"I want to do something special."
Screwball's swirling eyes widened. "Ooo, what kind of special? Is it chaos?"
"We're the chaos involved." Comforting waved between herself and Screwball. "I want to visit someone I haven't ever visited before. We can both fly though, we have nothing that can really stop us."
"An adventure!" cried Screwball, one hoof raised high in the air above her. "Do we need equipment?"
Comforting considered the fantasy fare, and took off the helmet that had appeared on her head and dropped the sword she hadn't asked for. "I think just us will do. Now, before we get there, I will warn that this will surprise you and maybe upset you a little, but I want you to know I'm right there next to you."
Screwball babbled softly, running through what it could be in little half sentences that often had half words in them, making her mostly unintelligible. She gave up, though. "Tell me!"
"Nope." Comforting lifted higher. "We should go over the forest. I don't want to fight any monsters."
"Monsters?" Screwball lifted after her. Rising and lowering was in her power, until she wanted to get too close to the ground, then her magnetism prevented it. "I wanna see a monster or two."
"Maybe we will." Screwball zoomed away, peeking over her shoulder to see Screwball was following right behind. "To the Everfree!"
Most of the monsters of the Everfree couldn't reach them, soaring over the treetops easily. "Where are we going?" Screwball pulled up alongside Comforting. "Secrets are awful."
"Secrets are chaotic," countered Comforting, eyes swirling with excitement. "I bet mom would never say yes to us going this way on our own."
"We're being naughty," whispered Screwball in hushed tones. "Naughty... You told me to do it!"
"I did," easily accepted Comforting. "You can blame me." The forest broke, trees becoming sparse as they got close to the castle of the twin sisters. A ravine cut the landscape, a staircase winding upwards down towards a cave. "There." Comforting dipped into the ravine to have a look about, taking but a moment to head towards that cave. "This is it."
"This is what?" Screwball zoomed past Comforting just to come to an abrupt halt with the sound of skidding tires. "What?! This... feels bad." She backed right up out of the cave. "I don't like it."
Comforting could feel it too, pressing against her chaotic nature, but it was also her friend, and she refused to be turned away from her friend. "It's alright. We are fire, and they are water. Being friends just requires we both be gentle and careful. Harmony!" She shouted the last into the cave, pressing onwards. "Harmony, I came to visit."
There, the tree, large and studded with the elements of harmony. Twilight stood at the base with her fifty yard stare, Harmony. "You came."
"Of course I came." Comforting landed and jogged, hands pumping in her running sprint. "Now that I can come here, what could stop me? I missed you!" She jumped for not-Twilight, but got the ground instead. Harmony was casually standing about fifteen feet away.
Harmony didn't have to turn, already facing Comforting. "You are a creature of chaos... I could summon help."
"Don't be like that." Comforting put her hands on her hips. "I'm not here to hurt you and you know it."
"You brought more chaos." Harmony looked past Comforting, towards the mouth of the cave. "Why?"
"Because she is still yours. Screwball!"
"Yes?" came the distant reply.
"Come here," hollered Comforting. "It's safe, I promise. Both of you are being crybabies."
Harmony considered Comforting, facing her without turning. "You are still Comforting."
"Comforting is still your friend," added Comforting with a gentle smile. "I came to help."
"To he..." She trailed off, seeing Screwball approaching and the sight driving the words from her.
Screwball floated over Comforting. "Who is that? They feel super icky-bad."
Comforting reached up with a dragon's hand to grab Screwball, tickling their underside with a loud peel of giggles and wriggling. "She's just as scared of you, but I want us all to be friends. Two of us already are, I hope?" Her tail formed a grand question mark in its expressive way. "Right?"
Harmony took a soft breath, despite not needing air. "Screwball. I saw this possibility. I saw it, and your name was delivered to your parents."
Screwball was suddenly fixated on Harmony. "What?!"
"I saw it, this possibility." Harmony inclined her head faintly. "One of many, but it was powerful. I hoped it would not be, but it could be... and I delivered the name."
Comforting threw up her hands wide and free of Screwball. "That makes so much sense! You give ponies their names?"
"Usually. Not always." Harmony inclined an ear as she sat slowly in place. "I give dreams when a foal approaches. The mother may take my suggestion, or not. I do not force them. Usually. But mothers often take the name I offer. A pony by another name will still have the same fate and plan. Screwball could have become an accountant. She would have specialized in edge cases and precarious situations, putting right to wrong with an even hoof. A force of harmony, businesses would have vied for her time and attention. That was also a possibility, and her name would have worked."
Screwball clopped her hooves to her cheeks. "Wow! I coulda been that?" She looked down at herself. "But I'm not. I'm... me... Is that bad? I can still do things, good things? Big things! small Things? Things!" She began to flail with each statement, overwhelmed by the possibilities.
Comforting gently rubbed the belly of her sister. "You have your life ahead of you. We're working on making sure you have a good chance to be amazing! And you already are."
