Sunday, March 1st, 909 AB (14 days later)

Solar looks down at the ecstatic colt, eyes wide in surprise. “Ready? Like totally ready?”

He’d barely made it off the train to Golden Hills before being accosted by the eager foal. Once greetings were exchanged they all started making their way to one of the few restaurants in town; the five parents following behind the two foals and young adults.

“You bet, dude! Both the Vaccine and the Antiviral tree are fully operational. Lemon ‘n Amy took ‘em on ahead. I rented their event room and got a buncha food plus a big ‘ol cake and ice cream. Everypony’s gonna meet us there. The buzzkills over there wouldn’t let me have an open bar, though. I think your parents have some kinda PTOBED.”

The older colt lets out a sigh. “I don’t even want to ask…”

“You don’t need to!” Cure chirps. In a sympathetic voice he explains, “Post Traumatic Open Bar Event Disorder. It’s a very sad condition that afflicts as many as two ponies that I’m aware of. I can’t help with that one, sadly.”

With a deadpan stare, Solar asks, “You don’t say?”

“Nah, it doesn’t seem that way. I tried to overwrite the memory sectors in yer sire’s head that fire when he thinks of that particular event, but for some reason it didn’t seem to work.” Cure glances towards the confused sergeant. “At least I was able to overwrite the traumatic memories from the experiments going wrong.”

Haze rolls his eyes, instantly dismissing the tease. “Very funny, Cure. I’m pretty sure I would remember…” he says, trailing off and suddenly looking alarmed.

Instead of responding, Cure just smirks over his withers at the stallion. Dawn can’t help but giggle at his stricken expression.

“Don’t pick on the sergeant, son. Ya know what I told ya.”

“Military ponies have no sense of humor?”

“Nah. Err, yeah, that too I reckon, but not what I meant.”

“Don’t joke about casually abusing my talent to mess with ponies’ heads?”

His sire nods while pointing a hoof in Cure’s direction. “Yep, that’s the one.”

Title nudges the still thinking sergeant with a shoulder. “You know he’s just teasing you, right?

“Uhh… are you sure? Is that something he could do?”

Shrugging lightly so as to not disturb Savvy, she can’t come up with a reason why he couldn’t. “I mean… probably? He never would though.” When the worried look doesn’t fade she rolls her eyes and reassures him. “He would never mess with anypony’s memories.” Glancing towards the colt she lets out a sigh. “Damnit, Cure, don’t joke about crap like that. You’re going to make him paranoid.”

“Jeez, sarge. Really?” he asks incredulously. “I’ve never tinkered with anypony’s brain. Well, not without their permission. And even then all I did was make some things controllable instead of autonomic. That’s kinda below the brain, anyhow. Oh, and when adjusting some visual cortices.” Cure pauses, then tilts his head in though. “Maybe during the foalbirths too, but that was under a doctor’s orders.”

He gets a few concerned looks and explains, “Some of the foals had something wrong, at least according to my talent. They got back to me on most, but a few had something they couldn’t identify. I figure it musta been a genetic disorder or something,” he finishes with a shrug. “Oh yeah, and I’ve helped a few ponies with headaches and migraines too. Most headaches originate in the neck, though.”

“Umm… is that everything?” Solar cautiously asks.

Starlight looks to her coltfriend, asking, “Is that a lot? It sounds like a lot more than ‘never.’”

“I suppose it’s more than I realized,” Cure concedes. “So maybe I have poked around an occasional noggin. Still, most of that under a doctor’s orders,” he insists.

“Cure?” Emerald calls, “What was that about autonomic functions?”

“He made it so we can feed Savvy easier,” Vines explains from Title’s other side. “It’s been very convenient being able to control milk production. This way I can help when Title is busy.”

“Stars I wish I’d had that option,” Emerald sighs. Looking unusually morose she confesses, “I couldn’t produce enough for either of my foals. We had to solicit a wet nurse both times until they were old enough for cow’s milk. Starlight, dear, if you intend to have foals I would strongly encourage you to consider that.”

“Huh… I haven’t scanned a cow yet. I should probably go to a farm and meet a few at some point.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Mrs. Aura,” Starlight agrees, then turns to the colt, “That is, if Cure doesn’t mind.” He quickly shoots the young mare a smile and a nod.

“I’ve heard they can be ornery,” Haze warns. Looking between Deed and Vines he asks, “You mentioned working on farms before, right?”

“My parents own a farm a ways to the northwest of town,” Vines admits. “Mostly wheat but I got my cutie mark growing fruits in the garden. There weren’t any cows living with us, but some lived on neighboring farms. They were very… forward with stallions,” she explains with a cringe.

“I don’t think they would be overly inappropriate given my age.” Cure looks at his sire, asking, “Did the ones on your aunt’s farm harass colts too?”

Deed shakes his head no while speaking up. “Nah, they won’t bother a colt at all. Don’t be surprised if they say somethin inappropriate though. They don’t always do the best at filterin themselves. They probably wouldn’t expect ya ta understand the innuendo you would.”

“Sounds like it could be a little awkward. I wonder if maybe there’s just not enough bulls taking care of their needs,” he says.

“Cure!” Vines scolds, despite the chuckles and giggles from everypony else, save Emerald, who gives him a mild scowl.

