Civil scraped some of the white stuff off his stomach with his hoof and sniffed it. To everyone's horror, mostly his mother's, he stuck out his tongue to tentatively taste it.

"Jason Civil Patrol Berringer, for the love of all that is Holy, tell me that's butter!"

His ears laid back under his mother's outburst, but he sighed in relief and nodded, muttering, "It's butter, mom."

"Oh thank God for small favors," Karen breathed. She stepped forward and knelt to gather up the sheets, carefully undoing the twisted fabric from about his hind legs. That's when she noticed typical male morning...arousal, most likely from whatever active dream he was having just now, she surmised silently.

Karen averted her eyes and continued to extract the sheets from his limbs, though her eyebrows were raised slightly. Still being somewhat new to pony anatomy, she was mildly impressed. In the past when she was near him, he was never...this way, so seeing that was quite new to her, if weird since this was also her son. She muttered to herself, "At least we know...some of it still works."

Granted he was the only one that heard, but he still gasped in shock, "What the Tartarus is that supposed to mean?!" while turning his lower half away from her.

She leveled a troubled gaze at him, "Well, dear, your father and I were hoping for grandkids, and what with you changing, and your sister not getting married anytime soon-"

"I heard that!"

"-I just assumed," she shrugged and waved her hand around at him, as if that was supposed to explain everything.

No, it didn't. So many tartaruses and hells no.

As he was nowhere near any state of mind to continue this particular conversation, she nodded at its conclusion. Before she stood up, though, his mother looked him square in the eye and said sternly, "After you go clean yourself up, you and I are having a little chat about when, and where...and HOW...to use the...the..." She paused, glancing down at his lower half. "Well, how to use the butter properly. I don't care what planet you are from, we are guests at my brother's house and we just don't do 'that' here...whatever 'that' is." Pursing her lips thinly, she shook her head and stood, making her way to the garage.

Turning back to the other members of his family, most of them had wandered away, dismissing it as more weird pony antics. Four stayed behind; Renee, Vanessa, Danny (named after Civil's human father) and Angela. Three of them were giving him looks based on their age, from the youngest in abject fascination, to abject gross on Danny's face ('I mean, come on, Civil, I've had food fights before, but seriously???'), to a mixture of shock, confusion, and strangely enough, sadness on Vanessa's face. One face showed no surprise at all.

Renee.

Hers was the typical aloof contemplation he frequently saw when she was at the center of the hurricane and enjoying the moment.

"You." He wasn't accusing. He just wanted answers, plain and simple. "You made me think that I...for fuck's sakes, WHY, Renee!?!"

She cleared her throat, "Civil, there are children present." Lessons in civility from her? Right. She glanced at the three juveniles. Then, she recited a wikipedia definition, "Shock value is the potential of an image, text, action, or other form of communication, such as a public execution, to provoke a reaction of sharp disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotions." Literally out of wikipedia. Literally using the word 'literally' correctly, too.

Then she blinked and smiled, "We studied this in Psyche 101, even did experiments. But to the purpose, it was to help free you. Psychologically speaking, a shocking event, when shown it is fictional, is supposed to jar your state of consciousness, in that it should put into perspective that you shouldn't let things control you. Your cutie mark, or lack thereof, should not hamper you in what you choose to do."

"Civil, about your mark-" Vanessa began but he held up a hoof, staring at Renee.

"Psychologically speaking..?" he asked quietly.

She noddled her head at him.

Vanessa stepped in between Renee and the now wing-flared pegasus. She pleaded, "Calm down, it's not what you think. Mostly. Aside from the butter-"

Ever so gently, he slowly brushed past his cousin, dragging a wing over her arm to let her know she was not his target.

"Psychologically speaking, I'm going to kick your ass, woman!!!"

With that, he dug in his hooves and charged, trying to close distance with his sister. She was quicker and more agile than he thought, which found him sliding past the table in the kitchen and consequently past the hallway where Renee had turned the corner. She made her way to the staircase at the front of the house and vaulted up the steps. Scrambling onto his hooves again, he made it back to the hallway and turned the corner, Vanessa trailing behind him and screaming for him to stop and listen. The two younger cousins were chasing along behind her, laughing about the merry time they were now having.

Joey continued whipping a fresh batch of butter, never looking up despite the commotion. "Damn kids."

Daniel resumed chewing his toast, tilting his head to hear the commotion without looking like he was having too much fun.

A door slamming at the top of the stairs told Civil she had barricaded herself in Vanessa's room. While galloping up the stairs, he felt a tugging sensation on his flank, so he took a moment on the top landing to inspect his side. It was the cutie-mark...or would have been, had he not noticed the edge starting to peel up. Gingerly touching it with his wingtip, he found it was one of Vanessa's nicely made felt surfaced stickers, made just like the art piece on the wall. Angrily he tried to rip it off, but only succeeded in tearing it in half down the middle. This prank was getting crueler by the minute. That's when he turned and loaded up both hind legs to break through.

"Are you about to mule kick my door?!" Yelled Vanessa as soon as she could see past the top steps. The two younger children bowled into her legs from behind, but she ignored them.

"This is a family matter, Vanesse, stay out of it!" The momentary pause did drain half of the rage out of him, which also meant he started rethinking smashing through a door which really belonged to his aunt and uncle, two people he didn't want to upset. He lowered his legs and glared up at her. "Look, what she did was horrible and-"

Vanessa noticed the sticker piece stuck to his wing. "You tore it. You tore Hello Kitty," she whispered quietly. Considering all the yelling that was just done, that whisper was deafening. "I gave that to you...as a gift...." He looked at his wing. Still stuck to the blackened tip, was the piece with the waving paw. The signed waving paw.

There went the other half of his rage.

Slumping back on his haunches in shock, he asked belatedly, "What? You did this?" He glanced at his backside, just to make sure he wasn't in some deranged dream. "Why would you do that?"

"We agreed I could help you. I came up with the sticker thing while you were asleep. I thought it was like training wheels, you know? So you wouldn't have to think about it so much. And..." She slowly stepped over to him and gently peeled off what was left on his flank, tears forming in her eyes. "And since you can project whatever feelings you want onto her, she would always be with you, or something."

Despite feeling absolutely horrible about the sticker itself, he was still steaming from 'other' things. He blinked, catching something Vanessa had said. "Wait a sec, you are making it sound like I'm lonely. Where would you get that?"

Her lower lip quivered and her eyes briefly flicked at the door.

"My sister?" He asked darkly. He slowly turned back to the door, facing it. "And the butter?"

Dead silence for a full minute.

"Renee! I am not talking to you for, for fucking forever!!!"

"I was only trying to help!" Was the muffled response from inside the room.

He growled back, "Tell me that there was ZERO vindictiveness in that fucking butter idea. Go on, say it!"

"....when you say zero, is that like thoughts, or percentage-?"

"You fucking bitch!" He turned around to stomp down the stairs but found the sticker half that Vanessa had been holding a few steps lower. She must have quietly left during the silence.

When he got downstairs, most of his family members avoided looking at him. Joey gave him a small smile, asked if he was okay. Civil nodded but said nothing. He wasn't in the mood to talk to 'anyone'. The whole subject of being lonely made him pointedly avoid thinking of the 'anypony' concept since, it was now obvious to him, he was the only pony around.

So why should there be an 'anypony'?

To make matters worse (because they always got worse) his mother opened the garage door from outside, saw him in the kitchen, and silently motioned for him to step into the garage so they could have their chat.

Once he closed the door behind him and made his way down the few steps to the garage floor, he mused that being near the washing machine and dryer masked any conversation that wasn't above shouting levels. Whatever was to be said, it would be private. Eyeing him for a few seconds, she finally asked, "I take it that rat race you just pulled with your sister has something to do with your...dairy adventures?"

Glaring to the side, he muttered, "She put that stuff on me sometime during the night. I didn't...you know." He felt his cheeks warming. Granted he always felt he could talk to her about anything. Yet he was starting to discover things that were too private these days.

She made a tsking sound with her tongue, shaking her head. "That girl." Frowning at the the torn sticker on his flank, she asked. "And she did that?"

He shook his head. "No, actually that was Vanessa. Trying to help." His mother closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Human or not, they are all your family in there. With strangers and acquaintances, you can put out of your mind and move on when you feel like it suits you. Family is forever. ALL family," she added sternly when he started to shake his head. "Remember that, Civil. We will ALWAYS be there for you." She knelt down and kissed his forehead. She also reached around and took off the remainder of the sticker. "Want me to throw this away?"

In alarm, he grabbed the sticker out of her hand with his teeth, this time to be a hell of a lot more careful. Transferring it to his wing next to the other half, he shook his head. "No. She gave it to me. Maybe I can fix it and give it back to her later." Karen shrugged and stood up to check on the clothes.

"We'll be leaving soon to head down to the condo, once these clothes are done. Might want to make amends with your cousin and gather up your leather bags. Thank your aunt and uncle for letting us stay the night, too." She knew they had a whole trip for her two children to work things out, but tempers were too raw right now to push it, so she didn't mention Renee anymore. Her nose wrinkled slightly. "And do take a shower first."

Turning away, he mumbled, "They're saddlebags, mom." She gave him 'the look', the kind mothers do when responses are not needed and could result in dire consequences. He plodded his way up the short steps and back into the house.

***

The drive down to Ocean City was a very quiet one, near stifling. Vanessa did forgive him. In fact, she apologized for making him upset. She had intended to wait until he was awake and then let him know about the sticker, a sort of covering up the stigma of not having his mark yet. The resultant snowball of events was NOT intended, nor did she know about the social taboo of wearing fake marks to cover up one's true nature or falsely proclaim one's ascension into maturity, as opposed to properly coming of age. Her real regret was not getting out of her kitchen chair fast enough before Civil crashed to the floor.

His aunt and uncle were understanding. Frankly, he figured they were relieved their rampaging pony of a nephew didn't cause massive damage to their home, given what rumors they heard about pony leg strength, from random tidbits in the news, the internet, and their daughter. Most of the raw feelings between family members had been dealt with when they piled into the car and began their trek. Mostly.

Brother and sister were not talking to each other. Parents were not spared either. Whenever they tried to address the issue or lighten the mood, responses from their children were gruff, if any response came, so they gave up. Karen decided it would be best if Civil rode up front with his father and she sat in the back with Renee. His sister was dreading the inevitable conversation her mother was likely to pounce on her with in those first two hours, but to her surprise, it never came.

That didn't bode all that well, either. Which meant her mother had disapproved of her actions even more than normal and was merely steeping her opinion until it was good and ready to unleash. In the meantime, it should have made Renee feel good that she didn't have to deal with it just yet. Except, it made Renee feel worse. She grudgingly accepted that mother's guilt was a devastating weapon, and if she ever had kids, she was sure to wield it on them in all its glory.

Halfway during the four hour trip, the family made a pit stop at one of the larger gas stations. Renee was determined to do something. She never liked heavy clouds to sit over situations like this when she could be spending that time chatting and being happy, remarking on the scenery. You know, awesome vacation shit! The row between her and her brother had put a real damper on things this morning, so she set about making amends with him.

Still keeping an eye on him as they all made their way inside the large store, Renee noted that other customers were giving him odd looks as he clip-clopped to the restrooms. He had elected to go barehoof today, for some pony reason or another she couldn't quite fathom. He barely took notice of the noise he was making, meaning he was in a confrontational mood, she mused.

Regardless of his footwear preferences, she was not about to follow him into the men's restroom. He was on his own in that department. But something did catch her eye. Wandering over to the shelves of souvenirs and trinkets, one item stood out in arrogant glory. Grabbing it, making her purchase at the register and wrapping the small paper bag around it so she could stuff it in her pocket, it was a peculiarly jovial sister that greeted the returning pegasus when he pushed his way through the front swinging doors to the parking lot.

Glancing once at her, he snorted with a flick of his ear, continuing on to the car, a happy Renee in tow.

Civil could feel her about to burst with whatever was on her mind, with the fidgeting she was doing. How she went from evil bitch mode to happy go lucky in the time it took for him to empty his bladder was more scary to him than...yeah, he was not feeling the good times right now.

They pulled back out onto the highway and it was a solid ten minutes before the dam finally broke.

"Civil?" Great, here it comes, more bullshit from his now officially aggravating bitch of a- "I got you this. I hope you like it. Reminds me of you." A small package dropped down into his lap from her hand hovering just over his shoulder.

He folded his forelegs across his chest, staring down at it.

"Are you going to open it?"

He waited two full minutes in that position before unfolding his legs and opened the package. He initially fumbled at the small box and taped edges until Renee reached forward to help, but he pushed her hands away and resorted to using his wingtips to pry at the edges. The tape gave way, which allowed him to tear off the cardboard flaps and pull out the item inside.

It was a Marvel Deadpool mini Domez figure, essentially a superdeformed figurine of Deadpool inside a plastic dome. He had one leg hitched up like he was leaning back on something, arms crossed in front of him. Just like Civil, earlier. He snorted to himself and shook his head. Pulling out his phone to play on it, he muttered, "Thanks. I think."

Renee frowned, obviously expecting more than a glance and a thankyou. She looked at her mother, who shook her head at her, "Don't look at me, this is your mess." His sister stared out the window, and got very bored very quickly. She noticed her brother was tapping on his phone with a hoof. A lot.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm playing a game about evolution," he responded quietly, concentrating on his phone. "Starts at the cellular level and then you progressively go up an evolutionary tree to the later complex lifeforms."

"Mkay....what's with all the tapping?" She leaned forward to peer at his phone. The game didn't even look like a game. More like a tedious way to waste time, to her.

"If you tap the screen, you get extra entropy points."

" ...."

He sighed, rolling his eyes at her, "You use points to buy the evolutionary nodes to further develop the Earth."

"Hmm." She watched him play for a few minutes. "Can I see it?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, but couldn't see anything wrong with the request. Maybe now was the time to mend some bridges. "Sure..." He handed over the phone.

