"Gonna be honest." Sandbar stepped off the boat. "The biggest surprise so far is that Headmare Twilight even let us do this."
Gallus looked out over the sands of Saddle Arabia. "Well, we are seeing a whole new place..."
"And we have to write a report on it." Smolder shrugged her shoulders with a puff of smoke. "So we're, technically, still learning something."
Yona stomped onto the sand, looking down at the curious surface as it moved around her hooves. "Okay! Let's find wolfpony. Bring back friend for Cracked and Lily."
Ocellus landed on Yona's back. "And not get eaten along the way..."
"Forget being eaten!" Silverstream peered with wide eyes at the ponies going past. They were huge! They were, if one wanted to be equine-specific, horses. They were so much taller and larger, walking with long stately steps. "Wow..."
Silverstream fluttered eagerly around an especially towering brown mare. "Oh I hope we make lots of new buddies! Maybe I can ride one of these giant horsies!"
Smolder facepalmed as Sandbar tried corralling the exuberant hippogriff. "Whoa now, let's maybe not annoy the mega-ponies right off..."
As the others dispersed, Gallus sighed but smiled wryly. This mission already promised to be a hoof-ful keeping everyone safe and on task! At least the desert views were spectacular.
Comforting looked down at a globe of their world. A few glittering dots were her loyal agents. "Please don't get hurt." She looked up at Amity. "How do you deal with it?"
Amity inclined her head. "I cheat. I plan. I know enough to be absolutely certain what I ask can be done." She rubbed at her cheek. "That is part of what frightens me about the end I see. I don't know what is past it. I can't plan for what I can't see, Comforting. After you ascended, that was everything for a while.
Comforting remembered Amity, then Harmony, being quite shaken and scared. "Sorry..."
"It isn't something you chose to do." Amity went over to sit before the globe in Comforting's lap. "And we have grown past it. Blindness simply returns again... I will accept it gracefully this time."
The little filly that was Amity's current form smiled gently. "I have a very dear friend this time. Hoof in hoof, we will step ahead, together."
"Aw..." Comforting touched noses with Amity. "You got it! Now..." She looked back to the little dots. "I could lean in closer...But helping is cheating, right?"
"You already helped." Amity crossed her small arms. "You are the reason they are there at all. Trust them to do well. Have faith. If they are not worthy of it, you already failed them long before today."
Comforting cringed at that specific phrasing. "You can be awfully cold in your encouragement sometimes, Amity."
"Sorry." Amity was quiet a moment. "I'm not trying to be. I would like your agents to succeed as well."
She stood up. "Staring at those dots will not ease your burden."
Comforting rolled the planet off her lap and stood up. "What do you suggest then?"
"Go to school." Amity inclined her head. "Your agents have a reason to be absent, you do not. Your notes may be helpful to them."
"Oh... That's actually kinda... I love it." She vanished, popping like a soap bubble.
Amity willed the abandoned globe up and twirled it slowly in her magic. "If your things didn't vanish, you'd be quite the litterbug, Friend Comforting." She released the globe, letting the universe forget it.
She turned her gaze in a new direction. "Time to play my favorite game." She slid her eyes behind Comforting's, to see as she saw in that school.
Comforting popped into her seat as if she'd always been there. It helped that her teachers knew of her at that point, and few seemed to get upset by it.
Applejack was giving a lesson on teamwork, classic AJ material. "There ain't much yer gonna get done on yer own." She slapped a picture of the Apple Farm. "If ah had to run this on mah own, well, there wouldn't be no farm!"
She smiled at the crowd. "But ah wanna bring this home. So your assignment for the rest of class is to list things you've done that got better, or coulda got better, with a helping hand, or hoof, or three."
Unsure sounds echoed, but Comforting was already writing busily.
Applejack wandered over curiously. "You look like ya already got somethin' in mind. Got me curious, what're ya thinkin' 'bout?"
"I have agents." Comforting continued her writing with a big smile. "They are doing what I can't, and I have to trust in them, my friends, my family, to make it happen."
Applejack clapped softly with a clopping sound. "Lovely. Sounds like ya already got in mind what ah'm tryin' ta teach. Now..." She glanced to the empty desks. "This wouldn't happen to have somethin' to do with why we're short a few?"
Comforting darkened. "Well... Professor Twilight said it'd be okay!"
"Ah know she did." She pat Comforting's nearer shoulder. "She does talk to us other teachers. Ah'm ribbin' ya." Applejack raised a brow. "And ya trust this rowdy bunch to handle themselves without ya?"
"I have to believe in them," Comforting said fervently. "It's time for their training wheels to come off on the path to destiny."
Applejack chuckled. "Ya sound jus' like Twilight talkin' about provin' we're ready fer things way back when." Her expression softened. "An' ya know what? We rose to it then thanks to the faith she showed in us."
She waved at the empty seats. "So I reckon yer friends'll do the same thanks to you puttin' yer trust where it belongs - in them."
She tipped her hat back. "Sounds like ya don't need ol' Applejack's lecture then if ya already know when ta lend a hoof an' when ta stand back an' let em soar."
