is it this time AJ?"
 
>"Your skin. Most creatures ah know have fur coverin' 'em, an' seeing skin patches is really disgusting."
 
"...Well fuck you too."
 
>"No Anon, don't take it like that! Y'all know ah always come to ya when ah need to talk bout things ah see and nobody seem to care enough to understand when ah point them."
 
"So you noticed my skin is disgusting and wanted to rub it all over my face?"
 
>"Sugarcube, ya didn't let me finish. Your skin has little wrinkles all over it's surface, forming shapes like triangles an' squares. Do ya happen to know why is that?
 
"That's a pretty sharp eyesight...and a creepy aim for it. But... no AJ, I don't know. It was common belief in my world that humans used to have hair all over their bodies though. And I'm sure you'll find a similar wrinkle pattern in your skin if you're able to look at it without obstacles."
 
>"See? That's the kin' of answer ah'm looking for when ah ask other ponies, but they don't seem to care. Either they look at me as if ah was some weird weed or they lift their muzzles up and tell me it's a downright stupid observation. Twilight is more subtle with it but ah know she thinks the same. Why can't other ponies care and hear 'bout the little things Anon?"
 
>"Was it the same in your world?"
 
----------------
 
"Is it about my ugly skin again?"
 
>"Sugarcube, no offense but ya'all need to lower your defenses a lil' bit."
 
"Nah, I was kidding, go on."
 
>"Alright, did ya ever tried goin' cross-eyed while lookin' at a wall or floor pattern anˇ makin' the shapes match?"
 
"Woah. Yeah, I mean...it just never struck me as a conversation topic."
 
>"Great, but that's not the point anyway. Ah think figured an use for it."
>"It ocurred tah me when ah was checkin' the apple trees for plagues in the farm limits. Ah happened to stumple accross a weird rock. Ah don't normally pay much attention tah that kind of thing though..."
 
"Maybe Maud will find it in-"
 
>"Dang it Anon, let me finish. Ah found this rock an it really caught my eye. At first ah didn't know why, but then ah had an idea of what it may be. Ah tried to pick it up but it was stuck tah the groun'. Ah digged an it appeared to be
 
part of a bigger rock after all, so ah stopped digging. Then ah realised it didn't caught my eye so much now. But that only drove me to wonder why it HAD caught it before..."
>"Are ya bored Anon?"
 
"What? NO, no, please continue."
 
>"Ah'll take yer word. So then I went back to the idea ah had: It's shape reminded me of an apple's. But as ah couldn't pick it up ah guessed ah had to brought an apple close tah it to check if they were similar. Still, when ah put one
 
next to it, it just didn't convinced me. So ah went cross-eyed and made the apple ah was holding and the rock match."
>"They were identical"
>"When ah went back tah the farm I saw Apple Bloom trying tah solve a '7 differences' game they put in the sunday newspaper. She asked fer help an' ah couldn't find more than the 4 she got. Then ah realised it. Ah went cross-eyed."
>"Tha parts that didn' match looked weird. Found them all in three seconds. Nawh mah sister think ah'm some sort of genius"
 
>Applejack gloats in her little victory.
>You nod, and cross your eyes
 
"Now you're a cyclops"
 
>She pauses for a bit and then goes cross eyed too
 
>"Woo. Yer right!"
 
>You both share a light laugh
>Then she locks eyes with you
 
>"Thanks for hearing Anon. Ah knew you would."
 
--------------------------
 
>"Anon"
 
"Hey, AJ! Your trick with the eyes DOES work like a charm on the difference puzzles!"
 
>"Hehe, ya know...ah have my moments"
 
"Got any new epiphanies for me today?"
 
>"No- well ah don't know. It depends. Maybe, I guess..."
 
>A smile grows on your face
 
"Out with it."
 
>"Alright, alright. So ah was lookin' at Canterlot,  up there in the mountain-"
 
"No shit Sherlock"
 
>AJ squints at you while scrunchying her face
 
"I'm sorry, it's a reflex. Go on."
 
>"Ah swear Anon, if ya weren't the only one in the whole town who seems to care a lil' 'bout this kind of things ah'd have taken mah music elsewhere."
>"Okay, thing is ah noticed it wasn't white. Ah mean, ah know it IS white but it just doesn't look like that from here. It seems tah have a purplish tone, ya see?"
 
>You look where the hoof is aiming and nod.
>It is correct. Canterlot's towers look purplish.
 
