Day One:
My name is Infrared Hazmat. I am a Unicorn pony from the world known as Equestria to us, but known to the humans as Jupitor. We discovered the humans 15 long years ago, during one of their space exploration slip-ups. We quickly befriended them (we're good at that) and worked alongside the humans for 14 years. last year, we recieved a dire transmission from the human planet Earth, and the Equestrian Royal Army was sent to investigate.
We lost almost half of our military that day. The rest came back, but were too shaken up to mention anything besides the word 'virus' over and over. So they sent in Hazmat squad. That consist of me and 24 other pony scientists. We arrived a few months ago, and haven't found anything of use. Today, Plutonium, captain of Hazmat squad, gave us these journals to record our progress.
I personally have no experiance with writing, but I guess I can give it a shot. Even though I dated today 'Day One', this is actually Day 184. We've been here for six months, now, and like I said, we've found nothing. Nothing of any use, anyway. I guess I should start back at the real Day One for now. We arrived by one of the Human's 'Majesty' shuttles they left for us when they found our world, and got there in about a week or two.
Upon arriving, we found what we expected: Civilisation had collapsed, plants everywhere were overgrown, most buildings were collapsing, and there was no sign of life whatsoever. We knew we had come too late to help, so we started gathering data. From what we collected, there were dangerously LOW amouts of radiation in the air. Everything seemed to happen in an instant. Cars were left in the streets in orderly lines, nothing seemed to be physically damaged, save the things worn by time.
After gathering our geiger data, we tried to find a place to settle. We chose an abandoned supermarket, as it had a ready supply of food and water. Then we tried to find a place to sleep. After at least four days of doing nothing but eat, drink, and collect data, we finally found a place to actually settle. It was the tallest building in the city, and the plaque before entering read: Freedom Tower. It was at least 100 stories tall, and there were plenty of places to sleep. So we made it our headquarters. in certain places in creaks from time to time, but Plutonium said it was nothing to worry about.
So we went back to the supermarket, and started loading truckloads of all the canned food we could find. Without any humans around, electricity had gone out, so any frozen or refridgerated foods were useless. Water and canned food were still plenty, however, so we loaded them up, and tried our best to 'drive' our way back to Freedom Tower. Sadly, nopony knew how to drive a human car, so we had to combine our magic and levitate it there. Afterwards, we were exhausted, and following the long, tiring process of unloading, we went to sleep.
The next morning, we went out to try and piece together where we were. We knew nothing about Human geography, so we were essentially lost. By the end of the day, we'd figured out we were in some town called Manhattan, in the state of New York City, in the New york region of the country called New England. It didn't help us much, but it was a huge city. it had so much to see. We scoped out a few other possible headquarters for Hazmat squad. We assumed to look where the second tallest building was, and we found something in a newspaper that said that that title now belonged to the Empire State Building.
We found that address, but found that the entire building had basically severed in two. The bottom half was intact, but the top half seemed to be laying sideways in the street. Other buildings around it had also collapsed, so we decided to give up on looking for a backup home. Freedom tower was good enough as it was. Or, that's what we believed.
About a month later, several test confirmed what we expected: there was no chance we were going to find out what actually happened. All it did was prove the radiation levels and the unexpectedness again and again. But then disaster struck. We woke up one morning in Freedom Tower, to hear a creaking and thumping that seemed to go on for minutes. I lived on the fifth floor, and the rest of Hazmat was spread wherever they pleased. Most were with the top, with Plutonium, but I chose a floor closer to the bottom in case something happened like what happened that day. I got a radio signal from Plutonium, who told all of Hazmat Squad to get out of the building ASAP.
We followed without question. I was the first one out, and I was horrified to look up to the top of Freedom Tower. The whole top portion of the building was leaning at a fourty-five degree angle, and slowly going towrads ninety. pieces of metal and glass were falling constantly, and I could only Imagine what Plutonium and the others were going through. After Plutonium arrived, we took head count. Everypony was present, and their eyes were glued to Freedom Tower. It all was leaning almost horizontally now, and we waited for the moment that finally came next.
