Life Finds a Way

Saturday, September 13th, 908 AB

Launching out of bed with unfathomable amounts of energy, Cure quickly trots to the bathroom to quickly take care of the number one immediate concern.

Sleeping with a horn on was going to take some adjusting. He didn’t impale any pillows or anything, but he definitely noticed the kickstand proppin his head up once or twice when he rolled over on his back.

Since the previous morning Cure had practiced with his horn almost non-stop. It had actually been his mom who had asked why couldn’t just stick it on his head like a normal unicorn’s.

—-------- Previous Morning Flashback —--------

“I told you, I’m not even close to ready to start doing brain stuff. The visual cortex thing is as far as I’m willing to go for the foreseeable future because that’s not really part of the whole personality or memory part of the mind. A friggin horn sits right on top of the frontal lobe. That’s like… where YOU exist, basically.” Waving a hoof over the area, he insists, “I ain’t messin with that, even if there is a barrier between the base and the brain!” much to Vines’ relief.

With an eye roll and a sigh Title explains, “Duh, Cure. Jeez, for how smart you are sometimes… why can’t you just stick the damn horn on the outside of your skull and hook it up like you did your frog?”

Mouth hanging open, Cure struggles to come up with a reason. “Uhhhhhhhh… Okay, you got me there. I had not considered that at all,” he admits. “In my defense, last night I was more interested in putting it somewhere I could disconnect easily. Now that we know it’s not gonna explode or go wild I guess that’s not a concern.”

With a smug smile the pink mare nods and goes back to eating her breakfast.

Following his mom’s advice, Cure creates a faux pouch similar to what he had done with his frog. Since his mane already covers the area, no extra steps are needed to obscure the small bump. It could be seen if he parted his mane just right, but there’s no reason for anypony to do that and he could just shrink it down on demand if needed.

Initially unsure how to go about “growing” the horn efficiently, Cure ponders the problem for a moment. He wants to get the horn built as soon as possible, but the cells that are responsible for growing the horn typically do so very, very slowly and do so outwardly from inside the horn itself.

Maybe it’s a puberty thing? The horn grows with the unicorn until adulthood, then slowly grows out over time? I guess I’ll need some adult scans to be sure. There may be some metaphysical cause too, given the alicorn horn growth in the cartoons makes no sense otherwise.

The optimal solution, in his opinion, is to regrow the horn from his hoof like he had the night before, then slowly regrow the hoof itself, as those cells basically do nothing but produce the keratin structure and have far more surface area to work with.

With a muttered “there we go” he holds up the regrown hoof-horn, which seems to take less magic, probably due to already doing it once and not needing to make a second “pouch” after building the one on his forehead. Inspecting it to ensure everything is right, he gives a final nod to the bemused smiles of his mom and sire and the eye roll from his dam.

He then severs the connection and breaks the last bit holding it in place with an audible snap, detaching it right at the base where he will then reattach it on his head. While the rest of the family is still eating. In front of his dam. Who nearly falls straight off her chair in a panic.

Vines scrambles like a dog on linoleum before her TK field latches to the floor and she rockets to the kitchen to grab the dish towel.

With a detached horn in one hoof and a “bald” sole he looks over, startled by her reaction. “Dam? What’s wrong?” he asks while Deed is sitting across from him, mouth agape, and Title is pounding on the table laughing her head off, clearly realizing what he’d done.

Towel in hoof, Vines does a 180 and shouts “CURE!” while launching herself at the bewildered colt and grabbing his slowly-regrowing hoof to wrap it. After a moment of fussing and inspecting the hoof, during which Title never stops cracking up and Deed continues eating, she finally calms down. With an annoyed scowl she drops the towel on the floor, briefly glares at her wife, and goes back to her breakfast while muttering under her breath.

“Dam? You do realize that I can disconnect nerves in an area, right? We just talked about this.” Getting only a huff in answer he continues, “I mean… with enough warning I could probably make a few changes and literally remove my own head for a minute or two…”

Vines’ yellow mane and tail both shoot straight up and back, defying gravity with startling ease. Like a command from the almighty she decrees, “CURE WAVE! YOU WILL NOT EVER DO ANY SUCH THING! DO YOU HEAR ME MISTER?”

With saucer-sized eyes Cure recoils away from the furious mare, nodding enthusiastically. “Yes, ma’am. Loud ‘n clear, ma’am,” he agrees instantly before mumbling, “Not that I was gonna…”

“How?” Title asks, having recomposed herself during Vines’ shout.

“TITLE!”

“What? I’m just curious,” she scowls back, “I ain’t askin for a demonstration, just for academic purposes.”

Deed, displaying uncharacteristic levels of wisdom, finishes his food and quickly makes his escape.

“Well,” Cure starts, turning to his mom, “remember the spiracles thing I did while running?”

Title hums in agreement, “That would get ya air.”

“Yep, so long as I could get those going and make a small temporary heart-like structure to keep blood flowing I should be fine for a while.”

“Huh…”

With a thoughtful glance up Cure expands upon the idea, “Of course, if I was gonna go for long I’d have to make some kinda kidney, yanno… to keep the blood clean? I don’t think that’s an immediate issue, though… only if somepony was really watchin for days or somethin to make sure I was definitely dead.”

Nodding along, Title can’t find any fault in the logic. “Right, can’t have dirty blood in yer decapitated head.”

“Nope, don’t want that,” Cure agrees.

“I swear, every damned meal…” Vines mutters as she stands and walks away.

Watching her go, Cure turns back to his mom. “Too far?”

“Eh. She’ll come around eventually.”

-------------------- End Flashback --------------------

After washing up Cure trots downstairs to join the rest of the family at breakfast.

Greeting everypony with a quick round of slightly horn-stabby nuzzles, he hops up on his chair and starts digging in.

“So… when are we going?” he asks, practically vibrating in his chair.

Rolling her eyes, his dam explains, “Honey, the zoo doesn’t even open for a couple hours. We’ll leave in an hour or so for the train station.”

“Where’s the fire, sport? Those animals ain’t goin nowhere.”

“Aww come on! I’ve been waiting like a week and a half for this!” he whines, getting a snicker from his mom.

“Aww, is our widdle Wavey poo super excited for the zoo?” Title asks, teasing him with a baby talk tone. “Maybe we can get you a cute widdle bawoon there!”

Scowling at the pink mare, Cure grumbles under his breath. “Shoulda put those eyes in upside down… that’d show ya.”

“What?”

“Nothing, mom! So, how are the new peepers workin out?” Smiling beautifully, Title leaps out of her chair and scoops Cure up, smooching all over his face. “Okay, I get it. Ya hate em. Fine, I’ll put the old ones back,” he deadpans while pressed against her chest.

“Oh Cure, babe, I can’t believe how much better I can see now! And the colors!” Giving the colt one last crushing hug, she sets him back on her seat and sits back down.

Leaning towards Vines, Deed faux-whispers, “She must really like them eyes if she’s willing to stop eating to thank him.”

Watching bemused as Title beans his sire with a blueberry, Cure says, “Just let me know when you’re ready to give one of these,” reaching up, he taps the horn, “a try. I’m tellin ya, I’m lovin finally being able to reach stuff again.”

Scrunching his snout he explains, “Yanno… when my memories all first came back one of the first things I thought was how lucky unicorns are. It just seemed like as an earth pony we kinda got the short end of the stick. We can’t fly, we can’t use a bunch of fancy spells, most of us are farmers or other low-paying laborers or whatever.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong, the horn is super convenient, but I don’t think I’d trade it for everything we get. My understanding is that most unicorns barely use it beyond lifting stuff up anyhow. That said, I plan on fully exploiting both sets of abilities like the filthy cheater I am.”

“That’s good to hear, sweetheart. You should always be happy to be who you are, no matter what.”

“Yer dam’s right, champ. Besides, even if I’ve not known a whole bunch of ‘em, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single one actually cast a spell ‘cept that light doohickey ya did the other night. How’s the castin comin along anyhow? "

“Pretty freaking good, actually. As always, I’m cheating as much as anypony possibly could. Ya see, the spells are actually kinda tricky to pull off, normally. Ya gotta send the right amount of magic to the horn, with some margin for error that is, but the complicated part is hitting the runes just right and getting them in the correct sequence. The quicker the better too, usually.”

Pausing to make sure everypony was following along, Cure gets understanding nods all around. “The thing is that the more precise the muscle movements, the better at “casting” you are.”

“You can tweak the Tartarus outta the muscles, can’t ya?” his mom asks with a raised brow.

