Coral Comes to Play

by Hammerhead

Look Who Arrived!

It was another morning at the School of Friendship, and after the first set of classes had ended, students were spending their first break of the day either socialising, playing, or studying. Inside one of the breakrooms, a small group of students were sitting together on rows of sofas and chairs facing the window looking over the vast open fields and mountains that surround Ponyville, each working through their notes for an assignment set earlier that day by their teacher on Kindness, one Professor Fluttershy.

Most of the students and staff at the school were ponies, but this group was much different. There was Yona, a Yak from Yakyakistan, Ocellus, a Changeling from the Hive, Silverstream, a Hippogriff from Mount Aris, Gallus, a Griffon from Griffonstone, and Smolder, a Dragon from the Dragonlands. Being different creatures from outside of Equestria made them stand out quite a bit from the rest of the school, but after a few months at the school, they were treated like everyone else.

All of them in the group did have one pony friend who hung around with them the most, but as minutes passed during break time, the more it became apparent that he was absent.

“Hey, does anycreature know why Sandbar still isn’t here yet?” Silverstream asked the rest of the group, the first to speak up amongst the silence.

One by one, the rest of the group raised their heads from their notebooks and looked around at each other.

“I’m not sure.” Ocellus was the first to answer. “I’m sure he was the last one of us to leave at the end of Professor Fluttershy’s class.”

“Yona was first to leave classroom” Yona put it bluntly. “So Yona could not see Sandbar from small crowd of other ponies.”
Whilst the three of them shared uncertain looks amongst themselves, Gallus and Smolder returned to their notebooks, not particularly concerned at the absence of one of their friends in the room.

“He’s probably needed somewhere else, I’m sure we’ll see him later,” Gallus responded with a shrug, flicking through the pages of his notebook, looking for examples of acts of selflessness based on Professor Fluttershy’s lesson.

“It looked like it” Smolder added, “I saw Spike approach him and say he needed to be taken somewhere, both of them went in the opposite direction to us.”

There was a momentary pause for thought from the rest of the group, they knew Spike as the small purple dragon that follows Headmare Twilight around the school, almost like an assistant. Why did Spike speak with Sandbar? Where did he take him? Was it to see Headmare Twilight? Why would Spike want Sandbar to see Headmare Twilight, unless…

“Do you guys think Sandbar is in trouble?”

Silverstream, Ocellus, and Yona, all three looked at each other, trying to remain doubtful. Gallus and Smolder, on the other hand, took no interest or concern and kept their heads focused on their notebooks. Although that did not stop Smolder from giving a slight smirk as she responded with an ominous tone.

“Maybe...”

Ocellus and Silverstream were quick to feel unease at the answer. “But what for?”

Gallus noticed what Smolder was doing, a small bit of teasing over a situation that’s not a big deal, and he couldn’t help but join in. “Guess we’ll find out later”, he added with a subtle smirk of his own.

The unease started to worsen for Ocellus and Silverstream as they started to imagine their friend standing in front of Headmare Twilight’s desk as she looked down on him, possibly to be given detention or suspension. On the other hand, Yona didn’t buy into what was being suggested.

“Yona refuse to believe Sandbar in trouble, Sandbar too kind pony to be bad.”

Smolder couldn’t help but amuse herself a bit more. “Those are the kind of creatures you wouldn’t expect…” she remarked in her ominous tone.

Having had enough of the two playing around, she put her hoof down. “Yona thinks Griffon and Dragon shouldn’t be teasing the idea.”

The pair finally raised their heads from their notebooks to see the other three staring back at them. Ocellus and Silverstream remained nervous, while Yona was judging them. They realised then that they should drop their act before things get too out of hand for either of them.

“Alright, we won’t. Sandbar’s gonna be fine.”

The five settled back to their notebooks, meanwhile, the chatter going on behind them all in the breakroom changed from the casual mundane goings-on of everyday ponies to the sounds of oos and aws, as well as a few chuckles and giggles, could be heard, and all seemed to focus on something going on behind them.

“Doesn’t that look so cute!” said one student. “That looks adorable!” uttered another.

It was not long after that a light green pony with a green wavy mane emerged from around the side of the chairs.

“Hey guys!” he greeted the group of creatures. The five all turned, and from each of their line of sights could see the green pony smiling back at them.

“Sandbar!” Silverstream exclaimed. “We were all getting worried about you! Were you sent to Headmare Twilight’s office? What happened? What did you do? Are you in trouble?” she asked frantically, each question shot out in rapid-fire.

Sandbar raised an eyebrow at the question while taken aback by Silversteam's upfront line of questioning, he tried to look at the others for an explanation of what had gone on while he was away. All he could see was Ocellus patiently waiting for an answer, with Yona turning her head to Gallus and Smolder, who in turn were trying to play coy.

