"BE NICE TO THEM!"
Colours. So many colours. Pinks, blues, greens, and yellows moved around Gallus in a blur. His eyes were fixated on a set of photos, but his peripheral vision was like a carousel of hues as students rushed by. Just before leaving, he spent some bits to get some pictures taken with Grimheld. He hadn’t planned it, but when he realised there was only one more day of summer, the urge to take photos just took over. Grimheld scowling and pouting in every picture gave him chuckle. She thought it was such a waste of money. Every step of the way, she had some new complaint, but she came along all the same. She’d be fine without him, but there was a certain regret that he couldn’t convince her to go to school.
There was a sign beside the door as he made his way in. School Expansion Ceromony! Headed by Queen of Equestria Twilight Sparkle. Special Guests!. Starlight's first year as headmare and Twilight manages to snatch away the opening ceromony from her.
“Gallus!“ a familiar voice cheered. Before he could react, a pair of chitinous legs wrapped around him. He’d try to return the hug, but was more concerned with making sure nothing happened to his photos. “Oh I’ve missed you and Smolder so much! Everyone at the hive is so nice. I need your snark back in my life.” Ocellus gave him as hard a squeeze she could muster before letting go. For a moment, the two just enjoyed each other's smiles. Gallus’s simple and content; Ocellus’ shining with joy. “So how was your summer with Sandbar?”
Smile gone.“Oh, that. It uh, didn’t work out. The summer got kinda weird.” Gallus said. The two walked through the crowd trying to find a good spot to hear the upcoming announcements. Something about the crowd seemed off.
“Weird? Did something happen between you two?” The sound of buzzing droned in the background as Ocellus spoke.
“No, no. Nothing like that. It's just—“ The buzzing rang in his ears again like a fly just flew past. “Its.” Another buzz. “Hold on a second.” He turned away from ocellus and looked around the entrance hall properly for the first time. Changelings—so many changelings. At least ten. And hippogriffs too, In the corner, he could swear he saw a sliver of a silver dragon’s tail. As far as he knew, that was also a changeling. “Ocellus. Were you followed?”
“They tailed me, but I couldn’t shake them,” she said, her voice full of shame—before breaking into a snorting laugh. “Nooo. King Thorax decided since I was doing so well here that this year it was time to trust more changelings to enroll. I guess Queen Novo was on the same page. I've never seen so many hippogriffs!”
“I know! Isn’t it great?” cried a high-pitched cheer. Gallus and Ocellus were both pulled against a chest of pink feathers. “I mean I’ve seen this many hippogriffs before, of course, but I’ve never seen this many changelings! You’re all so pretty, Ocellus.”
She wasn’t wrong. all the changelings and hippogriffs were quite the sight, but something stood out. Try as he might, Gallus couldn’t see a single other griffon. In the air, in the back, up front—no griffons anywhere. He let out a disappointed grunt. At least being held against Silvestream’s chest was warm. Though… something felt oddly cold against his backside, and metal, and it kinda hurt.
“Let go for a second, I think your bags are poking the peck out of me.” Relinquished from Silver’s grasp, he finally got to take a good look at her, his eyes drawn to one thing. “Is that a freaking sword!?”
“Yeeeep. You like it?” Silverstream turned to show off the scabbard strapped to her left side. At the end of the scabbard was brilliant golden hilt. “Its cool right? I bet Smolder and Yona will love it. I’ve spent all summer doing navy training with dad. It was great! We had a mock ship battle! A real ship battle cause we got really confused. And I got to spar.”
“Whoa! We’re gonna get to cut stuff up with that, right?” Gallus said mimicking the swing of a baseball bat rather than a blade.
“A crossguard?” Ocellus said, eyeing the blade’s hilt. “Don’t Navys usually use swords with basket guards like sabres? A long sword seems a bit unusual.”
“Oh, you know sword stuff!”
“I’ve read a lot about warfare.”
