Silverstream forced her way through a crowd of ponies and exited the house. She stepped over streamers and walked past ponies engaged in hushed conversation that nonetheless overwhelmed her ears.
“Can you believe that guy?”
“He couldn’t have been a student here, right?”
“Hey, isn’t that her?”
“I’m glad someone stood up to him.”
“Should we leave her alone?”
“I think we should go.”
This was supposed to be a fun party welcoming potential students at the School of Friendship after their tour of the campus, followed by them sitting in on lectures the next day. Five ponies, two changelings, and one hippogriff, Coral Wisp, made up this group, and Silverstream went out of her way to impress that last one. Coral was amazed by the stairs, of course—those never get old. The water fountains absolutely blew her mind, and she adored the animals in the Kindness lecture hall. Most of Silverstream’s friends were busy that day, but Coral would meet them tomorrow, and she’d love them. Now, though...
“Silverstream!” someone called out. She turned to see Starlight Glimmer galloping toward her.
The hippogriff stopped. “Headmare Glimmer? You’re here already?”
“A student flew to my office as soon as it happened and I teleported here. I don’t know the details, but are you alright?” Starlight looked over the hippogriff for injuries.
Silverstream smiled appreciatively. “I’m fine, nothing like that happened.” She turned her head, searching the crowd. “Though, uh—”
“Would you mind coming to my office so we can discuss what happened?”
“Actually, I was…” she continued looking around. “I was hoping Coral Wisp and I could stay at the party longer, since that stallion’s gone now.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow, looking at the ponies pouring out of the house. “I really don’t think this party’s still going, Silverstream.”
Silverstream frowned. “Oh.”
“Did Coral Wisp get separated from you?”
“Yeah, she went outside when it happened, and—oh, there she is!”
Silverstream waved excitedly at a slightly smaller hippogriff with a purple coat and white hair. She stood away from the crowd, just watching them pass. After a moment, she gave a slight smile and lightly waved back.
Starlight put a hoof on her shoulder. “You don’t have to talk to me tonight, but I want to act quickly on this, so come to my office as early as you can tomorrow.”
“Oh, sure, I’ll do that. Though I should go to her now.”
“Yes, go ahead. Both of you can wait until tomorrow to talk to me.”
Silverstream walked away. Taking a look back, she noticed Starlight was now surrounded by a crowd of ponies, including Sandbar. Snapping her head forward, she approached the other hippogriff with a big smile. “Hey there, Coral! Crazy night, huh? I know it was pretty bad back there, but there’s tons of other stuff to do around here if you want. I’m sure we can find another party.” She raised a front leg and quickly added. “Or, you know, if you’d rather not be around a lot of creatures right now, there’s a pretty cool lake nearby that—”
Coral Wisp responded softly, “Uh, sorry, I’m not up for that right now.” She glanced past Silverstream. “Is that the principal there?”
“Headmare Glimmer? Yeah, that’s her.”
She rubbed a front leg with her claws. “I think I’ll ask her to end my campus tour early.”
Silverstream’s eyes widened. “What? No! You don’t have to! I mean, what happened at the party, like, never happens, so you don’t have to worry about that tomorrow! Plus, you’ll get to sit in on the lectures, and the professors will be there, and you’ll get to meet all my friends, and—”
“Sorry, you’ve been great, really, but right now, I’d rather go back home.”
Silverstream wanted to protest, wanted to insist that there were more fun things to do, but after a few moments, she sighed and said, “I understand.”
The following morning, Silverstream left the headmare’s office with a sinking feeling. Last night’s events felt so unreal that she thought things would just be normal again the next day. Instead, everything was moving so fast she couldn’t keep up. She checked a clock on the wall. Her first class was coming up, but she could grab a snack first.
As she walked, she heard wings flapping and turned to see Smolder approaching quickly. “Silverstream, why didn’t you tell us all this?” she called out.
