I opened my eyes, but almost immediately realized that there wasn’t much of a difference between what I could see and the back of my eyelids. Darkness everywhere, but I could also feel something coarse and scratchy against my face while a musty smell filled my nostrils. Beneath me I could feel something hard, the ground rocked slowly and something was making a creaking sound. I tried to move to activate my Pipbuck’s Light spell, but my legs were bound together. A cold wave of fear rushed through my veins, but it was almost immediately washed away and replaced with confusion as the ropes started to loosen. Furrowing my brow, I twisted my hooves and was quickly freed from my poorly tied bindings.

“Huh?” I mumbled. I blinked against the fatigue as my mind scrambled for answers, only to be reminded of Check’s betrayal. Growling softly, I brought my Pipbuck up to my face and reached out to activate the Light spell. Suddenly, the world jolted up and sideways and my Pipbuck slammed into my nose, changing the screen to the Notes tab instead of turning on the light. “Ow.”

“Did you hear that?” a rough voice asked from somewhere to my right. I think it was a mare, but it sounded awful, almost as bad as Brownstone.

“Hear what?” I heard Check ask, her voice muffled slightly.

“What are you two saying? You know my ears fell off two months ago,” a stallion said. His ears fell off? How does one take their ears falling off so well?

“I thought I heard somepony say ‘ow.’ Did you lot hear it too?” the mare asked. There was no response from my former friend or the earless pony before he shouted.

“Huh?”

“Nevermind. We’re almost to Sewer Station. Mayor Canterot has cleared the way to get you to King’s Elevator, Ten.”

“You can just call me Check. That’s my name.”

“Ah. Waiting until you have your balefire egg and are sworn in to take the title. Gotcha.”

“What’s that?” the stallion asked.

“Nothing, Calico!” she shouted back.

I waited for a good two minutes, listening only to the sounds of their hooves on stone and what I could guess was the wagon hauling us. Three ponies, two that I could assume were ghouls, but one was Check. I mulled over my chances and thought I could take them as long as there weren’t any other potential enemies nearby. Turning on my EFS, I froze at the sight of the magical UI projected across my vision.

So many hostile markers. As I turned my head, at least ten or fifteen of them appeared scattered around outside my burlap prison. Out of all the red, I could only see five yellow markers, and they were all bunched together in the direction that Check and the ghouls’ voices were coming from. Great. There might be two more potential enemies, but I really hoped that they were Melody and Compass in separate bags. Actually, I almost prayed that it was them. If Check had killed them...

“Then we’d show her what happens to bitches that mess with us,” The Nightmare laughed. “We can take all of them without breaking a sweat. Just give the flame what he wants and we can fuck them all up!”

“They’re taking us to King. I’m going to play dead until then and catch him by surprise,” I told the demon me in the back of my mind. It was as best a plan as I could make right now and seemed to satisfy her. At least she couldn’t read my mind and know that I had no plans of doing what she wanted; I had promised Melody I wouldn’t give into her again, but the fact that my own schizophrenic personality couldn’t tell that I was lying did strike me as a little odd.

Looking down at my Pipbuck’s screen, I pulled out the earbloom Melody had shown me on the walk up the Union Jack line yesterday, and queued up DJ-Pon3. He was playing some old Sweetie Belle, which was fine by me, and I pulled up passages from my brother’s journal. Dates with Page Turner, hoofball games with Pipsqueak and Da Capo, and even inspections of Stable Sixty-Three with Dr. Hoofentrotter. Even though they were mostly mundane entries, I loved reading about my brother’s life and how happy Page Turner had made him. I was about to move down to the next entry when a song by Sapphire Shores that I had enjoyed as a foal faded out and the Wasteland’s Voice, DJ-Pon3, replaced it.

“Good morning, Wastelanders. It’s your old pal, DJ-Pon3, with a bit of somber news. It’s been three days since I last heard from my old buddy, Howling Buck, across the Marediteranean Sea. His last update was that the Nightmare Knight was returning with the stuff they needed to shut down that bomb in Gigaton once and for all, but now Trottingham has gone dark.

“Your guess is as good as mine as to why we haven’t heard any updates from good ole Buck, but let’s try and keep the faith and not assume the worse. I’ll keep you folks updated as best I can so if I hear anything from across the pond, you’ll be the first to know. Anyway, let’s reflect on happier times with this little number from Sweetie Belle. Take it away, Sweetie.”

I frowned and clumsily hit a few buttons, missing once or twice due to bumps in the road, before I was able to turn it off. It’s not that I hated Sweetie Belle’s music, far from it actually, but the fact that I had heard that song four times since finding DJ-Pon3’s station was a little annoying. I can understand not having much old music, but there had to be some musically talented ponies out in the Wasteland, right? Why didn’t DJ-Pon3 put some new talent on the airwaves?
Flipping back to the Notes tab, I realized that I had moved past my brother’s journal and into the e-mails and notes from Mosaic’s terminal. Scrolling through all the entries, I realized that some of Gestalt’s notes were in here as well. There was one in particular that forced me to stop and read. It was titled ‘To Stitches.’

“Mr. Stitches,

“Thank you for meeting me under such short notice. I’ve know about your relationship with my sister for some time, but I wished to allow her to believe she was keeping your meetings secret from me. While I do not understand what she finds so endearing about you, I can ascertain that she has strong feelings for you that might even rival our own sororal bond even though you do not share a telepathic link as we do. While I do not understand, I do realize that you are important to my sister, so I will allow you to continue your relationship with her.

Thank you again for your time,

Gestalt

Aide to Twilight Sparkle, Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences

“Well that was interesting,” I thought with a small grin. For all of Mosaic’s secrecy, Gestalt had known about her relationship all along and had tentatively approved of her sister’s secret coltfriend. I didn’t know if it was sweet or a little creepy, but I decided to lean towards sweet. Continuing through Gestalt’s notes and e-mails, I had to stop and go back after noticing another interesting e-mail, one sent to Ministry Mare Rarity early in the morning on the day the bombs fell.

“Ministry Mare Rarity,

“Mosaic and I have run our tests and have definitive answers to your inquiry about shielding with Bypass spell security. It appears that there was in fact a weakness in our designs that we did not account for. Relatives, possibly even distant relatives, of those the Bypass spell is designed to allow through the shielding are also able to pass through just as you saw in the case of your sister. We will get to work on fixing this flaw after our meeting with Ministry Mare Twilight later today.

“However, your worries about relatives of the Princesses or Prince Blueblood in particular seem to be unfounded. Alicorn DNA is very different from that of a normal pony. In the case of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna’s relatives, their first non-pony sister, Princess Aria, and perhaps her son, Prince Regal, would be able to pass. However, beyond one or two generations away from an alicorn parent, the non-alicorn DNA would become too dominant and different for the loophole in the Bypass spell’s matrix to be taken advantage of in such a way. We hope this will assuage your fears, Ministry Mare Rarity.

Gestalt and Mosaic

Aides to Twilight Sparkle, Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences

“What?” I thought, reading the last few lines over and over again and trying to process Gestalt and Mosaic’s findings. This had to be incorrect. How the hell had I passed through if I was over one hundred generations removed from my namesake? It didn’t make any sense. If my mother’s genetics wouldn’t have allowed me to pass through than that would mean. “My father must have been related to the Ministry Mares! That would explain why I could pass through the shield, but Melody couldn’t.”

But who? I knew that Twilight and Applejack had brothers, Prince Shining Armor and Big Macintosh, and they all had fathers, but would any of them have been the type to seduce a married mare? Also, I don’t think any of their parents could have been as dark brown as me. Trying to ascertain my parentage like this was getting me nowhere.

Plus, Gestalt and Mosaic had said distant relatives could pass too. I knew from the tabloids that the Apple Family was huge. Any one of the stallions from that clan might have worked too. I had another clue about who my father might have been, but I was still no closer to figuring it out as I had been two hundred years ago. The futility of this made me want to scream. Thankfully, I didn’t as I was able to hear my captors say.

“Here we are, Sewer Station. We’re almost to King’s Elevator,” the mare told Check. As she said that, a note flashed across my vision telling me that Sewer Station had been discovered. How would Toffee Biscuit’s Pipbuck, something that was built before the bombs fell, know the name of a post-bombs place? Could it hear what the ghoul was saying?

“Where’s the elevator?” Check asked.

“Not too far from the market. Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”

A few minutes. Never have three words ever made me so anxious and on edge. Even compared to when Brightlight had told me he loved me, which, in retrospect, was probably just a ploy to get me to sleep with him. The thought that I was this close to King, this close to jumping out and taking the leader of the Royal Flush Raiders by surprise, this close to finishing him off, sent electric shivers down my spine. I checked my shield and sword, which thankfully were still on my back, and waited.

The number of red markers on my EFS had dropped to only a few, but the number of yellows had taken over the bottom bar; It made sense though if this was some sort of settlement. After some idle chatter between my captors and the occasional rough voiced passerby. The few minutes passed by quickly though and I heard a gate creak and whine closed behind us before the ground started to shake.

“So what are your plans now that you're Ten, Check?” the mare asked.

“I don’t have any,” Check said, her voice shaky, “Yet…”

“Nerves, huh? Understandable. I’m not a big fan of the Royal Flush, but…”

“But what? If you don’t like the Flush, then why help me?”

“He’s been good to us down here. Sewer Station wouldn’t have survived without him and his gang so we help out any way we can that won’t put our little town in any kind of danger,”

“Oh… Thank you.”

My blood was figuratively boiling. If I didn’t know exactly what my mane literally lighting on fire felt like, I would have said it had been set ablaze with my fury.

“We can make that happen,” The Nightmare whispered, her voice practically a seductive purr. Even though Compass had told me The Nightmare would kill me, even with my promise to Melody floating in the back of my mind, I almost gave in.

Kachunk.

The elevator came to a stop with a jolt that tossed me around, bumping me into another body, this one letting out a very familiar ‘Oof.’

“Melody?” I whispered, feeling my anger start to subside now that I knew my niece was still alive.

“Shh,” she hissed back. Just then the sound of a something rusty and metal opening assaulted our ears and the sound of a harness hitting the ground immediately followed.

“It’s all you now. We’re not supposed to go past here. Just pull the wagon out here and towards the dead trees. King’s waiting for you in the garden,” the mare told Check.

“Thank you again, Cedarwood,” Check said before taking a deep breath. Then we began to move. A few moments later I heard the door closing loudly behind us.

I started to undo the loose knot around the sack, pulling the bow apart with my telekinesis. I had just gotten the string undone when a hoof kicked me in the flanks.

“Wait a second, Aria,” Melody hissed.

“No way. I’m taking Check out before she has a chance to give us up to King.”

“Compass and I are free and have all our gear. We’ll catch him by surprise,” Melody whispered back. “We need to tell you something, Aria. Check…”

“Ten?” a new female voice asked, a low gurgle in the back of her throat, as a yellow dot suddenly appeared on my EFS. Where did she come from? Did this mare have a Stealthbuck that just wore off? How many other RFR members were hidden from my Eyes Forward Sparkle’s view?

“Yes?”

“My name is Lilyrose; I am King’s executive assistant. He is waiting for you in the garden courtyard. Will you follow me?”

“Gotcha, feathers. Lead the way,” Check replied before giving a grunt and following her. For some reason, Lilyrose’s name sounded familiar. Wherever she was, Melody and I couldn’t risk continuing our short lived argument with her hovering around the wagon

As I lay in my burlap prison, waiting to break out with sword and shield drawn, my nerves were as sharp as my blade. This was it. I was about to come face-to-face with King, the stallion that seemed to not only know me, but wanted me dead. Every moment of quietly waiting for the battle to come was a new agony. Every bump along the path caused my muscles to tighten and my hair to stand on end.

“King is so glad you decided to take him up on his offer. He believes you will be a vital member of our... family. He believes a mare with your abilities can truly turn the tide in our war with the Steel Rangers,” Lilyrose began, although I couldn’t help notice the pause in her statement.

“I sure hope I can be,” Check said simply, but her statement caused a low growl to rumble from my throat.

“What was that?” Lilyrose asked, her voice worried.

“Nothing. The Nightmare Knight snores,” Check answered quickly, her voice cracking ever so slightly. This caught me off guard. Why did she lie? What was going on?

“Really?” Lilyrose asked, and I could hear the flapping of wings, more like a bats than a bird or pegasus’ wings. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I check the contents of your bags, would you, Miss Check?”

“Uh, of course not.”

Quickly, I thrust my front hooves through the loose binds that I had pulled free from earlier and closed my eyes. As I did, the mouth of the bag was opened and I heard Lilyrose hum dismissively. Acting quickly, I made my best attempt to let out a snort like I was snoring and pretend to be unconscious. My heart pounded in my chest, and I forced myself to keep my breathing calm and steady, even though my body was screaming to start gasping for air as the adrenaline was already beginning to pump from my adrenal glands and into my bloodstream. Thankfully, I heard the bag’s rope pull and heard it being tied off before Lilyrose turned back to Check.

