"A wise mare once told me, 'Life isn't fair, but, as long as you keep going and never give up, you can find the moments that make life worth living.' That has always been sound advice, but I'd like to add something else. Equestria's at war, and we're a part of its military. We're it guardians. So while this war may not be fair, we have to keep going and never give up so we can find those moments and things worth living for and protect them with every fiber of our being. Those things are the ponies of Equestria and the ponies we love. So I say to you, my fellow royal guardsponies, let's go find those zebra scum and protect all of Equestria. Because I can assure you, it is worth living and dying for."

Applause. The graduation ceremony erupted into a nationalistic flood of hoof stomps, all of their approval targeted at me. The applause would have sounded like a stampede if it hadn't been for the whistles and shouts of 'Yeah! Equestria forever!' I blinked, stunned at the vast amounts of love and approval pouring out of the audience. I wanted to cry, but I knew I couldn't and stayed composed. At least I hoped I stayed composed.

Then my eyes fell on my family sitting in the front row. My mom, Elegant Rose, held a tissue to her left eye, wiping away a tear as she watched me on the stage. His foreleg wrapped lovingly around her shoulder, my dad, Guardian Heart, smiled like any proud father should. My grandmother sat in her wheelchair, giving me a tired, but proud nod, while my brother, Golden Star, stood up and ‘whooped’ exuberantly while pumping his forehoof in the air. I couldn’t be any happier. Princess Luna had even personally given me my own set of Lunar Guard armor and a beautiful shield before the ceremony, thus welcoming me as a member of her royal guard, and, more personally, as her niece.

The icing on the cupcake? Silver Storm got caught cheating on her finals and was expelled!

I swept my gaze across the ceremony hall and noticed a yellow unicorn mare with pink and blue striped hair in the third row. I only noticed her above everypony else because she was eating a bucket of caramel coated popcorn and watching me intently. How did she sneak a snack into the graduation ceremony? Whatever. It didn’t matter.

After we received our diplomas and left the stage, I was immediately thrown into a tight bear hug by Golden Star. His forelegs wrapped around my shoulders, pinning my forelegs to my sides, he lifted me up and spun me around.

“I’m so proud of you, sis,” he said.

“Thanks, big bro, but can you put me down?” I laughed, and he complied only so my mother could pull me into an overly teary hug.

“I can’t believe my little girl is all grown up,” my mom cried as my dad tousled my mane.

“Congratulations, princess. We’re all really proud of you,” he told me with that proud smile and those soft brown eyes that only a truly loving father could give you.

“Excuse me, Rose, didn’t you want to give your children something?” Grandmother asked, her voice strong for her age and condition.

“Oh, right! Golden Star. Aria. There’s something I want to give you both,” Mom said as she pulled out two bracers, each with a precious gem set into the golden band, and held them out to us. “These are very special. My mother gave them to me, so I’m giving them to you. Since it’s your big day, Aria, why do you choose which one you want?”

“I like blue,” I said, instantly feeling a little childish for wording my desire for the bracer with the large sapphire in such an immature way.

“I’ll take the ruby then,” Golden Star said, taking the ruby bracer in his levitation aura and gently placing it on his right foreleg. Dad took the other and placed it on my foreleg.

“There you go. It looks great with your Lunar Guard armor,” he said, giving me a wink. I nodded before looking at the exit to our left. “Oh. Somepony’s anxious to leave and see her little coltfriend.”

“Yeah, what’s his name again? Rightbite?” Golden Star teased, and I punched him in the shoulder. “Ow!” he complained as he faked injury, and I gave him a playful grin.

“It’s Brightlight and you know it. He would have been here, but I got a message that Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle wanted to see him for an important meeting just before the ceremony. He said I should meet him at his office afterwards cause he’s got a surprise for me,” I told them, practically beaming, and saw my mom tearing up again. Why was she so teary today?

“Well then you should go see him. You two have fun, and be sure to be back home for your celebratory dinner tonight,” Dad told me, his voice stern, but I could tell it was mostly for show.
I nodded, throwing my hooves around all of them to take my family into a great big group hug, before trotting off to the side door. A gray unicorn in a poofy pink dress, her blue mane pulled back into a ponytail, held the door open for me.

“Thank you,” I told her as I trotted through the doorway, noticing that she looked vaguely familiar.

“Don’t mention it, Miss Aria,” she said before I left her behind and headed towards the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.

____________________________

I arrived at Brightlight’s office on the tenth floor in record time. I hardly remembered the elevator ride up, I was so excited to see what surprise Brightlight had for me. Although, thinking back, I don’t remember a purple unicorn in a suit, her amber hair cut short, being the elevator operator for the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. I guess she was a new hire.

As I reached the office door, I knocked and slowly opened it to look inside. His office was empty so I trotted over to his desk. Mounds of paperwork sat in the ‘In’ and ‘Out’ bins and his terminal was casting a soft green glow that was eaten up by the sunlight pouring through his open windows. Brightlight’s office had a breathtaking view of Canterlot, in particular, my home at the palace. The towers of Canterlot Castle were breathtaking as they shot up to reach the sky and gave Princess Luna a perfect vantage to survey her kingdom. Tomorrow I might be standing with the princess on one of those towers, keeping Equestria safe and discussing magic with my favorite aunt.

I noticed the picture of Brightlight and me from our date to the Ministry of Morale park in Fillydelphia over Hearth’s Warming Eve break had a yellow sticky note on it. Peeling it away, I couldn’t help smiling at the picture of the two of us, soaking wet, after the water flume ride; his steel gray eyes were wide as I kissed him on the cheek. I could still taste the water on his matted yellow coat as I thought back to that magical day.

“Meet me in the MAS parking garage. Third floor, Section 3-A. I’ll be waiting with a big surprise.”
In what felt like a flash, I was there, in Section 3-A of the MAS parking garage. Standing next to a beautiful gold sky chariot was Brightlight, looking amazingly handsome in a black suit that perfectly complemented his black mane. He smiled at me and chuckled as I gaped at the chariot behind him.

“Where did you get that chariot? How could you afford it?” I asked as I trotted up next to him.

“You look amazing in your armor as well,” he said sarcastically, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Congratulations, Arry.”

“Thank you,” I said, returning his kiss before it quickly devolved into a short, yet passionate make out session. Our tongues danced in each others mouths as he stroked my mane in just the right way that only he knew how to do. He was such a good kisser. Before either of us got any naughty ideas, we broke apart and I smiled gently. Then, catching him off guard, I punched him in the shoulder. “You still didn’t answer my question. How can you can’t afford this?”

“It’s kind of hard to answer your question when you shove your tongue into my mouth,” he countered before shaking his head and chuckling softly. “But I can afford it now. Miss Twilight Sparkle has asked me to be her right hoof stallion. I’ve been promoted to the second highest position in the Ministry.”

“Really!?” I cried as my jaw almost hit the floor.

“Really,” he said softly, his steel gray eyes as kind and reassuring as any good stallion’s should be. “And I’ve got something important to ask you.”

“What?” I asked as he knelt down before me. My eyes went wide, knowing exactly what was going to happen next. His horn lit up, and a small velvet case emerged from his pocket. He smiled, holding out the case to me, and slowly opened it to reveal the most lustrous diamond horn ring I had ever seen.

“Aria Rose, will you marry me?” he asked, and I could feel the tears pooling behind my eyelids. I nodded, almost too stunned to speak, before he slid the ring onto my horn. It fit perfectly.

“Of course I’ll marry you!” I cried, a little later than I should have, and pulled my new fiance into the biggest hug I could muster. “I love you, Brightlight.”

“I love you too, Aria. With all of my heart,” he whispered into my ear. “We’ll be together forever.”

I was standing in front of a grand doorway wearing the most luxurious and amazingly designed wedding dress I had ever seen. Apparently, Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle, who was one of the smartest mares I had ever met, had talked Ministry Mare Rarity into designing my dress. I had heard that Rarity had designed Princess Cadence’s wedding dress so that made my dress even more amazing.

“You ready, princess?” my dad asked as he stood next to me in a classy black coat and tails with a yellow tie that looked horrid against his brown coat. But it was mom’s favorite tie though so he had to wear it. I smiled up at him, not failing to notice that he looked just as nervous as me, and nodded.

“I am.”

“I love you, Aria,” he said before giving me a soft peck on the cheek.

“I love you too, daddy,” I replied just as the wedding march began to play. The doors opened, and we were walking down the aisle.

The sun was shining brightly, but it wasn’t too warm. The birds sang in tune with the band and made the most wonderful harmonies. I watched as my little niece, Melody, skipped happily down the aisle in front of us, spreading red rose petals at our hooves. I felt like crying as over one hundred sets of eyes suddenly turned towards my dad and me.

All of my friends and family were there, even Uncle Blueblood and Uncle Vanity, and I felt my smile widen as I saw Brightlight at the end of the red carpet. For some crazy reason, I had a nagging feeling that he would betray me and leave me at the altar, but that had just been just stupid. Brightlight was the best coltfriend ever, and he was going to be the best husband any mare could ever have.

I was even happier to see Golden Star standing next to him as his Best Stallion, and couldn’t help but chuckle as Melody rushed in my brother’s waiting hooves, her little teal wings flapping faster than a humminbird’s as she tried to fly over to him. He gave her a big hug, whispered something to her, and she buzzed off to stand at the base of the alter.
And there, standing regally between at the head of the alter, was Princess Luna, ready to officiate the ceremony. I was the happiest I had ever been. I looked over at my Mare-of-Honor and froze. Standing to Princess Luna’s right was a pony I didn’t know. Actually, it was a pony who couldn’t be there because this pony was not just a pony. This pony was an alicorn.

She was green and mauve. No... She was red with brown polka dots. Now she was white with stripes like a rainbow zebra. I watched, frozen in confusion, as her coloration and cutie mark constantly shifted before my eyes. The color shifting alicorn smiled, rolled her eyes, and shook her head.

“You’re a real piece of work right now, aren’t ya Miss Aria?” she asked, and I suddenly realized that everypony had stopped, not just me. The music had stopped playing, the birds had stopped chirping. Heck, even my dad had stopped walking mid stride.

“What is the meaning of this!?” I shouted, stomping my hoof in frustration. “Who are you? What have you done to Brightlight? You’re ruining my wedding!”

“Brightlight?” she asked, looking over at my soon to be husband and let out a low chuckle.

“Wait a minute... I know you! You’re that unicorn from the graduation ceremony! Both of them! What the hell? Why are you trying to ruin my life!?” I screamed as I rushed over to Brightlight, stroking his mane like he would stroke mine, but each follicle was hard to the touch. It was almost like trying to stroke a hedgehog’s quills. Everything about him was frozen, completely static and unmoving. “Who are you!?”

“I’m Psyche, Mistress of the Mind, and I’m here to help you,” she said sadly. “You need help, Miss Aria.”

“Why do you keep calling me ‘miss!?’ How is this helping!?” I gestured to the still and frozen world around me.

“Because this isn’t real, Miss Aria, and it just shows how messed up your mind has become in the past couple of days,” she said, pointing to Brightlight. “Don’t you see what’s wrong with him?”

“No! He’s perfect. Just the way he’s supposed to be,” I cooed, kissing him softly, but receiving no love or warmth in return.

“That’s the problem. For one thing, he doesn’t even look the same. You merged the real Brightlight with that Steel Ranger you’re crushing on.” She stomped her hoof, and suddenly two ponies were standing in front of me.

A white and black earth pony was standing next to a yellow and blue unicorn, the former’s body much more muscled and defined than the latter. I looked at the unicorn, who I remembered now was the real Brightlight, and rage started to build up within me. Memories of his betrayal flooded back to me, and I lashed out at him with the strongest lightning bolt I could muster. The blast of energy shattered my unfaithful ex-coltfriend and the rest of the world into a million tiny pieces that vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only the alicorn named Psyche and myself floating in that same stark white abyss that I had met Dream in.