Putting away her thoughts, Silverstream returned a bright smile as the dragon landed. “Hi Smolder!”
Smolder blushed lightly. “Oh, right. Hi, Silverstream. Anyway, I had to hear about it from the school paper this morning! Well, school paper via Gallus. What’s going on?”
Silverstream shrugged. “It was late, and I didn’t want to bother everyone. Plus, the headmares and Counselor Trixie wanted to meet with me early in the morning, so I thought it’d be better to go straight to bed. Sandbar didn’t say anything?”
“Nah. He said he didn’t think it was his place to mention it before you. And what about that hippogriff who was touring the campus? Coral Wisp, right?”
Silverstream nodded. “She left on a train back home earlier this morning.”
Smolder groaned. “Oh come on, that stallion ruined it for everyone! The tour today got canceled too. Honestly, I’d have set that costume on fire right there if I was with you.” Smolder hovered and puffed smoke out of her nostrils for emphasis.
Silverstream frowned. “I don’t know, that seems like a bit much.”
“That’s how dragons deal with pests,” Smolder replied, but upon seeing her friend’s expression, she sighed. “I admit, dragons never really had villains or conquerors, so it’s kind of hard for me to imagine how you must have felt seeing that guy prance around in a Storm King outfit making bad jokes, but just knowing it upset you at all gets my blood boiling. They should get what’s coming to them.”
“Well, he did get suspended for the rest of the school year. Headmare Starlight said he’ll still have to take friendship lessons, but it’ll be away from the school, for the comfort of the hippogriffs here.”
Smolder raised an eyebrow. “So, just you, then?”
Silverstream winced.
Smolder’s eyes widened. “Woah, uh, sorry. Didn’t mean to say it like that.”
“It’s fine. I misquoted them anyway, it was more like ‘for me and future hippogriff students.’ They also mentioned the pony students who were captured by the Storm King’s forces.”
“From what Sandbar said, a bunch of ponies laughed at the jokes. So, if the point is to make everycreature comfortable, then I think they should be suspended too.” She stretched her arms. “Or as another option, we could go back to my fire idea.”
Silverstream opened her mouth, but then paused and said, “Yeah, maybe.”
“Well, Sandbar gave that guy a real talking to, from what I hear. So at least he got burned verbally,” she added with a smile.
Silverstream looked to the side and hummed with a frown.
First class was over, and several ponies who read the paper gave Silverstream supporting messages, which was nice, but she also wasn’t sure she liked it. She sat under a tree, holding a book in one set of claws and twirling a pencil in the other. She looked over the same paragraph she read before again, but her mind refused to take in the information. She sighed. There was nothing distracting her, and she didn’t want to do anything else, yet she also didn’t want to do this.
“Hey, Silverstream!” Gallus yelled as he flew to her with a smile, a newspaper clutched between his talons. She smiled back, then watched with curiosity as he settled on the ground and sat next to her. “That guy published his apology letter in the school paper and they made an emergency printing. It’s hilarious!”
Silverstream scratched her cheek. “What, you mean he made some jokes?” She briefly grimaced, thinking of the ones from the party.
“More or less. Second paragraph, first sentence.”
He gave the paper to Silverstream, and with an eyebrow raised, she read, “To those who felt hurt by my actions, I’m sorry you were offended.”
Before she could continue, Gallus laughed and mimed wiping a tear from his eyes. “Oh wow, never thought I’d hear a Griffonstone Apology in Ponyville.” He placed a talon on the text in question. “Note that he didn’t actually apologize for anything he did. Classic!”
Silverstream frowned as she skimmed over the article. “I don’t understand. So he published this whole apology, but he didn’t apologize?”
“Nope, the only thing he regrets is that he’s being punished. He even presented himself as some great ‘provocateur’ running a ‘social experiment,’” Gallus said, making air quotes. “I did a quick temperature check and thankfully, it looks like nocreature's buying this. I guess he was the only one who didn’t pay attention to Professor Applejack’s sincere apology lecture.”
