“Day 361, available supplies have dwindled greatly. We lost contact with Scavenger Team 3 last night. ST-2 returned this morning, empty handed unfortunately.” The voice of the pony speaking takes a deep breath before carrying on with reading the report. “ST-1 returned about an hour after, though only 3 of the 12 volunteers returned. The survivors say they were attacked by Specters while they were sleeping. One of the volunteers forgot to kill the lanterns, so they were like a beacon. The other 27 Scavenger teams returned unharmed with enough supplies for the weekly quota.” With a sigh of despair, the voice slams the report onto the table he was seated at. “Fuck! That’s the third time this month we’ve lost good ponies to the damned Specters!”

Another voice clears his throat and trots up right beside the previous voice. “Niveis, it’s alright. At least the survivors brought back some weapons.”

“It’s not alright, Dawn! I’m responsible for this Sector - for these ponies! Hell, I was apointed the new leader of Ponies by the Ponies! If I lose anymore, I may just be thrown out for the Specters!” The voice of a unicorn, Niveis, exclaimed. Putting his head on the table and covering it with his hooves, he sighs in annoyance.

Moments of silence pass and the second voice, Dawn, puts a hoof on his comrades shoulder for comfort. “It’s not your fault, everyone will understand. Now c’mon, you have a meeting with the other Sectors Overseers.”

Hesitantly, if not a little shaky, Niveis sits back up, taking a deep breath before standing up on his hooves. “Right. I still don’t know why they wanted to meet here, in Sector 7.”

“Well Sector 7 is the most secure, highly armed Sector in Equestria, if not beyond. Not the mention the capitol of the survivors of the Pony Race. Of course they’d want to meet here.” Dawn explained, grabbing his Boss’s saddlebag and putting it in himself. “I’ll carry your stuff. Now lets get going, the Conference Room will be opening up in 15 minutes.”

And with that, Niveis and Dawn left the Overseers Office and down the stairs leading to the main hall of Sector 7.

Sector 7 was set up a late 8 months after The Blackout. It was formed inside a deep, large cavernous cave. Enough room to fit 350,000 residents, and still plenty of breathing room for more. The construction of Sector 7 turned it from a cave to easily 20 times more secure then the Princesses Fallback Bunker deep underneath the mountain Canterlot was perched upon. The only difference was that this was no place for royalty - it was a place for survivors. A place ponies can live without worry of dying mercilessly to the invisible claws of the [name]. And today? Today is a meeting of all the other Sectors Overseers to discuss expansion of Sector 7, and the possible formation of an alliance to create an army of the different races such as, the ponies, the zebras, the griffons, the yaks, the dragons, and everything in between.
The reason for this formation is to advance on recently discovered Rift that the Specters flood from.

The Specters are truly heartless creatures from another dimension. They lurk in the shadows - they are the shadows. There used to be a phrase, something along the lines of ‘you never see the same shadow twice’ or ‘you never have more then one shadow’. That phrase carries no weight anymore. If you have more then one shadow, or a shadow where you shouldn’t have one, you’re already dead. These creatures are merciless and relentless, hell bent in killing any living thing they see. But unbeknownst to the Survivors of The Blackout, the Specters are evolving - they’re changing. They’re becoming more deadly then ever before...

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Trotting through the main hall, Niveis was greeted by countless ponies, who’d smile at and thank their leader. The one who kept Sector 7 above water since it was just a cave in the side of a mountain.

“Hey Niveis Eventide,”. A voice called from behind, “just the pony I was looking for! The other Overseers are waiting in the conference room for you. Though I do have some news you may not like.” The voice says.

Stopping, Niveis turned around to face the body of the voice. The pony was a tall, dark blue unicorn. “What now, Ajax? I’ve had enough bad news this morning.”

“Right... I am sorry to hear about that, it’s never easy to lose ponies under your watch.” Ajax says, sighing with a hint of sadness before continuing, “But uh, yeah the Overseer of Sector 11 is here as well.”

