There was something beeping. Sideralis opened his eyes and saw a hospital room. Everything was blurry for a moment, but then slid into perfect focus. He could hear worried voices murmuring around him. He tried to move but his legs were restrained. He blinked. There was no horn, no black spiky growths, no goopy green slime.

“You had a very bad episode… how are you feeling?”

The voice of Doctor Withers was not a welcome one. Sideralis kicked against his restraints, a feeble, useless gesture. He felt drugged, very much so. He closed his eyes, not knowing what was a dream or what was reality anymore.

“My mother was a bug.”

He heard bubbling laughter and an icy feeling slithered through his guts. That was his mother laughing. The laughter sounded wrong, it made his head hurt and he couldn’t believe that his mother found this funny.

“Sideralis, don’t worry, I’ll be right here for you until you get better,” Wisteria said.

“I saw Twilight Sparkle.” Sideralis opened his eyes. “She looked so real.”

“Twilight is dead. What you saw was a hallucination.” There was a long, drawn out pause before Doctor Withers continued: “Whatever it was that you think you saw, like having a horn, is all just a dream.”

Sideralis closed his eyes once more. He had never said anything about having a horn, had he? Maybe he had been mumbling in his sleep. Maybe he was sick. Maybe this was all a hallucination. Maybe everything was a hallucination and nothing was real.

“I refuse to trust in anything… anymore. As far as I am concerned, all of you are bugs. I’m a bug. We’re all bugs down here. Bugs… bugs… bugs…” As Sideralis’ words trailed off, he heard his mother’s laughter again. She was always so happy. So perky. Nothing ever dampened her spirits.

He felt itchy all over and opened his eyes, wondering how reality would distort next. His vision blurred over. The hospital room around him melted away and he was prepared to see the rotted, burned out ruins he was so familiar with. Instead, he saw what appeared to be another small room, very much like a hospital room. There was another bug creature staring at him. She had a blue mane, black chiton, and green eyes. Even though she was a bug, there was something about her that was pretty. She had a horn that was twisted, weird, like it had holes in it. He could see fangs. Her eyes were large, almost luminous, and on her face there was an expression of… concern?

Why would a bug be worried about him?

“Hey, if you can hear me, you need to wake up. I know it’s hard, but you need to fight against the Unity spell. Just hang on, we’re trying to help you, okay?”

The voice was feminine, husky, and commanding. Sideralis blinked, waiting for reality to shift once more. The tall figure looming over him remained.

“Wow, you look just like my old hated enemy, Luna,” the tall bug pony said.

Sideralis felt something weird, like a tugging sensation. Everything around him warped, becoming distorted. He saw more bugs again, including the bug that he had seen earlier, the bug that was his mother. He didn’t know how he recognised her.

“Are you with us? Sideralis, can you speak? Sideralis, I would like for you to say something… it is very important that you speak, please, make an effort,” Doctor Withers said.

Summoning his will, Sideralis lifted his head, finding it very difficult to do so. Instead of holding his anger in check, he let himself rage. He held nothing back. He let his emotions go. He drew in a deep breath and then said, “Fuck off.” It was something that nice colts never said. “All bug ponies can go fuck off.”

There was a terrible pain in between his ears as Sideralis felt himself being torn from reality once more. He felt the blackness creeping over him. This time, he did not go quietly, he raged, kicking and thrashing against his restraints.

“Nothing is real!”

This reality, whatever it was, sucked. It felt as though there was a crushing weight upon his body, which made it difficult to breathe. Each breath was a raspy, laboured wheeze that made his lungs burn and his throat felt as though he had been gargling glass and drain cleaner. Not that he had ever gargled either, but Sideralis had a pretty vivid imagination.

He became aware of a tube up his nose. It hurt. It hurt a great deal. He blinked, his vision blurry. There was a long blue horn protruding from his forehead now. The spikes that he had seen earlier were gone. Peering around, he saw an IV bag and a drip line.

“Glad to have you with us.”

It was a struggle to move his head. Why was it so hard to move? Why did he feel like he was being crushed? His sides felt itchy and something felt very, very weird against his ribs. As he struggled to move his head, something purple came into his vision.

“You’re a fighter… for a time, I thought we lost you. They pulled you back in. How are you feeling?”

