The sun arrived the next morning. Gilda has woken up from her bed ready for another day. She’s already at the dining table with Princess Twilight waiting for their breakfast to come. “I gotta say, it’s nice having other ponies cook your food,” Gilda said to Twilight. “I’d rather do it on my own if I were you, but this is nice to have them.”
“Yes, that is a plus,” Twilight agreed with a smile. She and Gilda looked to see one of the chefs walk in carrying small cups of maple syrups, glasses of milk, and plates of stacked pancakes. Spike and Greta walked in right on time, both surprised to see how many pancakes they had.
“Sweet,” Spike commented, licking his lips. “I’m getting hungry already.”
“Me too,” Greta added, feeling the same as Spike. “I guess you’d get used to the royal treatment,” she joked to her. Gilda chuckled as some of the pancakes were set on her plate. It was given to her and she dug in while Twilight took a look at a list.
“You know, Gilda,” Twilight said, “It’s a good thing you decided to spend the night here because laws can be very difficult to write before being executed, and they sometimes can be misinterpreted.”
“You’re right,” Gilda commented while chewing up her pancakes.
“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you… Rarity said that she’s been designing a dress for your coronation.”
“Wait, for real?” Gilda questioned with a beak full of pancakes.
“Of course. And… not to mention we have Pinkie helping design the party planning.” Gilda swallowed her food as she was shown the list Twilight was holding.
“Alright. Might as well get this over with as soon as possible.”
“Right. After breakfast of course.” Twilight was given her pancakes and started eating while Gilda looked at the list for her coronation preparations.
At the school cafeteria, Gallus was complaining to his friends. “I know things are rough with them,” the blue griffon complained, “But he’s not their dad, he’s mine!”
“Settle down Gallus,” Sandbar suggested. “Glynn is one of the oldest and nicest griffons we’ve ever met. It makes sense why the other griffons want to spend time with him.”
“Well, yeah. But they still had homes back at Griffonstone. Meanwhile, I’m lucky to find some shelter from the rain.”
“That’s horrible,” Silverstream commented.
“Tell me about it. Dragons live in caves, but they don’t have to worry too much about the cold with pools of lava around.”
“Yeah, you’ve made your point," Smolder noted. “What are you going to do about it.”
“Remind them about genetics and what we went through at the base.”
“Gallus, most of the other griffons had hard lives too,” Sandbar noted. The blue griffon didn’t say anything else and just ate his breakfast.
Meanwhile, Garry and Grace had finished their meals and decided to head outside to meet Glynn and Gadget. “You sure we’ve got time before class starts?” Grace asked.
“I ate fast,” Garry responded, “and so did you. I’m sure we’ll have a little bit of time.” The two rounded a corner, not seeing Sunburst until they crashed right into him. The stallion was carrying papers, which fell all over the floor when he was rammed by the students.
“We have a rule about running in the halls for a reason,” Sunburst reminded. He stood up and started picking up his papers. “Classes will be starting in a short time. Where are you two going?”
“Only want to see Gallus’s parents,” Grace explained.
“Oh… I’m afraid you won't have enough time to visit if you don’t want to be late for your first class.”
“Can’t we just see them just one bit?” Garry begged.
“I’m sure they want to chat, but I think Headmare Starlight would have a word with you. There’s still time later on.” Both griffons sighed with frustration and disappointment before they walked back the way they came to use the washrooms.
Classes were now in session with everyone mostly feeling as they usually were, except for a majority of the griffons. Gallus did his best to keep focused, but he couldn’t help and looked over to one of the other griffon classmates. “Gallus, let it go,” Sandbar whispered.
“Sorry, I can’t help it,” Gallus whispered back in response. He looked back at the chalkboard and wrote down what details were added. They didn’t say any words as they kept focused on their lessons. Gallus looked out the window to see if he could spot his parents. No luck from the angle he was at. All he could do was simply wait until classes were over. He was itching to get out of class, which made it difficult for him to pay attention.
The second he heard the bell ring, Gallus tried to run out, only to stumble a bit with his muscles still weak to handle. He recovered and made it to his locker to get the books needed for his next session. He looked over to Silverstream, who was standing beside him with a small container.
“Hi, Gally,” she said with a slight giggle. “I went back to Sugarcube Corner yesterday and got you something to help lighten up your spirits.” The happy hippogriff showed her boyfriend a box of 6 red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate icing on top.
“Whoa! Red velvet?”
