Everything was getting too weird and Twilight Sparkle, when faced with overwhelming weirdness, had chosen to retreat. Mjölna too, was becoming… whatever it was that she was becoming, and she didn’t seem to want to be bothered. When Twilight had left her, Mjölna had been mumbling something about a hammer worthy of being a gavel of judgment.

Not much of anything was making sense at the moment. Sideralis was in a deep sleep that nopony could rouse him from and he remained suspended in his rack. Ratchet was still in a strange cocoon that had turned crystalline and nopony quite knew what to make of it. The Ouroboros was growing strange new crystalline growths along his sides, blue crystals that Twilight suspected were attuned to Sideralis.

“Twilight?”

Turning, Twilight heard and saw a pony she did not expect. She smiled, feeling worried, and took a step closer as she replied, “Mustang, how are you? Should you be out of bed?”

“I’m fine.” Mustang looked down at the deck for a moment and then looked Twilight in the eye, but she had some trouble meeting Twilight’s gaze. “I’m about as well as can be expected considering what happened. The acid damaged my insides, but everything is healing well.”

Overcome with a strange emotion, an almost sisterly feeling of familiarity that she could not explain, Twilight went to Mustang, put her wings around the troubled mare’s neck, and gave Mustang a warm, affectionate hug. Much to Twilight’s surprise, Mustang stepped into the hug, pressing herself closer, and Twilight could feel her shuddering as her feelings threatened to overwhelm her. She felt Mustang take a deep breath, something that C/Equines did not need to do because their breathing was regulated like everything else, and Twilight rubbed her neck against Mustang’s.

“Twilight, I need your help with a spell,” Mustang said in a low whisper as she stood pressed against Twilight. “I have these strange ideas, Twilight. This urge. But I can’t do it alone. Can you help me?”

“Waitaminute,” Twilight replied as she pulled her head back so she could look Mustang in the eye. “Tell me something… are you becoming?”

Mustang blinked, looking very confused. “Becoming what?”

“Whew!” Twilight gasped as the strong wind blew her mane around and made her tail rustle around her legs. Twilight let out a nervous laugh and smiled. “Oh, nothing… nevermind. I’ll be glad to help you if I can. I think it’s great that you can learn magic.”

“It’s a map spell,” Mustang said, “but it’s complex. If we join our magic together, I have this… this hunch that you’ll be able to help me cast it.” Mustang’s dark blue horn glowed with a faint light and an eager expression came over her face.

“Map spell?” Curious, Twilight began to think about all of the possibilities. Map spells were useful. Twilight studied Mustang, marvelling that the cybernetic could learn magic, and she looked at Mustang’s cutie mark. Six stars, each a different colour. One red, one blue, one violet, one orange, one pink, and one was almost a shade of magenta. Something about them was almost familiar to Twilight. They stood out in sharp contrast against Mustang’s rusty reddish-brown pelt.

The air was filled with the sounds of whalesong as the ships sang to one another. Without knowing how she knew, Twilight understood that The Ouroboros and the Phoenix Rising were trying to comfort King Stag and Queen Acherontia during their difficult transition.

This would almost be a perfect day, a perfect sunny afternoon, if everything wasn’t so desperate. Twilight took a deep breath, filling her lungs, glad to be alive. There was a hopeful expression upon Mustang’s face and it was an infectious appearance of optimism. Twilight felt her spirits buoyed.

“Join with me,” Twilight said, her horn glowing. “Let us touch magic and see what we can accomplish together.”

The two mares stood close, horns glowing, and Twilight spread her wings so she could feel the wind in her feathers. The glow on Mustang’s horn intensified and a tether appeared between the two mares. On the deck, ponies stopped what they were doing to check out the magic show that was now taking place.

Above Twilight and Mustang, a round map projected, and Twilight gasped when she saw it. She would know that map anywhere, it was the map from her old crystal castle, the map that would show her where trouble was. It hovered overhead, the projection becoming more and more detailed with each passing second.

There was a brilliant flash from Mustang’s horn and a second magical tether appeared, this one connecting to the deck of The Ouroboros. Mustang sucked in a deep breath and her eyes flashed with a strange light.

“I am becoming,” Mustang announced in a calm voice that sounded like how still waters looked. Arcane energy crackled around Mustang, traveled along the magical tethers, and jumped into Twilight.

“Oh no, not you too!” Twilight cried as she felt raw magic surging through her bones.

