...reports from the summit say the wind has not relented and that the valley will continue to have only half mile visibility into the night. So, to all you listeners out there, time to make sure those shutters are drawn, you don't leave sight of your shelter and if you absolutely have to go outside, remember to cover those muzzles, you don't want to choke to death on our famous New Reigno dust. Well that's all I have to report, so for New Reigno Radio, this is Sweet Sound, returning you to the even sweeter melodies of Octavia and her Cello...
A silver mare stopped for a second on the crest of a sand dune, the wind side of her tan cloak drawing tight as the long ragged tendrils of its frayed relaxed and shot out like the attacking arms of some octopus in combat. She lifted her hoof and looked at the aging pipbuck, a soft glow grew around the controls as she adjusted from the radio back to her private collection of old recorded music before checking her position on the world map. There was a need for shelter and having entered the valley just before the windstorm set upon it, she was caught in the open between viable locals.
There was hope though, a farm house stood less than a mile away, and with all luck, it was still standing since she had last seen it almost eight years ago. She moved on, her hooves kicking up extra sand that had collected against her. The farm house was first to come into view and though she felt that her memory might have been failing her, she felt that there were some new modifications to the structure that were not there when she last saw it, things like the half dozen pony skulls that were nailed to the top of the decaying picket fence, or the sheet metal that had been used to repair one wall. The magic around her horn was quick as she drew out her 5.56mm pistol just moments after her Eyes Forward Sparkle lit up with six red blips on her compass. She drew closer, hoping that she would have some element of surprise when she kicked open the door, but as she stepped to the fence, another blip, this time the same color as her EFS signified there was a non combatant in the area that she suddenly remembered was the barn. She hesitated, thinking about the possibilities, it was wiser to check the barn, heck to stay in the barn till the storm cleared, even if it was with some stinking two headed cow. Better to have a defensible position than to go in guns blazing. Staying low and out of the sight of the windows she crept to the side of the barn, the door was luckily on the down wind side and would make sneaking inside easier. She put away the revolver and rummaged through her saddlebags for a moment before producing a silenced .22 pistol. Though the damage was low, loaded with hollow points and in fair range against a target without much armor, it was just as lethal.
The door creaked only a little as she slipped inside, which quickly made her wish she had tested her abilities at the house. This was rattlesnake work, that is, the work of a New Reigno raider gang. The place was less a barn and more a slaughter house sex party room. The corpses of flayed rotting ponies hung from the ceiling like slabs of meat, which wasn't so much an example but more a fact. Rattlesnakes were cannibals. The floor was the dark rusted red of blood mixed with whatever vicsera mixed with it and in the center hanging from chains was the none hostile. He was an older buck, his body was cut and bruised, and his ankles were bound high above his head. His cutie mark was barely visible under then blood from his cuts, showing something along the lines of a wagon wheel.
With skills she had honed for her whole life, the silenced pistol became levitated next to his drooping head as she walked silently closer, she stood a little as she placed a hoof over his mouth and made the motion of silence with her other, his right eye shot open in fear while the left was so swollen from the beating he had received that it stayed closed. He wanted to make a sound but she could tell he was barely able to breath. She nodded to him to see if he understood to stay quiet. He responded with a labored nod. With a soft sigh she put the pistol away and began magically working the chain hoist that he was bound to, slowly ratcheting him down to the ground where he only stood on his hind legs for a moment before his legs gave out. He started breathing more regularly with heavy deep breaths as his forelegs fell back to a more natural pose.
Another moment of magic and she released the hook that bound the chains around his legs. She watched him for a moment before her magic pulled back her cloak, exposing her horn and the black mane that fell just a few inches below her chin, a long single stripe of bright green was at the front of her bangs, falling over one of her eyes. Her body wanted to heave though as she removed the heavy respirator mask from her face, taking the first breath of the rancid air around her. She wanted to put it back on, or go stick her face out in the sand storm and risk choking on sand and dust than smell what surrounded her.
“How many?” she asked as she caught enough strength to hold back the bile in her throat.
