"Well, you see... I... I think, maybe, that one of my friends might be... Attracted to me." Gallus said, having to nearly force the last part of that sentence out of his mouth, the twitching feathered tip of his tail betraying his nervousness.

"Oh? What makes you think that?" Cadance asked the griffon.

"Well, it's mainly small things, really. Like during class, or lectures, I'll glance and find them staring at me, or always sitting next to me at lunch. Things like that."

"Well, depending on how it makes you feel, that may not be a bad problem to have on this holiday weekend." Cadance told him.

"Y-Yeah. That's the thing, I'm not really sure if it is a problem, because I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it." Gallus replied, beginning to fidget with his talons.

"Well, how good of a friend are they?" Cadance asked, eager for more information.

"Pretty good, I'd say. He and I have shared the same dorm room since the beginning of the school year." The griffon answered.

That was all the information Twilight needed; Sandbar was Gallus' assigned roommate when he decided to stay on campus and not go into town to his house.

"Really? Because we were just talking t—"

"We were just talking about how this situation might arise with some of the school's students, especially on this weekend. Headmare Twilight doesn't really have any prepared guidelines for it." Cadance said, having sneakily shot off a very brief numbing spell that disabled Twilight's vocal chords for all of a half-second, long enough for her to take the hint while she finished the sentence. Luckily, Gallus hadn't noticed the single mote of light that had glowed momentarily on the tip of Cadance's horn.

"So... What do I do? I've never really thought about if I, well, um, 'go that way'." Gallus inquired, his cheeks beginning to tint as the tip of his tail continued to have a mind of its own.

"Well, I'd honestly take whatever time you need to come to a conclusion of what ways you do 'go'. Whether or not this attraction you think your friend has is genuine, you need to know that you're comfortable with it. I will say that Equestrian culture has become considerably more open-minded in recent times, if you're worried about that at all." Cadance told him.

"N-No, not really. Honestly, it's my society I'm puzzled about."

"Well, if you'd like my advice, I'd worry about yourself and your friend, first and foremost. If you think it's a road you'd like to go down, then you cross those later bridges when you come to them. In the meantime, if you intend on getting swept up in this Equestrian holiday weekend, might I suggest some candy?" Cadance asked.

"Well, it couldn't hurt, I suppose. Thanks, Princess!" Gallus replied, giving a quick bow and making his way out of the office.

"Now I know you weren't about to just spoil that oh-so adorable moment when they potentially discover their feelings for each other." Cadance chastised, turning and giving her sister-in-law a disapproving but teasing look.

"Sorry, I just thought it would make things easier." Twilight apologized as she continued to pack up her saddlebags.

"'Easy' should have nothing to do with it. If we go and tell them what each of them secretly feels, then we rob them of that sense of discovery, and the opportunity for them to make a stronger foundation if they pursue something more long-term. Even matters of love have the difference between knowledge and wisdom, Twilight. Let them figure it out themselves."

"Right. Noted." Twilight began, strapping her saddlebags closed and setting them on her desk as she made final preparations to leave. "Clearly, either Sandbar hasn't been as subtle as he thought he has been, or Gallus is really good on picking up on such things."

"More than likely, a mixture of both. So I believe you and I are due for tea?" Cadance asked as Twilight strapped on her saddlebags.

"You read my mind."

Sandbar slowly walked down the School of Friendship's dormitory hallway, down to the last door on the left, the room he had shared with Gallus for the past five-and-a-half months. The sun was just beginning to set; after putting the box of chocolates securely in his saddlebags, he went and got a cheap four bit meal for dinner, and now his satchel was very nearly ready for moths. He was going to have to rely on the school's cafeteria food for the rest of the month or start heading across town for meals at home more often. It wasn't that the cafeteria had earned a bad rep, he was usually pretty good at making his monthly allowance last the whole month. Thanks to the gift in his bags, that wouldn't be the case for the second half of February.

Hopefully it would be worth it.

As he approached his door, his heart began to beat harder against his chest. He hadn't quite figured out the words he wanted to say as he offered the chocolates to Gallus. Taking a few deep breaths in front of the door as he placed a hoof on the door handle didn't make the words come, so he stopped delaying, and turned the knob, pushing the door open.

His dorm room was empty.

