Thursday, September 4th, 908 AB

Cure closes the door behind him and takes off towards the garden.

He knows his parents need some “them” time too. He remembers going through the same thing when Kynzie and Josh were little. Those blessedly rare kid-free weekends where a grandparent or, even more rarely, their father would get them for a night… they were always a real treat. Those were the nights when tarps had to be put down, towels were laid out, and shit got downright wild.

Pausing by the garden, he considers playing around with the plants and seeing how much he can do with his mark. Thus far all the alterations done were with what he considered his “base” magic ability, the same as all earth ponies, presumably. He’s still debating going to the park when he hears a loud, low moan come from inside the house. “Wow, dam. Not even ten minutes. You go, girl.”

Turning towards the park he barely gets two steps before he hears a much louder, not-low-at-all scream of ecstasy. “Holy shit… the poor girl was pent the fuck up. Good luck, dad. HA!”

Feeling inordinately pleased with how much good he’d done that day, Cure turns and takes off.

I don’t need to be some kind of weird perv. Well, no weirder or pervier than I already am. Let them have their fun, but they damn well better clean up before any of them try to go in my room to wait for snuggles. I don’t need to smell dad’s nut all over them when I’m trying to sleep. That’s just too much.

Okay, so nopony around and nothing to do. I think it’s time to test a limit here. Full speed, go!

Pumping magic into his body, Cure breaks into a full sprint. The park is only about a half mile away, but he’s still not gotten a feel for how fast he can really go. Without a stopwatch it’s impossible to be sure, but it barely takes even a minute to cover the distance. Slowing as he approaches, he cycles magic throughout his body, activating his mark to encourage muscle growth and clear out any fatigue.

The draw from fat stores was barely noticeable. It wasn't totally insignificant, but he could still see how just a tiny bit was being grabbed from all over. Directing his gut, intestines, and digestive tract to do the best it can to extract every available nutrient from his food, he sought to replenish any expended stores.

As far as I know those systems are all damned efficient anyhow. No harm tossing a little magic in the mix, though. Maybe I can find the right bug or something; I think some of those don’t even poop, but that may be because they only live like a month.

Looking up towards the sun, Cure thinks about another energy source. I wonder if I can direct my skin to photosynthesize somehow. Actually, I think my coat would make that almost useless. Damn.

Okay, how about I try the pegasus eye thing. One eye at a time, Cure.

Finding a spot on a vacant bench, Cure looks around for a moment. There’s families out and about, and some foals running around the playground under their parents’ watch, but nopony he recognizes is around. Checking the sky to be safe, he sees absolutely no pegasi about either, nor are there any obvious clouds nearby.

Closing his eyes he falls into his mark. Using Crosswind’s eye as a template, modified for his own color and size, he first directs his magic to disable the pain receptors in his left eye and the immediate area.

Without overly analyzing the copy, Cure directs his magic through his mark to make the changes necessary to replicate the distance, color recognition, glare reduction, and other improvements that Crosswind enjoys, likely without ever thinking about them. The magic drain is relatively minor, though the process takes over ten minutes to complete.

Slowly turning on pain receptors a few at a time, Cure is relieved when nothing is hurting. Ensuring the connection to his brain is intact, it dawns on him that he may have plugged in a high resolution camera, but if the TV he’s watching only supports SD and the input is HD he may be in for a bad time.

Opening his unmodified eye and checking around again, he still seems to be in the clear. Rather than risking damage to his new eye, he turns to face the direction opposite the sun. Closing his unmodified eye, he feels he’s finally ready.

After psyching himself up, he barely cracks open his eye. Opening it slowly and allowing the brand new eye to adjust to the light, he feels no pain; there's just the typical discomfort he associates with opening an eye that had been closed for the last ten minutes when it’s still daylight out. Looking away from the sun had been a good call, apparently.

The difference, though noticeable, is not nearly as impressive as he’d been hoping for. Lines are definitely sharper, and by switching back and forth between eyes he can tell that there are more colors being detected, and the effect is a richer, more vibrant view. Happy with the results, he sits back down and begins work on his other eye.

Repeating the process, Cure finishes a little faster and cautiously opens both eyes to look around.

Okay, so having two eyes open seems to make an even bigger difference. I feel like I can see nearly twice as far away and… he takes a moment to read some of the signs posted around the park… yep, way better at the ‘ol vision test. I’d say this is a huge success. Not as awesome as I’d hoped for, but then again maybe that’s tied to pegasus magic as much as biology.

Just for the sake of thoroughness, he runs some magic through his eyes to see if there’s anything special going on. Then damn near falls off the bench, almost fainting. Only his TK field anchoring him in place keeps him seated.

FUCK. Okay, let’s see what I broke. The eyes themselves look fine. The connections are good. Why did I almost pass out then? I didn’t feel any actual pain, just ridiculously light headed and dizzy. Ah! It’s the visual cortex, I bet. It got overloaded like a fucking DoS attack would do. Idiot!

Do I dare muck with my brain? That’s not exactly a memory or decision-making area, so I’d still be 100% me. It’s just kind of a “process inputs” piece. It should be safe to do passively. Let’s compare the scans.

Comparing his from this morning with Crosswind’s, he could tell there were some differences in her visual cortex. It wasn’t a physical size difference though. It must more of a qualitative difference, or it uses an alternative processing method to greater effect. There are definitely areas of higher neural density, he notes.

So… is that like the cache or the RAM? Cache is probably a better analogy since it’s right at the processor. Ugh, who cares which it is. Either way she’s sportin a few MB while I was flooding my fifty KB chip. No wonder I almost blacked out.

Okay, magic. I’m trusting you a lot here. Don’t turn me into a tater, please. Just do what you have to do so that I don’t pass out if I run some juice through the ‘ol peepers.

Cycling magic through the area with the visualization of a technician upgrading his visual cortex’s bandwidth and processing capacity, Cure keeps watch over the other parts of his brain to ensure nothing funky happens to the other parts.