“Yep. I know it’s your second favorite.”
“Thanks, Silvy,” Gallus appreciated. He helped himself to grab one of the cupcakes as they’d save the rest for later.
“So, how are your wings?”
The griffon swallowed his beakful of the cupcake before he gave his wings a flap. “Feeling better than before, though they are still not strong enough to fly.”
“You’ll get there.” As Gallus took a nibble of his cupcake, Silverstream has something else to say. “Hey, you know, I’ve also been planning on having a pool party at the pond. You think you’ll be able to help me plan it, please?”
Gallus gave it a thought. “A pool party, huh? Yeah, I’ll help. I bet the others will love it too.”
“I wanna try it because all I want is to see what buffalos, kirins, and minotaurs turn into when I activate my pearl shard here. Perhaps buffalos would turn into walruses like the yaks, or minotaurs into whales…”
“Could be.” Gallus closed his locker while he finished up his cupcake. “I hope your hypothesis is correct.”
“How do you think your parents would react to it.” Gallus’s face quickly formed a frown, much to her regrets. “Oh, Gally… I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No, Silver, it’s alright. They’re just trying to adapt to normal lives as we speak. But now, I have another reason to hate going to school.” The griffon chuckled as he tossed the last of his cupcake into his mouth and walked off to their next class. Silverstream quickly went to her locker to put the cupcakes away for lunch. Like Gallus, she was curious about what his parents were up to.
Glynn and Gadget meanwhile were flying to Canterlot. From what Gadget had heard, some ponies living there had seen a bipedal creature heading to the big city on foot. Putting those pieces together, they flew to Canterlot to see if they could find him. After they landed, they started wandering around the boulevards of the city to look for where their friend was. Several bystanders and pedestrians saw them and were anguished seeing those two. The couple didn’t say anything until they heard someone talk to them.
“Hey, you two,” a female spoke. Both Gadget and Glynn looked to see Greta poking her head out a shop’s door.
“Greta,” Glynn uttered. “What are you doing here?”
“Gilda was wanting help with making new laws for Griffonstone,” Greta explained. “Since we stayed the night here, the princess suggested we get two birds with one stone…”
“Greta, could you get in here?” asked a voice. Greta groaned as she went back inside with them following her. Inside, they quickly found Gilda standing by some mirrors while wearing a golden dress that looks unfinished. Parts of it were held together with needles, several loose threads stuck out, and a few gaps were showing. She was surprised to see two griffons arrive unexpectedly.
“Gadget? Glynn?” Gilda questioned. “What are you two doing here?”
“We thought we heard Quartz arrived here,” Gadget said, “although we… do not expect to see you here.”
“Well, I kind of wouldn’t want to wear this dress all the time.” Gilda looked back at the skirt of the dress, which looked fit to be a ball gown.
“Hmm, I’m no dressmaker,” Glynn commented, “but this might be a bit much for a coronation.”
“That’s exactly what I said,” Greta commented and then turned to Rarity. “Didn’t you have a gala dress or something?”
“This is something you don’t see every day,” Rarity noted. She walked over to the future queen and double-checked her measurements. Rarity started working on the ball gown to make it a little more subtle. “Would you like some gloves with this?”
“Hmm, no thanks. I’ll pass,” Gilda responded. She was feeling too fancy.
“I admit… you look stunning with a slimmer dress,” Glynn commented.
The future queen liked the compliment she was given. “Thank you.” She then felt Rarity place a tiara on her head. “What’s this for?” Gilda asked.
“This is a placeholder for your future crown,” Rarity explained. “Though, I’m sure the real one will look much grander.” Rarity got back to work as Gilda looked at her reflection in the mirror.
She turned to Greta and whispered, “Where’s the real crown?”
“Princess Twilight said she’s having it made as we speak," Greta answered.
“Ah, nice.” Gilda looked at her reflection again, thinking about the responsibilities she would have again.
“I’m proud you’re going to put those new laws to work,” Gadget commented.
“So do I,” Gilda commented. “Also… if by any chance I go mad with power and became corrupt unintentionally, try to stop me.”
“Will do,” the griffon couple responded. It was likely Gilda said this as a joke, but they weren’t willing to take any chances.
Gilda could see their faces having a feeling they didn’t find it that funny. She then focused back on her dress, which Rarity was making progress on.
“Gilda, how’s this one?” Rarity asked. “Does this looks better for you?”
