Prologue

A warm breeze blew across my face as I slowly walked down the abandoned streets of Ponyville, keeping my head on a constant swivel.

I thought back to nearly a month ago, and chuckled. Before all this mess, I wouldn't have to stay this alert unless I was in a big city. Everything had happened so fast, ushering in a new way of life that seemed reminiscent of the very people that came before us merely thirty or so thousand years ago. Now, instead of fighting over small, seemingly pointless things, we fought and bickered over the things we used to take for granted, like food and shelter.

As I thought of this, I wondered, "Where did it all go so wrong?"

******

It had been several weeks since a mysterious outbreak had began in Canterlot. The public was obviously concerned, but not to the point of outright fear. The doctors in that large city worked feverishly to discover if this virus was potentially dangerous, although their initial tests never showed anything. It seemed so similar to the flu, that everyone thought it was just a strangely aggressive case that had mutated to overcome the immunizations given out.

Then, random murders and suicides began popping up all over Canterlot. While no information to these attacks were released, some eyewitnesses said that the victims of the murders were horribly mangled, while the suicide victims were normally happy-go-lucky people who would never think of such a way to escape life. The suspects of the attacks were brought in, and a quick test showed they were carrying the same disease which had broken out in Canterlot a short while ago. Soon after this, the Royal Sisters ordered that the entire city was to be quarantined, while they would be evactuated to a safe place where no infected individual could come into contact with them.

The quarantine seemed to be working for several days. The number of infected became lower, while work on fighting the virus was rapidly advancing on the answer. That's when a flurry of cases struck towns and cities all over Equestria. Reports of the dead rising ran through the media, and the populace panicked. There was an attempt to quell this sudden invasion, although they were quickly beaten back.

Within two weeks of the initial cases of the virus, it had spread around the country, destroying cities and leaving the military a wreck. The Princesses and their top advisors had ceased their transmissions to the public, leading everyone to believe they were dead.

What was left of the scientific community began studying this microscopic enemy round the clock, with no focus on anything else. They quickly discovered that this virus was able to bring the dead back, like in those zombie games and movies that were so popular throughout the country. No matter how similar this was to what the media had created, however, it was the complete opposite. First off, zombies can run. While there are several games with that theory, they were never really accepted as being remotely possible. We had all been lead to believe that the undead would not possess the motor skills to move much faster than a slow limp. Secondly, they had sharp senses; much better than what we possessed. They can smell, see, and hear things better, and these heightened senses were even more deadly at night. Anyone foolish enough to be caught outside after dark were often ripped apart by large hordes of the dead, which is how the disease is spread faster.

As for the incubation period, it was shorter than any other viruses we had seen, at around five hours. There was no explanation for this speed. It normally killed in around six hours, leaving little time for an infected person to do anything about it. During that six hours, the person would experience nausea, vomiting, coughing, sneezing, a high fever, cramps in every major part of the body, and a seizure, which is often the cause of death. Once the infected individual is dead, reanimation occurs only a few minutes later. It spread unbelievably fast, and even faster when the infected are killed by the zombies, rather than the symptoms of the disease.

When the first cases were reported, I remember that I was laying in bed with my beautiful wife, Lotus. I had woken up in a cold sweat, and decided to turn on the news. Lotus also stirred from her slumber and watched with me. The information of the new disease did catch our eyes, although we weren't too worried about it. We lived in Ponyville, and the trouble was in Canterlot, just about 200 miles north of us.

Of course, we were both wrong. The virus began spreading through our small town, and we took to bringing our family, including my sister and Lotus' sister, into the spa that the two owned, and locking us in there with an ample amount of supplies. Silence was mantained in the establishment as all hell ravaged the town outside of our fort. For a while, waiting it out seemed like a good idea; we had the supplies to last us for a while, and we had several scientists with us that were working on learning more about the virus.

However, several days ago, we lost a large portion of our supplies in a freak accident, which also claimed the life of a scientist, who was named Time Turner. Looks like this guy's clock has stopped, I had thought quietly to myself when I found his body. He had seemed so young, although there was a look of what I could only describe as sadness in his eyes.

Anyways, the loss of our food and medical equipment left us with a difficult choice: Stay and risk starving to death, or venture out into the unknown to find supplies, running the risk of being turned. In the end, I made the final decision to seek out what we needed, as well as finding another place for us to stay. The farewell shared my wife and I shared was extremely tearful for us both, but I managed to keep my cool. Just before they opened the doors, Lotus told me to come back safe, or she would bring me back from Tartarus just to kill me again. I chuckled and told her that I'd do my best. I could tell she was still not satisfied with my answer, because she gave me a radio that I could use to contact her and the other survivors. That is, if I needed to. The both of us prayed that I wouldn't have to, but we knew that it was a very real possibility.

So, armed with a high-caliber hunting rifle, a semi-automatic pistol, a knife, some food, medical supplies, and the radio that I had just been given, I stepped out of the comfort of our stronghold and into the fires of hell.