Diversity Club

by RayneTheSkunk

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Gallus, Young Six
Length: 7434

With the start of a new school year Gallus has to battle with his worst enemy, his own thoughts.

A new School Year is starting, and despite everything he's done in the name of harmony Gallus isn't sure if he can live up to the ideals of friendship. Not when there's still this gnawing angry voice in his head.

You're no better than any other griffon.

The first story in the New School of Friendship continuity

Published 2019-08-26 15:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-04-28 16:32:16 UTC

Summer Vacation

The elements of harmony, our professors, what’s with them? I get all the friendship stuff, but why are they like they are? What sort of pony becomes a princess of friendship? Who makes a whole school just to teach others friendship? Maybe ponies are special. They had to bring friendship to the rest of us, after all. I mean, their other princesses raise the sun and moon. There must be something with ponies. Can griffons have that same thing in them? Friendship is in my nature, sure. I got that part, but my professors are way beyond friendship. Something... drives them, and I don’t think I have that.

“Say, what do griffons like to eat?” said the raspy voice of a green teen pony. The griffon by the window sprang awake, ripped from his thoughts back into the real world. The cold blue room he was in blended with his feathers. The sunlight was the only thing that washed the blue ocean of the room with warmth. Sandbar leaned over the banister, standing on the stairs that opened into his bedroom. His hoof gently tapped the wood as he waited for Gallus’ mind to return from its daydream.

“Hm? What?” Gallus said, turning away from the sunlight. He dragged a talon over his face as if to wipe away his thoughts.

“See, my mom wanted me to ask you what griffons like. Ya know she’s never cooked for one before, so she really wants you to like her cooking. Well, she didn’t really want to ask, but I’m asking for her anyway.”

“Oh, right, yeah. Uh, we like apples, I guess. We do fruits and vegetables. No flowers. I’ve seen those clover sandwiches and I don’t know how you do it. Flowers aren't food,” he said with a dry grin.

“We’ve got the whole summer. Don’t be too sure you won’t come around about flowers,” Sandbar’s voice descended down the stairs.

“Doubt it.” Gallus took another look around the room. He’d seen Sandbar’s dorm room before, but they were all uniform, and Sandbar barely did a thing to change his. His actual room seemed so different. The dressers, the bed sheets, the walls, all various shades of blue aligned in such a way that almost looked like they waved back and forth. It barely felt like being in a room. If his feet weren’t planted to the floor, he swore he’d start floating. In the left corner laid Gallus’ sleeping bag together with a small arrangement of stuff he owned: school supplies, dice, and a pack of playing cards. Looking at how little he actually owned disgusted him. Turning his head towards the other corner of the wall drew his attention to a bookshelf. Writings on aquatic life, school subjects, and heroes of Equestria. That last subject had plenty of books on their professors. He glanced at them. Pondered them. Stared at them. His talon hung just on the cusp of grabbing them.

And then he decided that he really wasn’t in the mood to read. If a book was going to give him answers, he might as well wait till classes start again. Why waste summer reading? Why waste summer on questions you go to school for? He turned his attention to the one other living thing in the room: a turtle laid around in his tank. Mr Bumbles. Gallus leaned in close, eyeing down the turtle.

“Soooo, you’re Sandbar’s special talent, huh?” Mr. Bumbles backs away seeing nothing but the largest bird of prey he’s ever witnessed. “What’s wrong? What, you don’t like me or something? We just met.” The tapping of his claw rang echoes through the glass. A fierce and terrifying warning. Mr. Bumbles’ head sucked within his shell so fast he sank himself into the sand of his tank.

“Oh. So that's how it is.” He grumbled at the turtle before returning to the window. He let out a yawn and considered just napping till food was ready. His eyes glazed over as he stared at the horizon, laziness coming over him as his thoughts began to drift. A flash of blue light burst behind the mountains. The light fizzled as quickly as it came. “What the budgie was that?!”

Gallus hustled to the first floor into the kitchen where Sandbar and his mother were working together preparing lunch.

“Oh, Gallus great, did you try the sleeping bag I got you?” Sandbar was already a pretty mellow pony, but his parents seemed too chilled out. It was like her words dragged from her tongue.

“Nah, I just built a nest in your son’s room instead.”

She stared at Gallus at for a moment in silence. The two boys started to snicker and quickly turn to full blown laughter. A half-hearted chuckle forces its way out of the mare’s throat. “Riiight. Well, I hope you like fried apples.”

“Fried food is super unhealthy for you,” Sandbar said, “and you really shouldn’t eat it, but I feel pretty confident you’re a fried kind of guy.”