The Buck wheezed as he found his voice, “There was seven, but ah ain't seen but six a dem bastards since this morn....” his mind seemed to start firing, “They came for me and my wife n kid two days ago, oh goddesses.....they still have m' wife an daughter!” he wanted to move, to run to the house, but his body resisted in every way.
“Easy...” she replied, trying to settle him as she checked her pipbuck again, checking her inventory, “in your condition, a lame bloatfly larva would kick your ass.” she drew out her 5.56mm pistol and checked the cylinder, making sure she had standard rounds and wasn't going to waste anything special. Second she drew out another custom work, a shortened twelve gauge caravan shotgun that she knew was loaded with buckshot.
“Ya mind if'n I ask yer name, ma'am?” he wheezed again as he moved to try and find a more comfortable position.
“Midnight Sun,” she replied as she stepped towards the door.
“Hay Stack...”he said in response, trying his best to be a gentlepony.
She replaced the respirator and stepped into the storm outside, sneaking up to the house through the blind side it presented. Her mind was slowly going over her memories, trying to remember the layout.
The red blips on her EFS said that four of them were in one room together and if memory served her right, it was the kitchen. She crept up to a crack in wood that had tried to board up the windows and peered inside to see her memory was as sharp as ever, there sat four bucks, their clothing made of the stretched skins of their victims and other objects such as nails for spikes and skulls for shoulder pads, playing poker and drinking goddess knew what kind of foul alcohol Rattlesnakes could get their hands on. The EFS positioned the other two targets right on top of each other, which she suspected meant they likely were. The back door was down a hall from both groups of raiders, giving her some shelter from noise as she slipped inside, the ponies in the kitchen were laughing at something while the soft loving sounds of mating emanated from the bedroom. No friendly blips were on the EFS, she had figured that Hay Stack's family were likely no longer amongst the living.
No need for subtlety then... she thought as she levitated out a frag grenade and as she came to the corner, she lobbed it inside the kitchen, landing it in the middle of the floor under the table with only a gently noise before it detonated, filling the room with a loud roar, the sounds from the bedroom stopped as she watched all four blips in the kitchen disappear, the door to her side swung open, a male with his still engorged member and a female were in view as she turned, the shotgun letting loose one barrel into his face before Midnight swung the pistol around and took aim at the mare and fired, tearing through her chest.
Stepping inside the room she saw two bodies, one young and violated, there were likely wounds involved that were far to heinous to think about and the older mare, likely the youth's mother, lay flayed open and just as violated. There was a sound behind her, which made her flip the shotgun around, only to level it at Hay Stack's face. Midnight sighed as she opened both guns with her magic, replacing the spent rounds as Hay Stack slowly limped in and fell next to his family's bodies, his whimpers were barely audible against the sound of the storm outside, his tears only making his face appear to be covered in fresh blood.
Midnight felt that she should say something, but she knew she was far from the consoling type. In fact she had a tendency to make things worse for others and instead took to looting what she could from the raiders and the room. There was a shotgun in bad shape that she left alone, but took the shells from a pair of saddlebags that had been tossed in the corner. The buck had apparently only had a baseball bat, and that wasn’t counting the piece between his legs. She stepped out and into the splatter and char of what was once a kitchen, looking through what was left of the four who had been scattered by the grenade. A good hoof full of caps and some ammo, but the guns were barely worth the extra weight. She jumped a little as she heard a gunshot, dropping and turning on her hind hooves as she drew her pistol, but there were no blips on her EFS. She holstered it and trotted to the bedroom door to see Hay Stack laying silently beside his family, the top of his head missing and the shotgun between his hooves.
The silver mare checked her pipbuck again, it was only a few miles to the Red Rock rest stop, which was still a prominent New Pony Republic trade station. She sighed and pulled the cloak back up over her ears and horn and once again walked out into the darkening dust storm.
The city of New Reigno rose up from the decay of old Reigno, while the city had not been hit by one of the megaspells, the panic and eventual evacuations to the stables had left it to rot in the post war environment. Radiation from the megaspells however was a problem as it had fallen into the valley due to its natural design, filling areas with and spreading taint from some of the decaying facilities of the old Ministry of Arcane Science laboratory that had been the center of Old Reigno's sister city, Sparkles. With the death of much of the trees that had forested the western mountain range, the valley had become a dust bowl of sand and alkali flats, which meant it was either a deathly dry land, or in the rare occasion of rain, it was a gritty bowl of the nastiest, stickiest and likely deadliest mud in all of Equestria.