She started tapping one finger. "Hm." She tapped two fingers at the same time. And got twice as much entropy.

His jaw slowly dropped open. Why didn't he think of that? Looking down at his fingerless hoof, he answered his own question. Right.

Renee looked up and gave him an evil look. She started tapping five fingers at once rapidly, making five times the entropy points.

Slowly he reached over, pressed the velcro grip to the back of the phone and yanked it out of her hand. After turning it off, he dropped the device in his lap. Then he looked out the window and said sullenly, "....I hate you."

"Hey, what did I do?! I was having fun!"

"I would think," her mother interjected, "after that stunt you pulled at Joey's, you would be more sympathetic to his feelings."

She turned to her, exclaiming, "I am! I'm trying to toughen him up a little. Liberate him from his angst. He let's things get to him."

Karen replied in a lowered voice, "He's been through a lot. You ask too much of him too soon. You were never patient." She tsked to herself and found something innocuously not important to look at outside the car. "The very least you could do is help him find a job, something he is good at and can do well."

"I don't need help finding a job," he retorted, still staring outside.

"Mom...he's good at getting mad."

"...."

"Alright already, enough with the look," Renee said, holding up her hand, "I can feel it from here."

Several more minutes passed in blessed quiet. Minutes that ended much too soon.

"Mom, did you know you are a meme?" she asked her sweetly.

"I'm a what?"

"You do know what a meme is, right?"

"Yes. It's one of those things...that...okay I don't know what that is." Karen wasn't going to let her daughter fluster her. Still a few hours away from the destination.

"It's like when someone says 'Use The Force', everybody knows that's a Star Wars reference."

Karen's eyes narrowed. What was she playing at? "I know movie references. How am I a reference?"

"Well..."

Civil twisted around, "Really, Renee? You are going there?"

"Oh hush, enjoy your Deadpool, we're having mother-daughter time right now."

Civil gave his mother a plaintive look and then turned to face forward again. Karen hm'd to herself. She knew her children long enough to know Renee was trying to get a rise out of her, but she played along, mostly out of curiosity. And the fact that her daughter didn't usually have interesting discussions with her.

"I'll bite. How am I a movie...thing?"

"Meme."

"Yes, that."

Renee used her phone to pull up a wiki entry on the term 'Karen' and showed her mother.

As Karen read, her face darkened. "I'm not antagonistic." She kept reading. "You think I'm antagonistic?" while looking up at her.

"Well, sometimes-"

"And my hair is neither blonde NOR bobcut. And I've NEVER asked to see the manager or the chef," Karen declared. She chuckled once. "Your father does that," she said primly, a thin smile on her face. Now she wasn't happy with Renee's insinuation.

Daniel grinned while driving, "Remember France?"

Karen shuddered. "Yes...always. Children, just because I have the same name doesn't mean I am this Karen meme thing."

"It's a rank you earn, mom, not a person-" Renee tried to get in.

"Whatever. I was given that name long before this silliness came out," she said, handing the phone back to her precocious daughter, "and when it goes the way of bellbottoms, I hope to still be around. Any other attempts to get under my skin, dear?" She smiled at Renee, teeth on full display.

"...no mom." Renee finally got the hint.

"Good. Let's have some quiet time, now that 'mother-daughter' time is officially over."

More silence.

Then, "Hey, daddy-?"

"Sorry, honey bunny, busy driving!"

Civil snorted to himself as he watched a bead of sweat roll down his father's forehead.

***

Put simply, it was the rise and fall of white noise, so much water rolling up into itself and crashing upon the sand, millions of foamy bubbles popping in an aftermath of sizzling exuberance. Civil sometimes lamented his logical side's less appreciative analysis of something that was otherwise, calming.

The smell of brine in the air brought in by the breeze through the sliding glass doors, the sound of waves, not big ones mind you, but small and occasionally medium ones rolling in and dispensing themselves on the beach. The birds crying out every now and then. These sounds sang to him. These were of home.

In a certain poetic amusement, he had grown up in Mareland, a substate up north in Equestria, east of Baltimare. There was no Ocean City, unlike the mirrored location he and his family were at now. Growing up as a pony, he remembered there were no outlying cities or townships. Just a small coastal village and a lighthouse he called home.

Well, until that fateful night he eavesdropped on his father and became enraged over what he had overheard. Too young, he had struck out on his own, heading to Canterlot, and thus ensued his troubled career of one short job to the next, until he finally lucked out at a local pub. One quick selfless yet painful fight for a mare's honor, he was noticed and hired by the Royal Guard.

He wrinkled his nose in remembrance. This was not the place for dark memories. This was home. Okay, home away from home...homes. He sighed and forced himself to relax, letting his wings fall to either side of him as he lay on the couch in the living room. The condo was family owned, a nice two bed two bathroom residence on the third floor in a four floor building.

Their residence overlooked the ocean. From its position right up on the beach they could see up and down the line of neighboring condos and some hotels in the distance to either side. He hadn't been here in years, and this was exactly what he needed. The evening prior they had pulled into the underground garage with a fair bit of afternoon sun left, but everyone was already edgy with each other so it was a slow evening of television, online surfing and minimal dinner conversation. This morning he had woken up to these reminders of home maybe an hour ago, and he was intent on enjoying them.

A throat cleared. "Um, hey......! Brother! I have, sort of, a request. More like an arrangement. If you can do this for me, I'll do anything for you. For the rest of the trip, even!"

The chipper voice (she was ever UN-chipper?) cut through his mind and dashed away all memories of his former home. Twisting his spine a little to work out a kink that was starting to bother him all of a sudden, he muttered, "Uh huh. Later, Renee."

Slightly peeking through one eye, he caught her standing next to him crossing her arms defensively. "Spbpt, don't be like that, you haven't even heard me out." He snorted and rolled away from her, one wing covering his head.

"Oh come on! Hear me out!" He lowered his wing, just enough to uncover his ear. "Fine, be that way. I guess you don't want to visit the Mariner's Deck anytime soon." Both his ears strained in her direction now. She grinned.

"Okay, what do you want?" His voice was muffled against the pillow.

She clapped her hands like she was playing patty cake and sat down heavily on what couch was left unoccupied by him. "Glad you asked! I was out shopping this morning...and I may have gone by a certain store you like. The Kite Loft!" She had to be beaming as she imparted this news on her. Slowly he pulled his muzzle out of the pillow and regarded her solemnly. He must have looked dour because her 'beaming' dampened like a setting sun. Despite that, though, she sat down in the couch near him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You do realize I can fly now...kites, they don't do it for me anymore."

A single hand reached over and started playing with his fetlocks on one hind leg. "Yeah, I know that, nutball. It doesn't mean I can't do it now."

Well that was confusing, evidenced on Civil's face. She giggled at his reaction. Something wasn't quite right. "Hang up a sec," he groused. Sitting up against the far end of the couch and pulling his leg away from her, he eyed her suspiciously. "You've NEVER wanted to fly kites. Why the sudden interest?"

"No sudden interest at all!" She said that WAY too quickly, Civil mulled to himself. She continued her obvious dissembling. "You always looked like you were having fun flying those acrobatic kites around-"

"Stunt kites."

"-acrobatic 'stunt' kites, and I figured, you know, I would give it a try, and since you are our resident kite person, thought you could help." Beaming smile, again.

His dour stare lightened a little. He knew his interests had changed over the years. Who was he to knock hers. Here she was asking for help in something he did love at one point, though it now paled in comparison to his own wings. "Okay, I can help. Let's see what you got."

She made a keening squeal that had his ears ringing long after she returned from the bedroom pulling a plastic wagon loaded with newly purchased items.

"I am sooo glad you want to help, oh, this is gonna be so cool!"

He waved his hooves to calm her down. "Okay okay, yeah, your first stunt kite." He sat up more and stared at the wagon. "Huh, I suppose that is useful, never needed one myself."

Grinning at him, Renee pulled out a plastic bag from the wagon and dumped the contents on the floor. They consisted of two heavyweight nylon rope handles, the kind you would use for control lines to a large kite with a heavy pull, like stunt foils. There were red and blue spools of Spectra line at 300 pound test strength, a small Bluetooth headset normally used by telemarketers. Odd. And a pair of black leather fleece-lined BDSM cuffs with silver buckles. He looked up at her and raised a brow.

"Oooookay. Where's the kite?"

She stared at him, smiling.

Blinking away the most insane thought that threatened to molest his mind, he tentatively reached over to the wagon with a wingtip and pulled it closer. Looking inside, he saw a blanket. He lifted the blanket. Nothing. He gave a nervous snort and pulled back into the couch.

"Renee...where is the kite? And don't you dare so much as suggest-"

"PLEASE!?!?! I promise I'll do anything you want! You don't know how long I've wanted my very own flying pony! And now my brother is one this is too much an opportunitytopassup pleasepleasepleaseplease!!!" She had on her desperation/pleading skillset at the moment, complete with sparkling eyes he swore went anime style as he looked to his mother. She was in the kitchen, staring at them.

"Mom!?! Tell her she's insane!!!"

She jumped slightly. "Oh, uh...you know me," she chuckled nervously, going back to drying off the morning's breakfast plates, "I don't know anything about kites." Glancing quickly to the dining table, she asked, "Daniel? Any...words of wisdom, for this...situation?"

He looked up from his phone where he was reading the news. "I figure as long as they use a safe word, they're good to go-" He paused when a dishrag hit him in the head. After that, neither parent was giving any advice to the trapped pegasus.

***

The elevator only had to go down two floors, they were living on the third floor for crying out loud.

"Actually, we have to go to the garage level, so I can haul you up the ramp. The steps and all at the ground floor won't allow safe travel for the wagon, remember?" Renee asked.

Civil grumbled. He'd spoken his thoughts out loud. It was all he could do to keep his balance in the wagon when the doors finally opened and his sister pulled him along. Normally this might be fun, getting a free wagon ride, except there was a thick heavy blanket covering him, which meant every bump and twist left him a half second behind and lurching around to stay in. Not that she wasn't struggling either. He was a good one hundred thirty pounds and change, roughly. And the wagon was a bit top-heavy, so he was positioned, bracing all four hooves outward against the wagon walls in a semi-seated position.

He could feel the grinding of the pavement shift to sand, which caused Renee to struggle more. He smiled. Good, make her work for this. All too soon the struggling stopped and she announced, "Finally! Let's see, wind is that way, so I should pull you that way...." She made a big deal of stuff that was second nature to him even as a human. He merely lowered his body and head, dreading the next invevitable moments. Which also came all too quickly for his taste.

The front end of the blanket lifted up and Renee stuck her head underneath, grinning. "Ready to fly, flyboy!?"

Civil raised his hoof and adjusted the headset he was wearing, making sure the mic was near the corner of his mouth. "Sure, whatever. Let's just hurry it up and never speak of it again."

She laughed and started working on his lowered leg, "Oh yeah yeah, you whine too much. Let's put these on first." She slipped a leather cuff around his ankle, secured the strap through the buckle, then eyed his other leg expectantly. He sighed and put it down, whereupon she placed the other cuff. "Good!...oh yeah. These." She reached outside the wagon and dragged up two control lines with clips on the end. Renee attached one to each cuff and made sure they were locked. "There you are! Okay, might want to take that stance you insisted on, because this is the big reveal."

He stared daggers at her, but complied. Bribery with a week's worth of happy hour all-you-can-eat Old Bay steamed shrimp and beers at his favorite restaurant was a dirty move, but a convincing one. Anything short of that, he would have said some choice words to her and rolled over, sister or not.

Renee backed up a few feet, holding onto the edge of the blanket. When Civil situated himself, fully up on all fours locked straight in parade attention, she whipped off the blanket. Sun blinded his eyes and he did everything he could not to squint and shield his face. Several beach goers had stopped to admire whatever project this young woman seemed to be working on. Occasionally there was the famous sand castle maker or some weird beach walking device powered by wind, so you were always guaranteed an audience if you were doing something different. When they saw what must have been some kind of pony pinata, they oohed and awed, waiting to see what would happen next. Renee made a big deal of walking up to the front of the wagon, leaning low and reaching out to his chest with a finger.

"Get ready with the wings, I'm going to crank them up now," she whispered up to him.

He whispered back, "You're the crank. Be careful where you stick that finger, sis. Ponies can buck forward as well as behind them." All the while he didn't move.

She grinned and looked at you-

"Hey! No fourth wall breaks!"

She stared at him in dismay under the blanket, "Seriously!?! You're going to shut down a fourth wall break before I even attempt it? That's just mean."

"It's not personal," he grumbled. "Just, fourth wall breaks don't work out well while pegasi are flying, or any kind of breaks."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh you. I have no idea what you are talking about. Have you even tried it yet? It'll be exciting, like the first time you tried flying."

He couldn't believe he was even having this kind of conversation with her, doing this stupid stunt for her in the first place, but that didn't stop him from thinking back to his first time flying. He had been so eager to learn, he jumped out of the top window of their lighthouse home before his dam and sire were ready to go with him. They weren't even in the same room at the time. He flapped his wings thinking that was all you needed to do. It wasn't. But his mother was there, swooping in to hold him around his small barrel and pull both of them up just shy of hitting the rocks below.

Then instead of dragging him back up to scold him, they flew low over the crashing waves, the rocks, the beach, the shoreline, the ocean. All the while he yelled and laughed, seaspray spritzing them as the sights whizzed by in furiously quick glory. Never once did he look up, so confident that he would fly, and this was as good a means of flight, if not better, than any he ever did or ever would experience.

Had he looked up, he would have seen the pain that crossed her face, the wincing and strain that telegraphed that this effort was taking a lot out of her, what it was costing her, but he was young and only looked ahead, never where he was, or what he was doing.

And she would never let him know what it was doing to her, only that the joy of seeing her son happy and full of energy, that was enough. That was everything, to her. Looking back now, knowing what he knew....

"It was...tragic, actually. Because now that I think on it-"

"Exactly! Nothing you haven't experienced before." Renee beamed back at him. He lowered his eyelids.

