Chapter 1: Communist Radio
RADIO KILL
CHAPTER 1: COMMUNIST RADIO
My eyes shot wide open as my alarm clock/cassette player burst into life. It soon enough found itself making friends with the wall.
It still didn't shut up.
Great, now I'd have to get out of bed to turn it off. Curse General Magics and their seemingly indestructible alarm clocks. At least my tape wasn't busted, though. I rolled over to face the wall the clock had recently become closely acquainted with, revealing the time to be Ɛ0:9.
Wait, what?
Oh, right.
"Stupid upside-down clock thinks it can fool me? It's far too early for this sort of shit."
With a sigh, I rolled out of bed and trotted over to the clock, turning it off and placing it back on the nightstand ready for this quaint little ritual to be repeated tomorrow.
I should probably stop denting the wall.
Oh well.
I stretched my wings out and made my way into the bathroom. Shower on, quick look in the mirror: yep, still lookin' good. I left the shower to warm up while I made a coffee. I needed it, the sun wasn't even up yet.
By this point you may be wondering who I am, and why you should care. Well, my name is Dipole, I'm a pegasus, I have a luxurious blonde mane, and I'm an officer in the Equestrian Army. I used to be with the Air Force, but my special talent is radio, and air traffic control is boooooriiing, so I got myself transferred. Now, my job is to listen to Crystal Empire radio broadcasts. Mysterious, am I right? Impressive, even.
No?
Oh, well screw you, too.
Anyway, I listen to these amazing, mysterious, TOP SECRET, SUPER INTRIGUING, IMPORTANT broadcasts so that you can sleep in your bed at night safe from Crystal attack.
Bet my job sounds a whole lot more impressive now, huh?
So anyway, I should hurry up or I'm going to be late. Being late isn't something that goes down too well in the military. Chug coffee, quick shower, cap on, jacket on, grab an apple, out the door. And with minutes to spare!
Buck me, its cold.
Okay, so maybe I should've dried off better before stepping outside into a mid-winter morning, especially this far north.. At least I have my jacket with me. Not wasting any more time, I spread my wings and get airborne, heading west. See, I don't actually live on-base like most army ponies do. It's still military accommodation, but its in the suburbs of town, so I get a few more liberties I guess. Plus I don't have to share a room with anypony, which is a major plus.
Mostly though, it reminds me of home. I'm from Las Pegasus myself, its a long way from the border. I get a bit restless without the hustle and bustle of civilization, and radio installations are hardly 'where its at', so to speak. And the fine folks of South Spurlin are actually pretty good at the whole 'party' vibe home has. They just know when to be serious too.
Plus they have a pretty bitchin' electronic scene going on. Let me tell you, that is a good night out.
The base is only about a 10 minute flight from the edge of town. I start descending, I'm pretty close to the base now. I pull my ID card out of my jacket and head lower still. With the checkpoint in sight I touch down, I can walk the rest. As I get closer to the booth, I see that Dusty is working this morning, head in hooves and eyes half closed. I don't like Dusty, he's so disinterested in everything, it's just depressing. If he's not working the entrance, he usually wont even acknowledge that you exist.
Sure enough, he doesn't even look at me as I approach the booth.
"Please state your name-"
"Dipole Hooves, Intelligence Officer, Q1015PD." I say with a roll of my eyes. I slide my ID card into the booth.
He just slides it back and opens the gate. Good to know we're hard at work protecting our nation's secrets, right?
Anyway, this is Royal Equestrian Army Spurlin Electronic Surveillance. It's pretty drab, standard Army fare, really, but its the inside where the fun is. The COMINT building where I work is on the other side of the base. Under any other circumstance I'd just fly there, but the base has surface-to-air missiles installed for defense.
I don't trust them.
So, right past the barracks, and then follow the road up behind the hangar (damn right we have planes based here!) until you reach the buck-off huge SIGINT dish. Then it's the squat little building next to it. That's my office.
Well, it's the place I work.
I'm not important enough for my own office. Yet.
