In the Midst of the Expanse

Chapters

The Arrival
Leaving It All Behind
The Castle
The Expediton Begins

The Arrival

It was a normal day when it arrived in a large ball of roaring fire. At first it was slow in its wake of destruction, starting in smaller towns, allowing us to fight back, and we did well for a bit. That is, until it grew. It had stayed small enough to kill ponies and burn small buildings, only at the height of a full grown earth pony.

Then its size doubled, then tripled as the days went by. We knew that their was no way to fight back against a beast such as that. It never spoke, just destroyed so we called it the Slaughterer. The Slaughterers only purpose was to burn and break and kill. All it seemed to be was a large ball of fire and brimstone.

That was 2 years ago when it arrived. Now, it's the size of buildings, with Celestia's castle barely protected against the beast. But with the help of the Elements of Harmony, they released some information. They're building a ship for traversing space, and they want to send 100 ponies of random selection into the expanse for a last hope in this losing war.

They're calling the ship the Last Promise, because it's the only promise of hope. If at all a promise that is, because who knows what'll happen? All we can do though is hope your selected while you wait and survive. The ponykind has moved underground but that won't keep us alive forever, as it's hard to grow crops and feed everypony. Water normally isn't a problem with large pockets of the life giving liquid everywhere underneath Equestria.

The bunkers have all we need to live but the supplies are being diminished more and more everyday as more ponies join, and other bunkers are found and destroyed. Ours is fairly hidden however so hopefully we could last a good while. It is quite hard to stay busy sometimes with so many ponies that all jobs are filled so you're left to just sit and wait for an opening such as cleaning or cooking, but normally it's all filled.

The ponies that have been the longest also direct the new ponies and tell them the rules and 'ranks' in the bunker. This bunker has been here for a little over a year, and I've been here since the beginning almost. I still remember the day I found it.

I was in the middle of a town that had been destroyed, like most towns that it had passed through. For some reason most things didn't work against it and the only thing that seemed to work at all was water but it just slowed it down, but now it does almost nothing. Besides that though, I had to get out of here. If I didn't die from the fire, I'd suffocate for sure if I didn't get away from the smoke.

I started running in a random direction, away from the house in which I had camped out in. (I stayed in a basement) As I ran, the smoke pushed itself into my eyes, causing me to squint as a burning sensation spread across my face, and I sputtered and coughed as the smoke went into my lungs from all the panting. I ran longer, slowly having more and more trouble breathing, until I could see a dimness around my vision.

My body started to get weaker, and right before I collapsed, my good hit a hollow piece of metal. I looked down and saw a trapdoor! I attempted to open it but it was locked, so I banged on it with with my remaining strength. Surprisingly, it opened and welcomed me in, and the pony that had opened it led me to a room filled with bunks and I finally fell down onto it, still panting with my burning lungs.

So now I'm here. The pony that had helped me, Cloverleaf, is long gone now, but she was a big help. She was the first into the bunker along with the ponies that quickly built it, and they immediately chose her as the Leader of the bunker due to her helping wherever and whenever no matter what, plus her quick thinking and selflessness. Now the current leader is a stallion named Steel Bolt.

Steel Bolt may be a good leader, but definitely not as good as Cloverleaf. He helped a lot, usually lifting heavy things and commanding various things, but he wasn't as nice and accepting as Clover was. When somepony didn't get something done or hop up to do what he wanted in a split second he'd get upset. We all could understand his anger, just like everypony else because we've all lost stuff, but we wouldn't take it out on others.

He was good enough though. Especially since he was the only one that really felt like stepping up to keep us in order. When. The bunker started, their were only about 11 ponies, but now we had over 40. At some points we've had more than 60 but normally ponies leave, or sadly they get locked out due to unwillingness to follow rules, or excessive violence. That normally didn't happen though. They could also be locked out from excessive lazyness. It may not happen much, but the thing that happens most is if a position opens and they are requested to fill that to keep up a 'quota' of work, but they refuse a lot, and instead stay in bed all day. They are deemed a 'waste of food'.

Usually the bunk room has a lot of ponies there, just like me. As of right now, no positions were open, but I helped a lot. Usually I would cook, or when Steel was busy, I'd fill in for him. I've heard a lot of ponies saying that I'm a way better leader but others say Steel has enough discipline to know what he's doing. I don't normally care about it too much.

So, as I sat here waiting for more work, reading a small handbook about the rules,
(for the thousandth time) I just waited. As interesting as it was reading about punishment for excessive refusal to eat and/or refusal to stop eating or owning contraband and using it to deface, or threaten/danger another being in the bunker, I really wished I had something to do.

Thank Celestia though that the pony I was waiting on came in.

"Hey Glow, got any work for me today?" I said, leaning up to see her better. She flicked her gold mane back a bit and yawned.

"Yes actually. Cleaning duty. No other pony wants to clean up vomit, and I hate making you do it, but I know that you wouldn't refuse because you're actually responsible." She flipped through some pages and started to go to other ponies, assigning duties as is the norm in the morning.

