"You've got this." Amber ruffled Coriander's mane gently as she pushed the door to the library open with a hoof for her friend. "You're ready for this!"

Coriander smiled weakly, not looking confident at all. Despite her misgivings, she walked through the darkened library towards the teaching rooms. "What if I mess up? You messed up! That was a rough first day."

"It was." Amber stayed at Coriander's side. "But we bounced back. Even your mom stopped haunting us after a while, and now you're a wizard. Seems like a win to me."

Coriander ruffled up her mane with a hoof to smooth it out before stopping in front of the door. "Oh gosh, I'm really gonna do this!" She put a hoof to the door handle. "My very first student."

"You won't be alone." Amber trailed after Coriander into the classroom. "Perk of being a second generation teacher, you get a first generation to lean on. If you feel underwater, just give a shout and I'll be right there to pull you back up."

Coriander giggled softly at the idea of getting to pull Amber into her student-teaching adventures with her and rushed over to embrace Amber in a brief hug before retreating to the chalkboard at the front of the class. "I'm a little early."

"Better than late." Amber began cleaning things and preparing the library for opening, other librarians joining her in the considerable task.

WinterSweet entered next, settling down into her seat and turning her gaze towards Coriander, expecting their class to begin soon.

Coriander burst into fresh giggles. "Are you that eager to learn from me?"

"Yes!" WinterSweet clapped. "You'll teach different than Miss Amber, right?"

"Probably!" Coriander grabbed a hoofful of chalk and made some notes on the board, each one filled with simple explanations of the runic alphabet. "I'm no Amber." She craned her neck around to get a better look at WinterSweet, still unsure about whether she was really qualified to teach anypony.

But there was WinterSweet, smiling with simple joy. The unicorn-in-training seemed like she was ready for whatever might come next, or at least was content enough to give Coriander a chance at this new position as the teacher of somepony else learning magic too.

Coriander took the time to study her first student. WinterSweet's purple coat shimmered with each passing of light over her smooth fur. She had such a gentle expression on her face that always seemed to help Coriander relax whenever she was nervous about her studies. She loved WinterSweet's beautiful indigo mane which flowed down all around her head and shoulders in gorgeous waves and locks of hair. The graceful pony gazed at her in such a serene way that made Coriander want to smile too.

"I can do this." She turned to the board and pointed at the runes on it. "Can you see them from there? Did I make them large enough?"

WinterSweet leaned back in her chair and smiled at Coriander cheerfully. "It's fine!" She lifted a hoof and tried to wave Coriander over to join her. "You don't have to stay all the way up there, you know?"

Coriander colored as she closed in with her one student. "I thought it'd be good practice. I won't be teaching just one pony forever, right? Sometimes I'll be at the front of a big class!"

WinterSweet cupped Coriander's cheeks in her hooves. "Remember to breathe though." She poked at Coriander's stomach. "You'll be great. You've already shown me neat magic stuff before. You know tons!"

Coriander gulped and nodded slowly in agreement. She certainly had been sharing all sorts of things about magic with WinterSweet during their regular walks together since they had first met and became friends because of their love of magic studies. "Okay!" She clapped her cheeks with her hooves. "You already know the alphabet, good." She pointed to where the unicorn runic alphabet was on the board.

WinterSweet nodded eagerly at that. "Uh huh!"

"Alright!" Coriander glanced at the seats behind WinterSweet and their still empty spaces before turning back to her with a gulp of nervousness for what was ahead of her that day during this, her first official class in being a teacher of magic. "So we can skip all that. Let's start with a spell. Now, don't be me! I did magic without knowing what I was doing, and it was really scary." She put a hoof at her hips. "Let other ponies be stupid for you."

WinterSweet giggled at that. "Alright, I promise. But you're not stupid, Coriander. That happened because you were so smart you couldn't hold yourself back." She winked at Coriander with a growing smile. "I'm not that clever. I'll cast spells we know are safe."

Coriander paced before the chalkboard and smacked her hoof into the board with each of her key points. "Right, so remember that spells require runes for each word? They can't be too long, but there is no minimum length." She flipped an ear back. "The maximum is really just a matter of how hard it is. You have to remember the whole thing, and perform it perfectly. So a big spell is going to be harder." She drew out a new spell on the board. "As you, mmm, can see, this one is longer, but it's really neat!"

WinterSweet stared at the new spell with an eagerness that helped soothe Coriander's worries some more and hopefully meant that she was getting the hang of this teaching thing already on her very first day. She giggled with the thought as she went on to the last mark. "This is a spell I made myself. Using it, you can become a cute kitty cat. Now, if it's too complicated, that's okay! Don't feel bad. We can work up to it."

