Entry #153
Well, I decided to try to leave the notebook on the table for a week, but this news is too good not to write down immediately, so I’ll try that after this. But yeah – a certain gray mailmare delivered a message today: Rainbow Dash and Applejack are getting married. It would seem, from the letter (which practically glowed with excitement), that another couple in Ponyville was getting married, and they hadn’t been together as long as RD and AJ, and Dash took it as a challenge. Seems a bit rash to me, but they’ve been together for ages and had kind of been planning on getting married soon anyway, so Twilight writes. The actual wedding is a ways off, but that’s ok. I have more scheduled visits around Equestria anyway, starting with Las Pegasus. It’ll be nice to visit another Pegasi city – the only one I’ve been to is Cloudsdale.
Entry #154
Wow, Las Pegasus is a long ways away. It would normally be several days by train. Thank Celestia for teleportation. Las Pegasus is an enormous city, and actually extends from the clouds to the ground. Unlike Cloudsdale, which consists of a sort of random clump of clouds that the Pegasi keep in one general area, the cloud layer of Las Pegasus is actually anchored in several places to the desert floor, so Unicorns using a cloud-walking spell can easily walk on up. It’s really amazing, even if the Earth Pony/Unicorn part of the city is perpetually in shade. That’s cool (literally and figuratively), because it’s toasty up on top, in the bright desert sun. It’s fantastically designed, something clean out of a storybook. There’s some casino looking buildings, but I didn’t bother with any of them. The city official was kind, if slightly intimidating – he was a large, green Pegasus named Steel Wing, about the size of Big Macintosh, but with wings. His cutie mark was five stars arranged in a pentagon – which means exactly what I thought it did. He was a general in the Equestrian Air Corps when he was younger. As I said, though, he was very kind, and said everything was going wonderful except for one young unicorn filly, who had a strange sickness that nopony had ever seen before. We’re en route to the hospital now.
Entry #155
I… just… every healing spell I know, everything I ever remember reading in biology, exploring his thoughts and body with magic, nothing… this colt is still sick, mumbling something about a one-winged Pegasus. Hell, I called Luna here because I couldn’t fix it, and neither could she. It’s some sort of skin disease, I think, it’s created dark blotches near the base of his wings and on the left side of his face. It appears to be spread by contact, as the poor foal’s mother has it badly on her arms and chest. I recognized her, though – the gray mailmare with yellow eyes who I’d seen in random places around Equestira. I requested Steel Wing to quarantine the pair (a concept I had to explain thoroughly), and he complied readily. Magic containment for the pair. I feel awful doing this, but until we know how the disease works, we can’t take any chances. Such a horrible situation, only shortly after such good news, about Dash and AJ… I just hope it’s not fatal. Maybe Zecora knows something.
Entry #156
Zecora had an idea of what it was, seeming aghast and coming up with some interesting rhymes for the word “stigma.” I don’t think I’ve heard “enigma” used properly in a sentence before. She said she knew what it was, and that it was fatal and there was no known cure. She told me it was a thing of great evil, that only the darkest of spirits can cause it. Maybe something did escape from Tartarus last week before Twilight closed the door. That’s the only way… nothing else could do this – Discord’s been locked in stone again, and Nightmare Moon is long gone.
Entry #157
I’m going to visit Tartarus tomorrow, but tonight I figured I’d check out some of the time spells that Twilight told me about. They’re dangerous, but incredibly powerful. Maybe one can help me cure this disease, something, I don’t know…
Entry #158
I made my visit to Tartarus today. Cerberus was surprisingly good at speaking English, and confirmed that one demon was indeed missing since the incident where he wandered away in search of three balls that rolled past. I thanked him for his time, and left before he decided I should be a chew toy.
Entry #159
Oh. Freaking. Shit. I went back to Las Pegasus today, to check on the mother and foal… somepony fucked up, hard. The quarantine must have gone down, somehow, maybe the charge cycle was neglected or something, I don’t know. Anyway… the entire city is dead. Every single foal, mare, stallion, Pegasus, and unicorn is dead. Steel Wing even. I found him sitting in his room, dead, almost peaceful. There are bodies in the streets, decaying. It’s like that scene in Nausicaa when they go to the Pegite capital and just everything is dead. Wait – I hear a faint hum and crying. Magic. Magic from a unicorn. Magic from a living unicorn.