"That's not what I meant," he muttered, but didn't argue further. He'd already agreed to this, and there was shrimp on the line. "Damn shrimp," he added quietly.

She raised a brow and snorted, then poked the fluff on his chest. Once. Civil sighed inward and started humming loudly, slowly extending his wings outward into a pseudo flight style. The wagon shifted as though there was less weight pushing it down into the sand. In fact, that's exactly what was happening, he thought. Civil hadn't really thought about it until now, but the magic imbued in his wings alone was starting to make him rise. Not enough to gain actual flight, but just enough that if a huge gust of wind came through, he'd flip over. It would hurt, too, since he was required to keep his body frozen as though he were an inanimate object. The crowd was slowly growing.

Civil could see light reflecting off the buckles of his leather cuffs from the sun and fought very hard not to turn pink in front of everyone. The idea was to act like a fake pony that his sister would fly. Shrimp were on the line here!

He whispered harshly, "Renee, hurry up! I can't hold my wings out very long or I'll have to take flight on my own!" She must have noticed as well and nodded, running backwards while trailing the control lines wide to either side so as not to tangle them. Once all the slack was out, she tapped her mic.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

His was locked to two-way mode. "Yes, hurry!"

Taking several deliberate steps back, she slowly hauled on the lines so as not to spill him forward out of the wagon. He leaned back and pushed off the wagon just the barest amount. With the high winds rushing down the beach, that's all it took and he soared straight up, the lines and his angling making it possible for the wind to take him...exactly like a kite.

She squealed. "I can't believe this is working!"

"Good, it's working. You owe me so much." He slowly crept higher into the air until he met that sweet spot where he was still angled into the wind but held steady and anchored by the lines. He swayed slightly back and forth as the gusts came up, his position high in the sky.

She retorted, "Oh stop crying. I-" She stopped short, then started cackling.

"What!?!"

"Nothing....My Little Ponykite."

He glared down, which was completely lost on her since she could barely see his facial expressions. "Fuck you!"

"Oi, language! And do some loops. And quit swearing. Children down here." Nobody could hear him up there, she mused quietly.

He raised his voice slightly, doubting anybody would hear him on the headset besides her anyway, "Hey you kids, that woman is evil. Ask her about her performance in The Wiz back in high school. 'Best portrayal of the witch, ever' they said. 'She's not acting,' mom said."

"Oh whatever, now shut it! Loopdy loops, now!"

He stuck out his tongue, but did a few loops when the lines tugged a little. Over the next few minutes he got used to the lines telegraphing where she wanted him to go. Mostly he used them as anchor points and tilted this way and that until he reached the edges of the wind envelope, always keeping the lines taut so it really did look like she was in control. It was rather pleasant, if a bit demeaning. Still, she smiled, and for some unselfish reason, it was nice to see her getting enjoyment out of something he was doing for her. After a nice series of spirals and an L maneuver to position him back up front and center, she nodded dismissively.

"By the way, does song magic work over radio and between pony and non-ponies?"

Looking a bit distracted when a sudden gust of wind buffeted him, he spat out quickly, "Yes, I heard it works over electronics and between species..." A cold feeling seeped into his core as he paused. He stared down at his sister. "No. Renee, don't! There's copyright laws and they'll-"

She nodded during his plea, took a few more steps back until the lines were tight, and then-

"♪ With some cuffs and string and a prayer. ♪"

"♪ I can spread my wings without care, ♪" he responded, eyes wide in shock. He whispered, "Dear Celestia, Renee, please don't do this!"

"♪ With your hooves pointed so, ♪" she sang relentlessly while sawing the lines in time to music that was starting to chime in.

"♪ I'll fly unlike a booooooaaaaa.........T, ♪" he quickly sang back. He gulped. Then he growled, "Don't you dare, you capricious little cun-"

Renee jerked several steps back again, pulling hard on the lines just when the wind picked up and sang, "♪ Now it's time for a show...do some stunts to and fro! ♪"

Angled just right, Civil flew in an ever widening spiral. "No," he yelled.

"♪ So...♪" she sang.

"NO."

"♪ SO! ♪"

"NO!"

"♪ SOOOoooo! ♪"

"♪ Let's, ♪" they both sang, "♪ Go, FLY A Pony! ♪"

"I hate you!" Civil growled into the mic.

"♪ High enough so he looks phoney, ♪" Renee continued on.

"I really do hate you-"

"♪ Let's go fly a pony, so he...isn't...boring. ♪"

"I am NOT boring!" he yelled back.

"♪ Up in the Strato Sphere- ♪"

***

The pegasus Strato Sphere was flying along minding his own business while doing an errand in the town of Odessa when something got his attention and he plowed into a business building window, causing quite a disruption in several offices of the fifth floor. He swore, a lot.

***

"♪ Up so we can't hear him swear! Oh let's goooo, fly a pony! ♪"

Civil grabbed his mic with a hoof to make sure it was directly in front of his muzzle so that damned sister of his could hear him- "Dammit Renee you can't just pop off 4th wall breaks or whatever the fuck that was, it's dangerous! You're just doing this out of revenge, aren't you?

"Yes. And I have no idea what you are talking about. It's the sky. Troposphere, Strato Sphere, Cryosphere."

"Cryo...that's not even a fucking section of the sky!"

"Well you're doing a lot of it up there, might as well be!"

"...................I can HEAR you making a distinction with the strato...grr, you have no shame admitting to it being revenge, do you!?!"

"None at all."

He thought for a few seconds as the music continued in the background, waiting for the participants to come back in, "...the banana phone song?"

"I may be vindictive, but I am not vicious about it. I figure turnabout is fair play, right?"

"Wow, a saint."

"Oh stop whining. We're not done yet. We made a deal and I'm enjoying this. You should too. You actually look kinda cool up there. Wish I could be up there." Some of the anger left him when he heard that last bit. He wanted to say something else but the music came up louder. "Buck up, it'll be over soon.

....and....

"♪ Let's go fly a pony! ♪" they sang, Civil resigning himself to his fate.

"♪ Up so he sunburns like bologna. ♪"

Civil mutters, "That was a mouthful, Renee, you sure your mouth isn't full of bol-"

"♪ Let's go fly a pony, and send him roaring! ♪" She hauled on one of the lines, causing him to cut across the sky against the raging winds, then back to the center.

"♪ Up through the Strato Sphere! ♪" Civil's eyes widened-

***

Just then Strato Sphere finally made his way out of the building, all cuts and bruised from the glass, cubicles, aluminum beams, concrete, more glass, apologizing and promising to fix things. When he turned to the street and tried to take off, he got distracted again and brained himself against a flagpole sticking out from the side of the building above the entrance.

***

"♪Up where we don't give a care! ♪"

"No shit you don't give a care! You just-"

"♪ Oh let's gooooo fly a pony! ♪" They sing together.

Civil gave up trying to stop his sister and her antics. His pony magic for music had taken hold now, and several people down on the beach were holding each other's hands and swaying in time to the music, adding their voices to the mix. One particular person had pulled up with a rather colorful cart loaded with kites. The man was tall, thin, and wearing a cabby cap.

"Jolly fine day for kite flying, Gov'nas! What brings you out to this far flung story?" He was addressing two rather important looking people in suits. One individual had the nametag 'K' on their chest while the other sported an 'X' tag.

"Jolly day it is indeed!" X said.

"Quite right!" K followed up.

X stated, "Incidentally, we are here to make sure policies are followed." Conspiratorially they whispered to the salesman, "There was a rumor of a violation!" K nodded emphatically.

"No siree, Gov'na! No barney in this story. Might I interest you in a kite? Oiv got just the one!" He handed over two black box kites with the word CENSOR written on the sides.

"Why thankyou!" X said.

"Indeed, it suits us most succinctly!" K replied.

The kite selling man grinned ear to ear and said, "Enjoy yourselves, just don't hammer the author too hard, all in light humor!"

Then Dick Van Dyke started singing. Civil closed his eyes, wishing he would die right there and slam into the beach, just to spite his sister.

"♪ When you trope and meme without care, others stop what they're doing and stare. But if your kite is fussy- ♪"

"I am not-" Civil yelled.

"♪ -and acts like a pussy- ♪"

"You son of a bitch! I hated your show when you were popular and every movie you made since, you dirty fu-"

"♪ -then just yank your fist tight, and he'll fly straight and right! ♪"

"As soon I come down there I'm kicking your ass first you dick van suckit!" Civil yelled.

"♪Oh, ♪" all the beach started singing now, "♪ oh ooooooh... ♪"

"♪ Let's go fly a pony! ♪"

Mutter.

"♪ Wish he flew less like a zamboni! ♪"

"Double the shrimp," he grumbled.

"♪ Let's go fly a pony! ♪"

"Double the beers," he groused.

"♪ Cuz everyone knows he doesn't drink! ♪"

"That doesn't even rhyme, dammit!"

"♪ Up in the Strato Sphere! ♪" <somewhere a pegasus crashed, again>

"Oh come on! Have a Celestia-damned heart!"

"♪ Up where he has no fear! ♪"

"Holy shit, a compliment! Fuck you too!"

"♪ Oh let's goooooooooooo fly a pony! ♪"

The song drifted away, as did most of the beach denizens when the magic faded. Oddly enough, Dick Van Dyke and the two suits disappeared as well. Just as well, Civil thought to himself. He wasn't in the mood to deal with 'that' kind of attention anytime soon. Or the ass kicking. He didn't care how old that man was.

A few people did decide to linger.

Two young adults, by the look of it, a guy and girl. The guy leaned over to Renee and said, "That was the coolest thing ever, getting that kite to move in time with the music." He blinked and said, "That was the first time I ever felt like singing that song out in public. Not to mention with those particular words."

The girl said, "It was really good flying. Have you been practicing long?" Renee was doing her best to keep from laughing. At this point, Civil was done. He angled down into the wind and aimed for a spot just in front of them.

Renee swore to herself and yelled, "I've lost control! Everybody back up, he's going to-" She turned away at the last instant. There was a loud thud, followed by a shower of sand. When the humans had stopped coughing and could see again, Renee turned back to the pegasus that was standing there. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes," he smirked, glaring at her. "It was."

His ire was completely drowned out by the adults running up to him and fawning over the very REAL pegasus standing in front of them. "I knew it!" the guy yelled. "I told her you were real and she said no self-respecting pegasus would ever lower himself to acting like a kite just to get cheap thrills." The man grinned. "I was right, some would!" He held out his hand, "I'm Gary. This is my sister Liz."

Civil was at a loss for words on how to respond to that, except now there was a human woman mere inches from him, desperation on her face. He smiled grudgingly and held out his hoof, which both humans curled up their hands into fists to bump with. He blinked at the correct response to a pony greeting.

Liz could barely talk. "Mister Pegasus....can I....I mean, would you...is it alright to....!" Her arms twitched.

Spying his sister throwing her hands at him to give the girl permission, he hung his head low and said, "Oh, fine just watch-" He was glomped by an over-enthusiastic fangirl, much too over-enthusiastic to be woman-handling a pony like this. "The wings! Watch the wings!" he got out. She let up some, apologizing while still glomping him.

He managed to poke his muzzle out of her hair to ask Gary, "Soo...enh....I take it you like ponies."

The young man grinned, "Yes sir! We're here for the convention. Technically it's in Baltimore. This is just a visit to the beach before all that chaos happens." The girl finally let up and took a step back.

"Yeah," she said. "Ever since that portal opened, there's been a huge revival of the show. They even had a few pony guests, even some partially quasi-main famous ones." A thought suddenly struck her. "Oh hay! Wait, I used that right, hay? By the way, what is your name? Are you famous?"

He controlled his breathing. They mean well, be nice, he thought to himself. Renee walked over and placed a hand on his head, comforting him. He smiled at her and addressed Liz, "I'm Civil Patrol. This is Renee."

The girl blushed out of embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say you were a nopony. I just thought, if we knew about you already..."

He snorted and muttered under his breath, "Nope, no clop about me, I checked-" Renee lightly kicked him in the foreleg. He readjusted his stance to cover.

Liz asked "Huh?" not quite catching that.

Her brother cut in, "Oh wait! Are you going to the convention too?"

He violently shook his head, "Oh Tartarus no!" The hurt look on their faces made him feel bad. Holding up a foreleg, he said, "Wait it's not like I don't want to go...I just don't want all that attention, with all those humans-"

Renee cleared her throat.

He sighed and nodded, saying, "Just too many people."

The guy glanced around at the sky, frowning, "Sounds like you don't want to go..." he paused, looking down at the kite lines and wagon, "and you do like attention."

Civil started shaking out his wings. He knew a challenge when he heard one.

Renee picked up on Civil actions right away, so she stepped in front to redirect.

"The flying bit was my bad. See, he's my brother and I wanted to do something with him that he loves. I can't fly, so flying a pony was the next best thing. Right?"

The girl giggled, "That is the cutest thing I've ever heard! And he's your brother, wow! Wish MY brother would grow wings and fly for me." She glanced Gary.

The man grumbled and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I already told you, if I were going to be a pony, I want to be a unicorn. Magic power, TK, teleporting!?! That's so much better than flying, AND I can put a flying spell on myself. Bam, problem solved."

"Yeah, that's not how it works, Kochese," Civil began, rustling his wings, but Renee headed him off, wrapping an arm around his neck.

"Guys, I'd love to stay and chat pony...stuff all day long, but this guy is hot, sweaty, and has sand all in his fur. We're going to head in now to wash up and get breakfast. But seriously, that's really awesome about you two going to the convention. Spread around more of that harmony energy stuff-"

"Friendship magic," the two humans and Civil said in unison.

"THAT! Spread that around, and it was good meeting you!"

They waved and started walking away. The man turned to his sister and said, "Just hope nobody dies this year."

Civil felt a sliver of ice ease its way through him. He shrugged off his sister and took a few steps forward, getting tangled in the lines. Prancing a few times to unsuccessfully disentangle them, he simply shook his head and flapped his wings to hover. "Hey wait up! What was that about dying?"

