Sandbar's Essay

by Hammerhead

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sandbar, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Comedy
Length: 6741

Sandbar wants to go to the School of Friendship, but before he can be accepted he has to write an essay about himself.

News of Princess Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship spreads across Equestria, and many young ponies want to be students. However, the high demand means not every one of them can get in. In order to see who would be idol students who'd benefit the most from such a school, all applicants are required to write an essay about themselves and why they want to go.

This story follows one of those young ponies, Sandbar, as he figures out what to write about in his essay and maybe discover why he wants to enrol in the school in the first place.

Entry for The Discovery.

Published 2020-01-13 18:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-01-13 18:10:01 UTC

The Essay

Dear Hopeful Student,

Thank you for sharing your interest in applying to be a student at Princess Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship. As the school will begin its first year starting after the summer break, we are all excited to see many prospective young mares and stallions wanting to learn about the many facets of friendship!

For the application process to go through smoothly, we would like you to fill out the provided application form and send it to the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville with a personal essay before the date provided at the bottom of this letter.

The essay will be our guide to understand what kind of pony you are, we would like for you to write up to 1000 words about yourself, such as your interests and skills, as well as why you wish to attend the School of Friendship, and what you hope to get from it.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Signed,
Princess Twilight Sparkle

An essay… that was the one thing that stuck out in the mind of the young sea-green Earth stallion with a wavy cyan mane in that letter. The application form was easy enough with his parents help but writing a thousand words was already the worst kind of homework for any pony his age.

However, he also knew how much talk the School of Friendship gets in his own school, the idea of being taught by not only one of the Alicorn Princesses but by her friends as well, all famous for saving Equestria from danger. Every student in his class had brought up the School of Friendship at least once since the news of it starting in the new school year, it’s possible they’re all expecting to write an essay too. In the end, he’d just casually shrug to himself, at least there isn’t the pressure of an entrance exam like other private schools. He had been putting it off for weeks now and he really needed to get it finished and sent off. Sitting at his desk at home, he grabs a pen and a sheet of paper and makes a start.

~~My name is Sandbar, I’m an Earth Pony who lives in Ponyville and currently studying at~~

“Nah, I can’t start it like that.” He told himself while grabbing a new sheet of paper. “Why bother writing an essay if it’s gonna be another form?”

In an attempt to get an idea, he thought about when he told stories at his current school. He knew they always brought in intrigue at the beginning, so his essay needed a good hook, one that reels in whoever will read it.

Sandbar turned away from the desk to look around his bedroom, eyeing the posters on the wall, the shiny things on the shelves, the crumpled up clothes scattered around the bed, the stacked magazines on the side of the desk (he should probably tidy up at some point), asking himself in his head “How do I describe myself?”.

As he sat quietly in his room, viewing the space around him, faintly hearing the stream running from outside. The river outside his house was probably the best part about living here, the sounds of flowing water and the occasional splash was usually inviting around this time for swimming but when no other sound can be heard it brought to focus.

Now instead of seeing the space of random things, he could see a poster of the shoreline at Puerto Caballo, shells and a trophy on his shelf hanging above a surfboard not far from his bed, and beside the pile of surfing magazines on his desk was a photo of himself, holding a smaller pony whilst standing in-between two older ponies on a beachfront, a photo of his last family holiday in Phillydelphia. Looking at it cracked a smile on Sandbar’s face, he had gotten his hook.

They say that Earth Ponies will often enjoy their time on mainland above anything else, but for myself, it’s the coast and the water where I enjoy spending my time. I enjoy spending a lot of my free time near the river outside my home in Ponyville or by Saddle Lake, but the places I enjoy checking out the most is by the sea.

Whenever it’s time to travel, the two things I like to do is to go surfing and find as many sea creatures in and around the ocean. I’ve gotten pretty good at surfing, largely thanks to my Dad. Before I was born, he used to travel around the coast all year, riding the waves and giving lessons to other ponies at each beach he went to. One day he started teaching my mom, then it wasn’t until they got married and I became old enough before he started teaching me.

When I’m not on a surfboard, I like going around the coast to see what animals I can find. My Mom would challenge me to find shells, and point out any crabs, sea urchins and birds that we can find. My favourite animals though are the turtles, as they live long lives and go with the flow of the ocean.