“Uh…, yeah, I think so. I’m not one for dressing up,” Gilda responded quickly, then turned to Greta, Glynn, and Gadget to hear their opinion. “What do you all think?”
“I think you look terrific with that gown,” Glynn commented with his wife nodding in agreement.
“I second that,” spoke a voice. In came Quartz, who was carrying a spool of fabric.
“Oh, thank you, Quartz,” Rarity said. “I’ve been looking for this shade of gold.”
“I figured I might as well help while I’m here.” The former ninja looked over to Gallus’s parents, surprised to see them. “Wait, w… what are you doing here?”
“Looking for you,” Gadget explained.
“Ah. I’m sorry if I left unannounced, I was trying to see if I could find some creature that could look past... well, you know… my past.”
“How successful was that?”
“I only managed to have a talk with the princess’s assistant, he’s a nice dragon I’ve met. Other than him, everyone here just tried to stay away from this monstrosity, which some said.”
“Boy, that’s a shame,” Glynn commented. “Why don’t we go back to Ponyville and try that again, but this time with the students. Maybe you could help teach them some of your ninjutsu. Think of it for more a means of self-defense rather than vengeance.”
“I like what you’re thinking, buddy,” Quartz said, liking the sound of that, and quickly hopped onto Glynn’s back. “Anyways, good luck with your coronation, Gilda. Oh… and be sure to tell the princess where I’ve gone.”
“Will do,” Griffonstone’s future queen responded with a wink. “I’ll see you later.” The griffons and kobold waved goodbye to each other. Once outside, Glynn, Gadget, and Quartz all flew back to Ponyville, leaving Gilda to think about her role.
Back at school, Gallus was still fuming about his parents’ time being taken from him. He had managed to stay quiet as to avoid annoying his friends. Still, he held a grudge against most of his fellow species. He kept bottling up his anger, which was never a good idea.
Eventually, when it was time for lunch, he saw Garry and Geena sit down at one of the tables. Instead of joining his friends, Gallus sat down with them instead (particularly beside Geena), who were confused that he sat down with getting lunch. “Can we… help you, Gallus?” Geena asked.
“I’d like to talk with you about my parents,” Gallus responded.
Garry was confused. “What about them?” he asked.
“I mean more of what happened yesterday. You know, when you two interrupted me and my dad spending time together!” Gallus sounded angry given his tone of voice, which was drawing the attention of the other students.
“He can think for himself,” Geena responded. “If he wanted to help spend time with us, that’s his choice. No one forces someone to change what he decides.”
“A choice he was forced to pick.”
“Do you think we forced Glynn to spend time with us all the time?”
"Well, it’s what it looked like. Everyone else was just following your lead.”
Sandbar and Silverstream walked over to Gallus to try and calm him down. “Gallus, let's just you some lunch, shall we?” the young colt suggested.
“Excuse me, I’m in the middle of something,” the blue griffon explained. “Don’t you interrupt me!”
“Oh boy, I don’t like where this one’s going…” Garry muttered to himself.
“They’ve got some really good sandwiches today,’ Silverstream noted. “I can give you one if you like.” She tried to get her boyfriend to stand up, though Geena had something else to say.
“Just because someone’s your parent, doesn’t mean that only you can spend time with them,” she expressed.
“At least my parents wanted me,” Gallus grumbled.
Geena’s eyes narrowed after hearing this. Her blood was starting to boil. “What… did you say?!”
“I said: at least my parents wanted me!”
Geena’s talons started scratching on the table as she was now fuming. “You… BASTARD!”
Without hesitation, she hastily grabbed her tray and tried to smack Gallus in the face with it. She would’ve been successful if it wasn't for Garry grabbing her tail and holding her back. “Take it easy, Geena! Stop!” Garry shouted. She tossed her tray to the side and pushed Garry back so she could tackle Gallus to the ground. Smolder and Ocellus witnessed the scene and quickly ran over to separate the two griffons.
“Gallus, why would you say that?” Ocellus questioned.
"What? It's the truth," Gallus responded. Geena tried to break out Smolder's grip, but the dragoness held on tight.
“SHUT UP!” Geena roared.
“You had it better than I did!”
“Better? BETTER!? Do you know what happens when my dad was angry?!”
“At least you had a home to live in! Do you know what it’s like to sleep on the streets, especially in the cold winter?! You at least have a roof over your head…!”
“GALLUS!” roared a voice. The room went silent as they saw Glynn, Gadget, Quartz, and Sunburst standing in the doorway. Glynn was rubbing his throat after raising his voice. “I beg your pardon for doing this.” The young griffons stayed quiet as their friends stepped out of the way.