The New Pony Republic was a force that had slowly built strength after they placed a fort at the city of Lake Tahoof that lay to the west just over the crest of the mountains. They were armed, organized, focused and most of all, stretched far too thin by the politics of the united coastal cities. Such nonsense was clear to any that strolled in from the dust to the sheet metal and earthen walls that surrounded the Red Rock rest stop. It was a small trade and security outpost for the NPR, and by security it meant three rangers in an office with a single cell in one room, a bar and trading post in another and a few cots in the last room.
Midnight entered the bar, eliciting the glances from the handful of ponies that sat around trying to wait out the storm in the dying sunlight. She pulled the hood of her cloak back with a hoof before removing her respirator. The dust from the surrounding alkali flat had turned ever portion of her that wasn’t well covered into a grimy tan color that did not match well with her silver and black coloration. Dust coughed from the filters of her respirator as she set it on the bar and took a seat. The old buck that was bartending gave her a long look as he finished polishing an old coffee mug that was missing its handle.
“What can I get ya?” he said as he set the mug amongst a pile that sat on a shelf.
“Hard cider...” Midnight replied as she slid her goggles onto her forehead, exposing her emerald eyes.
The bartender set a cup down in front of her before pouring alcoholic apple juice with a bit of reserve as she levitated out a few caps.
“You seem awfully familiar, you been through here before?” He asked as he placed the bottle back on a shelf behind him.
“Depends on if that bottle is from a crate that was pulled from Stable 12 by two young ponies you used to help patch up....” She replied somewhat sternly as she took a long drink of the bittersweet liquid.
His eyes widened for a moment as he took in a long breath, “By Celestia, I never thought I would be seeing Midnight Sun back in these parts before my days were counted.”
“It's good to see you too, Gramps.” she smiled and looked him in the eyes.
“Last time I saw you, you told me you were going north and were never coming back to...oh how did you put it....”
“Festering ghoul's asshole of a crater...”
they both chuckled.
“Well, I guess the question that is going to be asked by everypony that is going to recognize you, which granted has dwindled over the years, is why would you come back?” Gramps asked as he fished around in a cupboard and pulled out a box of hay chips that he proceeded to set down between them.
“I guess the easiest answer is that I'm back to take care of all that business I left unfinished...”
He watched as she took a chip and munched on it, the tension in her body slowly relaxing a little as she began to feel a hint of nostalgia set in from the moment, he spoke as if something clicked in the back of his dusty mind, “this ain't about that trouble your father left when he disappeared is it?”
She let out a soft sigh, knowing that the old buck would probably have figured it out at some point. “Yeah...he left some time coded file on my pipbuck,” she lifted her fore hoof and let the cloak slip from it, showing the rusty and worn device, “it came up on my last birthday and had a bunch of audio recording talking about how it was important that I bring that key to a specific place before my next birthday and a bunch of stuff that I couldn't really understand, like some kind of code or numbers station stuff.”
“I don't like it,” Gramps replied as his eyes narrowed a bit, the taste of apprehension was on his tongue, “your father used to tell me that what he was protecting was dangerous and that I needed to keep you kids from following him.”
He struck a tender note mentioning her brother, the tension returned to her shoulders as she took a drink and let her head drop and rotate away from him.
“Shit...” he sighed, “I...didn't mean to bring him up...”
“No...it's ok...I think part of me came back for him...” she relaxed a little. The memory of her brother, Emerald Fire, brought forth a black pit in her heart, radiating pain like black bile through her veins. There was a moment of silence between them as the last rays of sunlight were strangled by dust and night.
“Hey...um...if you want it, your old cot in the storage room is still there, just got to move a couple of things...” Gramps finally said to break the tension.
“Yeah...home sweet home,” she smiled weakly, but graciously, “thanks.”