Gallus glanced at the strange grease trap with a look of utter befuddlement. “I don’t know what frying is, but thanks. I kinda need to borrow Sandbar though.”

“I was just peeling apples anyway. What’s up?”

Gallus clutched Sandbar’s hoof and pulled him out the backdoor. “We’ll be back for dinner, Mrs. High Tide” He shouted as the door slammed behind them. He gripped Sandbar’s other hoof and ascended into the air. “We’ve gotta check something out. I saw something at the mountains at the edge of town.”

“An adventure already? It’s only the first week of summer!”

“Then we’ve got a pretty awesome summer ahead of us!” They soared through the air. Sandbar waved to anypony he recognized below while ponies on the ground stared in awe. Despite being in Ponyville for a whole school year, being the only griffon most of these ponies ever see regularly still made Gallus something of a spectacle. It wasn’t something he was too sure if he liked. He did his best to be polite regardless, and cautiously waved a wing at gawking ponies close enough the catch the gesture. Along the journey to the edge of Ponyville, they flew by Sweet Apple Acres. Gallus could spot Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash together. They seemed to be talking about something. Rainbow’s forelegs and wings went all over the place like she wasy trying to convey some grand story. They became little more then specs before Gallus had long to think about it.

They touched ground on a cliff-side west of Ponyville’s outskirts. Gallus set Sandbar down before landing into a stretch. The mountain side was dry but still sustained grass and dirt instead of just rock. Not a pony in sight for a mile, besides the distant specks in the sky that could be birds just as easily as they could be pegasi. A spider web of jagged crevices split dirt beneath them. The weaving of cracks reached all the way from the cliff’s edge to the steep mountain side. At their origin, blue rays of light shined through the cracks like rays of sun in the forest. The glow was limited to the center of the cracks, like a beacon marking a sacred treasure.

“Whoa! You saw that tiny glow all the way from my house? I gotta hand it to you, Gallus. Your eyesight sure is something”

“Ugh!” Gallus moaned, “No, I didn’t see this! There was a whole pillar of light like FWOOSH!” he said, raising his forelegs in his best efforts to mimic it. “And then it was gone like ffshh. There one moment, gone the next. And now whatever it is, is under the dirt, I guess. So, let’s dig it up.”

Sandbar put a hoof to his chin. He squinted at the cracks and their eerie glow. The cracks had on odd look to them, as if the ground beneath was hollow. It was as if something caused a cave in. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to mess with something that makes a huge flash like that? I think those are usually associated with something we don’t want to mess with.”

“It’s fiiine. Look, there's a handful of possibilities here. A: We get superpowers that’ll be great till they lead to our inevitable downfall. B: We get a cool ancient artifact and we can be kings before our inevitable downfall. C: We discover something incredible and we become famous then the fame gets to our heads causing our inevitable downfalls. Or D: It’s just a bunch of really shiny gems and we can sell them to Rarity or something.”

“Why do so many of those end in our inevitable downfall? Like, that’s three out of four. I don’t like those odds.”

Gallus shrugged. “That’s just how most griffon stories end. Now are you gonna help dig me this up so we can live like kings together until our demise or not?”

“I’ll do it, but only because I can’t let you have a downfall on your own,” Sandbar said, giving Gallus a light shoulder jab. “Though I’d rather we don’t fall down at all.”

“If anyone will prevent the tragic end caused by my own greed, it’d probably be you, but you don’t get an epic legend about you without a tragic end. So don’t try too hard to stop it. Now come on, let’s dig this up before some other creature gets here. That light was practically a flare for every treasure hunter in Equestria.” Just as Gallus was about to strike the earth with his talons, a flash of magenta light flared in his peripheral vision. He growled and snapped towards the light. With a sharp talon pointed out, he shouted, “We came here first! So you might as w-” His aggression deflated into confusion. “Professors?” His talon drooped as he saw Twilight, Starlight, Spike, and the rest of their friends.

“Professor, what are you doing here?” Sandbar said with a stammer in in his voice.

“What are we doing here? What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash yelled, tapping a hoof against Sandbar’s chest. Her tone shifted to one of flat confusion. “No. Seriously. What are you doing here? This place barely counts as being in Ponyville.”

“And why are you here, Gallus? Everyone else went home last week,” Fluttershy asked.

Starlight walked past the Pegasi and young boys straight to the epicenter of the glowing cracks, various scientific and magical apparatus levitating out of her bags as she walked. “Alright, alright, we both have a lot of questions. Obviously they’re here cause they saw the light like Rainbow did, and if we take too long, we’ll have plenty more curious flyers showing up.” Just as she finished the sentence, she raised a barrier around the cliff.

