Lying on the grass on the School of Friendship's campus was an orange coated Earth Pony with a shaggy dark-red mane and a curled dark red tail. His Cutie Mark depicted a fox's tail, curled in a similar manner to his actual tail. The colt was mulling over a book in front of him when something happened to catch his eye. It was the distinctive blue color that pulled his attention away from his book, and when he saw who it was, he was quite surprised.
"It's that griffon," he said in amazement, his reddish-brown eyes focused on Gallus, "And he's. . . all by himself?"
Indeed, Gallus was walking rather somberly past the colt, his head hung low as he slowly moved in the direction of the student dormitories.
"Hmm. . ." the orange pony said to himself, as he did some careful thinking. Then, he quickly stowed his book away into his saddle bag and jumped up onto his hooves.
Gallus had been deeply considering the idea that his birthday had been somehow cursed when the sound of running hoofsteps broke though his thoughts.
"Hey! Hey! Gallus!"
The griffon's frown deepened, as he didn't feel much like socializing at the moment. Nevertheless, he turned to see the approaching colt as he quickly caught up to him.
"Alright, Gallus!" the colt said, smiling eagerly as he came to a stop just inches from the griffon, "So, yeah, I didn't expect to see you here. That is, not here without the rest of your Equestria saving friends. Nice job beating Cozy Glow, by the way." The colt then seemed to suddenly remember his manners, and he smiled extra widely and held out his right forehoof, "Oh, excuse me. I'm Rey. Rey Faux. But my friends call me Rey, so you can go ahead and call me Rey!"
Gallus looked at Rey with a look of utter annoyance, and he made a point to not shake the hoof being offered to him. "Do you want something from me?" Gallus said bitterly.
Then, something very peculiar started to happen. Rey's wide smile suddenly became a smaller, more gentler smile. Not only that, Rey began to slowly circle around Gallus as he spoke in a very smooth and subtle tone of voice.
Rey nodded his head and said, "Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah; that is definitely the kind of response a griffon would give, especially if they aren't in a very good mood. I've made an effort to learn quite a bit about other lands and the cultures of other races, especially after you and your friends made such a big name for yourselves." Rey then gave a sad sigh, and continued in a voice laced with sympathy, "So, yeah, I know about griffons and Griffonstone and how much selfishness and greed can be found there. It's such a same you had to deal with that for so long. Even after spending time in Twilight's school, you still can't help but feel that every new face is planning to take advantage of you in some way."
Gallus' eyes widened slightly, amazed at how this pony was putting into words exactly how he felt inside. However, Rey wasn't done yet.
"You know, when I saw you walking by, I just had to run up and talk to you," Rey explained in an apologetic manner, sounding almost embarrassed, "I mean, you're one of that admirable group of six heroic friends who saved Equestria from that little terror Cozy Glow, and yet now you're all sad-looking and alone, your friends nowhere in sight. You gotta admit that anyone who has spent any length of time in this school would find this odd."
Rey stopped circling once he was standing in front of Gallus, and he tilted his head innocent curiosity and asked, "So, did you have some kind of. . . I dunno. . . falling out or something?"
Gallus's blue eyes were locked into Rey's reddish-brown eyes from a moment. Then the griffon turned away and said, "Not a falling out, exactly. More like. . . I was kicked out."
Rey sucked in a breath loudly and said in shock, "What? What do you mean? Wha-wha- what happened?"
Gallus huffed, and he turned back to Rey and said, "I don't know. I guess they needed a break from me, or something."
Rey stomped his right forehoof down hard and dug it into the ground aggressively. "A break from a friend? That's is unacceptable! A friend should always have time for a friend! Isn't that what friendship is all about? I mean-!" Rey took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and then said, "Alright, Gallus. Let's just calm down. Err. . ." Rey's eyes lit up suddenly, and he nudged Gallus playfully on the shoulder and said, "Hey! You ever had a chocolate blueberry cluster?"
"Uh, no?" Gallus replied, caught of guard by the sudden change in subject.
Rey smiled and said, "Well, you will soon. My mom and I would make them together every once and while, and she sent me a care package full of them just the other day. I've got a bunch left in my room. Come on, come on! It's a well known fact that a little chocolate makes you feel better, and I know from experience that adding blueberries to it will make you feel twice as better. Come on, come on!"
