> Diversity Club
>  by RayneTheSkunk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Summer Vacation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The elements of harmony, our professors, what’s with them? I get all the friendship stuff, but why are they like they are? What sort of pony becomes a princess of friendship? Who makes a whole school just to teach others friendship? Maybe ponies are special. They had to bring friendship to the rest of us, after all. I mean, their other princesses raise the sun and moon. There must be something with ponies. Can griffons have that same thing in them? Friendship is in my nature, sure. I got that part, but my professors are way beyond friendship. Something... drives them, and I don’t think I have that.

“Say, what do griffons like to eat?” said the raspy voice of a green teen pony. The griffon by the window sprang awake, ripped from his thoughts back into the real world. The cold blue room he was in blended with his feathers. The sunlight was the only thing that washed the blue ocean of the room with warmth. Sandbar leaned over the banister, standing on the stairs that opened into his bedroom. His hoof gently tapped the wood as he waited for Gallus’ mind to return from its daydream.

“Hm? What?” Gallus said, turning away from the sunlight. He dragged a talon over his face as if to wipe away his thoughts.

“See, my mom wanted me to ask you what griffons like. Ya know she’s never cooked for one before, so she really wants you to like her cooking. Well, she didn’t really want to ask, but I’m asking for her anyway.”

“Oh, right, yeah. Uh, we like apples, I guess. We do fruits and vegetables. No flowers. I’ve seen those clover sandwiches and I don’t know how you do it. Flowers aren't food,” he said with a dry grin. 

“We’ve got the whole summer. Don’t be too sure you won’t come around about flowers,” Sandbar’s voice descended down the stairs.

“Doubt it.” Gallus took another look around the room. He’d seen Sandbar’s dorm room before, but they were all uniform, and Sandbar barely did a thing to change his. His actual room seemed so different. The dressers, the bed sheets, the walls, all various shades of blue aligned in such a way that almost looked like they waved back and forth. It barely felt like being in a room. If his feet weren’t planted to the floor, he swore he’d start floating. In the left corner laid Gallus’ sleeping bag together with a small arrangement of stuff he owned: school supplies, dice, and a pack of playing cards. Looking at how little he actually owned disgusted him. Turning his head towards the other corner of the wall drew his attention to a bookshelf. Writings on aquatic life, school subjects, and heroes of Equestria. That last subject had plenty of books on their professors. He glanced at them. Pondered them. Stared at them. His talon hung just on the cusp of grabbing them. 

And then he decided that he really wasn’t in the mood to read. If a book was going to give him answers, he might as well wait till classes start again. Why waste summer reading? Why waste summer on questions you go to school for? He turned his attention to the one other living thing in the room: a turtle laid around in his tank. Mr Bumbles. Gallus leaned in close, eyeing down the turtle.

“Soooo, you’re Sandbar’s special talent, huh?” Mr. Bumbles backs away seeing nothing but the largest bird of prey he’s ever witnessed. “What’s wrong? What, you don’t like me or something? We just met.” The tapping of his claw rang echoes through the glass. A fierce and terrifying warning. Mr. Bumbles’ head sucked within his shell so fast he sank himself into the sand of his tank. 

“Oh. So that's how it is.” He grumbled at the turtle before returning to the window. He let out a yawn and considered just napping till food was ready. His eyes glazed over as he stared at the horizon, laziness coming over him as his thoughts began to drift. A flash of blue light burst behind the mountains. The light fizzled as quickly as it came. “What the budgie was that?!” 

Gallus hustled to the first floor into the kitchen where Sandbar and his mother were working together preparing lunch. 

“Oh, Gallus great, did you try the sleeping bag I got you?” Sandbar was already a pretty mellow pony, but his parents seemed too chilled out. It was like her words dragged from her tongue.

“Nah, I just built a nest in your son’s room instead.”

She stared at Gallus at for a moment in silence. The two boys started to snicker and quickly turn to full blown laughter. A half-hearted chuckle forces its way out of the mare’s throat. “Riiight. Well, I hope you like fried apples.”

“Fried food is super unhealthy for you,” Sandbar said, “and you really shouldn’t eat it, but I feel pretty confident you’re a fried kind of guy.”

Gallus glanced at the strange grease trap with a look of utter befuddlement. “I don’t know what frying is, but thanks. I kinda need to borrow Sandbar though.”

“I was just peeling apples anyway. What’s up?”

Gallus clutched Sandbar’s hoof and pulled him out the backdoor. “We’ll be back for dinner, Mrs. High Tide” He shouted as the door slammed behind them. He gripped Sandbar’s other hoof and ascended into the air. “We’ve gotta check something out. I saw something at the mountains at the edge of town.”

“An adventure already? It’s only the first week of summer!”

“Then we’ve got a pretty awesome summer ahead of us!” They soared through the air. Sandbar waved to anypony he recognized below while ponies on the ground stared in awe. Despite being in Ponyville for a whole school year, being the only griffon most of these ponies ever see regularly still made Gallus something of a spectacle. It wasn’t something he was too sure if he liked. He did his best to be polite regardless, and cautiously waved a wing at gawking ponies close enough the catch the gesture. Along the journey to the edge of Ponyville, they flew by Sweet Apple Acres. Gallus could spot Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash together. They seemed to be talking about something. Rainbow’s forelegs and wings went all over the place like she wasy trying to convey some grand story. They became little more then specs before Gallus had long to think about it.

They touched ground on a cliff-side west of Ponyville’s outskirts.  Gallus set Sandbar down before landing into a stretch. The mountain side was dry but still sustained grass and dirt instead of just rock. Not a pony in sight for a mile, besides the distant specks in the sky that could be birds just as easily as they could be pegasi. A spider web of jagged crevices split dirt beneath them. The weaving of cracks reached all the way from the cliff’s edge to the steep mountain side. At their origin, blue rays of light shined through the cracks like rays of sun in the forest. The glow was limited to the center of the cracks, like a beacon marking a sacred treasure.

“Whoa! You saw that tiny glow all the way from my house? I gotta hand it to you, Gallus. Your eyesight sure is something”

“Ugh!” Gallus moaned, “No, I didn’t see this! There was a whole pillar of light like FWOOSH!” he said, raising his forelegs in his best efforts to mimic it. “And then it was gone like ffshh. There one moment, gone the next. And now whatever it is, is under the dirt, I guess. So, let’s dig it up.” 

Sandbar put a hoof to his chin. He squinted at the cracks and their eerie glow. The cracks had on odd look to them, as if the ground beneath was hollow. It was as if something caused a cave in. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to mess with something that makes a huge flash like that? I think those are usually associated with something we don’t want to mess with.”

The mystic eyes of a griffon could see much more. The magic rising from the cracks like heat off a grill. Tendrils of magic that danced in the air and faded away. The flashing deep in side the cracks. All the simple eyes of a pony could see is a mere glow. For all the lights, weaves, and movements of magic he could see his knowledge was limited, but he figured this much energy meant something. Namely sweet enchanted treasure.

“It’s fiiine. Look, there's a handful of possibilities here. A: We get superpowers that’ll be great till they lead to our inevitable downfall. B: We get a cool ancient artifact and we can be kings before our inevitable downfall. C: We discover something incredible and we become famous then the fame gets to our heads causing our inevitable downfalls. Or D: It’s just a bunch of really shiny gems and we can sell them to Rarity or something.”

“Why do so many of those end in our inevitable downfall? Like, that’s three out of four. I don’t like those odds.”

Gallus shrugged. “That’s just how most griffon stories end. Now are you gonna help dig me this up so we can live like kings together until our demise or not?”

“I’ll do it, but only because I can’t let you have a downfall on your own,” Sandbar said, giving Gallus a light shoulder jab. “Though I’d rather we don’t fall down at all.”

“If anyone will prevent the tragic end caused by my own greed, it’d probably be you, but you don’t get an epic legend about you without a tragic end. So don’t try too hard to stop it. Now come on, let’s dig this up before some other creature gets here. That light was practically a flare for every treasure hunter in Equestria.” Just as Gallus was about to strike the earth with his talons, a flash of magenta light flared in his peripheral vision. He growled and snapped towards the light. With a sharp talon pointed out, he shouted, “We came here first! So you might as w-” His aggression deflated into confusion. “Professors?” His talon drooped as he saw Twilight, Starlight, Spike, and the rest of their friends.

“Headma— I mean. Queen Twilight, what are you doing here?” Sandbar said with a stammer in in his voice.
Withought her regalia it was easy to forget their former headmare has had a severe upgrade in position. Twilight sported a soft smile and opened her mouth to speak, before Rainbow Dash jumped in front of her.

“What are we doing here? What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash yelled, tapping a hoof against Sandbar’s chest. Her tone shifted to one of flat confusion. “No. Seriously. What are you doing here? This place barely counts as being in Ponyville.”

“And why are you here, Gallus? Everyone else went home last week,” Fluttershy asked.

Starlight walked past the Pegasi and young boys straight to the epicenter of the glowing cracks, various scientific and magical apparatus levitating out of her bags as she walked. “Alright, alright, we both have a lot of questions. Obviously they’re here cause they saw the light like Rainbow did, and if we take too long, we’ll have plenty more curious flyers showing up.” Just as she finished the sentence, she raised a barrier around the cliff.

Twilight approached the two boys with a smile. “We’re just here to study what the light is all. Big pillars of energy are rarely a good sign anything good is happening.” A smug look grew on Sandbar’s face.

“Unless we made it!” Pinkie interjected before passing Twilight to stare at the lights. 

Twilight gave a soft chuckle. “I guess that's true. Basically, Rainbow and Pinkie pie saw a big light and decided to round everyone up. I happened to be visiting Starlight today and she figured we should check if it’s a problem. That’s all. Now what about you two?”

“We came to get treasure before anyone else could.” Gallus grumbled, craning his neck to keep an eye on what Starlight was doing with the crack without completely turning away from Principal Twilight. She seemed to be watching the glow in the cracks, a glow that seemed to be reaching further from the center than it was a few seconds ago. The tendrils of magic seemed to be moving faster. Whatever is buried under here must be some really good treasure, and great high authrority of the queen was about to push him out of getting whats his.

“And he’s staying with me for the summer,” Sandbar added.

A twinkle shined in Twilight’s eye. A smile stretched ear to ear on her face. “You two are staying for together for the whole summer?” Twilight squealed. “I knew you’ve become good friends, but I had no idea your friendship was already this close. This is fantastic. Imagine if you kept a journal of your whole summer. Then we could read it and we’d have so much to learn about griffin and pony friendship!” Gallus and Sandbar both shimmied away from twilight’s gushing before being met with a bump. 

The two turned to see applejack blocking their retreat.“That's great and all, but you two still shouldn’t be here. Whatever this is might be dangerous and no creature should be around. I don’t even want to be this close.” 

Rarity dusted off the two boys. “Applejack’s absolutely right. You two should scoot back home before anything bad can happen. Even if it’s a slim chance, I’d just hate to a single head or feather on your precious little heads get hurt,” she says, trying to nudge them away from the now glowing cracks beneath their feet. 

“Fine, we’ll go. But promise that if it’s treasure that we get to have it. We still got here first. Sharing, maybe a virtue, but we still want our treasure if there is any,” Gallus huffs, folding his talons. 

Twilight gives a simple smile before saying, “We promise. Now you two get home. If we’re lucky, we’ll have this handled quick. It shouldn't be anything too dangerous.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that!” Starlight shouted, placing some sort of magical measurement device into the ground. Bronze rods stuck between the crevices with gauges on their opposite ends. The devices trembled ever so slightly, and the gauges pointed towards the yellow. Whatever yellow means. 

No one besides Twilight and Starlight probably even knows how to read those, Gallus thought, trying to puzzle out what she was doing. Once they made it to the edge of the force field, Twilight opened a hole for them go through. With Sandbar in Gallus’ grip they exchanged their goodbyes, though at least one of those goodbyes was pretty unhappy.

“Consider the journal idea!” Twilight shouts as she waves the two farewell.  Gallus mockingly mouths her words they fly away. The forcefield dome steadily becomes  just a blue ball in the distance, but the image of the crack and its glow stay close in Gallus’ mind. Though right next to the glow in his head was the image of Twightlight’s friends. Why did he even go? Cause it would be fun, cause there’d be treasure. Those things are fine sure, but they came because they wanted to people to be safe. They’re so them! He turned to look back one more time and, oh. There's one of them right there.

“Hey.” Gallus tugged on a hoof,“ I got a plan, but it’s really dangerous for you, so I want see if you’re cool with it first.”

“Shoot.”

“You notice they sent Rainbow Dash to keep an eye on us?”

“I noticed.”

“So here’s the deal. I’m gonna slow down and talk to her, then pretend to drop you. She’ll go down to catch you, and we both know she will catch you. Then I make a break for it to see what’s going on back there.”

“That does sound really dangerous, but I do get to be caught by Rainbow Dash. I’m down.”

“When you say it like that, I feel like I’m manipulating you,” Gallus said with a grimace.

“No, no, it’s cool,” Sandbar said in is normal chill voice despite what he was agreeing to, “I like this plan. Besides. you’ll be near the elements. That’s the safest place any creature could be.”

“Your hero worship has somehow given me second thoughts on my own idea, but we’re going with it!” Their speed slowed to crawl. Gallus turned around, looking towards the sky above. Rainbow Dash flew high overhead. She was so close to blending in with the sky if it weren't for all the wild colors in her tail. He hailed her down with a wave of a wing. He couldn’t see her face, but the way she whipped her head gave him enough smug satisfaction. In a few seconds Rainbow had swooped down and was flying right beside him.

