Sideralis stepped over the bodies that Mjölna and Stout had put down. He was driven forward by a powerful urge, a compulsion to keep moving. There was a whoosh of flame and the bodies ignited. So far, the trio had encountered several groups of infected and several more floating eyeball abominations that were blown up just like the first.

The floating eyeball abominations were dangerous, terribly so, they had powerful spells, resisted magic, and if they were torched, they exploded with spectacular concussive force. Killing them was just as dangerous as fighting them. Their central eye blasts caused things to liquify into a strange, caustic purple muck. None of the trio wanted to find out what a direct hit by an eye blast would do to their bodies.

Sideralis paused as something within his body powered up. He felt something, he could not say what it was, but it was a peaceful, happy, warm feeling. Much to his surprise, his horn began glowing. A tether of energy shot from his horn to Stout’s horn, startling him, and the air was filled with a thrumming sound.

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

Initialising__Alicorn__Avenger__upgrade.firewall.Stout.patch

System corruption detected ⚠

Reminder: please upgrade to Harmony OS.

Firewall initialising.

Warning! bAd daTA__loaD eRROr ⚠

Warning! Firewall efficiency at 92%

Further infection imminent!

Warning! Aethernet cloud storage unavailable at this time. System files at risk!

Warning! Firewall efficiency at 89%

Warning! System bREAch!

Stout’s horn began to glow with a soft orange light that spread outwards and a field of energy surrounded both Sideralis and Mjölna as well as Stout herself. Instinctively, the three C/Equines moved closer together.

As the three of them huddled together, a dreadful purple ooze came slurping out of the storm drain in the narrow street that lead to a tunnel. It flexed, gurgled, and then began taking the shape of a pony, an alicorn no less.

Sideralis’ ears perked when he heard the sounds of cold cannons being powered up. He began backing away a little, but was mindful not to step outside of the protective orange glow being generated by Stout.

“You cocksucking motherfucker!” Mjölna spat out the string of hard consonants with a well practiced ease. “You hurt my apprentice!”

“You raped my sister!” Stout cried.

Sideralis, not knowing what else to say, but feeling the need to say something, shouted, “You hurt Scootaloo!” It felt like the right thing to say, as Apple Bloom and Mustang had already been mentioned.

“It’s your fault I lost my stogie!” Mjölna stepped forwards and without further ado, began firing balls of liquid nitrogen at the smooze ooze.

The undulating purple muck in the shape of an alicorn let out a strange, gurgling cry of pain as parts of it began to freeze. Stout followed Mjölna’s example and began squirting streams of liquid methane in the smoozy ooze’s general direction.

The smooze struggled, resisting the ferocious freezing assault. It was slowed, having difficulty moving, more and more of it continued to freeze with each shot, but the creature proved to be very difficult to stop.

With a keening cry, a tendril as thin as a strand of hair shot out from the smooze, shot through the air, and struck Stout on her right hind leg. She toppled to the ground, her hind leg almost severed, her hoof only held on by a few wires, a few struts, and some badly damaged metal.

Sideralis reacted without thinking. He rose into his bipedal form, an absolute giant, he darted forwards, and lifted Stout in the telekinesis projectors in his front hooves. He pulled her into his forelegs and held her, pointing her at the disgusting smoozy slime.

Now armed with a Stout, Sideralis held her close and allowed her to keep firing. The air around him was cold, bitterly cold, but Stout’s shielding protected him from the liquid methane mist.

The smooze wasn’t looking very good. More and more of it was icebound. Mjölna let out a roar of triumph, a wordless sound of rage and hatred. She moved forwards, her makeshift nitrogen launcher operating at a staccato rapid fire.

The smooze stopped moving. The almost alicorn shape was frozen. Sideralis was overcome by a strange compulsion once more, a feeling of power coursing through his body. He felt his tail twitch, and then his horn began glowing. A tether connected him and Mjölna together.

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

Initialising__Alicorn__Hammer__Mjölna.patch

Configuring__Mjölna__arc__test.

