Misty burst into Amber's office, sides heaving and eyes wide. "You will not believe this!" She slipped in and flopped onto the nearest cushion, wiggling up against Amber. "I just found something incredible in the forest!"
Amber blinked, the unexpected intrusion by her student leaving her blinking at the papers in front of her. "Uh, did you finish all your assignments?"
"Of course!" She lifted up with a giggle. "What can I say, I was motivated! But it's not about that." With a glowing horn, Misty set down her book. "I think I understood a spell in here!"
Amber turned her gaze to the book. "Which one? Show me."
Misty grinned and flipped to the page. "It's a very useful one! You should see."
Amber read through the instructions. "A cleaning spell?" Rather than being disappointed, she only brightened. "I want to see!"
"I want to show it." Misty looked over the spell one more time, tongue poking out a little as she cast it, eyes on Amber's bed. The bed glowed the same color as the spell took hold of it, shaking softly, then brightening as it was cleaned from deep within to the surface, then it started to fold neatly until it looked like a trained maid had come and tended to it.
Amber rose to her hooves, stumbling over to it. "Misty, that's, that's incredible!" She looked over the now pristine and folded bedding. "It's, so clean! Can I touch it? Do I have to? I want to." She looked to Misty. "Can I?"
Misty waved at the made bed. "Please," she almost squeaked out, barely holding back her giggles.
Amber reached out, feeling the crisp blanket and clean sheets under it. "That's so cool! Does it work on things besides beds?"
"I don't think it'll break that difference. If it can wash a bed, why can't it clean the floor or wash dishes?" Misty kicked a hoof softly against the ground as she sat back down.
Amber imagined how that could go wrong with a nervous laugh. "We should test that before we assume. Hm, oh!" She grabbed a small trophy off a shelf and placed it before Misty. "Try that. It could use a polish, and if it gets hurt, I won't be super sad."
"Oh, alright." Misty went to work casting the spell once more, pointing at the little trophy. It shook and glowed in its same pattern as it did to the bed, then it shone brightly to reveal a sparkling, pristine, award.
Amber squealed as she clapped at the sight. "Perfect! I love it. Now, how many hugs do I have to offer before you teach that one to me?" She leaned in, giggling. "How quickly the student becomes the teacher."
Misty's horn shimmered. "I could write the whole thing down for you now, if you wanted, but I thought it'd be better to practice together. That's how you did it with me and all my other spells."
"I accept," joyfully cried out Amber. "It's nice being a wizard, but being a wizard with a buddy? Even better."
Elsewhere, Comforting smiled at the image of the two working with equal delight at sharing and practicing their magic. "It's so nice to see unicorns doing what unicorns do again." She let out a soft sigh, rubbing her chin a moment. "Should I do it now? Would that be weird? I don't want to interrupt their bonding time."
Sunny leaned in, nosing at Comforting's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Comforting jumped, only then remembering that she had company, and was not in one of her safe secret places. "Oh! Yes. I just had a feeling some ponies were having a good time, and it made me happy."
Sunny laughed at that. "You can feel that? Must be nice. I was about to head home." She pointed to the bright house. "You're welcome to come along?"
"I think I'll pass, tonight." Comforting adjusted herself, drifting up into the air to better stare down at the inviting, and also foreboding, structure. "I still have a job to do."
Sunny put out an arm, soon getting a Comforting in it to hug gently. "Then I'll see you later. You know where to find me." She lowered her gaze to her hooves. "By the way, how long will these skates last? You were implying not forever?"
"About a week if we got really lucky." She waved to the skates, and they vanished back to the chaos, wherever they came from. "If you need them back sooner, just call for me and I'll bring them back."
"It's alright, I do have some at home. I need them for deliveries, or just having some fun." Sunny shook herself lightly and broke into a trot towards the bright house. "See you later!"
Comforting waved her goodbye, and then turned back to the bright house, drifting up to hover higher in the sky. "You're waiting for something." She rested a finger on her chin, watching the building, and its surroundings, with an idle gaze. "But not today, not right now, and not from me, right now." She nodded, sure with her thoughts and twirled to face the larger city instead. "No no no. What this city needs is—no." She rolled her head and eyes, moving a little farther from the bright house.
