“Any landing you can walk away from is a good one… you did good… oh, I am so very proud of you,” Fluttershy said in a trembling voice as she clung to Sideralis.

Based on how tight Fluttershy was squeezing him, he suspected that she was just trying to be kind to him. He could feel her shaking and both of her forelegs were like a vice around his neck, not that it bothered him. His breathing wasn’t impaired in the very least.

“You call that a landing?” Rainbow Dash asked as she slid off of Stout’s back and landed upon the sidewalk. “Sure, they gave you flight protocols, but you need landing protocols… you… you just folded in your wings almost twenty feet off of the ground and dropped! You okay Fluttershy?”

“I’m fine!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“I didn’t think it was that bad,” Sideralis grumbled.

“You cracked the sidewalk, you goon!” Stout pointed down at the sidewalk as she craned her head to look up at Sideralis. “Sid, you gotta be more careful. If you were to drop on a building you might have gone through the roof. Flutters, are you sure you okay? I bet the impact was jarring.”

“I’m fine, really, he didn’t hurt me, honest.” Fluttershy eased her grip and still shaking, she let go of Sideralis. “I do think that your landing protocols need to be improved a bit… just maybe… if you don’t mind a little teensy weensy update.”

“You fly like a brick and you land like one too.” Rainbow Dash smirked as she made her snarky remark and ignored Fluttershy’s disapproving glare. “I think you’re bigger than Princess Celestia,” Rainbow Dash craned her head to look upwards, “and here I thought alicorns were supposed to be majestic.”

Looking around, Sideralis could see that other ponies were looking at him. He smiled, trying to be friendly, and extending his wing, he waved. Some of the ponies waved back, some with wings, others with hooves, while others just stood and stared.

“I wanna go to the Rainbow Chapel later,” Rainbow Dash said to Fluttershy in a low voice. She turned and looked at Stout. “No, I don’t want to go to hear about how awesome I am… it’s just nice to go there.” Rainbow Dash squirmed a bit and kicked at the sidewalk with one hoof. “It’s been really hard getting back in shape and this whole recovery thing takes a lot out of me. I’m not like Sideralis here where I can just jump out of bed and be perfect. I get discouraged sometimes. I miss how I was.”

“Come on, let’s get you inside, Rainbow.” Fluttershy pressed herself up against Rainbow Dash’s side and tried to cheer up her friend. “I know how much going to the Rainbow Chapel really means to you. We’ll go later.”

“So much for being perfect, I was just told my landing needs work.” Sideralis grinned at Rainbow Dash and much to his relief, he heard Rainbow start laughing.

“It was so amazing what they did with Scootaloo… I was told it took years to build up Stout, Mustang, Mjölna, and Apple Bloom… but because of you… Scootaloo was built in no time at all… she’s so awesome now… I’m a little jealous, but I like being the way I am.” Rainbow Dash walked beside Fluttershy as the pair headed for the door of a tall apartment building. The blue pegasus stopped for a moment and looked up. “This place is so different from Ponyville… everything is so big, like Manehattan.”

“So Chrysalis was able to find a cure because of me… you know, that actually makes me happy. I don’t mind getting blown up. I really don’t remember much and something good came out of it. Maybe if I had spent my whole life being normal I might be upset or maybe I might have minded the change, but my whole life has been spent inside of a pod… what’s normal?” Sideralis towered over his companions and looked down at them. “I like how I am now, even if it is weird. I can do something to help. I can be somepony.”

“That’s a good attitude to have, Sid. The last thing that anypony wants is an angsty alicorn moping about how awful their life is. We have enough problems. Besides, we already have one angsty alicorn and she lives in the penthouse at the top of this tower. I doubt she’s home though.” Stout opened the door for the others and waited for them to enter.

“Sideralis…” Mustang Salvation stood just inside the door, both of her eyes glimmering with tears. She stared up at the much larger alicorn, a pained expression upon her face, trying to blink away the tears as they flooded her eyes.

Looking down, Sideralis saw that Mustang was now like Stout; she had both eyes, a synthetic horn, and wings. He watched a tear roll down her cheek and not knowing what to say, he smiled at her.

“I’m so sorry… I just—”

“Not your fault,” Sideralis said in a gentle voice, “there was no way you could have known and this all worked out for the best anyway. I’m fine now.” Sideralis saw Mustang lunge forwards and by reflex, he braced himself. She slammed into him with titanic force, throwing her forelegs around his neck, rising up to hug him, and unlike Fluttershy, when Mustang squeezed, Sideralis felt it. There was the creak of metal under strain and Sideralis let Mustang squeeze him without complaint.

