Life Finds a Way

Wednesday, January 28th, 909 AB (the next evening)

“Alright, good run, everypony! If you all have about fifteen minutes free I have a few things for you all back at my house. I’ll try not to keep you for more than a few and I think you’ll all be pleasantly surprised. C’mon,” he calls, waving towards his home, “sunset’s already fast approaching and all.”

The group had continued doing their runs most Saturday and Wednesday evenings, though at this point everypony was fit enough that it was really just an excuse for Cure to hang out with everypony and for them all to get out and burn some energy. There were a few nights that had to be skipped around the holidays, but they were the exception.

Cure enjoyed having all of his friends together, especially since he didn’t get to see Drift and Glacial in particular very often. He still went to school with all of the others in the morning, but they flew to a pegasus-only school in Baltimare every day instead of attending one of the local Golden Hills schoolhouses. The main problem, of course, is that aside from asking a favor from another pegasus or sending a message through the mail, there hasn’t been a way to reach out to the girls until recently.

As he turns to lead the group back, Coast trots up to his side, brushing against his left shoulder. “Did Dawn already get the crystals done?”

“Yep. That’s why she came with me after school today. She did that while I took care of my customers.”

Sort of true, at least. Cure had done almost everything last night and kept the crystals in his bags at school so he could charge them over the course of the day. Dawn did a couple and took the ones she is selling to the Guard back to their house for her sire to look over and, officially, take possession of before the 30 day grace period on their fourth quarter 908 budget expires.

The Guard had spent a couple hundred bits on a number of scrolls for training purposes and to equip their flyers with invisibility and stun. The plan, pending Bulwark’s approval, is for the remaining 908Q4 budgeted amount and some of 909Q1 to be used on the twenty low Message crystals (short range, line of sight), six mid-low Shield crystals (for unicorns entering an unknown situation), and another six mid-low Sending crystals (about twelve kilometers, no line of sight required short message).

The low crystals cost him fifteen bits and the mid-low are a hundred and fifty, so all told that’s twenty one hundred bits worth of raw material. The stipulated price for enchanted crystals adds another third on, so the total bill for the Guard will be twenty eight hundred bits.

Cure would get, in his opinion, fleeced on the income tax, so he instead sells the materials to Dawn and she sells the finished product to the Guard. In the end she’ll make seven hundred bits, which is still in the 0% tax rate category. The whole thing is legal because all he is doing, basically, is loaning her the upfront capitol until she is paid.

Last time when he did this with scrolls he didn’t collect bits from Dawn and Solar just so they would have a few hundred between them. He ended up not being able to claim the expenses on his taxes, though, because that’s illegal tax evasion. You can’t claim the cost of goods sold if they’re not sold, but instead given away so somepony in a lower tax bracket can sell them instead.

He won’t be able to this time either, but he’s also not actually spending anything. At least, not technically. And with bureaucrats, technically correct is the most important type of correct.

The majority of the expense will come from the Guard’s mostly unused 908Q4 miscellaneous equipment budget while the rest will be reimbursed from their 909Q1 one, so although Cure would be perfectly fine donating everything outright, this way the guards still have their shields and messaging crystals and his friend can make a decent chunk of bits to save for a rainy day.

“Did the deaging go alright?” Rising asks. Cure hopes the girl isn’t feeling like she needs to be extra friendly to him since he’s been spending a lot of bits on her. She seemed to go out of her way to stay closer to him during their run and was now sticking almost shoulder-to-shoulder with him on the way back to his house. It’s one thing if she’s truly interested in a relationship because she likes him, but the thought that she feels she owes him one and has to be extra nice is not something he cares for.

Dawn is on her right side, opposite him, and judging from the way she’s looking at the yellow filly, has noticed the same thing. Cure isn’t exactly sure how to handle the situation. His moms both insist that it’s something the fillies need to work out eventually, but he doesn’t want it to fester and get ugly eventually. Both girls are only a half year older than he is, so even though they’re nine now that’s still at least five years too young to have any idea how a real lasting relationship might work.

Cure hopes this insecurity that Dawn is showing lessens somewhat over time as she matures. Loath as he is to do so, he’s inclined to follow his moms’ advice for now and hope that the two girls can have a frank and honest discussion and come to an agreement. As long as they don’t start legitimately fighting he has no reason to step between them right now.

Given he wouldn’t truly be dating anypony for years there’s just no urgency. Of course, Glacial also has shown an interest and, from what he gathers, she and Drift are a pair of some kind, so the situation isn’t likely to get less complicated anytime soon.

“Oh yeah, it went great. Of course I’m not so sure I really could have one go wrong on me. The vast majority of what I’m doing there is surface level stuff. Sure I gotta pay attention when I’m doing the dental, vision, and other internal stuff but I have enough healthy scans to compare to that most of it is… I dunno, like muscle memory almost. How’s the sax?”

“Sax?” Sapphire asks from behind them. “A saxophone? I thought you played the clarinet. When did you get a sax?”

