Bluebird

Chapters

Culture Shock - Part 1
Culture Shock - Part 2
Break the Ice
Winstone's Trial Obstacle Course
First Day on the Field - Part 1
First Day on the Field - Part 2
Suiting Up
His Calling
Tryouts - Part 1
The Long Reach - Part 1
The Long Reach - Part 2
Hearth's Warming at a Friends - Part 2
Winter in Ponyville
Share Your Feelings
On the Griffon's Trail
Griffon's Stone
Bird in the Hand
His Choice
Hoof to Claw
Hitting Targets
Night at the Ball
Searching in Canterlot
Routine Day
Planning the Mission
Operation Loveletter - Part 1
Operation Loveletter - Part 2
Loaded Flight
Two Sisters
The Letters
Sail the Ocean Blue - Part 1
Sail the Ocean Blue - Part 2
Trial at Sea
Time at Ludo Isle
The Hidden Cavern
Last Night on Mount Aris Part 1
Last Night on Mount Aris Part 2
Learn their own way
Before You Go
Tryouts - Part 2
Hearth's Warming at a Friends - Part 1
An Island Full of Surprises

Culture Shock - Part 1

“Over one thousand years ago, our ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, united the armies of Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus ponies, to form the E.U.P. Guards to ensure all denizens would be protected in times of war and peace. For the last four hundred years, the E.U.P. Guards has been running the Royal Guard Academy to ensure that those of all kinds who come in, leave as the best of what every regiment, company, and platoon should have: leaders.”

Everypony in attendance on the warm Sunday afternoon, listened as a stern, eloquent, and decorated white unicorn, delivered a speech at the podium in a grand chapel.

“Even as times have changed, more towns and cities, more relationships, and even change in rulers like with Princess Twilight Sparkle, what makes a good leader has remained the same. A good leader has the capacity and the will to rally ponies to a common purpose, and the character to inspire confidence. Their leadership is to be based on moral authority and on the truth.”

The speech kept everypony inside captivated as the Commandant spoke of the aims of his academy, most of whom were the parents, guardians, brothers, or sisters of young mares and stallions who lined up in an adjacent hallway. Even these new cadets could hear the speech even as the walls had an impact on its volume, and the chatter amongst them could drown it out.

“Make sure when you come up, you state your name, and which kind of pony you fall under, that way we can get signed in quicker” an Earth pony called out from behind his desk, an officer set with the task of handling the registration. He had the straightforward task of checking the names, marking them in and sending them to the correct one of four companies that each had been assigned to, as well as the correct platoon.

A bright yellow earth stallion approaches the desk, “Buckaneer, Earth” stated the stallion, and all the officer needed to do was scan the list of earth ponies to find the name.

“You’ve been signed in, you’re in McCarthy Company, 2nd Hoof. Make your way down left, get your uniform, make your way out to the west field” the officer confirmed, ticking the name off and pointing his right hoof down the entryway. Once the pony was on his way, the next one would come forward.

“Jet Wash, Pegasus.”

“You’re in Keating-Rogers, 2nd Wing.”

“Pruminant, Unicorn.”

“You’re in Fullerton, 1st Horn.”

“Gallus, um… Pegasus?”

The officer had finished marking the unicorn mare as registered when he looked up and saw Gallus, his train of thought derailed at the unexpected sight of the supposed pegasus pony in front of him. He could make out the wings on both sides of the light blue body with a cream underbelly, but where there should be a nose there was a bright amber beak, where there should be a mane, there were bright blue and yellow-tipped feathers. If he could look past his desk, he could have seen feline paws and eagle-like amber claws instead of hoofs.

“Uh… can you repeat your name for me?” asked the officer, his voice starting to tremble as he tried to regain his composure.

The blue feathered cadet returned a jaded glance, “Gallus, G-A-L-L-U-S” he responded, knowing it was a simple name to say but spelt it out slowly to ensure the officer caught all the words.

The pony officer pulled the pegasus list and hastily scanned through the list, hoping to make sense of the existence of the apparent cadet in front of him. Sure enough, as he scanned through the list of names, one seemed to confirm the cadet in from of him was meant to be there, written down as “Gallus (GRIFFON)”.

“That’s… great” the registration officer hesitantly confirmed. “You’re in Larson Company, 1st Wing, make your way down right… I MEAN down left, collect your uniform, head outside onto the west field” he directed in a staggered fashion, holding a nervous smile in the hopes of saving face.

A single eyebrow was raised up over Gallus’ blue eyes, unsure of why the earth pony’s shakiness. He was sure that the academy expected him like all the other cadets. “Thanks” he replied in a dry tone, as he made his way left, walking past the officer as he heard a loud exhale of relief.

He made his way to the fitting room, where there were several stacks of dark green coveralls, categorised by size, with a separate set labelled for pegasus ponies. Gallus picked up a medium-sized one and could feel the weight of the cotton fabric hanging from his talons.

He followed other ponies in putting the coveralls and felt relieved at how comfortable and flexible it felt, the weight of it felt reduced as it spread across his body and down both his arms and hind legs. There were even two holes in the back of the coveralls large enough to fit his wings through. The only fastening was done with a long strip of velcro on the front and a velcro strap around the hips, even ponies could fit them on despite the lack of fingers that Gallus possessed. The area also had bright yellow tags and markers on tables, the ponies writing their names on them, the griffon quickly grabbing one to write “GALLUS” on a tag and fitted it to his coveralls.

As he exited the chapel, he was outside to get his first proper view of the Royal Guard Academy’s grand scale. On the left of the chapel was the wide main building that would act as both classrooms and accommodation. The building was large and white surrounded by an array of pointed arched windows with golden frames, with bright purple pillars on each corner and covered with a sanded golden roof. Spirals were etched all around the walls, pillars and roof.

It was obvious that the architecture was heavily influenced by its nearby city of Canterlot, of which the academy was adjacent to the mountain of which the city is located, with Canterlot Palace being visible from the side of the mountain's peak. Surrounding the building and chapel were vast open green fields and woodland, with ponies in grey metallic armour exercising in the distance.

Several ponies in green coveralls were standing around on the west side of the building, leading one to assume that must be the best field. As Gallus made his approach, he found the field had been separated into sections, and within each section, the ponies separated by what kind they are. Each section was signposted with the names Fullerton, Keating-Rogers, Larson, McCarthy, and Vogel.

Gallus could postulate that these were the companies, and he needed to be in the middle one, and one of the two groups of pegasus ponies must be his platoon. After a random guess, he approached the line of green coveralled ponies and decided to offer a calm first impression.

“Hey, my name’s Gallus” he introduced with lines across both sides of his beak curved upwards in a smile, stretching out one of his arms to offer his talons in a closed palm to shake. Unfortunately, the only ponies to notice didn’t give a warm response, if any at all. They looked back at Gallus dumbfounded, Gallus’ smile drooped down at the thought he either did the wrong thing or was in the wrong place. “Is this Larson 1st Wing?” he asked slowly, quickly moving his talons up and over his head to rub the back of his neck.

The pegasus closest to Gallus nodded and sounded in confirmation, giving Gallus a pause for relief, before stepping to the side to indicate that the griffon should stand in the line. As Gallus positioned himself, he could see a large crowd of ponies at the edge of the field, some waving across while some smiled and held back their tears. He thought it was a shame that his friends couldn’t be there to wave his way, nor were any other griffons insight. It would have bothered him if it wasn’t for the sound of two pegasus ponies whispering to each other further down the line.

“Is that a griffon?”

“I think so, the rumours must be true.”

“What rumours?”

“Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship held its first graduation ceremony a few months back, and other cadets have been saying one of the graduates was accepted into the academy, but no one knew who. Apparently, a griffon was one of those graduates.”

“You mean that griffon is gonna be training here at the academy? And he’s in our platoon?”

Gallus rolled his eyes. “No, I'm actually here so ponies could stare and whisper about me like a living statue” he answered sarcastically, speaking in a normal volume as he glared across the line. Two heads were caught with wide, startled eyes, shooting upright to be hidden by the line of other ponies. Before Gallus could try and find the two gossipers, a loud and forthright voice caught his feathered ears.

“Eyes forward cadets!” Gallus turned a pegasus stallion standing in front of the platoon lines. His coat was apple green, a lighter shade than the similar coloured green jacket he wore with a dark navy hat with hardened brims, his eyes sharp with hazel irises. “I’m Colour Sergeant Razorwing, your senior drill instructor, and this is Captain Westland,” he directed his hoof towards a similarly dressed creamy yellow pegasus mare that stood firmly between both platoons.

“We’ll be carrying out your E.U.P. Guard training and ensure you follow the regimen of this Academy. In time, you’ll get to meet other senior officers who will also help you in your training, but for now, if you lot want to make it through this year and leave as an officer, you do exactly what I tell you, and if I am to ask questions or give orders, you are to refer to me as Staff Sergeant. Do you understand?”

His questions were as sharp as his name, compelling the platoon to act. “Yes, Staff Sergeant!” the whole platoon responded in unison.

As Gallus went along with the group, all following Razorwing, into the main building. He already expected the place to be majestic and full of fancy colours and décor, being a prestigious institution, and he couldn’t help but notice every room had either antique spears, shields, and paintings of soldiers and battles, particularly the cafeteria and libraries could be mistaken for military museums. There were also other places he expected with it being a school, the classrooms, and the gym, no different in size and features to the ones found in Ponyville.

The last part of the tour required everyone to go up several flights of stairs, until at the very top where the word “LARSON” was written on the wall with doors on either side. Each door had a wing insignia on them, the only difference being the numbers printed on them, one and two.

These would be the platoon living quarters, a long corridor with doors on either side, poster boards, and a window that overlooked the fields. Each dorm had two beds, cupboards, and desks, with plain white walls.

“Okay ponies, ground rules” called Razorwing, “This corridor, the washroom, your dorms, your uniforms, and your equipment are your responsibility. Starting tomorrow, you need to make sure they’re all clean, tidy, and orderly by the end of the day, so Captain Westland and I can carry out inspections the following morning.”

This was followed by the stuff that wasn’t allowed, “There is a list of stuff not allowed in the dorms like makeup and alcohol, be sure to dispose of them before the end of tonight. Nopony from any other platoon or company can come in without authority from their platoon command. If you have anything to ask, my own room is at the end of the corridor. Otherwise, get unpacking, you all got an early start tomorrow.”

As ponies started going into dorm rooms, Gallus did the same. Each bed had kit bags containing cutlery, a water bottle, toiletries, and survival equipment. While the other ponies had gotten bags of other things to put into their rooms, Gallus only brought one thing.

A photo, a group photo that was taken of him and his friends at the graduation ceremony, all wearing gowns and carrying their diplomas, bunched up and smiling. He cracked a smile as he looked at it and stuck it up onto the wall. “Welp, I’m here now,” he thought, knowing that he won’t be able to see them for a few months.

He reassured himself that he can handle it, he’ll just need to keep in touch. Plus, if he can make friends here, the time away won’t be so bad. His reminder of the way other ponies were standoffish and murmured amongst themselves didn’t seem to help, groaning as he could hear muffled sounds of over and over through the walls.

"You see we have a griffon in our platoon?"
"I thought griffons had their own army."
"Do you think he's friendly?"

He wasn’t surprised that being the only griffon he’d stand out, but he remembered going through that experience fine back in Ponyville. Was it really that odd to find griffons in other places too? There had to be somepony who didn’t think the sight of a griffon was weird or intimidating.

“Oh uh… hey… I think you’re my roommate?”

The sound of a mumbled voice emerged from the dorm room’s entrance, Gallus turned to look and was greeted with the sight of bright amber pegasus pony, mane and tail of a reddish-brown colour, one of his forehooves bent and raised as if paused from stepping further. He glanced at the pony’s name tag on his coverall, it read “Rosewood”.

The pony’s nervous expression didn’t give Gallus much hope, “Can’t imagine why else I’d be here,” he sardonically answered whilst rolling his eyes, “name’s Gallus.”

The amber pony reacted with a sigh of relief. “Cool, I’m Scythe, welcome to the Academy” he followed, stepping forward and offering an outstretched hoof. In turn, Gallus slowly grabbed the end of the hoof with his talons and shook it with a firm grip, finally someone had the decency to introduce themselves, although he furrowed a brow whilst staring at the nametag, unsure why it had a different name in the first place. Scythe was quick to notice, "Oh yeah, Rosewood's a... family name." he explained, his voice trailed as he used his shaken hoof to adjust the nametag.

“So, this must be my bed then?” he then asked, his voice jumping up a gear, but Gallus didn’t have much time to answer as the pony quickly dragged a bag in from outside and started unpacking himself. He managed to take things out of the kit bag and place them in specific parts of the cupboard, even checking to make sure all the bits were aligned and oriented in place.

For Gallus, this pony was interesting, he clearly gave the impression of a neat freak. Gallus was particularly lazy when it came to taking care of the dorm room he and Sandbar shared, always leaving things on the floor and in a mess, he preferred the sea-green pony’s chilled vibe about things like that. Still, the griffon couldn't complain about the first welcoming pony he encountered so early on in his time.

“So, what part of Equestria are you from?” asked Gallus, politely urging him to start a conversation.

“Uh… Cloudsdale,” Scythe replied, as he began digging through one of his other bags. “What about you?”

That answer explained the slightly more welcoming attitude towards Gallus, Cloudsdale was a large pegasus civilization that travelled around Equestria in the sky. Gallus knew that the ponies from there were usually friendly towards griffons from the few that he knew in Griffonstone. “I’ve been living in Ponyville for the last few years,” he answered, “recently graduated from Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship, just in case you heard any rumours about me.”

Scythe cracked a smile in response, "Hmm, I think I heard about that one” he remarked, as he took out books from his bag and placed them on his desk. “But I wouldn’t worry about that, there are other rumours you’ve got to worry about.”

The intrigued griffon raised an eyebrow, Scythe nodded and continued. “Hope you’re ready for the first four weeks, my brother graduated from here a few years ago, always teased me about how rough they are. Especially bad if you’re not an early bir-I MEAN riser!” he quickly panicked and corrected himself, nervously grinning.

The bird pun wasn't missed by Gallus though, griffons weren't fans of them, though he appreciated Scythe's shaky attempt to save himself. “Nah, it can’t be that bad” he responded dismissively as he rested his paws and feline behind on his bed. “This place already kind of reminds me of the School of Friendship, what with the living quarters, cafeteria, library, gym. This is just another boarding school, except instead of learning about friendship it’s about being an officer, right?”

Scythe, on the other hand, didn’t seem to agree, his head tilted, and eyebrows lowered, unconvinced of how Gallus sure was of himself. “Well… don’t say I didn’t warn you” he uttered under his breath, as he continued to unpack the rest of his things.

Gallus was sound asleep when he could have felt being shaken, the motions worked wonders to bring him out of his dreams and into the waking world. He attempted to open his creased eyes, to much his regret as the lamp above shone right into his focal lenses, his vision so blurry he could barely make out the hazy silhouette of Scythe having woken him up.

The griffon groaned as he lifted the top half of his body upright, desperate to know what time it was, but as he opened his beak to ask, the booming forthright voice of Razorwing drove its way inside the room through the door.

“Wakey Wakey! Finish making your beds, fill up and take your water bottles, you have five minutes to line up outside the corridor for the morning parade!”

As quick as the call rang through his ears, the fuzzy figure of Scythe made a brisk exit through the door, leaving a tired Gallus alone in the dorm room. His first course of action was to open the curtains to get in natural light, hoping that the morning light from outside would invigorate him. With talons on the fabrics, he parsed them to see the sky was… dawn. As the low-light aided focus to Gallus’ vision, the mystified and groggy griffon wanted to know more than ever why he was woken up this early.

He slowly turned back to the inside of the room; his blurs having diminished enough to at least focus on Razorwing’s orders in what little time he had. The griffon was stunned to notice how immaculate Scythe’s bed was, the sheet both straight and tightly tucked with the creaseless pillow as if the bed was never slept in.

He got to work on his own bed, tucking the sheet under the duvet on one side, and flattening out the pillow in the hopes it looked presentable. While he couldn’t tell if there were any creases or curves on the bed, he felt it was good enough for the state he was in. As soon as he grabbed the water bottle from his cupboard, a curious sound could be heard emerging from the corridors. As he used the tap to fill his water bottle as full as it could go, he groaned in realisation as to what it was, ponies singing in unison.

Equestria, the land I love,
A land of harmony
Our flag does wave from high above,
For ponykind to see
Equestria, a land of friends,
Where ponykind do roam
They say true friendship never ends,
Equestria, my home

It was Equestria’s national anthem, a song meant to fill ponies with pride as it goes on about friendship. In all the years Gallus lived with ponies, he never understood their incessant desire to sing out song after song as if they spent their day to day lives in a stage musical. On the other hand, he grew up amongst griffons in a society that banned singing for aeons, which made just about as much sense. If there was one thing Gallus would understand the need for griffons to share pride, it would be singing a national anthem.

The urge to hurry up caused Gallus to begrudgingly approach his way out and towards the two lines of ponies harmonizing the words of the anthem, only slightly relieved to find he wasn’t the last one to join in standing with them, a few more faces with sagged eyes, drooping faces, and wilted feathers making their arrival.

Unfortunately, the dark green sergeant standing between the parallel lines didn’t look pleased, even describing his feelings that way felt more like a compliment. “Alright cadets, listen here and listen good!” he barked once the singing stopped, as he proceeded to march down the line. “This is the first morning and not all of you were here on time. From now on, if you aren’t in line five minutes before the anthem starts, you’re late!” Having reached the other end of the line, he made a perfect half-turn in one swift motion, stamping his hoofs to a stop. “If a soldier in Princess Twilight’s parade was late, do you think she would be pleased?”

“No, staff sergeant” the tired members of the platoon answered, some remaining half-asleep, to Razorwing’s dissatisfaction.

“I said, do you think she would be pleased!?”

“No, staff sergeant!” the platoon repeated louder.

“That means this morning, we’re off to a bad start. This is your first and final warning! Understood?”

“Yes, staff sergeant!”

“Alright, now drink up, and then hold your bottles over your head so I can see they are empty.”

As if on command, ponies left and right of Gallus proceeded to lift their water bottles over their heads and chugged the contents down, their pegasus wings wrapped firmly around the bottles for support. He felt compelled to do the same, using his talons to hold the water bottle up, each gulp of water felt less and less refreshing as it started to dawn on him how much the bottle could contain.

Surprisingly, there was at least one pony in the platoon who had a less comforting time drinking their water. A light cyan pegasus on the very end of the line started swaying side to side, each breath lasting longer and longer, unable to stay up straight, his face starting to fade to a white shade of green. Suddenly, his eyes shot wide open and started to hold one of his hooves to his face. Razorwing caught notice of this and slowly approached the nauseous pegasus face to face, the anxious pony’s cheeks starting to balloon up as he pressed his hoof tighter around his mouth.

“Either you swallow that up or go, cadet,” slowly growled the sergeant, “Not a single mess in my corridor, understood?”

The nauseated pegasus didn’t make time to nod his head, he darted down the corridor and swerved right into the washroom. For the next minute, every pony and griffon stood by uncomfortably as the sound of splashing and groaning echoed through the corridor. Gallus peeked through the door and finally spotted a clock to tell the time with, although it was six in the morning, the sounds started making him reconsider breakfast.

Culture Shock - Part 2

It was still the morning, and yet Staff Sergeant Razorwing had everyone from the platoon standing outside forming two lines, the air was cold and cloud drifted above them. Everypony had breakfast, although Gallus hoped that a small breakfast would suffice considering his small appetite. These were only the first exercises of the day after all, and they were drill runs, so the griffon could only imagine the basics.

“Alright ponies, all of you need to pay attention, cause I’m only going to show you this once. After that, every time I see you get one bit wrong, I’ll be calling you out.”

The first was face turns, the sergeant pegasus demonstrated how cadets would be expected to turn at perfect right-angles. Razorwing was slick with each turn, rotating his full body while his hooves slid on the ground despite no sound of friction on the gravel surface. When he completed a turn, he would count to three before stepping forward to standing.

The only time his hooves made distinct actions were when he did an about-face, with one foreleg up and his hindleg crossed, he had effortlessly turned fully to face the opposite side. Some cadets looked intently to process his movements, Gallus had his beak open in surprise, the first realisation that there was a way to turn effortlessly with as few steps as possible.

What was crazy was that the cadets were now expected to do the same movements, Razorwing would roar out a command such as “Right faaaaaace, HAH!”, and in unison, the cadets would respond “OneTwoThree ONE!” following the command with the correct turn.

At least, that was the end goal from the first part of the exercise. The platoon began performing as a staggered troupe compared to Razorwing’s single pony waltz. The sergeant would call out commands over and over again, and as warned would call out to correct any error.

“Acute! You are not turning far enough, and Obtuse you’re turning too much!” he called out to two pegasi as the pair hastily readjusted their stances, “And Sterling! Step in time with everypony else! Again!” How he managed to have the energy to shout at ponies constantly for turning the wrong direction, whether it be turning the wrong direction or stagger on each turn, remained a mystery to the platoon.

The platoon could breathe a sigh of relief when Razorwing was at least satisfied with how everypony and griffon moved in place, the next exercise was marching. It was not enough for cadets to walk, instead, they were required to trot with their front hooves and walk with their rear hooves. The sergeant bellowed out which forehoof should be upright.

“Left, Right, Left, Right... Halt!” and in an instant, the platoon halted, standing upright and trying to keep their heads up above their exhausted bodies. “About turn! Again! Left, Right, Left, Right...”

Unlike face turns, Gallus had no difficulty with doing the marches, although there were technical issues from his efforts. It was hard enough for the griffon to hold his arms up while keeping his talons faced down with how they bent inwards, but his palms were not used to the constant pounding against the gravel surface on each step. He hoped that he could lighten the force on his talons, but the sergeant had other plans.

“Sterling, I’ve seen fillies who can step in time better than you!” he loudly ridiculed, “Wind Breaker, your head should be upright! And Griffon, I should be able to hear each step from you!”

The last thing Razorwing wanted to see was the salutes, which were the most confusing aspect for the griffon, seeing the pegasus held up firmly upright with his right forehoof pointing towards his eyes, yet the round stubbiness of hooves made it unclear of what Gallus should do if the ends of his arms were not horseshoe-shaped, or had extra features like claws. Fortunately, Gallus had seen enough griffons doing salutes back in Griffonstone to pass off. Whenever Razorwing did call for the salute, Gallus would do so like the others, and not get called out.

That was until one call to salute was ordered, Razorwing was stood right in front of Gallus, and stared long towards the side of his face, where Gallus’ talons were as straight and close together as they could be, the palm faced down into the ground, the sergeant’s disgruntled face was all Gallus could tell something was not right.

“Griffon! What in Celestia do you call that?” Razorwing asked sharply inches away from Gallus’ bright amber beak.

The only motions Gallus could make were to narrow his eyes, “Uh… a salute, Staff Sergeant” he responded in bewilderment.

“Oh really? Then how come every time I see you saluting, it looks nothing like what the other cadets are doing?”

With the lack of personal space and internal resistance to move out of place, Gallus shifted his eyes left and could see Scythe holding his salute. The pegasus was fully upright and firm, his arm precise along his body, and the stub of his hoof was pointed directly at his forehead. “Because I have talons, not hooves, sir” answered Gallus, assuming the only difference he could find between him and his adjacent cadet.

Razorwing was quick to reject the response, “Not having hooves is not an excuse, Griffon!” He proceeded to use his wing to push Gallus’ arm, now its talons faced outwards. “The arm goes over the shoulder and the shoe should face out, when a superior wants you to salute, you should do it properly” he instructed before making his move onto the next cadet.

“Like you’d know how to salute with talons…”

The air went silent, Razorwing froze midstep, and as he slowly turned his head to face Gallus, he saw the griffon’s beak was clamped and his eyes looking up and away. The sergeant’s eyes glared at Gallus as if daggers were pointing towards him, who could only imagine dark thunderous clouds forming from the sergeant's ears, realising the big mistake he made.

“On the ground!” barked Razorwing through the grit of his teeth, pointing his hoof on the gravel in front of him, “Get on your stomach griffon, now!” Gallus hastily lowered himself until his bare chest was flat on the ground. “Now when I call up, you push yourself up with only your wings, and when I call down, you go down until your beak is touching the floor. Up!”

Using the ends of his two wings, Gallus slowly pushed his body up as far as he could take it, his hind paws being the only other points on the ground. “Down!” As commanded, Gallus then lowered himself until he could feel his beak pressed against the gravel. “Up… Down… Up… Down… Up… Down…”

He continued the calls, only to leave Gallus holding himself low to inspect the other cadets, who all remained upright and holding his salute. “Breaker, get your head up, you’re not supposed to be hunched.” He called out, only to pause as a pony in the platoon started snickering.

Unable to tell who it was, he continued onto the next Pegasus. “Nick, move your hoof down” Razorwing caught the sound of more snickering, and in the time he took to see who it was, the pegasus he was inspected had moved his arm. “Okay, now your hoof is too low, move it back up.”

After more snickering, he was about to see who it was, but when he turned to look around, he noticed Gallus had positioned himself with his wings fully pushed upwards. “Griffon, did I call you to push up?” he asked the blue cadet.

“Yes, Staff Sergeant,” Gallus answered with a strain, looking at the ground with agony. “Twice, Staff Sergeant.” The answer led to more snickering, which only angered Razorwing further as he lowered his face to be closer to Gallus.

“DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, GRIFFON?” he yelled forcefully.

“No, Staff Sergeant!”

Razorwing then moved up to address the rest of the platoon, a few who were desperately holding their mouths shut. “Well then, I shouldn’t be hearing any laughter, unless you other ponies want to join him?”

“No, Staff Sergeant!” they all called out in unison, Gallus remained down on wing-ups until drills were over.

It was early in the afternoon, and Gallus had finished having lunch. As difficult as it was for him to hold utensils with his sore talons, he managed to eat enough for the energy he needed. Once lunch was over, he made his way through the corridors towards the platoon commander’s office, on orders to see Captain Westland. As he approached the entrance, dread was etched into the griffon’s face, if Staff Sergeant Razorwing was loud, strict, and sharp around cadets, only King Grover’s ghost would know what his commanding officer was like.

He peeked into the open doorway, inside was an office with posterboards, a large window looking out into the field where an Earth pony platoon marched passed, and two office desks. One desk at the side of the room was vacant, while the one at the opposite end was the light red pegasus herself, holding a pen between the feathers of her right-wing with several sheets of paper on her desk.

Despite the possibility that the colour sergeant was not present, any reassurance could not be grasped at the thought of what he could have told her prior to his arrival. Bracing himself for the worst, he cleared his throat, “Uh… Captain Westland, you needed to see me?” he hesitantly announced.

The mare did not even bat an eye, “Come in, close the door, and take a seat.” Gallus marched his way through into the office and stood at attention. The captain shifted her vermillion eyes up from the papers to see an upright and tense griffon stood in front of her, and she returned a bemused smile.

“At ease cadet," she calmly ordered, "this is just a standard one-on-one, just to know who my cadets are.” The griffon exhaled a sigh of relief, relaxed his shoulders, and lowered his hind so he could take the weight off his talons. The captain opened a drawer to grab a new form and place it on the desk, “So, your name is Gallus?” she asked, leaning forward over the desk, taking note of the name badge on Gallus’ coveralls.

“Yes, ma’am” he answered, calm and direct.

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen, ma’am.”

“What’s your family like? I have it that you were under the care of a griffon named Gruff?”

Upon hearing that name, Gallus’ eyebrows straightened and moved closer towards the eyes “...yeah, Grandpa Gruff” the pitch of his voice lowered slightly upon answering. He could feel his talons start to tightly grasp the edge of his seat, holding his breath, trying in vain not to answer any further. Captain Westland proceeded to write on the form, her wing scratching on the paper with vigour as her eyes glanced between the form and other papers on her desk.

“And tell me, what you were doing before you came to the Academy?”

Taking a breath, Gallus looked up at the ceiling and list out his answer, “I grew up in Griffonstone, did small jobs here and there, learned on the go, helped Grandpa Gruff while he worked…”

“What kind of work did he do?” she interrupted.

“He wrote novels, a lot of griffon history, so he’d need someone to go through the libraries or archives with him. When I was fourteen, I was sent to the School of Friendship in Ponyville.”

“Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship…” the captain muttered to herself as she wrote it down, “that would make you one of its first graduates, right?”

“Yes ma’am.”

The captain raised a smirk, “Guess that'll mean we’ll expect you to have a good rapport with your platoon.”

“Uh… yeah… rapport,” he remarked with a nervous smile, looking back at the weird looks, murmurs, and the dressing down from the sergeant that morning.

“Finally, are there any problems I should be aware of?”

The griffon started rubbing one of his palms with his talons, “The drills I think, I feel they’re not built for my talons.” Captain Westland glanced down at them, before looking back up with a relaxed smile.

“I’m sure those will get ironed out over time, it’s only the first day, but I’ll have a word with Staff Sergeant Razorwing.” She then leant over the desk again and followed with a quiet remark, “Next time just be careful what you say, you’re training to be a leader, and leaders set by example.” The griffon felt his heart stop, beads of sweat rolled down the side of his head, to which Westland caught with another smirk.

“That will be all, thank you for your time.” After another breath, Gallus turned and began walking to make a brisk exit, when heard a sharp voice from behind him. “Stop, get back here…” The griffon froze, and slowly walked backwards and turned around, to see the captain with an intense glower towards him, her nose and mouth covered by her hooves resting on the desk. “Just because we have nothing left to talk about, doesn’t mean I allow you to leave…”

His heart racing, the captain had the same aura of dark clouds before a storm that Razorwing had, and even though her tone was nowhere near as loud. “Uh… may I leave and carry on… ma’am… please?” he slowly requested, his voice trailing as he shakily smiled.

Westland lifted her head above her hooves to reveal her grin, although the reveal did not feel that comforting. “Face right, march two steps,” she instructed, “then you may leave.” He attempted the right face turn, counting under his breath and wobbled as his talons rubbed on the carpet, before making two steps forward. “Good effort” was enough from the captain to tell she could recognise the sloppy attempt, but it was also enough permission to make his way out as fast as he could.

The afternoon was, in the nicest way of putting it, excruciating. Gallus had been keen on sports during his last years at the School of Friendship, but he could never have imagined fitness exercises lasting for hours. He already had a strain on his wings from doing Razorwing's penalty push-ups in the morning, but in the afternoon he had to do more. The worst was the shuttle flights, where cadets had to take off and land within a yard, back-and-forth, several times.

Everyone in the platoon felt exhausted afterwards, although Gallus felt the worst, trailing far behind, gasping for breath at each step. He was unable to fly up the stairs, given how sore his wings were. As he finally reached the top, he made his way to the dorms. The thought of tough drills and encounters were enough for him as his head sunk and let out a sigh, but he lifted his head as he hoped to relax on his bed and maybe even start to write a letter to his friends to let them know how he was getting on.

When he opened the door, there were cadets with mops and towels, scrubbing the floors and doors, all with glazed and wrinkled eyes. Another sigh emerged from Gallus’ breath, a few steps inside and he already jinxed himself.

“Hey, Bluebird!”

A familiar-looking cyan pegasus greeted with a bucket hooked around his hoof, although Gallus looked around, unaware that the one being greeted was himself. “Bluebird?” was all he could respond, his head tilted and his brows furrowed.

“Yeah, Staff Sarge wants the dorms cleaned, you’re last so you have to do the washroom.” The pony shoved the bucket into the arms of Gallus, “Sorry for the mess!” Before Gallus could wonder what he was on about, the pegasus hurried off to his dorm. A disappointed Gallus made his way to the washroom, he should have seen this coming when Razorwing expected the entire dorm to be clean and tidy, what with the sergeant’s high standards.

The washroom had three of everything a pony needed, cubicles, showers, hoofwash stations, all surrounded by pearly white tiles. “Well, it can’t be that bad” he reassured himself in his mind, he had all the cleaning equipment he needed, and when he’s done, he could have first dibs on the shower to cool himself off.

He went to mopping the floor, scrubbing the walls, wiping the basins, cooled himself off in the shower and scrubbed that too. It was the most effort he had done in cleaning since he made a mess in the breakroom back at the School of Friendship just before Heartswarming Eve, not his proudest of moments since he also got his friends in trouble, but he imagined what kind of jokes they’d make about Gallus cleaning up an entire washroom by himself.

He wiped the sweat off his head, impressed that he was almost done in a short amount of time with everything sparkling, all he had left to do was clean the cubicles. But when he went into the first one and lifted the toilet seat, he was met with the most horrible sight. As he gagged, he remembered why the cyan pegasus was so familiar, he threw up earlier that morning, and what made it worse was that he never flushed it down.

Completely washed-out, Gallus took a slow stumbled walk into his dorm room. All he could hear were what sounded like incoherent mumbling. Even as he approached, his bed felt so far away that kept moving until his arms encountered the frame, causing him to fall face-first onto the soft mattress.

After he rolled the rest of his lifeless body onto the mattress, he glanced up at the graduation photo. He wished he could have stayed in Ponyville, perhaps gotten a job at the School of Friendship instead. At least back then things were simpler, and every creature and pony knew who he was, and he had friends. Even the Griffon Army sounds like a better choice, he would have been far away from his friends, but griffons would treat him like any other griffon.

That was another thing, he promised to write to his friends, but what should he even write? That he cannot survive the first day of training, cannot turn face, cannot salute like a pony, or get any pony to refer to him by name?

“Hey Gallus, you okay?” a concerned voice reminded Gallus he wasn’t alone in the room, Scythe was lying on his own bed, a forehoof resting behind his head while the other was holding a book, his hind hooves crossed. The sight of someone more relaxed and comforted didn’t sit well with the griffon, who instead return his face with a pillow with a muffled groan. “It gets better, believe me, you’re not the only one feeling bad after today.” Scythe reassured the lifeless corpse as he pushed himself up to a sitting position on the bed.

“Easy for you to say,” moaned the muffled Gallus, before turning to look at his roommate’s fresh-looking face with a glare. “I don’t even remember you being called out once.”

“That’s because I’ve been through this before…” Scythe explained. “I was in the Cloudsdale Junior Cadets, we did drills and obstacle courses, not as bad as this but it helped us prepare. A few others are soldiers or ex-wonderbolts, so their experience differs.”

“I’m starting with nothing, and I’m a griffon…” the hopeless griffon responded, “I can’t even turn properly or salute like a pony…”

Scythe put on an encouraging smile, “Well, most cadets start with nothing, but you’ll pick up some good tricks.” He jumped off the bed to face Gallus fully standing, “One my brother told me was to shift your weight when you turn, so you don’t drag your other hooves.”

Scythe demonstrated his turns, and Gallus half-lidded eyes grew wider as they were fixed on how slick the motions were, turns as smooth as Razorwing’s were from that morning, and as he described, his hooves glided along the marble floor.

“Can you show me how you do that?” he asked as he finally found the strength to push his upper body off the pillow.

Scythe was taken aback by the request, “O-Oh sure” he accepted, stepping back to make room. Gallus then forced himself off the bed and positioned himself, so he was standing upright beside Scythe. “Say you want to turn right; you loosen your right foreleg and your left hind leg, then you use your other legs to turn your body until your parallel again, and then step forward.”

Gallus stared down towards his talons, and carefully lifted his right arm, hollowed by carefully lifting his left hind paw, just enough to that were still touching the ground but any force he applied was only enough to keep himself balanced. Then he started to turn his body and noticed felt smoother than before, his left arm appeared to move back, while his right paw appeared to move forward until he could feel his body lock as he made the right-angled turn. With the way all his appendages were positioned, he leant forward and stepped back into a standing position, as if on instinct.

When he looked back up, he was met with the impressed smile of his roommate. “See, there you go. If you need to turn the other way, do you the opposite.”

The griffon just looked around, still in amazement, unable to control the grin on his face and the racing of his heart in the excitement that he felt like he surpassed the largest obstacle, and it was from nailing the simplest move the staff sergeant had to teach. He was not sure whether he wanted to dance or jump or sing or do anything to show how happy he was.

Instead, he decided to say something to the pony who decided to help him, “Hey… thanks” was all he said to Scythe, his gaze lowered, and wings folded in.

Scythe’s smile grew wider, “No problem” he muffled, as he quickly tried to avert from his welled-up eyes. “We have room inspections tomorrow, so if you need help…”

Gallus chuckled, “Knowing that the Staff Sergeant is going to do them, I think I’ll need it.”

“Hey, Bluebird! Mumbles!” a voice echoed from the opposite dorm room. “Are you gonna close your door, or give the rest of us a show?” Scythe's face started blushing as the two inside blankly stared at each other and snickering could be heard outside. The pegasus proceeded to turn around to shut the door, before giving out dejected sigh.

It was early in the following morning, the first day for room inspections. Each cadet was stood to attention outside their rooms, all the while Captain Westland and Staff Sergeant Razorwing went into each one individually to check them. Gallus and Scythe were stood outside, their heads looking upwards and outwards, and while Gallus had bags under his eyes, he was at least confident that his room was fine, knowing he had some help from his room buddy.

At least, that was what he hoped, “Griffon! Get in here!” summoned the sergeant from inside the room. Gallus looked towards Scythe, unsure what could have been wrong, before marching his way inside. He stopped in front of Razorwing, who was sat beside his bed.

“Stand and salute, Griffon” ordered the sergeant, and followed as directed. Razorwing looked over at the side of Gallus’ head, where his talons were stretched out and closed, pointed slightly above his eye with the palm facing outward. “You’ve changed your salute, I see,” Razorwing remarked.

“Yes, Staff Sergeant” acknowledged Gallus.

Without any words, Razorwing used his wings to adjust Gallus’ arms and head, making the arm more perpendicular to the body, the head held straight upwards, his beak angled more level. Once he was done, he gave a minuscule nod.

“Good, I expect you to hold that exact pose anytime you’re required to salute, understood?”

Having never seen Razorwing nod or give any positive word so far, Gallus couldn’t help but grin and hold his chest out. “Yes, Staff Sergeant” he answered with some pride.

Razorwing remained deadpanned. “Right, I found this in between your bedsheet.” Using his other wing, he revealed a stray blue feather, no doubt from Gallus’ wings. “We shouldn't be able to find any stray feathers during inspection.”. He then turned around towards a neat and immaculate bed, and pulled away from the bedsheet with his teeth, undoing Gallus’ hard work.

“Do it again...” he orders, before leaving and moving onto the next room, leaving Gallus to groan. All he could think was that these would be small steps, this was only the second day after all...

Break the Ice

“How does this feel?” asked the nurse, gently applying pressure to the brim of Gallus’ blue wings. The griffon winced as his chest rested on the table, his breath seethed out through his shut beak and his eyes clamped shut. Even after a week of early morning drills and exercises, his wings were not getting used to the strain.

Fortunately, the nurse was an empathetic pegasus, “While I may not have enough expertise to figure out what to do with your talons,” she professed, “I’ve seen enough wings in my time to know you need to take better care of them.”

She made her way to a draw, pulling it open and using one of her wings to reach inside and pull out what appears to be a folded leaflet, before turning back towards Gallus and handing it to him. His eyes glanced at the page in front of him, SIMPLE WAYS TO STRETCH YOUR WINGS was printed in big navy-blue text on top of a sea blue background.

“I’ll write a note for you to hand to your captain,” she said as she picked up a quill to write down, before making a request. “Before you come back next week for your check-up, be sure you do some of those stretches every morning.” Gallus made his cue to push himself off the table, collect the note and give his thanks before making his way out. “SLOWLY, or you’ll be lucky to fly for the next few weeks” she warned him, loud enough that he could hear it just outside where another pegasus was sitting outside, rubbing their own pair of wings.

As he made his way outside, he kept his eyes fixed on the leaflet as he grumbled. He had only just become accustomed to the early morning wake up, tidy up, stand for room inspections, breakfast, and drills. Now he had to fit in stretches into the tight schedule so he could possibly manage the exercises for the rest of the day. He stopped to begin reading through the leaflet, to see which ones he could apply with the least amount of effort before an odd voice in the distance caught his.

“INCOMING!”

The griffon clocked his head and lifted his feathered ears, trying to make out the voice and why it caught him out of the noises of hoofsteps and bellowing calls from other platoons carrying out their drills. It had a high pitch, a bit of a screeching call to it, coming from above, and there was a sense it was getting closer at an unusually fast rate. He tried to turn his head around towards the direction of the voice, but before he could complete the turn, the next thing he remembered was being knocked straight into the gravelled floor in a daze.

Using what motor skills, he could function in his woozy state to turn himself onto his back, he could make out in his blurry vision a silhouette of whatever collided with him. When he moved his arms, he felt talons resting underneath one of them, and it was not one of his own to his relief.

He could only guess who or what it could have been that flying taloned creature just collided with him, “Ugh…Silver…stream?” he uttered with a groan. His vision started to clear as the figure towering over him started to come into focus. His guess was way off, it was a large female bird, but there was no silver hair or bright pink feathers. Instead, there was a huge grin coming from the amber beak of an arctic grey feathered griffon with wide round turquoise eyes.

“Omigosh! Gallus, it’s you!” the griffon elated in recognition, and without any warning, Gallus was hoisted and pressed against a feathery chest, and clamped around two strong arms. She cheerfully squealed and cheered as she hugged him tightly.

In stark contrast, Gallus squawked in pain from the intense pressure against his aching wings. “Oof… hey… Gabby…” he greeted her with his best effort as he began to suffer from chest compressions and the soreness of his wings, his feline feet dangling off the ground as he hung in Gabby’s friendly vice.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here!” she joyfully remarked, before dropping Gallus back to the ground to think. “Well technically I always hoped you go to a place like this since I still remember when you were very very little you wanted to be a soldier so much that you would strap tree barks to yourself and sticks to dress up like one but now you’re actually get to train like one here I’m so happy for you I could just EXPLODE!”

There was a pause for breath that Gallus took advantage of, not only so he could sit down to recover from the tightest hug he had experienced in months, but also to process Gabby’s hundred words a minute dialogue. “It’s a surprise to see you too,” he steadily responded, “what are you doing out here?”

“Oh, I’m just at work,” answered Gabby, quickly turning to show off her brown shoulder bag, donning a pink wood-carved shield on it. Back in Griffonstone, she was the friendly and upbeat mail delivery griffon. Gallus remembered how he would see her delivering post, even when he was at the School of Friendship, she would be giving and receiving letters with a smile. Although why she was currently in front of him at the Academy, Gallus levelled his eyebrows in suspicion this was not a coincidence.

“But you don’t work this far out,” he pointed out with a jaded stare, “I thought you only get time to visit Ponyville.”

The oblivious Gabby just smiled, “Not until a few weeks ago!” she remarked and shifted her shoulders. “The other griffons finally realised I needed extra claws to handle the workload, so now I have more time to travel to Equestria and back.” Gallus kept his incredulous stare, although Gabby remained unaware of it as she opened her shoulder bag. “Besides, there are some creatures in Ponyville and Griffonstone who have things to send to you~”

Using her talons, she gently pulled out a thin pink envelope, the mention of Ponyville caused his feathered ears to stand up and his eyes to widen with anticipation. It could only mean one thing to Gallus; his friends wrote to him.

His mind raced as he wondered what was in the letter, who wrote it, what have his friends been up to, what was he going to write. After all, he promised he would write when he was at the Academy, but up to that point, he barely had the time to pick up a quill, let alone the energy to write a letter out. Then the rest of what Gabby said caught up with him.

“…wait, Griffonstone too?” he asked as he cocked his head.

A proud smile and nod were given in response., “Don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I managed to get a few griffons to put stuff together for a care package” Gabby happily explained. “I was gonna hand it to you before you set off, but when I asked Grandpa Gruff where you were, he just got grumpy and said you were long gone.” She explained it so positively and passively like it was no big deal, yet Gallus could feel his claws dig into the gravel as they clenched into fists. Gabby tilted her head, “How come you left ear- “

“What in Celestia is going on here?!” a loud stern voice shouted in the pair’s direction, the moment Gallus caught eyes with a tall white unicorn with a crossed look on his face, wearing a dark green jacket with red stripes on the collars and multicoloured bands on one side of the chest. Appearing higher ranked than either his captain or staff sergeant, Gallus shot upwards to attention. “Griffon, do you know who this is?” the unicorn asked with force, pointing a hoof towards Gabby’s direction.

“Yes, sir” Gallus hastily replied.

“Can you explain what she is doing here and why you let her- “. Before the unicorn could finish his question, his hoof was grabbed by two talons of the excited griffon and was shaken. Perhaps shaken a bit too hard, despite Gabby’s greeting intentions, as his head was being violently shaken along with his hoof.

“Oh HELLO! I’m Gabby Griffon, delivery griffon for Griffonstone, please to meet ya!”

She finally let go after intense shaking, and left the unicorn in a daze, his eyes briefly spinning before shaking himself back to focus on the pleased griffon. “Pleasure…” he remarked with displeasure, as he rubbed the shaken hoof against the side of his jacket. “I’m Commandant Authordox, head of command at this academy.” He introduced himself before turning to see the pair of them, Gallus still stood tense through the encounter.

“From what I can see you two aren’t aware of how we run this place. We don’t allow anypo…guest, to just fly onto the grounds, especially during the first four weeks of initial training. We also have our own department for handling mail, so unless you are a delivery pony with the particular authority then you need to…”

Gabby’s head bounced up, “Oh yeah! That reminds me” she cut in once more, “I asked the Canterlot Post Office about where to send things to the Academy and I was told to show this.” She dug through her shoulder bag and pulled out a cleanly folded sheet of white card and gestured it towards the Commandant’s direction.

The Commandant jerked his head back and picked up the card with the power of his horn, allowing it to unfold and float in front of him. The card was immaculate, with clear and thick cursive handwriting on it with a simple and signed instruction: “To the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy, Let Gabriella Griffon meet with your mail couriers. Signed, Postmaster General Mare Mail”

The Commandant glanced towards Gabby before returning to the note, he assumed this must be a joke as his eyebrows slowly raised in disbelief. He looked behind him and raised his head in a gesture to order a staff officer to approach. Soon in response, an earth mare approached and stood at attention by the Commandant’s side.

“Take Miss Gabriella to the mail courier department,” he begrudgingly ordered, “when she handles her deliveries be sure to show her the way out.” The mare gave a salute and turned face towards Gabby. The griffon gave Gallus another tight hug, enough to break him out of his tense stance.

As Gabby made her way towards the far building, both Gallus and the Commandant shared a sigh. For Gallus, it was out of relief, but for the Commandant, it was for something else. “It is bad enough having one griffon here…” he uttered under his frustrated breath. He turned towards Gallus, who peered towards him. The unicorn felt a slight agitation that perhaps he spoke a bit too loud and turned to the griffon fully and looked down on him. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, griffon?”

“Yes sir…” answered Gallus, as he slowly walked his way towards the cafeteria, it was lunchtime.

The cafeteria was almost full by the time Gallus arrived, with the appearance of an informal banquet of green matching coveralled ponies sitting at long oak tables surrounded by old paintings of guards in battles hung on dark mahogany walls.

The griffon stood in line with a tray and plate in hand to choose something to eat from the long buffet down the side of the room. Gallus was never a picky eater, like other griffons he’d enjoy meat or fish, but after spending years in Ponyville, where the only meal options were vegetarian or vegan, he had to adapt quickly. Fortunately for him, ponies were exceptionally good at making vegan dishes that were close enough, although choosing what to eat wasn’t the top priority on his mind at that time.

As much he could tolerate Gabby’s bounciness and upbeat personality, that short time before the Commandant arrived was the first “casual” conversation he had with any creature since he arrived, at least aside from his roommate. One week and most of the ponies would rather stare at him oddly than say anything, and the few that did were part of his platoon, and they couldn’t get his name right.

He counted the number of weeks he had in his head, he had 43 more weeks in this place. He did not want to spend 43 weeks in his current situation, where the only friends he could talk to were miles away. Unfortunately, the only friend he had was hard to find amongst the rows of other ponies sitting and chatting away, maybe there was another pony in his platoon he could follow?

“Ay up Bluebird! Allreet?” a voice called out from behind him.

Either it was the background noise merged in with the voice he heard, or there was something off about the words being spoken. He did recognise one word though, Bluebird, it was what that pegasus in the platoon that puked in the washroom called him. It was not the most pleasant indicator that the voice was from a fellow platoon pegasus, but it was better than nothing.

He turned around to see a white mare, her mane was brilliant amaranth cut short enough to touch the top of her cheeks, she had a green cutie mark shaped like three trees. The griffon had to think quick, he could not make out what was said but he shouldn’t be rude or offensive, there is the background noise so he needed to casually pretend that he couldn’t entirely hear her. “I… um… what?” he asked hesitantly. Somehow, he mistook pretending not to hear with pretending to be dumb.

Luckily, the mare remained unphased, her mind was on something more important. “Move up and get ya food, am famished,” she asked firmly, nodding her head in his direction. Turning his head back around, he was reminded of the buffet and getting food, and he made his way down the line to choose his food.

He decided it was going to be lasagne for lunch, grabbing a ladle to scoop it up. At least he’s got his food, although that didn’t take off the impression, he screwed up with the mare next to him. She mare picked up a hayburger and noticed Gallus looking down. “Ya mard at somethin, Bluebird?” she asked concerningly.

The griffon started to frown; it was that name again. “You know my name is Gallus, right?” he asked.

The mare returned a confident smirk, “Course ah do,” she answered, “just a good nickname spread fast, jono?” she proceeded to grab some more fried hay from another tray to add to her plate.

Meanwhile, Gallus raised one of his eyebrows, “Nickname?” he queried.

“Yeh, everyone in the platoon ‘as one, means ya fit into the banter” as she casually explained, she scooped up some steamed vegetables to complete her plate, the size of the dish compelled Gallus to grab another scoop of the lasagne to compete. “Don’t bother ya, does it?” she followed with curiosity.

The banter of it made sense, it reminded him of his friendly jabs with Smolder. The dragon would often call him something like pigeon or chicken when he’d manage to get on his nerves. On the other hand, he’s blue and a type of bird, so the best nickname the other ponies come up with was that? That is not assuming they were calling him after the little twittering bird, he wasn’t the only griffon who didn’t like being called after smaller birds.

"If I wanted a nickname, I’d rather it be a cool one. What’s yours anyway, Sterling?”

The mare just laughed, “Heh, no one gets a cool nickname in the E.U.P. Mine’s Steppin’ Time.”

An odd nickname for sure, Gallus could see he was not the odd one out. “Why do they call you that?” it was his turn to be curious, he had to know.

The mare bowed her head, “Bad riddym wid drills in the first day,” she breathed in and returned to her smile as she looked back at Gallus, “best not get into a munk over it though, name’s Pound Sterling by the way.”

That’s when Gallus remembered, Staff Sergeant Razorwing kept calling out somepony named Sterling to step in time with the others during the first drill sessions. Gallus started to snicker, getting the banter part of the nickname.

“Guess it is better than if your nickname was based on your accent” he calmly reassured her.

Suddenly, Sterling’s face turned sour. “Wot accent?” she asked, her voice had deepened as she began to glare.

At that moment, Gallus’ heart stopped, unsure how seriously in trouble he was at that moment. He could feel himself tense up as he tried to force himself backwards. He was ready to apologise when Sterling suddenly burst out laughing.

“Nah, just messin with ya! Am from Trottin’h’m, where am from you’d be the funny talkin’ one! Ka’mon, let’s eat.”

Sterling took her tray and made her way towards the dining tables, meanwhile, in a state of confusion and relief, Gallus felt he had not much choice but to follow her.

It ended up being a good idea for Gallus to follow Sterling, as she made a direct path towards one of the tables. The table was full on both sides, and to Gallus the only one he could clearly make out was Scythe in the corner with his head staring down into his meal, with his crewcut mane showing in full view.

How Sterling thought the two of them could fit onto either of the benches was made clear when the mare stood at the end of the table, “Right lads! Budge up!” she ordered, and the pony on one of the corners saw her and started to shift along the bench, bumping into the next pony who followed until there was room for her to sit. Luckily for Gallus, he did not need to make any assertions, all it took was Scythe looking over to recognise him before shifting down to give Gallus room to sit.

The griffon sat down to eat his lasagne, back to a silent moment, as the other pegasi were conversing amongst themselves that was hard to decipher, and Scythe was not keen to join in himself as he kept his head down.

Then one of the ponies sitting opposite turned their directions to him. “Hey Bluebird, mind if I ask you something?” Gallus looked up to see who it was, and he saw the familiar cyan pegasus, Mr Throw Up. It was not his name, Gallus could not make out what was said on the nametag, probably was not his nickname either, but for Gallus it was a reminder.

Although he would rather not want to hear it, he sighed and gave in, “Fine, go ahead.”. He knew there was not much else he could do aside from eating.

“What made you decide to join the Royal Guard Academy? I mean, I know there is no better army to be in than the E.U.P…” he explained with an arrogant smug, “…but don’t griffons have their own army?”

His question seemed intently curious, smugness aside, so Gallus played along. “Yeah, the Griffon Army, an all-airborne military force for the griffon empire. I was gonna sign up, until a year ago…”

Mr Throw Up leant in further. “Then what changed? Not good enough for them or were they not good enough for you?” he asked haughtily, looking around the table to see if other ponies thought it was funny. The pegasus’ heart sunk when he turned back to see Gallus with a half-lidded glare, and he turned on the defensive. “Dude, I’m only joking.”

“You're always joking when you act like a jerk…” a mumbled voice had uttered from where Scythe was sitting,

Gallus took a deep breath and continued, “More than a year ago, I thought there was no better army to be in than the Griffon Army, and it would have been the only army I could have gone to.” He then paused, before lifting his glare and transitioning a mild tone. “But then I was in my final year at school in Ponyville, and all of my friends were staying there. My only choice would have been moving away from them to train in the Griffon Army, at least until I was on a field trip…”

“Welcome to the Royal Canterlot Palace, this is the oldest surviving actively used castle in the history of Equestria. It has been the residence of our former monarchs Princess Celestia for over one thousand years, as well as her sister Princess Luna for nine of those years, and is currently the home of our current monarch, as well as your school’s founder and former headmare, Princess Twilight Sparkle. As students, you will get to have a rare opportunity to witness various parts of the castle that are not part of our regular tours.”

It was several months ago when Gallus had “volunteered” to assist guidance councillor Trixie to supervise the first years on a field trip around Canterlot Palace. He was forced to help because of blackmail for a prank that he and Smolder pulled off, it was doing this or face Headmare Starlight. As a result, he was the only one in the tour group without a hint of glee or excitement.

One of the young first-year ponies eagerly raised their hoof to ask a question. “Will we get to meet Princess Twilight today?” Other faces glowed with anticipation at the thought of a potential famous visitor, but unfortunately, the tour guide had to disappoint.

“I’m sorry, but the Princess is currently away performing diplomatic duties.” A series of awws were emitted from the young group, but the guide kept her smile to reassure them. “I know, she’s truly disappointed that she couldn’t meet all of you as well, so she’s provided gifts for you all to receive at the end of the tour.”

While they were at least accepting, Gallus had his peeved and unsurprised glare fixed on his face. He could recall the same happening when he was part of the first-year tour, where Princess Celestia was ‘inconveniently’ away during his time at the palace but received a gift-basket of fancy chocolates at the end, recalling other classes over the years getting the same treatment as well... “It’s almost as if it was actually planned this way…” he quietly muttered to himself.

He would continue to keep an eye on the youngsters as they enjoyed the many sites around the palace, he may have had the fortune of being there more than once, for all of them it was their first time. Their reactions throughout the palace reminded him of the guided tour he had with his friends, Ocellus bug-eyed over the size of the filled bookshelves in the library, Yona getting lost in the maze at the royal sculpture garden, Smolder salivating at all the gemstones found on the royal artefacts in the gallery, Sandbar being thrilled and smug for getting the chance to sit on the royal throne, and Silverstream being overjoyed and playing with the telescope in Luna’s observatory.

They were good times, the memories were enough to keep him entertained, even if he was losing focus on the students, he had to keep an eye on them. The tour had reached a long hallway on the west wing when Trixie had made an announcement.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! May I present to you a special guest as part of the tour.”

This announcement confused everyone, especially both Gallus and the tour guide, neither of them could recall special guests on past tours. Nevertheless, everyone saw Trixie gesture towards a pony emerging from around the corner. It was a tall and amber coated Pegasus stallion, wearing plated armour and a tail helmet with a plume the colour of blood red to match his tail. He was recognisable to everyone, and the first years murmured amongst each other.

“I think I’ve seen him before… Is that the pegasus our professors talk about, right?”

The smug Pegasus gave his answer. “As far as I know, you’d be right! Name is Sergeant Flash Magnus, one of the Drill Instructors for the E.U.P. Canterlot Palace Royal Guard Regiment.”

“Woah Woah Woah… did you say you saw Flash Magnus? As in THE Flash Magnus?!”

As Gallus lost his train of thought, he looked up to witness half a row of pegasus ponies stare back at him, frozen with raised eyebrows. “Uh… yeah?” he answered, only raising a single eyebrow, calmly waiting for the reaction that would follow.

Throw Up’s face blew up, “Dude! Do you have any idea who that is?!” he asked with radiant energy, the likes that would compare to meeting a famous buckball athlete. It would not occur to Gallus that the Pillars have a similar kind of status to some folk, but there was a small part of his mind that figured that having teachers and tutors who saved Equestria from villains a few years earlier may have skewed his expectations of ponies just a bit.

“Actually, I d- “

“Flash Magnus a living legend! He started off as a cadet in the Cloudsdale Royal Legion over a thousand years ago,” as everyone listened to the pegasus’ patronising exposition about Flash Magnus, Gallus slowly became jaded as he already knew about the same pony. “He became a symbol of bravery for many heroic acts, even being honoured as one of the Pillars of Equestria.” Gallus knew about that too, almost like it was in Headmare Twilight’s class on Equestrian History. “Legend has it him and the rest of the pillars were in limbo to trap the Pony of Shadows until a few years ago.”

“I think he already knows all that…” Scythe also shared Gallus’ jadedness, not that any of the other ponies could hear him.

Then the pony next to Throw Up chimed in, a stallion with an amber coat and brunette hair, his coveralls had the name Breaker written on the tag attached to his coveralls. “Hey, do you know what I found out?” He asked rhetorically, seemingly just as much a fan of Flash Magnus himself. “Flash Magnus has other descendants in the E.U.P., there are whole generations with the Magnus name serving in the Guard. In fact, a Magnus graduated from here a few years ago, could you imagine if there was a descendent of Flash Magnus in our year? Or even in our platoon?”

“SO, GALLUS!” Scythe called out with an elevated voice, much to everyone else’s surprise. “You were telling your story about being in Canterlot Palace?”

Unsure of what Scythe’s eagerness and grin was all about, Gallus steadily continued…

“Woah, you work here?” one of the first years asked in amazement.

“That’s right,” Flash gladly answered, “it’s my job to train new recruits here at the palace, either to be guards here at the palace or in other regiments around Equestria.” He leapt and flapped over the entire group before landing at the windows to point out at the west wing courtyard. “As you can see, Canterlot has its own regiment that takes care of protecting everything, with companies dedicated to protecting either the city, palace or the monarchs. It is my duty to ensure that all companies have soldiers prepared in case something bad happens.”

Every first-year huddled around the window, outside they could see several ponies in the courtyard in full-plated armour, some marching in groups while another drill instructor shouts at them, standing guard, patrolling the outer walls, or saluting one another.

“So, anyone got a question?” offered Flash, to which every first-year turned around and huddled around the Pegasus, asking any question they could, albeit not all relating to his current job.

“Is it true you singlehandedly took on 30-foot dragons?”

“How come you always wear a helmet; do you have a cool mane cut?”

“Are you the same age as you were when you went into limbo? Or are you like over a thousand years old?”

As Flash, Trixie, and the tour guide try to control the young students and their eager questions, Gallus had remained fixed at the window, looking out towards all the soldiers and officers on active duty. Wheels turned in his head as he observed them training or working in full armour.

“Hey, I have a question!” Every other pony and student paused and turned their heads towards the griffon, one arm with talon raised. “Are there any requirements to join the Royal Guard, as a soldier or officer?”

All heads turned back to Flash Magnus, pausing for thought as he rubbed one of his hooves under his chin. He had to remind himself of the entry requirements, recruiting was not part of his general line of work.

“Well, ideally you need to be fit, healthy and prove that you’re outgoing. If you want to be an officer, nowadays you need to graduate from the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy, which also requires you to be a particularly good student and a good character overall. Apart from that, the Royal Guard takes all kinds.”

The eyes of Gallus widened by only a few millimetres as if a lightbulb had gone off above his head. Trixie looked towards Flash with a smirk, appearing as the only one to recognise Gallus’ subtle glow that emerged. “If one of these prrrrospective students is interested in joining the Royal Guard after they graduate, what would they need to do?” she asked leering towards the Sergeant.

“Oh, well you can go into any E.U.P. Guard recruitment office to apply. There is one in every city, in fact, the Canterlot office is in the city square. I believe there’s still time to apply for the academy.”

Satisfied with the answer, Trixie decided to wrap things up. “Well, on behalf of everyone from the School of Friendship, I thank you for your time and your service.” After waving to bid Flash Magnus a farewell, the group were directed down the hall in one direction, as Magnus made his way in the other, Gallus occasionally looking behind as he moved further away.

“That’s what made me decide, I went to the recruitment office and filled in an application form later that day.”

As he finished the story, he noticed some on the table was still listening. Not as much engaged, but earnest. It was a relief for him, not seeing confused and standoffish expressions, but those who were interested. “Musta bin a surprise for tha pony wokkin there,” remarked Sterling.

“Well, he wasn’t that much help until he actually saw me,” Gallus replied, rolling his eyes. “never understood why he was weirded out by me being there.”

Throw Up jumped in, “Sure it’s not because you’re…?” His question trailed off as Gallus looked in his direction, his eyes widened as Gallus started to glare, easily anticipating what the rest of it was supposed to be.

“I’m what?” he dared the Pegasus, drawing a smirk. Instead, Throw Up lowered his head into his food, much to Sterling’s snickering.

All the while, Scythe was just smiling away. “Nice that you wanted to work closer to your friends,” he added quietly, leaning towards Gallus for him to hear. “must be hard though, being here and all…”

“Maybe, but I think we can manage,” using his talon, he reached around his back and underneath his wing. He pulled out an envelope that had been planted there by a friendly courier and was kept hidden the whole time. “As long as we keep in touch.” He opened the letter and smiled as it confirmed who he thought it was from.

“Hey Gally!

Silverstream here, just wanted to let you know what’s going on. The three of us at the house are having a busy time at school, sadly couldn’t get Smolder and Ocellus to write something because they’re out on a date tonight. I dunno what is more adorable, seeing them together or Smolder being all pouty whenever she is wearing a dress.

Speaking of dresses, Yona’s told me that she’s already on her first dress assignment with Rarity, hopefully, in a few weeks, I can send a photo to you of it! Sandbar’s also getting better at swimming down at the lake, although we should see how he fairs against a sea pony some time. ;)

I hope you’re doing okay at the Academy, those big tough guards not giving you a hard time. Just remember we’re all rooting for you!

Silverstream”

Author's Note

If you want to find out what actually happened in that recruitment office, here's the story! This is one of the original chapters I drafted before tweaking it into a flashback.

The next chapter will be more training shenanigans!

Winstone's Trial Obstacle Course

Hey friends,

Sorry I haven’t replied any sooner, I haven’t had much time to write a letter since I got here. Doing fine though; I’ve gotten used to waking up in the early hours of the morning and having my room inspected, doing the drills, exercises, classes, cleaning the dorms and ironing our uniforms. Staff Sergeant Razorwing is pretty tough, but he has his way of teaching us how to be military.

I’m still trying to learn the names of the other ponies in my platoon, but they seem to like me, they all seem pretty interested in a griffon amongst the group. My roommate Scythe is a good pony, he’s quiet but he’s helpful.

I have a couple of weeks left of this intensive training period, once that’s done, I can apparently get more free time to write.

Till next time,
Gallus

P.S. Hey Sandbar, how’s Coral doing at school?

“GRIFFON! GET OUT HERE!”

The sergeant’s alarm call caused Gallus to panic, he had been writing during the short break he had and did not realise the length of time it took. He grabbed an envelope and stamp, hastily wrote Silverstream’s address on it before he filled it with the letter and made a mad dash out of his room. With not much time to check his outfit, he chucked the letter into a nearby post box and made his way outside.

His platoon was all lined up with Razorwing in front, looking displeased as his eyes did not meet Gallus’, but just below them. “Twenty wing-ups from you Griffon,” he ordered, pointing a hoof at the ground, “ten for being late, and ten more for your unshaped collar.” Gallus proceeded to grumble as he lowered himself down to the gravel, holding himself up by both his hind paws and the tip of his wings.

He deliberately left out of that letter that he had also gotten used to the number of penalties he had been given for the slightest errors, even if the smallest benefit was his wings have gotten more accustomed to the stress of his own body weight with the help of the morning stretches.

His platoon buddies kept their eyes front and centre, paying no attention to him either, avoiding Razorwing’s attention. He stood in front and looked down on Gallus, not in the mood for the slightest complaints. “If you were here with the rest of your platoon, you wouldn’t be down there” he caustically remarked, “and hurry up, we’re all heading to your first course.”

Yep, Gallus just had a couple of weeks left of this.

The whole platoon flew over the field to the sight of a long and winding dirt path, the course had several obstacles that appeared to be made with wooden beams, as well as murky lakes. As the group lowered to the surface, other ponies could be seen scattered throughout the course, inspecting the different obstacles. A signpost had the name of the place engraved upon it, “Winstone’s Trial Training Ground”, with an emblem of a unicorn above it.

Razorwing stood in front and called for attention, “This week, you’re going to be at your limits.” He opened, walking up and down the line of cadets. “If you can go through this course, you’ll be good enough for the guard.” Gallus looked over at the course with a confident smirk across his face, most of it looked easy for him, he could just fly across. None of the other ponies looked as assured as him though, some internally tracing the length of the course with a taut feeling in their stomachs. Razorwing continued, pointing over to a large wooden gazebo, “so take a body vest, warm up your hooves and legs, and then we can get started.”

Inside the gazebo was a table stacked with granite coloured body vests, and on a wall was a board with names and times on, recording the fastest ponies who went around the course. Gallus would not have paid attention to the board, had he not recognised two names at the top of the board.

Under the unicorn section was the name “Shining Armor”, who he knew to be the brother of Princess Twilight Sparkle, his time was more than fifteen years old. Under Pegasus, was “Tomcat Magnus”, which must have confirmed what Wind Breaker said about there being descendants of Flash Magnus, his time was only three years old.

He picked up one of the vests, feeling the weight hanging from his talons. Fully padded in the front and back, with straps around the side but no holes for wings. He looked around and saw the other ponies had moved back out and help each other fit the vests and tighten the straps, joking amongst each other like there was no problem.

At least except Scythe, he was on his own having difficulty with tightening the straps. His hooves were useless since he could barely grip onto the strap to pull, and his head could not bend low enough to pull them with his teeth. “Here, let me help…” he offered, still carrying his vest as he made his way over.

Scythe’s flicked upwards, he didn’t have time to answer as Gallus slowly pulled the straps with one talon while holding Scythe away with the other, tightening one side. “Oh, thanks…” he finally answered, as Gallus went around to tighten the strap on the other side.

Then Gallus picked up his own vest. “So…where are the wings supposed to go through in these?” he asked while rotating the vest around, noting the lack of holes for wings to fit through.

“They’re not” Scythe answered in a blunt and nonchalant manner, causing confusion with the griffon.

“What do you mean?”

The griffon wasn’t getting it, Scythe showed his back to demonstrate. “These vests are meant to hold your wings down,” his brief explanation was not enough to rid Gallus of his perplexed stare, “the whole point of Winstone’s Trial is to test as if you’re grounded, without flight or magic.”

Gallus’ eyes narrowed, losing a sense of the concept. “So, we can’t use our wings?” he looked towards the obstacle course he previously imagined would be a breeze. “This obstacle course would be a lot easier if we could fly through it.”

“That’s right Griffon, it would be easier.” When Gallus turned his head back around, suddenly Razorwing was standing right beside an upright Scythe, glowering towards him. His feathers puffed out as a result of the surprise.

Razorwing continued unphased, “Any task would be easier if we could just use our wings to fly, or if unicorns could just use the magic in their horns but tell me this griffon” he started moving towards Gallus, his voice lowered. “If you were in the middle of a battlefield and one of your wings was broken, do you think the enemy will leave you alone?”

At this point, Razorwing’s face was but an inch from Gallus’ beak, staring him down whilst using one of his hooves to pull Gallus’ wing upward. “Uh… no, sir?” Gallus could only answer nervously.

“Exactly, the enemy wouldn’t care” Razorwing continued, moving back upright, letting go of Gallus’ wing and giving back his personal space. “The enemy would still expect you to run and fight, I don’t know if the griffon army feels that way, and to be honest I don’t care. In the E.U.P., if you can’t fight without wings or magic, you can’t fight at all. Now cut the chit-chat and get your vest on.”

Every cadet lined up in twos, each one waiting for the call from Razorwing, flying over from above with a clipboard and stopwatch in hoof. “ROSEWOOD! STERLING! GO!” and both Scythe and Pound Sterling went off.

“Sithee on tauther side!” yelled the northern pony as she made her remark.

One minute passed, and then another pair went. Then another. Then another. The anticipation built up inside Gallus, the urge to dash and plough through the obstacles. Except he had to wait for another pair to go, then another, then another. Until…

“GRIFFON! WINDBREAKER! GO!”

The pair fired off directly into the first obstacle, the sea of tires, each leg having to step into the rings as they travel across. Easy going for both. Then it was monkey bars, Gallus gripped onto the bars tightly with his talons as he swung from one to the next, if it wasn’t for the weight of the body vest around his chest, he could swing across much faster. He could see off the corner of his eyes that it was harder for Wind Breaker, the stubby hooves meant he had to hook his entire wrist around each arm.

When Wind Breaker failed to reach far enough to get one of the bars, he started to fall. Unfortunately, it became apparent how dependent pegasus ponies were on their wings. His instincts told him to start flapping, but when the body vest pressed the wings into his back where he could not move, panic set in. If he remembered to land with his hoofs, he wouldn’t have smacked face-first into the dirt.

“Wind Breaker, go back to the start of the bars” bellowed Razorwing from the sky, as Wind Breaker staggered and groaned his way back onto his hooves. Gallus made his way across and kept moving towards the next obstacle, the barbed wire.

After breathing in, Gallus went prone on the dirt and started crawling, hoping that with each arm moving and leg moving forward, that his attire would take most of the damage from the sharp spikes in the wire, even needing to hold his tail down to avoid it being tangled.

Once in the clear, he pushed himself back up and ran towards a set of barriers. He could see the ponies jump over them with ease, although some forgot to jump high enough. “Steeplechase, get your legs up over those barriers,” Razorwing yelled at one of the other ponies, trying their hardest to pull themselves over the last barrier.

When Gallus made it over the last barrier and started climbing a steep ramp, he noticed his breathing getting heavier and heavier. After so much running, he was losing energy faster than he did through exercises while standing still. It made traversing the balance beam, the exhaustion making it harder to prevent himself from falling off.

He stumbled his way off the end and sat down the side, breathing as beads of sweat dripped from the top of his head and down his beak. Alas, Razorwing wasn’t having any of it. “Griffon, keep moving, you’re not allowed to stop until you reach the finish line” he shouted out. Griffon, he always called Gallus Griffon, that is not a name. If Gallus wasn’t gasping for breath, he could call him out on it.

“My name… is Gallus… sir…” he called back, pausing for each breath.

The staff sergeant just crossed his arms, “I’ll keep that in mind when it’s important, but now you either keep running or I’ll get a unicorn to give you a jump start!”

With a heavy groan, Gallus stood back up and started moving again, moving at a trot as he approached another ramp. At the top, he could see two long ropes hanging from a high bar, and one other pony was standing at the top.

“Hey Bluebird, sweating already?”

It was Throw Up, his hoof hooked around one of the ropes, acting smug as Gallus had his paws and claws on the landing. The griffon creased his forehead and scowled back. “Says you…” he retorted, noting the slight drizzle on Throw-Up’s own forehead.

The pony quickly brushed it off his forehead to hide the evidence, “Nah, I could do this all day.” He hastily bragged. “Watch and learn!” He wrapped the rope around his hoof, stepped back and then jumped up on the rope, hooking his hind hooves around the bottom of the rope. He swung outwards with ease, and then when the rope started slowing down on the other side, he let go. The wide eyes and shock on his face as he looked down indicated that something was wrong. “Oh crap!” he uttered as he fell, and a loud splash was made at the bottom.

Gallus didn’t bother to check, he grabbed the rope, pulled it back and jumped on. He applied as much weight as he can and waited until the rope had swung past the halfway point before letting him go. The momentum of the rope was carried through as Gallus glided forward and landed firmly on dry land. He looked back to see Throw Up in a murky pool of water, drenched and covered in mud at the same time. The sight was enough to cause Gallus to do something for the first time all day, laugh.

“I must admit, that was a good lesson!” he remarked with a smirk, before carrying on.

The last obstacle stood between Gallus and the finish line, the wall. One fully vertical slope, and nothing but a rope to get one over. Still worn out, Gallus looked up and the wall appeared taller and taller. The one grace he had was that the towering wooden monolith blocking the low hanging sunlight.

“Just this one, just this one and then I can finish…” he reassured himself.

He grabbed onto the rope, placed his hind paws firmly on the wall, and started walking up, pulling on the rope. He made it halfway up when suddenly, his paws slipped, and his body swung face-first into the wall and he dropped. He tried again, he held onto the rope as tight as he could, paws pushing on the wall, his aching arms pulling on the rope. But like before, he slipped, banged against the wall, and back on the bottom.

A voice could be heard from the other side of the wall. “Come on Bluebird! You’re almost home!”

And another voice was coming from above, “Griffon, you’re stalling again.” He could also see the Staff Sergeant glowering at him again. He had his head rested against the wall, his eyes glowed and breathing heavily. He wanted to get through, but his will was starting to dwindle. If he can’t finish this trial, he thought, he’d be done for. “This would be easier if I could use my wings…”

“You call yourself a griffon and you cannot climb?” another voice called out to him, but not one that sounded familiar to all the other ones. This voice sounded more gravelly, crankier, and was undiscernible in which direction it was coming from. “For the sake of King Grover, you have more than just wings ya know!”

He opened his eyes, the sounds around him coming clearer. He looked down at his amber talons and blue feline legs and feet, and suddenly an idea popped into his head. That voice was right, he’s more than just wings, he was a griffon. Part bird AND part lion. He sat back up and looked up at the wall, his lower hind lowered and shifting side to side.

To the Staff Sergeant, it looked like Gallus was sitting, and he didn’t approve of it. Getting impatient, he starts to descend on Gallus. “Dammit Griffon,” he yelled, “you better be at the top of that wall by the time I get there!” Yet by the time he reached the ground, Gallus was not at the bottom of the wall, nor was he holding onto a rope.

Gallus had leapt upward, landing halfway up the walls with his claws holding him in place, long enough so he could push off the wall with his feet for another jump up the wall, and then another for good measure. By the time Razorwing looked up, he could see Gallus’ perched on the top wall, dumbfounded as the griffon disappeared over the other side.

Crossing the finish line, Gallus finished Winstone’s Trail. There were cheers from the other finishers, some more elated than others. “That was sick, Bluebird! Di’nt know you cud just jump over the wall!” exclaimed Sterling as she punched Gallus in the arm.

Gallus was still catching his breath and grinned, “Well, that’s half eagle and half lion for ya.” He looked back at the wall he had just cleared, Razorwing was still looking up and around it in a state of confusion, “Staff Sarge was right, I don’t need wings.”

Scythe offered a lighter path on the back, “Least now you don’t have to do it again…” he quietly remarked.

The griffon just smirked, “You kidding? I might try and get a record on that time board next time I’m here.” The remark got a few ponies laughing in response.

Other ponies also made their way down to the finish line, all being cheered on by the rest of the platoon. Even Throw Up made it despite being peeved at the amount of mud that had ruined his cyan coat. A few were not so lucky to make it through all the obstacles, Wind Breaker gave up at the wall, the other platoon was cheering him on as he was just a few metres from the top, before he slipped and fell, not getting up until Razorwing went over to check on him.

He was slowly made his way to the finish line, cheerless with his head down for the rest of the day.

“Okay cadets, we’re done for the day. Take off your vests and make your way back…” ordered Razorwing, the last order of the day.

Everyone returned to the dorms tired and exhausted, there was a need for a rest, and for a few a good shower. Gallus made his way to his room, where he caught something unique. A large brown package was resting on his bed, wrapped in string. It must be Gabby’s care package.

He sat on the bed and tore open the packaging and was amazed by the contents. There were griffon scones, which emitted a fresh aroma upon being unwrapped, Gabby must have gotten them recently baked from her friend Gilda the morning she set off from Griffonstone. Luckily, confectionary items are allowed in the dorms, so he figured they could be worth sharing later.

Then there was a large stack of paper, envelopes, and stamps, as well as a new quill and bottle of ink. Clearly, this was from Gabby and her post office, he found it very thoughtful as he had to borrow from Scythe to get a single letter posted earlier that day.

The next item had to be Gallus’ favourite, socks! Griffons love socks and leg warmers, and these ones were long, soft and stripey! He knew he wouldn’t be able to wear them, he didn’t want to make things weird with his platoon, but he appreciated the comfort.

He kept digging and found a single photo, it was a selfie of Gabby smiling with glee, with Gilda and her other friend Greta being pulled uncomfortably into the frame, their faces all smushed together. The photo drew a smile from Gallus’ face, most griffons would be sick of the sweetness and friendliness Gabby would offer, but after learning to make friends himself, he really appreciated knowing Gabby was around.

There was one more item at the bottom of the package, a wooden carved and varnished block in the shape of a shield. On the front was an emblem of a large griffon with wings spread wide and a stern gaze, towering over an idol-coloured gold and ruby. Below the emblem was engraved symbols of an olden language, Gallus could only assume it to be Griffish, a language he couldn’t entirely speak, let alone read.

Whatever this plaque was, it was out of place among the other items. It was too dark and bleak to be something from Gabby, too old and tacky for something Gilda would provide, and Greta… well Gallus hardly saw or knew her, but it didn’t look anything like something she’d send. Then he got his answer when he turned around to look at the back.

“Never forget – Gruff”

A single label, clearly written in Ponish. His eyes started to burn with anger, and his eyebrows drew together. This plaque wasn’t a gift, it was a message. “Sure, old-timer, I won’t forget…” He coldly remarked as he held the plaque over a trashcan, ready to throw it away.

But he tried with all his might, yet he couldn’t let the plaque go. “Dammit”, if he could not make himself get rid of it, he just needed to hide it, somewhere where he’d never find it again.

First Day on the Field - Part 1

Gallus never imagined in his life that one of the places he would find solace would be a classroom, sitting behind a desk with a notebook and pencil, staring at a chalkboard. They were welcome breaks between the physically enduring routine, as well as one of the few moments in the day where Razorwing wasn’t breathing down the back of his neck.

Although these classrooms weren’t as large and creatively diverse as they were in the School of Friendship, at least not the time after the E.E.A. left the school alone. Desks were small and evenly spaced; the walls were dreary with military posters peeling off the walls. Gallus could understand that learning about combat and outdoor survival is more important than classroom décor, but would it have hurt to avoid all the classrooms on the same floor being the same.

Granted, even a Wonderbolt like Professor Dash didn’t have as great tenacity of holding a student's attention as these teachers did. “Okay cadets, I’m aware you may have had this lesson before, but in a week’s time you’ll be spending your first time out on the field” Captain Westland opened towards the class, the light red pegasus mare addressed with a controlled volume, but she carefully studied the room, as if waiting for the right moment to catch someone. “and if I or a platoon instructor expect to trust you with weapons, we won’t make excuses if you get things wrong.”

She made steps towards the chalkboard, etched on it in white was a figure of the side a pony donned in armour, and below it a long and skinny box. One end of the box was chalked in thick like a bright white square and attached to the very end was a sharply pointed triangle.

With a long ruler in one of her wings, she pointed towards the sketched object on the board. “The Spear, standard weapon of the E.U.P. Guard,” she said with the utmost sincerity before it was time for her to partake in testing the cadets. “what is the correct position to hold a spear when standing in attention, Wind Breaker?”

Wind Breaker suspected he was her first target, sitting front and centre, but he felt his mind froze over at what was meant to be an easy answer. “Uh… upright, ma’am?” he slowly answered.

“Correct,” Westland confirmed directly, giving Wind Breaker a moment to exhale as she drew a line on the armoured pony figure to give it a spear to hole. “and Nick, what time should you point your spear anywhere else?”

Sitting next to Wind Breaker, Throw Up had his head rested on his hoof. “When there is a hostile act, Captain” his answer carried a drone that wasn’t missed by the captain, whose eyes creased before she turned back towards the bored student.

“Good, but what about hostile intent?” She moved her way towards Throw Up’s desk as the cyan pegasus lifted his head and his face drew a blank. The captain continued, “There will be times where you see something or someone that may intend to harm but have yet to carry it out. Would you point your spear towards it straight away?”

“Uh, yes ma’am?” he guessed.

Captain Westland lifted her front hoof and slammed it on the desk, causing Throw Up and cadets adjacent to jump as the sound of the impact sent a small shockwave through the classroom. The wave was followed by silence, where only the sounds of cadets outside performing their exercises faintly made their way into the room. The Captain smirked as her vermillion eyes locked onto Throw Up’s wide and attentive ones. “You just landed a possible court-martial,” she remarked jovially, an uncomfortable tone as she switched to a glower “excessive escalation of force.”

Leaving the cadet shook, she explained. “As guards, you’re responsible to protect with the least amount of damage, doubly so when your commissioned officers commanding troops. Therefore, it is important that you can memorize the stages of escalation of force and carry them out in order. Starting with what, Rosewood?”

“Shout, Captain…” answered Scythe, although his habit appeared at noticeably the wrong time. The irises of Westland’s eyes rolled along the edge of her eyelids as she sighed.

“Louder, please.”

“Shout… call out to the threat for them to get your attention” he answered, raising his voice to a normal volume.

Throw Up sardonically whispered to Wind Breaker “Is it actually possible for Mumbles to shout?”, but a quick shot glance from the captain prevented either of them from uttering more than a snicker.

“Correct, and once the potential threat has your attention but decides to continue, do you use your weapon, Gallus?”

The griffon was caught staring outside the window, watching over a pegasus platoon working on their levitations. His eyes darted around as he tried to figure out the answer, he knew the first stage was shout but what was the second stage. As Captain Westland pointed out, they already had a lesson on this, so the word he needed to use must have been somewhere. First was to shout, then it was…

“Uh… show…” his eyes lit up as he internally pulled out the answer buried in his mind, “you show but don’t use…” he answered with a nervous grin.

Captain Westland could only return half a smile, “Glad to have you pay attention.” She returned to the board to erase the spear from the armoured figure. “Show your spear in a ready position, somewhere between forward and upright,” she drew a new spear pointed upward and diagonally in the direction of the figure, “but if what you are facing with isn’t a confirmed threat what must you do, Sterling?”

“Shuv, mum. Make ‘em move away” the white pegasus answered, the most upright and sanguine of the class.

The captain blinked, making doubly sure she heard the answer correctly before giving her response. Although her eyes looked upward in thought, she gave a cautious nod. “…Yes, I’d also accept restraining them.” Her surveying eyes then moved back to the initial troublemaker on her radar, Throw Up. “When you’ve done all of those stages, and the threat has not stopped, what do you do with your spear, Nick?”

“Uh, Stab?” he guessed again, not much else you could do with a spear.

Westland smirked. “Correct, you are permitted to point your spear directly at the target. Thrust once, then release. Doing so would be enough to seriously injure or kill the threat but trust me in that you are better off having the threat end in one of the earlier stages.” She went back to the board, and wrote down the four words in a stack, underlining the front S in each of them. “Shout, Show, Shove, Stab, remember the order and you won’t be in any trouble when the time comes.”

As assuring as she intended to be, there remained a sense of discomfort amongst a portion of the class.

"Next on the agenda, setting up base..."

Shout, Show, Shove, Stab. Those four words were engrained in Gallus’ mind as he waited in line to pick up his spear for the upcoming trip, Exercise Self-Reliance. It was already a long and arduous wait considering he also had to carry a rucksack on his back with equipment in, it was as if he were carrying a clone of himself.

Fortunately, it was an orderly line, pony goes up to a square hole in the wall that held an armoury, gets given a spear by two hooves through the square hole, “Thank you corporal”, moves on for the next pony. It was as if common courtesy was an assembly line.

Then in comes Gallus, and he finally gets a look at the corporal, a big earth pony stallion with freckles around his nose and witnessing him doing a double-take on Gallus. The corporal’s head tilted as he slowly moved the spear through the square hole. Gallus could not see a reason for the aura of caution, it was not like he didn’t follow the same lessons for the last four weeks.

Regardless, he got his spear, “Thanks, corporal” doing his part of the routine before waiting with the rest of his platoon. The spears themselves were simple in design but also surprisingly weighted. The staff of it was one long smooth wooden rod, and on top of it was a steel spike that was dull and grey but shaped like a thin diamond, its edges looked so pointed that if one were to touch it…

“Ouch!” a loud yelp emerged from the room, loud enough that the corporal poked his head out of the hole to see what had happened, only for everyone to witness the source. “That’s sharp!” cried Throw Up, his voice muffled by the hoof muzzling his face to ease the stinging sensation it was having.

“Course it is” the corporal groaned, “it’s a standard-issue spear.” The earth pony tutted and shook his head as he crawled back into the armoury, “There’s always one…” he quietly muttered to himself.

As Throw Up handled his hard lesson of being careful with his spear, the other platoon members just waited around, talking with one another, looking through their bags or their spears. Wind Breaker looked intently at the diamond tip of his spear, it appeared to glisten as moved slightly under the light. As he stared into the reflection emitting from the metal, he could recall the soldiers he had seen, the stories of battles that have been fought with this one weapon.

He had that moment of realization that he heard from other ponies who join the guard.

“This is real…”

The Exercise Self-Reliance took place in the woodlands near Foal Mountain, the platoon was separated into groups and ordered into separate areas to set up “bases” with shelter and a place to prepare food. Gallus was assigned to a group with Scythe, Throw Up, Wind Breaker, Sterling and another cadet Sterling called “Dusty”, a turquoise Pegasus with a short trimmed fiery mane that was familiar, maddingly so since Gallus could not out a talon on why.

After a while of unpacking, the group worked together on their base, hammering poles and pegs into the soft ground so they could get tents held up. As time went by, some of the cadets were struggling to keep their tents upright, that was except for the two mares of the group.

“Kamon lads, not that ‘ard to pitch a tent!” boasted Sterling, resting inside her fully pitched tent with her head poking out the entrance. Throw Up’s brows drew together, he was already having a hard time fitting the pegs in place to hammer them in with one of his hooves covered in a bandage. His buddy Wind Breaker was working at a snail’s pace, fumbling over the pieces.

“Well, Steppin' Time, you could help us…” he suggested.

But Sterling smiled and laid back, “Soz colts, self-reliance. Sarge sez ya need ta fettle in pairs on ya tents.” She rested the back of her head on her hooves, taking in the air of the forest. “‘Sides, ain’t ya done campin' before?”

The stallion grumbled with a resented nod. “In the junior cadets,” he answered, “but setting up tents above clouds is a lot different than camping underneath.” As the pegasus hammered fitted the final pole in place, there was a few seconds of relief as the frame held upright... just before crashing down on them.

Meanwhile, Gallus was busy setting up his own tent with Scythe, finally getting the body of their tent upright and applying the covering. Overhearing the other conversation, he pieced together what Throw-Up was saying, upon recognising the junior cadets and being in the clouds. He turned to Scythe, “So were you two in the same junior cadets…?” he whispered.

Scythe nodded to confirm his suspicions, “Mh-hmm…” his tone was downcast. It gave the impression that the two did not have the friendliest of times together, at least the one in front of Gallus didn’t.

“What ‘bout you Bluebird,” Sterling called out, causing Gallus’ feathered ears to flick upwards, “you camp out much, or you an indoor griffon?”

The griffon stared upwards at the mountain through the trees, a setting not too different from his old home. Griffonstone was a giant tree that stood on a rock, surrounded by dark green forests and mountaintops. There would have been plenty of areas for a griffon to go out and around the country for an outing, but Gallus couldn’t remember a time that he would have left Griffonstone, at least not before going to school. “Well… I’m used to sleeping outside,” he casually answered, “but I’ve not been on a camping trip before.”

He turned to see Sterling turn over on her side with a raised eyebrow, curious to what he meant. Gallus hesitated slightly and reverted to looking back up at the mountain top, “The School of Friendship didn’t do any overnight field trips in the woods or jungles, not since Professor Dash and Professor Applejack tried to run one.”

It was probably for the best, those two ponies felt more interested in competing with one another like an old married couple than teach us anything outdoors. He chuckled to himself, recalling the time he worked with his friends to save the teachers from a school of Bite-acudas. It ended up being a good lesson in how to work as a team, in a reverse psychological way.

Sterling returned to grinning, assuming Gallus was missing out. “Ah, you’ll enjoy it! Ah love campin', done it with my folks since a filly.” She looked up at the sky, listing her great experiences of camping, “Get to see the stars, ‘ear all the chirpin', heat up food by the campfire…”

“And carry around sharp army issued spears?” asked Gallus with a cocked eyebrow, reminding her of the weapons they were all given earlier.

The mare just shrugged, “Eh, there’s always something new.” The pair of Scythe and Gallus hammered in the final pegs and attached the arching poles, finishing their loose structure. There was a subtle moment of pride as a hoof and close-fisted talon bumped into each other. Now the tent is done, they could finally get a cooking area built for food.

“How has it been an hour and you lot haven’t finished setting up your base yet?” a sharp suddenly question pierced through the conversation. The Staff Sergeant had arrived to check in on the group and was not too happy. Turns out the other groups have had theirs all finished, and everyone was about to go forward with the exercises. “You should be able to take care of yourselves out in the fields. If you are not done in the next five minutes, you’ll have to finish it at sundown.” His warning brought a groan from the rest of the group. “There better not be any more ponies holding me back…” he muttered to himself, as he was taking his leave.

“Uh… sarge?” a pegasus called out, waving his plastered hoof to get Razorwing’s attention, “My hoof has started bleeding again…”

Razorwing rested his head on the bottom of his hoof, he did not want to turn around at that moment.

The chaos on the field began after lunch, cadets were to rush through the forest from one end to the other. Many were relieved that they could use their wings this time, as it made travel easier for the pegasi and griffon, even if they had to fly low and through the trees.

Scattered along the forest were large bags of sand, each one of them had to be pierced by a cadet. Felt like a straightforward flight, assuming they were alone. As cadets flew towards a sandbag to strike a spear into it, they had a short amount of time to get behind a tree for cover, cover from return fire. Turns out the unicorn cadets were also training from the other side of the woods, their task to run to the other side and fire towards the pegasus ponies, any cadet that got hit by the beams emitting from the unicorn horns were met with a short stinging sensation.

The pressure did not help many of the winged ponies, handling spears while moving was of great difficulty for them. As Gallus flew from tree to tree, he could catch glances of other cadets panicking as the spears slipped from the hooks made from their hooves or pulling them out of the burlaps with their teeth because it was the strongest grip they had.

Not that he had much time to think about why ponies thought spears were a practical weapon for them to use, keeping a firm grip on his own with his talons, pushing it into and out of heavy sacks. It was not as if he was being fired at as well, one moment stuck during the exercise.

His spear was once driven so far into a sandbag that he had to stand on it to pull the spear out. Before he knew it, he felt a sharp sting in his flank, and as he stumbled behind a tree to recover, he overheard in the distance. “Hey! I finally got the birdie!” followed by laughter. They were aiming at him, they were hitting the other cadets for sure, but they were not laughing about hitting them.

Elsewhere, he saw Wind Breaker was having his own struggles with the exercise. He had his own spear caught in a bag, but something was off. Wind Breaker was making no effort to remove the spear, nor awareness of the beams flying past him. He stared down the wooden shaft towards the bag, impaled and bleeding out grains of sand.

His wild eyes were drawn deep into the image, his breathing slowed to a crawl, the sounds distanced further from him as a sense of dread was making its presence. It would take a hoof to pull him back into reality, and yet it had to be the hoof from the loudest pony on the field. “Cadet! This is an active battle scenario!” yelled Razorwing, his voice managing to drown out the sounds of zaps whizzing past them, “You should not be hesitating or dropping your spears!”

All Wind Breaker could do was keep running forward.

The sun was setting, and the sky was changing to its dark navy hue, as the whole platoon made a trek back to the campsites. All they could do was tire over the exhausting day out they just had...

“Ugh… am nakkud, could do with a good night’s sleep right now…”

“I can still feel the burn those unicorns gave me…”

The reassurances of some, however, was met with the eerie premonition of a few. Following the glow of lanterns, Gallus and his group started to be noticed when they stopped, half of their platoon had gone missing. Staff Sergeant Razorwing turned around, holding the lantern that gave an ominous glow as he gave some unexpected news to the remainder of the group.