The two human siblings turned around, brows furrowed. The girl replied, "Uh, just that, in the past someone has been killed near the conventions, at least the last few. We think the last couple of victims actually attended them, so we were a bit nervous about going this year. I've met a lot of attendees so far, so I hope it wasn't someone I had met. I would feel so horrible, you know?...that they died, and I did not."

Her brother chuckled and nudged her with an elbow, "Oh come on, who thinks like that? Baltimore is a dangerous city. They have more murders there than any other city in the country, and around a convention? Those muggers are practically lining up to knock over teenagers and college kids before they unload their cash in the dealer's room."

Statistical analysis and motives would have been of mild interest to Civil, if he had not been hovering there replaying in his mind what the girl had said, over and over. 'They died, and I did not.'

After a minute, he realized he was staring at them, hovering, with guide lines hanging from his leather cuffed wrists. "I...uh, I thought..." Initially the comment about people dying caught his attention. Then, that other comment. He glanced back at his sister. She wore a serious expression and nodded slightly. He turned back to them. "I met someone who had lost a relative at one of those conventions."

The girl covered her mouth, horrified. The guy looked a little humbled. "Shit, I didn't know, sorry. I mean, we heard you guys had some bad losses here and over there, if the rumors are true. Just that, you know..." He shrugged, glancing at his sister, then back at Civil and Renee. "I guess we've gotten used to it over here on Earth, higher population densities, so higher mortality rates." He lowered his voice, eyes flicking to the side. "She saw one of the victims before they covered her up. That one had attended the convention we were at, two years ago. We know because she saw shiny gold shoes and pastel hair colors, right?"

"I liked her hair." She shuddered. Civil watched them, listening, thinking.

The guy shrugged, looking apologetic. "Was a cosplayer, playing my sister's favorite pony."

"Bestest pony," she murmured.

Civil remained in the air, trying to fathom why people were so horrible to each other, enough to take their lives. There was a certain innocence inherent in Equestria. True, bad things happened, but Harmony made those things bearable. This world seemed to not have that.

Noticing their pegasus audience was zoning out, they silently waved goodbye. Renee approached and quietly exchanged phone numbers with them. Didn't hurt to have pony fans in this cruel world, she mentioned, or something euphemistic. They thanked her, waved again to Civil and headed off down the beach. Renee slowly walked over to her brother and reached up to start taking off the leather cuffs. He blinked and looked down, noticed what she was doing, and lowered himself to the sand so she didn't have to keep her arms raised...or his giblets staring her in the face for that matter.

She collected the headsets, put them all in the wagon and covered it all with the blanket so any kicked up sand wouldn't get on the gear. All the while she hummed the 'let's go fly a kite' tune to herself, occasionally repeating the 'new' lyrics, too.

Civil sat there watching her until she was done. At length, he said, "I guess I shouldn't have gotten mad at him, or weirded out on them. Ignorance is bliss when you don't know all that much about Equestria, all the Harmony and good feelings. Even after the mess Discord made, we had cleaned up a fair bit to make things...better. When you've gotten used to the shit that goes on here...I can't blame him for that."

She looked up from the wagon, "Huh? Oh that. Meh," she shrugged. "Didn't seem very harmonious to let you two get into a pissing match over who has the bigger magic, right?" He tapped his chin with a hoof, staring at her. She smiled and picked up the handle to the wagon. "We just won't go near Baltimore, for any conventions, kay?" She nodded her head to the condo, "Shall we?"

With the recent song and her usual mischief, he was reminded of Mary Poppins. "You're tricky, you know that?"

Renee grinned and offered one arm out to her side. He obliged and ducked under it so she could rest her hand on the back of his neck as they walked. It was a much more pleasant trip back to the condo than it was to the beach earlier.

***

An hour later, Civil heard a loud keening wail from down the hallway. He jumped up from his lying position in the middle of the living room floor. Both his parents who were sitting on the couch near him jumped up as well.

Renee came running down the hall to where it opened up to the dining area and kitchen, a towel wrapped around her, and nothing else. "It happened! It happened!"

Daniel held up his hands and said, "Woh, hold up dear! What happened!? Are you okay!?!"

She nodded and said hurriedly, "I was taking a shower and didn't think anything of it because we still have like a week and then some to Christmas, but then I decided to put lotion on my skin and I noticed it!"

That was when Civil got a really bad feeling. He looked up quickly at his mother near him. She wore a similar look of dread, matching that bad feeling inside him. He looked back at his sister. "Renee...are you certain you have...I mean, sometimes they don't look like-"

"Like a vibrant green colored tattoo with a very distinct picture, or maybe even a picture of a pony holding something, or two somethings?!"

"Huh," he replied, sitting back. "That is very distinct." So it happened, he thought to himself. She is one of us.

Daniel looked to Karen cautiously. He had always kept his emotions bottled up, except on rare occasions when his temper boiled over or he felt very strongly about something. This, he wasn't sure what to feel. He had thought he would be ready. "What were the chances? I figured that-"

"That only one would be a pony?" Karen glanced at him, then at her two children, trying to remain calm. Afterall, this was a possibility they all had discussed. "Well, we did calculate the chances. It's not THAT impossible, just, highly improbable." She sighed. "Wish we had this kind of luck with lotto."

Renee wasn't even listening to them. She was dancing around in her towel, like she had hit the lotto.

"Okay okay, so you are going to be a pony." Civil stepped over to her and held out a hoof, "Join the mile high club! Or the mud club. Or the egghead club. You could be an earth pony or unicorn."

She laughed loudly at that, "Yeah whatever. I don't care, this is so cool! Oh my god, this thing is vibrant!" She was inspecting her naked side, twisting away from them while lifting the towel. To be modest, he supposed, rolling his eyes.

"Uh huh. yawn. So, anypony we might know?" He frowned to himself, then asked while looking back at their parents, "Has anypony caught me calling her anything else besides 'Renee'?"

A confused father shook his head, and a mother resigned to putting up with whatever the Fates threw at them shook hers.

"Hm, weird. Okay." Civil waited expectantly. Renee kept moving around, pulling her towel aside, cooing at her hips, which basically left her the only audience. "Oi, Renee, knock it off, show us already."

She looked up, face blushing slightly, "I'm not exposing my butt to you!"

Civil threw up his hooves and replied, "It's called flank, and in pony culture...oh for fu-" He stopped, recognizing his emotions were starting to rise. Calm, poise, bearing. When he finished the Royal Guard calming technique, he said, "Fine, just describe what you have so we can start searching online for your name." He wandered over to his spot on the floor and picked up the phone he had dropped there.

"Well," she mused, tilting her head at the mark, "Do you know any ponies with a Statue of Liberty mark?"

The pegasus had been through many things, including an explosive decompression at high altitude once and a few emergency landings, all in the Air Force. Not to mention a few wars on two worlds. All of that together was a breeze of perfumed air in his face compared to this.

He uttered, ".....no....."

"Oh. Oh well, I guess we can look it up then-"

"No!" exclaimed Civil. "Impossible, it can't be!" He looked at her covered hips, horrified at what she had just said.

His sister frowned at him. Their parents started to get alarmed. Karen said, "Civil, what's wrong?"

Renee also chimed in, "Alright big scary brother. Starting to frighten your sis here. You know who I am, right?"

"No...not my sis." He closed his eyes, then opened them and marched forward. He brushed away the hand she was using to keep the towel down rather roughly and lifted the towel just enough to only see the mark and not the rest of her womanly parts. His shocked demeanor kept her from fighting him off. There, right on her hip was the unmistakable image of a light green toga draped mare, a crown on her head, a tablet in one hoof, and a torch in the other. She was reared on her hind legs, as if rising up to bear the torch for all to see. And he saw.

And what he saw made no sense. "You..." He looked up at her. "You are not my sis."

Frowning, she quipped, "Knock it off Jason. Do you know it or not?"

He stepped back, bottom lip quivering. "I DO know that mark. But, she's..." He looked to his parents, "...she's supposed to be dead!"

Karen leaned forward, ever the voice of reason, "Dear, just tell us who it is, please! Why would you think she is dead?"

He turned back to Renee and said in a quiet voice, "Your name is Civil Liberty." His throat threatened to constrict on him as he forced the next few words out. "You...are my mother."

"Alright! Now I get to boss you around!" Renee thought this might be some kind of pony ritual and played along.

"But you've always been a bit bossy," Karen replied, moving up behind Civil. She sensed there was more to this.

"Yah, but now it's official. Who's yo momma?" Seeing the look of horror and confusion on his face, she was starting to figure out he might be telling the truth. If that was the case... "Omygod! All the things I can say now! Clean your room! Do your chores....huh...Momma's gonna make it all better-" She wiggled her eyebrows.

He vomited up breakfast, Renee dancing back just in time to miss it all. Daniel swore and went to the kitchen to grab some paper towels while Karen knelt down to hold the pegasus, seeing he was on the verge of collapse.

"Renee that's enough! You are just making this worse!" Karen yelled at her.

"Oh mom, I was just having some fun..." Finally seeing that none of her jokes were fixing the horrible state Civil was in, she said, "Oh come on, Civil, it can't be that bad, can it?" Her mother caught her gaze.

"You were doing it at his expense. Think about how he feels. He hasn't seen her since he was a child. While in his world, right Jason? Civil?" Karen winced, getting his name wrong again. Daniel came back and gave a few towels to her to help clean up Cvil while he got to work on the carpet. She held him, rocking back and forth soothingly. "We talked a few times about it. She had left when he was a teenager. Can you imagine what it's like to grow up without a mother, Renee?"

"You don't understand," Civil said in a daze. "She's supposed to be dead!"

"...bummer. but I'm not, see?" Renee smiled, spinning around just fast enough for the towel to lift RIGHT when her hip was facing them, somehow not revealing anything else.

Karen had stopped rocking and was looking down at Civil.

"Wait." Daniel paused in the cleaning and looked at the pegasus. "That's right, you told us she had left. Is this the thing that was causing a rift in your other family? That she was really dead? Why didn't you tell us?"

Civil swallowed, the bile taste still in his mouth. "I thought she left, but later I came home early from flight school and I overheard my sire and grandsire talking. They were discussing some failed project the Science Corps had worked on, that my father should let her go, like for all intents and purposes she was dead to the world."

He looked between the three of them. "They were debating about whether or not they should come out with the truth, but decided for MY benefit, to keep telling everypony that she had left, that she was still alive somewhere." He felt anger, old anger, well up in him. "Do you know what that is like in pony society, to be stigmatized as the herd whose matriarch left!? They had been putting out that lie for years! FOR ME!"

Seeing his family wince at his yelling, he said in a quieter voice, "After that, I hated them for not just lying to me, but lying about her!" At this point he had no anger in him, only anguish. Not of the derision and rudeness he got from other young colts, but the remembrance of his missing mother. He broke down into sobbing, reliving the pain. "That whole time growing up, it was like she had run out on us or something. Then when I overheard the truth, I wanted to confront them, set things straight, or make them apologize, for her...but I was too angry."

He scowled, remembering his rage. The sobbing stopped, if momentarily. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "I repeated the lie for them. First because nopony would believe me otherwise. Second...second I thought that if the lie went on long enough and the truth did come out, it would be revenge to say I had never known. I was stupid then."

He gritted his teeth. "Anyway, I moved out the next day, quit the flight school I was commuting to. Found different odd jobs. One day, a subordinate of Shining Armor's unit noticed me and put in a good word. I had meant to return home and make them own up to it finally, screw the revenge, but, that damn curse shit...damn it all I would have apologized right then and there had I known what would happen next! Then with the fillies...I thought...if I could save those fillies, I could pretend it was her, you know?" He chuckled darkly, thinking himself an idiot. "Like some fairy tale come true."

His family stood there, stunned at what he was revealing. Daniel knew something had always been there, waiting to bubble over. Karen also had the patience to see it through too, in her own way. For Renee, this was drama even she had never encountered before, mainly because it was in her face, not to mention on her body.

"It was the weirdest thing too," Civil continued, oddly calm. "They approached me, the two young unicorns crying, and I thought of my mother. I never told anypony that part, ever." He wiped his nose, clearing his throat. "But then you know the rest. I was born a human, changed back to pony, went back through to Equestria. I was surprised to see them on the other side of the portal, sire Civil Justice and grandsire Civil Court, both tough as carved marble, but well, after the speeches at the portal by the princess and our great captain, of course they would fight. Royal Guards through and through, you know." He paused, a half smile on his muzzle, remembering the three of them standing there, eyeing each other. No words, just purpose. Then his face darkened.

"Civil Court and Civil Justice died before I could speak to them about it." He raised his head, feeling so different about them now than when he was younger and angry. He blinked, reliving the memory. "We barely nodded to each other on the other side. Combat drills from our past kicked in. We grouped together as a makeshift flight unit, picked up weapons, and like three insane valkyries we threw ourselves at those monsters. We were in a vee formation, me at the center, flanked by my herd. I lived..." His throat clenched up, the words Liz had said earlier thundering in his head. When he could finally say something again, he croaked out, "They died!" He collapsed to the floor, shuddering and sobbing. This was a thing he had never truly worked out.

Karen wrapped her arms around him, half-picking him up to hold the upper half of his body against her, all the while giving Renee a stare of warning.

For her part she walked over to them slowly and knelt down, "Woh...hey. Sorry about the momma jokes. I can't walk on eggshells until you tell me where they are, right?"

"..." He kept his head against Karen's stomach, but he was quieting down.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she smiled, "Give momma a hug?"

He winced and Karen hugged him tighter, "Don't you ever stop!?" she accused her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't resist!" She chuckled. Sitting down on the floor, she propped her head on her hands, elbows on her knees. "The upside is she's back. Your mom. I'm back." Renee shook her head, blinking. "I just can't wrap my head around that. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."

Civil opened an eye to look up at her, "You don't look sorry."

