Sweetie watched Ponyville from her room, and sighed. There was Mr. Hooves running from Redheart. Derpy bouncing through town, pleased about her new job. Twilight ordering her groceries. The Manehattan pony getting off the train. Schoolponies going on their way to school.
Suddenly, a morbid thought passed through her mind.
‘Twilight used a memory spell that loop I tried to go camping. A spell to forget.’ Sweetie considered it, knowing how terribly tempting it was to use it, and forget. No more memories of the loops, no more worries.
At least, for this version of herself.
“Tsss,” she winced, strengthening her shield. The headaches had gotten more noticeable recently, and Sweetie was still learning the best shield spell, so she couldn’t use that yet. Soon though, she’d be able to cast it and remove the headache again.
“Yeah, even if I did that, it wouldn’t reduce my magic. And what good would it do? I doubt I could stand the pain of this without any shielding now that it’s this strong for very long.” Sweetie looked down, closing her eyes as she clenched her teeth. They were getting stronger, and she feared what would happen when she could no longer keep up with it. It was already a struggle as it was.
“What I would give if the entire town could just know. What would they do if they had a week to live?” Sweetie sighed, leaning her head against the windowsill, and smiled at the fantasy. Blinking her eyes open, she glanced to her Cutie Mark, and frowned. Leaning closer, she could have sworn it looked...different.
“Some talent, can’t even live my life and use it properly. What sort of pony has a talent for bringing out other’s heartsongs anyway? I meant, why couldn’t I have gotten some stinkin singing mark. At least then I’d have some sort of thing I could focus on. Starswirl had his Twilightness! Or would it be Twilight has Starswirlness…”
Sweetie closed her eyes, and sighed loudly again. Something soft brushed against her leg, and she looked down. It was Opal, coming to comfort her. Sweetie leapt out of the way just as Opal went to scratch, and chuckled, waving a hoof as she scolded the cat.
“Oh Opal, you never change do you? You mean old cat.” Sweetie cooed her words as she moved back to the window. Opal hissed, and skulked away. Sweetie watched the scenery for a moment longer, and then blinked. Slamming a hoof between her eyes, she kid-swore.
“Sweetie, you are the biggest moron this side of Captain Obvious’s boat.” Sweetie turned, tossing her saddlebags on, and left her room. Meeting Rarity in the Boutique, talking to the Manehattan Stallion, she pulled out the Looping letter, and waited as Rarity did the same reaction she always did.
“Get Everypony, I’ll meet you at Twilight’s.” Sweete turned, and headed out the door with another word.
“Are you sure you want to do this Sweetie?” Twilight stood backstage with Sweetie as her friends quickly gathered up literally every single pony in Ponyville. Sweetie peeked out the stage, gulping as she saw the many ponies. Shaking off her stagefright, she nodded.
“Alright, I’ll go introduce you.” Twilight walked onto the stage, displaying what she hoped was coming off as regal confidence. Looking at the crowd, she bowed her head slightly, and began.
“Citizens of Ponyville, something of grave importance has come to my attention, and you must all be informed immediately. To do so; I introduce our expert; Sweetie Belle.” Twilight motioned to one side of the stage, and took three steps in the other direction. Slowly, Sweetie emerged, followed closely by the Elements.
Once they were all on stage, the six made a V formation with Sweetie at the tip. Looking at the crowd, she forced down her stage fright once more, and called upon her instinctual understanding of heartsongs, and Pinkie’s lessons.
“Ponies, now hear me,
For on this very day.
Time is repeating,
but not in the same way.” Sweetie felt her horn spark for a moment, and music began to fill the air. The crowd stood rapt at attention, caught in the heartsong the moment she started to speak.
“For you see I remember,
In every horrible way,
Just what goes wrong for all of you,
For these coming days.” Sweetie’s ear flickered, and she heard the mane six begin to sing, the heartsong’s magic lending them the lyrics. A spotlight appeared around Sweetie, and she stood proud upon it.
“One will lose a loved one,
One will die of shame,
One will do a naughty deed,
With nopony but himself to blame.
“You see my dear town,
While you live in ignorant bliss,
I am forced to watch everything,
Including those regrets I remissed.” Sweetie closed her eyes, and used her magic to levitate her higher into the air, hair billowing in a phantom breeze.
“She is forced, with little recourse, while we dine on our own ignoraaance.” Rarity and Twilight joined to sing the high note, voiced weaving together in the perfect harmony of the heartsong.
“We play and party, but she can’t crack a smile, because we play in happiness.” Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash sung the line together, leaning heads together as they sung, closing their eyes.
“Work is meaningless, ponies get hurt, things that could be avoided if we were all aware.” Fluttershy’s voice was mostly overpowered by Applejack’s, but her voice added a weight to the words that would have been absent otherwise.
“So hear me now,
And please believe me,
Because this is your last week,
And only I will see.” Sweetie felt the song end, and slowly lowered herself back to the stage. Everything was silent.
And slowly the crowd began to clap. Sweetie bowed, and left the stage. Twilight quickly answered the main questions, and eventually everypony left to reassess their lives. Sweetie was not told any of the details beyond the fact her words had caused great sadness, but Twilight knew them well. Over the course of the week, crime grew to astounding levels, suicide increased, and Twilight saw a new side to ponies she hadn’t known existed.
Sweetie would never know this, but it didn’t make the effects any less depressing.