Salmon Spring awoke, squeezing the hoof her legs were wrapped around. She smiled and opened her eyes, spotting the pink limb of Swift Salve. She rubbed her cheek on the limb and hummed.
“Good morning,” said Salve.
Stretcher and Cirrus yawned, their wings stretching out as Stitch shuffled and rolled out of bed.
“Mmmm...” Stitch smacked her lips together and stood up. She walked to Salmon and nuzzled her out from under Salve’s leg. “Come on, sweetie, you’ve got a whole town to see.”
Salmon wiggled to the edge of the bed and looked up at Stitch. “Okay!”
Cirrus flapped his wings and lifted one leg at a time, easing up the muscles. He bowed, bringing his face to the floor while flicking his tail and yawning again. Stretcher crane his neck, popping the joints, an action that caused Salve to cringe.
Cirrus looked around once he was finished stretching. “What about me?”
Stretcher slapped his wing on Cirrus’ back. “I’m thinking I’ll show you to our weather team first before I meet with Stitch to talk with Mikhael.”
Salve patted Salmon on the head. “I’ll be taking you to see Doctor Clearance first. Make sure you’ve got all the bits and pieces you need to be a pony.”
Stitch nodded. “Hmmm... breakfast for you guys first, but I’m not putting Mikhael off any longer. I’ll meet him a bit before you arrive then, Stretcher.” She leaned in towards Salmon, kissed her at the base of her horn, then walked out of the room.
Stretcher’s stomach groaned and he chuckled. “Aheh... come to think of it, breakfast would be a good idea.” He clopped his hooves together. “How do pancakes sound?”
Salmon looked at Cirrus. Pancakes, white fluffy little pads of absorbent sugary goodness. Salmon licked her lips in memory of the meal she had the luxury to have a few times back... before... Salmon nodded. “Yes please!” she said, following after Cirrus, Stretcher and Salve to the kitchen.
“You two do look undernourished,” commented Stretcher, balancing two pans and a spatula between his wings. “It must have been hell to get as far south as you did.” He walked over the fireplace, set the pans over the grating, and then gritted his teeth. “Nothing more nutritious than grass to keep you going.”
Wincing, Salmon nodded, looking to her sides where the ribs still stuck out slightly. “It gave me stomach aches too after a while.”
“Well, I’m sure Clearance will know if there’s any long lasting damage from that.” Stretcher gripped a fire poker in his mouth and prodded the fireplace’s coals, resuscitating the flames into something that could cook their meal. Flames lapped at the bottom of the pan.
In a coordinated movement of muzzle, forehooves and wings, Salve deposited a wad of butter on the pan, sizzling the greasy yellow substance into an enchanting aroma. Salmon’s eyes fluttered at the smell as she watched Stitch float a brown paper bag towards the sink, and mix the powdery white flour from the bag in with a bowl of milk.
“Where do you get this stuff?” asked Cirrus, shaking his head.
“Flour, the town grows the wheat for that,” said Swift Salve as she stirred the batter. “An earth pony at the edge of town has a penchant for growing a salt crystal that supplies the town. Eggs and milk, we get from some other farms. Sugar, baking soda and the like, the pegasi and unicorns buy from the town with the money they make.” She hobbled towards the fire with the bowl of pancake batter tucked under a leg and poured it out onto the pans before setting it to the side.
The pancakes were cooked and the four ponies sat at the table. Syrup and more milk was brought out, and soon they were all having their fill.
Salmon tucked into her third pancake, lapping at the sugary brown liquid that pooled at its edges. She looked at Cirrus, still poking at his first pancake, then to Stretcher, who laughed as he nodded to Cirrus.
“Your sister has quite the appetite,” Stretcher said.
Cirrus smiled. “Yes, she’s kind of scary when you let her near food.”
Salmon lifted her head from her plate and stuck her tongue out, immediately lapping at her chin to catch a few dribbles of syrup. She then leaned over and, in a few moments, had all but inhaled the last of her meal. She leaned back from the table and hummed.