”The reason why you lot are here is that this exercise is not over yet.” Gallus and some of the other cadets looked at each other, confuzzled at what was being said.

“While the other half will be asleep for three hours, you’ll remain awake and on guard. Captain Westland and I will take turns to monitor each one of you, so if you want to fight for your commissions, you’ll need the self-discipline to stay awake.”

Those in disbelief had little energy to moan, and those who saw it coming could only remain jaded, this was their first-night manoeuvre.

First Day on the Field - Part 2

What a perfect first night out with friends was what Gallus thought through that first night manoeuvre, the sarcasm incapable of escaping his mind. All six of them, Gallus, Scythe, Throw Up, Pound Sterling, Wind Breaker, and Dusty, out in the woods. With nothing more than the full-bodied coveralls they were wearing and the spears and navigation tools they carried, they faced the chill of the autumn evening. With nothing more than the moon in the sky, they faced the darkness of the woods.

As they slowly walked around the perimeter of the woods, the only way they could preoccupy their time was to talk with the only things they could see clearly from their limited field of vision, themselves. At least, they could talk amongst themselves, as long as they could speak no louder than the cicadas that chirped from the sides of the trees.

“To be truthful, Sterling," whispered Gallus, “I was looking forward to seeing what you loved about camping until now…”

“Ah did say there’s always summa’ new…” Sterling leant on her upright spear like a walking stick and held onto one of her hindhooves to massage it, “least we can sit down for a bit, mee dogzizz barkin.” With all the flying and landing they did during the daytime, the temptation to rest came as no surprise. Gallus himself could feel the ache in his talons and paws, although neither of them was the worst complainers of the group.

“Ugh, I only had six hours sleep last night,” moaned Throw Up, his voice had become slurred from fatigue. “I didn’t know we had to do night watches…”

“I did…” Of course, Scythe knew, likely it was one of his brother’s warnings that were uttered but ignored by others.

“I can barely see anything in this night, can you lot see anything?” Gallus took a pause to scan the area around him, aside from the pegasus ponies in his group, everywhere around him was a dark shade of navy blocked by tall dark pillars.

He could make out dark figures moving in the distance, they were either the other group that had to be awake or their command keeping an eye on them, at least he hoped it was either. The only other clear and visible to his eagle eyes were the moon and stars that shone through the branches and leaves above him.

Throw Up continued to moan, “How much longer do we have to stay up?”

“Maybe five minutes less than when you last asked…?” Scythe replied, he couldn’t bother to lift his head to show his jaded face.

Not that Throw Up would notice, he attempted to calculate with what energy he had, “…so we have three hours to stay awake, minus the amount of time we’ve been doing so far…” He stopped and looked to the empty wrists on his forehooves, his head tilted as he turned around to face the rest of the group. “Has anypony kept track of the time?”

After a beat, the whole group sighed and marched past him, it dawned that no one had a watch or timer on them.

The exhaustion was getting to some in the group, Wind Breaker couldn’t stop thinking about the combat manoeuvre during the day, the obstacle course from weeks earlier, or his own struggles at drills. “Not sure I can take more of this…” he confessed to himself, his head bowed as the moments orbited around his head. “It’s not what I signed up for…”

Catching wind of the last part, Gallus asked curiously, “Well, what did you sign up for?”

Wind Breaker rotated his head slightly to see Gallus out of the corner of his eye, “…adventure, I guess?” he answered with a shrug. “Manehatten is a great place to live if you like art, entertainment, business…” his voice trailed before he finished with a ceded sigh, “but I wanted to go outside, challenge myself…”

The griffon could see Wind Breaker was downcast, but lifting spirits was hard enough in this environment. “Well, this is a challenge,” he remarked, before turning to the rest of the group. “Guess that is what we all wanted, right?”

Sterling nodded. “Course, ah love ta fields and woods, they’re part of my home in Trottin’h’m.” even with a lack of sleep, it was impressive how she kept her chin up and a smile on her face. “It’s why ah came ‘ere, to be a dragoon.”

Gallus furrowed his brow, “You joined the academy to be a dragon?” he asked, yet the mare simply mirrored his brow and stared.

“She means the regiment…” he turned his head towards Scythe and went poker-face. Scythe realised it was Gallus he was talking to, so he cleared his throat and clarified. “The Trottingham Dragoons, it’s one of the E.U.P. Guard infantry regiments.”

Sterling drew a wide smile, her pride overriding her lethargy, it was as if she had the resilience. "Aye, it’s the best regiment, trained to fight in the forests, day and night, rain or shine” she explained in brief. “Wanted to be one since ah was a little bogga, so ‘ere ah am.”

It sounded obvious in hindsight, but Gallus wondered if there were more regiments out there. He has seen the Royal Guards at the Canterlot Palace and knew about the Crystal Guards of the Crystal Empire, but he also knew Equestria was a huge country. Just because a lot of villains end up in either Ponyville or Canterlot would not mean the rest of Equestria was unprotected. He figured it must be like the Griffon army, a regiment for each city,

It also meant another realization for Gallus. “So, you already had a regiment in mind…”

Sterling nodded once more, “Aye, plus ah led ‘nuff camping trips at uni to convince others I could make a good leadeh.” It did give Gallus a bit of relief, knowing a pegasus who wanted to be an officer close to home as a possible goal. All Gallus wanted was to be one and live close to his own friends in Ponyville, at some point he would need to find out which ones are nearby.

He figured he might get some clues by asking around, “Okay, so we know why Breaker and Sterling signed up, what about the rest of you?” he asked, stretching his talons to act casual. He instinctively made his first candidate his own roommate, Scythe.

However, Scythe didn’t realise he was expected to talk until the rest of the group followed and waited in his direction. “Oh uh…” he opened, giving a slight jump and looked upward to think of his answer “my brother’s been through here, my parents were in the guard, my grandpa was in the guard, so it made sense to do the same...”

As Scythe’s voice trailed off, Throw Up’s eyebrows rose with intrigue. As he had been nodding off during the exchange, decided to lean by a tree and keep the conversation going. “Huh… Mumbles' from a military family… fair enough.” His head then turned to Dusty, “What about you?”

The mare had a slight reluctance to answer, only relenting when Sterling nudged her, “I enjoy flying, it’s what I’ve always been best at…” she answered with her gravelly voice.

“Oh really? Why didn’t you join the Wonderbolts?” Throw Up followed, although Dusty’s face contorted in frustration.

“I mean, I tried…”

Throw Up then smirked, “Ah, you washed out…” he remarked. In an instant, Dusty glowered at the smug pony and started approaching him, only being held back by a hoof on the shoulder by the other mare of the group.

“Oi, Dusteh! Dusteh. He ain’t worth it” she called out in a loud whisper, attempting to calm her down.

But something about what Throw Up said got the wheels in Gallus’ mind turning until his eyes lit up. “Wait… weren’t you part of a touring pegasus stunt group… what were they called… The Washouts?” As if on instinct, the turquoise mare went pale and tried to look away as quick as she could. Her aversions failed, as recognition finally dawned on Gallus’ face. “I KNEW YOU WERE FAMILIAR! You’re Lightning Dust!” he exclaimed, only to have the mare press his beak shut to shush him, reminding that they need to be quiet.

Throw Up, on the other hand, snickered at the realization. “Wait, for real? You were a stunt pony?” This left the mare red face, being called out and having two cadets to be angry at.

“Yeah, I saw your show in Ponyville years ago, you were awesome!” quietly eagerly remarked Gallus, after forcing her hoof away so he could speak again. “How come you’re here?”

Lightning Dust started to agitate and look away, “I uh… wanted a new challenge… like you said…” Before Gallus could press further, Lightning Dash bolted ahead of the group, motivating everyone to move.

Now near the back of the group, Gallus and Scythe walked beside each other. The cicadas continued to chirp with crickets as things got quiet again until Gallus felt a nudge in his side.

“Hey Gallus, what about you? Why did you want to sign up?” asked Scythe quizzingly.

The griffon tilted his head, “What do you mean?” he retorted. “I’ve already given a whole story of why I joined the Academy.” He recalled the lunchroom break from the first week in the Academy, Scythe was sitting next to him, so he must have remembered it.

But Scythe persisted, “Yeah, and you said you’ve always wanted to be a military officer and join the Griffon Army…” He then tilted his own head to match Gallus. “what made you want to do that?”

For a moment, Gallus looked out in front of him with a long stare, the question troubled him. It was true that he always wanted to be an officer in the Griffon army, but he didn't have aspirations to go to a specific regiment, or knew anyone in the army, or even had past experience that could justify it. He did have a reason though, it required digging back through his memories. The further back his memories went, the more his eyes began to dart and the more he felt compelled to hold his breath. Then, in the end, he hunched over, “It’s not important…” he mumbled, looking down at the damp soil and away from the Scythe.

Scythe looked on with narrow eyes, as the group kept walking to their next breakpoint.

The group decided to rest their legs against a set of trees, positioned so they could look out for any activity from all angles. All they needed to do was keep themselves awake, although it was easier said than done. Gallus could no longer feel the strain on his talons and paws from all the walking around, the thought of relaxation was enticing him to rest.

“I’m so tired…” he yawned, lightly tapping the bark of the tree with the back of his head.

Suddenly, a new voice emerged. “Oh, you’re tired, are you?” It caused Gallus to jump, it was the same gravelly and cranky voice from the obstacle course. “You young’uns don’t know what it’s like to be tired, in my days there were jobs you had to be awake all day and all night for.” Gallus looked around, the voice sounded like it was so close that it had to be right next to him, almost like they were in his head.

His breath quickened, he was starting to hear things, he must be dreaming. To test if he was awake, he clasped his beak shut with his talons, covering the holes on top to block his airways. If he could still breathe, he was dreaming.

But strangely, he could feel his lungs burning, the urge to open his beak again heightened until he let go. He gasped, he was relieved that he could still breathe, but it did not explain why he was dreaming. “Still awake… need to stay awake…” he repeated to himself.

But the ominous voice continued, “Oh, you wanna stay awake now, do ya? I’ve got a good story that’ll keep you up.” Slowly, a dark figure formed in front of Gallus, detailed enough to make out its shape of a griffon, but too dark for him to recognise.

“It was over a hundred and twenty years ago that the Griffon Empire received word of Arimaspi sightings in the southern city of Feathermore. The local Griffon Army regiment was in need of additional support so King Grant, the grandfather of King Guto, made the decision to send a group of his finest personal guards to aid them. One of those guards that went down was none other than my own grandfather.

When he and his fellow guards were making their journey to the city, they prepared for a mission to help the soldiers and officers to locate the beast and attack it by surprise. Yet when they arrived, an Arimaspi was in the midst of a rampage in the city square. The giant goat-headed lion had already broken through buildings and crushed monuments with the aim of seeking out precious gold.”

The voice told the tale with a dramatic tone, Gallus could feel himself leaning forward, compelled to hear more.

“Grandpa and his comrades took no time to rush directly into battle, their arrival bringing hope to the denizens in hiding. With their quickness, tenacity, and teamwork, they managed to distract the one-eyed beast long enough to drive him out from the city. Unfortunately, saving the city was not enough to end the beast’s wrath.”

Then the figure spread its arms out, revealing large sharp talons on each. They began to move around, following the actions of the story being carried out.

“Its target had changed to the very guards who drove it away, and in a fit of rage, it would swipe at the guard’s left and right, until it caught two of Grandpa’s comrades in its razor-sharp claws against a mountain. Those guards would have been goners, but Grandpa noticed fragments of rock trickle down from the mountain from impact, those fragments came from a loosened overhang in the rocks right above where the beast was flying. In his quick instinct, he lunged his spear like a javelin at the overhang with enough force that cracked and crumbled. As it fell onto the Arimaspi, he swooped in to grab his comrades.

Grandpa would have been heralded a hero for saving his fellow guards and defeating the beast, but the mountain he struck created an avalanche that crumbled on top of them. They had little time to take cover in a small cave, but as the rocks and snow piled up, the three were trapped inside. The other guards didn’t know of their fates and made the journey back to Griffonstone. The three griffon guards, however, were found alive by those soldiers from the Feathermore regiment of the griffon army, fifty-six hours after being trapped.”

After a brief silence, Gallus suddenly heard a young voice emerge. “Wow! Fifty-six hours?” The voice jerked his head in the direction of another griffon, much younger than him, although oddly she appeared to be taller than he was.

The griffon looked awfully familiar to him, her feathers were a darkened grey, her big turquoise eyes twinkled with awe and wonder. “They must have been in there for an eternity!” the young griffon remarked gleefully.

“That’s only two and a half days Gabby,” another young voice emerged. It was another young female griffon, her head popping out from the side. It was another awfully familiar face, white feathers with pink streaks and purple shadows around amber eyes. She jeered towards the young Gabby “it’s not that long” she sardonically commented, being followed by a small crowd of childlike giggling.

“Oh really?” The old cranky voice emerged, causing the bratty griffon to jump and dart her head back forward. Suddenly the dark figure leant forward, revealing himself to be a griffon as well, but also an intimidating one. He had no feathers on his head, apart from some small black ones on the back of his head, and some very bushy eyebrows. He glared with one good eye, and another with a whitened pupil and a large scar across it.

“Do you think you could handle two and a half days in a cave with no food, no water, and almost no light, not sleeping for nearly three days straight, Gilda?”

Gilda hastily shook her head with her eyes fully wide open and beak clamped shut, as Gabby curled herself up.

“How did they stay awake for so long?” Gabby asked nervously, her head half-covered by her knees. “How did they get out?”

The old griffon drew a long breath, rolled back his shoulders, and smiled, “Well, Grandpa always told me that a griffon will do anything to keep their mind occupied. His comrades still had their spears on them, so they used the metal points to dig through the rubble until they had a hole big enough to get themselves out. When they returned to the city they had rescued earlier, the denizens bent over backwards to nurse them back to health and alert King Grant that they were alive.

So, you cubs need to understand two things. One is that persistence will always pay off, no matter how long it may take. Two is that helping other griffons will someday earn you help in return, just when you need it.”

All the while, Gallus could feel leant forward with wide innocent glistening eyes, unable to speak, fully captivated by the story he was listening to. He no longer cared if he was dreaming or not, he wanted to hear more. The older griffon, meanwhile, stood up and started to brush himself off with his talons.

“Right, it’s getting late, that’s enough storytelling for tonight.”

A harmony of aws and sounds of disappointment emitted around Gallus, “Can you tell us another story?” asked the voice of a young griffon from further back.

“No,” the older griffon bluntly answered, “your parents will want you to go to bed soon.”

“Pleeeeeease?” another young griffon pleaded.

The older griffon paused for thought, before stretching out one of his open claws. “…ya got bits?”

Before Gallus could do anything to respond, he felt himself being violently shaken. “Gallus? Gallus!”

“Wh-what?” Gallus looked around frantically, only to stop and see Scythe kneeling beside him with a worried look on his face. “Do you see something?” he asked.

“Uh, no it’s just…” Scythe placed a hoof on Gallus’ shoulder, “you weren’t responsive…”

The griffon tilted his head, “Was I asleep?” he asked worriedly.

Scythe shook his head, “No… I mean… you looked awake, but you were staring off at nothing….”

In response, Gallus turned back forward to see he was back in an empty forest. “Just thought I saw something…” he responded with a feeling of chagrin. “You asked why I wanted to be a military officer, right?”

“Yeah…” Scythe answered, his eyebrow raised, “a long while ago.”

Gallus took a deep breath, “When I was little,” he explained, “there was a griffon who would tell stories to all the fledgelings and cubs. His favourite stories were ones of his Grandpa Griffon, this great soldier chosen by the King of the Griffons to be one of his personal guards, who always took great risks to help others.” He then bowed his head between his legs. “He looked up to his grandfather, and I know it sounds silly, but I wanted to be that griffon so other griffons might look up to me.”

Finally getting his answer, Scythe sat down by Gallus and looked up to the stars, with a content smile on his face. “I don’t think that’s silly,” he remarked, “Taking risks, helping others, being inspired by some griffon, that’s something any creature should look up to.” He saw Gallus lift his head up as if to make sure Scythe was being sincere. That was when Scythe had another question, “Was that griffon also a soldier? The one that told you stories, I mean.”

All Gallus could offer was a hard shrug, “Grandpa Gruff loves telling stories of the past, except his own.” Scythe never expected to get a name, if Gallus accidentally slipped during that moment, he didn’t seem to care to correct himself. The pegasus could still sense something was missing from the griffon, as he continued to stare off into the distance.

He could see one of his hooves slowly move over Gallus’ head on his own. For a moment he hesitated, he wasn’t sure if a hoof over the shoulder would help. After a short sigh, he finally lowered the hoof around his griffon friend. “Either way, I’m sure he’s proud of you for getting here” he kindly reassured him.

Gallus, in contrast, lowered his head to hide the grit of his teeth. He appreciated the gesture, but he wasn’t so sure that he was correct either. “Thanks…” He looked to the lower-left corner of his vision and caught sight of his spear. He picked it up and used it to pull himself back to standing. “We should probably get back to moving around the perimeter, right guys? …Guys?”

The two looked around and saw Throw Up, Wind Breaker, Lightning Dust, and Pound Sterling all resting against trees, motionless with their eyes shut. Scythe’s heart stopped as he realised what this meant. ”We need to wake them up!” he told Gallus, before rushing over to the others to try and shake them awake.

All the while, Gallus was calm. “So, what happens if one of the cadets sleeps during night manoeuvres?” To him, it couldn’t be bad if one of the cadets got in trouble for sleeping whilst he didn’t, but Scythe wouldn’t agree with that reasoning.

“If one of our group is caught sleeping, we are ALL in trouble. Not only with the staff sergeant but with the captain! You don’t want to get in trouble with the captain.”

The recollection of what Captain Westland looked like when she was glowering sent a chill down Gallus’ spine.

“…we need to wake them up.”

The pair went around to each of them, shaking them and calling out their names in hopes of getting a response. It was easier said than done since they couldn’t make noise without getting attention in case either Razorwing or Westland were watching them.

They had some progress when they could hear frustrated groans, or eyes half-lidded, from Wind Breaker, Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling, but one pony just wouldn’t budge.

“Nick! Nick! Nicknames!” Scythe called out to Throw Up, or Nicknames as his name turned out to be, Gallus needed to pause for a while to process that info… “You’re not meant to be asleep!”

Nicknames just pushed Scythe away, with his eyes tightly shut. “No mom, I don’t want to go to school today…” he moaned.

“Nick I'm not your mom, it’s Mumbles, remember?”

Gallus took his turn, using the butt of his spear to prod Nicknames until he waked up. “Quiddit…” it didn’t work either. Then Gallus looked at the top of his spear, the triangular-shaped tip shimmered as it reflected the light of the moon, his eyes grew wide as he came up with an idea.

“Scythe, I know a way to wake Nick up…”

“How?” asked Scythe with curiosity, but when he turned his head to Gallus, he saw the griffon slowly move his spear to point towards Nicknames’ flank. He began to get concerned.

“Uh… Gallus?”

“I’ll be careful,” Gallus calmly reassured Scythe, “all you have to do is be ready to shut his mouth.”

As Scythe pondered why he would need to do that, Gallus slowly moved the spear closer, and closer, and closer to Nicknames, until suddenly…

The sleeping pony’s eyes shot wide open. “OW! SON OF A BI-!” Scythe screamed at the top of his lungs, his yells cut short by a swift Scythe wrapping his arms around Nicknames’ face, although it wasn’t enough to halt his muffled screams and flailing legs of sharp pain. When the rest of the platoon ran up, fully alert with their spears upright, wondering what was going on, Gallus and Scythe knew the plan had worked.

The group had finished a tour of the perimeter, being a short walk from their base. The night became calm and comfortable, although not for everyone. “So… sorry about your…” whispered Gallus to Nicknames as he rubbed the back of his neck with his talons, feeling guilty while wanted to avoid further humiliation caused by the wakeup call.

Nicknames had remained stolid since the incident, “I’m fine” he quietly replied as he rubbed his forehoof against the surface area of his flank. He had spent the time since they started walking with a steadfast refusal to make eye contact with anyone, he’d rather be caught sleeping by Razorwing than the way he had been caught. Then in a short moment, he caught the anguished griffon in the corner of his eyes and laugh quietly. “Guess I deserved it though.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have fallen asleep,” chortled Gallus.

“Actually, I mean the time I made you clean the washroom on the first day…”

He remembered it, and it turned out to be in the back of his mind for a while. To Gallus, it was as close to an actual apology he was gonna get from this usually arrogant and smug pegasus, as he saw him with his face down, his eyes up, and one hoof rubbing his arm. “Let’s just say we’re even,” remarked Gallus with a smirk on his face.

The two finally had a shared positive moment for the first time since they arrived, a relief for both. Keeping up his smile, Gallus then raised an eyebrow, “So, is your name Nicknames, or is that itself a nickname?” Given how ponies had such pun-heavy names, he had to know if what Scythe called him was sincere.

Nicknames just shrugged and shook his head, “It’s what ponies call me, what did you think my name was?” Instead of answering, Gallus just turned his head back to face forward, leaving a deadpanned face. It was probably for the best not to let him know that Gallus had internally referred to him as Throw Up for several weeks.

In an unfortunate convenience, another pony was not feeling comfortable at all at the moment. “What was that?” asked Wind Breaker, as he flinched and looked out through the trees in the dark forest. He peered as if recognising something, but others looking in the same direction could be confused as there was no movement to be found.

“What was what?” asked Lighting Dust, her head tilted in the hopes her ears could catch what was missing. “I don’t hear anything.”

Wind Breaker felt adamant to the contrary, “Something is out there…” he uttered, as his upright spear slowly lowered until it was parallel to the ground, held tightly in both his hoof and his wing.

The other ponies started looking at each other, “Is there? I see nuthin’” remarked Sterling.

The anxious pony relented, his eyes grew wider began to twitch, every small movement in the branches and shadows exaggerated more and more in his mind. “Something is out there, and it’s going to get me…” The rest of the group started becoming concerned, his behaviour became unsettling. Suspecting paranoia, Gallus started to approach Wind Breaker, slow and with caution.

“Uh… Wind Breaker… you know this is still an exercise, ri- “

“Get away from me!” shouted Wind Breaker, without warning, he swung his spear towards Gallus, inches from his throat. Panic set in as the group witnessed a hostile standoff, Wind Breaker breathing heavily through his teeth, fully capable of thrusting his spear forwards, while Gallus was frozen in place mid-step.

Nicknames rushed to Gallus’ side, “Breaker, buddy, it’s okay” he calmly yet nervously reassured his friend, his hoof reached out to try and stop something drastic, “We’ve been up for a long time, you’re exhausted. Just calm down, okay?” Gallus could feel Nicknames slowly inch towards him, almost ready to be pushed out of the way.

“No! Something is after us, we’ve been fighting all day, why wouldn’t they go after us at night?”

Nicknames persevered, as he tried to show a more friendly nature to calm his friend down. “There’s nothing after us, it’s just you, me, Bluebird, Mumbles, Steppin’ Time, and Dusty…” He tried to take a step forward, but Wind Breaker jutted forward in retaliation.

“Don’t come any closer!”

From Gallus’ perspective, he could see Wind Breaker was not in the position he wanted to be, his breathing was erratic, and the tip of his spear vibrated as it pointed directly towards the griffon’s neck. He needed to be taken back to reality, and as much as he tried, Wind Breaker wasn’t getting through to Nicknames. Gallus’ eyes shifted back to the spear in his own talons, he knew he was taught a way to handle a danger like this.

“Wind Breaker,” he opened before he took a deep breath and met the pony with a firm gaze, “put down your spear.”

The other ponies looked at each other, Gallus spoke firm and down, it put Wind Breaker’s focus back on him. Then Gallus slowly lowered his own spear to an angle, and carefully placed his other talon around it with a solid grip. “Drop your spear, now…” ordered Gallus, his spear hovered over the head of the hostile pony. The others were unsure if they should intervene before a fight broke out, but Scythe looked down at the ground between them.

Wind Breaker’s hooves began to shift, although it wasn’t much, he was moving backwards. Scythe realised what Gallus was doing, it was the stages, Gallus shouted, then he showed. He carefully moved to Gallus’ other side and angled his own spear in its own ready position. The realization was soon met by Sterling, and then Lightning Dust.

The paranoid pony now had a griffon and three ponies with their spears forward against his own, his breathing slowed, and his hooves started to tremble as he returned to reality. Ever so slowly, his spear lowered even further, until eventually it was dropped and landed on the soil.

As Nicknames finally felt safe enough to pull Wind Breaker away from his spear, Gallus took one long deep breath. All the tension built up inside him in those few minutes spewed out, his legs weakened as he needed to lean and hold onto the shaft of his own upright spear to maintain his balance.

The relaxation was brief, as an older red pegasus dressed in a dark green uniform made her presence known, carrying a candlelit lamp in one of her hooves that gave her an ominous glow. “At ease, cadets” ordered Captain Westland. “I was about to inform you that your night manoeuvre is over for tonight.” She made her way towards the fallen spear on the ground and picked it up with one of her wings.

As she surveyed the group, she glowered when her eyes fixed on Wind Breaker, but then transitioned to being impressed as her eyes met with Gallus. “Fortunately, I didn’t need to get involved tonight, well done. Go to your base and get some rest.” Without question, the group made their way back to their camp, as Westland went in another direction, carrying Wind Breaker’s spear.

Suiting Up

The stage was set; the stage of a platoon commander’s office that was to say. It was a rather small stage, six pegasus ponies stood in two lines, dishevelled and exhausted in mid-rehabilitation having returned from their exercise on the field. It was hard to tell whether their presence was that of the audience or the characters that was behind her desk. Captain Westland stood with her front two hooves resting firmly on its surface and her eyes were locked on the group in front. “Alright, do you know why you’re here?” she asked firmly, addressing them with her head lowered.

Collectively, the group responded. “Yes, ma’am.” Their voices showed their fatigue as their words were travelling out of sync. Westland followed up with a question short and sharp, her jaded expression made it clear her lack of expectation for good news.

“Why?”

The room went silent, no cadet wanted to admit why they were stood in front of a disapproving red mare. One cadet eventually inched forward to answer. “We were asleep on duty…” the cadet’s voice trembled, the group were aware of why their staff sergeant ordered them to her office, but that didn’t mean they knew how to prepare for such a moment.

For starters, her face did not change to the bemusing smile she would usually show her cadets. “You slept,” she acknowledged “while you were supposed to be on night duty.” She observed the group, two nodded nervously, while four glanced to the side, either at their comrade or to a wall. “Right, do you think that is acceptable?” she asked in a deepened voice as she prepared a large space on the desk in front of her.

“No, ma’am…” the cadets responded, closer in unison but in a lowered volume.

Westland sharpened her tone. “Do you know what would happen to a private soldier if they slept on duty?” Some of the cadets looked directly at the cadet next to them, silently asking if they knew with a quizzing expression. Before any of them could vocalise an answer or shake their heads, they were met with the sound of a massive slam.

Captain Westland punched her desk with such force, pencils leapt from the surface and rattled down for landing, and papers shifted to the side, the cadets jumped backwards on impulse as the floor quaked beneath them. “TWENTY. EIGHT. DAYS.” she shouted loud and clear, emphasising each word. “They go to prison for twenty-eight days, and you lot are supposed to behave better than them!”

The cadets were left frozen, unable to avert their gaze from Westland’s angered glare. “As a result of this, you’re all being put on platoon commander’s warning. This is the last chance you get with me, cross me again and I’ll snap, you understand? This is totally unacceptable, now disappear.”

The cadets had their minds on full alert and pondered how if this were her reaction where she did not snap, how much worse could she be if she did. However, none of them wanted to find out.

“Disappear!” she reaffirmed, and without any pause they turned to face right, counting in sync as they marched three steps before making their way out one by one. Captain Westland remained still, hunched over her desk, waiting until the corridor outside was quiet and empty enough for her to drop into her seat. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, her nerves dissipating as she rested her head on her hooves.

Westland treated herself as the kind of leader to remain calm where possible, endless shouting was what sergeants were for. That did not mean she would not give discipline when it was needed, and it felt truly needed then. She scanned through the written warnings, the words “Slept on duty” repeated six times, the group were caught by the staff sergeant sleeping around the tree, and they had three hours sleep beforehand where it made less of an excuse.

As she put them to the other side of the desk, one sheet of paper remained. As she glanced at the entrance to her office, she could see the shadow of a lone cadet waiting outside. “Breaker, come in,” she ordered, and just as she predicted, a pegasus pony with an amber coat and a buzzcut brunette mane made his appearance at the opening. After a short, deadpanned salute, he slowly marched his way in. “Can YOU tell me why you’re here?” she asked, opening with the same relaxed tone as before.

Wind Breaker’s response went straight to the point, “I freaked out on night duty…” Westland noticed that there was no hesitancy or shakiness in his voice, it was calm and blunt, and yet there was an air of guilt as he looked below the surface of the desk.

Westland reread her report to recall the events of that night, where the pony stood in front of her had held a spear pointed towards the neck of fellow cadet Gallus. “Well, that’s one way to describe what happened,” she calmly remarked. A part of her did feel bad for Wind Breaker, at the time the report was written she made the effort to include what she had witnessed, his erratic behaviour, claims of seeing what was not there, and the eventual surrender without the use of force. If she had seen a pony do such action in jest or aggression, she would have prepared to yell the moment they tried to explain themselves.

However, she knew she had a responsibility to keep, if she were to let an action like that slide, it could happen again. “Stress is one thing, but this academy cannot tolerate a cadet being put in harm’s way because of another cadet,” she continued in a raw voice, remaining seated as she looked stoically at Wind Breaker. “If Gallus, Nick, and the others in your group hadn’t de-escalated the situation, I’d be filling out more than an incident report.” There was no verbal response from Wind Breaker, his head sunk lower.

“You are now on platoon commander’s warning, and only when you’ve shown me that I can trust you that you can be allowed to hold another spear, understood?”

Wind Breaker was thinking back through his time at the Academy, he always found things difficult, the drills, the exercises, the routine of ironing the coveralls and cleaning the dorms. Then there was the obstacle course, he could never get over that wall. Lastly, the incident, how he saw it. The spear he held as its sharp tip glistened in the light, it shook in the hooves of his mind as it shifted towards the darkness and towards those sandbags. Except those sandbags started to rise and change form to have a head and four legs.

“Captain…” he mustered, as he raised his head to look at Westland in the eye. “I don’t think I can trust myself…” Westland took a look at Wind Breaker’s face, how grave it was. She lowered the sheet of paper in her hooves and leant over the desk with folded arms.

“Well, then we have a problem…”

Hey Gally!

Hopefully, by the time you read this, you’ll have finished intensive training, just like you said. I’m so happy for you! We all seem to be moving up back here as well, Professor Pinkie Pie wants me to lead an entire lesson by myself, I’m so excited!

Headmare Starlight apparently told Ocellus she’ll be doing a lecture on Equestrian history by herself next week, so she’s having a bit of a panic. It’s a good thing she has Smolder with her to calm her nerves.

Oh, I also managed to get a photo of Yona’s first finished dress! I’ll make sure you have a copy when I send this out. So, now that you’re out of intensive training, does that mean you get a new snazzy uniform? You have to send us a photo of what you wear at the Academy, we definitely need to see how cool you look in armour.

Looking forward to your letter,

Silverstream

Within the bright pink envelope that encased the neatly folded letter was exactly what she had promised, a single photo. Yona was sat to the side of the frame, her head held high with her chest outward and a wide grin on her face. Beside her was one of those pony mannequins draped with a floral green dress, embroidered around the edge with white silk, it had the resemblance of her shawl.

Gallus never had an interest in fashion, it was not like him to wear clothes on a regular basis, and at first, it didn’t seem like Yona was too keen on it either. Then one evening there was the Amity Ball, an evening dance based on a traditional pony event called the Fettlock Fete. Gallus and his friends thought it would be fun, Sandbar especially, but Yona took it to another level.

Her appearance on the night was overkill, to say the least, the garish dress, the overdone makeup and the purple hair, but even though she felt humiliated enough to run off in tears, she had Sandbar to comfort her. She would also end up inspired and would visit Professor Rarity, the pony responsible for her attire. Over time there was an interest brewing, and one day, she said she was going to be Professor Rarity’s apprentice at her boutique.

He pinned the photo up on the board, underneath his graduation photo where he and Yona posed with the rest of their friends, and adjacent to the photo of Gabby and her friends. He may not have an interest in fashion, but he drew a smile knowing another one of her friends were making progress in their ambitions.

He began to depart from his dorm room to prepare for the new day, where he was suddenly met with a familiar-looking pegasus, whose eyes widened, and he swallowed hard once the pegasus caught eyes on Gallus. “Hey… Bluebird…” Wind Breaker said with a trembled voice. Gallus’ face went blank, he could recognise why his fellow comrade was nervous, the field exercise had only finished one day ago.

Realizing he’s standing in silence, Wind Breaker stammered before shaking his head to collect himself. “Sorry about… you know… the spear in your…” He then proceeded to prod his own neck with his hoof.

Gallus felt compelled to assure his fellow comrade. “It’s all good” he responded clearly, placing a talon on the pony’s shoulders, following with a smirk. “Bet you’re glad to be back here though, and not out in the field?” he remarked.

“Yeah…” Wind Breaker was content.

Before they could speak further, there was a sudden interruption from the far end of the corridor. “Cadets!” bellowed Staff Sergeant Razorwing, “make your way to the uniform room now, don’t make me issue wing-ups for latecomers!”

The call was just another reminder of a rough day ahead, Gallus wanted to avoid penalty wing-ups anyway he can, and so dashed out the corridor without skipping a beat, speeding past Wind Breaker down the corridor.

It was strange being back in the same corridor where the cadets first went through on the first day, outside the same room where they got their coveralls. It felt like a simpler time, before all the routine and training had set in, and before all the orders. Just as Silverstream predicted, the four-week intensive training is over and all the cadets who survived are getting their new uniforms.

Of course, Razorwing could not refrain from reminding us of the new addition to our routine. “Once you get your uniform, it becomes your responsibility to take care of it. You’re gonna make sure it’s cleaned and polished for room inspections, so don’t you forget it.” Gallus groaned internally as he mentally wrote a line in his growing list of things he needed to do as part of his daily routine.

At the very least, it was one thing that could distract him from the long wait to get the uniform. Each cadet waited in one line and entered one by one. When Gallus recalled going in there for coveralls, several ponies could get fitted at once, but this time the Academy was really testing his patience.

It was impressive to see the transformation though, each cadet would walk in wearing nothing at all and later would walk out in full body armour. The only pony armour he had seen before was worn by the Canterlot Palace guards, their helmets with tall arching crests across the head and layered crinets down the back of their necks, a cupper and a peytral that covered the body from the head to flank with curved floral patterns, with a padded saddle and a star at the front, and gauntlets on each hoof.

The armour of the academy was similar, although the Canterlot Palace armour was gold plated, the Academy armour had a dark grey as if all the colours were removed aside from the crest matching the pony’s mane. Gallus recognised some who went by armoured up: Scythe’s crest was blood red, Nick’s was navy blue, Pound Sterling’s was violet, and Lightning Dust’s was bright orange. Clearly, they chose the crest based closely on their mane colour.

As one more armoured Pegasus pony passed him within inches on his beak, he was relieved to find he was next to get suited up. Although he barely paid attention to the uniform room on his first day, it felt noticeably different. It was filled with boxed shelves, wall-to-wall, with metals and fabrics of a plethora of colours. Gallus chucked to himself, Professor Rarity and Yona could get a kick out of how much the pony military was into fashion.

The only other creature inside the room was a single pony, an older unicorn smartly dressed in a navy-blue jacket with red edges and round spectacles. A sign on the door gave the name of the pony on duty, Lance Corporal Maximilian, The unicorn has a snide glace towards the griffon, “Okay bird, come forward and let’s get on with it” he said with a heated sigh, pointing his hoof towards a short wide box in the middle of the room for Gallus to stand on.

Gallus’ eyebrows levelled, jaded as he approached the box. Maximilian’s horn glowed as pieces of armour moved off the shelf, Gallus observed what looked like rectangular padding with straps floating over to his back. The straps then weaved around his wings, and then suddenly pulled in, briefly winding Gallus as his chest felt tight before the straps slowly loosened.

Then Maximilian brought over the peytral and cupper, the padding started having some use as Gallus’ head was pushed through the headspace and it was dropped onto his back, the weight of the body armour pushing the griffon down on the box. The unicorn was nonchalant throughout, which hardened Gallus’ expression as he was being roughly dressed up.

Before the griffon could complain, he heard and felt a plonk as a helmet landed on his head like a bucket. Even after recovering from the short state of dizziness, the metal bucket on his head did not feel right. His field of vision was obstructed down the middle by a metal piece that touched the bridge of his beak, leaving him unable to see directly in front of him. He tried to move his head to see better from the sides of his eyes, but even the slightest movement caused the helmet to wobble.

“Uh… excuse me?” he called out politely, his head pointing to the side so he could look at Maximilian searching the shelves. “This helmet doesn’t fit right, and I can’t see right in front of me.”

The unicorn scoffed and rolled his eyes, his horn glowed as the helmet elevated off Gallus’ head, and moved towards him to inspect. It was a standard stallion’s helmet with a bright blue crest, longer than it was wide, with a nose guard big enough to compensate for a stallion’s nose piece. He took one quick glance at Gallus’ rounded head and figured out the problem. “The bird’s head is the wrong shape” he muttered to himself.

Maximilian scanned the higher shelves, picked out a smaller helmet with a finer nose guard and no crest. After moving the crest over, he directed the new helmet over for Gallus to try on. Fortunately, it indeed was a firm fit, and Gallus could finally see what was in front of him with it worn.

“Just put these on and then you’re done.”

Maximilian then passed over a box, Gallus assumed these must be the gauntlets, which made it strange when he felt how light the box was. He furrowed his brow, surely gauntlets would be much heavier. Then he opened the box, luckily what was inside had the appearance that they could fit Gallus’ claws and paws, but that was not enough to suspect this was a joke.

Two pairs of gloves and two boots, made of brown leather, partially worn at the surface. “Are these right?” Gallus felt compelled to ask, “I mean, these aren’t metal, are they supposed to protect my claws and paws?”

The unicorn just rolled his eyes again. “Those are… special issue,” he claimed as he rubbed the back of his head. “Just put them on, bird, and go so I can get the ponies fitted” he followed, urging Gallus to shoo with a hoof as focused his attention on a clipboard, filling out the armour he just issued.

Gallus did not buy it, he put on the boots and gloves, though they hardly felt specially made for him, it was more akin to a last-minute order. Sure, they had a good fit, but he could feel the lack of padding in the soles and palms. The gloves especially had more padding in the wrists, like they were meant for falcons to rest on. He started to suspect that the Academy cheapened out on him with antique falconry gloves since he obviously did not have hooves for their usual footwear.

He walked out with a huff, “Jerk…” he uttered quietly to himself as he made his way down the line of ponies waiting to be suited up. He finally got his armour, but instead of feeling pride and part of the guard, he felt the urge to keep his head low, as he could hear snickering from the other cadets.

It had been a while since the cadets had done drills, after a week out on the field, they were rusty. It did not help that it was their first time doing drills, the weight of the armour held them onto the gravel outside the main building. The good news was that, unlike their first day, they had muscle memory. That meant Gallus did not stumble on his turns, and Pound Sterling managed to step in time, albeit while counting under her breath.

The bad news was that they were not just being watched by a sergeant or captain, but someone higher. An earth pony mare with a violet coat, wearing a forest green uniform with coloured bands and a badge with a crown on it. Captain Westland referred to her as Major, and Staff Sergeant Razorwing called her the Badge.

For most cadets, getting evaluated by the Major of your company was a big deal, so there was tension felt along the line as they waited for their turn. However, Gallus was feeling the ire from tittering, distracted by Lightning Dust and the smirk on her face. “I look like such a dork in this…” he admitted to himself under bated breath.

“What? No… you look totally fine in it,” she rebuked in a whisper, although the eye roll and sardonic tone were the least bit reassuring. She found something amusing, which only drew Gallus’ suspicions further. He glanced down at the only things that felt off to him, his gauntlets.

“They really couldn’t find anypony in Equestria who could make gloves and boots out of metal, could they?” he remarked with a sigh of cynicism.

Lightning Dust continued her subtle mixture of reassurance and jest, “Nah, what you’re wearing is totally fine, not that much different to mine!” she leaned forward towards the stern amber pegasus on the other side of the griffon, “Right, Mumbles?”

Scythe was heavily focused, eyes forward and upright before he was called over. He turned to find himself pressured with a choice, either to go along with Dust’s teasing with her smirk and shifting eyebrows or to encourage Gallus to have no bother over his armour. “Uh… yeah! It looks good, very… practical,” he hastily answered as he tried to regain his composure, “What’s most important with armour is that it… suits the job,” Despite the unintended pun, Gallus could see a point. It’s just armour, they may have to keep it clean and polished but nopony will care about how it looks on a battlefield.

“Griffon, move forward!”

A call was heard from the far end of the gravel, it was Gallus’ turn. Following what the other ponies had done, he marched forward in front of the line, turned, and then went down the line. He could hear more snickers as he went past cadets, however this time he kept his head up. Then it was a left turn to face and approach the Major, stopping with a full salute.

The Major then inspected Gallus, holding a solid poker face as she peered up, down, and around the sides of Gallus. Holding a clipboard in her hoof, the mare scribbled on it with a pencil in her jaw. Once she finished, she sat up and covered the clipboard in her chest, seemingly satisfied as there was a slight nod.

“So, you’re the griffon,” she said with a formal demeanour.

“Yes, ma’am,” Gallus felt compelled to answer directly.

“How are you finding the Academy so far?”

He was put on the spot, was he meant to answer truthfully or not? Did she want a full answer or a blunt one? With little time to answer, he winged it. “It’s a nice-looking place, there’s a lot to take in. The course is tough, but the challenge is good. It’s a lot different from my last boarding school,” His embellishment paid off, fortunately, as a slight smile emerged.

“Well, you’ve made it through the challenge so far. Just do not let your pride go to your head,” she commented. “Still, your current persistence is worth it to see a griffon in a pony’s armour. I’m impressed a mare’s helmet can fit,” Gallus’ eyes widened, and his beak hung open; a mare’s helmet, as in a girl’s helmet.

“You’re dismissed, griffon,” the Major casually ordered, but the griffon remained frozen. It had dawned on him why he was getting all the snickering at that moment. Her eyebrows narrowed, “I said, you’re dismissed, griffon,” she repeated firmly. It was enough to snap Gallus out of his trance and march his way back in line, glaring at Lightning Dust as he returned to his space in the line.

“Just like yours, huh?”

Gallus could not help but imagine how far down this moment went, Silverstream made it seem exciting when he received her letter. Finally, out of the hard training, and he would get a cool uniform as a reward. But the long wait did not feel worth it when the other cadets found the leather gloves, the boots, and the mare helmet, funny.

Suddenly he heard clicking down a hallway, slowing his current walk to the dorms to a halt. A unicorn was taking photos of other unicorns in their armour with an expensive-looking camera and freely giving the printed photos to them. He was quickly reminded of the fact that Silverstream and his other friends were expecting a photo as well. The day was already demoralizing, he wondered if he really wanted to share it with his closest friends.

As he thought about it, the decision seemed to be made for him, as the unicorn approached Gallus with the camera in float. “You there, bird. Would you like a photo in your suit of armour?” he asked, with an incredibly snooty voice. Gallus turned to see the unicorn with his smug grin, behind his armour was a clean white coat, and above his helmet sat a sharp-pointed horn and a crest that was bright yellow, almost blond.

The griffon raised an eyebrow, suspicious of the offer. “Why would I want that?” he asked cautiously.

The unicorn chortled, “To show off to your friends and family of course,” he remarked in a sophisticated upbeat manner. “I’m sure they’ll be sooooo impressed to see you in a E.U.P. Guard look,” He made it seem enticing as he shook his camera.

Gallus still had his doubts, but he considered who his friends were. Most of them weren’t that knowledgeable on the E.U.P. Guard, Sandbar was definitely aware of them, and Silverstream had a familial connection to the military, but the others it was hard to say.

“Okay, then,” he answered with a shrug, assuming they would at least appreciate the photo and not make a huge fuss.

The unicorn smirked, slowly moved back, and raised the camera up to his eyes, “Keep an eye on the birdie~” he cooed as the camera lens was pointed towards Gallus’ face. The griffon did not have time to position himself or smile before he heard a click, and a bright flash engulfed his vision. When the light gradually muted back to normal, he heard the motors inside the camera whir and a single photo printed outward.

The photo then floated towards the unicorn, facing away from Gallus. The unicorn smirked as if he found the photo amusing, before slowly levitating it towards Gallus. When the photo was within arm’s reach, Gallus stretched out to grab it, only for the photo to swiftly retreat high above the unicorn. “Fifty bits,” the unicorn’s tone had lowered, and he presented a snarky grin.

“Excuse me?”

“I know how you griffons act. Do you want your photo in your party outfit? Then pay up.” He continued, condescending the griffon.

Gallus’ eyes narrowed, unwilling to accept being patronized, “For starters, we’re wearing the same armour, and two, I don’t see you charging others for photos.” He tried to fly towards the unicorn to grab the photo directly, but the unicorn responded by activating his horn, forcing the griffon to the ground.

“Because I know them, and I like them. I don’t like you,” the unicorn did not seem to care, as he bluntly sneered at the griffon.

Gallus pushed himself back up, his beak clenched, “You don’t even know me,” he pointed out.

The unicorn just smirked, “I don’t need to, just looking at you is enough,” Gallus felt a hard push as he was thrust backwards. He finally felt the magic aura restraining him fade away, but in time, he recovered and got back to his claws and paws, the unicorn had disappeared around the corner of the hallway with the photo in his magic aura.

It turned out that it was somehow possible to be more demoralized, as Gallus made his way up the stairs. He did not have the energy to think about why he would just be pushed around or disliked just because of how he looked. How could that unicorn think of him this way? It was not just him, that older unicorn fitting the armour had that snide look of his, does he think the same way.

It could not be all unicorns that would treat him like that, Professor Rarity was a unicorn, she was kind and generous as a teacher. There were students who were unicorns in his classes, like… what is their name? Did he ever get along with any unicorns at the School of Friendship? He was so mentally worn out that he could not recall another pony that was not Sandbar or a teacher that he got along with, or who got along with him.

At least he could take off his armour and rest in his bed for the night, at least he would, but as he approached his dorm, he could hear ponies chattering away. The corridor was filled with most of his platoon, they were rather jovial, and there were empty wine glasses scattered across the floor. “What’s going on?” he openly queried, having furrowed his brow.

Upon recognition of his voice, Lightning Dust turned around, still wearing her uniform although her helmet was wonky, and her face was flushed. “Heeeey Bluebird, you’re late!” she called out, “Since everypony here has passed the initial training, we’ve been drinking to celebrate.”

“Drinking? You mean alcohol?” remarked Gallus, tilting his head to the side, “I thought that wasn’t allowed in here…” he turned his head to face a posterboard, filled with information and rules for living in the dorms, and on one corner was a paper listing prohibited items, and the world alcohol was featured on the list.

Lightning Dust shrugged, “Not unless it’s handed out by the staff sergeant!” she clearly had more than just one, unable to stand in place without leaning against the wall to keep upright. Other ponies had the same stagger, as they laughed and discussed loudly amongst themselves. Gallus could not see a single bottle of whatever they were drinking however, it was early in the evening though, if Razorwing did offer drinks to congratulate, he was not going to offer any more for the cadets to sober up.

Not that he was in the mood for fun, he ambled off into his room so he could vent in peace. When he opened the door, he was quick to realize that he would not be alone in his room. Scythe was lying on his bed; he was relaxed with his back and wings outstretched, one hind hoof lying on another and his nose trapped in one of his books. The sound of the party outdoors caused his eyes to spike upward, and his head swung around, and he caught eyes with the griffon.

“Oh… hey Gallus,” an air of relief drew out of him, despite the sudden interruption, he did not feel a need to worry as he turned back to his book.

“Hey…” Gallus replied, “you’re not joining in?” he cocked his head to the side to gesture outside, even though Scythe had his back to him.

“I… don’t drink, I saved you a glass if you wanted one though…” Scythe stretched out his wing, the tip of his furthest feathers pointed towards Gallus’ desk, atop of which was a single wine glass.

As Gallus approached the desk, he could see the bright red liquid that sparkled from the reflections of the room lights. He picked it up with his talons, he stared through the glass as it tinted and warped the surroundings in front of him. The thoughts of teasing and beratement still swam in his mind, at least a drink could help drown them for a while, “Thanks,”

He then brought the glass up to his open beak and leaned back so the glass was almost upside down. It took only a few gulps in a matter of seconds before the glass was empty and the drink went down Gallus’ body, and it was only a few more seconds later that a revolting taste went back up into his head, his face began to contort as a response, “Good King Grover, that wasn’t a good idea…” he groaned, resting his head on his talons and his body on the edge of the desk to keep balance, regretting how fast he downed the glass in one go.

Scythe took a brief glance and smirked, “Yeah, I didn’t like the taste either when I first tried it,” he assumed it was only Gallus’ first time drinking, with how young he was and how careless he drank it. However, Gallus shook his head.

“This stuff is too sweet, it’s way different to the kind I’ve tried in Griffonstone,”

Ponies tend to have a lot more fruits and sugars in their drinks than any other creature typically would, Gallus’ critique caught Scythe’s attention, although it had less to do with his roommate’s taste in drinks, “You’ve had alcohol before. Does Griffonstone have a lower age limit?” he inquired.

Gallus just shrugged, “I wouldn’t know…” the vague answer did not give Scythe any benefit about Gallus’ drinking habits. Consciously, he was relieved Gallus only had one.

Suddenly, Gallus’ ears pricked up, a sound caught his attention. A click, followed by a whir. He placed the glass back onto the desk and made his way out the door. Click, whir. He slowly made his way to the door and poked his head back out into the corridor. Click, whir. He turned his head towards the direction of the sound.

At the end of the corridor, near the stairwell, Pound Sterling had a camera on her. Resting on her hind-hoofs and flank, she held the camera with her hooves in dynamic angles like she was a fashion photographer. Her subject, Lightning Dust, still in her full guard armour, her whole body stretched out as she leant against the walls, smiling for the camera, and giving a sultry gaze to its lens.

“Jeez Dusteh, ya such a posa!” called out Sterling, laughing as she pressed a button and a bright flash emerged from the camera, followed by a photo printing out.

Lightning Dust’s lack of inhibitions didn’t bother her at all, “You know it! Come on, a few more!” she encouraged, trying to pull the camera towards her face. Making his way down the corridor, Gallus witnessed the fun the pair were having with the toy in Sterling’s hooves. It was a tacky camera with a lot of rough edges and had a yellow casing where it was most likely white.

Still, they had the time of their lives, there was no worry about routine, protocol, or proper behaviour. It was just fun, and when Gallus reached the end of the corridor, he found it compelling to watch.

“You’re taking photos…” he remarked, catching the attention of Sterling who was eager to carry on the fun.

“Aye, jont ‘un?” She pointed the camera in his direction and slowly shook it from side to side, offering to take photos of him.

That was when Gallus remembered what happened with the unicorn earlier, his brows drew together. Unfortunately, the drink didn’t completely wash away the jerkish treatment he got, “How much does it cost?” he asked in a dry voice.

Sterling raised an eyebrow, “Uh, nuthin” she answered, shaking her head before using one of her hooves to encourage him over. “Kamon, Dusteh’ hoggin’ the cam’ra,” giving a shrug, Gallus approached the stairwell. He stood still with a deadpan expression to get it over with, Sterling had her camera held up, but there was no click or flash, she was waiting for Gallus to do something.

That was when Lighting Dust called out in her staggered state, “Come on, Bluebird, are you gonna strike a pose or what?” He spends a moment thinking about it, he still had his armour on, it did not occur how accustomed he had become to wearing it in the day. Deep down he had been wanting to wear a suit of armour his whole life, and his friends in Ponyville wanted to see what he looked like.

He smirked and gave a salute, then the camera flashes. He then turns to the other side and spreads his wings out, the camera flashes again. No longer did the armour bother him, so what if he’s wearing leather falconry gloves, so what if he’s wearing a mare’s helmet, it’s his armour and he was the poser.

In the end, Sterling had a set of photos all of Gallus held in the tips of her wings like a deck of cards. She inspected them with Lightning Dust, with a huge grin on her face. “Noice! Am gonna send these to mah folks, they getta kick outta seein’ mah comrades.” She took half of the set, with the tips of her other wing, and briskly skips towards Gallus. “‘ere ya go, bud!” she exclaims as she reaches her wing out with the other half of the photos.

Hesitating at first, Gallus grabs the set with his talons and has another look. The first photo was him smirking and giving the E.U.P. Guard salute, the second had him standing with his wings spread out, and the third one had his body low like he was about to pounce towards the camera.

For a cheap camera, they didn’t look bad, he was off centre in all the photos and the lights of the corridor gave the photos a yellow tint and a warm hue, but there was no blur and Gallus could make out the details of himself, “Thanks, Pound Sterling,” he uttered sincerely. The corners of his mouth turned up; he finally had a set of photos he could send to Ponyville.

Sterling shared a smile in return, “Aye, don’t mention it,” she replied, patting Gallus on the back with her white-feathered wings. Gallus left the pair to continue having fun with their camera, as he made his way back to his room, content with the photos he was ready to put into an envelope to send off.

As he approached and opened the door, something caught his eye. The room opposite his had an open door, and Nicknames was leaning against the frame. However, unlike the other cadets who were still talking happily amongst themselves, Nick was quiet, his front hooves crossed, and his head bowed. Something about him felt off, the idea of drinks and open chatter was the exact kind of scenario he’d enjoy.

“Hey Nick, you’re not celebrating?” Gallus casually asked, gesturing towards the activity of the rest of the corridor, but there was no answer. Nick continued to look downward and doleful. He looked across the corridor and also noticed that somepony was missing, He pulled himself up to stand solely on his hind legs to look over Nick and into his room. it was empty, despite being two beds, “Is Wind Breaker not celebrating too? Where is he?”

Nicknames finally responded, turning his head towards Gallus, “Didn’t he tell you this morning?” he asked in a gravelly voice, his expression remained down.

Gallus was uncertain, “Tell me what?” Sure, he could recall Wind Breaker apologising for what happened on the field, but nothing that would suggest why he wasn’t in the dorms at the current moment.

That was when Nick gave the answer, “He D.O.R’d today.”

Gallus tilted his head, “D.O.R?” He turned to Scythe inside the room, unsure of what the initials meant. “What’s D.O.R?” Though when Scythe turned around from his bed to look at Gallus, meaning it did not sound good.

Earlier that day, the Commandant Authordox sat at his mahogany desk in an exquisite office. Managing a prestigious military academy required handling a lot of paperwork, so he needed the best and most comfortable office to work in. It also needed to be nice since he’d regularly have meetings with the officers in his command to get up to date on all the cadets.

That was the point where a familiar-looking violet earth pony announced her arrival, with a board full of notes at hoof.

“Ah Major Badge,” he proudly proclaimed, pushing his paperwork aside. He rested his elbows on the desk and held his hooves together in front of his face, “how did the passing of the parade go today?”

“It went well thank you,” Major Badge calmly answered, “I was able to get through all platoons in Larson Company, right on schedule,” The Commandant nodded with approval, Major Badge was one of his most respected administrators, who always provided direct and honest results.

“Excellent, and did every cadet go through in the end?”

The Major sighed as she reviewed the notes on her clipboard. “Well, some platoons managed to get all their cadets through, some did not.” She flipped the front page of notes over the board to look through the next page. “Our first Wings platoon was close to being the only Pegasus platoon with a full set through intensive training, but one of the cadets was Discharged-On-Request just before the parade.”

Although the news was delivered in a downbeat voice as a sense of disappointment, the Commandant’s mouth curved to a smile behind his hooves. “So, the griffon dropped out…” he remarked with a sense of relief.

Badge’s head arose and tilted to the side, “Sir?” she responded as if to query what he meant.

“Such a shame, I’m sure he tried his hardest, and we could have helped settle him in much easier, but it’s tradition for the first four weeks to be strict and stressful to ensure that all candidates are truly good enough for leadership.”

Although his words were of sympathy, his voice was apathetic as he lounged back in his seat with a heavy shrug. The Major glanced down at her notes and looked back at the Commandant with a look of concern.

“Uh, sir?"

“Maybe I shouldn’t have assigned him to a platoon with one of our toughest colour sergeants,” he casually confessed, “but if he cannot handle the strain of the E.U.P. Guard, it is probably for the best that he leaves before something serious happens, like snapping and harming another cadet,”

“Sir!”

“What is it, Major?” asked Authordox as he rolled his eyes.

“The cadet who was discharged was Wind Breaker…” No matter how slowly she made the information clear, the Commandant returned with a long blank stare. After an excruciating moment of clueless silence, she attempted to clarify her point further.

“The pegasus pony?”

Authordox continued his blank stare towards the Major, before slowly moving the paperwork he had prior brushed aside back to the centre of his desk. “As I said, such a shame,” he quietly and sheepishly reiterated, his horn glowed as a sharpened quill floated towards an inkpot as he changed his focus and began writing onto the paper. “I am sure… Wind Breaker… tried his hardest.”

Badge stood uncomfortably as her superior tried to move attention away from his remarks. Even at the rank of Major, it was improper for her to leave without permission. Authordox, fortunately, glanced up and recognised her remaining presence. “Well, Major, fallout” he hastily ordered.

And so, Major Badge briskly made her turn face and walked out. As she closed the door, Authordox silently fumed in frustration. That griffon had made it through to the passing out parade and was set to continue with the rest of the course.

Author's Note

Well, I honestly didn't expect this one to be as long as it was. Thank you to ROBCakeran53 for looking it over.

His Calling

Hey friends,

Glad to hear things are going well on your side of the mountain, and just as glad to be out of that intensive training. I am not looking forward to spending more days in a classroom; we were told we would be studying psychology, history, war studies and whatnot. Remember the first days of school when everything had to be under guidelines from the Equestrian Education Association? Yeah, I totally miss those days…

Anyways, tell Ocellus I said she’ll be fine. If she can get someone like me to prepare for entrance exams, I doubt she’ll have problems teaching a bunch of students how Starswirl the Bearded greatest wizard in all of Equestria was. I’m sure Silverstream will nail teaching laughter, she had the bouncy optimism for it.

Also, tell Yona she did a great job on the dress. I’ve included a few photos of me in my guard armour, so you can see how fancy I look.

‘Til next time,

Gallus

P.S. Saved anyone from drowning yet, Sandbar?

After checking everything was inside the enclosed envelope, Gallus stuffed it into the post box as Gallus made his way to Captain Westland’s office. It was the middle of the first term, so every cadet was to be given an evaluation to find out where they’re at with the course.

Gallus wasn’t too worried, though the thought of Wind Breaker still lingered in his mind. There was a sense that he was somewhere at the bottom of the platoon, and since he was discharged, it meant any other cadet could be next.

He approached the open doorway of his captain’s office, the sunlight from outside streamed through a window and left a bright patch on the ground. However, before a single talon made its way to the opening, Gallus stopped as he heard Westland speak to another cadet.

“Okay Scythe Rosewood, the good news is that you are meeting expectations in most areas the Academy evaluates cadets on” she detailed in her usual calm manner; clearly, Gallus had arrived a tad earlier than he was supposed to.

She continued, “However, I am not satisfied with one area that we evaluate: communication. Razorwing and I have noticed you tend to struggle with speaking; would you say that is a fair observation?” she asked. Gallus pictured Westland sitting at her desk with her hooves together, concealing her mouth.

Scythe answered, “Yes, ma’am.” His voice was rather soft and quiet, partially muffled behind the wall. Gallus did notice Scythe had speech issues to some degree, when the two were alone in their dorm room he would speak at a clear and normal level, but the moment he was in a group there was a retreat. He would be quiet, fumble with his words, like his nickname, he would mumble.

Then Captain Westland provided her solution. “Well, now that we’re halfway through the first term, I’m expecting you to find an extracurricular subject to take that will encourage you to speak both loud and clear so I can be satisfied.”

“I know you already have plans for when you finish the course and I’m sure you’ll do great things when you get your commission, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting you through the course easily, is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Scythe answered softly, lower as he sounded defeated. “Leave to fall out, Captain?”

“You’re dismissed.”

Upon hearing muffled hoof steps and counting, Gallus’ head shot upright, a feigned attempt at concealing his act of eavesdropping. He avoided eye contact as Scythe emerged from the open doorway, glancing to the side to see the bright blue uptight griffon waiting to go in. At the corner of Gallus’ eye, he caught Scythe taking a long deep breath as he bowed his head and walked past.

After he stepped in full view of the open doorway, he looked at the Captain, sitting behind her desk scribbling away at a sheet of paper on her desk. “Fall in, Captain?” he called out calmly.

“You may fall in.”

Upon command, Gallus marched his way in, stopping a foot from Westland’s desk to give a sharp salute, before easing himself. Westland finished her writing, moving the paper to one side and using the tips of her wings to pick up a new sheet of paper. As it curled from the top, Gallus could catch his name on the paper, even as the text hung upside down.

“Well Gallus, I’m sure things were difficult to start with, but you appear to have adjusted into Academy life,” she opened calmly with a voice one octave higher from earlier. “You have better control of your sense of humour when it’s required to be appropriate, and your performance on Winstone’s Trial and Exercise Self-Reliance shows you are more than capable in high stress and heavy endurance situations.”

Gallus’ face started to glow, from the sounds of it, he was doing great. He just wondered when the negatives would come in.

“From what I have found with the other cadets in First Wing, you are building a good rapport with your platoon. Have you made any attempts to socialise with anypony outside your platoon?”

Then those same corners dropped. It was not that long ago that Gallus had an encounter with the jerk unicorn with the camera. He pictured the smug grin, the sneering blue eyes, and his patronizing tone of voice, if only he got his name or even what platoon or company he was in, he could make a complaint. Whoever he was, that unicorn was not in his company as far as he could tell. “No… ma’am…” he replied, his voice had trailed off as he internally held back his frustrations.

“That’s alright, most cadets stay within their platoon during intensive training,” she remarked, oblivious to blaze engulfing Gallus’ eyes. “Now that we are out of that stretch, this is the week where physical and curricular activities are opened for cadets to sign up to. As a E.U.P. Guard, you are expected to work well with ponies of all kinds, Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus. These will be the best way to do that as well as gain specialised skills.”

Westland turned to her desk drawer and grabbed a sheet of paper with a map that was laid out in the form of a square grid.

“There will be a bazaar at the gym hall tomorrow so you can see what is on offer. Any questions?”

With a violent shake of his head, he snapped out of his frustrations and returned his attention to Westland. “I don’t think so,” he answered. “Leave to fall out, Captain?”

“You’re dismissed” she acknowledged with a small nod.

After following the protocol, with a right face turn and marching three steps, counting as he does so, Gallus made his own departure out of her office. There was a short breath released as he stood outside the office, relieved that he was not called back like he was on that first day

So then, the task that Gallus received appeared to be to make friends with earth ponies and other unicorns. On the plus side, physical activities meant sports, one of those would break away the mundane classrooms and the rigorous military drills.

Since the meeting was over, he had some free time, and it was as good a time as ever to make sure his armour was polished. He made his way down the corridors to his dorms, but as he got closer, he could hear something coming from the wall nearest to his room.

Ku-per-bi-a… Ke-ple-tes…, Ker-ri… Ci Ka-e-lum…, No… Gry-pho… Cost… Ke-gre-ssus...

Someone was slowly and carefully speaking words, and yet it was nonsense. Whatever was being said was not Ponish, but something about the patterns felt familiar to Gallus like he had heard them before. The emphasis on hard consonants at the beginning of words, its near phonetic spelling, and the way Griffon was pronounced. Gallus wondered, was he hearing Griffish?

That was not the only thing he wondered; he could swear the one speaking was Scythe. That could not be possible; Gallus knew Griffish was only spoken by older griffons, what pony would make the effort to learn it?

He grabbed the handle, casually opened the door, looked inside, and saw Scythe. The pegasus pony was sweeping the floor, unaware of Gallus standing in the doorway. He shook his head, assuming he was just hearing things and went inside the room to check on his armour.

It was the following morning; lunch had finished, and the bazaar had begun. The gymnasium had been reserved for indoor sports and had been transformed into a convention, with rows of tables in and around the for cadets to sign up to different activities.

Some tables had more to show in order to impress the cadets, many had posters as visual aids, some had equipment on display from parachutes to rowboats. Others had ponies kitted up giving demonstrations, the boxing club having an impromptu match in the middle of the bazaar. It was not just sports and physical stuff, there were also tables for drama, fishing, and engineering.

For Gallus, it was a lot to take in. “I don’t remember the School of Friendship offering half as much as this,” he remarked as he scanned the room. His fellow comrades had different reactions.

Pound Sterling was giddy like a filly in a toy shop. “Well, ah already getten mah sights set on wot ah want!” she exclaimed, she dashed to check out one specific “toy” that involved bows, arrows, and giant red targets.

Lightning Dust in contrast had a blasé view of the event, “I’m gonna see which one has the most flying in it”. Without a word, she started moving in the same direction as Sterling, looking across the tables.

“So, I must choose something, right?” asked Gallus, as he tried to figure out where to start looking. That was when Nicknames and Scythe appeared beside him.

“Yep,” Nicknames bluntly confirmed, before leaning into Gallus with a sly grin on his face, “at least if you like the Captain breathing down your neck.” The remark gave Gallus a haunting image of a giant Captain Westland peering over him covered in shadows, he shuddered at the thought while Nicknames chuckled off to browse for an activity to sign up to.

“No pressure then…” shakily remarked Gallus.

A jaded Scythe nodded in agreement, reminded of the task that Captain Westland put upon him. “Not a minute to waste either…” Fortunately to help, Scythe had a leaflet held in the tips of his wing that listed all the available activities and even provided a rough “map” of the gymnasium with all the tables numbered so cadets could easily go to the specific activity they wanted.

Peaking over Scythe’s shoulder, Gallus investigates the leaflets for any activities that catches his eye. Gallus wasn’t a very picky griffon, but considering he only had time for one or two activities meant he had to choose something he’d be good at and willing to do, even whilst sleep-deprived of the early morning start.

He could narrow down the ones that he would be ineligible to join, such as ones like magic studies that clearly required you to be a unicorn. Then he could narrow down ones that would be unnecessary for him for having wings, like parachuting. Then he could narrow out ones that were very academic-sounding like languages, physics, and mathematics, he would rather not pile on more homework to go through.

Then one of the listed activities caught his attention, Buckball. It was a pony sport that was played at the School of Friendship, it was popular around the school. Smolder, Ocellus, and Yona, were part of the Buckball Cheerleading Squad, and Gallus even played defence for the senior team before he graduated.

“Think I’m gonna look for the Buckball signups…” he said openly, before beginning to make a move to the specific table.

Amongst the entire crowd of cadets in the gymnasium, Scythe was the only one who heard him, “Oh okay, I’m gonna look for the… thing…” he said, his voice trailing off as his mind continued to focus on the leaflet.

Leaving Scythe on his own, Gallus made his way through the bazaar. As he tried to find the Buckball table, he could browse all the other activities and the cadets signing up to them. However, he also could not help but feel he was being watched. It was not like the look of bewilderment, questioning if they could see him, he had already gotten used to that even at this bazaar. This feeling was over being watched like something was being planned.

That was when Gallus felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around to see an earth pony whose coat was light grey with a hint of blue, and a short white mane, looking back at him with a calm smile. “Excuze me, are you the griffon?” he asked, he spoke with a nasal tone, yet his words seemed to flow like water.

As he turned around, Gallus eyes rolled near full circumference. “No, you must mistake me for some other griffon.” The earth pony raised an eyebrow, the heavy sarcasm having flown right over him. “Yes,” Gallus followed with a sigh, “my name is Gallus and I’m the griffon”.

The earth pony’s smile widened, and he closed his eyes, “Gallus, my name is Fountain Blue, we have been hearing a rumour amongst the pegasus about you…” This caused Gallus to close his own eyes and pinch the bridge of his beak, groaning at the thought of more rumours about his presence. “Apparently you are very fast at scaling walls, non?”

That is a new one, Gallus thought as he raised his head. Why would a pegasus pony spread rumours about me scaling walls unless somepony from my platoon spoke about what happened at the obstacle course? “I mean, back at Winstone’s Trial, I jumped and climbed over that massive wall at the end…”

Fountain Blue beamed as he began to make a pitch. “Well then, perhaps you consider signing up to the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club?” he wrapped his arm around Gallus’ shoulder and pointed him towards a table with posters depicting pony figures climbing up a jagged vertical surface. Sat behind the table was another grey coated pony with a short black mane, who stared at the two of them with a jaded glare.

“I’m sure a creature with firm legs, strong arms, and claws that have an iron grip would be perfect for such an activité.” He gestured towards Gallus’ physique from top to bottom, clearly trying to butter him up to join. “You would be really good at it, since what is a mountain other than a large naturally forming wall to climb to the top?” As optimistic as Fountain Blue was, Gallus was not convinced. He had already written it off in his mind since it was one of the unnecessary ones.

Granted, that obstacle course did serve as a reminder to avoid being dependent on his large cerulean wings, but Gallus already made up his mind. “Sorry, I can only choose one and I’d rather sign up for the Buckball Team” he pulled the pony’s arm off his shoulder and began his departure from the conversation.

”«Yes, all the ponies want to sign up for that!»"

Fountain Blue muttered to himself in a grievance, his smile faded as he looked back at his colleague who casually rolled his eyes. Still, he was determined and rushed in front of Gallus and held him back with a single hoof resting on his chest. “Ah you are mistaken, signing up is not an obligation to do the same thing for the whole year” He explained, gesticulating with a regained grin. “After you sign up, just turn up on the first day, give it a go. If you are good and you like it, you are part of the club. What do you say?”

The pony’s persistence began to irritate Gallus, unable to make his way past the way Fountain blue both socially and physically blocked him. He let out a harsh breath, “Fine,” he relented, just to get the suspiciously eager pony off his chest. He made his way up to the table, swiped the pencil, and filled out his name, platoon, and company on the board. Without batting an eye, he left the table and the two ponies, Fountain Blue giving a smug grin to his colleague.

Gallus eventually reached the table for the Buckball signups, as well as the long line to each signup sheet. Usually, Buckball had three to six players on a single team, and yet when Gallus eventually got to the front of the table to fill out his name, he skimmed through and counted more than two dozen names. That was just on the sheet Gallus filled in, he could see another sheet off to the side.

He would have wondered how the ponies running the club would be able to manage all the cadets who signed up, but at that point, he did not care. He finally got a physical activity under his wing, no need to worry about Captain Westland for a while. As he reached the exit for the gym, he managed to find the rest of his platoon altogether.

Sterling was the first to recognise him. “Ayup Bluebird!” she called out, waving incessantly. “How’d the signing up go?”

“Signed up for what I want,” Gallus responded with a shrug and grin, “and what I didn’t want,” he uttered under his breath. “How about you?”

“Ya mare’s gonna be a sharpshootah in the archery club!” she answered, beating her bare chest with her hoof.

“And I’ve signed up for aerial athletic tryouts,” Lightning Dust followed boastfully, “it’ll be a breeze to get in for me.”

“I signed up for the Buckball Team,” added Nicknames, “I know it’s really popular, but I’ve got a good shot…”

As much as he tried, Gallus held his grin uncomfortably. “Great…” He was unsure if that meant they could be teammates or rivals when it came to the tryouts. Scythe stood by, silent with his head down and standing further back. “What about you?” asked Gallus with intrigue.

“Oh, I signed up for… cross country, though I couldn’t find what I wanted…” he mumbled, his voice barely reaching the ears of Gallus and the ponies around him.

“Ah well, you can’t always find what you want,” callously remarked Nicknames with a heavy shrug. “As the saying goes, Sest la vee-ay!” Gallus and the ponies around them raised their eyebrows, perplexed by the random words he had uttered.

“It’s c’est la vie.” A sharp voice called out, taking a surprise from the whole group. They all turned to the direction of the voice, which came from the downtrodden Scythe. “Its Prench, such is life…” he reverted to murmuring his words the moment he looked up to see the whole group stare at him with widened eyes.

Then the corner of Nickname’s mouth quirked, “Ah, you suffered through Prench lessons at school too?” he remarked with a hard pat on the back. Scythe’s head sunk lower, hiding his face like a shadow covered his eyes. “Those were so boring, not that learning it was ever useful, doubt I could be as good as those weirdos who could recite the Guard’s code of honour…” he chuckled before walking off through the exit, with others following behind.

Gallus was the only one who stayed behind with Scythe, he had hoped to ask what the whole Prench thing was about, but before he could ask, a quiet yet clear voice emerged from Scythe before he started dragging his feet across the floor.

“Les soldats ne mentent jamais, tricher ou voler.”

Gallus followed Scythe all the way back to the dorms and could not help but notice his behaviour was odd. His hoofsteps were harder on the ground he walked on and did not bother making eye contact with anything but that hard stone surface. Once he swung open the door to the bedroom, he went straight to his bed in a huff.

The griffon figured that something about what Nicknames said about Prench lessons must have bothered Scythe in some way, how he said they were “boring”, "useless" and how they must have “suffered” through them. There had been some indication that Nicknames and Scythe didn’t get along in the past, but Nicknames sounded blissfully ignorant to the idea that Scythe might have actually liked learning other languages.

Heck, he seemed to learn enough of it to correct Nicknames, and translate the Guard’s code of honour, something Gallus could recall from the entrance exams, “Soldiers never lie, cheat, or steal”.

He also recalled that Scythe would read quite often, and so peeked at the row of books lined up on his desk, like it was a single shelf in a library. He scanned the titles, all of them had odd sounding titles that he could hardly understand, but one blue book with gold printed text on its spine sounded familiar to what he had heard moments ago.

“Hey, that’s a Prench book, right?” He tilted his head sideways and squinted, as he tried to read the title from the book’s spine. “Le pe-tit sol-dat?” he fumbled badly at the pronunciation.

“Yeah, Le Petit Soldat, The Little Soldier.” Although Scythe did not move from his bed or look at what Gallus was pointing to, he was able to pronounce it succinctly.

Gallus moved on to the next book, hoping it would be easier as it appeared to be a single word. “Is that one Prench too? Ee-sen-huff?”

“No, Eisenhuf is Germane. It means Iron Hoof.”

The next book Gallus spotted had a lot more words, “Uh… what language is this one?” He did not bother trying to recite it.

Scythe turned around to see Gallus sheepishly grinning, holding a red book with gold text above the golden engraving of a wolf. “Bitalian, Racconti dei Lupi de Legno, Tales of the Timberwolves.” The sight finally got Scythe to smile again.

He looked at the front of the book, the wolf engraving should have been a good hint of the title. He opened it up and skimmed through the pages, none of the words made any sense to him. In fact, most of the books did not make any sense to him, their titles all in languages other than the one he knew. That made it more surprising considering he’d seen Scythe look through these pages.

“You know how to read all these?” Gallus asked with curious intrigue.

Scythe’s face reverted to the perturbed glare, “You think it is stupid, right?” he seemed to anticipate such a thought.

“No, it is impressive.” Gallus hit back, causing a dumbfounded Scythe to sit upright and stared at Gallus perplexed. The griffon made his way to his own desk and pointed at his graduation photo to explain, the tip of his index claw tapped the bright cyan changeling with a diploma in hoof, donning a black gown and an orange arm pulling her upward and inward towards its dragon owner. “One of my friends, Ocellus, is a huge bookbug, she would be jealous of the kind of books you can read.”

His talon then travelled to the other side of the photo towards a large, brown-furred yak, hugging a sea-green pony in her arms like he was a teddy bear. “One of my other friends, Yona, comes from Yakyakistan, Ponish is a second language to her.” His reasoning rattled through Scythe’s head until it made sense, Gallus was already around both the book smart and multilingual, so a polyglot felt a lot more accepting.

The pegasus pony’s eyes had widened at another thought, if Gallus had a friend from Yakyakistan, that would mean one thing. “You have a friend that can speak Yakyaki!” he elated as leant forward from his bed. “I’ve been teaching myself to speak that one for a few months now.”

As he leant back on his desk, Gallus nodded with a smirk, “Yeah, I’m sure that’s not the only language you’ve taught yourself.” He leant further back over the desk and manoeuvred his claw around the back of his wardrobe, after some rummaging, he pulled out a particular Griffonstone antique. “You have read this, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice snapped to deadpan.

It was the plaque that Grandpa Gruff had gifted him, Scythe stared directly at the shield and the wingspread griffon that stood tall at the centre, and his face went pale as recognition filled his face and his head twitched between the shield and Gallus stern frown.

“I-I can explain!” he panicked, desperately pushing his hoofs along the bedsheets, backing up until his wings were pressed against the concrete wall behind him. “I was just tidying up when I found it and- “

“You read it, you know what it means, I heard you…” Gallus moved the shield closer to Scythe so the inscription around it was clear, having recalled what he heard yesterday.

“…I have a book back at home…”

“Do you know what it says?”

Scythe was still mentally pinned against the wall; he wasn’t sure if what he was asked was part of some test. It was true that he looked at the plaque and could read what it said out loud but knowing what it said he could only answer with honesty. “I can make out the glyphs, but without that book… I wouldn’t…” his voice trailed, and his head lowered in guilt as he confessed. “Do you know?”

In disappointment and shame, Gallus’ expression dulled, and he shook his head. “Griffons don’t use it anymore, at least ones that aren’t super old.” He laid the plaque down onto the desk, covering the engraving, he had hoped the inscription could have some meaning as to why he would be given such a thing. Scythe shared his disappointment too, internally he hoped he could learn to speak with a native speaker, which he could almost never find.

“Captain Westland wanted you to take an activity that could improve your communication,” recalled Gallus, “I am guessing when you said you were looking for a thing at the bazaar, you were looking to sign up to the languages course, right?” Scythe nodded slowly; his body huddled, hiding most of his face. “But at the end of the bazaar, you said you could not find what you were looking for, what did you mean by that?”

“They weren’t there…”

Having tilted his head to the side, Gallus slowly shook it in suspicious disbelief. “Okay, that can’t be right…” he remarked.

The pair returned to the gym, it was mid-afternoon, and things were getting quieter. Most of the cadets were gone and the atmosphere had died down as many of the staff ended their big demonstrations and waited for any stragglers still wishing to sign up or for the schedule to end.

Scythe made a direct path towards the table for the Languages course, Gallus followed behind with the bazaar’s map in claw. When they reached the table, Gallus was stunned to find that the Languages table was empty. More than empty in fact, the tables on either side were draped over with a cloth and had sign-up sheets, and a single staff member sat behind to keep an eye and answer questions. This table was naked, worn, and rusted.

Scythe was right, they really weren't there. “Told you…” he said, as Gallus repeatedly switched between the vacant table and the map to confirm it was the right place, remaining in disbelief. “It’s okay,” Scythe followed, expelling a long-defeated sigh, “I’m sure I could sign up for another course…”

Unexpectedly, a determined Gallus makes a short flap towards the table next to him and slams his claws on the surface. “Hey, who usually runs the course on languages, where can we find them?” he asks sharply.

The pony behind the table was a pegasus, in charge of the geography course, he leant back in his seat with his wings spread outward in surprise when Gallus stood over the table glaring towards him with a formidable glare. “Uh… languages?” he quickly glanced at the vacant table next to him, “I think that’s Major Babel, he is head of the Keating-Rogers Company, you can check his office if he is not here?”

The griffon’s face quickly transitioned to a grin as he gave an acknowledging nod. “Thanks,” he replied in an oddly upbeat fashion before he turned back to grab the collar of Scythe’s coveralls and pull him away. “Come on, let us go” he ordered, with poor Scythe unable to maintain his balance as he was being dragged through the gymnasium.

It took a while, but Scythe eventually stopped flailing and flapping his wings excessively as Gallus pulled him through the corridors and up the stairs towards the Keating-Rogers block. The Pegasus could have a moment of relief as Gallus released his tight grip on Scythe’s collar and allow him to be dropped onto the floor with a thud.

“Remind me why we are here?” asked Scythe, as he picked himself up and brushed his hindlegs and flank.

“Because you’re gonna talk to Major Babel about the language course,” answered Gallus, no sense of hesitation and full of confidence as he looked back and poked one of his claws into Scythe’s chest “and ask why you couldn’t sign up for it at the bazaar.”

His heart skipped a beat, Scythe thought Gallus was crazy to think he could just walk into a Major officer’s domain to ask about taking language classes. He tried to find the words that could explain how it would be a bad idea, but contradictions in his mind kept cutting him off.

He then gave up with a sigh, “What’s the point?” he said, bowing his head. “Even if I ask, it’s not like I’ll be on it.”

He felt his head, followed by his upper being pushed up and saw Gallus stare directly mere inches in front of him. “YOU should be able to do something that you want, something YOU like,” he explained firmly, prodding Scythe further with a single claw. “YOU will be better for it, and the one pony who could make that happen is right through that door.”

To distract himself from twinging at the sharp prods made into his chest, the pegasus turned his head to see where Gallus was pointing, directly towards an opening, with a sign posted next to it on the wall, stating that it was the Company Commander’s office. His eyelids drooped, he could envision light glowing out of the doorway to bring him to hope but could also imagine a dark aura filling him with doubt and urging him to go back.

“And why are you trying to help me?” he asked, curious why he was this motivated to do so.

Gallus’ answer was simple. “Because we’re friends, we help each other out, right?”

His eyes widened and glistened, he did not expect to be referred to as a friend, even from Gallus. They shared smiles in agreement, after all, Scythe helped Gallus near the start of the Academy. As such, he rolled his shoulders, took a deep breath, and walked around Gallus towards the opening.

As he peeked inside, he saw Major Babel. He was a jade coated unicorn with a finely combed dark mane, the most striking aspect of his appearance was his physique. Male stallions in the guard tended to be either tall, large, or bulky, Major Babel on the other hoof looked like an average-sized pony, would he walk amongst the ponies of Canterlot sans his uniform, he would blend into the crowd.

The Major was scribbling with a long and puffy quill, his sights fixated on the scroll he was writing on. Scythe turned around and rubbed the back of his head, “You know, he looks kind of busy, so I’ll go see him la- “. Before he could finish, Gallus gave him a hard shove on his flank, projecting him forward.

The pegasus stumbled forward until he reached the line between the inside of the office and the outside corridor. He was desperately leaning back as far as he could to return on all fours and avoid falling face-first into the office. That was when Major Babel looked up and saw the pegasus pony’s balancing act.

“Can I help you?” he asked, before raising an eyebrow. “You’re not one of my cadets…”

Scythe finally managed to fall back so all his hooves touched the floor, “Uhh… enter to fall in... please?” he hesitantly called.

The Major’s horn glowed as his scroll slid to one side of the desk along with his puffy quill. “…come on in,” the Major responded, calling Scythe in with his hoof, who briskly marched towards the desk. “What do you want?”

Scythe tensed up, his voice trembled, and his legs shook as he tried to get the correct words out. “Uh… I was wondering… I would like… to sign up for… the languages course… but when I was at the bazaar… I couldn’t find where to sign in…”

The Major was quick to stop Scythe and give him his answer, “You won’t be able to sign up for the course, it’s been cancelled.” He put it bluntly. “Lack of interest and low attendance from cadets meant the Academy has cut it out from the curriculum.”

Scythe felt his heart sink, “Oh… that is a shame…” he turned back to the opening and could see Gallus nod at him to continue. “I was interested in the course,” he followed with a more calm and succinct manner.

“Too bad,” the Major candidly retorted, “you’re gonna have to sign up for something else.”

Scythe turned back to the opening once more, he could see Gallus encouraging him to push further, rolling his wrist around in a continuous gesture. “But Major… I want to take the language course… I don’t want to take something else…” he pleaded.

The Major rested his head on his hoof and took a sharp, frustrated breath. “Look, I get where you are coming from, I really do,” he opened empathetically. “So, your captain demands you take an extra subject, they feel you are lacking in a certain area. You have looked through all the possible courses and none of them appealed to you, so you end up scraping the bottom of the barrel and signing up to languages, despite it being viewed as an irrelevant course in the present day because everypony in Equestria speaks fluent Ponish, along with all our neighbouring allies.”

His description was incredibly cynical, and had a sense of projection, as he stared at the nervous pegasus and talked down to him with exaggerated motions.

“As a result, you end up spending two days a week with one or two other layabouts who also scraped the bottom of the barrel for nearly a year, while other ponies wonder why you even bother taking such a boring and useless subject and believe you are wasting your time.”

He finished, and witnessed Scythe lower himself, his shoulders slumped as he stared downwards and rubbed his hoof on his leg. The Major sensed something in his rant that felt a lot closer to home and felt guilty as he sat back down into his seat and continued in a softer voice, looking leftward to reflect.

“However, you might be one of those rare students who does find learning different ways to communicate fascinating, maybe as a creative outreach or because of a deep interest in other cultures. After you graduate, there may be a time of diplomacy where the E.U.P. Guard will find your skills to be of incredible use, you make a good career speaking in other languages, and then go on to teach a new generation of cadets.

If that is the case, then I am sorry, but that is not enough to convince the Academy Board to restart the course anymore.”

Knowing his brutal honesty did not make any reassurance or difference in Scythe’s mood, he looked up to think of any way he could help. “The only other option is that I could arrange private tutoring, but the Board would only approve that if the cadet were very dedicated,” he suggested, with a heavy shrug. “They would have to be willing to learn a complicated language, like Yakyaki.”

The pegasus pony’s eyes expanded, a spark suddenly ignited as his head arose upright and he looked firmly towards the Major. “«Scythe learn to speak Yakyaki»” Major Babel looked flummoxed, shaking his head in disbelief. He swore he could hear Yakyaki, not an entirely perfect pronunciation of words, but it had enough detail and form to be understood as such. “«Scythe want to speak like yak and other creatures, will take any classes needed!»” he finished with a firm stomp from his front hoof.

The wheels in Major Babel’s were turning, his horn then glowed as his quill returned with a fresh sheet of paper and leant forward. “«What is pony name, hut, and chief?»” the Major questioned.

Scythe suddenly felt a hint of giddiness, he could hear the Major speak in Yakyaki, clear and concise words that he could understand. He felt an urge to thrust his hoof upwards towards his head in a salute with his chest outward. “Scythe Ma…!” he suddenly stopped and composed himself, he returned his hoof to the ground, cleared his throat, and calmly corrected himself. “Rosewood, Scythe Rosewood. Larson Company First Wings, under Captain Westland, sir.”

The quill scribbled down the words the Major heard, and once the quill stopped moving, the edge of Major Babel’s mouth curved upwards. “Leave it with me, once Captain Westland gives you the approval, we can start lessons in this office, understood?”

Scythe was in shock, his eyes stretched out to their breadth and his jaw hung open. “Y-yes, sir.” He responded, his effort to nod failing by his uncontrollable shake. “Leave and fallout?”

“You may leave.”

Scythe suddenly felt incapable of speech, which made things silent as he faced right and marched himself out, mouthing the numbers he was meant to call out. His face remained frozen as he made his way out into the corridor.

Once outside, he turned to find Gallus, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his smirk, lowered glance, and raised eyes giving the message of “I told you so” but to Scythe that did not matter. He felt his voice return to him in full force, and all he could do is scream in elation and pull the griffon into a tight hug, he was going to be learning languages from a tutor more skilled than he is.

Author's Note

Thanks to TheManFromAnotherTime for looking over parts of this one.

Tryouts - Part 1

Hey Gally!

We got your photos and OhMiNeptune you look AMAZING! You look soooooo cool in armour, all mighty and tough looking. The others loved seeing it too, Smolder and Sandbar said you looked kinda dorky but you know deep down they liked what they saw.

Hope you don’t mind but I’ve also been showing them around the School of Friendship, some of the teachers are really happy to see you’re doing well. When you do get back though, you might have to deal with a few fans.

In other news, Smolder is working through the cheerleader tryouts, being one of the original members of the buckball cheer squad means that Professor Dash has a lot of trust in her to handle it.

Do you still play buckball at the academy? I remember watching all of your games for the school team last year, watching Smolder practising her routines remind me of those days.

I have to get back to work, look forward to your letter as always!

Silverstream

There was a mixture of emotions as Gallus read the latest letter from Silverstream; relief that the photos made it through in one piece, content that his friends got to see it, and mild concern, wondering who else may have seen it. However, the latter half of the letter reminded him of what was also on his mind.

It was finally happening, the day of the buckball tryouts had arrived. After morning inspections, breakfast, and morning classes, he would have nothing else to focus on, except getting past them. His focus had to be on buckball, what with all the effort it took to sign up, and having Captain Westland breathing down his neck to get into a club didn't help matters either.

Both Gallus and his buddy, Scythe, had left a class about battle formations and were making their way towards the dorms so they could get prepared for their tryouts. In a nice change of pace, Scythe was rather calm for once. Having a place of his own and being able to learn languages did a lot to lift his spirits, but that wasn’t all that he signed up for.

“So, why cross-country?” Gallus asked his smiling friend, “I mean, you weren’t forced to take a physical activity.”

“Well, I’m not into sports,” Scythe casually admitted, shrugging as he glanced away from Gallus, “but my older brother did cross-country runs while he was here, so it’s a good way for me to catch up.” He turned his head forward, a relaxed smile spreading across his face. While it was nice for Gallus to see him upbeat, the mood was short-lived.

“Oh look, it’s Mumbles! Fancy seeing you here!”

Both Gallus and Scythe’s ears pricked up at the sound of a familiar snooty voice. Recognition dawned on both their faces, but then the tall white unicorn trotted up to Scythe, who was dreading the encounter more than Gallus. “Oh, hey Coalstone.“ he remarked in a rough, yet faint tone. He bowed his head, the smile on his face giving way to a neutral look.

The unicorn smirked, lifting Scythe’s head. He forced the pegasus to lock eyes with him, the atmosphere suffocating Gallus, with Scythe suffering the worst of it. “Come on, speak up. Aren’t you happy to see me?” asked Coalstone, his hoof was pressed tightly against the underside of Scythe’s jaw, preventing the pegasus to speak–even if he wanted to. “It’s not like anything bad would happen, I’m here. Oh! You haven’t met my friends; this is Pruminant, and this is Crossroads''.

He let go of Scythe to gesture towards two other unicorns to the side of him. One was a mare with a pale violet coat and dark blue eyes. She had her garnet-purple mane tied up in a bun, probably to conceal its true length. The other stallion was a white-coated unicorn, who preferred to keep his brunette mane finely combed. “Our platoon has been working hard to ensure we’re the finest platoon this Academy will ever have the witness of training,” Coalstone bragged, his nose in the air and his hoof pressed against his chest. “What are your friends like?”

Although Scythe was able to speak, he felt heavily reluctant to do so. “I have a good friend…”

“Oh, that’s right. You are not the kind to make friends if I recall?” the unicorn interrupted, his sardonic rhetorical question earned a snicker from one of his friends, although it pushed Scythe further down. “I’m sure you brought your books, at least then you have something to talk to...”

Gallus had been glaring at Coalstone through the whole ordeal, knowing he was the same unicorn that had picked on Scythe in the past. Seeing the unicorn pick on him was enough for him to step in. “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be a jerk and let Scythe speak for himself?”

The three unicorns shifted their attention to Gallus, though Coalstone reacted as if it was a mere annoyance as he rolled his eyes. “Can’t you see that I’m having a conversation with an old friend- “

“What I see is you picking on MY friend, either be nice or back off!”

Coalstone was taken aback by the forceful tone and sharp glare directed at him. He sneered, annoyed at the nerve of the griffon that spoke back to him. He turned to Pruminant and Crossroads, who both looked on with wide eyes at the words before turning back to a nervous Scythe, regaining his smirk.

“Looks like I was mistaken when you arrived at the Academy, you brought your books…” his head then turned towards Gallus, who continued to glare at him, “and a pet.” The remark earned some more snickers from the pair of stuck-up unicorns and a seething hiss from Gallus.

“I’ll let you both have fun, I’ve got to get ready for tryouts, see you around, Mumbles.”

Without care or concern, Coalstone trotted away, pushing himself past the pair. The push had such a force that it pushed Gallus and Scythe to both ends of the corridors, opening the space between them to allow his friends to walk past with ease.

As frustrating as it was for Gallus to encounter that unicorn again, he could see that it was worse for Scythe, who no longer had his positive demeanour, the pegasus keeping his head down for the remainder of the trip back to the dorm. At least at that moment, he learned two things: that unicorn was more than just some stuck-up bully, and he had a name; Coalstone.

Having gotten out of his heavy coveralls, Gallus made his way out onto the field outside the gym. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to find where the tryouts were taking place, where several ponies stood around stretching and conversing with one another on a section of the field with four large rings. Each ring was painted to mark where the defence and goal assist players should be, with smaller rings inside for the offensive players. There were also two large wooden buckets on each pitch for the goals.

Almost every pony was either from another platoon or another company, the kind of passing faces that travel down hallways or gather around the tables in the dining hall, for none of the faces were recognisable, although Gallus wasn’t exactly given a choice of who to approach. “Bluebird, no way!” a voice of joyful surprise reached Gallus, and he turned around to see a cyan pegasus waving at him to come over.

