Author's Note

Nerd warning: Math incoming.

If your eyes start to glaze over and you want to skip the nerd part of the conversation just do a Find for "Let me break it down for ya" (without the quotes) to skip to the end of it, roughly. It's not that important story-wise, especially if you're not a numbers person. I tried to keep it coherent, but the typed word is not the best format, which is why you find tables in scientific papers. The BBCode table function is apparently not supported here.

You'll know you're at the right part because Title calls Cure a nerd at the start of it.

You're getting this chapter a day early because I spent enough time on it that I'm 100% done messin with it. It'll probably be Monday before 25 hits. It's big, but I'm pretty sure it's not quite this big. Err... "as big of a deal" that is. It's a sligthly longer chapter as it stands now, and I tend to add crap on when editing, so it may break 14k.

Edit: Reminder! There probably will be little or no updates for the 2nd half of November. In fact, I'm planning 28 for around Nov 11 and that may be it until I can get back to it, so don't freak out if I go dark for 2-3 weeks.

Chapter 24: Cellular Service

Sunday, September 7th, 908 AB. Afternoon.

The family wakes a little while later and, after a filling lunch that mostly came from the garden, is lounging around while waiting for Solar to show up. Vines and Title are off to one side reading some awful romance novel while Deed and Cure are playing checkers.

Cure actually has to give his sire credit. He’d challenged the stallion with the assumption that a docile pony couldn’t possibly be good at a game where aggressive moves triumph. He then lost three times in a row, muttering about how it’s been years since he played.

“Sure, son. Whatever excuse lets ya sleep at night. Clearly I bust out the checkers game all the time. I’m sure you’re just rusty,” Deed teases with a patronizing nod.

“Bah. Whatever. You’re going down this time. Just a couple more moves and I’ll win.”

Just as he reaches for a piece there’s a knock at the door. Jumping up to answer it, Cure has to fight to keep his ears from falling when he finds Emerald Aura accompanying Solar and, also unexpectedly, Dawn. “Hey, everypony. Come on in!” he says with forced cheerfulness.

Introducing everypony, Cure gets two more guest mats out of a closet and lays them out.

Dawn apparently has other plans as she plops down right next to Cure on his cushion, ignoring the brief glance from Title, Deed, and Solar, a happy, wiggly smile from Vines, and a somewhat stunned, longer stare from her dam.

Figuring “Why not?” Cure decides to keep messing with Emerald and happily leans so his side is against the filly who gradually glows more at everypony’s look and the colt’s touch. Rubbing against her shoulder a bit he cheerfully says, “Afternoon, Sunrise. I didn’t know you and yer dam were gonna run with us today. The more the merrier, I say. Do you usually run a lot, Mrs. Aura?”

Blinking a few times before she realizes he was talking to her, Emerald slowly shakes her head no. “Not… as such, unfortunately. I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed running.”

Solar has fully turned his head away from his dam to hide the laugh threatening to break free. Vines mane may actually be glowing a little, and Title is covering her face with a pastern, fake coughing to not crack up.

“Oh! Well we’ll try to keep it under twenty today,” he says, turning to the older colt who’s actually shaking a little and ignoring her wide-eyed sputtering. “I hope you ate a big lunch with lots of greens, there, Solar. Yer gonna need the energy ‘cause I ain’t carryin ya home.”

Sitting up a little, he puts his foreleg over Dawn’s withers and pulls her against himself. “Somepony’s gotta take care ‘a Sunrise here and I don’t think I can go that far with both of ya on my back at the same time.” With a bright smile he meets Emerald’s eyes and adds, “Don’t worry about a thing, Mrs. Aura. I’ll take real good care of yer daughter.” Never looking away from Emerald, he takes his hoof off of the radiant filly and lays down, leaning into her again.

“Uh huh. I’m good to go, Cure. I’m not sure my dam’s running today though.” Looking over to Emerald he asks, “Or did you change your mind? Like Cure said, the more the merrier!”

“I’ll pass, thank you.” Turning to face the parents she explains, “I simply wanted to meet everypony since my foals will be joining you all before Solar goes off to Basic. I had spoken to Cure Wave briefly about your real estate business, but I’m sure you understand…”

Waving a hoof dismissively, Deed reassures the mare, “It’s no problem at all. Yer just doin what any parent should. We understand. It’s a pleasure to meetchya, Emerald.” Looking between the two, Deed explains, “We’re happy to help yer colt get in shape ta serve. My grandsire spent twenty years in the guard too. It’s an honorable calling, young stallion,” he finishes with a nod to Solar.

“Well… thank you. My husband tries, but they tell me Cure’s special talent is to help ponies be healthy. I must say, that sounds very helpful, given how little time he has. I think he should wait a year, but you know how foals are once they’ve made up their minds.”

Title can’t help herself. Before anypony can respond she slowly looks from Emerald to the two sharing a cushion while agreeing, “Ohh yea… we know what you mean. Once they have their hearts set on something, foals are awfully hard to dissuade. Well, we need to get back in time to go to the market, so we should probably go soon.”

Looking back to the older mare she adds, “Are you sure you don’t want to come too? After a while you hardly even realize you’re runnin. Those first dozen or so are the hardest in my experience.”

“Quite sure, thank you.” Looking to her daughter, Emerald asks, “Dawn, are you going to be okay going that far? That sounds like a lot…”

“Oh, sure dam! We ran about that far the other day no problem. I’ll see you at home in a couple hours.”

Standing, Emerald nods to everypony. “It was a pleasure to meet you all. I really can’t thank you enough for helping my son.” Giving them both an affectionate nuzzle, she turns to the door, Vines standing to walk her out.

“We’re not going that far are we?” Dawn hesitantly asks.

“We could, but no way,” Cure answers. “We can go as far as you want. As long as they stop and I hit them with a healing tap whenever they need it we don’t really have to stay together. Solar, you got a second for me to make sure you’re ready to go?” At the colt’s eager nod Cure pulls him aside to at least give him the appearance of privacy.

His sister, not wanting to be left in an awkward situation with the three unfamiliar adults, tags along.

“How are the knees doing? Did you notice a lot less pain last night?”

“Dude I can’t thank you enough. I still used ice so it wasn’t obvious that I was suddenly better, but the pain was almost nothing compared to what I’ve gotten used to. If you ever need anything from me you just say the word, bro.”

“Sure thing. Let me give you another treatment before we go today and, if they’re not fixed up completely by tomorrow on their own, they will be by the time you go home.”

After another look at Solar’s knees, Cure comes to the conclusion that his theories about earth pony healing and his magic “showing the way” might be true, even if they’re not as applicable to other tribes. He can only assume that unicorns simply cannot use their magic in the same way, much as he’s incapable of projecting magic with any range.

With another application of healing, Solar is almost completely back to what his talent indicates is full health. Assuming they don’t fix themselves in the next twenty four hours the Monday treatment will definitely finish the job. He would do it right now, but he’s not sure he’ll have enough for the full run if he expends too much beforehoof.

The run went better than the previous day. Even though Cure isn’t actively modifying Dawn’s and Solar’s bodies, the quick healing and strenuous exercise is giving them a few days’ worth of exercise each time with no fatigue. Both are doing slightly better than just the day before, and Cure can tell there is a change in their muscles, miniscule as it is, even though it’s only been one day.

Within a couple hours the group is done running, cooled off in the pond, and on the way back to the house. Solar and Dawn part ways with the rest, turning towards their home with goodbyes and the promise to be back tomorrow after dinner.

Once inside, Deed and Vines get cleaned up for the market while Title gets back to her book. Finally alone with no other distractions, Cure trots up to his room to get started on his tree.

Alright, so I want a short tree. I lack too much info to do everything in one shot but stalled projects don’t move forward. First let’s get the general shape right. Short tree… so let’s make a tomato tree.

On a whim, Cure takes a few seeds and rinses them off in the sink. Returning to his room, he pops them in his mouth. Chewing them up, he cycles his magic through his mark and visualizes the best qualities of the seeds along with the information he had scanned from the maple tree and several of the plants in the garden.

