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.