Monday, September 1st, 908 AB

"He's laying down right now. He doesn't seem sick or anything but he was staring off into nowhere every time I took my eyes off him at the market."

Title Search cut up the carrots and swept them into the saucepan. "Honestly he's been off for the last few days. You don't think he has a little crush on some filly do you? Maybe he got into an argument with one of his friends?"

Vines pauses for a moment and considers those possibilities. "No… I don't think I've seen him show any interest in anypony in particular. His friend Heavy was over a few days ago and they got on like peppers and onions, so I don't know about anypony fighting or anything."

Title looks out the back window for a moment. "Well it looks like he was doing something with your melon patch. Nothing obvious is wrong with it. Maybe he wants to help regrow what you sold today,” she says while shrugging. After putting enough water in the pan to cover the carrots she sets them on the burner. “These carrots are already kind of tender. I don’t think they’ll need to boil too long. How much longer does the bread have?”

Checking the oven and looking at the timer, Vines replies, “It should be ready to come out of the oven in about 20 minutes, so about 30 to cool enough to eat maybe.”

“Mmm I love your dam’s zucchini bread recipe. This is why I hate cooking. I feel like I had lunch just a little bit ago and being around food has me ready to eat again. And don’t tell me it’s because I’m eating for two. If that’s the case I must have been pregnant for almost my entire adult life.”

“Well I don’t know what you and Deed got into then because ponies don’t take that long, sweetheart.”

“You know exactly what we got into, you were there!”

Reddening slightly at the response, Vines looks back to the oven. “Someone had to provide moral support…” she giggles before continuing, “for him!”

Menacingly waving the coiled dish towel, Title takes aim at Vines' rear. “I’ll give you moral support, ya evil nag!”

“Not while cooking!” Vines yells, holding her hooves out. Putting her hooves back down after Title lowers the towel, she growls out lowly, “maybe later, though.”

Winking back at her, Title considers for a moment and asks, “Have you just directly asked him what’s wrong? You know how stallions are and colts are no better. Subtlety and nuance are mysterious concepts to them,” she says while waving her hooves about very mysteriously. “If he wants to tell you what’s going on he will. If he doesn’t then you’re no worse off,” she finishes, waving dismissively.

Vines mulled that over for a bit. Really, Cure had always been quiet at home. Chatty as all get out around his friends, but very well behaved in the house, likely from being an only child who can’t get in trouble and blame a sibling. Still, Title was probably right, and dinner was as good a time as any to find out what was bothering him.

A few minutes later Deed gets home. After the standard “home from work” ritual (a long, groan-inducing urine/pent-up fart release, then a good scrub of the face and hooves) he joined the conversation. “Smells good in here, ladies.” He leans over and nips Vines’ ear and gives her a kiss on her cheek. “Dinner smells delicious too. How’s my little dandelion been today?”

Giggling and squirming against her stallion, Vines breaks away. “Oh stop it. Save that for later, tiger. We were just talking about Cure and the funk he’s been in all week.”

After filling him in on the details of the day Deed can’t help but agree. “Yeah, you know us stallions. Beating around the bush and being all coy about stuff isn’t really our speed. I’ll go wake up the little stallion and we’ll talk it out over dinner.”

“Okay, honey. Vines and I will get the table set. You go fetch your colt.”

Deed heads upstairs, and gives Cure’s door a soft knock. When there’s no response he opens the door and heads in. The curtains are drawn, but enough light from Celestia’s sun sneaks in through the middle that he can easily make out his light-coated child. Moseying over to the bed he leans down and gives a gentle nuzzle-nudge to wake him up.

“Hey there son. The mares just about have dinner ready. Time to get up and get some food in ya. You don’t want to sleep too long anyhow, otherwise you won’t be able to go to sleep tonight.”

Cure wakes up with a muzzle-splitting yawn and cracks his eyes open just as his sire steps back and pulls one of the curtains slightly open. It’s not enough of a light level change to blind him, but he still lets out a groan and rolls over, facing his back to the window and his father.

