It was early morning in Maretime Bay when Amber emerged from her home with her mane not yet done and her lunch in her saddlebags for later in the day. Her hooves crunched softly in the grass as she went past her apple tree and onward towards her library in the heart of town. With a glowing horn, she worked at her mane towards a presentable appearance.

Just as she drew closer to her destination, a hoof settled on her shoulder. She spun around in place, ready to take up defense of herself and her beloved library, only to find Comforting's patient eyes upon her, that face with a pleasant smile on her lips waiting for Amber's words.

"Oh! Good morning." She stepped closer and hugged the large, but friendly, chaos spirit. "You surprised me. Um, let's get to work? I want to get everything ready for when classes start properly."

Comforting enfolded her in a big hug before pulling away and tapping Amber's horn teasingly with one finger. "That sounds fun. You already have a plan for how you'll handle it if you get more than one student at a time?"

Amber shrugged that concern away as if it were the fluffiest of pillows. "I've taught magic lessons before. This won't be any different."

They entered the library proper and Amber put up the sign Misty had created to announce the availability of magic lessons. "And look at these." She waved to the other two. One, made by Hitch, announced earth pony lessons. The other, by Zipp, made it clear flying lessons were also available. "All three tribes, learning together."

Comforting pulled Amber back into another embrace from behind, and planted a kiss on her horn, giving it a gentle squeeze in turn as she whispered into her ear quietly, "I'm proud of you."

Amber colored at the sudden closeness of that approval. "T-thank you! You force me to think about things."

"If I'm doing my job." Comforting went to the bin where books could be dropped in from outside during the closed hours. She gathered them all up and added them to the return pile.

The two went to work together sorting the new books out onto shelves and ready for pony consumption. That ended when hooves could be heard stomping up the stairs in a rush of haste and desperation mixed into one bundle of sound coming towards the pair of librarians with great haste and purpose.

Before they could even react, a heavily panting young pegasus stood there before them, gasping for air. "Magic..." They listed to the side. "Lessons?"

Amber blinked in surprise, finding herself facing an entire crowd of eager ponies. "Are you all here for magic lessons?"

The resulting cheers of approval answered that question quite well indeed, leaving Amber to stand there utterly befuddled by this sudden influx of eager ponies all interested in learning about magic and about how it would be possible for them to learn how to do it for themselves properly. "Okay, okay! Stop!" She held up her hooves defensively. "Let's rewind a little."

An earth pony mare stepped forward, Posey frowning with annoyance. "Were the signs lying then? I want to learn some magic."

"No, no! Earth ponies can learn earth pony magic. But they can't learn unicorn magic. That takes a horn." She pointed up at that horn. "And I can't learn to flap my wings and fly like Zipp, because I have no wings."

Comforting spun around slowly as she gestured to her body. "Me neither! I'm in no shape to teach flying lessons."

A pegasus pony named Chip Cherryhoof trotted up eagerly, flapping her wings excitedly as she showed them off with great pride and enthusiasm at anyone that would take the time to look at her. "I'm ready for flying lessons!"

Amber applauded at that. "You're in the right place. Head over there." She pointed to the magic room. "And Zipp will be by to start soon. Hitch will be handling earth ponies, and if you're a unicorn, I'll be your teacher."

The ponies filed into the magic room with more giggling and excited chatter.

Amber let out a little sigh. "I didn't think we'd get so many right on the first day! Where is Misty?" She scanned the growing crowd in search of her star pupil. Ah, there was Misty, lost in the sea of ponies.

Amber dove into those very waters, pushing her way forward through ponies to get access to Misty. "Excuse me. Pardon me." She came to Misty's side with a beaming smile on her lips and her tail swishing merrily. "Morning!"

Misty trembled slightly at all those ponies moving about, not exactly claustrophobic, but certainly getting there in spite of herself as she gripped the side of the nearby bookshelf in fear of being pushed over by accident by some of those ponies. "H-hi! Wow, there sure are a lot of ponies in here. Were we supposed to have so many at the same time?!" She heaved for breath, anxiety rising within her.

Amber stepped in closer to Misty protectively and pulled her into a tight hug. "It'll be alright. You only have to deal with your students. You're seeing all the students, but most of them are here for other teachers, like me." With a soft pull, she guided Misty towards the board with the unicorn runes on it. "Let's get to where the unicorns are waiting."

Misty visibly relaxed at being able to focus on just one small group of ponies and not being overwhelmed by a large group of them that were all capable of talking at the same time without waiting for anypony else to get a word in edgewise. "Oh, okay. Okay." She took a few slow breaths, marshalling herself. "I got this."

"Good!" Amber patted her on the back gently. "Go get 'em!" She strolled back into the unicorn area of the magic room to stand before them all proudly with her head held high and her horn proudly displayed to all present for her first class to observe properly. "Four." She counted them. "To be honest, still a pretty great number considering we're not back in Bridlewood. Two of you will learn under me, and two under Misty."

Misty relaxed even more. "I can handle two." She waved at herself. "Come on over here if you want to learn about magic!"

Amber took her own students towards the board with the rune shapes on it. "So! Let's start at the beginning. Do any of you know the names of the runes?"

A bright voice spoke up immediately with perfect confidence, "The bottom one is Gemini."

Amber nodded. "I'm impressed." And so began the lesson, learning their names, then how they looked and felt when playing them on horns. "Follow along and you'll be casting spells in no time at all."

