Catatonia

by RF and AG

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Sad, Princess Luna
Length: 12883

As Equestria and the world falls apart, so does everything Twilight has ever known.

“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” ― George Orwell

The end of everything Twilight knew and loved allowed something else to seep into what was left of Equestria. Something that had long been forgotten by the only one who had the ability to understand it. To Twilight it is the most jarring, the harshest, and perhaps the most benevolent thing that she could ever imagine ...

Reality.

Published 2015-12-08 23:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-08 23:40:01 UTC

The Only Chapter

Even the least knowledgeable pony knows that someday the world will end, that all would eventually fade into oblivion. The only question, then, that was ever asked, was when? Nopony dared ask how because it wouldn’t really matter … as it was once said, the only things in life that are definite are death and taxes.

So despite everything, there was a part of Twilight that knew that she should have expected this to happen eventually despite how desperately the rest of her fought against it. That part of her would never give up. She expected that, but she had not foreseen the overwhelming torrent of other emotions. Her only action was to sit on the small hill and watch as the world slowly seemed to drain away. It was an anguishing sight for Twilight to see, especially since she had been the one to fail all of Equestria … all of the world.

She had thought that her last ditch resort would win! Everything that led up to that moment screamed of her being able to pull through in the end and finally defeat Tirek. And yet …

She had instead doomed Equestria, allowed the monster to rampage and drain the world of its magic. She had given the monster exactly what it wanted just because she thought that the damnable box could help them!

Yet, it failed them … it failed the Elements when they tried to activate it with their keys. Instead of unleashing some sort of magical weapon or giving the girls the ability to fight Tirek and win, it just exploded …

It …

It exploded and took her friends with it, leaving her alone and hardly able to even stand. Every part of her body screamed at her to just lay down and accept the end, to just end herself so she wouldn’t have to see her last and greatest failure.

Instead, she had numbly trudged to the hilltop that she now sat at, and placed herself in the perfect spot to watch Tirek turn the world into a barren husk.

Magic was what sustained this world. It allowed it to be so vibrant and diverse … it allowed all of its inhabitants to live! Despite the reality that it had, for unknown reasons, created a monster even worse than all of her previous foes. It created the antithesis to its very being: a magic eating monster.

Hot tears ran down her eyes as she relived her own life from the moment she had passed her entrance exam, all the way up to when her friends were taken from her. She gritted her teeth at all of her mistakes, all of her screw ups! Yet at the same time, she smiled when the good moments came forth and reminded her that despite everything, she had a good life.

Short? Yes, but nonetheless it was a good life.

A sad chuckle came forward at the thought of what her mentor would say to all of this; how would Celestia have reacted to such a thing? No matter how much despair and guilt Twilight tried to pour into that idea, she knew that in the end, Celestia would just look at her and softly smile before telling her one last piece of wisdom that would somehow connect all of it together and let Twilight feel some sort of solace in the sheer face of the world’s end.

A transparent, ethereal-like Celestia slowly entered Twilight’s vision. The Princess of the Sun slowly flapped her wings before the young alicorn, her never-ending serene smile rested upon her white muzzle. Twilight wished for it to be real, but even she knew that was impossible.

“Twilight, I have but one parting piece to share with you. One last lesson that I had hoped to never teach you, but even I can’t predict the future. Always remember, that even in the darkest of moments, when not even my sister can see through the veil, there will always be that silver lining that will light your path back home. If you give up hope, when all is lost, then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“There was once a poem I had read, long ago … one that I could find no more suiting for this moment than this,” she spoke softly to Twilight, before looking back out at the world behind her, with her lips held taut in a small smile. Then a small frown. “And yet … I cannot recall the entirety of the poem, for it was written so long ago and taught to me before I came to Equestria.”

A moment of dead silence hung around them before Celestia turned back to Twilight. “But I can recall the most important lines of the poem. Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

“What does that mean?” Twilight asked the vision of Celestia in curiosity, not even the end of the world stopping that. Celestia gave a knowing smile at her faithful student before replying simply.

“Never lose hope … even in the darkest of moments.”

Eventually the transparent and imaginary Celestia faded from Twilight’s view, having - of course - been nothing more than a daydreamt hallucination. Yet Twilight’s imagination felt so vivid that, for a moment, Celestia had to have been there, teaching her one last lesson. Unfortunately for the purple alicorn, that was not the case. Instead she was still on the hill … alone.

Twilight couldn’t help but wonder where such a poem had come from. The lines, though just a few out of many, caused Twilight to nearly flinch. They carried a weight about them as though they had a deeper meaning that even she couldn’t see. Her mind repeated the lines a few times before she started to fill in the rest of the poem.

Though she didn’t say them aloud, Twilight mouthed each line as it was supposed to be, with one difference … a single word that didn’t belong, yet it should have! Why didn’t saying ‘pony’ in that poem feel right? Why was the poem itself starting to make her head throb in discomfort?

Yet to Twilight, it didn’t matter enough for her to probe deeper and understand why the poem was affecting her the way it did. Nothing much mattered anymore, let alone a poem. So instead, she gazed once more out onto Equestria to see the fading colours that went hand-in-hand with Tirek’s magic draining ability.

With each step of the massive centaur’s hooves, the land under him could be seen shrivelling and dying, taking everything that it once had with it. What once were green and beautiful trees were now nothing more than dry, grey toothpicks that looked as though they would fall over in a small gust. The mountains themselves were slowly crumbling, each rock turning into not much more than the finest dust.

She forcibly turned her gaze away from the land and instead stared at Ponyville below her, where she saw the most heartbreaking thing of all. Every single pony that she had met, learned and laughed with … they just sat there and watched as the world ended. Even from the distance, she could see that no tears fell from their faces. They had resigned themselves to the apocalypse that was unfolding before them.

There was not even a struggle to flee or find a way to stop it … No … they were just like her. Yet at the same time, they were not, for Twilight’s cheeks were stained with fresh tears that even now still flowed. She didn’t even realise she was crying until she touched her face to find her hoof slightly wet, the fur soaked and matted down from the warm, bitter tears that ran from her eyes.

She never wanted it to end! She didn’t want to die!

“Twilight? Can you hear me, Twilight?!” A very familiar voice called to her from all around. It was Luna! How had she escaped from her prison? How did she get her magic back?! Twilight didn’t care about the reason upon hearing the voice. She knew that there was still a chance!

“Luna?! Luna, where are you? How did you escape?! No, no, no, it doesn’t matter! All that matters is that you did! We can change this now!” Twilight called out as she jumped to her hooves, eyes darting all around to try and find from where the voice had come from.

“Twilight, listen to me, Twilight. Listen to my voice and come back to us!” Luna called out once more, her voice sounding closer and closer with each word.

“Luna? What do you mean come back to us?! I’m right here! Where are you? Just tell me where you are and we can save all of Equestria from Tirek!” Twilight screamed back, desperately trying to get through to Luna with the little bit of hope she could muster.

There was no reply this time, which caused Twilight’s heart to fall as though she were dropped off a cliff without her wings. Yet she continued to yell out, “Luna?! Luna, where are you?!”

