Misty snorted as she opened her eyes, slowly moving them to look about her surroundings as she awoke from slumber in a slow daze as she got her bearings back about her again. Her eyes scanned across the room until they landed on Amber sleeping beside her on the bed and she could hear the almost eerie noises of a library with nopony moving in it. Well, except Misty. She slid to her hooves, stretching as she went.

With the stretch complete, she wandered over to the window of their home above the library and pushed it open to peer outside at the warm morning sunlight bathing their city in a beautiful glow. The glow, now allowed inside with the pushed curtains, spilled across Misty and into the room behind her.

With a mumble, Amber stirred awake slowly, peeking an eye open to squint up at Misty as she yawned and stretched before standing up and making her way over to Misty with another small yawn on her lips. "Morning already? It always feels like it gets here so fast."

Misty burst into giggles. "In an instant." She hugged Amber gently. "That was neat."

"Mmm, what?" Amber returned the brief hug, but kept moving past Misty soon after.

"That sleepover. It was way less, um, frazzled than the one I tried with the last unicorn I did one with." Misty laughed nervously with the memory of the chaotic way she had slept over with Izzy Moonbow and got prodded about ancient unicorn traditions she didn't even remember. "Just two friends being cozy and hanging out. I liked it. We should do it more often."

"Oh!" Amber dug into a cupboard for a frying pan. "Yeah! That was nice." She held the pan aloft. "What should we have for breakfast? We have that smoked fish Hitch gave us, and I think some nice green peppers in the fridge."

Misty fell silent in thought about that for a moment before suggesting, "Smoked fish sounds great. Speaking of Hitch, are we going to get another teacher to take some of the pressure off of him? He's doing way too much on his own. He's bound to get sick or run himself ragged if we don't get some help for him."

Amber hung her head sadly as she pulled out ingredients from around the kitchen, only pausing long enough to put on some music for them to enjoy as they cooked together. "Let's put up a little sign. You love making signs, make one that'll draw in a pony that's really comfortable with their earth pony magic to share it with other ponies that wanna learn it. We'll advertise a little, too."

Misty hummed with a bit of thought as she mixed ingredients together with her magic into a bowl while her friend got the stove heated up to cook on, a nervous expression on her face as she discussed this important topic with Amber. "Sounds good. But what if the earth ponies don't like our new teacher?"

Amber tapped at her chin. "Well, it's a change. Some ponies will like it, and others won't. We can't control that, except to pick a pony that's good for the job. So long as they can teach, it'll be fine." She grabbed the bowl from Misty and set it on the stovetop. "When you talk to Zipp about this later, remember this."

"Zipp?" But it hit her a moment later. "Oh, you want her to put some flyers around?"

Amber moved things from the bowl to the pan and got the bowl to the counter. "Exactly. You can use the same design as the sign you were going to make anyway, no extra effort there. We'll find a nice teacher and give Hitch that break he doesn't even know he needs. Let him be just the sheriff."

Misty moved to clear space on the table and began laying out things for a quick breakfast. "Good plan." She frowned as she thought on things. "But we don't want to make it so Hitch can't be a teacher, just so it isn't a job, right? I think he really had some fun, he's just full up on responsibilities right now. It might be better if we make him just our 'special guest'. Let him do what he wants."

"True. We do need to give him a bit of room to work, but we can't make this decision for him either." Amber rolled her eyes as she returned to cooking their food up on the stove. "He is an adult pony. We can lead him to water, but it's up to him if he wants a drink or not."

Misty flopped down on the sofa nearby and replied with a sigh, "I suppose that's true." She felt more than a little hesitant to impose on Hitch too much despite wanting to see him take care of himself. "It'd be nicer if he just took a bit of time off though."

Amber chuckled at that sentiment from Misty as she finished up with breakfast and plated up the meal for them both and carried it over to her companion before plopping down beside her on the sofa. "If we push too hard, he'll think we don't think he can do it."

Misty sat up sharply. "I don't think that!" she got out in a squeak. "He's so capable! Just busy." She stuffed some food into her mouth as if she could prove herself through eating first and talking later. "And I wanna help him get what he needs."

Amber cringed a bit at Misty's spraying of her food. "Relax. It's breakfast time." She tried to show a good example by eating without talking. They were both adults, even if sometimes they didn't act like it. She sipped at some juice as she thought about it all and finished up her breakfast. "Alright. Let's look through Maretime Bay for an earth pony to be our magic teacher. Let's teach some earth pony magic! Come on, we'll get ready, and you can talk to Zipp."