“What? We talk about there not being enough stallions all’a the time. If they have the same issue then what’s the problem with pointing out?”

“It seems... inappropriate, given your age, to discuss such things,” Emerald flatly explains.

Scoffing, Cure dismisses her argument. “Yeah, maybe if I hadn’t just spent three days helping mares give birth I could see that being the case, but... well,” he trails off shrugging, not sure what he can say that won’t come off as condescending or overly inappropriate given Dawn is right beside him.

“He’s right, dear,” Haze interrupts. “With a talent like his anypony would likely become... desensitized to most things biological. Besides, it very likely does at least play some part in their behavior if that is an unfulfilled need.”

Sighing in defeat, Emerald nods, conceding the point.

“So just out of curiosity, what is the bull to… heifer?” he tests the word, looking to his sire for confirmation. When Deed nods he continues, “Right, what’s the bull to heifer ratio? Is their gender ratio as unbalanced as ours? It seems a little unfair to me that we worry about one and casually ignore the other. They’re sapient citizens of Equestria too.”

“About the same as us,” Deed confirms. “I think they have it a little better, but it’s hard ta say. The bulls ain’t very sociable. You won’t usually see more ‘n one on a single farm or else they end up fightin each other.”

Curious more than alarmed, Cure asks, “Are they aggressive to ponies?”

“Nah, just curt and not very chatty.”

“Keep in mind, Cure,” Haze adds, “that since, as you say, they are sapient citizens, they are allowed to take advantage of government programs designed to assist in finding sires.”

Conversation dies down as the group makes their way the remaining short distance to the restaurant. Miller’s Diner is a casual family restaurant, similar to a Perkins or a IHOP, minus the breakfast focus, from Ed’s memories. Unlike the Berry Wood Kitchen in Baltimare, normal families could expect to dine without breaking the bank.

Cure much prefers it over the so-called fancier restaurant a town over because the food is a third the price, as good or better, the restaurant is well lit and looks nice both inside and out, and the decor didn’t remind him of tryhards going over the top with the southern theme. Starlight had recommended the place based on the food quality, price, and the fact that they had a large enough private dining room to accommodate everypony Cure invited.

The group is greeted by the hostess at the door and, upon seeing the dark coated party planner, immediately directs them to the private room.

Aside from the dining tables and the one with raised benches for foals there are two longer tables close to the wall at the far side of the room. On one side is a bench for foals or shorter pegasi to hop on to get food more easily. Cure, with advice from Starlight and the restaurant owner, had settled on a variety of dishes including potatoes au gratin, crispy eggplant slices, blackened tuna steaks, vegetable medley, a fruit platter, a bread tray, and a whole trough of salad.

Since most ponies are vegetarians the sole meat dish is off to the side. There’s a third smaller table with ice water, lemonade, and a few fruit drinks. Three servers are on hoof for sodas, to refill any food trays as they get low, get highchairs, or take care of whatever miscellaneous need that comes up.

Crosswind Drift, Glacial Breeze, Delta Coast, and Rising Pitch are already sitting at the foals’ table. Their families, along with Lemon, Amethyst, and their girls are at two of the four adult tables. The trees are on a rolling cart between the mares, covered with a blanket. Wind Shear and her coltfriend, Lightwing, along with another older pegasus filly are sitting at their own table.

Cure had briefly met Lightwing and his other fillyfriend one of the times he stopped by the Drift’s place since they started routinely flying together. He was disguised as his brown, blank flank, winged Riddle persona, though, so the pair are unaware he and the earth pony hosting the party are one in the same.

About five minutes later Heavy Lift and Ferric Shine arrive together with his family and her dam, then Sapphire Sprint, Midnight Gem, and Onyx Mark make their way in almost right on their tails.

After everypony gets seated Cure gives them all a few minutes to chat, then hops up from the foal’s table and trots to the front between the crowd and the food tables getting everypony’s attention with a whistle.

“Alright, everypony, if I could have your attention for just a few minutes, please, I promise I’ll make this short. I am, after all, standing between food and a hungry pink mare, so this isn’t exactly a safe place to be.”

A few of the ponies chuckle while his mom waves a threatening hoof in his direction. “Brat!”

Cure gives his mom a cheeky salute, then yells, “Love you too, ma! Okay, so, back at the beginning of September one of the biggest events in a pony’s life happened to me.” Several of the ponies give him knowing looks and nod along. “Yep, that’s right, of course, it was my first kiss and Heavy was a very gentle teacher.” He finishes blowing a kiss to the gray colt.

”WHAT?!”

The room erupts in laughter as Heavy’s ears shoot straight up and all the other foals poke at him teasingly. His sister’s fly around him making kissing noises until Spring Showers shoots them a warning glare and points by her side.

“Joking! I’m joking!” he insists, waving his hooves placatingly. “Sorry dude, gotta lead with a joke, ya know?” Cure can’t help but chuckle as his bud glares menacingly at him.

“Seriously, my folks and I were in the garden and, when I focused on a bruise I got a few days prior, lo and behold, the thing up and disappeared. Well I guess I traded one mark for another because right there on my flanks was a new addition.” Turning, slightly, Cure shows off his mark.