“Oh we are going to have so much to talk about!” Silver stream squealed, fidgeting in the air. “So yeah, you're right. It would be totally weird for a navy to use long swords, but get this. Dad’s training me to become Skystar’s personal guard, so it’s more like I’m being trained to be a royal knight. I mean if I want to. No one's forcing it, but being able to hang out with my cousin all the time would be so cool. Anyway. He decided that meant I should get my sword special made. It's like, a royal sword. I’m just getting navy training cause ya know. Dad’s navy. Underwater kingdom.”
“Wait, hold up. You’re already thinking of careers like that? Wouldn’t being a princess's bodyguard be like, your whole life?” Gallus asked.
“Well, my life is dedicated to the royal family no matter what I do. It's just an option, really. I could do all sorts of things. But now every one of those things involve me being super cool cause I have a sword!” She cheered, with a powerful fist bump.
“Please don’t shout about weapons in a room full of creatures!” Sandbars called. After looking around they found that their pony friend was stuck in a crowd of students. They could barely see his head jumping above the crowd. The three waved to their comrade lost in a sea of bodies.
“Shouldn’t we help?” Ocellus stifled a snicker.
“No, this is funnier.” Gallus didn’t even try to hide his grin.
“Well see you soon, sandbar! Find smolder and Yona for us so they can see my sword!”
The last they saw of Sandbar a was him being carried away by a flock of hippogriffs who seemed very interested in him.
"He'll be fine," Gallus snickered "So, Ocellus what did you do all summer? I bet it wasn't as cool as Sergeant Silverstream overhere." On cue Silverstream performed a salute.
“Oh, nothing too special. I told everyling stories about the school. Helped king Thorax with hive plans. We visited the dragonlands to see Ember and I got to spend a few with Smolder.” she struggled not to giggle at smolder’s mention. “It was an okay summer. I’m more excited about this semester.”
“You would be.” Gallus gave her a light jab.
“See, that's the dry attitude I don’t get to enjoy in the hive. I’ve got a history-changing theory I’m working on. I’m really proud of it and I just can’t wait to start the research. Ponyville's the perfect place for it.”
“LOOK OUT!” Every creature jumped out of the way as a brown ball bowled through the entrance hall. It was barreling straight towards Gallus. In an instant, Silverstream jumped in front of him and stopped the ball with her bare claws. It pushed her back, but her stance was unwavering. Soon the ball lost its momentum and came to a stop.
“Hey, I know this brown ball!” Silverstream cheered.
“Y-yona is here.” Her head rolled around from how dizzy she was and her words were slurred. “Is Yona late? Yona no want to be late! Yaks always on time. Yona rush to be punctual!”
“Well, you are late.” Ocellus helped Yona from stumbling. “ Queen Twilight is late too. The semester commencement ceremony should have started at least five minutes ago.”
"Twilight late? Twilight never late." Yona said starting to tip to the right.
Ocellus darted to Yona’s other side and propped the yak up with her back. "I think it's because of all the new students. King Thorax came with us, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's causing a delay. He does tend to worry."
Yona gave the room a quick look. "Why no yaks?" Ocellus’ and Silverstream’s eyes snapped wide, caught completely off guard by the question. "Why no yaks? Why no Griffons?"
"Cause no griffon realises they can leave. I'm the smart one."
"Okay, but why no yaks? Yona demands answer!" Nearby creatures stumbled from the force of Yona's stomp. Just then, a piercing whine of a microphone brings every conversation to a screeching halt.
"Good morning every creature." Every Creature in attendance gave Twilight their own greeting back, but no one said the same one so it was like a garbled noise of general kindness. "I'm sure you've all noticed, but this year the changelings and hippogriffs have agreed to let more of their students join us. What you may not have noticed is that there's some new dragons here too, kirin, and few other creatures with us which I imagine most of you have never seen before. They may be in smaller number, but they are every bit as important to us. Every creature please give them a warm welcome." The room filled with claps and hoof stomps. "This year will be a really big change. As the new queen I want to open the heart of all of Equestria to every creature great and small. That starts here at this school. To accommodate our increasing student body, we've not only expanded the campus, but our staff. Even returning students it might feel like being at a brand new school. You can all share that experience together. Now, I would like to give the microphone to King Thorax and Dragon Lord Ember, who agreed to speak today."
