Canterlot.

The sunlight streaming through the windows of the throne room had a pinkish tinge as I strode down the dusty red carpet towards Celestia’s throne. However, my aunt was not on the seat of Equestria’s power, nor Aunt Luna. The throne was on its side, facing the east wall. Behind it was an open door that I had never seen before.

I had to approach it, I could not resist. It was as if my body was compelled to enter the mysterious passage and probe its depths. As I ascended the short flight of stairs up to the dais, I passed the toppled throne without a second glance and descended a flight of stairs into Canterlot Mountain.

Down, down, down into the mountain I followed the stone stairwell, the torches on wall were silent, their flames frozen in time, yet this strange phenomenon did not seem to phase me. After what seemed like an eternity, but probably only took a few minutes, I entered a room I didn’t know existed. Countless treasures filled the room, each one pulsing with arcane energy that I could feel at my core were both great and terrifying in the scope of their powers.

From the birdbath filled with glowing, bubbling water to the numerous magical tomes that lined the shelves along the far wall, I actually had to stop to take in the sight of this hidden repository of magical mysteries. My eyes settled on a mirror, its purple frame adorned with rubies and cobalt filigree. It seemed familiar to me, but I didn’t know why. I reached out a golden shod hoof towards the frame, caressing it softly, and sighed.

“I really hope this place is safe from the Enclave,” I said under my breath. Turning away from the mirror without even glancing at my own reflection, I continued on into the arcane archive. I would occasionally glance at one object or another, but not for too long before I would continue towards some unknown goal.

“Where am I going?” I thought as I approached a bare stone wall.

As if in response to my question, the wall ahead of me opened and revealed a colt laying in an ornate bed. He was exactly as I would have imagined him, his blue coat practically glowing in the still torchlight, his violet eyes tired, yet happy. Spelunker was not only whole again, but he was better than before. A lovely set of wings ruffled on his back as he turned to me and I couldn’t help but notice the horn proudly protruding from his forehead. The transformation into a beautiful alicorn had worked and the colt I had killed smiled at me tiredly.

“Hello mother,” he said calmly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “I knew you would find me first.”

“We have to go! I’m not letting you die too! Come...” I froze, realizing that I was stepping towards him slowly instead of rushing to him. I wanted to run to Spelunker, but my body was moving on its own again, it felt different. It felt wrong. “What’s happening? What did you do to me?”

“What I had to,” Spelunker sighed, closing his eyes and smiling sadly. “You know we can’t let her kill me. This has to be done.”

“No. No... Not again,” I protested, trying in vain to stop myself, but I continued to approached the bed. “Don’t make me do this. Please...”

“It has to be done, mother. It’s already been done. It’s will be done again. It is fate’s design. I do not blame you,” Spelunker told me as I climbed into the bed and took him in my hooves, tears streaming down my face.

“How are you doing this?” I asked as I held him close to my breast.

“You know how, mother,” he said. I paused for a moment, just holding him until I must have been struck by an epiphany.

“My nightmares!” I gasped. Spelunker simply nodded.

“It had to be done, mother. I knew you wouldn’t do it after Winter Rose told you the truth. Even if it would doom the entire world, you wouldn’t kill me of your own free will.”

“There has to be another way. I can’t. Don’t...” I wanted to sob, but my body was foreign to me. I could barely muster the tears falling down my cheeks. “If you make me do this, I won’t be able to live with myself. I can’t go on.”

“Yes, you can. You’re stronger than you know. You have your friends and family to help you through this. I am the last, but I will be born again.”

“Don’t...”

“It’s time, mother.” My hooves moved to hold his head between mine as I stared into his eyes. His violet eyes... So much like mine.

“Don’t... I don’t want to do this. Don’t make me do this.”

“You have to do this. I love you,” he said softly, closing his eyes and smiling with contentment.

“No!” I screamed as my hooves twisted faster and harder than I would ever want to do to anypony and watched in horror as Spelunker’s head twisted sharply and a sickening snap filled my ears.

“No!” I awoke screaming, my bed sheets drenched in sweat and my pillow sopping wet with tears. Almost immediately, a pair of teal hooves took me into an embrace and hugged me tight.

“It’s okay, Aria. It was just a dream. Just a really bad dream,” Melody whispered as I sobbed in the darkness of our hotel room. I was in Stableton, in our room at the Silver Pegasus.

“It’s not okay. I killed him,” I moaned, trying to pull away from Melody.

“It was an accident. We all saw what he got mutated into-”

“I mutated him! He got into the taint I puked after turning into that monster! It’s all my fault!” I sobbed, curling into a little ball as she pulled me back into the spoons position. A hug from my family should have helped, but I was inconsolable at the moment. Do you want to know the worst part of all this? It was one in the morning on the day that should have been the Summer Sun Celebration.

It was my birthday.

In the seventeen years of my life, through all the heartache and harsh treatment life had thrown my way, I had never felt this horrible. Golden Star had told me to keep fighting, but I couldn’t find the strength. Littlepip was supposed to bring the light, but I could only see darkness. I had done something unspeakably horrible, and yet I was supposed to keep marching forward when I couldn’t stand any more. How could I, or any pony with a shred of pony decency, keep going after all of this?

“Then don’t turn into that monster again. You really scared me when you changed, Aria,” Melody whispered softly. “Can you promise me that?”

“Okay,” I said, curling up back into an even tighter ball and letting my niece hold me. Weren’t aunts supposed to comfort their nieces, not the other way around? While she gave me all of her love and support, all I could do was cry and stare at the orange bottle of anti-depressants that Compass had left on the bedside table.

Only my own sadness met me within the hollows of my mind. The only consolation of my horrible depression is that I could not hear the mocking, vulgar voice of The Nightmare. Without her tempting me with power or other more base desires, making that promise to Melody was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Still, even without the Nightmare’s seductive words drifting in from the back of my mind, it was becoming harder and harder for me to keep it together.

“Boom, baby!” Check cried as she kicked in the door, a green plastic visor on her brow and a half empty pitcher of beer floating in her telekinesis. Starting out of his bed with a yelp, Compass grabbed his pistol off the nightstand and shakily leveled it at Check before releasing a long breath and lowering it. Melody, on the other hoof, had already drawn her laser pistol with her right wing while covering me protectively from our drunk friend. I didn’t even budge, mostly because I partially wished it were a raider come to kill me instead of my promiscuous friend.

“Celestia damn it, Check! You scared the horse apples out of us!” Melody shouted.

“Buncha party poopers! Y’all should be celebrating with me!” Check proclaimed before taking another swig of her beer. “All hail Captain Check, greatest ship captain and luckiest bitch in all of the Trottingham Ruins!”

“Wait... You won?” Compass asked.

“Yup! Kicked old Jack’s ass with a four of a kind on the river! Four tens beats three jacks any day of the week!”

“You beat Jack...” Compass said, worry heavy on his voice.

“That would explain why Ace was alone,” Melody said softly.

“Eeyup! What does a fucking dragon zombie need a boat for anyway? The scaley bastards got wings!” Check laughed before noticing my sad state. “Fire Flanks! Come have a drink with me! Loosen up a little!”

“Check,” Melody started, but Compass was already on it.

Rushing to the door, Compass quickly pulled Check outside and closed the door behind him.

“She’s a lot louder than I remember her.”

Sitting by the window as silent as a shadow but as serious as an oncoming storm, The Doctor watched the dark sky as if the stars were still visible beyond the cloud blanket. His eyes betrayed an age that his young body did not. The fact that he had remained silent and just waited in the darkness of our room both comforted me about his presence and set me on edge. Why was he really here? Why did he stop me from killing myself down in the sewers? And most importantly, how did he know who I was?

The door opened a crack before I heard Check say, “She’s really taking it hard, huh?”

“Of course she is,” Compass replied. “A child is dead and she feels responsible. She is responsible.”

“Well, yeah, but if he got into Taint, then it was more a mercy killing then a murder,” she added, not making me feel any better.

“Check. Aria’s dealing with some serious depre-” Compass started, but I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation as another wave of fatigue washed over me and I almost immediately fell asleep.

Thankfully, I didn’t dream again. My eyes opened and the room was consumed by shadow. I could hear Melody’s steady breathing and feel the gentle movements of the rise and fall of her chest. Carefully pulling away from my niece as not to wake her, I silently moved towards the only other pony who was awake. I joined The Doctor at the window and looked out at the horrid sight of the Trottingham Ruins. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say, I just took in the view of the crumbling buildings and the sounds of a manticore roaring in the distance.

“Can’t sleep either?” I finally whispered.

“I do not need to,” The Doctor replied, “My physiology does not require as much sleep as hu... I mean, ponies.”

“But you are a pony.”

He just smiled.

“That is how I appear, Aria, but even you know that things are not always as such.”

“So what are you then? And how did you just appear in the sewers with that box?”

“It’s as I said, I’m The Doctor,”

“Doctor who?”

“That never gets old, but that is all. My name is The Doctor. To answer your question about my ‘box,’ she is called the T. A. R. D. I. S.”

“A Tardis? I can’t say that I’ve ever heard that word before.”

“It’s not a word. It’s an acronym. It means ‘Time And Relative Dimensions In Space,” he said, giving me a goofy grin.

“Time and Relative... It’s a time machine?” I replied, causing his grin to grow in strength and goofiness.

“You may be younger and less experienced, but you’re the same big brained Aria that helped me back at Everfree,” The Doctor replied, giving me an overly familiar kiss on the forehead that sent a flush to my cheeks and my eyes wide. However, it wasn’t a romantic kiss and definitely not sexual in nature. It just seemed to be a kiss share between two friends; the only problem with this being that I didn’t even know this stallion. Or something that was not a stallion as he seemed to want me to believe.

“But if it’s a time machine, why are you here? Why is any of this here? If you can travel through time at will, couldn’t you stop the war from happening? Warn Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna! Warn the zebra caesar! Warn anypony!”

“Snrk...” Check snored, tossing in her bed for a moment. I threw my hooves over my mouth and watched my friends begin to stir slightly before settling back to sleep.

“Things might get a little heated so perhaps we can take this somewhere where we won’t disturb your friends. You may have gotten your sleep and I do not require it, but they need it, wouldn’t you say?” The Doctor whispered, gesturing to the open window.

“I think maybe we should go out the door. We are on the second floor after all and I don’t feel like teleporting us down at the moment,” I said, giving him a wry, empty smile that he returned with much more feeling behind it.

“I thought of just that problem,” he replied before clopping his forehooves together and the blue box appeared outside the window, hovering gently and opening its door to reveal the large control room inside. Stepping through the window and turning to offer his hoof to me, The Doctor asked, “Are you coming?”