It was Nicknames, Gallus remembered he had also signed up for the tryouts. He was also one of the more arrogant and ignorant cadets in the platoon Despite this, Gallus still felt compelled to be nice to him since Nicknames had lost his roommate only a few weeks ago. With an exasperated sigh, Gallus made his way over, forcing a smile on his face. “You’re trying out for the buckball team as well?” Nicknames quizzed Gallus upon his approach, “Didn’t even know griffons played it.”

As Gallus sat down on the grass to stretch his arms, he began to think about how to respond. Nicknames did have a point, buckball was one of the few sports that never made it beyond Equestria’s borders. Griffons do have at least one ball sport, where the ball is a small round furry creature being kicked and thrown around, but Gallus never liked rough sports like those.

“Well, I did at least,” asserted Gallus as he gently pulled one arm over his head and stretched as far as he could. “I played defence in the School of Friendship’s buckball team during my senior year, we even played against Princess Celestia’s Magic School a bunch of times.” From the corner of his eye, he could see Nicknames mull the idea over in his head, the image of Gallus stretching out to grab flying balls forming in his thoughts.

The pegasus gave a subtle nod and sound of agreement, how it made sense was indicated. “You play much?” Gallus followed up the discussion as he moved to stretch his wings.

Nicknames barely managed to shrug his own shoulders in the middle of stretching his forearms, “Meh, I’ve seen it, but Cloudsdale doesn’t play it,” he coolly confessed. “You can’t really have a team of just pegasus ponies, ya know?” The answer gave Gallus some relief, if the two of them were competing, Gallus assumed he’d easily win over somepony far less experienced.

For starters, he already played the game, not just that but trained under Ponyville’s best players, Professor Dash and Professor Fluttershy. Gallus could never figure out how his schoolteachers could find so much free time to be coaches and players in professional sports, not to mention the additional jobs on the side, and being regular heroes to friendship problems around Equestria. At that point, Gallus was willing to consider time travel, or some high-level time management set out by Princess Twilight or something…

BREET! The train of thought was derailed as Gallus and everypony around him turned their heads towards the sound of a loud whistle, blown by an exceptionally bulky earth pony in jogging attire and rectangular sunglasses that covered his eyes. One by one, ponies made their approach and line up at the edge of the nearest pitch and awaited the start of the tryouts.

“Alright ponies,” bellowed the coach, no different to any other sergeant as he marched down the line. “I’m gonna make this simple since there is a lot of you.” He began his explanation by showing off his clipboard, with a sheet of paper with six squares on it.

“There will only be six places available on the team, three on the pitch, and three substitutes,” the coach explained, considering the several dozen cadets in attendance, the fact seemed bleak. “Others will also be selected for reserves where they can be called up to join or replace the team in sudden circumstances,” he added as some form of reassurance.

“Selections will be based on your performance in these here tryouts. How it’s gonna work is that you’ll be competing against each other in teams, with each team playing four games.” Gallus looked to his left and right, he could see why activities like this were good at encouraging cadets like him to work with other kinds of ponies, in buckball he would need to work with one earth pony and one unicorn. “Also, to make it fair, the teams will be random. You can’t be a good player if your picky with your teammates.”

Even better, he didn’t have to choose or ask. Each cadet waited in line to be given a tag, detailing when they’d play, what pitch, and which side to play on. Luckily for Gallus, his tag told him he’d be one of the teams playing first, he just needed to make his move towards the correct circle on the field.

He made his way over, flying low as his sanguine face focused on the circles, eyeing the earth pony and unicorn in a casual discussion. In his head, he remained adamant that he would get along fine, sure all his previous encounters with the non-pegasus ponies ranged from confused oglers to blatant jerks, but this is sports and teamwork. At the School of Friendship, he got along with End Zone and Citrine Spark, the Earth and Unicorn ponies from his senior team in training and matches, how hard could this be?

When Gallus made his way to the pair, he prepared to find out. “Hey, I’m Gallus” he called to them both, giving a relaxed smirk as he raised his clawed hand in greeting. The two turned their heads to see the blue griffon next to them, raising an eyebrow at each other. The first to respond was the earth pony, a bright yellow stallion with a scruffy short mane.

“Uh, howdy, Eastwood” he responded cautiously, slowly offering a hoof to be shaken. His voice had a farmland drawl that reminded Gallus of one of his other teachers, Professor Applejack. “Looks like y’all on our team?” his outreached hoof bobbed up and down slowly, although there was no compelling to recede. It gave Gallus some optimism that at least one of them was willing to be friendly.

“Guess so” answered Gallus, as he revealed his tag with the corresponding pitch and side.

Then there was the unicorn, a pink mare with a strawberry mane tied in a bun, before Gallus could find out what her name was though, she let out an exasperated sigh, one that even surprised her earth pony companion. “Just what we need…” she uttered, before trotting off, only looking back to give a dirty look.

As he frowned and crossed his arms, Gallus’ anticipation of teamwork was beginning to depart from his mind, “Nice to meet you too…” he uttered, not that the unicorn with no name would be able to hear it. At least he had the credence that Eastwood stayed with him, Gallus figured he could use some time before the first game to do some sports talk.

“So, since we are playing together, you have any tactics or strategies? When I played in the School of Friendship-”

“Ya know how ta catch an’ throw a ball?” Eastwood abruptly asked, his head snapped towards Gallus, cutting into the griffon’s talk.

“Uh, yeah… like I was about to say, I-”

“Good enough for me,” responded Eastwood with a shrug and a grin, cutting Gallus off, again. “Now, ah don’t like to brag but back in Appleloosa, ah was the offence on tha high school team that got to the championship earleh this year,” he bragged with a smug grin, before laying a hoof on Gallus’ shoulder. “Don’ be afraid ta ask if you need any explanations on how ta play since y’all griffons don’t play buckball.” If Eastwood didn’t have his haughty eyes shut, he’d be looking into the fire igniting in Gallus’ retinas. “Now since y’all be on defence, all you need to do is use dem wings ‘n claws of yours to fly up and stop the ball from gettin’ into them team’s basket and pass it to me, all clear?”

“I’ll keep that in mind…” Gallus recalled with bated breath, glaring a hole into Eastwood’s chest as he made his way to centre court. Yep, he was getting along fine…

With all the players ready on the pitch, the first set of matches begun at the sound of the coach’s whistle. Each game started with the two earth ponies of each team at the centre of the pitch, as the ball is chucked in the air ready to be kicked or bucked. Their aim as the offence is to get the ball into their goal, a large bucket handled by the unicorn of their team, who is only allowed to move the bucket around the outside of the pitch. The one thing preventing them from this is the pegasus pony, who flies around their side of the pitch as the defence, blocking the ball from reaching the goal, and passing it to their offence.

For as arrogant and condescending as Eastwood was, Gallus had to give him credit for being honest at selling himself up as an offensive player. The earth stallion was fast at getting his hooves to the ball and kicking it far, no matter what angle he approached the ball from, he was able to buck it towards the goal.

Not to mention, Eastwood would sometimes buck the ball with such velocity, it was hard for the unicorn to catch up to catch the ball. The mare was given a workout from how fast she had to run from one side of the edge to the other, all while levitating the bucket. Gallus counted all the missed points from each time the ball bounced off the edge of the bucket, the thought of the lanky orange foal constantly in meditation and teaching to not think about it came to his mind.

Whenever the opposing team got the ball, that was where Gallus got to shine. The rules of buckball allow the defence to block and catch the ball with any body part, hooves, wings, flank, body, even Professor Fluttershy could catch the ball with her tail. For Gallus, his advantage was his wings, which were near twice the breadth of pegasus wings. The griffon would stop the ball in its trajectory with them, before catching the ball with his talons and throwing it back towards Eastwood.

As a result, the first game ended with five points to his team, the opposing team unable to get a single ball into their bucket. For any pony that thought this was a fluke, the teams moved and were off to face new opponents. Despite the varying level of exhaustion from both teams, in the rare moments the opponents got a hold of the ball, they couldn’t get past either Eastwood or Gallus, the scores were nearly identical, six points against zero.

Then the third game happened straight afterwards, and despite even further exhaustion against a fresh team, even they couldn’t get a single point. Eastwood was desperate for a break, buckets of sweat poured down his body, and yet he was able to buck in three points.

Finally, the team could catch a break as they were called off the pitch to allow other teams to play. They could watch as the coach walked around the perimeter of each game, and jotted notes into his clipboard, evaluating the players to see which were doing good or not. Gallus felt pleased with himself as he regained his breath and holding himself up by his arms, although no one felt more satisfied with the tryouts than the stallion who had passed out with his back laying on the soft cool grass.

“Hoo nelly! Ahm likin’ the streak we got goin’” cheered Eastwood as he punched the air with his hooves. He used what strength he had regained to push himself back up to a sitting position, before turning to the unnamed mare to his right. “With gettin’ the ball in that basket to get us points, we’d make a great team,” he declared proudly, then there was a pause, one that felt longer the more Gallus sat on the other side.

The griffon’s brows drew together, the only one who would notice Gallus’ growing impatience was the unicorn, playing coy to his exclusion. Gallus didn’t expect much praise just for being a good defender, but Eastwood’s bliss didn’t help him feel like he should be acknowledged for his hard work. After having enough, he brought his clenched claws to the tip of his beak and cleared his throat.

That was when Eastwood’s ears pricked up, realising who else was on HIS team. “Oh, and I woul’n’t be able to buck dem balls if big wings over ‘ere didn’t block and send ‘em mah way, right?” he followed in his prideful tone, the mare still in his line of sight like he’s trying his hardest to impress her.

He then turned to the teammate his hoof was gesturing towards, “Y’know, it’s fun actually playin’ with you, it’s good to know there’s a griffon whosa real good team player for once.” As sincere as he sounded, Gallus could feel unease from the implications of his statement. Guess Eastwood had no qualms referring to griffon stereotypes, much to Gallus’ chagrin.

“Well, it’s also good to know there are ponies aren’t all patronizing,” Gallus remarked, putting on a fake smile.

Eastwood missed the sarcasm and laughed, “Heh, well keep this up and we’ll be pardners in the Academy buckball games in no time!” he put it optimistically and provided a friendly punch in the arm. The game the three watched ended with a score of four points against three, rather close considering it all it took was the ball to land in one bucket to decide the game. The coach’s whistle was blown, and Gallus’ team was called up for their final game of the tryouts.

The team approached the pitch, and Gallus flew up to his defence position above the outer ring. Although he had not paid any interest in who the other teams were in the previous games, he found a reason to when he looked across. Nicknames was flying at the same level at the other end of the pitch, even from a distance, Gallus could catch Nicknames giving an eager smirk and salute in his direction.

So, Nicknames was the defender of the opposing team, but that was the worst of it. Out of the corner of his eye, a white unicorn stallion with a blond mane had trotted his way behind Gallus. “Hello, bird. Ready for a good game?” asked Coalstone in his usual snooty voice, presenting his smug grin with his nose pointed above the griffon’s place in flight.

With no intent on giving him attention, Gallus just looked ahead as Eastwood and the opposing Earth pony stood in the middle of the pitch, awaiting the ball to be thrown in the air. “Tch, typical griffon…” was all he heard from behind, a low jeering voice before a loud BREET from the whistle bellowed towards him, and the game began.

Having regained their energy, Gallus and Eastwood were back on form and gave the opposing team a workout while preventing their chances at scoring a point. Nicknames struggled to keep up, his attempts to catch the ball fumbled when it bounced off the ends of his hooves and body.

That didn’t mean there was no hope that they could score, their offence was a mare with a pale harlequin coat, and she had a mean kick to her. Gallus had to move fast whenever she bucked the ball, but even at high velocity, the ball couldn’t get past Gallus’ wings.

After his team was in the lead with four to nothing, the harlequin mare had the bucket in her line of sight and bucked it high. Gallus lined himself up, seeing the ball coming his way, he was ready to catch it. Then suddenly, he felt a shock run up his spine causing his body to spasm, his wings froze in place as he fell to the ground. Unable to block the ball, it landed directly into Coalstone’s floating bucket.

As Gallus got up, he saw the score change to be four points against one and turned around to see a coy Coalstone looking away. He knew something was up. “Hey, that was a foul!” he called out towards the coach.

The coach rolled his eyes, as he was jotting notes into his clipboard. “No foul, the team got the point” he replied, nonchalantly dismissing the claim and stuck his nose back into the clipboard. The others on the pitch having not seen what had happened, all looked towards Gallus with raised eyebrows.

But Gallus was insistent that he didn’t just fall so easily, as he flew over to the coach and argued his case. “In the rules, unicorns are only allowed to use levitation magic on their baskets, and yet I was zapped in the back.” There was no response, the coach just continued writing on his notes. “HE CHEATED!” he called out sharply right in front of the coach, pointing his talons at Coalstone.

The coach just rolled his eyes once more, “If I saw a foul, I would have called it, Griffon,” he snapped back, glowering towards Gallus. “Your teams winning, so go back to your position and continue play, unless you want to get your team disqualified.”

Coalstone in the moment of cheek shouted from his spot on the pitch, “Yeah bird, either you be nice, or back off!” the remark caused Gallus to turn his head back and glared at Coalstone, who continued the cheek of using Gallus’ line from earlier that day with a sardonic smirk.

None of his team moved from their spots, with Eastwood giving a stern look towards Gallus, insinuating a demand to get back on the pitch and not ruin the game for him. Nicknames had a look of confliction, switching glances between Coalstone and Gallus while biting his lip. Although Gallus wanted to argue further, he flew back to his position on the pitch in a humph.

After a minute of play, the coach blew his whistle. The game ended, Gallus team won with four points, against Coalstone’s team who only scored one point.

None of the cadets found out the results of the tryouts until the following day when the coach put up the full list on the noticeboard outside the Academy gymnasium. Gallus and Scythe made their way over to the board during their lunch break to find out. It was by pure coincidence that the pair also bumped into another friendly face…

“Hey, you here to see who made the team?” summoned Nicknames, he casually leaned into Gallus, resting a forearm on his back with no concern of the griffon’s comfort as he peered at the list on the board. “Let’s see… there’s Eastwood, Jet Wash, Coalstone…”

“Of course, he’s there…” Scythe muttered words under bated breath.

Then Nicknames’ face brightened, “I made the team! That is awesome!” he elated, pointing directly at the list, the word “Nick” was definitely present in the reserves section of the list. “Sure, I’m in the reserves but that means I’m in the team!” His excitement was short-lived, as he looked back at the three names on the team and three names in the substitutes. Neither of them had Gallus’ name on them, the disappointment on his face was clear as day.

“Sucks that you didn’t make the team Bluebird, you did pretty well” Nicknames reassured Gallus as he patted him on the back, “At least in the reserves, we can play buckball together with some other ponies and…”

“I’m not even in the reserves…”

Gallus’ blunt statement threw Nicknames off guard, he returned to the list and scanned through every name. “That can’t be right…” he uttered to himself in his dumbfounded state, he saw how well Gallus played in the tryouts, the couch would be an idiot not to put him somewhere on the buckball team. But after scanning the list twice, Gallus was correct, he wasn’t on the list at all.

Gallus was left feeling vacant, his arms folded tight, and his forehead creased as his eyes glared deeply at the list. The two ponies imagined how disheartened he was at the rejection. “Sorry Gallus…” said Scythe to comfort Gallus.

“Bullcrap!” yelled Gallus, the suddenness of such language caused both Scythe and Nicknames to project backwards away from him. “Coalstone cheated in that last game in the tryouts and acted like a smug jerk throughout, and he’s on the team,” he ranted, his two comrades witnessing his arms wildly gesticulating and fire in his eyes as he switched his sights between them. “I caught almost every ball in those tryouts, got that pompous pony from Appleloosa a near-perfect game streak, and I don’t even get in the reserves…”

“Hey, look I don’t get it either…” Nicknames hastily replied, repeatedly crossing his arms in a slight retreat. “Maybe there was some other reason you didn’t get in…”

“Yeah… some other reason...”

Author's Note

Thanks to eyessorc for proofreading and editing parts of this chapter!

The Long Reach - Part 1

Hey friends,

Glad you all like the photos, it is one of a few different outfits I must clean and change into depending on what is going on in each day, and it has grown on me. Sure, I do look kinda dorky, but I figured Smolder would be glad to know I am not the only one that likes to dress up.

Funny you remind me of buckball, they had a bazaar where the academy showed off all the activities and clubs, you could sign up for boxing, archery, athletics, as well as nerdy stuff like maths and geography. I wanted to sign up buckball, but it didn’t work out.

Now I’m in a Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, where I climb walls to prepare for climbing mountains, and it turns out I’m pretty good at it. Who knew living on a mountain for years had some advantages?

Anyways, hopefully, by the time you get this, you might get to see me flying over Ponyville. It is part of an exercise called the long reach where the platoon is travelling over two days high in the sky. It begins on the first day of the next month, so keep your eyes peeled.

Till next time,

Gallus

The writer of the letter breathed a sigh of relief, having finally finished a copy with which he was happy. Although Gallus had considered going into more detail about the ordeal with the buckball tryouts, a part of his mind nagged him to refrain from bumming his friends out. At the very least, he hoped that detailing what he’s actually doing and hyping something to look out for would get their interest.

Fortunately, the gist of the exercise was pre-written on the blackboard for him to include in the letter before classes start. It did mean however, he had to hastily fold and put the letter in an envelope by the time Captain Westland arrived, to begin the pre-briefing of the exercise.

“Alright cadets, next week this will be the most important forty-eight hours of your first term here at the Academy, and that’s because of this,” she declared, before using her wing to point to the words EXERCISE LONG REACH, the three largest words written at the top of the board.

“As pegasus cadets, it is the most intensive and representative exercise of what it takes to be the Pegasus part of the E.U.P. Guard, where the flights are at their longest and excruciating.” As has been the case in previous classes, Captain Westland addressed her cadets in a manner both calm and direct, though no less tense. She studied the room, all cadets had her full attention, although none were as relaxed as she hoped for.

She smiled, figuring a joke should lighten the mood, “Essentially, if you believe all it takes to be a pegasus in the military is wearing brightly coloured flight suits and goggles, doing acrobatics and high-speed stunts, well…” she paused for effect. “I don’t want to judge, but it’s too late to realise you’re not at the Wonderbolt Academy.”

The room was deathly quiet, a few cadets turned their heads, unsure if they were supposed to laugh, others continued looking forward with blank faces.

Recognising that the joke fell flat, the captain cleared her throat and hastily decided to continue the presentation. She returned to the board and hung a large map of Equestria over it. “Now listen carefully, I’m only going to give you these details once,” she instructed, before pointing near the centre of the map near where Canterlot Palace was marked.

“Every cadet will journey between the Royal Guard Academy and a base west of Equestria past the White Tail Woods,” she moved her pointer towards the edge of the map where the woods ended, and open fields marked with a giant tent. “You will be separated into teams, each provided a different route, with checkpoints marked by flags they must obtain.”

As she surveyed the class, she could see some of the cadets in thought, and some writing notes; she imagined them wondering what their teams would be like, or how they would handle the exercise at hoof. She gave them a few minutes to think on things before she made her closing remarks.

“Decide amongst yourselves who you want to pair up with, no teams greater than five. Before the exercise begins, you’ll be assigned positions and roles. However, you still need to pay attention to these classes, the only way you’ll succeed in Long Reach is to be diligent and thorough.”

After a week of classes on navigation and preparing themselves, the first day of the month arrived in time for Exercise Long Reach. When choosing who to be paired up with, Gallus felt Scythe was the easiest first choice, given they were roommates and he was a smart pony to boot.

The next choice was Pound Sterling, the most outdoorsy of the pegasus ponies. Then it was a case of getting two more for good measure, Nicknames wanted to pair up, despite some hesitancy, and the last one was at Pound Sterling’s roommate at her own request, Lightning Dust.

It was most of the same team from Exercise Self-Reliance, except donned in full body armour and in the days prior to Long Reach was the assigning of positions. As the team waited for their turn to take off in front of the main building, overlooking the vast field where Captain Westland looked over the other teams, the thought of the positions racked Gallus’ mind.

“Ever wonder why they assigned us the roles they did?” he openly asked the rest of his team.

“Not me, I like the role I’ve got,” answered Lightning Dust, making no effort to hide the smug grin on her face. A cynical expression was all that Gallus could return; he knew full well why she of all ponies would not complain.

“That’s because you’re the lead navigator, you get to be in front,” he called back. “Meanwhile, Scythe and I are at the back.”

Pound Sterling was next to speak up, she turned her head to the rest of the team, “Aren't these supposed ta be randa?” she asked in her thick Trottingham accent.

A random assignment would be the fairest idea, and Gallus showed an initial agreement, but to confirm he turned to Scythe. “Are they?”

Scythe shook his head, “Not really,” he answered with a shrug. Sterling moved her head back to the front before he had time to follow up. albeit in a quiet mutter, “the captain and staff sergeant set positions for a reason.” he mumbled.

Then it was Nicknames, who confidently turned around, “You know what I think the reason is?” he asked, Gallus peered at him anticipating an answer he’d later regret. “Seniority.”

This suggestion seemed to make more sense to the ponies in the team, than to Gallus the griffon. Pound Sterling’s face lit up as if a light ignited above her head and she spoke up, “Oh yeah! Tha makes sense! Bluebird, you eighteen reet?” she directed towards Gallus, who nodded slowly as he continued to peer. “Tha makes you the recklin at the back.” She quickly pointed to Scythe, “Mumbles is nineteen,” then pointed at the others in order. “Same wi’ Nicknames, ah’m twenty ‘un, and…”

“I’m the most experienced flyer of the group,” Lightning Dust interjected, lifting her head so her nose pointed towards the sky, “so of course, I’d be at the front.”

“You are also the eldest in the platoon,” added Nicknames with the smugness of his own, “that is why we call you Dusty.” Before there was time for him or anyone nearby to chuckle, he felt immediate regret for stand behind the turquoise mare. He had only a second to see a single hoof fire directly into his face, the impact left him stumbling with a sore nose.

Moments after the team on the field had taken off, Captain Westland gestured the team to move into positions. Facing West, they stood in an upside-down V formation, awaiting their instructions. Unfortunately, a voice in the distance was trying to distract them.

“Oh, birdie~ Hey! Over here!” Gallus gave a frustrated sigh as he immediately recognised the snooty voice to be Coalstone. Despite his insistence to remain facing forward, he could still hear the white unicorn stallion call out and wave to him at the edge of his field of view.

Although Scythe followed suit of ignoring him, the other ponies turned their heads to find out what’s going on. “It’s wintertime now, you should be flying that way!” he called out, pointing a hoof forwards towards the team. His two friends beside him laugh as if it was a funny joke. Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling returned to faced forwards while deadpanned, seeing it as nothing more than a bad one.

Nicknames, on the other hand, tilted his head. “I don’t get it,” he confessed.

“He was pointing south…” Gallus pointed out in an incensed voice uttered through his teeth.

“Okay?” Nicknames replied, still confused but cautiously so. “So why does he think Bluebird should be flying south in the winter…” He looked around to see frowning faces around him, but when he finally looked behind and saw Gallus’ half-lidded stare that the realization dawned on his face. “Ooooooh….” he drew out, he finally got the joke.

“Bleh, pay no mind to ‘em mardy elite twats.” Even when covered in a thick dialect, the sharp statement drew wide eyes facing the Trottingham mare. “Wot?” she asked with hostility, her forehead creased at the thought of being judged.

“Thee get whateva they want ‘cos their grandads got rich n’ famous, an’ make fun of us for bein’ common, yet we ‘ave to be dawdy to ‘em? They ‘ave it easy…” The other team kept their mouths shut and their eyes forward, all apart from Scythe who kept his head low. It wasn’t like any of them had time to argue as Captain Westland made her approach.

“Alright cadets, you’re in position, you’ve got your map, once I give my salute you can prepare for take-off,” she instructed. “Remember to go to each checkpoint, collect each flag before you meet up with Staff Sergeant Razorwing at westward base, understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” instantly replied Lightning Dust, standing tall with a firm nod. As Westland moved to the edge of the field and gave her salute, Lightning Dust acknowledged it and began take-off procedures. “Wings out!” she bellowed, and one by one each cadet opened and stretched their wings outward, facing towards the ground. “Steppin’ Time, left side clear?” she called to Pound Sterling.

“All clear, Dusteh!” Pound Sterling confirmed.

“Nicknames, right side clear?”

“All clear, Dusty!” Nicknames confirmed.

“Bluebird! Mumbles! Rear-end clear?”

“All clear!” the two confirmed.

“All clear," proclaimed Lightning Dust. "In three, two, one, take off!”

All the cadets began to run down the field, the wind catching their wings, then all the cadets started flapping their wings, elevating their bodies higher and higher. They continued to gain altitude as they orbited the mountain of Canterlot, until suddenly they could meet the clouds.

The cadets were tens and thousands of feet above the ground, no pony on the surface could be seen by the naked eye, but the patterns of fields, the splotches of trees, as well as the twist and turns of rivers could easily be made out and matched on the map.

As the team made their way south-south-west from the palace, Gallus could also notice another detail, the buildings, and towns. Upon catching the look of a giant crystal purple tree of Princess Twilight’s former home, he could see the adjacent town of Ponyville in its entirety. Despite the distance, he could make out the carousel-looking town hall, the red barn of Sweet Apple Acres, and against one mountainside, the School of Friendship.

Having sent his last letter a week earlier, he wondered if any of his friends could see them. He hoped it would be through binoculars or a telescope given the distance, yet all he could do was speculate. He chuckled to himself as he pictured Silverstream screaming at the top of her lungs for his attention, no matter how impossible it would be for him to hear.

The imagination was good at keeping his mind of the amount of work it was taking to move and maintain altitude. As part of the exercise, all the cadets wore their full guard armour and carried heavy rucksacks with food and camp equipment inside.

Even though Gallus’s gauntlets and boots were made from leather, the weight of the metal from the body and helmet on top of the rucksacks constantly pulled him down as he flapped his wings in a rhythmic constant motion and move at a pace no faster than if he was running on the ground.

When they found the first red flag and made it to the first checkpoint at the outskirts of a rock farm, it was midday. They had a quick lunch, not minding what food they ate if it gave them energy and subsistence, and soon they were flying again to their next checkpoint next to the river between the Everfree Forest.

As they made their way northeast, all the team members witnessed a large murky cloud wafting and growing. The dark vapours rippled and rumbled as the anger swelled within its thick haze. “Uh, team? There’s a storm cloud ahead of us.” Nicknames nervously called out, hoping for some response, but was met with silence.

“Dusteh, we should nip aroun’ it,” advised Pound Sterling, however, the lead navigator shook her head with a determined grin.

“Negative, we’re going through!” she called, her eyes fixed on the grand raging clump appearing closer and closer.

“You’re kidding, right?” protested Gallus, looking around with wide eyes, hoping someone else would object to such a crazy idea.

“Pegasus Guards are supposed to avoid storms at all costs…” finally protested Scythe, although being airborne it was hard to tell if he couldn’t speak over the strong breeze, or if he was muttering his words like earlier.

“Relax!” Lightning Dust responded with rolling eyes, “I’ve flown through dozens of storms without a scratch, we’ll be fine!”

Her bragging rights did not feel all too reassuring, “Were you wearing huge chunks of metal during any of those times?” he called out, trying to point out the full-body armour that she, as well as all the other ponies, were wearing.

That was when Lightning Dust turned her head around, giving every cadet behind her a stern glare, “If any of you wanna wuss out, the rest of us will wait for you on the other side.” She spent no time speeding up, with hoofs stretched out forward as she went head-on into the storm cloud. Pound Sterling and Nicknames looked at each other for a moment, and they continued moving forwards towards the storm cloud.

That left Gallus and Scythe looking at each other, neither of them showing confidence that this was a good idea. Scythe just shook his head slowly, and Gallus would agree, but he could hear a cranky old voice repeating to him in his head, “Don’t be a wuss!” it would say, “It’s just lightning! You’re telling me you’re a griffon that’s afraid of lightning?” He gave a loud frustrated grunt and proceeded to fly into the cloud, and reluctantly Scythe followed.

The underside of the clouds appeared rather calm at first, making it easy for the team to regroup, that was until the first BANG and crackle hit. There was another, and another, and they started getting closer and closer. They felt harsh gusts of wind blowing them side to side, the cloud trying its darndest to throw them off course. The only thing keeping them in focus was Lightning Dust in front, who seemed to be the least phased by the chaos going on around them.

As the bolts of lightning were drawing nearer, Gallus could only think about how he was getting out. That was when the cranky old voice started calling him again, “Wanna know the trick to flying through a storm, sonny?” it asked rhetorically, “Look for where lightning is gonna strike, when you see the cloud start to glow, that's when you move.”

It was crazy, he knew he was going crazy, but it was a better plan than any. He focused his eyes upwards towards the dark mists, waiting for the bright spots. Then he caught one, exactly right of where he was, “BANK LEFT!” he called out, and as the ponies veered left, the bolt struck on that side. The next one was on the left of the team, “BANK RIGHT!” he yelled, and now the ponies veered right, avoiding another bolt.

Then Gallus spotted another bright spot, it was away from him, but it was just above Scythe and awfully close. Not seeing much time to call out, Gallus did another crazy thing, he turned to fly directly into Scythe. The two met in contact, the force pushed Scythe far off to the side, they dodged a lightning bolt that would have hit Scythe right on his back.

“HOLY TWILIGHT!” Scythe yelled out at the top of his lungs, freaked by the bright white glow of the bolt over his eyes. With wide eyes, he was gasping for air as Gallus pulled him towards the rest of the team to catch up. “Gallus… thanks…” the pegasus called out.

All Gallus could focus on was Lightning Dust, the pony that pressured them inside the storm. “Yeah, no problem…” he replied, as he glared with seething anger towards her.

Finally, they saw light, the rumbling and crackling of the storm were fading away behind them, and in front of them they saw the top of the Everfree Forest and the river that ran through it. There was much relief, as the cadets caught their breaths, lucky not to be singed or burned from the bolts. Still, not all were happy with the situation.

“What the hell was that?” yelled the angered blue griffon towards Lightning Dust, “You said we’d be fine, but we almost got struck a dozen times!”

The turquoise mare brushed the complaint off, “Yet we didn’t, so chill it, Bluebird.” She pulled out the map from her rucksack and proudly pointed towards the checkpoint, marked in the middle of the forest at the side of the channel. "Now that we’re out, we’re closer to our next checkpoint" she bragged, much to Gallus’ chagrin.

“We’ve saved time that would have been spent going around the clouds, you can’t argue with results” she continued to smugly remark, Gallus continued to glare a hole into her with a subtle elongated groan as she reviewed the map.

“Now the next checkpoint should be somewhere next to the river…” she uttered to herself, as the rest of the cadets looked around in hopes of finding a red flag, but as they searched the ground in and around the dark trees, no flag could strangely be found.

“Flag spotted in the river!” Nicknames shouted out suddenly, pointing towards a rock in the middle of the river. As the rest of the team got to the ground near him, they could see the damp red cloth draped over the rock.

Gallus raised an eyebrow, “Why is the flag in the river and not dug in the ground like the last flag?” he questioned.

“No idea,” Lightning Dust responded with a shrug, “but somepony has to get it… Not it!”

“Not it!”

One by one the cadets called out “Not it!”, with smug grins on their faces. Both Gallus and Scythe would hastily call out “Not it!” at the same time, but when all the other ponies look at Gallus with smirks, Gallus just sighed and flew over to pick up the drenched flag from the river.

“Okay! Two down, one to go, then we can head to base,” boastfully proclaimed Lightning Dust. “We just have to fly up north till we find some woods, let’s go!” She quickly flapped her wings to get off the ground, but Gallus knew immediately she was missing something.

“Hang on!” he stopped her, grabbing onto her hind hoof. “Aren’t you gonna check to see where we are?”

Lightning Dust glared back, “Uh, I know where we are,” she brought out the map once more, and pointed to the Everfree Forest “we’re right where the second checkpoint is, and we just need to go north.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, furrowing his brow, he pointed out towards the middle of the river that he had flown towards moments earlier. “You said the flag would be next to the river, not in the river, it could have gone downstream. Not to mention we were dealing with heavy wind in that storm cloud…”

“Look Bluebird, I know where we are and where we need to go,” she snapped at Gallus in a huff, kicking the talons gripped around her hind hoof. “Do you want us to waste time verifying our location?”

Gallus then flew up so he was staring directly into her eyes, his beak within inches of her scrunched up nose. “Yes,” he said with the utmost sincerity.

Lightning Dust’s head snapped towards the other three ponies, who remained standing on the ground surface. “Anypony else in favour of Bluebird’s idea?” she called out but was met with silence.

“I am.”

She turned back to Gallus with a smirk, “Then it’s settled, we’re gonna start flying north from where we are.” As Lightning Dust, Nicknames, and Pound Sterling, all started flying upwards, Gallus groaned with his talons pinching his beak, he sensed trouble coming but no pony to listen. At least, except the only pony left, a downcast Scythe, “Sorry…” he quietly musted.

The look on Scythe’s face was enough to cool Gallus down from his frustrations, he could not bring himself to put down somepony who was trying to take his side. “It’s fine, just wouldn’t hurt if you spoke up.” The two then started flying up to meet with the others.

The team travelled their way up north, still flying in their formation in the dusk sky with Lightning Dust at the front, confident in reaching that last checkpoint in record time. Upon finding a large patch of trees, she descended, and the rest of the cadets followed. The only problem was once they landed on the ground and searched, there was no flag.

They went past tree after tree, all young and evenly spaced, with acorns either hanging onto the leafless branches or scattered on the soil below. However, no cadet could find the checkpoint flag.

“That’s odd, the checkpoint should be around here somewhere.” Lightning Dust muttered to herself.

“Maybe we’re in the wrong woods,” bitterly offered Gallus.

Lightning Dust remained adamant, “It has to be here, we might just need to look out a bit further.”

“Uh… guys,” Nicknames called out nervously, pointing out with an outward bent hoof, “somepony is watching us.” All the cadets turned towards the pointed direction, in the distance was a single young earth stallion, no younger than Scythe but no older than Pound Sterling. His coat was a pale yellow with freckles underneath his eyes, which were bright green, matching his curled mane. He was very fancily dressed, sporting an orange cravat and a cowcolt hat too pristine for farm work.

The jaw hanging, wide-eyed young stallion turned his head and glanced to the side, “Ma! Pa!” he called out, “there are some soldiers in the grove!”

Not too long after, two more earth ponies curiously arrived. These two were noticeably older, indicated by the grey streaks in their mane and bags under their eyes. It was also clear from the older stallion’s eyes and the older mare’s coat that the two were the parents of the younger, and their rough and grubby clothes made it clear that they worked on some farm.

“Ah say, can we help you?” the older stallion opened, as he cautiously stepped closer towards the team.

The cadets looked towards each other, they knew something about this area was not right, at least except Lightning Dust, who casually stepped forward to talk. “Yeah actually, you wouldn’t happen to know if a flag has been planted around here?” she politely asked.

The three earth ponies looked to each other, each with raised and furrowed brows. “Ah don’t think so,” the older mare answered calmly. “We don’t have no flags here that we’re aware of.”

The older stallion narrowed his eyes, inspecting the armour the cadets were wearing from the distance the two groups were apart. “Is there somethin’ goin’ on? We don’t get no guards or soldiers from Canterlot comin’ to these parts.”

Lightning Dust felt compelled to laugh nervously, as she leant back on her hind hooves and crossed her forehooves. “Oh, we’re not in the guard… yet” she coolly admitted.

“We’re cadets from the Royal Guard Academy, we’re on an exercise where we have to travel to various checkpoints marked by flags as part of our training,” she waved around her map, so they could see it, even if it were too far away for them to view it properly. “We should have found the last one by now.”

The older stallion looked up and rubbed his chin, Lightning Dust’s explanation of how they were there made sense to the farmer, but not the why. “Well, ah’m sure if anypony from that their Academy wanted to use part of the grove for some training exercise, us ponies from the orchard would have been made aware of it,” he explained.

Suddenly, words began to click in Gallus’ mind. They were surrounded by acorns, in a grove, on an orchard, owned by farm ponies. They were not in woods by any exact definition, he moved to Lightning Dust’s side and snatched the map from her wing, much to her shock. He scanned the map left to right, looking for any farmland that sounded like the words in his mind. Finally, he found an area with the tiniest print that he was looking for.

“Hey, is this area Sweet Acorn Orchard?”

Upon seeing the griffon, all three of the earth ponies were stunned, their eyes grew wide and were fixed upon Gallus in soldier attire, as if he was some unidentifiable creature. “Uh… yes. Yes, it is,” the older mare managed to steadily confirm with a nod, despite remaining dumbfounded at the sight.

Gallus then turned to Lightning Dust, his brows drew together. “We ARE in the wrong ‘woods’,” he spoke out loud so the rest of the team could hear, “the last checkpoint is thirty miles west of here.”

A harmony of groans ushered through the grove, as all team gave an exasperated sigh in response to the time that was lost. Lightning Dust blanked, her eyes shrunk as she realized how she screwed up, and the fact of them trespassing on farmland had sunken in. “Uh, r-really sorry ma’am, s-sir,” she stammered, impulsively rubbing the back of her head with the widest grin she could make. “We’ll head off and not bother you any further!”

Without any time to give a response, the earth ponies saw Lightning Dust dash upwards into the sky, not even giving a second to look back. They looked upwards as the rest of the team followed behind her. Although there was much relief, with it being a misunderstanding of no fault of their own, the bizarreness of the encountered lingered as they continued to look upwards.

“Now Oak Nut, were mah eyes deceiving me, or was one of them cadets a griffon?” the older mare asked her husband.

“Ah do think you’re right, Butternut,” Oak Nut answered, “must be somethin’ nopony sees every day.”

It was visibly dark when they had finally retrieved the last flag, and aggravatingly. It was a short flight pass White Tail Woods to the base where they could retire for both the night and the first half of the exercise.

Yet, despite their relief and urge to get set up for camp and go to sleep, they had one more obstacle to deal with. The team were met with Staff Sergeant Razorwing, who was scowling with arms folded tightly, made visible by the glow of a candle lamp held in one of his wings.

“You lot are late, worryingly late.” He opened with a growl, looking across the line of five cadets who groggily stood in front of him. “Let’s review what went wrong, shall we? Who oversaw navigation?” Slowly, all the cadets looked towards Lightning Dust on the far end of the line, who was somehow stoic at the moment.

Razorwing marched over and stood in front of Lightning Dust, “Show us your map”, he ordered. The mare retrieved the map from her rucksack and handed it over to Razorwing.

He paused for relief that she had kept the map on her, it ruled out the first rookie mistake he had dealt with in past exercises. “If you followed these checkpoints correctly, you would have arrived here an hour ago,” he remarked as he scanned the location and order of the marked points on the map, “did you lead the group to the correct checkpoints?”

“Yes, Staff Sergeant,” she answered.

Razorwing frowned and leant in closer to her. “You sure you didn’t go on any detours?”

“N-no, Staff Sergeant” she hesitated, Razorwing leant in closer and stared her down. After an uncomfortable silence, Lighting Dust turned her head. “We may have gone too far out from our last checkpoint.”

“I see, did you check which direction you were supposed to fly from your current position?” he questioned her.

Lightning Dust looked down towards Razorwing’s hind-hooves. “No, Staff Sergeant.”

Understanding where the lead navigator went wrong, his next target where the rest of the cadets, “And I assume none of you objected to this decision,” he asked openly, calling them out on being complicit. None of them would look him in the eye, “all of you are supposed to work together and use your initiative to complete the exercise.”

“I objected, Staff Sergeant,” interjected Gallus, as his head turned quickly to look towards the Staff Sergeant.

As sincere as he sounded, Razorwing was quick with his doubts. “Don’t bother trying to excuse yourself, Griffon.” He could see Gallus return a half-lidded stare in return, the nerve of trying to make faces was enough to consider ordering wing-ups on the spot.

“But he did, Staff Sergeant.”

Razorwing paused, his ears flicked upwards at a voice he had seldom heard. He had been with these cadets long enough to recognise their voices from a distance, and yet, the only candidate who could have spoken at that moment was the quiet pegasus who stood next to Gallus. He moved to stand in front of Scythe, waiting to confirm that he was the one who spoke so clearly to correct him.

Sure enough, his sudden suspicions were correct. “Gallus wanted us to check our location at the second checkpoint,” stated Scythe, “Lightning Dust said she didn’t need to.” Razorwing was almost impressed, he continued to stare down at Scythe, expecting him to look away, and yet he kept his eyes forward.

The Staff Sergeant had accounted for three of the cadets, so moved to stand in front of the last two, Nicknames and Pound Sterling. “You two went along with Dust’s idea?” he sharply asked, but no verbal answer was needed. Both kept their eyes towards the ground, he knew with clarity that the answer was a shameful yes.

“I think it’s clear now that some of you are trying to get through this the quick and easy way," the staff sergeant continued as he scanned the line, "if you were thorough and made an effort, you lot wouldn’t have gotten lost on purpose.”

“We wouldn’t have gotten lost at all if that flag didn’t fall in the river…”

Despite the crickets and cicadas buzzes and tunes being the only things that filled the ambience of the night, all but the one cadet who uttered under her bated breath could have sworn they heard the loud clap of thunder.

Razorwing fumed, his face contorted, and he marched furiously back towards Lightning Dust and leant right into her face. “No flag is going to excuse you from not checking where you are on the map!” he yelled. “Even if it did, all this could have been avoided if you didn’t lead your team into that storm cloud!”

Lightning Dust’s eyes shot wide open, as she felt her chest tighten as if her heart had stopped. For the first time in her life, she felt the panic of being caught, and she didn’t know-how.

“If you haven’t realised it yet,” Razorwing explained, raising his head to address the team, “every team is monitored by staff and active guards during the exercise to evaluate your performance.” He briefly set his eyes back a frozen Lightning Dust, “thanks to your little stunt we had a medical team called out in case one of you got hurt”.

He glanced to the side towards the other end of the line and turned his head to look over at Gallus and Scythe. “Since you two have been honest with me so far, did you object to this idea as well?” he asked out of curiosity. Scythe responded by turning his head over to Gallus, who said nothing and gave a single affirmative nod.

“Let me put your “performance” into the real world, Dust. If you lead soldiers under your command into dangerous weather conditions, they’ll get hurt or die, and that’s on you,” Razorwing stated bluntly, his face close to Lightning Dust as he prodded her chest with his hoof.

“If you lead soldiers in the wrong direction, you might lead them into enemy territory. If they don’t get killed then and there, they might get captured, in which you’ll put more guards in harm’s way in order to rescue the sorry lot, and that’s on you.”

All five of the cadets felt chills down their spines, despite their weeks at the academy, it felt difficult to sink in the reality that Razorwing was pushing in. Unlike them, Razorwing knew what it is like to be fighting for real, trusted to command soldiers, he would not be so tough had he not have the experience to learn from it. The facts were a massive eye-opener, but probably none more so than for Lightning Dust, even if her eyelids were lowered on the graveness of her appearance.

Even then, Razorwing wasn’t finished. “Westland and I placed you in the lead because we figured with your past record, you had learned to take responsibility and be considerate of others to set an example for the rest of your team. Since Griffon over there is better at that than you, that was clearly a mistake on our part. If you’re not going to learn from your mistakes while you’re here, you better not being here at all! Do I make myself clear, Dust?”

After a long response, Lightning Dust replied with a low, quiet, and gravelly tone. “Yes, Staff Sergeant.”

With that, Razorwing was finished with the team, “Now all of you get your camp set up, you need all the rest you can get if you want to finish the exercise on time.”

None of the cadets uttered a word or made a single sound as they set up their tents. Granted, the tents of other cadets were in proximity, it would have been rude to wake them up. However, the mere thought of what Razorwing had said made it impossible to think of anything else. As soon as Gallus and Scythe had their tent set up, the only thing they did for what felt like hours was lie down and listen to the chirping and creaking of the night’s ambience.

“Hey Scythe,” Gallus whispered, “thanks for backing me up earlier.”

Scythe smiled and gently tapped on Gallus’ leg, “You’re welcome”. His content was short-lived, as he thought about how Lightning Dust sounded after Razorwing’s discipline, “shame about Lightning Dust through”.

Gallus, on the other hand, couldn’t find much sympathy for her, knowing how she acted throughout the day. “If she didn’t want to get told off like that, she should have been careful with what she said, I learned that on day one the hard way.” He then closed his eyes and tried his best to clear his mind, hoping for some rest.

A few moments later, he was interrupted by the sound of loud pats on the side of their tent. This was followed by a nose poking into the entrance. “Oi! Fellas!” Pound Sterling whispered loudly into the tent, “Jono where Dusteh went?”

An even groggier Gallus lifted his head up, “Why would we know?” he moaned, “Doesn’t she sleep with you?”

“She sed she gon’ do ‘er business, she ain’t bin back in ages.”

Scythe sat up, haunted as one scenario entered his mind, “Think we should look for her?” he hastily suggested, prodding Gallus for an answer.

After another moan, Gallus rolled his half-shut eyes and sat up. “Fine, let’s make it quick.”

Albeit rather sleepy, the team was back up and out again, even dragging Nicknames along to help. There were no signs to suggest she went in or around the other tents, so the next option was further afield. According to camping expert Pound Sterling, “Business means Bushes”, so the cadets quietly looked around any bush and tree they could find to see if she were present.

Fortunately, Gallus’ ears flicked upwards, he caught an unusual sound for the outdoors. He gestured the others his way, as he crept towards a large tree at the far side of the base. From what he could make out, there was soft sniffling, short breaths, quiet moans. As he carefully moved around the tree, he recognised the figure of a pony with a bright orange mane tightly huddled beside it.

The others had gotten closer to Gallus, but one pony made the mistake of not watching where they were stepping. A lone orphaned tree branch snapped under the weight of a single hoof, the figure shot upwards and turned around. Before Gallus could realise, he was pinned against the tree by Lightning Dust, her contorted face and welled up eyes staring down at him.

She quickly tried to recover herself when other ponies caught the corner of her eyes, she rubbed her eyes with a single wipe from her upper arm and turned to face the group. “What are you lot doing out here?” she asked with a judgemental aura.

After a worrying silence, Pound Sterling slowly stepped forward. “Ah was waitin’ for yer an… were yer cryin-?”

“No, I’m fine.” Lightning Dust interrupted, quickly looking down to hide her eyes.

Having briefly been pinned to a tree, he slowly shifted his way around her to move closer to her friends, but after seeing as much as he did, he finally began to show concern. “Are you sure-?”

“I SAID, I’M FINE!” she snapped at Gallus, compelling him to snap his beak shut. “Come on," she ordered, "you know what sarge said, we need all the rest we can get.” She then walked through the group towards the tents, the others were left to wonder, how bad was she really feeling?

The Long Reach - Part 2

As the sun rose on the morning of the second day of exercise long reach, pegasus ponies from two platoons woke up and got out of their tents one by one at the guard base outside White Tail Woods. Amongst each team, there were sounds of discussion and laughter as they all had breakfast, suited up into their armour, packed up their tents, reviewed their routes for their journeys, and waited for their turn to take off.

That was, except for the team comprised of Gallus, Scythe, Nicknames, Pound Sterling, and Lightning Dust. Whether it was the feeling that Razorwing was looking over them or the feeling that Lightning Dust’s constant gloomy expression might break if the wrong thing were said louder than a whisper, but the cadets could feel a tension so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

Once breakfast was over for them, each cadet put on their suit of armour, at that moment only providing protection to segments of their bodies on the cold winter morning. For Gallus, suiting up was a shorter process as he wore his leather boots and gloves before ever leaving his tent, his claws and paws never felt warmer being wrapped in such tacky garments.

As tents were being packed up, the cadets could only catch a glance at Lightning Dust fixed to her map, still sullen over the anger she was met with that night and the upset she was caught in soon after. It was only after they were all packed up and lined up in the same upside-down V formation from the day prior, and given the salute to signal take-off, that Lightning Dust final spoke up.

“Wings out.” Her words were calm and dulled, evidently heard by the rest of the team as each cadet stretched out their wings, yet with a volume of a casual conversation instead of a loud call. Combined with her slouched stance, the other cadets looked to each other, aware her enthusiasm had dropped since the day prior. “Steppin’ Time, left side clear?”

“Oh uh, all clear!” answered Pound Sterling as she glanced leftward, she seized briefly upon being called. Lightning Dust calmly nodded and continued.

“Nicknames, right side clear?”

“All clear.” His answer was monotone as he held his head facing rightward, likely to avoid any actions that would lead to a horseshoe in the face.

Instead, Lightning Dust set her targets on the two cadets in the back, as she swung her head around to look behind. “Bluebird, Mumbles, rear-end clear?” she asked with a slighting glare.

Gallus and Scythe looked at each other, they recognised why she was glaring at them almost instantly. They were the two cadets who called out Lightning Dust’s actions that resulted in them getting late and almost injured in the process, so they sensed whatever state she was in, they were not on her good side for the time being. Scythe gave a slight nod to insinuate that they should play along, and so Gallus turned back to look at the louring turquoise mare.

“Um, all clear?”

Lightning Dust slowly turns her head back to face forward, the pre-flight checks were done, all that was left was the runway and cloudy sky that draped over the base and the woodlands.

“Okay, in three, two, one, take off!”

The cadets ran down the stretch and quickly took off, gaining altitude quickly as they flapped their wings against the cool winter breeze. Perhaps it was because of how chilled the air was that day, but the flight was less strenuous than it was the previous day. The weight of their armour and camping equipment had only lessened by a fraction of a kilo, yet none of them hardly noticed it trying in vain to pull them towards the ground.

As soon as they passed over the White Tail Woods, they turned to travel south-east, going over the river and towards the destination of their first flag, the Ghastly Gorge. “Flag spotted!” Nicknames pointed out the red flag dug into the grass on the west edge of the gorge, and Lightning Dust immediately descended towards the flag, the rest of the cadets followed to make a safe landing to capture their fourth flag of the exercise.

The team took a quiet break near the cliff edge, grabbing snacks from their rucksack and catching their breath. Nicknames took the few minutes to lie down on the soft grass, using his rucksack like a large hard pillow, whilst Scythe and Pound Sterling took to peering over the edge. Gallus considered joining in their fun observations on the grounds below, he recalled Sandbar and his family taking a hike when he was little and told stories of the eerie sound of winds blowing out of the cave and the chilling growl of what were apparently giant quarry eels that lived within them. He was a little curious if those sounds were as ghastly as he tried to make them out to be, it was the nightmare night he told it, enough to give Ocellus nightmares.

However, he looked over towards Lightning Dust, she was looking at her map with serious intent sat furthest away from every other cadet. She did not talk to anyone, not even Pound Sterling, the cadet she was at least closest to. He casually approached Sterling and stood to her left side, as she was in the middle of leaning as far as she could over the gorge without falling in. Gallus figured that if anyone most likely knew how Lightning Dust was feeling at that moment in time, it would be her.

“Hey,” he called out in a whisper, keeping his eyes fixed towards the stream flowing at the bottom of the gorge to avoid gaining attention, “how is Lightning Dust doing after the, you know…?” He quickly glanced over and saw her smile shift into a hard line. She knew that Gallus was referring to the moment last night when the team found her crying behind a tree.

She carefully leant her head towards Gallus, keeping her eyes fixed towards the same stream, “Dunno, she din’t say a wud all neet,” she admitted in a low whisper covered by her accent, even when it was just the two of them lying in the same tent as her roommate, she was quiet. She quickly turned her head to catch Lightning Dust staring outwards towards the sky, as another team could be seen flying overhead. It was clear that her continued silence was strange, even to Sterling. “Neva seen ‘er actin’ all stoic bafore,” she quietly remarked.

Gallus leant forward and lowered his head, although to appear as if to look deeper, to glance over at Scythe on Sterling’s other side as he cautiously looked over and turn his head, so his ears faced downwards. Gallus knew that if it wasn’t for both Scythe and him being honest and calling her out, Lightning Dust wouldn’t have gotten the berating she had from Staff Sergeant Razorwing.

He asserted in his mind that she deserved to be called out, but there was an inkling in his mind that maybe she did not deserve to get upset over it. “You think that maybe we had something to do with it?” asked Gallus. He had to, if not the way Lightning Dust glared towards the pair earlier that morning, just for a bit of assurance.

Sterling twisted her lip as she paused for thought, then she regained her smile and chucked. “Nah, ya did the reet thin” she answered, giving Gallus a light punch on the arm with no worries as the two were still stood at the very edge of a deep and sharp-rocked gorge. “She might be pissy at ya, but she’ll get o’er it.”

“Alright, lunchtime’s over. Let’s get a move on to our last checkpoint at the ruins.”

Lightning Dust firmly called the other cadets to take off as a group, Gallus turned to look over as the other cadets made their way towards her. “Pissy, huh…” he thought as he stared at her waiting for the team with a fixed jaded gaze, it made sense in his mind, but the thought of her getting over it was attached strongly to the question of when. He finally made his way over to the formation, as he oddly sensed a low growl emitting from underneath.

The team were back up in the air and followed their way north up the gorge with the plan to go east over the Everfree forest. Although not the most direct route, it was probably better than the thought of any wind pulling the cadets into the gorge in any way by flying over it. That did not mean their route was void of danger, as they were nearing the end of the gorge and the edge of the forest, a dark billowing in front of them.

“There’s a storm cloud ahead of us.” Nicknames called out, his non-clamant tone revealing his sense of deja-vu. There was no response from Lightning Dust, her eyes held forward and her speed was picking up.

“Should we nip aroun’ it?” Pound Sterling asked loudly through the passing breeze, but like before, there was no response. “Dusteh?” The more they kept flying, the cloud was closer, appearing slightly bigger by the second. The cadets peered at each other, with deadpanned looks as they saw another incoming trip through a thunderous storm cloud.

Gallus gave an audible groan from the back of the formation, anticipating the heavy winds and lightning bolts to try and follow him, certain that Lightning Dust’s upset before was probably just for show. Why wouldn’t she try to make the whole group sorry for her because she got yelled at for something she did?

However, Nicknames and Pound Sterling noticed Lightning Dust moving towards them. Neither of them changed how fast they were going, yet Lightning Dust was almost flying beside them, her wings flapping at a slower and slower rhythm. Once those two were compelled to slow down, Gallus and Scythe noticed and slowed down. Gradually, the whole team were up in the air, flapping in one spot several metres from the storm cloud.

While still facing towards the dark wafting clouds, Lightning Dust reached her hoof into her rucksack and pulled out the map. She opened it up and started to search through it. “We’re going to pass the clouds on the east side,” she commanded in a dejected mood, before turning around to face the rest of the team. “Once it is behind us, we’ll head towards the ruins. Sound good?” She scanned the team, eventually recognising subtle nods from Nicknames and Pound Sterling. Once she finished, her head darted towards Gallus, “Sound good, Bluebird?”

The second time was sharp and cold, almost as if she were expecting some complaint from the griffon. Gallus gave a half-lidded stare in return, “Yeah. That sounds fine,” he flatly answered. He then folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, “Is something wrong with that?”

The sounds of lightning bolts in the distance filled the air of uncomfortable silence, as the two cadets stared off at each other. “…No. Nothing’s wrong.” One cadet by one, the team made their move around the storm cloud, and on their way to get the last flag.

The team arrived at the ruins to collect their last flag, before making the last leg of their journey towards the academy. When the team flew over Ponyville, Gallus attempted to work out where his friends may have been. It was early in the afternoon, so his friends working at the School of Friendship were likely on their first or second period after class, his friends might see him through their windows. Yona would be working from the Carousel Boutique, and Sandbar would probably be at Saddle Lake, possibly freezing his flank off in the water. He smiled and chuckled to himself at the mental image.

They made their orbit around the mountain where Canterlot stood and descended on the open field in front of the academy. At the edge of the field, a red pegasus mare was watching the sky through binoculars, Captain Westland was waiting for them. The cadets swooped down, flapping against the wind to slow down, their hooves and paws catching on the grass below.

Although they finally landed, that unfortunately did not mean they could relax. The team held the same formation from when they took off on the ground and waited for the captain to meet them face to face. She stood tall and firm, as the cadets gave their salute, their bodies tense as they looked for her approval. Westland nodded, “Your flags?” she asked in a raised voice, checking to see if the team reached all the checkpoints.

Each cadet carried a flag that was collected at a base through the two days: the Rock Farm, Everfree Forest, the Smokey Mountains, the Ghastly Gorge, and the Ruins. The flags were hooved over one by one before Westland addressed the team. “Alright cadets, exercise long reach is over.” Some of the cadets felt their legs loosen underneath them upon hearing those words, the exhaustion from several hours of flying and the short sleep in-between left them struggling to stand. “Change out of your armour and come to my office as a group for your debriefing, understood?”

“Yes, Captain!” the whole team responded in fatigued unison.

“Dismissed.”

It was not long that Lightning Dust, Pound Sterling, Nicknames, Scythe, and Gallus, all got out of their heavy uniforms. Captain Westland walked to her office to see all of them stood outside in single file, once Scythe caught sight of her, the pegasus shot his head upwards and held to attention, the others followed suit shortly after.

She calmly walked past the line and entered her office, she had to prepare her papers for the debriefing, and it was not going to be a short one. She had been receiving messages about the activities of each of the teams over the last two days, but only one of them was crazy enough to fly through a storm over the Evergreen Forest.

Flying through storm clouds was against procedure for pegasus guards, even ones that are controlled by the weather ponies from Cloudsdale. The Everfree Forest clouds are far worse, those clouds move on their own, as bizarre as that was in Equestria, and far more dangerous. No cadet would be in their right might to go through one of them, and yet, given the cadets she called in and lined up in front of her desk, she was not surprised.

“Okay, your total time to complete the exercise was thirty-three hours and twenty minutes, not a winning time by any means, but a good time, given the circumstances during the first half of your journey” she opened cordially as she relaxed into her chair, checking through the time logs of their route. “I’ll be giving detailed assessments on your performances individually, but for now you can all be relieved to know you passed.”

“YES!”

Everyone had turned their heads immediately towards Nicknames, the cyan pegasus turned scarlet as everyone in the office caught him with one of his arms cranked back in silent jubilation. Gallus and Pound Sterling both gave a sardonic smirk, whilst Scythe breathed a heavy sigh of relief, his hindlegs shaking as he resisted the urge to fall backwards. Westland would share in their relief, yet she noticed in the corner of her eye, the one pegasus neither smiling nor celebrating at that moment.

“I would like Lightning Dust to stay behind, the rest of you, disappear.”

The smiles all ceased, any expectation to leave as one whole group had left their minds in an instant. Eyes quickly shifted towards their fellow cadet, but with her stolid expression, Lightning Dust made no effort to look back. Despite internal reluctance, the team turned to face right, marched three steps, and departed from the captain’s office. Pound Sterling was the last to leave, giving one last glance behind her, before following the others towards the dorms.

Captain Westland made Lightning Dust stand in silence in front of her desk, taking time to go into her draw to search through manilla folders one by one, before picking out one that she required. There was no doubt in her mind that Lightning Dust was responsible for the whole ordeal, her logs and messages made that perfectly clear.

There was also no doubt what needed doing either, the Royal Guard Academy had zero tolerance for cadets putting other cadets in harm’s way. Westland stood up behind her desk, resting her hooves on its surface with the folder laid flat in-between. “I believe your staff sergeant, Razorwing, spoke with you the night before. Do you need a reminder, to understand why you’re still in my office?” she asked in her relaxed tone with her eyes fixed on Lightning Dust’s deadpanned look.

“No, Captain” answered a monotoned Lightning Dust.

“Well then, what should we do about your actions?”

The room went silent as the two looked at each other, the captain hardly moving a muscle as Lightning Dust breathed in and closed her eyes, her behaviour signalling anticipation for whatever punishment will come her way. What she did not expect was Westland anticipating her reaction, as the captain leant forward on the desk. “I’m not asking rhetorically by the way, so I expect an answer from you” she followed, her voice had suddenly dropped an octave.

Lightning Dust opened her eyes, dumbfounded by the prompt that she would be expected to answer. She tilted her head, half-expecting the captain to be joking, but Westland had no intention to kid around.

Westland began to open the manilla folder and skim through the pages, as she continued speaking.

“At the start of the exercise, you claimed you were the most experienced flyer of the group, and snarky remarks aside, Officer Cadet Nick was correct when he said you’re the oldest cadet in the First Wing platoon of Larson Company. As such, you should be more than capable of deciding for yourself what should be done to ensure you learn from your actions.”

Lightning Dust was stunned, her jaw dropped. She tried to make a sound, but the most she could muster was a slight stutter. The captain was sincerely requesting her to issue her own punishment for her behaviour.

When no answer could clearly be given, Westland shrugged looked upwards, to give the appearance that she is thinking through other options. “I could simply place you under a warning, but in your case, I’m not convinced that would be enough. Based on the improvements that have been reported today, you can demonstrate responsible leadership, but I’m sure you’ll be back to your original self soon after. Care to take a guess why?”

The bewildered mare glanced down at the manilla folder on the captain’s desk. The pages were a short distance away and upside down, but it was visible enough to make out what the pages consisted of. There were handwritten flight reports, scoresheets, testimonies, all records that had a similar lightning-shaped symbol with outstretched wings.

“The Wonderbolt Academy…” she finally mustered.

Westland responded with a cheeky smirk, which had the effect of being less comforting for the mare she was speaking to. “You know, Captain Spitfire and I have known each other since Junior Speedsters Flight Camp, twenty-five years later and we still catch up,” she casually remarked, referring to Lightning Dust’s drill instructor at her old academy. “That’s beside the point,” Westland continued, her nostalgia trip left brief as she shifted back to a straightened glare, “she considers you somewhat infamous at the academy. She told me how you were a very skilled and determined flyer who was willing to push yourself to the limit, and I agree with that.

“What she also told me, was that you were also reckless and had a disregard for the safety of others, with stunts that injured other students and damaged academy property. When you were promptly expelled, you could have made yourself better, but if I told Spitfire about what happened yesterday with the storm cloud, I can imagine her saying you haven’t changed a bit.”

Lightning Dust’s head started to sink, even though she went through a loud beratement, being reminded of her failures at the Wonderbolt Academy made it hurt even more. And yet, Westland wasn’t done, she had an ultimatum to give.

“Why you joined here and ended up assigned to me we can speculate, but I think you can tell, I’m not going to treat you like Spitfire would. If you want to carry on doing your stunts that endangers everypony but yourself, you should tell me but face the facts that this place is not for you. Or you can give me something that can convince me that the situation we’re in right now won’t happen again.

“So, Lightning Dust, let me reiterate my question: What should we do about your actions?”

Since the day was reserved for exercises, there were no classes or drills to do for the rest of the day. As much of a welcome break for all the cadets, it did not mean they could lounge around freely. In their own dorm room, Gallus and Scythe had the joyous task of studying for their classes. Scythe had his language course, so he was revising his Yakyaki, muttering sentences under his breathe as he lounged on his bed.

Sat hunched over his desk, Gallus wracked his brain over tactical exercises without troops, dragging himself through his notes and sheets on hypothetical scenarios. A scenario involved enemies that could either fly, use magic, or brute strength, and what kind of location they would be in, either open field, forest, mountains, and Gallus had to figure out what soldiers he would need and what manoeuvres they needed to do.

Considering the academy’s high standards to getting the best answers made planning out battle tactics in an Ogres & Oubliette’s game sound like a breeze, as he tried to figure out what kind of soldier would go up against what kind of enemy. The griffon fidgeted in his seat and quietly groaned as he tried to remove the distractions in his head to think straight.

One of the distractions was Lightning Dust’s predicament, he couldn’t help but think of how long it had been since they left her in the captain’s office, wondering if she was still being talked down to, and what would happen to her. She could be kicked out, or even D.O.R’d, just like their former cadet Wind Breaker did. It wasn’t unlikely considering how sudden the news that he was discharged on request, so it was difficult for him to rule it out from his mind.

Another distraction was the sound of talking coming from the hallway of the dorms. The doors were insulated enough that the muffled dialogue was impossible to make out, but the sounds were more likely of two mares. Gallus considered leaving his desk to complain, but he was stopped by the sound of three knocks on the door.

“I’ll get it” Scythe offered, scooting off his bed before Gallus could give any time to object. He briskly made his way over to the door, yet he turned the door handle and opened the door slow and cautiously. When the door was fully open, both Scythe and Gallus froze with surprise at who was on the other side.

“Hey…”

It was Lightning Dust, standing in the middle of the corridor, unsettled with her worn-out hair and her tired eyes. She did not look through the doorway, although that was not out of shame, Gallus and Scythe saw within the frame that Nicknames was also present, sitting inside the opening of the dorm room on the opposite side. In fact, unusually, the only pony that was not in the scene was Pound Sterling, even though there were notions that suggested she should be.

There was a sense of relief to see her back, but Gallus knew that her return was not always good news. “Hey…” he replied with suspicious caution.

“I know that you both may not think of me as being good, considering how I’ve been acting today… and yesterday…” Lightning Dust opened, her voice trailing off as she tried to explain why she was standing where she was. “It does not help that this is difficult to say but…” she turned to look at Gallus, who remained sat at his desk, his body slightly twisted to face her. “Bluebird, a while back you asked why I’m here when I was in the Washouts?”

“Yeah…” he carefully nodded.

“I… wasn’t telling the truth.” She shamefully admitted, taking a deep breath. “At the Washouts, it was great. The crowds loved us, we made a good living, we went all around Equestria like celebrities doing stunts that no other pony dared to try.” A small smile was slowly creeping up as she recalled her time at the Washouts, before fading away as she continued.

“I thought we were an awesome team, but after one bad show where I made an underaged pegasus join the team, the other ponies started to suspect something. They noticed that in every show, at least one of them got hurt, but it was never myself, and I was the one planning and coordinating the stunts for everypony else. Some of them brought it up, I brushed it off, and we carried on. Eventually, after one too many injuries, the others had enough, and I was ousted from the team.”

For a moment, Gallus’ eyes widened. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, since it was clear she was previously kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy, but getting fired from your own stunt group when you were the leader, it was no wonder that she avoided admitting any of it, until that moment at least.

“The thing is, I enjoy flying, for the thrill, the speed, the danger, it is what I’ve always been best at. I wanted to carry on, but my reputation meant nowhere else would accept me, apart from here.” Her voice started to break; she quickly brought a hoof up to her eyes, preventing any of the others from seeing if they would start to well up. “This academy is the only chance I have left to do what I love, and already I screw it up.”

“I know what I like, but I get carried away. I should not be putting others at risk for my own benefit. So, with that said, I’m… sry…”

Gallus, Scythe, and Nicknames, all raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you’re what?” asked Gallus, openly as they were sure Lightning Dust said something, but she murmured her sentence much worse than Scythe, who remained silent. Lightning Dust, however, was showing reluctance to speak up and started to back away slowly with her head down.

“I’m sorry…”

Although quietly spoken through her teeth, Gallus had read her lips and smirked. “We… didn’t catch that” he teased. Then from out of view, a single white hoof emerged and stomped heavily onto the Lightning Dust’s hind hoof. The fire-maned mare’s face contorted with pain, holding her breath before throwing her head back.

“I’M SORRY!” she blurted out. “I’M SORRY I DIDN’T LISTEN AND ALMOST GOT YOU IN TROUBLE AND DANGER, ALRIGHT?” She then pouted as the sound of distant doors opened to see or hear what the commotion was about, leaving Lightning Dust with a slight shade of red on her face.

“Ahm sorreh too, Dusteh” uttered Pound Sterling, who finally emerged into view, sporting a cheeky grin.

Nicknames smirked as well, he folded his arms and leant against his door frame. “You’re right, that was difficult for you to say,” he snidely remarked. Lightning Dust was quick to stare daggers at him, even if she showed her red pouted face in full view.

Meanwhile, Gallus was processing what Lightning Dust had said with a look of scepticism. It was clear that she was the kind of pony who would make excuses and judge others instead of taking herself to account, something that was apparent earlier in the day. Yet, despite a reluctance, her apology felt sincere.

Perhaps this time, after repeatedly being ousted for her actions, she opened so she could try and make herself better. If that was the case, Gallus felt like he should give her that chance.

“Lightning Dust…” Gallus called out, Lightning Dust turning her head with intrigue “thanks.” As if by magic, Lightning Dust’s mouth curved into a smile, her head arose as if a weight had been lifted on her back.

Pound Sterling caught the smile. “Aww ye see,” she said as she moved her arm over Lightning Dust to pull her into a light hug, “told ya it makes ya feel betta.” This time, Lightning Dust didn’t lose her smile, she didn’t pout, nor felt embarrassed.

Gallus was glad she took the acceptance of her apology well, although he got out of her seat and moved closer to the door, he had an itch left that he needed to get rid of. “So… you’re still gonna be here, right?” he asked, nervously rubbing the back of his head, “I was hoping I could see you in the aerial athletics team.”

Lightning Dust paused for a moment; her mouth twisted as she tried to think of a good answer. It did not give much hope until Lightning Dust started to smirk. “For now, I’m on platoon commander’s warning, and I’m kinda stuck here until the captain says so. When that happens, you’ll be seeing the best flying from a front-row seat, that’s a guarantee” she followed with a wink, before heading off back to her own dorm room with her head held high.

Gallus and Scythe looked at each other, they smirked as they figured she would keep some of her arrogance. She might be taking small steps, but at least this time, she was finally taking steps in the right direction. All it took was a two-day flight across Equestria, and a long reach.

Hearth's Warming at a Friends - Part 2

The claims about there being plenty of food were no exaggeration, the table was filled with an array of dishes and bowls filled with freshly cooked food. Red cabbage, beans, carrots, potatoes, gravy, and two large dishes of shepherd’s pie, all freshly cooked with hot steam seaming through and diffusing various rural aromas. So much of it was out of reach and had to be passed around to get a portion, and Gallus felt obliged to try every piece.

Everyone around the table began digging in, quietly conversing, and giggling with their neighbours around their regiments and family life. There were also discussions for how other family members were celebrating on Hearth's Warming Day, as not all family members could be present, giving common line of work, even a Pillar of Equestria could not get the Eve off.

“I hope there isn’t anything wrong with the food, Gallus?” queried Cherry, observing the full yet barely consumed plate in front of him. Gallus had no issue with the food, what he had managed to eat in the dozen or so minutes was delicious, even with the lamb in the shepherd’s pie substituted with what tasted like an assortment of cooked vegetables and lentils.

What Gallus was too worried to admit, the reason he was eating so slow was because of the elderly pegasus pony and his judgemental eyes fixed onto the griffon. From the moment Patton Magnus sat down, he had a suspicious look, didn’t utter a single word, and his only motion was to move the fork from his food to his jaw to eat.

“We do understand that griffons are more used to eating meat and all” reassured Birch, recognising Gallus’ nerves of silence.

“If Gallus has been at the Royal Guard Academy for three months”, Patton interjected in his gravelly growl, “he’d be used to eating vegan food by now”.

There was an uncomfortable pause, as Cherry, Birch, and Gallus looked at Patton with discomfort. Finally, Gallus broke his silence, twisting his head towards Cherry. “The food’s great, thanks!” He took a large scoop of the pie and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing down and holding in the immense heat that filled inside his head. He found reassuring approval as Cherry returned a smile with gleeful round eyes, appreciating the compliment.

Birch took a while longer to leave his half-lidded stare towards Patton, as the older pony take another bite. “Speaking of the academy…” he cautiously followed, “what made you decide to join?”

Gallus brought down the large bite with a single large swallow, his throat felt course as he attempted a relaxed response. “Well… I wanted to be an officer, and I made friends at the School of Friendship, so I signed up to the academy so I could be closer to my friends in Ponyville.” He grabbed the glass in front of him to take a light sip, the drink was champagne, its very cool taste helped smoothen his pipes. “In fact, I was on a tour at Canterlot Palace where Flash Magnus inspired me to apply.”

“I see…” Birch reacted with intrigue and a smirk as he rested his arms on the table and leant in, “so do you have any plans in the Guard when you graduate? If you do well, you could end up like Tomcat over here.” He pointed his hoof towards the stallion sat to Gallus’ right, his body upright with pride. “He’s Lieutenant of the Canterlot Palace Royal Guard, working alongside Princess Twilight Sparkle herself” he proclaimed. “He’s already doing wonders as a leader of his own troop, protecting the transport of dignitaries. Doing the country proud, right son?”

“Sure am, dad!” Tomcat returned with an upbeat remark and wide grin. On Gallus’ left side, Scythe stared longingly at his own food, his head rested on his hoof, and lowered when Tomcat gave his answer.

Birch turned back to Gallus, “You think you’re good enough to make it to the Canterlot Palace Royal Guard?”

“Well, Canterlot would be great for me.” He answered, considering his aim to work close to Ponyville. “Not gonna lie though, the academy was harder than I thought at first, but Scythe helped me get through the hardest of it.” He turned towards Scythe, who appreciated the words and smiled back.

However, when Scythe looked back, he caught a look at his father in the corner of his eyes. Birch’s focus was returned to his own meal, his face appeared bored. The discouraging site caused his smile to fade.

“Aw,” Cherry exclaimed, placing a hoof on Scythe’s back, caressing it in comfort, “that’s sweet of you to help out your fellow cadet, right?” She looked towards her husband with a persuasive smile, but Birch made no effort to notice.

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time Flash Magnus helped griffons,” said Patton, taking swill of his champagne, preparing himself to tell an old story. “Back when he was in the Cloudsdale Royal Legion, an accident at the weather factory caused a rogue storm to make its way into Griffon territory and was on course to go through one of their villages and into Equestria. Lead by Captain Ironhoof, his troop wanted to help stop the tornado but were refused by the Head of the Royal Griffon Defence Force, Blackbeak. Those griffons failed to stop it, putting the village in further danger.”

“Blackbeak, had too much pride to accept the help he needed…” added Birch, shaking his head with a sigh.

“Despite Captain Ironhoof’s orders to stand by till the storm reached Equestria, Flash Magnus broke rank and swooped down to rescue and evacuate the griffons on the ground, motivating his comrades to do the same. Instead of being punished, Flash Magnus was with those honoured for his heroic actions, which lead to Griffons and Pegasus ponies to be allies for centuries.”

“Yes, a wonderful story, but not entirely relevant to this current occasion.”

“Relevancy is not important” Patton snapped back at Birch’s criticism, “a great leader is one who is willing and capable of learning from not just themself but the mistakes of officers before them. Youngsters think the only stories worth learning are the folktales and whatever Starswirl the Bearded wrote down, and he would embellish details and leave out others.”

“Even so, a griffon like Gallus has probably learned plenty about Flash Magnus, I doubt there is anything that you could tell him that would be a surprise.”

“Blackbeak didn’t refuse help out of pride,” Gallus interrupted, countering Birch’s remark with no hesitancy, “he was considered humble for a griffon of his time and a specialist in border defence. He held himself accountable to King Grover, witnessing the rogue storm originate from Cloudsdale and suspected that ponies used it to attack the griffons. He refused help because he didn’t trust that the Royal Legion guards wanted to stop the storm from causing any damage. It was only after he witnessed Flash Magnus rescuing griffons on the ground that the ponies offer to help was genuine.”

The whole room went silent, Gallus looked up from his food to realise every pony on the table was staring at him with open eyes of shock, as if Gallus’ response was most unorthodox. He swallowed uncomfortably as he sensed he was somehow in deep trouble. Remarkably, his saviour was sitting in front of him.

“So… you’re a history buff” remarked Patton, a wide smirk drawn on his face.

Gallus awkwardly lowered his head, “I, uh, used to work for a griffon who wrote history novels…” his voice trailed off, but Patton was nevertheless elated.

“I like this kid! No wonder you’re Scythe’s friend, you’ve got brains and guts.”

An air of sighs wafted across the table, smiles returned, crisis averted, and the table returned to its casual setting. A relieved Gallus went back to finishing his meal, feeling somewhat proud of himself for speaking out, blissfully unaware that a certain Colonel was glaring at him from the far end of the table.

“Indeed… “

Lunch would eventually finish as everyone at the table was full and satisfied, even though the table had dishes with food in them. Having spent more time staring downcast towards his plate, was the first to make a move from the table, excusing himself in a gravelly tone. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

He made a brisk pace out the room and up the stairs, which caught Gallus’ attention, raising an eyebrow in suspicion that his rush wasn’t due to the room. Before he could ponder any further, he was caught in an apparent family tradition.

“Guess it’s now time for old General Patton Magnus to tell an old family story, eh?” the elderly Pegasus announced rhetorically, to the response of enthusiasm from the younger ponies in the house. “Gallus, come with me,” he commanded, pulling the griffon’s body with a surprising amount of strength for a pony his age, “I’ll show you Magnus family history I’ll bet my feathers you’d have never heard of and it’ll impress ya.”

Gallus found himself back in the living room, effectively dragged there against his will. Turns out on every Hearth's Warming Eve, Grandpa Patton tells a story from Magnus’ past to all youngsters, a different one for each year. For this story, Patton needed some extra material, “Tomcat! Make yourself useful and grab the photo album from 900 to 950 PCE!” he ordered as he took his seat in a large brown comfy chair adjacent to the large Hearth's Warming tree.

In response, Tomcat went to a large bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, on the lower shelf were a full row of old photo albums, with years of the Princess Celestia Era period that counts years since her majesty's coronation. The closer the years got to Princess Twilight’s coronation, the range of years per album got smaller, making it easy for Tomcat to pick out one of the early photo albums.

Once Patton got his hoofs on the thick album, Scythe and Tomcat’s cousins and second cousins all took seats around their grandpa and Gallus sat behind them, all while Patton skimmed through the pages. “Now where is it… here we go!” He turned the album around to an open page, showing two large photographs that were black & white without colour, and yet appeared beige due to age.

The left-page photo was a formal pegasus family photo of deadpanned faces, with the high contrast of the photo giving light beige coats with darkened manes. The family consisted of a stallion, an older stallion, a mare, a young colt with a beady-eyed foal sat on his back. Underneath it was the names of the ponies in the photo, Colonel Claymore Magnus, General Gladius Magnus, Dory Magnus, Sabre Magnus, and Patton Magnus.

The right-page photo was a close-up of Sabre and Patton Magnus, except this time Patton was sat on a stool with a smile and a wonky salute, while young Sable wrapped an arm around his younger brother.

“Now that there was me when I was a young’un” he began his story, pointing his hoof towards the younger version of himself. “Photography was new, and cameras were large and expensive, so photoshoots like these were for special occasions.” The fillies and colts all leaning forward as they sat on the floor to get a better look, Gallus stayed put, politely listening as Patton continued pointing to the other figures in the photo.

“On this case, my father discovered that his own father had been secretly writing letters to what your young folk would call a pen pal. With the help of my ever-persuasive mother, they were able to convince my grandfather to invite this pen pal to Cloudsdale for a visit. Even though the two had not seen each other in several decades, Grandpa Gladius said recognising the fella would be the easiest task in all of Equestria. When the day finally arrived, the whole family quickly discovered why.”

He then turned the page, revealing two more photos of Gladius Magnus, but what caught Gallus’ attention was who was also present in them, it was a griffon. With the urge to get a closer look, Gallus crept forward to investigate.

In the first photo, both Gladius and the griffon were wearing sets of armour, with the stallion’s bright armour resembling the Canterlot Royal Guards with its spiral motif and large bristle plumes. The griffon’s armour was considerably darker, almost black, although it was possible to make out the sharp edges in the pattern, and the helmet had blades shaped into features at the top.

The armour made it difficult to make out the griffon’s physical appearance apart from the eagle-eyed stare towards the camera, with Gladius’ serious expression paling in comparison, the second photo provided a more revealing appearance. No longer wearing their armour, the griffon had a dark coat of fur with darker feathered wings, and yet the lack of a helmet revealed his head’s faded colours as his wrinkled face was on full display.

The photo was considerably much more casual, two old figures with arms over each other’s shoulders, and while there were no wide-eyed grins, Gallus could just make out the corners on each side of its beak curving upward to expose a smile from the elder griffon. Something about this older griffon seemed familiar to Gallus, even though the name listed below was not much to go by, conveniently written in both griffish and ponish, “Ketuskrudens”.

“Turns out, back when ol’ General Gladius Magnus was just a lieutenant,” explained Patton, “he met his pen pal on a diplomatic meeting in Griffonstone between Princess Celestia and King Grant, as Gallus over here would know as…”

He rolled his wrists towards Gallus, gesturing the griffon to finish the sentence under the presumption of historical knowledge. Gallus could barely see the hoof and the other ponies turn to him for the answer. “The twelfth King of the Griffon Empire…” he slowly uttered, both his eyes and beak remained fixed and wide towards the photo.

“Exactly!” exclaimed Patton before giving a hearty laugh and pointing towards Gallus more directly. “Your face right now is no different to my parents when they saw grandad with a big smile, walking up and hugging this old stern-faced griffon. Ah, we had a great time together; those two old codgers would joke and try to one-up each other on who was the bravest soldier. My brother Sabre Magnus and I called him Grandpa, since neither of us could say his griffish name, which meant 'age and wisdom' anyway.”

“The two would continue to write, but sadly after Gladius passed away, no more letters came from the griffon” Patton followed in a solemn voice. “The last thing we heard from him, if I recall, his own grandson had been selected to be one of the personal guards of King Guto.”

“King Guto… the fourteenth king… and the last…” the awestruck Gallus had no need of a prompt to follow.

“After King Guto, most griffons isolated themselves from Equestria for generations, so any contact with them was impossible. Still, I can only imagine that Grandpa Griffon would have been the proudest he’d ever been.”

As Patton spoke in a reminiscent bliss, the familiarity finally dawned on Gallus, the griffon in the photo must have been the Grandpa Griffon from the old stories. There was never any reasonable doubt that Grandpa Gruff was making up the griffon, considering how the old-timer made a living from writing about history, but never in his life did he get to see a real photo of a King’s personal guard, let alone one that was friends with a pony.

“Well Gallus, didn’t I tell say that I could tell ya history that’d impress ya?” Patton asked in a snide brag, remarking on Gallus’ continued astonished expression. “I have a few more where that came from.”

As tempting as the offer was, Gallus finally snapped out of his trance and looked around the room. “Does anypony know where Scythe is?” he asked openly, noting how suspicious he hadn’t returned from his trip to the bathroom. However, he was met with silence. A few eyes shifted from side to side, but the air filled with unease upon being asked.

“He could have gone to get something from his bedroom, you could check there?” Ariel Bomb finally suggested. “Just go up the stairs, around the corner, and it’s the second door on the left.”

Following the directions, Gallus made his way up the stairs and around the corner. Seeing three doors on the left side of the hallway, he approached the second door and knocked. No answer. He called out his name. No answer. Finally, he turned the handle and slowly opened the door to check inside.

He could at least confirm it was a bedroom, judging by the large bed on the opposite side of the room. There was also a large bookshelf next to a desk, judging from the spines there were a plethora of novels and language books, he imagined the sight would be an exciting curiosity for Ocellus, given her love of books.

There was also a Wonderbolts poster, signed by various flyers, and a set of hoof painted figurines, some of the soldiers and others of various ponies in history, including the Pillars of Equestria. It was at least the nerdiest bedroom Gallus stepped into, and yet oddly, there still was no sign of Scythe. Even as he left and checked the nearby bathroom, he found the door open, and the room was empty.

He furrowed his brow, Scythe somehow disappeared, and the rest of the family was hiding something. He made his way back downstairs, but before he could set a claw or paw into the hallway, he was stopped by a sharp voice emanating from the kitchen.

“No, I’m not having it!” Birch shouted in anger.

“Not having what?” replied Cherry.

“This… these… accusations! Hearth's Warming is supposed to be a happy occasion with friends and family, and yet for some reason, everypony is judging me. That snarky griffon correcting me in front of the whole table, General Patton picking on me as usual…”

“That’s not true” Cherry snapped back, clearly sounding defensive. “Sure, Dad can be argumentative, thorough, and snappy, but that doesn’t mean he’s picking on you.”

“Oh really? I had to change my name when we married to make him happy, to follow this Magnus family legacy, but that never happened with Blue Angel when he married your sister, your father was easy on him.”

“I’m sure if you talk with Ariel or Blue Angel, they could tell you otherwise. We’ve all been through the same line of work; we can understand the stress and know you’re trying your best…”

“Then why are you accusing me of being a bad father?”

“I’m not! What I’m trying to say is that Scythe is doing well at the Royal Guard Academy despite the pressure is under, and he’d appreciate it if you showed some love and support as you do for Tomcat. At least show him some pride…”

“Scythe doesn’t need me saying that I’m proud of him!” There was a moment of silence, Gallus could feel his claws clench up, the words were a stark reminder of a moment during a Parent-Teacher meeting at the School of Friendship. It was what Grandpa Gruff once argued with the School Guidance Counsellor, a moment he had to uncomfortably sit in the middle of.

Although this time, the words must have influenced the two in that kitchen, as Birch’s voice calmed as he continued.

“He just needs to keep his head down, not get too distracted by his weird hobbies, and get through the Academy with a good grade. He might not be good at sports, or as outgoing as Tomcat, but he is still a Magnus. He’s gone through the same schools, the same Royal Guard Academy, and he’s a confirmed cadet for the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards just like his brother and all the other Magnus stallions, so you can’t tell me I’m not treating him the same.”

Gallus sat on the stairs, unsure if he should feel anger or sorrow. Scythe’s whole family seemed lively and upbeat at first, not to mention their house and food was better than Gallus could have imagined, but even a well-off family can have rough edges. It made more sense why the pegasus was as quiet as he was, and why he tried to hide the Magnus part of his identity if even the amount he already does is not enough.

He figured that someone needed to find Scythe, but Gallus also did not want to get the attention of his parents still in the kitchen. He started to creep his way off the hallway and into the living room when he bumped headfirst into somepony’s chest. Gallus felt his heart stop and his feathers puffed out as Tomcat was stood right in front of him, and he was not happy.

“Uh, Tomcat!” Gallus exclaimed nervously, sensing he was in trouble, likely for eavesdropping. “Hey, I didn’t mean to- ” Tomcat placed a hoof on his beak, pushing it closed and making it harder for him to speak.

Strangely Tomcat smiled, “Hey, still can’t find Scythe’s room?” Gallus blinked, unsure why Tomcat briefly returned to his upbeat self, or why he is asking like Gallus could not find Scythe’s bedroom, even though he had already been from there. Tomcat then moved his other hoof towards his lips, signalling to be quiet, before pointing back up the stairs. “Relax, I’ll show you where it is, this house is like a maze, am I right?” he remarked with a slight chuckle before he passed Gallus and started moving up the stairs.

Not wanting to be in any further trouble, Gallus followed behind Tomcat. They went back up the stairs, and around the corner. However, this time, instead of taking the second door to the left, Tomcat continued to walk towards the second set of stairs. Despite raising an eyebrow, Gallus continued to follow up the second floor of the house.

Although this floor had three doors on each side, Tomcat moved his way to the far end of the corridor and looked up. On the ceiling, there was another door, albeit square-shaped and with no handle. Tomcat jumped up and began to flap his wings, slowly ascending until he could touch the door with his hoofs. The stallion attempted to open the door, but despite the strength from his hooves and wings, the door couldn’t budge.

Tomcat turned back to Gallus with a confident smile, certain that Scythe was up there. He just needed to try Plan B and knocked on the door. “Scythe~. Little bro?” he called out in a cheeky manner, “It’s just me and Gallus, we know you’re up there…” He knocked again, but there was no answer. Tomcat gave a deep sigh before resting his head against the ceiling door.

“It’s Dad again, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice deepened as he lingered in a disappointing state. While there was no answer, Tomcat did not need one. “Look, I know you don’t want to show yourself, but it’s Hearth's Warming and your friend is here, at least don’t leave him out, please?”

Once more there was no answer, Tomcat looked dire at the door, but miraculously his sympathetic plea made progress. The ceiling emitted sounds of light hoofsteps from one end of the hall to the other, followed by the sound of a heavy object being scooted to the side. Tomcat gave a gentle push of the door, and smiled, confirming that the door was no longer jammed shut. “All yours,” said Tomcat as he made his way down to Gallus and pointed his way up to the opened door.

Gallus felt his heart stop again, something about that door in the ceiling gave him a sense of discomfort, yet if Scythe was up there, what other choice did he have. After a long deep breath, and a moment to brace himself, he jumped up and grabbed onto the edge, and pulled himself up through the door.

The griffon never liked closed spaces, and this loft was not exactly a comforting space either. It was incredibly dark, and Gallus was surrounded by stacks upon stacks of papers and old mementoes. He could feel his chest tighten as he tried to navigate around the darkness, trying in vain to keep upright to avoid falling onto something.

Then he found a source of light, emanating from a giant round window, and could make out a silhouette of a pony. As he inspected closer, he recognised Scythe, huddled facing towards the mirror. His arms covered most of his face, although not enough to hide his glossy eyes and streams where tears ran down his cheeks.

Gallus calmly sat beside him and attempted to talk. “Hey Scythe. I uh, was wondering where you were, so I looked around your bedroom… it’s a nice place.” There was no response, Gallus rubbed the back of his head, his nerves already continued to build, and the awkwardness of the interaction did not help. “This place is nice too, I could probably spend hours up here with nothing but my thoughts and something to read or draw, no interruptions…”

No response yet again, Gallus felt guilt, seeing his friend upset and only noticing it so late. “Sorry, if I didn’t say anything, your Dad wouldn’t be…”

“No… don’t apologise.” Scythe finally uttered, speaking through his huddled arms. “Everypony likes you, Mom, Tomcat, Grandpa, even Dad. You’re probably the only reason why he’s trying to be as nice as he is now.” He spoke in the same gravelled tone from when he left the dining room, although there was a small growl in frustration as well. “Otherwise, there’d be ‘Why aren’t you good at sports like Tomcat? Why don’t you have many friends like Tomcat does? Tomcat even has a girlfriend. Why do you always have a nose in those books and not going outside as Tomcat does?’” He followed, giving a sneering imitation of his Dad’s voice. “I finally do something like Tomcat, and he doesn’t even care.”

Scythe tightened up, sniffling underneath his arms. Gallus tried his best to reassure him. “Well, at least…”

“‘Oh, but at least he means well. Of course, he cares, he’s your father’” he fired back with the scornful impersonation, before turning to Gallus with a scowl. “Well, how much do I have to compete with Tomcat for him to show it?” Gallus stared back with his arms crossed in disapproval with the interruption. He didn’t agree with what Scythe assumed he said, he had his own experiences to disprove that.

He continued with what he wanted to say, “…At least you have your mom, you have Tomcat, and to some extent your Grandpa Patton. They have your side, they know what’s good about you, and they show that they care.” He leant forward and rested a claw on his shoulder, giving a heartening smile. “Believe me, you’re lucky to have them.”

On the other hand, Scythe rejected the words, aggressively rolling his shoulders to get the claw off. “You don’t understand…” he uttered, before turning his back on Gallus.

“About how lucky you are? I do” Gallus retorted with a fake chuckle, he tried to keep his smile, but nothing he could do to stop it from fading. “About what it’s like with your family? Guess not.” He began to huddle up in a ball and took a long deep breath. “Growing up, I never had a family…”

As he caught Gallus’ dour words, Scythe’s ears pricked up, quickly followed by his head shooting up in surprise. “What did you say?” he asked, twisting around with an alert reaction.

“There is no family in Griffonstone” Gallus confessed, almost in defeat. “That’s why I’ve never liked going back there, even for the holidays. I would have been on my own.”

“Woah Woah Woah wait” Scythe hurriedly stopped him, as honest as he sounds, the facts troubled Scythe, “that can’t be right, you said you had a grandfather” he pointed out.

“No, I didn’t” Gallus objected, having to lift his head and raising an eyebrow.

An already confused Scythe had more doubts as he had his own perplexed stare. “Yes, you did,” he reaffirmed, “Exercise Self-Reliance, you said when you were little that there was a griffon you called Grandpa Gruff who told you stories of these great soldiers. Those stories were why you wanted to be a military officer, remember?”

It took a while for Gallus to figure out why Scythe was being confused, but then he remembered the first time he had to clarify to someone, specifically when Sandbar first asked during his first Hearth's Warming at the School of Friendship.

“His name is Grandpa Griffon; he isn’t any griffon’s actual grandpa.” And like Sandbar’s response, Scythe’s eye shifted from side to side, trying to make sense of a griffon having the name of Grandpa. He obviously wasn’t the first pony to be confounded that all griffons’ names had started with the letter G.

“I was homeless and orphaned when I first met him” Gallus explained further, “and he gave me money and food if I did chores for him. Sure, he taught me to read and write, but that was mostly to get me to help him more. He only registered as my guardian so he could send me off to the School of Friendship when I was fourteen.”

Scythe’s eyes enlarged in shock, he could understand any creature only having a grandfather to take care of him, but not someone who was orphaned until the day they were sent off. To him, Gallus was a decent creature to be around, he could only question why he would have been as lonely as he was. However, there was one other question that was further forward in his mind. “Do you… remember anything about your actual parents?” he asked, tilting, and twisting his head.

There was a quiet pause, a considerable length for Gallus to think through all the memories of his past hesitantly shaking his head behind his folded arms. “…no.” Scythe’s heart sank, a part of him hoped for even a small, pleasant memory, rather than something bleak. Then Gallus’ head rose back up, and he smiled. “But it doesn’t matter, at the School of Friendship, I learned that my friends are my family, they gave me a place in life. I think you should go down to be with yours.”