“Yes. Such a charming young mare. I can’t see why she was only ever able to fight and screw up the Royal Flush’s plans. King will be very happy that you brought her to us alive. He’s been wanting to dispose of her personally for a very long time.”

My eyes snapped open and I started working on untying the knot again, realizing very quickly that it was a lot tighter and better tied than last time.

“Yeah, but I bet she’s amazing in bed,” Check laughed.

“I’ll take your word for that,” Lilyrose said dismissively. I felt the cart turn and swallowed hard as she added, “King is waiting for you in the courtyard ahead with a few of his associates. This way please.”

“We’re almost there. I need to get this rope untied,” I thought, desperately tugging at lines of rope that I couldn’t see. Why had it been so easy to untie the first time and so hard now? As I tugged and pried at Lilyrose’s knot, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to untie it without being able to see it. Drawing my sword as five more yellow blips appeared in my vision, I knew I’d have to cut my way free from the bag. I only had one chance at this and if I failed, the element of surprise would be lost and, most likely, my very life with it.

The cart came to a slow stop, and I heard the harness drop from Check’s shoulders to clatter on the stone beneath us. I held my breath, waiting for confirmation that King was there, hoping to hear the rough, yet charismatic voice of the Royal Flush leader, until I heard a chair screech as it was pushed out across the stone courtyard.

“Miss Check, or should I say, Ten?” King said cordially. I could practically picture the false grin on his face as his hoofbeats told me he was approaching. “Welcome.”

“So you’re King, huh? Should have figured you were a ghoul,” Check replied.

“Yes, quite. I have been around since the bombs fell except for the couple of years I spent back in Equestria to gather some allies to bring back, but that’s a story for later. So you have brought me Aria, Melody Star, and her little coltfriend alive, correct?”

“That’s right. They’re right here,” Check said, pausing for a moment, before shouting, “Now!”
I was caught off guard, not expecting any of this, but I quickly shook myself out of my stunned state and stabbed my sword upwards. Cutting free, I burst out of the bag and my horn sparked as I laid eyes on King. I didn’t know who this ghoul was, nothing about him seemed familiar in the slightest, yet that didn’t matter, he needed to die right now.

Bzzap! Bang!

Before I was able to fire off my spell, Compass and Melody already fired a shot each squarely into King’s forehead. Guided by SATS, Compass’ bullet splattered the courtyard behind King with gore before Melody’s laser blast disintegrated his head completely. To my right, a grenade had rolled into the group of ghoul guards, sending two rushing for cover while the third stared in horror, unable to move out of the way in time to avoid being ripped to shreds by shrapnel. Before they were able to dive behind a stone bench, I let lose my empowered spell on the guards, making sure the bolt traveled from one to the other, and they both spasmed before collapsing to the ground and convulsing wildly.

Looking back to Lilyrose, I barely had enough time to raise my shield to deflect the bullet she fired at me. Another explosion went off while Melody took to the skies and Compass fired a few more shots. Lilyrose, who I now realized was a pegasus ghoul, took off faster than I would have thought a pony without feathers could, and dodged the stream of pink beams and bullets my friends had fired at her. Turning around quickly, knowing now that I only had one enemy left to take care of, I leapt at Check with my shield before me and sword ready to strike.

“Traitor!” I screamed as I slammed Golden Star’s Aegis into her as hard as I could, her eyes going wide as I knocked the wind out of her and I heard a few ribs crack. Snarling, I brought my sword up as Check tried to plead for her life and a pained croak escaped her lips. The fear in her eyes made me pause for a moment and her desperate, wordless pleas made me doubt myself, making me wonder if I really could kill her.

“She sold us out! Kill her!” The Nightmare cheered. She was right. Bringing my sword back up, I swung it down with all my strength.

“Aria! Stop!” Melody screamed suddenly. Without thinking, I did the only thing I could and I swung the Sword of Everfree wildly to my left and it clashed hard against the courtyard. With a clang, I lost my grip on the blade and it went flying into a dead rose bush, tangling itself inside its gnarled branches.

“You like it rough, don’t ya, Fire Flanks,” Check coughed, giving me a weak smile as blood started to ooze down from her lips. “Now I really wish you could have gotten the memo.”

“Why in the hoof shouldn’t I kill you right now?” I growled.

“She’s on our side! It was a trick!” Melody shouted before diving to avoid Lilyrose’s pistol fire.

“Yeah! She was a triple agent!” Compass shouted while firing into the air randomly, a lot less effective without SATS to aid him. I blinked.

“What? But she...”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Check coughed. “Oh goddesses. I think you might have punctured my lung.”

“Oh no! Oh Check! I’m sorry,” I said, pulling out my only healing potion and pouring it down her throat. She drank slowly while I smiled nervously at her, feeling horribly guilty that I had almost just killed her when suddenly Compass let out a yelp.
Spinning around again, trying to fight the dizzy feeling creeping up on me, I realized that a new red dot had appeared on my EFS. A zebra ghoul, dressed in black garbs and wearing a huge alligator skull covered in ebony feathers as some sort of headdress, was standing behind Compass with a wicked dagger just beneath my friend’s throat. The curved blade had a green liquid dripping down the blade that I knew instantly had to be some evil zebra poison that would probably kill Compass horribly with just a prick of his skin. Melody and Lilyrose stopped firing at each other, the former calling her coltfriend’s name as she hovered in the air while the later smirked around the mouth grip of her pistol and landed daintily next to the bush my sword had skewered.

“You can come out now, my King,” Lilyrose called out after putting away her gun.

The slow clopping of hooves on stone cut through the darkness. From behind the house strode a unicorn ghoul in a fine tuxedo, his long blond mane tied into a proper ponytail while his tail swishing back and forth with each step. He did not seem to pay the guards twitching on the ground any mind, nor the gory pile of flesh and bone that had been the third. His glazed over blue eyes looked upon me with hate and contempt, especially as I raised my shield to protect myself and Check, as Lilyrose trotted over to him.

Then he gave me a sneer of superiority that I immediately recognized, my eyes widening in realization and horror. Even with his skin dead, gray, and pulled back tight in some vain attempt to appear as he once had, even with his eyes filled with cataracts, even with his teeth made of gold instead of enamel and bone, I recognized the ghoul before me and childish fears and sorrows bubbled up inside me and I had to resist the urge to run away and cry.

“So I was right. It is you,” he said, looking me over like a fresh piece of strawberry pie before narrowing his eyes angrily.

“I will give you one thing, bastard girl. You have a real knack for surviving. I don’t know how you survived that balefire blast, nor the past two hundred years, but I will soon remedy that.”

“Don’t call her that, King! You have no fucking right!” Melody shouted down at him from around her mouth grip.

“Oh my word. Such language from Equestria’s rightful queen. We’ll have to remedy that before I give you the throne, my dear,” he said, feigning offense.

“What the hell are you talking about? Tell your freaky zebra friend to let Compass go!”

“All in good time, Melody Star. Now could you please come down here and put away your weapon? We wouldn’t want anything to happen to the good doctor, now would we?” Looking her over, he added, “ I must say, even though you are a pegasus, you do have Golden Star’s eyes. And possibly Elegant Star’s or my own mane color.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Melody asked, slowly descending and warily holstering her pistol.

“Oh really? You haven’t figured it out yet?” King asked with a disappointed shake of his head. “You don’t know who I really am? Aria seems to have figured it out. What, has the cat got your tongue again?”

“Aria?” Melody asked, diverting her gaze from Compass to give me a confused look. I swallowed hard.

“He…” I tried to say, my voice cracking as I stared at the stallion that terrified me as a child, the stallion who had called a nine year old filly a monster. I could barely stop my knees from shaking as the terrifying presence that had haunted my nightmares as a child had been amplified by his new ghoulish visage and the horrible things I knew he had done since the last time I had seen him. “He’s Starshine, you’re grandfather.”

“What? I-How?” Melody asked, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. “I mean, I know how he became a ghoul, but why is he in Trottingham. Grandpa Golden Star’s journal said he lived in Manehatten!”

“I could explain that in good time, my dear. At the moment, however, I have to deal with your… aunt,” Starshine said, looking almost sickened by that last word.

“I could tell you right now…”

“Oh? You did read my terminal, didn’t you?” Starshine asked condescendingly.

“Yes. He was here to take Golden Star and Page Turner back to Manehatten in his zepplin. Four Stars had a secret company Stable there that he wanted to take them to, he said Stable-Tec didn’t know what they were doing. By the looks of everything two hundred years later, it sounds like you didn’t know what you were doing,” I replied, feeling my anger start to slowly overwhelm my fear. “Of course, maybe the zebra lied to him.”

The quick fall of his smirk and the twitch in his right eye told me everything I needed to know. The memory orb and his letter to Lilyrose had made me suspicious, but this confirmed everything I had expected.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said cooly.

“Oh? Nothing to say about Ministry Mare Pinkie Pie’s gestapo ruining everything?” I replied, feeling my confidence building quickly as Starshine’s grin completely vanished and turned into a snarl. Even though his appearance was far more ghastly than in the past, the fact that I knew he was worse than a monster somehow made him less intimidating than to me. I was Princess Luna’s guard and, even these two hundred years later, I had to do my duty and I was gaining strength from that.

“How the fuck did you hear that?”

“Let’s just say I have friends in high places,” I said, giving him my own superior smirk. However, his returned as he shook his head, chuckling softly. “But I know what you did, Starshine. Why would you sell Equestria out to the zebra? Why would you destroy the world?”

“Don’t you try to act superior to me. Which friends do you speak of? Your imaginary gods? What did you call them again? Oh, right, Eternals.” If I didn’t know better, I was sure that the zebra assassin blinked. Did ghouls need to blink? I glanced over at him, but when I looked at him directly his face had returned to its normal cold and emotionless state. “You’ve obviously lost your mind, but that doesn’t matter really. You’ve been lower than filth since the moment you were born. A monster. A-”

“You’re the fucking monster!” Check shouted before a fit of coughs and hacks doubled her over in pain. The healing potion obviously hadn’t been enough, but with Compass in his current predicament, I didn’t see any way Melody and I could help her. Movement to our right alerted us to the fact that one of the guards was starting to get back up while the other one had fallen still. I didn’t know if he was dead or unconscious, (I didn’t know if ghouls could be knocked unconscious) but I watched the guard limp back over to his leader.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such a shame we’re going to have to kill you, Checkers. You would have been a fine Ten. If only you had a little more loyalty.”

“You’re one to talk,” Melody fumed, her wings extended and literally bristling with anger. “You betrayed everypony in Equestria.”

“I tried to save Equestria!” he screamed, his foggy eyes wide and his body shaking with fury. Closing his eyes for a moment, a sneer returned to his face and he brushed the oddly full mane away from his eyes. “But you wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand you’re cra-”

“Melody. Please calm down,” I told her, trying my best not to fly off and say something that would get Compass killed. I definitely didn’t want Melody to say one wrong word and lose the pony she loved. “So how exactly were you trying to save Equestria by helping the Zebra Empire?”

“It’s was far too long ago and far too complicated to matter now,” he said, waving a hoof at me dismissively.

“It was only a few days ago for me. Why don’t you try me?”

“Very well then,” Starshine sighed even though he didn’t need to breathe, “The war, especially under Luna’s reign, was destroying everything Equestria stood for. The Ministries allowed mere commoners status beyond anypony except the princesses themselves just because some magical trinkets had chosen them. They were base born, not of nobility like myself or Elegant Star. Nor did those wenches earn fame, wealth, or glory. They were trash put on a pedestal by a usurper alicorn in far too deep to know what she was doing.”

Talking bad about the Ministry Mares was one thing, but bad mouthing Princess Luna? Let’s just say my mane was tingling as if my scalp were dancing a hoedown and my lips curled slightly, revealing my fang.

“Did not earn it? The Ministry Mares freed Princess Luna from the Nightmare Forces, defeated Discord, destroyed Sombra to save the Crystal Empire on top of being chosen by the Elements of Harmony. They did above and beyond what was required to be leaders of Equestria,” I argued.

“And look where it got us.”

“Because you helped the zebra destroy everything. You knew the bombs were going to fall, but the only reason you were caught in the blast was because Pinkie Pie caught you and your zebra allies stabbed you in the back. You said it would take weeks to be safe again, I’m guessing they lied.”

Starshine’s glare suddenly made me feel very small, nine years old to be exact. Stepping forward, he looked to the zebra with the knife and smiled.

“I could kill him right now, you know. That blade is covered in concentrated manticore poison. Even the tiniest cut will send him into an irreversible bout of cardiac arrest,” he said, his voice cold and uncaring as he caressed Compass’ chin with a rotten hoof.

Compass’ eyes were mere pinpricks behind his glasses and his coat had turned such a pale orange that I was surprised he was still getting enough blood flowing to his brain to stay conscious. Compass swallowed hard before taking a deep breath and speaking.