She let out a heavy sigh. “So you saw me, huh? Listen, before you start talking about how professors should trust their students, you should know almost every time somecreature is told to stay away from something, they don’t. I should know, I’ve done it dozens of times. So it’s not the we don’t trust you, but-”

“Actually, Professor Dash, I’m the one that noticed you,” Sandbar interrupted, “I was just telling Gallus about competitions you’ve won, and he didn’t believe me. So, I thought you’d want to tell him some stories yourself.”

“Uh, yeah. Right. If I heard it straight from your mouth, it’d hold a lot more weight on my opinion,” Gallus said, straining to feign interest.

“Oh, well if that's the case, let me tell you about the time I-”

“Whoa! Sandbar, when did your hooves get so slippery?!” Gallus’ talons danced to try to maintain a grip on Sandbar’s hooves, but each attempt slips just short of grabbing. A scream rang through the air as Sandbar plummeted to the woods below.

“Hold on! I’ve got you!” Just as predicted, Rainbow dash darted straight down towards the trees. Wasting no time, Gallus bolted back towards the cliff. Even if he couldn’t get back through the force field, he could at least watch from a higher cliff.

SWOOSH 

Just before Sandbar hit the tree tops, he was blitzing above the trees, held in Rainbow’s hooves. His heart fluttered, opening his eyes to Rainbow’s confident, heroic smile. Their blazing speed over the trees slowed to a hover as Rainbow descended to the ground. “You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you, Rainbow Dash!” Sandbar said. His face flush with red.

“Aww, it’s nothing. I save ponies from falling all the time. Now that I think of it, a bit too much, actually,” she stops to think. Looks left. Right. All around. “Hey! Wheres Gallus?”

A small flock of Pegasi had formed by the cliff side, just enough to be considered a crowd. They fluttered just above the force field, and between them and it was Fluttershy and Spike. It sounded like they were in some sort of argument. Perfect. Gallus dipped down, flying below the crowd and the cliff’s edge. Flying alongside the mountain base, he arced upward to reach a plateau above the cracked cliff while staying out of his professor's line of sight. Sure, if they looked up, they could see him watching over the edge, but he can blend in with the sky far better than Rainbow.

“Everypony, please go back to your homes. You could all get hurt. We still don’t know what this glow is and it’s only gotten bigger.” Fluttershy buzzed between ponies giving with a pleading worried look.

“Well yeah, but we want to see what it is!”

“You don’t see a giant pillar of blue light every day, don’t ya know?”

“The princess can’t just lay claim to any treasure that shows up just ‘cause she’s the princess!”

“This is an abuse of power! Let us dig!”

The crowd combated Fluttershy’s pleas with indignant shouting, shovels and pickaxes raised as if they had any hope of excavating their way through the force field.

“Pleeeeease go home,” she begged. “I’d really rather not shout. This really is for everypony’s safety. Think about your family and friends. Who knows what’s under there?”

“Yeah, for all you guys know, it’s a deranged pony eater who’d gobble you all up!” Spike said raising his arms to imitate the hypothetical pony eater. The back and forth was pretty funny in its own right, but the real show was whatever was underneath that crack. This was an opportunity to watch the elements in action. No class, no lesson they’re trying to teach, just them handling a problem naturally. What makes the elements special enough to be the elements isn’t something he was ever going to learn in a classroom or book. Direct experience was the only way. Whether they’re solving a friendship problem or not, at least this was something. Even if he only learns a very very small something.

“Twilight, Starlight. I have something you absolutely must take a look at.” Rarity beckoned the two to a large sheet of paper. On it was an illustration of scrawling paths in blue and black. 

“What exactly are we looking at?” Starlight said, squinting at the sheet.

“It’s the cracks. I’m sure you’ve noticed that dazzling blue glow’s only spread since we’ve arrived.”

“I’ve noticed,” Twilight chimed, “the whole cliff is lit up now. But that still doesn’t explain exactly what this is”




 



“Not the whole cliff,” she said with a ring of satisfaction to her voice. “Not every crack is glowing, see?” Rarity lifted her hooves. Every single crack near her was as dull as a cave. “And as soon as I noticed I knew it just had to mean something! So, I took the liberty of making an illustration. The black lines are everything dark and the blue lines are every sparkling crevice. Now, I may not be an expert on magic, but this certainly doesn't look natural to me.”


Starlight and Twilight’s jaws drop. “Those are runes! These are runes! We’re standing on some sort of magic circle, or sigil, or enchantment!” Starlight said putting a hoof on her head and trotting in circles.

Rarity lifted the graph. “Well it certainly isn’t a circle, darling. These are parallelograms.” 

Starlight snatches the graph for herself. “But they’re aligned almost like they’re at the perimeter of an invisible circle. Which wou-”

“Parallelogram.”

“Which would explain your readings,” Twilight picked back up. “The magic concentration has been reading higher and higher since the we started. It’s because the magic circle-”

“Parallelogram!”

“It’s been drawing itself! The closer it is to being done, the more magic it’s building. Based on this chart the last part is to finish the ring-”

“Edges.”

“Of the spell!” Twilight and Starlight shouted in unison.

“So let me get this straight.” Applejack steped in, giving the graph a look herself. “Are y’all tellin me we’re standin’ on a tickin’ time bomb of a spell and we’ve got who knows when before it goes off, and we still don’t even know what the dang thing does?!”

“Yes,” Twilight chimed. “Wait... that's exactly what that means. Oh no. We have to get those ponies out of here now!” 

“I’m on it!” Pinkie cheered as she whipped out her party cannon. She signaled for Starlight to make a hole in the force field. The Pegasi, Fluttershy, and Spike where still stuck in their shouting match. Gesticulating wildly, flailing digging tools, and overall getting nothing actually done. All their noise was cut off in a flash of confetti. 

“Hey there, everypony!” Every eye turns to her so fast, it’s as if they made a sound. “There's a party in store for every one of you, but only if you go home right now!”

“You think a party is gonna convince us?”

“There's free food!”

The flock of Pegasi mumble amongst each other before dispersing back toward Ponyville. 

“Problem solved.” Pinkie says, blowing the smoke from her cannon. Fluttershy and Spike glide  back to their friends but as they do, Pinkie shouts. “Don’t! Stay there!”

Spike and Fluttershy stop in an instant. “Okay, but why is there a parallelogram now?” Spike puzzled.

“It’s a bomb! I think?”

“Bomb?!” Spike and Fluttershy shouted, and Gallus. Though no creature noticed him.

“Kinda! The dirt is drawing a spell and Twilight needs you look at it from above and see how close the ring is to finishing!”

Gallus’ heart pounded in his chest. His eyes darted to see the patterns in the lines. Once they found the line drawing along the edge, his eyes fixated on it, trembling. The outer ring of the magic symbol had already made 3 corners of the spell, and the line was already drawing to complete the shape. On instinct, his legs started backpedaling before he could even think to run. His feathers stood up on end and his wings spread in preparation to fly. To fly, just anywhere but here.

“I-I have to get out of here!” *He turned to run and found himself on the ground. He groaned, trying to open his eyes. His eyes were met with Rainbow’s fierce piercing glare. 

“Gallus, I can’t believe yo-” she cut off her own shouting. She placed a hoof on her chest and took a deep breath. She spoke again in a deliberately calmer tone. “Gallus, I am very disappointed that you would trick me. I underst-”

Gallus latched Rainbow’s shoulders, his beak to her snout. “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” He dashed for the skies, trying to fly away with her. She just wouldn’t move. 

“What are you doing? I’m trying to be a good teacher!” She bit on his tail, trying to tug him back down to the earth. “I just want to talk.”

“No, you don’t understand! It’s a bomb!”

“A wha-?”


> Summer Vacation Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2
Summer Vacation part 2

A pair of dice rattled in in Gallus’ talons. A cup full of bits and hope lay in front of him. A pride of six griffons formed a ring with him. Each of them far more muted in color than him— white, brown, black, blues as deep as night. Their eyes followed with the shaking of Gallus’ talons. Their ears attuned to the distinct clitter-clatter of dice. The dice leapt from Gallus’ grasp, splashed on the dirt, and tumbled to their ultimate result.

“Sixes!” the crowd cried. The griffons breathed their collective sighs, kicked rocks, and beat the dirt. Their curses and insults filled the air as Gallus pocketed every bit for himself.

“I swear those dice are loaded!” one brown griffon said, spitting into the alley dirt.

“The Canary Crew's taking the pot next time, ya crayon!” another shouted. One by one they dispersed from darkness of the alley.

“Good, luck. Paradise will be open all summer.” Gallus smirked, tossing the dice in his talons. Satisfied, he tucked away his dice and rummaged through a pile of hay.  Paradise, as indicated by the graffiti on the walls, was a roughly octagonal alley. It was probably more of line at one point but every building that made up its walls was in ruins. What remained of the walls happened to slant, crumble, and lean in a way that made it a surprisingly homey space despite the darkness. Old roof thatching had been repurposed from the ruins though the nest-work was fairly poor. Sunlight poked through wealth of holes in makeshift roof and when it rained it was just barely better than nothing. On the wall behind Gallus was a large artful graffiti work that read ‘The Bird of Paradise’, written in a blue that matched his feathers. It was dark, dusty, dank, but it felt grounded. The grays and browns blended together.

A small griffon rolled over in a sleeping bag by wall.“Are you sure you don’t cheat? That’s a pretty big haul.” The young griffon’s face was covered in vibrant purple feathers that darkened around her gold eyes.


  


“I don’t need to cheat. Ya know what they say, the house always wins,” Gallus said pulling out a deck of well loved playing cards from his stash.

“They say that?”

“I guess it’s a pony thing to say. It’s time for your lessons so get out of that sleeping bag. It was a gift, so make sure not to scratch it,” he said, shooting the deck from one talon to the other.

“Ugh. But I don’t even like cards!” she whined.

“Aww, a griffon named Gambit doesn’t like cards? You wouldn't fit in with ponies at all,” he snickered. “Besides, if you wanna keep Paradise once I’m gone, you’re gonna have to learn to play. As long as you can gamble you can have enough bits to keep yourself alive.” He shuffled the deck as the little griff wiggled her way out the sleeping bag. She slipped out onto the dirt to find her cards laying face down before her beak. She snatched the two cards and shuffled forward. Two of clubs and an ace of spades. She gave the cards a grim look.

“Gruff chose that name. I don’t like it.” Gambit pouted and placed her bet, using rocks in place of coins. “When do I get to hold the bits? I’m tired of playing for rocks.”

“You’ll get to use bits when you stand a chance” Gallus revealed the flop. Three of hearts, four of diamonds, and a jack of hearts. “Besides I thought you just said you don’t like cards.”

“Yeah. But I do like bits!” Gambit said with a smile creeping on her beak. She slapped down three rocks. “Raise!”

“Someone looks happy. That's a mistake. Bet.”

“What about it? You’re smiling too.”

“I’m always smiling when I play, and you usually look like you’re about to cry,” he says revealing the fourth card. The three of clubs completely shattered Gambits smile.

“No I don’t!” She whines. Her newfound glare aimed at the fifth card. “I check”

“If you say so. And I raise” Gallus, says maintaining a calm steady grin. A punch-ably confident smile. Gambit squirms as she reluctantly tosses another talon full of rocks into the pot.

“bet!” her voice trembled, betraying the confidence she tried to force out her throat. The final card of the river is flipped. The King of Hearts. Gambit took a deep sigh and tapped the ground “Check.”

“You look pretty sad over there. Check” Gallus prepares to puts down his hand. The three of diamonds and the seven of clubs. “Three of a kind! You?”

“nothing” She said with a sigh as she dropped her cards face up.

“Alright, so let's go over today’s lesson,” Gallus grabbed Gambit’s chin, looking her in the eyes. “When you look at this smile do you ever have any idea what I’m thinking?” She shook her head. “Exactly! You have to mask your feelings. Don’t let anygrif know what you feel and what you know. You express to much, so you’ll always lose.”

“And are you going to show me how to do that?” She said swatting away his talon.

“Nah. What do you think I am? Some sort of teacher? You figure out how to do it on your own. Its gotta be natural.” He chuckled and patted her on the head “You’ll get it kid, just think about it. I’m gonna head out, get us some food and pay Gella.”

His tail disappeared behind a corner before he peaked back inside. “Wait. One last thing. We can’t let an old fart like Gruff choose your name. What do you wanna be called?”

She took a moment. Her eyes looked down into her talons. She flexed her palms, staring deep into their texture. Without thinking her digits started fiddling with each other. Her mind was lost on a memory for half a minute before she spoke. “I want to have a scary name so no griffon messes with me anymore.” She spoke it quiet. Like she was watching the words spill out of her mouth in into her talons. Words that only she was supposed to have. She took a deep breath and looked Gallus in the eyes and shouted “I want to be Grimheld!”

Gallus smirked “Then that's your name, Grimheld. If ol’ grandpa gruff has a problem with him just tell him stuff it.”

On the way out he tossed a five bits to Gella, a burly snowy coloured griffon perched outside. Griffon Stone’s looked a bit better than Gallus had remembered before leaving for school thanks to Gabby’s one griff rebuilding project. It was still mostly ruins that every griff decides to just walk past everyday, but for every ten or so crumbled piles of bricks there was one fresh new building. It made his stomach turn even more than the old griffonstone. He imagined how much further rebuild would be along if even one griff could get over themselves to help. A Griffonstone with parks, a functioning library, an actual hospital. Instead griffs made clans and gangs and fought for who had the most of nothing. Griffonstone has no leaders and of the leaders it doesn’t have none are worth the space they take up.

