New Endings, Old Starts

by David Silver

160 - Party Night

Comforting had cheated, but it was for herself and didn't affect anyone else, so she didn't feel terribly guilty. That, and she'd done it before. She was garbed in glittering blue from top to bottom. There was no long trailing part on it. She had to dance! "Looking good," she gushed at Diamond with a bright smile.

Diamond was garbed smartly in far less chaotically dreamed up clothing. She adjusted the collar line of the outfit and reached up to fuss with her hat between her hooves. "You sure they won't make fun of me?"

"Why would they do that?" Comforting threw an arm over Diamond, guiding her forward. "And since when did you take that lying down even if they tried? That's not the Diamond I know."

"Ugh!" Diamond thumped Comforting away a step. "This is the first time I went to a dance with ponies so much older than me, but also weren't adults. I've been with daddy to some fancy places, but there I just have to be a 'good foal', which isn't the same, Comfie."

Comforting waved off the theoeretical terror. "Whatever happens, I will be there. If they pick on you, I will tickle them, to death. I can do that."

"That's... Is that possible?" She cocked a brow, but she was walking, and they joined the line of creatures, mostly ponies, headed into a large open hall. "I guess that's a silly question."

Comforting giggled, terribly unlikely to 'to death' anyone. "Alright! We're here!" She threw her hands wide over the dance hall, filled with creatures trying their best to awkwardly shuffle about. Some were doing it with more skill than others. "Want to get a snack to start, or do we get to shaking things?"

"Wow." Diamond spotted Yona, who was doing her utmost to look very pretty and extremely unlike her usual self. "She really wanted to make an impression tonight... If she can manage it, I can't be left behind." She threw a hoof at Comforting. "Let's dance!"

Comforting grabbed the offered hoof and twirled Diamond onto the dance floor. "I have a good feelings about tonight." There was an electricity in the air. Something big was happening. With a good ending? She could hope. She drew Diamond in for a warm hug, but it didn't last long, both moving with the music. Neither were masters of the art, but they were at least giving a decent showing and enjoying themselves.

The music was bopping thanks to the effort of "Scales 'N Tail", otherwise known as Spike, working the DJ booth. But the energetic music couldn't last long. "A classic," he called, starting something a bit more sedate. Like magic, the ponies seemed to know the dance. This included Diamond without a word, strutting in the pattern of the others like she had done it dozens of times before.

Sadly, Comforting had not. "Uh... You take the lead, never did this..." Comforting did her best to keep up with the clearly pony-origined dance number, not even having the right placement of limbs to do it perfectly.

Not that this seemed to bother Diamond, who took the lead and slowed herself to show each step as she did it. They wouldn't win any awards for the best dancers, but they were both smiling.

Comforting spotted trouble. Yona was about to trip, a future coming in rapidly, so close she saw it without looking for it exactly, a moment of intense meaning. She raised a hand as if to stop it, but pulled herself back. Into each life, some rain must fall. Must fall... She played off the wave as part of her adaption of the dance.

And Yona tripped, crashing and sending a punch bowl to rest perfectly on her head. Comforting may have had a part in not letting it spill all over her in that instant. But the fall had happened.

"Time to shake it up," called Spike. "Time for the Pony Prance!" The music hit a far more energetic tempo, and a new dance that everypony else there seemed to already know began.

Comforting's attention slid to Diamond, following her lead as best she could. There was a lot more hopping and bouncing in that one, which made her giggle. "This is fun!"

"It can be," laughed Diamond in return, the two moving to the beat as best they could, even if she had to teach Comforting the steps along the way. "Thanks, for not letting me chicken out. I should know better. I'm not Scootaloo."

Comforting blinked. "Scootaloo isn't a chicken?"

Diamond waved that off. "In-joke, sorry. Let's dance!"

A new inflection point. Tension was building. Yona would fall. Comforting would let her. She instead turned her gifts to Diamond. The blinded and stampeding Yona made the entire room tremble violently like a powerful earthquake, but at least one little filly was spared. Comforting avoided it entirely, floating a short distance from the ground. A few inches were more than enough to avoid the localized earthquake.

Yona crashed at full speed into the collection of potluck buckets, sending them flying in every which direction. Comforting felt less guilty, warding Diamond from the food onslaught. Twilight had done much the same for many others with a sudden shield of magic. She took some of the goop and licked it free of a finger. "Kinda tasty actually." Woulda been nice if it was still intact...

It also would have been nice if Yona wasn't running off in a teary mess. A big part of Comforting wanted to rush to help, but others were doing that, her friends of far similar state and less spirit-nature. "It will be handled," she assured herself, turning to Diamond. "You alright?"

"With you?" Diamond smirked at her spirit date. "I never felt safer. Poor yak." She offered a hoof. "Hope they get the music going again. We were really getting into a groove."

Comforting glanced over at where Spike was picking himself off. "That'll probably take a moment."

Diamond nudged Comforting lightly. "If you want to help, I won't stop you."

Comforting wrinkled her nose. Should she? Ponies were recovering from the maelstrom of the event. Lessons didn't feel like they were being urgently learned, there... "Alright... I'll lend a hand." She had two of them. What was one for a moment? She popped one hand free and tossed it to clean. It did a good job, wiping things clean with a skill that surpassed normal ponies. Nothing like a hand that just swiped in front of a pony and left them clean again.

Twilight was hurrying around the room, getting everycreature on their feet. "Sorry about that... Let's not allow this to entirely level the evening." She laughed nervously, tapping her hooves together. "We can... adjust..." More nervous laughter. Twilight looked ready to consider one of her fits.

