Amber turned her attention to a cat. Those were easy enough to find, and a little coaxing with food and attention got one to hang around long enough for her to study it intently. The word for its mane was simple, compared to a pony's, at least.

She shook her head at the memory of the strangely complex rune sentence that covered pony manes. Why were they so complex?

Regardless, she had another, thanks to her feline friend. With the word for mane, and the word for a feline's mane, she could proceed, and she grinned at the opportunity.

With a glowing horn, she reached out to touch the cat, sending tendrils of her magic through it and around it to check it over for a new part. Not mane, but something she could write into the spell's gaps for herself, and get a proper transformation to match it. She paused with a frown. "Getting ahead of myself." She gently released the cat to its feline business.

"Practice what I have." She nodded to herself as she drew out her notebook that had the words she'd discerned on it.

"Time to have a feline mane!" She took a firm stance, horn glowing with power as she cast the transformation spell, targeting her mane and weaving in that feline word she'd just learned.

The spell wrapped around her head and ran through her mane as it clung there a moment, sinking into her locks even as it sank into her scalp as she felt her hair shift, shortening as it grew denser and rougher in texture as she held her hooves out for balance as she was struck by a sudden wave of dizziness that rolled through her head.

She let out a giggle of delight as she glanced over to a mirror nearby to see what she had done to herself.

What looked back at her was hardly a pony. She had basically no mane, though her neck had gained more fluff than it had before. She was a housecat, at least there. "Wow." The missing mane struck her more firmly than she had guessed. "That certainly is a look." She ran a hoof through the smooth fur atop her head, where her mane used to be.

"Different than I expected, but wow!" She giggled again with a little wiggle of glee as she paced back and forth happily as she took in the reflection in the mirror before letting out a sigh of contentment at her success even as she focused on returning her mane to its normal form. She knew the word for mane, and the word for a pony mane.

It should be easy.

But the word for a pony mane was long and complex. She failed to cast it, and her hair remained missing. "This will need more practice, or I have to wait." Her spell wouldn't last forever, she was fairly certain.

Just being patient would eventually return her lovely locks. She just had to walk around with no mane for a while. "I should have thought this through a bit more."

She patted her hoof against the floor and turned to her desk. She could do some writing about how her experiment went and why it had gone the way it did instead of how she had intended it.

With a floating pen, she made some quick notes about it. She could hear activity though. She couldn't hide all day.

With a smile, she trotted out into the library proper to get to work, missing her hair or not.

Hitch approached Amber quickly with a wave of his hoof as he leaned over the counter of the front desk of the library and pointed off to one of the book shelves with a confused expression on his face. He was trying not to look at her missing mane, but doing a poor job of it. He sagged, giving into temptation. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Amber leaned back from that intense look and adjusted her glasses with a hoof. "You mean my hair?" She shrugged at that as she turned around to grab a book and offer it to him before responding properly to his question as she set it on the desk for him to collect. "Magic mishap. Good things come to those willing to risk a little. It'll come back, promise. Just, you know, not right now."

Hitch looked less than convinced by that assertion, but he did gather up the book Amber had given him with a thoughtful hum as he slipped it into his saddlebags. "I guess, if you say so. Glad you're not hurt." He wandered off, peeling his eyes free of the strange sight.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one. Each pony that approached the counter took a moment just looking at her before they remembered what they had originally come for. The fact they kept looking back at her probably wasn't helping, but she endured their gawking until she was able to excuse herself from behind the desk for the day.

There were more important things than helping patrons at that moment. Like sorting books! Yes, the books had no care about if she was having a strange mane day or not. She cast the Twilighting spell, sending them flying back to their proper shelves with a smile. "Now to finish my personal research!"

As she raced away, she almost missed Sunny approaching the counter with a basket of cookies in her hooves as she sat down with a quiet hum as she looked around for Amber only to make an odd face at her lack of mane. "Are you alright?"

"Everypony keeps asking that!" Amber approached the counter from behind. "I'm fine, thank you for your concern. I just made a silly mistake. It'll get better, eventually." She huffed gently, though the scent of cookies drew her attention. "What are those?"

Sunny pushed them towards Amber even as she leaned forward with a warm smile on her face. "Want one? Fresh from the oven." She beamed happily at that announcement. "I thought I would share!"

Amber eased a hoof into the basket and drew out one of the warm cookies with a sniff. "I shouldn't." That didn't stop her from taking a soft bite. "Mmm, oh my. Fresh cookies are on a different level."

Sunny bounced happily in place with a laugh. "See? I told you so!" She giggled gently before leaning forward slightly as she focused on Amber's hair again before holding up a hoof to keep herself from continuing to ask about it as she bit down on her tongue and hummed in quiet contemplation even as she avoided making eye contact with Amber's face.

Amber sighed softly. "You are obviously holding yourself back. Did you have more questions? Go ahead." She took a second bite of the cookie, the sweet gooey flavor calming her nicely.

Sunny squeaked before pointing at Amber's head with a nervous laugh before putting down her hoof again. "I don't want to be rude."

Amber leaned against the counter on her forehooves as she stared down Sunny with an irritated expression on her face. "Is a pony without a mane that strange looking?"