“It only took a moment for me to realize that, while my special talent is pretty unique, it’s also very dangerous. Similar to Sgt. Gleaming Haze over there,” he nods to the red unicorn, “who is the Guard medic, I found I could use magic to scan ponies. Like many special talents, though, mine goes beyond the basics. In addition to simply scanning I can use magic to heal or make changes, at least until I run out of magic, which doesn’t seem to take much.

“That second part probably sends a tinge of worry down your spine and, honestly, I don’t blame you. One of the first concerns we had was ‘Is this even legal?’ followed closely by ‘Will somepony come to take me away if they find out?’ Fortunately the answers are ‘Yes, sort of’ and ‘Not so far, thankfully.’

“Sort of because while the type of magic is restricted there’s an exception for when it’s a pony’s special talent. Not yet because while nopony has actually come along we did get an official visitor from the capital. This pony was delivering a message straight from Her Highness, and while She herself isn’t worried, concerns have been raised about my talent and what I may be doing with it.”

Sat on his haunches he taps a hoof on the other as if counting on fingers. “Volunteering at the clinic, helping my friends and our brave guardians get in fantastic shape-”

“Yeah! Check out the chests on the sarge and his son!” Thunder Dance shouts. To Starlight’s great joy, Solar stands up and flexes for the crowd, hamming it up and getting appreciative whistles from the laughing group.

“HAH! Right?” Cure agrees before continuing on, “And as only a few of you know, I also volunteered here and in the other suburbs around Baltimare when the birthing season hit, though I was disguised as a unicorn,” he admits.

“That was you?!” Berry shouts. “I thought that unicorn looked a little thick!”

Cure nods towards Heavy’s dam. “Guilty as charged, ma’am! They slapped a fake horn on me to help hide my identity. So clearly I’m just biding my time and will enact my dastardly plan to seize the throne any minute now.”

Cure pauses and looks around the room. Slowly, he takes his pocket watch out of the spatial bit purse he keeps tucked under his legpit, and melodramatically looks at it for a few seconds, then glances back up. “Aaaaaany minute now.” When a few ponies laugh he lightly shrugs and continues, “Naah, not feeling it. Maybe later,” he adds noncommittally, getting another round of chuckles.

“Of course reality is far less exciting than the comic books the ponies in the capital must be reading. Instead of dreaming up some nefarious plot, I sat down with my parents and talked about how I could do something useful. Something important. Something that could change the world. A very lovely mare next door provided the spark of inspiration, though I don’t recommend her method.”

He pauses and waves towards Amethyst before continuing. “The beautiful Amethyst Blossom caught some kinda nasty bug and had been laid up for days. Lemon, being the dutiful and loving wife that she is, had to stay home to help care for her and the girls. She couldn’t work at the same time, so she had to close her shop for almost the entire week, a necessary move that I’m sure didn’t do the family coffers any favors.”

“Damn right! Bucked us right in the bank account!” Lemon loudly agrees while Amethyst nods along.

“I’m sure it did. Mrs. Emerald Aura was kind enough to gather some statistics from the Baltimare Regional Health Authority for me. Across the nation every year somewhere between one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty thousand families are impacted by the flu virus alone. Several hundred ponies do not survive it. That doesn’t even factor the negative social and economic impact of less dangerous illnesses like the Feather Flu or the common cold.

“Though there is still a ways to go, those days could soon be over. With the help of my parents I have been developing two very special trees that, once they get approval, should significantly reduce the spread of and aid in the recovery from virtually any illness. It may be slightly premature, but with the help of the beautiful Miss Starlight Shine, I gathered you all, the families of my closest friends, to celebrate the completion of stage one of the project.

“Lemon, Amy, could one of you please bring ‘em up?”

Lemon hops up and pushes the cart around the table to the front of the room and stands by, waiting for the nod from Cure.

“Presenting the fully functional and ready-for-testing Vaccine Tree and Antiviral Tree, mark one point oh!” he shouts, waving to the trees.

Lemon pulls the sheet off, revealing the meter and a half tall trees, each with a pair of lightly glowing green vines wrapped around the trunk, dark, full canopies, and stems laden with cherry tomato sized fruits. The trunks are slightly more than hoof in diameter and, towards the bottom, have a siphon-like opening for sugar water to be poured in.

The Vaccine tree’s fruits are green. There’s a half hoof sized green shield with a white cross in the middle just below the canopy on the trunk indicating which type of tree it is.

The Cure tree’s fruits are blue instead, looking much like enlarged blueberries. The icon Cure went with for that tree is slightly more complex; a blue syringe stabbing into a green cartoonish viral cell.

Each tree has a roman numeral one on the opposite side of the trunk.

Cure continues, “For those of you traveling with us to see the Wonderbolts, we’re also going to be dropping these off with a contact of mine in the capital to get the testing process started. As with any new medicine or medical procedure they do require testing, so please don’t eat any of the fruit just yet. I’m confident they’re safe, but we gotta dot our i’s and cross our t’s before I start hoofin these out. Still, with a little luck, by this time next year days-long illnesses will be a thing of the past!”

Though several of the adults are clearly caught unprepared for the monumental announcement, everypony stomps or claps nonetheless.