“The map you are familiar with was created by your castle, which was the Spirit of Harmony’s first attempt at a crystal computer. It was large, too large, and not very powerful.” Mustang’s voice was strange and almost not quite her own. “Much was learned from that first attempt. The map program was successful.”

Twilight gritted her teeth as the magic crackling along her horn became almost painful. She squinted, trying to see through the brilliant glare, and saw that Mustang was surrounded by a nimbus of light. Mustang’s synthetic crystalline horn was growing longer and all four of her hooves glowed with an eerie blue light.

The flat map projection overhead began to change. It grew larger and larger with each passing second. As it grew, it first became bowl shaped, then, as it grew larger, it became more and more spherical in shape, until at last, the sphere was completed. The map flooded with the holographic image of water, which splashed around the tiny planet floating above Twilight and Mustang’s head.

A tiny sun and a moon appeared, each orbiting the planet, the sun shone with a cheerful light and the moon glowed with a silvery hue. The waters on the projected planet rippled, and continents sprang up. Mountains became visible. All of the colours of nature began to appear as the three dimensional holographic map began to gain more detail.

A tiny fleet of airships appeared, hovering just above the ocean of the map, above the northern hemisphere. The planet spun around and the southern hemisphere became visible. A mass of clouds sprang into existence over a vast, empty place that was nothing but ocean.

“This is where we must go,” Mustang said. “Here, we will find the Spirit of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony.”

“But there is no land,” Twilight replied as her teeth vibrated with strange magic. “Just endless ocean. There is nothing down there.”

“But this is where we go. The Spirit of Harmony waits for us. You and Sideralis are expected.” Mustang’s horn grew another inch as the map gained even more details. A black, horrible mass was now creeping over some of the continents.

As Twilight looked up, confused, she realised that the black mass spreading over the planet was Queen Mariposa. The planet rotated, spinning with slow, steady motion. Griffonstone was directly overhead, just above her horn, and she saw the darkness creeping ever closer to the griffon homeland. The ancient homeland of the dragons was also being threatened.

The globe continued turning and Twilight saw Equestria, she was familiar with its outline, its shape. Her heart lept up into her throat. It crawled with blackness, some of which now spread out into the oceans themselves on either side. The implications were frightening and worrisome—Queen Mariposa was bioforming everything.

As the planet overhead continued to turn, Twilight saw the fleet again and some tiny islands; Isla Colibaba. The holographic projection kept turning until at last, Twilight saw what she did not want to see. Maredina.

The city on the coast was as black as pitch and the darkness was spreading outward from it, creeping into Saddle Arabia. Twilight felt her heart breaking and tears welled up in her eyes. It all felt so hopeless.

“Steel your resolve, Twilight Sparkle, we have a long journey ahead of us as we go to the pure lands,” Mustang said in a soft voice. “At the end of this journey, you too, will be becoming.”

Sideralis peered through the eyes of the changeling drone at the stasis pod that held Thunderclap. The pegasus was a real mess at the moment, but would heal in time. For Sideralis, that was not enough. More had to be done.

Looking through the borrowed eyes of the communications drone, Sideralis eyed the changelings in the room with him, and then spoke through the borrowed mouth. “Have Thunderclap transferred to The Ouroboros and begin restoring him. Rebuild him with a civilian chassis, like the one used on the mare, Octavia.”

“Why not a combat chassis?” A drone asked.

“Because, he will be needed for leadership, not as a weapon.” Sideralis paused for a moment, becoming thoughtful. “We need for him to survive this conflict, however long it takes. His sense of duty alone is not enough to sustain him.”

“Twilight Sparkle and Chrysalis are in charge of the—”

“Not any longer,” Sideralis said through the drone he had commandeered, cutting the drone next to him off as he spoke. “The C/Equines and the C/Hangelings will now look after their own. Twilight does not yet understand.”

“If I may ask, why must this pegasus survive this conflict? What greater purpose does he serve?” the drone asked.

“Aside from his experience, which is considerable, my mother will need a companion when she wakes. Thunderclap will be ideal. As he slumbers in stasis, begin instructing him with the information he needs to be a better caretaker for my mother. Give him an uplink to the neural net. Begin filling him with tactics and all of the available learning that the swarm has collected. He will be a powerful asset. He will be our living tactical and strategical planning computational node.”

“Yes, of course, Prince Sideralis. We shall do as you bid,” one of the drones replied.

“Thank you.” Sideralis paused for a moment, his consciousness straining from spending such an extended time away from his body and in the mind of a drone. “If you will excuse me, I must now devote as much power as possible to begin determining an ideal companion for Princess Celestia as she recovers. There must be an ideal companion in the fleet somewhere.”

