Author's Note

Here is a new surprise story that has nothing to do with UME! Tadaa! I don't promise that Sweetie Void may not appear later, but her appearance should be at least rather minor.

Also, for once, it is not a crossover. So, I may have more difficulty working on this fic, but I will try my best.

I hope you will like it.

Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle woke up in total darkness, inside what she felt was a bag, with a gasp. She sat up suddenly, only to hit her head with a metallic ceiling judging by the sound.

Confused, she immediately panicked and tried to get out of the bag, only to fail, and she constantly hit her legs against the metallic ceiling and metallic walls.

So not only was she trapped inside a bag, she was also trapped inside a metallic box.

“Help! Somepony help!”

She had no idea where she was, and she had no idea how she ended up here. The last thing she remembered was that she had been taking the entrance exam to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, and she had been failing, when a rainbow light appeared, and suddenly, she surged.

She hatched the egg that she had been supposed to hatch, made the baby dragon inside grow until its head went through the ceiling, made the teachers levitate, turned her parents into potted plants, felt the most intense pain ever, and then… darkness.

And here she woke up, wherever ‘here’ was. And whenever ‘here’ was too.

Still calling for help, she trashed in the bag, wondering what happened to her.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, she heard a creaking.

Somepony opened the box!

“I can’t believe it!” she heard before whatever she was on was pulled out with her. “Don’t worry, I’m getting you out of there.” Then, a zipper was pulled down, and she finally saw light. “But it’s impossible… Body bags are airtight… There is no way… Even if…”

Calming down, Twilight looked to her side at the muttering blue unicorn stallion who got her out, a doctor judging by the white smock.

“Thank you mister. Where am I? What happened? Why was I in a bag inside a box?” she asked.

At the last question, she looked at the box, which revealed to actually be some kind of locker.

She looked down at the bag, seeing that it was white.

She immediately recognized what it was.

What the stallion said caught up to her.

A body bag.

She looked back at the doctor, panic returning.

“Why was I in a body bag?”

The doctor looked back at her, more exactly at her eyes, and he was visibly sweating.

Then, he placed his hoof against her neck, and kept it here for several seconds.

He paled, his eyes turned into pinpricks, then screamed and ran out of the room.

“H-hey! Come back! What’s going on?!” she called, to no avail.

He… He was taking her pulse? Why…? What…?

A body bag…

This locker, it looked like one of these coolers inside morgues, where they store the bodies.

A body bag… was airtight. How did she survive in it without suffocating?

When she hit her head, she felt no pain…

She was feeling so cold… Was it the room, or because she just came out of what looked like a cooler? Or…

He took her pulse… Shouldn’t she be feeling her heartbeat against her chest with how much she was scared?

Not wanting to believe the conclusion she was coming to, she slowly put her hoof against her opposite leg, where she knew a vein was present.

Nothing.

“No…”

She looked around at the room.

At the mortuary.

Her breathing became erratic.

She tried to crawl out of the body bag, only to fall from the metallic tray linked to her cooler.

No pain.

“No… No…! M-mommy! Daddy! Shiny!”

She ran out of the room.

“See? I told you! She is dead, and yet, she is alive!” she then heard, and she stopped as she saw the doctor from before with several other doctors. “She woke up inside a cooler, in her own body bag!”

The doctors looked at each other. Then, one said, “C-come on. A zombie, really? There is no way. She is just a filly who was believed to be dead but was actually just in a coma.”

“SHE HAS NO PULSE!” the first doctor yelled. “And look at her eyes! Their dilatation is not natural! And you mean to tell me that Princess Celestia couldn’t tell if a filly was just in a coma instead of being dead?”

“Uh…”

Princess Celestia herself confirmed that she was…?

“N-no! No! I-I’m not dead!” she said, more to herself than to the doctors. “I can’t… I can’t… I’m not dead!” She was starting to cry. No tears were coming. “I’m not… I’m not… I… I want my mommy…”

The doctors exchanged looks again, hesitating. One took a step forward, wanting to reassure her, but stopped herself.

