In the Midst of the Expanse

"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...