Silverstream breathed in through her nostrils then softly breathed out. It turned out much louder than she intended.
Gallus’s expression changed to concern. “Silverstream?”
“I guess it’s good nocreature’s supporting him, but I don’t know. I would’ve really preferred for it to have just been a misunderstanding.”
After a moment of silence, Gallus softly tugged at the paper. Silverstream let go, and then he quickly crumpled it up and tossed it over his shoulder. “I can tell you don’t need this right now.” He smiled. “Want to go over the generosity reading instead?”
Silverstream gave a soft smile as she lifted her book. “Sure, sounds great!” She then raised an eyebrow. “Although… you do know you’re supposed to put that in the recycling and not the ground, right?”
Gallus grumbled and Silverstream giggled back.
Silverstream walked outside and a pony waved to her. “Hey, Silverstream! Hang in there!”
Silverstream forced a smile and waved back, but her frown quickly returned.
Shortly after, she saw Ocellus approaching and gave a friendly wave.
“How’s your day going?” asked the changeling as she came up alongside Silverstream.
“It’s going pretty well,” she lied. “How about you?”
“Oh, it’s fine.” Ocellus paused then took a breath. “And how are things going with what happened at the party? The paper mentioned the school was going to take some more actions about it.”
Silverstream knew that was coming. “Counselor Trixie said later this week there will be some lectures about that. I’ll be honest, I’m not looking forward to that.”
Ocellus frowned. “Yeah, even with the professors giving the lessons, I can see that being awkward. At least it means something like this probably won’t happen again. I have to say, I’m impressed by how quickly they’re all acting on this. Really gives me confidence in this school.”
“Why do the students need lectures about this in the first place? You’d think it would be obvious to everyone that you don’t go up to a hippogriff that lived in fear of the Storm King for most of their life in a Storm King costume and start talking about enslaving hippogriffs.” She waved out a set of claws. “The Storm King didn’t even capture hippogriffs, he captured ponies! I don’t get it.”
Ocellus gave a small smile. “Actually, that sort of thing has interested me about the school for a while. The way different creatures can perceive the same things. For ponies like Princess Twilight and the ponies of Canterlot, his attack was a big wakeup call to take international relations more seriously, but for the average pony, he was just another threat that got resolved in a few days. That stallion probably thought you and Coral Wisp would view the Storm King as a joke like he did.”
“From what Gallus said, he was intentionally trying to upset me and Coral.”
Ocellus frowned. “Oh, he did? Is he basing that on the apology letter? I did get the impression that he wasn’t really sorry, but I thought it was more that he didn’t understand what he was doing.”
“Gallus can explain it better than me. It’s a bit hard to wrap my head around. At least Cozy Glow was trying to do something; I have no clue what this guy was doing.”
Ocellus frowned and nodded. “As accommodating as the ponies have been, there are times when pony thoughts and changeling thoughts just don’t line up. I admit, I was a bit worried when we got more changeling students here, but everycreature’s been great about not making jokes about Chrysalis or anything. Still, they just assume things that aren’t true at times. The feelings forum I opened here has been a ton of help for allowing changelings to work through the odd incongruities.” She smiled. “Plus, we managed to get bugs on the school menu.”
Silverstream looked away and said under her breath, “Must be nice having other changelings around.”
There was a moment of silence, then Ocellus stammered, “I, uh, I didn’t mean—”
Silverstream’s eyes widened and she waved a front leg. “No, I’m sorry!” She frowned weakly. “Gosh, what is wrong with me today?”
Ocellus gave a supportive smile. “It’s fine, I totally understand. Changelings live fairly close by, so it was easy for more to come here, but the hippogriffs live so far away and so few are willing to make the journey.”
“And now maybe more will never come,” Silverstream finished.
