“Are you sure it’s okay to leave Coral with you during class?” asked Sandbar, as he stood outside the Student Guidance Office. On his side of the open door, students were walking through the corridor to their next classes as the bell had rung in the distance. On the other side was the Student Guidance Counsellor herself, Starlight Glimmer, using magic from her horn to levitate little Coral towards her eye level.
The bright purple unicorn didn’t seem to show any worry at all at the idea. “Oh, of course, it will be fine!” she reassured Sandbar. “As I said earlier, it’s my duty to help you students with your studies, and that means I’m more than willing to take care of a cute little brother or sister on a rare occasion. Yes I am, yes I am!” she tickled the little filly and managed to get her giggling.
Sandbar felt relieved to see how supportive the school staff over this, just if there wasn’t any hassle. He looked over at Coral to quickly talk to her before he left for Professor Applejack’s class. “Hey sis, I’ve got two classes to go to, and then I’ll head straight back here to pick you up. Okay?”
His little sister smiled as he gave a nod and replied “Bah-bye!” as she waved to her big brother. Sandbar smiled and waved back before he made a hasty departure down the corridor.
For Starlight Glimmer, it was time to go to work. “Okay Coral, how would you like to be an Assistant Student Guidance Counsellor for the day?” she asked eagerly as she approached her desk. Coral was still floating around in the air thanks to Starlight’s levitation, so she was a bit too preoccupied with the fun of floating a few feet off the ground to give a proper answer, at least until Starlight safely landed the young filly onto her desk.
“Well don’t worry about how daunting the job is, I’m sure you’ll be able to manage it just fine. Most of the time you will be sitting in an office like this just… waiting… for a student to need your help.” The one thing Starlight didn’t like about her work was all the time in between helping students, she had already lost count of the number of times she cleaned her desk and rearranged her bookshelf in the last month or two since the school opened.
The opportunity to bond with a student’s younger sibling was one of her new ways to help pass the time with something between the wait. “But, fortunately, we can do all the other important stuff while we wait for students to knock at the door, and I came prepared!”
Starlight used her unicorn abilities to open her desk draws and reveal papers and coloured pencils, and lots of them! “I may have made a favour to one of our professors to borrow some of their art equipment, so let’s see how many of the things you like you can draw!” Coral showed her enthusiasm by grabbing a green pencil she finds and starts scribbling on one of the sheets of paper.
After a moment of observing the little filly try to draw certain shapes on the piece of paper when she could hear a knock at the door, a student! “Come in!” she called, and the door slowly opened. Emerging from the entrance was a bright blue unicorn who was all too familiar for her, November Rain. He was one of her few regular visitors, a silent and sensitive figure who struggled to fit into the school, often visiting every week with a new issue he was having.
As he approached to sit down, he could not help but notice the little filly sitting on Starlight’s desk, to which Starlight remarked that he shouldn’t worry as she’s just “her little assistant”. He gave a little wave when Coral briefly glanced over to see the unicorn sit down on one of the bean bags in front of the desk.
“So, how can I help you today?” Starlight asked with a radiant glow. November Rain paused for a moment, nervously rubbing his hooves before plucking the courage to speak. He started talking slowly about how he’s been at the school for months now but was starting to feel a little homesick.
“I haven’t seen mom or dad or my little brother since I started school, and I’m not sure how they’re doing, or if they still think about me…” as he spoke, he gradually went downcast. Homesickness seemed like a new issue for Starlight to encounter, a quick glance at Coral made her ponder if her visit brought it up some way, but there was no time to make assumptions.
“I’m sure your family still thinks about you.” Starlight assured him with a clear and uplifting tone. “Perhaps you could write to them to let them know how you’re doing?”
There was a pause as November Rain looked down at his hooves. “Well… I’m not sure what to write. I don’t want them to feel bad for me, or think I don’t like it here, or…” he continued to list more negative things he was worried about. Starlight knew he needed to do something to reduce his anxiety, but as she listened it started to appear like a mountain that was growing larger and larger to climb.
That was when she started to feel a small hoof poke her arm, Coral held up a sheet of paper with a crude drawing of what looked like four brightly coloured ponies, at least if you squinted and tried to make out the wobbly circles, the basic lined faces, and jagged lines as the heads, bodies, legs and tails of them. This gave Starlight an idea.
“Oh WOW! Would you look at that!” she cut off November Rain as she exclaimed ecstatically and presented the drawing so all three of them could see it. “Doesn’t this drawing look amazing?”
All November Rain could make out were the jagged lines and scruffy colouring in, but as he could also see a toddler on the desk and the guidance counsellor gleefully and forcefully showing it off, he nervously nodded with an uncomfortable smile in the hopes that it could suffice as approval.
“Now let’s see here…” Starlight started pointing to the different vaguely looking ponies on the drawing. “This one must be you… this yellow one with the pink mane must be your mom… this tall green one with the blue mane must be your dad… and who might this one be?”
Coral gleefully answered, “BIG BRO!”
