• Published 26th Jan 2022
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New Endings, Old Starts - David Silver



A well-led life runs into an end. If that was it, it would have been fine, but the forces of the universe were not content, finding another purpose, or perhaps reward, for this being in another world entirely. May she shine gently.

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48 - Flying High

Comforting did as many of the other students were doing; bouncing merrily on the clouds she could stand on. They were quite high in the sky, casually defying the order of nature just by being there. "This is a fun spell, Miss Starlight."

Starlight nodded at Comforting. "Thank you, very useful, but let's focus on the task at hoof." She pointed forward. "That goes for all of you. We didn't make this field trip just to enjoy cloud walking, as entertaining as it can be."

Rainbow swooped over the class. "This way to see the rainbow factory!"

Starlight raised a hoof to stage whisper, "Cloudsdale Weather Factory."

"That's what I said." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Everycreature ready?"

Yona flickered just faintly, a thing only Comforting could see, then vanished from sight. She was only the first to fall victim to Starlight's spell turning off without warning. Their young faces, screaming with horror as they fell from the sky. Fortunately, flyers were right there to mobilize. Comforting had never met the pegasus that caught her, but in that moment, chest pounding loud enough that she couldn't hear anything, she just hugged them until she was gently left on a patch of cement that she wouldn't fall through.

She never got their name, or even knew if it was a stallion or mare that had saved her. It didn't matter much, perhaps?

The trip was over. Rainbow and Starlight took the students back to the ground, rather than risking that happening again. Comforting didn't get to hear the teachers debate the situation or decide on a course of action. She was with the other students. "I'm glad you're alright." She was facing Yona. "When you vanished like that, it was scary. It must have scared you too."

"No!" Yona took up her proudest stance. "Yona was... maybe a little scared." She laughed nervously. "Still, is good you alright. You fell too?"

"I was so scared!" Comforting wasn't scared to admit how frightened she was. "A fast ticket to a phobia of heights."

Gallus nudged Comforting. "I got ya."

Wait... "That was you?!"

Gallus hiked a brow. "You must have been really scared if you didn't know it was me. I wasn't going to let you splat everywhere." He made an exploding motion with his talons. "What do you think they're talking about?" He looked to the closed door the faculty was busy debating behind.

"I have to go!" The door slapped open, revealing Twilight. "Classes may resume while I'm away." She vanished with a pop.

The other teachers emerged, encouraging students to their scheduled classes, well, except those who had been scheduled for Twilight in that moment. They were out of luck until the next period.

"Poor Twilight." Comforting snapped to look at Cozy Glow. "What? Oh, it just happened." And she had just emerged from that hidden room. "Her magic just stopped working. Crazy, huh?"

Comforting perked. "I saw that happen before... and again." The falling was that, right? "Well, that means Starlight didn't mess up. Something has to be wrong... With magic. Can magic..." She spread her hooves out wide. "Can all of magic have a problem?"

Cozy clopped her little hooves firmly together. "Gee golly. You've seen it before? It must be... Are you alright?"

Comforting waved about. "With friends like these? I was completely alright. Just... you know, scared a moment."

"Gosh, that sounds bad, but good. Friendship is great like that." She leaned in, batting her lashes. "Now, you should all get to class. Headmare Twilight would be very upset if we didn't finish."

There was little argument for that. The students wandered off with some grumbling of curiosity, but they did get to class. Education resumed, except Twilight came back and announced Starlight would be the temporary headmare while she took a trip.

Smolder crossed her arms with a great eye roll. "Oh, great. Here we go again."

"Again?" Comforting rubbed at her cheek. "Did Starlight do something before?"

"Now get back to class. Sorry for all the disruptions." Starlight waved for them all to scatter, sending them back to class.

As exciting as things had been, learning was able to resume. When Comforting got home, it was empty save a few animals. There was no Fluttershy. "Hm..." The house mice would likely have answers, but she lacked the power to hear the reply. She was not her mom and could not speak to animals. "Guess... it's up to me." She wandered into the kitchen.

With her glowing horn, she got to preparing a modest dinner, and it just... "Hm." It'd been so long since she quietly made dinner for herself, alone...

She missed her mom. Comforting was entirely sure she could handle things. She was doing it! The animals that needed feeding were fed, except one, herself, and she was working on that. "Stop being dumb...." Fluttershy would return. Of course she would! "I just have to be a good filly while she's out."

What was Fluttershy doing exactly? She had good friends. Like Comforting's pals, even if things got real scary, they wouldn't let her come to harm. "Do your best, mom..." Comforting willed the plate to the table and hopped up to join it. "I'll eat right and wait, right here."


"Good morning, friendship students." Cozy was behind a podium, her smile turning into a pout. "I know we're all sad because Miss Sparkle is away, but don't worry!" She curled a hoof to her chest with a confident smile. "--Because she left me in charge! To do things just the way she would." She threw a hoof in front of herself in a curl.

Gallus was the first to dare to advance. "I thought Starlight Glimmer was gonna be temporary headmare?"

But Cozy brushed it off, even having a letter supposedly from Starlight saying the title had been given over. The other students accepted this as fact. They wouldn't let Starlight, or Twilight down!