It doesn't look like much, but from here, I get to listen in to the other side of the Spurlin wall and beyond. We can get a pretty strong signal for transmissions all the way from the heart of the SSCE, domestic and military. They make us listen to everything, because 'anything could be useful'. It's pretty rare that anything broadcast on the public stations is useful, but some of the radio shows are admittedly funny.
Ha, I can imagine the look on Dad's face if I told him that 'those commies' where actually pretty funny.
They're not even communist, for Celestia's sake!
Right, actual work. I make my way to the entrance, ID card out again to prove I've not suddenly become a different pony between the entrance and here, then its through the big security door, and here we are, one of many Equestrian Army intelligence gathering operations.
I trot over to my station to get started. Nopony even looks up, although to be fair, I doubt they heard me come in anyway. There's no briefing today, we all know what we're doing, so I just get stuck right into it. Cap off, earphones on, power on, and...that's it. Really. What did you expect, fancy arrays and secret codes? All I have is the radio, and audio recorder (for if I find anything important) and a note book for writing down...notes. Not for drawing in.
Basically, I spend a good 12 hours a day combing through radio frequencies until I hear something useful. It's actually way more fun than it sounds, I promise.
Best get started, I suppose. I use my wing to tweak the dial to...4000 kHz, why not?
Static.
"Interesting..." I mused.
No, really. This frequency is usually one of the busiest, picking up nothing is pretty odd. I made a note of it- I used the notebook for its intended purpose!- and began dialing though the radio waves.
Okay, so it turns out that if somepony disconnects my equipment from the system, I only hear static. I could see Swirls snickering to herself and glancing over at me when she was sure I wasn't looking.
What a dick.
Okay then, earphones on again, power back on, starting for real this time, back at 4000 kHz, aaaannnnd-
Ah, that's more like it. Crystal domestic radio during daytime. Right now, I was listening to a local news program for some little border town. Foreign traffic reports weren't particularly useful to me, so I moved on. This was when the job was boring, scanning through adverts and trivial stuff to find the important things, or at least the entertaining things.
'I think I'll dial....hmm.'
I'm spoiled for choice, truth be told. Which frequency do I go for? I decide to fall back onto my fool proof plan of 'spin the dial and just work from where it lands'. I reach out a hoof, and, twirl the dial, clicking as it spins.
"'Round and 'round the dial goes, where it stops, nopony knows!"
Heh, it's times like these that glad nopony can hear me through their earphones. The clicking slowed and the dial came to a stop at 505.6 kHz. AM radio, boring. I flip it up to Megahertz and spin again, maybe I'll pick up some of those sweet pirate radio stations. Truth be told, this was probably the most useful setting to be in, seeing as how most military broadcasts were transmitted in the high frequency band, along with a whole slew of other things. So I settled in and got twirling.
Like I was saying, official broadcasts are incredibly dry. I've just spent the last 15 minutes listening to some captain or something radioing in to a depot to complain that their base hasn't received its shipment of shirts. 'You never know when something important will come up', they say. That may be so, but I can't take any more of this, I swear if I hear the word 'shirts' one more time...
I'm getting distracted (hardly my fault, I might add, this station is desperately boring), and being distracted means I'm not doing my job properly. Therefore I am unable to continue monitoring this frequency to the best of my abilities. The only thing I can do now is change to another.
If I make it sound reasonable like that maybe the boss wont be angry if he finds out.
Or he'll rightfully call bullshit, could go either way.
Eh, I'll deal with that if it comes to it.
Changing the frequency finally drags me out of the clothing based debacle and into...silence. Great.
Moving on.
Spinning some more, I manage to find something genuinely intriguing. Not anything secret, but interesting none the less. If what I was hearing was anything to go by, I'd just tuned into a space launch. And space is hella cool. I think I can vibe with this for a while.
"-current fuel level at 78%. Time to launch, T minus 21 hours and-"
Okay, so maybe I wont be sticking around for this after all. And that would've been neat, too. Guess I can listen in for a bit and find out what the mission is. Maybe a new satellite, or some kinda-
"Ow!"