“Where are we?” I asked, suddenly regaining conscious control of my thoughts and actions.

“This,” she said as dozens of hooves sprouted from all over her body and pointed out in every possible direction. “Is the Void Between Worlds.”

“The what?”

“Well, it doesn’t have a real name or anything, but Timestream calls it that. It’s kind of like the world between all other worlds. It’s a kind of limbo, I guess. You know, the world between the living and the dead?” she said, stroking her chin with one of her multitude of hooves while another scratched her ever changing mane. Purple, then gold, then blue and green, then... I had to stop focusing on her constantly changing color scheme, it was making me nauseous. “Do you understand?”

“Not really, but I’m guessing it’s some kind of pocket dimension or something along those lines?” I said before shaking my head and turning back on her. “And what do you mean I’m a piece of work!?”

“Miss Aria,” she said as her extra limbs evaporated into a pink mist, her voice heavy and her eyes half lidded with sadness. “You know you’re not doing well out there in the real world. You’re a pony from a prosperous time. A time period ravaged by war, but compared to the Wasteland it was a paradise.”

“So?” I said obstinately, not wanting to admit that I was hurting so badly inside.

“You have to admit you have a problem. You need help.”

“And what? You’re going to help me?” I asked, turning my head away from her, but still watching the color shifting alicorn through the corner of my eye.

“Nope.”

“Huh?”

“I said, ‘Nope.’ I’m not going to help you. At least, not directly.” She looked to her right and frowned. “But you have to admit you have a problem first.”

“And why aren’t you going to help me?” I asked as I watched her trot off towards oblivion.

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because you don’t trust me. You need help from a pony you can trust, and I’m not that pony yet,” she said, reaching her hoof into the void and touching an arrow that appeared out of nothingness. “And it’s against the rules to help you directly. We Eternals gotta be all mysterious and junk.”

“Why?” I asked as the world around us started to flip through images from the world I had just been in like the worlds largest slideshow of my emotional and psychological issues.

“We’re gods, that’s how we roll,” she answered in such a flippant manner that I couldn’t tell if she was serious or not. The flashing images stopped on me at the graduation, giving my speech to the crowd. “Okay, here’s where your dream starts.”

“My dream? That was a dream? It wasn’t some vision of an alternate world that could have been?” I asked, smiling as I tried to coax a better answer out of the ‘Mistress of the Mind.’

“Nope. Just your slowly cracking mind trying to create a false world for you to take comfort in. It was just a dream that would have ended when you woke up, but dreams are a good way for us to see some of your underlying problems,” she said before gesturing to my mom and dad in the audience. “Like this for instance. You’re mom’s alive and you’ve made the pony from the vision my dad showed you yesterday into your dad.”

“Your dad? Dream’s your dad?” I asked.

“Of course he’s my dad. You got a problem with that?” she asked, her eyes suddenly changing to a dark red that should have warned me to tread lightly. I, being the socially stupid pony that I am, did not take the hint.

“Well, he just doesn’t seem the... fatherly sort.”

Big mistake.

Psyche literally burst with rage, her mane and tail becoming an inferno of orange and red flames. Even her eyes seemed to be on fire as her wings flapped and accosted me with wave after wave of intense heat.

“Take that back! Dream’s the best father in the world! No! The universe! Shut up! What would you know about dads anyway!?” she screamed, but a buck to the chest would have been less painful. I turned away, gazing at the stallion in the front row with such longing, and felt the tears already flowing down my face. Psyche blinked and her fire suddenly went out in a puff of purple and gold polka dotted smoke. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I lost my head. I-I shouldn’t have said that, Miss Aria. It was mean and stupid and...”

“Right,” I said sadly. She was right. I shouldn’t judge a pony’s parenting skills or appearance. I didn’t have parents. But as I looked at the brown and blue stallion holding the mother I had never known, I so desperately wanted to have them. This had been a dream, a very good dream, but like all dreams it came to an end. “So what problem does this symbolize?”

“For me, the whole reason I shouldn’t be a psychiatrist. I’m too tapped into the collective pony psyche to ever be rational enough to give a pony the therapy they need. I can read minds, but I can’t be truly empathetic because I’ve got too many pony’s emotions in me to begin with.” I turned to the goddess standing next to me and sniffed against the tears in an attempt to restore the dam that held them back. “Oh, but on you it shows that you have some serious mother and father issues, which should be obvious, but it also shows that you have some inferiority issues that are manifesting as vanity to compensate.”

“Where did you get that from me wanting parents?” I asked.

“Oh, this has nothing to do with your parents. This has everything to do with the fact that you’re wearing your Lunar Guard armor so everypony knows you’re in Luna’s guard without Princess Luna actually appearing to upstage you. Also Silver Storm is nowhere to be found. It’s all about you. It’s just something your subconscious wants so desperately.”

“Am I really like that?” I asked, suddenly feeling very hollow inside. Deep down, I knew that what she was saying had a hint of truth to it. I felt amazed and powerful and moved when I saw the tribute to me in Stable Sixty-Three’s museum. I even felt hurt when everypony treated me not with the reverence that Melody showed me, but with fear and doubt. But was I really that petty?

“We all have parts of ourselves that we don’t like. We have to face them, accept that they are a part of ourselves, and strive to become better. That’s how we become stronger,” Psyche said as she put her hoof around me... Her fifth hoof... Is it considered bad manners to shrug off a goddess’ extra appendages? “You spent your whole life being told you were lesser because of the circumstances of your birth. It’s only natural to want something more and to be treated better.”

“So what else is wrong with me?”

“Well, the fact that you were marrying an amalgam of your cheating ex-boyfriend and a guy you just met shows that you have feelings for both ponies, although you’re still can’t figure them out, and you’re not very mature when it comes to relationships.”

“Ouch.”

“It looks like you probably still love Brightlight even though he hurt you so badly and he’s long dead. But you probably have feelings for Shadowbuck, but the main problem with that is that you don’t know if you can trust him after what Cherry Scones did to you. Add to the list of problems that you really don’t know if you're just throwing yourself at the first buck to show any interest in you as a subconscious way to get back at your cheating ex or if you actually like him and you’ve got some serious relationship issues going on here.”

“Buck isn’t a synonym for stallion,” I said dryly. Psyche turned on me, her stern, ever shifting face suddenly melting, literally, and transforming into a shining grin, complete with a cartoonish twinkle of light off her sparkling white teeth.

“That’s the Miss Aria I know and love. Come on, let’s get a smile.” I didn’t feel like smiling, but the more I frowned, the larger her smile grew.

“No.”

“Please!” she pleaded as her smile stretched her face out to almost comical proportions.

“No!”

“Pleeeeeease!” Her smile grew even larger as her coat turned bright pink and her mane became a darker shade of pink and a mess of poofy curls; she looked the spitting image of Ministry Mare Pinkie Pie. A sudden burst of confetti as trumpets blared was my only warning that Psyche’s madness had left her head and entered the Void Between Worlds.

My eyes widened in shock as her grin burst out of her face and continued stretching outwards and upwards. Her mouth kept growing, larger and larger, until it had completely covered her face. Then her body. I was forced to back away and watch as the towering teeth climbed higher into the unending white void above us. Then the grinning crescent of enamel and lips five times the size of the Five Card Stud’s house stopped their expansion and loomed over me.

I felt like my brain had stopped working as it tried to comprehend the madness presented before me. On top of the smile, Psyche looked down at me, her coat now a light purple while her mane was a bright pink, and she waved.

“Sorry, I hate when that happens. It always feels like copyright infringement,” Psyche said through her giant talking mouth. My eye twitched and I cringed as my mane was blown back by the humid bursts of wind generated by her words.

Then I watched, in stupefied silence, as Psyche leapt off the ridge of her own lips, a rope tied to a harness around her barrel, and began repelling down the face of her front teeth. Why she didn’t just use her wings, I don’t know, but this was perhaps the most surreal thing I had ever seen in my life.

Until a dial appeared on the surface of her right incisor and a stethoscope appeared around her neck in a vibrant green cloud of smoke that almost instantly dissipated. That topped everything. I was watching a technicolor alicorn cracking a safe in her own teeth in her mouth that had grown to the size of a ten story building.

For a few silent moments, I watched Psyche work on her own safe, which in itself didn’t make sense because why wouldn’t she know her own safe combination, until a click resounded throughout the Void. The smile parted and my heart dropped.

“HOORAY!” she shouted, unleashing a hurricane gale of pony breath. I tried to brace myself against the force of the hot, moist blast, my hooves unable to hold on to anything in the nothingness around me, and I was sent flying.
End over end I was sent tumbling through nothingness, praying that I would wake up. But like every nightmare that you become aware of its state as a dream, the fact that I couldn’t open my eyes made it all the more terrifying. I flew, spinning wildly, and felt like vomiting again, but, mercifully, my stomach was running on empty.

Did I really have a stomach here? I doubted I just disappeared from the boat and appeared here. Both times I had come to the Void Between Worlds it had been when I was asleep. How the hell did I know if any of this was real or not?

My spin started to slow and I realized that I wasn’t alone. Soaring gracefully beside me, doing a backstroke through the air, was Psyche, her ever changing coat not helping with my nausea.

“Help me!” I screamed. The Mental Mistress (with emphasis on the ‘mental’ part) suddenly realized I couldn’t fly like her and grinned. She disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke that smelled like cupcakes and poofed back into existence ahead of me in a poof of green smoke that smelled of pine trees.

“Gotcha!” she cried as she scooped me up into her hooves, giggling wildly while swinging me round and round like Golden Star had done when I was a filly. After a few rotations, she set me down on the invisible ground and I staggered back and forth, trying to find my balance. If the world had had any distinguishing features, I was pretty sure they would have been spinning.

“Why did you do that?” I asked as I stumbled around the Void.

“Because you asked for help, silly,” she giggled.

“No! I meant get something out of a safe in your teeth!” Wow! I never thought I’d ever say that sentence in my entire life.

“Because I needed to get this to help you,” she replied, pulling a little orange prescription bottle out of thin air. I blinked, trying to get my eyes to focus, and saw one word written on the bottle.

Sertraline.

“What’s this?” I asked, completely unfamiliar with what kind of medicine this was.

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

“Why are you helping me? How do I even know you’re real and not just more of me going crazy?” I asked, taking the bottle from her and inspecting it. Hey, at least my magic worked here.

“You don’t. You just gotta have faith. That’s us gods bread and butter, ya know?”

“That still doesn’t answer my question, Psyche. Why are you and Dream helping me?” I asked, tossing the pill bottle away and was shocked as it exploded into a puff of gingerbread scented smoke.

“Because Dad, Death, and me wanna help you stop Voidheart and-”

“Psyche! Enough!” a familiar feminine voice cried out from somewhere in the Void.

“Oh! Jeez! Spoilers, right. Sorry, Death!” Psyche answered.

“Wait! That was Death!? Death is a mare!?” I asked, but Psyche just smiled at me. Thankfully, this time, it was a normal smile and her features became very similar to Melody’s.

“Hey Aria, Shadow says we’re almost there. Time to wake up,” she said in Melody’s gentle voice.

“Huh?” I asked, but Psyche’s form dissolved into nothingness before my eyes and the Void between worlds was replaced by darkness. And for the briefest moment, faster than a flash of lightning, I saw an image of a stallion with a long black mane, his face turned away from me, and a crack like a branch being snapped in two echoed across the shadowscape.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

“Wake up, sleepy head. We need to get your armor back on,” Melody said, almost singing as my eyes fluttered open.

“Ugh. Where is she?” I mumbled before realizing I was awake again.

