Two Hundred Days

Day 1

So, this is it. Me, you, and this journal. I don't know why I'm wasting my time with this, I have a generator to fix, but I guess it's what's keeping me sane. I need something to get my thoughts out, even though no pony will read this. It's been sixty days since the first changelings revealed themselves and collapsed the Pony of Liberty in Manehattan. Then it was the Ponyville Palace. Fillydelphia's train stations were bombarded by magic afterwards, and a single shipment of apples has not arrived from Appleloosa.

Princess Celestia warned every pony to remain indoors and let the military handle it. I guess it worked in Manehattan since we haven't heard anything from them since the fifteenth day of the invasion. We have heard plenty of changeling, however. First they took tactical positions, city halls and such. Then, your home became their next target, and then your family. I wouldn't know the feeling, my parents stayed in Manehattan and let me find my own way in this world. They didn't mention there'd be changelings.

Speaking of the changelings, have you ever seen one feed? Disgusting doesn't do it justice. To see the love and compassion ripped from the bodies of a pony, whether it be a filly or a stallion, is mortifying. And I've seen six feedings since that day changelings revealed themselves in Ponyville. It was like they'd melted into our society while we thought we had defeated them; I saw a classmate of mine glow green and morph in the middle of our lecture.

But that was the past. There's not enough time to weep for the past now, only time to gather, repair, and occasionally eat. The apple farm was burned, restaurants and vendors were raided, and houses were ransacked. Whoever remains in Ponyville is desperate for survival, and we've even turned on each other to live. If it wasn't bad enough with invaders, now me and my friends have to look out for hungry ponies too. We'd run if we can, but with Cloudsdale under siege, a permanent winter has settled over summer and the snow's too thick to travel in. Everyday I hope Celestia would smite the invaders and end this. But, I think today I've stopped hoping. Keen Eyes out.

Day 2

Nurse Toxin to Keen Eyes, if you thought you could hide this from me you got another thing coming. Don't even bother putting an entry for today because I need to do some complaining too, you know.

A trading mule showed up today trying to trade some apples he found stashed in a flower garden. They looked perfect on the outside, crisps and juicy, but worms and rot had ruined the insides. One bite and I had brown apple slosh all over my face, and I think it's making me sick. The next time some pony goes out to scavenge, the Apple Farm, they damn well better find some pills.

Day 2 Part 2: Keen's Entry (haha Toxin)

For the record, this journal wasn't a secret, I found it in the "fuel" pile for our heater, but I thought that if we were going to burn it, writing in it would do more good. Speaking of fuel, Copper Tail, our cook, wasted half of it cooking our rations into something "acceptable." I'll admit it was delicious, but it wasted far too much vegetables and fire wood in the preparation. Every pony pretty much agrees that Copper Tail needs to stop getting carried away, or else we'll starve eating gourmet cooking.

On another note, it's my turn to scavenge the town tonight, and Gala hasn't finished my winter coat yet. There's no way I'm using some pony else's; half of us are sick, and I could catch it from another coat. But I'll have to take one for the team tonight if we're going to support ten survivors in this flimsy housing.

I've already gotten requests of bandages, medicine, food, and nails. I don't know if I can carry that much in one bag. I'll have to focus on just two things,but I'm not sure what. Medicine and bandages could really help the Hay brothers, they both got hit by some unicorn raiders a week ago. But Copper Tail wasted so much food last night, we'll have nothing to eat after tomorrow. But the cold feels even worse. Without nails we can't fix the hold in the roof and the shattered windows. The only warm spot is the basement, and the wounded need that place to heal up. Every pony else has to sleep by the broken heater to even be remotely warm.

Anyways, I guess I should prepare for the night. Wish me luck, journal.

Day 3

Nurse to Keen, again. How do you expect me to heal the sick without a single bandage? I might be a unicorn but healing spells like that don't even exist. Thanks to you Hay Bale and Hay Day are getting worse. Bale's rear leg isn't healing at all, in fact it got infected last night. I supposed I could remove the infected flesh with a cutting beam spell, but I'm too hungry to focus on anything, let alone remove infected flesh from a patient. Too bad you couldn't find any food last night, you know? Maybe that could have helped us all a lot, unless you expect us to eat nails and plywood. I don't care if it's cold when ponies are sick and hungry. Damn it, why do you suck at priorities.

Day 3 part 2

Um, is this a group journal Keen or is it a thing between you and Toxin? I wouldn't want to intrude, but you were sleeping so I kinda, sorta, took a tiny little peak at your book. I swear I didn't plan to snoop or anything, I just wanted you to know that your winter jacket is ready. Though I guess it won't be your turn until next week.

Do I put my name here? How does this work.... Gala Hat signing off? Like that?

Day 4

Not that I'm hiding anything, but I need to install some private storage. Times are tough enough as it is, but some pony's been taking more than their share lately. I woke up today to find my breakfast half gone, and after I spent a night out in the cold gathering building supplies for the house. At least there's no draft from the roof or windows now.

Nurse Toxin doesn't appreciate my "slow recovery" from the flu I caught the night of Day 2. She gave me a check up right before lunch and said I was fine. I can feel it though, my stomach's killing me, and it doesn't feel like hunger. What's worse, I've got this headache from the cold I can't focus long enough to fix our heat generator. We really need medicine, but there's none to be found on the Apple farm. In fact, the winter's gotten to the trees as well and soon, there won't even be any apples. What happened to those farmers who lived there? We're starving and they just disappear.