When I was little, I was sharing a board with my Dad and riding a huge wave. I slipped off the board and was thrashed around by the current and ended up deep beneath the ocean. We normally tie ourselves to the boards so they could float upwards towards the surface, but without one I had no way of knowing where I was. Next thing I knew I was being pushed from behind by something, then my head was above the surface and I could breathe again. I looked around to see what was pushing me, and I saw turtles, three large ones so close you could reach out and touch them. Seeing as they saved me, I thanked them, and we played a bit in the water. Dad found me eventually, I have never seen a more panicked look on his face since that day, but the turtles were gone by the time he arrived.

Every time I’ve gone out to the ocean since then, I’ve never been able to find turtles. It doesn’t bother me too much though, I’ve always had those turtles with me.

Sandbar decidedly took a break from writing, briefly having a look down at his flank to check, and just as he expected, there were three turtles swimming in a triangle formation up his back.

The break came at a good time too, as he felt a light tug coming from his tail as he was sitting. Slightly confused, he tried turning around and looking down to see what it was only to find nothing, getting another light tug of his tail followed by a faint giggle. Now after hearing that, Sandbar knew what was going on.

“Oh, I wonder what that could be?” he exclaimed, trying to hide the slight exaggeration in his tone as he slowly turned around a second time. Listening carefully, he could hear the sounds of small quick steps around his chair, sensing there was something small and playful behind him. Staring down at the empty space in front of him, he quickly lunged his hooves in nearly the opposite direction, grabbing something small and pulling it up towards his chest. Now wrapped in his hooves was a pale green filly with an equally wavy mane, pink and light blue in colour.

“Victory! I caught a Coral!” Sandbar proclaimed, whilst holding on to the little filly who was trying to wrestle out of a tickling sensation. “Good job little sis, you managed to sneak into my room without me noticing AND trick me!”

The filly doesn’t have much of a vocabulary, just enough to feel complimented and giggled happily in response. Not that Sandbar ever needed to say or hear much from her little sister to hold a conversation, her eager happiness was enough for him to tell she was asking her big bro to play more. It’d be an easy answer if it wasn’t for the unfinished essay now sitting behind her as she was smiling at him.

“Sorry Coral, I can’t play right now. I’ve got this homework to do, I’ll play with you once I get it done okay?”

He carefully lowered her off the chair and back onto the floor, before moving his chair closer to the desk. Coral became confused, wondering why her big brother doesn't want to play. She tried to get his attention by tugging on his tail again, but all it did was get Sandbar to push her off with a single hoof. After sitting for a while and looking at her brother's back, she slowly walked away sulking. Sandbar didn't take notice, with an aim to maintain his good writing pace, he got back to work on the essay:

One of the best things about my family would have to be my little sister, Coral Currents. She’s two years old now, so she’s not big enough to do everything I enjoy but I play with her any chance I get and help her see the world around her, and someday I hope to teach her what I know about the ocean.

So far, I know she really likes the fishes, after taking her to an aquarium once on holiday in Phillydelphia. It took days after we got back home for her to understand that we’d have to wait for the next holiday so we can go out to the ocean to find more fish, and even then she’ll ask me to help her find fish in the nearby river.

I’m glad that I have a family where we all have mostly the same interest, although my parents aren’t too surprised. My mom describes our family as being high tides, we’ll always go into the land, but every now and then we’ll go back into the sea.

“Now it’s starting to look cool.” He thought, it’s got that intro, it describes what he likes, a bit about his parents as well as his sister, and how he spends time playing with her… which is totally what he isn’t doing right now. He looked around to see where Coral went and shortly discovered she hadn’t moved far from Sandbar’s chair.

While he was writing, she had dragged all of his crumpled clothes into a large pile and planted her face in it. He went back and forth between the papers on his desk and his sister, wondering if it's worth spending the rest of the evening with her. Checking the date, he could see he had two days left if he wanted to send the essay off on time, and he was only half done. However, it's still daylight outside and he could do with a break, besides it's not cool to have a sad and bored little sister lying around.

“Hey Coral, I’ve done my homework. Still wanna play?” Sandbar asked gently, and just like that her ears perked up and she turned around curiously. Seeing Sandbar’s smile got her excited again, she jumped off the clothes and back on the floor, shouting “YEAH!” several times with her happy expression back on.

