It was another ordinary day at the School of Friendship. The students were just getting some breakfast at the canteen as the journalist trios, Sunshine, Emerald, and Gus, walked in with a stack of newspapers on the griffon’s back. All of them looked to be happy, especially Gus, since he was kind of cranky during those school days before. Gallus and his other five friends were at their own spots eating their breakfast, as Sunshine, Emerald, and Gus came from behind.
“Good morning, guys,” Gallus greeted them, with an affable tone.
“Good morning Gallus, good morning everyone,” Emerald greeted back to him and the others.
“What’s up?” Gallus asked. “I understand you two being happy, but for Gus though, it’s gotta be special if he’s smiling right now.”
“Oh, it really is,” Gus blissfully exclaimed, and grabbed a sheet of newspaper from the stack he carried. “Here, check it out. They’re finally doing something useful.” He tossed his fellow griffon one of the papers. Gallus spreaded out the paper and took a peek at the front page. “Cloudsdale’s First Griffon!” it read.
“Huh, it really is special.”
“Told ya.” Gus then walked away with Sunshine to help him hand out the school newspapers.
“What is it?” Sandbar asked.
“Listen,” Gallus then read the first line out loud. “Husband and wife, Bronze Box and Summer Bloom, have adopted a lost eight-year-old young griffon, who they've named Peter. And there’s a picture of him as well.” He then showed the picture to his friends while the rest of the papers were handed out to the students. In the picture, this young griffon has beige coating, dark beige wings, small golden yellow beak and claws, white tail tip, and chocolate brown eyes.
“Aw, he’s so cute,” Silverstream cooed.
“He definitely is,” Emerald agreed.
“Yeah. It’s really nice that he doesn’t have to fend for himself now,” Sandbar commented.
“I agree. I really also hate to find out what he had to do to survive this long,” Ocellus also commented and felt a little bit concerned afterward.
“I think it’s more messed up he had to do it at such a young age,” Smolder added.
“Yona wants to know, yet same time don’t want answers,” Yona spoke.
“My thoughts exactly,” Emerald agreed, then turned towards Gallus. “So, Gallus, we wanna know what you and the other griffons have to say about this.”
“In my opinion, I’m just glad he doesn’t have to go through what I and the rest of my kind had to go through,” Gallus spoke. His expression went down after he said it, and his friends could feel the conversation was getting a little awkward.
“I think that’ll be all. Thank you very much.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Have a good day, guys.” The dragoness walked away to ask the other griffons their opinions.
“Okay, that happened,” Sandbar commented.
“Yona going back to breakfast,” Yona spoke. She picked up her bowl and started slurping the milk down from it.
“You think they’ll adopt other creatures as well?” Ocellus asked.
“Ooh, I wonder if they’ll adopt a dragon,” Silverstream commented and added an eager gasp afterward. “Or maybe a hippogriff. I’d love to have a little griff to play with.”
“Well, with ever adopting, there’s usually a set of parents that didn’t want the kid,” Gallus grumbled. His friends all looked at each other. By the tone of his voice, he was already in a bad mood.
“Gallus, do you want some time alone?” Sandbar asked.
“No. I’m fine. Let’s just eat and get on with another day where we’re stuck inside with no fun.”
“At least friends not cold,” Yona spoke up.
“Shut up, Yona!” The group of friends knew he was in that mood now. Saying anything now might make it worse. Gallus rested his head on his talon as his beak abruptly started to glow. “Oh, what now?”
Silverstream gasped dramatically. “The map’s calling you!” she cheered.
“Me too,” Smolder noted. Her spines were glowing just like her friend’s beak. Gallus stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. Smolder grabbed what she could of her lunch and followed him.
“Friends think map calls for griffon’s new family?” Yona asked.
“Well...” Ocellus said. The fact that Gallus and Smolder were being called just after discussing what was in the paper, the rest of the group followed their friends to see if this was the case. It wasn’t too hard to catch up as Gallus wasn’t going very fast.
“Come on, G,” Smolder said, “Pick up the pace!”
“Yeah, you go ahead of me,” Gallus mumbled. Smolder looked towards Yona, who was walking right behind the blue griffon. Seeing her friends giving a nod with a smirk, Yona rammed into Gallus who was knocked onto her back. “GAH! YONA!”
The yak didn’t stop until they got into the castle’s map room. Yona came to an immediate stop, sending Gallus flying onto the map before she toppled over. “Was that really necessary?” Ocellus asked.
