Chapter One: Canterlot sewage drain
You've found a bloodied journal in a large hole leading to the sewers in the road, and it seems like it's been there for some time. You open the moldy cover and see a name inscribed on the inside with numerous clouds drawn around it: Clear Skies. Perhaps the body that was holding this journal is Clear Skies. He has a a deep gash accompanied by several shallow gashes across the front of his neck. You flip through the first few pages until you find an entry that catches your interest. All the others are just gushy bits about a love interest, or boring everyday happenings, but this entry actually is interesting.
May first, midday
My first day on the job, and my first entry in this journal involving the Equestria Royal Guard! I'm pretty excited about all this guardpony business, but experiencing it firsthoof is something else, I'll tell you what. This afternoon, I was on patrol on the streets of Canterlot when I saw a rather odd looking grey pony in sunglasses walking around on the streets, His head was hanging kinda low, and he was drooling like he'd blacked out and never really woke up all the way. I assumed he was drunk, so naturally I went up to him and tried to get him off the streets just to keep him from causing trouble. Drunken ponies never really consider talking as diplomacy. What diplomacy means to them is their hoof caving in somepony else's skull if they even get looked at funny. As soon as I touched this guy though, he felt seriously cold, like he was dead... Now, I'm sure it's the late night celebratory cider making me imagine things, but that's still pretty scary. Anyway, I managed to lead the guy over to a bench on the sidewalk, and got him to sit down there. I warned him to stay out of trouble the way guard protocol says I should, even though I might as well be talking to a deaf pony at that point, and resumed my rounds around Canterlot. Aside from that, nothing much happened today.
May ninth, near-sunset
Some of the guys from the guard took me down to a popular cider bar in Ponyville after our shifts were over today. Now I see why they pressed me to get the day shift. Lemme tell ya, I've yet to find another place that even comes close to the stuff I had down in Ponyville! Oh man, before we finished a third mug of cider, we were already shoulder to shoulder singing a pretty off-key version of a popular drinking song that ponies in the Royal Guard share amongst each other when they're off their shifts. As I was singing like a complete idiot, I kinda remember seeing that one grey earth pony with the sunglasses from a few weeks back sitting off somewhere in the bar playing poker with some buddies of his. All of his pals were the same color grey as him, so they all looked pretty much the same, save for different sunglasses, cutie marks, maybe even a hat or a suit. The only ones that looked almost a world apart from the other guys were a rather tall earth pony with pretty shifty eyes behind a tiny pair of shades, a unicorn with an eye patch, and a pegasus that liked to pop his neck a lot. After my pals and I stumbled out of the bar, I swear I could feel one of them staring at me, but at the time I was definitely too wasted to even register that, let alone stumble all the way back to the barracks in Canterlot.
May tenth, first sunrise
Jeez, they say beds at an inn are way more comfortable than the ones in the barracks, but I definitely proved that theory wrong. I don't think the crick in my wings is gonna leave any time soon.... Anyway, I'd just finished packing my bags and was on my way out of my room when I literally bumped into the tall guy I saw playing poker last night. Since I saw him from a ways off in the bar, he naturally looked a bit shorter, but being face to face and getting a better look at him, he was maybe three or four inches above me. Sure, that might not seem like all that much, but the guy could still look down at me. Lemme tell ya, he wasn't too happy. I apologized and scurried away as fast as I could.
If I run into that guy again, I'll just stay put until he passes.
November seventh, midday
These grey ponies with sunglasses are starting to become sort of a regular thing around the streets of Canterlot. Well, at least for me. They all walk the same way, a really sluggish shuffle with their heads hanging down. Some of them drool, others don't. At one point I saw one of them drop his shades on the ground, and when he went to pick them up, I swear he knew I was watching him and he turned to look at me. And then I saw them. His eyes. Sweet Celestia, I saw his eyes! They were blank! All white, no pupils, no colors, NOTHING!! His eyes had dark rings around them, maybe because of bruising, maybe because of lack of sleep, I don't know, but his eyes were blank for Celestia's sake! Maybe he's just blind.... Oh horsefeathers, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight after seeing that....
November fourteenth, near-sunset
I keep seeing the same earth pony everywhere I turn. It's like he's watching me from the sidelines, waiting to take me out... I'm getting kinda antsy just thinking about it. I think I'll leave Canterlot for a while and stay in Ponyville. I'm going to take my dad's knife with me, just in case the bastard gets the idea to jump me in the nearest alleyway...
November fourteenth, midnight
I've been finding it crazy hard to sleep ever since I saw "Sir Blank Eyes" (it's what I've started calling him, only 'cause I don't know his real name), so of course I've nearly crashed into about nine or ten trees on my way down to Ponyville. I left a note for the Princess on my bed in the barracks. Hopefully one of the other guards'll find it and show it to her. I'm starting to see things that aren't there, and whenever I do fall asleep, I see "Sir Blank Eyes" again. Every time I've seen him when I've dosed off, he always looks like he's closer than the time before that.