“Who? Who are you looking for?”

“Huh? Nothing. Just... just a really weird dream,” I said.

“Okay, Aria. Let’s get our armor on. Shadowbuck said we’re almost at the Ministry Hub.” She then pulled me out of bed and over to our equipment piled as neatly as possible near the bathroom.

“Yeah. The Ministry Hub,” I replied, still trying to process my crazy dream and my celestial visitation. Had it really happened or was I still going crazy? If I really thought about it, I could have typed the ‘prophecy’ into my PipBuck and my crazy brain had made me forget. But then why would my hallucinations be trying to help me? Were they? “Ugh. Why does everything have to be so confusing.”

“Really?” Melody asked as she continued helping me put on my armor. She was almost done and I hadn’t even realized we had begun. If it wasn’t normal for me to get severely lost in thought, I would have counted that as a sign of my impending insanity. Or maybe I had already been insane and the Wasteland was just pushing me across the line between genius and insanity.

“Damn it! I am vain! Psyche was right... if she even exists!” I shouted at myself, cursing the craziness that my life had become. Well, if I’m going nuts, then I better listen to my imaginary goddess and find the pony I can trust who will help me.

“There we go, all finished,” Melody said, giving me a bright smile. “Feeling any better?”

“I guess,” I lied. In truth, my mind was still just as frazzled and my body, although a bit more rested, was still feeling sluggish.

“That’s good,” she told me as she slung my sword and Ripper onto my shoulders. “You just needed some sleep. You had a really bad day. We’ll save Gigaton, be heroes, and then get the rest we need, okay?”

“I think you just want your private time with Compass,” I joked half heartedly.

“Wouldn’t you? After almost dying like that, I really could use a little stress relieving fun.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I replied, my face burning like usual when the topic of sex came up. Was I really missing that much? Was sex really that good and that important that somepony would throw a pony they supposedly cared about away for an easier route to it?

“Oh! I’m sorry. I forgot,” Melody said bashfully as she fastened my shield to my back. There was a few moments of awkward silence before she patted my back and coughed. “Don’t worry, Aria. I’m sure there’s a buck out there for you somewhere.”

I looked at her, seeing the nervousness in her eyes, and sighed.

“Buck is not... You know what? Nevermind. What are you hiding?” I asked, leveling my gaze at her.

“Nothing! I-It’s nothing. Come on, Shadowbuck, Compass, and that Queen’s Court guy are waiting outside,” she said defensively before quickly opening the door and hurrying out. What was she hiding? What else could I do but follow her out onto the deck?

“Melody! Wait up! You’re-Woah!” I called out as I accidently charged out the door right into the purple earth pony herald from earlier. He fell to the floor, his green eyes staring up at me in disbelief for a moment before they suddenly widened with fright. “Oh! Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Oh no! It is I who should be apologizing to you, Princess Aria,” the Queen’s pony apologized as I helped him back to his hooves. “I should not have been in your way. You are descended from royalty while I am but a mere servant. Please, punish me as you see fit.”

“Please don’t call me princess,” I said, more ashamed than angry. This pony was absolutely afraid of me because he thought I was a princess. What did Cadence do to her servants to make them this afraid of offending the ‘royals’ of her court? “And it was my fault. I should have been more careful and watched what I was doing.”

“No! Please do not trouble yourself with me, my lady. I am but my Queen’s humble servant and, until this mission is over, yours as well, Princess Aria.”

“You’re not gonna budge on this, are you?” I asked. He shook his head, and I sighed. “Alright then. The faster we get the job done, the faster you can stop calling me princess.”

“As you wish, princess. Allow me to lead the way, princess.” And with that, he bowed before ascending the steps to the upper deck of the ship.

That was going to get really old, really fast.

“So what’s your name?” I asked, trying to at least be cordial to my temporary companion in the purple tunic.

“I am Brass Bugle, my lady,” he said as he opened the door at the top of the stairs, stepping aside to let me through first.

“Thank you, Brass Bugle,” I said as politely as I could and stepped out onto the deck. We were moored at a small, rickety looking dock near a massive complex. “Is that the Ministry Hub?”

“Hey everypony! It’s the mighty Nightmare Knight up from her nap,” Bulletstorm laughed from the bridge above us.

“Shut up, Bulletstorm!” I shouted, getting a few snickers and guffaws from the Knights flanking him.

“What does he mean ‘Nightmare Knight,’ Shadow?” Melody asked my Steel Ranger ‘friend.’ At least she, Compass, and Shadowbuck were waiting at the top of the ramp onto the dock, and they all seemed ready to go.

“Hold a moment, please. Princess Aria is the Nightmare Knight from Howling Buck’s broadcast?” Brass Bugle asked.

“What is this Nightmare Knight cud?” I spat, turning to Brass Bugle with a snarl. “Who is Howling Buck, and why is he calling me Nightmare Knight?”

“The local radio DJ. He maintains the big broadcasting tower for DJ Pon3 and handles the news breaks during the day,” Shadowbuck answered. “But since it’s night time, DJ Pon3 will be doing the news breaks. The time difference between here and Manehatten is pretty severe. It’s almost noon in mainland Equestria.”

“Vinyl Scratch is still alive? Is she a ghoulie like Ditsy Doo and Brownstone?” I asked. Could the ‘Queen of the Wartime Equestrian Nightlife’ really still be alive?

“She? DJ Pon3 is a buc-er-stallion. Last I heard, at least,” Shadowbuck said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. At least he was learning. “Who’s Vinyl Scratch?”

“So maybe he’s one of her ancestors. That would make sense. A radio DJ reporting the news would not be her usual modus operandi,” I mused until I noticed their stares. “Sorry. Just thinking out loud. But what’s this Nightmare Knight stuff?”

“Just another heroic handle. DJ Pon3 and Howling Buck always give ponies he deems to be ‘fighting the good fight’ a nickname of some sort,” Brass Bugle said. “I think it’s rather appropriate since you wear the armor of Princess Luna’s Lunar Guard.”

“Nightmare Knight? But that would... Princess Luna was not Nightmare Moon! They were different! She was...”

“She was what? You act as if you knew her personally.” Oh crap! I let my big mouth get the better of me.

“Yeah, um, I just remember her being kind and noble to super Great Aunt Aria. She’s... she wasn’t a monster.” Please believe that. Please.

“Yes. Princess Luna was a kind and noble monarch,” he said with a smile. Brass Bugle looked up at the ship’s ‘captain’ expectantly. “Are we clear to leave on the mission? I have my badge and your ‘special operations team’ seems ready to go.”

“Alright, Mr. Hoity Toity. You five roll out and get this done. We’ll be waiting for you here so we can take you back to Gigaton when you're finished. Got it?” Bulletstorm ordered.

“You can count on us!” a knight, a mare by the sound of her voice, said enthusiastically as she gave us a salute.

“Look at you, Bulletstorm, acting like a real leader pony. We know what we gotta do. You do your job, and we’ll do ours,” Shadowbuck replied with a chuckle. “We’ll see you when we have the mission objectives and save the day. Then we’ll get drinks at Moorheart’s to celebrate.”

“You’re offering, so you’re buying,” Bulletstorm laughed.

“You make sure the boat’s here when we get back, and it’s a deal.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get your ass in gear, Shadowbuck. I don’t wanna be sitting here all night with my hoof up my rump. Got it?”

“Got it, Bulletstorm. You’re sounding more and more like a leader already. Star Paladin Buzzsaw better watch himself. You’re gonna give him a run for his money some day,” Shadow said with a smirk before turning to me. “Ready, Aria?”

“Yeah.” I walked up next to him as Compass started slowly descending the gang plank with Melody hovering next to him for support. “Bulletstorm sure is... eloquent. How do you put up with it?”

“Like I said, we all have our ways to deal. Making really inappropriate remarks is his way of joking around. He’s like the little brother I never had,” Shadow joked.

“He’s twice your size.”

“Every stallion in the Steel Rangers is. I’m Stealth Ops. I’m practically the only sneaky Steel Ranger there is. That’s why I’m in the Brotherhood like my dad,” Shadow explained as Compass dismounted at the dock and started making his way to the shore. As Brass Bugle began to follow his lead, Shadow blew his mane off his brow. “Plus, he’s four years younger than me. He’s only seventeen.”

“What? He’s my age?”

“No. If I remember correctly, you turn seventeen in three days, right?”

“Right,” I said, mildly ecstatic at the fact that Shadow had remembered my birthday was coming up. “So you’re twenty-one then?”

“Yep. Although I hear Stable ponies make a big deal about it. Throwing parties and junk.” Brass Bugle made it to the end of the gang plank and it was now one of our turns. Shadow smiled, bowed in an over exaggerated fashion, and donned a horrible impression of Brass Bugle. “After you, mi’lady.”

“You’re just loving this, aren’t you? I grumbled as I started to descend to the dock.

“You know it.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Hey! I have a lot of courage!” Shadow replied.

“Shadow...” I looked back up the gangplank to see him smiling at me.

“Gotcha, egghead.”

“You got me,” I laughed.

“Come on, Aria. Let’s get going,” Shadow said as we started to walk down the dock to meet the others. “Hey, Queenie, lead the way with that badge of yours, will ya?”

“My name is Brass Bugle, good sir. I would hope you would show me the respect to remember it,” our Queen’s Court escort replied, a bit of animosity that hadn’t been there before tinging his every word. Shadow and Brass Bugle had only spoken two sentences to each other and I could already feel the tension between them. Why did the Queen’s Court and the Steel Rangers hate each other that much? Was the indentured servitude/slavery practices that repugnant to the Rangers? And why did the Court hate them back?

Was it weird that I was actually pining for the simple indifference of the nobles of Canterlot?

“Can we just go please?” Compass asked meekly.

“Yes. That would be prudent,” Brass Bugle said before turning to lead us down the dock and to the road proper.

“Yeah. Whatever.”

In some strange sign of passive aggressiveness, Shadow shoved his helmet onto his head so hard I thought he would jam his neck or smash a few vertebrae together. Whether he did or not, I couldn’t tell, but it was an extremely foalish reaction.

“Stallions,” Melody huffed with an annoyed roll of her eyes before smiling at Compass. “But not you. You’ve got a brain between your ears. It’s almost like you’re half mare... except in the parts that really count.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled back. I don’t know if Compass was offended or took Melody’s ‘joke’ as a compliment, but he didn’t seem angry. If I hadn’t almost seen it, I would have wondered if he had any stallionhood... And from the way Melody talked, perhaps that was the only part of him that wasn’t meek...

Okay! Bad thoughts! Get out of here!

I quickly took those thoughts and imagined myself throwing them into the Void Between Worlds. Hopefully, they wouldn’t find me for a while and... that didn’t last long.

“I have to distract myself. Take in the sights.”

Okay, while they were distracting, the sights of the riverfront were utterly depressing.

To my left, standing at a modest, yet partially collapsed two stories, was a small waterfront estate. In its heyday it had probably been a noblepony’s riverfront home, the broken statues of what I assumed were dragons on the front doorstep were a dead giveaway of opulence and wealth. I would bet my five hundred caps that the dock had been where the rich aristocrat moored his or her pleasure yacht.

With the exception of a large hole in the western corner of the roof and some wear and tear, the house was actually in decent condition. Like many of the buildings in the Trottingham Ruins, it was almost completely random chance that decided if a tower or structure would collapse or be almost untouched by time. However, if I could tell that a pony of position had once owned that vacation home, then raiders and scavengers had probably already figured that out to and robbed the place blind.

It really made you wonder what happened to the original owners. Did they make it down into a Stable and live out the rest of their lives underground? Did they end up in Stable Sixty-Two and get incinerated by balefire when they believed themselves safe? Now that I think about it, didn’t Stable-Tec say their Stables could take a direct balefire blast? I guess that claim was either hopeful thinking, false advertising, or maybe just a horrible stroke of luck for the ponies of the destroyed Trottingham Stable.

