Sweetie Belle glanced at her packed bags with pride. She couldn't wait to see the look on Rarity's face! Sweetie had packed every single thing she needed; toothbrushes, brushes, notebooks, manuals, pencils, you name it. And she zipped it all up, banishing it to the dark of the inside of her saddlebags in a matter of minutes.
However, the saddle bags weren't as organized as Sweetie Belle wanted.
It was a mess.
When Sweetie Belle realized this, she chuckled sheepishly and checked one of the bags. The bag had a few empty journals within it, pens and pencils were scattered throughout the saddlebag. Bookmarks were bent inside a small pocket in the container. After some poking and prodding, however, the materials lay peacefully inside the bag. Sweetie Belle copied her actions with the other bag, it only a slightly bit messier than the one before.
Sweetie finished, then showed a checklist taped to her bedroom wall her big green eyes. She squeaked in a soft, high pitched voice. "Twilight was right, checklist sure are useful!" Only one item was left unchecked. Go to Zecora's! Of course, she had to say goodbye to her at-work big sister, Rarity.
Sweetie Belle skipped down the stairs to the work room - Rarity called it the work room even though it was originally supposed to be called the living room. Eventually Sweetie Belle caught on, and the business area was elected as hang-out place.
"I'm gonna go now, Rarity! I'll see you later!" she exclaimed as she continued out the door. She managed to hear a faint, "okay, goodbye, dear. Have a nice day," coming from the inside of the boutique. Sweetie called the voice Rarity, as she was the only one left in the building.
Bye the time Sweetie Belle made it to the edge of the Everfree Forest, where Zecora lived, she noticed that no adult was with her. As she pondered on it, then Sweetie Belle came to a conclusion that Rarity wouldn't have let her go off alone if she couldn't survive on her own, up until she came across Zecora. Thus she continued her way into the nasty-looking woods.
. . .Then Sweetie Belle paused again and dug into her saddlebags. She perked up when she saw her hoof holding a thick manual titled "How to enter the Everfree Forest Without Scaring Your Life." Sweetie glanced at the table of contents, then turned to page 297, which was around the middle of the book itself. Sweetie Belle read the words out loud carefully and slowly.
"To avoid being attacked and/or eaten by a timberwolf, carefully trot to your destination. Walking creates an uncomfortable silence for timberwolves, which makes them automatically suggest something is there. A slow trot makes a sound similar to that of other timberwolves. A pack of timberwolves will most likely ignore a timberwolf on their own, which means you would be safe. Please turn to page 376 to learn how to prevent being ambushed by crackodiles."
Well, that sounded easy enough! A slow trot, just enough energy to make a soft clop. She could definitely do that!
Sweetie Belle began her careful trot into the forest. She almost tripped a few times, due to the massive amount of decaying plants and animals on the floor of the Everfree. There was barely any space to walk. But then again, she wasn't a resident of the forest, so she couldn't complain.
Sweetie also had to avoid touching the poison joke littering the area she walked in. Even just the tiniest stroke across one would give her a terrible day - just like how a jellyfish catches its fresh snack.
Speaking of which, she recalled Rarity wailing about the "death of glamor," which Sweetie Belle didn't really care about at all. Using that as an example of what could happen, Sweetie stared at a small patch of poison joke growing in front of her. But then again, her fate could be anything, so she continued on to Zecora's place.
Zecora's hut. Sweetie Belle remembered Applebloom telling her how to get there in case stuff happens. She also added that she's a pretty awesome tooth doctor, but Sweetie Belle didn't have any cavities. Well, yet. Or not. Maybe so. Did Zecora have proper plumbing? Or a sink, for that matter?
. . .Probably not.
She did live in the Everfree Forest, after all.
Sweetie Belle tripped over a dead log. The impact came with a soft "oomf!" and a little bruise on the right side of her stomach. She lay there for a bit glaring at the log, then rolled her eyes. Moaning, Sweetie crawled back up onto her hooves and rubbed to newly formed bruise. Looking up, she saw a rather large, mucky tree with vines hanging from its branches. It was probably a few yards away, which Sweetie Belle could handle.
She quietly walked over to the dirty hut. It was a bad decision. A growl was heard behind her. That's just unreasonable! Quiet for a split second? It has to be lunch! Sweetie Belle groaned as she knocked on the dark-brown door. She heard a small, "I shall be there, but I must be fair and finish this flare," a tiny moment later.