“Does it look like it?” Gallus got off of the table and took a look at the map. They found the heads of him and Smolder floating around Cloudsdale.
“I knew it,” Sandbar spoke.
“Ooh, I guess it’s their turn now,” Silverstream shrugged.
“But they sounded so happy in the papers,” Ocellus said.
“If I wrote a story about Cozy Glow being a good pony, would it be true?” Gallus asked. The changeling didn’t respond as the answer was obvious.
“Yeah. You got the point.”
“You know what that means, Gallus? It means that we get to skip class,” Smolder chuckled. “Now that’s something right.”
Gallus thought about this and smiled. “True.”
After getting their winter wear from their respective dorm rooms, the griffon and dragoness flew off to Cloudsdale, where their next friendship problem is. “You know, it’s kind of nice that we don’t have our professors to babysit us this time,” Smolder commented.
“Yeah,” Gallus agreed. “And besides, this place isn’t too far away from the school.” They both looked and still saw Ponyville from where they were. “Nice view from here, though,” Gallus admitted.
“Yeah, it really was.”
They soon finally arrived at the floating city. They then landed on it and started wandering around. “Okay, we’re here. So, where does that kid’s family live?”
“You think something like this making the front page would have a lot of ponies talking about them.”
“Hey, you!” called a voice. The two looked to see two mares walking towards them. Both had purple coats and blue manes, and they also wear identical white earmuffs, light red jackets, and brown boots.
“Uhh, yes? Can we help you?” Smolder asked the two pegasi.
“Hi there,” one of them said. “I’m Cloudchaser, and this is Flitter. You might have heard about the adopted griffon in the papers, right?”
“We did,” Gallus responded. “That’s actually the reason why we’re here. Do you know where he lives?”
“Oh yeah, it was just right around the corner,” Flitter said. “Just follow us and we’ll get there.” The two pegasi lead the griffon and dragon through the city to a nice set of houses in the neighborhood. Eventually, they came to a stop outside of one that had some ponies looking towards it. Just like other houses in Cloudsdale, this one has a path towards the porch, a light cyan mailbox, a roof has a cloudy pattern to it, and it’s only two stories high.
“So this is the place,” Smolder noted. “Looks pretty nice.”
“On the outside, though,” Gallus stated. “Let’s see what kind of mess is inside.” They then turned back to Cloudchaser and Flitter and thanked them. “Anyways, thank you very much for your help.”
“Anytime,” Cloudchaser and Flitter replied, and the two mares flew away.
They both took a step towards the door. Afterwards, when they reached it, Gallus knocked on the door three times. After a bit of waiting, there’s no reply yet, and he knocked it again, this time with a rhythmic pattern. A little while later, the knob clicked and twisted, and the door opened, and they found a mare answering the door. She had a bright blonde mane with a lovely blue coat. She also has a cutie mark of a daisy flower.
“Oh, hello there,” she said, with a timid look. “I haven’t seen faces like yours before.”
“Hi there,” Gallus greeted and then introduced himself and his friend. “I’m Gallus, and this is Smolder. You must be Summer Bloom, right?”
“Of course. Guessing that you’ve read that newspaper, am I right?”
“Oh yes, we did,” Smolder replied. “We’re here to see that li’l griff you just took care of.”
“I see. Well, come inside, you’re letting in the cold.” The two students did just that quickly and after closing the door behind them, a small filly flew right in front of them. “Star Drop! Be careful! I’ve told you multiple times not to fly around in the house like that!” The mare looked towards her guests feeling a little embarrassed. “Sorry about my daughter, she’s like that most of the time.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Smolder shrugged. “Dragons back home are way worse than her.”
She and Gallus started removing their winter clothing as the griffon looked around the building. “Anybody else living here?” Gallus asked.
“My husband should be back soon with Peter soon. Other than that, there’s our eldest son, Sun Snow. He should be in his room right now.”
“I think we’re curious about the griffon you’ve added to your family,” Gallus added as he and Smolder hanged their winter wear on the back pillows of the sofa.
“Like I said, Peter’s with Bronze. They’ll be back any minute now. You want me to get you something to eat?”
“Nah, we’re fine,” Smolder said. “We just ate breakfast before we got here.”
“If you say so.” Just then, Star Drop flew past them again, much to the mare’s annoyance. “Star Drop!”
“You want us to stop her?” Gallus asked.
“No thanks, I’m sorry. You’re our guests.”
“Then, if that’s the case, can we talk with Sun Snow?” Smolder asked.