“Of course! It must be!” Starlight turned back to November Rain. “You know Sandbar, right? I believe he’s in one or two of your classes…”
November Rain pondered for a moment, he could imagine a green pony with a wavy mane and a surfer's voice, always hanging around the group of non-ponies in the school. He quietly nodded.
Starlight gave a smile. “Well, Sandbar may not be as far away from home as you are to yours, but he still thinks about his family a lot. I know he writes to them regularly about how he’s getting on, and today his family is visiting the school to check-up on him. As you can see, his little sister here thinks about him a lot. Isn't that right? You think about him a lot, yes you do!” she proceeded to boop Coral’s nose, as the little filly smiled and giggled in response.
November Rain looked on and started to smile as he saw Starlight being playful towards Coral, and what she said got a thought going in his mind. “So what you’re saying is… I should write to my family to let them know how I feel… and maybe they’ll come over to see me?”
Starlight beamed as she could hear the sign of progress going through her ears. “Yes, that sounds like a great idea! Write a letter to your family, let them know you think of them, how you’re getting on well in classes, how you made a friend two weeks ago, all that stuff! They will be glad to hear from you.”
The smile started to grow on November Rain, he felt sure about he wanted to do after classes ended for the day. “Okay, I will! Thank you, Counsellor Starlight, I really appreciate your help.” He got off the bean bag chair and started making his approach for the entrance.
“That’s why I’m here!” she responded with her cheery tone and a wide grin.
“…and I’ll be waiting to see you again next week.”
As the door shut and a moment passed, Starlight turned to Coral. “Well, it looks like you got the hang of being an assistant guidance counsellor!” she remarked as she ruffled her hair.
They returned to waiting for the next student to arrive, Starlight could tell if there would have been another student waiting outside by that point. She let out a sigh before turning back to Coral, “How should we pass the time now, huh?” she asked, as boredom began to dawn on her.
Coral in response picked up a pencil and started making another drawing, and proudly revealed a drawing what appeared to be a pointed sphere with a triangle attached to the end. “Fishy!” she called it.
This gave Starlight an idea. Using her magic, she opened one of the desks draws and took out a pair of scissors, followed by several sheets of paper. Coral watched on as the scissors float around cutting in and around the pieces of paper in the end, as the remaining shards fall like snow or confetti. By the time she was finished with the scissors, she had a stack of perfectly cut paper fish sitting in front of her desk.
“Now for the fun part!” she uttered, rubbing her hooves together. She focused on the stack of paper fish as her horn glowed brighter and brighter, before leaning in and zap! Magic lightning shot out from her horn and onto the stack, although as the lighting faded away, nothing appeared to happen.
That was until pieces of paper from the stack started to move on their own, floating up into the air one by one. More and more pieces started floating until all of them were in the air, jittering in place. Then, all of the pieces flipped onto their sides and started swimming around. Coral’s eyes were now transfixed on the paper fish that were coming to life.
“This is a spell I’ve been practising in my spare time, Levitation Automaton, where you make things move on their own! I've yet to master how complex it is, and I shouldn't really be using it to create an open-air paper aquarium, but I won't tell if you won't!” As proud as Starlight was that she got the spell working, Coral was too much in awe at the fish around her to pay attention.
Not that it did not bother Starlight, as she could hear a bell ring and a knock at her door, another student needed her help. All things looked straightforward at first, a Pegasus student named Patty Peppermint needing advice on how to pick the best partners for an assignment in Professor Rarity’s class, saying she wanted to get the best marks from her favourite teacher. Starlight had the answer ready at hoof: it is better to work with a pony you get on well with, than a pony who thinks they can get the best job done.
Patty Peppermint seemed satisfied with the advice, saying she will ask one of her friends to help and made her leave. Before Starlight could check on Coral, another student knocked on the door and poked their head inside. From her desk, Starlight could see from the opening of the door that outside was crowded with students all walking by, she could only assume most students were making their visits in these brief periods between classes to avoid interfering with their actual lessons.
As a result, Starlight’s next task was offering advice to Hyper Sonic on his issues with public speaking, resolving an argument between Pepper Pot and Water Spout, and Mulberry Flowers with dealing with the stress of doing Rainbow Dash’s Loyalty assignment. Several minutes felt like an hour, but she could finally breathe a sigh of relief when she finished and could hear the outside corridor become quiet once more.
Starlight gave a relieved sigh, “Well, that’s what makes this job an experience! One moment you need to help several students at once, and another you don’t need to help any students at all!” she laughed. “But now the heavy load is over, sorry if you needed me for anything Coral… Coral?” She looked on and around her desk, and the young filly was nowhere to be found.
She cooed around for Coral as she noticed the paper fish still swimming slowly, almost in a line. She followed the path of paper fish as it went around her desk, underneath the window, past the bookshelf and out of the door. When Starlight noticed the door was ajar, she realised that if Coral was nowhere inside her office, then she had to be outside, and she had no idea for how long.
“Oh no…”