The Blackout

Barrad, former territory of River Federation, 25.07.1107 ALB

They got up early in the morning and started preparing for the next part of their journey. It took them a bit longer than initially expected, mainly because Morning wasn’t able to find their position on the map. Finally Evening found some preserved documents with the school's address making the task far easier. But then finding a good way to safe land became another obstacle. Raiders, the one enemies that were probably now searching for them, other hostile factions on “normal” roads, the other option was Barrad…

"No. Just no! Are you stupid?!" Radio Silence was doing everything to not shout as loud as her lungs were allowing her.

"Going to Federal territory. Through fucking Barrad?! If you want to kill us we can just have a bullet in the head now, let me grab my pistol."

"Radio, calm down please. It’s not as bad as you think. If we will be cautious we should be able to avoid most creatures roaming this land and besides no one expects us to go through Barrad."

"Because it’s stupid idea. Going there is a death wish! Sorry but I don’t want some monster beyond comprehension to tear me apart. I said no!"

"We really don’t have better options." Morning Star was packing her things into a backpack and eating breakfast at the same time. "Trust me, if we had a better option my brother would suggest it."

"I guess I am outvoted then… and I won’t leave your two dumb asses alone, don’t count on it. If you are going to Tartarus I am going with you." Radio Silence sighed, giving up. "Well, let’s go then. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let’s go. May Luna protect us…"

Three soldiers left the school building and left it behind them, now just another ruin in this devastated land. They could only hope that one day it will be rebuilded, alongside uncounted other buildings, roads, entire cities… But now, in the Land of Fallen Stars everyone was falling apart with very few creatures actually willing and being able to save it. And the Marines trio was entering an even worse place now, the cursed lands of Barrad. First hours or even the entire day weren’t that bad - the weather just suddenly became an absolute disaster as if it tried to flood them with the absurd amount of water that was falling from the sky. Not to mention that when they encountered a true magical storm they had to seek shelter immediately because magical rain was working like acid, maybe not exactly burning through flesh but its effects were still not very convincing to let it touch you. Weather wasn’t the only thing that was making traveling through Barrad difficult. Entire nature was twisted there, dead plants somehow still living with weird, glowing growths, mutated animals, anomalies… Just the entire land was hostile, and not to mention the worst enemy of any poor soul that ended up there - other sentient creatures.

"Are they still here?" whispered Morning Star looking at her brother who was holding his machine gun and looking through a small hole in the wall.

"Shhhh. Look." Evening silenced his sister and focused on the four creatures, three were probably ponies, but he couldn’t be sure because they all were wearing masks and capes. The fourth one was an Unicorn being too scared to even move. Thestral noticed that masked ones didn’t have any sort of modern weaponry, instead all of them were armed with makeshift spears and swords, two were holding crossbows. Finally one of them approached the unicorn and took off their mask. Evening was happy that the military prepared him to see many sorts of things so he didn’t make any noise, but he was sure that somepony else would have screamed seeing what he saw. Face of that Earth Pony was horribly deformed with magical crystals literally growing on him, his eyes were blind but Evening was sure that he is looking directly at the Unicorn.

"You brought to our holy land these unholy abominations!" Despite crystals growing on his throat, the voice of the Earth Pony was loud, clear… and scary.

"N-no…! Sir, this is a mistake…! It’s only radio… I didn’t mean to…"

"Silence! Not only you brought this but you also desecrated this holy place! You and others like you were always ignorant and look what happened to our world! But They will finally return and cleanse our land from all unholy things!"

"P-please… I was just escaping from the bandits!" Unicorn was trying to stand up but his legs were falling under him. "I didn’t want to desecrate your temple or anything! I have a family! Please!"

"I forgive you…." Said Earth Pony after a few seconds of silence. Then when Unicorn breathed a sigh of relief he was pierced by a spear. "But the world must be cleansed, no matter how many sacrifices we must make. And you are the perfect offering for Them."