“Last night,” she answers without looking over her withers, avoiding looking back so none of the others see her light blush. It doesn’t work, of course, thanks to the sharp pegasus eyes.

“Why are you blushing?” Glacial asks, genuinely curious.

Blush deepening, she turns facing away from Cure and admits, “Cure bought it when we went to the hobby store.” Brushing a shoulder against him again she adds, “It sounds amazing! I can’t wait until I get better with it.”

“Awesome. I look forward to hearin what you can do with it.” Cure, in an attempt to provide context, explains, “Dawn and I needed to get some supplies for her to enchant crystals to sell to the Guard. Mrs. Aura took us all to Baltimare. RP and Coast came along and, when she mentioned she wanted a sax, I told her to go ahead and grab one. Coast got some spiffy drawing stuff too. I was already spending a fortune on crystals, so a few extra bits were no big deal.”

Finished with the explanation as they approach the house, he opens the door and calls back, “Everypony tap the Cleaning crystal to the right when you go in, please. It’ll get rid of any mud in your hooves and clean off any gross sweat. I’ll clean up the water later, so don’t worry about that.”

As everypony piles in he grabs a few guest mats and lays them out . The moms are playing with Savvy on Title’s cushion. The sweet thing is nommin on Teddy’s ear right now. Cure would be worried she could bite it off if it were a normal toy, but the molecular level bonded silk mesh it’s made of could probably stop a bullet from penetrating, so the filly should be safe chewing away. Baby herbivore teeth aren’t exactly the best cutting instruments anyhow.

Deed is on his own cushion off to the side drawing. He’s so focused on his hobby, he barely glances over, just pausing a second to call out a quick, “Heya everypony,” before continuing.

Ferric is on the leftmost mat with Sapphire leaning against her sister’s right side and Heavy sandwiching the aqua filly on her right. Rising and Coast take the center mat, and the pegasi all pile onto the third, Drift laying between Glacial and her sister on her left and right respectively.

“So, I have a few things for everypony,” Cure starts, grabbing a bag off the hook and walking around to face the group. He opens it and starts passing out the mid-low Sending crystals with a fanny pack, of sorts, to each of his friends. Wind Shear isn’t exactly a friend, per se, but as far as Cure is concerned he’d rather piss away a hundred and fifty bits than cause strife between the sisters or hurt the girl’s feelings.

“Alright, the little zipper pouch thing is so that, if you’re out without saddlebags, you can still have a couple crystals or even some bits on you. I sized them to go around your foreleg at the thigh and colored them to match your coats and I added a couple for your,” he motions to the pegasi, “suits’ colors, which I should have added pockets onto.

“As for the crystals, those are all enchanted with Sending. That’ll send a short message up to about twelve kilometers. You will only get a few sentences out of a charge. I can almost fully charge one; Dawn can do like three or so because she’s a big showoff,” he teases, sticking his tongue out at the smugly smiling filly.

She takes over the description while Cure gives out the last few. “You don’t have to speak aloud when using it. Just think about who you’re sending the message to and then send it through the crystal. Keep it brief and to the point. Don’t use complete sentences, and unless they have a crystal too they won’t be able to respond.”

“Right,” he agrees and continues, “The best way to use it will be to arrange meetings because you won’t get enough words for a whole conversation. If you’re sending the message to somepony unaware, be sure to add ‘Using message crystal’ so they don’t think they’re imagining it. The pony receiving the message will know it’s from you. It’s some weird metaphysical thing I haven’t figured out, which is becoming increasingly frustrating.”

“They work,” Rising assures everypony. “I was able to send my dam a message from Baltimare.”

“Yep. I wouldn’t trust them much further, but they’re useful if you have an emergency too. Heavy, I also have several Cleaning cantrips and a onesie with Warming for your sister. I can resize it as she grows.”

“Oh neat! Thanks, Cure. I didn’t know you could resize stuff with magic.”

“Yeah, it turns out I’m kind of a moron,” he says with a chuckle. “Those suits I got you,” he explains, motioning to the pegasi, “they’re made of silk. Do you know what silk normally is made from?”

When both girls shake their heads no Dawn cuts in. “My dam told me about it. They make silk from some kinda worm somehow. It sounds gross,” she adds when both fillies get a funny look, “but they’re completely sanitary, so don’t let that bother you. It’s no worse than getting wool from sheep.”

“She’s right,” he continues. “Boiled worm cocoons, by the way. The important part I didn’t think about when I had those made is that silk is an organic compound. I can manipulate it and reshape it. Savvy’s plushies are made out of it,” he explains, pointing a hoof at the happy foal.

“So is his,” Title shouts from her cushion with a snicker.

All the girls giggle and look questioningly at Cure.

“You actually made yourself a snuggle toy?” Glacial asks. Her parents got her one for Hearth’s Warming and, before he blew up on them, Cure had mentioned he’d like one too.

Unabashedly Cure nods and declares, “You bet I did. I have my very own Snuggling Vines for when the real one is forced to pay attention to the other stallion in the house.” Vines, from beside Title, beams in joy at her son and can’t help but wiggle against her wife.

