New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver

131 - Childish Play

Amity inclined her little head, peering at Spike. "Hello," she spoke, voice uncertain. "We have not met." At least in person.

Spike crouched down to get his box down carefully. "Hi... Comforting?" He looked between the two versions of the same pony, so far he could tell at least. "This is far out."

Comforting waved at either of her friends. "Spike, this is Amity. She looks like that because she wants to."

The confusion faded from Spike. "Oh! You're a changeling? Neat." That was it, just accepted.

Amity looked thoughtful a moment. "Would you be upset if I said I wasn't one, but that you're close enough?"

"Works." He reached into the box and drew out a slender comic. "I didn't know there'd be somecreature else, but I got a lot of comics! I'm sure we can find one you like."

Amity smiled gently at Spike. "You are very accepting."

"Comforting's right there." Spike pointed to the bipedal version. "She's cool, and she can do whatever she wants. If she's not worried, I'm not worried. Besides, you two are friends, right? That makes us friends, sorta. It'll be proper after we hang out and have some fun."

Amity's little horn glowed as she selected a comic from the collection. "Does it bother you, having a friend of a chaos spirit?"

"Why should it?" Spike plopped down on his bottom, comic in his lap. "Not even the first! Discord's a friend now and he's alright. Don't tell him, but she's easier to get along with. No offense or anything, but she has a lot less... demands. She asks first, and waits for an answer before she does things. Big plus."

Amity flinched with fresh guilt. "I am... still learning that. Spike, I apologize."

"For what? You didn't do anything? Oh! Is this about the comic?" He pointed to the one she was floating. "I brought them here to enjoy. Read up! No apologies required."

Comforting dug around the box, tail lashing in slow curls and flicks as she considered the selection. "Wow, you have a lot of these..." She picked one about a smiling milkman, er, pony. What was that about? She wanted to know, and reading seemed the way to do it. "Also, he probably heard that, so expect him to give you guff next time you see him."

"Figures." Spike snickered as he flipped to the next page. "Still, nice to meet you, Amity. Do you... live out here?" He twisted left and right from the ground, looking about the area of the treehouse. "Kinda out of the way."

Amity nodded at that, eyes on Spike directly, not far off. "This is my home." She didn't mention the tree beside them was actually her. Why complicate things? "Thank you for visiting me, and bringing gifts." She willed the next page with her glowing horn. "But, I do have a request."

"Yeah?" His eyes were on his comic. Surely he had read it before, but he was having just as much fun with a re-read. "What's up?"

"I want to play." Amity put the comic down carefully. "Thank you for sharing your comics, but I want you, and her." She pointed at Comforting to be clear about that. "I want to play. Will you play with me?"

Spike lowered his comic. "Huh? Oh, uh, sure?" He stood up, a little confused, but not turning down the idea. "What do you wanna play?"

Comforting pulled out a long bit of jump rope. "How about?"

Amity's eyes shined. "I never got to try that. Yes, may we try that?"

Spike caught the end of the jump rope that Comforting tossed to him. "Alright," he laughed out. "Wow, been a while since I played with one of these..." And yet, he stood ready to do it. "You want to jump first?"

"May I?" Amity advanced between the two, stepping over the rope and looking as ready as a little filly could be.

Comforting held her side, fingers curled around the bulbous end that was made to be easy to hold onto. "Ready!" With Spike's agreement, they got the rope moving, slowly at first. Amity leaped over the rope as it swung under it and the song began as they slapped it against the ground with the beat of the song, encouraging her to speed up and slow down with the flowing rhythm.

Being an orderly creature, once Amity was going, she could keep going like a metronome, without hesitation or deviance. It was only the changing pace of the swingers that posed a challenge to her, but that just made it fun. Their songs and cheers drove her on as she jumped up and down with each swing. Suddenly there was a second rope, thanks to a little chicanery from Comforting, and the ropes came twice as quickly, the beat changing as she had to do more of a skip than a full hop to hope to hit the ground fast enough to get up again.

Even she, orderly spirit she was, could only keep up for so long, and the rope crashed into her leg, bouncing off harmlessly, but ending the song all the same. But Amity was laughing, not bemoaning it. "That was fun! Did I do it right?"

Spike dropped his ends of the jumprope. "Yeah. That's most of it." He scratched at his cheek as he advanced. "Do I get a turn?"

Comforting giggled. "Sure, why not? You sure it's not too 'girly'?"

"Pfft." Spike assumed position at the center of the double ropes. "You ready, Amity?"

Amity rushed to where Spike had been, holding both of her ends with her magic. "Ready!"

Spike, being bipedal, could hop from foot to foot to keep up with the taps as the two fillies sang out in time to their attack. "How is this a 'girl' thing anyway?" he asked as he jumped. "Figure jumping's kind of an everypony kind of... thing, you know?" He mused this even mid-song, not that he was one of the singers. "Go ahead, faster. I can handle it!"

"You sure?" Comforting pressed faster, slowly increasing the tempo and making sure amity was with her, which wasn't really something she had to worry about. Synchronizing with her was right up Amity's alley and she joyfully went at the same pace Comforting was going. "We can get pretty fast."

"Right..." He had to hop and skip faster and faster, but he had a secret weapon! He just didn't come down, hovering right in the middle of the ropes. "Ta da!"

Comforting prodded him, her end of the rope still twirling. "That's cheating. Get down and face the music."

"Hey! Alright, alright." He touched down and stopped talking, his breath occupied with keeping up with the rapid taptaptap of the rope beneath him.

