Ortan's Journal

Entry 1

My name- well my name's Ortan. It's on the cover, so I guess it's pretty obvious. It's been considered a pretty strange name, but mine nonetheless. It always makes people look at me funny when I'm introduced. Oh well. Anyways, I guess I need to write in a description, should this be needed to, uh... identify me should my endeavor come to an unfortunate end.

I'm your average sized stallion, I'm a unicorn, deep blue eyes, and light grey hair with a black mane. Well I had light grey hair and a black mane and tail. This morning I woke up and almost fell backwards at the sight that greeted me in the mirror. My mane and tail are now blood red, my hair black... a darker black than I've ever seen before. Darker than a moonless, starless night. My uh... mark... I don't... I'm not going to write that in. Not right now. I was struck by lightning when I was three, rendering me mute and unable to use magic. Since then I've learned to use guns, and I've become an excellent marksman. I'm the only one I know that uses guns, most unicorns consider them futile. I don't know what anypony else has to say about them. I use hoof signals to communicate of course, but that does make it a tad difficult to converse while carrying anything though. I've never really made friends, except for Applejack (I call her "Apples") and Big Macintosh, and I do hang out with Scootaloo occasionally. They understand me, I think.

Anyways, on to what has happened so far today. I woke up this morning with a strange feeling, a feeling that something was wrong. It was a bit darker in my room, but I just figured I'd woken up a few hours early. I got out of bed anyway, and as I walked past a mirror something caught my eye. I slowly backed up, and turned my head to look at my reflection. As I said earlier, I almost fell backwards at the sight of myself. But I had seen me like this somewhere else, in a dream I used to have. That was what intrigued me. As I walked out of my house, I immediately noticed everything was different. The air was heavy and smelled of... sadness. Everything really was darker, and thunder clouds filled the sky. Wind blew through the houses and buildings, making a hollow, mournful hum. Leaves circled through the air along with small dust clouds and other debris. Aside from the noise of the wind, the silence was a deafening emptiness, leaving a sinking feeling in my heart. The trees had shed their leaves overnight, leaving them bare, exposing their now dark grey bark. But by far the most unnerving thing I discovered was that there was absolutely nopony anywhere.

As I walked down the streets, the sound of my hoofsteps echoed throughout the town, and I felt entirely alone. I walked to Sweet Apple Acres, but nopony was there either. With nothing to go on, I returned once again to town. However, this time I noticed something that I should have before. There was a dense forest that had sprung up out of nowhere right outside town. This forest was different though, it radiated with a disturbing presence of something terrible. I began to walk away from it, but noticed something- the grass and weeds in one area were flattened by hundreds of hoofprints. Without another thought I returned home with a mission.

I put my old clothes back on once again. A battered cowcolt hat to keep my head out of the rain, which was now pouring relentlessly outside; a trench coat, torn in places but still reliable; steel toe boots to kick any enemy into submission, and my gun belt. I had two ammo belts wrapped across my torso, one containing shotgun shells and the other rifle rounds, and extra pistol rounds on the gun belt. I had my pistol on my right, my sawed off shotgun on my left, a rifle slung on my back, and a knife on my left shoulder.

In case you haven't guessed by my apparel, I do have a bit of a rough history. I was always getting into fights, and was even a hired gun at one point. I was constantly throwing punches and pulling my knife. Half of my time was spent in jail, and the other half in random bars across the land. I thought I was invincible. I didn't need a voice or magic, I could do anything I wanted without them. So I thought. Long story short, I met Apples in Ponyville one day, and she began helping me get my life on track. It took a year, but I did it. Since then I've been living as a normal stallion with a job as a bartender at the local pub. I keep things under control and know when to cut someone off. Basically, I've become the good guy.

So, now packing plenty of firepower and as much food and water as I can carry, I'm about ready to leave. I decided to start this journal to keep me occupied, and to have some sort of recording of what I'm about to begin. I don't know where everypony is, but I'm going to find them. I have to. It's time to go, so I'll make another entry tonight. Wish me luck, journal, I'll probably need it.