Deed just scoffs and mutters, “Other nothin. Brat.” while otherwise ignoring him.

“I thought you said our suits are made of something like… dragline?” Drift asks, turning to Glacial, who nods back and finishes the sentence, “dragline spider silk.”

“Yep. Much tougher stuff,” he agrees. “I only used the best materials on those and Dawn’s coat and pajamas,” he proudly beams. “I actually transmuted that silk with magic, you literally can not buy higher quality silk, at least as far as I know. That also means as you grow I can resize it or change its color patterns, which is a happy accident.”

Cure’s pretty happy with the excited look the girls give him. It doesn’t escape his notice that some of the others are looking a little jealous, so maybe he can even the score at some point to prevent any issues from coming up. A nice set of silk PJs or sheets and a cleaning crystal for everypony should placate them.

“Focus, Cure,” Dawn insists, giving him a poke with her hoof when he drifts off in thought.

“Right, right. I have another announcement for everypony, especially those who were not coming for the Wonderbolts show. I would like to keep the ‘why’ a surprise, but I highly, highly recommend you consider coming with us even if you aren’t going to the show. I think you may regret staying behind. My sire is still gonna chaperone us to the Wonderbolts show, but my moms are coming too, so we won’t all have to be at the same place the whole time.”

“What about train tickets and stuff?” Wind asks.

“I’ll take care of everything. Transportation, food, lodging, and I’ll even set everypony up with a few bits for memorabilia or whatever. Just curious, Wind, but how far can a pegasus fly before needing a break?”

“A hundred or so kilometers if they’re in good shape. Some with bigger wings can go farther. I’ve heard of a few that can glide almost forever, but supposedly they have some griffon ancestors.”

“Sissy’s right. Some of the messenger ponies the military has can go all the way to Canterlot in a few hours.”

“Huh. Interesting. We should meet up sometime and have y’all practice with different wing shapes to see if one works better for you. Or just adjust your wing sizes if that helps and you’re interested.”

The three, wide-eyed, shout in unison while jumping to their hooves. ”WHAT?!?”

Everypony else, including Savvy, stops what they’re doing to look at the trio with their wings straight up off their backs. The sweet girl starts to tear up, but is distracted by Vines, thankfully, waving a GloWorm toy Cure made after hearing Haze call Dawn glowbug at lunch with Solar.

With no plastics available Cure used a thin, but tough, sheet of chitin-like material for the face and body and covered it in a plush orange silk onesie with a red sleeping hat. A softly glowing Light crystal inside it provides the light.

Under the unhappy scowl of an overly protective brother they all calm down and apologize to the parents and everypony else.

“Yes, I can change your wings. I’ve scanned dozens of birds, bats, bugs, and a griffon, so if you want to experiment some day just stop by or shoot me a message. Sunday morning works best. Big changes will eat a lot of my magic up, so keep in mind I can’t go completely wild.”

“Could you grow wings too?” Glacial asks. The idea apparently excites Drift too, judging by her eager expression.

“I… could, yes. I haven’t tried.”

“You can give yourself wings?” Wind slowly asks. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried flying yet. You seemed fine when you came to the cloud district, so I’m guessing you’re okay with heights.”

“I have no freaking clue how to fly, and I had a Slow Fall crystal on me then. I’d probably break my neck if I could even get off the ground.”

“I wanna see you with wings!” Drift shouts.

A round of me too’s goes around the room before Cure finally shrugs. “Fine! Jeez.”

“Uhh, hey sport, you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Yeah, nothing will happen,” he assures his sire, dissolving all of the horn-like structures on and in his body. “Y’all may not wanna watch, though. I’m not sure how this’ll look.”

“Sit down and face away,” Coast yells. “I’ve been curious since you said you could do this last night!”

“When?” Ferric asks. “After you went shopping?”

Cure follows Coast’s instructions and yells out, “I’m starting! Look away if you’re squeamish!” The only one that does is Heavy; something Cure finds amusing.

“Mmhmm. Mrs. Aura asked if he could grow a horn too. He’s worried about how ponies will react though.”

Drift scoffs at the suggestion, “They can just be jealous. Wait, would that make you an alicorn if you have wings and a horn and are already an earth pony?”

Everypony continues the conversation while watching Cure closely. First he has to form the underlying muscles and bone structures, so aside from some movement under the skin there’s not much happening. Really for the first part he should have faced them. The chest area is where he’s starting, after all.

“No. Physically, yes, but the princess also has everypony’s magic,” Dawn answers. “Cure wouldn’t have pegasus magic abilities. So he’d be an alicorn, sort of, but not like the princess.”

After a few seconds of silence Rising asks, “What about a unicorn’s magic?”

Coast jumps in too. “Yeah, your dam made it sound like he could use a horn since his talent already uses magic.”

“There’s ponies that have earth pony magic and a horn,” Ferric points out. “In fact my dam said there was an article in the paper about some medical trials to help the ones that can’t use their horn right.”

Focused on what he’s doing, Cure barely pays attention to the conversation. “Alright, the internals are done. I’m going to start actually pushing the wings out now.”

