Don't Look A Gift Horse In Innsmouth

by Bronio Kröger

Prologue: The Missive.

My Dearest Princess Celestia:

As you have requested, I am writing to report to you of the events that have as of late transpired in Ponyville. I hope that this missive finds you well, and untouched, for that is a claim I can no longer make for myself.

It is with only the most tenuous of resolve that I relay the events which have befallen me. Would that I could forget the horrors I have witnessed! Yet I must press on, as tempted as I am to drown my indelible memories in the sweet release of drink. For I am duty-bound -- neigh, compelled -- to scribe the ghastly transmutations of which I have borne witness.

I daresay that I, too, may even now be slowly succumbing to the corruption I have seen, and my waking eyes no longer discern between Ponyville and that which is beyond Ponyville. For I have seen shambling horrors that would cause the demons of Tartarus to blanch. Indeed, I now know what lies beyond, or rather aside, the simple lives enjoyed by the ponies of Equestria, and I have seen the shapes of those who walk, or should I say shamble, in the darkness therein.

Thus begins my tale.