Monday, October 6th, 908 AB (the next afternoon)

With the school day complete, Dawn and Cure trot together on their way to Lemon’s store. Cure is still enjoying school, and he’s feeling conflicted about going through with the testing to try to get out of it.

Early on after his memories had come in he’d promised himself not to deny his parents the opportunity to legitimately raise a foal in him. Then he promptly shat all over the idea by getting his cutie mark, becoming a guard trainer, and in an hour or so, would be essentially applying for a second (or third?) part time job.

He’d talked to his dam at breakfast once the property duo left for the day and, even though she admitted his behavior had, naturally, changed a lot, she was pretty happy with how well he was doing.

Cure hadn’t consciously done anything, but apparently the simple act of snuggling, seeking physical comfort, and constantly reassuring his parents that he treasured them were more than enough to eliminate the “this is an imposter” feeling he suspects would have set in otherwise.

He can certainly agree; objectively looking at his behavior, at least in their interactions, over the last five weeks definitely showcased “Cure” more than “Edward” who could never hope to quickly adapt to the current circumstances. Through the lens of Ed’s memories, many typical behaviors would seem weird, awkward, or even disgusting. That doesn’t even touch on the far more intimate encounters he’s sure are in his future.

He still wasn’t sure whether he actually is Edward or if he’d just inherited his memories somehow, but he figures there’s a good chance he’ll never know unless somepony like Discord drops a truth bomb on him someday. And that’s one encounter he’s happy to put off for as long as possible.

Note to self: Research Chaos Magic and figure out if there’s a way to counter it. There must be since Discord didn’t just zap away the MacGuffins when he was released the second time. Not doing so would be like Superman running around in skin tight underwear instead of some kind of kryptonite-proof suit, and who would actually be that fucking stupid?

Ya know what? Maybe I should set up a music player by the dude’s statue. If I recall, he is supposedly aware of the world around him, and I bet at least some entertainment for the next 90 years would be appreciated when the big day finally comes and he breaks loose. Looney Tunes stupidity aside there’s no reason we couldn’t at least be cordial with each other.

A gentle brush of his shoulder brings Cure out of his musing as he looks over at Dawn with a sheepish smile. “In yer head again, Cure?”

“Maybe. Just thinkin of our future together, babe.”

“Uh huh. And what’s that look like?”

“My dear, the world shall be your oyster,” he says, brushing sides with the filly as they approach the store. “You shall want for nothing, I assure you,” he finishes with a smile, trotting ahead to hold the door open and bowing slightly for her to enter.

With an eye roll she trots in the store, “Well at least you can be trained.”

“Yep, that’s what Amy said too,” he agrees, following her in. “Hey Lemon! How’s the prettiest candy mare in the world doin today?” he calls out. The few other customers glance over and chuckle at the flirtatious colt while Lemon gives a customer their change. Dawn just sighs and shakes her head, following along as he walks right through the “employees only” half-door.

“Hey Cure, baby! Hiya Dawn, how ya doin? Lemme take care of these folks and I’ll be right with ya. Amy’s upstairs with the girls, go say hi.”

Cure and Dawn trot to the back, round the corner and, rather than go into the actual kitchen area where Lemon works, head upstairs to the small apartment-like area they have for Amethyst to watch the girls and where Lemon occasionally retreats for a break during lunch. It’s little more than a restroom and small bedroom, and a living room.

“Amy!” he calls on the stairs, “It’s me and Dawn. We’re on our way up.”

“Heya Cure, howdy Dawn. Whatchya up’ta, colt?” she calls back as he rounds the stairwell and enters the living room area. Amethyst is laying on a cushion with a book open in front of it. She was clearly trying to work with the girls on their letters, but they’re not in sight. As soon as they heard Cure they assumed ambush positions, so he’s set upon the instant he’s clear of the stairwell.

“AHH! PIRANHAS! DAWN, SAVE ME!” he calls out, rolling onto his back as the girls pounce on his chest and belly, giving him little nips and sloppy, wet, poorly executed raspberries. “Dawn! They’re gonna eat my bellies all gones! Heeellpp meeee!” he melodramatically calls out, slowly flailing his hooves in the air before going limp, tongue hanging out his mouth. “I’m dead!” he declares, giving his back hooves one last dying kick.

“We’ll remember him fondly. Mostly. Sort of,” the cruel unicorn remarks.

The girls couldn’t be happier, though. Pleased that their hunt was a success they give each other high-hooves and bounce back to Amethyst seeking approval. “Way ta show that colt who’s boss, girls,” she praises, giving each a nuzzle. “Dawn, if ya don’t mind there’s a trash can outside, just toss that thing in there ‘afore it starts stinkin any worse.”

Rolling upright, Cure scowls at the dark mare. “Hey! I don’t stink,” he whines defensively. With a pout he adds, “Jeez, come here to talk business and see two of my three favorite fillies and everypony picks on me.”

“Baby! Baby! Cure’s a big baby!” the two fillies chorus from the other side of Amethyst.

Mouth hanging open, Cure looks on with disbelief as everypony in the room starts laughing at him. Even Dawn can’t help it, but at least she has the decency to turn away while she’s laughing at the disparaged colt.

Lemon comes up the stairs just a second later, looking around in confusion at the blue colt’s sad pony look. “Girls beat ya up?”

“Yeah, then yer wife said I stink.”

“Well…” she looks at him thoughtfully.

“Hey!”

Holding up a hoof she smiles and insists “Just joking! So, whatcha here for other than the abuse, honey? You two feelin a hankerin for some treats?” she asks, eyes lighting up a little.

“None for me today, thanks though.” Cure declines as Lemon walks over and lays next to her wife. “Dawn’s fully aware of everything now, though, so if she or Solar are around you don’t have to hide the whole biomancer thing anymore. They saw the horn and everything.”

“Ah, well that’s good. Glad to hear you have somepony your own age to share that with. Secrets aren’t easy.”

“Right. Also, I think my dam told you that we got the good news the other day, right?”

“Yep! I’ve already got a few ponies who I know would be interested. A heck of a lot more if you’re offerin what ya gave yer sire,” she finishes with a snicker. Amy whacks her with a knee and motions her head at Dawn, who is looking at Cure questioningly.

“Umm… I did something to increase the odds he could get my dam pregnant,” Cure explains, getting a grimace from Dawn.

Only with his enhanced hearing could he hear Lemon lean over and whisper, “And what a wonderful thing it was, huh babe?” before Amy whacks her again and tells her to be quiet.

“Yeah, well, like I’ve told everypony before. I try to keep the medical stuff private, hence the lack of shared details,” he emphasizes, shooting a glare in Lemon’s direction and getting an apologetic look back. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to offer those kinds of services, though. Maybe just the more traditional cosmetic procedures.”

“You’ll have to talk to my mom and sire to work out some pricing, but aside from Friday afternoons and schooltime I am basically open for business. I dunno where I can meet ponies though… we’re gonna meet with the clinic today to see if I can start an apprenticeship there maybe once a week, but I think I’m gonna keep this separate so I can collect pay.”

“Why not just meet ‘em here?” Amethyst asks. “Just schedule it when me ‘n the girls are out an’ this’d be perfect.”

“Uhh… it actually would work fine. Or I could go to them. I’ll be sure to give you both a cut too, since yer not only providing a location, but also the customers themselves. I’ll leave that to my parents to sort out too; money isn’t really my thing, ya know.”

“We’ll have to do something about that eventually,” Dawn insists while eyeing Cure appraisingly.

“Woo howdy! She’s makin plans for the future already. Got yerself a smart filly dontchya colt?”

“Darn right,” Cure agrees, nuzzling into Dawn’s cheek, “Gotta have somepony be the brains of the operation. Who knows, babe, maybe you’ll get an accounting or business mark at some point. Amy isn’t your mark about valuing things like that?”

Everypony but the two fillies, who are wrestling each other over some toys to the side, looks at Amethyst’s mark. It depicts an old style balancing scale with a pile of gems on one side and the other empty. Despite the obvious difference the scale appears to be balanced.

“How’d ya know that, colt? I don’t think I ever told ya.”

“It’s the most logical assumption based on your mark. It’s showing something generally associated with wealth balanced against something else that’s left blank. I mean… it was either that or you’re really good at figuring out how much stuff weighs, and that seems a lot less useful… unless you ran a shipping company maybe? Or were an engineer, I suppose.”

