New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver

136 - What to Get a Draconeques

Gallus punched a pillow, but it didn't cry, or really react other than deforming with the blow. "What do... Hmmph." He sat on his bed with a scowl.

Smolder leaned over from the top side of her bunk. "What's all the commotion about?"

Gallus threw up his hands. "You're all so sure what to get her. She's helped me, a lot even... I don't want to come off as being a jerk and show up with nothing. Then she'll hate me."

Ocellus inclined her head from the lower bunk of the same bunk Smolder was on. "I thought you said you already had an idea."

"I said that! That doesn't mean it's true." He collapsed on his rump, hands supporting his heavy head. "How do you all know what to get her?"

Smolder drew out a pretty gem, dazzlingly purple and shaped like a heart. "Ponies love things shaped like hearts, and she's still a pony on the inside. She'll love it." She tossed it up and snatched it from the air. "Easy."

Yona clapped her cloven hooves with a big smile. "She like yak. Sometimes, think she wishes she were yak, but isn't yak. Can still give some yak things. Knitting traditional yak blanket for her."

Sandbar shrugged from his bed. "I don't know what she wants, so I'm gonna--"

"You're going to what?" Gallus rushed over, eyes wide. "You just said you don't know!"

"So I'll ask." Sandbar shrugged lightly. "We're both ponies, um, inside, so I'm not sure what she's looking for. I'll ask. Getting the wrong gift is awkward."

Gallus crossed his arms with an angry huff. "We're supposed to get her something that makes her house feel like us. If we ask, then we're just getting her stuff that feels like her. We can do better... I can do better." He paced away, tail lashing agitatedly behind him. "What about a perch?"

Silverstream perked at that. "Perch?"

"They don't have that?" Gallus peered at Silver incredulously. "You are at least part bird. A nice straight stick to land on? Nice place to hang out? Hardcore griffons even sleep on the things. Not my style, that part..."

Silver shook her head slowly. "Sorry... Sounds nice though! You get a stick!"

"What are you getting?" Gallus asked with a cocked brow. "You don't look worried."

"'Cause I'm not," she sang in a musical trill. "I'm getting shells. Lots of sea shells. You can decorate with those easy! She can put them where she wants them best."

Gallus crossed his arms. "But she's not a bird. She doesn't even fly with her wings. She doesn't need a perch... That's a stupid idea..." He kicked at the ground impotently. "I have to think up something better." He flew off to have his thoughts.

---

Comforting considered the empty lot of land ahead of her, and the blueprints in her hands. "This, to that..." She held up the blueprints between herself and the land. "Part of me wants this to be built... properly. Another says, just chaos it and be done with it."

"Chaos sounds faster." Cracked watched her alpha think about it. "I never had a friend with your powers before. You hesitate, so there must be a reason. What is the reason?"

"Chaos is powerful." Comforting put her blueprint aside and brought up her hands, wreathed in the power of chaos. "But fleeting. What I do could be undone... Not like order, which usually sticks around."

Cracked tapped a hoof in place, her hind-paw scratching at the ground. "Well... Can we do it with order then?" She flopped before Comforting. "I don't know how that works, to be honest."

"And... yet, that's a great idea!" She smooched Cracked on the tip of her nose, getting a smile from her canine friend. "I should ask my orderly friend. She's built a few houses already, and I'd love being in one of them. I wonder if I'll have to bring a seed over... Only one way to know. Wanna come?"

"You had to ask?" Cracked wagged her tail eagerly, rump in the air. "Where?"

Comforting quickly ascended and grabbed Cracked's shoulders, taking a riding stance just behind her neck. "That way, to the Everfree." They took off at what was a light lopping jog to Cracked. "I'll point the way. Look out for murderchickens."

"Murderchickens?" She turned an ear back to Comforting. "That sounds problematic... Oh, do you mean cockatrices?"

"Those." Comforting nodded firmly. "I don't want a big Cracked statue."