Her head tilted to the side. "Ah, there you are, little bunny." Spotting Twitch darting about, looking for something, Comforting swooped in for a closer examination of the rabbit. She drew down her goggles, ready to understand the gibberish that the bunny might speak.
Twitch, with no sense of being observed, ran along his usual path, keeping to the shadows and hiding away from the eyes of ponies. "Come on, where did it go?" He hopped off a cart, dashing over to where he had seen a shining red object.
Comforting shadowed the rabbit curiously, making no noise as she faded entirely from sight. She watched as Twitch scrambled to get his paws on something that glittered and sparkled in the night, something he finally managed to dig up.
He wiped away the dirt with a triumphant smile, only to toss it aside with a whine of distress.
Curiosity burning, Comforting returned to visibility behind Twitch. "Looking for something?"
He jumped and spun on her, letting out a shrill noise, but he still answered. "My treasure! It's gone, but this is where I found it. It was a shiny, pretty, thing."
Comforting's eyes swept over the subtitles that translating Twitch's gibbering into understandable words. "What treasure? Maybe I can help find it."
Twitch eyed her suspiciously. "What's in it for you?" they demanded with a thump of one of their large feet. "And why can you even understand me? That's Allura's thing!" He paused and took a step back. "Are you Allura? Did you turn yourself into a strange new creature?!"
Comforting raised her hands. "No no no. I'm me, but I can just understand you." She glanced about, leaning closer to Twitch. "Let's find this treasure of yours. What does it look like?"
Twitch wasn't certain about this strange creature that appeared before him, but they were desperate enough to give it a shot. "It's shiny! It's beautiful and so precious, so perfect. It's just for me!"
Comforting's head tilted to the side. "All good things to be, but let's start with its color."
"Shiny!" Twitch bounced from foot to foot with obvious agitation.
"What part of it is shiny? The inside or the outside?"
"Both! It's perfect. It's round, and smooth, and just right in my paw." Twitch held the imagined thing in his little paw.
Comforting smiled. "Alright, we have a hint, it's rabbit-paw sized. Still, what color is it, really, besides shiny, or is it just shiny and no other color?" She imagined a chrome finish in her mind. "Do you mean reflective like a mirror, or dull, but just glossy?"
Twitch tried to remember, but they were caught up in the desire to find it. "I don't know, but it was pretty."
"Round, and bunny-paw sized." Comforting nodded to herself as she looked around. "That's a start. Let's see if we can't find that." She sniffed the air, raising up into the sky and examining the streets of Maretime Bay. She heard Twitch complaining below, and she let out a sigh. She scooped up Twitch with magic and drifted him up to her level.
The higher vantage point let him peer in all directions, one paw over his eyes as he glared at every possible hiding place he could spot from there.
Comforting brought her goggles up. "I have an idea, but I need you to listen." She waited a beat for Twitch to nod. "Good. Close your eyes and focus on this thing you lost. Just imagine it, and keep a nice clear image in your head. Don't think of anything else."
He obeyed, closing his eyes and envisioning that thing, his perfect treasure.
Comforting reached up to her goggles and clicked them, rotating their lenses to no longer show the subtitles of bunnies, but instead offer a peek inside their thoughts. She wasn't planning on taking the words, but rather just borrowing them.
The first word was 'shiny'. Then a perfect round shape followed it. It was about as big as Twitch's paw, though not about the exact size, that detail was left open. She leaned in closer, trying to get a good view of what Twitch was imagining. It was a bit cloudy, but she could just make out the curve of it. It was a metal sphere, the very tip of it bent and broken off.
She nodded to herself, and turned the goggles back to their default mode. "Okay, I think I know what we're hunting for now." She clapped her hands gently. "And I know who took it."
Twitch perked at that. "Took it?! Who took it?!" he roared out with a furious stomp of one of his powerful back paws.
Comforting grimaced. "Not here." She wrapped Twitch in a cocoon of magic, giving him a little squeeze. "And I don't think they were trying to be mean, but that shiny, that metal, that shape? Yeah, only one pony comes to mind. Let's go!" She soared through the air, carrying Twitch along as they zipped towards the brighthouse. "Have you met Izzy before?"
Twitch twitched in her magic, unable to break free, not that he seemed to want to, seeing as they were flying towards where he suspected the thief was. "No, not that I know of."