"Thanks!" I yelled back to her. She yelled something back but I wasn't paying attention, as I hopped up and started my way to the janitorial room for the cleaning supplies. I led myself through a couple different hallways, passing ponies that were off for more work or to use the bathroom or whatever else they wanted to do.

I turned a corner and found myself facing the closet that I have been face to face with many times throughout the year. It seemed that everyone just refused to take this job, but hey, whatever gets me off my butt.

I pulled the mop out and a bucket to go fill it with water, making my way back down the halls. As I was coming up on to the room where the puke was with my bucket of water and my mop, I heard commotion, then sudden shushing in the room past it. I went up to the door and pressed my ear against the cool metal. I couldn't make out any words or specific voices, but I knew that this was a secret matter.

I didn't wanna just barge in or anything, but my curiosity was aroused and I really wanted to know what it was. Maybe it was good and they got news of a food shipment, or maybe they figured out a weakness of the Slaughterer. Now that I thought about it, that wouldn't make any sense because they wouldn't keep it secret. Or maybe it was bad news. What if the princesses had been killed, or the elements of harmony destroyed? What if another one came?!

I was too curios (and worried) to let it go so I reached for the doorknob. Right as my hoof touched it however, it quickly opened, and the pony who was opening it from the other side jumped back as I accidentally startled them.

"Oh... Astral! Good to see you!" The pony, who I identified as Low Light recovered and smiled brightly. So it was good news then. I was about to speak when she said "We have great news! Go get everypony now!"

"You got it." I said, handing her the molecular and bucket and I dashed off, looking for the main office. I turned corners and ran down various hallways and through different rooms until I found the metal door. I tried to open the door only to find it was locked.

I sighed and started to run back to my room to grab the key from my storage thing. We normally had a little area to keep stuff, and in mine help the key to the office, as other ponies had too, but also held other randomly assorted items. Such as my toothbrush and toothpaste, a small dagger just in case a violent pony arrives, and weird nicknacks.

With the key in hoof, I dashed back as fast as possible and, while panting, shoves the key into the lock and went in. Normally their weren't ponies in here unless they wanted to check cameras during an incident, or wanted to announce something on the intercom, which is what I was going to do. I flipped on the lights and grabbed the microphone while holding down the button on the little stand that controlled it.

"Attention all ponies. Please report to too B16 for an important message. I repeat, all ponies goto room B16. Thank you." I put the mic back, turned off the lights and once again speed down the halls after locking the door. As I ran I read the names of the doors looking for the correct one. B11, B12, B13 and so on.

Finally I found it, with ponies filing in, so I hopped into the line. The room was just a conference area with a table and some chairs to sit in, even though their weren't enough for everypony there, which allowed for them to stand up against the walls or just sit in the floor and listen.

I heard several ponies greet me as I walked past, and at the end of the table sat Steel with a stern expression on his face. Most seats were already taken, however one of the ponies directed me to sit down too. I softly sat in the chair at the end, opposite of Steel.

As I said I noticed a neatly written letter on the middle of the large oak table. I couldn't really make out the words yet, as it was too far away to read the small words, but I could see the large signature of Princess Celestial, and Luna at the bottom.

As the last of the ponies in the bunker filed in, Steel stood up from his seat, and cleared his throat.

"Good morning everyone", he said with his deep voice. "We have recently received a letter from Canterlot." At that the ponies in the room couldn't be heard speaking quietly about what it might say.

"Now... This letter doesn't involve everypony but it is definitely good news." He grabbed the letter and began reading. "Dear Citizens of the remains of Equestria, as you all know, we have tried everything in our will to try to stop the beast that has brought havoc upon us. Sadly, nothing has worked well so far, but that doesn't mean we will stop trying. However, we have had great success in creating something that has great potential in the aid against the beast.

With little ideas left, we have resorted to space travel in an attempt to find something that could save us all. We have a list here of all the ponies that must make up the crew of the ship." Steel paused the reading as a large reaction came from the crowd. Some were excited, some were worried, and some didn't seem to care. It was still very loud though because of all the yelling and surprise. Once they quieted down, he started to read off all of the names.

None of us knew any of them, because the ponies selected are from all around Equestria, but then he read off a name we all knew.

"Golden Speck!" A light brown pony with golden wavy hair gasped as her name was called. Years started to stream down her face, be it happiness, worry, or terror I had no idea. Probably all. He kept reading the names, still reading names nopony knew, at one point one gasped and could be heard whispering,

"I know them!" But other then that it was normal. It really didn't matter to me anymore about the names now that one had been called, so I dozed off a bit, and stared into blankness. That is until ponies started telling and shaking me.

"ASTRAL THEY CALLED YOU!" One ponytyelled excitedly.

"OH MY GOSH! Astral Glimmer!? Can you believe this!" Another yelled. I opened my eyes in shock as Steel laid the paper down, and started quiteting then ponies.

