The Ouroboros flew towards the unknown. There was sky above them, ocean below them, and the city of Maredina was now far behind them. Sideralis stood on the deck, feeling the breeze, and trying to control his rising feelings of anxiety as he missed Stout. She was working, doing whatever it was that she did as a nurse aboard a warship, and Sideralis’ only company was Rainbow Dash, who was napping in a hammock.

He and Stout had been given their own quarters, a room near Ouroboros’ heart. The walls were black, the colour of the changeling biosteel, and instead of being flat and the room square, the walls had gentle curves, bulges, and the room itself had its own unique shape. But there was a large, comfortable bed and the entire space was suitable for what he and Stout liked doing in their spare time, which most of the time involved he and Stout holding one another while Stout told him her hopes and dreams, of which she had many.

There was a distant boom but Sideralis did not panic, nor did anypony else. He turned his head, his eyes narrowed, and he scanned the horizon, looking for the source, knowing that she would be on deck sooner, if not later. Sideralis sighed, feeling bad for Scootaloo. She and Rainbow Dash both were so hard on themselves, pushing themselves harder than necessary to perform. Both of them had unrealistic expectations.

He sighed again, wanting to see Stout. These long stretches were hard on him, even with another pony he was close to. There was a faint, vague sense of panic now, a growing sense of worry. He had been imprinted upon Stout after coming out of the pod. He loved her, even if he didn’t quite understand his love. He still had very coltish thoughts about things, and deep down inside, a part of him was still the timid little school colt that he had been inside of the Unity Web. The world was often a confusing place that he couldn’t make sense of.

So Sideralis tried to laugh at it. He made jokes and he laughed about it. He made others laugh about it. Somehow, the laughter made everything okay. Things weren’t so bad if you could laugh about them. He tried to make others laugh about their problems.

Sure enough, he saw an orange streak come zooming in and he prepared himself. Scootaloo was probably going to need a laugh. She wasn’t flying straight, but weaving from side to side, a sign of distress. She was coming in far too fast and Sideralis looked around, looking for Blossomforth, the Tyrant of the Deck.

With no sign of the Tyrant anywhere, Sideralis kept his eyes on Scootaloo, hoping that she wouldn’t botch her landing. When she got emotional, she was prone to crashing, which was disastrous on deck. There were ponies here, quite a few. Sideralis began to warm up his telekinesis projectors just in case, even though he was uncertain if he could stop her.

Scootaloo slowed, wobbling in the air, and her legs kicked out as she approached, bracing for landing. Sideralis watched and waited, his eyes locked on Scootaloo, and a steady stream of techno-garble flew in front of his eyes, which he did his best to ignore, not wanting to be distracted if something went wrong.

The orange C/Equine came streaking down, hit the deck, and went into a skid. She kicked and scrabbled, her wings flapping as she tried to gain control, and a stream of profanity poured out of her lips as ponies scattered.

Sideralis, being the helpful sort, took the practical approach to helping Scootaloo stop. He stepped in front of her and stood still. Scootaloo skidded into him and smacked into his side, bounced, and fell over onto her backside, her wings still flapping. Sighing with relief, Sideralis sat down beside Scootaloo, thankful that nopony was hit and that the deck wasn’t torn up too much from Scootaloo’s hooves.

A moment later, he felt two legs wrap around his neck and he could feel Scootaloo trembling against him. She was almost sobbing, a difficult thing to do as a C/Equine, but it was possible. They even had a means for producing tears, even though their eyes were secured behind a transparent armored panel and made to look normal through illusion.

“Six hundred and eighty one knots!” Scootaloo’s grip around Sideralis’ neck tightened to levels unbearable for the common pony. “Six hundred and eighty one knots! I’ve smashed the sound barrier! How come there is no rainboom?” Burying her face into Sideralis’ neck, Scootaloo let out a wordless wail of anguish.