"She's nice, but she loves collecting shinies, especially if she thinks she can 'unicycle' them into new and wonderful things. What you're missing? That looks like something she'd grab if she saw it laying around." Comforting landed just in front of the brighthouse and set Twitch nearby. "So let's ask her, nicely, and she'll give it back if she has it."
"What if she doesn't?"
"Well, then we have a problem on our paws." Comforting knocked on the door with a frown. "But it's the polite thing to do first, right?"
Twitch crossed his arms with clear disagreement on that point, but he waited, impatiently, for Comforting to give it a try.
The door opened from within, revealing Sunny. "Oh! I didn't think you'd visit quite that quickly." She looked past Comforting to Twitch and cringed. "Um."
Comforting smiled gently. "We were wondering if we could talk to Izzy a moment? Is she inside?"
"Yeah! Come in. It's about time for dinner anyway. We were just figuring out what to do about it." Sunny stepped aside so that they could enter and shut the door behind them. Once Twitch scurried past, Sunny leaned in closer to Comforting. "That's Allura's little minion. Why are you walking around with him of all creatures?!"
"He's not so bad, he's just looking for something, and I might have an idea of where it is. He's not here to hurt anyone." Comforting lifted just to swoosh around the corner in search of a certain unicorn.
"You'd better be right, or he'll have to leave." Sunny trailed behind, keeping a skeptical eye on the rabbit.
Comforting led Twitch towards the kitchen, and once she rounded the corner, she was greeted by the sight of Izzy hovering above the counter with a basket of eggs, and a grumpy Hitch in front of a pot, staring at it with suspicion. There, attached to the basket, was the metal shiny bent ball.
Twitch broke in a hopping sprint towards it, a stream of not entirely pleasant words spilling from him that only Comforting could understand.
Izzy looked back to see what the fuss was about. "Huh? Oh!" She floated down with a happy grin. "Comfort! And Allura's buddy? I didn't see that coming."
"Me neither." Hitch squinted at the small rabbit, but looked onwards to Comforting. "Can you explain this?"
Comforting slid between Twitch and Izzy, blocking Twitch from jumping at Izzy. "That." She pointed at the shiny bauble. "That belongs to Twitch here. He's been searching everywhere for it. Could we have it back, please?"
Izzy blinked, glancing at Twitch and then to the little ornament. "Um, this is just a cute trinket I found. It really finishes the basket, doesn't it? All super sparkly perfect." She brought the basket over in her glowing magic. "Perfect!"
Hitch held out a hoof for a hoof-bump, and Izzy obliged. "That is pretty nice looking, even though it was just some old chunk of metal somepony tossed into the woods. Might've been the unicorns at some point, hard to say."
Comforting waved to Twitch behind her. "Or it might have been a certain rabbit?"
Twitch huffed at her. "My treasure, not theirs."
She winced at his lack of manners. "Sorry. He wants it back. He's been looking for it, and we got a clue that you might've picked it up."
Izzy sighed. "Well, if it was his first." She reached up both hooves and wrenched it free of her basket with a twang. "Here ya go."
The moment it was held out, Twitch grabbed it with a triumphant expression, hopping in place with sheer joy at seeing it back. "Yes!" He hugged it close to his chest, whispering gentle words of reassurance to it.
Sunny raised a brow as she slowly drifted into the room, having heard the commotion. "Is that all he wanted then?"
"I think so?" Comforting gently tapped Twitch on the back. "All good? Is everything taken care of?"
Twitch rubbed his nose over the top of the metal ball. "Yes."
Hitch walked to the door to see him out. "If that's all, then you should be off."
Twitch darted out the door in a blur, laughing in his rabbitish way.
Comforting trailed after. "It was nice bumping into you all. How's Zipp and Pipp doing? And where's that cute widdle dragon?"
Hitch smiled at his mention. "He's taking a nap right now. Zipp and Pipp are watching a concert they both wanted to see. I'll tell them you swung by though."
Sunny wandered out to see the other two off. "Zipp'll be sorry she missed you. She'll probably go see you as soon as the show's over. That's how she is."
Comforting flew out of the brighthouse. "She deserves some hangout time too. It's nice getting to know all of you." She shared a final wave and left them to their original evening plans, minus one specific metal bauble.