I brought a hoof up to my face to cover my eye. Swirls had just thrown a paper plane at me. At my eye. I didn't even need to look around to know it was Swirls. Nopony else here has the mental age of a 12 year old.
What a dick.
I glare at her, but she isn't looking. She's doing a terrible job of hiding her laughter though. You'd think that the military would be one of the places where this kind of twattery didn't happen, but apparently not. Sighing, I settle back into this mildly interesting broadcast and speculate what they'll be firing into the void today.
A light collision and a 'pap' noise informs me that my headphones have been struck by another projectile. I look over at Swirls with a deadpan expression, she's almost rolling around with laughter.
I wonder how severe the punishment will be if I break her horn...
Fuck this, I'm getting some coffee.
Vending machines are like, Celestia's gift to Ponykind, or something. Seriously, I love them, they dispense cheap drinks and snacks. The fact we have them in the building almost makes Swirls bearable.
Maybe they should stop her from using the vending machines. I bet it's the near constant intake of caffeine and sugar that makes her act like a dick. Unless she's just naturally has an awful personality.
So I'm sat outside the 'radio room' with a far-too-hot coffee in one wing, and a bag of baby carrots in the other. They're basically the only non-apple food products on base since Sweet Apple Hectares won that catering contract. A stallion can only eat so many apple-based foods a day before he is violently ill all over the corridor and his superior officer.
I frown slightly. Some things are best left forgotten.
I head for the break room at a brisk pace: the coffee is way too hot, I can feel it burning me through the cheap paper cup. Opening the door, I find that the room is completely empty. More room for me I guess, it's pretty rare that I can actually find a seat in here. They even have today's newspapers this time! I'm practically being spoiled. It must still be earlier than I though if nopony else had been here yet. Lets have a look...
'CARNAGE IN 'KILLDOZER' INCIDENT'
Huh. Neat.
The picture says it all. It's an armored bulldozer driving through a building while being chased by police officers. Now, as an active member of the army, I should find this act of injustice awful, but Luna damn it, that thing is cool.
I want one.
From what I gather, basically whoever built it was pissed at the local government and I guess decided to 'complain', as it were. In a very dramatic way, at that.
Where do you even get a bulldozer from?
These are the pressing matters that we need to know.
Deciding I need to investigate this further, I volunteer to read into it more. I settle into the oddly vacant break room, beverage near by, and try and see what I can find. And to think they said I was a time waster.
That was a useless endeavor, at no point does it say where the bulldozer came from. Disappointed, I finish my drink and head back into the radio room, slinking in quietly, unseen.
I don't have to sneak around, but I like to make a game of it.
Sitting back down, I flip the power back on on my radio, pleasantly surprised that it has not been sabotaged or played with in any way this time. Deciding I should probably start doing some actual work, I dive straight into some military broadcasts. Pretty quickly I find some kind of air combat drill going on in some part of the tundra. These happen pretty regularly, but it could still be useful to listen in for a bit to try and hear if they're using any new tactics, or weapons, or even planes.
This brings me back to my air force days. Damn, that makes me sound old. It was only, like, a year or two ago. Having air force credentials has sort of made me the unofficial go-to guy for SSCE air power related transmissions. Although, it doesn't really make any difference, I just have a slightly better picture of what's happening than the rest of the poines. They're all trained to know what everything they hear means. Military wise, at least. Though, I guess it would mean I'd have a better background knowledge of this sort of stuff.
Right now it sounds like they're practicing some kind of ground attack drill. Probably on a dummy village or something. Ground attack is something the Crystal Empire have become particularly good at, over the years. Well, if their transmissions and propaganda are anything to go by.
Though, to be fair, we do have footage of some of their big intense live fire war games sorta spiel. They look very efficient at that sort of thing.
The transmissions don't seem to be offering any new information, and they're certainly not doing or using anything new. Time to switch frequencies, methinks.
Turning the dial, I seem to be picking up a whole lot of static and dead air. A little odd, but nothing super weird, so I keep going. Turning through all the nothing, I suddenly hear a blip. Blips are interesting. A lot more interesting than nothing, anyway. Dialing back, I still get nothing.
