Master of My Own Disguise
Gallus kept his head down, thinking, as the Headmare showed them the room full of purple goo. If he didn’t confess, everybody would have to stay behind with him for the whole break. But they’d also miss their holidays. Gallus didn’t really know anything about them, but the others had seemed pretty upset at that prospect.
Gallus had initially intended to volunteer to be interviewed first, get his denial out of the way as fast as possible. But now he wasn’t sure what he’d do. “Yona will go,” Yona said, before he made up his mind. “Yona is innocent,” she said and lifted her chin. “Therefore Yona has nothing to fear.”
As soon as the Headmare and Yona left, Smolder rose up, demanding to know who did it. Gallus stayed quiet. But Ocellus started telling the story of her Hearth’s Warming traditions, which then started a chain of events where everyone started sharing their own holiday traditions. They were actually really fascinating. Before he knew it, he had heard everyone’s traditions except Sandbar’s, and he and Sandbar were the only ones left.
That’s when he got called, before anyone could explain to him what cousins were. Typical, he thought, as he was led down the hallway. Save the pony for last.
“So,” Professor Dash said, she and the Headmare sat on one side of the table and him on the other. He felt like he was being interrogated. He guessed he was. “Let's just cut to the chase. Did you do it?” Beside her, Headmare Twilight sighed and seemed to consider rephrasing the question, but ultimately let it go.
Gallus hesitated. All the others’ stories flitted through his brain. They had all seemed sad to not be able to go home for the holidays, even Smolder. He didn’t really want to keep them from their homes, and he would be guilty all break if he did. At least staying here without them was still better than going back to Griffinstone. “Yeah,” he sighed, finally. “I did it.”
He watched his professors’ faces carefully. They didn’t outwardly react much, but he saw Dash’s eyebrow jump and the Headmare’s eyes widen.
“Would you like to tell us why?” the Headmare asked carefully.
“Not really,” he said. What would he tell them anyway? ‘I wanted to clean up a mess so I wouldn’t be lonely?’ As if.
“Are you sure?” Headmare Twilight pushed. Maybe she wanted to adjust his punishment.
“I’m sure.”
She sighed. “Okay.” She stood up, pushed Professor Dash to the door, and gestured for Gallus to follow. He did, dreading when he’d have to tell his friends that he was the one who almost ruined their holiday.
Dash pushed the door open, and Gallus followed the professors into the now mostly clean room. Their chatter quieted. “I think Gallus has something to tell you,” the Headmare said solemnly. Gallus almost rolled his eyes. Saying that was as good as just telling them herself.
“Yeah, um, I put goo powder in the Fire of Friendship,” he said, lowly, to get it over with. “It was me.”
“What?!” Silverstream screeched, something that likely only Gallus understood. The rest probably just heard the screech.
“Why would you do that?” Ocellus asked softly, hurt. Gallus doesn’t do crying. He looked away and shrugged.
Yona stomped the ground and rushed through the door, braids untied and flying behind her. Sandbar and Smolder followed, Smolder patting his side on the way out. “Good one,” she whispered, and he could tell she meant it nicely.
Gallus stared at Ocellus and Silverstream, and heard the Headmare tell them to go finish getting ready to leave. Dash followed them out, leaving him with just the Headmare. She opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t let her. “Yeah, I’ll just finish cleaning this up, then,” he said.
She nodded. “That’s good, but I was actually going to say that you might want to see your friends before they leave, to get a chance to apologize before the wound festers for two weeks. I don’t know why you did this, but I don’t think you wanted to hurt them, otherwise you wouldn’t have confessed.”
Gallus swallowed. “But the goo,” he gestured around the room, where purple goo still hung from the rafters and was smeared across the wall. Sparkle smiled as her horn glowed. There was a flash, and when Gallus opened his eyes, the goo was gone. “You could have done that the whole time?” he asked, disbelieving.
“Magic isn’t always the answer,” the Headmare said, steering him out of the room. “But an apology is a better lesson than cleaning.” She stopped when they got to the students’ quarters. He opened the door and slipped inside, and didn’t move until he heard her hoofsteps leaving.
He stood there at the end of the hallway, staring at the closed doors, wondering what to do. He sighed and started walking towards his door when another one opened on the other side of the hall, and Silverstream stepped out, with her bag slung across her back. They both froze.
Gallus started backing away. He’d gotten as far as opening his door before Silverstream unfroze and tackled him into his room, shutting the door behind her. He stayed still underneath her, barely breathing until she climbed off him. She sat in front of the door, clearly thinking he might try to run if she didn’t. She was probably right.
“I’m not mad at you,” she said. “I know you probably think we’re all mad, but we’re not. I mean, maybe the others are a little, except Smolder, but we all still care about you, and you’re still our friend.”
Gallus felt his eyes sting, and he blinked. “Thanks,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you guys. That’s why I confessed. I just didn’t want to be alone.”
