"A-a-ah!" Sandbar shouted as the floor flew treacherously out from under his hooves. A terrible thought flashed through his head only for a second, He wants to throw me out of the window!, but the thought remained just a thought.
Gallus flew out through the window, and a wonderful new world appeared before the Sandbar in all its glory: Ponyville itself glowed like a massive festive tree, festooned with garlands. Everyone was preparing for celebrations and feasts; the Town Hall shone brightly in the distance, the Carousel Boutique sparkled with lights, the Sugarcube Corner attracted the eye. Against the background of the city blooming with lights, the shadowy Friendship School and Starlight Castle looked very gloomy and inhospitable, not decorated with a single ball, not even a single garland ribbon. Only the moon bathed these architectural masterpieces in silver light, giving them a gloomy majesty and mystery. From the outside, this place no longer gave the impression of being inhabited. On the contrary, it seemed as if an ancient castle that had disappeared in time, storing a great many universal secrets — terrible secrets, incomprehensible secrets — appeared on this special night to disappear again for centuries in timelessness, until some mad Saddle-Arabian prophet discovered it.
These thoughts flashed through the head of an overly impressionable colt with a romantic nature as quickly as the streams of cold wind blowing over the muzzle. Now his attention was drawn to the forest — Everfree Forest. The forest where he once hid with friends from the terrible prospect of separation, where he went hiking with his beloved professors; it was there that they breathed life back into the Tree of Harmony, there that he once ran after Yona. Then again, and again, and again... so many memories.
And this forest, which seemed impenetrably black from above, and the magically twinkling Moon, whose light seemed to be absorbed by ominous trees, and the clear, star-studded sky the color of indigo corduroy, and this refreshing and cool head-clearing wind that beat right in the muzzle and hurt the eyes, and all this unprecedented lightness, emancipation of the spirit — everything reminded Sandbar of a book he had picked up in the Twilight Library and that instantly became his favorite one. It was the book about the nameless virtuoso and the beautiful Margaret, about their love, about miracles, about the Princess Luna, who creates a judgment on the vicious Canterlot townsfolk, and, of course, about the unfortunate philosopher Ponishua Neigh-Neigh and the cruel tyrant, the fifth captain of the royal guard Ponia Pankrat ("...in a white cloak with a bloody lining..." he remembered so vividly). And to Sandbar, no matter how stupid it sounded, it seemed as if he was the beautiful Margaret who had gained wings, and Gallus was his beloved virtuoso.
Sandbar was so carried away by the successive landscapes that he did not notice how he found himself in a crystal treehouse 'built' by Tree of Harmony.
He felt so good, felt such an unprecedented lightness in his soul, that all thoughts flew out of his head. He went out onto a small balcony and fixed his gaze on the forest. Memories came alive in him.
Gallus perched next to him, side-by-side. Or flank-by-flank? Didn’t matter.
"Do you remember how we hid here? From the whole world?" Sandbar asked, fascinated.
"Yeah, it was cool," Gallus replied, pulling his friend close with a warm wing, overworked from a long flight. "Until those mallards, or whatever they were, showed up…"
"Yes, that wasn't very cool…"
"And then Professor Rendledesh appeared, and WHOOSH, and Twinkie was firing a cannon, Flutershay was glaring at them, and the Princess was conjuring... It was so cool!"
"Yes, I guess it sort of." Sandbar smiled hearing the griffon’s interpretation of the professors’ names. Perhaps there was no point in asking if he deliberately distorted them so amusingly, or if some aspects of pony culture still hadn't been understood by him.
Again there was silence, and again it poisoned the fun with longing, and again they both felt it. Sandbar woke up from his half-nap, threw off the veil of nostalgia and distracted thoughts, and remembered the recent conversation.
That was the last time they didn't like silence.
"Right away, I disliked you. Right from the first day of school. I heard your voice and figured you for an egghead. A half-baked smartass. An arrogant guy, like, 'ooh, look at me, I'm so friendly, I'll show these stupid griffons how to behave.' Gallus spoke in an indifferent tone and pulled away from his friend, depriving him of the warmth of his wings.
Sandbar felt something prickle in his heart, his front hooves trembled nervously.