Okay, now I'm getting a bit annoyed. I dial through it again, still nothing.
"Euughgh."
Again, it's a good thing everypony is wearing earphones, or I'd look like a huge weirdo right about now.
Taking a calming breath, I figure I was tuning too fast, so I tune much slower this time. This sounded like a good idea, but now I'm back into the endless void of static. Fun fact! Static is supposedly some sort of echo-remnants from the start of the univ-FOUND IT!
Oh, well this is underwhelming. It's just a jaunty little tune. A vaguely spooky sounding tune, but pretty unremarkable otherwise. Admittedly, it is odd finding something like this in a wavelength usually used for military stuff. But is it noteworthy?
Eh, I got nothing to lose, all that could happen is that it gets ignored. I make a quick note of the frequency, and then...just sorta do nothing. Guess I got distracted by the weird sounds. It's sorta catchy, in a really odd way. And then just like that, it stops.
I sigh a little in disappointment, and reach a hoof out to turn the dial an move on, but before I do, something comes back.
It's a voice. It's slightly distorted, and I have a poor signal, but it's definitely a voice. Sounds like a mare. And she's counting? No, not counting, just saying numbers in Germane.
Okay, I guess it just became noteworthy. I start scrawling down the numbers, it could mean anything. Some subliminal broadcasting weapon? Top secret information? Who knows, all I can say is that it sounds important. That, and that it's definitely not air force chatter.
And why in Germane? I mean, I get that it's a pretty popular language on both sides of the border, but the official languages of both Equestria and the Crystal Empire is Equestrian. Is it just to add another layer of confusion? Maybe to put ponies off of listening to it, because they wouldn't understand? But then why broadcast it in a largely Germane speaking part of the map?
'It's shortwave' my brain tells me. 'It isn't broadcast from here, you can just hear it here. You could probably hear it anywhere.' I raise a good point.
By now, the numbers are just repeating themselves. I have quite a few of the sequences written down. After a minute or so, the voice stopped and the odd tune came back. Then the tune went too. Total radio silence.
What an odd turn of events. I'll have to get these numbers to somepony and see what they make of it. Turning back to the radio, I'm almost hesitant to change frequencies, in case something else comes up, but I decide I should probably move on. Besides, I have the tuning written down if I want to come back to it later.
Moving on!
The airwaves have been pretty dead for the last hour or so. Dead or of no importance. Once again I find myself idly meandering through frequencies in the hopes of finding something interesting. More slowly this time, though. After finding that number thing by chance, I do't want to potentially miss anything else.
Shame that there wasn't really anything to miss. I'd managed to listen into a marine comm or two, but that's really been about it. And even they were about 45 minutes ago now.
I sigh and continue trawling through. As boring as it is, I have to do it.
Continuing on my journey, I turn the dial up more. Still nothing, but there's a slowly increasing buzzing, and something else. Voices? I slow down even more to fine tune my machine.
Sure enough, there are indeed voices. Muffled and hard to discern, but voices nonetheless. It's not much, but it's better than more dead air. I can at least try to make something of this.
Straining my ears, I can sorta make out a few words here and there. Nothing much, and not anything that makes any coherent sense given the fact that I'm missing the rest of the conversation, but I can hear maybe a gasp or a murmured agreement now and then, Sometimes a shout. I just wish I knew what was happening.
And then it went quiet again. The voices stopped, but the buzz persisted.
Great, now I-
"HEY THERE, ARMY PONY!"
I damn near jumped out of my own coat! Somepony was talking now, loud and clear!
"Now listen here," The voice (she) continued. "You're not meant to be listening to this. Nuh-uh, Crystal Ponies only."
Wait, did she know where I was listening from?
"So listen here, army pony, because I'm only going to say it once. I could say it twice, but I'd only get in more trouble, since I'm not meant to be talking to you at all. Just stop listening, 'kay? Can you do that for me?"
I do nothing. This is getting very interesting.
"Fine, have it your way. but don't say I didn't warn you."
