Silent Wings

by Nitro Indigo

Chapter 3: Terramar

Terramar had kept his promise.

At first, he had written back to Silverstream every evening, telling her things he’d learned about ponies - that they had stairs everywhere, that he’d received weird looks when he ate a whole fish he’d caught in the moat, and that ponies were tiny. The headmare was the tallest pony at the school, and even she was slightly shorter than him. Only a few of the stallions he’d seen around town came close to matching an adult hippogriff in height. Eventually, he’d ran out of things to write about, and his letters became less and less frequent.

After spending a few weeks at the School of Friendship, Terramar became used to the repetitive, repetitious rhythm that kept repeating itself. He’d wake up in his top bunk every morning at 7, eat breakfast at 7:30, lessons would begin at 8, then there’d be a half-hour break starting at 10, more lessons, lunch at 12, afternoon lessons until 15, and then he had time to himself until it was time to go back to his dorm room at 21. Even the instruments were always the same - the the gossip of the students in the corridors by day, the chirps of crickets and hoots of owls by night, and the constant running of the waterfalls. The only break from this metronome of monotony was the weekends. Sometimes there’d be sports, sometimes there’d be pony festivals in the town, and sometimes there’d be monster attacks.

That was, until this routine was shattered by the worst single class of his life.

It started out as a normal generosity lesson, nothing more. Professor Rarity was going on and on and on about a rainbow-coloured spool of string or something; he’d stopped paying attention halfway through. Instead, his head leaned on his desk as he idly doodled Silverstream in the margin of his book. He only looked up when the teacher coughed to catch his attention, and said --

“Terramar, darling, I understand that this lesson may not be the most exciting, but your aunt - the queen - has gone a great expense to send you here, and she would no doubt prefer that you would pay attention.”

In an instant, the entire room fell silent.

A mint-green pegasus named Peppermint Goldylinks gasped, shattering the silence. “Whoa! I didn’t know you were royalty!” she exclaimed.

“Shush!” Citrine Sparks - a yellow unicorn - hissed from the desk next to her.

Terramar found himself at the centre of a dozen-or-so stares.

“Can I have your autograph?” one student asked. “I need it for, uh... a research project on hippogriffs.”

“Will you be my best friend?” pleaded another.

“Psh, what’s the big deal?” asked Smolder, hovering with her arms folded. “Listen up, whelp. I’m not gonna give you special treatment just ‘cause you’re a prince.” Berry Blend - a pink Earth pony - looked up at Smolder with a stern frown on her face, and Smolder hastily landed on her chair.

“QUIET!” snapped Professor Rarity, but she was too late. Terramar ran towards his dorm room, locked the door, closed the curtains, and lay on his top bunk.

---

It had been a few days since that incident. Since then, Terramar had stayed out of sight as much as possible in order to avoid getting odd looks, and students gossiped about him when they thought the teachers weren’t listening. While he waited in line to get his lunch, he overheard the conversations of other creatures in the cafeteria who were currently eating theirs. Their voices blended together into a medley of murmurs, but some were louder than others.

“Do dragons really only eat gems?” asked Peppermint Goldylinks.

“Yeah,” replied Smolder, reclining in her chair with her arms behind her head. “There’s not much else to eat in the Dragonlands.”

“Wow! That’s so... weird!” gasped Goldylinks. Berry Blend shot her a concerned glance from the opposite side of the table. Citrine Sparks took a huge bite out of her sandwich.

Once Terramar reached the end of the queue, he placed an omelette - the closest thing to meat on the menu - on his tray. Usually, he shared a table with his roommate, but today he noticed a griffon in the corner, alone. He’d seen him around a few times, usually in the library, but he wasn’t in any of his classes.

Curiously, Terramar approached the griffon, who was eating an omelette by tearing it into strips and throwing them into his mouth one at a time. The only other things on his tray were crusts and a few breadcrumbs. Terramar's tray clattered as he placed it on an adjacent side of the table, but the griffon didn't seem to notice.

“Uh... hi?” Terramar said awkwardly, but that didn’t catch his attention either. He gently tapped the griffon on the shoulder, causing him to drop the piece of omelette he was currently eating onto his tray in surprise. Then, he pulled out a thick, worn journal and a quill from under the table, and wrote:

What was that for?

