The Blackout

Ceann-Torr, Ponaidhean-Eibhinn, former territory of River Federation, 23.07.1107 ALB

It was getting a bit darker, the only indicator that the night was coming, when their little column reached the ruins of Ceann-Torr, old Ponaidhean city. They didn’t enter the town itself of course, risk of riding straight into raiders group or somepony else was higher in the urban area than in the wildlands. Evening was looking at abandoned buildings that not so long ago were full of life, he even visited this town with his sister a few years ago, monks of Ponaidhean and their culture always fascinated her so he decided to bring her there. Now they only looked in silence at ruins of one of the once majestic temples that was devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes. With heavy rain and dark clouds above it all looked like some old movie and they wished it was one. Finally Marines left the old city behind them and welcomed the look of the Wittenburgh on the other side of the river, another one destroyed by worldwide cataclysm. New town and its fallen skyscrapers looking like stumps with old town castle which walls somehow endured the apocalypse.

"Sooo…" the silence was cut by, ironically, Radio Silence. "Do you think everywhere world became like this?"

"Like in some post-apocalyptic book that we read when we were younger? I never thought such a scenario would ever happen and well, here we are…" said Evening pointing at barely visible Wittenburgh.

"I heard that Herzland is one huge mess, one refugee in Hornavik told me that it's a literal bloodbath with a lot of factions fighting against each other. Bundeswehr and remnants of the Herzland Republic government, Empire restorationists, communists, other monarchists…" added Morning and shrugged "Looking at this our region didn’t suffer that much even with all these warlords, bandits and others."

"I still don’t want to run into Ironhoof Raiders or The Butchers, Fire even mentioned some kind of cult near Barrad." Thestral took a sip from his thermos. "Fortunately we are riding away from them."

"Equestria is mostly fine, at least that gossips tell. I would give much for having an Alicorn Princess watching over our nation…" Silence stopped for a second, grabbing a screwdriver in one hoof and her radio in another one. "But from what I remember, the entire Southeast burned and the Southwest army refused to listen to Canterlot… But I don’t know any details, it’s hard to find out what is true and what not, like I saw someone trying to tell that King Sombra is back."

"So Equus is still fucked but not as much as our continent, heh…" Evening passed thermos to Morning and Silence "When we contacted our mom before we went on this mission she told us that at least in Zebrica it’s okay, North Zebrican Federation is still holding together, mostly thanks to the Queen and current President… I hope they will help us when they manage to sort out the mess that Blackout created."

"And for now she is sailing here with her task force from Winggarden, we were expecting her arrival soon." added Morning with a huge smile on her face. "I can’t wait to finally meet her again!"

"Admiral Aurora is sailing to Hornavik? Her forces will help us a lot, maybe the General Wing is a good leader but we are lacking soldiers and equipment." Silence tilted her head and then returned to tinkering. "Also, how did you two end up in the Marines? If I remember in your family at least one always ended up in nav…"

Discussion was cut when everycreature sitting in the back of the truck was tossed in the air and then squished when the vehicle suddenly stopped with the driver very loudly complaining about this incident. After a while with mutual help and good motivation (commander yelling to get out of the vehicles) still woozy and pained trio started slowly getting up and left the truck. Evening Star groaned slightly when he once more stepped into the heavy rain that almost immediately made him wet. He looked around and saw what their truck drove into, the hole was pretty big and they were lucky that it didn’t end in some serious damage, losing vehicle there was unacceptable. Thestral passed by cursing driver that was checking if everything was ok and walked up to Direct Fire and Wilhelm Schwarz trying to check the map next to their Light Utility Vehicle. He also saw that their little group got to the bridge and it was still there. That was a good thing, the bad thing was that it was filled with abandoned cars and other obstacles.

"Damned bridges, like why always everyone must leave their cars in the middle of the fucking road?" Evening heard griffon complaining when he moved closer to them. "Gods know if there isn't a hidden IED or something."