“Uh… I’m not in trouble or anything…” he answered slowly. “I was sent to the courtyard, partially because of this.”
To which Sandbar slowly turned his body around, revealing a smaller and paler green pony with a pink and cyan wavy mane and dark blue beady eyes sitting on his back.

“Everycreature, I’d like you all to meet my little sister, Coral Currents!” Sandbar proudly proclaimed as gestured one of his forehooves towards the little filly.

The filly gave a wave and a small “Hallo!” in return.

The appearance explained the commotion that happened behind them moments earlier, especially when Silverstream, Ocellus, and Yona, all in unison gasped in awe and excitement, with pupils dilating, and on the brink of screaming.

“Green Pony brought over smaller Green Pony!” Yona exclaimed as she jumped off her chair, shaking the room as she landed on the floor.

Silverstream and Ocellus also beamed at the sight of Coral. “Aw, she’s so cute! I just want to pick her up and swing her around and around and around…” Silverstream started spinning in her seat as she spoke.

Gallus and Smolder looked on jadedly, their whispers towards each other being monotone.

“I’m not seeing it…”

“Yeah, me neither…”

“Do we get to play with her today? Oooh, I love playing with littlelings!” Ocellus asked, unable to refrain her wings from fluttering in eagerness.

Sandbar was happy to answer. “Yep, outside of our classes, we can.” He explained that he was sent to the courtyard because his parents were waiting to see him there, wanting to check up on him and get a full tour of the school and the surrounding area, bringing Coral along because she was missing him.

School Guidance Counsellor Starlight was with them at the time, and after asking if Coral could spend time with him and his friends around the school, she allowed on the condition it was only during break times to not interfere with classes. Since she offered to supervise Coral during lessons and their parents were happy with the arrangement, Sandbar brought Coral up to breakroom to introduce her to all his friends properly.

“Coral, these are all the friends I wrote about in my letters.”

He proceeded to lift her off his back and hold her up to his chest as he sat in front of his friends, pointing to each creature one by one, starting from furthest away to nearest. It was quickly apparent that Coral had come up with her own names for her big brother’s friends based on these letters, presumably from what species they were.

First was Yona. “Yak!” A straightforward one, Yona felt a bit proud in response.

Next was Ocellus. “Love Bug!” Another straightforward one, Ocellus felt a bit touched by it.

Followed by Smolder. “Draggo!” Smolder didn’t move from her notebook when she heard it, a subtle hmph and a muttered “close enough” was the most effort she was willing to give as a reaction, albeit not one Sandbar or Coral could notice.

Then there was Silverstream, no response from Coral, not that the hippogriff seemed to notice as she was too busy grinning and waving at the filly.

Finally, there was Gallus. “Birdie!” By contrast, the Griffon absolutely noticed the response. He started out surprised before he blushed and glared a hole into Sandbar as everyone snickered and giggled to themselves. Meanwhile, Coral looked around the room with a confused look on her face, before turning around and looking up to her big brother.

“Sandy, where’s Fishy?”

Silverstream and all others showing interest looked towards Sandbar for an explanation, Sandbar blanked momentarily as he tried to figure out an answer. “Sorry Silver, Coral really likes fishes. I figured she’d be a lot happier if I told her I was friends with a Seapony instead of a Hippogriff.” Sandbar tried to explain as he gave a nervous smile and rubbed the back of his head.

Fortunately, Silverstream didn’t seem too bothered, in fact, she seemed to excite her a bit more. “Ooh, that’s not a problem!” She followed her forgiveness to Sandbar by quietly calling to Coral. “Oh Coral~ Come look over here~” she cooed, and sure enough Coral turned her head back around towards the pink Hippogriff.

As Silverstream placed one of her claws on her necklace, her talons wrapping around the shard of a pearl hanging from the centre, a quick bright flash emerged. When it cleared, she had transformed from a brightly coloured pink bird with hooves on her hind legs to a brightly coloured pink fish with a soft scaley body and a pony-like face. She finished off her transformation to a Seapony with a gleeful “ta-da!”

Coral’s eyes went wide as she stared at the large talking sea creature in front of her, it was her turn to be awestruck. “FISHY!” she called out as she ran from Sandbar’s arms and hugged tightly onto Silverstream’s tail fin.

It was from that point that plans had changed, as most of the notebooks were put down and attention was put on the happy little filly. After a bit of effort to pry away Coral’s hooves from her tight hug, the entertainment began with her sitting on Silverstream’s lap, watching Yona making funny faces. Coral was loving every moment of it, giggling along with every new face.

