//------------------------------//
// 82 - Life Moves 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Comforting tossed a ball high into the air with a great heave. It was caught long before it could consider the ground, caught in the mouth of Screwball in an excited squeal as she came in a wide circle to deliver it back to Comforting's hand.

"You know." She tossed the ball ahead instead of up, watching Screwball dive for it. "You're not a dog. You don't have to play with the ball that way."

Screwball zoomed back to drop the ball in Comforting's waiting hand. "But this is fun. It's a game I'm playing with my sister." She pointed at Comforting, the sister. "And I get to fly as fast as I can."

"That is pretty fun," confessed Comforting. "But we should play something that lets more creatures in on it."

Screwball looked to the side at the rest of the Student Six, watching them. "Oh... Okay!" She sat there, floating in the air. "Hi!" She waved at them all.

Silverstream burst into giggles, taking off to join Screwball in the air. "That looks really fun. Can you let me try?"

Screwball dove for Comforting, pawing away the ball. "Ready?" She tossed it as hard as she could away.

Silverstream went after it with an excited cry.

Sandbar chuckled at the sight. "So, little question." He held two hooves close together. "I didn't see you bring her. How'd she find us?" She waved back at the clubhouse they were close to. "Not complaining or anything. She seems nice."

Yona nodded at that. "Nice. Not think Comforting know how have mean sister."

Comforting winced at the idea. "I hope I never have to find out... It was a day off, and she heard, and she wanted a day off too... and here we are, playing."

Smolder raised a thumb up. "And she's a chaos critter too, so she can be wherever she gets an idea to be, like you, right?"

"Sooorta." Comforting wobbled a hand with that uncertainty. "She can fly really well, as you can see." They were watching her and Silverstream toss the ball back and forth, both darting and bobbing for it during their turn. "But she can't teleport, at least that I've seen. Maybe she'll figure that out?"

Gallus poked Comforting. "Alright, enough of that. Let's be real." All of them looked at him, minus Screwball and Silverstream, still playing joyfully. "You're kind of a big deal, and I don't mean that in a bragging kind of way. You got this chaos stuff worked out."

Ocellus sat up at that. "Oh, how is magic going?"

Comforting looked up towards her smaller of her two horns, glowing with her magic. "I think..." She went from one note to the next. "I think I can get it... but it feels a little silly."

Smolder snorted at that. "I'm with you there. If I could do that, why would I want to know magic?"

Comforting folded her arms across her chest. "But I went through all that... and I still know it, and I kinda... It's hard to explain."

Yona nodded firmly. "If smash easy with look, want smash that way, but miss crashing into things. Yona understand."

Comforting blinked at that, a slow smile spreading. "Well put," she congratulated her large friend. "I want to know more about magic... even if I cheat around it, because even cheating I'm reaching into that same world with its same rules, even if I draw outside the lines. Knowing where the lines are and why they're there is still good!"

Ocellus clapped at that. "That's a good way to look at it. Um, if I can help, let me know."

"You're already a super help." She offered a hand and soon had a changeling to hug warmly. "You're all such amazing friends! Speaking of that, what were you planning to do before I showed up with the sis?"

Gallus smirked and hiked a thumb at the clubhouse. "Actually, we were just bringing our stuff out here."

Yona hopped in place, making the ground shudder on the impact. "Yes, too empty. Now has stuff. Much better."

Sandbar pointed into the treehouse. "The offer's still open. You could take a room."

Comforting shuffled awkwardly, at least until a hippogriff landed on her head. "Ack!"

"Why not?" asked Silverstream, hugging Comforting from above. "You're a friend. All the friends have a room. You were there."

Comforting gently swatted away the tackling half-bird, just to get another upon her. "Why not?" asked Screwball, clinging to her top. "I'd take a room if they let me."

Some part of her was tempted to angrily suggest Screwball do just that... But she let that anger flow away with a slow breath, and a gentle hug of her sister.

Gallus hiked a brow. "Wow, that looked kinda angry. You don't have to."

Yona pointed to a tree a small distance away. "Need smash?"

Comforting reached out, quite a distance away, and casually folded it shut in her vision, which caused the tree to be folded as if it was a tiny thing between her hands. She kept right on folding until the tree ended up back where it started and she planted it right in the ground and patted its top. "It doesn't deserve to be hurt, and none of you deserve me being a butt about it. I just feel... out of center."

Screwball slid back into the air. "Out of center? I haven't been centered in... forever I think."

Silverstream giggled at that. "I think she's right, but if she wants a room too, that'd be fine by me. What do you all think?" She twirled in the air towards the others.

Affirmative noises rose, but Gallus had a question. "What happened with the teach? Sounded like she had a lot of questions when this all went down... She alright?"

"That was a bit of an interesting moment..." She thought back to that day, Twilight seeing herself in the form of Harmony, and the confusion that caused.





"And may I ask what she is exactly? Is this the harmony spirit? Why does she look like me?!" Twilight waved at herself, clearly rattled by the idea.

Discord nudged in an elbowing at his daughter. "This is what you get, letting her get this close."

