With a jerk, Sideralis awoke. He blinked a few times to clear his head. He had fallen asleep, unaware that he had done so. He heard voices around him, low soft words, soft murmurs. His head was resting on something both soft and hard. Something that smelled good, something feminine. After a moment of taking stock of his surroundings, he remembered that he was on deck getting a little much needed moonlight.

It seemed that he wasn’t the only one curled up with Stout. Inches away from his nose was a familiar pink mane and yellow pelted neck. Fluttershy was laying beside Stout, her legs folded up beneath her. There was something else, something big, something larger than a pony. It took a moment before his eyes focused. It was big, rather purplish in the moonlight, and the faint light reflected off of many shiny surfaces. Sideralis didn’t know what it was. He smelled smoke, a scent that made him think of burning leaves in the fall with his parents.

Parents who were changelings and weren’t his parents. Parents who weren’t real. Burning leaves that were little more than a false memory. Even the scents that Sideralis thought were familiar were all lies. He felt a burning coal of anger smouldering inside of his barrel and he took a deep breath.

“Spike, I know you miss her… I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said in a soft voice.

“She was my beautiful, glittering diamond.” The strange creature lifted up a clawed hand and pointed. “I think the starry one is awake.”

Sideralis felt Stout shift a little bit beneath him. He wanted to lift his head and look around, but couldn’t. He tried to get a better look at Spike, whomever he was. He was big, he was scaly, he was all sharp teeth and tendrils of smoke curled out of his maw.

“Sideralis, this is Spike. He’s a dragon. I think that you’ll be friends,” Stout said.

“Hello Sideralis, I’ve been wanting to meet you. You’ve made Twilight very excited.” Spike moved closer, his claws scraping over the deck. “We worked very hard to steal you away… I got to be a decoy and have a little fun.”

Sideralis peered at Spike and noted that the dragon seemed… healthy. Spike had both eyes and he moved with a fluid grace. Sideralis tried to remember something that was brought up at some point in the recent past, something about dragons. “Dragons attacked the ship.”

“Yes they did,” Fluttershy replied in a sad voice.

“How is Spike healthy?” Sideralis asked.

“Oh, that’s… that’s unpleasant.” Fluttershy shook her head. “Spike’s not like other dragons. Well, most dragons are good, or I’d like to believe they are.” The yellow mare shuddered and closed her eyes. She pressed up against Stout and let out a whimper.

“There are some bad dragons,” Spike said as he settled in a little closer to Stout, Sideralis, and Fluttershy. “After the fall of Canterlot and Ponyville, when the rest of Equestria was being seized, there were no princesses to hold back the bad dragons. They ran rampant without fear of punishment or retribution. Mariposa was using them, she had made a deal with them, but she double crossed them. Some of the dragons served her willingly, but that wasn’t enough.”

“What happened?” Sideralis’ ears perked forwards; he wanted to know everything about his world, even the unpleasant things.

“Some of the dragons and other monsters succumbed to parasites. They ate some of the sick ponies. The parasites worked their way from the dragon’s stomachs to their brains. The more they ate, the sicker they became.” Spike shook his head. “Greed was our real undoing though. Mariposa gave away a lot of gems to the dragons, and they couldn’t resist. Turns out the gems were actually eggs for a new magical silicon based parasitic lifeform. Dragons were vulnerable to these.” He tapped the side of his head with his claw. “These dragons became fiercely loyal to Mariposa. We managed to kill one during a battle and Crysalis had a chance to examine it. It had no brains… just a mass of crystals inside of its skull. They protruded from the back of the dragon’s head, almost like an antennae. It’s pretty gross.”

“Spike is a good dragon… he’s not greedy.” Fluttershy reached out and patted Spike’s leg. “We have crystal gardens for him on this ship… Twilight was able to make rapidly growing crystals so Spike will never have to worry about a contaminated food source.”

“What did it take to get me out of… wherever I was?” Sideralis asked.

“You were in a vault in Las Pegasus,” Fluttershy replied. The yellow mare turned her head around to face Sideralis and shifted her body so she could be more comfortable. “Princess Luna made it very clear that we were to do whatever was necessary to get you out. Twilight started making a plan. We hit the city from several different positions at once, using decoys. Spike flew in with Mustang Salvation and the two of them began demolishing changeling biostructures. Others began attacking the water purifier.”

“Once the city seemed like it was being invaded from all sides, Twilight Sparkle herself went in with a group of well trained commandos and went into the vault. Most of the guards were busy fighting distractions. Still, over a dozen of us died. It was a rough battle, but it taught us a great deal.”