"Unless we run into an entire flock of them, I should be fine." Cracked left big paw prints in her trail through the forest, emerging out into the clearing of the clubhouse under Comforting's directions. "Here?" She went to the tree and sniffed it. "I could..."

"No!" ordered Comforting in a stern bark. "Bad. There's plenty of other trees back there."

"But this one is special... I can smell it."

"Thank you." The filly Comforting stepped into view. "Hello, Comforting. Hello, new friend."

Comforting slid down and rushed over to greet her filly self. "This is Amity, an order spirit. She's a big friend of mine, and I hope she'll be one of yours too."

"If you are as powerful as Comforting..." Cracked lowered to her belly, abandoning any ideas she may have had. "You look like a pony."

"I have looked like many things, through the ages." Amity smiled at Comforting. "It is good to meet your friends, but should I meet so many? I am a force. Not everycreature should say hello to the noon breeze."

"But I like this noon breeze." Comforting gently rubbed her nose against Amity's. "I have a favor to ask. Do you already know what it is?"

"I do," confessed Amity. "But the saying of it is important, and precious. Just because I know doesn't mean you can't ask."

Comforting mused the idea. "I guess that's true... We--" She waved up at the large Cracked. "My friends and I, we picked out the perfect house plan. I could wink it into being, but then it could wink itself back out of it again... Can you help? I want it to last. It'll be my friendship house."

"How... harmonious." Amity looked pleased at the idea. "I would be delighted to assist. Curious chaos spirit, friend Comforting... Few chaos spirits would willingly live where an order spirit builds, except to harm it." Her eyes turned up to Cracked. "But we are all learning new roles, aren't we?"

"Yes." Cracked had no large words for that moment. "Good roles, I think."

With a thump, a large acorn landed next to them, shimmering gently with the promise of future growth and possibility. "I am tempted to give a test. I tested Twilight each time I gave her such a thing. You have passed the tests I gave you. We are out of order, chaotic friend." She dipped her head towards the acorn. "Take it, and place it where you want it to grow. Speak out loud the names of your precious friends, sing your joy, and it will grow. So long as that joy has life within you, the house will reflect it."

With a fresh tear in her eyes, Comforting grabbed the acorn. "Thank you!" she got out, finding her voice slightly choked. "This means a lot." It was, quite literally, Amity. A bit of her. "Oh! Does this mean you can visit me whenever you want?"

"It does." Amity inclined her head, "Your house will be part of me. Does that bother you? This is your own doing, Friend Comforting. Twilight's castle, this tree... Your home. They are all me. I can be any of those three places."

Cracked looked back and forth between the spirits. "I feel out... of place. As if I stepped out of the bushes to find two gods discussing the working of the world..." Her tail went limp. "A wise creature would flee before they were noticed."

Comforting reached up, tickling under Cracked's snout. "I love you, you know that. Amity already likes you, but needs to learn more about you."

"Actually." Amity inclined her small head at Cracked. "I thought most of your kind was long removed."

"They were." Cracked sat up, as if that somehow relaxed her. "I may be the last." A thought came to her. "Do you know if there are others?"

"I can't say." Amity pointed at Comforting. "I already bend those rules for her, and my sight has become fogged. Whether I can see any or not, I will not say. You have not bothered me in asking, but I will not answer, sorry."

"That isn't a denial." Cracked's tail thumped gently. "That means maybe I'm not the last. That's a nice thought. Maybe I should mark some trees..."

Comforting swatted at her wolf-pony friend. "If you have to, where ponies won't see. They won't get why you're doing that... And it will bother them."

"Why?" Cracked looked around slowly. "Do you have any idea how many animals mark their presence all around us?"

Amity raised a little hoof. "Ponies do not rely on scent or leavings, instead words or signs in their language. That is the pony way." She considered Cracked, hulking over her filly form, but small to her tree form. "It is not your way."

"It is not," agreed Cracked with a tongue-lolling smile. "You are too young, or too old, to care, but I care. I'm not sure which it is, but that is not me." She shoved her big nose against Comforting. "We are not the same, alpha or not."