Warning! High Voltage ⚠

Warning! uSEr__Mjölna experiencing surge ⚠

wARNIng! Discharge imminent ⚠

Warning! Lethal voltage ⚠

Sideralis, no longer in control of his own body, felt one of his forelegs reach out towards Mjölna. His projector powered up and he picked up Mjölna in his telekinesis. The mare was surrounded by sparks, she was arcing, all four of her hooves were glowing, and it appeared as though her surge discharge capacitors were way over capacity. Her nitrogen cannon ceased to fire. The air around them ignited with wisps of plasma. Nearby windows that were still intact began to shatter. The ground rumbled.

Lifting his foreleg, Sideralis raised Mjölna high up into the air, and with a furious cry, Sideralis unleashed the Alicorn Hammer assault. Mjölna’s hammer and thunderbolt cutie mark glowed with the intensity of the sun. A valkyrie’s shriek came out of her mouth, a deafening cry that could be heard over the arcing, crackling fury that was her hooves.

With a terrific thunderous crash, Mjölna was brought down atop the frozen smooze. The world turned white and had any creature with normal eyes and no eye protection been there to witness this event, they would have been struck permanently blind from the brilliance of the thunderbolt hammer smash that Sideralis performed with Mjölna acting as his hammer.

The smooze was struck with all of the righteous fury that only a pissed off alicorn could muster. The shockwave rippled outwards from the impact zone. Buildings were turned to dust in the immediate area. Further down, buildings toppled over like dominoes. The impact and the resulting brilliant white light could be seen from several miles away and many on The Ouroboros witnessed the moment where it appeared that there was a second sun shining.

Not only did Stout’s firewall shield protect from the smoozy ooze’s harmful influence, but it also protected them from most of the blast as well. The makeshift weapons had been utterly obliterated. All three of them were missing patches of their pelt. All three were smoking, singed, and even a little crispy in a few places. The ground beneath the smooze had been turned to dust from the impact, and then had turned to glass because of the arcing electrical strike.

The smooze was now little more than shards of frozen but still quivering smoozy ooze. Sideralis had set Stout down and she was standing on three legs. Mjölna was hurrying around, picking up smooze bits with her telekinesis and stuffing them into the storage tanks mounted on Sideralis’ wings.

“That was amazing,” Stout managed to say in a raspy, dry, gritty voice.

“Motherfucker got wrecked,” Mjölna muttered in agreement as she stuffed more of the smooze shards into the storage tanks. “I’m almost out of energy. I’m running on reserves. I think we’ll have to call in an airlift.”

Sideralis looked around at the widespread devastation around him. They had caused this. He and his companions were living weapons. He was standing in an impact crater and it looked as though a fucking humongous bomb had been dropped right where he was standing. The air around him still crackled with strange energies. The tunnel entrance had collapsed.

Together, he and Mjölna had formed some kind of superweapon. He was still stunned about the whole thing. Nothing, absolutely nothing in his whole life had given him any frame of reference for what had just happened.

Even frozen, the smooze had been resistant to damage. The pieces were quite large, all of them were quivering, and showed signs of thawing fast. Mjölna kept stuffing them into the tanks mounted on Sideralis’ wings.

Scanning the ground, Mjölna hoped that if she did not have all of the smoozy bits that she at least had most of them. She couldn't see anymore smooze shards as she did a thorough double checking of the immediate area.

Satisfied, she sealed the tanks, turned them on, and checked them. The nitrogen cooling system was working and the tanks covered themselves with frost as the smooze settled into a deep freeze.

“Okay, Sideralis, heads up,” Mjölna began. She lifted her head to look up at him. “Fly upwards as fast as you can. Gain altitude. When the air begins to get real thin and flying is difficult, hit your thrusters. Your heads up display should let you know. The tanks have their own rocketboost and guidance systems. They’ll launch themselves when the right time comes. Send this motherfucker on his space journey!” Mjölna extended one battered looking wing and saluted.

Spreading his wings, Sideralis kicked himself off of the ground and took to the air. He looked down as he beat his wings, and focused on Stout. “I love you, Creamy Stout… I’ll be back.”

Stout, standing on three legs, whipped out a wing in salute. “Alicorn speed, Sideralis. I love you… try not to have too much fun up there.”

