//------------------------------//
// Breakfast in the Castle 
// Story: Guardians of Friendship 
// by James Pwyll 
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Gallus had slept well in his new room in the castle, and though the first inklings of sunlight were starting to creep in through his curtains, this had no effect on the slumbering Griffon. He was utterly at peace, looking more restful and comfortable than anycreature had ever been before. Unfortunately, per the rules of the universe, such a pleasant sleep could not go uninterrupted forever, and so, after turning over onto his other side, the youth was rapidly woken by the sound of his bedroom door slamming open, revealing a happy and excited Silverstream on the other side. "Gooooooooood morning, Gallus!"

Now, while Silverstream herself may have been a devout morning person, in fact it would have seemed the height of wrongness if a Hippogriff like her wasn't, Gallus, sadly, could not also consider himself as such. And so, after letting out a groan that a patchwork monster on a lightning-struck table could be proud of, he looked to his pink friend with utterly bloodshot eyes. One look at her made it clear to him that she wasn't getting the message, and so, after scratching the side of his neck, he finally spoke, his words slow and ponderous. "Silver...you are my friend. I like and respect you a great deal. But in the name of King Grover, may he rest in peace, please don't try to wake me up like that every single morning!"

Silverstream at least had the sense to blush to her friend's words, and her tone was similarly apologetic. "I'm sorry, but...I just can't help it! This is our first night in the Friendship Castle together! Our first morning here! Our first day of patrol here and..."

Gallus halted her with a raised claw. "Yes, yes, I get it. Big day, very important, huge milestone in our young lives and all the rest of it." He paused, just in time to let out the mother of all yawns, before starting to slowly inch himself out of bed. "But would it have hurt to just wait for a better time to come and wake me? I mean, you wouldn't have started with somecreature else first?"

Silverstream looked to the side, blinking a couple of times, before blushing again as she looked to Gallus. "Well...I kinda did...but she was even less happy than you, so I figured, maybe second time's the charm?" After seeing the unamused and deadpan look Gallus was giving her, the Hippogriff Princess sighed. "I'll...just get breakfast ready, okay?"

Gallus watched her go, and it was only moments later when he heard the sound of footsteps in her wake, causing him to turn in the direction of his door once more. There, and looking even more of a wreck than him right now, was Smolder, shambling along with dark bags under her eyes. So groggy was she that, when she finally looked to Gallus, her neck damn-near sounded like it was creaking, much to the Griffon's slight amusement. "So...good night?" A snort of smoke from Smolder's nostrils was his answer, prompting a gulp on his part. "Right, sorry." As Smolder finally passed his door, Gallus unleashed another yawn and slowly started to, at last, get out of bed. The effort was great, and after giving himself a stretch he began to shamble his way out into the hallway. And it was here where he nearly ran into Ocellus, who looked just as peppy and eager as Silverstream, much to Gallus' slight irritation. "Morning, Celly."

The young Changeling beamed happily to her feathered friend. "And to you, Gallus! I was up all night doing research on past friendship missions, and you wouldn't believe how many working theories I've come up with to help us try and locate possible civic disturbances for our new quest!"

Gallus rolled his eyes. "Knowing you, Celly, I would absolutely believe it."

Not picking up on his sarcasm, Ocellus continued to charge down the hallway, and as Gallus followed after her, though nowhere near at the same pace, he passed by Sandbar's room just as the latter was leaving it. The stallion had a yawn of his own, though he at least was willing to smile as Gallus looked to him. "Morning. You get a taste of Silver's early morning vibes too?"

Gallus grumbled. "Gee, what gave it away?"

Sandbar chuckled. "Well, at least we're all having breakfast together. That's pretty neat, right?"

And right at that moment was when a rather obvious thought finally wormed its way into the forefront of Gallus' mind. "Wait...did any of us even get groceries? Or Did Princess Twilight just not empty out her pantry before she left?"

Sandbar laughed as he and Gallus resumed their walk down the hall. "Not sure. I hear Silver and Yona have prepped up quite a meal for us though."

To that, Gallus stopped, color draining from his face. "Wait...Yona pitched in on breakfast too?!"

Sandbar frowned. "Is that a problem, Gallus?"

Gallus, though still uncertain, tried to sound as calm as he possibly could. "Dude, no offence to your girlfriend or anything, but she's not exactly the best when it comes to making food that...what's the word...oh yeah, edible."

Sandbar, naturally, blushed to the words. "Well...I wouldn't say she was my girlfriend exactly..." Then he resumed his frown. "And besides, what gives you reason to think she's a bad cook?"

Gallus slapped his own forehead. "Buddy, the last thing she baked for us chipped one of Smolder's fangs. She was in a bad mood for a week after that."

Sandbar simply shrugged. "Hey, it was just a traditional Yak dish."

Gallus looked to him with no emotion in either his expression or tone of voice. "Traditional or not, it was as hard as a brick."

Sandbar, still unhappy with his friend's remarks about Yona's cooking, nevertheless carried on forward. "Well, look at it this way, if she's being helped by Silver, then at least you can take solace in the fact that our breakfast will probably be loaded with a truly unholy level of sugar."