Salve looked up from her own meal and smiled at Salmon. “Bet it’s really neat to see things come together for a group of ponies, huh squirt?”
Salmon giggled and inclined her head as Salve finished off her own meal.
Salve walked up to Salmon and lipped at her mane. “Ready to see Dr. Clearance, dear?”
Nodding, Salmon stood up and turned to the pink mare. She leaned in and nuzzled Salve before following.
Casting a glance over her shoulder, Salve smiled at Stretcher. “We’ll meet you and Stitch at Mikhael’s in a few hours, okay?”
“Yes dear!” called Stretcher, before he bit down on a plate and carried it to the sink.
At the front door, Salve held the door open for Salmon, and the filly stepped out into the daylight.
The grass was greener than the faded lawns and fields Salmon had walked through, the sun was already shining through a small cloudless patch in the sky, save for two nimbus clouds floating by the right. She tilted her head. The clouds looked lower to the ground, didn’t move along as the clouds higher up did, and looked more... solid, tightly packed, at least to her.
“Those are the clouds the pegasi formed to water the fields,” said Salve, poking Salmon’s side as she walked along.
Salmon shook her head, then followed, eyes wandering the town in the morning. Stallions and mares tended house exteriors and lawns, or applied themselves to garden plots in the backyard. In one garden, an earth pony was bent over a sapling, whispering a lullaby while a nearby unicorn was floating out bulbs and inserting them in garden boxes hanging from a window sill. Pegasi flitted about overhead, wings outstretched and zooming along, often with a set of bags draping off their backs. One house had an earth pony sitting by the side, mouth wrapped around a drill, its tongue pulling the trigger and pushing the screw into some wooden planks as a unicorn floated another screw in place for him.
Gulping, Salmon’s ears wilted as she looked all around, an appreciable gap in the demographic. While there were a fair number of adults, there were only a few foals, and all of those looked to be appreciable younger, their massive heads like balloons compared to the rest of their bodies, the whites of their eyes still rather small. She winced, no ponies her age. She pressed against Salve’s side.
The pegasus mare followed Salmon’s eyes as they kept walking, and nodded. “I know, nobody your age.”
The crowd eventually became a mix of humans and ponies, and Salve turned towards another house with a plank of wood nailed to the door frame, the name ‘Dr. Clearance’ painted onto it with such fine detail it seemed to Salmon to have been typed. Soft yellow curtains lay behind the intact glass windows.
Salve opened the door and ushered Salmon inside. She shut the door behind them and called out. “Dr. Clearance!”
“Coming!” shouted someone from deeper inside the house. Salmon kicked at the linoleum floor, examining her shadow. She looked up as a door on the right opened revealing a brown unicorn stallion in lab coat and a stethoscope dangling from his neck. “Ah! Salve, wonderful to see you... and...”
“Salmon Spring,” said the filly.
“Hello, Salmon Spring, how are you doing today?”
“I’m doing well enough now that I’m here, I guess,” Salmon answered.
“Ah!” Dr. Clearance walked to Salmon’s left and raised a hoof before looking to Salve. “Erm, I have to say, her Ukrainian is impeccable, how old is she?”
“Eight,” said Salmon, a slight huff to her voice. “Isn’t it rude to talk about others like they aren’t there?”
Dr. Clearance brought the raised hoof to his mouth for a moment before pointing it to Salmon. “Right… Salmon, are you a native Equestrian?”
Salmon looked to Salve. The mare nodded, and Salmon looked back to Dr. Clearance, shaking her own head. “No.”
Dr. Clearance’s ears perked up as he turned his head to look at Salve. “What? How? Oh, did she travel somewhere with fewer regulations? Equestria perhaps? Then she came back? Not without precedence, a lot of humans go to other countries to have experimental medical procedures performed when they’re desperate. Huh!” Dr. Clearance flinched away from Salmon even as he looked back to her. “You wanted this right? It wasn’t an accident?” His vision snapped to Salve. “Who found her? I sincerely hope she wasn’t forcefully transformed. I think that would be the first time in the Ukraine...”
