Exhausted, Sideralis teetered into the apartment on wobbling legs, his tail twitching as he crossed the threshold of the door, he staggered over to the pillow pit, and fell in. He lay there in a heap, his head resting upon a bright pink pillow that had yellow fringe and little butterflies of all different colours all over it. He spread out one wing, reaching it out as far as it would go, and then did the same for the other. His wingspan was impressive by any standard.

Sniffing, he made no effort to raise his head. He heard Fluttershy moving around the kitchen, heard the sound of hooves, and then the soft smacking sound of a gentle kiss of some kind.

“Heya,” Stout said, “did you have a nice, restful day?”

“Yes I did,” Fluttershy replied, “I had some much needed time to myself. I did some shopping and then came home and took a nice nap.”

“What’s for dinner?” Stout asked.

“Lentils, vegetable curry, rice, and chickpeas.”

Sideralis felt his ears perk and he found himself sniffing. He heard hooves again on the other side of the kitchen counter, and then he saw Fluttershy approaching him. She had a soft smile upon her face, and he found that he was happy to see her.

“You had a long day… I’ve been worried, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked in a sweet, demure voice.

“I’m good,” Sideralis replied, “tired though.”

“My energy levels are low,” Stout muttered from in the kitchen.

“Eat something.” Fluttershy turned around and looked while making a faint ‘meep’ sound. “How low?”

“Real low, I had to carry Sid a whole bunch. He got tuckered out towards the end.” Stout opened the fridge and began to rummage around. “Need fuel, now a priority.”

“Stout drinks fuel? Like what, lamp oil or something?” Sideralis managed to lift his head, it felt like a sack full of bricks.

“Oh, well, Stout could drink lamp oil, or any sort of short chain hydrocarbons. She has a reactor that can convert anything to fuel, but her system is optimised for—”

In the kitchen, Sideralis heard the sound of a bottlecap being cracked. Once again, his ears perked, hoping for root beer. His orange tongue licked his blue lips and he let out a hopeful gasp. But Stout was not holding a root beer bottle… she was holding—

“—alcohol,” Fluttershy said, “Chrysalis optimised all of them to run on alcohol… ethanol of any type, the more energy dense the better. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of Stout or Mustang becoming some terrible drunkard, but then Chrysalis explained that Stout would never be able to get drunk, make bad decisions, and leave me heartbroken. After that, I was okay with it.” Fluttershy smiled at Stout. “You be a good filly and you drink your beer, Creamy Stout.”

“I was named after my favourite drink,” Stout said after she swallowed. “I have no memory of my real name, or my parents, or anything. Fluttershy named me, not only because of what I like to drink, but also how I look.” The mare belched, ignored Fluttershy’s look of disapproval, and then shot her bottle into the recycling bin. “That’s good, I’m getting another one.”

This was unreal. Not only was Stout some kind of science fiction pony, but she was powered by alcohol. She was fueled by alcohol! Who would do such a thing? He heard the fridge open, then heard the clink of glass, and then his ears heard the hiss of a bottle being cracked open.

“Mmm, curry,” Stout said just before she upended her bottle and guzzled it all down.

Sideralis’ head dropped down on the pillow. He was tired, so very tired. He hoped that dinner would be done soon. His eyelids were feeling too heavy to keep open. He blinked a few times, yawned, and then, he decided to close his eyes, he just needed a few minutes to rest them and then he’d be fine.

Dresses. There were a lot of pretty dresses on pony shaped dressforms. A spool of red ribbon lay on the floor. Pins adorned a small pincushion. There was a faint mechanical hum. Sideralis blinked. He was standing in a familiar place and there was a familiar white unicorn labouring away behind a sewing machine.

“Oh… hello, darling!” Rarity ceased her work, rose to her hooves, stretched, and then came over to greet Sideralis. “I’ve made myself at home and I’ve been busy.”

His brain was a mystery. Sideralis stared at Rarity, not understanding her. He had experienced several dreams about her now. She seemed to be getting stronger, more capable, and seemed to know more with each visit.