Not that it would fucking matter if I was watching or not. Keep those thoughts away. You can do it, mystery magic source. Let Cure see the light!

After a few minutes Cure could tell that whatever change had happened had been completed. Comparing his old scan, new scan, and Crosswind’s scan showed the changes. While his new scan wasn’t an exact match, it certainly had been modified to more closely resemble hers than his scan from this morning. The differences, he could only assume, were related to him not being a pegasus.

So, maybe because it’s a product of my own magic it’s somehow adapted to work with my “frequency?” Huh, I’ll have to look into that at some point. If all three tribes use “magic” is there actually different frequencies or some inherent property that makes emulation or conversion impossible? Fuck it, that’s for later. Eyes now.

Cautiously cracking open one eye showed the change, and it was glorious.

Full fucking HD. I swear to Harmony I have to have just doubled my visual acuity.

Looking around at the world in wonder, Cure couldn’t help but giggle in joy.

My mad scientist laugh is a giggle! God ponies are cute, even me. There’s no denying it.

Closing one eye, Cure ever so gently directs some of his magic to the open one. It’s only when he concentrates on a sign that the difference becomes apparent. His eyes aren’t telescopic; that would require physical changes to the way the lens operates. Still, the visual effect is the same. Signs that are far enough away he could barely see are perfectly legible.

Yep. This is it. If I was flying a hundred, two hundred MPH, this is the only way somepony could properly judge distance, edges, etc. to make those sharp turns like what we saw in the show.

I have actual proper pegasus vision now! Woo! Suck it, Lasik!

I bet their spatial awareness is off the charts too. Oh well, I'll worry about that later!

Thrilled with his success, Cure began walking around, just taking in the sights and, in all likelihood, looking like a loon to anypony actually watching him. Fortunately, nopony he could see, even with his far expanded capability, was paying any attention to the blue colt bouncing around with a huge smile on his face.

So, vision is a Go. I need to find a damn dog next. I know pony noses are way better than human noses, but I still bet a dog would blow me out of the water. I just hope that doesn’t mean I’m going to be effectively sniffing everypony’s ass all day long. Ugh, well if it sucks I can always turn it off.

Keeping up a decent canter, he takes off into town proper. Passing the school, he heads right to where the stores are that cater to children his age. Waving and greeting passing ponies as appropriate, he makes his way to Lemon’s store, even knowing she’d gone home hours earlier. Apparently she didn’t actually open today, but she must have been busy working to restock inventory. The sign on the door says she’ll reopen for business tomorrow.

Going a few shops down, he finds one of Lemon’s competitors still open, even though it looks like they’ll be shutting down for the night in the next few minutes. Grabbing a decent sized pack of mixed chocolates and some caramels, he also picks up some of the rock candy he remembers his dad snatching from his bag after Nightmare Night last year.

I should start planning my costume. My parents would shit a brick if I came downstairs with wings and a horn. If I wasn’t sure it’d eat through most of my magic to put them on It’d be totally worth it. Actually growing wings would probably be several times my capacity.

Maybe if I started as soon as I went to my room the night before… and ate a fucking ton of food for like a week ahead of time for the biomass.

It still may be totally worth it. I’d definitely have to wait upstairs until I recovered, though. I suspect I’ll need all of my magic to heal dam from the heart attack it’ll probably cause. Maybe I could just play it off as a good illusion then.

Damn, I need to scan me a unicorn. I wonder if I can build a horn and have it obscured… like running down my mane instead of poking out my forehead. Or just flat out have most of it internal with just a tiny nub hiding in my mane. I always used to joke about being twelve inches, it just depends on where ya start measuring from!

Making his way past the library and towards an ice cream store, he paused in thought.

I wonder if I could come up with some reason to give Mr. Binder a quick poke. Ugh! Damn my ethics, why do I have to feel guilty when it literally does them no harm. Wait, I told him I was going to be a doctor. Maybe I could say “Hey my special talent is to tell if you’re healthy. You in?”

Meh… lying by omission isn’t much better. Then again I never told Crosswind I was going to steal her damn eyeballs. Crap, does this mean I’m a bad pony? I’ll have to make it up to her somehow, even if she did kind of force me to check her over.

Entering the ice cream parlor, Cure was thrilled at his luck. In a booth to the side were Crosswind and Glacial, along with four other older pegasi. He hadn’t met the older ones, but he suspected they could be siblings a year or so older than the girls, given how few pegasi there were in Golden Hills.

Approaching the group, Cure didn’t hesitate to say hello.

“Hey everypony, how are you all doing today?” With all eyes turned his direction he focused on Drift and Glacial. “Heya Drift, Glacial. What’s new?”

With a small wave of her wing, Glacial is the first to reply. “Oh! Hi Cure! I didn't see you walk in. We're not doing much, we just stopped by before they closed down for the evening. What are you doing out?”

“A whole lot of nothin, basically. I think I’ve been driving my dam up the wall all week, so I figured I’d give my parents some alone time and came into town to find something to do.” Pausing to nod towards the door, he explains, “I swung by the candy store before heading this way just kind of hoping to bump into somepony I knew.”

Smiling at the four older fillies who hadn’t yet spoken he said, “Hi, nice to meet you all. I’m Cure Wave… I don’t think we’ve met before.” Turning back to Glacial and Drift he asks, “Hey, I don’t want to assume anything, but with how few pegasi families are around here… are these your older sisters?”

One of the girls spoke up, a slightly older one with a just barely off-white coat and a golden mane and tail. She was about two hooves taller than Drift, so probably eleven years old or so. “Ah, Cure… It’s nice to meet you too. I’m actually Drift’s oldest sister.” she said with a smile. “The name’s Wind Shear.”

Smiling down at the shorter colt, she wags her eyebrows while saying, “Sissy says you got a real good look at her chest yesterday. So… did ya like what you saw?”

Chests aren't erogenous zones on ponies like… at all. Am I missing the joke? I can literally see her chest right now, so who cares?

