I think I'm the only one left. The noises have stopped. I want to look outside, but I know I can't. I'm safe. But only for now. I'm sure the hunger will get me before what's outside does. Maybe I'll open the door and walk outside just to spare myself. I would have done it a long time ago if it hadn't been for the noises. There are no weapons in the house. I'm running out of options.
It all started a week ago. Crazy, isn't it? How things can go so wrong in just a single week. Everything started out so normal. I had breakfast, I went to the market, I visited Bon-Bon at work, I worked on my novel. My novel. I guess nopony is ever going to read it. It wasn't anything special anyway. Just Lyra Heartstrings and her crazy conspiracy theories. With all the nonsense I've believed over the years, you'd think I would have seen this coming. Not just for my sake, but for Bon-Bon. It's ironic. Maybe if I'd spent less time chasing ghosts and more time paying attention to the world around me, I would have been able to save her.
I was listening to the radio. I think most of us were. I don't like to think about the ones who weren't. The ones who didn't know anything was wrong until they started hearing the sirens. I'm sure a lot of them went outside to check. That's how it got them. But I was lucky. I was in the kitchen, listening to Coloratura's latest hit while I made dinner. Nothing fancy. Just some carrot stew and radish salad for my beautiful, talented, hardworking marefriend. I thought I'd surprise her with a home-cooked meal for once.
I was in the middle of chopping carrots when the radio burst into static. I automatically reached for the dial without looking, thinking it was just a case of bad reception or something. Imagine my surprise when the static faded and I heard a voice. A voice coming from the radio. An emergency broadcast, I assumed. But looking back, I'm not sure that's what it was. I think it was something else entirely, something otherworldly that I'm never going to understand. As surreal and unexplainable as what's outside right now.
“Don't go outside. Don't open your curtains. Don't look at it. Don't let its light touch you.”
Just those four phrases, over and over again. At the time, I didn't recognize the voice. I still don't, but I have a feeling I should have. Nothing made sense when I first heard that broadcast and nothing makes sense now. I don't even know why I'm writing this. I just found this old journal in the basement and I decided I had to tell my story. Oh right, the basement. That's where I am right now. It's the only place in the house that doesn't have any windows. I'm not sure if that even matters anymore, but I'd like to think it does because I'm not dead yet. Not dead from what's out there anyway. There's no food left and my magic can only sustain me for so long. It's funny. I didn't even know my magic could do that. Maybe the only reason I've survived this long is because I'm a unicorn. Maybe if Bon-Bon had been a unicorn, she'd still be here with me.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't be rambling like this. But it makes me feel better. It makes me feel normal.
About ten minutes after the emergency broadcast, I started hearing screams. I somehow didn't connect the two at first. But then I remembered what the voice on the radio had said about not going outside, about not looking at it, about not opening your curtains. It took a while for me to realize that some of them had gone outside. I don't know why they did it. Maybe they didn't believe the voice on the radio. Maybe they didn't hear it. I don't know. But the screams. Sweet Celestia, the screams. I didn't see what happened to them. I just heard the screams.
The radio works, but only if I boost the signal with my magic. Otherwise it's just that same emergency broadcast over and over again. But sometimes I would hear snippets of ponies talking about what happened. I listened and I was able to piece together what was happening, but it still made no fucking sense. The stuff the radio hosts were saying was completely insane. They were talking about how the sun never went down and ponies started going outside and how it did something to them. The light. The light of the sun was doing something to the ponies that went outside.
And then there were the ponies who looked, the ones who opened their curtains or their blinds to see what was going on. Melted. Their eyes melted. They melted or burned or something and no amount of magic could protect them.
Some ponies tried to go for help. They would bundle up in as much protective gear as possible, because they thought it would protect them. But it didn't. It didn't matter how many layers of armor they wore or how many protective spells they cast on themselves. The sun always got them.
I kept telling myself that the princesses would come. That they would show up and fix everything. But I'm not sure anymore. Every day I listen to the radio and I never hear Princess Celestia. I never hear Princess Twilight saying everything is going to be okay. I don't think anypony is coming to rescue us. I held out hope for the first three days, but its been a week and the princesses haven't shown up. Or maybe they did. Maybe those screams I heard yesterday were the princesses, arriving to save the day only to end up like everypony else who stepped outside.
I'm getting tired now. I want to write more, but there's nothing else for me to say. I hope somepony finds this journal. But I doubt it. I don't think anypony is alive out there. Everypony is either trapped in their homes or dead. But if by some miracle there is somepony still alive and they come across this journal, please listen to the emergency broadcast.
Don't go outside. Don't open your curtains. Don't look at it. Don't let its light touch you.
I love you, Bon-Bon.
--Lyra