Twilight opened her eyes to a bland hospital ceiling. "Well, that didn't work," she sighed, rolling off of her aching back. As she faced the window, she became aware of Totality sitting right beside her in a chair.

"Ugh," groaned Twilight.

"Yeah, you're welcome," scoffed Totality, crossing her forelegs, one of which had a bandage

"Why did you come back?" murmured Twilight.

"I got to the train station and was planning on buying a ticket and sleeping on a bench when I realized you never paid me and I'm still out of money."

Twilight laughed weakly. "So I survived trying to kill myself by being a deadbeat. You should have just taken my money and let me shuffle off this mortal coil. Then we'd both be where we want to be."

Totality frowned. "I'm kind of disgusted that you would say that." She pulled a journal out of her saddle bag and cracked it open to remove a couple of pictures from the pages. She floated them in front of Twilight's face until she grabbed them.

Twilight squinted at the image, first recognizing herself in the group photo. "What the," she muttered. "Why do you have…" Her eyes scanned the faces of a dozen fillies surrounding her. The one closest to her was a dark gray unicorn with a fiery mane, glasses, bad acne and a big smile full of braces. She looked up from the photo at Totality in surprise.

"I wouldn't expect you to remember-"

Twilight's eyes widened. "No, I remember. I did maybe twenty of these but I remember. You asked more questions than any student on any castle tour. You almost fell in the fountain, you were so excited about everything." She flipped to the second picture and gasped. It was another group photo of her class for some school project. Students were dressed up, presumably as their research subjects. Totality had done her mane and tail to look like Twilight.

Totality exhaled. "You know when I kept bothering you for help with my thesis? I could have figured it out on my own. I'd probably already have a solid direction by now if I had, but just getting it done wasn't the point. I really just wanted to do academia stuff with Twilight Sparkle."

"W-why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

"Because A: I didn't want to weird you out and B: I didn't want to get preferential treatment for being your little fan."

"I wouldn't have been weirded out… I can't believe someone would dress up like me." Her lips quivered as she realized what she'd done. A tear fell on the image. She'd been able to deal with disappointing her friends and family but somehow, disappointing this filly in the photo who saw her as a hero was insufferably gut wrenching. "I failed you," she sniffed.

"No," replied Totality. "I get it now. This is clearly a really bad time for you. You have so many big problems, it would be stupid to think you'd have time to help me with mine, especially one that's by comparison so insignificant."

Twilight shook her head. "It's not stupid or insignificant. It's the most important thing in your life right now. I took advantage of you and then pushed you aside. There's no excuse for doing that. I'm so sorry."

She rubbed her own face as some sort of comforting mechanism. "It wasn't even that long ago that I was organized and on task and… cared. On day one, if I'd heard the word 'thesis' I would have put everything on hold. We'd stay up all night, going through my books. You wouldn't be able to stop me. You'd already be writing page ten before your school year even started and I'd be thinking up projects to test your acuity so I could draft your letter."

Totality almost smiled. "I completely believe you. That's why this was so… profoundly disappointing. But if everything was still like it was, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

Twilight shook her head. "No." Having never spoken to Totality up close for so long, she suddenly noticed a lightness on her dark horn, a subtle blotch on the tip.

"Will you please let me make this up to you? I feel terrible."

"Are you sure you feel like you can commit to something like that, the way things are right now?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, I can't really write you a letter, but I will help you with your thesis. I promise I won't leave the house until we nail it down."

"Okay," nodded Totality, still unsure.

"Thank you," Twilight exhaled in relief. "So on another topic, how did you know I ODed and wasn't just passed out drunk like usual?"

"You left the empty pill bottle next to you; same rookie mistake I made."

"Oh," That didn't sound like a good story, thought Twilight. "What happened to your leg?" She pointed at the bandage midway up her foreleg.

Totality shrugged. "I cut it last night, tripping on the stairs, running to the hospital."

Twilight frowned in concern but didn't say anything. It didn't really look like a place where an accidental cut would be.

"I suppose I've decided that I'm appreciative that you saved my life."

"Oh, good," replied Totality, dryly, pushing up her glasses. "Otherwise that would have put an awkward damper on things, wouldn't it?"