I ignore everygriff and everygriff ignores me. Just as it should be. Should be?

He lifted his eyesfrom the dirt. No griff looked back at him that's for sure. Those who did scoffed returned their attention to whatever object they were using to ignore everyone else. Any griffon who was in a group started mumbling amongst themselves. They were talking about him. Everygriff talks about the blue kid.

Yep they’re all the same as always. But your not the same? You shouldn’t be. You didn't ignore grimheld and she’s nice, and fun, and makes at least one griffon who thinks a single thought about you. Of course you didn't she’s just like you. Its easy easy when they’re the same isn’t it? You think your some better griffon? You go to friendship school and get to look down on everyone else? Oh wait you already thought that didn’t you? Prove it. Talk to them If you think griffonstone is so awful. Unless you’re just as worthless as you think every other griffon is.

He looked to the other side of the street. More griffons going out of their way to ignore him. Their eyes all say it ‘Don’t you dare talk to me.’ Gallus struggled not to look away. His legs said to just keep walking.

This is a mistake. They hate you. They all hate you.

 They’re all terrible anyway. Griffons are equally worthless.

 So you’re just gonna call them terrible and then be the same?

 

 “Uh hey there I’m Gallus,” he blurted out the words before he even realised he was saying anything. He was so lost in his head that he hadn’t even realised who he walked up to. His talon extended and trembling like a leaf. He didn’t remember offering his talon, but it was out now.

“Whaddya want from me?” A griffon far, far older than Galllus turned down his newspaper and gave the coldest look ever seen. The look made him feel like vapor. A gaze so uncaring it might actually be able to will him out of this world. Gallus’ eyes glanced to the paper in some desperate act of self defense. A whole year out of date.

“Nothing I just thought. Uh, you looked like you could use someone to talk to?”

“Oh and what made me look like that?” The old griffon’s eyes narrowed and Gallus couldn’t feel his tail anymore.

 I’m trying to be nice you old fart. Just play it cool. Keep your smile. Look like your fine. Don’t stammer. “Well you’re by yourself and all. Maybe you’d like somegriff to talk to.”

“And what do you think I want to talk about”

Gallus put on his most winning smile. “Well what do you like?” Professor Pinkie always said the best way to get someone to talk is to get them to talk about what something they’re interested in. Gallus never actually tried it on purpose but if there was a time to apply lessons it was now.

“Being left alone. Flock off!” A swift kick to the chest sent Gallus rolling into the street. Normally he would have braced himself. He wouldn’t let a griffon surprise him like that. Well, that's not right. Normally he would have never talked to the old geezer. Normally no griffon would have the chance. Normally he and the old man would have gave each other one look in the eye from halfway across Griffonstone and their mutual disdain would be understood.

“Nice talking to you” He said waving his claw from the ground before slumping into the dirt. Now that was restraint. He wanted to spit on him. Fight back. The guys probably fifty he could take him. What would twilight think if he did that? She’d have some sort of lecture for sure about being the better creature or something. Professor Rainbow dash? Heck she might have encouraged him. She’d scrap! Gallus punched the dirt, he was going to make at least one of his professors proud today. He picked himself off the ground with a fire in his eyes, and a whole other griffon in front of his face.

“Gallus, what in the world was that. Are you turning into Gabby? I don’t think I can take two of you.” The other griffon grabbed him by his shoulders and dusted him off.

“Gilda? You saw all that?” Gallus between a rough chest wrenching cough. That kick really left a sting.

“Yep. I’ve seen Gabby try it hundreds of times but she never got hit for it. Anyway when did your blue butt come back here?”

“I’ve been back for like two weeks,” He grumbled. How could anygriff manage to not notice brightest bird in griffonstone. “My summer vacation plans didn’t work out. So I’m back to running paradise for the summer. Training a uh protege I think it's called.”

“You got that back from the canary crew? Did ya cheat?” She said leaning in,

Gallus blew a proud huff out his chest despite the pain.“Gilda please. I run an entirely legit operation. I won that place back fair and square.” Gallus checked who was around before whispering “And I may have cheated once or twice to make a point, but I didn’t have to.”

Gilda chortled. “Nice, I hate those guys. Bunch of thieving losers. Anyway I’m off. Don’t go acting like Gabby or I’ll have to start feeling bad for ya.”

“Wait. Did you only come to say something cause I reminded you of her.”

“Don’t make me answer that. If you’re trying to talk about feelings go talk to her yourself. She’s at the tavern taking a break from her little construction project.” Gillda took off before Gallus could try to get another word in. A thick cloud of dust was all that remained

Gallus crossed his forelegs. “Ugh. I don’t need some griff to talk to I just want to be a good student. Why would I even talk to gabby?”




“Sooo Gabby. Gabriela. Gab the mail griffon. How ya doin?” Gallus said with a smile as he gulped down a glass of water. Anything else would have cost half his bits and that money certainly wouldn’t be going to renovating this rundown hunk of wood. Most of Gabby was covered in a dark smokey blue with a bit brighter shade around the face, and wings that were nearly black. The griffon herself was one of the only shining things in this whole dump of a town. The only friendly griffon in the world for all he knew. Trying to talk nice to her now felt slimy. Gallus thought back on trying to talk back to that older griffon. Gabby had tried to connect with him like that so many times even though no creature ever sent him mail. He hated it. He’d yell, make up excuses, tell her to go away and now he sat here wondering why in the world he was ever like that to her at all. As he looked over her colours one thought stood out in his mind. Their shades should be switched.

Gabby jolted up straight.“I’m sorry are you… actually talking to me?”

“Yeah. Is that a mistake?”

“Oh of course not. Its just no griff ever wants to talk to me. Gilda doesn’t even want to talk to me. The family who’s house a rebuilt didn’t want to talk to me. Not even my boss wants to talk to me.”

“You have a boss? We don’t even have a post office.”

“Well no, everygriff sticks all their mail in a box and I just take it all and deliver it. But I like to think Gretchen is my boss. She works for the pony postal service and she brings all the mail from the train up the mountain and then sticks it in the box. Then I get it from the box. So its almost like a boss. She’s super cool… and doesn’t talk to me.”

“Oh. Wait you don’t actually have an employer? You just deliver everygriff’s mail and you don’t see a paycheck?”

“Do paychecks exist here?” She let out a loud ha. “If I wanted a paycheck I’d have gotten a job in equestria years ago. I do this cause I want to help everygriff. They wouldn’t get the mail themselves. Plus the mailbox is all the way at the bottom of town. Think of all the old griffs that live near the top. It’d be awful.” She took a sip of a brown drink. Gallus had no idea what it was but couldn’t imagine that cheery Gabby was a drinker so he decided to just consider it ‘brown drink’. “Anyway some griffs actually give me tips. I think its cause they don’t want hand outs. Although I think some of them do it to make me go away.” She took another sip of her drink “So are you meeting someone too?”

“Huh? No I’m here to talk to you I guess.”

“Yeeeee!” She squealed, “Two creatures want to talk to me today what a great day for Gabby!” Before he knew it Gabby was in his face. A wide smile and eyes that sparkled with glee. “So whatcha wanna talk about!”

“Uh, well. I don’t know. I guess I was curious what you thought about Griffonstone. Like The town and everyone in it.”

“Oh that's simple,”Gabby chriped “A bunch of mean ol’ griffs sitting on a crummy mountain.” Gallus froze for a moment. He had to process that she said something even slightly mean.

“But I love them! There's so much in everygriff waiting to come out I just know it. I mean you decided to talk to me today so I must be right! I was sure you hated me.” It felt like a rock plummeted in Gallus’ gut. “I don’t know what's wrong with us, or if there's something that's wrong with me but as long as I’m here I want to make everygriff happy. Griffonstone was great once and it can be great again, even if nogriff wants my help. If griffons are supposed to take gold and whatever they want by force. I’ll make the world I want by doing good indignantly. I think. I think it's what everygriff deserves.”

“I guess growing up in a place where everygriff clearly needs help would do that to you.”

“Nah.” Gabby’s blunt rejection caught Gallus off guard. “If that was the case we’d all be helping each other. Sometimes I’m convinced I don’t really have a griffon’s brain, or maybe I’m just loopy. But I love it. Being me is great. Wanting to help is great, and I know if I keep doing whatever I think will help everygriff will want to be my friend someday. Or at least they’ll finally be happy.”

 She has it. She has that thing Twilight has. What all the professors have. Whatever it is. Gabby is it. I wonder if other griffons feel so bad when they hear her talk or if it's just me.

“So what do you think of griffonstone?”

“Me?” Gallus said. Gabby nodded fervently. “Well uh.” he paused to think of what to say.   “ I think you’re right.” He didn’t look her in the eyes and took a sip long his water. “Just a couple of optimists the two of us.” He leapt out his chair. His talons snapping away from the counter like he needed to be anywhere else. “I’ll see you around”

If she said by he blocked it out. He rushed for the door and didn’t look at anything. He rushed through the door bumping to someone purple on his way out. “Sorry!” he shouted before taking off for the sky.

“Ms. Gabriella. I’m glad you received my letter. I have an opportunity I think you’d really love.”
> Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colours. So many colours. Pinks, blues, greens, and yellows moved around Gallus in a blur. His eyes were fixated on a set of photos, but his peripheral vision was like a carousel of hues as students rushed by. Just before leaving, he spent some bits to get some pictures taken with Grimheld. He hadn’t planned it, but when he realised there was only one more day of summer, the urge to take photos just took over. Grimheld scowling and pouting in every picture gave him chuckle. She thought it was such a waste of money. Every step of the way, she had some new complaint, but she came along all the same. She’d be fine without him, but there was a certain regret that he couldn’t convince her to go to school.

There was a sign beside the door as he made his way in. School Expansion Ceromony! Headed by Queen of Equestria Twilight Sparkle. Special Guests!. Starlight's first year as headmare and Twilight manages to snatch away the opening ceromony from her.

“Gallus!“ a familiar voice cheered. Before he could react, a pair of chitinous legs wrapped around him. He’d try to return the hug, but was more concerned with making sure nothing happened to his photos. “Oh I’ve missed you and Smolder so much! Everyone at the hive is so nice. I need your snark back in my life.” Ocellus gave him as hard a squeeze she could muster before letting go. For a moment, the two just enjoyed each other's smiles. Gallus’s simple and content; Ocellus’ shining with joy.  “So how was your summer with Sandbar?”

Smile gone.“Oh, that. It uh, didn’t work out. The summer got kinda weird.” Gallus said. The two walked through the crowd trying to find a good spot to hear the upcoming announcements. Something about the crowd seemed off.

“Weird? Did something happen between you two?” The sound of buzzing droned in the background as Ocellus spoke.

“No, no. Nothing like that. It's just—“ The buzzing rang in his ears again like a fly just flew past. “Its.” Another buzz. “Hold on a second.” He turned away from ocellus and looked around the entrance hall properly for the first time. Changelings—so many changelings. At least ten. And hippogriffs too, In the corner, he could swear he saw a sliver of a silver dragon’s tail. As far as he knew, that was also a changeling. “Ocellus. Were you followed?”

“They tailed me, but I couldn’t shake them,” she said, her voice full of shame—before breaking into a snorting laugh. “Nooo. King Thorax decided since I was doing so well here that this year it was time to trust more changelings to enroll. I guess Queen Novo was on the same page. I've never seen so many hippogriffs!”

“I know! Isn’t it great?” cried a high-pitched cheer.  Gallus and Ocellus were both pulled against a chest of pink feathers. “I mean I’ve seen this many hippogriffs before, of course, but I’ve never seen this many changelings! You’re all so pretty, Ocellus.”

She wasn’t wrong. all the changelings and hippogriffs were quite the sight, but something stood out. Try as he might, Gallus couldn’t see a single other griffon. In the air, in the back, up front—no griffons anywhere. He let out a disappointed grunt. At least being held against Silvestream’s chest was warm. Though… something felt oddly cold against his backside, and metal, and it kinda hurt.

“Let go for a second, I think your bags are poking the peck out of me.” Relinquished from Silver’s grasp, he finally got to take a good look at her, his eyes drawn to one thing. “Is that a freaking sword!?”

“Yeeeep. You like it?” Silverstream turned to show off the scabbard strapped to her left side. At the end of the scabbard was brilliant golden hilt. “Its cool right? I bet Smolder and Yona will love it. I’ve spent all summer doing navy training with dad. It was great! We had a mock ship battle! A real ship battle cause we got really confused. And I got to spar.”

“Whoa! We’re gonna get to cut stuff up with that, right?” Gallus said mimicking the swing of a baseball bat rather than a blade. 

“A crossguard?” Ocellus said, eyeing the blade’s hilt. “Don’t Navys usually use swords with basket guards like sabres? A long sword seems a bit unusual.”

“Oh, you know sword stuff!”

“I’ve read a lot about warfare.” 

“Oh we are going to have so much to talk about!” Silver stream squealed, fidgeting in the air. “So yeah, you're right. It would be totally weird for a navy to use long swords, but get this. Dad’s training me to become Skystar’s personal guard, so it’s more like I’m being trained to be a royal knight. I mean if I want to. No one's forcing it, but being able to hang out with my cousin all the time would be so cool. Anyway. He decided that meant I should get my sword special made. It's like, a royal sword. I’m just getting navy training cause ya know. Dad’s navy. Underwater kingdom.”

