Fluttershy frowned as she followed Celestia and Luna to a large metal bunker covered in arcane runes, Celestia’s horn glowed and the door opened revealing a set of stairs. They went down to see a what appeared to be reinforced rooms, one had a kitchen, another was a pair of small bedrooms. She frowned “This place seems cosy but doesn’t seem to have much in the way of resources.”

Celestia sighed “It was supposed to protect us from an attack like this, but not to sustain us for long afterwards.”

Luna grimaced “So how are we going to survive here? There isn’t exactly a lot of food.”

Fluttershy shrugged “I’m a carnivore now so I can find plenty of food out there but you two are not I assume.” Celestia nodded, Fluttershy frowned “Well then we will need to take enough space to cultivate land and keep it clear.”

Luna frowned “But how do we do that? All those creatures want to kill us.”

Fluttershy frowned “Do you have a table, I could come with some ideas for a blueprint of a defensive wall that will keep them out while allowing light in to grow plants.”

Luna blinked “Fluttershy, when did you learn that? Last time I checked you were animal caretaker in Ponyville.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow “Luna, she has been head of the Canterlot Science Division for over four hundred years. Have you not paid any attention?”

Luna slumped “I don’t like science, it was always somepony trying to explain something in a really complicated way and I thought Starswirl’s lectures were boring. He has nothing on those droll old professors.”

Fluttershy shrugged “Fair enough, if you really want to learn anything read the books on science it is quite intriguing once you move past the droll lectures” she grinned “when we see Twilight don’t tell her this but I slept through all the lectures. I passed using the books.”

Luna laughed “Seriously, take that boring lecturers!”

Celestia sighed “Fluttershy, please don’t encourage her. If she had her way she would fire every last one of them for being boring, they are good at what they do.”

Fluttershy frowned “It’s not good for the stagnant, boring professors to be trying to inspire new thoughts. I saw where Twilight got her long winded lecturing habits from, science requires fresh thought. Do you how many said my thesis was insane? Only Twilight believed in me and that theory after years of work and dedication lead to the first core, some old coots almost stopped one of the greatest developments in Equestrian History!”

Celestia frowned “That’s true but would have us do with them."

Fluttershy scowled darkly, her eyes fading into darkness “None of them are left so it is not an immediate concern, for now I must come up with a plan to help you two survive this mess.”

They watched in shock as the former pegasus sent several scrolls hovering around her in a glow of dark green magic while several quills were forming blueprints on each scroll. Luna cautiously inquired “How are you doing that?”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow before looking at the glowing quills in realisation “Ah yes, I studied everything involving thaumic energy including magical spells. It was very important for me to understand thaumic energy thoroughly in order to design the cores which were designed to spread thaumic energy through entire cities.”

Celestia frowned “And whatever caused you to become like this gave you access to magic. Hmm when we find a way out of the city, we should do some tests on your new body.”

Fluttershy grimaced “Maybe, I’m not keen on being experimented on by anyone pony or otherwise. Now I have to finish these…” She growled as she saw a strange glowing orb pulsating with dark magic “What is that?!”

Luna frowned “Oh that’s Sweetie Belle’s Phylactery, still can’t believe those three fillies stumbled upon a dark mage’s cave.”

Fluttershy shook her head “Scootaloo became a Ghoul and Apple Bloom became Wendigo. To this day I wonder how they found that cave.”

Celestia frowned “So do I but they have been very quiet about how they found it. Still I decided to trust them, they are good ponies.”

Fluttershy giggled “Yes but they cause a lot of trouble. Now I need you two to help me with these plans.”

Celestia looked at the plans, her eyes widened “These require Thaumic Glass to build, we have no way of acquiring that!”

Fluttershy shook her head “Wrong, there should be some around. Much of the glass in Canterlot would have survived, the Thaumic energy of the core would have turned much of the city’s glass into Thaumic Glass which is nearly indestructible. I’ll simply collect some and begin construction.”

Luna grimaced “And what will we do then. We don’t want to be useless, speaking of which why haven’t we tried to telport to Ponyville. It should be easy.”

Fluttershy shook her head “The best case scenario is the ambient magic will mess with your teleport and you will lose a limb. It also could just explode killing you instantly. We will need to wait for a rescue team but the chance of them making it this far are incredibly low.

Meanwhile as Fluttershy exited the Bunker, Twilight had just awoken. She was struggling to come to terms with everything but Equestria needed a leader and she was the only Princess left in the nation.

Twilight exited her room, lines glowing with light flowed from the smaller Ponyville Core guards and scientists roamed the halls. She looked out to the small town, which hadn’t changed to drastically other than every building powered by the core. Being so close to the Everfree Forest had meant that expansion was ill advised, not to mention the random disaster of the week that caused massive structural damage to the town.

Twilight saw that everypony in the town was looking at her, several nobles form who somehow had managed to escape Canterlot were also there. Twilight wore a clam emotionless mask as she spoke “Canterlot is gone, everypony in the city is gone!”

Twilight boomed in her Royal Canterlot Voice before the town could panic “I WILL ARRANGE A RESCUE TEAM TO FIND ANY SURVIVORS! IN THE MEANTIME AS THE SOLE REMAINING PRINCESS YOU CAN BRING ANY AFFAIRS TO ME! THAT IS ALL!” She trotted to the map room and laid down on the desk hoping to get a little rest while awaiting for the horde of ponies she would have to reassure.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.