I stopped, staring at his hoof before turning to look at my sleeping friends. If this stallion was telling the truth, we could go back in time and save the world. We could stop my mother from killing herself. We could go meet Star Swirl the Bearded and ask him what the hell was up with his final spell. There were so many possibilities lying before me if I took The Doctor’s hoof in mine, but then a thought crossed my mind.

“If he could do any of the stuff I was thinking about, then why hadn’t he?”

Then another thought arose that set me a little more at ease. If The Doctor wanted to hurt me, why would he have stopped me from killing myself down in the sewers?

“If I come with you, you promise me you’ll explain why you haven’t saved the world, or my mother, or Spelunker?”

“I will. I promise you I will,”

“And you’ll return me right back here?” I said, pointing down at the floor.

“Of course.”

“You promise?”

“Trust me. I’m-”

“The Doctor,” I said, cutting him off before pulling myself into the Tardis.

“Right you are!” he shouted as the door closed behind me. He rushed over to the console and started pressing what appeared to be completely random buttons and pulling levers. “You look a little awestruck. Anything you would like to say? Or ask?”

Now that I had a few moments to take in the vastness of the the room compared to the size of the box, it was almost spellbinding. However, my mind immediately started thinking of ways a pony could create a box that was bigger on the inside than on the outside and only one possible solution came to my mind.

“It’s some sort of pocket dimension, isn’t it? The door to the Tardis leads to another dimension that has the controls where the box appears.”

“So that’s how you knew about it the other two times we met. I always figured I told you, but you figured it out yourself. You’re a regular Smart Cookie, you are. By the way, Smart Cookie was an impeccable dancer along with being the only pony who could ever put up with Chancellor Puddinghead’s silliness,” he told me, pulling down on a large lever and bringing the Tardis to life.

The humming and sighing sound started up again as the massive tube of purple light pulsed to the rhythm, but I didn’t feel anything I would call movement. If I didn’t know any better I would say we were still floating outside the Silver Pegasus.

“So where are you taking me? Wouldn’t this pocket dimension be a safe enough place for you to tell me why you’ve been abusing your power and not stopping the war from happening?”

Turning to me with a smile, The Doctor ignored my more important question and decided to answer the other.

“You told me back in the Summersand Islands that you missed the sky, especially the stars and the moon. How about I show you something absolutely amazing?”

“I guess that’s okay, but I would rather know why you haven’t stopped the murder of millions of ponies.”

“All in due time, my dear,” he said before rushing past me to the door. The engines of The Doctor’s time machine died back down and he stopped at the doors. “You’re a big fan of Princess Luna, right?”

“You could say that. Why?”

“Because now I can welcome you,” he said, throwing open the doors to the Tardis, “To Princess Luna’s domain.”
At first, all I saw was darkness, but almost immediately a sliver of light entered my field of vision and I started to see beyond the unimaginably large object in front of us. It moved past us so fast and so silently I almost didn’t think it was real, but I could not understand what this titan was until The Doctor spoke again.

“Oops. Looks like we re-materialized on the dark side of the moon.”

“The moon?” I asked, but as I followed the massive object, I started to see a familiar chalky white crescent begin to form as it moved away from us. My jaw dropped and I watched it, Luna’s moon, move gently away from us at speeds I didn’t know was possible for an object so large.

And then the heavens opened up and revealed their many splendors to me.

Stars. Millions of stars, more than I had ever seen during my stargazing sojourns down on Equestria, filled the night sky. No, this wasn’t the night sky. This was something else. Here, high above Equestria and beyond Luna’s moon, not only did I see the moon and the stars, but off in the distance, burning brighter than it had ever burned before but giving off no perceivable intense heat, was Celestia’s sun. The sun, the moon, and the stars were all here and below I could see all of Equestria.

Equestria itself looked so small and nothing like the globe in the Royal Library. It was just an off white sphere without any of the greens and blues making up the seas and the land. Compared to the amazing view all around it, my home was a pale, unimpressive ball of almost gray.

“It’s too bad about that cloud blanket,” The Doctor said, almost reading my mind, “Equestria was a real jewel back before the war. Reminded me a little of Earth.”

“The cloud blanket,” I said to myself. Of course, the planet looked white because it was covered in clouds that blocked my view of the land and oceans below. A spark of anger ignited my passions, sending me on a mental tirade that I’d rather not repeat, but let’s just say it was not very kind towards the Enclave in general. They had taken the sky from Equestria, they had tried to take Melody’s cutie mark, and now they had taken my chance to see Equestria from this once in a billion lifetimes vantage point.

“Yes. The Enclave. They make flying with the Tardis even harder than it normally is.”

“But it doesn’t have to be!” I shouted, turning on my companion. “You have a time machine! A fudging time machine! Use it! Stop the war! Stop all this from happening!”

“I can’t,” he replied, looking me in the eyes with a hurt resolve that I couldn’t place, but chose in my anger to disregard.

“Can’t or won’t!?” I screamed.

“Can’t!” he shouted back, snapping me away from my growing rage with the passion and pain in his voice. “I can’t. I’ve tried, but the war has become a fixed point in time. Worse than that, from Littlehorn on to the bombs dropping, Equestria’s timeline is locked. Whether it’s natural or some other force created it, I cannot enter any point in your timeline from the day of the Littlehorn attack to the day the bombs fell. There’s nothing I can do, Aria... I can’t save her. I can’t save either of them. I... I can’t save anyone.”

“Save who?”

“Nothing. It’s something we’ve already discussed. I’m taking your advice from last time anyway. When this is all over, when your Day of Sunshine and Rainbows happens, I’m going to go back and find her. I’m going to tell her how sorry I am that I couldn’t help her. I’m going to beg for her forgiveness that I couldn’t save her or her daughter,” The Doctor replied, staring down at the planet below us, his voice heavy with regret and sorrows. “That’s one of the problems with immortality, Aria. You lose a lot of friends. Whether it’s to something you could have stopped or just the passage of time. You have to find that one thing that keeps you going. That one thing worth continuing your journey.”

“What’s yours?” I asked. I was completely sincere; I had seen so much already in such a short time of knowing this strange pony that the idea that an earth pony was immortal when he was already a time traveller was not beyond the realm of possibilities.

“This,” he said, gesturing to the world below and the stars beyond it. “This is what I yearn for. Exploring everything. Seeing everything. Experiencing it all and taking people with me. Wonderful people. Brilliant people who catch my attention by being the amazing people they are and becoming my friends.”

“Does that mean you consider me your friend if you brought me here?” I asked. The Doctor smiled warmly through the pain that I could see behind his eyes.

“Yes. You are my friend, Aria. That is why I came to help you down in the sewers. I was originally trying to repay a debt, but each time we’ve met, I’ve seen what you were and what you will become. I’ve seen you grow, but in reverse, and I wanted to see more. Get to know you more. You may hardly know me at all, but I know you and consider you my friend.” Looking out at the stars, he chuckled. “Where I come from, magic as you unicorns know it doesn’t exist.”

“Really?”

“Yes. We get by in what I would guess you call ‘The Earth Pony Way,’ but I’ve realized something since I came to Equestria.”

“And what’s that, Doctor?”

“It’s simple, Aria. There is magic in my world and yours. The Magic of Friendship. The Magic of Love. When we bind ourselves together and work together as one, anything can happen. Miracles can happen. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.”

“But the Elements of Harmony are gone. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and the Ministry Mares are all dead,” I replied, feeling the weight of reality starting to sink back in. Staring down at Equestria again, I sighed. “Look at it. I saw pictures and globes back in my time. I saw Equestria when the fields were green, the sky was blue, and the water was crystal clear, but now everything’s just... brown.”

“Hey! What’s wrong with being brown?” The Doctor asked, sounding offended. I looked up, only to see that same goofy smile plastered to his face. “A lot of great ponies are brown.”

“You’re more of a tan or beige,” I replied.

“You wound me, Aria,” he said, mocking me playfully. “But I wasn’t talking about the Elements of Harmony. Look out there. What do you see?”

“Stars,” I replied.

“Right. And do you know what those stars are?”

“They’re stars,” I answered again, cocking an eyebrow at him in confusion.

“Okay, here’s another question. What is that?” he asked, pointing towards the sun far off in the distance.

“The sun,” I said, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of his questions. “What are you trying to get at, Doctor?”

“Simple. The sun is a star, but much closer to Equestria,” he said. Suddenly, realization hit me and his smile widened as my eyes did as well.

“You mean, every star... is another planet’s sun?” I asked, looking out into the darkness of space with a new, profound, and humbling understanding.

“As a great pony once said, ‘Eeyup.’”

“But that wouldn’t that mean that there are millions... no, billions of planets out there?! Are there ponies on those other planets too? Are the other planets where alternate timelines occur? Are you from one of those planets?” I began to ask, never allowing him enough time to answer one question before launching into another.

“Calm down, Aria. Calm down. To answer your questions, yes sort of, no, and yes,” he said, forcing me to stop and reflect on my questions, mentally matching up his answers to my string fast paced of inquiries. After counting off the questions in my head, I returned my focus to my extra terrestrial companion. “If that’s true, then we’re so tiny compared to all this. We’re not even a spec of dust compared to the universe.”

“That is true,” The Doctor said, unintentionally sending a knife of depression straight into my heart.

“Then what’s the point of continuing? We have such a short time on Equestria and in the grand scheme of things it’s all useless.” I sat down in the doorway, staring out into the endless void that had once held so many wonders, but now I couldn’t see the stars. Only the darkness between them was present, the shining diamonds pushed aside by a wave of sadness. “I’m less than dirt? How can I make a difference? How can anypony? How... how can I ever make up for what I’ve done?”

“You mean the child?”

“Spelunker,” I said, after mentally checking off Toffee Biscuits, Brass Bugle, Tar Hoof/Bulletstorm and Howling Buck/Pipsqueak from my list. No matter what I did, the list just kept growing. “I killed him. How do I keep going after that? It’s... unforgivable.”

“That,” he said as he sat down next to me, “Is a very good question.”

“Do you have a very good answer?”

“No. I have an answer, it’s going to hurt, but it’s the right answer,” The Doctor said somberly.

“Lay it on me,” I said, bracing myself for the promised hurt. The Doctor took a deep breath and turned

“Yes, you killed that child, and unless you find a way to bring back the dead you can’t take it back. And deep down, as long as you remain a good pony, you will never be able to make up for that mistake.”

I turned away from him to stare out into space both literally and figuratively.

