//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: A New Morning 
// Story: Brushed Away 3: Hearts Entwined 
// by TheVClaw 
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According to official Equestrian records, the Winter months were actually some of the coldest recorded in over a decade. After countless nights of temperatures reaching far below freezing, there wasn’t a single being in the land of Equestria that was disappointed by the time Winter Wrap Up arrived. Eventually, the thick sheets of white that covered the lands melted away, and the luscious colors of spring reemerged with the start of another beautiful year. While a lot occurred within the span of one year around the seemingly quaint (but undoubtedly active) town of Ponyville, all of the changes just seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

Of course, those changes were prevalent even outside of Ponyville as well. Along the outer road that lead to Sweet Apple Acres, the large barn that was formerly boarded up and abandoned looked completely different by the time spring arrived. Along with being renovated and deemed livable again, the barn was also painted with a wild array of colors and patterns along all of its walls, which gave the variety of flowers along the forest behind it a run for their money. And at both ends of the front of the massive barn, two flags were hanging from opposite poles and waving along the spring winds proudly: one of the standard Equestrian flag, and the other of the flag of the Gryphon Kingdom.

And between those two poles, a newly-painted addition was placed on the wall above the front doors of the barn: the words Canvas Creations in white font, along with the logo of a painter’s pallet underneath.

Inside of the barn, everything seemed completely still as it laid in darkness. However, with the sunlight beginning to beam in through the windows of the studio at the front of the barn, it could be easy to see the loft that hung above the space at the back of the home. Within the loft, a massive pile of bedding that resembled a nest covered most of the floor, which held three different beings who were sleeping in the massive space.

The first was the Gryphon with silver feathers along the top half of its body, and a darker grey fur along the back, who most ponies in the region knew as Troius Clawston. Troius, also known as Troy, had his yellow beak agape as he slept soundlessly while sprawled out across half of the nest. Laying on his back, his massive wings of silver feathers covered even more of the space, although one of them helped to cover the pony that was sleeping beside him.

While contrasting with the Gryphon’s silver and grey hues, the stallion’s aqua fur was barely noticeable within the darkened space of the bedroom. On his flank, the Earth pony’s cutie mark of a paint pallet showed that he was the owner of the studio at the front of the barn, and that he went by the name Canvas. A strand of the stallion’s shoulder-length, chestnut colored mane was lazily over his muzzle, and flew upward for a second with each breath Canvas made. With his left hoof, which had a white gold band wrapped around it, rested on top of Troy’s slowly rising and receding chest, Canvas had his head pressed against the Gryphon’s side while spooning beside him.

And resting in a free space of the bed right between the two, a small Saint Bernard was just beginning to wake up as the barn brightened from the morning light. A small thud could be heard from the ceiling, but only the dog’s ears twitched from it. Opening its beady brown eyes, the puppy blinked a couple times before making a large, yet silent yawn. After stretching strongly, showing just how much the puppy had grown after only four months, he quickly got on his paws, and shook his fur out of its formerly matted state. The Saint Bernard looked over at the two still sleeping, and quickly began to pant with a smile on its brown and black-spotted face. 

Without a second thought, the dog crawled on top of the stallion’s chest to get a better view of his face. Of course, after just a couple licks against the pony’s cheek, Canvas’s face scrunched in surprise as he awoke from his formerly pleasant slumber. “Ugh… c’mon, Tenor! Really?!”

Not catching his owner’s annoyed tone, Tenor barked cheerfully while on top of him. Troy, who woke up after hearing the dog’s enthusiastic wakeup call, slowly opened his golden eyes before peering over at the stallion with a smirk. “Heh heh… He seems to like waking you up more than me, doesn’t he?”

Canvas just gave an unamused stare when he looked back at the Gryphon. “Well, I think that’s because he learned he can’t wake you up as easily.”

Troy just made a playful shrug and replied, “Well, it’s not like he can use his tongue as well as you can.”

Despite the blush that exploded across the aqua pony’s face, he still let out a small giggle before turning his attention back to the puppy. Canvas wrapped both forelegs around Tenor’s body while giving him a nuzzle. “Awww, c’mere!”

Tenor’s tail wagged wildly as he returned the gesture, licking at the stallion’s face and nuzzling him as much as he could. While Canvas giggled at the now pleasant wake up call, Troy just laid on his side while looking at the two with a smile. If someone told the Gryphon a year ago that he would eventually end up in a home on the ground with a stallion as his fiancè, and raising a Saint Bernard puppy (instead of something like a Doberman or a Rottweiler), he would’ve assumed that they were absolutely insane. But now, with those very things happening in his life, all that Troy could do was lie back and savor the moment without any regret on his mind. 

