“Dude… we met each other yesterday. Like, not even a full day ago. And you want me to go off on some wild adventure with you… because we’re friends all of a sudden?!” the gryphon said with obvious mockery. “Sure, why not? Name’s Gallus. You’re… Sandbar, right?” he said, breaking show canon for the sake of story flow.
“Dude! This is gonna be awesome!” Sandbar replied as he threw an arm over Gallus’ shoulder and pulled him in. He then waved his other hoof in front of them in an arc. “Where to dude?”
“Dude, let’s get the others and nearly destroy the school before it even open dude.”
“Dude!”
Dude…”
“Dude dude dude”
dUDE dood dudE”
Dude dUdE DuDe
“du-”
“STOP!!! Yona not think they say ‘dude’ that much.” Yona yelled, interrupting Silverstream’s recapping.
“My point is, they’ve always been close. And Gallus looked super upset with his ‘I’m sooo cool and not obviously upset at all’ look he was putting on when I saw them last night.” Silverstream did a flip and spin in the air, turning from having been flying backwards facing Yona to flying forwards along side her. “Besides, did he even know you had something special planned for him last night. Your ‘snu-snu’ thing, whatever that is.”
Yona blushed lightly and attempted to hide it behind her braids. Luckily, Silverstream was facing away from her now and wouldn’t see. “No. Yona not tell Sandbar. But why Silverstreram taking Yona to Sandbar’s room? Yona can make it by yakself.”
“Because that’s what friends do…” she said with a chuckle. “Also, because I’ve got nothing else to do today.” it wasn't too far to the colt’s dorm rooms but they did have some time to fill in and Silverstream was not one to walk in quiet. “You know, Gallus is kinda cute when he’s sad. Too bad he’s not like that all the time. Not that I want him to be sad or anything.” she dismissed herself with a wave of a claw. “Girl talk: who do you think is cute?”
“Uhh… we’re heading to Sandbar’s room, remember?”
“Oh! Right. Of course… you and him are a thing now.”
“What ‘thing’ are we?” the yak asked, giving Silverstream a sideways glance.
Silverstream, turned her head fully and answered “You two are dating aren’t you?”
“What ‘dating’? Like a calendar?” Yona had a tendency to not know ponish phrases but surely she knew that one. Maybe yaks called it something like ‘courting’ or even... ‘mating’.
“Oh you sweet summer child…” Silverstream said with cheer.
“Yona winter child. All yak winter child.”
“Ok.” Silverstream said flatly, ending this line of discussion knowing it was going nowhere. Besides, they’d arrived. Yona knocked on his door. Then knocked again. Then knocked it down… again. “Well I bet he’s awake now.” Silverstream followed Yona into the room. “Or… maybe not.” she followed up with. He wasn’t in there and the room was surprisingly tidy.
Turning around and bending over, Yona hooked one of her horns under the door and lifted it off the floor. The letter she’d slipped under it last night wasn’t there so he must’ve seen it. Though, maybe just telling somepony to be somewhere without checking if they had anything else planned first wasn’t exactly the best way to guarantee them coming when you asked.
Peeking her head out the door, along with Silverstream who put a nervous smile on her face before slowly pulling back into the room, Yona saw a number of other ponies head sticking out their own doors to see what the noise was. A few of them saw Yona and just rolled their eyes before going back to what they were doing. Some watched on and some began to leave the immediate area in quite a hurry.
“Who know where Sandbar is?!” she called to all who remained. About half of the onlookers pointed a hoof towards a room three doors down and on the other side of the hall. Gallus’ room. She began to bolt towards the door when about two or three steps [trots?] in she stopped. “Thank you.” she said politely and then immediately began towards the door once more. She knocked on the door. Hard.
Well she would’ve if Sandbar hadn’t opened the door at that exact moment. He’d been woken up by something loud followed by some muffled yelling coming from outside. He almost took a hoof to the face but realistically, that happening is impractical. I mean the logistics of not noticing and the one opening the door immediately walking to be close enough to where the door was to be hit just wasn’t a realistic scenario.
“Oh h-” he began before he got cut off.
“Where was Sandbar last night?”
“Uhh… well, I ran into Gallus and… I’m actually not sure why, but I just had to be around him last night.” Sandbar said as he stepped back into the room. He winced a bit as if he just hurt himself [physically] a little. “There was just something about the way he looked. I couldn’t help but want to be with him.”
