Unplugging. The act of unplugging caused a tremendous physical and mental change to come over Sideralis. Right away, as the plugs worked free, he understood the need for physical flesh, for weakness. He understood why he wasn’t entirely mechanical, why he wasn’t a machine. He needed his flesh. As he began the physical separation process and the plugs pulled out from the new jacks that had grown into his flesh, he felt something almost like a weight being lifted from his body. His entire mood shifted.

He was free to be Sideralis again. He stepped down out of his rack and looked around what was now being called his ‘throne room.’ Several smaller C/Hangeling drones slumbered in cocoons, becoming something else, something new. Ratchet was still sealed away inside of his own cocoon. He still had a connection to The Ouroboros but it wasn’t a physical connection to The Ouroboros.

Free of his rack, Sideralis wanted to roll in the grass. He wanted to eat sweet berries until they came out of his nose. He wanted to drink root beer and burp the alphabet. He wanted to canoodle with Stout—no—he wanted to do other things with Stout, things that would cause her to make funny faces and sounds. He wanted to interface with Stout’s biological creation station. He wanted to do things to her that would make her celebrate her flesh and turn away from being too mechanical. He wanted to hug ponies—hug them and squeeze them and love them and not let them go until they knew they were loved and felt special. The littlest ponies were special. He had to protect them at all costs. It was an urge almost as strong as the need to roll in the grass.

Turning his head around, he had a good look at himself. He was healed now. He had a new skinvelope. His cutie mark, a bright red alarm clock with brass ringers, was highly visible against his blue pelt. His was the magic of sleeping and awakenings. Without knowing how he knew, he somehow understood that his magic was earth pony magic of the highest calibre. That was what he was—an alicorn of earth pony magic. He had been raised as an earth pony in the Unity Web. He was still an earth pony in every way that mattered. That had also been his primary failing going into combat, he had not thought in three directions like a pegasus might. Changes took time though, and Sideralis knew he would endure many changes.

This realisation had come to him during the long fugue he had fallen into while healing in his rack and preparing for the many changes to come. Twilight was a bastion of unicorn magic, but he was the ultimate form of earth pony magic in the strongest incarnation available.

His mother’s dream magic, she and Celestia’s ability to move the celestial bodies, it was all earth pony magic. Much had changed in Sideralis’ mind. He was gaining understanding. Unicorns could use their magic to move the sun or the moon, but they moved it with powerful telekinesis. It wore them down and burned them out, there was a reason why the practice had come to a stop. Celestia and his mother Luna on the other hoof, they moved the sun and the moon through means he did not yet understand, but he knew they did it by manipulating gravity and tugging the sun and the moon through the sky using irresistible forces. The planet beneath him pulled the moon and the sun around it. Somehow, Celestia and Luna tweaked everything to keep it going.

During his Becoming, he had gained much understanding.

Freed from his rack, Sideralis went off to get high off sensation.

Heavy hooves struck the deck plates with thunderous thuds. Sideralis made his way down the hallway, now understanding so much more about The Ouroboros. The deck plates had a piezoelectric effect—each step, each stomp, each hoof striking the floor as a pony walked down the hallway generated electricity that was needed to power vital functions. Nothing was wasted on this ship, not even the transfer of kinetic energy during the act of walking. The ship was a bit over a mile long, and a single pony walking from one end to the other could generate a fair amount of electricity. Thousands of ponies walking from one end to the other helped to generate much of the electricity needed to keep various parts of the ship powered. Other things, like water pressure in the hydro system also generated a piezoelectric effect. Power was reclaimed from every available source that generated it.

Sideralis had added and modified his own piezoelectric generators in his body during his long healing process. He had wrapped them around the remains of his digestive system. His joints. His muscles. He had even modified his teeth in his jaw. A layer of piezo-reactive biomesh now existed beneath his skinvelope. Every part of him that could be modified to generate electricity was altered to generate electricity, and this was used to power his mechanical systems. His organic systems and his magical systems still required other sources of power, but now, he was far more efficient. He had uploaded the changes made to his body into the new neural net and knew that in time, his fellow C/Equines would also be changed. He was the template.

It was the new earth pony way— work smarter, not harder.

The small pegasus mare looked up at Sideralis with wide eyed awe as he approached. Sideralis could not help but notice the sad look upon the mare’s face. He did not know her name. He only knew that she was in pain, suffering, she was unhappy, and this had to be fixed somehow. She looked a little scared, but Sideralis knew that he was a little scary. Okay, maybe he was almost eight hundred pounds of scary but he tried very hard not to be scary to his little ponies. He saved his ability to cause terror for his enemies, or tried to.

He smiled as he advanced, looking as friendly as an almost eight hundred pound mechanical animal could look. The end result was of course, debateable.

“Sir?” The mare now looked worried, concerned. Her eyes darted around in panic.

Sideralis was following a new directive, the needs of the flesh. There were things he needed. Sensation. Touch. Feeling. Little ponies and even big ponies touched one another. They were herd animals. He had been starved for sensation for far too long. He sucked in a deep breath and continued his advance. He knew what kept the black beast locked away inside of him at bay. His mother’s Nightmare…

The mare squealed as Sideralis lunged. For being an almost eight hundred pound cybernetic alicorn, he moved with a shocking amount of grace and speed. His muzzle pressed into the mare’s neck and he blew a raspberry.

