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// 15 - Dark Chat 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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With the gentle sound of ceramic on wood, Starlight pushed forward a cup of steaming cocoa in her magic. She was sitting in her chair with a big smile. "You bring a thousand questions to my mind, if you don't mind my admitting."

"A little." Comforting lifted the mug in her magic. It wobbled a little, but she was getting better at that and could sip without difficulty. "Um, I didn't mean to scare you, Miss Starlight."

Without a sound, Starlight brought her hooves together to rest on one another. "I'm not scared, just curious. You obviously know my past."

Comforting's ears pinned back. "Was that a secret?"

"I can't say no in any honest way." Drawing from her steaming mug with two marshmallows vanishing into her mouth, Starlight sipped without thought as she talked. "But you have done nothing, besides know it. So the question is just how you learned it."

"So you're not mad?" Comforting leaned forward a little with growing hope.

"I'm not." Starlight sipped from her cup. "I just want to learn more about you. You know about more than me, I hear."

Comforting considered the older pony before her. That Starlight was nicer than the one she knew. She worked with Twilight, for one! She was a counselor in the school. The cocoa Comforting was sipping was delightfully delicious against her tongue and the marshmallows were just the right consistency, as a bonus. "I am not trying to make a big deal about what I know."

"And it won't be!" Starlight got that out perhaps hastily. "But I'm still curious. Where did it come from?"

But how did one explain that? "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

With a few plops, Starlight dropped a few small marshmallows in her cup. "That isn't a concept I expect a foal to worry about. The idea of a pony becoming... not a pony after they're done." She rolled both hooves, neither tied up with her mug. "Spiritual perfection, etcetera. I don't know the specifics. Why?"

Comforting tapped her small hooves together slowly. "That's enough, I think. I lived, and I died."

"Heavy." There was no shock there, showing she didn't seem as surprised as she should have been. "But there is no pony you could have been that'd know what you know. So how did you know about that? I was... between worlds with only two creatures that could have seen me. I have accounted for both of them, and they are alive."

Comforting could see she wasn't getting away with it. "You're not even a little shocked to have a re-birthed student?"

"I don't put a lot of stock into the idea." Her glowing horn flared briefly as Starlight's mug came down with a light thunk. "But it's hard to argue the logic. You don't act like a filly your age. In some ways, sure. In a lot of ways, no. Fillies your age aren't rushing to be in this kind of school and doing alright at it when they're there. Before we get distracted, let's stay focused. Where did you learn about me?"

Comforting felt something splash down on her hoof. Oh, she was crying. Filly emotions, darn it! "Um..."

"Hey hey." Starlight reached across and patted Comforting on the head. "No pressure."

"I-I know..." But the tears wouldn't stop. There was a lot of pressure! Starlight wanted to know all about it and Comforting knew. She didn't want to say, and that just made the pressure escalate. "Sorry!"

"This is obviously something you don't want to talk about right now." Starlight picked up her mug between her hooves. "So let's talk about something you do. Tell me about how things are going, the good parts."

Comforting gulped down a mouth full of the sweet brew. Her nerves felt like they were evening out a little. "I really like this school. The students are nice. I like the teachers. I enjoy learning... Please don't make me go away." Oh no, the tears had returned unasked for. "I really like it here." The tears wouldn't stop. "I've made great friends... I'm learning nice things... Please..."

"I'm not sending you away." Starlight was watching her cry. Something brushed Comforting gently, oh a napkin. Starlight was working it with her glowing horn to clear away the tears. "Let's be honest, I don't have that authority. The other teachers would kill me if I tried."

Comforting giggled softly. "They don't like me that much."

"Are you kidding?" Starlight was smiling gently. "I wasn't joking around before. You've made Twilight a happy mare being her horn student. She never got to teach a unicorn how to use their magic." She tapped at her own head next to her horn. "And you're attentive and ask good questions. All the teachers are happy having you around. If I did try kicking you out, which I wouldn't, they would shout me out, and maybe toss me off a tall building."

"They wouldn't!" Comforting was laughing despite her scandalized accusation as her tears dried up in favor of laughing.

"They might." Starlight leaned forward towards the little filly in her office with a bit of her trademark smirk on her face. "Especially if they heard I was being mean to you, which I'm not trying to be, honest. So relax. I may ask questions, but I have no teeth." She flashed the teeth she had despite that in proof that she had perfectly normal chomping teeth if any such reason to use them came up. "You can always say no."

"Say no, right, yeah." It sounded like Comforting was trying to convince herself as much as anything else as she restrained her breathing to a calming pace. "I know things, but how I know them comes with a lot... of questions. Do you... know the mirror portal?"

Her brows went up together sharply. "I've been through the mirror portal. Are you from Equestria High?" She offered a hoof towards Comforting. "If so, welcome."

