This is Sweetie Belle, speaking from Ponyville..

by caprituna

First published

Teenager Sweetie Belle records an audio diary about her and her friends' experience in the apocalypse.

They say adolescence is the best part of life. This is not true to Sweetie Belle and her friends though, who find themselves among ponies dying from an unknown infection, abandoned cities and the disappearance of the Elements of Harmony. Sweetie Belle then records an audio diary in hopes to someday show it to Rarity and her friends, but not all entries can be found.

Entry #4

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Uh.. hi? Hello?.. Girls, I think it's working! Finally!

Entry number four: This is Sweetie Belle, speaking from Ponyville.. or what's left of it. It's been three or four months since the infection started spreading through Equestria. Chaos have settled in at this point, as we have no electricity or water available other than by batteries or natural resources. I've found some books on how to make electricity with magic.. to little success at this point. It was a stroke of luck to even find batteries for this old recorder.

Me, Applebloom and Scootaloo are together again now. As I said in the last entry, Applebloom had left us to visit Sweet Apple Acres and check on how things are going there. I told her it was very risky, as the trees could make a good hideout to the infected. She insisted, and I couldn’t tell her not to look for her family. Granny Smith and Big Mac aren’t there anymore. Applebloom says they must have left along with Sugar Belle to a safer place. She says Granny Smith was holding on as strong as a bull, giving orders and stuff - so she believes they’re still good. And thanks to Celestia she’s back safe and sound.

I was right - the farm is filled with infected ponies. It’s a good source of food after all - no wonder it attracted survivors and with them the infected. Applebloom found remains, looking fresh enough to be from recent days. She ended up in an encounter with one infected, Celestia bless that she’s been working on her bucking skills. We have bad news however, she saw her cousin Braeburn - he was in an advanced state of infection. Probably came by looking for the family, I believe. What was a surprise is that his husband was around looking for him. Applebloom returned with him. He’s part of the Wonderbolts search-and-rescue team, and was off-duty for a few days to find Braeburn. He’s holding on strong, but I can see tears forming in the corners of his eyes all the time.

The Elements of Harmony are still missing. No news, no single idea of where they must be. While searching for resources and other survivors we met Rose - an earth pony that’s been living in a survivor’s shelter made at Twilight’s castle. She says there’s something around 60 ponies living in there. She leads a team that looks for resources. She invited us to join them, but Applebloom knew that, if we accepted, she wouldn’t be able to visit Sweet Apple Acres later. They seem very restrict about who can leave the shelter, I believe so that no one else can be infected. They also don’t know what happened to Twilight, her castle was left open and intact. Spike wasn’t there either. Starlight Glimmer is the leader of the shelter. When asked about the Elements of Harmony, she refuses to speak. That’s what we were told.

We also asked about the School of Friendship and its students. Rose told us that effort is being put into making the place a new survivor shelter. Since it was open to ponies and other creatures, it was quickly taken by the infected, and is currently deserted while Starlight and a special team clean it up. They don't have news about the students, as most of them were sent home when the virus started spreading. I wonder if it can infect other creatures aside of ponies and changelings...

It’s been a while since we have heard from the princesses too. I’m assuming the situation is still the same. As I said in the first entry, Luna has been using her powers to communicate to the survivors in our sleep. We make sure at least one of us is sleeping at 8 pm, the time she contacts all the ponies. Last time they contacted they said they were fighting to protect the ponies from Canterlot, and as soon as things got better they’d visit other cities as well. Nothing about that yet. Nothing about the cure too, except that they said they were still experimenting with magic. Scootaloo says it’s bullshit, that we are screwed and shouldn’t count on the royalty to help us out. I still have some hope, even if little.

About Scootaloo, the injury in their leg is finally healing. We were at edge for days while it didn’t seem to get better. If it still didn’t they'd have joined Applebloom in the trip, and I’d have no option other than tag along. Stupid teenagers with their crushes! Thanks to Celestia this is over now.

Last update, we met Maud Pie. She lost an eye and partial movement of her front left leg in an explosion in the Sugarcube Corner. She was traveling when the infection started, and rushed to pick Pinkie up and return to the rock farm. No success in the first one, but she saved Mr. Cake and his twins. Mrs. Cake sadly died in the explosion. One of the twins is now deaf and the other lost movement of their legs. Mr. Cake is taking care of them as a loving father would - he only had minor injuries.

Maud also invited us to join her shelter. She built up a camp in the rock farm, and is rescuing survivors and giving them medical help. She found us arriving at our place after a search for resources. Zecora is in her camp for some days, and they believe the infection started spreading through a portal to a different world. Zecora has the Changeling Queen and her subjects in the Everfree Forest. They can be infected, but the infection works differently on them. She’s trying to find the cure using natural elements, and is trying it on the changelings. No success so far, as Maud said.

Me, Applebloom and Scootaloo are now joining Soarin in the Wonderbolts survivor camp. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning. It’s sad to leave Rarity’s place behind, but it’s for the best of us. Dwelling in the past won’t bring her back. It’s a three hour trip to the camp, and Soarin will contact other Wonderbolts to pick us up when we get close. I hope we make a safe trip. Bringing more updates whenever I can. That said, Sweetie Belle now signing off.