Life Finds a Way

Monday, September 1st, 908 AB

Vines brings a cup of water in and sets it beside her pillow. She then goes to her son, picks him up by the scruff despite his protests, sets him on a bigger pillow, and lays on her side against him. Appreciative of the physical comfort, Cure lays down so he’s half on her barrel, half on the pillow and looks to Title and Deed who are sharing a cushion in leaned-together pony loaf positions.

“So, I have lots of ideas. I’ve spent the last few days doing nothing but thinking about the future. Mainly to keep my mind occupied, but also because I have… like SOOO many ideas, I don’t even know where to start. Before we get into it, though, I want to say again how grateful I am to have you all and how much I appreciate how well you’re accepting of this. I can’t even tell you how many thoughts I’ve had about how horribly bad this could have gone. I’m sorry to say, but I gave a lot of thought to the idea of just not saying anything at all, but that’s really unfair to all of you. I would just end up feeling like an imposter or something, and nopony here deserves their son acting like that. I know how it feels to have … well, he was my step son, but still, I know how it feels to have a child reject you. It hurts… it hurts a lot and you don’t ever stop wondering what you did wrong.”

After another round of nuzzles and reassurances Cure continues, “So the first, and possibly most important thing that I see is… well, “wrong” may be too strong of a word, but that’s what I’m going with for now. What I see as the most important thing that we’re doing wrong is we’re not taking full advantage of the greatest gift ponykind has been given. I don’t know how accurate the stories about Equestria are, but my understanding is that there are no other creatures on this planet that are as… I guess “blessed” would be the word… blessed with magic. Is that accurate?”

After a few moments thinking Title spoke up, “I know that other creatures do have their own magic. Griffons use theirs to fly and I think they can sharpen claws and walk on clouds, but I don’t think they have the weather control that pegasus do. The only other race I know anything about are dragons and I’ve never even met anypony that has met a dragon, I think. They can breathe fire. They can fly, but I don’t think they can walk on clouds or anything like that.”

Deed added in, “Grandpa used to be posted at a southern fort about fifty years ago. He talked about occasionally having a dragon come through or wander nearby. They don’t walk on clouds and, from what he said, are usually colossal jerks. But yes, they do breathe fire, and it’s a lot nastier than just normal flames.”

Cure nodded along, “Yep, that matches what I know. So my point is, ponies are, for whatever reason, more magically gifted on average than any race either you or I know of on the planet. We can control the weather, we can shape the earth, we can grow plants, we can strengthen ourselves, unicorns can cast all manner of spells, and that’s not even getting into alicorns moving the heavenly bodies,” he says as he waves vaguely at the sky.

“Heavenly is right. Them flanks…” Deed mutters, earning a whack from Title which, in turn, got a grateful nod from Vines.

“Moving on. My point is that we, as earth ponies, seem like we got the short end of the stick. At a glance, the ability to fly or cast spells or do all the stuff unicorns can do would make you think that we don’t really have much magic compared to the other two tribes. That, I believe, is an incorrect assumption. A very incorrect one, in fact. I am under the impression that earth ponies can train up their magic to the point where we would make even a powerful unicorn stare in shock. The difference is that it’s a more subtle magic use and, like it or not, big flashy displays of magic will always draw more attention than small, subtle ones. Our magic is tied much more directly to our physical bodies.”

“Honey, we all know that we’re stronger than the other tribes because of magic,” Vines says.

“Right, I know that you are aware of that. That’s kind of the earth pony “thing” we do have. What I mean is that if you have a magically powerful earth pony like the ones I read about in stories they can literally buck trees into splinters, run miles without fatigue, call nature itself down on their enemies, and shrug off blows that would cripple a unicorn or break a pegasus in half. We are not using our magic right. We’re barely using it at all. It just sits there inside of us and we go through our normal day and ignore it, but we’re ignoring the biggest source of power that we have. We’re basically outright weakening ourselves by neglect. The powerful earth pony I described? They’d probably be as spry and healthy as a thirty year old unicorn at a hundred and twenty years of age. I don’t know all of this for sure, but from what I do understand our magic is tied directly to our constitution. We should rarely, if ever, get sick. We should heal faster, be stronger, and live longer. The problem is that either nopony ever knew this or somehow that knowledge got lost when, thousands of years ago, earth ponies and the other races all got driven from our homelands. Or, I guess it’s possible the information is known by some and is kept secret.”