Everypony else but Glacial at the table erupts in laughter while Crosswind shouts “WHAT?” and almost shoots out of her chair.

“HA! Don’t worry, Drift. I take patient confidentiality very seriously,” Cure says, shooting her a wink. “I’m afraid I simply cannot comment one way or the other about anypony I use my talent on,” he finishes, shrugging at Shear.

“Aww, he’s sticking up for her!” one of the other girls calls out. “You must have made quite the impression, Drift!” Naturally, another round of giggles erupts from the four. Crosswind, Cure notices, has definitely pinked in the ears a bit. What’s interesting is that Glacial has as well.

Looking at the girl who had spoken up, Cure wasn’t sure how to respond. Agreeing would probably get Drift teased more. Disagreeing would seem like abandoning her. If these girls were going to keep piling on it was probably best to make a tactical retreat.

“Well… I certainly didn’t mean to get anypony teased or anything.” Turning to face the two, he said, “Glacial, Drift. Sorry that my saying hi made them all so jealous of you. I didn’t realize they would be so upset that no colts came over to greet them too,” he pauses, looking at the loudmouth girl, “even if I suspect there’s a good reason for that.”

Looking back at the two, he nods and says, “I hope you have a good evening despite the company.” Turning from the table of wide-eyed stares, Cure walks up to the counter.

Ordering a large chocolate shake, he pays and waits, ignoring the mutterings and whispers coming from behind. Within a few minutes he has his shake and is walking out the door, fairly certain what was going to happen next.

Ugh, so cliché. Gee I wonder if the slighted bully feels the need to get even.

Drinking the shake as fast as he could, he moseys around town to kill time, keeping an eye on any windows or reflective surfaces he could use to see upwards and behind him. Sure enough, after about ten minutes of poking around he could tell he was definitely being followed. He can barely hold back the eye roll after he spots them; they hadn't even bothered trying to hide behind a cloud or anything, they were just poking their heads around corners without any subtlety at all.

Fortunately, with all the other ponies around, there isn't a good opportunity for the older fillies to do anything. Finishing his shake, he drops it in the nearest trash can and begins to go home, unsure how he’ll get there when they have the clear mobility advantage. This, he figures, is likely unavoidable at this point.

I mean... is the world testing me or something? This is playing out like something from a 6th grader's creative writing assignment. Well fuck them either way. I refuse to turn tail and run from a bunch of little girls, even if I am smaller.

Making his way through the park, Cure sticks to paths that had more trees lining them so he couldn’t easily be snuck up on or swooped from above. It turns out to be unnecessary, as the flock has apparently decided to wait up ahead for him, casually sitting around like a gang from Grease or something.

Approaching the group while barely suppressing a sigh, Cure makes sure to stop with a few body lengths between him and Wind Shear, who must have decided she was personally insulted and had to prove herself as the alpha.

Drift, and Glacial are both standing to the side, clearly not happy with the situation, but probably forced to come along since they’re the youngest of the group.

With a bright smile, Cure looks to the older filly. "Hi Wind, what’s up? If you wanted to follow me home you could have just asked. I don’t think we’ve known each other long enough for the “introduce her to the parents” step yet, but that’s okay, my sire will be thrilled at all the attention I’m getting anyhow."

With a heated glare she says, “You’ve got a bit of a mouth on ya, don’t you Cure?”

“I sure do. It’s not my finest feature, if you ask me, but I’m pretty proud of it I suppose. I do brush every night, after all,” Cure answers with an even bigger, toothy smile.

“HA! Well how about you tell me what is your finest feature, then.”

Turning and standing like some kind of prancing thoroughbred, Cure easily responds, “I thought pegasi have really good eyes." With raised eyebrows he asks, "Are you saying you can’t tell yourself? Need a hint?"

Walking in a slow circle around him, she eyes him up and down. "Well I’m curious what you think, that’s all."

Lowering his voice, Cure says, “Oh… Why, of course." Looking around to ensure nopony was nearby, he answers. "Well you see, my finest feature is obviously,” he leans forward to whisper, and despite themselves, every single one of the fillies leans forward to hear what he has to say. Shattering their expectations, he loudly declares “... my charming personality, obviously!”

Most of the fillies cover their faces with a quiet giggle at the clearly unexpected answer, even while trying to maintain the ridiculous “intimidating hardass” look.

Wind Shear did not find it amusing. “Well, can’t say it’s impressed me so-”

“I assure you, I have no desire to impress you at all.” Fuming, Wind stares daggers at Cure for interrupting. “I think I have an idea of why you may be here.” Meeting her eyes, he continues, "I strongly believe you should reconsider. No good can come of this, but lots of unpleasantness almost certainly will."

Walking up to tower over him, she pokes a hoof into his chest repeatedly while snarling, “I don’t think you get to decide that, little colt. I think you need me to teach you not to get smart with older, bigger ponies. Maybe I should smack you around a little bit to let that lesson sink in real good.”

Taking a small step back, Cure notes that Glacial and Drift are both furious at Wind Shear. The other fillies are also beginning to look pretty unsure about their leader’s decision making, even the one that was getting smart at the ice cream parlor.

Staring directly into her eyes, Cure keeps a perfectly straight face. With a level tone he says, “Wind Shear. I’ve tried walking away, I’ve tried making jokes. I will make this very clear. Do. Not. Touch. Me. Again. Is that understood?”

Taking a half step forward, she reaches to poke him with her right hoof again while asking, “And what are you going to do to stop me, little colt?”

As soon as the hoof gets close enough, Cure grabs onto it with one hoof as hard as he possibly can. Still holding on, he dives under her between her left two legs, dragging the hoof along and pulling her straight down onto her right shoulder with a yelp. Now behind and to her left he quickly body checks her in the flank, toppling her over just as she begins to spread her wings.

Unfortunately, that causes her to fall on her right side before she could gain any lift, pinning the right wing at a very uncomfortable angle, straight up off her back and flat on the ground.