“Dr. Clearance!” Salve talked over the stallion, “Please, one session of interrogation is enough within two days. Two foals were coming here with Gleb, but they got caught by the police. Mikhael, my sister, Stretcher and I were able to get the foals out of there. Hadn’t Stitch told you we were expecting arrivals?”
“Oh.” The doctor looked over his shoulder. “Was she going to tell me after one of our teaching sessions? If so, I may have brushed her off a bit too quickly last time for her to get a word in edgewise.”
Salve tittered. “That... I can believe. Anyway...” She stepped to the side and waved her wing before Salmon. “I present to you Lady Salmon Spring of the Dnieper River, sister to Sir Cirrus Stripes.”
Salmon giggled at the dramatic flourish.
Dr. Clearance’s expression remained flat. “You never are going to forgive me for having mistaken your name for that Equestrian noble, will you?”
Salve shook her head. “Nope!”
“Nevertheless.” Dr. Clearance’s ears wilted. “Given that she’s among the catalyzed...” He lifted a hoof towards Salmon. “This certainly complicates matters. But come! In! In! We can discuss it in my office.” He turned around and led Salmon and Salve back through the door he came and into a tightly packed office crammed with a holodesk with a multitude of wires running up to the ceiling, two bookshelves stuffed, one devoted to pony and the other to human physiology, three chairs on one side of the desk, an office chair opposite it, and a plastic tote container filled with glassware.
Dr. Clearance however led them right through the back door into another room, its white linoleum holding up an examination table in one corner and a counter in another. His horn glowed and a switch flipped, causing the examination table’s hydraulic system to lower it. “Go on up on that, Salmon,” he instructed.
Looking to Salve, Salmon raised an eyebrow. When she nodded, Salmon shrugged and did as told, sitting on the bench and looking to the doctor. He set up his stethoscope then pressed the metal disk to her chest. Cold!
Dr. Clearance smiled at Salmon, then pursed his lips. “So, Salmon, you... took potion... willingly?”
She nodded.
“Where did you find it?”
Salmon bit her lip. “Promise not to tell anyone?”
Sighing, Clearance turned to Swift Salve. “Care to leave the room? Patient/doctor confidentiality.”
“N-no.” Salmon reached a hoof to Clearance. “Just promise not to tell anyone.”
“So you’re alright with Salve knowing?” asked Clearance.
“I already do,” said Salve.
“Ah, I see, just want to make sure I don’t go telling anyone else. Well, patient/doctor confidentiality has it that I do not share the details of our discussions or my examination with anyone without your consent, unless if I believe there is a clear threat to the safety of you or someone else that relates to that.” Clearance nodded at Salmon. “In other words: any secrets are safe with me.”
Salmon leaned forward. “My brother took some from a clinic. I was very sick,” she whispered.
Dr. Clearance nodded. “Did you dream immediately afterwards?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Dr. Clearance removed his stethoscope and floated a blood-pressure cuff to Salmon’s foreleg. “Can you tell me what your real name is?”
Salmon frowned. “I want to be called Salmon Spring.”
“Of course, dear, but please, you do know your other name then?”
Pursing her lips, Salmon looked past Dr. Clearance. Her brother wouldn’t want her talking about such things to a stranger. Sometimes she thought he didn’t like talking about such things at all. She glanced over to Swift Salve, who was smiling gently. Salmon trusted her, and she trusted Dr. Clearance. She didn’t like it, but she was willing to oblige.
“Katna Pribula.” She rolled her eyes.
“How old are you, Salmon?”
“Eight.”
Leaning over to the side, Dr. Clearance nodded at Salmon’s blank flank. Her tail curled, covering it.
“And can you tell me any of the specifics of your life before you transformed?” He raised his eyebrows while removing the blood-pressure cuff.
