New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver

107 - What happened?

Comforting bumped fists with Gallus, the two separating with smiles. But she didn't get far before Ocellus landed next to her. "Hi!"

Ocellus waved a little shyly. "Hi... What happened?"

"Where?" Comforting glanced about for the odd thing, but saw nothing, aside herself maybe? But that wasn't a new odd thing, no... Had to be something else. "What do you mean?"

"Gallus." Ocellus pointed where Gallus had gone. "He's... smiling. What happened? I'm not complaining, promise. It's nice to see him smiling. He looks happy, really happy."

"He found a new thing to connect on." Comforting worked her fingers against one another in a mesh. "Pretty sure... he's feeling closer to a lot of creatures actually."

Ocellus pointed to herself. "Like me? I'm a creature."

"We're all creatures," countered Comforting. "Just some of us are also ponies or other things. He's a predator, and proud of it. And now he has some predator friends."

"Oh." Ocellus was quiet a moment, thoughts dancing unseen. "I'm not a predator."

Comforting ruffled the top of the changeling's head. "You are not. Changelings never were. Used to be... mentalvores? Whatever the term is for eating thinking?" She blinked with sudden confusion. "Wait, what do changelings eat now?"

"Whatever we want?" Ocellus inclined her head. "You've seen me eat lunch before, and dinner." But she smiled despite that moment of confusion. "Silly. Changelings are omnivores. We can be whatever we want, so we can eat whatever we want. Um, not that we'd ever want to eat a creature!" She colored in horror of the idea. "Of course not!"

Comforting hiked both thumbs at herself. "I'm one of those too. Omnivores, represent." She held out a hand to get it booped with a hoof in solidarity. "Well, if you want to hunt something, Gallus learned he kinda likes that, for fun." Comforting smiled as she settled her hands on her hips. "Just fun, not for any imagined profit."

"Wow." Ocellus clopped a hoof to her cheek. "That's amazing. Did you do that?"

"I might have helped a teeny tiny bit... but I'm not taking credit for this. This was mostly him and his fellow predators. They really came together." She clapped her hands, bouncing down the hallway in an energetic walk. "I'm proud of all of them."

"That's great news! Oh, we should get to class now." She waved. "See you at lunch."

"See ya." They separated; another fine meeting with a friend.

---

Twilight smiled at one of her more curious students. "You have not been studying magic."

"N-no..." Comforting smiled timidly at that. "Sorry."

"While I am a little sad... I also understand." Twilight considered her student with a swish of her tail. "But it makes our meetings a little... Why do you come here? If you've set aside unicorn magic, which is your right to do, why come to a magic tutor?"

"Because I learn a lot." Comforting clasped her hands. "Because I like you and talking to you. I do magic, but it's not the unicorn way. You're not kicking me out, are you?"

Twilight made a face at that. "N-no... I just want to be clear where we stand." She set her hooves firmly on the ground. "You're not learning spells, this seems clear. I suppose I understand why. I might be tempted too, if I could just... do what you're doing. I'm a little sad you won't be the next... Your wizard status was something I was looking forward to. You seemed so eager."

Comforting flopped forward across her desk. "Sorry! It's hard to focus on that when I can...do it already. Oh, try me. Name a spell."

Twilight inclined her head. "Since you're offering... But not here and not now." She frowned with thought. "There has to be a way to measure it..."

"We tried that before. Chaos doesn't like being measured. Sorry..." She spread her hands a little. "It's not my idea, promise."

"Thank you for understanding. I know... Still... Hm, not your fault." She hook her head in resignation. "I'll figure out something... But, for sake of curiosity--" An element she had plenty of "--Why don't we try some traditionally hard spells?"

Comforting perked at that. "I like the sound of it. Try me!"

"Well." She waved over herself. "Can you do age spells? Hm, I suppose 'spell' is the wrong word to use. Can you make me younger, or older? Such a feat, for a unicorn, would be a master class of magic! Even I haven't managed that."

Comforting hopped free of the desk, oozing free to floating in the air. She clapped her hands down on either shoulder of Twilight's. "You're too tall." She pressed down, compressing Twilight as if she were made of puff instead of pony until she was down to where Comforting stood as a four-legged filly. "That's better."

Twilight tilted her head. "I said to make me a different age," she chastised in a higher voice, which made her pause. "W-wait..." She raised a hoof, then the other hoof, gawking at her little self. "Oh! I thought...I thought you made the room larger. I didn't feel anything."

Twilight patted herself down, discovering she was a filly in every physical way. "Amazing! Was that difficult?"