As Scythe looked deep down into his own memories, he started to warm to the idea. Cherry might be embarrassing, but she looked out for him. Tomcat might be a bit rough, but he only teased out of love. Even Grandpa Patton was willing to recognise how smart he was. It was enough for him to smile and dry off his tears.

It was enough to relieve Gallus as well, “also, I’m actually afraid of closed spaces, so I’d really appreciate it if we get out here quick” he anxiously encouraged, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

The pair reunited as they departed from the loft, reuniting with Tomcat. Scythe was quick to give his older brother a hug, even though it meant getting a ruffled mane in return. The trio made their way down to the ground floor, and into the living room where the rest of the family were all talking with one another.

The first to catch sight of the three, Cherry’s face lit up “There you are!” she happily exclaimed with relief. Before any of them could react, Birch cut in and moved towards them, with an unidentifiable bulge under one of his wings. Scythe’s nerves picked up and he quickly lowered his head.

“Scythe, your mother and I have been talking” explained Birch, as he stopped and glanced towards his wife for a moment. “Since you’ve made it through your first term of the Academy,” he then glanced towards Gallus, “and your friend is here for Hearth's Warming Eve, we thought you can open one of your presents a day early.”

Birch pulled out the object hidden under his wing, it was present, wrapped in a floral wrapping paper with a golden ribbon. When it was passed to Scythe, his nerves gave way to curiosity, he could feel the present was soft as he crinkled the paper, it was light in weight too. Once he pulled the ribbon off with his teeth, the paper unfurled, revealing the gift inside.

It was a scarf, made from a thick and soft silky fabric and was a vivid red in colour. “Should be good to wear in this current weather” Birch calmly remarked. Scythe felt compared to try it on, folding it and wrapping it around his neck, forming a loop for one end of the scarf to fit through. The corners of his mouth turned up as he admired how comfy it felt being hugged around his neck. Nonetheless, he froze when Birch went in closer and patted on his shoulder. “You’re doing fine, son.”

“Thanks, Dad…”

Everypony in the room either had their hooves to their hearts or warm smiles, although there was a small inkling of doubt in Gallus’ mind that Scythe had hoped for a little more than what Birch had given, as his head faced down to the floor and his voice quietened to a whisper. Unfortunately, a look at a clock above the fireplace, revealing that it’s late in the afternoon, realised he had more pressing things to deal with.

“Oh, um… I hate to be sudden and all, but I still need to get to Ponyville” he nervously declared, before composing himself and giving a slight bow. “Thanks for having me ‘round, it’s been great seeing you all.”

“You’re welcome dear,” Cherry responded with a warm smile, “hope we get to see you again at some point.”

As Gallus stood there smiling, he sneakily nudged an elbow into Scythe’s side. Taking it as a signal, Scythe suddenly lifted his head. “Oh, Gallus! Let me show you out” he spontaneously excused himself in a near robotic fashion, the two make a brisk walk towards the front door out of sight.

“What’s up?” Scythe asked in a whisper.

The pair returned to their bags, as Gallus dug his claws into his own to grab something he originally planned to give to Scythe at the start. It was the antique plaque that Grandpa Gruff gave him, the same one that Scythe could read, in all its shined and polished glory. “You said you could translate it with a book in your home, think you could borrow and figure out what it means?” Gallus requested.

Scythe recognised the plaque as well as remembered the book he mentioned. “Sure, I’ll get onto it” he answers hesitantly, before taking the plaque and hiding it within his own bag, digging his hoof towards the bottom of the bag. The effort to hide it was of some concern for Gallus.

“You gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, I should be fine, I know who to go to, just in case” he reassured him, although he sighed soon after. “Um, could you not tell anypony in the academy about… you know… me being a Magnus, please?” Scythe was practically begging with his eyes pointed up at Gallus, not making it easy for the griffon to think for a moment. Even if he could ignore it, just the time he spent today made Gallus feel empathy towards the pegasus.

“Yeah. I promise, not a word.”

The two shared a smile before Gallus turned around to open the door.

“See you after the holidays?”

“Yeah, see you after the holidays.”

As Gallus closed the door, he took a long deep breath. One nice yet awkward family gathering was over and done, the next stop was Ponyville.

Author's Note

Sorry, I'm a day late with this one, a lot more dialogue than I thought. Also turns out it's actually called Hearth's Warming, so that's awkward.

Winter in Ponyville

Hey Gallus,

If you’re reading this, so sorry we’re not at the house. We tried to wait for as long as we could, but it’s a long journey to the Changeling Hive and we had to leave early to arrive before sundown.

Don’t feel too bad though, we hope you had a nice time getting here, and we should be able to see you in a few day’s time. Just be sure to use the key to get in and out and help yourself with what’s left in the fridge in the meantime.

Happy Holidays,

Ocellus & Smolder

P.S. See if you can get some gems before we get back, Smolder is a bit more annoyed about waiting than I am.

The note was left on the front door of the house, encased in an envelope with a single key. Gallus stared deeply at the note as it hung above his head, held by his outstretched arm, as he laid on a pulled-out sofa bed in the living room on a cold morning Hearth’s Warming Day. With his body lying on the padded mattress, covered in the warmth of the woollen bed sheet, it was the most comfortable he had ever been.

The comfort, along with the lack of pressure put on to wake up and tidy his living space, would have made the first morning of winter break a pleasant and relieving experience. However, the note was a reminder of both his disappointment and misery, that his friends were away on the holidays.

There was also the reminder of the guilt he felt upon the first arrival, knowing if he did not spend lunch with Scythe and his family, he could have at least seen Ocellus and Smolder before they left. Even though he reassured himself that spending the day with Scythe was worthwhile, the feeling of missing out made him restless as he stayed awake in that late morning.

Eventually, Gallus had enough. He got out of the sofa bed, made some toast with the bread in the kitchen cupboard to eat and then went out the front door into the snow-blanketed town of Ponyville. He was gonna take flight.

The flight was no different in the air than it was to a jog on the ground, neither a fast nor slow pace as he flapped his wings through the sharp chill breeze and made his way around the outer perimeter of Ponyville. Even for how cold it was, Gallus felt tepid as his body heat offset the air around him.

The lack of body armour also reduced the amount of stress flying such a distance. As such, he had an easier opportunity to marvel at the theming and decorations, the lights, holly wreaths, and the snowponies. Some buildings did more than others, the Sweet Apple Acres had a colourful blend of glisten and glimmer and rural décor, the former home of Princess Twilight Sparkle had lights that shimmered off the crystalline walls.

As he turned his way into the town centre, he saw a few residents out and about, a few who caught sight of the blue griffon waved their hooves, to which Gallus would quickly return with a smile and a quick wave of his talons.

After an hour of continuous flying, Gallus finally made a descent and decelerated to a stop, landing firmly in the market square. Out of breath, he could only feel the cold on his claws and paws as they were deep into the snow below. In front of him was the Sugarcube Corner, brightly lit with Hearth’s Warming lights, but the windows were dark, and the door was covered with a sign saying, “CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS”. A popular destination for social gatherings, Gallus was reminded once again of his friends.

With Ocellus and Smolder off to the Changeling Hive, Silverstream being long gone along with Yona, and Sandbar being away and busy on that day, Gallus longed to meet at least some creature from Ponyville who he was friends with.

“Griffo!” a small, elated cheer emerged from Gallus’ left side, and he suddenly felt something soft hug his left forearm. Gallus looked down to see a pale green filly hugging his arm. Even though she was covered with a dark green hat and scarf, Gallus recognised it was the five-year-old Coral Currents.

Gallus got his wish, though he remained jaded as he hoped his wish was some creature at least his own age. “Oh joy, I have a monkey on my arm,” he remarked sarcastically. Without prompt or permission, Coral beamed and moved her way over to climb up Gallus’ wing to sit on the bridge of his spine. “And now I have a monkey on my back” Gallus followed with a groan.

The young filly giggled, oblivious of the sarcasm. She needed to climb onto Gallus to give him a big hug near his round head. “Missed ya Gallus! Did you miss me?” she asked.

“I sure did…” After continuing his sardonic demeanour, his eyes widened as he realized something. If Sandbar’s little sister is outside, then Sandbar must be in Ponyville, and probably nearby. “Hey, is your brother around?” he asked, his head upright and twisted side to side to look out for Sandbar, except he was nowhere in sight.

Unfortunately for him, Coral ignored his question. “I’ve been doing great at school,” she happily disclosed, “Miss Cheerilee is the best teacher, we’ve been learning numbers, listened to stories, drew pictures, and everypony was friendly! No wonder all you grown-ups still like to go to school.”

From her position, Coral could not see Gallus’ face, as it remained fixed in an annoyed glare towards the Sugarcube Corner. Oh Coral, sweet naïve filly, assuming grown-ups like Gallus are going to school to do exactly like first-year fillies and foals with their stories and pictures and friendly ponies, nothing like the military academy he’d been spending his time in.

“Yeah, that’s great” Gallus quickly dismissed, before returning to searching the surrounding area. “Now about Sandbar…”

“Hey Gallus, have you made new friends at the Ah-Kah-Dah-Mee?” Coral asked curiously.

Gallus then paused his search, turning his head back forward. He recalled his last three months, he dealt with jerks, with being stood out and left out, but he also met some good ponies along the way too. He finally turned his head around to look at Coral with a smile, “Yeah, I’ve made a few” he answered.

Coral’s smile widened, “How many?” she eagerly queried, scooting forward on Gallus’ back.

Confused by the specific question, Gallus raised an eyebrow, he looked up to think and count. Of course, Scythe would be a friend, he’s been kind and supportive since day one. Pound Sterling too, she shared his element of pride and was a fun pegasus to be around. Lightning Dust had been arrogant at times, but she was willing to admit fault and do better, and it’s not like her jerkiness was out of malice. Nicknames… he’s a bit arrogant too, but at least Gallus had payback.

“I’d say I’ve made four, I guess…”

“YAY!” Coral elated, throwing her forearms in the air in celebration. “That means I win!”

“Win?” Gallus echoed in confusion. Coral waved out to one side, and before Gallus could get an explanation of what Coral was celebrating, he was surrounded by five colourful beady-eyed little ponies. Gallus was left uncomfortably speechless as the five ponies looked up with curious scrutiny.

“Hey Gallus, that’s Ruby Light, that’s Lollipop, that’s Amber Swing, that’s Swift Dash, and that’s Star Wings” she happily pointed out each one of the ponies on the floor. “These are MY friends,” she said with her head high and her face beaming.

“Uh… hey?” Gallus said to the five, he forced a smile and slowly waved a raised claw, cautious to make the sharp claws not visible to cause intimidation.

“Wow, Coral knows all the creatures…” whispered Lollipop, a rose-pink earth filly with a mane of red and white fringes, in awe at the sight of the large blue griffon.

“Hey! Is it true that you go to an Ah-Kah-Dah-Mee?” asked Ruby Light, a brilliant red unicorn filly.

Recognising her funny pronunciation of the word Academy, Gallus turned his head to Coral. “Guess you told your friends about me?” he remarked rhetorically.

Ruby Light continued, “Coral Currents said you go to a Royal Guard Ah-Kah-Dah-Mee so you can be a griffon knight for the pony guard.” In response, Gallus sighed and pinched his beak, these ponies told Yona’s of all descriptions. In no mood to correct and be pedantic, he just parroted what Ruby Light asked in a sardonic tone.

“Yes, I’m training at the Royal Guard Academy to be a Griffon Knight.”

All five faces lit up, there was a choir of “Woah” before smiles and excited whispers ushered amongst the group. Gallus wasn’t sure what he was feeling, some sort of energy and enthusiasm, a feeling that he was standing taller than usual, his snarky attitude didn’t get this much of a positive reaction before. His only certain response was his uncontrolled urge to grin.

“Does that mean you wear a suit of armour?” eagerly asked Star Wings, a pegasus filly that was sky blue.

“I sure do,” Gallus answered with a smirk.

“Do you get to use those shiny pointy spears?” Swift Dash fervently followed, he too was a pegasus and the only foal of the group, with a cream-coloured coat and a black mane.

Gallus nodded, “Yep, sure have.”

“Does that mean you’ll get to work with Princess Twilight Sparkle?” asked Amber Swing, a unicorn filly whose coat matched her name.

“That’s the plan!”

The five continued being awestruck as Gallus grinned profusely with his head held high, it didn’t matter that they were a bunch of five-year-olds, he couldn’t help but enjoy being the centre of attention for a moment.

“That’s awesome!” Swift Dash exclaimed. “I wanna be in the Royal Guard someday!”

“Hey, work hard and you just might!” he remarked encouragingly with a wide grin.

“You’ll probably have an easier time than I do.”

“Hey! Are we gonna play or what?”

A distant voice of a foal caught the attention of the whole group, Gallus included. At the other end of the market square, five foals stood in a line. They appeared to be the same age as Coral and the other ponies, most looked like earth ponies with one unicorn. They also had two yaks with them, one male and one female, they looked young but also twice the size of the ponies.

The five ponies surrounding Gallus all started to shift towards him, all sharing a disheartened look. He could sense that they weren’t a good group, “Who are all they?” he asked.

“Those are some ponies from school, we challenged them to a snowball fight.” Lollipop answered.

“Yeah, except they got two yaks on their team.” Ruby Light continued.

“It’s not fair, we couldn’t get one yak on our team.” Amber Swing complained.

“Yeah, Yaks live on the snow, they’ll beat our team easily.” Star Wings shared her sentiment.

There was only one pony who was not discouraged. “Come on ponies,” Coral called out to her friends, “we have an advantage of our own.” All the others were perplexed, especially Gallus.

“You do?”

“Gallus is gonna play on our team!”

“I am?”

“Mh-hmm!” she confirmed with a nod. “Back before school started, Gallus and I played a secret game where if I win, Gallus will play in any game I wanted” she explained proudly. “He wouldn’t hold any bars either, whatever that means.”

It then dawned on Gallus what she was referring to, the day before he set off for the academy, he and Coral agreed to a game. If Coral got to make more friends than he did, he would have to play any game or activity she wanted. “…no holds barred.” Since he said that he made four friends, and she clearly had five, she won.

“That means he’s gonna be on our team!”

As Gallus was left dumbfounded, the other ponies started to become optimistic. “Oh yeah! With a military expert on our team, we’d be sure to win!” Swift Dash proclaimed, bouncing around in excitement.

“You’ll play, right?” asked Coral, as she perched herself on top of Gallus’ head so she could look him in his big blue eyes. “PWEASE!”

Those eyes... Gallus felt himself starting to crack when he looked at those two large blue eyes shimmering like the sunlight bouncing off the ocean floor, begging him, pleading with him. Even if he tried to look away there were five more pairs of glistening eyes staring back at him, telling him to play or make them sad.

He sighed, “Only on the condition that I’m captain, understood?”

All six of the ponies cheered in jubilation, they now have a military griffon on the team. The new captain on their team gave his first order.

“Now line up!”

All six ponies stood parallel to each other in a straight line, sat upright towards Gallus. They were unable to refrain from giggling or smiling at the imaginary scene of a military drill, with sounds of drums and Gallus dressed in a full suit of armour. With Gallus’ stern face, it was hard to tell if he was genuinely serious or playing along, as he marched slowly down the line and spontaneously began a speech.

“Alright cadets, I have just been made aware that we are out to battle against a set of rival ponies from the class of Miss Cheerilee.” He reached the end of the short line, made use of his hours of drill training and did an about-face turn, swooping around to the opposite side to march the other way. “What makes the battle seem most dire, is that they have two yaks on their team. However, the way I see it, their two yaks do not prevent us from winning the fight, isn’t that right, Cadet Coral Currents?”

He lowered his head to peer directly into 'Cadet' Coral’s eyes, and yet his stern look did not break her smile. “Sir, yes, sir!” she loudly responded, before breaking into a giggle. Gallus was sure if he were in Coral’s hooves, he would be made to do push-ups on his wings, but knowing this was a childish game, he smirked and returned to facing upright and continue his march.

“Sure, they have two yaks, combined with four earth ponies and one unicorn, they clearly have the advantage of strength.” He did another about-face. “But our team of two earth ponies, two unicorns, two pegasus ponies, and one griffon, have something better, strategy.”

He looked out onto the other team, starting to get impatient with the theatre on display. He imagined the scene was one of his war studies assignments, imagining his notes flipping through a notebook as he noted the environment, the terrain, the ponies on his team, and the ponies and yaks on the other. Confident he had an attack plan, he grinned.

“For us to win, we will follow our strategy to the correct detail, we will outsmart our rivals, and we will win the snowball fight that will occupy us the market square adjacent to Sugarcube Corner. Are you cadets with me?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” the ‘cadets’ responded in unison.

“Alright, here’s our plan.”

He then gestured his claws to get the ponies to bunch up, used the snow to draw out his plan and started whispering for which pony to do what. Meanwhile, on the other side, the ponies of the opposing team were getting irritated, folding their arms, and tapping their hooves on the snow waiting for the game to start.

Only one of the yaks showed any concern with how Gallus and his team were behaving.

“Um, griffon knows snowball fight only game, right?”

Two teams, lined up in the middle of the market square, looking at each other with determined grins on their faces. The surrounding area felt quiet, undisturbed by any other pony in Ponyville, possibly because a few of the adults were watching from their windows with popcorn ready, but that was not important.

A snowball fight was going to commence in three, two, one…

“CHARGE!”

The ponies and yaks all charged down the market square towards each other, running as fast as they could with their little legs. The yak’s team felt this snowball fight would be easy, they could only see four ponies running towards them, with the two pegasus ponies and the griffon hanging back. All they needed to do was get close enough to throw direct hits. They then felt their luck improve, as Coral and Lollipop split away from the four and began to run past them, meaning only two targets for them to throw snowballs at.

Once the yaks’ team was close enough, they stopped and dug up their first snowballs, and aimed them ready to throw. Before they could, they felt a snowball hit them from behind. They turned around to see Coral had hit one of the yaks. They then aimed for her but got hit by another snowball from behind. This time it was Ruby Light, they tried to aim for her but got hit from the side by Lollipop, and again by Amber Swing. Before they knew it, the snowballs were hitting them from all sides.

“Oh no! Yaks surrounded!”

No matter how many snowballs they threw, several more were hitting them from other directions. Boxed in, they couldn’t find an opening to move out for a better shot. At the very least, they could tell which pony was firing at them, even if the task of dodging and throwing was made slightly difficult, the game couldn’t get harder for them.

That was until they could feel snow land on them from above, several times. So much snow suddenly raining from above, it became harder for them to see who to aim at. “Argh, yaks trapped in blizzard!” one of the yaks cried.

Turns out, Gallus, Star Wings, and Swift Dash spent their time hanging back gathering up as much snow as they could, and flew over the boxed in ponies and yaks to drop snowballs from above. The feathered flying cadets swooped down to collect more snow, before flying up again to throw more snow at them.

After several minutes of throwing snow around, Gallus swooped to the far back to watch the show. He was impressed with how his team was handling the strategy, even without him. His arms folded and sporting a smug grin; he knew who was clearly victorious in this battle.

His grin was then quickly smacked off by the force of a large ball of snow hitting him on the side of his face, the impact leaving an exact half of his face covered white with snow. When he turned to look, “Direct hit on griffon!” exclaimed a large female yak, pumping her hoof after a strong throw.

“Nice one Yona!” exclaimed her partner in crime, a sea-green earth stallion with turtles on his flank.

Sandbar and Yona were standing right there… “You two were watching the whole time, weren’t you?” he deadpanned.

“Duh, somepony had to keep an eye on my sis.” Sandbar remarked sardonically.

After he brushed off the snow from his face, Gallus slowly approached Sandbar and Yona. The other two were slowly losing their calm as they held their grins, seeing a glaring Gallus getting closer and closer. The two had no idea what Gallus was going to do to get back at them for the snowball and watching him embarrass himself.

Until Gallus grabbed them both and pulled them in for a hug. “I’ve missed you guys.” It was a satisfying reunion, although to Yona, not the best yak reunion.

Being the bigger of the three, she picked up Gallus and Sandbar in each arm to hug them both tight, “Yona miss Gallus also!” she exclaimed as she left them compressed into her furry chest and dangling a few feet above the ground. Gallus almost forgot what a yak hug felt like, the odd combination of comfort and lack of breath, warmth in the body, cold in the head and legs from the lack of blood circulation.

Fortunately, Yona knew there was such a thing as too much yak hug and lowered the pony and griffon back on the ground to recover. As Gallus was recovering, he could still feel joy and disbelief at who he was next to.

“How come you both are here?” he queried, “I thought both of you would be away for Hearth’s Warming.”

“That’s the thing.” Sandbar answered, “Turns out our parents had made plans.”

“Yak family came down from Yakyakistan to spend Hearth’s Warming with Sandbar family,” Yona explained succinctly.

Meanwhile, the snowball fight with the yaks had turned less competitive, with both sides laughing and cheering. Gallus could see Coral happily riding on the young male yak, while a young female yak was trying to spray the two with snow.

“So those yaks…”

“Small yaks are Yona’s brother and sister from Yakyakistan.”

“Yona’s family decided to celebrate Hearth’s Warming with us, before taking us over to Yakyakistan to celebrate Snildar fest, so both of us can celebrate the holidays together.” Sandbar looked over at his little sister with a warm smile on his face. “It also gives Coral some time to enjoy the holidays with her new friends. Dunno why, but when she started school, I thought she’d be worried.”

Remembering how worried Coral was, he knew how right Sandbar was and could share his relief. “Yeah, guess it’s lucky we got to meet up today.”

“Guess so, although there was a bit of time, we could have met on Hearth’s Warming Eve though.” Sandbar further remarked, perplexing Gallus. “Yeah, we felt bad about us not meeting you from the academy, so we convinced our folks to wait for you…” Sandbar admitted, his voice trailed off at the worrying thought.

“Oh yeah.” Gallus smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “I, uh, was kinda roped into a festive lunch with one of my friends at the Academy.”

Sandbar lit up, “Dude that’s awesome!” His feelings were a mixture of joy and relief, a part of him was worried Gallus would have been on his own for the Hearth’s Warming Eve like past years.

“Yona thinks Gallus should bring new friend to Ponyville sometime. Old friends like new friend?”

Gallus grinned and nodded, “Yeah, you’d like him.” He then turned to Yona slyly. “You’d definitely like him.”

Yona raised an eyebrow, “Yona confused. Why Gallus think that?” she asked. Unfortunately, Sandbar interrupted her question when he realised what time it was.

“Yona. It’s nearly midday” he whispered. In recognition of the time, Yona nodded. “Hey! Coral!” Sandbar then bellowed, “Best wind down the games, we need to head home for lunch!”

Yona quickly followed “«Yuri! Yula! Playtime over! Yaks heading back to Sandbar’s for lunch!»” she belted out, although in her native Yakyaki as opposed to Ponish, Gallus continued to smirk knowing full well why Scythe would like her.

In the distance, Coral, Yuri, and Yula, all vocally responded in awes of disapproval.

“Sorry sis,” he loudly apologised, “but mom said the sooner we have lunch, the sooner we can get to open presents at grandma’s.”

Yona did the same. “«Yona knows, but mama said sooner yaks enjoy Hearth’s Warming, sooner Yaks enjoy Snildar.»”

Although they wanted to play more, the three youngsters liked the idea of celebrating the holidays, and so waved their friends goodbye and made their way towards Sandbar and Yona. Gallus looked at them making their way up, simpering at the thought that their time together was gonna be coming to an end for now.

“Well dude, you comin’?” Sandbar asked Gallus, smacking him on the arm to get his attention.

The question stunned Gallus, “Really?”

His two friends nodded, “Friends should enjoy holidays together!” answered Yona.

With that, Gallus was once again roped into a family lunch for the holidays. Although it wasn’t as fancy, it felt just as big when it was being shared with two families instead of one, but if it meant he got to spend even an hour more with his friends on the festive season, this winter break was gearing up to be the best break so far.

Author's Note

Special thanks to Javarod for proofreading this chapter!

Share Your Feelings

It had been a few days since Gallus said goodbye to Sandbar and Yona, as the pair went with their families to enjoy Hearth’s Warming Day together. In fact, it had been a few days since Ponyville finished celebrating the holidays and enjoyed their free time out in the snow.

Gallus saw decorations still hanging on buildings when he made his flight around the town, part of his morning workout routine, but he spent most of his time at the house. He’d stretch, make food in the kitchen, and although he avoided going into his friend’s bedrooms, they did have bookshelves to browse.

The two had a small selection of books to read, and it was easy to tell which was which. Ocellus’ books usually had a theme around magic and past pony figures, mostly in line with what she was teaching at the school of friendship, including a Collected Works of Starswirl the Bearded.

Silverstream on the other claw, her collection was more random. He saw a plumbing book next to a book on sheep, painting next to cooking, puppetry next to flags. Ever since the first day of school, Silverstream had a tendency to get excited at new things on the surface, having spent most of her childhood under the ocean as a seapony, so it made sense why she would buy random books, although none of it really grabbed Gallus’ attention.

Almost on curious instinct, he picked up the Starswirl book and skimmed through to the chapter on Flash Magnus to find the story that General Patton talked about. Sure enough, there was little mention of Blackbeak apart from him being an arrogant griffon who didn’t want anypony’s help. He also noticed how it ended, “For their actions brought the two kingdoms closer together and began a trend of young griffons and pegasi attending flight school together.” A satisfying end, yet Gallus felt off about how what Patton described as an alliance had been downgraded to just kids in flight school.

Suddenly, his ears perked up, as the sound of rattling travels through the house. Upon hearing the door open, he quickly placed the book back on the shelf and slowly made his way to the living room to investigate. With no bang or breaking to suggest a forced entry, whoever made their way in had a key, narrowing down the potential suspects, but Gallus held his breath.

As he carefully reached the living room, he saw the entrant. Pale blue chitin with a transparent pink fin-line mane that flowed, a hard-shelled amaranth elytron that hid her wings, it was no pony, it was a familiar-looking changeling. As the changeling caught sight of the griffon with her cyan bug eyes, she felt no surprise and yet still beamed.

“Hi Gallus!”

“Ocellus!” Gallus responded in surprise, before being caught in a quick hug that bound his arms to his sides. He remained stunned, despite the joyful reunion, which Ocellus was quick to notice.

“It’s good to see you too?” she remarked as she furrowed her brow. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

Gallus twitched and shook his head, snapping out of his stunned trance. “Oh, sorry. I’m just surprised to see you so soon after the holidays.” His response was shaky and apologetic but carried with a plastered smile.

Ocellus returned with a warm and understanding smile. “Well, I was having a great time with my family, but I told them that I should take time to catch up with my friend from the Royal Guard Academy.” As she explained, she prodded Gallus’ chest to give a clear indication of who she was talking about. As grateful as he was that Ocellus made the effort to return to see him, there was one more thing about the reunion that was a surprise to him.

“That’s great, but I thought Smolder would be with you,” he remarked, noting the lack of an orange dragon that had left with her and usually remained by her side. “Didn’t you two go to the Changeling Hive together?” he questioned.

Upon finally loosening her grip, Ocellus’ smile had faded. “Yeah, well, Smolder’s currently in the Dragon Lands, spending time with her family” she answered, one of her hooves rubbing her arm in discomfort as she stared down at the floor. “We thought it’d be best if she went on her own.” Her hesitating movements were quickly recognised by Gallus, she quickly realized, snapping to a straightened smile and changing the subject.

“Well, you’ve kept the place tidy,” she remarked as she surveyed the living room, the neatness and lack of clutter on the tables and chairs were a relief, as well as the cleanliness of the ornaments, carpet, paintings, and windows. Although the relief turned to confusion when she looked at the sofa that had been unfolded into a bed. “Where have you been sleeping?”

“On the sofa bed,” Gallus causally responded, as he pointed towards the exact furniture he had been resting on for the last few days.

“Are you sure?” Ocellus asked, switching glances repeatedly between Gallus and the sofa bed. The covers and pillows of the bed looked freshly ironed, with no creases or ruffles at all, as well as tightly folded into the mattress. Its immaculate condition appeared as if Gallus never slept in it once. “It looks like the sheets haven’t moved since we left the house.”

Gallus snickered, “Guess I’ve built up a habit from the Academy,” he rationalised non-clamantly with a smirk. “Can’t let the Sarge know my bed making skills are rusty, y’know.”

“I wonder how Sandbar would react to this…” Ocellus pondered under her breath in continued bug-eyed disbelief. “Well then, what else do you learn apart from bed-making?” she asked, changing the subject again to get her mind off his sudden change in tidiness.

“In the Academy? Combat, camping, history, war studies…” he listed through, “I thought you’d already know from the letters I’ve been writing.”

“Oh yeah, Silverstream has been showing off the letters you’ve written to her, but I wanna know some specifics.” She started to rub her hooves together in an eager fashion, “They have a library, right? How big is it?”

Gallus drew a grin, unsurprised by his bookbug friend’s question about the library. “Oh yeah, it’s huge,” he answered, stretching out his arms as wide as they could go and elongating his words to emphasise, “as big as the one in the School of Friendship. Guess I’ll be using the library more often in the second and last terms…” Ocellus’ grin grew wide as her elytra opened and her transparent pink wings began to buzz.

“Oooh I’m jealous, so many books to read~” she almost salivated at the thought of being surrounded by leatherbound and paperback books, her daydreaming quickly cut short when she realised Gallus was still in the room with his sardonic smirk. “But of course, in the guard, you get involved in a lot of action too” she nervously added, trying to avoid showing her rosy cheeks. “Have you made many new friends there?”

“Yeah, I’ve made a few” he calmly acknowledged. “One of them is the reason why I didn’t turn up earlier to see you.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Ocellus beamed. “I bet a lot of ponies must like you.”

“Yeah…” Gallus’ ears drooped, “a few.”

“What do you mean?” the concerned Ocellus pressed further.

“Well, I get along with the cadets in my platoon well enough, and maybe a few others, but…” Gallus started to wrap his arms around himself and look down to the carpet. “Most of the time I get ponies looking at me weird, some see me as being snarky, and others making bird jokes because I’m a griffon.” He glanced up to see a melancholic Ocellus looking back at him, the sight made him hesitant at the thought that he’d said too much. “It’s not that bad,” he shakily reassured her, although Ocellus’ fixed expression indicated how unconvincing it was. “I guess it’s hard to understand…”

“Gallus, I’m a changeling.” Ocellus reminded Gallus, pressing a hoof to her own chest.

“Yeah, I know that” he quickly replied, rubbing the back of his head. “I just don’t get why- “

Ocellus cut him off. “No, I’m not sure you do.” Gallus noticed her brows draw together as if she was suddenly annoyed with him. “Ponies have known about griffons for centuries, but I was still a youngling when ponies first encountered changelings, as evil creatures ruled by an evil Queen wanting to take over Equestria. Queen Chrysalis might be long gone, and King Thorax has made all the changelings good, but that doesn’t mean all ponies like us now.

I can’t even read an Etymology book without worrying about how it describes us, and I love reading and learning, that was why King Thorax chose me to go to the School of Friendship. The first time I saw ponies were in Appleloosa on my way to the school, all those ponies staring at me as if asking ‘Why are you here? What evil plan do you have?’

She took a few steps back, the distance made it easier to see that there was a mixture of sadness and rage in her eyes. “It felt easier just to change into a pony myself,” and suddenly a bright blue flare engulfed her, leaving in place a bright yellow pony with a green mane, “so that none of them would look at me like that, but… King Thorax told me I shouldn’t.” The bright blue flare engulfed her again, restoring Ocellus back to her changeling form.

“It was one of his rules, he made a list of rules for changelings to live by when outside the hive. Rule Number 1: Stay in your own form, it’s the polite thing to do, it’s bad to pretend to be something else even to make others happy. So yeah, looking at you weird, thinking about what’s negative of your kind, certain jokes… I can easily understand that.”

Gallus stood motionless in silence, Ocellus’ experiences made it dawn on him that through all the issues he had felt, he wouldn’t have been the only one. It made sense that Ocellus, his friend from a species that was once charred and vicious, would continue to feel antagonised despite being reformed with their former Queen encased in a stone statue, yet it baffled Gallus as to why it didn’t occur to him before.

He should have known, although neither Chancellor Neighsay nor Cozy Glow at the School of Friendship directed their bigotry towards him specifically, it was towards him and his friends, how they saw their kind as disadvantaged and bad for the school. As he finally opened his beak, Gallus could only give the only reason he could think of for why he blundered.

“I’m sorry… you know, the School of Friendship was the only time I’d been around ponies. I thought those like Chancellor Neighsay and Cosy Glow were outliers, most of them were like the ones here in Ponyville.”

“You’re not the only one that wishes they were” she quietly acknowledged with a small smile, “but that’s why I want to teach here, so more ponies can become friendlier by showing how good changelings really are.”

“I’m sure you’re doing great…” Gallus tried to compliment, truly understanding why Ocellus was working at the school. As enlightening as it was to be a little open about their problems, Gallus couldn’t help but feel bad. “Well would you look at that, you’ve come all the way back here to see me and here I am being a down-”

Once again, Gallus was cut off mid-sentence, but this time not because of anger or upset. This time, Gallus was wrapped around by the pale-blue changeling in a warm embrace. “Rule Number 2:” Ocellus said in a calm and friendly voice, “Never be afraid to share your feelings.”

There was something special about receiving a hug from a changeling that Gallus knew, changelings share love. While love is a need for subsistence for them, it was comforting for others to receive it. Gallus felt content from being hugged by another one of his true caring friends.

As much as he wanted to stay longer, Gallus made his way to the train station. He was off back to Canterlot to meet with the ponies of the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, off for an expedition in the mountains somewhere. He had his bag and a ticket in his claw, all he needed to wait for was the train to arrive at the platform.

He was satisfied, all things considered, as he got to spend time with three of his friends. He just had to accept that he’d have to wait a few more days to see the other two. At least that’s what he thought…

“Sup, pigeon.”

He recognised the tomboyish tone instantly, he turned to see an orange dragon standing firm with her arms crossed, glowering towards him with a head lowered making her orchid spines highly present, and her cyan eyes fixed and ready to burn a hole into the griffon. This dragon wasn’t happy to see Gallus, and he took notice. “Smolder! G-good to see you!” he exclaimed nervously.

“Thought you could avoid seeing me again?” she asked judgmentally without skipping a beat.

“Hey, look, I’m sorry I didn’t see you before you left, I was roped into a friend’s Hearth’s Warming get together” he tried to explain in a hasty defence, “but you can’t blame me for leaving for an expedition that was planned if you only returned today.”

The dragon quickly placed her claws on his shoulder, “Gallus. Dude, relax, I’m over it,” Smolder responded calmly and understandingly, yet still took an opportunity to dig a fist into the shoulder as a small payback. Her punch was hard enough to feel sore, although Gallus was more relieved didn’t receive a burn or scar.

After smirking at the dig, she returned her claws to her hips, curious about Gallus’ story. “So, you spent your holidays with a friend?” she asked.

“Yeah, one of my friends from the academy in Cloudsdale, it was nice for the most part, big family, lots of food, couple of stories. Day after that, I saw Sandbar and Yona and had lunch with them before they left to spend the holidays.” Smolder’s response was the hum of approval and intrigue. However, unlike his other friends, she thought the story was too good to be true.

“What about you?” Gallus followed, it felt only fair to find out what Smolder was doing. “Ocellus said you spent time with your family in the dragon lands.”

“Oh yeah, it was great” she answered with a smile. “Garble’s still a loveable goof busy with his beat poetry, he said he was looking into joining an art school in Equestria, and mom…” her eyes started to wander away from Gallus, as she suddenly struggled to find the right words. “Well, we enjoyed the stories together at the Feast of Fire, at least then we wouldn’t have to talk…”

Noticing her voice trailing off, Gallus raised an eyebrow. “Talk? About what?” he queried.

“Ocellus and I…” she uttered, before taking a deep breath. “When both of our parents found out we were dating, they took it well… in different ways,” she began to explain. “Ocellus’ family were overjoyed, ‘happy that our sweet daughter has another creature to share her love with’.” She proceeded to hold her claws intertwined pressed against her cheek as she gave a prim impression of one of Ocellus’ changeling doting parents.

“Apparently, they also love to gossip about Dragon Lord Ember and King Thorax as if they are secretly a couple," she added, and then took notice of Gallus as he raised a curious eyebrow, causing her to agitate. "I’m fairly certain that they’re just friends and Ember’d turn you into ash if suggested otherwise, but it explains a lot about changelings and how comfortable they are around a female dragon like me.”

As Smolder went into her gossip, Gallus had his arms folded and kept his focus. “Uh-huh…” he responded as he slowly nodded his head.

“My mom though, she… wasn’t excited by the news.” Her reluctant tone didn’t give much hope to indicate her mother’s reaction was as happy as with the changelings.

“Was it because you were dating a changeling or a girl?”

Smolder shrugged her shoulders. “Wasn’t sure until this winter. Thought it’d be a great idea for both of us to visit the Hive for the Changeling Hearth’s Warming, then the Dragon Lands for the Feast of Fire,” she answered, a reasonable plan given that Gallus’ note stated they went off together. As Smolder continued, she began to grasp her arms and tighten, “Mom though had some demands. First, she said Ocellus could only stay in the Dragon Lands if she stayed in a dragon form.”

“So, make Ocellus pretend to be a dragon to make her happy.” Gallus guessed.

“Exactly, and second, we couldn’t sit ‘too close’ to each other at the Feast of Fire, to avoid ‘embarrassing’ her in front of the other elder dragons,” she added, her frustration grew as she began curling her claws into air quotes, smoke even started to emerge from her nostrils.

“And that’s why you went on your own…”

Smolder’s frustration slowly eased, “I told Ocellus about it before we went to the hive,” she said with a gravelly voice. “I wasn’t gonna make her go where she couldn’t be herself, so we agreed that she stay behind.”

Gallus felt his heart sink, he could imagine how bad it would have felt for Smolder, having to leave her girlfriend behind during the holidays. Not to mention for Ocellus being sad when he asked her the day before, the sadness of not being made welcome.

“Well, that sucks…”

“Yup…”

The two were left in silence, Gallus unsure of how to comfort Smolder in this situation. Like himself, Smolder wasn’t the openly sensitive and sentimental type in contrast with his friends. “So, what are you gonna do?” he cautiously asked. He tried to elaborate when Smolder looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, you don’t wanna do that again next winter, right?”

Smolder went silent and thought hard about her options, her eyes shifted from side to side as she imagined two choices on the ground. “I don’t know. It’s rough between me and my mom right now, but the Dragon Lands is my home where I can see my brother, our friends, Ember, and Spike, and I can be myself. Ocellus’ family and the changelings are nice but, I kinda feel like an outsider, you know?”

Given the last few months at the academy, Gallus gave a subtle nod in agreement. “I can imagine… at least they like you being around, right?” he tried to reason, reminding Smolder with gestures of how accepting the changelings were to her. “Same with the ponies here.”

As reassuring as he was, Smolder breathed a sigh heavy enough for smoke to emerge from her mouth. “Yeah, but dragons like Spike and myself are cute and harmless only at this size,” she gestured her claws up and down her body. Smolder had grown a bit since they first became friends, but Gallus could still look at her face to face without tilting his head back. Smolder’s next statement was bleak. “We’re not gonna be like this forever. I’d be lucky if I have to wait a few centuries, but more likely within a few decades they’ll all find me scary and intimidating, or at least too big, to stay around.”

Although he couldn’t help but agree as he imagined a twenty-foot Smolder standing in the hive as changelings fled from her, he could also imagine Ocellus at least staying by her, he asserted internally that he would, their other friends would. He could also imagine some other creature who’d stand by her. “You never know… Spike is Princess Twilight’s Royal Advisor, right? They can back you up, same with our friends.”

“Sure, over a millennium of dragons being the most feared creatures of Equestria will just magically be forgotten…” she remarked as she sarcastically rolled her eyes. “I mean, how do ponies at the Royal Guard Academy see you?”

Her question stumbled Gallus, he had already admitted to Ocellus an inkling of what he deals with at the academy, he was reluctant to go into any more admissions. Yet she had a good point, Gallus being a griffon in the academy hasn’t changed every pony’s mind. “A mixed bag,” he muttered as he folded his arms tight around his body.

He couldn’t hide it, and Smolder knew it. “That’s what I thought,” she remarked with a smirk.

“Hey! There you two are!” a cheery voice caught their attention. Ocellus gleefully buzzed towards them, and finally stopped to wrap her arms and pressed her nose into Smolder’s cheek. “Glad to see I didn’t miss the reunion” she cheekily remarked.

“I can tell you did miss something though, right ‘Cell?” Smolder flirtatiously remarked, before sneaking in a kiss on the lips.

The third wheel rolled his eyes, “No wonder why Sandbar and Yona are your rivals in being couples…” Gallus sardonically remarked.

“You’d do the same if Silverstream gets on with asking you…”

“What?”

“Gallus!” Ocellus suddenly exclaimed. “It was great seeing you these last few days!” She then jumped into hugging Gallus, leaving the griffon confused as Smolder was left to groan and pout.

“Uh… yeah, great seeing you too.”

“Hope you have a good time at that mountain climbing expedition.”

“Wait, you’re climbing mountains?” Smolder asked as she tilted her head, the first time she heard the specifics of this expedition. “You know you have wings, right?”

“Yeah, but my sarge says the enemy won’t care if your wing is broken, so I have to work on my body strength somehow.”

Smolder took a moment to extend her wings to make sense of it, dragon wings are generally stronger than features and impervious to fire, so the likelihood of wings being broken wasn’t something for her to consider. “Guess ponies need to think of everything…” she uttered to herself.

The trio then heard a loud puff of steam and the screeching from the railway tracks, the sound muffled by the walls of the station. Gallus’s train had arrived. “Well, have fun climbing mountains wherever, just don’t forget about us. Us creatures should stick together.”

Gallus smirked before he clenched his claws to give Smolder a light bump on the arm. “Yeah, we will.” He then made his way into the train station, ready to hand over his ticket to get on board. Leaving Ponyville once more, the next stop was Canterlot.

Author's Note

Another special thanks to Javarod!

On the Griffon's Trail

After just a few days, Gallus was back in Canterlot, the predominantly unicorn city that was home to the Royal Palace and stood above the Royal Guard Academy. It prided itself on how fancy and wealthy it is, hence most of its residents dressed up in prim and proper, and like the Academy, all its buildings were clean and white with purple and gold features. It also meant that when Gallus waited at the platform, the locals passed him with either side-eyed glances or their noses pointed to the sky, assuming they paid attention to him at all.

Fortunately, he was only taking a short stop in Canterlot, his actual destination was a bunch of mountains. He wasn’t going alone either, at the other end of the platform waiting for a small crowd of familiar ponies. Amongst them was an older Prench earth pony of light opal coat whose face lit up upon seeing the blue griffon.

“Ah, the griffon has arrived!” exclaimed Fountain Blue, one of the two leaders of the Royal Guard Academy’s Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, as he ran up and hugged Gallus. Gallus rolled his eyes at the earth pony’s overly affectionate behaviour, although the forced kiss on the cheek was new. “So glad you could join us,” he followed with a wide grin on his face.

Gallus took a moment to process the new greeting as he rubbed his cheek, it must be a Prench thing. “Yeah, glad to be here…” he replied slowly.

As Fountain Blue let Gallus out of the hug, an earth pony walked up behind him. It was the other leader of the club, and he was smiling too, although not towards the griffon outside of bemusement. “More like you’re glad our ticket has arrived” Whipper whispered behind Fountain Blue’s head sardonically, smirking despite knowing his fellow leader couldn’t see it.

Fountain Blue shushed his partner, “Tais-toi, mon ami,” he whispered forcefully through his bared teeth, holding his grin to avoid any suspicion. Luckily for them both, the sound of a loud whistle caught the attention of the whole group, as a new train arrived at the station.

“Well, looks like we’re all here on time,” Whipper announced to the whole group. “Let’s get going, then we can all start on our expedition.”

The team was big enough to take up nearly half of a single train carriage, sharing a set of cabins and reserving two for climbing and camping equipment. As ponies chatted amongst themselves, Gallus leaned himself against the window, staring out towards the moving scenery in boredom.

When he found out the first mountain range wasn’t the destination, he wasn’t too fussed, it was likely going to be the next one. When he saw the next mountain range, the other ponies weren’t leaving, it started to bother him. Then at the next mountain range, still not the destination, he furrowed his brow.

Eventually, he walked out of his cabin to knock on the door of the cabin across, where Fountain Blue and Whipper were staying. “Hey, how long till we get to these mountains?” he asked with frustrated curiosity.

The Prench pony smiled and raised his hoof. “Patience, mon oiseau bleu” he calmly replied. “We will meet them soon; it will be worth the wait.”

With a heavy sigh, a jaded Gallus walked back to the seat in his cabin and continued his window gazing. The train was passing by the mountains of Rainbow Falls, with its large white mountains as the backdrop, as it was going across a large river. Gallus wondered if he was going to climb whatever mountains were across the river.

As he continued to stare out towards the vast expanses, he could feel the train around him go quiet. Something about the mountain ranges on the other side of the river made it feel like home, but instead of the pleasant feeling of Ponyville, it was more unsettling.

He could hear the faint sounds of mocking laughter and some judgement. For reasons he could not explain, a distant voice started to emerge, a young male voice with a sneering intonation in it. “You want it back? Go and get it, you blue feathered freak”. It was clear the voice wasn’t a friendly one, Gallus’ eyes tightened shut as the voices disturbed him more. “Aw! What are you gonna do? Call your mom and dad?”

Suddenly, and fortunately, he would receive a wake-up call. “Gallus!” called out Whipper, his voice slightly muffled from behind the window he was banging on with his hoof. “Wake up! We’re here, time to get off.”

When the team got off the train, there was plenty of confusion about whether this was the right place. The area was completely desolate, save for a few trees planted on murky soil and the train station. Even then, the train station looked like it was long abandoned, a simple dilapidated building with broken windows and a door off its hinges.

Whipper was quick to have doubts, they knew that they were meant to meet a contact but given the state of the area around them, this felt like a scam. As the train had since departed, it would be an hour for the team to catch the next one. Fountain Blue was a lot more hopeful, ensuring his partner that all that was needed was a bit of patience.

Sure enough, that patience paid off. A creature flew down with a bag of stuff and landed at the side of the rickety train station. The creature was no pony, to the surprise of most of the team, but no more surprised was Gallus. It had dark scarlet wings, with a lighter shade feline behind, and in front were bright amber talons, a light greyish chest with vermilion shade, and a beak attached to an eagle-like head. It was clearly a griffon, and the eyelashes above its indigo eyes suggested a female one.

Fountain Blue beamed upon recognition of the contact, “Ah bonjour!” he graciously greeted her, although she hardly reacted or moved from her jaded stare. “We are part of the mountain trail, there is Whipper et moi, six earth ponies, one unicorn, two pegasi, and one griffon, all eager to climb your soaring highlands.” No matter how clear and eagerly he spoke, she remained unphased and unimpressed. Her only reaction was a small glance towards Gallus, before blinking and moving back to Fountain Blue with folded arms. “I presume you have our guide?”

The griffon moved one of her arms forward, presenting an open claw with her palm facing upward. “Ya got bits?” she asked in a grouchy voice, her talons twitched inward with the expectation to grab something.

“Of course…” Whipper remarked under his breath, he rolled his eyes as he found the request for money upfront typical amongst griffons. He pulled out a bag that jingled with coins inside to hand over to the griffon. Satisfied with the transaction, she pulled out a map from the bag and walked through the mountain trail with the two leads.

For all the long wait, the eerie derelict starting point, and dealing with a griffon who wanted payment upfront, the expedition was worth it. Climbing up, over, and through a real mountain range is practically similar, but the feeling of the course and rugged rocks and the cool and smooth breeze going through their coats and feathers was a whole other experience.

The team got to try out techniques that they previously could only do on walls with rounded bulges and grips on them, chimneying up parallel clefts, using their arms to bar into cracks, and plenty of opportunities for bouldering. Not to mention the views of Equestria in the distance were the greatest any of the ponies had ever seen, with dusk over the horizon.

Nopony was enjoying the climb more than Fountain Blue, leading the charge, determined to reach every high point. “Hey Whipper, does any of this remind you of our days in the Cheveaux Alpins?” he called out at one point in elation, his eyes almost glistened with nostalgia to some pastime in the Prench regions.

Unable to disagree, Whipper rolled his eyes and laughed for once, albeit begrudgingly. “If you mean climbing up a mountain with an over-enthusiastic Prench lieutenant, then I sure do” he wryly shouted back, as he made sure he was behind the rest of the team.

Even Gallus found himself enjoying the trip, there was something about the place that felt familiar to him that he couldn’t quite put his talon on. If he wasn’t meant to be staying on the ground, he’d be up in the skies flying between the formations, admiring the view from even higher.

As the sky was turning to dusk, the team reached their last climb of the day. It was a massive white cliff, angled almost overhanging. It towered over the group like all the other mountains, and yet apparently the top of it was the campsite. Any sensible creature with wings would just fly to the top, but being in the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, of course, they’d have to climb up. The only thing that could assist them was a single rope that was hooked from the top to the very bottom of it.

“Well, at least they attached a rope to this one…” Whipper muttered somewhat cynically.

“Alright, I shall make the first ascent” Fountain Blue announced enthusiastically, seemingly persevering through the daunting task ahead as the light started to fade, in contrast to his fellow leader. “Whipper will hook you up and you begin to climb one after another.”

The Prench pony took out a device called an ascender, a mechanical brake that was attached to his harness and secured him to the rope and began pulling himself up the cliff. He made it seem effortless to hook his hooves into the mounds and cracks, all while releasing and locking the ascender to prevent him from falling down the rope. The rest of the climbers could tell he was just showing off as their heads slowly tilted upwards as he was moving with deadpanned looks on their faces.

Then Whipper made his way to the rope, prepared with more ascenders to hook up the next climber.

“Okay, who wants to be first?”

Suddenly, the other young climbers switched their sights to the rope at the bottom. There was a feeling of pressure being at the front, with every climber looking at you from underneath you, as well as the pressure of holding every climber behind you.

Internally, Gallus considered putting himself forward. He was a capable flyer and felt like he had a tolerance for any gripe from others. He took a few steps but was suddenly pushed to the side. “I’m going first” Cliffhanger, the sole unicorn of the group, announced arrogantly, before briskly making his way to Whipper to hook himself up.

Although annoyed by being pushed aside, and taking the credit of boldness for volunteering, at least Gallus could see the pressure subside as other ponies lined up. It also meant Gallus quickly had a new thing to be annoyed at, he was near the back of the line.

Being in the front had its downsides but being at the back was no better. Gallus waited for the longest to get his ascender attached to the rope, and then he had to wait while holding onto the side of a cliff, forced to keep a distance from the pony above. All the while, Whipper was beneath him, keeping his watchful eye on the climbers above, including Gallus.

The line moved in a slow and orderly fashion, pulling up with their forehooves and pushing up with their hind hooves on the rocks. But as Fountain Blue pushed the weight of his body over the cliff edge and stood the flat and level surface above, he caught the sound of the cliff as a portion of its side was scraped along with the jolt of the fixed rope. His heart stopped for a second, thinking one of the other climbers had fallen. He quickly turned back to peak over the cliff to see who it was.

The climbers below heard the same scrape and felt the same jolt, instinctively they moved their bodies away from the cliff to try and get a better view of the incident higher up. “What’s going on up there?” yelled out Whipper, squinting his eyes to focus as the light was fading.

Meanwhile, Fountain Blue at the top smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He could see Cliffhanger was hanging onto the side of the cliff, his hindlegs visibly dangling in the air. Although not the most comfortable scenario to be in, Fountain Blue felt reassured knowing the unicorn was still tightly attached to the top. “It’s alright, just a slip!” Fountain Blue bellowed down to the other climbers below, “Jaggy is secure, just needs to get his bearings!”

Cliffhanger tried his best to regain his footing on the cliff edge, but he kept on slipping on the rock face. Other ponies started to lounge on the ropes waiting, but Gallus continued to peer up and feel the jolt on the rope. “Something’s not right…” he uttered, feeling more subtle jolts from the rope, sensing something bad is about to happen. He quickly went to loosening the straps on his harness to get himself free, although somepony was in his way.

“Griffon, what are you doing?” Whipper confronted forcefully.

“He’s going to fall!”

“Stay onto the rope” ordered Whipper. “You’re not allowed to fly on this climb. Besides, there’s no chance he’s going to fall.”

In that unfortunate moment, Cliffhanger heard a metallic snap. His heart sunk, as did his body as he felt heavier all of a sudden, he didn’t have time to process what happened before his forehooves slipped off the rock.

Panic set in as Cliffhanger screamed during his rapid descent down the cliff, the other climbers almost helpless to catch him as he fell past them in seconds. The unicorn attempted to use his magic to levitate himself, but all he could muster was a few sparks from his horn.

As he got closer and closer to the ground below, he thought he was done for, that was until something clasped around his body, breaking his fall mid-air. The sudden break in his fall left him winded and shaken, breathing heavily as he was slowly being lifted to the top of the cliff. It took him a while to recognise that he was currently being held in the air by a pair of blue-furred arms with bright amber talons.

When the limp, wide-eyed unicorn floated at the top of the cliff, all he could recognise was a stunned and nervous Fountain Blue watching the unicorn being carried by a blue griffon. “Uh… great catch Gallus!” he elated with a nervously wide grin, clapping his hooves as Gallus gently placed Cliffhanger at the top.

Despite the obvious opportunity, Gallus then decided to fly back down the rope to fit himself back into his harness so he could continue his climb with the rest of the ponies.

Later in the evening, the team had their campsite at the top of the cliff, with tents and climbers surrounding a large campfire. Most of the climbers had relaxed and chatted happily, although not everyone had gotten over the fall that happened earlier.

Whipper and Fountain Blue went through each piece of climbing equipment, investigating how the climbing happened. In all their years, an accident like this was rare, and each harness, metal loop, clamp, rope, and ascender were clean and functional, all except one.

“This ascender was rusty, no wonder it broke, ” Whipper remarked, pointing out the reddish-brown corrosion and cracks around the latch. He stared longingly at the fire, unable to shake off his responsibility, attaching it to Cliffhanger without any doubt. “We’ve been officers in the Chevaux Alpins for how long, not once had a pony fall.”

Fountain Blue smiled and gave Whipper a pat on the back. “That may be so, but it’s a good thing we have flyers on our team, no?” he offered in reassurance, before sneaking a smirk and glanced towards a certain blue griffon.

Gallus was huddled by his tent, staring from the other side of the fire, he never expected much from this mountain expedition, yet for the griffon, the familiar settings, and catching a falling pony weren’t part of the program. As relieved as he was that he caught Cliffhanger mid-fall, and as nice as the surrounding mountains were, he couldn’t help but feel like he was where he shouldn’t be.

“Hey, Gallus, right?” Gallus heard someone calmly ask him, he turned to see who it was, only to see Cliffhanger kneeling next to him. “Thanks for the save back there.” He tilted his head towards the cliff edge the unicorn fell earlier.

“No problem.” Gallus nodded with a fake smile, before looking back at the fire.

“You’re a pretty good climber, you know.” The unicorn complimented with a smile. “Makes sense since you live around mountains…”

“Guess you can say I’ve done it since I was little…”

Cliffhanger’s ears perked up, “Ah I see, like a prodigy?” he queried with an engaged interest.

Gallus knitted his eyebrows and glared at the fire, “I’ve hated climbing since I was little too…” he said with a lowered octave.

With that, Cliffhanger’s ears lowered, his heart sunk. “Oh… any reason why?” he asked one more time.

“Because I was always forced to.”

It was more than a decade and a half in the past, in his old hometown of Griffonstone. Gallus was younger and much smaller. Unfortunately, Gallus wished he was bigger at that moment in time, at least bigger than three older griffons in front of him.

“Hey! That’s mine!” the young griffon yelled at the griffon with charred features and coat, the leader of the three. Gallus kept jumping up in the air, reaching up towards a push toy mouse, held up by the leader with his claw up over his head as he towered over Gallus up on his hind paws.

“Look at this cub trying to jump!” the leader told the other griffons with a sardonic sneer. “He should be able to fly right at his age!”

Poor Gallus kept on jumping, his wings weren’t strong enough to hold him in the air, untrained and unable to fly.

“Give it back!” Gallus called out once more and leapt again to try and grab the toy mouse. However, the leader had other plans, pushing him with a strong enough force to leave Gallus crashing to the ground.

The leader looked down at Gallus with a mean grin, tossing the mouse in the air. “You want it back? Go and get it!” The leader then threw it upwards, arching onto the top of the roof of a dilapidated wooden and straw house. Feeling both the pain in his arms and legs from the push, and the pain in his chest from the toy mouse, his lower beak started to shake, and tears started to stream from his face.

The older griffons found this amusing, “Aw! What are you gonna do? Call your mom and dad?” the leader ridiculed Gallus. As much fun as they were having, the fun was short-lived.

“HEY!” a much older voice bellowed from the distance, the three older griffons immediately turned towards the direction of the voice. “What is Grover’s name is going on there?”

The three older griffons’ eyes grew wide, recognition dawned on their faces, and it was bad news. “Grandpa Gruff is angry, scatter!” the leader yelled to the others, and the three flew off in different directions. They had narrowly escaped being caught by an angry griffon, with dark grey feathers and fur, yet his head was almost bald with exception to his eyebrows. His most terrifying feature was his left eye, which had a giant scar going down it, leaving him blinded.

“You darn scamps better not pick on any more griffons, or you’ll get beatings so bad you wish your mothers were giving you a spanking!” he yelled out, shaking his claws in a closed fist, angry that he didn’t get to discipline them himself. Grandpa Gruff, for all his strength, took long deep breaths to regain some air lost from the brief chase.

Once his breathing returned to normal, he set his sights on the melancholy smaller griffon lying on the ground. Upon meeting eyes with him, Gallus’ head lowered.

“Alright sonny, let’s go.”

Gallus slowly stood up, and the two began to walk down the street. However, Grandpa Gruff could sense that Gallus was unwilling to move far. The elder griffon turned around to see Gallus standing still, looking up at the roof of one of the rickety houses. Even with only one working eye, Grandpa Gruff could recognise the toy mouse resting on the straw. There was a clear indication that the elder could fly up to collect the toy, but Grandpa Gruff had other ideas.

“So, you want that back?” he asked rhetorically before he folded his arms and looked down on the young griffon. “Go up and get it.”

The younger griffon looked back and froze, unsure if Grandpa Gruff was serious, but also too nervous to ask or even plead for him to get it instead. After a solid gulp, Gallus realised from Grandpa Gruff’s hardened glare that if he wanted his toy mouse back, he had no other choice.

Gallus started trying to fly up, flapping his wings as hard as he could. But no matter how desperate he was, he couldn’t get higher than a few metres off the ground or last longer than a few seconds. He even attempted to jump up the walls of the decrepit building, but he wouldn’t get far before he’d slip and fall to the ground, scratching himself in the process.

With more pain in his claws and paws, tears streamed down his face, landing on the hard soil below. It felt helpless knowing he was either bullied or ignored, it didn’t help that it felt like it wasn’t just the other cubs doing it. Grandpa Gruff rolled his eyes at the upset, grabbed Gallus, and pulled him up to his paws and claws again. “You call yourself a griffon and you cannot climb? For the sake of King Grover, you have more than just wings ya know!”

Gallus looked back up to that roof, and after another sniff, he tried to climb the rickety house. He could feel the sores on his paws and claws as he held onto each protruding ledge and protruding brick. As much as it hurt, he persevered, he knew he was a griffon, it’s all he knew about himself. Sure, he couldn’t fly, but he had to climb up to get what he wanted.

It felt like hours, but once Gallus could feel the straw of the roof on his claws, he pulled himself up with all his strength until his chest could lie flat on its surface. With the toy mouse in arm’s reach, he hugged it tightly, laying on his side as he watched the other griffons flying by him in the distance.

His small victory was ended when Grandpa Gruff was in his line of sight, flapping his wings in the air with his arms folded and a judgemental scowl on his face. “You should quit crying if you don’t wanna keep being picked on,” he said, giving some firm advice to Gallus as tears remained in the ducts of his eyes. “Griffons are a strong and proud species; they don’t cry and get pushed around. You’re a griffon, aren’t you?”

Gallus pushed himself up and wiped away the tears with his arm as his feet dangled off the edge of the roof. “Yes, sir” he answered despondently, nodding but keeping his eyes pointed down to the ground below.

“Good, now come on.” Grandpa Gruff reached his claws out to pick up Gallus, his tone switched up, as the two had urgent business to attend to. “I’ve got a book to write, you’ve got shelves to clean up.”

It was the following morning of the expedition, the campsite quickly being torn down, and the climbers were on a long hike. The morning air was cold as the team made their way up a spiralling path up to another mountain, and it felt colder the higher they continued walking. Whatever was at the top of this mountain had better be worth it, Gallus and the other cadets of the Rockwall and Mountaineering club thought, the most they could make out by looking upwards were frail tree branches from what looked like a dead tree.

Leading the hike was Fountain Blue, who was happily humming his way long before he had an announcement. “Everypony, since the climbing trip was a success, we’re gonna celebrate with a treat!” The cadets tilted their heads out of curiosity, after all the climbing and camping they did, there were a few ideas for what a Prench mountain earth pony would consider a treat.

“Hope you don’t mind us visiting your home, Gallus?”

Gallus raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was being asked, and why Fountain Blue was specific about his home. To him, his home could have been the School of Friendship, his friends in Ponyville, or the Royal Guard Academy, anywhere if it wasn’t…

Gallus looked up with wide-eyed shock, in front of him was a golden archway with large chunks of redwood spreading outwards like a pair of wings. The entrance was one Gallus recognised more than anything in his life, along with the rundown buildings, the large decaying tree and the griffons that surround it.

“We’re in Griffonstone…”

Author's Note

Thanks to Javarod for the proofreading.

Yes, I've been catching up on my French and previous love of rock wall climbing, why do you ask?

Griffon's Stone

Why of all places was he back there? How did he not realise from all the peaks, valleys and mountains that he was in griffon territory, where the giant white tree of Griffonstone would have been visible for miles on a clear day? In his mind, Gallus was in a full-on panic mode, deep down he did not want to be where he was right then.

That griffon at the station, did she recognise him? She probably did, she would have told somegriffon who would have told another griffon, some would know he’s in the area. What’s worse is that he’d be walking in with ponies from the Academy and they’re gonna see the city and all the griffons know how angry they’ll be.

Maybe he could escape somehow, just make a move, flee? He’d just stretch out his wings, divd off and speed away so fast it was like a blur, he was sure no one would notice…

“Uh, Gallus, est-ce que ça va?” asked Fountain Blue, concerningly checking if Gallus was okay. Outside of Gallus’ heightened imagination, the griffon was motionless, with eyes stretched wide open and pupils shrunken to the size of fleas.

The Prench earth pony waved his hoof across Gallus’ face and prodded his feathered chest, which was enough to make Gallus blink and shake his head, breaking him back into reality. “Is something wrong?” Fountain Blue asked again, in Ponish this time, his concern from Gallus’ blackout didn’t leave him.

As Gallus looked around, there was a small circle surrounding him, consisting of Fountain Blue and the other ponies from the club. The number of eyes around him in a small vicinity meant his initial escape plan was no longer possible, not without arousing too much suspicion. He had no choice but to act as calm and casual as he could be.

“No, nothing’s wrong…” he responded, bearing a large grin that was so firm the words had to pass through the small gaps in his teeth. “Just didn’t realise we’d be here of all places…” Whilst he was honest about the second part, he couldn’t help but feel nervous sweat dripping down the side of his face.

Mistaking Gallus’ anxiety for surprise, Fountain Blue chuckled. “Well, why wouldn’t you? We’ve been in griffon territory since arriving at the station.” He clearly found Gallus’ realisation based on his assumptions and nativity. “Surely it all would have been familiar to you, did it not?”

Gallus tried to think hard once more for an answer. The rickety old station would be one reason, griffons knew about it but never used it themselves, considering flying to Equestria was faster, so it wouldn’t have raised a signal. Even for how familiar the mountains felt, he had little to no memory of going far outside of Griffonstone for most of his life, at least until he was taken to the School of Friendship that was.

He nervously rubbed the back of his head. “Well, it’s been a few months,” he winged as his excuse, partially true considering the number of months he had been spending in Canterlot, whilst hiding the fact his urge to avoid Griffonstone for the entire winter.

Fountain Blue smiled with relief, he bought the feigned excuse. “Well, now you’re here,” he happily stated as he pointed towards the golden arched entrance in front of them, “you should be happy to spend some time here, no?”

Gallus brought back his fake smile, “Yeah… happy to be here,” he responded with an exaggerated nod.

He wasn’t happy to be there, as he and the ponies strolled through the main street of Griffonstone. In the olden days, it prided itself on how grand and friendly it was, as it used to be the capital city of what was once the Royal Griffon Empire. But in the present, it fell into disarray when the last king passed away, and to Gallus it hadn’t changed a bit since he left.

It was a real dump, all the buildings and houses were consistently wooden, but were left with either degrading paint, stood askew, had broken windows, holes in the straw roofs, or some combination. Not to mention the decaying tree, dry and shabby nests, and the unkempt, rocky surfaces.

The surface all the ponies and griffon walked on, what was supposed to be a clean path, was covered with dirt, straw, branches, and they didn’t want to know what else. The most unsettling part though was its residents, griffons stared suspiciously at the group with their sharp eyes whether they were standing, perching, or flying over the town.

It was rare for anyone or two ponies to visit Griffonstone, so a large group of them was unheard of, the young climbers had nervous looks on their faces. Whipper tried his best to remain calm and confident, but he had his own reservations. “Okay ponies, just stay together, don’t stray from the path.” Whipper reminded the group of climbers, holding a nervous grin and used his hooves to move them closer together.

He briskly moved up to the front towards Fountain Blue, who was oddly smiling and unfazed by the drab environment and the daggers staring at them. “I don’t think we should be here” Whipper whispered angrily, “the looks on their faces aren’t giving us hope we’ll leave here in one piece.”

“We’re not bothering them; they’re not bothering us,” he rebuked in a whisper, whatever he had in mind, Whipper was clearly not aware of this part of the plan. “Besides, we should show our gratitude for allowing us to explore their mountains,” He openly declared in a jovial tone as he turned back to the rest of the group, although it didn’t give them ease of mind.

It didn’t help that Gallus wasn’t showing confidence for other reasons, as he kept his head low and stayed in the middle between two earth ponies. He was preoccupied with avoiding any recognition in vain, still worrying over the thought that every griffon knew he’d be there.

Suddenly, Fountain Blue stopped. His nose caught the sense of a strong aroma, compelling him to sniff in the air. “You smell that? Something fresh!” he elated. He followed the aroma, leading the entire group away from the main street to a stone oven and a rustic wooden food cart containing baked goods.

Fountain Blue’s face lit up; he recognised the baked goods before. “Ah, excusez-moi mademoiselle!” he bellowed to a griffon with the white head of eagle. “Are these the famous griffon scones I have heard about?”

The griffon folded her arms, “Well, they’re my griffon scones to sell, at least,” she acknowledged with a cynical glower of her amber eyes.

Fountain Blue’s face lit up; he found his treat for the team. “Ah parfait, then I would like to buy some scones” he pulled out a bag filled with bits, the coins jingled inside, “one for each of us.”

The griffon was quick to grab the bag to be sure, she looked inside and sure enough, it was full of bits. When she scanned the group and worked out the price, she smirked, confident she was getting a good deal. “You got it,” she eagerly accepted, “If you want a fresh batch, you’ll have to wait, though.”

Fountain Blue turned around to give a sly grin to Whipper and the rest of the group, smug that he got what he wanted. “Take your time,” he reassured the griffon, as he began to apply his Prench charm. “After seeing all the greatest sights griffons have to offer, we could do with resting our hooves,” he remarked, hoping to smoothen their deal.

The griffon scoffed at the attempt, “Trust me, this place isn’t a tourist site for ponies.” She began to mix ingredients to start a new batch of scones for her customers.

“Au contraire!” Fountain Blue relented, “We’re from the Equestria’s Royal Guard Academy Mountaineering and Rockwall Club, us ponies have had the honour of travelling across your mountains since yesterday. Well, ponies and our resident griffon.” He gestured to the rest of the climbing group with an open hoof.

The ponies of the group gave calm and friendly smiles, giving the politest expressions they could given the situations they were in. Gallus meanwhile felt his heart stop, although not by name, there was no way he couldn’t have been called out by Fountain Blue. He felt himself lower his head further to hide behind the other ponies in vain to avoid being recognised.

As far as Griffonstone goes, there’s only one griffon he knew personally who worked baking and selling griffon confectionery…

“Hey Gallus, it’s been a while,” the griffon jovially called out, smiling with an exaggerated wave as she caught Gallus, causing his heart to stop once more. Fountain Blue smirked as he cheekily discovered an opportunity to include Gallus further. Against his will, Gallus was pulled out of the crowd by his tail.

“Oh, so you two know each other?” With his arms wrapped around Gallus’ entire body, Fountain Blue had his griffon trapped in full view of his newest griffon acquaintance, much to Gallus’ chagrin.

The blue griffon, having no means of a stealthy escape, accepted defeat as he recognised the older griffon immediately. “Hey, Gilda…” Gallus spoke quietly, his face continued to point downward while he looked up, nervously smiling to feign a friendly appearance at an uncomfortable reunion.

Gilda looked towards Gallus; her amber eyes narrowed as she held her wide smile. “Yeah, you can say that,” she answered, regarding Fountain Blue’s question.

“Well then, how about the ponies and I will wait over there, while you and Gallus stay here and catch up while the scones are being prepared.” Fountain Blue offered, Gallus pleaded with large round eyes for Gilda to say no.

“Sure, I’ll call you over when they’re done.” her answer was uncharacteristically enthusiastic, enjoying the reluctance that Gallus was feeling.

Without having a chance to say a word, Gallus was left alone with Gilda, Fountain Blue pushing them together while he and the rest of the ponies moved away to chat amongst themselves. Whilst those ponies snickered and glanced slyly at the two as if the two griffons were related somehow, once all eyes were off the two, their appearances changed almost to an instant.

“So, how have things been with the pony army?” teased Gilda, dropping her smile in an instant as she continued to mix her ingredients together into a soft dough.

“Things have been going well with the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy,” chided Gallus, returning a sharp glare, “thanks for asking.”

“Shame we never saw you during the Blue Moon Festival, a couple of us griffons hoped you’d show up.”

The Blue Moon Festival, the griffon’s winter holiday, the one time of year when griffons are nice to each other, as nice as they could be. It was the day families in the griffon territories spend quality time together, give gifts and have food. It was also the day before the camping trip began, the day Gallus spent the day catching up with Ocellus in Ponyville.

“I was with friends.”

Gilda rolled her eyes. “Of course you were…”

“I was!” quickly snapped back Gallus, insisting his excuse was the truth. “I was in Ponyville, seeing my friends from the School of Friendship.”

“Yeah, I believe you, it’s just…” Gilda paused, she appeared agitated over the ordeal, but she looked back to see the ponies not too far behind. She took a deep breath before she continued.

“Look, no griffon is as happy as I am that you have your friends and get out of Griffonstone” she stated, although she could see Gallus raise an eyebrow in suspicion of the accuracy of that claim. She couldn’t help but remember that there was one other griffon who could outdo her on that specific claim. “Fine, no griffon except Gabby, that still counts.

However, are you telling me that you couldn’t come here during the most important holiday? If you did, you would have saved on meeting up with your pony army climbing buddies.”

Gallus eyebrows levelled to give a jaded stare, he had reasons why he never liked the holiday, most of it to do with the fact he didn’t have a family to share it with, or at least, certain griffons weren’t nice enough to include him. “Yeah, staying outside in the snow while other griffons have fancy dinners and presents indoors, would have been worth it,” he remarked sarcastically.

She knew the remark was partially directed towards her, accusingly so. She would only think so because there were certain griffons they both knew of, yet only she would spend time with. She pinched her beak, breathed in hard with frustration. “Do you know why the Blue Moon Festival is important to griffons?” she asked harshly. “It’s the day where…”

“…griffons come together to be kind and helpful to one another, no matter how young or old, no matter how rich or poor. It has been celebrated ever since the reign of King Grover to remind us of how proud we are to be united.” Gallus cut her off, his eyes pointed upwards and swung back and forth as he sardonically quoted scripture. “I’ve read up on Griffon history, you know.”

Although he was correct, Gilda still fumed at being cut off, she proceeded to dump the fresh dough onto the wooden cart to prepare the next phase of the scones. “Right, so then you’d know that ever since you were little, other griffons like Gabby, Greta, and I, would make sure you had food and shelter for the winter.” She made a point of kneading into the dough at each slight pause, softening it more and pressing out any sense of air remaining in it.

“Should we have invited you to sit at a table? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean we never looked out for you.”

For the first time in his life, he heard a perspective of his past miserable experiences with the holidays that he had never heard before. It was true that those experiences of the Blue Moon Festival often had him out in the snow, looking through the warming glow of windows as griffons spent time together, but it didn’t mean he went hungry, or freezing, or covered in snow as he slept, he wouldn’t have lived long otherwise.

Yet if given the choice between his time in Equestria and what experience he would have had in Griffonstone, especially given his anxiety over what griffons think of him, the answer felt obvious.

“Yeah well, since I’ve been on winter break, I’ve had meals with my friends, been helpful to a few of them, all the while I had a roof over my head.” He retorted his points, his arms now folded as he leant forward to be smug. “So, in a way, I celebrated the Blue Moon Festival just fine on my own.”

“Just not in Griffonstone.” Gilda uttered under her breath, as she cut out the dough into round pieces.

“And yet, it’s been great for the last four years without any complaint from you, Gabby, or any other griffon.” As he finished, Gallus noticed Gilda put the tray of scones into the oven, but she never turned around to rebuke him. She instead stood motionless, looking down at the straw-covered ground beneath her. In Gallus’ good conscience, he could sense something more sincere about the subject was bothering her. He remembered that she provided griffon scones as part of Gabby’s care package months earlier, a part of her had to care a bit more than usual for her to do that.

“Do you really think that, somehow, I would have been better going up here instead?” he calmly asked her.

However, she remained motionless with her head faced downwards. “It would have made things better to have you around…” she confessed; her voice became gravelly.

“Better for you, Gabby, and Greta?”

“Not just us…”

“Oh, come on,” Gallus rolled his eyes, “who else would care if I was here during the Blue Moon Festival?”

“Grandpa Gruff…” Gallus was stopped in his train of thought the moment Gilda uttered that name, perplexed with disbelief. Gilda finally turned back around and rested her back on the warm stone walls of the oven to describe what led to her conclusion.

“That night of the festival, all four of us had dinner together at his house, and it went how it had been usually. The others complained about the food I made, Gabby gave us each these weird tacky trinkets, and most of us tried not to yell at each other.”

“The only difference was that Grandpa Gruff just sat around in silence, I mean him not ranting and raving was great but, he never said a word the entire time we were at his home. That was except when I was cleaning up the dishes, he was sitting slumped by his desk in the study staring at this old, tattered mouse toy and he said, ‘He should be here’.”

A tattered mouse toy, Gallus’ eyes widened, he remembered such a toy from his past. Yet it had been several years since he had seen it, he wasn’t sure if it was still around. Gilda caught Gallus’ moment of recognition and gave a half-smile, nervously rubbing the back of her head.

“I then asked him who should be here, and he just snapped, shoved the toy into a drawer and forced the three of us out. Felt like he misses you.”

The story was a surprise to Gallus, and some details like the mouse toy while coincidental made it plausible but like with other moments where Grandpa Gruff’s name was mentioned, he could feel a sense of anger emanating from the back of his mind. “I don’t believe that.” He uttered in a cold tone, his head turning side to side almost autonomously.

“Well, I was there, and you weren’t.” Gilda chided, she folded her arms and huffed at the hint of accusation of lying. “If you want, you can go see him yourself, you know where his house is.”

She pointed behind Gallus, beyond where the ponies were still gathered and talking amongst each other. Grandpa Gruff’s house stood out from the others, it was one of the few two-story houses in Griffonstone, and one with wooden doors for the window on the second floor.

Even with the slight luxury, Gallus could recognise one of the doors of the window had a broken hinge, and the open window revealed thick cobwebs inside, showing how poorly kept it was since Gallus left for the School of Friendship years earlier.

Being reminded of how close Gallus was to Grandpa Gruff’s home had an opposite effect to what Gilda would have wanted. Gallus clenched his claws into fists and tightened his folded arms as he turned back to Gilda and glowered.

“He knows where to find me if he cares that much about me.”

Sensing that Gallus wouldn’t have budged if she tried, Gilda let out a disappointed sigh. “You know, you’ve changed ever since you went to the School of Friendship.” She remarked, Gallus darted a glare in her direction, which compelled Gilda to move her claws in front of her. “Not that I’m saying that’s bad, there’s a lot of good change. But I remember before you left, both of you would put up with each other way more than I could, so what changed? What did he do?”

Still fuming internally, Gallus didn’t answer. “Gilda, am I a griffon to you?” he instead asked.

Gilda raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, the answer seemed blatantly obvious. “Um, I’m confident that my eyesight is still great, and can see that I’ve been talking to a griffon for several minutes.”

He then followed up with another question, “So then, despite spending a lot of time in Equestria, and spent the holidays there instead of here, I’m still a griffon to you, right?”

Gilda then looked up to think, she was unsure why Gallus was linking his species and physical appearance to the places he was residing, the two seemed irrelevant. But as she gave it some time, Gallus hasn’t magically become a different species because of being in Equestria for such a long time.

“I… guess that’s right.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about…” he reassured Gilda, although she wasn’t sure why. “It was good seeing you, Gilda.”

Before Gilda could ask any further what he meant, Gallus turned around and flew the short distance towards the ponies of the climbing club with an awkward but friendly smile on his face.

“Hey guys, sorry but I’m gonna head off early,” he shamefully admitted in an upbeat tone. The ponies were confused and surprised that Gallus was suddenly leaving so soon. “Yeah, I promised to see a friend just before winter break finishes, so it would be great if I made an early start,” he excused himself.

The two leaders of the camping trip found this unusual, considering there was already a planned departure. “But won’t you need a ticket for the train back?” queried Whipper.

“Actually, us griffons tend to fly over the ocean and catch a train in Baltimare,” Gallus pointed out, pointing towards the vast body of water west of the city, Equestria could barely be seen over the horizon of the ocean. “It’s much quicker than using the train station up north.” Whipper felt sheepish when he heard it, time could have been saved getting a ferry from Baltimare than the long train around Equestria.

Regardless, the two leaders relented. Fountain Blue gave Gallus some bits to spend on the train journey home, and after some goodbyes, Gallus flew west. Still standing by the oven, Gilda watched as Gallus flew further and further away from Griffonstone, looking doleful as she wished she had also told the young griffon how else he had changed ever since he first left Griffonstone years earlier.

It was several years ago, Gilda had bought a variety of new ingredients from Equestria, using some time to experiment in the hope of finding new flavours to sell. It felt like it might be worth it after Pinkie Pie, an annoyingly bouncy and upbeat earth pony, provided her baking powder which heavily improved the taste and quality of her scones.

Keeping herself busy with mixing ingredients in small batches to create samples added a small increase in difficulty with her baking tasks, added by the distant sound of a griffon she recognised. Gilbert, a loathsome brat of a griffon that had charred feathers and coat. Although she couldn’t see him or make out what he was saying from how far away he was, she could tell he was laughing and jeering at someone. Most likely the jerk was picking on a griffon a few years younger than him like he always did.

She didn’t like him, or what he was doing, but she kept on with her mixing. To her, walking in would only stop it temporarily, wasting her time when he gets back into picking on another young griffon. That was until the sounds of him jeering or speaking abruptly stopped, replaced with what sounded like thuds, grunts, and the rustling of straw. Then he heard Gilbert again, except he was much louder and clearer than before.

“Ow! Get off of- !”

His speech was cut off by another thud, more rustling, grunts, and thuds followed. Assuming it was the sound of some scuffle, Gilda decided to investigate. She followed the sound around one of the houses and ended up on a side street, and discovered the source was more violent than a scuffle.

Gilbert was during a fight with none other than Gallus, a blue feathered griffon who was indeed younger than his opponent, but was fierce and aggressive, as Gilda’s first glimpse of the fight was Gallus pinned on top and punching down onto Gilbert’s face with his left claw in a closed fist, his face scrunched up in furious anger.

The older would manage to roll over and get on top to return a blow or two but would end up back to being pinned to face some harsh blows to his face. Gilda has seen griffons argue, curse at each other, and has seen a few fights in her time, but none this angry, and especially none that was leading to noticeable bruises across the face from young teenaged griffons.

She had to stop it, by force if necessary. “HEY!” she yelled out to get their attention, to no effect as Gilbert managed to get himself on top of Gallus once more. She then leapt forward, pushing Gilbert off Gallus, and firmly stood between the two griffons.

With her arms stretched outwards to hold the griffons back, the fighting had more than certainly stopped. The two griffons were still seething, Gallus had a fixed angered face with red eyes staring daggers at Gilbert, and Gilbert was breathing through his gritting teeth. “Get out of here, you dweeb!” she turned and ordered Gilbert, instinctively targeting him as his bullish behaviour likely instigated the fight.

Although his focus did not change, the battered and bruised Gilbert relented. “Fine. I’ll get better knowing I won’t have to see him anymore when he’s gone for good.” The words triggered Gallus, as he quickly lunged forward and lashed out with open and sharp claws. Luckily for Gilbert, he wasn’t harmed by the attack thanks to Gilda acting as a barricade, but the reaction was still sudden and close enough that he immediately backed off and flew away in a panic.

As Gilbert disappeared, Gallus stood still, held back by Gilda, but gradually the red in Gallus’ eyes faded and his breathing slowed to a normal rhythm. He calmed himself enough to push himself off and walk off in a sulk in the opposite direction.

Despite being relieved the fight she witnessed was over, she wasn’t finished. “Oh no you don’t, you gonna tell me what that fight was about?” she held onto Gallus’ tail to stop him from walking any further, but instead of answering, Gallus continued to walk in place, dragging his feet along the floor.

“You know full well it’s better to explain it to a griffon like me than it is to answer to Grandpa Gruff.”

Gallus stopped trying to walk, he stood still with his head pointed down to the ground, and finally spoke.

“Grandpa Gruff won’t care, he’s sending me away…”

Gilda was stunned, and a little bit angry. She had heard some harsh words from other older griffons, including her own parents, about how Grandpa Gruff treated Gallus as his errand griffon. There was some hope that one day, Grandpa Gruff would step up somehow, but not just to send Gallus far away from home. “Okay, come with me, I need to hear this.” She let go of his tail and pulled him by the shoulder towards her food cart.

She then made Gallus sit by it while she picked out one of the already baked Griffonscones and offers it to Gallus. “Here, take it.” Gallus was confused by the gesture, but his talons began to move towards the scone, hesitating, before eventually grabbing it and taking a bite. “Now tell me what Grandpa Gruff is doing.”

Gallus chews into the scone as quick as he could, before giving a big gulp to swallow it down. “He said there is a school in Equestria and is gonna send me there,” he described, “said it will do me some good.”

Gilda could feel a relaxation in her chest as her first assumption kicks in,. “Oh, thank Grover’s ghost” she exclaims in relief, her claws resting on her face. “Trust me, pegasus ponies in Cloudsdale accept griffons into flight schools all the time, they’re like summer camps. You’ll be back in at least two weeks, a month tops” she casually reassures him.

“It’s for a year…” he hit back, and once more Gilda’s chest tightened again with worry. “He said it’s a school in Ponyville about teaching friendship, it’s run by somepony named Princess Twilight Sparkle, and her friends.” Gilda’s chest then relaxes again, albeit partially. It was no griffon boarding school in another part of the griffon territories, but some pony friendship school for a year seemed like much. “Once he drops me off, it’ll be a year before I come back unless the griffons here don’t want me back.”

“What? No! We TOTALLY want you back here, loads of griffons like you…” Gilda set off in a panic, nervously grinning and waving her arms across in exaggerated movements. However, her comforting and sympathetic nature was incredibly poor, and Gallus continued to huddle himself up by the food cart.

Gilda quickly darted her head around, desperately hoping Gabby would be nearby, she was way better at this weird helping others out and being friendly, she’d know what to do. However, with no Gabby around, Gilda sat down beside Gallus. All she could think of was an old moment from her own past that sounded a little like what Gallus was going through.

“Look, when I was little, my parents told me I was going to a flight camp in Cloudsdale, said it would do me some good. I really didn’t want to go, and at first, I didn’t like being the only griffon there.” Gilda then chuckled. “Two weeks I was meant to be there, but eventually I ended up staying a month because I loved it so much.”

“You’re lucky your parents know what’s best for you…” Gallus remarked with a hint of envy.

“Yeah, well, I found out years later my parents could never afford to send me to flight camp, Grandpa Gruff paid for the whole thing.” That admission finally caused Gallus to raise his head, bemused that Grandpa Gruff of all griffons would do something so generous. Gilda smiled in recognition of how weird the fact was.

“That cranky old griffon is a lot of things, but he wouldn’t be sending you off somewhere just to get rid of you. Besides, ponies aren’t so bad, lots of them are pretty cool, there’s one I met at flight camp that I’m still friends with to this day.” Her gradually effective reassurance was cut off by a realisation that there was a connection staring her in the face.”

“In fact, you said this school was run by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, right?” she checked, and Gallus confirmed with a small nod. “Then that means…” her eyes then widened, and then she quickly held her beak shut with her claws as snickering and giggling began to take over.

“Oh feathers, that’s just perfect!” she exclaimed to herself as she wipes a stray tear from her purple shadowed eyes, and then stood up to move in front of Gallus and look at him face-to-face.

“Okay, so, when you get to this school, look for Rainbow Dash. Blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, you can’t miss her. She might seem like an egghead at first, but she’s cool. After you meet her, just play along, talk to some ponies, and you never know, you might like this gig enough that you’ll be begging to stay.”

Gallus looked up at her with a raised eyebrow as she towered over with an upbeat grin, uncertain and weirded out, but he thanked her for the scone and made his way off. He had no idea how right she would be, and in retrospect, neither did she for better or for worse.

Author's Note

Later, on the first day at the School of Friendship: "Rainbow Dash, right? Gilda told me about you. You're a teacher? Huh. Thought you'd be... cooler."

Proofread by Javarod.

Bird in the Hand

This was it, it was nearing the end of Gallus’ most eventful week. In a mere six days, he’d celebrated Hearth’s Warming with friends in Cloudsdale and Ponyville. Then a hike to Griffonstone to spend time with friends new and old, much to his chagrin. He even made a short visit to Baltimare, if flying in to catch a train counted.All he had left was one full day before he had to get the train back to the Academy, and he wanted to make the most of it back home in Ponyville.

He started the day having breakfast with Ocellus and Smolder, where most of the conversation centred around his morning workout routine of stretches, crunches, and wing-ups. It was still hard for the two girls to believe Gallus could be an early riser, let alone one to make a habit of making the bed all neat and tidy followed by a workout before either of the two woke up.

Even harder to believe was that he wasn’t done as he left to do his morning flight. Smolder and Ocellus talked about doing some shopping in the market square, so it was as good a time as any to warm up his wings and see what had changed in Ponyville.

Turned out it was quite a bit, some of the decorations had been taken down, a sign of Hearth’s Warming coming to an end, and yet thick layers of snow still covered the ground and the roofs. Ponies wouldn’t be literally clearing it away until spring two weeks later, Gallus recalled how Ponyville made it a tradition for everypony and creature to clean up, which was tiring yet fun despite participating along with long and repetitive singing.

This year he wouldn’t be able to take part, despite his inability to tolerate such music. That’s why he hoped that he could have one more time with his friends as one whole group. Himself, Sandbar, Yona, Smolder, Ocellus, and…

“Guess whoooo~”

A creature called out playfully with a cheerful serenade from behind him. The chirpy feminine creature added to her game an additional challenge by sneaking up from behind to cover the griffon’s eyes with a large, pink-feathered wing.

Despite the visual disadvantage, Gallus could feel that the creature was slightly taller than him and yet no heavier than he was as his arms and legs did not struggle with the additional weight of her standing over him with her talons firmly supported on his shoulders, close enough to hear the serenade directly by his left ear and smell the faint scent of a citrus aroma. Unfortunately for the playful creature, Gallus was in the mood to play.

“No,” he answered bluntly, his face remained deadpanned below the feathers obstructing his views. The creature didn’t take the answer well, he heard a quiet groan of frustration.

“Aw, come on!” she whined as she pushed and pulled on his shoulders. “Don’t be a killjoy…”

“Wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t.” Gallus persisted, as one of the corners of his mouth curved upwards in amusement, it was more fun than an easy game of guess the creature. “Besides, there isn’t any other creature who’s bouncy and lively enough to make this hard.”

The creature didn’t give up, however. “Maybe I’m Gabby?” she countered with cheek, knowing her to be a bouncy and lively griffon.

Gallus sighed. “Silverstream, if Gabby snuck up on me, my beak would be buried in the dirt by now,” he refuted. Unlike this creature, Gabby knew little of her own strength.

“YAY! You guessed right!” Silverstream elated, releasing her wing from Gallus’ eyes, and fully embraced him in a hug from behind. He wasn’t playing how she hoped he would, but she didn’t care as she rubbed his cheek with her head. “I’m so happy that I got back from Mount Aris just in time to see you, we have sooo much to catch up on.”

All Gallus could do was roll his eyes, unable to move from the grasp or invasion of his personal space. Even when she let go to stand in front of him, their beaks were inches from each other.

The hippogriff fidgeted on the spot with her widest grin, “So, what’s the plan?” she asked, eager to guess what the two birds could do with the day still young. “Heading back to the house to hang out with Smoldy and ‘Celly?”

“Well, we could, but they’re out shopping,” Gallus recalled from their breakfast earlier, although he furrowed his brow as he couldn’t find them in the market square, raising his suspicions. “Said they won’t be around till the afternoon.”

Silverstream raised an eyebrow too, even she thought it was off for them to be busy on such a day, yet her suspicions were brief. “Oh, well that’s okay” she brushed it off with her claws. “We can see those two later, how about Sandy and Yona? Are they back yet?”

Gallus shook his head. “Don’t think so, they both would be on the train from Yakyakistan by now.” Which meant that it would just be the two of them for a while, a fact made obvious to Gallus, although Silverstream began scratching the underneath of her beak.

“That means…” she still pondered, Gallus tapped a talon on his arm to wait for the moment when she gasped in realization, she brightened. “We have more time together!”

As the pair walked around Ponyville’s park, they conversed about their holidays. Or at least they would, but Silverstream had a way of dominating the discussion with her thousand words per minute dialogue. Gallus smiled and nodded as she talked about the Three Days of Freedom, the holiday the hippogriffs on Mount Aris celebrate.

She detailed every aspect of her time there, stringing shells together with her mom on the first day below the ocean in Seaquestria, performing the wind song with her younger brother on Mount Aris at the Harmonizing Heights on the side of Mount Aris on the second day, and then partying on the third day with her parents, grandparents, sisters, uncles, brothers, acquaintances, neighbours, and cousins. Lots of singing and dancing for all three days, followed by presents from her aunt.

At one moment, she stood still and stopped mid-sentence, having blanked out. “Oh, um, sorry Gally. I forgot I get carried away when I’m excited” she confessed, nervously scratching the back of her head.

Gallus could also recognise the air of caution she was feeling, as he felt a stroke of envy as he did during the winter breaks. “Don’t be” he instead reassured her with a half-smile, “it’s great that you always have fun over the holidays, a lot more adventurous than I would.” Silverstream’s smile faded, she could tell he was putting himself down. She placed the palm of her claws on Gallus’ shoulder.

“Gally, don’t think of it like that.” She calmly told him, showing her dislike for self-deprecation. She had to encourage him to be optimistic. “Come on, you must have had some adventure over the past week.”

“Well, it was great spending time with the others, it’s even nice spending time around-”

“Hi Miss Silverstream!” the sound of voices in unison called out into the distance. Silverstream’s head turned towards the voices in an instant, recognition dawned on her face, quickly followed by a return of her bright glow.

“Look, those two girls are in my laughter classes!! She pointed towards two teenage mares in the distance, who stood alongside an older mare and stallion, one would assume to be their parents. The two teenagers might have been sisters by the way they looked. One was pale green while the other was pale purple, while their manes and the scarves they were wearing were different in colour as well, yet the way they styled their long manes matched along with their thin eyelashes and matching studs on their left ear. Silverstream waved her arm wildly as the two walked up, snickering amongst themselves as they approached.

“It’s nice to see you two, did you have lots of fun over Hearth’s Warming?” asked Silverstream.

“Yes, Miss Silverstream,” the two responded in unison once again, playfully rolling their eyes and leaning their heads as if calling out in a classroom welcome.

“Did you have fun over Hearth’s Warming?” the pale green mare followed up.

“I sure did, but back on Mount Aris we have a holiday that isn’t celebrated over just one day, but over THREE!” she answered boastfully, even revealing three outstretched claws in their line of sight. The two responded with awe, they likely imagined three days of gift-giving and food.

