She spread her wings and took to the sky. Magic was nice and all, but she was a winged creature, and the experience of flight was a heady one as the wind gently brushed over her feathery and furred form. She considered all that was going on. How different things were from before, when she had been so very sick. Sick enough that even her human parents had been losing hope for her. But that was gone, as proven by her powerful wings that held her in the air so gracefully.

"I'm flying," Ariel laughed out to herself, closing her eyes, but only for a moment. She was also somewhere new, where who knew what dangers might be lurking about, ready to pluck a naive young hippogriff out of the sky. Or she could just crash into a building and make at least two people kinda upset, one of them being herself. Open eyes for fly time, yep.

She turned her focus to her dangling crystal, the center of so much of her magic, but also more than that. It was the thing that allowed her to switch forms from seapony to hippogriff. She considered her other form, but tossed that thought out. She didn't want to swim, she wanted to keep on flying. She soared around to the top of the school and casually perched on it, where she could look down at the students leaving for the day, though she felt a pang of disappointment that her friends were not among them.

But it was probably good that they weren't, she reasoned. She had to focus. She drew up her crystal to be even with her eye, getting a feel for how it moved and worked. She breathed slowly as she coaxed it to work for her, willing it to glow. It took less time than it had those clumsy first attempts, gently casting its light over her and everything in the area as she reached out with that finger she never knew she had. "I am me," she whispered softly.

As she did, it felt like she was getting more of a sense of just what that finger could do. She wiggled it to the left, then the right. Up, down. Each way, there were subtle variations in the light. It was light the whole time, and the same color even, but she could feel a difference, like it was vibrating or something if she focused on it. She traced a path through the air, watching the crystal's glow as it shifted with each tiny motion. "It's part of me."

She drew a heart shape, then a circle, a triangle. Each one made subtle differences in the glow, not only with each motion, but each shape was different, as if the crystal knew that she was drawing something, and the combination of the motions was, itself, a shape worth celebrating with a new shine. She wondered if she could combine the shapes. It took some doing to line them up just so, but soon she had traced out the heart, then the circle, and lastly the triangle. A new shade, the color actually shifting enough to be visible, if only for a moment. "Wow!"

Feeling giddy with her accomplishment, Ariel took a controlled plummet to the bridge that connected the school to the rest of Equestria. "I have it!" she cried out, to the surprise of one of the pony students walking past. She ignored their reaction in favor of heading back to the dormitories. Her friends would love to hear what she had learned. At least, she hoped they would be.

She pushed the door open to discover Yona being wrestled down by a bear as Gallus and Smolder cheered it on. Ariel gaped at the scene, trying to figure out if she should help, or go get help. "Um, hello?"

Smolder hopped into the air. "Hey, Ariel. We were just testing something." She landed by a wall to lean on. "That's Ocellus." She pointed at the bear. "And Yona's just showing off."

Yona pushed up from under Ocellus, rumbling with annoyance. "Not showing off! Proving even big changeling just changeling! Yak stronger!" The wrestling continued, the two trying to come out on top in great rolls and pinning attempts. Neither got anywhere for their efforts.

Ariel blinked slowly at that. "Wait, that's Ocellus?" She examined the bear, seeing little hint of the original form of the changeling. "Wow, you can become anything?"

"Anything," grunted out Ocellus, still distracted with wrestling with Yona. The changeling flipped over, turning into a three-headed dog that had its limbs get tangled up as it tried to gain purchase.

Yona sat on one of the heads. Though the others continued to struggle, she smirked. "Pinned. Yona win."

Gallus clapped with a laugh. "That's a win for Yona. Good job, now stop sitting on their head. Ocellus is kind of important."

Ocellus popped back into their normal form, giggling as Yona dropped to sit beside them. Despite their heated battle, they were nestled together as if nothing had happened, back to being best of friends. "I thought I was stronger, but you're stronger. You won."

Yona huffed softly, leaning into Ocellus. "You also strong." She patted Ocellus on the head. "But Yak stronger."

Ariel advanced with a slow nod. "Oh, well, if that's done?" Everyone seemed relaxed enough. "I learned how to do something! I made the crystal glow!" She held up the pendant. "I tried it a lot of times, but this was the first time it worked so well. Besides that, I even made it dance and change."

Smolder hiked a scaled ridge. "Really? That isn't much, but it's more than I got, unless you count colored flames." She snorted a little smoke. "Which I do." She flapped her wings excitedly. "Was it super neat? Changeling here can turn into any kind of animal."

Ariel paled a little at that. "It isn't that neat, but, watch." She held up the crystal and got it glowing easily. "Normal glow, now—" She focused on that extra finger, slowly drawing the shapes to make the glow dance through its new colors.

Ocellus shook their head slowly. "That's neat! Magic!" She made her own horn glow, imitating the dancing colors that Ariel had done. "You're really doing it."