The face. The eyepatch. Sideralis squinted, trying to see. Horrible scars. “My eyes…”

“From what I’ve gathered, using your eyes for the first time is difficult. I’m surprised that you can see me at all.” There was a long pause and then the purple face above Sideralis said, “You seem lucid enough. I bet you have questions. Ready for some answers?”

“Nothing is real.” Sideralis closed his eyes, which were now burning.

He felt a strange pain in his sides, like a cramp, it was as if he had six legs now. He could feel an ache in his front shoulders, another ache in his hind hips, and a strange ache someplace else. Nothing made sense. He needed to stretch, to move, he needed to make his body work again, but nothing seemed to be responding. He felt a sharp, stabbing sensation in his side and something shot out from beneath the blanket, hitting the scarred mare that called herself Twilight.

He opened his eyes, trying to see whatever it was that had shot out from his sides. He squinted, seeing at least five or six purple mares, and something else. Something blue. Something… something… something… he blinked and strained to see. He saw feathers.

“I have wings… what am I?” Sideralis asked.

“Ah, so, question and answer time.” The mare calling herself Twilight smiled.

“This isn’t real. I don’t actually have a horn or wings. This is all a hallucination. I’m sick. I’m sick. I’ll go back to sleep and all of this will go away.” Sideralis closed his eyes again, and kept them closed. “I bet you’re a bug.”

“No, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and I’m at war with the bugs. I also rescued you. As for you, and what you are, you are a failed changeling experiment,” the mare calling herself Twilight said.

Sideralis opened his eyes and stared at Twilight. She was fuzzy and blurry.

“Please, don’t be upset. I don’t think you’re a failure at all, as far as I am concerned, you’re a success.” The mare calling herself Twilight, her smile became a toothy grin and a soft, magenta glow came from her horn.

The wing protruding out from beneath the blanket was folded and pressed back into place, each movement gentle, careful, Sideralis could even describe it was loving. He felt himself calm down a little, even though he didn’t want to calm down. He wanted to rage, but he didn’t have it in him.

“Luna is real… she’s being kept prisoner. You… you’re a copy of Luna. A clone. A male clone. You are one of many. The changeling queen made many of you, all of you male, each of you a little different.” The mare calling herself Twilight took a deep breath. “She wanted to see which traits you exhibited. How you would develop. The strongest clones with the best traits, she planned to breed with, to create drones that would act as dream generators for the Unity Web. You see, Luna is getting stronger and resisting more. Luna is being forced to make every pony under changeling control dream so the changelings can feed upon their love and emotions. The changeling queen wants to replace Luna with loyal drones that will keep everypony locked away in a perpetual dream state.”

“That’s crazy talk,” Sideralis gasped.

“You however, are a failed experiment. You are too willful, like your mother.”

Sideralis felt Twilight touch him. He shivered at her touch, but it was not unwelcome. She was stroking him now, touching his neck, and he found that it was quite nice. It wasn’t like his mother touching him at all. He hoped that she wouldn’t stop. It was comforting. Something inside of him wanted this to be real. Something inside of him desperately wanted for this to be real.

“A while back, the changelings decided to see if they could fix you. They moved you out of Canterlot, away from your mother, away from Luna. She was reaching you through dreams, giving you willpower, and helping you resist. Luna was fighting back the only way that she could. You were receptive. So they took you and they carried you far away, hoping that distance would help. You were stored in the Las Pegasus vault, far, far away from Luna’s influence. Turns out, you have a tough mind. You still resisted them. So, you became an experiment in breaking down a willful mind. You were placed in therapy and you had your memory modified many, many times. Finally, they went with a loving family approach, because that seemed to be getting the best results.”

“How do you know this?” Sideralis asked.

Twilight sighed. “There are moments when Luna is lucid enough to send me a dream. She keeps me informed.”

“But… but I can remember being raised by my mother… I can remember being a little colt… I can remember playing with her on the playground. Going to school. I can remember being sick… having the flu… and she took care of me, wiping my nose,” Sideralis stammered.

“The loving family approach started about six months ago. All of those memories were manufactured. None of them were real. Your mother was just a changeling feeding off of your love… and so was your father.”

“But the pills… the therapy… the everything—”

“All designed to wear down your mind so that you would conform and obey.”

Struggling, straining, Sideralis focused on Twilight, wanting to see her. He saw her lean forwards until she was almost nose to nose with him. He could see into her surviving eye. He didn’t shy away from her touch. He didn’t feel disgusted, he didn’t have feelings of revulsion, he didn’t have the need to gag.