“That’s alright, Mr. Glynn,” Sunburst said, and then walked towards Geena and Gallus who’re now in big trouble. “Geena! Gallus! You two report to Headmare Starlight’s office,” Sunburst ordered.
“He’s the one who…” Geena was cut off.
“Now!” he sternly ordered. Neither Geena nor Gallus said anything as they took the walk of shame to the office. Glynn and Gadget followed them, making their son feel ashamed of himself. It didn’t help that Glynn was scowling most of the way.
When the two students got to Starlight's office, they waited outside as she was told what had happened. As soon as the griffons were let in, they saw Starlight, Glynn, and Gadget looking at them, all looking stern.
“Do either of you think what you did was appropriate?” Starlight asked.
Gallus just looked down at his talons while remaining quiet. “He’s the one who started the fight!” Geena protested.
“And who was the one who tackled him to the ground?”
“Did you hear what he said to me?”
“It was hurtful I’m sure, but you could’ve ignored him, and this would’ve not happened in the first place.” Geena just growled as she glared daggers at Gallus.
“So, what will be their punishment?” Gadget asked.
“Since this is just a minor incident, they’ll be given detention after today’s classes.” Starlight then looked at the students before asking another question. “Are we clear?”
Geena refused to make eye contact while Gallus just sighed. “Yes, Headmare Starlight,” he responded glumly. Gallus looked towards his father, who he wasn’t used to seeing irritated.
“We’ll talk later, Gallus,” Glynn noted to his son. Gallus sighed and just nodded as Sunburst started writing a note.
“And Geena…, because of your outburst recently, I’m going to have to let your parents know about this,” the stallion explained.
Geena glanced at him, now looking worried. “What!? No, you can’t do that!” she cried. Trying to stop him, Geena tried grabbing the note away, only to have Starlight force her back into her seat by using her magic.
“Geena, that’s enough,” Starlight noted. “Don’t make me extend your detention to three days.” Not wanting to get into any more trouble, Geena kept her beak shut. “Alright. Now everything’s clear, all of you are dismissed. I don’t want to hear about that again next time.”
After they were dismissed, including Gallus’s parents, they were just about to split up. “Listen, Geena,” Gallus said, “About what I said. I…”
“GO TO TARTARUS, GALLUS!!!” Geena snapped with tears flowing from her eyes. “I’LL NEVER WANT TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN!!!” She quickly took off to get away while she sobs hard. As Gallus saw her run in tears, he felt terrible to himself. He shouldn’t have said it in the first place.
Elsewhere, Gilda and Greta were taking the train back home to Griffonstone. Greta just finished up having a snack in the buffet car before rejoining her girlfriend. “Hey, you think that these trains will start serving meat?” Greta asked. “I know ponies never eat meat, but hey, the school started accepting more creatures in different corners for… I don’t know? Almost half a year?”
Gilda wasn’t listening. Her head seemed to be in the clouds. Greta got her attention by snapping her talons next to her girlfriend’s ears. “Huh?” Gilda questioned. “What happened?”
“What is it this time?”
“I’m sorry, Greta… It’s the griffons that don’t pull their weight. I can’t apply the same punishment to every griffon because they might be different. If every punishment is the same no matter the crime, it’s going to turn into a game of ‘How much can I get away with?’”
“Right. You got the princess and her staff looking over that as we speak. Just settle down until we can do something.” Gilda meekly smiled as they waited to get home.
After the train stopped at the station, the two griffons got out of the car and saw a few pony construction workers constructing new train tracks. “Huh, guess those are the new tracks to the Dragon Lands, that’s neat.” Gilda guessed.
They walked off to the village where they could see a few other griffons wandering around. One of them Gilda recognized as Gloria, she looked to be worse than the first time they saw her.
“Hey, Gloria,” Greta spoke, and Gloria turned to see them. “How are you?”
“I’m in Tartarus right now,” the tired-looking griffon muttered. “Grayson has been worse since I tried standing up to him. I told him to get off his flank, but that… made him double down.”
“You know, if you want, we can have a productive conversation with him,” Gilda suggested.
“I had enough of his BS. I’ve tried to get him out of the house but… I’m worried about Geena.”
“What about Geena?”
Gloria looked down and sighed. “He’s been sending threats, saying that he’ll take her out of the school himself.”
