“It’s been a very long day for you, are you sure you’re up for this?” Stout reached out and stroked Sideralis’ neck. “You’ve been going non stop since early this morning. I worry about you, Sid.”

“Your workday never ends, you look after me all day and all night,” Sideralis replied, looking Stout in her single surviving eye and seeing a reflection of blue within the orange. “I can do no less. Doctor Gizmo just wants to do a few tests and all I need to do is just sit there while I’m being poked and prodded.”

“He’s a trooper.” Mjölna turned and looked at Twilight. “Are you going to join us?”

“Maybe in a bit,” Twilight shrugged and then yawned before she continued, “there are a few things I need to take care of first though.” Twilight, who squirmed in her seat, looked over at Sideralis. “You know, there is a feeling, and it is a lot like relief… knowing that I am no longer the sole Crowned Head of Equestria. Sideralis, I know this is a lot to dump on you, I know this is unfair, I know that you are not ready for this job—but I wasn’t either. Princess Luna believes in you. I believe in you. It seems that Scootaloo believes in you. You have a purpose… already you are making friends who will help you. Here is some advice… stick close to your friends and let them help you.” Twilight paused and rubbed at her remaining eye. “I miss my friends.”

“You two, go ahead, I’ll catch up,” Mjölna said to Stout and Sideralis. “I think Twilight needs a moment.”

“Stout?” Sideralis looked at his companion as they traveled along the moving sidewalk. He was sitting down as they moved, glad for a moment of rest. His legs ached something awful, but he wasn’t about to say anything or complain.

“You okay? Do you want to go home?” Stout turned to look at Sideralis, a look of worry and concern hung over her face like clouds over the sun.

“No, nothing like that… Stout, I don’t like these inhibitors. I keep hearing about things done to you and the others. I don’t like it… it’s like… like… it feels like slavery to me.” Sideralis inhaled, sucking in a deep breath, he held it, and then let it all out in a long gasp. “I don’t like it at all, and the more I hear about it, the more I learn about it, the angrier I feel.”

“It was necessary to satisfy the need for public safety.” Stout frowned and deep worry wrinkles formed along her muzzle. “We’re not like normal ponies anymore. We’re so much stronger, faster, more capable, more durable, we’re so far beyond them… some ponies, and others as well, feel threatened by our very existence. Not everypony is happy that we exist. Twilight was backed into a corner and forced to agree to a compromise. She wasn’t happy about it, but it was the only way to move forwards. I just try not to think about it too much. I mean, it doesn’t effect me much, or maybe it does and I just ignore it. I dunno.” Stout shrugged.

Sideralis stared at the walls. There were no windows here, just painted murals of clouds, greenery, wildlife, and sunshine. A flock of birds flew in front of a bright yellow sun and golden yellow sunbeams speared through the picture, six in total. Each sunbeam had big bold words on it. Honesty, loyalty, generousity, laughter, kindness, and magic.

“Stout, why give so much power to somepony if you can’t trust them? This feels wrong… maybe Mustang feels unhappy and is angry because she lacks control over her own life. I mean, some other pony is in control over you… that’s wrong. You should be your own pony—”

“Sid, I was given a tremendous amount of power, and other ponies felt the need to make certain there were safeguards—”

“BUT THOSE ARE WRONG!”

Sideralis’ voice thundered through the corridor, startling all of the ponies nearby. Several pegasi were so alarmed that they took wing and flew off. But no one pony was more startled than Sideralis; he sat blinking, eyes wide, his breathing heavy, his sides heaving.

“Was that the Royal Canterlot Voice?” a nearby unicorn mare asked in a soft, curious, reverent voice. She bowed her head. “He really is an alicorn… I’ve only heard stories… I didn’t know what to believe.” She lowered her head a little more, almost as if she was bowing.

“He really is an alicorn…” an earth pony stallion whispered as he too, bowed his head.

“Now there are two of them… he’s real,” the unicorn mare said to her companions.

“I don’t like how this is turning out.” Stout noticed more and more of the the ponies around them bowing their heads. Before, Sideralis was a curiousity, something to stare at if ponies even bothered looking at him at all. Her enhanced hearing had heard all the whispers and talk that went on through hushed whispers and soft words spoken into perked ears.

“He’s one of the big alicorns, like the Royal Pony Sisters… he and Twilight together can save us…”

“Here is where we get off,” Stout grumbled as she grabbed Sideralis in her telekinetic field, lifted him, and stepped off the moving sidewalk. “Wave goodbye to the nice ponies, Sideralis.”

Lifting his hoof, Sideralis managed to smile as he waved goodbye.