Nodding, Sideralis flapped his wings, gave both Stout and Mjölna one final glance, and then began the long difficult climb to get to the top of the atmosphere. His wings carved through the air and his downdrafts sent up clouds of dust, powdered glass, and debris.

“On the wings of alicorns, Sid! You give that motherfucker a proper sendoff!” Mjölna shouted as Sideralis continued to gain altitude.

Sideralis existed near the edge of the void. His wings struggled now, he had to fight to keep flapping, to keep rising. A stream of garble shot across his vision, including a few warnings. Many of his systems had been damaged or were compromised in some way.

His mind felt soupy and sluggish as he fired his thrusters. He hurtled straight up through the thin, almost non existent air. He felt an odd tearing sensation but he ignored it. There was the glorious sensation of speed.

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

Warning! 1322.94168 knots ⚠

Warning! Skinvelope suffering catastrophic failure!

Warning! Surface temperature exceeding maximum!

Warning! Skinvelope loss imminent!

His whole body was shuddering, trembling, he felt as though he was coming apart. His wings felt as though they were going to be ripped from their sockets. His legs were being tugged on to the point that he feared that they were going to be torn off.

Just as he thought that he was going to be ripped apart for certain, everything smoothed out. Everything went still. A peaceful, calm feeling came over Sideralis, and the sensation of speed vanished.

Blinking, Sideralis saw his mother flying beside him. She was smaller than him by far, graceful, delicate, thin of body, leg, and neck. She rolled and cavorted in the empty void and he felt her tickle his sides with her wingtip. She was smiling, beautiful, and Sideralis felt his body go limp.

“My son, in time, with training, you would have flown up here by my side without all of the metal and machinery. Your own natural magic would have protected you up here. You would have brought with you your own air. This place is mine and my sister's, but we would have shared it with you. I’m so proud of you for what you’ve done.”

As Luna spoke, the two tanks beneath Sideralis’ wings jettisoned, drifted away from his body, and then the thrusters fired. The tanks went shooting off into space, heading out into the distant emptiness where there was nothing for the smoozy ooze to infect.

“You have passed your first real test,” Luna said in a voice that could not contain her pride. “You have defeated an unstoppable enemy, a task worthy of any true alicorn. For my sister and I, we stopped Discord when we proved ourselves worthy of our birthrights and our heritage.”

“I spoke with the Spirit of Harmony,” Sideralis said. “The Keeper of the Elements of Harmony.” Sideralis looked at his mother and he felt his heart aching. She floated beside him, and she kept touching him with her wingtips. Her eyes were almost mesmerising.

“And what did this spirit have to say?” Luna asked.

“She told me what you did,” Sideralis replied, shaking his head, “about what you did to Stout. That was more than influence… you… you’ve programmed her practically from the time that she had her first implants.”

“I did what had to be done.” A pained expression crept over Luna’s face. “I did what I did for you, Sideralis… it is not good for us to be lonely. It changes us… you have inherited things from me that I’d rather not talk about.”

“You used Stout!” Sideralis shouted, his voice echoing strangely in the vacuum.

“She was an ideal match for you. Are you not happy?” Luna asked. One delicate eyebrow raised. “Is Stout not happy? Sideralis, the nights are lonely… painful… I could not bear thinking about you facing them alone. I planned ahead.”

“But what about Stout’s free will?” Sideralis asked.

“What about it? She was receptive to it from the beginning. Nothing was forced upon her—”

“The Spirit of Harmony disagrees.” Sideralis eyed his mother, loving her, but also feeling angry with her. “While she never resisted the ideas, the dreams, the suggestions, she never really said yes either. She just went along with it… it was all just a fantasy for her… and I was a dream come true.”

“I kept my promise… to many,” Luna said in a voice filled with pain. “A very difficult thing to do given my current situation. The situation is more dire than you realise, Sideralis. I had to provide for you… and so many others… now, no more arguing! No more questions, at least not now. Be my avatar! Strike my foes! Go forth and be the alicorn of the night!”

Sideralis shook his head and gave his mother a sad look. “My place is not in the night. I do not know where I belong just yet, but I do not share your destiny. Mother, I fear I must find my own way. The darkness is yours, the daylight is Celestia’s. And while I am touched by nightmares”—as Sideralis spoke he underwent the change, becoming black, terrifying, a mechanical nightmare—“while I have much that I have inherited from you, I am not you.”

