//------------------------------//
// Chapter Seven: Lyle, Meet Canvas. Canvas, Meet Lyle. 
// Story: Brushed Away 2: By Hoof and Claw 
// by TheVClaw 
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Lyle had no idea what to think right now.

After being stuck on that stupid train for WAY too long, he wasn't exactly in the best mood when he finally found Troy's address. And when he got to the cloud, only to find some mare and a freaky turtle-thing living there, he almost thought that Troy disappeared or something.

Now, after not seeing his brother for about a year, Lyle was only able to talk with him for like, two minutes before he went off to do something. There was nothing left for him to do now but wait in this barn.

With this pony.

To be fair, it wasn't like he had no idea who Canvas was. In a few of the letters Troy sent back to them, he mentioned that he had befriended a stallion who was good with art. And after receiving a copy of the newspaper headline of Canvas getting accepted to make that painting for Celestia (with Troy smiling in the background of the photo like a goober), Lyle was at least able to recognize the stallion now. And considering how nice his art studio looked, Lyle was starting to think that Canvas might actually be a chill guy.

However, as soon as Troy left to take care of that weather-pressure thing, he noticed that the pony was acting a bit fidgety around him. After introducing himself and showing Lyle around the studio a bit, Canvas seemed a little nervous, like he was unsure of how to interact with him. And for some reason, the pony kept rubbing his left hoof.

"… And I just started working on this piece a couple days ago," said Canvas as he pointed up at a huge painting leaned against one of the walls. "Fancy Pants, one of my best clients, wanted me to make this for his wife's birthday. I'm not finished with it yet, but I managed to get a lot done already."

Even though he was still extremely nervous about being with Lyle alone like this—mostly since he had no idea what to say to him—he was still able to move the discussion along to something he was comfortable with. This helped Canvas at least act less flustered around him.

When he showed the Gryphon his latest project, Lyle's eyes widened when he saw the five-foot-high canvas piece, which was a very well-detailed painting of a white unicorn mare with a pink mane.

"Dude…" Lyle blinked a few times as he looked at the painting, obviously impressed by how the piece looked already. "You seriously made that in a few days?!"

"Yeah.” Canvas looked up at the painting of Fleur. "I'm kinda surprised I got so much of it done already. And I was just doing this on the side, and spending most of my time painting the outside of this barn."

"Seriously?!" The way Lyle was looking at him, Canvas almost thought he’d grown a third ear on his forehead or something. "Dude, do you like, sleep at all?"

Canvas chuckled a little and looked away from Troy's brother, feeling a little better about chatting with him. "Nah, it's not like that. Sometimes, I just get really focused on something I'm painting, and it comes out way easier than expected." Thinking it over, Canvas looked back at Lyle with a light smirk on his muzzle. "Although, I will admit that I may have gone a bit overboard this week."

"Yeah, that's putting it lightly," said the Gryphon in a sarcastic tone as he looked around the studio. Thinking it over, the Gryphon looked a little more confused when he turned back to Canvas. "Wait a minute. How did you paint all that stuff on top of the walls? Were you like, on the roof or something?"

Canvas's eyebrows rose a bit, realizing that he forgot to mention how Troy had helped "Oh, no," said Canvas as he put up a hoof, "I actually didn’t do the stuff along the top half of the barn. Your brother did a lot of that, since I don't really have a ladder high enough to reach a lot of it."

Lyle looked at Canvas with a skewed eyebrow before walking over to a nearby window. Opening it, Lyle stuck his head outside and took a glance at the outside wall once more. Noticing how the painting style really did look a little different at one point between the top and bottom halves, the Gryphon muttered, "Huh," to himself before pulling his head back in. Looking back at the pony, Lyle's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"So… he's only been living here for like a month, and you let him paint your house?"

Canvas immediately began to grow nervous again, realizing how weird that may have seemed to someone like Lyle. Not wanting the Gryphon to catch wind of anything before Troy could talk to him, Canvas stammered a little and looked away. "Uhh… well… yeah, I guess. I mean… We're good friends, and he was happy to help out. Plus, it was a lot easier than trying to get the top half done myself."

Lyle blinked a few times, worrying Canvas a little before the Gryphon looked back at the window. "I… guess that makes sense…"

Canvas silently sighed in relief while Lyle was looking away. Hopeful to keep a good conversation with him and avoid any awkward discussions, the pony decided to move the dialogue outside of the art studio. "Hey Lyle," said Canvas, using a cheerful tone to catch his attention, "you want something to eat? I can make a sandwich or something if you want."

"Mmmmm… nah. I ate when I was on the train." Glancing up at the wall separating Canvas's studio from the rest of the barn, which only went halfway up to the roof, Lyle pondered to himself a little before looking back over at the stallion. "You got anything to drink?"

"Y-yeah!" said Canvas in an enthusiastic tone, looking hopeful to chat with Lyle some more. "I'll go check what we have."

While Canvas trotted over into the kitchen from the studio, Lyle flew up to the top of the wall, perching himself on top of the space separating the front and back halves of the barn. As the black and white Gryphon adjusted his footing, Canvas spoke up from the kitchen while looking through the fridge.

"We have cola… milk… a lot of that Gryphon root beer Troy ordered in… um… Troy also has a lot of pineapple juice. He's been on a big pineapple kick lately… umm, let's see…"

As Canvas kept listing off what he had to drink, Lyle's attention wandered off as he glanced up at the loft. From his spot on top of the wall, Lyle was able to get a good view of the bedroom, which stood above everything else inside the barn. And as he saw what was there from his spot, Lyle's eyebrows began to raise.

The first thing Lyle noticed, aside from the lack of furniture in the room, was the huge bedding in the middle of the loft. Taking up almost half of the room, the large mattress surrounded by blankets was obviously a makeshift nest, leaving Lyle to assume that was where Troy probably slept. However, looking at the sheer size of the nest, the Gryphon's eyes narrowed, wondering why his brother would have something so large for himself.