Cure drifts off in thought, sitting on his haunches while idly scratching at his chin. Lemon and Amy roll their eyes at the colt, Dawn gives him a quick jab just behind his right legpit. “Wake up, you goof.”

“Right, sorry. Was trying to think of other times balancing might be great, like walkin a tightrope.”

“Well,” Amethyst starts, “thankfully that is not my special talent. No, sirree, you ain’t gettin this pony off the ground fer nothin. That aside, yer right. Ya gimme somethin, tell me a bit about it, and I can give ya a pretty good idea ‘a how many bits it’s worth.”

“Huh. I wonder how that works because really valuable stuff is only worth whatever price somepony is willing to pay for it… ya know, like high priced art?”

Getting a shrug back, Cure waves the idle curiosity aside, “Well anyhow, that sounds fantastic and I’ll trust your judgment. If you and my mom and sire can come up with how much the different procedures should cost and, maybe discount it for friends and whatnot, then you all can keep a third and I’ll get the other two.”

“We’ll make a fortune, I bet. We do need to hire an attorney to draw up the waiver forms and whatnot, but creating a blank form shouldn’t cost much… and I bet you could tell them a good number for it, too. I know a cantrip that can reproduce the writing on a page, so we just need the template.”

“Son, I dunno where ya learned to bargain, but a third’s downright cheatin ya. A tenth is normal for referrals.”

“Eh, okay then,” he shrugs. Waving a hoof he continues, “Whatever. I wouldn’t have a workplace or initial referrals without you two, plus whatever pricing services you offer. You can hash that out with my parents if that’s okay. I don’t think I’ll ever want for bits either way.”

“You got that right, colt,” Lemon agrees, “That’s a one-of-a-kind talent right there. You wouldn’t believe how much other doctors quoted me for my belly,” she says, shaking her head in thought. “I still worry about some noble comin after ya, though.”

“Did dam tell you we met with my sire’s grandpa over the weekend?”

“Nope, she did mention you were gonna, though.”

“Yep, we went there on Saturday. He’s a retired guard and apparently still has some decent influence. He knew about that guard and my parents’ business doin well before we even walked in there. I’m fairly confident that if anypony tried to grab me they would end up answering to him. I don’t think it would go well for ‘em, noble or not if ya catch my drift.” Grimacing a bit, both mares nod in understanding.

“Objectively, if you think about it, two thirds of the guard is earth ponies. I could honestly see news comin out that unicorn nobles are actually snatching foals as causing a full-on riot anyhow. Of course, both grandpa and the attorneys said that the princess would be far less than amused if somepony snatched a foal under any circumstances. Finally, the lawyer had one really good point; why bother risking trouble when they can just hire me? I’m a lot cheaper than an attorney for most stuff.”

“Eh, true. Still, keep yer eyes open son. Ya never know who’s out there.”

“Yep. I’m working on a few things for my own defense, so no worries. Even without my talent I’m a lot stronger than I look. I can assure you, anypony tryin to grab me is gonna have a bad time.” Cure pauses a moment to look out the window. No time has actually passed, but that’s the pony equivalent of checking the time on a watch or phone; a nonverbal and socially acceptable way of saying “oh look at the time!” Turning back to the pair he adds, “Well I’m actually gonna go meet my mom and sire in a few minutes, I just wanted to stop by and give you both the good news before we head off to the clinic.”

“Alright, sounds good Cure. Maybe you can watch the girls while we come to some kinda agreement tonight,” Lemon suggests, waggling her eyebrows at Amethyst.

“Sure, I don’t mind watchin the lil predators. I’ll see y’all later,” he calls, turning to head back down the stairs.

“I’ll walk ya out. Break’s about over anyhow,” Lemon says, standing to follow behind Dawn.

Cure and Dawn found Solar on the way to City Hall. With the property duo working in a nearby office the greenspace outside the city hall building was the perfect spot to meet up and wait for them to finish their work day.

The three take up a bench while they wait with Solar on the left, Dawn in the middle, and Cure on the pair's right.

“They should only be a few minutes,” Cure explains. “They told me they’d take off a little early today so we can go before the end of the day shift. Thanks for coming, you two. How’s your dam doing?”

“She’s fine,” Solar starts. “She was pretty embarrassed when we talked last night. She asked for you to come by so she could apologize at some point, Cure. I mean… I don’t think she’s consciously like that, just kinda… ya know?” he finishes, rolling a hoof.

“Unconsciously biased? I get it. I’m not really even that upset by it anymore. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve encountered the issue.”

Wincing a bit, both siblings look away embarrassed for their dam’s behavior, whether their friend is understanding of it or not. Nopony wants to think of their parent as being a bad pony, but sometimes it’s impossible to deny that somepony is doing something categorically wrong no matter how much you love them.

“Oh come on, you two. You’re obviously not biased like that. It’s a thing, and when a pony spends their whole life thinking a certain way it’s not easy for them to change. The fact she’s willing to apologize is huge. Recognizing there’s a problem is the first step in solving it, after all.”

“That’s very mature of you, Cure. I’m glad you feel that way.”

“Me too,” Dawn says, nuzzling into Cure’s cheek. “I’m just glad our sire’s not like that too… who knows if we’d have picked that up if both of ‘em were.”

“Eh… I bet they were both raised around more unicorns, right?”

“Yeah, they’re from Manehattan originally,” Solar explains, “and you know that most cities have a lot more unicorns in ‘em. I’m sure you saw that when you went to meet yer lawyers, though.”

“Yep. At least half of the earth ponies were patrolling guards, so the civilian population of the capital probably is less than ten percent earth pony. It worries me a little when such a large percent of the country’s population is so underrepresented in the capital… that strikes me as a bad situation to have.”

“Well the princess is like all three tribes, so I’m sure she keeps it balanced,” Dawn says.

“Oh yeah, I bet she does a whole lotta farmin up there on that mountain,” Cure snarks. “Then again she’s got flower gardens, I hear. Maybe she does.”

“I’m betting they hire a company for those,” Solar says. “I’m sure she got her hooves dirty just like anypony else back when the country was young though.”

“Yeah… true. I guess I shouldn’t judge until I meet her.”

“Meet her?” Dawn asks, “When would you ever meet her?”

“Sgt. Bulwark said she’ll get my talent registration form sometime this week, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we get a summons at some point. I told you before, rulers gotta watch out for their subjects. I figure she’ll at least wanna make sure I’m not crazy or something.”

Solar shakes his head in disagreement. “She probably gets a dozen of those forms every month, Cure. How much detail did it ask for?”

“Uhh… very little. Name, a drawing of my mark, colors, special talent, address, and that’s about it. I’m sure a copy of my birth certificate went with it too, so they’ll have my demographic info like birth date, sex, parents, tribe, etcetera.”

“I swear, Cure, the way you talk is so weird for an eight year old.” Rubbing his forehead with a pastern, Solar asks, “So… it didn’t ask how much you can change? No actual details about the extent of your ability?”

“No, thank Harmony. If they knew I could hack up a supervirus at the drop of a hat they’d probably panic.”

“Uhhh…” Solar stares at Cure with widened eyes and his mouth hanging open.

“You can do that?” Dawn asks curiously.

“Duh? Yes. Easily. I never would though… you remember my tree, right?”

“Yeah,” she nods.

“I wouldn’t be able to make something like that if I couldn’t analyze viruses too, even if it’s just their surface that I’m working on.”

“Don’t ever say anything like that again, dude. If they knew you could do that they probably would panic. Even I panicked for a split second when you said that.” Solar lets out a deep sigh and asks, “What have you shown anypony so far?”

“Nothin but healing. You were there with Sgt. Bulwark last night. That’s the extent of what they know I can do. I’ll have to clue ‘em in on some stuff for the cosmetics to make sense though. I'd rather they think I'm being up front with them, even if I'm not going full-disclosure.”

“Yeah, that's probably best. None of that sounds scary though,” Solar agrees. “If you’re all registered and whatnot then let them just assume they know everything you can do. If they think you can heal muscles, cure colds, fix up cuts, and maybe do some cosmetic stuff then they’ve got no reason to summon you. Pop a horn on yer head and sprout a pair of wings and it’s a different story... especially if they work.”

“Yeah… damn, I eventually wanted to learn to fly too. Well, I figured I’d wait until I’m older either way. Or I can do the disguise thing I guess.”