"Gold, Astral, you two are too head to a rendezvous point as soon as possible. Ok?" Steel said sternly, and we both shook our heads. "You may leave tomorrow if you'd like" he finished, and dismissed us all.

The day went normally from there, except for the ponies that would congratulate me and Golden whenever they crossed paths with one of us. After lunch I went to pack all of my belongings into a bag and rested a bit, thinking of the possibilities that this has given me. This was gonna be a crazy adventure. Would we even find something to save Equestria with? What if disaster struck? What would happen to the bunker if I was away?

I couldn't worry myself about it. I'd have to go no matter what...

And with that, I lay down, and waited.

Author's Note

Wow that was really fun to write actually. It also took 3 days because I'm bad at this. I'll update it whenever possible, if I have time, because I have lots to do. I'm actually really stressed about school work right now, but I'll try my best

Leaving It All Behind

"Come on Golden." I said, patting her in the back as everypony in the barrack yelled and waved goodbye to us as we started up the ladder to exit the bunker.

"We'll miss you guys!" I heard some ponies yell.

"Make us proud!" I heard others.

"We love you!" Golden yelled as we made our way to the ladder. I looked back to see several ponies crying and several others whooping and yelling in glee. Even Steel was smiling.

"ASTRAL!" Steel yelled above everypony else and quieted them all. "We all believe in you guys..." He held back a tear, "GO SAVE THE WORLD!"

I smiled, a tear coming to my eye as well as I looked back at all the ponies I've lived here with.

"We will!" Gold yelled and with cheering and yelling at full blast, we made our way up the ladder. Gold went first, then I climbed up after her, readying myself for the world above.

The door opened, and, instead of fire and heat as I expected it to be, all the buildings were just piles of bricks that were barely held up and ashes. The sky above was a layer of greyish blue clouds, which looked surprisingly pretty instead of the dull metallic grey of the bunker.

"So where's this rendezvous at again?" Gold asked as we closed the bunker door behind us, hearing a faint click as it locked.

"I don't know... Here, let me check real quick." I replied, and started to pull the letter from my bag. Quickly scanning it, I didn't see anything that would really help, so I just put it back and sighed.

"I... I don't know..." I said, staring into space as I thought.

"Maybe we'll figure out. It shouldn't be too hard if the princesses didn't give a specific area." She replied, looking around at the desolate world surrounding us.

"Well then, I guess we just walk. I say we go towards Canterlot to see if its there." I stood up with a grunt and started to walk. Gold quickly started walking next to me, and I looked over at her.

She was shaking a bit, and I could tell that she was scared but was trying to hide it. Honestly, I felt the same. Not only were we leaving our only home for the past year, but who knew what would happen to us! Or anypony that's going on that case. I mean, theirs supposed to be 100 of us, so surely something WOULD happen, but what, I had no idea.

I tried not to focus on anything bad, and just kept my eyes positioned in front of me so I could look out for anything that might resemble a meeting place. I doubt it would be near here, but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out.

While we walked I couldn't help but think of Gold. How did she feel about this? This was an enormous responsibility, and it even scared the tartauras out of me! When we got on that ship, what would she do? It's not like we actually knew anypony else, but I guess we were lucky enough to both be chosen. It was a low chance just one pony getting chosen from your area.

Once again I just focused on going forward as our hooves trotted noiselessly on the gray, ash covered path underneath us. A cool breeze drifted through, blowing more ash around. It was so strange to see all the buildings just gone. They were either completely burned, they had collapsed in on themselves, or parts of it were still standing. Such as brick walls or fireplaces, or even the random wooden beam or roof piece.

"What was that noise?" Gold suddenly asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I listened, but I didn't hear anything yet. I stopped to listen better, and I heard it. I didn't necessarily know what IT was, but it sounded like something was digging through debris. I looked over towards the noise, and saw a dark shadow-looking thing dart behind a half fallen wall.

"Run" I whispered to Gold, and we both started to book it, the building slowly getting smaller and smaller. I turned a corner as Gold followed me, and we his behind a rubble pile and waited.

We sat there for a few minutes before I started to stand up, but right as I did I heard something behind me, and I shot around as the dark shape jumped at me. Without thinking I shot to the side and the figure barely missed. Gold jumped back as well as it got back up pulled something out.

A knife.

"RUN!" I yelled to Gold, and pushed her forward to get her moving. She started to gallop away as I ran after her, fumbling for the dagger in my bag. The dark pony started to gallop after us, and, finally grabbing the weapon, started to run away as well.

"Stop!" The mysterious figure said, slowing down. "Drop the weapon and we can talk!"

"How do I know I can trust you!" I yelled back, looking around and finding Gold hiding behind some more debris. I looked back to the pony and saw that he had dropped his knife and kicked it away. I layed my dagger down and took my bags off as well, getting ready for a conflict.

"Good. Good..." He said in a smooth, calming voice. He then proceeded to walk towards me. I ran a hoof through my spiky dark hair and sighed, seriously hoping that their wouldn't be a brawl, but something told me their would be.