“How is our patient?” a voice asked.

Sideralis felt a chill. He recognised that voice. That husky, commanding voice.

“I think he’s coming around,” Twilight replied. “Hey, why don’t you come and introduce yourself. The sooner that you two get acquainted, the better. It’s going to be a shock no matter how we do it.”

His heart thudding, Sideralis saw something tall now standing over him. He began to tremble and his legs gave little, useless, feeble kicks. It was her. The tall bug pony. He whimpered and began to fear that this really was just another hallucination.

“This is my friend, Chrysalis,” Twilight said, introducing Sideralis to Chrysalis.

“That’s Queen Chrysalis, you pontificating purple pony princess, and don’t you forget it.”

The tall bug pony lowered her head and Sideralis could feel her breathing on him. He found himself staring into her eyes very much against his will. She had fangs. Why was he with bugs? Why was Twilight with bugs? Why were there bugs? Bugs!

“He don’t look too good,” Chrysalis said in a low voice as she backed away. “Anyway… Sideralis, I’m the one that pulled the interference spines from your horn. You can thank me later… you’re a lucky bastard, did you know that? Most ponies die from being jerked out of the dreamscape… but you lived… for the unicorns that we’ve plucked out of the dreamscape that manage to live, most of them die from having the interference spines pulled out of their horns. But you… you lived. I do believe that you have Luna’s terrible tenacity. I don’t know if I should congratulate you or feel sorry for you.”

“Spines?” Sideralis asked. “Those spike things I saw?”

“Yep.” Twilight glanced at Chrysalis, smiled, and then looked down at Sideralis. “Before the takeover, a plague happened. Unicorns started getting black, spiny growths along their horns. It caused some pretty serious problems with magic.”

Staring up at Chrysalis, Sideralis asked, “Why is there a bug here?”

“Oh… that’s a long story,” Twilight replied as Chrysalis started laughing. “You know what, we’ll talk more later. I’m going to introduce you to your new best friend and you’re going to take those first few steps down the long road to recovery.”

“I have more questions,” Sideralis said, wanting to know more, wanting to understand everything that was going on, needing answers. “Don’t leave me… I… don’t want to be alone.”

“Oh, I can’t stay, but don’t worry. You’ve been cut off from your fellow equines for a long, long time… you have a sickness and it’s made you a little dissociative. But not to worry. There’s a cure, nothing like a good Creamy Stout to fix the problem.” Twilight laughed and then gave Sideralis an affectionate pat.

“Hi, I’m Creamy Stout, and I’m your new best friend!”

Straining to see, Sideralis peered at the mare that had just entered his room. She was an amber golden colour, her mane was poofy and the colour of cream. She too, was wearing an eyepatch, just like Twilight. Her voice was chirpy and made his ears hurt. She appeared to be an earth pony, but Sideralis was having a hard time seeing.

Much to Sideralis’ shock and surprise, Creamy Stout crawled into bed with him. He had no strength to fight back, no means to resist, and he found himself swept up into her embrace. He felt her snuggle up against his back.

“Ponies pulled from the Unity Web are starved for love and affection. It’s hard being out in the real world. Twilight discovered through some trial and error that a constant companion is needed. So… from now until you get better, you and I are glued together. I’m your new snuggle buddy. I’m also going to be your physical therapist. I’m gonna help you get walking. I’ve never done this before, but I was selected because you and I are compatible personality types and I signed up for this and I’m finally going to make a difference in this war.”

She was breathing in his mane. It felt good. So very good. He didn’t shudder in revulsion at her touch. He could feel her heart beating against his spine. She was warm. This was wonderful.

“Do you have any questions?” Stout asked.

“You and Twilight are both missing an eye,” Sideralis said. “What happened?”

“I was infected with a parasite.” Stout shuddered for a moment, her cheerful demeanour gone. “There are mind control parasites. They’re tiny, and they live under your eyelids for a time, gestating. After a while, they bore into your eyeball, feed on the goo inside, and then they grow, latching on to the optic nerve and tunneling into the brain where the optic nerve connects.”

“That’s horrible,” Sideralis whispered.

“Mine was caught early, before there was brain damage. Chrysalis pulled my eye out and saved my life.” Stout let out a soft laugh. “Good news is, now I’m immune. The parasites won’t go after one eyed hosts. They need things with good vision. Twilight had one too. Only Twilight pulled out her own eye. It almost killed her.”

