//------------------------------//
// 53 - Dirty Flight 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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"You are looking really happy." There was Gallus, casually joining her walk. "Figured you might be in trouble or something."

"Nothing bad." Comforting hopped up to her hinds and did a little twirl, almost falling over as she came back to all fours. "Miss Twilight says I'm doing well in class."

"Good on ya." He slapped her on her back. "Let's hope we can be busy not saving the world for a while, huh?"

"Hope so." Comforting smiled up at her griffon friend. "Wanna do something fun?"

"Oh, I already have something fun in mind." He rubbed his hands together with a plotting look on his face. "Now that magic is all fixed, my machine should be working."

Comforting perked at that. "Oh yeah! Ooo, I hope it works out super well."

"As if you won't see it, c'mon!" He led her to their secret cave to behold the machine operating properly. It could spit out keychains at a respectable 10 a minute. He slapped one of the productions against her waiting hoof. "Ta da!"

"Ooo." She turned it left and right, lifting it in her magic. "It looks just like her." As if a picture were taken and copied, of Twilight, onto the keyring. "Very nice... When do you plan to start selling them, and where?"

Gallus grinned at Comforting. "One step before that. We need a hook, and I think you know just the way to do it. Some way to get ponies thinking about the keyrings."

Comforting considered this with all due gravity, rocking in place as she hummed and hawed.

Gallus rubbed his hands together with a grand smile. "I know you got something cooking up there."

"Mmm... One thing."

"Yeah?" His eyes shined with hope. "Lay it on me."

"Right now, most ponies do without one." She reached for a keychain off the machine. "If you gave one to Twilight and her friends and got them to wear it casually, then they can start being an 'in' thing. No shouting, just... let nature take its course."

Gallus considered with all due beak rubbing. "Hm... The trick is ponies usually wear them in their pockets, and it's easy to miss that."

Comforting redoubled her consideration. "True. If they're hiding them, that doesn't help you... What we need is for the keyrings to not have keys."

"Say what?" Gallus tossed his hand aside. "That's what a keyring does! If they don't have keys, what else do they have?"

Her first instinct was to say a phone, but nobody, or pony, had a phone in the area. "Other things they usually have on them, and as cute accessories. Watch." She grabbed a bit of string hanging off the machine in her magic, tearing off a section and weaving it through the keyring, soon making it a necklace. "Ta da! And..." She poked the metal part of the keyring. "It has this loop to add other charms and things for others to see."

Gallus smooshed her cheeks suddenly. "And we can sell charms! Now you're onto something! I knew there was a reason I kept you around." He pushed her back, already mad at work planning what the charms would look like. "I'll tell you," he muttered, brain miles away.

Comforting rubbed where her cheek had been pressed. "You're welcome..." She considered leaving, but stopped. "No."

"No?" He didn' look over at her, drawing something instead. "No what?"

"I'm not leaving." She crossed her hooves and struck a mighty pout. "I want to be more than 'that pony with ideas'. I'm here because I want to be friends, Gallus."

Gallus made one last scratch with his quill before it began to sink in. "Huh?" He let the quill fall to the desk as he looked over at her. "But you are a friend."

"Am I? We rarely hang out unless it's the whole gang, or I'm giving you ideas. That doesn't--"

He put a finger on her nose, quieting her, even if she looked angry. "I don't trust anycreature else with this." He waved back at the keyring machine. "We talk privately because I trust you. This means a lot to me. If we weren't friends, we wouldn't be here, promise you that. Now, you want to do something else, fine, if you want. What do you even want to do?"

Comforting sat back, a little smile forming. Maybe she had made more progress than she had originally thought. "What would you do if I was a griffon you were friends with?"

He rolled his eyes. "Now you're double-talking. If you were a griffon,  I wouldn't be friends with you, probably."

Comforting squinted at the idea. "Really, not friends with any griffon?"

"Most of 'em are jerks." He shrugged as if noting the sky happened to be blue. "With a few tiny expections, like Gabby, and me, I guess."

"You are not a jerk," assured Comforting with her hooves at her hips. "And you have friends, even if they're not griffons. What do you do with them, when I'm not around?"

"All kindsa things. We go to the lake. We get snacks or floats. Sometimes art if we're feeling like it..." He cocked a brow. "I usually let them come up with the great team ideas. They're better at it. Look." He crouched down at her level and fell forward to all fours. "With you I can talk bits, and I like that. That isn't, ah, uh, distance thing. I like that." He poked her on the nose, a habit he had. "I like you."

Comforting colored softly. "Um, thank you... I like you too." She realised in that moment she had been saying that to a lot of her friends of late. A habit she was forming? "I don't mind talking money. I just don't want to feel like that's the only good thing I do."

"As if." He snapped the fingers of his right hand, standing up. "You have all kinds of ideas in that little head of yours, money related or not. I don't even get it. Now, I need to think up some awesome charms, so let's turn this off." With a loud thunk, he did just that, turning off the grand machine. "And get a snack while I brainstorm. You like cookies, right?" He paused a moment. "Chocolate chip?"