“So there’s no way from me to make it better? No way to make the hurting stop?”

“There is, but that would require you giving up who you are, the pony who believes that killing a child is wrong, and becoming no better than the monstrous ponies that infest Equestria now. To become a raider or a slaver or a fiend. But...”

“But what?”

“You say you’re too small to make a difference. You say that you can’t make up for the sin you committed. That’s not true. Compared to the universe, you and I are but ants in a field. But that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. Have you ever seen how ants work?”

“I never really thought about ants, Doctor,” I mumbled.

“They are amazing. Together they can move mountains and overcome impossible odds. Fifty ants working together can kill a spider fifty times their size. Together they can lift a branch the comparative size of a skyscraper.”

“What does this have to do with making up for what I’ve done, Doctor?” I asked.

“Working together. It’s what I was saying about friendship. Friendship and teamwork allows us to take the strength we need from others in our low times and give our strength to them when they need it, but it’s so much more than that. Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?”

I shook my head.

“No. I’ve never heard of it, but do all of your theories revolve around bugs?”

“No, they do not. Anyway, the Butterfly Effect is a theory that even the smallest change in history can make a massive change to the present or future.”

“What does that have to do with butterflies?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow as I tried to listen to this strange new theory.

“Well, it’s explained by the analogy that the flapping of a butterflies wings can start a chain reaction that causes a hurricane on the other side of the world.”

“Really?”

“Maybe.” The Doctor shrugged. “But I think of it another way. Let’s say that down there I took somepony’s last can of beans. This forces the pony to go hungry and become desperate. He then turns to raiding and kills a mare for her apple. That mare was supposed to give birth to a genius pony who discovers a cure for cancer, but because I took that can of beans, that child is never born and so the future is dramatically changed so that ponies continue to die of cancer. Because of this, countless other ponies are never born or die too soon and don’t discover new things or write new music or save the world.”

“All this because you took a can of beans... That’s really depressing,” I sighed, looking down at the swirling clouds beneath us.

“But then there’s another way. What if I give my own can of beans to a starving pony who’s about to turn to raiding? That act of kindness might get to him and he has the strength to keep going. He then finds a town where his talents can be put to use and he never goes hungry again. Since he has more than he needs, he remembers that random act of kindness and returns it in kind. He helps a few more ponies, and then they help a few more. A single act of kindness can set off a hurricane of good. They say that all that is required to allow evil to triumph is for good ponies to do nothing, but maybe the reverse is true.”

“Maybe all that’s needed for good to triumph is for good ponies to do everything they can?” I asked. The Doctor smiled and nodded. “But right now it hurts so much. I did something so horrible. What if Spelunker was supposed to cure cancer? What if I’m the bean thief?”

“That’s what I believe anyway. We may never know that, Aria, but if you just give up, then you’ll never know if you could ever make it up.”

“I thought you said I can’t?”

“I don’t know everything, Aria.”

“You seem to act like it,” I said sarcastically.

“Yes, well, I don’t, but I know one thing. I know that you have to keep working towards making the Wasteland better. There’s so much ahead of you, both good and bad, but I know that things will just get worse if you give up.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun, the stars, and the universe quietly continue its celestial work. With all the pain and suffering I had been through, with all the horrible things going on beneath us as we spoke, the stars really were cruel to just quietly sit up here and watch. Why didn’t they help us?

Then an old mare’s tale that turned out to be not so much of a tale and more of a prophecy popped into my head.

“On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape.”

That’s when I let out a scream of anguish.

“This sucks so much. The world sucks. I’ve lost everything, Doctor. I don’t want to go on anymore,” I complained. “Even the stars are mocking us. Maybe the zebra were right about them being evil.”

“I don’t know about the stars, they’re just big flaming balls of gas, but back in my universe there’s a saying. Do you know what you do when you fall off your horse?” The Doctor asked. I looked up at him, shocked, and stared at him like he was crazy.

“Please tell me you’re not telling me a sex joke?”

“What!?” The Doctor shouted before his eyes went wide. “Oh no! I-That’s not-That would have a much different connotation here, wouldn’t it? Um, you see, in other worlds... Forget it. Um, the answer was, ‘You get back on,’ but maybe the saying ‘What do you do when you fall down’ is a little more appropriate... I’m sorry.”

I stared at The Doctor as he tried to explain his previous statement, trying to think of some way to stop his rambling, but before I could think of one, he had already finished and had apologized.

“It’s alright. But the answer to your second question is, ‘Get back up,’ right?” I asked, giving him a weak smile to tell him I wasn’t offended. I guess a foal or a baby dragon could ride a pony, fall off, and get back on, but it just seemed like a weird quote for a stallion to be bringing up. But of course, I kept forgetting that The Doctor wasn’t a stallion. “And what do you mean the stars are just big balls of fire? They aided in Nightmare Moon’s escape. I know because that’s the day I was born. ‘On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape.’”

“What? Oh! Clover the Clever’s prophecy? Yes. That’s what it said, but you’ll soon find out that that interpretation is a little off,” The Doctor answered, getting to his hooves and cracking his back. “My back always seems to get stiff when I sit like a horse, but sitting the way I’m accustomed to is almost impossible.”

“How are you accustomed to sitting?” I asked.

“Nevermind. I won’t bore you with the boring details on humanoid sitting habits. Although, they look like Time Lords so shouldn’t it be Timelordian or something?” The Doctor mused as he started to trot back to the control panel. “I should probably get you back to The Silver Pegasus and be on my way. I have to consult a few friends I’ve made in other times and erect some fancy temporal defense where no pony would find them and mess with them.” He snorted. “No pony. After all these years, I still find that funny.”

“Doctor?” I asked, still looking out at the stars as they twinkled in the distance. The Doctor hit a button before looking back at me and gasping.

“Aria! Close the door!” he shouted, but Equestria and outer space had already disappeared and was replaced by a very familiar blue tunnel. The swirling blue energy was all around us as the Tardis moved through it like a ship on a calm sea. Now that I wasn’t sure I was dead, I was mesmerized by beauty I saw within it. Occasionally lightning would strike nearby or images or voices would pass, but that only added to its splendor. It was like watching a thunderstorm from the safety of your room; you knew it was dangerous, but you just can’t look away. “Aria!”

Slamming the door shut, The Doctor took my face in his hooves and stared deep into my eyes.

“Ish someting wong?” I asked as he scrunched up my cheeks and made it very awkward to speak.

“No... You’re... fine. I-I always assumed that you had been unconscious when you fell through time the first time, but you’re not showing any signs of Temporally Induced Insanity,” he explained, letting go of my face and slowly walking back to the center control panel.

“No, I was conscious. It was scary the first time, but that time... what was that? The blue tunnel.”

“The time vortex. It’s the physical manifestation of the heart of the timestream. At least, what we can see. A normal pony...”

“What?”

“You’re just a normal pony, but besides the Eternals, who were drastically changed by the time stream, I’ve only encountered one other pony who looked into the time vortex and was immune. Even Celestia and Luna were stricken with amnesia, but...”

“Celestia and Luna saw the time vortex too?”

“Yes,” he muttered, staring at the glowing purple tube. He seemed deep in thought and might clam up on me, but I needed answers.

“What’s so bad about looking at it? Isn’t it just a blue tunnel?”

“It’s the heart of time itself. Most minds can’t handle it. Time Lords are required to stare into it when we’re eight as a form of initiation, but it has differing effects on us. Some take inspiration from it, some run from its awesome sight, and others... others are driven mad,” he explained.

“But not me? Who... who else was immune?” I asked, although I had the nagging feeling that I wasn’t immune to it. The Nightmare really didn’t make me think I was all that sane.

“Queen Eclipsa.”

“My super great grandmother?” Wow. Melody’s euphemism for ancestors really did work well when you were discussing time travel.

“Yes. Celestia and Luna’s mother... I’m sorry. I can’t discuss things any further,” The Doctor said before clopping his hoof and opening the door to reveal the alleyway below our room at The Silver Pegasus.

“What!? Why?” I asked.

“No time! Well, as much time as I need, but not for you. It’s morning, you’re late for your trip to the University, and I can’t let you know too much,” he said as he pushed me out the door.

“Why not!?” I shouted, giving him my best glare. The Doctor just smiled sadly.

“Because one should not know too much about their own future, Aria. You’ve got a lot of hard decisions ahead of you. Some will end well, some will end poorly, and one will haunt you the rest of your life, but just remember that it’s not your fault, it’s his, and that you can’t save everyone,” he said sadly.

“Hey!” I shouted as the door to the Tardis slammed shut in my face. I started banging on the door, trying to open it again, but the time machine’s entrance barely shook. As the Tardis started to hum and sigh and its form began to dematerialize, I focused on the large chamber just on the other side of the door, but nothing happened. I couldn’t teleport inside the Tardis and before I knew it, The Doctor had vanished into the timestream from whence he came. ”Biscuits!”

More annoyed than angry, I resigned myself to returning to our room. From the fading orange hue to the east and the large scattering of ponies passed out in the street, I could only assume it was early morning. In a few hours the partiers and alcoholics would wake up and go home and only the homeless or the half dead ponies would remain on the street by noontime. Wow. That was a depressing thought. Why would ponies want to live like this? Wine was fun, but not like this?

Arriving back at our room, I opened the door and gave Compass, whose eyes widened in shock as I entered the room, a nod.

“Morning,” I said plainly.

“Morning!? Where did you go? We didn’t hear you leave and when Melody woke up at dawn you and that doctor guy had vanished! Check and Melody are out looking for you! We were worried sick!”

“I’m sorry,” I responded.

“Sorry? Melody thought that the Royal Flushers got you and you were dead at the bottom of the river! She was frantic and on the verge of tears! She even thought you might have gone off to try and kill yourself again!”

“How... how did you know about that?” I asked, feeling absolutely horrible and extremely guilty for leaving.

“I saw the prick on your neck while examining you. All your other wounds were mostly healed from a healing potion, but that cut was fresh and there was a droplet of hemoglobin residue on the tip of your sword. I just put two and two together, Aria, and Melody heard me discussing it with Check,” he explained angrily. “Melody cares about you! I care about you! Check and Shadowbuck care about you! But I can’t help you if you won’t help... Are you even listening to me?”

I was, but I had already started walking over to my bed, glancing down at the disheveled sheets where Melody and I had been sleeping earlier. I couldn’t keep hurting Melody like this. I turned my gaze to the bedside table and the orange pill bottle Compass had left for me.

“When a pony you can trust gives you this bottle, you should take his advice. It will help you.”