"Nope." Comforting set her pen down, but didn't vanish. "I'm here to take notes, for them. They're helping me, and Equestria. The least I can do is take good notes for them."
"Well, Ah know somecreature's gettin' an A on this one." Applejack wandered off to help other ponies with their writing.
Comforting giggled, happy with her A, but turning her efforts to a new paper. "Notes notes." She began writing what she could see on the board and what had been said. "I won't let you down, guys."
A message, blinking in her field of view. Comforting frowned at it before reaching. Was it Amity? That could be nice. Her frown turned to a smile as she pressed the little icon.
Hey kiddo!
Just letting you know I'll be taking the next step soon, and it'll be a doozy! You're going to be so proud of me. I can barely wait! I hear you have agents of your very own, how exciting. I wonder if our agents will butt heads. Will you win? Probably not, you are going against me. Still, worth being amused at.
Trick or Treat,
Daddy Discord
That hadn't been Amity. Comforting mused on what the words could mean exactly. She lamented not finishing the series. Maybe that would have given a hint on what her father was up to. "Chaos for good and chaos for evil..." she muttered to herself, finishing her notes on AJ's class. "Chaos is chaos."
She pocketed her notes and handed in her paper to AJ when she went past. "Go on to yer next class." AJ tipped her head towards the door. "Ya got this one down."
"Thanks." Comforting hopped up onto her desk and down off of it, only to pause as she turned to the rest of the class and its many students. Instead of leaving, she went to help a student that looked like they were struggling.
Applejack snorted softly. "Already gave ya an A, silly thin'. Don't need not one bit of extra credit..." She didn't fight it though, returning to her desk instead. "Ah swear..."
Only when the class properly ended did Comforting emerge in a floating zip. She looked left and right before she remembered where she had to be and hurried off to Rarity's class next.
"I'm glad you're here." Twilight entered through the door Fluttershy had opened. "I have questions I think only you can answer."
"Oh, okay?" Fluttershy stepped aside to let Twilight in and close the door behind her with a brush of a wing. "How can I help? Is something wrong?" She looked around for the source of the danger.
"Nothing today." Twilight stepped up onto the couch and sank on it. "It's about your daughter."
"Screwball?"
As if summoned by her naming, Screwball zoomed in. Fluttershy caught her with a raised hoof, stopping her. "You should be at school."
"Oh." She went right back the way she came, into her room.
Twilight blinked at the exchange. "There's no school in there..."
"I learned to stop asking." Fluttershy smiled gently at Twilight. "Did you mean her?"
"I meant Comforting. I know she's become a liberated adult... But she still loves you, and everypony else, fiercely."
Fluttershy brightened at the description. "I did my best to raise her, um, properly... But she did most of the work on her own. I'm very proud. What about her?"
Twilight rubbed behing her head. "It's a curious situation... But I feel, at times, she isn't... one of us. I feel... like maybe she never was..." She took a slow breath. "She was given to you by Celestia, wasn't she?"
"Oh, yes." Fluttershy directed a wing at the front door. "She showed up right there with Comforting. Little thing... I couldn't say no to her." She smiled with memories. "I never regretted it, not even a moment."
But Twilight rubbed her head uncertainly. "I know she cherishes us deeply, but have you ever felt your daughter was somehow...apart?"
At Fluttershy's blink, she elaborated delicately. "It's just, her astonishing talents exceed what I've observed even studying under Starlight. It's as if Comforting inhabits two spheres at once - our world and one peering behind the veil..."
Fluttershy bristled, a protective wing extending. "Whether born of chaos or harmony, Comforting is every bit my cherished child! She may be an old soul, but her heart overflows with love."
Chastened, Twilight touched her hoof gently. "You're absolutely right, I spoke out of turn. Please forgive my invasive speculation."
Twilight smiled gently. "I wasn't trying to imply she was anything but loving. That she cares for us, all of us, is quite obvious. Even when you gave her permission, which she didn't technically need to ask, to build her house there, she followed each and every rule. Nopony could have stopped her."
Fluttershy cringed faintly. "And that's what you're worried about."
"To be blunt... yes." Twilight leaned in closer. "Not because I think she's a bad creature. She isn't! She's... in fact quite a good one. But she isn't..." She worked her hooves slowly. "She's something else. She's called Discord 'father' before. Do you know why? I feel that's...quite an important part of this puzzle."
Fluttershy blinked at that. "Oh, well, I'm her mother... I thought she was... just being friendly, since we're... together often. Like calling somepony 'uncle' even if they aren't an uncle. It was harmless... so I didn't stop her."
Twilight tapped at her chin. "I don't think that's it... I don't think... I could be wrong." She stepped down to standing. "I have few hints to work with, but I haven't done the obvious thing."
"Oh, what's that?" Fluttershy remained on the couch, watching Twilight.
"Ask her." Twilight smiled gently. "She seems fond of me, and most other ponies I've seen her around. Asking her may yield the information I seek. I feel silly for not trying that earlier. Sorry for bother you, Fluttershy."
"N-no! You're no bother." She hopped to her slow wings to the door to open it for Twilight. "You're always welcome here, Twilight."
"See you later, in school." They shared a brief hug, and Twilight continued on her way at a lively trot.