"I'm not," she muttered, looking away wistfully. "You're pretty good at reading me. Dammit." A thought struck her and she sat up, frowning. "I don't get it. How come none of us heard you call me...Liberty? or Mom? No subconscious slip-ups?"

Her brother...son(?) wiped his eyes and sat up, smiling gratefully at his human mother. That was a question still bothering him, despite getting sidetracked by the whole 'your mother is alive and well AND she is your sister' shit. Looking off to the side, he thought about it. All the interactions, the fighting, the name calling. None of it carried a hint as to her true identity. Ever. Wait, how did Renee even know about precognizant pony tells?

"I looked it up online, dolt."

Mouth agape, he barely squawked out, "You can read minds too!?!"

Ever so gently she leaned forward, stretched out a single hand, and rapped him on the top of the head, a bit painfully, too. "No, dummy! You talk out loud when you think a lot. Remember?" Oh yeah. That.

Shaking off the last vestiges of his breakdown, he tested his legs. Still a tad shaky. He shrugged and sat down again, then regarded Renee. "You're the one that has to remember, remember?" She stuck her tongue at him. He sat there, thinking. "Okay. There IS one surefire way to figure this out."

"Recite the curse?"

"Recite the curse."

"No."

"....what!?" He blinked and shook his head, standing. "That alone will...you know-" he shook his hooves at her briefly before putting all fours on the floor again,"-drudge up the memories, tell you what happened near the end, how you got here, what you were doing, who you were with-"

"No!" Renee got back up, openly glaring at Civil. "I don't do curses. No more wicken. No fairie garbage." She paused. "I like fairies, nevermind that." She pointed a finger at him, "But no curses."

Sitting back on his haunches, Civil crossed his forelegs in frustration. "Oh come on, you have to have had SOME kind of clue about this? No nightmares, nothing? Didn't you even read the words they have printed online, you know, 'just to test it out'?" That was a thing. Some pony-friendly websites had the curse on full display, a sort of litmus test for the curious. Caution, Do Not Ride This Attraction Alone, was the warning at the top.

A shadow passed over her eyes. Subtle, a hair's width of time before it was gone, but it WAS there briefly. And they both knew it. Civil uncrossed his forelegs and asked, "Renee, please. Talk to me about it. We need to know...." The guilt dug its way into his heart when he thought how selfish this request really was, but he pressed on. "I need to know."

Renee stood there for a minute, observing her mother and Civil. Glancing at her father, he was throwing away the used paper towels and stood at the sink washing his hands. She always went to him for approval. He nodded, "Go ahead dear, we're all here for you."

Taking a seat at the table, she shuddered and rubbed the sides of her head. "I don't know what you expect me to say. I don't get any of these vivid movie scenes of another world or colorful ponies running around." She paused for a second, then stared directly at Civil. "I HAVE had some repeating dreams all my life, ever since I could remember them once I woke up. But there's nothing in them that helps. I go to sleep, find myself in complete darkness. I can't move, I can't breath. Just when I think I am finally going to find peace, I'm in pain." She pulls her legs up into her chair and wraps her arms around them, rocking back and forth. "So much pain. I see red. My entire existence is a color. Red. And there is a pounding sound, boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom."

Karen said, "Renee why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Mom, I was a teenager then. You and I didn't exactly get along."

"You were willful, then. And..."

"I'm still willful."

"Yes..." she lingered. Karen tilted her head in frustration, but she bit her tongue, lest she say something else. Instead, she replied, "Yes, you still are. I tried to follow the same advice my father gave me when my mother and I would argue. He said to stop confronting her, don't give her a fight. I have been trying that with you for a long time now. Started letting you live how you wanted."

"And that's when we started getting along!" Renee smiled now that her mother finally understood her.

"I still don't approve of a lot of your choices." Or not.

Throwing her arms up in exasperation, her daughtere muttered, "I take it back then."

The other three in the room could only sit there and stare between the two, Civil mostly at Renee. Ever since it was a possibility for Renee, Civil had told his parents what one should expect when a pony was about to change. The lead up to the twenty-fifth birthday, the mark, the nightmares that 'should' have Discord front and center, and then the eventual physiological, not to mention psychological, changes.

Here was the mark, and yes, some odd dream, but she had been having that dream all her life? And still the old Renee he always knew. This made absolutely no sense.

Civil blinked, finally hearing the last of those thoughts leave his mouth as words. He addressed Renee, "Sorry. I did it again."

She waved at him, momentarily leaning forward against the table so she would stop rocking. "You're just trying to help." Blinking away tears in her eyes, mostly tears of frustration, she took a deep breath and finally decided to ask the one thing that was REALLY bothering her, the thought that was bouncing around in her head the instant she noticed the mark on her skin.

"Okay, mother. Father. Just one itsy bitsy teensy weensy lil question. How come I am changing now...when my birthday isn't for at least a week and a half?"

What? Civil sat up, thoughts of his old herd fleeing from his mind. With all that was going on, and the possibility of seeing his mother again, he missed the fact that it wasn't even her birthday yet.

The looks on his parents' faces were quite revealing. A complete lack of surprise.

"...daddy?" Renee asked plaintively. The sound spurred Civil on as his anger rose.

"You knew!?!" Civil exclaimed at them.

"Son," Daniel began, "...we suspected." He held up his hand at the fuming looks from both their children, as it were.

"What do you mean you 'suspected'?!" Civil exclaimed. "Don't you know the birthdate of your own daughter?" Civil stared at them accusingly, turning to look at Karen. If he was expecting guilt or some other kind of emotion that would allow him to see this as something other than betrayal, he was wrong.

She only showed tears in her eyes, tears of loss as she exchanged looks with her husband.

Since his wife wasn't now, nor was she ever in a position to talk about this, Daniel explained, "No. Not precisely." He walked over to Civil and Karen, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. He turned to regard Renee. "When we got you, the records were incomplete. As you know, we were stationed in Germany when Civil was born, as Jason. Three years after that, there was a fire off base at the orphanage nearby. They were looking for families to take in several babies. The nuns were going door to door looking for sponsors. With it being so soon after the miscarriage, we made a decision."

"Woh, wait," Renee exclaimed softly, crossing her arms. In defiance, or for protection, Civil couldn't tell which. "Miscarriage? Fire? Somebody speak normal for a change."

He looked down at their mother. "Karen, I'll explain. You've suffered enough." He glanced down the hall to the master bedroom.

Getting up with the dignity one could muster after sitting on a twenty-five year old secret and finally having it blow up in their faces, she caressed Civil's head one last time and walked away. She lingered a moment next to Renee, and they found each staring into each other's eyes. Karen whispered, "I never saw you as anything else but my daughter. You still are." Dropping her gaze she walked into the hall and the bedroom. Daniel motioned them to the balcony.

Once outside, Renee settled with leaning against the railing, their view overlooking the beach and ocean waves. The sun was still up, though it was more like 5 pm now. Daniel pulled up a chair next to her and sat. Civil stood up against the bannister as well, but was careful to make sure one of the hanging towels on the railing blocked the view. Don't need to brandish his genitals to the world.

"Okay dad," Renee began. "Let's start with why you guys never told me I was adopted. Yeah as a kid, it could mess me up psychologically, but for twenty five years?!"

He felt he had to defend the one father he had left, so Civil cut in on the other side, "Hey Renee, for what it's worth, the human race got to adopt you for twenty five years."

Cold stare. "You know, since...the curse and all...?" he continued.

"I'll crack more mom jokes, you twit," she groused. Civil slowly looked away. Yah that rescue mission ended quick.

"Honey, he's trying to help." Daniel put a hand on her elbow. "Look at it from his point of view."

"His point of view. HIS?!? Every time I turn around, something fucked up is going on with this family." She meant to shake his hand off, but it was so half-hearted, she only managed to move a little closer to him, so he chose to hug her...which she accepted.

Civil asked in a hurt tone, "Me being a pony is fucked up?"

"Grrr, no that's not what I meant!" After opening her mouth to give him an incredulous stare, she shook her head. Renee propped her elbows on the railing, holding her head. "I'm getting a headache from all this."

"Then say something nice for once," Civil said darkly. "And keep in mind I've lost quite a few family members in the last couple of lifetimes." Equestrian members, now ANOTHER sibling they just found out about, on top of their brother in high school. Could one get used to being in two cursed families?

"Hmph," she responded. "If this Liberty gig is legit...we both have, right?" She glanced sideways at him, giving a sort of quirky smile.

He wanted to stay mad, but he knew her smile was working, so he looked away again to hide his. "Dammit, I hate when you win arguments, you know that?"

Grinning, she answered, "Yah, but I love it."

"You're twisted. You need a head doctor."

Daniel interjects, "In any case, I still have you two. I don't care who or what you are. We discussed that, remember?"

"Yes daddy," she answered.

"Yes sir."

Daniel let the calming sounds of the waves crashing in the distance reset the mood. Once he felt enough minutes had passed, he stated, "Your mother and I tried to conceive another baby, to grow up with Civil, Jason at the time," he glanced to his son. "The pregnancy was going well, though she was predicted to give birth well past Christmas. One night...I would say roughly around this time, a week or two before Christmas, she experienced severe pains. We rushed her to the hospital...and they gave us the news." He swallowed, obviously reliving that horrible night.

He looked up at his two children and smiled, "Several weeks later, with your mother still recovering, it was like a miracle. A German nun knocked on our door and described how a fire had swept through the local neighborhood, burned the orphanage to the ground. A lot of the buildings were made of wood back then. Quite a few people had died, too. But here they had these babies, given up by various parents for different reasons before the fire claimed their home. How could we not offer ours, we figured. It was still soon after our ordeal. I guess we were so ready for another child, we agreed to visit the temporary building they were housed in." His eyes glimmered when he looked up at Renee.

"And there you were, in the bassinet, smiling. You were smiling, after a couple weeks old, they said. When we asked for your birthdate and records, the nuns told us all the records had gone up with the building. Everything was kept on paper then, so naturally they didn't know, except you were born sometime in December. So we chose Christmas...the Christmas miracle, we called you. We couldn't live with simply guessing on a day that would have no significance since we could not prove it. We'd know it was false. This way...we could hope it was right. When you were old enough we wanted to tell you...no, I guess we never felt you were old enough to understand. Every year it got harder to say anything. Eventually we just put it in God's hands."

She started to bristle up, but he patted her arm, "I know, you were probably old enough by the age of four. You always did handle things with a stiff upper lip, if also with a tad of silliness tossed in. We were the ones that were not ready, your mother and I. We wanted to keep the Christmas miracle from fading away, I guess...." He drifted off, finally realizing something. He raised an eyebrow and added, "I suppose today is your birthday, dear." He smiled belatedly, "Happy birthday."

She wasn't exactly happy, but she wanted an answer, and that one was from the heart. She gave him a slight squeeze on his arm.

"Now what?" Civil asked sullenly.

Renee snorted, "Seriously? Like, the changes, and the figuring out the memories, and all the other stuff about ponies, that's what!"

And just like that, she bounced back. He wanted more of an answer, a plan of attack. It wasn't even happening to him...but then again, wasn't it? He squeezed his eyes shut, not having the energy to explain how he felt. Having a sister turning into his mother, having found out his mother was alive, even. How about having found out she 'technically' wasn't his sister in the first place? And yet, adoption was a perfectly valid form of modifying a family, or herd back in Equestria. It happened. Not often but it did. He just felt so overwhelmed by all this. Felt it, and must have looked it too.

"Dad," Renee said quietly, "if you don't mind, I'm taking myself and that emotional wreck over there out to the bar. Wanna join us? It IS my birthday!........and.....I promised said emotional wreck some shrimp."

Civil lowered his chin to the banister and mumbled, "I can't wait for you to remember what it's like to act like my mother." If she heard it, she gave no indication.

Daniel shook his head. "I would love to, but I need to attend to your mother. We were prepared to deal with you becoming a pony. Not...reopen old wounds. Not so soon for either."

Civil dropped down onto all fours and walked back into the residence. Daniel watched him head to the hallway that would lead past the master bedroom and to the front door, but Civil didn't even glance inside as he walked past. Daniel looked up, "Be easy on him. I can't imagine what it's like being either of you right now, but if something were to happen to Karen and I..." He wanted to say more, but honestly didn't know what.

Renee frowned. She hated thinking about death, even future death, but she nodded and wandered inside to get the rental car keys and her purse.

Daniel waited a good while to make sure they were gone before he made his way into the bedroom where Karen was sitting on the bed. Not crying, yet not doing much else, just sitting there. Daniel sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She leaned into him.

"Am I a terrible mother? Is this God trying to tell me something?"

"Absolutely not!" Daniel pulled his head back to look at her. "You are a wonderful mother, the best one they could have been lucky enough to have. And God knows that. Or he should."

"But with Jason changing, now her...and Renee finding out about her adoption. Oh Daniel, after the miscarriage, all I wanted was for her to live a normal life!" Her voice was starting to pitch up. "Even after...after we lost..."

He hugged her tighter, "Shhh, honey, we got through that. We got through the miscarriage before that, and we'll get through this now."

She shook her head slowly, "I can't lose any more, Daniel, I just can't! We've already lost two, and now our other two are from another world. Are we being punished?"

"I like to think of it as being tested. He does work in mysterious ways, right?"

Giving one last shuddering sigh, she nodded reluctantly, "Yes, He does. It hurts so much, though. I'm not sure I can take much more."

"We're in this together. I made you that promise, sickness and health at the altar."

She wiped her face with her hands and smiled weakly, "Thankyou, Dan. I have to wonder. Will Jason...<wince> will Civil work with her? She hasn't exactly been easy to deal with, from all the picking she's done all these years. Did we raise them both well enough to endure all this? To treat each other decently?"

Daniel held her at arm's length to smile warmly at her. "We did as best a job we could. You know that. So does God. I think they will do just fine, you'll see."

"Where are they now, still on the porch?"

"No. Renee...dammit that's going to be tough to get used to. Liberty, she took him to that Mariner's Deck place, the bar with the shrimp he likes."