Glacial nods to Ferric. “Daddy said he heard about a pegasus mare in Baltimare that lost her wing getting it regrown somehow.”

“Really?” Wind asks. Looking at Cure she continues, “Didn’t you tell me that you could heal a wing like that back when Dawn’s sire and the sergeant were first gonna run with us?”

“Umm… yes.” He pauses his work to look over his withers. The wings he’s growing are just starting to truly form and, while anatomically correct, are still tiny. The internal structures are covered by skin and a fine layer of fur so everypony isn’t grossed out, but there’s no feathers yet.

“Ooo! Looks like Cure’s been buuusy!” Sapphire sings out with a giggle.

“Damn it all,” he curses under his breath. More loudly he shouts, “Look, y’all can’t tell anypony! Drift, you saw what happened when I changed your wing pattern!”

At everypony’s questioning look she explains, “A bunch of mares surrounded his house trying to get him to do their wings. It was right before he opened his business.”

“Exactly!” he agrees in a raised voice. “I can disguise myself, though, so what’ll happen if everypony finds out that you all know the ‘miracle healing’ colt, hmm?”

“You think they’d follow us around?” Rising asks.

He nods, answering, “Do you think they wouldn’t?!”

“They totally would,” Drift agrees. “Those look small. Make ‘em bigger and add feathers. Do a neat pattern!” she enthusiastically demands.

Her sister nods in agreement. “Yeah, most ponies are idiots. They would go insane again if they knew you could change wing shapes.”

“Yep!” Sapphire agrees, “I bet they’d scream like morons and scare foals and everything!” she cheerily shouts while grinning.

“You should offer that as a service at your business!” Glacial suggests. “Charge a lot, though. Pegasi would pay a fortune to have bigger wings,” she admits with a blush. Drift nods in agreement.

The room falls silent as he nearly finishes with the changes.

Cure finishes forming the wings, holding them up and off of his body. Drift demands he enlarges them further, so he plays along. They look intimidating, but slightly ridiculous on a small colt. Including his broad back, his total wingspan is over three meters, using all but a few percent of his fat reserves.

Next he locks a pattern in mind; that of the gold and blue macaw, one of which he scanned at the zoo. The back of the wings have a green and blue fade similar to his original mane and coat colors. For the inside of the wings and his chest and belly he sticks to the theme and goes with a brilliant gold, just like the original. Rather than giving himself tail feathers like an actual bird, he extends the color through his tail and keeps hooves instead of talons.

He looks over the results and nods in approval, turning to face the group at a slight sideways angle, he flares the wings up and out, presenting the inside to the group. Between the brilliant colors, the proportionally enormous wings, the reduced fat reserves, increased apparent muscle definition, and the light oil sheen he adds, the effect is astounding.

His mom is the only one that manages to get words out. “By Celestia’s flowing mane, Cure. What in the fudge are you doing?!” she asks, motioning to the group, all of whom are staring wide-eyed with their mouths hanging open.

With a modified set of vocal cords he chirps out “pretty bird!” and folds his wings down on his back while laughing. They’re long enough they don’t sit right like a pegasus’ would. A normal pegasus’ wings go from their upper back to their shoulder then back to their haunches. The disproportionally large wings go all the way forward to his chest and then trail back clear past his rear, covering almost his entire side.

“Tartarus, Cure. You can’t go outside like that!” Wind yells.

“That chest…” Ferric sighs, getting nods from everypony. Even Heavy is nodding along, though he, to Cure’s slight relief, isn’t giving him the same enthralled look as the girls.

“Fiiine!” he yells, flaring his wings again while mimicking the flowing fire glow pattern he’d given Dawn for Nightmare Night. “There we go, much more subtle!” he says with a smirk, getting disapproving looks from his parents.

Taking the hint, Cure changes his colors back to his typical pony pattern and looks at the group. “Is that better?” He gets a combination of nods and no head shakes that he’s not sure how to interpret. With a smirk he writes “Wing Upgrades: 3000 bits at BodyWorks!” under one in black-on-gold print and extends the wing up. “How about I give you a set like this for free to drum up business, Wind?”

“Shit yes. For a set of wings like that I don’t mind at all.”

Vines shoots that down right away. “You’re not using your friends for advertising, Cure.”

“Oh please, like I was serious,” he starts, dismissively waving a wing. “Huh, was that the right gesture?” he asks. When Wind nods he shrugs. “Weird. Y’all must be rubbing off on me. These things are kinda nice though,” he comments, idly giving them a test flap, lifting off, and slamming headfirst straight into the ceiling before crashing back down into the floor, landing on his rear, then falling flat on his back.

Cure can only sigh in disappointment at his own stupidity as everypony shouts and jumps to their hooves. “Of course, something had to go wrong,” he mutters as Dawn’s aura wraps around him and lifts him to his hooves, setting him beside his worried dam who had rushed over. “I’m fine, dam,” he insists, giving her chest a nuzzle. Belatedly, he adds “Physically, at least. I think my pride cushioned the blow.”

