"I want to know!" She had spouted it before really thinking about it. "Will magic that matches it be easier?" She pointed to her rump. "Does this help?"
"It does, actually." Celestia examined the hugged heart of a cutie mark. "A vital clue, because it tells us where you, as a pony, are already pointed towards. An embraced heart? Now, were I to guess, I'd say social circles is where you prefer to be."
Comforting colored faintly. "Small social circles. When I can help someone one on one, that feels really nice... Big parties, not so much..."
"Ah, you would know better than I, in this case. It is your cutiemark. I'm glad to hear you understand it well." Celestia set a hoof on Comforting's right rump without resistance. "That is still useful information. You are not social, more... mental, hm. That can still take many forms, both physical and not, but comforting, not attacking, or entertaining."
"Just like my name!" Which she got from... somewhere. Where did she get that name from? "Silly question."
"I doubt you are capable of such a question." Celestia gently nodded at the little filly. "Please, do go on."
"Where do ponies get their names from?" Her tail curled into a poor subsitute for a question mark. "I didn't pick mine."
"Few do, but some... As adults, do decide on a title for themselves. For the rest, it comes to mothers in their sleep." She inclined her head towards Fluttershy. "Though she is your mother, you were never in her belly, so she had no such dream, and you already had a name."
"So you must have had the dream." Comforting blinked at the great alicorn she was talking to. "Is that how you found me?"
Celestia returned the blink, struck dumb a moment. She had a dream. At the end, a pony named Comforting had entered the world. She burst into merry laughter. "From the mouth of a foal, those are wise words. It worked out that way, didn't it? I dreamed the name, and so it was."
Fluttershy looked around Philomena, who took up much of the real estate in front of her, resting on her arms. "Um... What dream?"
Comforting tensed, realizing she had gone into another place perhaps she shouldn't have. "She said they came from dreams, and if not you, then who... else could it be?"
Celestia extended a wing partially. "And she is not incorrect. I had the dream, of your name, and your arrival. Hm. I would not wish to compete with Fluttershy, but this makes you, on some viewings of things, my filly." Both Comforting and Fluttershy went rigid. "Please, relax. I know you two are quite close. Think of me as a caring aunt, if you would."
Comforting bobbed her head at that, ears flopping in the motion. "An aunt sounds alright." She looked to Fluttershy, who was already nodding. Aunt could be lived with. "The test?"
"Yes, the tests." She folded a wing and her horn glowed as several strange objects floated free of her, making a circle around Comforting. "Each of these represents a specific 'focus' of magic. Broad strokes, if you will. There are countless even more specifics in each, but they give us a starting point." Celestia put a hoof on the bowl that rested between herself and Comforting. "Start with this one. This is a bowl of seeing. Fill it with water while yearning for knowledge, then stare into it quietly until that knowledge appears. How quickly and clearly that knowledge comes is a hint. I should warn, trying to see something too well guarded will pit your magic against the will of the one being spied on, so I suggest something public and unguarded."
Comforting reached for the bowl, Celestia's hoof withdrawing as she brought it closer to herself. "Hm." It was a clay bowl, not even remarkable at a glance... "It's enchanted?"
"It is." Celestia inclined her horn at it. "And I've been using it for many years, with many foals. Go on, fetch some water."
"While thinking of something I want to see..." Comforting left the bowl behind on her way to the sink. Something came to mind and she filled the pot with water, returning to the bowl. "And just pour it out?" With Celestia's nod, Comforting poured the water out with soft splashes until it was about three quarters full. She set the still heavy pot aside and sank next to the pot, staring into its calming surface. "And... wait?"
"Think of what you want to see, keep that." She lifted her left ear. "Ah, actually... You can see magic, can you not?"
"Yep." Comforting was watching the water, waiting. "Does that help?"
"Try to make your horn glow a little, as if you were doing magic, not to glow. Your magic is a part of this. It's what we are testing."
"That makes sense..." Comforting flexed things to get the magic flowing, though she couldn't focus on specific letters, as she knew no spell involved with it. She could see the off-brown glow at the top of her vision that told her she was doing it without actually looking up at her horn. "And... wait..."
It was good, perhaps, she had an older mind. It took too long! She could feel her impatience growing and growing. She wanted to move, or to do anything really, but she kept denying her subconscious request. No, she would sit, and wait... What felt like ages later, the water stopped being water. She couldn't see the bottom of the clay pot anymore, instead darkness. "Huh?"
Celestia inclined her head. "What were you trying to see?"
"The pond." Comforting pointed the way, still looking at the darkness. "Just outside."
"It is growing dark, speaking of which." Her horn glowed as she tended to her duties, setting the sun to sleep. The light came into being in the picture, only to go away into even deeper darkness, but then it wasn't dark.
