> Heart of a Griffon
>  by GreyTheGriffon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Goodbye Griffonstone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun rose in the East at around 7 AM, creating a beautiful glow against the pale stone of Griffonstone that only a few griffons were awake to appreciate, though they weren’t appreciating it. Except for maybe Gabby, and even then it was a bit of a longshot.Even so, she was the one part of this stupid place that stopped Grey from leaving for so long. 

But that was still exactly what he intended to do. He intended to leave this Celestia-forsaken place and go somewhere where he’d be able to at least try to accomplish his dream. Years and years of being in the second least friendly place in all of Equestria (first prize went to the dragon lands) had sapped Grey of almost all of his once characteristic optimism.

Ever since Grey was a cub, he was passionate about one thing: magic. He was so absorbed in it that other griffons would joke that he would get his cutie mark in magic, which, of course, griffons don’t get cutie marks. Or have horns, for that matter. But none of that could stop Grey from reading about magic. Every birthday, Grey would receive at least one book on magic, his parents knew they made him happy. Even if they were part of the masses of griffons that thought he was ultimately going to be disappointed. Over time, the words from his peers and mentors chipped away at his chipperness, and he was left with but a few drops of optimism in his heart. So, he gave in. He gave in and decided to take a leap of faith.

The thing he was about to do was crazy, he agreed profusely with everygriff who told him that; he was aware that his pursuit of magic was most likely going to end in him not just being disappointed, but also dead broke. There was no denying that what Grey was about to do was completely stupid. But Grey had been stupid in the eyes of Griffonstone almost his whole life. 

“Time to be stupid.” he concluded to himself.

The most important of his belongings were already pre-packed into two suitcases; Grey didn’t own much apart from his books. He grabbed his suitcases and flew straight out of his disgusting, doorless nest that was about equal to the average standard of living in Griffonstone. The train station was south of Griffonstone, but first, Grey headed north to say a couple of goodbyes he thought were necessary. Though he figured he’d probably have to resist a few half-assed attempts to get him to stay. First, he landed next to Gabby, who was perched on a section of cliff.

“Hey.” Grey started, like most griffons, he sucked at this. “Just wanted to, y’know, say bye.” Gabby looked at him, a smile on her face. Not because she was happy he was leaving, but because she was genuinely proud that her friend was taking this leap of faith, though there was still a twinge of concern, since she knew he didn’t have a real plan.

“Visit, okay?” Gabby asked. Easier said than done, there was a high chance Grey would be lacking in funds once he was settled into Ponyville, if he was even able to get someplace to live there. 

“Yeah, of course. I’m not just gonna leave my favorite griffon hanging here.” Grey replied, lightly punching Gabby in the arm. Grey spread his wings to leave, but Gabby interrupted.

“Wait.” Gabby started. “Before you go, I have an idea for when you get to Ponyville. Princess Twilight Sparkle is great with magic, you’ll probably want to talk to her.” 

Grey smiled. “Thanks, Gabby. I’ll be sure to remember that.” He replied, although he already knew about the Princess, and was planning on talking to her, he still appreciated Gabby’s help. He gave her a slightly awkward wing-hug and flew off to say goodbye to two more griffons. His parents.

Grey’s parents weren’t the worst by griffon standards, but they also weren’t very encouraging of his chosen path. At least, not anymore. They had seen it as childish fascination when he was a cub. But now that Grey is an adult and he hasn’t found something more sensible to pursue, they see it as something he’s wasting time on. And the fact that he’s moving away to study it? They saw such a drastic action the same way all the other griffons in Griffonstone did; as an ignorant and childish choice. But even though they weren’t perfect, they had still raised Grey. And they hadn’t tried to force him to stay. So he felt like he just had to say goodbye to them before he moved away.

Grey’s parents’ nest was a little nicer than the average Griffonstone nest, but all that meant was that the window had tattered curtains instead of just being a hole with a plus shape partially covering it. They usually woke up at around 9am, and today was no different. They had given their word that they’d be awake to see Grey off, but the word of a griffon isn’t exactly worth much. He arrived at their nest, which was a short 5-minute fly from where Gabby was perched, and sighed at the sight of his parents, cozily snuggled together and asleep, probably having had no intention of actually being awake to see him off. He debated amongst himself whether he would wake them, and eventually decided that he cared enough about his parents to say goodbye. From experience, he knew there was only one way to wake them up, though it wasn’t exactly kind.

“Hey!” He half-shouted half-whispered with the same volume he had used all his life to get his parents awake; not too loud, since he didn’t want to bother the neighbors, but not quiet by any means. His parents stirred, but in classic griffon fashion, his dad, Gideon, covered his own face with his wing, as well as the face of his wife and Grey’s mother, Gia. Marriage wasn’t common in Griffonstone, and the fact that his parents were married was a point of pride for Grey. But they still weren’t awake.

Grey looked to his left and his right to ensure that he hadn’t woken anygriff up, then tried again, a little louder this time. “Hey!” Grey’s second attempt was just as successful, and in reply to their stubbornness and lack of ability to keep their promise, he licked his talon and stuck it in his dad’s ear.

Gideon squawked in surprise and discomfort, as he always did when Grey did that; the half-shouting half-whispering never worked, but Grey always wanted to give him a chance to wake up at request, rather than by force. If he had been woken like that by anygriff other than Grey, they’d be walking away with a scratch mark on whatever part of their body was closest to Gideon’s talons. 

“Ugh.” Gideon started, it was well before he expected to have to be awake. He opened his eyes halfway, looked at Grey, and blinked twice. “Morning, Grey.” He enunciated his son’s name out of irritation from having been woken up. The noise combined with Gideon moving from his wife’s side woke her up as well, and her gaze immediately shifted to her husband.

“Gideon, why are you-” Gia paused, having remembered her promise to her son as soon as she saw him. Her eyes narrowed, not out of irritation of waking up so early, but from irritation with herself for forgetting. “Fuck. We promised to see Grey off.” Gideon turned to Gia with the same look she had. Grey grinned a little. It wasn’t that big of a deal that they weren’t already awake to see him off, but they were awake now.

“I wasn’t just gonna leave without saying goodbye.” Grey said, giving his parents a big hug, both with his arms and with his wings. They were still groggy, so they only returned the hug about halfway, which Grey could understand. The fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to visit Griffonstone for a while once he moved to Ponyville crossed his mind, and he hugged his parents a little tighter. Gideon inhaled deeply, trying to get himself at least a little bit more alert to give a proper goodbye to his son. Gia was still just enjoying the hug. 

Grey’s train to Ponyville was going to arrive at 8:00 am, so maybe he didn’t have to get up so early, but he wanted to spend some time with his folks. It was now 7:10 am; he ended up talking with Gabby for less time than he thought he would. Grey sighed. He regretted waking his parents up so early, but it was too late for that now.

Grey let go of his parents and apologized for the early awakening. “Sorry for waking you two up so early, I thought I had spent more time chatting with Gabby.” He said with a small chuckle. “I guess now we can spend some time together before I leave for Ponyville?” Gideon nodded, too tired to say anything. Grey knew they weren’t going to get up, so he set his suitcases down inside the nest and lay down next to his parents. Gia was the first to say something.

“Grey, sweetie,” she started groggily, though still trying her best not to sound overly discouraging. “You know we support you and all, but I just want to make sure that you have a plan. I wouldn’t be able to bear knowing my son ended up homeless in a town he had never been in before.” Grey’s eyes narrowed a little. This sounded like a transition to an attempt to get him to stay. Gia knew that look and gave up trying to be subtle. 

“Please stay, Grey.” Gia pleaded with a tear in her eye, to which Grey’s ears angled themselves level with his head. “Griffons can’t perform magic, and don’t say that you’ll find work as a magic researcher, because you can’t research magic if you can’t do magic!” Grey frowned. He half-expected this, but it still hurt to know that his mother didn’t truly believe in his pursuit. But in all honesty, Grey had started to lose his belief in his pursuit as well.

Grey sighed a long and deep sigh, trying to drive the point home non-verbally that he was upset that his mother was doing this again. “Mom, it’s not like there won’t be any work for me to do in Ponyville outside of magic, and I don’t need to be able to do magic to be a magic researcher. I could help Princess Twilight!” Grey spread his wings out of excitement while he said that last part, but he still wore a slightly nervous look on his face. 

The concern on Gia’s face did not leave, but she loosened up a little. Gideon had made a point not to say anything; he knew that trying to get Grey to stay in Griffonstone was pointless. It wasn’t like anygriff particularly enjoyed living there.

The time was now 7:30 am. Grey had wanted to be at the train station at least 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive, and it was a 15 minute flight from Griffonstone proper to the train station, so he got up and hoisted his suitcases. He looked at his parents, then looked away guiltily.

“I love you guys.” Grey started with a sniffle. He was going to miss them, even if they did serve as a good example of what griffons were like. “I gotta get to the train station now.” He awkwardly shifted his gaze from his mom to his dad, then to the ground in front of them, then to both of them. 

Gia and Gideon looked at each other. It wasn’t often that griffons verbally expressed love for one another, and even though Grey was the type to do that kind of thing, it still wasn’t common. Gia hesitated for a moment, not making a sound, but she obviously wanted to say something, then broke her own silence. 

“We love you too, Grey. Good luck in Ponyville.”

Grey gave his parents one more hug before heading off to the train station, then turned and waved at them once he was in the air. As he flew south towards the station, Grey thought of his memories of Griffonstone. It was a jumbled mix of good and bad, but ultimately, he decided that he hated the place, not the griffons in it. He was lost in thought for long enough that he was already at the train station; he thought he’d only been flying for 5 minutes. He landed at the station and set his suitcases down; he still had a decent amount of time to wait.

Grey looked back at Griffonstone, the place he had lived since he was a cub, his heritage, his family. And he gave it the middle finger.
> The Long Train Ride
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The train ride from Griffonstone to Ponyville was going to be a long one, and the dang thing hadn’t even arrived yet. Grey still had another 10 minutes to try and resist his brain’s attempts to get him to just turn around and live out the rest of his days in that pile of garbage other griffons would call a nest, it would be so much easier!