But as my eyes passed over the features of the house I noticed a red curtain flapping in the breeze. Since the glass had been blown out ages ago, the curtain attracted my eye like a matador’s cape did to a raging bull. And, for the briefest of moments, I could have sworn I saw a mare standing in one of the windows, watching us. But in the blink of an eye she was gone, like the many ghosts of the past that seemed to haunt me.

It reminded me that most ponies didn’t make it into Stables. There had been a lottery for most positions in the underground shelters. Most likely the owners of this riverside manse had died slow, painful deaths due to radiation sickness.

That would be the most horrible way to go. Eaten away, your body slowly giving out as cancerous tumors formed and consumed your organs, your blood boiled. Then losing control of your bodily functions and dying as a mixture of blood, vomit, and stool vacated your body along with some of your internal organs. I shuddered at the thought.

Now I needed a distraction from my distraction.

Turning my attentions to my right, I was greeted with a tall, unassuming office building except for a few key points. It was a tall, grayish brown ten story building with rows upon rows of empty windows. Three symbols were engraved on the concrete overhang above the main entrance, three diamonds, three balloons, and a lightning bolt. Above them were in dark blue letters was the word ‘MAMI.’ Ss I continued to peer up the side of the building, hoping I wouldn’t see another figure in a window, I spotted the corner of a large, dark pink on bright pink cloth that folded at one point to take on the appearance of an ear.

I knew what was on the roof of the ‘MAMI’ building. I actually knew them quite well from my trip with Golden Star to Manehatten on my thirteenth birthday; there had to be a deflated Pinkie Pie balloon on the roof. That could only make this building the other joint Ministry hub.

“Why does it say ‘MAMI?’ Compass asked me.

“Huh? I don’t... Maybe it means “Ministries of Awesome, Morale, and Image? Cause it’s their hub?” I guessed, getting an approving smile from Shadowbuck.

“Yep, nail on the head, Aria.”

“I’m glad they didn’t call it the Ministries of Awesome, Image, and Morale Hub. ‘MAIM’ doesn’t sound all that nice,” Melody added before snorting to herself, amused. “Welcome to ‘MAIM.’ That would have been bad for business.”

“Public relations and appearances were what Ministry Mare Rarity did best. She made sure everything in the public eye was up to the standards of pony kind and no unsuitable messages or lies bothered the public,” I said plainly.

“So Image was essentially the Ministry of Propaganda,” Shadowbuck replied.

“Propaganda!? Princess Luna would never condone propaganda! Everything that came out of the Ministry of Image was the truth!” I retorted, slightly offended that Shadowbuck would even insinuate that Ministry Mare Rarity would stoop to the level of the vile, lie spewing zebra.

“Like how all zebra are evil vampire monsters, and all ponies are good?”

“Yes! I-”

“You know, Tekash is an awesome buck, zebra or not, and I’ve had to put down some heinous excuses for ponies in my time. Nothing is as black and white as a zebra’s stripes except for said zebra stripes, Aria,” Shadow interrupted, quickly pointing a hoof at me as we walked. “Check’s right, you’ve gotta get some serious deprogramming.”

“Zebras are vile creatures. Princess Aria has every right to hate them,” Brass Bugle responded. “Queen Cadence would see them all wiped out if she could, but they tend to congregate either in Gigaton or the less irradiated sections of the Trottingham Forest. Filthy savages.”

“You don’t want to be an uncaring bigot who hates zebras, griffons, and any other non-pony just because they’re different, do you Aria? I know you’re better than that. You’re too nice to just hate zebras for no reason,” Shadow chided me, and I felt my ears fall back under the weight of his verbal onslaught.

“The plural of zebra is zebra,” I said meekly, suddenly feeling the wind taken out of my sails. I knew I was right. Zebrakind was a twisted and evil race that stood for everything that ponies were against. I’d been taught that my entire life. Maybe this Tekash was the exception that proved the rule? Why else would seemingly smart and street savvy ponies like Shadowbuck and Check like him so much as to defend his entire cursed race? “Can we talk about something different?”

“Like what?” Melody asked as she hovered a few inches off the ground, checking her equipment as the rest of us earthbound ponies had to focus our hooves on walking.

“Like the queen?” That perked Brass Bugle right up, but also got a scowl out of Shadowbuck. You know what? I actually liked his cocky smile better than his scowl. I know it should be a no brainer, but I didn’t think anything could top that snide grin in its annoyance factor.

“What would you like to know, Princess Aria?” Okay, that was actually pretty fudging annoying too.

“I noticed how strikingly similar Princess Cadence, the ruler of the Crystal Empire, and Queen Cadence were in appearance and name. Are they related? They have to be. It’s too close to be a coincidence.”

“Ah, yes. You have a good eye. But how do you know what Princess Cadence looked like?”

“We have a painting in Stable Sixty-Three!” Melody interrupted before I could even think of a lie.

“Thanks for the save, Mel.”

“Really? That is amazing! We might have to buy such a portrait from your Stable. Now then,” Brass Bugle said clearing his throat. “Yes. Queen Cadence and the previous queens have all been descended from Princess Cadence.”

“Then where is Princess Cadence? She was an alicorn after all. She’s immortal,” I asked. Brass Bugle’s eyes lowered to the crack cobblestone roads, and he sighed.

“That, my dear, is a sad tale. When the bombs fell, Princess Cadence and her daughter, Princess Skyla, were living at Trottingham Castle. They were in the market district when the balefire bomb went off north of the city. Princess Cadence used her magic to protect her daughter and was able to make it to Stable Sixty-Four under the castle, but...”

“But?” Compass asked.

“But by the time they were safely inside, the radiation had taken its toll. Princess Cadence couldn’t be saved. They say that the radiation exposure was so severe that her wings melted off.”

“What!?” Melody shouted and wrapped herself in a tight embrace with her wings. “That’s possible?”

“Possibly. It happened almost two hundred years ago so I wasn’t even born then.”

“And what happened to Princess Skyla? She was an alicorn too,” I asked.

“There was an accident a few days before Stable Sixty-Four opened. There was an explosion in the maintenance tunnels and the entire area caved in. She was down there using her magic to repair our water talisman. Princess Skyla and the technicians were killed. That is why Queen Cadence, her great great great granddaughter and our ruler’s grandmother, took the title of ‘queen’ and decided to open the Stable.” He paused for a moment, his voice heavy with sadness. “The Stable became a reminder of how much we lost to her.”

“That’s so sad,” Melody whimpered, pulling Compass into a flying hug that made it hard for him to walk.

“But why was Princess Cadence and Princess Skyla in Trottingham instead of the Crystal Empire? They had their own kingdom. And where was Prince Shining Armor?” I asked.

“That’s simple. The Crystal Empire fell to darkness because of Princess Cadence’s actions. After what happened to her husband, I could see why it fell.”

“It fell? What happened to the Crystal Empire? What happened to Captain Shining Armor?” I asked, really wanting to know what had happened to the royal family of the Crystal Empire.

“Oh! Prince Shining Armor was travelling by ship to a diplomatic meeting between the Zebra Empire and the Crystal Empire when-”

BZZAP!

A bolt of green energy whizzed through the air, striking Brass Bugle in the face and we watched in horror as his form suddenly liquified into a puddle of glowing green goo. Beyond where the royal servant had been standing only a split second before, I could see a green Mr. Gutsy robot floating down the street. The magically powered piece of technology was essentially a hovering orb covered in mechanical arms that each held a powerful weapon. This model had three arms, one with a plasma pistol, its barrel smoking from the discharge, one with a miniature flamethrower, and the third with a Ripper.

“Shit! What’s that thing doing in the street!? We haven’t reached the Ministry Hub yet!” Shadowbuck shouted before grabbing my mane in his teeth and pulling me behind a marquee at a bus stop that proudly displayed Fluttershy drinking a bottle of Sparkle Cola, the yellow pegasus mare giving the world a faded nervous smile as she sipped the dark beverage through a straw.

“Halt! Please identify yourself or be vaporized!” the robot announced as he opened fire on Melody, literally. A deluge of orange flames poured out of the Mr. Gutsy’s flamethrower and Melody screamed, darting upward into the air.

“Melody! Get to cover!” Compass shouted, instantly realizing his mistake and I watched as the rogue robot turned its plasma pistol on our completely defenseless medical pony.

“No!” I shouted, trying to pour a lightning bolt through my horn, but only received a stabbing pain and another useless spark as my reward. Holding my head, I hit the pavement. The green energy blast shot wide, barely missing as it arch over Compass’ shoulder, and he dove for cover behind a tipped over trashcan. Naturally, the flimsy metal barrier took one shot before it melted into a very similar pile of emerald goo.

Pfft. Pftt.

Two sniper rifle rounds ripped into the Mr. Gutsy as Shadowbuck planted two shots into the painted white star on it’s dark green casing. The three armed monstrosity of science and magic sparked and sputtered for a moment, before it turned away from Compass as he cowered behind the remains of his cover and leveled the flamethrower on us.

“Leave them alone!” Melody screamed as she unleashed an aerial barrage of scarlet energy pistol fury that peppered the robots hull and sent it into convulsions.

“Halt!. Ha-Ha-Halt. Haaaaa...” the Mr. Gutsy sputtered, sparks flying from the holes in its frame, before its three glowing eyes dimmed and it collapsed to the ground in a crash of twisted metal. With a hiss and a whine, the Mr. Gutsy ceased functioning.

“Come on! We gotta hurry! We’ve got thirty seconds before the repair talisman fixes that thing and we’ve gotta fight it all over again! Aria, grab Brass Bugle’s badge!” Shadow ordered as he reloaded his rifle, which I now realized was not his original gun, but the magically enchanted rifle Ace had been using, and trained it on the malfunctioning security robot.

“What!?” I shouted, turning my attention to the pile of goo that had just seconds before been a purple earth pony and spotted the badge lying on the ground next to it. I darted over to the monster repelling badge and scooped it up in my mouth, tasting something salty that I hoped wasn’t Brass Bugle goo, and turned to follow my friends to safety.

“Hold on, I’ve got this!” Melody shouted as she swooped down, a screwdriver in her mouth, and she deftly removed a panel from the back of robot far faster than I would have thought possible for a non-unicorn.

“What are you doing, Melody! It-” Shadowbuck shouted, but that was all the time Melody needed. Transferring the screwdriver to her left wing, Melody wrenched a glowing yellow repair talisman out of the Mr. Gutsy in a shower of sparks that caused her remaining hair to stand on end, and the faint whirring inside the robot ceased. “Woah. Did you know you could do that?”

“Nope. But it’s simple arcano tech. The big glowing talisman is usually the most important part in arcano technological devices. It’s a major design flaw, really,” she replied as she stowed the no longer glowing talisman in her saddle bags while I did the same for the Queen’s Court badge. “We could strip this bad boy for some serious parts. I’m pretty sure the ammo from the pistol is compatible with mine.”

“Melody! You’re amazing!” Compass shouted as he raced over to us..

“Are you alright, Compass? It didn’t hit you, did it?”

“No. I’m fine. Are you okay? The fire-”

“Didn’t get me. I’m fine. Shadow, what do you want to do now? If the robots are shooting before Aria can talk to them, does that make the plan a bust?” Melody asked after quickly dismissing Compass’ worrisome question. She knelt down by the robot and started stripping it of parts. Apparently the weapons wouldn’t be useable by any non-unicorn ponies, but their ammo could be taken along with the spark batteries. At least that was something.

