The dining hall was bustling with activity as the students filed in after their morning classes. They all looked forward to the meals they could enjoy here. Ariel sank onto the bench with all her friends. "Hi guys!"

Yona reached over to pat Ariel. "Hello, snoop."

Silverstream blinked at the new name. "Snoop?"

Sandbar laughed nervously. "She caught Ariel spying on us. Pretty sure she was just checking on us though."

"Y-yeah!" Ariel nibbled at her lunch, sinking her beak into the soft stuff. "I wasn't trying to spy, just make sure my friends were safe."

Though Sandbar seemed understanding, Yona's prickled state seemed to persist. Ariel drank down her cup of water and pushed to her feet. "I'm headed to Starlight's. Is everycreature ready to learn more magic?"

Every hand went up, and soon she had company to make the short trip to Starlight's. Yona wasn't one of them, so that was pushed to the side for at least the moment.

Starlight had readied a new lesson. She met them all with a grin. "It feels like you have new faces every time you come by." Her eyes went to Gallus. "So, tell me how a griffon plans to use their magic, which I didn't think they had."

Gallus spread his wings, air swirling around him. Alas, Starlight couldn't really see that. "Those are very nice wings."

Gallus huffed. "Yeah, well, I have magic in them. The whole magic thing is... weird. We do it differently, and maybe that's what makes it 'griffon magic'?" He grabbed Starlight's hoof and held it close enough that she could feel the wind moving. "Up." It was going up. "Down. Left. Right." With each call, the wind blew in that direction.

Starlight drew her hoof back with a smile. "Well! I'm impressed. If that works, then I bet pegasi could get in on this if they wanted." She glanced to the other eager magic students and back. "Did the others already give you the basic magic crawling instructions?"

"Yes, yes!" Silverstream stomped a foot eagerly. "We learned all that!"

Gallus' enthusiasm had faded, just a little. "Yep. That's why I was showing you that. I can control how strong and in what direction the wind goes. I'm magic crawling. So when do we get to the next part?"

Starlight hummed softly as she stared off into the distance. "It should be safe enough to move on." She pulled out a board with her magic, covered in the unicorn runes. "Now, I think it's time for two things. For one, it's time to learn the quanta of magic!"

Ariel squinted at that. "Quanta?" That was a word she knew, kinda vaguely, from her old world. She hadn't figured on it showing up in Equestria. "What do you mean by that?"

Starlight waved at the board. "Well, I meant that the basic units of magic can be arranged into shapes that combine to make bigger things." She held up her hooves close together. "These are the smallest building blocks, the quanta. But, a trick! These are made for unicorns, which none of you are. I'll go over each letter and show them on my horn, and you have to translate them to yourself. You each have your own, wonderful, different kind of magic. With me?"

Ariel had been excited until she got to that last part. She glanced around the group. "No." Her smile came back almost instantly. "But I'm ready to look and try."

Ocellus bobbed her head. "That's how we learned magic in the first place."

Smolder lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "We won't know if we get it until you try, Teach."

Starlight nodded. "Good! I'll do that. The second thing is that I need you all to keep on crawling. You want to get better at it. The stronger you are at the basics, the easier the next steps will be. It all builds on one another." She pointed to the first rune, naming it. "And this one looks like this." Her horn put out a light. "Focus on it. Feel it. Ignore my light, which sounds funny. Each unicorn has their own color to their magic, but, oh!" The glow shifted faintly. "Here's another." The glow shifted so very slightly again. "And another. "See the differences? It's the differences you're interested in." She returned to the first letter of that magic alphabet.

Ariel stared at Starlight's horn with rapt attention, feeling a part of her coming alive that she hadn't even known was there. "Y-yeah!" She held her crystal in tingling hands, imagining that light so intently that the crystal began to glow the same exact shade.

Starlight inclined her head. "Wait. I'm impressed and also worried. You're copying me, exactly. Very nice, but you should have your own take on it."

Ariel knew what Starlight meant immediately. "Oh, right. But, um, my crystal can glow any magic I want it to."

Smolder puffed some Starlight-magic-colored fire in the air. "Yeah, gonna side with Ariel on this one. We're not unicorns. We have less of a 'default' glow. Well, I mean, I do have fire fire. She puffed out some normal orangish flames. "That?"

Ocellus let off a bright glow, starting from her face and spreading across her body. "I glow." She had less problems doing that first rune in her own shade, but she was the one of them that had learned the magic ahead of time.

Gallus tried to use his 'air' magic, which was harder for him. He produced a rather nice, soft gray light that made Ariel think of wind-blown clouds. It wasn't really a glow at all. Griffons didn't have glows?

Ariel patted his shoulder. "You're doing great!" And she meant it. Going from nothing to making a specific thing, even a confusing cloud, was amazing. "I'm impressed."

Silverstream was doing as Ariel was doing, her crystal glowing in a copy of Starlight's shade exactly.

Starlight was, once again, impressed by how quickly her students picked things up. "I'm not sure if this will work the way we want it to, but we can't know until you're a little further in." Since the seemed to be getting her first letter, she moved on to the second. Of them, Gallus seemed to be doing it least in a way that startled her. He had his own soft glow, but he was copying her magic. "You're really getting this."