“And what do you wanna do, little sis?” Sandbar asked with a bit more intrigue. For a moment, Coral pondered about what she’d want to do with her big brother, but it didn’t take long to give an answer: “FISHIES! FIND FISHIES!”

It was like any other school day in Ponyville, although when foals go to classes with Miss Cheerilee at the schoolhouse, the teenagers go to classes further in the town taught by Mr Woodbriar. He’s a bit older and a smart teacher, but not as cheery or fun as one for the younger students (also says technically a lot for some reason).

Sandbar’s seat is in the back corner, a good location for him so he could rest without being noticed, not that the lesson was that interesting, some story about somepony called Morari the Maneless. Other students around him could be heard whispering as they wrote down notes and tried to stay awake, but he was used to it that he could ignore them and take his own notes from what was on the chalkboard, at least until the topic of discussion caught his attention.

“Hey, did you finish that essay for the School of Friendship?” asked Blacklight, a dark-coated stallion with a violet mane sitting in front of him, his question directed towards the desk next to him.

That desk sat a light blue stallion named Tealeaf, who visibly looked sleepier than the other classmates. “Yeah, I spent all night on it. Sent everything off on the way to school,” he replied with a yawn. “I guess you’ve finished yours too?”

“Totally, the easiest essay I’ve ever written. I could write about myself for a thousand more, but I’m sure they’ll take that word limit into account.”

Blacklight was always the confident one in the group that surrounded Sandbar’s desk, and being a big fan of dark places Sandbar could imagine him writing a whole essay on his last trip into the woods for Nightmare Night if he could. Tealeaf wasn’t very boastful in contrast, mentioning that outside of his family’s tea shop and hanging out with his friends, he struggled with the first half of the essay.

That was when the third member of the group Tanzanite, a violet coated mare that sat behind Tealeaf, chimed in. “Hey, what did you two write about for the second part?”

It was the question that stopped Sandbar from taking his notes and recall the sheet of paper that was still in his bedroom. After finishing half of his own essay, he spent the rest of the day at the edge of the river looking out for fishes with Coral. Even after the sun was going down, any attempt to sit at his desk to carry on writing resulted in falling to procrastination until it was time to sleep. On the plus side, he did put away the clothes on the floor, the magazines were now on shelves and even the shells and trophies were now on a mantlepiece with a polished shine to them. He hadn’t even considered what to put down, how to write what was being asked: “Why you wish to attend the School of Friendship, and what you hope to get from it?”

Seeing how they already sent off their own essays, he guessed it wouldn’t hurt to hear their answers to get some ideas. Blacklight, now turning his back on Mr Woodbriar’s lesson without a thought of possibly getting caught, was the first to answer.

“I wrote about wanting to learn about friendship from the most famous ponies in Equestria, especially Pinkie Pie. She’s the fun one who’s all about the parties and festivities, she’d make lessons a lot more fun than this snoozefest.” Sandbar was the only one of the four to peer at the rest of the class to see if the teacher heard what Blacklight was saying, but Mr Woodbriar was writing on the board whilst lecturing on like nothing was uttered. Tealeaf only had his head turned slightly to look at Tanzanite when he gave his answer.

“I kinda wrote the same thing. It’d be nice to have lessons with Fluttershy, I’ve seen her a few times at the tea shop. Someone like her, who can befriend so many animals and even someone as crazy as Discord must have some really good things to teach.”

Tanzanite took a piece of paper from underneath her desk, looked fully written on both sides. “I’ve finished mine, but to be honest I'm not sure it's ready.”

She turned it over to read the back of it. “Maybe I could update the second half of it, it’d be cool to get lessons from Applejack.”

Sandbar could tell the group around him had the same idea. Guess it could work, they might not be fans of the class in front of them, but they seemed to handle these essays much better than he does. Sandbar started writing out in his head about what teachers he’d like to learn from, he didn’t notice that Tanzanite turned her head to his direction.

“Hey Sandbar, are you also applying for the School of Friendship?” she whispered, the question catching Sandbar off guard, jolting him before giving a quick glance forward to see if Mr Woodbriar was still writing on the board. “Uh, yeah, totally.”

He quickly attempted to catch up on his notes to avoid any suspicion that he had been eavesdropping on the conversation thus far. Tanzanite didn’t seem to suspect anything, so she continued after a brief pause. “So? What have you written for the essay part?”