"Of course not..." The thoughts of Cracked's life compared to her own played in her mind, even if she was just imagining what she thought Cracked's life was like. "I don't want to be friends with a copycat anyway. I like that we're different." She turned to Amity. "So, Amity. This is Cracked. Cracked, this is Amity. You are both my friend, but neither of you are me, and I am not either of you."

Cracked nodded at Amity. "Well met." She sniffled at the little filly. "You smell a little like Comforting, but a lot like something else."

"I am a little like Comforting, and a lot like something else," agreed Amity, reaching up to poke Cracked on her big nose. "You have the seed that will become your home. You should plant it, unless you've changed your mind."

Comforting hopped up to atop Cracked. "Right! Let's get back home. Thank you, Amity." She waved in the brief chance she had, being carried away swiftly by Cracked's powerful motions. "We have a house to plant."

"And a song to sing, apparently." She turned an ear back at Comforting. "Is that also a pony thing?"

"I want to say yes, but any creature can enjoy it these days. Would you like to sing with me?" She gently ruffled the back of Cracked's head. "You have a nice voice."

"Now you're flattering..." Not that Cracked did much to stop it, carrying them smoothly to just across the small river to Fluttershy's home. "Who will participate in this home howl, besides us, or just us?" She leaned to let Comforting slide free. "I am ready when you are."

Comforting carried the acorn swiftly to the center of her new lot and placed it on the ground. It tipped over, nothing holding it up. "Hm... Well." She looked to Fluttershy's cottage, right there. "It's a nice thought, having my old home sing my new home. I'll get mom and Screwie if they're available." She lifted from the ground. "Keep an eye on that." She pointed at the acorn and zipped away.

Cracked sniffed the discarded magic nut. "Toy of things beyond me." She circled the strange thing. "You smell of new things..." Orderly magic, rich, with a touch of chaos. It stank of the two spirits that had conspired to created it. "A gift between them." She settled in front of it, one paw on either side of it. "Only a fool would touch it."

Author's Note:

Amity is giving her house gift. Everyone's involved!

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Comments

[Theresa]

Why do I have feeling that little acorn is going to big things one day?

[Gargon94]

A home made from Order and Chaos. Maybe it will lead to a new type of magic, a blend of Order and Chaos?

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Will Cracked touch the orderly chaos Acorn? If she does, will it affect her?

[Cyana Flame]

11620191
oh dear, Gallus may touch it~

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

11620112
A blend of Order and Chaos you say... is that not part of friendship?

[Gargon94]

11620465
Maybe? I am not sure.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

11620503
Something to look into, yes?

[Gargon94]

11620544
Sure.

[Prettypony]

It's kinda funny, but I'm imagining the acorn growing into an acorn-shaped tree. Because Comforting doesn't want to disturb Fluttershy with a huge chaotic towering house that extends infinitely into the stars, and I assume Amity wouldn't either, it'd be a lot smaller than the clubhouse and castle. I also like the shape of acorns and it'd fit well with fluttershy's tree cottage, an acorn-shaped tree with some leaves coming out from the cap to make an awning/canopy thing.

A much more fun/silly idea would be to have it grow into a "normal" crystal tree but it's like the tardis in that it's bigger on the inside. Or you could expand that to having it grow into a small grove/forest of crystal trees and each tree represents one room in the bigger-on-the-inside sort of way. You enter through the front tree and if you exit through the kitchen you find that you've teleported to a different tree in the orchard which you just walked out of.

You can go sillier than that if you make her home an exact crystal replica of Paradise Estate lol.

And now I'm imagining Discord teleporting bankers boxes full of Top Secret Equestrian documents inti Comforting's bathroom as a housewarming gift.

[midnight arrow]

great story so far

[Poparakelis]

Song? I wanna hear it

[David Silver]

11637544
The budget is not powerful enough to fulfill that. Wish. As much as I would love to.