WinterSweet glanced about nervously with uncertainty in her eyes at her potential for learning this brand new spell on her very first day in being a student of magic for Coriander. She shifted in her seat at the front of the class-like room before taking a deep breath and finally finding her voice. "If you show me how, I would like to try that." She pressed her hooves together gently. "I may mess up, but I want to learn it from you."

Coriander blushed darkly with embarrassment at WinterSweet's unexpected proclamation of support for her and just how she was trying to give her support. "Yeah, okay!" She abandoned the board, trotting for WinterSweet. "Then, there's the spell. Let's practice." Her horn glowed brightly with the first few steps. "This, then this. Hold that, smoothly into there. See?"

WinterSweet copied Coriander step by step until she lost concentration on the spell and fell on her face with an awkward thump against the desk and groaned with a little bit of pain in her face at the force of impact from falling on her nose against the wood. "Ow." She rubbed her snout softly and winced at the feeling of it being sore after that fall. "I lost track. Can we start again?"

Coriander tapped her hooves together guiltily at causing WinterSweet to lose her focus on the spell. "I think I made it too hard, but if you're up for it, let's try again."

Winter waved Coriander closer, just to bonk her right next to her horn. "I can see the spell. It's complicated. It's not your fault, I just need to try again, until I get it right. Okay?"

"Alright." Coriander rubbed at the spot on her head where WinterSweet had bonked her with her hoof and took a slow breath. "From the top." Her horn glowed as she went through each step slowly. "This, and that, slip to there. No rush."

WinterSweet took it at the pace Coriander had set and did much better in keeping her focus on the spell the second time around as she kept close track of the order of each step of the spell in her mind. She memorized it better than before, seeing it all in her mind's eye and wondering just what she'd be like as a cat for as long as the spell lasted for.

An announcement over the library's intercom made her jump. "Oh! Wait, lunch?" Winter looked to the clock. Hours had just melted away. "This is going to take more than a day, but we made some real progress." She grabbed her saddlebags. "Totally worth it!"

Coriander stretched lazily with a tired groan at just how hard she had worked teaching WinterSweet. "That goes for both of us. Want to copy the spell down?"

WinterSweet shook her head quickly. "I'll practice it when I'm in class. Copies can wait until I have it working right. For now, we have lunch." She slid off the chair with a bounce and trotted for the door. "Come on!"

Coriander chased after WinterSweet quickly as she didn't want to get left behind by her friend as they headed out, leaving the classroom for the next teacher that needed it.

***

Toots felt hands cover his eyes. He didn't know many creatures that even had hands. "Comforting?"

"Ding ding ding!" Comforting snuggled against Toots' top from above. "How's my favorite little stallion doing? Done working for the day?"

Toots hugged Comforting back the best he could while she was wrapped around him. "Almost! Just finishing up. What are you up to?"

"Helping a pony get her cart moving." Comforting fished something out of Toots' bag of holding, casually extracting Toots' sandwich without even asking. "Can I have this?" She stuffed it in her mouth without waiting for an answer.

Toots rolled his eyes at that. "That was rude. You could make you own and I know it."

"They don't taste as good as real ones." She smooched the top of his snout. "And they don't give me an excuse to walk with my hubby to get something to replace it with." She extended an arm to wrap around his neck and kiss him directly on the lips.

Toots nuzzled against Comforting more. "Hubby?"

"It's a modern term I'm trying out." Comforting kissed him again with a smooch. "Like it?"

He snuggled into her warm and affectionate form. "I like most things you call me. Alright, that was a funny way of asking me out to lunch, but I'm saying yes." He fluffed Comforting's hair. "What does hubby mean anyway?"

Comforting brushed back some of Toots' mane affectionately with a loving smile on her face at her life partner. "Let's go. You pick the place. Surprise me, or don't. I'm alright with comfort food too." She walked along at his side. "Did I mention in the last second or so how much I adore you?"

Toots snorted softly at that with amusement at Comforting's happy energy and obvious excitement about being together for their lunch date today, as if they hadn't just had breakfast together just that morning before parting ways for work. "Right back at you." He paused a moment. "That doesn't feel like enough."

She quieted his complaint with a little kiss. "I heard you. You made me happy." She pressed nose to nose. "Couples need to remind each other of that. I heard you, it made me happy, and I love you even harder, somehow."

Toots groaned at that, but his heart was pounding. It was exciting to be with Comforting no matter how long they'd been together. "You're a charmer. Still." He motioned with a hoof. "I heard you. You made me happy." The two shared a smile and trotted off together to grab some lunch.

Author's Note

The torch is passed, and I think Coriander is doing well! WinterSweet is doing her part to be a good student, hm? Allow me to ask, dear reader, but what part of this wide world would you like me to focus on?

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!