Pointing a hoof he enthusiastically nods, “Like you wouldn’t believe! You know what has really good, precise, insanely fast muscle control?” Shaking her head no, Title shrugs. “Dragonflies! I reproduced the properties of dragonfly wing muscles into the muscles in the horn! I can nail runes in an instant and immediately move from rune to rune with perfect precision every time. The slowest part of the process is me just thinking what the next rune should be.”

“Dragonflies?” Vines asks with furrowed brows. “I would expect a unicorn’s own muscles to do a better job than a bug’s.”

“That’s reasonable to assume. The thing is, like I said before, bugs go through generations so fast that their evolution speed is probably hundreds of times faster than ponies’. They’ve also been around for tens of millions of years longer if life developed here like on Earth. That means the muscles they have are absurdly more refined than ours.”

With an impressed look his sire starts, “So basically, if ya see a spell and have enough magic ta cast it…”

“And I have it memorized,” he finishes, “then I can cast it perfectly every time way faster than normally possible. The real advantage is the range, though. Like I said, no-horn range is about one and a half meters, with the horn it’s more like a dozen meters. Convenient for today since I assume most animals won’t just walk up to me to say hi. I noticed when I made the horn longer that the range went up, but I also had to pump more magic in it, which is a deal breaker for me right now.”

“Uhh… you were going to wear that outside?”

Severing the nerves, disconnecting the horn, and re-covering the patch of mane, he lifts it off his head to demonstrate. “I figured I’d duck into a bathroom and slap it on in there once we got to the zoo. Of course you know what’ll happen then?” he asks, putting the horn back in place.

After a few seconds of the parents all being confused, Vines suggests, “You’ll do your scanning thing?”

Jabbing a hoof in her direction, he nods in agreement. “Yes, but also, we’ll inevitably run into somepony we know. And odds are, they’ll recognize me right away and, of course, do something to draw attention to a horn that does not belong,” he finishes with an annoyed tone. “It’s inevitable with the way this world works, I bet. That’s why Dawn and Solar just happened upon me right when me and Wind were making up. Either way, I’ve got a plan.”

“Oh geez,” Deed mutters.

“So I figure we can go around the zoo like normal, just looking around and kinda mapping everything out, right?” After a “uh huh” from his parents he continues, “So once I know where the high priority stuff I want to hit is, I’ll duck inside a bathroom, put on my horn, which I’m going to reshape to not look like a horn for now, and then disguise myself. Once I’m set I’ll run around and do the scanning thing for about half an hour and duck back in the bathroom to change back and meet back with you all.”

“I don’t see a fake mustache anywhere on ya, son. How are ya plannin on disguising yourself?”

“Coat, facial structure, and voice. I spent a while practicing last night and small changes are cheap and make a big difference.” Pausing, Cure holds up both hooves, “Wait. Mustache? Ponies can actually grow mustaches? How? We have fur on our faces already.”

“Special creams. They make the hair come in the same color as your mane, usually. Slap some on and after a few applications you’ll get a beard or mustache or whatnot. They grow faster at first, then slow down, but you’ll see ponies that have pretty long ones.”

Vines makes a disgusted face at the idea. “Those aren’t sanitary, honey. Don’t ever grow a long beard. It makes you look unkempt.”

“Huh. Weird. I assume there’s a way to stop the growth?” At Deed’s nod Cure just shrugs. “Well, whatever. Humans grew facial hair naturally. At least, men did and some women got a little as they aged. When I saw ponies with beards and mustaches I figured it musta been another thing like hay bacon where the writers just made up crap to “humanize” the ponies.”

Interrupting the colt’s musing, Title asks, “What about your cutie mark? Can you change that?”

“Nope, but I can cover it up with a thin flap of skin and fur easily enough, just like you can put clothes over it. The only thing, which is a little odd, is that I have to “separate” it from myself first. If it’s a living part of me the mark goes through it. I kinda-sorta expected that, though, with marks being a metaphysical thing and all.”

Looking the colt up and down, Deed can only nod in approval. “Huh… planned this out a bit didn’t ya?”

“Sure did. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some kind of “no magic” rule, though, so hopefully this whole thing won’t be a bust. I don’t think it’s worth risking if they have a detection net set up and patrolling guards.”

“Good, glad to hear you know when to walk, son.”

“Gotta know when to fold ‘em dad. My backup plan is to offer my services with a slightly modified disguise to the zoo. Maybe I can tell them my special talent is to heal animals and ask if they have any that are sick or if I can go around with a worker and do diagnostic tests on them.”

Deed looks up in thought. “I hadn’t considered that…”

“Sweetie, if they like that idea maybe you can do that on the weekends or after school. It’s a short train ride and I’d feel much more comfortable with you doing that than trying to sneak around.”

“Me too, I’m just worried somepony will make the logical assumption that, ya know...”

“If you can heal animals you can heal ponies, right?” Title asks.

“Exactly. I can disguise myself before going to the zoo. I don’t know when I’ll have the magic to disguise both of us like that and still have enough left over to do the job. That won’t help if somepony tries to intercept me coming, going, or actually in the zoo though. We really need to have a discussion here…”

“What’s up, sport?”

“Levels of escalation, dad.” At his confused look Cure explains, “So I mentioned the other night with that guard how I could do things to him. The question is, if I am about to be foalnapped or badly hurt, how hard do you want me to go?”

“Yeesh… I dunno son. Honey, babe… what do you two think?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even like to think about it,” Vines starts. Looking to her son she asks, “Do you have a way to safely make them fall asleep?”

“Maybe I could if I had paid attention and actively scanned somepony falling asleep before now. That woulda been a good idea, huh? Let’s say that “make them sleep” is the first thing I try, but they have too much adrenaline in their system. What do I try next?”

Title perks up and looks to Cure. “You suggested disabling nerves. That sounds awful, but you can fix it after. Why not that?”

“Because I’d have to be the one to fix it. That means that whenever they’re arrested I would either need to be there too or they would have to remain paralyzed unless somepony else can fix it. Also, it may not stop a unicorn’s magic. I guess I could disable their horn muscles but I don’t know if that’ll work when they’re casting or if their magic will push mine away.”

“Okay, so maybe not do that. Unless you can do that, then knock them out at your convenience, then heal them and run away… ugh, that even sounds too complicated to me.”

“What about the venoms and whatnot, champ? Ya got anythin that’ll knock a pony out yet?”

“No, and I could just use endorphine to do that right now. Dosage is the concern there, and again, adrenaline. Maybe there’ll be something at the zoo. I really need to see if there’s a paralyze or knock-out spell so I can both learn it and learn how they work so they don’t work on me, assuming it’s possible.”

For a moment the parents sit there, looking back and forth at each other before Cure finally asks, “Obviously this is a last ditch thing, but I have to ask. Is there a point at which you all would accept that I have to kill somepony?”

Vines looks absolutely horrified. Deed and Title both grimace, but understand that if things have gotten to that point then all bets are off.

“I think the circumstances there are pretty, obvious, Cure.” Not happy with the possibility, but resolved to see her son survive it, Title explains, “I’m sure your dam and sire agree… you do what you gotta do to protect yourself first. We’ll deal with what comes after, after.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. It’ll almost certainly not come up, ever, but the sad fact is that right now, going full lethal is a whole lot easier than knocking somepony out for me. It’s a lot easier and more effective for me to just close somepony’s windpipe then try to get the exact dosage on a sedative right or ensure I’m severing the right nerve or whatever… but that’s an awful way to go.”

“Couldn’t you just open it back up once they pass out?”

“Yeah, but they may wake up pretty soon after. I guess I could always do that to panic ‘em and knock them out and then slowly give them drugs after I let them get some air. I’m not so sure I could manage all that with multiple attackers though. If there’s three or four ponies tryin to grab me I’m probably gonna go full lethal right off the bat and damn the consequences.”

“Four ponies going after one colt probably warrants that, son. Don’t worry, we’ll still love you no matter what ya have to do to keep yerself safe.”

“Alright… it’s not a happy topic, but it’s something I needed to hear. Again, hopefully it’ll never be an issue. Final question though… how hard are we gonna go if, at some point, some noble really did send goons here to drag me off?”

“Son, you listen and you listen good. If somepony comes in this house with malicious intent towards yer moms or yerself you show no mercy, ya hear? A stallion’s home is his castle, and anypony walkin through that door had better expect a fight, cause they’re gonna get one.”

“That works for me, pa. They won’t know what hit ‘em.”

Satisfied that the topic has been addressed, Cure finishes his food and hops down from the table. Floating his bowl, cup, and utensils over to the sink, Cure cleans up after himself before retiring to the living room to continue reading.

After a moment he jumps up and runs back to the table asking, “Hey can we stop by the library in Baltimare afterwards to get some magic books? The selection here is terrible, of course, being a town full of non-unicorns. Mr. Binder didn’t donate his spell book, unfortunately.”

