Fluttershy awoke on the softest grass ever, from a peaceful sleep. She stretched with a big smile as she stretched with a lazy yawn before hopping up to her hooves and taking a deep breath as she gazed out at the wide open plains she found herself in.

"Hi, Mom." Comforting wrapped around the false pegasus gently a moment. "Nice to see you." She left the pegasus behind, already dissolving. She had a day to do, no time for wallowing in the past.

Emerging onto the new floor of the library, she waved at the ponies excitedly exploring. As fun as being a proper librarian was, she was finding the second floor to be a better fit. "What have we here?" There was a little foal sitting alone, not because they were reading, but instead looking a little sad.

Comforting zipped in on that sad little face. "Why the pout, little pony? Can't find something? Or somepony? I'm here to help."

The little pony giggled at her antics before standing up and flashing a bright, if hollow, smile at Comforting with a shake of her head. "No worries! I'm just here waiting for my big brother." She sat back down with a long sigh.

"Is he taking a long time?" Comforting sank to sit next to the little filly. "I could remind him he has a little sister waiting for him."

The little filly looked over at Comforting, but quickly looked away from her again. "Nah, he just likes to spend time with his friends more than me." She dragged a hoof across the floor nervously.

Comforting let out an oh. "I see. But he brought you here, to the library. What are they up to, hm?"

"Aren't you busy?" The little filly peered back up at Comforting with a mildly distrusting look before another heavy sigh took her. "You must have important things to do instead of listening to my problems."

"You are the most important thing I can think of this moment." She could perceive the rest of the floor, running properly. It was her domain. "So, go on. Tell Comforting how she can comfort. She loves doing that." Comforting ruffled the top of the filly's head, mussing her mane.

The filly pouted at Comforting for a moment before looking away. "He likes hanging out with his friends more than me!" The words exploded out of her in a rush. "I'm trying to do fun stuff with him, but he just doesn't want to hang out with me." She flopped to her bottom and crossed her arms. "So I'll keep waiting."

Comforting considered a moment. "Hm, well, whatever he's doing, he must be having fun. Why don't we have some fun too? He won't mind if you don't get into trouble, yes?" She gently scooped up the little filly. "Which way did you see him go?"

The little filly sighed softly as she slumped against Comforting's shoulder. "I don't want to interrupt his fun..." She drooped further even as Comforting lightly stroked her back. "That way," she admitted, pointing.

Comforting lifted a few inches and floated where the pointing hoof directed, ending up in the room full of printers busily producing little things for the ponies working them. She saw a teen-aged colt with a bandana, surrounded by some of his friends and laughing as he worked one of the computers while trying to get it to make something.

The filly hugged tighter against Comforting even as Comforting patted her reassuringly even as she tapped her fingers against the wall to draw attention. "Hey there."

The colt looked up, as did his friends. "Yeah? We didn't hurt it."

"I didn't say you did." Comforting hugged the filly as she moved in for a peek at what they were trying to print, some kind of little toy? "Whatcha workin' on?"

The colt lifted up the little model ship he had on his hoof as he showed it off with pride to her even as he smiled at the others he was with. "This thing is fun! But we, uh." He pinned an ear back, refusing to look at the held filly directly. "Um."

Comforting held out the filly gently. "If you want to talk to her, please go ahead."

The colt was still a moment before he stomped in place. "We've been working on a surprise, but the stupid printer keeps messing it up!" He held up the toy ship that was glitching slightly as he struggled to keep it from falling apart in his hands. "But we have a lot of time!" He threw his hooves up. "But also we don't."

The filly blinked in clearing confusion. "You were making something for me?!" She hopped down from Comforting's grip and rushed up to the colt, eyes sparkling as she looked over the computer display.

Comforting drifted in with her, examining the plans they had. "Ah. Look, it starts from the bottom." She pointed. "And you have it upside down, so it starts from the top, and there's not enough holding it up, so it prints funny." She clacked a few keys to get it to spin around. "Now what were you making?"

The colt's mouth was wide open as he gaped at Comforting, stunned by her presence and sudden knowledge of their plans. He dropped the little model ship and raised a hoof, then lowered it again. "Thank you! We would have figured it out, eventually."

Comforting ruffled the colt's mane gently. "I bet you would, but I also bet you would like more time enjoying this little toy and less time wondering why it won't print."

The group cheered as the toy started to print out, not becoming lopsided immediately that time. "You're awesome!" The colt gave her a little bow even as he collected the finished little ship. "See? I told you it would work eventually." He placed it in the filly's hooves with a grin as she gasped in delight at seeing it finished at last.

