Setting Things Right

Sweetie Belle's face was frozen in time, the only sign of emotion being the constant flood of tears that streamed down her cheeks."Th-This has to be a joke…" Sweetie Belle sputtered out, barely above a whisper. "I-I just saw her a few days ago…" she uttered out, once again barely above a whisper.

Sweetie Belle's mother attempted to reach a hoof out to comfort her daughter as she spoke. "Sweetie Belle… I know this is-"

However, the moment her hoof touched her daughter's cheek and before she could finish her sentence, the unicorn recoiled. "Don't touch me!" she shrieked.

"Th-This is impossible! Applebloom wouldn't- she couldn't!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she paced back and forth now, tears still streaming from her eyes. "No, no, no...this is all wrong! Everything was supposed to be perfect after I changed things in the past!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed aloud, barely aware of her parents who were still there, wondering what she was talking about.

"This can't be real! It can't!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she continued to pace back and forth.

"I just hope you're prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions."

The Alicorn's words rang in Sweetie Belle's mind like a gong causing her to halt in place and stare into space for a time before she shook her head violently. "No! This isn't my fault!" Sweetie Belle shrieked suddenly causing her parents to exchange worried glances.

"Sweetie Belle… maybe you should sit down-!" Sweetie Belle's father began to say as he reached a hoof out and touched her only for the unicorn to suddenly and abruptly use her magic to thrust her father a short few feet across the room.

"I said, don't touch me!" Sweetie Belle shrieked at her father in anger only to give a stuttered gasp a mere second later in horror of her own actions.

Without another word, Sweetie Belle took a few steps backward, away from her parents, turned about face and ran out the front door.

In a flash of magic, Sweetie Belle appeared in a familiar scene. Only this time, she heard a soft sobbing from inside the clubhouse. Against her impulses, Sweetie Belle walked up the wooden plank and opened the door to see a quivering orange mass known as Scootaloo who was clutching a photograph of Applebloom.

"It-It's funny… before all of this, I always thought unicorns were the coolest thing in Equestria, I envied you." Scootaloo whispered as Sweetie Belle took a single step towards the Pegasus.

"Scootaloo I-"

"L-Let me finish!" The Pegasus snapped with a loathing stare at the unicorn for a second before she looked back at the photograph. "Th-Then Applebloom wanted to help you get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns with that spell book. I-I was against the idea at first but Applebloom convinced me it was a good idea…" She continued only to pause for a moment before she spoke once more.

"After the whole thing happened, I became terrified of magic, the sight of a horn glowing with a magic aura made me flee in terror for years… Th-Then three years ago, Applebloom tried to kill herself." Scootaloo said, pausing once again, making a few loud sniffling sounds before she continued speaking.

"I didn't know what to do to help her, I felt so useless and you were nowhere to be seen. S-So i tried my best to support her. I thought I was doing good and then... one year ago, on this exact day, she tried to kill herself again." Scootaloo said as she slowly stood up, revealing what looked to Sweetie Belle like a red colored beaded necklace.

"Scootaloo, I'm-" Sweetie Belle began to say only for the Pegasus to walk past her ignoring her words.

"F-Follow me." She whispered.

For a time, neither said a word, only the faint sounds of birds chirping to pierce the cold silence between the two as they walked past countless apple trees.

"I-I felt so useless all over again, and you still were nowhere to be seen. I grew desperate, I didn't know what to do. So I did something incredibly stupid." The Pegasus continued as the two continued to walk through the orchard.

Sweetie Belle wondered where her friend could be taking her but she didn't dare object, despite the unease and sadness she felt, she wanted to hear the end of her friend's tale.

"I-I slept with her." Scootaloo said and chuckled softly at the memory. "B-Best night of my life if I'm completely honest with myself." she said with a soft smile only for the frown to return moments later.

"By saying you slept with her, do you mean…?" Sweetie Belle couldn't help but ask despite herself.

"Yeah, I got her to use it on me." The pegasus confirmed and sighed heavily. "Turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life." Scootaloo continued as the two continued along, the apple trees were thinning out now and Sweetie Belle wondered if the two were nearing the edge of Apple Acres.

"How was that the biggest mistake of your life? I-I don't get it." Sweetie Belle asked looking mildly confused.

"Two things. One, Applebloom took that night the wrong way. She thought that by me sleeping with her that I cared about her in that way but I didn't. I wanted her to feel better about having it, I thought if she could use it, she might accept it as apart of her and get better, ya know?" Scootaloo replied and sighed.