Silverstream, under her breathe, muttered “Mood.” then chuckled just a tiny bit.
“That’s fine. Yona not upset at all.”
“Really? You’re not upset?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes. Yona just said that. Yona not upset at all.” Sandbar looked to Silverstream who just shrugged. Neither of them could tell if Yona was being passive aggressive or completely sincere. While she pretty much always seemed to wear her emotions on her coat, everything about the words ‘not unset at all’ set off red flags. Though Yona couldn’t actually see the colour red which also kinda muddled the metaphor.
“Well… I’ll make it up to you anyway!” he declared. “Why don’t I take both of yo-ough!” a sudden pain in the flank stabbed into him as he turned on the spot. “Ahh...!” he let out and took a few steps with a limb. “I must’ve slept wrong last night. Not that I did much sleeping with Gallus i-hhmmm…” he groin-wheezed cutting off his sentence.
“Are you hurt? Yona help!” Yona Yona’d as she hurriedly stepped over to him.
Even though they were in Gallus’ room, this was much more what they were expecting from Sandbar. Or really, from any messy boy’s room. Unmade bed, flipped over chair with cushions all around it. Table with three open books on it and a few scraps of paper in the bin which where the oddity as those few in the bin where well outnumber by those all around it. And a bag of half finished doritos [which Silverstream totally didn’t snatch 1 or 7 of]. And to top it off a saucy, borderline lewd, poster of some gryphon athlete hanging just slightly crooked on the wall. [it’s Natalia. Remember her? Continuity!]
“Gallus’ room is so much tidier than Yona room.”
“Wot?” Silverstream replied.
“Yona say 'Gallus’ room is so much tidier than Yona room'.”
“Thanks for the help Yona, but I’m fine.” Sandbar stood back upright and winced just a little. “Ugh… I’m gonna be walking crooked for days after last night.” and either Silverstream had a dirty mind or Sandbar was doing that on purpose. Yona was of course completely oblivious to any possible, intended or not, double meanings. “But it was worth it to make Gallus feel good. Huh… my jaw’s a little saw too.”
Silverstream saw the open window and flew out of it in a hurry. “I’m sorry, I’ve got something to do!” and she flew out and up, out of earshot and began to crack up laughing. She knew it was all just a misunderstanding on her part but the idea that Sandbar was cheating on Yona with Gallus was hilarious to her. Or it was until she phrased it like that. “Oh.” she stopped laughing immediately. “Well that’s not funny at all.”
She flew back down and into the window just as the door closed. From the other side she could hear “Yona could of swore Silverstream said she had nothing to do today.” with a tone she thought either sounded let down that another creature had ditched her after she thought they would be hanging out, or it was just muffled by the door.
A similar sounding “Don’t sweat it. Now we can spend the whole day together… until about 2. I gotta be at…” and it trailed off with distance before I had to figure out how that sentence ended. Pulling back from the door, she looked around. Silverstream knew it was rude to snoop around her friend's room but…
The first thing she looked at was the chair flipped over on the ground. A thought crossed her mind and dispite knowing how stupid it was, she followed through with it and tried sitting on the bottom of the chair. Oddly enough, the wooden strauts where not comfortable. After discovering that, she flipped it back rightsideup and placed the cushions back on it.
Second, she went over to his desk and had a look at all the papers. There was a textbook, a notebook and a scrap piece of paper as well as a letter from Principle Twilight. The one from this morning. Weird that she called it the headmare’s office but herself principle. Of course, not having a date on it, Silverstream didn’t assume he was from today and instead from one of the many other times he’d been called to her room for one thing or another.
Thirdly, and lastly, she lightly jumped onto his bed. “Oh wow… this is soooofffffft…!” she said aloud as she wriggled a bit and rolled onto her side. About to get off she noticed the poster. “That’s such an awkward pose.” which in her mind translated to ‘I’m gonna do that!’. From her side on the bed, she sat up and, with anything that might be displayed facing the wall, strut the pose.
Hind legs tall yet spread, tail lifted, wings flared and her torso flat against the pillow and bed. Her eyes almost even matching the direction as in the poster from her looking directly at it from where she… stood/lay. And as the ridiculousness of the pose set in she held back a laugh, letting out a little… whatever-the-word-for-laughing-through-your-nose-is as the smile on her face went face down into the pillow.