With the visual of a tree thrice his height at maturity with all of the benefits and resilience he added to the garden crops, he imagines the seed mush reassembling into a complete whole. For several minutes he watches, cycling magic and focusing on what he wants. Finally, he feels his magic use slow and sees the final product.

He takes the completed seed out of his mouth and plants it in the pot he’d set aside for it. After rinsing his mouth, watering the soil with a showerhead, and drying the pot he carries it downstairs to show Title.

“Mom! I think I made a cherry tomato tree!”

Looking up from her book, she sets it down and approaches the almost dancing colt. “Uhh I think it may need to grow a bit, honey. What all did you do?”

“Not much yet. Right now it’s just a seed that, hopefully, will grow into a tree about a meter and a half tall that fruits cherry tomatoes. Normal ones, not vaccine ones.”

“Ah, so you’re doing it in steps. That’s probably a good approach. This way if you screw up a step you can take an earlier seed and try again.”

“Uhh… I actually hadn’t considered that, but good point! I actually just figured I need to take small steps because I don’t know how to do everything at once. I figure I can get the tree shape right, then add features one generation at a time.”

“Also, you and dad, and maybe dam, don’t typically exhaust your magic every day. Now you have a good magic sink to dump it in. That way you’re straining your capacity every day and hopefully increasing it while helping me to go through iterations faster.”

“Oh, well that works too. You may wanna start a journal specifically for this. Maybe we can get you some small bins to keep the different generation seeds separate.”

“Good ideas, mom!” he cheers, nuzzling into her chest. “I think I’m in for the day, so I’m gonna give it a push.” Leaving only about a quarter of his magic in reserve, he uses everything else he has to help his plant grow. By the time he’s done the plant has germinated and is poking out of the dirt a little over two hooves with a few small leaves.

“Oof. I definitely felt that. Maybe you and dad can toss about half of your capacity in each night and morning, that way you’re still burning it off but you’re keeping some in reserve too, just in case. It’ll probably help you sleep too since it’s kinda tiring.”

“Okay, I’m fine with that. I’ll give it a little push too.”

Following Cure’s suggestion, Title puts about half of her magic into growing the tree. When she is done all of the water in the soil has been soaked up into the plant, which now stands nearly eight hooves tall. Cure notes that the central trunk is definitely thicker than it had been and the leaves are the same as a typical tomato plant.

There’s no fruit at this point, but the shape and central trunk are exactly what he envisioned for the first generation plant… or at least it will be once fully grown.

So our magic did several things here. The water and at least some of the nutrients are provided by the soil. The light and CO2 needed to create sugars and grow must have been provided ex nihilo… well, I guess not exactly, but magic somehow supplanted the need for them or provided them, then massively increased the metabolism of the plant.

The question then is… if it can do that to a flora, can it do it to fauna too? I think I’ll test that on a bug instead of myself.

“Hey mom?”

“Hmm?”

“Tell me exactly what we just did.”

“Whaddya mean? We helped the plant grow, same as the garden earlier.”

“How? In order for plants to grow they need water, nutrients, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and time.”

“Uhh… I dunno, Cure. I didn’t think about it, I guess.”

“That’s about three or four weeks of growth in about a two minute span. We obviously didn’t accelerate time itself. See this?” He asks, waving his hooves at the plant, “This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts.”

“What? That you can’t explain it?”

“No. I accept that I am currently incapable of explaining it. It’s new to me and I lack the equipment needed to even begin to try. What bugs me is that I have the sneaking suspicion that nopony has ever tried to explain it.”

“It’s magic, Cure,” she offers with a shrug.

“That’s the same excuse humans used to use for everything they couldn’t explain. They would blame magic, spirits, gods, ghosts, or any number of other supernatural things, all because they didn’t know how things worked. Ponies use simple compasses for navigation, right?”

“Yeah… why?”

“Imagine you have no idea what makes that needle point north. You just shrug and say “magic” and never try to figure it out. That’s what you just did.”

“Compasses aren’t magic.” Pointing a hoof she emphasizes, “This is.”

“Okay, fine. I accept that this is magic. I still think that possibly some of the science of it should be investigated, but for now let’s just leave it as “magic” and move on.”

“Good.”

“So… what’s the limit of it?”

“Uhh well I used about half…”

Waving a hoof and shaking his head he corrects her. “No, not “How much can you do?” I mean imagine we made this scale where a plant like this is on one side of it and on the other side is… I dunno, a mouse I guess.”

“Okay…”

“So you have a mouse on one end, a plant on the other, and all along the line you have hybrids of the two. Maybe the first mouse plant is just a green mouse. The next has is hair switched out with grass or tiny leaves. From there maybe the next doesn’t eat, it gets nutrients from photosynthesis. So forth and so on, right?”

“Yeah, I’m with ya.”

“Okay, we know we can do this,” pointing at the cherry tomato tree again, “to the tree. How far down the scale towards the mouse can we get before we cannot? With my mark I can go all the way. Yours is completely unrelated though.”

“I’m curious too, but how could we even test the scale when there’s no actual creatures in that middle area.”

“The only way I can think we’d be able to do so is if I first made the creatures… or started on one end of the scale and added characteristics and pieces from the other end until you couldn’t do anything or we reached the other end.”

“Make the creatures?”

“Watch this…”

Running into the kitchen, Cure grabs an apple and runs back to his mom. “Observe,” he says, taking a bite of the apple. Chewing a little he pauses and holds up a hoof. Tilting his head back and forth for a minute, he keeps the scan he’s visualizing locked in. Once he feels the process complete he opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out at his mom.

Title sees it. She knows she sees it, but she was not prepared for the lightning bug on the tip of his tongue to take off and fly away. Watching it float up, she sees it’s rear light up while slowly mumbling, “what the fuck?” under her breath and tracking it flying around the room.

“Cure, honey… you shouldn’t do that.”

Stopping mid-bite he pauses and looks at the apple, “What? I wasn’t gonna do anything else.” Holding it up to her he says, “I’m still eatin the apple though… wanna bite?”

Looking warily at the apple, Title slowly shakes her head no. After he pops the rest of it in his mouth she explains, “Create life like that, Cure. That ain’t natural.”

Furrowing his brows he asks, “What part of creating life isn’t natural? There’s a whole government agency dedicated to helping ponies do it.” Waving at her small bump he points out, “You’re literally doing it right now. With a whole freakin pony instead of just a little bug. Yer just doing it slower.” Shooting her a disgusted look he adds, “And closer to yer booty, ya sicko.” Pausing for a moment, his ears shoot up and he starts snickering, then faux-yells, “I learned it by watching you!” before chortling.

Scowling at the colt Title opens her mouth to argue, stops, thinks for a moment, then, unable to disagree with his point, closes it.

“Ah! Crap!”

Title, being a somewhat reasonable mare, hears Cure yell and immediately ducks for cover. Looking around she’s not sure where the lightning bug is, but it’s not taking her alive!

Puzzled at the mare’s dive, Cure looks around trying to find the threat. When nothing materializes he taps her withers and asks, “Mom? What are you doing? Is something wrong?”

“You yelled! I thought the bug was coming back… for blood or something.”

“The… lightning bug?” Pointing a hoof at the door he says, “It’s by the front door… doing nothing.”

Looking towards the door where, sure enough, there’s a soft yellow-green glow, Title turns and scowls at the colt. “Why’d you yell then?!”

“I used a lot of my magic! I was gonna go see what Lemon wanted. Argh… I totally forgot!”

Slowly standing, Title can’t help but roll her eyes.

Sighing he looks at his plant. “Well, maybe by the time I eat and rest a bit I’ll be back over half. Are you getting hungry too?”

“I’m pregnant.”

“... Good point. When will they be home?”

“Another two hours or so.”

The two awkwardly look around for a moment before an idea strikes Cure.

“Wanna play TK catch?”

“TK catch?”

“Sure, lemme grab another apple. Go ahead and get comfy, I’ll be right back.”

Sitting on her cushion, Title watches as Cure grabs another apple and sits about a meter away. “Okay. Using only TK we’re going to practice passing the apple back and forth. As we get better we’ll move further apart. Once we get good we’ll get something smaller and go again.”