“Oh, yes. Upstairs and second door to the right.” The two guests gave a thumbs up and walked upstairs and followed the mare’s directions.
They arrived at the door and opened it. Inside, they found a room with many posters hanging on the wall, many of them containing images of the Wonderbolts. There was a bird’s cage in the room that was quite large which would fit the cockatoo, which was sitting on the perch that was next to the bed. On the bed, there was a teenager colt with dark orange fur and a snow-white mane sitting while feeding the cockatoo some seeds.
“Ricky roo,” the cockatoo spoke.
“Yes, you are,” the colt said. The bird looked over to the entrance and saw Gallus entering first. Without warning, the cockatoo flew off his perch and landed on the griffon’s back.
“Whoa!” the blue griffon cried. “What the heck?”
The young colt looked at both creatures and stood up from his bed. “...You’re not Peter,” the colt responded, looking at Gallus.
“My name’s Gallus. This here is my friend Smolder.” He moved to the side to show the dragoness that walked in. The cockatoo looked at Smolder and started flapping his wings to try and intimidate her.
“No!” Smolder spoke. She violently pointed at the cockatoo, who froze. “Stop it!”
“Sorry about Ricky,” the colt responded. “He likes being a bully to anypony.”
“No problem. You’re Sun Snow, right?”
“Yep. I see you’ve met Ricky the cockatoo.” The colt walked over to his pet bird and held out his arm. “Step.” The cockatoo stepped onto his arm and was taken back to his perch. “So, are you here about Peter?”
“More or less,” Gallus said. “This isn’t our first rodeo and our friends have been called for things like this. By the way, how long have you known Peter?”
“Only a few days. I was honestly surprised that Ricky was warming up to him so fast. Maybe it’s because he’s part bird, but he’s not like most ponies.” Ricky suddenly took off again and flew out the door. “Oh crud, not again. Ricky!” Sun Snow gave chase after his pet. Gallus and Smolder soon followed.
Star Drop saw the cockatoo flying towards her and dive-bombed to avoid colliding with him but rammed into the wall instead. Ricky landed on the back of the couch just as Sun Snow slowly approached him. “Ricky, you can’t do that. Step.” The cockatoo didn’t listen and looked around for a snack. “Step.” The colt said this a little more stern. This time, Ricky listened and stepped onto his arm.
While Sun Snow took Ricky back to his cage in the room, Smolder and Gallus looked down to see a crying filly. Summer Blossom sighed. “Star Drop, I warned you about this,” she said. She walked to the kitchen to get her daughter and ice pack as the dragoness and griffon inspect the damage.
“Don’t help her,” Gallus spoke. “She won’t learn if you help her.”
“I think you should be telling that to her,” Smolder said while pointing to Summer Blossom. Both creatures didn’t say anything as the mother returned to give her daughter an ice pack for her nose.
Soon, they heard the door opened up and an orange stallion walked in with a small beige griffon. This orange stallion has green eyes, an almost stylish white mane and tail, and a stack of crates as his cutie mark. It must be Bronze Box.
“Bronze, Peter, you’re home,” Summer cooed.
“We are. We’ve finally got the papers,” Bronze Box said, “So now, Peter is now the official part of our family.” His attention turned to the guests that were hovering in the air. “Who are those two strangers there?”
“That’s Gallus and Smolder,” Summer Blossom explained. “Apparently… they’ve been sent over here by someone.”
“Well, we were some of the first international students at the School of Friendship,” Gallus noted, “Plus, I’m a griffon, I think it makes sense.”
“I see the logic,” Bronze admitted. “Anyways, this is our new son, Peter.” He showed his guests to his newest son. Sun Snow walked back from his room after taking care of his pet as Star Drop stood beside him.
Gallus decided to introduce himself to Peter, but the younger griffon looked a little nervous and backed away. “Hey, don’t worry, I won’t bite you, buddy,” the blue griffon noted. Peter looked past Gallus and towards Smolder, who looked rather intimidating, thus he hid behind his father. Gallus looked at his friend who just gave a shrug.
“Peter, you don’t have to worry,” Summer Blossom said. She held the young griffon’s talon and helped him on Bronze Box’s back. This allowed him to get a better view of the room and everyone in it. The mother brought the guests over to her new child. “Go ahead, Peter, introduce yourself.”
Peter looked at the guests and held out his talon and wave. “Hello,” he said bashfully.