The Young Six were not so quick to accept that. Neither was Comforting. "Hm..." That didn't sound like the Starlight she knew, not at all!

"Oh, Smolder, you forget." Cozy hopped up onto the podium, legs dangling off as if it were a chair. "We're not scheming dragons. We're ponies!" A casual appeal to racism proved effective, framing the whole problem as a failure to friendship properly.

"Yona not yak either! If Smolder get extra homework, she does too!" The others called in uniformity, joining their friend.

Comforting scampered forward. "Me too! I'll do some extra friendship homework." What was friendship homework? She wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to abandon her friends.

"What loyalty. Rainbow Dash would be so proud." Cozy spun things forward without facing their uniform objection, turning it into a group-building moment. "You're all such good friends!" She gave her speech, finishing with, "Can I count on each of you to help me?" And the student body erupted into a positive cry.

The Young Six, including Comforting, shared less sure glances. Still, it was school time. All the teachers were gone, except Cozy Glow. She went from class to class to give instructions. To Comforting's shock, Cozy wasn't awful at it. She gave friendship sermons and did little nice things for everypony else, and sometimes big nice things. It was still, easily, qualified as a 'substitute teacher' day, with the substance of the work decreased significantly, but classes were had, and the students were singing her praises.

Comforting ran her hooves together, fidgeting the whole day. The whole world was... duller. It was hard to put a hoof on it, but it was like someone reached into the color settings of her head and casually turned it down when she wasn't looking. The whole thing was... less vibrant. "This is bad..."

"Is something wrong?" Cozy was beaming at her from the front. "Just tell me and I'll try to help."

Comforting tried to think of how the little pegasus could help her with that. "It's not your fault, um, Cozy... but... I can see magic."

"Golly!" Cozy drifted closer on her wings. "That sounds useful. You must use it all the time."

"I do!" Comforting smiled. Maybe Cozy would understand? "But today... everything is... more grey. It's... It's... like all the magic of the world itself is going away." Comforting felt sudden tears she hadn't asked for. "It scares me... And I can't do anything about it!" That had come out a little more like a childish wail than a calm statement, but she felt like a frightened child. "Can you help?"

"Gee... That's a big problem, hm..." She reached behind her back and produced a big tacky set of sunglasses with a purple set of lenses. "Here you go." She popped them right on Comforting's face. "There, now you have your color back."

Comforting blinked behind the glasses. "Um... T-thanks?" The purple tint on things was not helping, not even a little. The colors were just as faded, but also purple. The world was still low on magic, and only she could see that. Moving through the hallways, she almost collided with Sandbar. "Oh, hi."

"Hey." He nudged Comforting on the side with a hoof. "You're looking really out of it. I'm heading to a study group with the others. Wanna come?"

Comforting gave her best smile. "That sounds delightful." She followed him into the darkened library, to where the others had gathered. Yona was there, watching Comforting. "You look funny."

Silverstream shook her head. "She looks sad, not funny. What's wrong?"

Comforting pointed at her own head. "I can see magic, and I can see that there's less of it."

Gallus was peering at Sandbar. "So that's her excuse. What's yours?"

"I thought you forgot Study Club," gasped Silverstream with horror.

"As if." Sandbar joined the circle. "Cozy Glow gave everyone tickets to a show tonight!"

"Anycreature else get the idea she's trying too hard to be liked?" The conversation flowed away from the lack of colors to the more immediate issue of Cozy's presence.

But then a noise. It was late, the reason the library was so dark to start with. School was over. On a normal day, Comforting would have gone home to her mother. But Fluttershy wasn't there... She had kinda gotten lost. Not that she didn't know which way was which, but she lost, um, herself, and forgot which way she wanted to go.

They all went for a peek at what was making the noise to see Cozy Glow emerging from some place, flying off in the gloom of the closed library.

"That's kinda suspicious." Gallus crossed his arms. "What's she doing?"

Smolder pointed after Cozy. "Let's follow her and find out."

They snuck out as a team, creeping behing the cheerful little pony. Cozy went into her office and they hurried to get a peek. "Where is Princess Twilight?!" demanded a stallion with a sharp beard and a sharper scowl.

"Oh, golly, she's away on a quest," assured Cozy without a hint of a delay, no fear in her voice or mannerisms. "I'm watching the school for her." She gave a bright smile at the dour stallion.

"Magic is failing across our land and she left a foal in charge of this facility?" He angrily waved a hoof around, scowling at her extra hard for emphasis.

"Yes, sir," cheerfully replied Cozy, not at all ruffled. "Is there anything I can do for you?" As if his presence was not itself a threat to her in any way.

"That won't be necessary." He leveled a hoof at her with a scowl as she shrank for the first time. "Twilight's folly stops here. As of now, I am headstallion." He smiled with vindictive pleasure. "And I have quite a few changes to make."

Cozy scowled at the usurper that was snatching her position away. Unseen, the Young Six fretted silently at the new development. Of all the things they were hoping would happen, that did not rate very highly among them.

Author's Note:

Like the original episode, this is gonna be at least a two parter. You will notice we have entirely skipped all the Mane Six action. They are not the protags of this specific story. We'll just have to hope it works out for them.

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