Author's Note

Just a heads-up, this is the 2nd chapter I posted today. If you just opened the story and went to the latest chapter posted you probably are skipping one!!!

With a double-post day it'll probably be Thursday, give or take, before I put another out there.

Chapter 14: Sit

Thursday, September 4th, 908 AB

“Okay, fine! I’ll make you a deal. I’ll either carry you TO the park, or, after you’re done playing, I’ll carry you back home. But not both, so either you’ll be walking to the park now, or you’ll be walking home afterwards. You saw how hard it was for me to just carry you to the kitchen! I’m just a weak little colt,” he says with an exaggerated pout.

“You sure are.” Cherry says. Lotus just nods along.

“Ouch. My ego…”

“What’s an egow?” Lotus asks.

“It’s how you feel about yourself. Here I am having two little fillies call me weak. I think I’m going to cry.” Cure dramatically sniffs and covers his eyes with a fetlock, looking away.

Lotus leans over to not-whisper to Cherry. “He cwies a lot.”

Cherry, in an equally not-quiet voice, responds, “Yeah, dam says colts are sens. Sensiv. They’re like big babies.”

Nodding in agreement Lotus gently pats on Cure’s leg. “It’ll be okay, big bwother. We’ll walk to the pawk so you can west.”

Hamming it up, Cure enthusiastically wraps her in a hug, “Oh thank you, dear Lotus. You are too kind.” With one last big smooch between her ears he sets her down and they set out again.

The group walk in silence for another ten minutes before they arrive at the same park he’d played kickball at the night prior. There were already several other foals present, though he noted that neither Heavy, Glacial, nor Crosswind were there. Leading the girls to the playground equipment, Cure peels off and hops up on a bench while they take off running to join the other foals their age.

With the warm sun on his coat and a nice, steady breeze he begins to feel a bit sleepy again. Doing his best to avoid drifting off, he’s pulled from his thoughts when a familiar voice comes from behind.

“Hey, Cure. Are those your sisters? I didn’t know you had any.”

Looking over his withers he finds Dawn Glow, Delta Coast, and Rising Pitch walking up to him.

He greets them with a wave and asks, “Hey, how’s everypony doing?” Looking towards the fillies he explains, “No, they’re not my sisters… do you know Lemon Sweet and Amethyst Blossom? They live a few houses down from us.”

“We’re good. Kinda bored, though. Not much to do today,” Coast says, looking around the park. “Don’t they have that candy store downtown? I think it was closed when I went by yesterday.”

“Yep, I’m watching their fillies for them while my dam helps Amethyst out. She’s been sick with a bad cold and Lemon had been staying home to take care of her. They’re good family friends, so my dam’s helping out today instead. That way Lemon can get the shop back up and running.”

“Huh. Aren’t you a little young to be foalsitting though?” Dawn asks, then immediately stammers, wide-eyed, “Not that I’m saying you’re not responsible enough or anything!”

“Heh, it’s okay, Dawn. You’re not wrong. If it was just me I would definitely agree, but like I said… my dam is helping out. I left a note saying I was taking the fillies to the park so they could burn off some energy. I figure having two noisy fillies in the house would make it hard for Amethyst to get any rest.”

“That’s a good idea, Cure. We were headed downtown and saw you, so we figured we’d ask if you wanted to come with us to get some ice cream,” Rising says, then pauses, looking at the fillies, “but I guess you probably can’t do that right now.”

“Aww. A hot fudge sundae does sound pretty good…” he lets out a sigh, “but no, probably not.” He waves a hoof at the fillies, who are zipping around the slides and climbing up everything almost in a blur. “We just got here and they definitely need to move. They’ve probably been stuck in the house most of the week. Of course, if they keep going like that they’ll collapse in no time.”

“Well, do you wanna wait for them to tire themselves out and bring them with us?” Coast asks.

“Yes, I really do… but I don’t think I can. I just left a note behind, so I don’t want to panic my dam or Amethyst if I’m gone a lot longer than I should be. I also don’t have any bits, so I wouldn’t be able to buy anything anyhow.”

