Biscuits. Her name was Toffee Biscuits. She was Stable Sixty-Three's resident baker. She specialized in cupcakes. Why was a baker fighting on the front lines? The only death dealt to the Stable Sixty-Three was a yellow earth pony mare named Toffee Biscuits.

I knew all about her because her sister had told me so as we sat our vigil over her remains until the cupcake making pony's body would be taken away to be incinerated. The idea of her body being further brutalized by fire until nothing was left but ash made it hurt even more.

She had taken a bullet through the right carotid artery and had lost a lot of blood before she had even hit the ground. To make matters worse, the bullet's path had torn into her windpipe and collapsed her airway. If she hadn't passed out from the drop in blood pressure, then she would have felt herself suffocate. The thought of that made me feel even worse.

Toffee Biscuits had been killed by the raider's bullet. The bullet I had ducked under. The bullet that had only been fired because I had hesitated at frying a raider pony's brains before he could pull the trigger. She was dead because of me. I had essentially killed Toffee Biscuits with my inaction.

As the Brotherhood of Steel and Starshine worked to confiscate the dead raiders' weapons and any technology they had been carrying in their assault of Stable Sixty-Three, I sat in reverent silence over the barding covered corpse of Toffee Biscuits. Next to me stood her sister, Leaflet, the Stable's librarian, and we mourned her together. My legs still shook and my shoulder still throbbed with a ghost-like pain where I had been shot, but I took my silent vigil over the pony I couldn't save. The healing potion had worked its magic. My shoulder was fully healed, but for some strange reason I could still feel the pain of the bullet ripping through the spot just below my armor's shoulderpads.

"Why are you here?" Leaflet, a light green earth pony with a curly purple mane asked. We had been silent for the past few minutes, just sitting by the lifeless body that had once been her sister. Her tears were still flowing and her voice was weak and shaky, but it felt like she was shouting at me. She should have been shouting at me. She should be beating the ever loving horse apples out of me. Instead, she just looked at me with a mixture of sadness, confusion, and sympathy.

"I don't know. I should be dead," I answered, almost as if I were pre-programmed like a robot to say it.

"You shouldn't say that. We'd all be dead if it wasn't for you," she replied, and put her hoof on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, both from the imaginary pain that pulsed when she touched me and also from the guilt her gentle hoof's consoling intent gave me.

"Toffee Biscuits would still be alive if it weren't for me," I whispered. She seemed surprised by my statement.

"What? Why? The raider shot her, not you. You blew him and those other two pony's surface high," Leaflet said, before sucking mucus back into her nose with a loud snort. It was a little disgusting, but I made sure not to show my disdain. That had been me less than an hour ago in the museum. "Biscuits and I knew what we were getting in to when we volunteered to fight."

I looked at her with my own stare of confusion and shock, a mirror of the one the Stable ponies always gave me when they saw me. I was unable to understand why she was taking everything so well. Her sister was dead! Sure, she was crying and obviously torn up about it, but how could she be consoling me when I had been partially responsible for her sister's death.

"But I froze and he took the shot. If I had blasted him, he wouldn't have been able to kill your sister," I said, and she seemed to look even sadder instead of angry. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you. It's not your fault and you have no reason to be sorry, but thank you," she told me, her words cutting through me like the shrapnel that had ripped into my neck. None of the tiny pieces of metal had hit anything vital and that was the only reason Compass could have gotten to me in time. It seemed so unfair. I should already be dead. Why was I given another chance, but not Toffee Biscuits? I stared at Leaflet until she broke into a sad smile. "You're not what I'd expect a fallen hero to be like."

"What?"

"You're Aria, right? The one from the museum? You look just like on the mural and you can sure swing that shield around like you were born to do it, but I always imagined you... different," she said, almost like it was a common thing to say.

"What do you mean?" I asked, still confused and infuriated by her calm demeanor. I looked back down at the still, bloody form of Toffee Biscuits and felt bile rising in my throat. I forced it back down with a hard swallow. Puking on the dead was not something I wanted to do. Ever. Especially not on Toffee Biscuits.

"I saw it. There were a few times out there that you were afraid to kill. Not just that first raider, but also the filly." I winced. If she had seen that, then everypony probably had.

"Aren't you?" I asked before adding. "And she was just a filly."

"I know, but she shot you. You shouldn't care if the pony trying to kill you or the ponies you love is a kid or two hundred years old... no offense," she told me, her watery eyes suddenly stern as she tried to drill the point home. I blinked at her last statement until I realized I was, in fact, over two hundred years old to them. If we went by my date of birth, then I'd be one of the oldest ponies in existence now. Now I really felt old.

Being an aunt, I can deal with that, there are plenty of young aunts and uncles, but being two centuries old now? It felt weird, especially since I knew I was really only sixteen. I turned my gaze away from Leaflet and back to the body.

"I'm sorry. I know I can't make this up to you, or your family, or Toffee Biscuits, but.. but I want to." I told her, never looking up, but being as sincere as I possibly could.

"Then do better and don't let it happen again," Leaflet said curtly. Her words hurt, just like I had wanted, and I could feel her stare. I kept my gaze on the still form beneath the blue and yellow barding. Leaflet and I sat in silence for a few minutes more until Starshine walked up, looking tired, and began speaking to Leaflet in hushed tones.

I tuned their conversation out, purposefully allowing my natural ability to become consumed in thought to take me away. I couldn't think about what I could have done to save her because I already knew. I should have shot him. I hesitated. An innocent pony got killed. The simple answer was to shoot him and it was the correct answer.

I let my mind wander to whatever subject it would let me latch onto, but it always found its way back to Toffee Biscuits. I felt a hoof on my shoulder and I looked up to see Leaflet giving me that sad smile again while Starshine stood next to her, his face tired and stoic.

"I'm sorry if I was a little hard on you. I have to go tell my family about Toffee. They should be letting the others out of the lower maintenance tunnels by now."

With that, they left me alone with Leaflet's sister's remains.

Toffee Biscuits.

Dang it, her name was too close to one of my replacement curses!

You're probably wondering what I mean by replacement curses. Well, when I was a little filly and Uncle Blueblood was cutting me down with another verbal barrage about my being a bastard, I said a word I definitely wasn't supposed to say. I had heard a guard say it and figured out it's meaning through how he used it. Let's just say it rhymes with 'mitt' and I called him a piece of it just like the guard had called his annoying little brother. My dear uncle was furious and my grandmother not only took a paddle to my flanks, but also washed my mouth out with soap. It was the most miserable experience of my life up until today.

Since that day, I picked up the little idiosyncrasy of replacing curse words with food. The 'rhymes with witch' word was blueberry, the 'F' word was fudge, (I know, not very original) and the 'mitt' word was replaced with 'biscuits.' Only now that was a problem because I couldn't have my replacement for that word being Toffee Biscuit's name as well. I'd have to come up with something else.

"So you're the hero back from the dead, huh?" I heard a smooth, masculine voice ask from behind me. I started, turning around and drawing my shield, only to see the stealth pony and the large, minigun pony standing behind me. The smaller earth pony was giving me his most charming grin through the opening in his helmet while the heavy gunner, a large, well-muscled beige earth pony, stared down at me, expectantly.

"Huh?" I said in a daze. Was he trying to make a joke? I was in the middle of mourning the dead and he comes over here just to make jokes!? What an ass! (I can curse in my head just fine, thank you very much) I must have made a face or something because the white coated earth pony's smile faded and the big pony's lips turned up into a goofy grin.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to offend."

"Well, you did! I screwed up and got Toffee Biscuits killed and you interrupted me paying my respects!" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him to try my best at 'The Stare.' He seemed sorry, but whether or not it was because of my pathetic attempt at seeming tough, I don't know. I placed my brother's shield on my back and turned away from them, giving Toffee a final nod of respect, before storming off through the door leading deeper into the Stable.

"Hey, hey! She's a feisty one. If you don't call dibs, I sure as hell will," I heard the distinctive Trottingham accented voice of the minigun toting Steel Ranger say, and I growled angrily. I didn't hear what the stealth Ranger had said, but I didn't care. I needed some space and time to think and the Atrium was getting too loud and too crowded.

Stable Sixty-Three was still relatively devoid of life. While the injured had been taken to the Clinic by Compass and Cornea, the unicorn who I now knew was the Stable's head doctor and Compass' father, Swiss Cheese had gone down to the Maintenance tunnels to tell the Stable's population that it was safe to return to their rooms and the upper levels of the underground bunker they called home.

I passed a couple of new faces and watched as each one froze on the spot and just stared at me. I'd say it was like they were seeing a ghost again, but now I knew that they actually were. At least, in their minds I was a ghost come back from beyond the grave.

"Hello," I said as cordially as I could in my current state. Anger and depression fought for control of my psyche and I couldn't tell you who was winning. They must have noticed my mood and said nothing, the color draining from their faces. Sighing, I turned a corner and followed the hallway back to the museum, leaving the scared denizens of Stable Sixty-Three behind me.

I don't know why I was going to the museum, I just knew that was where I had to go. Every fork told me the direction that would take me to either the Natural History Museum or the Art Museum. I was interested to see what works of art might have survived down here, but that was for another time.

I arrived in the museum and proceeded down the familiar path to the 'Heroes of the War' wing. It was only a short watch before I arrived in the mural covered room. I was awed by the pieces of Equestrian History that they had collected. Although now that I think about it, this stuff had been my modern collector's items in my time. One of Big Macintosh's yokes sat on display under his picture on the mural, a simple wooden piece of neck wear that was more for utility than any form of a fashion statement.

However, my eyes couldn't help being drawn to the magnificent dress under the painting of the Ministry Mares. A dress form mannequin, identical to the one my armor had been on, proudly stood beneath the six powerful mares wearing a dress made of sapphire blue fabric covered in silver stars. The silver stars were complimented by four silver shoes and a silver saddle while the gown was completed with a high collar that, although an odd choice, fit the style perfectly. It was gorgeous! Whoever had designed this dress was a genius and a master with a needle and thread.

I noticed a framed letter prominently displayed on a sealed pedestal in front of the exhibit and walked over to it. My eyes widened as I began to read it and saw the first three words, two names, on the page.