He was snapped out of his mini-battle with his own brain when he saw the vibrantly colored Friendship Express (yes, that’s really what it was called) rolling down the tracks in the distance, about 5 minutes away, he estimated.

“Good,” he thought aloud, since nogriff and nopony were around to hear. “It was getting hard to not just fly back home.” He chuckled to himself; he was starting to lose his mental resolve. Though a nap on the long train ride would fix that. Probably. 

The train pulled into the station, and a unicorn pony with a dark blue vest and a stopwatch for a Cutie Mark stepped out. He looked at Grey, who was both the only creature there, and entirely alert. Grey got the message and picked up his suitcases before flying on board the train, his gaze lingering on the unicorn for a moment.

Other than the timekeeper pony, Grey was the only creature on the train. Fine by him; he wasn’t going to strike up any conversation even if there was anycreature else here. He was planning on passing the time with a nap, maybe after a little bit of reading from his magic books.

Grey started his train ride activities by looking out the window, which provided enough of an interlude from his morning that he got to thinking about what he was doing. Thinking about leaving his parents and friends behind made him feel a little empty, but then he started thinking about Ponyville. That place is notorious for being ridiculously welcoming. But then he started thinking negatively, as he often did. How would he find work? It wasn’t like magic researchers would be in crazy demand in Ponyville, and even if there was work for one, they’d want a unicorn, not some griffon they’d never even seen in town before.

With his anxieties about the move starting to gnaw at him, Grey decided to do the thing he usually did to calm down, pass the time, or distract himself; read from his magic books. Doing so was actually quite a good idea, he figured, since he was basically headed towards an impromptu job interview on the topic.

He opened up his copy of Cantrips for Unicorn Foals and turned to the first chapter, which contained the simplest of simple spells, that, like the title suggested, even a child would have no trouble casting. If that child had a horn. Grey shook that thought out of his head and just focused on reading the book for now.

Grey flipped to the first spell listed in the first chapter with the intention of at least trying to cast it. Lux, the simplest spell there is, by many accounts. It was very simple in its description of how to cast it: just focus on the brightest thing in the room and try to replicate it. To most griffons, the open ended and vague descriptions on how to cast spells would leave them scratching their heads, but since Grey had been reading magic books since he was a cub, he understood what they meant, and how to cast them.

If he had a horn.

Again, Grey had to shake that thought out of his head. It was serving as quite the mental ball and chain, he understood that much. He had been toting this ball and chain for many years now, the actions and words of his peers adding to its weight. The weight pulled away at his ability to see the world positively, so it seemed to be a miracle to Grey that he was able to yank on the ball hard enough for this leap of faith, though he wasn’t sure if the ball was heavier or lighter because of it.

With the thought shaken, Grey looked up at the overhead light hanging above the aisle of his car of the train and squinted, both from the brightness of the light and from concentration. With the light slightly burned into his retinas, he looked over at his now open talon and narrowed his eyes in an attempt to force that light in the back of his eyes to materialize there.

After about 5 minutes of angrily staring at his own talon (which he was glad nocreature was there to witness or comment on), Grey gave up on casting Lux. It was far from the first time he had tried, but he had the slightest hope that his leap of faith in boarding the train would have unlocked something in him. He looked down and sighed, he still couldn’t do magic. 

Grey rested his elbow on the windowsill and his head on his now structurally sound arm. His eyes fell onto nothing in particular, watching as the lifeless stone cliffs raced by in a blur that would have mixed the colors of the background, if the background had any color. His already slightly closed eyes narrowed a little more from the colors outside reflecting his current hopeless attitude perfectly; they weren’t going to cheer him up at all.

His arm that wasn’t on the windowsill rested on the cushioned seat, idly tapping it out of boredom. Grey noticed this and, to combat his restlessness, reached into his suitcase and produced his copy of Evocation for Self Defense. Even if he couldn’t cast a spell, he could at least make sure he understood them well enough; it wasn’t like he had anything better to do in the 6 hour train ride that he had failed to kill much time of.

Luckily for Grey, Evocation for Self Defense was a more mentally stimulating book than Cantrips for Unicorn Foals, so he was able to kill a solid hour just by leafing through it and pondering how he might be able to alter some of the spells. Though quite a while had gone by, no new creatures boarded the train at any of the 2 stops between Griffonstone and its current location, which was fine by Grey.

Grey knew, however, that the next stop was at a mildly more populated village than the other stops were, so there was about a 50/50 chance of at least one creature boarding the train there. He planned to be asleep by then, since he wasn’t in the right headspace to be having a conversation with anycreature. The next stop was about 30 minutes away, and Grey knew he’d probably need all 30 of those minutes to fall asleep, so he claimed all of his bench by lying down on it and closed his eyes.

30 minutes passed, and although he had tried his hardest to fall asleep, his anxieties about the move were still fresh enough in his mind to thwart his attempts. He kicked himself for worrying so much, since it meant that he’d probably have to talk to somepony; his peers told him often of how “annoyingly friendly” ponies are. Though, he figured, he ought to get used to talking to ponies more often, since he was moving into a town where he’d be the only one who isn’t a pony.

The train stopped at a small village, and though Grey thought he could use practice talking to ponies, he crossed his talons that nopony would board so he would be able to just sit in silence for the rest of the ride. But, as if fate was testing Grey, a poofy yellow maned pegasus with a white coat of fur boarded the train. Grey sat up, not wanting to look upset, since that would probably cause the pegasus to come over and ask what was wrong, ponies were usually nice like that.

The sound of hooves stepping lightly against the wooden floor of the train car got closer to Grey, which caused him to begin mildly panicking. Though he knew he could use the practice of talking to ponies, he really didn’t want to. But the pegasus was already sitting comfortably on the bench directly across from Grey, and despite his best efforts, his involuntary concentration on the mare naturally led to the two of them making eye contact soon after she sat down.

The pegasus politely waved at Grey, which he nervously and perhaps too quickly returned, then she did the one thing Grey hoped she wouldn’t: Try to strike up a conversation.

“So where are you headed?” She started, her voice was confident and relaxed, lacking the undertone of ‘I’m talking down to you’ that Grey had become so accustomed to in Griffonstone. Despite the sinking feeling in Grey’s chest that told him that this conversation was going to be a disaster, he tried his best to respond cordially and appropriately. 

“O-oh! I’m moving to Ponyville,” Grey started, his nerves unhidden. “I’m kinda nervous about it, if that wasn’t obvious.” Grey added a little chuckle at the end of his statement, doing his best to keep the mood light. “I’m Grey, by the way.” He extended his talon for the pegasus to shake, though his thoughts fell to whether shaking appendages like that was normal for ponies.

“Charmed, Surprise.” The pegasus replied while extending her hoof and shaking Grey’s talon energetically.

Grey looked at the pegasus, confused. She had said two words in conjunction that could mean any number of things considering pony naming conventions. Was her name ‘Charmed Surprise’? Or was her name ‘Charmed’, and she was about to pull some kind of prank? She must have noticed Grey’s confused expression, because she relaxed backward into her seat with a slightly humored smile and cleared up his confusion.

“My name is Surprise. I get how that could’ve been confusing.” She chuckled a little, which both embarrassed Grey from his apparent inability to discern what Surprise meant, and calmed him, since her demeanor was calm, which encouraged him to be calm as well.

“So Grey, why’s a griffon moving to Ponyville? I figured Griffonstone was the best place for any griffon.” Surprise’s question caused Grey to narrow his eyes a little from annoyance, he’d never been asked this question before, but he didn’t like the assertion that all griffons were just okay with living in the squalor that was Griffonstone.

“Well first of all, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Griffonstone, but that place is filthy.” Grey started, letting his agitation with Griffonstone show through. “And second, nothing ever happens there! I mean sure, Gilda’s been selling Griffon Scones, but they taste like she just baked some mud and called it food!” Grey’s anger was palpable, and though none of it was directed at Surprise, she was still caught off guard by it. Grey realized this and immediately retracted into the back of his seat and looked at Surprise, mortified that he had already made a bad first impression before he had even made it to Ponyville.

“Sore subject, huh?” Surprise regained her relaxed disposition quickly, which surprised Grey. He really thought that he had ruined his chance of friendship with this pony. “Sorry for assuming Griffonstone was the best option for every griffon.” Grey was a little taken aback that Surprise hadn’t gotten up and left because of his little outburst, but not so much that he wasn’t able to quickly regain his composure and respond.

“I-it’s really not a big deal, sorry for going off like that.” Grey started, trying to get past the emotional moment as quickly as possible. “Anyway, where are you headed?”

“Yeah,” Surprise started, also content to move on with the conversation rather than lingering on the emotional moment. “I’m headed to Cloudsdale, but I’m gonna be staying in Ponyville for a few hours for food and whatever. Can’t stay long though, being a Wonderbolt is great, but it also means I don’t get a whole lot of vacation time. Gotta keep up the training!”

“You’re a Wonderbolt? That’s so cool!” Grey responded with genuine enthusiasm; he was enjoying this conversation. “What’s it like? I’ve heard of the Wonderbolts, but Griffonstone doesn’t exactly stay up to date on pony culture.” Surprise looked at Grey, a little taken aback that Grey didn’t know what the Wonderbolts were, though she should’ve expected that the Wonderbolts existing at all wasn’t common knowledge among griffons.

“Oh, the Wonderbolts are a group of elite fliers,” Surprise started, trying her best not to sound condescending. “They were formed as soldiers for the Crown, but since the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Wonderbolts were needed less and less for fighting. Not like it was common before that, though.” Surprise paused for a moment to think, which gave Grey a moment to realize that he might’ve just made his first friend. “We mostly do flight shows where we perform a routine, you should come to our next one! Actually, wait a second.” Surprise reached into her saddlebag with her wing and took out a ticket, then extended it toward Grey. “Each member got a ticket to give to a friend, but all of my other friends are busy. You can see what we do in person!” Grey didn’t expect this at all, not the gift, and definitely not Surprise implying that the two of them were friends. He smiled, this friendship evidence that he might be able to make it, and politely took the ticket.