“Okay. Let’s go!”

TK catch ended up being about the most fun thing Cure and Title had ever done together. It started just as planned, but once the two got a little better it quickly escalated. Within half an hour they were jumping all over the living room doing trick shots like twirling the apple in an orbit and launching it from under their chest or launching it out of their manes.

About an hour later the pair are cleaning applesauce off the walls and themselves, picking up chunks of apple, and wiping down their cushions.

“Great, now the whole room smells like apples and I’m frickin starving.”

“I bet dam and dad will notice. Wanna bribe ‘em with an apple pie? Maybe the smell from baking it will help cover this a bit.” At the mare’s doubtful look Cure shrugged, “Even if they know, how mad can you really be at somepony wavin a piece of freshly baked pie at ya? Besides, more TK practice,” he finishes with a big smile.

“Meh, good enough for me.”

Vines and Deed definitely noticed as soon as they walked in the door, but Cure was right; both parents find it damned difficult to be angry with somepony waving a slice of warm apple pie under their noses. That didn’t save Cure and Title from having to give the living room a second scrubbing after dinner, this time with supervision.

Still, Vines wasn’t actually angry at the pair and the only part that upset Deed was that he wasn’t there for it. Cure is certain that won’t be the last round of TK catch they play, though he’s betting either his mom or dad will be stopping in the store to pick up a few small balls to use instead of whatever produce is nearby.

It’ll probably be nice to have something to throw around that the pregnant mare won’t decide to eat on a whim.

It’s about an hour before sunset before Cure makes it over to Lemon’s and Amethyst’s house. Knocking on the door, Cure can hear one of the mares trotting up to answer.

“Well iff’n it ain’t our favorite wonder colt! How ya doin today, Cure?”

“Hi Mrs. Blossom. Mrs. Sweet asked me to come talk to her when I had an opportunity. Is she home from work yet?”

“Sure, sure… c’mon in. She’s upstairs gettin the fillies all sitiated fer bed. Go right on ‘n take a load off. Anythin ta drink, son?”

Walking into the living room, Cure plops down on a guest mat Amethyst fetched from a closet. “No thanks, Mrs. Blossom. We just had dinner a little bit ago, so I’m good.”

“Aww, enuf’a that Mrs this’n that,” she insists, waving a hoof. “You jus call me Amy, honey. Imma go let Sweets know yer here. Gimme a sec.” Cure watches from the living room as the purple mare trots up the stairs.

About twenty seconds later Cure hears lighter clops that could only come from tiny hooves headed down towards him. Bracing for impact as soon as he sees them, Cure catches both girls against his chest, then rolls over to pin them. “Mmm the perfect dessert!” he shouts while licking his chops over the screaming fillies. “Fresh scrubbed bellies!!! Nom nom nom PBBBBBBT!”

The two mares watch fondly as Cure play-wrestles with the girls. After a few back-and-forth minutes he agrees to an unconditional surrender when Lotus jumps on his withers and grabs both of his ears, pulling back like a set of reins. Tired from the last hurrah before bedtime, both fillies are quickly asleep “riding pony” on his back; Lotus using his mane as a pillow, Cherry using Lotus’ rear.

With peace returned to the land Cure turns his attention to the gushing mares snuggled up on a cushion. “So, presumably you didn’t just need me for my foalsitting expertise. Dam said something about a cosmetic procedure you may be interested in.”

Giving Lemon a bump, Amethyst smirks smugly at her wife. With an eye roll Lemon looks to Cure to explain. “I guess Amy was right. You really do start talkin all professional, huh?”

“It makes ponies more comfortable. I’m sure you’d be hesitant to trust somepony that could barely put a sentence together with something like this, right?”

“True… true. Well, no beating around the bush, then. Cherry stretched my belly out like an overblown balloon there at the end. I thought maybe I was gonna push a whole nursery set out with her the way I blew up. I was hoping you could help out with the marks that stayed behind when everything else went back where it belongs. I promise I’ll make it up to ya!”

Nodding along, Cure agrees to have a look. “Sure, that should be easy enough. Just… uhh,” he looks over his withers at the girls, then slowly stands while holding them still to the muffled snickers of the mares. “Yeah, I totally got this. Don’t lend a hoof or anything.”

Sliding his mat closer, Cure lays down in front of the now openly laughing mares. Giving them both a weak glare, he scoots close enough to reach Lemon. “So I’m guessin you’ve been told I can see everything, right?”

Waving her hoof dismissively, Lemon shrugs saying, “Eh, who cares. Ya see ‘em all over the place. Need me to do anything?”

“Nope, just say yes. Do I have your permission to scan and fix ya up?”

“You bet!”

Giving her a tap, he activates his mark and checks her out. She’s right; under her coat she has extensive stretch marks from the pregnancy. She also has a few common issues with her teeth, some vision loss, and an issue with her bladder that Cure can’t identify with his limited technical knowledge.

It occurs to him that of all the ponies he’s scanned this far none have any hearing loss. Lack of exposure to loud music maybe? Then again the oldest pony I’ve scanned is only 24… unless Lemon is older.

“Okay so I’ll be honest, I kinda used a lot of my magic up a few hours ago. I’ll be able to fix up your tummy no problem, but I’d like it if you stopped by on your way to work so I can address whatever’s going on with your bladder and everything else at the same time. Other than that, some cavities starting, and a little vision loss in your right eye you’re in great shape.”

“My bladder? I didn’t know anything was wrong.”

“Well that’s good, it means we caught it early. You can probably thank your daughter for that one too. She may have kicked something loose on the way out.”

Rolling to her right side, she holds onto Cure’s hoof while he works. Amethyst watches and brushes a hoof against Lemon’s coat so she can more easily see the faded white and red lines disappear and the skin tighten up.

The repair itself is pretty straightforward. The surface just needs changed slightly. Cure fixes up the area, adjusting the collagen and elastin to give her a solid, smooth, unblemished belly and restoring the skin to a healthy color, which for Lemon is a little off-white.

Cure can see both mares’ excitement grow as their smiles widen and tails start moving on their own. Lemon starts tearing up and, if it weren’t for the girls on his back he’s sure he would be at the bottom of a pony pile. Still, the fillies don’t save him from some appreciative nuzzles and a big, wet kiss between the ears.

Once the two collect themselves and Cure scoots back out of affection range, Lemon grumbles a bit, “I kinda wanted to talk to yer parents. I guess I can do that in the mornin too.”

“Let me guess,” Cure starts, “you probably have friends that would be very interested in minor cosmetic changes and you wanted to talk to my parents about finding a way for me to help them out and come up with some kinda payment idea… right?”

Amethyst nudges Lemon and gives her a “told ya” and a smug look again. Lemon rolls her eyes and looks back to Cure. “Yeah, yeah, smart as a whip, I get it. Yeah, that’s the gist of it, Cure. Is that something you would be willing to do?”

“Yep, but we need to find out if the whole biomancy thing is a legal concern first. Mom or dad will be checking with attorneys to see how much a basic consultation costs. If it’s not a problem then I’m still a little leery over this whole “nobles seeking out useful talents” thing, but apparently a number of our neighbors are looking out for me already.”

“I’m not going to refuse to legitimately heal somepony that needs it, and I’d never ask anything of you all, but for ponies that aren’t close family friends? I know that my talent is valuable. I’m not trying to get rich off of ponies wanting something small done, but nopony can work for free all the time either. I’ll have to rely on my parents to sort that part out.”

“Good! Well you just bring by any of those lil fillies chasin ya on a date and I’ll take good care of ya.” Pausing, Lemon looks at the fillies for a second. “Here, honey, I’m sure you’re done bein a sleepin pillow.”

Holding up a hoof, Cure gestures for the mares to wait a moment. “Here’s a trick for you to practice, but please keep it private for now. Have you ever thought about how we grab things with our hooves?” at both mares’ shrugs he continues, “it’s like a very short range version of unicorn levitation. The thing is…”

The mares’ eyes widen as Cherry lifts up, moves back off of Lotus’ back, and, with her side touching his, slowly lowers to the mat on Cure’s right. Lotus lifts up next, drifting to his left before being set down. “No horn needed.”

