New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver


69 - Howling at the Moon

"All done!" Comforting had been ready to say that herself. A pity she didn't get the chance. She had barely taken a step out of school when a curtain appeared just for Discord to step through it, grinning broadly. "It's Discord time!"

Other students swerved around him, glancing nervously.

Comforting raised a set of talons, waving. "Hey, dad."

"Hello yourself, slugger." He casually tossed a bat in Comforting's direction for her to flumble wildly a moment in getting control of it. "It's way past time to take you out and pitch a ball or two. I know you're ready for it!"

Ocellus tapped Comforting from behind. "Hey."

Comforting waved back at her friend. "Discord, this is Ocellus, a friend of mine."

Discord tipped the hat he only had long enough for the gesture. "Charmed. Thanks for all the friendship stuff, but it's time for Comforting to get a taste of chaos."

"Um, yes..." Ocellus furtively looked around as she shuffled in place. "Can I help?"

Discord raised a brow high enough as to hover several inches above his face. "That's awful brave, especially for you."

Comforting threw an arm around Ocellus. "That is really sweet." She ducked to the side and did it, at last. She lost her balance and went flying for the ground. She missed. She was floating in the air, flailing wildly, but not striking the ground.

Ocellus blinked at the sight. "You're flying! But you're not using your wings."

"Optional," provided Discord. "Now, really, thanks, but we have to go." He threw a carpet over Comforting and yanked it free. The carpet drifted to the ground in its bright browns and reds, but there were no chaos spirits to be seen.

Ocellus pushed the rug, but they weren't hiding under it. "See you... tomorrow?" She saw little choice but to head on and hope everything was alright.

Elsewhere, Discord waved at a strange place where gravity was a suggestion at best and reality itself was casually coming apart. "Welcome home!"

Comforting turned slowly in place. "Wow..." Discord's home was one thing to see on television. It was another to stand in it. "This..." She was distracted a moment, watching a large rocky meteor float by with a mailbox posted on it. "Is that yours?"

"Hm?" He flitted over to it and threw it open. "Junk, junk..." He tossed letters behind himself as he went. "Ooo, I might have won.. junk!" He slapped it closed. "Nothing good." He darted right back to Comforting. "Still, worth checking once in a while, I suppose."

"This whole place is amazing." She sniffed at the air, getting hints of... It was like someone took a banana and coated it in butter and cinnamon with a side of a whiff of sulfur. "Huh... Wait." She pointed across the island they were standing on. "Who's that?"

"Hm?" Discord looked in the same place. "Oh, she's Screwball. Screwball! Come over here!"

The purple earth pony seemed to hear, floating towards them, her spiraled eyes gazing not quite at them, but through them with a smile on her face. "Discord... You can see me."

Discord raised a hand for stage whispering, "I usually ignore her."

Screw Ball pouted a bit at that. "Hello." She turned her attention instead on Comforting. "You smell familiar." She floated in, beanie propelling as she sniffed loudly at comforting. "Mmm, like Discord... Will you ignore me too?"

"Why would I do that?" She only noticed a moment after that Discord was shaking his head wildly, but it was too late.

Screw Ball began to clip-clop her hooves excitedly. "Yay! I'm chaos touched, like you. Like Discord. I can feel it." She came in closer to Comforting and moved to grab her, but Comforting hopped back. "Aw..."

Comforting shook her head. "I'm not big on touching unless you ask first."

Discord smirked at that. "Or she's the one doing it. My daughter, the hypocrite. Takes after her papa." He wiped a tear free of his eyes. "Now, chaos lesson. That's what we came here for!"

Comforting floated upwards, which was a reminder that she had never stopped flying. She did a twirl in place, wings unfolding even if they weren't strictly required. "Is she learning too?"

"Who? Oh, Screwie? I doubt it." Screw Ball's moment of hope was dashed into quite a pout. "Don't look at me that way. You've barely touched the stuff. You don't really put out any. You're lucky you can fly."

Screw Ball crossed her arms, floating there with her legs folding. "You did this to me, Discord. Take some responsibility."

Comforting looked between the two and swerved in closer, nose close to that spinning beanie propeller that kept right on spinning. "Does chaos make that twirl?"

Screw Ball peeked up at it. "It's been spinning since I got it. Can't blame that on Discord." Her swirled eyes refocused on Discord, or his general direction. "Teach both of us! We both want to be better at chaos."

Comforting shrugged as she willed herself closer to the ground, landing on her feet. "I don't mind. Maybe a lesson will make her happy."

Screw giggled, mane wafting as if in the same joy. "I like her. I hope we can be friends."

Discord rolled his eyes at that. "Comforting is an easy friend mark. Now... You seem to have flying under control, good! I was going to cover that, but no need if you feel comfortable with it?"

Comforting crouched and thrust into the air. She grasped for that strange sensation, of missing the ground, and she seemed to turn mid-air, going from not-flying to flying by pressing in some new dimension she never knew before. She was floating. With a will to move, she began to soar and dart about. "This is way easier than I thought it'd be!"

Screw swept in to follow after Comforting, hooves reaching as if to tag her in some game she just made up. "Flying is a lot of fun!"