“Thank you! Thank you all for coming today. Now I think that’s enough listening to me talk, so everypony head on up and help yourselves! Mind the tuna, folks. I asked for it to be a little on the spicy side! If anypony is curious about the trees, or anything else, feel free to come say hi. Dessert will be brought out in a little while too, so save some room, everypony!”

Speech done, Cure thanks Lemon for her help, watches as she moves the cart off to the side, then moves out of the way for everypony to start getting food.

When nopony immediately jumps up, Title happily makes her way over while loudly saying, “Y’all are too bashful to be first so really I’m just being helpful here.” Though Cure suspects an ulterior motive is her real reason, the move does break the ice and ponies start making their way up.

It takes a few minutes to get food since the foals’ table isn’t very close, but once he loads up his plate he gets back to the table and finds himself seated in the middle between Heavy and Dawn with Coast to Heavy’s right and Sapphire on Dawn’s left. Ferric is sitting across from her sister with Drift, Glacial, and Rising to her left.

Everypony is digging in, enjoying the delicious home cooking. Only the pegasi and Cure got a piece of fish and he finds it a little funny how Dawn leans slightly away every time he takes a bite. “I gotta see if they’ll give me their recipe. I made tuna a few times for my mom when she was getting cravings but this is a lot better than mine.”

“It’s so weird seeing an earth pony eat meat,” Glacial comments. “I thought that was only a pegasus thing.”

“It is,” Dawn assures her. “He’s just weird. And he can eat anything. I’ve watched him chew rocks up once.”

When everypony looks at him weird he defends, “I was trying to see if the enamel alternative I’d developed was tough enough. Enamel is a pain to work with.” With a proud, pearly white smile he confirms, “It was, by the way. I’ll probably have to do some long term experiments to be sure I have all my bases covered, though.”

“I can’t believe you said we kissed,” Heavy grouses, scowling at the blue colt.

Sapphire immediately starts singing, “Cure ‘n Heavy sittin in a tree!”

Dawn and Drift join in, the three singing together, “K I S S I N G.”

The table devolves into giggles as Heavy stammers and blushes. Cure wraps a foreleg around his friend and leans heavily against him while pulling him right to his side with a nuzzle. “Don’t let them shame our love! They only seek to break us apart out of sheer jealousy!”

“DUDE!”

“Oh settle down,” Cure says, releasing the other colt. “I’m just teasing, bro. The best thing to do is to just play along. I’m pretty sure nopony seriously believes we kissed.”

“Better not,” Heavy grumbles, viciously stabbing a cheesy potato before cramming it in his mouth.

“Your speech was really good, Cure,” Ferric softly compliments. “I don’t know how you can talk in front of everypony like that.”

“Thanks, Red. There’s a trick to it that I think helps.” He takes a big bite and slowly chews. Most keep eating but Drift and Coast impatiently stare, waiting for him to elaborate.

The dark pegasus runs out of patience first, surprising nopony. With a scowl she asks, “Well? What is it?”

“Hats,” he answers unhelpfully. When she keeps scowling he rolls his eyes and explains. “You know those silly hats that used to be in style with big, fake feathers and a whole bunch of dumb crap on ‘em? Just imagine everypony in those and all the sudden you’re the only pony in the room that shouldn’t be embarrassed.”

“That’s dumb,” Coast dismissively argues. “There’s no way it works.”

Rising disagrees with her friend. “I’ve heard something like that. Dam told me some ponies imagine everypony in the room wearing silly clothes or pajamas. It’s supposed to help you feel like everypony in the room is your equal.”

“There’s other strategies like that,” Cure agrees, “but ultimately you only get better the same way as anything else. Practice.”

“I’m not sure I can do that,” the shy filly admits.

“Aww, you’re just the strong, silent type, sissy! Just tell me whatchya wanna say. I don’t mind talkin!”

Rising sets her drink down and looks across the table. “Will those really do what you said? Nopony will get sick anymore?”

“That’s, unfortunately, not exactly right. Ponies still will get sick, but if they have access to the antiviral tree they can cough, spit, or blow on it. Or of it’s a bloodborne virus they can get a sample with a syringe. The leaves will absorb the sample and analyze any viruses present, then make an effective antiviral agent to counter the exact strain they have.

“Most medicine you buy in stores really only treats the symptoms of a cold. You know what I mean? It’ll help with the runny nose or the fever, but it doesn’t directly treat whatever’s makin ya sick. The antiviral cells in the fruit will kill the virus itself. Quite aggressively, I might add.

“Of course that means you won’t infect anypony else and, as a precaution, you can take a couple extra fruits with you to give to anypony that might have been exposed already. At least, that’s the idea. Of course they need testing before they’re ready to be distributed.

“Anytime a new medicine or treatment is developed it has to be tested to identify side effects. Also, they need to determine how many fruits are an effective dosage and whether it’s possible to overdose. I have about two months to refine them and try to put additional safeties in place, though.

“If there’s any kind of outbreak the Regional Health Authorities could do the same thing with the Vaccine trees, then deliver fruits to other cities by pegasus courier. Anypony that’s vaccinated will be either immune or, at least, far more resilient against whatever is spreading. That would nip a potential outbreak in the bud, hopefully. I dunno, I’ll defer to the experts on how to best utilize ‘em.”

“He also needs to put together a care manual and some other paperwork for when he drops them off,” Dawn reminds him.