As Spike spoke, Sideralis angled his eyes skywards to look at the stars. His vision cleared and allowed him to focus on distant objects. The stars twinkled, some red, some blue, and he could see faint wispy clouds. He sighed, feeling better, and felt his tail swish around his backside. It tickled and caused his muscles to tense.

“Twilight is getting pretty good at fighting changelings, but she can’t keep doing this by herself. I think that’s why Princess Luna wanted us to rescue you. I mean, you’re an alicorn… there’s no end to your power.”

“I’m a clone,” Sideralis replied in a low voice. He closed his eyes. “For all you know, I just look like an alicorn. It was foolish rescuing me without knowing if I would be useful. It wasn’t worth a dozen or more lives.”

“Princess Luna seemed to think so.” Fluttershy blinked as her ears splayed out. The yellow mare shook her head. “If nothing else, rescuing you showed us that we could take on a fortified city and get back out again.”

“You don’t kick like a normal pony,” Stout muttered. “My teats are killing me. I haven’t been hurt like that since Mustang Sally suckerpunched me.” Stout let out a sigh. “Alicorn or not, you’re strong. And you’re not even recovered yet. You have to be at least as strong as I am if not more perhaps. If nothing else, we could use your strength.”

“Oh my poor filly—”

“Fluttershy, please, not on deck.” Stout let out a groan and her head dropped down to the deck. “Please, please, please. I’m a grown mare now.”

“You hush,” Fluttershy said, making a polite, gentle demand. The yellow mare wrapped her forelegs around Stout’s neck. “You used to be my little filly… you and Mustang both. But you… once you had new legs, you would follow me everywhere and you called me ‘Mama’ and you were so cute and adorable and seeing you up and moving again after how sick you were gave everypony hope that we could recover.” Fluttershy leaned her head in an gave Stout a soft smooch on her ear.

“Where is Mustang Sally right now?” Sideralis asked.

“Recovering in the med bay,” Spike replied. The big dragon snorted and then smiled.

“What happened?” Sideralis found himself curious; he had seen with his own eyes that Stout could take quite a thumping. What had brought down Mustang if she was like Stout?

“Mustang was supposed to form a distraction with me. We did a lot of damage and wrecked a bunch of stuff. I was setting things on fire. Our distraction was too good… the army arrived, not just a couple of guards.” Spike shook his head, snorted once more, sending out a column of smoke from his nose. “Mustang, she still had her inhibitors on. Twilight is afraid of what Mustang might do without them. Didn’t slow her down much. She picked a fight with about fifty or so bugs.. not the little drones, but the big warrior types. She refused to retreat with me. So… I had to go get help.”

“She’s not very bright.” Stout leaned her head over and let Fluttershy hold her.

“When I got back, we had to search for Mustang.” Spike let out a chuckle. “We found bugs all over. Smashed through walls, crushed, impaled on rebar and pipes, a bunch of them had a wall dropped down on them, crushing them, and soon enough, we found Mustang. Reinforcements had arrived and she was being swarmed. They’d torn one of her front legs off somehow. She doesn’t remember what happened. She was burned all over, they had set her on fire to try and slow her down. They’d even tried electrocuting her, which was a bad idea.”

Fluttershy winced. “That would only charge her reserve batteries.”

“She turned on her discharge generators… makes her hooves like stun batons… powerful electric shocks… she wasn’t supposed to be able to turn those on. She overcame the failsafes.” Spike lifted his head and scratched his belly with his long, curved claws.

“It’s her body, why can’t she have control over her own functions?” Sideralis asked. He felt troubled by all of this. Something deep within him balked at everything he was hearing and everything that he had learned.

“Oh, she’s dangerous,” Fluttershy replied. “She’s so very dangerous. And my sweet little Mustang, she has a bit of a temper. She reminds me of Applejack… so stubborn.”

“But you made her dangerous.” Sideralis, without even realising it, lifted his head from Stout’s back. His neck creaked as his body struggled to support the weight of his head. “You made her this way.”

“She agreed to the failsafes. She agreed to be a part of the program. She was never forced into this.” Spike glanced at Fluttershy and then back at Sideralis, the dragon noticed that Sideralis had lifted his head.

“How old was she?” Sideralis asked.

Spike lifted his claws, holding them up in front of him. “She agreed to the program. She wanted to get better.”

“How old was she?” Sideralis demanded.

“We don’t know.” Fluttershy’s soft voice cut through the building tension like a knife. “She and Creamy Stout were foals. They were going to die. Twilight was thinking of having them placed into changeling pods because we couldn’t heal them. We had to take drastic measures. I didn’t agree with it either at first and I was very, very angry with Twilight for even thinking about it.”