“He can’t do that. Even if Griffonstone’s new laws are a work in progress, I’m rather sure that Equestrian laws will show him how justice works.”
Gloria’s stress was starting to make her shed tears, worrying about what would happen. “If you’re so confident in these new rules, you’re going to put in. You can tell that to my husband yourself!” With that, she stormed off, pushing Greta to the side.
“I thought things were starting to look up for this place,” Greta sighed.
“How do you think I feel?” Gilda asked anxiously. “I’m the one who had to deal with all of this.” She flew off to try and find where Grayson was.
As she expected, Grayson was still at home, sitting on his flank, watching films being shown from a projector that was likely standing on its last legs. He heard the pounding on the door, which he simply ignored. When he didn’t answer, the pounding got more intense. Unable to hear his movie, Grayson had enough, so he stood up and opened the door.
“What is it?!” he asked, angrily. He was surprised to see Gilda standing outside waiting for him.
“I want to talk with you, Mr. Grayson…”
“What do you want?”
“I’m giving you a warning about things that are changing around here,” Gilda explained. “I’ve seen Gloria visibly upset about how you’ve been acting worse than before, and threatening to take your daughter out of school for good. And that’s saying a lot since you were pretty bad to begin with.”
“Hey, you ain’t no parent. You don’t tell me how to raise my child.”
“And I ain’t no farmer, but if see a bunch of cows running around aimlessly and the crops gulping in flames, I know that somegriff has screwed up.”
Grayson didn’t like getting called out, especially griffons like Gilda and Gloria. “Listen here, I live my life the way I want it. I’m one of the reasons Geena exists, so she should learn some respect.”
“Here’s one thing, you earn respect by giving others respect. And honestly, I’m surprised there’s any respect around you.” Grayson just glared at her for a moment. Without warning, he slammed the door shut in her face, hitting her beak. Gilda bammed on the door demanding for him to open it, but there was no answer. “I’M NOT EVEN FINISHED! OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!”
She repeatedly knocked on the door rapidly and even called out to him with insults and slurs. After five minutes with no response, she gave up with a sigh of defeat, feeling like she was wasting her time.
Gilda walked down the lane hoping to get home and have some time to herself. However, that was easier said than done. She was cut off by a griffon couple who hardly paid attention to who she was. Judging by their fur and feather patterns being orange with some stripes, she recognized them as Garry’s parents. She was annoyed as it is, then she saw a familiar griffon in a fez. Grandpa Gruff was busy talking with another old griffon when he turned around and saw Gilda attempting to fly in the opposite direction.
“Hey, you!” the old griffon wheezed.
Gilda stopped and groaned while turning around. She landed in front of the old griffons, practically done with the day already. “What do you want?” Gilda asked.
“Apparently, this griffon here…”
“Goldie, dear,” the old griffon noted.
“Yes… she was asking a question that’s not about her granddaughter. She’s all yours.” Gruff walked away, leaving Gilda to talk with Old Goldie.
“If it’s not about Grace, what’s it about?” Gilda asked.
“It’s that new baker,” the old griffon spoke. “I vaguely remember him from somewhere before.”
“Oh, you mean Gustave? He said he left Griffonstone when he was a teen. He’s back now since I’m not going to be using that bakery I originally owned.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’re going to be a queen. I don’t remember how to thank you for helping rescue my granddaughter. My memory is faulty sometimes.”
“It’s alright, I understand. And you’re welcome.” Old Goldie smiled as she slowly stepped over to Gilda to give her a hug, which the younger griffon accepted. “You’re the nicest griffon I’ve met all day.”
“Thank you for that dear. I feel happy getting out more often knowing that Grace is happy. Is she doing well in school?”
“Doing great from what I’ve heard. Have you seen Gloria? I want to talk to her.”
“Hmm, sorry dear. I don’t recall seeing her today.”
“Alright. Worth a shot.” Gilda flew away wondering if she would be able to find Geena’s mother. She kept flying around until she saw Greta heading to a location that most griffons didn’t interact with nowadays, The Great Geque Castle. It had been abandoned since the idol had been lost. Gilda flew towards the castle to catch up with Greta. “Greta?”
“Oh, hi. Sorry for leaving you unattended.”
“What are you doing?”
“Checking out your new home,” Greta responded.
Gilda was surprised by this. “New home?”
“That’s right. A good loyal queen deserves a nice castle like this.” Greta smiled.