“Why are you doing this. Melody’s your granddaughter, Aria’s your-”

“Don’t you fucking say it!” Starshine bellowed, wrapping the knife in his golden aura and coming dangerously close to slitting his throat. “She is not mine! Golden Star was wrong! She cannot be mine!”

“Starshine!” I shouted, taking a step forward only to have the guard raise his gun in my direction. “This is between you and me. I’m the one messing with your plans and you obviously want me dead so we should settle this once and for all like ponies.”

“Don’t do it, Aria. I’d gladly give anything to make sure Melody and you are alright,” Compass said, somehow digging up a well of courage I didn’t know he had in him.

“How noble, but I hold all the cards here, girl. Why shouldn’t I just kill you and Check and keep the boy as collateral so that my dear granddaughter listens to reason.”

“I’d rather die than let you hurt anypony I care about,” Compass muttered.

“Don’t, Compass!” Melody pleaded with him.

“That can be arranged you know,” Lilyrose told us calmly, holding up the hoof that her gun was holstered on.

This was bad. With a hostage, I couldn’t do anything. One wrong move and Compass was dead. I kept racking my brains, trying to think of a plan, magical or conventional, but nothing came to mind. I wasn’t familiar enough with the dagger to teleport it away from the zebra and even if I did, Lilyrose would pull her gun and shoot him before he could escape. Plus, that striped bastard probably knew some stupid zebra kung fu or something.

“No witty response? No brilliant plan? White Rose and Golden Star grossly overestimated you, bastard girl.”

“I challenge you to a duel!” I shouted before I knew what I was saying and realizing far too late the ramifications of my declaration.

“A duel?” Starshine asked before letting out a hoarse chuckle. “That is how the nobility used to settle things, and, if memory serves, White Rose did have you learn fencing. But why would I duel you, girl? I hold your little friend in the groove of my hoof. I have my associates while you have but a bruised and battered traitor,” he said, waving at Check with a grin. “Is she going to be your second? I doubt we could trust such scum to keep her word and stay out of the fight. Although, even if she did interfere, I assure you that Charabog here would be able to blow her away faster than she could pull one of her grenades.” The guard simply nodded and shrugged to show off the assault rifle in his battle saddle.

“I’m not in the best shape here, fire flanks,” Check groaned after coughing up another glob of blood. "Ya did a real number on me."

“I’m here too!” Melody proclaimed.

“You are my granddaughter and part of the prize I seek. You being her second just would not fly… Oh! I made a joke and didn’t even intend it to be so,” he said before clopping his hoof on the stone patio. “Lilyrose, do remember to take that down. I’m sure Queen would love to hear such wit.”

“Yes, sir.” He then returned his gaze to me.

“Anyway, since I am a fair stallion, I will allow a duel with my wager being Doctor Compass’ life. But what is your wager? You have nothing I would want.”

“I do,” I replied, glancing down and pulling up my mother’s tiara with my Pipbuck’s sorting spell. “I have my mother’s tiara from the safe in Four Star Station.”

“What? That’s my property. You can’t wager something you stole,” Starshine growled.

“This tiara has belonged to mares in my family for generations. My grandmother gave it to my mother. Even if you want to bring my illegitimacy into this, then this tiara should belong to Melody by right of her birth,” I said before giving the tiara case to Melody. “Would you place this as our bet for the duel?”

“But it’s yours,” Melody whispered, looking at the case held between her wingtips with some trepidation.

“But he wants it and you have a better claim to it in his eyes. It may be our only way to save Compass.”

“Okay,” Melody whispered softly before looking back to Compass. “I’m putting up my grandmother’s tiara as our wager on the duel.”

“Very well, but now it’s time to choose our seconds. Are you really going to choose a mare that can barely stand as your second, girl? That does leave you at a grave disadvantage.”

Starshine had me there. While the second was supposed to duel if the first could not or did not show up, they were also the one to stop the opposing second from joining in the fight and cheap shotting their first’s opponent. Looking at Check, even I could see that her grin was actually just her way of covering up the wince caused every time she stopped herself from coughing. She needed Compass’ medical attention, but with my friends in their current states, I had to win in order for her to get the care she needed. Of course, if I lost, we’d both be dead.

“I-”

Pfft.

The guard standing to Starshine’s right surprised all of us as a sickening black hole bloomed from his temple. Diving to the dirt, Starshine hissed something in zebra and his striped cohort pressed the blade closer to Compass’ neck, drawing a high pitched grunt from him as he tried to suck his neck in and away from the poisoned dagger.

“Come out right now or my associate will kill the boy!” Starshine ordered from behind the cover Charabog’s corpse was affording him. I heard a faint curse and a few moments later an earth pony in black Steel Ranger armor materialized out of the late afternoon shadows.

“Shadow?” I asked, feeling almost ecstatic at the very sight of him.

“Shadowbuck? How the hell did you find my manor?” King asked, climbing to his hooves and dusting himself off.

“So you’re King, huh? Should have figured you were a ghoul. Let Compass go and come along quietly,” Shadowbuck announced before giving me a nod and a smile. “I’m pretty sure the Nightmare Knight would rather minimize the bloodshed that would come with the Brotherhood of Steel barreling down on your little hideout.”

Starshine simply chuckled.

“An admirable try, Shadowbuck, but I know you are all posturing. The rest of the Brotherhood are busy with your own little internal conflicts. I don’t know why you’re here, but your brothers-in-arms are still at Big Buck.”

“How do you know that?”

“Easily. Even if I didn’t have my own spies in your little organization, I assure you that my own security would have noticed a bunch of tin can wearing earth ponies trouncing around the Noble District. Steel Rangers aren’t know for their subtlety, present company excluded, of course.”

“Shadow, how did you find us?” I asked in a hushed tone, and he pointed to my hooves. I furrowed my brow for a moment before it hit me. “My Pipbuck?”

“Bingo. I got yours, Melody’s, and Compass’ tags stored in the EFS in my suit,” he answered, nevering taking his sights off King. “I could kill you as easily as blasting a bloatsprite with a combat shotgun. Give up.”

“You may be able to, Shadowbuck, but I assure you that the moment you fire your little shot, Doctor Compass’ throat would be slit faster than you could think to pull the trigger.”

“I heard enough of what’s going on. What guarantee do we have that your zebra friend won’t kill Compass if Aria wins your little duel?”

“That’s what I want to know too,” Melody added.

“Carassen here was a shaman of the Plains Tribe. Duels exist in both our cultures, although they had become very rare in Equestria in the years leading up to the war. They are considered sacred rites in zebra culture and are judged by the spirits or some nonsense. He will honor the result of our duel,” Starshine replied.

“He can’t tell us this?” I asked. Looking at the strangely dressed zebra ghoul, I didn’t trust him in the slightest. This wasn’t some ‘innocent’ modern zebra, this striped bastard had helped kill millions and destroy the world. However, Carassen’ sunken eyes addressed me coldly before he nodded and tightened his jaws grip on his weapon.

“He’s never been one for talking. At least that saves us from the stupid rhyming some zebra mystics are prone to do when speaking our tongue,” Starshine answered.

“Then let’s get this over with. I choose Shadowbuck as my second.”

“You sure?” Check asked before a small cough made her whole body shudder. I nodded, looking to Shadow.

“I don’t like it,” he said, “But I got your back, Aria.”

“Thanks.” I tryied to give him a reassuring smile, some way to let him know I could handle this. How tough could a two hundred year old ghoul who had spent his life among the nobility and his afterlife hiding in this manor?

“Then I will choose Lilyrose here since your second so unceremoniously killed my first choice,” Starshine declared before clopping his hooves together. “Concierge! Valet!”

In a flash of green light, two unicorn ghouls, a stallion in a coat and tails and a mare in a Fancee maid’s uniform, appeared before him. Shadow raised his sniper rifle and Check had already teleported a grenade to her side, which she immediately dropped as a fit of coughs overtook her. Thank goodness she hadn’t pulled the pin yet.

“Yes, Master Starshine?” they said in unison. They looked and sounded almost exactly alike, even the coarseness of their voices were similar. They had both lowered their heads in subservience to Starshine and were obviously unarmed.

“Please take Princess Melody Star inside. There is a violet gown that was her grandmother’s. I think it would compliment her mane perfectly,” Starshine said. “And Valet? Do use your skills to alter it to allow her wings freedom of movement.”

“Yes, sir,” the stallion, Valet, said, standing up smoothly.

“Also, Concierge, bring me my fencing gear.”

“As you wish sir,” Concierge said, giving him a curtsy before standing as well.

“Huh?” Melody grunted. The pair of ghoulish servants’ horns glowed green and, in a flash, Melody and the twins were gone.

“Where did they take her?” I asked angrily.

“Inside the manor. I assure you she will be safe and treated like the princess she is,” he assured us, undoing his tie as he walked over to a nearby bench. “A princess need not see the bloodshed that is about to befall this once lovely garden.”

“Says the guy who sent two Aces, a Ten, and Jack after us,” Shadowbuck replied snarkily.

“I did not know who she was until after Ace’s report and, as I have informed you, I was not in favor of the attack on Stable Sixty-Three.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you attacked our boat when we were trying to get the megaspell data back to Gigaton,” I added.

“Ace and Jack are ever the go getters. A little overzealous if you ask me since it would have destroyed Trottingham in the long run, but a sound victory for us against the Steel Rangers with no negative repercussions does deserve rewards.” He turned to smirk at me while removing his formal shoes and cufflinks. “Such as another shot at killing the Nightmare Knight.”

“You bastard,” Shadowbuck cursed.

“No, that would be the mare you are seconding, Paladin Shadowbuck.”
I never thought someone other than Golden Star would be furious at someone else calling me a bastard, but I could almost feel the anger pouring off of Check and Shadow as they glared at him. There was another green flash and Concierge appeared by the bench with a long case and a set of formal fencing attire.

“Thank you, Concierge. You may return to help your brother prepare Princess Melody Star,” Starshine ordered without even glancing down at the bowing ghoul in the black and white dress.

“Yes, Master Starshine,” she said. With those simple words, she vanished yet again.

“Just give me a moment to prepare and we shall begin,” he told us as he started to pull on the white padded uniform over his suit.

“Aria,” Shadow whispered. “Are you sure about this?”

“Not really,” I replied nervously. “But I’ve got Lunar Guard armor and Golden Star’s Aegis. How tough can he be?”

“Just… just be careful.”

“Kick his ass, Fire Flanks.”

Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked towards Starshine as he pulled the fencing mask over his head. He then opened the case, revealing an exquisite set of weapons. As he lifted them in his telekinesis, I almost whistled at their beauty. A matching set, a rapier and parrying dagger, made of fine, sharpened steel with silver filigree wrapping like serpents around the pommel, hilt, and guard of each weapon, the small blade a stunted mirror of the larger.

“I see you’re impressed. They were a wedding gift from my late father-in-law,” he said, slashing the air with his rapier in practice.

“My grandfather.”

“Yes, quite.” He seemed unamused by my claiming of my own grandfather. “Regal Gentry was a great stallion. I am glad he did not live long enough to see his daughter’s mistake.”

“I’m not a nine year old girl anymore, Starshine. You don’t scare me,” I snapped, drawing my shield and sword.

“If you’re not a little filly, then I’m sure you know that only telekinesis on your weapons is allowed in a duel. You cannot use your horn to cast anything but that,” he replied, turning his parrying dagger sideways.

“I know.”

“Then let us begin,” he said calmly, and I braced myself for an attack.

I waited, but Starshine didn’t move. We stood in the middle of the dead garden, watching each other and waiting to see who would make the first move. Shield raised and sword at the ready, I kept my eyes on my brother’s father, the stallion I had to be ready to kill unless I wanted to end up dead instead. For almost an entire minute, we stood at the ready, the only sound was an occasional cough from Check and the beating of my heart drowning out the sound of my own breathing as it pounded in my ears.

“Um, is this supposed to happen?” Check asked.

“I thought you would be rather gung ho to attack me, bastard girl. What would Luna say about your cowardice.”

I took a step forward, feeling my lip twitch, but I closed my eyes for a moment and took a breath.

“Not going to w-” I tried to say, opening my eyes just in time to see Starshine surge forward and thrust his rapier at my face.

Ducking under the blade, I barely had time to swing my own at his torso. Sparks flew as his parrying dagger met my sword and both were forced upwards. I was inside his reach, but unable to strike. Bringing my shield up, I pushed him away right as his dagger came back down and left a shallow cut in my cheek just below my left eye. Starshine was a lot faster than I had expected and was not letting up.

He regained his footing far too fast and was on me again, thrusting his sword at my face and forcing me to parry wildy. Stabbing and slashing with expert precision, I was already losing ground and being pushed back towards the manor, the dry soil giving way to the cracked stonework of the patio.

