“Welcome!” Death proclaimed. Sweetie Belle found herself entering into her dark cosmic limbo. The obscured image of death had a proper and feminine manner of speaking that was, none the less, loud and commanding as the death bell. “Please, sit, and partake of the tea.”
“Thank you,” Sweetie said, resigned. With a slight bow, she took her seat at the table. “So,” she asked, “is it all over for me?”
“Well,” the dark hooded figure answered her, “we won’t know that for a little while.”
“I see,” Sweetie responded, “so I’m stuck in limbo until then.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad,” her companion told her, before taking a sip from her tea cup. “You get to spend your uncertain time here with me. Not to mention, from here, we can see just about anything.”
“You don’t say...” Sweetie pondered the implications. “Could we see where Scootaloo is right now?”
“As you will it…” the mysterious voice trailed off, as her dark cloak became a window into the living world. Through it, Sweetie saw Scootaloo sitting beside Fluttershy in her cottage.
“What is she doing there? I thought she was on vacation with Rainbow Dash.” The cloaked figure was deathly silent. Sweetie thought of something else to ask. “Can- or- May I see Rainbow Dash?”
“...So shall it be.” Sweetie’s vision changed to one of Rainbow Dash, commanding and leading the weather pegasi of Ponyville to provide favorable wind currents to assist the Fire Brigade.
“Oh, I get it,” Sweetie said with a disappointed aspect. “Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had to call off their vacation, the one they had been planning for weeks, because of this fire.” She was starting to come to a realization. “Because of…”
“Yes?” The cloaked figure baited her.
“Because of me!” Sweetie confessed.
“How could this be because of you?”
“Everything has been my fault. Everything! Apple Bloom made that potion, but I’m the one who drank it without permission. Diamond and Silver were always mean to us, but I made the decision to be mean back. Discord made that fire spell, but I’m the one who cast it on that tree. I’ve been blaming everypony else for the things that I do, when it’s really my fault.” She went from very sad to a little stoic. “So this is it. This is my karmic reward. I’m stuck in limbo watching how all of my bad decisions play out before I can pass on. Is that it?”
“Not quite, little one,” the figure answered mysteriously. “Though, I must say, you’ve figured out quite a lot more on your own than I would have given you credit for. Cheers!” The hooded figure took another sip, but Sweetie didn’t touch her saucer.
“Can I see where Apple Bloom is right now?”
“As you will it…” An image of Apple Bloom appeared to her. She was boarding a train back to Ponyville with a look of manic distress.
“I’ve been so much trouble today, and for what?” Sweetie looked at the cloaked figure for an answer, but she was shy about giving one away. “One last place to look, I guess. Let’s see how the fire is doing.”
“...So shall it be!” The dark coat lit up in the image of flames. Sweetie could observe the whole of the west orchard through the smoke and the clouds just being delivered.
“All this destruction… I let my feelings get this out of hoof. So you say that I’m not paying for this?” Sweetie heard nothing to confirm or deny from the mysterious mare. “It must be my friends who have to pay. I’ve caused them all of this trouble.”
“Trouble?” Death inquired.
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle answered as though it had been obvious. “If I had just been a little more patient or a little more understanding, Apple Bloom would be home, her orchard would be fine, and Scootaloo would be having the time of her life in a city of clouds!”
“Do you really believe they are sad about any of that?”
Sweetie was starting to think that Death might have been a little out of the loop of what made ponies lives important and worthwhile. “Yes! Of course they are! They’re all out of place, and it’s all my fault!”
“You have it half right, little one. Look again, and try as you might to hear their lamentations.” There was a pause. “You hear nothing, for you cannot know them. This is the one thing that I shall tell you, which I could not expect you to know yourself: your friends are not upset about a trip gone awry, or a few infested fields in flames. You, and you alone, are the source of their worry and their strife. Have you forgotten that they are your friends?”
“With all I’ve done to them, they still care about me?” Sweetie asked for clarification.
“Everypony makes bad decisions, Sweetie Belle. The important thing is that you see those decisions for what they are, learn from them, and change the way you behave to channel love instead of sorrow.”
“I thought it might have been you behind that hood, Princess Luna.”
“My apologies if that was unclear,” the Princess said, removing her hood. “My understanding was that this style was all the rage with the young fillies.”
“So I’ve been unconscious and dreaming this entire time?” Sweetie asked.
“Trade secret:” Luna said, in a hushed voice, “Pony Limbo isn’t real.”
“I won’t tell,” Sweetie said. “So does this mean that you can let me wake back up at any time then?”
“It is as I have been trying to convey to you, little unicorn,” Princess Luna lectured. “As you will it, so shall it be. Never forget, no matter the circumstances, that you control your destiny, what you shall be, who you shall love, and whether or not you accept,” Luna lifted the tea tray over to Sweetie Belle, “what life has to offer you.”
Sweetie Belle quickly understood the message and drank the tea to the last drop. She could feel herself fading away from the dream and her waking self begin to stir. Quickly, for politeness sake, she called out “Bye Princess Luna, and thank you!”
“Don’t mention it, little one,” Luna said as Sweetie faded out of her realm. “Don’t go forgetting it, either. Next time, the tea won’t stay as hot for as long.”