It wasn’t until after all classes had finished that Gallus had time to look for the buckball coach, he needed an explanation for his exclusion. Deep down, he believed he should do what he liked doing, it was what he told Scythe to get him to do the course he wanted. It didn’t make sense how after playing defence in a team that had a near-perfect streak, he was the only player to not make it even as a reserve.
Fortunately, he was able to find him, the large earth pony stallion was at the gymnasium, coaching a game of basketball. Strangely, he continued to wear his sunglasses, despite it being indoors. Surely it wouldn’t make his eyesight any easier. After clearing his throat, Gallus made his way towards him. “Excuse me, Coach?” Gallus called out politely, one of his arms raised to gain his attention.
The coach’s ear flicked upwards, and he turned his head around to see the blue griffon standing by a few metres away. He turned back towards the ongoing basketball game, placed the whistle around his neck between his lips and gave a strong yet quick blow. The loud beeped echoed down the hall, everypony in the room stopped and turned towards the coach’s direction.
He then raised one of his forehooves and moved it in a pushing motion, gesturing the players to take a short break on the other end of the hall. As they began to move off the court, the coach moved his attention back to the griffon. “Yes, what is it?” he asked with a frustrated sigh.
Gallus anticipated the kind of annoyed reaction, whether it was because he interrupted the game or just because Gallus was right there and lifted the corners of his mouth to counter. He moved his arms behind his body and rested on his hind legs as he looked up at the inpatient coach. “I the list earlier for the buckball team,” he opened, jutting his head towards the main exit of the gym where the noticeboard was outside, “and I noticed my name wasn’t on the list. Any reason why I didn’t make the cut?”
“You weren’t buckball material…” answered the coach, his tone was abrupt and nonchalant as he turned to look over towards the players lounging around the opposite end of the court.
The griffon furrowed his brow, an odd statement to make considering how hard he was playing during the tryouts. He at least did well enough to impress Eastwood, the self-proclaimed high school champion offensive player, even if he had to be prompted to do so. “You saw how I played as a defender in the tryouts, right?” asked Gallus as he tilted his head.
“I did.”
“Did I let the other teams score any points during the games I was in?” Gallus tilted his head further, to get a better look at the coach, who was starting to frown.
“You missed one…” The coach’s voice had gotten deeper and quieter, it gave Gallus an odd sense of relief, the coach was trying to restrain himself from admitting that he recognised Gallus’ efforts on the buckball pitch.
If only the coach pointed out anything other than the one goal against Coalstone’s team, the only ball Gallus was unable to block thanks to the inconvenience of being hit from behind by some form of electricity.
The reminder was enough for Gallus to drop his smile and was luckily able to avoid the coach witnessing his clenched claws as his arms remained firmly behind his back. “So, I missed one and that doesn’t make me buckball material?” he questioned, “I saw other cadets make it on the list who’ve clearly missed more than I did.” There was a moment of hesitancy when he made the argument, knowing one of the ponies who made the reserves were from his own platoon.
The coach rebutted, “Well, those other cadets aren’t likely to cause…” he paused as he turned his head back around to remind himself who and what he was talking to, “issues… when they miss.”
Galus knew what the coach was implying, his eyebrows drew together, and he moved his arms around into a folded position. By “issues” he means complaints because griffons are not polite enough to play along, something he also had with Eastwood referring to him as a good team player for once.
“I called foul because Coalstone zapped me in that game to get a point” he affirmed; he could see the coach’s face scrunch up upon hearing the unicorn’s name. “Yet you allow him on the team, but not me since I complained?”
“Look, Griffon,” the coach snapped back, “buckball is a popular sport at the Academy, and there is a limit to how many ponies can be in the club. There’s more to buckball than being able to block or get a ball in a bucket, it means being a good team player.” There it is, that “good team player” remark again, Gallus’ face remained fixed towards the coach as he raised his voice. He would have made a fair point if it were not doubling down against Gallus’ argument.
“I don’t want cheaters, but I also don’t want cadets who are temperamental and cranky. If you think you are not being treated fairly, you can make a complaint about it to the twenty other ponies or so who weren’t picked.”