Karen chuckled softly, he did like shrimp. "Oh, good. I'm glad they are finally getting along...."

***

"You ordered a strawberry daiquiri! You're such a girl!"

Civil hunkered down over his drink and growled, "Shut up! I'm just not into beer."

She laughed in his face, "You were never into beers! Why did you even demand them in the first place! You always drink these foofoo drinks."

"Leave me alone, they taste good."

"Sissy," she chuckled.

They were sitting on stools at a bar called the Marina Deck that was built on the docks further down the island of Ocean City. It was quaint, not as sophisticated as a four or even a three-star diner, but Civil always liked the feel of the place, as in any moment Jaws would push its way up through the flooring, it was THAT on the water.

It occurred to her that she wasn't exactly 'being easy on him' as her father had advised, so she switched tracks. "Tell me about her." Renee waved for two beers and the all-you-can-eat baskets of steamed shrimp, smothered in Old Bay seasoning. She knew she owed the pegasus and she always paid her debts.

"Huh?" He paused eyeing the baskets going into the steamer, already salivating over the meal soon to be had.

"Your mother, Civil Liberty. Tell me about her." His odd look made her sigh and roll her eyes. "About me, I guess." She noticed his expression change to worry, so she shrugged. "What you can remember. I'm not having any memory flashbacks and I feel like I'm in the dark here. After looking around online, it would seem a lot of other ponies get to remember stuff. Not me."

"Oh," he responded softly, then looked down at the bar, turning inward slightly. He should have felt glad, ecstatic even. His mom was alive! And yet, the circumstances surrounding this impromptu reunion were still dragging him down. "Um, she...you would let me stay up sometimes, star gazing on the roof of the lighthouse. Made me eat my vegetables when I only wanted seafood or pastries. Worried when I would do free falls into the water from the ledge. The rocks were not always visible in the froth."

She grinned and nudged his shoulder, "Sounds like any mother. Our mother, even."

He glanced up quickly, "Renee, you were adopted-"

"Stop!" she barked out. He and several other patrons jumped. She didn't care. "Don't. You. Dare. She has been our mother, more than most mothers could ever be, and hope to claim the title to boot!" At his look of incredulity, she shook her head back and forth, staring at the ceiling. "Yeah yeah, I know we don't get along, but daughters are supposed to do that. It's a girl thing."

He took his 'foofoo' drink into both hooves and drank from it. One did not use straws in a bar if one was to retain one's stallion card. He also remembered ponies drank sweet drinks anyway, so screw everypony that was watching him. Stallion card, dammit! "If you say so," he got out between sips.

"I do," she replied curtly and took a swig of her own beer. They were silent until the shrimp baskets were placed in front of them. She delicately took the meat out of the shells while he ate them whole. It was an effort for her not to stare at how quickly he put them away. Once he had gotten his first basket down, Renee having only gotten a few shrimp down, he requested a second basket.

The bartender smiled and nodded, putting two more into the steamer. From his questioning look, she said, "We get a few flyers in now and again, it being a coastal region. You winged darlings do like seafood. The others are more into salads." He nodded his thanks. He liked her.

Remembering his sister's...mother's request, he glanced at Renee. She was concentrating on her food, going slow. It occurred to him that it might be more of her savoring the use of her fingers than the actual taste, with her impending changes to come. He asked tentatively, "If you had a son, how would you act?" She chuckled in response but didn't say anything and kept eating. "No no. Hear me out. Like, would you be you, or someone else?"

She put the empty bits of shrimp shell down and wiped her hands on a wetnap. "Now who needs the shrink?"

He frowned at her. "I'm serious. You want to know what Civil Liberty was like. Would she be the same as a mother than she would.....not a mother?"

After washing down the food with some beer, she sat back, eyeing him. "You mean events in her life shaped who she was. Events like, your birth?"

He nodded.

"Deep. I'm impressed. That implies we are subject to the whims of circumstance and not to preordained behavior. A butterfly flaps its wings in 32,000 BC and I end up not antagonizing you over whatever is your current issue of the day." He was about to retort, but caught the glint in her eye. Was he thinking too much into what his mother was to become as well as what she SHOULD be, according to his memories? He certainly had every right since she was coming up empty with any memories of herself, let alone of him as a young colt when she was still around in their past lives.

Sitting there, tilting her head slowly in thought, she shrugged. "I don't know. How would I act? I don't know, Civil. I still feel like me, you know?"

"You called me Civil."

"Don't read anything into it, no flashes of memory yet. Wait a second. What's up with your name anyway? Everyone has the name Civil. Even your mother." She flipped her hand and added, "Me. I have the name. Right?"

"It's like a family name." Two steaming baskets with spicy Old Bay shrimp were slid in front of him. He busied himself with the shrimp.

"So who gains the name, father or mother?"

"Mother passes it on to both sons and daughters. If I joined another herd, a pegasus herd, I would take the mare's name. Unless she were not a pegasus. It's complicated," he got out between shrimp. He seemed to dig deeper into the baskets, if that were possible.

Frowning, she sensed something there. "And if you are called Civil, what would I be called? We can't all be running around being called Civil."

He mouthed around a maw full of food, "Momf...or Miff's Fliberty." Food fell out as he stared at her, obviously too busy with food to have a proper conversation. He went back to eating.

"Always a pleasure to dine with you, you know that?" She pursed her lips, knowing there was something more there, but she let it go. Time enough to grill him later. She went back to rediscovering how wonderful fingers were before she was never going to see them again.

****

They came back later in the evening and each went to bed, briefly telling their parents goodnight. There were more quiet hugs between parents and children, and no further discussion as to the validity of those titles.

Renee's dreams were of frolicking ponies and fairies and all manner of creatures she had made up in her own imaginings, never something she felt was a memory.

Civil's dreams were of replayed memories he hadn't touched in a long time. Memories of his pegasus mother singing lullabies to him, greeting him when he flew back from school, talking to him about how she wished she could fly with him among the clouds and the waves, or go fishing with him like their ancestors would, to dive as hawks into the water and climb away with fish almost as heavy as they were. All these memories were of Civil Liberty, the hero of Manehattan, bedridden due to some disease for which there was no cure. And then one day she was gone while his father and grandfather told him she had left and they were to carry on the herd without her.

The day he had flown back and found her bed empty was probably the second worse day in his life. The worst day, the day that had propelled him to his haphazard career with the Guard was when he had overheard the older pegasi talking to his father, telling him about how she was dead to the world and that they needed to move on. In his dream he did not fly away. He kicked in the door and yelled, "YOU LIED TO ME!!!"

That kick made him jump out of the living room couch and onto the floor, twisted up in sheets. Breathing heavily, he stood up. A quick panic attack and check later showed that he did not, in fact, have butter smeared on him this time. Or any other material, thank Celestia. He heard Renee giggling softly at the table.

"Oh come on, like I'd pull that same trick twice. Besides, you've had enough shocks this week." She shook her head ruefully at him. He smiled weakly and gathered up the sheets to pile them next to the couch and out of the way.

His human mother was already setting up a plate of pancakes for him, several rings of whip cream on top. Despite yesterday evening's tumultuous discoveries, everyone looked refreshed and well-rested. Karen especially. He surmised her good mood might be from finally getting that weight off her shoulders, she had kept that secret for so long. His father also seemed a bit light hearted.

He would ask Renee every once in a while about odd things like, did she feel more ponyish, or he would go on about when Civil first came back, what he was like at the dinner table, feathers in the laundry, somehow. Random holes in the fence. Civil did get angry. She would roll her eyes or laugh, claiming that that was so not going to be her. She winked at Civil, probably letting him know she knew where he got it from.

When everyone was seated and were well into their meals, Karen asked Civil in a steady voice, "Dear, without dredging up any bad feelings, what should we expect over the next few days? You are our resident expert in these matters." Daniel paused in his eating and placed his fork down.

Civil swallowed what he had and politely wiped his muzzle with a napkin. "I only went through it once. I'm not sure if what happened to me is typical." He cast around, trying to remember. Looking up at Renee who was staring intently back at him, he had another thrill of excitement shoot through him. His mother was alive. She was coming back to him! He smiled, saying, "I guess we could look online at those websites. They've had enough testimonials posted to get a proper timeline."

Renee nodded, grinning. Of course she loved it. Becoming a pony. Getting all the attention. This was right up her alley. "Perfect! Right after we finish eating, since I KNOW you have to have your meal or you get grouchy." Before he could even open his mouth, she added, "Because you were that way as a human." :P

He furrowed his brow at her but let it go. Patience, he told himself. She will eventually change and remember her former self. Then all would be right in the world.

"Still no memories?" Their mother was looking down at her plate when she casually asked the question. "Should we be worried about this?"

Civil shrugged and went back to eating. "I don't think so. Most everypony's heads got messed up from the curse. We found two methods to get them back and straightened out. One was the long method, spending time with other ponies, running into acquaintances, doing pony things or pursuing hobbies you like to jog the memories, that sort of thing. The other was to have your memory reset by Sweetie Belle." He frowned slightly. "That requires a visit to Equestria, where I'm still banned from entering." He lost his appetite and merely stared at the leftover pancakes.

Renee exchanged looks with his mother. True they knew different, but each had their own opinion about what to do with that knowledge. Karen's was the voice of reason, naturally. "Perhaps we do not need her to go to that extreme. Spending time among family and friends sounds like a fabulous way to remember things, am I right?" She looked to Renee for support.

She nodded back. "I can live with that." She looked down at her plate and proceeded to devour what was left, eager to get to the internet. Civil saw this and had a renewed appetite, doing likewise. Finishing up quickly they both delivered their plates to the kitchen sink, Civil's by mouth while Renee giggled the entire time.

"Get used to it," he mumbled around his plate. "You'll be doing the same thing soon." She blew a raspberry at him. Both of them wandered back to the table and sat down, each pulling out phones to do their own searches. Since Renee had already been looking up stuff, she was hitting the popular sites. Civil's search was a bit more circumspect, having already dealt with the basics. He was still concerned over why she had no personality changes or name switches, or anything for that matter.

"It says here that Day One you lose track of time." She looked up with a curious expression. "Unless it happened while I was asleep." Glancing at her parents she muttered, "No way to know when I was born exactly, so that moment could be any part of the day." She avoided her parents' eyes because, honestly, she didn't hold any grudge against them. If anything, they could have saved her from a horrible foster experience. She kept on reading.

Civil cleared his throat, he kept reading his own searches while reciting the things he remembered. "Day Two. Hair length changes by 3pm." He glanced up, "Assuming we are looking at the beginning of a normal day-"

"Nothing normal about this shit," Renee murmured quietly while reading.

"Renee!" her mother exclaimed. When her daughter glanced up, Karen chastised, "Language. You are his mother now, too. You have to set an example."

Civil started chuckling while his sister groaned. "Oh come on, I'm not ready to be a mother!" She went back to reading her phone with a sour look.

He continued, looking up at the ceiling, "Hair color, eye color. 4pm, your walking starts to change, too." He looked down and noticed she was watching him. He held up his hoof. "We are four-legged. It doesn't happen instantly. You'll go from being uncomfortable to downright painful if you fight it. Eventually you have to learn to walk on all fours. Almost like crawling except it feels natural, AND you move around a lot quicker."

She shrugged. "Yeah, walking is fine. I can't wait to fly!" Going back to her reading, she missed the look of pain on Civil's face, but it was gone so quickly, nobody else in the room noticed. "Okay, I think I'm looking at the same timeline as you are. Let's see...mhmm, tail forms, ears...middle toe longer, nails...ew, gonna skip that part, so not into feet talk."

Civil rolled his eyes, but was only half listening. He wasn't looking at the timeline, having zipped through it early on once he was back Earthside. No, he was scanning for memory specific posts on various forums and blogs. Most of his queries turned up the usual stuff. Disorientation, flashes of mismatched past events. How they were cursed was always in the forefront. Beyond that, everypony was unique in their quest to discover themselves. He sighed, peeking up at Renee who was diligently reading.

How would she rediscover herself...when the very thing she did was ONLY in Equestria and impossible to do here?

She interrupted his troubled thoughts by sitting up and exclaiming, "SEX CHANGE!?!" Everyone in the room stared at her. Civil, in particular, got scared very quickly. Could she have...was it possible....?

Renee shrugged, "Oh well, unless your mother was hiding some big...BIG secret from the rest of you." She snorted to herself, mumbling, "...big..." to herself.

Civil rubbed his temples with his hooves, trying to stave off an oncoming migraine. His parents gave him a barrage of questions after that, Renee pointedly ignoring all of it because her reading was far more important than their questions about her genitalia. Every once in a while, just to annoy Civil, he felt, she would mutter under her breath, "...big big big..." and would grin when she spotted him getting flustered out of the corner of her eye.

Finally, Civil shook his head, holding up his hooves at his human mother, "No mom, I really don't know. We'll just have to find out. Two days from now...two days we'll know." He quieted down, thinking. In two days, he'll know where she's been all these years.

"Day Four, bam, ponification. Or pirate hooker." She looked into Civil's shocked face. "You know, whichever is more fun."

He shook his head, turning off his phone. On one of the sites that specifically dealt with helping your fellow pony regain memories here on Earth, he had left a post simply asking if there were any instances where a pony had absolutely no memories at all, not even of Discord, if one were to be so blessed in the first place. He folded his forelegs on the table and rested his head on them, looking to see if Renee's hair had changed yet.

She placed her phone down, bookmarked the page, turned it off. Giving her parents an odd look, she regarded Civil. "Not much to it, other than the memory thing."

"Mm, yeah," he replied quietly.

She clapped her hands, "Okay. We can try it. If you see me freak out, stop. Got it?"

Civil sat up, frowning, "Try.....what, sis?"

She shook her head, "Well first, let's try calling me by my new name, or old name. Hahahah, old name, like I'm some old nag!" She gave them all a 'get it?' look...but given the stares she got back, especially Civil's, she thought about what she'd just said. "Yeah, don't call me an old nag. Anyway, my name is...Liberty?"

