Hard times

Section-4 True Colors

    Through the barren fields and decaying town they walked. On the outskirts of Ponyville the stood. Only one building stood, one lone cottage sat just outside of the overgrown forest. "Here we are." Twilight said with a smile. Vega looked at the small cottage, through her eyes it was nothing special but to Twilight it was like looking back on a lifetime of memories. "This is were you're gonna take the dye off?" Vega asked in disbelief. "No," Twilight replied. "This is were SHE is going to take the dye off." She finished.

    The two walked to the door, Twilight knocked softly. The door opened and in the doorway stood a towering white mare much like Twilight. The mare's hair was long, its soft pastel colors flowed like a gentle stream through the air. "Twilight! It's been a while." The towering mare's voice sounded warm and motherly, yet still firm. "It has," Twilight replied. "I need to ask you a favor." "Alright what do you need?" Twilight pointed to Vega. The mare smiled and said. "Okay, come on in." Once Vega entered the cottage she sat down and began to observe the inside of the cottage as Twilight and the mare left the room. All around the room she looked, she began to notice that almost every thing was made of wood. Though the wood looked old it didn't appear as old as it should be. She wondered why this was until she heard a voice at the staircase. Vega watched as and elderly mare walked down the steps accompanied by two mares that looked about her age. As the elderly one caught sight of Vega she said. "Oh, well hello. What's your name?" Her voice sounded demure yet frail. She sounded as though she was sick. "I'm Vega ma'am." She replied in a respectful manner. "It's a pleasure to meet you Vega, I'm Fluttershy." "Nice to meet you, may I ask who you two are?" Vega asked as she pointed to the older mare's companions. Vega observed the two mares for a moment. She took in each detail about them, everything from their manes to their flanks. The one on the left of Fluttershy was a pegasus pony with an almost amber coat, and a short almost smoke purple mane. The other was an alabaster white unicorn with a swirled pink and purple mane. The unicorn spoke first. "I'm SweetieBelle and that's Scootaloo." She answered. "Nice to meet you two." Vega replied. "I'm not trying to be impolite by asking , but I would like to know, why are you here?" Scootaloo asked in the nicest way she could. "I'm here with Twilight, she's going to-" "Wait! Did you say Twilight was here?" SweetieBelle asked. "Yes, she's the one who brought me here." Vega replied a little confused. "Where is she!? Is she still here?!" Scootaloo asked with a slight twinge of joy in her voice. Vega said nothing, she just simply pointed to the kitchen. SweetieBelle and Scootaloo the quickly trotted into the kitchen.

    "I bet you're wondering why their so excited, hun?" Fluttershy asked as she took a seat next to Vega. Vega looked to the kitchen then to the elderly pony sitting beside her the nodded. "Well not so long ago, er well its longer now than it seems. When Scootaloo and SweetieBelle were just foals there was an accident." "What kind of accident?" Asked Vega. "It was one of the worst accidents I ever saw. Back then it wasn't just those two there was a third little filly they played with, er let me see, if i remember right her name was Applebloom. That was it Applebloom." Vega thought to herself. 'Wasn't there something about a pony named Applebloom in the journal that I found?' "Hold on a second, I have something you may want to see." Vega reached into her saddle bags and retreated the book. Once the book was out she dusted it off and took it into her aura. "Let's see, hmmm." Vega scanned through the journal until she found the date she wanted. "Ah ha! Here it is, January fourth, two-thousand-nineteen." Vega handed the diary to Fluttershy open to the chosen page to read. Vega watched Fluttershy'$ eyes scroll across the page and on to the next. Vega watched as a sadness swept over Fluttershy'$ face. A small tear rolled down her cheek as she closed the diary. "What's wrong?" Vega asked with concern. "Nothing, Vega was it? Where did you get this?" Fluttershy asked as she choked back her emotion. "I found it in the basement of an old barn when I was dropped, why?" She replied a little confused. "This diary used to belong to a dear friend of mine, Applejack. When I was younger she went missing and nopony ever found her." Vega thought to herself. 'How did nopony find her, did anypony even look?' "If you want to, you can keep the book." Fluttershy looked at Vega and smiled as tears ran down her face. "Yes, thank you." Fluttershy answered as she hugged Vega.

    At about this time Twilight was walking out of the other room with the mare she had previously talked to. "Alright Vega, if your ready come with us." Twilight said as she began walking to the door with the mare. Fluttershy released her hug to allow Vega to leave. Vega quickly went to Twilight and stood beside her. "Okay Vega let's do this." Twilight said happily as she walked through the door out into the barren wasteland. The three walked a good ways away from the cottage before anything was said or done. "Okay we should be far enough away." Twilight said as she looked back. "Okay Vega we need you to stand a good distance away from us okay?" Vega answered with a nodes then she walked away a bit. "Get ready Vega!" Twilight called as her and the towering white mare lowered their heads. The two's horns began to glow in a radiant black flame as two beams of black lightning shot forth from their horns onto Vega. She winced and recoiled a bit in fear but was soon calm again. Vega began to feel the air around her body vibrate as she was lifted into the air. The magic that was bursting forth from the two's horns released a low humming sound. As the humming intensified so to did the lighting that bolted to Vega'$ body. The magic began to form a cloak around Vega'$ body until it had completely swallowed her body. Nothing could be seen of Vega but a pitch black silhouette. As the spell neared its end it returned Vega to the ground below.

    Suddenly everything stopped, the noise, the lightning, even the two mares casting the spell stopped. The silhouette began to crack at first the it just fell away like water. The exposing of Vega'$ true colors was complete and she could now see what she looked like, what she truly looked like.

    Vega began to curiously inspect her body, observing the changes and taking in every new aspect about herself. Everything was beautiful. Her smooth alabaster coat accompanied by her long, pale, misty green mane and tail was quite a sight to see. Her eyes were a magnificent shade of scarlet. Above all other things one thing stood out to Twilight and the white mare...her cutiemark. The Mark was of a golden crown with one single black X beneath it. Twilight and the mare looked at the cutiemark and to each other in shock.