Twilight's head burst out of the ground.

"FINALLY" she exclaimed. After waking up inside of a wooden box 6 feet below the ground, the alicorn was feeling quite hysterical. She used her wings to push herself out of the ground and shook herself off. She took in her surroundings, around her were many graves. She turned around and gasped at what was written upon the tombstone closest to her:

In Loving Memory of

PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Bearer of magic

Princess of friendship

Alicorn

1987-2018:

Beloved Sister, Friend, Student, and Teacher.

Loved by all

She shut her eyes, shook her head, refusing to accept the stone words upon the grave but they still remained and a final realization settled in: She was dead. Immediately her brain thought of an explanation. Clearly there must have been a mistake, she must have been in a comatose and was buried alive for who-knows-how-long. A scary thought entered her, for all she knew she could have been buried there for years or decades. She could be hundreds of years older and her friends… Twilight shook her head and took a deep breath, she would figure that out later. Now she needed to deal with her current situation.

Twilight looked at the sky. Judging the tint of the night sky, she concluded that it was about Midnight. Taking note of each individual part of her, she found that she was in relatively good shape considering she'd been buried alive recently. Suddenly her stomach rumbled loudly.

"I'm hungry" she said to herself. Oddly her mouth felt quite normal and she wasn't starving. Deciding to eat first and ask questions later, she estimated that her best bet was Sweet Apple Acres which was about a half-hour canter away. Rearing her hoofs she prepared for a long canter.

Five seconds later.

Okay that was scary. She had just traveled to Sweet Apple Acres in five seconds and didn't feel exhausted one bit. She wasn't exactly sure how she did it but her stomach interrupted her. She needed to eat. A delicious smell hit her nostrils. It didn't smell like apples but more savory, meaty and Alive in some way. Without thinking she galloped after the sweet aroma.

Twilight stood at the red barn door. Her hunger was satisfied though she didn't remember eating anything. She knocked on the door hoping that applejack was still alive and that she could give her some answers as to what was going on with her. No one answered the door. She pushed with her hoof realizing that it was unlocked. Hoping that no tragedy had befallen her friend, she entered the barn. The kitchen was a huge mess. On the floor were multiple empty cider mugs, half-eaten gems and empty potion bottles. On the wall were huge claw markings. Fearing the worst Twilight ran up the stairs praying that applejack was still alive. When she reached applejacks room she found more claw markings. The shadows on the seemed to be moving but twilight ignored them, only thinking of her friend. She opened the door fearing the worst. What she found was actually quite reliving.

Applejack was alive thankfully. She was lying on her stomach on her bed (which was now a queen size oddly) crying her eyes out. Twilight walked up to the farm pony and said

"Applejack! Your alive". The orange pony stopped crying and looked up. When she saw twilight standing there she froze, eyes wide open, jaw hanging from her head. She blinked and screamed "TWILIGHT!" and jumped at her friend embracing her in a hug. Before twilight could figure out what was happening right now the farmer looked at her and said "What happend?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Twilight replied

Applejack looked her up and down.

"Well ah don't know about you but ponies don't just magically come back to life and walk right out of their graves."

"Well it was more of a climb but I don't remember dying. Then again I don't think anyone would remember something like that."

"WELL I SAW YOU DIE!" said Applejack who was suddenly quite angry. "You were found on the floor of the castle in a coma. I wanted to believe that you would wake up. I believed that for twenty years…"

"TWENTY YEARS?!" exclaimed Twilight "I'VE BEEN GONE FOR TWENTY YEARS?!"

"TWENTY YEARS OF HOPING YOU WOULD SURVIVE" Yelled a tearful Applejack "But just three days ago the doctors told us you kicked the bucket. Ah tried to drown my sadness in alcohol, Spike fell to pieces, and jewel had to stay at Big Mac's."

"Oh my gosh." said Twilight, trying to piece everything together. She was in a coma for twenty years, died three days ago and caused massive emotional damage to all of her friends.

"I'm sorry Applejack. To me it was an instant and for you it was twenty years of you life. I just woke up in my coffin and dug myself out."

"Ah don't care how, i'm just glad to see you again. And ah'm sure Spike and Jewel would too."

"Wait, who's Jewel?"

"Oh that's right. You weren't there at the time."

"What do you mean…" Twilight started to say but was interrupted when a deep male voice echoed from downstairs

"AJ! Who are you talking to?".

"Who was that?" Twilight asked. The voice sounded familiar but she just couldn't put her hoof on it.

The voice spoke again "Hang on, I'm coming up."

Applejack gave a smirk. "Twilight. Surely you can remember your number one assitient."

Twilight mentally facehoofed herself. Of course Spike would grow older.

Spike appeared appeared in the doorway and just like AJ, he froze and looked at Twilight. Except he was no longer a baby dragon and instead was lankier and the size of Applejack. He ran up to twilight and gave her a hug. She realized that she was going to be getting a similar reaction from all of a her friends. The dragon let go and was about to open his mouth to speak but Applejack interrupted him. "Twilight was alive the whole time, was buried alive, and crawled out of the ground. Now take a moment to calm yourself dear"

Spike took a deep breath and said

"It's just been so long honey."

Twilight realized Spike and Applejack were calling each other pet names.

"Wait are you two…?" She started

"Married." said Applejack finishing her sentence.

Twilight blinked and said "Wow it really has been twenty years. But seriously how did that happen?"

Applejack blushed "It's a long story"

"And Discord helped a bit…" said Spike.

Twilight processed this. While it did make sense that her friends would move on in their lives, it was just a little odd how much had happened in what felt like less than a second.

"What else happened while I was gones?" Twilight asked.

The couple looked at each other.

"How about you go back to the castle and rest up. And tomorrow we can introduce ya to everypony and tell ya what happened."

"Sound like a great idea Applejack!" said Twilight. "I can't wait to see how all my other friends are doing"

Applejack cleared her throat "oh and uh prepare to be surprised. Some fairly weird stuff has happened recently"

"Got it" said twilight as she made her way to the door. After all this was still her home. What could possibly have happened in twenty years.

Turns out she was wrong.