Entry #160
Oh, oh Celestia… I walked into a building to find a white unicorn mare who had a lavender mane with a white streak in it, holding a dead, blue unicorn stallion. I recognized them instantly. They were Twilight’s parents. Mrs. Sparkle was sobbing, holding her husband, trying to seal herself off with a magic bubble, a sort of quarantine in reverse. She’d neglected the fact that her husband had carried the disease, sealing her fate, but she didn’t care. I could tell. The skin lesions were all over her legs, chest, and face, and were huge and very dark, like the ones on the dead bodies. She was going to die soon, that was certain. I tried to cast a spell to ease her pain, but she managed to focus long enough to tell me to save the other cities and towns. That last bit of magic took her strength, though, and I watched her die in front of me. I couldn’t do anything. All these ponies… I… I want to give them a proper burial, but I have not the time or the energy to give them individual graves. I can at least wipe this city off the map, as a sort of mass cremation… I hope nopony got out to spread this further.
Entry #161
Didn’t have the energy to write for three days after obliterating the remains of Las Pegasus and teleporting back to Canterlot. I did manage to convey to Celestia the gravity of the situation before I passed out, which she, thankfully, is trying her best to handle. I’m going to go back to the archives to view the time spells again. There must be something there. Probably something on this one-winged Pegasus demon, too.
Entry #162
“Be no more.” It’s a simple enough spell, but it’s absurdly powerful. It erases all effects on the timestream that a demon has had after it escapes from Tartarus. Completely erases. This spell will be perfect, except for two things. For one, the user has to be making eye contact with the target, and for two… it kills the user. Or, in extreme cases, a third party can take the death for the user. It’s exactly what I need, though… I don’t know why I feel such a conviction to save these ponies, but I do. I will gladly give my life for them. I mean, I tried once a while ago, with the Manticore… except this time quick action and luck won’t save me.
I found information on the Pegasus. He’s capable of taking the form of any of the three races, but when he becomes a Pegasus, he only has one wing. His presence spreads disease and death, and nothing but sorrow follows him. So the book says. Needless to say, this is very bad. Long, silver mane in all forms and, though male, incredibly feminine in appearance.
Entry #163
With a hearty meal I got most of my energy back, so I’ll be travelling around Equestria to warn the ponies and get some preparations up. Ponyville, Cloudsdale… tell everypony to watch for the infected and beware of a one-winged Pegasus.
Entry #164
I’ve never had to use magic in self-defense against a pony before… Celestia, Twilight went frikken postal on me. Even though I’ve long ago moved out of the tree, and even out of Ponyville, Luna set up a system that delivers a copy of my journal to Twilight automatically each night. Which means Twilight got the news of her parents’ death from an automated messaging system. I knew Luna read the journal, but I thought Twilight’s knowledge of my adventures were limited to what I told her when I made visits to Ponyville, ever since the attempted suicide. But yeah, I walked into the library to get her up to speed on the issue with the demon, but before I could get a word out she started strangling me with magic. I was able to escape surprisingly easily (from what Celestia has told me, Twilight is probably the third most competent magic user in Equestria, behind herself and Luna, and maybe one of the most competent magic users who has ever lived), even in her distraught and unfocused state. But damn it that was scary. After she lost control of her magic, she made a half-hearted attempt to charge at me, which instead of ending in my impalement, ended in her collapsing, sobbing, into my arms. I’ve never been good at comforting, but I guess it just kind of felt right to let her cry it out for a while. I don’t know how long I sat there, but I can tell you, I felt awful. I feel responsible for the deaths, for the deaths of everypony in Las Pegasus. I should have stayed and made sure they ran the quarantine properly…
Entry #165
After Twilight had her incredibly justified outburst, I brought her to the town hall to talk with Mayor Mare on how best to fortify the town against the threat. Magic barriers run by the unicorns, drawing everypony to the town center until the demon is back in Tartarus…
Entry #167
Cloudsdale’s preparations complete.
Entry #168
Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Baltimare readied. Time to head out west, Dodge Junction. I trust Celestia and Luna can keep Canterlot safe.
Entry #169
Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit.
Dodge Junction looks exactly like Las Pegasus. Fucking everypony is dead. I’ll remove this, then go to Canterlot.
Entry #170
Not here too… something just flew out of my balcony.