It felt good to have all of his companions in one room. All of them had come together because Ratchet was hatching. His cocoon showed signs of opening, and Chrysalis said that he would emerge soon. It was curiousity that brought everypony together into the room now referred to as Sideralis’ throne room.

Twilight was there; she and Chrysalis sat together discussing the slow, cautious escape they were making to the southern hemisphere. Mustang sat with them, not saying anything, but listening. A little over a week so far had passed and they were still in danger, even though Twilight kept the ships invisible. Something was pursuing them and there was much debate about what to do about it. It was Chrysalis’ belief that their enemy was tuned in upon the smooze infection somehow.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat with Sweetie Belle, who would soon join the C/Equine ranks. They sat around a crystal projector, talking with Spike, who slumbered in a cocoon tucked away in another part of the ship as he was rebuilt. The crystal projector allowed anypony, or in this case, Spike the Dragon, to jack into the projector from the dream net, which in turn allowed those dreaming or in stasis to have some limited interaction with the waking world. The interface still needed work, and was the joint project between Sideralis, Doctor Gizmo, and Chrysalis. Spike appeared to be happy, at least that was the emotion he projected.

Mjölna sat with her new hammer, a device she was still perfecting. The name had not been decided; sometimes, Mjölna called it ‘The Grinder,’ other times, ‘The Crusher.’ The handle was short, but extendable. Mjölna could grip it in her fetlocks. It had a telekinetic tether that would ensure it would return to her if thrown. The head was a somewhat rounded cube, with chamfered edges. The hammer was designed to channel Mjölna’s electrical discharges, and looked very much like the hammer that was her cutie mark. She was polishing the head of her hammer as she admired the perfection of her work. As she kept herself busy, she listened to Rainbow Dash.

Creamy Stout was with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow was telling a story from the old days, the day before Equestria fell. She told her story with great enthusiasm, waving her forelegs and her wings, while Fluttershy looked embarrassed. Rainbow Dash talked about the very first Grand Galloping Gala they had all attended, and Stout listened with an ever growing smile.

Sideralis was unconnected, or at least not physically connected. He still had his mental connections, but those weren’t as taxing as having a hard connection. He had some sense of individuality, some sense of being himself, and everything that made him who and what he was wasn’t being drowned out by the demands of the ever growing neural net.

Grinning, Sideralis waited, unable to take his eyes off of Ratchet’s cocoon. He watched with an almost foalish wonder, which wasn’t surprising, as Sideralis was really just a big foal. A big, scary cybernetic foal that tipped the scales at a startling seven hundred and fifty pounds. Even with his wings shrunk down to their most compact state, they were large against his sides. Glittering blue crystals adorned his central knuckles.

“Something is glowing in there,” Sideralis said in a low voice. “And it’s not the changeling green… it’s more of a blue colour.”

“Everything connected to you directly is transitioning to blue,” Chrysalis replied.

“I didn’t mean to take your bugs away.” Sideralis’ ears perked and he turned his head to look over at Chrysalis. “I really am sorry.”

“I can share a few bugs for a good cause.” With a polite nod, Chrysalis excused herself, stood up, and came over to where Sideralis was sitting and waiting. When she was sitting beside him, she continued, “This is larger than both of us. I don’t quite understand everything that is happening, but it’s amazing to watch as everything unfolds. So much change all at once. It’s impossible to keep up with. All we can do now is just allow the change to happen. There’s no resisting it. We are becoming.”

Across the room, Twilight let out a moan of frustration.

“We are connected, you and I.” Sideralis’ eyes narrowed and he turned his head so that he was snoot to snoot with the changeling queen. “You and I have a purpose together. Every day, that becomes clearer.”

Reaching up with her foreleg, Chrysalis patted Sideralis on the neck. “I never thought I would say this, but I’m glad that I have friends.” She looked over at Twilight for a moment and then back to Sideralis. “She was the first. She was my first real friend, the first creature I trusted. We didn’t have much of a choice at the time, I had to trust her and she had to trust me.” Chrysalis turned and made a gesture at Fluttershy. “She was the first pony to be kind to me that I honestly believed wanted nothing in return. She was just kind, with no ulterior motives. No duplicity or treachery. She made me question my paranoia and suspicion. If something was to ever bring harm to her, I would visit unspeakable acts of cruelty upon them. I do believe I would give in to my old ways and drink whoever hurt her like a smoothie.”

Sideralis glanced over at Fluttershy, who seemed unaware that Chrysalis had mentioned her. She was laughing, a soft, shy chuckle, which was an amazing, treasured thing considering the stress and the danger they were all in. Sideralis loved Fluttershy in ways that he lacked the means to express.