The room was filled with flashing lights, big machines, machines that spat out rolls of paper with words and symbols printed on them… it was overwhelming. Stuff beeped. Lights blinked on and off. Large projection screens displayed weird symbols, images, and words.

It was like something out of a movie that Sideralis had seen… but then he remembered that the movies he had seen weren’t real. Yet, they were his only frame of reference. His outburst in the corridor was now forgotten.

“Ah, Sideralis!” Doctor Gizmo Gears strode forwards. “So glad to see you, yes, always a pleasure… finally, an alicorn to study! Doctor Blaven, get over here!”

A charcoal coloured unicorn with a grey mane hurried over, adjusting his glasses. “Eureka! We’ve hit the magical jackpot!”

“Indeed we have, my esteemed colleague,” Doctor Gizmo agreed, his head bobbing. “The first test will be very simple. All you’ll need to do is lay down and get comfortable. Then, we can scan you… easy, right?”

“Okay…” Sideralis eyed the two unicorns. Both of them had looks of manic glee in their eyes. He blinked and wondered if all scientists were perhaps a little crazy. Twilight Sparkle certainly had an off kilter aura about her, Queen Chrysalis sometimes looked a little off when she talked about making new pony parts or her latest theory, but these two ponies looked positively unhinged at the moment. “Are you going to stick things in my bum?”

“Uh, only if you consent and sign a waiver form,” Doctor Blaven replied.

Wide eyed, Sideralis blinked a few times and then looked at Stout. He saw her shrug and then heard her say, “Stuff gets inserted in my bum all the time. I have a diagnostic access port back there for my rear systems.” Sideralis shuddered.

“Um, we should get you comfortable so the scans can commence. I’ve been waiting for a very long time. A very, very long time. I have theories that might finally be answered!” Doctor Gizmo moved along a large console and began flipping switches.

Sideralis felt himself lifted in a powerful telekinetic field, this one from Doctor Blaven. It tingled and crackled against his pelt like static electricity and caused his feathers to fluff out somewhat. He had to fight against the urge to giggle.

“If you hurt him, if he cries out, if you cause him pain—”

“Stout, I assure you, no harm will come to him. Today’s tests are just scans and examinations.” Gizmo turned to look at Stout, then returned his attention the big console covered in hundreds of buttons and switches. “You know, somepony should activate your royal guard protocols.”

“Um, I don’t think we should talk about that just now,” Stout replied. She turned and looked at Sideralis, and sure enough, the stallion was frowning as he was settled down upon a large bright blue cushion.

“She should be free to activate her own royal guard protocols if that is what she wants to do,” Sideralis said in a low voice that did well in expressing his irritation. “It’s not right that you have that much power over her.”

“Um, I have no control over that sort of thing, I have to do as I am told—”

“No!” Sideralis’ nostrils flared and he shook his head. “Nopony should have to tell you to do the right thing… it should just be done! This is like slavery… Stout should have control over her own body!”

“Um, might I suggest taking this up with Twilight Sparkle? I’m really not in a position to discuss this or do anything about it. I just follow orders.” Doctor Gizmo stood with his ears splayed out, looking apologetic and a bit sad.

“Sid, for now, please, just… let it drop, okay?” Stout turned to her companion and gave him a pleading look. “Things are the way they are. No sense being angry about it. I have this fear that the moment that we start discussing the morality of this whole thing, ponies are going to bring up questions about if I should even be allowed to exist… and that bothers me, so let’s just drop it.”

Opening his mouth, Sideralis almost said something in reply, but fell silent. He looked at Stout, his vision fuzzing in and out. There were things he wanted to say, but he didn’t know how to say them. He lacked the words, the understanding, and the means to communicate everything he felt. He let out an indignant nicker and then dropped his head down to the cushion. His ears perked as something let out a shrill beep and then he saw an aura of rose coloured light form around him.

Stout, staring at the stallion on the cushion, came to a conclusion. He was a lot like Twilight Sparkle and she wondered if it was something about being an alicorn—Sideralis projected this aura of confidence and command… and that he was right, simply because he had said so. This wasn’t some trivial issue or an argument over something meaningless that ponies sometimes bickered about. This was a big issue, perhaps one of the largest issues facing ponykind at the moment, and Sideralis was firmly entrenched in his position… he had the unshakable sort of confidence that came with being right; both knowing it and believing it.

Which was further bolstered by the fact that Sideralis had nothing to gain from this, he wasn’t doing this for his personal benefit. He had drawn a line in the sand and now stood in the defense of others. There were some similarities to Twilight Sparkle alright.