“Sappy,” Rainbow Dash said as she got comfortable on the couch.

The apartment was nice, large, spacious, big enough for a whole herd of ponies, and not all that different from the other one, from what little that Sideralis remembered. The kitchen, the living room were all part of one big open space, and there was a countertop island that separated the two areas. Everything was all smooth curves and arches with very few hard, sharp corners. There was a pillow pit in the middle of the living room, which made Sideralis happy. He stood there as Mustang continued to try and crush him.

Everything in the kitchen was different shades of yellow, the fridge and the stove were both the same sunny shade of yellow. Their metallic surfaces were gleaming, perfect, and clean. The living room was all different shades of brown, ranging from dark chocolate to a faded tan. Ceiling fans spun overhead, providing a lovely breeze, and there was a balcony with big glass doors in one corner of the living room.

“This place is a palace,” Rainbow Dash said as she sprawled out and got comfortable. “You should see the shower… it is an entire room and it has sprayers that squirt you from every angle and there is a mist setting that is to die for. This place is swanky.”

Mustang let go of Sideralis, dropped down to the floor, backed away, wiped her eyes with one foreleg, and then turning around, she went into the kitchen area, heading for the fridge.

“Sideralis, do be careful, don’t whack your horn on the ceiling fans… you’re a bit taller than I expected,” Fluttershy said as she made herself comfortable on the couch beside Rainbow Dash.

Mustang opened the fridge, pulled out a jug of orange juice, screwed off the cap, and then chugged down the entire plastic jug in one go. She belched, crushed the jug in her telekinesis, and tossed the plastic container into the recycling bin.

“That was the whole thing of juice, Mustang.” Stout looked at her sister and let out an exasperated sigh.

“I was leaking liquids… I required emergency hydration,” Mustang replied.

Sniggering, Rainbow Dash fell over and cuddled against Fluttershy. After a moment, her muffled laughter stopped, she closed her eyes, yawned, rubbed her cheek against Fluttershy’s back, yawned again, and then went still.

“Mustang, I don’t know how you do it, but you have an excuse for everything.” Stout shook her head as she spoke in a low voice. She looked over at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, then turned back to her sister. “Now we have to go to the market for more orange juice.”

“We need bigger jugs and more of them. Nopony thinks about C/Equine portion sizes. It’s discrimination… just because we’re a very small minority doesn’t mean that we should be ignored.” Mustang moved out of the kitchen, through the living room, and moving with a great deal of gentle caution, she eased herself onto the couch and settled close to Fluttershy.

“I guess it’s naptime.” Stout looked over at Sideralis and then back at the ponies on the couch. Mustang was creeping closer to Fluttershy. “Sideralis, you just woke up, so I doubt that you want to go back to sleep any time soon.”

Nodding, Sideralis stood there, watching as Mustang pressed up against Fluttershy and got comfortable. Part of him wanted to join the others, but something in his mind told him that he would have to be careful; the little ponies were fragile and could be smooshed. He understood why Mustang moved with such caution.

“I’m kinda hungry already… that flight took a lot out of me,” Sideralis said as a very sleepy Rainbow Dash yawned again.

“That is the current drawback of our design at the moment.” Stout stepped closer to Sideralis. “We require a lot of food. Alcohol is a good way to pick up a few notches on the energy indicator, the higher the proof the better. Queen Acherontia is looking into an ultra dense food paste that will give us a much needed pick me up.”

“So we have a weakness.” Sideralis watched as Fluttershy rested her head upon Mustang’s back and the yellow pegasus’ ears drooped down as she drifted closer to the realm of sleep.

“I guess you could look at it that way.” Stout frowned and looked up at Sideralis. “We’re still organic. We’re not golems or inorganic machines. Even though our organic bits have been laced with synthetic parts and synthetic reinforcements, we need a tremendous amount of food to function. If we were just machines that needed electricity, we could put solar collectors onto our wings and we could recharge ourselves. I guess the dependence on food is a good reminder that we are still ponies.”

“Want to get out, go somewhere, and maybe find something to eat?” Sideralis asked.

“Yeah… I do… I’ve been waiting for a long time for you to wake up. I’ve missed you something awful,” Stout replied. She blushed and turned away, a smile upon her face. “It’s nice having you back. I know it’s silly, but I grew attached to you.”

“I think I understand.” Sideralis looked at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Mustang all cuddled together on the sofa. The sofa sagged in the middle from the weight and Sideralis suspected that if he sat on it with the others, it would collapse. “Let’s get out of here.”

