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// 26 - The Cute-ceañera 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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The music was bouncing and so were some of the ponies. They had filled up a larger room in the school with staff and a few smaller ponies. Diamond Tiara was there, patting Comforting lightly. "Behold, a party!" And it was hard to argue with that fact. She had arranged quite the bash, but without inviting the entire town.

Instead, the school staff. It seemed like the entire school staff. Even a janitor or two had managed to get in and enjoy a snack when they weren't helping clean up. It was very efficient, come to think... "Darling." Rarity had found her. "There you are. Congratulations, and what a mark." She clasped her hooves firmly. "I saw it in class, but that was hardly the place to speak on it. Very bold, I love it."

Comforting smiled up at the adult pony. "Thank you! Oh, um, when should I give that speech?"

"Speech?"

Comforting looked at Diamond sharply.

Diamond warded off the hostile look with her hooves. "Calm down. I gave a speech at mine. It's not technically required, but it looks good. You want to look good, right?"

Rarity inclined her head. "What speech? Did I miss a chance to give a speech?!"

Diamond fixed the larger pony with a smarmy grin, her tail wagging slowly. "You sure did. You didn't give one at your party? It's a time to tell the world what your mark means to you."

Rarity clopped her hooves to her cheeks. "And I missed it?! Nopony told me of this." She huffed as she stomped in place, clearly put out at this news. "Too late to do much about that now... Unless you want to hear how I got my mark?" She flashed a smile at the foals hopefully.

"I've heard the story." Wait, she wasn't supposed to say that!

"Did the Crusaders mention it?" Rarity nodded softly. "Good that they were paying attention. Alright, you have fun at your party." She patted Comforting gently and wandered off.

Diamond nudged against Comforting. "Told you. You don't want to be like that." She tossed her head in the direction Rarity had fled. "So let's do a little speech. They really are here for you, promise, so..."

"So when?" Comforting turned to Diamond fully. "I don't want to be rude." She could see a stage she'd probably want to use. "They look like they're having fun."

"They are here for you." Diamond leveled a hoof at Comforting, even with her nose. "You are the point of this party. You march up there and start talking. They'll listen, promise."

Comforting slowly exhaled. Right. She was the point of the party, so... It was natural... right? She trotted past Diamond and up the small collection of stairs up onto the stage. Ponies began to look at her curiously without her saying anything. Maybe her friend had been right? "Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming." She sank to her haunches with a big nervous smile. "I'm very happy to see all of you." She recognized most of them and gave a nod at the ones she knew well, like the teachers and the misfits she had become good friends with.

"This is... happening because I got my mark." She half turned to display that mark, the heart with the hooves wrapped around it. "It's a mark, like a lot of others, but it means a lot, to me. It means I should always look for how I can understand people, and offer my hooves to hold them when things get tough. Being nice and supporting is what it means. It means..." She inhaled instead of talking.

"It means a lot of things. I bet you all had thoughts like this with your marks." She looked at Twilight. "How heavy it must have felt, Magic? That's a big concept! How do you get your hooves around all of that? Were you nervous? I am... A heart isn't as large as 'all of magic', but it can feel like it... And it's just as important..." She set a hoof on her chest. "We all have one, but the one we have is the most important thing in the world, and when it gets hurt, it's like that world is crumbling around us..."

A wing settled over her. Fluttershy had snuck up onto the stage next to her and was sitting next to her ward, offering silent, but tactile, support. Comforting smiled at the backup. "I will probably not save the world, like some ponies,  but maybe I'll help one of those day-saving ponies pull it together, so they can be brave." She reared up and put out her hooves in an offer of a hug to no pony in particular. "I'd be happy with that, knowing I did my part. I... hope you're happy with that too, what I am, big or small. I won't always... Won't always succeed, but I will reach and hug and hopefully things will be better than where they started."

The room erupted into clops and stomps. Three ponies were roaring at her, the crusaders showing their support a bit more loudly than the rest of them. She had given her speech and not made a fool of herself. Success! Comforting moved to descend the stairs,  but Fluttershy grabbed her instead.

Fluttershy gently picked up Comforting onto her back and carried her down. "Today is a big day, um, for you. You were very brave, giving those words. I'm not sure I could have managed it."

Comforting hugged her mother from above. "You've been that brave before, and probably will again. You're super brave, you just need things worth being brave for."

"Hm." Fluttershy thought back on her braver moments. "There is something to that." She grabbed a cupcake and passed it up to her foal. "But that wasn't nearly as pressing. Nopony was relying on you. You could have just... not done that, and nopony would have been hurt. So what was your reason?"

Comforting held the muffin in both hooves, chomping at the sweetness. "Carrot!" It was that, at least. She was erasing it from the world. "You can partially blame Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They made it sound like it was just normal for a pony to give a speech, so I thought of one..."