“What the… ?”
“How?”

“As long as something is within a half-hoof or so of your body you can do that too. I wouldn’t suggest practicing with the fillies at first though. Maybe start with a toy, rock, or ball. Dad used it to keep dry coming home from the bar last night, so the versatility is amazing. We used it in the garden a lot, and it’s super helpful in the kitchen too.”

“How come nopony has ever figured this out before?”

“Maybe they have and just didn’t share. I’m not sure, but it’s mainly all earth pony thing. I get the impression there’s not a lot of earth pony researchers… or even researchers interested in expanding earth pony capabilities, sadly. Here, I’ll show you some of the basics my dam and I figured out the other day…”

For the next half hour Cure walked Lemon and Amethyst through the TK field ideas he and Vines had toyed with last week, then explained some of the newer moves Title had worked on with him in the garden earlier in the day.

Both mares were fascinated by the ability that they’d never even known existed before, and, in the name of not drawing any more attention to him, promised to keep it quiet while learning how they could use it. Lemon was especially excited about the neat tricks she would eventually be able to take advantage of while working in the kitchen.

While they keep everything “age appropriate” when Cure is around, it wasn’t difficult for him to see that Amethyst had some other applications in mind. Her eyes were definitely lingering on Lemon, especially whenever the yellow mare would lay or sit in a way that let her catch a glimpse of her newly toned belly.

With a fond and affectionate goodnight, Cure bids the mares farewell and rushes home, aware he has a promise to keep to his sire, despite the lack of challenge working in the garden proved to be yesterday. Still, Cure is happy to share his talent with his parents, even in the most basic form of an extremely effective massage.

Opening the front door and trotting in, he finds his dam and sire working on some kind of planter shelving units by one of the windows while Title “supervises” from her cushion. It looks like they are almost done assembling whatever it is, with Vines holding the last shelf in place while Deed simply pushes the nails straight into the wood.

“You’re not gonna believe what I figured out!” Pausing to look the unit over he asks, “What’s this supposed to be?”

“Oh, hello honey. Your sire and I are almost done putting together some growing racks for the spices and herbs we bought at the store earlier in the week. One of the market stalls was selling these stands and I thought it would be wonderful to have those growing in the house.”

“Yep, yer dam’s right, son. We had hoped to surprise ya with it when you got home. Your dam said you seemed sure you could work on them spices like ya did everything in the garden, so we got to work on it as soon as ya left the house.”

“Huh. Nice. I figured we’d use the little pots you bought, but yeah… this should work real well. I’m a little low on magic right now, though. If I do too much more I don’t think dad’s gonna get his massage.”

“No way! I’ve been lookin forward to that all weekend. Those spices can wait ‘till tomorrow.” Looking back over his withers he asks, “So how’d it go with Lemon and Amethyst?”

Snuggling up against his mom on her cushion, Cure catches himself just before he tries to give a thumbs up. “Good. I was able to help her out, no problem, and she kinda-sorta pitched a business proposal at the same time, just like I suspected.”

Repositioning herself so Cure’s between her front legs, Title rests her head on top of his back and asks, “Oh? So she knows other mares trying to get a touch-up too?”

“Yep, but I told her it’ll depend on what we hear from an attorney whether or not we can go forward with it. I can’t imagine there’s not some kind of licensing process somepony has to go through before they can start taking payment for cosmetic procedures, whether the ability is mark-related or not.”

“There’s just too much potential to really mess up a pony for there not to be. She’ll be stopping by in the morning so I can finish her touch-up. I was too low on magic for everything.”

Nodding into his back she agrees, “Yeah… I think that’s something we’ll have to hold off on at least until you’re older. Cutie mark or not, I’m sure there’s all kinda liability things that need sorted out. Plus you’ll need to grow more so you’re not runnin out of magic during procedures.”

“Yep”, Cure agrees, “still, it’s something we should look into with the attorney. Do you know if there are ones specialized in magic law specifically?”

“Not around here. This is sounding like another Baltimare trip, Cure. We won’t be able to get an appointment for this coming Saturday. Most law firms are only open during the week. Still, we can at least get a referral, I hope. It’s not like anypony is going to call the guard if we just walk in and say, “Hey we have a magic legal issue we need more info on, who can we talk to?” These lawyers all know each other, so we’ll probably just get pointed to the right pony after a try or two.”

“Hrm. Great. Well, at least train tickets are cheap and it’s a short trip.” Looking over to his parents, Cure sees them standing the rack up. He’d first assumed it was a three-tier unit that would lean against the wall.

Instead it’s actually two three-tiered planter shelves that meet at the top in an A-shaped frame. He hadn’t noticed the other half of the unit or the support beam until his dam held them so Deed could fasten them together. They must have started work as soon as he left because, TK cheats or not, that definitely took a minute to assemble.

“Oh, wow. That’s a lot nicer than I thought. I only saw the first half and figured we wouldn’t have enough room for everything. Good call grabbin that, dam… now you’ll just need to figure out what all you want to grow in it. Thanks for helpin put it together, dad.”

“Sure thing, sport. I’m lookin forward to what you and yer dam come up with.”

“Well between the spices and my cherry tomato tree we’ll have plenty of plants inside during the winter for us to exhaust our magic on each night. It’d be great if we could all exercise that muscle and grow our magic just for the health benefits.”

“It would be wonderful, sweetie. I was thinking earlier today how nice it’s been over the last week. You don’t realize how many little aches and strains you get in a normal day until they’re just suddenly completely gone.”

“Yeah, and you all aren’t even old at all. Looking back through my memories from before, I can’t even remember how long ago it’d been since I didn’t have some lingering injury from the gym or whatnot. I can think of a few times I lifted something wrong and my back was just a wreck for a week at a time.”

“Well, enough “old man” talk… I figured something huge while I was at Amy and Lemon’s...”

“Amy?” Vines asks, raising an inquisitive brow.

“She insisted I not call her Mrs. Blossom anymore. Lemon said the same after the procedure. Honestly if I hadn’t had the fillies on my back at the time they woulda probably smothered me with affection.”

Cure feels his mom shift on top of him as she asks, “Why were the fillies on ya?”

With a smug smile, Cure explains, “They heard their big brother was downstairs. I got there right after bath time, apparently, and they used their last bit of energy beating me up. The mares were happy to sit back and watch, of course. They both conked out on my back right afterwards.”

Chuckling at the visual, Deed asks, “So yer there givin Lemon a tummy tuck while her daughters are snoozin away on yer back, huh? Son you just don’t know how to deny a female anything, do ya?”

Scoffing at the idea, Cure insists, “Of course I do. I’ve just not had a lot of reasons to lately. The fillies are cute, soft, and warm. They can snuggle on me whenever they want. Aaanyhow, my important discovery…”

“Now, this is only a theory, but I’m pretty sure I’ve determined what makes the different tribes able to do what we each can do.”

Utter silence filled the house as all the parents stare mouths-agape at what their son said.

Man, you could hear a gnat fart in here with how quiet it got… understandable though.

Hoisted up by his pits, Cure finds himself dangling in his mom’s forelegs inches from her face. “What the hay do you mean Cure? You can’t just say something like that and not explain yourself!” she shouts while shaking him a little.

“It’s in our cells, mom. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi have different kinds of mitochondria in our cells. Can ya put me down, please?”

Setting him back down, Title immediately lays on him again and wraps her forelegs around him like he’s going to run away.

Sensing that the upcoming conversation is going to be exhausting, Deed flops down on his cushion across from the pair with Vines joining him a moment later.

With the colt secured and her mates prepared, Title looks down at Cure and makes a single demand. “Explain.”

“Okay, so when Lemon offered to help get the girls offa me I stopped her and instead did it myself with my TK field.”

“I bet that gotcha some confused looks,” Deed notes.

