There was a long, long list of things that Sideralis hated. He hated slipping into a cold bed. There was nothing quite so bad as wanting to get into a snuggly soft bed and then discovering that the bed was cold, so very cold against one’s skin. He disliked the shivery feeling of waiting for the bed to warm up, and he had been this way for as long as he could remember.

He hated getting up early and going to school. Wisteria was a morning pony, and she liked to tickle, like she was doing right now. He could feel something tickling the side of his face, trying to wake him up and get him out of bed. He fought the urge to wake up and drifted in the void that exists between dreaming and wakefulness.

Doctor Withers was pretty high up there on the list of things he hated. He didn’t hate her because she was a bad pony, he hated her because she was almost always right and he was almost always wrong. He was flawed, he had issues, he was broken, he needed fixing. Doctor Withers was a constant in his life. He hated her because she made him face everything he hated about himself.

He didn’t particularly care for the persistent hallucinations that he had. Seeing a ruined, broken down version of the world around him was unpleasant. He supposed it was all a part of his sickness. By extension, he hated the pills he had to take, he wanted to be a normal colt more than anything. He really did want to get better. His sickness made him different, and the other foals in school teased him, humiliated him, and shamed him for being different.

Peer pressure was on the list of things he hated, perhaps somewhere near the middle. The shame, derision, and ridicule of his peers vexed him and motivated him to get better. He wanted to fit in, he wanted to belong, he wanted acceptance… he hated being alone.

There was a strong dislike for the evidence of stupidity. Ever since Sideralis was young, he had grown to detest a number of things that reminded him of the idiocy of his fellow ponies. A turning point in his foalhood had been the discovery of a warning label on the peanut butter cookies that he loved.

May contain peanuts.

Of course it contained peanuts!

It was a peanut butter cookie!

The discovery of those dreadful words, those three dreadful words, because of those words much therapy had to take place. Doctor Withers had been kind, patient, and explained to him that ponies were stupid creatures sometimes. They needed a warning that there might be peanuts in their peanut butter cookies, because some of them were allergic to peanuts and the warning was fair. Not every pony realised that peanut butter cookies had peanuts, and as such, an explicit warning was necessary.

The evidence of such equine stupidity had caused Sideralis to have quite a neurotic meltdown and required that his medication be doubled for quite some time as he worked through the issue.

Sometimes it was the little things that annoyed him to no end and caused him the most problems in life, like an itchy butthole. There was nothing quite so bad as being fresh out of the shower, feeling clean, feeling sleek, feeling that everything was in order, and then, as one was walking to school, one little fart of the wrong variety could wreck everything. That annoying, irritating itch that wrecked the whole day. The itch that made you squirm in your seat and caused your teacher to demand that you sit still and stop squirming. The detention brought about because of said squirming. Squirming in detention because your butthole still itched and getting more detention because you just cannot sit still, no matter how hard you try. Sometimes, the itch became a pain, almost like somepony was stabbing you in the butthole with a pencil.

No, teacher, I can’t sit still… I need to attack the itch on my butthole with the belt sander in the school’s woodshop…

But of course, nopony ever talked about these things, because it was impolite. You never said why you were squirming. And if your fellow student was squirming in the seat beside you, you never mentioned their itch. It was something that society never, ever acknowledged, which was something else that Sideralis hated. Stating that you had an itchy butthole should be a universal excuse.

Can’t stop squirming during math class?

Itchy butthole.

Can’t stop wiggling around in your seat during therapy, thus causing your therapist to think that you are losing your marbles and perhaps need your medication adjusted?

Itchy butthole.

Acting irritable, crass, and annoyed, having a short temper, and being impatient with your fellow equines?

Itchy butthole.

Going to a high class soiree with your mom and dad, a really big deal, because your dad has been slaving away doing whatever it was that dads did when they left the house and went to work and dad really needs to impress his boss so he can get a raise so that you can keep eating and having a roof over your head?

Itchy butthole!

So many of life’s problems could be dismissed outright if ponies had the ability to just say what was wrong with them rather than having to worry about the shame and the ridicule of various embarrassing conditions. How many foals who been shamed for having ‘too much sugar’ or ‘too much caffeinated soda pop’ actually had itchy buttholes?

Sideralis suspected that most of society's so called ills could actually be dismissed outright as a simple hygiene issue, a need to freshen up and take a shower.

He resisted waking up, Wisteria was working him over. Something felt like feathers against his face. It tickled something awful. He had just had the most horrible dream, he had exploded. He had drank down far too much soda and then had ran around like a spaz, something his mother had warned him not to do. And then, while running around, acting like a spaz, he had shaken up all the soda in his stomach, thus leading to his inevitable detonation.

This had almost happened once in real life when his mom and dad had taken him to the all you can eat pizza buffet because he had been a good colt and had gone a whole week with no real issues. A whole week of following his therapy plan and making progress.

Upon arrival, Sideralis had attempted to drink down several gallons of root beer.