Pain, resentment, misunderstanding boiled in him with a vigorous, soul-burning mixture. He remembered his first day of school, as well as a certain feathered arrogant lout. He remembered how proud his parents were that their son — an ordinary provincial colt — entered the school of Princess Twilight herself. Not only were they proud, but he himself felt an incomparable delight then. He remembered how he didn’t know where to look first when he saw such a great abundance of various creatures, how glad he was that he would be honored to study with them under the watchful eye of a young princess. The very fact that he could freely make friends and communicate with griffons, changelings, dragons, about which his parents had once read scary fairy tales to him, was a great gift. And now this very griffon, which the friendly stallion considered as his friend, was saying such words to him. Insulting words, devoid of a grain of truth…
Did he bring him here to take out his anger on him? To express everything that has accumulated in his soul? To humiliate? To scold? To hurt him? All together?
Sandbar was silent. He raised his head high and looked somewhere over the forest, his eyes clouded with resentment, preparing to break off at any moment and run out of the treehouse on shaky, unsteady legs. He knew that if he cried in front of Gallus, the ridicule would never cease.
"... But I realized that I was wrong. You know, the ponies weren't as weird as I thought. And you... you're an amazing friend that I never dreamed of, I couldn't even think of at Griffonstone. No, really. Do you know that you're nice? I would even say... cool," Gallus continued his speech, also fixing his gaze somewhere in the distance, as if looking beyond the horizon. "Well, now you know."
Sandbar shuddered. Anger and resentment subsided from his soul as quickly as they surged, giving way to confusion. Did he hear right? Gallus called him cool? The same Gallus who rarely called him by name, preferring to call him egghead and nothing else? The one who never took him seriously and found fault with his every word?
"It was great hanging out with you. And then... I do not know how it happened, but I... Celestia, what have I come to..." Gallus sighed sadly, closed his eyes, and lowered his head. Then he clenched his jaw and inhaled more air, his muzzle distorted with some kind of suffering grimace.
"I fell in love with you!" he blurted out sharply so loudly that the echo kindly picked up his words and carried them all over the forest. "I can't believe I've said that…"
"I..." Sandbar opened his mouth, shocked to the depths of his soul, and closed it without saying any other word.
"I... I was scared!" the griffon chattered, sitting right in front of his friend and blocking his view of the forest. It was as if he was afraid that his friend was going to say something that would change his life forever, or perhaps escape from the balcony, so he tried to speak faster. "I thought that if I fought with you, it would pass, but... Discord damn me, everything got even worse! I was thinking about you all the time, I couldn't take my eyes off you. Recently, I dreamed you had wings, and I was teaching you to fly, and then, on the ground, I found myself under you... I can't stand it any longer! Sandbar, I love you!"
Something pricked the colt's heart. He looked at the griffon, who was slouching with his whole body, eyes cast down at the floor, and could not find words. If instead of words it was possible to simply convey feelings, he would convey a whole hurricane of feelings…
"I love you, Sandbar," Gallus said again, almost in a whisper, looking up shamefacedly at his beloved.
The pony's eyes searched his friend, expecting that now a smile would stretch across his muzzle, his eyes would sparkle with a mischievous gleam, friends who were waiting in advance would jump out from behind the columns, a confetti cannon would be fired, and Gallus would announce that the naive boy had been fooled by such an obvious prank. But it didn't happen, not after seconds, nor ten, nor twenty, thirty... sixty…
And then moved to tears, the colt hugged his feathered friend tightly... or was he no longer just a friend?
Sandbar never thought he could fall in love with a guy, because he never thought about love.
He had everything he could only dream of: a loving family, wonderful friends, the best teachers in the world, and, of course, the sea — he devoted himself to them all without reserving a trace. Somewhere in his subconscious, he knew that someday he would have a new family like his old; someday he himself would become a parent and have his own foals, and they would someday have their own. He knew it, but he never thought about the details. Love always seemed to him to be something «adult», something that would one day just come to him as something inevitable. And so, it came. Caught up with him at the most unexpected moment, caught him by surprise, forced him to shed a couple of tears.
Yes, Sandbar never thought about the possibility of having a love union with a griffon or with anyone of the same sex, but after listening to Gallus, he did not feel disgust or contempt, did not feel shame, did not see anything wrong or reprehensible in it. Only one feeling possessed him at that moment.
Love.
Love hit him in the head so abruptly, so insidiously and meanly that the poor pony even forgot how to breathe. He wanted to share his love. Love did not break him, nor his beliefs and principles, but filled him with something inexplicably pleasant and necessary. He wanted to take poor Gallus by the paw and never let go, he wanted to whisper all sorts of cute nonsense in his ear, swim in the sea with him, fly him over Canterlot, and most of all, hug him as tightly as his strength allowed.
