Sleep. Sideralis didn’t need sleep. Oh, he would need sleep sometime—but he didn’t need sleep now. He felt just fine, if a little low on energy. He was sitting at the table in Fluttershy’s apartment, getting a fine breakfast of mulberries down inside of him, along with oatmeal, fried eggs, which he had already gobbled down, and a few waffles made by Mustang. Beside him, Stout kept squirming from side to side, a pleased, satisfied smile upon her face.

“Stout, is something wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

Sitting at the foot of the table, Mustang choked back a laugh.

“My backside is sore,” Stout replied, which caused Rainbow Dash to snigger.

“You know, we can turn off things like pain.” Mustang put down her fork, lifted up a mulberry, and tossed it at Sideralis, who caught it out of the air. Mustang grinned like a cat who had found a canary—with no cage.

“I’m kinda enjoying it,” Stout admitted in a low voice as she stared down at her bowl of oatmeal. Her smile grew a little wider and Rainbow Dash’s sniggering progressed to chortling.

“Um, Stout, why is your bottom sore? Did something happen?” Fluttershy turned a bit pink as she uttered the word ‘bottom’ and her ears drooped down, sagging against her face, revealing her embarrassment to all ponies present.

“Sid and I slammed uglies all night—”

Stout did not even finish. Fluttershy’s hooves clamped over her ears and a strange sound like a teakettle began to escape her throat. It started out as a shrill squeal, but continued to rise in volume and pitch, becoming louder, shriller, and kept rising, kept increasing, until it became a sound that only diamond dogs or C/Equines could hear. Fluttershy’s face first went bright pink, then tomato, then pomegranite, then it turned beet red, until finally turning a shade of purple only found on perfect wine grapes, going through the fruit and vegetable rainbow of embarrassment.

“Oh way to go, you freakin’ nymphomaniac!” Mustang went to Fluttershy’s side at once, wrapped a foreleg around Fluttershy, and tried to comfort the mare she called ‘mother.’ Mustang gave a glance at her sister, a faux look of anger, and gave Stout a wink.

“Look, we talked about this, you said you were okay.” Stout shook her head, confused, and her ears quivered as Fluttershy’s cries began to disrupt the seasonal mating and migration of bats and any lunar pegasi present in the immediate vicinity. “Come on, you’re supposed to be happy for me.”

Sideralis, for the lack of anything better to do, watched in silence and ate another mulberry, his own ears twitching from the bizarre sound that Fluttershy was making. He felt a little bad because he was the cause of this, but a part of him knew that Fluttershy was going to overreact.

Rainbow Dash’s laughter reached a crescendo. She fell over onto her back, her eyes were squeezed shut, and she rubbed her sides while gasping, struggling to breathe.

“You two chuckleheads look after Rainbow… I’m going to take Fluttershy and give her some quiet time while I try to make her feel better.” Mustang pulled Fluttershy even closer and planted a quick, but affectionate kiss upon the purple-faced pegasus’ cheek.

Saying nothing else, Mustang led Fluttershy away, leading her along with affectionate pecks and soft whispered words of encouragement. With a thump of the door, Fluttershy’s sonic whine was muffled a good bit.

“So did you two have a nice time?” Rainbow Dash asked as she started to recover. She reached up and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “Oh, it hurts to laugh.” The little blue pegasus rubbed her stomach, but her smile persisted.

“I know I did,” Stout replied. “I finally got that itch scratched.”

“I’m happy for you both.” Rainbow Dash rolled over, sat up, and then leaned against the table. She raised her head, her ears stood erect, and her smile faded away completely. “Today, I want to try and fly a bit. Not much, I know I can’t strain myself, but just a little. That’s on my to do list today.”

“You’ll have help,” Stout said Leaning over, Stout looked at Sideralis. “Today, you have some training exercises. They’re gonna shoot you down, Sid. Try not to take it personally.” Stout’s eyes narrowed and she looked over at Rainbow Dash. “You know, a lot of our flight abilities come from your memories. We wouldn’t be what we are without you… you should be proud.”

Rainbow blinked, her head tilted off to one side, and she let out a little sigh. One ear drooped, the other remained standing, and her rainbow forelock fell down over her face. A wicker escaped, Rainbow swallowed, and then said, “That makes me feel better. Thank you, Stout.”

“Gonna be a long day… I think the next few days are gonna be real long. Twilight Sparkle wants us to ship off.” Stout turned and looked at Sideralis beside her. “Don’t you worry none… Mjölna and I will carry you through this, and Mustang too. You, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo have the knowledge in your heads, but you need some training. You most of all.”

