“You see it, don’t you? All of it.”
Palette took her first step on the grass, trying her best to soften the landing so as to not damaged the beautiful blades under her hoof. However, no matter how light she made it, the grass crunched beneath the weight. She sighed, but her smile swiftly returned. “It’s...how did you do this?”
“I didn’t. You did. All I did was suggest.”
She took another step forward, followed by another. Before she knew it, she was sprinting up and down the cliffs, gazing at the pink sky smiling down on her and the green ocean swishing and swirling below. On the inside, she wanted to laugh so loudly the entire world would hear her joy. Everypony should feel this way right now. The feeling she felt was as close to pure, untarnishable elation as she might ever feel. However, a sudden thunder strike dimmed the bright sky and darkened the sun. The world jolted to black for a moment and reality struck down on her harshly. She realized that in the other world, she must’ve been sitting in her chair, smiling and giggling like a crazy mare. The very thought that Hilt saw that made her blush and shrink her body in humiliation.
“Whoa, hey. You alright?” Hilt’s comforting tone once again found a way to warm her once more. “What’s wrong?”
Palette took a deep breath to strengthen her composure. The darkness was still woven in her vision, blocking her view from the world she had already started to miss. “Just...just startled.”
“Good.” Another swift reply. “So, how’s the world looking?”
Strand by strand the darkness parted. The pitter-patter of rain had gotten softer and softer. Each passing second granted Palette a clearer vision of the world once more and before she knew it, she could hear the crashing of the waves again. She turned her head, trying her best to get a good look at the scenery around here. Only now did she realize something was missing. Or more precisely, somepony else.
“Hilt?” she spoke. Are you crazy? You have this world to yourself! You don’t need anypony else!
“Yeah?” The squeak of the chair signaled to Palette that he had leaned forward closer.
“This world…” Don’t you do it. It’s fine as it is. You know what happened last time. Palette felt a strand of mane fall in front of her face. But this time, she allowed it to stay. “It seems...well…” No turning back. “...empty.” Why?
“Oh? What’s missing? A house? You could imagine a log cabin. Always wanted to visit one of those.” Hilt’s speaking pace had started to increase. “Oh! Oh! What about...a...a beach? Sand so white that you spot a speck of dust a mile away!”
Who...who is this? Palette continued to listen to Hilt sprout more ideas. His voice was more animated than any voice she had heard before. And the more she heard his passionate ideas, the wonders that she could create, the warmer her chest got and the brighter her smile, and world, became.
“Actually,” she interrupted, finally brushing the strand of mane away from her face. “I think this world is missing somepony else.”
Suddenly the chatter grinded to a halt. Not even a second had passed when Palette’s mind started to go quickly out of control. Stupid stupid stupid. How could you say such a thing? I was right wasn’t I? He is just like the rest. Just like the past.
“So, want some company?” Hilt reacted as if nothing different had been said, continuing to speak in his upbeat tone. “I would love to be there.”
She stood, frozen on the hilltops. Her mouth opened and her jaw moved, but no words came out. Her once organized thoughts had been thrown into a frantic disarray. They bounced off the sides of her mind, trying to rethink the words she had just supposedly heard. “I...y-yeah. Yeah, sure. I-I wouldn’t mind too.” Palette tried her best to play it as if he was the one that offered, though at the end of her sentence her faux confidence had shedded its skin and her voice cracked. After all, what’s a creation without its creator?
“S-so what do you look like?”
“A stallion.” Laughter soon followed, but only from his. Once he had noticed the mare across him had not joined in, his voice softened once more. “I have a silver mane. Short and spiky. Really spiky. My mom would tell me I could poke somepony’s eyes out with my mane alone!” And once more, laughter followed.
She had wanted to giggle as well, but all of her focus was on the empty spot beside her. She allowed the description to flow through her mind, entwining it with as vivid of an image as she could conjure. Slowly, she saw the grey outline of a stallion form from the ground up to her right. The faint lines grew thicker as the seconds ticked by. When it had been fully formed, Palette listened to the description of the mane he had given and sure enough, short and spiky hair had grown and rested atop the still empty stallion outline. Its silver shade glistening like moonbeams under the glow of the sun.
“I...I see it. I-I mean I see you. Sort of.” Palette was now at a lost. She had never had a problem with finding the right words for a conversation, even though she, at most, was only able to get a line in. Yet here she was, stumbling on the simplest of sentences to the pony that had created a world filled with color. She thought of words to describe her feelings to him. Grateful. Thankful. Indebted. Yet none of the words even came close to expressing how amazing she felt. Gratitude? No...no that’s worse.
A soft chuckle shattered her train of thought, clearing her mind as Hilt spoke, “my coat. Well, umm...light blue. Cyan, kinda. It’s hard to describe. Sort of like…”
And out came the examples. One after another Hilt listed objects which he thought would be the color of his coat. The color of a faded blue tulip. The color of his sky if someone had bleached it even lighter than it was. The color of the water in the river that was being cut by a rock as it flowed down the current. “That sort of blue.”