“I’ve never seen the bots leave the courtyard. Maybe that one malfunctioned or something. Let’s try to stick to the plan and hope the other security mechs are still in the ask questions before shooting mood instead of the other way around,” Shadow said, a dissatisfied frown on his face as he looked down at the goopy remains of Brass Bugle. “I really hope the mission didn’t just get shot to hell... literally.”

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” I said somberly, nodding towards our short time companion’s ‘body’ as a sign of respect. “Sorry, Brass Bugle.”

“Yeah, sorry. You almost finished with that, Mels?”

“Just let me pull some of this scrap metal and we’re good to go. This armor plating might make a nice upgrade for my reinforced barding if I can get enough of it. It’s light, yet sturdier than the ceramic plates in my current armor,” Melody said, more to herself than us. When she had finally stripped the Mr. Gutsy robot clean, she stood up and grinned at us. “Ready when you are, fearless leaders.”

“Then let’s roll, but let’s be extra quiet and on guard for anything,” Shadow ordered. We all nodded in agreement before slowly and silently following him down the street, hugging any cover we could as we snuck down the street. We still had the badge, so all we needed to worry about were the robots possibly coming out of the MASPWT Hub courtyard again.

But sneaking sure was torture. My every muscle was wound up tighter than a guitar string on the verge of popping. Seeing Brass Bugle vaporized in front of my very eyes had set me on edge, and the sudden demand to be slow and deliberate was causing my mind to scream. The cold flow of adrenaline flowing through me like a torrent of white water rapids screamed for me to either fight something or run, not slowly sneak towards my impending death.

Clank.

I leapt a good foot off the ground, spinning around in mid air, and reflexively tried to fire off a lightning bolt. Nothing happened except another sharp pain arching across my temples, but the only attacker behind us was Compass blushing as I realized he had accidentally kicked a crumpled up tin can. Melody, almost silent as she hovered a few inches off the ground, frowned at her coltfriend and put her hoof to her lips as she shushed him.

“Sorry,” he whispered, eliciting a shush from all three of us. Melody had her flight, I was pretty good at sneaking around, years of being a background pony in Canterlot Castle were finally paying off, and Shadowbuck was a master at the art of stealth. But Compass, no matter how deft he was at surgery and medicine, seemed to be all left hooves when it came to trying to be sneaky.

Returning to our ‘silent’ prowl through the streets of Trottingham, my head pounding from twice trying to use magic too strong for my burned out horn to handle, I was trying to stay vigilant for any other possible signs of an impending attack. My ears twitched, trying desperately to hear anything beside Compass’ hoofbeats or Melody’s wings, and my eyes scanned the ruins and my E.F.S. like mad. But all I saw as I scanned back and forth were two yellow bars.

Wait!? Two yellow bars?

As I looked to my right at Melody, a bar appeared. The same thing happened when I looked at Compass, who seemed to pale when I looked back at him again. But when I looked forward at Shadow as he took point, no bar appeared on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. His suit wasn’t active, I could still see him, so how was my Pipbuck’s tracking spell unable to see him?

At every corner we stopped to check the intersection for any signs of danger. However, almost every intersection was blocked by rubble. The only intersection that had been clear was the first one about five blocks from the river.
We finally arrived at a large building surrounded by a small retaining wall. We ducked low, Shadowbuck almost having to crawl to hide behind it. Shadow peered around the corner into the Ministry Hub courtyard and hissed.

“Crap. There’s at least ten bots in there. Four Gutsy models, four protectrons, and two sentries. Not good. Aria, you’re the only one who can get us through.” He sighed. “Are you ready?”

Was I ready to put my life on the line? Was I ready to most likely get vaporized if Cherry Scones, the pony who had ripped through my mind on a whim, and her plan was wrong? I took a deep breath, trying to calm my jittery mind and nervously shaking hooves, and smiled. I might as well appear confident even though I was feeling half dead on the inside already.

“Yeah.” Swallowing hard, I walked around the corner, each step feeling like a mile, just as an eleventh robot, another sentry that looked like a metal pony with tank treads instead of legs, came around the other side. How could something like that move so quietly? Or was I just that oblivious

“Halt! This is Ministry property! Please identify yourself or be vaporized!” the sentry commanded in a harsh, mechanical tone.

“I-” I froze as it leveled its minigun square in my face.

“You have ten seconds to comply or lethal force will be executed.”

I couldn’t even think. I should have spoke. I should have run. But my brain, tired, ravaged, and drained as it was, did not want to work. I needed to speak. I needed to tell the sentry bot my name, rank, and serial number, but I just stared, wide eyed and unblinking at the massive gun aimed directly at my head. I couldn’t remember any of it. Not even my own name.

“Sentry 804B3! Stop that this instant! That pony is obviously a member of Princess Luna’s Royal Guard!” another mechanical voice, this one much more proper and less harsh in tone, shouted out from the other side of the massive robot. The sentry turned its head on a swivel as a Mr. Handy, not a Mr. Gutsy, hovered around the Sentrybot and rotated back and forth as if he was shaking his head. Like a Mr. Gutsy, the robot was all head and limbs, but this one at least didn’t have any weapons at the end of its claw like arms.

“I am dreadfully sorry, madam. We have been on high alert for some time now so my fellow robots are a little testy. Could you please identify yourself before my companions decide to forget my insistence on not shooting you and do just that. I would hate to have to clean up more blood; it always stains the pavement,” the Mr. Handy asked politely.

I don’t know why, maybe because I was going crazy, but the quaint Trottingham accent of the Mr. Handy robot actually made me giggle. That simple release of endorphins and the strange sense of happiness it gave me allowed my brain to start working again and allowed some of the tension running through my entire body to ease. I immediately realized what I was doing and bit my lower lip.

“Sorry. Um, my name is Aria of Princess Luna’s Lunar Guard, rank lieutenant, serial number 86537779,” I replied, giving the robots my best, most nervous smile. I couldn’t help being nervous, the sentry still had an automatic weapon inches from my face.

“Scanning data banks,” both automatons said in unison as their eyes lit up with an eerie yellow glow. A few moments later, the glowing stopped and the Mr. Handy continued.

“Error. Visual scans confirm identity of one Lieutenant Aria of the Lunar Guard, but file is marked as deceased.”

“Oh cud!”

“Possibilities for this outcome, three. Changeling spy, illusion spell, or internal data error,” the sentry bot rattled off.

“Yes. Miss Aria, if you truly are who you say, would you mind if we perform a genetic scan to verify your identity?” Mr. Handy asked.

Genetic scan? Oh yeah! The hoofprints and hair samples in the Royal Guard databases. All soldiers and guards had to submit to it in order to defend against possible changeling incursion and espionage attempts during the war. With Queen Chrysalis’ hatred for Equestria, the possibility of the changelings joining the Zebra Empire was always a real and present danger... I guess it was a real and past danger now.

“Alright. Scan me.” The only reason I wasn’t freaking out about another possible mental attack was the fact that robots had no mental powers. Mr. Handy’s eyes lit up again as it reached out and plucked a hair from my mane. “Ow!”

“Please excuse the discomfort. This will only take a moment.”

I stood in nervous silence, waiting for the servant robot to complete the genetic match. I didn’t know why I was so nervous, of course I would match my own genetic scan, but the sentry bot still had its weapons trained on me. No matter how confident a pony thought they were, I doubt anypony could stare down the triple barrel of a sentry bot’s minigun and not start to sweat.

“DNA match confirmed. Welcome to the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Peace, and Wartime Technologies Hub, Lieutenant Aria,” Mr. Handy said suddenly, sweeping his front arm out as if he were bowing to me.

“Oh. Um.” Think, Aria! Think! “Oh! I’m here to escort some key personnel and get them registered into the Hub’s databases as employees. Can you do that for me?”

“Processing... Yes, ma’am. We are still able to update our rolls, but we haven’t received orders about new personnel.”

“When was the last time you received any new orders?” I asked, knowing the answer already.

“Two hundred years, forty-two days, eleven hours, five minutes, and thirty-three seconds.”

“That seems like an error too,” I said.

“Yes. That would be illogical. In absence of the chain of command, the highest ranking officer present is to take command of Ministry security. Lieutenant Aria, are you to take command of this hub’s security as to your right as a member of Princess Luna’s guard and the highest ranking member of the Equestrian government present at the moment? Until the proper chain of command can be re-established, of course,” Mr. Handy asked, and I blinked.

What? I had that right? I could take over the hub? Just like that? The robots would be mine? The hub would be mine? There wouldn’t be any other ponies who could claim a higher rank than me. Sweet Celestia on buttered toast with a side of Luna lemonade... Wow, I’m obsessed with food, aren’t I?

Gurgle. Gurgle. Gurgle.

And thinking about food suddenly made me realize that I hadn’t eaten anything since a quick snack on the Union Jack line, which I vomited up a few hours ago. I really hoped there was some sort of food inside the Ministry Hub.

“Yes, Mr. Handy unit. I, Lieutenant Aria of Princess Luna’s Lunar Guard, will take command of this Ministry Hub’s security until the proper chain of command can be re-established,” I swore, and a strange series of beeps, static, and bongs started emitting from all the security bots, who I now noticed were all training their guns on me.

“Security has been transferred to you, Lieutenant Aria. Shall we commence in registering the new personnel?” Mr. Handy asked the moment the buzzing and beeping stopped.

“Yes. Yes, we shall.”

“Well, that went well,” Shadowbuck said as we walked into the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Peace, and Wartime Technology Hub as if we owned the place. Actually, now that security had been transferred to me and the robots were listening to me, I kind of did own the place. “That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”

“That’s because you were hiding behind a wall while I had a minigun pointed between my eyes.”

“Heh, you did good, Aria,” Shadowbuck said, giving me a confident grin.

“Yeah! We just wanted in the hub, now we’re running the place,” Melody said, practically beaming at every robot and terminal we passed. “I could spend years in here. Maybe there’s something to fix the Stable Sixty-Three door in the MWT wing?”

“Maybe. I’d like to see what kind of medical equipment they have in the Ministry of Peace wing,” Compass said.
The medical pony speaks!” Shadowbuck said playfully as he threw a hoof around Compass’ shoulder. “This is a big day for all of us. The Steel Rangers could definitely use this as a base. It-”

“No!” I snapped.

“What? But this is the Ministry of Wartime Technology too, Aria. The Steel Rangers are a part of it,” Shadowbuck argued, but I shot him a look that silenced him, and I’m pretty sure I almost popped a blood vessel in my right eye with how hard I was glaring at him; I could even feel my eyelid twitching.

“Cherry Scones is coming nowhere near this place. I’m head of security here and I’ll set the bots to tear her to pieces,” I spat, the taste of her name vile in my mouth.

“Aria. We need to talk about what happened. Elder Cherry Scones had to have a good reason for-”

“Shut up, Shadow!” I shouted, causing a Mr. Gutsy down the hall to go on high alert and turn his plasma rifle on my Steel Ranger companion.

“Do you need assistance detaining Knight Shadowbuck, Lieutenant Aria?”

Melody being an arcano-tech expert for the Ministry of Arcane Science and Compass being a doctor hired by the Ministry of Peace were lies that could be easily enforced, the military and ministry databases wouldn’t have extensive files on every mechanic and doctor in Equestria, but Shadowbuck having the rank of Paladin would throw up some red flags for the robots, possible server errors or not. They were in the service of the Ministry of Wartime Technology, just like the Steel Rangers. I had to say he was a newly appointed Knight in order for my new force of robot guards to not freak out and start questioning things; they were buggy enough as it was.

“No. I’m fine. Knight Shadowbuck and I are just having a disagreement. You may return to your duties,” I ordered. We watched in angry silence as the robot guard floated away, mumbling something about killing zebra scum. Okay, to be fair, Compass looked on in nervous silence, Melody was busy hacking a terminal, and Shadow actually looked a bit hurt.

“Aria...”