Fluttershy turned her left ear up at Comforting. "But you learned better, it sounds like."

"Right at the last second!" Comforting flumped into Fluttershy's mane. "I already had the speech thought out... so..."

"So I'm glad you shared it." She curled on herself, pulling Comforting into her grasp for hugs and nuzzles. "It was lovely, and I think everypony else agrees. Is that how you really feel?"

"Of course." Comforting sat up in her mother's loving grip. "I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it."

"Ponies say a lot of things because they think they have to..." Fluttershy inclined her head. "That entire speech was written because you felt you had to. I've done a lot because I thought I... just had to..."

"Huh..." Comforting rocked left and right as she considered that. "Wow... You may have a point there... Still, yeah, that is how I feel."

"Good." Fluttershy gently set Comforting to the ground. "Enjoy the party. It's for you, after all."

Comforting rubbed nose to nose with her mother. "I will! Thanks for being here."

"As if I'd miss it." Fluttershy gently shooed Comforting off to do her own thing.

Comforting scampered off into the crowd, spotting someone she knew and veering to the large form. "Yona! Having fun?"

"Not a yak party." She shrugged softly. "But pretty good." She leaned to the side for a better look at Comforting's mark, the star of the show. "Must be strange, having that."

Comforting slid to a stop. "Oh, Yaks don't get cutiemarks, right?"

"We decide for self what purpose is." She thumped her chest and looked proud of that fact. "If change mind, change mind. Not know pony who's mark changes. How that work?"

Comforting glanced back at her new cutie mark. "Huh... I don't think I'll stop wanting to help people." She hopped forward and offered an arm towards Yona. "I may change how I do it, but... The mark would still work."

Yona brought down a hoof on Comforting's far aside and pulled her closer. "Glad you're happy. All that matters in end. Good words." She nodded up at the stage Comforting had been on. "I give words before." She leaned in, face dominating Comforting's view. "In Yak, not Ponish. Other Yaks listen and judge." She burst into deep giggles. "Nervous, but made it! Yaks are best at judging. I felt very judged... But made it!" She offered a hoof.

Comforting met it with one of her own. They had both survived public speaking. "Were you also talking about yourself?"

"Yes." Yona nodded and waved her other hoof in a slow circle. "Explain why I want come here. Glad it went well. I am learning. I am having fun too. Good choice!"

"Good choice!" Comforting clopped in applause and hopped up. "I should say hi to others too. Have fun!" With a parting wave, she got to walking.

"There she is." Silver Spoon had spotted her before the other way around. "Like, having fun?" She went up to the party filly with a grin. "Nice speech. Did you write it yourself?"

Comforting inclined her head left and right. "Who else would write it for me? It was... about me."

"Sure it was." Silver pointed to where Fluttershy was chatting with other teachers. "She knows you. She's, like, your mom. I bet she coulda come up with something nice."

"Probably..." Comforting recoiled a step. "But she didn't. I wrote it."

"Good for you!" Silver spun on a bit easily. "You did a good job then. Like, I couldn't do that for mine." She raised a hoof to her chin. "I got a writer to help me out and get it right. No shame in that either! I worked really hard with them to get it perfect." She pulled down the bonnet she was wearing. "But I'm not really, you know, a writer. You're a natural! You sure that isn't gonna be your talent?"

Comforting smiled a little awkwardly at that. "If I'm writing to help someone, maybe? Glad you liked it." She glanced about. "Did Diamond also like it?"

Silver waved off at a crowd. "She won't admit it, but I think she really really did." She leaned forward with a giggle. "Part of why I said you did a good job! Now you're past the hard part, so all you have to do is, like, have a good time with ponies you know." She pointed at herself. "Like me! Pinkie did the cakes and stuff, of course. She did a good job."

"Glad to hear it!" Pinkie descended from above as if that was a normal thing to do. "Saved your favorite flavor." She pointed off to a covered lump on a table. "Nopony gets a taste until you get yours." She crossed her arms with resolution. "So let's get to it!" She grabbed at Comforting with a grin and shuffled her towards the waiting dessert.

Unsurprisingly for a Pinkie creation, the cake was great when Comforting got to take her first bite. "You make it so well."

"I can't take credit for that one." Pinkie tossed aside the guarding cloth for others to approach. "Misses Cake was the one that made that one. She's the one I learned from in the first place, so as good as I can be, she's... ten times as good!" She threw her hooves up in the air. "You should see her when she gets serious!"

That didn't stop Pinkie from stuffing a cupcake against Comforting. "Now this I made, enjoy!" And off she bounced.

Comforting flopped to her bottom as ponies moved to get their share of the cake. The party was a bit overwhelming,  but not in a bad way, she decided. It was the loud welcome to making it past another step of being a pony, which she was, and she was alright with that.