"I know, Wilhelm, but it’s our only way if we don’t want to drive an extra day." Lieutenant Fire pointed his hoof on the map, drawing an alternative way which was much longer. "The next bridge we know that still stands is too far away…"

"I know, I know, it is not making this any better… oh, Evening, you are here, good."

"So what’s the plan?"

"We will cross that bridge, that’s obvious." said Direct Fire folding and hiding the map in the case. "Eygsic first, we need something armoured on the front, then truck and then our light vehicle, infantry covers them… Corporal Silence still has these drives, right?"

"Yessir." Thestral nodded.

"Great, so you three have a task to protect them. If something goes wrong you must deliver them to our closest base, you understand?"

"We will take care of them, don’t worry. "

"Perfect… okay, let’s go. We can’t stay there forever. Move, move!"

With their commander yelling orders via radio everyone started rushing to their position and making way for the vehicles. It didn’t take long for trained Federal Marines to take their positions and after the leading soldier’s signal the entire squad started moving through a jungle of abandoned cars. Evening, Morning and Silence were in the middle, slowly moving next to the truck, now only with the driver inside. Evening saw his sister looking nervously at abandoned vehicles as if some terrifying monster was supposed to jump out of it. But fortunately there were no monsters, the leading squad didn’t find any IEDs or traps too so that was a good sign, soon they will reach half of the way through this bridge and then the road should become far better. Suddenly lightning appeared in the sky illuminating their surroundings a bit and Evening saw something next to the trash pile lying on the ground. He stopped Morning and Silence with a gesture.

"Hold on. Charlie 1-1 to Alpha 1-..." he tried to communicate with their commander but in the same moments a lot of things happened. First, a flash of light appeared out of nowhere and something blew the car next to their IFV. Then he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Silence was jumping on him and Morning and then pinning them to the ground, just in time to dodge a bullets that flew over them and hit the truck with the driver having far less luck. And then everyone started shooting in every single direction.

"IT’S AN AMBUSH! THEY ARE EVERY…" yelled someone through the radio but didn’t have a chance to finish it.

"CONTACT! 6 O’CLOCK!"

"WE ARE SURROUNDED!"

"SHUT UP! ONWARD! WE CAN’T STAY HERE! HAMMER 1-1, LIGHT EM’ UP!"

With Lieutenant Fire giving new orders initial surprise that their enemy started fading away as Marines were able to organize themselves. Their LUV passed the truck and gunner started giving them suppressive fire with mounted heavy machine gun, in the same time their armoured vehicle responded with fire blowing a few holes in cars that their opponents were using as cover with its autocannon. Evening aimed in a place where he saw a silhouette and fired a burst into that position, a loud curse confirming that he hit someone. Then another enemy jumped out of cover with a flaming bottle in a hand but was quickly taken down by Morning and Silence that turned him into a strainer with bullets, bottle fallen on the ground immolating the area and few other creatures that were hiding there, their screams being silenced by gunfire. They finally fought their way to two-thirds of the bridge’s length, exit from this hell was very close...

"Hammer 1-1 to all, I have a clear road! Get in and we will just ride out of there!"

IFV plopped out some smoke grenades to cover their movement and soldiers started running to armoured vehicle… and it suddenly exploded with shrapnels flying in every direction.

"Fuck! FUCK! Hammer 1-1, do you copy? We lost IFV! Regroup in m… "

"Scheisse! Lieutenant Fire wounded! Fall back! Verdammt!..." Yelled Wilhelm and then started cursing in his native language. "…Evening, help me! Fast!"

Thestral looked at the direction from where Wilhelm was coming and then immediately rushed to help his friend that was dragging wounded Direct Fire to them. With both of them doing this they managed to quickly move their commander to a more safe position where Morning started taking care of his wounds.

"We are screwed. They surrounded us, it’s only a matter of time when we will be killed…" Griffon threw a grenade in the enemy direction. "How is Fire?"

"He is dead, without specialized medical equipment I can’t do anything, his wounds are too extensive." responded Morning trying to use bandages but they were immediately turning red. "You are wounded too."