November January second, sunrise(?)
Aw buck me... I'm starting to lose track of time. I don't know who I can trust here. I keep seeing this freaky looking unicorn with an eyepatch, and I'm starting to think he lives here or something like that. I ended up walking up to him at one point and asking him what time it was, though he probably couldn't tell it that well with just the one eye.... I wonder what happened to him? He offered to get me a drink over at the nearest tavern, saying I looked like I was about ready to break down screaming and shouting about something. I took him up on that. I could use a drink after all the crap I've been through.
January second(?), sunrise midday sunset(?)
I just woke up in a cell. Why I'm in a cell right now, I don't know. Maybe I was finally arrested for deserting my post? No.... The cells in Canterlot are a hell of a lot better than this mossy little stonehole. I can't tell what time it is now at all because there's absolutely no windows here.... Man, there's no flying room either! Hey, there's that unicorn with the eyepatch again. Maybe he can tell me what happened for me to get put in this dump.
January, I know that much
My wings hurt a whole hell of a lot worse than flying face first into a tree at full speed. Buck, MY LEG IS STILL BURNING!! Sweet Celestia, please help me.... I'm surprised I haven't broken the quill I'm using from all the sudden muscle twinges I've been having after what happened earlier. First they strap me up to a gurney, then the unicorn shoots me with some funky magic or whatever, I hear this really nasty sounding splat and my leg was gone! I didn't feel anything until he started making it grow back! Then he started asking me questions about what I knew, and I told him I don't know what the hell he's talking about. He took off my wings after that, and I don't mean he just poofed them somewhere else. No, I mean he physically TORE them off and tossed 'em to the side. This went on for I don't know how long and-
Oh buck they're coming back... Is that "Sir Blank Eyes" with them? Why is he on a leash?
I wish this guy would just SHUT UP!!
I just want out of here.... These guys are FREAKS!! They're all alive, but they're also dead! How can you be alive and dead at the same bucking time?! I can't take anymore of this. That unicorn... Gauze Strips I think he said was his name... He just keeps tearing me apart and putting me back together over and over again, and when he's done doing that, he shoves me back in this cell where I have to sleep through the constant groaning of "Sir Blank Eyes"... I just want it to end....
The end for me
I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE OF THIS!! Celestia forgive me.... I never thought I'd use dad's knife for this...
This is my absolute last entry in my journal. If anyone finds this journal, or me for that matter, please bury me in my folks' plantation... Or just bury me where there's room...
The rest of Clear's final entry is near impossible to read because of the blood. You close the journal and turn it over in your hooves a few times. You hear something and turn to see a grey pony holding a weapon slowly staggering toward you. He aims his rifle at you and fires, nearly hitting your head. You shove the journal into your bag and run off as fast as you can before the assailant re-orients.
Author's Note
And thus the first journal is ended. In a way, this is sort of a second-person story, as you're reading tales of what happened to various ponies who saw the Dead Brigade troops with their own eyes and jotted down what they could before they ended up as the corpses you find.
Chapter Two: Sugarcube Corner Ruins
You've narrowly escaped being shot out in the wasteland by an armed gray pony, and you've found your way to what used to be Sugarcube Corner. The only thing left in good condition was the doorway, but even that appeared to have been torn up by war. Night is coming quickly, so you decide to take shelter in the ruins. Upon going behind the counter, you find a worn journal under the corpse of a unicorn that's sprawled over a windowsill with a hole through her head. Apparently she wasn't as lucky as you were... You hesitate at first, but decide to pick up the journal to find it's still on the two pages before she died. You flip backwards through the journal a few pages before finding the first entry, when she first ran into one of those strange grey ponies. You flip back to the inside of the front cover to look for a name. Near the bottom left corner in fanciful writing is the name of the owner: Emerald Glimmer.
March 17th, midday
So I got out of the spa down here in Ponyville not too long ago, and I absolutely love the mud facial they have-
You skip over most of the entry, due to it mainly focusing on her day at the spa and shopping. You stop skipping details almost at the end of the entry.
I was walking along the road talking with one of my gal pals I ran into along the way when this jerk shoves right between us without even thinking twice! I swear, the nerve of some ponies... He had a real scraggly black mane and was walking around with these really ugly sunglasses on. He didn't really seem like he was all the way here, like his brain was In one place, but his body was in another, you know? I mean, he just fumbled and tripped the entire time he walked. Maybe he had a little too much to drink, at least that'd explain the way he's acting. Well... Then again he didn't have that fresh-juiced apple smell to him that ponies usually get with hard cider. I've got no idea what's wrong with him, but I hope I don't have to bump into that creep again.