Sideralis strolled down the sidewalk next to Stout, well aware of all the ponies staring at him as he passed. Some looked fearful, others happy, some curious, and a polite few tried not to stare… too much for too long.

“So… about these synthetic reinforcements in my guts...”

“Sideralis, it’s complicated. The changelings have this connective tissue that exists between their chitinous plates. They’ve made a synthetic version of it that grows, heals, and adapts. It’s placed just under our skin to act as a sort of subdermal armor and all of our organs have been laced with it,” Stout said, trying to explain everything in a way that satisfied Sideralis’ curiousity.

“But what does it do? How does it help?” Sideralis felt the heavy and satisfying thump of his hooves on the sidewalk. He felt large and powerful. It made him feel good, it made him feel as though he could, in fact, protect all of the little ponies around him.

“If something was to pierce your skin somehow, a lot of the energy would be dispersed tearing through the subdermal mesh. If say, it struck your liver, it would hit the mesh surrounding your liver and bounce off, saving your liver.” Stout’s eyes narrowed. “You only have half of your liver anyway, part of it was cut away to make room for a small biomachine that serves the same function. By having both, if one gets damaged, the other can pick up the slack. If the biomechanical filtration system that works like your liver does get damaged, it will heal over time, with rest, plenty of food, and lots of love.”

“Oh.” Sideralis lifted his head high, sniffing, something smelled good. He had no frame of reference to describe it, other than it made his mouth water. “What is that wonderful smell?”

Stout stopped mid-step and began sniffing, her nostrils flaring. “I dunno, but it is coming from that cafe right over there, or so my sensors are telling me. That smells really, really good.”

“It does,” Sideralis agreed, “we should go check it out.”

“Maqluba,” Stout said as she looked at the menu, “the house speciality. They don’t serve much else here, other than some soups. I’ve had maqluba before, I like it. If that is all they serve here, they must be good at it.”

The cafe was dim and multi-coloured lights hung from the ceiling, twinkling overhead. Each table had a bit of privacy, tucked into alcoves of shaped brown sandstone. In the middle of the cafe there was a fountain and the sound of running water made for a pleasant atmosphere.

“What is it?” Sideralis asked, tilting his head to one side. He was sitting on the floor and the table was low before him. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, he was beginning to see some drawbacks to being so big. He wondered how Princess Celestia and Princess Luna managed.

This was a place intended for romance. The semi private alcoves had couples tucked away in them, couples necking, couples kissing, the sounds of love were all around, heavy sighs, giggles, the occasional wet smack of a passionate kiss.

“Maqluba is a rice dish that has a whole bunch of fried veggies, including potatoes and eggplant, which I love. It’s served with yogurt and other sauces. I like tahini on mine.” Stout gave Sideralis a smile. “All these starches will give us plenty of energy to work with.”

Not even understanding that it was happening, the heavy atmosphere of love was powering up Sideralis’ new systems, healing, integrating, his onboard diagnostics were fine tuning him as he sat in the middle of the restaurant, gazing at Stout, surrounded by loving couples that had come to share a meal.

“I’ll try it.” Sideralis looked at Stout as Stout looked at him. Her orange eyes were pretty. She was pretty. Looking at her, he felt nervous, excited, and something about her made him happy. Something about her having two eyes again made him happy.

In the background, there was a pop of a cork as two ponies celebrated their love. Sideralis’ sensitive ears could hear everything around him, but the sound was being tuned out as he focused upon Stout. He was unaware that the filtering was even taking place.

“It’s been real hard on me, Sid.” Stout’s voice was little more than a whisper. “It’s been real hard on me. I guess you weren’t the only one that needed a companion. I need you just as much as you need me. I stayed with you as much as I could.”

There was a lot that Sideralis was unaware of, his upgrades had been made to be as unobtrusive as possible, seeing as how he had not spent his whole life being prepared for this new body. Most of his systems were automated and functioned in the background, and he remained blissfully unaware of them as they took place.

“Stout—”

“It wasn’t just me, either. Mustang stood guard near you for almost two months and she refused to budge. She didn’t sleep and only ate when somepony brought food to her. She got a little loopy near the end and what saved her were the upgrades. Having the inhibitors removed did a lot to help her mood. I think she’s healing.” Stout reached up and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “Sid, what I’m trying to say is, you have family now. We all love you. We were all worried sick about you. I just want you to know this, okay? We’re machines powered by love… and I just wanted you to know that you are loved.”

“Thank you, Stout…”