New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver

137 - Housewarming Song

"What?" Fluttershy followed after Comforting, looking, perhaps properly, confused. "You got what?"

"Like Twilight's castle, but less... castle," reasoned Comforting out loud. "We have to sing to it. This is a gift of friendship, not a tool to save the world, or a reward for doing that."

"That does sound nicer..." She glanced aside at the hovering Screwball. "Do you want to sing?"

"Yes!" She grabbed Comforting in the air, hugging fondly. "If it makes my sister happy, I'll sing all day and night and even the middle times and sing sing sing." To her credit, she didn't drop the words as she eagerly spat them out, but her tempo remained high.

Comforting looped an arm around her, the two floating along. "Thanks. Oh! You can stop by any time, Screwy. You're still my sister you know." She moved in to poke Fluttershy. "That goes for you too. You don't stop being my mom."

Fluttershy smiled gently as they emerged and she could see Cracked guarding... something? "Is Cracked going to live near your new house?"

"Better!" Comforting threw her arms wide. "She's living in it." She powered forward, Screwball at her side as she rejoined Cracked. "Back! Everything safe?"

"I have not touched it, nor has anything else." Cracked inclined her head towards the glittering acorn, waiting where it had flopped on the ground. "Hello, Screwball."

"Hi!" Screwball waved excitedly at the massive wolfpony. "Nice to see you again. Can I get a ride after we sing?"

"I will be taking my new den then." Cracked hummed gently. "Tomorrow? We can ride then."

"Yay!" Screwball did tight circles, joy on her expression. "Let's sing!"

"What do we sing?" Fluttershy sat down near the others, glancing at the curious acorn. "Part of me is chastising the rest. My daughter is a chaos spirit. Why would she do things the normal way in this situation?" She swallowed nervously. "That won't grow... into anything as tall as Twilight's castle, I hope?"

"It shouldn't?" At least, Comforting hoped. She had no actual guarantee. "Amity is nice, and she knows you, so I'm hoping she doesn't do anything that'd make you upset, since that'd make me upset, and then everyone's upset."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Alright then. So, what do we sing?"

Comforting thought back. "We name all my friends I hold dear, I think that's my part to start. Then we sing about the new house and what it means to us." She snapped her fingers. "I bet that's a good part to bring up what you're hoping for. We're helping it grow into the perfect house."

Cracked stood up smoothly, assuming a true downward facing dog for a stretch on her way to being upright. "Then you should begin, alpha. We can only start after you."

Comforting took a long and deep breath. "Alright. Let's start with the big obvious one." She waved at Fluttershy. "My mom, Fluttershy. She took me in when she didn't have to, and showed me all the love." She turned the same wave right on Screwball. "And my lovable sister! Who I hope to have over a lot. We'll have fun!" Screwball cheered the idea even as Comforting went on. "Cracked, from a cracked past, to a whole future. Bigger and stronger than me, but whose wellbeing I value greatly. Dear friend, and soon to be roomie." She darted in for a nosekiss. Cracked had so much nose to kiss! "I welcome you to our home."

From a subtle gleam, the acorn brightened to a more intense throbbing, as if each name gave it strength in some unexplainable way, yet Comforting carried on. "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They were just old enough to send a little filly away, but they took me in as a friend instead, and I love them so much. They encouraged me to learn magic, and gave me confidence when I needed it most."

With a sound like a tiny shovel, the acorn dug a hole halfway between scooping and drilling itself further down. "Professor Twilight! She's such a good magic teacher, and a unicorn teacher. Sorry I'm not either of those anymore, but you're still so precious to me. All the teachers of her wonderful school! They all looked out for me, and I love them all." She hugged herself so tightly, hearts popped free, each with a little bubble of a noise. "Here's to education." Not like she graduated from the school just yet.