For the first time this morning, Gallus actually cracked a smile. "Well...that'll be good at least." Walking in silence, the two boys made their way down all the stairs of the castle, and before long they were on the ground floor, entering the chamber of the Cutie Map. As expected, Smolder and Ocellus were already seated there, though Yona and Silverstream were nowhere to be seen. Sandbar and Gallus took their respective places, but after a while, Gallus couldn't help but think on what Ocellus had said to him earlier. "So...you got some grand plan for our new jobs?"

Ocellus smiled widely. "Indeed I do! You wouldn't believe all the information there was stored up over Princess Twilight's time here!"

Smolder, breaking herself out of her still-too-early grogginess, gave a dry laugh. "I can believe it. I'd be willing to bet that mare had notes on how she even brushed her teeth in the morning."

"Oh, don't worry, she worked her way out of that after a while." All eyes turned, and sure enough it was Starlight, who herself looked as though she was still somewhat tired from her sleep last night. The other children started to stand with her entry, but she shook her head. "Don't worry, kids. It's the weekend. I'm not your Head-Mare right now. Go and enjoy your breakfast together. I'll be back later."

Sandbar looked to her with curiosity. "Going somewhere good?"

Starlight sighed. "I need to talk to Sunburst. He has some ideas on the administrative structure of the school and he wanted to go over them with me." She paused, then slumped her shoulders. "On second thought, don't wait up. This might take a while."

The youngsters all watched as their teacher left, and as soon as the doors were closed behind her it was at that moment when Silverstream and Yona entered the scene. The two of them were carrying bowls of what looked like cereal. There were six in total, of course, and Yona had four of them carefully balanced on her back. The others, clearly wanting to help, got out of their thrones and went over to take their bowls, if only to ease the efforts of the other two girls. Silverstream and Yona smiled with appreciation, and before long all six were properly seated. To Gallus' great relief, this was just a simple cereal, with no Yak-looking ingredients to be seen, prompting a sigh on his part. As he took his first bite, however, Yona finally broke the silence between them all. "Happy first morning in castle, friends!"

All of them raised their spoons, as though they were lifting swords like some ancient honorable order of knights. "First morning in the castle!" they called out together.

They laughed, but when it was over, Silverstream, with her mouth still full of her first bite, looked over to Ocellus, her eyes wide. "So, Celly...where are we gonna go today?"

Smolder, with her spoon right on the edge of her mouth, paused, looking to her Changeling friend with interest. "Wait...go? We're on a field trip today?"

Ocellus, looking her right in the eye, gave an enthusiastic nod. "You'd better believe it! I was up all night studying every possible chart and text I could get my hooves on, and after intensive analysis and cross-references, I believe I have come up with the ideal place for us to begin our noble quest of ensuring the continuation of the peace and friendship that Princess Twilight and her friends ushered in!" In response, her friends, save for Silverstream, looked to her with either confusion or just general tiredness. Silverstream, for her part, was looking as giddy as ever, eagerly awaiting what answer Ocellus was about to unleash. And so, without further ado, the young Changeling cleared her throat before finally revealing her plan. "And I have come to the conclusion that the place most likely to suffer from a deficit of friendship would be..."

"Drum-roll!" Silverstream yelled, tapping the edge of the table as though it were a drum.

Ocellus smiled to her, then just made her announcement. "Griffonstone!"

But far from the enthusiasm she was hoping for, Gallus simply groaned with irritation. "Uuuuuuuuuugh! Griffonstone? Seriously?! Do we really have to go there? I grew up in that dump, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that you'll never find a place more full of disinterest and grumpiness and..." He paused, thinking on his own words, before slumping down into his throne. "Okay, yeah, you're right, that is the best place to find friendship problems."

Ocellus smiled widely again, clapping her hooves together before looking to each of her friends. "Then eat up, everycreature! We've got a long journey ahead of us today and we don't want to do it on an empty stomach!"

Smolder looked to her, almost horrified. "Wait, we're going on this trip today?! We're gonna be that early with starting our mission?!"

Ocellus nodded firmly. "Indeed. And we'd better get to it because the train I booked for us leaves in about an hour. So let's not dilly-dally."

Smolder, who naturally didn't want to have to deal with that level of activity today, frantically darted her eyes about before finally looking like she needed a light-bulb atop her head. "Oh! It's just...remember when all our guardians got upset when we came back here to Equestria without telling them? Yeah, they're gonna be pretty upset if we bolt for a place like Griffonstone too." She slammed her fist against her side of the table. "Darn! And I was so looking forward to it too!"

Nocreature but Ocellus was buying her act, but thankfully the latter wasn't concerned in the slightest. "Don't you worry. I received word from Princess Twilight earlier that she's already informed our guardians that we'll be undertaking this quest, so they know we'll be doing a lot of travel. In fact, she even took a step further and sent us official documentation from our guardians giving us full permission to undertake our mission!" She reached over to her saddle-bag, which was resting against the side of her throne, and pulled out a lot of official-looking papers, which she eagerly held up to her friends. "Isn't this great?!"

After a while, Smolder slid so far down into her throne that she was practically on the floor, all while Gallus just gave a long sigh and shrugged. "Well...to Griffonstone then...I guess."