“You’re gonna have a hard time learnin to fly when you’re older, Cure,” Dawn points out. “And other pegasi will wonder why a fully grown colt can’t get off the ground, not to mention how big you’ll be compared to the rest.”

“Ah, fudge… I forget how small pegasi are when they’re adults. Yeah, I’ll be like three or four hooves taller than them and twice as wide. That’s not good.”

“You won’t be able to get off the ground,” Solar explains, “You’ll be too heavy.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem. When we ran last night I got a look at one feature of the pegasus aura. It reduces their effective mass, which lessens gravity and has a few other effects. My actual weight may not matter much if the aura cancels it out somehow.”

“Dude… you should write an actual paper on this stuff someday.”

“Eh, this is a known thing, it turns out. Your sire is the one who verified that it’s the leading theory when I asked the pegasi on our run.”

“Daddy knows a lot about the other tribes from his medical training. He’s a good pony to ask about stuff like that.”

“Sissy’s right, Cure. He’s also been read in on your actual talent, so as long as you don’t do too much for him to figure out what you can really do he’s probably about the best pony to talk to about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. He seems pretty cool so far, though I barely interacted with him.” Nudging the orange filly, Cure asks, “What about you, Dawn. You ever wanna learn how to fly?”

“I dunno… unicorns get cold just on the ground. I think I’d freeze.”

“Yeah but what if you didn’t?”

Dawn looks up in consideration for a minute. After thinking it over she shrugs, “Maybe, I guess. It could be fun for a while. You said the other day that wings wouldn’t work, though.”

“They wouldn’t unless my experiment is a success, which probably also comes with cold resistance, by the way. I bet you’d look really pretty with a set of bright orange and red feathers.”

“You think?”

“Oh definitely. Maybe that can be your Nightmare Night costume. I’ll make ya a fake set of wings and you can be the new princess of fire. Or your brother can be.” Leaning forward to look around Dawn, Cure makes a show of looking the older colt up and down. “Yep, your name’s even close to the boss lady’s. Whadda ya think, Princess Solaris?”

“I will throw you into a trash can, Cure. That’s not funny.”

“Aww but big brother,” Dawn gushes, “you’d make such a pretty princess!”

“Ugh… foals,” he sighs out, dismissing the nuisances.

“Hey Dawn, if I gave yer brother wings and started shouting about Prince Solaris seeking the princess’s hoof in marriage how fast do you think the press would get here?”

“Oh my stars!” she gushes. “The whole country would go insane! The fact that their names and marks are kinda-sorta related is really weird though…”

“Yep, it’s like Harmony just wants it to happen. Hey Solar?” he calls.

“I’m ignoring you both. Shut up.”

“That’s not how ignoring somepony works, doofus. I’m just curious if you got some kinda heat resistance as part of your special talent. I mean it would suck if your own attacks hurt you.”

The idea causes Solar to think for a moment. “Now that you mention it, my heat beams don’t bother me at all…”

“Dawn, could you conjure a tiny flame? Now I’m really curious.”

“Not just a flame. I can catch something on fire, but I can’t just make a flame hover in midair.”

“What about just using a heating cantrip on Solar’s hoof? If you get burned I can heal it.”

“Sure, just very weak, sissy,” Solar says, holding a hoof out.

Focusing on the amount of power, Dawn uses the weakest version of the heating cantrip she can without the spell simply dissipating. Solar seems completely unbothered by it.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Cure tells her. “That was only about sixty five degrees (150°F) which is plenty to scald somepony. I think we can safely say you are heat resistant, at least. We need to test the limit at some point, dude. Sorry, but I bet that’ll hurt. At least it’ll only hurt a moment.”

“Are you okay bro?” Dawn worriedly asks.

“Actually… that was kinda awesome. Thanks, sis,” he says, nuzzling the filly, “and thanks for suggesting it, Cure. I can’t believe I never realized that before…”

“I’d be a little worried if you had tested it, to be honest. The only way to know is to risk burnin yerself, after all. Of course you realize this is another confirmation of my theory…”

“Huh?”

“Your destiny, Solar. It's inevitable...”

“I have no clue where you’re going with this…”

“You were clearly put on this planet to be the princess’s future lover. Good job, champ! Way to set yer sights high!” Dawn bursts out laughing at Solar’s sputtering reaction. “Oof, shame only unicorns are on the menu, eh sport?” he adds with a teasing smile.

“Stars and sun, Cure, sometimes I just want to shoot you.”

“What?” he asks defensively. “All the evidence is here. You can stand the heat,” he says, waggling his brows and causing Dawn’s giggle fit to restart, “your names are so close it’s ridiculous, her talent is raising the sun, and I suspect yours is calling back down a piece of it. Finally, you’ll both have government jobs soon. I can make ya grow a few extra hooves and a set of wings and before ya know it everypony’ll be calling ya King Solaris.”

“You’re absolutely insane, Cure. I don’t know what goes on in that head most of the time, thank the stars, but it must be a bizarre and terrifying place.”

“Ooh! Would him being the king mean I’m a princess?” Dawn asks, ignoring her brother’s grumbling.

Cure sits up and lays himself across her upper back and withers, wrapping his forelegs around her and gently biting the base of her ear. “A decade or so and you’ll have your castle, my princess, all of the benefits, none of the responsibilities except what you choose.” Releasing the ear, he gives it a grooming lick to fix the hairs.

Solar raises an eyebrow at his sister. She’s looking a couple shades darker than normal, but otherwise seems content with the embrace, smiling placidly while nuzzling the side of her cheeks into his chin and her horn into his cheeks.

It’s a relief to know she’s found somepony that’s smart, ambitious, and likely to give her the world on a platter. Even if the colt can be a tad eccentric at times, she’ll certainly never want for anything if the two stick together.

“There’s my parents,” Cure calls. “Let’s go see how this is gonna play out,” he says as he gives one last nuzzle and slides off her back. The three hop down off the bench and make their way to the duo, Cure asking, “Your mom is gonna tell them we’re coming, right?”

“Yep,” Solar explains, “she said she would tell them to expect us a little after school. They don’t usually have very many patients in a given day, what with everypony being an earth pony around here. You all just don’t get hurt often.”

“Nope, not easily, we don’t. Hey ma, hey pa,” Cure calls out, trotting up to give each a nuzzle. “You two wanna get a snack before we go? I dunno how long this’ll take.”

“Snack?” Title asks. “You smell like candy… Did ya pick me up something?”

“Jeez, are you part bloodhound? No, mom, I just stopped by Lemon and Amy’s shop to talk about the cosmetic stuff. Sorry, I didn’t think to grab you anything.”

“Nothin for it, son. We should get goin though, yer dam’s probably gonna have dinner waitin when we get home.” Giving Title a shoulder bump he adds, “Babe you can wait a bit,” earning a scowl from the mare. “Heya Solar, Dawn. How ya doin?” he greets the pair, giving each a hoofbump.

“Hello sir,” both unicorns chorus, Dawn finally fully coming out of her stupor.

“Ha! Sir nothin. Just Deed’s fine, you two. You should join us for dinner if yer dam’s still workin.” Turning in the direction of the clinic, Deed waves for everypony to start moving. “What were ya doin afterwards anyhow?”

“I was going to make dinner for us tonight,” Solar explains. “I mean… if ya don’t mind, that’d be great. We’d love to join you. Mom works late tonight and dad’s on patrol, so…”

Waving a hoof dismissively, Deed assures the colt it’s no problem. “Yer always welcome to come by, son. Celestia knows we got plenty’a food with Vines’ garden out there. I tell ya, we could feed a small army if we hadta.”

“Thanks, dad!” Cure calls. “Maybe afterwards you two can go meet that dashing cousin of yours at the train station. You know, the one that likes to go blastin away at the range?”

“Subtle, dude…” Solar says, rolling his eyes.

“That sounds great!” Dawn happily shouts.

The walk to the clinic isn’t far and the group chats idly along the way. Dawn and Cure talk about their school day, then Deed mentions how well business is doing. Cure asks Title if she’d looked into any opportunities to flex her talent yet, but she says she’s going to wait to take anything on until a few months after the foal is born.

“You realize that, if she’s okay with it, dam could feed the foal, right?”

“Honey, she won’t start producing milk for at least another few months… oh, right. Damn I didn’t even think of that. I dunno, baby… that’s kind of an important bonding time for a dam, especially with my first foal.”