“Ahh… yeah I guess you wouldn't normally bring money with you to the park,” Dawn nods, “Well that stinks. I only brought enough for a cone or I’d pay and let you make it up to me later.”

Slowly, all three other ponies turn to look at Dawn, who begins turning pink in the ears, eyes widening as she realizes what she’d said. Her ears start to pin back a bit and her tail stops rigidly behind her.

“A shame,” Cure says with a sigh. Leaning forward so his nose is just a few inches from Dawn’s he continues, “I’m so very curious how you planned on having me make it up to you, too,” he finishes with a wistful smile. “I guess we’ll just have to find out another day, Sunrise.”

He turns back just in time to see the fillies come running back to him demanding he push them on the swing. Climbing off of the bench, he looks back to the girls again and adds, “Well, ladies, I’m really sorry that I have to go, but duty calls, you know. I hope you enjoy your treat, though,” he finishes, winking at Dawn as he walks with Cherry and Lotus to the swings.

Coast and Rising, still staring at Dawn, each raise an eyebrow at the other.

“Dawn… what in the hay was that?” Rising finally asks her friend who is now glowing an even darker orange.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Dawn insists.

“It… kinda sounded like you did. Like, a lot,” Coast points out.

“Yeah, Dawn… you staking a claim on him now that he’s got his cutie mark?”

“No! I swear, I just blurted it out! He’s cute and obviously good with fillies,” she says, watching Cure as he hops back and forth, pushing one filly then the other on the swings, “but I never meant to say THAT!”

“Well… he seems to have taken it pretty well… Sunrise,” she says with a snort. “Maybe he likes you? I can’t see him giving just anypony a nickname like that.” Coast asks with a shrug.

“He sure didn’t seem to have a problem owing you one,” Rising adds with a smile. “From that little grin I’d say he kinda likes the idea, actually,” she adds as she shoulder bumps her friend.

Recovering from the weak shove, Dawn lets out a huff and regains her composure. “Pfft, whatever. You two are just jealous! C’mon, let’s head to the parlor.” With that she trots off, leaving the two earth ponies looking at each other with mischievous grins.

“She totally wants him,” Rising says, nodding towards Cure.

“Oh yeah, this should be fun,” Coast laughs, turning to follow her friend. “C’mon, she’s stormin off in a huff and now I want a sundae too. Let’s go.”

Together they trot a bit faster to catch up with their friend.

Cure watches the girls head out of the park and can barely hold back a laugh. Cherry and Lotus are giggling their brains out on the swings, cheering loudly every time he pushes them. Of course, being little fillies they’re barely going higher than Cure’s head, but that doesn’t seem to dissuade their enthusiasm.

After about ten minutes and countless “I’m going faster / higher / whatever than you” competitions they finally begin to lose interest and jump off to burn more energy with the other foals.

Cure returns to his bench and waits them out, knowing they’ll be ready to head back soon enough. Off in the distance he sees Rocky playing with some of his siblings, but they’re all occupied with what they’re already doing so he leaves them be and just watches the fillies.

Sure enough, after about fifteen minutes of foal and pony watching, the fillies return to him huffing and puffing up a storm. Looking up at Cure they both immediately sit on their haunches and lift their front legs in the universal “carry me” move.

Rolling his eyes, he hops down off the bench, sets them on it, then lays in front of it for them to more easily climb on his back. With Cherry taking point and Lotus guarding their flanks, Cure heads back to Lemon’s and Amethyst’s house.

Pacing himself to conserve whatever metaphysical energy rushing may use, Cure takes about the same amount of time to get back as it took for him and two fillies to walk to the park initially. Vines had cleaned up the house a bit and was sitting on a cushion reading when they walked in.

Greeting everypony with a round of nuzzles, she helps the fillies down and takes them to the bathroom for a potty break. Cure, meanwhile, waits for Vines to return so he can go upstairs and check on Amethyst.