“It was foolish to think you could beat me, girl,” Starshine said with a wicked grin across his stretched and bony face. I could see a mad glee in his near lifeless eyes and frowned at the scars along his scalp. “Your style is a mixture of High Canterlotian fencing and Golden Star’s, the former I have mastered and the latter I taught him. On top of that you have adopted the inferior techniques of the Royal Guard. It’s a bastardization of swordplay, but I guess it is fitting.”

“Bis-” I tried to curse, but was forced to dive to the right, his dagger raking against the collar of my armor instead of slitting my throat. Rolling, I lifted Golden Star’s Aegis and thrust it forward, trying to give myself some distance to think and breath. That’s when it hit me.

“He’s able to taunt me and keep fighting like this because he doesn’t have to breathe. His body is necrotically animated and I’m guessing he’s had enough surgeries to keep it himself in peak shape and avoid decaying too much.” I glanced over at the zebra ghoul and Lilyrose, noticing their own absence of missing body parts like the other ghouls I had seen. Beside’s Lilyrose’s feathers and the zebra’s mane, they looked in impeccable shape compared to other ghouls like Brownstone and Pipsqueak. “He’s lost the weaknesses of life, but almost none of its strengths. I’ll tire out and he’ll never even break a sweat… because he can’t.”

My confidence, fueled by my conviction and duty, was almost gone, and that childish fear was beginning to creep back into my mind. No, it wasn’t childish; Starshine had me outclassed in skill and physical prowess. My only hope was to use the one thing I hoped I had up on him. It was time to use my brain instead of my brawn.

“Retreating already? I thought the Nightmare Knight could give me more of a challenge.”

“I’m not a knight, but I am one of Luna’s guards. I have to ask; you were a noble and a businesspony. Why would you betray Equestria to the zebra, Starshine?” I asked. “They destroyed your business and any kingdom you could have gained.”

I was really hoping Starshine’s obvious love of his own voice would buy me some time to think and catch my breath.

“I was not betraying Equestria, I did it to save Equestria. I helped the zebra because of what their victory meant. They would depose and executed Luna, they would have probably exiled or executed the Ministry Mares, and then a new pony would be on the throne. A pony who would return Equestria to the way it was.”

“Golden Star would never have followed your lead. You disowned him,” I said, my eyes slightly drifting around the garden, looking for anything I could use to my advantage.

“I disowned him to force him here to Trottingham. I thought that he would fall in with the Trottingham Court and learn to be a proper noble. I never imagined he’d fall in love with a commoner and take a job with Stable-Tec.”

“But Trottingham was bombed too.”

“Yes, well, that was not a part of the plan, but apparently Roam decided that all major Equestrian cities should be destroyed. That too was not what I planned, but they saw they had no choice.”

“But you helped them anyway,” Shadowbuck growled.

“I was outvoted,” Starshine snapped. “I never wanted any of this.”

I had a sneaking suspicion that he was talking about his appearance and not the destruction and death.

“Elegant Rose was the oldest so she would be next in line. Then her son would be after her since she…”
He paused. Why did he pause?

“Since she killed herself?”

“It was your fault, after all. She made one mistake, one mistake that she didn’t have to die for, but you were the proof of her infidelity. If only she had… she had… She felt had no choice. Your birth forced her death.”

There was that pause again. Then I saw my opportunity as his eyes dropped to the ground for a brief moment. If a necromatically and cosmetically held together corpse could close the gap as fast as he did, then so could I.

Rushing forward, I thrust my sword at Starshine’s chest, knowing that his fencing outfit was nowhere near as protective as my Lunar Guard armor or reinforced underbarding. But Starshine’s speed surprised me again as the ghoulish fencer parried my blade, his eyes returning to meet my gaze and give me their dead stare, before slashing with his rapier. While the weapon was made for thrusting, it could cut through flesh almost as good as any other sword. I spun with the slash, feeling the wind cut as it narrowly missed the back of my neck, before I brought my sword to bear and tried to run it through his stomach.

“Ha,” he laughed, jumping sideways and letting my blade cut into his white uniform’s padding, but missing his flesh and anything vital by inches. My gambit had failed, I needed to get away, but I barely had enough time to duck under his counterattack. The rapier nicked off the back of my armor and the parrying dagger clashed against the collar guard, jarring me and forcing me to use Golden Star’s Aegis as a means of separating us again.

I backed away quickly, sword and shield raised. My lungs ached and my coat was already matted with sweat. Trying to keep up with Starshine was almost impossible. Even when attempting such a risky move, I had only damaged his clothes and had been nowhere near a death blow for a normal pony, much less a ghoul. I had to think, but my mind was going anywhere. I was too frantic to put more thought together than trying to survive without running away or using magic.

“We can beat him. Give the flame your sorrow, your rage, and your hate and he will make us unstoppable,” The Nightmare whispered softly, but I pushed her away.

I couldn’t let Melody down. That meant I wouldn’t break my promise. Nor would I let that fucking zebra hurt Compass. I wouldn’t let another innocent pony die on my watch. I could do this. I would not let Compass be added to the list that weighed down my soul. If I did, I knew it would pull me under for good.

Then my butt felt dead, burned wood bump against it.

This time, Starshine didn’t give me time to recover. Thrusting his rapier forward, I parried and locked hilts with him. His parrying dagger came up and my shield leapt up to meet it before slamming it to the ground and pinning it next to us.

“You have your mother’s fire, I’ll give you that, but you lack Golden Star’s talent for the blade. You’re sloppy and unrefined, the mark of a true commoner,” he said condescendingly, giving me a casual grin as if we were just chatting over dinner instead of trying to kill each other. “It’s a shame Elegant Rose chose to die for you.”

“For me?”

“I didn’t say ‘for you.’ I said ‘because of you’,” Starshine replied clumsily, but I narrowed my eyes, pushing as hard as I could to try to free my sword from his.

“You’re lying. You said ‘for me.’ What are you hiding?” I hissed, pushing even harder to the point of forcing Starshine to give up some ground and allow me to step away from the dead, burned tree behind me.

“I said no such thing,” he spat back, his eyes yet again casting down at the ground for a moment.

“Tell me the truth!” I roared, breaking my blade away and slashing at his face, cutting a deep gash along his chin. Black ichor began to ooze out of the wound, and Starshine snarled. Bringing his rapier up, he parried each of my subsequent attacks before turning the tide back in his favor.

“The truth is,” he said, spinning around my blade just as I had done, but with much more skill and dexterity than I had managed, before thrusting his sword at my exposed neck. Out of instinct, I turned, lifting my shield to block the thrust, and barely blocked it in time.

That’s when I felt the blade bite into my back leg, striking bone. I tried to scream, but as I opened my mouth I felt Starshine’s rapier thrust right between my armor and my underbarding’s plates.

“Aria!” Shadowbuck screamed, but a gunshot went off and I saw him crumble to the ground, a large dent in the side of his armor. Standing to our right was Lilyrose, her pistol smoking as she grinned over to Starshine

“You bitch!” Check screamed before another fit of coughs forced her to the ground.
Starshine pushed the blade farther into my chest until I felt it come out the other side and the coolness of its silver hilt through the reinforced Stable Sixty-Three barding. All the strength drained from my body and my legs gave out from under me as I fell towards Starshine. He caught me, taking me into an embrace I knew he would never have given me under any other circumstance, and I felt him press his mouth to my ear.

“The truth is that I should have killed you myself all those years ago instead of trying to get a nurse to do it. Then Elegant Rose would never have found us on that tower and she’d still be alive.”

“Wh… You? You k-killed…” I coughed weakly, hacking up blood as I realized he had pierced one of my lungs.

“It was an accident. I never meant for it to be this way. You were supposed to die, not her. We could have worked past her transgressions. I loved her, but apparently she loved you more than me,” he whispered angrily.

I could actually hear remorse in his words, behind the hate and anger, but I didn’t care. As I started to feel my grip on life slipping away, I was consumed by an overwhelming sense of grief. For so long I had thought my mother had abandoned me. For my entire life I was led to believe that she didn’t want me and I was responsible for her killing herself, and a small part of me had hated her for that.

“Now, just go to hell where all bastards go.”

I fell into the hooves of my mother’s murderer, the life fading from me faster and faster as he was covered in my blood and I found it impossible to breathe, I closed my eyes and let my head fall on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, mother,” I whispered with the last bit of breath in my lungs. Then the darkness took me into its warm embrace.

“Give me your sorrows and I will give you the strength you need,” the flame said as it flickered to life in the ethereal shadow between life and death. “I can grant you your vengeance.”

“No… Not my vengence. Her justice,” I told the flame, before feeding it again, watching it grow in size as I poured my sorrows into it. The mother I could have had. The life I could have had. All of it had been taken from me by Starshine. The ponies he had killed, during the war and today, flashed through my mind. I could feel the grief of their loved ones mixing with my own as my own empathy fueled the flame even more. Starshine would not live another moment longer. If I had to take the flame’s power again and give in to The Nightmare inside me once more to do it, then I would gladly give the flame what it wanted.

I would become one with the flame yet again.

My eyes snapped open, my vision filtered through an emerald lens, and I could feel my scalp tingling as my mane startled to smolder. I could feel my gums itching and my throat tickled as I felt the flames rising from my lungs. I lurched back, surprising Starshine as my mane burst into flames and I unleashed a torrent of balefire from my mouth. That’s when the most beautiful sound in the world broke through the night and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Starshine screamed. The scent of brimstone and burning flesh filled my nostrils, its putrid smell was somehow intoxicating as I knew the scents as signs of the pain I was inflicting on him.

Falling to the ground, he rolled and flailed as he tried to put himself out. Looking down at the sword in my chest, I easily pulled it out and watched as the radiation pouring off of him and flowing into me started to rapidly close the horrific wound. I stared at the blade for a moment, contemplating thrusting it into the flaming ghoul, but Starshine had already rolled away from me, beating out the fire. Shrugging, I impaled the rapier into the tree behind me and started walking after the flaming ghoul.

“Maiden of the Stars!” the zebra cried, dropping his knife. “She has come to-”

Pfft!

His head exploded as a sniper rifle bullet ripped through his right eye. Compass dropped to his knees, checking his throat for any cuts, before flinging the poisoned dagger away, staring at it wide eyed as he tried to compose himself. And there, lying on the patio with his scope up to his eye, his helmet off, and a pained smile of his face, was Shadowbuck, his barrel already swiveling towards Lilyrose.

Boom!

A grenade appeared in a flash, giving Lilyrose only enough time to jump into the air. The explosion ripped into her, sending her flipping head over hooves as a trail of body parts and black blood followed her.

“Gotcha,” I heard Check cough, quickly followed by, “A little help over here, Doc.”

I lost sight of Lilyrose as her body tumbled into a corpse of dead trees, but I had other carrots to fry. Or maybe should I say traitorous, murderous, lying ghouls to fry.

“I always knew you were a monster,” Starshine gasped, ripping off the smoldering fencing gear while reaching for the rapier with his magic. “But Golden Star and White Rose always hinted that you were smart. I fail to see that.”
He gave a tug, but the blade would not budge. For a split second he gave me a worried glance before trying again.

“I’m a ghoul. Balefire is burning radiation. It heals me, and you just gave me more than enough of this accursed stuff to keep me going for days,” he gloated, but his smile faded more and more with every step I took while his sword remained buried in the tree.

“It heals me too, if you haven’t noticed the lack of holes in my chest,” I said.

“What the fuck are you?”

“This is what happens when you survive a balefire bomb and don’t end up like you.” I then slowly lifted my sword, smiling like a mad mare as I ran my hoof along its edge. “Let’s test that regeneration, shall we?”

I brought my blade down, cutting deep into Starshine’s shoulder before he could roll away. He hissed in pain as he tried to move away from me, but I was keeping up with him easily. I watched as his wound already started to mend, the black blood that oozed out of him was even starting to retreat back into the closing gash, and he chuckled.

“See. I’m too strong for you to kill,” he taunted, but I could see through his false bravado.

“Then I’ll just keep cutting until you stop healing,” I replied, slicing my sword at his leg. His eyes went wide and he rolled backwards, taking the tip of the blade in his flank, but he avoided losing the limb. “I have a feeling ghouls don’t just grow their limbs back. Otherwise I’m sure Brownstone would be flying around Trottingham still.”

“You’re psychotic,” he snarled, finally finding his parrying dagger and bringing it up to deflect my next attack.

“Takes one to know one,” I laughed, taking his blade in my telekinesis and easily ripping it away.

“That’s cheating!”

I looked over at my friends to see Compass tending to both their wounds.

“My friend is safe now and yours are dead. Why the fuck should I care about the rules anymore?” I asked before impaling Starshine’s back left hoof with his own weapon. He screamed, drawing the attention of my friends back to the fight, and I laughed.

“Let’s see you crawl away now.”

