Lifting a Soul

Memories

They say that your whole life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die. Well for me, it's weird because it only flashed after I died.

I woke up, back aching and thoughts spinning. I opened my eyes and then looked around. "Wait a minute." I whispered to myself as I scanned my surroundings. "Is this my old school when I was in kindergarten?" I thought to myself. The bell suddenly rang, and it made me jump onto my hooves. I noticed that I was in front of the school door. Fillies and colt rushed towards me. "Watch out!!!" I yelled as I reached out my fore hooves, trying to stop the rushing students. I was shocked as the crowd went through me. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that the students had already gotten inside the school.

"Looks like it is time to go back to the classroom." a familiar voice caught my attention, and made me turn around. I saw Berry, but smaller than his usual size, or maybe he turned back into a colt. walking beside him is... Another me, but younger. In short... A colt version of me.

"What the buck!?"

"Yeah, sometimes I just don't want to go to school anymore." the other me muttered as they went through me and then head inside the building.

"This is just getting weird." I followed them inside. I didn't bother opening the door since, I went through it. I watched mini me or the other me walk towards my seat, but before he could reach it, time suddenly slowed down. "Hey, what's happening?" I saw mini me walk past a familiar filly. "Is that?" a sudden name flashed inside of my head. "Amabel!" a filly with brown fur and darker brown for the mane and the tail. The time flowed back to normal. I walked towards Amabel, as curiosity took over me.

"Are you sure this will work?" Amabel asked a filly behind her.

"Of course it will." the filly replied with a smile.

"Okay class, who would like to answer this question?" the teacher asked as she underlined a simple three plus six question on the blackboard. "Okay, Pico." I turned around and saw that mini me was raising his hoof. The whole class except for Amabel and Berry, grunted in disapproval. Mini me stood up from his seat, and then walked towards the blackboard.

"Now Amabel." the filly whispered. I saw Amabel placed a weird note at the top of my desk.

"This must be the note she was talking about." I murmured as I tried to pick up the note. I tried to grab it but it just went through my hoof. "Damn it." I gazed back at Amabel.

"You sure writing in the paper that he is weird will tell him that he is cute?" Amabel asked the filly again. The filly simply nodded. I suddenly remembered that I got angry at Amabel because she told me that she placed a note at the top of my desk saying that I am weird.

"I misunderstood her." I said to myself as I watched Amabel who was gazing at mini me.

"Thanks Pico, you can now take your seat." the teacher said as mini me went back to his seat. I saw mini me, picking up the note at the top of his desk. After a few seconds of him, just staring at the note. He crumpled the note and then buried his head on the desk.

"I don't think it worked." Amabel muttered. The filly that she was talking just raised her shoulders. I gazed back to mini me and saw Berry, who was sitting beside him, rubbed his back.

"What's wrong?" Berry asked mini me.

"Nothing." As soon as mini me replied, the whole world around me started to crack.

"Hey, what's going on?" I said as I took a step backward. "What's happening?" I took another step backward but then ended up falling into a deep dark abyss. I screamed in fear as I fell into what it seemed like an endless pit. In just ten seconds, I fell onto my rumps, but it isn't pretty much painful unlike the time when I fell down at the stairs, inside of my own house. I scratched my flanks, trying to ease the pain on my rumps. I looked around and saw nothing but darkness. "What kind of hellish nightmare is this?" I stood up on my hooves and then suddenly, the place started to get illuminated. I was standing at the cafeteria in the school where I went grade one.

"Ha ha ha, losers." a sudden voice called out. I saw another me again, still a little colt with Berry by his side, also a little colt. Standing in front of them was a group of colts.

"Stop calling us losers." mini me protested. A colt who is a bit larger than mini me and Berry took a step forward.

"What are you gonna do about it, losers?" the colt asked.

"Why you." mini me tried to tackle the colt. But Berry grabbed him in the tail. "Let go of me Berry." the colt in front of him laughed.

"You two really are losers." the colt pushed mini me in the forehead, causing him to fall down. "See ya, losers." the group left. I walked towards mini me, but then again, the time slowed down. I saw filly Amabel again, walking towards mini me. And in front of mini me, a familiar colt reached out his hoof, helping mini me stood up on his hooves. The time went back to normal, Amabel stopped behind what it seems like Enigma, but the colt version of him.

"You alright?" Enigma asked mini me as he helped him stood up.

"Yeah." mini me replied.

"Sorry about my friends, they're just like that." Enigma rolled his eyes. "Anyway I'm Enigma." Enigma offered his hoof.

"Um... My name is Pico." mini me bumped his hoof with Enigma's.

"My name is Berry." Berry said as he bumped his hoof with Enigma's.

"And again, sorry about my friends. I wouldn't mind being friends with you two?" Berry gave a sheepish smile.

"Sure, why not?" Berry and mini me said in unison. Again, the world started to crumble. Floors were shaking, the background seemed to be slowly fading. The floor started to crack. The floor beneath me separated. I fell in again, at the dark abyss. Again I screamed, while also hoping that this nightmare would end. Another ten seconds I fell on my rumps again.

"What kind of nightmare couldn't afford a throw pillow?" I said to myself as I stood up on my hooves again. "Wait, how could it be a nightmare if it isn't painful for the victim?" I thought to myself. "Nah, anyway, where am I now?" I noticed the room getting lightened up by the lights on the ceiling. After a few seconds, the room was now well lit, and I noticed that I was standing at our school gym when I was in high school.