“Now Mjölna”—Chrysalis pointed to the cybernetic mare that was caressing her hammer—“Mjölna taught me the value of a friend. The worth. Mjölna… she treasures her friends and her loyalty to Twilight is now the stuff of story, myth, and legend. Mjölna, she showed me that brutal, mind blowing violence still has a time and a place. When your friends are threatened, you obliterate those threats. So I can still be a bitch, but not necessarily a selfish bitch. Now when I crush my enemies beneath the hooves of my army, I’m not doing it for personal gain.”

“You came and rescued me,” Sideralis said in a low voice.

“Right.” Chrysalis nodded. “I took a calculated risk because you are my friend. Plus, you did something incredibly brave and gutsy that didn’t quite go as planned. So, being a friend, I had to rescue you, because that is what friends do.”

“We have a long future ahead of us,” Sideralis said to Chrysalis in a low voice so others would be less likely to hear. “But for us to have that future, we have to stop Mariposa. And to do that, we need a plan. I have ideas, but I lack the practical experience.”

“Before any plans are made, I think we need to find out what the Spirit of Harmony has to say.” Chrysalis leaned closer to Sideralis, doing so until they were almost cheek to cheek and her mouth was close to his ear. “Twilight doesn’t understand that careful, well plotted risks aren’t enough. We need reckless full out assaults. I have ideas too. Dangerous ideas, but regular ponies are too soft for the kind of risk associated with what I have in mind. Changelings too.”

“Me and mine will be a lot stronger once Doctor Gizmo and I figure out beam dissipation. We’re trying to figure out how the flesh warped mutants could absorb telekinetic beam energy and render it harmless. If we C/Equines could do the same, it would make us immune to changeling beam attacks.”

“But not ballistic projectiles.” Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed. “It would allow you to go into changeling installations and wreck them if you were immune to the standard beam attack that all changelings have.”

“That’s the idea,” Sideralis said in a conspiratorial whisper. “Mjölna says the projectors will be a major source of energy drain though, which is a drawback.”

“Just out of curiousity, how did the flesh warped mutants manage to dissipate your telekinetic blasts?” Chrysalis asked.

“Some kind of electromagnetic interference field. Doctor Gizmo doesn’t know why it works, but he just knows that it works. It makes telekinesis fizzle out. He’s still trying to mimic the effect. It’s not magical at all—”

“So conceivably, you could power your shields from your electrical systems and recharge it through piezoelectric regeneration.” Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed as she began concentrating. “Or rapid electric recharging.”

Both Chrysalis and Sideralis paused in their conversation when Ratchet’s cocoon made a faint popping sound, sort of like the fizzle in a glass of poured soda. Both heads turned and Chrysalis wrapped one foreleg around Sideralis’ neck as she cuddled up against him.

“It’s like he’s hatching again,” Chrysalis said in a syrupy maternal voice as she held on to Sideralis. She rested her head against the cybernetic alicorn’s jaw. “My insides feel all squishy. Hold me.”

Rolling his eyes, (an elaborate illusion done by his synthetic implants) Sideralis extended his wing and wrapped it around Chrysalis, as she clung to him. The others were now gathering around, like school foals come to watch a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The others pressed in close, forming a huddle, and Chrysalis’ eyes flashed a brilliant new shade of blue as love radiated through the immediate area from everypony coming together.

Even Spike watched from his crystal projector.

Stout shoved her way to Sideralis’ other side and crashed into him with a metallic clunk that would have shattered any flesh and blood pony. He slipped his other wing around her as well. Mustang Salvation scooted up close to her sister and then, using her wing, snatched Twilight and pulled her close. Twilight grunted as she was squeezed and smiled as Mustang pulled her close. Thankfully, Mustang was gentle and Twilight was not crushed into a pastel purple pretty princess pony paste puddle.

Something burbled within Ratchet’s cocoon and then the shell cracked. Ooze dribbled forth, but not the usual changeling green goop. This was blue, bright, brilliant blue. The green colour normally seen with changelings was caused by chlorocruorin—which was present due to their genetic heritage as leeches. Changelings descended from parasites, though they were now highly evolved and more insectoid in nature, drawing from the segmented worm genetics tucked away deep within their genetic history. The changelings were still evolving, now becoming symbiotes. Ratchet, tucked away in his cocoon, had undergone drastic changes to his biology. The bright blue was due to the haemocyanin that was now present in Ratchet.

Warmth radiated from the cocoon and the room filled with a vinegar smell. Sideralis lowered his head and waited. His connection to Ratchet was deep and mysterious. He did not understand it, not at all, but Ratchet was a part of him. An external part, but somehow still connected. He could sense that the tiny drone was waking up. Soon, many of the others who had also cocooned themselves would also wake up. It was an exciting time—a whole new subtype of changeling was now emerging.

“I can kinda see him,” Twilight said as she peered into the cocoon, her nose just a few inches away. “He’s changed… I can see something glowing blue.”

