The room was alien. There was no other way to describe it. It was dark, dim, and Sideralis found that his eyesight was improved for some reason. The first thing he noticed was the smell; it smelled like vinegar, or at least like what he believed vinegar to smell like, and potato chips, once more, what he thought potato chips smelled like. There were other smells, but Sideralis could not trust his senses. He hadn’t smelled much in the real world. There was something like wet sawdust and it made him think of a time that he had been sick in school; the janitor had placed sawdust on the puddle of sick. There was a sickly-sweet smell, like overripe bananas.

There were sounds too. Strange sounds. Something thumped like a heartbeat. There was the sound of Twilight Sparkle’s now somewhat heavier breathing. Something sloshed and squirted in some big greenish blue vein and the sound was disgusting. Stout’s hooves made metallic ringing sounds with each step. Sideralis realised that The Ouroboros was the same sort of strange organic steel that Stout’s hooves were. It was the only explanation he could think of for the sound of metal striking metal. Overhead, something blooped, a most peculiar sound.

It was humid in here and the air was moist. It was warm too. Sideralis peered around in the dim light, his eyes adjusting and allowing him to see much of his surroundings. The walls were lumpy, bulbous even. There were few flat surfaces, with the exception of the floor. Along one wall were several greenish growths that pulsated with a strange inner light, some kind of pale green bioluminescence.

Seeing them made Sideralis feel panicked, but he kept his emotions under control. Twilight walked to them, the strange green glowing things, and then stopped in front of them. Sideralis, floating above the floor, was carried closer and then set down upon the floor by Stout, who kept him propped up so he wouldn’t fall over.

“Rainbow Revival,” Twilight said in a low voice that was almost, but not quite a whisper. She turned her head and looked into the teal eyes of Sideralis. “To understand project Rainbow Revival, you have to understand who Rainbow Dash was.”

There was a sad sigh from Twilight and Sideralis very much wanted to comfort her. He didn’t know how or why. He blinked at Twilight, trying to understand her, trying to understand himself, and for a moment, Twilight changed. He stared, seeing a unicorn, not an alicorn, a sad, heartbroken little unicorn who had suffered far too much. Sideralis blinked, trying to understand what he was seeing, and when his eyes opened, Twilight had wings again.

“Rainbow Dash was the Element of Loyalty. She was my best friend. She made me laugh—” There was the painful sound of Twilight swallowing, hard. She closed her surviving eye and hung her head. “She made me laugh even when I didn’t feel like laughing. She… was more than a friend.” Twilight lifted her head and opened her eyes. “I never got to tell her. I never got to say it, but she was my soulmate. I can see it now in hindsight. She completed me. She picked up where I left off. She made everything better. I love all of my friends, but my love for Dash is different.”

Twilight moved closer to Sideralis and then sat down in front of him, moving closer so Sideralis could see her better. She tilted her head back to look into Sideralis’ eyes. Reaching out, she lifted one hoof and placed it upon Sideralis’ chest, just below his neck. “She is the love of my life and everything I do I do it so I can get her back. She got hit by the plague pretty hard. Her wings got devoured, her hooves were dissolved, she had boneworms and they bored through her and consumed her bone marrow. All manner of parasites infested her muscles. She had worms in her heart. Before she died, I had her placed into a cocoon, in suspension. She waits at death’s door.”

Overcome with sadness, hearing Twilight’s sniffles, knowing that one of his little ponies was hurting, Sideralis struggled to do something. Anything. Twilight was leaning up against him, her cheek against his neck. He could feel her body jerking. She was crying and he was powerless. He couldn’t even sit up on his own, Stout was holding him up and he was surrounded by that weird orange glow.

Sideralis realised that he hated feeling powerless. His left front leg twitched, then twitched again, and he felt a heavy sadness in his heart. One of his ponies was crying and there was nothing he could do. The pain it caused him was indescribable. The emotional pain was matched by physical pain when his left front leg suddenly lifted and wrapped around Twilight. There was a pop, a crackle, and a loud gasp as Twilight squeaked.

He had just hurt one of his little ponies. Sideralis panicked, not even knowing how his leg had moved and now he couldn’t let go. He was crushing Twilight in a hug. He heard a surprised grunt from Stout and he felt something tugging on his left leg.

“Twilight, I’m sorry!” Sideralis shouted, fearful of what he had done.

Gritting her teeth, Twilight’s horn ignited and her magic overlapped Stout’s orange glow. Sideralis’ leg relaxed and he let go. Twilight, her barrel heaving, did not move away from Sideralis, but looked up at him with her one remaining eye.

“You moved! That’s… wonderful! And impossible!”

“I hurt you… I’m sorry!” Sideralis felt awful. He had just hurt one of his little ponies. They were tiny, they were fragile, and there was something screaming inside of his head that they must not come to harm.

“You surprised me more than anything.” Twilight twisted her head around, causing her neck to crackle. “Actually, you got that annoying crick out of my back, it was right there between my wings.” Twilight’s wings flared out for a moment, she stretched them, and then let out a little groan. “I’m fine, really. I’ve had worse.”

Still feeling bad, Sideralis stared down at the little mare sitting in front of him, feeling guilty and protective. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to take away her hurts. He wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground and die for the discomfort he had caused her. A feeling of anguish crept into his mind and he thought about Luna… she had hurt her little ponies. He remembered his lessons in school. Luna had become Nightmare Moon… and she had hurt ponies. Sideralis had a hard time conceiving Luna’s pain if his own was any indicator to go by.