And with that, Sideralis slipped away, drifting off back to his own body.

“Hello?” Sweetie Belle took a cautious step forwards into the strange room and closer to where Sideralis was suspended in his rack. She swallowed, licked her lips, and tried not to think about running away. This room had some next level weirdness going on and she wasn’t sure if she liked it.

There were strange crystalline cocoons above her, crystals sprouted from the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. The entire room thrummed with power. Sweetie Belle felt out of place here and she could feel electricity arcing through her pelt, her mane, and her tail.

“Hello?” Sweetie Belle repeated. “You sent a drone for me and asked me to come.”

The young mare almost screamed when Sideralis opened his eyes and looked at her. She felt her stomach muscles clench, a painful spasm, and she almost lost control of her bladder. She stood, sides heaving, totally creeped out by everything around her.

“Hello Sweetie Belle,” Sideralis said in greeting as his lips curled into a smile. “I’m sorry if I scared you. Things are in a state of transition right now.”

“Uh huh,” Sweetie Belle squeaked in reply. She gulped again and it took some effort to find the words she wanted to say. “The drone said you have news about Spike and that you wanted to speak to me.”

A sweet smell filled the room and Sweetie Belle felt herself relaxing. She took a deep breath, wondering if she was smelling flowers, perfume, or some kind of air freshener. Something about the pleasant scent reminded her of her sister, Rarity, and the long hours that Rarity would spend sitting at her vanity, getting ready for whatever event or night out on the town was planned. It was the smell of shampoo, perfume, of expensive makeup, and it made Sweetie Belle think of home. A wave of emotion crashed over her, and she felt her knees go weak.

A warm feeling of happiness bubbled up inside of her as the memory filled her mind and she found herself letting out a soft laugh even as the tears welled up in her eyes. She felt at ease and no longer cared about her strange surroundings.

“Sweetie Belle,” Sideralis began, “Spike is going to be rebuilt. I have already begun the process. I have been inside of his dreaming mind. He is excited for this change.”

Gasping, Sweetie Belle felt her barrel tighten. She took a step closer to Sideralis.

“Sweetie Belle, when Spike is rebuilt, it is going to compromise his growth. He will grow no larger than he is right now. It is a side effect of growing enough biosteel for all of his scales. All of his future growth as a dragon is being repurposed, being harnessed, and redirected.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Sweetie Belle asked in a low whisper.

“Are you happy with him at this size? Are the two of you sexually compatible?” Sideralis asked.

The flustered mare felt her cheeks catch on fire and something deep within her stomach burned as well. “We manage… he has to be careful and we have to use spells to make me a bit more durable. Dragon ejaculation is, uh, well, it’s like a firehose.” Sweetie Belle felt her mouth go dry. “We make it work though. Spike is very, very careful with me even with the spells.”

“He loves you,” Sideralis said in a matter of fact voice.

“Well, yeah…” Sweetie Belle replied. She smacked her lips together and took another deep breath, pulling in more of the strange, Rarity scented air.

“Sweetie Belle, are you willing to endure a transformation to be with him?” Sideralis asked.

“Are you asking me if I want to be a C/Equine?” Sweetie Belle’s eyes narrowed and she took yet another step closer to Sideralis. “But the Cyclops facility is gone. And we’re kinda on the run right now.”

“Irrelevant.” Sideralis’ voice was soft, almost a whisper. “Yours is a love that deserves to be rewarded. You are a brave and courageous mare, Sweetie Belle, and not just because you love a dragon. I’ve been watching your kindergarten.”

“They get a little rambunctious at times.” Disarmed, distracted, Sweetie Belle grinned.

“Spike has begged me to speak with you. He’s scared. He doesn’t want to face this new future alone. He needs you with him.” A blue crystalline structure near Sideralis glowed and he turned his head to look at it. A projected image of Twilight Sparkle and Mustang Salvation appeared and above them was a three dimensional map.

“Would I get wings?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I cannot answer that just yet. I would rather have you in a civilian chassis, like Octavia. It would greatly extend your natural lifespan and allow you to be with Spike. Do you really need wings in a classroom?” Sideralis smiled.

“Um, I suppose they wouldn’t help much in a classroom.” Sweetie Belle looked up at Sideralis. “I need some time to think about it, okay?”

“Take all of the time you need,” Sideralis replied.

“Thank you, Sideralis… I’ll come back with an answer soon, okay?”

Author's Notes:

But what of the sea ponies?