Upon closer inspection, Gilda noticed that the castle was much cleaner than expected. She had been focused on helping with the rest of Griffonstone, she didn’t pay attention to the castle until now. Having a feeling that she should get used to living here, Gilda took a look inside.
The castle had been cleaned off all the vines, dust, and other kinds of messes that were left in there. Now there was a red carpet rolled out leading to the grand throne. Gilda looked to see a painting of King Grover hanging on one of the walls. She looked around the castle to see what else there was to see, and she found a lot that she never thought would be in there. There was a kitchen, a dining room, a private bathroom with a big tub, then Gilda found the bedroom. It has a queen-sized bed with a sofa next to the window that shows almost all of Griffonstone. Gilda couldn’t believe her eyes on what she was seeing right now.
“Now, I’m kind of glad you picked to be your advisor,” Greta spoke. Gilda looked behind her in shock as Greta had just walked into the bedroom. "I’m already envious of this place.”
“This is incredible. How did I not see any of this get in here?”
“I’m not sure. I think one of the princess’s friends said something about… chaos or something. It was Pinkie Pie, she was kind of vague with the details. I don’t know how they did it, especially Pinkie Pie, you’ve got to admit they got you the good stuff.”
Gilda had to agree. She walked over to the bed and lay down on it. She sighed with relief at how soft it was. “Oh, yeah. This is life.” Greta decided to join her and lay down on the grand bed.
“You wouldn’t mind if we share this, do you?”
“Be my guest.” Greta joined her girlfriend on the bed and both got comfy. “I wish I could stay here all day.”
“Me too.” The two griffons snuggled together as their worries all melted away.
Geena, on the other claw, was grumbling. She was still mad at Gallus for what he had said and getting dragged into detention. She wouldn’t drop it and everyone who heard her was getting annoyed. She and the other griffons excluding Gallus were at the school’s lounge chatting about her incident with Gallus.
“I mean… what reason would he have to say that?” she doubted, covering her eyes with her claws. “If he had my dad, he’d be happy to live on his own.”
While the other griffons did agree Gallus crossed a line, Geena’s complaints were frustrating them. “While I do agree with you on the parent thing,” Garry spoke, “but…”
“Exactly! You have parents that don’t even pay attention to you.”
“Yeah, but I can stay in their house all the time.”
“Still, he’s lucky to have Glynn and Gadget. If I were him, I’d…”
“Enough!” Gus called. The two griffons looked to see him, who’s sitting in front of them, staring daggers at them. “We get it, okay? We get it!. You have a bad dad! Luckily you never met my mom.”
“Oh, that’s so sad, Gus,” Geena said sarcastically. “What does she do?”
“You ever hear the phrase, ‘Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?’…Well, it is thanks to my mom that I have that mouth. That and she’d hardly pay for anything and use me as a guilt tripper.”
“That bad?” Garry questioned.
“You can say that.” They looked over to Grace and Gregoria, who had been staying silent and overheard the arguments. “Girls, what are your parents like?”
Both Grace and Gregoria were taken aback by this. “Why do you want to know?” Gregoria asked.
“It’s to help shut Geena up.”
“Um... Okay. I… don’t have a good relationship with my parents. Mostly because they say I should stick to ladies work.”
“Ladies work?” Garry said with a confused look.
“It means they were pushing me to be a mom and try and have more kids.”
“Eugh… That sounds wrong in many ways,” Gus commented.
“It was.”
“My parents don’t really want me around,” Grace sighed. “But… I’m very lucky to have my grandmother.”
“You mean Oldie Goldie?”
“Yep, that’s her,” Grace replied with a sigh. “Too sweet for Griffonstone.”
“How on earth did we not see her before?” Gus questioned.
“She usually stays at home,” Grace explained. “Not to mention her memory isn’t what it used to be, but she’s been doing better after the last Blue Moon Festival.”
They all looked over at Geena, who still looked annoyed.
“What do you have to say about that?” Gus asked. Geena didn’t say anything as she looked to have something on her mind. “Geena, we all have it bad. Not to mention…”
“You don’t get it,” she retorted. “My dad is the worst compared to yours.”
“Oh, really? Is your dad named Gideon?” That name sent a shiver down all the griffons’ spines.
“Gus, you’re on thin ice right now,” Gregoria warned.
“Hold on, she needs to hear this,” he noted. She looked Geena in the eye as he stepped closer to her. “What could have your dad did that was worse than Gideon?”
