It wasn't what she had expected. But it wasn't entirely unwelcome. Comforting was walking down the main road of Ponyville, but she wasn't alone by far. A line of other unicorn foals of wildly varying ages were trailing behind her, each holding something aloft. Most were not as solid as her training ball, but they all held something.
The most surprising, to her at least, was Snails. He had an entire constellation of things floating around him and he was handling it just fine. He was a natural! "You are so good at this!" Could a pony have a talent in telekinesis? It sure seemed that way.
"Thanks. I really appreciate you giving lessons." Snails nodded slowly.
"But why are you here?" Comforting considered the easy-going colt. "You don't need my help, clearly."
"He does." Snails snagged his friend, pulling Snips over. The motion was enough to get Snips to drop his corn cob to the ground. Why a corn cob? Comforting wasn't sure what drove any of the foals following her to pick what they picked. It was all random. "And now he has a teacher." Snails looked pretty happy about that.
Comforting considered the smaller colt. They weren't that far apart in size, both small foals. "Hiya."
"Hey..." He didn't seem as happy to be there as Snails.
"So, wanna learn about your horn? You're Snips, right?"
Snips perked. "My reputation proceeds me!" He looked pleased at that idea. "But I know you too, Comforting. Look, my friend's a natural." He waved wildly at Snails. "He isn't a wizard, like you, but when it comes to grabbing stuff, he's a pro!"
Comforting nodded at that as she looked back along her line of followers she had never asked for. "Some... ponies can do something more naturally than others, but you can all do this, with practice. It took me practice. I'm still practicing!" she waved her weighted ball for emphasis. "I have to carry this because I managed to knock myself out just getting tired. How silly is that?!"
One of the other unicorns waved her hoof. "Why are you teaching us if you made such a stupid mistake?"
Comforting flinched at that. What a way to phrase it! Kids... "Because we all make mistakes, and learn. Just because I messed up in one way doesn't mean I don't know a lot about other things... Besides, that's taught me too." She also hadn't volunteered to teach them anything. It just... happened... "Now, you all brought something with you, I see?"
In a wild collection of different colors, all the young unicorns hefted up their chosen items in their magic. Their differences in skills were easy to see in what they had picked. Those who could carry heavier things had picked heavier things and those that weren't sure had selected lighter things. One little colt was hefting up a single feather, but they were doing it!
Comforting approached the young colt and their lone feather. "Very good. Are you new at this?"
The cyan colt shied back a little. "Um, ma'am... I'm not that good at it."
"You're all here because you want to get better." She kept her voice even and, she hoped, encouraging. "And that's good! If there's a lesson Miss Twilight's been drilling into me, it that' practice makes perfect! That you're here, today, holding something means you're already on the right path. I'm proud of each and every one of you!"
"Yay!" One voice rose above the others. Sweetie was part of the crowd, waving at her with a big smile and floating a ball of her own, though it looked like it was a rubber ball instead of a metal one.
Comforting sat in front of her 'class' of unicorns. "This isn't a race. Some of you are 'ahead', and that's fine. We'll all get there as we get there. The ones that are ahead--" She nodded at Snails and his multiple objects. "--should help the ones that are behind. Now, I'm going to take a moment with you." She smiled at the cyan feather-wielding colt she had found. "Tell me what you're feeling, up here." She pointed to her own horn.
She had not woken up that morning planning to be a unicorn tutor to the unicorn foal population of the town, but it was fun, and rewarding. Maybe being a teacher was a thing that never really faded away entirely.
"That's nice of you." Gallus had approached her, which was unusual! It wasn't that he actively avoided her, but usually she'd have to go say hi to him, not the other way around. "Helping out those chicks."
Chicks?! Wait... He was a griffon. Chick... "The foals?"
"Whatever." He waved off that semantic detour. "Not a lot of creatures take time to help random chicks like that. They're someone else's problem... you know?"
Comforting couldn't just say she was a teacher before. To Gallus, she was a little foal herself, or a chick, apparently. "I like helping, and it was something I knew." She brought her training ball around to wave it at Gallus. "Still practicing myself."
He snatched it from the air easily, her glow fading out with a blink as he wrenched it from her grip. "What's the big deal?"
She pouted a moment. There went her nice routine... "I don't have fingers... I can't just wrap them around what I want to hold like that." She relaxed a little, watching Gallus. "Jealous."
"Me?! No!" He held the ball close with an angry scowl.
"I meant me." She pointed to herself. "Having fingers must be pretty great."
"Huh? Oh... Yeah, kinda nice." He set the ball down near her. "You are literally the first pony that ever said that before, at least that I heard. Most of them are just fine without fingers. What do you know about it?"
"I know they're great for touching things." She put a hoof out towards him. "Hooves can touch, but they're big and flat, just what they are. Fingers can be way more specific about it." She could remember having fingers. They were really nice... Unicorn magic was an acceptable replacement, but it was different. "Get it?"