“Yeah, true, I’m just saying she could. I could probably make it something conscious for either of you too, so you just think about producing milk instead of having to rely on your body knowing to do it right. I know some dams don’t produce enough, either. That won’t be an issue.”

“Oh that would be great. I was not looking forward to leaking.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about that,” he promises.

“You can make automatic functions… not automatic?” Solar asks.

“Oh yeah, of course. Like, for example, I can just never sneeze. That is, unless I wanted to for some reason.”

“But… you sneeze ‘cause something got in yer nose,” Dawn points out, “what do you do with it?”

“Mostly the same as you do, just not violently and all at once. For germs and stuff I catalog ‘em so I can add them to the tree and kill them off. You wouldn’t believe how many germs you run across in a single day. Especially at school. You two won’t get sick as long as I’m around, though.” Looking at Solar he adds, “I don’t think I can do much once you go to Basic, though. Do you ever get like… a weekend off or anything?”

“Sundays are half days, so I could hop on a train and be here in about an hour.”

“Cool, maybe I can meet ya at the train with yer family. Give a quick booster hoofbump and then you can go do what ya gotta do. That way you go back every Monday fully recovered, ready to kick plot.”

“That would be great. I’m sure I’ll get time to just hang out occasionally too, but I’ll have to catch the train back in the evening or I’ll get in a lot of trouble.”

“What else have you changed?” Dawn asks.

“My bones are way tougher, so you could probably drop a house on me and I’d just get a few cuts, but my skin is way tougher too, so not many.”

Walking on three hooves, Dawn runs her fourth down his side. “It doesn’t feel any different.”

“Nah, it wouldn’t. It’s a subdermal layer, so you can’t see or feel it. You would have noticed with all the times we lean on each other anyhow.”

“Wouldn’t that slow you down when running?” Solar asks.

“Not at all. I got the idea from a rhino at the zoo. Those things are way heavier than us and they can go about fifty kph.”

“Jeez, dude… you’ve got the whole package don’t you.”

“Yep, basically. Yer sire would probably freak out if he scanned me.”

“Well they definitely don’t go around doing random scans of ponies. I don’t think most would approve of that without a reason.”

“Yeah, neither do I. There was a minotaur ambassador in Canterlot that I met though. I woulda liked to have scanned him just because he’s the first bipedal creature I’ve ever seen, but the whole international incident thing, totally inconvenient ya know?”

“Right, I hate those. Best to avoid ‘em,” Solar agrees.

“Yep, you know how it is. One little unsolicited magical use on a foreign dignitary and everypony’s all “Oh my Celestia, what’d you do?” and then the newspapers come and it just all goes to Tartarus.”

“Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what would happen.”

“I feel like you may just be humoring me at this point.”

“Definitely not.”

Cure ignores the older colt. Within a few minutes they’re approaching the clinic. Cure can’t fathom how the Red Cross symbol became associated with medical care in pony world. He knows for an absolute fact that the symbol’s origin ties back to the Geneva Conventions in Switzerland, something he’d mentioned to his parents when he talked about the use of biological weapons.

They verified at the time that there was no such agreement in existence in this world, so how could the color-inverted neutral country’s flag possibly have come to mean healthcare here? Was there even a pony equivalent to the country? He’d never heard of one.

“Does anypony know why the symbol for healthcare is a red cross?” he asks aloud.

“Can’t say I do, sport.”
“No clue, Cure.”
Both unicorns simply shrug.

“Okay,” he says, letting out a disappointed sigh. “I was just curious. Let’s head in.”

The five ponies enter together, with Dawn and Solar approaching the receptionist mare first. She’s a lighter green earth pony teenager, Cure thinks, with a blue mane that matches his coat. “Hey River, is my dam in? She should be expecting us.”

“Oh hi Solar! Yep, lemme go tell her you’re here. Just a sec!”

Looking around, Cure has to agree with Dawn’s earlier statement. There’s not a single patient in the waiting room, so he may just end up working on some kind of “on call” basis instead of a scheduled time.

River returns to her desk after just a few minutes, followed shortly by Emerald Aura and a shorter, gray pegasus mare that Cure doesn’t think he’s ever seen before. This must be the office manager, Ivory Gale. Calling for the group to follow, the two lead them to a small conference room that’s buried back in the same hallway as the examination rooms.

Cure doesn’t get much opportunity to, but he does peek into a few of the exam rooms as they pass by. Other than the size of the rooms they seem nearly identical to what he remembers from most doctor exam rooms in his previous life. They would have to be larger, though, as the quadrupedal form and larger body sizes take up way more floor space than a bipedal at half the weight would.

Seated opposite Emerald and the gray pegasus and between Dawn and his mom, Cure waits for all the other room occupants to get situated. Fortunately they had a few booster chairs for he and Dawn, something he’ll look forward to never needing again in a few years.

“Good afternoon, everypony,” the gray mare starts. “My name is Ivory Gale. Emerald sent word that Mr. Cure Wave,” she pauses to look at Cure questioningly. Once he nods she smiles and continues, “has a very special talent. Before we get started, I just want to make sure I know everypony’s name.” Looking to Deed first, she asks, “Sir, you’re his sire, right? Mr. Clean Deed?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Thank you. And you, ma’am? You’re his mother, Mrs. Title Search, correct?”

“Yep, that’s me. Nice ta meet ya.”

Smiling softly, Ivory Gale continues, “And it’s a pleasure to meet all of you. Dawn and Solar, how are you both doing? Solar, look how well you’ve shaped up! All ready for Basic, I see.”

“Good Mrs. Gale,” the two say at the same time, Solar adding “Thanks, ma’am, still workin on it.”

“Excellent!” she beams with a little clap. “Now, Mr. Wave?”

“Oh you can just call me Cure, ma’am.”

“Wonderful. Cure? I understand you’ve already registered your talent with the city?” Once Deed and Cure both nod she continues, “Fantastic. Do you have a copy of your registration form?”

“Right here,” Title calls, pulling a piece of paper out of her bag and sliding it across the table.

Gale picks up the form and reads it over before looking at the parents with a beaming smile. “Oh wow. Biomanipulation. That is positively wonderful. I never thought I would see the day that a young foal would show such interest in such a complex field of magic. And I must say, I had always assumed it would have to be a unicorn to properly channel the magic required.”

Pausing to think for a moment, she says, “Then again, greater health and constitution is one of the primary traits associated with earth ponies. I suppose that makes sense, in a way.” With a quick head shake she focuses back on Cure.

“I am the office manager for the Baltimare greater metropolitan area clinics, so I'm responsible for Golden Hills, Ferndale to the south, and Parkdale to the north. Emerald was kind enough to send a pegasus messenger yesterday telling us that a pony in town has a healing special talent. I was asked to come see if I could find you, but Emerald said you planned to come in after school today to seek an apprenticeship.”

“Yes, ma’am. I honestly didn’t realize that all the clinics in the area were connected under the same regional authority. I had considered approaching Baltimare Hospital directly, but I’m a little young to ride the train alone and my parents work and have three foals on the way.”

“Oh my! Congratulations!” She beams, looking between Deed and Title and getting smiles in return. Turning back to Cure she continues, “I am thrilled you’ve put so much thought into this already. You are correct, though, you’re still a little young to be riding the train alone. That may not be a problem, depending on the extent of your abilities, young stallion.”

“What we would like to do is have you begin an apprenticeship in this office and, once you’ve had a little experience and, assuming all goes well, transfer your assignment to Baltimare Hospital. Of course we can provide an escort and security to assure everypony of your safety there and back as well.”

“That… would be fantastic. Dad? Mom?”

“Sounds like a winnin move, sport.”

“Umm… not to doubt you or anything, but it almost sounds… I dunno. A little too good to be true?” Title offers looking around the room. Cure can’t really fault her, the situation is turning out way better than he’d dared hope, and he owes at least a little to Emerald’s foresight.

“Understandable, Mrs. Search. I completely agree that it could appear that way, but let me be honest with you. A pony with even a basic ability to heal others can make an enormous difference. The vast majority of the ponies we see are visiting with cuts, abrasions, or what-have-you that, if treated promptly, won’t become infected or worsen otherwise.”

“If he was a couple years older we wouldn’t even bother with the clinic apprenticeship at all, but we’re concerned he may be overwhelmed working in a busy environment such as Baltimare Hospital without some experience at a slower pace beforehoof.”