"The second we didn't find out until three months later at Ponyville hospital after I landed especially hard on my stomach during one of our crusaders to find our special talents. I felt extreme pain in my belly and there was discoloration on my underside, worried we might have hurt me badly, we went to the hospital. Turns out…" Scootaloo said trailing off, almost intentionally.

"I was three months pregnant with her foal."

Upon hearing this, Sweetie Belle stopped in place, put a hoof to her mouth, and gasped as fresh tears formed in her eyes.

The Pegasus stopped herself and looked at the unicorn sadly. "Yeah, that's right, I miscarried our foal… and all for a stupid mark on my flank." Scootaloo said before she resumed walking to which Sweetie Belle continued walking.

"If I thought Applebloom was depressed before, she was a completely changed filly when we found this out. I hadn't seen her smile since that day until a couple days ago. She was wearing this exact kind of necklace too. Do you know what these are, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked as she gestured to the red beaded necklace.

The two now stood at what looked to be a steep cliff drop on the edge of Apple Acres. When Sweetie Belle shook her head the Pegasus chuckled once more and smiled, almost cruelly.

"They're Poprocks."

Upon hearing this, the unicorn's eyes shrank to pinpricks. "A-Are you insane?! If I had so much as channeled a fraction of magic into my horn-"

"These babies would have blown my head clear off. Yeah, I know." Scootaloo said as she looked at Sweetie Belle with smile that unnerved the filly to her core.

"Why are you doing this?!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, tears flinging from her eyes at random as she shouted these words.

"Do you wanna know what Applebloom's suicide note said?" Scootaloo asked, not bothering to answer the unicorn's previous question.

When Sweetie Belle didn't answer, Scootaloo lowered her head, contrasting her eyes, almost as if they had been erased from existence, leaving a dark shade over her the part of her face where her eyes should have been.

"Magic destroyed my life.

It's only fitting it take it away as well."

"You wanna know how she died?" Scootaloo asked softly as an eerie wind blew past the two fillies and spoke up once more before Sweetie Belle could speak. "She wore a necklace, just like this, and walked casually through town." She said coldly much to Sweetie Belle's horror as she pictured exactly the scenario in her head that Scootaloo laid out for her.

"Dinky had no idea what the necklace was and attempted to adjust it for her…" Scootaloo said her voice had grown distant and cold.

"I came looking for her and saw it…" Scootaloo said as she took a few steps back towards the edge of the cliff. "I'll never get the image out of my head, not that I want to. That image is my punishment, for failing her, as a friend." she said taking another step back towards the edge.

Sweetie Belle quickly picked up on what Scootaloo was planning and walked towards her only for Scootaloo to raise a hoof which froze her in her tracks.

"Don't come any closer!" Scootaloo exclaimed, the tears clearly seen streaking down her cheeks now. "I-I'll give you a choice, one Applebloom never got. You can either take my life here and now… or I'll take it myself." Scootaloo said as her hooves shook violently in place.

"Scootaloo, this isn't the way! I can fix this!" Sweetie Belle shrieked, as tears flowed freely from her eyes as well.

"With what? Magic?! That's what led us to this point, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo roared, fury flashing in her eyes as she snapped her gaze up to meet Sweetie Belle's.

Sweetie Belle lowered her head, her legs shook, her entire being seemed to shake.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way! We were supposed to all live our lives normally as friends!"

Sweetie Belle shrieked at the top of her lungs as she clenched her eyes shut, shook her head, snapped her eyes open, and stared at her friend as tears flung into the air with each shake of her head and word she spoke.

"Life is never fair, Sweetie Belle… the moment we try to take fate into our own hooves, it slips out of our grasp in ways we can scarcely imagine. Even now, I know this to be the truth. I know what my fate is and I know what punishment awaits me in the afterlife for failing Applebloom." Scootaloo said solemnly as she lowered her head back down and took another step back which caused her left hind hoof to nearly slip off the edge at which point the Pegasus let out a startled gasp as she snapped her gaze to the edge before she turned to look at Sweetie Belle with a look of desperation in them moments before her body tilted backward and over the edge.

"Scootaloo, NOOOO!" Sweetie Belle shrieked yet her cry was overshadowed by Scootaloo's ear piercing scream as the Pegasus plummeted only for it to be abruptly cut off a few seconds later by a distant yet sicken thud...

Sweetie Belle blasted the doors to the castle off their hinges as she trotted inside, tears flooding from her eyes much to the shock of Twilight who looked at her in mild shock. "Sweetie Belle, what are you doing?!" Twilight asked as the filly trotted past her without so much as recognizing her existence.