Wow. A dress that Twilight Sparkle had worn to the Grand Galloping Gala. The formal wear held so much weight and yet felt out of place at the same time. Big Macintosh's yoke. Rainbow Dash's autograph. My armor. The dress. It just felt... odd to see stuff that had seemed so mundane or mildly important suddenly enshrined like the armor of famous knights or the works of brilliant scholars. Everything that had been normal only a few hours ago had become priceless works of art or irreplaceable antiquities.

I suddenly felt very uncomfortable wearing my own Lunar Guard armor or using my brother's shield. I continued down the line until I reached my broken display. That was stupid of me. I had been in such a hurry I had forgotten I could have teleported the shield out from behind the glass like I had with my armor.

I gingerly stepped across the field of broken glass and over to the books on the shelf. My old books had been perfectly preserved; Golden Star must have saved them for me. My Big Book of Arcane Sciences, First Edition, sat next to my copy of Zebra Infiltration Tactics, a required read at the Royal Guard Academy. Not all my books were here, but at least the most important one was on the shelf.

It was here. The book that had started it all. The Life and Works of Star Swirl the Bearded. It's cover was faded and its pages were tattered, but I couldn't help myself as I levitated the book to me and I hugged it to my chest just like I had done as a little filly. I hummed softly to myself as I held the most precious thing in the world to me. I hadn't realized I had missed it until just now, but holding that old book in my hooves made me feel less hollow and alone. It made me feel good.

I had to take my stuff. They were my personal belongings after all. Who was going to tell me I couldn't take my own property? But a new question popped into my mind. Where was I going to put it? I didn't have any saddlebags.

Sighing, I realized I would probably have to ask somepony for a bag to hold my things. Opening my eyes, I saw a book that I did not recognize leaning against the other books. It hadn't been hidden, I just didn't pay it any attention until now. I miss the little details a lot. It was a small book, leather bound and held closed by a tied off flap that attached the back cover to the front. There wasn't any writing on either the cover or the spine so I had no idea what it could be. If this book wasn't mine, why was it on the shelf with my stuff? I gently removed the cord tying the covers together with my magic and opened the book.

Golden Star? This was Golden Star's journal? I remembered telling him all about Golden Lance's diary when I was twelve. The stories inside were amazing. Some were kind of a stretch, like the tale of the black shield that appeared in the sky while he was urinating and disintegrated his old mentor, Sir Swift Strike the Gallant. He blamed dragons, which made no sense, and it is my belief that he and Swift Strike had had way to much to drink after slaying the dragon that attacked Manehatten.

While that story had been odd, most were amazing tales of valor or a keen insight into the mind of Medieval Equestria's greatest champion. My eyes returned to the pages and I wondered if I should continue reading Golden Star's private diary. Was it wrong now that he was dead for over two hundred years? Luna help me, it depressed me to think about that. After a few moments of internal debate, I couldn't hold back my own curiosity and resumed my study of my brother's journal.

I felt angry and devastated all over again. Angry because Brightlight and Silver Storm had been there, pretending that they hadn't done what they had done. I was also sad because I could feel the anger and the hurt radiating off my brother's words and into the growing hole in my chest where my heart was supposed to be. Although, at those last two lines I couldn't help but smile.

Luna save me, I was crying too. I didn't realize it until a tear landed on the word 'much' and smeared the ink until it looked more like 'nug' then 'much.' I pulled myself away from the diary, curled into the corner of the exhibit stall, and cried my eyes out for the second time that day. At least, for the second time since I had woken up two hundred years ago.

"I'm sorry, Golden Star. I'm sorry, Grandmother. I'm sorry I made you cry. I'm sorry," I whispered to my family, hoping that somehow they could hear me from across time or up in heaven. I shook and sobbed and cried until I couldn't cry any more. In that tiny stall dedicated to my memory, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

I opened my eyes to a world of muted agony. Everything hurt. My shoulder pulsed with phantom pains in time with the beating of my heart. My back and neck were stiff and aching. Of course, this was probably because I had slept against a wall, still wearing my armor and in rolled up into a tight little ball. Grunting and stretching, I tried to get my body to stop aching, but I felt like death. Seeing as how I should be dead already, I guess my body liked being ironic.

"Ah, you're awake. I hope I didn't wake you."

I turned my gaze to the mare sweeping up the glass at the base of the exhibit I had been sleeping in. She was an mustard colored earth pony, her brown mane streaked with gray, and she smiled at me while holding the broom up with her right forehoof. I blinked. Had she been sweeping with her hooves? Had she been standing on her back hooves like a minotaur? No, she had probably taken the broom out of her mouth to speak. That was the more sensible answer. I shook my head as both an answer to the negative and a way to loosen up my stiff neck muscles.

"That's good. It's not every day one of my museum exhibits comes to life, takes her armor and shield, fights off an army of raiders, and falls asleep reading her brother's diary," she said with wry smile. I slowly and painfully stood up.

"I-I'm sorry I destroyed your exhibit. I wasn't thinking," I told her while bowing my head. It was how I had been taught. Bowing your head was the ultimate sign of deference. It left your neck exposed to possible retribution from the injured party, but it also showed your willingness and earnest in begging for forgiveness.

"Aren't you the polite one. It's nothing, Miss Aria. They are your things after all. It would be rude of me to want to keep somepony's stuff when it's not really mine," she said before setting aside her broom, stepping around the pile of broken glass, and offering me her hoof. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Aria. My name is Curio, and meeting you is like a dream come true."

"Huh? Really?" I asked while politely shaking her hoof.

"Of course! When I apprenticed under the museum's former curator I wrote my thesis on you and Big Macintosh! The two heroes of the war who sacrificed themselves to stop zebra terrorist plots off the battlefield. You will not believe how hard it was to find any information about you. Well, outside that diary," she practically gushed, and I felt immensely awkward. Not only because she was comparing me to Big Macintosh, the hero who gave his life to save Princess Celestia at Shattered Hoof Ridge, but also by the fact that the older mare was practically bouncing as she spoke.

"Why is that?" I asked, turning my gaze back to the books and my shield on the ground behind me.

"Well, from what I've been able to gather, mainly from second hand sources and a particularly damning first draft of the article about your funeral, you were almost erased from the public eye before you could be elevated to the status of a Big Macintosh level hero. It seems your uncle, Prince Blueblood, used whatever leverage he had to edit your sacrifice and funeral down to a minor affair. Your brother said Ministry Mares, Stable-Tec heads, multiple prominent nobles, and Princess Luna herself had attended, but the official article in the national newspapers had you reduced to barely a quarter page article without any picture on the seventh page," Curio explained, and I scrunched my nose up in disgust.

"Why would Prince Blueblood do that?" I asked, wondering what my abusive and neglectful uncle would even care about how ponies saw me. Wouldn't it have been a boon for the family to have a hero in it even if I was a bastard?

"You didn't read very far into your brother's journal, did you?" she asked me as she peered at the little brown book on the ground near my shield.

"I guess not. I couldn't make it past Applebloom's speech. I started crying and I think I smudged one of the words," I admitted sheepishly. Curio chuckled softly and shook her head.

"No. It's okay. The tear of a historical figure on a book she cried over gives it character," Curio told me, and I nodded sadly. Every mention of my family being dead was like a new wound inflicted upon my already broken heart. "You should read the next couple entries. I'd forward a digital copy of the journal to your Pipbuck if you had one, but I see that you don't."

Curio really knew how to push all of my buttons without even trying. Past my ever growing sea of depression, a small boat of jealousy rode over the waves at the sight of Curio's Pipbuck. I kept forgetting that everypony in Stable Sixty-Three had one. I sighed, turned back to the book, and settled down to continue reading while Curio returned to her sweeping. I glanced back and saw her using her mouth and right foreleg to sweep. Theory confirmed.

I was crying again. Not just tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Those tears rolled down my face and around my smiling lips before they fell to the floor. The idea of Golden Star breaking Blueblood's nose filled me with a very wrong, but very satisfying sense of happiness. If Blueblood had done that at my funeral, then I was happy he had been killed in a fiery explosion two hundred years ago. It serves him right.

"I see you approve of your brother's actions," Curio said, noticing my expression as she swept the last of the glass into a dust pan. I nodded.

"That fiasco was why Blueblood had the articles pulled and downgraded. He didn't want anypony to know about his disgraceful actions. Applebloom was the one who saved the real articles in our library database. Somepony sent them to her. I guess she felt that she owed you enough to make sure your real history and your sacrifice would be known, even if it was only to the ponies of this Stable. I bet she'd be surprised that you survived in this Stable dedicated to keeping Equestrian History alive, huh?" the curator pony said with a small grin. I nodded again.

"It's ironic," I said with a small laugh.

"No. I think it's destiny," she replied, and I stared at her for a moment. She just continued smiling until she seemed to remember something. "I'd like to keep that journal, if you don't mind, but I brought you a pair of saddlebags to carry your other belongings. I know we have a copy of The Big Book of Arcane Sciences and Zebra Infiltration Tactics in our own library so it's not going to hurt our collection. You can also take your copy of The Life and Works of Star Swirl the Bearded. It's an amazingly old book, old even by your standards, but we copied it ourselves one hundred fifty years ago so we don't need yours anymore." She paused. "Might I ask where you got your copy?"

"Princess Luna gave it to me when I was a filly," I told her after she gave me the saddlebags, and her eyes lit up.

"Princess Luna gave that to you? I have a book in my collection owned by a Goddess!? Oh my Goddesses! I-I-I mean, it's yours so it's not in my collection anymore, but I can't believe it!" she gushed, prancing in place as I placed my framed diploma and the three books in the bags I now had on my back. I replaced my brother's diary on the shelf, sad to let it go. Curio was right, that book wasn't mine. My brother had left it to the museum so here was where it belonged. Maybe I'd get those digital files if I ever got my hooves on one of those Pipbucks. When she had finally settled down, her smile became a little less jubilant and a little more embarrassed. "Oh, look at me. Prancing around like a little school filly. I'm making a fool of myself."

"It's alright, Miss Curio."