She ran around, waving the ship as if it were battling intense waves. "It's the best!"

Comforting flashed a smile. "You could make it even better." She pointed. "We have paints over there. All of you could help make the ship that extra special, instead of just being plastic-colored."

The colt tensed at that, considering it as he looked around at his friends who all looked just as excited at the prospect of painting it up. "I bet she'd like that!" He took his sister's hoof. They, group and all, went to attack the paints with cheerful cries of excitement.

Amber nodded to each pony around her. "I present to you all, a spell I call 'The Twilighting.' She giggled gently. "I named it that after the legendary Twilight Sparkle. She didn't tolerate books out of place, and this spell won't either."

Sunny and Misty, seated side by side, applauded loudly as Amber walked through the different aspects of her newest magic spell, written down in a thick book she had spread open on the table in front of them. She levitated pieces of paper and set them around each other in various arrangements as she explained what they would do. "But talk is cheap, as the saying goes."

She pivoted in place towards the return bin, full of books. "Look at all of those, poor things, waiting to be returned to their proper homes." Her horn began to glow as she worked through her own spell. "But with this!" The first book jumped up off of the pile and hovered over to one shelf before dropping down into place with a click.

Amber clapped her hooves. "One down, but we can do more than that." She focused on her magic, trying to get the rest to get moving. A couple of books flew up into the air and smacked against each other before going back down onto the pile as she gave out a sigh of dismay. "Darn it! It's hard to do more than one at a time."

She tapped a hoof against her chin. "The spell does seem to work. I'm not floating each book on my own. I don't even know which books they are, so I can't be putting them in the right place, on my own."

She exhaled deeply as she struggled to get the rest of the books up and working as well. Doing one at a time was the easiest, two could be managed, but much more than that, and a collision and crash seemed inevitable. On the bright side, each book that made it to a shelf, did so in the correct position even without being seen. "Well, it's progress." She smirked as she watched the stack of books grow smaller and smaller as she kept up her focus until they were all back in their rightful places with all the titles perfectly aligned.

Misty whistled sharply, stomping the ground in applause. "That's great! You made that spell up by yourself?!"

Amber turned with a renewing smile of pride. "All by myself. Um, mostly. I borrowed a little from the other spells, a few phrases here and there, but I put them all together and it works, mostly." She waved at the empty bin, not a single book remaining. "Ta da!"

Misty ran over and gave Amber a big hug of happiness and pride in her achievements as she stroked her mane with tenderness. "That's amazing!"

Amber was surrounded by ponies, at least Misty and Sunny, as they all murmured about the things they could use Amber's spell for even as she soaked in the praise. "I couldn't have done it without such a great magical buddy." She touched her nose to Misty's cheek. "I'll share the spell, of course. Magic buddies share their magic, kind of the first step right?"

Misty chimed a laugh at that as she blushed under the praise. "Thanks! You're my best friend!" She embraced Amber in a powerful hug as she pressed close with giddy delight. "We should use your spell in our community outreach efforts!"

Amber blinked at that. "I don't think putting books away will help us reach the community?"

Misty waved a hoof. "Think outside the box. If you can put a book away, why couldn't you get a book to the pony that most wants to read it?" She pulled Amber along by the hoof. "That kind of thing would be great for helping all kinds of ponies feel more welcome."

Amber paused with a groan of worry. "I haven't tested it like that yet." She rubbed behind her head, but her smile returned. "But that sounds like a great adjustment my magical buddy could work on."

Sunny laughed at both of them. "You two are incredible. It's nice to see you two getting along so well. Also, really, just seeing unicorn magic is amazing. When are you going to share it with other unicorns?"

Amber froze up as she turned back to Sunny with a yelp. "Oh. Well. It's not exactly an easy skill to learn. It takes practice to really get the hang of it and use it right." She laughed tensely. "Also, waiting on the go-ahead from Comforting before I do that."

Misty skipped in place. "Oh! When we do, we should turn our magic room public. We could give magic lessons there for any unicorn that wants to learn!"

Amber cocked her head. "Hey, yeah! That sounds great! I wonder if other unicorns would really want to learn? It's not easy, but it would be nice to offer." She tapped at her horn. "The option is a part of being a unicorn. We've been separated from it for too long."

Author's Note

Comforting is having a great time, even with a hint of melancholy darting about.

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

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

Join my discord to chat!