So she knows I'm still here then. But what did she mean by 'don't say I-
"KHKKHHTHTHKTHK-"
"GAHFUCK!"
I jump back and fall out of my seat in shock, recoiling from the sheer volume of the horrible noise pumping out of my earphones. I tear my headpiece off, and lay on the floor, breathing deeply from the unwelcome surprise. I feel eyes on me. This time, everypony in the room heard that, and they're all looking at me with a mixture of shock, amusement and annoyance.
Just what the hell was that? Guess she really wanted me to go, if the ringing in my ears is anything to go by. Just how loud was that?
Looking up, I see Circuits is trying to talk to me, but I can't hear a word he's saying. He looks angry, probably thinks I'm ignoring him or something. Yeah, I don't think I'll be listening to any more radio today. Maybe if I explain the situation, they'll let me go home early...
Chapter 2: Wind In The Rigging
RADIO KILL
CHAPTER 2: WIND IN THE RIGGING
I don't know if they sympathize with me, or if they just didn't want me shouting all the time, but they did actually send me home, I have a note and everything. It's like I'm in high school again.
Truth be told, my hearing starting coming back about an hour or so after I left the base. It was still fuzzy, but I could actually hear again now. Must've just been the initial shock of it, I guess. That leaves me here, at my home, with nothing to do. I've read all the books I have many times, and I can't listen to music for obvious reasons. I don't even have a TV, so that's out of the question. I guess I could just go to sleep, but then I'd feel like I'm wasting this free time. It's only early afternoon now anyway.
Hmm.
I wouldn't be able to get away with going out and getting drunk, and all my friends are at work. I literally have nothing better to do. I sigh and eye up the couch, it does look pretty welcoming. Nap time it is, then. I climb up and lay myself down on the cushions, curling up and closing my eyes, consciousness fading away to a dull ringing in my ears.
I'm awake, but my eyes aren't open. It's dark, I can tell that already. I know I had a dream, but I couldn't remember it at all. Something else of note is that the ringing in my ears has been reduced to a low level hum, which is nice, my hearing should be back to normal soon. I crack open an eye, but it's no easier to see than if I'd kept it closed anyway. Begrudgingly, I sit up. It's dark outside, and the moon is pretty low, letting a little light in through the windows. I glace at the wall clock, the light levels just high enough to make it readable.
"Damn..."
It's 3:10, I've been asleep for over 12 hours! I lay back down and think about what to do next. I'd be getting up for work in a few hours anyway, so going back to sleep would be pointless, plus I wasn't even tired now anyway. I could probably listen to music or something now, but the neighbors would probably complain about that. To be fair, I probably would, too.
So I sit, in the dark, just staring out the window. It's relaxing, nice, even, with the stars in the sky, and the glow of the lights in town, and the fact that there's nopony out on the streets this early.
Yeah...
I get up and head up into my bedroom. I grab my little portable radio off the shelf, a warm jacket, and my keys. Stuffing the two items into my pockets, I head downstairs and out the front door, the cool, breezy air eliminating any leftover drowsiness from my overtly long nap. I spread my wings and head north, towards the river. The river is only about a five minute flight away as the crow flies. I quickly reach it and turn to follow the waterway as it heads deeper into the town.
Eventually I reach my destination, the Spurlin Commercial Dock. I used to love coming here and watching the boats come in and out as a little colt coming to visit town with his parents on holiday. It's been so long. I guess this is the place where I learned to love this city, where I first arrived.
I land on a small hill in a public park, a little way aways from the dock itself, but offering a nice view of it. This was 'my spot', as it where, or used to be at least, all those years ago. I pull the little radio out of my pocket and sit down. I turn the volume way down, and tune it to one of my favourite stations. Equestria Free Broadcasting is a little station, and it doesn't broadcast this late into the night. Rather, they simply play a tune on loop from whenever the last show ends, to 6 AM when the breakfast show starts. It's always the same tune, and over the year's I've grown to love it, almost like a companion through long, sleepless nights.