Vines gives him a quick look-over but, as expected, he’s uninjured. Sighing as she returns to her cushion the questions start pouring in again.

Looking towards his parents he realizes a questioning brow and tilts his head at the group. Vines and Deed instantly nod but Title winces and, more hesitantly, gives him a slight nod.

“Ugh… okay, so you all know I’m kind of a paranoid nut about my talent, right?”

The whole group, save Wind Shear, immediately nods and voices enthusiastic agreements.

“Jeez… y’all don’t have to agree so fast,” he complains with a scowl. “The truth is… there’s not a whole lot I can’t do.”

Before he can get another sentence in the whole room erupts in questions. Flaring his wings out huge again he calls over the group, silencing everypony, “C’mon everypony, one thing I can’t do is answer ten questions per second.”

Once the foals all calm down he continues, “So, basically, some of the things that we and, I’m pretty sure, other creatures of the world can do, are not magic. Or you could maybe call them a kind of magic, but they have a physical source. Does everypony know what cells are?”

Unsurprisingly, almost all of them shake their heads no.

“Alright, super duper simplified version; every living creature is made of tiny parts called cells. They’re microscopic and there’s more in a single pony than you can imagine. There’s different kinds of cells for every different thing. Blood cells, bone cells, eye cells, so forth and so on. Almost every cell in our body has one particular part. That part is what gives us some of our abilities.

“In earth ponies it makes our grabbing field strong. Unicorns’ power their magic spells. Pegasi seem to get a lot from theirs; reduced weight, cold and lightning resistance, and a weaker version of our grabbing field. Much weaker, from what I’ve seen… like a third maybe? Anyhow, I can duplicate those abilities, but I can not duplicate the ones that require magic like weather and whatever else pegasi can do.

“We all have some of each type of cell, but in our muscles, for whatever reason, we’ll have the ones that kind of define our tribe. Again, I’m keeping this basic, but over months I can change a pony so that an earth pony,” he taps his chest, “can have working wings, for example. Apparently. I did not expect THAT,” he waves behind himself, “in case it wasn’t obvious.” Which is a true statement. Cure didn’t expect the act of actually flapping the wings to kick the aura on without his conscious instruction to do so.

“Far beyond the worry about healing, this is one of the things I’ve been worried would get me snatched up by somepony. Or, cause some kind of inter-tribal issue somehow.”

Coast doubtfully asks, “Inter-tribal issue? How?”

“Ladies?” he asks, looking at the three pegasi, “Do you think there are pegasi that would get mad if a bunch of earth ponies or unicorns suddenly had working wings?”

“Uhh… maybe?” Glacial hesitantly answers. “Or maybe they would be excited to teach other ponies how to fly.”

Scoffing, Drift shakes her head no. “No they wouldn’t. They would be pissed that other tribes are doing what only they could do. Even if other ponies couldn’t do the weather jobs I bet they would see it as somepony else taking their stuff. Skies would be a lot more crowded and way more ponies may want to live where we do now.”

“I doubt it,” Coast replies. “I wouldn’t want wings even if they did work. I think most earth ponies would say the same thing. I don’t know about unicorns.”

“Probably the same,” Dawn answers. “I know my dam would never want wings. I don’t think my sire would either. Maybe Solar, but I’m not sure if he would fly enough that he would even bother learning how to. Most unicorns never try learning any real magic and we can all do that from birth. How hard is flying?”

“When you’re first learning? Very. Once you’ve got it you’ll never forget though,” Glacial explains. “Still, there’s a lot of stuff you have to learn about wing positions, air movement, and stuff like that. Not every pegasus likes flying a whole bunch, that’s why you still see some on trains and walking.”

“Huh… hadn’t considered that,” Cure admits. “I guess my mindset’s just different. Probably because my talent is all about making changes. I was totally fine with those spider legs on Nightmare Night, for example.”

Ferric, somehow, turns almost white as she recoils back, gasping loudly and silencing the room.

“Jeez, Red, calm down. Just cause they were a tad more realistic than they looked didn’t mean I was ready to tie ya up and eat ya.” Cure chooses to ignore Wind’s snorted laugh at the accidentally suggestive comment.

“Wait, those legs were real?” Heavy asks.

“Eh, sort of. They didn’t work like a real spider’s would. Everything below the chitin was pony. It’s a good thing I have earth pony strength. They were too skinny to work right without it.”

“Can you actually make webbing though?”

Before Cure can answer, Drift’s wings shoot up. “Tell me those suits didn’t come out of your butt!”

Everypony gawks for a second until the whole room erupts in laughter.

“Webs don’t come out of spiders’ butts, Drift,” Heavy slowly explains. “They have spinnerets.”

“Yep, see?” Cure agrees, quickly replicating Vines’ hoof spinnerets and pulling a strand of silk off. A nice benefit of having wings is that it’s much easier to sit straight up on his booty, but he now has to keep his hind legs somewhat closed so he’s not giving a show.

“So… you made the spider silk for our suits?” Glacial asks.