He got to me and said, "Ok, now give me all your stuff and I won't kill you."

"Woah there, that was straight to the point." I said in surprise at his straightforwardness. "But sorry, I can't do that."

Without any warning he swung a hoof and I started back as quick as possible, but he still nicked my chin. Right as I moved back he was jumping at me again, his hoof reared back, and as it slung down, I remembered the training Steel used to give us.

My hoof went up beside his, blocking him from punching and I headbutted him in the mouth.

"Damn you!" He yelled, spitting a bit of blood, but this time I was quicker, and I jumped forward, landing a punch on his jaw. He tumbled backwards and sluggishly started to rise, but before he did I jumped on him and held him down.

"You're gonna steal my stuff huh?" I said tauntingly as adrenaline started to pump through my body. He looked back up to me with pure firey hatred. Before he started to speak I silenced him by saying my own part.

"Now... I will let you go, but don't follow us, attack us or do anything or I will not let you live next time." It may have seemed really bad to say something like that but out here it was kill or be killed, and with that, I stood up and jumped back.

He again got up sluggishly, and stood, just staring at me angrily. I slowly backed up and grabbed my stuff and walked towards Gold, but once I started getting near her, she screamed.

"Astral look behind you!" And I did, right as he hit me and tackled me to the ground.

"You just don't give up do you!?" I yelled and bit his arm as he tried to wrap it around my neck. He yelled in pain and tried to beat his hooves on me, but I got my legs up and kicked him backwards. He slid a few inches and coughed and sputtered. I jumped at him and punched him in the face a couple times.

I stood up when he was out cold and we booked it, because I didn't want to actually kill somepony.

A few hours later...

"Well..." I said tiredly. " I think we can stop and sleep now. We should probably do it in shifts, and we can't make a fire."

"Ok..." Gold sighed happily as she layed a sleeping bag down and layed in it. We stayed in a building that actually stood up more than the others so we had partial walls and a roof over our heads. I layed my bag next to hers and sat there, just waiting and watching.

"What are you doing?" She asked, sitting up to see me better.

"I'm keeping watch just in case another pony tries to attack us." I replied, looking around the dim, dirty area.

"Oh... So I'll do a shift later?"

"Yep. That means you should get as much sleep as possible now."

And with that she plopped her head down on her sleeping bag and started to sleep. I looked down at her face, noting how calm and peaceful looked. I think that she was a good choice for the trip because she was good at controlling herself in bad situations, and I knew that she wouldn't freak out. Hopefully she wouldn't at least...

Nothing eventfully happened in the night, so a few hours later I shook her awake and we switched places, so I could sleep too. She also experienced a boring night of nothingness as she sat in the darkness and just looked around really.

Later on she shook me awake and we switched out once more afterwards until she could see the sun rising, and so we continued towards the meetup point, if it was even where we thought it would be.

...

"So... How ya feelin?" Gold asked for the tenth time while we were walking.

"Good I guess. Conversation seems pretty hard to keep going when you have nothing to talk about anymore" I replied, thinking back about the continuous talking we've had as we've walked, making the past few minutes seem strange with the overhanging silence.

"Yeah..." She replied and sighed, kicking a small stone in front of her.

We sat down again and rested, eating a tad bit of food from our packs and stretching, allowing the blood to flow back down to our aching hooves.

And so the cycle continued. We walked for a while, tested for a while and continued for a while, all while looking around at the destruction caused by the slaughterer.

The destroyed, burnt and collapsed buildings, the smokey smell of charred wood and various other flammable materials, the ever-gloomy and gray atmosphere that seemed to hang around the surrounding area.

Eventually we stopped coming across old buildings and dry dirt paths, and started to walk through a field of grass that regrew over the old, burned area. It was honestly a nice change, though the plants and grass were becoming stiffer as the rain came less and less, along with the cold dry air.

We sat down in a soft patch of brownish grass and continued to eat a small amount of rations, which consisted of hard bread, and preserved fruit, such as apples or peaches that had been grown in a homemade greenhouse in the bunker. They tasted very bland compared to the plants and foods we had eaten before the apocalypse came upon us.

To be honest I barely remembered the way they taste except for the fact that it was a hell of a lot better than what we had at the current moment. Hopefully when we got to the rendezvous point they'd feed us something more enjoyable.

I sighed in content as I drained my canteen, shaking it to get every last drop of water. Hopefully we'd be able to find some water, like a pond or river that hasn't dried out and we could possibly risk a small fire to try to purify the liquid. That would definitely be something to keep an eye out for on our journey.

It would also be a good idea to try scavenging if we come across a fairly not destroyed building, that could possibly contain canned foods or something. For now we had a decent amount, but who knows how far we have to go?

"I think we camp out here tonight" I saw, laying my bag down in the grass.

"Yeah..." Gold stretched and yawned. "I don't think we'd be caught in the tall grass."