Twilight approached the two boys with a smile. “We’re just here to study what the light is all. Big pillars of energy are rarely a good sign anything good is happening.” A smug look grew on Sandbar’s face.

“Unless we made it!” Pinkie interjected before passing Twilight to stare at the lights.

Twilight gave a soft chuckle. “I guess that's true. Basically, Rainbow and Pinkie pie saw a big light and decided to round everyone up. Starlight and I figured we should check if it’s a problem. That’s all. Now what about you two?”

“We came to get treasure before anyone else could.” Gallus grumbled, craning his neck to keep an eye on what Starlight was doing with the crack without completely turning away from Principal Twilight. She seemed to be watching the glow in the cracks, a glow that seemed to be reaching further from the center than it was a few seconds ago.

“And he’s staying with me for the summer,” Sandbar added.

A twinkle shined in Twilight’s eye. A smile stretched ear to ear on her face. “You two are staying for together for the whole summer?” Twilight squealed. “I knew you’ve become good friends, but I had no idea your friendship was already this close. This is fantastic. Imagine if you kept a journal of your whole summer. Then we could read it and we’d have so much to learn about gryphon and pony friendship!” Gallus and Sandbar both shimmied away from twilight’s gushing before being met with a bump.

The two turned to see applejack blocking their retreat.“That's great and all, but you two still shouldn’t be here. Whatever this is might be dangerous and no creature should be around. I don’t even want to be this close.”

Rarity dusted off the two boys. “Applejack’s absolutely right. You two should scoot back home before anything bad can happen. Even if it’s a slim chance, I’d just hate to a single head or feather on your precious little heads get hurt,” she says, trying to nudge them away from the now glowing cracks beneath their feet.

“Fine, we’ll go. But promise that if it’s treasure that we get to have it. We still got here first. Sharing, maybe a virtue, but we still want our treasure if there is any,” Gallus huffs, folding his talons.

Twilight gives a simple smile before saying, “We promise. Now you two get home. If we’re lucky, we’ll have this handled quick. It shouldn't be anything too dangerous.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that!” Starlight shouted, placing some sort of magical measurement device into the ground. Bronze rods stuck between the crevices with gauges on their opposite ends. The devices trembled ever so slightly, and the gauges pointed towards the yellow. Whatever yellow means.

No one besides Twilight and Starlight probably even knows how to read those, Gallus thought, trying to puzzle out what she was doing. Once they made it to the edge of the force field, Twilight opened a hole for them go through. With Sandbar in Gallus’ grip they exchanged their goodbyes, though at least one of those goodbyes was pretty unhappy.

“Consider the journal idea!” Twilight shouts as she waves the two farewell. Gallus mockingly mouths her words they fly away. The forcefield dome steadily becomes just a blue ball in the distance, but the image of the crack and its glow stay close in Gallus’ mind. Though right next to the glow in his head was the image of Twightlight’s friends. Why did he even go? Cause it would be fun, cause there’d be treasure. Those things are fine sure, but they came because they wanted to people to be safe. They’re so them! He turned to look back one more time and, oh. There's one of them right there.

“Hey.” Gallus tugged on a hoof, “I got a plan, but it’s really dangerous for you, so I want see if you’re cool with it first.”

“Shoot.”

“You notice they sent Rainbow Dash to keep an eye on us?”

“I noticed.”

“So here’s the deal. I’m gonna slow down and talk to her, then pretend to drop you. She’ll go down to catch you, and we both know she will catch you. Then I make a break for it to see what’s going on back there.”

“That does sound really dangerous, but I do get to be caught by Rainbow Dash. I’m down.”

“When you say it like that, I feel like I’m manipulating you,” Gallus said with a grimace.

“No, no, it’s cool,” Sandbar said in is normal chill voice despite what he was agreeing to, “I like this plan. Besides. you’ll be near the elements. That’s the safest place any creature could be.”

“Your hero worship has somehow given me second thoughts on my own idea, but we’re going with it!” Their speed slowed to crawl. Gallus turned around, looking towards the sky above. Rainbow Dash flew high overhead. She was so close to blending in with the sky if it weren't for all the wild colors in her tail. He hailed her down with a wave of a wing. He couldn’t see her face, but the way she whipped her head gave him enough smug satisfaction. In a few seconds Rainbow had swooped down and was flying right beside him.

She let out a heavy sigh. “So you saw me, huh? Listen, before you start talking about how professors should trust their students, you should know almost every time somecreature is told to stay away from something, they don’t. I should know, I’ve done it dozens of times. So it’s not the we don’t trust you, but-”

“Actually, Professor Dash, I’m the one that noticed you,” Sandbar interrupted, “I was just telling Gallus about competitions you’ve won, and he didn’t believe me. So, I thought you’d want to tell him some stories yourself.”