Silverstream then proceeded to explain how the Three Days of Freedom Celebration worked, an explanation Gallus had heard multiple times, so he took his focus away from it. He noticed the parents remained standing in the distance, one whispering to the other.

Neither of them was smiling, yet from a distance, neither of them looked angry either. They didn’t even appear fazed as Gallus looked at them directly, as he glared with suspicion. It might not have been his business, but he was curious as to what the pair were murmuring about. Were they talking about him, Silverstream, or something else entirely?

“Hey, you’re Gallus, right?”

Upon hearing the pale green mare ask him a question, Gallus shifted his focus to the two ponies in front of him with wide-eyed surprise. Silverstream and both the two of them were looking at him, putting him on the spot. “I could be…” he answered shakily. Silverstream giggled, thinking it was a joke, and the two mares took notice.

“So, you must be the griffon who’s studying at the Royal Guard Academy?” the pale orchid pony asked this time.

Instead of answering with yes, he turned to Silverstream. “Guess Miss Silverstream told you about me?” he remarked rhetorically and noticed Silverstream smiling and nervously scratching the back of her head again. The two teenagers looked at each other, and then their eyelids drooped, and the two looked back at the two birds with sly grins.

“Oh, Miss Silverstream LOVES to talk about YOU.”

“Yeah, she talks about you ALL THE TIME.”

The ponies’ tone shifted to an overly exaggerated one, almost in a teasing manner that even left Gallus feeling uncomfortable. “Uh… what does she talk about exactly?” He glanced sideways to see Silverstream frozen with big round eyes, nervously sweating despite the low temperature outside.

“She talks about how funny you are, how you’re gonna be in the Royal Guard, how cool you look in armour. She always carries around a photo of you around the school. It’s almost as if she-“

“-thinks that Gallus is a really really really great friend and is really happy for us to catch up before he heads back to the Academy!” Silverstream blurted out, jumping in between Gallus and the ponies and ushering them away frantically. “Now go on and have fun, you don’t need to spend more of your holiday with your teaching assistant!”

She continued to hold a wide and discomforting grin, as the two girls briskly walked back to their parents giggling to each other.

“Hey, I have an idea for somewhere we should go to. Come on!” She seemed desperate as she pulled on his arm to get him to start flapping his wings and as weird as it was, he was compelled to follow.

The two made their way out of the park and over the Everfree Forest, flying just high enough to be above the trees. Silverstream flew out ahead of Gallus, guiding him on where they were going. Considering it was winter, Gallus was far more relieved that there were no storm clouds above them, not wanting to deal with an array of lightning bolts.

Eventually, they reached the ruins of a large palace surrounded by trees. The old and gothic palace was long abandoned and fell to ruin with moss and plants growing in and around the crumbling walls. However, Gallus realised the true destination was not the palace itself, but what was inside it.

It was a clubhouse, built within a hollow crystalline tree with gems that hung from the branches, light from the low-hanging sun shimmered from its vibrant stained windows, the whole tree gleamed with a radiance that contrasted heavily from the dark and dreary palace that surrounded it.

“Woah, it’s still here,” Gallus uttered under his breath; he knew the clubhouse all too well. The Tree of Harmony that rested underneath the palace in a cavern was destroyed, and upon seeing the tree’s astral projection in their dreams, Gallus and his friends were called to make something to memorialize it. Although there were disagreements along the way, they eventually built a small clubhouse, which grew into the gargantuan beauty that stood in front of them.

“Of course it is!” happily remarked Silverstream. “We still come here from time to time, sometimes we bring some of the students here as well.” The pair went inside, and it was just as fancy and spacious as it was the first time he explored it. Crystal walls, floors, and decorations, stairways that lead to the balconies and rooms to relax, shelves with books to read.

It brought back Gallus to a simpler time, when he could just lounge around, reading comics, tell scary stories, or work on their Ogres & Oubliettes campaign. Every now and then, the Tree of Harmony itself would appear as its astral form of Princess Twilight Sparkle, often to check up on how the group was getting along, sometimes to provide helpful advice.

“Does the Tree of Harmony ever speak to you?” asked Gallus, curious to find out if he could ask it a few questions.

Silverstream shook her head, “It hasn’t spoken to any of us since we graduated, but there’s always that feeling it’s around whenever I visit.”

As disappointing as the answer was, perhaps it was for the best. “Yeah, I get what you mean.” He answered bitterly, he vividly remembered all the times the Tree of Harmony would put him in scenarios where he would be trapped in closing spaces.

All of a sudden, Silverstream then stopped in the middle of the hall, her ears pricked upwards as if she could hear a faint sound. “She’s here!” she elated, before flying up the stairway towards one of the balconies. Gallus tilted his head, he didn’t make out any sound, or at least not one he would recognise in an instant.

“Hey Gally~, come say hi to your biggest fan~”

As Silverstream flew her way down the stairs, Gallus noticed she had something resting on her arm. From a distance, it looked like a giant rooster, noting its red and white head and bright yellow talons. Yet when Silverstream got closer, Gallus noticed its body was less of a bird, and more of a snake with purple scales and red spikes.

“Bucuck!”

It was a Cockatrice, a half-bird/half-serpent beast that nested in the Everfree Forest, it was known to hunt smaller creatures and turn bigger creatures that look into its red eyes into stone. “GAH!” Gallus quickly turned his back on Silverstream and tightly covered his eyes in a panicked defensive manoeuvre.

“Relax Gally,” said an oddly calm Silverstream, “it’s just Edith.”

“You named a Cockatrice Edith?” Gallus exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yeah, I did a research assignment on dangerous creatures at school, remember?” She turned to Edith to happily scratch its belly, “I remember you were a big help with that.” Edith happily churred in response.

“Well, I remember being taught that cockatrices were dangerous, so if you can keep Edith away, I’d appreciate it.”

“Edith won’t hurt you” Silverstream serenely reassured him, “she’s a rather old bird now.”

“In my experience, old birds aren’t any less dangerous” repudiated Gallus.

“Come on, you can’t be saying a Royal Guard Officer in training is afraid of a friendly cockatrice.” Silverstream smirked with a grin and the other arm of her hip, boldly teasing the griffon.

“Pretty sure any soldier from the Royal Guard would hide or run from a serpent bird that turns you into stone if you look directly at its eyes.”

Seeing how Gallus continued to be unwilling to be near poor old Edith, Silverstream sighed and offered a more interactive yet careful approach. “Alright, fine. I’ll just have to bring Edith to you…” Much to Gallus’ chagrin, Silverstream quietly moved closer to him, placed one of her pony-hooved feet on Gallus’ tail to refrain him from leaving, and stretched out her unoccupied arm.

“Now give me your arm,” she ordered. Gallus could feel the slight pressure on his tail, so he couldn’t fly away if he wanted to. With much reluctance, he moved his right arm outwards until it was nearly behind him.

Silverstream gently grabbed onto the arm and kept it up and parallel to the ground and turned her body so that the arm in which the Cockatrice stood on was right next to Gallus’ now exposed arm. It took a light nudge for Edith to turn around, and with a small hop, she was standing on Gallus’s exposed arm. Observing that Gallus was still facing away from her with covered eyes, Edith would occasionally tilt her head from side to side.

With both arms free, Silverstream could perform her next step. She moved around to face Gallus directly, with her claws on Gallus’ shoulders. “Turn towards Edith and give me your other arm.” Like with her last order, Gallus reluctantly complied. Keeping his eyes closed, he turned around and exposed his other arm.

Next, Silverstream moved in closer behind Gallus to where she was hugging him again, except this time she crafted Gallus’ talons, so it was clenched apart from the index talon. Then holding onto his wrist, she moved the talon up and down Edith’s scaly chest in a rhythmic motion, effectively making Gallus stroke the bird. It took a few repeated strokes before Silverstream let go, leaving Gallus to perform the motions on his own.

“cluck cluck cluck” the gentle sounds could be heard coming from Edith.

“See” Silverstream whispered, remaining close to Gallus body in a warm embrace, “she’s giving her nesting call, that means she thinks you’re friendly.”

After one deep breath, Gallus slowly opened one of his eyes, still cautious about potentially being turned into stone. Instead, he saw Edith almost sitting on his arm, smiling, and clucking away. Seeing the cockatrice up close, Gallus could notice that it was indeed an old creature, the feathers around its head were frail and faded and its wings were frayed.

Whilst he was stood there, gently scratching the belly of this friendly creature, with his friend reassuring him close by with the scent of aroma, Gallus could start feeling a certain warmth coming from his chest. The warmth helped him feel calm and content, he could feel an uncontrollable urge to smile with the feelings in and around him.

“oooOOOooo” Edith called, a new sound of a stretched-out o with a rolling tongue she made as she looked between Gallus and Silverstream with happiness and intrigue.

“Hey Silver, what does that call mean?” he asked, but he didn’t expect the response Silverstream gave when he turned his head to look at her.

She was bright red in the face, her eyes big and round. She loosened her grip on Gallus’ shoulders and slowly distanced herself away, moving back around him to get Edith back onto her arm. “I think it means she needs a rest.” She hurriedly flies back up the stairs to the balcony, leaving Gallus confused downstairs, suspecting the call meant something more embarrassing than what Silverstream claimed.

It was almost evening, Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Yona, Smolder, and Ocellus had all gotten together in the afternoon. They spent the afternoon at the bowling alley, enjoying a game before following it up with an evening meal at the tavern. There were many laughs, many discussions, many speculations on what would happen in the future.

But for all the fun, it had to come to an end. “Well, here we are again” stated Gallus, as he stood on the platform in front of his train back to Canterlot. But before he stepped on, he turned around to his friends behind to say something, specifically to Silverstream.

“You were right,” he told her, leaving the hippogriff perplexed as she was already downcast from the departure. “You said I’ll enjoy the winter holidays this year and… I guess I did.”

“Oh,” she uttered in relief, before going straight for a hug. “We’re glad we got the time to see you, right?” The others nodded in agreement. When everyone heard the train conductor’s whistle, Gallus turned around and made his move on the train. One by one, his friends called out their goodbyes, to which Gallus would respond to each.

“Laters Pigeon!”

“See ya later!”

“We’ll miss you!”

“I know!”

“Till next time, dude!”

“Till next time!”

“Gallus knockdown next term!”

“Will do!”

“Don’t forget to write!”

“Course, I won’t.”

“I love you!”

“Yeah, I love you t…” Gallus froze, his brain processing to make sure he heard what he heard correctly. Did she say she loved him? He wanted to get off the train to ask further, but as he heard the train puffing and felt the carriage moving underneath him, it was too late for him to try. As he turned around, the last thing he saw on the train platform at Ponyville was most of his friends with dumbfounded looks on their faces, and Silverstream with her beak covered by her claws.

Good morning Royal Guard Academy, Gallus almost forgot what dawn looked like as he stumbled his way out of his bedroom and stood in the dormitory along with the rest of the cadets of Larson Company, First Wing. It wasn’t the most pleasant reunion to have, trying to make out his platoon buddies with a hazy vision, the clearest detail he could make out was Scythe standing right next to him, wearing the red scarf he received as a Hearth’s Warming present.

Captain Westland and Staff Sergeant Razorwing wanted the platoon to get back into the term running, starting with room inspections. One by one, the two staff pegasus ponies went into each bedroom, and they were thorough to say the least. Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling got all clear, much to their relief, but the platoon had to remain standing still and upright when either the captain or the staff sergeant would chew another cadet out for their room, leaving it obvious who had become rusty.

Neither Gallus nor Scythe should have worried about the state of their rooms, they both kept up their bed making during the winter break, made sure their shelves were neatly arranged and all their armour and uniforms were laid out. Yet when Razorwing walked into their dorms, Gallus was anticipating a call-out, something within that room would get the sarge’s attention.

On that morning, it was the photos pinned up to the board on Gallus’ desk. “Griffon!” he bellowed, “Did you get to see any friends or family over the winter break?” Although a fairly casual question, Gallus remained focused and anticipated the trap.

“Yes, Staff Sergeant,“ he answered calmly and bluntly, refraining from giving any more detail.

“Who’s the pink one? Did you see her?”

Against all will and control, Gallus was brought back to the day before, the conversations, the time spent at the clubhouse, the moment before departing on the train, all rushed into his head. “Uh, yes Staff Sergeant! Her name is Silverstream.” The answer he gave was agitated.

Inside the room, Razorwing paused for thought as he inspected the graduation photo of Gallus and his friends, taking particular note of Silverstream giving Gallus a cheerful and tight hug in the picture. He looked out from the entrance of the bedroom and could just about see Gallus and Scythe from behind, barely peeking out from the edge of the doorway.

It wasn’t the only cadet he could see from where he stood in the bedroom, “Officer Cadet Nick, is the griffon blushing out there?” he called out. Nicknames’ bedroom was on the opposite side of the hallway. He was on the verge of dosing off before he was called, so was taken aback by the odd question.

Unfortunately for Gallus, it took one quick glance towards him for Nicknames to find out. “He sure is, sir” sardonically answered Nicknames, leaving behind a fixed smirk on his face.

“Thought so,” remarked a satisfied Razorwing, who continued inspecting the room.

More unfortunate for Gallus, Nicknames wasn’t the only pony who was looking at him. The rest of the cadets started to snicker and hold their laughter as hard as they could as Gallus’ face got redder and redder. Unable to hide the humiliation from the trap he metaphorically fell into, he stared daggers into Nicknames for the traitor as he was.

Nicknames though regretted nothing, he just started the first day of the new term having caught a lovebird.

Author's Note

Thanks to Javarod, apologies for jumping the gun on publication.

His Choice

Hey Silverstream,

Just thought I’d write to say that I got back to the Royal Guard Academy fine, it’s taken me a while to get back to waking up at dawn, going to classes and running drills. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday.

On the plus side, now that I’m in the intermediate-term, I can get time to go in and around Canterlot. So, if you are ever free, we could meet up, hang out and talk about stuff. I’m sure we’d have a lot to talk about since I got on that train.

Let me know? Till next time,

Gallus

After many crumpled pieces of paper that could fill a wastebasket, the letter in Gallus’ hand was the best he could write. It was hard enough avoiding the other cadets in the platoon finding out he was writing to her, but he also had trouble finding the right words. If only Silverstream told him sooner, he’d have more time to process the news that she loves him.

He never had a crush or was crushed on, before. Of all the friends he had, he couldn’t understand why her. Sure, she is pretty, and he’s not one to put down his looks and charm, but she was also optimistic, cheerful, and hyperactive. It was no wonder she took a liking to being Pinkie Pie’s teaching assistant, out of their six, she would keep their hopes high.

On the other hand, Gallus was cynical, sarcastic, not in the mood for fun twenty-four seven. He wasn’t exactly the hippogriff type, not to mention their upbringings were practically the opposite. At one point he considered himself Smolder’s type, they had an attitude on the same wavelength, but that was long before he learned she had feelings for Ocellus.

He needed to make sense of this news properly, talking bird-to-bird about it was better than trying through letters, perhaps she could take it as a date. He frantically finished writing the letter and the address, there was an appointment he needed to make and fortunately, a letterbox was on the way.

After dropping off the letter, he entered the office of his platoon commander, Captain Westland. Fortunately, Gallus had a few moments to compose himself to make a proper entrance, he marched up to her desk and gave a salute to the captain.

Sitting at her desk with her files, Captain Westland nodded with the appreciation of Gallus’ proper decorum. “Thank you, Gallus” she acknowledged, allowing Gallus to rest his arms, and put himself at ease. “It’s good to see you fresh from winter break. Looking forward to the new term?”

“Yes, ma’am” answered Gallus, he masked his sarcasm with a fake grin.

Westland returned a smirk of her own before she straightened out her files and got to business. “Right, well the reason I wanted you here is to talk about your future. As you might be aware, the end goal for cadets here is to be commissioned as officers in one of the several regiments within Equestria, assuming they can graduate of course,” she explained, her conclusion given under her breath less clearly and more hurriedly.

She then searched through the files, to a page on Gallus’ profile, detailing his education and personal background. Almost all sections of the profile were filled in with some detail, but only one section remained blank, one regarding his ambitions regarding his time at the academy. Her eyes focused on the lines void of text that would explain what Gallus wanted to get out of the Academy.

“Now, the Academy can arrange a commission with a regiment based on your skills, but most cadets usually have one or two in mind when they apply,” she continued, setting up her request for information. “That may not be the case for you” she assumed, but upon saying it hesitated, “which is fine, but us platoon commanders and company commanders like to know a cadet’s first and second choice so we can plan a cadet’s path through the Academy.”

Fortunately, when she looked towards Gallus, he didn’t flinch or show offence. Unbeknownst to her, Gallus already had his area of choice in his mind, the one that inspired him to join this Academy in the first place. Before he could answer though, Westland continued.

“What you choose can be for different reasons, perhaps a certain field or speciality you want to focus on. You’re in the Rockwall and Mountaineering club, there are regiments with mountaineering specialities that the club leaders would know more about.” Gallus’ forehead creased when she brought up mountains, as much as he liked being included in the club, his dislike for climbing meant he had no intention of joining a mountaineering regiment like the chevaux alpins.

“I’m sure there’s a mountain battalion within a regiment based in Rainbow Falls. That would be a good one to consider for you since on the train it’s a short train ride from your home in Griffonst- “

“Canterlot…”

Captain Westland was stopped talking when Gallus blurted out, stopping her both mid-speech and mid-thought. Both the interruption and the assertive tone took the captain by surprise, which Gallus was quick to notice when she looked up from her desk, suspicious of the forced response.

The startled griffon hurriedly continued, “…ma’am. I want to be near Ponyville, so I was thinking Canterlot.” He nervously rubbed the back of his head as he finished, pleading internally that Westland not to enact any discipline or erupt a storm due to his impulse.

“Interesting…” Westland quietly muttered, resting her head on one of her hooves as she stared back at Gallus with curiosity. She then proceeded to write a single short sentence on her profile, “Well, I’ll keep a note of that now, but I suggest you investigate other regiments” she warned him.

“Canterlot’s is the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards, and because they protect the capital city, Canterlot Palace, and the monarchy, it has a very high entry requirement. Furthermore, they usually offer three commissions a year, but this year the regiment has two confirmed cadets at the Academy, so you’ll be competing against several ponies for one spot.”

What hopes Gallus had beforehand began to dampen when he heard that, no matter how lightly she’d put it. Of course, the Royal Guards who protect Princess Twilight and her palace would be popular and have high expectations, so it’d mean he’d have to work harder. Having only one place to compete for thanks to Scythe and some other pony being confirmed cadets meant he’d have a harder time than any other year.

“Good news is that this week has the Arms & Services Exhibition,” Westland added as reassurance, “representatives from all sections will be there for you to find out all the different areas the E.U.P. Guard has to offer.” She then returned her file onto the pile, “I expect you to take the exhibition seriously, dismissed.”

Following her order, Gallus made his exit, his next task was clear: Find another regiment, hopefully as a backup to fall back on in case he can’t get what he wants.

It was days later that the exhibition began. The gymnasium was transformed into a convention center, with rows of tables in and around for cadets to ask current officers about what their regiments and their specialities are all about.

Some tables had more to show to impress the cadets, many had posters as visual aids, some had equipment on display from parachutes to boats. Others had ponies kitted up giving demonstrations, including some armoured guards who stood by a large trebuchet in the middle of the venue. It was not just attack and defence either, but also intelligence and engineers.

For Gallus, it was a lot to take in. “I don’t remember the School of Friendship offering half as much as this,” he remarked as he scanned the room. His comrades had different reactions.

Pound Sterling was giddy like a kid in a toy shop. “Well, ah already getten’ mah sights set on wot ah want!” she exclaimed in her thick accent before she dashed to check out one specific “toy” section. Having her ambitions set high, the others could easily guess she wanted to meet the Dragoons.

“Steppin’ Time wait up!” Lightning Dust reached out her hoof to stop her but sighed as she realised she was too late. “Guess I’m just gonna see which one has the most flying in it.” She decided in a blasé tone. Without another word, she started moving in the same direction as Sterling, looking across the tables.

It was at this moment that Gallus tilted his head, a strange feeling had emerged. “…Anyone else getting déjà vu?” he asked the two remaining cadets that stood beside him, Nicknames and Scythe.

“Getting what, Bluebird?” asked a confused Nicknames.

”Prench, means that this has been seen already.”

“Well, the gymnasium, set up like the freshers’ bazaar?” Gallus extended his arm out to gesture to the entire gymnasium with all the tables, posters, and other features. However, Nicknames remained confused.

“I dunno what you’re talking about, this is only just a fair to help you choose what you’ll be doing for the next few years of your life.” Nicknames remarked in an oddly casual tone, leaving Gallus unnerved. “Make your choice. No pressure!” he followed with a smirk, before walking off to have a look around on his own.

This left Gallus standing by the entrance alone with Scythe, watching as the other ponies walked around and talked with older ponies dressed in uniforms with medals and badges attached. Unlike the bazaar, there was no leaflet or map to help guide them around. It was clear that all cadets were supposed to explore and find their future careers, although as daunting as that was, it wasn’t the most uncomfortable part of Gallus’ situation.

He glanced towards Scythe, who was motionless and staring at the ground. The Pegasus was downcast and motionless, having barely said a word for the entire morning. “So… Scythe, anything here you’re looking for?” asked Gallus with an uncomfortable upbeat voice.

“I already made a choice…” a glum Scythe responded, continuing to look at the polished wooden floor as he gave a disappointed sigh, despite the answer being something more positive.

It didn’t take long to recall why Scythe wasn’t so happy with his answer, his dad brought it up during that argument on Hearth’s Warming Eve. “Oh yeah, you’re one of the confirmed cadets,” Gallus remarked, cautiously quiet to recognise the promise he made to his friend to not be quiet about his family heritage and all.

Unlike Scythe, Gallus had to at least find one section or regiment in the exhibition to put down as his choice, and one of them had to move. He took a few steps forward, before turning his head back to Scythe. “Well… you wanna come with me anyway?” He offered, with a grin of encouragement, a jerk of his head to signal a move, and a return to his normal volume. “You know the whole pony military better than I do.” Slowly but surely, Scythe started to step forward, before getting near to Gallus’ side to follow him.

Once the pair got moving, the tour of the exhibition went into full swing, Gallus was able to get an idea of the full range of regiments. There were the infantry arms that were mainline combat, some were strictly for specific kinds of ponies, such as the Hoof Guards for Earth Ponies, the Royal Lasers for Unicorns, and the Wing Corps for the Pegasus ponies.

Speaking of, the trebuchet was owned by the Royal Armoured Brigade, an earth pony regiment responsible for carrying and operating heavy armoured weapons at great speed for field combat.

Some were mixed ponies too, as evident when they walked by the Dragoons’ table where an earth pony was patiently and uneasily listening to an enthusiastic Pound Sterling talking about her love of the woods.

Then there were combat support regiments, which were for mixed ponies. These were the Royal Engineers, the Royal Signals and Royal Intelligence. No body-strength, horns or wings are required for providing engineering, communications, or intelligence. Higher academic skills would be required though, and from overhearing the officers talking to cadets, a lot of maths and science skills are required.

Finally, there was combat service, also mixed ponies but provided services both in and out of conflicts. This included the Medic Corps, which Scythe remarked was where his mother worked up to the rank of captain.

“Your aunt was an army doctor too, right? Didn’t she join the medic corps?”

Scythe shook his head, “she joined them as a medical officer,” he answered, his hoof pointed towards one of the out-of-place tables, the Wonderbolts.

Their table was bright blue with lightning bolts and white streak patterns, along with several striking posters of the Wonderbolts in uniforms. Even with no equipment to try out, not even a trebuchet, it was the most eye-catching stand.

It was so eye-catching in fact that there was a large crowd of ponies of all kinds huddled at the table and forming a line that stretched over to other tables. “Wow how am I so surprised that the Wonderbolts would be so popular?” sarcastically remarked Gallus, smirking as his eyes looked from the end to the front of the queue.

An earth pony at the end of the line caught his remark. “Oh yeah, the Wonderbolts are the best flyers in Equestria, right?” he replied as he turned to Gallus with a wide grin on his face.

“Sure, but you can’t fly, no offence…” Gallus pointed out, noting the lack of wings on the eager pony, “Is everypony here trying to sign up?”

“Oh, none taken, I’m not here to try and join,” the earth pony admitted, causing Gallus to turn his head. “Yeah, some of us are just fans.” He then leaned towards Gallus to whisper. “Two of the Wonderbolts are signing autographs!”

Both Gallus and Scythe looked at each other, Gallus’ curiosity peaked, he wanted to find out. The griffon snuck around the queue to the side of the table with Scythe following behind, only to see the crowd block the table. The two had to sneak further to where they were peeking from behind the giant banner to get a view of the back of the lone Wonderbolt.

Although it would have been hard to make out a Wonderbolt from behind thanks to their blue coverall uniforms and goggles, this Wonderbolt had her hood down, revealing two pale blue ears and a full length of mane with rainbow colours.

Recognition dawned on Gallus as there could be only one Wonderbolt that could fit that description. Not just a Wonderbolt, but one of his old teachers.

“Professor Dash?”

The Wonderbolt’s ears flicked and perked up as if she picked up her name and a familiar voice at the same time. The pony turned around and her cerise eyes locked towards Gallus, confirming both of their suspicions. She did indeed hear the voice of one of her graduates, and he could see it was Rainbow Dash signing autographs at the Academy.

“Gallus!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with joy, before quickly turning to the crowd of ponies around the table. “Sorry guys gotta take a break!” she told them, leading to a wave of frustrated groans, disappointed that they had to wait longer for an autograph or word with a Wonderbolt because of a certain griffon and pony.

Not that it mattered to Rainbow Dash, who was more interested in catching up with Gallus. “Hey! It’s good to see you! How’ve you been holding up, Silverstream goes on about all the rough ‘n tough stuff you get on within the teachers’ lounge.”

“Uh, yeah. She’s not wrong.” Gallus quickly turned and rubbed the back of his head, hoping his arm would hide the pink roses emerging from his cheeks.

“And you’ve made new friends too? Wouldn’t expect less from one of my students” she said proudly, before turning towards Scythe, when her eyebrow began to rise. “Hey, have we met before?”

“I’ve seen a few of your shows…” Scythe turned his head in the opposite direction to Gallus, his mumbles were barely decipherable amongst the background noise.

“Fair enough, a lot of ponies want to see me” Rainbow Dash boastfully proclaimed, with her nose held high and a smug grin. She quickly turned her attention back to Gallus, “Oh yeah, have you talked to Gilda recently? I know the Blue Moon Festival went by during the winter.”

The question reminded him of Gilda and the sour conversation the two had in Griffonstone, “I have… she’s been well” he vaguely stated. Desperately wishing to evade the subject, he switched focus back on the exhibition. “So, uh, since you’re here. I’m kinda surprised to see a Wonderbolts table, I thought you lot aren’t part of the E.U.P. Guard.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, not too keen on the whole recruiter topic that she had been doing with several other pegasus ponies in one day. She stretched her hooves and decided to persevere, considering to her, Gallus was no boring cadet or super-obsessed fan she had to tolerate.

“Well, the Wonderbolts are more E.U.P. Guard adjacent. It was set up by twenty pegasus officers and soldiers in the Guard for the anniversary of the first celestial year of peace, and after several years it has run as its own thing with its own Academy and operations. That’s all-old history though, I had to memorize it all for the entrance exam,” she hoof-waved the history talk and went into the recruitment spiel.

“That said, we often recruit cadets from this academy for plenty of stuff around the shows, event coordination, maintenance, admin, medical, some even do flight routines in the show when squad members aren’t available.”

“And you?” Gallus followed, questioning the reason she is here specifically.

“Usually, Captain Spitfire goes here to help promote the Wonderbolts for recruits. That and catch up with a friend of hers,” she tilted her head and nodded towards the wall behind the banner. All three looked towards the direction to find leaning against the wall Captain Spitfire, also with her hood down to show her fire amber mane. She was casually chatting to no other than Gallus’ platoon commander Captain Westland, the sight leaving Gallus slightly on edge knowing that she was probably spying on him the whole time.

“I also volunteered this year because I know one cadet in this place” Rainbow Dash also slyly admitted. “But since you two are here, if you ever want to work with the best of the best flyers in Equestria, maybe you could consider us as one of your choices?” She made her hints further obvious by elbow nudging Gallus in his side.

The suggestion triggered another memory to remerge, another from meeting Scythe’s family, the moment when Scythe’s uncle approached him. “Come to think of it, Blue Angel said something about how the Wonderbolts could do with a griffon.” He turned to Scythe, who was still trying to evade recognition.

It didn’t help when Rainbow Dash’s widened with amazement. “You spoke to Blue Angel?! That’s awesome!” she exclaimed, grabbing Gallus by the shoulders. “He was one of the Wonderbolts that flew with Wind Rider, back when he was a cool flyer at least, but he was also Spitfire’s captain when she started. If he thinks you’re good to work for us, you should give us a shot.”

It was that moment that Gallus had a serious thought, could he sign up for the Wonderbolts? Even though it’s only pegasus ponies, it didn’t feel unusual for him to consider it. Silverstream once had a dream about joining, and he was even in it, not that he liked the trauma of being trapped to get the Tree of Harmony’s attention. The thought started to creep his way in further, nagging him to agree, perhaps signing up would be a good idea.

Their discussion was suddenly derailed by a familiar pony who spotted Gallus and Scythe from behind the crowd. “Hey Bluebird, Mumbles, there you are! Either of you two found anything cool… yet…” Lightning Dust’s voice trailed off, as her pace slowed to a crawl, her face blank and her eyes wide as she was quick to discover who the two cadets had been talking to.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash…” she said, her eyes locked in on the rainbow pegasus standing before her with a seething chill in her voice.

Rainbow Dash recognised the mare, returned her cold hard glare and judgement in her voice. “Lightning Dust…” for the crowd that had been standing around frustrated and impatient, this new development piqued their interest, it was Wonderbolt versus Washout. “How’s ‘rivals for life’ doing for ya?” asked Rainbow Dash serving a mocking grin.

Lightning Dust’s face scrunched up, hot air blew out of her nostrils in anger, it just hardened her glare more. She then eerily began to smirk, “Not sure what you mean, I’m just here checking up on my friends.” She moved around to stand in between Gallus and Scythe, before flexing her wings out and pulling them both into an awkward group hug. “We look out for each other in our platoon, right? Don’t mind me though, you lot were talking?”

As Rainbow Dash’s eyes glanced between the griffon and pegasus on either side of her, she silently fumed knowing she had just received a counterattack. “Right… Well, aside from being on good terms with captains current and old, the Wonderbolts expect officers to be strong enough flyers to keep up with the squad, as well as good and responsible leaders,” she detailed, her deadpan tone adding more emphasis on the words that were intended to jab her so-called “rival”.

“We want the best, but not at the expense of other flyers. Doubt that is a problem for any of you, right?” she asked rhetorically, darting her eyes between Lightning Dust and Gallus.

“Uh, I’ll keep that in mind!” replied Gallus with a nervous grin on his face.

On the other hand, Lightning Dust continued to glare deeper. “Yeah, well, we know there’s more to flying than wearing brightly coloured outfits and goggles, doing acrobatics and breaking records. That’s why we’re here, to find something cooler to do.” She almost felt proud in her ability to hold herself considering how thick the tension was between the pair of flying pegasi. It would take another familiar voice far back to cut them apart.

“Oi! Dusteh! Foun’ ya! Didja still wanna check out tha’ Wing Corps table?”

Lightning Dust’s heart stopped, and her face began to cringe as she overheard Pound Sterling shouting towards her. “Uh, yeah, in a minute!” she called back, hanging her head in embarrassment.

Embarrassment largely because Rainbow Dash snorted and tried to hide her laughter. “Dusty? That’s what they call you?” she asked, although she found out she wasn’t one to make fun of.

“HEY! RAINBOW CRASH!” bellowed a fiery Spitfire from behind the Wonderbolt banner. “CAN’T YOU SEE THERE’S A CROWD OF PONIES WAITING FOR YOU AT THE TABLE?”

Rainbow Dash started to go red, “Uh, sorry Cap’n I’ll get back!” she hastily responded, nervously waving to her captain before catching Lightning Dusk with a smirk back on her face.

“Guess it could be worse,” she remarked, before leaving Scythe and Gallus with the Rainbow Crash, a nickname she knew she found hilarious. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and shook off the awkward silence in the room, knowing she still had a job to get on with.

“Well, I’ve gotta get back to my post. It was great seeing you Gallus, and you…” she stretched out the end of her sentence, hoping to figure out why the amber coated pegasus and short reddish mane looked familiar to her. To her, the cadet looked eerily like Flash-

“Rosewood.” Scythe uttered out forcefully, offering his hoof to shake.

A confused Rainbow Dash shrugged it off and shook the hoof, “Sure, Rosewood.” She then turned to Gallus to give a wink and a salute. “See you around, Bluebird!” As she flew back to the table to return to signing autographs, Gallus waved with a fake smile. Out of all the things for her to find out, somehow his nickname was the one he dreaded the most.

It was as if a part of him knew, she would tell everypony in Ponyville he’s known as Bluebird.

After seeing everything, Gallus and Scythe left the gymnasium and walked down the path towards their dorms. For Gallus, there were a lot of different career options available to him. Some would mean working with all kinds of ponies, others working only with pegasi. Some required education beyond the usual classes and others did not.

For Scythe there was a sense of relief, no longer feeling the need to walk around, worried about who he might encounter next.

However, that didn’t stop Gallus from having things on his mind. “So… Rainbow Dash recognised you…” he pointed out as an example.

“Tomcat and I got to meet her after some of the Wonderbolt shows,” Scythe confessed. “We get VIP passes.”

“Uncle Blue Angel?” Gallus guessed, to which Scythe nodded. “That’s nice of him…” he then remarked, jaded with a hint of envy.

“I guess… so, do you think you know what you want to do in the guard?” Scythe questioned Gallus, hoping to steer the conversation away.

Gallus thought it over, flying and physical combat seemed to be what interested him after going through the arms & services exhibition, so he could see himself going into the infantry. The problem was the lack of guarantee of where he’d be based, he could end up halfway across the world if he had to.

But try as hard as he might, his mind always went back to the Wonderbolts. They were all about flying, and whilst they mostly did stunt shows they did get involved in combat, to varying degrees of success at least. Rainbow Dash would be there, and she’s cool, he’d be around other pegasi that are sure to get along with him. Plus, Cloudsdale isn’t far from Ponyville, if Rainbow Dash can fly between the two easily, he could too.

“Perhaps the Wonderbolts?” he answered in a snarky rhetorical manner. “I think I consider myself a strong flyer, I know Captain Westland thought a mountain regiment would suit me, but I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.” His mind did also refer to one other option, one that had been on his mind well before, and yet was strangely absent from the exhibition. “Was hoping to have a look at the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards, but I couldn’t find a booth or table for them. You’d figure the nearest regiment to the Academy would show up, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, hello Mumbles! Funny seeing you here, nice scarf by the way…” a snobbish sarcastic voice called out to Scythe, bringing a chill down his spine from dread and compelled him to lower his head. Coalstone arrived, much to Scythe’s and Gallus’ displeasure, and he had his two unicorn friends, Crossroads and Pruminant, beside him. “It’s a bit strange seeing you around here, you’re not trying to defect from your family’s plan already, are you?” he queried, his concern overly dramatic “What would Daddy think about that?”

“I’m not…” he called back to defend himself, before going back to cower. “Just helping my friend…”

“Oh, are you showing your pet around the gymnasium?” he followed as he turned to Gallus, the remark amused his friends. “Always good to get them out of their cages once in a while.”

Of all the things to come back to, Gallus hated coming back to this bigoted bully. With his eyes narrowed and brows drawn together, he stared daggers at the white unicorn’s haughty face with its sneering grin. He leant towards Scythe, “Come on, let’s just go” he whispered, pulling his arm to get both to leave and ignore them.

Although Scythe walked around the outside of them, Gallus decided to walk through the trio, bumping past Coalstone and pushing Crossroads out of the way with his shoulder. Crossroads didn’t appreciate being pushed aside, neither did Coalstone like being touched by the griffon. Yet as Gallus was walking away, Coalstone just turned around and smiled unfazed.

“You should make the most of the time you have with it here, there’s no way the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards will allow birds in their regiment.”

Gallus stopped, quickly followed by Scythe. Coalstone’s smile grew wider as he realised he had struck a nerve. “Oh yeah, don’t think I missed the last part of that conversation. Let me explain it so a birdbrain can understand it,” he mocked without worry as Gallus kept his back turned.

“The Royal Guards, as in the REAL Royal Guards, only take in three officers a year. So many ponies try out for palace guard regiments that they don’t need to advertise themselves here. However, the Royal Guards only accept the finest ponies of the Academy and being a confirmed cadet, you’re looking at one of them.” He had his hoof pressed firmly on his chest as he stuck his nose up in the air, showing how proud and smug he was. “Perhaps Princess Twilight Sparkle liked you enough to get here, but only the Royal Guards chooses who joins them, and they have a strict no pets policy.”

As he turned back around to walk away, he decided to leave one more nerve plucking joke. “But don’t fret, I’m sure some other regiment could do with a carrier pigeon.” The other two laughed at the crass joke as they went off down the other end of the field.

Even as the unicorns were no longer in hearing range, Gallus remained motionless, his body remained fixed in its stance, with only his tail slowly swishing from side to side. He glowered long and hard towards the main building, his focus was strong enough that when Scythe stood in front of him with concern, Gallus looked straight through him.

“Well, that would explain it, heh” Scythe attempted to get his attention, but he could see Gallus curling his front claws into fists, digging through the gravel and scooping up bits of dirt and rock. He quickly knew his gag backfired. “Sorry. You wanted to be in Canterlot, didn’t you?”

In his mind, Gallus had been going through this place for months, to work as an officer while living with his friends, and somepony had the nerve to tell him he couldn’t get in even if he tried? He saw it as a challenge. “I do… and I’m going to” he answered, hiding his anger, leaving Scythe more confused.

“Wonderbolts might be one of my choices, but I’m gonna put Canterlot as my top choice.”

Upon hearing that, Scythe stared wide-eyed and dumbfounded as Gallus began to walk past him. “You are?!” the pegasus exclaimed, before quickly shaking himself back into reality and catching up to his friend. “I-I mean that’s great but, Coalstone’s gonna be there, and you said- “

Suddenly, Gallus grabbed onto Scythe’s scarf and pulled him in, so his beak was pressed against Scythe’s nose. “Screw that pompous twat!” he asserted angrily. “He’s not in the Royal Guard yet, and when he does, he’ll have no choice but to put up with you and me.” He declared with a fully determined grin, leaving Scythe frozen with nerves as Gallus prodded his chest with the index talon of his claw. “Before I leave this place, I’m going to Canterlot Palace, and nopony is gonna tell me I’m not allowed in, got it?”

All Scythe could do was try his best to smile and be supportive. “Uh, y-yeah, nopony!” he shakily responded. Relief finally set in when Gallus let go of the pony’s scarf and took a few steps back to breathe, realizing he put his friend a little uneasy.

It was the early evening at the end of the first week, the exhibition had since packed up and cleared and all classes and training had been concluded, except for cadets spending their evenings doing runs around the fields. Those not out doing exercise would either be eating or working in their dorms, while the staff do the last bits of paperwork for the day.

Commandant Authordox was in his office, although not at his desk where he would be running most of his Academy. Instead, he was standing by the window, thinking. Within his hooves was a scroll that was partially unfurled, its paper was thick and light brown, of very high quality.

As the sun had set and dusk was fading into night, the only source of light that shone on the scroll were candle lights hanging from the office walls. Although Authordox could not read the scroll without unravelling it in full, he could read the first line of it, “I, Princess Twilight Sparkle”.

He remembered the scroll reaching his desk many months ago, its contents prompted him to visit the princess in question. His memory of the visit wasn’t pleasant, to say the least, a lot of back and forth and disagreements, and although he anticipated changes when a new Princess was made ruler of Equestria, there were changes he did not think would go down three years after her coronation.

“One lesson that I found to be the most important before I took over from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was not to plan and run everything myself but to delegate those who are trustworthy and qualified to best handle parts of Equestria. As such, I expect you to carry on running the Royal Guard Academy and ensure it provides the best training for all officer cadets. Any issues and I’ll have to reconsider my level of involvement in the E.U.P. Guard. Have I made myself clear?”

“Commandant Authordox, sir?”

Another voice caught his attention, standing at the door was a violet earth pony, he made note of the coloured bands on her green uniform. His expression transitioned from sullen to pleasant in a second. “Major Badge, forgive me” he answered as he furled up the scroll before putting it away in a desk drawer. “I presume you’re here to report on Larson company’s return to the new term?”

“Yes,” confirmed Major Badge, relieved as she approached the desk and gathered through her report of the week events. As Authordox sat down, Major Badge summarized the company’s progress. “We have all our cadets accounted for. With the Regiment Fair over, we’re going through the cadets’ choices of regiments.”

“Your company has the griffon, does it not?” he questioned out of curiosity.

“Um, you mean Gallus, sir?”

“Yes, that’s right. What did he put down as his choices for regiments?”

Major Badge raised an eyebrow, as it was an oddly specific request. She gathered through her papers and eventually found the list of cadets and their regiment choices, to which she located Gallus’ entry. “He appeared to put down the Wonderbolts and the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards… may I ask why him specifically?”

Authordox had the bottom half of his face covered by his hooves pressed together on the desk, however, Major Badge could notice his eyes narrowing and his eyebrows lowering. He realises that not only is Gallus persevering through the Academy, but he’d also set his aims high for when he graduated. If he graduated that is.

“Nothing more than curiosity, Major,” he assured her. “Just need to make some preparations, long-term preparations.”

Author's Note

Thanks to Javarod, for proofreading.

Hoof to Claw

A pegasus platoon made their way to the gymnasium, but not to play any sports. As they were second term cadets, they were about to begin their new physical exercises. No longer being forced to run and fly in circles every morning, there was a hint of motivation and intrigue amongst them, aided by the energy that had not yet been drained from them since they woke up.

Every time Gallus entered the gymnasium it looked slightly different from the last, having only been inside it once when it wasn’t set up for a bazaar or fair. The most noticeable difference this time was that most of the shiny wooden flooring was covered by dark blue gym mats. As the platoon walked around the perimeter, Gallus briefly pressed one of his hind paws on the mat and noted the considerable amount of cushion it had despite how hard and thin it felt.

On each mat was a large stuffed burlap sack, and what looked like a pair of gloves and leather helmets with straps on them. It didn’t take long for Gallus to guess that this new exercise looked like it would involve fighting with hooves, or in his case, claws.

Staff Sergeant Razorwing was not far behind them and made them sit just outside of the array of mats. He then walked onto the mats and positioned himself front and centre of the platoon, who were sat in two orderly lines. “Listen up cadets” he bellowed, ceasing all idle chatter amongst them before he continued his introduction of the day’s exercise. “Today is your first day of combat battle training.”

“Now a few of you may already have experience with this from serving as regular soldiers,” he remarked, scanning the crowd to mentally point out the experienced cadets from the younger ones, “but when you’re an officer it’s different. The soldiers in your command depend on you being able to fight alongside them, and even without a weapon you must be able to defend yourself.”

“So, who amongst you think you can fight in hoof-to-hoof combat like an officer?” he asked the group.

Idle chatter started again as some of the cadets started raising a hoof. Gallus had a smirk on his face, he had a couple of fights in his days, not that it was something he’d recall kindly, but he felt he could handle himself. Yet, as he attempted to raise his right arm, he suddenly felt something pulling it back down.

He turned to his right and noticed Scythe was sitting next to him. Gallus furrowed his brow as his friend had his forehoof wrapped over the griffon’s arm, with a surprising amount of force pushing down for a pegasus who looked calm. Although he kept his eyes pointing forward, Gallus noticed Scythe rotating his head barely a degree on either side.

While Gallus considered just raising his left arm instead, he looked beyond Scythe towards the other cadets. Of the few that had their hooves raised, most of them were young like him, and looked confident with their heads high and smiles on their faces. Most of the older cadets kept their hooves on the floor. Suspecting that Scythe knew being confident at this stage was a bad idea, he opted to relax his arm instead.

Razorwing scanned the crowd again, before giving a nod. “Alright, Officer Cadet Lightning Dust, get up here and show me.” He curled his right hoof up, gesturing the mare to step onto the mat. Lightning Dust was one of only three older cadets to have their hoof raised, her arrogance still prevalent as she gave a smug grin and stood up.

The staff sergeant then briefed the demonstration, “I’ll make it easy, I won’t punch or kick, while you get free rein. First to hit the mat loses.” For Lightning Dust grinned and nodded in affirmation, this sounded easier than she expected, she knew this fight wouldn’t last long.

After putting on helmets and gloves, the two stared each other down as the fight commenced. Lightning Dust lowered the top half of her body like a lion waiting to pounce, meanwhile, Razorwing stood tall and firm, waiting for his opponent to make the first move.

Lightning Dust spread her wings out, and quickly jumped up and darted straight towards Razorwing. The crowd whipped their heads from one side to follow her as she got closer and closer to the stonewalled sergeant. It was at the last possible moment that Razorwing made his move, narrowly dodging the incoming tackle, but also missing an opportunity to counter with an attack as the younger mare corkscrewed past him.

Missing the attack was a mere setback for Lightning Dust, as within a moment of landing on the mat, she projected herself backwards with a slight twist to reorient herself and she dashed back towards Razorwing. While she hoped a more direct strike would knock him down, Razorwing lowered himself in preparation. With a single extended hoof, Lightning Dust was grabbed and restrained. From speeding through the air with outstretched wings to having both her forearms and wings held behind her and unable to move.

The only way she avoided a full-speed crash headfirst onto the mat was Razorwing holding her up and slowing her down enough for her to land on her bare belly with a light thud. Once both ponies were on the ground, Razorwing stood up and placed one hoof on Lightning Dust’s back to claim victory. “Good effort, sit back down” he ordered, before allowing her to stand up and walk back to the group with her head low and her brows knitted.

“Better luck next time, Dusty!” jeered Nicknames, not helping the mare’s dampened mood at being defeated easily.

The taunting also gave Razorwing a new target to practice on, “Officer Cadet Nick, you had your hoof up earlier, now it’s your turn,” he called out, gesturing the stallion up. The regret on Nicknames’ face dropped in as his eyes went wide, slowly standing up and cautiously moving towards the mat.

“Same rules as last time, whenever you’re ready.”

Razorwing’s calm and brief words didn’t do much to quell Nicknames’ worries, but he figured that if the worst was rubbing his face on the mat beneath him, it might not end up that badly. The corner of his mouth started to curve into a smirk at the thought he may have a better chance than Lightning Dust.

Instead of going straight for flying, Nicknames strategized to stay grounded. He drew long breaths and made quick steps on the floor to amp himself up as he made a slow approach towards the sergeant. Once he was close enough, he went for the attack.

Nicknames lifted himself to his hind hooves and threw his forehooves in a violent barrage, so much so that Razorwing needed to put in more effort than moving to one side to avoid them. As Razorwing got on his hind hooves to deflect and get closer, Nicknames used his wings to retreat far enough that the two returned to standing.

After Nicknames showed a cocky grin, it was Razorwing’s turn to attack. He charged at the stallion, before rising and thrusting two hooves right at his chest. The push was enough for Nicknames to rely on his wings, flapping them incessantly to maintain his balance, and it was also enough time to distract. Razorwing manoeuvred himself in short leaps to get behind his opponent.

Having an enemy at your flank leaves you vulnerable, with not many options to attack from behind and little time to turn around to face them. As Nicknames was still on his hind hooves and had managed to regain his balance, he decided he was going to buck his sergeant similar to how a farmer bucks a tree.

He glanced behind so he could line his hind hooves with Razorwing’s head, before shifting his body weight forward to bend his legs in and kick them as far out as he could. Unfortunately for him, another glance revealed Razorwing was no longer where he was.

Instead, the sergeant had ducked, avoiding a hoof to the face and had an opening. Nicknames didn’t have much time to react as he felt hooves wrap around his torso and felt his whole body not only rising but leaning further and further forward until he was almost upside down.

SLAM!

Nicknames lay flat on the gym mat as the sound of his impact echoed across the gymnasium, the audience winced collectively and shuddered at the sheer force of the impact. All that he could do was lay wide-eyed with barely any air in his lungs to make a sound to describe the shock and pain he was feeling, all the while Razorwing stood over with a forehoof on top of his chest.

Razorwing turned to the stunned crowd of the other cadets. “Now, who amongst you think you can fight in hoof-to-hoof combat like an officer?” This time, not even Gallus tried to raise his arm, having understood why doing so was a bad idea. “Well, that’s why you’re in training,” the staff sergeant remarked as he scanned the silent cadets, some of whom still had their eyes fixed on their fellow cadet who appeared barely alive nearby.

“While I do some checks, pick a partner, find a space on the mat, and warm-up.”

One by one, the cadets got up and murmured to themselves, promptly picking partners in the hopes they would avoid facing off against the staff sergeant Razorwing. As Gallus went to find a space on the mat to stretch, warm up and put on gloves and helmets with Scythe and the others, he couldn’t help but notice Razorwing was still nearby Nicknames.

Having lifted the winded pegasus into a sitting position, Razorwing spent the next few minutes talking to him, holding a hoof to his shoulder. Although Gallus could not hear him, Razorwing acted a lot calmer and more concerned, asking questions and seeing Nicknames nod along.

It was unsurprising, and reassuring, to see Razorwing as a supportive teacher and not just a loud and rough instructor, but that wasn’t the weirdest part in Gallus’ mind as he raised an eyebrow. The weirdest part was Gallus could swear he saw, for perhaps a few seconds, Staff Sergeant Razorwing smile.

The first portion of the exercise was on offence. In each pair, one pony would hold the burlap sack, while the other would punch and kick it. At least as close to punches and kicks as some cadets could manage, considering their forelegs bent inwards, and quadrupedal anatomy meant they could only “kick” from behind.

Most ponies would go into a rhythm as they strike: Left hoof, right hoof, left hoof, right hoof, turn, left kick, right kick, and then buck with both hooves. Each move was met with short breaths, meant to help control stamina in combat.

Pound Sterling lived up to her name, her hooves made imprints on the sack as they contacted with a sound loud enough to drown the other punches, it was sheer determination that Lightning Dust could hold on to the bag.

Nicknames was involuntarily paired with Staff Sergeant, having regained his energy, and felt the added pressure of making his strikes right in front of the Staff Sergeant. The one benefit it did have was he didn’t have to endure any of Razorwing’s strikes when it came time to switch turns. Instead, he was made to lift the heavy sack over his head, whilst the older pony inspected the other cadets, giving his usual levels of encouragement.

“Come on ponies! You call these strikes?” shouted Razorwing in a deriding manner. “My mother can buck harder than you lot, bless her heart.”

Meanwhile, Gallus had paired up with Scythe. The pegasus wasn’t much of a hard hitter, his hoof strikes sounded like pillows pounded together when Gallus held up the burlap sack. To his credit though, his strikes were consistent, always hitting the sack square in the centre even when his back was turned.

Gallus, on the other claw, had a slightly better time hitting the sack. Although Gallus wasn’t given ‘special’ gloves for him, the issued gloves were surprisingly effective, even if they felt like short and padded leather socks with just enough space inside for the griffon’s clenched up talons. The padding on them helped immensely with cushioning his darting jabs and swinging hooks, and he could feel and hear each hard smack he made against the burlap sack.

To follow the routine with the other cadets, he had to try out his kicks. Of course, there was somepony else who was interested in his kicks as well. “Griffon. What kind of bucks are those?” asked Razorwing as he appeared beside Gallus, looking back towards the griffon’s flank.

As he frowned, Gallus knew his kicks weren’t his strongest attacks. Although his legs were springy for large leaps and bounds, with soft round paws that were good for climbing, they weren’t useful for attacking, unlike his claws. As much as he dreaded the incoming ridicule, he glowered at the ground knowing that any flick of his legs and pat from his paws hardly made a dent at the bag he was supposed to be hitting.

“Staff Sergeant, I know you’ll say this isn’t an excuse” he admitted with humility, “but I don’t have hooves to ‘buck’ with.”

Razorwing simply stood up and folded his forehooves. “Well, griffon. You’re right about something,” he retorted sarcastically. “Griffons like you probably aren’t used to kicking, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have legs to kick. When you’re in the field, the enemy won’t play fair and wait for you to turn around before they attack you, you must be able to attack from behind”.

He pushed Gallus to the side with his body and stepped with his flank lined up towards the burlap sack, still held on by Scythe, as he began to demonstrate. “So, bend your leg in” he started, tucking his right hoof as far in as it could go. In anticipation, Scythe hurriedly pulled the sack upwards and held firmly for what was incoming. “And then out!”

Like a ball fired out of a cannon, Razorwing threw out his hoof towards the burlap sack, striking it with a loud direct hit, jolting Scythe backwards upon impact. The hoof made a near-permanent impression on the sack, and the sound it made caused the pair next to them to jump in surprise.

The demonstration was over. “Now keep going!” firmly ordered Razorwing, before moving down the line of other cadets to look them over.

After staring at the imprint on the sack for a moment, Gallus pouted with a hint of jealousy. “Yes, sir,” he calmly responded in a lowered voice, refraining from making any snide remarks under his breath. He repositioned himself to try again at kicking, curling his legs up and throwing them out in one smooth motion. Once he made the hit, he groaned internally, but he wasn’t sure why. It was either that the kick he made wasn’t enough, or that what Razorwing advised him did work to some degree.

The second portion was on defence. There were demonstrations of the blocks and parries, lots of arm movements to avoid being punched in the face, as well as grappling. Done in pairs like before, each cadet took turns with one doing a punch and the other blocking, parrying, and grappling with the cadet to get them to the floor.

For the cadets, it was less action and more learning, specifically in reaction and anatomy, understanding the moves that Razorwing was adept at demonstrating on Lightning Dust and Nicknames earlier. From afar, it was a bizarre mix of a brawl and a dance as each pair moved around until one fell to the floor.

For Gallus specifically, it was fascinating and concerning how much pegasus ponies understood their weak points. For instance, one way he could take down a pegasus was by restraining their forearms from behind, pulling them up until they stood on their hind feet, and pulling their wings up and outward until they were immobilized.

It gave him the curious thought of what weakness ponies found for creatures like him if they’d teach it through this term.

The move was easy for him to pull off, at least in a slow step-by-step process. When Scythe tried the same move on Gallus, he struggled to hook both of his hooves around Gallus’ arms and wings at the same time. While Gallus couldn’t feel his wings restrained or freeze, he played along anyway to avoid the loss of balance.

After some time had passed, the cadets had a chance to catch their breath. Although it was only their first-day doing combat battle training, the repeated impacts were enough for their bodies to ache.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were done for the day. “Attention!” bellowed Razorwing. “Now that you know some basics, you’re gonna use our remaining time to try out what you learn. You’re each gonna spar with one another,” he explained, as he looked around the nearly exhausted cadets. As the group sighed and slowly got back up, he added a small twist.

“You’re gonna choose a new cadet to spar with, I don’t want to see you with the same one you trained with.”

It figured that Razorwing didn’t want the same two ponies hanging around each other, Gallus guessed it helped with cadets not getting used to training around one person. It just meant Gallus had to act quickly to find a new partner to spar with, and quickly.

He turned to Scythe to ask who he was going to partner with, but the answer came with a large white hoof around the pegasus’ neck in a headlock. “Ay up Mumbles!” greeted Pound Sterling, in her thick accent as usual. “Ah’ll spar wi’ ja!”

Seeing her in her jovial tone, as if her energy hadn’t depleted, didn’t settle too well with the timid pegasus as he had a nervous and shaky smile on his face. It did give Gallus an idea of who he could pick, Lightning Dust. He looked around to see her stretching by the wall, warming herself up as she twisted her head and rolled her arms, and confidently made his approach.

“Hey, Lightning Dust” he called out. “Wanna pair up?”

Lightning Dust turned her head in surprise, being taken out of her warmup process so suddenly. When it came to his offer, she was moments from accepting it as her head raised to nod. That was until her eyes shifted away towards a certain cyan pegasus and drew a long and sinister grin. “Sorry Bluebird, I’ll join you next time,” she said with sincerity. “Today though, I’ve got plans.”

She lowered her head and narrowed her eyes as she bashed her forehooves together, gloating remarks made towards her were on her mind, and she was out for revenge. “Hey, Nicknames! Let’s pair up!” she called out, switched to a friendlier demeanour as she waved him down.

Nicknames, in blissful ignorance, smirked. “Oh yeah!” accepting the new challenge. “I’m so gonna look forward to this!” Gallus nervously decided to back away, considering it best to keep his distance from the two.

With Pound Sterling, Lightning Dust, and even Nicknames being taken, Gallus had to look for someone else. The only problem was, he looked around the platoon, and everypony else had another pony standing by already paired with them. He rubbed his chin, thinking there had to be one cadet still looking for a partner, knowing how each dorm room in their block held two cadets. That meant the platoon had to have an even number.

That was when he remembered Wind Breaker, the cadet who was discharged four weeks into the first term. With him gone, that meant the platoon had an odd number. Upon realizing it, he felt a worrying presence, he turned around to find the Staff Sergeant standing behind him.

Anxiety filled Gallus as it dawned on him what this meant, although he didn’t need to say the words, Razorwing said it for him. “Well, looks you’re the odd one out, Griffon.” On the positive side, Gallus had a partner to spar with.

All the ponies returned to the mat; each pair evenly spaced out from each other as to avoid colliding with other pairs. As they adjusted their gloves and helmets, and loosened their arms and prepared themselves, Razorwing laid out the rules. “Okay cadets, always stay on the mat, keep ya gloves and helmets on, if one of you taps out, the other steps away!” he listed out loud. “Apart from that, see what you’ve learned in one day. Begin!”

As if by command, the duels commenced. For some it was the same old song and dance, almost literally considering the effort the cadets went to grab onto the other to bring them to the floor, except with a different partner. For others, it looked no more different to a friendly brawl, each cadet trying to get a hit on the other.

It all looked fun, except for Gallus. He remained motionless as he stood in front of his senior instructor, who in turn stared him down with a snarl, which was unsettling for the griffon. “Okay, this can’t be too bad,” he quietly reassured himself. He glanced to the side and saw how his friends were doing.

On the one side, Scythe and Pound Sterling were having a pretty good time. Even for being the bigger and hard-hitting of the two, she also made things fair. Scythe was given as much of an opportunity to strike and grab his opponent as she did, and it was nice seeing him getting along with another pony in the process as they traded blows.

On the other side, Lightning Dust was having more fun with Nicknames than the other way around. “Uncle! Uncle!” he yelled, as Lightning Dust had the large pegasus pinned on his front, his wings and back held down by the mare’s body weight. “Somepony help!” he continued to yell, while other cadets were preoccupied.

“Oh, you earned this!” Lightning Dust elated as she dug one of her hooves into his skull.

“Is this because I made fun of you losing?!”

“Well, I’m not losing now, am I?”

“Eyes forward, Griffon!” Gallus twisted his head back towards Razorwing in response to his sharp command and saw his jaded eyes as having enough patience. “I’m not gonna let you stall this any longer, make your move.”

Gallus knew he had no other choice, he knew from the start of the exercise that Razorwing could be a rough fighter, but now with a little bit of training he was either going to deal with someone like Sterling or someone like Dust.

His approach was cautious, a few steps in before pausing to see how the stern sergeant would react. When there was no movement, he took a few steps more, paused and checked, but the sergeant remained standing tall like a statue.

When he got close enough, Gallus threw his fist towards Razorwing’s face. Sure enough, Razorwing blocked the fist and gave Gallus a full hoof as he bumped it into the griffon’s forehead. The feeling wasn’t painful, just irritating, compelling him to try again. So Gallus threw a punch to Razorwing’s chest, Razorwing blocked it and then tried to bump Gallus on the head again. Gallus saw it coming and pushed it aside with his arm, but unfortunately, his head was met with Razorwing’s other hoof.

It annoyed him further as he grimaced and groaned, wasting no time to dive towards Razorwing and hit him again. However, his attempts were futile, his punches were either blocked or parried, and eventually, he would get another hoof to the head. Exhausted, Gallus felt himself stumble and fall back onto the mat.

“Any more excuses, Griffon?” Razorwing asked, the question getting on Gallus’ nerves. “Don’t let your pride stop you from tapping out, at the moment you’re like an open book”.

Gallus’ eyes widened as he realised what Razorwing was doing, Razorwing waited for Gallus to make the first move, to counter with a weaker move to irritate and wear down the opponent. He recalled something similar from an old book on griffon combat, one of Grandpa Gruff’s books. It was certain now that his instructor prepared for a fight like this at the academy.

He took a step back, and a long deep breath, he needed to figure out how to avoid Razorwing from continuing the same strategy. Fortunately, he remembered another line from that book.

Griffons won battles by bringing the enemy to them, not the other way around, so when they were close enough, they could attack at the last moment.

Therefore, instead of going to Razorwing, Gallus needed Razorwing to come to him. He started by going back to the usual punch, knowing the sergeant would anticipate it. Except for this time, when Razorwing blocked it, Gallus quickly moved back, causing the stallion to miss his head even when he moved forward. Gallus did the same move again, and again, getting his opponent to move further and further until he tried to lunge at Gallus with both forehooves stretched out.

That was when Gallus did something different, he wrapped his arms around Razorwing’s head, jumped to put his paws on the stallion’s stomach, and used his body weight to pull down. Then, when Gallus’ back touched the floor, he stretched his legs up and outwards, the projection caused the stallion to flip over and land flat on his back.

Now the two were on the mat, one feeling much more of an impact than the other. Gallus was surprised that his trick worked but quickly realized his victory was short-lived. As he looked behind, and even when everything looked upside down, it was clear to him that Razorwing did not look happy when he got up. He was mad.

Knowing that the fight was still going, and with not much time to act, he quickly got himself up. With the sound of hoof steps charging close behind him, Gallus decided now was the time to try something griffons wouldn’t usually do.

He pushed his hind paws off the ground, curled his legs up as tight as they could go, squared up, and fired his paws towards Razorwing’s head. He didn’t care if his “bucks” weren’t strong enough, he just needed Razorwing to run right into them.

Too bad he didn’t, worse was that Razorwing instinctively dived underneath Gallus, and grabbed the griffon from underneath.

Gallus’s eyes grew wide, he remembered this as being the exact scenario Nicknames was in. He remembered how Nicknames was raised and rotated upside down and lost all his air when he was pressed to the ground with such force.

With a need to avoid that same scenario, he reacted by forcing his body into the opposite direction. Gallus raised his head and leant back as far as he could go, pushing his talons against Razorwing’s shoulders. Miraculously, it was working. Unlike Nicknames, who went forwards until he was upside down, Gallus went backwards until he was high in the air and vertical.

Razorwing, trying his best to keep control of the move, held on as hard as he could and tried to lean forward, but it ultimately proved too much for him. He lost his grip on Gallus, who slipped and landed on his hind paws with Razorwing stood bipedally in front of him.

With instinct from the prior training kicked in, Gallus hooked his arms around both Razorwing’s arms and wings, successfully restraining him on his hind hooves,

“Haha!” Gallus exclaimed, realizing he could claim victory against his instructor with a wide grin on his face.

The victory was short-lived, as Razorwing had one last trick up his flank. He countered Gallus’ restraint by using the last of his forearm strength to jab his elbows into both sides of Gallus’ ribcage.

The sudden jolt caused all the air to expel from Gallus’ lungs, his grip on Razorwing weakened and his balance faltered as he fell backwards, falling flat onto the mat beneath him. With Razorwing returning to standing on four hooves, the match was over.

“Attention! Stop sparring!” he yelled, causing the whole gym to fall silent. They all turned to see Razorwing standing by a winded Gallus, with the unaware cadets left with the impression that the former was the victor, much to the concern of Gallus’ close friends. “That’s our lesson done for the day, cool off, and go get your lunch. Dismissed.”

The cadets paused and murmured amongst their pairs, wondering how the match between the griffon and instructor went before the cadets made their way out the gym one by one, although a few concerned cadets were hesitant to leave their friend behind.

Meanwhile, Razorwing moved up to the motionless griffon, looking down and sighing with relief as he observed Gallus’ chest slowly expand and contract. He then leant down to Gallus’ ear to give a message. “I’ll let you have your moment, but you’ve still got a lot to learn, griffon.”

Gallus could hear his lowered voice, his grumble, the hint of humility to his words. It gave Gallus energy to smile and move his arms to slowly get himself back up. “Thank you, sir,” he replied snidely. Razorwing just stood by and huffed as Gallus took off his gloves and helmet.

As he made his way to the exit, Scythe and Pound Sterling waited by the door, with uneasy looks on their faces as Gallus walked with a subtle limp.

“Hey, you’re not hurt too bad, are you?” Scythe asked in a whisper.

The griffon stopped and looked at them with a smile on his face. “Yeah, I’m good” he answered with a conceited grin, before leaning in close to whisper something else. “I think I may have plucked a nerve.”

Author's Note

Proofread by Javarod.

Hitting Targets

Hey Silverstream,

How are things going in Ponyville? I’m sure it’s busy what with the new term at school for you, Smolder, and Ocellus. Guessing the same would go for Yona at Rarity’s Boutique and Sandbar with lifeguarding. Hopefully, there will be some time to find out.

My offer to meet in Canterlot is still open by the way. Sorry if I sounded weird in my last letter, I didn’t get much time to think properly. Doing combat exercises and new training regimes are awesome until your body starts to ache, and I’ve been trying to put more effort into studying because I’ve decided to go for Canterlot Palace.

In short, I’m doing fine, I’ll keep on updating you and the others, even if I have to write in the middle of the night to do so. Don’t worry, it’s not just you guys who I’m getting along with, tomorrow I’m hanging out with one of my platoon buddies at the shooting range. Her name’s Pound Sterling, she does archery there and tells me she’s good at it.

I’ll let you know how true that is, till next time.

Gallus

The shooting range was at the edge of some woodlands and looked like two giant huts built out of logs, both several metres apart with two missing walls facing each other. One hut had structured targets both big and small, and the other had the ponies with their bows and arrows. In between was the fine cut green grass field, except with distinct straight evenly spaced parallel lines drawn, going from one hut to another, representing the firing lanes for each pony.

Gallus had arrived alongside Pound Sterling with a small group of pegasus and earth ponies. She had been doing archery with them for the archery club since she signed up back in the first term. They were clearly regulars, most of them walked their way up the dirt path with bows strapped to the sides of their bodies or hung off their wings. Each bow was of different colours and slightly different shapes, perhaps brought from their homes, some more expensive than others.

They also had quivers strapped to their forearm, and with each step, a sound of rattling could be heard from the arrows moving around the rim of the tube.

Although Pound Sterling walked nonchalantly ahead of the route she regularly made with her fellow archers, she didn’t have any bow or quiver with her until they got into the shooting hut to meet with the archery instructor.

She was an earth pony, a pale green mare with a long ginger mane, her cutie mark conveniently a drawn bow with an arrow. As she ushered in the archers, she grabbed a simple brown wooden bow and a worn leather quiver with arrows, along with a pair of metal cuffs from a long rack hanging on the wall and approached the griffon and pegasus.

“Welcome back Sterling, here’s your bow and arrows,” she jovially greeted before passing over the equipment. After the bow and arrow was no longer in her hoof, she noticed the blue griffon standing beside her. There was a curious pause as she figured out why he was there, Gallus appeared unfazed, having long been used to the ponies discovering his presence for the first time. She eventually shook her head and turned back to Sterling. “I see you brought a retriever with you today?”

“Aye ma’am,” Pound Sterling promptly answered with a nod.

“Very well,” the instructor replied, “he’s your responsibility so be sure he knows the safety procedures,”

As the instructor walked past to talk with another archer, Gallus raised an eyebrow, “Retriever?” he said as he turned to Pound Sterling for clarification.

“Aye, stay bahind me an’ afta ah shoot the arrows, an’ she says the range is clear, you retrieve ‘em fra the targets.” Upon explaining, Pound Sterling noticed Gallus’ questioning face shift to a frown, not expecting to be working for her. “Soz, usually it’s just m’self but can’t ‘ave ya sit ‘n watch.”

The pair made their way to a lane closest to the middle, and Pound Sterling began to strap the quiver to her left forearm. As Gallus looked back towards the entrance, he noticed a load of unicorns arrive. There were as many unicorns as there were pegasus and earth ponies already stationed in the range, and yet none of them had bows or quivers on there.

“Lot of unicorns here in the archery club.” Gallus casually remarked.

However, Pound Sterling gave a disgruntled sigh. “Nah, they’re from horn shootin' club,” she replied begrudgingly, “we ‘afta share the range wid ‘em sometimes.”

The unicorns then moved in to fill the ranges to the left of the pair, some using towels to wipe and polish their horns, ensuring they were nice and clean. As far as Gallus was concerned, the horn shooting club talked amongst themselves, not even batting an eye at the archers on the opposite side.

Perhaps having two clubs shared the range made things a little tight, the club had a cadet at each lane bar one the left of Gallus and Sterling. There was also an instructor on each end of the range, along with a few more staff ponies preparing the targets. Regardless, if the unicorns weren’t going to cause issues, Gallus was hopeful that he won’t be bothered by any of them.

“Oh, it’s you, retrieving arrows, are we?”

He turned to the sound of a posh and regal tone and noticed a pale violet unicorn mare looking at him with a jaded glance. He knew his hopes were dashed the moment he recognised the mare was one of the ponies that often walked alongside the snooty jerk that was Coalstone.

“Pruminant, right?”

The mare smirked, “Oh, so you can remember,” she sardonically replied, a cheek confirmation of her name. “Here I was hoping not to get bothered during practice,” she then uttered coldly under her breath.

Hearing it clearly, Gallus narrowed his eyes as he stared towards her whilst she began to wrap a cloth around her horn, polishing it whilst being careful not to ruin the tied-up bun holding her garnet mane in place.

Sterling didn’t approve of the remark herself, sending a darted glare her way as well. “Well, we woz ‘ere fust, so you’re just gonna afta not botha uz then.”

Upon hearing Sterling speak in her thick accent, Pruminant’s ear perked up, turned to the pegasus and tilted her head. There was something about the accent that felt oddly familiar, but she couldn’t place a hoof on it, leaving her curious as Pound Sterling was preoccupied with fitting the metal cuffs on the wrist of her forehooves.

“Range clear!” the instructor bellowed, gathering the attention of all cadets on the range, as well as ordering the few staff ponies to clear the range. The horn shooting instructor gave the same call, queuing Pruminant to prepare her horn to shoot. Whatever suspicions she had would have to wait.

“Fire on my mark! Begin!”

As soon as the instructor made her call, a barrage of periodical arrows and bright beams fired from one end of the range to the other, hitting the wood and straw structures covered by large tarp sheets, leaving holes within the circles drawn on them. The head of each unicorn visibly jolted back as a flash of light emerged from the tip of their horns as a coloured laser would blast out of their horn.

As colourful as it was to see, it was also loud, the sound of over a dozen tiny cannons blasting off on one side of the range. It was incredible to see how focused the other cadets were, unfazed by the whistles and puffs beside them.

To keep his mind off the noise, Gallus focused on Pound Sterling and took note of how she held and drew her bow. Considering the lack of talons to grip onto the handle and string, Gallus had wondered from the beginning how ponies handled such weapons, and he found the answer in those metal cuffs attached to Sterling’s wrists.

The cuff on her left had round spring clamps that hooked onto the handle, securing the bow perpendicular to her forearm, whilst the cuff on her right had two hooks that extended out beyond her hoof that fastened onto the strings. After pulling out an arrow from the quiver with her teeth and placing it between the string and the rest of the handle, she pulled the string back with her right hoof.

After taking a long and calm breath, she simply twisted her hoof and the hooks released, straightening the string in such a rapid motion that it propelled the arrow right out of the bow, zipping across the range until it reached the target, impaling the straw a third of the way in. Based on their best guess, the location of the arrow was well within the ten rings that encompassed the target and was right of the two most central rings, an eight-point shot.

The unicorns eventually stopped firing and retrieved their towels, their horns needing to cool down after firing caused the tips to glow with immense heat. It gave Pruminant time to think again about the way Pound Sterling talked to her. Although the pegasus had drawn another arrow ready to fire, and she had a nagging urge not to be rude, Pruminant had the urge to confront her.

“Okay miss pegasus, I must ask,” she conceded. “You wouldn’t happen to be from Trottingh’m, would you?”

It wasn’t a good time to ask Sterling questions, but she tried. “Aye…” she answered with a groan layered on top as she was in the middle of using her strength for holding the ever-tightening string as far out as it could.

Suddenly, Pruminant grew wide, and she started to smile. “Oh my Celestia, so am I!” she beamed with elation, as Sterling twisted her hoof to release the arrow and hit the target for another eight points, this time left of centre.

No longer under the strain of her bow, Sterling turned back to Pruminant with a raised eyebrow. As confused as she was, Pruminant continued with an air of relief. “Here I am, three years as the only Trottish pony at Canterlot University, and so far, four months thinking I was the only Trottish pony here at the Academy as well.”

Gallus furrowed his brow. It might have been his lack of understanding of the Trottingham area, but he couldn’t tell if Pruminant was telling the truth, at least not from her own accent. Sure, she had a funny way of saying Canterlot, as if there was an R after the first A, and she missed the A in Trottingham like Pound Sterling does, but Sterling also missed a lot of other letters when she spoke with her accent.

He glanced over to Sterling and caught her giving a half-smile before she returned to drawing another bow, perhaps Trottingham more dialects than he was aware of.

“You must think that’s silly unless you haven’t seen any other ponies from Trottingh’m yourself?” Pruminant continued after feeling sheepish over her concerns of being left out.

“Uh… no, ah haven’t,” Sterling answered with another grunt, before releasing another arrow. This time it was slightly above centre, slightly further away, earning seven points.

Pruminant sighed, “I do miss West Bridleford,” she remarked, beginning to reminisce. “Growing up I used to go to the market square to browse through all the shops or enjoy the theatre. Not to mention the grand park or the river, though, I’m sure you know the scenic spots as well as I do.”

Pound Sterling drew another arrow and nodded. “Ah know th’ Shetland Forest.” She released the arrow, and this time it drove right through the middle, a bullseye.

“Yes!” Pruminant elated with a gasp, “Shetland Forest! That’s my favourite place!”

Pound Sterling started to beam, “So’s mine, ah used to camp there often with mah folks.” Being given a feeling of determination, she grabbed her last arrow and pulled the string back as far as it would go, she gave a hardened smirk as she prepared to fire.

“My little brother and I used to go hiking there all the time when we were little, so perhaps we passed each other in the past?” Pruminant blissfully remarked as Sterling released the arrow. It was another bullseye.

“Range clear!” the instructor called out, leading to a brief silence. “Lower your bows, retrieve your arrows!”

“Must say, you’re a pretty good shot.” Pruminant complimented the archer, observing the arrows stuck within the target, all close to the middle.

Pound Sterling took it with pride. “Thanks, yur not bad yuself.” She returned, observing the burn mark on the target next to her, most burn marks also being close to the centre.

“Must be a Trottingh’m thing then, we always hit our targets.”

As the two giggled at Pruminant’s flattering quip, Gallus took his turn as a retriever to get Sterling’s arrows, flying over to the hut with the targets. It was a lot more frustrating of a task than Gallus realised, as he groaned when he looked back to see Sterling happily talking and laughing along with Pruminant.

He insisted to himself that part of the frustration was retrieving the arrow, Sterling’s last arrow had dug in more than half the way deep, so no matter how much he pulled and twisted, no matter if he used both his arms and legs to pull it out, it wouldn’t budge. However, there was something that bothered him about how nice Pruminant was being, knowing that one of her friends was a pompous bully to him and Scythe.

It made him suspicious, could it be that she’s being nice because Coalstone isn’t encouraging her to be mean to Sterling, or was she being friendly because they had something in common. Either was possible or would make his involvement a lot more awkward. On the other claw though, if Sterling and Pruminant are on good terms, perhaps Pruminant could then see things differently with him.

After finally pulling out all of Sterling’s arrows, he flew back over and placed them back in her quiver. He decided to hang back and listen in to their conversation, at this rate he’d be sure to have one more unicorn he could tolerate being around.

“Range clear! Fire on my mark! Begin!”

The unicorns began to fire again, as the pegasus and earth ponies began drawing their bows and firing. Unlike the other unicorns, Pruminant held off on firing, too engaged with her current conversation.

“Okay, so enough about me. Judging by your accent, I’m guessing you’re northern Trottingh’m?” she asked curiously, rubbing her chin.

Pound Sterling released her arrow, and it landed just below the centre circle with a nine-point shot. She subtly shrugs her shoulders at the slight miss of a third bullseye and nodded. “Aye, Northeast.”

Pruminant continued to rub her chin more in hard thought. “Northeast, hmm… Let me guess if I can narrow it down.” She readies her horn and began to fire between each of her guesses.

One-shot, “Pacerborough?” no response.

Another shot, “Shadowfax?” no response.

The third shot, “Oooh is it Breton Spa?” she asked with an eager giddiness. “I’ve heard the bathhouse there is divine!”

Pound Sterling decided to cut to the chase with an answer. “Nah, ah’m fra Tackyford.” She then started to draw her next bow.

Suddenly, Pruminant stopped firing, and her smile quickly faded. “Oh,” her voice lowered with disappointment. “That would explain the accent…”

Sterling hesitated slightly in response as she released her arrow, it landed much lower than before, giving six points. “Wot’s ‘a supposed ta mean?” she questioned Pruminant, her voice deepened slightly in frustration.

Pruminant started to get cautious, “Well… I recall Tackyford being a… how should I put this… rough area of Trottingh’m?” she explained nervously with a shaky grin. “It’s not an area my parents would let me go through, and even if I did, I was told there isn’t anything worth seeing.”

Starting to frown again, taking offence at the claim. “Tackyford ‘as gran’ stuff if you’re lookin’ ‘ard enuff” she responded in disagreement and drew another arrow. “Gran’ bars, gran’ markets, there’s a girt arcade n’ bowlin’ alley.” She released the arrow, smirked as it landed in the eight-point ring. “Wouldn’t say it’s too rough, a’ve there all my life an’ took care of miself, same wi’ mah folks, and mah gran’folks back when it woz a small minin’ village.”

“Ah yes,” Pruminant began to recall and nod, “my family owned the mines there.”

As another arrow was drawn, Pound Sterling sighed. “Sure, ah want it to be better, it ain’t fancy, but ah‘ve friends ‘n family, we work ‘ard, an’ ‘elp each otha. it’s ‘ome, wouldn’t live anywhere else.”

“Fair enough, it’s your choice to live in a place like that.”

Sterling’s hooves suddenly slipped, releasing the arrow unexpectedly, landing on the right edge of the target. It was hard to tell if it was two points or one, but to Pound Sterling, she was mad at something else. “Whatya mean ‘my choice’?” she snapped at Pruminant, darting a glare in her direction.

“I’m just saying, if you wanted to live somewhere or do something better, you could just move instead of putting up with living in a place you know is not safe or clean.” Pruminant tried to rationalise as she threw up her hooves in defence.

“Try thinking that when ya folks barely earn enuff for a roof o’er ya head, when a yooth has to work ta ‘elp pay tha bills.” Sterling snapped back.

“They could get a better job.”

“If thee can fin’ anotha job.”

“Well, they could learn a new profession, that’s what Trottingham University is good for.”

“Yeah, if they could pay for it, since they can’t get a scholarship as I did.”

“Well, I didn’t say it was easy, but ponies should work to make their lives better, cut out things they don’t need, save for a rainy day, hmm?”

“Well, how ‘bout you elites in West Bridleford pay us better so we could save for a rainy day, hmm?”

Gallus was starting to see the conversation going downhill faster than gravity could control, each time Pruminant gave an excuse in her calm and blissful manner, Pound Sterling was snapping back sharper and louder. He hoped he could step in to calm things down, but when one pony had a glowing horn ready to fire and another had a bow and arrow ready to fire,

Sterling continued. “Mah gran’folks did most of the work, yet most of the dosh stayed with th’ owners who barely did anything.”

Pruminant, having kept her cool for most of the argument, started to narrow her eyes at the new accusation thrown her way. “I’ll have you know, my great-grandparents not only paid to maintain the mines yours worked on, but also negotiate the best price of the minerals to help keep the mines running, your grandparents employed, and build up Trottingham into the fine city that it is.” She fired back, jabbing the air with her hoof as she made each point. “It’s because of them that there is a university and a scholarship that you’re so grateful for, I hardly think you should be judging them for making the right choices in life.”

“Well, woz it th’ right choice ta close th’ mines?” Sterling countered with her own facts. “Leave mah gran'folks outta work, leave Tackyford to fend for itself while ya enjoyed spendin’ ya fortunes on ya grand parks ‘n shops ‘n theatres, then say it’s our choice to live in a dump?”

“That’s not what I…!”

Gallus finally decided it was time to step in, he flew in between them. “Ponies, please!” he stated calmly as he held his arms outward. Acting as a barrier between them, keeping them far apart, it finally led to some silence whilst the other cadets were preoccupied with firing at their targets.

With both a defiant pegasus and a defensive griffon in her sights, Pruminant took a deep breath. “Look, we are here at the Royal Guard Academy, everything here is paid for by the E.U.P. Guard” she carried on, returning to her calm demeanour. “There is nothing stopping you from experiencing the high life, you could make friends with the wealthy and nobility, enjoy sports like polo or beagling, try out some fine dining, work towards getting into one of the noble regiments.”

“Nevertheless, I’ve never seen you before in the recreational rooms where the other upper-class ponies hang out, and your friends are…” she gave a jaded glance to Gallus, before setting her eyes back at Sterling “let’s say interesting.” Gallus levelled his eyebrows, even the nicest thing she can say about him felt insulting. “I’m also guessing you plan to leave the Academy as an officer in a simple infantry regiment?”

“Ta dragoons…” Sterling answered through her teeth.

Pruminant returned a smug grin and raised her nose. “Ah, the Trottingh’m Dragoons, I rest my case.”

Although calmed herself, Sterling wasn’t feeling any better than before Gallus intervened. “Well, there’s nothin’ stopping ya from experiencin’ a life different from yours” she rebuked, countering Pruminant’s point onto her. “Maybe try doin’ archery or cross countreh, eat common food. Guess ah’m the on’y workin-class pegasus you’ve spoken ta, and you’re grit at gettin’ on mah nerves. Shootin’ from ya horn is only good if ya wanna be in tha Royal Lasers or sumthin’.”

Pruminant continued to be smug, “Oh please, I’m here training for something much better,” she remarked in a snobbish tone, her hoof pressed against her chest and her nose stuck up in the air, Gallus feeling an unpleasant air of familiarity emanating from her.

“My top choice is the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards, to be an officer of the best unicorn projectile combatants in the whole military, they call themselves the Blasters. My advantages already give me a good chance of getting in, at least better than your bird friend over there.”

She then set her sights on Gallus, staring at him condescendingly with a smirk. “Tell me, what good would a griffon provide to Equestria’s military, let alone the royal palace, over a pony born and bred here? Do you even sing the national anthem every morning like the other cadets?”

While he might have given her a slight chance earlier, Gallus had reached his own limit with her. Deep down, he knew he didn’t, but doesn’t see what that has to do with him being at Canterlot Palace, and what gives her the right with her attitude to ask what good a griffon could do when she couldn’t show some respect?

He was ready to give her a piece of his mind, “‘e don’t ‘ave ta answer to ya” sharply said Sterling, cutting Gallus off before drawing a new arrow to point straight at the target. “’e’s doin wha’ ‘e wants and e’s proud of it, so am ah. ‘e can do much more for Equestria an’ tha Griffons by wurkin’ for an ally than somepony joinin’ for themselves.”

As Sterling gave her the cold shoulder, Pruminant gave one last look at Gallus, seeing him fold his arms and stare daggers at her, before raising her nose at the two of them. “Hmph. Well, I’m sure you tell yourself that to feel better,” she snidely remarked, before turning back to the firing range. Besides, she had a few more shots left to do.

She readied her horn, letting it glow a bright purple as it charged up. She set her sights on the target, and blast, a laser shoots out. Just one second later however, a bright purple explosion emits right in front of her, particles scattering in all directions like a firework triggering within metres from her.

“Halt! Misfire on the range!” the instructor yelled, causing all the cadets to stop, archers lowered their bows and unicorns held their fire as they watched the purple explosion glow and slowly dissipate.

When the particles all but disappeared, Pruminant could see on the ground was the remains of an arrow scattered on the grass. That one single arrow had managed to catch Pruminant’s blast and caused it to scatter in a thousand directions, being obliterated in the process, in a shot that an expert could calculate the odds of occurring as one in thousands.

It didn’t take long to guess who it was, Pruminant and every other pony looked in surprise as Pound Sterling still had her bow held up, pointed deliberately to the left side of the range, in the direction of the explosion. After the pegasus lowered her bow, she turned to Pruminant with one final smirk.

“Ya reet about one thin’” she commented before her smirk faded and she glowered, “Trottin’h’m ponies always hit their target.”

She then threw her bow, arrows, and cuffs to the ground and stormed out of the lane and away from the shooting range. As the room fell to an uncomfortable silence, Gallus instinctively left to follow her.

Fortunately for Gallus, Pound Sterling wasn’t far away, and despite being in mid-flight was not too far from the ground. That didn’t change that Gallus had to pick up the pace to catch up with her, and even then, he needed to overtake her in order to stop her from moving any further.

Her emotion was hard to decipher, as she kept her head pointing down to the ground, with her mane casting a shadow over her eyes. It wasn’t hard for Gallus to guess it wasn’t good, so he was compelled to remain cautious.

“Hey… Sterling… you alright? That was… a lot…” he said slowly, getting no response as Sterling kept her head low. He needed to be more supportive. “You know, you don’t have to speak for me, but you shouldn’t let Pruminant get to you.”

“Du know wha’ it’s like, Bluebird?” Sterling asked in a gravelled voice, gritting her teeth as she held back her anger as a single tear streamed down her muzzle. “Bein’ told ya life waz onny yur fault by ‘em who woz better off than ya?”

That was unfortunately a no brainer for Gallus, think of how many griffons wonder where his parents are, or why he stayed with Grandpa Gruff for so long like he didn’t have any other options aside. It’s not like Griffonstone had an orphanage, or any other griffon to take care of him, it was either putting up with the old-timer or putting up with the streets and whatever scraps it had. He shook his head violently, trying to put the memories away for the moment.

“Yeah, I do…” he eventually answered.

“Is it true ya want ta be in th’ Palace Guards?”

This question felt harder for Gallus to answer. He had his reasons, but he had to consider that being an officer for the Canterlot Palace Guards meant inevitably working with Coalstone, and ponies like him. He nodded slowly. “It’s true.” He didn’t want Sterling to think he’ll end up like them, but he didn’t want to lie either.

There was a pause before Sterling made a response. “Well, when you get in, don’t forget where you came from,” she advised him.

Gallus couldn’t help but smirk, “I don’t think I can, just look at me” he joked, gesturing to his entire griffon body.

Pound Sterling chuckled for the first time all day, “Ah’m feelin’ better now” she said as she raised her head, smiling confidently. “Wanna try firin’ a bow ‘n arrow?”

“Sure,” Gallus answered, returning a smile.

To avoid another confrontation, the instructor has all the archers move down lanes upon Gallus and Pound Sterling’s return, ensuring they are far apart from the unicorns. Although still allowed to continue using a bow and arrows for the day, Sterling kept her word and gave Gallus a try at firing instead.

Thanks to his talons, he didn’t need any cuffs to help him handle and draw the arrow back, but Sterling was there to keep him steady. Gallus focused his eyes on the target in front of him, his arm holding the string as tight as he could. After one deep breath, he let go, allowing the arrow to fly off and away. After it travels across the entire range, the arrow stops after piercing the target.

Bullseye.

Night at the Ball

Gallus stood there with a wineglass in talon, taking a sip now and then. It’d taken Scythe’s ability to translate languages on the fly for him to know that it was from the Royal Napony Vineyard or Vigneti Regali Naponi in Bitalian. A white wine, too sweet for his taste, but ponies seemed to like everything sweet.

He watched as Coalstone, his friends and a few nobles surrounded the night’s most esteemed guest, Prince Blueblood, as they all chatted away. For Gallus, his aim at the grand occasion was to have a word with the prince, otherwise dressing up in his dress reds wasn’t worth it.

Well, not his, not any more than his training armour was his, rather it was whatever dark red four buttoned jacket that fit. Not that it fitted any better than his armour, tight where it was supposed to be loose, and loose where it should be tight. If he’d been able to send that photo from the shoot earlier, shortly after the surprise announcement that they’d be attending this… Ball, Professor Pinkie would be insulted if he called this a party. If he had sent the picture, Professor Rarity would have arrived to save him from a fashion emergency.

The day started with a surprise assembly in the mess hall, where Commandant Authordox announced that the academy would be hosting a ball that evening. He said it was time for them to learn how to present themselves in a formal setting before passing the podium to who else, but Coalstone.

Coalstone’s speech was everything Gallus had expected, long-winded, full of praise for himself, unicorns despite his opening line. “Fellow cadets, I am both honoured and humbled to be leading this ball.

“As the Commandant has said, this is a test of our decorum, and as such, I wish for this ball to meet not merely a high standard, but the highest that we as future officers should display. We should show our upcoming guests that they can trust us to leave the protection of Equestria in our hooves both militarily and diplomatically.”

Then, he made a wide gesture with his hoof behind and upward, pointing towards a large painting. It featured an older white unicorn sitting in a red chair, giving a stern glance as if looking down on the cadets. The unicorn wore a black tunic with an array of medals in one long row on his left chest, with frilled epaulettes and a cocked hat that arched from back to front. “For instance, Major General Winstone, a pony who I greatly admire” stated Coalstone as he described the figure in the painting. “A strong military leader, a renowned commandant of this Academy, a revered Mayor of Canterlot…”

“…and great grandfather of Equestria’s biggest brown noser.” Already aware of Major General Winstone from Scythe, and Coalstone’s relation to the unicorn, Gallus couldn’t help but wisecrack under his breath and roll his eyes at the fawning on display.

Suddenly, a large snort sound erupted right next to Gallus, echoing across the hall. Coalstone paused and scanned the entire Larson company side of the room, only to see a long row of wide eyes and nervous faces, no pony willing to open their mouths to utter even the slightest noise. Those ponies made a fortunate shield for Scythe who was desperately holding his muzzle shut, hiding his tearfully restrained laughter in vain to avoid being seen or heard.

Upon finding nothing, Coalstone composed himself and continued. “He once said: ‘What makes the E.U.P. Guard the best military of the world isn’t just through physical strength, but also intelligence, decency, and respect from and towards our fellow pony.’” I say we should take those words and keep them in our minds for when we talk to our esteemed guests tonight. I don’t intend to be arrogant to say that I am personally familiar with our special guest of nobility, and I know he looks forward to what we will show.”

From there it had been a shortened day of classes, followed by a trip to supplies for their dress uniforms. Well, everyone but Coalstone who of course already had a tailored set. Returning to their dorms, they set to making themselves presentable. Satisfied with how he looked, Gallus was in the hallway when a prideful Pound Sterling had called out, “’ang on! D’ya think tha’d get away withou’ a photo dressed li’ a?” leaning out of the doorway with the camera in her outstretched hoof.

Begrudgingly, he sucked in his stomach and pushed his chest out to pose for the camera. Although he wasn’t a fan of having to pose for photos after being punished for not paying attention to one of Professor Rarity’s lessons, it was hard to say no to Pound Sterling’s eagerness to share her own experiences with her folks.

“Noice!” exclaimed Sterling after the camera flashed twice, and two photos printed out, one of which Gallus would receive.

He imagined the photo being like a professional photo of a general or colonel in the griffon army, what with the straight posture and steely stare, his features standing out in front of the mostly beige background. It made him look dignified and strong. He’d hardly had time to notice any physical changes, nor did any of his friends point it out, but the strenuous workout routine looked like it changed him, if only he had an earlier photo of himself to compare to.

“Hey! Looking good, Bluebird!” a sly voice crept in from over Gallus’ shoulder, taking the griffon by surprise. He saw Nicknames’ smirk as a tall pegasus looked at the photo. “Bet your ladybird is gonna love that.”

Nicknames’ cheeky remark caused Gallus to draw a blank, “My Ladybird?” he tilted his head wondering if this was a new nickname or Nicknames suddenly went onto the topic of insects.

“You know who…” Nicknames continued to tease, giving a wink and an elbow nudge into the griffon’s chest. “The pink one…?”

Gallus’ mind rushed back to the start of term when Nicknames and Staff Sergeant Razorwing embarrassed the griffon in front of the whole platoon by bringing up… her. Feeling his face go warm, he quickly shook away any attempt for his face to turn red. “Silverstream’s just one of my friends, alright,” he asserted.

But Nicknames was unconvinced, his smirk remained fixed on his smug face. “Sure she is, lovebird,” he remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he made his way down the corridor to head towards the dining hall. “Bet you’re TOTALLY not thinking of sending a photo to her that makes you look like a stud.”

One by one, cadets made their way out of the dorms towards the cafeteria hall for muster before the ball. As Pound Sterling and Scythe left together, Gallus followed behind. However, as he made his way to the stairs, he stopped, there was a thought nagging him that prevented him from leaving just yet.