“Uhh that sounds pretty good, sport… but I don’t think it really works like that. I’ve never heard of any earth ponies living much over about a hundred. Now I’ll grant that pegasus and unicorns don’t usually live much past about seventy, but… well, “ Deed paused in thought a moment. “Now that I think about it… maybe you’re onto something about that. Still, “healthy at 120” is a far cry from “living to almost 100.” How can we know if you’re on to something?”

“There’s no obvious way to test longevity, and I’m not about to suggest we test the whole fast-healing or damage-resistant aspects,” Cure paused, looking at his sire with a smile, “Unless I can somehow convince the mares to beat you up a bit to see how you fare, that is.”

Ignoring the giggles from his wives, Deed smiles and wipes away a fake tear. “Warmin my heart, here, son.”

“Right, so the easiest thing to test would be the strength buff part of it.” Cure finished.

“Buff?” Vines questions.

“Ugh, sorry. That’s a word used in the games I played as a human. Remember I said magic was a fantasy thing?” at their nods he continues, “well a word used to describe a guy with big muscles was to call him buff. So a “buff” spell in the games would make a character stronger. It was also applied to spells that enhanced other aspects, so you would have a strength buff or a speed buff or whatever. Buff just means “magical enhancement of a characteristic” basically. So we just need to find a way to see if cycling magic through your muscles increases your ability to do something, be it lift a weight or run a short race or something like that. Are you all familiar with something called The Scientific Method?”

“They taught that in science class in school, Cure. You’ll get into that more in a few years,” Title explains.

“Right, sorry, not trying to be condescending, but remember I said that humans were technologically quite a bit advanced compared to ponies. Basically where we are now is about where humans were between one and three hundred years ago. It varies a bit, probably because of the availability of magic and different stressors influencing technological development, but in some areas humans are so far advanced I don’t even know how to get there from here.” Cure pauses to take a few sips of water.

Taking a deep breath he continues, “So basically, it is my belief that if we, as a family, begin developing our magical abilities that within a few years we would probably be the healthiest family in the entire city, if not the country. Just like us, there’s hundreds of thousands of earth ponies that are just going through their normal lives and never considering that they have this huge untapped potential. Dam, you could quite possibly learn to focus your abilities on growing and end up being one of the most productive farmers Equestria has ever seen. Per square meter farmed, at least. Applying magic to your specialities is a little less clear cut,” Cure says while waving his hoof at Deed and Title. “Still, both of your cutie marks are still related to land usage, just different aspects of it. That aside, you could both learn to focus your magic on your bodies and come out stronger and healthier. Title, I don’t know enough to say, but I highly suspect that a pregnant earth pony may be able to focus their magic in and around the fetus, which would likely increase the health and development of the foal. I don’t really know, but maybe it would even decrease the duration of the pregnancy. Again, I’m really guessing here, but our abilities are already tied to biology so it’s not outside of what I consider possible. Ideally, I want to see us all live long, healthy lives. And I wouldn’t be sad if I had a whole bunch of little brothers and sisters to dote on,” he added, winking at Deed.

Vines and Title couldn’t help but laugh at the beaming smile Deed aimed at his son. A quiet “Such a good colt!” escaping his lips.

Vines got herself under control and, after a moment of thought, looked to the others. “Seriously, though. If what Cure is saying is true then I think this is something we should look into. I’d normally chalk this up to the ramblings of a foal but I don’t see the harm in a little experimenting.” She paused, looking Deed up and down, “Plus a little more exercise wouldn’t hurt, would it, my big, strong stallion?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Okay, before dad backflips off the cushion, let’s plan to go test some of these theories out over the weekend. Dam, I’d really like it if we could work in the garden tomorrow. We can get everything replanted that you sold earlier and maybe test some stuff. How’s that sound?” he asks as he looks up at her.