“I… yeah, you’re right,” Title agrees, “that makes sense. A metropolitan hospital can certainly be… intimidating, I guess. Better wade in than jump straight in the deep end.”

“Absolutely. So with Cure’s age and his schooling we understand he’s unavailable most days, but how would you feel about coming in on a Saturday morning each week, Cure? Maybe just for a few hours? We can always look at adding more days once you’ve gotten used to it.”

“Sure. That sounds good. I’ll be meeting the guard on Fridays, so that’s perfect.”

“Wonderful! If I may ask, though, in what capacity will you be working with the guard? You're far too young for their Junior Guard program."

"I think they only have that in the city," Emerald explains.

"I'll be helping clear fatigue and heal up muscles during exercise so they can get more out of a single workout."

"Oh! That certainly explains how you're all in such wonderful shape! What a fantastic way to use your talent, young stallion." Refocusing on the subject, she clears her throat before continuing. "Now, this coming Saturday is a little too soon for us to get all of the paperwork filed, but how would you feel about starting on the 18th?”

“Okay. What time does the clinic open?”

“We open a little later on the weekend,” Emerald explains. “What do you think, Gale? Does ten to noon sound good?”

“That sounds like a great start to me. Now I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate for me to discuss wages with everypony else here, so I would like to ask if everypony but Cure and his parents could please excuse us for a moment.”

Emerald, Dawn, and Solar all stand to leave, with Dawn nudging him and whispering, “We’ll wait in the lobby,” before walking out the door.

Once the door is shut Ivory, Title, and Deed begin negotiations.

Cure isn’t sure if twenty five bits an hour is fantastic or utter crap. It sounds pretty good, especially for a kid’s first job, but compared to how much the enchanting supplies, inks, papers, and other stuff his parents have bought for him it just doesn’t seem like very much. Then again, this is just an apprenticeship and there’s no way that an eight year old should expect to walk in and suddenly command hundreds of bits per hour of work.

Well… unless the cosmetic surgery thing pans out like he hopes it does. He’s not sure how much he should charge for a procedure like Lemon’s, but assuming it’s only a few hundred bits, that’s something he can do in like ten minutes. And two hundred bits for a tummy tuck is insane when there’s zero recovery.

Very little directly translates to human standards, but he knows cosmetic procedures cost tens of thousands of dollars normally, and the recovery for a lot of those is nothing short of horrifically painful and takes months or even a year before the patient is back to 100%.

Emerald had asked to speak with Cure, Deed, and Title once they were done talking to Ivory Gale. She seemed sincere when she apologized, but Cure isn’t sure if she legitimately feels bad, is placating her family, or if she just realizes the value Cure’s talent represents.

Finished with his food, he looks around the table. Dawn is to his left by his dam and Solar sat next to him. They are clearly enjoying the fresh garden fare, something he realizes he’s probably taken for granted.

Note to self, give dam more massages. And maybe work on that lavender night light plant I keep forgetting about since she seems hesitant to upgrade her eyes.

“So I have to ask… is twenty five bits an hour like… high or low or about right?”

“That’s like six times what I made at the grocery store last summer, dude.”

“Oh. So… low?”

Solar just rolls his eyes and keeps eating. “The food is absolutely wonderful, Mrs. Vines,” he compliments. “I don’t think I’ve ever had produce with so much flavor, actually.” Looking to Cure he asks, “Did you like… improve the veggies somehow or is yer dam just that good?”

Cure answers before the blushing mare has a chance to, “Oh that’s like maybe 10% me, 90% her. Credit where it’s due, though, my sire and mom helped too, so maybe 75/10/10/5? You shoulda seen the three of them in their group casting thing, Solar. It blew my ears back, I tell ya.”

“What?” Dawn asks. “Group casting thing?”

“Yeah, you remember how I suggested you may be able to share magic?” At her nod he explains, “Well the idea for that came up a few weeks back. Dam’s talent is at least partially related to growing food, so mom and dad and her all did a group thing and the whole friggin garden grew like four weeks worth in a minute. It was awesome.”

“Huh… that’s sorta like a little ritual, basically,” Solar says with an approving nod. “Very impressive. I didn’t know earth ponies could do that. Then again, you’re kind of all about screwing up my world view, so whatever. Still, very tasty, everypony. I’ll hafta tell my dam to come see you at the market next Sunday.”

“That’s very sweet of you to say, Solar. If you’d like to take some home with you please just let me know,” Vines offers.

“Thanks, Mrs. Vines. Maybe next time. We were gonna go to the range after dinner tonight if that’s okay with you three.”

“Gonna do the train trick, Cure?”

“You bet, mom. I’ll just duck in the bathroom when I see the train approaching, wait until it stops, then wander out in disguise, just like you suggested. I can’t imagine anypony is gonna be watching close enough for it to matter.”

“Just be careful, sweetie. Make sure you follow the rules at the range.”

“Solar’s been there plenty of times, right dude?”

“Sure have. Don’t worry, ma’am. We’ll probably be the only ponies there. Not many unicorns, ya know? Besides, from what he was telling us earlier I’m not sure Cure would be in any danger even if he ran out there and danced around. It sounds like he’s made himself darn near invincible.”

“That’s the goal at least.”

“No dancing on the range, honey.”

“Fine, dam.” Looking to Solar he mouths “Totally gonna” and starts snickering.

Finishing his last few bites, Solar looks over to Cure’s empty plate and asks, “How the hay did you eat so fast? I know you had as much food as I did.”

“I dunno. Probably because I don’t really need to breathe, so I can just shovel it all in at once basically.”

“What?” Dawn asks. “What the hay do you mean you don’t need to breathe?”

“Ah, well, I don’t need to breathe as much. I could probably stop breathing for a while, but yeah, I can kinda breath through my skin as well. I think I forgot to mention that.”

Solar hikes an eyebrow and asks, “Ya think?”

Cure just shrugs back at the red colt.

“Well… okay then. We better get goin if we’re going to have much daylight. Day’s are getting shorter, so we’ll only have about an hour or so. Not that yer magic will last that long anyhow,” he explains while standing.

Hopping down from his seat, Cure agrees with him. “Probably not, no. Still, I’m excited to finally cast an offensive spell. So far it’s been all lights and illusions and cleaning and that stuff. Not a whole lotta fun there, ya know?”

“Just be careful, sport. Don’t blow yer horn off, okay?”

“Always good advice, dad. Don’t worry, I’ll be back before dark.”

Hopping down from her spot beside Cure, Dawn joins the two as they head for the door, Solar calling over his withers as they leave. “Thanks again for having us, everypony. It was probably the best meal I’ve had in like… forever. Really. We’ll see you all later.”

The train trick worked like a charm. Cure, being the paranoid type that he is, separated from the pair and went to the station early. He spent fifteen minutes watching everypony that even glanced his direction. He also kept a wary eye on the sky in case some pegasus was watching him from a mile away, but after cutting off line of sight from various angles and finding nopony spying on him, he casually trotted into the restroom to wait for the train to pull up. Once a passenger opened the door to use the facilities he trotted out in disguise and took off to the north to meet back up with the siblings.

Cure estimates it’s around seven by the time they get to the range. Rather than the quite distinctive royal blue / forest green colors he’d used the other day, he instead went with something a lot more subtle like Dawn had originally suggested. He had a brown coat and slightly darker brown mane and tail. He made his coat noticeably fluffier, which actually hid his bulk a little, sort of. He was still wider than a unicorn his age but the longer fur made it hard to tell it was muscle or fluff underneath.

The unicorn firing range is completely empty. Cure had expected more, but in reality there just isn’t enough of a unicorn population to accommodate a fancier, high end range of any sorts. Also, amongst the unicorn population hardly any, according to Solar, have any desire to go to the range at all. The range is nothing more than a field with mounds of dirt at different distances from the firing line. There wasn't anypony there to keep an eye on anything going on at all, so the three have free rein to try whatever they want.

It was only about a kilometer north of town, which meant that at a full sprint Cure could probably run home in under ten minutes, though he’d have to duck in somewhere to reverse his disguise. The train station worked fine, so he planned to just keep using that.

“So… I gotta be honest. I’ve got no clue how to aim or anything. Is it literally just a matter of visualizing the firing path and it’ll go there?”

“Uhh yeah? How else would you aim?”