"Close to what?" Twilight gave up hoping Discord would solve her questions, instead looking to Comforting, the softer mark of the two.

Comforting huffed with a little smile, exasperated chuckle escaping her. "This has a lot of information leading up to it." She laddered her hands up on top of each other, which casually became a ladder, which was not her plan. She squeaked, pulling her hand-ladder apart with a pop and restoring her hands.

Twilight inclined her head. "You need to know the letters before you start reading spells, yes. May I know the letters?" Her eyes shined with hope. "I would be very appreciative."

Discord threw an arm around Twilight. "Twi, Twi, Twi... Are you sure? This is a deep dark hole. It'd be a shame for you to break anything if you just jumped right into it. Now, I'm sure Comforting would do her best to catch you, but it's still quite the pit you're circling."

Comforting shoved at her father, who surely could have resisted, but floated away with laughter instead. "Harmony can see a lot of maybe-futures, but how many, and how reliably, she can see them got a lot smaller." She held up two fingers close together. "So this is a scary time for her."

"I see..." Her seeing rating felt like a four out of ten from the way she said it. Comforting had heard worse levels of not-seeing. "But how does that lead to looking like me?"

"Harmony is a lovely creature, love her a lot, but she has weaknesses. Creativity? That's a big one." Comforting pointed at herself and Discord. "Unlike us. Creativity is chaos' specialty!"

"Preach it, sister!" Discord waved the big foam cover on his hand as if cheering on his favorite sports team.

"Hm." Twilight sat up straight. "So... She looks like me because she knows me, and decided, 'that's a fine pony form, I'll do that?'" She pointed at herself. "Has she looked like other things she's seen?"

Discord snorted derisively. "She never looked like me," he grumbled, as if put out.

Comforting colored faintly. "She's looked like me before."

"Am I the only one being skipped?" Discord crossed his arms with a pout on his lips. "It's not even fair..."

Twilight nodded, though, lost in her own ruminations. "I see... That makes sense, actually." She flashed a bright smile at Comforting. "Thank you for explaining it. Why not look like... herself?"

Comforting deadpanned with a smile, "Trees don't talk, Twilight."

"Duh," added Discord, perhaps enjoying that barb more than he needed to.

"Right." One could almost see her imagining a talking tree. "That would be... odd. So she appears as a pony, who can talk. She isn't a shapeshifter, like a changeling, because when she's a pony, that's... more of an image than an actual 'form'... am I getting this right?"

Comforting brightened at Twilight's words. "You're figuring this out!"

Twilight darkened at that. "I can do that... I miss when you were just a little foal with so many questions." She sighed with fond remembrance. "Now we've swapped places."

Comforting reached out, placing a hand on either of Twilight's shoulders. "You still know a ton of stuff I don't. You're still my professor, Twilight."

"I appreciate that." Twilight put a hoof on Comforting's shoulder, just to pull her in for a little hug. "We'll teach each other then. That seems like a lovely trade."

"Now that you two have this worked out." Discord had an arm around either of them without having actually approached to do that. "Why don't we let these foals enjoy their new place?"

Twilght looked to the tree house with its occasional glimpses of the students rushing about, inspecting things and planning their use of it. "They deserve that."

Comforting cupped her hands at her snout. "Shout when you need a lift back," she shouted at them, getting a few waves in reply. "Let's go."

"I got this." Discord reached off the frame, which was the first time Comforting even saw the frame. Huh... He yanked it back towards himself, wrenching the backdrop from in front of the new clubhouse to in front of the other Harmony created the structure of about that shape, Twilight's castle. "She may have a bit of a fixation," he murmured in dirty thought. "I'm just saying..."


Comforting went over to--





Gallus tilted his head further and further left. "Frame?"

Silverstream inclined her head to the right as if to balance Gallus. "Chaos magic is really strange."

Comforting realized she was about to throw the students right down that hole they had been trying to warn Twilight about. "Sorry, off-topic. Um, either way, Professor Twilight calmed down and we hung  out. It was fun!" The students cheered at the happy ending, quietly forgetting the strange part. "Just to put it out there, you're welcome to ask me to stop any time I start making your head hurt."

Yona leaned in, unafraid. "What about your head? Doesn't hurt?" She sat back with a grin. "Tough head, Yak tough!"

Comforting knocked on her yak horn. "That must be what stops my head from hurting."

"Yak tough," agreed Yona with pride. "But, we friend." She waved a hoof around at the others. "All, together. Not be sad if want ask help."

Smolder hiked a thumb at the treehouse. "Which includes getting a room. The way you get around, you could live here and get to school on time."

That this was an option got Comforting thinking, but it crashed quickly. "But then I'd be moving away from mom..." She could probably make do for herself, but she didn't quite want to... "Screwball needs a stable home too... Okay. I'll take a room, but I'm not living there... I'm still a little filly."

Gallus snorted at that. "A filly that can do most anything she wants."

Ocellus squeaked. "If it was another filly, I'd be scared. Be good, Comforting!"