“Don’t ‘Aria’ me, Shadow! I’m letting you in, but that’s it! You’re the only Steel Ranger I trust right now and your constant attempts at defending that blueberry you call a leader is really starting to make that hard to do!” I shouted, drawing the attention of more mechs and even pulling Melody’s gaze away from the terminal screen.

“I’m trying to say that I don’t know why she did this, and it was wrong, but Elder Cherry Scones is a good person. She... I don’t know why she did this, Aria.”

“Because she wanted to make me stop saying I survived a balefire egg explosion! She couldn’t handle that I’m alive and her husband’s dead so she tried to rip my mind apart to prove a stupid point!” I screamed, turning away from him and marching off towards the elevator. Jabbing the up button with my hoof, the door immediately opened with a pleasant chime as the tinny tones of elevator music started to play. “Melody. You’re with me. We’re hitting the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.”

“And what about Compass and Shadow?” Melody asked.

“They can search the Ministry of Peace side. The MoP were the ones who developed the first megaspells, after all.” I replied coldly as Melody flitted over to join me in the elevator. Compass and Shadowbuck were already trotting over to us, and Shadow did not look happy.

“Oh hell no! We are not splitting up like that! We’re coming with you to the MAS wing!”

“Then you’ll have to take the stairs,” I said as I pressed the ‘Close Elevator’ button.

“Hey!” Melody and Shadowbuck shouted in unison as the doors closed in his face.

“Why’d you do that? You left Compass behind.” Melody scolded me until she noticed my face. I had been trying not to cry, even though I was furious the tears were still coming, but now that the door was closed I couldn’t hold them back any longer.

“I don’t want to hate him, Melody, but I don’t know if I can trust him,” I cried, falling onto my haunches and covering my eyes with my hooves. “I thought he was my friend, I thought I might like him. I-I thought he might like me. But he keeps defending her. Why, Melody? Why?”

“I-I don’t know. Maybe he’s having a hard time with it?”

“What?”

“She’s his leader, Aria. Maybe hearing about her doing that is hard for him to believe. What if you heard that Princess Luna or the Ministry Mares had done that?” she asked, putting her hoof gently on my shoulder.

“But they wouldn’t,” I whimpered.

“But what if they did? Wouldn’t that turn your whole worldview upside down? Maybe you should see it from his perspective,” she said, giving me a tender smile.

“What’s that?” I sniffed, wiping my eyes on the back of my hooves.

“He’s confused, he doesn’t know what to do, and he likes you.”

“Really?” I asked. The realization that he might like me was actually the least shocking thing about Melody’s statement. I could see that on my own. The interesting bit of insight was the fact that Shadow was confused and didn’t know what to do or where to go now that things had changed so drastically. It actually made me feel better to know somepony else was feeling the same way I was. Whether that was natural and innocent or messed up, selfish, and mean, I don’t know, but it helped.

The elevator let out a soft ding as we arrived on the third floor. The map had said that a sky bridge connected this building, which housed the Ministry of Peace and Ministry of Wartime Technology wings, with another smaller building on the compound that acted as the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.

Wiping my nose, I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself together.

“There we go. Let’s get those megaspell plans, save the day, and then we can take a good rest before we get back to finding a way to fix our Stable door, okay?” Melody said as she attempted to give me a little pep talk. Smiling, I tried to put on a brave face. That seemed to cheer her up even more. “Come on, Aria. Let’s go be heroes.”

As we stepped off the elevator, the door to the stairwell flew open and out galloped Shadowbuck.

“Aria... Wait... I... need to...” he panted, leaning against the wall as he tried to speak and catch his breath at the same time; neither was going very well for him.

“Shadow... How about we not talk about it until we both know what we want to say?” I asked, not really wanting to look at him.

“Huff... Okay... Sounds good.” Had he really sprinted up the stairs to catch me and Melody before we left for the Ministry Wing? I couldn’t decide if that was sweet or just really stupid.

Ding.

We all turned to see the other elevator slowly open and watched as Compass trotted out, his medical bag balanced on his back. We all stared at him, except for Melody who was smiling, and he pursed his lips and his eyes widened.

“Why are you all staring at me? I just took the other elevator. Did I do something wrong?”

We couldn’t help ourselves. Melody and I took one look at Shadowbuck as he leaned against the wall, hugging and puffing as he stared at Compass, completely dumbfounded, and we just started laughing. It started out as a low chuckle, but soon Shadow joined in with an exasperated laugh.

“I’m an idiot,” he chuckled, and we all burst out into full on laughter, even Compass.

As we laughed like a bunch of ponies, completely off their rocker, I realized something. I could see why Laughter was an Element of Harmony because I can honestly say that with all the horrible things thrown at me, laughing with my friends actually made it seem like a beam of sunshine had actually broken through the eternal cloud cover of the Equestrian Wasteland and warmed my heart as it rest at the bottom of the pit in my chest. Laughter really was a true virtue, not mine, but I seriously envied Ministry Mare Pinkie Pie right now.

If anypony could survive in the Wasteland, the bearer of the Element of Laughter would have a really good shot.

“Survive... I really should find the time to read that Wasteland Survival Guide when I get the chance.”

The trip across the skybridge was easy. Just a simple walk across the covered walkway with only one large hole on one side leading to a three story drop to contend with, but slow and steady and a relatively large stable path made the broken section of bridge almost comically easy. However, the ‘obstacle’ did reveal a reason why taking the sky bridge was the better option for us to have taken, besides the fact that the exit to the courtyard from the main hub was blocked by a collapsed section of the second floor.

Below, hissing and moaning and just being all around nasty abominations was a pack of feral ghouls. They shambled around the burned and rotted out courtyard, numbering about thirty or so zombie ponies in all. Less than what we had faced in the Trottingham Natural History Museum, but this time we only had one Brotherhood of Steel Member in our group, not five. There was no way we could take them in a fair fight. I’d just have to remember to order the robots to clear them out later; right now we had to find some very important megaspell research.

The Ministry of Arcane Sciences was a mess. Like everything I had seen of the Trottingham Ruins, dust and decay ruled this office too. As we stepped into the main office space, a maze of cubicles leading to a hallway beyond that was just out of the light of our lamp spells. Almost every cubicle bathed the room in the pale green glow of active terminals.

“Alright ladies and gentlecolts, let’s get to started. There are a lot of filing cabinets and a ton of terminals so let’s get cracking,” Shadow ordered. Rolling my eyes, I sighed.

“We know, Shadow.”

“I call the terminals! Come help me with them Compass,” Melody shouted as she zipped into the first row of terminals.

“Right! Coming!” Compass called as he rushed after her.

“I guess that leaves us the desks and filing cabinets,” I said. Trotting over to the next row, I called out, “Yell out if you find anything!”

“We know, Aria,” Shadow said from the next row over, and the four of us set to work.

Two hours and three floors later, we had found nothing. The filing cabinets were full of random assortments of ammunition, bottle caps, a burned or brittle piles of papers that disintegrated the moment I tried to pick them up. Occasionally we would find some useless TPS reports from a pony named Lumbergh, but for the most part everything in the physical world was a bust. Although it was a personal victory to find a MAS coffee mug, it’s ceramic white completely untarnished by time or radiation, and I immediately stowed it away. A clean drinking glass, even if it were just a mug, was a little piece of heaven for me in the hell that was the Wasteland.

When we finally converged on the fourth floor, every possible desk, cabinet, closet, and safe scavenged, we had amassed a large quantity of small firearm ammo, a few pistols, some medicine, and about two hundred caps, but nothing that could help us. As Shadow and I waited in the lobby on the third floor, waiting for Compass and Melody, I decided to turn on my Pipbuck’s radio feature and check out this ‘Howling Buck’ and ‘DJ Pon3’ for myself.

What I was confronted with was something I hadn’t been expecting. The flowing melody, the elegant tones of the singer, the emotionally driven plea of the song’s lyrics. I was once again thrown back in time, figuratively speaking this time.
I felt like I was sitting in my room, pouring over a magical theory text from the Royal Library and listening to my Sweetie Belle album for what must have been the hundredth time that month. Listening to the co-founder of Stable-Tec’s amazing singing while reading whatever book I checked out for the weekend was how I usually spent every evening of my youth before I entered the Royal Guard Academy or met Brightlight.

I knew every song by heart, every heartfelt word that poured out of the amazing unicorn’s lips. It was so hauntingly beautiful, yet utterly sad now that I knew her hymn-like prayer had gone unheard and the world had descended into the eternal darkness she feared.

“How can I fix this? How many times must I try? Please, this time, let me get it right!”

“We didn’t get it right, did we, Sweetie Belle?” I whispered, feeling the familiar weight of depression pulling at my heart.
As the music began to fade, a smooth talking stallion came on the air.

“And that was Sweetie Belle, letting us all know that we all make mistakes, but we can always try to do better. Words to live by, Sweetie Belle,” the disk jockey said. I couldn’t tell if this was DJ Pon3 or Howling Buck, but something about his voice made me want to trust him.

“This is your old pal, DJ Pon3, and how about a little news from across the pond? That’s right folks, things seem to be shaking up in that monster infested hell hole that we affectionately call Trottingham. My friend, Howling Buck, Trottingham’s daytime DJ when yours truly has to catch some shut eye and all around good buck, reported earlier that those royal pains, the Royal Flush Raiders, launched an attack on Stable Sixty-Three, and it has ended in a massacre. Well, my most faithful listeners, there’s good news here; the ponies that got massacred were the Royal Flush raiders.

“Apparently Stable Sixty-Three kicked their asses with the help of a unicorn in old Lunar Guard armor that Howling Buck’s calling the ‘Nightmare Knight.’ Personally, I don’t like the name, but if she stays a nightmare to the raiders and an ally to the good ponies of Trottingham, then she’ll be A-OK in my book.”

So that was DJ Pon3? Well, at least he had better taste in music than his namesake. The fact that I was on the radio wasn’t surprising, I already knew about that, but it was still a little embarrassing. I mean, I didn’t stop the raiders on my own. Starshine, Melody, Compass... Toffee Biscuits, they all helped. And we probably would have been killed without the Brotherhood of Steel’s help. Why did DJ Pon3 leave them out? Did he not get all the details from this Howling Buck guy?

“Getting some good press, huh?” Shadow asked as he searched the receptionist’s desk for any loot. “Well, there goes that theory,” he mumbled under his breath.

“I guess so,” I said.

“And that’s it for news out of Hoofington and Manehatten. I’d have news out of Fillydelphia, but it’s still running dark. If I were to take a guess, I’d say Red Eye’s being a real tool as usual. Now here’s some Sapphire Shores for your listening pleasure.”

And that was my queue to switch the radio off. It’s not that I hated Sapphire Shores’ music, some of her songs were actually just as good as Sweetie Belle’s. The only problem was listening to her music always left a bad taste in my mouth.
I had always heard about her reputation as a bit of a diva, but when I was ten and Golden Star brought me to Manehatten we had gone to one of her concerts and I experienced it for myself. When she showed up an hour late and then left without seeing any of the VIP ticket guests, which included Golden Star and me, it soured all her music for me from then on. I should have known though, what can you expect from a pony who wears a dress covered in gems anyway?

“Not a fan of Sapphire Shores?” Shadow asked.

“Long story. Anyway, who’s Red Eye?” I asked. Shadowbuck tensed up at my question and I heard his breath catch in his throat.

“He... he’s the leader of the slavers in Fillydelphia. He’s a real psychopath that makes Queen Cadence’s practices look like a five star hotel. He’s hurt a lot of ponies in pursuit of his ‘better Equestria through Unity,’ whatever the hell that means,” Shadow explained, his voice strained.

“Shadow... Did-”

Ding.