Salmon grimaced, then sighed. “Our parents died, then my brother and I went from orphanage to orphanage until we got out and started heading south. Then I got sick in Kiev and that was it. Can I go now?”
Floating out a popsicle stick towards Salmon’s mouth, Clearance cleared his throat. “Would you care to open your muzzle and say ‘ah’ for me please?”
“Ah!”
Clearance stuck in the popsicle stick and pressed her tongue down. “We’ll be done in just a little more time. Think you can be patient until then?”
“Oochay, huh he kich,” said Salmon, keeping her mouth open.
“Thank you, I’ll be as quick as I will be thorough. Hmm… a bit of plaque build-up, but I think regular brushing and a visit to a cleaner should have you right as rain.” Clearance tossed the popsicle stick into the garbage, then brought out an otoscope and checked her ears with its bright light. “Do you make sure to dry inside your ears thoroughly after bathing?”
“Uh, Cirrus was thorough with that after my bath a month ago,” answered Salmon.
Clearance then shone the light up Salmon’s nose. “What color would you describe your mucus?”
Salmon scrunched up her face. “Ew, why do you want to know?”
“All part of the check up, and it’s clear by the way.” Moving the otoscope to point at her eyes, Clearance smiled. “Mind showing off your pretty eyes and opening them wide?”
Salmon held her eyes open as wide as possible, tearing up as the light shone at them.
“Pupils react to light, no sign of foreign bodies in the eye.” Clearance hanged up his otoscope and then looked to Salmon’s hooves. “Stand please.”
Salmon sighed, but obliged. He then inspected her hooves individually. “No cracking in the hoof walls, no deep punctures in the frog, relatively clean. You do a very good job taking care of your body, don’t you Salmon?”
Blushing, Salmon nodded. “The guides online really helped.”
“One of the more useful things on there if I say so myself,” he nodded. “Have you performed any magic?”
“Yes, I can lift a few things. Nothing too heavy though.”
“Wonderful! Self-taught?”
Salmon nodded. She channeled her magic briefly to tug on the collar of Clearance’s lab coat. “With the help of those guides.”
Floating over a notebook and pen from a desk, Clearance jotted down a few notes. “Well, Salmon, I’m happy to say you’ve suffered no ill consequences from the potion, and have been doing a wonderful job taking care of yourself given the circumstances.” He leaned over, inspecting her sides. “Barring a minor case of malnutrition, but I take it Salve and the others are correcting that?”
“Yes! She made us pancakes this morning!” Salmon looked over to the switch that operated the table she was on. “So is that it?”
Horn glowing, Clearance flipped the switch and sent the examination table ascending. “Yes.”
Salmon hopped off the table and wiggled about before trotting to Salve. “I think that stethoscope needs to be warmer.”
Dr. Clearance laughed. “Me too, me too.” He looked over to Salve. “So, when can I expect to see her brother?”
“We’re going to meet up with my sister at Mikhael’s, after which you can expect to see him.” Salve looked to the clock hanging by one of the bookshelves. “Though we might have lunch first.”
Dr. Clearance nodded, then led them to the examination room’s exit, bringing them back into his office. He took a seat in his office chair, and a hologram flickered to life before him. “Do either of you have any questions?”
Salmon glanced over to Salve and jumped onto one of the chairs. “Am I going to get sick from what I had when I was human?” she asked.
Clearance raised his brows. “What were the symptoms? Or do you know what you were sick with?”
“I had a really bad cough. It was painful to breath, I could barely walk, and before I got potion I was coughing up blood.”
“How long had that been going on?”
“It started getting noticeable by Kiev? So over a few months?”
“Hmm… bit slow for pneumonia. Any rashes?”
Salmon shook her head.
“Not Red Skin, definitely too slow for that anyway. It might have been tuberculosis. But really, without having seen you at the time it’s an educated guess at best, and any number of things these days cause lung troubles. For all we know it could have even been lung cancer.”