“C’mon little Wavey. It’s time for din din,” Deed says as he gently grabs Cure by his scruff. He shakes the colt around just a little, then puts his forehooves up on the bed. “I guess we’ll have to resort to extreme measures then,” he fake-laments. “Well what’s this?” he asks as he licks his chops. “I don’t need to go downstairs to eat after all. There’s a big ‘ol belly that I can just gobble right up all cooked and ready for me!”

His eyes shoot wide open, but before Cure has a chance to roll away he’s snatched up, rolled onto his back, and pinned by his sire’s forelegs.

With an enormous “PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT” Deed gives Cure a big, wet, flappy-lipped raspberry, right on his soft tummy.

“AHHH! DAD! HAHAHAHA! NO, STOP! AHH HAHAHAH I’M GONNA PEE!”

Like most fathers, Deed learned long ago that, though it typically is, sometimes “I’m going to pee” is NOT a bluff. Given that the colt just woke up he figures it’s probably best not to roll the dice on that one. “Well, I don’t feel like cleaning up a mess, so hurry and hit the potty then wash up and get down there. Your dam and mom have worked hard to get dinner ready and I’m hungry enough to eat a timberwolf. Gonna need more than some colt belly to get me through the night.” He flings the curtains open the rest of the way and heads back down to join his wives.

A few minutes later the plates are set and the entire household is ready to dine. Dinner is not a formal affair for the family, though the typical “Chew with your mouth shut, don’t talk while eating, etc.” rules still apply. The table is surrounded by “chairs” that are more like the seat and backrest of a human chair, just turned around with no legs attached. They’re tall enough that adults can sit on the flat part that’s on the cushioned part resting on the ground, while the top is a cushion that an adult pony can lean against with their upper barrel, lower chest area, keeping most of their weight on their haunches. There’s a part that extends further forward from where the chest rest attaches that keeps ponies from tilting over when leaning, though the chest rest is typically set to be tall enough to just touch the table, which is secured to the floor. This frees up their forehooves for using utensils or reaching for food. Cure has a smaller version that’s boosted up for him to reach the table. Once everyone is situated and digging in, Vines finally decides to bring up her concerns.

“Cure, honey… We’re a little worried that something has you upset. You’ve been a bit distant the last few days and, instead of beating around the bush or ignoring what’s going on, we decided it would be best to just ask if you’d like to talk about it.”

Deed gave Cure a small smile, “Yeah, son. I’ve been at work later than normal the last few days and even I can tell. That pillow wasn’t dry and as best I can tell you don’t drool like somepony at this table that shall remain unnamed.”

“I don’t drool…” Title bashfully whispers, her ears pinned back. The two other adults look at her with pity, “... much. I don’t drool that much. I’ve been dreaming about food a lot lately. It’s your fault!” she declares, pointing at Deed, “and you don’t help having the house smell like food all the time,” she says as she shifts the hoof to Vines.

After a few laughs all three adults quiet down and watch patiently as their son stops mid-chew, does a swallow so thick you’d think he was forcing down a hoof-sized pill, and shrinks in his seat with his ears pinned back. Aside from some quiet chewing and the gentle scrapes of utensils on plates there’s no noise for a solid ten seconds.

Cure finally seems to gather his nerve and sits back up in his seat. He is almost shaking with anxiety, but he also looks to be ready to share what is going on.

“You know what. That’s fair. I think if I were in your shoes I would probably want to talk it out too. I’m just worried that it’s kind of a dinner-ruiner… and I know you both worked hard on dinner tonight. Are you sure you don’t want to wait until we’re done?”

Vines stops eating and moves around the table with Title and Deed following only a split second later. Cure found himself buried in pony fuzz, face smushed between Vines’ and Title’s chests with Deed on the side, forehooves wrapped around all of them.

Deed leaned into the PonyPile Standing Edition, patent pending, and gently said, “Oh come on now, Cure. Whatever’s eating you can’t be all that bad. You didn’t accidentally hurt somepony did you? I haven’t heard from any other parents or anything. You can tell us. We won’t be mad atcha.”

Choking back a sob, Cure finally lets out a barked laugh. “HAH! Oh I think I needed that. Okay, okay… this is nice, but air is going to help if you want me to talk. C’mon, eat up and I’ll… well, I’ll do the best I can here. I can’t say I’ve prepared for this as much as I would like to. Or at all, really. Though honestly this feels like one of those “the longer you wait to say something the harder it is to say” kind of deals.”