“Sure, son. The library is really nice there, so I’m sure they’ll have plenty more than what’s here.”

“Cool. Dam? What’s your policy on me going into the city on occasion? Adult escort ‘till I’m older?”

“Yes, honey. I don’t want you going into ANY big city by yourself until you’re at least twelve or so… it’ll really depend on where you’re going, exactly. Somewhere near the train station is fine, but I wouldn’t want you wandering into a bad part of town.”

“Sounds good to me. Lemme know when y’all are ready to go.”

The train ride was blissfully short, but the family had to walk a couple kilometers to the zoo, which happened to be just a bit northwest of the city center. Practically vibrating in line, Cure had to really fight to keep his enthusiasm in check while his sire bought tickets and led the way to the main entrance.

Ugh man, why am I so hyped up? Is this a mark thing again or is just my dumb kid brain acting up? Oh well, almost there!

Once past the main entrance, there is a short walk, then a split in the path. Cure pauses mid-step just before reaching the end and, wide-eyed, stares at the huge, brown bear standing right just to his right. With no other foals around, the behemoth locks eyes with Cure, stands up to its towering, two-plus and a half meters height… and waves hello with a smile.

“Huh… so this is not what I expected,” Cure says, looking up at the massive wall of fur and muscle.

“Uhh, what were you expectin, sport?”

“Enclosed areas, animals separated from ponies and other visitors… I dunno, I guess I kinda forgot that the animals here are so much smarter than… ya know.”

“Oh, but sweetie, isn’t this going to be so much better?”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely dam. I just… I dunno, I figured this would be so much more complicated than it’s going to be. It’s a friggin petting zoo, after all.”

“Well duh, Cure. Sorry we didn’t say something beforehoof, I just don’t think any of us realized you had such different expectations.”

“Even though I went through the whole spiel about range and whatnot?”

“Eh, you’ll still need that for some animals, just not everything. Now go say hi, you’re being rude,” his mom says, pushing him towards the bear.

Glancing over his withers, Cure is dumbfounded by the fact that his dam is also giving him an encouraging smile and waving him to the beast that could probably pop his entire body into its mouth.

“Hi, mister bear. Wow you are a big one, aren’t ya?”

“Raarrarwl” the bear nods in agreement while pointing at her chest. Looking at the … name tag? Cure blinks a couple times. Yep, name tag. Of course… reveals that it’s a female bear. Specifically, Ruth the Brown Bear.

Hastily correcting himself, Cure immediately apologizes. “Oh! I’m sorry, Mrs. Ruth. You’re the first bear I’ve ever spoken to, so my bad!”

“Rawawra” she says with a shrug.

Grasping for anything to say, Cure goes with the typical conversation starter for women… family. “Uhh… so your name tag says Missus… is there a Mister bear?”

Nodding enthusiastically, Ruth turns around and… Is that a purse? What the fuck is going on here?!

Turning back around, Ruth is in fact, holding a purse. Which she carefully opens, then removes a wallet from. Gently opening the wallet she pulls out a folded piece of paper. Unfolded and held in front of Cure, the paper is a black and white, grainy picture of her, presumably Mister Bear, and three younger bears. “Huh… that’s a cute family.”

“Rawr!” she agrees, nodding again with a fond smile.

“Hey Mrs. Ruth, I was wondering if I could get a hug and ask a small favor at the same time. Ya see, I wanna be a healer for all my animal friends and to do that I gotta know what a healthy bear looks like in case I ever meet one that isn’t healthy and needs a helping hoof. Is it okay if I use a little magic spell to check you over? It’s just like unicorns use, so it’s totally safe.”

Tilting her head back and forth to mull it over while putting the picture away, Ruth apparently is happy to help. With a big, meaty paw-version of a thumb’s up and a smile, she scoops Cure up and presses him against her enormous chest.

“Wow you sure give good hugs, Mrs. Ruth. Okay, so I’m gonna use my special talent. You may feel something like a breeze on yer coat, but that should be it.”

“Raraw”

Activating his mark, Cure gets a very, very quick scan of momma bear. Spotting a cavity and other minor joint issues, he decides not to make a big deal out of it while surrounded on all sides by pectorals that are about as big as his whole body. With one more blessedly soft squeeze, Ruth sets him down with an expectant look.

“You seem to be in great health, Mrs. Ruth. Just maybe talk to somepony about that fifth tooth back on the top right side. I think you may be gettin a cavity. Oh and maybe some arthritis in that back leg at the knee, but yanno how that is, perils of age and whatnot.”

“Rarawr,” she says while nodding. Smiling one last time, which still throws him off, she gives him a gentle pat on the head, and offers him a goodbye as the next set of visitors start approaching.

Walking back to his parents in a stupor Cure has to force himself not to shake from the adrenaline wearing off. “I was just hugged by a brown bear,” he says in a daze.

“Oh that was so sweet of her,” Vines gushes, “I had no idea they gave out hugs! I wonder if I could get one…” she ponders, looking at the family now chatting with the bear.

Looking to his mom with a single raised brow, all he gets back is a shrug. “What? Was her coat really coarse or something?”

“No… extremely soft, actually. I guess… it was a nice hug, overall. I just can’t believe you’re all just like, “Oh look, a bear. Let’s go hug it!” and I can barely keep my legs from shaking.”

“Ya alright, son?”

“Yeah… just comin down from an adrenaline high. I think I’mma go sit down a second while y’all have yer hugathon or whatever.”

“Alright, sport. There’s some seats right over there.”

Eventually, Cure gets his head back in the game. Looking over the directory, he’s somewhat bummed but not terribly surprised. Other than a few hybrid-type critters like some spider-fly thing there are not really any special or mythological creatures at this zoo. He kinda expected that given those are usually less than agreeable and would probably bring a whole host of security concerns for the otherwise foal-friendly facility.

As the family moves around the zoo Cure had much the same experience with basically every animal he had met. There were “enclosures” but rather than acting as a cage to keep the animals in they were actually closer to living areas that said animals could retreat to for a break from their job of meeting and greeting visitors.

Cure was shocked when he found that some of the zoo residents also spoke. Giraffes, elephants, a rhino, and even a hyena, though its vocabulary was very limited and difficult to understand.

He even got to “play” being wrapped up by an enormous anaconda.

All of the other foals and their parents are clapping for the damned snake while I’m fighting every instinct I have not to turn the thing’s brain into applesauce. Glad you're enjoyin the show, assholes.

The mammals were interesting and Cure found several that had more powerful muscles, bones, and supporting structures. None of those adaptations were “fantastic” though; most animals were stronger, for example, simply because they had more muscle mass or the limb was designed to exert force better. Bones were basically the same all over, just with slightly different compositions with a few exceptions for flying creatures or ones with more flexibility. The rhino and elephant ones seemed to be the toughest of the lot, which makes sense as they're also the heaviest land creatures he's seen.

He also got some good venom samples from the small snake population, as well as the bat hearing he’d been looking forward to cataloging, but it was the Insectarium where he really got to see a variety of new specimens.

The building reminded him of a facility his family had visited once in New Orleans when Kynzie was in high school. Josh had already moved out to live with his dad, so it was just the three of them. Neither she nor her mother cared much for most of the displays, but both went bonkers when they entered the butterfly area. He remembered taking shot after shot on his, at the time, badass new slide-out droid phone which, thankfully, had an SD card slot he could add memory to.

The Insectarium in front of the family had the same “cave” motif going with disguised doors leading guests through terrarium-like display cases with a wide variety of things he previously would have never wanted to be anywhere near.

“Have at it, sport. Just start slow, yanno… just in case,” Deed says, tilting his head towards the Levitation Only, Please sign posted at the Insectarium’s cave entrance.

Pulling his parents off to the side he quietly asks, “Are ya sure? I don’t wanna get arrested or somethin.”

“I don’t think they’ll even consider the possibility that an earth pony is using magic, Cure.”

“Well… I think I’ll go as fast as possible instead so we can get in and out quick, just in case.”

With his mom and sire’s blessing, Cure leads the family into the exhibit, quickly scanning away, starting first with a wide variety of spiders. Jumping, ambush, and web spinning spiders all populate the first several displays and Cure is happy to add a wide variety of venoms, muscle structures, and web capabilities to his library.

Moving on, he’s able to scan a few samples of different types of scorpions, cockroaches, termites, aphids, assassin bugs, ants, moths, and beetles. It’s when he’s reaching the end of the area that he hears a couple new voices approaching against the flow of traffic.

Looking down the path he sees two unicorn mares headed towards the cave exit, both wearing zoo uniforms, with one levitating some kind of device in front of her.