And the cracks began to show, he may not have meant Gallus directly, but the griffon knew exactly what he meant. With heavy sarcasm, Gallus internally wondered if those twenty other ponies or so were also rejected for being temperamental or cranky.
“I need to be in a physical activity as part of my course, and I want to play buckball.” Gallus stated, before gesturing his arms into a shrugging motion. “What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re free to play buckball with your friends in your own free time, other than that, find another activity to do.”
The conversation ended abruptly when the coach loudly blew his whistle and gestured his hoof to bring the basketball players back onto the court. Gallus glared at the back of the coach’s head one last time, before making his exit out of the gym and into the dorms.
As he slouched on his desk, disappointment and frustration filled his mind as his talk with the buckball coach went nowhere, and yet he was unsure how he could be surprised. He peaked at the latest letter from Silverstream, how happy she sounded from seeing the photos, and happily asking about buckball. He let out an exasperated sigh and pushed the letter to the side of the desk, urging himself to avoid thinking of how to respond to it.
He then heard a click, the door creaked open, and Scythe emerged from the room. Having done an afternoon run with the cross-country club, he had returned from the showers all cleaned up and draped in a towel. As Scythe looked at the chagrined face resting on the desk, he knew that not even he unkempt mane and puffed out coat wasn’t going to lift his friend’s spirits.
“Guess it didn’t go well with the coach?”
Gallus lifted his head off the desk, only to shake it. “Thinks I’m too ‘cranky’ for the club,” he replied, with an added nasally tone and bending his talons to imitate quotation marks. “He also doesn’t want cheaters but Coalstone’s still on the team.”
The moment Coalstone’s name was mentioned, Scythe shut his eyes and breathed heavily out his nose. He too could only share in Gallus’ disappointment as he closed the door behind him and took off his towel to fit a brush onto his hoof. As Scythe sat on his bed and started brushing his mane and coat to be tidier, Gallus remembered the altercation between the two ponies before the tryouts, how Scythe’s mood shifted the moment Coalstone caught up and “talked” with him. Clearly, they had a past, but Gallus wondered how far back it went.
“So, who’s Coalstone? He clearly knows you.”
Scythe’s brushing hoof stopped mid-motion, the arm conveniently covering the dread on his face. “He’s in a military family, our dads work in the same regiment.” He answered hesitantly, fidgeting on his bed. “He was never in Cloudsdale,” he added with a slight lift in his tone as a sense of relief, but it went back down as he continued in an irritated huff “but whenever I was outside of Cloudsdale, he would turn up, make fun of me, and get away with it because he acts like he is a big deal.”
“Well, is he a big deal?” Gallus asked further, recognising Coalstone’s snooty arrogant attitude and condescending remarks as some self-entitlement and claim of superiority.
Scythe fidgeted some more as he looked up to think of how to answer, “Remember the name of the obstacle course?” Gallus in turned leant against his desk and rested his head on his claws, staring out the window to remind himself. Even after several weeks, he could still picture the wooden beams, the murky lakes, the long winding dirt paths, and the towering wall that blocked the end of the course. He then finally lifted his head when an image emerged in his mind of the signpost, with the name and a unicorn engraved emblem at the top.
“Winstone’s Trial Training Ground” he answered.
Scythe slowly nodded, indicating that Gallus was correct. “Winstone was a former Commandant of the Academy… and the former Mayor of Canterlot… and Coalstone’s Great-Grandfather…” his voice trailed off as his head sunk lower as he listed each one.
On the other hand, Gallus grew more frustrated, “That means he is a big deal, wonder what else he gets away with...” he remarked, frowning at the thought, the coach’s reaction to Coalstone’s name made more sense knowing he was related to someone recognised in the Academy.
Scythe finished brushing up his coat, his mane was still a partial mess, but the bad memories left him unwilling to continue. “So, what are you gonna do?” he asked Gallus, who was glowering out of the window as he slouched in his chair. “You could talk with Captain Westland,” he suggested to try and reassure him, “maybe she could have a word with the coach.”