“Wait, hold up. You’re already thinking of careers like that? Wouldn’t being a princess's bodyguard be like, your whole life?” Gallus asked.

“Well, my life is dedicated to the royal family no matter what I do. It's just an option, really. I could do all sorts of things. But now every one of those things involve me being super cool cause I have a sword!” She cheered, with a powerful fist bump.

“Please don’t shout about weapons in a room full of creatures!” Sandbars called. After looking around they found that their pony friend was stuck in a crowd of students. They could barely see his head jumping above the crowd. The three waved to their comrade lost in a sea of bodies.

“Shouldn’t we help?” Ocellus stifled a snicker.

“No, this is funnier.” Gallus didn’t even try to hide his grin.

“Well see you soon, sandbar! Find smolder and Yona for us so they can see my sword!”

The last they saw of Sandbar a was him being carried away by a flock of hippogriffs who seemed very interested in him.
"He'll be fine," Gallus snickered "So, Ocellus what did you do all summer? I bet it wasn't as cool as Sergeant Silverstream overhere." On cue Silverstream performed a salute. 

“Oh, nothing too special. I told everyling stories about the school. Helped king Thorax with hive plans. We visited the dragonlands to see Ember and I got to spend a few with Smolder.” she struggled not to giggle at smolder’s mention.  “It was an okay summer. I’m more excited about this semester.”

“You would be.” Gallus gave her a light jab.

“See, that's the dry attitude I don’t get to enjoy in the hive.  I’ve got a history-changing theory I’m working on. I’m really proud of it and I just can’t wait to start the research. Ponyville's the perfect place for it.”

“LOOK OUT!” Every creature jumped out of the way as a brown ball bowled through the entrance hall. It was barreling straight towards Gallus.  In an instant, Silverstream jumped in front of him and stopped the ball with her bare claws. It pushed her back, but her stance was unwavering. Soon the ball lost its momentum and came to a stop.

“Hey, I know this brown ball!” Silverstream cheered.

“Y-yona is here.” Her head rolled around from how dizzy she was and her words were slurred.  “Is Yona late? Yona no want to be late! Yaks always on time. Yona rush to be punctual!”

“Well, you are late.” Ocellus helped Yona from stumbling. “ Queen Twilight is late too. The semester commencement ceremony should have started at least five minutes ago.”        

"Twilight late? Twilight never late." Yona said starting to tip to the right.

Ocellus darted to Yona’s other side and propped the yak up with her back. "I think it's because of all the new students. King Thorax came with us, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's causing a delay. He does tend to worry."

Yona gave the room a quick look. "Why no yaks?" Ocellus’ and Silverstream’s eyes snapped wide, caught completely off guard by the question. "Why no yaks? Why no Griffons?"

"Cause no griffon realises they can leave. I'm the smart one."

"Okay, but why no yaks? Yona demands answer!" Nearby creatures stumbled from the force of Yona's stomp. Just then, a piercing whine of a microphone brings every conversation to a screeching halt.

"Good morning every creature." Every Creature in attendance gave Twilight their own greeting back, but no one said the same one so it was like a garbled noise of general kindness.  "I'm sure you've all noticed, but this year the changelings and hippogriffs have agreed to let more of their students join us. What you may not have noticed is that there's some new dragons here too, kirin, and few other creatures with us which I imagine most of you have never seen before. They may be in smaller number, but they are every bit as important to us. Every creature please give them a warm welcome." The room filled with claps and hoof stomps. "This year will be a really big change. As the new queen I want to open the heart of all of Equestria to every creature great and small. That starts here at this school. To accommodate our increasing student body, we've not only expanded the campus, but our staff. Even returning students it might feel like being at a brand new school. You can all share that experience together. Now, I would like to give the microphone to King Thorax and Dragon Lord Ember, who agreed to speak today." 

Thorax tapped the microphone. "Hello every creature. I hope you’re all having a good morning." He spoke in a soft, nurturing tone. To the ponies in attendance, it reminded them of motherly way Celestia spoke to her own subjects. "We are honored to be accepted into Equestria. We were all so glad when Ocellus told us about the kindness and generosity you showed her." Everycreature stepped back, giving ocellus and her friends the spotlight.

Ocells blushed turning her blue complexion green."T-thank you all," she said, trying her hardest not to look toward the ground.

"Yes, our appreciation goes out to all of you, but I wouldn't be here to simply say thanks." Thorax's tone shifted. It was solemn yet hopeful. "We, the changelings, have talked about this at home. Many times. We understand that accepting one of us might be easy. That some of you may have barely noticed. Accepting one changeling isn't the same has having a class filled with us. You probably could walk on the streets without ever seeing one us last semester but now there will be so many that you’ll see us every day.” 

“We understand that we can breed distrust by the mere nature of our existence. We can't force that to change, but if you feel the seed of distrust building in you talk to us. We have embraced communicating about our feelings.. Expression has become the cornerstone of our culture. We are open to discussion about us. Please don't feel the need to keep your fears to yourself." He paused for applause, though it was mixed with plenty of murmuring—as he expected. " and now I’d like to welcome my close friend Ember."

The slender, blue dragon grasped the mic as if it were prey. Some creature whose throat she could crush in an instant. "Ahem." Every creature was silent. 

"BE NICE TO THEM!" 

She seemed proud with her gift of words. Every dragon in attendance shouted fervent cheers. By the sound of it that meant about three or four dragons.With a nervous grin Twilight ushered ember away from the mic .

"Thank you. For your time, every creature. Have a great semester. Our new staff are so excited to meet you. Your premade, first-week schedules can be found at the front. If you don’t like your classes or end up with repeats, please fill your your own class schedule and submit them to Counselor Starlight. Your chosen schedules will go into effect next week.”

Gallus, Yona, Ocellus, and Silverstream all decided not to get in line. They found a wall to lean on and chat as they waited for the hall to empty out. Eventually, the room would be empty enough to spot Sandbar and Smolder. Sandbar came over with his hair full of seashells, and Smolder arrived with a small entourage of her own.

“Guys, it’s great to see you all again.” Sandbar went straight for the group hug, though he was particularly partial to Yona’s soft mass of fuzz. Smolder refrained, though watching the others made her grin.

“Those hippogriffs boys must have really liked you!” Silverstream couldn’t stop chuckling. Every time her eyes went back to the seashells, she lost even more control of her giggling. 

“Wh-what makes you say that?” Sandbar asked with the most oblivious puppy face.

“Sup nerds, guess who got stuck with babysitting?” Smolder approached with two dragon s trailing behind her. A small, green one about spike’s size, and a slender, silver dragon boy about Smolder’s height, but much thinner.

“I can go on my own ya know,” the silver one said. He folded his arms and grit his teeth, averting his gaze to avoid ever quite meeting any creature’s eyes.

“Ember told me to keep track of you, so you’re sticking with me whether you like it or not, and I don’t even like it.” Smolder let out a heavy sigh. “The silver punk’s name is Pierce; the short one is Cleave.” Cleave simply waved. She didn’t talk, but compared to Pierce who was using his tail as a wall between himself and the others she was downright the friendliest creature in the world. “I think Ember just chose the two least-aggressive dragons she could find and stuck ‘em with me. I was coaching these two all summer.”

“You didn’t even coach us on friendship!”

“I coached you on what living in Ponyville is like. I’m not doing my professor’s job for them.” The lot of them got to chatting after they all silently agreed to be the last creatures to get their schedules. Pierce had his protests, but Smolder kept assuring “We’ll get to it.” Once every other creature had gotten their schedules and they were all alone, they made a move.

“It sounds like everyone had a great summer.” Despite the cheer, Ocellus looked concerned. “Except maybe one of us. Gallus, Sandbar. What exactly happened to spending vacation together?” The others voiced their equal concern of the matter and suddenly all eyes where on the two of them. Gallus tried to maintain his smile, but could feel himself backpedaling away from the situation. His lion’s feet taking slow, careful steps backwards. “Hm, well would you fill us in, Sandbar.” The two boys exchanged looks.  Sandbar seemed fine but he could see the shake in Gallus’ eyes. Guilt.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t be talking about it until Gallus wants to.” Sandbar trotted through the others and snatched up a schedule without looking. “And I refuse to be interrogated about it.” Just like that, he left. Gallus followed Sandbar’s lead before Ocellus could continue her questioning.

“Thanks for the save.” 

“No problem, but they’ll find out eventually, and really, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I know.”

“You’d feel better about yourself if you talked about these things, ya know?”

“Don’t spout friendship 101 at me like I don’t know. Its not that easy, okay.  Anyway, I’m sorry for cutting our vacation short.”

“I get it. It sucked, but I get it. You don’t have to apologize to me because I feel the same thing.I want to talk about it so I hope you feel up to soon. Then we can get this off both our chests, I hope you do soon. Now lets see what our first class is.” The two of them opened up their scheduels together and couldn't believe their eyes.

“What in the world.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Our first class is Self-defence!?”
--------------------------------------------------------

“I have concerns.” 
“And I’m on the fence.”
“Cause we’re not ready for self defence!” Two ponies cried their cheer of fear. They sat clinging to each other on the buckball bleachers, surrounded by their classmates Class had just started and ponies had plenty of concerns to express. The loudest, and most poetic, of which where two mares Gallus recognized as the cheer ponies. They pleaded with the professor—a large, imposing Hippogriff.

He had introduced himself as General Horizon, an introduction he made by cutting his name into the dirt.  He had a dark aqua hue like the ocean in summer. Despite his stature towering well above the average pony, he had a calm and warming smile. That smile shared its face with a mighty scar on his right cheek. For most ponies, he was a befuddling blend of friendly and terrifying.

The semester had only been active for about half an hour, and things were already weird. There was  a non-pony professor for one. That, Gallus probably could have expected to happen eventually, but it's still a bit of a surprise. Then there were the ponies desperately arguing with the professor to not have the class at all. Of course, there's the fact that there's a self-defence class at all at the school of friendship. That one is still giving his brain a serious mental whiplash. All that was new, but one thing stood out above all of it. Silverstream was standing right beside the professor.

“Please understand,” the professor bellowed!
“We believe in your might!” Silverstream sang!
“Defending friendship means you must fight!” The two cheered in unison!

Silverstream mentioned right before class that the professor was her uncle, but Gallus didn’t think that meant she’d help teach it. Besides that, they both had swords strapped to their sides, so that was apparently just going to fly around here now.

“But why? I thought friendship was all about stopping fights and being nice!” One of the cheermares said, clutching her friend close.

“You’re absolutely correct, but let me ask you this. What do you do when a villain won’t listen to being nice?”

The other cheer girl responded, choking back tears. “Show understanding and sympathy ‘til they understand they wanted friends all along?”

“And what do you do if they don’t understand?” The general had a proud smile, as if he knew where he was going.

“We usually just cower and wait for Twilight and the elements to fix it.” The ponies attending echoed their sentiment. 

“Exactly! Do you all want to be subject to the good fortune of whether or not a hero can come to save you? You can’t spread friendship if you are not willing to fight its dissenters when necessary!”

The ponies nodded in understanding, but their faces were still clearly terrified about learning to fight. The few changeling and hippogriff students weren't phased at all by the idea. In fact, they were in utter confusion of just how afraid the ponies were, mumbling things like “Aren't ponies the ones who beat us?” and “Ponies like these saved us?”

In just one class, Gallus was noticing differences between ponies and other cultures that never came up when there was only one changeling or one hippogriff.

“What's so scary?” Sandbar stood up and pointed a hoof over his pony classmates  “I’d hate to be the one to call you all out, but, when Cozy Glow was in charge, you weren’t afraid to hurt us!” With that, he put a hoof around Gallus’ shoulder. The returning students among them went quiet. They looked away or mumbled to themselves.

The cheer ponies stuck up their noses.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“You’re just being mean!”
“A self defence class is plainly obscene!”

Sandbar’s mouth creased. A hot breath blew through his nostrils. Not willing to argue, and not up for a speech, he simply raised his hoof.  “Professor, I’m willing to help demonstrate anything you want to teach.”

“Aha! fantastic. I’m relieved there's true pony of heart in attendance.  Please come down, young stallion. It’ll be an honour to have Silverstream demonstrate with you.” Silverstream shot him two thumbs up. “We delay no longer. For the scared amongst, you I trust that you will at least pay attention to learn even if you don’t participate.”

The class went on, with the professor going over the basics of combat sambo. He’d have Silverstream demonstrate a move on Sandbar, who’d put on a brave face and let come what may. Then he’d have every creature come down and practice on dummies before voluntarily practicing on each other. The changelings and hippogriffs where happy to try, but at least half the ponies sat out when it came to practicing on each other. Once class was actually happening, the time just flew by, except maybe for Sandbar. He spent a lot of it on the ground.

------------------------

After hitting the showers, the three had some time before their next class. Gallus and Sandbar were content to listen to Silverstream go on about how fun teaching was, and all the marvels of sambo. Sandbar walked with a limp, but he grinned and bore it.

They hailed Ocellus after spotting her with her face stuck in a book.  She buzzed over and noticed Sandbar’s limp in an instant. “Did you all have self-defence class?”

The three of them gave an affirmative “Mhmm.”“Don’t you think it's a bit strange to have one?”

“Not at all!” Silverstream chirped. Her reply was practically instant.
“Same. Our professors had to fight plenty of times to save Equestria. If we’re ever supposed to be like them, it only makes sense we should learn how to fight. There's nothing weird about it.”

