This was it, it was nearing the end of Gallus’ most eventful week. In a mere six days, he’d celebrated Hearth’s Warming with friends in Cloudsdale and Ponyville. Then a hike to Griffonstone to spend time with friends new and old, much to his chagrin. He even made a short visit to Baltimare, if flying in to catch a train counted.All he had left was one full day before he had to get the train back to the Academy, and he wanted to make the most of it back home in Ponyville.
He started the day having breakfast with Ocellus and Smolder, where most of the conversation centred around his morning workout routine of stretches, crunches, and wing-ups. It was still hard for the two girls to believe Gallus could be an early riser, let alone one to make a habit of making the bed all neat and tidy followed by a workout before either of the two woke up.
Even harder to believe was that he wasn’t done as he left to do his morning flight. Smolder and Ocellus talked about doing some shopping in the market square, so it was as good a time as any to warm up his wings and see what had changed in Ponyville.
Turned out it was quite a bit, some of the decorations had been taken down, a sign of Hearth’s Warming coming to an end, and yet thick layers of snow still covered the ground and the roofs. Ponies wouldn’t be literally clearing it away until spring two weeks later, Gallus recalled how Ponyville made it a tradition for everypony and creature to clean up, which was tiring yet fun despite participating along with long and repetitive singing.
This year he wouldn’t be able to take part, despite his inability to tolerate such music. That’s why he hoped that he could have one more time with his friends as one whole group. Himself, Sandbar, Yona, Smolder, Ocellus, and…
“Guess whoooo~”
A creature called out playfully with a cheerful serenade from behind him. The chirpy feminine creature added to her game an additional challenge by sneaking up from behind to cover the griffon’s eyes with a large, pink-feathered wing.
Despite the visual disadvantage, Gallus could feel that the creature was slightly taller than him and yet no heavier than he was as his arms and legs did not struggle with the additional weight of her standing over him with her talons firmly supported on his shoulders, close enough to hear the serenade directly by his left ear and smell the faint scent of a citrus aroma. Unfortunately for the playful creature, Gallus was in the mood to play.
“No,” he answered bluntly, his face remained deadpanned below the feathers obstructing his views. The creature didn’t take the answer well, he heard a quiet groan of frustration.
“Aw, come on!” she whined as she pushed and pulled on his shoulders. “Don’t be a killjoy…”
“Wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t.” Gallus persisted, as one of the corners of his mouth curved upwards in amusement, it was more fun than an easy game of guess the creature. “Besides, there isn’t any other creature who’s bouncy and lively enough to make this hard.”
The creature didn’t give up, however. “Maybe I’m Gabby?” she countered with cheek, knowing her to be a bouncy and lively griffon.
Gallus sighed. “Silverstream, if Gabby snuck up on me, my beak would be buried in the dirt by now,” he refuted. Unlike this creature, Gabby knew little of her own strength.
“YAY! You guessed right!” Silverstream elated, releasing her wing from Gallus’ eyes, and fully embraced him in a hug from behind. He wasn’t playing how she hoped he would, but she didn’t care as she rubbed his cheek with her head. “I’m so happy that I got back from Mount Aris just in time to see you, we have sooo much to catch up on.”
All Gallus could do was roll his eyes, unable to move from the grasp or invasion of his personal space. Even when she let go to stand in front of him, their beaks were inches from each other.
The hippogriff fidgeted on the spot with her widest grin, “So, what’s the plan?” she asked, eager to guess what the two birds could do with the day still young. “Heading back to the house to hang out with Smoldy and ‘Celly?”
“Well, we could, but they’re out shopping,” Gallus recalled from their breakfast earlier, although he furrowed his brow as he couldn’t find them in the market square, raising his suspicions. “Said they won’t be around till the afternoon.”
Silverstream raised an eyebrow too, even she thought it was off for them to be busy on such a day, yet her suspicions were brief. “Oh, well that’s okay” she brushed it off with her claws. “We can see those two later, how about Sandy and Yona? Are they back yet?”
Gallus shook his head. “Don’t think so, they both would be on the train from Yakyakistan by now.” Which meant that it would just be the two of them for a while, a fact made obvious to Gallus, although Silverstream began scratching the underneath of her beak.