Once the girls are situated and sufficiently distracted with their toys again the two head up and find Amethyst asleep. Cure doesn’t waste any time. With a “go ahead” nod from his dam he gently rests a hoof on Amethyst’s shoulder. He’s surprised to see that, despite the rather insignificant amount of WBCs he created compared to the total number in her system, the effect is profound.

Throughout her system the immune response has massively cripped the virus’ ability to reproduce. Coming to the conclusion that the lungs must have been basically “ground zero” for the virus, Cure can only assume that he accidentally was more effective than he anticipated. He steps closer to his dam and waves her outside the door so he can give her an update.

“I don’t get it, dam. I was able to convert a lot of the virus-infected cells into attack cells, but it’s like it threw her system into overdrive. The only thing I can figure is that somehow, subconsciously, I also empowered her immune response. I’m not sure I even need to give her another round of conversion, really. If this continues for another few hours she’ll be completely virus free.” Looking back at the sleeping mare he scratches at his chin in thought.

“Well, sweetie… maybe there’s more to your special talent than what you consciously do with it. You keep telling everypony that your talent is to make ponies healthy. Maybe you were right and, aside from what you actually do on purpose, you also help them heal. You should give your father a look later to check on his shoulder,” she suggests.

“That’s a good point, dam,” he says, giving her an appreciative nuzzle. “What should I do about Amethyst though?”

“Well… I don’t know. I would say just come back and check on her every half hour or so to make sure she keeps getting better. I don’t think you should do any more than what’s necessary, though. If she’ll be fine in a few hours either way then that’s good enough, I’m sure.”

Nodding along, Cure agrees with the decision. “Okay, that sounds good. I still need to give Lotus a little boost, though.” Turning to head down the stairs he adds, “I didn’t want to do anything until we got her situated back home. Also, they may need baths. They played pretty hard at the park. I think Lotus actually fell asleep on Cherry when I was carrying them back.”

“Well I’m sure Lemon would be thrilled to have the fillies cleaned up before dinner. That’s one less thing she’ll need to do when she gets home from work. I’ll get Cherry, you give Lotus a little boost, and then we’ll get her cleaned up while you help dry Cherry after I bathe her, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

No plan survives contact with the enemy, Cure reflected. The fillies, as young’uns tend to do, decided to be quite uncooperative when it came to actual bath time. Why is that, anyhow? Mom and dad said I was a nightmare when I was a little boy too, but then as adults we pay tens of thousands of dollars to get a hot tub installed. You’d think the warm water would sap whatever energy they have left, but damn… Cherry was like a friggin tornado in there.

It wasn’t until Vines had busted out the big guns that both fillies had finally cooperated. “Your poor mother is going to be so sad. She was trying to get some sleep and all that noise has probably already woken her up. I sure hope she isn’t in bed crying too much.”

That was enough to get Cherry to pause, but the finisher was Lotus looking at her with big, watery eyes asking, “Chawwy, why aww you twyin to make dam cwy? She’s been weewy sick all week!” Raising a hoof to her lips she then let out an equally loud “Shhh!” all the while ignoring the fact that she was every bit as loud and obstinate up to that point. The chastisement was so effective that Cherry had almost begun crying, but a gentle “it’s okay” from Vines placated her enough to prevent any waterworks from being turned on.

Nopony likes to be the villain, I suppose. I’m just glad Cherry didn’t start an argument about Lotus being just as noisy beforehoof. I was totally waiting for that to be thrown out there. Also, why the hell do ponies put a hoof in front of their mouth to shush each other. That seems like a gesture that wouldn’t translate directly to hooves.

Dried and relocated back to the living room, Cure and Vines are now brushing the fillies’ manes and tails with them each collapsed belly-down on a cushion. Cure finds the action calming himself and, although he doesn’t mean to, he can’t help but mentally compare it to when he had dogs over the years.

“So cute when they’re all docile like this,” he mumbles, ignoring Vines’ giggle.