That's what "friendship turned into love" means.
The griffon hugged his beloved in response, covering him with his wings.
"Purr…" he suddenly made a sound reminiscent of contented cat.
Sandbar, obviously not expecting this, laughed — the vibrations of his laughter passed through the entire body of the griffon.
"Are y-you making fun of me?" Gallus asked, startled, recoiling.
"What? No! I'm sorry, but that sound was just hilarious. But… yes. I love you too, in fact."
"Oh? And when did you realize that?" the feathered one replied in an incredulous tone.
"Well... just now, I guess?"
"You ponies are such weirdos."
"Why?"
"Be friends with everyone, love whoever for no reason at all…"
Sandbar approached Gallus. He kept looking at him and couldn't get enough of him. After the declarations of love, it seemed to him that the griffon had somehow transformed. His light blue eyes may have indeed changed slightly: their gaze has become softer, more tender, and a warm light seemed to play in them. The face was frowning no more.
Probably, the colt just never looked at him so carefully and so up close — he'd kept his ironic distance every time he'd held his gaze on Gallus a little too long. And certainly until this moment, he had never so wanted to kiss him on the corner of his beak or bury his hooves in the soft feathers on his chest…
"No, you're not just anyone. You’re... you're an idiot!" Sandbar said without malice, looking the griffon in his tender eyes.
"Why's that?"
"Why didn't you tell me right away? Didn't Professor Applejack teach us to be honest?"
"You're talking about your professors again!" Gallus flapped his wing indignantly. "At least now-"
The kiss didn't let him finish.
Sandbar carefully pressed his lips to the corner of the griffin's beak, pleasantly burning the guy's cheek with intermittent, confused breathing, betraying an extreme degree of excitement.
This kiss, if it can be called such, was so sincere and childishly innocent — very mush like how children first kiss — that the pleasantly surprised Gallus only licked his nose in response and broke into a happy silly smile. He tried to cover his head with a wing, but the first kiss was followed by a second, even longer one.
For the third time, the couple tried to kiss like adult stallions and mares, or like some of their particularly loving and tactless peers, but no matter how they tried to realize this romantic gesture, which was a staple topic of any book about love, their efforts were in vain — the colt's mouth and the griffon's beak were a bad combination, on account of either their dissimilar physiological features, or their poor knowledge of the practical art of kissing. In any case, after a few awkward, though very pleasant, attempts, both silently promised themselves to «catch up» on the subject. It’s curious if the venerable professors knew about the science of interspecies kissing, or if the young couple were to become pioneers in this field? Or maybe they should have gone to Princess Cadence? She was the princess of love, after all.
The floor in the treehouse, despite the winter, was warm, but not as warm as the sides of the interspecies couple pressed against each other.
Sandbar lied pressed against Gallus and tucked his legs under him — only his head stuck out from under the soft wing that covered the colt.
Both of them were already tired-eyed, both felt drawn to sleep, but neither thought of sleeping — that night they wanted to spend as much time with each other as possible, to make up for wasted time. Both understood this, though they did not say it out loud.
Sandbar looked up at the starry sky, untouched by a single cloud. It seemed as if the Moon had become larger, and the indigo cover of the night had lightened, acquiring purple shades.
He looked up at the sky and remembered night-hikes with Professor Pinkie Pie.
At nights, while hiking, Pinkie liked to stay up for a long time. As soon as the Moon rose into the sky, she called everyone around the campfire and told various amusing, sometimes creepy stories (one particular scary story about how she and Professor Dash cooked cupcakes was especially popular — after hearing this story, Silverstream could not so mush as look at Professor Dash or cupcakes for a long time), treating her students with so many sweets that it was almost impossible to fall asleep afterward. When the stories ended, and the sugar overdose set in, everyone laid themselves down under the open sky and looked at the stars. The cheerful professor loved to invent constellations. Firstly, she'd spot a cupcake in the sky, then Starswirl The Bearded, then Celestia's hoof, then the big six-pointed star, a trombone, a record player, a toothbrush, a hippogriff's tail, and so on. And listening to her chatter, everyone involuntarily began to see in this bunch of heavenly bodies everything that comes to mind of a strange, but friendly, cheerful and caring pony.
So Sanbar tried to recall the invented-by-Pinky-Pie constellations, and he succeeded a little.
