//------------------------------//
// 67 - New Chapter 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

It was hard to put a finger on it. That she had fingers to put on things was a new, but familiar, thing. Comforting hopped down for the morning floor. "She didn't come." Harmony hadn't visited her the night before. Some part of her was hoping she would, and another part was worried she would. "We're still friends..."

Something in the air... felt different. Some strange subtle pressure, gone, changed? She struggled to put a word to it even as she stretched out each altered limb one by one. They were all mismatched, but they were all hers. They all felt like they belonged to her, as if she were born with them. There was no dysphoria there, in fact, she felt... good.

Gazing in a mirror, she liked the creature that smiled back at her, pony snout turned in a joyful expression. Her eyes swirled with colors, which only got more intense a moment when she realized it was happening. When she thought about it, they calmed down, one going amber, the other settling into a rainbow of hues. But they were both dazzling, and hers. "I... am kinda cute." She blew a kiss at the reflection and giggled.

Not many ponies would be rushing for her strange hand, but she wasn't asking their opinion on the matter. She was adorable, she decided, and she was the only one that had to be convinced of that. "Looking good." She fired a double finger gun at herself, and a cup across the room behind her suddenly fell over as if shot. "What?" She hurried over to gather the cup and clean the water that she had just spilled. "This is going to take some work..." Why didn't fantastical cosmic powers come with a manual?!

"You didn't make one." Discord was standing next to her without much warning at all. "But nice trick with the finger guns there."

Comforting squeaked in surprise, hopping free of her skin with her fright and finding herself a mass of exposed muscles, nerves, and various viscera. It didn't hurt as much as one might think. "Huh..."

He reached down to grab her skin and offer it towards her. "You dropped this."

She grabbed her skin with a dragon's paw. "Thanks." With some wriggling, she got it on like a suit and it popped back into being part of her. "Has that happened to you before?"

"More times than I care to count." A large number appeared over his head. "I said more than I want to count." The numbers trudged off, drooping and sad. "Really, I did tell them ahead of time. Now, welcome to your first day as a chaos spirit!" He clapped his hands. "I'm so excited! I hope you are too."

"I do want to know more," started Comforting with an unsure voice. "But I also have school and I'm not calling out because Daddy Discord wants me to practice something else."

Discord grinned in a new way. "Daddy Discord... It sounds even more fun when you say it, truth told. Now, I want to be sure, you're not mad at me, are you? You did kinda say yes in the heat of the moment. Just making sure you're not having second thoughts now."

"Second, third, fourth?" She counted on talons as she went. "I have a lot of thoughts, and school." She stuck out her tongue at him. "But I'm not mad. I still haven't figured this all out... but it's me, and I don't hate me, so, can't hate this." Simple logic, so far as she saw it. "See you after school?"

Discord ruffled her hair, fingers running over her long tufted ears. "I had been meaning to ask... Do you know about this?" He tickled at her tufted ear.

"Flutterbat?"

He recoiled his hand. "Huh, that's a yes. I do wonder why you ended up with that of all the parts of your dear mother you could have gotten." He shrugged softly. "Don't tell her I said so, but I think she rather enjoys that bit of her... Decisive and forward, flutterbat is free of the shackles she normally carries around."

"I can see that..." Comforting rubbed at her chin thoughtfully, scratching a bit with her new dragon claws. "She's pretty great as she is."

"Right?!" Discord swatted Comforting on the back. "Glad we agree. Have a good day at school, champ. Oh--" He snapped his fingers and produced two bundles from nowhere in a puff of smoke. "Breakfast and lunch. You're up early, so Fluttershy hasn't had a chance to prepare them. I'll tell her you've taken off."

Comforting accepted the packages. "That's really thoughtful of you. Thank you."

Discord clasped his hands together. "And they said I didn't have it in me to be a good father figure. Ha! I can do anything I want to do."

She waved as she scampered past him. Comforting burst through the door out onto the front lawn. A new enemy faced her. Angel frowned at her with some meaning only he could know.

"Nope." She flapped her new wings and tried to fly over the rabbit, just to flop to her belly. Flying was not an effortless thing. "Practice," she groaned to herself.

Angel landed on her head, standing tall and triumphant.

"You win this time..." She swatted at him, making him bounce off. "Rematch later." She scampered back to her feet and got to jogging into town. A friendly face. She veered towards the two fillies with a big smile. "Diamond! Silver!"

Both looked at her with confusion and worry. Diamond clopped a hoof to her cheek. "The crusaders were not joking."

Silver Spoon inclined her head. "Wait, like, seriously? Comforting?"

"That's me." She hiked a thumb at herself and bounced up into the chair at a 90 degree angle from the two others. "Good to see you!"

Diamond looked Comforting from top to bottom. "You... have a lot of everything going on there, don't you?"

Silver nodded firmly. "Like Discord."

"Just like Discord," agreed Comforting. "But it's still me, and we're still friends, right?"

Diamond waved that away. "Please. Even if we were being purely mercenary, you just got more valuable, not less." She plonked a hoof on Comforting's head, mussing her hair. "And we were already friends. But you have to tell us what it feels like. From the outside you look like an explosion of... everything."