It was at that point that Lyle started to notice a few of the other things around the bedroom. While he didn’t notice the ring by the nightstand, the Gryphon still saw a few articles of clothing lying next to the open wardrobe closet, which quite obviously looked like clothes for ponies. Lyle turned his head back to look at the studio, realizing that it didn't look like anyone actually slept over there, despite the worn couch in the middle of the room.

He turned back to look at the bedroom again, his eyes widening as he thought it over. Lyle's eyes then moved upward as he noticed the back wall of the room. Peering in closer, he saw a framed photo hanging by the large window, which was the one Rarity took of Canvas and Troy last week at their party. Seeing the picture of his brother holding the stallion happily, Lyle's eyes began to widen even more. While he may have been young, the Gryphon was still smart enough to piece everything toget—

"So, what'll it be?"

"I, uh—bu—huh?" Lyle shook his clear before looking down from his spot on the wall. Seeing Canvas as he stuck his head out from the kitchen, Lyle was frozen for a moment as he tried to think of what the buck to say. "Uuuuuhhhhh…"

Unsure of what got to Lyle, Canvas's smile began to lessen as he grew more worried. "Umm… Lyle? What do you want to drink?"

Lyle's beak hung open for a couple seconds, unable to make any discernable sound. Lyle's eyes darted up at the bedroom again, noting what was up there before glancing back at Canvas. "I… I…"

Canvas blinked once as the silence began to grow. However, before the pony could ask if anything was wrong, Lyle closed his eyes and shook his head a little, helping to ease up his tensions enough to respond. "Ummm… the root beer, I guess?"

"Alright," said Canvas with a smile before he went back into the kitchen.

With the stallion out of sight, Lyle looked at the bedroom one last time, thinking it over before hopping off the wall. Landing in the living space of the barn, Lyle looked down to the ground as he processed everything. Judging from the size of the nest, along with the fact that it didn’t look like Canvas was sleeping in the studio, could that mean that…

Lyle looked back up and stared around the living space, noting the framed headlines on the walls, along with Troy's record player nearby. By the time Canvas grabbed the bottles and closed the fridge, Lyle's face looked fairly blank of any clear expression, unable to think anything to do or say. Glancing back at the framed headline of Canvas and Celestia, with Troy standing nearby with a grin on his beak, Lyle was only able to mutter two words before Canvas could re-enter from the kitchen.

"… No… Way…"

"Here you go," said Canvas as he handed a bottle to Lyle. While the Gryphon looked a bit disheveled at first, he was at least able to respond quick enough to not look spaced out again. After Lyle took one of the bottles (while looking a bit odd), Canvas used a bottle opener built into the wall to open the other one in his hoof.

"I gotta say," began the stallion as he tossed the bottle cap into a nearby trashcan, "I was a little skeptical about this stuff when Troy was raving about it, but it really is better than anything around Equestria."

"Y- yeah… sure…" Lyle kept his eyes away from the pony, avoiding eye contact as he easily flicked off his cap with a talon. Before Canvas could finish his first sip, Lyle chugged half the bottle down in an attempt to focus on something other than what he was thinking. When he finally pulled the bottle from his beak, Lyle tapped the bottle a couple times with his talons as he thought it over.

Even though he had no idea how to react to Canvas right now, he knew he had to say something. Knowing he had to bite the bullet, Lyle finally looked back at Canvas, taking a moment before he decided to ask something.

"So… How… how long have the two of you been… friends?"

Not noticing how differently Lyle said that last word, Canvas swallowed his drink before replying, "Oh! Um… I guess we first met around… late April I believe."

"Huh… really…" Lyle glanced upwards towards the loft again, which went unnoticed by Canvas as he took a seat at the dining table.

"Yeah. I mean… I don't know if I can say that's the first time we technically met for the first time, but it was the first time I actually got to see him."

Confused by what he meant, Lyle looked back at Canvas with a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" While Canvas didn’t want to go into full detail about what had happened before he met Troy, Canvas knew he had say something. As the young Gryphon stared at him, Canvas looked down at the table as he continued, "I… I was… really hurt badly a long time ago… and… I was kinda unconscious before your brother found me."

Lyle's eyebrows rose, which went unnoticed by Canvas as he continued speaking.

"I mean… I was running a really… really long time, and… I passed out by a bush outside Ponyville… Troy was doing storm preparations at the time and… He managed to find me before the storm began."

"Wait a minute!"

Canvas looked back up to Lyle, who was staring at him, wide-eyed. Realizing what he was talking about, Lyle pointed at him as said, "Was that… was that when Troy found somepony and met Princess Twilight? Because he actually wrote about that in one of his letters!"

"Yeah!" Surprised that Troy mentioned something like that in one of his letters back home, Canvas readjusted himself on the chair. "Troy was the one who found me, and Twilight apparently teleported both of us to the hospital while the storm was going on!"

Remembering how everything went (at least, how it was told to him through several sources), Canvas smiled to himself as he looked down. "Honestly, I'm still shocked that Troy went out of his way like that. I mean, running over seven miles in a storm like that is insane for anyone to do; but the fact that he did that, with me on his back, AND with a bad wing—"

"Wait, what?!"

Canvas looked up to see Lyle staring at him with a surprised look on his face. "What bad wing?"

"Oh… well… When Troy found me, he tried to fly up to get help, but he was struck by a lightning bolt. It didn't cause any real damage, but…"

From the way Lyle was staring at him, Canvas realized that he may have been telling him something that wasn't meant to be said. "Wait, did… did he ever mention that?"

Lyle slowly shook his head. "N-no… He didn't."

Canvas tried not to cringe as he looked away from the Gryphon. "Ooh, I… I didn’t know that…"

Hoping to alleviate the situation, Canvas turned back to Lyle and clarified, "Just so you know, it really didn’t do anything to him. He was perfectly fine, but…"

Canvas looked down to the table again, sighing as he let that moment sink in for him. "But… it really did show how dedicated he was… I mean, there I was, completely alone, and… He had no idea who I was. But… he still saved me… Even when he couldn't fly, he… he went out of his way to make sure I was okay."