“Oh good! You’re here!” Melody cheered as the elevator doors slid open behind us. “Guess you two found the same info we did. The head ponies’ office is through there. Apparently they worked on megaspell research here and in Manehatten.”

“No, we didn’t find any info downstairs so we came up here. But the door’s locked,” I said.

“It’s not locked, I just said we can’t go any farther. I wanted to see if Melody could crack the terminal. We can probably get past the bypass field down the hall with it,” Shadow explained.

“Bypass field? In the hallway? How do you know that?” I asked, looking at him incredulously.

“Yeah. Cherry Scones sent me in here a few months ago to scout out the inside of the hub. Almost got caught a few times and wasn’t able to loot the place, but I got stopped when I arrived up here. When I unlocked the door I found the hallway blocked by a bypass field. A file under the receptionist desk told me that it was a bypass field set to a very select set of ponies genetic codes.”

“Whose DNA is it set to?” Melody asked as she started to trot over to the terminal.

“The file said it was some ponies named Gestalt and Mosaic’s office for when they were in town from Canterlot.”

“They were Twilight Sparkle’s right hoof ponies. Brightlight complained about them all the time. He said they were weird and a little crazy,” I added.

“Yeah, well, apparently all the bypass spells that the MAS made were set for certain ponies, but this one also had a bypass for Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Princess Luna,” Shadowbuck explained, and I nodded. It made sense for the Ministry Mares of this hub and the princesses to be able to go anywhere in their hubs. An impenetrable room, even in the hooves of trusted allies, was too much of a liability.

“So how do we get through? Mosaic and Gestalt had to have had visitors to their office. Otherwise, what’s the point of this lobby and a receptionist?” Compass asked.

“Bingo. I couldn’t hack the terminal, so I’m hoping that Melody can get us in through it. There has to be a command to turn it off,” Shadowbuck explained.

“Alrighty. One hack terminal, coming up.”

One hour later, Melody was still hard at work trying to crack the password for the receptionist’s terminal. Since we couldn’t give up and the fate of Trottingham was resting on our shoulders, Melody sat glued to that emerald screen, her eyes scanning the lines of code furiously. About ten minutes in I had cracked open the Wasteland Survival Guide and started reading. I even passed my copy of Zebra Infiltration Tactics to Shadowbuck, although I made him Pinkie Pie Promise to give it back, and we passed the time through the magic of a good book.

“Okay... Let’s try this one more time,” she growled at the terminal as if her threats could sway it. Compass sat next to her, offering any help he could while giving her whatever moral support he could muster.

I reached a particularly interesting, and slightly useless given our current circumstances, chapter on getting pre-war technology to work for me and chuckled under my breath.

“I think I’ve got that covered in spades, Ditsy Doo,” I whispered, turning the page with my hoof. It had taken some getting used to, using my hoof to turn pages, since I normally just used my magic to handle such a mundane task. I really was starting to gain a new respect for earth ponies and pegasi. Shadow looked up from my old book and frowned.

“Crap on a radroach, Aria, do you even read books or do your eyes just consume the letters as you go?” Shadow cursed.

“What?” I blinked before realizing that I was on the third to last chapter. Remembering the ‘Table of Contents.’ all that was left was a chapter on the establishment of Friendship City, wherever that was, and Brownstone’s chapter on Trottingham exclusive monsters. Looking over at Shadow’s book, I saw that he was maybe fifty or so pages into the Royal Guard required reading. “Heh, I told you I like books. Who knew a delivery pony like Ditsy Doo would end up being a pretty decent writer.”

“Yeah, well, she’d have to be. Some slavers cut out her tongue some years back.”

“Luna!” I swore, putting my hooves to my mouth. “Why would anypony do that?”

“You are way too innocent for this world, Aria. Most ponies accept this crap as a common occurrence by your age,” he said, turning the page of his book nonchalantly.

“That doesn’t make it right!”

“Yeah, well, they’re slavers. They do horrible shit. That’s why I say we kill them all and be done with it,” Shadow said coldly. “Even those bastards and bitches in the Queen’s Court...” He caught my glare. "What?"

"That word..." I growled at him and smiled nervously back at me.

“Sorry. I mean, douchebags and bitches in the Queen’s Court.”

“Ah ha! I got ya, you stupid son of a bitch!” Melody cheered as the terminal finally cracked. Taking my books back, I stowed them in my saddlebags only to hear Melody curse again. “Aw, shit!”

“What?” Shadow asked, bolting around the receptionist’s desk and shoving Melody aside to stare at the screen. His jaw dropped and he swore too. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”

Luna save me, my ears were burning.

“What’s the problem? Do we really have to curse so much?” I asked, trotting around to join my friends in the now cramped space behind the terminal. Only one command was listed on the screen, ‘Urgent Memo from Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle.’

That was it. Just a memo. No release code. No command to turn off the bypass field. Nothing. We had come all this way and found nothing. There was still the chance there was something on the Ministry of Peace side, but this had been our best bet. But our best bet had completely failed.

“Read the memo,” the strange feminine voice that seemed naggingly familiar whispered in my ear. Snapping my head in the direction of the voice, all I saw was the rest of the lobby.

“Okay. Now I’m definitely going nuts,” I thought to myself, closing my eyes and noticing that the flame was surprisingly absent. Was only one of my voices able to talk to me at a time?

Taking a deep breath, I nudged Shadow aside and opened the memo.

“What are you doing, Aria?” he asked.

“Reading. We might as well since Melody worked so hard to get in here,” I replied.

“Then read away, Madame Speed Reader.”

“Gestalt, Mosaic,

I know you two have the weekend off, and we have the final test at Maripony on Monday, but this is important. Rarity brought to my attention a very real weakness in our bypass fields. Her sister, Sweetie Belle, went to visit her at the Ministry of Image and just walked into her office while the bypass field was up. It was only supposed to allow myself, my fellow Ministry Mares, and the princesses through, but she just passed through it like it wasn’t even there.

I went there personally today and inspected the spellwork on almost every barrier in Canterlot. I had to disable most of them in the process, but I realized where the flaw comes from. The bypass spells do not just allow the ponies who are set to bypass, but also any pony that shares similar genetics. Sisters, cousins, even ponies that only share a common genome can get through.

This is a serious weakness in our security. Rarity’s freaking out that Blueblood could sneak into her office and be his usual obsessive self. I am actually in agreement with her. It is a distinct possibility, no matter how remote the chance. When we’re done with the experiment on Monday, please get to work on fixing this. This is your highest priority first thing Tuesday morning.

Twilight Sparkle,

Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences

“Score one for reading!” I cheered.

“What’d you find?” Melody asked.

“You and I should be able to make it through the barrier. We’re related to Princess Luna so it might work for us.”

“Wait? Really? Why didn’t I think about that? The file did say something about that, didn't it? I completely forgot!” Shadow said, hitting himself on the side of his helmet with a resounding clang.

“Really? Cause you're the one who mentioned something about it in Starshine’s office,” I said with a casual grin.

“Yeah. Yeah. Why didn’t you remember then, Miss Brainiac?”

“Hey! Come on! That’s enough you two. If Aria and I can pass through it, then we can drop the barrier from the office so you guys can pass,” Melody shouted, stopping our argument before it could even start.

“You know things are bad when Melody’s the voice of reason,” Compass joked.

“Maybe I’ll just lock you out here and make you stew,” Melody told him with a grin that shut him up almost immediately.

“Sorry, Melody.”

“It’s alright, Compass.”

“So you ready to break on through to the other side, Aria?” Shadowbuck asked.

“Only if you’re ready to sit and wait for the girls to save the day,” I said. Turning to Melody with a confident grin, I added, “Ready to be my wingpony, Melody.”

“Sure, but that only works if you have wings. So that makes you my hornpony, right?”

“Wow, that doesn’t sound the least bit wrong,” I joked back as we threw open the doors leading to Gestalt and Mosaic’s office.

Lying between us and the double door, probably made of a stained oak or a dark mahogany, was a green magical barrier, a hum of energy and a buzz of static filled the air.

“Why do I suddenly feel like a fly in front of a bug zapper?” Melody moaned, her smile quickly fading.

“Come on, Melody. If crappy Uncle Blueblood could pass through one of these, then we definitely can,” I told her, praying that he actually could have and it wasn’t just Ministry Mare Rarity being paranoid.

“He could?” she asked as we approached the glowing green energy field.

“Maybe,” I said, pulling her towards the barrier before she could stop me.

“What!”

That was all she got to say before I passed through the bypass field, a warm tingle caressing my entire body, and I smiled. We did it. We...

“Ow!” I heard Melody shout as I realized I wasn’t holding her hoof anymore. Looking back down the hall, I saw Melody, her body pressed flat against the barrier, staring at me with a world of hurt in her sea blue eyes. She stared at me like I had just stabbed her in the heart, and I could almost feel the knife twisting in my own. “What happened? I couldn’t pass through it?”

“I’d like to know that too,” Shadowbuck said as Compass rushed over to Melody, wrapping his forelegs around her in a protective hug. I was so sure she was going to cry, the pain written all over her face, but she was just staring at me, begging for answers.

“I-I don’t know... Maybe she was too far removed. Maybe I’m just barely close enough to Princess Luna to count,” I hypothesised, trying to make sense as to why I could pass through, but not Melody. It didn’t make any sense.

“So... so I’m not close enough to be your niece?” she asked, her voice straining not to sob.

“No... no, Melody. You’re my niece. You’re Golden Star’s granddaughter. You... I guess you’re just not close enough to be Princess Luna’s niece, but only if you ask this stupid bypass spell. I bet you if Aunt Luna were here, she’d definitely call you her niece. And she’d want you to tell her all about terminals and Pipbucks and magical energy weapons.” I said, trying my hardest to sound convincing and try to cheer my distraught niece up. That had to be the answer. Maybe these bypass spells only worked on ponies from the time they were made along with the correct genetic makeup. It seemed illogical, but at this point it was the only theory that made any sense.

“Really?” she asked, a glimmer of hope returning to her eyes as a small smile crept to the edges of her lips.

“Really. I-I’m going to see if I can get this spell turned off. You guys sit tight and I’ll have you in as fast as possible,” I reassured them before turning around and trotting through the doors to Gestalt and Mosaic’s office.
I think I died and went to the hell, but found a secret tenth circle that was my own personal heaven. Bookshelves, half filled with at least two hundred tomes of knowledge of my lost age, lined the wall to my right. On the far wall was a bar, stocked with bottles of every type of alcohol I could think of and then some, and two vending machines, one Sparkle Cola and the other Sunrise Sarsparilla. On the wall by the door were two paintings of one pony, a green unicorn mare with an overly enthusiastic smile on her face. Why would some pony have two portraits made of one pony?

“Those two even complete their own sentences. I don’t care that they’re twins, it’s still really creepy. Are you listening to me, Aria? Aria! Can you get your nose out of that book for two seconds and at least try to listen to me.” I suddenly remembered Brightlight saying and felt extremely guilty.

I had ignored him. I hadn’t even realized I ignored him at times. I was just so focused on being valedictorian that I took him for granted. It was no wonder he cheated on me; I was a horrible marefriend. I wouldn’t sleep with him, I’d ignored him. He deserved to be with somepony better. Was Silver Storm better than me? Was I so-

“Aria! Any luck finding the terminal?” I heard Shadowbuck call from the hallway.

Snapping out of my self deprecating haze, I quickly spotted two desks sitting side by side in front of a large window with a panoramic view of the city and the riverfront. Back before the sky closed up and the world ended, I’m sure it would have been a lovely view. Sitty on each desk, much to my pleasure and my dismay, was a terminal.

“I-I think so! There’s two terminals in here!”

“Two? Which one drops the shield?” he asked as I rounded the desk. One of the terminals was burned out, it’s screen cracked and browned by a small electrical fire inside its casing.