Gallus shook his head, “No, even if it makes a difference, I’m not gonna join the buckball club anytime soon.” The relaxed confidence in his answer left Scythe tilting his head, curious as to why Gallus was giving up so easily. He remembered what Gallus told him when he thought there was no chance, he could do the languages course at the Academy.
“But what about ‘you should be able to do what you like’?”
Gallus affirmed his decision, he turned to face Scythe with a grimaced look. “Spending more time around jerks like Coalstone and that coach isn’t what I like…”
Scythe looked down and sighed, nodding in agreement, being around Coalstone for hours wouldn’t be a good idea. Not to mention, if Gallus got onto the team, the coach wouldn’t change his tune to make it worthwhile. However, that still leaves a problem, “But you still need to do a physical or extra-curricular activity, right?” he asked Gallus, “It’s gonna be a while to join one if you’ve been rejected by the only one you signed up for.”
After an exasperated sigh, Gallus closed his eyes tightly and pinched the top of his beak, as he remembered something else.
“Actually, buckball wasn’t the only physical activity I signed up to.”
On the following afternoon, several ponies were in one of two places in one of the side rooms of the gymnasium: They were either hanging onto the array of climbing walls surrounding the room or on the ground holding onto the ropes of those climbing to avoid a nasty fall.
That was except for two earth ponies, Fountain Blue and Whipper, the two staff ponies that lead the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club. For their day of tryouts, they were tasked with reviewing each cadet’s performance on the wall, and make sure they were safe.
That was until Fountain Blue caught sights of a blue griffon making a slow entrance, who stood out amongst the earth ponies and the fewer unicorn and pegasus ponies in the gymnasium. Even if he had a jaded lack of enthusiasm, the earth pony could barely contain his excitement. “Ah! If it isn’t Gallus the Griffon!” he exclaimed in his nasal Prench tone, followed by an impromptu hug. “You arrived just in time for the tryouts!”
Resisting the urge to peck the stallion’s face, and his invasion of personal space, Gallus returned a half-smile. “Yeah, well, not like I have anything better going on” he replied, unable to hide his lack of excitement at something he reluctantly signed up for and is using now as his backup.
“Well, the tryout is not too complicated,” Fountain Blue reassured Gallus, as he began to direct his attention towards one of the climbing walls. It was nearly vertical, angled slightly enough towards the wall of the gymnasium to make it appear incredibly steep. It was too tall to simply run-up, so coloured rocks were fitted in seemingly random places of varying sizes for ponies to place their hooves onto. “Zis is our starter wall, the easiest wall on the difficulty scale. All you need to do is get an harness, get to the top, and to ring the bell.” His outstretched hoof pointed upwards towards the very top of the wall, where a large bell hung against the ceiling, although judging from the distance it looked tiny from where the pony and griffon were standing.
Fountain Blue described the task with upbeat passion, displaying no doubt at Gallus’ ability to take on the wall. In contrast, Gallus looked on deadpanned, maybe he wasn’t under any intense pressure, but not even the height of the wall felt intimidating or impressive at that moment. Fountain Blue called over a pegasus pony to act as his spotter, and Gallus made his way to approach the wall.
Fountain Blue then looked on as the griffon put on a climbing harness, his wings strapped down, the rope was fitted to the harness. As confident as he was at seeing Gallus challenge the wall, his colleague Whipper moved over, focusing on the white-maned stallion with narrowing eyes. “Is there something wrong Whipper?” Fountain Blue asked curiously.
“Okay Fountain, what game are you playing?” confronted Whipper, unable to share the enthusiasm over Gallus in the tryouts.
Fountain Blue shrugged, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” His focus remained fixed on Gallus, who remained grounded looking upwards at the wall, possibly studying it.
“The moment you see this griffon at the bazaar, you want him in the club,” Whipper explained, finding the sudden urge heavily suspicious. They both know the club was not as popular as other physical clubs like buckball and boxing, but they were also not desperate for signups each year. As such, Fountain Blue’s persistent behaviour was unusual, not just to Gallus. “It’s not like you to be eager to recruit a cadet on the spot, so what’s up?”