Geena looked down at the floor as she started breathing heavily. “He… Th… They aren’t the same," she stuttered. She wiped her tears away hoping the others didn’t see them.
“Do you have any idea how much getting electrocuted hurts? Grace, Gregoria, help me out here, will ya?”
“I… don’t like remembering that,” Grace noted.
“Me too,” Gregoria added.
“Exactly. Geena, we had been through Tartarus when we were captured before.” Geena’s eyes started darting back and forth as her breathing got worse and she was in a cold sweat. “Just because you’re angry at Gallus, that d…”
“YOU WERE ONLY THERE FOR A WEEK!” Geena shrieked. Almost everyone jumped back out of surprise. “I have been living with my dad since the day I hatched. My mom and I were just… He never cared about us. He... He would just…”
Garry could see that his friend was about to cry and was wanting to end this. “Come on, Geena, let’s go,” he suggested. “You need a little rest on…”
“No, Garry! They need to hear this.” She pushed Garry back and stared down at Gus. “You were so lucky. Gideon was an insane griffon who had an iron talon, destroying other griffon’s morals for money, and murdering other creatures for power!.”
“And you had a dad who is a freaking couch potato,” Gus stated. “Those don’t stack up together.”
“Well, I grew up with him all my life, Gus! He never apologizes for anything he did wrong to me. Especially when he... When he…” This was getting too much for Geena to handle. “AH!” she wailed and flew away from the others bawling her eyes out. No one quite knew how to react to this until Rarity walked over to them.
“What is going on here?” she questioned.
Gus decided he’d be the one to explain what happened. “I broke through thin ice,” he sighed, knowing he had joined Gallus across the line.
Gadget was sitting beside a window thinking about what they’d say to Gallus. Glynn had left to think about what he’d say as both weren't expecting to talk about this kind of conflict with their son. Gadget was struggling to think of what to say, so she decided to walk around and see if that could help her think.
While she walked around, she saw a young minotaur, Terry, walk past her. He looked to have an expression of worry and frustration. Gadget followed him to his dorm where he sat down and opened a box taking out some bags of cogs and what looked like an apple tree that had a crank on it. The young minotaur also took out some tools and tried to put the gears together.
He put some of the gears together and tried to test them out by turning the crank. The gears struggled to turn and he even hear them click as their teeth jumped to the next slot. In frustration, he ended up throwing something towards the door, where Gadget was standing. She caught the object and looked to see it was a model pony’s head.
“Oh, I’m… so sorry about that,” Terry apologized. “I didn’t realize you’re there.”
“It’s okay,” she forgave. “I understand.” She then walked towards him and gave back the head of a model that he threw. “What seems to be the problem, little one?”
Terry sighed. “I’ve been trying to build this stupid model right here.” Gadget took a peek at what he had built so far.
“What’s this supposed to be?”
“Rusty said that it’s supposed to be a pony bucking an apple tree. The problem is that it’s overly complicated. He offered to take it back, but I decided to give it a shot. Now I’m reaping what I’ve sown." He pulled out the instructions and showed them to Gadget. “Here, this is the instruction manual.”
She looked at the pages that Terry had opened and tried to see what was wrong with what had been built.
“Can I borrow that for a minute?”
Terry then gave the model to her and checked closely to see what was wrong. From the base to the models, and finally the gears. She was inspecting them right now until she noticed one of the gears was sticking out.
“Ah, I see the problem. That gear there is too big.” She showed the diagram to the minotaur who looked between it and the model had so far. “Here. Look the diagram here… and look over here.”
“Oh! So that”s what I did wrong.” He started taking some of the parts off so he could remove the odd-fitting gear. After that, he then grabbed the correct-sized gear and placed it together with the remaining parts he removed. “Whew! I can’t believe I wasted all of that time.”
“It’s a simple mistake. Besides, I could help you fix it if you need me. This looks simple compared to the tools I used to build.”
“You’d really do that?”
“Of course. It makes up for my past mistakes.”
“I was thinking about Geena and Gallus’s outburst at lunch a while ago.”
Gadget paused as she looked down. “Oh, yes... That.”
Terry looked at Gadget like she had just been punched in the gut. “Are you okay, madam?”
“…I just… I feel like I could’ve been there for him. I want to help Gallus out with his physical therapy, but at the same time, I wanted to help rebuild Griffonstone for my past. Even when I do get close to Gallus, I try to get a job so I’m able to keep a roof over the heads of my family. It’s a no-win situation for me!” She covered her face with her talons as she let out a sad groan.