“-eep talking,” a very faint voice said in the background. Twilight had only picked up a small portion of what was said before Luna’s voice came back to her.

“Just follow my voice, Twilight! They’re almost done! You’re almost cured! Please, Twilight, please, just come back to us … please,” Luna said with her voice slowly fading as though she was trying to choke the last words out. It almost sounded as though she was crying for some reason. Of course Twilight could just attribute it to the end of Equestria, but that didn’t explain what Luna was talking about.

And it didn’t explain the increasingly white light that had appeared directly above her. So bright did it shine that it was blocking out the darkening sky that should have been above her. No, all she could see above her was that white light; even the rest of her vision was slowly starting to be encompassed by the white light.

She tried to turn away, yet she was stuck looking up. She tried to run, yet her legs felt like they could barely stand. Finally, as a last resort she tried to close her eyes ... yet they failed to fall.

All Twilight could do was stare up at the white light as it became brighter and brighter, larger and larger … until all had been consumed. In the blinding wake, a voice remained. It was a different voice, one spawned from the union of many. “Come back to us,” it spoke before Twilight succumbed and everything else ceased to exist.

The white light slowly started to fade, as Twilight was able to regain control over her eyelids, blinking them a few times to clear her vision from the brightness. Though as she looked up, she didn’t see the darkened sky or even the ceiling of her palace. No, what she saw instead was a small white fan spinning slowly with a cream ceiling as a backdrop.

A single rectangular light source beamed above her … it looked like those hanging lights she had seen in the hospital, yet she could tell it was imbedded in the ceiling. It wasn’t a weird sight to say the least, yet the feeling she was receiving from the rest of her body was something she wasn’t ready for.

It felt as though she hadn’t moved from a position in years; her entire being ached.

Then that voice came back.

“-n a minute. Let me check on her first,” the distinctively male voice said from her left side. Twilight wanted to look over and see who was beside her and what they were talking about, but her muscles just refused to move for her, the ache being greater than she could have ever imagined.

“W-what … ?” Twilight managed to croak out, before her throat seized up on her, not to mention the struggle it was to move her mouth, the pain was as though she was talking with sandpaper scratching against her vocal chords.

“Shh, now, don’t speak just yet. Let’s get some water down that throat of yours first,” the male voice said before she saw a water bottle appear in front of her. She managed to open her mouth again, with great effort, and let the water slowly fall into her mouth. It wasn’t a lot, but the little bit that did manage to slide down her throat soothed it beyond any shadow of a doubt. She almost pleadingly opened her mouth to receive more … and more she did.

After a few more sips of water, the water bottle was finally taken away from her, and a new face appeared in front of her. A face she had never seen before … in a way.

What she saw was an older human male, his features were a little soft along with a small amount of hair covering his chin. Of course it wasn’t the first time she had ever seen a human, what with her journey to Canterlot High, but the colouring of his skin was odd, a beige type of colour she hadn’t seen in any human while there.

Then he spoke … it was the same voice she had heard behind Luna’s.

“How do you feel?” he asked, a cheerful, yet serene tone filling his voice.

Twilight didn’t answer at first, completely confused at what was going on. She had been in Ponyville! She had been watching the end of the world! Yet somehow she was in a room with a human! What happened? Her confused mind could only take so much.

“I … I don’t und-underts …” Twilight said before trailing off, her throat still a little sore and her mouth just as much as when she had first tried to speak.

“You’ve been away for a while, Twilight, but I think I’ve cured you. You were in a state of catatonic sleep, you see,” he said with a large smile that exuded pride. Twilight couldn’t comprehend what she was hearing. She knew what the doctor was saying, of course she knew the terminology! Yet at the same time … it made no sense! None at all!

Twilight had no words for the doctor in response; how could she even try and reply to what he had told her? No, instead she wanted to shake her head and show the doctor that she didn’t believe any of it! There must have been some sort of … of spell! That must have been it!

So Twilight tried her best to shake her head in disagreement with the doctor. She made it all the way to the right side, allowing her a brief glimpse of a light brown-coloured wall and an overly bright window she couldn’t really see out of. So instead she slowly, and painfully, swung her head over to the left. Yet when she had a clear view on the rest of the room, her eyes widened at the sight.

It … it couldn’t be.

On the opposite side of a window, there stood six people who she recognised beyond any shadow of a doubt. Six people who had meant the world to her over the course of her life in Equestria.

There, standing and watching Twilight with what looked like tears of joy, were her parents, Celestia and Luna, and finally Shining Armor and Cadance. They obviously looked different from their pony forms, but even in spite of that she could tell that’s who they were. There was no doubt. She didn’t even need to see the similar hair colours and style to know who those six people outside the window were.

“Your family can come in, if you want,” the doctor said as he finally caught onto what Twilight had been staring at. She simply nodded with much of her strength, to which the doctor left her side and walked over to the door.

She watched them hurriedly rush into the room, their cries of joy overwhelming her slightly as they all rushed to crowd the bed. Twilight couldn’t help but force a smile to her lips at the display, despite how wrong it felt.

No, that wasn’t the right word. It just felt … alien.

It was Luna of all pon- people to speak first.

“I knew you’d come back, Twilight, I knew it!” Luna exclaimed in between choked sobs as she hugged Twilight as though she was going to slip away at any moment. Tears were streaming down her face, dampening the skin of her cheeks. It felt nice to feel the touch of Luna … her … her sister? No … that wasn’t right … wasn’t it? Twilight couldn’t tell, but some small voice in the back of her head kept whispering ‘sister’ to her.

“Don’t strangle her now, Luna!” Celestia said, after which she chuckled from beside Luna, giving her a light shove before clasping her hand over Twilight’s. She too, had tear stains on her cheeks. “It’s been years, Twilight … years … welcome back.”

Once again the voice whispered ‘sister’ to her as she struggled to look Celestia in the eyes. She allowed the voice to keep whispering, as it felt right … for the strangest of reasons it felt right to look at Celestia and think of her as a sister.

Her gaze slowly turned to her mom and dad, who were standing at the foot of the bed, her father Night Light holding her mother Twilight Velvet in his arms. The older woman was crying happily, hardly even able to look at her daughter despite how happy she looked. Night Light, who seemed to be crying as well, just smiled at Twilight, letting his daughter know that he was beyond ecstatic. Twilight didn’t even need him to say anything to know that.

She eventually turned her head to her right, which had Shining Armor and Cadance beside her. Much like Celestia and Luna, both of them were holding onto her as though she would disappear at any moment. Despite the pressure on her sore body, Twilight couldn’t remember a time in which she had desired the feeling of touch as much as that one moment. She relished it as she felt Luna beside her stroke her hair.

Shining and Cadance didn’t speak to her at that moment, instead just opting to smile and openly weep … well at least Cadance was. Shining was holding back his tears, and Twilight could tell without a shadow of a doubt that he was.

Twilight was lost in the feeling of just being this close to another that she loved, even if it felt unnatural to her that everyone was in these strange human forms.. She even dismissed the oddity that they were all roughly the same colour of skin, far from what she remembered of the human world.