Vines squeezes Cure between her forelegs and nuzzles between his ears. “That sounds wonderful, sweetheart. I’ve always enjoyed working in the garden with you. I never really thought I could get you out there willingly, though,” She said with a gentle smile. Between the physical connection to his dam and the love in her eyes he feels a lot better than he had all week. The guilt is all but gone, though the heartache is still present.

Still, it feels a bit more distant than it had earlier, and he can’t thank his luck enough for giving him such a loving family for a second time. He had more than a few friends who had shit parents when he was growing up on Earth. It wasn’t as obvious as a kid, but when he was an adult in his twenties he could pretty easily look at his childhood and realize how fortunate he had been. Many of his friends’ parents were divorced and remarried, or just single at that point. And that’s not even getting into the hot mess a step parent could be.

He hadn’t dated much in high school, and only a few times in college, so he never really had to be alone. His older sister though… he tried to help Angie out when her husband left her. Thank God they only had one son together and he at least waited until the boy was school aged to bail.

That’s better than he could say for Mike, his kids’ sperm donor. He went off fucking around and racking up bills barely two months after McKynzie was born. Ed didn’t meet Cyndi until Kynzie was almost three and it took another year or two, plus the threat of another man usurping his position as “dad” before he started acting even remotely like a father to his daughter. He knew a few guys that doted on their sons more than their daughters, but to actually see Mike treat his little girl like a bother rather than a daughter always made Ed really hate the guy deep down.

Still, he kept it as friendly as he could. Fighting with the kids’ dad wouldn’t do any good and being a good father to them kept him in line better than threats or violence ever could. Plus deep down he knew that all he’d really have to do was sic his own mother on Mike and he’d either get his shit back together or, more likely, wake up to a few good ol’ Italian boys standing over his bed. Mom’s family did not fuck around, and guys that treated family bad had disappeared before only to show up at the ER later with their shit kicked in.

All of those experiences showed Cure how fortunate he was, though. He really expected at least some doubt, but looking at his family he saw only love and support. Both were sorely needed by the old soul in the young body. He was pretty sure he was feeling a lot more emotional than he would have as a human. That made a lot of sense though since emotions are affected by body chemistry, and ponies are all about the emotions compared to the stoic man his previous culture pushed him to be.

“Okay, so I’m sure you all have about a million questions for me about… well, everything. Fire when ready.”

Title just about jumped off her cushion, causing Deed to almost tumble to the side. “Ooh! You said human technology is super advanced. How’d they get there? What was it like? I don’t even really know where to start.”

“Sure, yeah. Big disclaimer here. I was not a history major, so a lot of what I’m going to talk about here comes from my shoddy memory and vague understanding, okay?” He continues at Title’s nod, “Well, humans use the term “ages” to roughly define the overall technology level of a civilization. Fifty or so thousands of years ago humans were nomadic. They would travel to an area as a tribe., hunt, eat, and really didn’t do much as far as setting down roots other than maybe some basic farming. That was what we called the Stone Age. I don’t know exactly what changed, but at some point tools developed enough that humans could farm enough food that they didn’t have to hunt an area to exhaustion. They learned to build more permanent settlements by cutting down wood, making rope, and so forth. What came next were a few different “ages” associated with metals. I think that started roughly six thousand years ago with the Bronze Age. It was one of the earliest metals that was suitable to use for reliable tools, but pliable enough to forge into those tools without a lot of advanced smithing techniques. Does that kind of match up with pony history so far?”

“It sounds about right. Though I don’t think our Bronze Age was that long ago. Earth pony tribes had iron and used it in weapons and armor during the Classic Era.” Everypony turned to listen to Title’s brief lesson. “Cold Iron was used to protect from the spells unicorns would throw at them. We don’t have good dates because so much was lost during the Age of Chaos, but some of those sets of armor are still in museums and they peg them at around three to four thousand years old. My parents took me to see them at the Fillydelphia Museum of History when I was a little older than you.”