"Yay!" Screwball calmed down, mollified by Comforting's words. "What did you see for me?" She was looking at Harmony once more. "If this happened?" She waved at her screwy self. "I'm already there, so what happens next?"
"Possibilities. I can see many of them... In many, you are lost, but we have avoided most of them. You are found." She nodded towards Comforting. "By a kind chaos."
"My sister." Screwball grabbed Comforting with her forehooves from above, giggling with joy.
"That closes off some possibilities, but makes others more likely. I can never say what must be. I can only say what could be, and what is likely, and what is unlikely, but any could happen..." She brought up her hooves and slowly closed them. "My job, primarily, is to help the things that are better to be. And to discourage what is better not to be. I create paths. I am Harmony, keeping ponies together."
Comforting pointed upwards with a bird talon. "You helped me get in the right place to find and bring her back. This is your fault, at least in part." She crossed her arms. "Harmony, gatherer of ponies. You gathered a pony."
Harmony's impassive expression broke into a smile. "I have. Screwball. I have described what you could have been. Do you truly wish to hear what you may yet be? Will you heed my words?"
Screwball clapped once, zipping to orbit around Harmony's head in an excited floating. "What can I be? Something amazing? Something great! Tell me! I want to be as awesome as my sister so she's proud of me."
Comforting colored, named as the reason for Screwball's excitement. "I'm already proud of you, but you could get even better!"
Screwball threw her legs out in all directions in an excited babble that had no words a moment. She calmed herself down with heavy panting and a manic grin. "Tell me, please."
"If you wish to know... Knowing has a power. You are accepting my influence on you. I will speak as I see, and you will listen as I speak." With her warning given, Harmony sat back, considering the orbiting Screwball. "Your future is muddled, chaotic filly. You could become a monster and terrorize the town, but I see Comforting would not accept that easily. Even if you were to become a monster, she would hug you."
Comforting zipped in to deliver one of those hugs, squeezing the squealing chaos filly. "Just like this! No monsters!"
Harmony kept one ear on the two that kept circling. "Your control over your chaos is small, but growing. If you follow Comforting, your sister will guide you towards greater power just behind herself. But what will you do with that?" She brought up two hooves close together. "Keep it small, for the largest. Be a bringer of small things and ponies will celebrate you. Speak few words, but mean what you say. You try to speak many things, and barely get out a few. Your words are jumbled, scrambled in chaos. This will probably not change. Pick a few important ones."
The babble was back, Screwball trying to get out a thousand thoughts, and not succeeding at a single one of them. She frowned and huffed. "Just... a few."
Comforting rubbed her cheek against Screwball's. "Just like that! Your friends will wait for you to finish, or they aren't good friends."
"Will you.... wait?" One could see Screwball fishing for the right word, one at a time, digging them from the chaos of her mind and the strange circuits that guided them to her throat.
"Of course." Comforting pulled out a pin to stick to Screwball's front. "#1 sister," it and Comforting said. "And if I can't wait for my #1 sister, well, I just stink at waiting." She twirled at Harmony. "Is there more?"
"There is always more... until there is not." Harmony inclined her head faintly. "You could have anything, Comforting. Why are you happy to follow after my plans?"
Comforting came in for a landing in front of Harmony. "A few reasons. To start, we're friends." She extended a finger with that. "I want to see where this is going." She extended a second finger. "I want to help it get there." Out went the third finger. "I want to actually help this time! Being powerless.... sucked, a lot." A fourth finger, all of the ones on that hand. "But I don't plan to be God. They have two already, and they're both pretty cool in different ways."
Harmony curled a hoof on herself. "I am one. Who is the other?"
"Discord? Pretty sure you two are about the same levels." Comforting balanced two hooves against one another. "Rivals, but coworkers. You're both super interested in Twilight and what she gets up to and her friends. You can have them. Good teachers, but I'm calling dibs on their students!" A thought surfaced. "Oh! I wanted to check with you. The students, they asked if I could teach them a lesson with chaos. But I didn't want to say yes if it'd make you really sad."
Harmony frowned at that. "I... I heard Gallus speaking. I did not know why. When I looked, he had moved on. This limit of perception... I do not like it." They focused on Comforting, making her flinch. It was unusual for Harmony to focus like that. "Chaos. It has grown stronger... But it sides with me? Can you give my sight back?"
Comforting reached behind her back, rocking on her hooves. "Well.... I don't know, but maybe?" She suddenly thrust a pair of thick glasses on Harmony's face, but was held back several inches, unable to finish the act.
Harmony was examining the reading glasses, though her gaze was no longer focused, staring through the glasses. "What did you intend?"
Comforting released the glasses. "You ruined it... I was hoping a pair of glasses--" They were floating, held by Harmony's will. "--would help fix your vision."
Harmony waved them closer, allowing them to settle on her snout. She blinked softly. "I see.... I see..." She closed one eye, then the other. "I see...."