The student dorms were exactly what one would expect from a headmare as organized and neat as Twilight. The room was effectively split perfectly in half; a single window on the far wall, with a twin bed, night stand, closet, and desk were against the walls on each side, with both occupants sharing a bathroom and shower right inside the front door. Sandbar's bed was on the right side, half-decently made this morning before class.

Gallus' was less so, sheets and blanket had been haphazardly kicked to the end of the bed, and were half hanging off the edge, with one corner of the blanket reaching the floor. He frequently overslept and didn't give himself time to tidy up before class.

Sandbar tapped the door with his back left hoof to close it, and walked over to his bed, and sat down, turning on the lamp on his nightstand as dusk continued to approach. He unfastened his saddlebags and gently set them on the floor, before pulling out the box of chocolates, and held it to his chest, having to mentally check himself to stop from crushing the box in his hooves, which were nearly shivering. In doing so, he liked to think that his heart had transferred into the box.

As he continued to mentally fumble with his words, he nearly jumped out of his seated position on the bed when he heard the doorknob turn, and the door opened to reveal Gallus, who most likely saw the stallion nearly juggle the heart-shaped box in his hooves to avoid dropping it on the floor. Once he had it securely in his grasp again, his head whipped to the left to look at Gallus, and gave him a half-panicked smile.

"G-Gallus! Hi!" Sandbar said.

"Heh, sorry if I startled you, Sandbar." Gallus said as he closed the door.

"N-No, not at all. I've just been thinking." The earth pony replied, glancing back down at the chocolates he held in his hooves.

"Oh yeah? About what?" Gallus asked as he walked into the room proper and sat across from him on his own bed, taking off his own bags.

Sandbar swallowed the lump in his throat, and tore his eyes away from the box, and looked up at Gallus.

"A-About you." He said, feeling like he had to reach down into his throat and claw the words out.

Shivering, he got up to his hooves, and took a couple steps towards Gallus sitting on his bed, and shakily offered him the box.

"I-I-I like you, Gallus. A lot. I'm sorry if it seems like this is coming out nowhere. I know it's a little early, but... Happy Hearts and Hooves Day."

He could hear the individual chocolates vibrate as he held out the box to the griffon sitting in front of him. After what seemed like forever, Gallus took the box without a word, and held it gently in his talons, looking down at it. The butterflies in his stomach seemed to multiply and get more restless as time seemed to slow as he waited for some kind of reaction, standing there, visibly shaking.

Finally, Gallus looked him in the eyes, and smirked, setting the chocolates beside him on his messily kept bed, before reaching down into his bags, and coming up with a square box of candy, straight from Sugarcube Corner.

"I see I wasn't the only one taking advantage of the Princess of Love being down here for a guest lecture." Gallus said, holding out his own gift.

"O-oh. W... Wow. S-so you feel the same way?" Sandbar stuttered, accepting the box of assorted chocolate-covered nuts and berries.

"Honestly, for the longest time, I wasn't sure what to feel. The professors' lessons don't really tell you about what happens when a friendship goes to, well, this level. I mean, I don't know how much you know about where I come from, but griffons as a whole aren't exactly the nicest of creatures. But seeing how you've been looking at me and spending time with me these last few months..."

"Oh, so I wasn't as subtle as I thought..." Sandbar said, blushing.

"I didn't really pay much attention to how I felt about it because I was worrying so much about how Griffonstone would feel about it. Then when I was standing in line to buy that candy, it just clicked; why am I so worried? It's no secret that my hometown is a dump, and it's only as good as it is because it's just across the sea from Equestria. It gets even worse the farther east you go into the griffon lands. Creatures who would step over each other if it meant getting just one more ounce of gold; why was I caring about what they think? So in the few hours I've been focusing on my own feelings about it... Nope, still haven't sorted through them. I mean, I guess right off the bat, I'm shocked, flattered, but more than anything... Curious." Gallus admitted.

"Curious?"

"Yeah. I'm a griffon who has just started to grasp the basic concepts of friendship these past few months. What... What do you, like that much about me?" Gallus asked, his tail twitching, betraying his nervousness again.

"Well," Sandbar began, risking taking a seat next to Gallus on his bed, setting the box of candy down next to him. "I know you act all nonchalant at school, like you hate homework, how you pretend to not pay attention in class, but Ocellus is the only one with better grades than you. You're smart, you're funny, and... You're a bit on the cute side too." Sandbar said, cheeks getting hotter.