Unable to roll over her right side, she tries to right herself onto her belly to stand, but before she can Cure puts his right hoof right against the base of her left wing, his left hoof on her left shoulder, and holding himself and her down with the strongest TK field he can muster through his rear hooves, presses her to the ground yelling “STOP” directly into her ear.

Pausing for a second, she leans her head up to see him standing on top of her with his right hoof in a very uncomfortable spot and her front legs pinned. Knowing he could simply stomp down and severely damage her wing joint, she freezes on the spot.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you," he says, turning to look at her friends. The gray one that had mouthed off had already started moving towards him. Meeting her eyes he presses just a tiny bit more, eliciting a yelp from Shear. “BACK! NOW!”

The gray pegasus freezes, looking to Wind on the ground, then slowly backs away.

"You and your friends really have me outnumbered, so I just can’t afford to play nice. You’re going to stay put and not move, or I will start pressing down. Is that understood?” When he shifts his weight a little she immediately starts to tear up.

Shouting “DON’T!” she stopped moving and said, “Don’t press there, you’ll break my wing!”

"I wouldn't break your stupid wing. I'm not even doing anything right now. Still, I know this can't be comfortable. Now, tell your friends to get lost. Once they leave I'll let you up, and we can go our separate ways all peaceful-like. Nopony has to get hurt at all and we can all just go home."

Before anypony can move, Cure catches movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head to look towards the sky he sees help is on the way.

“Oh lookie here. It must be my lucky day, ladies. I’m thinking somepony’s parents were wondering where their daughters must have gotten off to." Looking down at Wind with a smile he asks, "I bet you were supposed to be home by now, weren’t ya?”

Focusing on the pair, both wearing guard armor, Cure can tell even from this distance that it is indeed a mare and a stallion and they’re headed right towards the group. Once they’re within a few seconds of landing, Cure sends a healing wave through Wind’s back, clearing up any injury. He then releases her completely while taking a few steps back.

“What in the name of Tartarus is going on here?!” the mare shouts as they land.

Nopony volunteers anything, so Cure quietly waits to see how this is going to play out.

What's going on is pretty bloody obvious, isn't it?

“You!" The stallion shouts, pointing at Cure with a wing, "Why were you standing on my daughter threatening to snap her wing?"

“Wait… what? Is that really how you want to play this, mister guard? You see one colt and six older fillies standing around and you're questioning me? I want you to stop and think about this for a moment, really.”

The enraged stallion doesn't relent at all. "I don't know where you get off telling me what to do, colt. I am not in the mood for any lip." Walking up until he was almost right on top of Cure he leans down and growls out, "You best speak up quick and explain to me why I saw you assaulting my daughter!" all the while ignoring Drift's shouts of "Dad! No!"

Quickly nodding while adopting a meek pose, Cure simply says "Okay, yes sir. I'll tell you everything right away, sir." Taking as deep of a breath as possible, Cure channels magic to his diaphragm, throat, and vocal folds before screaming at the top of his lungs, “SOMEPONY HELP ME! THIS GUARD IS THREATENING MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Every single ear within a hundred feet immediately folds down over top itself. The stallion, getting the full effect at point blank range, actually flapped his wings in a half jump back on reflex before rolling on the ground and coming back up in a prepared squat with wings spread, clearly acting only on muscle memory, as his eyes are closed and ears are flat on his head.

Meanwhile, every single pair of eyes that he can see even with his enhanced vision snap to Cure’s direction, and several dozen citizens start approaching to see why a fully-armored pegasus guard stallion looks ready to lunge at a small earth pony colt.

It was not a good look.

It took more than a few seconds for the pair of guards to regain their bearing after that sonic attack, and when they look back up each of them has at least six scowling earth ponies standing within a foreleg's reach. The fillies take a few extra seconds to recover, and they all pale when they look around to see a sizable crowd has gathered around them.

In order to establish the narrative, Cure rushes to explain, "I tried to get away from these fillies and they blocked my path. That one," pointing at Wind Shear, "jabbed me in the chest after threatening to beat me. I defended myself by disabling her without doing any harm. While I did, that one," now pointing to the gray filly that tried to blindside him, "tried to jump me from behind. Then you came down here in your fancy armor screaming your head off and starting to interrogate me about hurting your daughter instead of helping the victim like you're supposed to!"

The crowd, who has heard every word, looks ready to lynch the poor stallion. An enraged mare steps forward and gets right in the his face. Scowling down at the shorter stallion she snarl-yells, “You better have a damned good reason why you’re harassing this colt, soldier! What’s your name and who is your commander?”

“CURE? WAS THAT CURE?”

Turning just in time to be scooped up by his sire, Cure finds himself pressed against his dad’s chest while the pegasus stallion looks like he wants to tuck tail and bolt. Sadly, there is no mercy to be had tonight as Title and Vines both show up a second later, getting the short explanation from the crowd.

Wow, this really turned into an absolute clusterfuck. All the dude had to do was scold his daughter and be on his way, now he’s gonna have a real bad night. How did he see this going, exactly? And why do I feel a little guilty now? Meh, fuck him abusing authority like that. Play stupid games.

Oh, nice, and here come some more guards just because shit literally cannot get crazier.

Approaching from town, four earth pony and two unicorn guards are quickly making their way over in a full gallop. Whispering to his dad, “more guards comin from town” Cure otherwise doesn’t move or say anything. Within a minute the guards have arrived and are starting to make their way through the parting crowd.

“Alright, what in her royal highness’s name is going on over here?! Why are two of my guards about to get lynched? Back off, all of ya,” the frontmost earth pony shouts.

Poking his dad in the shoulder, Cure gets Deed’s attention and leans up to whisper, “How should I play this?”

Grimacing, Deed looks around. Seeing no other obvious solution he whispers back to Cure, “Like an eight year old colt.”

