"Asriel? Are you there?" I croaked out, my voice weakening along with my body - buttercups can do a thing on it, being one of the most poisonous flowers. In hindsight, maybe I should've taken a real poison instead of torturing myself...?

I moved my head to look around and see if Asriel was there - he wasn't, he must've left the room, thinking I was asleep, even though I have not slept for more than two days. Hard to sleep when you're in a great deal of pain, waiting on Death's doorstep, which might as well bring the salvation and freedom of an innocent race.

Hopefully we won't have to kill any humans when we merge souls and get to the surface, that would destroy my brother...

* But perhaps...

* With what little strength you have left...

* ... you can SAVE something else.

...

...

* It seems that there are still two more people that need to be saved.

* But who...?

...

* Suddenly, you realize.

* You reach out and call their names

I never expected that such a monotone, simple action would bring me so much joy and surprise me so much...

I woke up!

And in my own body, too. Have your cake and eat it, too, I guess?

There were a hundred and one thoughts running through my head right now, as I tried to open my eyes - that was a grievous mistake. When I opened them, light attacked my vision, I saw black spots and my head started pounding, I immediately closed them and tried to reach out with my hands to rub the pain out, but they were stuck in place at my sides.

Now that I somewhat came to my senses, I felt something rather heavy lying on me. I was about to harshly push it off, but a sweet, soothing, albeit deep and authoritative voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Be kind."

I froze - that didn't come from anywhere around me, it's as if it was one of my own thoughts but... invasive. I tried to open my eyes again, this time slowly, just to avoid another migraine, and when I managed to do the herculean feat, I gazed right and left.

It seems I was in a forest of sorts, it was dark except for the small clearing I was lying in.

I finally gathered the courage to look at what had me pinned - it was terrifying. Terrifyingly cute, that is.

It was just Asriel, I finally noticed his light snores as I slowly regained my hearing. I carefully slipped my hands from under him, and gently shook him--- what the hell? Gently shook him? I think I hit myself in the head pretty hard or a few braincells managed to decompose.

I reached out for his ear, fully intending to wake him up the hard way, when I heard that voice again in my head.

"Be patient."

Great.

Looks like not only am I alive, I'm also on the surface, Asriel is with me, and I have a pacifistic voice in my head.

Just what happened when I was busy being dead?

Canterlot City was truly a beautiful, shining example of what more than ten thousand years of civilization can lead to. Gorgeous houses for the high-class, magnificent residences for the incredibly rich nobles and the grand Canterlot Castle for the royal family and guests.

Deep within the castle there is a laboratory - only the most important scientists of the world, and, of course, the Princess' student, know of it's existence.

There was something for every kind of scientist, whether it be an Arcane researcher, a biologist, a physicist, a psychologist, an astrophysicist, a cosmologist or someone entirely different.

And the Princess' pupil, Twilight Sparkle? She dabbled in everything and mastered many of the beautiful sciences - and the one she is the most proud of? Fatumology. The science that takes care of fate and ley lines - the magical strings that connect ponies and other creatures to each other.

And right now she was nose-deep in the results from one of the machines - it was a machine specifically constructed by her to detect beings without ley lines - useless and stupid, they said, but Twilight Sparkle was going to see through that it would finally work.

And work it did. It appears the construct had detected two beings near the entrance to the tamer side of the Everfree Forest which had no natural ley lines, and she was determined to find these two, most probably alien to the Kingdom beings.

She called out to her assistant, Spike, who was busy mingling with other ponies, making friends - who needed friends? Twilight quietly berated Spike when he came over, to which he rolled his eyes, used to the unicorn's quirks.

"What do you need, Twilight?" Spike asked, looking at the results of Twilight's tests and not being able to make a lick of sense.

"We're going to Ponyville for a few days, maybe weeks if the Princess asks us to stay over for Summer Sun Celebration, get a chariot ready, I'll find a place for us to stay - I have to investigate something!" Twilight said, standing up from near the machine, grabbing the result sheet and rolling it into a neat bundle of incomprehensible data.

Spike let out a disgruntled sigh as he followed his adopted sister, making a quick checklist in his mind, but immediately deciding that it's future Spike's problem.

You woke up to something soft poking you in the cheek, over and over again, you felt the sun shining upon your fur, a content, goofy smile on your face - you rolled over, and you heard a shocked, muffled cry to which you opened up your eyes.

And in your face was the prettiest and yet strangest sight to be beheld - a flustered Chara, your adopted sister.

"Get off me or I will pinch you in places you don't ever want to be pinched."

And just like that, the moment is ruined.