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// 29 - You See That? 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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"It must be different."

Comforting looked around from on the large couch she sat on. The couch was in a room, but she couldn't focus on the room. It just wasn't important. The couch was large and soft and what else mattered? "Harmony?"

"Most know me as a force." Harmony stepped out onto the arm of the couch in Comforting's body, eyes gazing long. "And little else. We do not have that relationship. Following my directions... You do it like you would a friend asking politely."

"Which I would." Comforting turned to face her doppelgänger a little above her. "Why is that bad?"

"Because sometimes it will be hard. Sometimes it will be very hard, and you get so little in return." Harmony dropped bits in a pile from her hooves, as if she had already been holding them somehow. The coins faded on contact with the couch, a promise of nothing. "Wouldn't you become irritated at a friend who kept doing that?"

"If you asked them for dumb reasons." Comforting clopped her hooves together in one firm motion. "Which you do not do. You will ask because something needs to be done, not because of anything silly." She had a hard time imagining Harmony doing anything as a joke. That was not their style. "I met the sad pony! He needs a hug, but more than that, he needs someone who's listening."

"And you are listening?" Harmony slid down the couch chair to stand next to the filly that was another of them, physical twins as they were. "I would ask more, but that would change things."

"Change things?" Comforting lowered her hooves to the soft cushions. "I'm not a prediction that you have to keep right."

"Yes you are." Harmony sat next to Comforting. "A prediction I enjoy." She skewed an ear to the side, the cup facing Comforting. "I am very logical. I see things how they should be, and must be. I can see where you will be, if that prediction remains true. You could wander off that path."

Comforting crossed her arms. "And I'm guessing even telling me what you see would change that."

"It would." Harmony set an arm around Comforting, holding her gently. "So I will not. Ponies do not often wander from the paths I see, but you are still... not entirely a pony. You have wandered from the path, but always onto a new one that I find you on, smiling and cheerful. One time... I fear you will not."

"It could happen." Comforting played with her hooves before hopping up. "I could end up in a field of stars, being rescued by some huge alien with soft words."

"That already happened." Harmony inclined her head. "Did you forget it?"

"No!" Comforting stuck out her tongue. "That was the joke. I didn't see that coming, and neither did you, but it made something great. Unexpected isn't always bad."

"Then I am helping." Harmony nodded slowly. "I am giving you more to not expect." And the dream ended without preamble.





Comforting was there and waiting for the custodial pony to come walking up. Her eyes were on him and not the water, for she knew what needed her attention more. "Good morning!"

"Good morning to you." He walked right past her to get the gate open. "Are you going to watch me clean every day? I'm doing the bathrooms today. It'll probably smell."

Probably, but that didn't dissuaded Comforting from following after him. "You know, you are allowed."

"Allowed to do what?" He closed the gate after Comforting with a clang. "Chase off little fillies? Ain't doin' a good job of that."

"You don't want to chase me away." Comforting walked alongside the janitor. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Clean Sweep." Like many ponies before and after him, he had a name that said what he was. "Uh... and yours? Alright to ask, yeah?"

She let him get his cleaning supplies for a quiet moment. "Comforting Shade." She pointed at herself with her name. "Nice to meet you. Trading names is a good way to get a friendship going."

Clean colored faintly. "I'm... a thousand times your age." He was not a thousand times her age. He may well have been younger, mentally. "You don't need to be friends with me. Why aren't you talking with ponies closer to your own age? You seem, uh... damn nice. To a fault, if we're bein' honest."

"Sorry." She circled around him as he went down the hallway. "Not trying to bother you, honest. I did ask... Twilight said you could join, if you wanted. Older ponies are welcome, if they want to learn what the school is teaching."

"That's nice." He was not going in any new direction, instead pushing into the stallion's restroom. "I'd still be sorrounded by a bunch of young ponies, jibber jabberin' about things I don't know."

"Sounds like a good time to learn." She trotted into the bright and tiled room. It stank, as advertised. Even Equestrians could make a smell in the proper place. Still, she did not flee. She had a mission and she was ready to see it through. "Being here is uncomfortable." She rocked left and right. "But I'm doing it anyway."

"Me too." He got to cleaning the floors first, combatting the stench a little at a time. "I get paid to do it. What's your excuse?"

"It's what I want to do." It was also her mission, but she kept that quiet. "And you want to understand ponies, like why I'm not leaving or doing what you ask me to."

"That would be nice." He glared at her, but only for a moment before the cleaning resumed. "Look... Thanks an' all, but... Look... What if I don't get it? I don't get it right now! I'll be the slowest kid there, and I ain't even a foal! They'd laugh at me, in my face or behind my back, ain't much better either way..." He pushed into a stall to get to cleaning in there. "I don't... I'm not the fastest pony 'round, alright? Or I'd have figured out how to get you back where you belong."