Catching a few more nuzzles as the adults go back to their seats, Cure settles down and considers how best to explain.

“So, the first thing I would like to ask is that you hear me out completely. What I’m going to tell you isn’t going to be easy, either to tell or, likely, to hear. I don’t want anypony running off to the guard, calling a head-doctor, or summoning some kind of archmage to see if I’m under a curse or something, okay?”

“Uhh, to be honest, sport, I’m a tiny bit hesitant to make those promises all of a sudden. I think the first part’s fine, though. We’ll hear you out, but if you’re about to tell us you’re growing a second head or something we may need to call in some help with that.” Looking to his wives for backup, Deed gets hesitant nods. “If our doing nothing won’t lead to you or somepony else getting hurt then I think we can agree with that. Is that good enough?”

“Yeah, that’s fine," Cure nods. "Okay, first off, let me ask if you’ve ever heard a few terms that will save us all a lot of time. I have my doubts on this one, but how about Multiverse Theory? Have you ever heard that mentioned before?” At the head shakes to the negative Cure continued. “Well to put it simply, Multiverse Theory is, obviously, a theory that whenever something CAN possibly happen there’s a universe out there where it has. The simplest version that comes to mind would be if you come to a crossroad and decide to go left,” he says, waving a hoof to his left side. “According to the Multiverse Theory, there exists a Universe or a Reality where you went right instead," he helpfully points the other way. "That means that, again in theory, there are universes that are almost exactly like this one because most of the same things happened as they did here. There’s also universes that are so completely different you would never recognize them if you could see them. Is everyone with me so far?” he asks, looking from pony to pony.

Title was the only one that chose to speak up at that point. “I think we get the general idea, Cure. Though I have a hard time picturing how that would look,” she replies as Vines and Deed nod.

“Well, the easiest way to imagine it would probably be to pick one of your favorite stories. I’m sure you’ve read a book or two and thought “I wonder what would have happened if the main character did THIS” instead of what they actually did do. The original story would be the main universe or, “canon” universe is the term I’m familiar with, and the other where they took whatever action you thought about would be the alternative universe. Does that make it easier to follow?” he asks, looking around again. He summarizes with, “Canon is the original timeline from the story, AU is the alternative universe with the different choices or just things going sideways from the normal story.”

“Yeah, I’m following you, son. I do that every day when I read the newspaper. I swear I don’t know what ponies are thinking sometimes, especially when you see somepony getting arrested for something stupid just to make an extra bit or two.”

Emphasizing his father’s idea, Cure points a hoof at his sire saying, “Right! Good example. Somepony did something dumb and got caught and you read about it in the paper. If we accept that this Multiverse Theory could be true then there’s another universe, or just another Equus, where that pony didn’t commit the crime. No crime, no arrest, no article in the paper. Everything else throughout history was the same to that point, just that one choice was different. Now think about all the changes that result from that one single decision and imagine if more important decisions or events in our history were just a little different. Or, a lot different.” He pauses for them to catch up with him, then adds “I keep saying choice, but maybe the difference is some random event that wasn’t the result of a conscious choice by somepony… like a bad storm that formed by chance in one universe and not the other and hit a town before the weather ponies could respond.”

Growing concerned with where this conversation might be headed, Vines finally asks, “Okay, I think we get the idea there… Now, please tell me how this fits into you being all mopey the last couple days, honey.”

“Well one more term I need to throw out there, and this is one I think you’ve probably heard.” He pauses and takes a deep breath before simply saying, “Reincarnation. Have you heard of that before?”

“Son, I … uhh… I’ve gotta be honest here. I’m starting to get that “call an archmage” itch down in my hooves about now. What are you trying to say, exactly?”

Holding his hooves up to stop any interruption, Cure explains, “I want you all to know that I love you very much. You are still my parents and my family, but over the last few days I’ve been remembering things that happened to me before I was born. And no, I don’t mean while you were pregnant with me, dam.” Cure paused at Deed’s quiet “Oh thank Celestia” and gave him a disgusted look. He wasn’t the only one and Deed shrank a bit under Vines’ withering stare. “I REALLY don’t want to think about that time now, thank you father.” Looking back to his dam with wilted ears and watering eyes he finishes, “I mean I have memories of a life previous to this one… from the time I was four or so until… well, until the day I think I passed.”