Ariel nodded slowly as she let her gem hang back over her chest. "I did! And it was super interesting! I think I'm magic-crawling now, which means—" She did a drum solo in the air. "—It's time to get the next lesson from Professor Starlight! I'm ready to toddle!"

Gallus huffed gently. "Not sure I'm all in on this crawling to toddling thing. We're grown creatures, we walk just fine."

Smolder smirked at Gallus' outcry. "Right, maybe, but neither of us can do any magic, so let her toddle, she's toddling a way neither of us are doing at all." She fired a thumbs up at Ariel. "Keep at it."

"Yeah." Ocellus waved a hoof lightly. "I only do shape shifting and unicorn stuff is very hard." She reached up to touch her own horn. "But you are inspiring me. Um, if it's okay? Can I come with you when you go to Professor Starlight? I should learn to magic-toddle a bit more myself."

Ariel bounced lightly on her hooves as she grinned at Ocellus. "Sure!" She put her arms around Ocellus. "You be magic baby too!"

"Toddler," corrected Ocellus with a smile. "I know how to glow, and now, so do you." She patted Ariel's shoulder with a hoof. "Do you need some sleep? I think I might, after all that tussling."

Ariel threw up her hands. "Who can sleep when they're this excited?!"

The door opened, admitting Silverstream. "What's everyone so happy about? Share! I wanna be happy too!" She wriggled over to her friends, joining the hug as best she could. This proved easy as she snuggled in against her fellow griffon, a yak, and a changeling.

Gallus huffed at the snugglepile. "Ariel's made a step with her magic. A little step, but, sounds like, an important one."

"Show them," encouraged Ocellus. "Gotta get some practice in."

Ariel pushed back from the cuddlefest with a nod. She held her crystal and went through the motions, each time easier than the last. She even tried a few new shapes for the fun of it, coaxing out a brief purple flash from her crystal.

"Very nice," said Silverstream with a grin. "That is magic! But why did you use purple? What was different?"

Ariel shrugged, having not really considered that. "I wasn't aiming for a specific color, just a different one, and I got purple. Purple's nice enough." She made the crystal glow again, experimenting with it. "See?" It shifted between colors at her will, though she was still learning how to get any specific color.

Ocellus gasped with delight. "You can do different colors? Wow, I'm very happy for you." She applauded the show of magic.

Smolder puffed a little flame, which changed from traditional orange to a deep blue and back again. "With dragons, emotions are usually involved. Practice lets you change them around."

Ariel peered at Smolder curiously. "Then aren't you already crawling? You can already wiggle your magical finger."

Smolder smirked at Ariel. "That's kind of insulting, but that's fire, not magic."

Ariel shook her head quickly. "Dragon magic is fire! You're wriggling your magic finger."

Smolder squinted faintly. "Magic finger?" She lifted a claw. "You mean this one?" She looked at it as she gave it a wriggle. "It's pretty cool, but not magic?"

Ocellus waved a hoof frantically. "I think she means when we cast spells. It's like getting your own little horn to push and pull the magic with."

Ariel bobbed her head quickly. "Your fire is your horn, like my crystal. You can make it change. You're crawling!" She danced from hoof to hoof. "This is so exciting. I thought I'd be the only not-pony creature learning magic, but Ocellus is too. We can take the journey together." She nuzzled up to Ocellus. "And Smolder. This will be so exciting. I mean, it already is, really."

Smolder smirked as she got to her feet, giving her wings a flap. "It'll be alright, I guess." She puffed out a little red burst of fire. "Dragon magic, huh? Yeah, I suppose you could put it that way. It's a lot of passion and impulse, it's in our blood, it's us."

Ariel held up her crystal. "It's me! We're all learning how to use our magic finger."

Gallus shook his head. "Still lost on this 'magic finger' part." He made quotes with his very physical fingers. "But if it means you're all getting somewhere, cool." He tapped a claw to his chest. "Maybe one day I'll feel left out enough to try my wing at something new, but right now, I'm content just not having any magic. Besides, you all have a something. Smolder had her fire way before she could do anything with it." He pointed to Ariel and Silverstream. "You two got your magic crystal or whatever. Ocellus has a horn. You have something. That, whatever, 'magic finger'. Griffons don't got one."

Yona thumped a hoof on the floor, to start a little bassline. "Not feel left out." She was also in the club of creatures with no magic finger to be found, but she looked pretty pleased just being a yak, which was a great thing to be, if one asked Yona.

Smolder leaned against Yona with a nod. "Got that right. Feeling left out means you want something, and if you want something, you can get it." They met with a hand against a hoof with a clap, both satisfied for the moment.

Gallus lifted just to get to his bunk. "I say we get some sleep. We have school tomorrow. And today is over." He sank down into the bedding. "Wake me up when it's actually light out."

The others took the prompt, settling on their own beds. With a flick of the switch, Silverstream called out, "Night everycreature!"

A chorus of mumbles and mutterings answered her back as they all let themselves drift off. Tomorrow would be another day of learning and growing, and they were excited for it.

Author's Note

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