“Uh, yeah. Right. If I heard it straight from your mouth, it’d hold a lot more weight on my opinion,” Gallus said, straining to feign interest.

“Oh, well if that's the case, let me tell you about the time I-”

“Whoa! Sandbar, when did your hooves get so slippery?!” Gallus’ talons danced to try to maintain a grip on Sandbar’s hooves, but each attempt slips just short of grabbing. A scream rang through the air as Sandbar plummeted to the woods below.

“Hold on! I’ve got you!” Just as predicted, Rainbow dash darted straight down towards the trees. Wasting no time, Gallus bolted back towards the cliff. Even if he couldn’t get back through the force field, he could at least watch from a higher cliff.

SWOOSH

Just before Sandbar hit the tree tops, he was blitzing above the trees, held in Rainbow’s hooves. His heart fluttered, opening his eyes to Rainbow’s confident, heroic smile. Their blazing speed over the trees slowed to a hover as Rainbow descended to the ground. “You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you, Rainbow Dash!” Sandbar said. His face flush with red.

“Aww, it’s nothing. I save ponies from falling all the time. Now that I think of it, a bit too much, actually,” she stops to think. Looks left. Right. All around. “Hey! Wheres Gallus?”

A small flock of Pegasi had formed by the cliff side, just enough to be considered a crowd. They fluttered just above the force field, and between them and it was Fluttershy and Spike. It sounded like they were in some sort of argument. Perfect. Gallus dipped down, flying below the crowd and the cliff’s edge. Flying alongside the mountain base, he arced upward to reach a plateau above the cracked cliff while staying out of his professor's line of sight. Sure, if they looked up, they could see him watching over the edge, but he can blend in with the sky far better than Rainbow.

“Everypony, please go back to your homes. You could all get hurt. We still don’t know what this glow is and it’s only gotten bigger.” Fluttershy buzzed between ponies giving with a pleading worried look.

“Well yeah, but we want to see what it is!”

“You don’t see a giant pillar of blue light every day, don’t ya know?”

“The princess can’t just lay claim to any treasure that shows up just ‘cause she’s the princess!”

“This is an abuse of power! Let us dig!”

The crowd combated Fluttershy’s pleas with indignant shouting, shovels and pickaxes raised as if they had any hope of excavating their way through the force field.

“Pleeeeease go home,” she begged. “I’d really rather not shout. This really is for everypony’s safety. Think about your family and friends. Who knows what’s under there?”

“Yeah, for all you guys know, it’s a deranged pony eater who’d gobble you all up!” Spike said raising his arms to imitate the hypothetical pony eater. The back and forth was pretty funny in its own right, but the real show was whatever was underneath that crack. This was an opportunity to watch the elements in action. No class, no lesson they’re trying to teach, just them handling a problem naturally. What makes the elements special enough to be the elements isn’t something he was ever going to learn in a classroom or book. Direct experience was the only way. Whether they’re solving a friendship problem or not, at least this was something. Even if he only learns a very very small something.

“Twilight, Starlight. I have something you absolutely must take a look at.” Rarity beckoned the two to a large sheet of paper. On it was an illustration of scrawling paths in blue and black.

“What exactly are we looking at?” Starlight said, squinting at the sheet.

“It’s the cracks. I’m sure you’ve noticed that dazzling blue glow’s only spread since we’ve arrived.”

“I’ve noticed,” Twilight chimed, “the whole cliff is lit up now. But that still doesn’t explain exactly what this is”

“Not the whole cliff,” she said with a ring of satisfaction to her voice. “Not every crack is glowing, see?” Rarity lifted her hooves. Every single crack near her was as dull as a cave. “And as soon as I noticed I knew it just had to mean something! So, I took the liberty of making an illustration. The black lines are everything dark and the blue lines are every sparkling crevice. Now, I may not be an expert on magic, but this certainly doesn't look natural to me.”

Starlight and Twilight’s jaws drop. “Those are runes! These are runes! We’re standing on some sort of magic circle, or sigil, or enchantment!” Starlight said putting a hoof on her head and trotting in circles.

Rarity lifted the graph. “Well it certainly isn’t a circle, darling. These are parallelograms.”

Starlight snatches the graph for herself. “But they’re aligned almost like they’re at the perimeter of an invisible circle. Which wou-”

“Parallelogram.”

“Which would explain your readings,” Twilight picked back up. “The magic concentration has been reading higher and higher since the we started. It’s because the magic circle-”

“Parallelogram!”