“Well, that makes the decision a little easier,” I mumbled as I sat down behind the terminal on the desk closer to the door and brought up... a locked terminal screen. It needed a password. “Okay, Aria. Time to see if you can work the same magic your niece can...” I remembered my burned out horn and winced. “Okay, magic is the wrong word.”

Executing the hacking procedure, an absolute horror was presented to me in the form of ten simple words among a sea of garbage code. That was normal. The part that made my blood run cold was the fact that they were all eleven characters long. This was too much for my feeble hacking skills, and I knew it.

Dr. Hoofentrotter had been a challenge, and his was the nickname he gave his wife. Starshine’s password was almost as long as this one, but it was his wife’s name too. I only figured those out because I knew the ponies whose terminals I had been hacking. The Wasteland’s constant taunts had been running in my favor. But I didn’t know these ponies except from half heard complaints from my cheating ex-coltfriend!

It was crappy luck, but it looked like it had finally run out.

“It’s password protected! I-I don’t know if I can get this!”

“You can do it, Aria! You gotta believe in yourself. If things get too hard, back out and try again!” Melody called out, making me feel a little more relaxed to hear her voice strong and encouraging again.

“Okay,” I said weakly and set to work.

Three tries. Back out. Wait. Three tries. Back out. Wait.

Over and over I repeated this process, and over and over I failed to find the right password. After about the twentieth try, I screamed out in frustration. Three more tries, and all I had discovered was that the password this time ended in ‘I-N-G.’ The sad part is that this was the closest I had gotten yet. I was on the verge of tears as I sat at Gestalt’s, or was is Mosaic’s, desk, and I choked back a sob.

“What’s the matter, Aria? Are you okay?” Melody asked from down the hall.

“Yeah, you okay?” Shadow repeated, sounding equally worried.

“I can’t do it, Melody! I’m not as good at this as you are!” I cried as the tears started to leak from my eyes, rolling slowly down my cheeks. I was getting so tired of crying, but I couldn’t help myself. I really was a wreck.

“Yes, you can! I’ll walk you through it. How many letters have you figured out?” Melody asked, her voice oddly patient for a pony usually as energetic as her.

“Um, three. I’m pretty sure ‘I-N-G’ are the ending to this password.”

“Good. How many password possibilities have ‘I-N-G” at the end?”

Counting, I realized that out of the ten possible choices, seven ended with ‘I-N-G.’

“Seven!”

“And how many have you used with ‘I-N-G?”

“If I hear ‘I-N-G’ one more time, can you please just shoot me, Compass?” Shadowbuck complained.

“Shut up, Shadow!” Melody snapped. “How many have you tried already, Aria?”

“Two!”

“So you have two tries left?” she asked. I could almost hear her hopeful smile.

“No. I used the first one on ‘Testaments,’ I admitted, and I heard Melody groan.

“Oh, Aria! That’s that’s the first rule of hacking. If you see a lot with the same letters, try one of those first!” she complained. “But it’s okay. I want you to try something a little more advanced.”

“What!?”

“Go through the junk code, one character at a time,” she instructed.

“What’s that going to do?” I asked, feeling tired, hungry, and confused.

“Just do it! Slowly work your way through. When the prompt suddenly selects more than one character of code, stop scrolling and let me know!”

Slowly, I started tabbing through each character of junk code, completely ignoring the possible passwords as I passed them. It went against everything they told us at the Royal Guard Academy, and the Stable Tec terminal user documents never said anything about hacking, but I had to trust Melody. It seemed absurd for anything to be among the junk... What?
The cursor was now highlighting four pieces of junk code that read ‘_&%?’ as if it were a word.

“I think I found something!” I shouted, a little more confident than before as I wiped my tears away with a cloth napkin I spotted on the desk. I’d have to pocket that for later too.

“Good! Now hit ‘Enter!’”

“But-”

Don’t worry. Trust me!” she shouted back. Taking a deep breath, I hit the ‘Enter’ key and watched as the word ‘FAVOURITING’ disappeared from the screen and the prompt ‘Dud Removed’ appeared on the side of the block of text. Was that even a real word?

“A password choice disappeared!”

“Good! Keep doing that! Most of the time it removes a fake password, but sometimes the code will cause the terminal’s security to reset and restore your allotted tries before it detects you! Keep looking!”

And so, with a new weapon in my hacking arsenal, I set to work. Line after line of code revealed, little, only two more duds were removed, one being a choice I had already selected and another not ending in ‘I-N-G,’ and I was nearing the end of the block. If I didn’t get a refreshed allotment, I was going to have to back out and try again. We had already spent far too long hacking terminals tonight; Gigaton and the rest of the Trottingham Ruins didn’t have that much time.

My cursor highlighted another group of junk code and I stopped. There were still four possible choices left. If this removed a dud, then I’d have to back out, wait, and try again. But if it reset the terminal’s security, then I would be able to select all the possible choices and I couldn’t lose. Closing my eyes, the flame appeared and chuckled to itself.

“Do you have the courage?” It asked.

“Yes,” I muttered and stuck the ‘Enter’ key hard.

And I let out a cry of pure victory as my ‘ATTEMPT(S) LEFT:’ refilled.

“I got it! Hold on, I’m about to crack it!” I cheered.

“Woohoo! I knew you could do it!” Melody cheered back.

“Way to go, Aria!” Shadow added.

“Good job,” I heard Compass add, and I grinned. Even when cheering, Compass was shy.

The third choice was the charm, the password was ‘ENDEAVORING,’ and with a beautiful beep the terminal opened for me. There were a lot of files on the terminal so I downloaded everything immediately to my Pipbuck. In an instant, the files were all on my Pipbuck and the massive storage space on board went from one percent filled to thirty-three percent.

“Woah! That’s a lot of files,” I mumbled before selecting the ‘Open Safe’ function. Just like in Starshine’s office, a click sounded from behind one of the portraits and I knew I had just saved Shadowbuck all his bobby pins.

“Hey! What are you waiting for in there!?” Shadow called out impatiently.

“Hold your horses! I’m dropping the shield now!” I told them just before I hit ‘Enter’ on the option ‘Lower Barrier.’

ZUUM!

“Alright!” I heard Melody cry, and shook my head.

“Guess I did have the courage, huh?” I thought, taunting the green flame behind my eyelids.

POP! BANG! ZUUM!

Suddenly, I felt heat and a shower of pain as the terminal exploded in my face, tiny pieces of glass cutting my cheeks and forehead. If I hadn’t had my eyes closed, I was pretty sure it would have blinded me. I would have screamed, but my voice left me as I heard Melody let out a yelp and Shadowbuck scream bloody murder.

Wiping the glass from around my eyes, the tiny shards cutting my front hooves, I opened my eyes and bolted out the door. The barrier was back up and Melody was on my side, her tail singed and chopped to only about two inches from the base of her tail, as she stared, wide eyed and sickened, at the barrier. On the other side, Shadow was curled up into the fetal position, facing away from us, and screaming madly while Compass knelt by him, his horn glowing furiously. I noticed the steadily growing pool of blood staining their barding and armor and I suddenly realized what was going on and what Melody was really staring at.

On our side of the barrier, a small trickle of crimson blood pooling at its base, was about six inches of Shadowbuck’s severed hoof.

“Goddesses...” Melody said, and I felt the stale potato chips from the vending machine in the lobby suddenly coming up again for another visit. Swallowing hard, I rushed through the field and to Shadowbuck’s side. Pulling a healing potion out of my saddlebags, I noticed I only had two left, and I offered it to Compass.

“No, his suit is using up it’s meds and chems. The suit and my tourniquet spell are keeping him from bleeding out, but I need to get him to the Ministry of Peace wing. I need more supplies. I might be able to save the leg with the right healing talismans and his hoof,” he told me, somehow keeping calm as his magic was doing its best to stem the flow of blood.

“How do I get it back through?” I asked, peering back through the translucent green barrier at the severed hoof and Melody as she sat, completely in shock, near the office door.

“I don’t know, but I’ll need it to save his leg. Hurry!” he shouted. I didn’t have to be told twice. Galloping back through the bypass shield, I cringed before quickly grabbing the metal encased, blood soaked hoof in my mouth. I tasted copper and was trying my damndest not to vomit on Shadow’s severed limb; I was pretty sure that wouldn’t help in the healing process. Melody just stared at me, unable to move, and I gave her my most sympathetic look as I turned back to the barrier.

It wouldn’t let the hoof through.

What the hoof? Literally. What could I do, put it in my saddlebags? Would that work? Desperate, I tossed the limb into my bags and watched as my Pipbuck displayed the image of a dead pony head and the words ‘Shadowbuck’s Right Forehoof’ flash across my vision. Now that was morbid. Great job Stable-Tec.

Thankfully, and for some reason I don’t think I ever want to know, I was able to pass. The thin layer of saddlebag had somehow allowed the hoof to pass through the unpassable shield.

“Got it,” I spat, trying to get the taste of Shadow’s blood off of my tongue.

“Good. Carry him on your back, firepony’s carry, to the Ministry of Peace wing. I’ll keep the spell going.”

“Why not tie a real tourniquet? And what about Melody?” I asked, casting a glance at my near catatonic niece down the hall.

“She’s safe behind that barrier. We need to hurry. The spell’s safer than a real tourniquet, but I can’t hold it for too long. Let’s go!” he ordered, suddenly taking on an entirely new persona. The nervous and meek Compass had been replaced by Dr. Compass, Wasteland M.D. and I was actually pretty impressed by his cool head under these circumstances. “Come on, Aria!”

“Right!” I said. Pushing my head under Shadowbuck and getting a thin coat of blood on my face that made my skin crawl, I let gravity do the work. When he was safely on my back, I could feel his every shuddering breath, and hear every low moan as his entire body shook. I knew we had to hurry, even I was trying not to go into shock, so I gave Melody one last glance. “I’ll be right back, Melody. Just hang on. Everything’s going to be fine.”

I was lying through my teeth. I didn’t know if everything was going to be fine. Actually, I knew everything wasn’t going to be fine. Equestria and the princesses were gone and we were trapped in hell. Even if we got out of this, what other injuries, deaths, and horrors beyond my imagination waited out in those ruins.

“Aria,” Shadow muttered weakly from my back as we stood in the elevator.

“Yes?” I whispered.

“You remind me...”

“Wait! Remind you of what? ” It was too late. Before I could ask, he had already slipped into unconsciousness. A shiver ran down my spine and my mouth went as dry as the Appleloosan desert. “Hold on, Shadow. I’m sorry I yelled at you. Please don’t die on me.”

As we rushed back across the skybridge, Shadow’s blood slowly dripping down my back, I felt a sense that life in the Equestrian Wasteland was becoming an act of futility. Was saving Shadow really the right thing to do? If we couldn’t save his hoof, he’d never be able to walk properly again. Maybe death was a kindness in this horrible, mixed up world.
No! What was I thinking? I had to stay strong. I had to keep going. I couldn’t give up. Melody, Compass, and Shadow needed me for just a little bit longer. Compass wasn’t strong enough to lift Shadow, much less cast his healing magic and carry him, and Melody would need help getting out of Gestalt and Mosaic’s office.

“I have to keep going!” I told myself.

The flame just laughed.

Footnote: 80% to next level.

Author's Footnote: Special thanks to my editor/pre-reader Chimpso for the help with editing.
Special Note: Again, I realized I needed to split things up. It looks like ‘The Path To Hell’ is getting a Part 3 too. Thanks for putting up with the constant changes, but the more I write, the longer the chapters get. I would change the titles, but they’re so perfect for what happens in these three parts and I don’t want one 60k word chapter. Anyway, my seasonal job’s over so I hope to get Part 3 out faster. I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it; it just doesn’t turn out that way in reality. Again, thanks to everyone for reading, and I’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.