“No idea. It just seems a little easy. How the hay do you ever miss?”

“Most don’t, Cure,” Dawn explains. “The only time a unicorn should ever miss is if the target is outside of their aura, if they can dodge fast enough, or if there’s some kind of distraction. Also, the aura just helps. You still gotta use yer eyes mostly.”

“Riddle. Try to get in the habit, Dawn. Besides, my aura probably isn’t as big as yours. Not a unicorn, remember?”

“Aura range is basically just dependent upon your horn size, Cure,” Solar explains. “You and Dawn should have the same range. If you made your horn the same size as mine your range would increase to match.”

“Oh yeah… I did try increasing the horn size once and that made a difference.”

“Normal unicorns,” Solar starts, giving Cure a sidelong look, “usually top out around twenty centimeters, with average closer to seventeen or so. I don’t know the actual formula, but usually you can figure a unicorn has a meter and a half for every centimeter of horn length.”

“Ah, so somepony like the princess could smack ya around from down the street and you couldn’t fight back?”

“Ehh, not exactly. You can mitigate that with shields, but they would have a huge advantage. There’s probably an upper limit on aura range at some point, but I don’t think anypony has ever asked Her directly.”

“Damn, I shoulda been helpin ya with that the whole time too. Do you want me to make it longer?”

Solar visibly blushes while Dawn snickers off to the side. “Oh my stars, Cure,” she starts.

“Riddle!” he interrupts.

“Right, Riddle, I can’t believe you just asked my brother if he wants a bigger horn.”

“See? That kinda reaction is exactly why I don’t joke around with medical stuff at all. I don’t particularly care if your brother asks for a bigger horn or a bigger dong, Dawn,” he explains to her indignant squawk and Solar’s further darkening hue, “I’m not going to laugh, make jokes or anything like that because then ponies won’t feel comfortable talking to me about those things.”

“I… uhh… appreciate the offer. Both, as strange as they are to hear, but I’m good. Thanks.”

“Sorry Cure,” ignoring the “Riddle!” she looks to her brother, “sorry Solar. Riddle,” she pauses to glare at Cure, who’s smiling smugly, “is right. There is an advantage to having,” she sniggers saying, “a bigger horn, after all. You’ll want to go slow,” she full on guffaws this time, “though so nopony notices anything weird.”

“No, I’m sure you noticed it used more magic when you were… umm… experimenting with your horn,” he pauses to look between them, “Riddle. Maybe in a year or two once I’m fully grown I’ll reconsider.”

“Alright, that’s not a bad idea. It could definitely draw some curious attention if you’re walkin around with a twenty two centimeter horn if they don’t usually get over twenty.”

“Uh huh,” Dawn barely gets out between laughs, “I bet it would get plenty of attention from the mares.”

Both colts just sigh at the cackling filly. She’s too young, in Cure’s opinion, to really tease her much, even though she’s clearly old enough to trash talk. Still, making sex jokes with her at this age just feels wrong, so Cure lets the matter drop.

“So aside from the range idea,” Solar starts, valiantly ignoring his chuckling sister, “got any other insane cheat ideas, C… Riddle?”

“Not yet, but if I ever had to go full war mode I have some ideas that are kinda unique. I’m not sure if I should share though. I definitely freaked my mom and sire out the other night.”

“Okay, this I gotta hear.”

“Mom was teasing me with baby talk so I smiled at her with too many sharp teeth.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Dawn says, “How can you have too many teeth?”

“I added teeth further back and smiled way bigger than normal.”

“That sounds kinda disturbing,” Solar notes.

“Wanna see an illusion of it?”

“Yer damn right I do.”

“Look away, Dawn. This is not meant for innocent minds. Innocent-ish either.”

Once she turns around Cure casts the spell. Instead of projecting it on the ground he casts it so it’s hovering in front of Solar, mouth wide open mid-pounce.

With a screeching yell he dives away from the image. “AHH! SHIT! Dude! What the fuck, Cure?”

“Riddle!” he yells while cracking up.

“Riddle my plot, I almost pissed myself.”

“Ohhh that was good. Yeah,” Cure agrees with an amused nod, “that was pretty funny.” Giving Dawn a nudge he says, “you shoulda seen yer brother diving away. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him move that fast.”

“I’m not looking,” Dawn insists. “Tell me when you stop, I don’t need to see that. Just imagining it is bad enough.”

“It’s gone. I wouldn’t have wanted ya to see that anyhow. It freaked my parents out so bad I had to go comfort them just so they could sleep. Watching yer brother try a somersault was fun though,” he says chuckling at the annoyed colt.

“We better get to work before the sun sets,” he starts, then mumbles “or I decide to change targets.”

“We should test your fire resistance before starting so I’ll have plenty of magic to heal you with.”

“Stars this is gonna suck…”

“Yeah but imagine what a huge advantage knowing could give you. If somepony is using heat attacks you can feign needing to shield and dodge until they get overconfident. Then you can just ignore their attacks while launching your own and totally catch them off guard. Or you could start a fire to block their sight and charge through it and surprise 'em.”

“True… alright, Dawn are you ready?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, babe, pick up where we left off. Yell stop the instant you start feeling discomfort, not pain, okay Solar?”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Unfortunately it only takes a minute to find the limit. Cure estimates it to be somewhere around boiling as he’s patching the toasted hoof back up. “We’ll have to try one more thing next time we’re at my house,” he explains.

“What’s that?” Dawn asks as she’s leaning into Solar, “I hope you aren’t going to have me hurting my brother anymore, Cure. That was awful when he jumped.”

“It’s fine, sissy. It just surprised me when it went from a “present” sensation to pain so fast. I guess once my tolerance point is passed my talent basically cuts off.”

“Well, we know approximately where your limit is on direct magical applications now. We need to see if other objects can burn you. We can just heat up a bowl of water and you can quickly dip a hoof in until we find your limit. The nice thing is we can actually get the temperature with a candy thermometer.”

“That’s not too bad I guess. I’ll be able to tell if it’s too hot before it even burns me.”

“Yep. There, you’re good to go. Now, let’s get to work!”

Cure legitimately has fun blasting away at the mounds of dirt. He does jack all for damage, but with a belly full of food he pushes his magic regeneration to the limit. Cycling through a variety of projectile spells gives him a feel for how each one actually works.

The basic unicorn beam attack is a purely concussive blast. The same is true for the basic shield panel that a unicorn can project in front of themselves. They’re all just versions of unicorn levitation, which is a misnomer. It truly is a telekinetic effect.

In his mind he associates “levitation” with lift and move, the beam with a punch, and the shield with a palm held out to “catch” a projectile, though deflecting is much, much easier than fully stopping a hit.

Actual spells are infinitely better for most purposes. They allow for far more specialized effects and offer significantly more control than just “push magic out.” The different projectile spells are a helluva lot of fun and remind Cure of some good times he used to have plinking away with his little Walther P22, though he’s certain the 22LR cartridges are far deadlier than anything he could fire off.

“When unicorns fight do they usually use spells or do they just blast away?” he asks Solar.

“Spells are better, but if you’re about to get nailed then you gotta do what you gotta do. Honestly, the whole horn upgrade thing will change… just so much about how I learn to fight. Usually if you see a hit coming you just push out a shield to slow or deflect it. I’ll be able to cast a specialized spell fast enough and save a ton of magic doing so, with better results also.”

“Hmm… true.”

Almost all of the projectiles have some variable input mechanism in the casting that allows additional power to be dumped into the spell for a more potent effect, though many have an upper limit before, as best he can tell, the spell will simply lose cohesion, and they tend to do so violently.

Cure has almost no memories of doing electrical work. In fact, Ed fucking hated doing anything electrical after nearly losing a finger changing out a light fixture. He learned to always turn off the master breaker instead of just the one breaker after a light fixture happened to have another breaker’s wires passing through in addition to the one the light was actually on.

Regardless, from his very limited electrical know-how, Cure compares a spell’s energy storage structure to a capacitor; one with a finite capacity. The pony, in this analogy, is the battery or generator that’s supplying the juice. Too little and nothing happens. Too much and the spell will typically detonate on the spot. The energy has to go somewhere, after all.

Fortunately or not, the capacity on the spells is a few orders of magnitude above anything he could possibly manage at his current power levels, so he could dump everything he has into most of the spells and still barely do anything actually destructive.