Still happy to say something like that, Canvas breathed in before looking up to Lyle with a gracious smile on his muzzle. "Troy… Your brother… He saved my life."

Standing in a slightly bewildered state, Lyle wasn't sure how to respond. When his family received the letter from Troy recounting how he met Twilight Sparkle, all that he really mentioned was that he helped get a pony to the hospital. He never mentioned that he went to lengths that far to help him, or that the pony turned out to be his artist friend.

And, to be honest, if it wasn't for the look of sincerity on Canvas’s smiling face, Lyle was pretty sure he wouldn't have believed it if Troy had told him. But now, with the pony looking over at him happily, Lyle was only able to blink a couple times before making a response.

"W-wow…"

Canvas chuckled lightly to himself as he sat at the table. "Yeah, I know. I can barely believe it myself." Canvas took another swig of his root beer. "When I finally got out of the hospital, I managed to meet up with him. After thanking him, we got to talking, and…"

With a slight blush coming up on his face, Canvas sighed and smiled before finishing.

"… He became the best friend I ever had."

Even though Lyle was still a bit unsure about what to think about everything, that look on Canvas’s face certainly couldn't be ignored. Seeing how graciously happy the stallion looked, Lyle could really tell how much his brother helped him out, which made him smile a little as well. While he wanted to remind himself to ask Troy about how that day went, Lyle was at least more focused on this conversation than he was on what he saw upstairs. Sitting down in the chair opposite of Canvas at the table, Lyle decided to talk with him some more.

"So… you said you were, like, passed-out before Troy found you?"

"Yeah," said Canvas before taking another drink. "I was."

"So… what happened?"

Looking at the pony, Lyle could see Canvas pale a little at hearing that question. Putting down his bottle, Canvas bit his lip and looked away from the Gryphon, unsure of what to say. After a couple seconds, Canvas sighed before speaking in a low and faint tone.

"That… that's kind of a long story. I probably don’t want to bother you with it right now."

Before Lyle could say anything or try to convince him, Canvas took another deep breath before looking back to him. "So, Lyle," said Canvas in a more optimistic tone, hoping to quickly move the conversation to something else, "what brings you to Equestria so soon?"

Lyle's beak skewed a little as he averted his eyes from the pony. Looking slightly uncomfortable with the question, the Gryphon tried to avoid answering and held his bottle of root beer. "Ehhh… honestly, I… don't know if you want to hear it."

"Oh, come on," said Canvas as he leaned back in his chair, "I'm curious."

Again, Lyle avoided eye contact with Canvas. Thinking it over, Canvas remembered that the letter mentioned something about an "incident" happening at Lyle's school. Pursing his lips for a second in contemplation, Canvas decided to keep going, hoping it wasn't anything too bad.

"So, were you like… kicked out or something?"

"No…" Lyle took another drink from his bottle, still looking away from Canvas. "I mean… kinda, but… I wasn't expelled or anything."

Canvas skewed an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well… I mean… I was supposed to be suspended for like, two weeks, but since there was only a week and a half of school left, they just made it so I was gone for the rest of the school year."

"Really?" Even though he wasn't fully aware of how Gryphon education worked, he still knew that being suspended for two weeks had to be for something bad. "What did you do?”

Lyle grimaced a little and looked down at the table. "It… it was stupid…"

"Oh, come on!" said Canvas, now even more curious about what happened. "I won't judge or anything, I swear."

Lyle looked over to Canvas with a skeptical brow, obviously hesitant of the pony's claim. However, Canvas started to smirk as he eyed the Gryphon.

"C'mon, what did you do? Cheat on a test? Get in a fight? Drop a cherry bomb in the toilet?"

"No, I…" Clenching his beak shut, Lyle looked away from Canvas again. Sighing to himself, the Gryphon kept his head hung away from the pony as he muttered something under his breath.

"I… derprnodatchr …"

Canvas blinked and tried to understand what Lyle had said. "Umm… I didn't catch that."

Lyle closed his eyes and sighed a little louder. "Ugh, fine! I…"

Lyle's feathers were now a little ruffled in frustration. He sat hunched in the chair with his forelegs crossed. However, the Gryphon still managed to speak a little louder this time.

"I… I drew porn of one of the teachers…"

Canvas's smirk faltered a bit as his eyes shot wide open. "… Huh?"

"I mean…" Lyle looked back up to Canvas and tried to defend himself. "It wasn't for me! Some weird kid in my class saw some of the sketches I was doing, and he knew that I sometimes made stuff for my friends. He asked if I could draw something of his math teacher, and I was like, 'No way!' but then he offered me like, fifty Avians to do it, and I wasn't going to say no to that…"

Canvas was still a bit too taken back by Lyle's first statement to really respond; however, he was still listening enough to catch what he was talking about. And at hearing how much he was getting paid, Canvas was slightly impressed, knowing how much higher Avians were worth in comparison to Equestrian Bits.

"… Well, he ended up getting caught with it by the librarian, who freaked out. And then she showed the math teacher, and she freaked out! And then when he was sent to the principal, he ratted me out, and then everyone freaked out! And…"

Lyle groaned under his breath and leaned back in his chair, looking a bit disgruntled. "It was just a huge clusterbuck. And my parents were already on my ass about school, so I decided to just come by earlier than the others."

It took a couple seconds of silence for Canvas to let everything sink in. While he figured something big had to have happened for Lyle to show up this early, he never would've guessed it was something like that. Nevertheless, Canvas knew better than to say anything negative about it, leaving him to just exhale and try not to laugh before making a reply.

"Man, I… I don't know what to say."