"Thank you, Miss Aria, but you don't have to call me 'miss.' Just call me Curio, alright?" she said, offering her hoof to me again. I shook it and gave her my best smile. I actually felt a little like smiling for the first time since I walked in on Brightlight and Silver Storm. I had my treasure back. The book that Princess Luna had given me felt good in my new saddlebags.

"Alright, Curio, but only if you just call me Aria. Deal?"

"Deal."

The door to Melody's room opened just as I turned the corner and trotted towards my niece's living quarters. Melody and a pink unicorn with a podium for a cutie mark exited and, upon seeing me, the green and white maned pony's smile disappeared and she gave me a cold stare. She looked about Melody and my age, maybe a little older, but she seemed much older as she carried herself with a certain poise and grandeur I had normally only seen in Canterlot elites and the aristocracy.

"There you are, Aunt Aria! The Overmare's been looking for you," Melody said happily before turning to her companion. "Overmare Tea Leaves, this is my super great aunt, Aria."

"Hello," Overmare Tea Leave said calmly. Even I noticed that she didn't offer me her hoof like Curio had.

"I'm guessing the Overmare is the leader of Stable Sixty-Three, right?" I asked politely as I offered my own hoof to the Stable's commander-in-chief. She didn't return my gesture and just stared at my purple shod hoof like it was a monstrous claw instead of a normal pony hoof.

"Um, no thank you. I know you helped us out with the raiders and everything, but I barely feel comfortable being around you," she said coldly.

"Huh?" I asked, thoroughly confused by the Overmare's reaction to my presence. She rolled her magenta eyes at me and I narrowed mine. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, you're not a resident of Stable Sixty-Three and you were not given the authority to enter this Stable. We sought out the Steel Rangers for assistance, but you just appeared without clearance or permission. Secondly, you're supposed to be dead. If not by the balefire eggs you supposedly jumped on to make you a 'hero,' then by the two hundred years that have passed. You look mighty young and healthy for two hundred and sixteen years old. And thirdly, and most importantly, you're still covered in blood and gore from who knows where. I can't tell which is yours and which is those filthy raiders' bloodily fluids."

Looking down at myself for the first time since the battle, I realized I was covered in dried, flaking blood. It was matted in my fur and staining my armor black and dark red. I swallowed, suddenly feeling completely disgusted with myself, and tried my best to smile. I think it looked more like a weird curl of my upper lip because the Overmare looked even more repulsed by me.

"Okay. Sorry. So is there any place I can go to get a bath or a shower?" I asked, hoping the dismissive leader of Stable Sixty-Three would at least give me that. She rolled her eyes at me again and I fought the urge to scowl. I was really starting to not like this pony.

"Oh! You can use my bathroom! And while your taking a bath I can clean and fix up your armor!" Melody volunteered, far louder than was acceptable for the situation or the confined quarters we were currently in. For once, Tea Leaves and I were in complete agreement as we both winced at my niece's over exuberance. She grabbed me by the right forehoof and began to pull me towards the open door. "Come on! I'll brush your hair afterwards! It'll be fun!"

"Yes, you do that," Tea Leaves said curtly, watching with disdain as Melody dragged me into her room. The door swished shut behind us and Melody started working at my armor's straps. Her hooves and teeth flew to each strap and my armor started falling off loudly onto the gray metal floor.

I felt extremely uncomfortable with this. Not only was another mare undressing me for a bath, but she was my niece! I was still adjusting to the fact that I had a niece that was my age and I was beginning to accept it, but her taking my clothes off was just plain weird. I pulled away from her and she smiled at me.

"Oh come on, Aunt Aria! I'm just trying to help you out of that armor. It's absolutely filthy," she told me, inching closer while I backed away from her.

"No, it's alright. I can do it myself," I told her, taking another few steps back. I focused my horn while walking away and my armor, shield, and saddlebags teleported into a neat pile near her workbench. I smiled as I continued to back pedal from her. "See. Magical armor remov-Augh!"

I tumbled, head over hooves, into the metal bathtub and landed in a heap. Staring up at my purple covered hooves I chuckled. I forgot my shoes when I teleported my armor off. I always miss the little things. Melody hovered over me and laughed.

"If you wanted to get into the tub that fast, you should have told me. Let me help you get your shoes off," she giggled and righted me in the bathtub. She then popped off each of my shoes with ease and this time I let her without a struggle. I was embarrassed enough already. Another mare taking off my shoes wasn't that bad. She winked at me playfully and I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks.

This was highly inappropriate and I felt strangely naked. Okay, I was naked, but lots of ponies went around casually without clothes or barding on. I had on many occasions too. But in the privacy of a bathtub, it felt wrong. Melody turned on the faucet, poured in some blue liquid, and let the warm water fill the tub with soft, sweet smelling bubbles. The water was perfect and as it slowly rose around my rump, I let out a sigh. The aroma of the bubble bath eased my sore and tight muscles just as much as the hot water.

"Now you get yourself nice and clean and I'll get to work on your armor," she almost sang before bouncing out of the bathroom and settling in at her workbench.

She didn't closed the door behind her, but I didn't mind. The bath felt heavenly. I let the sound of the running water sooth my mind while the steaming, soapy water soothed my body. Turning off the faucet when the bath was full, I leaned back into the tub, letting the water rise to my chin, and closed my eyes. In the solitude of the darkness I could just be. No thinking about the carnage I had just taken part in. No remembering the family I had lost. No wondering what I could have done to save Toffee Biscuits.

"Cud!"

And there went my moment of serenity.

I looked at myself in the mirror after wrapping a towel around my head and giggled. I honestly giggled. I thought, for just a brief, fleeting second that the towel made me look like a gypsy soothsayer. It was silly, but it was actual, honest to goodness laughter, and it felt good.

I emerged from the bathroom clean, refreshed, and renewed, and Melody gave me a bright smile that I returned with a small grin of my own. I still hurt, mind, body, soul, but the pain was now a dull throb instead of the open sore it had been in the museum.

"Check it out! I saw that your armor had a few gaps in it so I figured I'd give you a little upgrade. Well, actually, your legs and part of your chest were completely exposed. I hope you don't mind," Melody said cheerily as she showed me the repairs and modifications she had made to my armor. It had been repaired and repainted with an expert's care. I couldn't see any sign of the blood, dents, or scratches from the chaotic battle only a few hours earlier. What I did notice was a small hook on the back of my armor that didn't make any sense.

"What's that for?" I asked, pointing to the small protrusion on my armor.

"Oh! It's for your shield! I put a leather strap on the back of it so you could hook it on and effectively holster it. Balancing it on your back is all well and good Aunt Aria, but if you have to run or get knocked down it'll fall off and you might lose it," she explained, showing me the strap in question and how it easily hooked on and was just as easily released. The hook could bend back if pushed correctly with a hoof or with magic so it wouldn't bend and would only release when it was deliberately pushed up and towards my head.

"Wow, that's actually pretty ingenious," I complimented, and she beamed at me. It was actually a little unsettling for her to be so ecstatic at my simple praise. "But can you please stop calling me 'aunt.' Aria's fine."

"But you are my aunt. I've never had an aunt before. The Stable only allows siblings every three generations so I've only had my mom, my dad, and my brother," she told me, slightly disappointed at me for quashing her dreams of calling me aunt. I sighed.

"Alright, you can all me aunt if you want," I relented, my ears drooping against the back of my head.

"Yay! Thank you! Let me show you what I made for you!" she cheered before flitting across the room to a large drum in the corner. When she opened the lid, I was suddenly hit with a powerful odor of chemicals and dyes that made my eyes water. She then fished a set of purple Stable Sixty-Three barding out of the drum that matched the dominant color of my armor. "See! I made you your own underbarding. I'm gonna armor the legs and portions of the chest to cover the weaknesses in your armor. I don't think that Lunar Guard armor was really made for heavy combat. It won't be as tough as your steel plate armor, but it'll protect your legs, shoulders, and chest better since they're exposed."

"I-Wh-Wow. Thank you. That... you really are amazing at making things, you know?" I told her, and she was practically vibrating with glee.

"You should see me with a terminal and my Pipbuck. I can crack any code and fix any problem. I've got a tech cutie mark and I am a Pipbuck Technician's Assistant after all," she proudly proclaimed, and I looked back at the barding covering her flank.

"I seem to remember sheet music on the screen, Melody. You are a pretty good singer," I told her, and she froze before turning away from me, a crimson flush darkening her teal cheeks. Setting up a wire over the vat, I couldn't help but notice she didn't want me to see her flustered.

"Thank you Aria. I like singing, but I'm too afraid to do it in front of a lot of ponies. I'm glad you like it," she said softly while tugging on her braid with her wings. Wow. Now that's a feat. Melody had really flexible wings.

"Thank you for not calling me aunt. Uh, can I ask you a question?"

"Oh sure. Ask me anything," Melody said while hanging the purple barding up to dry. The yellow streaks had turned a lighter purple that almost matched the secondary colors of my armor. I bit my lower lip. If only they had turned silver it would perfectly match my Lunar Guard armor.

"Why was Tea Leaves acting like such a blueberry to me?" Melody turned and arched an eyebrow at me.

"What now?" she asked, and chuckled.

"Sorry. I forget that not everyone knows my replacement swears. Let me rephrase that. Why was Tea Leaves being... less than amiable towards me?" I asked as I picked up a very interesting book from her desk. Pipbuck Maintenance Manual. I was so tempted to read it.

"Oh, well, that's complicated. She doesn't trust outsiders besides the Steel Rangers. They saved our first, and only, expedition outside the Stable," she told me, a twinge of sadness evident in her voice.

"Only? What happened?" I asked, putting the book down and walking over to her.

"The radiation readings were satisfactory twenty years ago. They didn't send anyone out until two years ago. The previous Overmare had been too cautious and refused to let anypony out to go investigate and see if it was safe for us to leave," she continued, her eyes never leaving the light purple '63' on the barding's back and shoulders. "The stripes and numbers would look better if they were silver."

"Tea Leaves took over as Overmare two years ago, didn't she?" I deduced, and Melody took a few moments before she nodded.

