It was strange living in a house with several mares. Before, Sideralis had only lived with his mother and his father. He had been a colt. Now, in the waking world, outside of the Unity Web, there were rules, there were complications, there were so many things that Sideralis did not understand.

One of the bathrooms was exclusively for the mares in the house, and that seemed reasonable, but the other bathroom Sideralis had to share because there were four mares and one of him. He had to be mindful of the toilet seat. He had to be polite and considerate, which meant going last, at least during the morning rush.

For Sideralis, a bigger picture was forming; he was a lone stallion living with a group of mares, which mirrored the world around him at large. The population consisted of more females than males, but Sideralis wasn’t certain of the percentages.

Now that he was up and moving on his own through the world, he had to be mindful of narrow hallways, traffic jams in doorways, and he had to be extra careful of one blue pegasus that was still healing, still recovering, and had a little trouble moving in the mornings after being still for most of the night. It didn’t help that Rainbow Dash was impatient and brash, either. The little blue mare would dart right in front of Sideralis, prompting a warning in his vision and a hasty course correction. The flashing red triangle with the exclamation point in the middle was quite startling the first time he saw it, but was no less jarring during the other times it appeared.

There was a strange feeling of being an outsider, or at least a stranger. Something was up between the two sisters, Creamy Stout and Mustang Salvation were acting strange, exchanging glances with one another, and Sideralis worried that they might be having some sort of unspoken conflict with one another because of him. Breakfast had been an awkward meal with the two sisters speaking to others, but not to one another. Sideralis wanted to say something, but was afraid of restarting the argument between the two of them.

From Sideralis’ point of view, it seemed that Mustang desperately needed a friend. It had to be hard for her, starting off as a feral, everything that had happened to her during her transition, her anger, and it seemed that she and her sister needed to work on their relationship. Sideralis understood that he had not seen Mustang at her worst, her angriest, he had not seen her being an unbearable jerk, but he had seen her in pain, he had seen her when she was lonely, and he had seen her when she was suffering. He wanted to be her friend, but he didn’t want Stout getting jealous. He wondered if it was possible to be friends with Mustang without setting off Stout’s jealousy. Stout was going to have to get over herself and make peace with the past somehow.

Something had happened though; Sideralis could see the evidence of it. He wasn’t the smartest pony in the room, but he could tell that Fluttershy had a much shorter temper with Mustang than she did with Stout, which didn’t seem fair. From his outside perspective, Sideralis could see how Mustang might feel, that perhaps she wasn’t being treated fairly, which might explain her anger. It was going to be tough for Mustang to get back into the good graces of others; a lot had probably happened that Sideralis knew next to nothing about.

After waking up the first time, Sideralis had endured difficulty with simple movement. Now, he was flying. He was getting better, or so he thought, and he was flying to Cyclops to do whatever it was that he needed to do out there today. This morning, Rainbow Dash flew on his back; she didn’t cling to him in terror like Fluttershy did, Rainbow Dash more or less just sat upon his back and enjoyed herself.

Sideralis was discovering his groove as a flier. He had much larger wings and a lot more bulk, but as he had discovered, he could glide and save energy. Rainbow Dash was trying to tell him about updrafts, but she was telling him way too much way too fast all at once. He was getting better about tucking his legs in, straightening out his neck, and pushing his nose into the wind. The equine body was not the most ideal form for flying and Sideralis was curious as to what had caused wings to form on ponies in the first place. Flying took place with magic rather than any actual real flight, but Sideralis did not understand how.

It was just another thing for Sideralis to add to his list of things he did not understand. At the top of his list was himself. He was now a technological marvel with no understanding of how he worked, other than he could now do amazing things.

The red triangle with the exclamation point flashed in his vision several times and something in his ears beeped. He heard Rainbow Dash gasp and he heard a dull roaring sound.

⚠

Warning! Incoming Scootaloo!

Collision detection alert: Incoming Scootaloo traveling at 302.042 knots

Something orange and purple went shooting past, it was flying close enough to ruffle Sideralis’ mane. The red triangle was still flashing in his eyesight and Sideralis wobbled in the air.

“She’s fast!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Every day she gets a little faster! She was made for speed! Look at her go!”