Thorax tapped the microphone. "Hello every creature. I hope you’re all having a good morning." He spoke in a soft, nurturing tone. To the ponies in attendance, it reminded them of motherly way Celestia spoke to her own subjects. "We are honored to be accepted into Equestria. We were all so glad when Ocellus told us about the kindness and generosity you showed her." Everycreature stepped back, giving ocellus and her friends the spotlight.
Ocells blushed turning her blue complexion green."T-thank you all," she said, trying her hardest not to look toward the ground.
"Yes, our appreciation goes out to all of you, but I wouldn't be here to simply say thanks." Thorax's tone shifted. It was solemn yet hopeful. "We, the changelings, have talked about this at home. Many times. We understand that accepting one of us might be easy. That some of you may have barely noticed. Accepting one changeling isn't the same has having a class filled with us. You probably could walk on the streets without ever seeing one us last semester but now there will be so many that you’ll see us every day.”
“We understand that we can breed distrust by the mere nature of our existence. We can't force that to change, but if you feel the seed of distrust building in you talk to us. We have embraced communicating about our feelings.. Expression has become the cornerstone of our culture. We are open to discussion about us. Please don't feel the need to keep your fears to yourself." He paused for applause, though it was mixed with plenty of murmuring—as he expected. " and now I’d like to welcome my close friend Ember."
The slender, blue dragon grasped the mic as if it were prey. Some creature whose throat she could crush in an instant. "Ahem." Every creature was silent.
"BE NICE TO THEM!"
She seemed proud with her gift of words. Every dragon in attendance shouted fervent cheers. By the sound of it that meant about three or four dragons.With a nervous grin Twilight ushered ember away from the mic .
"Thank you. For your time, every creature. Have a great semester. Our new staff are so excited to meet you. Your premade, first-week schedules can be found at the front. If you don’t like your classes or end up with repeats, please fill your your own class schedule and submit them to Counselor Starlight. Your chosen schedules will go into effect next week.”
Gallus, Yona, Ocellus, and Silverstream all decided not to get in line. They found a wall to lean on and chat as they waited for the hall to empty out. Eventually, the room would be empty enough to spot Sandbar and Smolder. Sandbar came over with his hair full of seashells, and Smolder arrived with a small entourage of her own.
“Guys, it’s great to see you all again.” Sandbar went straight for the group hug, though he was particularly partial to Yona’s soft mass of fuzz. Smolder refrained, though watching the others made her grin.
“Those hippogriffs boys must have really liked you!” Silverstream couldn’t stop chuckling. Every time her eyes went back to the seashells, she lost even more control of her giggling.
“Wh-what makes you say that?” Sandbar asked with the most oblivious puppy face.
“Sup nerds, guess who got stuck with babysitting?” Smolder approached with two dragon s trailing behind her. A small, green one about spike’s size, and a slender, silver dragon boy about Smolder’s height, but much thinner.
“I can go on my own ya know,” the silver one said. He folded his arms and grit his teeth, averting his gaze to avoid ever quite meeting any creature’s eyes.
“Ember told me to keep track of you, so you’re sticking with me whether you like it or not, and I don’t even like it.” Smolder let out a heavy sigh. “The silver punk’s name is Pierce; the short one is Cleave.” Cleave simply waved. She didn’t talk, but compared to Pierce who was using his tail as a wall between himself and the others she was downright the friendliest creature in the world. “I think Ember just chose the two least-aggressive dragons she could find and stuck ‘em with me. I was coaching these two all summer.”
“You didn’t even coach us on friendship!”