I turn the volume up a little, and set the radio down next to me, that familiar tune coming to life once again. I look out over the docks, lit up brightly in the night sky with flood lights. A large freighter sits by a crane, and a single tug boat is sluggishly making it's way across the harbor. Way out along the river, I can see the lights of another boat heading this way, it'd probably be here by dawn.
I let out a content sigh, nostalgic. I'm happy, sat here in the cold night, watching the boats, the reflections of the lights shimmering and dancing on the ripples in the water, the distant but not unnoticeable sounds of industrial activity and ponies working the night shift. The sky is a lovely shade of royal blue tonight, not entirely dissimilar to my own coat (narcissism!), and the stars are as bright as ever.
"If only I'd brought some coffee..."
I sit and watch, tune looping away, and the sky gradually becoming a lighter shade of blue, and the ship of in the distance got closer and closer. A little private yacht sails past, catching the wind. The freighter at the dock cast off, some time around 4, slugging it's way up-stream, against the current to an unknown destination.
Well, unknown to me anyway.
Eventually a swathe of orange graces the horizon. A quick glance down at my watch reveals the time to be 5:30. I pick up my radio, but keep it switched on, and thrust myself into the air, heading back home for a shower before work. I fly slowly, I'm in no rush.
Back to business, then. I sit down at my station, mug of coffee stowed in my left wing, and paperwork in the other. It's basically just a list of frequencies to check out. I plan on doing that as quickly as possible, so I can get back to trying to find those stations from yesterday again.
What can I say, I'm a curious stallion.
Standard fare, really. I flip the switch on, put my headset on and tune away. Frequency #1 is some kind of missile testing range, based on what this intelligence says. This is pretty important sounding, so I should probably actually spend some time on this one, probably a few hours, maybe the entire day. So much for my plans.
So, then, radio one, headset on, tune it to commercial radio to see if it's working (it is), and then straight onto frequency #1. Time to find out what's going on, then.
...
Oh, this is big. This is a proper missile testing range, not those piddly little anti-tank things, proper entire-city-gone missiles. And they're about to test one, today. I take of my headset and gallop to Superior Officer's (yes, he is actually called that) office. I knock, and the door opens with a white glow, and I enter.
"Operator Hooves." He greets with a nod.
"Sir, one of the frequencies I was assigned, 59.9 MHz, it's a missile range for weapons capable of mass destruction, and they're testing some kind of longer range missile in the next few hours."
His eyes went wide for a second, and he then scribbled something down on some paper, before sending it away with a flash of magic.
"Thank you, Hooves. Dismissed."
I turn and leave to head back to my station, the door closing behind me. See, told you I'd be making it so that you could sleep easy at night! We're on this missile thing.
I get back into the room and slip my headset on, transmissions still going. I bring out a blank sheet of paper and start taking note, I personally want to know what we're facing today. Whatever this thing is, I want to know just how far I should run if it ever gets used...
Wow.
So they tested it. Let's just say it's a good thing they started building fallout shelters in all the cities across Equestria. If what they say is to be believed (and I think it is, considering it was supposed to be a secure broadcast from a research base) this thing could easily level a city the size of Manehattan, in a little over 20 minutes after it's launched. And the magical backlash after the thing is detonated means that dangerous chaotic magic would be spread far and wide afterwards, too.
But now we know that, and can start our own work against it.
All thanks to me.
Well, okay, I can't take all the credit. But it was mostly me.
I guess by now I should be moving onto the other frequencies. I recommend that this one should be frequently monitored before turning the dial up to the next one, frequency #2. It's silent.
Hmm, brief said it was some sort of information leaking spy-thing. Maybe I should wait a while, I'll give it five minutes.
It's still silent.
Maybe this one will need to be monitored throughout the whole day before we hear anything. I'm not here the whole day, so it can't be me. I'll give it a while, and I guess I'll pass it onto somepony I don't like, so they get to sit in silence for hours.
Probably Swirls, because she's a dick.
But until then, I have to deal with this, I'll just have to grin and bear it. Hell, I have the paper out already, I could probably just draw for a while, at least until something happens radio-wise. Or until I get caught. I've already been caught drawing and nopony was best pleased about it then, so I have reason to doubt that they would be now.