“You’re no better, Cure. Title told me all about last night! All tuckered out like a little foal, she gave you a good scrubbing and brushed out your coat, mane, and tail before bed too.”

Pretending he wasn’t blushing at all, he finished up with Lotus and gave her a quick check to see how his, much reduced, immune system buff had done. From the looks of it she shouldn’t have any but the most mild symptoms, and both parents will certainly be thrilled to know that neither the fillies, nor likely Lemon herself, will be coming down with anything.

Ugh, I do need to start taking better care of my coat and mane. I could chalk up previous laziness to being a dumb colt, but now that I actually notice being funky I don’t think I can keep being a slob.

Plus I don’t want to get labeled “that gross kid” like what happened to a couple boys back when I was in first grade. I don’t think they escaped that label until all the elementary schools got mixed up when we went to middle school, years later. Damn, now I feel like an asshole for being a part of it. That one kid’s family was obviously poor as hell. A whole lifetime of regrets to carry with me, and no way to ever make up for them. Ugh.

Once the fillies are all brushed out Cure and Vines take advantage of their sedated state and check on Amethyst again. Coming back out of the room, Cure gives his diagnosis. “She’s like… basically all better. Really, dam, I’m completely at a loss here. I do see that she still has way more white blood cells than you had when I checked you this morning, but I would expect that from someone fighting an infection either way.”

“Well that sounds wonderful, Cure. I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that.”

Nodding in agreement he adds, “Oh yeah, I need to make sure you’re not going to get sick too… we’ll do that when we get home. Anyhow, I think it may be a good idea to wake her up and see how she feels. As best I can tell she should be perfectly fine, if not maybe just a bit tired.”

He pauses and looks in the room again, then faces back to his dam. “She still may need more sleep if she hasn’t gotten much over the last few days, but you know how hard it is to get back on a normal schedule when you’ve been thrown off for the better part of a week. If she wants to try to work tomorrow we should wake her up so she can go to bed at a normal time tonight.”

“You’re probably right.” Vines looks in on her friend again, then waves Cure to the stairs, “Okay, why don’t you go check on the fillies and I’ll wake her up.”

Nodding, he heads downstairs to find the girls struggling to not fall asleep. Knowing that they should probably stay awake he finds a book about numbers and counting, drags their cushions to either side of him, and reads to keep them occupied.

Vines heads into the room and gently noses at Amethyst’s neck. After a few pokes she beings stirring and, with a snort, grunts out a “Huh? Babe?” and sits up. “Oh, Vines. Hey, what time is it?”

“It’s almost four o’clock, Amy. How are you feeling?”

Sniffing a few times and shaking her head to wake up, she runs through a mental self-check, swallows a few times, takes a couple deep breaths, and looks to her friend and lover. “I feel great, actually. Better ‘n I’ve felt all week. It’s only four? I thought Cure said he’d need to poke me a half dozen times before I’d feel better.”

“He was surprised too. We’ve been coming up almost every half hour to check on you. Right after lunch he took the fillies to the park and let them wear themselves out, then carried them home. He checked on you when he got back and said you were almost fully recovered, but wasn’t sure exactly why. I think it’s his special talent, though.”

Thinking for a moment, Amethyst agrees with a nod. “Must be. Either that or what he did worked better than expected. I figured I’d still feel like shit fer days, though… even if the virus was gone it takes yer body a minute to stop thinking it’s sick.”

Stopping to meet Vines’ eyes she adds, “Yer son’s amazing, V. Like, legitimately amazing. You really should consider going public with that talent cause if he can learn and grow he’ll be the greatest doctor anypony’s ever heard of some day. Them elite snobs in Canterlot wouldn’t be able to do shit to ‘em without sparkin a riot.” Letting out a sigh, she starts to sit up, “Ah well, enough of that.” Climbing out of bed, Amethyst walks up to Vines and wraps her in a big hug. “I can’t thank you enough, V.” Kissing her gently on her forehead she adds, “but I’ll sure give it my best shot next time I get a chance,” she finishes with a deep nuzzle.

