"What took you three?" Is the first thing that greets Twilight, Rainbow and Spike upon entering the throne room. The other Elements and Starlight are not sitting on the thrones, instead they're laying on a pile of blankets and pillows that covers the crystalline floor.
"One of the students played a prank that damaged the decorations" Twilight said wearily, flopping down onto one of the plush cushions. "We had to find out who it was so they could clean it up."
"Oh my, who was it?" Fluttershy asked, eyes wide.
Rainbow stretched out, taking up two pillows and a portion of the blanket. "Gallus. He didn't want to go home for holidays" she said, watching Rarity braid Fluttershy's mane.
Starlight, who's head was at Twilight's hooves and hooves were on Rarity's back, frowned. "Why would he want to do that?"
"Yeah" Applejack agreed, sounding just as confused as the unicorn. "Does he not want to spend time with his family?"
"Or join in on the fun?" Pinkie interjected, resting her head between Rainbow's wings.
"That's kind of a long story" Spike said, plopping down beside Twilight and laying his head on her back.
Rarity stopped the braiding, turning to regard the Dragon with sparkling blue eyes."I simply must hear this" she said as she balanced her chin on her hooves. Spike grinned under the attention the others were giving him, and puffed out his chest.
"Well. . ."
It took half an hour to explain everything, with Rainbow, Twilight and Spike all telling the story of what happened together. When they were done, they expected questions, or a complaint from Applejack about lying.
What they did not expect was the silence.
Rarity, Applejack, Starlight and Fluttershy were all staring at them with shock written across their faces. Applejack closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, mumbling curses under her breath. Twilight, Rainbow and Spike exchanged a concerned look and Rainbow asked "what?"
The four mares just seemed to stare harder than anything, but Starlight snapped out of it. "Really?" She asked, scrutinizing their blank looks carefully, like she was looking for something more. "Really!" She apparently did not find it. "And you're supposed to be the smart one" she grumbled, facehooving.
"That poor boy" Fluttershy said, eyes filled with tears.
"What?!" Twilight demanded, looking between her grim faced friends.
"Twi" Applejack said, like she was a spooked animal. "You said that Gallus doesn't have any family? That he didn't know what a cousin was?"
"Yeah, weird right?" Spike said, wings twitching in a variation of a shrug.
"You're not getting it, are you?" Pinkie ventured, sitting up straight along with the others.
"Getting what?" Spike urged, getting frustrated at the vague utterances of his friends.
Rarity turned to stare at the prismatic Pegasus. "Rainbow, you've been to Griffonstone, correct?"
"Yeah, me and Pinkie were sent there by the map. We met up with Gilda!"
"Right, and what were the Griffons like?"
"Oh, total jerks! They're getting better, but it's gonna take a while!" Rainbow declared.
Twilight glared at her. "Rainbow!" She chided.
"Can you imagine any of them helping out a fellow Griffon?" Starlight asked, looking the definition of dejected.
Rainbow Dash snorted "Willingly?"
Tears began to build up in Pinkie's eyes as she continued on with the others train of thought. "Can you imagine being an orphan in that town? I didn't see any orphanages there or anything!"
Three faces fell as they finally figured out why their friends were so upset. "Oh" Twilight whispered, looking horrified.
"Oh" Rainbow echoed.
"That's not even the worse part" Starlight pointed out. "If there is no orphanage and Gallus doesn't have any family, then isn't he-"
"Homeless?" Fluttershy gasped, hooves covering her mouth. Starlight nodded grimly.
The mood was effectively killed now as the eight friends stared at each other in abject terror and horror. Did Gallus live on the streets? How did he eat? Was he underweight? What happened if he got hurt when he was away from school?
"Sweet Celestia" Twilight whispered, eyes shrinking to pinpricks.
"What do we do now?" Fluttershy asked, after the crying had stopped. They had moved to their thrones for an emergency meeting. Starlight glanced at her from the corner of her eye.
"What can we do? Gallus is part of the Griffon Empire. If we try to keep him here, we could get into a lot of political trouble."
"But he doesn't want to go back!" Rainbow burst out.
"We can't do nothin' about it" Applejack said, tipping her hat forwards to cover her eyes. Out of all of them, she had taken the news about Gallus the worst. "To change Kingdoms permanently, ya have to be a certain age."
"We can do something" Twilight said, smacking a hoof against the table firmly. "We can be there for him. Don't push him or anything, but if he wants to talk, then listen."
"Do you think we should send him to the Guidance Councillor?" Pinkie asked, gesturing towards Starlight. Rainbow shook her head vehemently.
"No offense Starlight, but no. I've been told I'm a lot like Gallus, and I know if anypony tried to do this to me after I revealed all this" she trailed off, but Applejack picked it back up.
"-I would think ya'll were pitying me."
"It's not pity!" Fluttershy said indignantly, but Applejack just shook her head.
"That may not be how he sees it. Don't try to treat him like glass, trust me, he will not like that."
"Hey, Twilight?" Starlight peeked her head into the Headmare's Office.
The Alicorn was doing paperwork, but smiled when she saw her former student. "Starlight! What can I do for you?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you something" Starlight scuffed the ground nervously.
"Ask ahead! I'm always happy to help!" Twilight gave a big, dorky smile, and Starlight steeled herself.
"Why did it take you so long to realize what was going on with Gallus?"
Gravity couldn't have made the smile drop faster. "W-what?"
"When Gallus first explained all this to you, why didn't you see how bad this was instantly? You're the smart one, right?"
Twilight bit her lip and shuffled in her seat awkwardly. "I was, a little caught up in trying to find the culprit" she confessed, hanging her head in shame.
"And you didn't realize-"
"No!" The Alicorn flailed awkwardly. "If I had realized, I would've, I don't know, done something different!" She took a deep, calming breath, before flashing a smile. "But you're right. Next time, I will be more aware of my students. All of my students" she levitated over a mug of cocoa to the unicorn, who gratefully took it.