“I can help you train,” Rainbow Dash offered. Her eyes narrowed. “I helped Twilight train… there are things I can teach you, Sid, if you’re serious about learning. I can be hard on you like I was Twilight. I can’t fly with you, but I could be strapped to your back.”

Looking first at Sideralis, then at Rainbow Dash, then back at Sideralis again, Stout considered Rainbow Dash’s words.

“Sid is big. He’s too big. And here’s something the bug queen didn’t think about—Sideralis is so big that if he tries to use my flight patterns that have been dumped into his brain, he is going to end up in a lot of trouble. When you’re that big, you have to fly different. There’s more weight, momentum, stopping is harder, and stressful combat flying is totally different.” Rainbow lifted her head higher and her barrel puffed out. “I’m a Wonderbolt, and I can make you fly better.”

Captain Blossomforth paced back and forth, a stern scowl upon her face. As she passed in front of Sideralis, she would look up at him, her scowl would intensify, and she would continue pacing. The older pegasus mare was chewing over the problem presented.

The sun climbed higher into the sky as the day had progressed, and now, as it neared noon, it was quite warm. Captain Blossomforth came to an abrupt stop, looked up at Sideralis once more, and shook her head. “I’m inclined to agree with Rainbow Dash. I had a hunch that all that newfangled tech would have some drawbacks that nopony had thought about. We need to get you flight ready. You’re a good flier, but I don’t know how you would do in a crisis. This worries me. We can’t have you blasted out of the sky, you’re too valuable of an asset.”

Sideralis did his best to draw himself up to attention, mimicking the other pegasi.

“We’re having a similar problem with Scootaloo. She’s too fast. Her reaction time is so fast that others are having a hard time flying in formation with her. She’s clipped Apple Bloom and Mjölna a few times. Scootaloo can react to things long before either Apple Bloom or Mjölna can even register them as threats. And as big as you are… I’m betting that you’re going to be a bit slow when flying in formation.” Blossomforth’s face contorted into a terrible, withering scowl.

“Sid can be fast,” Mustang said.

“Only in a straight line,” Blossomforth retorted in a harsh, gritty voice. “He flies like a cannonball or a brick. I’ve watched alicorns fly. They’re graceful, beautiful, they are a joy to watch. The lot of you… are rough fliers. Scootaloo is your best flyer, because she’s smaller, and lighter, and her body is built for speed—”

“And so I’m the worst.” Sideralis drooped, no longer making an effort to stand at attention.

“Now hold on,” Blossomforth grumbled as she invaded Sideralis’ personal space. “You were made for a different purpose. No other pony alive can fly with the sort of payload you can carry. Scootaloo is fast, but she’s weaker than tissue paper left in a colt’s room with a stack of smut magazines.” Blossomforth shook her head. “No other pony can fly at the high altitude you are capable of.”

“High altitude?” Sideralis asked.

“Oh, we’ve made it so you break atmo. You’ll need some specialised gear, but we’ve already had that made. You have systems that keep your blood from freezing. You’ll be able to fly along the edges of space, up so high that no changeling or natural flier will be able to reach you. We plan to have you drop bombs in absolute safety and hit high priority targets.”

“That sounds awesome.” Mustang stepped forwards and looked at Sideralis, then at Blossomforth. “We need to get him in the air and start shooting at him. Do we want to send Rainbow Dash up there with him?”

“Yeah,” Blossomforth replied in a voice full of gravel, “yeah we do.”

“They’re shooting at us!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she squirmed against Sideralis’ back. She was strapped in for safety and was wearing protective gear. She wore goggles, a helmet, and some thick padding to protect her.

Sideralis had no such protection, and he had been given instructions to leave the pain regulators in his nociperception regulation system on so that he would feel everything. And feel everything he did. He had already been pelted dozens of times with paintballs, so much so that his backside now looked like modern art.

As he banked, he was spattered with more paintballs, which hit him in the neck, his wings, and his backside. The paintballs, fired from compressed air guns, stung. They hurt, they really, really hurt, and he was having trouble escaping them.

“Ow!”

He felt Rainbow squeeze his neck and knew that she had been shot somewhere where she didn’t have adequate padding. His ears perked as Rainbow let out a snarl of anger.

“That’s it… come on Sid, we’re going to shoot those motherfuckers if its the last thing we do. Now do everything I say and we might have a chance. You’re going to pull up, like you are doing a loop to get behind them, and they’re going pull up in a tighter loop to intercept you. We’re counting on that!”