I yawned as well and looked off into the distant horizon as the sun slowly sunk, and dozed off, thinking of the days to come...

The Castle

"Alright Gold..." I leaned up and stretched my aching limbs as I started to climb out of the sleeping bag I was in. Gold shifted a little in hers and slowly started to rise as well, as I took in our surroundings.

We had settled in a little grassy outcrop again, with a single tree here that wasn't burned down, but it was clear that it almost didn't make it, with black streaks all over the base and several charred leaves. However, the gray clouds had rolled away a little and we could see part of the beautiful bright blue sky behind that gloomy blanket.

A single golden ray of light reflected through the hole and shone through the tree, scattering the light into hundreds of little spots in the grass. It was a very nice change, but it ended as soon as it started with more smoky clouds rolling in to cover the hole up.

I sighed as the light disappeared, and went back into the darkness that was previously settling over everything here. I didn't think much of it though and we got up to continue on our way. We had been traveling for a few days now, and luckily we hadn't been attacked since the last time, but we also haven't seen any other life anywhere else.

That was honestly to be expected in my opinion, because most everyone was dead. The only ponies left were the ones in cities not yet destroyed, which not many were left, ponies in bunkers, or ponies taking refuge in Princess Celestia's castle in Canterlot. I'd say we had about fifteen to thirty percent of our original population.

It was a scary thought, but we continued on our way nonetheless. We had to be close by now, because we had passed out of the little town we had been in where our bunker was and Gold had speculated that the field we passed through was near Canterlot, and she was probably right as we started to enter a town full of large buildings. A lot of it was destroyed, but their were actual standing buildings as we went farther in.

Suddenly, we both ran into something. Their was a large, almost unnoticeable barrier in front of us. I put my hoof up to it, and heard a faint humming as my hoof stopped, but then started to slowly pass through, and I started to put the rest of my body in, with Gold following me.

We entered and saw something great.

In front of us stood the castle, in all of its perfection. The large magic globe seemed to hide the castle from anything nearby, while still allowing ponies to enter. It was probably here to keep the monster from getting to the castle to destroy it.

"We made it Gold..." I said in amazement.

She squealed in excitement and started to run up to the castle, with me quickly following behind her.

"Hey! Wait up!" I yelled as she stopped in front of the main gates, which had two guards in front of it.

"Stop there! What is your business here?" One of them yelled, and held up a spear.

"We're here because our names were on the note the princess sent out!" I said, and pulled out the letter.

"Very well" The one holding the spear said, and allowed us to enter.

The large gate opened noiselessly, and we entered the beautiful large building. Suddenly, a light brown pony walked up to us.

"Hello! Welcome to Celestia's castle! You must be here because of the letter! Let me take you to the princess herself." He said cheerfully, and directed us down a long corridor, and into the throne room, where the princess sat.

She looked... Awful. She had bags under her eyes, and she looked like she had cried some. She also looked completely exhausted, but she smiled still as ponies walked in. Their were a lot here actually. I scanned the area and guessed that their was about 60 or so here, all of them being here for the space program most likely.

We were directed straight up to the princess and she smiled warmly, making her stressed features soften some.

"Hello Astral Glimmer and Golden Speck" She said in a smooth voice.

"H-hello..." Gold said in amazement at being near the princess, even actually talking to her.

I said hi as well, and decided that her knowing our names immediately was a normal thing, with her being a princess and all.

We stood there as she called another pony to check something off of a clipboard and then led us to an area where we could rest a little and eat something. The dining hall at the castle was bustling with refugees and other ponies that wanted to eat that were called for the space exploration thing.

Me and Gold sat at the end of a long, set-up table and ate vegetables and some fruit with clean cold water. It was a whole lot better than dried preserves that we had to eat while on our way here. I quite enjoyed non-dehydrated apple slices.

As we ate, more ponies than any of us had seen in over a year walked in and out of the dining hall and other various rooms that led to who knows where in the huge castle. The princess, stressed as she was, loved it up here, even though she devoted most of her time helping the citizens of Equestria go about their daily routines.

Now she houses homeless ponies and helps to heal the wounded and sick, while also leading a rebellion against the Slaughterer, all while helping to plan the Last Promise's launch. Speaking of which, when would we get to see the ship?

I bet it would be huge and quite spacious as to accommodate the hundred or so ponies that would be docking the ship soon. It was most definitely something to be excited for, but also something to be scared to death about.

I thought about it as we sat there for a while, eating, talking some to each other and to any other pony that walked over to say hi and introduce themselves.

We waited for over an hour before Luna came into the dining hall and started announcing things.

"Subjects! We have done a count, and currently we are holding 84 ponies that have been selected for the Last Promise. Also, we have news that the Slaughterer is getting closer. It won't be too long before it reaches Canterlot and finishes its rain of destruction, so be cautious."

She walked out and allowed us to continue talking amongst ourselves, and her words had caused a lot of scared and urgent whispers between several residents. Gold looked at me with a little bit of fest in her eyes, but I assured her it would be perfectly fine. I was surprised at how reassuring I sounded, because it scared me too. It made me feel better knowing that she seemed to really more though.