"Civil Liberty, yes." He was still bothered because it wasn't natural at all to call Renee that. It should have been. Everywhere he read, that was a subliminal thing that happened on its own, memory mechanisms not withstanding. The egghead unicorns went into memory study far more than Civil cared to read about.

She smiled, "Right. Next, let's try the curse thingy. Like I said, if you see me freak out, we'll stop and figure out something else. Got it?"

This was the moment of truth. Civil's heart leapt at the chance for her to remember him, as they were, when things were good in Equestria. He nodded back. "I promise, and I'll only recite a few words at first. It does get easier the more you hear it in the waking world." Her returned look didn't show near the confidence he hoped he was conveying. At best he was half scared, half excited. His real mother, his pony mother was right in front of him, alive!

She pushed back from the table, yet still remained seated. "If there is any shock, I think sitting would be a good idea."

He nodded in response, "I agree."

Karen got up and sat down next to her husband in a spare seat, both keeping their opinions to themselves. She held her husband's hand. They knew this was a pony thing and were content to watch until they were needed.

Civil walked over to Renee and sat down in front of her with his phone, looking at her eye to eye. Then he tapped on it a few times. "I want to get this right, so I'll reference one of those websites dedicated to helping us with the curse." A few more link clicks and he had the page up. Glancing over the words, he felt a twinge of dread, remembering the past. He looked up. "Ready?"

She nodded quietly.

"Okay." Relaxing himself, he intoned while glancing at his phone, "For Five Score, Divided by Four-" He didn't get much further than that.

Renee turned a cadaverous white, eyes rolling up into her head and she started convulsing, falling out of her chair onto the floor. All three family members were there in an instant, trying to rouse her. That's when Daniel said three ominous words. "She's not breathing!" Quickly he put his ear to hear chest to listen. His voice broke as he sat up and put hands on her chest. "My god, her heart's stopped!" Immediately he began giving Renee compressions. He got to about thirty chest compressions before two breaths, then he listened to her mouth, then chest. Nothing. He began again. While doing that he looked up, startled to see Karen just standing there. "KAREN! Call 911!"

That shook her out of her daze and she scrambled her way into the kitchen to use the wall phone.

Civil could only sit there, his mind reeling at what he was seeing. He waited for his father to finish the second round, listen, listen, then the third round began. Swallowing to wet his dry throat, he asked, "Dad, did...did I...k...kill-"

Daniel stopped and was about to rebuke him when he realized what he had stopped doing, then continued with the CPR. In between his heavy breaths, as this was starting to wear on him, he got out, "No! Don't....don't EVER think this...huh...was your fault. That piece of work you talked about...huh...Discord. Whatever that shit's name is...huh...his fault." He paused to breathe for Renee, listened, listened, then continued, and said, "His fault..."

And so it was for the next few minutes, or an eternity as it felt to them all, waiting until the paramedics showed up. They were expeditious about it, taking up the resuscitation as a free firefighter pulled Daniel back so his compatriots could work on Renee. Daniel collapsed. He hadn't had that kind of workout in years, not since the military, at any rate. He had just enough energy to lean against the wall and prop his head up to keep eyes on his little girl.

A few curious glances were spared Civil's direction, but mostly they ignored him. Their work was his sister. He refused to believe this could be happening, that he was about to lose his mother again. And yet, there were simply no other signs or clues to suggest she was his mother, except for the cutie-mark. That still didn't make any sense. As far as he knew, Liberty's mark was unique. No generic 'background' marks or reverse coloring. Her attainment of her cutie mark was directly linked to the statue back in Equestria. How many of those ponies could be running around?

None, now. His snarky mind betrayed his heart at the worst possible time. He swore to himself, feeling ill. He overheard the paramedics talking to his human mother. The gurney had already been brought up while the initial team was still working. They weren't waiting around for a response.

"Ma'am, I hear what you are saying, but they don't code after a mental shock like that. The worst that's been reported is maybe an epilepsy attack. Nothing like this, not according to the bulletins we've been given from around the world. You are sure she hasn't eaten anything she's allergic to?" The glare he got in response made him drop that line of questioning. Noting his team was ready to move, he nodded to them and turned back to Karen. "Okay, we'll do everything we can for her." A reply, barely a whisper, and the paramedic replied, "Yes, you can ride with us. We'll tell your family where we are going."

The next couple of hours were a blur to Civil. A steady and strong hand on his shoulder, an elevator, a car. He remembered seeing water from a bridge. A hospital, large red cross signaling to all you could find help here. He hoped there was help here. Then a waiting room.

That was the worst, waiting without knowing. Or at least, not knowing what was going on with Renee.

Another family walked by and Civil glanced up, momentarily spotting a young adult in the group. Lanky, dark skin male, possibly from South America. Their eyes met briefly, and Civil uttered the words without thinking, "Mint Jamboree."

The young man blinked, and made to hang back when an older woman said, "Francisco! Darse prisa. Tu padre nos esta esperando." The man gave Civil a brief smile and hurried after his family down the hallway.

Something was wrong, Civil noted to himself. Something was very very wrong, with Renee, with the world. His mother. His PEGASUS mother, and she was dying...again.

***

Once the doctors were sure Renee wasn't going to code, Daniel and Civil were allowed to visit. There was mention that the paramedics had to provide breathing and compressions for an hour before Renee responded. Typical time was twelve minutes for most survivors. He had to look that up. Looking up normal CPR times to compare to your mother's...masochism had many facets, Civil thought to himself darkly.

Karen had never left her daughter's side. When told to leave earlier by the head nurse so they could work on her, Karen had told her, "If I have to lose another, I WILL be here when her soul moves on this time. She will NOT be alone." Their mother rarely put up a fight, but when she did....

She never left her daughter's side.

Renee was asleep in the bed when Civil saw her again. It was several hours later, early evening, when they walked into her room. Daniel made sure with the nurse that all the vitals on the screens were normal. She wasn't even on a drip of any kind. Had they not witnessed what happened earlier, nobody would have known anything was wrong with her.

Daniel leaned down to Karen who was sitting by the bed to whisper something. She shook her head, replying, "Not again, Dan. I won't leave her alone."

He was very gentle with his voice. "Honey, Civil is here with her. You need a break. The doctor said she will wake up when she is ready. But you have your health to consider, too. Let's get you refreshed, something to drink, you'll feel better, I promise."

She looked up at her husband dubiously, but eventually she nodded. She smiled at Civil. When they passed, she knelt down to hug him, and then they made their way out.

He eyed the small chair his mother was using and wandered over to the larger lounge chair which looked a heck of a lot more accomodating for his body shape.

***

He found himself in front of the god of chaos. Civil was clad in full Royal Guard pegasus war gear, like last time. He was yelling at the god for teleporting his mother to Earth and causing so much pain.

"I'll kill you!" he yelled and lunged at the draconequus.

"I think not. Fantasy land, remember?" Discord poofed into smoke and Civil hurtled through him. He reformed behind the confused pegasus, eyes glowing. Wait, that never happened before...

"So violent. A wonder you're not a weather pony. Your mother certainly wasn't." The god grinned.

"Don't you dare talk about her!"

"Why not? I know more about her than you do. That whole understanding someone best as they die, yadda yadda yadda." Discord flipped his paw back and forth as various small images of dying ponies popped up, and died.

Civil stood there stunned. "What...what are you talking about? How..." He glanced around, noting the weirdness of the place. They were in a carnival now, with zombies walking around. Human zombies. This was from the game Left Four Dead Two.

"Indeed. She was most calm about it, as though she had made peace with it long ago. Quite possibly one of the few most soul-soothing conversations I've ever had. Unlike that Flutterwaggin-what's-her-face, Mrs. Liberty understood her position and my nature. It really was rather painful sending her off...but, as you must know, she WAS dying. Better for her to eak out two and a half more decades of life in another world than to watch her die in a dark underground vault. You should mention to dear Celeste not to leave her pet projects lying around. They do...cause problems if left unchecked."

It was starting to dawn on Civil that this was not a normal dream. They were riding on a merry-go-round now. He was on a seahorse. Discord was on a painted alicorn which looked remarkably like Princess Celestia. And the creature was laughing his head off. It did come off, run around, and jumped right back up onto his neck.

The music was starting to get louder.

He wanted to yell at the creature, ask the creature about what vault, tell the creature to piss off for talking about his mother like that. Civil asked, "Is this real? Are you real or just my imagination?"

Discord morphed into a purple dragon with a yellow shirt that said 'Figment' on it. "I don't know. What does it look like to you?" Laughing louder he spread his wings, eyes blazing yellow. Right before he was about to smother Civil, a dark shadow cast itself across the landscape. Discord looked up into the sky, muttering, "Figures she would show up now." He looked back down at the cowering pegasus. "You know, you really should work on that bravery of yours. You seem to do better when you are protecting someone. How about yourself? Allow me...." Before the skies completely blackened, Discord came at Civil with that one tooth hanging out of his mouth.

***

He woke up with a start. Looking over he saw his sister/mother was still asleep, so he quietly slipped off his chair, walked over to the restroom and relieved himself. Right before he was able to hop back up onto his chair, he heard, "Wash those hooves first, mister."

"Yes mom!" he got out before he realized what just happened. He spun around to see her staring at him with a comical look. Civil made to go hug her but she winced away.

"Ew, the hooves! Wash them!" Quickly he ran back to the bathroom, swished them with soap and water and clipclopped back, then hugged Renee fiercely. She patted his head while scrunching up her nose. "Please, you're acting like something bad happened."

He lifted his head to stare at her in disbelief. "Something bad did happen! I'm sorry!"

"Sorry for what?" She sat up a little more.

All he could do was point at her and the bed. "Oh," she remarked and shrugged. "well, they said my heart stopped, so I guess you finally got your revenge for all those arguments you lost." He didn't take it too well, which meant he buried his muzzle in the sheets, sobbing. Renee groaned to herself and patted his head, "Hey, shush, I'm kidding." He cried harder. She laughed. "Omygod, relax!"

He looked back up at her, face wet from tears. "How can I relax? You almost died, for REAL died! AGAIN!" He swallowed, finally calming down in the knowledge that she was alive, here and now. "How can you even laugh at all this?"

"I have to. So do you." She smiled down at him.

"Huh?"

Her hand wiped away the wet spots on his fur and used a corner of the sheet to take care of his wet nose. "With all the stuff in this world, any world, you have two choices. Laugh, or cry. And crying is not much fun, so I prefer to laugh."

Civil stood up straighter and swallowed, looking at her in awe. "That's....that is something my mother would have said, back in Equestria. I mean, she didn't, but she would have."

Renee positively beamed at him. "See? Things are looking up already." He smiled gratefully at her and sat back.

"You almost remind me of a certain pink pony."

She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm not THAT crazy."

He hugged her again, this time without all the Niagara Falls going on.

"Soooo, what does my cutie mark mean?"

"Huh?" He looked up at her. Of course, subject change for the awkward moment, coming right up!. "Oh, um, it means it has something to do with your special talent."

"Duh, knucklehead. I MEAN, what does IT mean, the statue thing? It's a ponified Statue of Liberty. Does it mean I'm a beacon for all freedom loving creatures? Does it mean I'll be stuck as an immigration social worker? You must have some idea, you're my son, right?"

He held his head low. "Please, I'm still processing that." He looked up. "Truth?"

"Yeah!"

"You never told me."

"WHAT?!?"

"You said you got it the moment you saved Manehattan. They built the statue to honor you initially. Then they scrubbed all historical records of the details of the incident. Even your name, so now only our family members and Princess Celestia know."

She sat there, mulling it over. He swallowed and went on, correcting what he had said, "So now only the princess...you...and I know. At least about the statue. What happened, only you and she know that, but you never told me. Or anypony else."

"Oh come on," she lightly nudged him with a hand, "I didn't tell you how a huge statue got made in my image? That doesn't sound like me."

"You said you were sworn to secrecy. Safety and well being of Equestria, and that it was such an honor that you would take that secret to the grave, while flaunting the awesomeness of being immortalized in green metal." He frowned. He didn't remember his mother flaunting a whole lot when he was young...except when it came to cutie-mark discussions and related exploration lessons. "You would dance and pose, showing off your mark," he said ruefully. It was the only time he ever see her so energetic in the past. It warmed him inside to think back on those times.

"...okay that sounds like me."

Silence.

"Wait," she said. "Our, our pony family is just you and me?"

He nodded.

She grew alarmed, "There's no one else? Oh Civil, I'm so sorry for everything I've-"

"Renee, sorry, Mo..." He sighed. "Mom, don't. It's not your fault, or mine or anypony else's." He rubbed her arm with a hoof gently. "Maybe Discord's. But he got his. We just weather it, like pegasi always do."

She nodded. "Pegasi. pegasi? I'm going to be a pegasi?!" Happy again. That's the Renee he knew.

"Pegasus, and yes."

"I'll get to fly?!? Omygod!" Now she was clapping her hands like a giddy school filly.

He gave her a pained look. He muttered, "Maybe."

"Woh woh, wait. What do you mean, maybe? I'm getting wings, right? Why wouldn't I get to fly?"

He looked away, not wanting to go through with this part.

"When I was young, you were sick. You walked around slowly, and most times you didn't have the strength to hold you wings up high and tight, they hung. They hung low. Usually you stayed in bed, but at the top of our lighthouse near the giant windows so you could watch the skies, and watch me flying through the waves or playing on the beach. You never told me what it was you were sick with. I think you were in pain all the time."

"Ew that sucks. I don't feel any pain right now." She moved around and wiggled, then shook her head. "You don't suppose that shit comes back with the change, do you?"

"I don't know. Discord was a sick fuck. He'd curse somepony right before they were about to keel over just to double the suffering when the poor pony found out they were about to die."

"We can always hope for the best, right?"

"No matter the thunderstorm or horrible night, sun always comes back out to make it right."

She snorted, "Gee, that's corny as shit. Where'd that come from?"

He eyed her warily, "You always told me that, growing up."

