Life Finds a Way

Friday, October 17th, 908 AB (11 days later)

“So, are y’all runnin today?” Heavy Lift asks the group. School had let out early and the four that lived nearby each other were headed home for lunch.

Cure shakes his head no, “I can just for fun but I hadn’t really planned to. It’s a little unfair for me to actually compete.”

Scoffing, the gray colt bumps Cure’s shoulder. “Just cause you can run far doesn’t mean you can beat everypony in a short race.”

“I’m not sure, Heavy,” Delta Coast starts, “I’m pretty sure he can run at a full gallop the whole way.”

Ferric Shine gives both colts a once-over look. Cure seems like he may be a smidge taller, probably because he got his mark. He’s definitely a thicker build than Heavy is, with considerably bigger legs and larger muscles on his neck, chest, shoulders, and hips. “How fast can you actually gallop, Cure?”

“Like… full on sprint gallop? The last time I tried to go all out was a month ago but I only went about two thirds of a kilometer from home to the edge of the park. It took me about a minute. I’m guessin that if I absolutely burned everything maybe 55 kph. I haven’t tested myself to be sure.”

“Cow manure!” Heavy yells. “I’ll believe that when I see it!”

“I literally just said I’m not sure. I bet everypony in our group will be a lot faster than you expect, though. Know anywhere that’s exactly a kilometer to find out?”

“The race is a five k run,” Coast offers. “If you don’t wanna run today you could just run it tomorrow and we could time ya. Or, better yet, let’s just use the path they have laid out for the foal’s run.”

“Good idea, Coast. I don’t think they’d want us running in the main event anyhow. They don’t want a foal getting trampled accidentally if they fall or something.”

“Yeah,” Ferric agrees, “the foal’s run should be exactly a kilometer anyhow. By the way, Cure, I still have your book, don’t forget.”

“Oh right, the enchanting one. You get anything useful out of it?”

“Sort of,” she explains, tilting her head back and forth. “The ideas are really neat, but I just don’t know when I would ever use it. We don’t get much demand for enchanted tools… or really, any at all. Nopony wants to pay a unicorn to charge them.”

“Hmm… that is a problem. There’s gotta be an alternative for that.”

Cure feels a bit conflicted not sharing with his friends. He would really like to tell all the earth ponies and pegasi how to actively channel their magic, but the butterflies from that could be enormous, and he definitely doesn’t want that level of intrigue turning his direction until he’s a fair bit older. Besides, most do a hell of a lot more passive stuff than they even realize. Lemon’s candies were, for example, hooves down better than anything he could ever hope to make, even before his parents gave her and Amy a training session.

Turning the problem over in his head doesn’t really help a whole lot, and he’s only pulled out of his thoughts when they get closer to everypony’s house.

“See ya in a bit, everypony!” Coast calls before breaking off for her house. The others follow suit, trading goodbyes and going to their respective homes.

Cure trots into the house, almost freezing on the spot when he finds a couple unexpected guests sitting with his sire and mom in the living room.

“Hey hey! There’s the colt’a the hour!”

“Uncle Lucky?” he questioningly calls out. His uncle is dressed quite nicely today with a light grey trench coat and a rather dapper matching fedora sat beside him. Cure doesn’t see many ponies wear coats, especially since it’s not really cold out and there’s no rain scheduled, but he has to admit it’s a good looking outfit either way.

Said uncle hops up off the mat he was on, trots up to Cure, scoops him up in a big hug, and plants a loud, exaggerated peck on each cheek. The other pony, a gray earth pony mare with a darker gray mane, quietly watches from where she’s laying. Cure notices she’s got a foreleg wrapped in a splint that looks like it was made from whatever they had nearby when she was hurt.

Once Lucky sets Cure down he returns to the mat, waving Cure to follow. “My good friend here, Sunny, tripped at work. Took a lil tumble, ya know? Grandpa asked me ta bring ‘er out here an get her all fixed up. Ya got a sec?”

Cure gives his mom and sire quick greeting nuzzles while Lucky is explaining why they’re here.

Sunny, with a pained look, smiles at Cure. “Yep, gotta watch where I’m steppin, yanno? One wrong step an’ I coulda been way worse. Ya know how it is,” she finishes with a shrug. “So Lucky tells me yer a miracle healer. If ya could fix me up I could get back ta work for yer grandpa faster. Yer sires got the 25% already,” she says, tilting her head at a bag of bits between her and Deed.

“Sure thing Miss Sunny! Did they tell you how my talent works?”

“Sure, colt. I ain’t got nothin ya haven’t seen a dozen of already. Go ahead.”

With a hoof on her uninjured leg Cure scans her. She’s got a broken leg, and the break is obviously from some kind of heavy impact like a hammer hitting her, or maybe a baton. Or maybe something fell on the leg, he guesses. She also has some hoof shaped bruises forming on her chest, and another set on her back left hip.

Cure knows an earth pony wouldn’t normally break anything from falling except maybe off of a building, and with the entire package it is clear she was either beat on or involved in a hell of a brawl. From the bruises on both legs and the chips out of her forehooves he’s guessing it was the latter; she clearly gave back at least some of what she got.

Knowing damn well not to ask questions he gets started on the leg. “I’m numbing your whole leg first, so don’t panic when you stop feeling it.”

“I could kiss ya for that alone. The damn thing hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Well gimme a minute and it’ll be good as new. Want me to fix the bruises from the fall too?”

Smiling brightly, she enthusiastically nods. “That’d be great. Thanks Cure!”

“No problem!”

Focused on his task, he doesn’t pay attention to the small talk between Lucky and his parents. Vines is in the kitchen getting lunch ready, but apparently the two aren’t going to join the family at the table. They have to hurry back to Baltimare for work, whatever that involves that he also doesn’t want to know a damn thing about.

Several minutes later Cure declares the patient is ready. “Alright, you’re all set. Dad, can you get a knife from the kitchen to cut off the wrap around the split?”

“Here, Cure,” Lucky calls, casually passing him a three hoof long dagger. “Careful now, that’s sharp.” Cure notices a leather holster dangling empty behind his uncle’s right foreleg. He’s turned a bit to the right, so Cure can’t tell if there’s another one on the other side, but it wouldn’t exactly blow his mind if there is.

“Oh. Thanks!” Very carefully, Cure cuts the tape and string wrapped around her leg and unravels the layered paper towels and washcloths, ignoring the bit of blood from the formerly wounded area, then returns the knife to his second cousin slash uncle who, in one quick motion, spins the blade under him and slides it straight into the holster, looping a strap around the grip.

The mare inspects the leg, stands on her other three, and carefully puts weight on the fixed limb. With a thoughtful frown she nods in approval as she does a few quick tests, then trots into the bathroom to clean up the leftover blood.

Once she’s clean she comes back out and picks Cure up and wraps him in a hug. “Thanks a million, Cure! I’ll be sure to tell yer gramps how great ya are!” She plants a couple kisses on his cheeks, sets him down, and ruffles his mane.

“Nice work, colt. Blaster said to send his regards too. Say’s he’s been able to go to the gym and run like he ain’t been able to for years. Can’t hardly keep the ladies offa ‘em. You all need anything just send the word, ‘kay? C’mon Sunny, let’s get outta their manes an let ‘em enjoy lunch. Yo, V, stay beautiful babe! Enjoy the run, everypony. We’ll see ya soon!”

“Bye Uncle Lucky, Miss Sunny. Say hey to grandpa and grandma for me. Oh and tell Blaster his book’s been great.” Business concluded, Deed walks the two out the door, getting another big hug from Lucky and a hoof bump from the mare before they trot off towards the train.

“Uhh I guess we can just throw this all away?” Title says, waving at the trash and bloody materials left behind. “Whatever, let’s eat. Deed babe can you put the bits away?”

“Sure thing babe,” he calls, trotting to the bag, latching it to his chest with TK, and taking it upstairs.

Cure hits the potty, washes up, and trots into the dining room, hopping up on his chair just as Deed rejoins the family and sits across from him with his dam and mom on his left and right.

“Umm. So how much was in the bag, dad?”

“Two fifty. The rest is in yer trust, I guess. Still, that’s fantastic for a few minutes of work, huh champ?”

“Two fifty? That’s 25%? He’s paying me a thousand bits?!” Cure shouts. “That... sounds like a lot.”

“Yer damn right it is. That’s the lowest my grandsire would accept though. We keep tellin him and Lucky they’re gonna spoil ya, but Lucky told us how much havin an employee outta commission costs the business. That mare wouldn’t have been able to work for weeks, let alone any time for therapy to get back up to strength. Yer savin them a few thousand, easily.”

“I… guess that’s true. Josh broke an arm once and I wouldn’t have even blinked to spend a grand to fix that on the spot. I feel like bits have more spending power, though. Still, I guess it saves money overall compared to normal healing.”

“That’s right, champ. It also guarantees it heals right the first time. No havin to rebreak it if it don’t set right. Lucky said they didn’t want ta go to the hospital and fill out all the forms either. Somethin about gettin fined for on the job accidents.”