So Twilight just sighed and let it all happen, slowly letting her mind ease up from all of her worrying. She didn’t know why, but it just felt better to allow it all to happen.

“I know you’re eager to be with her, but right now we need to perform some checks and she needs rest still. You’re free to stay in the room we’ve given you, or you can go home. She’ll be here when you return,” the doctor said from near the door, two nurses standing behind him.

Her family slowly started to leave, but Twilight could see the apprehension on their faces. They had seen her for no more than a few short minutes, why would they want to leave? Yet Twilight knew that the doctors needed to do their work on … on whatever it was. She refused to believe what was said before. She knew what she had done in Equestria and what she truly was. She might not have rebelled against all of this, and she might have been accepting of her ‘family’ this ‘reality’ presented to her, but it was all still wrong!

She had spent her whole life in Equestria, grown and learned lessons as a pony, under the tutelage of her mentor. Yet now she was being told that she had been catatonic for most of her life? If that was true, then what was Equestria? Had it been all just a silly dream of hers? Her mind playing tricks on her in order to keep her ‘there?’ No, no, no, she was from Equestria! Perhaps there was a chance that she had done both? Her soul had gone to Equestria while her body stayed here?

The more she thought about the possibilities the more her head started to ache, and the inevitable pull of sleep started to drag her further down.

Still, Twilight wanted answers now, she needed to get answers, yet as the doctors went to work on checking Twilight and their machines, sleep pulled harder. The need to close her eyes once more slowly overcoming her will.

“Go ahead, Twilight. They’ll be here when you’re rested,” one of the female nurses said from beside her. Twilight could only sleepily nod her head ever so slightly before letting her eyelids close shut.

Twilight was awake but she didn’t open her eyes immediately, instead opting to hope and pray that it all had been a bad dream and that she would awaken in her bed back in the Tree Library. Yet despite how much she pleaded, she knew it was a futile thing, for she could finally feel her body without all of the aches and pains of yesterday. She could feel the longer limbs, her fingers and toes, and the lack of a tail, horn, and wings. It felt so strange, like she was missing and essential part of her yet … her body didn’t feel wrong. She wanted to mourn over everything that she had lost, but that cry was instinctively stifled as she heard the door open, a soft clack of it coming to rest against the door stopper.

“She’s been awake for a bit, but refuses to admit it,” a female nurse said with a small chuckle. “I’ll leave you two with her.”

She didn’t hear the door close over the sounds of footsteps drawing near her. She casually opened her eyes as a familiar scent had made its way over to her. It was the same smell that she had always associated with Celestia.

“Come on, sleepyhead, open your eyes already. It’s rude to keep your sisters waiting,” Luna was the one to speak up out of the both of them. What she said caused a lump to form in Twilight’s throat. That voice she heard … it was her. They really were her sisters, or at least this weird false reality made that so. Twilight didn’t know, her mind was too jumbled to really try and discern the particulars of whether or not this world was real.

Yet she knew she had to. Celestia and Luna would help her … They always helped her.

A sudden flashback caused Twilight to shiver deeply. She could see a young Luna sitting across from her, reading off of some small cue cards, while a just as young Celestia sat to her left with a book in front of her. They were helping her prepare … there … there was a competition of sorts. A competition regarding knowledge, though the exact details were fuzzy. Yet, she could see the smile on Celestia’s face when Twilight answered a question correctly. The look that only came from someone who was proud of her younger sister.

Yet out of all things, what Twilight took the most from that vision was the size of everything. She barely was sitting above the table line while Luna and Celestia were not even close to the age she knew them to be … They looked like teenagers!

Twilight’s eyes fluttered open briefly before she struggled to sit up a little more. A gentle yet firm set of hands helped her up. It was Celestia, the being she had always looked up to, that had guided her, and even in this situation she was still there for her.

“It’s good to see you awake. Mom and Dad had to go to work. They didn’t want to leave, but we told them we’d stay with you, and make sure you were alright,” Celestia said, her serene smile splayed out on her face.

“Thank you,” Twilight said weakly. Her voice didn’t hurt anymore, but it still felt like she hadn’t used her voice in years.

“Think nothing of it, what are sisters for?” Luna asked. Celestia had been sitting right beside Twilight, on her left, while Luna sat a little further down, closer to her feet. “Actually, don’t answer that question, ‘cause I know what Tia’s for.”

“I told you I was sorry for that!” Celestia snapped back in a playful tone.

“You’re a cold hearted monster, Tia. Eating all those moonpies without me,” Luna grumbled before sticking her nose up in the air. Celestia just sighed in defeat or surrender, which caused Luna to start giggling. It was an infectious giggle that eventually consumed Twilight as well.

Another brief flash streaked across Twilight’s vision, the scenery changing quickly. She was no longer in her bed. Instead, she was sitting in a couch that was too big for her. Across from her on another couch, Celestia and Luna, who were much smaller than she remembered, were wrestling with each other.

Before she could do anything, the vision faded and Twilight was once again in the hospital, staring forward at the wall. Celestia gave her a little nudge from the side, noticing the blank look on Twilight’s face. Luna was ready to bolt and get a doctor, but when Twilight shook her head slightly, she breathed a sigh in relief.

“Are you okay, Twilight? You spaced out there for a second,” Celestia asked, her face locked in a concerned look.

“Yeah … I’m fine. It’s just … ,” Twilight said as she searched for the right words. She couldn’t outright say what was happening. They would label her insane! She needed to know more about this circumstance. “I’m just having a tough time remembering.”

Celestia nodded her head in acceptance before replying. “Doctor Stable said that would be the case. It’ll come back to you in time, Twilight. We’ll help you remember everything.”

Twilight nodded her head before she finally found a question to which she needed an answer. “What happened? How … how did I end up here?”

“You … you don’t remember?” Luna asked cautiously, not sure if Twilight was joking or not. Twilight just shook her head in response. Celestia and Luna looked at eachother for the briefest of moments before looking back at Twilight.

“There was a gas leak at our house. It exploded, taking nearly the entire building down,” Celestia said with a choked up voice. It was tough for her to remember the incident as it was the darkest of moments for their entire family. “We were all able to make it out, even you … yet you wouldn’t respond. We couldn’t reach you … you just … you …”

“Shh, it’s alright, sister,” Luna said, reaching over to comfort Celestia, who was openly weeping. Even Twilight tried her best to help, stiffly clasping Celestia’s hand with her own. Still, Celestia kept crying into Luna’s shoulder. Luna looked back up at Twilight before finishing what Celestia had started. “You just sat there, Twilight. Even when the paramedics arrived you didn’t respond. They took you to the hospital, yet still nothing … You walked and sat as though nothing was wrong, but there was no light behind your eyes.”

Twilight shivered at what Luna was saying. She knew the word for it, catatonic. Not only did the doctor say it to her, but she had read about it … a condition where the patient was nearly non-responsive for an unspecified amount of time, usually hours at most.

“That was … that was seventeen years ago, Twilight,” Luna said with a shivering sigh. Yet it was Twilight who took that the hardest.