Horrified, Sideralis shivered. “So why is there a bug helping us?”

“That’s a long and kinda funny story,” Stout replied, sounding cheerful once more. “When Queen Mariposa invaded, she sent infiltration agents into Chrysalis’ ranks. She sent parasites that infested most of Chrysalis’ swarm. In no time at all, Mariposa had doubled her ranks, adding thousands to her army. She attacked Chrysalis. Chrysalis almost died, but managed to escape.”

“So… bugs attacking bugs.”

“Yup.” Stout gave Sideralis a squeeze. “Mariposa went on to send her army of parasites against Equestria. She created the plague against unicorns. Equestria was left without magic. Another plague struck the pegasi. Equestria was left without flight. Then the mind control parasites began eating their way into ponies’ eyeballs. Nopony knew. When Mariposa finally revealed herself, Equestria was defenseless. She had an entire sleeper army just waiting for her. The unicorns that still had magic, most of them were infected with the mind control parasite. Equestria was crushed in just a few days and Mariposa seized control. The sisters were sick, stricken, having trouble with their magic and both were unable to fly.”

“What about Twilight?” Sideralis asked.

“Twilight discovered that she was infected… I don’t know how. She tore out her own eyeball. She had the horn spines too, and her magic was all messed up. She still managed to kill over a thousand changelings during the battle of Ponyville. During the battle, a mostly dead Chrysalis showed up, begging Twilight for her help, because Chrysalis was dying.”

“And Twilight didn’t kill her?” Sideralis found that he was quite relaxed, which sort of worried him. A part of his brain stopped caring if this was real or not. This was nice. With every word that Creamy Stout spoke, her hot breath blew over his ears and made his body twitch and jerk. She was rubbing him, touching him, and he never wanted this to end.

“Twilight almost killed her. Chrysalis is a fast talker when she needs to be. The two formed an alliance. Twilight grabbed as many ponies as she could and she fled Ponyville. She had to make a heart breaking decision. Save as many ponies as she could, or go and try to help the sisters in Canterlot, potentially losing herself in the process. Twilight chose to run. She doesn’t like to talk about it, so don’t bring it up. She beats herself up over it.”

“So Twilight escaped,” Sideralis said.

“Yeppers peppers… she got away and took a bunch of ponies with her.” Creamy Stout pulled Sideralis a little closer and then began to make his legs move, using her hooves to get them to kick around. “Twilight was pretty messed up though. She had torn out her own eye. Chrysalis was a mess, but was recovering because of the love of the ponies around her. Chrysalis did what nopony expected her to do. She saved Twilight.”

“What happened?”

“Twilight was really, really messed up from tearing out her own eye, she had the black spines in her horn, and she was wounded from the battle of Ponyville. Chrysalis began working to heal Twilight and look after the many injured ponies. Chrysalis pulled the black spines from Twilight’s horn. Twilight almost died from the shock… Chrysalis merged their minds together so she could share in Twilight’s shock and pain, reducing the mental strain on Twilight. The merger almost killed both of them, but Chrysalis held on somehow, and managed to pull out the spines.”

Sideralis, silent, did not know what to say.

“After that, Chrysalis and Twilight were good friends. Close. Very close. Chrysalis is very, very protective of Twilight. Don’t let the teasing they do with one another fool ya, they’re close.” Stout began rubbing around Sideralis’ wing. “Chrysalis is not a bad sort. She’s promised to give me my eye back. She’s working on a replacement. I’m going to be test subject number one and I’m going to have to vat grown eye to replace the one I’ve lost. She’s also working on wing replacements for the pegasi who were hardest hit by the plague and actually had to have their wings amputated. We’d all be dead and the resistance would be gone if we didn’t have Chrysalis.”

“But she’s a bug,” Sideralis whispered.

“Yes, but she’s a very good bug,” Stout replied.

Author's Notes:

Still with me? Good... good... I bet there are questions right now. Feel free to ask, but you might not get an answer.

Pay attention to the details folks. If you read chapter one and paid attention, you'd know that Sideralis was dark blue, had a light blue mane, and had teal eyes. That was a pretty big clue buried in plain sight. There are a number of big clues buried here as well.

Chrysalis might be the master of deception and deceit, but Mariposa is the master of parasitic infection.

I really, really wish that Fimfic allowed for longer character lists. Because I can't announce all of the great characters that are going to appear. This blows.