A moment of silence from the 3 passes, including nearby ponies looked at the group in terror.

“The Changelings?! Who invited them?!” Niveis exclaimed, practically loud enough for all of Sector 7 to hear.

Dawn held his breath for a second before beginning, “I know that sounds bad, but please don’t freak out when I say that I did.” He then shielded himself from a barrage of punches and prods, which strangely were never delivered. And then Dawn realized that Niveis was no longer in front of him.

Chuckling to himself, Ajax bumped Dawn on the shoulder. “He left towards the conference room half way through your little confession. He’ll be fine though, he knows that if he goes off at the Changeling, it’ll ruin our rep. Everything will be fine.” And with a flash of his horn, Ajax flashes away with magic, leaving Dawn there alone, the centre of attention of all the ponies that overheard the talk of changelings. Clearly they all wanted answers, and all Dawn could manage was to say, “Oh boy, here we go.”

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Niveis stood there, staring at the door to the conference room. Unsure how to feel about this. He knows that this meeting is important, but he almost just wants to call it off, or at least not participate. But unfortunately, he just had to stow those thoughts away. Taking a long, deep breath, Niveis pushes open the door of the Conference room. In each of the 6 seats was the Overseers of each respective Sector, and at that, race. From left to right, there was Noura, The Overseer of the Griffon Sector 9. Cadmus, newly appointed leader of the Dragons, who are held up in the dragon lands. Yeshua, Overseer and leader of the Yaks, Sector 16. Princess Skystar, Leader of the Hypogriffs and seaponies, Sector 3. Zeke, Overseer of all of the Zebra colonies, also known as Sector 12. Next is Hidden Flame, Overseer of the small Kirin race, Sector 2. And finally Azul, newly appointed Overseer and Queen of the remaining Changelings, Sector 11. There was only 1 empty seat, and that was Niveis'.

Niveis pulled out his chair and sat atop it, clearing his throat and breaking the silence. "Welcome everyone, to Sector 7. I hope you all found the trip here safe and smooth."

"Ha! Barely! We were surrounded, but scorched our path here! Those Specters hate the light of our fire!" Cadmus exclaimed, in the very forward and intense way dragons usually speak.

"It went well. Thankfully those things can't fly, so we were able to fly through the Eternal Storm." Noura explained, showing were bruised and battered wings to show the effort put into such a feat.

Azul cleared her throat and stood up, looking at and speaking directly to Niveis. "I lost two good drones coming here. This better be worth it." A moment of silence passes, until Azul speaks up again, "Are you even the right pony anyways? You don't look like what I'd imagine the leader of ponykind would look like." She says, mocking Niveis.

"I didn't invite you here Azul, that was my secretary. I'd kick you out if I could." Niveis shoots back, not even looking in the Changelings direction once. "That aside, we're all gathered here today to form an alliance. As I'm sure you're all aware by now, a Rift has been detected. We're not sure exactly where yet, but I have my top scientists from all the Sectors under my watch working out how to pinpoint its location, and how we can destroy it," Niveis explains, with the full undivided attention of all but Azul, who was staring at the ceiling sighing silently. "Now I don't know how long it'll take to find it, but once we do and have a way to take it out, I suggest we should use our combined forces to beat the Specters back and at the very least, contain the rift. Any comments or questions so far?" Niveis asks, and less then a second later Azul chimes up.

"Yeah. What makes you certain this 'rift' or whatever can be contained, let alone destroyed?" Azul questions, already sounding bored out of her mind from this meeting.

For the first time, Niveis looks a the Changeling, if only for a few seconds and says, "I'm not certain of anything. Even if we can't get rid of the rift, this alliance will be beneficial to us all. As much as I'd hate to say this next part, I have to." Niveis says, preparing to talk of the terms of the Alliance. "As you all know, Sector 7 is the largest and most secure Sector. With as many body able ponies as we have, we can send some volunteers to other Sectors to help them with their problems. The less problems we all have, the stronger we'll all be in the fight for survival against the Specters."