“I kind of understand your problem, madam. Listen, if you want to spend time with Gallus, I understand that. This model is something Rusty gave for a hobby. I can survive without completing it now.”
“Y… You mean it?”
“I get what you all are going through. Take care of everything that you’re having trouble with. I’ll do something else to keep entertained. I definitely need some time to calm down anyway.” Gadget gave a meek smile before she left the dorm as Terry looked for another hobby to keep himself busy.
Gallus had gotten to the classroom where he’ll be in detention. He didn’t say anything and just sat down at an empty desk, waiting for one of the professors and Geena to show up. Instead, Gallus saw his parents enter the room shortly after he had arrived. They stood across from his desk, waiting for each other to speak first. Eventually, Glynn broke the silence.
“Gallus, why did you think that was appropriate to do such a thing like that?” he asked sternly but softly.
The young griffon sighed as he explained himself. “Dad, I was just… so angry,” Gallus sighed. “I finally had you in my life and… felt like the others were taking you away from me and caring for them instead of me. I couldn’t accept it. It felt like I was just kept going up and down with some sort of sick sense of humor. My whole life before I went here and met my close friends was the worst. I was lucky to have griffons like Gabby helping me out in times like that, but mostly, especially as a fledgling, I was on the streets… in the rain and snow.”
Both parents could feel what their son was talking about. “Gallus,” Gadget said, “You need... We should’ve…” She was having a hard time choosing her words.
“No, I shouldn’t have said that to Geena in the first place. I was so upset. I wanted to apologize to her, but I think it’s impossible now.” Gallus laid his head on his desk feeling like he was about to cry. Feeling bad for him, Glynn placed his talon on his son's shoulder.
“We understand your frustration, Gallus,” he said. “I honestly can’t explain the emotion when I saw Gideon planning on chaining you up with Gilda. The best I can describe is feeling scared from your fate and years of resentment of putting up with his orders overflowing.”
“But he was a monster. Geena just wanted a real dad. All griffons here wanted proper and caring parents like you.” Glynn sighed as he thought about his next words carefully.
“Gallus,” Gadget spoke. “We’re sorry for not being there for you. Our guilt was overbearing for us, and we want to make up for it any way we could. Now, it… seems we were taking on too much. I’m sorry, Gallus.” Gadget held her arm as she could feel herself tearing up.
“Mom, I understand,” Gallus spoke. "We all want normal lives too.” Both mother and son felt terrible about past actions. Glynn took a deep breath before he spoke up.
“We’re a family,” he spoke, “We stick with each other through hard times like before and now. I’m not sure how many families go through the kind of struggles we’ve been through, but what’s important… is how we adapt to it. Our past is behind us, and we won’t move on if we keep on focusing on it. We’re together now, and we shouldn’t be worried anymore.”
The two griffons remained quiet for about thinking about Glynn’s words. Gadget wrapped her wing around her husband and nuzzled him while wiping away another tear. They tried to get Gallus to join in with the hug, but their son had one last thing to get off his chest. “Do you ever think… that Geena will forgive me for what I’ve said?” he asked.
“Just give her some time,” Glynn spoke. “You’re mind wasn’t in the right place. Promise us you’ll not do this again.”
“I promise, dad… I promise” Glynn smiled as he used his wing to pull his son into a group hug.
A few moments later, Applejack and Geena entered the room. She said nothing and just went to the furthest desk from Gallus’s. “Hello there, you already talk with Gallus, right?” Applejack asked.
“Just did,” Gadget said.
“Alright. Now, I’ve got some assignments for him and Geena, so you better leave this room now.”
“Okay, we’ll see ourselves out,” Glynn spoke. He and his wife left the room so the students could get on with detention. Applejack handed out 2 sheets of paper to both of them, each one with a different message to write 100 times. Gallus’s sentence was: I will not insult others’ home lives. While Geena’s read: I will not smack classmates with lunch trays.
“You know what to do, just write your given sentence a hundred times and you’re all good. Understand?”
Both Gallus and Geena nodded yes, and Applejack sat on the teacher’s desk.
“This is stupid,” Genna muttered to herself. “What is this supposed to teach us?”
She muttered other crude things under her breath as she wrote down the words she was given. Gallus did the same, occasionally glancing over his grumpy classmate. He knew it would take a while for her to forgive what he said, if ever. As detention carried on, Gallus could’ve sworn he saw Geena wiping a couple of tears.