“Ah… Pony OSHA exists, huh?” Getting an eye roll from the parents for the unfamiliar acronym, Cure quickly explains what OSHA is.

“Of course there’s an agency like that, dummy. You can’t have ponies workin in a dangerous environment. Anyhow, good work, Cure. You just spent five minutes fixin her up and made almost as much as we do off of a house sale,” Title explains, pausing for a moment to add, “I feel a little cheated.”

“Why, mom?”

“I dunno, honey. It just feels like… “ she trails off with a shrug.

Cure hops down, walks over to the mare, and wraps his forelegs around her in a hug. “I know. It’s not fair. I can’t really tell you why somepony should make a thousand bits in five minutes and another pony should make a thousand bits in a month. Life’s not fair, that’s why I’m trying to level the playing field. A rising tide lifts all boats, mom.”

“Oh, honey, I’m not upset with ya,” she says, awkwardly returning the side hug.

“I know you’re not, but just keep in mind that any success I have will go to all of us. Remember, mansion in the sky, mom. I’ll make sure all of your maids are stallions that are way prettier than dad, too.”

“Aww… thanks, Cure.”

“Traitors… traitors everywhere! I guess it’s just you and me, babe,” Deed says, turning to Vines.

Vines looks hesitantly between Deed, then her son and wife and hums thoughtfully. Slowly turning her head back and forth, she finally settles on the pair and nods in acceptance of her decision.

“BAH! Who needs any of ya! I’m gonna go drinkin with my pals tonight anyhow! Maybe find me a lil piece on the side, somepony that’ll appreciate a tall, dark, handsome stallion that can throw down.”

“Good luck, sweetie,” Vines says while patting his hoof, “if you want I think Lemon and Amy would be happy to have you over tonight. Title is getting too far along anyhow. By the end of the month she’ll be off limits until she gives birth, assuming she isn’t already too far now.”

Cure breaks off the hug and hops back up on his chair. “She’s probably fine for now, but be careful,” he says. “Sorry, that may be partially my fault. Ya know, with the changes and whatnot. Don’t... ya know... do the the buzzin thing… you don’t wanna shake anything loose or cause damage. You could just not do that, though.”

“Eh, that need doesn’t really exist for me right now anyhow. Go have yer fun babe. I don’t wanna risk hurtin the foal.”

“Okay. I was just teasin, but maybe I will go check on the ladies tonight. I’m guessin yer not runnin today, babe?”

“Nope. I’ll just be there to watch. What about you three?”

“I’ll stay with you, honey.”

“I’m runnin,” Deed declares, “Gotta show the ladies what they’re missin out on.”

“I’d rather not but I suspect I’m gonna get pressured into the foals run either way. I’ll just keep it to an easy canter, though. I wouldn’t want to sprint the whole way or anything. That would be incredibly unfair to the foals who aren’t freaks of nature.”

“Cure! Don’t say that about yourself!”

“Oh! No, dam, I mean it in the literal sense, not like… “hey you’re a freak!” like an insult. I just mean abnormal or atypical. I’m technically a freak or hybrid or, depending on your definition, practically an evolved pony. So are all of you, too, though.”

Pointing at his mom he lists, “Enhanced strength, vision, heat sense, and optional horn.” Next, his sire, “All the same but the horn, or at least, the horn that would go on top of yer head. The other horn definitely is not standard issue.” And finally his dam, “Again, all but the horn and vision, which we should really fix, but you have friggin spider parts on yer frogs. It’s not a bad thing to be different, dam, I keep tellin ya that.”

“Well… I guess that’s all true,” Vines concedes.

“Of course there’s also the bone changes we’ve started on. We can get both of you started on the mitochondria changeover once you’ve given birth too. Mom, you may have to wait until fall estrus to have yer colt, but it may be good for the foal if you do too.”

“They’ll probably get the enhancements automatically that way. I’m not sure, though. A lot of what I’m doing is more along the lines of giving you implants than actually changing your genetic code. I think.”

“As for myself, all the above, minus the spider parts, with my hybrid mitochondria, totally unfair memory trick, all the smelling, hearing stuff that I don’t use often, plus anything that strikes my fancy just on the spot. Like my stinger.”

“What?” Deed asks, “Did you say stinger?”

“No, I said I’m a great singer. You know, the voice thing I did to Dawn and Solar?”

“I’m pretty sure you said stinger…” Title agrees, giving Cure a look.

Waving a hoof, Cure dismisses the absurdity. “Pfft, stinger. That’s crazy talk. Where would I even hide a stinger anyhow?” Cure looks down at his bowl, then shoots his tongue out like a frog, spearing through several pieces of lettuce before yanking them back in his mouth and chewing them up, happily humming the whole time.

All the parents stare wide-eyed at the blue colt in some mix of curiosity, amusement, and a dash of concern. “What?” he asks, grabbing a napkin and dabbing at his cheeks, “Did I get somethin on my face?”

“Every damn meal…”

“Hmm? You say somethin, dam?” Ignoring the annoyed scowl he turns back to the pink mare. “Anyhow, what’s your thoughts on that, mom? Are you okay passin those traits down to your foals? I’m not comfortable doing anything big while yer pregnant, and if you want your daughter to have all that we can start whenever you’re okay with it. Or never. It’s your or possibly her call, depending on how long ya wait.”

“Uhh… I’m fine waiting ‘till fall if it means my baby will be healthier. As for the foal I’m carrying… I dunno. We’ll wait and see how we turn out and go from there, okay?”

“That sounds like the safe route,” he agrees with a nod. Facing his sire he adds, “Dad, your input counts here too. Also, I should really convert you over at the same time so you and mom are more likely to pass on the improved cells. Then again, it seems like the dam determines most things for a foal, which seems odd. Do any of you know if there’s hybrid foals out there like winged unicorns or maybe just bigger, more muscled unicorns and pegasi?”

“It’s pretty rare, but it happens. I think they usually take more after the dam, but there’s a few winged unicorns out there and they usually struggle with flying more than magic. You’ll also see some earth pony hybrids out there, but they don’t stand out as much. Like you said, they’ll just be a bit bigger and stronger and, again, sometimes they struggle to fly or sometimes they’ll have casting problems.”

“Well that would freaking suck. It’s one thing to not have wings and accept you’ll never fly. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have that constant reminder on your back taunting you yer entire life. Or a horn you literally can’t help but look at nonstop that doesn’t work right. That’s way worse than not having it at all.”

All three parents are somewhat surprised at the energetic reaction from the colt. He’d gotten worked up a bit when he talked about ponies losing limbs, but this seems to really agitate him for some reason.

“Sweetie, if you reveal you can fix that… that’s going to raise a lot of other questions too.”

“I know, dam. Gah! How much did the train tickets to Canterlot cost, dad?”

“About two hundred bits, why?”

“I just wanted an idea of how much it would cost to get around. I’d like to, at some point, travel and help ponies like that.”
With a sigh he finishes, “That’s not going to happen for years though...”

“Nopony is expectin ya to fix everything, champ. Give it time.”

“I know. Still, I have more income than I need. Until you’re reimbursed for every bit you’ve spent on me, you’re taking half of my income, got it? I won’t listen to arguments about this, no eight year old needs two hundred and fifty bits to play around with.”

Wincing a little, Deed looks to his wives to get their input. Neither care about the money one way or another, but they’re certainly aware that it bugs their son a lot, so they just nod in agreement.

“Okay, sport. Ya know it don’t matter to us, but if it’ll make ya feel better, you got it. I’d fight ya more, but yer gonna pay back anything we’ve spent on ya in a matter of months no matter what, so you win,” he agrees, tossing a hoof to the side. “Once we settle up how’re ya gonna force me to take more of yer money?” he asks, challengingly.

“Easy, I’ll start savin so we can buy a bigger house. The writing might as well be on the wall. Eventually Lemon and Amy will want to be a part of this family, and that sounds fantastic, but we’ll need a bigger house if yer gonna give me a bunch of brothers and sisters. I can at least help pay my part and a little extra.”

“Right now it’s me. In three months it’ll be two foals,” he says, pointing at Title, then looking at his dam, “then four, then six if they move in, and over the next five years it could be fourteen or more if everypony wants another set of twins. We need a bigger house where both dam and Amy can take care of everypony. Or we can hire a nanny if ya wanna do the food logistics thing, dam. We’ll probably need at least four, maybe six bedrooms. I’ll eventually want some space for myself, after all.”

“Sweet Celestia, Cure, slow down! Yer talkin over the next five years, not tomorrow.”

“What? Ponies don’t plan five years out? Are you serious?” After a round of shrugs he sighs and explains, “If they’re financially able to, smart humans start planning for their retirement at fifty five or sixty when they start working in their twenties. Most can’t, or don’t know to do so, but it makes an enormous difference if you plan ahead.”

“Son… you don’t need to do all that. It ain’t that complicated. Even if they came over today each with two foals on the way we’d still make it work. Ya gotta stop thinkin like a human all the time.”