Fountain Blue, on the other hand, remained coy as he kept his eyes away from Whipper. “I just hear the rumours of a griffon that can climb up a vertical wall with ease, I figured he’d make a good addition to the club.”
“Right,” Whipper responded, unable to buy his colleague’s reasoning. They both heard a few pegasus ponies talk about how a griffon easily jumped the final wall of Winstone’s Trial, but that is all it was, a rumour. Just because there actually was a griffon at the academy doesn’t mean it’s true. “You hear one rumour, and the griffon is more than qualified.”
“Non,” denied Fountain Blue with a rising intonation, “I hear the rumours and I want to see if they were correct.” He saw Gallus finally begin his ascent up the wall, reaching and pulling up from rock to rock with ease, making short breaks with each move.
“And when they’re true, you’re just gonna let him in?” asked Whipper, having decided to play along. As Fountain Blue’s head tilted upwards to follow Gallus’ movement up the wall, he sat up and folded his arms, his eyebrows drew together, disliking what his colleague was insinuating.
“Hmph, I’m sure even if they were false, Gallus can make a good climber.” Fountain Blue took offence, he may have high hopes, but he wouldn’t lower his standards. “Zose griffons live high in the mountains, they fly around them day by day, enjoying the scenery. Surely they know what it feels like to grasp those nooks and crannies with their claws.” As he talked of mountains, he quickly regained composure, closing his eyes and imagining a cool breeze in the air and a chill from the height and jagged terrain.
As he opened his eyes again, he caught Whipper smirking at him at the edge of his vision, “I knew there was something else…” Whipper remarked.
Fountain Blue groaned, realising he’d been caught. “Fine, there are these mountains across the border in the Griffon Territory, and I’m bored of the mountains and rocks here in Equestria,” he explained begrudgingly. “They won’t allow ponies to climb there, after one nearly fell to their death down some Abysmal Abyss. If we had a griffon on our team, the griffons would be willing to change their minds, and then, we can go somewhere new and interesting over the winter break. Happy?”
He turned his head around to see Whipper facing him, his arms folded and holding his enigmatic smirk. Whipper was smug at the fact his suspicions were right, but the more he thought about it, their winter breaks were becoming very mundane as they always did routine trips around the Frozen North. The two of them haven’t been in active duty in their regiments for so long that neither of them has been out of Equestria, so a chance to go climbing in Griffon Territory.
“Not a bad plan, too bad you couldn’t find a skilled climber who happened to be a griffon.”
As Fountain Blue looked back towards the wall, his head leant back as far as it could go. “I would not be so sure, mon amis.” He haughtily remarked. Before Whipper could ask why his ears caught the sound of a bell ringing above him. He shot his head upwards, and sure enough, he caught Gallus at the top of the wall, ringing the bell as he held on with the tight grasp of his claws.
As Gallus made his descent, Whipper was the only one dumbfounded in silence as other ponies politely clopped their hooves together to congratulate a successful climb. When Gallus reached the bottom, he spent no time relaxing as he got out of his harness and made his way towards Fountain Blue and Whipper. “Alright… climbed your wall,” he said, breathing heavily as he needed to catch his breath. “Are you… happy now?”
As the griffon slowly regained his breath, Whipper turned back to the sight of Fountain Blue smirking at him. Much to his chagrin, he only had two words to give to Gallus. “You’re in.”
Those two words were the first Gallus heard in a while, with one of his eyebrows had risen in uncertainty. “I am? I don’t need to wait for anything…” Considering his time at the buckball tryouts, getting accepted couldn’t be this easy.
That was when Fountain Blue cut in, “You reached the top in good time, welcome to the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club”, he praised with grand gestures, making the griffon’s acceptance sound easy. “We have our training sessions the afternoons with these real walls, and we do excursions to climb the real things over the breaks. You can have a go on one of the other walls today, that is if you’re up to it…”
It might not have been what he had wanted, but Gallus finally found a club that he could join. It might take some more time for him to get along with the other earth and unicorn ponies, but at least he had a time and a place where he could try. He turned to look back at Fountain Blue, giving a slight smirk.
“...which one should I try next?”