"The crusaders! Lovely fillies that, without trying, led me towards this potential." She flinched, remembering the potentially deadly accident she had with them. "I owe them a lot. They have a clubhouse, but they'll be welcome here." She took a slow new breath. "And...my old friends." He voice dropped, barely being spoken. "I hope you're all doing well... It may have been a life ago, but you're still in my heart..." The acorn was gone, just a mound of dirt left behind where it had burrowed away. "I should mention all the lovely ponies of Ponyville, who've made my stay here so great."

Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Let's begin."

"Not yet!" She hugged her eager mom. "One more! The students! I can't not mention them. Dragons and changelings and yaks, oh my. Such wonderful creatures that I want to host parties for, and take tests with, and have fun with..." She danced in place. "And now... we can start."

Fluttershy began the song, voice raising to a heartful ballad of how Comforting arrived at her doorstep, and all the growing she did since then. "Every day was something new," she sang at the mound of dirt that glimmered with growing potential. "Every night I felt so warm..." Fluttershy professed her deep love of her filly, line by line, spilling free of her in a fond heartsong she didn't try to hold back.

Screwball waved excitedly. "I was lost, and then was found." She grabbed Comforting from above. "By my bestest big sister!" She sang songs of the first pony to really care about her existance in so long. The hospital visits, and then getting to go to school, growing and making friends, all thanks to one person caring. Her love was unending, if a bit uncontrolled, the dirt pulsing powerfully in sympathy to her outflowing emotions.

Comforting looked ready to sing, but Cracked took her turn first. "Lost and scared, not the only one." She nodded towards Screwball. "It only took the care of one. She bled so that I might stop. My alpha, you reign from the highest top." She sang of the changed world, wonderful and alien. She sang of the new friends she had made there, the new ways, strange, but one she wanted to be part of. "And now we howl." Just as advertised, she howled deep and long, shaking the ground with the force of it as she threw her head back. The ground erupted as the acorn began to grow upwards rapidly into a new shape, expanding rapidly and forcing them away.

Being the only one that hadn't sung, Comforting felt safe taking her turn. Her song was at Fluttershy's house instead. "Safe place, that I grew in." She spread her arms towards it. "I only hope my new house is half as warm. That the animals come and say hi. That all know it is a safe place. Pony, creature, critter. Like a tree, all are welcome under its branches."

With a great thud, the magic settled beside them, the house settling into being, though it hardly looked like a proper house. It was an acorn. It had grown from an acorn, to an acorn. Sure, it had windows and a door and a little sign that read 'Comforting Abode' on its mailbox. It was still a huge acorn, about two stories tall.

Cracked scratched at her snout with a hindpaw. "Curious... This isn't what you planned, is it?"

Comforting took an unsure step forward. "It's... Interesting?"

This didn't stop Screwball from bursting inside without a hint of hesitation. "Woah!" she exclaimed out from the inside. "This is super great!"

Cracked was stirred to action. She pushed open the door. It was a large doubledoor , allowing her to step inside without crouching down. "It isn't..." She trailed off, looking around with widening eyes. "How?"

Fluttershy and Comforting hurried in last. The interior of the acorn-house was not what the outside implied. They had stepped into a large space. It had two floors inside. The bottom floor was tall enough for Cracked to stand without issue. The top floor looked more standard, sized for Comforting. It was visible, as it ran with an open railing along the edge of the space.

Comforting bounced on the ground. "Ah ha! The good ground." At least that had made it from the plans. "Grown by us.." She hurried to check out the other rooms, finding the layout she had seen in the blueprints. "Amity... You are the best."

"Thank you." But Amity wasn't there, at least, no form of her was there. Still, Comforting had heard her.

"This is my friendship house!" Comforting threw her hands wide. "Built with the hooves and hands of all my friends. Oh! The students are getting things to really make it part of them."

"How delightful." Fluttershy raised a hoof to her chin. "I'm not sure what I can... offer."

"You can offer yourself. Just keep helping the animals, and being there. And stop by. I owe you a few dinners."