Terramar glanced at the rest of the page spread. It was packed with alternating styles of writing; upon closer inspection, they were entire conversations. The griffon nudged the quill towards Terramar, who wrote:

You looked lonely.

The griffon snatched the quill back. He hastily wrote:

I’m fine on my own.

With that, the griffon shut the journal, pushed it to the side, and continued eating his omelette. Once he finished, he glared grumpily at Terramar. He signed something very rude - Wait, what?

[Are you deaf?] Terramar asked.

The griffon perked up; he sat up straight, and his eyes widened. After a few seconds, he nodded with his beak hanging open.

[My name’s Gallus,] he signed with one talon, leaning his other foreleg on the table. [You’re the first student here I’ve been able to talk to. In lessons, that baby dragon has to write everything down for me. It’s embarrassing.] He sighed. [Are you deaf, too?]

Terramar shook his head. [But my sister is.] He noticed Gallus frown slightly at this. [She lost her hearing a while ago. It’s a long story...] He glanced down, his eyelids half-closed and his ear-feathers drooping downwards.

[What’s hearing like?]

That simple question stumped Terramar. How could he explain something he’d taken for granted his entire life, and something that Gallus would never understand? He tapped his claws against the table as he tried to think of a response.

[It’s like... certain things create vibrations, and you can feel them in the sides of your head,] was the best he could come up with.

[Weird,] Gallus replied. He sat up straight. [I’ve always wanted to meet a hippogriff.] He emphasised the sign for hippogriff - tucking his thumb in and half-folding the rest of his claws - by shaking his talon side-to-side. [Could you tell more?]

[More about what?]

[How you live, what you do, stuff like that. Is it true that your nation covers most of the southern lands?]

“Oh...” Terramar sighed softly, looking down at his half-eaten omelette.

Gallus waved in Terramar’s face to catch his attention. [What’s the matter?]

Terramar spent a good minute deliberating over what to say. He explained that before he was even born, the Storm Army had been conquering the hippogriff kingdom and selling its inhabitants into slavery. When Terramar was too young to remember, there had been an attack on Mount Aris - the last remaining hippogriff city - wherein the hippogriff king had been killed (Terramar deliberately left out that they were related), and the survivors had been forced to flee underwater for a generation.

Gallus’ shoulders slumped. [I didn’t think you had it that bad...] he replied.

[How come?]

[It’s nothing,] Gallus quickly signed, but eyes looked wet; he squeezed them shut and shook his head. Terramar considered prodding further, but he didn’t want to be rude.

---

A few weeks later, Terramar went swimming in the moat in his seapony form. He glanced up at the orange glow of the setting sun through the murky water. When he’d returned to the land earlier that year, he’d seen the unobscured sky for the first time he could remember, and the sun had been so bright that he’d reflexively closed his eyes. It had taken him a week to be brave enough to look up again, but by now, the sun was a familiar sight.

It had taken longer for him to get used to the way sounds carried through air. Underwater, all the sounds blended together into a constantly-moving symphony that carried for miles. On land, every sound was clear, distinct, and solitary... it had frightened him at first.

His thoughts were interrupted when heard a gentle splash, and looked up to see a yellow talon poking into the water. He dragged himself onto land, transformed back into a hippogriff, and saw Gallus standing on the grass in front of him.

[I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while: what does transforming feel like?] he asked.

[Painless,] replied Terramar, shaking himself dry.

[I meant, how does it make you feel?] asked Gallus. [Being able to transform whenever you want.]

Terramar thought that was an odd question. [Why don’t you ask the changeling student?]

Gallus raised an eyebrow. [I can’t.]

Terramar resisted the urge to facepalm. “Oh,” he said to himself.

[Do you ever have trouble choosing which one you want to be?] Gallus asked. After a few long seconds, Terramar reluctantly nodded, looking down.

[I was born as a hippogriff, but I lived most of my life as a seapony,] he explained as the two of them lay down on the grass. The warm rays of the setting sun cut through the chilly air. [When it was time to return to the surface, I wanted to see all there was to see, but Mom wanted to stay in Seaquestria. At first, I went back and forth between my parents every other day, but when my sistter became deaf, I started spending most of my time as a hippogriff so I could be with her more often.] As he signed this, he let out a deep sigh. [I feel like I’m living a double life. My seapony form is who I am, and my hippogriff form is a mask I wear when I need to communicate with others.]

Gallus stared at the purple-fringed, western horizon for a few seconds, before looking back at Terramar and signing, [At least you have a family.]