“You’re a monster!” he hissed, pulling the blade free, but not before I brought the Sword of Everfree down on his other leg, slicing through decayed meat and rotten bones as ichor sprayed from the amputated limb. The sound of Starshine’s pain was almost euphoric to me. I didn’t want it to end. All the pain he had put me through. All the heartache he had caused my family. He deserved this. I brought my blade down again, cutting deep into his right shoulder and leaving only an inch of flesh connecting his leg to his body.

“You bitch!” he cried. “You’re in the bloody Lunar Guard. This kind of torture is illegal.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, King Starshine,” I spat mockingly, “But Aunt Luna and all of Equestria are gone because of you and your friends. There isn’t a court around to convict me of guard brutality.” I leaned in close, stepping on his dagger so he wouldn’t be able to use it against me, and grinned. Something about the fact that his scalp had already begun to peel off, revealing a bald head underneath, was hilarious to me. “This is the fucking Trottingham Ruins.”

My sword easily removed the rest of his regenerating leg and he howled in pain and fury. I kicked the dagger away and stepped back, letting him attempt to crawl away with his remaining legs, and laughed as he started moving in a slow circle.

“You monster!”

“Maybe I am, but so are you,” I said coldly, the smile vanishing from my lips as I followed him. Summoning my eldritch sword, its blade burning a fiery green, I started spinning both my swords. “But you’ve always been a monster. It just took the end of the world to make your outsides look like your insides.”

“You bitch.”

“Hmmm,” I hummed, looking down at his burned and choppy mane. Placing the swords up to his neck, crossed at their hilts, I looked down at him and giggled. “Let’s take a little off the top.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a hero. You’re the bloody Nightmare Knight.”

“What’s in a name?”

“What would Golden Star say?”

“He’s dead,” I spat, inching the hilts together and slowly cutting into the first layer of flesh.

“I might be your father,” he said desperately.

“We both know that’s not true.”

“Your mother!” I stopped. “Elegant Rose wouldn’t want this of you. She loved you. I-I loved her! It was an accident. I always loved her,” he pleaded. I stared down at him, peering in his cataract covered eyes, looking for a lie. For a brief moment, I saw hope enter them. Fighting through the pain, he gave me a weak smile. “I always loved her.”

“Then tell it to Death before she sends you to hell,” I snarled before closing my makeshift scissors. As the blades were brought together, Starshine’s eyes widened and his mouth opened, probably to curse me one more time, but he never got to say it. I watched with a satisfied grin as his head tumbled from his shoulders and rolled to a stop, ichor oozing from his neck and pooling on the dry, dead ground.

As I stared at Starshine’s severed head, I should have been ecstatic. I should have felt vindicated and proud. I had killed a mass murderer, a pony who helped the zebra kill the world and, most importantly, my mother. I should have been at least a little happy or angry or something. Instead, I just felt hollow.

Killing the traitor who helped the zebra empire destroy the world didn’t bring back the millions of dead or cleanse the world of the leftover radiation. Killing King didn’t bring back Toffee Biscuits, Tar Hoof, or Pipsqueak. They were still dead and his death didn’t fix any of it. Worst of all, killing Starshine didn’t bring back my mother. My lust for vengeance was gone, replaced with the empty realization that it brought me nothing nor did it give me anything back. As I stared down at Starshine’s severed head, I was overwhelmed by the depressing epiphany that, in the end, it didn’t matter one bit.

Revenge didn’t make it better.

“Aria,” Shadow said, approaching me slowly. I turned my emerald gaze to him and he froze. “He’s dead now. You can turn back to normal.”

He was right, but I didn’t know how. As I stood there, trying to focus my thoughts on myself or trying to think of some way to return to my normal state, I knew nothing was happening. My mane and tail were still burning as green and blue balefire and I could tell that my eyes were glowing with that eerie veridian light.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t? You did before so why can’t you now?” Shadow asked, approaching me carefully and placing his helmet, which I’m guessing his suit had already repaired, back on his head. “We can’t go anywhere with you like this. Ponies would shoot on sight, and you’re giving off enough radiation that my suit and the Rad-X I took are barely enough right now to let me come near you.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to turn back.”

“How did you turn back before?”

“I-I think I was just so shocked by my appearance that I just turned back,” I answered, looking at my hooves in a daze.

“You need a shock, huh?” he asked. Looking up at him, I opened my mouth to say something when the plate over his mouth opened and his lips met mine.

My eyes went wide with surprise, but that quickly melted away as I let him kiss me. My lips tingled and I started kissing him back, closing my eyes and letting the feeling of the kiss overtake me. My mane stopped itching and I felt the power flowing through me start to vanish almost immediately.

My lips parted slightly, allowing his tongue into my mouth, and I massaged it with my own, just letting my instincts do the work and letting my brain shut off. I never wanted this to end. I wanted to keep kissing Shadow like this. I wanted to go further and explore further and…

And that’s when I felt the sickening feeling bubbling up from my stomach. My eyes snapped open and I quickly pulled away from him, aiming my mouth at a nearby bush before the floodgates opened and I vomited up a familiar rainbow colored liquid.

“Oh shit!” Shadowbuck shouted, leaping away from me as I covered the dead rose bush and part of a tree in the highly dangerous chemical. I swayed on my hooves, feeling intense pain and sudden weakness wrack my body. Just as the flow of Taint ended, I collapsed, unable to keep myself standing, and lay on the ground moaning. “Compass, quick! We need to get her away from this shit!”

A few moments later I could feel two telekinesis spells dragging me away by the forelegs. Check and Compass were working together to pull me back to the safety of an old, but still maintained gazebo. Looking up at Check and Compass, the doctor looked worried while the comedian was smiling, I let out a groan. My entire body hurt like it had before and it wouldn’t stop.

“What are you feeling, Aria? Let me see your Pipbuck’s diagnostics,” Compass asked, grabbing my left foreleg and connecting his Pipbuck to my own.

“Damn, Shadow. You’re getting out of practice. I’ve never seen a mare puke rainbows and start dying after a buck kissed her,” Check mocked as Shadow knelt down beside me.

“Everything hurts.”

“I’d think so. You just puked Taint,” Shadow joked, giving me a comforting smile. “Thank you for turning your head, by the way.”

“Your welcome,” I replied wryly. “I wish I had Golden Star’s statuette. It helped last time.”

“I’ll go get it,” Shadow told me, but he stopped, whispering. “No fucking way.”

“What?” Compass asked, stopping and staring at whatever caught Shadowbuck’s attention.
“I guess this’ll do,” Check said, grabbing something with her magic and pulling it towards me. I only had a moment to see it before she touched the statuette of a white unicorn mare with golden blond hair to my horn and my pain disappeared.

The first thing I noticed was the amazing aroma of hundreds of flowers and fresh cut grass. This was weird because my host was reading a magazine floating in front of her face. She was reading in the gazebo I had just been in, although it had a few coats of white paint and was in near perfect condition. Her book detailed the better ways to custom fit clothes while designing fashions. If I could yawn, I would have. I wasn’t a mare made for dresses and balls. Perhaps if I had been raised a princess, things might have been different, but I preferred my armor or no clothes at all.

But my host was fascinated by the designs and techniques the periodical discussed. She turned the page and gasped at a royal blue dress lined with golden sashes and frills that would have made me gasp.

“So lovely,” she whispered. Her voice was oddly familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“Not as lovely as you, my dear,” a very familiar voice said. Looking up, a young Starshine offered the mare a bouquet of roses. My host smiled and accepted them graciously. “Roses for my Elegant Rose.”

Elegant Rose? My mother? I was witnessing my mother’s memory. Then that meant the statuette Check had made me enter was hers? Was I going to meet my mother?

“You are such a gentlestallion, Starshine,” my mother told him, taking a deep breath of the flowers that was almost intoxicating. I didn’t realize how much I missed the smell of flowers. I really should have appreciated them much more while they were still around. She kissed him gently on the lips, turning my stomach, before pulling away.

“So what has you so enthralled, my dear?” he asked, sitting next to her and placing his hoof next to hers.

“An article on a new sewing technique out of Fancee. It’s called Haunte Couture. It’s a lovely way to design clothing.”

“You’ve always got your nose stuck in one of your fashion magazines, Elegant Rose. Why should you put so much work into something you can have your servants do? You are a princess, after all.”

“Because it’s fun, Starshine,” she laughed. Luna’s linguini! Even my mother’s laugh was beautiful. There wasn’t a hint of a snort or a crack in her voice. “Plus, it’s my special talent. You don’t get a golden needle and silver thread as a cutie mark if your talent is being waited on.”

“To each their own, I guess. Whatever you pursue in life, I will support it.”

“How gracious of you.”

“I mean it, Rose. I will always be there for you and I hope you will do the same,” Starshine said, rising from his seat only to fall to one knee and pull a black velvet box out of his coat pocket. My mother’s eyes went wide and her lips parted ever so slightly, her lower lip quivering. “Elegant Rose, will you marry me?”
Internally, I was screaming every possible negative response possible. This was the stallion that would one day kill her and take her from me. But I knew it was pointless endeavor. Not only was this pony the father of her son, but my mother couldn’t hear me even if I tried screaming; this was just a memory.

“Yes, Starshine. Yes,” my mother cried, throwing her hooves around his neck and embracing him. I thanked Death that she only hugged him, but then I saw her backing up to kiss him and felt my stomach turn. Then I had to double thank Death as the memory vanished and a new one started to come into focus almost immediately.

Pain.

Even dulled by it being a memory I was sharing, all I could feel was my mother’s pain. It was like her body was being ripped apart from the inside and, somehow, she wasn’t even screaming. Her eyes were closed, her teeth gritted harder than I thought possible without breaking, and she grunted with all her might until the pain suddenly started to subside. I heard a baby cry and my mother slowly opened her eyes.

“It’s a boy,” the doctor proclaimed. Lolling her head to her right, I noticed Starshine was there, holding her hoof. He looked tired as if he had been up with her for hours. Even his mane, which I knew he always kept in immaculate condition, was bedraggled and greasy, the afternoon sun gleaming off his blond hair.

“A boy, dear. We have a son,” Starshine said, his voice unnaturally happy and almost giddy. “What should we name him.”

“Golden Star,” she whispered, almost too weak to speak. “I’d like him to share part of your name.”

“Golden Star,” Starshine repeated, fighting back the tears in his eyes. “It’s a good name.”

“Would you like to hold him?” the nurse asked, offering my brother, a little baby wrapped in swaddling cloth, to his father. Starshine took Golden Star in his magic, smiling down on him before giving him to my mother. “Say hello to Golden Star, my Rose.”

Taking her son and cradling him in her forelegs, Elegant Rose smiled as tears of joy started falling down her cheeks. He was so tiny, his little hooves reaching up for her while his big blue eyes stared up at her with great wonder. It was so surreal seeing my older brother, whom I had only known as a fully grown stallion, as a baby. My mother nuzzled Golden Star affectionately and hiccuped.

“Hello, Golden Star. My little boy… I’m your mommy,” she whispered softly as the memory started to fade away.

It was night this time. My mother wasn’t in nearly as much pain this time although something was really weird. Her vision had this odd haziness and she seemed less focused on pushing and straining. The room was darker than before, I could see the moon out an open window in her hospital room as she lay her head back to look at Starshine with a goofy grin.

“We’re having another baby,” she chuckled.

“Yes, we are,” Starshine said, shaking his head and giving her a slightly cynical smile.

“If it’s a boy, I want to name him Regal.” Regal? I was going to be a Regal if I had been born a colt? This was a freaking surreal memory to be experiencing.

“Perhaps we gave her too much of the anesthetic spell, doctor,” a new nurse asked the doctor, who I noticed now had some graying to his mane.

“It’s a newer spell, I just learned it, but I think it’s doing its job. The baby’s almost here,” the doctor said. “Alright, Miss Star, give me one more good push.”

“Okie Dokie,” my mom giggled. Even drugged and giving birth my mother’s laugh was beautiful. That was so unfair. “I rhymed.”

“And there we go,” the doctor said, extending his words until a painless pressure left my mother’s lower regions and, a few moments later, I heard a baby crying. I was crying.

“It’s a girl,” the doctor proclaimed as the nurse took me to the other side of the room to clean me and wrap me.

“A girl… Aria,” my mother said weakly. “I want her name to be Aria Rose.”

Aria Rose? My name was just Aria. I didn’t have a family name like Star or Rose. Did I?

“It’s a lovely name,” Starshine told her, squeezing her hoof between his.

“Golden Star’s going to be so excited. He wanted to give that bunny he won at the carnival to his little sister,” she said happily, the tears coming on again. “He knew he was going to have a little sister.”

“He’ll be a great big brother,” Starshine told her before turning to the nurse. She had already wrapped me in a pink blanket and was carrying me over to the happy parents in his levitation field. “May we see our Aria Rose?”

“Of course. Who’s ready to meet her daddy?” the nurse asked, passing me off gently to Starshine. Then the smile vanished from his face as he looked down at me.

“I-I don’t… What? What is this? Some kind of joke?”

No.