Stopping his scanning immediately, he continues to look at the different insects as nonchalantly as he can. Looking over his withers, he sees the moment his parents notice the incoming workers as well as another small group coming from the other direction. Trapped in the bug cave with a few other families, he decides he’ll need a distraction to avoid potentially getting found out.

“Attention, everypony… please stay where you are. We had a security alarm indicating somepony in this area is using some kinda magic in a restricted area. Please just bear with us a moment while we sort this out.”

Looking at the other families he sees an older pegasus filly that looks like she’s ready to bolt.
She has a gray coat similar to Glacial, though it lacks the glossy shine and color-changing effect on the younger filly that caught his eye. Her mane and tail are a darker, navy blue color that’s actually quite pretty, though. Cure makes special note of her cutie mark; an open, upright wing with a short red, yellow, and blue trail falling behind it.

He vows that someday he’ll make up for what he’s about to do.

Between his chat with Wind Shear and this girl’s behavior he’s starting to wonder if a lot of pegasi have some kind of claustrophobia. Unhappy with being in an enclosed area in the first place, he hears her complaining to her dam. “Why are they harassing us? We can’t even use magic!”

Quickly stealing a bit of fat from his reserves, Cure walks to his parents. Leaning in close he whispers, “We gotta get outta here. Firefly, mom. Wait for it,” getting a raised brow from his dam and sire and a “ah shit” from his mom, he makes his way close to the pegasus family.

Moving the fat under his coat to his front left leg pit where it will be out of view, he gets to work. Even with the area numbed the feeling of creating a pocket or, for lack of a better word, boil, under his skin thoroughly disgusts him. What’s worse is, he knows exactly what’s in it, even if it is currently in a state of stasis.

God I don’t know who’s going to have more nightmares about this, me or the poor filly I’m about to traumatize.

The unicorns are standing at the entrance, one muttering, “I don’t know what in Tartarus I picked up, but somethin was goin on in here just a few minutes ago.”

Oh, good. They can only detect external magic use too. Well, duh, I guess, otherwise my whole family would probably be setting off alarms instead of just my scanning.

Once his surprise is ready, Cure mentally tells it to go say hi to the pegasi family, opens the sack to let his minions run down his leg, heals the hole left behind, then quietly walks back to his family. Giving his mom a nod he says, “Get ready,” then turns and points at a nearby enclosure and loudly asks, “Who let all the spiders out of their cage?” causing everypony to freeze.

It’s only a split second later that, beset upon by a collection of typical harmless household jumping spiders, the family and, in particular, the filly, react without bothering to check what exactly was climbing up their legs. With terrified screams they immediately start darting wildly in every direction, causing a panic amongst the other visitors and the staff.

Deed and Title, seeing the opportunity for what it is, both join in the yelling and run for the exit, clearing a path for Cure and Vines by barreling past the stunned staff. Everypony’s prey animal instincts take over from there, with all of the visitors scrambling in every direction, bowling past any guards trying to figure out what is going on, and even causing a couple workers to join in.

Once out of the immediate area, ponies are able to finally stop and realize that nothing is wrong. Recognizing that there was no need to stay around any longer, Cure jerks his head towards the exit and casually trots that direction.

Approaching Ruth, who is looking back towards the commotion, the family exchanges goodbyes with the friendly bear, getting a big smiley wave back, and quickly exits the zoo. Trotting away from the exit, Cure sees a group of four pegasi in armor landing just inside the main gate where the zoo guards are waiting to meet them.

“Well… that was exhilarating,” Cure idly notes. Getting unhappy looks from his dam and sheepish smiles from his sire and mom, he points to a wooded walking trail area just a block to the north. “Let’s go for a walk over in that park,” he suggests, “you can yell at me there and hopefully there won’t be anypony around to overhear.”

Ignoring the angry sounding “good idea” his dam mutters behind him, he takes off in that direction. Finding a bench in a somewhat isolated, open area, Cure hops up and sits down to face the music. Looking around to ensure nopony, or animal, is in earshot, he turns to his dam who’s disappointed look actually hurts his soul a little.

“That is exactly what we were trying to avoid!” his dam starts on all three of them. Looking to her son she asks, “What did you do to that poor filly back there anyhow? She almost flew straight into the ceiling of that cave! Somepony could have gotten hurt!” she finishes.

“Yeah, I’m not real proud of that one. We may have been able to just wait it out, granted, but I don’t know if unicorns could have figured out what was going on. I can show you what I did. It’s really not as bad as you think. It was much more of a “freak her out” move than an actual dangerous one. Well… if you don’t account for the whole herd panic thing everypony did, which was a lot worse than I anticipated. Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you pass me that acorn by yer hoof?”

“Ah… lightning bug time?” she asks, picking it up and hoofing it over.

“Yep.” Popping the acorn in his mouth while explaining, “See, I’ve scanned a decent number of bugs since I fixed the range issue the other day. You’d be surprised how much stuff is just in the walls, under the house, an inch or two underground, etcetera. The scan won’t work through living tissue, but plain old wood, glass, or a few inches of dirt just reduces the targeting aura range.”

Finished mushing up the nut he holds up a hoof while working his magic. Sticking out his tongue causes both his dam and dad to recoil when he has a half dozen different lightning bugs on the end of it. Before either can voice a question a couple have lit up and they all begin flying away.

“Uhh… son?”

“It’s not that big of a deal. Those are just duplicates of a few male and female fireflies that were outside my window last night. They’re normal bugs, just like the ones I did back at the zoo.”

“I didn’t see any acorns on the ground back at that cave, sport.”

“You wouldn’t have. There weren’t any. The acorn was just so I didn’t have to use my own fat reserves. Trust me, you don’t want the details, but suffice to say that I don’t actually need an external source of mass to create something as long as it’s pretty small. What spooked those ponies back there? A few common, household spiders that I whipped up and said “go say hi to those folks” before releasing. No more than a couple grams of fat.”

“You can… control them?” Title asks. “You didn’t say anything about that when you showed me last weekend.”

“I can’t. Not once they’re off of me. I can kind of give them instructions to follow, but nothing too complex… I don’t think. I haven’t experimented with that much, too squicky, yanno? Trust me, that was every bit as unpleasant for me as it was for them.” After a few seconds of thought he adds, “Probably.”

“So you could basically spit a bunch of bees at somepony or something like that?”

With a thoughtful frown, Cure slowly nods his head. “Huh… that’s a pretty awesome idea, mom. Dang I didn’t even think of that.” Scratching at his chin in thought, Cure lets his mind wander while muttering, “Man once I grow up I bet I could like… turn a pile of leaves into a whole swarm of wasps with some kinda sleeping drug and let ‘em loose…” all the while ignoring the growing horror on his parents’ faces.

“You will do NO such thing, mister!” his dam growls, poking him in the side with a hoof.

“Ow! Hey! I didn’t mean just for freakin giggles, dam, I meant as a defense! Remember what we talked about earlier?”

“Oh… okay, well that’s better I guess,” she concedes.

“Jeez… here we go with the whole iron-hoofed overlord thing again… all I wanna do is help ponies and make sure my parents are taken care of and everypony thinks I’m gonna hurt somepony someday,” he pouts while queueing up the waterworks.

Fortunately he’d figured out how to force his tear ducts to activate without relying on depressing movie scenes. This gave him the ability to appear to cry on demand without actually having to deal with the snotty nose, though he still has to give a good, wet sniff to really sell it.

“Good try, son. Nopony’s buyin them fake tears.”

Immediately turning it all off he legitimately pouts this time. “Bah. No fun. Just so you know, dam, I got a good look at that pegasus filly. I don’t know how or when, but I’ll do my best to even the score at some point.”

Vines isn’t completely placated with the promise, but she’s at least somewhat satisfied that her son knows what he did was wrong and wants to try to fix it eventually. Given the alternative where they spent who-knows-how-long answering questions to the zoo staff or even the guard she’s willing to at least move on from the incident. It’s not like it was entirely his fault too, something she’ll certainly bring up with the other parents later.

Oblivious to his mom and sire’s future plight, Cure looks around curiously. “So what now? I’d really like to go to the library and, at some point, check out a store that sells stuff for enchanting, but I know this isn’t just a “Cure” day, so what would my precious parents like to do? Maybe some shopping? I bet they have fancy stores around here.”

“Ha! Poutin didn’t work so he thinks that butterin’ us up-” Deed starts before both mares squee with joy at the idea of visiting some of the fancy boutiques downtown. Seeing that he’s lost the battle before it even started, Deed scowls at the smirking colt and waves a menacing hoof in his direction.