"She sent out ten ponies, including her sister. Dad and Starshine went with them." She paused, tears welling up in her blue eyes. I placed my hoof on her shoulder, already figuring out what she was having trouble saying.

"Your dad didn't come back, did he?" I asked, and she shut her eyes against the tears and the surge of bad memories. I turned my niece around and took her into a hug while she cried. This time I'd be her support. She had been there for me in the museum so I would be here for her now.

"Starshine and Toffee Biscuits were in pretty bad shape when the Steel Rangers got them back to us."

Toffee Biscuits. You had gone outside and barely come back alive. No wonder a baker would volunteer to fight raiders from the outside. You didn't want the outside getting in because you had almost died to whatever was out there.

That was why Toffee Biscuits chose to fight. To protect her family from the outside she feared so much. I had even more respect for the little baker mare and felt the hole in my heart grow a little bigger to remind me of what the world had lost because of my mistake. I remembered Leaflet's words. I wouldn't... no, I couldn't let it happen again. Melody began to whimper into my chest.

"They'd have been dead if the Ranger patrol hadn't been nearby and heard the shooting. Starshine and Toffee wouldn't talk about it, but when the raiders started attacking the Stable door, Toffee was one of the first to volunteer to defend us if they broke in."

"The Overmare lost her sister on the outside and she doesn't trust the outsiders because of it. I get it now. You don't have to say anything else," I said softly, hugging Melody until she stopped crying. She wiped some snot from her nose with the back of her hoof and smiled weakly at me.

"So how about we make those stripes silver, huh?" she asked, trying so desperately to return to her cheerful self, and I nodded. I'd help her finish my underbarding, but I needed to go talk to a few ponies. If I was going to keep Toffee Biscuits in my heart, then I'd also have to keep her Stable safe and away from the dangers of the outside. I may have been lost, but I finally found a goal. I had to keep Stable Sixty-Three safe, not just for my family, but also for all the families that a very important little baker gave her life to protect.

Clad in my armor and new underbarding, I strode through the hallways of Stable Sixty-Three with renewed vigor. I knew it would mean leaving my new family behind, (I realized after I left Melody's room that I still hadn't met her and Starshine's mother) but I knew what I was going to do. To accomplish my goal, I'd have to leave the Stable and venture out into the Trottingham Wasteland above. First things first, I'd need some guidance.

Who better to ask what I'd need than ponies who lived up there. Ponies I was told I could trust. They may have been crude and a little obnoxious in our first meeting, but perhaps the rest of the 'Brotherhood of Steel' could be of some help. I still had three other Steel Rangers who hadn't left a bad taste in my mouth. I hoped they would help me.

"Hey Aria! Wait up!" I heard a familiar voice call out from behind me, and stopped, clenching my eyes shut against the cat calls I knew were about to come. I turned around to see the stealth Ranger trotting up to me. Still clad in his black and silver stealth armor, I would have been extremely impressed with him and his armor if he hadn't made a complete ass of himself earlier. I did notice that he was a bit small for a Steel Ranger. He was an average size for a stallion, maybe a little shorter, but definitely different from the rest of his squad. He was a stealth and reconnaissance pony, so I guessed his smaller, more agile frame would be a benefit.

"Why me?" I prayed, but I was sure no gods would hear my plea.

"Hey, about earlier..."

Yep, no deity loved me. He wasn't puking frogs or transforming into a pillar of salt yet.

"What? Did you call dibs or something?" I asked, narrowing my eyes, and was pleasantly surprised when he winced.

"Oh... you heard Bulletstorm say that, huh?" he said with a strange unsteadiness. He actually diverted his gray eyes away from mine. Was he... embarrassed? "Look, I'm sorry, okay. About what happened earlier."

"Really?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Really. I didn't mean to be rude. I just saw you sitting next to that body and-"

"Her name was Toffee Biscuits."

"Oh. I saw you sitting next to Toffee Biscuits and asked Starshine who you were. You were wearing some really interesting armor and looked so sad." I rolled my eyes.

"I was sitting vigil over a dead pony with her sister! Of course I was sad!" I growled, and he held his hooves up defensively.

"I know. I know. But when he told me you were his aunt back from the grave I just had to come talk to you," he said, and I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "Is it true?"

"I guess. A few hours ago I was jumping on a pile of balefire eggs in Canterlot and then I was falling... falling in here," I told him, although I think he noticed my apprehension. I didn't want to tell anypony about the blue vortex, or the voices and visions, or the bombs. Maybe that was just the entrance to the other side and I got pulled back by Melody's Star Ruby? That was just as plausible as anything else, I guess, but it was still pretty weird. "I'd like to speak with your superior officer. Can you walk and talk?" I started trotting down the hallway, not waiting for him to follow.

"Interesting... Yeah. Sure," he replied, quickly trotting up next to me. "So... did you meet the Goddesses on the other side?"

I stopped, wondering what the hell he was talking about, and he seemed surprised.

"What? You worked for Princess Luna, how could you not know the Goddesses? These Stable ponies are always spouting on about how Celestia and Luna ascended into heaven and are watching over us," he said with a content smirk.

"And I'm guessing you don't believe they have," I said curtly. The stealth pony shook his head.

"If you've seen the outside world, then you'd wouldn't believe in some god ponies we can't see watching over us. The only alicorns I've ever seen are the mutant ones that fly around the wastes back across the sea." he said, before leaving me behind and forcing me to trot after him.

"Wait. What do you mean mutant alicorns?" I asked as I trotted back along side him.

"Bunch of blue, purple, and green monsters that fly around kidnapping unicorns. I haven't seen any in Trottingham since I got here five years ago and that's a really good break on our part. Those things are strong, powerful, and the only pony who I've heard of that's ever taken them down is Star Paladin Steelhooves back in Manehatten."

"Where did they come from?" I asked, my natural egghead curiosity peaked. Could balefire radiation actually create alicorns like Celestia and Luna? If so, what did that mean about the princesses?

"No idea. They're probably a bunch of rad or taint warped monsters," he told me, and his smile grew. "Before you ask what taint is, I'll tell ya. I don't know. Some kinda radioactive magical by-product or something, but it's a lot worse than radiation. If you see any place that's marked as having taint, run, and if you find an unmarked area you better pray to your make believe goddesses that it doesn't fuck you up too much."

"I don't know if I believe that Celestia and Luna have ascended to godhood or not, but if any pony could it would be Princess Luna. She was amazing. So was her sister. I don't know," I said, and he seemed mildly pleased with my answer. I guess agnosticism is close enough to atheism for my companion's taste.

We entered the Atrium where Starshine and the other Steel Rangers were almost finished clearing away the raider bodies. Toffee Biscuits' body was gone, but there was still a phantom image of her floating in the back of my mind.

"But if things outside this Stable are bad enough that a baker would willingly volunteer to fight it back with her life, then I don't see any problem in some ponies holding on to something that gives them hope. Now which one is your commanding officer... Wow, I don't even know your name."

Little things.

"Call me Shadowbuck," he replied with that confident grin that seemed to be his default facial expression. I didn't know if it was charming or annoying. Maybe a little of both. I arched an eyebrow.

"Really? Shadowbuck? Your name is Shadowbuck?" I asked, disbelieving that anypony would name their child Shadowbuck.

"It's my code name. Every stallion in the Brotherhood of Steel had a code name. Only ponies that get to know our real names are us Brotherhood members and Elder Lemon Scones."

"Little bit of military fun then? So you don't get to tell anypony your real name?"

"Nope. It's part of the responsibilities of being a member of the Brotherhood. We're the elite and losing our real names is a way to show our loyalty and commitment. We're assigned our new names by the Elder when we join and we only get to tell our wives our real names since that's a pretty big commitment too. Lifelong commitment for marriage, lifelong commitment for to Brotherhood," he continued, and I couldn't help but look at him and his fellow Steel Ranger elites in a new light.

Giving up your name was a major commitment. It was essentially giving up your identity to the Steel Rangers' cause. I knew they still had their original names, but being called by a nickname not of your own choosing for the rest of your life would be a big deal to me.

I could never give up my name. Aria was the name my mother gave me before she killed herself. It was the only connection I had to a mother I never knew. Even though she had abandoned me, I couldn't be mad at her. A part of me still loved her. A part of me blamed myself.

"Well, it's been a pleasure to meet you, Shadowbuck. You make a much better second impression than a first. You should work at that," I joked, and looked back to the other four Rangers. "Which one is your superior officer?" (Was that the third time I asked that? We really couldn't help getting side tracked, huh?)

"Star Paladin Buzzsaw. The one with the chainsaws," he replied, nodding his head towards the stock beige earth pony with the wicked brush clearing tools mounted to his sides. Even I noticed the blood stains caked to the saw chains and gulped as I approached him with what I hoped was my winningest smile. When the Steel Ranger with the flamethrower saw me, he said something to his commanding officer and Buzzsaw turned to me with a cocky smile. Did all Steel Rangers give every pony that smile or just me?

"Hey everypony! Looks like we've got the prettiest living fossil I've ever seen!" he shouted before letting out a loud, boisterous laugh that the other Steel Rangers joined in on. I shot Shadowbuck a look and was surprised to see he wasn't laughing. It looked more like he was chuckling nervously.

The large minigun wielding pony named Bulletstorm came up behind my new... friend? Acquaintance? I didn't know what Shadowbuck and I were. After our first two meetings, I'd say we were on neutral ground. The obnoxiously loud earth pony slapped his much smaller companion hard on the back, causing his legs to buckle beneath him. Shadowbuck barely caught himself in time to avoid falling on his face and shot Bulletstorm a look that mirrored my own.

"Looks like somepony's got a crush on the pretty ghoulie. Don't ya, Shadow," Bulletstorm said before stomping his hoof and bursting out into far louder laughter than was appropriate for the situation. His fellow Brotherhood of Steel members laughed, except for Shadowbuck, but even they were a little off put by their 'brother's' overly enthusiastic mirth.

"Ghoulie?" I asked, both my annoyance at the jests and my curiosity at the use of the term evident in my question.

"She is not a ghoul!" Starshine yelled as he turned to confront Bulletstorm for me.