Without a word, the unicorn channeled magic into her horn and levitated the same book she had before only for it to be halted by Twilight's magic. "What in Equestria are you doing?!" Twilight asked once more.

"I'm fixing a mistake I made, now let the book go!" Sweetie Belle nearly shrieked at the Alicorn but she refused to. "I know the time travel scroll is in this book, Twilight!" She added as tears continued to stream from her eyes much to the shock of the Alicorn.

"How could you possibly know that?!" Twilight asked in astonishment only to shake her head. "Never mind that for now! Changing the past is never the solution!"

"Changing the past is why this is happening! Applebloom's dead, Scootaloo's dead, and the only way to bring them back is to set things right!" Sweetie Belle shrieked as she attempted the yank the book towards her only for Twilight to keep her hold on it.

"Scootaloo's dead?!" Twilight exclaimed in shock and horror nearly losing her magical grip on the book.

Sweetie Belle lowered her head still not letting her magical hold on the book go. "Don't make me fight you, Twilight."

"You talk as if you'd win." Twilight remarked aloud with a curious look at the filly.

"Maybe… maybe not. After all…" Sweetie Belle said trailing off before she snapped her gaze at the Princess of friendship.

"You trained me!"

The second after Sweetie Belle shouted these words, an eruption of magic flooded from the unicorn towards Twilight who disappeared in a flash of magic to evade the blast and reappeared a second later.

"She was able to cast such a destructive spell yet keep the book unharmed?" Twilight thought to herself in shock and awe of the charred remains of the library with exception of the book still held firmly in the unicorn's magical hold.

Sweetie Belle's fierce expression faded into a sad smile. "Horseapples! I was hoping to at least startle you enough to get you to let go of the book." Sweetie Belle said and sighed as she let her magical hold go of the book much to the surprise of the princess who stared at her with profound curiosity.

"So you never intended to-"

"No, it would be a cold day in Tartarus when I'd stand a chance against the princess of friendship. But if you don't let me fix my mistake, Twilight…" Sweetie Belle replied as she trailed off leading to a tense silence between the two.

"I'll be the next one to kill myself."

The unicorn's words shook Twilight to her core and somehow, deep inside, she knew them to be true. Reluctantly she levitated the book over to the filly and placed it at her hooves.

Sweetie Belle looked at Twilight, almost confused. "Y-You're going to let me?" She asked in mild shock.

"Well, I certainly can't stop you, now can I? If you really have changed the past once before as you say, the only reason you came back here is so you didn't violate the fourth law." Twilight said with a proud smile.

"To successfully revert any changes to the past, present, or future, the pony must cast the same spell in the exact same location under as similar circumstances as possible."

"You taught me well." Sweetie Belle said proudly as she levitated the book, opened it, took out the scroll, and channeled magic into her horn...

Sweetie Belle appeared in a flash of magic, just a few feet away from non-other than herself preparing to stop Applejack from entering the clubhouse. Without a second to lose, the filly cast the same spell her own self was about to cast on Applejack.

"If you go through with this, Scootaloo and Applebloom will die!" She whispered urgently.

The other Sweetie Belle gasped softly and was about to turn around to look at her other self when she was abruptly sucked into what seemed to be a wormhole. Sweetie Belle looked on, with a saddened expression as Applejack walked into the clubhouse and was promptly flung out seconds later as a flash of magic erupted from within it.

Sweetie Belle expected a wormhole to appear above her and suck her back to the present but instead the world around her seemed to fade out in a flash of light so bright that the filly was forced to shield her eyes from it.

When the light finally faded, Sweetie Belle lowered her hoof only to realize she stood back in the castle library, undamaged. Sweetie Belle quickly glanced at her underside and sighed heavily, in both relief and sadness as she sensed the presence of her very own cloaking spell.

The unicorn walked up to Twilight who seemed to beam at her. "There's no need to say a word. If you're standing here, that means you've learned your lesson." Twilight said with a warm smile.

"I sure did." Sweetie Belle said with a soft smile that abruptly turned into a frown as she lowered her head and walked past her mentor much to Twilight's confusion.

"This curse is mine to bare."

She said solemnly to which Twilight sighed as she shook her head as the filly left the castle.

"Well, she's got it half right at least. Maybe she'll get it completely right in time."

Author's Note

This fic ain't even close to being finished! The time travel arc was simply the "mid-point" of the fic.