Sandbar was the first to speak.
"We did it."
He said this with a mixture of shock and relief, a mood echoed in the faces of Gallus’ other friends as they all looked at one another. Yona was picking herself up from the ground with Ocellus’ help, prompting Sandbar to rush over and help Yona steady herself. Smolder was similarly helping Silverstream up.
There was rubble strewn about all around them, the only remnants of the once dark and sinister throne room. The walls and ceiling had exploded out and away, leaving the top of the tower exposed to the open air. Gallus opened his wings to bask in the warm light that now shone down onto the six.
"We did, didn't we," he said. "Peck, we really did." He smiled as he turned back to the others. He was immediately tackled into a hug from Silverstream, causing him to grunt in pain.
“We did it, we did it, we did it!” she cheered, ignoring Gallus’ pained groans for just a moment as she squeezed him tightly. She released him slightly, whispering, “You were so amazing.” He adjusted himself so he could return the hug. He felt a warm touch of scales on his back and heard the sound of a changeling buzzing over to them as Smolder and Ocellus joined the hug, followed up by Sandbar and Yona.
The six sat in silence, enjoying each other’s warmth for a minute. There was a quiet clattering as dust settled around them. The entire area smelled heavily of ozone, a result of the residual energy still present in the room. Sandbar ended the hug, breaking off from the group to cough loudly into the cloth of the green cloak he was wearing.
“Hey, watch it, Sandbar. That’s a priceless artifact you’re germ-ing up there,” Gallus joked, chuckling. Sandbar only smiled meekly in response, while Yona and Smolder laughed loudly.
To Gallus’ right, Silverstream admired the amulet hanging around her neck, her smile abating a bit. “So, are we gonna have to give these back after this or something?” she asked, looking at the rest of them before returning her attention to the artifact.
Ocellus looked at her own artifact, the amber stone in the scepter glowing brightly in the sunlight. “I don’t know. The professors might let us keep them. After all, they did choose us.”
Gallus instinctively reached up, checking that the crown was still on his head. His talon brushed against its curved surface, feeling the various scratches and dents the thing had accumulated with the years. He gripped it by the edge and pulled it off. Immediately, his shoulders slumped with exhaustion.
It must have been giving me some extra energy, he thought tiredly. The crown became a bit heavier in his talons as he brought it down from his head to inspect it. The dust that had caked it was cleared away, leaving only its shiny, gold surface to reflect Gallus’ tired face back at him. The gem inset in the front of the crown pulsed for a moment with a flicker of energy before winking out.
Before he could ruminate further, his ears perked up at a commotion behind the group. He looked over just in time to see a rainbow-colored blur come to a skidding halt across the room.
“Professor Dash!” Ocellus greeted, rushing up to their teacher.
Rainbow Dash panted heavily, pulling in a breath before sighing in relief as she counted all six of them.
“Guys! Thank Celestia you’re okay,” she said. “Twilight and the others will be here soon. Are all of you okay?”
She was met with a series of “uh-huhs” and “yeahs” in response, prompting her to visibly relax. Ocellus gave her a hug, which she returned happily as the rest of the group moved over to them. Rainbow pulled away after a moment, her worry still apparent in her scrunched-up eyebrows.
“Where’s King Fisher?” she said, eyes widening at the decimation in the room. “What happened?”
Silverstream gasped, shrieking with excitement before responding.
“Ooh, Professor Dash, you should have been there!” she began. “You see, we all woke up in this really dark room, and we were all chained to the wall, and it was really smelly, and…” Gallus smiled as she started recanting the day’s events to their Professor. He winced slightly as lay down next to the group, a pain shooting up through his back legs as he folded them down.
Taking notice of this, Smolder flapped over and sat down next him.
“You good?” she asked, resting a claw on his back.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just a little sore” He managed a slight smile, and she smiled back.
“We took one heck of a beating, didn’t we,” she muttered, rubbing a lump on her forehead. “Stupid Fisher and his stupid bloodline bullsh--“
“Smolder!” Ocellus cut her off with a glare. “Language!”
Smolder rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Celly. I think after today we deserve the right to say what we want for a bit.” She grinned, glancing at Gallus before returning her attention to Ocellus. “For example, has anyone ever told you look damn good in a fight?”
Ocellus turned bright red, sputtering for a moment before managing to squeak out a “thank you” as Gallus and Smolder laughing heartily. She drifted back over to Silverstream and Rainbow Dash, the latter now enraptured by the former’s emotive storytelling. Gallus’ gaze lingered on his pink friend for a moment, once again garnering notice from Smolder.