The orange blur looped around and did a barrel roll. The red triangle went away and the beeping in Sideralis’ ears ceased. He watched as Scootaloo looped around and this time, her approach was slow and easy. She pulled up alongside Sideralis, grinning from ear to ear, and she was not at all like Sideralis expected. Scootaloo was not bulky like he himself, Stout, or Mustang. She was still slender, sleek, and streamlined. She flew beside him with ease, grinning, laughing, and waving at him and Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo almost looked fragile, at least by C/Equine standards.

Something else approached, something large and purple. It took Sideralis a moment to figure out what it was that was flapping and lurching through the air. It was Spike, and a pony was hanging on to his neck. Craning his head around, Sideralis saw that it was Sweetie Belle, it took him a few moments before he remembered her name.

“Come on Spike… let’s go for a fly together, it’ll be nice, Spike, I promise I’ll go slow so you can keep up, Spike, come with me and let’s bring Sweetie Belle…” Spike puffed as his wings flapped. The dragon fell into formation beside Sideralis and transitioned into gliding.

Patting Spike’s neck, Sweetie Belle smiled at Scootaloo and said, “Spike needs the workout. We’ve been sitting around for the past few months and Spike has been getting pudgy.”

“I am not!” Spike bellowed. “I’m having another growth spurt! I can’t help it!”

“Looking good, Spike!” Rainbow Dash shouted from Sideralis’ back.

“I feel left out,” Sweetie Belle said to nopony in particular. “Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have been upgraded and I’m still the same. I’m still thinking about getting a few upgrades myself, but I’m afraid the mechanical parts will make my plot look big.”

“It would give Spike something to look at,” Scootaloo replied as she rolled over in the air and then snapped into position beside Spike and Sweetie Belle. “When are you two gonna tie the knot?”

“What’s the big hurry to get married?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking over at her friend, “really, what’s the rush? Everypony keeps telling us that… Twilight, Fluttershy, everypony keeps saying that we need to stop fooling around and get serious and I just don’t get why.”

“Because.” Rainbow Dash looked over at Sweetie Belle, who was now about the same age as herself. “We’re gonna be heading into danger soon… a big fight is brewing I think. If we go into this fight and something happens to either you or Spike, you’re gonna spend the rest of your life regretting all the things that you didn’t do, like getting married.”

Looking thoughtful, Sweetie Belle nodded, coming to an understanding. She looked at Rainbow Dash, her mane whipping around in the wild wind, then looked at Scootaloo, and then she looked at the back of Spike’s head, as he was looking forwards. “Spike… if we tied the knot… me getting upgraded would make a lot more sense… I’d live longer… we could be together… would you like that?”

“Of course I would,” Spike bellowed in return, his voice booming through the air.

“How much do you love me, Spike?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“More than words can say,” Spike replied. “I will always love you!”

“Promise?” Sweetie Belle grinned as she looked up at Rainbow Dash, and then dove off of Spike’s neck, plummeting towards the earth below, laughing as she went down.

Right away, Spike broke off, doubled around, his long serpentine body almost bending in half, and then Spike power dived to go after her, his long tail whipping out behind him and his claws extended in the front.

“Don’t worry, he always catches her,” Stout said as she flew closer.

“I wish she wouldn’t do that!” Fluttershy’s squeaky voice almost couldn’t be heard over the wind and she clung even tighter to Stout’s neck. “What if something went wrong and he was unable to catch her?”

“Eh, he’ll always be there to save her. Spike has this thing… he wasn’t able to save Rarity, it eats at him. He thinks he can make up for it by protecting Sweetie Belle. It makes him happy and it makes Sweetie Belle happy.” Stout flapped her wings a few times and then smoothed out, now flying level with Sideralis and Scootaloo in formation.

“I miss Rarity… I miss so many ponies.” Rainbow Dash reached up and wiped her eyes. “I need to get strong again… I gotta get into fighting shape if I can.”

“Rainbow, you’re making wonderful progress,” Fluttershy said, trying to be reassuring.

“I can feel it though… we’re heading towards a big fight.” Rainbow Dash wrapped her foreleg around Sideralis’ neck and clung to him, the wind whipping her rainbow mane back from her face. “We’re making new warships, living warships. We have new weapons. Sideralis is up and awake now. Ponies are joining the army… they’re starting to believe that we can fight and win now… I keep thinking about the stories that Twilight told me about how so many lost faith and lost hope. It’s like that moment where you just know that everything is turning around and things start to feel hopeful again… I love that feeling… we’d go on adventures and get into trouble and everything would be so bleak and scary and we’d all be worried that this was our final adventure and then everything would turn around and everything would be okay.”