Her mind went blank for a moment, but slowly, she started to go through one of the countless examples he had given. A faded blue tulip. Several had sprouted around her, going through their entire blooming cycle in seconds until the flower stood tall and proud. As she gazed on the petals of the newly born tulip, she saw the faint cerulean blue that shaded each leaf and immediately understood what Hilt was trying to say. A splash of blue fell onto the outlined stallion, coloring him from head to hoof.
There we go. I hope it’s the right blue. Not like I would— Her thoughts were cut short by more words flooding her head. “Got it? It’s the best I could explain it.”
She gazed at the figure to the side, missing only his eyes and tail. “Y-yeah. Yeah. Now, your tail.”
“Silver with black.” The reply was instant. “Kinda unkempt. Some strands kinda just...are curving around. Guess that’s what you get when you’re a weather pony.”
A tail sprouted from the the stallion’s rear and, just like his mane, glittered almost hypnotically in the sun. Two streaks of jet black raced through the middle and trailed it all the way down to its end.
“Eyes?”
“Yes, I do have eyes.” The words, and the laughter that followed, tore a small wound into Palette’s heart. She didn’t want to be offended by such a comment. However, she couldn’t help it. It was almost instinctual after the many insults that had been tossed at her by other, less easygoing ponies. She took a breath and spoke.
“I-I mean, what color are your eyes?”
“Lilac.” Palette waited for more descriptions like the rest of his answers but a soft silence consumed them both.
Purple. Lilac. She continuously repeated those two words in her mind, staring at the pupils of the stallion beside her. Slowly, a bright purple had started to fill them from the brim to the top. And all of a sudden, the eyes blinked.
Palette leapt back a little, gasping. The once lifeless form had started to move its hooves. Its mane flowed in the wind as it gave its wings a spread. It shut its eyes tight, testing the grass beneath its hooves.
“I...I think I see you.” She muttered under her breath, almost afraid that he would have heard those few words. She continued to watch the stallion stretch and move its new limbs, eyes still shut. Approaching it slowly, she softly spoke. “H-hello?”
His eyes slowly opened. However, this time, Palette saw something that shock her to her soul. His eyes were cloudy, as if a faint white film had been pressed over his irises. She knew what this meant and it was only confirmed by the way he was aimlessly looking around. She stood idly by, a swirl of shock, horror and happiness bubbling within her.
“How do I look?” He asked with a smile.
This time, Palette gave a sympathetic smile. She lightly tapped her new friend on the shoulder, causing him to turn and face her. Gazing back at the emerald waters, she replied, “you look...like yourself.”
Hilt grinned , taking a few steps around the cliff. “Such a beautiful place really should be given a name, don’t you think?”
The gears in her mind had started to turn once more, churning out letters and names that would fit. “Chrome? Chroma?” she whispered under her breath. “Indigo? Or…”
“Spect…” Hilt started, but stopped midway. He tapped his hoof to his chin, turning his head up to the candy-colored sky.
Palette’s working mind stopped suddenly and a smile crossed her face. She turned towards Hilt, watching as the stallion was still racking his brain. “Spectrum.”
He turned towards her, his mouth growing into an even bigger smile. “That’s...that’s perfect!”
A compliment. She closed her eyes, hearing the thumping of her heart. A strange feeling had started to overcome her, a sort of warmth. For the first time in a long while, she felt like she was worth something. That she had contributed something, instead of sitting idly by at the corner of the world where nopony noticed her.
“Well, ‘Spectrum’ is yours now.” Hit blankly gazed out to the sea he could not see.
“It’s a little lonely for just me,” she sat down on the grass, huddling her hooves to her chest.
“Well, then.” Turning back to Palette, he gave a confident smile of his own. “Let is be ours.”
She had lost track of the events after he spoke those words. Time had seemed inconsequential, for the sun that hung never seemed to move from its spot. Not that she minded though. With each sip of the warm chocolate in her cup, the sunlight only grew stronger. He had begun to answer a few questions as they sat on the cliff's edge. Questions about his life as a weather pegasus. As a stallion in Ponyville.
"Haha, no. Nothing that serious. I had been scolded was test flying one of the prototype flight propulsion devices. Luckily I kept my job." He turned his attention towards his hooves. She watched intently as he twiddled them around one another. "Looking back, I probably should have lost it. No idea why they kept me."
Neither do I. Her head rang out the words, Palette opened her mouth to speak them. However, she quickly forced it shut, breathing a sigh of relief that she managed to control the horrifyingly cynical reply. How can you think of saying such things!? She started to reprimand her thoughts, as if talking to somepony else. After all he's done... You wouldn't be here in the first place if it weren't for him! The voice argued back, shocking her to her core.
"Palette? You've gone quiet again." Hilt's voice cleared Palette's head a little, enough for her to regain her grip on her conscious mind.
"Sorry, I was just... thinking. About... some things." She stuttered, hugging herself softly.
"So what do you like to do?"