Ah hell, I don’t think I can queue up the waterworks like a real kid my age would. Damn I’m not gonna have to picture the end of Saving Private Ryan am I? That’ll do it… there’s the tears. Thanks, Tom Hanks!

Ah hell… now all the fillies are crying. Well at least I won’t look out of place having a bit of wetness ‘bout the ol peepers. I feel like I would have to turn in my man card if I was the only one.

The head-honcho has made it into the middle of the group at this point and, much to the relief of the two pegasi guards, orders the rest form a small barrier around them. Talking amongst themselves, it is impossible to hear the discussion, but it doesn’t take enhanced vision to see the commander is absolutely livid.

Finally hearing enough he takes a few seconds to collect himself and snarls a command to stay put. Turning around to address the crowd he shouts, “I need all of you to go back to whatever you were doing. I will get to the bottom of this, but I will not have a mob gathering around my soldiers, so everypony that wasn’t directly involved is ordered to disperse. IMMEDIATELY!"

Despite his warning the mare who had gotten in the pegasus’ face does not leave, nor do a half dozen other mares and stallions that had been amongst the first to arrive when Cure called for help. Most of the crowd backs off, though many of them only move far enough away to seem non-threatening.

Approaching Deed, who was now flanked by Vines and Title, the commander adopts a stoic look and introduces himself. “Good evenin sir, ma’ams. I’m Staff Sergeant Iron Bulwark. My understanding is that there was some sort of altercation between your colt and these fillies over here." Turning his head he nods in the girls' direction before looking back.

"I don’t intend to separate you from your colt or anything along those lines, but may I ask some questions to sort out what happened?”

Deed nods and sets Cure on the ground. “Go on, son. Tell the sergeant what happened.”

“Sure thing, dad. You’ve already got the gist of it, sir. I met them at the ice cream parlor after I went into town to give my folks some alone time and fetch everypony some treats from the candy store,” he starts, pointing at the now-mussed pouches on his sides.

At the pause Sgt. Iron looks up to Deed and briefly smirks. Deed shoots him a quick, but toothy grin.

“Well I played kickball with Crosswind Drift and Glacial Breeze the other night, so when I noticed them sittin there I went over to say hi and just kind of chat with 'em. I asked if the other girls were their sisters and introduced myself,” Cure explained, pausing for a moment.

“Well they kept teasing Drift on account'a colt was bein friendly with her, so I made a joke about them being jealous, then apologized for Drift being teased ‘cause of me trying to be nice. I bought a big chocolate shake and left. It was real good, so I drank it and threw away the cup before I even left town. I was goin home,” he pauses to point in the direction of his house, “and they landed in front of me to block my path.”

Intro to Up, the Intro sequence to Up!

Feeling his eyes watering a bit, Cure continues, “Well the tall one, Wind Shear, she said I had a smart mouth and she was going to beat a lesson into me about it. I asked her not to touch me cause she kept pokin me. I made some jokes about my charming personality to try to de-escalate the situation. I even point blank asked her to leave me be. She just kept poking. Finally, I said “Do not touch me again.” Well, sir, she did.”

Nodding along, the sergeant was listening to every word. Cure noted that one of the unicorns behind him was levitating a quill and an inkpad in a magenta aura and had apparently been writing everything down. “I’m assuming that’s what led to the scuffle, is that right, son?”

“Yes sir, the next time she poked me in the chest I grabbed her hoof and dove right between her legs, pulled her right over on her chest and shoulder, then bumped her onto her side. She started to spread her wings just as she fell, so the right wing got pinned flat on the ground spread open. I shoved my right hoof against the base of the left wing and held her shoulders flat on the ground with my left hoof, sir. I wasn’t tryin to hurt her at all, just pin her down.”

“A pegasus shouldn’t be hurt at all from fallin like that, son, so don’t worry. We’ll check her out, but so far she seems okay,” he says, briefly looking back over to Wind. She's being looked at by, Cure assumes, the squad medic who is checking her wing. She's moving it fine, so, as the sergeant says, there's no obvious injury.

“Thank you sir. Well, one of her friends, her over there,” pointing to the loudmouth again who wilts under the attention this time, “tried to rush me from behind. There was only one of me and four of them, so I pushed on that wing and told her to stop before I had to hurt somepony. I’m smaller 'n both of 'em, so if I figured if I let her up I was gonna be in trouble. I told her to tell her friends to go away so we could all go home.”

“It’s okay, son. Like I said, she doesn’t seem hurt. What happened next?”

“That's when I saw the guard pegasi comin, so once they got close I moved offa her to let 'er up. Well the mare landed and started screamin wanting to know what was goin on. The stallion landed and got all up on top of me demanding to know why I was assaulting his daughter. He said I tried to snap her wing off. I was surrounded and scared, so I screamed for help as loud as I possibly could.”

“And one Tartarus of a scream it was, son. Every guard in the city started heading this direction. I had to send several back to their posts.” With a sigh, he looks around a moment in thought before looking back to Cure. "Unfortunately, that was probably the best thing you could have done at that point."

“Yes sir. Well, all the other ponies around came to see what the commotion was and the two guards kinda backed off from there. That nice mare over there asked the stallion guard who his commanding officer is and that's when we all saw you comin from town."

"Alright, son. I'm going to chat with everypony else. I don't think I'll need anything further from you, but please stick around for a moment.” Looking to Deed he adds, “Corporal Sabot will come get your contact info, sir. Thank you for your cooperation sir, son, ma'am's." Nodding, the Sergeant moves towards the group of fillies.

Another earth pony, presumably Corporal Sabot, comes next. After Deed gives him their names and address he takes off towards the fillies next.

After several stops Sgt. Iron eventually comes back around. "We checked Miss Shear over. She isn't hurt at all, so good job being gentle with her. Everypony's story also lines up with everything you said. Your little fillyfriends were pretty upset," he adds with a smirk.

"I could tell they were, sir. They looked like Wind forced 'em to come with her. Two of the others didn't look happy either."