“I’ll make it up to all of ya later, pa. You’ve definitely been good enough to earn a round of Cure Massages before bed.”

Lowering the hoof and thinking for a split second, Deed can only nod in acceptance. “Bribes work great, son. Keep up the good work.”

Swearing up and down that he would be on his absolute best behavior, Cure found himself alone at the library while his moms dragged his sire shopping for clothing, much to the dark stallion’s dismay.

I just can’t wrap my head around it. It’s completely optional. Why in the hell do mares care about clothing? I can see hats, scarfs, leg warmers… maybe even a cloak or something with winter coming up, but why get so freakin excited over it?

Ignoring the puzzle and focusing on his objective, Cure excitedly trots up to the main desk and spots several staff present. All are mares and almost all of them are unicorns, Cure notes, but there are a couple pegasi and one earth pony. Figuring he’d have better luck with her, despite the subject matter, he asks where he can look at books about unicorn magic.

“Oh, that’s over in the non-fiction reference section, young stallion,” the silver mare explains while pointing Cure in the right direction.

Thanking her and trotting that way, Cure finds it clearly labeled. Picking out a few beginner’s guides, he makes his way to the reading section to see what’s available.

Most of the books seem to be very heavy in theory, focusing mainly on the “what is magic” concept and how it’s created, as well as how ponies actually use it. Though some of his pride takes a ding, he quickly discovers that the “humming” analogy he deduced the other day is just common knowledge amongst spellcasters.

I really should have foreseen that. I mean, it’s just common fucking sense to anypony that’s ever used a horn for three seconds, I suppose. Still, I don’t see any references to Harmony in any of these books.

I’m thinking that the existence of higher beings is something that’s not widely published, and with the way everypony panicked at a couple tiny spiders I could see how it may be necessary to keep that kinda stuff on the down-low. Or it’s just in the more advanced books…

Finally hitting the jackpot after a few “interesting read” books, Cure stumbles upon an absolute gem of a spellbook. It covers everything from basic level cantrips to transmutation and conjuration, though the runic sequence for those spells looks daunting. Setting the book in the “must keep” pile, Cure continues on, even though he’s almost bouncing in his seat.

By the time Cure is done with his work he’s become convinced that creating his own spells is simply beyond his ability at this time. He’d found a spell theory book that started explaining the interactions of different runes and what effect each one would have in sequences of other runes but it was all just too different from anything he’d ever seen in either life.

This must be the kind of thing that unicorns actually go to school for. There’s no way some random pony is just going to sit down and strum out a new, functional spell that’s in any way complex unless it just happens to be their special talent.

I wonder if I can, at some point, enhance my ears to the point where I can “hear” the different vibrations unicorns use when they cast a spell. That could be a massive tactical advantage, especially if I can then copy it.

I’ll have to experiment with the bats and see how it stacks up to dog hearing. I’ve always assumed ponies had pretty good hearing with these radar dishes for ears, but I haven’t really noticed anything I couldn’t pick up as a human. Maybe it’s something we lost when our eyes moved forward or whatever.

… huh… It just occurred to me that I am growing tomatoes, am frequently surrounded by girls my age, and, if the super horn hearing thing works, may be able to copy, or at least ID other ponies’ spells. It may be reaching a bit, but there’s also the fact I hang out with Dawn, who’s got an orange coat, and Delta Coast, who has pink hair. Weird. Now if only I knew pony martial arts…

Cure’s search for books about enchanting also went very well. The book he found explained the actual process of imbuing a spell into a crystal and gave the necessary spellwork to confirm if a crystal is capable of holding a spell and the needed power storage.

The spell required to enchant a crystal changes slightly based on the crystal capacity, spell complexity, and a few other variables such as energy requirements and storage size.

It turns out that his “container” analogy he suggested when working on the light spell the other night was basically spot on. The process makes him reminisce about his wife again.

Cyndi had bought Edward a CD burner on his birthday after they had been dating a few months; an awesome nerd present back in ‘96 that he’d absolutely geeked out about and a huge expense for a, at the time, single mother… especially with Christmas just around the corner. Even with the distant memory, Cure still felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought of “correctly setting up IRQs” though it barely registers while he replays the day’s events in his mind.

He is so caught up in the memory, he doesn’t even realize somepony has walked up next to him.

Seeing the limp tail and ears, Vines approaches her son. Once she sees the misty eyes she knows something isn’t right. With a gentle nuzzle she calls out to him. “Cure, sweetie? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Rather than answer, he simply turns, rears up, and wraps his dam in a hug before sobbing into her chest.

Looking around, Vines doesn’t spot anything that could have upset him, so she can only assume something had triggered a memory. Holding her colt close, she gently strokes his back and coos “shh, it’s alright” to him until he calms down. Fetching a few tissues from her bag, she wipes down his face and her chest while he explains.

“Sorry, dam. The way this all works,” he starts, waving a hoof towards the enchanting book, “it just reminded me of something. A birthday, just a little before Hearth’s Warming Eve… our first one together. I proposed to her just a couple months later on Hearts and Hooves day.” Choking back a few more tears, Cure just lays limp in his dam’s hold.

“It’s okay, baby. Just take your time. I’ve got you,” she reassures him, holding him close. Finally, after a couple minutes of closeness he breaks the hug with a loving nuzzle, wipes her coat and his face, and excuses himself to the bathroom to clean himself up a bit better.

Upon returning several minutes later, Cure asks, “So where’s mom and dad? Still shoppin?”

“No, they’re here. They wanted to look around, too, honey. I had asked one of the mares at the desk if they’d seen you and they sent me this way.”

“Ah. Well, I think mom will want to hear this. Does our library card work here? I’d really like these two books,” he says, holding up the enchanting book and the spellbook.

“Your mom has a card for this library, sweetie. We can see about getting you one while we’re here,” she says, setting the two books on her withers and turning to find her mates.

Cure trots along, staying just by her side and, once the family is regathered, pulls them to a semi-isolated reading area to explain what he’d discovered.

“The way the whole enchanting thing works is, a spell basically opens the crystal up to take input, okay?” Getting nods all around he continues, “Once that happens, a unicorn or, for us, the enchanting device, basically casts the spell into the crystal, then “closes” the crystal to further writing. Crystals can be blanked out and used for other spells, but a miscast during input can cause bad things when the enchantment is activated.”

“Oh… so basically you have to cast the spell perfectly when you’re at that part?” Title asks.

“Preferably, yes. Take that light spell. You saw the difference when it was cast perfectly compared to not. An imperfect cast can work for some spells, but the crystal will record that imperfection, so it’ll use more energy for a weaker or suboptimal effect… or just not work. Or shatter the crystal. I didn’t see an explanation for what degree of failure causes one or the other.”

“I imagine offensive type spells are where that’s the biggest issue since you’re talking about a rapid power discharge. For example, a warming spell can warm an area slowly for an hour. Inefficiency stinks, but no big deal. A fireball releases the same energy in an instant, so a critical failure really can be critical.”

“So… wouldn’t a unicorn normally want to just use the machine so they don’t miscast the spell and break their crystal?” Deed asks.

“There’s not exactly an easy answer other than “it depends.” See, for simple spells machines are great because you can just crank crystals out all day and they’ll be exact duplicates. For more complex spells you would think the answer would be an even more enthusiastic yes because once you cast it once you’re all set.”

“The problem is that the more complicated spells also have a more complicated “write to the crystal” procedure. Anytime a unicorn attempts to enchant a crystal they’re risking a miscast and basically tossing hundreds or, potentially, thousands of bits down the drain if they don’t catch their mistake before activating the crystal. Of course, a mistake while actually casting can be worse, but you can just withdraw power from the spell before it activates if you miss a rune. There's some backlash, but it's nothing you can't deal with.”

“You have the same issue with the machine. The user interface is just awful, probably because there’s not enough demand for a better one to be developed. If you screw up the input you’re running the same risk as the unicorn, and you won’t know until you go to use the crystal. Of course, you’d think that once you get the sequence right once then you’re set and, while you’re not wrong, how much demand is there for already expensive crystals with an even more expensive enchantment?”

“Probably none…” Deed says.

“Exactly, especially when the machine itself has to be more complex to handle the spell and all of its own internal programming or enchanting, whatever you want to call it. If the country were at war or something I could see justifying the expense, but even then the number of high tier crystals available is probably finite, and if you’re using some for the machines that means you have less for the enchantments.”

“Plus somepony has to recharge the crystals too, and there’s a few percent wasted that goes to the crystal’s functions rather than the spell itself, so they’re not perfectly efficient. There’s also a very small cost to activate the crystal. Just a fraction of the spell’s cost, though.”

