Chapter 1: Birds of a feather

A warm breeze was in the night air around Ponyville's School of Friendship. This far out of town there weren't any ponies about, so it was almost a perfectly quiet night. Almost.

“Hey, Gallus, watch this! Woohoo!”

A pale pink hippogryph looped and arced through the air in front of the school with a decidedly more sluggish blue gryphon tailing behind her. Silverstream was always pretty lively, but for some reason this evening she was particularly energetic. Gallus was exhausted, his wings and flight muscle in his chest burning with exertion. His wings were long and broad, build for easy soaring on thermals but the sun had set hours ago. Even the heat rising from the kitchens had dissipated and the constant strong wingbeats to keep aloft were taking their toll.

Even though Silverstream's wings were shorter and more rounded, much more suitable for the tight turns and acrobatics she insisted on performing this evening Gallus was still amazed that she could keep it up for so long. Still, it made Gallus happy to see Silverstream so vibrant and full of energy, he just had his work cut out for him trying to keep up!

Silverstream raced up to rooftop height with a series of rapid, powerful wingbeats before rolling over backwards and pulling in her wings to stoop downwards. Gallus watched with amusement as Silverstream picked up speed, screaming towards the lake below. After a few second though, his eyes widened in alarm as he realised that she was going too fast to pull up in time.

“Silverstream, look out!” the young gryphon cried, pushing himself to go as fast as possible, desperately trying to intercept the falling hippogryph, even though he knew it was futile, but he had to try!

At the last moment, Silverstream raised a foreleg to her chest and rubbed a piece of shell strung onto the necklace hung there. With a bright flash of rainbow colours the young hippogryph transformed into a sleek seapony. She tucked her fins in close and hit the water straight as an arrow, slipping into the water with only the barest splash.

Gallus stopped in mid-air and bought a hand to his eyes and groaned. Of course he'd forgotten about Silverstream's shape-shifting ability in the heat of the moment. Despite himself, he looked down at the water and smiled. That was a pretty awesome trick, he had to admit. He fluttered down closer to the water, fully expecting Silverstream's laughing face to appear at any moment.

Quick as a flash, Silverstream came bursting out of the water right next to Gallus, moving so quickly that she left the lake entirely. Just as she was going to fall back to the water, she rubbed her necklace once more and was back to her usual hippogryph self. Flaring her wings out and quickly fluffing all of her feathers in a violent rouse sent a cascade of water over Gallus.

“Hey, come on, that's not fair!” the blue gryphon protested, now trying gamely to shake himself off. Silverstream simply giggled in response.

“Oh Gallus, you get soaked every time you follow me near some water, you shouldn't be surprised by now!”

Gallus simply grumbled and looked away. Silverstream's expression softened and she fluttered over to the gryphon, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, come on,” she said softly. “Come with me, there's something I want to show you. I'm pretty tired after all that flying.”

Gallus simply snorted as he started following the lithe hippogryph up into the sky, both using measured, easy wingbeats. Even moving through the air that casually, the blue gryphon couldn't help but admire Silverstream's effortless grace, even as he himself felt his muscles starting to burn with every stroke.

“You have no idea how much I wanted to hear you say that- my wings feel like they're about to drop off and that's just from watching!”

“Haha, well maybe you should actually do some exercise instead of just lazily soaring around; don't think I don't notice,” Silverstream playfully shot back, looking back over her shoulder and sticking her tongue out.

“Hey, that's not fair!” Gallus protested. “I'm a gryphon, that's how we're supposed to fly! We aren't built for flapping around like this!”

“It's OK Gallus, we're nearly there!” Silverstream called back, before sharply accelerating and disappearing into a cloud. Gallus followed her, bursting through the top in no time. He stopped, confused as he wasn't following Silverstream any more. Gallus whipped his head around in all directions, scanning for the elusive hippogryph, until he was interrupted by a mirthful shout from below.

“Hey Gallus! Down here!”

Silverstream was sat on the surface of the cloud, patting the spot next to her while beaming up at the confused gryphon. Gallus fluttered down and settled next to her.

“So this is what you wanted to show me? A cloud,” Gallus said, unimpressed. “Seems just like any other to me.”

“No silly, of course I didn't bring you all the way up here to show you a cloud!” Silverstream replied, playfully elbowing Gallus in the side. She turned wistful. “I wanted you to see this.” She said softly, sweeping a claw across the horizon, with the vista of a slumbering Ponyville below, appearing like a galaxy of softly glowing stars.

“Well, it is quite the view,” Gallus said, not quite seeing the point. Sure, it was cool looking at the quiet town at night time, but there wasn't anything particularly special about it.

“I come up here sometimes and look at the stars over there,” Silverstream pointed a talon for emphasis. “I like to think those stars are above Mount Aris and when everyone there looks up at the sky they're looking at the same stars.”

Gallus looked over at the hippogryph.

“Well of course they’re looking at the same stars, they don’t change that much when you travel.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Silverstream sighed. “It just makes me feel closer to home, I really miss it sometimes. Don’t you ever feel the same way?”

