The Equestrian Zombie War

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
13th of June, J.R. (Joined Reign)

In the past week, I’ve sent ten detachments and three research teams to the infected areas. Dear mother, this outbreak has spread beyond our expectations. If the outbreak continues to spread at this rate, I’ll have to contact Captains Shining Armor and Iron Forge for reinforcements.

I received a report from Serene on the griffon research. Apparently, the griffon’s own research team managed to obtain a sample of the virus, and tested it on a death row inmate. The results weren’t pretty.

The virus enters the brain through the bloodstream, and forces a vegetative state to occur. The results varied, from a few minutes to days, maybe even weeks. Depends on where it entered, really. An infected organ could be one of the ways, but bites are much easier. I repeated a prior order to Serene, just in case; capture an infected pegasus, unicorn, and an earth pony. Oh the marvelous research I can obtain from them.

Speaking of the virus, it only seemed to infect the living. Or at least, those with their brains still intact.

Religious beliefs aren’t making the operations any better, although sometimes it does help (the survival of the Holy City in Saddle Arabia being one of the prime cases. The Turks deliberately missed). Some of the hard liners refused to fire on the undead, believing they could be cured. At least until they got torn apart by the totally-not-dead ponies.

So far, we managed to stem the reports as nothing more than a hoax in the internet. Who knows what would happen when everypony comes to the exact same conclusion. Pinkie Pie keeps getting all these new pinkie sense warnings, but thankfully, her friends are still skeptical about it.

No reports from Israfoal, but Warmhoof was kind enough to wish us good luck in the coming storm. He’d better survive all this mess; the world can’t bear to lose such a brilliant earth pony.

Can’t end this on a good note; Prance got hit by the outbreak. I think it was from a hotel room. I better tell Iron Forge to ready the Home Army.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
24th of June, J.R. (Joined Reign)

Israfoal’s in a civil war.

The orthodox faustists refused to let go of Jerusalem, despite the very obvious strategic flaw it had. Can’t they let go of their beliefs just this once? I’m sure Mother Faust would allow Jerusalem to fall to the extremists and the undead if it meant the survival of one of the greatest modern states in the past century.

Serene’s been caught by the griffin research team. To our collective relief, the griffons were looking for a magical expert, and while Serene isn’t one, she knows me, and I know one Twilight Sparkle.

Of course, since the griffons closed down air travel by zeppelins, we had to host a scrying conference. The power conveniently blacked out before we could use the webcam.

The virus is magical, they said. Highly evolved version of a solanum type virus. I was half right about the necromancer thing. Anyways, the solanum virus definitely has magical residue, as Twilight said. This also meant alicorns are not immune.

The griffons were kind enough to capture some infected ponies, and even provided a military grade zeppelin for the transport. The last zeppelin, it would seem, to exit the Griffon Reich.

No word from the dragons and the changelings are under martial law. The diamond dogs have sealed off their caves for who knows how long. I heard the minotaurs are fighting back in Crete. It’s nice to hear one fighting effort made by someone other than the griffons.

Before I fully lose my conscience again, I need to pay Luna a visit. I think we missed a planned visit to the Everfree since this whole trouble began.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
26th of June, J.R. (Joined Reign)

I almost got myself and Luna infected.

It would seem that I’m losing some of my paranoid senses. Of course there had to be zombies in the Everfree forest. And of course we didn’t listen to the rhymey-wimey zebra living in there. To be fair, I don’t really understand what Zecora is trying to say with her poetic ways.

We had to fight through several dozen of the undead to get back to Ponyville. And then we had to call the Royal Guard to start sealing the forest off. Mother knows how many zombies are still inside the Everfree. To be safe, I brought Twilight with me. She’s experienced in zebra talk.

Zecora told us of the ancient stories surrounding the virus. She also said she had been keeping the Everfree zombies from entering the town. On the subject of eliminating the dead, she replied that destroying the brain would do (I think that’s what she said). Glad to know that; from what I gathered on the internet, the common belief seems to be to destroy the brain first. Now, complications obviously arise; the virus is much older than we thought, and we’re somehow stupid enough not to record the ways to contain an outbreak.

Before a certain pink pony could spread the rumors, Twilight and Rainbow Dash convinced her to pinkie promise. A mass hysteria incident barely avoided by a petty promise system, something I admittedly broke before. I never thought it would be that useful.

Somepony suggested torching down the forest, supported by Rainbow Dash. Twilight, Luna, and I agreed not to let such a mass destruction of the most unique ecosystem in Equestria go through. It’s a good thing Twilight’s husband also refused, considering his nature as a pyromaniac. Thank the mother.