“Sev-seven … se-” Twilight tried to say, but her voice hitched to the point where she couldn’t continue. She had been catatonic for seventeen years?! No! That was impossible! If she was the same age as when she left Ponyville, then that mean she had been catatonic since she was seven! That was impossible! No, she refused to believe that she had been catatonic at all! She had gotten her cutie mark at seven, not suffered through an explosi-

Twilight’s thought process came to a screeching halt. An explosion. She had been catatonic since she was seven … and she couldn’t remember anything since before she got her cutie mark; which had been caused by a magical explosion …

No.

Twilight refused to believe it, to believe the coincidences! It was just luck and speculation! There was nothing to back it up! She shook her head slowly, trying to rid her thoughts of the possible link there. Yet no matter how much she shook her head, she couldn’t remove the thoughts from her mind.

Not only that, but she couldn’t remember anything from before her cutie mark! She couldn’t remember magical kindergarten in Canterlot … couldn’t remember the first time she had met Cadance … she just couldn’t …

“Twilight, are you okay? Do you need the nurse?” Celestia asked through teary eyes. Apparently she had finally finished, just as Twilight had shaken her head.

“No! No … no, it’s just a lot,” Twilight said, her voice hitching slightly once again. “Can … can you tell me more?”

Celestia looked a little unsure about Twilight’s request, but Luna just nodded her head. She had always been the stronger of the two when it came to sensitive matters. Twilight knew this from her time spent with the alicorn sisters. Yet it also applied to these versions and she somehow knew it did.

“At first there was hope that it was going to pass, but days stretched into weeks and the doctors were concerned,” Luna started, her voice quivering at times, laden with emotion. “They had no idea how long you’d remain that way, so we took you home and cared for you … played you audiobooks … read to you … everything. There were ups and downs, but we never gave up hope. At times we were certain that we saw glimmers of light behind your eyes … yet every time …”

Twilight’s eyes were tearing up, the little droplets of water slowly rolling down her cheeks at what she was listening to. No matter how much she wanted to deny that this wasn’t happening, the emotion that Luna’s voice held … it was overwhelming. She began to softly cry, her sisters reaching over and holding her.

That’s right … her sisters. She might have been from Equestria, but right then and there they were her sisters. She wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore.

“Thank you,” Twilight managed to croak out as they held her and she cried softly. They stayed that way for quite some time until eventually they broke apart, small smiles finally coming to each of their faces.

Oh, do we have some catching up to do,” Luna said as she wiped a tear that threatened to fall from her eye. There was a small round of laughter before Luna started to talk about everything that she had missed.

Twilight just listened carefully and eagerly, though a part of her was still thinking about the most important thing of all. Why was she here, and why did she constantly think that this was more natural than her pony life?

During all of Luna’s and Celestia’s banter about their lives and what they had been up to, Twilight couldn’t help but constantly wonder why this was coming so easily to her. She had lived in Canterlot until her studies took her to Ponyville. That’s who she was! Celestia’s faithful student that had defeated Nightmare Moon when she was only … only … was she eighteen? No … no … she was nineteen when Nightmare Moon had returned. Wasn’t she?

Why were her memories of her pony life so hazy? She tried to think back on many of the events that had happened throughout her life, yet every once and awhile they would fail to come to mind. They would either not show, or she would remember them wrongly … It was almost painfully frustrating for the mare turned human. Yet she still tried, all the while listening to her sisters talk about their lives.

As they rambled on, Twilight flinched, hardly enough to notice, but it was enough for Twilight. There was a slight feeling that struck her; it felt like a pin prick inside of her head. For a moment she was worried beyond belief, but then it subsided; leaving something behind, something that wasn’t there before. There were new memories. No … old memories. Old memories of her house in Toronto … of the school she had gone to … of the cities she visited in Ontario.

All of these memories confused her, while at the same time telling her it was all right. She had no idea what to make of them as they started to overshadow her memories of Canterlot.

But it didn’t hurt. It felt almost … ordinary.

Time had passed much quicker than she had realised and eventually Celestia and Luna had to go, their own personal lives catching up to them. She didn’t want them to leave, but she was feeling too tired to actually protest them leaving. It was a heartfelt goodbye, but Twilight assured them that she would still be here when they returned.

Twilight just laid there for a while, not really doing much other than just looking at the door which her sisters had left through. Twilight felt exhausted, her mind was heavy with everything that just happened and was happening. She was just … sleepy.

She didn’t even bother waiting for someone else to walk in so that she could tell them she wanted to sleep. No, she just closed her eyes and lay back, letting her mind ease a little as it drifted back into the dreamscape. Perhaps this time she would awake in her tree library … what was the name of the library called again?

It was a weird feeling for Twilight as she started to wake up. Not the fact that she was waking up, but rather the fact that she wasn’t so vehemently refusing the possibility that she would wake up in the real-human world. Sure, there was a part of her that just wanted to wake up in Ponyville once more so that she could see her friends again, and be herself once again.

It was a struggle for her to remember their names, but she eventually remembered each and every one of them. From Applejack to Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy to Rarity, and finally Pinkie Pie to Spike. She knew she should have been more concerned about the fact that it took some effort to remember their names, especially Spike … yet at the same time, she felt calmer. She felt relaxed for the oddest of reasons.

Then her mind went on to a different topic … how long had she been asleep since seeing her sisters? It felt like forever, but Twilight knew that wasn’t right. She was still here, and there was no doctor looking over her. Perhaps an hour or so? She wasn’t sure.

Just like last time, the door opened once again, and she rolled over to see who was there. Who she saw brought a large smile to her face. Sure she had been happy to see her older sisters, but there was something different about seeing her older brother and her former babysitter. Babysitter … wasn’t it foalsitter? Twilight didn’t even shake her head at that thought, for it didn’t sound right at all.

“How’s my LSBFF doing?” Shining said with a cheesy grin on his face as he walked over, leaned down, and gave Twilight a massive hug. She giggled slightly at the nickname. As long as she could remember, Shining and her had called each other that. She couldn’t remember why, but it hardly mattered to her. At least one thing was truly the same.

“I’m feeling better, I think,” Twilight said with a small smile before forcing herself to sit a little more. It was true though, she could feel some semblance of strength returning to her, yet she still felt really weak. Seventeen years of not moving her limbs and frame actively left the whole body feeling weak.

Before she said anything more, she noticed that there was an IV drip in her arm. Odd … it hadn’t been there last time, when Celestia and Luna stopped by. Twilight thought about it for a second before eventually deciding to let it go. The doctors knew what they were doing, after all.

“I wish they didn’t have you cooped up in the bed. When was the last time that we did our little dance, huh?” Cadance asked with a knowing smile and a small giggle. It was infectious, as Twilight soon joined in on the small bit of laughter. “You remember it, right?”

“Of course!” Twilight exclaimed before starting up the little chant that she and Cadance did back when she was being babysat.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hands and do a little shake!” They both chanted in unison, though for obvious reasons, Cadance was the only one to do the motions. When they finished, both of them burst into giggles at the whole thing. Yet when the laughing died down, Twilight caught onto what had been said; ‘hands.’