“Yes,” he truthfully answers, then raises a questioning brow. “Would you prefer worm cocoon or actual spider spider silk instead?”

“No, that’s not a big deal,” she says with a shrug. “I was just curious. Thanks, Cure… they are really nice.”

“Sure. I’m glad you’re not upset.”

“What about the stuff you gave me?” Dawn asks.

“Same thing on the silk. Velvet Stitch had the wool in stock, but I can make wool now too. I’ve learned how.”

“Oh, so that’s why you told my dam they didn’t have more…”

“Yep. I would have had to sit here and make it. And the first sheet I made took hours.”

Heavy lets out a deep sigh. “Your talent is cow manure, dude. Pure cow manure.”

“It is,” he easily agrees. “It’s massively unfair, which is why I don’t hesitate to share things with everypony. I try to earn what I’ve been given by helping everypony I possibly can, like when your sister was born. Did your dam say anything about the delivery?”

“Yeah, she said it went great… were you there?”

“Yep. I spent the entire weekend here then Tuesday and Thursday in Parkdale and Ferndale. I helped deliver a hundred and sixty five foals over four days. I changed my colors and put a fake horn on. Ask her if there was a brown unicorn colt, she may not have noticed me.”

“Why disguise yourself there?” Rising asks. “You already work at the clinic.”

“Just another layer to try to keep from being dragged into the spotlight. I hide a lot of my abilities so I can have a somewhat normal life, too. Like, imagine if the captain over the Baltimare region said, ‘You’re going to give all my guards wings, I don’t care if it takes you all year!’ or something. That’s not even including the really crazy stuff.”

“Like four hoof long tongues?” Glacial asks, then blushes scarlet when everypony, parents included, look her way. Title bursts out laughing, realizing Cure must have mentioned that crazy Bubblegum mare.

“He told us about a mare that paid for that,” Wind giggles out. “I almost peed myself laughing at our parents’ faces!”

“Why the hay would you want a longer tongue?” Sapphire loudly asks.

“One hundred percent honest answer? She said she wanted to give herself an advantage in an actual legitimate competition that has nothing to do with what all of you are thinking. I’ll just say that it’s food related and leave it at that.”

“Wait… you know about…” Wind trails off, looking at the younger foals, then looks back to Cure. With a mischievous grin she asks, “So you know about…” she asks, waggling her brows, then giving a small, quick nod and slightly widening her eyes.

“I have a healthcare cutie mark, Wind. There’s not many things I don’t know. Probably.” After a moment’s pause he adds, “At least as far as ponies are concerned.”

“HAH! Way to play it, colt.”

“It helps that I can cheat to keep my expression neutral.”

“Nice!” she cheers, reaching out for a hoof bump in approval. Being a bro and all, Cure doesn’t leave her hanging.

Coast speaks up next. “So wait, you were pretending to be a unicorn when helping everypony with their foals?”

“Yep. It’s a lot easier to slap on a fake horn than it is wings, and since I was using magic it was a lot more believable.”

“Right,” she nods, “but Dawn’s dam said she thought you could use a real horn if you tried.”

“Yeah,” Rising agrees, “and if you can grow wings and can already use magic, why couldn’t you use a horn?”

With everypony staring at him, Cure again looks to his parents for guidance. Title shrugs unhelpfully, but Deed and Vines share a look before nodding. Cure can only assume they’re unable or unwilling to come up with a believable lie. Or they believe the time for deception has come to an end, which it probably has. At this point he would have to flat out lie to his friends, and that will be a major problem later when the truth inevitably comes out.

With a deep sigh, Cure nods to the filly. “I can use a horn.”

“That was you!” Drift accuses, pointing a hoof his way. “I thought it was weird when I saw a super muscular unicorn with them!” she shouts, motioning towards Dawn. “And he was brown too! No wonder I haven’t seen him since Solar left!”

“The fluffy one?” Glacial asks. “That was you?”

“Yeah,” Cure confesses. “Solar knew something was up when I used that Illusion crystal the first time. He confronted me after our run that night.”

“Dude!” Heavy yells, “That was like four months ago! What the hay, Cure?”

“He figured it out! He knows more about magic and knew something was up when he saw the Illusion crystal. I was going to eventually tell everypony but at first I thought my talent would get me arrested. It’s a heavily restricted class of magic, to the point the Town Guard had to get involved.” Cure glances Dawn’s way and gives her a nod.

Realizing what he is prompting her to explain, she tells them about the report. “My sire had to help Staff Sergeant Bulwark write a report on Cure for the captain over the Baltimare area. The princess herself got a copy of it too, eventually.”

“Yep. Apparently there’s a few archmages at the Assembly in Canterlot that insist I am a threat to national security.” When several of his friends give disbelieving looks he assures them, “No, I’m not joking. And that’s with neither wings nor a horn. Just imagine how much they would panic if they knew I could use unicorn magic and, maybe, fly.”

“Uhh… okay, I guess I could see why you kinda kept quiet. I still think you should have told your friends. Did you think you couldn’t trust us?”