“Hey there, little fella,” Gallus spoke. He and Peter both shook talons before the older griffon introduced him to Smolder.
“Really nice to meet you,” the dragon said. Peter managed to crack a smile as he shook Smolder’s claw. She turned her attention to Bronze Box. “So, just a quick question, how long have you had Peter?”
“We found him about a week ago,” Bronze explained. “Poor little thing was just scrounging around for food.”
“But he’s much safer now,” Summer Blossom said. She walked over to her new son nuzzled against him. “Ooh, he’s just too cute.” Gallus looked over to the parents' biological children. Sun Snow looked pretty pleased while Star Drop looked to be pouting.
"So, what's the plan for Peter now?" Gallus asked.
"Well, we only just got his adoption paper," Bronze Box explained. "Now we just have to get him enrolled at a school."
"Are there any good schools in Cloudsdale?" Smolder asked.
"Of course there are," Summer Blossom stated. “There's a lot to choose, but I just hope that he did well.”
They then heard Peter’s stomach growl a little bit. “Welp, I knew we should’ve had a heavier breakfast,” Bronze Box noted.
“I’ll take care of it,” Summer Blossom spoke. She took Peter into the kitchen with their guests deciding to join in.
“So what do you have to eat?” Gallus asked.
“Gallus, really?” Smolder questioned.
“No it’s fine,” the mother said, “Be our guests.” Smolder and the griffons sat at the table while Summer Blossom prepared them something to eat.
After a while, she managed to prepare some delicious looking muffins. Smolder didn’t have to wait for them to cool down and grabbed one as soon as they were placed out to cool.
“How do they taste?” Gallus asked. He looked to be the only one unfazed by what his friend did.
“Mmm, blueberry,” Smolder commented.
“Thank you for noticing,” Summer spoke. “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Nah, dragons can take a lot of punishment. It’s going to take a lot more than a fresh muffin to cause us pain.” The dragon took another bite as Gallus had to ask something.
“I know you’re ponies, so this is probably unlikely,” he said, “But do you have any meat?”
“Meat?” Summer Blossom questioned. “You mean the one in animals? Why do you ask that?”
“It’s because that’s what a growing griffon needs. Sure, I can eat things other than meat now, but a griffon in Peter’s age needs to eat meat so he can get strong.”
“Well, I’m afraid we’re out of luck. We don’t really keep meat on standby, because, of course, like you said, we’re ponies, and we’re herbivores. What counts as meat anyway?”
Gallus thought for a moment thinking about some animal that ponies won’t mind using for meat. “Fish. Are there any lakes nearby Cloudsdale?”
“Down below the city,” Bronze Box answered, “But it’s frozen all over now.”
“I think I can make it work. Smolder, I’m going to need your fire breath, a pole, some string, a hook, and something for bait.”
“Like a worm?” the dragoness asked.
“Yeah. That could work.”
“I’ve got some spare junk in my closet,” Sun Snow said.
“Oh, that’s perfect. Thanks. Lead the way, buddy.”
“Follow me.” He took the guests to his room as the mother and father walked over each other.
“Do you think we’re doing bad?” Summer Blossom asked. “That sounded like an important detail.”
“Peter is a griffon,” Bronze Box said. “We’re ponies. Our bodies work differently so we probably have to eat different things. We’ll get used to it.” He walked off to help find the items for Gallus to go fishing.
Sun Snow’s closet was filled with various items, it was quite a mess. “Man, I thought Gallus’s dorm was a mess,” Smolder commented while chuckling.
“Ha… ha… ha,” Gallus laughed sarcastically. “Seriously man, how do you even close that door?”
Sun Snow just shrugged as Ricky started screeching from inside his cage. “Ricky, you’re not helping.”
Bronze Box walked into the room and gave some seeds to Ricky so he could stay quiet. He helped his son and the guests dig through the closet until they found a roll of string and a sturdy pole. “Sun, why do you have all of this stuff?” Smolder questioned. The colt just shrugged.
Gallus soon rolled his eyes and started tying the string around the top of the pole and the other end on the hook. He gave it a tug and it held on. “Perfect,” he commented, “All we need now is bait.”
“I’ll dig around for some worms,” Smolder said.
“You do that, I’m going to find a good place for us to fish.” Both Gallus and Smolder got into their winter clothing from the sofa before they flew outside and down to the snow-covered ground. Gallus flew down to the frozen lake and went quite a distance before he stopped and landed. Now all he just had to wait for Smolder.