Picking up the bottle, I popped open the lid and stared at the little yellow pills inside. I needed help, I knew that now, and I needed my friends to help me through this.

“Friendship allows us to take the strength we need from others in our low times and give our strength to them when they need it, but it’s so much more than that.”

Compass was a doctor, and a damn good one, and if this was his way of lending strength to get me through my tough times, then I needed to take it.

“Aria?” I heard Melody say. I turned to see her landing in the doorway with Check following her in. Melody looked awful, worry lines had already formed on her brow and her short hair was a mess. “You’re okay!” she cheered, rushing over to me, but Compass stepped in her way.

“What are you going to do with those pills, Aria?” Compass ask, giving me a worried stare over his glasses.

“The directions say ‘one pill every morning.’ Is that still correct?” I inquired as I levitated out one of the anti-depressants.

“Yes,” he said cautiously. I nodded, popped a pill in my mouth, and swallowed. I then smiled, opened up wide and stuck out my tongue.

“You’re going to take the medicine Compass prescribed you?” Melody asked, a glimmer of hope returning to her eyes.

“I need help. I’ve lost everything I knew, am in a world that I failed to protect, I’ve done horrible things that only a few days ago I never would have dreamed in my worst nightmares, and I need your help. All of you. If Compass says I need medication to get me through this, then I probably do and I need to trust you guys if I’m going to survive out here,” I said, taking Compass and Melody into a hug. “You’re my friends. My family. I’m sorry I worried you and I’m sorry I took so long to trust you guys.”

“Can I get in on this hug?” Check asked, shuffling her forehoof nervously against the floor.

“Get over here, but don’t you dare try to touch my flanks,” I said with a small smile.

“Strictly platonic, Fire Flanks!” Check said with a grin as she joined our group hug and giggled. “Now we just gotta get Stable Sixty-Three back on its hooves and get all these gods out of your mane and you’ll be all set, Aria.”

“Gods?” Melody asked, breaking the hug and looking at Check. I stood there, staring at her and shaking my head as quickly as I could.

“Yeah! Aria’s got some weird alicorn gods bugging her and wanting her to stop some big bad god or something. One of them possessed me so she could get us out of Gigaton before the lynch mob got her.”

Melody and Check stared at her for a moment before both turning on me, wide eyed and very confused.

“We really need to learn a telepathy spell,” the Nightmare advised.

“For once, I fully agree with you.”

“So you’re telling us that there is a whole gaggle of alicorn gods that have been talking to you in your dreams?” Melody asked, still trying to wrap her mind around what I had already explained to her, Compass, and Check for the third time. Luckily, the boat ride up the river to Trottingham University had given me plenty of time to be grilled by my extremely skeptical niece and her coltfriend.

“And possessing me!” Check shouted from the helm.

Her ‘new’ thirty foot sailboat, which she named the ‘Four of a Kind’ after I told her she couldn’t name it the ‘Fire Flanks,’ was slowly making its way upriver. From what I could tell, the boat seemed solid, although most of its frame seemed to be made up of the hulls of sunken ships. However, it was not the ‘schooner’ that was promised. I had a feeling that the ponies of the Trottingham Ruins did not know what a schooner really was and just liked the way the word sounded.

As we zigzagged through the currents and caught whatever winds we could, only having to row every now and again when the wind would fully die down, we were actually making good time getting to the university. According to Check, we would see the clock tower and the red brick wall surrounding the campus before anything else.

“I just can’t believe this,” Compass muttered as he watched the brown river run by us.

“So... have you met Celestia and Luna yet?” Melody asked. I could tell that she wanted confirmation of her faith, some shred of evidence that even out here in this horrible world, our aunts were still watching over us. I was tempted to lie and tell her that Celestia and Luna were indeed looking out for us, but I shook my head.

“I’ve only met Dream, Psyche, and Timestream. Death keeps sending me things or saying things as a disembodied voice, but I haven’t run into Aunt Celestia or Aunt Luna.” That glimmer of hope in Melody’s eyes almost immediately vanished before I added. “But I’m sure they’re just busy. I still haven’t met the other two Eternals.”

"I still can't believe Death is a chick," Check laughed.

“I just can’t believe this,” Compass repeated.

“Why not?” I asked. “You believe that Celestia and Luna are still watching over us so why can’t there be other alicorns out there?”

“Because... because where have they been? Celestia and Luna were ruling Equestria and controlling the sun and the moon. Where were these gods when we needed them? Why didn’t they stop all this from happening?” Compass growled as he indicated at the destruction on both sides of the Trottingham River.

“I don’t know. I keep asking myself that a lot recently.”

“It just seems stupid,” Compass sighed. “I know you somehow believe this, but I cannot. I’m sorry, Aria, but I think it’s just a series of hallucinations brought on by your fragile psychological state.”

“And how would you explain Psyche possessing me?” Check asked, glancing back at me before returning her gaze to the river.

“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a unicorn out there using mind altering magic to mess with Aria. We still don’t know what King is capable of and we don’t know who Queen is. They don’t seem to like you all that much so it’s not too hard to believe that they’re trying much more subtle means to break you.”

“Who knew getting ponies who believe my aunts died and ascended to godhood to believe in other alicorn gods would be this hard?” I thought as I closed my eyes and tried to collect my thoughts.

“It’s like I said, we don’t need them,” the Nightmare replied, but I dismissed her ideas and tried to push her back into the recesses of my mind.

“It’s always a possibility,” Melody said, looking to me anxiously. “Compass has a point, Aria. This all could just be some trick.”

I thought about their words, trying to determine if Compass’ argument held weight, but I couldn’t believe it. Not with what I had seen and experienced. Not with Golden Star’s message...

“Wait! Golden Star’s message! One of his memories and a copy of his soul are stored in this statuette,” I said, quickly bringing up ‘Golden Star Statuette’ on my Pipbuck’s inventory sorter and pulling it out of my bags with my telekinesis. “See! This appeared outside Philharmonica Instruments! It holds a memory of my brother meeting his wife and it let me speak with him on the other side for a few minutes!”

“You spoke to Grandpa Golden Star?” Melody asked, her eyes lighting back up with that happy shimmer of clear water that my brother’s eyes always did. Her eyes were how I truly knew her as my brother’s granddaughter. “Can I talk to him?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s like a memory orb. I haven’t tried reconnecting with it, but maybe Compass can connect to it and he can connect himself to you.”

Compass stared at me.

“I-I wouldn’t know how. That kind of memory magic is beyond me. My magical skills lie in healing the body, not connecting to the mind.”

Melody pouted.

“Can you watch the memory for me? Then you can tell me all about it,” Melody half-whimpered, giving Compass a cute little puppy dog pout and I could already see Compass’ defenses melting away.

“I guess.”

I set Golden Star’s statuette down in front of Compass. After taking a deep breath and giving a worried glance to Melody, which she returned with a reassuring smile, Compass closed his eyes, reached out with his magic and touched his horn to the statue.

For a moment, I thought nothing had happened, but then I noticed that Compass’ nervous breathing had stopped and he was beginning to slump over. Melody quickly caught him and held him up while I just stared. He seemed to be asleep, but it just looked unnatural. Was this what it looked like when I went into a memory orb?

“He’s asleep,” Melody said.

“Yeah. It’s a little creepy,” I replied. Melody just nodded. As we waited, I did notice Check glancing back at me and then to Melody, but I just figured she was checking us out. Not that I think we were so desirable that Check couldn’t keep her eyes off us; I just couldn’t think of any other reason for her to keep looking back at us.

About ten minutes later, Compass’ eyes fluttered open and he had to blink a few times to regain his bearings.

“So? Did you see my great grandpa?” Melody asked.

“Yes, sort of. It was one of his memories, but I didn’t meet his ghost or anything afterwards.”

“The connection must only be for me,” I said, but Compass shook his head.

“Or it’s like I told you and somepony’s trying to mess with you. King knows who you are so it’s not too far fetched to think that he knew your brother and made a false memory from there. The Golden Star you saw could just be an illusion,” Compass argued.

“But-” I tried to protest again, but stopped myself. Getting into a theological debate before going into a dangerous, zombie infested university was not the smart thing to do. I just nodded and sighed. “Maybe you're right.”

“Just put it out of you mind, Aria. You have too much to worry about already,” Compass said, giving me a smile and a pat on the shoulder before getting back up. “I think I’ll go see if I can help Check with anything. If I keep sitting here doing nothing, I think I’m going to get sea sick.”

“You mean river sick,” Melody giggled. Compass chuckled, gave Melody a peck on the cheek, and carefully walked across the narrow deck towards the helm.

I didn’t watch him go. I just turned my attention to the slowly moving brackish water that gurgled past us. It really wasn’t helping distract me since seeing the water just reminded me that I had almost drowned two days earlier.

“I believe you,” Melody said softly. I looked back to her and saw her happy smile that even the worst of days could not break. I really envied Melody in that respect. Maybe if I was to take strength from my friends to get me through the worst of things, borrowing a little bit of the strength from her eternal smile was a good place to start.

So I smiled back and, for some odd reason, I felt a little better.

Trottingham University. Once it had been the pinnacle of classical earth pony education. Established almost immediately after the founding of the city, Trottingham University was started by the earth pony inhabitants to teach and research history, music, art, and sciences, but from the earth pony point of view. As the war ratcheted up, some of its scientists and researchers even devoted their time to Ministry of Wartime Technology R&D. I would bet that if Shadowbuck knew that, then he would be as excited and nervous as I was to enter the university’s hallowed halls of learning. Maybe nervicited? That’s not a word, but I feel like it’s appropriate for some reason.

While I was a unicorn who was more magically inclined, I could see myself in another time and life wanting to attend Trottingham University. While history and music were its most notable areas of study, especially its archeology department, it was a institution of higher learning that had rival Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and the Wonderbolts Academy during its heyday. Their history department was especially well known for its studies dealing with medieval Equestrian history, the knights of old, and the lost noble houses. If the war had not happened, I could see myself coming here to learn everything I possibly could. I could honestly have seen a university of Trottingham’s caliber as a second home.

But not anymore.

As Check had us slowly row up to the small pier outside the university, I could already feel a sense of dread emanating from the school. Long dead ivy clung to the walls as if trying to spite the balefire bomb that had killed it, the vines holding on out of some indomitable will to not fall off the burned red brick that ran along the campus’ perimeter. It was weird that the blackened plants had not just disintegrated over time; perhaps it was a side effect of the radiation?

As quietly as we possibly could, we docked the Four of a Kind next to the only remaining boat on the water, an old rowing boat that the Trottingham University rowing team had probably used two hundred years ago. I pointed it out to Check and she seemed to have the same idea I had.

