My name is Twilight Sparkle.
I used to be a Princess. I had everything I ever wanted, or could've needed in life. My friends were all amazing, my parents were loving and supporting and all in all... Life was amazing.
Then... They came.
The first one sighted had crawled out of a dumpster in Canterlot, and the sight of... Him... Had terrified the surrounding ponies.
I would know, I was there when it happened.
I watched him drag himself out of that alley. And by drag, I mean he literally dragged himself. The bottom half of his body had been torn away, his organs spilling out as he trailed a thick stream of red blood behind him. His jaw, seemingly completely unhinged, had gaped and swung unnaturally as he moaned and dragged himself towards the citizens. His flesh had been a slight shade of rotten green, peeling away as he moved.
One resident of the city had been rooted to the spot with fear. With huge eyes he'd watched as the creature had slithered up to him, and before he could run the thing had grabbed hold of him. A shrill scream had torn itself from his throat as he'd tried to shake it off, but then the teeth had sank into his skin and his screams subsided as the thing tore a chunk of flesh right out of him.
That was the moment that I'd sprang into action. I charged and with blast of magic, I severed the head of the creature.
The stallion? I'd turned to him, and had screamed at the sight of his dead eyes and already decaying flesh as he'd stumbled towards me.
Terrified, I... I abandoned my subjects and ran away.
Not a day goes by that I don't regret my actions. Because apparently, that stallion bit a mare. And that mare bit her foal. And then the disease spread, the ponies becoming infected one by one and creating an army of the undead.
Zombies, we called them. Because that's what they were, if you looked at it scientifically.
I used to tease Spike about being scared of what didn't exist. Zombies ponies were one of those things.
I wasn't laughing one night when I returned home to collect him, to take him to safety, and he dropped off of the ceiling and tried to make me like him. I remember how I cried as he limped towards me; one of his legs bloodied and the bone sticking out.
One shot of magic and he had a hole in his skull.
And then I left Ponyville... And I never returned.
It wasn't until I was under attack from Celestia and Luna that Sunset made her appearance.
The most vivid memory of that day was how terrified I was. Heart racing, sweat trickling from beneath my mane and adrenaline setting fire to my blood, I had been running for my life from the two ponies I had held dearest.
I'd witnessed the assimilation of Princess Celestia. One stray foal, that was all it took. Crawling towards her and nibbling on one forehoof.
Then she'd turned and dug her teeth into her own sister's neck, stopping the Princess of the Night's horrified shrieking in an instant.
My two closest friends had turned towards me. Eyes like glass, flesh beginning to rot like fruit under the desert sun.
With no other option, I had turned tail and ran for my life.
And oh, did I ever cry.
The streets had been deserted. The zombies weren't in that area of the city, their decayed minds unable to process that, if they were to be successful, then they should spread out. I appreciated their idiocy, it made it easier to survive for more intelligent ponies, such as myself.
But my Princesses? I never doubted, even as they slowly began to wither away, that they would withhold some of their vast knowledge. And that scared me, because those two knew me better than anypony.
I'd tried to fly away. A powerful hoof and caught me by the back leg, and I'd been yanked back down to earth. I was slammed into the ground, pinned by my drooling former leader.
I'd swung with my hooves, crying and screaming and begging for her to come to her senses. I was unable to summon the will to kill Celestia, even in her zombified state.
Luckily, for me at least, a beam of turquoise had torn through her neck and her head and landed on my chest. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I'd scrambled out from underneath my Princess as her body had collapsed and blood pooled on the ground.
Another beam of bright magic. Luna had collapsed with half of her face torn away.
Covered in blood, I turned my eyes upwards as the sound of hoofsteps stopped in front of me.
Sunset Shimmer looked down at me, her eyes urgent.
She told me that the castle was safe. That we needed to go there.
I took her hoof.
And the two of us ran.
Sunset told me that the zombified stallion, the first one, had been the result of a lab catastrophe.
The stallion's name had been Doctor Whooves. He'd been working with his colleagues, studying a new form of radiation, when a chemical reaction had caused an explosion that had sent him flying. A fellow scientist had been walking out of the radiation chamber at the time, and the poor stallion had flown right in.