"You're likely right," he agrees with a nod. "Either way, you all are free to head home. If we end up needing anything else we'll be in contact."

Standing at a slightly relaxed version of "attention" he delivers a sincere apology. "On behalf of the guard I do want to apologize for the corporal's behavior. It was unprofessional and inappropriate and will be addressed. I hope the remainder of your evening is pleasant.” With a nod the sergeant turns and walks to the pegasus and starts calling the other guards to gather up.

With the clear dismissal, Cure and his family all head home together, walking in complete silence. Looking over his withers, he sees the pegasus mare take the fillies and, he guesses, start to fly home. The stallion accompanies the rest of the guards back to town. That’s where the real yelling will no-doubt happen.

Once inside the house they make their way to their cushions. Cure no more than removes his bags before he's scooped up again, dropped on his dam's cushion, and glomped on.

"Sun and stars, Cure. Can't you even go get ice cream like a normal colt?" Title asks.

"Aww come on mom, you heard the whole story, what should I have done differently? By the way, your candy's over there."

"Oh! Thanks!" she says as she started passing out the treats. "No idea. Maybe just stayed home, I guess."

"Pfft, no thanks. You all were plenty loud enough even with me outside, I am not staying inside for that." Cure can feel his dam heat up a bit blushing on top of him. "I am sorry to have ruined your night with that stupidity though. Once that stallion got in my face I only had a couple options left. Getting help from an adult was by far the best one.”

"Wasn't there any way to avoid fighting, sweetie?"

"Come on, honey, you heard the colt's story. He tried everything he could've. I think you did the best you could, son,” Deed reassures Cure with a nod. “Just how in the world were you so loud though? Your poor moms were both almost asleep and damn near shot through the roof. It sounded like you were right outside the room, but you were almost a kilometer away."

"It's called the Royal Canterlot Voice. It's something Luna does a lot when she's trying to sound official after her return. Basically I enhanced my lungs, throat, and vocal folds with magic and screamed my head off."

"It was very effective, Cure. Good job."

“Thanks, mom. I’m still bummed it turned into such a fiasco. It seems like such a stupid thing to escalate an off the cuff joke about being jealous to an actual fight.” Letting out a sigh he continues, “Ya know… Drift was kind of aggressive when I met her last night too. Maybe that just runs in the family. In those stories the pegasi are often the more military-minded tribe. Is that really the case?”

“Sort of. I don’t think I would say pegasi are actually militaristic, just that maybe earth ponies and unicorns are generally not at all. So, in a way yes, they are, but I’d definitely not directly associate pegasus culture with a military focus.”

“Ah. Got it. Well I’m pretty confident that completely sank any chance I’d have to get to know Glacial better. I tried my best to paint them as innocent without overdoing it, but I suspect I burned that bridge to the ground.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, sweetie. She was there for everything too, she certainly knows you were backed into a corner. If she wasn’t joining in with the rest of them she shouldn’t get in trouble. Oh! I did notice her coat color too. It is very pretty with the sunset on it.”

“Oh yeah, you should see it how I can now. I went ahead and upgraded my eyes to be like a pegasus’ and wow, what a difference. Before you freak out, I was very slow and methodical about everything. I didn’t do anything dumb or hurt myself at all.”

Technically true. There was no "hurt" at all, I just almost passed out, that's it!

“Is there a huge difference?”

Nodding to his mom, “Yep, grab a book or something and stand across the room. I can probably read it like it was right in front of me. I’m also seeing sharper colors too. I’d offer to give you an upgrade but I think I’d need to wait until tomorrow night. I burned through a lot of my magic since I left the house.”

Pausing in thought for a moment he adds on, “Actually, give me a week so I have time to thoroughly test everything. I can actively monitor every part of it, you don't have a way of doing that.”

Grabbing a book with fine print and moving to the opposite side of the room, Title does a quick impromptu vision test on Cure. He reads a passage with no problem, suitably impressing the adults.

“I don’t know about your dam or sire, Cure, but I’m willing to give it a shot. What all is involved?”

“There’s two stages to the procedure. The first stage is actually enhancing your eyes by adding a bunch of rods and cones to them. Those are the part of the eye that detect light coming in, so they’re what actually “see”. For pegasi having more was almost definitely an evolutionary necessity because ones with less couldn’t fly as effectively if their sight wasn’t as good.”

“Okay, that sounds pretty straight-forward”

“Yep, there’s also a bit of tinkering involving the iris and pupil so your eye can deal with light changes better, along with some muscles needing enhanced and some other minor tweaks. Pegasi don’t have a nictitating membrane to protect their eyes and adding one would be noticeable, so that option was out.”

“Built-in sunglasses would be nice, but no. That would definitely draw attention…”

“Right. So once all the changes to your actual eyes are done you should see about twice as well, but to really unlock the full potential we’d need to enhance your visual cortex too.”

“Where’s that?”

"It’s where your eyes plug into your brain." Holding his hooves up to the incoming argument he adds, "Don’t worry, it’s got nothing to do with personality, memory, or any of that stuff. It’s only responsible for processing info from the eyes. With better eyes, more info is coming in, so that part needs to be enhanced as well."

“I dunno son… you know more than that stuff than we do, but messing with the brain sounds like it could go real bad, real fast.”

“It could if you can’t literally see everything that’s happening and can’t direct your magic to fix any issues as they’re appearing. Think about it this way, I’m like… hooked up to the most advanced piece of medical equipment I’ve ever heard of. Short of sudden death the only thing that could end me is sustained injury forcing me to use all my magic before being fixed.”

“Well, if it all works great, maybe you can do mine next Friday. That will give me the weekend to get used to it before I have to get back to work. You'll also be around me more in case anything weird does pop up."

“Awesome. You’ll love it. I can't believe the difference. Just wait until I figure out UV and infrared. You'll be able to see heat signatures and entirely different spectrums."

"Why would you ever need that, sweetie?"