Cure looked at Title with fascination clear in his eyes. “That sounds really neat. Maybe we could go visit sometime. I wasn’t really INTO history, but some of that stuff was pretty fun to learn about. No tours, though, please. At least in human museums the tour guides did that whole “I’m so super excited to be leading this tour I’m about to explode” thing and that just ruined it for me.” All three adults had to nod at that. It seems like obnoxious, overly enthusiastic tour guides are just another universal constant.

Taking another drink, Cure continued, “Well anyhow, the bronze age is where civilization really started and it lasted from about five or six thousand years ago until about three thousand years ago when ironworking largely replaced it. Let me pause here for a moment or two, though, because what happens next is probably going to disturb you all a little bit.”

Cure stopped and looked up at his dam, then to his sire and mom as they all hesitantly nodded back to him.

“Go ahead, Cure. I know a lot of that early history is brutal. Your moms and I can take it.”

“Okay. So even in the Age of Bronze, a lot of technological development was driven by war. Usually the way it happened was one group would find a better way to make weapons, armor, food, or whatever other thing civilizations would need to progress. Another civilization would find out about it, want it, and find some way to take it. Usually through violence. Or the civilization that made the discovery would use whatever advantage it gave them to conquer their neighbors and expand their power. It’s probably not that different from what the tribes did, but humanity has had a lot of time to dig into its own past and document it a lot better than pony society has.”

“Well, I’m getting way too much into the details, but after Bronze came Iron. I think the Age of Iron really only ended a couple hundred years ago when humans learned how to make steel in large quantities. Again, I don’t really know my history that well, so I’m not sure if cheap steel led to the Industrial Revolution or if it was the other way around, but I know they happened around the same time. Humans built factories the size of small towns where literally everything and anything could be produced by the wagonful. I’m talking about everything from your frying pans to furniture to weapons. Suddenly it didn’t take a crafter hundreds of hours to make something. Humans figured out how to set up assembly lines and machines that could, with very little training, be fed materials and crank out hundreds of units per day. After all, it’s not the person doing the actual crafting. The machine is making the same thing thousands of times over, so the person just needs to know how to operate and maintain the machine.”

“Oh… wow. Yeah that would kind of change everything, wouldn’t it?” Title asked while looking up in thought. “Everypony could basically get whatever they wanted if there was a factory nearby. That… would change EVERYTHING…” she drifted off, clearly in deep thought.

“Yes, and it did. Hence the “revolution” part of the name. Again, that started about a hundred years before I was born. It changed the entire planet and it turned the country I lived in into a superpower. The country I lived in went from being just one of a dozen or two influential players in the game to, over the course of fifty or sixty years, becoming the world leader in just about every way. There was a lot more than technology that was involved in that, and more blood spilled to get there than you have ever heard of in all the histories of this world you could ever read.”

“Okay, so if that was a hundred years ago what “age” are humans in now?” Vines asked.

“I don’t know if there’s some official group that designates the name of an age, but as I understand it, humanity was in the “Age of Information” during my lifetime. We developed technology that was able to take information input into it, analyze it, make theories or guesses based off of it, and give results that led to further development possibilities. I know that doesn’t sound like much and is really kind of confusing, but imagine creating a technology that can learn. Not only can it learn from you, it can learn from itself, its environment. It can learn from what it sees and experiences and can come up with solutions to problems or ways to prevent them that would require knowledge about so many different subjects that nopony could possibly have access to. Or instead, it would require such an in-depth knowledge on a subject that it would take a pony the majority of their life to reach that level of understanding, but instead of dying from old age that knowledge is saved instead and continues to be used to go even farther. That’s the power of information.”

“It… sounds fascinating, Cure. I don’t think I’m quite following what you mean, though,” Deed said. “I think my brain has had more shoved in it in one evening than I have since I was a colt. It’s not built for this kind of work!”

