//------------------------------//
// Bonus Chapter 
// Story: The Washout Program (2e) 
// by AzuraKeres 
//------------------------------//

Lightning heard another knock on her door. It must be the griffon that finally gathered the courage to come to her office. “You can come in,” Lightning said.

Lighting was expecting to see an anxious griffon entering the room, but instead, a familiar blue griffon came instead. “Gallus? Why’re you here?”

“What? Do you not want your number one fan here?”

“You can’t just spout that out so proudly,” Lightning complained. “It’s just weird now.”

Lightning hasn’t seen much of Gallus since he became a royal guard of Princess Twilight. It was actually hard to watch him go after so many years of seeing him grow to become a creature she was proud to mentor.

“Every creature knows it,” Gallus chuckled as he took a seat before her. “Why bother hiding it?”

“I swear, every creature is coming from the woodworks today. So, why are you here? Let me guess, you just want to check on me?”

“Well, that and catching up with my friends. It’s really convenient that all of them would stick around here in Ponyville where I can see them all at once.”

“I’d bet.”

“So, how’s Smolder doing as your new number one assistant?”

“Yeesh Gallus, that was never a competition. Get over yourself.”

“Hey, she was in on it as well. But yeah, that kind of doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“Nah, I do kind of miss your awkward banter. You had a knack for making everything so weird.”

“I did?” Gallus perked. “My bad. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“It’s not like I didn’t hate it. I did say I missed it.”

“W-well,” Gallus started. “If you like, you could have again more often.”

“I don’t follow,” Lightning raised her brow.

Gallus took a deep breath and stepped back from the desk. “I...uh, I have another reason for being here actually. I honestly wanted to do this when I became an official royal guard, but I kept having cold claws to do it.”

“Well, spill it out already.” Lightning widened when he saw Gallus take a knee. “A-actually, maybe you should--”

But before she could finish, Gallus pulled out a box that he revealed to have a ring. His eyes peered at her with the most determination she has ever seen from him. “Lightning Dust, will you be my special somepony?”