March 20th, early sunrise
I heard from the bakers at Sugarcube Corner that somepony went missing the other day. The Royal Guards are still looking for whoever it was, and folks that saw what happened keep saying they saw these crazy ponies in weird getups snarling and a bunch of other junk like that. I say those folks are nuts. I mean, since when has a pony gone so crazy that they're acting no better than a timber wolf? It's the same story every time, and I ain't buying it. Speaking of buying, I hope Berry Punch can afford the whole round of cider for the mare's night out party she invited me to...
April 2nd, late sunset
I've been seeing a lot of grey ponies walking around lately. They've all got this "too-much-cider" sorta shuffle when they're walking, and they all wear these butt-ugly shades. Maybe they're..... Oh what was that word... Photosensitive? Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, they all look the same aside from their cutie marks and what they wore. I remember seeing a couple of 'em sitting together talking. They were too far off for me to hear 'em, but really I shouldn't try listening in. There's something that's just... off about these ponies. Eh, maybe it's just natural where they come from. Wherever they came from anyway...
April 7th, midday
The Royal Guard just ordered everypony to leave the city, and I've been hearing these loud bangs going off outside the town! Are we in the middle of a war or something?
April 7th, evening
I just watched somepony die not too long ago... There was a loud bang and then the back of their head blew out... When I looked to see where the noise came from, I saw one of those grey ponies! Why are they attacking us? Just a few days ago they were coming into Ponyville and settling in along with everypony else, and now they're trying to kill us?!
I hid inside Sugarcube Corner to try and wait it out. Hopefully they do-
The writing scrapes down to the bottom left corner of the page, signifying she was shot while still writing. Judging by the position of her corpse, she most likely turned around to face her killer just before she took a bullet to the brain. There isn't much to go by with this journal, but it should be important in some way. You turn off your flashlight, then pick up the journal and jam it into your saddlebag before searching for a safe spot in the ruins to turn in for the night.
Author's Note
And that's all for the second journal.
From here, I'll be taking suggestions for victims the reader character encounters along the way, and what they wrote in their journals/diaries/whatever-you-want-to-call-a-book-you-use-to-write-personal-stuff-in regarding the Dead Brigade (the grey ponies).
Drop a comment for what you want me to write, and I'll do my best to squeeze it in somehow. :3
Chapter Three: Trek through Ponyville
Author's Note
From this chapter on, I'll let the readers govern what happens next. This story is, after all, centered around YOU finding out bits and pieces about the Dead Brigade, the army that took over and basically turned Equestria into one big hellhole.
I'll leave an obvious hint regarding possible choices (which will be typed in blue) at the end of the current chapter, as well as the subsequent chapters.
Chapter Three: Trek through Ponyville
It's been a couple of hours since you woke up from a pitiful night's sleep and had a meager breakfast that nearly made you gag due to it being partially stale and saturated with sugar. Your back is stiff, intolerably so, but no matter which way you twist or bend, that satisfying popping sensation won't come to provide relief and ease of motion. You decide to ignore the discomfort and set out to find your way to Canterlot through the rubble of a once-bustling town.
As you trot along the newly formed paths bordered by various debris, you notice a tattered banner sticking out above some ruined masonry. The fabric was blood red, held aloft by a decorative dull brass winged ball on the end of an obsidian black pole. A white skull occupied the center of the fabric banner, and its forehead bore the letters D and B. You can hear somepony grunting, most likely because they're stuck. Curiosity gets the best of you, and you move towards the banner.
After you step over the rubble, you're greeted with several bullet-riddled corpses and a grey pony (who's still squirming about) impaled with the lower end of the banner's pole. The pony's eyes were just like those of the one that shot at you not too long before. Evidently there was a skirmish involving this one pony against several others, and, for the most part, the pony squirming at the end of the pole won. The impaled pony notices you and points a silvery object at you. You notice the hole on the end, and you brace for the shot...
-Click-
"....I didn't hear a 'bang' like the last time..." you say, surprised. You look at the pony with the firearm with a confused look on your face, then look at all the bodies strewn about it. Of course, they all still had the same holes from before. Nothing changed. You cautiously approach the pony as it continues to squirm and snarl as it makes several futile attempts to remove the pole from its body. Upon closer inspection, you notice the pony's bright yellow mane and its crossed eyes. This was Derpy Hooves, the klutzy mailpony that used to mix up your letters with someone else's whenever she was on the mail route that circled around to your home.
She seems awful eager to get that pole out of her gut, but then again, she also seems pretty intent on shooting you as well, regardless of whether her gun is empty or not. You could probably take the gun with you to protect yourself, but the likelihood of getting extra rounds for it are pretty much at rock bottom. On the other hand, maybe if you help the recently-converted mailpony, she might end up helping you in return. That is, if she still has any humanity left...