Cure throws his hooves in the air while leaning back and shouting, “Aww come on! That’s not fair! I’m not thinkin like a human! I’m thinkin like a pony that’s going to have a much bigger family in a few years. If I was thinkin like a human I’d probably be terrified you were gonna get a divorce when you joked about findin another mare tonight. THAT is what a human would think.”

“Regardless, sweetie, your mom and sire are right. Let us take care of all that. Don’t you have plans with your friends after the race today?”

“Mmm… fine. Whatever,” he grumbles, settling down and poking at his food. “Yeah, Sapphire invited me over for a sleepover. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, though. She invited everypony from our running group, including Heavy. He’s gotta be home by sundown. Apparently his parents are all going into town for the more adult parties tonight and want him to watch his sisters. I don’t get why they didn’t just find a foalsitter, but either way I’m wary of being the only colt there.”

“We could watch ‘em,” Title volunteers. “You want me to go ask if they want us to so your friend can come with ya?”

“Really? You don’t mind watchin a couple pegasi foals for the evening?”

“Not really. They’ll be asleep a little after sundown and I’m sure either Berry or Spring will come by to pick them up by ten or so. They weren’t going to leave an eight year old alone all night.”

“True. Sure. He’ll be thrilled, I bet. Thanks mom!”

“No problem. It’s not like either of us can go drinkin anyhow.”

“I’m not much of a partier anyhow, sweetie. I don’t mind watching a couple adorable fillies for a few hours.”

“Alright, we’ll check when we’re done eating then. Hey dam, are the melons from when I was showing you magic ready to go? They look like they’re gettin pretty big.”

“Oh yes, absolutely honey. They’re definitely ready. You should take one with you; I’m sure Sapphire will appreciate you bringing everypony a treat. Pick one out that has an orange patch on it, they’re the yummiest.”

“Cool.”

Conversation dies down for a while while everypony finishes their lunch. Deed, Cure, and Vines clean up the table while Title makes a quick pit stop, then she and Cure head off to Heavy’s house, which is just a little bit closer to town. Heavy is outside playing with his sisters as the two approach, but turns when Cure calls out to him.

“Hey Heavy! Are your moms home?”

“Yeah… is everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, nothing’s wrong. I was talkin to my parents about tonight and my mom offered to watch yer sisters for ya. If you want we could go together so it’s not just one or the other of us and a bunch of fillies.”

“Really?” Running up to Title he wraps her foreleg in a hug. “Thank you, Mrs. Search! That would be awesome! I don’t mind watchin my sisters, but… yanno.”

“It’s no problem, sweetie. Just lemme make sure it’s okay with yer moms first. Don’t get yer hopes up ‘till they say it’s okay, alright?”

Releasing her, Heavy takes off for the house calling, “You bet! Lemme ask!” before either Cure or Title can really do anything. Both girls have flown over and landed next to the two of them and are just sitting there staring.

The two are identical twins, which means that Cure has no idea which is which. They both, of course, have light yellow coats with fiery red manes that nearly perfectly match the future Applebloom’s colors. He knows the one is a sweetie pie, but the other is a little nightmare.

They’re summer foals and just a little over five years old, so they’re past that “innocent adorable” phase that Cherry and Lotus are still in and instead have hit that “mischievous but still adorable” phase instead; possibly the hardest to deal with since the pouty pony eyes are still almost 100% effective and they’ve come to recognize that fact.

“Okay, I’m sure you two get this a lot, but I can’t tell which is Summer Cloud and which is Fall Thunder,” Title admits.

“I’m Summer!” the one on the right declares.

“No, I’m Summer!” the one on the left argues.

“I’m… regretting decisions,” Title says with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, mom, it’s really easy to tell which is which.” Both girls look at Cure challengingly as he explains, “You see, Fall Thunder is the one that’s always really stinky like farts, but Summer always smells like the adorable filly she is.”

The eyes on the left filly grow huge and her jaw falls open. The one on the right nods enthusiastically and starts giggling.

Cure takes an exaggerated whiff of the air. “See? That one,” pointing at the filly on the left, “is Farty Thunder, and that one,” Cure is, fortunately, ready for Fall to attack, so as soon as she leaps at him he wraps his forelegs around her and traps her against his chest while laughing. “Looks like I gotta stinky fart, ma!” he calls, getting a few feeble kicks from the girl. “Oh wow I’m strugglin to hold this fart in!”

Summer is rolling on the ground yelling “FARTY FARTY FARTY! HAHAHA!” when Heavy and his moms come back out to find Cure play-wrestling with Fall, rolling around on the ground and giving her raspberries to the great amusement of her sister.

“Hey Title,” Berry Prickle calls as she approaches. She’s a dark blue mare with a bright red mane and her cutie mark shows a bunch of blackberries hanging off of a plucked vine. “Heavy said you may be able to foalsit for us tonight?”

“Hey Berry, hi Spring,” Title greets. Spring is the girls’ dam and Heavy’s mom. She’s the only pegasus that Cure actually knows firsthoof who is married to an earth pony. She’s definitely where the girls get their colors, though her coat is a shade or two more orange than their yellow.

She’s only a little over three hooves taller than Cure and probably only one and a half times his weight, if that. Heavy’s sire is only about an inch shorter than Cure’s, so he’s gotta be around a hundred and ninety kilograms. Thanks to Deed’s fucked up “closet” talk Cure struggles to keep inappropriate thoughts off his mind.

Title explains, “With me and Vines both being preggers we’re gonna spend the evening at home. Cure said he was hopin to go to the sleepover but didn’t wanna be the only colt. If you want, I don’t mind keepin an eye on the fillies so Heavy can go to Sapphire’s house after the race.”

“You sure you don’t wanna go into town tonight? I’m due in January too, but somepony has to keep an eye on Spring and Silver or who knows what kinda mess they’ll get into.”

Scowling, Spring pokes Berry’s side with a wingtip. “Hey! We don’t get that bad.” At her wife’s glare, Spring wilts a little and adds, “Usually. We don’t get that bad usually,” then sticks out her tongue.

“Get yer fat flanks offa me, Cure!” Fall shouts from under the colt, drawing everypony’s attention. He’s laying on his barrel with his front legs wrapped around her and his head sitting on top of hers while smiling and pinning her down so she can only wiggle and flap her wings uselessly. Her sister’s off to the side throwing blades of grass at her and laughing.

“Fat nothin. There’s barely any fat on this chiseled body, Farty. Maybe you need to get them eyes checked. They’re probably meltin from all the farts. I know you can feel that wall ‘a steel ya keep kickin, so be careful ya don’t split a hoof.”

“Ya can’t split a hoof kickin clouds, fatty!”

The three mares ignore them to return to their conversation.

“Nah, Vines and I aren’t really heavy partiers. Maybe once I get this filly outta me, but I’m entirely too self aware to go dancin while sober and enormous.”

“I’m fine with it if yer sure, Title,” Spring says. “Do you want us to bring ‘em to you or would you two like to come over and watch them here?”

“Ehh… here’s probably better. They got all their stuff here, after all. Plus we can just put ‘em in bed that way and you don’t have to worry about them waking up on the way home.”

“Woo!” Heavy cheers from the side and gives Cure a hoof bump. The two of them have been listening in the whole time.

“Sounds good to me. We’ll see you around seven then?” Berry asks.

“Sure, Vines and I will just come by after dinner. Cure has an illusion crystal, so we can probably entertain them with that for a while. We’ll see you in a bit,” Title says, starting to turn back to the house.

“That sounds neat! I’m sure the girls will love that. We’ll see you later,” Spring calls, waving a wing as the two mares go back inside.

“Alright, Farty. It looks like our moms are all done talkin. Time to go stink up some other poor colt like yer brother,” Cure says, hopping back off of the filly to avoid a last-second kick to the face.

Ruffling her feathers, she sticks her tongue out and yells, “You stink!”

Nodding, Cure agrees with the girl. “Of course I do, I’ve been sittin on top of you. Now I gotta go home and scrub my chest, neck, and chin to get all the fart offa me,” he admits as he makes a show of rubbing a hoof on his chest, sniffing it, and waving it away like a dirty diaper as he trots back home.

Wings spread like she’s going to pounce, she yells “I’ll get you, Cure!”

Still trotting away he calls back over his withers at her, “Not if I can smell ya comin from a kilometer away!”

Heavy and Summer just watch the two, laughing at Fall the whole time. When she realizes it she turns around and dives at them instead. Cure watches the three wrestling as he and Title head home, snickering the whole way.

“Yer gonna give the poor filly a complex.”

“Oh she’s an absolute demon. At least her sister is a cutie pie, though. Fall is a fighter, so she’s fun to pick on.”

“You still shouldn’t be mean to her.”

“Meh. She’ll get me back next time we go running, I bet.”