Ocellus put a leg on the hippogriff’s back. “Don’t worry, Silverstream. Starlight and Trixie and the professors are already doing so much to make the school better, and I’m sure the other hippogriffs will see. In fact, even before all this, Trixie asked me to help create feelings forums for other creatures, once more join.”
“I… I just really don’t like that we need to do all this.”
Ocellus nodded silently.
Silverstream took a deep breath in front of the door. Just one more class for the day. She opened the door and…
“Hang in there, Silverstream!” said one pony.
“You can do it!” said another.
Much of the class started stomping in approval. Every class today, some variant of this happened. At first, Silverstream found it odd, but was appreciative. Then it kept happening. It only got more intense as the day went on, especially after the apology letter came out.
“Hang in there!” another called out. A few classes in, Silverstream wondered why ponies were telling her that in particular. She thought of that cat poster in Professor Fluttershy’s office. Did everypony think she was part cat and not part horse? Were they mixing her up with a griffon?
“Go Silverstream!” said yet another. After a moment, Silverstream realized it was Sandbar who said this. Her stomach twisted.
The professor, a new one whose name wasn’t coming to mind at the moment, called for the class to simmer down. The gray mare adjusted her glasses, and after Silverstream sat down, she announced, “Before we get started, I just wanted to say that I’m proud of everycreature here for showing so much support. Let’s have another round of applause for Silverstream!”
The cheering resumed and Silverstream planted her head onto the desk, covered her face, and clenched her beak so hard she could have bitten through it.
Eventually, class ended and everyone walked out of the room. Thankfully they seemed to have cheered themselves out at the start of the class and it seemed she would be left in peace.
“Hey Silverstream, wait up!”
Silverstream didn’t slow down as Sandbar ran to her. Forcing herself to be polite, she replied, “Hi, Sandbar.”
“Really sorry I couldn’t talk to you earlier. It’s pretty bogus how everyone’s schedule got screwed up because of what happened.”
“Yeah.”
“Hope you’re hanging in there.”
Silverstream frowned. “I am.”
“You read the newspaper, right? Gallus was telling me about the Griffonstone Apology, and whoa, that guy turned out to be a real loser, huh?”
Silverstream stopped, and Sandbar nearly stumbled.
“Silverstream?”
“You found him funny.”
“What?”
Silverstream turned to him with sudden rage. “I said you found him funny! I saw what happened when that stallion came out in his costume and started doing his—his comedy routine! You were laughing with all the other ponies, then you looked at me, and then you decided to be brave only after seeing there were hippogriffs watching.”
Sandbar backed away. “Silverstream, no, I just was surprised, and it was so messed up I couldn’t help but laugh. It was just for a second, and seeing you made me realize I should do something, and—”
“So if there wasn’t a hippogriff around, you wouldn’t have stopped him?”
“I would’ve, I just—”
“Smolder was telling me she wanted to set everypony that laughed on fire. Are you going to tell Smolder you were laughing?”
“I will, but—”
“Ponies have kept being nice and supportive all day, but they shouldn’t have done something that would need that in the first place! And if today is how hippogriffs are going to be treated, maybe it’s better that Coral Wisp isn’t coming.”
Sandbar opened his mouth but then chose not to reply. They stood in silence for several seconds. Hesitantly, Sandbar reached out his hoof.
Silverstream turned and flew away.
Night fell and bedtime approached. Silverstream looked at the dorms from the sky. She couldn’t go back there tonight, not after what she said. And with three friends who could fly, staying in the sky wasn’t an option either.
After a few minutes of travel, she landed at the edge of a lake. With a flash of magic, she transformed into a seapony and dove down.
Her front fin glowed as darkness surrounded her. After a few seconds of searching, she found a cave entrance. She swam inside and her light revealed a wide chamber. In the days before Coral Wisp’s arrival, she discovered this place and decided it would be the perfect secret meeting place for seaponies. As useful as that would be now.
She spent several minutes slowly making her way around the area. Deciding there was nothing else she’d be doing tonight, she settled onto a flat part of the cave floor. If she closed her eyes, it was almost like home.