All could've gone well, but the door slammed shut on his rear legs. As a result, the momentum caused his hips and below to be torn off of the rest of his body.
The scientists, terrified of being punished for the accidental death, had dumped Whooves's body in the closest dumpster.
Hours later, he'd crawled out. Alive once more, an apparent 'gift' from the radiation exposure to his corpse.
I asked her how she knew this.
She'd asked me how I didn't know.
I'd gone quiet at that.
A stallion showed up once.
He'd run into the castle, and quick as my friend and I could we took out his pursuers and slammed the doors shut.
The stallion was named Written Script. He'd babbled to us about events that had taken place, of all the deaths we'd seen.
And for the strangest reason, his eyes were locked on Sunset. Filled with fear, pure and true.
I'd never seen fear like that before.
He told us of Ponyville. My former friends had been turned, and he'd been there to see Fluttershy go. Apparently, Discord had thrown himself in front of her when a zombie cat had attempted to attack her, and then he'd turned around and sank his fangs into one of her wings as she'd attempted to escape.
He told us that he had torn her wing clear off, before biting into her shoulder.
I vomited on the floor.
The image sweet, delicate little Fluttershy having a wing torn off by Discord was too horrifying for me.
But there was something about that Written Script.
His eyes never left Sunset.
He was terrified of her.
The next morning I went to check on our guest.
He was on the floor, eyes wide and empty as he stared up at the ceiling.
His throat was slit, blood rolling down his neck and starting to pool around his head.
Sunset came in as I screamed, and all she did was sigh sadly and mumble inaudibly.
I asked her what she said.
She told me that I was hearing things.
Sunset seemed to care greatly for me. Zombies were not allowed to be within five feet of me, and anything that dared to try and convert me was killed mercilessly and without hesitation.
During a day where I was depressed, I screamed at her that she was heartless as she killed a child.
She replied that survival was all that mattered.
She told me only the strong could belong in this new world.
Sunset and I are the strong ones, she said.
And the zombies are the weak.
And under the rule she'd put in place, the zombies did not belong.
I agreed.
She caught the hesitation in my voice, and told me that I had to be strong.
I told her I would.
She told me she didn't believe me.
I was helping Sunset set a trap for a larger group of zombies that had 'migrated', as we called it, to Canterlot. According to her, the less undead in the city, the merrier.
I was the bait. I didn't agree with this, but she payed me no mind. Her reasoning was that if they got too close, I could just fly away.
I reminded her of Princess Celestia catching me in midair.
She reminded me that Princess Celestia was at least two feet taller than the average pony.
I'd been running from the pack, occasionally looking over my shoulder to ensure that they didn't come too close. I was once again in a panic, my chest heaving as I gasped for air like a fish out of water.
My eyes met the dead ones of Big McIntosh.
Distracted, I'd stumbled into a broken cart. One I used to go to frequently, I remember that the mare who ran it would sell delicious chocolates. I couldn't recall her name anymore, something that nagged at my subconscious despite it's insignificance.
A back hoof had landed on a rotting plank, leaning against the remains of other planks. It had gone right through, and I had tumbled with a cry of surprise.
My ankle rolled.
Surprise turned to pain.
I'd hit the ground on my side, and soon the zombies were upon me. Eyes watering, I tried to summon my magic, but found that the pain was too distracting. In my frantic state, I forgot the ability to fly.
That almost cost me my life.
Sunset had suddenly sprinted onto the scene, a loud roar of rage escaping her as she blasted the entire pack simultaneously, her eyes glowing bright white as her magic killed my attackers.
Without even asking if I could walk, she levitated me onto her back and made her brisk way to the castle.
I could tell she was annoyed.
I didn't say a word.
When we go back to the castle, Sunset practically threw me onto my bed.
Before I could tell her what was wrong, she grabbed my rear left ankle in her hooves. I cried out in pain, and she told me to stop being such a foal.
She examined the joint for a minute or two, before leaving and coming back with the medical kit. She wrapped my ankle, told me that I was not to leave the room for a week, and then made her way out.
I noticed that she was limping. I asked her what happened.
She snapped back that she'd stepped on a stone.
I just nodded, and turned on my side to go to sleep.
