She had learned to deny gravity. That was a mistake on the universe's part. She floated around with giggles, just enjoying moving in three dimensions. She was back in the 'real' world, but that didn't mean floating was off the table, even a little.
Fluttershy watched Comforting darting and swerving about. "Um... Well, she looks like she's having fun."
"I am." Comforting stopped right in front of Fluttershy, well, mostly. She was still drifting slowly to the side. "Wanna fly with me?"
Fluttershy spread her wings. "I already could fly, but if you want company, I would be delighted. I don't... do those turns you do." She obeyed the rules of physics, and sudden sharp turns were saved for experts like Rainbow Dash.
Discord nudged Fluttershy from behind. "This is Comforting we're talking about. You know she'll go at your pace."
"True." Fluttershy lifted into the air with soft flaps of her wings. "How about a circle around town before dinner?"
"That sounds fun!" Comforting seemed happy to act as the orbiting electron to the atomic core that was Fluttershy. She didn't ask Fluttershy to go any faster or slower, simply darting about her and enjoying the sights and the company of her mother.
Fluttershy looked around Ponyville from up above. "You know... I usually just walk places. You're a bit of an excuse to take flight more often. I'm... glad you pushed me. The town really is nice to see from up here."
"It really is," joyfully agreed Comforting in a swirling dive around her mother. "What's your favorite?"
"Hmm..." She curled her hoof to her chin to rest as she flapped along sedately. "Twilight's castle is hard to miss, but I think my favorite would have to be... the square." She pointed to the open space near the center of town. "Imagining all the happy ponies there... I know most of them. It makes me happy..."
"Aw!" Comforting came in for a firm hug. "That's really nice. I'd have to go with the school." She pointed off at Twilight's school and burst into giggles. "Which feels funny. School wasn't my favorite place before."
Fluttershy lifted an ear at her disjointed daughter. "Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it now. Now... I am curious, what did you learn with Discord? He was teaching you before you arrived, right?"
"Yep!" Comforting chimed, floating along, belly up. With wings, that would have been trickier. Good thing she wasn't using her wings to fly. "Flying, for one." She turned over onto her belly, floating alongside Fluttershy. "It's so fun!"
"You do look like you're enjoying yourself." She had her sedate smile, approving of the good time Comforting was having. "Was there more? That is a lot, I imagine..."
"Actually..." Comforting considered. "What's your favorite little snack?" She raised her mismatched hands close together. "A little something."
"Little something... A carrot?" Fluttershy inclined her head faintly. "Or an apple."
Comforting grinned at that. "Those are such pure answers! Well, you brought them with you." She casually snatched a carrot from behind Fluttershy's ear... and it kept coming, and coming, and coming.
Fluttershy's eyes went wide as more and more carrot kept emerging from behind her ear. "Oh dear..."
With a great yank, Comforting got the carrot to pop free, leaving her wielding a several foot long carrot. It never got wider than it started, just strangely long and narrow. "Ooops? Guess I need to practice that." She held up the carrot in both hands towards Fluttershy. "Want some?"
Fluttershy considered the enormous root veggie. "Maybe when we get home, I can cut it up properly... Thank you for trying. That's... impressive, and a little scary."
"Don't be scared! It's just a carrot." Comforting wagged the veggie and it broke with a loud snap. About a third of it came free and plummeted to the ground to hit the dirt with a puff of dust. "Oops."
"Carrots are not meant to be so large," gently counseled Fluttershy. "And it makes me a little nervous, wondering what else you could make if you wanted to, or made another mistake. Please be careful."
Comforting stuffed the huge carrot away. "I'll be careful." She flew in on top of Fluttershy, hovering over her. "Can I get a ride?"
Fluttershy kept an ear trained on her daughter. "But you can fly yourself now."
Comforting came in closer, almost touching. "But you're still my mom and it's... May I?"
Fluttershy's smile softened as she got the clue. "You may." Her flight wobbled faintly as she adjusted to the new weight with a filly on her back. "There we are. All settled?"
Comforting hugged Fluttershy from the top, a big grin on her own face. "Yay! It's fun flying, but it's special when I get a ride, because you are special." She smooched the back of Fluttershy's head. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome." Fluttershy banked in a circle. "We should get back."
She came in for a gentle landing, walking as she touched the ground towards the house. "Let me have that carrot now. I'll use it for dinner." Which she did, slicing it up and tossing it right into the stew she got to making. There was still plenty of carrot left for the job, and she had other things to toss in with it. Nopony went hungry.
"I can't ignore this."
Comforting wasn't dreaming. Dreaming wasn't a thing she did anymore. Instead, she had just been idle, asleep, but not dreaming. It was a strange state to be in. But there wasn't anything to do in the dark of night, so she had tucked herself in and did her best, which allowed her to slip into a sort of idle state.
But something had spoken to her, in her mind. She wasn't dreaming. She imagined looking around. "Harmony!" She zipped over for a hug, but Harmony was always a few feet away. "Is something wrong?"