She blinked a few times, trying to understand why it had that dual feeling of being right, yet wrong. Eventually she let it pass as nothing more than an odd feeling.

“I can’t wait till you’re out of here, Twilight. There’s so much Shining and I have got to show you!” Cadance said with excitement before grabbing onto Shining’s arm. He just smiled as Cadance leaned her head down on his shoulder.

Twilight looked at them for a moment before she realised that there were a lot of things she needed to know. She had missed so much! Seventeen years was a lot to catch up on.

“What did I miss?” she said. They looked at each other nervously before Shining rubbed the back of his head and answered her.

“You’ve missed a lot … everything is different. I mean, sure, you were there, but well … you know … ,” Shining said, slightly fumbling his words. Twilight obviously frowned in response; she could handle what they were going to talk about. She had been through touchy subjects and conversations with her friends in Ponyville. Like that one time with … with … .

Twilight was broken from her failed recollection when Cadance grasped her hand.

“We’re getting married in two months, Twilight,” the multi-hued haired girl said. Her smile was beaming, but there was sadness behind it. Twilight had learned to pick up on facial expressions from … from … had she learned such things? Was her guess on the emotion conveyed even right?

“I’m so happy for you!” Twilight said, instead of submerging herself once more in that faint memory. It was getting harder and harder to think about her eight friends. No, it was seven, right? “Though I’m ticked that Shining didn’t tell me first!”

Shining laughed nervously at the little scolding from his little sister. He knew that her request was impossible, but he still went along with the whole thing. Cadance flicked him in mock agreement with Twilight.

They all laughed for a moment before it died back down to silence and the faint beeping that came from one of the machines beside her. The silence in the room, albeit short, was bothersome to Twilight. Thankfully a thought wormed its way into her head; she needed to learn more about her situation.

“Anything else I missed? How are my friends?” Twilight asked hopefully until she saw the shared glance between Cadance and Shining Armor. She denied the facts that were right in front of her, instead hoping that they were just looking at each other to make sure they said the same thing … yeah, that had to be it!

“What friends, Twilight?” Shining said, before getting hit lightly by Cadance. He winced, but the damage was done. Twilight’s mind was already running amess, constantly thinking about her five friends!

“You know, my friends from … from …” Twilight said, her voice trailing off as she failed to recall any of their names. Cadance just leaned forward to hold a crying Twilight. Shining walked around the bed and did the same, consoling Twilight by running his hand through her hair and murmuring comforting nothings.

Neither him nor his fiancée knew why she was crying, or for that matter what she was going on about with her mentioning of friends. While she knew many kids from school when she had actually attended, she had soared through grade levels due to her natural IQ. She hadn’t had time to make friends with anyone in her grade before she was bumped up many grade levels. Sure, she hadn’t been picked on or bullied, mainly because most of the students knew that she was very important to two of the most popular kids in school; aka Shining and Cadance.

School had been a little tough for her, especially considering she was in sixth grade when she was seven, but that was nothing for Twilight, at least until that night.

Eventually Twilight calmed down, having gotten all the tears out of her system. When Cadance and Shining eventually released her, she felt a lot better and wasn’t even fully sure why she had been crying over something like that. Her memories started to come back about how she had been the local genius in school. It made a lot of sense actually, now that she thought about it.

“Thanks,” Twilight managed to croak out as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Cadance and Shining didn’t reply, and instead simply offered comforting smiles. They all just sat in the room, basking in the feeling of being around eachother once more, until Twilight spoke up once more.

“Umm, Luna and Celestia told me that they had read various books to me and let me listen to audiobooks …” Twilight offered, though not entirely sure where to take the topic. She wasn’t even sure how she could have formed a question out of that either. It seemed that being catatonic did a number on someone’s grammar.

“Oh yes, they made sure at least someone was reading you a book at all times! It was actually amusing to see Luna get mad when there wasn’t an audiobook playing or someone wasn’t reading. After the first time they read to you, they just kept at it,” Shining said with a small smile. To him the memories were amusing when you removed the sad aspect to them. Luna really got angry when something wasn’t being done properly.

“First time?” Twilight asked, now sure that there was a story behind it that Luna and Celestia had forgotten to mention. Sure they had told her about the ‘glimmers’ that they had seen, but they never really elaborated.

“Well it was about a week or so after your accident,” Shining started before looking over to Cadance and pausing. Eventually he found the right words and continued. “Cadance had come over to see how everything was doing. She knew about what happened … everyone knew about what happened. Anyway, she came over to check on you. She noticed that there was a book lying beside you when she got to your room.”

“Specifically, it was a book of poems,” Cadance chimed in before taking over the story. “So I figured I would read a poem from the book. I flipped it to a random page before i started reading it. Want to know what poem it was?”

Twilight knew.

She knew what poem it was.

“Don’t go gentle into that good night …” Twilight whispered, just barely audible enough for the other two to hear. Somehow she knew that was the poem … the same poem she had recalled when the Equ- … Eque- … when the world was ending. It was the poem that she knew Celestia would say … the one that her older sister had read to her before she went to bed.

That was the tipping point. There were no other options in Twilight’s mind. Everything that she had experienced as part of the ‘pony world’ was nothing more than a dream. Everything she had experienced was nothing more than her mind creating something for Twilight to do during her catatonic state. There was no other viable option in Twilight’s mind, and so she accepted that as a fact.

It was right then and there, as she came to terms with everything, that Twilight felt a pounding her head, something like a headache but at the same time it was … more. A dull throb in the back of her that grew with each passing moment.

“Yes!” Cadance exclaimed, grabbing Twilight’s hand in excitement before looking over to Shining with a massive grin. He just replied with his own grin. “That’s exactly it! Oh, I was right! After I read that poem, I swear I saw your face turn up into a small smile. I was so giddy that I ran out of the room to grab Shining and show him. Yet when we returned, it was gone … your family still believed me in the end, but the fact that it was gone … I felt heartbroken at the time, but I knew that your were still there.”

Shining decided to finish off the story instead of letting Cadance do it. “From then on out, she came over as often as she could and read you poems. You never responded like that one time, but it was enough for us to know you were still there.”

Twilight didn’t respond at first, her eyes slightly glazed over as she stared at the wall in front of her. Her vision was fixated on nothing in particular, but to her, she saw something wrong about the hospital room. There was a door in front of her, her room extending out from the end of the bed instead of from the side like it should have been. Yet that wasn’t the weirdest part of the entire thing … No, not even the fact that Twilight and the bed were shorter was the oddest thing. It was that she no longer had her hands. Instead, they were almost rounded off in what looked like purple stumps.

She raised said stumps in the air, looking at them with curiosity. What were these, and what had happened to her hands? Yet before she could contemplate any further, the door in front of her opened up, revealing a darker brown stallion in a lab coat trotting in, a hurried pace to his hooves.

“Twilight?! Twilight Sparkle?!” his voice asked in a rushed tone the moment he was beside the bed. One hoof was raised up and placed on her shoulder, shaking her slightly.

