Chapter one: Miracles are in the simplest things
“She went to the widow and glanced outside where her future lay.”
Scootaloo read the sentence out loud, which made Sweetie Belle emerge from her contemplation.
“What does it mean ?” asked Scootaloo.
“I don’t know. Nothing, it’s not important.” answered the little filly.
“Come on Sweet’, you have been staring at that sentence for hours ! You can’t tell me it’s not important.”
But Sweetie Belle really didn’t think it was something that mattered or worth noticing. In fact, she was pretty surprised to hear that she had spent so much time thinking about it. Or maybe she had just fallen asleep or thought of something else with no relation whatsoever to the sentence.
Scootaloo made her notice that Cheerilee was looking at her and she quickly went back to work, hiding the piece of paper with the sentence she had written away.
When school was (finally) over, the three cutie mark crusaders left together as they always used to.
“Okay, so what are we going to try today?” asked Applebloom. “Did we already try scuba diving? It sounds like fun.”
“We tried that two weeks ago, you almost drown, remember?” answered Scootaloo. “But we haven’t tried pyrotechnician. We could borrow some big fireworks to Pinkie Pie and then go try them in a calm spot, like, say, Fluttershy’s cottage. What do you think Sweetie Belle?”
That’s when Scootaloo, and Applebloom for that matter, noticed that Sweetie Belle wasn’t listening at all. She was reading over and over a screwed piece of paper with only one sentence written on it.
“That again?” asked Scootaloo. “You haven’t thrown that thing away already? We have very important stuff to discuss.”
“I’m sorry guys. I just wanted to read it again before I get rid of it. But that’s a wonderful idea you had Scootaloo, I’d love to huh… Did you propose something involving fire and Fluttershy’s cottage? Because I think it would be a terrible idea.”
Scootaloo got upset over the whole thing, mostly because she thought it was preposterous to even imagine she would ever propose something in those lines.
“Okay” she said, “give me that paper, I’ll deal with it so that you won’t say stupid things again.”
When she heard those words, some tears suddenly appeared in Sweetie Belle’s eyes and her voice began to tremble with a mixed tone of anger and sadness.
“I’m not stupid, my sentence isn’t stupid ! You’re stupid !” she responded to Scootaloo who was more than surprised by Sweetie Belle’s reaction.
Sweetie Belle began to run away from the two other fillies when she added:
“Just leave me alone, and leave her alone !”
She left her two friends just like that, with no other explanations, if we can consider there had been any explanation at all. Which led Applebloom to wonderfully sum up their mutual feeling:
“What the hay just happened?”
Chapter two: Protect it and protect yourself
Sweetie Belle took refuge at the carrousel boutique, because it was nearer and, in her flood of emotion, it felt like a heartwarming place. Even more, she kind of wanted to see her sister, to be reassured and get the moral support she needed.
It would be, however, just pointing the obvious that Sweetie Belle didn’t analyzed the situation that way and just thought it was the nearest and safest place to go. Children rarely admit their dependency to others, adults almost never do.
Rarity was there, working on one of her fashion lines. But she had gotten pretty far in her work and had, in her mind at least, some free time she could use in any way she wanted. So she was able to notice Sweetie Belle’s arrival and, more importantly, notice how troubled she seemed to be. She immediately stopped working and went to her little sister.
“What’s wrong Sweetie Belle.” asked Rarity, “You look like you had to run and have been sweating. Oh, have you been sweating? We should prepare you a bath immediately! Or no, even better, we could go to the spa together. What do you think? I could probably use some good care myself. After all, I didn’t get any since yesterday.”
But as Sweetie Belle didn’t seem to enjoy the idea and, even more, just didn’t answer and just looked at her with a very sad face that was failing to fake a smile, Rarity got back to earth and asked her, feeling it was more important than she thought:
“Please, tell me what happened. I see you’ve been through something terrible and you know I’m here to help you.”
Sweetie Belle hugged her sister and began to explain the best she could, slowly letting her tears flow.