He looked terrible. He was far worse than when I had seen him last after the battle. Thick, dark bags hung under his sea blue eyes; they had lost that luster I had seen in them when he pointed his gun at me and during the heat of the battle. His mane and fur were still matted with sweat and covered in blood and grime and he looked like he could barely stand. If I felt like death before my bath, he looked like death right now.

"Starshine, are you okay?" I asked, his tired eyes revealing that he was barely able to register my question.

"What else would you call a girl that got blown up by a balefire bomb, survived, and is still walking around two hundred years later?" the rocket launcher pony asked.

"What's a ghoulie?" I asked again, becoming just a little more annoyed with each passing second as the Steel Rangers continued to ignore my question.

"She's not one of those monsters! The goddesses sent her cause my sister wished for it on the Star Ruby!" Starshine practically screamed, completely losing his cool in a way I had never seen. Even when surrounded by death with his life and the lives of everypony he knew on the line, Starshine remained cool, calm, and collected. It seemed the Brotherhood noticed his mood too and suddenly shut up. Well, all except Bulletstorm who was laughing far too loudly.

"Okay. I gather that ghoulies are bad, but what are they?" I asked when Bulletstorm finally realized no one else was laughing and had promptly shut his massive pie hole.

"Aunt Aria," Starshine said, and I held back a sigh. I really hated being called aunt by a stallion only a few years older than me. "Ghouls are ponies that got hit by so much radiation that their bodies decayed, but they didn't die. They're like zombies, I guess. They just want to eat anything that isn't balefire spawn like them."

"There are a few ghouls that kept their sanity and are like really smelly, really rotten, regular ponies, but they're few a far between," Rocket Launcher Ranger added, and I shuddered. Being mindless zombies due to necrotic magic I could handle. It made sense. But being stuck in a never dying body for hundreds of years while your body slowly decayed was just creepy.

"And if we don't figure out a way to seal the Stable door back up, we'll have a whole bunch of zombies running in here from upstairs," Shadowbuck added, and I whipped my head around.

"What? There's a bunch of these ghoulie monsters upstairs?" I asked, completely stunned that the Brotherhood of Steel would leave a bunch of zombies walking around up above Stable Sixty-Three.

"Yeah. Whenever we come by to trade with the Stable we have to clear out the stranglers that come down onto the main floor, but who knows how many of those things are on the upper floors of the museum?" Buzzsaw added, and I frowned.

"How often do you guys trade with the Stable?" I asked, hoping it was a lot farther apart then...

"Once a month. The Stable was lucky we were in the area when the attack happened. We weren't scheduled to come for another two weeks," Flamethrower Ranger chimed in, and my heart sunk. If the zombie ponies needed to be cleared out by the Rangers every month, then they would find their way into the Stable before the Rangers returned. The thought of zombies invading my niece and nephew's and Toffee Biscuit's home sent a chill down my spine.

"Then we're gonna have to clear out the museum upstairs first," I said with as confident a smile as I could.

"Oh? Is it we now? Like I said, missy, it could be suicide," Buzzsaw added, his smirk disappearing and his face transforming into a stone that even his saws couldn't cut.

"And it would be negligent homicide to leave those monsters up there with the Stable door blown open. I plan on going out and finding something to fix it, but if there's a threat to the Stable like that upstairs, then we've got to take care of it first," I argued, never taking my eyes away from Star Paladin Buzzsaw's beady amber eyes. He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity, I narrowed my eyes in response, and the world seemed to stand still as even the ever obnoxious Bulletstorm held his breath. Then the Star Paladin's grinned and his laughter returned with renewed vigor.

"I like this one. Alright, hero, we'll help you. When we're ready to go in the morning we'll go with you to clear out the upper floors. But that's it, okay? We don't have time to go on a quest with you. The Trottingham Steel Rangers protect four different settlements in the Trottingham Ruins, not to mention our own base in Big Buck. We don't have time to go looking for a new Stable door. Understood, soldier?" he asked, and I saluted as I had been taught in the Academy. He saluted back, and I could feel a little more warmth and a lot less condescension in his smile.

"Oh no, Star Paladin! I don't think your wife is gonna like you having a marefriend on the side," Bulletstorm joked, and Buzzsaw, Shadowhoof, and I turned on the overly jovial Steel Ranger at the same time.

"Shut up, Bulletstorm!" we shouted in unison. For good measure, Shadowbuck jumped up and smacked his fellow Steel Ranger upside the back of his head and Bulletstorm yelped.

"That's another point in your favor, Shadowbuck."

The Brotherhood of Steel laughed as Bulletstorm wilted under the brotherly abuse and I laughed with them. Perhaps this good-natured teasing did have a bonding aspect to it after all.

"Aunt Aria..." I heard Starshine rasp weakly, and I turned just in time to see him fall. I threw my hooves out to catch him and was barely able to stop his head from hitting the floor.

"Starshine! You look terrible. When was the last time you slept?" I asked as I held him up. Even though I was stronger than the normal unicorn mare due to years of physical training at the Academy, my exhausted nephew was too much for me to hold up for long. I slowly laid him out on the ground, cradling his head, and brushed his dirty, sweat matted mane out of his sea blue eyes. He had Golden Star's eyes just like Melody. "Shadowbuck! Go get a doctor!"

"Don't..." Starshine whispered as Shadowbuck nodded and ran off towards the Medical Lab.

"Don't what?"

"Don't do it. Don't..." He couldn't complete his sentence as he was consumed by the Sandmare's embrace.

I stayed with him until Compass' father arrived with Leaflet and a gurney. The doctor carefully levitated Starshine onto the stretcher while the librarian nuzzled his neck once he was safely on the roll away bed. My jaw dropped.

"Huh?" I grunted, and Leaflet smiled down at Starshine, never taking her eyes off me.

"He's such an idiot, but I love my big idiot," she said sadly as she and the doctor began to wheel him away.

"Wait. I'm coming with you," I cried as I tried to jump to my hooves and began to follow them.

"It's okay, Aria. You've done enough," she said calmly, but I could hear bitterness in her words. Or was I imagining her bitterness, hoping that Toffee Biscuits' sister would be mad at me? Why wasn't she mad at me?

"Please be mad at me!" I screamed in my head at the pony I now realized was Starshine's marefriend. I watched as they trotted back through the Atrium door and left me behind. They had spoken so intimately to each other, and I now remembered them hugging at our vigil. I hadn't paid any mind to them in my depressed funk, and that made me feel worse. My entire being wanted Leaflet to be mad at me, but she kept denying me my punishment. Why was she so nice!?

Wow.

I was getting mad at a pony for being nice to me. How screwed up is that?

"Aria," Shadowbuck said, and I nearly jumped out of my armor. Gasping for air and holding my chest as my heartbeat skyrocketed, I turned to see the stealth pony materialize behind me with a grin.

"Celestia darn it! What is your problem, Shadowbuck!?" I snarled, and he shrugged. "Back down to neutral you go."

"I like to make a memorable entrance." I glared at him. "Heh, um, yeah. The Overmare wants to see you. I ran into her on the way back and she asked me to get you."

"You take orders from the Overmare too?" I asked, sighing as the pounding in my breast began to settle. The surge of adrenaline the fright he given me had left my extremities tingling and cool. I did not like that feeling.

"As long as we're under her roof and she doesn't give me orders that contradict Star Paladin Buzzsaw or Elder Cherry Scones, then yeah. I do," he replied. I frowned and rolled my eyes. "You shouldn't frown so much."

"You shouldn't sneak up on ponies," I retorted, before turning away from him.

"Touché," he added with a chuckle, and I shook my head. That stallion was a pendulum of camaraderie. One moment I thought he was insightful and interesting to talk to. Another moment he was an immature jerk.

"Why can't ponies be as cut and dry as Melody?" I thought as I left the Atrium and followed the signs to the Overmare's office.

"Aria. I want you to le-"

"I'm leaving the Stable." I interrupted Overmare Tea Leaves. At first, she seemed stunned, but that quickly melted away into a content smile.

"Well, the door's completely melted so you can just walk on out," she said smugly. I cleared my throat to tell her I wasn't finished and that smile quickly turned into a scowl. "What?"

"I'm not leaving for good. I'm going outside to see if I can find something to fix the Stable Sixty-Three door. I need to make things right. I need to protect my family," I said sternly, leaving out my need to make things up to Toffee Biscuits.

"What do you know about family? You were dead until a few hours ago. Why are you so attached to your distant relatives?" she asked dismissively, waving her hoof at me like I were no more than a fly.

"Because they're the only family I have left!" I snapped, not realizing until it was too late that I was shouting.

"What should you care. I heard what happened up there. You're probably going to hide and get them killed too. Some hero you tur-Oof!" Before I knew what I was doing, I was over her desk, sending papers, folders, and a statuette of Ministry Mare Applejack flying, and had her pinned up against the large terminal bank behind her. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm not a hero! And I know I messed up! But what gives you the fudging right to act like such a witch to me?" I snarled, leaving 'blueberry' behind for the much more direct 'witch.' Tea Leaves could subtract the 'W' and add the 'B' for me.

"Because I wished on Melody's stupid bracer and my sister didn't come back! Or my parents! Why do you get to come back to life, but not them!? Why!? Tell me damn it!" she shouted at me, and I froze.

For the longest time, I stared at her while she glared back at me with those angry, sad brown eyes that I finally understood. It wasn't just me feeling guilty that I was alive, but others who had lost family members were beginning to resent me. The stares I saw from the ponies around me weren't just fear of a walking fossil as Buzzsaw had put it, but some had been glares of resentment just like Tea Leaves. I was a living embodiment of how unfair life could be. Life isn't fair.

I was a bastard, cursed from conception. Pushed aside and forgotten by most of my family. My dreams were always shattered in front of my eyes right as I was about to achieve them. But when it came down to the simple act of dying, I had been spared the reaper's embrace while every other pony in the world hadn't. Was all the bad karma flung my way really enough to balance out the massive amounts of luck my survival had used? Why was I alive and not the Ministry Mares? Or Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Or Big Macintosh?

I let Tea Leaves go and stared at the floor.

"I don't know." It was all I could say as Tea Leaves rubbed her neck and growled at me. 'I don't know' was obviously not the correct answer.