Gallus listened semi-attentively to the little pony's recollections, occasionally burying his head in that mane smelling of the distant sea and salt. Sometimes he thoughtlessly agreed — the stars did not care much for him. Except for one star... the one that was lying, snuggled up to him.
This bliss felt like it could go on forever, if suddenly a thin golden-pink streak of dawn did not inevitably loom on the horizon. Twilight was raising the sun, without any mercy, ruining the fragile and elegant beauty of the night. The stars faded, waned, disappeared…
"Join my silence, and listen to the wind that will begin this morning with the rays of dawn..." Gallus suddenly uttered with sadness in his voice.
"The morning has broken, a new day has begun…" Sandbar, who had almost dozed off, replied. "How do you know that? You…"
"Well, Octavia's operas were not as boring as I expected. But... don't you tell anyone."
"What's up with you, Gallus? Or, as the song goes... 'tell the truth, my dear — where did these tears come from?' Sandbar, who caught the sad intonation, asked directly, not wanting to beat around the bush. Today they both learned what hiding their own feelings could lead to.
"Don’t pretend you don't know. We're going home today, and we won't meet... for a while. Why did they want to raise the sun so early?"
The Sun had finally driven away the darkness of the night and has established its power over the firmament, only to fall once again when the Moon gained back its strength. The sunrays pleasantly warmed the feathers and blinded the eyes. Why had Sandbar never noticed before how beautiful Gallus was in the rays of dawn?
"How naive you are to think that I would let you go to Griffonstone." Sandbar said, snuggling closer to his friend.
"But we have to leave? For our families. We can't stay…"
"You're my family now," Pony said defiantly. "Which means you can come with me. Of course, if you want to visit Griffonstone, then..." The pony looked away.
"What about your parents? What are you... what are we going to tell them? I don't want you to get in trouble because of me…"
"Don't be afraid, they will understand everything, I know. We'll be glad to see you at our celebration. I've already prepared a couple of stories. I'll even knit you a sock! Well, If I have time…"
"But how... what if the griffons lose me and attack Equestria? What if they find out about us and disown me? And what if Headmare Starlight finds out? Or Princess Twilight? And what will the guys say? And..."
"They would never do that! Now hush," Sandbar whispered affectionately, not without a kind smile, watching the excitement of his almost-boyfriend and touching the griffon's beak with his hoof. "Do you remember what was next? 'Silence speaks to us so tenderly... let it be.' All right, it sounds better in Ancient Equestrian, but it's still great."
"Angel of my dawn, take my hand, and your morning star-" Gallus picked up, but did not have time to finish.
"They're here! Holy Celestia, how did we not think of it right away! It's the same story!" Voices ranged out from somewhere behind.
The guys jumped up synchronously and turned around. Standing in front of them were Headmare Starlight, her Vice Principal Sunburst, and Advisor Trixie, who had appeared out of nowhere. The complete set, so to speak.
In surprise, Sandbar's feet slipped on the slippery floor, and he again flattened himself like a rug.
"Uh... Рeadmare? Advisor... What... are you doing here?" Gallus asked warily, for some reason standing in front of Sandbar, who was trying to get up.
"What are WE doing here?" shouted the blue mare in a cape and hat, Advisor Trixie, "The great and powerful tracker Trixie was looking for you all night through the Everfree Forest instead of preparing for the performance, and you were HERE all this time?! What the hay?!" Her face twisted into an angry grimace, as if she was going to bite someone.
Trixie was approached by another mare of light purple color with a purple mane — Рeadmare Starlight Glimmer, the viceroy of Princess Twilight herself. She touched Trixie’s neck with her hoof, who sighed and calmed down, although her angry snuffling could still be heard in the silence.
"Okay, maybe I'm not such a great and powerful tracker…"
"Look, Silverstream said that some kind of winged monster dragged Sandbar into the forest," Starlight spoke in a calm but agitated voice. "Gallus, you were missing from your dorm. So naturally, we have herded all the students into my castle, informed the Princess, and sent the royal patrols to search for you all over throughout the forest…"
"So... neither of you were kidnapped?" Sunburst finally guessed — an amber-colored stallion with an enviable mane and beard of titian color. His body was covered with a blue star-spangled cape, without which no one had ever seen him. It was said that if you saw the Vice Principal without clothes, you would go mad.
Sandbar finally got up and stood by Gallus.
"Well, where do we start…"