“That means…” she still pondered, Gallus tapped a talon on his arm to wait for the moment when she gasped in realization, she brightened. “We have more time together!”
As the pair walked around Ponyville’s park, they conversed about their holidays. Or at least they would, but Silverstream had a way of dominating the discussion with her thousand words per minute dialogue. Gallus smiled and nodded as she talked about the Three Days of Freedom, the holiday the hippogriffs on Mount Aris celebrate.
She detailed every aspect of her time there, stringing shells together with her mom on the first day below the ocean in Seaquestria, performing the wind song with her younger brother on Mount Aris at the Harmonizing Heights on the side of Mount Aris on the second day, and then partying on the third day with her parents, grandparents, sisters, uncles, brothers, acquaintances, neighbours, and cousins. Lots of singing and dancing for all three days, followed by presents from her aunt.
At one moment, she stood still and stopped mid-sentence, having blanked out. “Oh, um, sorry Gally. I forgot I get carried away when I’m excited” she confessed, nervously scratching the back of her head.
Gallus could also recognise the air of caution she was feeling, as he felt a stroke of envy as he did during the winter breaks. “Don’t be” he instead reassured her with a half-smile, “it’s great that you always have fun over the holidays, a lot more adventurous than I would.” Silverstream’s smile faded, she could tell he was putting himself down. She placed the palm of her claws on Gallus’ shoulder.
“Gally, don’t think of it like that.” She calmly told him, showing her dislike for self-deprecation. She had to encourage him to be optimistic. “Come on, you must have had some adventure over the past week.”
“Well, it was great spending time with the others, it’s even nice spending time around-”
“Hi Miss Silverstream!” the sound of voices in unison called out into the distance. Silverstream’s head turned towards the voices in an instant, recognition dawned on her face, quickly followed by a return of her bright glow.
“Look, those two girls are in my laughter classes!! She pointed towards two teenage mares in the distance, who stood alongside an older mare and stallion, one would assume to be their parents. The two teenagers might have been sisters by the way they looked. One was pale green while the other was pale purple, while their manes and the scarves they were wearing were different in colour as well, yet the way they styled their long manes matched along with their thin eyelashes and matching studs on their left ear. Silverstream waved her arm wildly as the two walked up, snickering amongst themselves as they approached.
“It’s nice to see you two, did you have lots of fun over Hearth’s Warming?” asked Silverstream.
“Yes, Miss Silverstream,” the two responded in unison once again, playfully rolling their eyes and leaning their heads as if calling out in a classroom welcome.
“Did you have fun over Hearth’s Warming?” the pale green mare followed up.
“I sure did, but back on Mount Aris we have a holiday that isn’t celebrated over just one day, but over THREE!” she answered boastfully, even revealing three outstretched claws in their line of sight. The two responded with awe, they likely imagined three days of gift-giving and food.
Silverstream then proceeded to explain how the Three Days of Freedom Celebration worked, an explanation Gallus had heard multiple times, so he took his focus away from it. He noticed the parents remained standing in the distance, one whispering to the other.
Neither of them was smiling, yet from a distance, neither of them looked angry either. They didn’t even appear fazed as Gallus looked at them directly, as he glared with suspicion. It might not have been his business, but he was curious as to what the pair were murmuring about. Were they talking about him, Silverstream, or something else entirely?
“Hey, you’re Gallus, right?”
Upon hearing the pale green mare ask him a question, Gallus shifted his focus to the two ponies in front of him with wide-eyed surprise. Silverstream and both the two of them were looking at him, putting him on the spot. “I could be…” he answered shakily. Silverstream giggled, thinking it was a joke, and the two mares took notice.
“So, you must be the griffon who’s studying at the Royal Guard Academy?” the pale orchid pony asked this time.
Instead of answering with yes, he turned to Silverstream. “Guess Miss Silverstream told you about me?” he remarked rhetorically and noticed Silverstream smiling and nervously scratching the back of her head again. The two teenagers looked at each other, and then their eyelids drooped, and the two looked back at the two birds with sly grins.
“Oh, Miss Silverstream LOVES to talk about YOU.”
“Yeah, she talks about you ALL THE TIME.”