With a disgruntled groan, he quickly flew back into his dorm room. Upon finding an empty envelope, he got the photo of him in formal attire and stuffed it inside. He then wrote Silverstream’s name on the face of the envelope as a reminder for when he eventually returns, he has a letter to write and send.

Thankfully that was done, they were here, and now he just had to introduce himself to the guest of honour, if only he could get past Coalstone and his entourage. He could hear him preening before the audience, “I think having our unicorns in charge of operations does wonders, given our magical prowess and strategic thinking. Hopefully, you can trust us being in charge.”

“Well, I seem to recall my aunt Celestia telling me how she combined the three pony armies so the strength of earth ponies, the speed and flight of pegasus, and the magic and intelligence of unicorns, but with a new ruler I’m willing to see some changes.”

When Coalstone noticed Gallus waiting patiently behind, the unicorn made it clear to Gallus that he wasn’t an easy hurdle to pass. As Prince Blueblood was speaking, Coalstone’s horn began to glow. Gallus suddenly bumped into an invisible barrier. A barrier that pushed him back, and followed him no matter how he approached. Fine, if he was going to be that way, there were sure to be others to meet.

Luck handed him an opportunity, an older pegasus standing by himself. Gallus made a quick dash towards him, he’s had better luck getting along with the pegasus ponies here, surely a senior pegasus would converse with him. “Hey there, I’m Gallus,” he said with some enthusiasm as he thrust his arm towards the pony with a wide grin on his face.

The pegasus instinctively glanced over, his eyes then lit up with recognition and he grinned. “Hello there, General Windrush” he introduced himself, thrusting one of his forehooves into Gallus’ open claw to shake, the griffon finally got the jackpot. “Good to finally meet you pony to griffon, eh?”

“You’ve heard of me?” Gallus brows were raised with intrigue.

“Who hasn’t?” Windrush chuckled. “You were a hot topic amongst the Academy Board, the Commandant had a lot to say about you.”

“Good things, I hope?”

Windrush’s eyes began to wander. “Well, it was entertaining” he answered warily, Gallus’s brows drew together, causing the general to get defensive. “I mean I was in favour from the start when I found out you had passed the entrance exam and was set to enrol, but the look on the faces of the others when you did was priceless, and that’s even before the princess got involved.”

“I can imagine…” Gallus remarked in a lowered grumble before something odd caught up in his mind. “Wait… Princess Twilight Sparkle? What did she do?”

Windrush’s eyes shot open, he almost spat his drink out in surprise and panicked. “Uh… I need to have a word with somepony, think you can put this away for me…?” he responded hurriedly, passing his glass onto Gallus before he flew out of the hall.

Once more, Gallus furrowed his brow. It got off to a good start, but the moment he asked about Princess Twilight, General Windrush bolted out the room and Gallus ended up with two crystal glasses in his hooves. He groaned and then made his way to the edge of the hall to a vacant table, to place down the glasses before any pony wondered why he had two in his claws.

When he finally had his claws free, he found Scythe loitering by the wall, wistfully looking at the lively crowd going at the side. It made Gallus consider that he wouldn’t have been the only one having bad luck, some ponies needed a kick in the right direction.

He made his way towards the lonesome pegasus. “Oh, hey Gallus,” said a downcast Scythe upon catching the griffon approaching him. “How’s it going so far?”

“I’ve got better luck collecting glasses,” Gallus answered with a shrug. “You?”

“I haven’t talked to anypony…”

Gallus’ brows levelled at Scythe’s nervous answer, he figured the pegasus desperately needed the motivation to socialise. The griffon might have had a hard time, but at least he was trying, Scythe was on the verge of remaining a wallflower if he wasn’t going to move.

“Well, trying to find anyone in particular? Guess you know some…”

Scythe nodded, “I recognise a few” he admitted, his head began to scan the crowd, he’d nod in the direction of specific colonels and lieutenant colonels “those who work with my mum, dad, grandpa…”

“So then, any from the Canterlot Palace?” queried Gallus, causing Scythe to stop his scan of the room. “If I want to get there, I should know who I’ll be working for, right?”

The pegasus’ head arose as if in a mild realisation at the sense Gallus was making, before returning to the crowd. His eyes narrowed to focus in, seeing if there were any familiar ponies that he’d be certain to work in Canterlot for Gallus to talk to. “That one,” he said confidently, stretching his hoof out to point towards a unicorn conversing with two cadets. He had a brown coat and wore a red ceremonial tunic with a navy-blue sash holding his medals. Scythe felt certain the unicorn worked in Canterlot Palace.

“He was shaking hooves with Tomcat during his graduation ceremony, saying he looked forward to working with him.”

Gallus nodded, “Okay then, let’s go talk to him.” He grabbed onto Scythe’s outstretched hoof and started to pull him along towards the Canterlot Palace unicorn. He felt confident that if he had Scythe at his side, the three of them could hit it off better than just the two. Yet, when Scythe notices he’s being pulled, he begins to panic. “Uh… you go on ahead…” he agitates, pulling himself off.

“Come on, you can’t stay standing by the wall all night,” said Gallus with a slight chuckle, “it’s a party, not an interview.”

“I know, it’s just… what do I even talk about?” Scythe talked back, his head started to descend as he started to rub his forehooves together, “the captain knows my brother, which means he’ll know me…”

“Dude, just be yourself” Gallus reassured Scythe, pointing out all the ponies with wines in their hand, with a few downing glasses of free alcohol. “Everypony else is just drinking and laughing. Trust me, the captain would want to catch up with you, and if things get uncomfortable, I’ll help.”

The slight encouragement did calm the pegasus down, as he took a long deep breath and started to move forward.

“Well, it’d be nice to not be on my own at one of these… at least, with a friend instead of…”

“Mumbles there you are!” A familiar snooty and a yet terrifying voice called out, Coalstone looked down on the two with his arms folded and an annoyed look on his face. “We can’t have confirmed Palace cadets like you just standing talking to nopony, it looks bad on all of us.” Before either of the two could correct Coalstone, his horn started to glow again.

Gallus was pushed to the side into a table, and Scythe was pulled towards the unicorn who wrapped an arm around his neck into a headlock. Scythe in a wide-eyed panic was unable to move as Coalstone started to walk into the crowd. “Let’s go have a chat with our new bosses” he stated before turning back to look towards Gallus with a smirk and a flick of his forehoof, “Birdie be useful and hand out some drinks.”

“Hey, I’m not your servant!” Gallus snapped back, but Coalstone scoffed at the griffon and walked off with Scythe, who tried in vain to fight back. After a quick recovery, Gallus tried to follow, but suddenly the crowd started to shift as if a wave was pushing Gallus against the direction he wanted to go. He could feel elbows dig into him, chests and flanks pushing him from side to side.

It was a tight space, Gallus hated tight spaces, could feel his body tense up and his chest tightened as panic started to set in. There wasn’t even enough space to spread his wings out to fly upwards, he had no choice but to give up his search for Scythe and Coalstone, he needed to escape from these ponies closing in on him.

He found an exit to the outside, an escape and a source of fresh air, and so Gallus squeezed himself through a pair of large obstructive earth ponies to dart through it. Upon closing the door behind him, all the sounds of chatter seemed to cease, being reduced to the sound of muffling against the hardwood door.

Outside, only the light of the stars in the sky and the windows of the buildings lit up the scene, the only sounds were the seldom chirps of crickets, the only feeling against Gallus’ feathered and furred body was the cool outdoor breeze of the late-winter night. The heaving Gallus was fortunately all alone, allowed to regain air in his lungs for his chest to expand and his nerves to calm.

After one long deep sigh, his tightness was gone. “Sorry Scythe. Hope you’re hanging in there…” he grunted and punched the door in frustration, as he recalled to moments earlier Coalstone pushing him away, blocking him out, dragging away his friend. He could question why Coalstone was appointed to lead but given his “big deal” family connections there was no point.

Even if that unicorn wasn’t calling the shots, what chance did Gallus have? Most of those ponies didn’t take him seriously, either to be ignored, a servant, or a subject of debate. He questioned if there was any point to him being there, but it just so happened he wasn’t the only creature outside. In the corner of his vision stood a tall pony figure far enough from the lights to be completely in shadows.

It wasn’t uncommon for the odd cadet or staff member to spend the night out for a canter, an evening exercise before winding down for the night, but this pony stood completely stationary. Becoming curious, Gallus moved closer to inspect the silhouetted figure, slowly and carefully to not interrupt it.

He drew nearer, certain features were more obvious. The silhouette was of a tall pony, one with a long mane, and a horn. The horn glowed with a gold-like aura, as well as something small that the horn was levitating. The unicorn figure then lowered its head towards the small object and a short burst of sparks emerged, briefly showing a glimpse of a white horn and the muzzle of the unicorn, and whatever this object was it began to emit a small orange glow.

Finally, the unicorn brought the now glowing object towards its muzzle, and the sound of exhaling could be heard followed by a long-drawn-out breath. Smoke billowed out of the figure’s muzzle, which gave Gallus the brief impression that this unicorn was secretly a dragon. The smoke would have blown outwards and away, had not a sudden gust of wind decided to blow the smoke into Gallus’ face before it could completely evaporate.

The thick smoke smelt repugnant, like burnt fur combined with rotting meat and ashes, the whiff felt like Gallus lost a month out of his lifespan. When the smoke particles got into the griffon’s throat, it left a sharp razor-like feeling in his throat. Feeling queasy, he started to cough and gag as his body desperately tried to get the feeling back out the way it came in.

The sudden sounds of choking caught the unexpected attention of the unicorn. “Captain!” the unicorn exclaimed, suddenly sitting upright and towards Gallus, waving away any remaining smoke with one of its forehooves in a panic. “I only went out for some fresh air, I swear!”

As the smoke completely dissipated and the air was silent once again, the unicorn’s horn started to glow once more. This time, a light shone out from the horn, producing a small spotlight on the ground. The spotlight slowly moved up Gallus’ body as he managed to recover from the smoke, and as he looked back, recognition dawned on him as to who the unicorn was.

It was Prince Blueblood, golden mane and all. His anxious face seemed to ease the tension a bit, at the sight of some relief. “Oh, you’re Gallus, the griffon officer cadet, right?” he called out, as recognition dawned on him as well. “Sneaking out of the party, I see.” He followed with a smirk.

Gallus felt his heart stop, he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d just discovered that Prince Blueblood knew about him and what that entailed, or if it just occurred to him that he was just busted for sneaking out of the building after dark without any authority.

“Uh… I should go” the griffon stated, before immediately turning around and making his way towards the door.

“Ah-buh-buh-buh-buh!” Prince Blueblood halted Gallus, with his hoof raised and his magic aura tugging on the griffon’s tail. “Tis perhaps unwise to sneak back in, especially to face unneeded discipline from your superiors.”

Gallus stopped any effort to reach the door, even with how eloquent and pretentious Blueblood explained, he did have a point. Even if Gallus could try to explain his need to escape because of his claustrophobia, he was sure somepony like Razorwing or Authordox would discipline him anyway on something arbitrary like “not warning them ahead of time” or something of that ilk.

“Besides, the reason you cadets are putting on this occasion is to test your skills on formality and communication, surely you wouldn’t pass up a chance to test your skills with me?”

There was a brief pause, Gallus internally weighed up his options. If this could be the only chance he’d talk to Prince Blueblood for the whole night, there’s not much he’d have to lose. He turned back around to walk up and sit by the prince. Any chance to turn back was quickly halted when Prince Blueblood wrapped an arm around Gallus and pulled him in.

“Just before we go any further, you’re not to speak about this,” he told Gallus in a low voice while floating the source of the smoke up against his face. It was a cigarette, burnt slightly and crimped at one end. The young griffon had seen older griffons using them outside their homes, often giving off a sickly smell and thick smoke to avoid. Prince Blueblood dropped the cigarette in front of Gallus and then let go of the griffon to crush the cigarette with his hoof. “Aunt Celestia would banish me to the moon if she found out.”

He gulped; Gallus could suddenly feel some empathy with Prince Blueblood as he continued to stare at the crushed remains of the cigarette on the ground. He never smoked, for a good reason. “Yeah, if Grandpa Gruff found out I was smoking, I’d happily spend the rest of my days on the moon.”. The elder griffon hated the stuff, the smell, the smoke, the ashes even. He wouldn’t want cigarettes anywhere near his work or his research, stuff too priceless and valuable to be damaged.

Prince Blueblood quietly laughed and patted the griffon on the back. “Good lad. In fairness, there is a bit of truth to my prior excuse. Out of all the venues I’ve gone to, the Academy’s main hall gets rather stuffy. How are you finding the Academy, by the way?”

The first question of the night, Gallus figured that if this was a test, perhaps he should respond with something thought-provoking

“Honestly, it’s given me a new perspective on pony life.”

Prince Blueblood was intrigued by the answer, “In a good way or bad way?” Prince Blueblood followed with intrigue.

“Bit of both,” Gallus shrugged. “Most of the time I was in Ponyville, the only soldiers I ever saw in Equestria were the ones in Canterlot, but here I see it’s a lot bigger and varied. The training isn’t easy, but I guess that means they expect the best to come out of it.”

“Ponyville?” the prince raised an eyebrow before his memory caught up with him. “Ah yes, you’re one of the graduates from the princess’ school, aren’t you? The princess’ pet project,” emphasizing the word pet, causing Gallus’ hackles to rise. Waving a hoof for him to calm, “Worry not my boy, I think young Twilight has something far more important in mind for you, someone has to be the first after all.” He smiled at Gallus, “I’m sure your friends are proud to see you’re here.”

Gallus started to smile as he thought of them, “Yeah, my friends in Ponyville are happy for me.” he knew hadn’t heard from them in a while, but he was sure they thought of him regularly.

Though Blueblood started to chuckle. “I meant in the griffon territories” he clarified, which caused Gallus’ smile to quickly fade into a frown. “You know, I’ve been trying for some time to arrange a meeting or function with the Griffon Lords” Blueblood continued, aware of the thought of griffons bothering his griffon subject, and then sighed with a shrug and a shake of his head. “But either they have no interest, or they refuse to answer back. Perhaps centuries-old animosity still prevails, would you say so?”

The Griffon Lords is the modern government of the griffon territories, originally formed by the former advisors to King Guto before his passing and the end of the monarchy. Gallus never met any Lord, they moved operations from Griffonstone to Feathermore decades ago. He knew Grandpa Gruff had, more times than he’d like apparently, a bunch of rich landowners who like to argue over laws and be stubborn over any question of spending tax money on anything.

Why any sound-minded pony, let alone a unicorn monarch, would want to talk to them was anygriffon’s guess. Suspecting that the monarchy had something to do with him being at the Academy, it could be some political strategy. Historically though, Gallus also had a suspicion that the griffon lords wouldn’t appreciate the monarchy trying to get involved with their politics.

“Tell me, what plans do you have after leaving?” Blueblood then asked out of the blue, causing Gallus to snap himself out of thought. “I don’t think the Guard has an arrangement with the Griffon Army. Any… what do you call them… regiments… you intend to work for?”

“Canterlot Palace Royal Guards” Gallus answered confidently.

“Hmm, just as I expected….”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Griffons are prideful creatures by nature who set their aspirations higher than any other, and as such when they succeed, they exceed to greatness.” Blueblood recited in his mind; his eyes closed as if reading from memory. “At least from what I read in Bygone Griffons of Greatness.”

The griffon began to glare, he saw the stereotyping from a mile away this time. “Canterlot Palace is close by to my friends in Ponyville” he asserted, “I’m not trying to get there out of pride.”

“I’m sure that’s what the friendship graduate side of you says but I wouldn’t be ashamed of what the other sides of you say,” he said condescendingly, patting Gallus on the shoulder. “I’m sure the other griffons would be impressed to see one of their own being a protector of the highest authority in all Equestria, it’d be inspirational.”

“Even if that was true, it’s not like I’d be welcomed with open arms” grumbled Gallus as he folded his arms.

“What makes you say that?”

“Let’s just say, for some ponies 'decency and respect' doesn’t extend beyond their kind. Apparently, Canterlot Palace has a “no pets” policy.”

Prince Blueblood leant back; his head tilted with one of his brows peaking towards his maneline. There was a mixture of confusion of what kind of policy there was and if there was one in place, his eyes wandered to figure it out. Then it hit him. “Ah, I guess there are “Neighsayers” in the Academy?” Gallus looked puzzled, so he explained. “It’s what I like to call ponies who refuse to see the successes of Princess Twilight’s school. I guess those are the bad part of the Academy, and why you’re out here?”

Gallus couldn’t help but look down and away, the thought of Coalstone still standing around himself like he’s the centre of attention was enough to ward off Gallus’ thoughts of returning to the hall, even as the lights continued to shine out of the window and muffled chatter seeped through the doors.

“I wouldn’t blame you, in honesty I’m not a fan of these military balls either.”

“You’re not?” Gallus looked up towards the prince in surprise.

“You cadets have done a grand job as hosts, but If I had my way, I’d let Prince Shining Armor take my place” he confessed with a disappointed sigh. “He graduated here decades ago and as the former Captain of the Royal Guard, it would be nostalgic for him, but he has more important duties as Prince of the Crystal Empire. If I wanted to go to a fancy party, I’d arrange one at my mansion and invite all the wealthy and nobility.”

“Well, I’m sorry you have to put up with me,” the griffon scoffed and folded his arms.

“Truthfully, I went along anyway so I could talk to you,” said Blueblood, which caused Gallus’ face to contort out of confusion. “I was interested in your story, and wanted to learn more. I probably wouldn’t have felt that way years ago, would you believe some ponies thought I was shallow and obnoxious?” He might have asked rhetorically in jest, but it suddenly took Gallus a lot of energy not to give an honest answer.

“I’d have stayed that way had my aunts not sent me off on assignments around Equestria. I found myself talking about wine with Bitalians, making friends with Saddle Arabians, even discussing trade agreements with Prince Rutherford in Yakyakistan. I’ve learned new things about myself and found myself wanting to talk with every upstanding creature from every corner of the world.”

“Even the Griffon Lords?” asked Gallus, reminding the prince of how he’d been wanting to meet them.

Blueblood rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, I’m sure you can’t fault me for trying. If I don’t try and be friends with griffons, I’d be like a right neighsayer, wouldn’t I?” His face then lit up, as if he had an idea. “Perhaps that would be why having an officer like you in Canterlot Palace might be what the E.U.P. Guard needs.”

It didn’t take long for Gallus to figure what Prince Blueblood was talking about, that a griffon in the palace would help the guards not be these so-called “neighsayers”. He could see it being like his time at the Academy up to that point, how his experience started with the weird stares and shortcomings, but over time he had noticed it less and less. Sure, there were jerks like Coalstone, but Gallus felt like those would have to change.

As the pair stood outside, the lights and sounds of camaraderie inside the Academy took the attention of the prince and griffon.

“Looks like we’ve spent enough time outside, perhaps we should join the rest of the ponies in the Academy?” suggested Prince Blueblood.

“How should I explain my absence to my superiors?”

Despite the griffon’s concerns, the prince simply chortled and placed an arm around Gallus as they made their way back into the side entrance of the main hall.

“My dear Gallus, the good thing about being with me, is that you won’t have to explain anything.”

Meanwhile, the evening ball was still in its momentum, with chatting and clinking of wine glasses, it was impressive that the bottles hadn’t run dry. Some of the cadets were soldiering on to network with their guests, both Pound Sterling and Lightning Dust teamed up to converse with a captain in the Wing Corp whilst Nicknames tried to keep himself awake to talk to one of the Royal Engineers, nodding off occasionally.

Scythe on the other hoof wanted to leave, or at least go back to hanging around at the side of the hall. Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave in the middle of a conversation with the Captain of the Royal Guard, the brown unicorn that was to be his future boss in Canterlot Palace. Even if he could, he had the difficult task of unchaining himself from the unicorn that had an arm around his neck.

“It’s always good to see cadets from military families going through the Academy,” delightfully remarked the captain towards his two subjects. “Means new generations of cadets with passion and inspiration thanks to their youth while retaining experience and knowledge from their contemporaries.”

“Yes, I agree absolutely,” Coalstone interjected, making as much effort to proudly kiss up as he held his head high with his nose pointed towards the corner that meets the wall and the ceiling. “I’ve learned a lot from my father and grandfather, their knowledge will surely help me from the first day at the palace.”

“I hope neither of you is using your confirmed cadet statuses as pink tickets,” the captain followed up, raising a single eyebrow as he spoke before taking a sip from his glass. “One of my jobs is to make sure Princess Twilight Sparkle is satisfied with who will ensure the protection of Canterlot and its Palace, and so not only do we expect hardworking officers but ones who have a good rapport.”

“Oh of course,” answered Coalstone with slight agitation, “along with working hard in my studies, I also spend a lot of time with my good friends. Even Scythe Magnus and I have a good history, don’t we?”

The unicorn propped himself up with a huge fake grin on his face, his arm firmly around Scythe’s neck as if holding him in a “friendly hug”. However, Coalstone could see his “friend” with his ears down, and his face obscured as the pegasus looked down towards the floor, certainly not a good or convincing impression. The unicorn quickly remedied the issue, it took one forceful tug of his arm for Scythe’s ears to perk up and nod with a shaky grin on his face.

Suddenly, their debatably pleasant conversation was interrupted. “Ah, Captain Armour Plate, there you are!” A familiar and grand voice called out from behind Coalstone and Scythe, causing both to turn around. Prince Blueblood had made a return to the main hall after an unusually long absence. His presence was met with a wave of curious ponies that had dispersed behind him and murmured to one another.

Captain, with recognition dawning on his face, suddenly went into an emergency mode. “Your highness! Is there something urgent?” he asked whilst standing upright in attention.

The calm prince waved his hoof and laughed. “Relax, Captain, I’m sure the Palace is still in safe hooves while we’re here,” reassured Prince Blueblood, putting the captain at ease. “So, I went outside for some… fresh air… and when I was making my way back, I ended up having a fascinating conversation with this young cadet, and he had been hoping to speak with you.” Prince Blueblood stepped to the side, revealing Gallus stood behind him.

Captain recognised the cadet, although upon first impression his smile faded and he frowned as he locked eyes with Gallus.

“Ah, you’re the gr- “

“Yes, that’s right, he’s one of the graduates from Princess Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship,” Prince Blueblood interrupted, without losing the smile on his face as he calmly yet forcefully corrected the captain whilst proudly placing a hoof on the griffon’s shoulder. “Gallus is one of the fine cadets applying for an officer position with the Canterlot Palace.”

“O-oh is he now,” Captain Armour Plate feigned surprise with a wide grin as his Prince stared daggers towards him. “Well, we are quite selective, but we give applicants a fair chance”. After discreetly rubbing away a nervous sweat, he gestured his hoof towards Coalstone and Scythe to divert attention to himself. “As I was saying to these fellow cadets, I want to make sure our new officers are both hard-working and have a good rapport.” He then turned to Gallus, “I’m sure that won’t be an issue?”

Seeing that he finally got an opportunity to speak, Gallus wasn’t going to waste it as he made his way forward. “Not at all, sir,” he proudly shook his head. “I’ve been getting on well at the Academy, been learning a lot about the guard, and I like the challenges put on me.” He then squeezed himself in between Coalstone and Scythe, pushing the unicorn aside so that the pegasus pony could finally be free of the tight grip he was under. “The friends I’ve made both in my platoon and at home have helped me through it so far, and it’s not like I don’t help them out in return. Right Scythe?”

Scythe smiled and nodded, sincerely as his friend hugged him with one arm, he sighed with relief. No longer did he feel an urge to escape at that moment.

“Yeah, I’m glad to share a platoon with him.”

“Is that so?” Captain Armour Plate asked rhetorically, raising a curious eyebrow along with a smirk, if the silent Magnus can happily praise this young griffon, perhaps he does have a good rapport for the Palace. “I think I’ll have a word with my superiors tomorrow, I’m sure they’d be interested in having a word with a… graduate… when the time comes.”

As he prepared to take another sip of his glass, he looked down and noticed its contents were empty. “Looks like I could do with another drink,” he remarked before turning to the unicorn cadet nearest to him. “Coalstone, be a good host and fetch me a new glass, would you?” he requested, waving his hoof away from him.

“I’m not your…!” Coalstone snapped, he didn’t take kindly to being ordered. Before he could finish, his muzzle snapped shut in a panic as eyes all pointed towards him. Gallus, Captain Armour Plate, Scythe, even Prince Blueblood, all suddenly stare at him with either disapproval, surprise, or smarminess, it made it clear his objection wasn’t approved. “Yes, sir,” the unicorn grumbled in defeat, before turning away to get a glass of wine.

For the rest of the night, Gallus and Scythe chatted with Captain Armour Plate and Prince Blueblood. They talked about time at the academy, friendship, work, wine, and their futures. The two cadets had made a few other cadets feel a bit of envy, but after all the work they did setting up this grand night, it was worth it.

With ponies in high places at his side, Gallus could see himself with a chance at working for the Canterlot Palace, while Scythe could see himself having fun at the evening ball.

Author's Note

Who'd have thunk that Prince Blueblood would be happy and open with other creatures.

Huge thanks to Javarod for going the extra mile on this one!

Searching in Canterlot

Hey friends,

First, I hope you got the photo. Thought I’d send it ‘cause you probably never thought you’d see me dressed like that, so it’s not that I sent it to impress anyone.

Second, by the time you receive this, I’ll be in Canterlot this coming Saturday afternoon. The buddies in my platoon are planning a day out away from the Academy, so if you want to meet up, you can find me in the main square. Hope you guys can make it, it’s been a while since I’ve heard from you.

Till next time,

Gallus

Walking around the main square was Gallus, he orbited around a giant water fountain that stood on the jade stone ground at the centre surrounding the grand buildings covered with pure white, regal purple, and stunning gold. The blue griffon looked around like a hawk, rousing the suspicions of the posh ponies walking past, as he hoped to catch even a speck of orange scales, cyan chitin, brown fur, a lime green coat, or bright pink feathers.

It felt like a good idea to him, Gallus hadn’t seen his Ponyville friends since the end of winter, and why not have even a few hours just to hang out in Canterlot on one of his days completely free of classes and drills.

As a bonus, his friends in the platoon also had plans in Canterlot as well. Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling had tickets to Cloud Stadium to see races and a show. That sounded like the perfect combination given Lightning Dust’s passion for flying and Pound Sterling’s boisterous sporty personality.

Scythe wanted to visit the public library, to research something that had been on his mind. The others thought it was odd considering the Academy had its library, but Gallus recalled that Ocellus was a passionate book bug and Princess Twilight’s love of books, so it wasn’t unfounded that a visit to a grand library would be worthwhile for some.

Nicknames wanted to look through Restaurant Row, an avenue for the best fine dining in all Equestria with restaurants and bars down there, to find the best place for the group to eat once they all got back together later in the evening. He also wanted to check out a vintage comic book shop along the way, “a library that isn’t full of nerds” as he described, the others winced as the irony was lost on him.

For Gallus, his plan was for all of them to spend some time together in the morning, split off in the early afternoon, then come back to have a meal out. It would be during those few hours away that he could finally meet up with his friends, catch up, and introduce them to the platoon. It was perfect.

The day was going well too, from the moment they finished having breakfast, they all flew together up the mountain to the entrance of the city. Nicknames took the lead while Gallus and Scythe stayed near the back as they traversed around the high streets and quarters, looking through the windows and joking about the fancy and trendy items that cost way more than most of them could afford.

The group had lunch at this large café that specialised in a vast selection of doughnuts. Its owner was an overly boastful large unicorn named Joe, who was as eager to show off a photo of a young unicorn Twilight Sparkle as a customer as he was with his confectionaries. Although doughnuts didn’t sound like a normal kind of lunch, the average pony diet tended to skew on the sweeter side, and Joe did have a decent selection of doughnut sandwiches that felt appropriate. Besides, after months of a snack-free protein-heavy military diet, the sweet treats were welcome.

Once they went their separate ways, Gallus decided to do what he said he would in his letter earlier in the week, hang around the main square. The griffon had high hopes that his friends would turn up, he knew his friends would go at lengths to see him during the winter, so surely, they’d be willing to travel on a Saturday to Canterlot to see him.

Although, it’s also true that he didn’t get a response from his letter, or any of the others from that term. As Gallus made laps around the water fountain, watching the foppish unicorns going by, not seeing one of his friends, Gallus’ stare grew tired. Through his search and all the ponies that passed his line of sight, he couldn’t recognise his friends.

As he stopped at one of the corners of the main square, taking a break to rub his eyes in frustration at the thought that he was wasting his time, a particular building caught his eye. Whilst many of the buildings were rectangular, this one had a cylindrical feel to its shape. Its windows spanned most of the front of the building with rows of dresses on pony mannequins, and its front door had its window display in the shape of a heart.

Even by Gallus’ standards, the orchid building was picturesque, its shape and the row of ponies around it gave it the impression of a carousel, a Canterlot carousel, a Canterlot Carousel Boutique. That was when Gallus realized why the building caught his eye, it was one of Professor Rarity’s fashion shops.

He could feel a tinge of curiosity, Yona works for Rarity. Sure, she worked at the boutique in Ponyville, and the fashionista also had another shop in Manehatten, but the odds that Yona decided to work in Canterlot to see Gallus? It had to be three to one at best, Gallus figured those were good odds.

He went up to a heart-shaped window, peering around to see if there was any familiar looking figure with hooves moving around one of the mannequins. The tint of the window made it hard to make out clear details, but after a while of gawking, a figure did catch Gallus’ eyes. A rather large figure, with shaggy fur, and two looping braids framing her face. Atop the head of the figure were two large curving horns, too many for a unicorn.

“Is that…?” Gallus had to confirm, so he pushed the door open, which was met with the ring of a tiny bell over him. No longer obscured by the tinted window, Gallus could finally see the figure in full detail. The olive eyes, the striped horns, that green shawl on her back. “Yona!” he called out with joy and relief, confident that it was the yak he knew.

The yak’s eyes perked, followed the turn of her head to look towards Gallus, and her eyes stretched wide. “Gallus!” she exclaimed, jumping back a bit before her smile caught up with her. Gallus flew closer to Yona, but before she could greet him, she grabbed him with his hooves and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Yep, I missed this,” Gallus remarked with barely a gasp in his voice, even as his chest was compressed, he felt relief at an experience that felt like old times. Even more, it’s a relief when Yona soon let go of the tight grip in exchange for holding Gallus up like a giant doll with both her hooves at arm’s reach.

“What Gallus doing here in city? Thought griffon was in Academy.”

“It’s my day off, I was hoping to hang out with friends in Ponyville,” answered Gallus. After the excitement of reuniting with a friend had settled, he quickly realised something was off about Yona’s surprise and eager questioning, such as how she didn’t know he’d be in the city to see her and the others. “Didn’t you know…?”

“Oh, Yona sorry, Yona didn’t know Gallus’ plans,” Yona hurriedly admitted, as she dropped the griffon for him to land on his feet. “Yona been here in Canterlot for two weeks now, so no hear from Ponyville.”

“Oh, so are you here because of work?”

The yak nodded. “Yona working at Miss Rarity’s Canterlot Boutique, learn the business side of fashion.” A sound explanation, if Yona had been working in Canterlot, she wouldn’t have been aware of any letters to Ponyville. Given the delivery service, any news from Ponyville wouldn’t have reached Canterlot for at least a day.

It also felt impressive, Yona being given a job and place to stay in Canterlot to help give her experience. “Huh, so your apprenticeship is going well.”

Yona nodded once more, with a wider smile on her face. “Yona in good hooves, Miss Rarity cover all bases.” Gallus couldn’t help but agree, given that Yona’s working with the professor and element of generosity. From the look of things, Yona was being treated better in fashion than Gallus in the military.

“Oh, Miss Yona,” a classy voice sang out from the other end of the boutique, a tall bright blue unicorn calling for Yona’s attention. As stunning as she looked with her purple shades and streaks in her long orange mane, she appeared to manage like a boss with a clipboard around her hoof. “When you’re done with those dresses, the suits on the second floor need to be cleaned and sorted by colour,” she instructed Yona.

“Yes, Miss Saddles.”

Yona’s upbeat demeanour had damped a slight bit, a hint of hesitation from the yak, causing the wheels in Gallus’ head to turn. “So, have you made any sales since you’ve been here, or have you just been sorting the clothes since you’ve been here?”

Yona’s lower lip started to tremble. “Yona’s seen sales, but…” however the lips eventually curved down, her voice lowered to a grumble. “Pony customers here rather than talk to ponies.”

Gallus felt disappointed, he looked around to see that the two were in a corner away from the counter and changing room, he figured that someone being taught in sales wouldn’t be hidden away during sales. “That sucks… you still get to make dresses while you’re here, at least?”

Fortunately, Yona let out a slight nod while her head was kept low. “Miss Saddles lets me spend half-day designing dresses in Miss Rarity’s studio,” she acknowledged, giving at least some assurance that this store manager is at least treating Yona like the apprentice she is. “Miss Saddles provides good feedback and helps put dresses on display.”

Yona then turned her head towards a dress that was two mannequins behind Gallus, pointing at the window, out towards the ponies passing by on the high street. When Gallus turned around to see it, and while Gallus knew almost nothing of dresses outside of a generosity class, the dress Yona looked at stood out from the sequined and glistening fabrics beside it. The dress was a pale sea green, dyed from a plush fur fabric, with white diamonds stitched along the brim above loose hanging frills.

Recognition dawned on him. “That’s yours!” he exclaimed, it had to be, it had all the familiarity of Yona’s clothing. “And it’s in a window display so ponies on the main square can see! That’s amazing!” As Gallus continued to look at the dress, inspecting it further to find more of the diamond patterns surrounding it, and back at Yona, his face was lit up with joy. All the while, Yona kept a calm and warm smile, contentedly listening to her friend’s appraisal.

“It’s like you’ve moved up in the…” Suddenly, Gallus caught sight of a tag dangling off the side of the dress, “what’s this?” he asked, prompting himself to look when no immediate answer came from Yona. It was a price tag, a small label on the top read “Gems of Yakyakistan by Yona Yak” and below it was the number reading its price, “100 ♭”. However, this number had a slash in it, a read marker crossed over the number like a cut. Below it was “80 ♭”, which too was slashed, then “65 ♭”, “40 ♭” until finally there was a price that wasn’t slashed with red, “20 ♭”.

“This dress has been reduced in price, why?” he was compelled to ask, and Yona was compelled to answer, losing her smile in the process.

“Customer ponies here rather buy dresses made by ponies, also…”

That was when Gallus let out a long and disheartened sigh, there was no shock at this point. “You too, huh?” Considering Ocellus and Smolder have felt some of the discrimination themselves, it didn’t feel like news at this point. “Can’t Professor Rarity do anything about it?” he asked as a possible suggestion, but Yona could only return a middling answer.

“Miss Rarity tries, pretty pony put on a big smile and say how Rarity has been training yak and has high hopes for yak, but ponies just point noses into clouds and laugh, and say yaks too dumb to make dresses. But Rarity says not to let ponies get to Yona, continue to make what Yona want to make, ponies will like Yona’s dresses.”

“Other than Sandbar?” Gallus replied, unable to avoid giving a cheeky smirk to go along with it.

Finally, Yona laughed, “Of course” she answered, a relief after such a dour subject, even Gallus started to chuckle as it eased the tension between them. After the two calmed for a moment, Yona’s eyes began to drift, a moment of thought of what to follow. “So, Rarity want Yona to have line up for Fashion Week in Manehatten” she eventually said.

Gallus’ eyes widened at the news. “That sounds good.” His response was understated though, Rarity would talk about Manehatten being the fashion capital of Equestria where all the big designers and trendsetters do their work.

Fashion week was this one entire week where districts effectively turn into catwalks, with designers showing their best designs, models giving their best looks, and all the press write a novel worth of articles describing what looks the best, the most unique, the most stylish. Although he’d never seen fashion week, Rarity would always talk about how well it went each year he came back from summer break.

As great an opportunity as it was, Yona didn’t share Gallus’ optimism. “It’d mean spending summer in Manehatten to work and plan, so not sure if Yona wants to go,” she admitted.

This perplexed Gallus, “But why? I’m no fashion expert, but from what I remember, if you make it there, ponies will be lining up for your dresses.” It was as if Yona was considering passing on a potential solution to her struggles.

“Yona knows,” she acknowledged, “just Yona no like being far away.” Yona already far away from Yakyakistan, now Yona is away from friends and Sandbar, and Manehatten is further away from both. Yona no want to end up like Gallus.”

With a slow nod, Gallus can relate. Unlike Gallus, Yona has a big loving family in her home in Yakyakistan, like most of his friends, homesickness diminished over time but never truly went away. Combined with being away from friends, even for a short while, and even Gallus could understand it’d be a harder situation than he was in. “Yeah, I know what you mean-… wait.” Suddenly he furrowed his brow, the rest of what he heard caught up with him, it was directed at him. “What do you mean you don’t want to end up like me?”

Yona in turn gave Gallus a hard glare. “Friends no hear from Gallus anymore. Gallus used to write to friends every week” she answered judgingly.

Feeling attacked by the insinuation, Gallus tensed up. “I still write letters to you in Ponyville every week” he snapped back.

“Yona believes it when Yona sees it. Yona sees Silverstream send letters to you, but Yona no see letters FROM you.”

Leaning closer to glare back, Gallus was cross and agitated. “I swear on the grades I got from Professor Applejack’s classes; I sent those letters to Ponyville” he asserted, with one of his talons jabbing into his chest. “I should be the one saying I haven’t heard from you for months, not one letter from Silverstream or anyone, so if we’re both sending each other stuff, how are we not hearing from each other?”

His friend on the other hoof remained calm and stern, she didn’t believe Silverstream’s stuff wasn’t arriving, and although she did see Gallus was genuine enough to swear on the good grades, he worked on in his honesty classes, her favourite classes on top of that, she remained fixed on her suspicions.

“Yona wonders if Gallus’ new friends have something to do with” she answered.

“You mean my platoon buddies at the Academy?!” exclaimed Gallus.

“Gallus spend more time with new friends at Academy than wonder why he no hear from old friends, because Gallus is closer to new friends than to old friends.” Yona accused, poking her hoof into Gallus’ chest.

The griffon swatted the hoof away and snapped back. “That’s not true, I’ve been worried for months that you lot weren’t replying to me, my new friends have nothing to do with this.” While before he was having to defend his efforts to keep in touch, he was now having to defend his Academy friends, who he knew wouldn’t think of doing anything against his Ponyville friends. Heck, most of them don’t know anything about his friends in Ponyville, except for Silverstream for different reasons.

“Yet Gallus waits till now to go to Canterlot to find old friends, not sooner,” Yona countered. “Did Gallus come with new friends because it’s convenient?”

Before Gallus could snap back, he paused with his beak open and his talons slowly curling in, in order to think. Yona had a point, he could have confronted his friends about their lack of response one, two, three weeks about the lack of response, instead it was when Pound Sterling and Lightning Dust had tickets to a show. “…okay fine, I came up here with my platoon buddies,” he admitted begrudgingly. He could see Yona give a slight smirk, as a confirmation of her point, which only motivated Gallus to continue his side.

“But if you read my letter, I would have been great to tell you guys to come up here so you could meet them. Remember the friend who I said would like you? I can take you to see him if you have time today.”

“Gallus means the one he spent Hearth’s Warming Eve with instead of friends in Ponyville,” retorted Yona, although Gallus’s face contorted with confused frustration as he recalled a contrast to her response when he admitted it back on Hearth’s Warming Day.

“But you said-!” Gallus cut himself short, before shaking the anger out of him and taking a breather to calm himself. “Look, I don’t like being away from you lot as much as you don’t like being away from your friends and family, so I’m trying hard to stay friends,” he insisted to Yona. “Not just Silverstream, but you, Sandbar, Smolder, and Ocellus. Sure, I have friends at the Academy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, right?”

Yona’s expression then slowly faded as she sadly looked down and away at her friend. “…Yona don’t know,” she replied in a broken hush tone.

He couldn’t believe what he just heard, he stood there dumbfounded. Sure, Yona was known to be blunt with what she says, more than others, but was she really saying she doesn’t know if they can be friends just because of some letters and being at the Academy?

“Oh, Miss Yona, you’re still down here”. The fancy and sassy Miss Saddles approached the two, oblivious to the discussion (or argument) the two were having as she was focused on her clipboard. Once the unicorn moved her line of sight towards the pained and shame-filled yak, she felt something was off. She then turned her head to the blue griffon standing in front of Yona. “Is this griffon bothering you?” she questioned Yona, in her mind suspecting an unruly customer.

“…no Miss Saddles,” Yona answered quietly. “Griffon about to leave.”

Taken aback, Gallus felt his chest start to ache as he began stepping backwards, even if he wasn’t being verbally told to, he felt compelled to leave over the mixture of anger and upset whirling inside of him. “Yeah. See ya, Yona... I’ll see you around… maybe,” cracks began to appear as his voice trailed off, his mind starting to muddle as he resisted the urge to outburst in front of his friend and a unicorn.

Before he departed from the boutique, he turned back towards Yona. From the distance, he could notice Yona had a shimmer in her eyes. Even despite hearing her figuratively push him out, assuming him to be ignoring her and their friends in favour of others, there was a hint of guilt and doubt, enough for Gallus to miss her as he left.

“Tell the others I said hi if you want.”

Scythe Magnus was sitting at a table in the grand Canterlot Library of Magic, closest to the two giant pillars that stood two stories tall on either side of the golden entrance to the main reading room. The pegasus was surrounded by books, not only on the bookshelves near the walls of the oval room but also stacked around his table leaving just enough room for the reading lamp in the corner and a scribbled notepad by his side.

Although amongst the wall of books, what Scythe was reading wasn’t a book, it was a newspaper. Granted it was a rather old newspaper from the library’s archive, with a date from the spring of the year 902 in the Princess Celestia era at the top right side just beneath “The Canterlot Times” written in a giant serif font.

He had spent the last hour or so going from shelf to shelf for books, followed by skim reading through each of them, just to find this specific newspaper which was fortunately held within the library’s archives. He went through each page, carefully turning them with the tips of his wings to avoid creasing the old paper, to find a segment of a particular page.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for, an article, written by Winstone. He copied it verbatim in his notepad, meticulously ensuring each word was correct. Taking up a few pages, he was left with a satisfied grin when it was finished, both his mind and body relieved to conclude the research that he had planned upon arriving.

As he gently closed the newspaper and stacked his books to return them to be reshelved, he noticed a set of amber claws walking on top of the glistening floor. When he recognised a familiar shade of blue fur above the wrists of those claws, he knew immediately that his friend had returned. “Hey Gallus,” he softly said with a bit of excitement as he hoped to meet some of Gallus’ other friends, such as that Yona who can speak Yakyaki.

Yet when he turned to look at Gallus, he could tell something was wrong. The griffon was tired, dreary, miserable, his feathers ruffled, his eyes sore and yet dry. It looked as though he had been worn down to a dull and blunt form of his usual self. “What happened?” Scythe asked with concern. That was before seeing the noticeable absence of any other creature besides him. “Did you see your friends?”

Gallus just shook his head and frowned as his tired hindlegs folded to let him sit on the floor by the table of books. “No… they didn’t turn up” he answered in a gravelly voice as he glowered towards the reflection beneath him.

Scythe’s ears drooped, he imagined Gallus waiting out in the main square outside looking for his friends who never arrived, all the while Scythe was inside finding the information he had searched for. “Sorry to hear that. Maybe your letter got lost?” he offered to reassure his friend, offering an optimistic reason as to why his friends didn’t come.

Little did he know that Gallus was slowly thinking of how true that reason was. “Maybe…” The griffon didn’t say another word for the rest of the day, even after he and Scythe reunited with Pound Sterling, Lightning Dust, and Nicknames. Even after they had a meal out together at a lively restaurant called The Tasty Treat where they enjoyed spicy food and drinks.

Instead, he sulked as the thoughts raced across his mind, thoughts of who was keeping him from his friends.

Routine Day

Equestria, the land I love,

A land of harmony

Our flag does wave from high above,

For ponykind to see

Equestria, a land of friends,

Where ponykind do roam

They say true friendship never ends,

Equestria, my home

The singing of Equestria’s anthem could be heard in the distance, at Gallus’ best guess it was coming from the window as he and Scythe stretched their wings and got their room ready. It was the start of a routine day at the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy, and the first order of the day was to muster outside the dorm with the other cadets in their platoon in time for room inspections.

Their beds had to be straightened, drawers and shelves arranged, and every part of the uniform had to be laid out on the bed from head to paws in exact placements, it would be tedious had the attention to detail not become second nature to them. The two checked on each other’s areas just to be sure nothing was out of place, Scythe moving the gloves to be more parallel, while Gallus picked out stray feathers hiding underneath the bedsheets.

By the time they stood to attention outside their door, they were sure that everything was neat and orderly. There was always one slight issue, despite inspections always being carried out by both Westland and Razorwing, it was always the latter that inspected their rooms. Westland never picked a specific room on each inspection, but Razorwing without fail would walk between Gallus and Scythe into their room with an austere look on his face.

Once inside, Gallus silently fumed and began counting under his breath. One, two, three, four, five… “Psst! What’s the current record?” Lightning Dust whispered over to Nicknames with a sly smirk on her face.

“I think the longest was forty-five seconds, right?”

Nicknames looked over to Scythe and Gallus for confirmation, but the former held his breath and fixed his sights in front, whilst the latter held a jaded gaze as he continued to count in his head. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two… Gallus could hear Razorwing slowly open cupboards and draws, looking inside, making light hoof steps around the room.

Forty-three, forty-four, forty-five... Not a word had come out of the dorm room, so Gallus furrowed his brow. He glanced at Scythe, but the pegasus was too frozen to explain anything, his eyes slowly shifted back to the front, seeing if the other cadets were aware of what they were hearing. Or rather, what they’re not.

Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine… Suddenly, at the corner of his field of view, Gallus caught a glimpse of Razorwing walking out of the dorm room. His body tensed as the staff sergeant stopped between Scythe and himself, worried with confusion as to why there was no bellowing or even a “Griffon! The curtains aren’t fully drawn!” in a sharp voice.

As Westland emerged from Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling’s room, having finished her inspection, Razorwing turned his head towards her and then gave a subtle nod. It felt almost as if a miracle had occurred, Razorwing had completed an entire minute-long room inspection without any comment, criticism, or quip towards Gallus.

Then Razorwing sharply turned his head towards Nicknames, “Officer Cadet Nick, I believe the record now stands at seventy-six seconds by my count” he said, causing the large cyan pegasus to pale.

“And griffon,” Razorwing followed, turning to the tense blue griffon. “You can count in your head. When we do our inspections, keep your beak shut.”

Gallus gulped and nodded, as he figured it wasn’t a complete miracle.

The cadets had a full breakfast at the mess hall, which ultimately was a good decision as they needed all the energy they could get. The morning’s training session was an obstacle course.

It wasn’t as restrictive or intense as Winstone’s Trial however, instead it was a long field where cadets had to run on an oval track around sixteen hundred metres in length, with hills, valleys, lakes, and rings. The main rule of the course this time was that you could fly over or through any obstacle, but whenever it was flat, you could only run.

The task of running, then jumping to fly, to landing to run again over and over was gruelling. The pegasus and griffon cadets could count themselves lucky, as earth ponies and unicorns would endure the same course on just their hooves alone but their wings used the same energy as running would. This was made worse by all the cadets requiring wearing their full body armour, as such carrying their bodyweight in metal as a bonus.

Eager flyers like Lightning Dust and Gallus who started flying over every obstacle in their path, struggled early as their wings were too tired to fly high enough to go through the rings without resting, nor could Gallus climb if he wanted. The cadets more experienced with the cross country had the better strategy of only flying when the obstacle made it necessary, giving their wings a much longer break to be ready to reach the tall heights.

Once every cadet had finished the course, it was back to doing drills with what little energy they could regain. Razorwing argued that doing the marches and face turns was to ensure that even after so much physical pressure, soldiers and officers could keep their minds ready for precise actions and reactions. The cadets on the other hand, just suspected that this was just the Staff Sergeant making the drills harder on purpose.

After a strenuous session, Gallus didn’t have time to freshen himself or take off his armour before he was ordered to meet Captain Westland in her office. Not that the studious pegasus was bothered by the appearance of the blue griffon she called in, as long as he stood to attention and gave a salute.

“Officer Cadet Gallus, at ease” she politely acknowledged his presence, Gallus felt his aching muscles begin to relax. As the captain stood behind her desk with her head resting on her forehooves, her eyes followed Gallus’ arm as it slowly returned to his side. “Hope your talons aren’t too sore, on your first day you said the drills weren’t built for them.”

Despite all his aches and pains, it only occurred to him that he couldn’t feel anything in his bright amber claws. With his arms remaining at his side, he slowly clenched and extended his talons, and had a hint of relief when he could feel the couch of the pointed tips and light muscles. “Not at all, Captain,” he answered, remembering how sore his talons were at the start of drills.

Westland returned a smile. “Good, if that ever changes, you should know where the infirmary is by now,” she advised, before going to her drawers to look for Gallus’ file. “A good officer must always have good judgement when it comes to their health, and I don’t want to see my cadets with injuries unchecked.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Westland then began to read through her file on Gallus’ progress, commenting on them aloud as she went. Although Gallus tried his best to listen, his mind drifted as he caught sight of a group of earth ponies outside a window. Three of them were outside, one with a ball wrapped around his hoof, the griffon could only guess they were about to play a game of sorts.

It’d been months since Gallus tried out for Buckball, and he hadn’t touched the sport since. Even hearing Nicknames talk about his training left him feeling sour, being excluded entirely because of a jerk coach and even bigger jerk of a unicorn. Even if he did get in, it wouldn’t have been as fun without his friends at the School of Friendship cheering him on. Even that had its sore reminder…

“… to have a good chance, you can start by paying attention.” Gallus jumped back into focus, the fur on his neck puffed out in a panic as he saw the captain with a surly glare and a dark aura surrounding her like a tiny storm were to emerge. Westland could only continue in a more frustrated voice. “I’ll be brief then, Canterlot Palace Royal Guards expect the best in leadership and best in character, you’ve got the potential for both so focus and work on your studies, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Anything I need to know before I let you go to your next class?”

Knowing he screwed up, all Gallus wanted to do was fly out of there and get out of his heavy uniform before he’d get metaphorically struck by a lightning bolt. He just had to say no ma’am, there is nothing you need to know. Nothing is bothering me at all. “…except for my mail.”

“Your mail?”

His heart stopped, Gallus got his inner thoughts and outer voice mixed up. “I haven’t received any mail for a while… like… since the start of term?” His voice started to trail off, and his head sunk lower, as he tried to explain. Captain Westland was rather calm during the exchange, but her sharp stare made it difficult for Gallus to weave his way out.

Her eyes narrowed, “I see… You’ve left it a bit late to bring it up, haven’t you?” she asked in her lowered voice, scribbling down on the paper within her files.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, go see the mailroom and see if they can resolve your mail issue, preferably before I next see you. Understood?” Gallus had no words this time, his head was already low enough to realise he was in trouble, only raised enough to indicate that he nodded. “Now disappear.”

As instructed, Gallus hurriedly made his way out. The last thing he wanted to do now was to let his captain know he was late for class.

“Who can remind us of the Code of Honour that all guards must follow, Earth Pony, Unicorn, and Pegasus alike?” A beige earth pony asks an auditorium full of earth pony and pegasus cadets, several of whom raise their hooves. Sitting three rows from the front, Gallus also had his arm raised. The lecturer scanned the auditorium, looking for whom to pick to answer.

His head suddenly stopped when Gallus was at the centre of his field of view. “Oh right, griffons too…” he added, before turning his head in the opposite direction and pointing at an earth pony on the far side of the front row. He didn’t turn back, for if he did, he would have seen a perplexed griffon who only intended to answer the question.

“Soldiers never lie, cheat, or steal, sir.”

“Correct.”

The lecture was on command, leadership, and management, going over morals and ethics. All the cadets in the room should have known the Code of Honour, given that they had to know it for the entrance exams, but this lecturer wanted to be sure the cadets knew it was more than just a single sentence.

“When you are in command of a platoon of your own, you must follow it and not tolerate its violation yourself. And why? It’s trust. Every one of you has reasons to be here, one of which I would imagine is to protect Equestria and everything it stands for. Even peace needs to be protected. However, it is Equestria that decides whether the guard can protect them, and they won’t decide that we can if they cannot trust us. Follow the Code of Honour, and you can’t do wrong. That’ll be all, class dismissed, be sure to leave ordinarily.”

A large and resounding sigh of relief rushed through the auditorium as ponies stood up and prepared to leave. Although pegasus ponies could use their wings to fly over the seats, the abundance of them made the risk of crashing too high to pull it off in one go, so most followed the earth ponies down the row they sat in and down the stairs.

One of the few flyers willing to fly their way down was Gallus, he knew that there was a short amount of time to travel between classes, but long enough that he could sort out the issue he brought up with Westland earlier. As he landed at the bottom of the auditorium, he briskly walked up to the lecturer.”

“Excuse me, sir,” he called to get his attention. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the mail office is?”

“Sure, you take a left out the front door and you’ll find it around the corner.” The lecturer didn’t bother to look up at his notes to see Gallus, merely extending and curving his forehoof to visualize his directions.

Not that it seemed to matter to Gallus, he knew where to go so he could do what he planned to do, have a word with those mail couriers. Gallus flew over the cadets walking down the corridors and the stairs, going outside through the main doors and towards the left side of the building.

The department had their tiny building that was attached to the rear side of the much larger academy building, coloured in the same bright white walls and purple roofing that Canterlot enjoyed the theming of. There were two doors, one at the front near the corner where the two buildings meet, and a larger one on the side for large boxes and bags of letters to be delivered through.

The front door had “MAIL DEPARTMENT” printed in gold serif text, with a list of times underneath it. Fortunately for Gallus, he was there at a time when it was open, so he felt there would be no problem going in.

At least, until he tried turning the doorknob, there was a rattle but no budge. The building was locked. Gallus furrowed his brow, he checked the times, and it was supposed to be open, and there weren’t any other signs to indicate otherwise.

He knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so he tried to peer inside through the glass door, but the building was so dark it was hard to make. The only other window had textured glass, obscuring all detail inside. It was likely done this way to avoid anyone like Gallus from peeking into that side of the office for security.

“Maybe the mail pony working there went out early for lunch?” Gallus thought, having checked the time, and it was close to lunch. He sighed and made his way back to his next class; he couldn’t imagine that office being closed for the entire day.

It was the afternoon, and time for the clubs. Scythe had gone out to the woodlands for Cross country, Lightning Dust to the Aerial Athletics team at the track, Pound Sterling to the firing range for Archery, Nicknames went to the gymnasium for Buckball, as did Gallus for Mountaineering. As much as they wished these clubs weren’t mandatory, they had the relief that they weren’t in one of the clubs that took place in the morning.

Nicknames made his way into the court, leaving Gallus to go down a corridor to the room at the end covered wall to wall with coloured boulders. The griffon couldn’t place an arm inside the room without getting a jubilant welcome. “GALLUS! MON OISEAU BLEU!” called out the Prench earth pony Fountain Blue.

For the sake of politeness, Gallus had to give a short wave and a nervous smile, whilst other ponies turned their heads towards him. Even Whipper, the other lead of the club, rolled his eyes at his friend’s jovial welcome of their griffon climber. Thankfully, Gallus’ saving grace came in the form of a bright yellow unicorn stallion.

“Hey, Gallus! Wanna pair up?” It was Cliffhanger, the sole unicorn member of the club. He was already strapped into his harness and had an additional harness levitating by him to courteously pass over to Gallus.

Although he had come accustomed to being disliked or ignored by most unicorns, Gallus felt refreshed knowing that there was one unicorn who was comfortable approaching and being nice to him for a change. That is despite Gallus only really remembering Cliffhanger for one certain incident in the Griffon’s Mountain trail over the holidays.

“Sure, you can climb first, I’ll catch you” Gallus answered facetiously with a smirk, to which Cliffhanger chuckled in response.

Once strapped on his harness, Gallus and Cliffhanger went up to the open wall. The two clipped themselves up to the rope, Cliffhanger doubly so for safety, and the climbing began. It always intrigued Gallus how ponies made it possible to climb with just hooves. Back in Griffonstone, he had heard of goats that could scale mountains, something about their wide hooves with spongy toe tips, but ponies’ hooves weren’t designed like that.

He flapped his wings to fly in place, following Cliffhanger as he effortlessly placed his hind hooves on the lower boulders while hooking his hind hooves to the higher ones to pull himself up, all the while Gallus pulled on his end of the rope holding the unicorn in the air. As much as he joked about it earlier, Gallus didn’t want his climbing buddy to fall.

“Gallus, mind if I ask” Cliffhanger decided to speak up halfway up the wall, his voice carrying a light groan and heavy breath as he pulled his body up higher along the wall. “You chose your regiments, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Were your choices for mountain ones?”

There was a pause. “No. Why?” answered Gallus, his eyebrows flattened.

“Nothing.” There was another groan as he pulled himself to the next boulder. “Just thought you might have talked about it with Captain Whipper and Major Fountain Blue.”

“I haven’t, not much point since I don’t like…” Gallus' voice trailed off, he was getting reminded of his feelings towards climbing.

“No, no, I get it.” It was fortunate that Cliffhanger was understanding, given how he was the only one in the club who knew. “Have you noticed how differently they act though?” Gallus took his sights off Cliffhanger and turned his head to look down to find the two staff ponies.

The two certainly had different approaches to instructing. Fountain Blue was as lively and encouraging as ever, he would talk as if both the climber and belayer were listening, giving them pointers to get even higher. Whipper was direct and to the point, he mostly stood silent looking upwards towards the climber above, while staying close to the belayer on the ground, only commenting if one of the two was doing something wrong.

“Kinda…”

“Just a few days ago, I asked them about the Chevaux Alpins, cause that’s my top choice.” Cliffhanger explained as Gallus continued to look on at the two earth ponies. “Fountain Blue was all Go for it, you’ll do great, you get to climb wiz ze best!” Even with most of his energy focused on holding himself up, the unicorn could somehow pull off a nasally exaggerated Prench accent.

“Whipper though, he was kind of the opposite. You’ll have to work on your Prench, you’ll be far away from your home, be sure it’s what you want to do.” This imitation though was more of a gruff voice,

Gallus gave a light chuckle, “Yep, that sounds like them…”

“I still want to do it; I like the thrill and challenge of hanging on from high up.” He asserted, followed by a jesting remark. “If I was born with wings like a Pegasus, I probably wouldn’t be doing this.”

“Or a griffon.” Inserted Gallus.

“True. Come to think of it, sometimes I wish I had your talons so I could easily grab onto things.” he followed up, groaning harder than he did before. Gallus turned back to Cliffhanger, the unicorn had his right forehoof stretched as far up and outward towards a red boulder he couldn’t reach. He was gritting his teeth, pushing up as far as he could on the two boulders he was standing on, his eyes fixed upwards so that he wasn’t seeing any other way to progress further.

In fairness, Gallus couldn’t see either, his eyes were focused on Cliffhanger’s rope and how it dangled loosely beneath him. They widened as he realised with anxiety that he was distracted for so long, he forgot to belay and had to rapidly pull on his end of the rope to the point where the unicorn’s end of the rope extended back up again.

“Uh” in a nervous panic, Gallus suddenly spotted a blue boulder partially obscured by Cliffhanger’s thigh. “Put your right hind hoof on the boulder by your knee” Gallus advised hastily.

Cliffhanger paused, took a moment to catch his breath, and then looked down. Sure enough, there was a blue boulder by his knee. He stepped onto the boulder and pushed upwards, now he could finally hook his forehoof onto the red one.: “Got it!”

With a sigh of relief, Gallus could keep the conversation going, just if he kept his eyes on Cliffhanger. “So, you’re not worried about the other things Whipper said, like being far away from home?” he asked.

“Nah, being far away from home is part of the job,” acknowledged Cliffhanger with a mild shrug. “Besides, Whipper must have been far away from home to be in the Chevaux Alpins, not to mention the language barrier, but he got through it.”

He made a point; Gallus remembered hearing Whipper talk about him and Fountain Blue being in that mountain regiment during the mountain trials in Griffonstone. Yet, Whipper sounded more like a pony closer to Ponyville than to the Prench regions, perhaps he had to move to a completely different part of Equestria to be where he is, he wouldn’t be the first.

“Not to mention, you’re far away from home to be here, and you’re doing well, right?” added Cliffhanger, although through his personal experience, he had his doubts.

“I guess…”

“So yeah, I’m gonna go for it.” Cliffhanger seemed determined more than ever. “Thanks, you’re a good listener.”

As Cliffhanger made the last few metres up, Gallus stopped what he was doing. After he heard the unicorn’s gratitude, there was a moment where Gallus expected something snide or patronising, something about him being a griffon. But there was nothing, it was a realisation that maybe Gallus could have made one more friend, it caused him to smile for the first time all day.

“You’re welcome.”

With a few victorious knocks on the roof, Cliffhanger had finally reached the top of the wall. “Okay, time to abseil. Ready?” asked Cliffhanger, turning back to his trusted climbing partner. Gallus nodded, holding the rope firmly to lower his friend down. Suddenly, today was a good day to be climbing.

The mountaineering club had dismissed for the day, Gallus hummed a tune to himself as he left the gym. Outside the sky was a dark grey and rain poured heavily onto the ground, a dreary sight for the ponies doing their afternoon drills, and yet Gallus’ face was glowing from today’s club.

Best of all, he had only one thing left to do, he still needed to talk to the couriers at the post office. Sure, his fur and feathers were getting wet, and it was late in the afternoon, but he remembered the opening times and it was still technically open.

He flew over to the front door of the office and placed his talons on the handle. Much to his disappointment, there was a rattle, but the door wouldn't open. “For real?” he exclaimed, his eyebrows knitted in annoyance that for the second time, the office was shut with no signage explaining why.

If the weather outside was dryer, Gallus could have waited for several more minutes, but his mood was starting to dampen. He made his way back to the main building, took cover from the rain, vigorously shook off the excess water from his blue fur coat, and made his way back to his dorm.

At the top, some of the pegasus cadets in his platoon had arrived before him, taking time to either clean their rooms or freshen up their uniforms. By the time Gallus arrived, there was roughly an hour or so before the last activity of the day and dinner, an hour set for personal study. However, Gallus just wanted to recharge his batteries while he could.

Before he could rest easy in his dorm room, he was greeted by a familiar amber pegasus pony. “Oh, hey Gallus. How was the climbing?” said his trusted roommate, brushing his fur with a towel draped around his neck.

“Hey Scythe, pretty good actually,” Gallus replied with an upbeat tone and friendly face, at least to try and regain the positivity he had moments prior. “How was the cross country?”

Scythe sighed and turned to the window, observing the splatter of water droplets trickling down from the rain outside. “It was wet…” he said in a soft dour voice, Gallus figured the pony had to run in the damp mud and needed to clean himself up afterwards. “I’m lucky I could have a shower before I go out…”

“You’re going?” questioned Gallus as he tilted his head, there was a whole hour where ponies could hang around in their room, so where was Scythe heading off to.

“Yeah, to see Major Babel?”

“Oh right, Yakyaki lessons,” said Gallus, lifting his head in realisation, he had been doing private tutoring on languages with Major Babel in his office for months. Gallus should have recalled it sooner. “Have fun, I’ll hold the fort.”

Scythe chuckled at the joke. “Daraa uulzii!” He told Gallus before making his way past and out the door.

“What?”

“Oh! Uh… see you later.”

Scythe disappeared, making his way down the corridor, and Gallus closed the door. Finally for the first time since before he woke up, Gallus had some peace, with only the sound of the rainfall tapping on the window as added ambience.

He grabbed one of his textbooks on pony history, he needed to get some revision done. He started to read through a chapter titled “Celestial Destiny” on the outward expansion of Equestria, it listed various years where tribes of ponies wished to make a new life and were granted bits and resources to help create settlements under the blessing of Princess Celestia.

Most of it was accelerated after ponies acquired a vast amount of land from various creatures, although the book left out which creatures specifically. Gallus tried to think about which, he seemed to recall Grandpa Gruff once saying King Grover sold land to ponies, but the specifics were muddled in his head.

He struggled to get his mind off the mail office being shut all day, it didn’t make sense. If anywhere could explain why Gallus wasn’t receiving his letters, it’d be them. They must have been making mistakes, couldn’t be anypony else. It’s not like what Yona was accusing his platoon of, they wouldn’t be stopping him from catching up on his friends like Ponyville… unless…

“No,” Gallus thought, violently shaking his head and jumping off his bed. That’d be ridiculous, none of them had any reason to sabotage his friendships. Lightning Dust wouldn’t risk it if the Royal Guard Academy was her last chance at doing the kind of flying she loved, nor would Pound Sterling considering her financially limited upbringing.

Nicknames would probably do it for a week at most as a joke, but not a joke stretched for several months. Besides, the only way any of his platoon to get a hold of Gallus’ letters would be to get into his room. That would leave Captain Westland, Staff Sergeant Razorwing, and Scythe Magnus.

Sure, Gallus wasn’t too bothered by Scythe’s secret heritage, but would that still make him trustworthy? “Yes, yes it would” Gallus affirmed himself, he had his parts of his life he’d rather keep to himself, and Scythe trusted him, Gallus should do the same. Not to mention, out of all the ponies who didn’t want to get caught, it’d be him.

Besides, even if he did do it, where would Scythe hide the letters? He couldn’t just throw them away, there aren’t many places where you could throw out unopened envelopes. Scythe could hide it behind the wardrobe, Gallus figured it wouldn’t hurt just to check, it’s a dark and small area that neither of the commanders would look in during inspections.

It’s not like hiding stuff back there was completely out there, Gallus remembered he used to hide that old antique plaque that Grandpa Gruff sent him, he looked behind the wardrobe and found it to be empty, not even letters. He checked the drawers and found clothing, but no letters. He checked the drawers of Scythe’s desk, and that’s when he stopped. Inside was Grandpa Gruff’s plaque.

He had forgotten about lending it to Scythe, the pegasus must have kept it in his desk to translate it like he agreed to do back in Hearth’s Warming. He looked at the plaque and saw the large, towering griffon and at the right angle, it appeared to stare back at him with a stern judging glare, guilting Gallus for sneaking around Scythe’s things.

Perhaps there was something about Grandpa Gruff saying to “never forget”. To get it out of his mind, Gallus returned to his textbook, to read further on the ponies' outward expansion. From shore to shore, ponies brought civilization to the savage lands, expanding out from City of Everfree., The ponies would settle in places from the northwest of Vanhoover, to the south of Appleloosa and east of Manehatten, simple settlements growing into bright shining cities of today thanks to the creativity of all three tribes.

One paragraph stood out when Gallus read through the story of Celestial Destiny: “Newly established settlements weren’t safe for years after their foundation, Dodge City and Appleloosa set up teams of Earth pony “Rangers” to ward off angry herds of Buffalo from running through the streets. Word would eventually reach the E.U.P. Guard who united, recruited, and trained the teams into the newly founded Southern Hoof Ranger Battalion to protect the civilians from the stampeding herds.”

Gallus scoffed, reading how some ponies were protecting their own from angry Buffalos, and getting rewarded for it. But that begged the question of why were those Buffalos angry in the first place? I mean, ponies didn’t live their first, did any of them check that the land they stood on was bought? He couldn’t blame the buffalos if ponies were to describe them as savages. It gave Gallus something to think about, something other than his letters.

Major Babel had an intense way of teaching languages, to him it wasn’t about just knowing how to say a certain phrase or sentence, there were also certain nuances of Yak culture that must be translated over as well.

Some Scythe picked up on quickly, Yaks don’t have words to distinguish a hut from a house, just as they don’t have words for the most ranks that pony military has, and pronouns are less common as Yaks are more direct about whom they are speaking about.

Along with learning how to speak and write Yakyaki, was how to translate not just consecutively but simultaneously. Major Babel taught Scythe how to write fast notes and wait for the optimal moment to interpret what was being spoken. Even with guidance, it was considerably challenging but useful. The Major said he’d hardly teach these skills because they were impractical in a class environment, so Scythe felt gratified that he got to try them out.

When the lesson was over, Scythe simpered but was mentally exhausted as he walked slowly back to the dorms. He’d like to go back to his bed and rest for a while, but time had other plans. As he finally got to his platoon’s corridor, cadets were departing from their bedrooms and making their way out, it was time for dinner.

Although amongst the crowd walking towards him, bunched up and impassable that Scythe had to flap his wings to go over them, he couldn’t see Gallus. He was halfway through the crowd when one of the cadets stopped him. “Yo! Mumbles!” called out Nicknames, causing Scythe’s teeth to grit, “It’s time for food, where are you going?”

“I’m just… looking for… Gallus…”

“What’s that Mumbles? I can’t hear you!” Scythe’s forehead creased as he stared back at Nickname’s dumbfounded face, he knew Nicknames could hear him, he tried to speak that time, and the corridor was mostly silent despite the congregation. “Whatever, if you see Bluebird, tell him to come down, nopony’s seen him for the last hour.” Without skipping a beat, Nicknames sprinted off to join the other cadets.

That left Scythe finally on his own to breathe, finally reaching his bedroom door. Turns out Gallus wasn’t that hard to find, the griffon was lying on his bed, his face covered by a textbook. One of his arms was hanging off the side of the bed, Scythe chuckled at the scene, relieved that he wasn’t the only one that was exhausted.

“Hey Gallus, I’m back” he declared in a raised voice, causing Gallus’ arm to jolt and his body returned to life. “Everypony else is heading to the mess hall, are you coming?”

“Yeah, I’m starving…” Gallus gravelly replied, picking up and throwing the textbook off his face and throwing it down to the side of the bed. As the griffon rolled himself back onto the floor, Scythe smiled and started to turn away from the door. “Oh, wait, remember that plaque I lent you? Did you figure out what it said?”

After a pause where Scythe looked at the ceiling to think, his muddled head suddenly clicked. “Oh yeah, I wrote it down.” Scythe quickly turned back into the bedroom and approached his desk, he pulled out one of the drawers and picked up the plaque with his hooves.

He revealed to Gallus that the plaque had a new addition to it, a folded sheet of paper held to the wooden back by a piece of tape. During the holidays, he borrowed an antique book on Grandpa Patton’s bookshelf on Griffish texts and spent a whole evening translating the glyphs on the plaque.

Gallus held the plaque and unfurled the paper and read what was inside. “Be filled with pride. Soar through the sky. Leave no Griffon behind.” Scythe was beaming as Gallus read it out, it might have been a short and simple sentence, but it was an accomplishment to write it out to something understandable to ponies.

In contrast, Gallus was irritated, and his claws clenched hard on the plaque. All that effort and the outcome was some generic griffon motto about pride, flying, and being together. It felt like Grandpa Gruff wanted to remind Gallus of what he is and what he should be doing. It was only when he looked up at Scythe’s glowing face that he was reminded of the effort that was put into helping him get this information.

“Thanks.”

He then placed the plaque gently on the surface of his desk, and two made their way out of the dorms. After a long day of classes, physical exercises, and frustration, it was the end of just another routine day at the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy.

Planning the Mission

That mail room was still bothering him, even a day after he first encountered it. During his break, Gallus was outside the building of the mail department, glaring at its clean white exterior. If it wasn’t for the potential wrath from Captain Westland for giving up on speaking with the mail staff, he’d have gone straight to his next class.

But instead, yet again, he approached the front door, placed his claws firmly on the doorknob and tried to turn. Except for this time, there was a click, and the door had loosened enough to open, there was even the sound of a tiny bell ringing above him.

“Finally!” he ushered in an annoyed groan, as he rolled his eyes and made his way inside.

The mail department appeared smaller on the inside, a single room with glossy wooden flooring, a few posters, a table protruding from the wall and a single chair to wait on. Then again, the size of the room could easily be explained by the wall with a giant rectangular hole in the centre, with a locked door next to it.

The second room had its wall in the middle with shelves, each with an array of boxes made to sort the letters, some filled and some empty. From Gallus’ field of view, the only other things he could see were boxes, half-filled sacks, a greyish sapphire blue metal safe with a rotary dial, and two mail ponies at work.

Both were dressed in floral green V-neck shirts with dark collars and buttons. One was a light-pink unicorn mare with a blonde mane, who had letters floating around her. The other was a cream-yellow pegasus sporting a cap matching the colour of his shirt, who upon seeing Gallus on the other side of the, began to glow.

“Oh hey! You must be the griffon cadet!” the pegasus mail pony cheerily exclaimed. “Surprised to see you here!”

“Surprise to see you here too, this place was locked all day yesterday.”

“Yeah, we were closed all day,” the unicorn mail pony quipped curtly, rolling her eyes towards Gallus, “didn’t you see the sign?

“Sign?” Gallus remarked as he raised an eyebrow and looked back at the door he entered from, more confused by the reason than bothered by the unicorn’s tone. “There was no sign.”

The pegasus pony then sighed before crouching down and picking up a sign with his teeth, it read “Closed today due to unavailability of staff, sorry for the inconvenience,” in a clear black font. He then dropped the sign onto the counter before turning to the unicorn. “I told you we should have hung the sign on the outside,” he remarked, an indication that the sign may have fallen off the door.

He then turned back to Gallus, returning the smile to his face. “Sorry about Pretty Petals, she just gets grouchy sometimes, I’m Stamp,” finally introducing himself.

“You wouldn’t happen to know a dark feathered griffon who delivers the mail? Gabby or Gabriella? I’m guessing since you’re a griffon you two know each-” before he could finish, Petals loudly cleared her throat and gave Stamp a stink eye. “Uh, how can we help you?”

“I’m not getting my mail,” Gallus answered directly.

“Well then, we should address that!” Stamp’s pun received a groan from Pretty Petals and a sharp glare from Gallus, he bashfully cleared his throat before continuing. “What’s your name, company, and platoon?”

“Gallus, Larson Company, 1st Wing Platoon.”

Stamp was appreciating the direct answers from the griffon, he turned around to the wall of sorting boxes, and inspected a group of them on the middle shelf on the far-left side, he flicked through the letters to see if any. “Hmm… I don’t see any letters with your name on it,” he said, oddly keeping his cheery tone, before turning back to Gallus to reassure him. “It could be some arrival delay, sometimes letters take days longer than usual depending on who’s sending it.”

“My letters haven’t arrived since the start of term.”

Suddenly, Gallus’ direct answers weren’t so nice to the mail pegasus. His eyes shot wide, shifting between a stoic Gallus in front of him, and Pretty Petals giving a sharp stare to his side. Beads of sweat started dripping down the side of his head as he nervously grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

“Well… I guess it also depends on how frequently they’re being sent.”

“When I met one of my friends a few days ago, they said they sent a letter every week,” Gallus clapped back, which only caused Stamp’s agitation to grow as he could sense his unicorn colleague glaring a hole into the side of his head.

“Well, sometimes our sorting system gets messy,” he tried to rationalise shakily. “Could you come back in a few days so we can investigate it?”

Gallus narrowed his eyes, he felt tempted to press further, but he could also see a clock on his side of the room. Unfortunately, he needed to get to his next class promptly.

“Sure…” he said slowly, before making his way out of the mailroom, the little bell ringing once more as he exited through the door. The wheels in his head started to turn, Stamp started acting strange once Gallus called him out, and Pretty Petals was keeping her eyes on the pegasus pony.

The classroom had a large changeover for this lesson, all the chairs were removed, and six tables were evenly spaced out. Cadets stood around the tables, each one had a large map and several pony soldier figurines on them. The class were playing a game, but not any simple board game like Dragon Pit or a fantasy roleplaying one like Ogres & Oubliettes, this was War Gaming.

Rules sounded simple at first, the cadets at the table were split into two teams, with one side being the E.U.P. while the other being the vaguely named “Enemy”. Each side took turns moving the figurines across the map to take out squadrons while aiming to capture the opposing base.

What made it realistic, and therefore complicated, is that the players had to factor in the terrain, height, and land features such as water, as well as what types of soldiers were on each side for each move. The staff giving the lectures talked about how wargaming benefits planning operations, to thinking about what the enemy is doing ahead of time.

The lecturer introduced the game for how its use was pivotal for successful battles in defending Equestria from outside threats, and each table supposedly had a different map depicting a different battle that was planned out in advance with the aid of wargaming.

Gallus and his friends were around one such table of a map showing a section of eastern Equestria. For himself, Scythe, and Nicknames, their side had figurines of earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies. For Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling, their figurines looked like earth ponies, but on close inspection they had fangs carved out of their muzzles, and holes on each of their legs.

All took the game differently, Scythe would sit quietly with his forehooves pressed together, staring intently at the pieces, he wouldn’t touch them, but he’d whisper ideas to Gallus to carry out. Lightning Dust in contrast was quick to make moves with little thought. Nicknames paused to think but would move without consulting anyone on his team. Pound Sterling focused on the landscape and would whisper ideas to Lightning Dust or make moves on her own.

Meanwhile Gallus was just looking at the pieces, if Scythe wasn’t giving him ideas, he didn’t touch any of his soldiers. The wheels in his head were still turning after the encounter with the mailroom. As the game played on, and the older tutors walked past the tables, inspecting the current game, a plan started to form in Gallus’ mind.

When those tutors were no longer paying attention to his table, he felt it was finally time to get his friends involved.

“Psst… guys” he hissed to get their attention, “I need your help with something.”

Pound Sterling was the first to respond, “Can’t be, yur side is winnin’ a’ that moa.” Her eyes were locked on her pieces, blocked by the soldiers on Gallus’ side.

“It’s not to do with the game.”

“Can’t it wait until lunch, Bluebird?” asked Nicknames, carefully pushing one of the figurines closer to an isolated enemy figurine. “I’ve got a squadron planned perfectly for a sneak attack.”

Suddenly, a turquoise hoof pulled the lone enemy figurine away from him “…and I’ve just gathered some intelligence that says we should move our battalion this way instead.” Lightning Dust gave a smug grin towards the stallion who should have kept his battle strategy to himself.

Keeping his volume low and gritting his teeth, Gallus persevered, “It can’t, ‘cause I only want you lot to hear it.” Finally, all the ponies on the table looked at each other. After Lightning Dust gave a casual shrug, they all leaned in closer to Gallus, curious to what he wanted to talk about.

“I want to send a letter.”

Lightning Dust was the first to react, looking to Pound Sterling and Nicknames to be certain of what she heard, before turning back to Gallus. “To whom?” she followed in a whisper whilst tilting her head.

“Some friends of mine in Ponyville.”

The others were clueless, “So… just write one and put it in a letterbox.” Nicknames suggested flatly.

“Yeah, I can’t do that.”

“Wha’ do ya’ need?” Pound Sterling queried, assuming Gallus ran out of something. “Papa, quill, ink, envelopes, stamps, wax ta stick it togetha?” she listed.

“I can lend you some…”

Gallus shook his head in response to Pound Sterling and Scythe’s offers. “No, I already have all that stuff.”

“I don’t get why you can’t send letters then, and why are we all whispering?”

“I can’t just put a letter in a letterbox, because if it did it won’t ever go to Ponyville,” Gallus explained. “Every time I’ve done so before, somepony is taking them before they can be sent off. I haven’t heard from my Ponyville either because the same pony probably has also taken the mail addressed to me.”

As the griffon scanned the table, the mood shifted. Twisted lips, jaded stares, raised eyebrows, not an ounce of concern or intrigue in what he was saying. “Yeah, no offence, but that sounds crazy.” Lightning Dust put it bluntly. Gallus pinched his beak, annoyed at the fact he was being seen as a lunatic.

At least, as much of a lunatic for Nicknames to find amusing. “You’re saying that there are ponies who are stopping you from sending letters in and out of the Academy because you haven’t gotten a letter for like, a week?” he asked facetiously and sardonically.

“…since the start of term.”

Suddenly, Nicknames started to wince, almost as if it felt bad for someone to have no contact for the past few months. “Okay… you sure it’s not just you?” he suggested, but then panicked once Gallus’ head turned sharply in his direction to stare daggers at him. “I mean, you could have gotten the address wrong.”

“I’ve been writing letters to the same address since the last term, I’ve not gotten it wrong.”

“‘appen ur friends changed their address?” proposed Pound Sterling, hoping to add a rational and less accusatory explanation. Gallus turned to the mare, not to dart a glare but not an accepting look either.

“Without telling me?”

“Your friends might just be incredibly busy and aren’t able to write as much as you do?” Lightning Dust offered.

“I know full well my friends would write back if they got my letters!” hissed Gallus, now darting a glare at the lightning mare.

“And what’s your proof of that?”

The two stared each other down, Gallus wanted to shut down Lightning Dust so bad by pointing out what Yona told him the day he was in Canterlot. There was a slight issue, the ponies around him at that moment were also in Canterlot, and they didn’t know about the encounter. As far as what he told them, none of his Ponyville friends turned up.

As the tension between them started to thicken, he was on the verge of admitting he lied, even to prove a point.

“I believe him.”

Everyone on the table turned to the one pony who had hardly spoken for the entire discussion, finally ending the intense staredown between Gallus and Lightning Dust. Despite the sudden amount of attention being thrust his way, Scythe tried to talk about what he knew. “Gallus writes a letter once a week, sometimes when we should be sleeping… in the first term he always got a letter later in the week but…”

“Not anymore…” added Gallus, finishing Scythe’s sentence. “Why else would that pattern change without them telling me?”

Pound Sterling started to nod, “‘E ‘as a point. Ah wri’ ta mi folks in Trottin’h’m everee week, they allus wri’ back” she pointed out. In response, Gallus turned to the remaining sceptics, Nicknames and Lightning Dust, gesturing towards Sterling like it was his next exhibit in a court trial.

“Well, say if this is happening, do you have a suspect?” questioned Nicknames hypothetically to Gallus, before turning to the others. “No offence to the rest of you, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t be telling us if you hadn’t ruled us out.”

“Correct,” Gallus nodded before he addressed the others “you’re my friends, and even if you weren’t I know three of you wouldn’t risk suspension or expulsion to pull it off and the other…” Gallus then turned to look Nicknames straight in the eyes with a smirk. “…can’t pull off something this cruel even if they tried.”

“Gee, thanks.” Nicknames acknowledged cynically.

The griffon then turned his attention to the board, he noticed that Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling's soldiers were separated into three groups, while Scythe, Nicknames, and his side were separated into five. He smiled as he found a visual reference. “That leaves only the ponies that have direct access to the mail between the mailroom and our dorms: The mailroom staff, our captain, and our staff sergeant,” he pointed to each enemy group as he explained.

“Let me get this all straight, you want us to help you get a letter past all these ponies to these friends of yours based on a wild theory you have?” asked Lightning Dust, her forearms folded, still unconvinced that Gallus’ claims hold water.

“I’ll help…”

“Same.”

Crazy as it sounded, both Scythe and Pound Sterling were on-board with helping Gallus get to the bottom of his situation, which left all eyes on Nicknames and Lightning Dust. Yet the two kept their arms folded and resistant to play along.

“Sounds ridiculous if you ask me…”

“I agree…”

Gallus pinched his beak once again and let out a heavy sigh, “I get it, I don’t have proof,” he confessed, “but it’s happening somehow and like I trust that none of you is involved, you need to trust me on this.”

“I’ve been putting up with some bad ponies in this place purely for being a griffon, but this time they’re not just going after me. If there is anyone in Equestria that I don’t want to believe that I don’t care about them, it’s my friends in Ponyville that have been by my side up until now. All I want is to tell them that I still care about them, that I still want to be their friend, I still want to write letters to Silverstream to tell her how I…”

The moment he ushered Silverstream’s name without thinking, his eyes went wide, and his voice trailed off. This got the attention of Nicknames, as much as Gallus didn’t want it to be. “Wait, Silverstream? That’s your ladybird, right?” the pegasus stallion questioned, as Gallus quickly hid his rosy face in vain. Nicknames smirked. “Okay, I’m in!”

“You are?!” Lightning Dust remarked out loud, leaving an uncomfortable silence as she quickly realised her voice got the attention of the entire class and the staff. In a haphazard response, the whole group got their heads down and pretended to move pieces around the board, pretending for a moment that their conversation didn’t happen in the slightest.

Once the class had returned to being none the wiser, Nicknames continued in a whisper. “Yeah, I’m in, we need to help him ask out his lovebird…”

“That’s not what this is about-“ before Gallus could finish interjecting, Nicknames suddenly pushed his hoof right into Gallus’ beak to hold it shut.

“…and anypony who gets in the way of two lovebirds we will have to expose them as the evil villains they are… I mean we gotta help Gallus somehow. That’s what friends do, right?”

Gallus could finally move his beak once again as soon as Nicknames let go of it. Given how smug Nicknames was and Pound Sterling snickered at the sentiment, he wanted to be annoyed, however, the corner of his mouth curved up slightly, as he couldn’t have agreed with Nicknames more at that moment.

All eyes then pointed to Lightning Dust, the last one with doubts. As she stood there, her forehooves firmly crossed. The idea that ponies are somehow withholding Gallus’ mail still sounded ridiculous, and this was Equestria where some twelve-year-old nearly took away the world’s magic for power… okay maybe it didn’t sound too ridiculous, but it still felt farfetched.

She contemplated how it would go, if she was caught snooping around, it could mean being in just as much trouble as being the actual culprit. She already had been in trouble for pulling reckless stunts in the first term, and more than anypony didn’t want to risk Captain Westland’s wrath a second time.

But on the other hand, this wasn’t about her, it was Gallus. Even if the theory was nuts, it didn’t feel right for him to not receive any mail for months without an immediate explanation. The very least she could do was help find out the reason, especially a logical one.

“Fine, count me in,” she relented with a groan. “What’s your plan?”

Seeing all his friends on his side felt invigorating, he held his head high and gave an affirmed nod, before looking at the game board in front of them. Along with the three groups on the enemy side, he could see five groups on his side, it was almost as if the layout was perfect for him to visualise the mission he’d formed in his head.

“Right, so our two objectives are to find out who is taking my letters, and to get to Ponyville.” He began, pointing to the enemy pieces to represent his suspects and the enemy base at the far end of the board as Ponyville. “We need to find out how mail gets sent out, following a letter from a letterbox to the mail office, and out of the Academy. Once we know that, we can figure out what we can do to get my letter past any potential boundaries we can find.”

As Gallus continued to explain, all the ponies at the table had their eyes fixed on his claws as he pointed and moved the pieces. Amusingly, the lecturer inspecting the games remarked to himself how their game must have been getting intense, given how serious and focused they were, unaware of what was being discussed.

“Okay, sounds straightforward in theory,” Lightning Dust acknowledged, “and our suspects will be none the wiser to this, right?” She expected, given how confident Gallus was in this plan he constructed, that Gallus would respond with a confirmation. Instead, her suspicions grew as Gallus kept silent and his eyes on the board, avoiding eye contact with her. “You haven’t told anypony else about this mail problem, right?”

“…I told Captain Westland,” he reluctantly confessed in a hasty tone. The confidence around the table drained, as Pound Sterling and Scythe sunk to sitting positions.

Lightning Dust pressed a single hoof to her face, hearing Gallus just admit to telling one of his suspects about the mail problem. Considering pointing out his mistake, she decided to just sigh and brush it off. Captain Westland isn’t the kind of pony to hide a problem from, and as platoon commander helping her cadets with problems is part of her job, so telling her might have been a wise move, assuming she’s innocent that is.

“Anypony else?” she followed.

“The captain told me to sort it out with the mailroom, so just before I got here I made a complaint… to the mail ponies…” Gallus said, this time he was pinching his beak and delivered his admission in a low, gravelly tone.

Lightning Dust upgraded her single hoof pressed to her face with two, her elbows resting on the table. “Wow Bluebird, your plan is going well so far,” she remarked sarcastically.

There was only one pony left standing over the table focused on the plan. “Wait. What’s the issue?” asked Nicknames, looking around blissfully unaware of why motivation had dropped amongst the group.

“Intelligence. Captain Westland and the mail ponies know Gallus has suspicions, so they are gonna anticipate him finding out what’s happening.” Lightning Dust answered bluntly. “If any of them are the bad guys, then any move that’s out of the ordinary, they’ll look out for and stop us. That’s why when playing this game, you’re not supposed to say your plans out loud where your enemy can hear you.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure that you changing tactics because of what I said is cheating, Dusty!” Nicknames accused while darting a glare.

“It's not cheating, it's espionage." Lightning Dust clapped back smugly. "If you understood the rules of the game, Nicknames, you’d know that.”

“Well, if you were good at this game, you wouldn’t need to hear me.”

“As if you’re much better, your side’s only winning ‘cause you have Bluebird and Mumbles on your team…”

As the two bickered on either side of the table, staring daggers at each other, Gallus was pinching his beak in frustration. It didn’t occur to him that confronting the ponies that might be taking his mail from him and his friends could either help or hinder his need to fix his mail problem.

Lightning Dust was right, if Gallus tried to figure out what was going wrong, with or without a team, the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy would find and stop him the moment something out of the ordinary. He needed to find out though, he’d let his friends go unheard for too long to wait any further, but how to do it without being stopped. Suddenly, he let go of his beak, as realization dawned on him.

“This plan can still work.”

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Gallus, “‘ow can it tho?” questioned Pound Sterling, curious as to why Gallus was confident once more.

Scythe too was curious, “We can’t do anything out of the ordinary…” he reminded Gallus.

“So, we do the ordinary,” Gallus answered, but he was still met with furrowed brows, so he explained further. “We’ll keep going to our classes, our activities, our clubs, but we take turns to follow that letter. We’ll also keep sending whatever letters we do send, as usual, one from you guys to observe and find out how normal letters get sent through, one from me so they won’t think I’m onto them. Once we know how the mail works, we’ll get the third letter sent through, that’s the one we can get past whoever is taking my letters.”

No longer could Gallus see furrowed brows, it made sense. The plan was no longer as straightforward as they initially thought, but it could work. There was just one thing Gallus needed to ask before they could proceed with the plan.

“So, who’ll send the first letter?”

“Not me, I don’t write much to my parents,” stated Nicknames, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Me neither…” Lightning Dust also stated, before turning to the other two ponies on the table. “Steppin’ Time? Mumbles?”

All eyes shifted to Pound Sterling and Scythe; both didn’t take the sudden rise. Pound Sterling tried looking away, in the hope the others on the table would stop looking at her, waiting for another option. Scythe was just sinking lower and lower, praying for another option. Gallus sighed, figuring it was too much to ask his friends to help to put the first move in. He started to think about a plan B, while there was still time in class to figure something out…

“Ah’ll do it” everyone turned to Pound Sterling, who had a confident smile on her face. “Ah’ll write a letter to mi folks, send it tomarrah.”

Gallus returned a nod and a smile to Pound Sterling, before turning to see the rest of the team. “Okay, let’s look at our schedules and work out a route” he declared, it was time to put the mission into action.

“Alright!” Nicknames quietly exclaimed and clapped his hooves together in jubilation, being careful not to get the attention of the rest of the class. “Let’s go Operation Loveletter!” Gallus suddenly felt an urge to make a response before doing any further work.

“We’re not calling it that…”

Author's Note

Hope everyone has a good Easter!

Operation Loveletter - Part 1

Dear Mum and Dad,

Hope you lot are doing alright, not workin’ too hard, are you? Not that I wittle or somethin’.

You folks remember that board game, with the world map and you move tokens to occupy countries? Turns out the Academy lets you play those kinds of games too; Gallus, Scythe, Nick, Lightning Dust, and I had a right ol’ time planning out battle strategies. I miss those games, remind me when Dad and Grandad would play chess and let me watch.

Anyway, I know it’s some time away, but I was hoping to bring Lightning Dust over when I come see you during the next break. She’s real cool, tough, independent, you folks’ll love her. I know I do.

Speak to you soon.

Love,

Pound Sterling

The letter was ready during the middle of breakfast, folded and contained in a slightly creased cream envelope and sealed tightly, just as Pound Sterling prepared all her letters. As the cadets ate in the mess hall, she dropped off the letter in a box situated in a hallway just outside. The letterbox was chosen not only for its proximity to the hall and outside the field but through the open door, Gallus and his friends had a bird’s eye view.

Although they could not be certain of when the letter would be picked up, it was after much deliberation during their wargaming class that for the first phase of their operation to work, that morning at that location was best. Given it being so early in the morning, and the hallway outside the mess hall was vacant, it was unlikely that somepony would collect the mail.

But by sheer chance, Gallus spotted a cream coloured pegasus sporting a cap and a floral green v-neck shirt approaching the letterbox and got the attention of his friends. It was Stamp, the mailpony he saw the day before, with a dazed look and noticeable creases under his eyes. The exhausted pegasus fiddled with the box, and after a short while, the group could see letters wrapped around his wing.

“Let’s move” ordered Gallus, determined not to miss the chance to pursue the pegasus, and the group got out of their seats and made their way out of the mess hall.

Stamp was far too tired to do the rounds so early in the morning, walking down the hallway with a satchel filling up with letters. He could see ponies walk past him left and right with just enough awareness, but he was oblivious to the blue griffon and four pegasus ponies that casually walked behind him metres away.

Although when he approached and turned to the next letterbox which he needed to empty, he looked down the hallway behind him, and the group were nowhere to be seen. Little did he know that he had passed a stairway that led back up to the dorms, and on that stairway, a griffon poked his head around the corner to have one more look.