“How about you, Romeo? Anything you’ve got to say to anygriff in particular after today?” she said, waggling her brows for effect. Gallus blushed a little, turning away bashfully.
“Maybe later,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt the story. Plus, we should probably get ready to leave. The other professors will be here soon.” He couldn’t keep the wobble out of his voice as he glanced at Silverstream again. She looked pretty damn good in that fight herself, didn’t she.
The ever-perceptive Smolder grinned knowingly. “Oh, is the cool, brave griffon scared to talk to the girl?” she teased, causing Gallus’ blush to darken. She laughed. “Later, huh? Well, good luck with that. I’m gonna go follow up with ‘Cell.” She lifted off the grounded, hovering off to tap on their friend’s shoulder. Gallus smiled as he watched the two separate off to their own little corner of the room, Ocellus still blushing furiously. His smile fell as his attention turned back to the crown in his talons.
He could tell that whatever magic he and his friends had channeled through their artifacts was dissipating. The crown, which had felt weightless in the moment before they battled King Fisher, was getting heavier still, and the shiny surface was accumulating dust already. He blew on it to clear the dirt before returning it to his head, and stretched before standing back up.
He walked over to where Silverstream was still telling her story to an awe-struck Rainbow Dash.
“And Smolder knocked their heads together and they went out like a light!” she said, snapping her talons as she finished. “But we heard more coming down the stairs and knew we had to get out of there fast, so Gallus-” she smiled brightly at him as she said his name. “-suggested we try through the kitchen, but when we turned to go down the hallway to the kitchen, we were blocked by a really scary looking guy with a big staff…”
Gallus managed to tune her out as he also recalled the painful (and recent) memory of their encounter with King Fisher’s vizier. He a shivered a little, remembering the feeling of the vizier’s magic as it washed over them, burning away their life-energy. Had Ocellus not managed to avoid the spell with her shape-changing, and had Smolder and Yona not managed to reach the vizier while he was distracted, or had Silver not gotten to the staff first… Gallus shook his head. Too many what-ifs. We survived because we had each other, and that’s what’s important.
He looked over to where Yona and Sandbar were cuddling, a spot clear of rubble on the side of the room. The helm Yona had been wearing was on the ground next to them, but Sandbar was still wearing Clover’s cloak. Gallus smiled. It’ll be a hard time getting him to part with that if the professors want the artifacts back, he thought, remembering how useful the cloak had been.
A thought occurred to him, and he tried to pretend he didn’t see Silverstream’s quick look of disappointment as he walked over to his yak and pony friends.
“Hey Sandbar,” he said.
Sandbar looked up from his position seated next to Yona. “Oh hey, Gallus. We were just—”
Gallus waved a talon dismissively. “I don’t care what lovey-dovey stuff the two of you get up to, especially after today. I just wanted to ask if you still have that staff in your cloak.”
Sandbar paused a moment before nodding in recognition. “Oh, that old lizard dude’s thing. Sure thing.” He reached one hoof into the folds of the cloak, and after a moment extracted the jet-black staff of the vizier. “Dunno if you have to have magic to use it or something,” Sandbar said. “But I don’t like it. It feels… wrong.” He shivered, probably also recalling the vizier’s life-draining spell, before hoofing over the wretched thing to Gallus.
Gallus just shook his head, gripping the staff in a single talon. “I definitely don’t want to use it. I have no idea what it might do.”
Yona nodded sagely. “Yona not want friend Gallus to hurt himself or other friends playing around with bad magic.”
Gallus smiled and nodded in response. “Of course. I just want to give it to Professor Dash so she can keep it safe.”
Yona and Sandbar cocked a brow each. “Professor Dash, keep staff safe?” Yona asked rhetorically.
Gallus rolled his eyes. “Well, probably safer than we can keep it. I’m sure she has experience with evil magical artifacts. At least, she can hold onto it until the other professors get here.”
Sandbar looked past Gallus as he responded. “Speak of the ‘other professors’.”
Gallus turned around to see Professors Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy come running up the stairs from the lower floor of the tower. Joining them were Headmaster Starlight, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Spike the Dragon.
“Kids!” Starlight and Twilight exclaimed in a relieved unison.
“Darlings!” cried an equally relieved Rarity.
“Thank goodness all of you are alright,” Fluttershy said, speaking louder than usual.
Applejack and Spike just breathed sighs of relief.
“EEEEEEEEEE,” squealed Pinkie Pie, bouncing up to where the group was gathering by Rainbow Dash. She immediately encircled the seven of them in a big hug. “YOU’RE ALL OKAY! WHEN WE GET BACK, ALL OF YOU ARE GETTING A BIG OL’ PINKIE PIE TRADEMARK PARTY!”