“It’s been drawing itself! The closer it is to being done, the more magic it’s building. Based on this chart the last part is to finish the ring-”

“Edges.”

“Of the spell!” Twilight and Starlight shouted in unison.

“So let me get this straight.” Applejack steped in, giving the graph a look herself. “Are y’all tellin me we’re standin’ on a tickin’ time bomb of a spell and we’ve got who knows when before it goes off, and we still don’t even know what the dang thing does?!”

“Yes,” Twilight chimed. “Wait... that's exactly what that means. Oh no. We have to get those ponies out of here now!”

“I’m on it!” Pinkie cheered as she whipped out her party cannon. She signaled for Starlight to make a hole in the force field. The Pegasi, Fluttershy, and Spike where still stuck in their shouting match. Gesticulating wildly, flailing digging tools, and overall getting nothing actually done. All their noise was cut off in a flash of confetti.

“Hey there, everypony!” Every eye turns to her so fast, it’s as if they made a sound. “There's a party in store for every one of you, but only if you go home right now!”

“You think a party is gonna convince us?”

“There's free food!”

The flock of Pegasi mumble amongst each other before dispersing back toward Ponyville.

“Problem solved.” Pinkie says, blowing the smoke from her cannon. Fluttershy and Spike glide back to their friends but as they do, Pinkie shouts. “Don’t! Stay there!”

Spike and Fluttershy stop in an instant. “Okay, but why is there a parallelogram now?” Spike puzzled.

“It’s a bomb! I think?”

“Bomb?!” Spike and Fluttershy shouted, and Gallus. Though no creature noticed him.

“Kinda! The dirt is drawing a spell and Twilight needs you look at it from above and see how close the ring is to finishing!”

Gallus’ heart pounded in his chest. His eyes darted to see the patterns in the lines. Once they found the line drawing along the edge, his eyes fixated on it, trembling. The outer ring of the magic symbol had already made 3 corners of the spell, and the line was already drawing to complete the shape. On instinct, his legs started backpedaling before he could even think to run. His feathers stood up on end and his wings spread in preparation to fly. To fly, just anywhere but here.

“I-I have to get out of here!” *He turned to run and found himself on the ground. He groaned, trying to open his eyes. His eyes were met with Rainbow’s fierce piercing glare.

“Gallus, I can’t believe yo-” she cut off her own shouting. She placed a hoof on her chest and took a deep breath. She spoke again in a deliberately calmer tone. “Gallus, I am very disappointed that you would trick me. I underst-”

Gallus latched Rainbow’s shoulders, his beak to her snout. “WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” He dashed for the skies, trying to fly away with her. She just wouldn’t move.

“What are you doing? I’m trying to be a good teacher!” She bit on his tail, trying to tug him back down to the earth. “I just want to talk.”

“No, you don’t understand! It’s a bomb!”

“A wha-?”

BOOOOOOOOM

Author's Note

Small note: As of the writing of the first two chapters. Not a single episode of season 9 has been watched, you are likely better off not considering season 9 for the most part.

Reunion

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

The Gap

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Meeting New Creatures

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Summer Vacation Part 2

Chapter 2
Summer Vacation part 2

A pair of dice rattled in in Gallus’ talons. A cup full of bits and hope lay in front of him. A pride of six griffons formed a ring with him. Each of them far more muted in color than him— white, brown, black, blues as deep as night. Their eyes followed with the shaking of Gallus’ talons. Their ears attuned to the distinct clitter-clatter of dice. The dice leapt from Gallus’ grasp, splashed on the dirt, and tumbled to their ultimate result.

“Sixes!” the crowd cried. The griffons breathed their collective sighs, kicked rocks, and beat the dirt. Their curses and insults filled the air as Gallus pocketed every bit for himself.

“I swear those dice are loaded!” one brown griffon said, spitting into the alley dirt.

“The Canary Crew's taking the pot next time, ya crayon!” another shouted. One by one they dispersed from darkness of the alley.

“Good, luck. Paradise will be open all summer.” Gallus smirked, tossing the dice in his talons. Satisfied, he tucked away his dice and rummaged through a pile of hay. Paradise, as indicated by the graffiti on the walls, was a roughly octagonal alley. It was probably more of line at one point but every building that made up its walls was in ruins. What remained of the walls happened to slant, crumble, and lean in a way that made it a surprisingly homey space despite the darkness. Old roof thatching had been repurposed from the ruins though the nest-work was fairly poor. Sunlight poked through wealth of holes in makeshift roof and when it rained it was just barely better than nothing. On the wall behind Gallus was a large artful graffiti work that read ‘The Bird of Paradise’, written in a blue that matched his feathers. It was dark, dusty, dank, but it felt grounded. The grays and browns blended together.