“I do trust you. It’s not that simple though. Dawn has had to keep this from her parents for months. Telling you also means you have to keep things from your families because of me. Or tell them. I didn’t want to force everypony to do that without a very good reason. Would me telling you have changed anything about the last few months other than forcing you to keep my secret?”

Glacial perks up. “You could have gone flying with us like you went to the range.”

“That would be awesome,” he agrees, “but that was my first time trying real wings, remember? Did it look like I know what I’m doing?” he asks, giving her an amused look.

“No,” she admits with a giggle. “Definitely not.”

“It’s kinda funny that this came out tonight. I first tried using a horn so I could figure out how enchanting works. The whole point was finding a way for ponies without horns to still have access to magic. Ironic that y’all figure everything out the night I finally succeed, huh?”

With a quick glance out the window he sees the sun has already set. He begins shrinking the wings down, ignoring the pegasi protests, and says, “Sorry I’ve kept you all here so late. This is obviously not how I expected the evening to go. Dad?”

“What’s up, champ?”

“Since it’s already dark out, do you mind coming with me to see everypony home?”

“See us home?” Rising asks. “Why?”

“Because it’s dark out and I’d feel better knowing everypony made it home safe after I caused you to be out late. I mean, you could message me, I guess, but this way you won’t need the crystal recharged. Besides, if anypony’s parents are mad at ‘em I’ll be right there for them to yell at.”

“Woo! Sounds good to me!” Sapphire cheers.

“Sure, sport. How about ya grab a few of yer Light crystals so these three,” he nods to the pegasi, “have an easier time seein?”

As the girls all get ready to leave, Cure runs upstairs while absorbing the wings, recreating his horns, and replacing his fat reserves. He grabs three cantrip crystals and puts a variable-powered and forward-focused blue-tinted Light spell in each one and turns to head back downstairs.

After a moment of thought he grabs another five for Sapphire, Ferric, Rising, Coast, and Heavy, then grabs a couple kilograms of dust for Ferric, then retracts his horn. She’d asked him to pick one up, but he’s not sure when he’ll make it back out to Early’s, so he got a little extra for the dark filly along with some for himself.

“Drift, Glacial, Wind… here’s three variable-intensity Light crystals. I doubt you need them with the moon and all, but these should give you a little extra light without blinding you at their low setting. You’ll be able to turn them up if need be, but I know pegasi have really great night vision, so I doubt you’ll need that.

“Everypony else, I made enough for all of you. Just like the other one, whenever these need recharging just stop by or bring ‘em to school with ya. Light isn’t like Sending. These’ll last hours. Days at the lowest setting. They make good nightlights.”

Once everypony is ready to leave the group all heads outside. Deed escorts the group of foals out an overabundance of caution. There’s not a lot of clouds, so Cure is able to track the three small lights all the way across the town until they disappear into the cloud district.

Coast is the closest and, while separating from the group, thanks Cure for the crystal with a friendly nuzzle. Ferric is excited to have some extra dust, and when Cure insists she just let him know when she gets low she gives him another grateful nuzzle before diving into her house. Heavy accepts the offered bro-hoof when they arrive at his house, and Cure doesn’t hesitate to stick out his tongue and make faces at the little sister shooting him a sinister look through the window.

Sapphire is the next stop and, caught completely unprepared, the girl trots up and plants a peck on Cure’s cheek with a quick “your wings are pretty!” before running in the house laughing at the ensuing blush. Rising’s dam opens the door and lets her daughter in the house, but is quick to snatch up the retreating colt and plant a kiss between his ears while thanking him for her daughter’s new instrument.

Finally alone with Dawn, Cure walks shoulder-to-shoulder with the orange filly when she speaks up. “I’m glad you finally told them. I didn’t like feeling like I was lying to them.”

Sighing, Cure nods in agreement. “I know. We’re all just foals, though, Dawn. I blurt out dumb crap all the time, but at least it’s my talent to blab about, ya know? Now I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“You told us you were going to tell Solar and I at some point. We just figured it out sooner. I’m a foal too.”

“Yep, and if you recall, I was super hesitant to tell you. Solar voluntarily took an oath the very first time I met him. Also, the two of you are more mature than most of our friends. Heck, Drift is the oldest of our group, aside from her sister, and she’s the one I’m worried about more than anypony.”

Dawn can’t hide the grimace at that. “I guess. I could see her getting mad and blurting something out.”

“Yep. She’s doing better since New Year’s but that’s not a quick or easy change to make. I’m not worried about her parents right now, but if she’d known back when her sire was still in trouble it would have been a different story. A very different one.”

“Why aren’t you worried about her parents? I mean, her dam seems nice the few times I’ve met her, but I don’t know about her sire.”

“When I was takin them their flight suits Mrs. Dance said they’re thinking of having a foal. This is all confidential, okay?”

Dawn nods and, without prompting, activates a Sound Bubble around the trio as they approach her house. They pause outside to finish their conversation.

“Good thinkin, Dawn girl,” Deed quietly praises.