Day 4 part 2

So I just got back from the generator, and things are finally starting to heat up. The fire's a welcomed change around here, and ponies are starting to work harder now that they aren't half frozen. Now if only I could fix the problem of food and medicine, that would be a real miracle. That and finding some candy, I'm craving it after a day of work, but I suppose I'll have to settle for a creaking bed tonight.

• Keen

Day 4 part 3

Should I be labeling this as day four or night four? Well anyways, it's me Toxin, here to tell whoever reads this that I am absolutely livid. Unicorn raiders came back and scouted out our base last night; they caught me off guard while I was treating Bale's infected leg with some herbs we found in a flower garden and made off with the herbal solutions I managed to make. To be honest, they didn't really treat the symptoms effectively, but every pony needed some hope that they'd feel better.

The Hay brothers, however, have inspired me even more that I have inspired them. Hay Bale, even with his infected leg, scared off the scouts with a makeshift spear we had lying around. He may have saved every pony here, at least for the night, at his own expense. His rear leg's much worse at this point, and the infection's taking a toll on the injury and the rest of his body. The cut in his leg reopened from the scuffle with the raiders, with the flesh turning black and rotting. With no bandages and no antibiotics he's sure to die, but I can't tell him that. I just can't bear to let him know he'll die in a basement from an infected knife cut.

Day 5

Gala Hat's Log

Keen and Toxin have gone out today responding to a cry of help from another group of survivors. One of their members galloped down the road in a frenzy, asking any pony for help. At first every pony tried to ignore her, but I heard she started crying about her filly and a collapsed diner. We just had to give the mother the benefit of doubt. Keen and Toxin left as soon as I repaired their winter clothes, which were torn up in a raider scouting party last night. I'm just happy I sleep on the top floor and stayed as far away as possible, I don't know what I would do if I met one of those meanies.

Meanwhile, Jade Jewel's been getting every pony to reinforce our doors, and said one pony will have to be on defense at night from now on. She's a little disorganized as a leader but she has a way of pushing every pony around. She can be a jerk sometimes but I can't argue with her logic, after the raider scouts broke in we've all bit a bit jumpy.

Day 7

Gala Hat's Log

It only takes a few hours to get across Ponyville in this weather, and it's not even snowing. But it's been two days, and I'm getting worried. Not Copper Tail though, he's just glad he doesn't have to cook for two more mouths. How could he think that? Without Toxin we're all more likely to die from sickness, and Keen is the only engineer out of all us survivors.

And that's not the only thing wrong around here. Today Mint Leaf's herb bag got torn on some barbed wire while she was working in the garden. Normally I could fix it, no problem at all, but not today. Today my thread's gone, and I know it wasn't the raiders. I keep my tailor bag under my bed, and the only ponies who could get to it are in the group. I think there's a thief among us, but I'm not sure. I could have misplaced it, or maybe a thief sneaked in. Hopefully nothing else gets taken.

Day 8

Gala Hat's Log

This morning we shared the last two apples. Tomorrow will be the last three carrots. After that, the house will be out of food. No pony was expecting this group to prosper or have an easy time of things, but, I think ponies are getting restless. Nothing needed mending today so I got the Hay brothers some water and chatted with them to pass the time.

Hay Bale's infection just kept him asleep all day, but Hay Day's pneumonia was weakening by the hour. He hopes to get back to scavenging once he's better but he looks really weak. I tried to tell him he needed more rest but I think he' done waiting around.

Day 9

Me and Toxin, we're finally back. Sweet Celestia I'm so tired, I just want to lie down. I just, I don't even know how to vent my frustration. The filly was trapped under a collapsed burger joint. Levitating the rubble off the little one could have been easy, until a couple of other unicorns joined up. Raider unicorns, and they were friends of the mother. I didn't recognize them but Nurse sure did. She said they were the ones sniffing around our stuff that night before we left.

I wasn't ready to quit on the filly but Nurse Toxin had other feelings about those stallions. She told me it was a trap, that they'd distract us to break into our base and steal our goods. It made sense to me at first, I thought back to when some of my rations were consumed, and I figured they sneaked in while I was asleep. But I realized that if they got in they would have taken more than just half my breakfast (the more I think about this while I write the more I suspect someone in our own group stealing for themselves).

It was a hot debate in the middle of the snow; the raiders and the mother promised to leave us alone, claiming they were just too desperate to think strait, and Toxin yelling at me to leave with her before something bad happened to us or the group. But I kept thinking of that filly, her leg trapped under the weight of the rubble, probably broken in multiple points too, so I chose to save the kid. If any pony reads this, know that I chose to help the filly, not the raiders.

Now Nurse is practically breathing down my back about things going on here at base. She blames me for using up the rations we took while exploring, she blames me for Gala's missing spool of thread, she blames me for our need of barbed wire, which tore Mint Leaf's bag. How the hell was that one my fault, it was Jade's idea. Toxin didn't even say anything about the broken radio we found in the diner. I hauled that thing all the way back to fix it and she can't even be hopeful.

Honestly, I just... just... fuck it. Keen Eyes out.