“Yep, but I explained it right after and showed them most of what we’ve learned from experimenting so far. Lemon was super excited for what it would mean workin in the kitchen. Amy looked excited for what it meant workin in the Lemon,” he laughs, getting an admonishing “CURE!” from his dam and snickers from the other two. “Anyhow, mom, you know how I dumped almost all my magic into the tree before I left?”

“Yeah…”

“I noticed when I lifted the girls that it used no magic at all. Not even the tiniest amount. Now they’re small and I only held each for a few seconds, but it still made me think…”

Jabbing a hoof into his side, Title urges Cure to get to the point.

“Ow! Hey! Fine… bully!” he grouches, letting out a huff and getting an impatient scowl back. “The TK thing is not magic. It’s a product of one of the types of mitochondria." At the blank looks on his dam and sire Cure quickly explains, "Remember my explanation about aging and how cells get slightly worse after each generation?"

"Yes, honey."
"Sure, sport."

"Virtually all of our cells each have mitochondria in them. It's just a part of the cell, you don't need to know much about it, but it's what creates energy by using up sugars and the oxygen in the air we breathe. Anyhow, back to the TK mitochondria in our cells... Who wants to guess which tribe has the most of that kind in their body?”

“I would wager us, son.”

“And you would win the prize. If I had one. You are right, of course, but it’s not quite as simple as I’m making it sound. Every pony that I’ve scanned so far has some of each type of mitochondria in our cells throughout our bodies. That’s probably why lightning doesn’t hurt us unless a pegasus juices it up. We have a tiny bit of pegasus in us already, sort of.”

“That… makes sense,” his mom agrees.

“Yep, there’s not enough there to actually walk on clouds or manipulate weather, but to redirect or channel lightning around instead of through us? Apparently there’s enough. So anyhow, everypony has some combination of the three, and the ratios seem uniform amongst earth ponies, at least.”

“I would need to scan some adults from the other tribes to see what their distribution is, but I have a pretty good idea based on what I’ve seen in the scans from Solar, Dawn, Wind Shear, and Crosswind Drift. So bear with me, because this may be a little confusing. Unicorns are the easiest, so I’ll describe them first, okay?”

“Sure, champ. Sounds good.”

“First off, take fat off the table. I can’t tell that the mitochondria in fat do anything related to the tribes’ special abilities at all. If there was a pony that had no special abilities then they would have the type of mitochondria that we have in our fat reserves. So just getting fat won’t make you powerful, unfortunately. There’s no easy win there, okay?”

After a round of chuckling, nods, and a fake whine from his mom Cure continues his explanation. “Good. Now, aside from fat, all throughout a unicorn’s body about 90% of their cells have the “base” type of mitochondria. We’ll call them “magic mitochondria” because I think that’s the primary function. When we use magic I think it’s these guys that generate more. With me so far?”

Bouncing on top of him, Title practically smashes him while yelling, “NO WAY! You found it? Magic comes from those?!?”

“Hey! Stop and let me freakin explain. It’s not that simple! Any more interruptions and I’m sending you to your room, you got it?”

Ears falling, Title nods with a pout. “Aww... fine.”

“As I was saying,” he grumbles, shooting a glare up at his smirking mom, “In 90% of a unicorn’s cells you’ll find these magic mitochondria. In the other ten percent you’ll find a pretty even split between what I’m calling earth pony and pegasus mitochondria for simplicity's sake. With me so far?”

“We’re with ya, son. Don’t keep yer mom waitin, though, or she may just pop and ya just finished cleanin up those apples.”

“Right. So like I said, unicorn are simple. Fat aside, their mitochondria are 90% magic, 5% pegasus, 5% earth pony, more or less. It’s earth ponies and pegasi that are a tad more difficult to explain without visual aids, but bear with me.”

“We follow a unicorn’s pattern in every place except in our muscles. The muscles are the key, though. That’s where the three tribes differ. The ratios are the same, but the types are changed. Again, in muscles only 90% of our cells have the earth pony type. The other 10% is, again, split between the ones I’m associating with the other tribes.”

“So our muscles are 90% earth pony mitochondria, 5% magic, and 5% pegasus?” Deed asks.

“Exactly, dad. Pegasus are, again, the same but with their type, so 90% pegasus, 5% each of the magic and earth pony type.”

“Okay, son, I’m with ya. The important question is, what’s does that mean in real life?”

“So what it means, and I’m basing this off a very limited sample and, also, very limited life experience, is that while all three tribes do get some benefit from having the different mitochondria in their cells, these mitochondria also explain how we each do the different things we do.”

“As best I can tell, the magic mitochondria are specialized for that. Again we’ll use unicorns because their mitochondria are ... HAH! Theirs are uniform. Unicorns are uniform. That’s funny.” Cure giggles a bit, getting eye rolls from the parents while Title mutters “such a nerd” from above him.

“Anyhow, a full 90% of their cells have these structures in them that I think are mostly for generating magic. But! They’re physically smaller than us, so they have less cells and, therefore, less total mitochondria in their bodies. They also have a bit more fat, I bet, since they use their horn instead of muscles. They still end up with more magic overall, though, just because while 90% of their cells are geared towards that only about 60% or so of our cells are. The divide isn’t as big as you would think.”

“For example, let’s assume we have a male unicorn that has 25% body fat, which is a smidge on the high side but entirely possible. He weighs about 140kg, so a little lighter than a female earth pony. Does that seem about fair?”

Title waves a hoof back and forth a bit. “Ehh... probably. I would actually say a little lighter, but let’s just go with your example.”

“Okay. So if we discount the fat, Mr. Unicorn has 105kg of his body dedicated towards our three numbers. 90% of that, or about 94.5kg generates magic. The other 9.5kg is split between the pegasus and earth pony types, so he’ll also have the TK field, of course, and some lightning resistance, even if both are pretty weak. I know that’s not completely off because Solar demonstrated how weak their TK was. Mine was much stronger than his even though he’s probably twice my weight and, for a unicorn, in pretty great shape.”

“I’m pretty sure that the pegasus mitochondria does give some TK also, so it’s not like the only thing it’s doing is resisting lightning. If that was the case then pegasi would have almost no TK, but I know for a fact they do; it’s just weaker than ours. You know, now that I think about it, I bet theirs are kind of a mid-point or whatever, giving them more magic too, but let’s ignore that for now since we have no data to test it with.”

“Alright,” Title nods, “I shoulda grabbed a notepad, but Mr. Unicorn is 95kg magic, 10kg which we can’t really determine the effect of.”

“Right, but if we assume that a pegasus’ mitochondria generate half the TK strength an earth pony does then even if I'm wrong it won't totally muck things up. We're making a lot of assumptions here, but let's go with that for now since it's the best we can do.”

“Fine, fine. If we're making assumptions then I'm rounding to whole numbers, though. Mr. Unicorn’s breakdown is 95kg magic, about 8kg towards TK strength, and the remaining non-fat 3kg towards whatever other stuff a pegasus would get other than TK.”

“Sounds good. Now let’s do the same numbers for dad. Now granted, dad, your numbers will change as you get stronger, but we’ll assume you’re at 18% body fat for now. You weigh about 200kg. What are the numbers like for him, mom?”

“If we do it the same way then we have 164kg dedicated to our three numbers. Oh... wow. Okay, I see where this is going. We need to break down muscle and non-muscle numbers for him since he's not a uniform-icorn," she says smirking.

“Humans were around 40/60. Without better numbers let’s just use that, even if I bet he's got more muscle mass. It'll make the math a bit easier." Getting an agreeing nod from his mom he continues, "So 40% of 200kg is 80kg. Use that for the “muscle” part. If we subtract that and the fat part out we'll get non-muscle, so 200 minus 80 is 120. Subtract another 36 of fat and... lets see... 120 minus 30. 90kg minus 6... 84kg. He has 80kg of muscle, 84kg of other, and 36kg of fat. Yep, that adds up to 200kg,” Cure explains, doing the math out loud for everypony.

“Okay, so for non-muscle that’s easy. 90% of 84kg is magic, so we’ll round down and say 75kg magic, then the other 9kg, again, for the earth pony and pegasus parts.”