“I think its weird,” Gallus said flatly.

“What, you too?” Sanbar raised a brow.

“Yeah, kinda. Think about last year—they glossed over any mention of fighting as fast as they could. All the classes were about stuff like history, friendship and embodying the elements.
If there was fighting involved, I would have paid way more attention. So yeah, it's a little weird when self-defence is a class we’re taking out of nowhere.”

“They didn’t have anyone to teach it then. So what?”

“So, there's more to it than that.” Ocellus whipped out her schedule, as well as notebook paper with other schedules written on them. ”I looked at Yona, Smolder, and her dragon friends schedules too. Every creature has a morning self-defence class somewhere in their week. Don’t you think that's a bit suspicious, Sandbar?  Just a little strange that every creature has this one class? The most out-of-place class.”

Sandbar stopped on the spot. His eyes shifting left to right as if he was reading an invisible paper. Just as he raised his hoof to respond, Silverstream shouted over him.

“It’s on all our schedules because it's important for every creature! Friendship may keep every creature nice, happy, and connected, but being willing to fight is the only way to protect any of that. If our professors didn’t fight the Storm King, I’d still be stuck underwater, and Equestria would be in cages!”

Sandbar followed up. “Silverstream is right. Artifacts like The Elements might save the day in the end a lot of the time, but they wouldn’t mean anything if some creature wasn’t willing to put their hooves down first!” He ended his point with a stomp.

Gallus breathed a heavy sigh. “Guys, cut it out. This isn’t worth getting loud over.”

“No, its fine. I understand that this is a close subject for some of us. Silverstream, your logic is reasonable. I just think that, if that was why, Twilight would have said it. This whole thing is coming off as unusually under-hoofed.” Ocellus withdrew into another hallway with her head hung low. “I’m going to go. I’m sorry for hitting such a close nerve.”

Gallus shot Sandbar and Silverstream a stern look. “You two have to chill. She had a point.”

“What! She’s the one thats not chill! We’re just trying to help every creature be prepared. I’m going to class. Bye!” She huffed,  and flew off.

“I’m going to go apologize. Catch ya later?”

“Yeah sure.” Gallus let out a deep sigh. He wondered if he had entered another dimension where everything was the same, but just different enough to be a problem. With that, he attended his other four classes for the day. They seemed normal. He had his normal professors with normal lessons, and having more hippogriffs and changelings seemed kinda normal.

Maybe it was a bad start to the day after all. He just had one more class and he’d be free to hang out with his friends. Assuming that Ocellus and Silverstream weren’t going to draw blades on each other the next time he saw them. His eyes rolled down the schedule to the last class of the day. 

Kindness: Fluttershy : 3PM

“Crap.”
----------------------------

Gallus sunk into his seat. He had banished himself into the furthest corner of the room. Just him and the window. The professor wasn’t here yet. It should be relieving, but every second she took made him grow more restless. His talons scratched his skin, and his toes rapped on the floor enough to dig a groove. Then there was a loud thump that snapped him into sitting up straight.

“Gallus okay?” Yona had sat down beside him. “Gallus look nervous and it only first day.”

He was silent.

She leaned closer, but he turned to to have a silent conversation with the window.

“Yona get smolder? Would be better?”

“Already here.” Smolder dropped into the seat in front of Gallus’, kicked back, and popped open a magazine.

“Well? Smolder going to help?”

“I am helping. Hey, check this out.” She unfolds the magazine towards Gallus, opening it up to a picture of some haughty celebrity tripping into another, and knocking down a whole row of them like dominoes. Gallus tilted his head as little as possible to catch a glimpse of it and let out a quiet chuckle. “See, helping. Just let him be. It's not always time to talk.”

“Yona still concerned, but Yona will trust Smolder.” 

A moment later, there was a click as the door opened. The students stopped their murmuring as Fluttershy trotted to the chalkboard, her hair covering her face. 

“Hm. They didn’t arrange this room like I wanted.” She took a piece of chalk into her mouth and turned to write her name on the board.


“Now, would every creature mind putting their seats in a circle?” Half the class burst into gasps and concerned cries.

“What happened!”
“Are you okay!”
“Miss Fluttershy you look so cool”

Smolder immediately sat up—eyes wide, mouth agape, and tail thumping the floor. “Whoa! When did Fluttershy become a pirate? Nice patch, Professor!” 

Gallus clutched his talon to his face. Just the sight of Fluttershy sent his body through a whirlwind of discomfort. His head felt light, like he’d leave his own body at any moment.  His gut was doing flips, and his heart? He wasn’t sure if his chest felt tight or if it felt empty, but, whatever it was, it made him want to die. His body curled inch by inch. He sunk deeper into his seat. Yona gave him a glance and made a single ‘hmm’ before turning away from him.

The students assembled their seats in a circle like they were asked. The class was still full of questions and gossip. The old students made sure to inform the new ones about just what was going on. Yona took the liberty of lifting Gallus to the edge of the circle and sat next to him silently. Smolder had moved herself to the front and was bouncing in her seat.

“Come on, you gotta tell us! What happened?!” The class echoed her request with varying degrees of excitement and concern.

“I will. Please settle down.” Fluttershy placed a well-decorated and clearly home-stitched pillow into the center of the ring before sitting down. “I don’t know how many of you heard about it, but there was a magical accident over the summer. The other professors and I where looking at something and there was a sudden explosion.” As she spoke, Fluttershy’s gaze had turned to Gallus. Her smile nearly curled into the most distraught frown, but she covered it by taking a deep breath before smiling again. “Twilight covered most of us in a shield, but I left to keep a nearby pegasus out of danger.” She caught Gallus moving his claw away from his eyes. “You see, there were a lot of really dangerous rocks. They turn into really teeny tiny shards that can really hurt. So went to save them. Then one of the shards, well—you can see what it did.”

The class roared with applause. Claps, hoof stomps, and plenty of praise for her heroics. “I’m so thankful, every creature, but please—there's no need to congratulate me. I was just helping. It's what we do.” She checked on Gallus again. He was sitting up now at least. His forelegs have been simply hang by his sides as he stared at her, but it was something of an improvement. At least, she’d like to consider it an improvement. She went on to teach the class as normal. She’d introduce the students to a small animal. Politely asked the changelings students to imitate different creatures, which they did with glee. Though, whenever she could, she’d sneak a glance at Gallus.

It felt like forever for both of them, but the class eventually ended. Students dispersed, happily chatting with each other.

“Gallus,” Fluttershy called in her soft, motherly voice. “Would you talk to me for a moment?”

He looked toward Yona and Smolder before they left. Smolder gave a simple wave before heading off. Yona stared back a moment longer. She looked him in the eye with an expression that wasn’t quite a frown. It was more empathetic than frown.

“Yona understand,” she said in a delicate tone nodding before departing.

“Ugh. She knows.” Gallus moaned as he threw his head into his palms.

“She’s a good friend to have know it, though.” Fluttershy put a hoof on Gallus shoulders. “Do you want to talk to me?”

“No.”

“I see.  I don’t know if it’ll make you feel better, but I’ve told the story six times today and I made sure to never even mention a griffon.”

“Why?”

“Because I want the best for you, of course. When I heard you left back to Griffonstone, I understood. So I just want you to know that it’s not your fault, and we don’t have to talk about it anymore than that.”

Gallus nodded, still not looking at her. She didn’t expect him to, either.

“I do have something for you, though.” Fluttershy pulled something shimmering from her bag. “This is yours.”

He lifted his face from the prison of his talons to see bright, glistening crystals. They were roughly cylindrical in shape, though they had been cut to have fine edges. “I don’t understand. What is this?”

“It's your treasure. Twilight promised, remember? Rarity had them cut for you.” As she spoke, she trotted past him to the door. “And before you even think about it, I'm not letting you hand them back. They’re yours.”

He looked her in the face, and she bared the softest, gentlest smile. He understood it was gesture of that he should get over it, but it just made his gut retch harder. “Please don’t hurt yourself over this. I help creatures. It’s what I do.”

He sat there alone with the crystals, staring at his own reflection in them. His pitiful face stared back, multiplied by the crystal’s surfaces. So many weak Galluses.

What are you doing? Everyone can see your face. You sad loser. Are you losing? What game are you playing? What you caused isn’t a game. Somepony got hurt, and now you’re busy feeling sorry about it. You’re making your friends upset. You’re making yourself upset. 

But how can she be so forgiving? Its my fault. If I wasn’t there, she wouldn’t be hurt. I don’t deserve this. I was selfish.

Jeez, do you ever get over yourself? You already know you suck. She forgives you ‘cause she doesn’t suck. She has that special thing that you don’t. Isn’t that why you were there? You wanted that special thing. Well you didn’t get it. Somecreature got hurt.  Get over it or die already

He let out a grunt. The face in the crystals became determined for at least a moment before it shifted to resignation. His real face still wasn’t what he’d want. There was just no way to feel good about this, but he didn’t have to wear his real face. “I’ll do something. Somehow.” The army of determined reflections returned.

After asking around if any creature’s seen a yak, dragon, pony, changeling, and hippogriff hanging around, he learned his friends where in something called an anger management room. Apparently, there were now rooms dedicated to just shouting. He couldn’t help but imagine that Ocellus and Silverstream could be trying to kill each other after this morning. At least they both had the decency to use a room dedicated to doing it. 

Unfortunately, Twilight didn’t have the decency to make it closer. The anger management rooms were in a new building entirely dedicated to emotions and art.  Worse—it was on the third floor of that building. Even worse—the section dedicated to anger had no windows, so he couldn’t just fly in. Maybe Twilight had hoped that, by the time any creature even made it to an anger room, they wouldn’t even have the energy to be angry anymore. He encountered two dragons he recognized as Smolder’s cargo, and they pointed him to the right room.

“Ya know, I think I’ve had just about enough of this, Ocellus. All you’ve done is question everything since you got here!” Sandbar was stood on a chair and was nearly screaming so he could still look the flying changeling in the eyes. Smolder was flying around him and spitting pure venom from her mouth, and Silverstream was screeching her words from some sort  faux branch.

The floor was made to resemble grass. The flowers were aromatic enough that Gallus feared he’d develop allergies he never had. The chairs resembled tree stumps. Overall, it was like an indoor meadow.

He couldn’t help but feel his friends were using the room wrong. He’d later learn that each anger room was in an entirely different style to handle different methods of anger de-escalation. One was covered in heavy-metal imagery, and Gallus intended to use it often.

He approached Yona, who was hanging by the door. “What's going on?”

“Ocellus questioned Silversteam sword. Then Sandbar get mad at Ocellus ‘constant suspicions.’ Then Smolder threaten Sandbar for yelling at Ocellus. Yona bring friends here to not hurt each other. Yona think that still happen.”

“And what are you doing?” Gallus asked, his eyes still fixated on his bickering friends.

“Yona is watching. Taking Smolder idea. Gallus can fix this.”

Gallus sighed. “Yeah, I know. Just let me prepare myself.”

“Keep yelling at her, and I just might decide I don’t mind burning this building down!” Smolder snarled, with smoke coming out of her nostrils.

Sandbar lowered his voice, feigning calmness, but the aggression in his tone was clear. “I don’t want to yell at her, but she has been badgering every creature all day. Her attitude needs an adjustment.”

“My attitude needs an adjustment!” Ocellus spat. “You’re getting defensive for a school! I bring up a few reasonable questions about how things are going, and you’re up to bat for Twilight in a second. Why don’t I get that courtesy!”

“What reasonable arguments?”

“Why does Silverstream get to carry a lethal weapon around, for one. I thought she would just take it to her room so it would be fine, but she’s been carrying it around all day. What sort of school lets a student carry a real blade!”

“She’s royalty. They get special privileges. And it's not just the school you’re questioning. You’re questioning your friends. You’re questioning Silverstream right now! Aren't you supposed to trust her?”

“You and I both know Twilight doesn’t operate like that!” Ocellus’s voice was starting to get raspy. Like her throat couldn’t handle much more of this. “Silverstream’s never got a single special accommodation before. Why now?”

Silverstream clutched her scabbard. “It’s for teaching self-defence class. Me and my uncle both have swords! Why is this such a problem for you! I thought you liked it!”

Ocellus belted out a shrill scream. “I spoke to every creature who went to Self-defence today, and it didn’t involve a single weapon. You didn’t need a sword!” She pointed her hoof at Silverstream as if it could kill. “You’re lying to me! Gallus is keeping secrets from us!” She thrusts her hoof towards Sandbar. “And you are covering for everyone! And you both think I’m unreasonable! I can show you unreasonable!” Green flames wrapped around Ocellus.

“That's my cue.” Gallus rushed forward and reached into the flames. They disappeared, and Ocellus was still there in her normal form. He could feel how heavily she was breathing. “Ocellus, I’m ready to talk now.”

Her breathing slowed and the two of them descended onto the ground.  “I’m listening.” Ocellus spoke as if nothing had happened. She looked almost completely neutral,  like all that anger had just been swallowed up. It was terrifying in a strange way.

Sandbar climbed off the chair and sat next to Gallus. He gave a nod of encouragement. The wells of his eyes were soaking wet, but the rest of his face was dry.

“Well first of all, I think you’re all horribly misusing the anger management room.” He said with a chuckle, though his face was dripping with sweat. “Okay, so where do I start?”
> The Gap
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything was blurred, and then far too bright. The sting in his eyes tempted him back to sleep, but... when did he go to sleep? In time, his eyes adjusted to the light. He was in a room, mostly white, on a bed he didn’t remember. He grumbled and groaned as he instinctually pushed himself up.