A small griffon rolled over in a sleeping bag by wall.“Are you sure you don’t cheat? That’s a pretty big haul.” The young griffon’s face was covered in vibrant purple feathers that darkened around her gold eyes.

“I don’t need to cheat. Ya know what they say, the house always wins,” Gallus said pulling out a deck of well loved playing cards from his stash.

“They say that?”

“I guess it’s a pony thing to say. It’s time for your lessons so get out of that sleeping bag. It was a gift, so make sure not to scratch it,” he said, shooting the deck from one talon to the other.

“Ugh. But I don’t even like cards!” she whined.

“Aww, a griffon named Gambit doesn’t like cards? You wouldn't fit in with ponies at all,” he snickered. “Besides, if you wanna keep Paradise once I’m gone, you’re gonna have to learn to play. As long as you can gamble you can have enough bits to keep yourself alive.” He shuffled the deck as the little griff wiggled her way out the sleeping bag. She slipped out onto the dirt to find her cards laying face down before her beak. She snatched the two cards and shuffled forward. Two of clubs and an ace of spades. She gave the cards a grim look.

“Gruff chose that name. I don’t like it.” Gambit pouted and placed her bet, using rocks in place of coins. “When do I get to hold the bits? I’m tired of playing for rocks.”

“You’ll get to use bits when you stand a chance” Gallus revealed the flop. Three of hearts, four of diamonds, and a jack of hearts. “Besides I thought you just said you don’t like cards.”

“Yeah. But I do like bits!” Gambit said with a smile creeping on her beak. She slapped down three rocks. “Raise!”

“Someone looks happy. That's a mistake. Bet.”

“What about it? You’re smiling too.”

“I’m always smiling when I play, and you usually look like you’re about to cry,” he says revealing the fourth card. The three of clubs completely shattered Gambits smile.

“No I don’t!” She whines. Her newfound glare aimed at the fifth card. “I check”

“If you say so. And I raise” Gallus, says maintaining a calm steady grin. A punch-ably confident smile. Gambit squirms as she reluctantly tosses another talon full of rocks into the pot.

“bet!” her voice trembled, betraying the confidence she tried to force out her throat. The final card of the river is flipped. The King of Hearts. Gambit took a deep sigh and tapped the ground “Check.”

“You look pretty sad over there. Check” Gallus prepares to puts down his hand. The three of diamonds and the seven of clubs. “Three of a kind! You?”

“nothing” She said with a sigh as she dropped her cards face up.

“Alright, so let's go over today’s lesson,” Gallus grabbed Gambit’s chin, looking her in the eyes. “When you look at this smile do you ever have any idea what I’m thinking?” She shook her head. “Exactly! You have to mask your feelings. Don’t let anygrif know what you feel and what you know. You express to much, so you’ll always lose.”

“And are you going to show me how to do that?” She said swatting away his talon.

“Nah. What do you think I am? Some sort of teacher? You figure out how to do it on your own. Its gotta be natural.” He chuckled and patted her on the head “You’ll get it kid, just think about it. I’m gonna head out, get us some food and pay Gella.”

His tail disappeared behind a corner before he peaked back inside. “Wait. One last thing. We can’t let an old fart like Gruff choose your name. What do you wanna be called?”

She took a moment. Her eyes looked down into her talons. She flexed her palms, staring deep into their texture. Without thinking her digits started fiddling with each other. Her mind was lost on a memory for half a minute before she spoke. “I want to have a scary name so no griffon messes with me anymore.” She spoke it quiet. Like she was watching the words spill out of her mouth in into her talons. Words that only she was supposed to have. She took a deep breath and looked Gallus in the eyes and shouted “I want to be Grimheld!”

Gallus smirked “Then that's your name, Grimheld. If ol’ grandpa gruff has a problem with him just tell him stuff it.”

On the way out he tossed a five bits to Gella, a burly snowy coloured griffon perched outside. Griffon Stone’s looked a bit better than Gallus had remembered before leaving for school thanks to Gabby’s one griff rebuilding project. It was still mostly ruins that every griff decides to just walk past everyday, but for every ten or so crumbled piles of bricks there was one fresh new building. It made his stomach turn even more than the old griffonstone. He imagined how much further rebuild would be along if even one griff could get over themselves to help. A Griffonstone with parks, a functioning library, an actual hospital. Instead griffs made clans and gangs and fought for who had the most of nothing. Griffonstone has no leaders and of the leaders it doesn’t have none are worth the space they take up.