The ponies’ tone shifted to an overly exaggerated one, almost in a teasing manner that even left Gallus feeling uncomfortable. “Uh… what does she talk about exactly?” He glanced sideways to see Silverstream frozen with big round eyes, nervously sweating despite the low temperature outside.
“She talks about how funny you are, how you’re gonna be in the Royal Guard, how cool you look in armour. She always carries around a photo of you around the school. It’s almost as if she-“
“-thinks that Gallus is a really really really great friend and is really happy for us to catch up before he heads back to the Academy!” Silverstream blurted out, jumping in between Gallus and the ponies and ushering them away frantically. “Now go on and have fun, you don’t need to spend more of your holiday with your teaching assistant!”
She continued to hold a wide and discomforting grin, as the two girls briskly walked back to their parents giggling to each other.
“Hey, I have an idea for somewhere we should go to. Come on!” She seemed desperate as she pulled on his arm to get him to start flapping his wings and as weird as it was, he was compelled to follow.
The two made their way out of the park and over the Everfree Forest, flying just high enough to be above the trees. Silverstream flew out ahead of Gallus, guiding him on where they were going. Considering it was winter, Gallus was far more relieved that there were no storm clouds above them, not wanting to deal with an array of lightning bolts.
Eventually, they reached the ruins of a large palace surrounded by trees. The old and gothic palace was long abandoned and fell to ruin with moss and plants growing in and around the crumbling walls. However, Gallus realised the true destination was not the palace itself, but what was inside it.
It was a clubhouse, built within a hollow crystalline tree with gems that hung from the branches, light from the low-hanging sun shimmered from its vibrant stained windows, the whole tree gleamed with a radiance that contrasted heavily from the dark and dreary palace that surrounded it.
“Woah, it’s still here,” Gallus uttered under his breath; he knew the clubhouse all too well. The Tree of Harmony that rested underneath the palace in a cavern was destroyed, and upon seeing the tree’s astral projection in their dreams, Gallus and his friends were called to make something to memorialize it. Although there were disagreements along the way, they eventually built a small clubhouse, which grew into the gargantuan beauty that stood in front of them.
“Of course it is!” happily remarked Silverstream. “We still come here from time to time, sometimes we bring some of the students here as well.” The pair went inside, and it was just as fancy and spacious as it was the first time he explored it. Crystal walls, floors, and decorations, stairways that lead to the balconies and rooms to relax, shelves with books to read.
It brought back Gallus to a simpler time, when he could just lounge around, reading comics, tell scary stories, or work on their Ogres & Oubliettes campaign. Every now and then, the Tree of Harmony itself would appear as its astral form of Princess Twilight Sparkle, often to check up on how the group was getting along, sometimes to provide helpful advice.
“Does the Tree of Harmony ever speak to you?” asked Gallus, curious to find out if he could ask it a few questions.
Silverstream shook her head, “It hasn’t spoken to any of us since we graduated, but there’s always that feeling it’s around whenever I visit.”
As disappointing as the answer was, perhaps it was for the best. “Yeah, I get what you mean.” He answered bitterly, he vividly remembered all the times the Tree of Harmony would put him in scenarios where he would be trapped in closing spaces.
All of a sudden, Silverstream then stopped in the middle of the hall, her ears pricked upwards as if she could hear a faint sound. “She’s here!” she elated, before flying up the stairway towards one of the balconies. Gallus tilted his head, he didn’t make out any sound, or at least not one he would recognise in an instant.
“Hey Gally~, come say hi to your biggest fan~”
As Silverstream flew her way down the stairs, Gallus noticed she had something resting on her arm. From a distance, it looked like a giant rooster, noting its red and white head and bright yellow talons. Yet when Silverstream got closer, Gallus noticed its body was less of a bird, and more of a snake with purple scales and red spikes.
“Bucuck!”
It was a Cockatrice, a half-bird/half-serpent beast that nested in the Everfree Forest, it was known to hunt smaller creatures and turn bigger creatures that look into its red eyes into stone. “GAH!” Gallus quickly turned his back on Silverstream and tightly covered his eyes in a panicked defensive manoeuvre.
“Relax Gally,” said an oddly calm Silverstream, “it’s just Edith.”
