Author's Note

Right so I know I'm not good at action but I attempted a tiny bit here in hopes I get better. I do hope someone finds this story I'm making entertaining because I'm proud of it.

Thanks in advance for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

They Evolve

The roaring thunder of the approaching storm could be heard clear through the first few floors of Sector 7. The Eternal Storm. It appeared about a month into The Blackout. This storm was so vast, it could cover an entire continent. Since the storm began, it has shown no signs of letting up, and likely won’t for, well, eternity. Inside of the storm is easily the deadliest place you could possibly be, but not because of the neck breaking wind speeds or the constant thunder and lighting. But because thousands, if not millions of Specters followed the cover of the Eternal Storm. And no amount if light could save you inside of the storm because the darkness stifles the light with ease. Its impossible to survive in the storm, and likely never will be possible.
Despite the stillness of the sun and moon, there are still days and nights. The day is still dark as the sun is just barely over the horizon, so Specters are often encountered on the surface. Night time is called The Eclipse. This is when an unnatural cloud in the upper atmosphere covers up the light of the celestial bodies. This is when the Specters are most active. And most deadly...

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"Ugh..." Niveis groaned, sluggishly pulling himself into a sitting position on his cot. "I need to try to get some decent sleep eventually... If only I had the free time..." He complained.

It's been a quick 2 weeks since the Conference, but plenty of progress has been made. Thanks to the Intel provided by Azul, the newfound Queen of the Changelings, the Rift has been located. On top of that, all the demands of the Sectors have been fulfilled, and Sector 7 even got some dragons as heavy lifters who could transport stuff via the sky, rather then risk the dangerous ground.

"Hey Niveis, Ajax needs a meeting with you." Dawn said, peaking into Niveis's room (and office). "He said not to keep him waiting because it's important." He continued.

"Yeah yeah, I got it. Tell him I'll be there soon." Niveis replied, letting out an audible yawn as we brought himself to his hooves. "Oh and get a message to Sector 12 that we'll send them extra assistance once the storm passes."

"Will do." Dawn acknowledged before speaking again. "And don't forget to grab some breakfast on the way to meet Ajax, I heard Mrs. Symphony managed to scrape together some good muffins."

Yawning and bringing himself to his hooves, Niveis says, "Good to know she can still manage making some good food down here. Well thanks for the heads up, Dawn." And with that, Dawn disappeared from the doorway and down the stairs. That's when Niveis realized he didn't even ask where Ajax was. "Shit. Looks like I'm going on a scavenger hunt, then..."

With one more, smaller yawn, Niveis put away some documents he left out overnight before heading out of his office, and down the stairs to the rest of the first floor of the Sector. Once down the stairs, Niveis's senses were attacked by the sweet aroma of muffins. "That's probably Mrs. Symphony's work." He says simply, trotting in the direction of the smell. Soon enough, we was face to face with the humble little stand Mrs. symphony put together for the morning muffins she had made.

Taking in the pleasant smell of muffins, Niveis sighs satisfyingly before saying, "Good morning, Mrs. Symphony. I see you manage to make some muffins."

The timid old mare looked up, joy in her eyes to see who she sees. "It's been a while since I've seen you around this side of the Sector, dear. Are you doing well? Are you getting enough sleep?" She probes, clearly concerned for Niveis.

With a short laugh, Niveis smiled and reassured her, "I'm just fine, Mrs. Symphony. How about yourself?" He then asked.

"Just wonderful, dear! And please, I've told you many times that you don't have to be so formal. Would you like a muffin?" Mrs. Symphony questioned, with a sweet genuine smile.

"I could really go for one right about now. What are you charging?" Niveis questions back, realizing he completely forgot to bring his saddlebag.

Pushing the biggest, plumpest looking muffin she had towards Niveis, she whispered, "One free cupcake for you, dear. You've been working so hard to keep us all happy, so you deserve it."

Taking the muffin in his hoof, put it up to his nose to once again smell the sweet smell he hadn't experienced in so long, he could feel himself getting hungrier by the second. "I don't deserve anything but I know you won't let me leave empty hoofed, so thank you. Have a good day, will ya?" Mrs. Symphony smiled sweetly and nodded before getting back to her other customers who were waiting. trotting away, Niveis took a large bite out of the muffin, and was attacked by not only things he hasn't had the leisure of tasting in a while, but it also brought back some memories of the good old days. Granted that felt weird for him to think because those good old days were from just over a year ago. Niveis could distinctly remember his neighbors, one of which was Mrs. Symphony, and her baked goods she'd give to her neighbors, and her usual colts and fillies that would turn up to visit the neighborhood granny.

Being shook out of his nostalgia, Niveis found himself face to face with Ajax. "Ah. Hi. I was supposed to find you, but looks like you found me first." Ne joked, taking another bite of the muffin.

"You need to get up to the Entrance, like, now. The spotters say there's a large group of ponies approaching slowly, and without any light to protect them." Ajax explained. "Which as you know, is impossible. any living creature without a light source would be shredded into pieces immediately."