For a moment, the mare was too shocked to respond, she just stood there, her body shut down as her brain processed what was going on. Then, when she realised that the massive, monstrous cybernetic being wasn’t going to eat her or destroy her, she shrieked with laughter, her troubles forgotten, she tried to beg for mercy, but each time she sucked in a deep breath to begin pleading, Sideralis blew another slobbery raspberry against her neck.

He left the poor mare in a heap in the hallway, her sadness forgotten, a broad smile upon her face and her laughter echoing through the corridor. Sideralis continued, heading towards the one pony that he needed to make him happy.

“Stout.” Sideralis looked at the mare that he knew was perfect for him. He understood now. He had judged his mother too harshly. He had not known. Stout’s generous nature would keep the black beast inside of him at bay. Stout would never allow him to know loneliness during the long, dark hours of the night. She would be his boon companion, his most devoted follower, the pony that would love him and keep him from darkness. Stout was the anathema to his mother’s nightmare that he had inherited.

Sideralis knew that he owed his mother an apology. He had misunderstood the Spirit of Harmony when she had spoken to him about his mother. It had not been condemnation, but an explanation of what was necessary and the tough choices that had to be made. He was still young, immature, there was much he still did not know or understand, but he could learn and gain understanding. He had learned much during his dream-like state. This hadn’t just been his mother’s work, but Princess Celestia’s. Princess Luna knew the mind of her ponies, but her sister, Princess Celestia, knew their hearts. Princess Celestia, once the Element of Generousity, had searched high and low to find a heart as generous as her own, and her search resulted in Stout. Princess Celestia knew of her sister’s shortcomings, her failings, her weaknesses, and it had been Princess Celestia who had come up with the plan to combat crippling loneliness with endless generousity. Sideralis owed his mother and his aunt a kiss and a sincere, heartfelt thank you.

“Sid… I’ve missed you. I’ve been healing up and once I was up and moving around, I was needed, we needed nurses so badly and I didn’t mean to neglect you, but there is so much need and only one of me and I’m so sorry—”

“Hush.” Sideralis’ command carried with it no magic, but Stout fell silent anyway.

The pair looked at one another and it was Sideralis who moved. He rushed forwards, pressed his face against Stout, and then began rubbing his cheek down along her neck. He drank in the sensation of feeling her velvety pelt against his own. He rubbed his muzzle against her, trailed his snoot on the tender places just below her ears, and snuffled all up and down her neck as he took in every sensation he could. He could feel Stout trembling as he touched her, and then she was touching him, running her muzzle up and down his neck.

They became the only ponies in the room. Sideralis found Stout’s muzzle and he kissed her, a tender kiss at first, but it soon became a savage, hungry, needy act. There was enough of Stout that was still both equine and a mare—her hind legs buckled and she sat down with a thump as the kiss between her and Sideralis intensified. She reached up with one foreleg and wrapped it around Sideralis neck, trying to pull him in closer, needing to touch him, needing to feel him, and her hot breath came out in snorts.

But the kiss, like so many other good and perfect things, came to an end. Sideralis pulled away and looked into Stout’s eyes with a knowing stare. “You are needed. My own needs must come second. Look after the injured, Stout. Do what you were made to do. Healing others is what makes you special… the combat was difficult on you… you are healing now by healing others to make up for what you’ve done.”

Stout stared up at Sideralis, her eyes wide, and she nodded. She swallowed, blinked, and kissed Sideralis once more. Reaching out with her still extended foreleg, she stroked his cheek. “Been having nightmares about the fighting, Sid. I’m good at it, but I don’t like it. It’s hurt me.”

“I know.” Sideralis took a step backwards as Stout stood up.

“You’ve changed,” Stout said.

Sideralis nodded.

“I went through this strange moment when I knew I was becoming something else.” Stout lowered her raised hoof and lifted up the other. “I went into a deep sleep while I was healing, and when I woke up, I had this.”

A small compartment opened up near the edge of Stout’s raised hoof and a small hypodermic needle protruded. It was small, thin, delicate looking, and made of black changeling bio-steel. Stout blinked as she stared at the new addition. “This wasn’t installed, it grew. I have a full compliment of injectables too… healing compounds, accelerated healing agents, antibiotics, medicines, vaccines, curatives... Sid, I’ve grown a whole new system inside of me to create the chemical agents needed for this system. What’s happening to me?”

“We’re becoming,” Sideralis replied.

The compartment in Stout’s hoof closed and the needle vanished. Standing, she looked at Sideralis. “Once I have the Harmony OS, my system will be able to find a cure for the smooze infection. I’m being remade to fight disease and poor health. Been having some peculiar dreams.”

“I know.” Sideralis gazed into Stout’s orange eyes and felt his heart grow warm. Everything about her was perfect, and her eyes were sunshine. “Come Stout, there is much work to be done. I will come with you while you perform your tasks. I must see that my little ponies are okay.”

“Mustang has changed too. She’s a mess, Sid, but she’s trying real hard to hold it together. She and Twilight are becoming close.” Stout smiled up at Sideralis, batted her eyelashes, and gave him a sweet look. “Those kisses of yours are getting better. A kiss like that could keep me going all day.”

Grinning, Sideralis gave Stout a wink, followed by a quick muzzle-nuzzle. There was much work to do, so much work to do, and Sideralis intended to do his part—especially if his part was to keep Stout going with kisses.

He could do that.

Author's Notes:

Expect more regular updates. Things are getting settled. This story is going places.