It then immediately came back up from it, smile gone, replaced with a grimace. “Ugh!” she groaned. “Why is it… moist?!” as she chucked the pillow onto the corner of the bed and flapped her wings, alofting [not a word, but I’m using it anyway] her from the mattress.
She looked over the rest of the bed for anything similar. Ideas of what it could be ran through her head. And probably because she had not been subconsciously, just not wanting to truly admit it, she had been doing all this to search for any sign that her earlier thought of Sandbar’s promiscuity was correct, all the rational ones didn’t seem to click.
Drooling on his pillow in his sleep? No, who does that...? Biting down on the pillow. Obviously. Or maybe it was… “Eww! And it was on my face!” as her mind uncontrollably went over all the positions two ponies and a pillow could be in to cause a splash zone there. “No. Sandbar wouldn’t do that to Yona. And Gallus wouldn’t let him! And… and even I don’t believe it myself.” she pouted.
She needed someone else to tell all this to and then have them tell her she was just being crazy. But who? Obviously Sandbar, Yona and Gallus where out of the question. Yona probably doesn’t even know what cheating meant and the boys would both deny it even though it was true. If! Even IF it was true. Smolder and Ocellus probably shouldn’t get dragged into this either.
“Hhhuuu… if only there was somepony at this school whose job it was to listen to students' problems. To council them. Or give them guidance. If only…” Silverstream sighed as she headed towards the window and jumped. “Oh. Right…” she said, catching herself with her wings moments before hitting the ground.
Some onlookers would attribute such feats normally to Pinkie Pie and her physics defying antics and comedic look of basically just coming to a complete stop milimetres before hitting the ground but it was much more of a Rainbow Dash move with how much skill such a flying maneuver took.
Of course with her concern of Sandbar having an affair, she didn’t even pay notice to Smolder’s notice of her leaving Gallus’ room hastily and moderately discretely compared to the front door so early in the morning.” Heh…” the dragon chuckled. “Lovebirds.” but that was drama for another time/side story.
Normally, this is roughly the point where I would usually end the chapter but that would mean that this side story would have to be multiple chapters. So this is just going to be a long one and whether it actually has any affect on the main plot or not, we’ll find out when Gallus and Gilda get back from Gryphistan.
Despite Starlight's office being nearly twice as far as the filly’s dorm was from the colt’s dorms, she made it in nearly a third the time that that had taken her. Flying was ofcourse faster but also Yona was slow. Being Saturday Starlight wasn’t in her office but she had that spell active at all times, even if Trixie disapproved. When Silverstream knocked on the door…
‘You’ve reached the office of the Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer. Unfortunately, I or anyone else within the faculty, am unavailable at the moment. If it is between... do I really have to read it verbatim? … … Yeah, I don’t really care about uniformity. I’m trying to get away from that kinda thing, remember? … … Why didn’t you stop recording then? … … Ugh… fine. Look, if it’s urgent, continue knocking and I’ll be there as soon as I reasonably can. Wait, what’s this about a fine? They’re students, they don’t have any mo-’
The audio cut off. Whether that was because Silverstream had started knocking and it overwrit the spell’s first function for its second, or they’d finally stopped the recording at that point. As Silverstream did so the door opened and she clocked Starlight in the face. Guess the logistics aligned this time. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” she said, covering her lower face with her claws then sheepishly reach out with one, pulled it back quickly, with a small second outreach and another pullback in the middle of it before repeating to slowly reach out fully this time.
“Ough!...” the mare groaned. “I-it’s alright. Come in.” she added, lowering her own hoof from her lower face and politely pulling away from Silverstreams claw coming to touch her by stepping back and ushering the student inside. She seemed jumpy. “So… this is actually urgant I take it.” trying to lighten the mood.
“I certainly hope it’s not.” answered Silverstream. She sat down on a chair and waited for Starlight to take her seat on the other side of the desk. Which she did so moderately faster than usual. “Ok. Sooo… hypothetically, if I knew a couple, no couple in particular, who were dating and that one of them may be cheating on the other with a friend of both of theirs who also is noone in particular, but also may want to keep that secret for reasons other than the cheating part should I tell the cheated on one about it without being sure, invade the other ones privacy [even more] and find out for sure before telling or not dig further and never know if its true or not and be a constant state of guilt knowing that I could’ve known more but didn’t do either of those things and so it’s not my fault that I didn’t tell if he does come out, no I didn’t mean ‘come out’ come out, I meant if it does all come out in the end and that I knew but didn’t do anything because I didn’t want to dig further and get more involved than I already am without anyone even knowing that I’m SUFFERING!”
