//------------------------------// // Gallus x Thorax: Re-written // Story: 2G // by Bysen //------------------------------// Gallus woke up early. Which was doubly annoying since he’d stayed up late last night, making sure he wouldn’t get back before Ocellus had surely already gone to sleep. He had slept like a log though. Not much could stop him from doing so. Even emotional turmoil. What did make it a bit harder though was Sandbar pulling him into a spooning position at about 3am. And considering he’d done that from the couch on the other side of the [small] room made it even more impressive. Of course early was a relative term. On a school day, 9am is late. On a saturday, it’s VERY early. Getting out of his bed, he wiped the sleep drool from his face and he walked over to the chair Sandbar had gone to sleep on, now up-ended and laying on top of him instead. It had been the only way to keep him from moving around so much. He remembered pretty much everything instantly, no forgetting, even for just a moment as he woke up. His weird dreams about him huffing Ocellus’ farts really confused him. And the phrase ‘love-stink’ wouldn’t leave his mind. Just glad the Tree[house] of Harmony hadn’t decided that last night was the night it’d link their dreams again. That aside, he didn’t know what he was going to do today. He usually spent the weekends with his friends and while that was still possible, he wanted to avoid her at least until he’d been told if the cure would work or not and Twilight had said that wouldn’t be until later this afternoon. Back peddling on that would be bad writing. *poof* A letter appeared before him in a cloud of sparkling green dust/smoke. Obviously from Spike. Which raised the question: can Smolder do that too? Can all dragons? He grabbed the note with his talons and read. Gallus, Please come to the Headmare’s office at your earliest convenience. Principle Twilight Sparkle. Dictated not written. Gallus wondered if Twilight had said that last part or Spike was just being passive-aggressive. Both were equally likely. Nevertheless he crunched the letter up and through it over his shoulder, roughly towards the bin. It missed but it was in the right area so as far as he was concerned it wasn’t a mess so long as he picked it all up when taking the bin out. Which he hadn’t done for almost a fortnight now but that’s not the point. He opened the window and jumped out. His wings caught him and as he flapped a few times, he took off into the air. Twilight’s office was just over there and took him a matter of seconds to get to. She did however have something against students entering it through her window which made it a bit longer of a journey to get to, having to go inside the building and arrive at the door to her office that way. The door was open and inside he could see her sitting behind her desk and Thorax sitting in a seat just a bit too small for him in front of it. “Ah, Gallus. Please.” Twilight said and beckoned. She followed up with a motion towards the door. Gallus closed it behind him as he entered and quickly hopped onto a chair. Now, he’d thought he’d done so all smooth and cool-like but after last night he wasn’t sure if he’d pulled it off as he thought he had. “Thanks you for coming. It seems that I was wrong in assuming Thorax would reply immediately if it was as simple as taking the antidote. As it turns out, he doesn’t have a message spell to respond with. I kind of just assumed he did and, well…” “Gallus. It’s good to meet you.” “Uh… we’ve met.” “Oh, well, only ‘officially’. But, as a friend of Ocellus, I’d like to properly meet you.” “K…?” Gallus put out a claw for him to shake. Thorax took it and shook it. “So… does that mean I can just take the antidote and it’ll make this go away?” “Y-yes. It should. Probably. At the very least, I can assure you it’s safe for a gryphon to take. As Twilight was concerned about.” he wasn’t sure it would work and was sure it was safe because what it was was just water. Knowing that you where under the effect was usually enough to dispel it. Although, this had come up when he was first in talks to enroll Ocellus here so the batch Twilight had was water that had been sitting in a vial for over a year. “Should?” “Well, it’s not guaranteed effective. But it’s rarely not. And, well, this whole situation has brought up some questions that quite frankly, even as the new King of the Changelings, I don’t know the answer to. Both myself, and… femur? [wtf is his brother’s name?] had no idea it could affect anything