Learning How to be Decent
Gallus sat at the table as his friends stood in front of him. More specifically, Sandbar and Ocellus in the center of his view, while Yona, Silverstream and Smolder stood off to the side.
Between the changeling and the pony was a large chalkboard with crudely drawn images of a gryphon holding a bag of bits, then the gryphon giving it to a pony, and finally both the gryphon and the pony smiling happily while embraced in a hug.
"Sooo…. Uhhh… Can you explain again why the gryphon is happy?" Gallus asked loudly.
A groan of annoyance emanated from the throats of every one of his friends. Ocellus merely clasped her face in her hooves as Sandbar sat down and slapped himself in the face.
"The gryphon is happy because he made the pony happy with the money." Sandbar said.
"Oh... Now I see!" Gallus said with a grin. The others found themselves getting a tad bit hopeful, the 5 of them smiling and leaning in to see if he would finally be correct, and their torture would end.
"He's loaning the pony the money so she pays him back double!!" Gallus said rising out of his chair and pointing at the board.
"NO!!!" The other shouted back as Gallus was forced to sit back down by the volume of their groans of exacerbation.
"That is the opposite of generosity!" Ocellus said as she walked up to Gallus and set her hooves on his desk. "Why is generosity so hard for you?"
Gallus crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. "Not as hard as honesty was for you." He muttered quietly.
"What was that?" Ocellus asked with a deep frown.
"Nothing!" Gallus replied nervously spreading his arms in the air. The universal sign of surrender.
Silverstream walked up to the two and put a claw on each of their shoulders. "Guys! I just think I came up with the perfect idea!" She squee'd. Gallus felt himself tense up. This wasn't going to be fun.
Gallus's desk had been moved off to the side of the room, leaving the center of the room empty and barren, aside from the gryphon himself, and Yona. The others had retreated off to the side, while Silverstream directed the exercise.
Gallus clutched a bag of bits the others had given him to his chest nervously. He didn't like this, although the bag provided him much comfort. A bag of coins to a gryphon is like a teddy bear to a pony. So very comforting.
"Ok Gallus. You can see in this scenario, that Yona is short on bits and needs a bag of them in order to get something." Silverstream said as she turned over to Yona, who was just standing there staring at her.
Silverstream cleared her throat.
"Oh right." Yona said. "Yak sad! Yak want to buy big yovidaphone, but can't because not have money!" Yaks were great at many things, but acting was not one.
"Maybe we should have had Ocellus play the friend in need." Smolder grumbled from the side.
"You have a bag of money Gallus." Silverstream said, ignoring what Smolder had said. "So, what do you do with it?"
"..." Gallus was quiet for a couple minutes as he held onto the bag, his eyes darting from it to Yona several times. "I... Keep it?"
Silverstream landed in front of him, clearly not turned off by the response. "No, you give it to her." She reached for the bag in Gallus's clutches but was shocked when the gryphon suddenly jumped away form her and crouched down, the bag held firmly in his grasp.
The gryphon's voice dropped several octaves as he hissed darkly. "NO! YOU GAVE THIS TO ME! IT'S MINE NOW!!!"
Silverstream quickly backed off. "O-ok...." She said as got up in the air.
"Wait!" Smolder said as she suddenly rushed into the center of the room and looked at Gallus.
Gallus rose up from his defensive position and stared at her. "Yeah?"
"You know how good you felt when you were given those bits?" Smolder asked.
"Yeah?" Gallus answered, not knowing where the dragon was going with this.
"Well, others feel like that when you give them stuff too." Smolder explained as she looked at the gryphon.
Gallus eyes widened. "Ohh!" He shouted as it suddenly clicked in his head. "So if I give things to people, they will feel good, and when they feel good, I feel good too!" Gallus said with a smile crossing his beak. The gryphon sat back on his haunches and brought his claws to his face. "It all makes sense now!"
Smolder and the others found themselves uncontrollably grinning as Gallus figured things out, (even if it was a bit of a cop out.) and closed in on him.
Gallus smiled as he suddenly reached his hand out and gave the bag to Smolder. "Here!" Gallus said, with a smile as he tapped into his generosity.
Smolder merely looked down at the bag for a minute as the others dragged Gallus into a hug. Nothing happened for a couple minutes as they all suddenly turned their hands to Smolder.
Smolder said nothing, until her eyes flashed and a long forked tongue emerged from her mouth. "Mine." She hissed.
"Uhh… is dragon ok?" Yona asked the orange dragoness.
A loud roar echoed throughout the town of ponyvile as an orange dragon rampaged through the streets, Princess Twilight, Starlight Glimmer and the rest of the elements desperately rushed around the city, trying to minimize damage and bring the dragon back under control.
Five of the six students stood in the ruins of their study room, and stared through a hole in the ceiling at the horrible destruction as it unfolded, buildings being thrown about like toys, and the occasional cart of baked goods being casually thrown over the horizon.
Gallus turned to the other four, nothing but contempt on his face, a deep frown etched in his features. "I don't think generosity is all it's cracked up to be."