"I do like those." She followed after him to get her prize of cookies. "And maybe I'll share a few ideas."

"If you don't mind." He looked ready to hear any ideas she had. Together, they went to visit Sugarcube Corner.





"Yeah!"

Comforting blinked at the musclebound stallion. "I can try..."

"Yeah!" He pumped a hoof, looking quite pleased. He practically threw himself on a weight bench and began with one set of weights. Two pegasi came, one from either side, adding a weight, and another, and another. Each time he did a pump, they added another weight. His motions were slowing, but he was still going. "Yeah!"

There was a limit to his strength, and he was rapidly reaching it, slowing to a crawl as he struggled to raise the impressive bar loaded with heavy weights. It was Comforting's turn, playing the song of enhancement on her horn and directing it at Bulk Biceps. She could feel the strain, like she had begun a trot, as she filled in the gap and he got the bar up, allowing the pegasi to swoop in and add another set of weights. "Yeah!" Bulk was delighted that he had moved onwards, and with that second wind of encouragement, he started going with extra gusto.

They added another weight, and another, but even with her help, there were limits, and she could feel herself getting to it. She held up a hoof, their signal.

"Yeah." Not as excited, but he held up the bar for the pegasi to take the weights off instead of adding them on. Comforting could, and did, rescind her magic slowly, leaving it in Bulk's natural strength in a slow pass off.

She gusted for air, but she didn't pass out. Progress. "How was that?"

Bulk sprang free of the bench and grabbed her, hugging her tight. "Yeah!"

Comforting squeaked and wriggled herself free of the delighted, but sweaty, pony. "You're welcome... Maybe we can try that again in the future."

She was delighted to report her progress to her mother later. "I can feel when I'm getting tired, and how hard I'm working. I won't make that mistake again!"

Fluttershy set a wing gently on Comforting's back. "I'm very glad to hear that. It sounds like you made Bulk Biceps very happy today. I think he gets happier the more weight he manages to move. A curious hobby, but most of us have one." She perked an ear at her child. "Do you have a hobby?"

"Does magic count?" Comforting rubbed her chin. "It really should."

"Hm... I suppose it could. You're not doing it because you have to, and you have fun doing it." Fluttershy giggled softly. "I wonder sometimes what that's like, but I enjoy the gifts I've been given. I wouldn't trade all the magic in the world for being able to understand animals."

"Well..." Comforting considered that. "If you had all the magic, wouldn't that include an animal talking spell?"

Fluttershy raised a brow. "Technically true, but I'd have to cast it, and know when to cast it. I wouldn't hear if an animal was talking to me casually, until I cast the spell. It's not the same thing." She shook her head slowly. "No, I prefer it just the way I have it."

Innate versus cast. The difference wasn't one Comforting had considered. "Huh... That makes sense..." How unicorns weren't the best at everything seemed clear in that one bit of logic. "Duh." She clopped a forehoof on her forehead beside her horn. "A spell to see magic probably is out there, but it wouldn't be the same as my eyes. Built in tricks are different... I wonder if anyone around here has that spell... I'd love to share it, with you and Miss Twilight, so you can see what I see."

Fluttershy drew her foal close. "Wanting others to share your perspective is a very... understandable thing, but accepting the differences in those perceptions is also a part of friendship and relationships in general." She inclined her head. "My friends don't hear animals talking like I do, and that's alright."

"Yeah... But if you could share it, just for a little while, you would, wouldn't you?" 

Fluttershy recoiled at that counter. "Hm... I suppose I would. It would be an educational experience, if they were up for it. I wouldn't force them, oh my, no."

"Of course!" Comforting spread her hooves. "If I found the spell, would you want to see what I see?"

"From what you've described, it sounds very pretty. I would like to see that, if you can share it." She leaned in. "Of course, you realize, once I see it, then I'll always know what I can't see."

Comforting came up short. The logic! "Oh no... I'd be making you blind."

"Not that extreme," assured Fluttershy, setting Comforting to the ground. "But that would happen if I shared the whisper of animals, or you the color of magic. Something to consider, is all."

"That's a heavy thought..." She pivoted mentally. "What are you making for dinner?"

"Now that is not a heavy thought." Fluttershy rose up and started for the house. "Why don't you help me this time? Would you like that?"

Cooking, with Fluttershy? "Yes!" Comforting sprang after her at a lively little trot. "I will be your best assistant."

"You'll have competition." She nodded at Angel bunny as they passed him. "He's been my cooking assistant for quite some time now. But maybe, with practice..."

Angel glared at Comforting and crossed his fuzzy arms.

"I can't talk animal, but even I can figure that one out." Comforting offered a hoof. "Why don't you help make sure I don't mess up? You're way more experienced with this."