"Same answer as training strength or your TK field. Who knows? You can't predict what could happen, so always be prepared. Also I have some thoughts about changelings maybe being distinguishable with alternative viewing modes. They're bug ponies, so maybe they aren't as warm."

"You mentioned them on the way home from the store, sweetie. What are they exactly?"

"I'm not completely sure if they're actually bugs or if they just have bug-like characteristics, but imagine a pony shaped creature with a black carapace instead of fur, wings like a dragonfly, a crooked horn, and a fin-like thing instead of a mane. That sums them up pretty well."

"That sounds like something out of a nightmare, son."

"Do they fly and do magic? You said they have horns and wings."

"Yes, but all of their powers are fueled from draining sentient creatures of love, and I think maybe other emotions too. That means if they are low on love they’re almost powerless. A single changeling isn’t usually a threat, it’s when they start replacing a large number of ponies in a town that they can be a problem. This close to a major city we should be safe.”

“That’s not terribly encouraging, sweetie.”

“Ehh… there’s a reason I want to be able to spot them. They typically will have a few drones spread out in towns to get some ambient love. It’s only if there’s a bunch in town that we need to be concerned. They’re also more of a problem to the south or southwest, I think. I think their hive is located in the Badlands, so we should be fine on the opposite side of Canterlot from them.”

“And… you said you wanted to do something about their queen?”

“Yeah, it depends on how nuts she is. They’re literally starving to death. When they’re low on love they have these holes all over their legs and stuff. It's awful if you ask me. I've never starved, but even going hungry for a day sucks," he says with a shudder.

"They’re also suffering from a curse that, once lifted, makes it so they can eat normal food and don’t have to drain love anymore. The stories take place like ninety years from now, so if she’s still somewhat sane she should be redeemable.”

“And if not?”

“Then I would want the princess nearby. She’s an alicorn level threat if she’s gorged on love. Well, maybe. Celestia could probably take her out with ease, but in the show there’s so many ponies nearby when they fight that Celestia was probably holding back a lot to not cook everypony. That’s the thing, changelings can’t win a straight fight, so they use deception. Hence the name.”

“Okay… how’s the whole draining love thing work?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but they can kind of suck it out of a pony. They aim to capture, not kill, but it’s no better. They have these pods where, supposedly, you have good dreams. You know, to make more love? Anyhow, they pod you and keep you alive for a while at least. I would not be taken alive, I’ll tell you that right now.”

“Cure! Don’t talk like that!” Vines shouts while squeezing down on him.

“I’m not joking when I say this. If a changeling was dragging me into some cave I would use every weapon in my arsenal to kill them before yielding. It may sound awful, but at that point it's kill or be killed and I would do whatever I can to survive it.”

“That sounds pretty brutal, son.”

“Hey, I’m all for helping whoever I can, but I’m not going to be turned into some all-you-can-eat buffet until I wither away and die. If I can identify a changeling I’ll probably make a nasty virus in advance that I just keep in my blood just in case. Maybe not anything lethal, but enough to make them sneeze a lot or something that would expose them. My goal is ultimately to bring them to the bargaining table and let the boss lady take care of it from there."

“What about all the innocent changelings that could be hurt?”

Scoffing, he answers, “That’s their problem. It's a little cruel and unfair, but life often is."

Nuzzling up into his mother, Cure adds, “You may be uncomfortable with it, but if somecreature ever hurts you I will hurt them far worse, I promise. I told you that calling for help was my best option earlier. It wasn’t my only one, not even close.”

“Son, that was a trained guard. If he’d wanted to hurt you there was nothing you could do to stop him until help came.”

"I could have disconnected his spine below the neck, flooded his system with endorphins, blinded him by severing his optical nerves, or just about anything else. I've not tried to use my powers offensively but I've not seen any sign that anypony can block it either."

“Yeesh... I’m pretty sure those would stop him," Title nods in agreement.
“Damn, colt. Yer not one for playin around, huh?”
“Cure! That's horrible!"

“I would only do those in a life or death situation, dam. Even if he was beating me, which I don’t think a guard would ever do, I would just take it and heal later. Just think of the blackmail material!" Cure jokingly points out. Deed and Title evidently found it amusing, but his dam is still uncomfortable with it. "Don't worry dam, I could fix any of those too. Nothing there has to be permanent.”

"Well... I still don't like it, but I'm relieved you didn't lash out."

"Don't worry, dam. I have memories from a world with a lot more conflict than this one. I never fought much, but I'm no pushover either, even without ridiculous magical abilities. A big part of self defense training is knowing when to run, too. People that think they're invincible usually get shown they're not."

"The other main reason I yelled is because I was just so incredibly ticked off at him getting on my case when I clearly had six fillies surrounding me. Only one of them tried to help Wind Shear, but he didn’t know that. He saw a young colt earth pony and assumed he had to be the problem, not the six pegasi blocking his path. He needs some training or something."

“I’m pretty sure that sergeant is going to rip him a new one, so I wouldn’t worry about that,” Title said, waving away the concern.

“Yeah, son. I’m bettin Sgt. Iron put two and two together pretty quick there. The fillies being jerks isn’t what drew him out there, after all, it was the “this guard is threatening me” that did it.”

“I swear, is this the crap that earth ponies have to put up with all the time? In my memories I was a white man in a predominantly white country and I always tried to empathize with people that weren’t white… is this what it feels like? It sucks,” he said with a grimace.

“What do you mean, sweetie?”

“So far my interactions with ponies from the other tribes have not been good. Is this normal? The first unicorn I meet talks all patronizing to me and now I meet an adult pegasus and his first assumption is that I somehow managed to… I dunno, trick six fillies into landing in front of me so I could pin one down?" Waving his hooves in front of him he shouts, "How’s that make any sense at all?! How could I possibly have arranged that scenario???”

“I think maybe you’ve just gotten unlucky, son. You have to keep in mind that maybe that pegasus is stationed near a small town because he’s messed up before. I'm sure this isn't anypony's chosen assignment unless they already lived here. Or, he could just be a jerk, that seems likely too.”