"Oh, thanks." Gallus winced. "Yeah, this is weird. I feel like I'm copying you somehow?"

"That's the idea." Starlight moved on to the next, advancing as quickly as they were picking up on it. "That's how learning works sometimes, just copying the teacher to start. Don't worry, it's how you use these basic steps that make you into your own wizard."

The lesson ended with them all exhausted but giddy with newfound magic knowledge. Ariel hugged her fatigued magic buddies. "We're doing it!"

"This is too exciting." Silverstream paced in place with her own smile. "But also tiring. I'm going to take a nap, then, back to work!" She marched off, as if quite ready for a very industrious nap.

Smolder snorted at her enthusiasm. "You're excited." She patted Ariel on the shoulder before wandering off. "Got other classes to get to."

Gallus let her go before leaning over to Ariel. "Thanks."

"Welcome!" Ariel inclined her head. "What for?"

Gallus prodded her. "Don't say you're welcome if you don't know what for, doofus." He rolled his eyes with a little smirk. "For believing in me, and getting me this far. Don't know if I'll ever be a wizard or not, but, um, thanks."

Ariel watched him slink away. "That was surprisingly wholesome." She rubbed at her forehead. "I could use a nap too, but I have a class, about, now!" She was looking up at a clock with wide eyes and dashed off to make it on time.

She slid into place behind her desk just as the bell went off. She was on time, barely. Rarity, her teacher for that period, did not look impressed. "Now that we're all here, hm, perhaps we can begin?"

Ariel felt embarrassed for being late and dove into her studies with renewed energy. It was hard work, but at least the hard work gave her something to do instead of stressing out about what a fool she had made of herself.

She jumped as something touched her. It was Rarity, poking her with a flat hoof. "Dear, I was hoping to make use of you."

Ariel gulped down a breath. "Use me?" She glanced about. "Um, use me how? That's a scary way of saying it."

Rarity tittered at that. "Nothing unseemly, darling, I assure. As a hippogriff, I was hoping you could lend your perspective." She waved at the board where pony fashions were drawn out. "Could you show the class some hippogriff fashions? I'd like to go over the differences and similarities."

Ariel licked her beak nervously. "Oh! Um, sure!" She hopped to her feet and approached the board. "Okay, so, there are feathers, a lot of them." She sketched out a few dresses with wings in various states of fluffiness. She hadn't worn any fancy hippogriff dresses really, but she had seen a few, and she sketched them out the best she could.

Rarity did not interrupt until Ariel seemed to be done. "Thank you! You have a knack for sketching out fashions, dear." She considered the drawings. "Now, as you can all see, all fashion has a few things in common, no matter which creature's wearing it." She pointed up at them. "They have a message! They speak of the wearer, or of the situation they're in. Good clothing advertises to the world who you are, and even in some ways that other creatures can recognize."

Ariel admired the art on the board. "I never thought of that. I just like fashion because it makes me feel pretty." She colored with a nervous laugh. "I say that, but I really have to wear some."

Rarity flashed a wicked smile. "Since you're volunteering! I'll expect you to wear one of these lovely numbers you drew. Tell me which and I'll get it put together for you, dear. I look forward to seeing it on you."

Ariel lifted her head, inspecting the sketches. They were all nice, but there was one that just felt right to her. She pointed to it. "That one, please."

Rarity looked it over and nodded with approval. "Very well, and you'll need the appropriate accessories." She cantered in place eagerly. "Oh, I do love putting together a new outfit. Have no fear! I should have it ready in a few days. Now, thank you all for paying attention." She waved the class away for the day.

Ariel waddled out of the class, feeling a bit shy and silly, but she was excited too.

Silverstream wandered towards her, yawning. "Ariel! Did you take notes on Professor Rarity's class? I missed it taking a nap."

"Sure!" Ariel walked with Silverstream through the school halls, idly chatting about fashion as they went.

Silverstream froze abruptly. "Wait. Rarity's making which dress for you?!" Ariel described it as best she could, hands waving in the air. "Oh, wow! Um. Ariel." Silverstream glanced away and back. "That dress is for hippogriffs about to be proposed to, or about to do the proposing. Either way, it's a big love dress!" Silverstream began giggling wildly, thinking about it.

Ariel hadn't known that. Her face burned. "Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know that was the meaning of it." She nervously shifted from foot to foot. "Should I tell her to stop?"

Silverstream glanced around. "Well, only I know what it really means." She winked a bit overly dramatically. "So I can just not say anything and we'll have a secret joke to laugh about."

"Um." Ariel had her doubts about that plan, but the dress was already promised, and Rarity wasn't likely to listen to her begging off at this point. "Okay. We can just not mention it to everycreature." She let out a sigh, mixed with a bit of a laugh. "Now I feel really dumb."

Silverstream snickered gently. "What, are you scared somegriff will see you and swoop in for your hand?" She colored at her own words. "That'd be romantic, but who would that be?! I like you, but not that way. We're friends!" She hugged Ariel tightly. "Good friends."

Ariel curled up against Silverstream's side with a giggle. "I know what you mean, silly."

Author's Note

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