Serene brought the shipment personally. I had to pull some strings to prevent Foreign Affairs from blocking the squirming packages. Again, thank the mother for intimidation techniques, always useful.

Warmhoof informed me of the orthodox faustists’ defeat (and that is why the Church of the Mother is far more competent than the Orthodox Church. Take that). And he marked the victory with the full report. When I asked why he sent it to me, he replied that while the Mossad is the best intelligence service available (best my flank), ERIS is much more widespread (wise decision).

In a matter of hours, the report will be read by every single ERIS agent in Equestria and the eastern continent. This keeps getting better and better.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
4th of August, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

It’s been a while since I wrote in here. I knew I shouldn’t have left this buried under three layers of varied books.

In the past month, we’ve hit setback after setback. Detachment Ten was destroyed when the Luftwaffe bombed Hamburg, the outbreak is on our borders, and we’re still no closer to finding a cure.

Experiments with our three subjects yielded numerous data on their traits; anything short of a headshot, total destruction, or disintegration will not kill them. Their diet seems to be exclusively meat, but they refuse to eat carrion. The pegasus infected retained the ability to fly, and on occasion created small winds. The unicorn infected lost the ability to cast any viable spell, and from the looks of it we need to produce more anti-air weapons.

The test subjects displayed high resistance to small arms fire up until anti materiel rifles. Even then, they could still bite the living. All subjects displayed extreme vulnerability to the cold; they could freeze solid in sub zero temperatures. Based on these current predictions, the frozen north seemed a viable option for a retreat zone.

Despite Twilight’s best efforts, we could not reverse the changes made to their mentality. The virus shuts down normal bodily functions and leaves the host nothing more than a living corpse. The magic imbued in the viral strain allows the infection of high class magical beings, such as alicorns.

The virus, as said, requires a living host to infect in its natural state. However, the necromantic magic may allow infection of corpses.

The community of the internet is gaining evidence of an actual outbreak, and I’m afraid we are powerless to do anything about it.

The Warmhoof-Knight report was sent to all ERIS personnel, and we are taking countermeasures described in the report.

I’ve begun work on a public pamphlet in the event of the outbreak becoming public news.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
23rd of August, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

We’re getting nowhere with the cure, and Twilight told me flatly that said cure is not possible, given the nature of the virus. Our only hope, she said, is to develop a vaccine. Even that is a long shot; the virus’ magical qualities may have given it a degree of sentience once it takes over the brain.

The Day and Night councils have been demanding almost daily reports on the containment efforts. I tried to explain the current state of affairs, that ERIS is severely drained of trained personnel overseas, but they would have none of it. They request a military intervention to be carried out. Apparently, a worldwide pandemic is enough a reason for us to invade our old states. Morons.

The media grows ever suspicious of the communications blackout in the Reich. It took us three hours to take down the supposed headline.

Even then, it’s only a matter of time before the outbreak hits a major population center, and when it does, we won’t see it coming.

As I said, religious beliefs aren’t making this any easier, and the Church is asking me if the End of Days is here. I replied that if it was, I wouldn’t be working my flank off to stop the outbreak.

I think I have to end this entry right here, right now. The night’s late, and I need to take Luna’s advice seriously.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
24th of August, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

Due to recent events, Twilight’s a bit mad at me. As I repeatedly said to her, ERIS is not omnipotent. Well, I have myself to blame, but still, we can’t just magically summon Fluttershy here. As long as she does not interfere with ERIS policies, I’ll let her squawk.

We couldn’t enter the deer republic, and we’re still trying to find Discord. Last I checked, he took a nap; that was at the start of the year. Sometimes I find his mind absurdly hard to comprehend.

The Day and Night council have decided to purchase several dozen thousand of the Sturmgewehr rifle. They’re scheduled to be distributed across all available divisions by the start of September.

Celestia and Luna have both given the order to announce the outbreak officially. I compromised by stating the nature of the outbreak as rabies, as per containment procedures.

Captain Iron Forge ordered the withdrawal of ERIS forces from abroad. I’m afraid said order was far too late; in the two months of ERIS operations abroad, we lost approximately 85% of our dedicated combat team.

Serene proposed the implementation of dedicated marksponies in our combat section. I expect all ERIS personnel in the Special Operations Division to practice their rifle skills, as well as melee combat. At the current rate, we won’t be ready to reinforce the Royal Guard until the start of October.

All things considered, it seems obvious that the Canterlot Government, while they have taken the necessary precautions, do not understand the full scale of the current outbreak.

I fear the worst has yet to come.