“Huh? What do you-” the nurse asked, but she stopped short as the unthinkable happened. Starshine dropped me. My mother weakly lifted a hoof, her mind not even able to focus enough to try to catch me with her magic, but thankfully the nurse was quick enough to cradle me in her pink aura. She shushed me, trying to calm my crying, before looking up at Starshine, shocked. “Mr. Starshine. You must be more careful with your daughter.”

“That is not my daughter,” Starshine hissed, looking down at my mother with pain and anger in his eyes. “How could you do this to me, Elegant Rose? How could you make a cuckold of me?”

“What? I never… How could you say that?” my mother asked, more confused than hurt although perhaps that was because of the anesthetic spell.

“Because your daughter is brown!”

“Hey,” another nurse said suddenly, “Anyone else notice that the sun hasn’t risen yet?”

“Shut your trap, girl. There are more important things going on than Princess Celestia being tardy in performing her duties,” Starshine snapped at the mare before frowning down at my mother.

“Starshine, I love you. I never… I would never-”

“My eyes do not lie. That girl is not my daughter. I will be taking our son and getting my attorney, Elegant Rose… I can not believe you would do this to me,” he almost growled before storming away.

The hospital staff watched in stunned silence, my crying being the only sound cutting through the horrible tension that Starshine had left in his wake. My mother reached out to him as he left, but as the door slammed behind him, the floodgates holding back her tears finally opened.

“May I see my daughter?” she asked, turning back to the nurse.

“Of course,” she replied, gently laying me to rest in the crook of my mother’s forelegs. She looked down on me with a smile that was being torn apart by sorrow and kissed my forehead. I continued to cry, my mother having just joined me, and together we wept, not knowing that our lives would soon be shattered. Neither one of us knew that her husband would kill her in two days. This might have been the first and only time that my mother had held me and I couldn’t feel it. All I wanted to do was cry.

But the memory faded away and continued with a new one in it’s place. My mother was climbing a long set of stairs that I recognized as being part of Canterlot Castle. Her breathing was labored and her body ached as she tried to follow the sound of voices just up the stairs. Reaching a landing next to a slightly ajar door, my mother stopped to catch her breath. On the other side, she could hear Starshine speaking to somepony else.

“Why isn’t it done? You need the money to save your parents’ farm in Baltimare, and I can give it to you. I just need you to do this one thing for me and your families debts will be a thing of the past, Nurse Cornflake.”

“I-I can’t do it. I know my family needs the money, but… but she’s just a little baby. I can’t do it,” said the nurse who had asked about the sun not rising in the earlier memory.

“She’s not just a baby, she’s the destroyer of my marriage. As long as she’s around, my family can’t get past my wife’s transgressions. With her still around, my wife will never admit to her affair and we can never work on saving our marriage. You must do this.”

“I won’t,” Cornflake sobbed. My mother listened carefully, trying to figure out what her husband was talking about. She didn’t realize yet that Starshine was trying to have me killed.

“If you’re worried about getting caught or it getting traced back to you, it won’t happen. Just flip the girl over on her stomach and she’ll suffocate. It happens all the time to infants,” Starshine explained, trying to reassure the mare into murdering me for him. My mother’s eyes went wide in horror and she was rushing out onto the balcony before I realized her legs had started moving.

“Starshine!” she shouted. “How could you? You are not the sweet stallion I married! What has gotten into you?”
Starshine had been sweet? When?

“Maybe I should go,” Cornflake said softly, but my mother and Starshine did not seem to notice her nor her expedient exit from the balcony.

“What has gotten into me? That girl is proof of what has gotten into you. Another stallion, that’s what,” he snarled, approaching her just as quickly. My mother’s hoof lifted off the ground slightly, but somehow she held herself back.

“I never cheated on you, Starshine. Why won’t you believe me?” my mother asked, anger and hurt making her voice shaky.

“Because I can see the truth with my eyes. That baby is brown. She cannot be my daughter.”

“I don’t know why Aria Rose is brown, but she is your daughter. I never cheated on you, but you’re plotting to murder your own daughter?”

“She is not my daughter!” he shouted. “She’s a monster!”

“She came from me and I am your wife.”

“You’re a slut!”

SMACK!

“Hell yeah!” I thought as my mother slapped him, angry tears streaming down her face.

“How dare you,” she whispered. Those three little words carried more weight than I could have mustered up in an hour long speech, but they fell on deaf ears.

Snarling, Starshine grabbed her fetlock in his telekinetic grasp and tossed her away much harder than was necessary. My mother tripped and stumbled with the force of the magical shove, twisting and rearing up onto her back legs as she tried to steady herself. Then she felt the railing against her flanks and I could feel her falling backwards. The look of anger on Starshine’s face vanished as it was immediately replaced by shocked horror. My mother twisted around again, trying to reach out for the railing, but instead she tumbled, head over hooves, over the edge.

I wanted to reach out and grab her. I was strong enough with my telekinesis that I could have easily lifted her and set her back on the balcony. Then, for good measure, I would have chucked Starshine off in her place. But instead, I was forced to watch my mother fall from the top of a Canterlot Castle tower. I was completely powerless to do anything as I relived my mother’s last moments.

Below us was the Canterlot Castle gardens. I could see the hedge maze in the distance and the statue garden beneath.
Then her body spun again to look up at the sky, the blue canvas above stretching on into what seemed like eternity as the spires of the castle grew smaller and smaller. She spun one more time, the green grass below was rushing up at us while the statue of Queen Eclipsa and the princesses looked up at her sadly. Closing her eyes, my mother whispered six words.

“Golden Star. Aria Rose. I’m sorry.”

“Mother!” I screamed into the Void Between Worlds, the stark whiteness snapping into view and replacing the darkness behind her eyelids.

Sobbing and raging, I collapsed to the formless ground. Why would Death make me see these memories? Starshine’s proposal. Golden Star and my births. Those were happy memories for my mother. But that last memory was torment for the both of us. Falling to your death was even worse than drowning. It was terrifying.

Then I felt two gentle legs wrap around me, cradling me as I cried out into the nothingness.

“It’s alright, Aria Rose,” she whispered softly, rocking me as if I were just a foal. “I’m here.”

Opening my eyes, I turned my head and saw her smiling down at me, tears of joy filling her bright blue eyes. Even without her hair up or adorned in fancy jewelry or formal gowns, my mother was a vision of beauty itself. I stared up at her, my mouth agape and lips quivering as I tried to snort away the snot that was threatening to trickle out of my nose.

“Mother? Are… are you really here?” I asked. She just smiled and nodded.

Throwing my hooves around her neck, I sobbed into her shoulder as she stroked my mane, shushing me tenderly while continuing to rock me back and forth. Seventeen years of pain, heartache, and misplaced anger flooded out of me and all I could do was cry and hold on to her as if she were the only thing that mattered in the world.

“I’m here, my little princess.”

“I’m not a princess,” I moaned, but continued to let her hold me. I wasn’t angry at her for calling me a princess, I was absolutely devastated. “I’m not Aria Rose. I’m just Aria. I’m a bastard.”

“You are not a bastard,” my mother said firmly, gripping me by the shoulders and looking deep into my eyes. “I never cheated on Starshine. I loved him, I love your brother, And I love you. You are my daughter and that makes you a princess. Always remember that.”

“But…”

“No buts, young lady. We don’t have very long together so you should listen to your mother,” she explained, trying to wipe away the tears that refused to stop.

“I’m so sorry, mom.”

“There’s no reason for you to be sorry, Aria Rose. I should be sorry. I didn’t think. If I had been smart, I would have run to the nursery, scooped you up, and went to Aunt Celestia. Instead, I lost my temper and you and Golden Star lost your mother.”

“But I was always so angry at you. I thought you didn’t want me. I thought-”

“Well, now you know that’s not true,” she said, kissing my forehead again and holding me. “I always wanted you. I always wanted a beautiful daughter who I could teach to sew and dance and be a lady.”

“I don’t think I fall into that category,” I whispered, smiling through my tears.

“No, you don’t, but I couldn’t be prouder of you. Death has told me of what you’ve done and of the future ahead of you and I know you will make me proud,” she told me. “But I’ve heard a lot about you from others. I want to know about more my daughter in her own words. Tell me yourself, dear. Tell me about your friends.”

So I told her everything. I told my mother about her great granddaughter, Melody. I told her how Melody was a pegasus in a stable full of unicorns and earth ponies and how she never let her differences get her down. I told her how smart Melody was, when her head wasn’t up in the clouds, of course, (which got a laugh from both of us) and how she was so dexterous with her wings that it was like she had hands or magic.

I told her about Compass, Melody’s coltfriend. I told her that he was a doctor with a big heart and even though he is scared of the outside world, Compass is always willing to help and, as I learned in the garden, willing to give anything to protect Melody and me. My mother seemed happy about that.

I even told her about Check, glossing over the fact that she hit on me a lot, but told her about how funny she was and how she had really helped us, even to the point of going triple agent for us.

“Although I wished the others had told me about their plan. I feel really bad for almost killing her.”

“But you didn’t and that’s what’s important,” she replied, giving me a little squeeze around the shoulder. As we had talked, I had moved next to my mother instead of letting her hold me like a baby. It had been comforting, but also a little embarrassing now that I wasn’t crying. Now she just kept a loving foreleg wrapped around my shoulder and would give me a loving squeeze every now and again. “But what’s this I heard about a boy?”

Oh Sweet Celestia on a bed of lettuce! How did my mother know about Brightlight? Or was she talking about Shadow? Were we enough of anything for him to be the ‘boy’ she was talking about? Was I going to have to talk about stallions with my mom? I mean, I know mother’s talk with their daughters about boys, but usually when they’re much younger and not in an interdimensional pocket of space time that was a bridge between the land of the living and the dead for a short duration.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, trying not to make eye contact.

“The soldier,” my mother replied, giving me a knowing smile.

“Shadow? He’s, um, he’s… I…” I sighed. “I really don’t know. I mean, he’s cute, and he’s really loyal and tough. He likes to joke around and thinks he’s so cool. Sometimes he gets under my skin and other times he’s really sweet. I… I don’t even know what we would consider each other,” I rambled before throwing up my hooves and covering my eyes. “Why do things have to be so complicated.”

“Because otherwise life would be boring,” she told me, hugging me tight before looking up and saying, “Oh… I guess our time is almost up.”

“What?” I asked, looking up just in time to see a lone figure vanish. “Who?”

“Quit sulking around and introduce yourself, young lady,” my mother said, her voice stern and more forceful than any of my drill sergeants. It was that tone of voice I guess all mothers developed, the one that made a child’s hair stand on end and know that if they disobeyed her, then it would be the worst thing they could do.

“Ugh. I’m over five thousand years old,” a voice complained before the figure started to materialize before us.
Standing head and shoulders over me, her coat as white as the Void around us, appeared a new alicorn. She bore a striking resemblance to Dream, her black mane shaggy and unkempt while a neon blue stripe zigzagged through the frizz. However, that’s not what drew my attention. The oddest part about the goddess I knew had to be Death was not the scythe on her back, which I kind of expected, but the large, purple lensed sunglasses that hid her eyes. They looked almost exactly like a pair the original DJ-Pon3 used to wear.

“Yo,” she said simply, holding up a hoof in greeting.

“Introduce yourself,” my mother ordered.

“Right, um, I’m Death… It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aria,” she said as a nervous twitch danced around her upper lip.

“Wait a second.” I stood up, breaking my mother’s hug, albeit reluctantly, and approached Death with purpose. “I recognize that voice. You’re the one who whispered to me in the parking garage to look up.”

“If I hadn’t, you might have missed the zebras,” she replied, wincing slightly before adding, “Sorry, zebra. Plural of zebra is zebra.”

“That’s right.” At least Death knew that little known fact.

“Oh. I seem to be fading,” my mother said suddenly. I spun around and saw that she was indeed becoming more and more translucent.

“Mom,” I cried, running back over to her and taking her into another hug. “Don’t go. I…” I knew she couldn’t stay here with me, but I didn’t want her to go. I wanted my mother back.

“I’ve held her here as long as I can. Giving you two this long has been pretty freaking taxing on me. Don’t wanna burn out, ya know?” Death explained, poking her horn playfully with her hoof.

“It’s alright, Aria Rose. I guess I should leave you with some words of motherly wisdom then, shouldn’t I?”

“That would be nice,” I said, my voice cracking as the tears started to well up again.

“My only piece of motherly wisdom is that you should stop beating yourself up. You’re a princess, remember that and carry yourself as such,” she said, giving me a small kiss on the side of my head. “I love you, Aria Rose, and I always will. Remember that.”

“I know. I love you too, mom,” I told her, not letting go until my forelegs passed right through her. Looking up at my mother, her form barely visible as it began to disappear into the ether, she smiled. “Goodbye, Aria Rose.”

“Goodbye, mom. I love you.” I whispered softly, and then she was gone.