The whole thing makes Cure suspect that the “magical burst” thing that was shown in the cartoon is utter nonsense, as he can’t come up with any logical way a eight kg infant could possibly generate a blast that would punch a hole in a ceiling unless alicorns are just pure concentrated BS. Or if there’s some stupid nonsensical crap going on behind the metaphysical veil.

Fortunately the spells all have a lower limit that is within his castable range. A lightning bolt at full power would split a tree in half, whereas his output is much more like a stun gun. The effect would be worthless against a pony like in the foalnapping scenario he had mentioned to his parents, since everypony already has some lightning mitigation capabilities.

In order to really damage another pony either a different element or a heavier cast would be necessary.

The more expensive projective spells are the kind that use a physical element in them. A perfect example is the ice dart spell, which launches a sharpened ice “nail” basically at high speeds.

Pouring additional magic into the spell on the right runes will increase the size of the projectile, while altering a few runes allows for multiple projectiles to be generated; the size variable based on, again, magic poured in. Other runes can be empowered to increase the projectile speed, at least to a limit.

As best he can tell that limit seems to be a little under a hundred meters per second, with “standard” casts going at roughly half that speed. The predator part of his brain screams for him to find an alternative runic structure to allow for faster projectile speed, but the book he bought doesn’t have that information and the magic cost would be prohibitive at the moment anyhow.

Cure can imagine a powerful unicorn blowing their whole load and launching potentially hundreds of ten centimeter shards at an enemy column and, without proper armor, disabling a large number of opponents all at once. It would also exhaust the caster, but if they could take a few dozen enemies with them it could make a huge difference as an opening move in a battle.

Spells like that could have other unicorns supply power through group casting with additional runes placed at the start of the spell. This is slightly inefficient, but a talented artillery mage with a few assistants supplying additional power can really put down some hurt. A major limitation is that the horn muscles will become exhausted, and running that much power through the horn definitely can burn out nerves, permanently disabling the caster.

The other disadvantage is that it is typically less expensive to defend than it is to attack, simply because there is an amount of energy necessary to get a projectile from the source to the destination, whereas defensive measures are cast near or right at the point they need to be.

Of course, the scale tends to balance out due to defenders overcompensating as they’ll not usually have an exact measure of how much magic power or kinetic force is coming down the line. A shield with 1000 units of magic holding it together won’t deflect a 100 unit attack any better than would a 105 unit shield.

Some of that difference can be withdrawn back out of the shield as powering it is an active channeling effect, but there’s still some loss for establishing it and withdrawing it, so it’s definitely not free to overestimate an attack by too much.

Cure is certain at this point that a larger, sturdier horn like alicorns have can definitely handle far more throughput than a typical unicorn. Cure can’t remember the formula to determine the volume of a cone off the top of his head, so instead he does the math for half of a rectangle. It’ll be inaccurate as hell, but should still give him an idea of the difference, assuming volume matters at all.

His horn is about 6.5 centimeters long and 2.5 centimeters diameter at the base. 3x3x6 is 9x6, so 54. He figures cutting that in half should be a very rough overestimate for his horn volume, so 27 cm3.

The princess has an enormous fucking horn, the size of which he has no clue. From the picture in his mom’s history book it’s just a little less than the length from her withers to the top of her head. He figures 100 cm is as good as anything since he’s basically pulling numbers out of his ass anyhow. Assuming a six cm base, which is likely way too small, she would be clocking in at half of 3600, or 1800 cm3.

So if that’s how it works then his horn’s maximum output is maybe 1.5% of hers, but probably far less.

He has no idea if volume truly matters, or if the relationship is linear or some exponential thing, but it seems logical enough that it could be a possibility. He’ll have to use his memory trick to log some formulas and other useful things next time he goes to the library, he notes.

Shaking himself out of thought he gets back to the purpose of the trip… blasting away at stuff.

His favorite spell thus far? Guided magic missiles. They can turn or arc and hit the target he visualizes, even if the target is outside of his aura range as long as he supplies enough power. He chuckles a bit as he recalls that shitty movie Wanted and how ridiculous the whole idea of bending a bullet’s path was, and now he’s doing it with magical bean bag rounds shooting out of his forehead.

As best he can tell the spell leaves a tracer conduit in the missile’s wake that allows for some steering correction as they travel, reminiscent of a wire-guided missile system he loved using in Battlefield video games to shoot down unsuspecting helicopter gunships.

He could see that being a potential weakness of the spell as it would allow an enemy caster to easily track the shot back to its source. Still, against non-magical targets it was a fairly reliable way to land a staggering hit, even if each missile didn’t have a lot of individual impact. The spell had a whole host of alternative casting methods as well, with different runic structures for various payloads available.

Cure had to assume that the explosive payload is restricted, though he has memorized a decent selection of options including ice, fire, water, and an electric discharge. It’s when he’s testing out the different effects that it occurs to him that there may be a discernable pattern in the ones that carry a physical payload.

The four variants he knows are all identical except for one sequence. Cure makes note of these sets of runes and tells himself to look into the different conjuration spells to see if there’s a pattern he can exploit. Specifically, he wants to see if there’s a correlation between vibration patterns and chemical compositions.

Any spell that generates water must be somehow creating hydrogen and oxygen. If a spell can create H2O it should be possible to separately make a spell to create H2 and O2, and with a two-to-one ratio and a little fire mixed in… boom.

Maybe not in the destructive sense at such low volume, but a small hydrogen explosion in somepony’s face will certainly rattle their brain a bit.

It’s nearly time for the group to split up when he gets a wild idea.

“Hey Solar, got enough magic to use yer heat beam?”

“Yeah, but only for a moment. Why?”

“Mind if I try scanning your horn’s vibration pattern while you do it? I’m curious if I can replicate it at all.”

“Huh… I’ve never heard of anypony trying that before. No, go for it. Ready?”

“Yep, fire away.”

Cure knows from his experience that duplicating special talents isn’t as simple as copying their spell, but he’s hopeful that he’ll gain some insight into how everything works. While actively scanning he watches as Solar blasts away, slagging a nearby hill. And learns nothing at all, just like when he got burned earlier.

As expected, there is no vibration pattern to copy. Solar is just firing a standard beam and, somehow, his talent is altering the effect entirely on the metaphysical side that he can’t observe.

“Well fudge. You’re not even casting a spell for me to copy. Your horn vibrates the same as if you were shooting any standard beam.”

“Yeah I’m not surprised. That seems like something somepony would have tried before.”

“Uhh… Cure?” Dawn hesitantly calls. “Why is your cutie mark like Solar’s?”

“Riddle! Err… wait, what?” With a half turn Cure shows his mark and, just as Dawn said, it’s a large yellow beam coming down from the sky with orange lines pointing away from the impact site.

“Oh my stars… what did you do?” Solar asks, leaning down to get a better look.

“I dunno, but I don’t feel right. Ohhh,” he moans, wobbling on his hooves, “I think it’s changing again!” he shouts as a very familiar stylized sun appears on his flanks causing both unicorns to recoil.

“What the fuck?!” Solar shouts, leaning away from the younger colt.

“Nnnn oh no! Help me!” he weakly calls as the sun disappears and a picture of Solar and Dawn’s dam’s scowling face appears. “Ahh there. I’ve finally found my real special talent. Pissing off yer dam. Look how angry she is!”

“Damnit Cure,” Solar starts ignoring the yelled out “Riddle!” while rubbing at his forehead, “yer gonna get yer rear kicked one of these days, I swear. Now get my dam’s face off yer flanks before I’m the one that does it.”

Gasping, Cure jumps away from the older colt. “You’d kick yer own dam’s face? No wonder she doesn’t like me, we start hangin out and now ya turn all violent. For shame!”

Altering the image it shows her upper half waving a scolding hoof. “Look how disappointed she is! You’re gonna make yer dam cry!” Next he has big tears fall from the picture. “Poor thing…” he says, petting his own flank and getting a pleased smile from the image, which he then rolls on its back like a happy puppy. “Who’s da good Emmy? You is! Yes you is!”

Dawn just watches the whole thing in bewildered amusement.

“You really are crazy aren’t you?”

Cure responds by holding two hooves just a centimeter apart between his face and Solar. “Just a tad.” Sitting on his haunches he points a hoof at Solar while explaining, “In my defense, you’d be crazy too if you got a good look at everypony’s everything anytime you used yer talent.”