Vines can’t help but pink a little at the promise. “We’ll talk soon, Amy. With how Cure fixed me up this morning I’m definitely looking forward to tonight, though. Poor Deed is going to need Title to carry him into work tomorrow, just you wait.”

“Aww, you’re not going stallion-only on me, are ya?”

“Oh Amy,” she starts, grinding into her friend with a deep, intimate nuzzle, “you know I liked mares just as much as stallions clear back to grade school. Don’t you go acting all pouty on me.”

“Feeling better, I see,” a new voice interrupts them. “No, no… don’t stop on my behalf. This looks like it’s just getting started,” she laughs.

“Lemon! You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought my son had come back up to see how Amy was doing!”

Blowing out a snort, Lemon can’t hold back the laugh. “HA! Wouldn’t that have been something? “Dam, why were you hugging Mrs. Blossom so tight?” HAHAHA!”

“Oh come on, honey, that colt’s too young to be gettin the talk. Give him another year or two at least.”

“Actually…” both Lemon’s and Amethyst’s heads snap to Vines when she interrupted, “Deed kind of gave him the talk yesterday.” Shaking out a full-body shudder she adds, “It was horrifying!”

Lemon lets out another snort and asks, “Why in the world would you let that numbskull give your colt the talk? Especially when he’s only eight years old? He won’t even look at a little filly for a couple years yet, I bet. He’s probably convinced they have cooties or something,” she ends with a giggle, stopping only a moment later when the other two mares are looking distinctly uncomfortable with the suggestion. “Uhh… why are you both looking like that? He is only eight, right? I was sure…”

Vines chimes in first, “He’s only eight, but… well, he admitted last night he has a crush on a pegasus filly around his age. She was with him and some other children playing kickball at the park last night.” With a small smile and half-lidded eyes she continues, “He said she glowed like azure fire against the sunset when she took off to catch a ball.”

Vines can’t hold back the giggling and nearly breaks into dance when she adds, “I’m going to have so many grandfoals! Oh I can’t wait! Oh but not for at least six or seven more years! Oh what am I going to do! He’s such a smooth talker he’ll have them all eating out of his hooves by then. Deed said a dozen wives, and if he’s a successful doctor I could see it!”

Slightly afraid of their daydreaming friend, Lemon and Amethyst move off to the side.

Speaking lowly as to not disturb the daydreaming Vines, Lemon starts first, “Hey babe… you sound like you’re all better. Did the cold just break after I left or something? You were hacking up a lung this morning.”

“No. Listen, honey… before I can tell you how I’m better we need to knock her outta her daydream, okay?” Pausing, they both look at Vines who still is paying them no attention at all. With a matching set of grins they each move to a side and, as one, give Vines nips right where her neck meets her collarbone.

Letting out a yelp and recoiling away, Vines jumps all the way onto their bed before she realizes what’s going on. Lemon smirks at her and, with a swing of her hips and tail, saunders up to the bed. “Well we were just teasing, V, but if you’re dying to hop in bed…” she finishes, eyebrows wagging. Failing to hold the stare, she busts out laughing for a moment while Amethyst giggles in the background.

Vines scowls at her until she regains her composure. Lemon finally asks, “Okay, so seriously… what’s going on here? Why can’t you tell me why you’re feeling so much better? I know you didn’t run to the doctor to get some prescription or whatever, so what’s up?”

Amethyst turns to Vines and raises an eyebrow, which Vines nods to in response.

“The colt’s a full blown biomancer, Sweet. V didn’t have a clue. Stars, I don’t even know if the colt knows it, but he’s the real deal. He gave me a speech I’d expect out of a medical review board ‘bout informed consent and patient confidentiality, then gave me a couple taps, and bam… immune system is turned up to a thousand. I come up to take a nap ‘round one, still hacking my brains out, wake up a couple hours hours later feeling like a new mare.”