“His chitinous horn is gone and has been replaced by a new kind of crystalline growth.” Chrysalis looked very much like a proud mother. “We’ve never seen its like before and we have no idea what it is. The type of crystal is completely unknown, but it seems to behave a bit like galena with how it interacts with electromagnetic fields.”

“Living crystal?” Twilight asked.

“Is that so hard to believe?” Chrysalis replied. “Dragon scales are crystalline in nature. Metals are crystalline structures and our C/Equines have living biosteel as part of their construction.”

Twilight nodded and fell silent as the cocoon cracked again. More bluish ooze dribbled out. Within the cocoon, Ratchet moved, his legs were visible within the goop. The cocoon burbled around, made a hissing sound, and what appeared to be blue snot bubbles ballooned from the cracks.

“Aw, he’s cute,” Fluttershy said as she melted against Rainbow Dash.

Wide eyed, Rainbow Dash said nothing in reply.

Without knowing or understanding why he did so, Sideralis bent his head and lowered his horn. He touched the tip to the cocoon and something electrical made him jerk. Garbled, unreadable text flashed in his vision. His heads up display had ceased to be useful because of the smooze infection.

Ratchet?

Sideralis felt another presence within his mind. He was aware that Ratchet was waking up. He could feel it. Sense it. He could feel Ratchet’s happiness—the love present was a wonderful thing to wake up to. Ratchet was drawing strength from it.

There was a flash of brilliant blue light and the cocoon exploded. A big chunk of it flew through the air, landed with a wet splat, and skidded over the floor. A moist sounding slurp came from within the cocoon and then Ratchet raised his head. Bright blue compound eyes could be seen. They flashed for a moment, glowing with an internal light, and then the image of regular, pony-like eyes superimposed themselves over the compound eyes.

Ratchet’s shell was no longer changeling chitin, but matte black biosteel. He was a creature of living metal. The stench of ozone filled the room and electrical sparks arced from the bizarre looking crystalline spike protruding from Ratchet’s head. A row of tiny crystalline spikes grew down his back, starting from the base of his neck and ending at his tail. Each spike glowed with an inner light. A mane of growing, flexible crystalline fibres grew from Ratchet’s head. They moved and writhed around like wiggling worms. Ratchet’s tail was longer now, segmented, and something about it was almost like a dragonfly’s tail.

With a sucking slurp, Ratchet’s back split open. The changeling now had beetle like shells covering his wings. With the protective shells now open, Ratchet’s wings unfurled and blue slime oozed from the now opened spaces.

With a blue flash, the changeling vanished and in his place was a tiny pony in miniature. A little blue pseudo alicorn, with feathered wings and a glowing crystal horn. The back spikes were gone. The beetle like shells over the wings were gone. The insectoid wings were gone, and so was the dragonfly like segmented tail. The tiny pseudo alicorn was no bigger than Ratchet had been, standing a foot tall at the very most. There was another flash and the tiny blue alicorn shifted colours, changing from blue to green. A brilliant flash of light happened again and the green colour was replaced with a dull, dusky red. More flashes happened, and with each flash, Ratchet changed colour and sometimes his body also changed, as he appeared as a tiny earth pony for several seconds, with no wings or horn of any kind.

The flashing stopped and Ratchet was now a dark, earthy brown, with his mane and tail a lighter shade of greyish brown. Pegasus wings fluttered against his sides. He was once more an alicorn in miniature and his tiny blue crystalline horn glowed with a throbbing light.

The tiny changeling looked up at Sideralis, gave himself a shake, and blinked his now glass green eyes. “We are ready to serve.”

“Yes we are,” Sideralis responded, acknowledging that he was now a lifeform with two distinct bodies and a second consciousness as well.

“We are becoming,” Ratchet said in a low voice.

Twilight groaned and was shushed by Mustang.

“We are one.” Ratchet pranced in place, testing his new legs.

“Yes, one,” Sideralis agreed. He could feel everything that Ratchet was feeling right now. The connection was strong, far, far stronger than the usual hivemind connection. Sideralis’ vision flashed in and out as he saw through Ratchet’s eyes for a moment, his new systems now initialising. For a moment, Sideralis was looking up at himself through a much smaller body, and then he was looking down at Ratchet.

Sideralis lifted his hoof and held it out to Ratchet. The little changeling drone stepped forward, raised his own tiny hoof, and bumped it against Sideralis’. Electrical sparks arced when the two touched one another.

Just as Sideralis was about to say something witty and profound, the proximity alarm went off and the klaxon’s wail filled the room, causing every ear to perk. Sideralis’ head jerked upwards, as did every other C/Equine.

“We are discovered,” Ratchet announced in a calm voice.

Author's Notes:

Still becoming. (A story that is)