Clearance inclined his head. “But, you now have a pony body and we’re so different from any Earthly organism that disease transmission isn’t possible. And if you’re worried about Equestrian diseases, the potion has several vaccine cultures suspended in it which activate the body’s immune system over the following two weeks. That covers some of Equestria’s nastier diseases. Is that all you have for questions?”
Salmon pursed her lips. “I-I think so.”
“Something wrong?” asked Clearance.
“No.” Salmon shook her head and took a deep breath. “I just… like the idea that I’m not going to have to worry about getting that sick again.” She took another breath, shakier this time. “Thank you, Dr. Clearance.”
“You’re most certainly welcome…” Clearance glanced over to Swift Salve. “Lady Salmon Spring of the Dnieper.”
Salmon smiled and giggled.
Staring up into the wide blue sky, Cirrus let his jaw hang loose as fifteen pegasi, Stretcher among them, flew overhead pushing a cloud around the town. Intermittently, another pegasus or two would dart up to it, embrace the mass with their hooves, and with a few flaps, break off a chunk of cloud to carry it over a garden plot. There, they would proceed to stomp on it, prompting a downpour onto the garden or, for a few, into a funnel that led into haphazardly constructed water-towers.
Swift Stretcher took off from the cloud and glided back down to Cirrus. The colt blinked for a few moments, stretching out his wings. He looked at them, then back to the cloud as it moved on, Stretcher's place filled in by a butterscotch pegasus mare.
Cirrus looked to Stretcher and smiled. “So... did it take long to learn?”
Stretcher’s wings fluffed up in a shrug-like gesture. “It was about a month before I was confident flying without others nearby, but...” He reached a hoof to his head and knocked on it for a few seconds. “It came to me like a fish to water. Part of the things a potion does to ease things over.”
Cirrus bent his head back and preened a few feathers, then folded them back up. “Do you think I’ll be able to?”
Stretcher walked around Cirrus, using his hooves to stretch the colt’s wing out again. “How old are you?” he asked, looking up and down Cirrus’s legs.
“Twelve,” answered Cirrus.
“Well, I don’t see you having any troubles except getting the muscles back in shape,” said Stretcher. “So yes, I think you’ll be able to fly, but we’ll check in with Dr. Clearance before we make our first try. He used to work at the transition clinic in Kherson, he’d monitor the transformations.”
“Why’d he leave there?” asked Cirrus, beginning to follow Stretcher down the road after the wing inspection was done.
“Officially, to give him time to have a leave to Equestria for rest and relaxation. Unofficially, to help out here.” Stretcher took a left, leading them towards a building that was constructed purely from logs that looked to be from the forest. Windowless, it appeared more like something had placed a great, brown rough-surfaced brick at the end of the road and carved out a door as an afterthought. “Come on, we’re supposed to meet Salve, Stitch, and your sister at Mikhael’s.” Stretcher broke into a trot, and Cirrus followed suit, stopping at the outside of the house.
A faint mumbling came out through the walls, and Cirrus walked to the door.
“Just wait out here until Salve comes with your sister,” said Stretcher. He opened the door and stepped inside.
Cirrus shrugged, then pressed his ear to the door. This ‘Mikhael’ had played an important part in gaining the freedom of his sister and him. He was honestly curious as to his relation with Gleb, Father Nazar, and potentially the future of his sister and himself.
“Ah, good day, Stretcher.”
“Please, just continue where you were before I got here.”
“Ah… Well, frankly, this is bad, very bad. Gleb is in custody. Drug trafficking, interfering with police business, and as I understand it they’re still looking for an angle to nab him for kidnapping. At least the two kids are safe here with us.” There was a loud thump following the masculine voice’s declaration.
“I know it is bad; do you think we can get him bail?” asked Stitch.
“That’s assuming he’s even allowed... Have we considered letting the foals come out with what happened? Might lessen his sentence, remove the kidnapping charge.”
Cirrus’s eyes widened. He felt his blood chill as it sank to his hooves.