“You named a Cockatrice Edith?” Gallus exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yeah, I did a research assignment on dangerous creatures at school, remember?” She turned to Edith to happily scratch its belly, “I remember you were a big help with that.” Edith happily churred in response.
“Well, I remember being taught that cockatrices were dangerous, so if you can keep Edith away, I’d appreciate it.”
“Edith won’t hurt you” Silverstream serenely reassured him, “she’s a rather old bird now.”
“In my experience, old birds aren’t any less dangerous” repudiated Gallus.
“Come on, you can’t be saying a Royal Guard Officer in training is afraid of a friendly cockatrice.” Silverstream smirked with a grin and the other arm of her hip, boldly teasing the griffon.
“Pretty sure any soldier from the Royal Guard would hide or run from a serpent bird that turns you into stone if you look directly at its eyes.”
Seeing how Gallus continued to be unwilling to be near poor old Edith, Silverstream sighed and offered a more interactive yet careful approach. “Alright, fine. I’ll just have to bring Edith to you…” Much to Gallus’ chagrin, Silverstream quietly moved closer to him, placed one of her pony-hooved feet on Gallus’ tail to refrain him from leaving, and stretched out her unoccupied arm.
“Now give me your arm,” she ordered. Gallus could feel the slight pressure on his tail, so he couldn’t fly away if he wanted to. With much reluctance, he moved his right arm outwards until it was nearly behind him.
Silverstream gently grabbed onto the arm and kept it up and parallel to the ground and turned her body so that the arm in which the Cockatrice stood on was right next to Gallus’ now exposed arm. It took a light nudge for Edith to turn around, and with a small hop, she was standing on Gallus’s exposed arm. Observing that Gallus was still facing away from her with covered eyes, Edith would occasionally tilt her head from side to side.
With both arms free, Silverstream could perform her next step. She moved around to face Gallus directly, with her claws on Gallus’ shoulders. “Turn towards Edith and give me your other arm.” Like with her last order, Gallus reluctantly complied. Keeping his eyes closed, he turned around and exposed his other arm.
Next, Silverstream moved in closer behind Gallus to where she was hugging him again, except this time she crafted Gallus’ talons, so it was clenched apart from the index talon. Then holding onto his wrist, she moved the talon up and down Edith’s scaly chest in a rhythmic motion, effectively making Gallus stroke the bird. It took a few repeated strokes before Silverstream let go, leaving Gallus to perform the motions on his own.
“cluck cluck cluck” the gentle sounds could be heard coming from Edith.
“See” Silverstream whispered, remaining close to Gallus body in a warm embrace, “she’s giving her nesting call, that means she thinks you’re friendly.”
After one deep breath, Gallus slowly opened one of his eyes, still cautious about potentially being turned into stone. Instead, he saw Edith almost sitting on his arm, smiling, and clucking away. Seeing the cockatrice up close, Gallus could notice that it was indeed an old creature, the feathers around its head were frail and faded and its wings were frayed.
Whilst he was stood there, gently scratching the belly of this friendly creature, with his friend reassuring him close by with the scent of aroma, Gallus could start feeling a certain warmth coming from his chest. The warmth helped him feel calm and content, he could feel an uncontrollable urge to smile with the feelings in and around him.
“oooOOOooo” Edith called, a new sound of a stretched-out o with a rolling tongue she made as she looked between Gallus and Silverstream with happiness and intrigue.
“Hey Silver, what does that call mean?” he asked, but he didn’t expect the response Silverstream gave when he turned his head to look at her.
She was bright red in the face, her eyes big and round. She loosened her grip on Gallus’ shoulders and slowly distanced herself away, moving back around him to get Edith back onto her arm. “I think it means she needs a rest.” She hurriedly flies back up the stairs to the balcony, leaving Gallus confused downstairs, suspecting the call meant something more embarrassing than what Silverstream claimed.
It was almost evening, Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Yona, Smolder, and Ocellus had all gotten together in the afternoon. They spent the afternoon at the bowling alley, enjoying a game before following it up with an evening meal at the tavern. There were many laughs, many discussions, many speculations on what would happen in the future.