"What do I like... to do?" Palette gave several blinks to the stallion beside her. Unsurprisingly, he did not do the same. His attention was still drawn to his hooves.
"Yeah! Like... Hobbies. I love flying for instance."
She remained silent, not a word exiting her mouth. Her mind tried to stave the rush of thoughts that threatened to enter her mind. Memories of learning to hold a brush, of learning the keys of a piano, the notes of a family tune and much much more. Her efforts were fruitless. The memories tore through her weak mental dam and flooded her mind.
"Palette, you've gone sile-"
"How's the rain?" She quickly shifted the topic, stifling her coming tears.
"Umm, a light drizzle now. We can go back to where you live. Who's with you?"
"My... my mother." She answered, turning away to wipe a stray tear. Spectrum had started to dissolve at that very moment. As if someone had cut the threads that created this masterpiece, the sky, sea and ground unravelled, fading into the darkness that once again consumed her sight.
"Well, we should get you home. She must be worried sick." The grating sound of Hilt's chair scraping against the wooden floor as it was pushed back resonated throughout the room.
Her heart paused for a moment once she had heard what Hilt had said. Mom... She had been so focused on her emotions and the fact that she could finally see, that she had completely forgotten about her mother's feelings. She must be panicking!
Palette shot up from her seat , scrambling to the door. "We need to go! Please, I live 96 Frost Road. I... I need help." She closed her eyes for a moment, not wanting to believe the last three words she had just spoken. However, the current situation left her little choice.
This is the part where he laughs at you. Her composure started to crack, her eyes shut tight as she braced for the coming impact.
“Come on then, I know the way.” She felt a hoof grab hers and lead her out onto the streets. Tiny droplets of water hitting her coat. “Just trust me.”
She allowed herself to be lead by this stranger she had met mere hours ago, her mind focused on the words he had just spoken. Trust me…
Before she realized, she heard two knocks on a door, almost immediately followed by the sharp creak of the hinges. Palette was sure they reached. “Palette! Oh dear! Oh no, I was terrified that something might’ve happened to you!” Her mother dragged her into a hug, tightening it the longer it lasted.
“I’m...I’m fine, mom!” She tried to gasp out, feeling the air sap from her lungs.
“Thanks to this stallion I presume?” Her mother released her grasp on her, letting her gasp for air just in time to hear Hilt’s chuckle.
“I just did my job, ma’am. Brought her to safety at the Ponyville weather facility. Other than being caught in a little bit of a downpour, she’s perfectly fine,” he explained.
“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that you saved her from being caught in the downpour. Thank you…”
“Hilt!” Both he and Palette shouted the name simultaneously. There was several seconds of silence and she didn’t need sight to know that they were both staring at her, bringing out a faint pink blush on her cheeks.
“Hilt Guard, ma’am,” he continued.
“Well, Hilt. Thank you again. If there’s anything you need, don’t you hesitate to find us alright? We...we can’t provide a lot, but—”
“It’s fine, ma’am.” Palette could already imagine him raising his hoof. “But may I ask a question?”
You just did. The cynical voice spoke once more in her mind. She quickly slapped the thought away, before it could reach her next breath of air.
“Certainly.” Her mother replied without hesitation.
“Did you not know about the Thunderstorm Clearing? We broadcast it on all newspapers, radios and more to households.” She felt a small burning anger inside her. She understood that Hilt did not know how personal that question was, but that didn’t change the fact that Palette already knew what the answer would lead.
“Sorry Hilt, but we don’t have radios or even newspapers delivered to our home any longer. We have enough for the rent and essentials but...that’s about it. Not two bits more than that.” Her mother answered in a slightly more sombre tone.
“I understand. You work as a…” Hilt lead the question, awaiting for an answer.
“Dance instructor, Hilt. Oh, oh my goodness. I have totally forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Pointe!”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Pointe.” I bet he’s giving her that smile. Whether that thought was from bitterness or happiness, she couldn’t say. “I better get going. Need to meet up with the rest of the weather pegasi.”
“You’re welcome here anytime, I hope you know that.”
There was another chuckle. “I do now. Thank you for the offer.”
“Would you like a drink on the way back?” Pointe offered.
“No, no thanks. I have enough back at the facility.” Hilt politely declined. “I’ll see you soon ma’am. And you too Palette!” The door had started to creak, when she realized something important. She rushed up to the door.
“Hilt?”
“Huh? Oh, yes Palette?”
“...Spectrum it’s… it’s gone.” She blinked several times, but no color came into her vision. “How do I get it back?”
“It’s never gone, Palette. Just a little lost. Give yourself sometime, maybe at that spot at the park you like so much.” She shrunk herself down a little, hoping her mother didn’t hear that. “You’ll find it. I know you will.” With that, his hoofsteps got further and further, before disappearing entirely.
“Dear, what was that about?” Her mother asked, pulling her lightly inside as she closed the front door.
“Nothing, mom,” she lied, heading into her room and laying on her bed. She buried her face in the pillow, mumbling into it, “I just wish I could see again.”