Mmm, root beer. He wondered if Wisteria would let him have some root beer with breakfast if he woke up. That might be a good reason to open his eyes. If he begged and pleaded with her and made the sad horsey face at his mother, she was sure to relent. She loved him and wanted him to be happy. Dad was stern, gruff, and the sad horsey face didn’t work on dad, but on mom, it caused a sharp yank on the old heartstrings.

Mom was susceptible to the sad horsey face. The protruding lip, the squinty eyes, the drooping ears, the lowered head, Sideralis could look a little blue like few others.

It was time to wake up and face the day.

“Rainbow Dash, stop that… please… if you don’t mind…”

Opening his eyes, Sideralis felt very disoriented. He blinked a few times, seeing blue and feeling something tickling his face. He felt heavy, strange, and a jumble of memories threatened to overwhelm him.

“Hey, we’ve been trying to wake you up for almost an hour!”

Coming into wakefulness, Sideralis suspected he was dreaming. A blue pegasus was grinning at him, a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Beside her, a yellow pegasus looked fretful. His head, which felt heavy and odd, turned, and he saw Stout. Something about her was different. Two orange eyes stared at him. Something seemed off about that.

“Hiya,” Stout said in a soft voice. Her brows furrowed. “Do you remember anything?”

Sideralis didn’t want to remember the sight of his own lower jaw laying on the ground in front of him. He shuddered. Everything felt strange. His vision seemed different somehow, but he couldn’t say why.

“Come on, talk to us, buddy,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice now sounding worried.

“What happened?” Sideralis asked.

“A whole lot—”

“Rainbow Dash, I am going to send you away if you make this complicated for him.” Fluttershy’s voice, timid sounding most of the time, sounded firm. Almost annoyed.

“Awww...”

“Sideralis, do you remember anything at all about what happened?” Stout asked.

“Eyeball turned to look at me. Then there was an explosion,” Sideralis replied.

“Yes.” Stout nodded and blinked both of her eyes. “There was an explosion. You suffered extensive injuries. To save you, Queen Chrysalis had to put you inside of a pod to stabilise you. We had to rebuild you. You’re like me now—”

“How long?” Sideralis asked, his voice low and cracking.

Stout shook her head. “Sid—”

“How long? I need to know!” Sideralis’ voice broke into a whine.

“It has been a little over eight months. Much has changed,” Stout said.

“You have both eyes now… and what is Rainbow Dash doing here?” Sideralis looked around, trying to take in his surroundings. He realised that Stout had a horn of sorts, an orange crystal that was horn shaped protruded from her forehead.

“I got better and it’s all because of you!” Rainbow Dash crawled up into the bed and cuddled up beside Sideralis. “So many of us got better… you should see Scootaloo… she’s awesome! They’ve made her an alicorn!”

Fluttershy, standing beside the bed, let out a resigned sigh.

“What happened while I was out?” Sideralis felt Rainbow Dash squeezing his neck, she was tiny beside him, so small, so thin and delicate.

“As Chrysalis was putting you back together, she made a number of important discoveries. You only had one eye after the explosion, but there was enough of the ruined eye left for her to study it. She was able to start growing eyes in vats and she found a way to graft them into ponies that needed them. Your bone marrow helped to revive many, much like your blood helped to revive Scootaloo. Chrysalis took samples of your organs, your heart, lungs, your liver, everything, and she figured out how to grow new ones. Many, many ponies were given a new lease on life. Even now, she is still working, along with an army of doctors, healing those who suffered the most from the parasites.” Stout smiled at Sideralis and lowered her head. She placed her lips against his cheek, kissing him, closing her eyes, and she let her muzzle linger against him for a moment.

“There were new breakthroughs using your blood and bone marrow combined with changeling royal jelly. It has strong regenerative properties. Pegasi started getting their wings back,” Stout continued.

“Yeah, but it’s really uncomfortable and itchy.” Rainbow Dash extended a wing towards the ceiling and gave it a wiggle.

Lifting her head, Stout opened her eyes. “You’re like me now, Sideralis. Your body was ruined in the explosion. You lost both front legs. Both wings were lost. Your lower jaw was torn free from the force of the blast. Both front legs had to be regrown, then transmuted to biosteel, and then enhanced and augmented in a number of ways. Your face was rebuilt. Your wings also, are different, as I am sure you will notice. Feathers and vulnerable flesh are no good in combat. Doctor Gizmo made mechanical replacements that duplicate the magic involved, very much like synthetic horns allow me to cast a few spells now.”

Stout stepped away from the bed and extended her wing. It was made of black steel, appeared to be almost skeletal looking, there were thin support struts and delicate metal blades protruding that mimicked feathers.

“With changeling illusion though, I can make it look just like a normal wing,” Stout said, offering a demonstration. The wings burned with green flames and once the flames faded away, the skeletal black metal was gone and was covered with golden brown feathers.

“Stout… there is something I gotta know.” Sideralis lifted his head and was startled at how easy it was. “Stout, the inhibitors—”

“Are gone, all stripped away after we were all upgraded. Twilight Sparkle issued a royal decree that all C/Equines are to be free and that we will no longer approach the slippery slope that is slavery. There has been a mixed reaction,” Stout replied.