>"So I looked to the far away mountains and noticed they all look like they are more or less tha same color. It seems like far away things look blueish or light purplish. Do ya happen tah know why?"
 
"..."
 
>You look towards the horizon and check the mountains. They're indeed blue-ish.
>It was the same on Earth.
>You remember the long long trips you took sometimes where you looked through the window towards the horizon and let your mind wander.
>You are amazed with how AJ seems to have asked herself the very same question you asked yourself during those moments.
>And it so happens you had a theory you never found the right occasion to tell.
 
>"...Anon?"
 
>You snap back with your retrieved memories.
 
"Well, you know AJ, I think it's the same reason to why the sky is blue."
 
>"...What in tarn-"
 
"Think about it. The sky during the day is blue, but during the night is black, right?"
 
>"Right..."
 
"But what is the sky made of?"
 
>"..."
 
"Air, we are looking at air."
 
>"Are ya'all saying the air is color blue?"
 
"Yyyeessssnooo but yes. Think about it like...it's like water. You must have relaised that when you watch the lake's water you can see a couple of meters an-"
 
>"...and then it goes darker until you only see blue."
 
"Or brown, it depends on the kind of water and how pure it is. But yes, you got it. So when you look towards the sky you see through it for miles and miles, but when you look up there's just too much distance and you see-"
 
>"Just blue! An' the mountains in the distance look blue because they're far away!"
>"You're a genius Anon!"
 
"Well ah have my moments ~"
 
>AJ sticks her tongue at you and cracks a smile
>You feel warm inside
 
---------------
 
>"Ah miss my parents."
 
"..."
 
>You're helping AJ carry the fallen fruit from the far apples trees of the farm.
>You're pulling a cart full of them. AJ walks next to you but leading the way.
>The animals are having a feast tomorrow.
 
>"Where do ye think the dead go?"
 
"...according to religion, they're judged and sent to either a really good place or a bad place."
 
>"When ah first heard 'bout yer world's religions ah found them weird. Ah mean, why believe in sumthin' ye never see?"
>"But then ah gave it some thought an realised it must feel really good tah know yer loved ones will always be...there. So it makes sense for such a thing tah exist where there's no Celestia or Luna tah show how thinks work."
 
>Holy crap.
>You never asked them what did they thought about death.
 
>"Still, ah never heard a word from them about what happens next. And ah'm not sure if ah wanna know."
 
"Well... I think that the fact that we are able to come up with such topics must be because, in some way, deep inside we feel like even if our bodies change or die a million times, we'll be the same person, or pony."
 
>"..."
 
"I think that maybe what makes ourselves ourselves keeps existing without our limbs, or organs, even our brains."
 
>She sighs
 
>"Even if ya just say those things just for saying, it's still a weight off my chest being able to mention such things without receiving concerning looks or questions."
 
"You know, I-"
 
>" 'Are you okay Applejack ~?', 'It's something wrong darling ~?'"
 
>She looks at you making an exaggerated Rarity pout face.
>You look at her while frowning
>She forces her pouting
>She looks fucking hilarious
>A corner of your death serious mouth goes up
>No, damn you'll loose
>Oh, she looks like she's about to smirk t- fuck it
>You laugh
>She releases her muscles and joins you
>When the laugh dies down you try doing the pouting thing
>You look at her
>She puts her pout look back again...for about half a second because you both fall back to the easy laugh.
 
>You keep pulling the cart
>The barn is coming close
>Both of you haven't talked for a while
>You take a breath
 
"I think we just have to follow our conscience and we'll be fine, AJ. I think true happiness lies within doing what feels right every time. Because deep inside, every...ehm... sentient creature knows what's right when they're about to
 
make a decision, and if they don't...it's because it's not that obvious and they'll be doing it right whichever option they choose."
"If choosing something you didn't know was wrong ends up hurting someone, it's still fine. Because nobody did anything wrong. It just happened. And from an even greater perpective, you could say it always happened."
"Just a stupid accident."
 
>"..."
 
>She didn't like it
 
>"Yer quite the poet Anon."
 
>She gives you a sad smile
>And before you could return it she goes back to facing the now nearer barn.
>Her eyes looked watery.
 
------------
 
>"This feels funny."
 
>Afternoon
>The mane six, Spike, and you are all on your way to Canterlot
>Rarity speaks
 
>"A while ago anypony could've perfectly thought we were summoned by the map or the princesses for an emergency."
 
>"Meh...I'm stretching my wings."
 
>Dash flies off the train window.
>She doesn't have much interest in the trip.
>And you can't blame her for using such an enviable power.
 