Continuing, Cure reminds Dawn, “My dam’s pregnant, as you’re aware. You know she’s having twins, right?”

“Yeah, a colt and a filly. Wait… did you cause that?”

“Yep. When her body released an egg at the start of her season I made a copy of it, so she had two.”

“That’s… that’s huge, Cure!”

“It is, hence the confidential thing. I can help dams have two or more foals at once, to a limit, of course. I can also make it so sires will only give them sons. Or daughters. Whichever,” he finishes with a shrug.

“You’re serious?” she asks, looking between Cure and Deed. When they both nod she insists, “You have to tell Solar. He’ll want foals eventually. He’d want to know.”

“I plan on it. Feel free to if he brings it up and I’m not there. I trust you. Anyhow, back to Mrs. Dance and Mr. Flare,” he starts.

Interrupting, Dawn blurts out, “You’re going to give them twin colts?”

“Yep. Or triplets, I guess. I delivered two sets of triplets, so I know ponies can safely carry more than two foals. As long as Mrs. Dance stopped in every few weeks for a checkup I could guarantee healthy delivery, no problem. Or if she’s unable to carry three, I guess I could transplant one to a surrogate.”

Dawn looks completely thrown off by the suggestion and, judging from the shocked look on his sire, Deed hadn’t considered the possibility either.

“Really, if I put a little effort into it, I could probably make plants to grow ponies. A whole field of pony babies, all loyal to me. With all three tribes’ abilities! The perfect soldiers! Think about it, Dawn. We’ll take over the whole country and live like queen and king!”

The suggestion earns a flat look from the annoyed filly.

“Or, I guess I can just get rich and leave the ruling to the boss lady. I checked her references; they’re pretty solid, I suppose. Couldn’t reach any previous employers for some reason, though. Super sus. Then again she seems to do a good enough job. I rate it seven, maybe eight out of ten.”

“I’ll be sure ta tell her that when we see her, son,” Deed teases.

“You’ll be too busy carryin the flowers, pa. We’ll have to get you a big, fancy bouquet so you can really impress her. Quitters don’t become prince consorts, dad.”

Sighing, Deed can only shake his head at the annoying colt.

“Seriously, though, I am at least gonna take her some of those flowers like I made the girls. I’d feel a little tacky showing up at her freaking castle and spending a few nights there without at least giving her a present. She’s got one of damn near anything you could imagine, I bet, so it would have to be something she can’t find anywhere else. Shame I don’t know what her favorite flower is.”

“Why don’t you just scan every flower you can, then make the seed on the spot?” Dawn suggests. “She’s got earth pony magic, so she may even like growing something new.”

“Huh… Dang, no wonder I hang out with you. You’re almost as smart as I am!”

Following Deed’s example, she sighs and shakes her head at Cure too. “You wish you could keep up with me."

“Hey, we heard back from that mare today. The one I was hoping would be able to teach us.”

“I’m guessing she isn’t?” she asks, disappointment obvious in her voice.

Cure blows out a sigh, shaking his head no. “Not for the foreseeable future, at least. She’s apparently enjoying her retirement, now that she’s in perfect health to. I can’t blame her,” he adds with a shrug. “After all, she taught for decades and now she’s young and has all the money she saved up the whole time.

“Some ponies may want to, but I can’t fault her for not wanting to go right back to work. She’s traveling all over the country right now. She had just gotten back from Las Pegasus when she saw my letter sitting there. She did say she’s going to send over some of her material, though.

“I wish she’d just come and told me instead of mailing a letter back. I coulda saved her the time and money and gone to pick it up myself. She’s apparently already taken off for Manehattan, so I’ll just hafta wait.”

“I mean, it sounds like you might still be able to get something from her books, though. At least that’s something.”

“It’ll still be sanitized, I bet,” he responds. Seeing her confusion he explains, “There’s gotta be something going on that they’re not putting in books. At least, I think. The princess casted spells without using runes. I was hoping to have an actual teacher to bounce ideas off of, but if the material she sends is censored it may not be that helpful.”

“Well… I’d still like to take a look at it if you don’t mind. Let me know when it arrives?”

“You bet, babe. I’ll send you a message if it’s not too late.” Cure glances up at the house as the door opens. The parents must have noticed the light outside, so he gives Emerald a wave as Dawn turns off the Sound Bubble. “Goodnight, Dawn. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Cure. Goodnight, Mr. Deed.” She gives Cure a fond nuzzle, then she and Deed trade friendly ones before she trots up to the door and enters her house.

As the pair start heading home Deed gives Cure a little bump. “So… takin the princess flowers, eh?”

“You bet, pa. Last I checked ya don’t go to a lady’s house with the intention of spendin the night and not bring flowers, ya know? At least not the first time.”

“HAH! Good point, son.”

“Yer darn right. And I wasn’t joking about how soft her coat was. I swear to Harmony if she dropped one of them wings on me I woulda been out like a light.”

“Keep dreamin, son. Keep dreamin.”

“Don’t mind if I do. At least ‘till sissy gets back. Man that’ll be a mess.”