SMACK!

My face stung and I looked up to see the Overmare shaking with rage as she brought her hoof around to slap me again.

"Don't you dare patronize me! I'm the Overmare! You're nopony! You're no hero! You didn't even die! You're a fraud!" she screamed, slapping me at the end of each exclamation to drive her point home. One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay. That was enough. I opened my eyes, my cheeks and left eye stinging from the Overmare's angry attacks, and focused my horn on throwing her against the wall again. With a flash of blue magic, Tea Leaves was slammed into the wall, two feet off the ground, and staring at me in absolute terror.

"Have you gotten all that out of your system?" I asked, doing everything I could not to choke her with a simple redirection of my focus to her neck. I know I sounded a little condescending, but I didn't care. Overmare Tea Leaves nodded and I let her go again. Dropping to her knees, she glared up at me through watery green eyes.

"Get out. You have until tomorrow morning to get the hell out of my Stable. If you're going to fix the door, then I might reconsider letting you return, but until then, never come back," she hissed, and I turned away from her. I didn't want to stay here anyway. Maybe I had, but not now.

I had been through hell and this pony was mad at me for being alive. If it had been Leaflet, that would be one thing. But this was different. I had tried to be understanding. I had tried to let Tea Leaves take her irrational hatred out on me to help ease her pain. However, I saw such anger in her eyes. This pony didn't want to stop hating.

She had been holding in her anger for so long that it had festered. She had just needed something she could hate because she hated herself. She hated herself for sending her sister and Melody's father out to their deaths. I was just the perfect reminder of her failure and the perfect target for her wrath.

As I left the Overmare's office, I knew I had two mysteries ahead of me. One was how I was going to repair Stable Sixty-Three's entrance. The other was how I had survived the balefire eggs and ended up two hundred years in the future. Both goals were much easier said than done when it came to solving them. That being said, I knew one thing.

I wasn't going to be life's punching bag anymore.

The Medical Bay was not where I needed to go. I had gone to check up on Starshine, but the doctor, Compass' father, Syringe, had told me he had checked him out and sent him home for bed rest. Of course, he asked me about the red marks on my left cheek. I told him I fell and just needed a weak healing potion. He obliged, but I could tell he wasn't believing a word I said.

After downing the light purple potion, I promptly left the doctor's office before he could ask any more questions. I was mad at the Overmare, even hoping I would be able to get even with her, but tattling on Tea Leaves would be stupid. All she did was slap me... seven times. My face and jaw thanked the universe that Tea Leaves was a pencil pushing bureaucrat instead of a body builder. I don't think my teeth would have liked seven hooves to the face from a subterranean roid rager.

I trotted up to Starshine's door and knocked. Syringe had said he had released him to his mother so I guessed she was out of the maintenance tunnels and staying with him until he was better. The good doctor had even been kind enough to give me directions to my nephew's room. Starshine's mother was nursing him back to health.

"That must be nice." I really missed my grandmother.

After a few seconds, an older white mare with a long blond mane and kind blue eyes answered. She had crows feet around her eyes and smile lines on her cheeks, but she looked extremely familiar. I think she thought the same thing because both of us stared at each other, stunned by the appearance of the mare on the opposite side of the door. She looked just like a younger version of my grandmother. "Grandmother White Rose."

"I..." My voice caught as I choked back tears I knew were coming. I had to get out of here. Nothing against this pony, I'm was sure she was a lovely mare, but I couldn't stay in a Stable with a mare who looked so much like the pony who had raised me. The pony who I had lost so suddenly two hundred years ago. I started backing away, trying to mumble out some apology, when Leaflet stepped into view behind her and smiled sadly. "Quit smiling at me, damn it!"

"Hello, Aria. Have you come to check up on Starshine?" Leaflet asked, and I took another step away from the mare in the doorway who was staring at me with my grandmother's eyes.

"I didn't believe them. I couldn't believe them. You... you look just like the painting," she mumbled, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"I've been getting that a lot... you look just like my grandmother." She even smiled just like her.

"Oh? Are you alright, dear?" she asked as my lower lip started quiver. "I will not cry. I will not cry."

"Who are you?"

"This is Elegant Star, Starshine's mom," Leaflet said kindly. "She has my mom's name? She has mom's name!" And for the umpteenth time in in twenty-four hours, I was bawling my eyes out.

"Oh no, dear, is something wrong?" Elegant Star asked while putting her hoof on my shoulder. She then tensed up as I threw my hooves around her neck and cried.

"You look like my grandmother and you're named after my mom! Why does the universe hate me so much!?" I cried, and I felt her soften and take me into an embrace. I felt another set of hooves hug me, realizing it was Leaflet, and I held her too. My anger at her acceptance had vanished like my old life. I didn't know why the little earth pony librarian was so loving and forgiving, and I no longer cared because I needed that connection.

I thought I was better. I thought I had new resolve. I thought wrong. I was still hurting. I was just putting on a show. I needed family and these ponies were kind and loving. They accepted me so quickly unlike my real family. Except for my brother. They were Golden Star's children's children's children's children, but they still carried a bit of my brother inside all of them.

"It will be alright, dear. Let it out," Elegant Star whispered, while Leaflet just shushed me calmly. I sniffed loudly and tried to rebuild the emotional dam within my mind, the cement of their love helping me expedite the process.

I soon had myself back under control and Elegant Star, my niece, not my mother, handed me a tissue with her magic. Wiping my eyes, I smiled weakly at them and Leaflet handed me another tissue. I chuckled softly at both pieces of tissue paper. "If I had more family members, I'd have the more tissues than I'd know what to do with."

"Thank you, I-I'm sorry I'm such a mess. How's Starshine doing?" I asked, and blew my nose a little louder than I had wanted to.

"He'll be okay. Starshine's always been like that. Whenever he's determined to do something he'll work himself until he passes out. I'm surprised he made it this long after the attack," Leaflet said after releasing me from her embrace. Okay, I liked her. I still felt horrible every time I saw her, I don't think I ever would stop feeling horrible about Toffee Biscuits, but I could see she had a kind heart. I was suddenly glad that she was dating Starshine. With Melody, Leaflet, and Elegant Star by his side, I knew that if I could find a way to fix the Stable door, Stable Sixty-Three would be safe in the Chief of Security's overworked, but capable hooves.

"I wanted to come say good-bye before I left tomorrow morning," I told them, still trying to collect myself.

"You're leaving? Why?"

I turned to see Melody and Compass in the hall behind me and sighed.

"Yeah. I'm leaving. Not just because the Overmare wants me to leave, but because I have to. I have to find a way to fix your door and... other things," I added, not wanting to tell them about my other quest. They believed that Celestia and Luna had sent me to them through their prayers on Golden Star's Star Ruby bracer. I couldn't bring myself to tell them that I didn't know why I had survived or that I had never been to heaven with the princesses. I may have been a bit agnostic in the eyes of most of these ponies, but I wasn't going to be a jerk about it. I wasn't going to shatter their hopes.

"But you just got here. I wanted to talk to you about knights. I've read all the library's books on them and Grandpa Golden Star's journal said you liked reading about knights. And..." Melody stopped, peering down at the ground with her ears lying flat against her head. I could see the disappointment in her eyes and felt a pang of guilt.

"Melody. If she's leaving to find a way to fix the door, then she'll be coming back," Elegant Star half scolded/half consoled her daughter. Melody grumbled to herself before looking up at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen.

"Then can you stay the night at my place and we can have a slumber party?" she asked, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Melody, you're sixteen years old. You need to start acting your age," her mother sighed.

"A-A slumber party?" I asked, completely taken off my guard by her request. My first thought was 'What is she? Four years old?' but then a nicer, more vulnerable part of me jumped forward and body checked my cynical self back into the recesses of my mind with a well-timed shield smash. That made me smile. 'Oh! I've never been to a slumber party before! Let's go!' the happy little filly-me cried and I nodded.

"But mom, she's leaving tomorrow morning. We only have tonight to hang out. What better way than with a slumber party?" Melody fired back with a logical, if not a bit childish, response. Compass stood in the background, quieted by the large number of mares arguing, and looked like the most awkward stallion in the entire world. Leaflet smiled her sad smile and rolled her eyes.

"Melody," Elegant Star sighed, and shook her head. "Maybe I let you move out too early."

"Mom!"

"Melody. You-"

"I'd like that," I said happily, which brought a smile to Melody's face and a surprised look to her mother's. "I've never been to a slumber party before."

"Really!? Alright! I'll go back to my room and get things ready! Come by in an hour or so. We can't have a slumber party with a vat of purple dye in the corner!"

With that, she was out the door as fast as her teal wings could carry her. We stood in silence, some stunned, some disappointed. Me? I was smiling. She was a bit immature, but I really liked Melody.

"Ugh... can you girls keep it down out there!"

Starshine's ragged voice broke the awkward silence and Evening Star turned towards the closed door that I assumed lead to his bedroom.

"I'll go get him some water. He sounds terrible," she said with all the concern a mother should have for her child, even one who was fully grown and Head of Security for Stable Sixty-Three. Leaflet shook her head and stopped Elegant Star with a gentle hoof on the shoulder.

"No, mom, I've got it," she told the older mare while giving her that sad, kind smile that I loved and hated at the same time. Then my brain broke.

"Wait. What? Mom?"

"Of course I called her mom. She is my mother-in-law." Same sad smile!

"You're married to Starshine!?" I asked, pretty sure my eyes were about to pop out of my head like in one of those old cartoons with the cat chasing the mouse or the duck and the rabbit fighting.

"Oh? Didn't I tell you that? I'm sorry," she apologized casually, and the door to Starshine's room... no wait, their room opened with a hiss. I watched in silence as she trotted through and the pneumatic door closed quietly behind her. I looked to Elegant Star and she chuckled.

"What? I thought you knew? She said she talked to you," my niece, the matriarch, said so matter-of-factly it made my brain hurt.

I really don't notice the little things.

An hour later, I stepped into a completely changed living room JUST as Melody was finishing her preparations. The vats of mystery chemicals had disappeared, the workbench was cleared off and covered in books, and the piles of technical equipment, parts, and scrap metal that had covered her benches were piled up in a corner and covered with a blanket. I chuckled to myself and shook my head at the mound of metal.