“PINKIE!” shouted Twilight, who cleared her throat before continuing. “They were just kidnapped by an evil king! They’re probably exhausted.” She glared at Pinkie, who backed off from the group sheepishly. Twilight then softened her gaze as she turned it to the six.
“It’s wonderful to see all of you okay,” she said, pausing for a moment and turning to Rainbow Dash. “They are okay, right?”
Dash nodded, prompting a sigh of relief from Twilight.
“Well,” the Princess of Friendship smiled. “How about we get all of you back home before your families worry themselves to death?”
It had taken a few minutes extra to get the news to Twilight.
As Starlight told it, she would have brought the entire staff of the Friendship School the minute they found the location of King Fisher if she could have. Unfortunately, Starlight was powerful, but even she couldn’t teleport a whole group of ponies across Equestria without serious risk.
However, with Twilight and Starlight’s collective efforts, the journey back to the school was considerably faster than the journey to the Fisher Lands had been. Gallus had never been happier to be back in school.
Now he and his friends were in the throne room of Twilight’s Ponyville castle, along with Starlight, Spike, and Princess Twilight herself. The rest of the Mane 6 had scrambled off to notify the various families of the children’s okay status.
Silverstream had already begun to relay the story to the Princess and their headmaster, while the rest of the group lounged about the room, occasionally interjecting with a correction. The room was messier than it used to be. It appeared that, in Twilight’s more common absence from her Ponyville residence, the rest of the Mane 6 used the room for their own various reasons. As a result, strips of cloth, a dozen or so cider jars, a lot of confetti, a few bags of bird seed, and a bookmarked copy of Daring Do littered the room.
Gallus had helped himself to one of the seed bags. Despite usually not particularly liking seed, he hadn’t eaten in a day, and it didn’t hurt to have a snack. And, he thought. It kind of feels like popcorn, so I can just relax and watch the show Silver’s putting on.
Silverstream was certainly putting on a show. Having regained some energy from their trip back, she was in full storytelling swing. As far as she was concerned, the entire Cutie Map was a stage on which she could act out the entirety of their adventure with all the animation and gusto she was known for.
“Gallus managed to block his first swing,” she was saying as he tuned back into her performance. “but that mean old griffon was so fast! Before any of us could help, Gallus was on the ground!”
Gallus cringed at the mention of his brief fight with the quartermaster, only nodding at Starlight’s sympathetic glance for confirmation. He again tuned out Silverstream as she continued with her story, instead choosing to check his foreleg, where a welt had grown from the whacking the quartermaster had given him. Lucky, lucky, he thought bitterly. Lucky the pecking griffon had chosen not to use the sword on his hip. Lucky Yona fell through the ceiling at that moment. Everything that happened today was pretty lucky, wasn’t it.
He must have been scowling pretty fiercely, because a gentle tap on his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, hey Headmare Starlight,” he said, managing to put on a weak smile. She returned it before speaking.
“As Silverstream tells it, you were pretty brave today,” she said.
Gallus glanced over at his pink friend, blushing lightly. “If you want to confuse bravery with stupidity, sure.” There was tinge of that bitterness in his voice that he couldn’t keep out, which, if she had noticed it, Starlight didn’t acknowledge. She chose to laugh instead.
“Bravery relies on a little bit of stupidity, when you think about it,” she said. “If you worry about every little thing that could go wrong, you won’t act fast enough. Had you not rushed in when you did, Silverstream could have gotten really hurt.”
Gallus sighed, rubbing his bruised leg. “I guess it was pretty brave, then,” he said, before turning a friendly glare to his headmaster. “But I’ll stand by it being stupid, too. It was very lucky that griffon decided to go easy on me.”
Starlight paused, a look of worry flashing across her face before reverting back to the sympathetic smile.
“Well, the six of you are taking a mandatory break after your families get here. I’ve already arranged to have all of you absolved of school-related obligations for the next week.”
Normally, Gallus would have answered this with a fist-pump or cry of joy, but all he could manage was a weak breath out as he was overcome with a sudden bout of exhaustion at the mention of a break. He frowned at the mention of families, and this time Starlight took notice.
“Don’t worry, Gallus,” she said, waving a hoof. “We sent for Gilda to come check on you in that old stodge’s place.” She didn’t even try to keep the contempt out of her voice. Trixie must have told her about Gruff’s behavior at the parent-teacher conferences a month ago.
Gallus raised a brow. “So, Gramps wasn’t worried about me?” he questioned, careful to keep any emotion out of his voice. Of course he wasn’t, Gallus, he chided himself. He doesn’t care about anything if it doesn’t involve bits.