Rey walked backwards as he eagerly beckoned for Gallus to follow, and then he turned and galloped off towards the dormitories. Gallus found himself following behind the colt, reasoning that he didn't have anything better to do anyway, so he might as well get to know this pony a little better.
Meanwhile, in the designated party room, Smolder and Silverstream were busy making the room look like it was meant to host Gallus' first surprise birthday party. Silverstream was blowing up another blue balloon, and after giving one final puff, and tied it off and fell flat onto her side, completely out of breath. Nearby were two big piles of balloons, one blue and one yellow. Each pile was about twice the size as Yona.
"Huff. . . Puff. . .Oh. . ." she gasped out as she lay on the floor, her chest heaving.
Smolder, who was busy brushing stripe of golden Luster Dust on a length of wide, blue ribbon, winced slightly at the sight of the puffed-out hippogriff and said, "Sorry, Silverstream, but dragons don't blow up balloons, unless you want globs of molten rubber."
Silverstream managed to catch her breath, and she laughed a little as she replied, "Yeah, I don't think melted balloons would really fit the tone of Gallus' birthday party."
Suddenly, there were three loud knocks on the door, and a voice on the other side said, "Shame on Grampa Gruff!"
Silverstream got up and quickly went over to the door and opened it, revealing Sandbar with a cake box on his back and bags hanging off either side of him.
Sandbar smiled triumphantly and said as he walked in, "Sesame seed sticks, honey roasted peanuts, chips, cheese dip, salsa, lemon candies, chocolate chip cookies, sarsaparilla-."
"Knock it off, you're making me hungry!" Smolder demanded, although she couldn't help but smile.
Sandbar gave her a look of clearly fake amazement and said, "Whatever do you mean? I don't recall mentioning any gems?"
Smolder rolled her eyes, but continued smirking as she replied, "Ha-ha. You know that pony food has started growing on me. And to think, dragons back home think that pillows are the best things that ponies can make. Seriously, they need to know that ponies came up with sapphire cupcakes! How can you hate a species that invented sapphire cupcakes? More dragons need to come over here and try stuff like that!"
Silverstream chuckled at Smolder's antics, and she said, "Don't worry, Smolder. There'll be plenty of food for everyone."
As Sandbar placed his load on the table, he frowned and said, "I think I kinda screwed up. I tried to send Gallus on a wild goose chase, but he ended up following me to Ponyville-."
"We know," Smolder said, "He nearly caught us, and I had to dive into a basket of apples. Ugh! How does Professor Pinkie Pie do it!?"
Silverstream smiled nervously and said, "Heh-heh. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he saw me."
Sandbar immediately began to panic. "Oh no, oh no! He knows we're hiding something from him! Now what!" Sandbar prodded himself in the forehead with his right forehoof and said, "Ugh! I should've thought of a better way to distract him! I should've just asked Derpy or somepony to deliver the cake and stuff instead of ditching Gallus to get it myself! I should've kept the food money separate from the games money! I should've-!"
"Oh, in the name of Ember, shimmer down, Captain Should've!" Smolder said as she flew over to her pony friend and pulled his forehoof away from his forehead and back down to the ground. "Don't beat yourself, or more specifically, your head up about this," Smolder said.
Silverstream held a claw up and said, "Although, for the record, I don't think having Gallus go chase a wild goose was a very good idea."
Sandbar and Smolder simply stared at her with blank expressions on their faces.
"No offense! Just a little constructive criticism," Silverstream said innocently and with a smile.
". . . Anyway," Smolder said, "The party should be ready before too long. Once Yona and Ocellus get here, we can get everything set up, and it'll all be worth it. The guy really deserves a decent birthday party, even if it is a pony-style one."
Sandbar grinned and said, "Heh. I'm not sure if Gallus could digest a dragon-style birthday party."
Smolder folded her arms and said with a grin, "Very funny. But telling jokes won't get this room decorated. Now, listen close, 'cause I'm only gonna explain this to you once: If you want a room to look cute, or I suppose festive in this case, you gotta understand complementary colors. . ."