Evening saw enough, he wanted to go as far away as he could from these weird, bloodthirsty cultists. But when he was taking a step back he hit one loose rock that fell onto the ground. The noise wasn’t huge, even he barely noticed it, but somehow the Earth Pony cultist instantly looked in his direction, Evening turned around to tell Morning and Silence to run away but instead of them he saw a cultist right in front of him. Not thinking much he lifted his light machine gun and opened fire, bullets quickly ripping through his opponent, their position was compromised anyway. He looked for Morning and Radio, immediately seeing them fighting two other cultists, how were they able to move so silently?! But there was no time for wondering why they were moving without any sound, they had to run away from this cursed place before cultists bring more reinforcements. Thestral quickly fired at the enemy trying to stab Morning with a spear, then he wanted to help Radio but suddenly one of the cultists just ran into him knocking both of them on the ground. Despite being trained in melee combat Evening found it quite difficult to defeat his opponent, mainly because the cultist seemed to be quite durable, Thestral managed to stab him several times with a knife but the Unicorn he was fighting wasn’t caring about it, he didn’t even lose any amount of strength. But finally Evening found a spot that caused the cultist to grunt in pain, followed by another few stabs finally killing him. Immediately after this Evening jumped to his machine gun and just started firing at a group of enemies that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"We must retreat!" he yelled through the sounds of gunfire to Morning and Radio. "Hurry up!"

"Right behind you!" Yelled Radio in response, turning one of the cultists into a sieve with her assault rifle.

"I’m goin-..." Morning was running to them but suddenly a quiet whizz echoed through the air and Evening’s sister suddenly fell on the ground, with a crossbow bolt sticking from her back.

"Cover me!" Evening rushed to wounded Morning, only by miracle evading another two bolts, and started dragging his sister to safety. Radio Silence was giving them covering fire successfully eliminating another enemy. "We will check her later, now we must go!"

"Understood." said Radio, grabbing a grenade and then throwing it at the enemy's position, then another one and then she joined Evening.

With large casualties among cultists, loud explosion caused by fragmentation grenade and thick smoke produced by smoke grenade they somehow managed to escape the ambush running into dark night with purple lightning being the only source of light. Groups of cultists were obviously searching for them, but fortunately a group of Marines was able to evade all of them and they finally gave up, at least for now. They needed that moment of rest, mostly because Morning still had a crossbow bolt sticking out of her back. After finding a well-covered, setting up a provisional camp and making a fireplace that won’t be seen from a distance they finally had a few seconds to rest.

"Okay… so what now?" asked Evening not sure what to do now. "I stopped bleeding but she still has that damned bolt in her body!"

"You are asking me? She was our medic…" Radio Silence looked very tired and resigned. She shrugged and pointed at the medic's bag that belonged to Morning. "We have some bandages, medicines and other stuff. It won’t be hospital level treatment but…"

"I know, I know, we must do something. These damned cultists! Bandits, warlords, weather disasters, monsters, acid magical rains, magical storms, cultists… What else? Maar descending to our world thanks to his cultists? Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon returning from their banishment?" He started complaining while searching the bag for useful stuff. Bandages, more bandages and other items that should help them. "Let’s hope that the first aid course will be enough."

"Yea… Well, there is only one way to check this. Let’s start…"

Trying to stabilise and take care of Morning took them some time, mostly because they didn’t want to cause more damage to wounded mare. Removing the bolt, taking care of the wound, finally bandaging it after applying antibiotics and other medicines, only gods knew what bacterias and other dirty things were on that crossbow bolt. When it was done Evening prepared meal for them and then extinguished the fireplace, it was better to have a cold than be spotted by random patrol. The next morning was… or wasn’t because there are is no day-night cycle in this land - day was little brighter and night was little darker thanks to thick layer of dark clouds covering the entire sky. Fortunately for them they had watches so they didn’t lose track of time. Another good news was that Morning woke up, she was still weakened but she was able to walk with a little help. They were still far away from River Federation territory, but they had little choice - either they will make it or die trying, there was no other option and Evening, Radio and Morning knew it. So the march through cursed land continued…