“I don’t know what to say except for thank you,” Grey’s wings flared from excitement. “And that I’ll definitely be there!” The two new friends continued their conversation, Grey interjecting with additional ‘thank-yous’ for the ticket from time to time. The time flew by, which is just the way of things when you’re spending time with a friend. That thought rose to Grey’s mind again, he had made a friend. He figured it awkward to ask Surprise if they were friends in the middle of the train ride, so he decided to do so once they both got off the train at Ponyville; there was no way they’d both end up walking the same way, right?

The train finally pulled into Ponyville station, an event that, at this point, was just being patiently awaited by Surprise and Grey. Other ponies had boarded since they met, but Grey had been so absorbed in his conversation with her that he didn’t really notice anypony else on the train, and they didn’t bother him and Surprise. They walked to the doors together, and Grey prepared to ask his question.

“Hey Surprise,” Grey started, shockingly, without a stutter. “Maybe a weird question but, are we friends now?” Surprise looked at Grey, obviously a little confused at the question, but she had been cordial this whole time, and she wasn’t about to make an obviously very anxious griffon even more so. She wanted to give him a good introduction to pony society, since she was well aware that not everypony was nice.

“Of course dude,” She answered energetically. The energy wasn’t falsified, though she was trying more than usual to be cordial. She had even avoided making a single sarcastic remark! She deserved a medal. “Gimme a hoofbump.” She extended her hoof, and though Grey did not know what a ‘hoofbump’ was exactly, he could make a guess, and lifted his own talon, curled into a fist. The two appendages collided, and Grey looked into his empty talon and realized something important.

“Shoot, I left my bags on the train.” There went the chance of him looking cool at the end of this interaction. He swiftly went into the car, grabbed his suitcases, and left. He looked at Surprise with a mildly forced grin, trying to maybe still look cool. Surprise looked him in the eyes, blinked twice, then spoke.

“Good luck, man.” Surprise lightly hit Grey’s shoulder with her hoof. “I’m rooting for ya.” Then she flew off.

With Surprise gone, the weight of the task Grey now had to do fell on him. He stood at the train station for a solid ten minutes, grappling with his situation fully for the first time. He had to find work in a field that probably wasn’t in high demand, as a creature that could only perform half of the job. And he had to do it all alone.
> Job Hunting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grey was now pacing back and forth just outside the train station, his bags haphazardly dropped onto a bench. He knew exactly what he had to do next, but without Surprise to distract him with a conversation, all of the horrible little thoughts plaguing Grey’s mind came to the surface, unable to be ignored. He was pacing because, at this point, he was considering just riding the train back to Griffonstone, which he probably would have done if he had any bits. 

Oh Celestia, he didn’t have any bits.

He started to panic externally instead of just internally, but still managed to keep it mostly under control. What was he going to do!? If he couldn’t get a magical research position today, he’d have literally nothing. Nothing at all. 

He suddenly became aware of his external panic, and because he had no money, the only option was to go to the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle, one of the most gifted magical minds of the time, and ask her if she needed a magical research assistant, and also convince her that a creature lacking any magic at all would be fit for the position. 

He ultimately decided that he was in no state to be having the most important conversation of his life, and it really wasn’t that late, so he figured he could read for a while, since that always improved his mental state. He was making excuses, but the points he made to himself were at least mildly valid concerns, so off he went to find a nice place to read.

He selected a nice cloud that was out of the way and opened Fun Facts and Figures Volume 2, one of the few books he owned that wasn’t about magic, and began reading. Usually reading magic books was what he did to calm himself down, but he was trying to get his mind off of the gravity of his situation, and reading magic books was going to do the exact opposite of that. Soon enough, it was 4:30 PM; Grey had sat in the cloud for longer than he would have liked. 

“Alright,” Grey thought aloud to himself in a whisper. “Time to bite the bullet.” He quickly put his book into his suitcase and produced a black clip-on bow tie that he thought looked nice on him, then put it on. He wanted to look nice for his visit to the castle, since it was pretty much going to be a job interview.

He grabbed his now closed suitcases and flew down from the cloud with a renewed mental vigor, though the heavy feeling in his chest refused to subside. As soon as he turned a corner and saw Princess Twilight’s castle, his flight slowed down a little; he still very much did not want to have this conversation. But he was going to.

He was now standing in front of the large, ornately designed crystal doors with his suitcases set down lightly to the left of him. He looked at the door, about a million thoughts rushing through his head, unable to take any action. He didn’t have a choice in the matter; he needed the job, but speaking with a princess? He was woefully unprepared for such a thing. Even though he had been planning this trip for months. He mentally kicked himself for preparing so inadequately and, considering his situation, he knocked on the door, then immediately considered flying away. 

But something kept his talons and paws firmly locked to the ground. Call it fate, call it Grey subconsciously knowing that he 100% needed to have this conversation, but either way, he stood there, digging his talons into the ground beneath him, partially sullying the ‘slightly cleaner than usual’ look he had cultivated with his bow tie.

After what felt like a few hours of trying to grasp the Earth like he was preparing to throw it, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the paragon of friendship and the most adept magic user Equestria had seen for many moons, opened the door, prompting Grey’s grip to tighten.

“Can I help you?” The Princess didn’t seem irritated at a random visitor, in fact, she spoke softly, possibly noticing the painfully obvious anxiety her feathered visitor sported.

Grey stumbled before responding, his emotional center having been thrown off by meeting a pony he looked up to greatly. “Uhhhhh,” Grey’s eyes widened at his own behavior in front of a princess and mentally scrambled to say something, anything at all. “Uhhh, right! Um, ok here we go, hello, my name is Grey, and, uh, I get that this is probably a long shot, but I’m looking for work as a magic researcher and was wondering if you needed any help? And if not, maybe you could direct me to somewhere in town that needs that kind of help?” Grey wore an awkwardly wide smile as he awaited Twilight’s response, the true depths of his desperation hidden from the princess.

“Um, well, I don’t need any magical researchers as a job, but I would like to be friends with somepony who likes talking about magic!” Twilight’s response naturally crushed Grey’s spirit, though he didn’t show it in his expression. “I’m really busy today, but tomorrow you could come over and we could talk about magic, get to know each other?” Though, Twilight did seem genuinely excited to have a magically inclined potential friend, so Grey nodded, grabbed his suitcases, and flew off to nowhere in particular.

Despite the crushing defeat at the hooves of Princess Twilight, the fact that she wanted to be his friend filled him with a minor sense of optimism that he had lost when Surprise had to leave. He knew a thing or two about the town, specifically that there was an apple farm. If he had to work there until he found an opportunity in magical study, he would do it. His own optimism and determination surprised him, and he figured it wouldn’t last long, but off he went anyway to Sweet Apple Acres.

He removed the bow tie and tucked it safely back into his suitcase; he figured that a farm would value such a mildly fancy accessory. The farm was quite a short flight from the castle, and when he got there, he immediately saw an orange earth pony with a yellow mane with a brown stetson resting atop it manning a cider stand, though still obviously trying to set it up. He approached her, trying his best to look ‘hireable’.

The mare looked up and started speaking before Grey could. “Howdy, cider stand won’t be up till’ 6pm.” Grey blinked, a little confused at first, then quickly understood the pony’s assumption of his reason for approaching the stand.

“Oh,” Grey started, a slight shake in his voice from earlier still present. “I’m actually here because I’m looking for some work and figured a farm like this could use some help.”

“Oh, sorry sugarcube,” the orange mare replied, already putting a dent in Grey’s spirits. “We can’t really afford to hire anypony at the moment, and even if we could, we probably wouldn’t, we got everything handled here.” Grey didn’t want to start freaking out in front of a total stranger, so in lieu of using words, he simply nodded, grabbed his suitcases, and flew away.

Grey didn’t know where he was going exactly, but he needed to find a single place that would hire him. Alas, he went to a shop called “Quills & Sofas”, and they weren’t hiring. He stopped at a sweets store called “Sugarcube Corner”, but the owners seemed to have their reservations about having a griffon work there, though their words were courteous as they rejected Grey’s employment request. He even asked a couple pegasi if they knew whether or not the weather ponies needed any help, but every last one of them said they had enough workers.

All the rejection, no matter how reasonable and, frankly, expected it was, wore down on Grey over the course of the day, and it was getting harder to keep his composure. He walked into the park, which was completely void of anypony, which made sense because it was 8pm. Grey was glad there was nobody at the park; he needed some time alone. He had needed to stay composed despite his unstable emotional state, but now that he was alone, he could act as upset as he wanted. 

That was until he heard a timid voice speak up with a slight undertone of caution being heeded. “Um, a-are you alright?” Grey looked up to make eye contact with a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and blue eyes. From her stance and how her eyes seemed a little afraid, Grey discerned that she was probably the shy type. 

He almost snapped at her because of the million negative feelings swirling around in his brain, but smarter heads prevailed, and he instead had to decide whether or not to be honest about how horribly his day and life were going, which he ultimately decided that he would talk, but no specifics would be provided.

“Uhhh, well, not really.” Grey had surprised himself with the words leaving his beak, they were more honest than he had intended, so he backtracked with a half-lie. “Nothing too serious though, I was just trying to find a job and nopony was hiring.”

The pegasus tilted her head ever so slightly to the left, her eyes adopting a more concerned air about them. She then spoke with a gentler, less afraid voice. “Oh my, I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish I could help you somehow.” The pegasus lowered her head a little, she seemed to feel guilty that she couldn’t help a complete stranger that she had just met, which completely baffled Grey.

Grey looked up at the purple sky, it was now about 8pm. He shuddered a little at the thought of having to live outside at least for tonight, then looked back at the pegasus. She looked a little guiltier than she was before, like she was about to say something she would be ashamed of.

“I’m sorry about your job situation, but I really have to go home to my animals now.” Her head hung a little lower after she said this. Grey just looked at her, thinking that a verbal response reassuring her would be useless; such anxieties can’t be dispelled so easily, he knew that much. He nodded, then rested his head back onto where it was before, on top of one of his suitcases.

As the mare trotted away, Grey got to thinking about the day. It had gone exactly the opposite of the way he planned, and he couldn’t even afford a ticket back to Griffonstone. The ponies were nice here, nicer than he expected. He really didn’t want to leave. He thought for a moment, unsure of what to do next. He could very well just sleep outside, but that had a few downsides, namely the ruining of any chance of having a good reputation in this town.