“Briefly, but he’d still be put in jail, unless he gave up his connections where he got the medicine.”
“So, sell the foals and axe our medicine providers, and maybe, maybe get Gleb out after only, what? Three years?” asked Mikhael.
“It seems like that’s one option,” replied Stitch, “but we can’t do that to the foals. If they were separated, I... none of us could stand to live with that.”
Cirrus sighed in relief.
“It’d be a stupid thing to do anyway. Just putting it out there so we know we’re all in disagreement about that.”
“Which leaves how we tell any of the augments in town...”
“Ugh... Exactly, and what I’m going to do myself...”
“Is it possible for the town to start a collection of money for them? Pay for the medicine through the transition clinic’s augment branch?” suggested Stretcher.
“Well... the earth ponies and pegasi pretty much cover food until the four horsemen of the apocalypse arrive. We have the generators for electricity, but they still aren’t providing power to every house. So the money unicorns bring in from working at the factories is almost pure profit for getting supplies from the city... But that cuts into the funds for getting Nova officially recognized on a map again... Recognize the people here.” There was some slow clapping from within the building, and Mikhael continued. “What was that figure Dr. Clearance estimated for how many people have gone pony in the last four years within the country?”
“Fifty thousand,” Salve replied.
“That’s... another forty-five thousand spread across the country. Most of them formerly homeless, unemployed, or destitute after illness. If we worked together, we could get a recognized municipality, organize a town government that the country would have to recognize, and we could start constructing a real infrastructure without the government pulling crap like requiring permits that take months to get approved. Establish businesses to sell what we produce across the country... How is food production coming along? Hold that thought, I’ll calculate... Carry the four... Yeah, about thirty percent of what we grow ends up going to waste because we’re not a recognized agricultural combine so we can’t legally sell, and that number gets bigger the more people we manage to get here!”
There was another thump inside, and Mikhael laughed. “Welcome to the future! The singularity they called it! When scarcity could be dealt a death blow! For the people that managed to get these augments!”
“Mikhael...”
“But, hey, even if we have robots able to manufacture everything, there’s still the matter of who gets what and how much of the everything. Am I right?”
“Mikhael, I can smell that you’re stressed.” Hooves clopped in the interior. “I know you’re scared. We’re here for you; you know you can talk to us,” said Stitch.
Cirrus lifted an eyebrow, sat on the doorstep and shifted his head to the right a little.
“I’m thinking that we might end up really having to do it alone, the town, everything, and just hope nobody up top takes notice,” said Mikhael.
“Well, we can make it as a community, that’s for sure,” said Stretcher.
“Hmmm... I’m just worried that if they don’t leave us alone, and I end up transforming, that I’m not going to find any of them willing to listen.”
“Is that what you’re worried about? Not being able to help if you change?”
“It’s what I do? Isn’t it? I’m a blood-sucking lawyer right now, who’ll sue entire departments into the red at present. But some day someone is going to call the bluff.”
Cirrus clenched his teeth and swivelled his ears to cup the door as he tried to listen as the conversation grew hushed.
“You’re being cynical. You become a pony, we start organizing this place to get back into the world. Build our own generators, make the power lines, build the houses, find jobs, live and thrive. What are they going to do? Say no? Cut the power, tear down the walls, fire us to be replaced by robots? Tell us, ‘No, you’re animals now, you’ve abandoned the life we promised you, go into the forests and hide from us?’ Nothing like that is going to happen. Not to fifty thousand of us. Not when we laugh and love and can take care of ourselves if they just clear out of the way, right?”
Gulping, Cirrus waited for the pause to be broken. Instead, it became pregnant in the intervening seconds.
“You’re right,” said Mikhael, joined with the sound of a chair squeaking. “It’s like Father Nazar said, I’ve got to keep faith that society will know when not to act as much as when to act. When’s the next trip into town scheduled?”
“Richard and Marsh Marcher will be pulling that old school bus to town tomorrow morning,” answered Salve.