With a great sigh he nods in agreement. “Yay. Paperwork,” he deadpans.

Heavy nudges Cure with his left shoulder and asks, “How long are we staying in Canterlot?”

“The train leaves Baltimare the night of April 29th. That’s a Wednesday. We’ll be in Canterlot Thursday morning, probably need a nap, then I do my tree presentation that night and we’ll have a private, fancy dinner. The show is Friday afternoon and the train back leaves Sunday morning, so we’ll have all day Saturday to do whatever. Got any idea what y’all wanna do?”

Rising perks up first. “I want to go to the opera house. I hear they do tours. I’ve never been to one before.”

“That sounds neat,” Coast agrees. “I’ll come with you.”

Dawn nods along. “That could be neat. Cure, would one of your moms mind taking us?”

“Dunno. We’ll hafta ask. Probably,” he answers with a shrug.

“We’re gonna join in some of the junior flyers races,” Drift excitedly says. Glacial is nodding along as she continues, “I wanna practice as much as possible with those wings and see if I can win a few! They have all kinda stuff the days before and after Wonderbolt shows. Maybe we can even meet some of them!”

“That sounds awesome,” Cure cheers. “Just come by my house whenever you wanna practice, ladies. Even if I can’t join ya I can still hook ya up.” Pausing in thought he adds, “I wonder if I can tinker with the joints and muscles a bit and make it so you can kinda change your own wing configuration slightly…”

The suggestion nearly causes both fillies’ wings to pop straight in the air, drawing a heckle from Wind Shear a table over. The two quickly get themselves back under control, both giving him pleading looks.

“I’ll see what I can come up with, don’t worry. It won’t be as significant of a change as I do, but I suspect I can come up with something. As for my plans, I’ll probably go to the main shopping area and see if I can find any good books on enchanting or whatever. Maybe some magic guides. I would like to go to the library and find some big spell tome to memorize, but I don’t know if that would be publicly available.”

“Didn’t you say you had a magic tutor?” Heavy asks.

“I do, kind of. She’s sending me stuff every so often. The first few books are mostly elementary stuff, but there’s some interesting material in them. I’d like to figure out how to make my own spells but that’s looking more complicated than I expected. So far what she sent is fascinating, but not directly helpful there. Her letter said she’d send me my next ‘set’ in a few months, so… we’ll see.”

Dawn comments, “It is still interesting, though. The shaping exercises are exhausting.”

Cure nods in agreement, explaining, “Yep. There’s… a lot that I didn’t know that I didn’t know, especially about control and shaping. I’m starting to suspect the whole runic system is just the tip of the iceberg; something for entry level magic users to be able to do some basic stuff. Still, I’m starting to understand why they wait until foals are ten. At our, especially my, magic capacities we run out after just a few exercises.”

“Magic sounds confusing,” Sapphire says with a shrug. “I’m glad we don’t have to learn that junk.”

Cure can’t help but roll his eyes at the ignorant statement. If anything, having the opportunity to learn is an enormous privilege. Unicorns truly have opportunities that nopony else does and it’s more than a little frustrating that so very few ever come close to realizing their potential.

“What’s shaping, dude? I thought you already knew plenty about magic.”

“It’s complicated and confusing,” Cure starts.

Dawn cuts in explaining, “Basically, unicorns can use magic externally, right?” When Heavy nods she continues, “Aside from the quick, easier casting method-”

“Runes,” Cure interrupts briefly, “the horn vibrates in specific ways to form runes harmonically like a musical instrument. Sorry for interrupting,” he says, waving back to Dawn to continue.

“Right, so we can also shape magic externally. It’s hard to explain without being able to feel it, though.”

“It’ll lead to circles and stuff is my bet,” Cure grumbles as he takes a bite. “I’ve heard of magic circles and geometric shapes having different effects, but I’m not willing to start experimenting since I have no idea what could happen. Right now it’s just a matter of controlling the magic once it leaves the horn before you can ever get started actually shaping it. It sucks. I really just wanted to learn how to make new spells,” he finishes in a whine.

“I’ve always heard making new spells or changing them is dangerous,” Glacial points out.

“Yeah, you know, that’s the thing… everypony knows it’s dangerous, right?” When several of the foals nod he asks, “Why? What can actually go wrong? Like… are we talking you shoot an ice bolt instead of a fire bolt? I’ve looked at those two spells, there’s not one rune that would change that.”

“I dunno, Cure, but don’t do anything without anypony else around,” Dawn urges. “If everypony keeps saying it’s dangerous there’s probably a good reason.”

“There may be,” he agrees, “or maybe they just say that so nopony will experiment and figure out something they don’t want everypony to know. It’s just really weird, ya know? If I say ‘Don’t go into the woods, it’s dangerous!’ then the first thing you’ll ask is ‘Why? What’s dangerous about it?’

“Anypony with any sense would say ‘There’s X out there, here’s what you have to watch out for.’ With magic nopony explains what can happen. It’s just ‘dangerous’ without any clarification on why aside from some anecdotes of things that have gone wrong with no explanation of how or why it happened.”

Drift lets out a groan, “Here we go with the conspiracy theories.”

“He had some good points on the Nightmare Moon one,” Glacial reminds her. “You even thought so.”