Guessing he couldn’t escape out of the conversation, quickly glancing to see all three were looking at him, he figured he should be upfront. “I, uh, haven’t finished mine yet.” He quickly peeked at the board to see what he could write down but couldn't avoid the sides of his line of sight where Blacklight had raised his eyebrow and Tealeaf returned a concerned look on his face.

“Isn’t the deadline for applications the end of the month? That’d mean you have to finish it and send it off by tomorrow, right?”

Sandbar’s only response was a momentary pause from writing, was the deadline really that soon? He tried to follow up with a bit of reassurance “It’s no big deal, I just need to get the second part done and I can send it off.”

Tealeaf wasn't so confident about the answer he got but decided to continue questioning. “I guess, so what are you gonna write about?”

Before Sandbar could respond, Blacklight interjected with a smirk on his face. “Knowing Sandbar, he's going because Rainbow Dash is there, the two are gonna go surfing together duuude.”

The snarky remark earned a quiet chuckle from Tanzanite. He knew Blacklight was half-right, Rainbow Dash is cool and athletic, he could probably find a way to compare surfing to flying to get her interested enough to personally accept him into the school. He was also a fan of Rarity, who he saw as a bit classy but radiated style.

He decided to brush off the remark and answer Tealeaf. “Well, I have as much of a shot of applying as any other pony. I think I’ll know what to write about.”

“Technically Sandbar, the only thing that you should be writing about now is what’s relevant to this class.” A sharp voice came from the front of the classroom, it was Mr Woodbriar. Sandbar went pale at the realisation that he wasn’t in a good scenario at that moment.

“Not to mention that you all should be facing forward and paying attention to the board, isn’t that correct Blacklight?” An amount of snickering travelled across the classroom as Blacklight spun around back in front so quickly he almost spun his seat along with him. All four of them now had their heads down, trying to their faces with various levels of red.

The four could finally breathe a sigh of relief when the class had finished for the day, everypony was packing up and leaving. Sandbar was particularly thankful that there was no homework, less stuff to do on top of the essay. He could hear Blacklight next to him, a lot clearly now he doesn’t have to whisper other ponies.

“So, guys, how about tomorrow we do something after school?” Tealeaf and Tanzan liked the idea, Sandbar liked the idea too, if only Blacklight didn’t have his back turned away from him.

Tealeaf was first to reply. “Uh yeah! I should be free.” Sandbar knew he would be free too.

“Sure, I could do something to get my mind off that essay. What do you have in mind?” Tanzanite added.

Sandbar contemplated if he should speak up, he was still packing his bag whilst the three were moving their way out of the door.

“I was thinking maybe the bowling alley, I heard they’re doing a cosmic bowling night where everything is dark.” Sandbar could simply ask if he could tag along.

“That sounds like it’s your thing, Blacklight. But how would you see the pins or the bowling ball in the dark?”

In the end, he’d given up. To him, they would have made an offer, but didn’t. He thought maybe they wouldn’t include him because he still has the essay to do or couldn’t because they need to be a certain group number, or didn’t because they get along so well together, and for whatever reason not with him.

Sandbar made his way home, still feeling a bit left out after his classmates left. Even as he got home, he just did a slow walk to his room. He might have seen Coral being happy to see him, but outside of a small smile he didn’t react much and walked passed her to his room. His essay was lying at the centre of the desk, unmoved from the day before with what he wrote filling most of the page.

Why you wish to attend the School of Friendship, and what you hope to get from it?

He ran the question through his mind. If it was the day before, his answer would probably have been no different from his classmates, being in classrooms with some of Equestria’s heroes. Thinking back to when class finished though, he knew his answer had changed. Grabbing the pen, turning the page over to the fresh side, he made a start on the final half of his essay.

I feel that it would be great to learn about friendship, not just from one teacher, but all of them. Each one has their strengths but when they are together, they can save Equestria from danger, bring ponies together, never turn their back on anyone and always give someone a chance.

If there is anything that I want more from the School of Friendship, it’s to be able to have friends of my own. Friends I can be honest with, have a laugh, share with, friends who are kind and we can stay at each other’s side. It would be great to find others who’d enjoy the ocean and outdoors as much as I do, and maybe find new stuff to enjoy from them. Outside of my family, I get along with folks in school, but things would be much better if I can do more than just get along.