Fluttershy gently hugged her daughter and turned to Screwball. "You can come here whenever you want. Your sister already said it's alright, but I'm saying it too, as your mother."

"Yay!" Screwball didn't have fancier words, but felt sure that one did the job. She hugged both of her caretakers warmly and darted off to explore the acorn-house.

Cracked flopped and curled on the new ground, claws scratching lightly. "I like it... I will help guard it. Are there other tasks you would want from me?"

Comforting considered that from the second floor, leaning against the rail that seperated her and Cracked. "Cooking is out... How are you at cleaning?"

"I can help tidy down here." Cracked looked around the first floor. "I can't up there." She looked to comforting and the second floor."

"Then that." Comforting nodded. "Help keep the first floor tidy, and guard against bad creatures. Don't bark at new ponies though. That'll scare them. They can't hurt us anyway."

Cracked snorted at that. "I almost want them to try..." She smiled at Fluttershy. "We remain close to you, mother of my alpha. If you have need for what I may offer, ask."

"That goes for you too, Miss Cracked." Fluttershy waved a hoof at Cracked in a tut tut fashion. "I'm an expert at animal needs, and you are one of those. If your claws are feeling ragged, I can trim them down."

Cracked perked, sitting up at that. "Would you?!" Her tail swished left and right with growing excitement. "I have to bite them. It's not the cleanest, but it works. If you can do it better..."

"Oh, my, yes..." She drew out her nail clippers and went in for a better look. "I see..." Those poor claws had been tended to the best Cracked could. "I can make them better. Just sit still." She got to clipping away, littering the area with bits of claws.

"No furniture," noted Comforting, finishing her own round about at a slow walking. "I'll have to fix that."

"I'll help," called out Fluttershy. "You didn't let me help pay for the house... Which, I suppose, you didn't need... But I can give a few bits towards furnishing, at least." She nosed a pouch loose, still focused on her nail care. "You're still my filly, even if you moved out."

"I barely moved out," laughed out Comforting, jumping over the rail and landing next to the bag. "We still live together. There's just an extra wall in the way. We're still a family."

"We always will be." Fluttershy paused her work to offer a hug, and be bowled over, Cracked joining the hug, then Screwball.

Author's Note:

Not quite the fin of this arc, don't be fooled! Gifts were promised.

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Comments

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Comforting gets an Acorn house instead of a tree house or a crystal castle. Amity is obviously there in spirit, which since Amity is a spirit means a lot.

I wonder what the Acorn warming gifts will be?

[Gordon_Freemane]

Who lives in an acorn by the Everfree?

[David Silver]

11626104
Comforting Squarepants?

[Gordon_Freemane]

11626109
All floaty and friendly and caring is she!

[David Silver]

11626121
If chaotic embraces is something ye wish!

[Gordon_Freemane]

11626139
Then hug her so hard she almost goes squish!

[Prettypony]

Oooh you went with the acorn idea! Did you plan that from the start or did I inspire you?

[David Silver]

11626224
(innocent whistle)

[Theresa]

11621068
I'm thinking something similar to the tree of harmony.

[readsponies]

Wow, what a dis...cord. No mention at all?

[David Silver]

11626858
What did you see him doing?

[readsponies]

11626930
Saving her life? Teaching her how to chaos and to spirit? Being called "Dad"?

[David Silver]

11626961
Her life was in danger? Did I miss a part of this musical chapter?

[readsponies]

11626978
She sang a song listing and thanking her friends and did not mention Discord at all.

[David Silver]

11627882
Oh, I thought you were wanting him to do something in this chapter. I misread you entirely, sorry.

[midnight arrow]

Love this chapter

[Theresa]

11626978
He said she needed a vacation from chaos. I assume if someone with that kind of power needs a vacation from the power bad things will happen if they don't get it.

[Poparakelis]

"We always will be." Fluttershy paused her work to offer a hug, and be bowled over, Cracked joining the hug, then Screwball.

[howard035]

Man this was a moving chapter.