“It’s not okay though.” Fluttershy shook her head. “Half of us are gone now. Our circle was broken. I miss our friends.”

As he flew, Sideralis felt wet against his neck. He could feel Rainbow Dash’s face buried into his mane and he could feel her heavy breathing. He said nothing, she was the tough sort and she didn’t seem as though she liked crying.

“I wanna go to a Rainbow Chapel later,” Rainbow Dash said, her words muffled as she kept her face pressed against Sideralis’ neck. “Remembering what I’ve lost keeps me motivated.”

A sweet smile illuminated Fluttershy’s face as she looked up at Rainbow Dash and Sideralis. The blue pegasus was still draped over the dark blue alicorn’s back, looking comfortable and happy. “We’re a little early. Rainbow, Stout and I are going to visit a few ponies and see if we can brighten up their day. Do you think you’ll be okay with Sideralis if I leave you with him?”

“Yeah, big guy, will you be okay if I leave you with Rainbow?” Stout asked.

“I think we’ll be fine,” both Sideralis and Rainbow Dash said together.

“I’m a little worried, the last time I left you with somepony it didn’t turn out so good, but we have to start making these brave first steps,” Fluttershy said in a voice filled with soft concern.

“That was different.” Rainbow Dash lifted her head and looked down at Fluttershy.

“Different how?” Fluttershy asked.

“I dunno, it just was. Twilight got all weird on me and I just panicked, okay?” Rainbow Dash wiggled on Sideralis’ back and rolled her eyes. “Sideralis isn’t going to start talking about how he and I were meant to be together. I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

Looking down into Fluttershy’s worried face, he saw a pained expression, it was like watching a cloud drift in front of the sun. Fluttershy’s ears drooped and her tail dropped, going limp against her hind legs. Something had happened, Sideralis knew that, but he still didn’t know everything that had taken place.

“Sideralis, if you start getting antsy, you just coming looking for us.” Stout smiled and took a step closer to Fluttershy, bumping up against her. “But Flutters is right. These first steps are important. For both of you.”

“Just go away… we’ll be fine. We’ll go and get a root beer or something and everything will be okay… just stop fussing over us,” Rainbow Dash said to both Stout and Fluttershy.

“Okay.” Fluttershy turned around and began to walk away, taking slow, careful, almost silent steps, not wanting to disturb anypony with loud, clattering hoofsteps.

Sideralis watched as Stout turned tail and followed. He felt Rainbow tensing up on his back and one foreleg wrapped around his neck, squeezing him tight. He could feel the smaller pegasus trembling as she clung to him, shivering, and he felt a growing sense of concern for her.

When Fluttershy and Stout were gone, Sideralis chose to say something to his companion. “I won’t say anything to them… are you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine… I’m just a little spooked… I hate being like this… I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.” Rainbow Dash patted Sideralis’ neck with her other front hoof, the one not clamped around his neck. “Thanks, big guy… for not making fun of me.”

Just as Rainbow Dash had said, there was indeed a secluded indoor park. Above, there was a glass dome in the ceiling to let in sunlight. In the middle of the park was an apple tree, a fountain, some decorative shrubs, a park bench, and a comfortable patch of grass. Nopony was around, this place was out of the way, at the end of a long corridor, an empty space that somepony had turned into an indoor park. Interior design baffled Sideralis, this whole building was far too big and made too little sense. It seemed larger than it did when he last saw it eight months ago, but he hadn’t seen the whole of it so there was no way to say for certain.

Sideralis came to a stop near the fountain and looked down into the placid water. He and Rainbow had been talking about Stout during the long walk here. How to make Stout happy. How to take the relationship to the ‘next level.’ Rainbow Dash was an enthusiastic giver of relationship advice.

“Now, what have we learned?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Loss of control?” Sideralis replied, still not entirely clear on the concept. The loss of control part seemed as though it would be bad now that he was a seven hundred and something pound biomechanical pony.