Cure had suspected that the whole “Running makes the leaves fall” thing was not true. In a way, he’s right; trees will shed their leaves just fine without anypony’s interference. After all, much of Equestria is unsettled land. If trees out in the middle of nowhere had no way of shedding their leaves before the harsh weather sets in then they would likely starve themselves trying to keep their crown green when sunlight hours are reduced from the summer high of about sixteen to around nine or so.

Cure has noted that, as far as he can tell, the behavior of the sun matches what he knows happens on Earth and in the Sol Solar System. He can only conclude that, like Earth, Equus must be tilted slightly in order for the world to experience seasons like he’s familiar with. Of course he’s learned by now to keep his mouth shut even around his parents. He knew they wouldn’t call the guard on him or anything, but it clearly disturbed their world view when he even hinted at the possibility that there may be something else going on other than “Boss lady says sun goes up, sun goes up.”

He figures the underlying functions of the planet, solar system, and, possibly, universe are a subject he can tackle when he’s a little older.

For now he’s pretty sure he’s cracked why ponies run to make leaves fall and how it happens. As best he can tell it’s a subconscious use of earth pony magic along with the actual vibration caused by a hundred or so ponies varying in weight between about a hundred and two hundred and fifty kilograms.

As anyone who’s worked around herds of cattle or horses can attest, when fifteen to twenty thousand kilograms of body mass are beating the ground with, basically, bone clubs there is certainly going to be some vibration felt for quite a distance. Add in a subconscious “doing this makes the leaves fall!” and a several-hundred-pony pseudo-ritual and the idea of a group of running equines knocking leaves off of barely-changed trees goes from impossible to downright likely pretty quickly.

Of course Cure would like to observe how it works in areas that are less predominantly earth pony, but again... that has to go on the back burner for now.

The actual Running of the Leaves event is an adult race, of course. It just isn’t safe to have a bunch of foals mixed in with adult runners as a simple accidental trip up could cause a foal to tumble in front of somepony that has no way to stop in time. Or the lead pony may stop, but the next five behind them may not know to.

The event segregates out competitive runners and sends them on their way first, that way the vast majority of casual runners aren’t dealing with the obnoxious ponies that feel like they have something to prove. Of course, the argument is pretty easily flipped too; the ponies that actually want to run don’t have to deal with the slow flower shop mare chatting away with her friends while she’s casually strolling along.

In addition to the competitive and casual parts, the committee that plans such events arranged for a corresponding foal’s version. Youngsters get to participate in a safe manner, they’re entertained for their participating parents’ convenience, and it helps build interest for such events in the next generation to keep traditions going strong.

Coerced by the fillies that he’d been running with, Cure really had no hope of avoiding the foal’s run event. Fortunately Vines and Title were not running, so he could leave the melon he’d picked with them. The one kilometer run was an absolute joke for the group that had been conditioned to go ten times that far, and Cure had vehemently refused to go all-out to prove his speed, convincing the group that doing so would be tacky with the huge, unfair advantage they have.

That didn’t stop Coast and Ferric from pointing out that they could come back after the event and have everypony test their speed without unfairly trouncing the other foals, something Cure had reluctantly agreed to.

“I dunno why y’all are so obsessed with this. Ya know it’s not fair at all.”

“What’s wrong, Cure? All that endurance and no speed?” Crosswind Drift taunts. “I noticed yer sire only got fifth place too, I thought yer whole family was supposed to be in great shape or something.”

“My sire could run that race, turn around, run back to the start, and then run it a third time and barely be winded. He got fifth place because winning woulda been too easy for him and he didn’t wanna show off.”

“Uh huh, I’m sure he just decided not to try. That’s dumb.”

“Jeez Drift, you got a bent primary or somethin?” Dawn asks.

“What?! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Is that a thing?” Cure asks, leaning over to whisper to Glacial while ignoring Drift’s huffing attitude. “I don’t have feathers, but I could imagine a bent one being annoying.”

“No, not a primary. If you bent a primary you musta crashed or something. Look,” she says, taking a half step forward so she can fan her wing out in front of Cure.

“Damn your wings are gorgeous,” he mumbles absentmindedly.

Glacial freezes and turns red while Cure can't even help but give himself a slow, drawn-out facehoof. “Sorry! Sorry, they’re pretty. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. You were saying? Primaries are the big ones right? Here at the end?”

“Uhh no it’s fine. Thanks. Yeah, so … what was I saying?”

“Something about crashing. Ya know, like I just did,” he says with a wince.

Giggling at the colt she waves her wing slightly. When his eyes track every movement she starts laughing and moving it more just to tease him.

“Now I know how kitties feel when I dangle string in front of ‘em.”

“Well as long as you don’t pounce I can show you,” she says, holding it straight out. Both are mostly ignoring Dawn and Drift, who are still sniping at each other.

“What place was yer sire in, Drift? Do they have a race at Fort Meadow?”

“My sire coulda run from Meadow to here before yers finished the five k!”

“Yeah, but then he’d probably get distracted attackin runners in the foal’s event.”

“At least he knows what an attack is! Your sire’s strongest attack is a beam that conjures up a warm blankie!”

“Oof, claws have come out,” Cure notes.

The other girls had gone to find some way to time each other, something Drift insists is necessary. He has no clue how the officials had done it. As far as he knows stopwatches don’t exist yet. Maybe some enchantment or spell… or a simple water clock.

Heavy is content to sit back and watch the show.

“So yeah, the primaries are here,” she explains, indicating the feathers at the end of the wing, “the secondaries are closer to my body,” she says, pointing her hoof at the bigger feathers on the inside of the wing joint.

“Okay. So it’s based on the joint then. Primary are farther than secondary. Easy enough.”

“Yep, then the coverts are on top, closer to the front. Alula are here just at the wrist. There’s others and more technical terms and whatnot, but you don’t need to worry about all that.”

“Huh. Do you have to do a lot of maintenance or do pegasi wings kinda take care of themselves?”

“Stars I wish. We have to preen ‘em at least twice a day. More if we’re flying a lot.”

“Hey Heavy, do you hafta help yer sisters with their wings a lot or is that all on yer mom?”

“My mom does. She said earth ponies don’t have some oil or something.”

“It has to be another pegasus or you gotta use a special oil,” Glacial explains. “Unicorns and earth ponies don’t have something in your saliva like we do.”

“Ah, that explains the extra glands. The ducks and other birds I scanned have something like that but it wasn’t in their mouths. It’s by their tail on their backs and it’s an oil.”

“Ducks have really good oil. It smells funny though. Ours doesn’t make our wings smell and it’s not actually an oil. My dam told me it reacts to sunlight and acts like one, though.”

“That makes sense. If it smelled I’m sure we would be able to tell. Earth ponies have a stronger sense of smell than pegasi. What smells do you like? Lavender? Most mares seem to like that and roses a lot.”

“Lillies. Those just fill a room and smell wonderful!” she beams.

“They do. Do they make those oils in floral scents?” Turning his scent up as high as possible, Cure scents the air briefly. “I only smell some kinda berry. Strawberry?”

“Huh… if you can still smell that on me then your sense of smell is definitely way better. That’s just my mane conditioner. They do, but they’re not cheap. You go through too much to use that stuff normally. Those are just for special occasions or whatever. Usually after a shower you preen yourself, get help from a family member, or use a brush and the plain stuff. Sometimes when there’s a lot of pollen wings can get kinda gunky, so if a quick shower’s not an option you just use a brush.”

“Huh. Interesting… How many applications do you get out of a container of the scented stuff? Ten? Twenty?”

“No way! Four, maybe five if you spread it thin or have smaller wings. You can dilute it with the normal stuff and stretch it a little. That’s what we normally do.”

“The girls are back,” Heavy calls out, pulling the pair’s attention away from each other.

“I don’t see a timer on anypony’s back though,” Cure observes. “Thanks for showin me, Glacial. Sorry if I embarrassed you, they really are beautiful.”

“Sure, Cure. No problem!”

“... a complete waste of time!” Cure only heard part of what Drift is saying but he was confident he could deduce the rest. Apparently her and Dawn are done with their spat so Drift has turned her friendly attention on Delta Coast, Sapphire Sprint, Ferric Shine, and Rising Pitch.

“I don’t get why we can’t just count,” Coast argues. “It’s not like there’s a prize or anything.”

“It’s a race!” Drift shouts. “You gotta time it to know who won!”

“Okay wait,” Rising calls, “is this a pegasus thing? You know earth ponies don’t really time each other right? Racing is more of a pegasus thing.”

All eyes turn to Glacial who, with a sheepish smile agrees, “Yeah… competitive racing is kinda big in the pegasus community.”

“You mean you don’t care?!” Drift asks the group, getting a bunch of no head shakes back. Seeing she’s outnumbered she flings her wings up and lets out an inarticulate screech, then stomps around in a circle before settling down.

Cure trots over and, with no warning, sits on his haunches and wraps his forelegs around her, pulling her against him. “Come now, Drift my dear, no need for that,” he whispers in her ear, “your friends just looked all over the place to find a timer just for you. What do we say?” then releases her with a nudge.