"I am where I belong. If you want to learn and you go to a school, then you are where you belong too." She hopped up onto his bucket, balancing on the rim carefully with a little wobble. "I bet they'd let the teachers come here if they wanted to learn something."

Clean turned away from the toilet. "Why in Equestria would Rainbow Dash come here?"

"She? She probably..." Wait... "She already did... When she couldn't figure something out, she asked her friends for help." She grinned at Clean Sweep. "They went the extra mile to make it so she could understand it. It was really sweet! That's what the teachers here are, so sweet. They want to help. They want to make you happier. Stop telling yourself that you're not worth a little effort."

"It wouldn't be a little effort." He pushed her out. She was a little filly and making her slide with a little direct force wasn't that hard. He closed the door after her with a click. That conversation was over, just like that.

"Huh..." Still... She felt like she was getting closer, bit by bit... She turned from the door with a giggle. She'd get through to that stallion! "You deserve happiness too." She walked off to the entrance of the school.

An eye peered at her from a barely open door. He watched her depart and sighed with relief. "She ain't gonna leave me alone..." He sank against the wall he was next to. "Life isn't always bein' a foal..."

Still, something prodded at him. Rainbow Dash wasn't a foal. She was an adult! She was a Wonderbolt, at that. A success story viewed from near every angle...

"Hey." Rainbow looked up from her desk. "Cleaning up?"

Clean Sweep nodded. "I'll get to that, ma'am... I'm here to talk to you."

"To me?" Rainbow curled both hooves at herself. "Well, here I am." She looked a bit smug at anypony needing her attention. Of course they did. "How can I make your day more awesome?"

"Won't take long, um, ma'am." He fidgeted in place from hoof to hoof. "Ah... heard ya asked the other teachers here for some help, studyin' one time."

Rainbow colored swiftly across her face. "Who said that?!"

"Ah knew it was silly." He turned to depart. "Sorry fer botherin' you."

"Wait!" She hopped up onto the desk that had separated them. "Yeah... it happened. Um... I had to pass a test about pegasus history, and history is not my favorite subject..." She slashed across her throat with her hoof. "But, um... You know Twilight and the other teachers?" As he nodded, she smiled. "They came through for me! They broke it down, um, the way I... Look, not every student learns the same way." She poked the side of her head. "I'm a visual. You put something I can see, especially while I'm flying, and I'll get it."

He was quiet and still a moment before he started to turn back towards her. "What if ya had a student that weren't learnin', but wanted to, um, learn?"

"That's the important part." Rainbow nodded with a firm arm folding. "If they want to learn, then we figure it out. That's part of a teacher's job. I am one of those!" As if that had been forgotten. "So if a student asks me for a hoof up, I'm on the case! If I can't figure it out, I'll ask the other teachers for help. Starlight's the counseler and she's good at that! Hey, if this is about a specific student, send them her way to chat."

"Good idea..." He glanced away and back. "Um... Silly question..."

"Some smart pony somewhere one said, 'The silliest question is the one you don't ask'. I don't entirely get it, but it makes sense to me. Go ahead, ask. We're already chatting and all." Rainbow hopped down from the desk closer to Clean Sweep. "By the way, hey! We work at the same place. We should chat more often."

It was his turn to color. Rainbow Dash; the Rainbow Dash was asking him to talk to her? What a strange day it was becoming. "Um..."

"Don't be overwhelmed." Her brows waggled with meaning. "Look, I'm here to talk with fans, not scare them off with awesome rays or whatever. So, uh, shoot, what was your name again?"

"Clean Sweep," he got out, stiff in fear.

"Nice. So, Sweeps, what's the question?" She was leaning in, too close!

He pushed her suddenly, reclaiming his personal space with a surprised yelp. It was right after that he colored and shrank. He had just pushed Rainbow Dash! "Sorry! Um... Shoot... Don't fire me."

"One." She raised a hoof. "I can't fire you, that's Twilight's thing. Two." She sat to raise the other hoof. "I wouldn't fire somepony for that. What'd you even do?"

"I shoved you?"

"I was a little close." She grinned without worry. "Sorry about that. So, the question?"

"Oh..." That he hadn't been fired... out of a cannon... to the moon... was surprising enough. "What if the student that was havin' all kinds a trouble weren't no foal? Say they were a 'dult... What then?"

"What's the difference?" Rainbow shrugged softly. "I was an adult when they helped me." She tapped herself on the chest. "Does that make me weird? Good, 'cause I am. I'm the best, and that's a bit odd, but the best kind." That she was completely confident in herself was hard to miss. "You know an adult that could use some lessons?"

"Uh... Say ah did..." He shrank towards the door, the conversation making him less comfortable by the moment. "What then?"

"Then we get to know them and try to figure out the best way." She pointed in the same direction. "I'd still send them to chat with Starlight. She's good at this!"