It was like darkness was following Dead Loyalty everywhere she went. Even if it was unintentional, it was still distressing, to say the least. She just wanted to live a happy life with Twilight and forget about what had happened in her own universe. Even Twilight could tell that she was happier than anything else when she was around. She felt the same way when in her presence. It was like a weight had been lifted off of both their shoulders.
She felt like telling Twilight but decided to keep it to herself for now. She didn't want to worry the mare. She always felt safe around her. She would mutter something under her breath and like a cue, Twilight cocked a grin and told her she had heard that little quip. Loyalty almost smacked herself in the face with a wing.
"Way to go," she told herself.
"Why the buck is this happening to me?!" She thought to herself. IT was the most annoying thing on her mind right now. She wanted to shine the brightest light through whatever this was and just be done with it. Even then she knew it wouldn't be that easy.
Something didn't feel right Twilight thought to herself as she lay asleep. Her bed felt lighter than it should have. She and Loyalty had been sleeping together for a while now. She tried to deny it, but she also thought she had heard the faint echoing of a pony's laugh. It wasn't the kind of laugh that brought a smile to some pony's face. It was a mocking kind of laugh. The kind that Nightmare Moon had been known for in the history books that Twilight used to read as a filly when she had first heard about the Mare in the Moon. She knew she had to force herself out of bed now.
That's when Twilight awoke to find the spot next to her empty. She and Loyalty had shared the bed together, she was sure of it. She figured maybe she was already up and making breakfast, but when she pushed the door to the hallway open all she heard was an unbearable silence that greeted her. She trotted down the hall trying to keep her composure, hoping that when she rounded that corner Dead Loyalty would be there to greet her with a stack of pancakes.
She got to the kitchen to find her marefriend collapsed on the ground, her eyes closed and twitching as if she were having a horrible nightmare of some kind. Twilight rushed over to her side and tried to wake her. She jostled her so much the mare bolted upright screaming Twilight's name in a bout of sadness and panic.
"Dead, it's ok," Twilight said in the dim light, "I'm here babe."She rushed over and pulled her into a hug. The lights should have turned on when one of them had entered the room, but everything was still dim as if the sun had just lost all its light. She kissed Loyalty with a peck on a muzzle before asking her the obvious question.
"What happened, why were you in the dark like this?" Twilight hoped she'd be able to answer. The later question on her mind though was did she really want an answer. She couldn't stand losing the one that she cared about, not again anyway.
"I had gotten up to get a late-night snack when i thought saw something out of the corner of my eye creeping through the room. I gave chase and cornered it here in the kitchen. Then something overtook me and i blacked out. The last thing i thought I saw was Fluttershy coming towards me, but her eyes were replaced with blackened voids. Like two voids staring into me. Then I heard your voicing calling to me and jolted awake." Twilight kept her in that hug even after hearing what she had just described. It sounded dreadful, to be honest.
She helped Loyalty to her hooves and took her to the front door of the castle. They had to leave here and see if their other friends could help them. And that was when she heard a scratching sound coming from the hallway. She cast a candlelight spell and pushed the door open, poking her head around the corner to get a better sense of what direction the noise was coming from. That's when she looked up at the wall. For a moment she thought she saw a yellow feathered wing disappear into the darkness. It was the words that caught her attention. Carved out in what looked like a black, almost bloody substance were the following letters.
"Why did you abandon me!" As soon as Twilight and Loyalty had uttered those words to themselves a voice echoed those words from the darkness. A voice that sounded distorted through the gurgling sounds it was making. They both turned to see something horrific crawling its way across the floor towards them. A walking corpse that had mottled yellow fur and what looked like two broken and de-feathered wings shambled towards them. A torn section of pink hair and a patch of skin bore what looked like three butterflies.
Twilight was paralyzed with fear as it approached her. It couldn't be she screamed to herself. Fluttershy?! Dead Loyalty grabbed her and ran to the door, bucking it open and running into the streets outside of the Castle. For a moment she looked back and saw that 'Fluttershy' was gone. They had to find the others. She had to make sure that both her and Twilight weren't going insane.
Against her better judgment, she started by going to Fluttershy's cottage. To be sure that her friend was really there and hadn't become some kind of walking dead. As she approached she noticed that it didn't look run down at all. Loyalty snuck up to the door and knocked on it with a hoof. The door opened to reveal a very much alive Fluttershy. And not an eldritch abomination like they had just seen.
"Oh my what happened?" Fluttershy whispered in her usual tone. Twilight looked almost pale in comparison to Dead Loyalty's muted colors. Fluttershy really wanted to hug Loyalty. I mean she looked just like Rainbow Dash despite her color scheme. She had a hard time believing that this mare was from an alternate universe. And yet she believed it. She flicked an ear to get a better grasp of what was being said. All she had heard was that a Zombie version of her jumped out of the darkness towards the two of them.
She was reminded of the old mares tale about Silent Ponyville. She used to be told that story when she was a filly. And it always creeped her out even to this day. She never really told anypony else that. Even Rainbow Dash, and they had been friends for the longest time. They used to live near each other back in Cloudsdale while attending Flight camp. If she were as assertive then as she is now, Gilda might not have been so mean to her at the time. She could tell that they were staring at her to see if she had been listening to what was being spoken of.
"I was making Twi and I a snack when I thought somepony had broken into the castle. So I chased them and blacked out afterward. The creepy part is that something came out of the shadows that looked like a zombie version of you Flutters. "She was very blunt in that response. So much it looked like Fluttershy was going to faint. Luckily she didn't have to worry about that. The mare steadied herself after her knees looked like they were going to give out on her.
They asked if she was alright, Fluttershy assured them that she was fine. Hearing something that unsettling had made her knees a bit weak was all. She explained that she was reminded of an old Pony tale about a place called Silent Ponyville. It was a mirror version of their town but it was filled with monsters and a deadly mist that would obscure all vision. She tried to explain it to her friends without wanting to scare them.
"thank the Goddess its only a tale and not real," Dead Loyalty muttered under her breath. She didnt want them to know that she knew of that place. It was a nervous jest on her part. She had gotten lost in the Everfree Forest once and had been transported somewhere that sounded just like that place. She was able to escape from there, but she was also scarred by it.
Even after ending up in this timeline with Twilight, she still heard the sounds of a haunting music box when she'd go to bed. Its why she'd wake up in a cold sweat. Twilight was the only thing that kept her sane, otherwise that haunting tune would have driven her nuts years ago.