Less than a year ago, Troy didn’t even know the pony who was lying in the nest with him. Some might’ve called how the two met to be fate, since a million circumstances could’ve happened which would have kept the stallion and Gryphon from ever meeting. But despite all the ‘maybes’ and ‘what-ifs’ that could’ve occurred, Troy still considered that day he met Canvas to be the most unavoidably significant moment of his life. While all he did was save a badly injured Earth pony from a serious thunderstorm, it still set the Gryphon on a path in his life that he never would’ve even considered in his wildest dreams.

Canvas paused while nuzzling the Saint Bernard when he noticed how Troy was staring at him. With his blush still apparent, he smiled towards the Gryphon and asked, “So… should I ask what you’re thinking about?”

Troy made another shrug and said, “Oh, nothing much…” Looking into the stallion’s beaming blue eyes, the Gryphon took a moment before adding in a happier tone in his voice. “I just… I can’t help thinking how lucky I am right now.”

Hearing the tone of sincerity that Troy gave with that statement, Canvas’s smile became warmer as he leaned in towards him. With Tenor still laying on his chest, the stallion bent in to give a kiss to his fiancè’s beak, which was returned just as quickly by the Gryphon. The kiss lasted for a few seconds, but it was apparently too long for the puppy as he made another enthusiastic bark.

Canvas pulled back from Troy’s beak with a sigh. “Alright, alright…” He turned to Tenor to ask in a playful tone. “I’m guessing someone needs a walk?”

Tenor brightened up at the mention of the word “walk”, and yelped happily with a jump on top of the stallion. Even though he was still a puppy, the fact that Tenor was now the size of most moderately-sized adult dogs made his landing strong enough to leave Canvas winded. While the stallion groaned slightly, Troy pulled the Saint Bernard off so his fiancè could get the chance to roll out of bed freely. “You okay, hon?”

“Hnnnggg… Mmmhmm…” Despite his strained expression, the pony was able to nod his head as he rolled out of the nest less than gracefully. After managing to catch his breath enough to get on his hooves again, Canvas got the leash off of the nightstand with his muzzle. “C’mon boy,” he said while his own end of the leash was in his mouth. “Leth go.”

Tenor quickly sprung out of the nest, clearly wide awake as the the two walked down the steps by the loft’s entrance. Even though Troy wanted to lay back and relax on one of his few mornings off, he decided to do a quick stretch of his own before getting out of the nest too. After all, given how much work was still needed to be done in the next week alone, the Gryphon wanted to get into a habit of waking up earlier than usual.

Especially if he and Canvas wanted their wedding to go without a hitch.

Even though it was weird for the Gryphon to think about, one of the first things to go through his mind as he walked down the stairs was just how long he and Canvas have been engaged. Technically speaking, the time that Troy and Canvas spent as an engaged couple was now longer than when the two were just good friends. But even when considering how close the two were back then, Troy still wouldn’t have ever thought that it would blossom into love in such an instant. 

However, when he was halfway down the stairs, and caught one last glance of Canvas before he left the door from their living space with Tenor, all that the Gryphon could do was smile contently. Yeah, he might have fallen for the pony remarkably quick, but at the same time, Troy knew that it most likely would’ve occurred no matter what.

The Gryphon sighed with a shrug of his shoulders and walked into the kitchen, already having a good idea of what to make for breakfast. He pulled a carton of milk and some eggs out of the fridge, and then went to the cupboard when he heard splashing outside. Since Canvas’s dog-walking usually took around ten minutes (which almost felt like a miracle after having such a hard time training Tenor to go to the bathroom outside), Troy figured that he could get--

Troy paused as his head perked up in confusion. The tufts of his ears twitched at the sounds of splashing outside, which was now accompanied by laughter. Whatever was happening out in the backyard certainly wasn’t from his future husband or the dog. Since he already had a good idea who could be in their hot tub again, Troy quickly opened the kitchen window to stick his head out and yell, “THUNDERLANE!! What did I tell you abou…”

The Gryphon stopped yelling as soon as he saw who was in his hot tub. While he was glad it wasn’t Thunderlane and his “marefriend” again, Troy still had his jaw agape in surprise at who was sloshing around in the tub like a group of rowdy frat-boys. Three huge Gryphons, with brown feathers and tan fur, all turned their heads to Troy while crammed in the hot tub.

Most ponies would’ve been terrified to see three massive Gryphons hanging in their backyard. But for Troy, the sight of his older brothers left him speechless for only a second before he grew a huge smile. “Guys?!”

“TROY!!!” Shouted the three Gryphons at the same time, obviously happy to see Troy after the long winter. One of them, who had his head shaved so he had a buzz cut instead of any feathers, turned around so he was facing Troy. “There you are! We were wondering when you’d be up! The doors were locked, so we placed our stuff on the ceiling.”

