Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
8th of October, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

Hi, Twilight here.

So, Luna decided to give your journal to me first. And, well, I decided to leave this sticky note here.

I know you’re angry at me right now. I just want to say I’m sorry here. Really, really sorry.

I didn’t read your journal. Really, I didn’t.

Since you’re not on speaking terms with me, I want to say thank you too. We wouldn’t have made it out of the Lu Republic without your help.

-Twilight

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
8th of October, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

Alright, leaving the journal with Luna was a huge mistake. It could be worse; what if I had left it with Discord? He’ll never let me hear the end of it.

Twilight had the nerve to apologize through a sticky note. Despite what she said there, she could’ve just come to me to apologize directly.

Then again, I might have said one or two harsh exclamations. Well, I forgive her. She owes me, though.

Everything went to shit in the whole Fluttershy-gets-rescued mission. Despite Luna’s efforts, they still went through with announcing the nature of the infection to the general public.

Of course, ‘everything went to shit’ was only in my side, Twilight said. The public, according to her, is not in mass hysteria. I need to learn how to give speeches like Tia does; she’s really good at them. And that is why Equestria still needs the diarchy. You know what? I take back what I said in Journal 247 about the uselessness of the diarchy system.

The public reacted quite calmly, despite the occasional panic. Tia kindly published the emergency pamphlet, so I guess that also helps. Some agents reported end of day speeches from the internet, especially from Twitter.

The Israfoalian website was made public by Equestria Daily, the Foalfree Press, and the Crystal Times. Many cited it as extremely useful, and many mare and stallions started to train in the art of zombie killing as well as hoarding large quantities of weapons, food, and first aid kits.

Perhaps I was mistaken about the whole ‘keep things under wraps so hysteria doesn’t happen’ thing. Well, that’s a first.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
15th of October, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

The media started to refer the current containment effort worldwide (specifically the Reich, Changeling Kingdom, Prance, Istalia, Zebrica, et cetera) as World War Z. This is terminologically incorrect; a war is defined as a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. Based on the definition, this is not war, this is pest control.

Then again, the word ‘war’ is practical, according to Twilight, even though she agreed with my statement.

The Flim-Flam brothers developed a vaccine to the infection, codenamed Phalanx last I checked. (The actual name was far too long for practical use) From what I received, they distributed it to areas most likely to be infected, and they sent a shipment to the Griffon Reich as well as the Changeling Kingdom. The media heavily promotes this, and some bloggers reported that they survived zombie bites thanks to the vaccine.

We captured one of those cannibal zombies, as the zombies we have would not eat each other no matter how long we keep them fasting. Agent Thunderhead cracked that they must be on a diet. I am not amused. Tests will resume as usual on the 9th of October.

Speaking of which, I’ve decided to start Solanum tests in living subjects. Of course, said subjects must be compliant as well as suicidal, and given the fact that everypony is on their hair trigger, this should be easy enough. Would be interesting to see the infection firsthoof, despite Twilight insisting that it’s ‘unethical’. Excuse me? We’re in the middle of a pest control. And those ponies complied. What part of it is not ethical?

Everything’s under control, as somepony over at Equestria Daily stated. Contrary to what Luna might say, I’m very well versed in internet lore, and a certain website mentioned this sort of quote as bad.

I think it’s called Tempting Fate or something. I’ll consult it again.

Yep, it’s Tempting Fate.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
20th of October, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

Commander Iron Forge ordered me to send out more containment teams, or else I’ll lose control of ERIS. Now, this presents a dilemma; would I let the world end because I held on to a position of power? Or will I save the agents? Well, the choice is clear, I suppose.

I’ve explicitly told all ERIS personnel to carry a melee weapon as well as semi auto rifles, not the sturmgewehrs. I had to remind them that zombie ponies aren’t that dangerous; we’re herbivores, we don’t have fangs. What we need to watch out for are the griffin zombies. Sure, we could wait them out until their rotten wings fall off, but for the first 3 weeks, those zombies can come out of nowhere, and then rip through your body armor with those talons and beak.

Iron Forge also told me to send out any available agents. This is where I put my hoof down; we’re still recovering from the early containment efforts, and we only recently regained our strength. Fortunately, he agreed.

And so, Operation Brush Fire II begins.

The zombie we captured turns out not to be a cannibal. How very odd, the capturer swore that she saw this zombie eat another one while stumbling towards her. Oh well, more test subjects for me.

I still can’t convince Iron Forge to stop using sturmgewehrs. And then he forced me to take Phalanx. I don’t need a vaccine; I’m a thousand years old, I’m probably immune to all known diseases. Of course, he wouldn’t listen.

Twilight said Spike’s doing well in dragon country. The dragons, he said, wasn’t even affected by the zombies. Thank the mother; I don’t know how well we are going to fare against a gigantic, flying zombie. It’s a really small chance, considering their ridiculously tough hide.