“I was with Scootaloo and Applebloom and we were discussing, but then Scootaloo said I was stupid and Applebloom was there and I told Scootaloo that she was stupid but I didn’t think she was but she had been so mean and I just ran away…”
The explanations took some time, because Sweetie Belle wasn’t really fully aware of the real reason why she had gotten all worked up or just didn’t want to admit it. But after enough time and thanks to Rarity’s infinite patience, she gave in that Scootaloo probably wasn’t calling her stupid and that she had overreacted.
Rarity reacted properly and explained to Sweetie Belle that she was probably feeling guilty, which would explain why she was sad. Sweetie Belle agreed. But then, Rarity’s curiosity led her to ask why the word stupid was used in their conversation and, in the end, what had been the cause of all this.
It took some more time, but Sweetie Belle finally showed her big sister the screwed piece of paper with the sentence she had written on it:
“She went to the widow and glanced outside where her future lay.”
Rarity noticed almost immediately the mistake Sweetie Belle had made with the word “window”, but understood that it probably wasn’t the problem.
“What is it” asked Rarity.
“I don’t know.” answered Sweetie Belle. “It’s just something I wrote in class today.”
“But why are you keeping it?” continued Rarity, “It doesn’t seem to mean anything. What is that window, who is going to it, what future is it about?”
“I really don’t know sis’, I swear.” answered the little filly. “I just wrote it like that.”
Rarity didn’t understand what was going on. She couldn’t recall having experienced such a thing herself, even if she was probably in a good position to. In fact she already had, several times, but without anybody asking about it. So she went for the most logical conclusion she could find:
“Well, Sweetie Belle, we will just get rid of that piece of paper and everything will be back to normal, what about that?” She tried to say.
But as soon as she had spoken about making the sentence disappear, Sweetie Belle shouted:
“NO! Don’t harm her!”
Rarity heard the slip but had to be sure, so she just asked:
“What did you say?”
“Don’t harm it.” answered Sweetie Belle. “It’s not doing anything to anypony.”
But Rarity was sure to have found something and wasn’t ready to just let it go away like that.
“You said not to harm her. Who were you talking about? Your sentence?”
“Of course not!” said Sweetie Belle, who was slowly getting into a panic. “I said not to harm it. That’s what I said. Just leave her… it alone. It has done nothing to you.”
Rarity was convinced to have understood what was going on. And in a way, she had understood about half of the problem. But she thought she had to take some drastic measures, because she couldn’t tolerate that kind of behavior. She found it way too weird to be acceptable. So she tried to make her point in the kindest way she could find.
“Sweetie, you know that a sentence is not a pony, right? It’s not alive.”
Sweetie Belle went berserk. Not in a destructive way – she was, after all, only a little filly – but her reaction just went totally out of control for Rarity and she left the carrousel boutique leaving a literally stunned Rarity.
The author doesn’t really feel the need to explain the reason of Sweetie Belle’s reaction as it seems obvious enough. But if there was any doubt that her reaction was absolutely logical and totally normal in any way possible, except for the code of social interaction that asks us not to get angry for such things, we could say two things. First, we will ask if you’ve ever tried to tell someone that his or her loved dog or cat isn’t a person. Depending on who you’re asking, you could be surprised. Speaking of who, just ask the doctor if the tardis is just a machine. And second, Sweetie Belle was just a filly, without the emotional inhibition we adults tend to have put in our lives.
Chapter three: Keep it alive…
Sweetie Belle was running. Where to? She didn’t know. Why? She wasn’t even sure. It was a little much for a little filly. She had gotten into a fight with her best friends and with her big sister right after in the same day. All that for something that felt like not important at all, but also to matter so much at the same time. She was confused and took the piece of paper out once again to read the sentence.
“She went to the widow and glanced outside where her future lay.”
It was still the same, with the same mistake. And she didn’t understand why it was so crucial in her eyes to keep it. To make sure she would be able to read it again and again. The poor filly couldn’t understand she was experiencing one of the most wonderful miracles a conscious mind can live. She just thought the whole thing was making her life miserable.
That’s when she noticed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon on her side, laughing at her and her piece of paper.
“You see, I told you that weirdo was in love with some paper.” said one of them.