“For the 9kg we'll do the same thing we did for Mr. Unicorn and break it down to 6kg of TK, 3kg of "other" or "unknown" for the non-TK pegasus part, so 75kg magic, 6kg TK, 3kg other. Got muscle part figured out?”

“Yep. 4kg towards magic, 72kg towards earth pony, 4kg again towards pegasus. If we’re putting half of pegasus in the TK box then it’s just 4kg magic, 74kg TK, 2 kg other though.”

"Have you got his totals added up?"

Going over the final tally in her head, Title announces, “Deed sits around 79kg of magic, 80kg of TK, and 5kg of other, and of course the remaining 36kg is fat. So we’ve rounded up and down a bit, but each number should be within a kg or so based on your assumptions.”

“Sounds good enough to me.”

“Uhh... son? Babe? You’ve totally lost us.”

“Oh, sorry dad. Let me break it down for ya one at a time...”
“Mr. Unicorn had 95kg magic, about 8 kg TK. He also has 3kg we're tossing under "other" and 35kg of fat for our 140kg unicorn.”
“You have 79kg magic, 80kg TK. Then we add the 5kg of other and 36kg of fat, roughly, to get 200kg.”

"Huh. So a smaller, relatively fatter unicorn has about twenty percent more magic. That feels unfair," Title points out.

“He needs it more. The unicorn has more mitochondria generating magic, but dad has about 10 times stronger of a TK field as Mr. Unicorn does. Granted dad is stronger than average, though, and that was kind of a fat unicorn in my example."

"Solar was right. A strong earth pony would rip a unicorn to pieces if they can’t use their horn. The values do change if the unicorn mitochondria contribute somewhat to telekinesis, but that would mean that they’re generating less magic too, probably. You usually don’t get it all, yanno?”

“The thing is,” Cure begins, “I’m not convinced that this is the full picture. So far I keep hearing that if you use magic you can use more magic. You’ve said it, Solar said it, I remember it being a thing that was said in most stories and in the show. Magic is compared to a muscle a lot in that way."

"If I was a betting pony I would wager that these numbers here represent potential but we still have to train to get to that point. And let's be honest, without a horn you would never, ever use all that potential. Remember on day one I said a powerful earth pony would make a unicorn drop a brick? This is what I was talkin about."

“Yeesh. Yeah, I can see it. The potential thing makes a lot more sense. There’s no way your dad, right now at least, has almost as much magic as an average male unicorn that’s been using it their whole life. Also, if it was just what you have here then a unicorn that’s never practiced could catch right up to a unicorn that has just by running and getting in shape. We know that’s not true. There’s something else going on.”

“Yep. I bet there’s a metaphysical side that mucks up those numbers a bit. There’s a whole ‘nother part of this picture I can’t even see. But you can’t deny that, even without seeing that other half of the potrait, this seems to line up pretty close to what we’ve seen. Especially the part where we definitely know that an earth pony’s TK field gets stronger with muscle, as do pegasus, though at a lower ratio."

"I imagine pegasi have lower body fat but probably weigh around what a unicorn does. If their mitochondria do some kind of three way magic, TK, whatever other split then they could end up with almost as much magic as us, maybe about a third to a quarter our TK strength and, of course, the big game changer is their flight and whatever "other" abilities we have no way to account for like manipulating water, air, and electricity."

Cure gives everypony a few seconds to process that, then throws out his real bombshell. "There is, of course, one type of pony we have not factored at all, though...”

“Uh-uh. No. If you think you’re gettin anywhere near the princess.”

With the flattest deadpan expression he can muster Cure looks at his sire. “Dad... really?”

“Ah... you weren’t gonna suggest that were ya?”

“Not in a million years, dude. I plan on avoiding her like the plague. Err... well, I would probably run to a plague now, just to help out, but you get my point. Think of this instead... how did I upgrade my eyes and add our heat sensors?

“Uhh… with your mark?” Deed ventures.

Though she's been sitting by quietly, it's Vines that realizes exactly what he's getting at. “He’s using ideas from other places, honey," she explains while setting a hoof on her husband's side. Waving to the colt with the other she looks back to Cure. "He can combine traits from different sources, that’s what he’s getting at. Is that right, sweetie?”

“Bingo, dam. You hit the nail right on the head. My ability lets me take properties of one thing and mix it with another. I’ve never seen any evidence it taps into the metaphysical, but technically speaking it is a metaphysical ability as there’s not a physical “thing” I’m using to make it happen.”

“It’s possible that I could try to make a hybrid mitochondrion that would have some mix of the three tribes’ mitochondria’s properties in it and, if I’m right, may also get their metaphysical properties. I bet that’s what alicorn mitochondria does.”

“Woah woah woah, son. That’s the kinda stuff you don’t play around with right there. What did I tell you about the whole horn and wings thing?”

“Umm… something about messing with powers beyond my ken? I don’t remember exactly, but you’re working under the assumption that this “super” mitochondria is the only difference between a normal pony and an alicorn. We all know that’s not the case.”

Shaking his head, Deed almost shouts back, “No we don’t! You have yer theories, son, but sometimes those aren’t right. Unless there’s a whole mountain of hippogriffs that turn into fish out there you don’t know for sure what’ll happen.”

“I’m not sure fish mountain existing matters here, dad.”

“Your sire’s right, sweetie. I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

“Look,” Cure starts, holding his hooves out placatingly, “and I’m not just ‘throwing a flag’ here,” he says while looking at his mom, “but what’s the worst that could happen? Do you really think I would just suddenly sprout wings and a horn because I changed a tiny part of my cells to an improved version? That’s ridiculous, and even if it did happen I could just hide the extra parts. It honestly wouldn’t make that big of a difference to me. Another pony? Yeah, definitely, but I could literally take those extra parts off like you change pants. Uhh… if you all wore pants, that is.”

“I say let him try,” Title starts, “unless you two can come up with a legitimate reason why you think he shouldn’t other than “he may suddenly get way more powerful” or something. That’s a good reason TO do something, not to NOT do it.”

“Also,” Cure adds, “even if that were the difference, aside from appendages, between a normal pony and an alicorn, that means all my theories about them being some kind of demigod or whatever are completely wrong. Instead they would just be, for lack of a better word, mutants or hybrids… not “higher beings” of some kind.”

“That’s a good point, Cure. Maybe it’ll give us some answers to that question at the same time.”

Seeing the uncertainty on his parent’s faces, Cure makes a suggestion. “How about a compromise?”

“I’m listenin…”

“I will try it on one cell now and see if it works at all. It may just kill the cell, you know, and render this whole argument moot. If it works then every day I will change just half a percent of my cells’ mitochondria. I’ll do it before breakfast, that way you are all there for and after the change to make sure nothing weird happens. We’ll go the slow and steady route so that if there’s a change of any kind I’ll have plenty of magic left over to start converting everything back to normal.”

“I dunno, honey… I’m worried somepony will notice somehow.”

“Dam, if it were that easy to notice something odd about somepony then I wouldn’t keep bringing up changelings as a threat. If a friggin emotivore bug pony can walk around and not be noticed I’m pretty sure a pony with better mitochondria won’t exactly stand out in a crowd. Are there mitochondria police runnin around checkin everypony’s DNA that I’m unaware of?”

Snorting on top of the colt, Title just shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure there’s not, but if you keep joking like that you’re gonna tempt fate, ya know.”

“Eh… I believe there may be a fate mechanic in a magical world, but I reject the idea that it’s completely set in stone. If anything, I could see it moving pieces to increase the odds of a given result, but even that sounds bunk because it implies that there’s this mystical all-powerful force that gets to choose who the winners and losers are in any given conflict. Real life doesn’t work like that, and if it did then we’d all just be slaves to fate’s whim, never actually having free will of our own.”

“Wow… that was kinda deep, son. An interestin philosophy too. Ya oughta write that down in yer journal or somethin in case somepony writes a book about ya some day.”

“Sure thing, dad. I’ll put it right next to my list of non-pony species ranked by sex appeal, that way everypony dismisses me as nuts if they ever find it.”