“Don’t cry…” Sideralis could feel Twilight’s hoof touching his cheek as she spoke. She was looking up at him, her own eye more than a little teary. He wanted to comfort her again, but he silenced that need. He didn’t want to crush her again. Little ponies must not be harmed. Sideralis felt strange; it was almost as if he had somepony else’s thoughts inside of his head.

Heaving a sigh, Twilight continued: “I’m going to heal Rainbow Dash. I’m going to make her better. Make her whole, make her healthy.” Twilight let out a sad laugh. “When I get done, she’ll be twenty percent more awesome.”

“This is why Octavia is so important to Twilight’s efforts,” Stout said as she reached out and touched Sideralis left front leg, while bending and flexing the joints in her telekinetic field. “Rainbow Dash will be greatly enhanced, but she’ll still be able to pass herself off as mostly normal.”

Twilight nodded. “I need Dash for more than just her rainboom… there is so much I still want to tell her.” The smaller alicorn sighed, shook her head, and then wiped her eye with her foreleg as she sniffled. “Sideralis, this is very hard for me to say. You’re a healthy, able bodied pony. There is something that Chrysalis wants to do but I don’t know if it should be done.”

“And that is?” Sideralis asked.

“She wants to take one of your eyes,” Twilight replied.

Sideralis felt Twilight shiver against him. One wing unfolded and hung down limp against his side after a single twitch. Twilight was still crying, still in pain, and he still felt awful that he had hurt her. There was something in his mind, something like a presence, and Sideralis passed it off as strong instincts of emotions.

“If she needs one of my eyes to help heal my little ponies, she may have it,” Sideralis said in a low voice. He blinked his eyes and then peered into the cocoons along the wall. Rainbow Dash and who else?

“She says that if everything works out like she hopes it will, she’ll be able to give you a new eye. And a new eye to everypony that has lost one. Chrysalis seems convinced that this will work.” Twilight hiccuped, sniffled, and then snorted.

“How does she know so much, anyways?” Sideralis asked. “I mean, how does she know how to do this?”

“Oh… oh that’s really fascinating actually,” Twilight replied. The little alicorn cleared her throat and let out a cough. “Chrysalis knows everything that her drones know. Right now, she has several hundred drones reading every medical textbook we could muster. Every science journal. Every notebook from every prominent research scientist. Chrysalis has a means of distributed learning and an almost perfect eidetic memory. Overnight, Chrysalis can become an expert in almost anything. Her learning drones feed her an almost constant stream of information, learning everything she can about Equestrian medicine, the zebra studies into genetics, and some of the advanced science of the Saddle Arabians. She’s already consumed about the past hundred years of medical research and has moved onto theoretical stuff… mad science. Crazy stuff. The stuff that wasn’t allowed back when the world was sane.”

Sideralis had trouble understanding what Twilight was saying. He didn’t understand. He said nothing, feeling confused and overwhelmed. Perhaps he would ask about it later and have it explained to him, but now was not the time. He loomed over Twilight, feeling very protective, and he could feel her tears against his neck. She was leaning against him now. He wanted to sweep her up in his wings and become her fortress, keeping her safe.

The compulsion was so strong that Sideralis began to feel faint. A strong feeling of lightheadedness overtook him. The room around him blurred, becoming fuzzy. He felt his heart racing. The guilt for hurting Twilight became even stronger, it was a physical pain now, and it was terrible.

With a pained gasp, Sideralis felt the world slip away.

“Luna? Luna, can you hear me? Luna, are you still there? It’s been so long since I heard your voice with my own two ears in the waking world… answer me! Luna? Oh gosh, please, please talk to me again… Luna? LUNA!”

Sideralis felt himself being shook. He was flat on his back on the floor and Twilight was looking down at him. He could make out the details on her scarred face. The eyepatch covered her missing right eye and a mass of wrinkled scar tissue stretched from her right ear down to her muzzle.

“I’m not Luna,” Sideralis said, his voice a strained moan.

“But… but you were Luna. Something happened… your voice changed. You started talking to me, telling me things that only Luna would know… you comforted me and you made me feel better… you were Luna!” Twilight shook her head and then touched Sideralis’ face with her hoof. With a plop, Twilight sat down on the floor beside Sideralis and then let heave a sad sigh.

“I don’t know what happened… I don’t feel well.” Sideralis closed his eyes.

“We should get him back to medical,” Stout said to Twilight. “Whatever it was that just happened, it seems the link has been severed.”

“She’ll find a way to do it again… I know Luna… she’ll find a way.” Twilight drew in a shuddering breath and then wiped her eye. “She’ll find a way… Stout… I’m so alone, Stout. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m the last one… the last alicorn and I don’t know how to save everypony—”

“That’s not true. We have Sideralis now and it seems that Princess Luna has found a way to pass you messages from Princess Celestia.” Stout moved closer to Twilight and patted the distraught mare on the withers. “Anyway, we should get Sideralis back to medical and then follow Princess Luna’s advice.”

“Advice?” Sideralis asked.

“Princess Luna left instructions to keep you out of bright lights. It’s hindering your recovery, damaging your eyes, and weakening you. We need to get you into the moonlight and then you’ll begin to get your strength back,” Stout replied.

“When you’re strong again, you can go into the sunlight, but Luna seems to think that you need moonlight right now more than anything.” Twilight reached down and touched Sideralis’ neck and then looked at Stout. “Let’s get him to medical.”

Stout looked Twilight in the eye. “Twilight, the message—”

“Oh, right.” Twilight Sparkle facehoofed. “Sideralis, Luna and Celestia both want you look after their little ponies for them. Luna says to obey your instincts and Celestia says to follow your heart.”

Confused, Sideralis gave a feeble nod of his head, unable to do anything else.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter... moonlight.