"Eh… I'd rather you didn’t say much about it," muttered Lyle as he looked back at the pony. "Honestly, though, I'm kinda glad I got out of school early. I mean, my grades were already pretty good, so this suspension won’t really affect them. Plus, I was getting sick of how much Mom and Dad were griping at me over college."

"Wait, college?" asked Canvas in confusion. "Aren't you, like, still in middle school or something?"

"Yeah!" said Lyle in an annoyed tone. "But that doesn’t stop them from getting on my case about it! It's always, 'Think about school,' or 'You should prepare now,’ which really gets under my skin! I mean, I'm not even in high school yet! Why should I think about that kind of crap now?!"

Canvas shrugged a little in understanding. "Well… they're probably just looking out for you. College is an important thing to think about."

"But still!" The Gryphon complained as he continued, "I don't even know what I want to do with my life! I mean, I have no idea what I want to do ten years from now, or even one year from now, so why should I think about college? Like, what if I go to college, and then realize I want to do something that doesn't even need it? I don’t want to waste my time and money on that kind of thing if it doesn’t even matter!"

As Lyle looked over at the stallion, who had his eyebrows raised in surprise at the Gryphon's observations, it took a few seconds before Canvas finally made a response.

"I… kinda agree with you."

"I mean, why should I care what schoo—what, what?" Not expecting to hear that kind of answer, Lyle paused his ranting and looked back over at the pony.

Canvas finished his bottle of root beer before continuing. "No, seriously. I totally get it. You're still in middle school, so college really shouldn’t be on your mind right now."

"Thank you!" said Lyle in a relieved tone, glad to finally hear someone say that.

"I mean, not everyone knows what they want to do at your age. And it's not like you get to know what you're good at as easily as ponies do." Canvas motioned to the paint palette cutie mark on his flank before continuing, "And while college can help you out a lot in the future, it's not exactly for everyone. I mean, I didn’t go to college, and I ended up doing pretty well for myself."

Canvas then pointed a hoof over at the framed headline of himself with Celestia to prove his point.

"Although," Canvas began, trying to clarify, "I still had to work my flank off for that. And when you think about it, that's probably the most important thing: working hard for what you really want to do."

Taking Canvas's words in, Lyle nodded in understanding. Even though what he saw upstairs was still looming the back of his mind, he wasn't feeling as flustered about it while talking with Canvas like this. In all honestly, Lyle was really beginning to stop caring about it altogether.

"Yeah, I mean… exactly." Lyle smiled a little and rested in his chair, chuckling under his breath as he realized how well this conversation was going. "In all seriousness, I think you're the first guy I talked to about this who wasn't insistent about me going to college."

"Well, it's just like what you said," said Canvas with a light shrug. "I think you should know what you want to do with your life before you think about that sort of thing." Lyle nodded while Canvas tossed his empty bottle into the trashcan.

"So," asked the stallion as he looked back to Lyle, "what do you like to do? Like, what do you do in your spare time?"

"Ummm…" Thinking it over, the Gryphon gave a shrug as he answered honestly. "I dunno. Like… I like reading comics and stuff. I guess I also doodle a lot of things too."

"Like what?" asked Canvas, curiosity on his face.

"Eh, nothing big or anything. Just random stuff."

"But…" Remembering what Lyle said a while ago, Canvas decided to bring it up as he asked, "Didn’t you say you made commissions for your friends?"

Lyle looked at Canvas with a confused look. "A what?"

"You know," said Canvas as he leaned back in his chair, "a commission. Like, when you sell artwork requested by others, that's called a commission."

"Oh. Well…" Lyle looked down to the table as he thought it over. "I… guess I do, but… I usually just make them for fun. The only one I actually got money from was that porn thing."

Canvas shrugged, understanding what Lyle meant. "So… can I see some of your sketches?"

Lyle scoffed a little, thinking that Canvas was just pulling his leg. "Dude, trust me. My stuff isn’t that great."

"But still," insisted Canvas, "I can probably give you some good advice or something. You know, one artist to another?"

Lyle's beak skewed a bit as he thought it over. While he didn’t necessarily think of himself as an "artist" by any means—especially in comparison to Canvas's stuff—he knew he didn’t have much else going on right now. And since Canvas didn't seem to be that bad of a guy, maybe showing a few of his doodles would be alright.

"Hmmmm… Oh, what the heck." Lyle gave a light smirk to Canvas before getting off his chair. "I think I have my sketchbook in one of my bags."

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It took less than ten minutes for Troy to reach the Weather Pressure Machine, which was already undergoing a lot of counteraction from the Pegasus ponies that arrived before him. After enough wingpower was gathered for an opposing tornado to be made and neutralize the machine, everything was back under control in a matter of minutes.

However, while most of the ponies were with cheering with success or collapsing on nearby clouds from exhaustion, Troy was just concerned with getting back home as soon as possible. Just as the Gryphon was about to zoom off, Rainbow Dash hovered in front of him and held out her hooves.

"Whoa, Troy!" Dash shouted, trying to keep Troy still. Seeing how worried he was getting due to his brother being in Ponyville early, Rainbow wanted to make sure he wouldn't become too panicked. "Before you go anywhere, you need to calm yourself down!"

"Dash, come on!" Troy tried to maneuver past her, but the Pegasus was able to quickly counter any move that the Gryphon attempted.

"I'm serious, dude! You can’t go back there when you're looking this freaked-out! There's nothing to worry about!"

"Oh, nooooo, of course not, Dash!" said Troy in an overly sarcastic and irritated tone. "It's just my little brother, who has no idea I'm gay, alone at my house on the ground, with my stallion fiancé! What's there to worry about, right?!"

If it was anyone else acting like this towards her, Rainbow Dash would've smacked them hard enough for Celestia to feel it. However, she knew better than to mess with Troy right now. Knowing how worried he was about his family's reaction to him being with Canvas, Rainbow Dash wanted to help out Troy a little before he talked with his brother. Keeping a level head, the pony put out her hooves and attempted something she learned from Fluttershy.

"Troy, I want you to try something for me, okay?"