“We’ll tow it back to Stableton when we leave. Might be able to get something for it. Right now, I’m too worried about attracting ghouls. Usually there are always a few milling around here,” Check whispered.

“Like them?” Compass said in a hush tone as he pointed to two ghouls standing at the other end of the pier. They didn’t seem to notice us yet; they were just staring at the water aimlessly.

“Compass, you got a silencer for that gun?” Check asked.

“No.”

“Crap. My grenades make too much noise.”

“My laser pistol isn’t very loud,” Melody offered, but Check shook her head.

“That’s true, but the flashing light could attract more ghouls. It’s up to you, Aria.”

“What?”

“You’re the pony that knows how to swing a sword with levitation. If you could decapitate them without them being able to scream or make noise, we could sneak past them,” Check explained. It made sense, the less we had to fight, the better chance of us making it out of there alive, but I hated the idea that the success of our mission was already solely riding on my shoulders.

“No pressure, right?”

“I could always help you,” the Nightmare offered.

“Yeah, cause our lightning bolts and balefire are so effective against ghouls. No thanks,” I thought dismissively before taking a deep breath and crouching lower to the pier to better sneak up on my undead prey.

As I crept towards them, gingerly placing one hoof in front of the other to test each plank of old, waterlogged wood for the proverbial landmine of a creak it might give off, my mind was racing. I had the Sword of Everfree and Golden Star’s Aegis available to me. While the Ripper would have been more effective at cutting off ghoul heads, the motor would give away my position and probably attract more ghouls so I was still glad I didn’t have that barbaric weapon.

But that didn’t help me in my current predicament. The sword had been sharpened by Brownstone while she had been working on my armor so I was pretty sure it could slice through the rotten flesh and brittle bones of one ghoul if I caught it by surprise. However, chances were pretty high that the first attack would alert the other ghoul to my presence and it would raise the alarm before I could finish him. I could always try to crush its skull in at the same time, but if it survived the bludgeoning, then I’d be in the same predicament.

If only I had another sword. I had no idea where I would get one, it’s not like I could summon a sword I wasn’t familiar with out of thin air. I had become pretty familiar with my armor, sword, and shield and that made summoning them to me easy if they were within range of my spell. But summoning a sword from somewhere else, especially somewhere I didn’t even know, was pretty much impossible.

“Unless...” I thought before a sudden clicking from my Pipbuck stopped me in my tracks. I was forced to quickly step back and sidestep behind a stack of crates on the docks.

The wood groaned under the added weight, and I held my breath as I watched one of the ghouls look over at where I had been standing only seconds before. I watched as its dull, glossy eyes stared at the crates for a moment before returning its attention to the water.

“What are you staring at?” I asked myself.

Following their lazy gazes, I stared at the dark waters below them. What could be so interesting to a bunch of zombies? I waited, watching them in morbid curiosity, until I saw something bob to the surface, a barrel of some kind with the word ‘IMI’ written on the side, before it sunk back down again. Whatever that barrel was, it seemed to fascinate the ghouls.

“Perhaps thats the source of the radiation my Pipbuck was picking up?” I started to theorize before I remembered that I didn’t have time to study the mindless endeavors of feral ghouls and had to figure out some way to dispatch of these two quietly. “If only I had a second sword!”

That’s when it hit me. During my training at the Royal Guard Academy, I spent a week guarding Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I remembered one student who was working off her tuition in the kitchens while I was taking my lunch break. She had caught my attention because she had created a knife out of eldritch energies that she was using to cut carrots. I had asked her how she was able to form her magical energy into a solid construct with a sharp edge, but as she started to explain the nuances of forming a physical blade out of ethereal energy my supervisor arrived to tell all the cadets that our break was over and we had to report back to duty.

“Maybe I can piece a spell together. Focus, Aria. Picture a sword just like yours and give it form. Make its blade as sharp as a real sword. Make its as strong as real steel,” I told myself.

"Steel of mana and blade of mind, a sword of slaying is what I wish to find."

I closed my eyes, picturing an sword just like mine, but instead of being made of steel it was forged by my own magic. I felt a surge of energy flow out of my horn and when I opened my eyes I could see a blue dagger floating in front of me. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it was a good start.

Drawing my sword, I put the two swords next to each other and tried to focus reworking my eldritch blade from a ten inch dagger into a weapon to match the real Sword of Everfree. I reshaped my magical knife, adding more mana to its form, pulling and massaging it into its new shape, forging it with the hammer of my thoughts and sharpening it with the whetstone of my mind. I opened my eyes again and a glowing blue replica of my sword floated next to its physical twin. Both blades were ready and waiting for me to bring them down on the ghouls standing just beyond my hiding place.

Watching the ghouls through a gap in the crates, I quietly floated my swords towards my unwitting foes. With that radioactive barrel floating in the river, I couldn’t get any closer without risking the clicking sound alerting them to my presence. As I reached my targets, I carefully brought up my blades, took a deep breath, and focused intently as I brought them back down at a point just above the bases of their necks.

Shink.

The Sword of Everfree did its job, slicing through the creatures’ spine and sending it crumpling to the docks with barely a sound. The magical blade, on the other hoof, severed through bone and rotten flesh so cleanly that as the ghouls head dropped into the water with a sploosh, I had to look twice at the stump where his head had been. Pulling my physical sword out of the other ghoul’s neck, I waved the others forward and started walking past the bodies. Ignoring the clicking and trying to rush through the radiation, I had completely forgotten about the most common fact about ghouls.

They regenerate in the presence of radiation.

I stopped as a gurgling sound came from behind me. I looked behind me to see my friends, frozen in place and staring at the ghoul, her head flopping back and forth and body writing as the flesh and bone started to knit back together. I hadn’t killed the monster, just paralyzed it, and the exposure to whatever was in the IMI barrel was already healing it. The ghoul started getting back on its sharp, boney hooves and started to hiss, but I lashed out with my eldritch blade, finishing the job before I had screwed it up too much.

“Awesome work, Aria,” Melody whispered happily as they came over. Compass nodded and Check smiled, staring with an appreciative fascination at my arcane sword. I dismissed it, letting the magic flowing from my horn subside, and gestured towards the main campus

“Let’s get out of the radiation, I really don’t like that clicking noise. It’s annoying,” I said, bringing us over to a wall separating the docks from the rest of the school. The fact that the large iron gate, which had somehow fused with the track it slides down, had enough space for one pony at a time to squeeze through explained why there were so few ghouls out here. The clicking had stopped and Compass passed me a bag of RadAway and all of us a chalky white tablet of RadX.

“Smart idea, Doc. With so many ghouls, the rest of this place probably has some big radioactive patches,” Check whispered. “Although I wonder what happened to the other ghouls. Scavenger boats come by here every day and there are usually ten or fifteen of these suckers hanging around the riverfront.”

“No idea, but let’s just count our blessing that it was just two of them. I’m going to take a look around the wall,” I said before sneaking off toward the gate.

Peeking around the wall, my eyes widened in what I can only call pure, unadulterated fear. Along the crumbling brick walkways and among the burned and blackened skeletons of the trees that had been strategically planted around the campus were dozens or possibly even a hundred ghouls. They milled about aimlessly, bumping into each other or just staring off at nothing, but I knew that the second they detected fresh meat they would be all over us and I didn’t think there would be any way we would survive their undead onslaught.

Looking back at my friends, they must have seen my face. Compass and Check started moving over my way, but when Melody flittered to the top of the wall and looked over, she let out an eep. Then something thoroughly confusing happened.
All the ghouls near the wall turned to look at the wall. They stared at the wall, but not up the wall to see Melody before she ducked back down. The ghouls couldn’t see her because their limited minds, operating on hunger and base instinct, couldn’t comprehend something flying above them. That’s when I realized something.

With the exception of that one ghoul in the museum and Brownstone, every other ghoul I had ever seen had been either a unicorn or an earth pony. Also, besides the Enclave ponies, Melody was the only pegasus I had seen. Voidowls wouldn’t draw the ghouls’ attention since they don’t have minds to be attacked and I had yet to see a griffin in Trottingham. These ghouls were only used to prey that couldn’t fly so they had no reason to look up.

Ducking back around the corner, I smiled at Melody. She was holding her chest and trying to catch her breath as Compass was whispering things to try to calm her down.

“Wow. It’s really lucky they didn’t see you, Mels,” Check whispered. I shook my head.

“No. It wasn’t luck. Instinct drives these things, right? That’s what the Wasteland Survival Guide said. They don’t have critical thinking skills anymore and they can’t remember their past lives. Those ghouls are all unicorns and earth ponies.”

“So they wouldn’t think to look up,” Melody said, completing my thought.

“Dude. Melody, you’re like their ultimate predator. If we had more explosives available to us, I’m pretty sure Melody could just carpet bomb these bastards and clear out the school,” Check added.

“That would be nice. Think of all the books and knowledge that are locked away in there,” I replied.

“And I remember reading that they had a Nursing and Pre-Med department here. There are probably loads of informative books and medicines in there,” Compass said.

“And think of the loot!” Check said excitedly. I smiled.

“Yeah, but first we’ve got to figure out how to get in there. I think I might have an idea on how to get us into the campus buildings, but Melody...” I smiled nervously at my niece, trying to find the right words.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“This might be a bit of a work out for you.”

Melody grunted as she lifted me into the air. Even after leaving all of my weapons, armor, and gear behind with Check and Compass, Melody was still having trouble lifting me off the wall and keeping me afloat. I really needed her to keep me high above the ground since we were now flying only fifteen feet above the army of ghouls below.

Her wings beat furiously and I could already see sweat forming on her brow and rolling down her neck as we made our way through the air above the campus. While she was panting and straining to keep us afloat, I was holding my breath and trying my hardest to make myself feel lighter.

“Wait... Maybe.”

Focusing as hard as I could, I wrapped myself in a telekinetic sheathe and tried to lift myself even a little. Lightening Melody’s load might be the only way for us to make it across because I could see that at this rate we were going to start descending too early. I poured the magical force on, trying to lift myself into the air just like Ace had; if she could do it, then so could I.

And was I ever wrong.

The strain the simple self application of the most basic of spells put on my horn was immense. Even just decreasing my weight was almost too much for me. I could feel my grip on myself starting to wane, and I was about to give up on trying any longer, but when I heard Melody’s grunts and gasps start to lessen, I knew I had to keep going. It seemed like an eternity, but I felt a little better as the wind started to pick up but Melody wasn’t straining any harder which told me that she was picking up speed.