“I coached you on what living in Ponyville is like. I’m not doing my professor’s job for them.” The lot of them got to chatting after they all silently agreed to be the last creatures to get their schedules. Pierce had his protests, but Smolder kept assuring “We’ll get to it.” Once every other creature had gotten their schedules and they were all alone, they made a move.
“It sounds like everyone had a great summer.” Despite the cheer, Ocellus looked concerned. “Except maybe one of us. Gallus, Sandbar. What exactly happened to spending vacation together?” The others voiced their equal concern of the matter and suddenly all eyes where on the two of them. Gallus tried to maintain his smile, but could feel himself backpedaling away from the situation. His lion’s feet taking slow, careful steps backwards. “Hm, well would you fill us in, Sandbar.” The two boys exchanged looks. Sandbar seemed fine but he could see the shake in Gallus’ eyes. Guilt.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t be talking about it until Gallus wants to.” Sandbar trotted through the others and snatched up a schedule without looking. “And I refuse to be interrogated about it.” Just like that, he left. Gallus followed Sandbar’s lead before Ocellus could continue her questioning.
“Thanks for the save.”
“No problem, but they’ll find out eventually, and really, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I know.”
“You’d feel better about yourself if you talked about these things, ya know?”
“Don’t spout friendship 101 at me like I don’t know. Its not that easy, okay. Anyway, I’m sorry for cutting our vacation short.”
“I get it. It sucked, but I get it. You don’t have to apologize to me because I feel the same thing.I want to talk about it so I hope you feel up to soon. Then we can get this off both our chests, I hope you do soon. Now lets see what our first class is.” The two of them opened up their scheduels together and couldn't believe their eyes.
“What in the world.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Our first class is Self-defence!?”
--------------------------------------------------------
“I have concerns.”
“And I’m on the fence.”
“Cause we’re not ready for self defence!” Two ponies cried their cheer of fear. They sat clinging to each other on the buckball bleachers, surrounded by their classmates Class had just started and ponies had plenty of concerns to express. The loudest, and most poetic, of which where two mares Gallus recognized as the cheer ponies. They pleaded with the professor—a large, imposing Hippogriff.
He had introduced himself as General Horizon, an introduction he made by cutting his name into the dirt. He had a dark aqua hue like the ocean in summer. Despite his stature towering well above the average pony, he had a calm and warming smile. That smile shared its face with a mighty scar on his right cheek. For most ponies, he was a befuddling blend of friendly and terrifying.
The semester had only been active for about half an hour, and things were already weird. There was a non-pony professor for one. That, Gallus probably could have expected to happen eventually, but it's still a bit of a surprise. Then there were the ponies desperately arguing with the professor to not have the class at all. Of course, there's the fact that there's a self-defence class at all at the school of friendship. That one is still giving his brain a serious mental whiplash. All that was new, but one thing stood out above all of it. Silverstream was standing right beside the professor.
“Please understand,” the professor bellowed!
“We believe in your might!” Silverstream sang!
“Defending friendship means you must fight!” The two cheered in unison!
Silverstream mentioned right before class that the professor was her uncle, but Gallus didn’t think that meant she’d help teach it. Besides that, they both had swords strapped to their sides, so that was apparently just going to fly around here now.
“But why? I thought friendship was all about stopping fights and being nice!” One of the cheermares said, clutching her friend close.
“You’re absolutely correct, but let me ask you this. What do you do when a villain won’t listen to being nice?”
The other cheer girl responded, choking back tears. “Show understanding and sympathy ‘til they understand they wanted friends all along?”
“And what do you do if they don’t understand?” The general had a proud smile, as if he knew where he was going.
“We usually just cower and wait for Twilight and the elements to fix it.” The ponies attending echoed their sentiment.
“Exactly! Do you all want to be subject to the good fortune of whether or not a hero can come to save you? You can’t spread friendship if you are not willing to fight its dissenters when necessary!”
The ponies nodded in understanding, but their faces were still clearly terrified about learning to fight. The few changeling and hippogriff students weren't phased at all by the idea. In fact, they were in utter confusion of just how afraid the ponies were, mumbling things like “Aren't ponies the ones who beat us?” and “Ponies like these saved us?”