“So then why did you allow it?” Sideralis asked. “How could you?”

“Because… Twilight made the hard decision that it was worth a few lives to save thousands, maybe millions before all of this is done. We had a long discussion, she and I. At the end of it, I had a grudging respect for her decision. We struck a deal that I would be Mustang and Stout’s caretaker and we would try to treat them with as much love and dignity as possible.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and pressed her face against Stout’s cheek.

“There are others like them now.” Spike watched as Sideralis’ head dropped back down upon Stout’s back and he relaxed a little. Something about the angry expression on the blue alicorn clone’s face unnerved him… and, as much as Spike didn’t want to admit it, frightened him. “We’ve had to do questionable things. We’ve had to ask ourselves some very tough questions. Twilight is prepared to live with herself once all of this is over. She doesn’t know what the outcome will be, but she has decided that she will do whatever is necessary to win and she will bear the burden of the consequences upon her own back.”

Silent, Sideralis thought about everything he had just heard. He thought about Stout. He thought about her cutie mark. She was dedicated to the project, it was her life, it was her purpose, her destiny. He was willing to give up one of his own eyes to the project to help. Feeling conflicted, Sideralis was no longer certain of his feelings on the issue. He wanted to meet Mustang Salvation, but he said nothing. Not now. Something in his guts told him that enough had been said and it was time to learn more before saying anything else.

“You know, I think I should see if Sideralis can eat something,” Stout said.

There was a new door put in place. Sideralis noticed it as they entered. The dent was gone and the metal door looked different somehow. The lines of rivets seemed to make up a different shape. There were four triangles that formed an ‘X’ of rivets and a rectangular door.

Stout laid Sideralis down upon the bed. She then stood on her hind hooves, placed her front hooves on the bed, and looked down into his face. “You lifted your head out there on the deck. I noticed. I felt it.” She smiled. “What would you like to eat? Care to live dangerously and try something a bit more substantial than pudding or applesauce? I could get you oatmeal… or maybe a fruit smoothie. I don’t think we should try chewing anything just yet.”

“I could try a fruit smoothie.” As he was speaking, Sideralis tried to remember lifting his head. He had no recollection of doing so. “I want to meet Mustang. I’d like to talk to her.”

“Maybe later,” Stout replied. “Right now, she’s not even conscious. She’s been shut down and placed into suspension until she heals.” Stout frowned for a moment and continued to look down into Sideralis face. “I know it’s all false memories, but is there any kind of fruit that you like? Anything that makes you happy? You’d be surprised what we grow in hydroponics.”

“Um—”

“Wait… let me guess… let me take a crack at this.” Stout touched her hoof to Sideralis’ lips. The earth pony closed her remaining eye and began to hum, shaking her rump from side to side as she stood beside Sideralis’ bed.

Sideralis, looking up, could see a big lump on Stout’s chin. He felt her hoof lift away and her eye opened. There was a look of mischief in her bright orange eye. He saw her smiling, revealing strong white teeth that were perhaps a bit too shiny. He heard Stout say, “You look like a mulberry pony.”

Astonished, Sideralis stared up at Stout, feeling very peculiar as he looked up at her. Her mane had spilled down around her face. She was beautiful, stunning even, even if she only had one eye and wore an eyepatch. “How did you know?”

The earth pony’s smile broadened. “Ah, but a mare must keep her mysterious ways.”

“No, really, how did you know?” Sideralis could feel Stout breathing on him. Her snoot was inches away from his own. “How could you possibly know that about me? I mean, it’s a false memory like everything else, but… but… the taste of mulberries is one of the few things I remember that made me happy.”

The mare let out a sigh and dropped down to all fours beside the bed. She sat down, leaned in her head, and pressed her nose up against Sideralis’ blue cheek. “We’re matching and compatible personality types. Chrysalis went digging through your mind. She created a detailed, catagorised profile of everything she could dig out of your memory. She focused on the things that made you genuinely happy, the things that really were a part of you that your programmers tried to integrate to make your simulation a little more real. She got all of the things that you responded well to.”

“Like mulberries?” Sideralis asked.

“Like mulberries.” Stout took a deep breath and chuffed against Sideralis. She watched his whole body shiver. “Mulberries are my favourite food. I’d do just about anything to get one. It was how Fluttershy used to get me to behave and calm down when I would freak out about something.”

“But I’ve never even had a mulberry.” Sideralis closed his eyes. “What if I eat one and I don’t like how they taste? Nothing I know is real, nothing at all.”