Troy groaned and closed his eyes in frustration. "Urrrrrgh… what?"

"Troy," began Dash, gritting her teeth as she tried to keep herself from hitting him, "just do as I do, alright?"

With his eyes clenched shut, the Gryphon grimaced a little before sighing in defeat. "F-fine. Let… let's just get this over with."

"Okay." With that, Rainbow Dash hovered in front of Troy and pointed her hooves to her chest. Closing her eyes, the pony's face began to look much calmer than before as she settled. Slowly, Rainbow Dash breathed in through her nostrils, making Troy roll his eyes in annoyance.

However, since he knew that he wouldn't be able to leave before doing this, Troy sighed to himself before closing his eyes. Much like Rainbow Dash, the Gryphon took a deep breath, making sure to inhale as slowly as he could to imitate her.

"Now," Dash said quietly, waiting until she made sure Troy had breathed in fully before giving her next instruction, "breathe out."

Slowly, both Troy and Rainbow Dash exhaled in unison, which actually helped to slow down the Gryphon's heart rate. Keeping his eyes closed, Troy hated to admit how much that really helped him out. Even though all he did was take a deep breath, Rainbow Dash's advice really made him feel less flustered.

However, before the Gryphon could nod to the pony and zoom off, Rainbow Dash stood in front of Troy as he opened his eyes. "Okay," said Dash in a firm tone as she made sure he was calmed down, "are you feeling better?"

Troy groaned under his breath, knowing that he couldn’t say it wasn't completely pointless. With great reluctance, the Gryphon slowly nodded. "Ye… yeah… Th-thanks."

"You're welcome." Before Troy could try to fly past her, Rainbow Dash put out a hoof to keep him in place. "But Troy, I really don't think you should be this worried."

"That's easy for you to say," said Troy in a bit of a bitter tone as he looked at her. "I told you, most Gryphons aren't that comfortable with alternative relationships."

"I know," Dash said insistently, "but I don't think Lyle is like that."

"Oh really?" Troy stared at the pony with skepticism. "How would you know that?"

"Because he didn't freak out when he saw me."

Unsure of what Rainbow Dash meant, Troy stayed silent, a confused look on his face. Rainbow made sure she wouldn’t be interrupted before she explained, "When he came into my room, you know, what he thought was your room, he didn't seem that weirded-out by seeing me in the bed. Heck, he even asked me if I was your marefriend!"

"Seriously?" asked the Gryphon, surprised.

"Yeah! Luckily, I managed to tell him I wasn't pretty quickly, but he didn’t look grossed-out when he asked me. He wasn't like, 'Ew, are you his marefriend?!' He was just kinda casual about it, like, ‘Hey, are you his marefriend or something?'"

Taking this new information in, Troy blinked a few times and tried to think of an appropriate response. "Umm… huh."

"Exactly," said Dash, "so if he didn’t freak out about me, I doubt he'll freak out much when you tell him about you and Canvas."

Troy looked away from the mare as he thought it over. Even though he was certainly glad to hear something that reassuring, it still didn't help his worries that much. Troy closed his eyes as he sighed, taking a moment before he looked back to Rainbow Dash.

"It's just… this is kinda different, Dash. I mean, you're a mare! I think me being with a stallion is gonna be a bit more surprising to him than if I was with someone like you."

Despite wanting to tell Troy otherwise, Rainbow knew that the Gryphon had a somewhat valid point. Rubbing her temple with a hoof, she groaned a little before attempting to ease Troy's tensions. "Dude, I don't think your brother's gonna react that badly."

"And what if he does?" Now looking more worried, the Gryphon looked away from Rainbow Dash again as he kept speaking in a frantic tone. "Like, what if he goes off on me? What if he says I'm not his brother anymore? Or, what if he just calls me a feather-fluffer and flies off to tell my folks?! I don’t think I can take that kind of thing, Dash!"

"Troy, please don't freak out about this! I really don't think Lyle would…" Rainbow Dash looked a little confused as she paused. "Wait, what's a feather-fluffer?"

"Oh, that's the Gryphon equivalent of colt-cuddler."

"Oh…" Rainbow Dash shrugged a little before shifting her attention to Troy. "Anyway, I doubt anything like that is going to happen."

Troy sighed and looked away from her again, obviously hesitant on believing her.

"Dude, seriously!" Rainbow Dash insisted, "Lyle's still a kid! Kids usually don't care that much about that kind of thing. Heck, if anything, there's probably a good chance he'll be the least freaked-out about it."

Troy clenched his beak shut and thought Rainbow's words over. Despite still being worried, he knew that she had a good point; kids were born with a lot of things, but homophobia wasn’t one of them. Even with the fact that Gryphon society wasn’t as accepting of alternative relationships as Equestria’s, there was still a good chance that it wasn't as ingrained in Lyle's conscience. And if he really wasn't that put off about him being with someone like Rainbow Dash, who’s to say that Canvas would be much different?

"You…" Troy looked back at the Pegasus with hopeful eyes. "… You really think so?"

"Yes," said Rainbow Dash in a relieved tone. She placed a hoof on his shoulder as she added, "So please, just… just stay calm. When you get home, I think you should probably take him out somewhere. Hang out with him a little, catch up on some stuff, and just spend some time with him. And when the moment's right, then you tell him the truth."

Troy closed his eyes and took a breath, pausing for a moment before slowly nodding. Noticing that he was looking a lot less stressed, Rainbow Dash kept her hoof on his shoulder in reassurance. "Seriously, Troy, I… I really don’t think he'll react that badly."

"But…" Troy reopened his eyes before speaking with a tone of unease. "But what if he does?"

Rainbow Dash just sighed, unsure of what to say. Even though she didn’t want the Gryphon to think like that, it didn’t mean there wasn't a chance it could happen. The Pegasus thought about it for another moment before letting go of Troy and speaking sincerely.