Eventually, we were all directed to rooms where we could sleep. Some ponies had to share rooms because their were so many of us, but luckily me and Gold had our own.

The room was amazing, like everything else in the castle. It had a soft purple rug that encased the middle of the circular room, with dark oak wood flooring, and whitish-pink walls and an ornately decorated roof with twisted beams and a small chandelier, with a small window on one side of the room, which had light purple curtains which draped closed over the glass pane.

Their was also fancy dark colored dressers, and a neat desk, while in the middle sat a large bed with incredibly soft silken sheets and a big, thick blanket, which just happened to be the same colour as everything else in the room. It had a transparent pink canopy over the bed, and the bed itself held two huge, fuzzy pillows. It was a beautiful sight, instead of hard, slightly itchy grey bunks in a cold metal bunker.

I sighed happily, put my bags on the desk, and threw myself into the bed, sinking into the plush blanket and comforting mattress. It's surprising that they can take such good care of things like this, even during the apocalypse.

"This is really nice." Gold said, looking around and smiling. "Also, I'm gonna see if I can take a bath or something." She laid her bags down as well, and started towards the door.

"I'll take one of I can as well, when you you get back at least." I yelled after her.

For now, I just wanted to sleep, and that I did. Right as my head touched the pillow, my mind drifted away.

My dream was strange as my consciousness drifted away, and was replaced by an overview of what looked like Canterlot. However, it was there too.

The Slaughterer

It was destroying everything in its path with fiery hatred and resent for the pony race which so desperately tried to fight back and survive. The large hellish being rampaged towards the castle, toppling buildings and burning houses as it carved a path right through the middle of the town. As it reached the barrier, it slammed into it unexpectedly, and fell back, but the barrier noticeably faltered as it's great power was struck by even greater power.

The beast collected itself, and slammed once again into the protective field, but this time knowing it was there. Again, the barrier faltered, and even bent beneath the weight. Finally the beast slammed for the third time, and went right through. I could see it raise it's large, fire ridden arms, and slam them relentlessly into the side of the castle, which barely stood taller than it. The walls crumbled and burned with ease as the Slaughterer pushed its way inside of the huge building.

It was a horrible sight, and made my stomach heave, and as the beast raised it's massive arms once more for a final attack, it ended.

"Astral!" Gold yelled again, shaking me a little. I raised me head groggily, and sighed happily. It was just a dream... Even though it seemed like one while I saw it happen, it just felt so real.

"Sorry..." I said to Gold as I stretched and got up. I started to make my way towards the door to take a shower as Gold laid down.

Once again I found myself walking through long hallways, just like back in the bunker, but these halls weren't familiar to me, but at least they were nicer than dull gray stone and metal all around. These halls had color in them, with purple decorations being lit up on a white background, and wooden beams framing large stained glass murals at selected intervals. It was nice, and after a bit of searching, I was actually able to find a place to take a bath.

I walked into a room and found a row of showers, and quietly stepped into one, laying a towel I had found outside of it. I was surprised to see that their was working water as I twisted the knob and cool water hit me. It quickly warmed up as I adjusted the knobs to a good temperature. I couldn't help but think about the dream, or nightmare in that case. It just seemed so real! What if it was a vision? What if the slaughterer would arrive before everypony was able to get in the ship? Or, what if the ship didn't even work correctly? Their were so many factors that could easily go completely wrong.

I told myself that worrying about it wouldn't help, and just continued to shower, but it still scared me. It probably scared everypony here, especially the princesses. They were the ones who were trusted to get the task done in the first place, so every casualty or mistake in the ship could be placed on them, and the guilt would be unbearable, knowing that their plan had failed, or even killed a hundred or even more innocent ponies.

I shuddered at the thought and just focused on finishing in the shower. Turning the water off, I grabbed the towel from outside the shower and dried myself off, hanging the towel on a pole on a wall to dry, and headed back to the room.

"Did you enjoy the shower?" Gold said, leaning up from the bed as I walked in.

"Yeah. A whole lot better than cold water a rag that we'd get in the bunker." I replied, laying down on the opposite side of the bed.

"As comfortable this bed it, it's gonna be hell trying to sleep." Gold said, moving to get in a more comfy position.

"Yeah... so much to worry about..." I said, also moving into a better position. I ended up on my side, looking towards Gold, and she looking towards me. I had never really paid any attention to how she really looked before, since I mainly focused on not dying. most of the time.

She was actually quite beautiful, with her wavy golden blond hair, and amber colored coat that gleamed in the lamplight. She also had really pretty eyes. They were a smooth amber color as well. However, currently they were closed while she attempted to sleep.

I was a guy, so I wouldn't be classified as beautiful, but I wasn't really sure how handsome I really was. I just had spiky redish hair, and a blusih gray coat. My eyes were dark blue as well, and my cutiemark was a white comet, because before the apocalypse, I really liked studying planets and space related things, but now I really enjoy living.

