//------------------------------// // They have returned! // Story: Coral Comes to Play // by Hammerhead //------------------------------// For anyone not in classes and wandering around the school, they would have been able to see a bright purple unicorn looking around frantically, or at least they could have seen her had she not vanish in a literal flash. Starlight Glimmer searched around every nook and cranny every part of the school premises for Coral in high anxiety, teleporting to save time on running and begging that she could be found soon. Her paper fishes were easier to be found scattered just outside her office, trodden on, and crumpled by the hooves of aimless creatures from several minutes earlier. Her mental list of possible locations a young foal like her had expanded from one, two, five, ten, all the way to the whole interior of the school grounds to no avail. Her mind scrolled through all locations to double and quadruple check, until she had zapped herself back inside the calming confines of her office, whereupon hearing the school bell, she finally cracked. “I LOST SOMEPONY’S CHILD! Why on Equestria did I think using a spell to keep her occupied was a good idea?” she asked herself as she paced around her desk. Her mind raced at the outcomes of the level of trouble she landed herself in, thinking of how she could have supervised her better or given the responsibility to someone more available like Fluttershy or Twilight, although there was no way she could use a time-travel spell to fix the mess. She took as many breaths as she could to calm herself down, gradually each breath getting longer and longer before she could compose herself. “Okay Starlight, you can fix this, you just need some help,” she told herself, “I’ll tell Twilight what happened, she can call on the rest of the school, and we can get a better search going.” Determined with her plan, she made her exit out of the office, confident that when she tells Twilight, no one else would need to worry. At least that is what she hoped until she was outside her office and closed the door to find a set of creatures standing in front of her. She panned left to right, recognising Yona, Ocellus, and Silverstream, all smiling and relaxed after an eventful lesson from Pinkie Pie’s Laughter class. Next was Sandbar, who she recalled having spoken to less than a couple hours earlier, but her heart stopped at the two older looking ponies that stood next to him. The first was a tall stallion with a coat that was on the lighter shade of green, his most standout feature being his bright blue dreads that reached all the way down his long neck. Then there was a bright yellow mare, her mane was short, pink and wavy, and wore a necklace with small seashell as its central piece, one of her hooves was still upright as if she was about to knock on the door before Starlight made her appearance. It was certain that they would know each other, having spoken earlier that morning at the courtyard. “Oh hi! You’re Coral’s parents, it’s so nice to meet you again.” As much as she feared the moment she was caught in, she tried her best to hide it with a smile and a friendly face, although she couldn’t avoid the lengthen vowels and the raised octave in her voice as she started speaking. Coral’s parents, on the other hand, seemed not to notice. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you too” her mother responded, her soft tone radiating calmness at every word. She explained, “We just had a lovely tour of the school from that little purple dragon of yours and thought we should pick up our little Coral so we could all have lunch with our son and his friends.” Starlight started to laugh quietly behind a wide grin, the scenario getting more unsettling for her. “How is she?” the mother politely asked, “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble?” Starlight looked across the smiling and eager faces as she gulped, unprepared for the news she was about to begin. “O-oh no, your daughter has been great! Not a trouble at all, except…” her voice started to tremble, she could feel herself shaking slowly as she made small steps backwards. “You see… this is gonna be very, very, very, difficult to hear, but I’m afraid Coral…” “MAMA! PAPA! BIG BRO!” a sudden familiar-sounding call emerged from behind Starlight, and as her head swung around, she caught the sight of Gallus and Smolder, and sitting on the orange dragon’s shoulders was a small green filly with a big smile on her face. “THERE YOU ARE!” Starlight called gleefully, her worst fears rushing out of her as she used her unicorn magic to lift the filly off Smolder and transport her across to her parent’s hooves, Coral giggling at the short ride into her mother’s hooves. The parents smiled contently as they reunited with their youngest pony, “So, did our little dudette have fun while we were away?” her father asked, his voice carrying a heavy drawl, a stark contrast to the cheery tone of his young daughter, who eagerly nodded. “Paper Fishies Swim, Griffo Fly, Draggo Breath Fire!” she listed, acting out each instance with as much movement as her hooves could handle. Her father just smiled, “They do? That sounds rad…” he responded in his drawn-out tone, ruffling her mane with his hoof. Everyone was smiling and Starlight felt heavily relieved that Coral was safe and sound, attention turned to the Griffon and Dragon that remained standing behind Starlight, their situation being unexplained to the rest of the party. The pair had anticipated the worst as they arrived, and they dropped their defences at the happy sight in front of them. Yona