“And I thought those three couldn’t lower themselves. I guess they have a special talent after all. It must be being losers.” said the other.
Sweetie Belle wouldn’t have minded all the gloating too much, which means not more than usual, if Silver Spoon hadn’t taken the piece of paper from her hooves.
“Look, there is only one sentence on that.” she said.
“And it isn’t even correctly written. As I said, Losers.” said the other.
“Hey!” said Sweetie Bell, “Give me that back, it belongs to me.”
It was obviously the worst way to handle those two, but Sweetie Belle was, once again, just a filly without all the needed experience. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, noticing that the piece of paper was even more valuable to Sweetie Bell’s eyes that they even thought began playing with it. One screwed it even more, the other tore a little piece of it and they made sure that Sweetie Belle couldn’t get it back. Finally, Diamond Tiara tore it into little pieces and threw all of them into the sewer.
In their defense, even if the author doesn’t really feel the need to defend them, they were also way too young to understand the meaning of what they just did. In their mind, it was nothing but a piece of paper. In a way, they were being helpful by getting rid of it for Sweetie Belle.
The young white unicorn didn’t react at first. What could she have done? And even if she had had the power to do something, what would she have done? She was angry, but she wasn’t violent. And mostly, she was sad.
By chance, Applebloom had seen the end of the altercation from Sweetie Belle and the two bullies and arrived to try and comfort her friend. She also shouted to Scootaloo that she had found her. It was a relief, even if Applebloom had hoped to arrive before Diamond Tiara and her compares.
“I’m sorry.” said Applebloom. “They didn’t have to do that, it was very mean.”
Scootaloo arrived and Applebloom told her what had happened. She got angry, but mostly, she also tried to comfort Sweetie Belle. And she wanted to apologize.
“Sweetie Belle” said Scootaloo, “I’m sorry. I would never say you’re stupid or anything. I just got upset for no reason. I really like you, you’re smart, even smarter than I am. Can you forgive me, please?”
She had prepared her apology during all the time she had been looking for Sweetie Belle, and said something totally different, like it always happen when you’re just being sincere. And it was for the best knowing what her prepared apologies were like, which means mostly, for some reason, an ode to Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness.
Sweetie Belle was happy to have her friends at her sides. It felt warmer. But then, she heard Applebloom say:
“I’m happy it’s over, so we can go back to crusading again.”
Sweetie Belle’s mind reacted before she could even think about what she said:
“No, it’s not over!”
And following her new obsessive idea, she left the two other fillies, once again, but not angry. She seemed just to be in a hurry. And she was saying something to herself. Something that sounded like:
“She went to the window and glanced outside…”
Chapter four: … no matter what !
Scootaloo and Applebloom were pretty worried until the next day, when they saw Sweetie Belle again. She greeted them with a smile and they understood she was feeling okay, which was all what they were asking for. They had prepared a plan for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon if it hadn’t been the case. It would have involved a rope, two buckets of butter a cow and three chickens. Four counting Scootaloo.
But they began to understand things weren’t so well during class, when they saw Sweetie Belle writing and writing things on several pieces of paper without taking the least breathe. It was the sentence, over and over, that she had written as fast as she could the last day and she was copying then. It feels almost useless to say Rarity got surprised when she glanced into Sweetie Belle’s room and at her walls.
But for the time being, Applebloom and Scootaloo were looking at each other, trying to communicate silently to find out what they should do before it got out of hooves. And before they could find a solution it did.
“Teacher! Sweetie Belle is bothering me!” shouted Diamond Tiara half angry, half panicked.
And rightfully so. Sweetie Belle, having run out of paper, was writing on Diamond Tiara’s things, and desk, and on Diamond Tiara herself the sentence over and over:
“She went to the window and glanced outside where her future lay.”
Completely blocked into her obsession, she was just saying:
“Stop moving, I can’t get it right if you move.”
Cheerilee, who had no idea what was going on, was forced to intervene and took Sweetie Belle outside. She didn’t understand what would happen and thought the little filly just wanted to prank her classmate, so she left her in the corridor with the instruction to wait for recess for a talk.