Suddenly I was taken from my thoughts as I heard Gold snore a little. I looked over and smiled slightly, as she was curled up into a little ball sleeping. And she had even agreed that it would be hard to sleep. Dang. I guess it was my turn, so I laid down and closed my eyes, and eventually, I drifted off.

Author's Note

I am so sorry this took so long to get out. I was extremely busy, and I had been visiting people all week, but here it is finally. I tried my best to add as many details as possible, because I really want to make a good story. I hope you liked it, and more chapters to come. Hopefully I'll get those out a bit faster than it took to get this one out.

The Expediton Begins

"Alright sleepyhead..." Gold said, the tiredness evident in her voice. "Wake up!" She shook my arm lightly like a child would, trying to wake their parents.

"5 more minutes..." I mumbles and rolled over, pulling the blanket tighter around me. I didn't want to leave the comfort of the bed just yet. The blankets seemed to curl around you in all the right ways, with their amazing smoothness and warmth.

"Come on! I wanna eat breakfast and I don't wanna go alone!" She said, shaking a bit more aggressivley. I sighed, and pushed the blankets off, then proceeded to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

"Yay!" Gold yelled happily, and shot towards the door. "Well are ya coming?"

"Yeah yeah..." I yawned and stretched and got up to follow towards her. We started to walk down the hallways, following the delicious aroma of food. We could smell pancakes, fried apples with cinnamon, maple syrup and various other foods, but it was even better when we arrived. I still couldn't believe how much they still had during the end of the world. It almost made me forget that the Slaughterer existed.

As we walked into the large dining hall, once again we were meeted by several ponies making their ways around, either to get food, or to sit down and eat, so we made our way towards the line. At the large table where the line was held, we could see large quantities of delicious looking foods. Their were indeed pancakes with hot syrup and fried apples, but their were also a couple bowls of apple sauce with cinnamon and nutmeg, pumpkin and cream cheese rolls, several bars of food with different assorted nuts and berries, and large loaves of warm, steaming banana bread.

They also had drinks. Freshly squeezed orange juice, apple juice, cool refreshing water, coffee, mint tea, strawberry cordial, and even a festively spiced autumn ale.

We quickly made our way through the line, taking whatever looked delicious, and I ended up settling with a delicious cup of coffee. However, once we looked around, their didn't seem to be many seats left open. And their would be even less knowing that some ponies still haven't woke up. So, with our food in hoof, we ventured forth to find a suitable place to eat. As we were walking, a sudden voice said, "Hey! Over here!"

We looked over to see a light blue pony with light red hair waving us over to a surprisingly bare table, so we hurried over and sat down.

"Hello! My name's Dual Spectrum but you can just call me Dual!" He said happily, shaking both of our hooves.

"Hi Dual! I'm Golden Speck and this is Astral Glimmer." Gold introduced us while shaking his hoof as well.

"Cool! Some other ponies should be getting to the table any second now. Oh! There they are!" Dual said, looking around as two more ponies sat down. One of them was a stallion with a white coat and short red hair, and the other was a mare, with red hair as well, but she had a pink streak in it, and a light red coat.

"Astral and Gold, this is Arrow Blaze, and Lila Sapphire. Arrow and Lila, this is Astral and Gold." Dual said, as the other ponies smiles and also shook our hooves.

"Hi! It's so nice to meet you! Were you guys selected for the expedition too?" Lila said, taking a bite of a pancake.

"Yep. We had to travel for a few days to get here too." I said, remembering the bandit that had tried to attack us on our way here from the bunker.

"I hope it wasn't that hard of a journey. It only took a day and a half for me and Arrow here, but that's because our shelter was close by. Now tell me, where'd did you two come from?" She asked curiously.

"We both came from the same bunker. I think it was... 23-D?" I said, looking back to when I was there, and Gold shook her head in agreement.

We sat there for a bit just eating our breakfast. The pancakes were amazing, as well as the banana bread. It was moist and filled with nuts and flavor. I was in the middle of a bite when the room went quiet, and we all heard a piercing scream echo throughout the dining hall.

"What in the..." I said quietly, right as we also heard a loud CRASH! I suddenly thought back to dream, where the Slaughterer had started to destroy the castle.

We heard another crash, but they didn't sound like they were inside of the castle, and the pony that screamed ran in and yelled,

"THE SLAUGHTERER IS BREAKING DOWN THE MAGIC BARRIER!"

The whole room exploded into chaos as ponies screamed and ran in different directions. Their was another CRASH! and the room fell silent once more as a different sound was heard. It was a loud buzz, and one of the ponies at a window yelled, "The barrier is down!"

Once again everypony ran for their lives. Me and Gold started to run as well, with Arrow, Lila, and Dual following behind us. We were able to make it to the large set of double-doors that leaded to the entrance of the dining hall, when we were all teleported away. In fact, several others were too. When we reappeared, we found ourselves inside of a different room. The room was fairly large, with all the ponies that had arrived in it. Surprisingly, we seemed to have all 100, but Princess Celestia was here too.