Cure ignores the curious looks from everypony and goes back to stand by Glacial. Drift huffs and flicks her wings a couple times before the blush goes away, then looks to the group. “Sorry, everypony. I didn’t mean to be a jerk about it. We race all the time but it’s always flying and I wanted to know how fast I can run. Somepony,” she says, glaring at Cure, “insisted we not try too hard during the actual race so now I’ll never know!” she says, finishing with another stomp.

“Well it is a little unfair to everypony else, Drift,” Rising points out. “Not everypony has guard level training twice a week.” Her point gets a murmured round of agreements from all the foals.

“But I’ve only run six times!”

“Yeah,” Ferric agrees, “but each is worth five to ten workouts. That’s like five months of exercise in two weeks. It’s still unfair.”

Seeing she’s not convincing anypony, Drift finally gives up with a “whatever” and a huff.

“How about this?” Cure asks. “The start and finish lines are painted on the ground. You two,” pointing at Glacial and Drift, “have the best eyes, so if one of you just hovers or sits on a cloud looking down on it you can see when the runner starts and just count until each of us crosses.”

“It won’t be perfect but a good way to count is to say a number and the princess’s name. One Celestia, two Celestia, three Celestia. It’s close and it’ll be consistent at least. When one of you goes, the other can watch. You can count when you run but trust me, you’ll be too focused on running to be accurate.”

Everypony is quiet for a moment while they think it over. Cure sees a few mouthing out the counting trick, then nodding in acceptance. Cure figures that it takes about as long to say her name with proper enunciation as it does Mississippi, so it should be close enough.

“Fine, but I’m going first!” Drift yells, running to the starting line. Cure shrugs and asks if anypony has anything to write on and with. Glacial had brought a bag with her, so she gives him a pencil and piece of paper that he writes everypony’s name on while Drift impatiently taps a hoof on the ground.

“Wait!” Heavy yells. “What’s the winner get?”

“I’ll buy the winner a sundae tomorrow. How’s that sound?” Cure asks. “I have some income now, so the winner can get the biggest one they sell.”

“DEAL!” Drift shouts, pacing impatiently by the starting line.

With a sigh, Cure turns to Glacial and asks, “Do you mind timing her?”

“Nah, I’ll just hover until she takes off runnin then land. I’ll be able to tell fine from the ground when she crosses the line.”

“Oh yeah, duh. Okay, thanks Glacial.”

Everypony approaches the starting line where Drift is impatiently waiting.

“Sapphire, wanna do the honors? You’re the host this evening, after all.”

“Oh! Okay. You ready Drift?”

“Yeah, c’mon!”

“Three. Two. One. GO!”

Cure watches closely as Drift takes off, quickly getting up to a full gallop. She’s learned to keep her wings folded against her body when running over the last couple weeks. All three pegasi had kept coming to run with the group every Saturday and Wednesday, which had become the semi-official run nights. They would also occasionally show up on other random days to join in. Apparently pegasi just liked to move.

Cure’s parents stopped going every night since they’d basically plateaued and were only really gaining anything via Cure’s enhancements. He didn’t run quite every night, but anytime somepony came by, even an unusual night, he would run with them just to get out of the house and move for a while.

Cure watched for cheating the entire distance. He was pretty confident Drift’s pride wouldn’t let her, but ponies could surprise him sometimes. Of course, she could use her aura without spreading her wings, but if her stride suddenly doubled it would be pretty obvious. As far as he could tell she legitimately ran the entire kilometer and, he guesses, it took her a little over a minute and a half.

Both she and Glacial fly back to the start line, something that takes less than half the time, to inform everypony how she did.

“A minute thirty seven! Beat that, Cure!” she says, waving her head back and forth in front of him as he writes her time down.

With a smile he simply says, “That’s really good, Drift,” then gives her a friendly nuzzle and adds, “Nice job.”

She scowls back, clearly annoyed he didn’t rise to her challenge, then, after he hoofs over the paper and pencil, takes a few steps away and flies back to the finish line to watch everypony else.

“Glacial, do me a favor, please,” Cure calls. “When I run can you please count too? I think she’ll be ready to argue that I’ve cheated or something if I beat her.”

“Nah, she’s just competitive. She’d never cheat or accuse you of it unless she saw ya,” she assures him. “I’ll count anyhow, but I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Sapphire? Wanna show us how ya Sprint?” Cure calls.

“Okay!”

Sapphire goes next and, Cure had to admit, she booked it. Cure wonders if it’s a name thing or if she’ll eventually get a speed mark of some kind. She’d been the most irregular runner, sometimes not showing up in a week at all. Dawn’s next and, while she’s in great shape for a unicorn, she just doesn’t have the telekinetic grip to explode off the starting line like everypony else does.

Rising and then Coast went next, and they definitely beat everypony else’s score. They were the only earth ponies that had been consistently running with Cure from day one, basically, so he guestimated their times were around ten to fifteen seconds faster than Drift.

“Woah. I don’t think I’ll be able to beat that, Cure,” Heavy says as Coast shrinks in the distance. “Rising and her gotta be in first place now. I bet Drift is gonna be a butt about it.”

“I dunno. Maybe. I hope not, it’s not like a sundae is that big of a deal. Still, it shows what I was talkin about how it’s unfair for us to race against normal foals. They’ve been to more runs than anypony but Dawn and they’re kickin plot. Ferric may be able to do that well, but she was in great shape before she started runnin,” he notes. “Show us how it’s done, Shine!”

Ferric, then Heavy, then Cure go next. Glacial would go last, which isn’t an issue because Drift can still see when she starts running from a low cloud or hover easily enough.

Of course the competition was completely unfair, as everypony but Drift knew anyhow, so when he galloped across the finish line at a minute and ten seconds nopony else was surprised. Credit where it’s due, she (reluctantly) congratulated him on the victory, so Glacial was right about her being a fair sport at least.

“Alright, everypony,” Sprint calls, “I have the results. The big fat cheater, Cure, won with a minute and ten seconds. While carrying a melon because he’s a showoff,” she says while scowling at him and getting a stuck out tongue back. “Next was Delta Coast with a minute sixteen. Ferric Shine beat out Rising Pitch by one second, so their times were a minute twenty two and twenty three.”

“I beat Heavy Lift by two seconds; our times were a minute twenty eight and a minute thirty,” she says, pausing to take a small curtsy, “Next came the only pony that’s run every day, Dawn Glow with a minute thirty three. Last but not least are the pegasi with Crosswind Drift’s time of a minute thirty seven and Glacial Breeze scoring a minute forty.”

1. Cure Wave - 1:10 (Cure’s melon - 1:10:50. Lost by a nose)
2. Delta Coast - 1:16
3. Ferric Shine - 1:22
4. Rising Pitch - 1:23
5. Sapphire Sprint - 1:28
6. Heavy Lift - 1:30
7. Dawn Glow - 1:33
8. Crosswind Drift - 1:37
9. Glacial Breeze- 1:40

Cure can see Dawn’s clearly annoyed at being placed so low, so he sneaks over next to her, watermelon set aside, and nuzzles into her neck. “It’s not a fair fight, Sunrise. You don’t have the TK field the rest of us do, so you can’t get as much traction. I’m amazed you beat those two, but they haven’t run many times yet, so…”

“Still, I’ve run more than anypony!”

“Yep. And you’re in fantastic shape compared to any unicorn I know except yer brother. To be fair, you’re better at magic than everypony here by a lot.”

“Except you!” she yells. Then realizes she just drew everypony’s attention.

“Shh!” he quietly shushes her, but it’s obviously too late.

“What?” Drift asks. “What do you mean except him? And what’s a TK field?”

“You weren’t there,” he explains, “but I made an illusion crystal. At the time it was a spell Dawn struggled with, but she can do it now just fine. As for the TK field… well, that’s the thing that lets you grab stuff. Unicorns don’t really have that very much. That’s why you always see them levitate stuff instead of using their hooves and why it took a few extra seconds for Dawn to get up to speed.”

“Oh. We have that, though, why don’t they?”

“Pegasi have it, but earth ponies’ TK fields are a lot stronger. You guys can reduce your mass, though, which makes ya lighter. We can’t do that.”

“How much stronger?”

“Come put yer hooves on my side and try to push me. You’ll see you can’t move me at all if I’m grabbin onto the ground. I think our field is about three times as strong as yours. It’s about ten or eleven times as strong as a unicorn’s though.”

Challenge issued, everypony gathers around as Drift tries to push Cure over. She finds her hooves sliding out from under her before she can budge him at all.

“Heavy, come over here. Or Ferric, or any other earth pony.”

Rising trots over to see if she can do it too.

“Okay, now imagine your hooves are an actual part of the ground. You are as immovable as a mountain, Rising Pitch. Nopony can move you unless you let them. Be the rock against the storm, okay?”

With a nod she sets herself. She’s the same height as Heavy and the other unmarked earth ponies, so just a little shorter than the one-year-older pegasus. Despite that, she’s probably at least ten kg heavier due to her thicker earth pony build. Drift can’t budge her at all either.

