“Commander Sparkle, another ship approaches,” a tiny communications drone said in a meek voice as she hovered around Twilight’s head. “This one does not have a means to communicate through projectors.”

Twilight scowled and began to feel a sense of worry. She gritted her teeth and looked around at the fleet projection all around her in the control room. Fifty three ships, plus The Ouroboros. That was all they had. She had to keep them safe and she knew that the longer she lingered near Isla Colibaba, the more danger they were in.

“Commander Sparkle, the ship has signal lights and they are flashing a message. SOS. Over and over again as they approach. SOS. The ship appears to be older, but it bears a changeling signature.”

Twilight’s eyebrow raised.

“Commander, the signature is weak, but I do believe it is Queen Acherontia.”

“Can I get a visual?” Twilight asked.

The tiny communications drone pointed its horn at a crystal cluster and fired a beam. A second later, a projected image of an airship appeared over the crystal console. It flickered a bit, flashed, gained clarity, then colour crept over the image, and after a minute, the two dimensional image became a three dimensional image, the airship image swelling like a balloon and expanding.

Scowling, Twilight Sparkle looked at the ship. After a moment, her eyes went wide and she was almost overcome with excitement. “That’s the Perdu!” Twilight’s wings flapped at her sides and she was almost beside herself with joy. “That’s our top secret airship from the Cyclops research facility… wait…” Twilight’s joy vanished and she gave the ship’s projection a suspicious stare.

A second later, Chrysalis burst into the control room, her eyes wide, her sides heaving. “Queen Acherontia is near. She’s transformed herself into the heart of the airship that approaches so she can take it over… she says there are many injured, maybe even dying. Most of them are from Cyclops. General Thunderclap made a daring rescue and got out on the Perdu.”

“Send over medical assistance at once,” Twilight barked. She looked at her console and agonised over what to do. If she waited here at Isla Colibaba, more ships might come. However, there was the chance of an attack. Twilight wasn’t sure what Mariposa would do.

If Maredina was taken and its hundreds of thousands lost, Mariposa had a beachhead that would allow her to attack Saddle Arabia and its millions, which would no doubt fall in much the same way Equestria had. Twilight frowned, curious, wondering if Mariposa would send whatever army she could muster after twenty thousand or if she could consolidate power in Maredina, turn it into a hive, and then make incursions into Saddle Arabia.

“Queen Chrysalis,” Twilight said in a soft voice that was gritty with emotions.

“Yes, dear friend?” Chrysalis looked at Twilight and a worried expression appeared in the changeling queen’s eyes.

“We need to start moving. But before we do, we need to be utterly invisible. I have a plan to hide every ship in the fleet, but I am going to need your help.” Twilight turned and looked at one of her most trusted companions with pleading eyes.

“Anything for you, Twilight,” Chrysalis said in a quiet reply that seemed oddly affectionate and lacked sarcasm.

“I know an improved invisibility spell and I could probably cast it on one ship, but I need to cast it on all the ships. I need to link minds with you once again, and then, I need you to connect me into the hive mind magic. I need access to every single drone that you have, and their magic.”

“You’re going to cast the spell through the hive mind and distribute the magical load over thousands, aren’t you?” Chrysalis asked.

Twilight nodded.

“That’s gonna leave you weak… it will leave all of us weak.” Chrysalis looked worried. “But, we’ll be invisible and hopefully undetectable. Think we can cover every ship in the fleet?”

“All fifty five of them,” Twilight replied.

“You won’t be fit for duty,” Chrysalis said to her friend. “Spitfire is having a total nervous breakdown. Most of the other captains are still trying to deal with everything that has happened. Everything is anarchy.”

“Sideralis will be left in charge. He can control The Ouroboros. If there is a real emergency, I can take over command again if I think it is necessary. But while we rest, he should be able to manage. It will be a good test for him.”

“If you say so.” Chrysalis looked doubtful.

“This is not an ideal moment for him to assume some sort of command, I agree, but there could be worse moments. We need to get the fleet hidden away, and then we need to move away from here, even if we don’t know where we are going.”

“Uh… if you say so.” The changeling queen repeated with a shrugging gesture.

Twilight let out an irritated grunt and then eyed her command console. After a moment, she heaved a sigh and then looked at Chrysalis. “He’s foalish and immature. He has no idea what he is doing. He can be a little petulant at times, stubborn, and he doesn’t have a great understanding of how the world works.” Twilight let out another sigh. “He’s a lot like how I was when I came down out of my ivory tower for the first time. Ugh, it’s so embarrassing to even think about.”

“You have a lot of faith in him, don’t you?” Chrysalis asked.

“He has courage and guts. He might be a big foal trapped in a cybernetic combat chassis, but he has to be one of the bravest, gutsiest foals I’ve ever seen. He did go right back down into that nightmare and he finished his task. While he has many faults, I must confess, I admire him for doing that, even though I didn’t agree with it.”

“Most foals wet themselves thinking about what’s under the bed. Sideralis went into those tunnels full of nightmares and darkness. I fought some of the things in those tunnels.” The changeling queen paused and then looked Twilight in the eye. “Yeah, he’s pretty brave, I’ll give you that. He’s like the bravest five year old that’s ever lived.”