“Okay, one example then. I probably could talk for hours about just about anything you asked me. Cyndi always said I knew almost everything about almost everything. One of these days I’ll talk about planets, stars, and galaxies and really blow your minds. Anyhow, a good example of how information can change the world. Well, let’s use something you’re familiar with so it’s easier to follow along. Just imagine you had a big, tall bookcase over there against the wall.” Every head turned towards the wall Cure waved his hoof at. It was currently entirely bookcase-less… for now.

“Picture a bookcase Six shelves tall, wider than you are long. Now imagine that the bookshelf was completely full of books. I imagine it would take a few books just to cover all of the laws that are related to real estate… and if law books here are like they were on Earth, they’d probably flatten me if I tried carrying one. Anyhow, books covering every aspect of the law are on the shelf. Next, there’s all the books, ledgers, contracts, tax records, and so forth regarding every purchase of land or buildings that have ever changed hooves in this city, going back to the day it was founded. Next, there’s several books related to all of the things that change the value of a property. Availability of education, quality of healthcare, availability of food, crime rates, city services, utilities, noise complaints, local weather, economic indicators, so forth and so on. Basically, every single tiny shred of information is in that bookcase that you or anyone that does your job could ever hope to have available. Now… imagine there is a magical spell on that bookcase. In order to find any piece of information you simply walk up to it, tell it what you want to know, and within a few seconds a piece of paper materializes in front of you listing every book that could answer your question. It tells you what page to find the information in and it gives you a small excerpt that contains what you asked about so you know if it’s really exactly what you’re trying to find. Not only that, but if the information isn’t in one of those books directly, it can read through all of them and formulate an answer based off of the raw information present in all of those books put together.”

Cure paused while all of them were still, inexplicably, staring at the empty spot on the wall. He manages to fight the urge to roll his eyes. I swear… ponies.

It took a few minutes before Deed turned back around to look at him. “Son… I’d like to buy this bookcase, if you don’t mind. And while we’re at it, you write down how you made the thing and we’ll go around selling bookcases for the rest of our lives and we’ll make millions!”

Deed was pretty proud of himself with that one. The good ‘ol triple facehoof. Cure wasn’t sure if the smug could be removed from his face with an angle grinder.

With the deepest of sighs Cure continued, “Yeah… well, now you have an idea of what I mean when I talk about the power of information. Now broaden the scope and, instead of just being about real estate, that magic bookcase can answer your question about almost ANYTHING. Literally, anything. Want to know about chemistry? Search for it. How is cheese made? You got it. Have a bunch of ingredients and you’re not sure what to make for dinner? Ask the bookcase. Whether it’s something everypony should know or something that would take years of studying at a top university, the bookcase can give you the answer in a few seconds in as much detail as you could ever hope for. That is what humanity developed. Except you could access that bookcase on a device that would fit in your hoof, can be carried anywhere in the country, and can do dozens of other useful things like take pictures, record audio, or talk to another human from across the world.”

Leaning back into his mother, Cure takes in a deep breath and slowly blows out the stress of the day. The last several days. Hell, basically all the stress from when they started showing symptoms. He knows, intellectually, that it’s been the better part of a decade since everything happened on Earth, but it still feels like just the last few weeks. He knows he can’t just keep looping back on that, though, so he sits back up and takes another sip of his water.

“So… I’m sure there’s other questions. Who’s next?”

Vines leans down again to give him another nuzzle. She looks a little unsure, but curiosity wins out in the end. “I’m pretty sure you said humans used to hunt an area to exhaustion. Did you do much hunting?”

“Hah! No. I went hunting a few times with my dad when I was little, but after one time watching him after he got a squirrel and I was done with that,” he waved his hoof dismissively. “Only a small percent of humans still hunt and the majority of them are doing it as much to keep the animal populations in check as anything else. I’ll be honest with you, though… humans are predators, there’s no denying that. Just off the top of my head I would say that about a tenth to maybe a third of a human’s diet is meat. Remember, though, there’s no other sapient races on the planet. If it suddenly came out that someone was using a creature that could talk as a food source I can’t even imagine what would happen to them. They’d probably never see the outside of a jail cell again. Also, the meat that humans eat is harvested in as… well the word “humane” may not translate here. Uhh...” Cure looks at everyone searchingly while holding out his hoof.

