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// 27 - I Apologize 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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Comforting had gone out like a light when she was settled in bed. With Fluttershy singing her a soft song and the bed cradling her from below, who could blame her that she fell away from the waking world so quickly? It had been a trying day with the party and speech, though both had gone well. She didn't resist and was soon a world away.

She dreamed of saving creatures. They were sad for many reasons, but she would appear, descending from the sky or popping free of the ground with her cutie mark as a big shield that warded away the bad feelings with a great clang of something impacting on metal as if the mark actually were that shield.

She was a warrior, a kind warrior. "I apologize."

She was conscious, but still asleep. She looked around with confusion in the familiar forest clearing. "Harmony?"

"I am here." Far-sighted Twilight stepped from the trees. "I apologize."

"Not looking like me today?" Comforting peered at her not-twin. "That's alright. You could be yourself if you wanted."

"I am a tree." Harmony approached slowly. "Trees do not speak."

"Right..." They had discussed that. "I more meant you could make up your own creature to be, even a tree that did talk! Why can't there be a tree that talks?"

"Trees do not talk." This was a simple fact, and one Harmony seemed unable to move past. "You are trying to be kind. I appreciate that." They met, the two sitting in front of each other. "I am not good at imagining new things."

Comforting frowned at that, but she was friends with a god of order. Maybe coming up with new things was a weakness. She envisioned things as they were, and how they could be improved, not whole new things. That was more Discord's speed, as far as eternal avatars went. "Oh... What if I made up a creature for you?" She, a mere mortal, was free of those limitations! "I'm not a very good artist... I could describe them?"

"Then it would be your creature, not mine." Harmony as Twilight leaned forward. "I would treasure it as a gift, but it would not be me."

"You're not you right now." Harmony waved over the Twilight that was not Twilight. "What would the difference be, except it'd be a form given to you by someone that likes you?"

"You are kind. But I have played a part in that. I apologize."

Comforting considered Harmony, who had not emoted her words, just spoke them, but they felt real despite that. "What are you sorry for? You didn't decide I was nice."

"I decided it was your fate. Maybe I noticed? It's difficult to tell the difference for me. They made your fate clear today, your purpose laid bare." She pointed at Comforting's bottom. "You are now shackled to the pony's curse, but you remain a willing captive, celebrating every new rope that ties around you. You cry with joy at each step, and I am unsure. This is not what you were. I apologize."

"No... It's not." She was an older human. Humans rarely worked that way. She was not older or human. Things had changed a lot. "I'm still not sad. You told me what was happening. You and Celestia pointed to the exit. I just had to step through it." Comforting smiled even as an imagined tear ran down her cheek. "Maybe it wouldn't have been bad. Maybe it would have been great, but I didn't know and I still don't."

Harmony inclined her head. "It is where you were meant to be. Why is that not enough?"

Comforting considered her god of a friend. That was a very Harmony way of thinking, she decided. "Because, for living things, just not knowing can be enough to scare us onto other paths. I'd rather try something new than face what might be the end... Besides, I like this." She spread her hooves slowly. "I like my friends, and my mother, and even school a lot more than I thought I would."

"You are something different."

"I am something wonderful." She put her hooves on her own chest. "With a life ahead of her. It won't always be easy, but I'm ready to face that."

"Brave... But not brave... Contradictions." She smiled gently. "This is a curse shared by all creatures." She set a hoof on Comforting's nose. "You forgive me so easily?"

"Nope!" Comforting nuzzled that glimmering hoof. "Can't forgive what wasn't bad in the first place. I want to visit you, by the way. The real you, I mean. I bet you're amazing in the real world."

"I am not." A simple statement of fact. "I am a tree. What would you do?"

"Talk to you." But Trees didn't talk back. "Sit on your roots and snuggle close." Comforting worked her hooves in slow circles over one another. "Give you a big hug you deserve."

"You can do that here." Harmony as Twilight spread her hooves.

A clearer invitation, Comforting didn't know. She pounced into those open hooves and hugged Harmony tightly. "Silly tree! I like you a lot. Stop acting like I don't."

"I don't understand why." Harmony returned the embrace as if she wasn't entirely sure how firmly to squeeze to send the proper signal. "I am an overlord. I will boss you around."

"To fix things, and we talked about this." Comforting waggled a hoof up at Harmony from the god's grip. "You'll ask first, knowing I could say no, but probably won't, but could."

"But could..." That was still a scary idea to Harmony, but not one she shoved away. She was still digesting that thought. "You have a mark now. I can call you. Will you be upset if I call you?"

Comforting squinted suddenly. "I... could be misremembering, but didn't you call Spike before? He has no mark. What's up with that?"