“Okay, now what?” curiously whispered Nicknames, to which Gallus turned back around to see each of his friends standing on a step, waiting for his answer.

“We stick to the plan and do our drills.”

With the cool spring air blowing in the wind in front of the Academy’s main building, with all the cadets of Larson Company 1st Wing dressed smartly in their uniforms, it was time for morning drills. It was remarkable to think how boring these mornings were, given how much their ears adapted to Razorwing’s sharp bellowed orders, and how each step and turn was second nature to them. Each cadet was perfectly parallel to each other, moving in sync with jaded expressions, all avoiding being caught out by the Staff Sergeant with their sharp eyes on them.

Except for this time with the added challenge that five of them had with the additional operation they were secretly running, much to the digress of a few. “I fail to see how we can follow the letter from here,” Nicknames commented under his bated breath.

“Could you shut up?” angrily hissed Lightning Dust, standing to Nicknames’ left. “We don’t wanna get caught.”

“No talking during exercises!” yelled Staff Sergeant Razorwing, the last pony that any of the cadets wanted to be caught in trouble with at that very moment.

“Just keep your eyes peeled,” whispered Gallus, “see if you can see the mailpony passing the windows.”

As irritating as it was, it was the best situation to be for the mission to work. All of them might not be walking around inside the main building, but they had a clear view of it from the outside. When they faced the building, they could spy into the clear windows and see the ponies walking past them, just as long as it was subtle. They couldn’t be suspected of watching a mailpony do their work, besides, they were outside doing their drills.

“Don’t know how we can see this mailpony, especially when the Staff Sergeant is giving us the runaround?” said Nicknames, persisting in his complaints.

“Postie ‘eadin daahn ta left” muttered Pound Sterling from behind. Sure enough, as Gallus kept his head forward fixed to the main building, he shifted his eyes to the left and found a figure of a pegasus pony in a window. Gallus smirked when he recognised that the darkened body had the features of a shirt and satchel, just like Stamp the mailpony.

“Any more talking and I’m gonna order wing-ups for everypony!” warned Razorwing with a scream, a reminder of his good listening skills matched with his lack of patience. “…and griffon too.” A wave of groans spread across the group and no more words were spoken, at least none that weren’t ordered.

It wasn’t until after half an hour more of steps, turns, and salutes, for an update on Stamp’s position. Out of the corner of their eye, the mailpony made his way out of the front doors and started to flap his wings and drift towards the mailroom. “Alright cadets, we’re done for this morning, clear off and don’t be late,” said Razorwing, finally giving the cue for Gallus and his friends to continue their mission.

As cadets breathed a sigh of relief and dispersed, Gallus made a move. He knew he had fifteen minutes to go inside and confront the mailponies before needed to change out of his uniform and go to his next class. At least, that was what he thought he had until he felt his tail being pulled back.

“Woah, hold on Bluebird. What are you doing?” asked Lightning Dust, as she pulled Gallus away. He turned around to see his friends had followed and were standing around him.

“Uh… going inside to see what they do with the letters?” Gallus answered with confused glances.

“You mean going inside for no reason other than to watch them work? What happened to ‘do the ordinary’?”

Gallus’ face contorted as he suddenly realised what his error was. “I mean, I have a reason, my mail?” he shakily justified.

“True, but if you go in now, you think they won’t get suspicious?”

“Dusty’s got you there.” Nicknames were added with a sardonic tone.

“Well,” Gallus darted back, “how are we gonna find out?”

“We could try the window?” Nicknames were suggested, but this was immediately shut down.

“Textured glass.” Scythe muttered, pointing out that the glass was made so it would be impossible to see through it.

“Yeah, plus we’d be seen peeking in.”

“It’s like they don’t want anyone spying on them…” Scythe chose to talk sarcastically in a much quieter tone of voice.

“Would we go through the backdoor?” offered Nicknames in a second attempt.

Gallus rejected this idea as well. “We’d be seen trying to pull it open, it’d be suspicious. Time is running out. One of us has to find out what goes on in that mailroom before those letters leave the academy. Any ideas before I fly in? Nicknames? Lightning Dust? Scythe? Pound Ster-…”

As Gallus scanned his friends for any other ideas, everything halted when it became clear that one of them had gone absent.

“Steppy?”

“Where the hey did Steppin’ Time go?”

Confusion set in, Pound Sterling wasn’t standing by them, nor was she inside the main hall or on the field outside. Neither Gallus, Lightning Dust, Nicknames, nor Scythe was sure where she went off to, or even if she had been with them at all since the drills had ended. They all wondered where they were until suddenly, they heard a bell and a door opening.

They all turned in the direction of the sound, and there she was, Pound Sterling, exiting the mailroom, with a smile on her face and a small packet in her hoof, as she made the short flight to the entrance. She only stopped to land in front of her friends, all with wide-eyed faces, stunned as if she had performed some magical sorcery.

“Wot?” was Pound Sterling’s reaction with a tilt of her head, “Ah ran out of stamps an’ needed more.”

Pound Sterling was confused as she was in Gallus and Scythe’s dorm room, with Gallus and Scythe along with Lightning Dust and Nicknames, they all stared at her. She leant back in a chair against Gallus’ desk whilst her friends stood, some with stern glares while others with curious glances. It took a moment for her to think that there might be a chance she was in some form of interrogation.

The first to speak was Gallus, “So…?” he said with a long-drawn trail of curiosity.

“So, wot?” Pound Sterling shrugged.

“So how about the fact that you just went into the mailroom without telling us?” Nicknames questioned in accusation, his forearms folded as his eyes narrowed.

“Like ah said, ah needed stamps” Pound Sterling justified flippantly, the pack of stamps resting on the desk beside her, “Nuthin odd abou’ tha’ innit?”

“Steppy, it hurts for me to say this but I’m kinda on Nicknames side here” Lightning Dust interjected, with one forehoof pressed against her temple, “we’re trying to help Gallus and not get in trouble at the same time, so please say that nopony thought you were suspicious.”

Pound Sterling’s suspicions were right, this was some form of interrogation. “Dusteh, ah was in there t’ buy stamps,” she asserted, “they can’t thin’ ah were bein’ bruzzy.”

“In ponish, please?”

Pound Sterling snapped at Nicknames, ignorance at her Trottingham slang and accent was no longer tolerable. “Ah am speakin’ ponish ya wuzzuck!” She got out of her seat and got right into Nickname’s face, the two starting to growl at each other like a rival pack of canines.

To stop a fight inside the confines of the dorms, someone had to break it up. “Guys!” Gallus shouted, pushing the two ponies away before he calmed things down. “I think what she means is that mailponies won’t suspect a pony wanting to buy stamps as being nosey, right?” As Gallus turned to a crossed Pound Sterling, she snorted before giving a firm nod.

Gallus then turned to the other ponies. “So, let’s get Sterling off the hook?” with that, the ponies on both sides slowly backed away as things calmed down. “Okay. What happened inside that room? Did you see your letter?”

“Oh yeah.” Pound Sterling replied, having perked up quickly. “T’ unicorn looked at it, then put it in a bag.”

“…That’s it?” Gallus asked for confirmation, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s it.”

It felt very anticlimactic. “Anything else?” Gallus pressed further, the unicorn mailpony Pretty Petals had to be doing more than just moving the letters along to be sent off, but Pound Sterling just shrugged.

“Nothin’ out t’ ordinary.”

“No no no no no there has to be something that could stop my letters, it can’t be that easy.”

“Probably you just are putting down the wrong address.” Nicknames suggested, rolling his eyes as Gallus was starting to show denial.

After darting a glare at Nicknames, Lightning Dust offered to press her friend for more detail. “Are you sure the unicorn just looked at your letter, Steppy?”

“Yup, t’ unicorn picked up a letter, looked at it, put it in a bag.“ Pound Sterling answered, even using the packet of stamps to demonstrate how the letter was looked at firmly before being dropped off.

“The unicorn did that with every letter?”

“Nah, few were marked and put’n boxes wi’ incomin’ mail.”

“Ah-hah” Gallus exclaimed; his face lit up as he prodded Pound Sterling’s noise. “That means not all are sent off, some are rejected and sent back to whoever wrote them.” He then smugly turned to Nicknames. “Not even my letters get sent back to me, doesn’t that seem off?”

“Guess so…” Nicknames grumbled bitterly.

“Hmm… even then, I don’t get how a single unicorn can just approve or reject letters with a single look” Lightning Dust pondered. “They can’t all be because of a wrong address.”

That was when Pound Sterling recalled another detail, as she began to scratch the back of her head. “Well… ah say look, but jono ‘ow unicorns do magic?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, well ah also saw t’ unicorn zap t’ letters” she described, using a forehoof to gesture magic stuff emitting from her forehead.

It started to get curious as the group looked at each other. Unicorns tended to have a lot of different magical abilities, yet they mainly used their horns to lift objects without the need for their hooves for ease of use. That just left a question, “Why would a unicorn be zapping the letters?”

“It’s a see-through spell…”

A quiet suggestion emerged from Scythe, something about a see-through spell. Why would Pretty Petals want to see through the envelopes before accepting or rejecting the letters? One by one, realisation dawned on them as to why some dawned more than others.

“They read our letters…”

Reactions then went to one of two avenues, Pound Sterling’s eyes went wide and a flush crept up her face. Internally, she was freaking out upon discovering that her messages to her folks were being read, even the ones that mentioned Lightning Dust.

Others were slightly indifferent. “Kinda makes sense, the E.U.P. Guard wouldn’t want military secrets going out.” Lightning Dust reasoned.

Nicknames was in the same camp as Lightning Dust, “Yeah, even if it means somepony reads Bluebird’s love letters,” he snickered. Gallus, oblivious to Nicknames giving him a light-hearted punch on the arm, was equally as wide-eyed and pale as Pound Sterling.

He only broke out of his faze when another thought emerged from this new revelation. “It means that that unicorn knows which letters are for me and from me".

Pound Sterling broke out of her faze as well. “Aye sounds like it,” she agreed. As far as suspects go, Pretty Petals became the main culprit. The prior knowledge to see which letters Gallus’ were meant only she could prevent them from being sent out or being put into Gallus’ talons to read. Gallus recalled her darting glare and judgy tone from their last encounter, perhaps Stamp knows what she’s doing but is pressured to keep quiet for some ulterior motive.

If Gallus needs to send a message to his friends, their obstacle is her, and all his friends thought the same. “How are we gonna get a letter past her then?” Lightning Dust opened.

As motivated as Gallus was, Pretty Patel’s magic quickly became a bigger mental obstacle than he’d hoped. “I was hoping that sending my usual letter would have been enough to sneak an actual letter past but…”

“The unicorn will find it with magic” Lightning Dust followed.

“Maybe you can add your letter to somepony else’s envelope?” Nicknames offered.

“The unicorn will find it with magic.” Lightning Dust asserted, shooting the idea down quickly.

“Well… maybe you could write in invisible ink?” Nicknames were suggested as a second attempt.

“Do you have invisible ink?”

“…no?” he sheepishly admitted.

“Any other bright ideas?”

Lightning Dust smirked this time, which ticked Nicknames off. “Hey, at least I’m spitballing here” he replied angrily in defence. “Mumbles over there I’d expect not to say anything, but I haven’t heard any ideas from you.” Scythe slowly lowered his head with his mouth trembling and moved a few paces backwards, as Nicknames and Lightning Dust started to dart glares at each other.

“I have one idea” Lightning Dust countered, “Gallus should go to the post office in Canterlot and send his letter there instead.”

“Can’t do that…” Gallus swiftly replied.

“Why not? It can get sent without mailponies at the Academy finding it and keeping it to themselves.”

To Lightning Dust’s surprise, Gallus went right up to her, able to see his knitted brows and feeling his talons poke into her chest as he listed his reasons.

“First of all, how long do we have here until the next chance I go to Canterlot? Several days, a week at best? Second, I shouldn’t have to fly to the city to send letters while all you ponies send letters here. Third, if my friends get my letter, how are they gonna send letters to me?” Lightning Dust was left stunned, she hadn’t seen him get this angry with her since Exercise Long Reach, yet that time it was for an idea that almost got him, and others struck by lightning.

Her ears drooped, “Sorry, just an idea…” she apologized quietly.

The griffon took on the apology, as he sighed. “Yeah, it solves a symptom, not the problem…” He then looked at the time, there were a few minutes left of break, enough time to avoid being late. “We’ve got to go to our next class. We can brainstorm later.”

Lightning Dust, Pound Sterling, and Nicknames slowly walked out of the room, all dejected. Gallus wasn’t feeling much better as he stared at the graduation photo with him and his friends. This operation he set up sounded easy in his mind, but now it seemed like he had no choice other than to wait and hope his “mail problem” sorted itself out.

What worried him was if his friends could forgive him, and if so, would they be as likely to later rather than sooner. He pinched his beak in frustration, as the only remaining pony in the room walked up beside Gallus to give his apology.

“Sorry, Gallus… I wanna help but… I don’t want to get in trouble,” he admitted shakily, his voice starting to crack and his lips still trembling.

“Well, unless some bright idea appears, my best shot is waiting to go back to Canterlot,” Gallus responded bleakly. “Catch you later.”

Gallus made his exit from the room, with Scythe slowly departing soon after.

Sadly, all the way to the afternoon, there were no bright ideas. In fact, none of them was in the mood to talk about the operation after the argument that went on earlier that morning. Instead, the cadets just carried on with their routine, preoccupying their time with their classes and clubs.

Scythe was having another lesson in Yakyaki with Major Babel, a refresher on Yak culture and customs, with the Major providing roleplay exercises on conversing with locals in the Yak regions. Yaks prefer a way of life that is direct and to the point, pronouns are almost non-existent because it's customary to refer to someone directly by name, or at least a brief description to make it clear.

Whenever Major Babel did mock conversations, he was always firm on knowing who is being spoken to and who is being spoken about. Sometimes he’d cut Scythe off mid-sentence, stamp his hoof, and demand in a gruff voice. He’d argue he does it based on experience, but something in Scythe’s mind hints it’s a bit old fashioned.

Regardless, after a few scenarios, Major Babel felt satisfied. “Well Scythe, I’ve got to say you’re getting the hang of this,” he said proudly. “If I had more resources, I’d start you now with some real-world exercises.”

Scythe tilted his head, “Real-world exercises?” he quizzed the Major. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when I was your age, the Academy sent me and a couple of students to Studgart, where we went to markets, cafés, restaurants, and could only speak Germane with the locals. That’s the most real-world as you could get” he explained. “However, when I came back to teach here decades later, the Academy cut the funding so I could only invite foreign or bilingual ponies to talk with the students. Now that I can only tutor you privately, I’m even more limited.”

He sounded incredibly bitter about how the language classes changed the moment he became a teacher, standing by Scythe with his shoulders hunched and his hooves folded. It sounded like he had to deal with the course that inspired him in his youth being slowly stripped away for a while.

“I can’t see the Academy approving the idea of a yak coming down here anytime soon, let alone provide a budget for one.”

The Major fumed and went back to his desk, he opened a drawer and a black book levitated out and landed at the centre of his desk. The book then opened as he looked through the pages being flipped through. “I’ll look through some contacts from my old job, a pony with your passion for learning would benefit greatly from communicating with a yak who speaks and writes in Yakyaki as a first language. It might take a few weeks, but once I find someyak you can write a letter introducing yourself and get a conversation going.”

“Yeah, that would be great.” Scythe tried his best to sound as optimistic and eager as he could, not just in the hopes of keeping Major Babel’s spirits as high as they could be, but the idea of speaking with actual Yaks sounded much better than a unicorn “acting” like one.

The Major gave a half-smile as he continued to look through the book, before giving up and turning his eyes back to Scythe. “When that happens though, you’ll have to show me your letters to look at first,” he instructed, before leaning back and waving a hoof from side to side. “I won’t judge what you want to write about, but I can check for spelling, grammar, and errors that might offend,” he assured. “Once it’s good enough I can make sure your letter is pre-approved for the send-off.”

Scythe did a double-take “Pre…approved?” he remarked slowly to be sure he heard those words correctly.

“Oh yeah, not sure if you’re aware but the E.U.P. Guard have letters checked to make sure no classified information goes out,” the Major explained, before leaning forward. “It’s excessive for the Academy but it’s a E.U.P. institution so we follow the rules,” he muttered, covering one side of his mouth with his hoof and his eyes shifting from side to side, before returning to an upright posture.

“Anyway, the ponies who check the letters can’t be expected to read foreign languages, so the Academy allows letters to bypass those checks if a high-ranking official with fluency in a foreign language confirms that the letter meets the rules.” As he returned to his drawer, a rubber stamp covered in dust emerged and was planted firmly on the table. “The mailponies see this stamp with my signature, and they’ll send it off like it was a normal letter going through the post office in Canterlot.”

Slowly, Scythe’s face glowed as an idea formed in his head. If there was a way for him to send a letter to Gallus’ friend, a way that went past Pretty Petal’s see-through checking, then there would be a way for Gallus to send a letter to his friends without going to Canterlot.

“Major Babel. What if I have a friend… of a friend… who’s a yak.” Scythe asked as if hypothetical was. “If I start writing letters to them… would that count?”

The Major looked back flabbergasted, the cadet in front of him already had a connection with a yak? It might explain his interest in the language somewhat, he quickly composed himself and thought to himself. “Well… it would make a good start.” After a moment to think, he gave a firm nod. If Scythe were to start communications sooner than planned, he’d have more time to progress the lessons. “Check with your friend first that it’s okay and then come to me with your first letter. For now, you’re dismissed.”

Scythe beamed; the corners of his mouth stretched from ear to ear. “Thank you, Major!” he exclaimed excitedly with a salute, before dashing out of the Major’s office. He just had the bright idea.

Meanwhile back in the dorms, Gallus was busy using his study hour to research strategies and tactics, sitting at his desk and scanning through his textbooks for anything that could inspire ideas to sneak through a letter past the meticulous eyes of Pretty Petals.

He did find out some creative tactics though, such as how the E.U.P. Guard tricked an army of diamond dogs into thinking they would attack at a certain location by leaving fake documents on the body of a deceased pony, making it appear as if they drowned and washed up on a river. It was successful to catch the “ruthless canines” off guard as earth ponies took over vulnerable targets with little resistance, with their main defences off somewhere else.

However, it wasn’t like Gallus could use a dead pony to trick a bunch of mailponies to sneak a letter through, so it was scrapped. He needed something creative but realistic, some quirk of the rules that could allow him to sneak his message out undetected.

Suddenly, the door was abruptly opened and slammed shut. “Gallus! I’ve got it!” exclaimed an excited pony.

The alarmed Gallus sharply turned his head to the direction of the door, only to see Scythe flapping a foot off the ground with a large grin on his face. Although he’s seen Scythe happy before, it felt concerning for Gallus to see Scythe THIS happy for something. “Uh… got what?” he asked cautiously.

That was when Scythe zoomed forward until he was arm’s length away from his griffon friend. “An idea! A bright idea!” he gleefully answered. “You can send a letter by adding it with mine!” What intrigue Gallus had started to dissipate, he started to pinch in frustration as he felt reminded of why it wouldn’t work.

“Scythe, we already ruled that idea out.”

While Scythe didn’t ignore what Gallus said as he went straight to his desk, he didn’t let what was said phase him as he took out a piece of paper and began to write on it. “I know, but this is different” he enthusiastically assured Gallus, before picking up the piece of paper and pushing it into his friend’s face. “Here!”

Gallus didn’t appreciate having his eyes covered by a piece of paper, so he grabbed the sheet with his talons and gently pushed Scythe back to get some personal space to read it. The sheet of paper was mostly blank, except for a line at both the top and the bottom in some form of cryptic message. He furrowed his brow, the more he looked at them, the less sense they made. “Uh… what are these symbols?” he felt compelled to ask.

“It’s ’Dear Silverstream’ and ‘From, Gallus’ written in the Yakyaki alphabet.” Scythe beamed after saying it with pride.

For Gallus, it was eye-opening, as if a random thought of how his name could be written was fulfilled. “Huh, okay. Explain this to me?” he followed up, interested in how it fits with the letters.

“Major Babel says he wants me to communicate with Yaks in Yakyaki, and you have a friend who’s a Yak.” Scythe explained, pointing to Gallus' graduation photo by the griffon’s desk. Specifically, his focus was on the yak cuddling a green pony as if it was a large stuffed animal.

“You mean Yona?”

“Right! So, I can write a letter to Yona, and you can write a letter which I’ll translate and add to mine, it’ll be like if the entire thing was written by one pony and only Yona would know otherwise.”

Gallus pictured the process in his mind, imagining the letter being scanned by the unicorn in the mailroom. They couldn’t prove it was written by two different cadets if they couldn’t read the letter, so it wouldn’t be an immediate rejection. “That could work… but won’t it raise alarms with the mail ponies?” quizzed Gallus, recognising the first hurdle of this new plan.

“That’s the best part” an eager Scythe followed. “Major Babel can pre-approve my letter, giving it a stamp and his signature after reviewing it. He says the mail ponies will just accept it and send it off.”

Gallus replayed the scenario back in his mind, with the addition of this pre-approval stamp and signature from company commander and language expert Major Babel. Awe transformed his face, “So not only would Pretty Petals be unable to figure out what I’d be writing, but it’ll have a mark of approval from a trusted official to let it through and be sent straight to Yona.” He realised, diminishing the doubts that had enveloped him through most of the afternoon.

Scythe nodded fervently before he was pulled into a tight hug “Scythe you’re a genius!” exclaimed Gallus. He finally had a way to tell his friends the truth, and all it needed was his roommate, Yona, and a stamp of approval to fool the officials. There’s no way it could go wrong!

At least, that was what Gallus thought at first before it dawned on him. “Wait, but if you get caught… you’d get in trouble… the Academy, Canterlot Palace, the language classes…”

Scythe’s positivity broke when Gallus reminded him of this risk of his plan, it worried him. If he was caught, Major Babel could no longer trust him and bar him from doing the language classes, which would make him unhappy. If he was caught, he could be suspended from the Academy and have his confirmed candidacy from Canterlot Palace revoked, which would make his dad unhappy.

His ears drooped at the thought, “I don’t want to get in trouble but…” he acknowledged with a tremble, but this time he took a deep breath and reminded himself of why he was taking this risk. “I don’t want you losing friends either, the Academy shouldn’t let that happen.” It was that last line that made Scythe sure that whatever the risk was, it was worth it to help his friend, the same way his friend helped him.

Granted, he didn’t put this plan just to help his friend, he had his motives. “Especially if they’re friends, I want to meet someday…” he admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

With a smile on his face and a new feeling of determination, Gallus nodded. “Okay, start writing your letter, I’ll write mine,” he told Scythe. Operation Loveletter was set back in motion.

Operation Loveletter - Part 2

The day following Scythe’s bright idea, Gallus waited outside the Keating-Rogers company command office, while Scythe was inside the office with Major Babel. As far as the company block goes, its corridors aren’t that much different from the Larson company block that the two cadets reside in.

Yet, for Gallus, there was an odd nostalgic feeling to it. He chuckled to himself recalling how he dragged Scythe to this place and shoved him into the office, just to give him the courage to ask for these language lessons he eagerly takes regularly.

The corridor itself was virtually empty, nopony was around nor was there any sound, just the griffon loitering against the wall, arms folded and with one talon tapping against his arm. It was the study hour after all, so any staff member was most likely in their office doing paperwork while the cadets were in their dorms doing coursework or studying.

Gallus couldn’t even tell what was going on inside Major Babel’s office, the door was closed shut and the only sounds were the light muffled dialogue between the two ponies inside, although at some point after a long silence there was a muffled thud that was hard to make out.

It made the moment the office door opened, and Scythe stepped out of the office, exceptionally loud and jarring by comparison. Gallus had to hurriedly flatten and straighten his puffed-out feathers to recover from the shock his ears sustained.

The two made their way down the stairs and through more corridors, heading back to their dorms. They both remained poker-faced, even if no one was around, they didn’t want ponies to overhear them.

It was only on the stairwell up to their block that Gallus leaned his head towards Scythe to ask the one thing on his mind since waiting for him. “So, did you get it?” he whispered. Scythe smiled and reached around towards his side, hidden underneath his wing was what “it” was.

Hanging off his teeth, Scythe had his freshly written letter to Yona, except all Gallus could see was the back of it with a crimson stamp imprint of a box. On its left was the E.U.P. Guard logo, and on the right was text stating that the letter was pre-approved, followed by an ink inscribed signature of “Major Tower Babel”.

Relief set in, and Gallus simpered. “Nice, well now here’s my assignment to you.” He then retrieved a sheet of paper under his wing, and Scythe carefully nested his letter back under his wing before having a look at what Gallus wrote:

Hey Yona,

I know it might be strange reading a letter from me like this, but this was the only way I could write to you.

There is a reason why we haven’t seen letters from each other, and it’s not because of my friends at the Academy, it’s the Academy itself. I found out they can read our letters, and somepony is taking them to prevent us from talking to each other.

We’re getting to the bottom of it, all I can say right now is I’m sorry; to you, Sandbar, Ocellus, Smolder, and Silverstream, that I didn’t get onto this sooner. If you want to tell me something, write back to Scythe, you can trust him as much as I do.

Till next time,

Gallus

It was clear and direct, telling his friends why he couldn’t send them letters until now. Although Scythe was more distracted with how touched he was that Gallus trusted him. “How quick can you translate it?” Gallus queried. Scythe jumped and shook himself back to attention.

“I can get it done by tonight.”

“Good, we can send the whole thing in the morning, those mailponies won’t suspect a…” Gallus’ voice trailed off as he stopped just around the corner from the Larson company block, using his arm as a barrier to prevent Scythe from moving any further. He caught sight of a light pink unicorn wearing a floral green v-neck, just as she was entering the office of platoon commander Captain Westland, with a large binder following her in the air in a golden magical aura.

After that door was shut, the two were left perplexed and held in silence. Ponies have seen Stamp the mail pony go around the Academy to collect letters from the boxes around the main building but never had Pretty Petals been seen around the same building before.

“Why is she here?”

“I don’t know…” Scythe quietly responded, but before he could finish Gallus had dashed forward, causing the pegasus to panic. “Gallus, wait!”

With curiosity having taken over, Gallus went right up to Captain Westland’s office. Just like in Major Babel’s office, the closed-door made the conversation muffled, but when he pressed his ear right against the door, he could barely make out the conversation.

“Is all of this correct?” said Captain Westland on the other side of the door.

“All of it” confirmed Pretty Petals, “I knew something wasn’t right, especially after that griffon showed up.”

“First, my cadet is called Gallus” stated Westland in an assertive tone, Gallus could only imagine her scowling, at least somepony high-ranking sees himself as more than his species. The captain continued, serious but returned to a calm state. “Apart from that, thank you for your cooperation, this is worse than I thought. I’ll start putting a report together, in the meantime, carry on with your work and let me know if anything develops. We can’t let him think for a moment that we’re onto him before we get the higher-ups to confront him.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He then heard muffled hoofsteps, quickly getting clearer as Pretty Petals approached the door. Gallus flung himself back to the corner where Scythe was standing, getting out of view just in time for Pretty Petals to emerge from the office into a seemingly empty corridor. It was fortunate that the unicorn walked down a different set of stairs, or she would have caught a griffon and pegasus pony pinned against the wall trying to hide from her.

“What happened?” Scythe asked with concern, as all he saw was Gallus with terror overtaking his face.

“We might have a problem… “

On the following morning, Scythe stood in front of the letterbox outside of the mess hall, with a finished envelope in his hoof. He managed to finish translating Gallus’ page the night before as promised, his page had the stamp of approval, and all that was left was to put it in the envelope.

Except, his nerves were holding him back. The letterbox was the same one that Pound Sterling used during the first phase of Operation Loveletter, chosen for its close vicinity to the mess hall, and could be seen with a direct line of sight from their table at breakfast. Back then, the risk felt non-existent, but with Pretty Petals talking to Captain Westland the day before, this felt different.

Suddenly, he felt a claw rest on his shoulder, causing the Pegasus to jump in place. He quickly turned to see it was just Gallus. “Relax, it’ll be fine” he reassured Scythe, “they’re not after your letter. They’ll be after this.”

In his other bright amber claw was a white envelope, during the same night Scythe was working, Gallus wrote his letter. Gallus didn’t say exactly what he wrote in it, excuse is for her eyes only, although he did say what he wrote wouldn’t give anypony reading it any suspicion that he was onto anybody.

Essentially, its sole purpose was to distract Pretty Petals with a letter from Gallus to divert attention from Scythe’s. Gallus lightly pushed his into the letterbox, letting it fall in effortlessly. Scythe wished he had that amount of confidence, even with the assurances, there was still doubt in the Pegasus pony’s mind.

However, this was his plan, and Gallus still wanted to carry it out, despite the added caution. As such, Scythe breathed in, and hurriedly pushed his letter into the letterbox, before quickly turning away. As the letter hit the bottom of the box, he knew for certain that there was no turning back on this plan.

The two made their way into the mess hall and got breakfast, oatmeal that was simple and easy to eat, before heading to their usual table. The rest were there too, already eating their cereals and bowls of hay. That was except for Pound Sterling, who brought along her camera to take photos of the hall, having barely touched her cooked meal of potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, and leaves.

She was the first to catch sight of Gallus and Scythe, “Ay up, Bluebird, Mumbles, smile!” she eagerly greeted them and aimed her camera at them. Though, her ears drooped as the two walked past her lens and sat down, clearly not in the mood. “Yall allreet?”

“We’re fine.” Gallus sighed and kept his eyes fixed on the letterbox, while Scythe nodded while his eyes were fixed down towards his bowl of oatmeal.

Pound Sterling turned to Lightning Dust, giving her a puzzled look. The smaller, fiery-maned mare agreed that something was up with the two. “You sure don’t look like it.”

“We were up late, just planning stuff,” said Gallus, verbally batting away the suspicions.

Sitting on the other side of Scythe was Nicknames, in the middle of eating when he decided to butt in. “Was it Operation Loveletter stuff?” he queried; his voice garbled by the chewed hay stuffed in his cheeks.

Neither Gallus nor Scythe answered, but Gallus shifted his eyes towards Nicknames, and Scythe towards Gallus, before his eyes were focused back on the letterbox outside. “This again?” groaned Lightning Dust. “I thought it was clear you can’t get a letter through, at least not in a way that ‘solves the problem and not a symptom’” she emphasised her frustration of having her ideas shot down with a nasal voice and curling her hooves into air quotes.

Gallus pinched his beak and turned towards Lightning Dust, “Look, I’m sorry about that,” he apologised. “I was frustrated and took it out on you, but now we’re getting somewhere.” The mare tilted her head, as Gallus continued. “Scythe here told me he might have a way to get my letter sent through him, a way that Pretty Petals can’t detect. The only reason we’re uneasy is that we just don’t want to get caught, that’s all.”

Despite the succinct explanation, the rest glanced quizzically at each other. “Okay, but why do you think you’ll get caught?” asked Lightning Dust, her head remaining tilted. “You have the mail problem, but not Mumbles. The whole ‘do the ordinary’ part of this plan has worked so far, none of our superiors has asked us anything.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you overheard our platoon commander secretly talking about us,” Nicknames added, realising that his hypothetical was hitting a target as Scythe’s head lowered and Gallus scratched the back of his. “You did, didn’t you?”

“Westland’s been talking to Pretty Petals…”

It took a while for Nicknames to catch on to what Scythe mumbled, but once he realised, he went pale.

“So, she’s on to us?”

“No, she’s on to me… maybe” Gallus snapped back. “She’s writing a report and said something about not wanting someone to catch on to them, so it could be me or somepony else.”

Lightning Dust folded her forehooves and rolled her eyes. “Well, this plan is getting better and better,” she remarked sarcastically.

Darting a glare in Lightning Dust’s direction, Gallus continued. “Point is unless we find out some more specifics, this new plan is our best shot. I’ve even written an additional letter that is no different from my usual ones, so Pretty Petals might take the bait and let Scythe’s through.”

“And then what? If your letter does manage to get out, your friends still need to find a way to send a letter to you.” Lighting Dust pointed out. “If going all the way to Canterlot to send letters isn’t a good idea, I don’t see how this plan you and your roomie have is much better. If you don’t want to wait it out, your best bet is to catch them in the act.”

As Gallus listened further, he became frustrated. She was right, as good, and immediate as this plan was, it was no more elaborate than just going to Canterlot. He turned his focus back on the letterbox, he needed to think of a way to stop his letters from being taken in the first place.

Except it wasn’t so simple, there was the challenge of getting into the mailroom without the ponies knowing, catching them while they’re not watching, and then finding somepony he could trust to step in and stop them from doing what they’re doing. There had to be a way, but there was something he was missing.

The then-vacant letterbox was then met by a pegasus with a green v-neck shirt and satchel, Stamp the mailpony, doing his usual morning routine of collecting the letters inside. The mail pony, visibly exhausted, fiddled with the box before getting it opened. He then looked inside and started picking out the letters and moving them into his satchel, nothing out of the usual.

Then he looked at an envelope, looked left, then looked right, and then Stamp hid the envelope underneath his wing instead of placing it in the satchel with the others. This was strange, strange enough that realisation dawned on his face as a new question popped into his mind: What if when he first grew suspicious in that mailroom if he suspected the wrong pony?

What if the pony taking Gallus’ letters was the friendly, upbeat pegasus this whole time? The one is currently outside the mailroom? A new plan had begun to form in Gallus’ head as he narrowed his eyes, “Yeah, maybe this plan could strike two ponies with one stone…“ before his friends could understand what Gallus meant, he grabbed his bowl of oatmeal and downed the lot, much to the surprise of his platoon at the table.

As Stamp went down the hallway, he remained oblivious to the griffon and for Pegasus cadets behind him, just like last time. When he reached the next letterbox to empty, he looked down the hallway behind him, the group was not there. Just as they had done previously, they used the stairway to avoid being noticed.

Except for this time, there was a slight change to the plan. “Hey, Pound Sterling” Gallus whispered, “I need to borrow your camera.”

“Worra yer on wi?” asked Pound Sterling, carrying the camera under her arm.

“You lot go on ahead, cover me, I need to find out something.”

“Bluebird, you out of your mind?!” Nicknames said in an alarmed undertone, avoiding being overheard. “We’ve got morning drills; you can’t skip them unless you want the Staff Sarge to burn you alive!”

“Look, I’m onto something here. If Razorwing sees I’m missing, just stall him” Gallus implored, there wasn’t time to explain why he needed to go after Stamp. Granted, there wasn’t time for the others to deliberate unless they wanted to be in trouble with Razorwing themselves.

Lightning Dust shrugged, “Alright, your funeral” she quipped, before walking off down the hallway. This was followed by Pound Sterling, who cautiously passed the camera into Gallus’ talons, then Nicknames who looked upwards and whistled innocently, pretending he didn’t see anything. Last was Scythe, who just gave a silent nod of trust before following the rest of the crew.

The griffon then continued to follow behind the mail pony, approaching one letterbox, opening it up, collecting the letters and putting them in his satchel. It made it more suspicious, Gallus swore he saw Stamp put at least one envelope under his wing, so he continued to pursue. One letterbox after another, Stamp collected letters as if everything was ordinary, barring the griffon a distance behind him hiding behind the corners of walls.

At least until Stamp stopped, and looked behind him and side to side, before departing the corridor he was in through an open door. Peeking inside, Gallus could see it was a dark classroom, he furrowed his brow as to why Stamp didn’t bother to turn on a light switch, there wasn’t a window to give ambient light.

Instead, the only light present in the room was a desk lamp, giving a warm yellow glow around the Pegasus pony’s face, Gallus promptly took his camera out, using the partially closed door as cover.

He saw Stamp retrieve the single envelope from under his wing, so he took a photo. Seeing Stamp retrieve what looked like a large gold object from his satchel, he took another photo. When he saw Stamp place the object on the envelope, causing a cold icy blue glow to emerge, he snapped a photo.

After a moment, it stopped glowing, and Stamp picked up the envelope, as it opened without a single tear, as if the sealing wax was completely dissolved. Finally, Stamp carefully pulled out the paper folded and enclosed inside the envelope and began to read it, so Gallus took a photo.

“Hmm… this is the griffon’s letter alright,” Stamp muttered to himself, unaware that Gallus could overhear him prove what Gallus had suspected, it was the Pegasus who was taking his letters. “Best put it with the others to be safe…” The mail pony then carefully restored the letter to its folded state, reinserted it back into its envelope and returned it to the underside of his wing.

Meanwhile out in the corridor, Gallus felt his heart sink. Out of all the ponies he suspected, Stamp, the friendly and upbeat Pegasus, was the one preventing him from sending a single letter to his friends. He could have seen it from the ponies who acted like jerks to him or acted as if they were spying on him, but Stamp?

It started to frustrate him, infuriate him, somepony so sneaky by being somepony so nice, and a Pegasus no less! He ground his teeth and tightened his claws, unaware that he still had Pound Sterling’s camera clenched in his claws.

CLICK! brrrrrrRRRRRRR

The camera captured another photo. Unbeknownst to Gallus, the film had run out, and the spool rolled around longer and louder than it usually did. The blue griffon’s heart stopped, and he began to panic, "shutupshutupshutup!" he quietly pleaded to the camera. When he saw Stamp’s ears flick upwards in the corner of his eyes, he panicked and fled down the hallway, knowing he had been heard.

He managed to leap around the corner, narrowly avoiding being spotted by an alert Stamp popping his head out the door and darting his eyes from side to side. “Who goes there?” he called out in a grunt, a stark contrast from his pleasant demeanour knowing that someone was watching him, even if he wasn’t doing good things himself.

Managing to evade being detected, Gallus' heart was racing, and his mind was muddled. He needed to figure out what to do next. Maybe confront Stamp? How would that turn out, a cadet going after a staff pony, a griffon cadet no less? Maybe one of his friends back in the courtyard? Which one? What help or advice would they offer? Maybe one of his superiors? I mean, he had doubts about them before, but clearly, the scenario he’s in at that moment proved he can be wrong.

All his options circled his brain, and he had a short amount of time to choose one, and then moved. Then he decided.

“Westland”

Outside, it didn’t take long for Gallus’ absence to become apparent.

“Alright you lot, after this many months I’d expect all of you to be here on time and notice one of you missing.” Bellowed Staff Sergeant Razorwing towards the platoon outside in a straight and evenly spaced line in front of the main building. Demanding some answer for Gallus’ lack of presence, he first approached Nicknames. “Where’s Griffon?”

“Uh, who, sir?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Nick. I know you’re one of the ponies that hang around with him and gave him a cute little nickname, where has Griffon wandered off to?”

Nicknames shrugged, “Last I saw he was talking to Dusty, sir,” his clueless demeanour left little to work on, so Razorwing turned his attention to Lightning Dust.

“Don’t look at me!” she snapped defensively, resisting the urge to glare a hole into the Pegasus who called on her, as she remembered who she was meant to stall. “…sir… last time I saw him was in the mess hall. Didn’t he ask you something, Steppy?” she then asked the taller mare beside her, as did Razorwing.

“Uh… yeah, about mi’ cam’ra,” answered Pound Sterling with a slight glow for added effect, but Razorwing hard a fixed glare in her direction, “buh ah dunno where ‘e went afta.” Her follow-up was shaky but was broad and vague enough not to provide much help either.

After a moment of silence, Razorwing turned to the last pony who he was confident would know. “Alright Rosewood, why isn’t your friend here?” he asked Scythe, standing in front of and staring down the wide-eyed amber Pegasus.

“I…I…uh…” Scythe could barely make a sound, let alone start a sentence.

Razorwing groaned and sat back on his hind hooves, “You know, this platoon is not in good standing this morning already, so the next words you say are gonna matter if your buddies are gonna get it easy or not.” He figured the test would be enough to get Scythe to crack, whether it’d be to lie or screw around to get himself in trouble or tell the truth.

As Scythe’s eyes shifted towards his platoon and the windows behind him, eventually he opened.

“He took Sterling’s camera and said he was looking into something…”

“What’s more important for griffon than being here?”

“…his letters?”

It wasn’t an answer he expected, but Razorwing got the answer he was looking for. “Everypony stays here, if I find you’ve moved an inch, it’ll be double duty.” He then turned and flew his way into the building and through the corridor.

He figured that if Gallus was doing something with the mail, and wasn’t making his way to the mail department office, he was likely following the route mail ponies to take to collect them from the boxes. It wasn’t a route Razorwing was familiar with, but he followed the letterboxes from the mess hall, anticipating catching him.

By his luck, he saw a bright blue blur whizz past him, although based on where they were, this blur was going in the direction of Larson Company, and Captain Westland’s office. “GRIFFON, HALT!” he ordered at the top of his voice, and the blur stopped, revealing to Razorwing the rear view of a feline posterior with wings.

“Where in Twilight’s name do you think you’re going?”

Gallus performed an about-face to look at Razorwing directly, “Staff Sergeant, I need to report to Captain Westland, sir” he replied promptly with a stoic look on his face.

“Wrong answer, you need to be outside doing drills.” Razorwing shot back. “You can see Captain Westland later.”

“No, you don’t understand, sir. There’s a mail pony named Stamp who’s taking letters for himself, and he’ll get away with it if Westland doesn’t stop him.”

“Listen here Griffon, I’m not here to waste time listening to conspiracies, I’m ordering you to march down to the courtyard.” He raised his voice and stretched one of his forearms outwards towards the stairs leading down, and yet Gallus remained firmly where he stood.

That was when Gallus gritted his teeth again, “Just shut up and look!” he showed a stack of printed photos and held them in front of Razorwing’s face. The sergeant swiped them out of the griffon’s claws and gave them a proper look, and sure enough, they showed a mail pony taking a letter addressed to Ponyville and using some magic stone to read its contents.

“I get it, you’re a hardass, but I know you’re a good leader,” Gallus stated bluntly. “That’s why you came to find me instead of carrying on without me, isn’t it? Because you set an example to never skip on training, just like you don’t tolerate those who talk back or be cocky. Well, I want to set good examples, such as not tolerating those that get between me and my friends, and I know Captain Westland feels the same way. Please, don’t let that mail pony get away with this.”

Razorwing eyes were fixed on the photos, he didn’t show a single reaction to what Gallus said, even though his straightened ears would have heard the blunt remarks and plea for help. The Staff Sergeant then placed the photos underneath his wing.

“Well, if you want to set good examples, you can start by setting an example to your fellow cadets who are practising drill movements without you.” He then repeated his last order, with an added instruction. “Go to the courtyard, you’re doing shuttle flights while everypony else watches until I get back. Understood?”

Gallus lowered his head and grumbled, “Yes, Staff Sergeant” he uttered, before making the walk down the stairs and out of the courtyard. Razorwing considered following, but in the corner of his eye he noticed a pegasus pony with a green shirt and satchel wandering along the hallway, looking side to side in search of something, and Razorwing figured he might be able to help.

“You know, I did say the Staff Sarge would burn you alive.”

Nicknames were rather smug as his head followed Gallus flying back and forth on the courtyard, the short flaps in the air before landing and turning taking more energy than a long-distance flight would.

Doing it in front of the entire platoon was an odd punishment, but it did provide some mild entertainment for the cadets, given how they had spent several minutes standing in a line doing nothing but wait for Razorwing to come back. Fortunately for Gallus, some did take pity on him as his muscles started to wear, his heart rate increased whilst the air in his lungs decreased.

“Ah think you can stop ‘n breathe, jono.” Pound Sterling offered.

“Not… gonna… risk… it…” Gallus countered, gasping for air.

“ATTENTION!” The sharp call of Staff Sergeant Razorwing called for every cadet to stand upright and in line. That was except for Gallus, who finally stopped flying and collapsed on the ground to regain oxygen on the gravel surface.

He relaxed for only a few minutes before he could feel himself being pulled up to his paws and claws, followed by the sight of Razorwing with his hardstone glare. “Griffon, report to Captain Westland in her office immediately,” he ordered.

“Yes… Staff Sergeant.”

As Gallus stumbled his way back towards the main building, he could hear Razorwing barking orders to the rest of the platoon behind him. The journey to the Captain’s office was made longer by his lack of energy to fly, but by the time he gradually arrived at the door, he had enough to raise his arm to knock.

A muffled yet direct “Come in.” was uttered from the door, prompting Gallus to open it. Even with his aches and pains, he was able to march in and salute without much strain. Captain Westland was at her desk, her eyes fixed on a short stack of papers in front of her, writing line after line from the moment the griffon entered her office. “Officer Cadet Gallus, thank you for reporting promptly,” she acknowledged.

Then from a drawer underneath her desk, she picked up a stack of three photographs and placed them in the centre of the desk, revealing to Gallus that these were the photos he took and gave to Razorwing. “Tell me, when I said you should resolve your mail issue, did you think I meant snooping around?” she asked Gallus, looking at him with her deadpan mood, leaving him with a discomforting lack of certainty about her reaction to said evidence in front of her.

“No, ma’am?”

Immediately after he answered, Captain Westland slammed both of her hooves into the desk and stood upwards, “Then what were you thinking?” she followed in a raised and angered voice, causing everything from Gallus to the stacks of paper on the desk to be taken aback.

“I…” Gallus was left nervous; he could see the metaphorical clouds of thunder looming over them both as she stared him down like a hawk. “I wanted to prove to my friends I wasn’t ignoring them.”

After a tense moment, Captain Westland took a deep breath, and the dark clouds dissipated. “Well, you got your proof, and I’ve gotten a few more. Staff Sergeant Razorwing brought Stamp here a few moments ago, and with a bit of… persuasion, we managed to find these with his belongings.”

She then reached back into her drawer and placed more items onto the desk for Gallus to see, first was Gallus’ envelope with its clean unopened seal, and the stone Stamp was using. Recognition dawned on Gallus’ face now he could see the stone up close and in clear daylight, he remembered a unicorn who used a similar medallion with a red ribbon to teleport from place to place back at the School of Friendship. This medallion was one of these magical artefacts sometimes used by unicorns but this one did something else.

“Turns out our suspicions were right, he was reading and taking your letters before they could be inspected and sent off.”

There was a slight relief for Gallus, knowing he was right, even if he got the suspect wrong. He was quickly reminded of the conversation he overheard between the Captain and Pretty Petals the day before.

“So, then you knew it was Stamp, and you were pursuing him?”

“Of course, I might be your platoon commander, but I don’t spend all day sitting behind a desk.” Captain Westland wryly remarked. “Your mail issues were a surprise when you first reported them to me since Razorwing notices you regularly write and send letters to your friends in Ponyville,” she began to explain, “so I used my resources to investigate.”

By resources, she requested records from the distribution centre in Canterlot, where letters go from the Academy before being sent across Equestria. She patted her hoof on the stack of papers as if to show off the records she obtained. “What I found was that despite all the letters you put in the boxes, none were recorded as being sent. I went to Pretty Petals about this, and her inspection records matched these records, so it was down to whoever was collecting the letters from the boxes” she deduced.

“I was hoping to submit my findings to my commander Major Badge to approve a complaint to the Academy board. Thanks to your efforts, I don’t need to, I can go ahead and send a report to the Equestrian Postal Service and E.U.P. Internal Affairs” she said, moving the evidence out of the way, so the papers she was writing on was back in front of her. “In closing, thank you for your contribution to this case,” she followed in a calm and warming tone, before shifting to a deeper and ominous one, “but break any more protocols, and you’ll be doing more than shuttle flights out on the field.”

“Uh… you’re welcome, ma’am?” Gallus replied nervously.

Captain Westland smiled, “I’ll make sure to pass your letter to Pretty Petals, she’ll get it sent off in the afternoon.”

“Thank you. Leave to carry on, ma’am?”

“Before you do, one other thing. We also found this envelope in Stamp’s possession as well.” Westland took one more envelope from her drawer and put it in Gallus’ line of view. He recognised it immediately as Scythe’s letter, what with Yona’s name and addressed to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique. Like Gallus’ letter, it too had a cleanly opened envelope, leading to the thought that Stamp tried to read this letter as well. “The contents inside aren’t in Ponish as far as I could make out but judging by the name on the address it’s for one of your friends, right?” she queried curiously.

“Uh, yeah. Scythe wanted to write to Yona ‘cause she’s a yak, part of an assignment.”

“Figured as such, given it has Major Babel’s stamp of approval,” she remarked, pulling the letter out to show the clear red rubber stamp inside. “I’ll be sure this gets sent off too, unless you have any reason why I shouldn’t?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Very well, get out of my sight. Don’t want you missing any more exercises today.”

Gallus hurried out as soon as he could, with the verbal warning in mind. On the plus side, he was more confident that both Scythe and his letter would get out of the Academy this time.

A week had gone by, and Stamp was busy in the mailroom, although he was much more downcast and dishevelled than he usually was. In light of recent evidence of mail tampering and theft, Stamp was hereby suspended from his post, pending further investigation. He was ordered by the Academy board to gather his things and leave.

His head had remained hung low in shame, nopony within the Academy wanted to speak to him, and if they did, they weren’t happy with him. “You know, I may not like griffons, but I’m not gonna break laws over it,” chided Pretty Petals, her forearms folded as she glared narrowly at him.

Stamp stood still, he kept his head lowered to the floor, too ashamed to look at his colleague. “I have nothing against griffons though,” he countered in a gravelly voice, “I like griffons. I was following orders.”

Pretty Petals scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Right, and who ordered you to steal letters?” she questioned, but the two were interrupted by the sound of a bell and the opening of the front door.

“Stamp, there you are,” said the stern voice of the pony who just entered, Stamp suddenly felt anxious as he saw it was a tall white and highly decorated unicorn who was standing by the door. “I need a word with you before my guards escort you from the premises,” requested Commandant Authordox.

Loaded Flight

It was the start of the afternoon; Gallus and his friends were all standing in a line outside the main hall with the cool spring breeze and shining sun in their suits of armour, waiting to do their last exercise of the term. The platoon had enough preparation for it earlier that morning when Razorwing decided to skip the drills and go straight into stretches, warm-ups, and short flights.

“Don’t try and cut corners,” warned the Staff Sergeant, “your muscles will appreciate the double duty when you get ‘round to Exercise Loaded Flight later today.”

According to the mission brief earlier that morning, Exercise Loaded Flight consisted of flying low along a set course for eight miles. This didn’t make sense to Gallus, an eight-hour flight sounded too easy, there had to be a catch.

He turned around to Scythe, who stood behind him in the line. “So, what’s the big deal with this exercise?” he queried. “I mean, we flew halfway across Equestria and back last term for Exercise Long Reach.”

“Well, we’re not flying far, but we’ll be carrying more.” As Scythe pointed down the line, the two could see unicorns and earth ponies carrying the supplies. There were stacks upon stacks of backpacks, some big enough to cover a regular pony’s back, and some as big as Gallus himself. All of them appeared to be filled to the point that the straps holding the contents inside were stretched to their limit.

As the line stepped forward, the two could see Lightning Dust step onto the metal surface of a large weighing scale. Which backpack the cadets got appeared to depend on weight, as one of the smaller ones was levitated off the pile and passed to Lightning Dust. “Guess that explains why we needed to wait in line…” he remarked, before turning back to Scythe. “How much more are we carrying?”

Unfortunately, all Scythe couldn’t do was shrug. “Dunno, Tomcat just said it was a lot.” Gallus quietly groaned, unappreciative of the supposed vagueness of Scythe’s older brother, leaving him no choice but to find out himself. Slowly, the line moved, and Gallus saw Nicknames get his backpack, followed by Pound Sterling.

Finally, it was his turn, and he encountered a familiar face. “Okay bird, take off your armour and get on the scales,” Lance Corporal Maximilian said with a heated sigh, the unicorn that gave Gallus his armour, adjusting his round spectacles whilst using his horn to hold up a clipboard.

“Yes, sir,” Gallus replied dryly whilst giving a jaded glance, proceeding to walk onto the metal plate of the weighing scale. In the corner of his eye, he could see the display with numbers going up in tens, as well as the dial quickly turning around in response to the applied mass. It quickly surpassed seventy, eighty, ninety, and even a hundred, before stopping with a jolt just over one hundred and ten.

“One hundred and eleven kilos…” noted Maximillian, readjusting his spectacles while peering at the clock-faced display, before returning to his clipboard. “Factoring the weight of the armour… you’ll be carrying 20 kilos” he stated, as he held the clipboard in one of his forehooves and focused on the huge pile of backpacks behind him.

One of the larger ones began to glow as it slowly levitated, before being dropped on top of Gallus. No reaction to the drop was bigger than Gallus’ squawk, apart from the dial on the scales which jolted violently to the sudden weight increase.

Although Gallus was able to push the backpack off his body, it was still as heavy as a pile of bricks. In contrast, the backpack he carried for Exercise Long Reach had parts of a tent, sleeping bag, food, a small stove, and clothes, and yet Gallus was able to carry that bag with ease.

Meanwhile, when Gallus strapped himself to the backpack and pushed himself to all fours, he could feel the weight across his back pushing him down onto the gravel. As he walked, he could feel his back sway further from side to side, urging the griffon to take caution with his balance. He felt that he had an easier time carrying stacks of Grandpa Gruff’s books and papers around Griffonstone in his younger days.

“Ayup Bluebird!” called out a loud Trottingham mare, Gallus looked ahead and caught sight of Pound Sterling waving towards him. Lightning Dust, Nicknames, and herself were all strapped into their backpacks, the latter two were larger than the former. “See uz in th’ twenny kay club.”

Gallus tilted his head, “The ‘what’ club?” he asked.

“Twenty K club” Nicknames clarified, “you’ve been put with big pegasus ponies, so you carry twenty kilos.” This was followed by the two big pegasus ponies giving each other a hoofbump of approval.

“Does everypony have to carry this much?”

“Nah, apparently the big earth ponies get twenty-five kilos, regular ones get eighteen.” Nicknames then turned to Lightning Dust with a sardonic smirk and patted her helmet “and small pegasus ponies like Dusty here get fifteen kilos.”

“Call me small one more time, I dare you!” Lightning Dust growled, boring her eyes into Nicknames. Having been kicked in the face, and wrestled to the ground by the averaged sized pegasus mare in the past, Nicknames promptly stepped to the side as a precaution.

As that was going on, Gallus discovered it wasn’t just pegasus ponies out front waiting in line, behind them were unicorns, and behind them were earth ponies. As he scanned the entire line from back to front, he jerked his head in the direction of a unicorn that he had seen regularly.

“Cliffhanger?”

On instinct, the unicorn’s ears flicked, and he turned towards Gallus before recognition dawned on his face. “Gallus!” exclaimed Cliffhanger, “You doing Exercise Loaded March too?” The question did leave Gallus to pause for thought, but he smiled as he figured the two exercises must be the same. With the lack of wings, it’d make sense for a unicorn or earth pony to march and a pegasus pony or griffon to fly.

“Yeah, well, Loaded Flight at least,” said Gallus, a glance towards his pegasus companions with their widened eyes, as if a griffon and a unicorn being friendly with one another was baffling to them. “Oh, this is Cliffhanger from the Mountaineering Club” he gave as a brief introduction.

Unaware of the bewilderment as his griffon friend, Cliffhanger just smiled and waved. “Hey, looks like the whole company is out here,” he remarked.

Realization dawned on Gallus, “The whole company?” he figured it’d made sense since the field started with more Pegasus ponies than usual, each company had two Pegasus platoons called Wings, as well as two Earth platoons called Hooves, and two Unicorn platoons called Horns. Although Gallus saw the other ponies in his company in classes, it felt surprising to see the entire company in one activity, let alone the company and platoon commanders.

The last time Gallus recalled seeing the entire company in one place, it was the evening ball earlier in the term. Suddenly, Gallus felt a load of dread once that memory returned to him, because as cool as it was knowing Cliffhanger was in his company, there was one other unicorn that came to mind.

“That wouldn’t mean…”

“Ah, Cliffhanger, you’re here on time.”

And there he was, the tall white unicorn donning his suit of armour that shone with a polished sheen. With his snooty announcement upon arrival, with his friends Pruminant and Cross Rhodes by his side, Coalstone lacked in subtlety.

“Hey Coalstone, what took you so long?” Cliffhanger asked in an upbeat fashion.

“Oh, just the billiard game in the breakroom took a little longer than expected, no big deal.” He waved his hoof in a circular motion to play off his excuse, before turning to Gallus. “Oh, and look at that, the carrier pigeon is prepared for its first flight.” he quipped sardonically.

Pruminant and Cross Rhodes laughed, as Gallus stared daggers into Coalstone. Not too surprising, though aggravating, nonetheless. What was surprising though to Gallus was glancing at Cliffhanger and catching him snicker behind his hoof. When the daggers in the griffon’s eyes turned to the supposed friendlier unicorn, Cliffhanger hurriedly pretended to clear his throat.

He wasn’t the only unicorn to find an excuse to ridicule, “Oh hello there, Miss Sterling” Pruminant called out, “I see you brought the motley crew with you.”

Pound Sterling peered with her large light blue eyes, “Aye, an’ you brought yer snobs wi’ their pink arma,” she simpered.

Coalstone’s expression shifted, the nerve that somepony mocked his armour was enough for him to stomp forward with a riled glare. “I’ll have you know, my father personally bought me my suit of armour upon enrolling in the Academy.” He proceeded to turn sideways to show off his special armour in most of its glory.

It was fancy, unlike the rough metallic look of Academy armour, his shone with a reflective silver colour saved for all the edges covered in a regal purple. Both his helmet and body armour also had symbols in the shape of a shield with a pillar in the middle and leaves around the outside.

“You’d understand if you have proud parents, or if they could afford it…” That last remark fully shifted the mood of the group. While Scythe hid behind Gallus and held his head low, the others had knitted brows, sharp eyes, and gritted teeth pointed at the unicorns like a pack of wolves. Even Nicknames and Lightning Dust felt a nerve hit, although they kept their energy holding Pound Sterling and Gallus back.

“If you’ll excuse us, we need to prepare for the march. You lot probably should as well. How does that saying go, Cross Rhodes?” asked Coalstone to his smug companion.

“Wings are fragile, hooves and horns are not?”

“That sounds about correct.”

The three walked away with smirks across their faces as they moved towards the back of the line, leaving Cliffhanger with the hawk-eyed set of Pegasus ponies. The sudden realisation that laughing with Coalstone, to what sounded like nothing more than a joke, didn’t put him in the best position. Noticing that he left a rather large gap in the queue by standing around, he was desperate to escape.

“Yeah, I-uh… should probably move on ahead…” he said frantically before briskly moving ahead in the line.

Gallus and the others continued to stare as they decided it was best to head to the starting line, it was clear why unicorns getting along with griffons was a hard thing to believe.

The Loaded Flight and March began with the cadets lined up in batches of five, with Gallus and the gang standing at the rear of the Pegasus ponies, with earth ponies directly behind them, followed by the unicorns. This was the one relief for Gallus and his friends. With Coalstone, Pruminant, and Cross Rhodes being so far behind with the hoof platoons as a barrier that they wouldn’t be a bother and given the weight of carrying their backpacks along the eight miles, it was unlikely they’d catch up if every cadet went at a good pace.

“First wings! Go!” called the unicorn, blowing a whistle to signal the first row of Pegasus ponies to take off, and everyone else stepped forward. Another whistle blew, and the next line took off. This happened again and again until Gallus was in front. The whistle blew, and Gallus began to run with his wings spread out, before using them to push as hard as he could against the air to become airborne.

Although, given the weight of the backpacks, neither he nor his friends could go higher than ten feet off the ground, not high enough to reach the leaves of the woodland trees that they were passing for the first leg of the trip.

They were high enough though to see the earth ponies canter beneath them. As they went away from the woodlands and across the field, three miles into the flight, Gallus looked impressed at the endurance of the hooved ponies.

With Pegasus ponies being airborne, all they needed to do was maintain a good breathing rhythm and maintain their height and velocity. There was no resistance or obstacle apart from the occasional gust of wind or the mass pushing down on them. Meanwhile, the flightless ponies had to deal with rough terrain, hills that pressured them to push harder going up and to hold back going down for two miles.

It was a good motivator for them to keep a good pace as they reached the final three miles of the flight, down the side of railroad tracks leading towards Canterlot. The Pegasus ponies could start to feel a slight burning sensation at the joints of their wings, but they had enough air circulating through their lungs that they could make it.

That was until Gallus felt a shock to his leg, short enough to feel a spasm and lose a few feet of altitude, causing a sudden rush to recover. When that one was over, suddenly he felt another and another.

“Ow! Who’s doing that!?” exclaimed Gallus, as he jerked his head behind him to see who it was.

“Hey Birdie, better catch up~” jeered Coalstone, who was somehow cantering in between earth ponies right behind Gallus and the others. Slowly, Scythe, Nicknames, Pound Sterling, and Lightning Dust, all glanced over and saw Coalstone and his two companions manage to speed up. The three ended up going through to overtake them at a brisk pace. “See you at the end, slowpokes.” Coalstone mockingly called out, before continuing to pace onward.

The gang were left bewildered, “How are they outpacing us with all that weight?” questioned Nicknames. Given the weight and the terrain they were dealing with, it looked impossible for them to overtake the earth ponies that remained close by.

Lightning Dust though wasn’t happy about it at all. “Oh no, I’m not letting those posh brats outpace me.” In a sudden rush of determination, Lightning Dust started flapping her wings harder, speeding up and rushing ahead of her friends.

“Dusteh, don’t!” Pound Sterling yelled, reaching out to pull her back. “You’re gunna wear yaself ow’!”

Unfortunately, she failed to grab her. “Too late, she’s gone…” remarked Nicknames, seeing Lightning Dust dash on further ahead before being lost in the front of the other Pegasus ponies.

Although there was a moment to consider catching up to her, they knew by the strain of their wings and backs and their elevated heart rates that it was better to keep at their pace. They hoped that Lightning Dust would do fine, besides, they had one mile left to fly.

Lightning Dust powered through that last mile, speeding past every pegasus pony ahead of her and caught up to Coalstone, Pruminant, and Cross Rhodes. She felt her heart race and fire engulf her eyes as she was within a chance of overtaking, with the Academy buildings growing larger and larger in her field of view.

With her forehooves stretched out, and her wings pushing against the air with all her might, she was confident of victory against the unicorns.

But her body had other plans. Her vision blurred, her lungs burned, and the fifteen kilos on her back felt heavier and heavier. The hazy figures of ponies giving muffled shouts calling out were the only motivation for Lightning Dust to finish, though the only way she was keeping airborne was the occasional push against the ground.

Finally, she heard something, “Lightning Dust, you’re done”. She reached the end, and in an instant, she landed squarely on the ground. Gasping for air, she loosened her straps and let the backpack fall with a hard thud, relieving herself of the weight on her spine.

Even then, she remained motionless as her legs felt weak and shaky as she stood. Other ponies were exhausted and breathing heavily, but at least they managed to stagger past her. It took a while for a concerned friend to approach her, “Lightning Dust… you… okay?”

Lightning Dust slowly turned to see Gallus, but before she could answer, her hooves gave way. She began to fall, only being rescued by Pound Sterling as the pegasus caught her before she could hit the ground. Feeling completely relaxed, wrapped around strong white hooves in a warm embrace, she smiled and wanted to know one thing.

“Did I… beat them…?”

Gallus looked over to Coalstone and his friends, patting themselves for doing a good job. Unlike the other ponies, they could stand upright, even with their slightly deflated-looking backpacks. From his perspective, it looked obvious who won. “Not a race… but…” he was stopped by the sudden force of a hoof nudging him.

“Aye… ya did…” answered Pound Sterling

“Good job… Dusty…” Nicknames followed and gave Lightning Dust a light bump on the arm, impressed she managed to reach the end ahead of the other pegasus ponies.

As the nurse stepped in to check on Lightning Dust, Gallus moved away to give them room and remove his backpack. As glad as Lightning Dust and the others for the exercise to be over, he too felt his tense muscles relax as the weight went from his body. Ultimately, he didn’t care how well he did, that can wait, he just wanted to go back up to his dorm room and rest.

That was, until he heard rattling metal, and found Coalstone had approached him. “Surprise, surprise, birdie made it back in one piece.” He gloated, clapping his hooves together.

“Yeah… I’m stronger than I look…”

“But not enough to keep up with unicorns like me.” Coalstone retorted with a smug grin. “Like Cross Rhodes said: ‘wings tend not to be as strong as hooves and horns’” He then turned, and kicked the gravel behind him with little care, causing dust to travel in Gallus' direction. The griffon stood and glared at the unicorn as he sauntered off with a chuckle, the loose straps on his backpack rattled as he walked.

Having seen the exchange from a distance, Scythe approached his irritated friend. “He’s… always like that…” he said despondently.

“Does something… not feel right?” asked Gallus as his eyes narrowed, still fixed on Coalstone.

“He was running fast.”

“Yeah, but he seemed too fast…” Suddenly, Gallus felt a thud on his right thigh, causing him to let out a frustrated sigh. “I swear to Grover if another unicorn just zapped me…”

Scythe instinctively looked behind, there were no unicorns in sight, just Lightning Dust getting back on her hooves with the aid of Pound Sterling and Nicknames. However, when he glanced towards the ground behind Gallus’s hind paws, he found something else. “I think something else hit you…” he pointed out.

Turning around in the direction of where Scythe was looking, he sees an object on the floor. “What’s this?” He picked up what looked like a small brown brick, it had a rough texture and a slight amount of weight to it, except also felt soft with the sound of light crumbling as he gripped it.

“Looks like a bag of sand… where did it come from?”

That was when Gallus had a thought, he saw how Coalstone and his friends’ backpacks looked deflated while his and Scythe’s appeared full to the brim, along with the sound of the straps and metal buckles rattling against the sides. He then proceeded to lift his backpack and loosened the straps so he could look at what was inside, and realization dawned on him.

“I think I know why he was so fast.”

Scythe furrowed his brow, his eyes wandered as he tried to figure out what Gallus meant, and then it hit him too: they couldn’t have travelled faster with all the weight on their backs unless that weight was taken out. Taking the sandbag with him, Gallus quickly flew towards Coalstone, he needed to have a word.

“Hey, Coalstone. I was wondering…”

“Ugh, what do you want now, bird?” scoffed Coalstone, rolling his eyes.

“That engraving on your helmet, the shield, what’s up with that?” asked Gallus, pointing to the symbols.

“That is the Stone Family Coat of Arms.”

“It looks cool, mind if I have a closer look?”

The question caused Coalstone to raise a curious brow, but he shrugged it off. “Oh, sure.” As much as Gallus' sudden interest came out of the blue, Coalstone couldn’t help but take an opportune moment to show off. His horn glowed as the helmet arose from his head, and moved towards Gallus, with the coat of arms in full view.

The engraving looked incredibly detailed upon seeing it up close, the shield had emblems of the unicorn horn and spears on the inside, and the pillars had multiple thin parallel straight lines on the inside and swirls on the top and bottom pedestals.

However, Gallus wasn’t there to admire the finer details of the helmet. “Thanks!” without much warning, he grabbed the helmet and flew off.

Coalstone blinked, “Wh-HEY!” He tried to pull it back with his magic but struggled to get a good view of his helmet to gain control of it. He then had to run, but as Gallus had taken off his backpack, he became far more agile and harder for the unicorn to reach. “Get back here!”

“I’m just looking at it!” Gallus excused himself, flying around Coalstone to the unicorn’s annoyance.

“Give my helmet back you overgrown blue seagull!”

After a moment of flying, Gallus finally stopped. “Fine, you can have it back, jeez!” he then chucked it towards Coalstone, who was able to use his magic to catch it in mid-air.

“Great, now it has your dirty talons over it,” Coalstone grumbled as he used his forearm to wipe the helmet clean. He prepared to walk back to his friends, but suddenly Lance Corporal Maximilian took an interest in him.

“Hold it there,” the spectacled unicorn ordered, “your name, cadet?”

“It’s Coalstone, sir.”

Maximilian adjusted his spectacles as he looked at the clipboard, before looking off to the side of Coalstone. “How is it that you’re wearing full kit and yet you’re lighter than before the Loaded March?”

Coalstone turned to see where Maximilian was looking, only for his eyes to widen as he recognised the display of the weighing scales that Gallus had lured him to stand on, with the number having risen to ninety-five kilos. “Uh, I guess all that carrying helped me lose a few pounds.” He answered shakily, rubbing the back of his head in a nervous panic.

Nevertheless, Maximilian knitted his brows, “You’re seven kilos lighter than when you were weighed at the start…” he stated bluntly. Coalstone could feel his heart stop, seeing the heavy suspicion laid upon him, desperately finding an excuse to get out.

“Oh yeah, Coalstone!” Gallus abruptly called out, when Coalstone and Maximilian turned to face him, the griffon held the small sandbag in his claws and sported a wide grin. “I found one of these on the ground, it might be one of yours?” He chucked it onto the weighing scale, and the display reacted by shifting up to ninety-six.

Upon seeing the sandbag at Coalstone’s hooves, the other unicorn’s face scrunched up. Upon observing the backpack with its loosened straps dangling to the side, he pulled Coalstone’s backpack towards him to inspect its insides. From there, he made a shocking discovery, the backpack was partially empty. “Did you remove the weights in your backpack, Coalstone?” he asked forcefully, but the pale-faced Coalstone was too nervous to answer at that point.

“Major!” he turned and shouted towards Major Badge, “I want every cadet here to be checked, we have a cheater.”

All the staff members rushed to investigate, ordering all the cadets to line up again to be weighed with their backpacks and armour to find more ponies underweight. Meanwhile, staff ponies travelled along the exercise path, managing to find over twenty kilos of the small sandbags scattered along the route, clearly taken out of their backpacks one by one along the way to becoming lighter and faster.

With that many, it was clear that Coalstone couldn’t have worked alone. It was no surprise to Gallus and his friends that out of all the ponies that were weighed, the only other two that were under their original weight to a degree to be suspicious were his two friends who also managed to race to the front.

There was relief amongst the other ponies, the earth ponies appeared in good spirits knowing they consistently remained on a good pace without cheating. Lightning Dust felt justifiably smug when she was weighed, only restrained by her lack of energy.

That didn’t mean there were no complaints after all the ponies were allowed to return to their dorms.

“Ugh, glad all that’s over,” Nicknames moaned. “Can’t believe after all that, our commanders only found three cheaters.”

Although the one least happy with the ordeal was Coalstone. His two friends had guilt written all over their faces, but Coalstone was peering at Gallus the entire time he was in line, silently cursing the griffon for the nerve of tricking him into getting caught. Not that it bothered Gallus in the slightest.

“Worth it though, to catch Coalstone in the act,” he argued before turning to Scythe “what kind of punishment do you get for cheating on an exercise?”

“Code of honour violation, regimental warning, worst warning you can get.” Scythe answered directly, before following with a disgruntled murmur. “The Commandant will probably downgrade it to a temporary loss of privileges at best, considering how close they are.”

Nicknames sighed, “Whatever, I’ve got to get out of this armour.” He then hurried on past to get into his room in the dorms.

Lightning Dust stopped outside her room, “Yeah, I think I’m just gonna lie down for a bit.” She opened the door and went inside, but when Pound Sterling looked inside, there was a snicker.

“Uh, Dusteh, that ain’t yur bed, that’s th’ floor.”

After Pound Sterling went inside, the only ones left in the corridor were Scythe and Gallus, the latter of whom had one question left unanswered. “Wonder who threw that sandbag at me though…”

“Well, Coalstone, Pruminant, and Cross Rhodes started at the back with the other unicorns, right?”

“Yeah, made sense if they wanted to dispose of the bags without being seen.”

“That would mean it was picked up by another unicorn.” Scythe suggested.

“I guess, though I don’t know a unicorn who’d want to help me, except…” Gallus then had a pause, there was one unicorn he could rely on in the Academy, and he smiled. “Cliffhanger’s not so bad, huh?” he asked rhetorically.

“I think you’re right…” Scythe agreed, before opening the door to their room. Finally, after a long day, Gallus immediately took off his armour piece by piece, not caring about how dirty it looked. He needed to rest his paws and claws for a while, as there was nothing else more important to him than to relax. “I’ve got a letter.”

Gallus glanced over and saw Scythe holding an envelope, but there was one bit of detail that caught the griffon’s focus: the address written on the letter. “That’s Yona’s hoofwriting…” he recognized. The thought of it piqued Scythe’s curiosity as he tore open the envelope and opened the folded paper inside. “What does it say?”

Scythe smiled, recognising the symbols immediately, “It’s in Yakyaki! Let’s see… it says…” he slowly scanned through the page, passing his hoof along word by word before slowly reciting out the letter in Ponish.

Dear Scythe,

Many thanks for the letter. Yona glad to read and write in the best language, only get to talk in Yakyaki to family in Yakyakistan, so language makes Yona feel at home. Yona thinks Scythe write good for pony, and happy to learn about Yaks, maybe Scythe pony can visit Yakyakistan at some point? Yona is best guide to Yakyakistan.

Looking forward to next letter.

Daraa Uulzi,

Yona

Scythe grew giddy at the thought he’d received his first Yak letter, from someone who thinks his understanding of the Yak’s language is good. It was like getting a gold medal to him, although Gallus couldn’t share the same joy.

The most he could muster was a half-smile, the letter had no mention of Gallus whatsoever as if Yona just pretended, he didn’t exist. Either his part of the message was taken out, or Yona just ignored him, not believing that he wasn’t ignoring them.

Maybe it was the sign for him to accept that he screwed up, and his friends aren’t his friends anymore. “Look, there’s another page…” said Scythe, noticing the second sheet of paper folded inside the envelope, smaller and almost stuck to the envelope, as if it was meant to be hidden.

Scythe scanned through the letter, it was shorter than the other letter, so it didn’t take as long for polyglot Pegasus to translate it.

Dear Gallus,

Yona has passed message to others. Yona and Gallus now have one more thing in common, no like for mean Canterlot Ponies.

Keep writing, let friends know when Gallus see them, friends miss you.

Daraa Uulzi,

Yona

The corners of Gallus’ mouth stretched wide, and his eyes started to glisten. Mission accomplished; his message went through.

Author's Note

Remember that unicorn who was rude to Gallus while giving him his armour? Well, in hindsight I should have given him a name, so I've decided to name him Maximillian (after the renaissance armour). At the moment, I can only think of one other pony that I didn't give a name but really should have in hindsight, but for now, I've rectified one. Hope that clears up some confusion.

Two Sisters

The cadets listened to an orange mare in the dimly lit auditorium, giving a Communication and Applied Behavioural Science lecture on why soldiers commit atrocities. “Throughout history, we’ve seen evil commit atrocities against Equestria. Although, we should recognise those responsible had also made others carry out what they wanted,” she explained as she went through her slides.

She pressed a button as an old drawing of a black and grey pony covered in smoke appeared on the projector sitting on a throne. Surrounding the throne were ponies wearing helmets covering their entire face, leaving only green glowing eyes. “There are cases where soldiers were under magic-induced mind control, such as when King Sombra ruled over the Crystal Empire. In such cases, responsibility on them is minimal and more for those in control.”

“Other cases are not so clear.” She then pressed the button again to change slides, this time a different creature, a tall horse with insect-like wings and holes around its legs. “Former patrol changelings who worked under Queen Chrysalis argued that, like other changelings, starvation was a constant problem in the hive. They followed orders to kidnap, imprison, and treat ponies as food sources, believing it was the only solution.”

She pressed the button again; this time, the projector showed a large, white-furred baboon creature with horns as a crown. “Even the guards were trained never to believe that invading peaceful nations, overthrowing rulers, and oppressing citizens was the right thing to do.”

“As leaders, it is important to understand why creatures like these could easily commit atrocities by understanding their leaders. Learn from history, or our ponies will be doomed to be like them.”

“Have any ponies committed atrocities without being influenced by magic or mind control, ma’am?” The lecturer turned to the audience to see Gallus with one arm outstretched upwards.

The lecturer contorted her face, unsurprised but annoyed to see Gallus of all cadets asking such a question. “I’m sure if there were any, they didn’t take this class,” she answered scornfully. “That will be our lesson for today, but before you go, I have an announcement”, she followed up, ignoring Gallus as she picked up a paper to read aloud. “The Two Sisters Foundation, founded by our retired rulers Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, has offered to sponsor this year’s Academy Adventure Award.”

Murmurs and groans emerged amongst the cadets. The Academy Adventure Award was one of the schemes to encourage cadets to go somewhere and do some exercise, likely to avoid them relaxing for the two-week spring break. “Entrants will present to the Academy board what you and fellow cadets had done over the spring break. The team with the best presentation will be rewarded with a total cash prize of one thousand bits.”

Sudden gasps flowed through the audience, the tone of the murmurings shifted to positive and encouraging, and even Gallus’ eyes widened at the sound. “I’m aware the spring break is a while away, but now’s a good time to plan what you want to do if you want to win. Class dismissed. “

With the lecture over, the cadets made their way out and travelled to the mess hall. Along the way, the volume of chatter elevated about spring break, knowing a cash prize was involved.

“Guys! Guys! We need to go somewhere together once break starts,” urged Nicknames with excitement at Gallus and the others.

“You’re eager,” Gallus remarked nonchalantly.

“Uh, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? There are a thousand bits if we go somewhere cool enough!”

“To share, right?” Lightning Dust questioned with a narrow-eyed stare.

“Oh, yeah, there’s five of us so…” Nicknames hastily counted in his head, looking towards the ceiling while tapping one of his hooves to the ground. “Two hundred bits each? That’s gotta be something, right?”

To most of the group, even for how much Griffons valued the gold coins, Gallus had never seen what two hundred bits looked like, let alone one thousand. He was lucky if Grandpa Gruff gave him more than five bits to spend on himself, and even at the School of Friendship, he had to save for an entire term if he had to have two hundred.

Pound Sterling glowed at the thought of so much money, “Aye… ah can finally get my ba’ ‘n arras.” She pictured herself with an expensive red bow and a quiver filled with arrows; the quality was leagues above the ones she had to borrow from the shooting range.

“See! Steppin’ Time’s got it!” Nicknames remarked, wrapping an arm around Pound Sterling whilst distracted in her fantasy. “So come on, where should we go?”

“Ha ‘bout we all go thru t’ woods in Trottin’h’m?” Pound Sterling offered. “We can camp overneight.”

“You mean like all your other camping trips, Steppy?” teased Lightning Dust, with an added punch to the arm. “That’s like me wanting to do a high-altitude flight around Cloudsdale.”

“Yeah, if we want to win that cash prize, it’d have to be something none of us has done before… Any other ideas?”

As Nicknames scanned the group, all were in thought, but none of them could think of an answer; the fact they didn’t reach the mess hall for lunch didn’t help with thinking clearly. Despite teasing Pound Sterling, Lightning Dust couldn’t think of many good ideas, just places she’s previously flown around, such as Cloudsdale and Rainbow Falls.

Scythe also struggled; he knew his family had gone on journeys during their Academy days. Aunt Ariel Bomb and his mum worked as volunteer nurses in Somnambula, the desert village in Southern Equestria, though that was decades ago. Tomcat, on the other hoof, just stayed at a guard base that dad was stationed in, though it wasn’t his original plan.

He remembered Tomcat talking about going to the Frozen North, where their dad went during his days at the Academy, but Tomcat suddenly changed his mind after talking to him. Scythe never understood why, apart from his brother insisting not to bring it up. Suppose he suggested Somnambula and the others agree to it. In that case, he’d be able to tell his parents without causing a scene.

“We could go to Somnamb- “

“Hey, I got an idea,” exclaimed Nicknames, interrupting Scythe’s comment, “how about we hang out in your country, Bluebird?”

Gallus just stared daggers into Nicknames. “Yeah, let’s not go with that idea…” he responded sternly. Besides not being in the mood to go back to Griffonstone after his uncomfortable time during the winter break, he wasn’t keen on visiting griffons in other cities. “Besides, I think we’d think of better ideas after we’ve gotten food, and I’m starving.”

Before the group could turn the corner and head inside the mess hall, a familiar authoritative voice bellowed. “Gallus! There you are.” It was Captain Westland, swooping past before landing. Despite calling only Gallus, all five stopped to face her and stood upright to attention. “You have some visitors in the entrance hall”, she informed Gallus. “I know it’s lunchtime for you, but they can’t stay long, and I wouldn’t keep them waiting, " she instructed. Gallus could only close his eyes and fume quietly to avoid groaning in front of his platoon commander.

Westland smiled in turn, “Besides, they told me you’ll be happy to see them~” she said in a cheery tune.

The cheery tone sounded unsettling coming from the commander; it didn’t give Gallus much comfort for what was in store for him. Still, he knew he didn’t have a choice. “Yes, ma’am,” he said in a defeated drone before turning around and walking away from the mess hall.

The only pony that decided to follow Gallus was Scythe. He had his reasons to be curious, as well as offer emotional support for the hungry griffon. “Ugh, who wants to see me, and why didn’t they come after I had already eaten?” he moaned.

“Could be one of your friends.” Scythe offered.

The thought got food off Gallus’ mind, a relief to see his friends again after so long, but he was only distracted by how puzzling it was. “Yeah, could be, but Yona didn’t mention anyone coming down, and I haven’t had any other letters since then.” He furrowed his brow. “Who else would want to see me?”

The two made their way down past the pillars leading to the large double doors of the entrance. The room was barren as all the other ponies had made off for lunch. As Gallus looked from side to side, he could see a few Pegasus ponies flying across the sky outside with a few more earth ponies trotting down the edge of the field. Still, as far as anypony or anyone Gallus could recognise? None.

His forehead creased, and he turned back to face Scythe with an annoyed grunt. “Figures, bet this was some pony's prank to waste my-”. Before he could make his way back to the mess hall or even finish his sentence, he was pounced upon from behind one of the pillars.

“GALLUS!” a cheery voice exclaimed! Scythe was taken aback by seeing a black feathered, overly excited griffon standing over a dazed Gallus. The griffon pulled him up to his hind paws, only to wrap its arms around him and squeeze him. The intense pressure caused Gallus to squawk, leaving an echo to travel the room. “Ohmigosh, it’s so great to finally see you after so long! We’ve been so worried about you!”

Feeling his bones crack from such a tight hug was so familiar that Gallus recognised who had just attacked him. He tried in vain to give a response. However, the lack of air wasn’t helping his needed time to think of an exit. “Gabby… did you… say we?” he asked, with what little gasps of breath he could let out.

“You bet she did!”

Suddenly, another pair of claws pulled Gallus away, although it wasn’t the escape Gallus had hoped. He became trapped in a headlock, and instead of his chest being compressed, he now had knuckles digging into the crown of his skull. “Hey Gallus, thought you could avoid us for several months and get away with it?”

Once more, Gallus screeched in pain, and he also recognised the voice of this griffon. “Gilda! Get off!” he yelled. Scythe was frozen, uncertain to help free Gallus from a white-headed griffon, locking him in a headlock and giving him a noogie.

He should help rescue his friend on the one hoof, having experienced many a noogie from his brother Tomcat. On the other was what this griffon could do to him. Gabby just stood by giggling, showing the slightest concern over Gallus's agony.

“Aw, what’s the matter? Army griffon can’t fight his way out?” teased Gilda, giving Gallus enough irritation to make his way out.

While pushing away her arm as far as he could, he twisted his head sideways, giving him enough room to slip himself out from underneath. He speedily flung himself around until behind the Gilda and hooked his arms out. He grinned as the combat training had paid off, trapping Gilda’s arms and wings around his arms.

“Ow! Okay, okay! You win!” the other griffon relented.

Gallus let go of his hold, causing Gilda to stagger forwards. The two griffons paused to catch their breaths whilst Gabby was gleefully applauding the so-called match. “What are you two doing here?” asked Gallus as he tried to recover.

“Well, we were in the area and just wanted to check up on you”, Gabby replied, “isn’t that right, Gilda?”

“Sure, sure, plus I haven’t been here before,” said Gilda. She stretched her back and looked around the giant hall, observing the paintings and weapons decorating the walls. “Cool place. When can I move in?”

“Who’s this?” Gabby queried as she turned to Scythe but instantly gasped before anyone could answer. “Is this one of your army friends?!” she guessed enthusiastically, flying right into Scythe’s personal space sporting a huge grin.

After a few steps backwards to make room, Scythe returned a smile as he tried to remain calm. “Yeah, hi. I’m Scythe,” he said, politely extending his hoof towards the griffon to shake her claws. “I’ve seen a photo of you two in our dorm….”

“Scythe, it’s probably not a good idea to do that-”

But Gallus’ warning came too late. Gabby grabbed the hoof with both sets of claws. “I’m Gabriella Griffon, but you can call me Gabby since we’re friends now! Pleased to meet ya!” She then shook her arms, blissfully unaware that her violent shaking caused the pony’s head to swing back and forth until she stopped.

“Nice to meet you too…” said Scythe, left in a dizzy state.

Gabby immediately focused on Scythe, “Are those your friends too? Hello!” She then waved her arms exaggeratedly as Gallus and Gilda looked down the hall to see what Gabby was waving.

Lightning Dust, Pound Sterling, and Nicknames had huddled together, staring at the three whilst hiding behind a pillar. The surprise from catching eye contact with the three griffons caused the huddle to fall onto the ground.

“Uh… sup? We were bored of waiting for you, so we wanted to check up on you,” Nicknames hastily explained as he got up on the floor, grinning nervously. “Totally not spying out of curiosity….” His explanation failed to lessen how awkward the encounter was.

Lightning Dust had to step in, “Yeah, anyways. That’s Nicknames, this is Pound Sterling…”

“Ayup!”

“…and I’m Lightning Dust. Pleasure to meet you, Gabby and….”

“Gilda, Gilda Griffon.”

As Lightning Dust continued to look at Gilda, she couldn’t help but tilt her head. “You look familiar…” she admitted. “Have we met before?”

In response, Gilda quickly looked away towards the ceiling, nervously scratching her head. “Uh, probably, this isn’t the first time I’ve been to Equestria and all…” she said.

“Well, it’s cool to finally meet some of the friends Gallus keeps going on about.”

“Actually, we’re his-” Gabby interjected, but a bellowed voice cut her off.

“What’s with all the commotion going on here?” Authordox, having caught the squawks and talking going on, made his way to the entrance to investigate. After all, it was still lunchtime, and cadets should stick to the schedule, not crowding around the buildings outside without good reason. Only when he got closer did he see three griffons when there should be one, locking eyes with both Gabby and Gilda.

“How in Celestia did two birds get in here?!” he asked harshly before quickly turning to look down on Gallus. “Did you let them in here?” he accused. “We have protocols for visitors; nopony else knows if they are dangerous or not.”

“Cool it, dweeb. We were already checked for safety when we arrived and were let in by one of the platoon commanders.” Gilda folded her arms and gave an unapproving stare at the unicorn. “Besides, we’re not staying long.”

All the cadets, including Gallus, froze in a panic. Their eyes widened as they turned to Authordox. His coat started shifting from white to pink, and his eyes bulged. All the while, steam was bursting from his nostrils. It was hard to know if an old kettle had boiled or a volcano had erupted, but what was clear was Authordox wasn’t pleased with Gilda’s attitude. “Dweeb?!” he screamed before marching directly towards Gilda.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!”

Despite the volume and invasion of space, Gilda neither moved her body nor changed her facial expression. “Did you forget?” her response was deadpan, saved for a curiously shaped eyebrow.

It only made Authordox angrier as he gritted his teeth, especially as he heard Gabby silently giggling and a pony was snickering behind him. His head turned behind him to see who laughed, but all he could see was a sea of anxious faces in a silent hall. He then angrily turned back towards Gilda.

“Maybe your delivery griffon companion or Gallus should have warned you that I’m Commandant Authordox. I’m the head of this Academy, and nothing comes in here without me knowing about it. Unless you want to be dragged off the premises, you should show some respect.”

Gilda just smirked. “Oh! I’m so sorry,” she said sarcastically, “Gabby and I weren’t aware of all the procedures around this place.” Then her brows drew together as her tone of voice deepened; it was time for her to be serious. “Maybe we would have been prepared if your mail ponies hadn’t cut off communications with our little brother.”

Authordox tilted his head. “Little… brother?”

“Yeah, as in Gallus, you’re talking to his sister.”

Gallus could feel his heart stop as every pony went confuzzled and turned to him for confirmation. He had no idea what Gilda was doing but was too overwhelmed to say a word.

“Sister?” Authordox repeated, feeling some need to clarify.

“Yep, we’re both his big sisters!” Gabby proudly chimed in, flying towards Gallus to wrap her arm around him with a massive grin on her face.

Scythe was just as confused, “But Gallus didn’t you tell me that-MMMFFF!” He suddenly felt his jaws clamped shut as Gallus held his muzzle with his free arm as if a defence function had kicked in uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Gilda swooped into Gallus’ other side, wrapping her arm around him whilst hiding Scythe from Authordox’s line of sight. “Yeah, and with our family, you don’t get respect unless you show it. So please, can we have some time with Gallus to catch up after not hearing a word for THREE MONTHS?”

The room was silent once more, the air thick enough to be cut with a knife. The scene was tense as the griffon and unicorn stared each other down. Authordox couldn’t get over the nerve of Gilda and Gabby flying into his Academy without him noticing, making him look like a fool in front of cadets. Not to mention calling him out on the letters stolen by a rule breaking employee.

He wouldn’t be put down by these birds, especially as the Commandant. He is the authority of this place. He wasn’t going to back down. It would look bad on him if he were seen with his pride bruised. Then again, it would look bad if he ordered guards to drag away a cadet’s family member who wanted nothing more than to talk. That would hurt the reputation of the Academy and its pride.

He had no choice but to choose his battle if he didn’t want to think of himself as low as the griffons. He cleared his throat. “Well, you should move the conversation outside. Crowds are better outside than in.” He then adjusted his stance and took a deep breath to relax. “Also, you’ll be happy to know the E.U.P. Guard’s Internal Affairs are investigating the mail situation. There should no longer be any problems with our communications for the time being. Good day, griffons.”

He then turned around and departed, grumbling to himself. The room went silent again. Nopony was sure how to react as Gilda glared at Authorfox as he moved further away.

Nicknames took a deep breath and turned to the three griffons, holding his hooves together as he prayed the tension was over. “So… it was lovely to meet you both,” he said, “I’m gonna go grab some food and let you have some family time. Laters.”

“Yeh, I’ll save you sum scran when yer get back, Bluebird.” Pound Sterling added a little salute as she and Lightning Dust began to follow Nicknames down the other end of the hall towards the mess hall.

Once the three were far away enough to avoid the griffons from possibly hearing them, Nicknames let out a whistle. “Those two sisters are really something. No wonder Gallus wanted to go military,” he remarked, impressed with their confidence and nerves of steel.

“Yeh, ‘ere ah thought Bluebird woz ‘n onny child or summa’.”

Lightning Dust agreed with Pound Sterling; it’s not like Gallus brought up his family with them. Plus, the older griffon, Gilda, was still bothering her. She couldn't put her hoof on where she's seen her before. It couldn't have been any random encounter, but then again she hadn't met many griffons, especially not one as tough and feisty as that.

The only griffon she had any connection to was a small shy griffon with oddly the same white head and tan body, who didn't talk much but was crazy good at flight acrobatics, back decades ago when they were at- “JUNIOR SPEEDSTERS!” Lightning Dust exclaimed as it suddenly dawned on her, causing the other two Pegasus ponies to jump in surprise. “The flight camp in Cloudsdale! That’s where I recognise her!” she explained.

She quickly rushed back towards the corridor to see if Gilda was still at the entrance with the others. Yet, to her disappointment, the hall was completely vacant.

Despite being a jerk, the Authordox had a good point about the outdoors. It was better for crowds. Gallus, Gabby, Gilda, and Scythe stood by the wall in front of the main building. The cool spring breeze was refreshing after the heated exchange.

It meant they could talk properly, although Gabby was too eager to find out as much as possible as quickly as possible. Gilda fixed her eyes on a nervous Scythe who was trapped between them.

“So, tell me everything! How’s your study going? Are you eating well? Done any fun exercises? Ooh, have you gotten any new uniforms?”

Gallus held up an open claw to signal the excited griffon to stop. “Okay, Gilda, Gabby, you two can drop the act. Scythe already knows…” he pointed out.

Gilda continued to stare down at Scythe with folded arms, leaving the Pegasus in significant discomfort. “And he can keep a secret, right?” she asked, or what felt like an order. Scythe hastily nodded before swiping a hoof across his muzzle as if closing a zip across his mouth.

Recognising the gesture, Gilda could relax. “Ah, finally,” she said, letting out a deep sigh of relief, “you have no idea how awkward it is to say that stuff.”

“So… you’re not….”

To clear things up for Scythe, Gilda shook her head. “None of us are related. I’m surprised all the other ponies bought it.”

“Well… why are you two really here?” Gallus was compelled to ask, with the truth laid out.

That was when Gabby’s mood shifted, and she hung her head. “Well, I was in Ponyville doing my rounds and spoke to Silvy”, Gabby explained, “and when I brought you up, she got really upset.” Gallus could feel his heart sink. He couldn’t stop the rush of guilt across his body upon finding out about Silverstream. “I was surprised when she said it turned out you hadn’t been reading her letters because somepony at the Academy was taking them from you… so. I wanted to see if you were okay.”

After hearing Gabby’s explanation, Gallus could feel a little happy knowing that Gabby would fly to the Academy to check on him. Unsurprisingly, her love to help others was excessive for most griffons.