“What do you mean?” Silverstream looked concerned, more than he deserved.
“I don’t really have a family back in Griffinstone,” he said carefully. “I didn’t want to go back there.” It was an oversimplified version of his problems with home, but it got the message across well enough. Silverstream was smart. She’d understand.
Silver hugged him. He stiffened in surprise, but then relaxed enough to be comfortable. “Next year, you can come home with me,” she whispered.
“Okay,” he whispered back, his throat tight.
He didn’t talk to anyone else after that, and he watched through his window as they left, Silverstream’s wings waving goodbye to him. He smiled.
“Here’s the schedule for your friendship lessons over the break,” Sparkle said the next morning, handing him a sheet of paper. It was short. “There’s at least one with each of us on there, plus Starlight,” the Headmare said. “The first one is this afternoon with Pinkie. Good luck.”
Gallus felt like he was being crushed by a fully grown dragon. He didn’t feel like speaking. He nodded and left.
The lesson with Professor Pinkie was a disaster. She made him cupcakes, told him why no one who throws goo is fun to be around, and then made him make cupcakes. He left the lesson exhausted and went straight to bed just to crash for fourteen hours.
His next lesson was with the Headmare the next day, and she lectured him on the importance of understanding the consequences of his actions, complete with a chalkboard full of examples. He didn’t care why Discord almost but not actually got turned to stone for a third time.
He didn’t say a word the entire lesson, and the Headmare let him go with a sigh and a reminder not to miss Applejack’s lesson tomorrow.
Gallus stood alone in Professor Applejack’s classroom, waiting to see if she’d ever show up. When she finally did, her mane was messy and she was panting, but she pointed him to the table in the back without a word. He sat. She sat across from him. He stared at the wall behind her.
“I’ll be straight with you,” she said. “I don’t want to be here. It’s Hearth’s Warming break. I want to be with my family. But I’m taking time out of my break to try to help you, and I can’t do that if you won’t tell me why you pulled this goo prank thing. I’m all about honesty. You can’t be honest about this, I can’t help you. So, with that said, do you wanna tell me why you did it?”
He still didn’t want to talk. “No.”
She sighed. “How about we start with something else then. You’re not home for the break. What are you going to miss about whatever holiday you celebrate?”
Gallus rolled his eyes, but said, “Griffins celebrate the Blue Moon Festival. I won’t miss it.”
“And why is that?”
“Have you ever been to Griffinstone?” he asked. His chest felt like it was being squeezed by a constrictor snake.
“No,” she said, “but I know Rainbow and Pinkie have. They’ve told me a bit.”
“Then you probably know that Griffins are awful creatures who like torture each other for fun. Blue Moon Festival is the one time of year when Griffins try to be nice to each other, but they don’t ever succeed. The food is terrible, the gifts are awful. It’s miserable.” He’s miserable.
“Is that why you ruined the Fire? Because you didn’t want to celebrate the Blue Moon Festival?”
“Not really.”
Applejack sighed. “Gallus. You’re a good kid.”
“I’m seventeen.” And I haven’t been a kid in years.
She ignored him. “And I know you didn’t wanna hurt your friends. Can you just tell me why you did this one thing?”
He leaned forward, finally looking her in the eyes. “I seriously have to spell it out for you? When I go home, I go back to living alone in the old library with no roof or door. Pony holidays suck, but they’re better than going back to Griffinstone. Almost anything is better than that. Even sitting through a punishment that isn’t even that awful, unless you count being bored the hardest thing in the world. Professor Pinkie might think so, but I know worse things.” He leaned back, breathing unsteady.
Professor Applejack looked at him. “So you did it, so you would get punished, so you wouldn’t have to go home.”
He shrugged. “I mean, yeah.”
She scoffed. “You know you could’ve just stayed, right? It’s not required for you to leave during break. There are other students staying.”
He stared. “Oh.”
“Oh? It’s not like it was a secret!” The professor threw her hooves in the air. “There was an announcement and everything. We passed a paper around. You were supposed to sign it if you couldn’t go home. It was at lunch last Tuesday.”
“Oh,” he said again. He thought. “Yeah, I wasn’t at lunch last Tuesday.”
“It was mandatory.”
“That’s why I wasn’t there.”
“Okay,” she sighed. “Listen, Gallus, you still did something wrong, so you still have to do the rest of your extra lessons. But next time you feel alone, come to me. Or Starlight, or Fluttershy, or someone. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I want to help. We all want to help, or we wouldn’t be taking time out of our own holiday to give you extra lessons.”
Gallus felt terrible. He nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly.
Professor Applejack led him out of the room, assured him she wouldn’t tell anyone about their conversation, and patted him on the head before she left.
He smoothed his head feathers down and returned to his room. It had felt good to get all that out, and now he could feel everything crashing down on him at once. He lay down on his bed and cried for a minute or two or five. Then he fell asleep. When he woke up it was dinnertime and he was craving rabbit. He ate a salad and wondered if Silverstream had eaten any rabbits since she got home. He wondered what Ocellus ate at home. He wondered if Gabby was eating fish sticks right now. He hated salad.