Sweetie Belle turned to a timberwolf. "Ugh! Why do timberwolves" - Sweetie face-hoofed - "have to eat ponies!?" She glanced at the log she recently tripped over. Rushing over to it, she picked it up with her horn manualy and threw it over to the timberwolf. When the log hit the dirt of the forest floor, the timberwolf stared at it in shock. Then it started hugging it. And kissing it.
It was Sweetie's turn to stare in shock. Well, I guess it made a tiny bit of sense that timberwolves mated with dead logs. Only a tiny bit.
Blegh!
The timberwolf fled with his newly wedded wife. Zecora opened the door Sweetie Belle knocked on a few minutes ago. She spoke in her traditional zebra rhyme, "whatever is the matter? I heard quite some clatter." Zecora motioned Sweetie to come inside.
Following inside, she shortly told Zecora she was attacked by a timberwolf. "Really? Were the effects dreary?"
"Well, before the ambush I got a bruise from a dead log, and after the ambush the dead log saved my life by marrying the timberwolf.
". . .Oh."
"So, I just. . .?" Sweetie Belle trailed off. Zecora face-hoofed. "Oh! I focus my energy" - she nodded silently as Sweetie spoke - "and. . .then think of something happening?" She finished, obviously unsure. Zecora sighed and began to rhyme.
"No, you have to think that it happening is a must, or casting magic will always end in a bust," she answered Sweetie Belle. Said pony nodded and continued. Zecora suggested to try to levitate a twig she found outside her hut. Being the obedient filly she was, Sweetie Belle nodded. Sparks flew from her tiny horn, but they never grew into the impressive amazement Sweetie had hoped for. She sighed and tried again. This time more sparks appeared, but killed themselves again for most likely no reason.
However, Sweetie Belle was not the kind of foal that would give up in a situation like this. She could do it! All she had to do was believe in herself, after all! Well, Sweetie also had to think she had to levitate the twig, or it wouldn't work. Wait.
She wasn't doing that at all! Come on, Sweetie Belle, don't be a dummy!
Sweetie Belle tried again, but this time no sparks appeared at all. She stopped the hoof on the non-bruised side of her stomach. Zecora looked at her like a teacher would to a student that answered the question wrong.
"Sweetie Belle, you aren't thinking it is a must, now it turned into a complete bust," Zecora explained. Sweetie guessed she meant a different kind of bust. Really. There was a broken princess Cadence bust of the floor of the hut. Sweetie Belle blushed sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.
She slowly exclaimed, "oops. Sorry. I'll clean that up for you, Zecora." Sweetie rushed over to a near-bye broom and returned to Zecora with it. How she knew where it was Zecora would never know. Foal spirit, she guessed.
"That is quite kind, but save that for later, there is something we must find," Zecora said suddenly. Sweetie stared at her.
"Huh?"
"Please, come."
"Uh, okay," Sweetie Belle agreed slowly. She followed Zecora out the door of her hut and soon she was surrounded by the cold, nasty feeling of the Everfree Forest. It was just like a few hours ago, sharp shrieks of woodland critters and patches of poison joke. Zecora trotted up to one. She examined the flowers for a short moment, then turned to Sweetie.
"I need a bag. I'll be right back, I won't have lag." Zecora trotted back to her hut and soon returned with a small loosely-hung together back made of cloth. She scooped up some poison joke.
"Sweetie Belle, I think I know why your horn is being a pain. Either you couldn't do magic since your were born, or I do not know," Zecora told her as she motioned Sweetie Belle to come with her, back to the hut.
"Disability?"
"Possibly."
"Then what is the poison joke for?" Sweetie asked Zecora.
"If stirred just right, the poison joke will let me see what's occurred." She shook the bag over a cauldron as stray petals fluttered down, and the poison joke that was fully-intact gave in to the force of gravity quickly. Zecora poured in a milky white liquid.
There was a short breath of awkward silence. Sweetie Belle failed the Quiet Game when she asked Zecora a question. "So. . . I gotta drink that?" Zecora nodded when she spit out the large club she was stirring with.
"Don't worry, it all becomes liquid. You shouldn't taste or feel the poison joke," she explained as she dropped purple petals into the cauldron. The strange mix inside it turned bright orange, then a minute later turned green. Sweetie did not want to drink something green. Not only did Rarity rub off on her, but the color green was also stereotypically known as a gross color to drink.
Thankfully, when Zecora poured blue powder into the mix, it changed color. A long session of stirring followed. What was in that potion she was maki-
"Finished."