"I can't argue that." Discord shrugged, allowing the two fillies to cavort and play in casual disregard for the concept of gravity. "But we do have other lessons to get to. Let's start with what I will nowcall the 'minor adjust'. Are you both listening?" His eyes were far more on Comforting than Screw Ball.

Comforting came in for a gentle landing and got a filly draped over head, Screw Ball giggling with joy and babbling a moment. "Wow... The chaos really kinda got to you, huh?"

"Sorry." Screw floated free of Comforting and seemed to try to land, but couldn't quite reach the ground, and ended up still in the air. "Mmm..."

Discord sighed heavily. "About that minor adjust. This trick is for the smallest little things. To the untrained eye, maybe you're just using house magic to make it happen, and it's not up to us to correct them." He reached out and yanked a bit from behind Screw's ear to the discorded filly's squealing delight. "Like that." With another flourish, the coin was a butterfly, flying away peacefully. "It looks like magic because it is magic, just with the knob turned up to eleven out of ten."

Comforting frowned with obvious thought. "Like magic." She fished in her pocket and drew out a pencil.

"Very good." Discord clapped softly.

Comforting blinked. "I didn't do it yet!"

"Yes you did." He was suddenly next to her with a sly grin. "You didn't have a pencil."

Comforting began to blush wildly. "Oh! Neat!" She reached into her pocket and drew out a packet of gum, from when she was a human child. "Ooo..."

Screw Ball shoved a hoof into her pocket, rooting around. "It's..." She drew out a big ball of lint. "No..." She tossed the ball over her shoulder and dug her hoof back into the pocket, digging around for something. She turned and twisted as if the right position would let her find it, but she wasn't finding it.

Comforting watched the attempt, her tufted ear lowering. "Is this a practice thing?"

"Practice helps, sure." Discord shrugged emphatically. "But I doubt she's going to get it. Look, me? I'm a chaos spirit. You." He pointed at Comforting. "Also one of those, congratulations. She--" He hiked a thumb at Screw Ball. "She's a pony. A chaos touched pony, but still a pony. Like I said, it's already amazing she can fly."

Screw sniffled softly. "It's not fair..." Tears began to flow, but they weren't watery. Instead she bawled candy balls and baseballs and bowling balls in a scattering of directions, the debris not caring about gravity any more than the pony that made them. "It's not fair!"

Comforting frowned, just to jump, realizing Discord was half hugging her. "Go on. I know that look. We won't get much teaching done until you give it a try." He smirked suddenly. "Besides, maybe it'll work even! I won't even be mad. Maybe she'll find something to do besides floating around here."

She jumped away from Discord with a new smile, taking off mid-flight. That was getting easier. "Screw Ball!"

Screw looked up at being called. "Huh?"

Comforting collided with her, grabbing her in a firm hug. Screw burst into giggles, returning the hug as the two floated away a moment. But Comforting pushed Screw back. "I want to help."

"Gosh, thanks!" Screw smiled, her eyes swirling somehow deeper despite not seeming to change. "So what do we do?"

Comforting tapped at her chin. "I have an idea. I think ponies are chaotic and harmonious."

Screw blinked at the idea. "Really?"

"Really." Comforting pointed past Screw Ball to her cutie mark. "That is your harmony. You still have it, so you're rooted in harmony, which holds you back from the chaos side."

Screw curled to look at it. "That?! That's what's stopping me?! Well... then get rid of it." She pawed at her own mark to little effect. "How?"

Comforting shook her head. "We're not. That's a part of you, be proud of you. You're awesome, all of it, even that part. We just need to work with it, and around it. Chaosing is all about distracting the universe."

Discord gasped with a big smile. "She's learning so quickly!"

Comforting giggled briefly at that. "That mark isn't stopping you. It's a hint. It tells you from what direction the universe is watching. Discord snaps." Discord raised some fingers into position, but didn't do it. "Like that. That's how he does it. You're a pony, you won't do it like that, but I don't think the snap is important. You just have to distract harmony a moment, and you know where it is."

Comforting floated back a few inches and reached out, tapping Screw Ball right between the eyes. "It can't see here, I bet."

Screw's eyes widened wider and wider. "Wow! You're... Wow!" With an ecstatic cry, she drove her hoof against her forehead with a thunderous clop. "Ow!" She curled, new tears dropping. "That hurt!"

Comforting winced at the display. "That... looked bad. Try it slowly until you get it right."

"Slowly, right." She raised a hoof, squinting at it as if the hoof had done something wrong. "Do it right," she chastised. She pressed it against her head and tried to wriggle it in.

Discord snickered softly. "While she's trying that, I want you to get good at the trick I showed you. You can get so much done with it! I don't want to hear--" He didn't get to finish, being squeezed firmly by his new daughter. "--one... complaint..."

"Why would I complain?" Comforting released him, drifting back a few inches. "I love it! There's so much more to learn, but I can start with that." She grinned with mischief in her eyes. "The others are going to be so impressed..." Visions of what she would pull out on command danced in her head. "Screw! Keep practicing. We'll get good at chaos, together!"

"Together!" cried Screw, spinning upside down and still trying to get her hoof to do something. "On it!"