When Twilight opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the hospital room anymore. Instead, she was lying beneath a lone tree that stood in the middle of a grassy field that was speckled with flowers. Twilight looked around her, trying to figure out exactly where she was. There were greyish purple mountains in the distance, and the field was surrounded by deep dark forest, but that wasn’t enough for Twilight to guess her location.

“You finally awake?” a voice asked from behind Twilight.

Twilight turned to see a bright red earth pony stallion with a straw-like mane. The stallion had an impressive physique; Twilight could see his muscles rippling beneath his fur.

“Macintosh?” Twilight asked.

“Eeyup!” the stallion answered.

Big Macintosh bent down and began to nuzzle Twilight. As he did so, Twilight felt her heart flutter. Twilight began to giggle involuntarily.

“St-Stop it.” Twilight giggled, “Wh-What are you doing?”

Big Macintosh stopped.

“I thought you liked when I did that.” Macintosh said.

Twilight stammered, “I… uh…I…”

Twilight had enjoyed being nuzzled whenever she and Big Macintosh were an item, but the last time they had broken up had been well over a year ago! Hadn’t it? Twilight’s memories were fuzzy and she couldn’t seem to make sense of them.

Macintosh nuzzled Twilight again before saying, “Come on, let’s go home. I’ve got dinner on the oven and Aj said that she’d dropping by to see the kids.”

“Kids?” Twilight asked. Macintosh seemed not to hear her.

Twilight followed the earth pony across the hill. As they walked, Twilight thought about what might’ve happened. She was no longer in Sleipnir; that she was certain of, or maybe she had never been to Sleipnir at all. Maybe it was just a dream.

Yes, that was it. Sleipnir was a dream. It was a long, strange, terrible dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Soon memories began to flood back into Twilight. The last time she and Big Macintosh had broken up had been over ten years ago, not one. She and Macintosh had gotten back together shortly thereafter. After a few months, Big Macintosh proposed to Twilight on her birthday, and by that summer they were celebrating their honeymoon. Twilight blushed as she remembered their first night together.

The two ponies eventually came upon a house. The house was a large, fancy thing that looked a some pony had haphazardly slapped together two wildly different architectural styles. Twilight wasn't sure whether to call it an over sized farmhouse, or an ugly mansion.

“Kids, we’re home!” Big Macintosh called when they were close enough.

Three foals came out from behind the house, two fillies and one colt. Each of them was a different race of pony, save alicorn. It took Twilight a moment before she could remember their names. The colt was named Bunsen, and the two fillies were named Page Turner and Summerfree.

Bunsen was a unicorn who had a purple coat similar to his mother’s. He was curious foal with a bad habit of mixing cleaning supplies whenever his parent’s weren’t looking. He always seemed to find a way to get to them no matter how Twilight locked them up. Fortunately, Bunsen had yet to mix a toxic concoction, but still the colt’s disregard for safety worried Twilight.

Page Turner was a reddish-yellow pegasus filly who had inherited her mother’s love of reading. She was the only foal in her class to have read the entire collection of Feathered Quill. Page would sit for hours on end reading books while her siblings played outside. Twilight remembered one time when she found her reading a dictionary. When Twilight inquired why Page gave the answer ‘I ran out of things to read’.

It was in Summerfree that Macintosh’s side of the family showed. Summerfree was a light red earth pony with a knack for manual labor. Already the filly was developing muscles that were unusually defined for a foal her age. Summerfree loved to help her father tend the fields; though she hated having to water crops. Summerfree also had a knack for basket weaving, and would make several a week out random grasses and leaves.

“Hey Mom, check out what I found!” Bunsen yelled almost as soon as he saw Twilight.

The young unicorn used a levitation spell to hold a small, jagged lump of a metallic yellow material.

“It’s gold! I found it by the creek, if there’s more we can make a fortune selling it to merchants in Canterlot!”

Twilight took the ‘gold’ from her son to have a closer look at it.