Did she really think I couldn't see the mess because she covered it with a sheet? Even I wasn't that oblivious to the world around me. Spinning around at the sound of the door opening, Melody smiled at me nervously.

"Heh, um, you're here early. I thought you'd stay with mom and Starshine for a bit longer. I still have to put up the pillow fort!"

"Pillow fort?" I asked, my interest peaking, while my mind tried to comprehend the purpose of a pillow fort. Pillows weren't materials one would generally use as a line of defense for any fortification.

"Yeah! Everypony knows you've gotta make a fort out of pillows and blankets to hang out and sleep in at a sleep over. Or at least that's what I've read," she said so matter-of-factly that I could only submit to her logic and help her set up our fluffy fort.

The combination of wing power and magical finesse had the pillow fort set up in no time. It was a modest structure. Flat ramparts of pillows (where Melody had acquired so many pillows was beyond me) made up the walls while a blanket provided us a roof over the two sleeping bags Melody had rolled out inside. All the blankets and pillows were a dull gray, but the fun we had had making the fort made it seem more like a real fort to me then just another boring part of Stable Sixty-Three.

We squeezed our way through the small front door to our comfortable castle and Melody sprawled out on her gray sleeping bag. Stable-Tec were geniuses when it came to keeping ponies alive, marvelous technological advancements, and constructing things to last, but their tastes in color and decor left a lot to be desired. Besides the blue and yellow barding every pony wore, and the paintings, posters, and murals the residents had put up, everything was so drab and lifeless. I wondered how any pony could live their entire lives in this place.

"And I dub this grand fort, Fort Aria," she declared, and I smiled sheepishly. Melody stared at me for a moment, trying to understand why I seemed embarrassed, until revelation dawned on her.

"Oh! I always name my reading forts after you. I'm sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable."

"It's alright. Do you make reading forts often?" I asked, my interest reaching a new peak beyond the simple curiosity of a pillow fort. I had never made a pillow fort as a foal, but apparently Melody made them many times. "Pillow forts, technology, and repairs. That's quite the résumé you've got there, Melody."

"Sometimes. It helps me forget."

"Forget what?" I asked, my curiosity almost surmounting the peak of Mount Inquisition.

"Oh, um, I... I guess... being down here, you know? It's depressing. When I make a pillow fort I can pretend I'm in old Canterlot in the Royal Library. I can pretend to be someplace else... Or somebody else," she said, trailing off for a moment before picking a book and tossing it to me. "Like a knight. I used to love to pretend to be Sir Swift Strike the Gallant when I was a filly."

"Really? I used to pretend I was Sir Golden Lance and Golden Star would be my squire. Well, whenever he was on leave from the front lines." I smiled down at the book titled Medieval Equestrian History Volume II, remembering better days with as much happiness as my broken heart could muster. I thought I would cry again, but the tears didn't come. "He said it was a good way to help with my magical combat training, but I think he just wanted the chance to play with me."

"You and Super Great Grandpa were really close, weren't you?"

"Yeah. The funny thing is that we didn't even meet until I was eight and he was eighteen and had just made captain," I explained, watching Melody nod as I spoke.

It was so odd to have somepony be so enraptured by what I was telling them. Most ponies either ignored me, like most of my family, or were unable to understand me, like Grandmother White Rose. That was why I loved Brightlight so much and why what he did hurt even more. I thought I had finally met somepony who understood me and saw me for me instead of seeing me as their granddaughter, or their sister, or a mistake.

The tears wouldn't come. Had I cried out all of my tears? Was that even possible?

"That's so nice. So, Little Miss Living History, I have one question for you," she asked, a wicked glint sparkling in her blue eyes.

"Yes?" I asked, swallowing hard and hoping it wasn't going to be too personal a question.

"I think a dragon finally got its revenge on Sir Golden Lance and killed him, but the books I've read think otherwise. What do you think?" Melody asked, that wicked glint transforming into an inquisitive, wide-eyed stare that I knew all to well.

"Oh. Is that all? That's easy," I said, giggling and rolling my eyes. "It's pretty obvious that Golden Lance was killed by his squire in a fit of jealous rage. Sword and Shield was obviously in love with his liege's wife, Princess Aria."

(Yes, I know I'm named after a Medieval Equestrian princess. I quickly got over that fact when I learned what a bastard meant and had my first meeting with Prince Blueblood about how worthless I really am. Lots of crying in Grandmother White Rose's rocking chair that night... I was two years old.)

"No way! I hate that theory! Sword and Shield idolized Sir Golden Lance!" she shouted passionately, slamming her book open and flipping through the pages as fast as her wings would allow her. I smiled and opened my own book, mimicking her desire to support my own theory. This led to hours of lively debate and furious reading that only two eggheads like Melody and myself could appreciate. I think I'll just leave this moment right here. Don't worry, you're not missing much. No whip cream fights or make out sessions here. Just boring eggheads talking about nerdy pursuits. (Is that really what stallions think girls do at slumber parties?)

The next morning, I arrived at the melted and blasted out remains of Stable Sixty-Three's main door. The top half looked like a massive gear, it's teeth holding on to the circular door frame for all it was worth. However, the melted out remains of the bottom half of the gear left a hole wide enough for two ponies to walk through at a time without much difficulty. It was astounding how small the hole was in comparison to the blast that had ripped through it the day before. I guess it was a testament to Stable-Tec engineering.

Standing near the entrance were the Brotherhood of Steel, all five members suited up and looking as if they were ready for war. They didn't have their helmets on yet so they could talk with Starshine, Elegant Star, and Leaflet without sounding like a bunch of walkie talkies. I looked around, I even looked up, but I didn't see Melody anywhere.

I thought the night had gone well. We had spent much of it discussing history, science, and magic in a way that only true eggheads like us could enjoy. She even showed me how her Pipbuck worked, much to my glee and amazement.

I didn't understand why she wasn't here. When I had left her room less than thirty minutes earlier to go stock my saddlebags with food, water, and medicine, she had said she'd meet me at the entrance. Where was she? It actually hurt that she wasn't here to see me off. I knew she was my niece, but I felt she was also my friend. She might even be the closest thing I had ever had to a sister.

"Where's Melody?" I asked as I trotted up to my family.

"She's not with you?" Elegant Star asked, looking a bit worried. I shook my head, and she sighed.

"I don't know. I'm sorry for my daughter's behavior," she apologized.

"What? Melody and I had a great time last night," I said, and immediately got snickers from the Steel Rangers. I shot the boy's club a look, especially at Shadowbuck as he grinned at me suggestively. "I stayed the night at her place and we had a slumber party."

"Did you have a naked pillow fight?" Bulletstorm joked, and the Steel Rangers burst out into more fits of laughter. That is, until they received the dual stare of fury from Elegant Star's and my own fierce glares.

"Aria," I heard Leaflet's soft, kind voice say to my right. I turned to see her fishing a bundle wrapped in white cloth from her saddlebags and arched an eyebrow. "I have something for you.

"What? You don't have to give me anything," I added, feeling incredibly uncomfortable with the fact she had gotten me a gift. I figured it was probably a lunch or a book from her library, but I couldn't help my persistent guilt over Toffee Biscuits.

"No. I insist. I think Toffee would have wanted me to give this to you," she said quietly, and began to unwrap the package with her teeth.

"Toffee? Wh-Oh my Celetsia." I tried to speak, but I was forced into stunned silence when she unwrapped a Pipbuck from under the sheet. I knew where that Pipbuck had come from and I sure as hell wasn't going to take it. I couldn't. I shook my head, over and over, while she just smiled that sad smile. "I can't accept that."

"Of course you can. Toffee would have wanted her Pipbuck to go to good use." She continued smiling and I screamed inside my head. I hated that sad smile! Everytime I saw it, it made me remember how I had gotten Toffee Biscuits killed. But Leaflet just kept smiling. Just kept being kind. Just kept forgiving me.

"Why me?" I asked, trying to find some way to convince her not to give me this gift. I wanted a Pipbuck like the ponies of Stable Sixty-Three since the moment I saw one. I was so envious of the amazing arcane technology strapped to their legs that they seemed to take for granted. But not like this.

"Because you said you were sorry," she said quietly. My eyes widened and my breath caught. She looked down at the technological leg bracer and bit her lower lip. "Toffee didn't have any foals to leave her Pipbuck to. It would just be put in a store room until a child without a Pipbuck to receive from his parents gets his or her cutie mark. It won't have any significance. No pony will remember Toffee every time the look at it. Except you, Aria. You would remember her every time you used it. I know you will, right?"

She paused, and I stared at the Pipbuck with new reverence. There was a lot of logic and emotion behind this gift. Could I really deny her request now because of my guilty conscience? I noticed the overwhelming silence that had descended upon our group. Looking to my left, I noticed that the Steel Rangers were waiting outside the destroyed Stable door. They were giving us some space. I saw Shadowbuck giving me his usual casual grin and furrowed my brow. What was his deal?

"I-"

"Please, Aria, I'm the reason Toffee Biscuit's is dead, not you," she said, bowing her head and closing her eyes against my confused stare. "She didn't want to fight the raiders. She wanted nothing to do with the outside. It scared her to death to think the outside was coming for her, but I volunteered to fight alongside my husband. I was the first one to volunteer," she confessed.

"Leaflet, you d-"

"Yes I do, Starshine! Aria keeps blaming herself, but it's not her fault Toffee's dead. It's mine!" she cried, the tears beginning to escape past her tightly shut eyelids. Starshine put a hoof on her shoulder and I fell to my haunches, floored by the sudden burst of sadness coming from Leaflet. That sad smile. It wasn't kindness, it was a way to mask her own pain and guilt. She didn't blame me for Toffee Biscuits' death, she blamed herself. "If I hadn't gone, she would still be alive. It's my fault."

"But if you hadn't gone, then other ponies might have been killed. We can't say that one way or another." Starshine tried to reason with her.

"Please, stop it, Starshine!"