And when recess came, Cheerilee and most of the little fillies of the class discovered the corridor covered with the sentence, over and over, and over, and over again.
Rarity was called in reinforcement, as the parents were away at the time, but her explanations weren’t sufficient to solve the case. They were both looking at Sweetie Belle, who was looking nicely and quietly at them, a piece of paper between her hooves with the sentence on it.
“I don’t know what to do.” said Cheerilee. “I’ve never seen such a behavior before.”
“Me neither” told her Rarity. “But I might know somepony who could help.”
They were both very worried over Sweetie Belle, but agreed to try and bring her to Twilight, because they thought she could maybe explain what was happening. Rarity because of how much she trusted her friend’s intelligence and Cheerilee because she thought it could be a curse of some sort.
Chapter five: The truth is always obvious
“I hope you’ll be able to help her.” said Rarity to Twilight. “I fear my little sister shall never be the same again. Oh, Sweetie Belle, what cruel fate has fallen upon you!?!”
“Come on” told her Twilight, “You’re dramatizing things way too much here. I’m sure it’s not that bad…”
In a way, Twilight thought what she just said. Because of her pragmatic mind and the fact that she knew Sweetie Belle and was pretty sure she wouldn’t go crazy or anything. But she also had her doubts, because of all the evidences and facts she had learned about in the last thirty minutes. She was, however, determined to do her best and, even more, not let her friend show her acting talent and distract her from the task ahead.
“I sure hope you’ll be able to find something out. I have to confess, it creeps me out a little.” said Cheerilee, leaving the purple unicorn and the little filly alone in the library.
Twilight sat in front of Sweetie Belle, at a respectable distance, and looked at the face of the white unicorn. She tried to read what Sweetie Belle could be thinking or feeling and what would be the best way to speak to her. It took some time, but she finally found a good approach.
“Sweetie Belle” said Twilight, “I’m not mad at you.”
“You’re not?” asked the little filly.
“No, and neither are your teacher and Rarity. And probably none of your classmates too, even if, well, you know how little fillies can be. We are all just worried, we need to understand.”
Twilight was happy to have breached the first barrier. She knew Sweetie Belle and she knew that the little unicorn was caring about others. Something was wrong, but at least Twilight could say that it was still the Sweetie Bell she knew, who was worried about other’s feelings.
“Now, Sweetie Belle, would you accept to help me try to help Rarity? I’m not sure if I can, but I’m sure I can’t do it without your help.”
Of course, the little filly was a little reticent to open up, but she finally agreed to help Twilight, which was easier to accept than having Twilight help her. So Twilight told Sweetie Belle that she needed as much information as possible, even the most useless one, about what had happened since the two days ago.
And it took a lot of patience and convincing, but Twilight slowly began to see the whole story and to understand it a little. The piece of paper between Sweetie Belle’s hooves helped a lot in that regard.
Twilight felt the need to speak to Applebloom and Scootaloo, who told her what they knew, how the sentence was written, how Sweetie Belle got all worked up out of nowhere and for no reason, and the incident with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
It felt like the solution of the mystery was just before her hooves, but Twilight still couldn’t grasp exactly what was the very cause of it. At least, Sweetie Belle had been quiet and cooperative, as long as she could keep the little piece of paper with the sentence on it safe between her hooves.
The sentence was at the heart of it all, so Twilight began analyzing it. She felt the fact that Sweetie Belle had changed the word “widow” into “window” to correct the mistake was important, but then realized through Sweetie Belle’s reaction that it, in reality, wasn’t.
She asked all that she could about it, and analyzed it in every way she could think of and, surprisingly for her, Sweetie Belle was more than happy to seek an answer with her. But there was no secret meaning, no relation to Sweetie Belle’s life hidden between the lines, or the line as there was only one, and, altogether, Twilight finally had to accept that just wasn’t able to solve the mystery. She was out of ideas. And the sad look that Sweetie Belle was giving her didn’t help accepting her failure at all.
Pinkie Pie entered the library, because she hadn’t seen Twilight for way too long in her opinion and even if she had heard that her unicorn friend was working on something very important, she felt nopony should stay without having fun for too long.