Sunny sat down suddenly, her eyes wide as she nodded quickly at that as she pushed the basket of cookies towards Amber even as she gesticulated wildly with her hooves. "Very much so! Barring a visit to the hospital, I can't think of too many times I'd see something like it. I do hope yours grows back quickly."

She grabbed her cookies. "But I just wanted to share, really."

Amber scooped up another one from the basket even as she shook her head firmly at that explanation. "That wasn't exactly reassuring." She took a bite even as she gestured with her cookie for Sunny to head off even as she sank into her seat behind the counter with a quiet huff of annoyance before letting out a content sound as she focused on finishing off that baked treat.

Comforting appeared with a comical pop. "Oh." She took quick note of Amber's new appearance. "Bold!" She leaned in. "Magic gone wrong?"

Amber huffed loudly even as she swiped her hoof at Comforting playfully even as she shoved Comforting's face back from hers with an annoyed snort. "You two are so mean! No sympathy for your friend and coworker? Just insulting me?"

Comforting plopped into a chair next to Amber as she shook her head gently with a giggle on her lips. "Magic is like that. What were you trying to do?" She swatted gently at Amber's back. "Good on you for trying, very proud, but you have to tell me what happened."

Amber didn't answer right away, instead letting out a loud huff as she looked over Comforting's face with a wince before shaking her head gently. "I was practicing the magic you taught me!"

"Did I mention I was proud?" She ruffled across the smooth fur that should have had a mane. "So, what did you do exactly?"

"I wanted to change my mane to match that of a cat's." Amber ducked away from Comforting's touch even as she looked around briefly to make sure that there weren't any more ponies hanging around the counter who might overhear her speaking with Comforting. "I might have not considered that cats just don't have manes, so, it worked. I have the mane of a cat."

"Adventurous!" Comforting waggled her eyebrows with a cheeky smile on her lips at that before flicking at Amber's side with a mischievous expression on her face. "Any idea how long it'll take to come back?"

Amber pressed her hooves under her head, supporting it. "Unsure, until the spell wears off. Unfortunately, I was pretty excited, so I cast it pretty well. It could be who knows how—" With a sudden pop, her mane exploded back into being, spilling out over the side of her head. She shot to her hooves and lunged for a mirror nearby to stare at herself in wonder. "It's back! Wow!" She fluffed up her mane roughly even as Comforting crept up behind her silently to inspect her with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"We've learned a valuable lesson." Comforting leaned in from behind. "Pony manes are hard to affect by magic, and it's usually a bad idea anyway. Not a mistake I see you rushing to repeat."

"I guess that's one way of saying it." Amber reached up to give her mane one last thorough inspection to ensure it had returned properly. "I'm very glad my mane came back." She snorted as she turned from the mirror. "So, how's upstairs doing?"

"On schedule, working on organizing all the new arrivals." Comforting made herself comfortable against Amber's backside as she flicked at Amber's mane. "Headed up there?"

Amber pondered for a moment before letting out a content sigh and rocking in place where she stood for a moment. "I want more words, but that takes time. Time and effort. I'm just going to guess you're not giving me those for giggles."

"For giggles, maybe." Comforting waggled her brows. "But you wouldn't want what I gave for that. Want the word for ear?"

"Hmmm." Amber glanced at herself in the mirror before leaning in and tracing her hoof along the rim of her ear. "Yes, I think so."

"That one's easy." Comforting snagged a hoof and pointed to the top of Amber's ear. "Just a few scribbles." She motioned through the runes involved, not many, and none of the difficult ones. "Of course, you still need targets. What will you be taking the ears from, I wonder?"

"Maybe ponies, maybe some other creature." Amber drew out a small notebook and jotted down the word that Comforting had provided her with as she pursed her lips thoughtfully at that question. "No, ponies would be silly. Most of them have about the same ears." It hit her and she turned suddenly to Comforting, almost letting her large assistant fall over in the process. "You have interesting ears."

Comforting managed to right herself with ease before focusing on Amber with an odd look on her face at that assertion. "Not really?" She ran a hand along the back of one of her own ears as she gazed at Amber curiously. "Why my ears?"

Amber snickered. "One of them's basically a feather, and the other, I'm not sure." She reached up, trying to bat at Comforting's bat-like ear. "I want that word. So stay still and let your student work."

"Whatever you say, boss mare." Comforting offered up one of her ears for Amber to inspect it fully even as she shifted awkwardly in place. "We can head up there once you've got it. You've done transformations, you can do this one too."

"Ears aren't complicated." Amber traced her hoof along the rim of that odd ear that rose and fell like a strange hill, tracing it carefully to memorize the shapes even as she mouthed it under her breath in an attempt to imprint it in her mind so that she could work with it later in private.

The word came to her with the inspection, her horn glimmering faintly as she worked out the magical notes that fit the being of that ear.

Excitedly, she dug out a pen and jotted down her new word for a bat ear. With a smug look on her face, she returned her attention to Comforting. "Shall I try it now? Or should we wait until after the library's closed, in case of accidents?"

Comforting bounced happily in place before clapping her hands together lightly in anticipation. "You've got this! The worst that happened last time was you looked funny, which you'll do again, but ponies will get used to that."

Author's Note

Nothing can go wrong from this point. It's impossible.

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