Sideralis didn’t know what to do. Six hundred and eighty one knots. Six hundred and seventy six knots. Six hundred and ninety two knots. Six hundred and seventy nine knots. So many sonic booms, but not one rainboom. It was tearing Scootaloo up that the mythical rainboom just wouldn’t seem to happen for her, no matter how fast she went. And no mistake, Scootaloo was fast.

He had no idea how to comfort finicky, flighty, performance obsessed pegasi ponies, or in Scootaloo’s case, a former pegasus.

“I’m not even crying real tears! I’m not even real anymore… maybe that’s why I can’t do it!” The dam broke and the floodgates opened. Sobbing, Scootaloo kicked down with her hind leg and put a dent into the deckplate she and Sideralis were sitting on. The blow rang out like a gong. “I’m cheating! That’s why its not working! I’m cheating!”

“Scootaloo…” Sideralis didn’t know what else to say, so he sat there, feeling useless, holding the distraught and sobbing cybernetic mare. He heard a yawn and approaching hoofsteps. He turned and saw Rainbow Dash.

“Scoots… Scoots… Scoots…” Rainbow Dash sat down near Sideralis and Scootaloo, yawned again, rubbed her stomach, stretched her wings, and then shook her head to clear away her sleepiness. “Scootaloo… there is more to it than just crashing through the sound barrier… there is a magic to it… but you’ll find it, I promise. You’ve got the right stuff, Squirt.”

“No I don’t… I’m fake… I’m a phony… I’m not even real anymore—”

“You shut your mouth, Squirt.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed and she leaned forwards. “I’m too sleepy to deal with your shit… you cut that out right now. You’re as real as I am or as Sideralis is.” Rainbow lifted up her hoof and pointed it at Scootaloo. “The magic will happen… you’ve just gotta wait for the right moment. I did it once and then never did it again for a long, long time… it didn’t come back to me until I had to rescue somepony that I cared about”—Rainbow Dash’s voice dropped into a low, raspy whisper— “somepony that I loved.”

Scootaloo pulled away from Sideralis, sniffled, and a long string of snot dangled down from her nose, stretching, growing longer, and almost reaching the deck. Her face was stained with tears.

“Scootaloo… it isn’t about just going fast. You have to put all of yourself into it. Your whole self. Mind, body, and spirit. If you have to think about it, if you have to force it, it won’t happen. Trust me, I know… I drove myself crazy. It only happened when I stopped thinking about it and just let go. You’re making yourself crazy trying to force it to happen. Rainbooming is like farting… if you have to strain and force it to happen, everything will end in shit.”

Snot still dangling, Scootaloo giggled, causing the snot string to wobble, glistening in the sunlight as it swayed back and forth. She sniffed, making a sharp, strong inhale, and the snot globule vanished up her nose.

“Squirt, that’s disgusting. Ugh, I think I’m gonna be sick. I always thought Apple Bloom would be the gross one.” Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and her ears pinned back against her skull as the wind whipped her rainbow mane all about.

“I’m gonna have to start calling you Snotty-loo.” Sideralis prodded Scootaloo with his hoof. He was rewarded with a laugh, even though tears were still flowing. He had an idle thought of wondering how her internal systems were handling this display of emotion, still crying, but also laughing. “Snootaloo?”

“Stop, you’re horrible.” Scootaloo sniffled and wiped her nose with her foreleg. “Thanks. Both of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you both.”

“You need my kind of awesome in your life, Squirt.” Rainbow Dash puffed out her barrel and pointed at herself with her hoof. “Admit it.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo replied in a breathy exhale.

“It’s kinda awesome that you’re all grown up and I’m still young and we can have all kinds of fun together now…” Rainbow’s words trailed off and the smile upon her face vanished. Her eyes began to glisten and the little blue pegasus started to tremble. “I missed out on watching you grow up. I wasn’t there… I wasn’t there when you had your first kiss… or fell in love… or any of those things… I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there for you.” Rainbow Dash began to sniffle, which in turn caused Scootaloo to sniffle.

“I never got kissed… I was too sick. I never fell in love,” Scootaloo said.

“That’s even worse,” Rainbow wailed, “I wasn’t there for you when you were hurting and you needed me most!”