"I-It's neither of our faults, Leaflet," I said, her green eyes, watery and desperate, snapping open to peer into mine.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's our faults, but not our faults. I hesitated and the raider got his shot. But I didn't shoot her. The raider did. You volunteered, but Toffee followed you," I said before taking her into a hug. This time, I would not cry. "The real culprits are the raiders and the evil out there that can turn ponies into that. I know we'll never stop blaming ourselves, but we've gotta try. You've gotta keep going and being the amazing pony you are. Keep helping ponies down here love books and keep being there for Starshine. And..."

I paused, not knowing what else to say. She was a librarian. I couldn't help admire her just on that fact, but what could I do?

"And I'll be here for you, Leaf," Starshine added before I let her go and into his loving hooves. She cried for a while, letting out all the pain she had been bottling up, and I stood there, waiting for her to put herself back together again. Leaflet, Curio, Elegant Star, and Melody had helped me. The amazing mares of Stable Sixty-Three. I needed to help her. I wracked my brain for any possible way I could help her. When she finally stopped crying and looked up, I marveled at how, even though her eyes were red and her nose was running, she still had that inner beauty I had seen in that sad smile.

"And I'll continue trying my hardest to protect ponies. I'll take her Pipbuck, but under one condition," I said, nodding towards Toffee Biscuits' Pipbuck between us.

"Yes?" she asked, sniffing loudly and wiping away her tears. The sad smile returned, but this time I think it was a little more genuine.

"Don't beat yourself up, Leaflet, and I won't either. We have to keep your sister's memory and... and remember what she taught us. I won't hesitate anymore and you'll be brave, okay?"

She nodded.

"Okay." She looked at the Pipbuck and cocked an eyebrow. "How do we get it on your leg?"

"Wait, what? It doesn't just open and close with a latch or something?" I asked, finally picking up the arcane technological device with my magic. Turning it over, I saw only the smallest hint of a line where the Pipbuck would open slightly and allow a hoof to slip in through the sides. However, I did not find a way to open the device like I would my bracer. No latch was visible and none of the buttons or features I could find would release it. "What do we do?"

"I can help with that!" Melody called out as she swooped through the door leading to the Atrium. She was wearing her armored utility barding and carrying her energy pistol in a shoulder mounted holster. Smiling at me as if we had just finished laughing at an inside joke, she fished some tools out of her pocket with her wings. "Pipbuck Maintenance, at your service."

"Melody," Elegant Star said as her daughter set to work on Toffee Biscuit's Pipbuck. Her wings held the tools with a finesse I had only ever seen in unicorn magic. The way she used her feathery appendages was a sight to behold. I looked to my left, seeing the stern, angry glare Melody's mother was giving her and suddenly felt very nervous for my niece. Why was she giving Melody such an angry look? "Where do you think your going?"

Click.

Ignoring her mother, Melody deftly released the latch on the Pipbuck and smiled.

"There you go. Just slip it on and the Pipbuck will adjust to optimum sizing to maximize comfort while keeping the Pipbuck from ever falling off."

"Melody. Do not ignore me." Elegant Star stomped a hoof and Melody turned her head to give her mother one of the most uncomfortable and guilty smiles I had ever seen. "Young lady, where are you going with that pistol and those saddlebags?"

Saddlebags? Yep. I missed the saddlebags.

On either side of Melody's torso, strapped around her wings as not to hinder her ability to fly, were two bags full of who-knows-what. Knowing her there were probably plenty of books, piles of scrap metal and mechanical parts, and only a few days worth of food and water. She wasn't... She wouldn't... Would she?

"I'm going with Aria to find a way to fix the Stable Sixty-Three door, mom."

She was.

"Oh no you're not, Melody!" Elegant Star exclaimed, trying her hardest to wrap her daughter in a levitation spell. The only problem with trying to levitate a pegasus is that it takes some serious magical talent to stop them from just flapping their wings a few times and escaping the unicorn's magical grasp. To her credit, after stowing her Pipbuck tools, that's exactly what Melody did. Fluttering above her family, Melody frowned and placed her hooves on her hips.

"Melody! I'm not letting you out of this Stable! There's no reason for you to go out there!" Starshine added as he tried to grab his sister with his arcane abilities and, just like his mother, he failed to catch the nimble pegasus.

"Mom! Starshine! I have to go with her. Once the Brotherhood has to go back to their base, she'll be all alone," Melody said, and I saw Elegant Star turn her gaze to me.

"Did you talk her into this, Aria?" she fumed, and I backed away, smiling nervously.

"What? No! I didn't know about any of this," I tried to explain, but Elegant Star's eyes narrowed and she gave me an awful stare.

"She's telling the truth, mom. I'm thought this through on my own. She'll need me. Not just for backup, but I'm the only tech expert Stable Sixty-Three can spare to help her find a way to replace or fix the door. She won't know what we need."

"Hey!" I cried, and Melody shrugged.

"It's true," she replied. I grunted indignantly. I knew she was probably right, but it was still pretty insulting to my intelligence.

"What about Compass?" Leaflet asked, her green eyes now filled with worry.

"I asked Compass to come with me, but he's too scared to leave. I... I'm not leaving him, I just need to leave the Stable for a bit."

"Melody, why do you have to go?" Starshine asked, but it sounded more like a demand for an answer than a simple inquiry.

"Because... because I have to, Starshine," she replied, suddenly losing that fire she had had for the entire argument. Another heavy silence descended on our group, but it was short lived as Starshine seemed to realize what she was trying to say and chuckled to himself.

"Then get down here and give your brother and mom a hug before you go, okay?" he said while giving his younger sister a loving and understanding smile.

"Starshine!? What are you doing?" Elegant Star asked.

"Mom, you know we gotta let her fly free. She's a pegasus and we're not. There are some things about her we're not going to understand," Starshine rebutted.

"We just have to trust her, Elegant," Leaflet said, putting her hoof on her mother-in-law's shoulder and giving her that sad smile. Elegant Star's features seemed to soften a bit and she walked with Leaflet to stand next to her son. Melody landed softly next to her family and wrapped them both in a tight hug.

"Thank you. This means everything to me," Melody said softly, but my ears were actually able to pick up her words. That was when I realized that the Brotherhood of Steel had been silent this entire time, watching us from the blown out doorway. I cocked an eyebrow at the sight of the Rocket Launcher Ranger, I think his name was Boom, tearing up. When I smiled, he noticed my expression and quickly shoved his helmet over his head to hide his display of emotion. I guess even Steel Rangers could have a soft heart under all that power armor.

"Augh!"

I turned back just in time to receive an enthusiastic flying tackle/hug from my enthusiastic niece. The only thing keeping me from falling onto my backside was the fact that Melody had actually lifted me a few inches off the ground.

"I get to go with you! You've got a Pipbuck and I get to go outside with you! This is awesome!" Melody cheered into my ear as I blinked against the disorienting sight of her teal wings beating like mad to keep us hovering above the ground.

"Whoopie... Can you put me down now?" I asked.

"Oops. Sorry," she said, embarrassed by her showing of unbridled joy, and released me from her aerial hug. I watched as Elegant Star, Starshine, and Leaflet watched us expectantly.

"Now why do you have to come with me? Besides me being completely inept at identifying anything we can use to fix the door, of course," I asked, sarcastically.

"Because I've gotta fly and I can't do that down here. I want to spread my wings, Aria," she said with such earnest that I couldn't stop myself from nodding in agreement.

"Alright. You can come with me. But be prepared for anything. If there's ghoulies out there, then I shudder to think what else the balefire bombs created. Necrotic magic is some vile stuff."

"Aria," Elegant Star said calmly before pushing past Melody and taking me into a tight hug. Actually, it was a little too tight. She placed her mouth next to my right ear and her breath caused me to shudder. Or perhaps it was the message she gave me. "You remember your promise to Leaflet. Don't hesitate. Protect my daughter. Because if anything happens to her, I'll never forgive you. Got it?"

She broke the hug and I nodded again, finding it incredibly hard to speak.

"I-I will," I stammered, and a simple nod was all she gave me. Next was Leaflet and Starshine. Leaflet gave me a simple hug and a reminder to remember her sister while Starshine smiled and gave me a salute.

"Lieutenant Aria," he said simply, and I returned his salute.

"Captain Starshine. Melody and I will be back as fast as we can with supplies and a way to repair the door. Please keep sentries here so that no pony can sneak in here or catch you off guard," I warned him, and he rolled his eyes.

"What do you think they're here for?" he asked, pointing back towards Strawberry Milk and Swiss Cheese standing in the doorway leading back into the Stable. I noticed Strawberry Milk walking with a limp and the medical brace around her right foreleg, but made sure to give her a reassuring smile. The security mares smiled back.

"Give the Wasteland hell, Aria!" Swiss Cheese called out with a wave.

"And get back soon so I can get back to taking naps at work," Strawberry Milk laughed, until her captain shot her a look that silenced her mirth.

"So you ready to go yet, princess?" I heard Buzzsaw call out and I Melody giggled. I looked down at my new Pipbuck, seeing a recipe for 'Toffee Biscuits' Signature Toffee Biscuits' in the notes section, and gave the Star Paladin my own look that turned his laugh into a small smile. I guess I wasn't as good at silencing jokes and laughter as my nephew.

"Yeah," I said, giving Melody a nod as we took our first fateful steps out of Stable Sixty-Three. What was beyond this broken steel gate besides ghoulies and raiders, I didn't know. But one thing was for certain. Somewhere out in the Equestrian Wasteland, hopefully in the Trottingham Ruins, was the answer to why I had survived. I may be pretty agnostic, but I didn't believe in coincidences as huge as my current circumstances. Stepping through the blast hole, Melody and I fell in next to Shadowbuck. The Steel Rangers, Melody, and I began to march down the dimly lit hallway towards the world above, and I shot another glare at Buzzsaw. He rolled his eyes and gave me his usual smug grin.

"What now?" he asked, and I gave him a small smile of my own.

"Don't call me princess."

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Egghead: They just can't peel you away from those books. You add +3 skill points every time you gain a new experience level.
Melee Weapons Skill: 50
Author's Footnote: Special thanks to my editor/pre-reader Chimpso for the help with editing.