Misty chewed through the last of her food with vigor and jumped to her hooves to get ready to head out of the library with Amber in search of a good teacher for their students to learn from. She went over to a computer and began working on that flyer with a soft hum. Around her, other librarians were starting to move about. Some were descending from the same dorm area, while others came in from outside. The library was getting ready for a new day with its pone caretakers leading the charge.

Ponies were entering with questions for other ponies, or their books to return or check out. And just like every other day since they had opened this place, Misty and Amber were able to guide those that were interested towards information on the most random topics imaginable with varying degrees of success depending on if the book was ready and waiting.

It was about midday that Misty came over with a big smile. "Got it!" She showed off the flyer proudly to Amber with the image of some flowerd and words like 'Earth Pony Magic' being printed in a hoof written font along the paper.

Amber leaned in to examine it. "Not bad. Make a bunch of smaller ones for Zipp to spread around, and we can hang that one right, about, there." She pointed to a column in sight of the doors as one entered the library.

Misty trotted up to it, wiggling her hooves. She managed to stick it right in the center and used a bit of magic to float some tacks beside it. "Job well done!" She gazed around the library, then back at the hanging flyer. "Mmm, yeah! That looks good."

With the poster hanging and flyers being spread around, it wasn't long before some ponies came in with questions about the teaching position. "Let's get this over with." One mare sat before them. "You can tell me to go take a hike and I can get on with my day."

Amber tilted her head at the pony. "Miss Posey, right? Why are you so sure we'll tell you go away?"

Posey huffed gently. "I've been the one pony telling everypony else that maybe we should slow down with the 'everypony should do magic all the time everywhere!' thing. Now I'm supposed to teach it?" She hoofed a clipboard with more papers attached. "So! How can I prove to you I'm actually into this whole thing? Frankly, you need a teacher that will teach ponies to be a little careful instead of just rushing head first into it."

Amber pointed at Posey with a hoof as she let out a tiny laugh of realization and recognition. "Oh, that's right! I remember you! You were against this magic thing from the start." She laughed nervously, seeing Posey tense. "Sorry. I'm not saying that to discourage you. Ponies can change their mind. I like the idea of a teacher that will show ponies a more cautious approach, so long as they'll show them the wonderous side of things too. Ponies won't come here just to be told not to do anything. Magic's not going away."

Posey calmed at that reassurance from Amber. "So, I'm not totally out of luck?" She shuffled in her seat, tapping her hooves together nervously. "Okay." She took a slow breath. "I'll teach ponies how to do magic, but I'll do it slowly and carefully. I'll teach them to walk before they trot, and to trot before they go galloping off a cliff because they have no idea what they're doing."

Amber gave Posey an approving nod. "That sounds like a responsible teacher. Now, imagine there was a student that was having a hard time picking up earth pony magic. How would you help them?"

"What if..." Posey rubbed at her chin in thought about it before continuing with her response to that question as she stared up at the ceiling in thought, "I talked them through it? Worked with them personally?" She colored with memories. "I had a hard time, at first. I wish somepony took the time to walk me through it, alone. Step by step." She frowned. "I had to figure it out on my own mostly, or suffer through big crowds of ponies all being loud."

Amber reached out and took Posey's hoof with her own as she let out a sympathetic little humm. "I'm putting you down as a finalist." She made a slash with her pen, held in her magic as it was. "We'll call you if there's to be another interview, or if you got the part!"

Posey smiled as she backed out of the room. "Thank you!" She giggled to herself as she headed for the door. "Teacher! Me! My! Wow! So weird."

Amber whispered under her breath once Posey had vanished from sight. Shaking herself out, she called in the next eager would-be teacher. "Let's give them all a chance before I make any decisions."

The next candidate after that was far more interesting in proving they could fill the room with new forms of vegetables than showing they could teach.

The one after that wouldn't stop talking for long enough to even get in a question.

And the one after that was teaching a whole school in Brighthoof, but offered to cut back to just working at the library on weekends if that's all they needed her for.

Amber groaned, rubbing at her face with her hoof slowly. She looked down her list of ponies she had listed as 'finalists', and only a tiny few had survived that far. "I hope one of you works."

Author's Note

Let's hire a teacher! It'll be easy, right?

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