Terramar’s eyes widened. [What?]

[I grew up on the streets in a world where I didn’t understand, until Grandpa Gruff took me in and taught me Arisign. He was the only griffon in Griffonstone who wanted anything to do with me, and even he left me alone a lot. You’re the first friend I’ve ever had.

[I became obsessed with hippogriffs. I thought that you lived in some perfect paradise, and would be willing to take me in so I could escape from my miserable life... For the same reason, I begged Grandpa Gruff to let me come here.] Gallus’ breath started to catch, and he started crying before he even finished his sentence. In response, Terramar sympathetically draped a foreleg across Gallus’ shoulders and gently hugged him.

A few minutes later, after Gallus had calmed down, Terramar signed, [I was forced to come here. Auntie decided that I was the perfect hippogriff of my generation to be sent as an ambassador, far away from everyone and everything I know and love.] He sighed, then stood up. “I’m TIRED of all this pressure!” he yelled, punching the grass. “’You’re making the royal family proud’ this, ‘you’re representing your nation’ that; why won’t they just leave me ALONE?!” There was no-one around to hear him, but gosh, ranting felt good.

Gallus looked up at him with wide eyes, tilting his head. [What did you say?]

[I’m being held to unreasonably high standards,] Terramar replied tactfully.

[Why?]

[The queen sent me here.]

[You just said it was your auntie’s choice.]

Terramar felt mildly ashamed of himself once he realised what he’d said. [My auntie is the queen,] he signed quickly.

[Then that would make you... a prince?] asked Gallus, raising an eyebrow in uncertainty.

Terramar nodded. ”It’s not exactly a secret...” he muttered to himself. [That reminds me. Yesterday, Silverstream sent me a letter asking if I was coming from for the first ever Three Days of Freedom celebration next month.]

[What’s that?] asked Gallus.

[It’s to celebrate the defeat of the Storm King. Did you learn about him?]

Gallus shrugged. [Probably. I’ll check through my journal later.]

[Anyway, since you don’t have a family to go to, do you want to come with me?]

In an instant, Gallus sprung onto all fours and nodded enthusiastically.

Comments

[Melody Song]

Aww, that's sweet. I liked this chapter, can't wait to see what comes next!

[Nothingo]

So, effectively, there is no Young Six in this time-line, with them not being particularly close friends. It seems that they are all being robbed of important friendships. It's interesting how things like deafness can have such a large impact on a time-line.

[Sledge115]

[It’s to celebrate the defeat of the Storm King. Did you learn about him?]

Gallus shrugged. [Probably. I’ll check through my journal later.]

[Anyway, since you don’t have a family to go to, do you want to come with me?]

In an instant, Gallus sprung onto all fours and nodded enthusiastically.

I do like that, with Terramar, Gallus is actually more open with his feelings

[Nothingo]

I really hope that the next chapter looks into what happens after the first Three Days of Freedom at least a little bit.

[Nitro Indigo]

10293883
What do you mean by "after"?

[Casketbase77]

[Why don’t you ask a Changeling student?]

[I can’t.]

“Oh.”

That exchange was smooth as butter. So much natural characterization on display. It was also clever to parallel Terramar’s signing/speaking modularity with his hippogriff/seapony one. Gotta love tight, internally consistent protagonist design. Smolder’s dry quips throughout also helped keep the tone light.

Things are progressing nicely. The festival plot seeds planted in chapter 2 seem ready to sprout in chapter 4. Looking forward to the long awaited meeting of Gallus and Silverstream.

[Nitro Indigo]

10293978
Part of the reason why this chapter took so long was because I got distracted by ideas about Smolder. The main reasons were because it took me a while to decide how to begin this chapter, and a while to come up with the specifics of the conversation in the second scene.

[Nothingo]

10293915
Maybe the immediate aftermath, particularly if Silverstream gets to go to the School after the Three Days of Freedom celebration (probably the most relevant idea). Maybe a glimpse of the time Luster Dawn goes to Ponyville with brief descriptions of events like Cozy Glow's attempted power grab or the Legion of Doom's attack (I would love it if Gallus were to become captain of the royal guard in this time-line). Something completely different? There are multiple ways you can have this story explore later events if only a little bit. Of course you don't have to do any of them if you don't want to or if you don't think later events are relevant.

[Artist]

I like this