"Little Twilight is still Twilight." Comforting giggled with joy, admiring her handiwork. "So cute! So little, but so powerful."

Twilight tilted her smaller horn. "When I was this little the first time, I did not have these." She spread her wings, still being an alicorn despite her new age. "Is this temporary?"

"I hope so." Comforting cringed at the idea. "They'll be really angry at me if I turned the headmare into a filly, no matter how adorable she may be."

"No matter how much," agreed Twilight, waving a little hoof at comforting in a way that failed at being reprimanding. "Well, why not experiment a little. Make me normal."

"Normal is easy." Comforting reached a number of frames, or maybe paragraphs, back and grabbed the adult Twilight, slapping her down on top of the young Twilight, casually replacing one with the other.

The grown Twilight blinked in confusion. "Okay, I felt that one... That was strange, but it worked. What did you... do?"

"I put your adult self where your younger self was," explained Comforting as if that was a normal thing to do.

"B-but... what happened to my younger self then?" Twilight patted herself down. "I can still remember what happened..."

"Because you are your younger self, silly." Comforting stuck out her tongue. "But there's only room for one of you at a time, usually... Dad made there be two of me one time. That was... amazing, but uncomfortable. I won't do that to you."

"I can only imagine, and that just barely..." Twilight settled her hooves down. "I choose to accept this at face value. I can't imagine how else to do it..." She wobbled a hoof. "You're like Pinkie, but easier to verify as a fact, however poorly defined. Hm, well, by measure of ability, congratulations. You're a wizard." She shrugged softly. "But you're not using spells to do it, so..."

"So I'm not, I get it." Comforting bounced a step back. "I get it. I can't claim to be a math professor because I'm good at a calculator."

"I should imagine not... You've held a calculator before?"

Comforting started. "You haven't?"

"They're very expensive." Twilight threw a hoof wide. "And not required if you know your math properly, which I do." Stated with pride in herself, Twilight nodded. "But, I hear they can be useful, but far too expensive for the help they give."

Comforting drew out a calculator, just to turn it about. It didn't feel like it was dissolving...

Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh... I forgot you can do that. Is that... No, I suppose not."

"Suppose not what?" Comforting tapped idly at the calculator, performing nonsensical bits of math.

"That's not permanent... right?"

"Right." Comforting nodded and tossed the calculator over her shoulder, letting it fade away before it even hit the ground. "Permanent isn't a very 'chaos' thing."

"It would seem not... But the consequences of what you do can be very permanent." Twilight walked towards a black board across the room. "What Discord did shaped Equestria in very fundamental ways. Even if the physical marks of his trickery have faded... The consequences have not."

"I'll be careful." Comforting crossed her arms. "Was there another spell you wanted me to try?"

"Mmmm... The ones I am most curious about, I have the sense to know it could be dangerous, especially if anything goes wrong."

"Like?" Comforting leaned forward, floating in the air. "Now I'm curious."

"My mistake." She looked over her shoulder with a little smile. "This may be safer on another creature, however. I was simply wondering the extent by which you can modify a biological form. Maybe a changeling would be best, since they can undo any mishaps with only a moment of confusion to show for it."

"But that would be mean. I wouldn't do that to Ocellus. She is way too pure." Comforting floated in to tap Twilight on the nose. "Be nice."

Twilight wriggled her nose. "I am nice! But you're not wrong. That would be a lot to ask... Now, last time, we were going over the runes, which you seem to have proper control over, but also don't need. Do you want to proceed with that, or shall we set aside unicorn magic as a study topic?"

Comforting considered that with all due gravity. "I don't want to give up Twilight time. You're like my favorite auntie."

Twilight tensed. "W-what? I... Hm, I am one of those. But I'm not your auntie. I'm your professor, you said so!" She pointed at Comforting accusingly.

"Because you are," allowed Comforting. "But you can also be my auntie, and I love you for both of those things. You're practically a sister to my mother, so..."

"So... auntie... I see..." Twilight ruffled her wings on her back, rubbing feathers together. "I see... Pardon me, but I have to think about that a little... Not upset, I hope?"

"Becoming an aunt is a big deal! I bet you were surprised when you first became one."

"I was!" Twilight threw her hooves wide. "You'd think the second time would be less surprising... But... Just, a little while, please... I'm not saying no... I just need to process this." Twilight took a bit of chalk in her magic and began doodling on the board. "An aunt, twice..."

Comforting got the idea and floated backwards towards the door. "I'll see you tommorow at class." She waved at the distracted unicorn and slipped out. "Yes..." Even if Twilight had been quite shocked, she hadn't shot Comforting down. The odds of securing a new aunt felt high.