“Yeah,” Drift argues, “but still, he thinks everything is some big government cover-up. Next thing you know he’ll be saying the princess doesn’t raise the sun or something.”

“I’m pretty sure she does,” he disagrees teasingly.

“Pretty sure?” Sapphire asks. “What do you mean by pretty sure?”

“I mean, I have questions about how the whole sun thing works, but I know she plays a part in it somehow. Like… is she literally nudging it along all day long? What about when it’s on the other side of the planet? Is she still moving it along while she sleeps?” he asks. “It’s not that I doubt she moves the sun, I’m just curious how it works.”

“Well that’s something,” Coast teases. “At least you can admit Her Highness, who has a huge sun cutie mark, does actually do something with the sun.”

Sapphire grins at the blue filly. “Did Coast just say the princess has big flanks?” she wonders aloud.

As Coast stammers out a response Cure mentions, “Cutie mark size does scale with flank size, and relatively speaking the princess is huge. She’s like one and a half times as big as your sire, Saph.”

“When did you see the princess?” Ferric asks.

“She stopped by, flirted with my sire a bit, joined us for dinner, then we had a snuggle pile in the living room and just chilled out for a while, shot the breeze.” Dawn, Glacial, Rising, Coast, and Drift all freeze on the spot. “Gotta give the lady credit, she’s got a nice, warm coat. She said she thought I smelled good too. She was totally diggin me,” he nonchalantly explains, scooping up another bite of his meal.

“Uh huh,” Heavy nods along. “I’m sure, Cure. Maybe we can stop by and visit her when we go to the show too.”

“Oh yeah, even better,” Cure teases, “We’re staying at the castle the whole time we’re there. She totally said I could crash at her place whenever. You know how it is when you’re hangin with a big shot like me.” He finishes with a wink and takes another big bite of food, slowly chewing while smirking at his friend.

Ferric and Sapphire look critically between the other fillies and Cure. He just smiles smugly at everypony until, eventually, they all go back to eating. “I wouldn’t mind taking a tour of the castle,” the shy filly admits. “It’s a shame I can’t see the barracks and stuff, too. I would love to have a chance to meet their smiths.”

“Do they have some kind of internship program?” Dawn asks. “The guard has to get their smiths from somewhere, after all.”

“It’s a position in the guard you can apply to after you pass basic,” she explains. “I plan on enlisting when I turn fifteen, but that’s a long way off.”

Drift nudges the red filly with her right shoulder. “You know basic is going to be a breeze for you, right? Stars, I bet you could get through it right now, even.”

She nods in agreement, “Maybe. Definitely by the time I’m old enough. I still wouldn’t mind asking your brother,” she looks to Dawn opposite and slightly to her left, “what it’s like. How’s he doing?”

“He says it’s a joke compared to what he expected,” Dawn admits. “Of course, not everypony has a biomanipulator as a trainer, so it’s not exactly fair to compare his experience to everypony else. He mentioned he has more difficulty on some of the unicorn only stuff, though.”

Coast leans forward and looks around the colts. “Why? You both seem ridiculously good at casting stuff.”

“For the actual spellcasting he’s fine. It’s the moving of things like blades with levitation. He didn’t practice that stuff as much. That probably won’t be a problem, though. He wants to go into the Artillery course and those unicorns will never be on the front line.”

“He should practice hoof to hoof too, though,” Ferric argues. “You never know when somepony may get in your face.”

Cure perks up at that, pointing an empty fork to Ferric while nodding. “My great grandsire has an artillery mage and that’s exactly what happened to him. It ended his career. The griffon that jumped on him jacked his knee up pretty bad. Gave him some wicked scars too.”

“Did you heal him?” Rising asks.

“Yep, he still works for Grandpa Brick. He’s where I got a bunch of spells from as thanks.” He glances at the filly and adds, “He wanted to keep the scars, though… said the mares dig ‘em. Whatta think, RP?” he asks, waving a hoof over the left side of his face and replicating three, long, talon-like scars going up his snout with the center one skipping over his eye. He leans forward and looks left and right to show off.

Drift gives an approving nod. “Huh… those do make ya look like a hardflank. You need some on your chest too.”

“I dunno, Cure,” Rising hesitantly answers. “If ya got scars doesn’t that mean you got your plot kicked?”

Scoffing, he waves a hoof. “You shoulda seen the griff that did this. Bucked ‘em so hard his head spun around. Twice.”

Glacial looks horrified for a second, then thoughtful. “I don’t think… wait, can their heads do that?”

Nodding, Cure answers, “If ya hit ‘em juuuust right. Ponies can do it too, though, so it’s not just a griffon thing, see, watch,” he says, setting his fork down and putting his hooves on either side of his head.

Dawn jabs a hoof right in his left legpit. “You are NOT demonstrating that.”

He pouts at the orange filly, grabs his fork, and pokes at his plate. “I never get to show off my tricks.”

Coast blows out a relieved sigh. “I think we’re all fine without seeing any of your tricks, Cure.”

“Bah. Y’all are wusses, just like my parents.”

“I’d like to see one,” Drift says, waving away the round of “NO!”s from the other fillies. “He’s right, you are all wusses.” She gives Cure a challenging look. “Do your worst, Mr. Big Shot.”