“We’re here,” Melody grunted. I opened my eyes. I let my telekinesis drop suddenly, forcing Melody to start pumping her wings again to keep us aloft.

“One second,” I said, peering through the third story window for a moment to see if the inside of the room was empty. EFS wasn’t showing any blips, and I couldn’t see anything inside the building either. Desperately wanting to get out of the air and to alleviate Melody’s burden, I teleported inside the room and appeared inside the musty old classroom in a flash.

I smiled as I undid the latch and opened the window for Melody. My niece gratefully flew through and landed next to me gracefully. She shuddered and stretched her wings while trying to wipe away the sweat covering her face.

“How much did you eat back in the olden days, Aria?” Melody asked between deep breaths.

“Are you calling me fat?” I asked, suddenly feeling very self conscious.

“No... Although I think I almost pulled something. It’s just that we only had crappy apples and even crappier oranges down in Stable Sixty-Three. Ponies usually didn’t get as big as you, especially mares,” she explained, but I unconsciously sucked in my gut. I wasn’t fat, but compared to stable ponies and, even worse, Wasteland ponies, I still appeared extremely well fed. By Trottingham standards, one might say I really was overweight.

“I’m not fat,” I hissed. Melody just laughed.

“I know, but you’ve got to admit that you’re not as bony as everypony else. I’m surprised only Check and Shadow have the hots for you with that flank of yours,” Melody joked.

“Stop that,” I whined, trying to hide my butt with my tail. Death take me, my face was burning like a phoenix in heat trying to drink a cup of hot cocoa. “My... my armor kind of hides it.” I added before summoning my armor and gear back to me.

“Woah. Since when can you do that?” Melody asked, surprised by the weapons, armor, and saddlebags suddenly flashing into existence back in their rightful places.

“Since... well, since I changed,” I said, looking away from Melody. “After I turned into that... thing.”

“That’s not very nice! I thought we had something special!” The Nightmare shouted, but I ignored her.

“Oh... You... you aren’t going to change to get Check and Compass here, are you?” Melody asked.

“What? No! I’m just saying that ever since then my magic has been stronger than its ever been. My lightning bolts hit hard enough to break through concrete, my telekinesis is a bit more potent, and my teleportation spells have a much longer range. I think... I think I can memorize this place like I did the docks and teleport between the two. Then I’ll just take Check and Compass with me and port back here,” I explained. Melody just bit her lip.

“Is it safe?”

“Theoretically, yes. Just give me a minute or two to look over this classroom and then I’ll go get the others,” I told her as I started looking over the room in detail. Toppled desks and chairs, cracked chalkboards, burnt books, and pony skeletons. Pretty standard stuff for a post apocalyptic classroom. “It’s pretty messed up that I’m already starting to think this is standard.”

“Ponies and zebra made the world like this. They are worse than any monster.”

“I’m a pony,” I argued, but the Nightmare just laughed.

“Are we?”

Ignoring my crazy, I gave the room a few more careful examinations before I was satisfied. Closing my eyes, I focused on the image of the docks on the other side of the wall that I had burned into my brain only a few minutes earlier and with a bzzap I disappeared from the classroom and reappeared between Compass and Check.

“Wow,” Check said. Compass just stared at me.

“So are we ready to go? Melody’s waiting for us inside the big building near the quad,” I said.

“Damn, Aria. Ya gotta teach me how to do that,” Check said, looking at me over the rim of her sunglasses and giving me a big grin.

“I might be able to. You know how to teleport your grenades, and teleporting items is the first step towards self or multiple pony teleportation,” I explained before focusing my thoughts back on the classroom and ‘bamfing’ us back there. We appeared in another flash of blue light, and I was feeling a little off. I had never teleported anypony besides myself before and the strain left me feeling a little light headed. I wasn’t burned out again, but I had to lean on the toppled teacher’s desk to try to get my bearings again.

“Compass!” Melody cheered, throwing her hooves around her coltfriend’s neck. “Are you okay? You’re still in one piece, right?”

“I think so. That was... odd.”

“Ya can say that again,” Check said before stumbling slightly. “Woah. Is that how my explosives feel?”

“Teleportation can be disorienting at first, but you get over it pretty quickly,” I tried to explain. I closed my eyes and shook my head, but it did little to help. I remember a sensation like this the first time I ever teleported, but this one was a lot stronger.

“Ya okay?” Check asked.

“Yeah. That was the first time I’ve ever teleported anypony with me. It’s just a little different and a bit more taxing.”
Compass paled.

“You didn’t tell us that you had not done that before.”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” I replied, drawing a frown from our party medic. “Sorry. I’ll let you know next time if I’m trying something new, okay? It worked, didn’t it?”

“Yes,” Compass mumbled. “Good work, Aria.”

“Alright. Is everypony ready? From what I can tell, we’re in the building on the west side of the quad,” I said after taking a few more deep breaths to regain my composure.

“And Mayor Crapshoot said the Dean’s Office was in the building on the east side of the quad so let’s get across the quad, whatever that is,” Check said.

“The quad is a large square where students could meet and special events could take place. It’s usually at the center of campus,” I explained.

“He also said to check the Restorations room in the east hall since the dean spent a lot of her time there,” Melody added.

“Alrighty then,” Check said, throwing open the door to the hallway before stopping and staring outside.

“What is it?” Melody asked.

“Two things. First, the other side of this building’s collapsed. Probably crushed all the ghouls inside here,” Check squeaked before moving back out of the doorway. “Probably why y’all aren’t picking up any blips on your EFS in here.”

“And the second thing?” Compass asked.

“Looks like they were having a special event when the bombs fell,” Check said, her voice falling to barely a whisper.

Looking around the doorframe, I realized why she was so quiet. In the quad, ripped and crumbling banners hung from the trees and hundreds of ghouls milled about down below. Signs like ‘Beat The Manticores,’ ‘Go Badgers!’ and ‘Hoofington U Sucks!’ littered the brick plaza. At the moment, they all showed up as a big blob of yellow on my EFS. I figured that was because they hadn’t not seen us, but that could all change in an instant and we’d be dead.

“Can you guys do that fly and teleport thing again?” Check asked.

“I think I could,” I replied.

“No. I almost pulled something last time. I’d need a lot of rest before I gave that another try,” Melody said with a frown.

“It’s alright, Melody. We understand,” Compass said while giving her a comforting hug.

“Welp,” Check sighed. “What do we do now?”

Staring out at the quad, I couldn’t see any way past all the ghoulies. Another sea of undead and we didn’t have an airlift this time around. If I could get across, then I could teleport everyone else, but even I wasn’t sneaky enough for that. There had to be something we could do.

“I could help you,” the Nightmare sang, but again I pushed her aside. She’d be worthless against ghouls, especially this many. I could teleport from here to the east hall’s door, but the ghouls would see the flash of light and I’d be dead before I could get up the stairs. We needed something to draw their attention away from...

“Wait a second... Maybe...”

“Check,” I muttered.

“Yeah, fire flanks?”

“Please stop calling me that.”

“Is that all?” she asked, giving me a funny little grin.

“No... How much explosives do you have on you?”

“Heh. A good amount, but not enough to blow all of these fuckers away. We’d need a whole squad of Steel Rangers to clear this place out, maybe two or three to be safe, and they never saw much use for the university. Risk versus reward and all that crap.”

“I have a plan.”

“You have a plan?” Melody asked.

“I have a plan. Looks like we’re going to throw a little pep rally, fireworks included.”

KABOOM!

That was my cue. The first of the three grenades Melody was going to drop on the quad went off in the southeast corner of the quad and the hordes of zombie ponies all turned and rushed towards the blast in a feral rage of hissing and shrieks. Focusing my gaze on the steps of the Dean’s hall, I teleported away and reappeared in front of my intended target.

“Alright! All I have to do now is... Oh no!”

The door was locked. And, worst of all, the glass was frosted! I couldn’t see through it enough to teleport inside. Looking back, I could see that the majority of the ghouls had all run off towards Melody’s explosive diversion, but I needed to think fast. I didn’t have any bobby pins. Hell, even if I did, I wouldn’t know the first thing about picking locks! None of us did. I was really missing Shadow right about now.

BOOM!

The second grenade went off . Only one left before I was out of options. I could smash the window, but the ghouls might hear that. Plus, I didn’t know what was on the other side. How is it possible that EFS could tell me what was all around me as long as it wasn’t in another building? How did a door suddenly stop this amazing piece of arcanotech? I looked back and I saw Melody fly over to the southwest corner and knew it was now or never. Drawing Golden Star’s Aegis, I lifted it into the air and watched as the third grenade fell on the mass of churning, furious zombie ponies.

KABOOM! CRASH!

Smashing through the frosted glass with all my might right as the explosion went off, I leapt through the opening, feeling glass scrape against my armor and tear my underbarding while shards cracked underneath my shoes. Thank Luna that metal horseshoes were part of the Lunar Guard uniform.

“Hiss!”

Looking up, I was suddenly very aware of the presence of three extremely angry ghouls in the lobby. They were crouched over the half eaten corpse of a giant rat, its entrails hanged from their sharpened teeth, but upon spotting me they were already on all fours and charging. I didn’t have time to summon a magical sword and lightning bolts would attract too much attention so my only option was to draw the Sword of Everfree and fight as quietly as possible.

“Easier said than done,” I thought as the first ghoul, a unicorn wearing a track uniform, outdistanced its fellow runners and lunged at me.

Bringing up my shield, I was ready for its unnatural strength and pushed it away, toppling it off its sharp, less stable hooves and onto the tiled floor beneath. It roared in pain as shards of glass stabbed into its back and I couldn’t help but wince. It was more because of the fact that its shouting might catch the attention of his necromatically animated cousins outside, but I also felt a strange pang of empathy for the horrifying creature. Maybe I wasn’t turning into a monster after all.

“Or maybe you’re just feeling empathy for your fellow monsters,” the Nightmare laughed. Snarling, I spun around on the other two, swinging my sword at their necks, and felt my blade cut into rotten flesh and continue on through to the other. The first’s head was half severed, its neck being held together by about a half inch of flesh and its spine, while the other jumped away as my sword’s tip nicked its shoulder.

Hissing at me, the earth pony ghoul performed a quick half pass before charging at my side. Turning towards it, I barely had time to notice the other ghoul was back up and charging from behind me. I only had a split second to react so I did the only thing that came to mind.

I teleported behind the earth pony and spun around in time to see the two zombies barrel headlong into each other.