Twilight laughed, “Well this is a pretty neat find, Bunsen, but I’m afraid that this isn’t gold.”

The unicorn’s ears flattened themselves, “It’s not?”

“No, this is a material called pyrite, a mineral that is made up of iron and sulfur. It’s not as valuable as gold, but it’s still pretty rare to find
any around this area.”

Summerfree nudged Bunsen with a hoof, “I told you it wasn’t real gold.”

Bunsen glared at his sister and said, “Shut up.”

“You two stop fighting.” Big Macintosh said sternly, “I want things to be nice and quiet for when your aunt Applejack gets here.”

Twilight and her family went into their house. Big Macintosh went to the kitchen to finish up dinner, the foals went up to their rooms to do whatever it was that they did, and Twilight was left to wonder the house. It was strange, Twilight knew the house by heart, and yet it felt as though she hadn’t stepped foot into it in years.

After some time, Applejack, who was Big Macintosh’s sister and one of Twilight’s closest friends, knocked on the front door.

“Howdy Twilight!” The orange mare greeted when Twilight let her in, “How’ve you been?”

“Just fine Aj.” Twilight answered. As she did so, Twilight noticed a lack of another pony, “Where’s Applebloom, I thought she’d be here with you?”

Applejack groaned, “I asked her if she wanted to come, but she said that she had plans with her friends, something about ranking colts. I swear, ever since she got her cutie mark colts have been the only thing that she’s thought about. Every hour of my day is filled with her describing every last colt in her class, over and over again. She’s might actually give Rainbow Dash a run for her money in terms of colt craziness.”

Twilight chuckled, “Well maybe if you get those two in the same room they’ll talk each other into submission. Then maybe you’ll have some peace and quiet.”

Applejack laughed, “I think that’d have an opposite effect. Anyway, how are your kids doin’? It’s been a while since I’ve seen them. I mean what’s it been, two weeks?”

“Oh they’re doing just fine. Page Turner has been showing an interest in science fiction literature, Summerfree has been getting better at plowing fields, and I haven’t had to stop Bunsen from unwittingly making mustard gas for three days.” As Twilight spoke, she realized that hadn’t put any thought into what she was saying, or even consciously said anything.

“Well, that’s good to hear.” Applejack said cheerfully.

Minutes later, Big Macintosh called for dinner. Twilight’s entire family sat around a circular table that her husband had decorated with a variety of apple based foods. Everything from apple pie to applesauce sat before Twilight.

“Honey,” Twilight found herself saying, “did you plan on feeding all of Equestria tonight?”

Big Macintosh chuckled slightly, “I guess I got a little excited while I was cooking.”

Twilight sighed, “Well at least we won’t have to worry about dinner tomorrow, or next Thursday.”

The family began to dig into the banquet that Big Macintosh had prepared. As they did, Twilight felt her head begin to hurt. Twilight tried to complain about the discomfort, but found that she could not force herself to speak. Instead, she continued eating as though nothing were wrong.

As the pain in her head intensified, Twilight’s vision began distort. Objects began to twist and swirl together. After a minute, everything around Twilight started to fade.

The walls were the first to go; they dissolved into a black void. Twilight tried scream in terror, but found that she could not. Twilight’s family did not stop eating their dinner.

Next the furniture vanished, leaving only Twilight’s family and their food. Twilight tried to force her body to obey her, to stop the robotic eating and save her family, but it would not listen. Her family continued to enjoy their meal, oblivious to the world fading round them.

Then the meal disappeared. By now Twilight had given up on trying to regain control of her body. Instead, Twilight merely watched as her family ate a now nonexistent meal. A strange sadness filled Twilight’s heart as she looked at her kin. Twilight longed for them, to be with her family. As she watched, Twilight tried to commit their appearances to memory; she had a feeling that she would forget them after they were gone. Twilight continued to watch her family eat unit finally they dissipated into the void.

Author's Notes:

A special thank you to blind2d for assisting me with editing.