“Come in!” the voice shouted from the other side of the door.
Gallus pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside, watching the pink unicorn put away different documents in the drawers beneath her desk. On the left and right of the counselor was a shelf filled with stacks of papers. Complaints, registration documents, legal fees...Gallus assumed that the papers could be a bunch of things.
“Hey, is now a bad time?” Gallus asked, internally kicking himself for the dumb question.
“No, not at all,” the unicorn grinned. “Could you put the closed sign on the doorknob outside though? You’ll be my last student for the day.”
I came just in time.
Gallus flew outside the door, gently placing the sign on the doorknob, before going back into the guidance counselor’s office.
“I don’t think I ever got your name,” Gallus admitted, landing on the seat in front of her desk and gently tucking his wings in.
“It’s Starlight Glimmer,” the unicorn extended her hoof. “And your name is Gallus, right?”
“Right, surprised you remembered that with all the other students’ names,” Gallus admitted.
“Well, you’re the only griffon student, so it was easy to remember,” Starlight smiled. “What can I help you with?”
“I…” his vision wobbled as he stared at his talons sinking into the chair’s cushion. “This school wasn’t what I thought it was.”
“Hmm.” Starlight responded. “So I’ve been told.”
“And for these ponies, and most of the other creatures there, it’s not much of a loss,” Gallus admitted. “The other non-ponies can go back where they came from, and it’ll just be a blimp in their past.”
“What are you getting at?” Starlight asked.
“I can’t go back to where I came from,” Gallus confessed. “Grandpa Gruff picked me off the streets cause my father hit me, and I stayed with this former friend of mine. And s-she t-t-took advantage-”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Starlight’s voice softened as she nudged the box of tissues in his direction. “Well, not what happened to you, but everything is confidential here. It’ll stay between you and me.”
“Should it though?” Gallus blurted out. “Cause what if this school gets shut down, or I fail? Every creature, including me, would be sent back to where they came from right?”
“The school isn’t going to be shut down, not when Twilight is following the rules at every step,” Starlight shrugged. “And it’s friendship! If your heart’s in it, you’re not going to fail at the School of Friendship.”
“Then why the textbooks?” Gallus asked. “Isn’t friendship a lot more personal? Why aren’t we doing group activities inside or outside the school?”
Starlight opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out.
“F-Forget it, I’m just saying that my family isn’t here for me like I wish they’d be,” Gallus sighed. “I need a failproof plan to fall back on if this all goes to shit, that’s all I’m saying. I can’t go back to Griffonstone.”
“Y’know, I’ve heard this kind of thing has happened before,” Starlight admitted. “Recently, actually. Cranky and Matilda Donkey adopted a male kirin a few months ago. At the Kirin Grove, the females outnumber the males from nine to one. So when this kirin was growing up, the kirin ladies around him were a bit...forceful.”
“Did they hurt him?” Gallus asked.
“In a way,” Starlight elaborated. “They wouldn’t hit him or scratch him, but they’d flirt with him all the time. They would brush up against him during their heat cycles, but he told his mother that he didn’t feel anything.”
“His mother wouldn’t have any of it, and she set him up to be married to three different kirin. Cause the male kirin have harems to even out the numbers,” Starlight explained. “Autumn Blaze was shocked, and took him to Ponyville on a train. On the train ride, he told Autumn that he was gay.”
“This is really embarrassing, but no one’s ever told me what that word meant,” Gallus frowned.
“Gay? It’s like when a guy wants to love another guy in a sexual sense, similar to how guys like girls,” Starlight replied. “Same with a girl loving another girl, although they usually use the term ‘lesbian’ for that. It may not be like this in other lands, but the vast majority of ponies in Equestria aren’t straight. There’s a whole spectrum out here, a rainbow of some sorts.”
“Here,” Starlight walked behind the shelf on her left and levitated a thick rainbow-colored book. “Most creatures only recognize those two terms, but there’s dozens of different terms identified over the years. Some ponies, such as myself, choose not to meddle with the complicated labels used for the sexual spectrum.”
“Why’s that?” Gallus asked.
“I think labels for sexuality are silly,” Starlight shrugged. “I love my marefriend, and that’s it. There doesn’t need to be a label for how I feel.”
Gallus barely heard her, taking in the lengthy paragraphs about one of the most popular potions in Equestria: the Futa Potion. With its contents, it can give a pony both the parts of a mare and a stallion. Then there was another paragraph about magically combining the eggs of two mares, and placing the embryo inside one of the two mares.
“How do two guys have a kid?” Gallus asked. “Does the stallion keep using the potion until they give birth or something?”
“I think so, there’s a different subtype of Futa Potion for that,” Starlight answered.
“How is this kirin doing now? Is he okay?” Gallus asked, lifting his head from the book.
“Oh! Yes, he’s adjusting quite well with the Donkeys,” Starlight smiled. “Autumn wouldn’t have realized that the kirins’ behavior was abnormal had it not been for Applejack and Fluttershy. They taught her that while their traditions are valuable, consent is even more so.”
Even though Gallus didn’t understand what the word consent quite meant, a more pressing question was in the back of his mind.
“So what you’re saying is, I have to be ‘adopted’ by Ponyville citizens to stay here?” Gallus asked. “What does that word even mean?”
“It means when creatures officially take you in as part of their family,” Starlight said. “This kirin is the son of Cranky and Matilda cause they made it so.”
Gallus felt bubbles of happiness from his head down to the tips of his toes. Any creature could be family! It didn’t have to be the family from back in Griffonstone, but…
“How do I find somepony to adopt me?” Gallus asked.
“Um…” Starlight frowned, puzzled. “Well, you don’t need to worry about that at the moment. You have a dorm room here, where nopony will take it away from you.”
She doesn't know that.
"Thanks for telling me," Gallus managed to smile. "Just, if anything happens to the School or m-my grades, you know where to find me."
"Gallus," Starlight put the griffon's talon in her hooves. "Twilight won't let you go back to a place that'll hurt you. If anything dire happens, I'll tell her. Okay?"
"Okay," Gallus sighed a breath of relief. Twilight was not a pony he was fond of at the moment, but he wasn't planning on being picky. "I guess I'll turn in for the night then. Thank you, Starlight."
"No problem, come here if you need anything. No matter what it is," Starlight got up from her desk and hugged Gallus. "Okay?"
"Yeah, of course." Gallus returned the hug briefly, before flying out the door.
Starlight stepped behind her desk, gently levitating a picture from the shelf on her right. It was a picture of Cranky and Matilda, with their dark brown kirin son.
"Adoption…" Starlight whispered curiously to herself.