Leaning down beside his head, Title asks, “You find other creatures attractive?” with a curiously raised brow.

“Uhh, sort of I guess? Some have attractive qualities, at least. Not in a sexually appealing kind of way, more like “Oh that’s pretty” if ya know what I mean. Of course my only exposure to inequine races is through a medium that we know is inaccurate. We look totally different from the stories, after all.”

“I explained this to dam the other day, but again I remind you, everything was simplified to better appeal to children, so nothing was remotely anatomically correct, or even possible I suspect. They had massively disproportionately sized eyes and heads, wrong facial shape, smaller stature, shorter bodies, longer legs on some ponies, no visible musculature except for comedic purposes or during exertion, etcetera.”

“Hmm. You’ll have to find a way to show us some day,” Title suggests.

“You bet. I’ll be filtering what I show you though, just like I don’t name names. Words are one thing, names or showing you ponies or events from the future… that strikes me as a Bad Idea, fate being a force or not.”

“Ooh… capital letters again. Okay, Cure babe, just what you think is safe,” she agrees, laying her head back in his mane.

Giving his dam and sire time to think about his proposal, Cure simply relaxes under the pink mare. It’s amazing to him how even almost a hundred pounds on his back isn’t crushing at all, just a comforting warmth. Then again, with bullshit magic strength and telekinesis Cure could probably lift her up with little effort, thrice his size or not.

Tired of the dithering, Cure finally asks, “So… try the mitochondria thing now before I go into puberty where, if it works, will probably do me the most good, or wait until I’m an adult without you guys around to see what happens? I’m not sure I can just go through life without ever trying, so really… what would you all prefer?”

Letting out a deep sigh, Vines’ ears and tail fall at the realization that Cure is right. Even if they said no today then, at some point, possibly when nopony is around to help, he’ll probably try it either way. At least the three of them are here, ready to render aid or get him to a clinic if something catastrophic happens that he can’t immediately fix.

Seeing his wife’s reluctant agreement, Deed speaks up. “Fine, son. Just let us know if it works or not and if ya feel any different.”

“Of course, pa. If it does work we’ll all benefit from this anyhow. I think you’re all overreacting either way, given how small of a change this truly will be. I don't think you grasp how insignificantly small the scale is here.”

Focusing on a single cell in his right hoof, just in case, Cure tells his magic to make the change necessary to the mitochondrion to get the benefits of all three tribes’ copies of the cell structure. With only one part of one cell being changed it takes no magic at all and is done in seconds.

“There. Done. See?” he waves from under his mom, “no wings shootin out my back, no horn burstin outta my skull… nothin is happening at all,” he says.

All four ponies quietly wait and look around a little warily, silently hoping the roof isn’t about to lift off, a light isn’t going to shoot down from the sky, or any other nonsense is about to go down.

With a raised brow and a smirk, Cure looks between his dam and sire and jokingly asks, “See? What could possibly go wrong? I’ve got this under control. It's all going according to plan,” he declares while laughing to the horrified looks on all three parents.

Still chuckling, he waves his hooves to calm them down while explaining, “No, seriously. I’m fine. The cell seems to be doing great and I don’t feel different at all, which is not surprising given that I literally changed like a tenth of a trillionth of my body. I did the same, roughly, as moving a piece of grass a few centimeters to the right would do to the planet.”

All three parents roll their eyes, nearly in concert Cure notes, and let out an anxiety-releasing sigh.

“Alright, I’m going to try a half percent now. Everypony prepare... for nothing to happen!” he shouts while waving his hooves in the air dramatically, to the complete lack of amusement from his folks.

Going slow, Cure plans out the change as he described. Focusing in the same area again, just in case again, he uses the modified mitochondrion as a template and tells his magic to replicate the result in his right hoof area until a half of a percent of his body is converted.

If the damn thing explodes at least it’ll just blow my foot off, worst case scenario.

Instructions given, Cure holds out his right leg for everypony to see and lets his magic go to work. Watching with bated breath, all three parents keep a wary eye on their son's leg. It’s several minutes later when he finally announces that he’s done and, once again, all four ponies wait to see if anything happens.

“Well… I don’t hear the local guard lining up for a charge outside,” he snarks, “so unless you all have further worries, I think this at least indicates that nothing is going to go immediately catastrophically wrong. All the affected cells are here in my hoof,” he says, holding his right hoof in the air, “so even if it just flat out fell off it would be a simple, if slow and annoying, fix to get back to normal.”

“I’ll stick to this leg for a couple days and, if nothing happens, I’ll start doing a random distribution throughout my body, brain excluded, until we can see some real results.”

“Eh, they’re just worried, Cure. We talked about this just the other day. Forcibly changing yourself isn’t something normal ponies ever consider.”

“Yeah, son… this isn’t exactly somethin they cover in school, ya know?”

“I bet it is if you go to a school specifically for magic.”

“A valid point,” his mom agrees, “but also not something we would have ever had any reason to do.”

“As long as you’re not hurting yourself or making yourself look strange, I guess I’m okay with it sweetie. Just please say something if you feel anything at all, no matter how small.”

“Sure thing, dam. Yanno, I wonder if this hoof could stand on a cloud now. Shame I don’t have a pegasus confidant to try that out with.”

“Ya think it’d work?”

“Umm… maybe? I dunno, there’s probably some cutoff number. Less and you fall through, more and you’re good to go. We don’t actually even know if this works yet, so there’s no way to find out. I can’t really ask a random pegasus to bring me a cloud to test it on either because if it worked there would be some questions asked. If I had a horn I could say I’m testing the cloud walking spell, but no dice there.”

“Well… let us know if you start noticing you have more magic or something, Cure,” Title says. “If that’s something you could do for anypony I’d be really interested in it too. Other than walking on clouds, what are you expecting to see from it anyhow?”

“We can make some guesses, but we probably won’t know for a month or more once I have a decent number converted. If it works perfectly then more magic capacity, maybe regeneration speed too. Also, like I said, cloud walking. If the earth pony mitochondria are responsible for TK field strength being higher in earth ponies then I’d also expect stronger TK once I convert the cells not in muscles,” he explains.

“Oh?” Title starts, “Did you figure out how the TK field works too?”

“A pony’s body seems to act kind of like a mesh network from what I’ve seen so far,” he starts before he realizes they’ll have no idea what a mesh network is. “Umm, that’s a network where all the parts are interconnected, so in the case of our TK field, even a muscle in your back legs adds to the strength of your field in your front legs.”

"There is some accounting for how much surface area of your body is against an object, though. Like if you leaned your shoulder in you may be able to utilize your whole field, but if you just put a couple hooves on something there's less surface area contact, so you may only get like half the full field strength. We'll have to experiment some to verify that."

“It also means that, and this just occurred to me, even though all the converted cells are in my right hoof, if I’m correct and there were enough new cells there, any part of me could touch clouds because of the 5% “pegasus mitochondria” cells throughout my body acting as, essentially, a whole. It wouldn't just be my hoof that can touch a cloud, though the image of me dangling from the sky by one leg is kinda amusing.”

“Ah. So how exactly did you figure all this out? I know you scanned that Drift filly several days ago, so...”

“Right, I guess I never explained how it went with Lemon and Amy. Well, like I said, I noticed I wasn’t using any magic with my TK, so I paid real close attention to their scans when they started consciously using TK for the first time.”

“Uh huh.”

“Well I could tell that there was a physical reaction. The cells were burning more glucose and oxygen and I could visibly see something happening. Nothing has labels, sadly, but that led me to the conclusion that the mitochondria may be involved somehow.”

“Makes sense…” she says as Cure can feel her nodding on top of him. His dam and sire are just listening from the cushion across from them.

“From there I looked into the scans I have from the other tribes and it didn’t take long to pick up the pattern. It’s the main thing amongst our cells that really jumps out as obviously different and it’s an “energy” related part of cells, so it all jives just a little too well to ignore.”

“Huh. That is logical. So you’re basically capable of making somepony an alicorn.”