“Sandbar! Supper’s ready!” The sound of his mother calling from downstairs, Sandbar put his pen down.

“Okay mom! Be down in a minute!” He gave one look at his paper, skimming through the lines on both sides. He could send it off right now if he wanted, but something in the back of his mind was telling him it was missing something.

“Almost done…” he said with a sigh in his breath, as he left the paper on the desk and went down.

Dinner at the table was quiet, with each member of the family sitting at a side, Coral sitting at one end occasionally being helped with her food by her mom whilst Sandbar was sat near the other end next to his Dad. Sandbar was quietly eating away at the Mediterranean style meal in front of him, the essay being kept on his mind.

His mom decided to be the one to break the silence, “So Sandbar, how was school today?” the question being a usual starter didn’t bring many surprises but was able to evoke a reaction in Sandbar to answer.

“School was okay, same old stuff. Mr Woodbriar didn’t give us homework.”

His mom tried to keep it going “That’s good to know, I’m sure your friends at school are pleased with that. Are you all thinking of going somewhere after school tomorrow? It’d be a good way to end the week.”

Sandbar was reminded of the conversation his classmates were having, how they planned to get together and didn’t offer to include him. “…No, we’re not.”

The long pause and distant tone in his answer drew a hint of concern from his mother, she wasn’t aware of anything going on but could tell something happened. She decides to get her husband to assist, getting his attention with a sly cough followed by nudging her head towards Sandbar to notice. The Dad, having barely listened to what was being said could only give a shrug at what he should do, resulting in a look slight disapproval from his wife. She followed with a more forceful hint for him to say something to his son, mouthing the words "Ask him!" while trying to avoid being heard.

The Dad could only recall in the short time something about school friends and tomorrow, so he could only risk a vague follow-up question. “Well then, what are you little dudes getting up to then?”

Sandbar didn’t really want to tell them anything. What could he tell them? That the ponies at the school aren’t really his friends? That they will have fun without him because he couldn’t bring himself to ask? He had to say something, anything to avoid the topic of class. He could notice in the corners of his eyes that his parents were now looking at each other, wondering what’s bothering him. He could only think of the one thing he needs to do tonight.

“The essay…” he muttered, getting the attention of both parents in the process. “We’re working on those school applications, so we don’t have time for fun at the moment.” Both his parents felt some relief, his Dad more so figuring that his son was hoping they’d get into that new School of Friendship that’s going to open soon. “Ah, of course, they’re due tomorrow, right?”

“I’ve heard some ponies in the market say that a lot of ponies are applying, it might not be a huge chance of getting accepted.” His mother chimed in.

“Nah, if anyone has got a good chance of getting in, it’s our little dude!” Sandbar getting his hair ruffled by his Dad as he spoke. “Soon he’ll be away at that school, probably forgetting what he was worried about.”

Hearing the support from his Dad as well his Mom showing her faith with a smile, eventually got Sandbar to smile in return. “Thanks guys. I think I’m gonna head back up and get it done.”

As his parents nodded, he went off back to his room. The two look at each other, they could tell there was something up, but their son knows he’s not on his own. Although before they could carry on with their meal, the Dad was looked across mildly confused. “Um… where did Coral go?”

Sandbar made way to his bedroom, he started thinking of ways to finish off the essay. He jumped onto his chair and faced his desk to find… it’s gone. His immediate reaction was confusion, looking around and under the desk to see where it went to, sure he left it on the desk before going to dinner.

Slowly panic was starting to spread as he looked further away from his desk to see where that sheet of paper went to, his mind racing at the thought of what to do if it was gone forever. He couldn’t rewrite it all again in one night, he’s not sure if he could remember exactly what he had written up to that point. If he couldn’t get it ready by tomorrow morning, he would miss the deadline and not get a single chance of applying to the School of Friendship.

Then suddenly, he heard a thud coming from his bed, quickly turning around to find his surfboard had fallen over, and his little sister Coral sitting beside it holding a sheet of paper in her hooves. Sandbar breathed a sigh of relief, assuming Coral was playing around. “Okay Coral, that was a good one. Can I have that piece of paper back now?” he asked calmly. Expecting her to come forward and give the paperback, he instead saw her shuffle back and answer with a short and pointed “no”.