"Going for a full collection?" Discord was there, dressed as a 90s high school student. "Still have to get an uncle, a brother..." He counted each on a finger as he went. "Maybe some grandparents? Oh, what about an uncle? I hear those are fun!"

"You said uncle twice?"

"Relations so nice, you say them twice," reasoned Discord without any regrets. "I'd claim the spot, but I'm already daddy."

"Hi, Daddy." She hugged him gently. "You're already good at that."

"One of the best." Discord buffed his chest with pride. "Now, enough Twilight time. A spirit's calling for you."

"Is it you?" She hiked a brow with a little smirk. "You already found me."

"No!" He bopped her gently. "As if you could stop me. It's your other spirit friend. I know she sent you a message before, so why she didn't just do it again, beyond me."

"Aw!"

Discord blinked at that. "Aw what?"

"It's so nice, seeing you two talking." She danced from foot to foot. "I'm so happy!"

"You're welcome. I guess... Anyway, she wants to talk to you, whenever you get a chance, or don't. I won't force you."

Competing ideas came up. She could send a message herself, or just hop over... "I should tell mom where I'm going." She got to mentally typing out the message to Harmony, letting her know what's going on. "Silly Harmony."

"Very silly." He vanished without fanfare.

Author's Note:

The start of something new, but also the end of something old. Comforting doesn't want to give up Twilight time. Would you?

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Comments

[redmar]

Zephyr Breeze is technically her uncle but Discord might not count him because he probably doesn't like Zephyr.

[uis]

She has full set except brother.

Silly spirits)))

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Comforting can do wizard level things, and probably beyond that even. It's a good thing that she is nice, and decided to be careful.

A request for a visit from Harmony? Hmm.

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

It's interesting to see Ocellus confirm that Changelings can eat whatever they like in their current state.

It's great to see Comforting resuming magic lessons with Twilight, with Twilight baffled at times, but ever curious, and Comforting seeming to enjoy the lessons as much as ever.

My favorite part of the scene, and this chapter, was Comforting regressing Twilight, and then using an interesting method to get her back to being an adult. There are a lot of nice layers to that part, including a callback to when Discord summoned Comforting's previous life, way back towards the beginning of the story. I also really liked how Comforting, pulling back through time, seemed to reach past both animation frames and paragraphs in a way, a nice nod to her both being part of a written story yet part of a cartoon show.

I also liked Twilight's reaction to being changed back in such a surprising way, and Comforting's explanation. It seems that time, identity, and memory can all be fluid and non linear on some level.

Discord basically pulling the "how do you do fellow kids" meme as he showed up was appropriately surprising.

It's always cute to see the father and daughter bonding.

With that in mind, it seems Harmony is asking for something again. It'll be interesting to see what it is.

[David Silver]

11526414
Changelings still want snacks, yum.

It is settled that Comforting isn't really learning unicorn magic, or becoming a wizard. She kinda bypassed that question. But, perhaps, Twilight Time can continue?

That was, for sure, an existential moment for Twilight. From 'her' perspective, she was yanked into the future, but also can remember being small, and... what?

It just felt right at that moment for Discord. It's best not to question these things...

Comforting and Discord get along though. ❤️

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

11526419

Yummy, yummy snacks.

It would be great if Twilight Time continued, even if the lessons are pretty much completely different from the ones that Twilight and Comforting were conducting at the start.

It would be very confusing to experience, for sure. But it's also interesting to think about how Twilight's odd temporal experience suggests that Twilight's mind, or any mind, may be even more complex than at first glance, and how this challenges usual notions of perspective and causality...consciousness can be a funny thing.

Writing Discord by instinct is very fitting.

The two of them really are adorable together.

[Quirky View]

I see this version of chaos magic like not too far in the future when we can get AI to just do things for us. Even if we don't fully understand how they work or do those things, and they definitely don't accomplish tasks the same way we do, being able to just make something happen doesn't remove the ability or even desire to learn how to do it for yourself the hard way.

[howard035]

Twilight is so adorable in this chapter!

[Poparakelis]

Competing ideas came up. She could send a message herself, or just hop over... "I should tell mom where I'm going." She got to mentally typing out the message to Harmony, letting her know what's going on. "Silly Harmony."

Adorkable too.

[chibilink]

"I'll see you tommorow at class."

"No!" He bopped her gently. "As if you could stop me. It's your other spirit friend. I know she sent you a message before, so why she didn't just do it again, beyond me."

The first bit seems odd based off the conversation, I dunno what he's saying Comforting couldn't stop based on what's been said in the convo.
This second bit feels like it's missing a word, but could just be Discord being Discord.