"I get it." He leaned in. "But you shouldn't. You're strange." He thumped her on the top of her head, to her scowling displeasure. "I like it."
That part brought a hint of a smile back. Progress! "What's so strange about it?"
"You're a pony. You're a little young pony chick, so why do you know so much about these?" He wriggled several fingers at her. "And you act like you'd love a set of your own, which is not normal for most ponies, jus' sayin'. By the way, you can't have mine, still using them." He rolled his eyes at his own set limitation. "Doubt you'll find many that would give theirs up."
"Even... if I had yours, which I don't want to take, that sounds horrible, but even if I did, they wouldn't be mine... I can't just attach them and expect them to work..."
"Guess not... You're stuck with hooves forever, unless you get so good at that magic stuff you grow fingers." He squinted suddenly. "That is a thing a unicorn wizard could do, in theory, right?"
"Technically?" Comforting didn't know for sure, but that sounded within the realm of possible. "Way out of my league right now... I've learned my lesson about taking it a bit slower." She put her hooves instead on her training ball, rolling it back and forth slowly. "Hey, flying. Did you learn to fly fast, or did it take a while?"
"Huh? Oh. Well, see, as a griffon, you got two choices." Gallus thrust up two fingers. "You learn fast, or you stop being around, fast. One way or the other, it'll be fast. I'm still here, so you decide which it was."
Comforting managed to resist the cringe that was welling up powerfully. "So you learned fast... But do you enjoy it?"
"Flying?" He spread his wings just to flap them casually. "Sure. I enjoy flying. You can't do that."
She wrapped her magic around herself and gave a tug. She propelled up and over, crashing in a pile of ungainly limbs. "Oops!"
Gallus laughed at the sight, but he was also setting her straight with his talons. "I just said you can't do that. You have to have more faith in me. Who do you think you are, Starlight Glimmer? Now, I don't know how she does it, but she can fly. It's kinda creepy, watching a pony fly without wings."
"She's very talented. She fixed that whole... statue thing, remember?"
"I remember." He raised a brow at her. "How do ponies live with that? I mean the idea that some of you could by accident, turn some of the others into a statue? We'd lose our collective minds." He expanded his talons wide in a mental explosion. "It'd be chaos! But here you are, smiling like usual. Ponies, I swear..."
"It's a pony thing..." Humans would not accept that so easily, she decided, especially random people with no badge or title. A random person being able to do that? Hmm. "I'm trying to be good, honest. I'm learning! That's one reason I keep this around." She hugged the heavy metal ball. "We ponies are soft little things. We let our 'chicks' go slow, which means some of us pick things up faster than others, and we help them all, even the slow ones."
"You aren't that." He poked her right between her eyes. "You're going full tilt, even if it means smacking into a wall." He smirked a little. "I can respect that."
Her heart lifted. "You like going fast too?"
"Fast, or gone," he reminded, extending a finger with either option. "And I don't plan on the second. Now, since I have you." He crouched to her level. "I have this idea, and I want a pony's perspective on it."
Her ears danced with wondrous surprise. "Please, do tell." She was being confided in! Surely that was a significant step forward.
"I want to make these." He dug out what looked like a key chain. "Ponies don't have fingers, we just went over that. So a big thing to keep a hold of their keys would be super popular, right? I'm thinking 20 bits."
Comforting squinted at the top of the key chain that had a picture of Gallus giving a thumbs up. "Um... I don't think it'll fit most pony tastes. No offense, but most of them aren't rushing to put a griffon in their pocket. Now... If you made them custom... Say the pony's cutie mark? That would be real popular! Failing that, celebrities! Princess Celestia, for example."
His eyes widened as he threw the chain aside. "Duh! How did I not see that before? Those are great ideas!" He grabbed Comforting and shook her shoulders and the rest of her body vigorously. "Custom key chains would take too long, but famous ponies? Brilliant! We can start with the hometown hero, headmare Twilight Sparkle. They'll fall over themselves to get a picture of her looking all geeky and whatever."
Comforting fell back, dizzy, but smiling. "Be sure to get her permission."
"Huh?"
"Get her permission." Comforting sat up, still wobbling. "Or she may get mad at you later and take the bits back. You don't want that. Just ask nicely. She probably won't even think to ask for a share."
"I love the way you're thinking." Gallus smirked with greedy will. "Some of the other ponies might be smarter... or not... But that just tells me which to work with. Right... Um, I didn't promise you a cut."
She started, cut right out of that business venture before she was officially 'in' it. "Oh..." But it was a test, she decided. If she rolled over and took it, she'd just be another soft pony taking what was offered to her. "Cut me in and I'll come up with more clever ideas. You don't want to miss the next one."