Giggles escaped Comforting at the idea. "Sort of, but no!" She waved a hoof wildly to dismiss that idea. "What would I be, some little child of a student, their little sister brought in for a day that wandered into the portal? That would be quite a tale to tell the parents when they got home, and I wouldn't be so calm."

"So not that, alright." Starlight nudged her mug aside for the moment with her eyes set on Comforting squarely. "Another portal?"

"Another portal." Comforting inclined her head faintly. "And I was already dead, or dying. I suppose dead... My body had stopped breathing and my heart stopped and there are not a lot of ways to count that other than as dead..." She lifted a hoof to her chest to feel where her little new heart was thumping away. Life coursed through her despite any amount of lack of living she may have experienced.

Starlight sat up straight, her entire posture becoming entirely stiff. "That is quite the tale and difficult to... I don't mean to disparage, but do you have any proof to show that you've died before? Few ponies claim to know about that, of all things."

"How do you even try to prove that?" Comforting rubbed behind her head with some thought. "Nothing comes to my mind other than telling you what it felt like in those last moments. That sounds extremely uncomfortable for me and unhelpful for you as any filly could make up stuff about what they thought it felt like to die and how would you know if they were right or not?"

"Then let's skip that." Starlight willed her mug up to take a light drink from. "After that uncomf—pain—that thing, that bad thing. You are still here, clearly, so tell me what happened after that."

"Princess Celestia came and gathered me up and took me to Fluttershy's house, where Fluttershy welcomed me in with open hooves and a big bright smile, and I love her very much." So, yes, it was a big run-on sentence that Comforting got out in a big spill of words. "And that's where I am, now I mean, there, with Fluttershy."

"You're skipping a step." Starlight nudged at Comforting's mug with her own. "Don't let it get cold."

"Oh, right, yes, of course." Comforting cupped her mug as her magic helped tilt it with a proper drink. "You make good cocoa."

"Thank you for noticing that, but I'm still curious to hear about how you arrived."

The door swung open suddenly. "There you are!" And there was Fluttershy, her eyes wide and body tensed. "I was too worried to wait a moment longer."

Comforting jumped down to the floor, the mug clanking to the table and not falling over by the grace of the gods. "Mom!" She was soon hugging her caretaker gratefully.

Fluttershy had her arms and wings around her child, rocking them gently. "When you didn't come back right away, I got so worried! Are you alright? Did Starlight have to rescue you? I'm so sorry I wasn't there to help."

Comforting curled in the comforting grasp and forgot all about the questions and the answers. Why worry about either when she could be safe and warm in the grip of her mother? "I'm alright. Starlight was just giving me cocoa."

"Just cocoa and nothing else going on here." Starlight smiled nervously, not that anyone seemed to notice that. "You have a special little filly."

"Thank you." Fluttershy gently released Comforting and soon both were standing face to face. "And I should get her home so she can get some sleep. We both have classes tomorrow."

"Of course." Starlight leaned forward on her desk. "But, if I may, I'd really like to talk to her later. She's under a lot of stress and a counselor to chat with could be just the ticket."

Fluttershy gathered up Comforting onto her back. "If she'd like that. For now, we should rest." She strode out with her ward and a little smile. "Goodnight, Starlight. Be sure to clean up before you go."

"Yes, right..." She was the only pony left in the office with her own mug and the other, abandoned.

A quick flight home later, Fluttershy was still long enough to Comforting to slide off to her hooves. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Thank you for coming for me." They met in a gentle embrace and rubbed snouts. "I got to meet all my friends, together. They have a room at the dorms." Comforting pointed in the direction they had just fled. "They're all special, each in their own specific way."

"That is very true." Fluttershy closed the door once both were inside. "But, for now, get some sleep."

"I didn't see Diamond!" Comforting clapped her hooves on her cheeks. "She's going to be very upset with me."

"I saw her." Fluttershy gently nuzzled her ward's closer ear. "She told me where she saw you headed, and that you were safe, at least when she last saw you. I told her I'd bring you straight home, so that shouldn't surprise her too badly."

"Oh... Okay." Comforting accepted the assurance and soon was curled up on her bed, the covers over her and the light blown out. She just had to sleep, but that was easier said than done. She felt tense and worried. Starlight had gotten so close to the truth of things and there was little Comforting could do to keep her away.

"Why does that scare you?" At some point, Comforting had fallen asleep. A familiar voice with distant eyes was before her, but they had the image of Comforting instead of Twilight. "Are you ashamed of your past?"

"No!" Comforting sat up, no blankets to be seen. She was not in bed. It was dark, all dark. They were in a field of nothing. As if noticing her discomfort, the darkness went away, replaced with some forest. "Um, I mean, I'm not scared of it. I'm just worried about how they will react, if they knew exactly how much I knew."