Thanks to a short quip by Discord, I’ve decided to turn ERIS into an army of marksponies. This should be awesome enough.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
1st of November, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

Well, it seems that I overreacted a bit.

Ponies everywhere seems to be a bit savvy about zombies. Very, very genre savvy about them. Sweetie Belle even knows how to kill one properly.

In recognition of this reveal, I’ve decided to open an ask me anything blog. The public needs to hear what an official has to say about this outbreak, directly and personally, not just from a text.

I’ve successfully acquired a test subject; a catatonic old stallion. Pretty sure he won't mind being zombified.

My email crashed. Apparently a large amount of ponies found out about the address and started emailing me. Oh well, their loss.

I decided to go back to tending ERIS’ Minecraft server. Sure enough, a lot of ponies started logging in on it. It got too laggy, and then I decided to go play TF2.

Ah, the good old times of blowing up enemies with thirty rockets at once. I need to commend the developers; they sure have an awesome sense of humour.

Just came in; Queen Elizabeak the Second of the Northern Isles managed to hole herself up inside Windsong Castle. Along with the entire staff, some of their families, and also a couple hundred civilians. I’ll have to admit it; she’s one hell of an awesome griffon lady.

***

Journal 251
Property of Director Resolute
3rd of November, 25 J.R. (Joined Reign)

I didn’t think through the whole ‘ask Resolute anything’ blog.

I got a massive influx of questions, and even after I filtered through the questions, I still found the occasional idiotic ones. Such as:

“Do the zombies spawn at nightfall?”
“No, Mr. Mash, they don’t. This is not Minecraft, you can’t just expect zombies to spring up in thin air”

“r the zombies coming for ur brain?”
“*Are the zombies coming for your brains?’ You need to improve your grammar. No, they don’t. They eat your entire body bit by bit, hoof by hoof, flesh by flesh”

“How’s the war effort?”
“As I said; this is not war, this is PEST CONTROL”

I should’ve seen this coming a while ago.

The experiments with the stallion were successful; the virus entered the bloodstream and went to the brain directly. The body’s nervous systems are numbed, resulting in a total loss of sensation for the zombie. We managed to acquire a pegasus corpse, and successfully reanimated it. Lucky for us, the zombie-pegasus lost flight capabilities. However, this does not clear any fears about flying zombies. I’m trying to find a willing pegasus for more studies.

The newly infected stallion also displayed sprinting capabilities, surprisingly enough. Suffice to say, everypony in the room-including myself- agreed that we are completely fucked if we don’t get a grip. The pegasus corpse did not display such capabilities in its decayed state.

Our zombies require sustenance, unfortunately. We fed them numerous supplies of fish. It’s funny, really, considering that we’re trying to find a way to exterminate them, and yet here we are, keeping them as if they’re some sort of mutant pet.

I issued a warrant to arrest a unicorn writer. Many of her writings contained elements of misequinity, and it was only a matter of time before a new suicide related cult arises. Everypony’s on edge due to this whole crisis, and I am not risking a cult using the stories as fact. Unfortunately for us, deleting stories written on the internet is hard. Like, really hard.

So, I decided to just go straight to the source, arrest her, and let the ponies loyal to the Mother tear the stories apart critically. I am a genius. (Yes, Twilight, I’m proud of being an arrogant sod. Got a problem with that?)

OK, maybe they won’t tear it apart critically, but I can wait.

Sweetie Belle’s doing a rerun of an old musical, with her old friends. I forgot the exact name of the musical, but I think it involves concealing…something related to ice. Oh well, when there’s Sweetie involved, it’s definitely going to be good.

It’s starting on the 27th in Broadway. I have a scheduled meeting then. Screw it, Luna’s right. I need to get a break. This extermination effort is taking the toll.

Perhaps I can buy the ticket straight from Sweetie, she’s always a generous pony. Maybe she got it from Rarity. Obviously, where else?

Somepony advocated the use of magic to eradicate the undead. Makes sense, if he hadn’t started attacking science in the process. Nice job breaking your argument to the intellectual folk. I had a good time pointing out the flaws from my cozy bed, with a nearby microphone. The wonders of modern science never ceased to amaze me. Then again, he did point out I very rarely use my hooves, and abuse the use of telekinesis. Touche.

I offered Queen Elizabeak extraction from Windsong, and asylum in the Crystal Empire. Rather honorably, she refused my offer, stating that she wanted to comfort her nation. A beacon of hope, she said.

These days, a beacon of hope is perhaps all we need.

Author's Note

So, this wraps up the first season. Due to various delays, I decided to post the chapters in groups of five, or seasons. Don't worry, I'll finish it someday.