"Okay students, today we are going to play dodge-balls!!!" a stallion yelled, ending the sentence with a loud whistle, which he has, tied around his neck. I saw mini me again, but this time he is a bit big now, maybe at the age of a young stallion now. Beside him was Enigma and Berry who is also a bit bigger than the last time I saw them. "I'm going to separate you class, into two teams." the stallion whistled again, and automatically the students separated into two groups, but Berry, Enigma and other me didn't separated from each other. "On your marks, get set." balls started to appear as the stallion whistled.

"Okay, keep your eyes straight guys." Enigma whispered to Berry and other me. Berry and other me nodded, but then all of a sudden, other me got hit by a dodge ball on the face. Time suddenly slowed down.

"Why at a bad timing?" I whispered as I watch other me, slowly falling down, with a weird expression on his face. As other me slowly falls down, I saw Amabel outside of the door of the gym. I quickly galloped towards her, passing through anything that blocks me. As soon as I reached her, time finally went back to normal.

"Don't you think that somepony should be helping Pico stand up?" Amabel asked as she peeked through the small windows of the door.

"Don't you think that you should be finding somepony else instead of Pico?" a mare beside her replied. She looks like the filly from the first time I saw Amabel as a filly.

"Why should I?" Amabel raised her eyebrow as she faced her friend.

"There are a lot of stallions who are better than him."

"I don't think I have a valid reason for me, not liking him." Amabel blushed a bit.

"Him being a cry foal." Amabel gave her friend a confused look. "Sometimes you just don't get me." the mare rolled her eyes.

"And sometimes you don't get me." Amabel gazed at the other me for the last time before she left.

"Does that mean Amabel already knew me before I found her?" I thought to myself. My surroundings started to get dim. "Another one eh?" As my whole field of vision went dark, few spotlights appeared. "Where am I this time?" I noticed that I was at the streets of Ponyville. It felt like it is still 5:45 P.M, since sun was still rising, but almost setting. I heard a couple of voices behind me, which made me turn around. I saw myself again, which is now a full grown stallion, carrying him was Berry and Cool Joe. I knew that I have already met Quick Write that time, since I saw Enigma dragging Quick Write who's body is now wrapped with masking tape.

"I knew you shouldn't have forced Pico to drink, now we're stuck dragging him from the bar, back to his house." Cool Joe complained.

"You're telling me that we should haven't forced Pico to drink?" Enigma asked.

"Uh... Yeah."

"How about Quick Write getting drunk? It looks like I'm dragging a mummified pony that came from the museum."

"I still don't get how Quick Write manages to get himself wrapped with masking tape." Berry murmured.

"Wait till morning, we'll try to ask. But still, I think somepony's gonna lose his fur." Enigma said accompanied by some small chuckles. Time suddenly slowed down, as Amabel walked past the other me. I then walked towards her. Time went back to normal after Amabel walked past the other me who is sleeping.

"I told you that you shouldn't have wasted your time on him." a mare muttered beside Amabel. The same mare who I encountered with Amabel back near the gym.

"How could you say that I wasted my time on him? I didn't even get to talk to him all of my life." Amabel replied.

"There are a lot of stallions asking for you to come with them at the prom last college, but you rejected them." her friend exaggerated.

"I'm not really sure about them, they look kind of reckless." Amabel looked away from her friend.

"Oh come on, you just saw a drunk Pico, how could you say that he isn't reckless if he is really drunk?" Amabel gazed back to her friend.

"If you think Pico is reckless, than fine, he is reckless. Happy now?" Amabel raised her voice.

"I'm just saying what is the best for you." her friend said in a calm voice. "Just forget about him, for your entire life, you never stopped forcing yourself into Pico's life."

"You just don't understand me." Amabel lowered her head. I tried to place my hoof on her shoulder, but it just went through. I watched her slowly walking away from me, gaining distance between me and her. All I could do now was wait for the nightmare to pass, and it did. The world around me is slowly getting consumed by darkness. In just a flash, I noticed that I was laying down on a bed. There was some sort of beating coming from my right side. I turned to look at my right side and then saw a heart rate monitor. I noticed that there was an oxygen mask attached to my snout down to my muzzle.

"Where am I?" I asked myself. I turned to my left side and saw my four friends, or used to be friends, sleeping at a bench long enough for them all to fit. "Berry." I murmured. Berry twitched a bit, before opening his eyes. As soon as he saw me, he gave me a smile. He then stood and then walked towards me.

"Thank Celestia you're awake." said Berry.

"What happened?"

"You hanged yourself in the kitchen, trying to kill yourself. Good thing I went inside of your house, I was getting worried that you weren't answering the door when I knocked. I thought that you were out of your house, trying to search for Amabel. But I wanted to make sure. You were dead that time, but good thing that doctors in this hospital are experts. I mean can you believe it? The only thing we know is that you were dead, but after just a whole day, they told us that you were still breathing."

"Wow,,, I owe you my life, and also to the ponies who are working here."

"Don't mention it, and also, you're going to need to replace your small chandelier in the kitchen." Berry gave me a sheepish smile.

"Then that is the first thing I'm gonna do after I recover."

"How about Amabel?"

"Amabel!!!" I suddenly yelled.

"Yeah, Amabel."

"What?" I gave Berry a confused look. "What I meant to say was that while I was unconscious, I saw Amabel in my old memories. The first time I met you and the others. I didn't know that she knew me all this time."

"Did the chandelier hit your head when it broke down?" Berry raised his eyebrow.

"I don't know, but the important thing right now is that where is Amabel?"

"She was with your brother, bringing her to a psychiatrist."

"That's good to know."

"Yeah, you should probably rest now." I just nodded. Berry sat back down on the bench.

"That was weird." I said to myself one last time.