He stepped forward and asked again, “Coral, can I have that piece of paper, please?” emphasising the use of polite words in hopes she’d see he was serious, but yet again she shuffled back with and gave another sharper “no”.

Sandbar was going to give one more try, “Coral, I know you want to play but I really need to get that paper done, so if I can have it back...” but as he stepped forward, Coral started running off.

Sandbar gave chase but didn’t expect an Earth filly that was more than a year old to be hard to catch, being able to crawl under and around spaces too small for Sandbar to fit through.

“Coral this isn’t funny, give it back!” Sandbar demanded, his tone getting tougher, but Coral wasn’t giving it up. The pressure built as Sandbar was witnessing the paper getting crumpled and anticipate it tearing up before he could get a hold of it again. After running around for a few minutes, the pressure became too much.

Sandbar yelled, “CORAL, EITHER GIVE ME BACK MY ESSAY OR I’M TELLING MOM AND DAD!” The volume was enough for Coral to finally stop, fear setting in at the sight of anger in her big brother and the possibility of being told off by her parents.

Sandbar could finally move close enough to grab the paper himself, but as he stepped forward Coral was still showing some resistance, saying “No! Big Bro don’t go!” as she turned around to face away from him, hugging the piece of paper.

“Coral, I’m not going anywhere.” Sandbar replied, his voice calmed down in the moments of silence between them. He tried to move in front of his sister, but she once again turned her back on him.

“No! You wanna go to school. No fun. No play anymore!” Coral spoke as sobbing and sniffling could be heard, and tears started running down her cheeks. As a result, Sandbar could feel guilt coming from inside of him as he realised why Coral was holding onto the paper, how sad and scared he made her.

“Coral, I’m sorry I yelled. I didn’t mean to, but I didn’t realise why you didn’t want me to finish that paper that I’ve been working hard on." His voice becoming much gentler as he stood behind her.

"And you’re right, I do want to go to the School of Friendship. It’s not because I don’t want to have fun or to play anymore but…” Sandbar sighed, as much as he didn’t want to, he knew he’d have to be honest with her.

“You, Mom and Dad, are the only real friends I have right now. I go to a school where there are folks who are nice to me, but they don’t want to include me. As much as I’ve tried, I’m not happy there.”

He moved over to his bedroom window, as he looked out at the dark night of the down, he could just make out a purple coloured palace next to a waterfall on the side of the mountain. “I have a feeling this new school might change that, it’ll make me better at making friends, so I can be happy when I’m away. If you look out of this window, you can see the school itself. So, it’s not like I won’t be too far.”

He turned back to approach his sister, who had become quiet but still insistent on facing away from Sandbar. “If I can go to the School of Friendship after the summer, I still want to come back here at any chance I can get, I promise. In fact, I’ll make sure that I’ll find other ponies there that want to see the coolest little sister I know.”

Coral slowly turned around, still sad with tears in her eyes. The sight of her brother’s reassuring smile effectively stopped the tears from falling, and gradually returning a smile instead.

“Now if I’m able to have the slightest chance of getting into that school, I need to finish that essay. Maybe you wanna help me?” He offered, pointing his hoof at the sheet of paper Coral was still holding onto. After seeing her nod, they both walked over to the desk. Sandbar hopped onto the chair, picking up Coral and placing her on his lap. After placing the sheet of paper on the desk, straightening it out and grabbing a pen, he started writing again with his sister looking over the paper.

Most importantly, the School of Friendship can help me share the lessons and values I’ll learn onto others, especially my family. I want to show my sister how great friendships can be so that she can make friends as she grows up.

I know she misses me when I’m not home, so I want to do my best to make her happy. I could find friends who love fishes as much as she does, and they could teach her more things than me or my Mom can. Or I could just find friends who would have little sisters of their own, so both of us can learn something to be better friends ourselves.

Friendships can go a long way, they can make everyone feel happy, or find those to help when they need happiness. If I’m accepted into the School of Friendship, I’ll be sure to find that happiness.

“Well Coral, what do you think?” he asked Coral.

He knows she cannot read but seeing her happy and saying yes was enough. Sandbar folded up the essay with the rest of the application forms and placed them in an envelope stamped and addressed to the Castle of Friendship.

Although it was dark outside, Coral was encouraging Sandbar to send it off that evening rather than the following morning, so the two of them went down the road to the nearest post box, and Sandbar allowed Coral to climb on his back so she could push the letter through.