Reality snapped back to Twilight, who found herself staring at a rather blank brown wall. She was still being shaken from the side, which caused her to look over to see Doctor Stable looking at her with a concerned expression. Shining and Cadance were nowhere to be found, instead a nurse was behind the doctor, holding a new IV bag in her grip. Twilight looked a little past the doctor and saw that Shining and Cadance were actually on the other side of the glass window to her room, their concerned yet relieved faces looking directly at her.

“Twilight, can you hear me? If you can, can you give me a thumbs up?” Doctor Stable asked, to which Twilight just nodded before giving the doctor the thumbs up, her gaze still looking at Shining and Cadance, who were now embraced. Twilight was obviously confused about what was going on, especially with the doctor’s odd request. “Good, good. How about you get some rest, Twilight? It’s been a hectic day for you. You just lay there and we’ll bring some food for you, how about that?”

“Sure … I am kind of hungry,” Twilight said, her voice a little distant. The doctor nodded to the nurse, who promptly left the room. He stayed there for a few more minutes before also exiting.

Twilight just remained sitting there, her mind adrift with questions over what she had seen. It had felt so real … yet she knew that that couldn’t be true. She didn’t have hooves, afterall.

It had been a weird couple of hours for Twilight, especially after Cadance and Shining left. They had left without saying goodbye, though they did wave when they noticed that Twilight was looking at them through the window. After they left, the doctor and nurses appeared every so often, checking on the instruments beside Twilight. She just let them go about their business without talking to them … she knew they were busy.

And so was she.

In a way, at least.

She had been thinking about that vivid daydream that she had found herself in. It felt and looked so real, but she knew it was all just a dream … right? Even then, she was questioning her abilities to tell what was real and what was a dream. Yet, she’d had that strange dream for so long while she was catatonic, so she was slightly worried that her grip on reality was slipping.

“Twilight, you okay? You’ve been kind of zoning out all day,” a young male voice spoke up from beside her. She looked down, seeing a small lizard-type creature … Spike was his name, she told herself, wondering why she didn’t recognize him at first.

She looked around briefly, seeing that she was seated at the kitchen table, a plate of food in front of her. It was so nice of Spike to bring her food, she thought, before a knock on the door stirred her from her musings.

“Twilight?” her father said, snapping Twilight out of her blank staring contest with the wall in front of her. She looked over at her mother and father who had walked into the hospital room, both of them smiling, yet hiding worried faces. She could see through their masks; she always could, even when she was little. They had always laughed at just how easy it was for her, then attempted to say it was magic, but Twilight was overly smart for her age and knew that magic wasn’t real.

“Mom, Dad,” Twilight choked out, despite the large smile on her face. It was the first time she had seen them since she had first awoken from her state. Tears readily streamed down her face at finally seeing her parents one on one. All of the crying that Twilight had been doing as of late wasn’t surprising to her, afterall she had missed many years’ worth of emotions.

“It’s so good to see you again, my little Sparkle,” Night Light said, giving his daughter a big hug while she continued to cry softly. Her mother joined her, not just in the hug, but also in the crying. Night Light tried to hold back the waterworks, but even he wasn’t without emotions, letting tears slowly roll down his cheeks.

Despite the wave of emotions, Twilight’s attention was drawn away from the embrace and towards the faces of her parents. It was still a little foggy, but her memory of what they looked like, compared to now, put her at a loss for words. The passing of time had not been gentle on them, the aging skin and wrinkles clear as day, like markings of events on a calendar they were many.

All this time away had left Twilight with people who looked far from what she remembered. Guilt overwhelmed her at that, causing her to hiccup slightly at the pain she felt for her parents. Like her, they had aged, but she never had to deal with reality during that time. Their struggle made her love them that much more, for they had gone through hell and back for her.

They ended up staying like that for quite some time, each of them just enjoying the feeling of being around each other in a meaningful way once more. Twilight Sparkle was just glad to finally see her parents again, and to be able to hold them in her own arms. Her mother was overjoyed at hearing her daughter call her ‘mom’ again, a moment that she had been waiting for for almost two decades. And though he didn’t show it, Night Light was beyond thrilled to be able to feel Twilight hug him back, something he had missed beyond anyone could ever believe.

It was truly a beautiful Kodak moment for all three of them, and none of them wanted to actually let go and end said moment. Unfortunately it had to end eventually, with Twilight being the one to let go. She sat back and proceeded to wipe her tears away with her sleeve on the gown she was wearing.

“Oh god, Twilight … I never thought I would hear you say ‘mom’ again,” Twilight Velvet said, her voice quivering with small sobs. “I’m sorry, my baby, I’m sorry.”

Twilight leaned over and hugged her mother once more, this time being the one to comfort her. “Don’t be sorry, Mom … please don’t be sorry.”

“It’s been hard on us, Twilight, but your mom took the brunt of it,” Night Light said from beside them. “She quit her job to focus on just being around you …”

“Oh Mom …” Twilight said before hugging her mother tighter. While the mother and daughter pair hugged and comforted each other, Night Light just watched with a small smile that hid his true thoughts. His worrying thoughts were based on what Doctor Stable had told him and Velvet. Twilight had relapsed multiple times, the longest one being the initial one when Shining and Cadance had visited.

They’d had to up the drug dosage, but it was slowly becoming ineffective and Twilight’s mind was slowly starting to slip back. They had at best another twelve hours unless something came up. So Night Light silently prayed that the Doctor could come up with something to treat his daughter. There was still a chance.

As he finished his concern musings, he saw that his daughter and wife were talking … well, Velvet was talking while Twilight listened. She was telling their daughter about recent events in their lives. Including the passing of their family dog, Spike. Though it was years ago at this point, it was recent news to Twilight Sparkle.

Spike …

For the oddest of reasons, Twilight was having a tough time picturing him as a dog. She knew that she had raised him since he was a small puppy, and the spaniel had been a big part of her life, yet the name caused so much confusion within her. It was making her head hurt, like when she finally came to grip with the fact that she had never been a pony and it was all just a dream.

Her mind continued to try and focus on that dull throb once more, almost instinctively as though if she found the problem she could actively fix it. It annoyed her very being, yet at the same time, it piqued her inner curiosity. So as her mother and father went on about the many things that had changed within their family, she searched deeper, figuratively, to try and figure out what that dull throb was. Sure she kept her attention on her parents, but she still tried nonetheless.

They had switched topics to how they had taken care of Twilight by themselves instead of putting her in a hospital or mental asylum. In fact, they had been revolted at the idea of having their daughter anywhere but with them. She had chuckled with them as they regaled her with the exact conversation, yet Twilight could feel her mind wandering. This time she could literally feel it starting to slip as the world started to transition.

It had gone from the three of them in a hospital room to her and her pony friends sitting around a crystal table, all of them in awe of the spectacle. She smiled along with them, fascinated by the crystalline structure, but yet she felt wrong about the whole situation. Hadn’t she been in a hospital before that? Wasn’t she with her parents?