“Wow… o...k.” Starlight said after getting blasted with words. She’d gotten parts of it and thought she might have an idea about who she was talking about. “Could you, go over that one more time. But instead, this time, try going a bit slower. Taking a moment to make individual sentences and… not just spit it all out in 10 seconds flat.” Starlight didn’t know why but she felt an odd cringe on those last words.
“I’m sorry. I’m just…”
“It’s alright. I understand something like this can be… stressful. That’s what I’m here for. To help you get through any social, emotional or even ethical problems you may have here at the school.” she said, all the while magicking a kettle and cups, pouring herself and Silverstream some tea. The filled cup floated over to Silverstream who took it, blew on it and then sipped. “Now, take your time and…” she motioned to go on.
Starlight wasn’t sure if that whole ‘knew a couple’ thing was about the seemingly obvious choice of Sandbar and Yona who everypony knew about or if it was a ‘asking for a friend’ moment and that Silverstream was dating somepony. Or somecreature. Or, not to assume baseless/mildly racist/mildly birdcist gossip going around the school was true, someGallus. But if what she’d heard yesterday and Gallus’ demeanor when she told him he’d heard was true, though it was the first she’d heard of it, that would explain the emphasis on ‘come out’ she thought she’d heard somewhere in that monster of a paragraph long sentences that this sentence was beginning to start to mimic and at this point was just kinda doing it intentionally by running on far longer that it rightfully should have by any rational means screw flanders screw flander screw flanders.
“Well, I have this friend. Two of them really. And they’re dating.”
“Yona and Sandbar? Or...”
“Uh… I’d rather not say.” Silverstream said. Then immediately backtracked “Oh, why hide it. Yes. It’s Sandbar… he’s… maybe, I’m not sure.” she paused. “Is it even any of my business?”
“It really all depends on if you feel like it is. Do you?”
“Well if I knew that I wouldn’t be here would I?”
“Fair point.” Starlight gave. “Alright, in my opinion, no, it’s not. And you shouldn’t tell Yona. At least if you don’t know for sure. Until then you have no responsibility to tell her. Not that I'm saying you should go looking for proof either. But if you find out he is cheating on her, that’s not on you either. He’s the one who did it. Not you. Unless you actively help them, you’re not responsible for anypony else’s actions.” she stopped and looked directly into Silverstream’s eyes after that to make sure she took in what she’d just said. “I do have one question. Is it Gallus?”
“How did you- I mean… pfft. Wot? No. no… noooo… yes. But how did you know?”
“I heard from the Cu- from somepony yesterday that Sandbar may have a crush on Gallus and that Gallus may be aware of it but is waiting for him to make the first move. I just can’t figure out why he’d ask Yona to the catilian if he liked Gallus. I completely dismissed the rumor because of that until I ran into Gallus yesterday he… I shouldn’t say more and have already said too much.” she said with a nervous smile.
“Well maybe Sandbar’s gay.”
“Well, yeah, obviously if he likes Gallus. IF.”
“I mean and wants to hide that so he covered up by starting something up with Yona.”
“Wait, ponies still cover up that they’re gay?” Starlight said in her blissfully peaceful life without struggle...
“Well, yeah, obviously. At least… hippogryphs do. Oh! Maybe ponies don’t [they do] but gryphons do and Sandbar’s covering for Gallus.”
“That seems like a bit of a stretch.”
“Got any more likely… word-that-means-things-that-could-be then?”
“Scenario. And yes. It could all simply just be a big misunderstanding and you should trust your friends to do the right thing.”
“Yeah… but when are things ever simple around here?” she asked with genuine annoyances at her own truth. “And just when I was starting to think Gallsu was cute too…”
“What?”
“Wot?”
“I thought I h-”
“I’m going to tell Yona. kthxbye.”
“That’s the opposite of what I said but sure… whatever.” Starlight sighed and levitated a flask up, pouring some of it into her cup and took a long sip of her tea. She then refilled the cup from the flask and repeated.
