The Blackout

Federal Archives, Rijekograd, 22.07.1107 ALB

The sounds of storm were still hearable even through strong concrete walls that were protecting main part of Federal Department of Education building, or at least it remnants, blind rage of Nature destroyed large part of the Federation's capital not showing mercy for any single construction, from high, new skyscrapers to old, historical sites like Rijekan Parliament. It was the middle of the day, but it was dark here, really dark, thick, leaden clouds were covering the sun completely and all lights went out during the Blackout. Fortunately for seven creatures delving through corridors covered in darkness it wasn’t a problem, nightvision sets were a huge advantage in such situations.

"We are approaching the atrium, I don’t think that the elevators are working though. Contact Lieutenant Fire?" Sergeant Evening Star heard Radio Silence’s voice in his headset.

"No, not yet, let’s check if the staircase is still intact and if we can access it. We have means to get there in a polite and non-polite way." Thestral responded and checked his weapon one more time, everything was fine, they weren’t expecting anyone to be here, not in the middle of Class 3 hurricane… and if somepony was, well, Light Machine Gun should make them rethink their choices.

As they moved closer to the entrance everypony was getting more and more stressed, Evening was seeing them piercing every single shadow with their eyes as if some monster was supposed to jump on them. Finally they reached double doors that blocked their way. One pony tried to open them but he didn’t succeed.

"Magnetic locks are still working… Silence, can you solve this or should I use some explosives?" Evening asked looking at their radio operator, despite her eyes being covered by nightvision set he saw that eye roll.

"I can pick you up with ease and use your empty head as a battering ram, you know, right?" Silence approached Evening and looked at him, she was at least a head taller than sergeant. She lightly hit Evening on the back of his helmet and then moved closer to the doors opening her tools satchel. "I can try, if electronics didn’t fry completely I probably can make this thing work, give me a few minutes."

"Okay, okay, C4 will have to wait for better times and better subordinates."

"Yeah, your head would make a perfect battering ram, Evening." He heard Morning Star looking at this whole situation with a slight smile. "But I don’t want to waste bandages on it."

"Very funny, maybe Silence has that Earth Pony strength, but I doubt tha-... eh, nevermind, do your thing, Silence. The rest - watch our backs."

When soldiers dispersed Evening approached one wall where someone poorly wrote “Down with the Federation”. He felt something under his hoof and looked down only to find a damaged portrait. After picking it up Thestral started examining it, the painting was depicting a very well known Unicorn. Evening was looking at Chancellor River Swirl’s portrait, the person who united Riverlands and led River Federation as Last Bastion of Harmony, the person who liberated Equestria from Changeling oppression, the person who liberated North Zebrica and Kiria.

"What do you have there?" asked his sister looking above his shoulder.

"Old days hero, I wish she was there now." he sighed handing her portrait "She would know how to deal with that mess. But we are here, in the middle of this fucking chaos, trying to get as many old knowledge as we can. I hope that at least General Wing knows what to do."

"I doubt even Equestrian Princesses could do more against this catastrophe…" said Morning Star hanging the painting on the wall again. "And we must have hope, without it all we fight for will collapse. We can save the Federation."

"Yes, I know, just… I fear what will happen if we fail, now chaos is consuming almost all parts of our continent, Southern Firestorm, anarchy in Herzland, Federation collapse, natural disasters, warlords, bandits… and even if we manage to overcome all of this we have no guarantee that things will be as they was. After the magical gun almost killed me I have to rely on cybernetics till the end of my life, you don’t know if your magic will ever work properly again, I just want you to be safe, you are…"

"Hey, Evening, look at me. Look at me." Morning interrupted her brother’s monologue "Don’t overthink too much, focus on the present, maybe the world we knew shattered but we can’t do anything about that fact, let’s try to make it less… chaotic. Also, Silence finished opening the doors, come on, we have some data to collect."

"Yeah, I think you are right… thanks, sister. Just give me a second."

Few moments later Federal soldiers walked into the archives atrium, pretty well preserved after it was put under lockdown, they were probably the first creatures entering this section of Archives after the Blackout. They headed directly towards the emergency staircase that should lead them directly to the heart of the Archives, the amount of failsafes and other security measures should make destroying data drives almost impossible. Many stairs later their little group finally reached the deepest level and at this point even Evening had to put on his nightvision set, there was no light source, every lamp or light source went dark. It took a while to find a proper place to start their work, they saw some plans of Archives server rooms, but looking at plans and trying to find a way in darkness were two completely different things.

"Oooookay, we can get to work, Morning, try to contact the Lieutenant, let them know that we are still alive, Silence, you know what to do?"

"It seems I am the only tech specialist there so yes, I know what to do. Pray to gods that servers are still working. Give me some light, I prefer not to work in darkness."

With consoles set up and electronics having power source the place began awakening once more, the quiet buzzing of the electricity was calming, one of few moments of normalcy. Evening just sat down on one of the chairs and started flipping through papers just to give his mind some task, he wasn’t a technician and other soldiers knew their orders so he could just relax for a moment. Get the data, close Archives again and get out of that ruins of once great city. He reached for the thermos to drink some, unfortunately now cold, coffee when Silence started cursing at the monitor.