Lights, little specks. Stars! And a moon! They all reflected off the surface of the pond. They were looking down directly at the pool. Comforting began to clap eagerly. "Ooo! That's really nice. Does this mean I'm good at this kind of spell?"
"Yes and no... That took a long time, but the result is good. With practice, you could become good at these kinds of spells, likely one by one. I don't think this is your specialty." She gently willed the heavy bowl up and emptied it into the pot it had got its water from. "Still, we are getting closer. Now, have you had supper? I don't want to be in the way of that."
Fluttershy released Philomena to find a new perch. "I was just about to start that when you arrived. Um... would you... like some too?"
"That sounds delightful." She raised a hoof to her chin. "If you have the supplies, make enough for my guard. He's just outside. I will gladly recompensate."
"Oh, no! Don't even worry about it." Fluttershy fled into the kitchen. "Two guests extra, you got it." One was a royal guard, and the other was a big alicorn. She got to making plenty of food for everypony.
"I'll make sure she gets something." Celestia winked at Comforting, clearly meaning to make things even, even if Fluttershy was ready to write it off. "Now, let's try this one." She set her hoof on a strange metal fork with very wide tines. "This is like... a tuning fork. Have you ever seen one?" Comforting was quick to nod. "Very good. Like a tuning fork, it can harmonize with energy. In this case, we will be harmonizing with electricity. Imagine the zap you'd get on a nice dry day when you touch your hoof to a doorknob. Focus on that, right into this as you hold it. The brighter and bolder the spark you make, the closer we are."
Comforting clapped her hooves in on it from both sides and held it up in front of herself, horn glowing. Magic was a part! She was pretty sure that remained true. Spark. Spark! Like lightning, krakow! Shaking the sky in its fierce crackle.
A thin line jumped from one tine to the other with the smell of ozone and an audible zap. "Very good." Celestia nodded softly. "You got that very quickly, but it isn't a very large jolt. Can you try for a larger one?"
Comforting did her best, but the spark wouldn't get much larger than it had started. "You control is excellent." Celestia gently pulled the fork away with her magic. "Commendable. With practice, you could get good at it, but it is not your talent." She set the fork where it started.
"How did Twilight do?" Comforting sank to her haunches. "Did she do great at all of them?"
Celestia smiled gently. "You would think so... But no... She was nervous, very nervous... Poor thing almost failed all of them until I calmed her down enough to proceed, then she did well, but not excellently, at all of them. It was quite a showing for a filly her age. You are doing quite wonderfully as well. Not as good as her, but her cutie mark is magic, so we'll forgive that."
And so it went with the next few strange trinkets. She tried to create butterflies from nothing, feel the life within herself, put up a shield in a glowing bubble, and even influence Celestia's mind.
"You are tickling me, which is still something." Celestia brought in a wing to tickle Comforting right back. "But that is not your specialty."
Comforting pouted as she looked at the few left. "I'm running out of things to try."
"Which just means we're close. Try this one." She brought down her hoof on a cube.
It was a cube of marble, smooth and cold to Comforting's touch. "Ooo, it's pretty. What do I do with it?"
"It is attractive, but it could be more... Hold it up, and imagine it was something else pretty." Her voice remained calm and even, a caring matron figure as she had many years to cultivate. "I know you can do it."
Comforting willed the cube into the air, studying it. She perked an ear at Philomena doing a musical call and her thoughts went to the phoenix, pretty as she was. The marble shuddered and changed. Before their eyes, Comforting's eyes shifting colors as it happened, the cube took the shape of Philomena, though it was still marble.
"Excellent!" Celestia leaned in, studying the new statue from different angles. "It has the gross details down quite well. Hm, I think we've found what you're good at. Have you had any work with spells that change things? Physical things. Say the color of something, or even its shape?"
Comforting flipped her ears back. "Yes! I had an accident... I turned my friend to stone. It was an accident!" Sure, she had already said that. It bared repeating. "She's alright now."
"Oh my. I didn't hear about that." Fluttershy was listening as she set the table. "Dinner will be ready shortly. Do you want to call your friend in?"
"Good idea." Celestia rose to her full and tall height. "I'll get him. He'll enjoy a nice homecooked meal with us. Comforting, turning any pony to stone is a feat. That you managed to do it at all... I should have asked, it would have saved us quite some time. This is clearly your specialty. You are a transmuter."
Fluttershy applauded the news. "How wonderful. I think Discord will be happy to hear that."
"I'll be happy to hear what?" Discord was right behind her, taking a place at the table he hadn't been invited to. "What's the good news?"
Comforting couldn't care at that moment. She hopped up into the chair across from him in a spritely bounce. "I just found out what my specialty is. I'm a transmuter!"