Another time, I cared for Sunset when she came down with a fever.
She insisted that she was fine.
I retorted that she needed to stop acting like she was invincible.
For once, I had been the one to take charge.
I started feeling feverish as well, not long after she came down with her illness.
She'd ordered me to bed, saying that I'd caught her cold.
I didn't argue.
I walked in on her crying once.
I asked what was wrong.
She screamed at me to leave.
I left with tears in my eyes.
I watched the Crystal Empire collapse through my bedroom window.
Sunset walked in to the sight of me crying my eyes out, horn resting on the windowsill as my hooves scraped against the glass.
I looked back when I heard her. I saw that she was crying, and it confused me.
I asked her why she was crying.
She told me that she didn't like seeing me in pain.
Then she hugged me, and we cried together.
I asked Sunset why the stallion was so scared of her today.
I got her usual order to leave.
This time, I said no. I stood up for myself for once.
Sunset sighed. She sat down heavily on her haunches, golden ears drooping as her eyes became soft and sad.
I'd never seen her like this. I asked her why she was so sad.
She told me that this was her fault. All her fault, because she'd been stupid.
I was confused. I asked her to clarify.
She told me about how the zombies were her fault. She'd been helping Whooves with his experiment, and she'd gotten the proportions wrong, causing the explosion that had resulted in his death. It had been her idea to dump his body in the dumpster, and hope that nopony would catch on to what had happened.
She had started to cry.
And she told me about how they had been studying the effects of the radiation. That they had discovered too late that it could restore life, however horrifically, as the back legs of the deceased scientist had started to move of their own accord.
My face felt wet. I put a hoof to my cheek, and felt the tears. But I felt no sadness, only confusion and disbelief.
Then it call came to me.
Shared injuries.
Shared illnesses.
Suddenly fearful, I demanded to know why we were sharing things that happened to our bodies.
Sunset had turned away, and had muttered something about me knowing too much.
Then her eyes had turned to me, and she told me something that I wished I'd never found out;
You're me, Twilight Sparkle. Haven't you ever noticed the similarities in our names? Sunset Shimmer. Twilight Sparkle. It's not a coincidence. When Celestia disowned me as her student, I was lost. I was so, so lost. And then... Then I created you. You became everything I ever wanted to be while I slid into my darkness. You were the kind and far ruler that I wanted to be, you had the family and the stallion I could've only dreamt of. You will know this as Multiple Personality Disorder. You are me, Twilight. You always have been. You are my creation, the physical incarnation of what could've been. What should've been. And now, after all this has happened, how can I live with myself? You are my escape, my salvation. You, Twilight Sparkle, are the perfection I always craved.
Of course, I had protested. I told her that that couldn't be possible, that I was Twilight Sparkle. I had a life, friends and a family that loved me. Before all of this, I had just started a courtship with Flash Sentry!
She just shook her head and sighed.
I kept on babbling, trying to convince myself that what she said wasn't true.
Soon my tears were my own, in a way.
Was anything my own? Had anything ever been my own?
I didn't know.
I cried harder.
A hoard of zombies broke into the castle mere days later.
Sunset and I fought valiantly. Horn blazing with glorious light, we cut down zombies as they continued to flood into our only place of safety.
Rotten, bony and peeling hooves reached for Sunset. They cut into her body, wrapping around her forelegs and neck. Wounds opened up on my own body as she shot them away, screaming wildly as she turned to run.
A pair of hooves clamped down on a rear ankle.
I noticed that it was the ankle I had twisted a few months ago. I questioned why I was still thinking of such a thing, and quickly passed it off as another hint at how I was Sunset, the memory of her limping coming to mind.
Sunset had screamed as she tried desperately to cling to the smooth floors. She was being dragged into the swarm, and I registered the bloody wounds opening on my body as she was attacked.
She screamed for help.
I shook my head.
She begged me, told me that if she died, I would to.
Her skin was begging to rot, as was mine.
I closed my eyes as she was dragged into the hoard, and a gory wound split itself open on my throat.
I calmly replied that the nightmare would be over.
My legs crumpled and my body collapsed.
I wondered if I would become a zombie like Sunset.
The world went black before I could find out.