“Friendly? Benevolent? Harmless?” Title supplies.

“Benevolent is probably the best one there. Animals used as food are very well taken care of. Their lives are made as good as they can, usually, and when it’s their turn the methods of killing them are supposedly quick and pain-free. They basically never know what happened.”

“Well…” Vines looks a little disturbed by the answer, but pushes on, “I guess humans need to eat too. We have carnivorous species as well and, unlike what you’re saying about humans, they don’t have a lot of qualms about eating intelligent beings. The princess took exception to the griffons’ last invasion and, from what the ponies that came back with her said, she made it very clear that ponies are never to be on the menu again.”

“A few points to keep in mind. Humans cannot digest a lot of the stuff ponies can. Hay, grasses, flowers, and stuff like that. It would go in and just come right back out, or make them sick. Until twenty or thirty years ago when we’d learned enough about nutrients we really just didn’t have a way to get the proteins and some of the vitamins that are found in meat that humans absolutely have to have to survive. There are vegetarians and vegans, but the stereotype for them is scrawny and weak. I don’t think that has to be the case, but avoiding meat is a whole lot harder than you’d think. Taste buds are also quite a bit different for omnivorous and carnivorous creatures. Raw vegetables are several times more flavorful as a pony than they were as a human. I used to hate beets. I didn’t care much for carrots either. Now they just about taste like candy compared to before.”

“So I hafta ask, son. Did humans eat those ponies you had on Earth?” Deed asked.

“Not really, no. Ponies and horses fell much more into the companion group than the food one. Ponies on earth are only about waist to chest height on a human, with miniature versions that would only come up to their knee. If anything, ponies on earth are seen more as pets. I’ve never eaten pony meat before. I did have a burger made from horse meat, but it was tough and didn’t have much flavor. Flavor in meat comes more from the fat than muscle, so fattier animals were used more for their meat. Again I want to emphasize, none of these animals were intelligent, just pure, dumb animals. That being said, cows are freaking delicious. Pigs too.”

Deed busted out laughing causing Title to squeak and jump from the sudden change in her husband. She grabbed a pillow in her teeth and whacked him upside his head while he just laid on the cushion laughing his flanks off. “What in the world is wrong with you? All this talk about eating meat and you bark out a laugh? I damn near jumped out of my skin you dolt!”

“Ohh I needed that. Back when I worked on Auntie Bean’s farm they had a herd of cattle. Those gals were something else, I’ll tell ya. A stallion couldn’t walk within a hundred meters of them without them eying him up, inviting him to come take a taste of some “delicious milky treats'' while swayin their hips back and forth. You’d think those girls are in estrus all year long the way they’d cattle call to the stallions workin the farm. Well one day, cousin Pole disappeared for a while and so did all the cows. We looked all over for him and finally caught him tryin to sneak outta the barn full of those girls, big white smears all over his muzzle.” Deed stops and busts out laughing again, though he’s not alone this time. Cure’s not sure if he’s more amused or squicked out, but when in Rome. “Well Auntie Bean just about had a heart attack. She read him the riot act while he’s sittin there squirmin trying to hold back the trots because of all the milk sloshin in his belly. She told that poor colt that he better not have been buryin his Pole Jr. in them cows or he’d be wakin up to warm milk for breakfast for the rest of his life. HAHAHA!” Deed pauses to suck in another lungful of air. “We called him Milk Mustache the rest of the summer, kept putting empty cups with a cookie next to his stuff whenever he started a shift! We’d write notes like “Come fill ‘er up, stud” and would stick' em in the cup! BAHAHAHA”

Vines can stop herself from chuckling, even though she’s trying. “That poor colt. You all probably gave him a complex or something. I hope you didn’t drive him out of town with all that teasing.”