In that moment, she felt something blossom within her. It made her feel like a mare. It ignited her equinity and caused it to blaze, almost like rolling in the grass had awoken something inside of her. Whatever it was, she felt it most when she looked at Sideralis.

“Froinlaven! Look at these readings, Doctor Blaven!” Gizmo gestured to his colleague to come over and have a look. “Some are what I predicted, others are completely unexpected!” So overcome with excitement, the doctor snorted.

“Oh my, what do we have here? Will you look at that?” Blaven peered through his bifocals at the projection display. “Oh, that is going to change everything we think we know, wait till Chrysalis sees this, she’s going to be beside herself.”

Nearby, a machine began spitting out a great deal of paper, all of it covered in squiggly lines, numbers, letters, and all kinds of other garble. Another machine spat out a ribbon covered in weird arcane symbols.

“Am I reading this right?” Blaven peered at the data through his bifocals, his eyes large and owlish in his lenses. He smacked his lips, looked at Sideralis, and then looked back at the data once more.

“I think so,” Gizmo replied. “This might just be the single most important discovery about project Rainbow Revival so far.”

“What is it?” Sideralis asked from where he lay on a cushion.

“Your wings,” Gizmo replied, his head bobbing with excitement, “your wings are amazing! They give off the same magical signature as a unicorn horn, only much, much stronger!”

“We’ve been studying regular pegasus wings for a while and we’ve never noticed the magical signature… it’s not strong enough to stand out against the magical signature that the common pegasus has emanating from their whole body,” Blaven continued.

Grinning, Gizmo stepped away from the console. “But with you and your amplified alicorn magic, your wings stand out… which means that pegasi wings operate like unicorn horns… they must have some means of manipulating the magic around them, which is probably how pegasi can fly… those wings are far too small for a mammal of that size to have flight capabilities.”

“I wonder what the results would be if we could have studied Rainbow Dash back when she was in her prime… no doubt that she would give off a significant magical signature from her wings because she could create a rainboom. I am betting that her readings would have been very much like a strong unicorn’s magic, perhaps like Twilight when she was still a unicorn,” Blaven said as he rubbed his chin with his hoof and continued reading the data as he spoke.

“Blaven, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Gizmo asked.

“I dunno, Gizmo… where we would we find one hundred thousand gallons of cottage cheese and two tons of thermite?” Blaven replied.

“No, you idiot, by the stars, you have a one hundred and forty two intelligence quotient and it shows, you dimwit… argh!” Gizmo ground his teeth together.

“You’re only twenty three points higher, no need to rub it in!” Blaven looked at his colleague and gave him a wounded stare.

Stout, unable to resist herself, began to giggle.

“If Chrysalis’ theory is correct, and alicorns are universal donors, we might be able to take bone, tissue, and marrow samples from Sideralis’ wings and use those to help rebuild the disease ravaged wings of the pegasi. We could find a cure… of course, that would mean giving a whole bunch of ponies alicorn flight power, maybe, possibly, but Chrysalis will be intrigued to know about this!” Gizmo Gears turned towards Sideralis and stared.

“I’m lost.” Sideralis offered up his best confused smile. “But I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“There are other curious readings,” Doctor Gizmo said, still staring at Sideralis.

“Like what?” Sideralis looked up at the doctor, who was now standing a little closer.

“Your tail.” Doctor Gizmo squinted as he looked at Sideralis. “I don’t understand.”

“He flicks his tail a lot,” Stout said.

Gizmo paused, then turned to look at Stout. “Oh really?”

“Fluttershy and I tell him to cut it out, because ponies might think he has bugs,” Stout replied. She tilted her head to one side and looked at the doctor.

“Excuse me, Sideralis, but would you mind flicking your tail while we still have the machine on?” Doctor Gizmo turned and gave Sideralis a curious, shrewd look.

Feeling a little self conscious because of Stout’s words, Sideralis nodded. He said nothing, took a deep breath, and flicked his tail. For a moment, nothing happened. Sideralis started to let out a sigh of relief, but then an alarm sounded, a bright red light began flashing, and a nearby machine let out a squeal of feedback.

“What the… why are we experiencing gravity fluctuations! I think the machines have gone faulty… everything spiked higher than what the machines are capable of reading, everything is crashing! Crashing! Froinlaven! Oh my goodness, oh the equinity! Fuses have popped like popcorn!” As Gizmo raced around, smoke began to pour out of the large console he had been monitoring.

“The crystal transistors are fried!” Blaven ran off to a closet and returned with a fire extinguisher held in his telekinetic field. He began to spray white foam into the central console as he coughed from the acrid smoke.

