//------------------------------//
// 119 - Polishing Diamonds 
// Story: New Endings, Old Starts 
// by David Silver 
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"Hey." Comforting sank down, perched on Diamond's bed. She hadn't asked to be there or entered any traditional way. "Got a moment to chat?"

Diamond flicked an ear back. "Is that what it was like when I found you?"

"A little... But a bush is way less my space than your own room." She looked around Diamond's room. It smelled of wealth, clean and proper. "Sorry. I can go if you'd rather I did."

Diamond trotted up to Comforting, looking up at her. "It was nice, when you were shorter than me."

"Sorry." Comforting casually shrank, still bipedal, but even then, shorter than Diamond. Reduced to a little doll of herself, Comforting offered her hands. "Wanna talk?"

Diamond casually grabbed tiny-Comforting and hugged her. "Ugh! You can't fix everything. You can't even always fix what you did, and this isn't something you did."

"Glad it's not that." Comforting hugged her big pony friend. "Tell me about it?"

"It's stupid." Diamond climbed into her chair and parked Comforting on her desk. "I do my homework." She waved a hoof over her papers. "I learn the stupid stuff she wants me to learn. I work really hard! But it's never enough!" She slammed a hoof flat first to the desk with a dull thunk. "And don't give me any school pep talks. This isn't about school. Mom wants me to do stuff besides that, a lot of stuff."

Comforting leaned in over the papers. They weren't from school. That school gave little homework to begin with. They were all about social circles and upper crust life. It was Rich Person lessons. "Your mom expects a lot out of you."

"And it never stops." Diamond thunked her head down on the table. "I only have... anything away from her." She snorted, still deflated and limp. "And they wonder..."

"Why you lord things over the other foals," finished Comforting. "Well, that's not good either, but you're my friend, and I want to help."

"You've said that before." Diamond sat up, peering at her chaotic friend. "How?"

Comforting stroked her chin. "I have one idea, but it's kinda silly..."

"Squeaky rubber nose, silly?" She pantomimed honking her own nose. "Or just kinda out there?"

"More the second." Comforting hopped up onto the desk, still small. "Wanna trade places?"

"With you?" Diamond leaned in, one brow high. "I'd do so many things..." She began to rub her hooves together with a dark chuckle. "You have so much power you just sit on... I could fix so many things... And show off while I did it."

Comforting envisioned Chaos Diamond, ruling over Ponyville with a gleeful cackle. "Not that, and not me." She pointed out. "You and your mom. Both of you may grow seeing the world from the other's point of view."

"Pfft." Diamond rolled her eyes. "She wouldn't even last half the day in my hooves."

"Sounds like a lesson learned." Comforting leaned in with a smile. "Do you think you can handle her life?"

"What? She spends most days just being snooty. Easy." She turned up her nose with some practice. "I can take care of that, no problem."

Comforting clapped her hands slowly. "Well, since you're so confident..." She dug out a button, much like the one she had used to hop realities. "I'll give you this. She'll get one too. If either of you presses it, it's over, back to your normal selves. But you'll be admitting, you or her, that you couldn't handle it for the day. Get to the end of the day to win, simple as that."

Diamond snatched the button and tucked it away into her side. "Please. I won't even need that." Not that she threw it away. "When do we start? I'm looking forward to her tears."

"Don't be like that." Comforting reached up and tapped Diamond on the nose. "You may be angry at her, but we don't want to make any ponies cry. That's why she has a button too."

"Which she will press way before me." Diamond flashed a cocky smile. "Well, go ahead. Adult me."

With a request like that, how could she refuse? "Press the button if you want to stop." Comforting reached across frames, high-fiving herself and getting a nod. They had briefed the mom on the matter. They swapped something glowing between them and Comforting let the frame snap shut. "Here you go."

Diamond took the glowing... something. "What is..." It sank into her hoof and she staggered back. "What? I..." With grunts and twitches, she grew rapidly, becoming an adult version of herself. With long legs and her tiara being a small thing on her grown head. "Woah..." She sank back to her haunches. "Am I really an adult now?" Even her voice was changed, deeper and scrubbed clear of its foalish qualities. "Wow... Wait, what did you give that... other you?" She waved a hoof at about where she saw that exchange happen.

"Your foalhood, of course." Comforting inclined her head. "And you got her adulthood. You'll swap after you're done." A loud giggle filtered in from elsewhere in the house. "I think she's enjoying being a filly again."

Diamond rolled her eyes powerfully. "Right. Well! Since I'm the adult now." She tapped herself on the chest. "I should make sure she's getting her work done." She strode from the room with her cocky smile at full blast. "This'll be fun."

"Can't make this too easy." Comforting giggled to herself as she jumped down and casually free of the house.

Diamond could hear a loud knocking from the front. A door opened. "I'll see if she's in." Randolph was still on duty. "Ma'am?" He came walking in towards Diamond, not at all surprised at her adult status. "Your friend has arrived."

Diamond cocked a brow at that. "What? Really?" She imagined a little foal coming to see her adult self. "Uh... Let's see." She went with Randolph to the front of the house, where a pony was waiting for her. It was not a filly. Silver was as tall as she was, adjusting her glasses gently. "Silver?!"