“Oh? My worst?” he chuckles, then shakes his head no. “Nah, you definitely don’t want that. I need something small. Let’s see… I know!” he shouts. Everypony but Drift, Sapphire, and Heavy turn away, covering their eyes. “I call this ‘Now I see you, Now I don’t.’” Smiling at the filly he leans forward on the table saying, “Now I see you…” he widens his eyes comically.

Drift stares into the light brown eyes of the colt, waiting for something to happen. “Wait,” she says, “shouldn’t that be now you see me-” she doesn’t finish before Cure reaches up with both hooves and plucks his eyeballs right out of his head, leaving her frozen, gaping open-mouthed and wide-eyed staring at the empty sockets.

“And now I don’t!” he shouts, laughing, then closes his eyelids.

Heavy recoils so hard he almost knocks Coast over. “Duuuude… What the hay?!”

Sapphire, on the other side of Dawn, is laughing and clapping her hooves. “WOOO! That’s awesome!”

He leans forward and turns to the filly smiling proudly. “Thanks, Saph! Glad somepony appreciates my show.”

“I’m not looking!” Ferric yells, eyes still covered with her forelegs.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Drift whines.

“Told you,” he smugly says. “Wuss. Don’t worry, Drift, I’ll put ‘em back good as new.”

“Please do,” she starts, then stops when he tosses them in his mouth and, with a horrifying crunch and exaggerated swallow, opens his eyelids back up to show off his eyes, back, good as new.

“Ta daa!” he shouts, waving his forelegs over his head.

“Is he done?” Dawn asks.

Glacial dares to peek around a hoof. “I think so… Drift?” she asks, poking the frozen pegasus. “Umm, I think you broke her.”

“She’ll be fine. Who wants dessert? I could go for,” he leans over the table towards Drift, “some chocolate eyes-cream!” and barks out a laugh.

Ferric yelps as the purple filly falls limply against her.

“Like I said, wusses… all of ya. ‘Cept Saph, I guess.” He leans forward to look around Dawn and gives her a big smile. “Way to hang in there, double S. I swear, I can’t do anything fun without some wimp passin out on me.”

“Hey champ,” his sire calls, approaching the foal’s table. He pauses and looks at the purple filly, then scowls at the colt. “What’d you do?”

“Why are you assumin I did anything?” Cure innocently asks.

The stallion shakes his head refocusing, lets out a sigh, and waves back over towards the adult table. “Did you do somethin with yer plants? They ain’t on the cart.”

Cure pauses mid-bite and turns fully to his sire. “What?”

Shrugging, Deed reiterates, “They ain’t in there. They were there. We got up to get food, then somepony realized the plants were gone.”

“They’re a half meter taller than me! How the hay did they just up and disappear?!”

“No clue, son. Haze thinks maybe somepony used an illusion or invisibility so nopony noticed ‘till they were gone.”

“I didn’t feel anypony casting anything,” Dawn comments, “but I wasn’t really paying attention either.”

“That’s what yer parents and brother said too, Dawn girl. That and they were away from the table gettin food.”

The group watches as Cure’s face goes from confused to murderous, then thoughtful, and finally, resigned. “That’s inconvenient. Good thing I haven’t set it up to make clones yet.” Cure looks over to the table with the sergeant and finds him standing by Drift’s parents, looking towards him questioningly. Cure gives him a shrug and a no head shake and watches as he says something to the pegasi. All three quickly dart out of the room.

“I’ll be right back,” he calmly says, making his way over to the cart. After discreetly sniffing around a little he can’t pick out anything too unusual. There is the scent of a pony he doesn’t recognize, so he follows it. It leads just outside of the private room to the bathrooms where it simply disappears; likely due to a teleport.

He knows he could probably start running in circles around the building and pick up the trail, but it’s equally possible the unicorn teleported more than once, and he can easily grow replacements. Pissed off that somepony dared to steal from him, he quickly runs out of the restaurant and does a single loop around the building, just in case, finding nothing.

With a disappointed sigh he makes his way back in, finding his sire quietly chatting with the foals, waiting for his return. Keeping his face as neutral as possible he retakes his seat and explains that he couldn’t find any sign of them.

“I’m amazed you’re taking this so calmly,” Dawn observes. “I thought you’d flip out.” Unsurprisingly, the other foals nod in agreement.

“The colt can make another, Dawn girl. It ain’t a big deal.”

“Yeah, basically,” Cure agrees. “Still, we worked on those for months. My parents and I spent, probably, hundreds of hours on them. I’m pissed but it’s the design that’s really important. I could make another in ten minutes now.”

“I’ll go talk ta the manager. Maybe there’s somepony that left work in a hurry.”

“I’m betting that’s where they,” he nods to the vacated guards’ seats, “went first, but I’m thinking somepony teleported from the restroom. I could smell the plants go that way, then the scent just disappeared.” Cure unconsciously shifts from side to side while looking around. “Well, don’t tell anypony else. Let’s enjoy the party anyhow, I guess.

“We’ll have to ask Sgt. Bulwark if he wants to burn a letter. I’m pretty sure they’re safe, but if something goes wrong with one of those plants I don’t want anypony trying to blame us. I’m kinda relieved we have three guards here to witness everything.”