I ignore everygriff and everygriff ignores me. Just as it should be. Should be?

He lifted his eyesfrom the dirt. No griff looked back at him that's for sure. Those who did scoffed returned their attention to whatever object they were using to ignore everyone else. Any griffon who was in a group started mumbling amongst themselves. They were talking about him. Everygriff talks about the blue kid.

Yep they’re all the same as always. But your not the same? You shouldn’t be. You didn't ignore grimheld and she’s nice, and fun, and makes at least one griffon who thinks a single thought about you. Of course you didn't she’s just like you. Its easy easy when they’re the same isn’t it? You think your some better griffon? You go to friendship school and get to look down on everyone else? Oh wait you already thought that didn’t you? Prove it. Talk to them If you think griffonstone is so awful. Unless you’re just as worthless as you think every other griffon is.

He looked to the other side of the street. More griffons going out of their way to ignore him. Their eyes all say it ‘Don’t you dare talk to me.’ Gallus struggled not to look away. His legs said to just keep walking.

This is a mistake. They hate you. They all hate you.

They’re all terrible anyway. Griffons are equally worthless.

So you’re just gonna call them terrible and then be the same?

“Uh hey there I’m Gallus,” he blurted out the words before he even realised he was saying anything. He was so lost in his head that he hadn’t even realised who he walked up to. His talon extended and trembling like a leaf. He didn’t remember offering his talon, but it was out now.

“Whaddya want from me?” A griffon far, far older than Galllus turned down his newspaper and gave the coldest look ever seen. The look made him feel like vapor. A gaze so uncaring it might actually be able to will him out of this world. Gallus’ eyes glanced to the paper in some desperate act of self defense. A whole year out of date.

“Nothing I just thought. Uh, you looked like you could use someone to talk to?”

“Oh and what made me look like that?” The old griffon’s eyes narrowed and Gallus couldn’t feel his tail anymore.

I’m trying to be nice you old fart. Just play it cool. Keep your smile. Look like your fine. Don’t stammer. “Well you’re by yourself and all. Maybe you’d like somegriff to talk to.”

“And what do you think I want to talk about”

Gallus put on his most winning smile. “Well what do you like?” Professor Pinkie always said the best way to get someone to talk is to get them to talk about what something they’re interested in. Gallus never actually tried it on purpose but if there was a time to apply lessons it was now.

“Being left alone. Flock off!” A swift kick to the chest sent Gallus rolling into the street. Normally he would have braced himself. He wouldn’t let a griffon surprise him like that. Well, that's not right. Normally he would have never talked to the old geezer. Normally no griffon would have the chance. Normally he and the old man would have gave each other one look in the eye from halfway across Griffonstone and their mutual disdain would be understood.

“Nice talking to you” He said waving his claw from the ground before slumping into the dirt. Now that was restraint. He wanted to spit on him. Fight back. The guys probably fifty he could take him. What would twilight think if he did that? She’d have some sort of lecture for sure about being the better creature or something. Professor Rainbow dash? Heck she might have encouraged him. She’d scrap! Gallus punched the dirt, he was going to make at least one of his professors proud today. He picked himself off the ground with a fire in his eyes, and a whole other griffon in front of his face.

“Gallus, what in the world was that. Are you turning into Gabby? I don’t think I can take two of you.” The other griffon grabbed him by his shoulders and dusted him off.

“Gilda? You saw all that?” Gallus between a rough chest wrenching cough. That kick really left a sting.

“Yep. I’ve seen Gabby try it hundreds of times but she never got hit for it. Anyway when did your blue butt come back here?”

“I’ve been back for like two weeks,” He grumbled. How could anygriff manage to not notice brightest bird in griffonstone. “My summer vacation plans didn’t work out. So I’m back to running paradise for the summer. Training a uh protege I think it's called.”

“You got that back from the canary crew? Did ya cheat?” She said leaning in,

Gallus blew a proud huff out his chest despite the pain.“Gilda please. I run an entirely legit operation. I won that place back fair and square.” Gallus checked who was around before whispering “And I may have cheated once or twice to make a point, but I didn’t have to.”

Gilda chortled. “Nice, I hate those guys. Bunch of thieving losers. Anyway I’m off. Don’t go acting like Gabby or I’ll have to start feeling bad for ya.”

“Wait. Did you only come to say something cause I reminded you of her.”

“Don’t make me answer that. If you’re trying to talk about feelings go talk to her yourself. She’s at the tavern taking a break from her little construction project.” Gillda took off before Gallus could try to get another word in. A thick cloud of dust was all that remained

Gallus crossed his forelegs. “Ugh. I don’t need some griff to talk to I just want to be a good student. Why would I even talk to gabby?”