In just one class, Gallus was noticing differences between ponies and other cultures that never came up when there was only one changeling or one hippogriff.
“What's so scary?” Sandbar stood up and pointed a hoof over his pony classmates “I’d hate to be the one to call you all out, but, when Cozy Glow was in charge, you weren’t afraid to hurt us!” With that, he put a hoof around Gallus’ shoulder. The returning students among them went quiet. They looked away or mumbled to themselves.
The cheer ponies stuck up their noses.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“You’re just being mean!”
“A self defence class is plainly obscene!”
Sandbar’s mouth creased. A hot breath blew through his nostrils. Not willing to argue, and not up for a speech, he simply raised his hoof. “Professor, I’m willing to help demonstrate anything you want to teach.”
“Aha! fantastic. I’m relieved there's true pony of heart in attendance. Please come down, young stallion. It’ll be an honour to have Silverstream demonstrate with you.” Silverstream shot him two thumbs up. “We delay no longer. For the scared amongst, you I trust that you will at least pay attention to learn even if you don’t participate.”
The class went on, with the professor going over the basics of combat sambo. He’d have Silverstream demonstrate a move on Sandbar, who’d put on a brave face and let come what may. Then he’d have every creature come down and practice on dummies before voluntarily practicing on each other. The changelings and hippogriffs where happy to try, but at least half the ponies sat out when it came to practicing on each other. Once class was actually happening, the time just flew by, except maybe for Sandbar. He spent a lot of it on the ground.
------------------------
After hitting the showers, the three had some time before their next class. Gallus and Sandbar were content to listen to Silverstream go on about how fun teaching was, and all the marvels of sambo. Sandbar walked with a limp, but he grinned and bore it.
They hailed Ocellus after spotting her with her face stuck in a book. She buzzed over and noticed Sandbar’s limp in an instant. “Did you all have self-defence class?”
The three of them gave an affirmative “Mhmm.”“Don’t you think it's a bit strange to have one?”
“Not at all!” Silverstream chirped. Her reply was practically instant.
“Same. Our professors had to fight plenty of times to save Equestria. If we’re ever supposed to be like them, it only makes sense we should learn how to fight. There's nothing weird about it.”
“I think its weird,” Gallus said flatly.
“What, you too?” Sanbar raised a brow.
“Yeah, kinda. Think about last year—they glossed over any mention of fighting as fast as they could. All the classes were about stuff like history, friendship and embodying the elements.
If there was fighting involved, I would have paid way more attention. So yeah, it's a little weird when self-defence is a class we’re taking out of nowhere.”
“They didn’t have anyone to teach it then. So what?”
“So, there's more to it than that.” Ocellus whipped out her schedule, as well as notebook paper with other schedules written on them. ”I looked at Yona, Smolder, and her dragon friends schedules too. Every creature has a morning self-defence class somewhere in their week. Don’t you think that's a bit suspicious, Sandbar? Just a little strange that every creature has this one class? The most out-of-place class.”
Sandbar stopped on the spot. His eyes shifting left to right as if he was reading an invisible paper. Just as he raised his hoof to respond, Silverstream shouted over him.
“It’s on all our schedules because it's important for every creature! Friendship may keep every creature nice, happy, and connected, but being willing to fight is the only way to protect any of that. If our professors didn’t fight the Storm King, I’d still be stuck underwater, and Equestria would be in cages!”
Sandbar followed up. “Silverstream is right. Artifacts like The Elements might save the day in the end a lot of the time, but they wouldn’t mean anything if some creature wasn’t willing to put their hooves down first!” He ended his point with a stomp.
Gallus breathed a heavy sigh. “Guys, cut it out. This isn’t worth getting loud over.”
“No, its fine. I understand that this is a close subject for some of us. Silverstream, your logic is reasonable. I just think that, if that was why, Twilight would have said it. This whole thing is coming off as unusually under-hoofed.” Ocellus withdrew into another hallway with her head hung low. “I’m going to go. I’m sorry for hitting such a close nerve.”