While he waited, he could see Peter flying over to him. The griffon landed before trying to stop, causing him to slip around for a little bit until he bumped onto Gallus’ soft belly. He looked a little embarrassed and looked away from the blue griffon.
“Hey, it’s fine buddy. How often do you fly?” Peter just held his talons together as he didn’t know what to say. “I know you’re not mute. Listen, it’s just you and me out here. We’re both griffons.”
“...How... Long have you been in Cloudsdale?”
“I don’t live in Cloudsdale, I lived in Griffonstone. Smolder and I are currently staying at the school in Ponyville. It’s a great place. I was also planning on moving to Canterlot in the future.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. I’m probably getting ahead of myself, but I do have good feelings that the future’s on my side.” He looked over to see Smolder, who was carrying some worms with her claws very dirty.
“Here are the worms.”
“Perfect. Hand it over.” She handed her friend onto the worm and he placed it on the hook. Smolder blasted some fire on a patch of the ice and created a hole for Gallus to toss the hook into the water. “Now we wait.”
Thus would be the most boring part. In order to pass the time, Smolder decided to ask a few questions. “So, Peter, do you… uh… like your new home?” she asked.
The little griffon nodded giving a small smile. “You aren’t much of a talker, are you?” Peter just shook his head. “I’m sure you’ll warm up when you get used to it.” Suddenly, Gallus felt a tug on the string.
“Whoa, I got a bite! Help me out, will ya?”
Smolder helped her friend out and they pulled out a rather large fish. "Sweet! That's a perfect catch."
"And a perfect fish for a griffon. Come on Peter, let's get this thing cooked." The griffons and the dragon flew back to the house and showed their catch to Summer Blossom.
"Well... That's quite impressive," the mare commented. "Um... I’ve never cooked fish before.”
“Don’t worry, I have a few friends in Griffonstone that showed me how it's done,” Gallus said. “I’m just going to need some seasoning. Get me a knife and a cutting board.”
As the blue griffon and mother went to the kitchen, Smolder watched Peter go upstairs. She followed him and they walked into a room that she hadn’t noticed before. It had nice regular violet walls with a bed on the right side of the room and a sleeping bag on the left side. On the wall, there was a shelf that had a few trophies on it. They looked like he'd won in different races. She found Peter digging through a chest that contained a couple of toys.
“What are you doing buddy?” the dragon questioned. Peter jumped when he heard the dragoness as he took out a Wonderbolt action figure. “Hey, cool, is that Spitfire?” Peter looked at the action figure and nodded in confirmation. “I didn’t know they made that stuff like that.” She walked over to the young griffon and was handed the action figure.
“Hey!” cried a voice. Both of them looked over to see Star Drop standing in the doorway and she didn’t look happy. Without saying anything, she flew over and snatched the action figure out of Smolder’s claws, putting it back in the chest. She then whipped the dragon with her tail before flying out of the room.
“...Is that why you were nervous all of a sudden?” Smolder asked while rubbing her cheek from the whip of the tail. Peter just nodded. “I should’ve known.”
Back in the kitchen, Gallus seasoned the fish in the frying pan. “I should warn you,” he said, “Fish can stink really bad if it spoils. So, be careful with that.”
“Right,” Summer Blossom said. “Noted.” Gallus gave the fish a flip and examined the cooked meat.
“Okay, I think this stuff’s done.” The blue griffon turned the eye and looked for a plate. “You can go get Peter now.” The mother did so and brought him back to the kitchen. The young griffon sat down at the table where Gallus placed down a plate with the freshly cooked fish. Taking a piece off with the fork he was given, Peter took a bite and his eyes widened when he tasted it. He quickly started chowing down on the dish much to his mother’s shock.
“Whoa, now, Peter, take it easy!” she requested pulling the plate away from her newest son. While this was happening, Smolder walked up beside Gallus.
“Gallus, I think I might have a theory of why the map called us here,” she whispered.
“Why’s that?” Gallus asked.
Smolder pointed to Star Drop who tried to get her father’s attention, but he looked to be a little busy, making the filly pout again. “I feel like that kid right there is very envious about Peter.”
“That would make sense. Judging by Mr. Box’s reaction, Peter’s the center of attention now. We should keep a good eye on her.”
“Got it.” Just then, they both heard Peter letting out a satisfied burp.
“Excuse you,” Gallus smirked. “Welp, that’s the answer that the tank’s full.” He held out his talon to high-five Smolder, who only just gave a low brow. “Okay, fine, not my best.”