Grey thought for a while, then made a hasty decision and took off with his bags for Twilight's castle. This was going to suck.

After a few swift knocks at the large crystal doors, Twilight Sparkle answered, immediately sporting a confused look at seeing her feathered visitor from earlier again. “Hi, I don’t mean to be rude, but I did mention that I was busy today and couldn’t hang out, in fact, I was just getting ready for bed.” Grey’s expression shifted from one of nervousness and shame to one of those two emotions with an added dash of guilt. He sighed heavily, then spoke entirely truthfully for the first time today since Surprise had to leave.

“Um, well, here’s the thing, I moved here from Griffonstone with about only half of a plan in mind. I figured I could come here and maybe get a job, but I knew it was kind of a long shot. I checked out a couple of other places for work, but nopony was hiring. I figured before I just found a nice tree to sleep under, I’d come here and maybe ask for some help if you could give me any. Celestia knows I need it.”

Princess Twilight blinked. She really had no idea that this griffon was in such a tight spot. It may have been his own fault, but she was shocked at the honesty coming from somecreature she had only met this afternoon. She thought for a while, then offered a proposition that would change the course of Grey’s life.

“Okay, I see that you’re in a bit of a tough spot.” Her voice was calm, calmer than Grey expected. “I have a proposition that you don’t have to accept, but I have no reason to think that you wouldn’t. I have a spare room in the castle that you can stay in free of charge, and I will provide the essentials.” Grey’s eyes widened significantly, but he remained silent. “But, if you accept this offer, you will have a list of responsibilities each day, like cleaning certain rooms and running a few errands here and there. Do we have a deal?” 

Grey’s eyes remained wide, at a loss for words. He managed to shake his shock off and shakily respond to the princess. “O-of course, I’d have to be stupid to refuse a deal like that! Thank you so much, I can’t even say thank you as much as I need to!” Twilight stepped aside and gestured for Grey to come inside, then started walking to lead him to the spare bedroom.

Twilight opened the door with her magic and let Grey inside, who set his suitcases down next to his new bed. Neither creature spoke a word, Twilight with tiredness from her busy day, and Grey from his shock that this was his new home. Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment from a quick realization, then got Grey’s attention.

“Um, sorry, but I never got your name.” Twilight put one hoof on the back of her head and assumed a slightly embarrassed smile.

“Oh, my name is Grey. Thank you again for letting me stay here!” Twilight chuckled a little at that.

“Should I be expecting a lot of you thanking me?” Twilight asked with a grin on her face. She could tell that Grey was incredibly nervous, and she wanted to provide some levity.

“Yeah, probably.” Grey replied with a small smile. “I’m sure you’re tired, I’ll get settled on my own so you can get to bed. And thank you again.” Twilight let out a small chuckle at the third thank you and turned to go to her own room after closing Grey’s door with her magic.

Grey didn’t have anything to unpack, so he just laid down on the comfortable luxury bed; he had lucked out in the most impossible way. He scooched under the covers and got comfortable, then, as he always did when he was getting ready to fall asleep, he reflected on the day. He figured that he was the luckiest griffon in the world, but he also felt the pressure that came with his deal. He had to make sure he worked his hardest for Twilight, there was no way he was risking losing this incredible deal.

Grey closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, the anticipation of the next day full of tasks and possibly magic discussion with the princess keeping him away from it for a little while.

Grey had been given a boon, one that he wasn’t going to let slip away. He was fully aware of his own anxiety surrounding living in the same house as his idol, but he was too excited for tomorrow to care about that at the moment. Today had been the worst day of Grey’s life, but with Twilight’s unexpected generosity, it had quickly turned into the greatest day of his life. Though tomorrow’s work was likely to be hard to justify what he got, he couldn’t be more excited for it.
> New Job: First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grey woke up after the best night of sleep he had ever had, having no real intention of getting up from the soft mattress, let alone out from under the silk comforter he had been provided. He would have stayed in bed for another hour, but his thoughts about his newfound luxury living situation reminded him that he had responsibilities now.

He rolled over on his right side, trying to convince himself to abandon the lovely warmth of the bed that was such a nice change from literally only stone. Thankfully, he succeeded, and threw the blanket to the end of the bed that he was not on. As he sat up, he noticed a piece of paper on the nightstand to the left of his bed, and decided it was probably important, since it wasn’t there the night before. He picked it up, blinking twice and with his eyes halfway closed since he was still groggy, and began reading what was evidently his list of chores for the day.

Good morning Grey! I had to head out early this morning, but you seemed comfortable in your new bed, so I let you sleep in. When you get up though, here’s your list of tasks for the day.

Grey snickered a little at Twilight calling his chores ‘tasks’, because they were obviously chores. He also acknowledged that Twilight was 100% going easy on him in this new job of his, and he didn’t know exactly what to make of that.



Clean the kitchen. That includes the dishes.

Take out all the trash in the castle. The rooms that have trash are the kitchen, the bathroom, Spike’s room, and my room. Please take one trip per bag. They’re a little overfilled.

Help Spike with inventory, there’s been more things to keep track of ever since I got the castle.

Unpack your suitcases. I know that doesn’t sound like a work task, but I just want you to get settled in nicely.

Have a nice day!


That last task made Grey smile a little, it warmed his heart that Twilight seemed to genuinely want Grey to feel comfortable in his new environment, though little did she know that he couldn’t ask for anything better than what he’d gotten. However, he concluded, time spent feeling grateful was time spent not completing his tasks for the day. He folded up the letter and stuck it under his wing, his feathers keeping it in place. He figured he might need it later, but he didn’t have a saddlebag, and this was the next best thing.

He quickly fixed the comforter and pillows he had messed up by waking up so sloppily, then pushed open the surprisingly light door to his room and made his way towards the kitchen for his first task of the day. He did figure that his tasks were a little light today, and he couldn’t get the thought out of his head that Twilight was going easy on him. He tried to ignore it as walked, before abruptly stopping, realizing he had no idea where he was going. 

Spike turned the corner on his way to the kitchen for a snack and saw a gray griffon looking very confused standing in the hallway. He let out an irritated sigh. Twilight may have told him about the new guy staying in the castle, but that didn’t mean that Spike had to like somecreature else coming in and trying to take over his job. He had to walk that way to get to the kitchen anyway, so he rolled his eyes and resolved to help his new rival.

“Hey.” The dragon’s words were colder than the other inhabitants of Ponyville which, combined with the lack of warning, startled Grey. “The kitchen’s this way.” Spike’s irritated look didn’t leave his face and he didn’t make eye contact with Grey at all, he only walked forward, presumably in the direction of the kitchen. Grey didn’t really have any choice but to follow the young dragon, so he did, despite the fact that he clearly did not like him.

Spike opened the door and left it open for Grey to close, then went into the pantry to grab the two cookies he was allowed for that day. Grey slowly walked into the kitchen, looking it over to try and gauge how much cleaning would need to be done. Spike sat down at the table, and Grey, noticing that Spike hadn’t gotten a plate for his cookies, quickly ripped a single paper towel off of the roll he had noticed to his left and handed it to him. Spike may have been inclined to relax a little, if it weren’t for the fact that Grey’s smile was a little too wide. He was trying to get Spike to trust him. That didn’t prove anything on its own, but it made Spike a little more cautious with the griffon nonetheless.

Grey saw Spike’s expression shift from a moment of calm, then back to irritation, so he knew that his attempt at lowering the tension between them had failed, so he decided to just get on with his task. He needed a mop to start with the floors, which he said to himself quietly, but out loud. He didn’t know where it was, so he looked over at Spike, who rolled his eyes and simply pointed to a closet, which Grey responded to with a quiet nod. 

The two of them spent the next 30 minutes in the kitchen together, Grey quietly cleaning up, and Spike quietly reading the latest issue of Power Ponies that Twilight had gotten him. Grey knew nothing about that series, and he would have asked about it to create conversation if he didn’t have a job to do. After 30 minutes passed, Spike had finished his cookies and his comic, and retreated to his room, throwing away the paper towel Grey had given him on his way out. Grey watched Spike as he left the room, sporting a sad look. He didn’t know why Spike was so irritated with him, and he was upset that he wasn’t able to lift the tension between them. He sighed, and got back to the dishes he was washing.

Grey finished up in the kitchen relatively quickly, and pulled his list out from under his wing to check what he had to do next. He still had to take out all the trash, and help Spike with inventory. He looked away from the list for a moment, then inhaled through his teeth, deciding to leave inventory with Spike for last. He left his to-do list on the table, unable to store it under his wings if he was going to use them for the trash bags, and grabbed the trash bag from the bin, needing to stay on the ground for a moment to pry it from the plastic.

Despite Grey still not knowing his way around the castle, he had a slightly more straightforward plan for getting the trash bag out the dumpster, which was to simply fly out the window. As for the other locations he had to get trash from, he was planning on just figuring it out somehow. He needed to learn the layout of the castle anyhow. It didn’t take him too long to get the first bag to the dumpster and throw it in, and while he was flying back around to the front, he was smiling to himself at the cleverness of his little trick. As soon as he got back inside the castle, however, he stopped, having realized he had no idea where the other trash bins were.

Grey was able to return to the kitchen after about 5 minutes more of navigation than the other two creatures here would deem normal. He grabbed his to-do list, quickly read over his current tasks details, then looked up from it at nothing in particular, having no clue how to get to any of those places. He picked it up and tucked it under his wing again, hoping to be able to just leave it at each of his stops and come back for it, then set off to wander the castle, hoping he’d either stumble upon his destination, or stumble into Spike, who would probably lend a helping claw.

Unluckily, (though as Grey subconsciously expected) randomly wandering around the castle did not yield the results he was hoping for. However, he did luck out after a solid ten minutes of aimless wandering when he bumped into Spike, who was on a walk through the castle. One advantage of living in such a large space was that one could go on relatively long walks inside, which was nice when Spike wanted to go on a walk but it was raining. Spike’s attention was already Grey’s, since Grey had just walked into his line of sight, which prompted Spike to sigh a little, and Grey to start speaking.