She didn’t really hear any of the words that were being said by Applejack and Rarity, who were arguing about the look of the castle or something akin to that. Instead, her head just throbbed more, that dull ache returning with a vengeance. She tried to soothe her mind with a healing spell but it was of no use, instead it only increased in pressure. So while she kept up an outward appearance of following along with everything, the alicorn was inwardly trying to figure out why she was feeling like she was.

It was tough on her as her friends were all excited about everything, yet there she was, hardly doing anything at all. She almost felt like a spectator to a play or something, especially since she was sitting in the chair with her cutie mark on it while the rest were oohing and ahhing over the room.

Even when her friends had sat down, which allowed them to find the interactive map of Equestria, she just couldn’t focus that well on her surroundings. It was like a part of her kept nagging that something was completely wrong. Eventually she couldn’t take the feeling anymore, not even the rubbing of her hooves on her temples soothed the throbbing.

So instead she escorted her friends out, giving them all a big hug in goodbye at the door, before heading to bed in the first bedroom she could find. When she found said room, she simply flopped on the bed, all of her limbs including her wings spread out in relief. She simply closed her eyes and waited for sleep to overtake her, hoping that Luna would swing by and grant her a decent dream, one that didn’t make her head hurt.

When Twilight came to, her entire family was looking over her with varied levels of concern. All of their faces were holding back some sort of emotions ranging from outright sadness to pure anger, with her mother and Luna being the two extremes respectively.

“What … what happened?” Twilight asked cautiously, not sure what was going on. The last thing she remembered was talking to her parents before there was a weird dream about ponies and crystals. She couldn’t remember the details specifically, yet she felt as though she could try and reach a little further and grasp them as though they were being hid across an invisible gap.

“You relapsed, Twilight,” Shining said from beside her, a look of deep concern on his face telling Twilight that it was worse than what he said. Shining might have dodged the truth from time to time, but he was still a horrible liar.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said in a low voice, a feeling of failure washing over her, one that was quickly squashed by everyone in the room telling her it wasn’t her fault and that there was no blame to be laid, especially not on her. Yet no matter how much they tried to tell her that, she still felt responsible for it.

“Twilight, honey, there is nothing to be sorry about … there’s … nothing you could do,” her mother said from beside her. She had been kneeling on the ground beside Twilight’s bed. The comforting words helped a lot, but it still wasn’t enough to drive away all of the guilt.

“How long was I gone?” Twilight asked, aware that any amount of time could have passed.

“Eight hours,” Luna muttered her reply, her voice full of anger. She whispered something else immediately afterwards, which caused Celestia to smack the back of Luna’s head. Whatever it had been, Twilight was sure it wasn’t something she needed to hear.

“The doctor said it doesn’t look good,” Celestia said after smacking Luna, her eyes looking directly at Twilight, telling her younger sister that there was little hope left for her to stay awake. The simple message caused Twilight’s body to shiver and convulse from the pure fear alone.

She didn’t want to go away again! She had just gotten back! Her family had just gotten her back! Why did her life have to be taken away again?! It wasn’t fair!

Yet despite all the emotions surging through Twilight, and the comfort she was getting from her family, she didn’t cry. Whether or not it was a result of the eventual relapse, she felt as though there were no more tears to be shed. The fear she had felt moments before had drained away, taking with it the sadness for the inevitable.

For some reason, Twilight was actually starting to feel acceptance. She had skipped nearly four stages of grief, and went straight into acceptance, the analytical part of her mind finally catching up with the emotional side, and telling it that despite everything, even if she did slip away again, she would still be loved and cared for. There would still be hope that she would be awoken again, and that until then she had another world to delight in to keep her mind sharp.

Doctor Stable came in and sat near the door, his face grim, telling everyone that he had nothing but bad news for them. Twilight could feel it in the very air, the feeling of failure hanging over the Doctor … and the feeling of inevitability looming over her. She knew that this was the last time that she would be aware of the real world and with her family at the same time.

Then the throbbing started to happen again, the feeling of being slowly dragged back under. She knew it wouldn’t be long and that this was her one chance.

“I … I guess this is goodbye,” Twilight said, much to the shock of the entire room. Not a single one of her family had expected her to say such a thing.

“No! No, no, no, no, don’t say that, Twilight, please don’t say that,” her mother begged as she held Twilight in a firm hug. Twilight just smiled at the reaction, knowing that no matter what, her mother would love her. That was why she needed to say goodbye at least.

“It’s just for now, mom … I’ll be back,” Twilight spoke softly, nearly whispering it straight to her mother. “I can … I can feel it pulling me back.”

Doctor Stable stood up and walked over to them, her family knowing exactly what that meant. They knew that there was nothing that could be done and that if they wanted to say one last thing, this was the time.

Night Light and Twilight Velvet were the first to give their goodbyes, which was a little unexpected, but yet they were.

“We’ll always be here for you, Twilight. Always. And we’ll always love you,” her father said, his voice hitching slightly, finding it tough to speak words. Twilight smiled gently before whispering an ‘I know’ back to them. They then proceeded to lean forward and give their daughter one last kiss goodbye.

Shining and Cadance were next. No words were said at first, instead Cadance just hugged Twilight tightly. Shining just fidgeted with his hands before he spoke up. “I wish there was something I could have done, Twilight. I’ve always been there for you, always protected you, yet I can’t even do that now!”

“You’ll always protect me, BBBFF,” Twilight managed to choke out through the sheer overwhelming sadness that had hit her. She never liked saying goodbye.

Shining gave her a deep hug before standing and waiting for Cadance to say her goodbye. Yet, Cadance being Cadance, she didn’t want to necessarily say goodbye. No, she had a more fitting way of telling Twilight that this was not going to be a goodbye.

“One last time?” Cadance offered with a weak smile. Twilight nodded in return before they started up their chant.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hands and do a little shake!” they said in unision, eliciting a sad laugh from both of them. Finally, Cadance gave her favourite little ‘sister’ a hug and then left the room with Shining. Of course, just like their parents, they just waited outside the room, looking inward. They didn’t want to be there when she went under … the distance helped, but that didn’t make it any better. Twilight understood completely, for to her it only made sense.

Finally, all that was left was Celestia and Luna. Neither of them moved, refusing to actually admit that it was going to be goodbye once again.

“Luna?” Twilight asked weakly, the feeling of being dragged back under pulling harder than ever. Yet she fought against it, knowing that she only had to make it a little bit longer. She refused to go under mid-sentence even if Celestia and Luna’s hair started to flow in a non-existent wind.

Eventually Luna made her way over to the side of the bed, squatting down to be on the same level as her younger sister. She didn’t say a word, instead wanting to hear what Twilight wanted to say.

“Have you ever dreamed of something that you were sure was real?” Twilight asked.

Luna took a second to think about the question before finally finding an answer. “I believe I have, why do you ask?”

“That’s what it felt like all this time … like I was living a dream. When I came out of it, I was sure this was the dream … yet, now I know,” Twilight said before pausing. Eventually, she found her words again after forcing herself to remain lucid of the real world. “I dreamt of a word of ponies … small, colourful ponies.”