Harmony inclined her head. "Yes, no... Many things..." She raised Twilight's hoof to point at Comforting. "You came into the world, a small tear. But you were soft and kind. You were eager to help me. I put it aside, and tried to draw you close..."
Not-Twilight sighed, her face impassive. "But as you started, you remain. You broke it. My plans, ruined, tattered. I can't see what is coming, and I... I am scared, Comforting. How do I plan if I can't see what comes next? Celestia is scared too. I shared my visions with her. She is an agent of mine, and she used what I shared so well, but now I have nothing to share, and she is scared, and I don't know how to comfort her. I don't know how to comfort myself. I am scared..."
Comforting tried to take a step forward, but the distance between them did not shrink even an inch. "Harmony... I didn't want to hurt you, or anything. I still want to help!"
"And you have." Harmony inclined her head. "And hurt. A foal I thought was lost... I found them. You guided them to me. She is soaked in chaos. She was not part of the plan, swept away from it by Discord's presence. But now she is found. I can't say she is part of the plan. There is no plan." Harmony was still a moment, one ear twitching. "Screwball was lost, but now she is returned. And you showed her how to reach for chaos further. Help, harm. Heal, infect. You are both. You are everything. Comforting, I am scared."
Comforting stopped trying to walk towards Harmony, that just wasn't working. "She was really angry... She was ready to hurt herself to get away from you, but I stopped her."
"You did... I saw it." Harmony smiled faintly. "You told her to be proud of what she was. That was a nice thing. But then you showed her how to get around me."
Comforting's ear pricked. "She figured it out?!"
"She did." Harmony deflated faintly in place. "She is a bringer of chaos, another..."
"But she is still part of you." Comforting pointed back at where a cutie mark once resided.
"She is..." Harmony raised her hooves. "I am confused. Given the choice, who would win? Discord, or me?"
Comforting frowned at the question. "That's not a fair question at all! I don't want either of you to 'win' against the other. You're not even on opposite sides!" She threw her hands up and wide. "I don't even think he dislikes you. You're more... like a sister he has a lot of fun playing jokes on, who will rat him out to both of your mom if you catch him getting into trouble, which little boys do."
Elsewhere, Discord frowned. "I'm a distinguished gentlecreature! Really..."
Harmony inclined her head. "That sounds antagonistic... but siblings often are. You think the universe is both our progenitor?"
"It has to be." Comforting shrugged softly. "Really only two options. The universe made Discord, or at least what would become Discord, or Discord made the universe, which would make Discord your boss. You both said the universe is something else, not either of you." Comforting wagged her finger between Harmony and the theoretical Discord. "So... Only one option left."
Harmony went still. No breathing, no blinking, no motion at all. Time passed at a slow pace as she stared out into nothing.
"You alright?" Comforting dusted at her sides. "I still want to be your friend, you know that... right?"
"Your words are horrifying," spoke Harmony, breaking her silence. "But there is truth in them. Comforting. I request it. I cannot demand it. I cannot compulse it. Your mark is gone, your connection severed... But I request it. Comfort me."
It was an odd sensation. The distance didn't grow or shrink, but she somehow felt the barrier, that eternal distance, fade. She hurried into the short space she could see, grabbing Harmony around the neck and hugging close. "Things have changed, and you didn't... expect them, but we're still friends, and this world is still worth saving."
Harmony inclined her head. "How can I save what I cannot see? It has become dark and blurry. I can see one of my agents at a time if I focus on them. Allowing this has... It's broken." She would have deflated, but Comforting was there, hugging her upright. "I am scared. Sorry for repeating that as often as I have... but it's true. I am greatly diminished. Allowing you to be saved by him was a far greater sin than I had thought possible. The universe itself has forsaken me."
"That's not true," she said with enough conviction to make Harmony jump. "If the universe wants something, it gets it. It holds all the cards. You both said that."
Harmony flipped her ears back. "Then it wishes me to be powerless?"
"It wants what must be, to be. You are off, um, balance, but you're not gone, so the universe can't want you gone... or you would be!" Comforting went in for a smooch on Harmony's cheek. "Did you know I can't use any of my unicorn magic right now? Not even a little fair." She stepped back just enough to put her hands on her hips. "After all that work! But I'm figuring out new ways, to do that, and to do other things."
Harmony turned Twilight's hoof on herself. "But I am not alive."
"Another lie," sang out Comforting. "Of course you are. You can change, you can learn. It's time to learn. That can be scary, really scary... I get it." She went back in for a firm hug. "But you have a friend. Two, actually... He probably won't admit it, but Discord doesn't want to see you all sad. What kind of rival would you be if you just pouted all the time?"
Harmony put up a hoof, pushing Comforting back as if just casually changing her coordinate, no actual contact made. "I must consider this. But you are still Comforting." The dream didn't end, it wasn't a dream.
Still, Comforting awoke, and it was morning.