"Great. Just g r e a t…" sighed Wilhelm "And don’t worry about it, it’s only a wing… eh, I have a plan but you won’t like it."

"Then tell us." said Silence without turning her eyes away from the current frontline.

"The drives are most important, we can’t escape this in a normal way, but your three can get out of there." To Evening’s, Morning’s and Silence’s horror Griffon pointed at the river. "That’s the only way out. Silence, you still have some empty drives?"

"Yes…? What do you want to do with them?" asked Silence after a brief moment of hesitation.

"I can’t go with you, I will simply drow thanks to my injuries… but I can make them waste their time for at least a few hours, that’s more time for you. Give me these drives."

"Here, empty ones…"

"Wait! Wait! We can’t just leave you there!" interrupted Morning looking at them as if they were some mad creatures. "Are you crazy?!"

"Listen, you are either going with this plan or we are going straight to our gods, there is no third way. And after Lieutenant’s Fire I am second in command so that’s an ORDER, soldier."

"He is right, Morning. We can’t stay there. Come on."

With still hesitating Morning they quickly prepared themselves for this crazy plan. They got rid of unnecessary equipment to make it easier to swim in the raging river. With each second passing the perimeter securing them from still pushing opponents were growing smaller and smaller, there were just too many of them, for every killed enemy two others were popping up. Soon only a few Federal soldiers remained on the battlefield and Wilhelm threw two last smoke grenades.

"It was an honour serving with you. I hope we will meet again one day." Said Griffon saluting his comrades.

"We will. If not, I will go through the entire Griffonia to kill you for not coming back." Evening just walked up to him and gave him a hug, being followed by Morning and Silence.

"Deliver the drives or you will be the one getting his ass kicked. Okay, go! Now!"

With one last look at Wilhelm preparing for his last stand they approached the edge of the bridge, looking down was giving only one thought: jumping there was the last thing anypony should ever do. Mutual nod, counting to three and when Evening said “three” they all jumped down into the river escaping the massacre on the bridge…

They didn’t know how much time they had spent in cold water holding on the random branch that was allowing them to stay afloat, it could be minutes or hours, the only indicator of passing time was surroundings becoming darker and darker as night was fully beginning. Now they were surrounded by silence and darkness, they left ruins of the city and that damned bridge far away from there. Evening decided to make a quick reconnaissance of their surroundings, as a Thestral he was the best candidate to do this, pluses of being a nocturnal. When he left Morning and Silence were waiting on the small beach observing the surroundings in case something or someone wanted to attack them, maybe these from the bridge lost their track but they were still on territory engulfed in total anarchy with bandits roaming freely through this land, not to mention that they got very close to borders of Barrad, about what not so distant magical storm was reminding them. Magical storms were new, dangerous things that started appearing after the Blackout, mainly on Barrad territory and, if rumors were true, in the Dread Peninsula. Little was known about them, the survivors were telling stories about various magical anomalies appearing in their radius or various monsters appearing inside those storms, someone even claimed that they saw a portal to other world, as if hurricanes and other natural disasters weren’t enough. While observing the storm Morning Star spotted something in the dark, a few flashes of the light, appearing in a well-known for her sequence. She picked her own flashlight and responded to it. Few seconds later Evening Star landed next to her and Silence.

"Looks clear, I spotted ruins of a school not so far from there, we can rest there."

"Are you sure it’s safe?" asked Silence, preparing her equipment.

"I didn’t see anyone, I even looked inside, looks abandoned enough for me."

"Okay, let’s go."

It took the three ponies a good hour to get to the place that Evening was talking about, mainly because they were limited to ground travel - only one of them had wings, also they didn’t want to cause much noise, it was better to stay hidden from anything that could be luring in the dark. Finally they saw the two-story brick building of the public school that somehow ended in pretty good condition, only one part of it was actually damaged to the point it collapsed. Evening entered the building first, followed by Morning and then Silence. Interior was in total chaos, papers, backpacks, books and other things lying on the floor, cork boards with tattered drawings and other papers, overturned garbage bins… the silent image of what was happening right after the Blackout, the panic of young students and teachers that tried to do anything to restore order when everything went down. They moved to the first floor and Evening led them to the office at the end of the corridor. Two rooms, sofas, armchairs, desk, broken computer, some bookshelves with documents and windows giving them a view of the school's surroundings, it was not bad.