“Huh. I didn’t know you all could do that.”

“Yep, it’s just like how you two can lighten yourselves even without flappin yer wings.”

“No we can’t,” she immediately argues.

“Yes, you can,” he assures her. “You’ve just never tried. It’s probably something you learned to do subconsciously when you were a foal first learnin to fly.”

Drift looks to Glacial who simply shrugs and looks back.

“I’ll prove it, let’s go to the playground. They have a see-saw there we can use.”

“Okay, Glacial and Drift, you both weigh about the same. I think everypony else will be a bit heavier. Each one of you get on a side. This’ll only take a moment.” Dawn and all of the other earth ponies are simply sitting by and observing, curious to see whether Cure knows what he’s talking about or not.

Each filly takes a side and looks to Cure for instruction. Drift has a slightly more muscular build, so she weighs a few kg more than Glacial who is now sitting a meter and a half off the ground.

“Okay, who wants to be light and who wants to be heavy?”

“I’ll be light!” Drift immediately calls. Cure looks to Glacial who simply nods and flicks a wing in Drift’s direction.

“Okay, Glacial, be ready for her side to get lighter. That means your side will fall in just a moment, okay?”

“Okay…”

Cure trots next to Drift and quietly gives her instructions. “Okay, Drift… you know that feeling you get right before you rocket up in the air? Imagine you’re just about to take off, but I want you to do everything in your power to keep your wings tight to your body at the same time.”

Nothing happens.

“Close your eyes, Drift. Instead, imagine you’re standing on a cloud looking down at the world. You don’t need your wings right now because the cloud will hold you. You just gotta feel it on your hooves to know it’ll keep you up. It’s just you, the clouds, and the sound of the wind to keep you company.”

That does the trick. Drift squawks as she’s launched unexpectedly in the air as the weight on her side is reduced by however much the aura works. In a panic she snaps her eyes open, cutting off the aura, and slamming back on the ground while Glacial had snapped her wings open and gently floated over.

Once everypony knows she’s alright they all start laughing.

“Did you hear her yell?” Heavy asks the group with a snicker. “I swear Cure musta plucked a feather with the way she shot in the air! Did ya bite her, Cure?”

Drift sits there fuming at the gray colt while everypony else giggles along.

“Nope, I’d only do that if she asked nicely,” Cure explains, causing her to turn her scowl from Heavy to himself. “Aw, don’t be mad. They’re just teasin ya. Everypony’s just glad yer not hurt.”

“Whatever!” she huffs out, turning away from him.

“Well, I don’t have enough bits on me to buy everypony a huge sundae, but cones are only a couple bits each, so I have enough to get everypony one before we go to Saph’s house. How’s that sound?”

Cure made sure to pay a little extra attention to Dawn while the group went for the promised cones. She’d been feeling a little down about coming in 7th place, despite Cure’s showing that she really just couldn’t have possibly accelerated as quickly as an earth pony in decent shape could.

With the melon set on his right, he sat right next to Dawn on a bench with their sides touching while they enjoyed their cones together.

Of course Rising and Coast sat opposite of them and smirked at Dawn the entire time. Apparently they’d been teasing the filly since he’d bumped into the three back when foalsitting and Cure had never realized it. He didn’t particularly care either; everypony knowing they were a developing item was fine by him. With aloof indifference she ignores their stares.

The rest of the group filled the bench and opposing chairs the rest of the way down the wall, Crosswind Drift and Glacial Breeze at the opposite end from the pair. Cure would have liked to sit closer to Glacial, but he decided to follow his moms’ advice on this front. He’d made his interest plenty clear enough earlier, inadvertently or not, and now the decision to eventually make a move was up to her.

“Ya know, you were excited for this earlier. Don’t blame me that you didn’t see this coming,” Cure insists. “It was well within the expectations I had for the night.”

The group had gone to Sapphire’s house after the ice cream. Cure hadn’t met her parents before and was shocked to find that she and Ferric actually have the same sire. He had never noticed beforehoof, but thought it odd he was getting a similar scent from both girls over the course of the evening.

“I didn’t know what I was askin for, dude!” Heavy hisses back. “I just wanted to hang out with a bunch of pretty fillies.”

He didn’t bother to turn his sense of smell back down after speaking with Glacial earlier, and was actually kind of enjoying being able to pick up hints of things he’d never noticed before. Thankfully it wasn’t all asscrack and spooge everywhere like he’d expected. He’d kept his smell at typical pony levels when at home specifically out of concern that he’d pick up his parents’ near-nightly forays.

“A laudable goal, my friend,” Cure says while patting the gray colt’s withers. “Now, however, I fear we must pay the price for our hubris. If you want my advice,” he continues, ignoring the emphatic no head-shake from Heavy, “I suggest you have as much fun with this as you can. It’s happening, one way or the other. Accept it.”

Of course the “duh” moment came when approaching the rather nice house; one just barely northwest of town and probably almost double the size of his own home. Ferric happily trotted up and nuzzled into her sire’s chest with a “Hi daddy!” and was greeted similarly in turn. Cure wasn’t the only one that was surprised; aside from the two daughters only Rising, Coast, and Dawn were in the know.

Ferric clearly got her build from him whereas Sapphire takes after her dam. Onyx Mark reminds Cure of Rusty Barbell, the gym owner from his and Deed’s adventure in Baltimare before meeting Brick.

The stallion is about a hoof taller than Deed had started out, and he clearly gets his exercise in as a miner. He’s covered in thick muscles everywhere from snout to tail. Built like a brick shithouse, the nearly-black stallion looks like he could kick a mountain and make ore fall out like the future Apples can do to a tree.

His mark is some gray or silver colored lump of ore with some sparklies poking out of it. He sports a silver mane and tail and, objectively, Cure has to admit that the dude is quite the looker. It’s no wonder that Ferric’s dam asked or paid for him to sire for her, but given that he still looks after Ferric some he’s assuming it was the former arrangement rather than the latter.

“We could run, ya know?” Heavy suggests.

“They can fly and lift us with levitation. And we’re outnumbered seven to two. I could run and probably get away… do you want me to leave ya?”

The fillies simply look back and forth in a semicircle around the surrounded colts while they have their conversation. They can obviously hear everything, but neither of the two seem to care.

“You wouldn’t! That would be a jerk move. Be a bro, dude!”

Sapphire’s sire and dam are both watching the byplay from the side with amused smiles. The group is in one of the living rooms and the fillies have brought out, likely, one of each type of cosmetic product ponykind has ever invented. Cure remembers asking his dam about this crap at one point. Well, here it all is. Question answered.

“I’m frankly perfectly fine with this, really. If you think having the attention of a room full of fillies is anything but wonderful then maybe you should reconsider your priorities in life.”

“Oh yeah? Go ahead then,” Heavy counters, waving ahead of him.

Sapphire’s dam is apparently the town jeweler. Midnight Gem has a light purple coat and a lovely blue mane and tail that reminds Cure of the land-bound group members’ new teacher, Polished Apple.

Also an earth pony, the mare has a much “softer” city-pony build than Cure’s moms. Adorned on her flanks is a diamond or other similar jewel set inside of a facet, though it’s as if the jewel is being looked down on, so it’s unclear what type of jewelry it is. Cure wonders if it’s some kind of amulet or broach perhaps, but is unwilling to ask to have a better look.

“With pleasure.” Cure sits on his haunches, breathes into a hoof melodramatically and sniffs it, gives an approving nod, then takes a few steps forward, “Good evening, ladies,” he says as he drops into an over-the-top bow, “Cure Wave’s the name and my special talent is making beautiful mares such as yourselves as happy as they can be.” Standing back up he flexes his pecs back and forth then asks, “How can I be of service this fine evening?”

Even Sapphire’s parents burst out laughing at the line that has all of the fillies giggling and a few blushing lightly.

“Well first,” Sapphire explains, “we need to get those hooves polished. Dawn, what color do you think will look nice on your special somepony?” she asks, turning to the grinning unicorn.

“Pink!” Coast calls out.

“You’re just saying that cause it’ll match yer mane,” Rising says, bumping the filly with a shoulder. Shamelessly doing the same she calls out, “A nice chocolatey brown like his eyes!”

Coast huffs and shoulders her back insisting, “It’ll look nice! What’s wrong with my mane?”

As the two start bickering Ferric makes a suggestion, “I think he’d look nice in something a little darker.” A line that stops all laughter and conversation on the spot. The dark red filly’s ears shoot straight up when she realizes what she said, then turn burgundy as they fold back and her tail goes limp as the alternative meaning dawns on her.

“Uhh… maybe a darker gray color?” Cure suggests, praying her sire doesn’t intervene.

“Yep, that’s what I meant!” she quickly agrees.

“I dunno, girls…” Drift calls from the side, “I think Cure would rather have his hooves covered in something like a platinum color. Got any that light up blue in the sun, Saph?” she asks, then immediately bursts out laughing.