“You’ve met with Scootaloo… she is such a dear, ‘tis a real pity what has happened to her. Princess Luna made her a promise that one day, she would soar over the skies of Equestria. Then, the war happened. Such a pity.”

“How do you know all of this?” Sideralis looked at Rarity and then was distracted by a red gauzy dress covered in sequins. The sequins twinkled in the light like little stars, beautiful little stars. Sideralis’ mind tried to picture the dress on Stout. She was big, she was bulky, she was solid, while the dress was little, dainty, and flimsy. It would cling to her like a second skin. Ooh, la la…

“Why… I don’t know, darling,” Rarity replied, “that is a good question. I am a memory, a figment of imagination, I was given life by shame, guilt, remorse, sadness, and grief. I used to feel so bad about everything, I tried to comfort Twilight… she gave me life, the Princess of Friendship needed a friend and she created one to assuage her grief, but Luna changed me. Repurposed me, I do believe. And now, I just know stuff. Perhaps I only know what you already know, maybe your mother has been burying secrets in your brain and she is using me as some kind of voice to allow you to speak to the depths of your subconscious—but I wouldn’t know, darling, I am utterly mystified by my own words right now.”

The white unicorn mare moued, looking pouty.

“Something tells me that my real life counterpart was never this smart, what a dreadful thing to say about one's self.”

“So you are a way for me to dredge up all the secrets hidden within me?” Sideralis raised his eyebrow and studied the marshmallowy little mare before him. He watched her shrug. This was frustrating in the extreme. He didn’t understand what was going on, and he didn’t like it.

“Darling, you look… disappointed.” Rarity’s lips protruded in a pout.

“I am.” Saying nothing else, Sideralis turned around and stepped through the door behind him. The world fell away, and the memory of a place he never visited faded from his mind.

Sideralis emerged into some kind of stadium. It was made of clouds. It was empty, as far as he could see. He looked around, curious as to where he was, and wondered what was going on. As it turned out, the stadium was not empty. He saw a familiar orange pegasus, and she was approaching him.

“I just laid down to take a much needed nap, and here you are, doing your thing, just as Princess Luna promised,” Scootaloo said as she approached. When she reached Sideralis, she reared up, put her forelegs around his neck, and gave him a hug.

She was free from braces, she had hooves again, and she had beautiful wings, orange, like the rest of her, but the tips of her feathers were all violet, like her mane. She was beautiful and whole once more.

After a long moment of squeezing Sideralis’ neck, Scootaloo let go, backed away, and sat down on a stadium bench seat. She looked up at the night blue alicorn, her eyes full of adoration and wonder.

“You only have a tiny fraction of your mother’s power, and your range is limited. Princess Luna keeps her promises… she promised me that one day—”

“You’d soar over the skies of Equestria?” Sideralis said, finishing Scootaloo’s sentence for her. He took a seat as well, settling himself on the stiff cloud that formed the bench, and never once took his eyes off of Scootaloo.

“I was a little filly… my wings were stunted and deformed. She promised me that she would find a way of healing me somehow, or some way of allowing me to fly. She said that one day, I would be just as fast as Rainbow Dash, the stars said so, and the stars never lie.”

“I know nothing about the stars,” Sideralis said. He watched as Scootaloo’s wavy mane blew in the breeze. “So, what did Princess Luna do in other ponies’ dreams?”

“Well, when I was a little filly, she came to me… I was on a camping trip with Rainbow Dash. I was scared out of my mind, afraid of the Olden Pony. Princess Luna came and almost made me wet the bed. Well, sleeping bag. The next night, I heard the story about the Headless Horse and that scared me, but I refused to admit it. I wanted to be awesome, just like Rainbow Dash. I kinda worshipped her. So, Princess Luna almost scares me to death with the Headless Horse hunting me in my nightmares. When I started to wake up, she told me that when I woke up, my greatest fear would still exist, and that everypony must face their fear.” Scootaloo’s eyes lost focus and she became wistful as she relived the memory far in her past.

“Did you face your fears?” Sideralis asked, intrigued.

“Yep.” Scootaloo said nothing else.