As Sideralis pulled up, he felt Rainbow pat him on the neck. Paintballs went whizzing by and one came uncomfortably close to his ear. The sky was above him and the earth was below him. He felt gravity going weird as he reached the top of his loop.

“Just like I thought… they’re idiots! Twist around, Sid, and drop straight down! They’re below us!”

Kicking out his hind legs, Sideralis did everything he could to reorient himself in the air. The sky above blurred in his vision and then he saw the ground below. He also saw a very surprised formation of pegasi directly below him as he began to plummet. Red triangles appeared in his vision, locking on to each of the six pegasi below him.

With a staccato rhythm, the automatic cannons mounted beneath Sideralis’ wings began to fire, shooting straight down upon the pegasi below. Sideralis, a big heavy flier, dropped like a stone, rapidly accelerating, and guns blazing, he attacked the pesky pegasi that had been shooting him in the ass for the past few hours.

“The old half a loop then drop gets ‘em every time!”

One pegasus got a paintball right in the snoot, there was an explosion of blue paint, followed by a shrill cry of pain. Sideralis’ autofire weapons kept firing, and another pegasus got blasted, then another, and as they tried to break formation and get away, Sideralis shot them in the ass as he plummeted into their ranks.

Sideralis leveled out as something white appeared in his vision, streaking right for him. It was fast. He heard the chatter of gunfire and many paintballs went shooting past him. He veered off to one side, tucked his legs against his body, and tried to think about what to do with this new threat.

“That’s Captain Blossomforth!” Rainbow shouted over the roaring wind. “She’s got a big ladyboner for you, Sideralis… look out!”

A volley of paintballs hit his backside and Sideralis let out a pained whinny. It was getting tender back there with each shot. He didn’t know what to do about Blossomforth. She was a fearsome flier, dangerous as all get out, and she was scoring hits on him at a range that he didn’t think was possible. Even worse, she was closing the distance. She was fast.

“Sid, we’re in trouble, I think she’s in a bitchy mood!”

“What makes you say that?”

“You just shot up six of her best fliers!”

“But I was supposed to!”

“Doesn’t change the fact that she’s taken it personally and now she’s in a bitchy mood!”

“Well, shit!” Sideralis pumped his wings, trying to gain altitude and speed, not quite certain what to do next. Blossomforth was hot on his tail though, and the air around him was thick with paintballs. “Any ideas?”

“Beg and surrender?” Rainbow replied. “OW! OW! OW! She has those high pressure guns… that really hurts! The pads do nothing!”

As the paintballs slammed into his ass, Sideralis was glad that his dangly bits were tucked away for safety, otherwise, he would have been shot in the scrote at least two dozen times by now. He pulled up, straight up, but made no attempt to make a loop. He had other plans.

“What are you doing?” Rainbow asked.

“Save your breath,” Sideralis replied as his powerful wings propelled him upwards.

“Oh… oh… OH!” Rainbow squeezed Sideralis’ neck. “Brilliant idea!”

As he flew straight upwards, he felt Rainbow Dash almost going limp against his back and neck, allowing the straps to do their job. Her breathing calmed, then went a little shallow, and he knew that she was saving her air. His wings pumped, and he gained altitude in a way that no normal pegasus pony could, each downward stroke of his wings taking him higher and higher.

A few warnings flashed in his vision, telling him that his projected course was risky. He ignored them. He didn’t need to go too high, just high enough. Blossomforth, however rough and tough she might be, still needed air to fly the way she was, which was fast and hot. He was going to deny her that.

After what felt like hours of ascent, but was in reality only a short time, the gunfire ceased. There were no paintballs. There was nothing but the thin, stinging, freezing cold air. Sideralis was getting a few new warnings in his vision, and something told him that his body was switching to something called ‘Lo2 mode’ and that certain functions were now unavailable.

He felt a reassuring pat upon his neck and could not help himself, he smiled. Rainbow seemed fine. His wings flapped only as needed to maintain altitude. Blossomforth, for all of her fury, was unable to reach him up here. She needed air to maintain her speed, her wingbeats, and Sideralis’ body was compensating for the low oxygen conditions.

Angling his wings, Sideralis began his descent, and wondered if Blossomforth would praise him or be angry for his clever evasion. He felt good about what he had accomplished and he was thankful that Rainbow Dash had taught him something. He hoped that he could learn more.

He hoped it would be enough against real enemies.

Author's Notes:

Soon... departure.