“Richard, how long has he been an earth pony?” asked Mikhael.
“Two... and a half years,” replied Salve. “Why?”
“I’m going to have to talk with him about arranging to take me to the clinic over the next two weeks,” said Mikael. A short laugh, practically a bark, bit the air a moment later. “Welcome to the singularity! Where nobody can predict the future! I never imagined it would mean going four-legs instead of machine-man!” There was another thump, presumably Mikhael taking a seat. “Stitch, your sister Salve’s coming over with the filly soon, right?”
Cirrus caught the sound of his sister giggling in the distance, and he scuttled back from the door and sat beside the path leading to the door.
As Salmon and Salve approached, the pink pegasus mare tilted her head and tutted. “Had your fill of listening in on other's conversations?”
Cirrus looked away from Salve, only to see Salmon’s own brow curled up in disappointment. “Cirrus…”
“Uhm... yeah...” stammered Cirrus. Eugh, that felt nasty, that face she gave, I don’t want to see it again. “Uhm... Salve, promise me you’ll never keep anything from me that deals with our being here?”
Salve nodded. “That’s why I’m not angrier with you,” she sighed. “Next time, just ask.”
Cirrus inclined his head, then looked over to the house as the door opened letting Stitch, Stretcher and Mikhael walk out. Mikhael’s augmented arm still glinted despite the overcast sky. He looked over to Cirrus and nodded, smiling, then turned to walk around his house, and out of sight.
Stitch walked up, pursing her lips. She looked up at Cirrus, smiled weakly, then lay her neck across his in a hug. “Gleb’s in prison... We’re... we’re going to be taking care of you and Salmon.”
Cirrus bit his lip. “Stitch,” he said, prompting the mare to look back at him. “I...” Cirrus breathed out his nose and shut his eyes for a moment. “I listened in on your conversation with Mikhael.” He opened his eyes, looking to his sister. “Do you think that if Salmon and I came forward, it would help?”
Salve stopped and backstepped to Cirrus’ side, embracing him with her wing. “I don’t know, but even then, he was trafficking drugs.”
“Medicine!” protested Salmon, shaking her head. “It was medicine, and it was to help people!” She frowned.
Salve sighed. “You’re right, it was medicine, and it was going to be used to help people. But he got it the...” Salve flexed her jaw as though she had just bitten into a piece of dirt. “... wrong way.” She bit her lip and rolled her eyes. “Ugh!” she grunted, sending out a bit of saliva into the air. “This shouldn’t happen!” she exclaimed. Turning around, she tossed her head and huffed. “Come on, let’s get some lunch, then a checkup with Dr. Clearance for Cirrus.”
Lowering his head to the plate before him, Cirrus nibbled on the hay cake in front of him, then looked around the dining room of the Swift’s home once more.
His examination with Dr. Clearance, while uncomfortable for all the questions, most of which he let Salmon answer along with a nod of confirmation, had given him a clean bill of health, leaving only the question of what he and Salmon would do. He ran the checklist through his head, a myriad of options that distracted from the flavorful meal he partook.
The first option, to keep moving south, was immediately undesirable. Nova was a place to live, not just survive. Stitch and Dr. Clearance could teach Katna magic, and Stretcher and Salve could help him fly. There was food, shelter and, as Cirrus watched Swift Stitch and Salve dote upon Salmon by sharing some of their vegetables into the bottomless hole of the filly’s stomach, he realized there was love as well.
After that, there was the choice to stay, which opened a slough of options regarding Gleb, the Swifts, and the government.
With Gleb, if they went to the police, and told them straight-up that they had been human children, that Cirrus had gone into that clinic, stolen potion and used it unlawfully on both of them, Cirrus and Salmon stood to lose each other, and the Swifts. The food stuck in his throat as Cirrus thought of that word, unlawfully. He wondered what it would be like, walking up to the stand and saying that he had done something illegal so that he and his sister might live with some dignity.