>"Well I'm glad times nowadays are peaceful enough for this kind of thing"
 
"Thanks Flutters...Is Discord coming?"
 
>"Um...he said he had already heard them all."
 
>Wouldn't surprise me.
>You look at Twilight
>She's reading a book
>Now that she's going back to her habits her friends sometimes have to snap her out of it.
 
>You hear some murmurs and sniggering down the wagon
>You turn your head
>Pinkie is glued to the back of the pony in charge of the sweets cart.
>Literally, she glued herself to him.
>And somehow the colt doesn't notice.
>Whenever he turns away from the cart to hear a client, Pinkie makes a cake dissappear into her bottomless stomach.
>One of the passengers noticed and is laughing hysterically.
>The cart pony is really confused
 
>Rarity and Fluttershy are now exchanging gossips.
>Spike is anxiously waiting for some chance of striking a conversation with the first one.
 
>Applejack is looking out the window
>She's right in front of you
>You take a look too and watch the fields pass.
 
"That's called vanishing point."
 
>She turns her head at you
>You look at her to assure you were indeed talking to her.
 
"It's the point where we see the plantation rows converge, it comes real handy if you're drawing buildings or large landscapes."
 
>She smirks
 
>"Yer a dang psychic ya know that?"
 
"It looks neat uh? Almost hypnotic. Watching the long lines of plants go fast, seeing the gap between them blink rapidly."
 
>"Ah sometimes try tah follow a single row until it's goes out of mah sight."
 
"Yeah, I do that too."
 
>"Ah knew you do."
 
>At this point both of you are just looking through the windows while talking.
 
>"...The faraway trees and mountains move slowly because of that vanishing thing too?"
 
"Yessss, it works exactly the same way, because the vanishing point would be right in the middle of the horizon line."
"So one can imagine that if the plantation rows just continued forever, they would all look like they're touching it. And even if the closest part of them seems to pass at incredible speed, the zone close to the vanishing point won't
 
move an inch."
 
>"Yeah, yeah I got it."
 
>"No you didn't!"
 
>Oh crap
>I triggered Twilight
 
>"You haven't explained even half of it! The vanishing point is also known as the “direction point”, as lines having the same directional vector, say D, will have the same vanishing point or converge at the same vanishing points.
 
Mathematically, being q ? (x, y, f) a point lying o-"
 
>"EGGHEAD ALERT"
 
>Twilight stops and turns to the opposite window almost missing the rainbow streak that went back up.
>She sighs and turns back to us
>She looks like she's about to continue, but now she actually looks us in the eyes.
 
>"...Sorry...nevermind."
 
>She seems more aware of our lack of willingness.
>Aaaand she's back to her book.
>Damn, she needs to work on that.
 
>"AHHHH!"
 
>A sound similar to de-attaching velcro is heard half a second before a flying Pinkie stamps against Twilight's magic shield.
 
>Some reflexes...
 
>Lot of laughs and some claps are heard from the nearby passengers.
>You find yourself smiling broadly too.
>Though the cart pony seems to now be wearing a fashionable open-back suit.
>With disordered lint all around the hole.
>Before he could say something the kids may or may not had understood (but would surely learn), Pinkie takes him by a foreleg out to the bridge outside the wagon.
>Surely she'll make peace with him and be sure everything is payed for.
>She always does.
 
>The sun is setting.
 
 
 
 
>You finally arrived.
>You help poor Spike carry the tons of unnecessary luggage Rarity felt like bringing.
>Two days, maybe three, not a fucking year, Rarity.
>After a while, you're all out
>You leave your things in the castle guest rooms
>Sweet vip suites.
>Then, you all head for the castle's vitreaux corridor.
>All of Canterlot seems to be there, but of course you still got the best seats.
>Everyone is eager to hear what the music from the other world sounds like
>You spent half a year of regular meetings with the composers and music directors
>You didn't know shit about music but you did remember it
>The composers made their best to translate your stupid whistles and hummings into the wonderful piece that's about to start before you.
>You know it's wonderful. You heard them tons of times.
>Unfortunately, they didn't let you choose the order in which the songs should be played.
>Something about pushing he musicians too much.
>Well, nothing is perfect.
 
>The lights dim, and so does the spectators murmurs
 
>The curtains lift, revealing the band.
>Applause
 
>Then the director turns and the room falls into silence.
>He hits his stick three times, rises his hooves
 
http://picosong.com/6Gjh/
 
>Perfect