Eh, that's future Dipole's problem.
I think I will draw...
Birds.
Yeah, birds are neat.
So it's been an two hours now, and still nothing. I've checked my receiver, it's all working fine, this frequency is just dead. No, not just dead, it's so dead it's rotted away and become nutrients for other radio stations to grow from.
Eh, that was terrible. It's silent, is what I'm getting at.
I can't even push it onto somepony else, for whatever reason, it's specifically me who has to listen. I have no idea why. This is literally my whole day now. What's left of it, at least. I'm also super hungry, but I'm not allowed to leave my station. I'll have to hijack somepony else's trip to the canteen. We're not allowed to eat in here, but there is no way in hell I'm going to starve because I was forced to listen to dead air.
Unfortunately for me, pretty much everypony who is on break has already gone, recording anything they might miss in their absence. Again, I don't see why I can't just do that like normal, but apparently this is too high priority or something. Bullshit, if you ask me.
The only pony left in here that I might be able to requisition for food transport purposes is...Swirls. I don't think I'm willing to risk what ever sieve-minded prank she'll probably try to pull regarding my food, though.
I really do detest her.
I think I'll stick to my guns and wait it out. Maybe I can badger Circuits or Dot Dash into getting me something from the vending machine before they leave for the day. My stomach rumbles in protest, but I've made up my mind. Besides, it's not like the cardboard they serve in the canteen is worth lamenting over, anyway. No, I'll settle back into my silence and bird drawings, thank you very much! With renewed vigor I settle back down into my chair proper and keep on drawing the finch I saw out of the window. It's not so bad, I guess.
Oh Celestia, I am actually genuinely dying. Ponykind was not made to sit in perfect silence for hours on end with no food. I can do nothing but groan as the intense hunger pains eat at my very being, my lack of energy leaving me slumped on my desk, unable to hold myself up. Oh cruel fate, how is it that one who loves food such as I will die here from a lack of it?
Suddenly, my earphones are lifted from my head in a magical aura. A savior, perhaps? Some kind soul who has taken pity on a starving stallion?
"Shut up Dickpole, you've only been there half an hour."
Apparently not.
"That's bullshit and you know it, Circuits. I must've been here, at least, like, three hours."
I don't have time for liars. Unless it's me.
"Look at the clock."
"It's 12:45, I've been here almost six hours!" I retort, clearly in the right.
"Yes, but you've only been on your current assignment for half an hour. You had 3 hours to get food."
"Oh yeah? Well..."
Shit, he's right.
"Well? I'm waiting." Augh, why does he have such a shit-eating smile.
I swiftly plant my face on the desk, from the sheer levels of stupidity in the room. Yes, it may be my stupidity, but does he have to be so much of a smug prick about it?
"I hate you." I try to shout, but it comes out more as a muffled yelp.
"Love you too, Poley." With that, he trots off.
I pull my earphones back on and groan again, my morale pretty much at zero now, and it's all Circuit's fault. Well, it's my fault, but it's his fault, y'know? I literally cannot deal with this, something better happen soon on this damn frequency, or I'll...have to continue listening without question until I can go home because those are my orders.
But I sure wont be happy about it! Fight the power!
Oh Celestia, I am actually pathetic.
With a sigh, I sit back up, resting my face in my hooves. It's times like this I really resent being here. I guess I'm just tired, but it's put me in a real downer mood. I need something sugary to put me in a better mood, but I can't leave to get it. This is a vicious circle and I'm stuck right in-wait a second, somepony is going to the break room!
"Dot Dash! Over here!" I pull my earphones half off as she comes over. Her head is tilted slightly, quizzically. It's really cute. "Hey Dot, can you get me something from the machine? Pleeeeeeease?"
"... ..- .-. . - .... .. -. --. .-- .... .- - -.. --- -.-- --- ..- .-- .- -. - " She clip-clops in response.
"Anything with chocolate, I'm literally dying." I hoof her a few bits. "Thanks, Dot!"