other than a pony. Nor a femal-” he stopped. Twilight had told him about the two fillies who had been sent to her by Ocellus. But that was her business to be kept private and had nothing to do with Gallus’. Also, according to Twilight’s conclusion, the two cheerleaders hadn’t been affected by the pheradiction at all. Luckily, Ocellus had just been too innocent/naive to realise why they had wanted a Changeling to join them in their room that night. “Forgive me for asking, but… do you by any chance happen to have a pony in your ancestry?” “What?” “I mean, is one of your parents, or grandparents a pony?” “No, I know what you mean. But… what do you mean? I’m a gryphon!” he said a bit louder than necessary. Gallus wasn’t sure why but it felt like an accusation. Or maybe it was because “I don’t know. I’m an orphan.” “Oh. I uh… should I know what that means?” he leant over and half-whispered to Twilight. Gallus face-ed. “Well. You see…” Twilight began, doing her best to try and defuse the situation. She knew his parents weren't in the picture and that’s why Granpa Gruff was his guardian. And since Hearth’s Warming she’d also known Gallus didn’t exactly like his home life. “It means th-” “It means that I don’t have parents.” There was a long pause. Oddly, not awkward though. But what broke it made it so. “How is that possible?” asked Thorax. Gallus’ thought that had to be the dumbest question he’d ever heard. And Yona had asked him some doozies. From a cultural angel though he began to understand. Literally every Changeling knew their mother was Quinn Chrysalis. And that Thorax and Ocelosu where technically siblings. “No dude… I HAVE parents. They’re just gone. Or dead. Or… something like that.” he said with a mix of explaining and annoyance at having to explain that. It wasn’t until after he’d said it that he started to feel, well… shitty was the best way to describe it. Not sad, just, ‘ugh’ feeling. And that was reflected by his tone as he added. “I don’t know who they were or if they were blue. Or why I am. I just… am.” Twilight, trying to break the tension once more, which for some reason she hadn’t thought there would be at all, cut in with “You see Gallus, though the possibility hadn’t occurred to me, Thorax is asking because when a pony and a gryphon reproduce with one another, with either being the male or female they produce an offspring known as a hippogryph. Though, not the same type as Silver Stream. They’re called tha-” “Called that because they look like hippogryphs, yeah yeah I know that. I don’t look enough like a hippogryph to be one.” he said as if he’d known that for more than a single day. And it hadn’t even been quite that long yet. “That is true. But is it possible that perhaps only one of your parents was a hippogryph and the other a gryphon? That could explain there being nearly no difference between you and any other gryphon besides the colour of your feathers.” “I thought they couldn’t have a chick?” “Also true. Usually. But though improbable, not impossible.” Gallus had never questioned his parentage before. He’d just assumed they where two deadbeats who couldn’t handle raising a blue chick or they where dead. Granpa Gruff had, when asked, told him ‘They found you crawling around and nobody would claim you so everygryphon just decided that I was the one who had to take care of you. Now shut up and eat your grule you little ingrate.’ “If it’s improbable not impossible, isn’t it also possible that I’m just a gryphon who got affected by Ocellus'… “ he paused as his mind told him ‘don’t say love-stick don’t say love stink don’t say love stink’. “Romance… smell…” he cocked his head slightly and wondered if that was better or worse. “What even made you come up with that idea?” he said, suddenly realising how defencive he was being. If it was an addiction to whatever Ocellus’ thing was, maybe he was just coming off of it and strung out. “Well, I ran into another gryphon on the way here. We had a little chat to help me think things through and-” “Damn it Gilda. First Ocellus, now this… I swear if she’s right again-” and the words ‘Finish that threat, I dare you’ came to mind. And you know what? He was going to finish that threat. “I have to go talk to somegryphon.” and he stood, took off and flew out the window. Not quite as fast as the sentence made it sound but still with a modicum of speed. Evenough that Twilight’s words were ignored entirely. She asked aloud but not particularly directed at Thorax “Did he say ‘Gilda’? I need to contact Rainbow Dash.”