It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres was filled with ripe, lush fruit. A rainbow was spread over the sky and everything seemed perfectly fine.
Sweetie Belle awoke in her room, jumping up, combing her mane, and magicing her saddlebag onto her flanks without stopping to do anything. She came up the stairs singing a song to find Rarity making home-made cream donuts. "Hello, Sweetie Belle! Breakfast is almost ready!"
"Thanks, Rarity! I need to have a really good breakfast if I'm going to crusade today!" Rarity frowned. "I'm terribly sorry, Sweetie Belle, but your friends won't be able to crusade today." Sweetie Belle could be seen tearing up at her sister's remark, but she replied with a quiet, "Why not?"
"Applebloom is finally old enough to help with the Apple family's harvest, and Scootaloo is sick today." Sweetie Belle nodded thoughtfully, but then her eyes lit up. "Cutie Mark Crusader Surprise Planner!" she yelled, grabbing a donut. She ate it quickly and sped away.
"GOODBYE, RARITY!"
Sweetie Belle raced through town. "Hi Miss Cheerilee!" she yelled to her schoolteacher. Cheerilee waved back. Sweetie Belle also stopped to say hi to others. Pinkie Pie gave her a lollipop and she sucked on it as she went. "Sucking too hard on your lollipop or love's gonna get you down!" she sang as she went.
Reaching the Evening forest, she saw her chance. There were birds to sing to. She took the chance with grace and sat there singing.
It wasn't long before there was a noise. Then another. Soon enough, she realized the whole forest was falling around her. But why?
This question was answered when she saw the assailant. A creature with a serpent's tail, one pegasus wing, one bat wing, a pony's hoof, a lizard's foot, hawk's talon, lion's paw, moose's antler, bull's horn and very crazy eyes. The creature had an axe in its talon and was hacking away at a tree. "Discord!"
"Oh, hello, Sweetie Belle! Just making more room for nonsense in Equestria!" Discord continued chopping until it was hard to breathe.
Sweetie Belle sucked in a shaky breath and curled up in a ball, knowing she would suffocate here. If she did, she wanted to remember everypony who made her life complete. Marking a rock with magical green ink, she wrote, "Rarity. Scootaloo. Applebloom. Babs Seed. Mommy. Daddy." Darkness grew around her, but she saw two plum purple eyes. "Run! Go!" the mare yelled, but she was a second too late. Discord's last tree, a pine, fell. It toppled on to Sweetie Belle, a branch stabbing her flank, the heavy trunk breaking bones. Tears leaked out of her eyes and intermingled with her blood. She levitated the tree with her weakening magic and moved it so it wouldn't crush her backbone.
"Are you okay?" Sweetie Belle felt the weight of the tree lifted off of her back and an orange mare scooped the filly up. She nodded and coughed, splattering her white coat with blood. Then, she blacked out.
Such terrible dreams followed that night in the hospital. Dreams of her friends dying in the forest, Discord stalking her and her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. Little did she know that these nightmares would live forever in her brain.
At one point, Luna saw Sweetie Belle huddling on a cold, dark laboratory floor in a dream. She trotted up to the filly and stroked the blood-spattered coat with a touch like falling snow. "Discord has hurt you far beyond repair. But remember, young filly, that doesn't mean you can't try to fix it." Luna's horn glowed and Sweetie Belle's dream rippled away. "Try!" Luna yelled.
Sweetie Belle awoke in the hospital, bandaged and bloody, but alive. The nurse gave her a syrupy concoction that nursed her pain. Many friends came and went. Rarity, eyes spilling with tears. Twilight, reassuring her that she was alright. Fluttershy, crying and stroking Sweetie Belle's disheveled mane. Rainbow Dash, giving her a sympathetic smile. Applejack, telling her that she was brave and strong. Pinkie Pie, with a "Get Well Soon" card. Applebloom, teary-eyed and shaky. Scootaloo, pink-spotted and feverish. One visitor stood out. It was a light, pumpkin-colored earth pony with a scarlet mane and familiar plum purple eyes. "You're lucky. And the sweetest, bravest filly I've met."
She smiled weakly. "Thank you. What's your name?" She broke into a coughing fit afterwards and the mare waited until it died down.
"I'm Sunset Berry."
Scootaloo sat by the bed. The spots on her body were turning scarlet, close to her coat color, but she still had a pounding headache, stomachache, and chills. "Hush now, quiet now, time to lay your sleepy head." She sang like a mother to her best friend. Sweetie Belle wrapped her hooves around the orange pegasus and lay there. They sat for a long time, Scootaloo singing, until the pegasus gasped. "Sweetie Belle! Your Cutie Mark!" She did have a Cutie Mark, a pink heart with a music note on it. "Too bad this scar ruins it." There was a bloody gash about an inch long on her right flank. "But at least you have it. It'll be special forever." Sweetie Belle nodded, but then yelped in pain. Her broken ribs had contracted to the gesture. But she still said something. "Cutie Mark Crusaders history." Nurse Redheart came in with a serving of applesauce for Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo left, much to Sweetie Belle's chagrin. She wanted her to stay there until she fell asleep and sing again in the morning.
Nightmares still loom over Sweetie Belle's head in the night, but Sunset Berry's comment and Luna's advice give her confidence now, after her life was shattered into a million tiny pieces like stars. She has tried to arrange these pictures, and very little broken parts of her life remain. Some are normal, like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, some she can't fix, like the limp and scars and nightmares. But her life has returned to (mostly) normal days.
One thing remains. She will never see Ponyville in the same light ever again.