Utter silence reigned in the house for a solid minute. In that time Cure counted no less than a dozen times where one adult or another would look like they were going to say something, pause, do that “look up and to the side, head tilt” thinking thing, and then repeat the process.

Finally, feeling exhaustion setting in all over again, he decided it was best to break the silence. “That’s why I’ve been mopey. From my perspective… a few days ago I was in the hospital. I watched my wife of 22 years die from a virus that destroyed her respiratory system while I was in the next bed over in the same room dying from it myself. I…” the tears started, and the sniffling began, “ I haven’t even had time to mourn her,” he adds as he chokes out a sob and lays his head on the table. “We were so sick and in the same room and the doctors and nurses all came running in when her heart monitor flat-lined and they told me they couldn’t bring her back after working on her for nearly an hour trying to push oxygen into her lungs and forcing chest compressions to keep her heart going, but that virus wrecked her lungs so bad she couldn’t get enough air no matter what they did and I was so weak by then all I could do was just sit there and watch until they finally told me there was nothing they co… could do and my Cyndi,” sniffling and sobbing his eyes out he finishes, “Cyndi was gone forevererer!” As the words finally left his mouth Cure broke down into wailing sobs, once again wrapped in a fuzzy embrace, this time it was Deed that he was facing with forehooves wrapped around his father’s neck, with a loving mare on each side.

“Oh my poor baby! Let it all out sweetheart. I can’t believe you’ve been holding that hurt in for days now! Don’t you worry about us at all, we’ll always love you! You’ll always be my little colt, no matter what!” Vines cries out while wrapping around her son.

Title broke off first, sitting on her haunches just beside the others. With a grimace she explains, “I’ve read fantasy stories where things like this happened. I gotta be honest, they never really went into that aspect of the situation. I mean, you don’t really think about it when you’re reading the story, but it… I don’t even know what to say. You poor thing…” she says as she puts a comforting hoof on his side. “I can’t even imagine…”

After a full minute of sobbing, Cure finally gets himself under some semblance of control. Giving his father a pat on the back - or more on the side of his neck because he’s still so small - he gets set back down. “I was about five months short of forty eight when it happened. About six months prior there was an outbreak of this virus. They were calling it a global pandemic. Millions were getting sick.”

“Ohhh… that’s why you brought up the whole Mutiverse thing. We’ve never had anything like that happen. This… you didn’t live on this Equus, did you?” Title asked.

“No. It wasn’t Equus at all. It was a completely different universe, as best I can tell. That or a planet so far away it might as well be. And…” he hesitated, looking at his parents, “well, no easy way to say it. I was not a pony.”

“Huh.” Deed contributed to the conversation. He scrunches his brows together and looks up in thought. “Can’t imagine what that must be like.” Looking back down he half-asks, “If you weren’t a pony then…”

Answering the unasked question, Cure begins, “The scientific name of my species was Homo Sapiens. Physically the closest being I know of on this planet is minotaurs… actually, maybe Diamond Dogs, but they’re still not very close at all. Humans, at least the kind I was, are an evolved primate. Our ancient ancestors were some kind of ape. The world was completely different too. Magic does not exist aside from in our fantasy stories. What’s weird is that thousands of years ago there was this one civilization that had myths surrounding a number of the creatures that exist on this planet. Minotaurs, unicorns, griffons, pegasus, and a number of non-sapient creatures were all myth and legend back there. Dragons were too, but they were usually the evil monster that had to be slain to save the village. They appeared in fantasy stories from a number of cultures across the planet. I’m pretty sure that this world is somehow tied to that one or maybe there’s some bleed-over to specific individuals, at least. It’s not like anyone has ever found an ancient skeleton to prove that anything from Equus ever made it to Earth, so who knows. Maybe they could get a peek into this world from their dreams or something and thought they just imagined everything.”

“Wait, the planet is called Earth? Like, ya know, earth ponies?” he asks, waving around the room. "You didn’t mention us. Are we myths there too?" Deed asked.