"And... end." Amity called it when Spike would misstep. That she was right made her even happier, clapping wildly in place. "This is so much fun. Thank you both for playing with me. Oh. Comforting, do you want a turn? You haven't jumped the rope yet."

Comforting put her end of the rope down. "Since you're offering." She took her spot in the center of the rope. "Don't go easy on me. I'm a wild chaos creature and you know I'll do silly things."

"Really?" Spike took up his end. "After you prodded me about cheating?"

"I'm saying before I start! Go nuts!"

"Okay!" called out Amity with obvious excitement. The tree they were next to, Amity, shook powerfully, loosing various acorns as Comforting began her hops, almost making her trip right at the start.

"Tricky!" Comforting got back on track though, dancing between dropped acorns and avoiding the oncoming ropes. "I wasn't expecting that." A trick worthy of a chaos creature! But she was in the game, dancing to their song. "Faster!" She felt like she could keep up. Her body was alive, young, and ready to bounce.

Fortunately or not, her playmates were happy to speed up, faster and faster by the moment. Spike whooped and cheered her on as they became almost a blur of rope-twirling action.

Comforting floated up, cheating much as Spike had, just for the rope to slap her across the head on the way past. "Hey!" She was forced back to the ground, her trick spoiled. The two twirlers giggled at the failed attempt.

Amity leaned forward. "Do you want to stop?"

Comforting considered that a moment and nodded, letting the rope gently come to a halt against her legs. "That was fun! Did you want to play something else?"

"Hm." Amity looked to Spike. "You pick one. I made you stop reading your books."

"Oh, hmmm..." He glanced over at his book of comics. "Gonna guess you want something a bit more... physical... Oh! How do you like cookies?"

Amity perked. "Cookies? How do you play cookies?"

Comforting giggled at the misunderstanding. "I think Spike means making and/or eating them."

"Exactly! I happen to be quite the chef." He assumed a proud stance with a smile. "If you don't know how, I can show you."

Amity pointed up into the clubhouse that was also herself. "I have a kitchen. Let's go there." She led the way inside, right to the kitchen she knew the location of as well as most people could find their right arm. "Food and supplies are here. Do we have everything we need to make a cookie?"

"We won't make just one." Spike darted around on his wings, gathering all the ingredients for a basic cookie. "Now, best part, you add a little more to make a cookie yours. Maybe some nuts, or gem dust..." He licked his lips at the idea of gem dust. "Or whatever else you think is yummy!"

He was willing and ready to show them the steps, to make dough, knead it, shape it, and add things to it as the oven warmed up for them. "This is fun and you get to eat something tasty."

Amity considered, swaying in place as her magic worked on her portion of the dough. "Will you be mad if I don't eat mine?"

Spike perked at that. "Why wouldn't you eat yours? What do you want to do with it?"

"Give it, to a friend. I would rather it be a gift." Amity shaped her cookies on a pan with a little smile. "That would make me happy."

"Aw." Spike giggled with a silly smile. "Well, that sounds fine by me. I plan to eat mine though." He shook a shaker at them. "They have some gem dust in here. I'm not letting that go without a taste."

Comforting dotted hers with assorted nuts instead, plunging each into the cookie at various angles that made it lumpy and misshapen, but still delicious looking, she decided to herself. "I'll eat one, but I know where the rest are going."

Spike put all three sheets in. "Advantage of the dragon life, we don't need baking gloves. Warning, you two are not a dragon, so wear mitts!" He pointed to where a set dangled. "Um, at least you." He looked from Comforting to Amity. "You can use your magic, but be careful. I've seen Twilight get burned with her magic before. I'm still not sure how that works exactly, but I've seen it!"

Comforting imagined Twilight's horn being singed. "That sounds... like an ow. Not sure how that works either, but I don't want any of my unicorn friends being hurt." She hugged Amity to make that clearer. "So are there gloves for unicorns?"

"Not that I know of." Spike shrugged helplessly. "Just have to not hold hot things for too long. Like if you have tough hands, but not fireproof hands."

"Thank you for warning me." Amity leaned in to peer into the glass of the oven at the baking goods, shrouded in dark. "Now we wait."

"The hardest part," sighed out Spike. "But once that's done, cookie time!" He was already putting things away and cleaning up after their exploits. "Hey, thanks for inviting me. This has been a fun day."

Author's Note:

Spike and Amity are both precious in their own ways, and they got along yay! Would you skip rope with them?

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Comments

[Theresa]

I wonder how he would react if realize who amity is. He doesn't realize that she is the spirit of the tree of harmony.

[readsponies]

Holy cats, this chapter is cute.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

This is an adorable chapter. It's so nice to see Amity, Comforting, and Spike enjoying themselves together.

[Prettypony]

Being an orderly creature, once Amity was going, she could keep going like a metronome, without hesitation or deviance. It was only the changing pace of the swingers that posed a challenge to her, but that just made it fun. Their songs and cheers drove her on as she jumped up and down with each swing. Suddenly there was a second rope, thanks to a little chicanery from Comforting, and the ropes came twice as quickly, the beat changing as she had to do more of a skip than a full hop to hope to hit the ground fast enough to get up again.

chicanery

i.ytimg.com/vi/Zv5yvtR5S1I/maxresdefault.jpg
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/407/420/14d.gif

[David Silver]

11604564
Amity is in no hurry to educate him on this manner. She just wanted to play.

[Theresa]

11605238
I know but it still fun trying to imagine how much spike will lose it when he gets the truth.