”Listen, if Lyle freaks out about it, just… just try to find me, alright? I'm pretty good with talking to kids, so I'll try to talk with him and make sure he doesn't hate you."

Troy's eyebrows raised in surprise, not expecting a mare like her to offer something that helpful. "You… really?"

"Yes," said Rainbow Dash with an insistent tone. "I'm not saying anything bad will happen, but if something does, which I really doubt, I'll have your back."

Hearing the sincerity in her words, Troy finally managed to regain a smile on his beak. "Wow, th… thanks, Dash."

"No problem." With that, Rainbow Dash moved herself aside so Troy could leave. "Now go hang out with your brother, dude."

"Sure thing."

With a new confidence in his heart, Troy flew off, hoping to make it home as soon as he could.

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"… Hmmmmm…"

Canvas sat on his worn couch in the studio, looking through Lyle's sketchbook while the Gryphon sat next to him. Lyle, who honestly didn’t care that much about his drawings, was more focused on reading his copy of The Trotting Dead he had in his duffle bag. However, the Gryphon regained his attention on the pony when he began to speak up.

"You know, Lyle, this… this is actually really good."

Lyle rolled his eyes and tried not to scoff too obviously. "Yeah right," muttered the Gryphon under his breath, "they're just doodles."

"No, seriously!" Leaning forward on the couch, Canvas held the sketchbook out. "You really have some good drawing skills! Like…"

Canvas flipped the sketchbook back a few pages, showing a really detailed sketch of a Gryphon warrior decapitating a Changeling with an axe.

"On this one, you really did a great job getting the body proportions right. I mean, nothing on his pose looks off, which is really impressive considering the angle you went for. You even got the claws drawn at the right proportion, which is really tough to do."

Lyle shrugged a little, knowing that the stallion made a good point. "Yeah, drawing claws can suck sometimes. I think I got kinda lucky with that one."

"Luck didn’t have anything to do with it. I mean…" Canvas flipped over to another page, which showed a drawing of a female Gryphon grinning at the viewer with a mouse hanging from her beak. "You really took your time on this, and it shows! Like, you didn’t even try drawing by contours, and you focused on getting the framework done before drawing everything in. That's something not many guys do at your age."

Lyle glanced over at the sketch Canvas was referring to, smiling a little when he saw what it was. "Oh yeah, I remember that one. I tried to just trace over it from her pic in a comic I had, but I kept messing up. I heard about doing that framework thing, so I tried it out. It honestly works really well."

"Exactly," said Canvas as he looked over at him optimistically. "And you're really good at getting different poses drawn right. Like…"

Canvas looked back to Lyle's sketchbook and started flipping the pages one-by-one. "You draw all these different poses really well. Like this guy throwing a spear… This girl flying through a monster… This mare spreading her—WHOA!!!"

Lyle quickly snatched the sketchbook from Canvas's hooves. With his feathers fully ruffled out, the Gryphon clutched the book to his chest, looked away, and tried to hide his deep blush. "Crap, I… I was… I was drawing that for a friend!"

Canvas blinked a couple times and stared at Lyle wide-eyed, not expecting to see a sketch like that. "Umm, well… Your… your friend really seems to like Daring Do."

Canvas tried not to snicker, which just made Lyle look back to him with a strong glare. "Shut up! I… I forgot I had that in there!"

"Dude…" Canvas looked away from Lyle, chuckling under his breath a little before regaining his maturity. "You know what? I'm not going to say anything about that."

Lyle grumbled a little and hunched himself on the couch. Shaking his head in disbelief, Canvas looked back at the sketchbook in Lyle's claws and tried to change the subject.

"Although… I'm a little curious. What was with that one drawing with the weird shading?"

Lyle looked back at Canvas with a confused look on his face. "What weird shading?"

"That one with the guy, uh… wait a minute." Canvas put out his hoof for the sketchbook, which Lyle gave back to him reluctantly. Reopening the sketchbook, Canvas quickly skimmed the pages until he found the one he was talking about. Holding it out for Lyle to see, Canvas pointed at the drawing of a large Gryphon with a deep scar on his face, who was wearing a black trenchcoat and fedora.

"Why is it that the shading is so contrasted on this one? I mean, your shading looks natural on the others, but this one is just pure black and white."

Seeing the sketch, Lyle's eyebrows rose as he remembered. "Oh, yeah! That's supposed to be like that. He's a character from Feather Noir."

Canvas looked back at him curiously. "Feather what?"

"Dude, you…" Surprised to hear that kind of answer, Lyle's eyes widened as he tried to comprehend Canvas's question. "You never heard of Feather Noir?!"

Lyle went back over to one of his duffle bags, opening it as he shuffled through the contents inside. "That's like, one of the best graphic novels EVER! Do you seriously not have that over here?!"

"Well…" Canvas looked away sheepishly and put Lyle's sketchbook down. "I didn’t really read that many comics as a kid. Plus, I was more of a fan of stuff like Power Ponies, honestly."

Lyle pulled out a thick paperback from his bag, handing it over to Canvas to see. Holding the Anthology book of Feather Noir in his hooves, Canvas's eyes narrowed as he skimmed through the pages.

"It's sort of like a detective story," Lyle said as he tried to show Canvas the comic. "It has a bunch of intertwining storylines and stuff, and it really goes into detail with a bunch of different characters."

"Huh…" Looking through the artwork, Canvas was definitely able to see where Lyle got the shading style from. Much like that sketch, this comic had the same kind of heavily contrasted shading, where almost all the panels were a mix of black and white (and plenty of red in the bloody scenes). While it certainly wasn't like anything he'd read before, Canvas was still rather interested in looking through it.

Seeing that Canvas was gaining interest, Lyle went back into his bag to get more of his comics. Before Canvas could start reading page one of Feather Noir, Lyle pulled out a huge pile of different comics and graphic novels, none of which looked familiar to the pony at all.