“No, not myths. Reality. There are ponies on Earth. They’re physically shaped the same as we are, mostly, but they are not intelligent. The only creatures on the planet that are sapient are humans. Ponies on Earth are equines, so … you know, four hooves, tail, mane, etcetera, but their muzzles are longer and their eyes are a little smaller and more towards the side of their heads than front-facing. There’s another animal on Earth that’s very similar to a pony, just quite a bit larger called a horse.”

“There used to be horses on Equus tens of thousands of years ago,” Deed nods in recognition. “They went extinct as far as we know. They sound like what you’re describing; face, eyes, and all that. They were just wild animals,” Deed explained, “though they could be our distant ancestors like you said apes are to humans,” he finishes with a shrug.

“Are they basically shaped the same as us, just like… way bigger?” At everypony’s nod he continued, “Well on Earth there’s a bunch of different breeds of both horses and ponies, just like there’s a bunch of different kinds of dogs here. Horses were used for labor; pulling carts, dragging farming plows, or even rode on as mounts since they’re quite a bit bigger and can run a lot faster than humans can. Humans aren’t physically very strong, so when they needed to pull something they would put a harness on a horse and latch them to the wagon. What’s weird is that the wagons humans used are shaped like the one you use to go to the market, dam. I guess if it works in one universe it works in another, huh?”

Smiling slightly while looking at her mates, Vines thinks aloud, “I have to admit I have mixed feelings about my son comparing me to a huge, dumb, animal.” She then broke down laughing at the absurdity of the whole situation. Cure cringed away when she glanced his way. “I’m sorry, Cure. You know I’m just trying to get what laughs I can out of the situation. I’m not upset, really, just teasing you a bit.”

“I know, dam.” He bodily leaned against her while explaining, “It’s a lot to take in. Like, it’s more to take in than I think you’ve probably have to deal with ever. I don’t even know where to start and I’m not even telling you the really, REALLY bizarre part. I’m not sure if I should because then you might feel compelled to do something, but I don’t know if doing something would make things better or worse in the long run.” Cure mulls it over for a few moments, then shrugs. “I guess since there’s no immediate answers there’s probably no harm in at least sharing some of it with you, though. When I said I think this world and my old one must be connected, I mean that we have stories of THIS world, “ he says, pointing down for emphasis, “at least I think, on Earth. We have stories of earth ponies, unicorns, pegasus, and alicorns from Equestria. I… well, we had different, more advanced technology, so let me simplify by saying that we viewed plays about and read stories about what I think is this world. They took place in the future.”

Title grimaced at the thought. “Oh wow. Now that right there is a whole different kind of mess. I don’t know much about actual time travel, but it’s basically always bad news in any story I’ve seen about it. Wait, you said alicorns. We only have one princess, though…”

“If I’m right then Princess Celestia is the only alicorn right now, but Nightmare Moon is actually, sort of, an alicorn as well. Nightmare Moon is Princess Luna, Celestia’s sister, who was possessed by some kind of evil shadow creature. She was upset because her sister got all the love and attention of their little ponies for, like, decades or centuries or something. Somehow, she was possessed by a shadow thing that transformed her into Nightmare Moon. She then attacked Celestia to try to overthrow her and bring eternal night, but Celestia used an ancient artifact as a last-ditch effort to imprison her without having to kill her. It sent her to the moon. She’ll break free in about 90 years at the 1000th anniversary on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration. She’ll end up being cleansed of the Nightmare by that same artifact, this time wielded by somepony other than Princess Celestia, and she’ll return to rule with her sister as Princess Luna, warden of the moon and protector of dreams.”

“Wow, that is not the version of the story that I heard in school.”

“I know, dad. It’s been over 900 years, though. I’m willing to bet a very large portion of what happened almost a millennium ago is quite a bit different from what’s in the history books. This one’s pretty easy to figure out though. What’s Equestria’s flag look like?”

“A white and dark blue alicorn encircling the sun and crescent moon… wait. The blue one is her sister?”

“Yep, that’s Princess Luna. I don’t think their names were Luna and Celestia before they ascended, by the way. From what I think I read they had normal pony names beforehoof.”

“Ascended?”

“Uhh… they weren’t always alicorns?” Cure hesitantly kind of explained-slash-asked.

“The princess was always an alicorn, honey,” Vines corrected.