Applejack tossed a leg over the tense unicorn. "Don't even worry 'bout it. Ya got plenty of friends and we're already all over this." She pointed with her other forehoof at the others working to clean things up. "Look, even got a spirit in on the act." She nodded at the disembodied hand banishing bits of mess as it went. "This ain't your fault, and we'll still have a plenty-fine party. Hey, Comfort!"

Comforting perked at her name. "Yeah?"

Applejack waved Comforting closer. "Ah know y'ain't gotta, and ah can't make ya... But..." She angled her head at the great ruin of potlock trays. "Could ya? Would be nice if Yona comes back to not see a big sign of her mess..."

Comforting scowled at the mess, her hand casually returning to the end of her arm. Was cleaning that alright? There were no lessons there, just work on what should be a fun night. "I don't want her to do that..." Yona was busy learning her lessons... Why rub salt in the wounds? "Diamond?"

"Yes?" Diamond was already at her side. "Go ahead. I won't be mad. It'll take you, what, a second?"

"Mmmm, nah." Comforting turned away from the food that was neatly back in their trays. No claps, no slaps. Her behavior was distraction enough to manage that. "But you only get one! If you let those spill again, you're on your own."

Applejack tipped her hat. "Mighty reasonable." She returned to Twilight, calming her down with soft words.

"Let's get the music going," called Spike, putting on a new record. "Got this one from Vinyl Scratch."

A far more lively techno beat got ponies moving far less in an organized way. There was no specific dance to do, so they didn't do them. That suited Comforting just fine, wriggling and grooving to the thumps. "Since the food's back." She grabbed a plate laden with various snacks and brought it over, arm retracting. "Can I offer you some?"

Diamond colored but giggled at once. "Well, since you're offering." They went to the side, taking a break from the dancing to let Comforting feed Diamond. "You know." She paused to chomp the next bit of food offered. "I can eat on my own." Still, she was eating as fed. "I'm not a foal..."

"You're my girlfriend, even worse. I want to spoil you, if you're alright being spoiled in this little way."

"You are the worst." She chomped down the next forkful. "Terrible." Diamond held up a hoof. "I had enough, but this is tasty... What about you?" She dashed off and returned with a smaller plate. "Your turn."

"But..." There were no arguments to be had. Diamond pointed at the ground firmly and once Comforting was sitting, the feeding went the other way.

"You like to pretend it isn't this sometimes." Diamond gently slid a spoon in to be slurped off. "But you are a foal. My lovely foal. So let me spoil you."

Comforting wrinkled her nose. "I'm not that little a foal."

"You are for right this second. Does my lovely foal want a drink?"

"Yes." Comforting crossed her arms with petulant pout. "But you're my girlfriend, not my mom."

"Good." Diamond set the plate aside. "Then no more feeding. Silly thing. We can both reach for our own food."

Comforting colored, called out. Maybe she also had lessons to learn. "Point, sorry..." They ate under their own power, exchanging little thoughts. "Think Yona's alright?"

"No." Diamond put her cleaned fork down. "She's not okay. But it looks like she has a lot of friends, so she can get okay... I only have two big friends." She shuffled a moment. "You're one of them. Silver's the other, if you didn't already guess."

"That makes sense." Comforting brought up two fingers close together. "What about not 'big' friends?"

"Well." She huffed with some annoyance. "I guess the crusaders count, but they're everypony's friends! Doesn't mean much in the end... But they're not-big friends. Speaking of that..." Diamond waved over the crowd of moving ponies. "Glad I didn't even think of trying to invite Silver to this. I barely fit here..."

"Why do you fit better?" Comforting ruffled to top of Diamond gently.

"Because I have you, duh." She stuck out her tongue at Comforting. "Having a girlfriend that fits the party helps a lot. Silver wouldn't have that advantage. She'd just be a little filly out of place."

"Comfs!" Gallus approached on all fours with a smile. "What are you doing, hiding over here." His eyes fell to Diamond. "Oh, your date?"

Diamond colored a moment, but quickly recovered. "She is my company, yes. She invited me here."

"She is showing me how to dance." Comforting did a little jig in place. "It's been a lot of fun. I'm surprised you're still here, actually."

Gallus inclined his head. "Sandbar took off. Pretty sure this is between them. They're grown enough to figure it out." He angled his head. "I came with Smolder."

Comforting burst into laughter, uncontrolled a moment. "Really?"

Gallus shrugged. "We both liked the idea of the free food. Looks like you do too."

Author's Note:

What a dance! Yona tried her best, maybe not a complete win there... Sandbar will be there to help cheer her up. Yona is best Yak, jus' sayin'.

Join the special community of folks who like my stories, get updates early, and/or get your own here at atreon!

Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Theresa hall]

I remember this episode. The main 6 meant well but they forgot that the most important thing was that she be herself. There was nothing wrong with trying to look your best or learning a new way of doing things as long as you stay true to you. Everyone forgot that in their eagerness to help and she was nervous and went along with it because she thought they were right but they were trying to make her a pony when she wasn't.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Comforting is doing well at not using Chaos Magic to stop all of the things that are about to go wrong for some creature, if the going wrong leads towards a learning moment.

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

It's really nice to see Comforting and Diamond spending an extended amount of time with each other, even if both are still learning to dance. The "prom" feel is appropriately romantic.

Naturally Comforting's empathy and the hyper awareness of her surroundings that comes with being a chaos spirit make things somewhat difficult, though. Hopefully things will indeed work out for Yona, and hopefully everycreature will have everything cleaned up while she's away.

[David Silver]

11708534
Note, Diamond knew how to dance. She was showing Comforting how to do pony dances. Fortunately, pony dances are mostly adorable and not super complicated.

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

11708761

That's an interesting detail.

It really is a good thing that pony dances are mostly adorably simple, too.

[GleamingKyler111]

Ponies were recovering from the maelstromTwil of the event.