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