“Ah… okay, so… what’s the point of the machine then?”

“It’s basically a hobby for most ponies, or a way to cast spells indirectly for us or pegasi. It’s a very niche thing, though. Or it’s good for industrial uses, I suppose, where even if the company may not make much money on each crystal they’re doing enough volume to make up for it. Of course, if ponies only think unicorns can recharge the gems they’re not gonna buy it because then they’ll just end up paying for the recharge.”

“There’s a lot of potential here, especially since some 75% or more of the population could be using these things and they’re not touching them at all. Probably more, actually. I bet even unicorns that never bother learning to cast spells are underutilizing these things. And that’s not even getting into the wilder ideas I have… and I have a lot of ideas. They’ll depend on a lot of variables and I just don’t have the information I need to know where to start.”

God this is overwhelming. An almost untapped market full of possibilities. So much potential exists and these ponies have no clue how much easier their lives could be. Would they even want that, though? They’re so happy, for the most part, to just keep doing what they’re already doing. I could see building up this company with amazing potential and everypony just shrugging and saying “eh, that’s nice, I’m good though.”

“Well… I admit, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I could literally talk for hours about different ways to use this. I have no idea where to start, though. Step one would probably be to determine the exact capabilities and limits of the crystals. Does a spell have to be wholly contained in one crystal or can it be split up amongst several smaller ones, for example. I just don’t know.”

“Start small, honey,” Title says, “For now let’s just focus on what we, as a family, can do. This seems like another thing to talk to your great grandsire about, though. He’s a big-shot business pony, so maybe he can take some of your smaller ideas, make money off of them, then you can work your way up from there.”

“Yer mom’s right. That sounds like the way to go. Maybe he can find some ponies that already know a bit about enchantin and you can act as an ideas pony, ya know? Point them in a general direction and let ‘em figure out the ins ‘n outs. Ya can’t do it all yerself, son.”

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s also a legitimate danger of moving too fast. Society should always progress, but a sudden, unexpected leap forward can cause problems. There’s a term for that, too, and in one of the other stories I liked before made a really big deal about a more technologically advanced society uplifting a less advanced one. You have to be really, really careful not to overwhelm ponies.”

“That’s a good point, sweetie. You know a lot of your ideas are a little overwhelming to me, and I know where they’re coming from, at least. Imagine if somepony who isn’t getting the full explanation were to see all these fast, amazing changes. It could be very scary.”

“True. I was thinking that myself. As far as what we can do for us, I’d like to get some cheap and low tier crystals to test ideas with and to make some stuff for you all to use. I’d also like to get some enchanted ink and scrolls for some higher tier one-time use stuff. We’ll need a machine to act as a red herring too.”

Confused, Title asks, “Red what?”

“Ah, another term that doesn’t translate. Basically, a distraction. If we’re producing enchanted stuff we need a horn-free way of doing it.”

“How do you make scrolls?” she asks.

“Crystal infused ink. You write the spell out while channeling magic or, if you’re a unicorn, use a spell to do the same. They’re one time use and they have to be recharged every few weeks, but for an emergency shield or teleport you can have one cast on hoof for a fraction of the price of an expensive crystal.”

“Couldn’t you just keep a big stack of those on you all the time?”

“You could, but you still would need to charge them every few weeks. There’s an upper limit on how many you could feasibly keep on you, especially if you had to use magic for other stuff. Each time you recharge them they degrade a bit too, so after a few months you need to re-do them.”

“If I knew I was going to be in a fight in a few days I would absolutely load up in scrolls beforehoof, though. Just like crystals, they’re not completely free to use, but if you can reduce your spell cost by 90%? Heck yeah. But I’m a filthy cheater, so…” he finishes, shrugging.

“Huh… they still sound really useful,” she comments.

“They are, very much so. Situational, though. Again, re-doing them is time consuming. Crystals are better but way more expensive. There’s not a perfect one-shot-solves-all that I can see.”

“I’m honestly more curious about imbuing crystals into things and spreading the effect around. This book doesn’t cover the how-to, but a nice, toasty bed in the winter? Sign me up. Well I think I’m all set here… anypony need to grab anything before we go?”

They did, in fact, have a few other things to grab and Title took all of them to the counter while Vines sought out somepony to help Cure get set up with a library card. Apparently the different libraries do have a network, so he could have actually requested both books be sent to his local library and just picked them up there.

Each library has a catalog of titles available at nearby metro libraries, though it’s typically a month or two old. Of course, that wouldn’t give him the opportunity to poke through them to determine if he wanted them or not.

Still, if he finds a book in the future he need only note the title and publication date and request it locally… or just take the fifteen minute train ride and save several days of waiting, once he’s older. He can also return the books at either library once he’s done.

Carded up, checked out, and ready to depart, the family decides to find something to eat before heading to their last stop of the day.

Early’s Odds ‘n Ends is not a dedicated enchanting store. Apparently there simply is not enough demand for the hobby, even in a major metropolitan area; likely due to the demographics of Baltimare being more heavily tilted towards earth ponies than the other tribes. Instead, it’s a “miscellaneous” arts and crafts store with small areas for everything from woodworking, metalwork, knitting, and so forth.

Fortunately, it still offers all of the supplies one would need to get started in enchanting, and offers to facilitate special orders for “heavier duty” equipment available from Canterlot’s finest enchanting suppliers and as a point of contact to license proprietary enchantments for commercial use.

The catalog is frighteningly small considering the hundreds of years ponies have had to develop the technology, leading Cure to the assumption that “the good stuff” isn’t made publicly available or that his theories about ponies largely stagnating is accurate. A high crime, given the few competing magic-capable creatures on the planet.

“My soul weeps at the lack of progress in society,” he voices out loud while holding the catalog.

Cure is pulled out of his musings by the clerk, an older beige unicorn, asking him to repeat himself. “What’s that son? Find something interesting there?”

“Nothing, sir. I was just pondering on the fact that this catalog says it’s the leading publisher in industrial enchantment licensing, yet I’m only seeing a hundred or so enchantments offered; many of them redundant and competing…” looking over the enchantment that will drive away termites, and only termites, he finishes, “or so specialized I can’t figure out why anypony would need them.”

Couldn’t you just cast the spell in a building and be done? I guess if you want to hire non-unicorns for that one specific job then maybe… assuming you can’t just find a nice, smart group of spiders to pay. Eh… maybe it’s important in the lumber supply industry… like I friggin know anything about that.

“That sounds like a lot to me, young colt. Coming up with new spells and enchantments ain’t as easy as you’d think. Also, those are all patented, so any free-to-use spell makes it kinda pointless to make new ones unless there’s a reason to. Spell development isn’t a very profitable job. Too little demand.”

“Yeah… I guess so. I don’t suppose you know of anypony with a cutie mark in spell creation specifically, do ya?”

“Don’t reckon I do. If I did I’m bettin they’d work at one of the suppliers in that book there, or with the archmages in the capital.”

Nodding slowly, Cure agrees. “You’re probably right… hey mister?”

“Hmm?”

“I know somepony that thinks he may wanna try to make a few bits. He doesn’t have a lot of magic cause he’s my age, but he seems to be able to cast perfectly, even on spells with a lot of runes. Do ya know any more complicated spells offhoof that he could enchant into something, then resell to make some money?”

Pondering on the question for a moment, the clerk looks thoughtful for a moment before grimacing. “Eh… not really. The light ones are pretty easy, but they’re cheap too. They can crank those out by the dozen with a machine. The more complex stuff just doesn’t have the demand, so it’d just sit on the shelf if I stocked ‘em. Sorry, sonny,” he finishes with a shrug.

Thanking the clerk, Cure sets down the catalog and looks over the selection of inks, crystals, parchments, enchanting machines, and book offerings on the subject. All and all they occupy only about two meters of shelf space and, disappointingly, have a very limited number of crystals above the “cantrip” quality. Fortunately, those are only a couple bits each, so with his parents’ permission Cure grabs a dozen.

Also selected; the absolute cheapest piece of trash enchanting machine for 15 bits, a few bottles of rune ink, some rolls of parchment, a few nice quills, and three “low tier” gems advertised as being capable of holding spells up to “Blink” which, in pony land, is a very short range, line-of-sight quick teleport spell.

With a full basket on his withers he finds his mom and dam looking over the sewing supplies, which strikes him as odd because he has no memory of either of them ever touching anything related to sewing.

“Whatchya lookin at?” he asks.

“Oh! Cure, remember we talked about curtains for yer room?”

“Ah… yeah, why? You actually thinkin of getting some or were you two looking at something else?”

“It was a thought. Yer dam was thinking of making a quilt or something for the foal too… I don’t know anything about this stuff, though.”