“Not really,” Gallus answered with a shrug. “Griffonstone was a pretty awful place, with everygryph at each others’ throats the whole time. I’m alone there too, I don't have a family, so it’s a terrible place that I have to call home.” The young gryphon looked over at Silverstream.

“You know, I really envy you sometimes.”

Silverstream gasped and quickly moved to envelop the smaller gryphon in a hug with her arms and wings. Gallus tensed but didn’t protest.

“Griffonstone doesn’t have to be your home, it can be right here, with your friends,” Silverstream softly cooed.

“That sounds really nice,” Gallus replied, relaxing into the hippogryph slightly. “I worry about what happens after we finish our studies here though. It’s not like you could take me home with you.”

Silverstream laughed, “Come home with me?”

Gallus froze, before pulling away from Silverstream’s embrace, suddenly flushing hotly and feeling his heart thunder in his chest.

“Uh, that’s not what I meant!” the young gryphon quickly exclaimed. “I meant that all of us will go our separate ways and we won’t be able to be very good friends any more, then here won’t feel like much of a home.”

Silverstream sat quietly, an intense look on her face and her ear tufts standing straight up. Gallus recoiled, mostly on instinct. Silverstream was bigger than him, no surprise since female gryphons and hippogryphs tend to be larger than their male counterparts.

“You know, I’m disappointed, but not really surprised,” Silverstream said while glaring at the gryphon.

Gallus suddenly took a great deal of interest in the cloud beneath him, not wanting to meet Silverstream’s gaze. His head was screaming at him to move and get away, but he remained rooted to the spot mumbling out an awkward response.

“Uh, how come?”

The young hippogryph sighed, settling down next to Gallus. He didn’t dare move a muscle. Sure, Silverstream liked to hug him but this wasn’t one of those times, he could tell. Suddenly, Silverstream darted her head under Gallus’, looking up into the sky and exposing her feathered neck.

Gallus’ heart skipped a beat and his breath caught in his throat. After what felt like an eternity he slowly reached down with his beak and softly began to preen her feathers. Silverstream let out a soft coo and her eyes started to drift closed under the gryphon's tender ministrations.

All too soon though, Gallus pulled back, allowing Silverstream to sit back up and tackle him in a much more familiar hug. The gryphon was still stunned though.

“Uhh, wow, Silverstream. What bought that on?” he asked, still sounding dazed.

“I got tired of waiting for you to make a move,” Silverstream replied, holding Gallus closer. “I’ve known for months you were interested and your little slip-up there drove me over the edge.”

“Wait, you knew?” Gallus exclaimed, reciprocating the embrace.

“Of course!” Silverstream trilled. “It’s pretty hard to miss with how often you want to hang out and look out for me, especially after you rescued me from those caves. Not to mention Ocellus told me!”

“Ocellus!” the blue gryphon sputtered indignantly.

“Well, yeah, of course she did,” Silverstream replied matter-of-factly. “Changelings sense emotions. Apparently, she could tell from a mile off!”

Gallus silently swore to pay his fellow classmate back, before speaking up again.

“But, I don’t understand why you’d want to be with somegryph like me,” Gallus said, hesitantly. “You’re royalty and I’m just a nobody from Griffonstone.”

“Gallus, don’t be like that!” Silverstream scolded him. “You’re the greatest gryphon I know.”

“I’m the only gryphon you know,” Gallus deadpanned.

Silverstream cocked her head to the side for a moment.

“Oh yeah,” she realized.

“Still,” she said, looking down at the gryphon in her arms again. “It doesn’t change the fact that you’re one of the bravest creatures I know. You came back for me when I was hiding, terrified in the caves under the school. You’d already faced your worst fears, you could have easily escaped, but instead you came back for me. If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably still be down there.” Silverstream shuddered at the memory.

“I would have gone back for any of you,” Gallus replied. “And you're made of sterner stuff than you think, you would've been all right by yourself. You just hadn't realised it yet.” In response Silverstream hugged Gallus even tighter and the gryphon started spluttering. “Hey, can't breathe!”

“Oh, sorry!” Silverstream exclaimed, letting go of Gallus and moving back a little. The grateful gryphon greedily sucked in lungfuls of air. Suddenly apart from Gallus' body heat, the hippogryph shivered, the night air having become rapidly cooled while they were on the clouds.

“It's getting pretty cold up here, how about we head back to the school?” Silverstream ventured.

Gallus simply shrugged, “Suits me.”

Silverstream smiled. Then with one last look towards the distant horizon where she knew Mount Aris would be waiting, she leapt off the cloud. Gallus quickly caught up and the pair of students lazily circled down towards the welcoming lights of the buildings below.

Author's Note

The next chapter definitely earns the mature rating, so final warning!

I based some of this chapter off of behaviours that some raptors have while courting. Generally females are much bigger and more powerful. I've heard stories of male birds sitting on a branch while a female slowly moves closer to them and the poor guys get more and more nervous but are just rooted to the spot until the female either tries to kill him or starts courting. Exposing the underside of the neck and making themselves extremely vulnerable is one way of initiating the latter.