"So you'll send us ponies?" Azul asks, her attention clearly caught.

Sighing in annoyance, Niveis nods and then looks to Azul, but with more of a concerned look. "Yes, that includes Sector 11. Your Sector."

"We have a deal. After this conference, I'll list off the kind of ponies we need. So hurry up and make this quick." Azul added, now more in a rush then anything.

"Right... Anyways, does anyone else have any other comments or questions regarding this alliance?" Niveis announced, which was met with silence. Until Cadmus spoke out.

"Your ponies won't be able to survive the Dragon Lands. I'll ask for metals instead. We need to make doors for the Caverns, which is the first for us Dragons." Cadmus explained. Dragons have gotten by pretty well thus far, since they live in caverns full of lava so there's always plenty of light to deter the Specters.

"Yeshua has question too," Yeshua began, "We need food and doctors. Can Niveis provide those?"

Niveis nodded and tried to put on a more professional tone, "Yes to both of you. We have plenty of metal Cadmus and his dragons can haul. As for you Yeshua, I can provide you with plenty of food and a hoof full of Doctors and Nurses. Is that all?" Niveis asked, which was followed by silence. "Alright, good. On the paper in front of you is the terms we here at Sector 7 have thought up - what we need from each of your respective Sectors. All you have to do is sign your name and sector, with you approval of the alliance. Anything any of you need from us can be taken up with my Secretary Dawn." Nevies spoke, standing up, going to and opening the door conference room. "Now as the Overseer of Sector 7, it's my job to offer you all a place to stay for the night so you don't have to risk the Eclipse." And with that, all of the Overseers, including Azul much to Niveis's surprise, followed him.

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I was about an hour after Niveis set up living spaces for the Overseers to stay for the night. They had surprisingly all approved the Alliance, and listed their demands to Niveis's secretary, Dawn. All except for one...

"Knock knock, it's the one you hate." voice said from outside Niveis's office, knocking on the door.

Knowing the voice, Niveis sighed and put his research documents from his scientists away out of sight. "Come in, I guess." Only a second after him allowing entry, the door creaked open slowly. And there standing in the door way was Azul, Queen of the changeling. "Are you sure you're the right changeling? You don't look like the what I imagined the Queen of the changelings to look like." Niveis mocked, as he wanted to when Azul mocked him.

"I have my list of demands." Azul says, as if she didn't even hear him mock her.

"Then take them up with Dawn, his in the office at the bottom of the stairs." Niveis insists, pulling his documents out again assuming the changeling would leave.

"No." Azul says simply, "I only deal with those in charge. And as far as I can tell, that's you. Besides, I have information on a the rift."

Shooting his head up, Niveis looks straight at Azul in hopes she has information he doesn't already have. "Get in and close the door. You better have something I don't know otherwise this is a waste of time." With that, Azul did as she was told. She was the first to speak up again.

"First things first. I need 50 ponies who can handle mining and expansion to the hive. We also need a stable source of foo-" Azul was saying, though she was cut off by Niveis.

"I'm not giving you innocent good ponies to feed off of. That's off the table." Niveis interrupted, now sounding angered.

"IF you would let me finish, I was just going to ask farmers. We worked out a way to make a garden with rich soil and magic made sunlight. Since we can't use ponies anymore, we've resorted to 'normal' food." Azul explained, slightly offended by Niveis's outburst.

Genuinely shocked, Niveis shook it off and put his hoof out. "If that's all, we'll shake on it here and now. If your method is effective, you will tell us how to make that kind of garden. Ours are barely getting by."

"Deal." Azul replied simply, taking his hoof and shaking it. "About the Rift though, I think I know where it is."

TO BE CONTINUED?

Author's Note

Alright, so hi. This is my first story, and I have big plans for it. I do hope at least someone will find this interesting, because I'm definitely happy with it so far. I may make more short stories here and there, maybe even in this universe. Not sure when I'll write the second chapter, but probably a day or two after this story passes approval.

Well anyways, I'll be off. Thanks for reading!