“A lot of bad things were uncovered from the vault.” Fluttershy’s voice was a soft, trembling whisper. “The explosion did a lot of damage, but the doors were opened. Marigold had plans to make normal ponies have inhibitors… ‘for their own good.’ She was testing new implants that would have turned normal flesh and blood ponies into obedient workers.”

“Yeah, there was some troubling stuff down in the vault… in time, you’ll know more about what was down there, none of it was good.” Stout folded her wing against her side and stepped away from the bed. “Marigold’s future left me feeling troubled. She had plans for a ‘perfect society.’ A lot of ponies are spooked after the truth came out.”

“Yeah, she was working on making synthetic ponies, ponies grown in vats… Marigold figured that if a pony wasn’t born, it wasn’t technically a pony and it wouldn’t have rights. It’s like some kinda horrible science fiction egghead movie.” Rainbow Dash, still snuggling against Sideralis, shook her head. “I woke up in a very weird world. I’ve been asleep for about twenty years. Fluttershy and Twilight have gotten older… Scootaloo has grown up and become a mare. Sweetie Belle is all grown up and dating Spike. Apple Bloom has grown up into the mare that Applejack would have wanted her to be. I’m still the same age as I was when I went into stasis. Everything is so weird… I dunno how I feel about anything anymore.”

“You haven’t aged?” Sideralis blinked and his head dropped back down upon the pillow. He thought about the ponies of Equestria, locked in changeling pods, kept in stasis, never aging… they would never die, never grow old, they would be like that… forever.

“Nope… I haven’t aged at all,” Rainbow Dash replied. “It’s scary being awake now… the world… none of it makes sense anymore. I’m scared all the time now… you know, I’ve never been one for huggy stuff, but this feels nice, just being here beside you. I don’t feel scared.”

“Dash has some issues after being pulled out of her pod. I’m her companion,” Fluttershy said to Sideralis. “She’s become a little clingy, but I think that is a good change for her.”

A million questions all rose up at once, most of them about Twilight Sparkle and how she was dealing with Rainbow Dash’s return. He was curious about Mustang, worried about her. He was curious about his own body.

He wondered how he was doing. As he thought about this, something strange appeared in his vision. His vision flickered and then something floated in front of him. He blinked, trying to focus upon it, no matter where he looked, it floated in the middle of his vision.

NRG(..|.......)

Energy levels approaching critical failure. Enable self preservation protocols? (Y/N)

Pony with compromised health detected. Enable pony protection protocols? (Y/N)

Fertile female ponies detected. Enable breeding protocols? (Y/N)

Alicorn avenger startup sequence activated.

Initialising.

Directives loaded and multiple protocols available.

Avenger directive now active. Enable obliterate all enemies protocols? (Y/N)

Load error__badpony inhibitor directives not found__file or directory no longer exists.

“Stout, help me, there is a bunch of weird stuff in front of my eyes!” Sideralis squirmed in his bed, his eyes blinking, unable to make the weird floating letters go away.

“Calm down,” Fluttershy said in a low, soothing voice. She made a gentle cooing sound. “Just a bootup sequence. Stop looking at the letters and they will go away. Focus on something else, like Stout’s pretty face. You’ll get used to it.”

“Flutters, he is getting low on energy. The startup sequence and waking up took a lot out of him. He has enough love to jump start his systems, but I think he needs a little bite to eat for his organics.” Stout smiled. “Want to try getting out of bed?”

“Yeah, is it safe? Will I be weak?” Sideralis felt Rainbow Dash slipping out of bed and heard her hooves clicking on the floor.

“Sideralis… you will never know weakness ever again. Welcome to mechanical perfection. Come on, let’s get you out of bed, on your legs, and let’s go find a root beer. You’ve got me drinking them now.” Stout stepped away from the bed to give Sideralis plenty of room. “Come on, ya big lug, let’s see what you got.”

“I still got weird floaty stuff in my vision,” Sideralis said.

“We’ll deal with that in time. Sometimes, the energy indicator sticks around if you’re in the low. It might go away if you eat something,” Stout replied.

“Come on, Sideralis… let’s see if you can get out of bed.” Fluttershy smiled from behind her mane that was covering half of her face. “You know, it is nice having my wings back… I missed them.”

Grunting with effort, Sideralis rolled out of bed, kicked his legs out over the side, and then, after a moment of dealing with the heavy feeling of his body, he was standing. His legs did not tremble, his knees did not knock. He did not feel weak. He didn’t feel as though he was going to fall. He was taller now, or felt that way, he was the giant in the room. He took a step and experienced smooth, almost fluid, beautiful mechanical perfection.

“Let’s go show you off, a bunch of ponies have been dying to see you!” Rainbow Dash said. The little blue mare began to snicker. “I’ll try not to get jealous...”

Author's Notes:

This had to go through a few rewrites... I wanted happy feeling. The first few drafts... just felt wrong. I hope this one nails it.

Discuss below.