“Chrysalis suspects that you are more than a clone of Luna. You have certain things inside your head that… well, you’re not like the others we’ve pulled out who are less developed. Blank slates.” Stout took a deep breath. “Chrysalis thinks that they made some copies of Luna’s memories and implanted them into you to make things more real. You had the right body to respond to the memories, you are identical to Princess Luna in just about every way imaginable. So… by imprinting her memories into your mind, by making you like what she likes, by making you enjoy what she enjoys, by catering to the tastes that your tastebuds are known to enjoy, they were able to get deep into your mind as they tried to break you.”

“So Princess Luna likes mulberries?” Sideralis asked in a low whisper. He found it very difficult to breath all of a sudden, it was as though something tight was around his barrel, squeezing him.

“Twilight Sparkle was able to confirm that when Crysalis brought it up. Princess Luna had a fondness for mulberry wine and high proof mulberry cordial that only those who knew her best had knowledge about.” Stout lifted her head and looked into Sideralis’ teal eyes.

“So… I am a clone… and a copy of Luna’s memories?” Sideralis managed to turn his head a little more so that he could see Stout better.

“Potentially more than that. With the memory transfers, Chrysalis suspects that you got Princess Luna’s instincts. Some of her personality. A little bit of what makes Princess Luna into Princess Luna. There’s a lot that we don’t know, but she wants to keep studying you. Chrysalis has a theory that with memories being transferable, if she can figure out what Queen Mariposa did to you, how she chopped up Princess Luna’s memories and put bits of them into your mind… Chrysalis thinks that a whole pony might be cloned and their whole memory, personality, everything that makes them a whole pony might be transferred over into the clone’s body. For those ravaged by disease, it would mean a new body. A second chance at life.”

“But… but… what about the clone?” Sideralis felt some unknown emotion gnawing at the back of his mind. It hurt him, made him feel empty, and something deep down inside of him ached when he thought about Stout’s words.

“What do you mean, what about the clone?” Stout asked.

“I’m a clone. I’m not just some blank. I’m a body… with thoughts… a mind… my own feelings… I… I wouldn’t want Princess Luna just… taking me over… it’s horrible,” Sideralis replied.

“Oh no, they would be blanks.” Stout shook her head and stepped backwards from the bed.

“So what makes them blanks? Would they have their minds wiped clean like a slate? Does a pony that is a copy or clone have no mind of their own? What does that say about me? Is there no part of me that is real at all?” Sideralis’ many questions trailed off into a pained whimper.

“I… don’t know… Sid, I’m sorry… I never meant to make you upset.” Stout leaned her head in and pressed her nose against Sideralis’ cheek once more. “All of these questions. Chrysalis wasn’t kidding when she said that you and I are compatible personality types.”

“Stout?”

“Yes?”

“Do I have a soul?”

Stout wanted to say yes. She even opened her mouth and the word almost came spilling out. But the word died on her tongue. She might be somewhat artificial, she might be augmented, enhanced, but deep down, she was still a pony. She had been born as a pony. She had started life as an earth pony and had become something else. There was something akin to panic rising up in Stout as she realised that every second that she didn’t answer was probably hurting Sideralis in some terrible way. She had made a vow to protect him from harm. Her primary directive throbbed inside of her brain as she struggled to answer. Mental trauma was a form of harm, or so her directive reminded her.

“I think—” Stout began, her voice a little hoarse. “I think the true test of having a soul is being able to wonder if you have one at all. A soulless creature would not be concerned by such a detail. But to question the metaphysical existence of such a thing is an activity that only those with souls would do.”

Stout wasn’t certain that she believed everything she had just said, but it sounded good. It was at least thought provoking and perhaps distracting. She heard a soft sigh from Sideralis and her ears perked at the sound. She was hopeful that it would satisfy him.

“Thank you. I think I’ll try a mulberry smoothie now,” Sideralis said in a soft whisper. He turned away from Stout and stared up at the ceiling, not knowing what to think or feel.

“I’ll only be gone for a few minutes,” Stout said as she turned around to leave.

When Stout was gone, Sideralis took a deep breath and thought about his missing cutie mark, an illusion, a false memory, something that had not been real. Perhaps he had no mark because he had no soul. For one very black moment, Sideralis believed that perhaps the best thing that could be done with him would be to be chopped up for study and his body given over for the benefit of others. Perhaps his eyes would give others their vision back, or his heart would give somepony else life.

But then he thought, would a soulless entity be concerned with the welfare of others? He didn’t have an answer. But as he lay in bed, he began to contemplate the question.

Author's Notes:

The last section was rewritten three times... I'm still a little uncertain about it.