“Of course you did, Twilight, of course you did … you’ve always loved ponies,” Luna said in a ragged voice, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Eventually, she touched her forehead to Twilight’s, the both of them closing their eyes slightly. After a few moments of the touch, she backed away and hurried out of the room. Despite the outward strength she showed, Twilight knew her sister hurt inside more than any of the others.

With Luna’s exit, that left Celestia. She was the one that Twilight always aspired to be, and she was the one that always made sure that Twilight learned her most important life lessons. in the other world she was her teacher, but in the real world she was so much more.

She was her sister.

“I’m sorry, Celestia … I’m sorry I failed,” Twilight said again. She figured that Celestia would say the same thing as before. It only made sense that she would, yet she didn’t get that answer.

“I have always taught you about life from my own pains, Twilight. I made sure that you never made the same mistakes, and for that, you’ve been the best little sister that anyone could ever have. Do you remember how I used to always do little ‘lessons’ with you?” Celestia asked as she stood beside Twilight’s bed.

“I remember,” Twilight said, unsure what was going to come next.

“Twilight, I have but one parting piece to share with you. One last lesson that I had hoped to never teach you, but even I can’t predict the future. Always remember, that even in the darkest of moments, there will always be that silver lining that will light your path back home. If you give up hope, when all is lost, then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’ve learned this the hard way … I don’t want you to make the same mistake as I did,” Celestia said solemnly.

An odd sense of deja vu came over Twilight but she didn’t speak out on it, instead staying silent for Celestia to finish. She had never interrupted a lesson in the past; she wouldn’t let this one be any different.

“Do you remember your favourite poem, Twilight?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded. Of course she knew her favourite poem. How could she forget such a beautiful thing as ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’?

“Of course,” Twilight said finally.

Celestia reached down and cupped her younger sister’s hand before squatting down to be at eye level with Twilight. She just looked at Twilight for a few moments before speaking.

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Twilight. Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the night,” Celestia said softly before giving Twilight one last hug, which was eagerly returned.

Moments passed before Celestia got up and left the room, leaving Doctor Stable alone with Twilight. The doctor sat next to Twilight in a chair that he had moved. He did nothing but look at his patient, lying in that bed awaiting her fate.

“Why do you look so sad?” Twilight asked the doctor, whose eyes were downcast and his face sullen.

“I failed you. I managed to bring you back, but it failed … I failed the one thing that I promised to do,” he said, the whole thing hitting him harder than Twilight could have suspected. Yet Twilight wasn’t upset at such a thing; in fact, she felt an odd sense of happiness.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed. There’s no one to blame for this, not even yourself. You gave me something I would never have had without you; a second shot … a chance at awakening. You gave me something precious, however brief it was. I was reunited with my family. Don’t let failure discourage you, but learn from it and try something else if it doesn’t work. Success may not come easily, but if you don’t even try, then you can never succeed. If it’s time for me to go back under then it was meant to be,” Twilight said, her serene smile radiating calmness and a little bit of happiness, much to the doctor’s surprise.

At the words she spoke, he felt as though he was being gifted with wisdom from a great philosopher. A young girl who had missed most of her life spoke with clarity and understanding way beyond her years. He simply smiled in response before standing up. He knew that it was time to disconnect the IV bag and the drug that kept her awake … It wouldn’t matter shortly anyways.

Twilight just looked up at the doctor who was starting to take the IV bag away. She watched him briefly before looking over at her family that was watching through the glass window once more. She simply raised her hand and waved goodbye.

Then she felt the needle being removed from her arm. She smiled before getting into a comfortable position. Sure she would eventually be moved but that wasn’t right away … so she might as well get comfy for one final time.

One day I will wake up again … and this time for good, she thought before finally closing her eyes, deciding that sleep was a better way of waking up in her fantasy.

Twilight’s eyes slowly fluttered open, her vision clearing up after a few blinks. The first thing she noticed was the bright reflection of light off of the crystal walls of the bedroom that she had fallen asleep in.

As she lifted up a little, all of her limbs felt the sorest they had ever been. So she simply groaned and face-planted back onto the bed, deciding that if her limbs weren’t going to work then she would just lie there until one of her friends or Spike came and dragged her out from the bed.

She was even tempted to go back to sleep entirely, especially since she had been in the middle of such a deep sleep; one of the best sleeps she could remember ever having. It caused her to lightly giggle when she thought that she would easily take that dull pain in exchange for such a deep sleep.

In the end, she laid there for a little bit longer before she decided that there was no way she would get any more sleep and that it would be bad to have Spike find her being lazy. He would bug her all week if that was the case.

So she finally forced herself to her hooves, pushing herself off the bed and using her wings to let her glide back down to the floor. She was truly starting to enjoy having her wings. They might have been a pain in her flank at times, especially with preening, but when you could use them to get places, it made up entirely for the annoyances.

As she stretched her legs out as well as her neck, a thought occurred to her. She had a really vivid dream during that sleep. It had been about … about … .

For the life of her, Twilight couldn’t remember anything about the dream itself, yet she had an odd picture of it, like an abstract image that one could vaguely understand, but nothing more than that. It was odd, considering that Twilight had a decent understand of how to hold onto dreams after one woke up. She had learned the techniques from Luna as a way to help her understand her dreams better … that, and she’d helped her on the path to actual dreamwalking.

Yet she couldn’t recall anything about the dream aside from the fact that her parents, Shining and Cadance, and Celestia and Luna had all been there. When she tried to remember more about the dream it was like she was trying to peer through the thickest fog she had ever seen.

“Odd,” she said out loud, a frown crossing her face before she decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to try and recall the dream. Sure she would be disappointed by it, but it wasn’t as if it was so important that Equestria hinged on her remembering it.

So with a shrug of her withers, she proceeded to walk through the halls of the castle. Though she stopped when she came to a window facing west. There, she saw the sun slowly dipping down past the horizon, the last strands of light gracing the land.

“Huh … I guess I didn’t sleep that long after all,” she said at first before a thought crossed her mind. “Still, this will mess with my sleep schedule … well perhaps I could go visit Luna tonight.”

As she proceeded to step away from the window, a single thought came to her mind, worming its way in from the unknown depths of her subconscious. She halted her movement, deciding to take one last look at the setting sun before she spoke once more.

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” Twilight said as the sun finished its path across the sky and let Luna’s night cover Equestria. For a second, Twilight felt odd … as though something was off. Yet when nothing happened, and Luna’s stars started to glisten in the sky, she simply smiled and shook her head.

“I guess it was nothing after all,” Twilight said as she proceeded to trot down the hall. “Perhaps I’ll hit the library and read some poems … I haven’t done that in awhile.”

Author's Note

*Edit* Story has been redone in ways. Story is still the same but aspects are changed.

Edited by: AuthorGenesis, Doctor Candor, Philichez, Word Worthy, and Wing.

Inspirations

Octavarium - Dream Theatre
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night - Poem by Dylan Thomas

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
― Philip K. Dick

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.”
― Michelle Hodkin

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”
― Frank Herbert