“Okay yeah, that sounds unpleasant. That aside we need to get going. You coming?”

“Sure, I’ll walk ya home. If anypony asks I’m just some colt you met in town for the day from Baltimare. You didn’t ask why I was in town.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

Following along with Dawn and Solar on his right, a thought occurs to Cure. “Hey, just curious, do you have a way to block my talent at all? Like… can you actively fight it?”

“Not that I’ve noticed. I mean, I haven’t tried, but there’s just nothing to push against. I could try a shield spell, though. They interfere with our aura, so I bet that would make it so you can’t target me. It’ll be a weak shield, so don’t hit it, please. The feedback when they break is unpleasant.”

“Okay, yeah, I’m not actually gonna hit you or something. Besides, have you tried since the horn upgrade? I thought I fixed that backlash issue.”

“I… hadn’t considered that, actually. Dude if that works I’ll be thrilled. You usually have to make a shield stronger than you’d want to just so you’re not disabled when it breaks. Go ahead and test your talent, then give it a tap.” Activating the shield while walking, Solar gives Cure a questioning look.

“Yeah that cut me off. I can’t target you anymore. That sucks.” Trotting beside the older colt, Cure winds up and gives the shield a whack with his foreleg. The bubble pops instantly, but he has enough muscle control to not hit Solar, something the older colt probably doesn’t even realize he should be grateful for.

“Sweet Celestia, just another thing, huh? I felt it break, but whatever reinforcement you added turned it from an annoying throb into a mild tick. Just enough to know the shield went down without hurting.” Looking over to Dawn he adds, “I swear, sis, if you weren’t already a couple I’d almost consider dating him just to keep him around.”

“Eww!” she yells, scrunching up her muzzle in disgust.

“Ha! Hear that, Sunrise,” Cure turns around and hops backwards while talking to her, “Yer not the only unicorn after this fine hunk’a pony,” he teases, waving a hoof in front of himself. Pointing at Solar he goes on, “You got competition now. Better step up yer gaaaa~ame,” he finishes, drawing out the word.

“Ugh, he’s all yours,” she says, trotting past him.

Stopping in place, Cure watches her continue on. Ensuring he’s loud enough for her to hear, Cure starts following behind her while saying, “Jeez… that’s just cold. I’ll tell ya, Solar, these unicorn mares… I just don’t know what to do with ‘em.”

“They’re somethin, aren’t they?”

“Yep, I’m startin ta suspect there must be some feedback goin down those horns that makes ‘em overly aggressive or somethin. The frontal lobe is right under the thing, ya know? Maybe we oughta move yer horn somewhere safer so it’s not messin with yer brain so much. How about a big ‘ol honkin dorsal fin horn on yer back?”

“That sounds awful. I’ll pass.”

“Think of the range you’ll get, though. You just gotta remember to duck when yer blastin away, don’t wanna shoot yerself in the back of the head, yanno?”

Snorting out a laugh at the image, Solar just shakes his head, “I think I’m happy with my current horn placement, Cure. Thank you for the concern, though.”

“Riddle. Just sayin, gotta watch out for mah bro ‘n all. I can fix most things, I’m not sure I wanna try fixin crazy. ‘Course I guess my only options are to learn to live with it or start diggin dudes, and as pretty as ya are you just don’t do it for me, Solar. You belong to the boss lady anyway.”

With a deep sigh, Solar ignores the (currently) brown colt and catches up to his sister.

Cure walks with the two until they’re about a block away from their house, then splits off to the train station. It only takes about fifteen minutes before the evening train pulls in, at which point he ducks into the restroom, makes his change, removes his horn, and trots back home, satisfied with everything he’d learned for the day.

Author's Note

I think in a comment a while back I said that a typical pony size breakdown (at the withers) is roughly 48" for EP, 44" for Unicorn, 40" for Pegasus, all males. Females are just a couple inches shorter. A "hoof" is four inches, so Cure expressed a desire to be about 50-52" inches tall before (I think a half hoof or so taller than his sire) but Deed wanted to be "a half hoof" taller, so the goal for Deed is 50" and Cure is still undecided what height he ultimately wants to aim for, but likely somewhere in the 52-54" range. I have griffon males and females both coming in at/slightly above unicorn height on average. These numbers are all averages, though, but typically an individual pony's height won't even be mentioned unless it matters, so just assume that most are average

Keep in mind that's at the withers. IRL a horse's neck is about 55%-60% of their height @ the withers, but MLP ponies have proportionally shorter (as in, body length, not height) bodies. Really, scale, height, etc. is just all over the friggin place in the show, but the length from the top of most ponies' heads down their neck to their withers is about the same as the length from that same spot to their tail.

In this story I've definitely gone with a more horse-like body (though a more MLP pony-like face), and I plan to continue doing so. In my mind, Deed will end up around 50" tall and will have a body length of about the same. His neck should be a little under 28", but again, that measures from the withers, so even fully upright it'll add about 20 to 24 inches onto his height, which would put him just a hair under eye level with our minotaur from Canterlot (who, btw, is on the shorter side of average for a minotaur, but he's a diplomat, not a warrior).

I'll try to remain consistent throughout, but I'm not going to sweat over tiny details. If I make an absolutely bone-headed statement please do point that out, though.

I think I referred to this once before:
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/15664/what-is-the-relative-scale-of-the-my-little-pony-universe
There's a good, consistent chunk that starts with "I just saw this yesterday." towards the bottom. Fluttershy is indicated to be about 38" from hoof to ears, or (If I'm mathing right) about 22" to her withers. That's a smol pony; shorter than Cure is right now by ~3 inches and about 16" less than a typical adult female pegasus in my story. The pokemon there is actually visually closer to the way I envision these ponies, though, again, the face is more like traditional MLP characters, just with more realistic proportions (esp. the eyes!).

The goliath earth pony at the rodeo, as well as the ones Rusty references in the gym, tower over most ponies at about 6' at the withers. I don't want to give out spoilers, but both times I've referenced these ponies I've included a line about how they're approximately the same size as the princess. I know at the rodeo, at least, I also pointed out how much it would suck to be a fully 30% taller than average without the infinite purse the crown has.

I don't know how people that are over 7.5ft tall get by unless they're pro athletes or otherwise wealthy. Take everything you do in life, then add 50% for custom make, never mind flying, buying a car, etc. Ugh... no thanks!

So, another arguably more important note that I'll probably add to the story description. The way I am writing this story is that once I've hit "publish" on something I'm committed to it. Several folks have addressed valid concerns about OP-ness and how it ruins a story. I disagree; about half of the stories out there feature a protagonist that is OP and I've also pointed out that almost any character in MLP especially could be overpowered but being a child's cartoon none of them put much effort into doing so.

In the context of a peaceful, laid back semi-utopian society with an all-powerful benevolent leader, this absolutely makes sense. Especially if, culturally, every generation is raised seeing the previous one perfectly happy to just kinda go through life with a chill attitude. Look outside of Ponyville even during canon and, overwhelmingly, most days are just normal days, so what would ever push a normal pony to go to the lengths that Cure's pushing Solar to do? Not much, unless they have some specific ambition maybe, i.e. Starlight Glimmer or Tempest Shadow.

Anyhow, back to my point; rather than giving up and abandoning the story, if I do something really stupid or miss some important thing and don't have a good reason why that happened, I'll just play along and own it for the rest of the story. The best example off the top of my head is Cure healing Dawn's eyes. I actually had a note in my story calendar for a chapter around story date 11/1 where Cure finally reveals to the two what all he can do and offer to buff up Solar over the next 2 months to get him ready for Basic.

The chapter where I ended up doing the reveal was going to be titled "Natural Male Enhancement" because of the whole thing with Deed. I did the illusions purely as a joke to embarrass Dawn and Vines, then thought, "man there's no way you'd be able to envision a full, perfect rendering of another pony like that" and it just kinda all clicked that, not only would Deed be getting enhanced, but so would Solar. Horn enhancements for everypony!

Seriously, though, that was going to be a whole separate chapter, so he and Dawn found out about Cure like... a month and a half before I'd planned on having the big reveal.

So yeah, I may at some point accidentally write myself into a corner, but the plan is to deal with that story-wise and go from there. If you see an inconsistency or a bone headed move in the story put a comment in. If I screwed up then, sorry for Cure and fam, but he'll just have to live with it.

Thanks!