“Well, that may be. I admit, just like the different choices in the story we talked about earlier, there are different versions of these stories about Equestria. In some of them they were born as unicorns or pegasus and ascended when they… well, basically, they did something everypony thought was impossible that had never been done before. The story I remember had Celestia raising the sun by herself where before it took like a dozen unicorns. Luna ascended when, as a pegasus, she wanted to touch the stars and flew higher than any pegasus ever has before and somehow was infused with the power of the moon. I’m honestly less sure about Luna’s ascension stories. She was banished for 1000 years so she has less history readily available. Either way, I am almost 100% sure that a pony can become an alicorn under the right circumstances because Celestia and Luna are not the only alicorns in the future. Two other ponies ascend and one of those has a foal that’s also an alicorn.”

“Well I’m not too sure that digging too deep into the princess’ history is really the best way to verify what you’ve seen of the future is true. We can certainly check the library or make a trip to Baltimare and check there, but I don’t know if drawing a bunch of attention would be a good idea. Title you’re the best with that kind of stuff, what do you think?” Deed asked.

“Every filly goes through a princess phase, so I don’t think it will be a big deal if we check out a few books next time we get the opportunity. And I’ll never say no to a weekend trip to Baltimare, you know that. The shopping alone beats anything we have around here!”

With an eye roll, Cure looks at his father and complains, “Females and shopping. Another constant. Have they always dragged you along and asked your opinion on every item with the occasional trap question like “Does this make me look fat?” or “Do I look good in this?””

“Hey!” sounds out in stereo while Deed barks out a laugh.

“Oh wow, that right there makes me believe your story more than anything about the princess,” Deed nods. “That look can only come from a stallion that’s been dragged around a shopping plaza a few times.”

“Yeah, I would go shopping with Cyndi and McKynzie a lot, especially when Kynzie hit her teenage years. We made a day out of it. Josh… our son… he didn’t always want to join in, and who could blame him? Anyhow, I’d make a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, and buttered toast with a little brown sugar and cinnamon on it. We’d head to the mall when it was opening around 10, spend a few hours shopping, get barely-edible food at the food court, then go a few more hours before I finally threw in the towel and we packed it up and headed home.” Cure shot a big shit-eating grin to his father and added, “If I was a good boy and didn’t complain then Cyndi would reward me later,” he finishes with a huge smile, tail wagging behind him.

Vines nearly choked, Title burst out laughing, and Deed gave a sage nod to his son. “Sounds like you knew how to handle your mare, son. Respect.” One bro-hoof later they both broke down, Vines still looking quite torn between the two of them.

“I’m honestly not sure if I should be horrified right now.” Looking at Title for help she added, “We just listened to my eight year old son talk about his wife “rewarding him”. This feels like it would be weird even if he was older, but coming out of a little colt’s mouth… I don’t know what to think.” Cure could tell she was trying not to laugh. Ponies are publicly pretty reserved, but once they get behind closed doors they’re as bad if not worse than most humans he had known.

“Well,“ Title began, “I’m totally convinced at least something happened.” She and everyone else returned to finish off their now mostly-cooled food. “You obviously do have memories that have no place in the head of a colt your age… or, really, any age. If this was some made up story I don’t think you could possibly have thought out as much detail as you have, never mind the “future of the country” stuff. I guess the next question I have is what do we do from here? Also, I have about a million other questions but I’m SUPER hungry still.” Giving a pitiable look at her near-empty plate, Title looks beseechingly at Cure, “Can I stuff my face a bit more before I interrogate your little brains out?”

“That sounds good. I’m feeling a bit wiped out, so let’s eat, clean up, and maybe head to the living room. There’s a few things I think I know that may be really important to us as a family. I don’t want to wait to talk about them and maybe we can start figuring out where we go from here.”

Curious, but hungry enough to wait, the adults all agree and finish their food. Cure, being too short to really contribute much to dish washing, heads into the living room. He pulls four cushions into a kind of square and lays on his side on one of the smaller ones. A few lamps are lit, so even with the sun sitting in the distance there’s enough light for everypony to see.

Author's Note

Ahh... the eternal "insert" question. To tell or not to tell? If you can't trust your family then who can you trust? Right?