The lavender unicorn's head felt like it was about to split in two as she began to regain consciousness. She couldn't remember what had happened before she passed out, but it had to have been a doozy for her to be feeling like this. She knew there had to be light around her because the inside of her eyelids seemed to be glowing red. She tentatively pulled her eyelids apart from each other, awaiting the pain sure to come with the light, but rather than being encompassed by a harsh light, she was surrounded by an ethereal glow. Instead of intensifying her headache, it brought warmth and comfort. She couldn't explain it, but the mysterious light made her feel more secure.
The safe feeling brought by the light quickly evaporated as the purple mare realized she had no idea where she was. She looked around, trying to find something that could help her identify her location, but all she could see was the strange glow all surrounding her. What had previously comforted her became ominous as it withheld knowledge from the panicked unicorn. Fear began to overtake her as she was confronted by one of her biggest phobias: the unknown.
As she realized that she was hyperventilating, she raised a hoof up close to her chest and then stretched it outward while releasing the breath she had been holding in. "You have to keep calm," she told herself, "you won't figure anything out if you panic." Having calmed herself down, she stood up and tried to determine the best course of action. The lavender pony decided she couldn't properly assess the situation until she understood her surroundings, so she began walking forward, hoping to find something that could help her.
***
The purple unicorn felt like she had been walking for hours, but she had no clue as to how much time had really passed because there was no movement, no passage of the night and day, to base time on. She had searched the entire time, even running to try and cover more ground, but she had found nothing but the strange ominous glow. As she had continued to search and found nothing she felt the panic she had dismissed earlier begin to rise up once again. Finally, she reached the point where she could no longer continue, emotionally or physically. The young mare collapsed to the ground, unable to contain her tears any longer. She didn't even try to quiet her sobs, as she hoped they might bring some pony, any pony, to her.
Eventually, as the frustrated mare ran out of tears to shed, she just laid there, thinking of her friends and family, wondering if she would ever be able to escape this seemingly never-ending prison. As she began to consider sleeping, she noticed a dark blur that seemed to be far away, but she couldn't really tell the distance in the flat, empty expanse. She didn't care what it was or how far away it was, only that it was something other than the white light that had accompanied her for the past several hours. The relieved unicorn trotted towards it, hoping the mysterious object would give her some answers to the question racing around in her head, but as the dark blur became clearer she began to hesitate. It seemed to be another pony, and while she should have been ecstatic to find somepony else, something about the pony seemed off, but she just couldn't put her hoof on what that was. As she approached the strange figure, she began to realize what that was. The pony was abnormally tall, although not quite as tall as Princess Celestia, and was extremely thin, to the point that the lavender mare wondered how it even managed to stand on its own. At first, she believed that its eyes were black, but she froze where she stood as she realized that where it's eyes should have been were empty eye sockets. Mortified by her realization, she wanted only to get away from this appalling figure, only to find she couldn't get away. Stuck within a few meters of the grotesque being, the panicked mare began to hyperventilate, and it only quickened as the thing began to approach her.
The mysterious pony took a few steps toward her and stated in an ethereal voice, "Welcome, Twilight Sparkle, to the land of the dead."
“How in Equestria did I get in the land of the dead?” said Twilight Sparkle, confused and fearful, “This must be a mistake, now how do I get home?”
The dark stallion looked down on her solemnly, knowing that inevitably all ponies go through denial when they discover their fate.
“This is no mistake Twilight Sparkle. Do you not remember the events that transpired before you came here?” asked the ominous figure.
“Of course I do! How could I forget one of Pinkie Pie’s parties? We were celebrating Fluttershy’s birthday. We were going to start eating the cake, but then…something happened and I blacked out. Then I woke up here.”
As one of his eyebrows raised slightly, the black pony asked “And what is this ‘something’ you mentioned?”
“I-I don’t know, but something made me black out,” Twilight stammered, as she tried to recall what the event was that was evading her exceptional memory. It agitated her that she couldn’t remember. What happened? Why didn’t she know what happened?
“Perhaps if you were to recall what happened prior to this ‘something’…”
“Why do you care so much?!” snapped the agitated lavender unicorn, “it’s not like it matters!”
“Ms. Sparkle,” replied the tall stallion with a sigh, “it is my job to bring peace to those leaving their old lives and to help ease passage into the next world. Typically this is easier if the deceased understands how their life ended.”
“I am not dead!” screamed Twilight, unwilling to accept that she had passed, “I’m only nineteen, how can I be dead?! I have a life! I have a family! That can’t all just be gone!”
“While the death of one as young as you may be unfortunate, it is not unheard of. I am sorry this is so difficult for you, but you are correct on one thing. The ponies in your life are not gone; you are. Now please, Twilight Sparkle, try and remember the events immediately preceding your death,” stated the somber pony, this message having become far too familiar to him.
The agitated mare finally conceded with a, “Fine,” and closed her eyes, trying to remember. She wasn’t doing it for his sake, but for her own. She hated not being able to remember something that had happened so recently.
“Well,” she started, “as I already said were about to start eating the cake…” All of a sudden, Twilight's eyes flashed white, as the events that had escaped her memory suddenly came to her, and she left the glowing white world behind.
***
Twilight was standing among her closest friends in Fluttershy’s cottage. There were only six ponies there because Fluttershy, as her name suggests, was not prone to large gatherings and preferred a party with only her closest friends. There were streamers and balloons on the ceiling and song birds chirping quiet tunes in the background.
“Thank you so much for throwing me this party Pinkie Pie. All my animal friends were so happy with the special cake you made for them, and I’m sure this one you made for us will be delicious too,” said a quiet, pastel yellow mare as she gestured towards a cake that, while moderately sized, still looked delicious.
“Not a problem Flutters!” said a bouncy pink mare who was obviously having trouble withholding her enthusiasm, “It is my special talent to throw the perfect parties for all my friends after all! Now let’s cut into this cake already!”
Pinkie bounced into the kitchen and came back with a knife to cut the cake with in her mouth and enough plates for everypony to have a slice balanced precariously on her back. No pony understood how she managed to keep those plates on her back with all the up and down motion, but everyone had pretty much accepted by this point that the laws of gravity just didn’t work the same for Pinkie Pie.
“Come on everypony, let’s get some cake!” hollered Rainbow Dash to the other four ponies as she noticed Pinkie Pie had started cutting the cake.
As the pink earth pony started placing the first slice of cake onto a plate, her tail started twitching and she jumped under the table. The other mares all looked up to locate the falling object, having learned long ago not to question the Pinkie Sense.
Twilight looked up and saw a black blur falling towards Fluttershy. It was moving too fast to tell what it was, but, after everything she had gone through with her friends, they meant everything to her, so she wasn’t about to let one of them get hurt. Not having enough time to charge up her magic, she shoved Fluttershy out of the way and then felt something strike her in the back of the head. It hurt, it hurt so much. The lavender mare collapsed to the ground, and for a second she saw the looks of horror on her friends’ faces, and then everything went black.
***
“N-no!” cried Twilight, “Pl-please! Tell me it didn’t happen! This has to be some kind of nightmare!”
The imposing black pony looked down at the purple unicorn sobbing before him solemnly and said, “I’m so sorry Ms. Sparkle. I truly am.”