“Hold on, don’t move too much.” A white pony hurried over to him and put her hooves on his chest. He wanted to swat her away, but he was too tired and confused. Her gentle touch urged him back onto the bed. He recognized the hat; it was like the pictures Sandbar had shown him. A nurse's hat. Was he in a hospital? There were some strange machines, a curtain in the middle of the room, and, besides that, it was bare, like the place had been purified.

“Is this what a hospital looks like?” 

“Uh, yes? Do you know what day it is?”

“June second.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “That was a few days ago. You’ve been out for a bit. Have you never been in a hospital before?”

“I’ve only heard of ‘em. Am I dying?” 

“Oh, honey, not at all. You’ve had a head injury but you should be fine.”

“Oh. Cool. So this is what ‘not dying’ is like.” Gallus chuckled as he let the urge to sleep nearly take him.

“Ms. Dash, your student’s awake,” the nurse said as she pulled back the curtain that divided the room. Rainbow Dash sat in an identical bed, staring into a cup. She seemed fine until his eyes caught the scars on her forelegs. Both bore a set of three scars near the shoulders. The memory hit him like a storm. He was holding her. He was holding her so desperately. He found himself looking at his talons as if they'd still be stained with her blood. He didn’t remember when he grabbed her that hard, but he kept imagining it. His talons felt warm.

“I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was quiet, lacking the force to express anything besides weakness.

Rainbow Dash looked back. He felt trapped seeing himself in her eyes reflection. He saw hurt and suddenly Gallus wished he was dying. They both turned away. The door clicked shut. It was just the two of them now. Fiddling with the I.V stuck in his leg satedhis restlessness. The door clicked again, accompanied by the sound of hooves. 

“Oh, thank goodness you’re awake.”
“We were worried you’d be sleepin’ for days!”
“Woohoo, wake-up party!” 

His professors expressed their gratitude to… something. Fate, he supposed. Twilight brought a book on griffon kings; Applejack brought in more apple juice than he could drink in a week; Pinkie had brought a cake. A small grin grew across his face. It felt strange. 

“You’re all here?”

“Of course we’re here! We could barely sleep worrying about you,” Rarity said, placing her hoof on his foreleg. 

“Worrying about me? What about Rainbow Dash?”

“I woke up yesterday.” Her tone was distant. Her eyes gazed into the dots of the ceiling, her mind elsewhere. Starlight stood beside her, levitating a stack of get-well cards.

He heard another set of hooves rush into the room and, before he knew it, Sandbar’s hooves were wrapped around him and his chest was drenched in tears. He could barely understand Sandbar’s blubbering. The feeling in his cheeks was starting to become overbearing. When had a smile ever felt like this before?

“I’m glad you’re okay too.” Was that the right thing to say? The last thing he remembered of Sandbar was dropping him several stories. They both knew he’d be fine at the time, though now his mind was flooded with nightmare scenarios. He looked over at all the ponies who cared for him. Someone was missing. 

“Where's Fluttershy?”

Everypony's smiles disappeared. Their real ones, at least. They all still tried to smile, but the discomfort was clear. Rarity stroked Gallus’ head. “She’s in surgery.” She tried to make it sound soft.

“I don’t understand. You’re all fine, why is she in surgery?” He was vaguely familiar with the concept. Needing surgery is bad; it meant you got really hurt. That was the extent of his knowledge.

“She saved you two.” Sandbar said.

“She and Spike were the only ones outside the shield. Nopony even knew you were there, so she did what she had to. Spike’s hide protected him from getting hurt, but Fluttershy wasn’t so lucky.” Twilight explained.

“Oh.”








“After that, I didn’t say anything. I waited for everyone to leave. When the docs said I was free to go I just...” Gallus sighed. “Went home.” The group went in for a hug but stopped when he gave the signal to call it off. Everycreature made the same hum of understanding. They were still hanging around the anger management room. The room was quiet now, with every creature taking a seat and listening. He had told them the whole story from start to finish. The flash of light, tricking Rainbow, watching from the cliff: the whole thing.

“Gallus,” Ocellus said. “I hope you don’t mind, but there's something that stuck out to me. You said Pinkie Pie shouted about a bomb.”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Well, it's just that Miss Fluttershy called it a magic accident. Starlight and Spike did, too. They even showed me a newspaper that said the same thing. No one ever mentioned a bomb.”

“Well, none of it mentions me either, apparently.”

“Sure, but that's different. That's about your feelings.” Her hooves covered her mouth as she worried she sounded callous.

“Professor Dash said she got those scars from fighting Cragadiles!” Silverstream was shouting, clutching her face in shock that Rainbow Dash, of all teachers, would lie.

Ocellus let out a soft chuckle“Okay, that one is just to make her sound cooler,” she paused. Her tone and expression became more focused. “Jokes aside. Keeping Gallus out of the story and keeping a bomb out are two entirely different things!”

“I didn’t even know that, and I was there. If our professors never showed up then...” Sandbar trailed off, his teeth gritting as his mind wandered into the possibilities.

“So, what are we gonna do? Ask our professors why they all lied?” Smolder looked towards Ocellus. ”’Cause that doesn’t sound like a good idea. They’re either gonna lie harder or maybe make us leave.”

“Why? Pony teachers honest. Usually. If we know, they tell.” Yona beat her chest. “Have faith in teachers!”



“I don’t know what to do. I think Smolder’s right. I can’t imagine telling them what we know could end well for us. They might send us back home. I feel bad about distrusting them like this, but I don’t want to test it. On the other hoof, I’m really afraid of what else we don’t know. But...” Ocellus paused as she looked over every creature in the room. “If some creature planted a bomb, I think that answers my questions about self-defence class.”

“Whaaaat? Are you back on that? I explained this already,” Silverstream moaned.

Ocellus let out a huff that was one stuff removed from being a growl .“I am. You did, and I don’t agree with your conclusion. I don’t think it's about preparing us for villains in general. I think it's reactionary. I guess that would still make you right, but not entirely. The headmare, Queen Twilight, or whoever decided all this is afraid of something happening to us. At least, that’s my guess.”

“Reactionary to what?! You can’t do a takedown on a bomb!” Silver shouted, throwing up her forelegs. Everycreature backed up, preparing for another shouting match, but Ocellus merely grumbled in response.

“Hold on, guys!It could have just been blast mining; it doesn't mean anyone was trying to hurt us.” Gallus handed each of his friends one of the crystals, keeping the last crystal to himself. “See. Fluttershy said they were from the explosion. Have ‘em.” Now that he wasn’t so in his feelings Gallus noticed the aura of magic swirling around each crystal. Leftover energy from the explosion he figured. It wasn’t wild or flashing like the magic before, and Fluttershy did say they were safe.

One by one, they each took their own crystal. Ocellus twirled hers in her hooves.“I guess that makes sense. But I don’t feel confident in it.”

“Ocellus.” Smolder gripped Ocellus shoulder, and gave her a shake. “You’re stressing yourself out. If you spend a whole semester like this, you’re gonna turn into a conspiracy theorist.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I really should relax.” Ocellus focused on her crystal. Turning it at just the angle to watch Silverstream's reflection.

Later that night, all went to their dorm rooms. Gallus did what he did every semester, tear his covers to shreds to make a fluffy nest of cotton. A replacement comfort would come later anyway, but, for the first week, he’d have to settle for only the nest. As he curled in it, his mind drifted back to what Fluttershy said. It's not his fault. Comforting, but a lie.

Shuffling came from the top bunk. “So, uh... I don’t know if you saw her today, but I think Rainbow Dash isn’t too happy with us.”

“That's fine.”

“I dunno.” Another shuffle came from Sandbars bunk. He mumbled something to himself before speaking up again. “ I still feel pretty bad about tricking her. Like, I deserve for her to hate me. I was just wondering if you felt something like that.”

“It's a waste of time,” Gallus grumbled.

“I’m going to take that as the Gallus way of saying ‘yes.’ It might be a waste, I guess, but I just feel like I have to live up to being her student and all. I want to make it up to her somehow. What about you?”

“Somecreature got hurt ‘cause I was selfish. I’m going to be better.” Gallus claws tore at what was left of his comforter. “Better than a griffin.”

“What does that mean?”

Yeah, Gallus. What does that mean?
> Meeting New Creatures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gallus was curled up in his nest shuffling in his sleep. There was a boom, and he twitched. A Crash, and he turned. Then the thunder of dozens of slams at once and he couldn’t take anymore.

“What in the world!” Gallus leapt from his bed and rushed for the door. He threw it open, slamming it against the wall. Behind him, he heard  the thud of Sandbar falling from the top bunk. He’d be fine.

The hallways were lit only by candlelight. Every door was wide open with students either mumbling their groggy confusion or wide-eyed and shouting. Starlight and Sunburst pushed a stretcher through the hall, demanding the right of way. Smolder lay atop it, her mouth covered in black bile.

“Smolder!” Gallus rushed to her side. “What happened!” She didn’t respond.

Ocellus and Yona clinged to the other side. “I don’t know!” Ocellus cried, “Cleave just woke me in the middle of the night and she was like this!”

“Yona got headmare!”

Sunburst and Starlight pushed the stretcher through the hall of onlookers. Sunburst tried his best to get any sort of coherent response out of Smolder, but all he got for his efforts were groans and gurgles. Smolders eyes were glazed over like she was in some other world entirely, her movements lethargic and limp but her arms would keep reaching out for any creature nearby.  Gallus’s hand reached to meet hers.

The swift slap of Starlight’s hoof swatted him away. “Do you see the gunk her claws are covered in! Gah! who knows how sick you could get! I understand you’re all concerned but you can’t all come with her. Her condition’s—Well I don’t even know, and you all still have classes.”

“But I have to go with her! What if something happens! You can’t make me stay.”

Starlight resisted the urge to wipe her gloved hoof over her face. “One of you can come with us to the hospital. One!”

The three students looked between each other for a moment before Gallus and Yona nodded. Ocellus wrapped her hooves around them before following Starlight down the hallway.

“I wonder what happened to her.”

“Yona also wonders what happened to her.”

“She was perfectly fine last night.” Gallus scratched his head as he tried to steer clear of vomit left on the floor. “You think it's some kind of dragon illness?”

“What? Yona talk about Ocellus.”

“What about Ocellus?”

“Yona just wonder what they do in summer. Smolder awful defensive for Ocellus last night. Now Ocellus cling to Smolder like puppy.”

“Eh,” Gallus shrugged, “I guess they just got close. Man, I didn’t need this sort of heart attack.” 

Yona hummed in thought as Silverstream walked over. Silver slipped in between the two of them. “We’re gonna check on her tomorrow, right?”

“Friend must.” Yona nodded.

“Oh Idea! Those crystals you gave us! I could turn them all into necklaces. Then we’d all have one to wear, and it could be like a get well present. She’d love it!” Before Yona and Gallus could even give permission, she started collecting the crystals from Yona and Ocellus’ room. They were going to agree anyways, so it was a minor nuisance at best.

Gallus shuffled back into his bed. He didn’t bother to check how much of his stuff Silverstream had gotten into, preferring to stare at the wall as the sounds of her scrounging played out behind him. Knowing her, he could wager she got into everything. The rattling feeling in his gut was more pressing than any invasion of privacy. How was he supposed to get to sleep with the image of Smolder delirious and sick was stuck in his head. The hours ticked away on his clock as he tossed and turned in bed. Sleep will happen any moment now, he lied to himself, even when he could see the sunrise clear outside the window.

A knock rapped on his door. Gallus groaned and rolled onto the floor. With bits of tattered comforter still stuck in his feathers he opened his door. “What!” he spat.

Two dragons stood on the other side of his door. The shorter green one stood into space and the silver one simply glared at him with his purple eyes. “You’re chaperoning us today.”

“I’m what?”

“The Dragon Lord’s instructions were clear. We are supposed to follow Smolder for the first week of school.”

“Mhmm”

“And Smolder’s sick.”

“Mhmmm.”

“Which means you’re in charge of us now.”

“How does that add up?” Gallus asked leaning against his door.

“Smolder said if anything was to happen to her, we go to you. Those are Smolder’s orders, and Smolder is under the Dragon Lord’s orders. Which means—as per the Dragon Lord’s orders—we’re under your charge.”

“Well I don’t see Ember here to make sure I’m babysitting you. So—nah!” Gallus closed the door, but the silver dragon slammed it with his tail. 

“And get us in trouble with the dragon lord? Not risking it! We’re sticking to you no matter what!” The silver dragon stood his ground and Gallus, as much as he half-tried, couldn’t remember the little punk’s name. 

“Ugh fine.” He snatched the two dragons’ class schedules which to his blessing bore their names. There wasn’t as much overlap as he would have liked. Getting to his own classes on time was already enough of a pain with all the new buildings and halls. Now he had to ferry them to and from their classes before his as well. Whatever I did to get considered the reliable one, I regret it.  Now that he looked at his own schedule again he realised his schedule was full of professors he had never heard of before. 

With no classes for another two hours, Gallus went to the cafeteria to get some coffee. As much as he hoped it was just a prank, the two dragons followed. He grumbled about sleep, the sun, children, and everything else bothering him as he filled a coffee machine. 