“Well I hope I’m not just being overly sensitive, but jeez… how many times can a pattern repeat before you just kind of expect it from there on?”

“You… aren’t,” Title admitted sadly, “just being sensitive. It’s a real problem, sadly.”

“Well that sucks.”

“It does. You see it a lot more from unicorns than pegasi, but it's there. Fortunately we do almost all of our business with other earth ponies. Pegasi don't buy a lot of ground based real estate and very few unicorns live out here... and the ones that do typically aren't like that."

"Yep, yer mom's right. I think I've had maybe one pegasus client ever, and she was married to an earth pony, so she couldn't get a cloud house."

"Oh? Heavy's parents?" Getting a head shake no, Cure shrugs and continues, "So… is there going to be any fallout from this?"

With furrowed brows Title tries to decipher the meaning. "Fall out? Huh?"

Pointing a hoof at her, Cure excitedly shouts, "AHA! See! I just asked and got grief over checking on terms and then found one that doesn't translate!"

"Gonna fill us in, son?"

"Fallout is the left-over lingering effect from some of humanity's worst weapons. They left radioactive particles in the air and those particles were called fallout. It later became a common term used to mean "unexpected after-effects" basically."

"Radioactive?"

"Yeah, emitting radiation." Seeing their confusion, he explains, "All minerals break down over time in nature. Some, as they do, emit a form of energy that isn't visible to the eye but is very dangerous if concentrated enough. Think of it as an invisible aura but instead of heat or force, like a unicorn's beam, it slowly poisons you."

"You mentioned that this morning when I gave you the thermometer."

"Yep, good memory dam. Humans didn't know that the energy being emitted was bad because it takes time to build up in low doses. Remember my cell replacement example?" at a round of nods he continues, "radiation of the right kind can make it so cells are poisoned and too damaged to replace each other. They're also dying themselves, so in a few hours it can be lethal if the exposure is bad enough.

"I'm not even sure I could fix that... it would be similar to the whole "undo aging" thing. You know, I'd basically be rolling back the clock on a cell's health, but I would have to undo the poisoning too, and I don't have the magic reserves to do a whole pony at once. Yet, at least."

"And humans turned that into weapons? That's sick," Title says grimacing.

Cure replies while emphasizing the word, "Unexpected after effect, mom. The weapons that caused the radiation were new the only time they were used in war. It was a very, very bad war where something like eighty million humans died. The bombs that caused the radiation were used because the alternative would have been an incredibly bloody invasion with millions more dead. It was possibly the least awful option available. They may have known about the poisoning, but even with that an invasion could have been worse."

"Eighty million deaths…" Vines mumbles, covering her mouth with a fetlock.

"It's a terribly high number, but keep in mind humans have fully conquered their entire world. I'm not sure how many there were then but there's almost eight billion now. The fighting spread all over the planet." Seeking to move away from the atrocities in human history, Cure gives each parent a brief look while asking, "Anyhow, what can we expect as a result of this mess?"

"Uhh, son, thermometers aren't radioactive are they? I assume you woulda said so, but…"

"No, it just came up because humans stopped using mercury in thermometers and I made an offhoof comment about toxins, like radiation and mercury, being very harmful if you didn't know about them."

"Okay… why'd you need a thermometer? Nopony is sick, obviously."

"I tested the TK aura for heating and cooling. It works but it's slow."

"Neat!" Title shouts while clapping her hooves.

"Yep!"

Answering his original question, Title explains "Well I don't expect anything bad to come out of this. Maybe a few nosy neighbors will bug us for details, that's about it. We may get something in writing from the guard about the incident, but I doubt it."

"Like a summons?"

"No, probably just a written summary to show an official record exists. That's all I would expect from them."

"So I don't need to keep an eye on the sky or anything?"

"No, definitely not. Those two guards will probably keep far away so they don't risk another bad incident. I'm sure the sergeant told them to keep their distance."

"Well alright then. Well I'm ready to hit the bath. I can tell you all showered already, so," looking up to his dam, who is still on top of him, he gently asks, "could you… umm let me up, dam?"

Wrapping her legs around him, she shakes her head. "Oh no, mister. Your mom got you two nights in a row. You're not leaving my sight again today."

Letting out a defeated sigh, Cure accepts his fate and is tossed onto Vines' withers. Despite the part of his brain that wants to be more independent, he acknowledges that seeing him surrounded earlier was probably scary for his dam. Letting her dote on him is the least he can do.

Plus the squeaky wiggle dance she does is absolutely fucking adorable and he'd pay almost any price to watch it.

An hour later he's clean from tail to snout, his teeth are brushed, and he's wrapped up in his dam's forelegs held against her chest. Running another quick cycle of magic through his system he cleans up any lingering fatigue from the excitement and reinforces his muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, and everything else, emphasizing a strong desire to never be weak.

With a last round of affection and goodnight's from his dam he promptly falls asleep while wrapped in her forelegs, more tired from the excitement than he'd realized.

Author's Note

Alternative guard defense option:
Cure: "I could have replaced his memory center with a copy of my own! Then there would be two of us!"
Vines: "Dear Sun and Stars, no! I can't survive two of him!"
Deed: "Somepony call the archmages! He's multiplying!"
Title: "That sounds kinda neat, can you share memories like that?"
Cure looks thoughtful, Deed and Vines are running for the door.

Ugh, this chapter took a minute. I must have had a stroke at some point because when I proofread it I found where I'd switched back and forth between past and present tense like... A LOT. All throughout it, too. I hope I got them all.

Anyway, this one's kinda long and the next few average like 9k apiece. We are getting close to some time skipping, though. It'll start slow around Ch 25, give or take, but at some point in the future I definitely need to start really moving the clock forward. We'll see.

Thanks for reading, all. I appreciate feedback, so if you have a thought please feel free to add a comment.