“Did it help you get better?” Sideralis, now feeling curious, wondered what he was afraid of. He wasn’t sure, his whole life had been mostly artificial. His fears were also most likely artificial as well, but he had no way of knowing.

“Yeah it did, without Princess Luna I would not be the fearless pegasus I am today. I still get scared, don’t get me wrong, but I never back down. I never quit. I never stop fighting, ever. I push through the pain every day, and I fight back against the fear because I know that Princess Luna keeps her promises. I’m gonna fly again someday… and it will be in the skies over Equestria. One day, I’m gonna rainboom, just like Rainbow Dash.”

Sideralis came to a realisation, his mind taking in everything that Scootaloo had just said. He thought about it, feeling a little melancholy as he rolled the thought around in his mind. He cleared his throat, looked at Scootaloo, and then he knew. “Your greatest fear right now is that Princess Luna will be unable to keep the promise she made to you as a foal, isn’t it?”

Scootaloo jerked her head away, turning to look at some cloud drifting by in the distance. Her whole body trembled and shook. In that moment, her dream self resembled her real world counterpart. Plastic prosthetic hooves, bulky, cumbersome leg braces. A thin, frail looking body… and worst of all—dessicated stumps where her wings had been. There was nothing, just naked, hairless, featherless pink stumps that were all shriveled up and wrinkled.

“I want to believe that she will, but I am so scared,” Scootaloo admitted in a frightened whisper. “I’ve already almost died a few times. She’s still a prisoner. Things look pretty grim. Princess Twilight is losing popularity. The Rainbow Revival is more than just healing Rainbow Dash… it is an actual revival… it’s become… it’s something like a religion. There are places called Rainbow Chapels where ponies go and they light up candles… rainbow candles, and they say a little prayer that we’ll get to go home someday. They pray for more alicorns… we all pray for more alicorns… been praying for a long time, we pray to the moon, we pray to the sun, and we pray and pray and pray... we just want to go home, we all do, and ponies pray that they’ll be carried home on the wings of alicorns. That is why the end goal of the Rainbow Revival project involves turning Stout and the others into alicorns, or at least ponies that look like alicorns… we’ll have the power to take everypony home… I’m gonna be a part of it, I need to be a part of it, I have to… I just have to… I’m so afraid I’ll lose my faith… I don’t want to lose my faith, or my hope, or my dreams, so I just hold on tight to the promise that Princess Luna made to me. It’s all I have!”

“You’ve been praying for more alicorns?” Sideralis asked as he scooted closer to Scootaloo. He reached out his wing and pulled the disease ravaged mare closer. She resisted, trying to pull away, but she was too weak to resist. He pulled her close and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“Ask Stout to take you to a Rainbow Chapel, you’ll see. So many of us have lost the faith… some of us no longer care… Some ponies stopped believing in the Rainbow Revival.” Scootaloo shook her head and then buried her face against Sideralis’ neck. “I still believe, I still have my faith. My heart has remained pure, I’ve kept my faith and I expect to be rewarded.”

Sideralis felt a heaviness in his heart. He watched the drifting clouds, thought about how sunny it was, and yet no matter where he looked in the sky, he could not find the sun. How odd.

“Mustang Salvation… she keeps the faith too. She wants to fight… no more hiding, no more waiting, she wants to go and fight fight fight and cut a bloody swath through our enemies, but they won’t let her. She is the instrument of our salvation, she says that she is supposed to be the Harbinger of the Great Ending. She won’t say what that is, but she has visions about it, dreams… I think Princess Luna made some kind of promise to her.”

“And Princess Luna keeps her promises.” Sideralis closed his eyes. “She sent me to do the work that she cannot do. I must fulfill my mother’s obligations.”

“Can you?” Scootaloo asked.

“Keep my mother’s promises?” Sideralis replied.

“Yes.” Scootaloo squirmed against Sideralis, feeling her heart thudding inside of her barrel like a caged bird.

“I think I can.” Sideralis felt something blazing within him.

Scootaloo, gripping the alicorn beside her, spoke into Sideralis’ neck. “Do you promise?”

Author's Notes:

It got dusty, damnit. Nuts.