Cure looks over his withers at Heavy with a terrified face. Stage whispering to the colt he quickly says, “Save yourself, bro. It’s too late for me. I’ve made a terrible mistake!”

“You asked for it, dude. I’mma go pick out my colors. Maybe that’ll hurt less.”

Cure turns back just in time to see the pink leaving Glacial’s ears while she does her best not to look in Dawn’s direction while smacking the cackling pegasus beside her with a wing.

Thanking all that is holy, Cure notices that Dawn isn’t glaring or shooting lasers at Glacial.

Maybe the dream is still alive! Viva le harem!

Cure looks to the huge dark stallion and mouths, “Save me”, getting only a chuckled head shake no in return before pouting.

“I think a dark gray would look nice,” Rising agrees with Ferric. “What about his mane, though? He obviously takes good care of it, but I dunno about green…”

“Hey! My dam’s coat is green!” he objects with a scowl, which is completely ignored.

“Red and blue go together well,” Dawn points out.

“Purple!” Midnight Gem shouts from beside her husband, “Purple and blue go great together, right honey?”

“Oof. Sorry little dude, I gotta agree,” Onyx casually remarks.

“Wha-pish!” Cure calls out, making the whip motion at the huge chunk of rock, only getting an agreeing nod and a shrug back.

“No, she’s right,” Coast says, “I bet purple would look really nice with his coat.”

“What shade though? He doesn’t have the same blue… she’s more of a royal and he’s sky.”

“I think silver would look nice, for real,” Drift insists. “He’d be like Glacial’s evil mirror twin.”

“I’m not evil!” Cure calls back. “I’m Neutral Good at worst. Maybe even Lawful Good. Definitely not evil. Usually. I’m quickly reconsidering, though.”

“You play O&O?” Onyx asks.

“No, but I’ve seen it played. It seems fun.”

“Eh. It can be. It depends on the game master.”

“Focus, daddy! We need to pick his colors!” Sapphire shouts over the stallion. He just holds up his hooves in surrender and slinks out of the room with his wife following after while calling “Puuuurple” in a sing-song voice as she trots away.

The girls all chatter for a moment while Sapphire watches her parents leave. After a minute passes everypony is quiet and they all look at her. “They’re gone!” she shouts, getting a cheer from the fillies. Cure looks questioningly at Heavy who just shrugs back.

“Wait… you were all just messin around to get them to leave?” Cure asks.

“Duh. They wouldn’t wanna stick around if we’re just playin with makeup,” she explains as if to a toddler. “Now we can do whatever we want.”

“Huh. Damn, I thought I was gonna finally get my hooves worked on. Usually I only give massages.”

Almost the entire room freezes and Cure quickly realizes that he did not say the right thing.

“You give massages?” Rising excitedly asks.

“He massaged my horn the other day. It was so good I almost passed out,” the orange traitor softly says. Cure’s lip-quivering pout almost made her come back to the light, but it was too late for her. “He also massages his parents a lot. It always makes them fall asleep.”

“You’re screwed, dude,” Heavy laughs behind them. “Maybe you didn’t make her quite happy enough, huh? Special talent’s not workin today or something?”

“Look, everypony,” Cure says while waving, sat on his haunches, “If I give you massages you’ll fall asleep. Besides, there’s seven of you. You can’t really expect me to give seven massages with these cracked, busted up hooves!”

“Your hooves look smooth as silk to me, Cure,” Drift insists with a smirk, “besides, we all know you and Dawn are a couple. She’s probably just exaggerating.”

“C’mon Drift, really? I know you’re just challenging me so I’ll be all like,” switching to a dumb-jock voice he says, “oh yeah! I can make you pass out easily!” then going back to normal he finishes, “and you’ll get a free massage out of it.”

“He also does other voices,” Dawn adds with a smirk.

“Sweet Celestia, Dawn. Whose side are you on?” Cure asks beggingly.

“Really? Can you copy other ponies’ voices?” Rising asks.

Quickly duplicating Dawn’s voice he responds, “Well yeah, maybe, but only after stabbin ‘em in the back a bunch with my big dumb horn!” getting wide-eyed shocked faces from everypony, Heavy included.

“Dude! That sounded just like her. Well, if she was … yanno…” he thrusts his head forwards a few times before saying, “stabbier.”

“I don’t sound like that!” Dawn yells from across the room.

“I don’t sound like that!” Cure echoes back to her, raising a challenging eyebrow.

“How in the hay are you doing that?” Ferric asks.

“I’m a filthy cheater, that’s how,” he responds in his normal voice. Then out of the corner of his mouth, with everyone watching and fully aware, he says in Heavy’s voice, “Hey girls I’m super bored and nopony is paying attention to me. Somepony come and make me look as hot as this magnificent specimen beside me!”

Heavy punches him in the shoulder with a scowl before he realizes that most of the fillies are picking up their supplies and looking in his direction.

“Get ‘em!” Cure yells, diving on his friend to hold him down.

The two wrestle on the floor for a moment, Heavy quickly realizing he has no hope of escaping before he goes limp.

“Shh, don’t worry bro,” Cure whispers in his ear while petting down his mane, “I’m totally using you as a distraction while I get away. Don’t worry, I will be fine.”

Cure hops off of his friend when Ferric, Coast, Sapphire, and Rising get close enough to take over. He doesn’t notice that an angry unicorn has snuck up behind him until his heat sensor pings her presence.

Slowly turning around with a big smile he casually asks, “What? You’re the one that tried to sell me out.” Grabbing her hoof and planting a kiss on her fetlock, he looks up and asks, “Haven’t I been good enough to you, baby?”

With a quick sigh, Dawn rolls her eyes and nods. “I guess I can let you off easy. All you gotta do is give three massages. The other fillies will hafta earn theirs.”

“Umm okay, so you’re one. Are you talking about these two?” he asks, waving a hoof at Drift and Glacial who are paying rapt attention. “How’d they earn them?”

“By being a part of your goofy experiment and helping with the race.”

“Oh. That’s fair. I mean, if you actually want them to pass out and be embarrassed in front of everypony.”

With a wince Dawn has to agree, they likely wouldn’t survive the experience. “Good point. I’ll take mine tomorrow after we run,” she agrees.

“Is he actually that good or are you just joking?” Glacial asks.

“No, he’s really that good. You don’t want him massaging you in front of everypony else, trust me.”

“Cow manure!” Drift yells.

“Ya know what, fine. I’ll do it just to shut ya up. Come here to the couch and don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Cure leads Drift over to a couch that Sapphire’s parents had scooted off to the side of the room. With so many foals over they’d moved them out of the way to set up a matted area in the middle of all of the furniture.

Drift looks a little unsure as she climbs up on the couch. Dawn follows along, shaking her head in disappointment while Glacial trots beside her. The two are whispering back and forth, but with Cure bumping his hearing up a little to super-equine levels he could hear every word.

“He’s not gonna hurt her accidentally is he? He’s really strong.”

“Nah, like I said, he massaged my horn the other day and that’s way sensitive. Remember, he can heal anyhow. I’ll be amazed if she’s not asleep in five minutes or less.”

“Really? That actually sounds kinda nice.”

“Oh yeah, definitely. My stupid brother tried to get him to channel magic in my horn while I was almost out of it though. I would have died if he did.”

“Why? What’s that do?”

“It… kinda lets you feel another unicorn’s emotions. That’s why couples do it. They can feel each other a bit.”

“Really? That’s kinda beautiful.”

“Yeah. Not something I wanna have happen when I’m blitzed out of my mind from a massage though, especially in front of my brother.”

“Yeesh… yeah.”

Huh. Well that’s way better than I expected. Still a dick move, Solar.

Drift gets situated on the coach, laying on her barrel with her forelegs straight out and her back legs stretched backwards. Her tail is down, so any inappropriate areas are completely covered. Her wings are folded against her sides, so Cure climbs up on the couch next to her and sits beside her withers.

Dawn floats another couch nearby and the pair hop up to watch.

“Okay before I get started lemme ask about your wing muscles. I know they can be sensitive; I won’t hurt them… I’m just kinda worried you may like the massage too much if I get them.”

“That’s the whole point of a pegasus getting a massage, Cure. Why wouldn’t you massage those too?”

“Oh. Okay. Just makin sure. Other than the obviously inappropriate things, is there anywhere you don’t want me touching you?”

“Just keep it on my top half, dummy.”

“Right, got it. I’ll start at the withers and work my way up, then work my way back down. I’ll be using my talent to help yer muscles relax, so don’t freak out if you feel that. Do pegasi have sensitive hooves? That’s kind of an earth pony thing, I think.”

“No, not really.”

“Okay. I’m gonna heat up my hooves a little and we’ll get started.”

Seated just beside her left wing, Cure starts warming his hooves up, rubbing them against each other in small circles. He looks over and finds that Heavy actually looks like he’s having a lot of fun, as are the girls that are painting him up like a clown car or something. Hopefully that crap all washes out.