Gallus shot Sandbar and Silverstream a stern look. “You two have to chill. She had a point.”
“What! She’s the one thats not chill! We’re just trying to help every creature be prepared. I’m going to class. Bye!” She huffed, and flew off.
“I’m going to go apologize. Catch ya later?”
“Yeah sure.” Gallus let out a deep sigh. He wondered if he had entered another dimension where everything was the same, but just different enough to be a problem. With that, he attended his other four classes for the day. They seemed normal. He had his normal professors with normal lessons, and having more hippogriffs and changelings seemed kinda normal.
Maybe it was a bad start to the day after all. He just had one more class and he’d be free to hang out with his friends. Assuming that Ocellus and Silverstream weren’t going to draw blades on each other the next time he saw them. His eyes rolled down the schedule to the last class of the day.
Kindness: Fluttershy : 3PM
“Crap.”
----------------------------
Gallus sunk into his seat. He had banished himself into the furthest corner of the room. Just him and the window. The professor wasn’t here yet. It should be relieving, but every second she took made him grow more restless. His talons scratched his skin, and his toes rapped on the floor enough to dig a groove. Then there was a loud thump that snapped him into sitting up straight.
“Gallus okay?” Yona had sat down beside him. “Gallus look nervous and it only first day.”
He was silent.
She leaned closer, but he turned to to have a silent conversation with the window.
“Yona get smolder? Would be better?”
“Already here.” Smolder dropped into the seat in front of Gallus’, kicked back, and popped open a magazine.
“Well? Smolder going to help?”
“I am helping. Hey, check this out.” She unfolds the magazine towards Gallus, opening it up to a picture of some haughty celebrity tripping into another, and knocking down a whole row of them like dominoes. Gallus tilted his head as little as possible to catch a glimpse of it and let out a quiet chuckle. “See, helping. Just let him be. It's not always time to talk.”
“Yona still concerned, but Yona will trust Smolder.”
A moment later, there was a click as the door opened. The students stopped their murmuring as Fluttershy trotted to the chalkboard, her hair covering her face.
“Hm. They didn’t arrange this room like I wanted.” She took a piece of chalk into her mouth and turned to write her name on the board.
“Now, would every creature mind putting their seats in a circle?” Half the class burst into gasps and concerned cries.
“What happened!”
“Are you okay!”
“Miss Fluttershy you look so cool”
Smolder immediately sat up—eyes wide, mouth agape, and tail thumping the floor. “Whoa! When did Fluttershy become a pirate? Nice patch, Professor!”
Gallus clutched his talon to his face. Just the sight of Fluttershy sent his body through a whirlwind of discomfort. His head felt light, like he’d leave his own body at any moment. His gut was doing flips, and his heart? He wasn’t sure if his chest felt tight or if it felt empty, but, whatever it was, it made him want to die. His body curled inch by inch. He sunk deeper into his seat. Yona gave him a glance and made a single ‘hmm’ before turning away from him.
The students assembled their seats in a circle like they were asked. The class was still full of questions and gossip. The old students made sure to inform the new ones about just what was going on. Yona took the liberty of lifting Gallus to the edge of the circle and sat next to him silently. Smolder had moved herself to the front and was bouncing in her seat.
“Come on, you gotta tell us! What happened?!” The class echoed her request with varying degrees of excitement and concern.
“I will. Please settle down.” Fluttershy placed a well-decorated and clearly home-stitched pillow into the center of the ring before sitting down. “I don’t know how many of you heard about it, but there was a magical accident over the summer. The other professors and I where looking at something and there was a sudden explosion.” As she spoke, Fluttershy’s gaze had turned to Gallus. Her smile nearly curled into the most distraught frown, but she covered it by taking a deep breath before smiling again. “Twilight covered most of us in a shield, but I left to keep a nearby pegasus out of danger.” She caught Gallus moving his claw away from his eyes. “You see, there were a lot of really dangerous rocks. They turn into really teeny tiny shards that can really hurt. So went to save them. Then one of the shards, well—you can see what it did.”
