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// The light will die and the moon will rise 
// Story: Alicorn falls 
// by Savanah 
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They woke with the screeching noise of the raid siren. As a single entity, the thirty ponies of the communal house number 78 woke up with barely controlled panic. They had trained for this exact kind of situation all their lives, and by now it was almost instinct that guided them calmly down the stairs. All of them had already survived to several raids during their lives and many more drills. They walked down the stairs and into the small bunker that was barely more than a hole dug into the bare rock and enclosed with the heaviest steel door they could manufacture. The lights of the house flickered as the energy was being rerouted to more vital sectors of the city. 

Lux, a skinny unicorn, was the last pony inside of the bunker. Her responsibility in emergencies was to make sure everypony was inside the moment the doors closed, or if the need arise, to decide when to close the door and let ponies outside to save the ponies inside. She had always hated this particular part of her duties; what could have been worse than to sacrifice a pony’s life to save others?

Sweet Protein, a particularly burly earth pony, tiredly dragged his hooves around counting the canned food they had in case the lockdown lasted for more than a few hours. She secretly hoped that this was just another drill, but she felt the strange tingle in her left ear that always predicted a bad omen.

Foggy Skies, a wiry pegasus, typed her personal code on the heavy locker at the back of the bunker, and with a soft hiss the heavy metal doors opened to reveal ten enchanted spears. She took one for herself and passed the others for the nine other pegasus in the bunker. She always liked the weight of the weapon in her hooves, she felt powerful holding it, knowing that the enchantments in it would cut and burn any intruder. The weapon was based on the old lances of the royal guard, the handle was scribbled with enchantments to make it sharper and sturdier, and it’s blade had two small emeralds that glowed eerily with a small ember of dragon’s fire in its interior. There was a small trigger hidden in the cable that she could easily press with her fetlocks that would cover the blade in green fire. She held herself in two hooves, spear straight at her side. For a moment she could believe herself to be a royal guard of old, just like in the histories her mother had told of brave knights fighting for honor and friendship. But the sensation was short lived, quickly replaced by the real memories of the frontlines and all the things she wanted to forget. She felt her eyes warm with fresh tears as the old memories fighted to resurface.
Foggy skies begun to scream orders, snapping the pegasi into attention and giving shouted instructions on how to use the weapons to the two novices amongst them. She felt better being in command, focusing on the task at hand of organizing a defense of the bunker. Technically, she should have been training them in the proper care and use of the spears, but most of them ended so tired from their daily tasks that she never found a proper time to instruct them.	 
Minutes passed in tense silence as the ponies took to their tasks and then there was nothing to do besides waiting, they sat on the cold stone floor and waited. They sat in tense silence as the minutes slowly passed away, and collectively they began to realize that this couldn’t be a simple drill. No matter how dedicated, no security manager would extend a drill for more than a few minutes in fear of prejudicing the city’s production.

“Anyone saw the new movie?” Windy Whisper asked. “They say it’s about Princess Luna and her defense of New Baltimare!” She spoke animatedly, but the other ponies didn’t seem to care. 
Lux giggled to herself in silence. Windy was the youngest of the house. She had moved in from one of the orphanages less than a month ago, and she was in that phase that almost every stallion or mare - Or so Lux thought- had gone through, but didn’t wanted to talk about: She had a crush on Princess Luna. Lux could still remember her own phase and blushed when she remembered a particularly shameful incident.   

“So...” Clover Flavor, a skinny green earth pony stallion, took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, “Mine Strip and I received our adoption approval and we are moving out by the end of the week.”

That was all that was needed to completely shatter the silence and make the entire bunker explode into questions and gossip. Everypony wanted to know more about the other pony and if they already had chosen a filly or foal to adopt. This also meant that they would be moving to the communal houses of the inner city. They would receive a bigger place for them and their foal, better rations, and even more free time to help with raising the foal.

The main topic of conversation then changed to the romantics and warming escapades of every pony: who was sleeping with whom for just a little heat, who was sleeping with whom because they really wanted, and who was more than just sleeping with another pony.

Lux was content to simply listen; having just finished a long and tense relationship with Ruby Cogs, she didn’t feel like sharing any of her own stories and was happy to stay away from any relationship for a while. There was always Nox, however.

It was then that silence fell again, as the thumping sound of the big batteries on the internal circle began to resonate even through all the rock that surrounded them. The ponies looked at each other in silence. those batteries would only have been put into activity if their enemy had breached the external gates and was currently pouring into the main housing areas. The pegasi held their spears tighter, looking tensely at the heavy doors, as if waiting for them to be ripped apart at any moment.

“Do you think it is…the…you know?” Stone Cold, an old grey unicorn, tripped over her own words, afraid of uttering the name.

“The Horde was last seen in the fringes of New Canterlot. We should be safe from that at least,” Lux cut the silence. Almost everypony was afraid of even speaking of the Horde, there were myths and rumors that they spread like some form of contagion through thought and word.

“Who wants to eat?” Sweet Protein asked loudly, tactically changing the subject, she didn’t really believe in those silly legends, but why tempt destiny? She began passing around some of the cans. Since they had all skipped the morning meal thanks to the alarm she was sure the ministry of subsistence wouldn’t disapprove of it.

Lux took her can and thought of heating it with magic, but knew that emergency or not, she probably would still need to go to work later and decided to save her magic for that. Her quota was already pretty low as it was. She opened the can and sighted at canned apple. Or at least they advertised it as apple. Ruby cogs had once explained to her that it was in fact a single-cell algae they produced by the tons on the industrial farms that was then processed and flavoured to taste and feel like apple, but didn’t require as much energy to produce as the real ones. Lux however had been suspicious of them. There was only a single pony alive that had ever tasted a real apple and she was sure Princess Luna had more pressing matters than the taste of common rations.

She floated a few pieces of apple to her mouth, savoring the rich and sugary taste of them even though she felt a bit of guilty for using her magic for such a simple task. The apples were much better than the regular oatmeal they had by morning. She ate them as slowly as she could, trying to savor the rare treat, but as always it had ended too fast. She then took her vitamin pills and drank the rest of the syrup from the can.

The talking slowly restarted after the meal, Sweet Protein making her best to avoid the darker topics that were bound to come up. Locked up like that there were practically no communications with the outside world and no way of knowing for sure what was happening.

When the siren finally sounded again announcing the all clear, they all breathed a sigh of relief. There was always the fear that the doors would never open again; that the city would fall and burn, leaving them stranded in their small safe room to starve to death or worse.

Lux stretched happily as they moved in line out of the bunker. She put her heavy jacket on as the cold air rushed in. Loudspeakers were calling out for specific teams of ponies and announcing the victory.

“The PUE confirms that all invading dragons were eliminated successfully,” The loudspeakers boomed. “In celebration of this great victory everypony will receive a twenty grams ration of chocolate!”

Lux smiled. They had won another day. They had survived.

Above her the inner city was in rubble. Several communal houses had been destroyed amidst the infighting. A land dreadnought, an enormous machine of war that seemed like the bastard child of a train and a battleship,  lay crippled amidst the ruins of the houses. An enormous dragon lay dead, its claws had almost ripped the inner wall.