“Hey, Spike.” Grey looked just a little bit guilty. He wasn’t dumb, he could tell that Spike wasn’t happy with Grey’s being here. “I’m sure you can tell what I’m about to ask.” Spike rolled his eyes a little bit, just enough that Grey didn’t notice.

“Ok, I get that this castle is big and hard to navigate, it was hard for me and Twi when we first moved in too.” Spike started, seeming more willing to help than Grey expected, though he retained a slightly irritated look. He let out a little huff. He didn’t really want to help his new competition, but he prided himself on being as helpful as possible, and considering that Twilight seemed genuinely excited to have a friend to talk about magic with, Spike figured that helping this griffon would be doing a service to her. “Here, I’ll take you to my room. There’s something I’m gonna give you.” Spike turned and started walking, and Grey followed.

Once they arrived at Spike’s room, a 2 minute walk from wherever in the castle they were before, Spike opened a drawer and produced a map of the castle. Grey looked at it, shocked that when the castle was created by the Elements of Harmony, it also created a map. This assumption, however, was quickly dispelled by Spike.

“Twilight made a couple maps of the castle. Took her a full day.” Grey’s confusion at the existence of a map was quickly replaced with a look that said ‘of course she did’. Spike saw this look and smiled, which made Grey smile just a touch wider. “And I figure you can’t keep your stuff under your wing if you’re flying to take out the garbage, so here.” Spike went into his closet and produced a saddlebag, which Grey was grateful for, but he was also confused as to why Spike had it, but he didn’t want to risk creating any tension like there was before with an ultimately pointless query about why he had it.

“Thank you, Spike.” Grey started, continuing speaking as he put his new saddlebag on under his wings. “And since I’m here, I’ll take care of that trash for you.” Grey tucked his to-do list and his new map of the castle into his new saddlebag and walked over to the trash bin, Spike not breaking his gaze on Grey, which made him a little uncomfortable. He grabbed it and started flying off, planning on just flying out the window like last time. He almost said something to Spike on his way out, but he stopped himself, deciding that the tension between them was just going to be there for a while.

Thanks to the map that Spike gave him, Grey was able to finish with the trash quickly. He pulled out his to-do list and read his 3rd task: helping Spike with taking inventory, presumably not just of food, but also of Twilight’s writing supplies. Although his next task didn’t come with a specific part of the castle to go to, Grey was able to infer where to go, and he was actually able to get there with the help of the map, the existence of which made sense given the size of the castle, but it still made Grey chuckle a little. The location of the third task, which Grey had correctly guessed, was the library. At the very least, it was where he could start the task.

Neither the dragon nor the griffon were looking forward to having to work together for an hour, the former from a still present dislike of Grey, and the latter from his understanding of the former’s disapproval of him. Either way, neither of them were going to let a little thing like awkwardness get in the way of their day’s tasks, so Grey walked into the library to ask Spike what he should do to help, his to-do list at the ready in his right talon to prove that Twilight had asked him to help. Spike looked over at Grey as he approached, and for the first time, he took the initiative with the talking. 

“Hey Grey. I got inventory handled in the library, so if you can go into the kitchen and count everything there, that’d help.” Spike tossed Grey a clipboard with a piece of paper already attached to it, which hit him square in the face. 

“Ow.” Grey said flatly, trying to make it clear to Spike that he wasn’t actually hurt. He then picked up the clipboard from the floor and stuck it into his saddlebag, taking it upon himself to retrieve a quill. “Count this one, I’m gonna return it.” Spike looked at Grey. He would’ve counted that quill either way. 

“Nah, keep it.” Spike’s words would’ve surprised Grey if the item that was now his was anything other than a quill. “You’re gonna need a quill anyway.” Grey smiled at that, he was glad that at least a little bit of the tension between the two was gone. That was until Spike's eyes narrowed at Grey, urging him to get a move on to the kitchen.

As Grey counted the various foods, drinks, and disposable dishware that was stored in the kitchen, he thought about how today went. It was easier than yesterday, that was for certain. But now that he was doing a task that kept him in one place, he couldn’t stop thinking about why Spike was so bothered by the fact that he was there. He was mostly clueless, but he had a few theories. But, Grey concluded, his theories would likely be far from the truth, given that he had only known Spike for a few hours. So, he simply got back to inventory, trying to stay as focused as he could on the task.

Once Grey was done with inventory, he used his map to get back to his room. If Spike wanted the saddlebag back for any reason, he’d be able to wait. He flopped onto his bed, rubbing the top of the comfortable blankets with his beak a little. He decided out of minor paranoia that he had forgotten a task to check his to-do list one last time. He looked through it, and saw the last task, which was to unpack his own suitcases. His expression shifted from a contented smile to a neutral frown, and he looked over at the suitcases he had deposited next to his new desk. 

He only had books in those suitcases. He looked over at the bookcase that was in his room. He could easily unpack his books onto that bookcase. He looked back over at the suitcases, then over at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to his bed. It was only 2pm; it really didn’t take Grey long at all to get all his tasks for the day done. Well, all except for his suitcases. He just kept looking at his suitcases. Unpacking them was technically a work task, but he couldn’t force himself to just get up and put his books away. Grey just sat there, just staring at his suitcases for thirty minutes, when he heard a knock at the door.

“Hello?” He immediately recognized Twilight’s voice on the other side of the door. He panicked a little, worried that his failure to complete his last work task would get him in trouble with Twilight. He sprung from his bed and stopped on the floor, his legs extended out a little further than they were when he was relaxed. He looked at his bags, then he looked back at the door, which possibly held an impatient alicorn behind it. He rushed toward the door to greet his host, figuring that was the best course of action.

“Hello princess!” Grey said with just a little too much forced enthusiasm. He realized the potential of his greeting being too formal and backpedaled. “What’s up?” Not wanting to run the risk of a repeat of his interaction with Spike in the kitchen, he chose a more subtle closed-mouth smile. Twilight looked past Grey a little at his suitcases, which he responded to by shifting his position to block her line of sight with them.

“Hmmm,” Twilight started, which put Grey on edge. “Do you mind if I come in? I’d love to see what kind of magic books you have.” Grey’s expectation of disappointment from Twilight was shattered, which shocked him a little. He nodded to the princess slowly and turned back into his room, headed straight for his still not unpacked suitcases.

“I know you wanted me to get unpacked, but-” Grey was cut off by Twilight as soon as he started talking, she could recognize that he was scared that he was in trouble.

“I just put that on your to-do list because I wanted you to get comfortable in the castle. But I guess it’s up to you when you get that done.” Twilight walked over to Grey, who was sitting behind his suitcases and opening one of them, and sat down. “I’m really excited to have a friend with magic knowledge like you!” Twilight smiled warmly, and Grey was able to put his anxiety about him and Spike aside. Even if it was only for a while, Grey had nothing to worry about at the moment. He was truly calm for the first time in a long while.
> Status Quo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A real, casual conversation with the Princess of Friendship! Grey should be freaking out right now, he was having a conversation with his idol! But he wasn’t, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. It didn’t matter, though, since they were talking about magic. Grey’s favorite thing in the whole wide world. His already present smile got a little wider, patiently waiting for Twilight to start the conversation, since he wasn’t great at that. Luckily, the princess took notice of what Grey was trying to get her to do, so she decided to inquire about a moderately complicated piece of magical academia, trying not to be condescending to the griffon, but also trying not to stick him with a topic he knew nothing about, since he was a magicless creature, after all.

“So, would you like me to pick a field of magic for us to talk about?” Twilight started, to which Grey nodded succinctly as a response. “Alright, what do you know about the applications of neutral magic?” Grey didn’t even skip a beat, all he did was shift the way he was sitting slightly and answer Twilight’s question with vim and vigor.

“Neutral magic is actually really interesting to me! Definitely one of my favorite subjects. Okay, so, as you probably already know, neutral magic is a manifestation of the caster’s own magic. It doesn’t do much on its own, it’s just a glowy effect on the caster’s horn, but neutral magic isn’t meant to do anything on its own. It’s meant to be combined with other spells.” Twilight smiled a little. Grey’s rundown of neutral magic was spot on, and she began to think that maybe it was unfair of her to assume that he was likely to know less about magic simply because he was incapable of casting any himself. She decided to up the difficulty of her questions from here on out.

“Yeah, that’s neutral magic in a nutshell.” Twilight said, ready to query Grey on something more complicated next. “What do you know about conjuration?” Grey paused for a moment to look at Twilight before deciding to just answer her question about conjuration.

“Uh, yeah, a lot of the griffons back home seem to think that conjuration magic creates something out of nothing, but what it’s actually doing is summoning something from the Primordial Realm. Only simple items like swords and bows can be conjured, though.” Twilight smiled at Grey, who only shifted his sitting position again, struggling mildly to find a comfortable way to sit on the floor. Grey looked at Twilight, who was positively beaming at how much he knew. Grey coughed, then looked down at the suitcase in front of him. “So do you think we should swap facts about ourselves or something? I mean, we don’t know each other too well.” Grey’s eyes darted up to look at Twilight’s face, which was starting to relax a little. 

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Twilight shifted on her side as she said this, sitting more casually. “When’s your birthday?” Grey shifted on the floor one more time, then frustratedly decided he had lost his battle with the floor, then climbed up onto his bed.

“January 8th. How about yours?” The conversation had started to go nowhere fast, and Grey’s social ineptitude wasn’t helping. Either he needed to pray that Twilight would come up with a better way to do this icebreaker or he needed to come up with a way himself.

“March 30th.” Grey nodded, making sure to commit that to memory. A palpable silence followed, only broken for a moment when Twilight coughed into her hoof. The two weren’t making eye contact anymore. Grey felt his wings tighten up at his sides. Twilight noticed how tense he had gotten and interjected.

“I was thinking maybe tomorrow I could invite my friends over to meet you. Does that sound okay?” Grey looked at her, trying to force himself to maintain eye contact. He remained silent for a short moment, then responded in a hushed tone.

“I’d love to meet your friends.” Twilight smiled. Grey smiled too, but he also looked down, failing his self-imposed eye contact task. “Sorry if I’m not great at conversations. I was the only griffon back home who cared about what I had to say.” 