The class roared with applause. Claps, hoof stomps, and plenty of praise for her heroics. “I’m so thankful, every creature, but please—there's no need to congratulate me. I was just helping. It's what we do.” She checked on Gallus again. He was sitting up now at least. His forelegs have been simply hang by his sides as he stared at her, but it was something of an improvement. At least, she’d like to consider it an improvement. She went on to teach the class as normal. She’d introduce the students to a small animal. Politely asked the changelings students to imitate different creatures, which they did with glee. Though, whenever she could, she’d sneak a glance at Gallus.
It felt like forever for both of them, but the class eventually ended. Students dispersed, happily chatting with each other.
“Gallus,” Fluttershy called in her soft, motherly voice. “Would you talk to me for a moment?”
He looked toward Yona and Smolder before they left. Smolder gave a simple wave before heading off. Yona stared back a moment longer. She looked him in the eye with an expression that wasn’t quite a frown. It was more empathetic than frown.
“Yona understand,” she said in a delicate tone nodding before departing.
“Ugh. She knows.” Gallus moaned as he threw his head into his palms.
“She’s a good friend to have know it, though.” Fluttershy put a hoof on Gallus shoulders. “Do you want to talk to me?”
“No.”
“I see. I don’t know if it’ll make you feel better, but I’ve told the story six times today and I made sure to never even mention a griffon.”
“Why?”
“Because I want the best for you, of course. When I heard you left back to Griffonstone, I understood. So I just want you to know that it’s not your fault, and we don’t have to talk about it anymore than that.”
Gallus nodded, still not looking at her. She didn’t expect him to, either.
“I do have something for you, though.” Fluttershy pulled something shimmering from her bag. “This is yours.”
He lifted his face from the prison of his talons to see bright, glistening crystals. They were roughly cylindrical in shape, though they had been cut to have fine edges. “I don’t understand. What is this?”
“It's your treasure. Twilight promised, remember? Rarity had them cut for you.” As she spoke, she trotted past him to the door. “And before you even think about it, I'm not letting you hand them back. They’re yours.”
He looked her in the face, and she bared the softest, gentlest smile. He understood it was gesture of that he should get over it, but it just made his gut retch harder. “Please don’t hurt yourself over this. I help creatures. It’s what I do.”
He sat there alone with the crystals, staring at his own reflection in them. His pitiful face stared back, multiplied by the crystal’s surfaces. So many weak Galluses.
What are you doing? Everyone can see your face. You sad loser. Are you losing? What game are you playing? What you caused isn’t a game. Somepony got hurt, and now you’re busy feeling sorry about it. You’re making your friends upset. You’re making yourself upset.
But how can she be so forgiving? Its my fault. If I wasn’t there, she wouldn’t be hurt. I don’t deserve this. I was selfish.
Jeez, do you ever get over yourself? You already know you suck. She forgives you ‘cause she doesn’t suck. She has that special thing that you don’t. Isn’t that why you were there? You wanted that special thing. Well you didn’t get it. Somecreature got hurt. Get over it or die already
He let out a grunt. The face in the crystals became determined for at least a moment before it shifted to resignation. His real face still wasn’t what he’d want. There was just no way to feel good about this, but he didn’t have to wear his real face. “I’ll do something. Somehow.” The army of determined reflections returned.
After asking around if any creature’s seen a yak, dragon, pony, changeling, and hippogriff hanging around, he learned his friends where in something called an anger management room. Apparently, there were now rooms dedicated to just shouting. He couldn’t help but imagine that Ocellus and Silverstream could be trying to kill each other after this morning. At least they both had the decency to use a room dedicated to doing it.