His next lesson was with Fluttershy, who hated being called professor. She looked at him, with dried tears in his feathers that no other ponies noticed and his wings unorganized, and she pulled him into a hug. He let her, too tired to resist, even though it felt like all he’d been doing lately was sleep. She didn’t ask him any questions, only fixed his feathers up and quietly explained how one small act of kindness can help someone more than you might ever think. Gallus looked in the mirror that night, feathers in order and his chest warm, and he believed her.
The next day was Hearth’s Warming. He had no lesson, and the Headmare invited him to have dinner with her, Spike, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Starlight. He almost didn’t go, but then he remembered that there would be food other than salad and apples there. He went, kept his head down, and ate the potatoes and corn with more glee than he ever could have imagined he’d have for potatoes and corn. He declined every time someone offered him salad or fruit, not even wanting to think about eating them.
The next few days seemed to fly by where the previous ones had gone at a snail’s pace. He had his lessons with Rarity, Dash, and Starlight.
Starlight had shoved a kite at him and taken him up to a hill where they flew kites for an hour and a half. When they finished, she turned to him and said, “I’ve made much worse mistakes than pranking a Hearth’s Warming tree and then actually owning up to it. You were honest, you’re taking your punishment without complaint, you’re going to be fine. You’re not going to go enslave a village or almost destroy the universe anytime soon, which puts you above me at least. Go enjoy yourself. Find some of that disgusting meat you like, you haven’t been eating anything.”
Gallus liked Starlight’s lesson. The other two were boring. He only had one more after, with Sparkle, and then he had the rest of the break free to do what he liked. The Headmare had told him he could go home if he wanted to. He obviously wasn’t going to do that, but he did have another idea brewing in his mind.
He went to the Headmare’s office and took a deep breath before he knocked. Just one more lesson, and then he had four whole days to do whatever he wanted. Sparkle opened the door, and ushered him in.
The lesson was less boring than he’d anticipated, but still nothing special. He learned a lot about King Sombra’s attempted second rise to power and what could have happened in some alternate universe with different circumstances. That was confusing, and he zoned out when she started talking about the butterfly effect.
When the lesson was finally over, he told the Headmare that he was going back to Griffinstone for the next few days. She walked him to the train station and paid for his ticket, which meant he actually had to get a ticket to Griffinstone. She waved goodbye to him as he got on the train and waved back to be polite.
He got off on the next stop and bought a ticket east to Knossos, where Minotaurs lived. He stayed there for three days, eating only the meat products and talking to a weird old minotaur who talked in third person. “We don’t all do that,” the guy at the bar said. “He does, and his wife and their two kids too. No one else though. I don’t know where they got it from. One of their kids sells books, the other tours the world giving inspirational talks. Don’t know where that came from either. Both parents run a clothing store.”
“Huh,” said Gallus. “I can respect weirdness.”
Bar guy shook his head. “Better than I can I suppose.”
Gallus took the train back to the school the day before classes started, with a bag stuffed with dried meat that could be saved for a while. The others would be back that afternoon. He contemplated flopping on his bed and sleeping till they got there, but he flew out his window instead, found a random cloud and flopped on that, his tail dangling over the side. He fell asleep in less than five minutes.
Gallus opened his eyes blearily as he felt the cloud shift beneath him. He was met with a shock of pale purple fur and feathers in his face. “Ugh,” he pushes Silverstream over. “You woke me up.”
She grinned. “But I’m ba-ack!” she sang, and attacked him with a hug.
He hugged back for once, and he felt the way she perked up in surprise, but then she buried her head into his wings, and he sighed with content.
“Yo birdies!” Smolder’s voice called from below. “Get down here!”
“We’re not birds,” Gallus snapped, but he extracted himself from Silverstream and glided to the ground, Silver behind him. They were met with Ocellus, Smolder, Sandbar and Yona on the ground. They must have picked up Sandbar on the way from the station.
“Hey guys,” he said.
“Hey, Gallus, we’re not mad anymore,” Ocellus said gently, reading his feelings perfectly like always. Could changelings feel all emotions?
“Oh,” he said. “That’s… good.”
Yona giggled. “Gallus is Yona’s friend,” she said. “Yona forgives him.” Sandbar nodded emphatically, caught up in staring at Yona’s braids moving in the wind. Gallus was definitely going to tease him about that later.
“Aw, thanks Yona,” he said.
Smolder shrugged. “I thought it was a great prank. Well done. Sorry you had to stay though.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. I picked up some dried meat that should last at least two months.”
Silver gasped and grabbed his face. “Bring me to it,” she said solemnly. He grinned and pulled her into the air, dragging her towards his window.
“Ew,” he faintly heard Sandbar say behind them. Gallus was going to have to leave a piece on his pillow. That will be fun.