Lemon takes a full minute to parse that statement, her mouth half open and body frozen stiff the whole time. She finally snaps to and turns to Vines only to ask, “What the fuck, V? A biomancer? How the hell do a real estate pony and a gardener brew up … THAT? Did you actually get knocked up by your doctor or something?”

Vines, thoroughly offended, recoils from the accusation. She’s just about to yell at Lemon, but stops when she sees the upraised hoof.

“Easy, V, I’m joking. I know Deed’s his sire, I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear. Still… how in Celestia’s name does that happen? I saw he got his cutie mark. It’s some kinda staff with a snake wrapped around it. What does that have to do with biological manipulation?”

Still frustrated at the jab, Vines growls back, “It’s an ancient symbol for health, wellness, and healing. I don’t know, Lemon! Nopony consoluted me at the Cutie Mark Distribution Board when he got it, he just did!”

Curiosity piqued, Amethyst raises a hoof to get their attention. “Yanno, I didn’t think ta ask. How’d he get his mark anyway?”

“He was doing some kind of meditation thing… I don’t know, some kind of “look within yourself” thing and says he found a bruise on his leg from where he’d taken a fall. He says he willed itself to heal and it just did, next thing you know he’s got that symbol on his flanks and he’s working on making a better melon plant. He had no idea he could do anything like what he did with you until yesterday afternoon when he turned all the stuff in a blade of grass into blood.”

“Blood?” both Lemon and Amethyst ask in stereo.

“It’s not like it was bleeding, he says he just took what plants use for blood and tried to make it actual blood instead. He said he could probably come up with a way to help ponies that were injured so they will always have what they need if they’re hurt bad enough to need a transfusion.”

“Ohhhh” they once again reply in sync. This time Amethyst scowls at Lemon, who simply shrugs. “Not doing it on purpose, I swear,” Lemon insists.

“Well,” Amethyst starts, turning her scowl away from Lemon finally, “that sounds a lot better than “suddenly, blood” so if ya hafta tell that story again ya may wanna revise the delivery a smidge.” Lemon simply nods along, remaining silent.

“Yeah, it freaked me out at first too. Imagine you’re just sitting there with your foal and all the sudden the blade of grass they’re holding is bright red and smells like somepony got cut open. I almost jumped out of my coat before he gave me that incredulous look and told me to calm down,” she admits sheepishly.

“Meh, we’re getting off topic. So anyhow, the colt could basically turn you inside out with a touch.”

“AMY!” Vines shouts.

“What? He could. He wouldn’t ever do that, though. Has a heart of gold. I think he’ll be the greatest doctor the world has ever seen and we live two doors down from him! Isn’t that wonderful, Sweet?”

“Honey, I think you need to work on your sales pitch a bit. Still, from what I’m seeing he clearly does good work. I never would have expected you to be up and moving this fast. Stars, I figured you’d be laid up all weekend. Did he check on the fillies too?”

“Yep, he gave me the run down at lunch,” Amethyst answers. “He thinks you must have been exposed to it when you were carryin Cherry ‘cause she’s already immune to the virus. With you not showing symptoms after being around me, he says, that’s the most logical explanation. Lotus needed a booster but he probably did that after I fell asleep, right V?” At Vines’ nod she continues, “Great! I’ll tell ya, Vines, if there’s ever some plague or something we’re all crashing at yer place.”

“Great.” Vines replies, completely deadpanned.

Lemon perks up suddenly at a thought. “Oh! Hey! Could he fix these damned stretch marks? I swear I thought I was going to drop a whole tree when Cherry came out. You’d think I had a yak sire the filly the way I was almost dragging on the ground at the end.”

Nodding, Vines explains, “He probably could, actually. Not that you can really see them through your coat. He talked about doing cosmetic procedures like helping ponies lose weight by dissolving fat and passing it through the urine, so something as simple as tightening skin is probably pretty easy.”