“Rainbow Dash acts like a five year old… I hope she never changes.” Twilight let out a wistful sigh and thought about another foalish pony she knew, a pink one that she missed dearly. After a moment of reflection, she looked up at Chrysalis. “Make ready. We have much to do. We have to make sure that the fleet is safe.”

Feeling almost frantic, Sideralis was missing his companion, Stout. She was in another place being repaired. Fluttershy was needed as a nurse, there were far too many injured ponies and nowhere near enough help. Not far away from him, Rainbow Dash lay huddled on a cushion, looking miserable, missing her own companion. Ratchet had cocooned himself inside of a slimy green shell and Sideralis didn’t know what was going on with the tiny drone.

He was in charge, but he didn’t know what that meant, other than if an emergency came up, he would need to make a decision. He was feeling peculiar, strange, Ratchet had made a lot of weird things grow all around his rack, and there were odd new connections between him and the ship. Sideralis could feel a sense of awareness outside of his own body now and occasionally, a new alert would flash in his heads up display, telling him about some new upgraded connection between himself and The Ouroboros, which was now listed as a C/Hangeling in his systems. New connections were being established. At times, it felt as though Sideralis was becoming part of the ship, or perhaps, the ship was becoming a part of him. He was aware of what Ouroboros as a C/Hangeling was thinking, just as he was aware of what Ratchet as a C/Hangeling was thinking.

Ratchet had wired him directly into The Ouroboros and Sideralis did not understand what was going on, there was only a vague understanding that he was becoming something greater, something larger.

The fleet was moving, following The Ouroboros, moving along a course set by Twilight before she had hidden the entire fleet, which was now clustered together. There was a strange feeling of pressure inside of Sideralis’ mind, and then he became aware of being a much larger living organism. He could feel ponies and changelings moving through his hallways like blood flowing through veins. In an almost dreamlike state, the tattered remains of Sideralis’ tail flicked and the feeling intensified. Using the mind of Ouroboros, not the ship, but the C/Hangeling mind within the ship, Sideralis extended his consciousness into the Phoenix Rising and he began to feel the life moving through that ship as well. There were other changeling ships in various stages of growth and development. Some were small, some were a bit larger.

Sideralis bumped minds with King Stag, now King Stag the airship. King Stag was still making connections, growing digesters, creating the systems that would give his ponies fresh water and food, poor King Stag was going through a painful stage of growth and did not understand what to do.

Without even realising what he was doing or how he was doing it, Sideralis overlaid the layouts of both The Ouroboros and the Phoenix Rising into King Stag’s damaged consciousness and helped to shore up the hive mind connection between the three ships, which in turn took much of the strain off of King Stag. Ouroboros and Phoenix both had a lot more experience with being airships than King Stag did. With Ouroboros and Phoenix now guiding his growth, King Stag was now free to recover his battered, damaged consciousness and heal from his traumatic transition.

Drifting in and out of his body, Sideralis realised that the magic that had been used to transmute the changelings into a living airship could be used on the smaller changeling airships. Those ships had been expected to grow into massive ships through natural means, but merging them together now would be beneficial to the fleet. Through Ouroboros’ mental connection, he slipped a suggestion to Chrysalis as she recovered from her effort to hide the fleet.

The Ouroboros had empty rooms, empty sections that had been grown, but not yet purposed. Sideralis instructed the C/Hangeling ship to begin turning some of them into medical facilities, research labs, and a recovery bay large enough for one dragon. Keeping Spike in a pod until they returned to Maredina was no longer an option. One of the tubes that connected Sideralis to The Ouroboros sucked out a portion of blood from Sideralis and began the transfer of it to Spike the dragon, who slept in a painless sleep within a changeling stasis pod. The blood was the first step in transforming Spike into something greater, just as Ratchet was transforming into something greater inside of his cocoon, the first transformation of many.

Sideralis’ blood was being transferred to other places within The Ouroboros. With Sideralis’ blood came the catalyst needed for transmutation and change. In time, a maintenance drone carrying Sideralis’ lifeblood would transfer some to the Phoenix Rising and the other changeling ships in the fleet, changing them to C/Hangeling ships. These changes were being made in preparation for the meeting with the Spirit of Harmony. These changes were necessary, it would make the cure for the smooze infection easier to disperse. Sideralis was building an immune system through his C/Equines and his C/Hangelings without even realising it was happening.

A new growth of crystalline fibre snaked down from the ceiling, wiggled, slithered, and connected itself to Sideralis’ back. The fibres dug into his flesh, connected to his spine, and created a connection with his central nervous system, tapping in. Sideralis’ awareness increased a little.

His little ponies were scared, frightened, they were infected and had been traumatised. Now in a dreamlike state, he himself now in a state of perfect calm, Sideralis sent out the suggestion to the airships that he could connect with that they should release certain calming pheromones. Another cable of crystalline fibre rose up from the floor and connected with Sideralis’ neck. It bored into his flesh with a wet squelch and Sideralis’ connection was further strengthened. His tail flicked.

As a sweet scent filled Sideralis’ repair bay, Rainbow Dash calmed and slipped off into a restful slumber.

Author's Notes:

And now, into the great unknown.