Twilight looked at Grey’s unfocused eyes in an attempt to regain eye contact. “I can relate, at least a little.” Grey was surprised at this, but he didn’t interrupt. “When I still lived in Canterlot, all I would do was study all day, to say I lacked social skills would be an understatement.” Twilight punctuated her sentence with a small laugh, the accompanying teeth-showing smile being replaced soon after with a mildly guilty expression. “Grey, I’m gonna be honest for a moment.” Grey braced for impact, those words never led to anything good. “This whole situation is weird, don’t you think? You said you wanted to be a magic researcher, right?”

Grey shook his head. “I figured that would be the best job to get with my magical knowledge, but I’ve wanted to be a wizard since I was a cub.” A light red met Grey’s cheeks as he said this, half-expecting Twilight to act just like his peers back home.

Twilight’s face lit up. “Oh, I didn’t know griffons had magic! Can you show me some?” Her question inspired from a false assumption caused Grey to lower his head a little out of embarrassment.

“W-well, I don’t think anygriff has done any magic, well, ever, but I’ve held some measure of faith that it’s at the very least possible. I mean, crazier things have happened in Equestria, right?” Twilight held a slightly confused look while Grey spoke, then she smiled when he finished. She nodded, to which Grey’s smile became a little less forced. There was a silence for a moment, which Grey decided to break. “Can you tell me about your friends? I’m sure they’re lovely, but I’m the kind of griffon who’d prefer to know at least a little bit about someone before meeting them.”

Twilight’s expression didn’t change as she continued the conversation. “Of course.” Twilight proceeded to give a very brief rundown of all 5 of her very best friends, and when she mentioned Fluttershy and Applejack, Grey excitedly interjected that he’d spoken to them the day prior. He was looking forward to saying something along the lines of ‘hello again’ to those two. 

Grey’s wings were now sprawled wide across his bed, that being the most comfortable way to rest them for him. After hearing about Twilight’s friends, Grey naturally asked how they all met, and, naturally, Twilight gave Grey the whole story, which he listened to eagerly. 

“-and that was when I learned that the Magic of Friendship is the most powerful magic of all!” Grey was simply lying there, listening contentedly to Twilight’s story and reacting at the most reaction worthy parts. He looked over at the clock, which displayed that it was 6:00 PM. He looked over at the calendar, since he had absolutely no idea what day it was, and saw that it was Friday. He blinked twice, remembering something important, then started to panic. He went into his suitcase and rooted around, eventually procuring his ticket to the Wonderbolts show, scanning it over quickly.

“Please don’t have been today, please don’t have been today, please don’t have been today!” Twilight simply looked at Grey, puzzled, until he sighed. “Oh, good. It’s tomorrow.” He turned to Twilight, understanding that she was confused. “I made a friend on the train here, and I promised her I’d go to this Wonderbolts show.” He held the ticket up so that Twilight could see.

“Oh! The show tomorrow! I was planning on buying you a ticket as a surprise, since all my other friends are going too, so you could meet them there!” Twilight and Grey shared the same level of excitement, but Twilight still needed to confirm something. “Out of curiosity, where did you get that ticket?”

“Oh yeah, the friend I made on the train gave it to me. Her name is Surprise.” Twilight gasped lightly upon learning Grey’s new friend’s name, then smiled.

“Grey, did you know that Wonderbolt gift tickets are also backstage passes?” Grey looked at the ticket. As much as he enjoyed Surprise’s company, he didn’t care too much about the Wonderbolts, he was mainly going just to see what it was like, and also because he had promised Surprise he would.

“Really? That’s pretty cool.” Grey’s mildly disinterested response confused Twilight for a moment before she realized that the Wonderbolts didn’t have celebrity status with a group of creatures who barely even knew what they were. “Honestly, though, I’m looking forward to that show, it sounds exciting!” 

“About tomorrow, I won’t give you any tasks tomorrow, not because it’s the weekend or because of the show, just because I don’t have anything that needs to get done that day.” Twilight smiled excitedly. “And I probably won’t be busy, so if you wanted to go through some griffon history books to look for any account of griffons using magic, I’d very much like to do that with you.”

“Oh, are you sure about no work tomorrow? I kinda want to get used to having tasks every day.” 

“Yeah, I’m sure. I understand you wanting to get into the rhythm of your tasks here, but since the show is tomorrow and you promised your friend you’d go, I think it’s best if we just treat tomorrow as an off day.” Twilight looked over at the clock, which now read 6pm. “Well, time sure went by fast, didn’t it?” Twilight got up, motioning for Grey to follow her. “Come on, let’s go have dinner.” Grey followed without a complaint, he forgot to eat yesterday.

Dinner consisted of grilled asparagus with a light caramel glaze, cooked by Spike, as he so proudly declared. The combination confused Grey at first, but upon trying it, he found that the caramel was a lighter sweetness than he expected, and it complimented the grilled asparagus well. He made sure to thank Spike directly for the meal, though his thanks was ignored.

During dinner, Twilight and Grey heartily discussed the next day’s activities, which instead of being focused on the Wonderbolt show, instead mostly was dominated by their plan to come home afterward and dig through griffon history books to look for any mention of any griffon magic use. They were excited for the show, but they were both nerds, and nerds have an undying natural affinity for books.

Grey took it upon himself to wash the dishes, making a point to offer twice to do so to Spike, who needed Twilight to ask him nicely to accept the offer. “Hey Twilight?” She looked over at Grey, who hadn’t looked up from the dishes when he spoke up. “Do you think this whole thing will amount to much? I mean, even if I do manage to by some miracle use magic, is it really gonna be that big of a deal?”
Twilight frowned. “It would be a pretty big deal, yeah. Are you trying to be a big deal with this whole thing?” Grey looked at Twilight, half because this was a serious conversation, and half because he had finished the dishes.

“No. I don’t think I care if my magic gets me famous. I just think it’s fascinating. I mean, using nothing but your own mind and willpower to change and shape the world around you? That’s nothing short of incredible to me.” Grey’s eyes had a sparkle in them that was very familiar to Twilight. If griffons could get Cutie Marks, she thought, Grey’s would definitely be in magic.

“I admire that, Grey.” Grey looked over at Twilight quickly, but his expression didn’t change much. “Don’t get me wrong, I still love magic, but it’s become so normal, y’know? I’ve done it all my life, so I think I’ve lost that spark that you have.” She suddenly stood up. “I swear to you, I will not let that beautiful spark of yours die out.” Grey continued to look at Twilight, at a loss for words. He felt tears stinging the back of his eyes, though they didn’t become anything other than a sting.

“Nogriff in Griffonstone ever cared that much about my dream…” He trailed off, lost in thought for a moment, before being interrupted by his own yawn. “Anyway, I’m gonna go put my books up, then I’m going to bed. Goodnight, princess.” One of Twilight’s ears drooped just a bit. 

“Goodnight, Grey. And please don’t call me ‘princess’. We’re friends, remember?” Grey looked back at Twilight, the two of them exchanging a smile, then continued walking back to his room before he stopped.

“Uh, where’s my room again?”
> The Night Before The Show
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After embarrassingly being led back to his room and saying ‘good-night’ to Twilight, Grey wasted no time throwing himself onto his bed, softly purring as he rubbed his face against the blanket and, as he crawled closer to the same spot he slept in last night, the pillow. He was glad the door was shut, his embarrassment from earlier would have doubled if Twilight heard him purring.

After a short moment of considering just falling asleep on top of the blanket, he went with the better, slightly more involved option. He lifted the blanket, resting his head on the pillow, then haphazardly tossed the blanket over himself. He briefly considered how not making the bed in the mornings was unbecoming of any resident of a castle, but the blanket he was now comfortably covered by was just too darn soft, so he quickly drifted away from any thoughts about the many expectations he’d been saddled with.

With his thought processes running at half their normal capacity from the sleepiness that a comfy bed inflicted upon him, Grey allowed his head to sink fully into the pillow, completing the best position for a restful sleep. 





Grey opened his eyes while simultaneously lifting his head off of his crossed arms to see loose hay accompanied by the ugliest shades of gray in the floor, ceiling and walls. He blinked a few times, then slowly rose to a standing position. He looked around, revealing a familiarly cramped living space that amounted to a hollowed out boulder, completely empty save for a shelf above his line of sight, containing nothing except for a book bearing Princess Twilight’s likeness on the cover.

He rubbed his eyes with one arm, trying to figure out his surroundings. Was moving to Ponyville a dream? Must’ve been, since he was in his own home.

With nothing better to do, and his magic books only serving as a reminder that he was apparently too much of a coward to take the leap, he flew outside. He wasn’t really looking where he was going, so he bumped into a white feathered griffon pretty quickly, eliciting a hushed apology, which, as was custom to most griffons, was completely ignored.

“Hey, watch where you’re flying, idiot.” The griffon Grey bumped into didn’t even turn around before she started what was probably the same thing she said to anygriff that bumped into her. Once she did turn and see Grey, however, her tone changed. “Hey wait, magic guy. Didn’t you say you were gonna leave for Ponyville yesterday?” Grey shrugged, he couldn’t even manage a simple disinterested ‘yeah’. “Hm. Well, wanna buy a griffon scone?” Grey perked up upon hearing that. He had been looking down at the ground during the entire ‘conversation’ thus far, but only one griffon in town sold griffon scones, and she was neutral with Grey rather than antagonistic like most everygriff else.

“Hey, Gilda.” Grey leaned forward the slightest bit, like he wanted to steal a hug from her, but he quickly rescinded his own incomplete, unperceived request. “How’s everything?” Gilda gave a low volume, monosyllabic laugh before responding.

“Grey, it’s Griffonstone. Everything sucks.” Upon seeing Grey’s eyes get a little watery, Gilda’s expression softened. But not too much, this was still Griffonstone after all. “Uh, you good?” Grey’s eyes only got more watery as he fought to keep a grip on the situation. After all, it wasn’t that bad, he had only been given what he thought was his dream, only for it to be a literal dream, and he was still stuck in this horrible city where there were only 4 griffons who didn’t hate him, and-

That was it. The realization that he was still stuck in Griffonstone broke him. The two were standing on the ground in a semi-remote part of town now, so Grey just fell onto Gilda’s chest and began sobbing many years of held-back tears into her feathers. 

