Manehattan Second Division Bunker
Lt. Commander Dusk Light

Reports… They’re boring as all hell, as anyone who’s dealt with any sort of monotonous paperwork will tell you. But even with the world as we know it being over, it’s those monotonous tasks that I’ve managed to find some comfort in. Hell, it’s been the day-in and day-out monotony that’s helped me stay sane.

Suddenly my radio chirped, breaking the silence in my office. “Commander, we’ve got the radar back up and running.” Strike’s voice eked out.

I flicked the receiver and got up from my desk. “I’m on my way.” My office was right off of the bunker’s control room, where a number of my fellow Guards were all going about their duties. At the head of the room I saw the only pegasus in the company, Strike, along with my right-hand stallion Comet. They were staring at the radar readout on the large screen. “So what do we got?”

“Like I said, the radar is working again.” Strike explained. “Now would you expect to detect anything?”

“Are you telling me that we’ve picked something up on the radar?”

“He is.” Comet interjected. “We’ve got a naval patrol airship over Manehattan.”

“Can we make contact?” I asked, turning to the guard at the radio behind me.

“Already have the Captain on for you.” The guard assured me.

“This is Captain Steadfast of E-201. Does anyone read me?”

For a moment my voice hitched in my throat. For the first time in a month I was hearing the voice of someone outside the bunker that we had called home. “Dusk, say something!” Strike whispered.

“Captain Steadfast, this is Lieutenant Commander Dusk of the Royal Guard’s Second Division… Welcome to Manehattan.”

Patrol Picket E-201, Cpt. Steadfast Commanding
Equestrian Royal Navy
Captain's Log, 21 Days After “Apocalypse”

Our trip south wasn’t the easiest flight that this old bucket has been through. But as we got closer to Manehattan the signal we picked up a few days ago kept getting stronger, and as of yesterday we were finally able to understand what was being said. We had stumbled upon the communications channel of a group of Guards. But not just any guards; Royal Guards. To find out that any of them were alive and had been outside of Canterlot is not only hard to comprehend, but it’s an incredible stroke of luck. If Royal Guards had survived the bombs, then would it be a stretch to assume that one of the Princesses had?

The sad part is that thought was just that; a stretch. When we finally arrived over Manehattan we managed to make contact with the group’s leader, Lieutenant Commander Dusk Light. From what I could gather from the personnel files that were held within 201’s computer banks, “Lieutenant” Dusk had been given command of Alpha Company, one of three companies that made up the Royal Guard’s Second Division. Our lack of up to date information regarding ranks and unit deployments was certainly a hinderance, as our last update to the deployments for non-Navy units was received over a month before the bombs fell as it wasn’t considered to be priority information for us to have.

The environmental suits came in handy once more as radioactive rain had left the environment outside the picket hazardous. Even luckier was the presence of a decontamination shower which removed every bit of radioactive material that had clung to the suits every time members of the crew disembarked. With all of that out of the way Dusk happily provided us with a more up to date deployment history for the entirety of the Equestrian Military. As it turned out he had been promoted only two weeks prior to the bombs and been assigned command of the entire Second Division. But with the companies deployed to facilities in the southern tier of the Crystal Mountains and the bluffs outside of Vanhoover. All three companies had been spirited out of Canterlot during a Zebra missile bombardment, with the exact reason for the decision entirely unknown.

But for our sake it turns out that Dusk had far more information relating to the so called “last day” and what happened during the bombardment, simply because the facilities his unit were using had an advanced sensor system. The first sign of trouble that they noticed was a loss of connection to Cloudsdayle’s computers. It took all of two minutes to confirm that the floating Pegasi city had been entirely annihilated by an airburst weapon of balefire grade and send out word to Vanhoover and the Crystal Mountains Facility to lock down and stand by for orders from Canterlot. But after losing the signal from the Ministry of Arcane Science hub in Splendid Valley a single order was broadcast on all local channels; Attack. From what we know after Manehattan was hit surviving MAS staff at Tenpony Tower deployed the Celestia Prime megaspell, a super-long range solar-powered piece of beam artillery, against targets marked by Equestrian Intelligence as potential Zebra megaspell launch sites. While the MAS staff did that Dusk was forced to deploy long range destructive megaspells from our own arsenal, launched from remote-controlled silos outside of Fetlock.

However after launch the clouds over the continent began to gather and after the Celestia Prime megaspell went offline from lack of available solar energy it became clear that the clouds had been maneuvered by the Pegasi. We had realized that the Pegasi had abandoned us after picking up on their radio chatter in the days immediately following the bombings. With their known independent streak well understood by the entirety of the assembled group, and their clear manipulation of cloud cover to protect the surviving Pegasi we all came to the understanding that we were on our own.

After that our discussion turned to the world outside the bunker. With their remote access to Tenpony Tower’s surveillance systems Dusk’s crew managed to spot something in the northwestern corner of the city. Previously they had no means to investigate this object of interest but our arrival has presented an opportunity. Instead of hiking across the city through the radioactive fallout and collapsed buildings we can now simply fly over it all. We’ll begin planning for the expedition immediately and will be deploying within the next few days.

Author's Note

*Updated 6/11/17

For the next chapter we're going to see something a different... An actual scene instead of just the journal entry (which will come at the very end of the chapter). It'll drop whenever it's ready. There will also be a concept sketch of E-201 that I'm working on cobbling together.

Anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker