For the blue griffon, it would be his first Hearth’s Warming. Although it was technically his fault that he and his friends were staying in Ponyville over the winter holidays, a part of him was relieved that at least he didn’t have to go back to Griffonstone. When he woke up from the frantic knocking on the door of his tiny room, he forced his eyes to open to the view of falling snow.
“C’mon Gallus!” exclaimed the instantly recognizable voice of Sandbar. “It’s Hearth’s Warming!” he said, before doing the same to the rest of his friends in their dorm rooms.
Slumping off his bare mattress that had only a blanket and pillow, the young griffon peeked out of the window towards the town clocktower. He frowned. ‘It’s not even seven yet and already he’s waking us up?’
“Gallus!” Sandbar shouted.
“Coming!” he called back. Turning away from the curtainless window, he took a few steps across the bare room towards the door where he could hear the others that were already in the hallway. Sure enough, there they were. Smolder the dragoness, Ocellus the Changeling, Silverstream the Hippogriff, Yona the Yak, and Sandbar the pony—the latter of which was vibrating in place.
“C’mon! Let’s head over to the tree!” With that, Sandbar led the way.
Gallus followed behind the group, down the hall, across the snowy courtyard, into another hall, then making a few turns towards the students’ lounge. As they made their way, the griffon couldn’t help but notice how quiet the school was. All of the students and most of the teachers had already gone home for the week, leaving the building nearly abandoned. He silently questioned if any of the professors were here at all, what with how early it was. If anything, he didn’t expect to find anything from the room that he and his friends were forced to clean after from his little prank the other day.
But those doubts were silenced when they entered the student lounge. Underneath the evergreen tree with the still-burning heart right above it were wrapped presents. Gallus certainly remembered that there was a good deal more of it compared to what he saw yesterday. Extending from the tree, the colorful, shiny, bow-wrapped presents seemed to have increased several times in quantity that had their names on them.
Naturally, the students rushed in for their gifts.
“Where did all of this stuff come from?” Smolder asked as she picked up one of the gifts and gave it a shake.
“Hey! This one is from my family!” Ocellus said as she held up her present.
“Yona too!”
“This one from my Aunt!”
But hearing this, it only confused Gallus further as each time he picked up his gifts, that although they had his name on them, they never gave any hint as to where or who it came from.
“I’m glad we’re just in time.” The students turned to the voice of their headmare Twilight Sparkle. She entered with her friends and number one dragon assistant. “Since you’ll be staying with us over the course of the break, we’d had the gifts from your families be shipped overnight.”
“Uh, Headmare?” Gallus raised his claw. “Where did my gifts come from?
“They came from us.” This answer came from the small dragon that was next to Twilight. “I know that it was at the last minute, but we just hope that you’d like them.”
“Us?”
“Part of this is from us,” Professor Applejack told him, “and part is from yer friends.”
“Huh…” He smiled, “Thanks, I guess.”
“Now what are you waiting for!” Professor Pinkie Pie dove into a mound of gifts. “Let’s open these up!”
All around the room, wrapping paper was torn, bows were tossed aside, boxes were opened, and the room was flooded with various reactions from surprise to joy. A sight that put a genuine smile on Gallus’s face to see such happiness from them. At the same time, however, there was a voice in the back of his head that told him that while this was nice, he did have to one day return to Griffonstone. Such a thought that curbed his moment of joy.
“Hey!” The griffon jerked his head up to find Sandbar there. A hoof extended out to him with a small box wrapped in newspaper and twine. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.”
Gallus raised an eyebrow but took his friend’s gift in his claws. After pulling on one end of the twine, it became undone. Even the newspaper fell off, leaving only a white box behind. Pulling the lid up, he tilted the box over to have something fall into his open claw. It was a ragdoll, one that was hoof-stitched and done in a hurry. It was of him. From the blue folded wings to the awkwardly made claws and beak, even the blue button eyes suggested to be him—if admittedly a bit deformed.
“What’s this for?”
“It’s your Hearth’s Warming doll.” Sandbar explained with a smile. “I know that you don’t exactly celebrate Hearth’s Warming, but I thought that it would be nice for you to have it as at least you have us here in Equestria.”
“So like a memento?”
“Pretty much.”
The griffon flipped the doll over. “And you made this?” Sandbar nodded. “Gotta say… your sewing skills kinda suck.”
That got Sandbar laughing. “Hey, I put effort into it, that’s what counts, right?”
“Can’t argue with you there.” Gallus shrugged. “Besides, if I had a choice, I would easily move here to live in Equestria.”
This comment confused the green earth pony. “Had a choice? What are you talking about?”
There was a pause before the griffon waved a dismissive claw. “Forget it.”
“No. What’s this about? Of course, you can move here. There’s no one to stop you from doing it.”
“But I can’t. It’s just not possible.”
“Why not?”
Realizing that he is not going to drop it until he gives him an answer, Gallus pulled Sandbar out of the lounge, a way out of earshot from any creature to hear. “Okay, you wanna know? Fine. But just remember, the conversation we’re about to have, never happened.”
“Uh… okay?”
The griffon took in a deep breath. “Sandbar, as much as I would love nothing more than to renounce my citizenship from Griffonstone, I honestly can’t because… I’m an orphan.”
Sandbar tilted his head. “What does that got to do with anything?”
“A whole lot, actually,” he said as he folded his arms. “You have to realize that in Griffonstone, things are very different. That over there, everygriff undergoes a coming of age ceremony at the age of fifteen that would make you not just an adult, but one that’s capable of being their own guardian. When that happens, you become equal in their eyes and one that is allowed to make their own choices without a parent to make that for them.
“There’s just… one tiny problem with that… my folks passed away before I was fifteen. And with no family related to me by blood or by marriage, there’s absolutely no one I can turn to perform that ritual. In a way, it’s kinda another reason why I don’t want to go back to Griffonstone over the break because there, I’m not free. They see me as just a child with no rights whatsoever. The only reason why I’m allowed to come to this school was that partly they wanted to get rid of me and partly so that I would have adults to ‘look after me.’” He huffed at that last sentence. “But you know what sucks? Even as I grow up, I do so knowing that I’ll never be free.”
Sandbar’s jaw hung from his face. “Are you kidding me?”
“Oh, I wish!” He leaned up against a wall. “The truth is, unlike the rest of you guys, I’m pinned in place, forever as a child that has no way of overcoming this stupid custom. I mean… if I was adopted or something and an adult just go through the steps of turning me into a grown-up, then I would use that power to move to Equestria in a wingbeat. But as of now… I don’t have anyone to do that, and I highly doubt that someone like Grandpa Gruff would do anything like that.”
“Dude… I’m so sorry. But why couldn’t Grandpa Gruff do it?”
“Because again, I have no living relative. In Griffonstone, you have to have one of the family member’s consent to have someone adopt their kid.”
Sandbar wrapped a foreleg around Gallus’s neck. “I wish there was some way I can help.”
“There’s nothing you can do.” The griffon pushed aside the half-hug. “I don’t want to focus on this. Right now, we have a holiday to celebrate with those that I care for. So come on, let’s see if there are any other presents with our names left over.”
That night, after the feasts, songs and stories were over, Sandbar was awake in his bed with his thoughts. Despite the holiday away from his family, he still had a pretty good day all things considering. However, finding out that piece of information from Gallus still wouldn’t go away. He turned this way and that, trying to get into a position where he would be comfortable enough to fall asleep. Yet, that nagging thought still wouldn’t let him be.
‘There’s got to be a way to help him,’ he thought. ‘There has to be some way to get him to be an adult so he can move. But what? He said so himself that those in Griffonstone won’t help him. Still, there’s got to be something that we can do. I mean, Silverstream’s aunt is a Queen, Yona and Smolder know their leaders, so maybe they could do something… Oh, what good would that do?’
He flopped over on his back, opening his eyes upward to stare at the blank ceiling. ‘Still, if there’s a will, there’s gotta be a way. Come on Sandbar, think! Adoption is off the table apparently. And he has no living relatives… as far as any of us know. Plus he said that the only way for anycreature to give him that stupid coming of age ceremony is by someone who is related to him by blood or by…’
The young stallion sat right up, eyes wide. An idea came to him. It was an insane one at best. There was no way it could work. There were a couple of issues that would make said idea useless. ‘It’s an incredibly crazy, stupid idea… So crazy… and so stupid… that it just might work.’
This ship is REALLY getting overused, there I said it and I don't care who disagrees. Sorry that its at the expense of your story Crackedinkwell but I had to let it out.
Uh oh, I'm sensing hi-jinks. It would be a shame if something... silly happened.
I love it! Great start to a story. Can't wait for more!
To the author - I just saw this in my feed & new stories section:)
all i'm going to ask is the story going to be short like 'Air Marshall' was or a multi-chapter fic?
9492165
My goal for this thing is to make it under 15 or 20 chapters.
There's no way this can end badly.
9491927
Have you considered the reason folks might disagree with this statement? It is, first, not at all constructive to the author, and is, second, somewhat irrelevant. Many ships are done over and over in different ways; just look at groups like Twidash, Twilestia, Appledash, and so on. When the fandom was first getting its legs under it, there were numerous protests of 'stop making the characters gay', and so on, which both smacked of homophobia and lacked any substance as commentary.
Now that there are enough male center-stage characters in the show that folks are shipping them together, these kinds of comments are resurfacing, and even more innocuous comments like yours are going to be seen in the same vein; protesting this ship because it involves two male characters. I don't know you, so perhaps you dislike all ships that become oversaturated to a certain extent, but there is certainly a perception that people are much faster to call this ship 'overdone' and 'old' because people have a lower tolerance for male/male shipping. Just worth bearing in mind.
9492313
Also the fact it comes from someone with "Texas" in their name kinda lends to that feeling.
9491927
I won't argue about it the ship being overused cause I think this is the first time I've added of this ship. Though from the idea in my head this ship would be as romantic as jd and Turk from scrubs. May seem like a gay ship but it is just platonic guy love. *Insert guy love song from scrubs*
I just gotta say, Gallus should be really lucky he has friends who are willing to go to those kinds of lengths for him.
9491927
There are a total of 18 stories on this site with this ship in it. If that's your definition of overused, then pretty much every ship in the fandom is overused.
Griffonstone really bites.
All the M/M shipping!
I know I really prefer mature rated stories(because sex and because relationships are explored a little deeper) but I will settle for teen if I get to see gallus and sandbar get married...such cuties
9492197
okay! that's all i wanted to know about. can't wait to read more
Well! Liked and followed. I'm curious what sort of shennanigans they'll get up to as they try and get married.