The last beam supporting the tower snapped, and the top half of the huge construct, snapped out of it's slow descent, and went into a full on fall. It hit the side of the drydock, and the top half of Freedom Tower sunk into the huge Hudson River. We could do nothing but stand there, mouths agape. for four weeks we had come to know Freedom Tower as our home in this apocolyptic disaster, and now it had suffered the same fate as the Empire State building.
Reluctantly, we carried on. We found another large building, the tallest one left, called the Chrysler Building. We settled again, but nothing seemed the same. After two months, we carried on with our tests, and lived in the Chrysler Building, until we got a strange radio signal. We thought it would be from human survivors, but it was only from Atom Squad, stationed in Some city called Seattle, asking us for a census. Everypony was fine. They carried this back to Celestia, and we continued with our jobs.
We found another supermarket or two, and again salvaged all we could. We took it back to the Chrysler Building, only to find out once again that we had to move. One of the Buildings next to ours had collapsed, sending the pointy roof of the Chrysler Building to plummet through the stories down to ground level. We looked for another suitable headquarters, and decided it should be underground, as above ground building had a tendency to collapse.
We settled in the 'subway' underneath Manhattan. It was quiet, sturdy, and huge. We knew we had finally found someplace we could live in for quite a while. In fact, that's where i'm writing from now. Three more months passed from living in the Subway, and we still didn't make any progress. In fact, I think we did the opposite. Three of the original 30 in Hazmat Squad decided they weren't going anywhere, so they took up violence with their magic, and in a fit of rage, killed two scientists. Instead of being brought to justice, Plutonium exiled them as Rouge Squad, and locked them out to the surface. We still haven't heard any word from them.
And that brings this journal up to date. Today we did what we usually did. Scanned some of Earth's vegitation, hunted for living creatures, and tried to figure out how to get back in touch with the motherland Equestria.
Well, believe me, I've had a long day, and a long couple of months, so I need some sleep. This is Infrared Hazmat signing my journal for day one.
Hope you're happy, Plutonium.
Day 12:
Today, we lost a good Stalion. His name was Flare.
It all started just a few minutes ago. It inspired me to write this section of the Journal. Now, Plutonim requires every journal entry to be al least 2000 words long, so I'll see what I can do. Me, Flare, and Plutonium were down in the subway, looking for clues of life. Other than plant life, that is. Whatever this thing was that wiped out humanity, it did nothing to plants or other small animals. I've seena few mice, and roaches, and just the other morning I woke up to a rat on my chest. Anyway, we were searching to see if we could find any mice or signs of human life. A mouse would be good, because unlike rats, they comply whenyou try to experiment with them. We were looking for hair, skin, anything that contained human DNA.
When sudenly, out of nowhere, there was a huge gust of wind coming through the tunnel. I was thrown off my hooves by the sheer force, Plutonium was knocked over, but Flare just kept flying back. We could also see part of our lab in the side of an outcropping, with computors and curtain pieces being tossed into the tunnel. As soon as the wind stopped, after at least two minutes, we ran down the Subway to help Flare.
We were also wondering what could have made such a huge gust of wind. But Flare was our first priority. We had to gallop about 300 yards before we found him, bruised and bloodied, and laying there on the train tracks like he was dead. Thank Celestia he wasn't. At least, not yet. Plutonium pulled him up over his back, and we started going back. We would've gotten there quicker, but Plutonium was going about three times as slow, thanks to Flare.
We were about 200 yards further when there was another, quicker gust of wind. Thankfully, Flare held onto Plutoniums back. We looked down the tunnel this time to see not the flicekring lights of usual, but instead a massive fireball flowing it's way towards us. We galloped as fast as Plutonium could go with a stalion on his back, and we got to the wall lab before the explosion. I jumped up, and so did Plutonium. I was already pulling the lever to close the emergency door when Plutonium jumped, so I had no time to reverse it after I realised that Flare had fallen off.
He was lying in the track area, hoof extended towards the Captain, while the huge metal doors slowly came together. Plutonium rebbernecked out the tunnel and saw the fire getting alarmingly closer. He could feel the heat off of it. The doors were only a few feet apart when he grabbed Flare's hoof. I was closing my eyes, praying to Celestia that Flare wouldn't die. But the doors were too close together, and Flare wouldn't fit through immediately. By the time Plutonium could try again and again, onlt his hoof was still sticking through. He got a few tears in his eyes, which he didn't think I saw because I was praying, but my eyes were cracked, and eventually, the doors were squeezing against Flare's hoof. Nothign would stand in those door's ways, and we both knew it.