"This one is called The Guardsmen," began the Gryphon as he handed a different graphic novel to Canvas. "It's sort of a more realistic take on superheroes, I guess. There's a lot of stuff in it about vigilantism and ethics,  but it's really well done. It's also set in an alternate universe where Luna was ruling the past thousand years, and not Celestia."

"Wow…" Canvas never really considered himself to be the kind of pony to read many comics, but Lyle's stuff was really looking like good reading material. Noticing the large pile of comics Lyle placed between them, Canvas's eyebrows raised in curiosity as he noticed the different stories.

"I mean," began Lyle as he went back to his issue of The Trotting Dead, "you can read some of those if you want."

"Thanks," said Canvas as his hoof brushed through each title. "You really have a lot of stuff here… Power Ponies Unlimited… Trotting Dead… wait, what's Scarred?"

"DON'T READ THAT ONE!" Lyle snatched the comic Canvas was talking about before he could open it. When the pony stared at him with a puzzled look, Lyle said with a guilty tone in his voice as he held the comic, "Crap, I forgot I brought this. I'm pretty sure this might be illegal in this country."

"Really?" said Canvas, intrigued. "Well, now I gotta read it."

"No dude! Seriously…" Lyle grimaced a little and pulled the comic further away from Canvas. "This is like… really, REALLY graphic stuff. It's actually considered a bit hardcore for a lot of Gryphons."

Canvas scoffed a bit before reaching for the comic. "Dude, come on…" Despite Lyle's protests, Canvas grabbed the comic back. Keeping his eyes on the worried Gryphon, Canvas spoke more confidently as he began to skim the pages.

"I'm an adult, Lyle. I think I can handle a little bit of blood an—WHAT THE!!!"

Canvas immediately dropped the comic to the floor. His face turned to a deathly pale. Holding his hooves to his muzzle in shock, Canvas didn’t notice how Lyle was looking at him with a cheeky smirk on his beak.

"Dude… I told you so."

"Wha… what was…" Looking away from the comic while Lyle picked it back up, Canvas was almost at a complete loss for words. "What… what was that guy doing to that dolphin?!"

Lyle winced a bit as he put the issue of Scarred back into his bag. "Yeesh! You opened it to THAT page? Dude…"

When Lyle looked back to Canvas, who still looked beyond shocked from what he just saw, he put up a claw and tried to explain himself. "Just so you know, the only reason I have that is because the artist does a lot of the album covers for Blade's band Talon Ripper. He usually gives them to him for free, so I looked through them sometimes."

Blinking a few times in contemplation, Canvas looked away from the Gryphon as he tried to regain himself. "I… I think I need some brain bleach or something."

Lyle snickered before walking to his other duffle bag. "Dude, I warned you…"

"Yeah, I know," muttered the pony, shaking his head. "Remind me to take your advice next time."

"Deal." With that, Lyle opened his second duffle, which Canvas remembered to be the extremely heavy one. Noticing a large, box-like object inside of it, Canvas hopped off the couch and walked over to see what it was. When Lyle opened the bag enough for Canvas to see what was inside, his eyes widened in surprise, not expecting the Gryphon to have something like that.

Upon seeing the pony's reaction, Lyle grinned and looked up at him. "So… you have an outlet to plug this in?"

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With the brisk autumn air blowing through his feathers, Troy was feeling a lot better, albeit a little chilly, as he finally began to see his home in the horizon. Remembering Rainbow Dash's words, Troy was hopeful enough to keep them close when he thought about his brother. While he was still worried about how Lyle would react to him being with a stallion, Troy knew there was a good chance that things wouldn’t go that awry.

Landing on the soft grass near his home, Troy stretched out his back and finally rested his wings. After doing his full feline stretch and yawning loudly, he was glad to be back on his legs again. Even though he had plans to do some more flying today, mostly in regards to what he was planning with his brother, Troy was just glad to give his wings a well-deserved break.

However, before Troy could walk over to the side door of the barn and enter his home, the sound of yelling from the front caught his attention. Hearing the commotion coming from Canvas's studio, Troy's heart shot up in his throat as he heard his brother's yelling.

"Oh, you think you're better than ME, you little turd?!"

"I call as I see it!" shouted Canvas from inside the barn. "You're going down, twerp!"

Hearing their yelling, Troy ran straight to the front of the barn in a rush of pure fear. Afraid of what had happened to make his fiancé and brother yell at each other like that, the last thing he wanted was to walk in on a nasty fight. With his heart racing in worry, Troy stood on his hindlegs as he threw the barn doors open.

"WHAT'S GOIN—"

As soon as he saw what was going on, Troy stood motionless in confusion. Instead of seeing his brother and fiancé beating each other up or the studio in pure disarray, what Troy saw was something completely different.

Canvas and Lyle were sitting on the couch, each of them holding a joystick. A large gaming console was turned on in front of them. Even with Troy's loud entrance, neither of them noticed the large Gryphon at all, keeping their attention on the fighting game they were playing. On the large gaming system, which was propped on a coffee table, the screen in the middle of it displayed two pixelated characters fighting each other.

Lyle, who was controlling the character on the left, was obviously having some difficulty as he struggled to get an edge on the pony. "Dude!" shouted the younger Gryphon in aggravation. "How the buck are you good at this?! You have hooves, for crying out loud!"

Canvas, who was in control of the female character currently winning the match, was cackling in joy as he replied, "Hey, I made a painting for Celestia with these hooves! Don't think I—Ooh! Good combo!—don’t think I'm only good with painting with these!"

Realizing what was going on, Troy stayed silent while he stood on his hindlegs at the open doorway of the barn. Looking at the two on the couch, Troy's heartbeat began to settle as he saw that they weren't fighting for real. In fact, at seeing how happy the two were while they tried to outdo each other in the fighting game, Troy began to smile a little and sighed in relief.

Dropping down so he was on all fours again, Troy decided not to mess with their game and silently walked over to the back of the couch. Leaning in to watch the action, Troy noticed that Canvas was, in fact, winning the match. While Lyle gritted his teeth in frustration and struggled to get a move in with his joystick, Canvas unloaded a devastating combo attack with his character.