“Sooo Gabby. Gabriela. Gab the mail griffon. How ya doin?” Gallus said with a smile as he gulped down a glass of water. Anything else would have cost half his bits and that money certainly wouldn’t be going to renovating this rundown hunk of wood. Most of Gabby was covered in a dark smokey blue with a bit brighter shade around the face, and wings that were nearly black. The griffon herself was one of the only shining things in this whole dump of a town. The only friendly griffon in the world for all he knew. Trying to talk nice to her now felt slimy. Gallus thought back on trying to talk back to that older griffon. Gabby had tried to connect with him like that so many times even though no creature ever sent him mail. He hated it. He’d yell, make up excuses, tell her to go away and now he sat here wondering why in the world he was ever like that to her at all. As he looked over her colours one thought stood out in his mind. Their shades should be switched.

Gabby jolted up straight.“I’m sorry are you… actually talking to me?”

“Yeah. Is that a mistake?”

“Oh of course not. Its just no griff ever wants to talk to me. Gilda doesn’t even want to talk to me. The family who’s house a rebuilt didn’t want to talk to me. Not even my boss wants to talk to me.”

“You have a boss? We don’t even have a post office.”

“Well no, everygriff sticks all their mail in a box and I just take it all and deliver it. But I like to think Gretchen is my boss. She works for the pony postal service and she brings all the mail from the train up the mountain and then sticks it in the box. Then I get it from the box. So its almost like a boss. She’s super cool… and doesn’t talk to me.”

“Oh. Wait you don’t actually have an employer? You just deliver everygriff’s mail and you don’t see a paycheck?”

“Do paychecks exist here?” She let out a loud ha. “If I wanted a paycheck I’d have gotten a job in equestrian years ago. I do this cause I want to help everygriff. They wouldn’t get the mail themselves. Plus the mailbox is all the way at the bottom of town. Think of all the old griffs that live near the top. It’d be awful.” She took a sip of a brown drink. Gallus had no idea what it was but couldn’t imagine that cheery Gabby was a drinker so he decided to just consider it ‘brown drink’. “Anyway some griffs actually give me tips. I think its cause they don’t want hand outs. Although I think some of them do it to make me go away.” She took another sip of her drink “So are you meeting someone too?”

“Huh? No I’m here to talk to you I guess.”

“Yeeeee!” She squealed, “Two creatures want to talk to me today what a great day for Gabby!” Before he knew it Gabby was in his face. A wide smile and eyes that sparkled with glee. “So whatcha wanna talk about!”

“Uh, well. I don’t know. I guess I was curious what you thought about Griffonstone. Like The town and everyone in it.”

“Oh that's simple,”Gabby chriped “A bunch of mean ol’ griffs sitting on a crummy mountain.” Gallus froze for a moment. He had to process that she said something even slightly mean.

“But I love them! There's so much in everygriff waiting to come out I just know it. I mean you decided to talk to me today so I must be right! I was sure you hated me.” It felt like a rock plummeted in Gallus’ gut. “I don’t know what's wrong with us, or if there's something that's wrong with me but as long as I’m here I want to make everygriff happy. Griffonstone was great once and it can be great again, even if nogriff wants my help. If griffons are supposed to take gold and whatever they want by force. I’ll make the world I want by doing good indignantly. I think. I think it's what everygriff deserves.”

“I guess growing up in a place where everygriff clearly needs help would do that to you.”

“Nah.” Gabby’s blunt rejection caught Gallus off guard. “If that was the case we’d all be helping each other. Sometimes I’m convinced I don’t really have a griffon’s brain, or maybe I’m just loopy. But I love it. Being me is great. Wanting to help is great, and I know if I keep doing whatever I think will help everygriff will want to be my friend someday. Or at least they’ll finally be happy.”

She has it. She has that thing Twilight has. What all the professors have. Whatever it is. Gabby is it. I wonder if other griffons feel so bad when they hear her talk or if it's just me.

“So what do you think of griffonstone?”

“Me?” Gallus said. Gabby nodded fervently. “Well uh.” he paused to think of what to say. “ I think you’re right.” He didn’t look her in the eyes and took a sip long his water. “Just a couple of optimists the two of us.” He leapt out his chair. His talons snapping away from the counter like he needed to be anywhere else. “I’ll see you around”

If she said by he blocked it out. He rushed for the door and didn’t look at anything. He rushed through the door bumping to someone purple on his way out. “Sorry!” he shouted before taking off for the sky.

“Ms. Gabriella. I’m glad you received my letter. I have an opportunity I think you’d really love.”