Silver whistled softly. "That's putting it mildly. I'm, like, surprised you can walk at all. Scootaloo said you were really hurt last time I talked to her, and here you are, just... bouncing along, like, and... this." She waved at Comforting wildly, trying to get the entire situation within her wave.

Comforting colored faintly, but her eyes were on the drinks of her friends. "You two always know what's delicious. May I have one while we chat?" All too soon, a new tall glass was placed in front of her. "Thanks." She grabbed it with both hands and began nursing the straw. "This is going to sound confusing... but I know what having these are like, so this is a homecoming." She wriggled her fingers on the glass, still drinking.

Diamond poked at Comforting's dragon arm. "Gonna guess it wasn't scaled and feather and furry all at the same time."

"That part's new," allowed Comforting with a little nervous laugh. "Um, awkward question... but how do I look? Tell it to me straight, from your eyes."

Silver adjusted her glasses as if that was very required to get a good look. "Hm. It's a, like, unique look, for sure."

"Way to be safe." Diamond smirked at her fellow earth pony friend. "Let me just out and say it. It's strange. Really strange. That isn't ugly, or not ugly, it's just strange. Until that wears off, it's hard to give bigger opinions. Some of you is pretty... A lot not, what is it..." She held up her hooves and slowly ran them back over her face. "On regular creatures, left is right and right is left. You're busy laughing at the idea, and I can't ignore that."

Comforting was still a moment. "Huh... First... Thanks. That hurts, but it's also exactly what I asked for, and I appreciate that. Thank you for keeping it real."

Diamond thrust a hoof at Comforting. "You can pay it back by telling me like it is when I need to hear it." Talons to hoof met. "Now, seriously... You look like him, but do you have all his... stuff?"

Silver began clapping. "Yes! Can you make it rain chocolate?"

Comforting peeked up at the mostly clear sky. "Hm... I'm still learning how to... that. It was only yesterday! I can't even magic right now."

Diamond gasped with shock. "You worked so hard to learn those spells! Sister! You have to be super mad right now."

Comforting giggled gently. "I am really happy to hear you caring about me, but I'm not mad. I'll learn how to get those back, and more, from the sound of it... It just isn't being instant for me." She brought up her fingers, but caught herself before actually snapping. "It won't be a snap."

Silver adjusted her glasses lightly. "We should get to, like, school and stuff. You too I bet. Or are you off while you get yourself back together?"

"No rest for the wicked." Comforting shared waves with the fillies and they all set off to their educational goals.

"Woah." Gallus spotted her and peered with undisguised wonder. "That is something else." He began pointing to the various limbs. "Ocellus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Smolder, Yona..." He tapped her big yak horn. "In two places. How'd you... Where am I in this? Don't I count?!"

Comforting patted his shoulder with a dragon's hand. "Of course you count. In fact, you're right behind me, keeping me upright, even now." She half-turned, wagging her leonine tail about. "Right here."

Gallus' brows fell as one. "Really? I get a tail?" He crossed his arms, his own tail curling. "Not sure how I feel about that..."

Comforting hopped back, facing Gallus properly along the way. "You're alright with it, overall?"

"Was... this even a thing you did? Or did it happen to you? I'm pretty lost here, help a griffon out." He threw one hand wide. "This isn't normal."

"Hey, Gallus." Smolder was jogging up from the direction of the school. "Did yo--- What?" She peered at the strange new creature that happened to have one of her arms. "And this is why you're not moving."

Gallus waved in a casual motion at Comforting. "Yep. This is Comforting, somehow. I didn't get proof yet."

Smolder cocked a brow. "No proof, huh? I'll be the judge then." She smirked viciously. "If you're really Comforting, tell me something I don't know about... Hmm... Rainbow Dash. She likes to gloat, I doubt you have anything I haven't heard of before."

Comforting scrunched with thought. Rainbow Dash? Hm... "She's younger than my mom by a little. When she was going for the first rainboom, mom was so cute and lanky! That was where they both got their cutie mark."

Smolder swatted Comforting's new shoulder. "I've heard that story, minus the Fluttershy part, but you sound like her and talk like her. I'm going with it." She fired a double thumbs up. "Now tell me why you have my arm because that's really freaky!"

Comforting rubbed her hippogriffon's arm with the dragon's hand. "Sorry, I didn't pick that... but I also kinda like it. We're even closer now. Um... So... I'm a chaos spirit now."

Gallus scrunched his face. "You're a what now?"

"Like Discord?" ventured Smolder more pointedly. "Get out. Can you do any chaos-stuff?"

"Still in training. No magic right now." Well, except for making glows that only she could see. "Oh!" Her eyes swirled with the thinking of it. "I can still do this." She pointed at her eyes as they slowly went blue and purple and red and back to their starting point.

Smolder laughed at that. "Cool, kinda small, but still cool. Look, we should get in school." She began leading her friends inside. "You can tell us all about it. All of us, instead of repeating it six times."