“Nah, he’s fine. He’s married now. We give him a bit of a time at the family get-togethers but he ended up marrying some unicorn from out west closer to Canterlot. From what I’ve seen she keeps him on a real short leash, though. Probably for the best. I think he finally knocked her up this year.”

“Well, it’s getting late,” Vines started, “and all little colts, even you, need their sleep. You get upstairs, brush them teeth, and get in bed. Make room for me too because I’m not letting my baby sleep by himself tonight, you hear me? Then we got lots of work to get done tomorrow morning,” she says as she noses him off the cushion.

“Yeah, get over here, squirt. Don’t think I won’t get that belly again if you don’t give your pa a big hug. Show your mom some love too, she’s a needy mare, son.” Deed adds while ducking under another pillow. He gathers up Cure in his forehooves and gives him a big hug, then leans down and plants a wet smooch right between Cure’s ears. “Now son, no matter how much you want a midnight snack, you’re not allowed to roll over and gobble up your dam. She’s a very good cook and that one late night meal isn’t worth all the future dinners you’ll miss out on, okay? Besides, I can tell you from experience that she does bite back.” Like any good hostage taker, Deed makes sure to hold his son between himself and the mare that’s staring daggers at him.

“I’ll try real hard, pa. No promises though.”

Nodding, he sets Cure down. “That’s all I can ask, son.”

Cure gets passed over to Title next. He can feel his little ears drooping from the day’s trials. A quick kiss, nuzzle, and “goodnight, love you” later and he’s on his way upstairs to get ready for bed.

The adults watch him go up and all let out a huge, collective sigh. “Not even close to what I expected.” Title lets out.

“No. That was definitely not in any of the books you made me read when you were pregnant, honey.” Deed looks over to Vines. “So I have to say that I can’t find it in me not to believe what he’s saying. There’s not an eight-year-old colt on the planet that could fake that. I don’t even think even a veteran actor with prep time could have been that convincing. Whatever actually happened to him, he’s got a noggin full of something that doesn’t sound like it came from this world.”

“So what do we do? Leaving aside all of the “knowing the future” stuff, I don’t want anyone to think they can get ideas out of him. That bookcase idea alone… I’ve never even imagined anything like that. He just threw it out there like it was an everyday thing to him. I bet you some unicorn at a university in Canterlot would pay a foreleg for an idea like that and that’s just off the top of his head.” Vines shakes her head with worry and looks to her mates. “For now, we need to be there for him. I was there when grandpa got the news that grandma didn’t pull through her surgery. I know what grief looks like. My little colt is hurting and the princess herself wouldn’t take him away from me, I’ll tell you what.”

Title looks at her mates and excitedly adds in, “Now I know you’re both worried. I am too, but keep this in mind. That colt has something no other creature on this planet has. He’s got potential to change the world if half what’s in his head pans out. You’re absolutely right, Vines. We need to get him through this, then we give him space to bloom and, you know what, I bet that colt’s going to be the next Smart Cookie or maybe even Starswirl himself,” she says, nodding resolutely. She moves next to her sister-wife and leans against her. “Vines, honey, if you think he needs me or Deed for some extra support you just let us know. There’s nothing going on in the office I can’t handle from home if need be… at least, for a few days. If Deed doesn’t have a showing or a meeting scheduled we can afford to let Cure have some more male-bonding time with his sire. He, and really, all of us will come out better in the end as long as he knows we’re here for him.”

With their course settled the adults clean up the room, put the cushions back where they belong, and head upstairs to get ready for bed. Title and Deed climb in their bed and are asleep within moments of laying down, Deed on his back with Title laying on her side with her legs across his belly.

Vines finds her son laying on his belly, awake in bed. She climbs in and wraps herself around him like a momma cat, nuzzling him gently while licking the back of his ears and top of his mane clean. He lays down in the gap between her back and front legs on his side with his neck and head against her chest. She gently hums him a lullaby and his eyes slowly close as he nods off to sleep, bathed in his dam’s comforting scent and surrounded by her warmth. Once he’s out Vines leans down and places a gentle kiss on his muzzle, and joins the rest of the house in slumber.