“Hey Twilight, how is it going, can I come in?” the pink pony asked.
Twilight was more than grateful for the arrival of her friend. At least, she had somepony to help her surpass the feeling of failure. She almost felt like she could try some other way to analyze the sentence, even if she knew it was vain.
Anyway, both she and Sweetie Belle explained, not very clearly as they were both saying things in a chaotic order, what was going on. Pinkie Pie just understood that Sweetie Belle had wrote things on walls, which she also did herself, and that there was something about a sentence.
So she read the sentence.
“Wow, it’s good.” said Pinkie Pie, not even really judging the writing or anything, “But it feels lonely like that. Where is the rest of the story?”
“The rest of the story?” asked both Twilight and Sweetie Belle.
And then, Twilight’s smart brain made the last synaptic connection that was needed to solve the case.
“Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!” she said.
“No I’m not.” responded the pink pony. “I’m a pony. You know that I’m a pony, right?”
Pinkie’s fooling around didn’t matter. Twilight was overjoyed by her discovery. And as she always knew but had forgotten for a while, the truth was just obvious.
Chapter six: The seventh one exists to rest
Twilight tried to explain to Sweetie Belle, and a very unfocused Pinkie Pie, why Sweetie Belle was so obsessed with the sentence she had just written. But the more she explained, the more both the filly and the pink pony felt confused.
Words like creation, giving birth, psychological projection and writing just didn’t seem to be able to work together in a coherent manner. So Twilight gave up and just said:
“Sweetie Belle, do you think you could write a story around your sentence? You can see it like giving it a home to live in. A whole universe where your sentence could exist without your help.”
Sweetie Belle didn’t quite understand, as it was still concepts that went way over her head. She expressed it in a simple phrase:
“I’m not sure I would be able to. I’m no writer.”
Twilight smiled.
“If you’re okay with it, I could help you and we could write it together.”
When she heard the word “together”, Pinkie Pie told them she wanted to help too, to do whatever they would be doing.
And when Sweetie Belle saw the enthusiasm of Pinkie Pie and the comforting smiling face of Twilight, she began to enjoy the idea.
So began the writing of Sweetie Belle’s story. Twilight was smart enough not to try and take the lead, but just take Sweetie Belle’s ideas and propose sentences that the little filly would sometimes accept as they were, or rewrite entirely. Pinkie Pie was more of a moral support and bringer of baked goods than an active writer in the process, but she kept Sweetie Belle happy and prevented her to feel bored over the process of writing a story.
And the story actually wasn’t that good. The construction just hadn’t been thought, there was no real red line that the scenario would follow, but Sweetie Belle felt it was a wonderful story. Twilight very wisely didn’t tell her the truth and let her enjoy her creation.
“Now what do we do?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Now? It depends. You can either take the story to your home and keep it there, or you can let me keep it in the library. In fact, I may even know a place in Canterlot where we could place your story, you would be surprised to learn about it. Either way, your sentence is safe now. She will live the adventure you’ve designed for her over and over again.” answered Twilight.
She thought of something and looked at Sweetie Belle’s flank. But it was still blank.
“You don’t have to worry for it anymore. In fact, you should be worried about your friends and your sisters, they are waiting for you.” finished Twilight.
“Scootaloo, Applebloom! Rarity!” remembered Sweetie Belle. “You’re right Twilight, I got them so worried. I’ve got to go see them. Thanks a lot Twi’.” and she added, just before she left. “And for my story, you can keep it, I trust you. Just make sure I can come and read it if I ever feel like it, okay?”
Twilight assured her the story would be in good care and wished her to have a lot of fun with her friends. Then she looked at the story. She had it bounded as a book to show Sweetie Belle it was finished. Now that she was looking at it, and even knowing how weird and “bad” the story was, she felt a little nostalgic about it.
“Come on Twilight” she said to herself, “not you too.”
And she went and put the book in one of the bookshelf of the library, a very special one she had prepared a while ago for some special stories, and let it like that for the story to live by its own.
As its own universe,
for ever and ever,
for all of eternity.
THE END