That was fast, for the taking-my-time Zecora. Said zebra scooped some of the liquid into an empty bottle. Zecora waved her striped hoof over the opening, then the liquid finalized with the color white.
"White means the potion has a large effect," she told Sweetie Belle. That made sense, since a few weeks ago Twilight turned a potion white, too. I guess Zecora could turn this kind of potion white, then.
Zecora instructed her to drink it. Sweetie Belle glanced at her for a bit, then blinked and turned to the potion. As her hooves held the glass filled with white liquid, she move her mouth forward, and it all happened so fast. The white liquid vanished from the bottle, and Sweetie Belle embarrassingly burped rather loudly
"Er. . . Excuse me," said Sweetie. Zecora nodded and smiled.
The next thirty seconds were the weirdest in all of Sweetie Belle's life. But apparently, whatever happened within that thirty seconds, made a well-sized tablet made of stone, with words written in a foreign language Sweetie did not know of. She went ahead and guessed it was Zebrian, seeing Zecora reading it with no hesitation or struggle.
"How was that a large effect?" Sweetie Belle asked. Zecora set the tablet on a near bye table and turned to her.
"It conjured up a special thing, with words worth a diamond ring," said Zecora.
"Really? What does it say?"
"yunakaja limeif cijlon ter faundek fu, jaiu ijulipya qiuiaom werdouib ," she answered. "Translation: 'She continues to capture a magic's stress, thus the power proceeds to rest." Sweetie Belle nodded.
"But what does capturing a magic's stress mean?"
"Your mind does not let you harness true magic, probably a disability, it is truly quite tragic. I, however, know of a way, a way to make magic obey you without pay," Zecora replied.
"How, Zecora?"
"Rhymes."
"Rhymes. . .?"
"Yes," Zecora assured her. Sweetie Belle looked at the tablet, then back at her. And then again. And again. She finally looked down to the ground and sighed.
"I'm terrible at rhyming," she whimpered. Zecora looked at her with a wise, motherly smile.
"Sweetie Belle, you will not be one to rhyme forever. Only until your magic taps in, and that is not a never," said Zecora. "But look, look at the sun, it sets, and Timberwolves remain on the run. It is time for your being to sleep, or else when the sun rises you will be troubled, and in a heap."
Sweetie Belle looked out one of Zecora's hut windows, and saw hundreds - no, millions - of pink, purple, yellow, and blue ribbons filling the sky with wonder. It looked as a rainbow had exploded, spreading its variety of colors across the once one-colored sky. It was beautiful, even with the muck of the Everfree Forest trees sharing the view.
Zecora told Sweetie to follow her to a guest bedroom. It was rather small compared to her old one, but it was nice and warm, cozy too. And she felt safe around Zecora, she being full of wisdom and knowledge of their setting.
The bed had a timber-twig frame, with a mattress most-likely made in ponyville. The sheets had a not-so-saturated dark green, but Sweetie Belle thought it looked like a fine green, something Rarity might have slapped her across the face if she said that. Okay, maybe I'm over-exaggerating this a bit. . .
When Sweetie Belle got under the covers, it seemed like eternity she stared at the now mostly salt-sprinkled sky. The last few strands of sunset vanished before her eyes, and the deep indigo of the night swept her away from reality. It was as if she was completely erased from Equestria, and became the flowing breeze.
She was no longer in the Everfree Forest, but past the moon. Past the stars. Light-years away from her home land. Sweetie Belle became the air, the air she breathed; and the sky that slept in a night gown of dark blue. Whisked away from her planet she was, and before her consciousness disappeared into the endless sea of stars, she became everything. Everything to exist. Every molecule of air, every particle of sand, every strand of string, every big and small beating heart.
Before Sweetie Belle could no longer see Equestria, she became one with peace. She flew into space without her troubles, without her body, without her mind. She was millennia in a minute, the largest star in the night sky.
Sweetie was there; sun, the moon, the planets, the constellations. She was time; past, present, future, and then back again. The world spinning slower, and slower, then ever so slower. An imaginary clock's ticking slowed, and Equestria disappeared behind another planet, frozen. Everything suddenly, so suddenly, stopped. The stars vanished. The comets flickered away without a trace, and then Sweetie Belle was alone.
All alone.
Her vision faded away as the covers of her bed drew closer to her. Then, the not-there clock stopped with a final tick. Her green eyes closed for the rest of the dark sky. It all faded away, and darkness fell from sky-scraper height.
Sweetie Belle breathed in slowly and softly, and she fell asleep.