But for all the fun, it had to come to an end. “Well, here we are again” stated Gallus, as he stood on the platform in front of his train back to Canterlot. But before he stepped on, he turned around to his friends behind to say something, specifically to Silverstream.
“You were right,” he told her, leaving the hippogriff perplexed as she was already downcast from the departure. “You said I’ll enjoy the winter holidays this year and… I guess I did.”
“Oh,” she uttered in relief, before going straight for a hug. “We’re glad we got the time to see you, right?” The others nodded in agreement. When everyone heard the train conductor’s whistle, Gallus turned around and made his move on the train. One by one, his friends called out their goodbyes, to which Gallus would respond to each.
“Laters Pigeon!”
“See ya later!”
“We’ll miss you!”
“I know!”
“Till next time, dude!”
“Till next time!”
“Gallus knockdown next term!”
“Will do!”
“Don’t forget to write!”
“Course, I won’t.”
“I love you!”
“Yeah, I love you t…” Gallus froze, his brain processing to make sure he heard what he heard correctly. Did she say she loved him? He wanted to get off the train to ask further, but as he heard the train puffing and felt the carriage moving underneath him, it was too late for him to try. As he turned around, the last thing he saw on the train platform at Ponyville was most of his friends with dumbfounded looks on their faces, and Silverstream with her beak covered by her claws.
Good morning Royal Guard Academy, Gallus almost forgot what dawn looked like as he stumbled his way out of his bedroom and stood in the dormitory along with the rest of the cadets of Larson Company, First Wing. It wasn’t the most pleasant reunion to have, trying to make out his platoon buddies with a hazy vision, the clearest detail he could make out was Scythe standing right next to him, wearing the red scarf he received as a Hearth’s Warming present.
Captain Westland and Staff Sergeant Razorwing wanted the platoon to get back into the term running, starting with room inspections. One by one, the two staff pegasus ponies went into each bedroom, and they were thorough to say the least. Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling got all clear, much to their relief, but the platoon had to remain standing still and upright when either the captain or the staff sergeant would chew another cadet out for their room, leaving it obvious who had become rusty.
Neither Gallus nor Scythe should have worried about the state of their rooms, they both kept up their bed making during the winter break, made sure their shelves were neatly arranged and all their armour and uniforms were laid out. Yet when Razorwing walked into their dorms, Gallus was anticipating a call-out, something within that room would get the sarge’s attention.
On that morning, it was the photos pinned up to the board on Gallus’ desk. “Griffon!” he bellowed, “Did you get to see any friends or family over the winter break?” Although a fairly casual question, Gallus remained focused and anticipated the trap.
“Yes, Staff Sergeant,“ he answered calmly and bluntly, refraining from giving any more detail.
“Who’s the pink one? Did you see her?”
Against all will and control, Gallus was brought back to the day before, the conversations, the time spent at the clubhouse, the moment before departing on the train, all rushed into his head. “Uh, yes Staff Sergeant! Her name is Silverstream.” The answer he gave was agitated.
Inside the room, Razorwing paused for thought as he inspected the graduation photo of Gallus and his friends, taking particular note of Silverstream giving Gallus a cheerful and tight hug in the picture. He looked out from the entrance of the bedroom and could just about see Gallus and Scythe from behind, barely peeking out from the edge of the doorway.
It wasn’t the only cadet he could see from where he stood in the bedroom, “Officer Cadet Nick, is the griffon blushing out there?” he called out. Nicknames’ bedroom was on the opposite side of the hallway. He was on the verge of dosing off before he was called, so was taken aback by the odd question.
Unfortunately for Gallus, it took one quick glance towards him for Nicknames to find out. “He sure is, sir” sardonically answered Nicknames, leaving behind a fixed smirk on his face.
“Thought so,” remarked a satisfied Razorwing, who continued inspecting the room.
More unfortunate for Gallus, Nicknames wasn’t the only pony who was looking at him. The rest of the cadets started to snicker and hold their laughter as hard as they could as Gallus’ face got redder and redder. Unable to hide the humiliation from the trap he metaphorically fell into, he stared daggers into Nicknames for the traitor as he was.
Nicknames though regretted nothing, he just started the first day of the new term having caught a lovebird.