“It’s not even seven!” Troy stuck a foreleg out the window and pointed up to the sky. “It just became morning! What did you guys do, take an all-nighter train or something?!”

“Yep,” replied the older Gryphon with a smug grin on his massive, jagged beak. “The conductor was a huge Storm-Ball fan, so when he saw the name ‘Blaze Clawston’ on the ticket, we got an upgrade to one of the nicer cars! I mean, the train ride still sucked, but at least we got free drinks.” Thinking it over, Blaze added while pointing back to the largest of the three Gryphons in the tub, “But Blane here probably screwed us over on getting that kind of treatment again.

“Hey!” shouted Blane defensively while taking up nearly half of the hot tub. “It wasn’t my fault they ran out of tequila!”

“But it WAS your fault that the wall collapsed!”

“It was faulty anyway!” Blane then huffed with a wave of his claw before using it to pull his wet feathers back. Since the feathers on his head had a style similar to Troy’s, a couple of them were still coming down over his golden eyes. He then leaned back against his forelegs which were propped against the wall of the tub, and looked towards Troy with a cheerful smirk, “You mind telling us where your stallion is, Teddy Gryphon?”

“Well, he just went out to walk Tenor, so-HEY!!!” as soon as he caught what his brother called him, Troy’s smile quickly became replaced with an enraged scowl as he pointed a talon at Blane. “What did I tell you about calling me that?!”

“Awww, what’s the mattah?” The third Gryphon next to Blane in the tub, who was much thinner and had a braid of feathers over the front of his face, whipped it away with a flick of his neck before adding in his still-unconvincing Trottingham accent, “Does the Teddy Gryphon need his fluffer again?”

While Troy’s glare became stronger alongside his increasingly reddening face, the triplets just cackled at the skinny Gryphon’s comment. Of course, after making a long hiss of an exhale, Troy narrowed his eyes on him and asked, “Blade, are you still talking like that?!”

“Why not?” asked Blade with his claws raised in confusion. “It’s me natural voice!”

“Oh yeah,” replied Blaze as he rolled his eyes. “And Chaka was naturally a woman.”

“YOU DON’T BRING UP CHAKA, YOU TOSSER!!!”

The sound of approaching steps made the triplets turn their attention to the side of the barn. Tenor was excitedly trying to run towards the new guests with his tongue sticking out, but Canvas’s grip on the leash was strong enough to keep the puppy temporarily in control. Canvas grunted while holding the leash in his mouth when he came around to the back of the barn. “Ugh… Whaf all the freaming out here? Is Funderlane--”

As soon as he noticed Troy’s older brothers in their hot tub, Canvas let go of his end of the leash due to his jaw dropping in surprise. Tenor ran towards the tub as quickly as he could, but Canvas became too cheerful to really mind. “Oh my gosh, what are you guys doing here?!”

He trotted up towards the hot tub as well, where Tenor was already barking wildly and standing against the outside of it. While Blaze scratched the Saint Bernard’s head with his talons, Canvas leaned up to the side of the hot tub as well. “I wish I knew you were coming in early! I would’ve thawed out some more meat for breakfast.”

“Nah, that’s fine,” assured Blane with a smile pointed at the pony. “We already ate before coming here. Besides…” Blane then pointed towards the other corner of the barn, which made both Troy and Canvas gasp when they saw what was propped up by the wall: Two huge, metal cages, which had about a dozen live chickens in each of them. “We figured we could bring some live take-out.” 

Troy ran out of the kitchen to exit the barn fast enough to risk making a fire trail, but his expression was anything but happy when he made it to the backyard with Canvas. “What is wrong with you guys?!” hissed the silver Gryphon in a hushed and infuriated whisper, “Do you remember what happened the last time you stole chickens around here?!”

“Whoa, whoa, WHOA!” shouted Blaze in an outright offended tone as he lifted his claw from behind Tenor’s ears. Even though the puppy whined softly in disappointment, the muscled brown Gryphon kept his gaze on Troy and said while pointing at the cages, “We didn’t steal those chickens! We bought them back in the Gryphon Kingdom and brought them here! We have the paperwork and everything!”

“Yeah!” added Blade, who decided to add emphasis to his brother’s words by splashing some water at Troy. “In fact,” he added more firmly, “We were plannin’ to give the chickens in the right cage to those Apple Family blokes! You know, as an apology gift.”

“Wait, really?” asked Canvas in a pleasantly surprised tone of voice. Even Troy seemed impressed (albeit a bit skeptical) as he tilted his head at the three Gryphons with narrowed eyes. 