Then Ocellus had an idea. “Oooh! There’s a game I play with my younger siblings, I’ve always wanted to try it out here!” She then proceeded to whisper her plan to Sandbar, who was happily on board and keen to try it out, as well as Silverstream, adding to tell her to keep Coral where is she is sitting.

Ocellus then made her way around the right side of the seats, and Sandbar made his way around the left side of the chairs so that both were hiding behind the group where Coral couldn’t see them. After a moment, a bright blue flare emerged from where the two were hiding, and another moment later Sandbar appeared from both sides of the set of seats. The group could now see two Sandbars standing in front of them.

“Hey sis!” both Sandbars called in almost perfect unison. Coral looked on completely confuzzled, rubbing her eyes and shifting her head between two identical versions of her big brother. What was when Silverstream played her role in the game.

“Woah! Two Sandbars? Now that doesn’t seem right, I’m sure there’s only one of him.” Silverstream spoke out loud, overacting on purpose to the point that Yona couldn’t help but giggle at the exaggerated performance. “Coral, I can’t tell these two apart, do you think you can find which Sandbar is the REAL Sandbar?”

Little Coral slowly climb down from Silverstream and their seat and cautiously approached the two Sandbars. Both smiled as she walked between them, trying to figure out if there was a difference between them. She could tell their coats matched in colour and even felt the same when she tried touching them. She could also see their cutie marks matched exactly too, three turtles in a triangle formation as they swam up to their flanks. Both even had the same wavy haircuts, eye colour, tail, all looked the same from how she remembers.

As she tilted her head and looked hard at their faces, and while they seemed similar, she was sure there was a difference. The Sandbar on the right had a smile that was eager as if he was trying to hide a surprise for her, and his eyes appeared clear like he was fully awake. Coral may be incredibly young, but she has seen her brother long enough to know he wouldn’t feel fully awake unless he was ready to surf at the beach with their dad, or it was late in the afternoon. The Sandbar on the left, by contrast, his smile seemed to be more confident, as if he knew it was really him. His eyes were also telling, feeling a bit more relaxed like he had only started feeling awake.

As she stood in front of the Sandbar on the left, she smiled and lifted her front hooves to rest onto his own and proclaimed, “BIG BRO!” to declare that she made her decision. Sure enough, a bright blue flare emerged and encompassed the other Sandbar, and once it cleared up, Ocellus had returned to her natural form. Big cheers and applause emerged from the group, and a big hug from Sandbar, to show that she had chosen correctly and won the game.

The only ones who weren’t participating were Smolder and Gallus, who still going through their notebooks and working on their assignments. Not wanting to leave them out, Sandbar approached them to see if they join in, still holding Coral in one of his hooves.

“Hey dudes, you sure you two don’t want to join in?” he asked.

Coral was especially encouraging, calling “Draggo! Draggo play!” as she reaches out to Smolder.

Smolder became agitated at the offer, eyes widened and shifting in her seat. “Uh… sorry, can’t do! Gotta get this assignment out of the way!” and dropped her head back down to her notebook. Coral tilted her head but didn’t feel despair just yet as she turned to Gallus.

“Birdie! Birdie Play!”

Gallus, on the other hand, felt much less enthused. “GRIFFON can’t play either” he sharply answered as he kept his eyes locked on his own notebook.

“Aw…” Coral felt discouraged that neither of them wanted to play. Sandbar felt down as well but wanted to keep his time with his little sister as positive as he could.

“Don’t worry, sis. I’m sure they’ll get a chance to play with you later, okay?” he tried to reassure her, as did the others.

"Yeah, we still want to play! It's their loss if they'd rather be bored and grumpy!"

"Yona thinks Griffon and Dragon just bad with kids..."

Having the rest of the group continue to give her attention and play did help lift her spirits back up, but every now and then she’d look over at the blue griffon and orange dragon sitting on the sofa together, looking bored as they flip through their notebooks, wondering why they don’t want to play.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Aww so sandbar little sister came to visit and it looks like the others Aside smolder and Gallus wants to play with her but she looks like she want those two play I'm sure those 2 will come around

[OmniFox]

Lil Sis will set some creature up for embarrassment.

[Electric Cherry]

Honestly, no punctuation inside the quotations really ruins it for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Godslittleprincess]

Cuteness overload!

[Magic135]

I love Coral, she's cute.

[LightningChaser04]

Finally, there was Gallus. “Birdie!” By contrast, the Griffon absolutely noticed the response. He started out surprised before he blushed and glared a hole into Sandbar as everyone snickered and giggled to themselves. Meanwhile, Coral looked around the room with a confused look on her face, before turning around and looking up to her big brother.

Birdy? Lol!!