“Stars above, V! I’ll tell ya what, you take Amethyst home with you and leave that colt here with me. We’ll call it a fair trade and I promise I’ll raise ‘em right.” Lemon barely finishes before a pillow pelts her in the side of the head. Ignoring it she continues, “Seriously, though. I’d pay him if he could. Maybe not much in bits with the store being closed a few days, but if he brings that little pegasus filly in I’ll be sure to hook a colt up.”

“See, now yer the one gettin off topic. We’re talking ‘bout V’s colt here and yer talking about tradin sweets fer a smoother belly.”

“Fine, fine. I don’t see what the big deal is. Colt’s got himself a great talent, if you ask me. Who knows how many ponies he’ll be able to help some day. And so what if his talent could be scary?” Lemon asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Almost every guard with a weapon cutie mark and even the princess herself could abuse their talent, but nopony does. Just tell him to keep it on the down low until he gets his medical degree and he should be all set,” she finishes with a nod. “But seriously, send ‘em my way and I’ll make it worth his while.”

Rolling her eyes, Amethyst ignores her wife’s request. “That’s basically what I said. I told V to either not tell a soul or go straight to the big boss lady herself and show off what amazing potential the colt has. Can you imagine the princess taking him on herself as a pupil? I haven’t heard of her taking a personal student for years, but anypony that she does take on is destined for greatness.”

Lemon grimaces and, with a shake of her head replies, “No… I wouldn’t do that. You know she’s only ever taken unicorns as students. The nobles in Canterlot would pitch a fit if she ever took on some no-name mud pony from the suburbs. They’d kill to get their foals to be the princess’s student, and the only thing that would keep him safe from there on is their fear of her personal wrath. I just don’t see her fighting for one of us like that.”

Amethyst nods in agreement. Vines just looks shocked and disappointed, but doesn’t speak up.

“Listen… we better go check on them. V, would the two of you like to stay for dinner?” Lemon offers, “I feel bad having you come over and helping out on such short notice, your son’s miracle healing aside,” she finishes, waving a hoof at Amethyst.

“No, I need to get home and get started on dinner too. If I don’t then Deed will probably start grazing and I don’t need him just eating my garden, the front yard, or whatever.” With an eye roll she adds, “You never know with that stallion...”

Laughing at the image the three mares make their way down the steps to find Cure giving a very basic math lesson to the two fillies. Using letter blocks he’s shown them how to do simple addition and subtraction, but he’s pretty confident the lesson won’t stick for very long. Mainly, it was just a way to keep them distracted and awake until Lemon has a chance to check on Amethyst and until his dam is ready to go home.

Seeing their mothers descending the stairs, both fillies run over to greet them with hugs and nuzzles. Vines walks up to Cure and picks him up in a big hug, nuzzling all down his neck and cheeks. “You ready to head home, sweetie?”

“Sure thing, dam. How about I give Amethyst one last check before we go, though, just to make sure she’s recovering and her “attack” cell count is where it should be?” Vines sets him down and he looks towards Amethyst.

“Sounds good,” Amethyst says, offering a hoof.

Touching her for a moment he breaks the connection and gives his diagnosis. “Well, you’re way better off than I figured you would be by now. There’s still a few viral cells in your system, but honestly we’re talking a tiny number at this point. I’m just amazed you’re not still coughing and sniffing. I guess we’ll just take it and move on, huh?”

Sitting down, Amethyst scoops Cure up in a big hug. “Works fer me. I can’t thank ya enough, Cure. Not just for the healing, but also for taking such good care ‘a the fillies.” Setting him down she nods at Cherry and Lotus who have taken up positions behind and on either side of him. “Looks like you got yerself a little fan club, colt. Yer gonna make a wonderful big brother once Title pops.”

“Ha! I’m looking forward to it. Have a good evening Mrs. Blossom, Mrs. Sweet. Bye Cherry, bye Lotus.” Gathering the few supplies, minus some treats from the garden she’d brought as gifts, Vines loads up the cart as everypony else trades goodbyes. Cure gets a round of hugs from the fillies and heads out the door just as she’s finishing strapping herself into the cart. Together they head home, looking forward to spending the evening with the rest of their family.