By instinct, Gilda’s arms held onto Grey, both to keep him from falling onto the ground, and to give him what was some evidently much-needed affection. In turn, Grey’s talons fell over Gilda’s shoulders, though they didn’t need to; Gilda was supporting Grey enough to keep him from falling. Gilda tried her best to ignore the passing griffons giving them a weird look, instead focusing on the full-grown griffon in her arms bawling his eyes out. She couldn’t help but be embarrassed by the situation, but she wasn’t going to leave Grey on his own right now, even if she didn’t understand why he was crying.

After what felt like a million years for the both of them but what was only about 5 minutes, Grey unlatched himself from Gilda gently, standing on his own four legs again. He was still crying, but with less intensity than before. He walked over to the side of the road and sat down, motioning with his head for Gilda to join him.

“Thank you…” He said with a shaky, almost inaudible voice.

“Uh, no problem. Now what the heck was that about?” Gilda had moved over to the side of the road as well and laid herself down. It was better for them to be out of the way for this conversation anyway. Grey had rested his head into his crossed arms such that only his eyes were visible, looking forward at the ground.

“Mmm.” Grey’s noncommittal response annoyed Gilda, so she smacked him lightly on the top of his head with a karate-chop.

“C’mon dude. I’m trying to lend you some help here.” Gilda got up as she said this, starting to pace idly between Grey and the road. Grey continued to watch, offering nothing to Gilda.

Just then, as if on cue with Gilda leaving her spot on the side of the road, a large chunk of rock fell from above her, and it was absolutely going to land right on top of her. Grey looked up at Gilda and, naturally, noticed the rock, which had maybe 3 more seconds until impact.

“GILDA LOOK OUT!” Grey screamed at the top of his lungs while simultaneously holding one talon up toward her. Gilda froze at Grey’s screaming, completely unaware of the rock hurtling toward her very breakable body. 

Then, the rock stopped.

Grey’s eyes were closed, but Gilda’s mouth went agape in surprise as she saw a yellow aura around Grey’s talon, then turned to see a large rock that was definitely big enough to kill her if it had landed on her surrounded with an aura of the same color, though it hadn’t made contact with anything; it was being levitated. 

“G-Grey! Open your eyes! Look at what you’re doing!” Gilda said, a trembling talon pointing at the rock in front of her. Grey opened one eye slowly, Gilda’s command acting as just that, as well as confirmation that she was still alive. He saw his talon first, wrapped in an aura colored the same striking shade of yellow as his eyes, then the rock, coated in the same hue. His mouth fell agape, his talon shaking. He stared for a short while before he brought his talon down and curled up on the ground.

“Grey?” Gilda questioned, looking extremely confused. “W-what the heck?! What was that? Wait, why do you look so upset?” Grey sniffed.

“It’s okay, Gilda. Thanks for trying to make me feel better.” Gilda’s expression changed to a more neutral one, the important realization having been made. “It’s okay, really. I think I’ve had this kind of dream before.” The tears started to flow again, though not vigorously enough to impede Grey’s speech. He continued with a softer, quieter tone. “I wish things were like this between us in the real world.” 

He looked up at the moon, accepting the lonely stillness the rest of his dream would likely be made of. It had happened once or twice before, and whenever it did, he was unable to move past the whiplash of using magic, then realizing it wasn’t real. It was worse this time, since instead of a two-point whiplash, a third point was added due to thinking he was back home. 

As these thoughts passed through Grey’s mind unbidden, though unresisted, the moon suddenly began to glow.

A dark blue alicorn with a glorious flowing blue mane that reminded Grey of the night sky descended toward him, landing where Gilda was a moment ago, the space now free since she had disappeared. Dream logic and all that. 

Grey stared at her, dumbfounded by her sheer ethereal presence, and although he had spent a great deal of time learning about magic and in turn, pony culture and history, he did not recognize her. He sputtered a little bit, trying to form a coherent response that wasn’t just ‘what?’ or ‘huh?’ or some other single-word expression of confusion. Thankfully, the mystery mare spoke up before he had the chance to embarrass himself.

“Good evening, Grey.” She paused for a moment, waiting for some kind of reply. “I take it from your expression that you do not know who I am. I am Princess Luna, Princess of the Moon.” Grey perked up upon hearing the name and pointed at her.

“Oh! You have dominion over the night and the dreams of your subjects! I read about you once, but I’ve never read a physical description or seen a picture of you!” In his excitement, Grey had gotten up from his lying down position into a standing position, finding that he was about a head shorter than the princess. Upon realizing this, he looked up to meet her eyes and blushed a little. “Wow, you’re tall. I’m actually a little taller than Princess Twilight and-” Grey stopped in the middle of the first step of what was about to be pacing, realizing that this visit was probably business. “Sorry, you’re here for a reason, right?”

Luna smiled at Grey’s excitability, it reminded her of Twilight. “Yes, I am here about this dream. You seemed so quick to accept this as a dream once you used magic.” Grey leaned away from Princess Luna just a little. “Tell me, Grey. You want to be a wizard, yes?”

“Y-yes. Yes I do. It’s been my dream ever since I was a cub.”

“Then tell me, do you believe that it is possible for a griffon to use magic?” Grey was taken aback by the question. Of course he believed it was possible! Otherwise he wouldn’t even be here.

“Yeah, it’s gotta be, right? Weirder things have happened in Equestria.” Luna raised one hoof, which, although he had very little experience with Equestrian royalty, still effectively silenced Grey.

“No, Grey. Your dream is an ambitious one, and I applaud you for chasing it as far as you have.” She spoke matter-of-factly, but not sternly in any capacity. “But achieving it requires that you truly believe that you can do it. Not just that it is possible, but that you will be the one to make history.” Grey gulped. Maybe he had bitten off more than he could chew. “I cannot give you this mindset, only you can.” Luna turned around and started walking, motioning with her wing for Grey to follow.

“We’re going to see a show tomorrow…” Grey mumbled under his breath. “Should I just stay home and get a headstart on poking through those history books I was going to go through with Twilight?” Luna kept walking, though she seemed just a little surprised by Grey’s question.

“Now, Grey, there are two things wrong with that course of action. One, you promised your friend you’d see the Wonderbolts show. Two, abandoning plans like that in order to focus on work can lead to a dangerous mindset of prioritizing work over everything else. Besides, this will be a good chance to meet Twilight’s friends. They’re good ponies.” The two were walking to nowhere in particular, the surroundings having changed to a nondescript forest due to Grey’s thoughts having moved on from Griffonstone.

“It’s a bit much, I’ve only known Twilight personally for like, a day, and now I’m meeting five other ponies? I don’t know if you could tell, but I’m not exactly the most social creature out there.” Grey’s neck lowered a little, while Luna only smiled.

“Well, Twilight seems to have taken a liking to you.” Grey perked upon Luna saying this. “Trust me Grey, all you need to do is put yourself out there, which you’ll be doing by spending time with Twilight’s friends.” Grey started to say something, but Luna continued first. “Now, I know that it might be a little difficult, but I know they won’t try to make it more difficult for you.” Luna looked up at the sky, the rising sun in the waking world being reflected in the dream world, providing a signal that the two’s time together was almost up. Grey picked up on this without Luna needing to say anything.

“It was cool to meet you.” Grey swung an arm back and forth casually as he said this. “Am I gonna see you again?” Luna had stopped and turned to look at Grey, what with there only being about 1 minute of conversation left before the dream would end.

“Not for a while.” Grey opened his mouth to ask for clarification, but a raised hoof from Luna silenced him with the same unexpected effectiveness as before. “Listen to me, Grey. I know you’re nervous about meeting Twilight’s friends, but I want you to promise me something.” Grey gulped. He didn’t like making promises he wasn’t sure he could keep. “Promise me that, even if you don’t end up making friends with Twilight’s friends, you’ll at least stay amicable with them.”

“I…” There wasn’t time for Grey to be hesitating, but he was. “I’ll try my best.”

Luna tried to intervene, to get Grey to definitively promise that he would keep his relationships with Twilight’s friends at the very least neutral, but the dream was already ending, a fact shown by the area around the two starting to fade to white.





Grey opened his eyes slowly while simultaneously rotating his head on his pillow. The softness was familiar last night, but now he was experiencing a strange sense of jamais vu. Unlike yesterday morning, Grey climbed out of bed soon after he was fully awake, not wanting to be in it anymore. He looked at the clock, which displayed 9:24 A.M., then to his bed, the blanket falling off the edge slightly. He sighed, and began making the bed.
> The Show
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grey had finished making the bed quickly and was laying down on top of it carefully, idly flipping through Incantation as Explained by Clover the Clever. There was still a little bit of time before the show, which Grey decided to kill the same way he always killed time: his magic books.

He was settled in nicely for reading when Twilight knocked on his door, to which Grey called out for her to come in without looking up from his book. “Hey, Grey.” Twilight said as she pushed open the door with her magic and stepped inside. “We’re all gonna meet up and have breakfast before the show. You should come too.”

Twilight’s statement was very matter-of-fact, which, combined with the fact that it was a statement and not a question of if Grey wanted to go to breakfast, killed Grey’s initial intention of just staying in the castle until the show.

He nodded at her, flipping his book’s built-in bookmark into the page he was on, then closed it. He got up off the bed, taking extra care to tuck the book securely under his wing before walking over to the bookshelf, where he gingerly placed it, taking his time to make sure it was perfectly placed on the shelf.

Twilight raised her eyebrow at Grey. “Nervous?” Grey quickly turned around to deny the accusation, accidentally knocking his oh-so carefully placed book off the shelf with his tail.

“Me, nervous?” Grey chuckled halfheartedly. “No, not at all!” He gave an entirely unconvincing smile. Twilight shook her head, then walked over to Grey, placing a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

“It’s fine to be nervous. You’re meeting a lot of new ponies, after all.” Grey gulped. “But I promise you these ponies are nice. I’ll introduce you to them, how does that sound?” Grey fidgeted a little.