“Dam?”

Setting down the bundle of yarn she’d been looking at, Vines looks up to her son. “Hmm?”

“If ya wanted something a bit tougher than normal and as soft as silk, literally, I could probably help you find a supplier.”

“What do you mean, sweetie?”

Looking around, Cure sees that the coast is clear. “Gimme a sec,” he whispers. Setting the basket on the ground, he sits on his haunches and touches his left hoof to his right. After a minute of just sitting there he slowly pulls a single, half-centimeter thick, ten centimeter long strand of silk off his hoof and passes it to his dam.

Taking the strand, Vines holds it up to get a better look with Title joining her in staring at it.

Vines examines it for a few seconds before looking at his hoof with widening eyes. “Uhh, honey is that from … you know?”

“Yep. That’s the good stuff right there. You won’t find anything stronger than that in the store. Or probably, any store anywhere. I can give you one of these,” he says, showing his frog with the spinneret, “in your hoof pretty easily. I’ll admit, it’s kinda weird, but hey, whatever works,” he finishes, shrugging.

“Huh…” Title mutters, pondering. “You could make one heck of a blanket outta that.”

“Yep, and that stuff is insanely strong, too. That thickness right there? You could tie that around a branch and all of us could swing from it and it would hold. Probably several times over, in fact. It may cut yer hoof off with all that weight in a small spot, though, so don’t try that.”

“Why isn’t it sticky?”

“It’s a different kinda webbing. I’ve seen a couple dozen types of spiders, but not all of them are web weavers. Huh… Weaver. Ironic. Anyhow, I would just buy some dyes and whatever equipment ya need and we can supply the silk. You’ll just need to eat a bit extra for the protein and I’ll need to make the changes. There’s a little more than just the skin part since materials need to get there and all.”

“Thanks, sweetie. That sounds like a wonderful idea. Now we just need to find your sire.”

“Really?” he asks, amazed that this, of all things, is something she’s okay with. Mumbling under his breath he walks out of the aisle. “Freak out over a friggin horn but spider parts are just fine ‘n dandy huh. Whatever.”

Deed was actually by the woodworking supplies, looking over anything he thought he may need for the foal on the way. He came up empty, so Cure wasn’t sure if it was just an excuse to go look at tools or if there was actually something he thought they needed.

Finalizing everypony’s selection, the family checks out and makes their way to the train station, done with shopping and visiting the city for the day.

After arriving home everypony takes turns hitting up the facilities while putting everything away.

It is only a few minutes later while Vines is preparing some of the garden produce for dinner that somepony knocks on the door. With his sire helping his dam and Title upstairs Cure opens the door, surprised to find five pegasi on the other side. Cure is happy to see Glacial Breeze, and surprised to see that Wind Shear convinced her sister and, presumably, her dam to come. On the mare’s back is a sleeping smaller filly that Cure assumes is the youngest sister he hasn’t met yet. She looks to only be four or five.

“Hello, everypony,” he happily greets, assuming the white mare with her foal sleeping on her back isn’t here to yell at or murder him. Wind clearly got her colors, as they both have the same golden mane, but Wind has a slightly darker colored off-white coat compared to the nearly pure-white that her dam has.

She takes the awkwardly silent moment to introduce herself. “Cure Wave, right?” At his nod she continues, “I’m Thunder Dance, Wind and Crosswind’s dam. Are your parents home? I’d like to apologize for the other night if they’re available.

He motions into the house saying, “Sure, come on in. My dam and sire are in the kitchen, one sec.”

Trotting over, Cure pokes his head in. “Dam, dad, we have some company,” he says before relaying the details.

Fetching a few guest mats for everypony, Cure quickly rearranges the living room while his parents get to a stopping point. Title comes down the stairs, sees everypony in the living room, and glances back and forth between them and the kitchen a few times before finally deciding to join the family with a huff.

Once introductions are done Thunder Dance explains, “I wanted to apologize for the way everypony acted that night. I feel at least somewhat responsible for my husband’s behavior. I should have stayed calm instead of yelling and demanding an explanation as soon as I landed. Tailwind simply overreacted from there and everything went to Tartarus.”

Giving her oldest daughter a nudge she shoots her an expectant look. Wind takes the hint, following suit, “Yeah, I’m sorry too. Me ‘n Cure bumped into each other the day before yesterday. We talked a bit. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Cure takes the opportunity to bring some levity to the situation. “Wind, honey? Didn’t you tell your dam about our plans? We just got back from Baltimare after looking for good venues all day. There’s a really nice park near the zoo that would be perfect!” he gleefully explains while clapping his hooves.

Title barks out a laugh before covering her face, Deed doesn’t react at all, and Vines just lets out a sigh.

Wind turns beet red, something that her off-white coat doesn’t hide at all.

Turning to look at his sire, Cure waves a hoof at her explaining, “See in reality she was just following me home ta meet the ‘rents, yanno? Well with her bein a military foal and all she needed to make sure I wasn’t some wuss before she took that step,” sitting up to strike a pose he explains, “but once I showed her I’m a stallion’s stallion we started meeting up for little treats and to make plans for our future together.” Finished with his story he lays back down and waggles his eyebrows at the older filly.

Thunder barks out a deep laugh at her daughter’s color, ignoring the gaping bewildered expression on Crosswind and Glacial. Fortunately the foal must be a heavy sleeper because she never even stirs.

“Oh, stars… you weren’t joking about him, I see,” she says poking at Wind Shear again. Looking to Cure and his parents she explains, “Wind said he’s got a way with words. Crosswind, honey? Glacial? Don’t you both have something to say?”

Both snap out of their daze, then glance at Thunder before it registers what she said. They turn to face Cure and say “I’m sorry” at the same time.

Waving a hoof, Cure says, “Nah you two don’t owe me an apology. I could tell neither of you wanted to be there. I get it, peer pressure is a thing. Don’t waste another second worryin about it, any of you.”

Looking to Thunder he says, “I can understand that you were not happy having to go hunt down your daughters when they were supposed to be somewhere else and, instead, finding one of them being pinned and stood on by some colt you don’t know.”

“I hope you and your husband both realize how escalating the situation like that didn’t do anypony any good. Nopony came out a winner that night,” he solemnly adds. “That being said, we all make mistakes. I accept your apology, ma’am, and hope we can all still be friends.”

“The colt’s right. It happened, nopony got hurt. I say we all move on as long as your husband feels the same way,” Deed agrees.

“That’s fair, and you’re right. Tailwind was absolutely mortified at his behavior, I assure you. He would have come to apologize in pony, but the sarge told him to keep his distance for a while, then he got sent down to Fort Meadow. Sarge told me to stay away too, but after Cure met with Wind he gave me permission to come talk to you all. That was very sweet of you, Cure.”

Looking to the girls she calls for them to get up. “I think that’s all we wanted to say tonight. I think Cure and his parents were just about to eat dinner. We should let them get to it.” Turning back she wishes them all a good evening.

Cure follows them out, asking if Crosswind and Glacial can stay for a moment. With a wave Wind Shear and Thunder Dance both take off, heading for home.

“Hey, I’m glad you two are alright,” Cure starts, “I was really worried you were in trouble or something, but I had no way to reach out to anypony until I bumped into Wind. Literally, almost.”

He can tell that both girls still seem kind of down about everything, so he asks, “What’s wrong? Why are you both upset?”

“We went with them, Cure. How are you not mad at us?” Glacial asks.

“Easily. Did you want to?” Both shake their heads no immediately. “Did you feel like ya had to go because you were told to stay with ‘em and cause they’re older?” Both nod slowly. “Then why would I be mad at ya? I didn’t even get hurt or anything. Come here,” he says, sitting on his haunches and holding his forelegs up.

Both girls step into the hug, relaxing with a foreleg wrapped around their withers. “Jeez, you both really let this upset ya, huh? I guess Wind did too, but you two did nothing wrong. Y’all are acting like somepony got hurt when the only pony that actually had anything bad happen is Drift’s sire. How’s he doing, by the way?”

“He’s okay. He gets to come home on the weekends starting next week. Dam ripped him a new one that night, so you don’t have to worry. He’s really sorry too,” Crosswind explains.

“Alright, you’re both soft and warm with those feathers, so as much as I enjoy the hug yer gonna make me fall asleep if we stay here much longer.”

Breaking off the hug with smiles, both girls seem like they’re feeling a little better.

“Good! That’s much better. So, Glacial… Crystal Pony heritage? Did your parents know?”

Glacial grows visibly excited at the topic, her wings lifting slightly off her back as she explains, “Yep, my dam was amazed anypony my age even knows what a crystal pony is! She talked about how some evil sorcerer banished it away over a thousand years ago. Every so often a crystal pony will just kind of show up somewhere, not sure how they got there. That’s what happened to her great granddam about a sixty years ago.”