What's with you grumpy? You’re back at the school of friendship. You’re supposed to like school right? Come on. Be happy. At least act like it. You don’t wanna end up like the griff with the newspaper. Be a little friendly. That's what you’re here for after all.

He took a deep breath, put on his best smile, and tried to put his mind back where he was last year. “So uh? You two like being here?”

Cleave, the shorter green one shook her head with fervent enthusiasm. Though her mouth was full of raw coffee beans, so she could have just been hyper.

Pierce refused to look up to Gallus, and used the frills on his tail to cover his face like a fan. “It's okay. I don’t particularly like ponies, but Ember says I have to tolerate them.”

“I don’t think tolerating is exactly friendship.”

Pierce positioned his tail between Gallus and himself. “I never asked to go here. I already had friends.” A statement that was immediately met with a firm head shake of disagreement from Cleave. “What do you know? You don’t talk!”

“Hm,” Gallus smirked as he swiped up his now hot cup of joe. “Sounds convincing.” He tried to recollect other lessons on making new friends. “So you’re tolerating us. Fine. What about Hobbies? You had plenty of friends, there must be something you two do for fun?”

The beans in Cleave’s mouth started to burn. Gallus wasn’t sure whether that was an answer but the smell of roasting coffee was pleasant.




 




Pierce snorted a bout of purple flame. “I don’t see why I should tell you.”

Gallus sipped his coffee. The fueling energy of caffeine would brighten up his stressed-out world. “Cause it would be the first step to making friends, and we’re going to be spending the day together.”

Pierce turned away, refusing to answer.

Gallus checked the room, empty of pretty much anycreature except a stray yellow changeling at the other end of the room. “Well nopony’s around. What bothers you about them so much?” It seemed like something Pierce was willing to talk about even if Gallus didn’t really want to listen to anyone else's species complaints besides his own.

“They’re just weaker. How are we supposed to have fun razing villages and stealing their stuff if we’re supposed to be friends? How's a dragon supposed to make a hoard!”

“Ha! The little guy sounds like Captain pharynx!” The changeling had appeared right behind Gallus. 

Gallus sprang up with a squawk. His coffee flew into the air. It juggled between his grasping claws, until the handle landed around his beak. 

“He was so on edge!” The changeling shifted into a gruff voice “Your bright colours are too ponylike. It's not intimidating. We should be preparing our warriors for attacks. All this pony infection is making us weak. Yadda yadda. I think I’m gonna call this guy Lil Rynx”

“You will not!” Pierce screeched.

Gallus, having recollected his composure—and his mug—said, “The shouty one’s Pierce. The green one’s Cleave I’m Gallus, and you?”

“Dipterra, previously a member of the hive defence force. Currently: full time cool student.”

“‘Cool’,” Pierce air quoted the word, “he says, looking like a piece of candy.”

Dipterra cackled. “Trust me—if you knew who Pharynx was, you’d think this was hilarious. By the way, you know Ocellus, right?”

“Yeah. She mention me?”

“Of course. She talks about her friends all the time. Soon as I heard they were sending more students, I had to hop in line for that. See what all the hubbub is like, you know.”

“Oh than—”

“You don’t seem that cool,” Dipterra added.

With that, Gallus took a deep breath and a large gulp of his coffee.

“But Ocellus isn’t that cool either, so I guess you two are a good match.” He went into a hearty laugh standing between his two equally-unimpressed peers. “I kid, I kid. You seem aight. The look on your faces though! You two definitely take things mad seriously. Me and some other lings are trying to set up a feelings forum on campus. Maybe you wanna drop by.” He patted Cleave on the head before taking his leave. “Seeya at the forum!”

“What a tool,” Pierce grumbled.

“Agreed.”

______________________________________________________________________ 

The new classroom was a dark, moss-like green. Light poured in from the windows like heavenly rays. Gallus had sat in front with dragons flanking his sides. He gave his schedule another glance. Maxilla, professor of Species Unity. They’ve never taught that before, but he supposed it gelled with Twilight’s speech yesterday. Just then, a hoof tip-tapped on his shoulder.

“Excuse me, but are you a real griffon?”

“Nah, I’m a fake one. These feathers, artificial.” Gallus’s smug expression started to crumble. The school’s at least ten percent changeling now. As far as any new student knew, he could be a fake griffon. “I mean, All real. Name’s Gallus hundred percent genuine griffon material,” He said, reaching out to shake the pony’s hoof.

“Whoa, it's so nice to meet one! I’m new, name’s Bristle Brush.” The red earth pony was possibly the most bright eyed pony Gallus had ever met. The excitement in Bristle’s voice rivaled Silverstream’s squeals when he first met her.

“Let me guess, you’re a painter.”

“How! Did! You! Know!”

Gallus smirked, “I’m a gifted guesser.”

“Your name tells it all, dunce!” Pierce said, without giving Bristle the respect of even a glance “Besides, you’re all labeled!” His eyes were drawn to the painter’s pallette on Bristle’s flank.

“Huh, I guess I am labeled. Never thought of it that way. Are all dragons so clever?” Bristle Brush leaned closer. His eyes twinkled with dream. Then Cleave took a bite into one of the pillows designated as seats and determined it good enough to eat the rest. “Well, I’m sure that’s clever in its own way.”

Gallus looked over his charge. “I don’t think these two are exactly the Dragonland’s brightest.” Before Pierce got a chance to reply, a changeling came through the door. Their purple hue shifted to green around their hooves, and they lacked a horn. 

They turned to a whiteboard and in a flash of blue flame shifted to a blue unicorn. Using their newfound horn, they wrote ‘Maxilla’ on the board and shifted right back.

“You’ll have to get used to me doing that. Welcome to Understanding Creatures. Before any of you misunderstand, this won’t be like meeting animals in Miss Fluttershy’s classes. We’re here to learn about each other,” they said as they transformed a massive, curved-horn ungulate, with a broad, terrifying forehead. “Now what am I?”

“A yak, easy!” Pierce called, receiving  thumbs up from cleave and nods from the rest of the class.

Gallus rolled his eyes, “They’re definitely not a yak.”

Maxilla smiled. “Hmm, and how do you know?”

“Your fur’s all one colour. Yak faces are a lighter tone than their hair. Besides their hair hangs to their sides, and yours doesn’t hang at all. I think you’re a...” The gears in Gallus’ head turned as the stories his professors told ran through his head. “A bison?” 

“Impressive, yesterdays classes all got that wrong. Though I shouldn’t doubt the eagle eyes of a griffon. Oh, Let's start with that!” The class congratulated Gallus as he mumbled under his breath about simply knowing their singular yak student. Maxilla changed into a unicorn—a different one this time—and drew a diagram of a griffon on the board.

“The Griffons aren't known for their magic, but they do possess one a very impressive magical trait.” They pointed to their eyes. “Griffon vision is particularly keen, able to see objects clearly at distances far greater than any other of the civilized creatures. More impressively, they’re able to see magic in the very air. To see magic right as its cast from a creature’s horn.” They chuckled “Doesn’t work on changeling disguises though.”

“It’s not that special,” Gallus grumbled. “We don’t do anything that matters with it.” Seeing magic hasn’t done him any good so far. If it couldn’t help him see a bomb beneath his own feet then it probably wasn’t going to help him with anything else.

His comment went unheard. Maxilla went on to go over assorted griffon trivia like the difference between a griffon’s wings and a pegasus’, and tidbits on griffon culture. Every time they’d bring up a new griffon fact, Gallus could feel the eyes of his classmates scanning over him to see if it's true.

“Griffons are pretty impressive huh?” Gallus felt Bristle Brush’s words slide down his back like a thick, greasy slime. “You must feel pretty lucky.”

“I’m not exactly the most griffon-y griffon,” Gallus said with a smirk.

You are in the top ten of least griffon-y griffons. Who wants to be like them anyway?

“You’re definitely atypical.” The professor's voice rang next to his ear. Gallus yelped. 

When did they get that close? 

Maxilla had somehow gotten right between Gallus and Cleave “It's a bit of an anomaly really. One single griffon student and we get a griff with such a distinct condition. How lucky am I?”

“Uhm…”

Just then Maxilla took the form of a griffon, and  as the skin on his back crawled gallus began to understand why Ocellus held back on transforming. Maxilla’s form was brown and gray, like a typical Griffonstone griffon. “I’m not sure how many of you have seen griffons before, but typically their colours are something more like this. Gallus here is very special.”




 




“Gee, what a nice way of putting it,” Gallus deadpanned.

Maxilla patted Gallus on the head and returned to their hornless changeling form. “Looks like I got a bit carried away on Griffons. You make one comment on eyesight and you skip to lesson twenty on your hundred-stage lesson plan.” They chuckled. “Our actual first lesson is to simply go over the civilized races that make up modern Equestria. So at least two of them are already out of the way. Please take notes, there're more creatures on our great continent than you may realise.”

They were right to recommend taking notes. Gallus hadn’t even realised more than one donkey lived in ponyville. There were two! He had never even spoken to a cow before, only heard stories about diamond dogs, and didn’t even know kirin existed till yesterday. There was something about deer living in the forest, and Zecora got an honorable mention for being one of the only zebras on the continent.

With every note he took, Gallus could still sense Bristle Brush’s attention. It didn’t exactly take a sixth sense to notice a pony practically breathing down your neck. Bristle would get Gallus’ or the dragons’ attention to ask questions about their species whenever the opportunity arose. The interest was clearly genuine—only honest eyes could sparkle like Bristle’s did—but every time he spoke, Gallus felt the desire to throw himself to the other side of the room. Pierce had scooted his seat far enough he wasn’t even within Gallus reach without leaning, and Cleave, as nonverbal as she was, had stopped making any sort of response whatsoever.

“Oh, looks like we’re already out of time. Remember, everycreature. Your first assignment is to learn about somecreature from a species besides your own. Ideally from a species you never talked to before! Any details you need to know are on the syllabus. Trust me, I’ve covered everything.”

Gallus read over his copy as he walked Pierce and Cleave out of class.

Meet a creature from a species besides your own. Get their name, age, job, and gender. Ask them why they live in Ponyville. If they haven’t always lived in Ponyville, ask what their home or previous residence was like. Ask about how being their species has affected their life and worldview. Write a short one (1) page essay about your new associate, and another page comparing their life experience to your own. Conclude with how you think the difference in your species has impacted the difference in your life.

An easy enough assignment, especially for Gallus. If his other friends had Maxilla’s class, they could simply pass their papers around and write each other's reports. He could probably write about Sandbar right now without even talking to him.

A presence hung over Gallus’ back, one far too close for comfort. He winced before turning his head. “Hey would you guys like to work on our papers together!” The words blasted out of Bristle’s mouth and hit Gallus like a buck to the face.

“Not in your life.” Pierce said, hastening his pace.

“Um, maybe.” Gallus scratched his head, eyes looking for some sort of escape. “I, uh, still got other classes to get to so I’ll think about it later”

“Oh what class do you have next maybe it's the same one!”

Gallus snatched the two dragons in his arms “I dunno, probably not. Can’t let these two be late. Seeya!” he spoke a mile a minute as it blitzed through the halls.

“Seeya friend!”

__________________________________________________________________

His next class found him back in the Emotions and Art building. Understanding Anger: Professor Autumn Blaze. Gallus turned the corner and immediately found himself bumping into somepony's tail.

“Oh sorry. The hallway’s pretty ti—” Sandbar turned around. “Oh hey Gallus, you’ve got this class too?”

“Something, something anger? Yeah. What's going on?”

“The professor decided to have the class meet in the hallway, last minute. She’s giving a tour of the new building.” Sandbar looked towards the two dragons by Gallus' side. Pierce had spread his wings to see above the crowd and cleave was attempting to climb her way onto Gallus’ back. “Oh, cool. You’ve already made friends with Smolder’s friends.”

“Smolder isn’t our friend! She’s just in charge. Our relationship is completely neutral.” Pierce said with a defiant huff, and Cleave agreed with a smile and a shake of the head.

“Oh.” Sandbar’s smile flipped like a loose sign. “Is Gallus your friend?” 

“He’s acceptable,” Pierce said, refusing to look at Gallus or Sandbar. Cleave, having climbed onto Gallus’ back, gave him a pat on the head and a nod. Plus one dragon friend.

“I’m stuck with them til Smolder gets better. This one’s chill.” Gallus said getting a high-five from Cleave.

A voice called out from the center of the hall. “Is every student here! It’s time to start the tour!” Thanks to Maxilla’s class, he could recognize the red-maned professor as a kirin. A pegasus and hippogriff held her high above the heads of the other students.

“Heeeey everycreature! I’m Autumn Blaze. Happy to be here, really. Welcome to the Emotions and Arts building. It’s new. My idea, practically my building. I mean it's the queen’s building, and some of the ideas were Tree Hugger’s, but it's mine. But who cares who’s building it is anyway—mine— we have a tour to start! Move out!” The tour started with the classrooms, one of which had been set up as a ring of seats around a firepit, and another classroom had similar lay out but was covered in crystals and incense.

“This one’s Tree Huggers! Say ‘Hi’ to Professor Tree Hugger!” Tree hugger and her students were in the beginnings of setting up a meditation circle. Both herds of students exchanged greetings. Sandbar and Gallus gave especially fervent waves to Yona and Silverstream way in the back.

“How's the tour thing going?” Tree hugger’s voice reminded Gallus of Sandbar’s parents. A voice that didn’t sound like she was quite here. More like she was on another plane of reality entirely, but had to be on this one out of obligation.