"My loyal subjects..." She said, the sadness in her voice all too evident. "The time to leave is now. The Slaughterer has arrived earlier than expected, and has started it's reign of destruction on the castle. All of the ponies inside of the castle have been teleported to a safer area, and their is nothing we could do to save the building, or even the rest of Canterlot. You one-hundred ponies are out last hope of survival. Please try your best, stay safe, and save Equestria. We have already assigned jobs to ponies. The lists are displayed in the main office, and their are digital maps placed around the ship so you can know where you are. I believe in every single one of you. Pilots! You may start the ship now." She said, a tear rolling down her cheek as the ship vibrated and hummed.

"We believe in all of you!" The Princess yelled, stepping off of the ship as it started to slowly rise off the ground. We all waved and yelled back to her different things.

"We love you!"

"We won't let you down!"

"We we will save you guys!"

And with that, the ship was completely off the ground, and we started to go up. An intercom came on, and directed us all to the bunk areas to rest and get ready to leave the planet. Following the maps, we were directed to various bunk areas by assisting ponies. When we left the room we were in, which was a large area with chairs that were bolted into the flooring, we were handed little tickets that told which section of the ship we'd be in, and we could choose which bunks we wanted.

Luckily, me, Gold, and the others had the same section of the ship, so we decided on the same bunk areas. Their were five sections, and each had two bunk areas, with ten bunks in each. We all got section 2, and made our way to the rooms.

I took a top bunk in the back corner of the room, with Gold on the one underneath mine. All of the bunks were built into the walls, with small ladders to get up to the top ones. Each bunk room had four bunks on the left and right walls, and two in the back, making it a fairly small room, but in the bunks, next to the mattress itself, was a little shelf and a sliding compartment to hold stuff. It was small but comfy.

Dual took the top bunk in the back of the room, and Lila got the one underneath him. Arrow decided to take the bottom bunk closest to the back wall on the left side of the room, leaving five other bunks for other ponies, which were taken quickly.

Underneath Dual's bunk, sat a little hole which had a window in the back of it to see outside. I laid my stuff, (which appeared next to me when I was teleported here) in my bed, and looked out the window, and the sight made my stomach turn. I could see the castle perfectly, but with smoke and fire everywhere in the front of the building, which was slowly getting smaller as we made our way up. But, I could also see the beast itself. The Slaughterer.

It was just as big as it was in the dream... Err, nightmare I had, and it was demolishing the castle. Walls and roofs collapsed before it's horrible power, and I had to look away. It was too awful. However, it was good that I looked away, because the intercom came on once again.

"Attention everypony. We advise all of you to get in your bunks, and press the button to flip open the railing, to assure that you do not fall out when we start going up faster. Also, please do not leave the bunks for any reason until said otherwise. Thank you." The intercom clicked off, and I climbed back into the bed. I looked around a bit, and finally found a little button that sat right above my head. Upon pressing, two rails came out. They had a flat top, with little bars spaced out evenly to hold the flat part in place, and to create a barrier. One from top and one from the bottom of the bed appeared next to me and locked in place once they touched. There was another button next to it, and I pressed that as well, which caused a metal panel to slide out of the top and cover the bars, to where I couldn't see out. I guess these were for privacy, but I kept I kept them there.

It was strange, and felt like prison bars, but these weren't here for prisoner containment. It was for safety. It was also neat though, because now I wouldn't fall out of my bed. And with nothing else to do, I lay back and waited.

The ship started to speed up and tipped upwards as the jet engines roared to life in the back of the ship. We were all pushed back into our pillows as the speed increased. It gave me the feeling of riding a carriage and going down a hill really fast, but this time, going up. We cruised along like this for a few minutes before I got used to it, and instead of doing nothing, I decided to check out the little compartment.

Upon inspection, it was just a little cabinet that could slide open, but now that I noticed,next to it was a little circular outline on the wall, where I though was nothing. I touched it, but nothing happened, so I started to look around. It wasn't hard to find, but it wasn't super noticeable either. Right above it, was a flat, gray button. I touched it, and the metal disk in the wall pushed into a little hole, and slid sideways into a little slit. Inside the hole was another window.

I sat up to look out, and saw the planet below me slowly getting smaller. We were so high up, I could see all of Canterlot, and even a little bit of the surrounding areas. It was a beautiful sight. I sat there looking out for a while, up until other cities were appearing. I laid back down, and allowed the final rays of light from our sun that I might ever see again light up my little bunk area with a calm warmth. At first it was gray, until we passed through the clouds.

Now it was a beautiful golden color, and warmer than before as well.

I smiled and hummed quietly to myself. This might not be so bad after all...

Author's Note

I am SOOOO sorry this took so long to get out! I didn't have time to write so I did this in one session. I will try to get the next one out sooner, but I still have stuff coming up that I gotta do. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!