"The drives have magic locks, I can’t access the data without using magic."

Evening spit his drink and started coughing heavily when coffee got where it shouldn’t. It took him a while to stop.
"You think it’s funny, Silence?" he asked, walking to the radio operator’s workstation "Very good moment for jokes, truly great."

"I am not joking, Evening. Look." she responded pointing her hoof at the screen. Evening froze for a moment reading “Magic lock status: active.” description over and over. "We need a magic user or we are not getting the data."

"But… fuck." another sigh, this time very loud. "Is it safe?"

"As safe as any spell now, we can get what we want or tear down the ceiling, 50/50."

"Of course they used fucking magic locks… Morning, come here, we need you." Thestral spoke to the microphone and heard short “On my way.” reply. "She will be there soon."

Silence only nodded and started preparing for their attempt to disengage the lock. Once it would be an easy procedure for technicians or even any Unicorn with an instruction, now using any spell was very dangerous for magic users and creatures around them. Want to lift something with telekinesis? Prepare for the possibility of blowing a hole in a wall. After the Blackout magic became an unpredictable, chaotic force, everything magical was involved - from spellcasters to magic devices and even weapons, that’s how Evening lost his front legs - a faulty magical LMG exploded almost killing him, he was saved by the fact that he tossed it away at the last second. And now he had to rely on cybernetics, which weren’t the best ones available, because the best ones were using magic. Magic weaponry becoming unpredictable was also a reason why Griffonia fell into chaos - by 1107 ALB most armies were using magical rifles, even tanks had magical cannons. Magical-electric devices, magical rifles, magical cannons, magical engines… they were great as long as they were working. But suddenly they stopped and Griffonia, which had its own problems, had fallen into chaos.

Morning got to them soon, she didn’t yet know what was going to happen…

"Soo… what’s going on." she asked with confusion painted on her face. "We are close to finding some useful books and blueprints in physical format."

"We need your magic to disengage the lock." Evening said that straight up, refusing to look directly in his sister's eyes.

"Okay, let’s do i…" she started before realizing the meaning of Evening’s words "Wait, you need WHAT?!"

"I’m sorry, Morning, it’s the only option we have."

Morning looked at her brother and Silence, not fully believing them yet. It had to be some sort of unfunny joke, right? But unfortunately it wasn’t and she realized that soon. When it happened she just looked at the floor and sighed, in these times no magic user wanted to use any sort of spells.

"Prepare necessary equipment, let’s do it…"

And then the three friends spent next half of an hour preparing for the procedure, from getting instructions about the spell and entire process of disengaging lock to making some sort of protection so they won’t be killed or injured if casting the spell would result in an unpredicted result, and despite all these preparations they still weren’t sure if they (Morning in particular) will leave these archives alive.

"Are you ready?" asked Evening looking at Radio Silence and his sister.

"Well, we can’t be more prepared." responded the radio operator pointing her hooves on all gathered electronics "I mean, if I had more professional equipment and a squad of specialists then yes, but in these conditions… well, you see."

"Yes, I am ready. Scared as Tartarus but ready." Morning Star was getting more and more nervous with each minute passing.

"Okay, calm down, breathe slowly. We are in this together… I am starting the procedure, I will tell you when you must start the casting."

With every command that Silence typed the general tension was increasing, Morning starting casting the spell didn’t improve the situation, soon some soldiers gathered in safe distance and were watching the procedure. When they were in half of the whole procedure Morning’s horn started sparkling but it didn’t stop them, interrupting the process would lock them out for a few good hours and it was unacceptable so they continued. Step by step magic lock on Federal data was disengaging but with each passing second spell was getting more unstable, all observers either returned to their tasks or took a few steps away. Even Silence was getting worried as she was desperately trying to finish the process before something bad will happen, her hooves were typing commands with incredible speed, same with eyes following lines of code and at last everyone in the room heard loud and happy “Done!”. Almost everyone sighed with relief, except Evening that yelled “ON THE GROUND!” and jumped on Radio Silence pinning her to the ground. Immediately after this loud explosion erupted in the room and they saw one silhouette being tossed across the room alongside a few bolts of energy shooting in random directions. Then everything returned to normalcy, except an even bigger mess in the room as sheets of paper started flying everywhere.

"Everyone is okay…?" Asked Evening getting on his hooves.

"I am fine, thanks." Said Silence that stood up with her friend’s help. "Better check our little wizard, I will check what we got…"

"We have one wounded, taking care of it." added one of the soldiers helping their wounded comrade.

Thestral only nodded and then started moving through flipped desks to reach his sister who was lying motionless on the ground. He quickly checked if she was okay, fortunately it seemed that she was only unconscious. Evening moved his sister to a bit better place than literal floor and then helped Silence with finishing her task. It didn’t take long for data to be downloaded on drives, gods bless Federal IT infrastructure, and then they reengaged the locks so random stranger won’t be able to access it. After archives were sealed once more they just returned to the rest of their squad waiting for them outside. Mission was so far doing good, now they needed to “just” return to Federal-controlled territory, that was the harder part…