Twilight lowered her head once more as the thoughts of home entered her mind. She was possibly light years away from her friends, her family, her mentor...

The thoughts weighed on her mind as a single tear fell from her eye. Earl sat down next to her and wiped it away.

"Uhh.. you can tell me, you know, when you feel comfortable." He said in his most comforting tone.

Twilight shook her head and cleared her throat.

"No... It's fine." She replied.

The purple unicorn looked up towards the ceiling and took in a deep breath.

"I'd found this crazy book. It was called... something about portals and an inter-dimensional portal theory. There was a really difficult spell at the end of the book that was supposed to open up said portal. I wanted to try it so I used all the strength I had, and it actually opened."

She shook her head and sighed.

"It was too strong for me to even react... Pulled me right in."

Twilight cocked her head in Earl's direction.

"And then I woke up in this... world." She continued.

Earl nodded.

"Are you hurt at all?" He asked, slightly worried.

The purple mare looked down at her coat and examined her forelegs.

"I don't think so..." She said looking back up at him.

Earl then noticed how tired her eyes were. The shock of the situation was most likely the only thing keeping her awake.

"Alright," He said walking over to the window.

The human examined the time of day, roughly 6:00 A.M, from what he could see.

"You're welcome to go back to sleep if you'd like." He said walking back over to the bed.

"It's best to make sure you're wide awake when it comes to how this world works."

Twilight nodded and looked around the room for a place to sleep.

"Just use the bed," He said. "I'll guard the door and make sure things are OK."

She looked over her shoulder to the bed, which actually seemed warm and inviting, and nodded again. As she crawled over and layed her head on the pillow, Earl walked over to his dresser and began un-equiping his weapons. After making sure the pistol was set to "safety" and secure inside of it's holster, he layed the knife down and reached for a small metallic device. He shoved the device in his pocket, reached for his baseball bat, and sat down on the floor in front of the closet.

"Hey." Twilight said, sitting up on the bed.

Earl quickly snapped his head up to look at her.

"Thanks..." She said nervously.

The human smiled and nodded, and began pulling the metallic device from his pocket, along with a tangled mess of chords. Twilight smiled slightly at his response and calmly shut her eyes before drifting off to sleep.

For the first time in a while, the feelings of hope and happiness had completely grasped Earl. Seeing this character and actually realizing that she was real, despite how insane it was, reminded him of time before the infection. He thought about the times him and his friends had gotten together to watch her show, and how awesome things felt while he was viewing it. Earl smiled and pressed a button on the small device. He was instantly greeted by a glowing screen that showed a small apple symbol.

There's only one thing that can make this better. He thought as his smile grew wider.

After cycling through various screens on the device, he came to his selection, and began straightening out the white chords from his pocket. He took one end of the chord and connected it to the bottom of the device, then took the other two and placed them into his ears. Another keeper of Earl's sanity was something he had been familiar with since he could remember; Music. He pressed a small bar on the screen and layed his head back against the wall as the soft melodies of a song began to ring in his ears.

"Mom?" Earl called out to the upstairs.

There was no response.

He quickly shook the tired out of his eyes and itched at his arm.

"Mom, is everything ok?"

Still no response.

Earl was starting to get worried. He threw the television remote to the couch next to him and stood up.

"Mom, seriously. This isn't funny."

Silence.

He quickly shot up the stairs and threw open the door to his parent's bedroom. Earl's father was hunched over the boy's mother as chomping and chewing noises echoed throughout the room.

"Dad?! What the hell?!" Earl said.

He swiftly ran over to his dad and threw him off. What he saw under his father would burn in his mind as long as he lived. The body of his mother was laying dead on the floor, with various bite-marks along it's neck and chest. Fear quickly turned to rage in Earl's heart as he turned to his father.

"What did you do?!" he shouted angrily.

His father gave no answer, only stared at him with two dead, white eyes.

"Well?!"

His dad began shambling towards him with a hand raised.

"No! Piss off! I'm calling the cops!"

Earl quickly charged out of the room and pulled his cell phone out of the pocket on his jeans. After trying "9-1-1" a few times, he angrily threw the phone down the stairs.

"You're the freakin' COPS! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE BUSY!" He shouted as the small plastic square tumbled down the stairs.

Earl's father forcefully slammed open the door to the bedroom and continued to shamble towards Earl.

"I don't know what the hell you did to mom, but you're sure as shit gonna' pay for it!" He screamed as he shoved his dad over.

The shambling corpse fell to the floor as Earl tried to run away, but his father quickly grasped his ankle and sent him falling to the floor.

"God damnit! What is your problem?!" Earl shouted.

His father's corpse payed no mind to the harsh comments and continued crawling over to Earl.

Earl's father crawled onto him and pinned his arms to the floor. He quickly tried gnawing at the worried boy's face.

"Dad, seriously!" Earl shouted, terrified.

He managed to get one arm free, and threw a forceful punch into his father's jaw, knocking him a few feet to the right. Surprised by his sudden burst of power, Earl swiftly crab-walked a few feet backwards before returning to his feet. He continued down the corner and ran into his room. After a few moment's of searching, he found his base ball bat resting at the corner of his closet and grabbed it. By now, his father had returned to his feet and was shambling down the hallway towards Earl's room. The boy quickly raised the bat at his side.

"Dad. I don't know what the hell is wrong with you. But if you don't cut it out I swear to god I'm going to crack your skull open!"

The corpse didn't acknowledge the threat and simply continued down the hall way.

"You asked for it..."

Earl charged down the hallway and swung the bat fiercely at his father. It connected with a sharp crack and sent blood flying across the wall in the hall way. The body of his father fell dead without any further movement. Earl's rage quickly subsided and his mouth fell open as he saw his father laying before him.

"Dad?" He called out in a choked tone.

The corpse remained motionless.

Earl sank to his knees as tears began to fall from his face.

"Dad... I... I'm sorry! You wouldn't stop! I..."

Another shambling corpse appeared before Earl in the hallway. He quickly glanced up and his heart sank even lower.

"M-mom?"