° ° °

And she could hear. Things that were not her own voice. She didn’t know what they were, but they were there. And feel. Soft. Rough. Different. A blanket? Something that could not be.

“ .   .  . ”

A change of air. An exhale. Then nothing. In and out. Another exhale. Breathing. Breathing that wasn’t hers. And more feelings. Many more feelings. A softness under her body. The blanket above her. The warmth around her. The irregularity of everything. Different pressures on different spots of her body. A tiny itch on her muzzle. Irregularities that had not been there in eternity. And then a color.

A color. Red. Slight red. Against the lids of her eyes. Light. Light outside. Light beyond her closed eyelids.

She was lying in a bed with somepony else beside her, and her eyes were yet too heavy to open. Or were they? She tried again. Almost. Again. And again. And again.

Light. Sensations. Images. Things. Colors. Gray. Brown. Red. Pale. Not pale. Purple. Images. And warmth.

She closed her eyes and it vanished and she re-opened them and it returned. So many sensations. And someone was standing there, a purple pony, looking directly into her eyes.

“Welcome back, Fluttershy.”

Welcome back, Fluttershy. Back. Wherever she had been, it had been temporary.

Temporary. Not permanent. Not death. It hadn’t been death. After all this time... after spending so many years in eternity... the castle of lines had awoken doubts in her, but nonetheless... she had believed... always believed... always believed that it was death. That it would last forever. That there would be no end. No waking up. No warmth. No company.

But now...

She tried to speak. It was hard. But she could move her eyes. Not her head, though. She was facing the purple pony, and behind her, there was a door. And a wall. And a floor.

“You’ll recover in no time. Just another minute and you can stand up. You’re probably almost ready to talk.”

Fluttershy tried to. She failed, and tried again. She failed again, but she realized how much closer she had come. At the fourth try, she succeeded.

“A... mm... mhl...”

A wide smile spread on the other pony’s face. “I’m so glad you’re back!” she said. “I’m so happy! Do you know who I am?”

Fluttershy’s recovery must have progressed farther during the time the purple pony had spoken because when she replied, she could form a real word.

“No.”

“Aw.” The mare’s smile flickered, but only for a bit. “That sucks. Well, what do you remember?”

“Rarity,” Fluttershy responded without thinking. “Will it... come back? My memories?”

“No. No, they won’t. What you have now is what you get. I’m sorry.”

“Who are you?” Fluttershy tried to move her head. It worked! She could see a bit more of the room now and of her own bed.

“Twilight Sparkle. Call me Twilight.”

Twilight. Fluttershy repeated the name in her head, but it didn’t ring a bell.

“What happened?”

“You died at age ninety-six. Now you’re back.”

“I died,” Fluttershy repeated. So she had been right after all. She had thought that, because she was back now, that it couldn’t have been death, couldn’t have been... because... because that wasn’t something you could return from, was it? But apparently, apparently she had, apparently, she had returned...

“So that was death,” she murmured. “It really... it really was death.”

“Yes,” Twilight said, “that was death.”

“How? If I died... how is it possible?”

“It’s possible because your mind was preserved. But it’ll be better if I tell you things in order. Fluttershy... a lot has happened since our previous lives.”