The hours flew by for Amber Skyray as she introduced her students to magic with care and devotion. With glances, she could see Hitch was just as eagerly showing bright-eyed earth ponies how to control plants in a safe manner while Zipp had already left, to show her eager fliers how to soar about where there was room to do so.

She couldn't help but smiling at the thought that she'd fostered so much learning, among all the tribes at once! This was just what Equestria needed after all this time!

She hesitated when a foal threw herself at her legs, hugging her tightly with joy at having learned her first real spell after such a short time in Amber's tutelage, especially when compared to how long it had taken her. "You got it?"

"I got it!" The mare sat up, a flower wobbling with the motion. It was attached at the end of her horn, but she had summoned it. "Look at me, I have earth pony magic!"

An earth pony heard that and came over with a frown. "I thought ponies couldn't learn each other's magic! That's cheating."

Amber squeaked as tensions rose. "Woah! Woah! It's not like that. She can create a flower, sue, but it's just one flower." She waved at it. "And not even a very large flower, and it took her a lot of effort. You earth ponies could make a whole field of flowers, and it wouldn't even take you much time or a sweat, because earth ponies are way better at that kinda magic."

The earth pony nodded at that, now convinced that was fair. "If you say so." As if to prove the point, they stomped a hoof, flowers bursting up all around them in a thick carpet. "Yea, way better than a unicorn flower."

Amber smiled nervously as the earth pony left and leaned in towards her student. "Don't let them get you down. Unicorns are amazing because they can do whatever they want. We may not be the best at everything, but we have almost no limits, with time and effort. And isn't that kinda awesome?"

"Uh huh!" The foal blinked happily up at her teacher, all smiles now.

"Settle down." Misty did her best to hush her students, but they were learning fast, and their imaginations were getting away from them with wild ideas of what they could do with magic even with how little they actually knew about how it worked yet. "We have to finish going over the basics before you start anything else."

One of her students tugged on her mane impatiently with a whine, only to get hoof tapped gently by Misty to remind her to behave herself. The colt pouted, but went quiet to pay attention to each rune and its meanings.

Another filly decided she had it well in hoof and tried casting her own spell. It wasn't a spell she had been taught, nor one she knew the runes off. She just played different magical lights on her horn randomly and hoped for the best. It backfired in every sense of the word. With a puff of smoke, she vanished.

Her companion stared at the spot where she had been before looking at Misty and letting out a wail. The other foals noticed what happened and joined in the panic.

Amber gestured to the ground. "Hold on, hold on! Let's have a look around. I bet they're lost, not gone. Split up and let's find them." She wandered around the area, searching for the foal. "If you're here, say something."

Misty stood still for a moment before she started walking with a sigh. "On my first day, figures." She left the magic room with her one remaining student at her side. "Let's look around the library. Amber has the first floor. I'll take the second."

As Amber passed into the main area of the library proper, something scampered by behind a bookshelf, scuttling rapidly and out of sight behind the next bookshelf. She crept up on it. "Is that you?" She peeked around the corner and gasped at what she saw.

The student, but malformed in strange ways, four eyes staring out from beneath their horn. She squeaked, her mind already painting pictures of how frightening that appearance was going to be on other ponies, maybe even her friends too! She'd seen stranger things, like Comforting, but something about seeing that on a pony? A little filly at that. "Don't panic. Come here. I'm not mad."

The filly burst into tears as she scrambled to get away from Amber and into a corner behind a bookshelf, seeking refuge in it from what she might do if she tried using magic on her again accidentally.

Amber followed slowly. "I'm here to help. I'm not mad at you, it's okay. Come here, it'll be okay." She stepped forward and rubbed at her shoulders. "You're not in trouble. It was an accident. We'll fix it. Just stay calm." She drew the foal into a slow embrace. "This is why we have to get a good grip on the basics before we rush ahead."

"Amber?" Zipp fluttered overhead. "You okay? I heard screaming and came back."

"Yeah!" Amber wrapped around the foal, concealing the filly partially. "Just a little magic oopsie. Everything's okay now, promise." She laughed tensely, glancing about nervously.

Zipp slowly nodded and then fluttered off to return to her other students for more lessons out on the plains nearby.

Misty circled back to Amber and lowered her voice to barely above a whisper. "You found them. Good." She leaned in to poke the filly with her nose. "That doesn't look good. Um, let's fix that. Can we fix that?"

"Comforting!"

Comforting popped into being beside Amber. "Wow, I don't think you've shouted that desperately for me be, oh, wow." She noticed the poor misshapen filly. "Ooo, now I see why you're calling me."

"Help?" Amber gave her a pleading look. "I'm not sure I can put this back before their parents come and freak out."

Comforting leaned in, eyes trailing the unseen lines of magic at play. "Mmm, you're forgetting that most unicorn magic isn't that much more enduring than my magic. It should run out about—" With a puff of smoke, the filly returned to her usual adorable self. "—now."

The filly shuddered, looking a bit sick. "I don't feel so good." She wobbled in place, only to be caught by Amber. "I think I need to go home."

"Misty?" Amber offered the filly up gently to the other unicorn in the room. "Do you mind taking her home? I don't want her to be alone right now."

"Oh, um, okay!" Misty took the foal in her magic. "Take care of my student then."

Amber saluted. "On it." She turned to the extra student. "Come on. Three isn't too big a class."

Author's Note

That could have gone worse, but also better. 75% success rate at not mutating their students into horrible monstrosities!

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