Maybe it was fear and anxiety, or maybe it was the fireball ourside, but the room got suprisingly hot then. Plutonium wouldn't give up, even against the sheer force of the doors, and pulled Flares hoof no matter what. Then I saw some red ooze over the metal wall of the door, some cracking that made me feel in pain, and then the clanging of metal. I opened my eyes to see Plutonium standing there, with his bright green coat, looking down at the severed yellow hoof. He had tears in his eyes, and he screamed in rage and he bucked and punched at the door with all his strength, but I stopped him before he hurt himself.
"There's no use," I said, "There's no chance he survived. I'm sorry, but Flare is dead. You have to accept that."
Plutonium, my old good friend (In case I haven't mentioned, me and Plutonium had known each other for five years before this mission, and we grew fond of each other.) stared down my eyes. His dark blue peering into my light green. Then he said, breathing heavily, "I'm not denying that he's dead. What I'm denying is that I let him die! I could have saved him! I could have thrown him in before I jumped, and none of this would be happening! I COULD HAVE SAVED THE LIFE OF A GOOD STALION, WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, BUT INSTEAD I LEFT HIM FOR DEAD!" He was shouting now, "YOU THINK YOU KNOW MY PAIN? YOU DON'T! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE LIVING WITH THIS GUILT!" He breathed heavily again while he tried to calm himself. He finallly stopped breathing so heavy, looked away from me, pointed his hoof, and said, "Go back to the Headquarters. Tell the others. Leave me to mourn."
And with that, I left the room, and that's the last I've seen of Plutonium sinc---
---Wow. that was something. As I was saying, I left the room, and came back here. I told everypony that Flare was dead, and that he died in a fiery explosion in the subway. Everypony was surprised, and adjourned themselves. I returned to my journal and wrote that passage up there, then Plutonium came back. I paused as I saw him go up to a pony named Nuetron. Neutron asked him what happened, and Plutonium punched him in the snout!
On his part, that was a bad descision, because Neutron is basically the brawn of our party. All he had to do was buck Pluto (that's our nickname for him) in the chest, and send him into the wall. Of course, ole Pluto never took no for an answer, and he tried again to punch him.
Predictably, he ended up in the wall again. . . and again . . . and again. Boy, that stallion doesn't know when to quit, though, and he kept going. I think by the time he hit the wall the thirteenth time, he had gotten three or four hits on Neutron. I was just sitting there, watching Plutonium get pounded into the wall over and over, and I gotta admit: it was funny. Just watching the stallion that thought he was so big and mighty get thrown into the wall repeatedy.
Anyway, this went on in a similar rotation, until eventually, Plutonium's face was covered in his own blood. But i'll be darned if that trooper went at it again, and again ... and again. By the twenty-fifth time, I'll admit it was getting old. And I was starting to worry about Pluto, so I intervened. I stood between Plutonium and Neutron while the bloody one tried to get another punch. he just pushed me aside though, and a few seconds later, he was in the wall. When he got down, I realised that he had made a small crater in the wall, at least five inches deeper than it was before the 'fight'. I put quotations around the word fight, becuase I would hardly classify it as that. It was more just Plutonium getting the snot kicked out of him by a stallion at least three times larger than himself.
Anyway, it was a few kicks later that I realised that Plutonium had actually made a crack in the wall. After he got down, I looked through, and shouted in alarm, "HOLY CELESTI-"
And before I could finish the word 'Celestia', I was hit in the back by Plutonium, not crushing me into the wall, but the wall coming down! I fell through on the other side, onto the tracks of the Subway. What had alarmed me so much was that I saw something: another pony. I now lay at his feet, with Plutonium beside my body, and the rest of Hazmat Squad looking through.
The pony held something in his arms: a skull. But not a pony skull; a human skull. They all charged out at him, forgetting that they had magic, which the opponent had in mind the whole time. His horn glowed, and everypony was surrounded by a cyan glow, immobilizing them. The other pony ran off into the depths of the subway, and that's the last we've seen of him.