I wanted to cry, but something about the situation made me pause. It was a miracle that we even got this chance to meet, but it still didn’t make our departure any easier. Turning to Death, I sniffed hard and closed my eyes, causing a tear to fall from them and roll down my cheeks.

“Thank you,” I told her, picking myself back up and wiping my face with the back of my hoof.

“No problem,” she replied nonchalantly. “I knew you needed it.”

“But why did you make me see her death?”

“Because you needed to see that she wanted you so much that she fought her husband for you. But you also needed to see that a mother will give her life to save her children, but, sometimes, giving your life isn’t the best option. Sometimes you’ve got to stop and think about the better choice. Otherwise, you end up with a child without a mother or a mother dying too early for nothing.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Just remember that, okay?”

“Um, sure,” I said, looking her over quizzically.

“What’re you looking at?” she asked. She wasn’t angry, just more confused.

“You’re not how I would have pictured you. I thought you would be more…”

“Skeletony?”

“That’s not a word, but yes.” Death laughed.

“I get that all the time when I go to usher spirits to the afterlife. Common misconception.”

“And are you copying me with the streak in your hair?”

“Nope. That’s the mark of somepony who fell through the timestream unprotected and lived. If you haven’t noticed, Timestream’s whole mane and tail are made up of temporal energy. The rest of us have a stripe imbued with the stuff.”

“But Dream and Psyche didn’t have one,” I pointed out.

“Psyche doesn’t have a physical form anymore. Poor girl,” she explained sadly. “And Dream came to you in his astral form. He projects from the hiding place where he sleeps. It’s all he really does actually. He can’t stay awake for more than ten or twenty minutes at a time.” She shook her head. “Phenomenal cosmic powers tend to have a little bit of a draw back on occasion.”

“But I’ve always had a stripe in my hair. What does that mean?”

“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself,” Death said while giving me a sly grin.

“You know why, don’t you? Why won’t you tell me?” I asked.

“Because spoilers,” she replied before giving me a shove. “Wakey wakey, eggs and hay bakey.”

I opened my eyes and moaned. My throat felt like sandpaper and my chest ached horribly. As my eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom around me, I noticed a few things. First, there was a candelabra on a piano, it’s three candles burning dimly as if they were about to flicker out. Second, a bottle of clear, pure water was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch I was laying on. And third, I was thirsty.

Scooping up the bottle, I twisted off the cap and chugged down the refreshing, lukewarm liquid. Even though it was room temperature, my aching throat almost sang as it soothed the burning and scratchiness I was feeling. After finishing the bottle off, I sighed with relief, only to feel the slight bubbling in my stomach. I knew I wasn’t going to vomit, but it was not a pleasant feeling.

“Hey, you’re awake,” Check said as she entered the room from a side door. I could only guess it led back outside since there were so many windows in this den, but they were covered by purple drapes and curtains. “Compass was right.”

“About?” I rasped before clearing my throat.

“He figured you’d wake up thirsty. Dry mouth and dehydration are common symptoms of minor rad sickness after all,” she explained, pulling out another bottle of water and offering it to me. I accepted graciously and started to drain that one too.

“So I’m up to two hundred rads now?” I said after finishing my drink, feeling the gurgle in my stomach and frowning.

“Not quite. It seems it was worse this time.” Check twisted her face before adding, “Or at least that’s what Compass said.”

Looking down at my Pipbuck, I tabbed over to my rad meter and swallowed hard. My internal rads hadn’t increased by one hundred like it had when I first transformed, the reading showed the number ‘300’ and the warning ‘Minor Rad Sickness.’

“The radiation increases at an exponential rate every time I let The Nightmare take control.”

“That what ya call it, huh? I would have called it your Balefire Form or Super Kickass Mode,” Check said after sitting next to me and prodding my sides gently. “So how was it meeting your mom?”

“How did you know that I met my mother?”

“Cause that statuette was of your mom,” she said, pointing to the end table to my left that I had failed to notice. Sitting on it was the statuettes of Golden Star and my mother. At the base of my mother’s statuette were the words, ‘You’re A Princess.’ Three words. I was beginning to see a theme. “Shadow noticed it and I just put two and two together. You told us that Death let you meet your brother on the other side when you went into his statuette memory so I figured you met your mom this time.”

“Oh,” I mumbled before adding. “It was… it was amazing, heartbreaking, and an emotional rollercoaster. She was so beautiful and kind.” I paused. “And she wanted me.”

“Of course she would. Why wouldn’t she?”

“Because my entire life I had been told she had killed herself after I was born. That the shame of giving birth to a bastard and being caught was too much for her,” I explained before taking a deep breath and adding. “King had killed her. Her own husband threw her from that tower in Canterlot, Check. It looked like an accident. He actually seemed sincere about that when he was pleading for his life. But he lied and covered it up.”

“More reason we should all be glad ya went Nightmare and killed his sorry ass,” Check replied, putting a comforting hoof around my shoulder.

“You’re really taking this well. I tried to kill you and then you saw me turn into that… thing,” I said, shuddering as I remembered all that sorrow and pain flowing through me along with that hideous, yet intoxicating strength.

“Ya didn’t know I was going triple agent. It was Compass’ idea. Jack gave me the map and the offer to be Ten if I brought you and Melody to King. I also saw him planting a bug in my armor so when we all ‘went to sleep’ I stripped naked and pulled Compass and Melody into the hall utility closet at the hotel and told them what was up.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Can you honestly say you were in any shape to talk fake betrayals and plans last night?”

“No. But why didn’t you guys tell me sooner?” I asked.

“I tried a couple times, but I still had the bug on me.”

“That explains how Starshine knew about the Eternals, but why did you keep it on you?”

“Cause if I dropped it somewhere or broke it too soon it would raise suspicion. I crushed it right before you teleported us to the east hall, hoping they’d buy that the constant teleportations fried the little sucker, but when we got there we were all a little dazed and I didn’t remember that I needed to tell you until we ran into the restorations room.”

“And Starshine’s trap,” I added.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t realize I ran us into one of the trapped rooms until we were already in there,” she replied sheepishly. “I can read, but not that fast. I didn’t learn until only a few years ago.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re taking all the weirdness that’s going on so well.”

“Yeah, well, you try seeing the mare you got the hots for turn into a literal fire flanks or get possessed by an honest to goodness alicorn goddess and try to be a skeptic,” she laughed. I looked away and wiggled in my seat, uncomfortable about her mentioning her feelings for me and my transformation. “Look, I know you’re not into me; your barn door doesn’t swing that way. But mine does. We gotta deal with the hinges we’re given, ya know?”

“I guess.”

“I can’t just stop liking you like that, Aria,” she said. “Just like you just can’t stop liking Shadow.”

“What? I… Am I that obvious?”

“Seeing as how that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a kiss so good that it performed an exorcism,” she joked before ruffling my mane playfully. “You’re about as obvious as a radroach on an EFS.”

“It was a good kiss though,” I admitted.

“Yeah, Shadow is a good kisser,” she said wistfully. I turned and stared at her, confused and a little shocked, while she looked back at me with a confused expression of her own.

“What? We used to be a thing back in the day. He’s the whole reason I came to Trottingham,” she answered before adding sadly. “After Fillydelphia, I would have followed him to the ends of the earth.”

“What happened to you in Fillydelphia, Check?” I asked, remembering Psyche’ suggestion. Check’s features suddenly deflated and she took off her glasses. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No,” she whispered, getting up and undoing the belt on her barding.

“What are you doing?” I shouted, covering my eyes as she pulled down her pants.

“It’s not like that,” she said. Peeking around my hooves, my jaw dropped at the sight of her flanks. Firstly, her cutie mark was something I figured only raiders had. It was horrifying. A griffin skull with a grenade lodged in its beak. What made it worse was that her flanks were covered in nasty scars, raked across her flanks by hundreds of claws, while the mark would swell and deform in certain points over the scarring.

“Sweet Celestia,” I mumbled, my eyes wide. “What happened to you, Check?”

“Fillydelphia… and a griffin slave master name White Beak,” she said before pulling her pants back on and sitting down next to me, absently staring at the coffee table.

“I was born in a little strip mall village south of Manehatten. I lived with my mom, my dad, and my brothers. It wasn’t much of a life, scavenging and trading, but we got by. Then, one day, slavers attacked. They slaughtered all the stallions, including my brother and dad, and took all us mares and kids and marched us south to Fillydelphia to be sold.”

“Check…”

“Let me finish. If you stop me, I won’t be able to finish,” she said, her voice catching at times.

“Okay.”

“On the way there, my mom and I tried to escape. We thought all but one of the slavers were asleep or busy so we made a break for it. We didn’t make it very far before White Beak swooped out of the night and caught us. He had us cornered, a gun trained on my mother, and asked how old I was. My mom told him I was eight, told him to spare me cause I was a kid and didn’t even have my cutie mark yet. He did. He spared me. But he made me watch as he put his shotgun to her head and…” she stopped, closing her eyes as she shook and tried to fight off the tears.

“You don’t have to continue,” I told her, wrapping her into a hug just like my mother had.

“No,” she hissed through her teeth. “I gotta do this… I’ve only told this to Shadow and… and I think I need this.”

“Okay,” I replied, giving her shoulder a squeeze as she took a deep breath and continued.

“White Beak kept me close to him the entire trip, made me his personal pet, and then made me his personal 'charge' when we made it to Fillydelphia. That’s when the real torment began. White Beak didn’t like other griffins or even ponies. He liked fillies, especially blank flanks.”

“No…” I whispered, my eyes going wide with fear. I couldn’t speak. I wanted to say something to comfort her, but I knew that words would never be able to heal the hurt of what she had been through.

“Some slavers had favorites, slaves they would take a liking to and try to mold them into the next generation of slavers. They would prepare them for when they earned their freedom so they could better serve in Red Eye’s army. They were conditioned to pursue Red Eye's dream of rebuilding the Wasteland on the backs of the slaves. Like that douchebag turncoat Protégé. Anyway, most thought that was what White Beak was doing when he took a new pony under his ‘care,’ but some knew the truth. Zahari and I weren’t his charges, we were his filly harem.”

“Zahari? You said that name when the voidowls attacked us. Who is she?”

“She… she was… she was my friend in that horrible place. She was the only reason I’m still alive. He raped us almost every night, Aria. Every day was hell and every night was worse. I was just lucky that the food was radioactive enough that I ended up getting a benign tumor that made me sterile before I could have reached my first cycle.” She trailed off for a little while, staring at her hooves and crying. She wasn’t alone though, I was sniffing and shaking with her.

“Check. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s his, and the slavers. They would enslave us and tell us we could earn our freedom, but it was mostly for their amusement and enjoyment. They were all death traps. Go into the Pit and fight ponies to the death until you were the last mare standing or join the Stable Reclamation teams and spend four years risking your life getting salvage and tech for Red Eye. Either way, almost nopony made it a month or two without dying, but after a month with White Beak, death was preferable for Zahari and me.”

“So we signed up, the two of us were small enough to get places that most of the adults couldn’t. We were an amazing team. I had a knack for explosives, I could set a charge of C4 or a stick of dynamite and blast through any obstacles. We even made a few friends, and lost a few friends, on the SR team, but we had each other.” She stopped again, choked up and finding it harder and harder to speak.

“I… I loved her, Aria. I loved Zahari with all my heart. We were so different, but the same. We braved certain death together and found peace in the stables and in each other. When we were down there risking our lives we were safe from White Beak. Everyone was afraid to go in, but we were always dreading leaving because that meant we’d be forced to go back to him until the next stable was ready to be worked.

“But we did it, Aria. Four years. Four years of defying Death himself-”

“Herself actually.”

“Death’s a mare? Figures. Death can be a real bitch at times,” Check joked.

"She has shaggy black hair and purple lenses in her sunglasses."

“Ha! That's awesome!" Check laughed until the moment of mirth passed. "Anyway, we had three more days and one more stable before we would both be freed. We cleared the upper areas of Stable Thirty Seven and were able to bed down in the old dormitories. Zahari and I had our own room and… we made love.”

“Please don’t go into detail,” I thought, and, thankfully, she didn’t.

“I know, two rape victims finding solace with each other, but I guess it just happened. But it was the most amazing thing. I felt loved and I felt safe in her embrace afterwards. It was nothing like when White Beak forced himself on us.”

“But then things went wrong. We went down to clear the reactor level and we didn’t know there was a gas leak. Somepony tried to blast through a door and the whole place went up. I had just pried open a vent that Zahari and I were going to try to crawl through when this massive fireball shot towards us. I froze, but Zahari pushed us inside and closed the grate behind us.” She stopped again, tears started to flow down her scarred cheeks.

“The grate didn’t stop all the flames and Zahari got hit as she closed it. She went up like a bonfire, screaming, but then she started choking. She had breathed in the fire and burned her lungs. Even as I beat out the flames with the blanket I had taken from the dorms, I had to watch her die. I couldn’t even hold her because every time I touched her, she started making this gurgling scream. It hurt her. She didn’t last more than a few more moments, but I swore she tried to tell me she loved me.”