She glanced away wistfully, "Huh, suppose I Gotta remember that one." She snorted again, "Still sounds like shit."

"I'm hoping you remember a lot more," he said quietly.

Shrugging, she replied, "Nothing yet, Spanky. Sorry."

"You've NEVER called me spanky!"

"Gimme a break, I'm trying out stuff, see what clicks."

He blew the bangs out of his eyes in exasperation. "Gee, lemme guess. Memory trigger techniques, Psych 101?"

"201, intermediate studies I. Psychology."

He groaned. "Just stay out of MY head."

"No guarantees." She smiled sweetly.

He sighed.

Reaching up to her own hair, which was now starting to show a metallic red sheen to it, she frowned. "I was hoping to try straight hair someday. It's getting curlier now."

There was no look of disappointment on Civil's face, but one of recognition and warm love. "It looks beautiful. It will look even more beautiful later on against your fur." She fixed him with an unamused look.

"Okay, oh future son of mine. What kind of fur am I supposed to get?" Her tone was not too thrilled. He had to tread lightly here.

"Um...mint green?"

"Fuck. I hate green." So much for 'lightly'. Then she glared, "Wait wait wait. Even I know that the Statue of Liberty was not originally green. The salt water turned it that color. How could ponies make a statue that just happens to be my fur color?!"

He shrugged. "Uh, it's the Equestria, stupid?"

She glowered at his twist on James Carville's famous campaign quote.

She paused in her thoughts Did he just call me stu-?

"And your eyes will be brilliant emerald green!" he added quickly, then groaned inwardly. Please don't dwell on the eyes, not the eyes.

She hissed softly. "Doesn't get any better, does it? None of my clothes can be altered to even compliment that color scheme...and...as far as the eyes...." She slowed down and chewed the inside of her cheek. A smile crept onto her face. "Don't you tend to fancy girls with green eyes-"

"I'm not having THIS conversation with YOU. Here. Ever." He stepped backwards quickly to the door. "I'm going to go see if they can release you early-" He ducked out before he ended the sentence, far sooner before she could respond.

Renee laid her head back and closed her eyes, whispering, "Yah, I got your number, munch."

***

Given the unheard of reaction Renee had to hearing the curse, naturally the hospital staff wanted her to stay the night, mainly as a precaution. With vital signs showing strong on the monitors and a list of the very specific changes Renee would go through during the course of the night and the next morning, Karen finally relented her watch over her daughter and allowed Daniel to take them both back to the condo. It had taken Civil convincing her that he would stay with his pre-pony mother and would call them if anything out of the ordinary was to happen. Karen did not find the notion 'ordinary' all that humorous, though her two children were chuckling it up.

Civil was there when her hair changed to a brilliant coppery red, which Renee found most appealing, despite her earlier whining. She lamented her fingers starting to fuse together, nails thickening, though Civil once again was quick to assure her there were plenty of products to take the place of nail polish, such as enamels and glitter to make her hooves shine. Really, her having somepony alongside her was tons better than when he had gone it alone. He started to tell her about that part when she reminded him she'd already heard his story.

But, she said she didn't mind him telling it again, especially since it related very well to her current situation. He knew she requested it just as much for him as for her, so he obliged. Later that night he curled up in the lounge chair after making sure it was as close to her as possible without interfering with the occasional nurse visit. Karen had promised Renee would not be alone if...he put that out of his head. He would uphold that promise.

The morning found him waking up to some really good smells. Pancakes, sausage, orange juice. He was pleasantly surprised to see he had a tray sitting in front of him on a dolly, same as Renee. Liberty. He checked himself, actively trying to think the name into his head for recognition purposes. It just didn't seem to be clicking, an oddity that was bugging him. Looking over at her while she devoured her meal, he noticed she was having trouble using utensils since her fingers were starting to fuse. The sheets at the end of the bed must have come up during the night (she was an active sleeper, always pulling up the sheets). He could see very familiar hooves, as well as the fur that was starting to show above them. Those same hooves he had crawled around and seen early in his foalhood.

"Hooves!"

She started choking on her food and pounded her own chest with a wrist, eyes tearing up. He hopped up on to the bed and used a wingtip to bring the glass of juice over to her. She had trouble grabbing it with both hands but eventually got it to her mouth to swallow the remnants of her mouthful.

When she could finally speak, she gasped, "Dammit, Civil what the hell! YES, I have HOOVES. For fuck's sakes!"

He squeezed his eyes shut. "Fuck, I yelled that out loud. Sorry, sorry." He made to leap down off the bed, yet he paused, looking back at her. The hair, the eyes, even the face was starting to change a little. "Incredible, you really are starting to look like her."

She grinned, finished up with the juice and clumsily put it back on her tray. "Yeah, well I'm not feeling it. How the hell did you do that with your wing? I want to do that too." She blinked a few times, frowning. Then she smiled sweetly. "Teach me!"

He sighed and sat down on the bed, nodding. "Anything you want to learn, I will try to teach you." He glanced around, saying, "I'm hoping they release you soon. Grabbing stuff is one thing. When your body structure starts making two-legged walking impractical, I'd prefer to be back at the condo. The carpeted floor there is a lot more forgiving than these tiled hallways."

She saw how serious and thoughtful he was of this, so she avoided saying anything snarky. A press of the button got a nurse to give them the good news, that once she felt like getting up, they were good to go. A press of a few cell phone buttons got their parents to arrive in the rental out front not long after. Per policy the hospital made sure the changing human/pony was wheeled out the front door in a wheelchair. They didn't need pony lawsuits thrown at them during what should be a normal change. Renee/Liberty still grumbled the whole way, naturally.

Once back at the condo, that was when it really sunk in, her changing. Everyone, and pony, helped her from the car to the elevator as she wobbled on hooves instead of feet. She kept licking her teeth, feeling them slowly turn herbivore instead of omnivore. She would sniff the air and ask about fresh flowers, or ask for someone to grab some of those dune grasses outside, despite the signs saying it was a revitalization project and it was against the law to step inside those fenced areas.

Civil assured his parents she was merely craving pony foods. They had grains, breads, and a few other things a bonafide pegasus could eat, so setting up a couple of snack plates for her in the dining room area wasn't so difficult. He did tease her a little, regaling the savory delight of eating hayburgers and hayfries back home, much to her grumbling stomach. She pointed a hoof at him accusingly, "Just remember, you owe me all of that, just for telling me about it. No stringing me up in the sky for food. I have standards"

He rolled his eyes, laughing, "Oh please, what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander?"

She nodded her head once, laughing back, "Damn straight!" They were getting along. They were laughing together. They were behaving like family.

Karen's eyes were moist, not from sadness, but joy in seeing them this way. She looked to her husband and saw him sitting in the living room with the tv on. He was smiling back at her as he blinked away his own tears. If they thought it was a bad thing for Renee to become a pony at any time, that sentiment was washed away now. Civil needed this, and in a very real way, perhaps Renee needed this too.

Later in the afternoon, there was less laughing, and more groans of discomfort and pain as Civil and Renee tried to walk up and down the hallway, Renee shifting from two to all fours, then back to see which felt better.

"Liberty, dammit," Civil growled to himself. His sister/mother raised her brow.

"Did I do something wrong?" She flexed her shoulder blades. Yeah, those wings were starting to come through now. She didn't feel like looking back there until they were properly formed. Images of raw chicken wings at the grocery store kept assaulting her brain, especially after Civil had described their early look.

He shook his head. "No, sorry. Just me. Keep using the wrong name. It just doesn't seem to want to stick."

She stood back up. "Well, I can tell you my body just doesn't want to stick to all fours. This halfway shit isn't working. We can try when I'm fully changed. Tomorrow, right?"

He stared up at her, lowing his wing that was supporting her as she used the hallway wall to lean on. "Your name? You are supposed to be my mother and I can't for the life of me use your name?"

She smirked down at him and shrugged, "I meant walking." She dropped the smirk and eyed him, "Wanna start calling me 'mom' now, or wait until I finally look like your mom?"

He couldn't tell if she was being serious or if she was fucking with him. Knowing the Renee side of her, she could pull off both with style. "I'm going to opt for the 'finally look like my mom' one."

She nodded, "Good answer. This shit's killing my pelvis anyway." Looking down at her her hands, she noticed they were almost completely cloven now. "Alas, poor fingers, I knew them well."

Civil groaned and started walking, "You know, if you are going to make bad quote references, at least get the quote right. There is no 'I knew him well' line. It was just 'Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him." He waited to see if she needed help, but she made it a point to wall-walk her way to the dining area.

"Yah piss off, they're my fingers. I knew them WELL." He snorted and kept on walking to the living room.

"I don't wanna know what you did with those fingers," he muttered, bleaching his mind of bad thoughts. Bad pony, bad pony.

His human mother smiled thinly at them and stated, "And then they were back at it again."

"Oh moooom," Renee groaned melodramatically. She flopped into a chair at the table. "If you were having this happen to you, you'd demand some allowances, too."

"Hmm, then it's a good thing I am past my prime."

"Hey hey, you are not past your prime, dear wife. I oughta know." Delivered as only a proud husband like Daniel could.

Both pegasus son and pseudo-pegasus daughter groaned, "Nooo!" The parents smiled, relishing the rare occasion they got to dig at their children.

Civil settled down on the couch, his sleeping spot as of late. Karen eventually got up and sat down next to her husband on the couch. Renee puttered around in the kitchen looking for cereal and eventually had a combination of junk food, cereal, a glass of milk, and a few roses Civil had grabbed from a florist down the street earlier in the day. Dinner had already been served and he had explained to everyone that her appetite was taking on one more suitable for those of the flying race variety, so it was with very very little worry that Karen looked on as she watched her daughter completely eviscerate what would have been a young lady's diet.

The evening wound on, getting dark outside, the waves rhythmically crashing on the beach in soft shushes of white noise. They were all together. Civil periodically glanced at Renee to check on her. It was part loyal Guard, part loyal brother...part loyal son. This was what it felt like to be together with loved ones, to be a family again.

To be a herd, again.

***

Civil jumped up from a deep sleep. He heard a loud keening wail from down the hallway, only this time it was vastly higher in pitch. Hm, she must really like what she sees, he thought to himself. He stretched his wings and looked out the window of the sliding glass doors surrounding the living room, noting the sun was barely starting to peek over the ocean horizon. He yawned and mumbled thickly, "Yeesh, Renee, pipe down, you're a pony, not a siren." Swallowing to get some wetness into his otherwise dry mouth, he started plodding to the hallway. His parents were still asleep. Strike that. They were just waking up as he walked past their room on the way to the spare. He said, "I got this, pony stuff," waving a wing at them as he went by their doorway.

He poked his head around the doorframe into the spare room just as the wailing stopped. "Oi, you are waking up the whole building, what gives? You knew this...was...going to happen...?" He stopped, because Renee's bed was unoccupied. The sheets were pulled up from the edges and mostly wadded up in the middle with a few bulky lumps, but no matronly mare. The pillow had a large divot in it as if someone had slept there recently, but that was it. No pony at all.

Taking a few steps in, he called out, "Renee?" He paused and said, "Liberty...?" Ears working in different directions, he said in a lower, trembling voice, "....mother....?"

One of the bulky lumps moved. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he steeled himself. Maybe she had torn into the mattress and buried herself in it with just her head sticking up, like in the Godfather movie with that horse's head, maybe she had become an alicorn, grown a horn, magicked herself to phase into the bed, maybe she was dying, maybe she was-

He grabbed the sheets with his teeth and yanked back, ripping them off the bed.

A small ball of green fur tumbled out, tiny wings and legs splayed out to keep from rolling all the way off the edge. Coppery red hair from mane and tail spaghettied everywhere, making it seem like someone took Medusa's head, airbrushed it up with eye-popping greens and reds, and then decided to roll it across the bed.

When it came to a stop, part of it tilted up to stare at Civil with two brilliant emerald green eyes. Eyes he knew most of his foalhood.

There was a foal staring up at him. A newborn foal with his mother's eyes. And his mother's fur color. And his mother's mane color. AND HIS MOTHER'S TAIL COLOR!?!?! They stared at each other in terror. The small thing opened its mouth and repeated that same high pitched keening wail he'd heard only a minute or two ago.

Without thinking, he picked up the quivering crying mass of newborn pony, turned it slightly to bear witness to the tiny cutie-mark of the famous statue back in Manehattan, and he was truly frightened. Not of babies or foals...or baby foals. Not of his sister being gone. Well, she wasn't, sort of.

She was right here, in this small package, not much larger than a cantaloupe. He wasn't even frightened that this was not the mother he remembered. The logical part of him reasoned that perhaps this had something to do with why she had been gone for so long.

As a seasoned Guard, he had learned to look beyond what was in front of him, to take minor details that others would dismiss out of hoof, put them together to form a picture that he could decipher and defuse before it blew up in his captain's face (Shining Armor's face more specifically), or...Celestia forbid...Princess Celestia herself. No, he was frightened of what all this meant. He KNEW Civil Liberty was supposed to be an adult. He KNEW nopony else had this marking, on account he was always told it was unique. What he didn't know, was if Discord's curse was now reverting ponies to their infant state.

'Your Memories Removed. Your Body Confused.'

Twenty-five years was a long time for a god of chaos to do bad stuff unchecked.

His ears picked up the fact that his parents were standing behind him, stunned. Frankly he wasn't sure how much more they could take, with his kind. With 'pony stuff'. He had to trust them, had to look to them for help on this one. Even if they kicked him and this...whatever it was, out of their household, he needed them right now. His mind shifted from panic to logic to panic to logic. He was never good with babies as a human or pony. Now it felt like he was being squeezed by both worlds. The essence of the curse, no matter when or if it wore off.

Not sure how to explain this, or what to say at all, he opened his mouth and uttered, "...mom...?" He didn't know which one he was calling out to this time.

He didn't know if it even mattered anymore.

Next Chapter: Ever Drop a Baby? Civil Did! Shhhhh! Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 45 Minutes