“Good!” Rainbow Dash gave Sideralis an encouraging pat upon the neck.

“Screaming and hollering…”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash’s head bobbed up and down in an enthusiastic nod. “And most importantly?”

“Passion?” Sideralis felt strange discussing this with Rainbow Dash of all ponies, but she didn’t seem to mind and she was giving him good advice. She didn’t seem embarrassed about it at all.

“Right! So now that you know the elements of a good dicking, when are you gonna go and make Stout happy?” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and looked down into the reflective waters of the fountain to focus on Sideralis’ face. “Stout does nothing but make other ponies happy. She’s a lot like Rarity, she’s a giver, but somepony needs to make her happy.”

“I dunno… I still kinda feel like a colt sometimes. My life is weird. I just woke up one day and up to that point, I was a colt. Now I’m grown up. And I’m like this… and things are just plain weird.” Sideralis frowned.

“Still trying to figure yourself out, eh?” Rainbow Dash smiled and her reflection looked up at Sideralis. Her rose coloured eyes were merry and full of mischief. “You know, it is good we can be friends like this. Every mare needs at least one stallion that she can be close friends with and not have to worry about sex ruining it. It’s good to be able to have talks like this one, to be open and just say whatever needs to be said without feeling like everything is weird.”

“Yeah, weird,” Sideralis agreed, feeling weird. Not that he minded much, it was nice to talk to somepony about all of this. Fluttershy? Nope. That would never happen. His mother, Luna, in dreams? Nope. Twilight? Nope. Sideralis did need somepony he could talk to though, and Rainbow Dash was all too willing to talk about the details of a good dicking from the female perspective.

Looking down, Sideralis could see Rainbow’s reflection staring up at him, a broad smile on her face. “I don’t even know who I am, really. I just woke up one day and I existed. I was told that my entire life’s worth of memories were all false. I don’t know who or what I am. I have troubling thoughts about if I like something because I honestly like something, or because I was made to like something. How much of my personality is my own and how much of it was created? How much of me is me? At least when you woke up and you were freed from the pod, you had your memories to fall back on. You know who you are.”

“I’m not the pony I once was… I can’t even be left alone for a minute without having a panic attack.” Rainbow’s smile faded away. “I don’t know how I’ll ever rainboom again… flying that fast means leaving everypony behind you. Just thinking about it scares me. I think about how I used to be… how I was… and how I am now, and it’s funny, but there is a part of me that wishes I couldn’t remember how I was. Sometimes I can’t bear to be the pony I’ve become. I was Rainbow Dash, I was brave, I was fearless, and I could rainboom. Now, I’m Rainbow Dash… the scaredy cat. I jump at the slightest sound. I can’t bear to be alone. I wake up crying in my sleep and I don’t know why. And I have terrible nightmares and wet the bed like a filly. In a way, you’re kinda lucky, Sideralis. You have a chance to be whatever pony you want to be, your whole previous life is horseshit, it doesn’t mean anything.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Me, I’m stuck living in my own shadow and it hurts me so much when I compare the pony I am now with the pony I used to be.”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow.”

“Don’t be sorry… just… let me hold you for a while. This is nice. Every mare needs a stallion she can be friends with and not have things go weird.” Rainbow Dash looked down into the water and watched as her falling tears made the water ripple.

“So, tell me more about how to make Stout happy,” Sideralis said to Rainbow. He saw her reflection’s face give him a weak, quivering smile, then she wiped her face with her foreleg, scrubbing at her eyes as she sniffled. “Tell me more about this loss of control.”

“The loss of control thing is important. It makes a mare feel like she’s special, that she has power… that she’s so irresistible that you can’t help yourself.” Rainbow Dash shuddered, took a deep breath, smiled a brave smile, and then continued, “That’s really the trick, making a mare feel appreciated. That she means something to you. If you can do that, you’ll have a happy mare. Stallions say we’re complicated, but it isn’t that hard, really. We have emotional needs… you look after our emotional needs and we’ll look after your physical needs. Got it?”

“I think so,” Sideralis replied. He was looking after Rainbow Dash’s emotional needs right now. He had himself a peculiar feeling, something new, something profound. Something meaningful blazed within him.

“I wish I could have a long talk with Twilight without everything being all weird…”

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLIXGVOuYzM

Have fun, folks.