Starlight frowned slightly, as if she had heard his thoughts anyway. “You know I can’t answer that for sure, Gallus. Maybe he’ll show up anyway.” She smiled empathetically, placing a hoof on his shoulder.
“He doesn’t deserve you, anyway,” she said. “And with the way he treats you, you don’t owe him anything.”
Gallus flinched. “Yeah, I guess that’s true,” he admitted. He relaxed again as Starlight pat his neck, and he didn’t fight her as she drew him into a side-hug. She let go after moment, leaving him with a smile and a final pat on the shoulder, before trotting over to check on Ocellus and Smolder, the latter of whom appeared to have had a similar idea as Gallus. A chunk of the crystal wall next to her was missing, and she swallowed something down very quickly when she saw the headmare coming her way.
Gallus smiled, turning back to Silverstream. She had since been joined by Yona in her storytelling, who was describing what had happened to herself and Sandbar after the six of them had been split up. The earth pony in question was in Rainbow Dash’s throne, two seats to Gallus’ left, and had fallen asleep, wrapping himself with the Cloak of Clover.
Gallus laughed to himself. Comfy cloak, I guess. He’s drooling, too. I’ll tease him about that later.
He reached up to touch the crown still on his head. Twilight had taken the vizier’s staff when he offered it to her, but she’d insisted that she didn’t need to take the magical artifacts from the six of them just yet. At this point, all the magic that it had become imbued with when they defeated Fisher had drained it, and it again just felt like a heavy hunk of metal. He remembered the rush of love and energy and power that had flowed through him when he put it on at that moment. Was that how Princess Twilight and our professors felt using the Elements of Harmony?
He and his friends had experience with that kind of magic, of course. Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis had only been, what, three or four months ago? But this didn’t feel like that did.
Back then, they’d had the combined energy of hundreds from across Equestria and lands beyond, and they had more or less just channeled their energy into Twilight and her friends. This time, it was Gallus and his friends who had blasted their foe with a magical friendship rainbow. He grinned at the memory of King Fisher being blasted out of the tower and over the horizon.
According to Princess Twilight, she had already sent out members of the Equestrian military to find the evil stork, and Fisher’s former territory was arranged to be returned to the denizens of the region.
“Equestria might have made a new ally today, thanks to all of you,” Spike had told them after coughing up a letter from the temporary ambassador to the Stork Kingdom, to the excitement of Silverstream in particular.
“EEEEE!” she had squealed, in an almost pitch-perfect facsimile of Pinkie Pie, while flying in a tight circle around the room. “I can’t wait to make friends with them too!”
Her positivity was infectious, and just remembering her exuberance brought a smile to Gallus’ face as he returned to the present. Starlight had finished her talk with Smolder and Ocellus and returned to Twilight’s side at the table. Yona was sat on the ground by the chair Sandbar was asleep in, having finished telling her part of the story. The Helm of Yksler sat lopsided on the top of her head, which was rested on the Cutie Map in front of them. Ocellus and Smolder had joined the group at the table as well, the former switching her attention between an open book in front of her and the still-going Silverstream.
“And there was this big explosion, and it was so bright, and I felt like I had eaten a whole jar of salsa, but I also felt really happy, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, and then Sandbar said…”
Gallus’ focus shifted again as the pink hippogriff summarized the last minute before Professor Dash had shown up, this time to the table in the center of the group. The map itself wasn’t active. Starlight had commented that, after she had received the students’ magical transmission through the Cutie Map, it had fizzled out. “It isn’t always active,” she had said. “It should be fine. It’ll reactivate when it needs to call on anycreature for a friendship mission.”
The polished, crystalline surface of the table was remarkably clean, compared to the rest of the room. On a close inspection, it had no scratches, dents, or chips in it, either. Magic, Gallus assumed, shrugging internally. He looked up as Silverstream landed in the seat to his left, finishing her story with flourish and bow.
“And that was that,” she said, smiling happily as she sat down. “Then you guys showed up and took us back here.”
“Wow,” commented Spike, eyes and mouth both wide open after listening to the entirety of the six’s adventure. Princess Twilight merely smiled, stretching her wings as she spoke.