“Ehh, in that one way sort of yes, but if I had to use a term then there’s a difference between an “ascended” alicorn and a purely biological one anyhow. I won’t have whatever other genetic or metaphysical differences there are between them and us.”

“Maybe her longevity isn’t completely biological.”

“It could be. I don’t know how, yet, but if it isn’t then that’s just another point for the whole “higher being” argument and another reason to keep my head down.”

Everypony seems to be in deep thought. For several minutes nopony speaks up and the weight on his back is making Cure start to feel kind of sleepy.

Trying to stave off sleep, Cure finally asks, “So… now that we’ve covered that little tidbit,” getting a round of snorts, “what plans do we have this week? Anything special going on? I don’t think I have anything really urgent to worry about for the next few days, though I wouldn’t mind checking out that rune book the library had. I have no idea what runes do, just guesses, but Mr. Binder made it sound promising.”

“I’m actually a little interested in the rune thing too, honey,” Title starts, “Unicorns can just work on them with their horns but we would have needed tools, now I’m not so sure that’s necessary.”

Surprising Cure, it’s his dam that seems the most excited at the idea. “Oh! We may be able to charge the crystals! You think we can figure out how to make them too?”

“Eh, I hate to be a downer but I’m betting charging a crystal and doing whatever is needed to make the runes work are very different things. If there’s a series of spells that unicorns use to make ‘em it’s probably more involved than just pushing power in.”

“Aww… yeah probably,” Title pouts into Cure’s mane. “Well there’s small hobby kits they sell in the bigger cities, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything in the stores around here.”

“We can check it out next Saturday, son. It’s shapin up to be a busy day, it seems.”

“Yeah… sorry I’m gonna end up monopolizing yer Saturday, everypony. I’ll make it up to ya, promise.” After a round of reassurances that they don’t mind, Cure asks, “We are still on for the zoo, right? I’ve been really lookin forward to that.”

“We are, but don’t get any big ideas, mister. You check with us before you try anything.”

“Yes, dam.”

“Is there any specific animal you’re interested in, Cure?”

“I’m not sure. There’s a lot of really amazing things that aquatic animals can do that you don’t really find in mammals, but I doubt there’s going to be a lot of that there. Someday I’ll need to hit up an aquarium for that stuff, if one exists. It’s actually the smaller things I’d be interested in… the snakes and bugs mostly. Bugs go through generations a lot faster than other animals, so I would expect some highly specialized abilities you wouldn’t normally see in bigger creatures.”

“Oh? I guess I should have asked if there were specific abilities you’re looking for instead, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m really just interested in creatures with unique traits. For example, I know there’s snakes with the ability to launch venom… I’m also really interested in the muscle and skeletal structures in larger cats. Creatures from other habitats would be neat to get a look at too, especially super cold or hot areas.”

“Any particular reason why?”

“Eh… I just want to be able to see the world someday, and knowing what’s out there and how it’s adapted to its environment can only help. Plus who knows, maybe there’s some critter that has something that has some weird capability like really fast healing or something like that. Like Hydras… do they regenerate when they’re hurt? They did in myths. That could be really useful for my bacta tank idea.”

“Bacta tank?” Deed asks, glancing at the snickering Vines.

After Cure shares his “healing pod” idea, as well as his dam’s prank, it’s his mom that answers his original question. “I… don’t really know, Cure. I’ve never looked into what weird abilities monsters like those have.”

“I’ll tell ya what, mom.” Cure pauses, and with a mischievous smirk says, “One day when I’m ready, I’ll go find one and bring it home for dinner, how’s that sound?”

All three parents recoil at the thought of eating hydra meat.

“CURE! You will NOT bring one of those anywhere around here!”

Barely holding back a laugh he asks, “Not even if she’s really cute?” and finishes with a quick "ba-dum-tis", chuckling afterwards.

Sputtering, Vines can’t come up with a response. His sire snorts and starts laughing beside her, and Cure can feel his mom shaking with concealed laughter above him.

“I didn’t realize you were so biased, dam. I mean, they have multiple heads. Maybe they have multiple parts in other places too. Think of how many grandfoals you could have in just a few months!”

Cure can’t hold back the laugh at his dam’s horrified, mouth-hanging-open look. Of course his mom and sire joining in don’t help and the look quickly turns into a scowl before she huffs and turns away, shunning the group.

“Ahh that was corny. Good times. Well as much as I love teasing dam, it’s getting late and I definitely need a shower before bed. Dad, I think you’ll have to get that massage wherever you plan on sleepin. You’re a good bit larger than the ladies and I ain't haulin yer heavy butt up those stairs.”

“Sounds good to me, son! I’ll be gettin ready for bed while yer cleanin up.”

“You mean while I’m cleaning him up!” Title shouts while tightening her grip on Cure. “Vines got ‘em yesterday, he’s mine ta baby tonight!”

Yet again, Cure lets out a defeated sigh and accepts his fate as he’s hoisted up by his mom and set on her withers.

“Wait!!!” he yells, causing Title to freeze again. “We didn’t tell ‘em about the Cure Tree Mark oh-point-one!”

With an eye roll, Title quickly rattles off a summary, “Water the soil, dump half yer magic in before bed. This one’s just regular cherry tomatoes but on a tree. He’ll need bins for each generation’s seeds and a journal for notes. Vines, babe, can you do your thing and make sure the soil is good? Imma scrub the brat before he comes up with any other excuse to get away from me.”

With a slightly confused nod Vines and Deed take a look at the short tree while Title disappears up the stairs, Cure token-grumbling on her withers.

An hour later Cure and Title are scrubbed, dried, have brushed all the things, and are walking into the parents’ room. Title doesn’t hesitate to jump on the bed and snuggle on top of Vines. Part of his mind still mumbles “weird” but seeing the loving casual interaction brings a happy smile to his face. His sire’s already sprawled out next to the mares, clearly eager to find out firsthoof how good a “Cure Massage” actually is.

“So dad, anything specific you want me to focus on?”

“Nope, just the same treatment as the ladies, son. That is, if you’re not too tired. I know you used a lot of magic today.”

“Eh, I’m fine for this, at least. Once I knock yer sorry rear out I’ll be goin to sleep right after.”

“Ha! Bring it on, sport! Yer pa can take it!”

With the mares watching, Cure hops up on the bed, climbs on his sire, and gives him a more vigorous massage than he had his moms. Deed is a good hoof or so wider than either of the mares and has quite a bit more muscle mass on him. He’s only about a hoof taller, so about four feet at the withers as opposed to around forty four inches tall, but weighs a lot more than the ladies do.

Cure actually has to cycle a little magic while working on the shoulder and hip muscles so Deed can really feel it. If it weren’t for his ability to cheat by directly relaxing the muscles and heating his hooves he probably would’ve struggled to give a decent massage.

Fortunately, Cure believes that if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying, so the mares get to witness Deed grunting and moaning in bliss while Cure grinds every inkling of tension he had in his back and hips.

By the time Cure hops down to get the neck muscles, Title has trotted off to fetch a washcloth for the drool.

“C’mon dad. You’re not even asleep yet!”

“feelzgood”

“Don’t be slobberin all over the bed, seriously… I know it’s relaxing but yer actin like mom was while that pie was bakin earlier, I swear.” Poking his sire in the shoulder he chides the stallion, “Don’t let your son see ya droolin like a preggo mare, dad. Stallion up, dude.”

Ignoring the “I heard that!” from his returning mom, Cure works his way up the stallion’s neck, moving in small circles while working away from the spine. Deed is out cold before Cure even finishes with the muscles at the base of his ears. Both mares are giggling at their husband until Cure points out that they didn’t last much longer themselves.

Not one to leave a patient half taken care of, he still massages his sire’s shoulder and leg muscles. Cure figures his dad may not remember the whole massage in the morning, but he should sleep through the night and wake up feeling like a million bucks.

Seeing Cure done with his task, Title climbs off of Vines’ back. With goodnight kisses and nuzzles all around she lays on her side with her back pressing against Deed. Vines curls around Cure like a momma cat and, after a quick hormone-check scan and some motherly grooming, the whole family soon drifts off to sleep.