Sideralis’ ears drooped. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash both had mercurial moods that shifted like the wind. They had both just been laughing and now, they were on the verge of tears again. There was a beeping in his ear and then a warning flashed in front of his vision letting him know about Rainbow’s rising levels of distress; elevated heart rate, pulse, and breathing.

“I need Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said in a low moan as she began to rock back and forth. She wrapped her thin wings around herself in a hug. “I don’t like how I’m feeling… I need Fluttershy. I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Feeling sad, not feeling at all like laughing, Sideralis made ready to carry the distraught pegasus to Fluttershy, and he hoped that he could find her. He hoped that Rainbow could hold it together until Fluttershy was found.

Stout came out of the room, shut the door, and Sideralis saw her look up at him. She looked worried, but there was something else about her, something beautiful, something he couldn’t quite put his hoof on.

“I think she’ll be fine… just a little anxiety attack. She had to be given a sedative.” Stout stepped closer to Sideralis, sighed, and then rubbed her face against his neck. “Scootaloo has been crying again.”

“Yep.” Sideralis angled his head and looked down at Stout. “Something different about you, Stout.” Sideralis couldn’t help but notice. Even with Rainbow Dash’s anxiety attack, Stout was still in a good mood. A very good mood. She kept rubbing up against him and Sideralis felt the first awakenings of arousal.

“I helped to deliver a foal this morning… the birth was a little rough, but everything worked out fine… Chrysalis was there… she’s drunk right now from all of the love. I feel so happy.” Stout continued to rub her face against Sideralis trying to find a place that wasn’t soggy from tears.

“Foals… on a warship… that just sounds so wrong.” Sideralis lowered his head and gave Stout a nuzzle on her withers, which caused the affectionate mare to wicker pleasantly.

“We need the love… Twilight and Chrysalis know the risks, but there is nothing quite so loving as a new mother and father. That’s why we keep foals on this ship. That’s why Sweetie Belle has her magic kindergarten. All of this keeps The Ouroborus strong. It also makes him protective and aggressive. He loves the little lifeforms running around inside of him, or so Chrysalis says. They’re his foals too. He provides for them and keeps them safe.”

“I suppose so, but what if we’re attacked?” Sideralis asked.

He felt Stout pull away from him and he looked into her eyes. Her orange eyes darkened and her ears tilted forwards in an aggressive manner. “Anything comes aboard my home and threatens those I love… make no mistake, I will destroy them. I will disincorporate their molecular structure into nothing but a mass of subatomic particles left to drift away into nothingness.”

“Stout, I think I like you more when you’re sweet and act harmless… I don’t think I like you when you’re scary.” Sideralis lowered his head and before Stout could reply, he kissed her on the cheek. As he was pulling away, he was surprised by two lips latching on to his and he shared a somewhat sloppy, slippery kiss with Stout before he did pull away.

He saw her mouth open, saw her throat move, but Sideralis got his words out first. “I do kinda like it when your dirty though. Does anypony even know just what sort of dirty pony you are?”

Whatever it was that Stout was about to say came out as a giggle. She looked up, her eyelids going heavy and she gave Sideralis a sultry, come hither stare through half open eyes. “What will it take to keep you quiet about that? I can’t have my reputation ruined. Can’t have a dirty, slutty nurse prowling the ship, can we?”

“Stout!” Sideralis’ voice came out as a coltish squeak and his blue face took on a purple tinge. He let out a nervous giggle and stomped his hooves.

“Well, if I can’t bargain with you, maybe I can bargain with Mister Winky,” Stout whispered as she turned to walk away. She flicked her tail at Sideralis, encouraging him to follow. “Mister Winky and I know how to see eye to eye.”

Gulping, Sideralis let out a bellowing wicker, snorted, and then took off after Stout, who was gazing back at him with the most inviting stare as she sashayed away. He followed, wondering, hoping, curious if Stout would do that thing she did. Sideralis let out an enthusiastic whinny as he trailed after the naughty nurse, hoping for a very thorough examination.

Author's Notes:

Soon...