Luna pulled away, looking hurt, her eyes glimmering in the faint light.

“Thank you, Mother, for all that you have given me. Stout makes me very happy. I am going to spend the rest of my impossibly long life trying to make up for what you’ve done to her. Be patient, Mother, one day I will rescue you. The Spirit of Harmony has promised me that.”

“My son,” Luna said in a strangled voice, “good luck to you… now wake up… wake up before you die!”

Blinking, Sideralis woke up. He had no awareness of falling asleep at any time. His body was sluggish, nothing wanted to work right, and according to his heads up display, he had burned away his skinvelope.

Twisting his head around, Sideralis saw his back and his body. There was no skin. Some of his muscles had been burned away as well. He could see the black metal of his reinforced spine. He tried flapping his wings, but they didn’t want to work right. His wing joints had been damaged and his heads up display was very, very helpful in telling him that he had suffered multiple critical failures in his attempt to break atmosphere. But he had done his job. His system logs showed that the tanks had been launched off into the endless vacuum. The smoozy ooze was now hurtling off into the nothingness.

Nothing was working right and to top everything else off, he got a flashing warning telling him that he was now operating on emergency reserves. He hurtled towards the earth with a crippled, skinless body and wings that were both suffering multiple critical failures at several points.

Much to Sideralis’ alarm, his heads up display vanished to conserve available power, not that it mattered. He was either going to splat into solid ground or the ocean and that was going to be the end of him.

“DID YOU MISS ME?”

The voice startled Sideralis and his head whipped around. He saw Queen Chrysalis diving down beside him, trying to match his speed. Several drones flew with her, all connected through hive magic, sharing in the strength and speed of their queen. One of the drones was tiny, far too tiny for such a task, and he rode clinging to Chrysalis’ back.

“YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU LOST YOUR VIRGINITY, I GAINED FUCKING SUPERPOWERS! SUPERPOWERS! THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS OTHERWISE! AREN’T YOU GLAD I WAS THERE WHEN YOU BANGED THE TARTARUS OUT OF STOUT’S SWEET, SLICK, HOT LITTLE DIAGNOSTICS PORT? I MADE THAT FOAL HOLE SUPER TIGHT JUST FOR YOU SO YOU COULD BANG YOUR WANG IN HER SWEET POONTANG! YOU OWE ME!”

Much to his own surprise, Sideralis began to smile, even with the dire circumstances. A green glow surrounded his body and several changelings maneuvered around him. Ratchet flew to his back and latched on with magnetic locks. Sideralis felt himself slowing. Ratchet was doing something, but Sideralis wasn’t sure what.

All of a sudden, there was a jerk and Sideralis felt as though his wings were going to be ripped from his sockets. He slowed drastically and as he did so, he looked up. A large white expanse of fabric rippled overhead, tied to him with cords.

One of the cords snapped and Ratchet let out a worried cry. Queen Chrysalis, who did not panic, took both ends and merged them together with a simple repair spell. Her wings buzzed and she matched the speed of Sideralis’ descent so she could keep an eye on things.

The rushing air went from a roar to a whoosh. Sideralis felt more of himself shutting down as his body tried to conserve energy.

“A curious thing happened to Ratchet… the smooze infection had an unexpected side effect, I think, I don’t know what happened. I’ll need to spend time studying it.” Queen Chrysalis peered into Sideralis eyes with a manic expression upon her face. “Ratchet absorbed some of your blood… it’s changed him. He’s giving off all kinds of weird readings. He knew that you were in trouble and he had a better lock on your location than I did. Somehow, he’s been bonded to you.”

Sideralis tried to talk, but nothing happened. There wasn’t enough power. His vision began to dim, the colour fading away to black and white.

“Go into stasis mode, Sideralis. Your work is done. We’ll get you home.”

Queen Chrysalis’ suggestion proved irresistible—Sideralis slipped off into darkness, thinking of his mother and the time they had together at the top of the world, his final thought before his brain shut down completely.

Author's Notes:

Soon, very soon, the second test. There will be no rest.