“So, is she an undead or not?”

“I’m telling you! She is! If you want proof, then go feel her pulse!”

…

“Should… we lock her and call Princess Celestia? She probably knows what to do to an undead.”

“She will probably put her to rest. The dead should remain dead.”

Twilight gasped upon hearing that, then immediately ran past the doctors. They didn’t have time to react.

“Hey! Wait!”

She found the stairs and climbed them. Mortuaries were generally in basements, so if she wanted to leave, she had to take them.

Once on the first floor, she randomly ran in the hallways, passing medical staff and patients. Eventually, she found the exit and passed the door, getting outside.

She could see that it was late in the afternoon. No more than a few hours must have passed since the exam. Unless a whole day passed.

Her face was feeling stiff…

Oh. Oooh… Rigor mortis started at the face after a few hours.

So it really meant she was…

Twilight shook her head, stopping thinking about it.

She looked around, recognizing where she was. She went to this hospital a couple of times. She… didn’t remember the path between here and her house however…

But… should she even go to her house? How will her parents react if they see her? She was… And it was the first place Princess Celestia will look at once she learned about her.

She didn’t want to die…

But she wanted her mommy, and her daddy, and her BBBFF, and Smarty Pants.

Behind her, the doors burst open, and the same doctors as before came out.

“There she is!”

She immediately bolted out of here, into the streets of Canterlot.

“Stop her!”

Thankfully, nopony reacted in time to follow the doctors’ orders.

She ran as fast as she could, which was surprisingly fast, faster than she ever ran. There was no doubt that she would feel pain in her legs by running this fast, but she felt nothing. She almost crashed into ponies more than once as a result.

She ran for a while, taking random streets, until she felt that she was far enough from her pursuers.

And now, she had no idea where she was.

And she had no idea what to do.

She saw her reflection in the glass of the window of a shop, allowing her to finally see her dilated pupils. She also saw the rest of her body, and she spotted something that she couldn’t believe.

Gasping, she looked at her flank, and there it was, her very own Cutie Mark.

A unicorn pony skull with a six-branched purple starburst on the forehead, around the horn, the skull surrounded by five white smaller stars.

She… wasn’t sure how to react. She was overjoyed to get her Cutie Mark, but at what cost? And… a pony skull for a Cutie Mark didn’t look very… nice. What, was she fated to be the next Grogar? She didn’t want that. She recognized the starburst, it was the symbol of magic itself. So, a skull with that on the forehead… It could mean something very bad for Equestria, and even the world.

More reason for Princess Celestia to get rid of her. She probably thought that it was a good thing that she died when she saw her Cutie Mark.

She… really was dead, uh?

She put her hoof on her heart, not feeling any heartbeat.

Since she gasped, she hadn’t breathed once, and she didn’t feel the need to breathe again. She immediately resumed breathing on her own.

She was dead.

She was…

She ran into a nearby alley. Then, once she was far enough into the darkness, she collapsed and curled into a ball.

It had been supposed to be the best day of her life…

It turned out to be the worst.

She wasn’t sure how long she remained like that. When she decided to move, more of her body felt stiff, and the sky turned orange.

She wanted to remain here and pretend that the world outside this alley didn’t exist, but she had to find a place to hide for the next couple of days, and this alley may not be enough.

She got up with some difficulty, then slowly walked out of the alley, her front legs having difficulty.

The streets were now emptier. Good.

She began to walk, with no idea where she was going.

It was as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and the sky darkened that she found a promising place. An empty house, for sale.

Looking around to see if there was anypony, she used her magic to open a window and climb inside, closing the window behind her.

She explored the house, finding a wall closet. She entered it and closed the door, trapping herself in darkness.

Then she lied down and waited, just herself and her thoughts.

Thinking was all she will be able to do for the next few days.

And she had a lot to think about.

…

If only she at least had her Smarty Pants.