“What did you do?”

“I cried, I cried for a really long time. I cried until I passed out, probably cause most of the air in the reactor level had been burned up, but I awoke sometime later feeling a breeze on my face. I followed it up for hours, getting lost in the maze of ductwork, before finding a working air talisman that was still filtering the air from the surface. I took the talisman and made it outside. I wish the duct had brought me outside Fillydelphia, but it had actually brought me right outside the MoM barn. That was when I met Red Eye.”

“The leader of the slavers?”

“Yeah. He was a lot scarier in the flesh… and circuitry. He’s a cyberpony, hence his name. But he looked down on me, covered in ash and clutching an extremely valuable air talisman as I crawled out of a hidden grate, and took pity on me. He asked me my name and somehow knew that I had been scheduled to be freed that day, but they had thought the team was dead.”

“Then he saw the scars on my flanks and asked me where I got them. I was afraid, but he assured me that nothing would happen to me if I told him. So I did, and he looked horrified. Then he rounded up a few of his flunkies and brought me back to White Beak’s apartment. That’s when Red Eye showed how cruel he could really be. He had his soldiers tackle White Beak to the ground and beat him for almost an hour. Then, when he couldn’t move, marched me in.

“He started talking about how he would change things, that children would be taken care of and not used like I had. That he realized that all children needed to be taught to make a better world and kept safe, slave and free pony alike. Then he offered me a gun and asked if I would like to meet out justice upon my tormentor. I looked at the gun, shook my head, and I grabbed a grenade off of one of the guard’s bandoliers. I did something horrible, Aria. I took that grenade, pulled the pin, and shoved it up his ass.”

“Luna…” I mumbled, my eyes wide.

“And that’s how I got my cutie mark. Killing my rapist and getting my revenge. And Zahari’s…”

“Check. I-I don’t know what to say.”

“You want to know the worst part? After we had run out of the room and the explosion had left White Beak a big swath of red paste painting the walls, I didn’t feel any better.”

“Because it didn’t brink Zahari back. Revenge didn’t make it better. It’s hollow,” I replied in a hushed tone. Check nodded.

“Yeah… I guess you’d know that too, killing your mom’s murderer and all,” Check replied, wiping a large trail of mucus onto the back of her sleeve. “Maybe that’s what still makes us ponies and not like those crazy asshole raiders out there.”

“Maybe…” I said, trying to stroke Check’s hair like my mother had.

“But I was free, they tagged my ear and sent me out with a new group of slaves and a few slavers. We were going to take another stable just outside the city, but I had had enough. On my watch, I killed the other guard and planted explosives on all the other slavers. I killed them in their sleep. Then I disarmed the bomb collars on the slaves and we made a break for freedom. We ran north.” She then touched her torn left ear. “That’s how I got this. Had to rip the tag out.”

“But you made it. That's what's imporant. And you freed the other slaves too.”

“Yeah, but we almost didn’t. The slavers found caught up to us on the outskirts of Manehatten. We ran for an entire day without rest, some of the older slaves collapsed, but we wouldn’t leave them behind. Then, as the slavers bore down on us, they started dropping. A party of fifteen slavers started dropping one-by-one. Then a hail of bullets came out of another building and mowed the rest down until there were only a few left. My stick of dynamite was able to finish them off.”

“Who saved you?” I asked.

“Let me finish. I was just getting to that. Out of the buildings, three Steel Rangers appeared. It was Bulletstorm, Shadow, and his dad. That’s when Shadow and I first met, although he wasn’t called Shadowbuck back then.”

“You know Shadow’s real name?” I asked, hoping that perhaps she would tell me.

“Yup, but that’s not my secret to share. You’ll have to get that out of him if you two ever decide to get hitched,” she said, somehow laughing through her tears. My eyes went wide and my cheeks went flush.

“I-um-well…”

“It’s cool, Fire Flanks. No need to rush into a commitment, right?” she joked before continuing. “Anyway, while they helped the others to a small settlement called Gutterville, I decided to follow them. Shadow was cute and my knight in shining armor. I even settled down for a while in a gator farming community near Bucklyn Cross, place called Arbu. I kept in touch with Shadow, even dated him for a while, but I didn’t feel anything. There was attraction, but I didn’t feel that same feeling I felt with Zahari. I didn’t feel love.”

“Then why do you sleep around so much? I wouldn’t think a rape victim would act like that,” I asked.

“Because… I… I just want to feel loved again. I want to find that someone that will make me feel whole,” Check confessed, burying her face in my chest. “I thought that maybe Tekash’s fortune had come true with you, Aria. I thought for a second you were the one he had told me about cause the second I saw you, I felt this urge to follow you. I don’t know why, but I thought you would be able to help me heal my heart. I’m broken inside, Aria. I’m broken.”

“Check,” I said before kissing her head gently. “I may not be that special somepony for you, but you’re my friend. I want to help you. I really do. There’s somepony out there for you,” I told her. She smiled up at me, rubbing her eyes before putting her sunglasses back on and sitting back up.

“Thanks, Fire Flanks. You’re a good listener,” she replied.

“Honestly, I wanted to know more about you. Friends shouldn’t hide anything from eachother.”

“A straight shooter who tells ponies like it is. I like that, Aria. Honesty is the best policy, after all,” she said. “Sorry I had to lie to you and hurt you back at the university. It hurt me too.”

“I could tell.” Looking back, the way she acted as she put Compass and Melody’s plan to fake double crossing us into action, I could see that it was tearing her up inside. Not because she was betraying us, but because she was lying to me.
“You really do tell it like it is, don’t you?”

“You know it, Fire Flanks,” she laughed, returning to her old self. “Since you’re looking a little better, why don’t we go see the others. They’re in the garden with Concierge and Valet.”

“The maid and butler?” I asked, a little confused. They served Starshine for two hundred years. Why would they be with my friends?

“Yeah. Apparently their family has worked for yours for generations. They served King cause they saw him as your mom’s husband. The second they found out that he had killed her and you had killed him, they helped us take out the remaining Flushers and pledged their loyalty to Melody.”

“She is the rightful heir to this place,” I said as Check opened the door.

"You don't think you might have really been King's kid? Even after seeing that painting?"

"No..." I stepped outside and was silenced by the completely different, almost alien scene on the other side of the door.

Blue grass had spread all across the ground, some patches even bursting from under the pavement like little griffon claws reaching for the sky. The dead, gnarled bushes were covered in green leaves and purple roses while the trees were alive again and sprouting rainbow colored fruit. I stared at the strange vegetation that had sprouted up almost instantly before I stared down at my Pipbuck. It was ten until midnight, I had only been out for about two hours, but somehow the entire garden had bloomed with unknown plantlife.

“How?” I asked.

“That Taint you puked,” Shadow said, emerging from the shadows beneath one of the trees.

“How? I thought it just mutated stuff.”

“Sometime mutations are beneficial. Apparently these plants feed off ambient radiation like how normal plants take in carbon dioxide and let out oxygen. Compass still hasn’t figured out what they breath out, but the fruits are edible, delicious, and cleanse the body of radiation.”

He then offered me one of the rainbow colored pears and smiled.

“Happy birthday, Aria. Try one.”

I took the fruit and accepted a tentative bite. My eyes widened as a cocktail of fruit flavors gushed into my mouth and juices ran down my chin.

“Holy cud! That’s good!” I exclaimed before looking back at Shadow and furrowing my brow. “Hey! You said that the Taint made this, you weren’t using me as a guinea pig, were you?”

“Maybe a little, but not how you think,” he replied before pointing at my Pipbuck. “How’s your rad count? Compass wanted me to check cause this stuff is like fruit flavored, natural RadAway. His Pipbuck said it would and it worked. It got rid of what radiation I picked up from kissing you.”

“Oh… Sorry about that,” I said nervously, looking away from him.

“I’m just glad you're okay, Aria. You’re important to me. To all of us,” he replied, putting a hoof on my chest where Starshine’s blade had pierced my lung. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled while looking at my Pipbuck. I shook my head sadly. “No change. I’m still stuck at three hundred.”

“Damn it. We were hoping it would cleanse that crap from your system. I guess we should let Melody and Compass know,” he said before turning towards the gazebo.

I swallowed hard. I had broken my promise to Melody. I had let The Nightmare take over again. How could I face her after all this?

“Aria!” Melody shouted before dive bomb tackling me into a hug, which was really impressive since she was wearing an elegant purple gown. It had obviously been altered to allow for her wings, but it looked amazing on her. Add to that the amethyst tiara and diamond necklace and she really looked like a princess.

“Melody. I’m so sorry. I broke my promise. I-”

“It’s alright, Aunt Aria,” she said, pulling away from me to look me in the eye. “I’d rather you have broken a promise and still be alive, then kept it and be dead. Just try to keep your promise next time, okay?”

“There won’t be a next time,” I promised. Walking over to us from the gazebo, Compass and the ghouls approached us.

“How do I look? It’s my grandma’s dress. Concierge and Valet altered it for me.”

“You look amazing, Melody. You look like a real princess.”

“We should get you a dress too,” she giggled.

“That sounds like fun.”

“We kind of don’t have time for that,” Shadowbuck interupted, drawing everypony’s attention except Concierge and Valet, who just stood at attention and watched us. I had seen help in the castle do this and even then it had been creepy. Now that they were practically zombified, it was almost terrifying.

“What do you mean?” Compass asked.

“It’s why I came to find you guys,” Shadow replied.

“Yeah. I thought Cherry Scones ordered all the Steel Rangers back to Big Buck,” Check said.

“She did, but things have been really bad since Gigaton. The elder’s been acting really strange. She wants balefire eggs.”

“Why would she want more balefire eggs? Besides the one I got and the one Queen Cadence’s group took, you Steel Rangers got the other eight from the defused balefire bomb,” Check replied.

“Yeah, well, she wants more for some reason. Cherry Scones wanted them bad enough to order the Brotherhood to a Flusher hideout to see if they had any. It was a bloodbath. We… we lost Backdraft too. All just to get a stupid balefire egg,” Shadow told us, his eyes downcast.

“They had one?” Melody asked.

“Yeah. We got it, but when we got back, she insisted that we had to get her one more. Buzzsaw refused, told her we weren’t in any shape to go on another mission. She went ballistic, freaking nuts actually. Then she sent a group led by Crumpets out while we rested up.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here?” I asked. “Not that I don’t like that you’re here. I like it. I-I’ll just shut up now.”
Shadowbuck chuckled.

“No, you’re right. Long story a little shorter, I knew that Check had one of those eggs and so did Cherry Scones. I thought she might send Crumpets after you so I came here and, well, you know the rest.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why she wants more balefire eggs,” Compass pointed out.

“No, she doesn’t want more, she wants ten,” I said, as a horrifying thought entered my mind. I heard Check gasp as she realized the same thing I did.

“Holy fuck! You don’t think that she’s- There’s no fucking way. That would be too nuts for anyone to do,” Check stammered.

“What are you two talking about?” Shadow asked.

I swallowed hard, which made my rapidly drying mouth start to stab little needles into my throat.

“She’s trying to make a balefire bomb,” I said.

“That’s what I was trying to say,” Check added, giving me a soft punch on the shoulder.

Luna above, did everyone wish that we were joking.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Bookworm’s Revenge: Grants +8 DT and Strength increased to 10 whenever health is below 20%.

New Quest Perk: Nightmare Form (Rank 2) - You’ve given into the darkness within you even more. You exude 6 rads/round and gain Healing 10/round. This healing factor doubles in the presence of radiation. You're potency and Strain increase by 20% (Rounded Up), but you lose control of your character. Lasts until shocked out of it or your strain goes below 10. Afterwards, you will vomit Taint and your total RADS permanently increases by 200. You are still susceptible to RAD sickness and death. (Replaces Nightmare Form (Rank 1))

You’re A Princess: +10 to Speech Skill

Science Skill: 75

Author's Footnote: First off, as always, special thanks to my editor/pre-reader Chimpso and my pre-reader Tuneout for the help with editing. Secondly, wow. It’s been an entire year since I started “Fallout: Equestria - A Guardian’s Tale.” It’s been a crazy first year and a lot has happened, but I can honestly say I’m happy with how far Aria’s story has come and I hope you guys are too. More magic, mystery, and action to come so I hope you guys continue to enjoy the story and stick around for this crazy ride.

Anyway, one last thing. I am going to be on a Fallout: Equestria panel at DerpyCon South in New Orleans, LA on Friday Oct. 4 at 10 AM. After that, at 1 PM, I will be performing my nerd based stand up comedy and debuting/selling my new t-shirts based off of one of my bits. If you’re in the Louisiana area, come check it out and support one of the South’s few pony conventions. Also, I’m performing at Nightmare Nights Dallas in November and I’ll keep y’all posted when I get more details as the con approaches.