“Sounds good. I’ll try to make a good first impression, Twilight.” He turned back to the bookshelf, intending to put the book back up quickly, but the saddlebags he left on the floor caught his eye. He walked over to the shelf, set the book on its flat end on the shelf, then threw the saddlebags over his back, making sure they rested under his wings. “Alright,” he said with a more chipper tune, “Let’s go.”

Twilight turned to leave, Grey following behind as soon as he had grabbed his special backstage pass ticket from his suitcase and stowed it away in his saddlebags. “We’re going to a small cafè in Cloudsdale so we can go straight from breakfast to the show. I’ve got a cloudwalking spell ready for Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity already.” Grey tilted his head slightly, but kept quiet. “We didn’t feel like paying for a hot air balloon for those three to get up there, so we’re gonna carry them up.” Twilight looked at Grey as she said that last part, like it somehow pertained to him. 

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Okay? There’s two pegasi and you, so that covers the three non-fliers.”

“It would, but Fluttershy told me she’s afraid she’d drop whoever she was carrying. Since they all know I’m bringing a winged creature with me, I told her she wouldn’t need to carry anypony. You’re okay with that, right?” Twilight kept walking forward, having broken eye contact with Grey before she asked if he was okay with carrying somepony. He huffed.

“Yeah.” He told her audibly, then whispered under his breath, “Yeah, ten out of ten first impressions, Twilight, carrying somepony bridal-style or like a cat. Ought to be a smooth transition from that to being buddies.” 

The two walked in a palpably uncomfortable silence, which was mercifully cut off by a very loud gasp from a poofy maned pink pony, whose appearance, save for the colors and lack of wings, reminded Grey of Surprise. She ran at them with unexpected speed, knocking Grey off his center.

“Hiya! Twily mentioned that she had a new roomie and that must be you!” She grabbed one of Grey’s talons off the ground and shook it with enough vigor to cause the rest of Grey’s body to shake, eliciting a giggle from Twilight. “It’s super duper cool to meet you! I would’ve thrown you a surprise party to welcome you to the town, but I didn’t know about you ‘til yesterday, and Twily said I’d see you today and that I could throw you a surprise party some other time!” She threw her hooves over her muzzle. “Oops! Forget I said that. I’m not gonna throw you a surprise party.” She punctuated her last sentence with an exaggerated wink.

Grey blinked. “Uh, don’t worry, Pinkie, I don’t think I caught a word of that anyway.” The other four mares had made their way more composedly to Grey and Twilight while the former was assaulted with the mental onslaught that was a first interaction with Pinkie Pie. Twilight spoke up, fulfilling her promise to cover introductions.

“Grey, these are my friends I told you about. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.” She pointed at the mare each name belonged to as she said them. 

Grey waved to them all with a wing. “Hello.”

“Alright, the show is in two hours, so we have a good bit of time to get breakfast, but we should still get up there quick. Are we all ready?” She looked over to Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity, who all nodded in response.

She cast her cloudwalking spell on the three, then prepared to lift Pinkie into the air. Rainbow Dash paired up with Applejack, swiftly scooping her up and even more swiftly flew her to Cloudsdale, the edge of which was right overhead. Grey watched her fly up there, astonished by her speed, even though she was carrying another pony. As his gaze was transfixed by the clouds above him, he also spotted Twilight set Pinkie down, Fluttershy following close behind. 

His loss of focus was cut through by the clearing of a throat. “Grey, darling, we need to get up there with the others.” Shoot, he still had to take Rarity up there. He took to the air, mumbling a small apology, and hovered behind her.

“Uhh, so how do you want me to-”

“Yo!” A rough voice called from above. “Grey! Get you and Rarity up here! I’m hungry!” Because of the interruption, Grey didn’t get the chance to ask Rarity what would be the least embarrassing way to pick her up, so he just wrapped his arms around her torso and flew up to meet the others, unceremoniously dropping Rarity a few inches onto the clouds.

He put a talon up to his beak and issued a hushed apology when he saw Rarity shaking a little from surprise. No time to dwell on that for either of them, though, because the others were already walking toward the restaurant, Rarity and Grey being beckoned in that direction by Rainbow.





The seven of them sat themselves at a large table at Sunny Side Up, a hole-in-the-wall breakfast spot in Cloudsdale that Rarity had wanted to try for a while. Five of them were excitedly discussing the show they were about to see (especially Rainbow Dash), but two remained quiet, Grey and Fluttershy. The former was half-listening to the conversation, trying to find a reasonable place to insert his own two cents, but no such moment had presented itself. 

Grey shifted around in his seat, twisting his back to crack it and idly observing his surroundings. The conversation of the other five buzzed over his ears passively as he waited for breakfast to be over; he probably wasn’t going to be adding to the conversation. He felt a nudge coming from his left, where Fluttershy was seated. He looked over to her, making eye contact. 

“Um,” She blushed a little. “Th-thank you for carrying Rarity up to Cloudsdale. I know that must have been a little awkward, but I just couldn’t stop worrying that I might drop her if I was the one to carry her up.” She hid her eyes behind her mane partially.

Grey’s expression loosened a little. “You know what? No problem. And hey, remember the other day when you asked if I was okay? Thanks for that.” Grey smiled.

Fluttershy pushed her mane aside and smiled back. “You’re very welcome.”

The conversation was easier to slide into now that Grey had started talking, even if just to Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was dominating most of the conversation because of her sheer energy, as well as the fact that she was especially excited to see the show since she wanted to be a Wonderbolt one day. She excitedly told Grey about her aspirations with a single quick, difficult to understand sentence when he asked why she was so extra-excited for the show.

He remembers thinking at that moment that she was lucky to have an obvious avenue to follow her dream.

He was interrupted from being cynical by Rainbow Dash eyeing him up and down. “Y’know, I’m a bit jealous of griffon wingspans. You guys can catch more wind with those things, right?” Grey nodded a little absently. “Thicker feathers, too. Makes it harder to take you out of the sky for long.” Grey just tilted his head. “Yeah, you’re pretty lucky to be a griffon. So many natural advantages in the air!”

Grey furrowed his brow, but Rainbow just kept talking. “Yeah, griffons are really cool. It’d be pretty neat if I could be a griffon, even if just for a day.” 

Twilight’s ears perked up. “Yeah, that would be neat, wouldn’t it?” Twilight said quietly, then continued more audibly. “Oh would you look at the time! We’d better head to the show!” Twilight had already calculated the bill, leaving a medium-sized bag of bits (including a 30% tip) on the table, clearing the seven of them to head to the show.





Because of Rainbow’s status as a reserve Wonderbolt and Grey’s special ticket, the six girls plus Grey all got seats up in the box, which excited the group a great deal, Grey going along with the excitement despite not caring too much about the better view.

There were still a little bit longer until the show officially started, which made more time for talking. Grey was less inclined to talk than at breakfast, so he just fidgeted with his talons and shifted in his seat, waiting for something to happen.

The something that did happen came in the form of Rainbow Dash giggling softly to herself as she scooted closer to Grey, an unreadable grin on her face. “Hey Grey, I wanna get to know you. Is there anything like, weird or cool you can do?” 

Grey did have one weird-ish thing he could do; he could screech just like an eagle. It was something all griffons could do, Gilda having been particularly fond of doing it to scare Grey, but it was still ‘weird’ enough to fit Rainbow’s request, Grey thought. He wouldn’t be sharing it, of course, even thinking about somecreature hearing his ‘eagle screech’ gave Grey a vaguely unpleasant feeling, like a shadow in the pit of his gut.

“Hm. Y’know what? How about you tell me about the Wonderbolts? I’ve heard of them before, but only the name. They’re a group of talented fliers, right?”

Rainbow scoffed. “‘Talented’ is an understatement! The Wonderbolts are the most awesome death-defying stunt team that ever awesomed!” Rainbow threw her hooves into the air for emphasis, her wings springing open out of excitement. “They used to be this kick-butt military group, right? But Equestria’s been at peace for decades, so they just do stunt shows now. But they’re still trained to be all kick-butt and awesome, so if there ever was a crisis, they’d handle it.” 

“Military group, huh?” Grey turned so his entire body was facing Rainbow. “You’re a reserve Wonderbolt. What’s the training like?”

“Dude, it’s brutal. Like, every day when we come in we-”

Rainbow was cut off by the stadium’s PA system crackling to life before playing a prerecorded message meant to rouse hype in the crowd. Rainbow and Grey faced back toward the center of the stadium, watching intently as several pegasi in blue and yellow uniforms soared into the stadium from doors in the sides.

Rainbow excitedly pointed out who each Wonderbolt was, Grey listening and watching for Surprise to appear.

“OHMIGOSH!” Rainbow pointed a hoof down at the arena, using the other to grab Grey’s shoulder and shake him. “That’s Spitfire! She’s the captain of the Wonderbolts, and the coolest one out of all of them!”

Grey wiped Rainbow’s hoof off his shoulder and gave her a look before noticing a white pegasus with a poofy yellow mane hovering in place. He gasped deeply, then pointed at the pegasus, his other talon grabbing Rainbow’s shoulder and shaking her. “Rainbow look! That’s Surprise! I met her on the train on the way to Ponyville and she was really cool!” 

Rainbow made a show of staring into Grey’s eyes for a moment, then quickly swiping his talon off her shoulder.

Grey set his talon down next to him. “Oh, sorry. So yeah, Surprise gave me this special ticket to this show that apparently lets me go backstage after the show. Pretty cool, right?”

Rainbow looked at Grey for a second and slammed her hoof down lightly. “Dude. No way! Because of my reserve status, I get to go backstage too! Now we can hang out after the show too!”

Grey grimaced a little on the inside, but he refused to let it show. “Really? That’s great!” He said through his teeth. “This is gonna be a great opportunity to get to know you!”

Rainbow turned her head back to the stadium and smacked Grey on the shoulder a little. “Yeah, yeah, but that can wait until after the show.” Rainbow leaned a little closer to the stadium out of excitement and interest.

Grey cocked his head to the side, then turned back to the stadium, a worried look on his face. He was looking forward to seeing Surprise again and he was enjoying the show, but he had a feeling that his time backstage was going to be difficult.