Sandbar pulled Gallus aside while Autumn got sucked into conversation. “Hey, there's something I wanted to talk to you about, actually. You remember when Silverstream went through our rooms this morning?”

As much as it hurt him to do so Gallus tossed Cleave and Pierce each a bit to give himself some privacy. “Yeah, she’s making necklaces out of our crystals.”

“Well she certainly didn’t stop going through our stuff at just the crystals. So I took the liberty of going through her room too. While she was distracted with my stuff.”

Gallus’ face contorted in befuddlement. “Why?”

“Well if she’s looking through my things it only seems fair.”

“You could have just stopped her.”

“I just wanted an excuse to go through her room, okay? Anyway, I found a note and copied it.” Sandbar produced a crumpled sticky note. The wrinkles and folds did not at all help with the legibility of Sandbar’s mouthwriting, but with some squinting the message could be made out.

1332 :3

“Suspicious, don’t you think?” Sandbar said

“Oh yeah, a note with a cat face on it. Super sus,” Gallus deadpanned. “You were still thinking about what Ocellus said, weren’t you? About Silverstream lying?”

“I was hoping I’d find nothing. Then I could let her know there's nothing to worry about, but now I don’t really know what to do. I mean this could be anything right? A password to her diary, A secret club, maybe a password for free milkshakes?”

“Exactly. It could be literally anything. It's Silver, she might just think this number is cute. Don’t stress out about it and don’t tell her you looked through her stuff.”

“But should we tell Ocellus?”

“And make things between the two of them worse? If it makes you feel better, I’ll do a little looking into this, but we don’t need you or Ocellus starting anything. Just chill. It's like, your thing.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for trying to hold things together, dude.” Sandbar wrapped Gallus into a brief hug that Gallus half-heartedly returned with a wing. They returned to the rest of the class to find Autumn Blaze had finished a debate on superior methods to align chakras.

The tour resumed. A collection of new art rooms dedicated to art forms from painting to metal work. The student jam lounge, a sort of student juice bar featuring a stage for students to perform on. The array of anger management rooms on the third floor. 

“And this is my favourite room in the whole school” Autumn pushed open a set of double doors and the students flooded in  Autumn had her winged helpers put her down and sat in the center of a plain white room. The floor and walls were bare of any colour or decoration of any sort. Not a single object in sight. A wiping of the floor didn’t even produce an iota of dust. A perfectly empty room devoid of all features besides its own banality.

“Uh. It's kinda nothing,?” the pegasus student said.

“Exactly. The room itself is an open canvas. Any student can do whatever their mind invisions with it.”

“Like?”

“Anything you can imagine. A music video, a living art piece, film a movie. You can use any of the other art workshops to make things to use in the Art lab. Bring tools from outside. Literally anything and everything. As long as you aren't trying to break physics, and with a little magic you might do that too. By the way, there's a second art lab, but we rent out that one. This one is free to students all the time. You just have to register before using it.”

Professor Blaze went on to describe all the possibilities, but all Gallus could see was a plain room. With a heavy sigh he supposed his friends carried all the artistic vision. He was more of a producer than an artist. “You got any ideas for this place, Sandbar?”

“Well I’m not a painter myself, but if I could get Silverstream to go with it I can see this place becoming like an underwater experience. Set up some manquins of different aquatic life, get speakers with the sound of the ocean. It would be just like swimming with dolphins or even like being one. You ever think about being a dolphin dude?”

The thought sent Gallus back to the sensation of floating he felt in Sandbar’s bedroom. The shifting and waving hues of blues and greens. Just envisioning it felt like being free in the air before having his wings pressured with all the weight of the sea.

“That's quite the vision you have there, my friend,” added a deep unfamiliar voice.

“Oh thanks—Whoa!” Sandbar and Gallus turned to see a zebra standing behind them. His black and white stripes clashed against the hippogriffs and ponies in the room. He wore brown bands marked with green beads around his neck and foreleg.  Sandbar’s surprise caught the attention of a few other students, and all eyes were now on them

“Oh no, it seems I’ve caught everypony’s attention. Do I again have to answer question after question?”

“Oooh, so they do all rhyme,” Sandbar said under his breath. 

The zebra’s ear twitched  “No! Did I rhyme again?” he mumbled to himself. “Ignore it please. It is a bad habit.” He swiftly turned to onlooking students “We do not all rhyme!” The outburst led the other ponies to step back, if only slightly.  His head hung low as he let out a grumble. “Pretend that did not happen, friend.”

“I’ve been through the whole twenty questions deal on my first day here too, so I’ll just keep it to two. What's your name? Where ya from?”

“Is that a promise? No third question?” He lifted a brow, his stare shifting between Gallus and Sandbar.

“Uhuh.”

“Sure, dude.”

He let out a relieved sigh. “I will hold you to it. My name is Wassi, and I’m from what ponies seem to simply call the southern continent. Zecora and I come from sister villages. She chose me to join in some,” he paused, trying to remember the words, “special program, you see.” He caught a look of the gears turning in Sandbar’s head.“No, there is no blood between us. Do not go assuming we are family.”

Sandbar chuckled.  “Oh, cool. Cause I wanted to a—” he got a jab in the side from Gallus.  “Right, not that I would have asked because like, I promised everything.”

“I could tell. I read faces wel- hnng, did it again.”

“Hey Wassi, just give me one sec while I check in with Gallus on something.”

“I will not be going anywhere.”

Sandbar snatched a hoof around Gallus neck and spun the two of them around. He whispered, “Have you heard of any special programs?”

“Wha— no. Why would I? Wait! Are you asking me cause you can’t ask him!”

“Yes.”

“Me and my promise.” Gallus groaned. “No. I haven’t. But with all the peace and unity stuff Twilight was talking about, it’s probably just that. Some sort exchange program thing.”

Sandbar scratched his head for a moment before looking back towards Gallus. “Like you?”

“… I guess! Nobody called it a ‘program’ when it came to us, but yeah. Probably. I dunno.”

______________________________________________________________________________

With the dragons dropped off at class, Gallus had a short gap in his schedule. At least a half hour before Dash’s class. A half hour wasn’t enough. Gallus meandered the halls snapping his talons as if he’d eventually Do yostop time. He didn’t.  He needed a distraction, but distraction would only make time pass faster. He remembered the look Rainbow gave him in the hospital. If he could avoid that look his whole life he’d certainly try.

Twenty five minutes til class. 

I can just skip right? It’s not like this is my final schedule anyway. I can just switch to a different class. Silently transfer right out. I’ve already had two years of Loyalty class anyway. Who really needs the third? Yeah, that's it. I’ll just skip. Go to Sugarcube Corner instead. Take a nap in Quills and Sofas. Do some sort of community service and try to get school credit for that. Yeah, that’ll work.

Coward.

Gallus took a turn for the front door and—found himself beak-first in someone's face.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” He cracked his eyes open expecting to see Rainbow Dash’s heart-tearing stare again, but instead he was greeted by a sharp-toothed smile. A grey mare with a sapphire mane.

“Gallus!” 

“Swift Foot?!” She threw her hooves around him. As his shock settled, his wings fell around her to return the hug. Just as his wings reached Swift Foot’s back, he saw her: Rainbow dash! 




 




“Gallus!” Swift Foot yanked him in. “it's been so long since the Friendship Games!”

“Yeah, uhh, long time no see.” His eyes met Rainbow’s, and while her stare didn’t hurt quite like before, it was still distant. Like she stared straight through him.

“I’m a student here for real this time! My dad isn’t pulling me out again!”  

“Yeah that's uh, fantastic.” He broke his hug, settling Swift Foot at just the right angle to block his view of Rainbow. “Why’d he pull you out again?”

“My dad’s side of the family is just awful! But with a little finagling, I managed to get my Mom’s signature.”

“Starlight said all the papers were in order,” Rainbow said curtly. “But I’ve still never heard of Filika.”

“It’s, you know, remote. Far off. Nopony really cares about it these days,” she said, brushing the question away with her hoof.

Rainbow drew a wing around Swift Foot. “I have to get us to class. You two can catch up later.”

“Oh right, I almost forgot class.” Swift wind kept her head turned to Gallus as she was pulled away. “It was nice to see you. I’ll catch up with the others some other time.”

“We’re in the same class, actually. I’ll come with you,” Gallus flew over to Swift Foot’s side. Putting her between him and dash

Rainbow half-turned to him, looking at the griff through Swift’s mane. “You. Ended up in my class again?"

Gallus coughed,“Yeah, yes. Kinda.” His words became small under his breath.

“Oh this is great! We can sit next to each other and you can help me with anything I don’t get. Its perfect. We get to catch up and catch me up.” Swifts ears flattened to the sound indistinct mumblings to either side. Both parties looked at her, but neither seemed quite in focus. “Is something wrong? I’m not saying we’ll just chat it up in class the whole time of course I’ll still be paying total attention!” 

“Oh what?” Gallus traded his expression for a paper thin smile “No, everythings fine.”

“Totally fine.” Rainbow said. 

They each shuffled their feathers. Tense rapid, but short wing beats against their sides.Restless beats of feathers and hollow clacks against the marble floor. 

Then Rainbow opened her mouth.

“Gallus.”  Her energetic voice so dull and slow, it made his feathers crawl. “You know what? Don’t bother showing up to class. Go find a replacement.”

“Uh. Why prof—”

“You don’t need it.” The sound of hooves  echoed till they drifted further and further away.






With his classes over and his dragons back in tow, Gallus headed to the courtyard. As clouded and heavy as his head felt after seeing Rainbow Dash, the sun of a clear day made things feel a little better.  Cleave sat on Gallus' back eating some gems and listening to Pierce’s complaints about class about as much as Gallus was: not at all. 

Silver linings, right? That's part of being better I think. Good weather, and old friends come back. This should all be good. Try to be happy. 

Okay, but your friend was practically dying this morning, and your teacher rightfully hates you.

Okay, fine. Let's pretend to be happy.

“What's up with you, bird?” Pierce asked.

“Aww, are you showing concern?” Gallus teased. “It looks good on you.”

Pierce wrapped his tail around his face and drew his eyes towards Cleave instead, who was shifting through assignments at a rapid pace. She could read at least.

“Sorry, I’m actually really glad you tried to say something… kinda nice. I’m just busy thinking is all.” About myself.  “About Smolder. I’m just  a bit worried. Never seen black puke, ya know.”

“It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Artfully put,” he deadpanned. Gallus caught Sandbar and the gang emerging from one of the corners in the courtyard and, with a burst of his wings, took one bounding leap over to them. The landing knocked Cleave on his head like a hat.

“Gallus! Great. Friends preparing to see Smolder at hospital.”

“Oh, and I got all the necklaces ready, but I couldn't find Smolders, but that's okay cause I just cut mine in halfsies.”

Gallus' mind went back to the magic he saw radiating around the crystals, and worse: the explosion they came from. “Is that a good idea, Silver?”

“Well it made a big white bang, and I couldn’t see for like half an hour, but everything was peachy besides that. Why would it be a bad idea?”

“Cause it's obviously poison,” Pierce blurted. Everyone’s gaze shot towards Pierce. “What, you couldn’t piece it together when someone gave a dragon a crystal and suddenly it was gone? Use your brains. It’s one to one.”

“Why white dragon not say anything!”

“Because I didn’t know, brown yak. Cleave’s Smolder’s room mate. Not me. And incase you hadn’t noticed.” He pointed to Cleave giving a nervous shrug.

“She doesn’t talk.” Gallus finished. It took everything to restrain his talon from digging into his face. “I’m an idiot. Of course that magic wasn’t safe. I should have known she’d eat it.”

Sandbar grasped Gallus’ clenched talon between his hooves. “Dude, hold on. You can’t make yourself responsible for that. You can’t control her.”

“Well duh, but I could at least say ‘hey by the way theres some wierd magic swirling around it so maybe don’t put it in your mouth’.” He let out a heavy breath.  “Idiot” he mumbled to himself.

“Yona feel dumb for not thinking it before. Smolder would eat crystal! Yona will not let Gallus take this responsibility alone. Friends all knew where crystal came from.”

“Don’t dweeell on it,” Silver sang. “Lets just hop over to to the hospital. I’m sure she’s fine by now.”

Right, yeah, just get there and apologize in person. Chill. Try to relax.

“Yo, you guys! Hold up!” The group turned their heads to see a dark kirin rushing towards them.”You guys are hard to find.”

“Kirin been looking for us?”

“Uh yeah, you guys are kinda famous or whatever.” The kirin’s tone was dull, like all his words were said just above a mumble. “Every upperclassmen said that I should find you six. The griffon, yak, hippogriff, pony dragon, and changeling.” He eyed cleave. “I guess the last one is having some fun with their powers.”

Silver raised a claw to correct him “Um, they arn’-”

“But yeah, everyone said since I’m the only kirin student I should find the Diversity Club. They said you guys would ‘get it’. And I wasn’t exactly doing anything else so I figured sure why not maybe I do need some to ‘relate too’ or whatever..”

Gallus and his friends' faces all contorted into a medley of confused expressions. “Hold up?” Gallus raised his talons “Dial that back they said to find what?”

“The Diversity Club, it’s what all the upperclassman called you.”

“Wow,” Sandbar said, looking towards the ground.

“Have they been calling us that the whole time?” Silverstream chirped.

Gallus squinted. “I can’t tell if that's a cute nickname or derogatory.” 

The three exchanged mild looks of confusion while Yona’s eyes lit with inspiration. “The Diversity Club!” she said with awe. “Yona likes sound of this!”