"Diamond!" Silver rose smoothly and approached with a smile. "Always such a treat to see you. You didn't forget our engagement, did you?"

"Engagement?" Diamond looked over Silver curiously, spotting a pearl necklace around her neck. That fashion hadn't changed. "What engagement?"

Silver swatted at Diamond. "You did forget. You are incorrigible at times." She nodded at Randolph. "I'll take it from here."

"Of course, ma'am." Randolph walked off to take care of things elsewhere in the house.

"What did... we plan?" Not that she recalled planning anything as the adult she had just become.

"Well, somepony has to be the pony with any taste in this town." Silver turned towards the door. "Come on, dear. Who else is going to bring a little refined light to that opening?"

"Opening?" Diamond sifted through her memories frantically. "That rose garden?"

"The rose garden," echoed Silver. "I knew you'd remember. The rose sisters will be beside themselves if we don't put on an appearance." She flipped her mane. "I know it's a small thing, but it'll mean so much to them."

Diamond wanted to angrily brush it off. Wasting her time for some little rose display with, like, what, ten roses? "Mmm... right..." She could handle it! "Let's see these roses."

"Marvelous!" Silver led Diamond out into the town where they were adults, and it seemed only Diamond was aware that something had changed. The rest of the adults were adults and the foals were still foals. Why had Silver changed? She had no way of finding out, and tried her best to push it out. 

"You look really nice today." Diamond rubbed behind her head as she walked along with Adult Silver.

"You're trying to get on my good side," Silver Spoon sang. "Please, continue."

Diamond laughed nervously. "Say, mind if I ask why we agreed to this?" Not that she remembered ever agreeing to it.

"Diamond..." A reproaching tone there. "They said they were opening their little garden. Ponies with class and sway need to show their support, if we want more such things. We will be overrun by bowling alleys or something equally pedestrian if we don't show our support. You don't want that, do you?"

"N-no, of course not." She laughed, and Silver joined in, a shared adult laugh of snooty ponies. She was snooty laughing!

Elsewhere, Spoiled Rich twirled left and right in front of a mirror. "The bags, gone!" She clapped her hooves to her face, grinning at the young face that was smiling back at her just as eagerly. "My responsibilities, also gone! Just a foal." She let out a slow sigh. "It doesn't get much better than this."

"I know that feeling."

Spoiled twirled towards Comforting. "You're still here..."

"Funny how that works." She leaned forward with a smile. "So, to recap, if things get overwhelming, just press the button and it stops." She pressed an imagined button with a finger. "Simple as that. I'm not here to torture any ponies."

"Torture? This?!" Spoiled waved a hoof at her reflection. "I can stand to be so 'tortured' more often. Now, divested of all responsibilities, I think I'll eat some ice cream and retire for the evening."

Comforting rolled a hand. "Didn't you have things you wanted to do?"

"Adult things." She stuck out her smaller tongue at Comforting. "Which I'm not, thanks to you. I do mean that, thank you. I heard my daughter had made friends with a local chaos spirit... I thought nothing but trouble would come from it. I'm glad to admit, in this case, I was wrong."

Comforting hopped down to her feet, hands spread to either side. "It won't be a fair trade if you lock yourself up in your room and wait it out."

"Lock myself?" She laughed, a riotous noise, hoof at her chest. "I'm not hiding. I'm rejoicing!" She cantered in place, giggling with overflowing happiness. "How could I not?"

A knocking came from the door, someone clopping against it. "Spoiled!"

Spoiled flicked her ears back. "What, is... It can't be..." She turned to the door, trembling as the door opened.

A colt darted in the moment the door was open far enough to allow it. "Spoiled!" A colt version of her husband was grinning at her. "What're you doing in here? C'mon!"

Spoiled glanced back towards Comforting, who wasn't there anymore. "Wretched thing..." There were always prices in dealing with such spirits. "Come on where?"

Filthy waved excitedly towards the outside of the room. "A new movie's coming out and you said you wanted to see it."

"I did?" But she was already being ushered for the door. "Well, um..." If she said that, it would surely not be entirely awful... "Let's get going then, I guess?"

"No guessing." He laughed as he circled her. "We'll find out at the movies. Don't worry, I'm covering."

Spoiled had a flashback to the younger days, when Filthy had the bits, and she had none. She reached back into her pocket, finding a button, but not a single bit to her name. "Thank... you." They were just foals. They weren't married. Spoiled wasn't rich. "Very kind."

"So formal." He crashed against her side. "Lighten up! It'll be fun!"





"I'm impressed." Discord tossed some popcorn into his eager mouth, crunching. "You have a whole thing going on here. I must say, I like how you're keeping them on their little hoofies like that. Nice touch."

"Thanks." Comforting smiled at her dad, cheeks warmed. "My first... chaosing?"

"Your first intentional chaosing, which is even more important." He ruffled the top of Comforting's head. "I'm so proud I don't even have words." He tapped at his chin. "Should we pick out a trophy, plaque, or something of that sort?"

"We don't have--" She didn't get to finish, being rained  upon by a wide variety of commemorative tokens for the momentous occasion. She didn't have it in her to stop her father's celebration.