went straight to the point, “Question. Where has Griffon been? Friends did not see him in previous class.” The corridor became silent, all Gallus could muster was an elongated “uh” as everyone stared in his direction for an answer. Starlight was especially looking for an answer, as her stare had the presence of fire and daggers pointing right at him. This was followed up by Silverstream, “Yeah, we haven’t seen either of you for a while. Smolder must have really needed the bathroom, badly…” Now Smolder was uttering her own “uh” sound as both were now the focus of attention, with Starlight glaring harder as the pair knew how much trouble they were in. At least, that was until Sandbar started realising something off, “Wait a minute… very difficult to hear… there you are…” he muttered, “Counsellor Starlight, did you not know where Coral was when we got here?” In a flash, Starlight’s anxiety shot up, the anger wiped clean off her face and her body froze like a statue. “NO!” she snapped back, turning to find everyone was now looking in her direction. Finding herself in a state of panic, she suddenly found the desperate need to correct herself as she cleared her throat. “I-I mean, of COURSE, I knew where Coral has been,” she explained, “I did my best to supervise her during the morning, but when work started building up, Gallus and Smolder VOLUNTEERED to supervise in my stead.” Gallus and Smolder shared their confusion at what was happening, but when Starlight’s head turned back in their direction, her awkward smile shifted into a darted glare, and they felt a sudden urge to smile and nod along like she was telling the truth. Starlight returned back to her smile and explained further, “I did agree to let them take Coral outside, for some fresh air and a change of scenery, on the condition that they bring her back here before class would end. So… I may have gotten a LITTLE worried that they were late coming back.” She then proceeded to laugh, almost uncomfortably, hoping that her excuse would cover up the situation. Everyone else was staring blankly through the entire speech, processing the account word by word. It was in the moment of uncertainty that Coral’s father just smiled and uttered, “Far out…”, seemingly convinced of what supposedly happened. Silverstream followed suit, “Aww… that’s so sweet” holding her hands to her heart. "That's really cool, you guys..." said Sandar, expressing his gratitude. "Yona always knew friends good with kids!" Yona remarked boastfully. Both Gallus and Smolder noticed the rest of their friends were pretty heartfelt by their “volunteering”. Coral’s mom simply smiled, “Thank you all for taking good care of her”, addressing all three of them as they bashfully stood around. This was shortly followed by a question raised by Coral’s father, “So then? Who wants to go to the cafeteria to grab lunch?” and all the youngsters raised their hooves and claws in eager agreement. After a nod and wave, the group started making a move down the hall, at least most of them were. “You lot go on ahead, I just need to have a quick word with Gallus and Smolder, and then they can catch up!” she cheerfully called towards the rest of the group, although the pair that would be spoken to had frozen by that point, uncertain of what they were going to hear. As the rest of the group was out of view, Starlight turned around, and both the cheeriness and discomfort were gone, returning to her dagger filled glare with a burning aura. “Neither of you were in class, huh?” she began, her seriousness as clearly defined as her calm approach. “I seem to recall the last time you two were skipping classes, a major panic had occurred. So how are you two going to explain yourselves?” The pair looked at each other, anticipating the worse, at least now they could tell the truth. “We shouldn’t have skipped class and we’re sorry…” Gallus opened, “…but in my defence, I wouldn’t have done so if I didn’t find Coral alone in the halls…” One of Starlight’s eyes started to twitch at the point, and it wasn’t even Smolder’s turn to speak. “I... shouldn’t have skipped class either” the young dragon added, “but we did help cheer up and entertain Coral while you were gone, and Professor Fluttershy wanted us to do something selfless and an act of kindness so…” The judging unicorn did not take their words well, but she also couldn’t leave away the fact that she had to lie in order to avoid being faced with punishment for the trouble she caused. Her head dropped in defeat, she told the pair with a heavy sigh “I’ll have a word with your teacher, just make sure you catch up on any work you missed…” The two looked at each other with confusion, unsure if she was really letting them both off the hook? To give some credence, Starlight also gave one more judgemental glare towards them, “But next time this happens, just be late. Don’t ever skip class again, GOT IT?” The pair quickly responded by hastily nodding, before Starlight walked off with her head held down, as she departed for the teacher’s lounge. As the griffon and dragon started flying down the corridors, towards the cafeteria to reunite with their friends and Sandbar’s family, the pair thought about what they both went through during that hour, and how they managed to skip detention in spite of it all. Smolder looked over at Gallus with a smirk, “So, does birdie like to play now?” she teased. Gallus hmphed and returned his own smirk, “Actually, I think you’ll find it’s Griffo now” he retorted, “Do you think you’re good with kids now?” Smolder shrugged, “Meh, I’m at least good with one.” Gallus nodded. “Yeah, me too.”