Cirrus coughed, his hoof coming up to his mouth. He shook his head when Stretcher reached out to him with a wing. He lapped up some water from a bowl, then sighed.
He wasn’t a human, he was a pony, and would never be otherwise, but the struggle to be more than an animal was still present. Cirrus blinked, staring forward for a few moments in thought. He shrugged and continued eating, the sweetness failing however to register, and he winced at the thought of leaving Gleb to false accusations for his sake. For Salmon however... he couldn’t ruin her life for that.
“Salve, do you have any idea when Gleb is going to have his bail hearing?” asked Cirrus.
The pegasus mare looked away from Salmon and swallowed. “I’m not absolutely certain,” she said, “but I imagine it would be within a month... Why?”
“Uhh...” Cirrus licked at this inside of his mouth, so dry. “Well... Salmon?”
Salmon looked up from her meal.
“I... don’t want to leave Gleb... but that might mean we get separated...” said Cirrus.
Salmon looked down at her plate. “I know.” Licking her lips, she looked back up at Cirrus. “I can’t decide whether or not to...”
“Help him,” finished Cirrus. His ears wilted, and he rested his jaw on the table. He looked over at Stretcher. “What should we do?”
Stretcher flinched. “Stay with your sister, of course!” He looked around the table to Stitch, Salve, and Salmon. “We have to face facts. He isn’t going to be released just because these two came forward, and even if he was, I don’t think Gleb would stand knowing he was the reason these two got separated. And for what? Becoming ponies younger than they should?” He brought his front hooves onto the table and shook his head. “We... should probably try to do something though, even if it’s just to help him feel better.”
Salmon’s ears perked up. “Could we write to him to let him know we’re alright!?” she asked, a smile forming on her face.
“That’s a great idea,” said Swift Stitch. “He is probably worried sick.”
“Mikhael can give it to him tomorrow when he goes into town,” added Salve. “Make it anonymously though. No names in the letter.”
Cirrus gulped. Mikhael, augmented, and in need of the drug that kept his body from rejecting the foreign element of his enhancements, which Gleb had been delivering. Cirrus glanced over to a corner of the room, his brows arched downward. “Mikhael and the others who needed medicine, what’s going to happen to them?”
“Well,” said Stitch. “We could try buying them medicine, or paying for the augmentation control-chip removal, though a few of them would be left crippled without that. They also could try finding some other way to get the medicine...” Stitch shuddered. “If that doesn’t work, some of them might try just toughing it out until... nevermind. And then there’s what Mikhael plans: going pony. It restores all the body parts without running the risk of the dozens of complications from a healing spell.” Stitch crossed her eyes and looked at her horn. She shook her head. “You know, sometimes I really wish you played nice with regenerating human tissue.” Returning her gaze to the others, she shrugged. “Ahem, regardless, things will work out in some way, and I’ll be helping where I can.”
Cirrus nodded. “And what about us? Do we try to make you our official parents?”
Salve coughed. “Well... the police all saw you and Salmon. I’m worried that if we try anything right now, somebody might put two and two together. So... for now, we wait. You live with us, and we take care of one another.” She leaned over and nuzzled Salmon. “Does that sound alright with you, sweetie?”
“Mhmm!” Salmon floated some steamed broccoli to her mouth and chomped on it.
Smiling to Cirrus, Salve continued. “So, this afternoon Stretcher and I are going to be patrolling, making sure nobody gets injured while working, which leaves you two to the house with yourselves and Stitch, though she’ll likely be doing some filing over at Dr. Clearance’s.” Stitch nodded to this, and Salve continued. “So... make yourselves at home, and tomorrow we’ll have off, which means we can start teaching you some more things about being ponies!” she said, grinning to expose her teeth.
Swallowing the last of his meal, Cirrus cleared his throat. “That sounds good.”
Salmon looked down to her plate, blinking a few times. It was all coming together, and she began feeling like she just... belonged. “Thank you,” she said.