Despite having a small pony standing on top of her, he somehow felt lighter as he heard the envelope hit the top of the stack of letters within the box. Now with something less to worry about for a while, he considered asking his sister if she wanted to try bowling sometime, but before he could say a word, Coral was lying on his back fast asleep. As he quietly chuckled to himself, they both headed back home to rest for the remainder of the night.

Sandbar didn’t think much about the School of Friendship after sending off the application. Days went by as they usually had been, although now he wasn’t as bothered with what the rest of the class was up to.

Blacklight, Tealeaf and Tanzanite went to the bowling alley after school the following day like they planned and had a good time. It was a “Cosmic Bowling” event where it was all dark except for fluorescent colours on the walls and certain objects, so Blacklight had the most fun. Even though the lack of visible light made things hard to see, Blacklight thought recognised a pony on the opposite side of the alley as one of his classmates, helping a smaller pony trying to push a bowling ball down the lane. As his own friends were encouraging him to bowl, he shrugged it off and continued his game.

It wasn’t for another three weeks until the thought of the School of Friendship reemerged in Sandbar’s head. He could overhear students in his school saying how they got letters saying they were not accepted in, one by one, even the three students who sat next to him all got the same letter.

When Tanzanite asked him if he got accepted or not, he genuinely answered "I don't know" with his usual chill demeanour, but his mind was expressing more worry that he'd be rejected as well.

As he tried to sleep it off that very evening, his mind was calmed with dreams of the ocean waves, wondering the beaches and imagining the warm summer breeze across his face. Although this moment of calmness was abruptly ended with the feeling of the floor shaking beneath him like an earthquake.

It didn’t take long for him to realise he was being rudely awakened by a happy little filly jumping on his bed, shouting “BIG BRO!” in time to every bounce she was making in an attempt to wake him up.

“Alright, alright! I’m awake!” he mumbled, sitting upwards on his bed and rubbing his eyes as he tried to adjust to the morning light. As his vision cleared, he could make out Coral standing on top of her, proudly holding a clear white envelope with Sandbar written in the neatest and fanciest writing he had ever seen. She dropped it in front of him and began jumping again, this time in sync to the word “OPEN!” repeatedly.

“Alright! I’ll open it.” He responded, laughing a little as he tried to stop his sister from jumping on him. He picked up the envelope and carefully tore off the top, revealing a single neatly folded sheet of paper inside.

“So, do you think this is it?” he asked Coral, who only responded with a smile and a polite nod, scooting forward with the intent on finding out. “Well, here goes…”

Sandbar opened out the piece of paper, the letter was written very formally, and yet all the words were written out with a pen in a smaller but still very tidy letter. He figured that someone with particularly good magic was able to write all these out, even if it could be more practical to use a typewriter. Regardless, he started quietly reading the letter out:

Dear Sandbar,
First let me say thank you very much for sending in your application, we have had a lot of prospective students come forward with their personal essays and it’s been great to see so many eager, enthusiastic and passionate ponies come forward with their stories and their ambitions to come to our school. As the school is in its first year, we want to bring in ponies from a diverse range of backgrounds, who not only show potential for making new friends but show a desire to learn more about friendship to set an example for everyone in their lives.

As such, we are happy to inform that you have been accepted as a new student at Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship. We will be sending you more information for you and your parents/guardians to look over, but for now, we look forward to seeing you enrol after the summer break in the school’s first year.

Signed,
Princess Twilight Sparke

By the time he finished reading, his eyes looked like they grew, and his jaw was wide open. He didn't say a word until Coral started prodding him, still curious to see what the letter said.

“I…I got in…I’m going to the School of Friendship!” he responded, starting low and trembling and picking up as he could barely contain his excitement and smile on his face.

He quickly pulled in and hugged his sister tightly, rolling on the bed overjoyed at what was becoming a reality to him. “I'M GOING TO THE SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP!” he was yelling, with his sister happily trying to compete by yelling sounds of joy back.

“Come on! We’ve got to tell Mom and Dad about this!” he told Coral, still beaming at the news.

With that, he jumped off the bed, and Coral, in turn, decided to jump on Sandbar’s back. Unphased, the pair ran out of the bedroom to tell their parents the news. It wasn’t an easy time to get through, but as far as Sandbar was concerned, there were going to be good things ahead of him.