“Well, yeah,” answered Blane. He used one of his talons to pick at something from his ear as he explained, “A while back I leant a room at my flower shop to this guy, but I didn’t realize until a couple weeks later that he was holding a cock-fighting ring in it! I didn’t want cops swarming the place, mostly since I had some flowers in my basement that weren’t exactly legal. So, I threw the guy out with a few less teeth than when he moved in, and I had a vet look over the chickens before bringing them here. I figured that since those guys were so protective over their own chickens, that maybe they’d be the best ones to raise them.”

For a few seconds, only silence passed between Troy and Canvas since both them were too stunned to say a word. But before either of them could say anything in response to Blane’s story, he unfortunately added, “Oh, and we found out they sell some good booze, so we wanted to get on their good side while prepping the bachelor party!”

Blaze and Blade both gave enthusiastic “Woos!” to the words ‘Bachelor Party,' and Troy just groaned and face-clawed. “Why am I not surprised there’s a catch like that?”

“Oh, stop being such a sourpuss,” jeered Canvas teasingly. The stallion then turned towards Blane to add, “That’s still a very noble thing to do.”

While Blane perked up in the hot tub a little more with a proud smile, Canvas looked over at the other two to ask, “So, so you guys know when Lyle and your parents are going to be here?”

Both Blaze and Blade grew confused, and stared at each other for a moment before turning their attention to Canvas. “Ummm… didn’t you get the letter?” asked Blade with a hint of worry. “They said they were going to be at the airship station today.”

“WHAT?!”

From the look of shock on both Canvas and Troy’s faces, which made their dog look at both of them worriedly, it was clear that Blade’s question was just answered. “So…” Blaze blinked a couple times with narrowed eyes and asked, “did you get the letter or not?”

“NO!!!” shouted both of them at the same time. Troy ran back to the barn in a panic while shouting, “They said they’d be here in four days! When did that cha-”

“Oh, hey there!”

 As soon as Troy ran out of sight to the side of the barn, the sound of Derpy’s voice could be heard. Due to the surprise of Troy’s older brothers showing up unannounced, they almost forgot that Derpy usually showed up to their place around this time to drop off the mail. After hearing the sounds of paper rustling, Troy walked back to the backyard with a deadpan groan while the grey Pegasus flew up into the skies. When she saw the triplets, Derpy smiled and waved down at them. “Oh, hey guys! I’ll be sure to tell Fluttershy you’re in town, Blade!”

Blade’s face lit up like a freshly-installed bulb, and he enthusiastically waved back and gave a “Thank you!” before Derpy left. Meanwhile, Troy held the received letter in his claws, which informed him of the change in schedule from his parents. “Ugh…” the silver Gryphon muttered under his breath, “They run a friggin shipping business, but this was something they couldn’t send a little sooner than today?!”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” said Blaze with a scoff. He turned the knob on the side of the tub to increase the amount of bubbles, and then settled in his spot and sighed deeply. “It’s like those guys think they can burst in at any time and do whatever they want.”

With that, all three triplets relaxed deeper in the hot tub, not seeming to notice the deadpan stares that Troy and Canvas were giving them. After a moment of silence, Canvas sighed and picked up Tenor’s leash again. “Alright, I’m going to finish walking Tenor before starting on breakfast.”

“Oh, I can get breakfast done,” said Troy in response. As he walked back towards the barn, the Gryphon shook his head and groaned under his breath. “Celestia knows I’m going to need the energy before flying to that station.”

Without opening his eyes, Blade piped up with a raised claw, “Hey, while you’re in there, can you get us some beers?”

The other two spoke up in agreement, which left Troy to stop and stare at them in befuddlement. “It’s seven in the friggin morning!”

Canvas chimed in with a sarcastic, “Do you guys need back massages too?”

Despite catching the stallion’s tone, Blaze shrugged and replied with, “Well, if you can rub my back as well as Troy says you rub his paws, then sure! Just don’t go licking it.”

Canvas instantly shot a shocked and furious glare at his fiancè, who was standing frozen and wide-eyed.

“Troy…” With the leash in his muzzle, Canvas bit down on it hard as he asked in a stern tone of voice. “... when did you tell them about that?”

For about five seconds, Troy was absolutely still, and unable to say a word. After looking around anxiously, his beak opening and closing without anything coming out, he made a very nervous and shaky laugh as he tried to say, “W-well… I think the wind conditions are g-going to be k-kinda tricky, so I’ll… I’ll just head to that station now and hopefullymakeitbeforetrafficbacksupseeyoulaterhoneyLOVEYOU!!!”

Troy shot off into the skies like a rocket, leaving his brothers, his dog, and his upset fiancè back on the ground. Canvas stayed silent with a bitter glare up at him, but was interrupted in his thoughts of revenge by the sound of Blade’s voice. “Well? Where are our beers, mate?”

“UGH!” Canvas then stormed away from the hot tub with Tenor in tow, hoping that walking the puppy will help him calm down.