"Whoa!" shouted Troy as he saw his fiancé's impressive skills. "Nice one, dude!"

"Thanks!" said Canvas, barely noticing that Troy was back before finishing the match. After performing a multiple kick-and-punch combo to drain his opponent's life meter, Canvas threw up his hooves in victory, while Lyle groaned and threw his joystick on the couch.

"Noooo!!!" yelled Lyle in defeat. "That… that was… YOU CHEATED!"

Canvas just laughed while Lyle pointed a frustrated talon at him. "Dude, c'mon! I won, fair and square!"

On the gaming screen, a text came up in front of the characters, saying, FINISH HIM!

"All right!" said Canvas excitedly as he paused the game and grabbed the game manual. "I finally get to do one of these 'Fatality' thingies!"

"Ugh, come on!" Lyle groaned as he leaned back on the couch. "This is so la—oh, hey Troy!"

Finally noticing his older brother, Lyle smiled a little as he looked up at him. Troy gave a quick "Hey," back to him before pointing at a page in the manual.

"Hey Canvas," said Troy as he pointed a talon at a specific code, "you should try that one."

"Alright," replied the pony as he scanned the maneuver. Reading how to do it, Canvas placed the manual down before unpausing the game. With his opponent wobbling on his legs on the screen, Canvas moved his own character back a few steps before performing the actions with his joystick.

"Left, left, right, down, punch, punch, kick… down!"

With that last action done, the game screen turned to something new. An impressive animated sequence came up on the console, showing Lyle's character as he was surrounded by a large swarm of Changelings. After Lyle’s character briefly screamed, the swarm began attacking him, encapsulating him like a swarm of locusts. After several seconds of screaming and munching noises, the swarm flew off, leaving only a skeleton where Lyle's character had been.

"PLAYER TWO WON!" shouted a voice from the console. "CHANGELING FATALITY!"

Canvas, who was a little grossed-out by the animation, carried a goofy smile on his muzzle. "That… was awesome!"

Canvas put up his hoof in front of Lyle, expecting him to slap it. Lyle, who was still a little upset about losing so easily to a pony, groaned a little when he saw how excited Canvas looked. Nevertheless, after a low sigh, Lyle gave a half-hearted tap to Canvas's hoof with a claw.

"Nice!" said Canvas enthusiastically before turning his attention to Troy. "So, Troy, you get that weather thing fixed?"

"Uhh… yeah!" said the Gryphon, almost forgetting that he did that not too long ago. "It honestly wasn't that big of a deal."

Troy then turned his attention to Lyle, grinning lightly at him when he saw how bummed-out he was about losing the game. "So, Lyle, you doin' alright?"

"Mmmm… I guess…" Lyle shrugged a bit before getting off the couch. "I mean, I didn't expect Canvas to be that good at Khaos Kombat."

"Hey," said Canvas, "to be fair, neither did I!" The stallion then smiled a little, glanced at the game console, and pointed at it. "Troy, remind me to get myself one of those things!"

"Oh, fine," said Troy, trying not to chuckle too loudly. Considering how happy the stallion looked, Troy wondered whether or not a video game console could be put in their wedding registry.

Lyle stretched after being on the couch so long, grunting under his breath before making a quick reply. "To be fair, though, it was nice actually playing against someone that was a challenge." Lyle then looked back at his brother and Canvas before adding, "Seriously, I don’t know where you found him, but he's pretty cool."

Troy instantly grew a large smile on his beak, overjoyed to hear Lyle say something like that. And when he glanced over at his fiancé, who was blushing a little, the smile he carried was enough to know how glad Canvas was to hear that.

"Th… thanks, dude."

"No prob," said Lyle as he stretched out his forelegs some more. Before he could add anything more, Lyle's stomach let loose a loud gurgle.

"Oh! That reminds me…" Canvas hopped off the couch and went to get his art bag. "I was meaning to run into town and grab some things for dinner."

Canvas then picked up his faded, tan bag, which was still adorned with all the various drawings and sketches done in black ink from over the years. Hoisting the canvas bag over his shoulder, Canvas made sure it was secure before looking back to Troy with a smile. "I won't be gone long, so I'll just leave you two to catch up."

Smiling back at the stallion, Troy didn’t need to be told what Canvas meant by "catching up." However, considering what he was planning to do anyways, the Gryphon already knew what he wanted to do. Looking over at his little brother, Troy kept his smile as he leaned against the couch.

"So, Lyle, you wanna check out Cloudsdale? Since you're here, I can show you where I used to work before doing Weather Patrol."

Thinking it over, Lyle just shrugged in agreement. "Sure, I guess."

Happy to hear that answer, Troy's smile grew wider as he finally took off his work vest. Tossing it aside in the studio, Troy took one more glance back at his fiancé, who was looking back at him with a warm smile. Knowing what Troy was planning to talk with his brother about, Canvas didn’t need to say a word to show his approval, glad that it was going to happen this soon.

Making sure he had everything, Canvas walked out of his home with the two Gryphons before locking the door behind him. "Well," began the pony as he made sure the door was shut, "hopefully I'll have something ready by the time you two get back."

"Sounds good," said Troy, giving him a caring smile. Although he wanted to give a quick kiss to Canvas before heading off, he knew that he had to talk with Lyle first before anything else. So, with a slight shade of suppressed disappointment, Troy merely nodded to the stallion before flying off with Lyle.

As the two Gryphons soared off towards Cloudsdale, Canvas waved goodbye to them. After the two were out of sight, Canvas sighed lightly before trotting off. Though he was a little uneasy about how things might go—especially since he hated not having his ring on right now—Canvas was still hopeful that everything would turn out alright.

Keeping his utmost trust in Troy doing the right thing, Canvas decided to place his focus on something else, and thought what he should make for dinner while on his trek to Ponyville.