Silverstream peeked above the surface, only the top of her head exposed. She glanced left and right. Coast was clear, so she hopped onto it and transformed back into a hippogriff. As much as she wanted to avoid talking to Sandbar and the others, she couldn’t bring herself to avoid a day of class. Plus, she desperately needed breakfast.
She shook herself off, gave her wings a test flap, and proceeded to be tackled from the bushes by a large creature.
“Silverstream! Yona found you!” the yak exclaimed.
After a second of groaning, Silverstream shook her head and said, “Yona? What are you doing here?”
Smiling, she replied, “Yona remembered Silverstream talking about a cool cave, and came here to look! But yak can’t swim, so yak camped out here. Yak fur great for cold nights!”
Silverstream couldn’t help but smile back. “You didn’t have to, Yona. I was going to come back.”
She pulled herself out from under the yak and stood up. While Yona watched, Silverstream lifted a leg and looked away in embarrassment. Eventually, she bit the bullet.
“So, did Sandbar tell you about our fight?”
“Yup, Sandbar told all of us. Sandbar was really upset and asked Smolder to breathe fire.”
Silverstream’s eyes widened. “He what? Did Smolder actually set him on fire?”
Yona shook her head. “Smolder didn’t, but all yaks know that when there is a problem between friends, yak smash and then fix.” Yona lifted out a hoof. “So, yak smashed!”
Silverstream took a second to parse that. “Wait, are you saying you smashed Sandbar?”
Yona nodded. “Sandbar fine, chair not so much.”
Silverstream hovered and extended both front legs. “That’s crazy, Yona! Now I feel really bad I yelled at him like that.”
Yona touched her shoulder and shook her head. “No, pony offended, and pony showed regret the yak way. No longer time to feel bad, now time to heal.”
“Still…”
“Yona understands what Silverstream is going through. Yaks also live very far away, and getting more yaks to come is hard. Yona feels lonely at times, but Silverstream and the others are just as good as yaks!”
Silverstream sighed. “Usually I can get through the day thinking everyone in the school is just as good as a hippogriff, but there are times like the party where that just falls apart.”
Yona frowned. “True, at times others don’t rise to yak standards. Even Yona doesn’t at times. But Sandbar sincerely apologized and will change behavior to be better, which shows not everypony like bad pony.”
“I guess.” Silverstream looked away. “Still, I don’t think I can face him right now.”
Yona nodded. “Silverstream has anger that not releasing properly. Hippogriff should do what yak does before talking to Sandbar.”
Silverstream thought for a second. “Smash?”
Yona jumped. “Smash!”
The apology went more smoothly than Silverstream expected. She apologized for yelling, Sandbar apologized for taking too long to react, and that was that. However, if there was any lesson from all this, it was that there was still more to do.
Silverstream and her friends came into Starlight’s office, where the headmare waited behind her desk. “It’s great to see you, everyone. So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
Silverstream stepped forward. “Headmare Starlight, you haven’t sent the official letter to Coral Wisp’s family yet, right?”
“Just finishing it up now. What’s up?”
“Is it OK if we send our own messages with it?”
Sandbar spoke up. “I need to apologize to Coral Wisp like I did with Silverstream.”
Ocellus said, “I really want her to know about the work we’re doing with feelings forums.”
“I want her to know she has a fire-breathing dragon to back her up,” said Smolder.
“And a yak!” said Yona.
“And, well, basically the entire school,” said Gallus. “We’ve talked to everyone planning on holding a party soon and they’re going to make sure that stallion doesn’t sneak in or anything.”
Starlight smiled. “That sounds great!” She turned to Silverstream. “And do you have a message for Coral Wisp?”
Silverstream grinned. “I want her to know how proud I am of this school.”
Author's Note
Attempted to stretch my muscles with a more dramatic story, but not sure this is something I want to do more.