"How dare you," Gallus said in the best mock-angry tone he could muster up, before the pair broke into a chuckling fit.

"As for you," the griffon continued. "You were the first to come up and introduce yourself, and you weren't exactly deterred by my poor first impression. You were the first one to suggest we all hide out at the Castle of the Two Sisters so we could all stick together, not to mention you made the cupcake runs. You're kind, you're generous, and while you may not be the most subtle, you're always forthcoming when you need to be."

Gallus looked over to the heart shaped box, untied the bow, lifted the lid off, and took one of the chocolate candies and popped it into his mouth, the caramel oozed out onto his tongue.

"And you always seem to remember the little things your friends say about themselves, like favorite treat." Gallus said, his mouth half-full of chocolate-y, caramel-y goodness.

Sandbar likewise opened his box and tried a chocolate covered strawberry.

"Well, I'm so relieved to have gotten that off my chest, not to mention how thrilled I am that you feel the same way." The earth pony said after swallowing his bite and returned the lid to the box.

"Now that I guess we can call ourselves... Boyfriends, or coltfriends, or, you know, whatever," Gallus started, his heart skipping a beat at those words. "I guess I'm just wondering... well, how a pony and griffon would... Um, get closer. You know, signs of affection and all that."

"Yeah, I uh, I can't imagine that you griffons do a lot of kissing, with those beaks of yours."

"Well, we do have one thing in common." Gallus started, as he leaned over and started to gently rub his beak on the side of Sandbar's neck. "Nuzzling."

Sandbar shuddered with pleasure as Gallus drew the side of his beak up to his ear and ran it along the edge.

"It usually leads to preening." The griffon finished.

"Preening," Sandbar repeated, drawing in enough breath to speak. "Yeah, that I'm a little familiar with, pegasi do that to keep their feathers organized..."

"Yep. You don't have any feathers, but..." Gallus paused as he started to sink the first few centimeters of his beak into a part of Sandbar's mane behind his ear. "Your mane is so messy, so I could keep myself busy for hours."

Sandbar chuckled as Gallus ran strands of his mane through the tips of the two halves of his beak. It was a rather inefficient comb, but it felt... So good, so personal.

"I'll be honest. I don't know how you ponies stimulate anything with those hooves of yours." Gallus said, continuing to work behind the pony's ear.

"Well," Sandbar began, pulling his head away just far enough to look Gallus in the eyes, placing his front hooves on the griffon's chest. "Would you like me to show you?"

Sandbar slowly moved his hooves down Gallus' chest, down to his belly, and stopped just above his sheathed griffonhood, which was now just starting to poke out.

"My next question was just about to be, how fast you ponies usually move, how quickly you... Get that close to each other..." Gallus said, tail twitching nervously again.

"It depends on the pony, or creature. Am... Am I going too fast?" Sandbar asked nervously, removing his hooves from Gallus' belly.

"I... I'm honestly not sure at this point. I just don't want either of us to regret anything by moving too fast, even if we both think it's fine. Let's sleep on it, spend Hearts and Hooves Day together tomorrow, and then, if we both still want to get that close... Then yeah, we can try to get that close." Gallus offered.

Sandbar gave him a smile.

"Deal." He said, leaning over and gave him a quick kiss on the curve of his beak. "Sweet dreams."

Gallus smiled again, and likewise, leaned over, pressed the top of his beak to Sandbar's snout, and gave it a short lick as he pulled away.

"You too, handsome." He replied as Sandbar got up and took his box of candy over to his nightstand before climbing into bed. Gallus popped another two chocolate caramels into his mouth before doing the same.

As Sandbar shut off the light and laid his head on the pillow, there was no shortage of lewd fantasies playing through his mind, as had been the case for weeks now. As much as he was looking forward to tomorrow, there was a small pang of regret at the possibility that he may have crossed a line with his new boyfriend just a few moments ago. Something had subtly changed in his voice when his hooves got that low, and the tip of his tail had always betrayed when he felt nervous or anxious.

Sandbar did his best to shove it to the back of his mind. It had worked out so far. Princess Cadance was right; he had taken the risk, made the leap, and now, he had a very special somegriffon in the bed next to his.

Tomorrow was a new day.

Author's Note

Wow. It's been eleven months since I wrote a chapter that long.

Hope you're all enjoying it so far. I'd love to hear what you all think, and what you hope happens in the future! Thanks for reading!

-Miles