I heard a terrible shrill and reacted in an instant.

The coffee pot shattered on the floor, but I paid it no mind. I clawed the stairs on all fours in a rush to the top. I nearly barreled into Twilight. The mare grabbed and held me close.

She was shaking as she frantically pushed us further away from the center of the room. She stared at the bed with wide eyes, pupils shrunken. Blankets had been thrown haphazardly, only one sheet remained on the bed.

There was a lump under the sheet.

Twilight's breaths were becoming shorter and more frequent, so I pulled out old reliable. "What happened?"

Her first response came out garbled and out of order. What I could make out was: "A sick joke." She then took a moment to collect herself. The hold on me tightened just a tad. Panic was subsiding into fear.

"I need you to write a letter. One to Mayor Mare and another to the Princess."

"R- Right." I act out of habit as I pry myself out of Twilight's forelegs to reach my desk. I hear Twilight's yelp and even feel her grasp for me, but by the time I realize what she's trying to do, it's already too late. The familiarity of my task drove me to walk around the room and turn towards the bed.

I lost myself to the other side of the lump.

I stared at empty, sunken eyes, at rotten teeth and hair grayed down to the coat. I stared at a shriveled, starved mess that I could barely recognize as a pony.

I wasn't sure how long I was lost. I didn't recall anything until I became aware of Sweetie Belle's singing.

We were in Carousel Boutique. I saw Sweetie singing a gentle song next to a shell-shocked Twilight. I assumed that the forelegs now holding me were Rarity's. I couldn't bring myself to enjoy any of the comfort.

A part of me was still lost, still staring at that lump in the bed, at that corpse.

Still staring at the cutie mark it shared with Twilight.

[I saw the other side. My heart gave out, but I saw tomorrow.]

Author's Note

You may consider this the start of Part 2 of this story. The formatting has changed slightly as we're charting past the ending of the original story.