“I can’t believe that worked,” I said, amazed, but I quickly regained my focus and charged. If the tactic I had taken from an old cartoon had worked, then I wouldn’t let it go to waste as I brought my sword and shield slashing and smashing down upon the snarling mound of reanimated flesh and bones. In the distance I heard another explosion, but I was too busy gutting and crushing my foul smelling foes to give it too much mind.

I stabbed one through the eye, sending a stream of black ichor over my shoulder before the monster shuddered and collapsed, finally dead, while I swung the point of my shield down on the other’s neck. The ghoul let out a choked cry as it spine shattered. I then pulled my sword out of the first’s eye socket and plunged it into the other’s. It gurgled, flailed, and then went still and all was quiet.

Breathing heavily through my mouth as not to catch a whiff of their wretched odor, my attention returned to the quad as another explosion ripped through the mid morning. At the opening on the third floor of the West building, chucking grenades into the mass of zombies, was Check. She was screaming something that I couldn’t make out, but I was also noticing the mass of ghouls rushing through the door three floors below my friends.

“Alright. No time to celebrate victory yet, Aria,” I told myself as I rushed into a side office that I knew was empty thanks to my handy dandy Pipbuck. Looking around the room and taking in as much as I could as fast as possible, I hoped it was enough before quickly teleporting back to my friends.

“Aria!” Compass shouted back to me from behind a desk that he and Melody were using to barricade the door to the stairs. I could see the door already buckling as the horde was slowly building up on the other side and trying to overwhelm the thin barrier between them and fresh meat.

“Get us out of here!”

“Hell yeah!” Check shouted, rushing over to help him bar the door as I moved to join them. “All aboard the Aria Express!”

“Got it!” I shouted, forming the mental image of the east hall office as best I could and pulling Compass, Melody, and Check with me.

BAMF!

We reappeared inside the office, Melody and Compass collapsing on top of each other, Check on a desk, and myself face first in a trash can with my butt sticking up in the air. My head was pounding and I was having trouble breathing, but I wasn’t hearing anypony screaming.

“Is everyone alright?” Compass asked. “Melody?”

“I’m alright. Although I wouldn’t mind five more minutes just lying here. That was really disorienting,” Melody said softly.

“It’s not so bad the second time around,” Check said before she started laughing. “Now that view’s not so bad either. I actually kind of like it.”

“Ha ha. Can somepony help me out here?!” I shouted, falling back on my rump while trying to pull the trash can off my head.

“Yeah, yeah. Mels, Doc, ya wanna help me pop Aria’s top?” Check joked.

“Sure,” Melody giggled. A few seconds later, somepony was holding my flanks, I hoped it was Melody, but I knew deep down that it was Check, while somepony else was pulling on the can. “Ready. Set. Pull!”

With a pop, my head was free, but Check was still holding my flanks. I glared at Check and she chuckled.

“Oops. Sorry,” she said, smiling sheepishly at me.

“Yeah right,” I spat, turning away from her and storming off towards the stairs.

“I really am sorry, Aria,” Check said as she followed me out the door and back into the main lobby. I ignored her.

“Oh come on! I said I’m sorry, Aria,” Check pleaded. I stopped, turned on her, and stared. She just stared back at me, her mouth open as she tried to think of something to say. That’s when I cracked a smile.

“Gotcha.” She just stared at me. “Oh! And thank you for not calling me Fire Flanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Check laughed although she did not smile herself. Then she followed me upstairs with Compass and Melody still in tow.

“Woah...” I moaned before stumbling. I had to stop on the first landing as a wave of fatigue hit me. Having to lean against the wall, I took a few more breaths and swallowed hard. I used up way too much energy teleporting around the campus. As the adrenaline started to subside, so did a lot of my strength.

“You overdid it, didn’t you?” Compass asked after hurrying over to me and taking out a little flashlight. And of course, he immediately started shining in it my eyes.

“What are you doing?” I asked, blinking away from the light and trying to wave him off.

“Checking for signs of an aneurysm or any other neurological damage. You’re pushing your magical reserves and your mind too much with all this teleporting. I’m worried you might burst a blood vessel in your brain,” Compass said, taking my head into his magical aura and staring into my eyes.

“I’m fine. We need to keep going,” I said, trying to wave him off even though my head did feel a little fuzzy. Blinking some more, I started to push the light headedness to the back on my mind where I kept the Nightmare. Maybe she’d have fun with a little bit of virtigo. “Just give me an aspirin and call it a day, Compass.”

“Guys,” Melody whispered. “We should do this somewhere else.”

“Why?” I asked, but then I heard them. Through the broken door, I could already hear the shuffling noises and the moans and hisses of the ghouls returning to their positions on the quad. If we kept talking here, we might attract them inside.
“Upstairs. We can continue the examination there.”

“Right,” Compass agreed, helping steady me as I tried to stand, and we quickly and quietly ascended to the second floor.

After we made it to the second floor, Check rushed over to a door marked ‘Restoration,’ opened it, and ushered us through. Inside was a modest room lined with paintings behind glass and large crates marked ‘Fragile’ covered the tables or sat on the floor next to them.

“Ya know,” Check said after closing the door behind us, “If we’re going to take a breather, maybe we should talk about-”

“Sweet Celestia above,” Melody swore, cutting Check off. Compass and I looked, expecting some gruesome display of a desiccated ghoul victim or the remains of a pony who had died during the bombs. Instead we saw a painting, beautifully restored and preserved behind three inch thick plexiglass, of three very regal looking ponies.

One was a unicorn stallion with a golden coat and mane and platinum eyes, another was a colt that looked almost identical to his father, but with dark brown eyes. However, they were not the ones that drew all of our attentions. My jaw dropped at the sight of the unicorn mare, her coat and eyes a deep brown and her mane was almost the color of chocolate. Aside from her eye color and her mane’s lack of a blue stripe she looked exactly like me.

“How?” Compass asked as I stood up. Walking towards the portrait almost in a trance, the emotion I was feeling was borderline alien to me. I honestly could not tell you what I was feeling.

“I don’t know how, but maybe we should talk about-” Check started to say.

“Who is she?” Melody asked, cutting Check off.

Looking down at the portrait’s description placard, I got my answer.

‘Prince Regal of House Canterlot, Princess Wild Rose of House Everfree, and Prince Royal Crown of House Canterlot. Royal Family Portrait by Oil Paints. Restored by Dry Brush.’

“Wild Rose Everfree. Our super duper great grandmother,” I replied. A few seconds later, the most excited squeak I had ever heard burst out of my niece before she took me into such a tight hug that I could have sworn I squeaked like a dog’s squeaky toy.

“Melody? What’s gotten into you?” Compass asked, looking just as surprised as the rest of us at his marefriend’s outburst.

“Grandpa Golden Star was right! This is proof that Aria was his legitimate sister! She’s a genetic throwback like me!” she proclaimed, bouncing up and down while holding me tight. To say that it was uncomfortable and a little disorienting would be an understatement.

“Melody! Please stop! The bouncing is making me dizzy!” I pleaded. Stopping suddenly and smiling at me, embarrassed, Melody let me go and started shuffling her hoof.

“Heh. Sorry. I was just excited for you.”

“Thanks.” I turned back to look at the painting. “Just... What are the chances we’d run into this room and see this. I mean-”

“Celestia and Luna wanted us to see this. It’s a sign,” Melody said, returning to the bouncing, but thankfully leaving me out of it this time.

“What makes you say that?” Check asked.

“Because they wanted to show Aria that she really is a princess!”

“A princess...” I whispered. The evidence was pretty compelling, my great grandmother and I looked almost exactly alike, but it was all too crazy. Were Melody and Golden Star right? Was I really his legitimate sister? But if that were true, and my mother hadn’t cheated on Starshine, then why did she kill herself? And what about what Timestream had told me?

“Because I changed your father’s destiny, Aria. I’m the reason you were born a bastard.”

Was she lying to me? Could I trust her? Hell! Could I trust any of the Eternals? Before my eyes was almost definitive proof that I wasn’t a bastard. I had proof that I was my brother’s true sister, but something was nagging at me.

“Why can’t I believe this?” I asked out loud.

“What?” Melody asked. “You don’t want to be a princess? I thought you’d be happy.”

“I don’t know. I just... I want to believe Golden Star’s theory, especially now that I’m staring at this, but...”

“But you know it’s just too good to be true, don’t you?” a gravelly voice said over the speakers I now noticed lining the room. I also couldn’t help but notice the cameras mounted in every corner.

“Wait... I know that voice,” I said, looking up at the camera to my right. “King.”

“Aria,” he spat with even more venom to his harsh voice than I had sent his way. “I see you’ve brought Melody and her coltfriend.”

“You know who I am?” Melody asked while Compass moved closer to her. I didn’t know if he would stand any chance at protecting Melody any more than she could herself, but I could see that my niece took comfort in his presence.

“Of course I do. You’re just as important to my plans as disposing of Aria and the Steel Rangers is,” he said before chuckling softly. “And Check. How are you? Jack is still quite sore about your victory last night. Ace so wanted that boat.”

“So where is big ugly and his marefriend anyway?” I spat.

“Oh, them? You won’t have to worry about them today. After Jack’s failure to acquire the boat and Ace’s failure to kill you I have moved their attentions to a much more important endeavor.”

“Stable Sixty-Three?” Compass asked, his voice shaky and nervous.

“Heavens no. I gave my word I would not attack your home and I am a stallion of my word,” he answered.

“Yeah right. Why should we even believe you? You’re the one who attacked the stable in the first place!” I scoffed.

“My subordinates attacked, but I was not in favor of it. However, with Ten wanting to prove himself, Ace wanting the tech inside, and Queen having her own motives, I was outvoted even with my two votes to their one.”

“Jack voted against you? I didn’t think he had it in him,” Check said.

“No. Jack did not care either way so he abstained. That foul dragon would never oppose me, but his occasional bouts of apathy leave much to be desired. It is the curse of his race really.”

“So what is this, King? How did you know we’d be here?” I asked, already having my own idea of that answer.

“Why that’s simple, Aria. You and your friends have been playing right into my hooves. It was like playing a game of chess with a rabbit, they just look at the pieces and barrel straight through to the carrot in the bear trap,” King mocked. “I knew you would be coming here from the moment I heard you had left Stable Sixty-Three. I set you up to come here. You have merely been pawns in my game.”

“You and your chess analogies,” I laughed. “You’re all talk. There’s no way you would know we’d come here!”

“Either this room or the Dean’s office. It was a fifty-fifty chance that I set up so that I would win either way.”

“But how?” Melody asked.

