Darkness, Everlasting

Prologue

I sat in the living room of my now fiancé’s cottage with her in the next room over preparing supper. Before me were the three fillies whom I had taken charge of for the night. They sat in order, from right to left; an orange pegasus, a yellow earth pony, and a white unicorn. They looked in wonder as I settled into my armchair and began my story to them:

“So, you want to hear a story, eh? One where the very fate of Equestria hangs in the balance? If not, too bad. I’m telling you anyway. In my time, I have seen great deal a-many strange things, but this is by far the strangest. I once… uh… “found” an artifact that allowed the user to peer into worlds like ours, but not like ours. One that allowed the viewing of alternate dimensions, places where our world was changed by small choices throughout history. In fact, while I did view many, this one was by far the most disturbing. This one, special, alternate dimension was a gruesome parody of our own. One that disgusted even me. One that-”

“Get on with it!” shouted the three fillies in unison.

“Do please get on with it!” yelled my fiancé from the kitchen doorway.

“GET ON WITH IT!” shouted an entire army over the hillside.

“THERE WERE FRIGGIN’ ZOMBIES, OK? Anyway, as I was saying; this universe was home to the walking dead. There, a great plague was unleashed across the lands by some unknown force as foretold in the ancient texts of Neighstradamus. The monstrosities born from the plague were dead, yet not dead; stuck in a limbo of unlife. Their only desire was to consume the flesh of the living-” the orange filly interrupted me:

“Is this story scary? I might get nightmares.”

“NO MORE INTERUPPTIONS! I watched as the plague spread all across Equestria, turning ponies everywhere into soulless husks of their former selves. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves; let me begin our story with the one whom I followed through my far-seeing artifact: Twilight Sparkle.”