"I... improvised." That word. It was like a dirty thought. "I had no bind over him. He could have declined... He could have ignored me. I hoped he would not. He was raised by ponies and is similar, in here." Harmony tapped at Comforting's chest. "So I hoped."

"So you can do it!" Comforting nodded quickly. "It would be the same way, with me. You'd tell me what's wrong and I could say no, but... Probably I'm already on the case." She saluted even as she fell from Harmony's slack grip to the floor. "You can command ponies?"

"If it involves their mark, my power is much greater. Their purpose is close to me, and I can use that." Harmony as Twilight slowly tilted to the left. "They are far less likely to refuse with their mark being used. This is why I use them. I call ponies with the right mark, and things are addressed."

Comforting looked back at her heart of a mark. "So you'd call me if someone needed a bit of my kind of kindness?"

"You know, kindness is in my branches." The Twilight clone became a small tree. Trees did not talk, but they could show their Elements of Harmony easily enough.

It took Comforting a moment to click that together, but it came. "Oh! Right... yeah. I forgot." She set a hoof on Harmony's jewel-form cutie mark. "Was it always this?"

Twilight was back, the tree gone. "No. I have existed as and within many traits as ponies decided which was important to them. I am the force that binds them, and what binds them changes as they do. Your caretaker was very close to me. It is easy to call her and the other guardians of the elements. Very easy... So I did it. They would not say no. They barely considered the alternative."

Comforting tensed a little. "Make the rope around me friendship. I'll do it because it's right and I like you, and that's reason enough. I don't like the idea of 'I did it because I had to because of that mark or you put a spell on me.'"

"It is not a spell." Harmony touched noses with Comforting. "It is the way things are. So long as I exist, those chains remain. I warned you of this. Are you not a willing captive?"

Comforting frowned with new thoughts in her little head. "That's heavy... You can ask though. You've done it with me and Spike. That's all I'm asking."

"You have a mark." Harmony smiled, but it lacked the proper emotion behind it. "Things have changed. I apologize."

"Only if you let them," huffed out Comforting. "Go on, ask me something."

Harmony was still, strange scenes flashing in her eyes like a broken television set. "Comforting, there is a confused pony that requires your help. They are considering the School of Friendship. You with your adult perspective can assist them in this. Will you give them the hug they need?"

Comforting's rump tingled warmly without warning. Yes, she could hug someone! She could hug them until the problem was taken care of! That was... "No!" She glared at her cutie mark as if it had done something to her. "Stop that! Harmony, can you tell me which pony this is?"

"No." Harmony as Twilight raised a hoof. "My visions are limited, but accurate. What I have told you is enough to encounter them. Will you help them?"

"Huh..." That matched other cutie map quests. "So do my thing, but keep my eyes open for an adult in or near the school? Alright! I'll talk to them and we'll figure this out."

Harmony inclined her head. "You said no."

"I said no to being forced." She pointed back at her mark. "I will do this because I want to, and I want to help you, and help this pony. Are they nice?"

"They are within your ability to assist." Harmony did not have fine details to offer. "I can offer no rewards."

"You already did that." Comforting flopped against Harmony as Twilight. "I get to have you as a friend, and that counts for a lot. I'll look for this pony."

"Thank you." Harmony gathered up Comforting in a gentle hug. "I have much to consider."

The dream ended without further preamble.





"I have my first cutie task!" Comforting was sitting up at the breakfast table with a big proud grin.

"You do?" Fluttershy looked at Comforting's mark which was not glowing or showing any hint of being called. "Did you already visit the map? It didn't ask you to go far away... I hope? You're still very young." Fluttershy quivered with fear, her hooves working against one another. "Would you mind if I came with you?"

"You're the best." Despite that, Comforting waved her away. "I won't be going anywhere, promise. The problem is somewhere around the school, and you let me walk there already." It wasn't an always thing. Sometimes, she got a fun pegasus ride out of it! "I got more of a hint than you usually did."

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Oh! You know about them? Um, if I can ask... what do you know, then?"

"About the mission I have or the mission you had?" Comforting chomped at the fried goodness that had been made for her. "Mmm!" She had such a wonderful mother. "It's good!"

"I'm glad to hear that." Fluttershy relaxed at seeing Comforting enjoying breakfast. "I'm more curious about your mission right now. Is it dangerous?"

"I don't think so? There'll be an adult somewhere around the school." Comforting made a circular gesture. "They'll be thinking about joining, but unsure. My job is to cheer them up and help them get past that."

"How wonderful!" Fluttershy clapped with a joyful giggle. "That sounds like a perfect job for you. An older pony? We wouldn't turn away a grown pony that wanted to learn about friendship. I confess that isn't what we go for primarily."

"Which is probably why they're scared." Comforting wrapped her hooves around herself. "They need a hug, and I'll give it!" 

It was unlikely to be that straightforward.