“FIRE!” a disembodied voice said. “FIRE!” it repeated. “Please evacuate section Honeydew!”

“Welp, my directives are screaming at me, sorry,” Stout said as she barreled forwards, knocking Gizmo out of the way. She extended one foreleg, fired up her telekinetic projector, lifted Sideralis, who was watching all of this in wide eyed mouth opened horror, and then hurried off for the exit.

“Are both of you okay?” Twilight Sparkle approached the cafeteria table at a brisk trot with Mjölna moving right beside her. “I heard there was a fire… lots of damage… what happened?”

“Sideralis flicked his tail and the machines went nuts,” Stout replied.

Stout’s words froze Twilight Sparkle in her tracks. The alicorn began chewing on her lip as she stared at Sideralis, who was sipping root beer through a straw. She turned, looked at Mjölna, scowled, still chewing her lip, and then looked once more at Sideralis.

“For a second, the sensors in the lab detected microgravity. We test out various devices involving flight and levitation in there, replacements for pegasus wings if we can’t find an organic solution. This is peculiar… and I cannot help but wonder if this is coincidence or if you had something to do with this, Sideralis.” Twilight pulled a chair away from the table and sat down. Twilight shook her head and then muttered, “Discord snapped his fingers… Pinkie Pie… she flicked her tail a lot…”

“What?” Sideralis asked around his straw.

“Oh, nothing, I was thinking out loud,” Twilight replied as Mjölna also took a seat beside her. “We can talk about it later. I might try some tests,” Twilight paused and looked at Sideralis, “it has been a very long day for you… you should probably go home and get some much needed rest. Do you have any questions?”

Sideralis lifted his head away from his straw, his tail flicking with subconscious effort. “Yes, actually.”

“Well, lay it on me.” Twilight gave Sideralis a pleasant smile.

“Ponies like Mjölna and Stout… what do you think they should be called? I mean, if they are part of a new tribe that is developing, a tribe needs a name, right? I’ve heard somepony mention electrocorns and that just sounds… stupid.” Sideralis narrowed his eyes and locked his gaze upon Twilight.

“Oh, I have a name, but I think it’s silly… it’s a visual thing, not so much something you can say and have it recognised, but once you see it, you can recognise it for what it is,” Twilight replied.

In the distance, somepony was shouting and waving about the fire in the Honeydew sector.

“What is it?” Sideralis asked, feeling curious.

Twilight puffed out her cheeks, her horn glowed a bright magenta, and an ink pen popped into existence. She grabbed a nearby napkin in her telekinesis, pulled it close, hunched over, and scribbled out a word in a smooth, flowing script. After she was done, she pushed it over to where Sideralis could see it.

C/Equine.

Sideralis stared down at the napkin for a moment and then looked at Twilight.

“I told you it was silly,” she said in a low voice. Twilight cleared her throat. “Letter C for cybernetic, letter E for enhanced, and then those letters merged with equine, as a reminder of what they still are. One of us. No matter how changed they might be.”

“I actually like that,” Mjölna said in a solemn voice. The older mare looked at Stout and raised an eyebrow, giving her companion a quizzical, questioning look.

“I don’t think it’s silly at all. If I’m going to be called something, I’d rather have that than ‘electrocorn’ or something dumb. Twilight, why didn’t you bring this up sooner?” Stout looked at Twilight and watched the alicorn shrug.

“This is a very serious subject matter, and I felt this was silly,” Twilight said.

“This is the name I shall give my tribe.” Sideralis turned and looked at both Stout and Mjölna, seeking approval.

“Wait, are you serious?” Twilight paused and then waved her hoof around as her wings fluttered against her sides. “I mean, not just about the name, but about the whole tribe thing?”

“Isn’t that why Princess Luna sent me?” Sideralis, who radiated an eerie sense of confidence and calm, turned his teal eyes upon Twilight Sparkle. “If we have a name, we are more than just a tool, a weapon, or a thing. We need that reminder, to let other ponies know that Stout and Mjölna, and others, are still ponies. I think it is time that we give them a reminder. If they chose not to remember, or choose to ignore this issue, then it is time to force them into reconsideration. I will not have them oppressed. It is time that you make up for what you allowed to happen.”

“Right now, he is so much like Princess Luna that it’s scary,” Mjölna whispered.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, Sideralis, I agree.”

Author's Notes:

See-quine.

Anyhow, there is a lot to discuss. A lot happened in this chapter.

We move ever closer to the council meeting , the first of many of Sideralis' tests.