“Alright, hooves are warmed, here we go…”

The first half of the massage goes just like any other. Cure works his way up her neck, trailing down from her spine to the strong muscles lining the sides while gently pressing and kneading the area with his warmed hooves and TK field, all while directly manipulating the muscles to relax with his talent as he passes them over.

Gradually working his way forwards, he can see the posture of the purple filly loosening as she relishes in the calming sensation climbing her mane. With careful precision he manipulates the muscles on her jaw, cheeks, and finally the sensitive muscles at the base of her ears and on her brow.

With the first half complete he re-seats himself by her withers, this time facing towards her rear. Normally he grinds his back hooves into his parent’s hips and lower back by standing on them, but that would probably kill Drift, so instead he performs a similar process to what he did on her withers and shoulder area, grinding away in a circular pattern on her hips and the larger muscles on the back of her legs.

Though he was certainly getting a little close to areas that he wouldn’t normally mess with, the filly never reacts other than to hum in appreciation or, occasionally, gasp or even moan a little.

Done with the formalities, it was time to move to the main event. Both Dawn and Glacial were watching with rapt attention and knew that shit was about to get real. Heavy’s makeover was almost done as well, and a couple of the girls were glancing over occasionally, keeping tabs on what was going on in the other half of the room.

“Alright, Drift, time for the finale. Hope yer ready.”

“Mmhmm…”

Straddling the filly, Cure puts a back hoof on each side of her hips and uses his TK field to support all of his weight on his back legs while channeling whatever pegasus aura he can to lighten himself. The antigravity lean draws a raised eyebrow from Dawn and a set of hiked brows from Glacial. He pauses to shoot the pair a quick grin and a wag of his brows while pulling off the impossible looking move.

He can only pull the trick off on the cushioned surface thanks to his weight on just two hooves compressing enough material and bringing the frame itself within grabbing range before he activates his pegasus aura. Grabbing only the surface would probably tear the top layer off, even though the field’s radius around the base of his hoof is nearly double the hoof’s actual size.

Drift would certainly not appreciate him falling on her back like that, nor would Sapphire’s parents be very happy with the damaged furniture.

With the positioning and weight concerns taken care of, he places both hooves directly over the area where her wings attach to her back, just behind the scapulas for her forelegs and slightly underneath the cervical trapezius. Gently pushing down and outward, he follows the muscle and bone structures in a heated, pulsating motion encouraging the wings to spread themselves open.

The effect is profound. Drift can’t help but moan out loud and her hind legs kick unconsciously from the stimulation. Cure freezes on the spot and looks to Glacial for guidance. “Is that normal? Should I stop?”

“Noooo!” Drift quietly whines.

Wide-eyed, Glacial takes a second to answer. “No, it must feel awesome though.” Shuffling slightly in her seat to get a better angle she waves a hoof and tells him, “Keep going. Just like that.”

Starting back at the base again, he gently kneads out, away from the body, further stretching and spreading the tightly coiled muscles that had pulled back against her body without her command. Now assured he wasn’t hurting her, or doing worse, he starts genuinely massaging the stretched muscles, wrapping his TK field fully around the wing and pulsating a light vibration all around it as he works his way outward to the wrist.

The sounds she makes are not even slightly appropriate for the setting, and Cure can only thank the stars he has a talent that lets him turn off autonomic processes in his body. Prepubescent or not, those sounds are going to cause a reaction otherwise. The only reason he doesn’t stop is because his sense of smell isn’t picking up anything he’d associate with more inappropriate activities.

After the third time her wings don’t come back down, and instead hover fully extended out to both sides. By the fifth time he’s having to hold them up completely, as whatever muscles had been keeping them straight out have gone completely out of commission. A few more slow, but strong motions outward, and a final gentle massage of the muscles that are normally hidden under the wings themselves, and Cure steps back, dismounting the couch and the girl.

“Sweet Celestia…” Glacial stares in awe. “She’s gonna be out all night. You weren’t joking,” she finishes, turning to give Cure a hungry look, wings raised slightly in excitement.

“Dude… what did you do?” Heavy asks, interrupting the moment.

Cure has to suppress a snort when he turns to his friend. The poor colt is just a mess of colors, with apparent clown makeup all over a powdered white face, a pink poofy mane that makes Cure think of a future party pony, a few ribbons strewn about, and some green lightning bolts, for whatever reason, running down the front half of his body. Sapphire’s work, he suspects.

“I gave her a massage. That look’s a keeper, bro. You should totally have the fillies doll ya up before school on Monday.”

“Shattap, I had four fillies on me. As far as I’m concerned I win here.”

“I believe we have different scoring criteria, my friend.”

The other fillies approach the couch and give Drift a look-over just as the parents reappear.

“We… uhh… heard some noises. We wanted to come check and make sure everypony was okay,” Midnight explains. “What’s wrong with that pegasus filly?” she asks, pointing at Drift.

“Nothing,” Glacial answers, “She just wanted a massage while they were doin Heavy’s makeup and she fell asleep. That happens a lot when somepony gets our wings really good.”

“Yeah, my parents fall asleep if anypony massages their hooves, but they’re earth ponies, so…” Cure offers with a shrug.

Onyx is clearly making sure that there’s not any inappropriate smells floating about, as he walks the perimeter of the room. He keeps a body length between him and Drift, whose wings are fully extended and laying flat on the couch. “Is she gonna be okay?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Glacial assures him with a nod. “She’ll probably sleep like a million bits all night now. I’m kinda jealous,” she adds, struggling not to look in Cure’s direction.

“Huh. Okay, well, I think everypony should be getting to sleep here in a little bit. How ‘bout you all clean up the room a little. We’ve got some sleeping mattresses upstairs in yer room, honey.”

“Thanks dam, thanks daddy!” Sapphire calls back.

“Cure, dear?” Midnight calls.

“Yes ma’am?”

“We cut up the melon you brought. Please be sure to tell your dam how wonderful it is. When you all have the room cleaned up, come grab some slices in the kitchen, okay?” Turning to walk back out of the room she yells, “Don’t forget to wash up first!” before disappearing up the stairs, Onyx just behind her.

It only takes a few minutes to put everything away and stack the mats in the corner of the room. When the group is done the only thing unmoved is the couch with a snoring purple pegasus on it, wings still hanging limp on each side.

“Here, just put her on my back. Y’all weigh nothing, so it’s fine. She won’t fall off.”

Dawn levitates Drift onto Cure’s back. All four legs and two wings dangle completely limp on both sides, though Dawn was careful to rest the filly’s head in his mane so she won’t sleep uncomfortably. With the insensate filly situated, the group trots into the kitchen to grab a pre-bed snack.

The watermelon is indeed every bit as good as Cure had hoped. He is honestly relieved it isn’t some kind of crackhead-addict level good that would see his dam’s garden ravaged by bloodshot-eyed foals the next day. Still, the juicy fruit was just the right color with a deep, dark red and only a few seeds.

Ponies just chew those up, though, so they didn’t have any kind of seed pile to take care of. Cure remembers they can cause problems for humans, but apparently the adorable, colorful, fluffy equines are made of sterner stuff.

Saturday, October 18th, 908 AB 2:00 AM

Cure has no clue how he ended up where he is. He fell asleep in the ponyloaf position between Dawn and Sapphire, but that evidently went completely out the window at some point in the night.

He’s still got his equipment on the mattress, thankfully, so nothing perverse happened while he was asleep, but Dawn somehow ended up facing the other direction. His head is resting on her right flank and her head is against his right flank with her horn brushing against his side whenever she turns slightly.

His face is only a couple inches away from Ferric’s; she’s using Dawn’s rear as a pillow as well. To be fair, it is a pretty nice pillow, so he can’t fault her. Sapphire is using his rear as a pillow too, sort of. Her chest is resting on his left haunch with her neck across his dock and her head dangling down to lay just in front of Dawn’s with her chin basically sitting on his right flank. It doesn’t seem like it would be comfortable at all, but pony necks can deal, apparently.

Heavy is curled up on Cure’s left with his rear just a little in front of him and his head against Sapphire’s left rear hoof. Thankfully he’s laying on his left side, so his junk isn’t pointed in Cure’s direction. Drift is fully on top of the gray colt, but she’s laying more on her right, so her back hooves are a bad dream away from kicking Cure in the face. Hopefully she won’t dream-chase any squirrels either.

Glacial is on the other side of Dawn, snuggling up against her side and facing the same direction as Cure with her head pressed against Ferric’s left flank. Coast and Rising are just in front of him in a similar intertwined ponyloaf position that he and Dawn are in.

Figuring he’s got nothin better to do, Cure relaxes back down before he accidentally disturbs anypony. With a yawn he nuzzles into Dawn’s right hip. He doesn’t even catch himself doing anything until after the third grooming lick, then freezes on the spot. Another quick glance around the room confirms that nopony is awake, thankfully. He gives the unicorn another nuzzle, and lays down to go back to sleep, ignoring the pony part of his brain that he swears is clapping its hooves in glee.