“Burn a letter?” Coast asks.

“Dragon fire,” Ferric explains. “Probably to whoever he was gonna take the plants to.” She turns to Cure and asks, “That’s only for the military though. Were you taking ‘em to some kind of general or something?”

“Close enough, yeah. Well if the sergeant recovers them that’s great. If not then we’ll just make new ones, pa. Let’s not spoil the occasion.”

“You bet, champ. I’ll go tell yer ma’s.”

Cure calls back a quick “Alright” as his sire walks away. Eating at the table has come to a standstill, mostly, with the other foals all looking to Cure to see how he reacts. He looks over the table, finally focusing on the now awake and quietly staring Drift. “So Drift… you said something earlier about conspiracies?” he teasingly asks.

She lets out a sigh, slowly nods, and says, “Great… now he’s going to be even more crazy.”

“How many ponies even knew about this?” Rising asks. “Everypony here is somepony you know… do you think somepony just up and decided to steal your plants? What are they even worth?”

“Nothing if he can just make more,” Coast answers.

“I bet nopony knows that though,” Glacial points out. “It took months to make them. I bet they don’t know you can just make another. Does anypony know it’s easy for you to make another?”

“Good point, Glacial,” he agrees. “And no, not really. I keep details about my talent pretty quiet. If you could all do me a huge favor, please keep that to yourselves. I wanna see if those suddenly turn up somewhere. I don’t think whoever took those trees wanted them for decorations. As for who knew about them?” He pauses in thought before answering. “A few of you, Dawn’s family, and anypony that read her sire’s report about me. Star helped plan the party, but not the purpose of it.”

Cure glances in his sire’s direction and Sends him a message. << Don’t tell anypony I can make more plants, dad. Let them think we have to start over from scratch. >>

<< Good idea, son. I’ll let the mares know too. >>

A round of nods and agreements goes around the table as the foals go back to eating. Once everypony has their fill and the food is cleared away. The three guards return empty hoofed; Drift’s parents return to their seats but Haze approaches the group.

Standing at the end of the table by Ferric and Sapphire he looks to the colt apologetically. “I’m sorry, Cure, but the only thing anypony seems to have noticed was an off-white unicorn stallion with a darker brown mane walking towards the room. Nopony paid attention to his cutie mark, unfortunately. Of course he could easily have been in disguise regardless.”

“I’m assuming somepony is watching the train?”

“Yes, of course. Those Sending crystals are helping immensely for coordination. I alerted Staff Sergeant Bulwark and he sent out a description of our uninvited guest. So far no luck, though.”

“Well, worry about it later, sarge. They’re bringing out the dessert soon. Nothin much to do right now but enjoy. Thanks for trying to find ‘em, though.”

“Hmm. Yes, that sounds good, Cure. I must say, I half expected you to go charging out there, searching for the perpetrator. I’m relieved to see you acting so maturely. I certainly was not looking forward to seeing what kind of mayhem you could cause. I imagine it would have involved jumping on somepony’s back and hissing, though.”

“Dunno what ya mean, sarge. I would never do such a thing.” Nearly every foal at the table barks out a laugh with only Ferric and Rising remaining quiet, though the yellow filly still looks like she almost let one slip. Cure scowls at the group, muttering under his breath, “A third time, I meant.” More loudly he adds, “I would come up with something new. Variety, spice of life, etcetera,” he trails off, rolling his hoof.

“Well,” Haze hesitates, “be that as it may, if we hear any updates I’ll be sure to tell you.”

“Okay. Oh, hey sarge?” he asks just as the unicorn had started turning to walk away.

“Yes?” he asks, facing back to Cure.

“When me and Star planned this, was there anypony else made aware that they were ready to go?”

Nodding, Haze explains, “Yes. I was ordered to inform…” he pauses, looking at the foals, “your contact when they were ready, should you share that with me. I sent a message about ten days ago about the party.”

“Okay, well after we’re done here I would like to file an official statement with the guard saying that, should the trees not be recovered, it will be several months before we can develop replacements. I think it would be wise to contact the pony in the capital I was going to so they are aware of the situation.”

“Several months? I thought…” Haze pauses as it dawns on him what Cure is saying. “Ahh, I see. Yes, a good idea. I’ll ensure it goes through the proper channels as soon as possible. I’ll speak to Bulwark about sending a message as well.”

With a firm nod and a quick “Of course” the red stallion turns and heads back to rejoin his wife and son.

“Well that’s a bummer,” he gripes.

Dawn leans against him, giving him a quick nuzzle. “They may still catch whoever it was.”

“No, I mean the paperwork. I’ll hafta fill out some crap at the station now. Not to mention letting my contact know. Ugh, ponies suck sometimes.”

Heavy puts a supportive hoof on his shoulder. “Well dude, at least nopony was hurt or anything. Plus, nothing’s really lost. You were gonna leave those in Canterlot anyhow, right?”

Hesitantly, Cure agrees with the gray colt. “I guess. Screw it, nothing to do but wait and see.”

Author's Note

Edit - 4/9/23 - I had biffed up between when I published this and 61, forgetting that Cure had said "I also have an appointment Friday morning to meet with my attorneys" when he was discussing his plans for the trip with the other foals. That line has now been removed. My bad!