"Well come in, make yourself a home or something, we will probably spend some time here after that swim in a river." said Evening cleaning the desk from unnecessary things to turn it into a table. "At least the food is still dry… How are the drives, Silence?"

"They are good, I have put them in waterproof containers." Earth Pony showed the most important thing in their equipment, then put it again in her backpack. "So, what are we eating tonight?"

"Some biscuits and sweets, I can make tea too."

"Sounds good for me" Morning immediately grabbed a pack of sweets and started eating them.

"Okay, you two can start preparing the meal and I will set up some security systems." Thestral picked some packages and left the office.

In the meantime Morning and Silence tried to make something edible from their rations without needing to set up an entire kitchen, results maybe weren’t the best but at least food looked a bit better. With Evening’s returning they started eating and preparing the office to make sleeping there more comfortable.

"By Luna, everything is wet…" complained Evening trying to dry his uniform and equipment after their little swim in a river "and they were saying it’s waterproof."

"Well it is, think what must regular units endure in their casual uniforms." said Morning doing similar thing, except her helmet that was still on her head and she didn’t bother to take it off.

"By Luna? Why are you still using that term after… you know. You never told me." asked Radio Silence with curiosity painted on her face. "Like you two are Riverlandians, same with your parents, right? Hey, your mother is even an Admiral in the Federal Navy."

"It’s time for family stories, eh? What to begin with… we are some sort of disappointment, like if you look at your lineage our ancestors were sailors in large part and we are here in the Marines."

"Not exactly disappointment I’d say but we certainly broke some sort of tradition." added Morning to her brother’s saying.

"And well yes, we are Riverlandians, same as our parents and one grandfather. But our grandma, Blue Moon, is a Chiropterran, not to mention our great-grandparents, Admiral Midnight Helm for example."

"Waaaaaaaait, THAT Admiral Midnight Helm?" Silence freezed for a second with a cup of tea in her hoof.

"Commander of Task Force 72 herself, yes. We heard some stories about Kirian Crisis, I wonder what would she and others thought about current situation." Evening smiled slightly and then took a sip from his cup. "Well we can ask General Wing when we get back home, if I remember he took part in that operation as a Marine, I once heard him telli…"

"Okay, but we got out of the tracks." Morning interrupted before Evening could finish "Soooo from history lessons you probably know how Chiropterra looked before Second North Zebrican War, yes? Not something we, current Republic and our ancestors are proud about, anyway, after Chiropterra lost Second North Zebrican War our great-great-grandpa, battleships enthusiast by the way, decided to stay in the army when a new government was formed. He didn’t want family traditions to fade completely, after all they were reaching ancient Equestria times, so he decided to still follow Princess Luna, even after War in the Heavens, our grandma was telling us that he wanted us to remember about her, her true, good side and to be ready for her return… and we are kinda preserving that tradition to this day."

"I see…"

"And all Chiropterran flags in NZF are lowered to half-mast, they will be raised only when Princess Luna returns." Added Evening to his sister's story. "And that will probably not happen till the 2000s so…"

"Yeah, I am sorry to hear that. But you are telling me that most of your family were sailors?"

"At least one side of it, yeah. Mom is a Federal Navy Admiral, grandma is an North Zebrican Navy Admiral, great-grandma was a North Zebrican Navy Admiral, great-great-grandpa was a Chiropterran Navy Admiral and his ancestors were Chiropterran Navy officers too."

"Huh, if we survive through it you must take me on a trip to NZF." Said Radio finishing her meal. "But for now we are forced to explore this post-apocalyptic land."

"Yea… okay, let’s go to sleep. I will be guarding us first, then you Radio and Morning in the end, tomorrow we are leaving this place. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"Night, brother."