"There is blood all over me.

All I can see ahead of me is darkness.

The darkness gives me hope.

I walk through the tunnel and at the end I see a ray of light,

I see my family.

They give me rags to clean the blood off of me, and I feel cleaner than I have felt before.

Am I dead?"

---

Twilight Sparkle awoke, from a deep sleep. Her large alicorn body could barely fit in the hospital bed.

"Doctor? Doctor! She's awake!" A familiar voice yelled into the distance. This was the void, she was sure. It had consumed her whole and now she was lifeless and dead, forever confined to this existence.

She saw a figure over her, and he said, "Twilight, you're awake. You've been in the hospital for a few days. You're in recovery right now."

Twilight looked down at her body that a second ago didn't exist, and saw many stitches covering her. She used her magic to rip them open.

"No! Stop!" Cadence said in a frustrated tone, using her own magic to stitch them back up. "Didn't realize your magic would work as soon as you woke up. Doctor, can you stop her from ripping her stitches again?"

The doctor placed a magic-prohibiting cone over her horn. It was annoying. Twilight wanted to see more blood.

Cadence seemed cold and harsh, and her face looked like she had been crying... more than usual. She also looked like she hadn't slept. Twilight wondered why.

"Why do you look so ugly?" Twilight asked.

"I've been looking after you, stupidhead. You tried to kill yourself, and a guard found you passed out in the bathtub. Flurryheart is in the waiting room. Do you want to see her?"

Images flashed through Twilight's head. Bathtub. Bathtub. Blood. More blood. Pain. Death.

"Who's Flurryheart?"

"Your niece," Cadence said softly. "Don't tell me you have amnesia too! Doctor, can you check her for that?"

"She doesn't have amnesia, she's just waking up. Don't be so worried, Cadence." The doctor said back. "Would you like me to let Flurryheart back in?"

"Yes, please. I'll try."

Flurryheart came in, and gasped as soon as she saw Twilight. "Auntie, Auntie! You're awake!" she screamed, louder than Twilight had ever heard. Was she hungover?

"I want to die." Twilight said bluntly, slurring her words.

"You have responsibilities, Twilight," Cadence said, while shushing Flurryheart's loud squalls. "If you really felt that way, you should have just told me. You always had such an issue making friends. You just need to put yourself out there and make new ones."

"New friends? But my old friends were already so perfect," Twilight whispered. "any new friends I get will just die."

"Death is a natural progression of life, and anyway, you'll see them again in the next life. It's all gonna be okay, Twilight, but not if you keep digging yourself into a hole like this. You can't just fluke out on me and Flurryheart, we love you so much. What would your brother say?"

"He'd tell me to man-up," Twilight mumured.

"Exactly! I'll be staying with you for a few days, Flurry and I. Just ask for anything and I'll be there! I'll even help you make new friends, maybe even get a boyfriend?"

"I don't want new friends."

"What you need is a happier attitude, Twilight." Cadence was giving her the tough-love treatment, something she was great at. Especially when she was as nervous as right now, but she would never let Twilight know that, even if she already did. "Do you promise you'll make new friends?"

"Sure, whatever." Twilight said, rolling over and finding herself in immense pain from the wounds covering her body.

---

Cadence and Twilight, covered in bandages, walked through Canterlot together, looking for new friends for Twilight. Cadence seemed overly peppy, either so happy that Twilight was okay, or trying to surround Twilight with a positive attitude to make her feel better. Twilight thought it was sweet, but annoying.

"I always told myself, the first step to making new friends is putting yourself out there! You're already pretty out-there, as a princess, but you hide inside your castle all the time. Maybe try going out sometimes, and the people will come to you." Cadence spoke in a gentle, peppy tone.

"All these ponies are the kids of ponies I used to know," Twilight said, "some of them even have kids of their own."

"Exactly! Good thinking, Twilight! Have you spoke with Li'l Cheese lately? How are they now?"

"They're an adult pony," Twilight sighed. It had been a long time since she last saw her dear friend Pinkie Pie's child.

"Let's go see them!"

So they set off to Ponyville.

---

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

"Are you home, Li'l Cheese??" Cadence shouted, and Twilight's ears ringed at the loud sound.

The door opened, and a pony with a light yellow coat and a bright pink curly mane opened the door.

"Princesses!" She shouted, jumping up and down. "What an honor! I mean really, it's really great to see you, I haven't seen you in ages! How many moons has it been? So many moons! We need to catch up! You knew my mom and dad, right? Come in, come in!" Li'l Cheese shouted, their voice shrill with excitement.

Twilight and Cadence sat down in Sugarcube Corner, the place that Li'l Cheese inherited once her mother died. It smelled like fresh sweets and baked cookies and chocolate.

"Want a cupcake? I love baking cupcakes, you know, my mom always told me I was better at baking than she was!" Li'l Cheese was so full of energy that Twilight's brain was hurting.

"Twilight was wondering if you wanted to be friends," Cadence said,

"Be friends?!?! With THE Princess of Friendship??!?!?!?!?!?!!" Li'l Cheese gasped, and began jumping up and down once again.

"Yeah, I guess." Twilight sighed, eating her cupcake. It did taste pretty good, but she wouldn't say it was better than Pinkie's cupcakes.

"I'd love to! We can have sleepovers, make sweets together, and and and...."

"We can start by having lunch tomorrow," Cadence said, smiling.

"I'll make my famous hot-sauce sugar and chocolate pie!" Li'l cheese said, grinning with joy. This thing was a ball of energy. And for a person named "li'l", they weren't very little anymore.

"Deal!"

---

"See, that wasn't so bad!" Cadence said, smiling at Twilight.

"I guess it wasn't," Twilight said, smiling back. A genuine smile for the first time in awhile.

"See, life isn't so bad. You might live longer than the average pony, but there's a whole world out there of people you can be friends with! You can even mentor some ponies, like how Celestia mentored you."

Twilight smiled. The mentioning of Celestia did not sting anymore, but rather filled her with happiness. I guess almost dying makes you realize how many people care about you, Twilight thought to herself.

Twilight was going to get better. She would be happy again. And someday, she might even pass down her crown to someone who would be a great ruler of Equestria... maybe a student, maybe a child of hers.

Immortality was neither a blessing, nor a curse. Sadness is just a state of mind, after all.

Next Chapter: IIIII: Life After Death Estimated time remaining: 1 Minutes