Unfortunately, Twilight didn’t have the decency to make it closer. The anger management rooms were in a new building entirely dedicated to emotions and art. Worse—it was on the third floor of that building. Even worse—the section dedicated to anger had no windows, so he couldn’t just fly in. Maybe Twilight had hoped that, by the time any creature even made it to an anger room, they wouldn’t even have the energy to be angry anymore. He encountered two dragons he recognized as Smolder’s cargo, and they pointed him to the right room.
“Ya know, I think I’ve had just about enough of this, Ocellus. All you’ve done is question everything since you got here!” Sandbar was stood on a chair and was nearly screaming so he could still look the flying changeling in the eyes. Smolder was flying around him and spitting pure venom from her mouth, and Silverstream was screeching her words from some sort faux branch.
The floor was made to resemble grass. The flowers were aromatic enough that Gallus feared he’d develop allergies he never had. The chairs resembled tree stumps. Overall, it was like an indoor meadow.
He couldn’t help but feel his friends were using the room wrong. He’d later learn that each anger room was in an entirely different style to handle different methods of anger de-escalation. One was covered in heavy-metal imagery, and Gallus intended to use it often.
He approached Yona, who was hanging by the door. “What's going on?”
“Ocellus questioned Silversteam sword. Then Sandbar get mad at Ocellus ‘constant suspicions.’ Then Smolder threaten Sandbar for yelling at Ocellus. Yona bring friends here to not hurt each other. Yona think that still happen.”
“And what are you doing?” Gallus asked, his eyes still fixated on his bickering friends.
“Yona is watching. Taking Smolder idea. Gallus can fix this.”
Gallus sighed. “Yeah, I know. Just let me prepare myself.”
“Keep yelling at her, and I just might decide I don’t mind burning this building down!” Smolder snarled, with smoke coming out of her nostrils.
Sandbar lowered his voice, feigning calmness, but the aggression in his tone was clear. “I don’t want to yell at her, but she has been badgering every creature all day. Her attitude needs an adjustment.”
“My attitude needs an adjustment!” Ocellus spat. “You’re getting defensive for a school! I bring up a few reasonable questions about how things are going, and you’re up to bat for Twilight in a second. Why don’t I get that courtesy!”
“What reasonable arguments?”
“Why does Silverstream get to carry a lethal weapon around, for one. I thought she would just take it to her room so it would be fine, but she’s been carrying it around all day. What sort of school lets a student carry a real blade!”
“She’s royalty. They get special privileges. And it's not just the school you’re questioning. You’re questioning your friends. You’re questioning Silverstream right now! Aren't you supposed to trust her?”
“You and I both know Twilight doesn’t operate like that!” Ocellus’s voice was starting to get raspy. Like her throat couldn’t handle much more of this. “Silverstream’s never got a single special accommodation before. Why now?”
Silverstream clutched her scabbard. “It’s for teaching self-defence class. Me and my uncle both have swords! Why is this such a problem for you! I thought you liked it!”
Ocellus belted out a shrill scream. “I spoke to every creature who went to Self-defence today, and it didn’t involve a single weapon. You didn’t need a sword!” She pointed her hoof at Silverstream as if it could kill. “You’re lying to me! Gallus is keeping secrets from us!” She thrusts her hoof towards Sandbar. “And you are covering for everyone! And you both think I’m unreasonable! I can show you unreasonable!” Green flames wrapped around Ocellus.
“That's my cue.” Gallus rushed forward and reached into the flames. They disappeared, and Ocellus was still there in her normal form. He could feel how heavily she was breathing. “Ocellus, I’m ready to talk now.”
Her breathing slowed and the two of them descended onto the ground. “I’m listening.” Ocellus spoke as if nothing had happened. She looked almost completely neutral, like all that anger had just been swallowed up. It was terrifying in a strange way.
Sandbar climbed off the chair and sat next to Gallus. He gave a nod of encouragement. The wells of his eyes were soaking wet, but the rest of his face was dry.
“Well first of all, I think you’re all horribly misusing the anger management room.” He said with a chuckle, though his face was dripping with sweat. “Okay, so where do I start?”