“That’s quite simple. Ten destroyed your stable door. You needed a way to fix it. The only way available to you in Trottingham would be the arc torches from Stableton,” King explained, self assurance and bravado practically oozing through the roughness of his voice.

“That still doesn’t explain how you knew we’d be here at the University unless... The mayor!” I shouted.

“Right you are! Golden Star always said you were smart, not smart enough to see this little trap coming, but at least you get the boobie prize.”

“Why would Mayor Crapshoot set us up?” Compass asked, drawing a giggle out of Melody that she quickly stifled.

“I have you to thank for that, Aria.”

“Me?” I asked.

“Yes, you. If you hadn’t gotten Sheriff Will to kick the Royal Flush out of Gigaton, then Crapshoot would not have been so enamoured with the idea of a formal alliance between Stableton and my little family,” King explained. “He practically jumped at Jack’s offer to have you go to the university. There was no golden poker set. The old dean was a crotchity old mare who though knitting was exhilerating.” He chuckled again. “Then all I had to do was send in my more necromatically inclined associates to set everything up for you. Clearing the docks, setting up these cameras, leaving a few nasty traps for you.”

“Traps?” I asked, backing away from the painting.

“Oh yes. Ways for me to assure that I would get my revenge. You are in the dragon’s lair, little bastard girl, and there is no escape for you.”

“Let’s fuck this asshole up, Aria!” the Nightmare growled. I was in complete agreement with her.

“Well, I don’t see any traps around here and you’re sitting behind your cameras. If you’ve got a problem with me, King, then come and face me like a stallion!” I shouted.

“Aria... Maybe you shouldn’t egg on the crazy raider leader,” Compass warned, but I wasn’t listening.

“You think you have me?” I asked, drawing my sword and shield. “Then show me what you’ve got.”

“And there’s that temper. Alright, Aria,” he said as if it were a useless chore that was above him to continue talking to me. “Have it your way. I’ll be seeing you very soon... If you survive that is.”

For a few seconds, there was nothing. Then a loud shrieking sound filled the room that forced all of us to cover our ears. That was immediately followed by the crates, which I had thought were old storage crates for the restorations, suddenly burst open and... nothing.

“Huh?” I muttered.

“That was a little anti-climatic,” Check quipped.

“Yeah. I don’t th-”

“Aria... It’s all your fault, Aria,” a mare called out to me. “It’s your fault I’m dead! I wish I had never given birth to you!”

“Mother?”

“Aria? Oh no! Voi-” Melody said, but it was immediately drowned out by my mother’s screaming as dozens of shadows burst out of the boxes and took flight, circling us inches from the ceiling like vultures over a soon to be dead squirrel.

“Zahari! No! I’m sorry, Zahari!” Check screamed, clutching her head as she fell into the fetal position. I knew what I had to do. Summoning up the mental image of my brother, I used him as a wall against the mental attacks the voidowls were using to assault my mind.

“Melody! Use your laser pistol and help me take them out! Compass! Help Check!” I shouted before firing off a lightning bolt that fried multiple voidowls in its path, turning them into quickly evaporating wisps of shadow. “Hmm... Maybe.”

Firing another lightning bolt, I followed the blast of electricity’s path and tried to direct it mentally. At my urging, the bolt hit one voidowl and bounced between numerous others in a chain of destructive magical energy. Before I could fire another, five expertly shot lasers fried five more voidowls. With my new mental defenses and the internal strength Melody and Compass shared, the voidowls couldn’t hurt us. King’s little trap really underestimated us. I fired another chain lightning spell and laughed out loud.
“Is this it, King? You have-”

“Momma? Why did you kill me, momma?”

As Spelunker’s words entered my mind, my defenses were destroyed. The strong image of Golden Star protecting me was shattered like a mirror and I completely forgot that this was just a trick the voidowls used to weaken me. I fell to my knees as the foal I killed started crying to me. Tears of anguish rushed down my face and every breath burned in my chest.

“Aria!” Compass called out to me, but I could hardly hear him over the colt wailing into my mind.

“Why, Momma? Why?”

It was too much; I was at my breaking point. I thought I could work through this. I thought I could ignore it. But I couldn’t. What I did was unforgivable and I should die for it. Laying on the ground in the fetal position with my head in my hooves as I sobbed, the voidowls descended upon me. Their claws raked against my armor and ripping through my underbarding and into my legs, but I could hardly feel the physical pain through my emotional numbness. Part of me really wanted to lay there and let them rip me to shreds.

“Aria! Give me your sorrows, and I will give you the strength to survive!” the Nightmare screamed, but there was no reason to keep going. I didn’t deserve to survive; I deserved this. As the dueling voices screamed within my head and the ebony birds ripped into me mercilessly, I closed my eyes and wished for the end to come.

FSS-BOOM!

A deafening roar filled my ears and searing heat buffeted me, but then there was nothing. I felt two sets on hooves turn me over and a bottle brought to my lips. Opening my eyes against the stinging as thick blood mattered my legs, face, and neck, I saw Compass and Melody knelt beside me. They were giving me comforting smiles and trying to say something, but it was muffled and drowned out by the ringing in my ears.

Compass pressed a bottle to my lips and I drank deep of the healing potion, trying to smile back as my hearing started to return.

“-o, Aria. You’re going to be okay,” Compass said softly.

“We’re all going to be okay,” Melody said while gently stroking my bloody mane. “Those voidowls really hit you hard, don’t they?”

“I’m sorry,” Check and I said in unison. I glanced over to see Check standing with her head against the door, her back turned away from us. She was shaking as if she were still crying, but I couldn’t see any tears. She pulled out a grenade and floated it beneath her head.

“You don’t have to be sorry. Neither of you. Check, you saved us with that plasma grenade!” Melody said. Check just stood there, holding a single grenade in her telekinetic field, staring at it mournfully. “What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry,” Check said again, sniffing back tears and quite a bit of snot.

“We already told you, Check. You don’t have to be sorry,” Compass replied.

“She’s not sorry about the voidowls, are you? Or maybe you are,” King said suddenly as the speakers in the room kicked back to life. Melody and Compass looked around the room, drawing their weapons as I started chugging the potion. I needed to help them stop him. “You know the deal, Checkers. You don’t need to find love with a mare who’s afraid of relationships. You don’t need a mare who doesn’t love you back.”

“What is he talking about, Check?” Melody asked.

A flash of light interrupted anything else King or Melody could have said and the grenade was floating in front of Melody. Before she could scream, the little white banded apple exploded, releasing a blast of pink energy that made my entire body go numb. I convulsed and watched as Melody crumpled to the ground and Compass collapsed on top of me. Blinking to get my eyes to focus again, my entire body feeling like it was made of cement, I watched Check shuffle over to the far corner and look up at the cameras.

“It’s done,” she said flatly.

“I know it was hard, my dear, but it needed to be done. Do you still have the map Jack gave you?” King asked, his voice almost comforting.

“Yes.”

“Then take them to the ponyhole cover in section G-4 on the map. My associates will meet you and guide you safely to my estate. You did the right thing, Checkers,” King said.

“I...” Check muttered.

“She isn’t the love you seek. Tekash’s prophecy said you’d find it in the place you least expect. I know where you can find it, my dear. I can give it to you. My family can give it to you. You’re new family. Welcome Checkers, new Ten of the Royal Flush Family,” he said so sweetly that I almost wanted to believe he cared about her.

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t believe him.. I definitely couldn’t believe that Check would do this to us. I couldn’t believe anypony out here in the Equestrian Wasteland. Even Shadowbuck had abandoned me. This is where trust got me, lying on the floor ready to be offered up to a psychopathic gang lord that wanted me dead.

How could she? We were her friends; or at least I thought we had been. She had been flirty and a little brash, but I thought she was a good pony. Had all that been a lie? Had the jokes and friendly advice all been a part of King’s plan? Was even the flirting just an act?

I twitched and convulsed as I tried to move even though it felt like my entire body had fallen asleep. I tried to focus my magic through my horn, but only useless sparks flew at Check, dissipating into nothingness and letting off a hollow pop.

“Huh?” Check turned, seeing me on the ground glaring at her, my teeth bared in a snarl. “Aria...”

“How... How could you?” I snarled, barely able to cough out the words. “I trusted you.”

“I know,” Check replied sadly as she slowly walked closer to me. My horn sparked again, but I just couldn’t summon up more than a little static electricity in the air. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want this to happen, but I had to do it. We-”

“Shut...” I tried to say, but I felt a strange pressure on my neck that forced me to stop. Glancing down, I could see a syringe buried into the side of my neck, its plunger slowly pushing all the way down. I looked back up at Check before my head crashed down onto floor and darkness rushed in all around me. Was... was she really crying?

“It’s just one of Compass’ sedatives. You should have just stayed down, Aria. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I’m sorry, Aria. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Footnote: 70% to Level Up

New Spells: Eldritch Sword: Summon up a magical blade that does (Potency+2)x3+2d10 damage per swing and enemy DT is cut in half. Takes two casting actions to summon.
Chain Lightning: Hit up to three targets with on spell cast. Use normal Lightning Bolt damage on each target, but cut the damage in half (Rounded Up).

Author's Footnote: First off, my deepest apologies for taking over two months to write, but my life recently took a crazy turn. First off, Fiesta Equestria was amazing! I had so much fun. However, when I got back I was hit with the news that my grandfather had fallen, broken his ribs, and we realized that his mind and body were deteriorating much faster than he wanted us to realize.

Over the past month we’ve had him in different hospitals and with different doctors until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease three weeks ago. Add to this that my dad told me this on the way to a big Trigonometry test, that I then blanked on and bombed, and I was fighting to get my grade back up, looking for work, and trying to help my grandmother and the rest of my family through all of this, my creativity and free time dropped to zero.
But now my grandfather is in the VA hospital, which has a wing dedicated to Alzheimer's care, and he’s doing much better, all things considered.

That is why I’m dedicating this chapter to my grandfather, Albert (Or Pop Rouge as my entire family calls him lovingly). He’s the one that taught me to love of books and writing and was the one who always believed I could do whatever I put my mind to. I love you, Pop Rouge, and even though I know you will never get better, I’m still going to be there for you like you were for me.

As always, a special thanks to my editor/pre-reader Chimpso and pre-reader, Tuneout. And finally, thank y’all for reading and bearing with me. I’m shooting for Chapter 11- “By Any Other Name,” to be released before or on September 22rd since that will be Fallout: Equestria - A Guardian’s Tale’s first birthday so I think the big confrontation with King will be a great birthday present. Thanks again, everybody and see you next chapter!