“That was wonderful storytelling, Silverstream,” she said. “I hope you’ll be able to tell it in that much detail for the official account later on.” The princess turned to the other (still awake) members of the table. “What all of you did today was both harrowing and brave. I will make preparations to hold a ceremony for all of you in the coming month or so. For now, all of you deserve a break. Starlight has already made sure you won’t be bothered by schoolwork for the next week, and I’ve made sure to let all of your families know you shouldn’t be bombarded as soon as they get here. Gallus--” He perked up as she addressed him. “—Gilda should be here in less than an hour now. She was in Fillydelphia when we contacted her. Ocellus, King Thorax let us know he was held up by a domestic dispute, and might not be able to get here until tonight. Smolder, Ember probably won’t be here for a while, either.” Ocellus and Smolder nodded in understanding as Twilight continued. “Silverstream, your father requested a day’s leave himself to come and check up on you, and I think he might bring along your brother. They probably won’t be here until tomorrow.” Silverstream responded with a quiet squee. Twilight’s gaze flickered between the sleeping pony and yak. “Prince Rutherford won’t be here until tomorrow since the North Railroad is shut down, and Sandbar’s parents are likely downstairs right now. Fluttershy is no doubt keeping them company.”
Sandbar’s head lifted up at the mention of his name. “Huh-wuh? Mom and dad?” he mumbled tiredly, rubbing his eyes with a hoof as he sat up.
Twilight smiled warmly. “Starlight can take you downstairs if you want to see them, Sandbar.”
Sandbar just nodded in response, yawning as he got up and followed the headmare out of the room. Twilight turned to the remaining students in the room.
“As for the rest of you, Spike can take you back to your dorms. The other students shouldn’t bother any of you. Rest well.”
Sandbar still hadn’t returned to the dorms, and it was well after Gilda had showed up. She had only stayed for two hours, long enough to make sure Gallus was okay and to apologize for not being able to stay for longer. She was proud of Gallus for protecting his friends, and promised to visit with Gabby and the other members of the Gruff household soon.
“Gabby will be worried sick about you,” she had said. “Heck, kid, you had me worried for a bit, too.”
Like Gallus, Gilda wasn’t one for hugs. That hadn’t stopped her from giving him her fiercest hugs a number of times during her short visit. Gallus thought he might have even seen some tears, but he didn’t mention them to her as she broke the embrace.
“Gavin will want to come, too,” she’d said. “He’ll want to hear about your adventure.”
Gallus had smiled a bit, but the smile fell quickly as he noticed her eyes dart about. He knew what she was avoiding.
“What about Gramps?” he’d asked, merely waiting to hear an answer he already guessed.
Gilda sighed heavily, looking at the ground. “Gallus, you know he--” she cleared her throat. “That old geezer doesn’t…” She trailed off, unable to find a way to put it to Gallus.
Gallus tried to hide his disappointment. He knew that Gilda was holding back for his sake. She understood that he had an attachment for their guardian – however much Gruff didn’t deserve it – and she didn’t want to make it awkward for the younger griffon.
“I could just force him to come down here,” she had offered with a forced smile, but Gallus only shook his head.
“You know that isn’t right,” he’d sighed. She’d wrapped him in another sisterly embrace before he had a chance to continue, and they’d wrapped up the visit wordlessly soon after.
Now Gallus sat alone in the quiet dorm room. He considered picking up a textbook to do some studying, but thought better of it. Headmare Starlight didn’t want them doing any school-related stuff for the week. Gallus snorted. That won’t stop Ocellus, though.
A knock on the door prompted him to sit up in his bunk. “Hello?” he called out. The door swung open to reveal a very tired-looking Sandbar.
“Hey, roomie,” Gallus greeted, grinning widely. Sandbar didn’t respond, just grunting and stumbling over to the bottom bunk. Gallus leaned over so that he was looking at his friend upside-down. “Too tuckered to talk? You left me here all alone, and I am bored out of my mind.”
Sandbar groaned, out of exhaustion rather than irritation. “Sorry, dude. My parents took me home for dinner. They were really worried and wanted to hear the whole story.”
“Well, at least you have someone to dote on you,” Gallus responded, trying his best not to let any jealousy into his tone. “Gilda just came, said hi, and left.”
Sandbar groaned again, covering his face with a pillow out of embarrassment. “They wanted me to stay with them for the night. I only escaped because my sister convinced them my room was too much of a mess for me to sleep in.”
Gallus smirked, pulling himself upright again before laying down in the bed. “Lucky,” he murmured. He turned and glanced over the edge of the bunk, noticing Sandbar had discarded Clover’s cloak as he’d walked in. He shifted his attention to the crown hung on the bedpost by his feet. “Hey,” he said. “Did Headmare Starlight want these back? Or Princess Twilight, for that matter?”
“What? Oh, the artifacts?” A rustling of the covers below him told Gallus that Sandbar had shrugged. “I dunno. Didn’t they, like, choose us or something?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Gallus said back. He wasn’t satisfied with the answer, but decided to drop it for the moment.
It was only a minute of silence that passed before Sandbar started snoring.
Figures, thought Gallus. He shut his eyes, waiting for sleep to come.
It did.