I never knew what would hit me. No pun intended, by the way. As we flew past the fuzzy, blurred streets of Ponyville, Apple Bloom was the first to see the rock. Scootaloo was pulling us along on her scooter while we sat in the carriage behind. Apple Bloom's piercing shriek was what caused the birds to fly into the multi-coloured sunset. Their outlines looked like little black angels, flying off into a golden palace. That's when I realised they were angels, softly calling my name.
"Sweetie Belle, Sweetie Belle..."
That last thing I remembered before the searing pain was the confusion. I thought maybe the fear was making me see things. But no. Scootaloo was unable to stop. She dug her back hoof into the dirt, so it flew all around us. One gut wrenching jerk sent us airborne. Luckily for Scoots, she landed in a soft bush. On the other hoof, Apple Bloom and I landed heavily on the cold, hard ground. Among stars, I saw Apple Bloom's leg bend the wrong way, and her honey-coloured eyes lolling upwards before finally sliding shut. The angels were closing in now, on both me and Apple Bloom. The reached out to her. I weakly lifted a single hoof and started to beat them away. They smiled at me, wavered, then disappeared. Then so did my life.
I didn't know it at first. They unwrapped the bandages from my closed eyes and I opened them weakly. Then the pain was gone. They must be great doctors I thought. Then I saw the pain in my sister Rarity's red eyes as she stood before me. Surely they hadn't, it couldn't be possible, had they... Transferred my illness to Rarity? Surely it couldn't be possible. But no, this was a different kind of pain. The kind where the sparkle in her eyes is gone and her cheeks are stained from glittering tears of grief.
"I'm ok Rarity," I assured. She didn't move, although she did flinch a little, as though some otherworldly ghost was staring her in the face. I stood up and waved my hooves wildly in the air. Neither Rarity, nor the doctors were looking at me. They looked behind me. I looked behind me. I was looking at me.
That was the moment when I realised I was a ghost. I tried to hug my grieving sister, but my glittering hooves passed right through her shaking mane as she wept and gulped. I shook too, but with fear. I tried again to hug her but she just shivered, as though my hooves were icy daggers piercing her warm skin. I peered around the green curtain to check on my yellow friend. As like me, erm, my body, she was covered from head to toe in bandages. Only her still lifeless face lay uncovered. Applejack stood at the foot of her bed, hat over face, weeping. I immediately assumed the worst. Applejack's horrific grief filled my soul, making it hollow and sore. I screamed for her, though I knew no-one could hear me in my ghostly predicament. I felt worse than anyone else. I'd lost a friend, AND I was dead!
"Apple Bloom!" I screamed in agony. But then the butter-coloured filly raised an eyelid. Then another. I looked at her medical file. She had been in a coma, not dead!
"Yea' Sweetie Belle?" She answered. I raised my head sharply and quickly rubbed my tears. She was looking me right in the eye. Applejack pulled her tear-stained hat away from her drenched muzzle and rushed to hug Apple Bloom through floods of tears. Applejack cleared her throat. And looked at her little sister.
"Apple Bloom," she said stiffly, "Sweetie Belle... Is... *ahem*.... Dead."
"What?" laughed the cherry maned filly, "No, she's standin' right over there!"
Applejack's eyes widened and she looked in my direction. I gave her a light wave. She seemed to have looked right through me though, because her wide-eyed expression soon turned to one of fear as she ran to the doctor.
"Must have hit her head harder than we thought..." she mumbled as she trotted away, past my mourning sister.
"Sweetie... Is there somethin' you're not tellin' me?" Apple Bloom questioned.
"Well... It's true," I said as I passed my watery hoof through her head, "I'm dead." Her eyes filled with tears. The whole room seemed to be in tears. The noisy creak of the door that needed oiled sounded like a mourning wail. Every scrape of a chair sounded like a grieving pony weeping. The tears and agony were surrounding me, closing in on me like the angels who had pulled my soul from my body.
At first, attending my own funeral was weird, but then I decided to put the FUN in funeral. I jumped from head to head singing wildly. The fear of people judging me had left. A blinding flash filled the room and a heart with a microphone on it filled my blank flank. Everyone in the room looked up and then I knew. The flash of my cutie mark had caused me to come alive with joy for a second. They had seen me, my cutie mark. My dear sister, in her black dress, started to breathe heavily as the colour came back to her eyes.
"Sweetie Belle, are you here?" she yelled.
"I'm here, I'm here!" I screamed. She didn't hear me. The now familiar tears drew back to here eyes. My pity grew into rage. An angry, boiling rage at those angles who had made my sister suffer. I pulled every ounce of life I still had into me and into sight. Rarity, among others, gasped. There I was. I knew I only had a few seconds to say what I could.
"Listen Rarity, don't worry about me. I'm safe and it only hurts me to see you cry. I don't have much longer here," I said as I started to float upwards, " so I'll say one thing. I love you big sis." I was being pulled towards the sky.
"I love you too, Sweetie Belle!" she yelled to me.
"Goodbye." Tears had come to both of us now. But a different kind. A kind I had never seen since my death. Tears of joy. This was all I needed. My cutie mark glowed, and beautiful, feathery wings spread from my back. I felt all my energy pulling me back to life. I was pulled slightly towards the coffin. A cold chill went through my spine as I walked on the coffin. Guess I walked on my own grave. The thought still gives me the shivers today. Anyhow, I felt myself forced back into my stiff, lifeless body. I opened an eye and gulped in air. It was only now that I realised I hadn't been breathing for 2 whole days. I tried to rise, but my horn only hit the hard wooden lid of my coffin. There's another thought that gives me shivers. I undid the outside latch with magic and stuck my head out.
"Hi," I said sheepishly, suddenly embarrassed. Rarity was still crying. I still don't know to this day how she managed to stay hydrated.
"Oh Sweetie Belle!" she cried and hugged me tightly. Inside me, it felt like new life, a flower blooming. She pulled me out and everyone gasped.
"That's right," I sang, "I got my cutie mark!" I flew around the room swooping to the ceiling and flying round the aisle. I swooped out to the huge garden. I was an angel. My huge feather wings spread behind me. Everywhere I flew, new life was blooming behind me. Flowers bloomed everywhere. I landed and flowers sprung from my hooves. I leaped into the air again and swooped around. I saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watching me. I thought about it. I pulled my glowing halo from my head and gave it to Apple Bloom. It sucked the power from me and into her. She had attended my funeral in a wheelchair and covered in bandages. Now, her bandages flew off. She was still in the wheelchair though. Having given my power to her, I plummeted to earth for the second time that week. I hit the ground as a splay of feathers fell around me. My time as an angel was over. But it still felt like some feathers were stuck to my back. I looked behind me. It was true. They were not as big and feathery as they had been in the final moments of my, eh, death, but were now small and white, rather like Scootaloo's. I was alive again. I was an...
"I... I'm an... Alicorn?" was all I could manage. My face was as shocked as everyone else's. My horn had grown slightly too. My mane didn't flow, though. Scootaloo ran up to hug me, and Apple Bloom wheeled herself up in her new wheelchair. Tears were trickling down Apple Bloom's cheeks, while Scootaloo obviously blinked them back. Now let me get this straight. I am not leaving the CMC. Now I can help them find their talents! Well, that ends my story.
Lots of love,
Sweetie Belle.