“Ah. No wonder the trait is still showing up. I wonder if Crystal Ponies had any special abilities like how unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies do. Is your dam able to do crystal magic at all? I’d love to use my special talent to see if I can spot anything but I didn’t wanna sound like a weirdo.”

“The same thing you used to find my bruise?” At Cure’s nod Drift asks, “Why would that be weird? It’s your special talent.” After a few seconds of thought she asks, “Wait, how would you tell if she can do different magic like that? I thought you could tell if ponies were sick or hurt.”

“I can, but I can also tell if there’s something wrong or different with a pony compared to what is normal. As far as not asking to use my talent, after the whole “I saw your chest” thing I figured I shouldn’t ask. Honestly that whole thing makes no sense to me since I can literally see your chest right now. I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable around me.”

With blushing ears Drift faces away and mumbles something under her breath.

“Huh?” Cure asks.

Turning back to the colt she admits, “It’s ‘cause you saw under my coat,” with her ears turning almost crimson. Cure imagines the rest of her is glowing too, but her darker purple coat makes it impossible to tell.

“Drift? Look at me.” Slowly she meets his eyes and he explains, “I’ve used my talent on like fifteen ponies already. I’m going to be a doctor someday. In my life I will literally see beneath thousands of ponies’ coats. Is there really anything you should feel embarrassed about? I promise I’ll always be professional when it comes to that stuff anyhow.”

“No… I guess not. Thanks Cure.”

“Sure. You wanna know how I even found out about that? It’s a funny story, sorta. Well, now it is… not so much at the time.” At her nod he starts, “So I had literally just got my cutie mark a few minutes prior and my sire says something about his shoulder. Well I’m like,” with crossed eyes and in a goofy voice he says “Hey pa, lemme get a peek at that thar shoulder, okie dokie? Hyuck!” getting a giggle from both girls. Back in his normal voice he continues, “So I put my hooves on my sire’s shoulder, use my talent, and guess what I get to see…”

At both girls curious shrugs he adopts a horrified, thousand yard stare and slowly says, “I. Saw. Everything.” and does an exaggerated full-bodied shudder from his head all the way down his tail, getting laughs from both girls. “Dad, being the massive goof he is, thought it was hilarious that the first time I used my talent on another pony it showed me that. It was not what I thought a first time special talent experience would be.”

“So don’t worry. You weren't the first pony I used it on, and there’ll be thousands more before too long.” Turning back to Glacial he again asks, “So, my lovely Azure Flame, does your dam have any fancy crystal pony magic that she’s ever found?”

With pinked ears Glacial shakes her head no. “Not that I know of. Should she? Should I?”

“No clue,” he says with a shrug, “it’s been over a thousand years so only the princess would probably know for sure. You should write her a letter. Really, she’d probably be happy to hear from a legitimate crystal pony in her kingdom. I think she was really good friends with the princess of the Crystal Empire if my history is right. I bet she met with yer great, great granddam when she was found. She may even remember her. Who knows, maybe she’ll write back,” he finishes with a shrug.

“Okay. If you do use your talent, can you tell me?”

“Not instantly. It lets me very easily see if somepony is sick or injured, but it’s like I have to sit and analyze and compare results to try to find anything that's just slightly different but not actually harmful. It's like unicorn medical scans."

"If you do write a letter I would ask that you not say anything about me other than “a friend who knew a little history” please. I don’t know if this is a pegasi thing, but I’ve been warned by other earth ponies about nobles searching out foals with useful talents. I don't want some noble thinkin that a commoner earth pony is intruding on what they see as a unicorn's ability.”

“But… the princess would never do anything bad!” Drift yells.

Waving placatingly, Cure agrees with a nod. “Oh, I know. But she probably doesn’t read all her mail herself. She gets so much I bet a lot gets screened by others. That’s why I said maybe she’ll write back. She’s so busy, ya know…”

Nodding in understanding, Glacial says, “I’ve never heard that, but most nobles are unicorns, so…”

“They can’t even get to you. One could just pluck me off the ground though,” Cure explains. Both girls look absolutely horrified at the idea.

Drift’s expression morphs into an angry scowl a few seconds later. “They better not even try!” she growls out, stomping the ground like a bull about to charge while her wings lift slightly in agitation.

“You’re very brave, Drift, but if you ever see something like that remember, get help before you give help. Strength in numbers. And like I told your sister, use your speed. Mobility is a pegasus’ best friend, after all.”

“Oh… yeah. Good points.”

Interrupting their aside, Glacial holds her hoof out. “Go ahead,” she insists. “Just let me know if you can figure something out.”

“Are you sure?” Cure takes her hoof once she nods, activating his talent. “Hmm… I don’t see anything aside from that lovely, unique pigmentation in your coat. That’s the thing with our abilities, though. We’re magical creatures, so some of what we can do is not based on biology. Take my talent, for example,” he explains, “it’s not like I have a special organ in my body that scans ponies and tells me what’s wrong.”

“Of course it may be that a crystal pony is just like the rest of us, just colored a little different. The problem is that there’s so few I bet nopony has really looked into it." Thinking back to earlier he adds, "Maybe you could ask the library staff next time you’re over in Baltimare. There has to be some books on the subject. Sorry if yer disappointed, Glacial.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I might just do that… check with the library. Thanks Cure.”

“Sure, no problem,” he says when his stomach decides to interrupt. With a sheepish look he shrugs and says, “We were just about to eat. Have you both had dinner?”

“Yep, we ate a little before sissy saw you getting off the train. Once she told dam you were back we all came over.” At his raised eyebrow she explains, “We came a few hours ago and you weren’t home. Your dam’s bright mane is easy to see from far away, that’s how sissy spotted you.”

“Meh, that’s true. Between my mom’s pink and purple and dam’s green and yellow, not to mention how dark my sire is, I’m sure we’re easy to spot from several kilometers away. If ya ever see me running around just swoop down and say hey.”

“Okay.”
“Sure thing, Cure.”

“Alright ladies, I’ma go grab some grub. It was really great seeing you both, though, and I’m super glad we can put that whole mess behind us. Come visit sometime and we’ll go get some treats at Lemon Sweet’s candy store. I foalsit for her and her wife, so she’s always tellin me to bring my friends by.”

“We will! Bye, Cure!”
“Later, Cure!”

Waving to the two, he watches as they take off to the east, flying out of sight after just a moment. Trotting back in the house he joins the family, two-thirds of whom waited for his return before digging in.

“Sorry dam, dad…” he says, hopping up on his chair across from his sire. He takes an amused look at his mom on his right while she stuffs her face with abandon. Quickly eating his dinner in silence, he looks over to her again. Unable to stop from smiling at the pink mare, who’s still going to town on some spinach, he asks, “Hey mom, how’s the salad?”

“Isgood.”

“Yeah? Ya think it would be better with some truffles in it?”

Vines snorts and quickly covers her face with a napkin. Deed bites his lip to stay quiet.

“I guess, maybe diced?” Title suggests.

“You guess? I thought you really liked truffles. Weird. Well if you’re interested, I’ve got a riddle you may know the answer to.”

“Hrm?”

“What’s pink, has four hooves, and is known for its eating habits?” he asks with barely concealed laughter. Vines doesn’t react beyond stilling but Deed watches, wide eyed, with a strange combination of terror and amusement.

Stopping mid-bite she slowly sets down her utensils and scowls at the nearly vibrating colt. “Are you… calling me a pig, Cure?”

With an exaggerated gasp he holds his hooves to his chest. “What?! No! Why would you even say such a horrible thing?” he asks, then starts slowly sliding another bowl of food towards her. “Here, mom, have some more oink.”

Title looks at the bowl, then meets Cure’s eyes. “... Oink?” she asks, a single eyebrow hiking upwards.

“Oh, did I get the pronunciation wrong?”

Glaring hot death at the colt, Title says nothing.

“Sorry, I barely speak any of your nativ-”

Launching herself across the corner of the table, Title pounces at him just as he bodily throws himself to the side. “Get back here you lil cretin!” she shouts as Cure dives under the table and runs past his sire, sticking his tongue out at the mare.

Deed wisely moves to get out of his wife’s way with all due haste.

“Momentum’s not yer friend, huh ma?!” Cure shouts over his withers, darting back and forth to keep the table between them. “Oh no! She’s gonna pen me in!” he yells, running into the living room. Backing up near the wall, he looks up to his mom and asks, “Would it help if I said I’m sow-wy?”

Vines just ignores them and continues eating with a sigh. “Every damned meal…”