She smiles and leaves. I like Dot, she's one of the nicest ponies I know, and I think it's inspiring that she is still working despite getting injured that badly. Pretty smart getting a job where you know is full of ponies guaranteed to understand what you're saying, too.
Plus she's really pretty, too.
Geez, I sound like a schoolcolt with a crush.
See, Dot Dash isn't her real name, she just prefers it to Magpie now, I guess. Anyway, she used to be a special forces radio operator, but she transferred here after she got shot in the throat during a hostage situation, which I can only imagine is absolutely horrific. They managed to save her, but her voice was just gone. So she came here because she knew that we'd be able to translate what she was saying pretty much instantly, making the language barrier nigh-on non-existent.
Clever girl.
So anyway, now half of the problem is gone! Now it's only sitting in silence for hours by itself!
That sounded really really cynical. Guess I'm moping again.
Well, I would be if not for the avalanche of various chocolate goods and snacks pouring off of my head. There's now a pool of them on my desk. Good times.
"-.-- --- ..- -- --- .--. . .-- .- -.-- - --- --- -- ..- -.-. .... .. - -.-. .- -. - -... . --. --- --- -.. ..-. --- .-. -.-- --- ..- " Dot looks rather concerned. It seems I've been called out.
"Tell me about it...Thank you Dot, although I know this is way more than I gave you money for."
"-.-- --- ..- .-.. --- --- -.- . -.. .-.. .. -.- . -.-- --- ..- -.-. --- ..- .-.. -.. ..- ... . -.-. .... . . .-. .. -. --. ..- .--. " She replies, looking oddly sad.
"Well, it worked very well. Thanks Dot, I owe you one!"
She leaves with a smile. She's happy, I'm happy. I can't say the day isn't improving. I break open one of the chocolates and hunker down. At least now I'll have energy to carry on.
Sweet merciful mother of Fluttershy, something is actually happening on the airwaves! It's super quiet, but it's there. From what I can hear, it is literally just a list of city and town names across Equestria.
Here's the thing, I've had to make it quiet myself. Why? Because most of the time, the list is read off normally, but once every so often, and I'm pretty sure randomly, it will say the name really fucking loud. Like, painfully loud. Normally I'd just switch stations, but I have job to do so I gotta use what I have to work with.
What it with the Crystals and loudness, anyway?
I have no idea if it's important or not, but I've made a note of which ones were loud, which at the moment are : Manehattan, Hoofington, Maretania, Dodge Junction, and 'Identified Wreckage Site #4'. Yeah, I have no idea, either. A lot of the quieter ones I didn't recognize, and there were even a few from the crystal side of the wall. There's been nothing else so far, just a very oddly dynamic list of places.
Oh, now it's just a constant, droning tone.
Still droning.
And it's stopped. And it's silent again. I waited in silence for 5 hours for 20 minutes worth of seemingly random meaningless audio. Those were my orders.
Defeated and tired, a square off my paperwork and notes and trudge back towards Superior's office with my findings. I knock on the door and await permission. I don't get a reply, so I assume he's not in. I can't be bothered to wait, so I slide my papers under the door for him to find later. With that, I turn and go back the way I came, back to my desk. I still have 45 minutes left on my shift, at least. What a crap day this turned out to be.
I sit down and continue what I'd been doing for the whole day anyway, head in my hooves, not so much lethargic, as so much uninterested. I would like to have a go at finding a couple of those stations from the other day, though. Good thing I wrote them down. Now, let's see....
6758.0 KHz. We have...nothing. Must be off air. Off to a great start. Moving on, 5339.0 appears to have the letters C, I, O, S and E just repeated over and over again. Mysterious, if not a bit boring. Next up (or should I say down) is 4625 kHz, where I'm treated to-
Uh, from the sounds of it, breathing? I think? I literally have no clue as to what is-
"HEY! YOU! ARMY PONY! WHAT DID I SAY LAST TIME?!"
Oh shit. She sounds piiiiiisssssed! I pull my earphones off just in time, and I can hear the cacophony of noise being produced very clearly still. I win this time, though.
See, I learn!
And it's time to go home!
Well, close enough to it, anyway.