Curiosity getting the better of him, Niveis stuffs the rest of the muffin in his mouth, which he didn't do consciously, as he bolted off towards the path to the entrance of Sector 7, and Ajax followed suit. Once they arrived there, the two guards wielding flamethrowers blocking the door looked at each other, wondering why Niveis Eventide of all ponies would be at the surface, but they cleared the way and opened the door anyways. As Niveis and Ajax crossed from the safe interior to the outside, thankfully heavily lit outside, one of the Spotters seen him and began to explain the situation.

"Sir, a large group of ponies without any lighting are approaching. I don't think they'll last out there for much longer, so what should we do?" The spotter explains and questions, putting his eyes back on the aforementioned ponies. Quickly trotting up the stairs to where the spotter was posted, Niveis takes the spyglass they were using and looked through it. Using a spell, he zoomed in with the spyglass.

Moments of silence pass as the group of ponies gets close enough to be made out. "Those aren't ponies..." Niveis stated, clearly disturbed by the sight. "Get the flamethrowers lit up, and get one of the dragons out here."

"Sir?" The spotter asks, "What do you mean? What else could they be?" Hoofing the spyglass back, Niveis, now actually shaking ever so slightly, quickly hurries down the stairs to Ajax.

"Ajax, you heard me. Ready the flamethrowers and get a dragon out here. Those are Specters, not ponies. Look for yourself if you don't believe me." Clearly in a hurry, Niveis made his way back to the door. Before Ajax could even say anything, all the braziers, candles, and lamps were blown out simultaneously. Stopping dead in his tracks, Niveis turns back to face Ajax while lighting up his horn for light. "What just happened? Get those lights back on!"

"It may be too late for that!" The spotter from before exclaimed, "T-they teleported or something, they're roughly 20 feet from the ga-" Before he could finish, one of the seemingly 3D Specters launched itself at the spotter, knock him out of the tower and hard onto the ground. The Specter, now truly confirmed 3D to Niveis's eyes, were nightmares to behold. They were vaguely pony shaped, made of a pulsating black, almost smoky substance with a mouth for a face, with countless rows of razor sharp teeth that were the only non-black thing on them. And that's when it looked at Niveis.

Letting out a blood curdling screech, one that could alone give you nightmares, it lunged at Niveis. Luckily for him, One of the door guars from earlier lit the Specter up with his flamethrower. The Specter went up in flames, screeching as if in pain as it slowly dwindled away into nothingness. It seemed as if they were still susceptible to light, and predominantly fire at that.

Stumbling backwards, Niveis bee lined it to the door with Ajax by his side to go get reinforcements. Luckily, they already arrived. However, Niveis and Ajax were forced to stay inside, despite them both wanting to help to reduce casualties. Unfortunately for them, they were priority assets...

"The hell was that?!" Ajax exclaimed, clearly panicked.

"The Specters..." Niveis began, more calm now, "The fucking Specters aren't just shadows anymore. But how does that work?" He questions himself, more then Ajax.

Pacing back and forth, Ajax looks at the door separating them from outside. Beyond the door the yelling of ponies and the flamethrowers could be heard, as well as the screeching of the Specters. "This is a whole new ball game. Our tactics to defend against the Specters has to be updated, and now!" Ajax suggests.

"But how do we know it's just these ones that happen to be... 3D?" Niveis says, truthfully doubting they're the only ones.

'We don't but it's safe to prepare anyways." Ajax began, as the roar of a dragon could be heard from outside. Finally the heavy weapon arrived. " Hell, lanterns and brazier won't work anymore because they were just blown out! They couldn't do that before!"

"Alright, alright! Let's get back to the main hall. Pull out the electric lights, we may have to use those instead, despite being as low as we are on them." Niveis demanded, making his way back towards the main hall.

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When Niveis and Ajax got to the main hall, Ajax was only just now being hit by the severity of this new situation. Niveis however was surprisingly calm, or at least he was on the surface. "Ajax, get a team to haul out the electric lights. We only have a few, but we have to make sure the entrance to the rest of the Sector is lit up and safe."

"You don't think they'll actually get this far, do you?" Ajax asks, still panicked and physically shaky.

"No, but it's better to be safe then sorry so get it done. Now." At this point, Niveis was in more of an authoritative commanding state. His mind was flooding, and he could feel the adrenaline from the events, as short lived as they were, dying down. "I just hope there aren't a lot of casualties... Hopefully none."

"Don't dwell on that too long if there is. They would have died defending their home and one of the last safe spaces for ponies." Ajax advises. He'd know that dwelling on the dead would slow you down, as he would often be on the frontlines of many battles before The Blackout around fallen brothers and sisters.

"Niveis? Ajax? What happened?" Dawn asked, coming around the corner and in front of the two, "First a bunch of guards with flamethrowers rushed up top, and then you two turn up looking like you've just seen a ghost?" He continued to question. Looking them up and down, he could tell something was up.

"Get to my office and get ready to send messages. We need to alert the other Sectors immediately." Niveis vaguely explained, speed trotting past Ajax and Dawn and towards his office.

Catching up to Niveis, Dawn looked at Niveis more afraid then concerned. "Are you not going to tell me whats going on?"

"The Specters are... Evolving. They're now 3D." Niveis explains, not stopping to wait for Dawn as he had a job to do.

Stopping in his tracks, Dawn looks on with frightful eyes and a horrified face. "They're WHAT?!"

TO BE CONTINUED?