It made him wonder why Gilda would show up, though, mainly when they spoke last time, Gilda wasn’t happy with him being away from Griffonstone.

When Gallus and Scythe looked at her, she quickly took a step back and avoided eye contact. “I was also in Ponyville just to hang out with Rainbow Dash. Before I knew what was happening, Gabby dragged me along here…” she explained, nervously scratching the back of her head.

“That’s not true!” Gabby called out. “You overheard us and got really, REALLY angry!”

“Gabby…”

“And then you said things about those army ponies going to pay and started flying towards Canterlot. Dashie and I had to hold you back to calm down while you were shouting bad words off the top of your lungs!”

“Quiet, Gabby…”

Gabby then turned to Gallus and Scythe.

“She said she was gonna find those jerk mail ponies and tear out their-”

“OKAY, GABBY! You made your point!” Gilda yelled, holding Gabby’s beak shut in the hopes of stopping her from saying any more. Even then, she knew her dignity had shrunk as she saw the look on Gallus and Scythe’s faces. “I was worried about you as well, okay” she reluctantly confessed, as her cheeks turned rosy. “I’ve known you since you were two, and I didn’t like the griffons who picked on you, so why would I let ponies treat you the same way, y’know?”

“Well, glad to know our message got sent out,” Gallus remarked before letting out a chortle. “But… sisters? Really?”

“In my defence, the original plan was to pretend we were your cousins”, Gilda stated before she glowered at Gabby. “But SOMEGRIFFON jumped in and went off script when we met the guards.”

“In my defence, we had to be convincing and give a good reason why we needed to see him, and it worked!” Gabby argued in her cheery, upbeat tone. “That nice Captain Westland was happy to see us when she thought we were siblings. Besides, since I was a fledgeling, I always told mama I wanted a widdle brother or sister to play with,” she admitted. At the same time, Gallus had to endure his face being smushed around by her claws while listening to her baby talk.

“There was also something we were supposed to give Gallus, remember?”

“Ooh yeah!” Upon being reminded, Gabby let go of Gallus’ pudgy cheeks and pulled a letter out from underneath her wing. “Silvy quickly wrote this for you. If you want, Gilda and I can visit you from time to time. We can pass letters along,” she said as she passed the letter.

“Yeah, we can send a message now before we go”, stated Gilda. “If not your friends, maybe a message to some griffon in Griffonstone?” She suggested in a judging tone before she folded her arms and leaned forward. “Like Grandpa Gruff?”

That was what Gallus was missing from Gilda, her bringing up not talking to him. He could feel anger building up as he clenched his claws. Gabby also dropped her smile once she heard that name.

“Gilda!” she hissed, “I told you not to bring him up.”

“Well, excuse me”, Gilda hissed back sharply. “When we go back, do you want to be the one to listen to the old geezer go on a bitter rant about how Gallus isn’t home, isn’t talking to any of us? I’m already at my limit myself.”

Gallus’ anger was rising, and Scythe looked on with concern.

“I don’t like hearing it too, but we shouldn’t be making Gallus talk to him if he doesn’t want to.”

Rising.

“And when will he want to? Grandpa Gruff is getting on. It’s not fair to make him fly all the way to Canterlot because Gallus won’t come to Griffonstone unless some ponies make him.”

Rising.

“Hey!” Gallus yelled, ceasing Gabby and Gilda’s arguing and their feathers puffed out in shock. “If you just tell Grandpa Gruff that I’m fine, will that get you to stop?”

The two looked at each other, calm and aware their bickering led them nowhere and nodded back at Gallus. “Alright. Guess we should fly back,” said Gilda, “can’t keep you from having food with your buddies.”

“Thanks for coming out here,” Gallus said sincerely, the corner of his mouth curved upwards to show his appreciation for the crazy encounter.

Unable to help herself, Gabby eagerly pulled Gallus in for one more tight hug. “It was good to see you too,” she cooed.

Gilda, in turn, planted her talons on the top of Gallus’ head and ruffled his head feathers. “Yeah, don’t be a stranger, got it?” she ordered.

“Alright! Alright!”

The two finally let Gallus go and stepped back before spreading their wings. They pushed themselves off the ground before turning and flew back to Griffonstone as Gallus and Scythe looked on.

“So… if they aren’t your sisters, who are they?” Scythe asked curiously.

“It’s complicated,” Gallus answered. “Gabby loves to be kind and helpful to a fault. Whenever she wants to be supportive, she ends up embarrassing me instead. Gilda wouldn’t give me the time of day unless she caught me doing something wrong and threatened to call Grandpa Gruff on me. Then she changed and stood up for me from time to time.”

“Maybe they’re more like sisters than you think….”

“I guess…”

Once the two griffons were nothing but specks in the sky, the next thing on Gallus’ mind was the letter held in his claws. He could feel the beating of his heart quicken as he tore open the envelope, not for any romantic reason. It was concerned about what she would write after months of zero contact.

He took a deep breath and delved into his first letter from Silverstream since the start of term.

Hey Gally,

Sorry for the rushed letter, Gilda was urgent about flying off, and even with all their strength, Gabby and Professor Dash couldn’t hold her for long.

I haven’t told anyone else, but I will be in Mount Aris for two weeks over the spring break. I don’t know if you can come down before or after, but tell Yona or write to me if you can.

Miss you,

Silverstream

P.S. If you ever get my letters, could you hold onto them before you next see me? It’s important.

There was strange relief, the letter felt as positive as he would expect from her, but there were things that felt off. It wasn’t just how she rushed it to her admission; no mention of the letters that Gabby said got her upset. What about not telling her friends about going to her home in Mount Aris? Or asking Gallus to hold onto her letters, meaning not to open them, what did she write?

There were just too many questions, he wanted to make things up with her, but he also wanted to know.

“What did Silverstream write?”

Gallus was startled as he remembered Scythe was still standing beside him. He quickly folded up the letter. He wasn’t sure how to explain the letter, but he had an idea in his head.

“Uh… I think I know where we can go for the spring break.”

Author's Note

Aaaand that's the third book complete! Thank you all for reaching this far.

I'm gonna be busy with a bunch of things for the next two months (unrelated book being edited, house move, conventions) but I'll do some planning work during the free time I get, because I do enjoy working on this story and writing all the interactions between the characters.

The Letters

“Calling all passengers, next stop is Ponyville!”

As soon as the train arrived at the platform and the doors slid open, ponies stepped out into the cool spring air. Already standing outside the train were several ponies. Most waited patiently to get on to travel further south, with a few others waiting for friends and loved ones who had arrived.

It was spring break, and the start of the holidays was always busy on the trains and the stations. As the sea of ponies from the coaches ended, a few ponies on the platform began to step forward to enter the coaches themselves, except one that realised one more passenger was making their way out.

Gallus finally got a taste of the open air as he reached the coach’s door and saw the ponies on the platform step aside so he could leave. The crowded coach was so stuffy that his wings instinctively stretched out in relief, even if they brushed against the ponies standing nearby. Had it not been slower for the griffon to fly from Canterlot, he wouldn’t have bothered with the train.

He stood on the platform, watching the crowd move briskly and decrease in numbers. “All aboard, next stop, Ghastly Gorge!” Called the train conductor, followed by a sharp whistle blow; moments later, the train departed.

With the platform much quieter, Gallus scanned the area. He remembered the place when it was winter, saying goodbye to his friends as he had to return to the Academy. But returning to the present, there was no one he recognised.

He furrowed his brow. He was sure they knew he’d be coming. Scythe told Yona when the Academy broke up for spring and included Gallus’ note for him arriving in Ponyville. Perhaps they forgot, but they’ve not been in touch for the last few months.

In his backpack, Gallus reached in and took out a set of pink sealed envelopes bound together by a string like it was a present. On one side of the bundle was a red rubber stamp with the word “RELEASED” and the logo for the E.U.P. Guard on top.

On the other side were Gallus’ name and the address of the Royal Guard Academy written on one of the envelopes, written in black ink with a sharpened feather quill. Silverstream’s handwriting was elegant and cursive, with little curls on the tails of her capital letters. Gallus smiled half, glad he could still recognise those details after all that time.

Yet a part of him felt tempted to know what was inside the envelopes, see what Silverstream wrote to him. She might have responded to one or two of his letters or written something about when she shouted “I love you” months ago.

He remembered in her last letter that she asked him to hold onto them, especially not to open them. He snuck one of his claws into a small opening in one of the corners of the bottom envelope in a pile. All it would take was to unravel the binding and open one of the envelopes to read what was inside.

Instead, he shook the curious thoughts out of his mind. At that moment, there was something more important to do. If his friends aren’t here to see him, he will go to see them.

It was a short flight from the train station to Sandbar’s family residence; Gallus knew it was the easiest to find, even in lousy weather. It was by the river, with orchid-coloured walls, next to a wooden shed where Sandbar and his dad kept their surfboards.

Once outside the front door, Gallus knocked twice and waited patiently. All Gallus had to prepare for was who would appear from the other side of the door. He figured Sandbar’s parents would be the kindest and most patient; they were remarkably chill ponies and happy having close friends over. Sandbar had the same chill vibes from his parents, but Gallus couldn’t be sure how well he took the lack of letters, especially considering how close Yona, his worst-case scenario, was.

Eventually, he heard the door click and open inwards. On the other side, he saw a pale green earth pony, full-grown but younger. It was Sandbar.

“Hey…” Gallus introduced himself, holding his backpack with one claw and sporting an uplifting smile.

However, he didn’t expect Sandbar’s wide eyes and the sudden steps further inside his own home. “Hey… dude.” Sandbar answered with a slight confusion. Then there was silence, Sandbar looked down and to the side while rubbing the back of his head, not sure what to say. Meanwhile, Gallus’ smile slowly faded, realising the reunion wouldn’t be as smooth as he hoped.

“So… How’s it going?” Sandbar finally mustered.

“Well, the Academy is on break, and I was in the area, so I was wondering….”

“GALLUS!” a sudden young girly elated voice called out from inside the building, causing both Gallus and Sandbar to jump in surprise. As Sandbar turned around, recognition dawning on him, Gallus felt something clasp his right arm.

Gallus raised his arm to his eye level and found Coral had whizzed past his older brother and was now hanging off Gallus’ arm with a massive smile on her face. “Hey there, you little monkey,” Gallus responded. He was glad at least somepony in Ponyville were happy to see him.

“Hey Gallus, I don’t have school ‘cus I’m on break,” said Coral, lightly swinging on the griffon’s arm, inches from his beak. “Are you on break too?”

“Yep, something like that.”

“That means you can stay over, right?” she asked gleefully.

“I can if that’s not a problem.” The two looked towards Sandbar, the tiny pony pleading with her beady ocean-blue eyes. Gallus had an apologetic smile, making it clear that Coral’s emotional guilt wasn’t his intention.

Deep down, Gallus didn’t mean any harm, even if there were doubts in his mind, not to mention the impossible task of saying no to Coral’s adorable begging eyes. He took a deep breath and smiled.

“Of course, come in.”

They made their way to the living room; Gallus almost forgot how simple and quaint it was with its fireplace and purple satin sofas. With gentle persuasion, Coral had let go of Gallus’ arm to return to a scattered set of papers and crayons whilst Sandbar and Gallus sat on the sofa.

The living room hadn’t changed much from the last time Gallus was in here; the Hearth’s Warming decorations were gone, but the wooden floorboards, lit fireplace, exposed beams and warm pink walls with pictures of mountains and oceans hanging off them.

Although it was quiet, uncomfortably so, the only sound in that living room was the loud ticking of a nearby clock. Someone had to break the silence, and since Coral was busy drawing fish, Sandbar was rubbing his hooves together deep in thought as if finding an excuse to escape. It was up to Gallus to speak up.

“So, what have you been up to?” he asked clumsily, scratching the back of his head. “I, uh, have some catching up to do.”

“I uh… I’ve finished my training. I’m a certified lifeguard now.”

It worked. “That’s awesome!” Gallus said excitedly, the first bit of good news he’d heard in months.

Sandbar reciprocated with a smile. “Yeah, I work at the lake near the School of Friendship, but I’m looking at seaside work near the summer.”

“No surprises there,” Gallus remarked with a smirk. “Any place in mind?”

“Well, I have a few places in mind, but I can’t go too far, Yona’s homesick, and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

Gallus paused for a moment. He remembered the last time speaking with Yona, how she didn’t like being far away from her family in Yakyakistan.

He thought about what Sandbar could do; his limited knowledge of Equestria’s geography didn’t help, but he knew most of the seaside resorts are in the east and south: Horseshoe Bay, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus. It was doubtful that there would be much work close to the oceans near Yona’s home nation. They don’t call it the frozen north for anything.

Although, he also remembered her bringing up Fashion Week and her uncertainty about participating even if it could bolster her career. It gave Gallus an idea. “Would one of those places be Manehatten?” He suggested, “Working there might help you both”.

Sandbar rubbed his chin in contemplation but didn’t answer. The sudden lack of a smile indicated to Gallus that he might have bridged a tricky subject. “How long are you staying in Ponyville for, by the way?” the pale green pony changing the subject abruptly.

“Just a few days, then I’m spending a week away on an Academy Adventure before coming back for a bit.” Gallus promptly answered, leaving out a gap in his plan. “…you know, if I have a place to stay.” Considering his options, the lack of a welcome meant the sofa bed at Silverstream’s was unlikely, so a bed at the Ponyville Inn seemed the best option. Staying at Sandbar’s seemed doubtful with how distant he was being.

“You can stay here!” Coral blurted out, taking the other two by surprise. “We have a spare bed for friends, don’t we, Sandy?”

She looked gleefully towards Sandbar with the same pleading eyes. “Yep, we sure do.” Sandbar answered with restraint and a fake grin, mildly frustrated at the difficulty of refusing.

While he wasn’t the only one showing frustration, Gallus had enough of it. “How about you stop dancing around this? If you’re mad at me, you don’t have to hide it,” he said.

“I’m not mad,” hastily refuted Sandbar but was met with a tired look of doubt. “I mean, the girls aren’t happy with you, but… I knew you’d get in touch eventually; you wouldn’t stop talking to us without good reason.”

Gallus felt a slight relief. He knew Sandbar was more chilled and understanding. It would partially explain the discomfort, trying to remain on good terms with Gallus and everyone else.

“Though it’s not the first time you’ve left us in the dark.”

Although Sandbar’s sentence was muffled behind his hoof, Gallus heard it clearly as his feathered ears perked up. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped.

“Remember when you showed up in the middle of the night, days before you were to start at the Academy? We hadn’t seen you since graduation, yet when I asked what you’ve been up to, all you asked was if it was a good idea to sign up.” Sandbar reminded Gallus, and the memories of that stormy night came flooding back as Gallus grabbed his arms tightly and shuffled in his seat. “Something was bothering you, but you’ve never talked about it.”

“I just had doubts, that’s all”, Gallus gave as his excuse.

“Doubts from where?” Gallus didn’t answer, instead shuffling further away from Sandbar. The pony heaved a sigh, realising it was the same problem as last time. “Dude, this is what I mean. Sure, I don’t like talking about being the social outcast growing up and then being made fun of for the friends I do have….”

Gallus’ head turned slightly; Sandbar caught his attention. “…I know that if it bothers me, I’d tell someone, even if it’s one of my best friends. It’s better than keeping it to myself, right?”

Yet Gallus remained silent, looking pensive towards the unlit fireplace. After a while, Sandbar sighed and began shifting off the sofa to get glass in the kitchen.

“I wasn’t meant to see you that day.”

Sandbar turned back to Gallus, surprised and confused at what he had just said. Gallus’ visit back then was impromptu of how late it was, but that still left the question of how he planned to visit. “I had it all planned to visit you guys the following morning”, he explained, “but in Griffonstone, there was a fight, so my plans changed.”

The news surprised Sandbar, he heard about griffons having arguments at times, but this was the first he had ever heard about a fight. “How bad was it?” He couldn’t be sure how physical it was, as he could not recall Gallus appearing at his door with bruises or scratches.

“Nothing to cry about.” Gallus answered flatly, “I got better once I came here. Those doubts were from Griffonstone, but after the first term of the Academy, I knew it was worth it.” He tried to sound reassuring, but Sandbar had a fixed look of concern back at him. “Look, I want to get my issues from the last few weeks sorted, so… now you’ve heard it, you don’t need to be bothered by it.”

Although the air of concern stayed with Sandbar, a deal was a deal. “Okay, if you say so”, he responded.

“There were ponies who made fun of you for being friends with me?” Gallus followed up.

Sandbar nodded, “And Silverstream, Ocellus, Smolder, and it got worse after I asked Yona out… most of the time, they ask why I hang around you guys ’cause it’s weird, you know?”

“Anypony, I know? I can give them a word.”

Sandbar chuckled, “They’re long gone, not in Ponyville, at least. The newer students are a lot nicer, though….”

“You told anyone else about it, though?”

“Just my parents… and you.” He then remembered his little sister was still busy with her drawings on the floor. “Coral too… At some point, I’m going to tell Yona, but now I’m trying not to make her feel guilty about what she’s going through.”

“Ever think about what it’d be like if you weren’t friends with us?”

Sandbar briefly glanced towards the ceiling, tilting his head in thought. He thought back to all the times he hung out with his friends through the School of Friendship and their adventures and asked himself if he’d have those same adventures if his friends were ponies.

Instead, he shook it off with a slight chuckle. “Nah, where’s the fun in that?” he answered with a smile.

“Gallus?”

The two on the sofa perked up as they heard a new yet familiar voice in the room. They both turn around to see a large Yak had entered the room showing a look of surprise.

“Yona,” Gallus recognised immediately, though his heart stopped as he noticed her slowly move towards him. As he recalled how their last interaction didn’t go well, as well as Sandbar’s, He quickly leapt off the sofa and shifted himself to a more open space in the living room so he had an area to escape if need be prompt.

“Hey, look, I know you’re probably still mad with me, so before you do anything, let me say I’m so-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Yona had her hooves pressed on each side of Gallus, and Yona pulled him into her chest. She stuffed his face into her thick brown fur; his beak dug in, and he could not move, yet his ears heard the strange sound of sobbing.

“Yona’s sorry!” she wept as tears slowly dripped from her muzzle to the top of Gallus’ head, “Yona say mean things about Gallus and new friends. Yona thought Gallus was lying and didn’t want to be friends anymore.”

Unable to feel any relief from his friend’s tearful apology due to how smothered he was, Gallus used all his strength to free his head and gasp for air. “It’s okay. Gallus is sorry, too,” he exclaimed. “You were right to be upset with me, kinda.”

“You don’t need to beat yourself up, dude.” Sandbar interjected.

“Because of me, you were left in the dark, as was myself.” Gallus countered, acknowledging how long he had let the lack of contact go on. “Even if the Academy says it’s not gonna happen again, I’m not sure I can trust them on it.”

“Gallus can write more letters to Yona”, she offered, “Scythe writes good letters.”

“So… still friends?”

There was a moment where Sandbar and Yona looked at each other, the answer seemed so obvious after how apologetic and willing Gallus was to set things right, and they both smiled.

“Of course, dude, always.”

“Yona forgives, and Yona is sorry.”

Gallus was glad to have his friends back, two of them at least. It wasn’t long before he remembered that there were two more that he had to confront. “Well, guess I’ve got to face the others,” he said, bracing himself as he made his way out of the house.

“Yona, come with you to help.”

“No, it’s my problem to sort out”, Gallus asserted, with his arm out to stop Yona, yet there was but little resistance.

“Dude, we’re friends. We help each other.” Sandbar insisted, placing a hoof on the griffon’s back. “Besides, if it doesn’t work out today, you can sleep on our spare bed.”

Dusk was almost settling in as Gallus, Yona, Sandbar, and Coral all arrived at the large purple house. The flowers on the windows were blooming and colourful, the view of the school, castle, and mountainside all in clear view, just like last autumn.

Gallus took a long deep breath; as calm and settled as things were, he knew it was about to change the moment he met with whoever was on the other side of that house’s door. He alone walked up slowly and knocked on it three times.

He weighed his options if she answered the door, assuming the worst-case scenario. Smolder was known to be rough; escape would be his best option if he wanted to make it out without being burnt to a crisp or facing one of her rock-breaking punches.

Then again, Ocellus isn’t one to be underestimated, she might be the kinder and gentler of the group, but she still had those hidden changeling fangs, not to mention her ability to shapeshift into creatures larger than her petite body. She could easily shapeshift into a giant beast and squash him like a…

He then shook the worrying thoughts from his mind; he was overthinking it. Besides, if his worries had been genuine earlier, he would have gotten a pummelling from Yona. All he had to do was to be calm, maybe a little cautious, but at least don’t say anything stupid.

Suddenly the door clicked and slowly creaked open from the inside, and on the other end, a familiar-looking orange dragon emerged. She could see the blue griffon with Sandbar and Yona behind him and Coral peeking from Sandbar’s back. Recognition dawned on her face.

“Hey,” said Gallus in his best calm voice, even giving a slight wave.

Almost immediately, Smolder slammed the door shut in his face.

It stunned Gallus, and his heart sank. He didn’t expect the interaction to end so abruptly. “Well, that could have been worse,” he remarked, with little comfort that he didn’t get any physical scars. As he turned around, a yak met him face-to-face.

Not accepting Smolder’s response, she went up to the door and started banging on it with her stone-hard hooves. The constant banging rattled the door, but before her knocking could break the wood, the door swung open once again.

“Hey, stop banging on the door and leave. I’m not in the mood!” Smolder snapped at Yona, barely missing Yona’s hoof.

“No.” Yona bluntly refused. She then turned around and hoisted Gallus up by her hooves, with such ease as if he were as light as a stuffed animal and plonked him face to face with Smolder. “Griffon and dragon make up now”, the yak ordered.

Being put into a position where she couldn’t just shut the door, Smolder conceded. “About time you finally showed up,” she remarked, her arms folded as she leant on the doorframe and glared into Gallus’ eyes.

The griffon wasn’t sure what to say, but he knew this was the start of what he expected when he returned to Ponyville. And yet, it got worse.

“What’s going on down here?” another familiar voice called out from inside the house, and then a pale blue changeling emerged. “Oh… hey, Gallus,” said Ocellus with an air of concern as she locked eyes with Gallus.

“Is Gallus in trouble?” Coral whispered to Sandbar, witnessing the stare-off from Sandbar’s back.

“Kinda, Gallus used to send letters to Silverstream once a week, but then the letters stopped.”

“Yeah, stopped after Silverstream said she was going to meet you in Canterlot,” Smolder interjected.

Gallus was surprised, he remembered the letter where he awkwardly offered to meet up, but this was the first he heard that Silverstream responded. “She was…?”

“Yeah, except you didn’t show up, so ‘Cell and I had to deal with her crying on our shoulders all night.” Gallus’ heart sank; he remembered feeling hurt when none of them showed up when he went to the city of Canterlot, so the griffon could only imagine how to hurt Silverstream could have been when he didn’t, or more correctly, couldn’t.

“We all thought you pulled a prank on her, a cruel one even for my standards.”

“But I didn’t. I wouldn’t have known that Silver was going to Canterlot to see me because somepony was taking our letters.”

“To be fair to Gallus, that’s what he told Yona”, Ocellus added, trying to keep the dragon calm, “and Silverstream did get his letters eventually.”

“More than two weeks ago,” Smolder rebutted before returning to Gallus. “My shoulder could have avoided being cried on again if you didn’t take so long to fix it.”

“Well, I didn’t know the Academy hadn’t delivered my letters. I only found out thanks to Yona by chance,” Gallus said in his defence, gesturing to Yona about their encounter in Canterlot. “I just didn’t think, even with the way ponies treat me, that the Academy wouldn’t also get in the way of my friends.”

“Why would the Academy do that, though?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out since I got these,” Gallus reached back into his bag and pulled out the bundle of Silverstream’s letters. “I can think of one reason….”

One by one, the gang looked at the floor sombrely, thinking of how ponies treated them differently, sometimes picked on them, feared them, and didn’t want to be their friends.

Yona decided the comfort she needed was picking Sandbar and Coral up and hugging them like teddy bears. “Wish more ponies like yaks….”

“But it’s not like the Royal Guard Academy or the postal service were messing with our letters before,” Smolder then pointed out, “what changed?”

With a clearer picture of what had gone on in Ponyville while he was away, Gallus paused for thought. “You said Silverstream replied to my letter asking to meet up in Canterlot, right?” he queried.

Sandbar nodded. “That’s right, and it was about… one week after you got on the train, and both of you said you lo- “

“I set my choices for the regiment that week, “Gallus interrupted as he felt a realisation that was not flustered feelings, “I told them I was aiming to go to Canterlot Palace or the Wonderbolts. Those two places have high expectations.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow, “So, you’re thinking they did this to stop you from getting into those places?”

“That does sound like a weird theory.” Ocellus added, tilting her head slightly.

“Yeah, a postal worker reading and taking my letters was a weird theory until we found out it was true, so I’m not ruling this one out.” Gallus countered.

“It’s not the first time somepony did something bad to make us look bad or the craziest.”

“Gallus then turned to Smolder, “I’m sorry I ignored you guys for so long. From now on, I will not let it happen again.” He then offered his claw to shake with the orange dragon. “Friends?”

Smolder continued to have her arms locked around her body as she stared at Gallus’ outstretched arm, still annoyed at what she had to put up with, even if she couldn’t shake off the fact it wasn’t entirely Gallus’ fault. What she needed was a bit more convincing.

“Come on, Smolds, I can forgive him, and you know you can, as well,” said Ocellus as she gently prodded the dragon.

“Not yet.” The dragon finally pushed herself off the side of the door, and with her arms still folded, she walked a few steps towards Gallus. He stood still and upright, with his arm outright and his best smile. The corner of Smolder’s mouth started to turn upwards, giving Gallus confidence that she would forgive as the others did.

It also left him unprepared for the surprise right hook that landed right into Gallus’ left shoulder, knocking him to the ground. “Now I can.”

It stunned everyone as Gallus pulled himself back to his hind paws with the arm that wasn’t aching. “I don’t know how that didn’t break…” he groaned while rubbing his bruised shoulder. If the rest could complain, Smolder’s reasonable excuse was that the aching arm was for the times Silverstream used her shoulder to cry on.

“Also, you need to own up to Silverstream,” Smolder then silently requested Ocellus by pointing to something inside the house. The request got Ocellus to snap out of her surprise as she quickly left the front door and returned, holding a pink envelope with her teeth, which Smolder picked out and handed over to Gallus. “She wanted you to read this; you’ll have to write to Mount Aris. She said she would be there for the rest of the holidays.”

Gallus took the letter. Outside of the new teeth marks, the letter was still clean, with fresh ink on the envelope. He had a good idea what the envelope contained. “I know. Silverstream told me when Gabby and Gilda paid a visit to the Academy,” he said.

“She did?”

He then turned to Sandbar, “I mentioned going on an Academy Adventure. Well, I’m going to Mount Aris, “to everyone else’s surprise. Except for Yona, who just smiled and nodded, she had helped the two birds communicate the planned visit for the last two weeks. “A letter isn’t enough, so I’m gonna make it up to her.”

“Do you think she’s gonna take it well?”

Gallus just returned with a smile of confidence.

“There’s only one way to find out….”

Author's Note

It's here! Sorry for the wait. I was busy with a whole moving house, helping run a convention, and lack of internet for two months (which doesn't include the life drama that Javarod had).

Already started the next one as this chapter was being edited, so hopefully writing will return closer to its previous schedule.

Sail the Ocean Blue - Part 1

“Yo, Bluebird, how’re you holding up?” asked Nicknames. “Nervous, I bet.”

The gang stood just outside the barrier of the Hippogriff Navy’s dockyard. It was early morning, with a calm tepid breeze blowing against them. As such, Gallus felt rather relaxed, albeit tired from getting up. Gallus furrowed his brow. He wasn’t nervous about anything and was unsure why Nicknames was looking at him with a cheeky smirk.

“No, why?”

“Well, you’re about to meet Ladybird’s dad. Not an easy task if you wanna, you know….” He playfully nudged Gallus’ chest, who began to narrow his eyes and sharpen his stare towards Nicknames. They were about to meet Silverstream’s dad, Prince SKybeak, at any moment.

Sure, there was that moment the night before between Gallus and Silverstream that… could have gone better. Also, he couldn’t be certain of what Skybeak knew from her, assuming she told her parents everything. Still, Gallus has more pressing stuff to focus on, like the Navy behind them. Gallus was unaware of why Nicknames was still playing the “lovebirds” schtick, unlike the shorter stallion standing by and grumbling.

“Don’t tease him….”

“What? I’m just saying.” Nicknames deflected. “Bluebird wants to get back in Ladybird’s good books, and her dad is the scary protective type around you. That’s how I’ve heard all dads are with their girls, right ladies?” Whatever smug confidence he had quickly faded away as he was met with hawk-like stares from the two Pegasus mares.

“Nah, mah pop’s a big sweetheart.” Sterling refuted.

“My dad won’t give me the time of day, let alone care which colt wants to ask me out. So, no.”

Nickname’s face went white. “Uh, well… still. We’re talking about a Prince AND a Captain, so what do we do, bow or salute?” he asked with a light-hearted chortle. It was impressive how easily he bounced back. “But seriously, do we bow or salute when he arrives?”

That did bring up a good point, do they bow because they’re guests and he’s a member of the royal family, or do they salute because they’re military and he’s a high-ranking officer? Nicknames twisted his head side to side, hoping someone would have an answer. If only he’d known some Crystal Ponies who’ve met Shining Armour, those ponies would know how to greet a monarch and military captain.

None of the ponies had answers, so they all turned to Gallus, he met With his eyes in the sky, Gallus just smiled.

“Well, you better figure it out quick.”

After hearing a loud and majestic screech echo from the sky, they all looked up and witnessed a hippogriff emerge from the rising sun. The hippogriff swooped down and flew low over the barrier before landing firmly in front of the gang. They were in the presence of Prince Skybeak, tall, firm build, with coat and feathers blue as sapphires and a mane like silver cirrus clouds.

“Hey, good morning, ponies and griffon!” he proudly greeted them. The beaming light on his face matched his positivity.

His grandeur tone and tall stature gave the gang the sight of a strong leader, one of a royal and an officer. “Good morning, sir!” Gallus decided a relaxed and formal greeting would do. Instead of shaking Sky Beak’s claws, he noticed the hippogriff looking away from him with an amused grin, using his claws to cover his beak to hide his laughter.

Confused, Gallus turned his head and quickly saw what was so funny. Scythe and Pound Sterling stood tall and firm with their arm held up in a salute. Meanwhile, Nickname went to the same fancy bow he gave Silverstream the day before, and Lightning Dust had her head down, and flank raised too.

They got so unsure of how to greet Sky Beak that they all did different things, seemingly unaware of what the other was doing.

“In all my years, visitors from Equestria never fail to surprise me,” he remarked with a chuckle before raising a single arm. “Please, at ease, save your formalities for the big G.” All four ponies glanced at each other, slowly letting down their arms and returning to standing. Somewhat embarrassed, they didn’t realise how laid back Sky Beak was.

“Uh, sorry, sir.” Gallus stepped in, sharing their humiliation. “My buddies have been eager to meet you, so….”

“Hey, no problem! We’ve all been through drills once.” Skybeak remarked, giving Gallus a light pat on the back and resting a claw on his shoulder. With some relief, Gallus didn’t have anything to worry about with Silverstream’s Dad.

“Come on, let’s get you all kitted up.”

The Hippogriff Navy uniforms looked odd, a green and yellow patterned tunic and headband. Sure, it was different from the dark green coveralls or the metal armour, and at least it wasn’t bright white with a goofy hat. Still, it didn’t provide any protection or camouflage.

Then again, once Skybeak took them to the docks, there was no need for any safety apparel. The Princely hippogriff showed them the ship they were about to set sail on. The wooden vessel was vast, with three sails and a giant purple rudder in the rear. It was presented like a giant bird with two large wooden wings and windows shaped like seashells.

But this was no mere transport ship, but a full-on battleship with weapons showing on all sides. Pound Sterling quickly flew back to capture the entire ship in a photo, leading the others to stare in slack-jawed awe.

“Dude… look at all those cannons… I think I’m gonna cry,” said Nicknames in wide-eyed astonishment.

“You know what, go ahead. I won’t judge” Lightning Dust followed, sharing his sentiments. They all made their way up the ship's deck, still in disbelief that it was where they’d be.

“Yes, you lot are lucky”, Skybeak sighed, “I never got to work on one of these.”

“Really?” Gallus tilted his head. “Silverstream once told me you were in the Sea Fleet, but I thought you worked on a ship before.”

“Ha!” Skybeak gave Gallus another pat on the back. “In all my life, I haven’t worked on anything larger than a fishing boat.” That came as a surprise to Gallus; Silverstream never mentioned anything about her dad working in fishing. “I mean, I could have worked with the Navy once we could be hippogriffs once more, but Royal duties said otherwise….”

“Royal duties?”

Before Gallus could get clarification, they all had reached the top deck, and Skybeak’s attention was caught elsewhere. “Aha! There he is!” he exclaimed as he happily recognised an old friend.

He then leapt up and glided across the deck, past a bunch of uniformed hippogriffs before landing in front of one tall indigo-coloured hippogriff with a noticeably different headgear that stood out. That, and the thick pale blue mane of his that flowed like the ocean.

“How’s it going, Big G?”

Skybeak confidently had his arm out as if ready to swing into a firm clawshake. However, the other hippogriff sat up on his hindlegs, folded his arms, and glared directly at the prince. “Your highness, I know it’s been a while, but what have I said about work and formalities?” the hippogriff asked with a formal yet serious tone.

Skybeak quickly hesitated, “Oh, sorry, Seaspray” he quickly flung his claw to the back of his head while giving a sheepish grin. “Guess some things don’t change.”

Fortunately, after a short pause, Seaspray’s expression shifted as he revealed a smirk. “No matter Skybeak, I’m rather impressed you’re still able to get out of bed in this waking hour.” He quipped.

“Careful, you know who my sister-in-law is.”

The two laughed. Clearly, they got on well and continued to chat. Gallus stood on the other end of the deck, watching the moment from a distance with intrigue.

He had never seen the two together before, Skybeak always turned up to parent-teacher meetings at the School of Friendship, as well as their graduation. Seaspray only turned up once during his first day at the school, though Silverstream used to say how growing up, if her dad was around, Seaspray wasn’t too far away, almost like he watched over her as much as her dad did.

The two probably talk about how Silverstream is getting on all the time, Gallus thought, yet Skybeak appeared happy and friendly with him. Perhaps he was being nice, but maybe Silverstream didn’t bring it up?

Meanwhile, the other ponies had their own discussion.

“Big G? As in General?” Lightning Dust having just figured out Seaspray’s nickname.

“Yeh, ain’t ‘eads of Navies s’posed to be called sumthin’ like commodoor?” Pound Sterling pondered.

“Admiral”

Whilst Scythe muttered the correct answer, hesitant to demean Sterling, Nicknames interjected. “Whatever we call him, we should salute, right?” He was oblivious to why the others groaned and sighed soon after.

“Anyways, I’m here to introduce you to your new cadets,” Skybeak directed his friend’s attention to the gang, “fresh from the Equestria’s Royal Guard Academy!” He clearly bolstered their military credentials to impress him. “Cadets, this is General Seaspray.”

The introduction was a good sign for them to make their first impression known the best way they knew how. “Good morning, sir!” All five said in unison, followed by a salute.

However, Seaspray did not look impressed at all. His mood shifted, and the smile vanished as he approached the cadets. With a stoic stare and narrow eyes, he walked down the line inspecting each one at a time. His eyes pan up and down on each, yet he never says a word, like he is Staff Sergeant Razorwing on mute.

Then he reached Gallus. As Gallus stood solid like a statue, almost face to face with the General, he immediately noticed something across his face, down his neck, and even across his arms, scars. It might have been years, but Gallus was sure Seaspray had never had pale streaks so sharp and thin.

The detailed damage proved challenging to ignore as Seaspray looked up and down again, slowly and meticulously inspecting the griffon. Gallus tried to slow his breathing, keep his head fixed forward, and focus on the green circle on the chest of Seaspray’s tunic so they remained level with the horizon.

Remarkably, Seaspray tilted his head and gave a short hum with intrigue. He turned back to Skybeak, but not before firmly and quickly adjusting Gallus’ flat and straightened claws still held near his head in salute.

Gallus glanced at his saluting claw when Seaspray’s eyes weren’t on him. It was faced down, almost perpendicular to how it was.

“I see the Equestrians have rehearsed the correct pose,” remarked Seaspray facetiously.

Skybeak rolled his eyes before turning to Gallus and the ponies, returning to his prior radiance. “That’s General Seaspray saying you guys make a good impression. He’s gonna oversee this ship, so be on your best behaviour,” he explained, although he quickly saw the fixed wide-eyed looks and tense salutes didn’t help. “But also, relax, he’s friendly when you get to know him…” he attempted to reassure them. “…mostly. Have fun!”

Skybeak then gave a short salute. Gallus noticed his claw was faced down before giving a massive leap off the ship and swooping back down to the docks. The ponies and griffon were left with Seaspray standing nearby.

Nicknames whispered, “So, this is the Godfather, huh?” as he glanced towards the hippogriff.

“Yes, shut it.” Gallus hissed in response, remaining tense and eager to avoid trouble for any gossip.

Seaspray cleared his throat, causing Nicknames to snap back forward. “Cadets, at ease, and follow me.” Just as ordered, they all dropped their arms and began to walk behind Seaspray as he began to brief them. “Shortly, we will embark on a voyage between Mount Aris and Ludo Isle, one of our smaller islands, as part of our routine inspections for any threats or criminal activities on our seas.”

They all made their way under the helm and inside the ship. The ship had three floors accessible from two sets of staircases, one towards the stern and the other towards the bow. The bottom floor stored rope, weapons, and everything you needed for a long voyage.

“The entire journey will take three days, so your meals and food will be in the galley while you will billet in these quarters.” Seaspray showed them a single giant room on the middle floor. It was mostly empty except for a large stack of hammocks in one corner and wooden tables set off at another side. “When you hear a bell being rung, that means the ship is in an emergency", he continued. “All crewmembers must report to their muster stations; yours will be on the port-side deck where you first saw me.”

A Hippogriff sailor emerged at the stairs from below and approached Seaspray, holding a clipboard. “General. All crew and cargo are accounted for. We’re ready to embark,” they said.

“Excellent. Tell the crew to raise the sails, take off the lines, and get to their posts so we can start moving.”

The hippogriff saluted soon after and departed up the stairs to the top of the deck. It was time for the ship to move, and Seaspray turned back to the cadets. “Any questions?”

The only one with the confidence to raise their arm was Gallus, “Yeah, what will we be doing?” It was a fair question. It’s not like they were there for a free cruise, as nice as that would have been.

Seaspray cleared his throat again, covering his beak to dampen the sound. “Let’s go back up to deck, and I’ll show you.”

They all went back up the stairs and back up on the deck. Hippogriffs were pulling up the anchor, drawing the sails, taking away the ramp from the docks, all preparations underway in a prompt and orderly manner. When Seaspray pointed to what they’ll be working on, they saw a set of buckets, brooms, and towels.

“The deck here needs a good cleaning; it should take all of you a few hours to scrub and mop up every inch of it.”

Any hopes of starting off their ocean voyage doing something new and fun were dashed on the ponies. “That’s it?” Lightning Dust asked with a mixture of disappointment and annoyance. It wasn’t the smartest response, as she turned away and found herself muzzle to beak with Seaspray, his eyes narrowed, and forehead creased.

“Correct, cadet.” His voice deepened when he answered. “Do a good job before lunchtime, and perhaps you’ll be permitted to do other duties. Understood?”

“Uh, yes, sir.”

“Good, get a move on, then.”

The cadets looked at Gallus, Lightning Dust, and Nicknames and gave half-lidded stares. It was his idea to go on this cool trip, and instead of fun or relaxation, it was cleaning duty like they were back at their dorm.

Scythe and Pound Sterling, though, had sympathetic looks. It’s not his fault their first task sucked. They’re army ponies who never worked on a ship before. Not to mention, they felt Seaspray wasn’t keen on them being there. As a silver lining, there are worse jobs. They could be dealing with waste disposal on the docks, pity whoever does that job.

In the end, they all went up, and each gathered the cleaning equipment to start working on the deck. If they get the work done, things might get better. At least the nerve-wracking part was out of the way.

“Except you, Gallus. There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

There was one area that none of the ponies saw on the tour of the ship that Seaspray took Gallus to, the captain’s quarters. Despite its fancy name, it appeared to be the most familiar to an officer cadet like Gallus.

It was an open room, with shelves and cabinets to the side, a large desk and chair with windows facing behind it. This was a commander’s office with an all-wood graining, the only difference being a hammock above for sleeping and a door to the side possibly leading to a private restroom.

Seaspray entered the quarters first. He went around the desk and stood directly in front of the seashell-shaped windows with his arms locked behind him, looking out to Mount Aris as it slowly moved away from the ship.

Given the familiarity of the office, Gallus followed behind and stood in front of the desk. Yet Seaspray remained silent, almost like Gallus wasn’t there. It was the griffon’s turn to clear his throat to gain some attention.

“What did you want to talk about, sir?”

“Four and a half years”, Seaspray answered an oddly short and vague answer that left Gallus tilting his head. “It’s been four and a half years since I visited the School of Friendship as an escort, representative of Hippogriffs, and met the leaders and diplomats of other grand nations, such as yourself.” He finally turned his head to look directly at Gallus. “You’ve gotten taller and gained some brawn since I last saw you.”

“Uh… thanks.” Gallus wasn’t sure how much of what he said to take as a compliment. Did Seaspray bring Gallus here just for a recap? “Guess I have changed over the years, unlike you,” Gallus followed, something light-hearted. It'll be over sooner if he doesn’t make the conversation awkward. “Except for… you know… those scars.”

And he blew it. Seaspray raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t until he glanced down at his arm and saw the long thin wound drawn across that a sombre reminder came to him. “…Yes. I’ve been busy returning the Navy to what it was before the Storm.”

“The Storm?”

“The day the Storm King invaded our islands and took everything, leaving the Hippogriffs hiding under the ocean”, Seaspray clarified with a grim sigh. Gallus quickly realised what he was referring to. He learned about the Storm King, the places he invaded, and his defeat at the School of Friendship, but to be referred to not as any old storm but as THE Storm was something new. It felt dark and ominous, a perfect analogy of such a period.

“We used to rule the entire south seas, and the Navy has made great progress getting it back, but not without some…disagreements”. He was wiping the wound with his thumb as he grasped his arm. Gallus likely brought him back to a fight, maybe with a pirate or some creature loyal to the Storm King.

Suddenly he shook himself and waved away those thoughts. “But enough catching up, how about you?” He asked, his eloquent and raised tone returned as he sat at his desk. “What brings you to Mount Aris?”

“Oh.” Gallus was relieved the tough part was over so soon. He figured it was safe enough to answer truthfully, at least for the whole group. “Well, my buddies and I are on spring break. The Academy has this scheme to do something adventurous. I thought it’d be great to come here and- ”.

Suddenly, Seaspray raised a single claw. The nonverbal command caused Gallus to stop mid-sentence. “Perhaps I should be clearer. I’m aware of Equestria’s Royal Guard Academy and that cadets do excursions. Though you’re the first to come here.” he stated.

“I’m also aware that you’re close with the Queen’s niece. Her Majesty wouldn’t have been convinced of bringing cadets from Equestria had it not been for her.”

He rested his shoulders on the desk. He clasped his talons, locking his sights on Gallus.

“So, let me ask again, what brings you here?”

“I….” Gallus could feel nerves building up, he thought a simple truth was enough, but he saw Seaspray read him, knowing it wasn’t enough. Maybe if he told Seaspray what he wanted to hear, that would be enough? “There was something I wanted to talk to Silverstream about…” answered Gallus.

Seaspray raised an eyebrow. “And what must be so important it required you to travel all the way to Mount Aris to speak to her?” he questioned, clearly what Gallus thought wasn’t enough.

The griffon’s eyes wandered, thinking of what to say next. Should he mention his ordeal and how it affected Silverstream and their friends? He wasn’t sure if he should also bring up how she felt when they had arrived…

Meanwhile, Seaspray grew impatient. He wasn’t sure how Gallus was reluctant to answer his question as if he was hiding something, perhaps some tremendous guilt. What would a young adult feel guilty about concerning a young lady? His eyes then narrowed, and one of his claws clenched tight into a fist. “You didn’t hurt her, did you?” he said with a deep voice and grit in his teeth.

“No, sir!” Gallus instantly exclaimed; his feathers and fur puffed out in fright at the thought. His heart raced, and his mind was followed close behind. Of course, he didn’t hurt Silverstream. At least, not physically, mentally, or directly, and he was genuinely sorry. Silverstream must know it wasn’t his fault or intent to upset her. Oh, Grover, he needed to stop thinking.

“Good”, he said, calmed as quickly as he grew angry. “I’ve known Silverstream since she was a fry and vowed to give her a good life during our darkest times”, he recalled. “The last thing I want is for her heart to play by one she spoke fondly of.”

Thankfully, Gallus’ heart slowly returned to a healthy pace as he felt relieved again. However, he wasn’t sure if it was because Seaspray believed him or knowing that Silverstream spoke fondly of him. Then again, he felt his cheeks begin to warm.

“Since you’ve been truthful thus far, let me be truthful in return: I have the utmost loyalty for Her Majesty Queen Novo and respect for Prince Skybeak, but if both told me to bring one pony to work on my ship, let alone four, I’d still tell them no.”

Gallus wasn’t sure how he was surprised. Silverstream did write it took hours for her dad to convince him.

“I reminded them of the Rockhoof Incident, where one pony crashed a transport cruiser on jagged rocks on their first and only day at sea” Rockhoof? That sounded like the name of that storyteller pony back at the School of Friendship.

“Despite my reluctance, I only agreed because Lady Silverstream proposed the idea, and you would be with them. As such, I’m trusting you with ensuring nothing bad happens because of your comrades.” Seaspray instructed, with a warning. “One more Rockhoof Incident. I’ll personally arrange for your early departure back to Equestria. Do I make myself clear?”

After all that, Gallus wasn’t worried. He was annoyed. Not only does Seaspray give them cleaning duty on a grand navy experience, but expects Gallus to keep an eye on his friends. For what reason? Because they’re ponies who might screw things up. Gee, why does that sound familiar?

Unfortunately, Gallus could also see out the window behind Seaspray. Mount Aris was so far away. It’d be challenging to turn back, and complaining would ruin the trip for everyone.

“Yes. Crystal. Leave and carry on, sir?”

“You may”, answered Seaspray. Gallus did a right turn and marched two steps before turning towards the door and making his exit. It was just like routine, except Seaspray's Hippogriff Navy, was sailing the ocean blue instead of the Royal Guard Academy.

“Tch, Equestrians.”

Sail the Ocean Blue - Part 2

Up on deck, the morning was cool and fresh, with a wind strong enough to push the giant ship across the ocean. The hippogriffs were busy keeping the ship steady on the waves near the helm, maintaining the sails, or looking out on the topsails. At the same time, the ponies were busy doing other work.

“Let’s go to Mount Aris,” he said.” Lightning Dust mimicked Gallus as she slapped a newly wet mop onto the wooden deck and pushed it back and forth. “It’ll be awesome, my lovebird can get us to hang out with the Navy he said.”

“C’mon Dusteh, dis work ain’t tha’ bad.” Pound Sterling was busy pressing a brush across the surface back and forth as she tried to be reasonable.

“We’re officers in training on a battleship, and all we’ve done this morning is janitor work.”

“We’re not trained for sailing, though.”

Scythe muttered to himself as he brushed down one of the ship's railings.

“All the while, Bluebird is chatting away with the Godfather.” said Nicknames, sharing Lightning Dust’s frustrations.

“Why do Hippogriffs even need a Navy?” Suddenly, she was silenced by Sterling, who pointed her eyes at a couple of Hippogriffs nearby. The others were wide-eyed, unsure if such a question would raise any offence. Regardless, Lightning Dust furrowed her brow. “They can turn into Seaponies and swim for miles.”

“Maybe they like cruises?” suggested Nicknames, which managed to eliminate the concerns of everypony, but only because he was met with confused or annoyed faces staring at him. “What?!” He wasn’t aware of how odd his answer sounded.

“Best guess is tha' these ships protect thea isles 'n waters. Can't swim i' an ocean tha’ ain’t safe, jono.” Sterling appropriately replied. “Not ta mention they can't lug everythin' underwata.”

“Almost like the Navy is a military branch and not a Navy cruiser.”

“‘Sides, Bluebird probably din’t kna dis is t' work we're doin’. Be easy on 'im, alreet?” Sterling insisted. She and Scythe being on Gallus’ side, would have reassured him as the blue griffon emerged onto the deck to reunite with them.

“There you are!” Nicknames exclaimed. “We were worried General Seaspray was gonna be rough on you, right guys?” The other ponies knew Nicknames was joking, although they weren’t laughing since Gallus wasn’t either.

He was jaded, still peeved at what Seaspray talked about. He then glanced down towards Nicknames’ hooves and pointed. “Could ya pass me the mop?” Nicknames looked to where Gallus was pointing. There was a spare mop. Nicknames picked it up with his teeth and moved towards him as he grabbed it, dunked it in a bucket, and started wiping the deck with it.

Nicknames looked at the other ponies for ideas. Gallus didn’t even thank him and went straight to work without a fuss. Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling looked at each other uncertainly, and Scythe just shrugged back at him.

“Uh, Bluebird? Something up?” he asked with concern.

“Nothing.”

A short and flat response, he could only guess something. General Seaspray said something to rid the emotion of him. “Did the Godfather make you an offer you can’t refuse?” Nicknames followed.

“What? No!” Gallus answered with a raised eyebrow as if he heard something random reference he didn’t get. “He just said….” there was a pause before he sighed. “Let’s get this done with.”

And so, all five continued to mop and scrub the wooden surfaces on top of the ship. Although the work was slow, they made it quicker as a team working on larger areas at once. Once they had reached the end of the ship a few hours later, they had time to empty their buckets of dirty water.

As Seaspray emerged from his quarters to see how things were getting on deck, the gang all stood to attention in line. Yet, instead of recognising their attention or telling them to ease, he walked around them, inspecting the floors. He did this for a few minutes before finally wiping a talon across one of the handrails and checking for dirt, only to find a lack of it.

“Impressive,” the General remarked. “It looks as if we won’t need this deck cleaned for the remainder of today.”

“Will that mean we can do other duties, sir?” Gallus forcefully asked whilst staring at Seaspray sternly.

Seaspray glanced over, his brows briefly lowered as he recognised Gallus’ glower. “Perhaps, but let’s put a pin in that for later”, he answered, wiping off his talons as if he hadn’t seen anything. “It’s time for you to eat.”

Nicknames perked up, “Food sounds good. What’s on the menu?” he questioned with intrigue.

On the lunch menu was roasted haddock with a side serving of boiled seaweed and kelp, a traditional delicacy for hippogriffs out on the ocean. The ship's crew casually cut up and scooped the food into their beaks, looking bored as they felt it tasted sub-par and nothing special for what they usually had out at sea.

Yet, it was favourably compared to Lightning Dust's unnerved feelings.

“Guess no one told the Navy that ponies don’t eat meat?”

“Ugh, dis doesn’t feel roight.” Pound Sterling’s already thick accent was muffled with her mouth full, her fish taking a small bite. Before Lightning Dust could feel pity for the friend sitting next to her, she was horrified to see Pound Sterling go back down to the plate with an open jaw.

“Don’t bite into it again, Steppy!”

“Oi, betta ta ea' than ta be clammed.”

“Come on, Dusty, you’re being dramatic. This seaweed stuff isn’t bad.”

Sitting on Lightning Dust’s other side, Nicknames had a more confident demeanour. That being said, he could have used a napkin. His muzzle had green and brown slime specks from the boiled sea vegetables. Lightning Dust wasn’t in the mood.

“Oh yeah, what about the fish?”

Nicknames then looked down at his plate; the slightly browned dead fish lay there untouched. He felt a chill up his spine as its open eye stared at him. He then took a deep breath. “Well, when dining with hippogriffs, do what the hippogriffs do.” He lowered his head to meet the fish, opened his jaw, and took a massive bite. He then pulled his head back up and took slow, massive chews, his face squirming with each bite. He then closed his eyes tight, swallowing the taste in one go. After all that, there was nothing. “Huh, it’s got an odd texture, but it’s pretty goo-”

Suddenly, he felt the fish go back up his oesophagus at an alarming speed. He quickly shoved his hoof in front of his muzzle to hold it in. Turns out, it wasn’t looking suitable for the ponies.

“Uh, hey Bluebird, Mumbles, how’re you two getting o-”

Before she could finish her question, she was stunned at what she saw. Gallus held his fish in his claws, and with wide eyes and a huge smile, he was biting and tearing into it like a gazelle to a carcass. He also didn’t care that his mouth was full, and saliva dripped from both sides of his sharp beak.

Meanwhile, Scythe sat beside him, leaning away as he nervously looked on. “Uh, Gallus? Mind if I trade my fish for your vegetables?” he timidly asked as he gently pushed his plate towards the hungry griffon.

Without saying a word, Gallus answered by putting down his fish, left with nothing but its head and spine, before scraping the vegetables off his plate into Scythe’s and grabbing his fish before burying his beak into it.

The sight of Gallus enjoying fish a little too much left his pony buddies with pale blank faces. “So, is fish the only meat Griffons eat or…?” Lightning Dust’s question had no answer; they just scooted a small space away to create a safe distance.

Not that Gallus noticed; he finished the second fish quicker than the first. “Oh, Grover, I haven't had fish this good in ages!” he exclaimed with his claws resting on his stomach.

Sitting on the other side of Gallus was a yellow hippogriff with a red mane. His ears perked, and a wide grin appeared when he heard the glad compliment. “You’re welcome. At least someone appreciates my cooking.” The snide remark of the cook got a hearty laugh from the other hippogriffs at the table.

“Makes you wonder what kind of food he’s had to eat.”

“Speaking of, there’s some kelp and seaweed left over. Does anyone want some?”

“YES, PLEASE!” All the ponies said in unison with their plates held forward. To them, anything was better than eating more fish.

After the meal, everyone worked together to clear away the galley, hippogriff, ponies, and griffon. Moving chairs and tables out of the way wasn’t exciting work, but they all got to work together for a brief moment.

Once they were done, General Seaspray arrived to speak to the cadets. This time, he was carrying a brown pouch.

“Ah, the Equestrians, I hope you’ve eaten well?”

“Yes, sir,” Gallus said confidently.

“Barely…” Lightning Dust muttered in contrast.

“Excellent, I have new work for you.” Seaspray opened the pouch and took out a spyglass, a wooden retractable device with glass lenses at both ends. “You’ll need these for when you’re up top”, he followed, handing one to each of the ponies, leaving Gallus without one.

The ponies figured out quickly that up top meant topsail, a small platform near the top of the ship's tallest mast. Three of them spent their time resting on the oval wooden handrail, looking through their spyglasses out to see.

Lightning Dust looked out starboard of the ship.

“See anything yet?”

Pound Sterling looked out port side.

“Nuthin’. You?”

“There’s another ship sailing the other way. It’s about… a mile and a half away.” Between the two, that faraway ship was the most exciting thing they could find out in the ocean for half an hour. “See any land, Mumbles?” Scythe was looking forward across the bow of the ship. He just shook his head. Lightning Dust sighed, “I’d rather be where Nicknames is now.”

“Ah dunno ‘bout Nick, he looked a lil’ mithered if y’ask me.”

This was an understatement. When the ponies stood on the deck earlier, Nicknames rushed to the nearest side of the ship and hurled overboard. “BLARRGH!” was all any pony or griff could hear aside from the splashes and splatter away from the ship. It oddly reminded the gang of the early days at the Academy.

General Seaspray pinched his beak and instructed Nicknames to go back down and head towards the doctor’s quarters.

“At least he’s not up here.”

“Well, wha' about Bluebird?”

Below them, Gallus was hanging off the main sail, tying ropes to secure the sail as it was unfurled. It wasn’t easy to work, there were several ropes to knot, and the wind blew against the tarp of the sail, fighting to blow it off the mast of the ship.

“Great work on that, Gallus. We can get moving again”, said the yellow hippogriff from earlier.

“Thanks. I’m impressed you guys do this every day.” Gallus remarked as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Hey, it’s all part of being in the Navy. Shame, General Seaspray won’t let your pony friends help.”

“He won’t?”

“Yeah, we asked about it, but he said no, wanted nothing bad to happen.”

Gallus was mixed with surprise that other hippogriffs were keen and Seaspray was so stubborn.

“Can’t entirely blame him for thinking that,” another hippogriff chimed in, “remember the Rockhoof Incident?”

Gallus did, from when Seaspray brought it up. Despite how the General put it, the other crew started laughing.

“Oh, Uranus, that’s a classic! General Seaspray hires Rockhoof, a big stallion with a hardcore ginger beard and long braided mane.”

“So, it WAS that Rockhoof”, Gallus realised. That short description confirmed the Rockhoof he suspected, “one of the pillars of Equestria who was trapped in limbo for a thousand years.”

“Yeah, said something like that,” the yellow hippogriff said, waving his claw as if it was not an important detail. “Anyways, we were stuck in a fog, and this Rockhoof pony suggests using the stars to navigate instead.”

“In fairness, I read a history book a few years ago. The Navy in the old days used to navigate by the stars, too,” the other hippogriff chimed in again.

“True, but General Seaspray, without thinking it through, just takes this idea and orders us to sail the ship full-speed towards a constellation. No wonder the ship crashed right into those rocks.”

The hippogriffs laughed again. To them, it was nothing but a goof.

“Still kind of feel bad for Rockhoof, though,” the other hippogriff remarked as the laughter died, “General Seaspray fired him on the spot and looked miserable after that.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. A pony built like that would be perfect for any tough job,” the yellow hippogriff replied with optimism. From what Gallus recalled, he was right. Rockhoof visited the school often, telling stories of his past with the Mighty Helm and helping historians and museums around Equestria.

“Anyways, I’m gonna take over steering the ship. Wanna join me, Gallus?”

The idea of checking out the ship's helm sounded appealing in Gallus’ mind, potentially steering the ship alongside the other hippogriffs. However, he looked up at the topsail and remembered who he was also on the ship with.

“I think I’m gonna check on my friends instead.”

Gallus made his way up to the topsail. Pound Sterling, Lightning Dust, and Scythe were still up there, but they were resting on their hooves, slumped over the railing. They were so bored none of them even noticed Gallus’ presence.

“Uh hey, how are you doing?”

“Alreet, I guess,” Pound Sterling answered with a dull drone, but Lightning Dust wasn’t as accepting.

“No, not alright!” she pushed back and turned to stare sharply at Gallus. “We spent all morning wiping the floor of that deck, then we got for lunch with fish we couldn’t eat, and now we’re left up here just doing nothing but staring out into the sea. I have been looking at that same ship for hours.”

“That sucks,” said Gallus, though Lightning Dust didn’t appreciate the understatement.

“Meanwhile, you spent a part of the morning talking to the Big G, stuffing your face full of that fish, and just now, you were working on the sails with your new buddies. Yeah, we don’t have claws, nails, and beaks as you do, so we don’t get treated like you do. Do you know what it’s like to feel so different?”

Lightning Dust quickly heard the loud sound of some pony clearing their throat. She glanced just to the right of Gallus to see Scythe frantically making a throat-cutting gesture with his hoof with an anxious look on his face. She wasn’t sure why until she saw Gallus glare back at her like a hawk.

“Yeah, I do. Back at the Academy?” he reminded her. “That’s why I’m here.”

Lighting Dust calmed to a miffed state once it was clear to her accusatory attitude to Gallus about unfairness wouldn’t go anywhere. All of them agreed this issue needed to be resolved.

“Can’t the other Hippogriffs do something about it?” Scythe offered, but Gallus shook his head.

“Turns out General Seaspray wouldn’t allow it.”

“Then tell General Seaspray”, Lightning Dust suggested. “You two get along well.”

Still in the air, Gallus flew back slightly, his eyes widened and arms crossed. “Oh no, if General Seaspray says no to his crew, there’s no way I’ll do better”, Gallus pointed out. The others also weren’t aware of how tense their exchanges were. “We might get an early trip back to Equestria if I tried.”

“What has he got against us ponies anyway?”

“To cut it short, Seaspray brought on a pony once, crashed a ship, and he thinks something bad will happen again.”

Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow. She was back up to frustration. “That’s it? Because of one pony?” she asked rhetorically. “We’ve been in the Academy for six months. What in Twilight does he think would happen if we did what we were trained to do?”

Before they could talk, their conversation was cut off by the booming sound of a large blast coming from the ship's starboard side. Each ponies’ ears perked, and Gallus’ fur and feathers puffed out in shock, and they all rushed over to see what it was.

All of them witnessed a black round ball shoot off into the sky. Everything went silent as the ball’s climb slowed and moved further away before descending at a slowly increasing velocity right into the other ship in the distance.

The black ball disappeared, leaving a faint sound of wood breaking apart. Poor Gallus felt his heart stop. Somehow, he was sure he and his friend would get blamed for this.

“Something like that?”

Author's Note

Oh lord, this is my first three-parter. ^^;

Trial at Sea

A bell was ringing. The heads of all hippogriffs on deck shot up and turned to the call. A second later, they flew to their posts as they entered a state of emergency.

Gallus, Scythe, Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling dropped down from topsail and stood at the portside as they witnessed their first real-life military emergency. It was chaos. Hippogriffs flew across the ship left and right, some shouting orders, others going below deck and a number going above.

All the while, the boat struck by the cannonball had turned to face them and was on the move, getting slightly bigger in view as it approached them.

"All claws and hooves to their stations. Celaeno is coming!" yelled one hippogriff.

In all the commotion, that name felt off to Gallus. "Celaeno… Celaeno…" he quietly repeated it to himself, rubbing a claw under his beak as he pondered. "Why does that sound familiar?"

As Gallus tried to remember, Nicknames finally emerged on deck. As he hurried towards his post with the other ponies, he looked anxious despite never turning his sights to any of the hippogriffs on deck. It didn't help that Seaspray was close behind, whose piercing, narrow eyes focused on the pegasus.

"Hey, fellow ponies… and griffon", Nicknames coyly said, his grin loosely around his muzzle.

The other ponies immediately grew suspicious. "Okay, what did you do?" Lightning Dust questioned him with a half-lidded stare.

"…what do you mean?"

"Did ya fire a cannon a' the ship?" Pound Sterling followed.

Nicknames stared at the two with a blank face.

"Well, I didn't MEAN to hit a ship."

"Oh, Twilight, we're in trouble."

"It can't be that bad, right? I can see the ship is still there."

"An' it's sailin' t'wards us!" Pound Sterling pointed out as the other ship slowly grew larger in their line of sight.

"Not to mention the hippogriffs at alert."

Scythe's observation fell on deaf ears as Lightning Dust pushed into Nicknames' face. The two were nose to nose as she attempted to stare him down. Even though she was shorter, her stare made her more intimidating.

"Just so you know, the hippogriffs haven't been giving us good jobs because the Big G over there thinks we're gonna screw up. Now he's probably gonna kick us out of the country because of you." She jabbed him in the chest with her front hoof in frustration.

"But it was an accident!"

"Okay, hold on, hold on", Gallus interjected, breaking out of his thoughts to go between the two and push them apart. "Nicknames, a while ago, you threw up over the deck. What happened after that?"

Although mildly irritated at the embarrassing reminder, Nicknames was slightly relieved not to be angrily confronted and given a chance to have his say. He calmly nudged Gallus' arm to the side and stepped back as he began to explain.

"Well, I went to the doctor's quarters, and the bird there gave me some pills. After that, I tried to go back on deck but got lost…."

Nicknames weren't entirely sure what pills he took. Hopefully, an antihistamine to deal with nausea which didn't help as much as he wanted. The slow rocking of the ship which didn't help with his situation, made far more apparent with his weak state.

In his attempt to make it back up to the main deck, he bounced off the wooden walls from side to side as he stumbled through the galley and up the stairs. His mind was muddled. He couldn't recall if he needed to go up two flights of stairs or if he needed to go left or right.

He finally settled in a room with enough space to get his bearings. It looked like the galley where he had lunch earlier, but only partially. Instead of tables and hammocks, there were giant wool tarps.

"Hey, are you okay?"

There was also a single hippogriff in the room, who was navy blue, distinguished by the bright yellow goggles on his head. His head was tilted, uncertain and concerned at the random pony that staggered into their domain.

"Uh yeah, is this the food quarters?" asked the dazed Nicknames, "I'm trying to find my way up to the deck."

The hippogriff shook his head. "No, that's one floor above. This is the gunnery quarters," he answered before pointing to the end of the room. "If you go out that door and turn right, you'll find stairs that'll take you straight up to the deck."

"Oh, cheers, dude." Nicknames gave a subtle nod before making his way towards the door. He had opened the door when suddenly he stopped. What he heard caught up with his brain, alerting him as if one word had cleared his mind. "Wait, did you say gunnery? As in guns?" he turned back to the hippogriff and asked with intrigue.

"Yep, name's Sonicboom, gunner on duty. This is my area to make sure the ship's guns work."

This piqued Nicknames' interest, his eyebrows were raised, but he was also confused as he looked around the room again. Four huge mounds covered by tarps, cupboards, and bare wooden walls save for four large windows.

"Where are the guns? When I looked at the ship's side, I saw… twelve cannons, but this room doesn't even have twelve holes for cannons to poke out of."

"Well, this ship isn't out for battle, so it's not fully armed", Sonicboom explained as he approached a part of the ship's wall. "For these journeys, it varies. Some have half, and some have none. We don't want other ships to know how many cannons we have, so we built these wooden replicas so they think we're fully loaded."

He gripped the edge of a square wall patch and pulled it out. A black funnel-like section was taken out on the other side of the chunk. It looked like a part of a weapon, but Nicknames looked at it closer, and it was nothing of the such. Instead of metal, it was wild carved wood painted black, the nails holding it to the plank of wood looked in place.

"So… you have no cannons on this ship?" Nicknames’ ears drooped.

"Didn't say there were no cannons." Sonicboom pulled away one of the tarps, revealing a giant black iron barrel cannon on a wooden bracket with wheels.

The moment Nicknames looked at the weapon, his eyes glistened, and his jaw dropped. From his perspective, the cannon glowed with might. "Woah, it's beautiful…" he remarked as he inspected it up close, reaching out to touch it. The iron barrel felt smooth as it shimmered off the light that reached the gunnery.

Nicknames' heart was racing, wanting to know more about it.

"How big are the round shots you fire this out of?" he queried eagerly.

"We have 8-inch cast-iron balls in case of incoming attacks, around 70 kilos each", Sonicboom answered directly. "We currently have stone balls at half the weight for longer distances and test fires."

"And the chamber?"

"About enough to fill a kilo or two of gunpowder."

"Nice, you could hit something over a mile and a half away with something of this calibre.

Sonicboom raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, around that distance…" the hippogriff seemed impressed by Nicknames' understanding of the firepower, not to mention his enthusiasm. "You seem to know a thing or two about these. I guess you were taught these at the Equestrian Guard Academy?"

"Nah, just seen them in comic books. The Royal Guard Academy has only been letting us use spears so far. I need special training to even try one of these."

After hearing this factoid and checking the time, a light went off in Sonicboom's mind.

"Wanna try one now?"

Nicknames' felt his ears burn, "For real?" his heart began to race again. He turned to see Sonicboom smirk and point across the other end of the gunnery.

"In that cupboard are gunpowder cartridges and wads. Go get some. I'll help you fire your first cannon."

The disbelief Nicknames hadhad switched to glee; he gave a quick salute of approval before dashing to the cupboard to get the stuff. Sonicboom loaded the cartridge into the cannon with a cloth wad, then pierced the cartridge with a metal wire to let the gunpowder out. Both rolled out a stone ball and shoved it into the barrel.

After removing the fake cannon board from the wall and moving the real cannon in place with the barrel poking out the window, they were ready to fire. Only then did a thought faintly come from the back of Nicknames' head.

"You sure we can do this?"

"Yeah, we're due for a cannon fire around this time anyway", Sonicboom reassured Nicknames. "General Seaspray won't mind."

"What if we hit something?"

"I've been on this route thrice weekly for two years. This part of the ocean is practically a desert on water," Sonicboom answered flippantly this time as he picked up the last part needed for the job. "Hold this rope. Yank it away from the barrel when I tell you to fire."

As Nicknames held onto the rope with his teeth, they stepped away from the cannon and covered their ears. This was it, Nicknames one shot, it was now or never.

"Ready? FIRE!"

Nicknames yanked on the rope with all his might.

KABOOM!

In less than a second, the gunpowder had ignited the cannon and blasted the stone ball out to sea. Nicknames were propelled back as the mini shockwave hit him. It took a few seconds more for the sound of the blast to die down. Nicknames' face froze in wide-eyed shock, and his heart raced at the sheer power he had witnessed.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Nicknames yelled with joy.

"I know, right? It's my favourite part of my job!"

The thrill and fun of the moment were then cut short. In the distance, the two heard the sudden sound of wood breaking.

"Uh, what was that?"

The next sound they could hear was someone rushing down the stairs and forcing the door open. General Seaspray emerged, having listened to the cannon blast and presumably what followed, showing a fixed frown. He approached Sonicboom and stood almost beak to beak, staring down at him.

"You there. Are you the gunner on duty?"

"Yes, General Seaspray, sir," Sonicboom answered as neutral and calmly as he could.

"Care to explain the cannon fire I just heard."

"Well… we fired a cannon, sir."

"Yes, I figured that." Seaspray then glanced behind Sonicboom, his eyes narrowed at the sight of Nicknames standing behind a mounted cannon. "Lightning Moniker, is it?"

"Uh, yes sir, though most just call me Nick-"

"You are supposed to be up on topsail as lookout with the other Equestrians. Why in Neptune are you down here?"

"Uh… I was sick."

His eyes narrowed. Seaspray was about to raise his voice higher at the pony, unaware that part was indeed correct. Before he could, he was stopped by a pale green hippogriff who rushed behind him with a haunted face.

"Uh, General Seaspray?"

"Yes, what is it?" Seaspray turned around and snapped. "I'm busy."

"I've been receiving radio messages from a nearby ship saying we've shot at them", the green hippogriff shakily responded, "they're not happy."

The General looked back to Sonicboom and Nicknames, witnessing their shock at the news.

"Please tell me we don't have casualties, and that nearby ship is one of ours." Seaspray calmly spoke whilst pinching his beak in frustration. He was internally assessing the damage. At best, it was friendly fire, but how to prevent the potential conflict depended on what the firing had done.

The pale green quickly read through the paper with the radio message. "Well… there are no casualties, but…" she gulped, "it's Captain Celaeno…."

"…tell the first hippogriff you find on deck to ring the bell."

"See? So just an accident, the other ship is fine, and no griff is hurt", said Nicknames, still trying to sound favourable to his unconvinced friends. "The only thing that seems bad is that the other ship is run by Captain Celaeno."

Gallus' eyes suddenly widened. "Captain… Celaeno?" recognition had dawned on him.

"You know who that is?"

"Well… Princess Twilight once told a story about when the Storm King attacked Equestria. She and her friends fled south and made her way down to Mount Aris thanks to a parrot named Captain Celaeno." Gallus explained with a low voice that almost trembled. "However, Celaeno wasn't a Navy captain. She was…"

Gallus was interrupted as the other ship stopped right next to theirs. It looked similar except with a darker wood shade and a giant hole on the side. One of the more questioning details was higher up the ship's mast. "Oi lads, why does that ship have a black flag with bones on it?" Pound Sterling asked.

"That usually means they're pira…." Scythe's answer was stopped short as he quickly realised why Gallus got worried, "Oh."

Gallus then made his answer as blunt as he could.

"Nicknames, you just fired at a pirate ship."

Four parrots jumped out from the hole in their ship and onto the deck. Two were green and strapping, one had a metal hook for a claw, and another had an eyepatch. The third was pink, rotund, and missing a chunk of its tail, while the last was a pale green, skinny man who wore a life preserver, goggles, and a metal piece on his beak.

A few hippogriffs jumped back and had claws on their weapons, ready to defend themselves as the pirates looked menacingly at the crew, except for the life-preserver one, who was laughing like a maniac.

Then things were quiet as one more parrot landed on the deck. This parrot was white and slender and, unlike the others, wore a gold-lined jacket with a gold-brimmed hat and a gold ring hanging off one of her ears. She stepped forwards, and one of her legs was replaced with an emerald sword that left piercing marks on the wooden floor and scanned the ship with her ruby eyes with a confident smile on her face.

"Well, well, I see hippogriffs, a few ponies, a griffon, and oh look, if it isn't the Big General himself…" she remarked as her eyes eventually caught and narrowed on Seaspray.

"Captain Celaeno, good to see you. Hope your voyaging has been fruitful?" Seaspray remained calm and professional, despite his frustration as he returned her stare.

"Oh, glad you asked. We were fine until our ship got a MASSIVE HOLE IN IT!"

"Yes, that is indeed a conundrum."

"Save the fancy words for Queen Novo when you explain why you fired on our ship. Last I checked, we still have her pardon after we helped defeat the Storm King. We even take jobs from her sometimes."

This detail raised a few of the ponies' eyebrows, as well as Gallus' "Wait, jobs from Queen Novo?" Aren't they pirates?" he muttered to himself. What seemed stranger still was that none of the hippogriffs seemed surprised themselves.

Overhearing, Captain Celaeno and her pirate crew briefly shifted their focus onto Gallus and his friends. "We are pirates, but legally…" the captain explained.

"We prefer the term swashbuckling privateers now", added her eyepatched crewmate. Guess they found working for Queen Novo to be better than for the Storm King after several years. Once the discrepancy was cleared up, Celaeno returned her focus to Seaspray.

"Besides, we didn't do anything to provoke you."

"Yes, well, the cannon fire was not deliberate, merely the result of an Equestrian on board," Seaspray justified as he glared at the ponies. Nicknames felt his head feel heavier with the guilt put on him. "We have cadets from Equestria's Royal Guard Academy who were all supposed to fill non-combative duties, except one decided to go astray."

"What? That's not true!" Lightning Dust called out. "He wasn't feeling well, thanks to the food we had to eat. No offence, but our ponies can't eat meat like you can."

"He threw up over the side of the deck."

"An' was sent to sick bay."

Although slightly embarrassed, Nicknames smiled as Lightning Dust, Scythe, and Pound Sterling tried to defend him.

"That may be the case, but instead of returning to his post or recovering in the resting quarters, he decided to wander into the gunnery and play around with one of the cannons like it's a toy," said Seaspray dismissively.

"I mean, that is half true…." Gallus muttered, trying to avoid eye contact with the General or his pony companions.

"Therefore, this is just another case of ponies causing mischief whenever they come. Even the griffon they brought with them couldn’t keep them in line. From now on, all cadets will be removed from the deck and confined to the crews' quarters for this voyage."

The declaration from Seaspray shocked everyone, especially the ponies. "Wot?! That ain't fair." Pound Sterling yelled out in disgust.

"Plus, that's a bit of a sweepin' statement", Captain Celaeno added, even though she found the declaration eyebrow-raising, "given it was ponies that also helped defeat the Storm King to save you a lot."

"And yet, as Major of the Sea Fleet, I witnessed the same Princess Twilight we all call heroes to try to steal our most sacred pearl, almost lost Lady Silverstream during her tenure as head of the School of Friendship and was the one who persuaded myself to hire a pony who damaged one of my finest ships. Just because they've done some good doesn't excuse the bad, this situation included."

The situation could have looked better for all of the cadets. They stood by as Seaspray chastised them and set to confine them to the resting quarters as punishment for one mistake. They were still trying to figure out what to do. Seaspray clearly had such a negative bias towards ponies that he won't reason with them. The other hippogriffs were unlikely to go against Seaspray as they stood by, avoiding even looking at the ponies. He also rebuked Captain Celaeno so quickly. It doesn't help she was a pirate too.

One other creature was standing right next to them, but he was also trying to avoid eye contact. "Hey. Feel free to help us anytime," whispered Lightning Dust towards Gallus.

"He's not wrong, though…." Gallus replied shakily.

"What side are you on?!" Lightning Dust hissed. "You want us all locked up and kicked out of the country?"

"No, but…"

"Well, talk 'im out o' it! Tell 'im he's wrong or sumthin'!"

"And risk subordination?"

Internally, Gallus was in a bind. He kept replaying his meeting with Seaspray, with daggers staring at him, warning him of being kicked out of Mount Aris if there was any trouble. That was the least that could happen. If Gallus objected and it backfired, it could be worse. He might not be able to see Silverstream again, let alone be able to reconcile with her.

But then again, the ponies standing right next to him are also his friends. He can't just do nothing and let them be walked off the plank… metaphorically. He knows as much as they do that this was not the accident that Seaspray was pretending it was, so he should stand up for what was right.

"It's no use. It's my fault anyways." Nicknames uttered, feeling the most defeated. "I shouldn't have done what the gunner told me."

Suddenly, something dawned on Gallus, a detail he had missed earlier.

"Keeping the Equestrian cadets away from causing further actions is the best course to preventing any further issues, and that's final," Seaspray stated firmly.

"No, you're wrong."

Things went silent. Seaspray's ears burned sharply and turned towards Gallus, perturbed at the assertion he had just heard the griffon made. "I beg your pardon?" he squawked back.

"I said you're wrong", Gallus reiterated, his anxiety had vanished as he narrowed his focus onto Seaspray. "Punishing all of us doesn't address the problem, let alone prevent it from happening again."

"Gallus, know your rank. If you dare defy me, you better have a good argument for it."

Gallus smirked. "Gladly. Nicknames didn't do anything wrong; he was just following orders." There was another air of silence. Hippogriffs looked at each other with confused glances. Even Nicknames needed clarification. He didn't recall being given orders.

Seaspray had a single eyebrow raised. "That must be the most ridiculous defence I've ever heard in my life, " he said bluntly.

"Is it?" Gallus quickly replied rhetorically. "Assuming your story is true, who's in more trouble? Is it the pony who fired the cannon, or you who failed to ensure the cannons were supervised by someone who knows how they work?"

Everyone on deck turned their heads back to Seaspray, who immediately went flustered.

"Preposterous!" he yelled out. "Navy regulations require all ships carrying heavy weaponry to always have a gunner on duty to ensure they're secure and ready to operate at a moment's notice."

Upon getting the new info, Gallus smirked again.

"So you know there must have been a hippogriff in the area with the cannons, one who knows how to set one up, one who's ranked higher than a cadet and as such would have authority to command a pony like Nicknames over there to fire it."

"I… suppose…" Seaspray grumbled, still irritated about being called out.

"Hey, Nicknames," Gallus turned to the pegasus pony, who raised his head, "who said you could fire a cannon?"

"Uh, it was him." With an outreached hoof, Nicknames pointed to Sonicboom, the navy-blue goggle-headed hippogriff.

"So, a gunner on duty told Nicknames to fire a cannon, almost as if it was an order. Your gunner is more responsible for firing at Celaeno's ship." Gallus argued. The other hippogriffs on the deck whispered amongst themselves, most in agreement with Gallus, but Seaspray just turned his beak up.

"An interesting theory, but gunners don't just fire cannons freely", he snobbishly rebutted. "Navy regulations stipulate that cannons can only be fired once per journey as a scheduled test fire when not engaged in combat. That's only when the line of fire is void of any ship or boat."

As such, Gallus turned back towards his friends. "Nicknames, did you or the gunner check if it was okay to fire the cannon at any point?"

Suddenly, Nicknames’ eyes widened, and he smiled. "Oh yeah, I asked," he recalled. "Sonicboom said he was due to fire one anyways, and he'd been on this route many times. He said the ocean is always clear, like a desert."

This took Seaspray by surprise. Surely his crew wouldn't break common sense protocol with some absurd excuse. He turned to Sonicboom, hoping to see some denial. Instead, he saw the navy blue hippogriff look away, scratching the back of his neck.

"YOU MEAN YOU DID A TEST FIRE WITHOUT CHECKING IF THE LINE OF FIRE WAS CLEAR?!" exclaimed Seaspray as he furiously walked up to Sonicboom until they were beak to beak.

"I mean, it was clear in previous journeys…." Sonicboom shakily excused, but it wasn't enough to avoid the trouble he was in.

"I get you've had bad times with ponies in the past. Believe me, I do, but don't blame them for stuff that's on you or your crew," said Gallus, confidently calling the General out in front of his crew. "You made that mistake once before with Rockhoof. I wouldn't make it a second time."

Seaspray turned his head to glare sharply at Gallus, the nerve to call him out like that. But Gallus stood firm and stared back. He wasn't afraid of Seaspray anymore.

"Just to say, on behalf of mi' mateys and mi'self, listening to this, I'm on the griffon's side. General, you have some issues to work on," Captain Celaeno cut in, preventing either side from arguing further. "Perhaps I'll bring them up with Queen Novo next time I see her unless you have any better ideas?"

Seaspray jumped. The Queen was the last person he wanted to be up against, and Celaeno would never bluff. If he were to argue any further, it'd look worse on him. As such, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed himself.

"Captain, you can risk the journey to Mount Aris in your ship's current state and talk to Queen Novo directly. Or you can take the shorter journey with us to Ludo Isle," he begrudgingly offered. "I can make arrangements with the dockyard to repair your ship to working order free of charge if we keep this incident between us?"

Captain Celaeno smiled; she was interested in the offer. She turned back to her crewmates, and each one nodded in approval. A decent repair job at a Navy dock for free would be better than any repairs they had to pay for. Upon seeing unanimous agreement, she offered her claw to shake it. That was after she spat right on it. "Deal"

Seaspray looked repulsed, and he swallowed his pride as he firmly grabbed Celaeno's spit-covered claw and shook it. The peace agreement was made.

Whilst holding onto Seaspray's claw, Celaeno tilted her head to look at the ponies. "Oh, and the pony that fired the cannon, Nicknames, was it?" she called out.

"Yes, ma'am?" Nicknames cautiously answered.

"Great shot. You have no idea how hard it is to find a gunner who could hit a ship that far away."

Nicknames were blindsided, "Oh, thanks." He wasn't sure how serious that compliment was, but he felt relief that some creature thought he did something good for once.

As Celaeno tipped her hat, she and the rest of her crew jumped back onto their ship. They started to let down the sails and raise the anchor so they could set sail again. Meanwhile, Seaspray, after wiping his claw clean, turned back and gave an announcement to all crew on his ship.

"Attention everygriff pony and griffon. I want you all back to your posts. We'll continue the course to Ludo Isle."

Time at Ludo Isle

It was early in the morning when the ship arrived and docked at its destination. The entire crew had a simple breakfast of oats before departing to the docks. Gallus and his friends noticed that General Seaspray was nowhere to be seen, made only stranger that none of the crew seemed bothered by the lack of his presence.

Not that it mattered, the crew were off-duty, and the dockworkers began their inspection to see if the ship needed repairs. They won’t be sailing again for several hours. For the ponies and griffon, they could either watch the hippogriffs repair the giant hole in Captain Celaeno’s ship or take a moment to check out Ludo Isle.

The gang decided to spend the morning flying around the island, Lightning Dust’s idea. The island was more significant than the hippogriff’s capital in Aris, and the mountains were twice as high. On the downside, the hills were a murky brown with few features apart from the occasional foliage.

There was a palace surrounding the mountains of Ludo Island. Still, it was far from as beautiful or clean as the Royal Palace on Aris. It was almost like a giant burnt-out tree, jagged and abandoned, with noticeable areas of moss growing on the walls and a small pile of rubble growing around it. The group found it impressive, but Gallus couldn’t help but think that if he wanted to visit a giant decaying tree in the mountains, he’d return to Griffonstone.

Near the end of their journey, the gang went around the town near the docks, the only city on the island. This town had no cobblestones, so it floated above the ground or walked on the sand. The buildings had those same dark burnt, looking walls, with no glass for the windows; they could guess where they got the materials from.

One thing the town lacked was markets. Some shops looked similar to the houses aside from the open doors. Still, it was all some variety of food or household items, nothing fancy like trinkets or souvenirs. The gang checked every building, much to Gallus’ growing frustration.

“Come on, guys, we’re gonna be late!” he groaned impatiently.

“‘ow is there no place to buy souvenirs?” asked Pound Sterling as she looked through each door.

“Because this is not a tourist site?”

“True, but it would be gran’ to brin’ summa back ‘home to show off.”

“Yeah, like to the Academy to help us win that Adventure Award”, added Nicknames, scheming as he slowly rubbed his hooves together; he still had the cash prize from that award on his mind. Gallus was preoccupied with the ship waiting at the docks as he repeatedly looked back tensely towards the docks at regular intervals.

At one point, Lightning Dust pulled him into a headlock. “Relax, Bluebird, we’re not in trouble anymore, thanks to you,” she attempted to reassure him.

“Don’t remind me,” Gallus grumbled.

“Just relax and take in the air; we probably won’t have it when we’re back on that ship.”

Suddenly, they heard a call from Nicknames further up ahead. “Hey! Found one!” He waves over, pointing at one of the buildings.

Inside was a gallery of garments and knickknacks with vivid colours and patterns. The serene array of designs and displays caught the attention of every pony, even enough to distract Gallus away from his thoughts of the ship. The gentle breeze made the sea blue dresses flow like waves, and the wind chimes like the harmonising heights.

Their ogling through the window caught the attention of the artist inside, a hippogriff whose coat was almost golden, with mane-like giant violet feathers and long thick eyelashes. Her eyes glowed, and she smiled.

“Ah, lio mākaʻikaʻi,” she exclaimed at the sight of potential customers, though the group couldn’t understand what she said. Gallus turned his head to Scythe with a curious eyebrow raised, but even the linguistically gifted pony shrugged; he hadn’t been to the Hippogriff Isles before; how was he supposed to know?

Luckily, the shop owner knew some Ponish. “Come in; got great things you can take home, all designs by myself,” she gestured with her claws. The ponies eagerly entered the small building, leaving Gallus to wait outside. He didn’t want to buy anything but could see his friends browse the shop and pick out things to buy.

“Sweet! You’ve got candy!” Nicknames exclaimed.

“You like?” asked the shop owner. “Ten bits per bag.” Nicknames then dropped ten coins into her claws without a single thought. Gallus furrowed his brow at a price; ten bits for a bag of candy? Perhaps at that moment, Ludo Isle became a tourist site.

“How much for this necklace?” questioned Lighting Dust as she raised her hoof, showing a sea green and pink carved sea glass necklace dangling. “It’s… for my mother…” She then hurriedly excused herself, her eyes shifting from side to side.

“Fifteen bits.” The shopkeep answered with a sly smirk; Lightning Dust dropped the coins into her claw. At least fifteen bits sounded reasonable for a fancy necklace.

Scythe noticed in the corner some carved wooden figurines of hippogriffs. The detail in the carving engraving was minute, and the ones that piqued his interest were ones with suits of armour and uniforms. He picked up the military-looking ones, thinking they’d go great with his collection at home. “Huh, how…?”

“Twenty bits for the set”, the shop owner sharply answered before Scythe could complete his question, startling him.

“Oh, okay…”

Gallus’ mind wandered back towards the docks as ponies were buying their souvenirs. He can see Celaeno’s pirate ship departing and leaving the island. The only boat left on the island was the navy ship. “Can we go now?” he asked with an impatient moan. However, his friends were preoccupied with one of the more grandeur items in the shop.

“Coar! Look at that!”

Pound Sterling was gazing at a flag hung on the wall, a large sheet of cloth made of four rectangles, two of sea blue and two of orange, surrounded by golden tassels along the edges. Each rectangle had embroidered shields held up by a simplified depiction of a hippogriff and weaponry.

The shop owner paid full attention to Pound Sterling’s awe. “You like? Hippogriff Isles Country Flag.” She made her way over the other ponies and moved the other fabrics out of the way so the flag was in full view and revealed that each emblem represents the four main Hippogriff islands. “Ludo, Vico, Aris, and Ostro,” she said, pointing to each. “I made here in Ludo from fabric and dyes made in other islands.”

Pound Sterling’s face lit up. She wanted to buy it.

“Dat’s perfect! ‘ow much?”

“Thirty bits.”

And then her ears drooped. “Oh, ah, only ‘ave a tenner….” The shop owner dropped her smile, clearly not keen to negotiate her artwork to a lower price. In desperation, Sterling turned to her friends. “Could ya lend me the rest, Dusteh?”

“Sorry, only have five bits left” Lightning Dust showed the five coins. “I could get a refund for the rest,” she offered, but Sterling shook her head.

“Nah, can’t let y’ do that. Nick?”

“No, can do; I only brought ten bits.” Nicknames said, partially muffled by the candy he was chewing. “This candy is great.” He muttered to himself. He couldn’t get a refund.

She then turned to Scythe.

“Uh, the rest of my bits are… back in Mount Aris.” He answered uncomfortably; his voice trailed off.

With none of the ponies inside, the forlorn Sterling’s hopes to buy the flag dwindled. She began looking around for something else she could buy, something small, something cheaper.

Then he heard a familiar groan, and a blue griffon barged into the small shop, squeezing past Scythe, Nicknames, and Lightning Dust until he reached Pound Sterling and the shop owner. “Here.” Gallus held out his claw, holding a satchel of his money, twenty bits to be exact. “Let my friend have the flag, please.”

Although Gallus was willing to sacrifice his bits out of impatience, his sudden generosity caught most ponies off guard. Pound Sterling’s eyes welled up as the corners of her mouth began to curl. “Aw come ‘ere Bluebird!” she pulled Gallus into a tight hug, as he still had his arm out trying to give the satchel to the shop owner. “You’re the best.”

“Okay, okay. You’re welcome.” After finally taking Gallus’ satchel and Sterling’s bits, the shop owner took the flag down, folded it up and gave it to Pound Sterling. “Can we go to the docks now?” Gallus moaned as the transaction meant his mind turned to return to the docks on time.

Although the other ponies were satisfied to leave, they didn’t respond to Gallus’ complaints. “I’m gonna ‘ang dis up when I get home!” Pound Sterling exclaimed, hugging the folded flag close to her chest.

Although annoyed, at least Gallus could see them leaving and tried to follow. Someone was holding him back. The shopkeep held onto his arm with a friendly smile and dangled a locket in her other claw. The locket appeared made from two pink shells made like a heart.

It wasn’t Gallus’ style, maybe Silverstream’s, but regardless, he could only assume she was trying to sell it to him. “Uh, sorry, I don’t have any money left”, he politely declined, but the shop owner insistently placed the locket into Gallus’ open palm and closed it up.

“Maikaʻi griffon.”

The shop owner repeated something in her local dialect, slowly and oddly motherly, with a warm smile. “Uh, thanks?” Gallus returned with a nervous smile; he hoped she was saying something nice about him.

The shop owner then collected all the bits she earned from their visit and put them away. Gallus stood clueless, looking down at the pink seashell heart locket. After all the things she sold, it felt strange to Gallus that he’d get something for free. Maybe she thought he’d deserved it for offering his money to help buy Pound Sterling what she wanted. If that’s the case, perhaps this hippogriff, this island’s Professor Rarity, the element of generosity.

However, he couldn’t help but have doubts, so he exited with slow side steps as the artistic hippogriff returned to tidying her wares in the shop. With no word uttered as he reached the door, he left the shop to catch up with his friends heading towards the docks.

After catching up with the others, Gallus arrived at the docks. The grand ship sat calmly in the waters, but strangely its drawbridge wasn’t out. Even stranger was most of the hippogriffs hanging out on the docks themselves. Small groups played cards and dice, and others talked with each other.

Something was amiss; undoubtedly, the ship would have been boarded by now. As Gallus scanned the sea of hippogriffs, he recognised a yellow hippogriff with a red mane that he worked with on deck and cooked the meals. “Hey, are we ready to board?” he called out, hoping to get answers.

The hippogriff recognised Gallus and waved. “Yo! Not yet; the ship isn’t ready to go,” he answered.

“Why?”

“Well, the dock workers were still busy with Celaeno’s ship this morning and had just sailed. We haven’t finalised our checks; no one’s seen the General since he went off duty last night.”

The others looked at each other with furrowed brows and tilted heads. Out of all the crew, the one most expected to be on time was not there. “General Seaspray is missing?” Gallus queried.

“Not exactly, he hasn’t shown up and wasn’t at his home, but there’s no sign he’s not on the island”, the hippogriff replied, although not with the most satisfying answer. “He’s likely down at the beach south of the island; he goes there all the time.”

“None of you have checked, though.”

“Well, if you want to disturb him, you can”, the hippogriff chuckled, “Besides, after all the work we do, it’s better just to relax and take in the air.”

“Gee, Bluebird, where have we heard that before?” Lightning Dust sardonically added whilst glaring at him for rushing every pony, considering how unnecessary it was.

The news only irritated Gallus, “Well, if you want to hang around, feel free”, he chided Lightning Dust. “I’m going to find him” He began to turn away from the docks and began to take flight. However, some of his friends quickly became cautious.

Scythe quickly ran in front of him. “Uh, is that a good idea? You know, given how you talked to General Seaspray,” he reminded.

“Yeah, that was awesome,” Nicknames smirked confidently. “I’d be in trouble if I were you.”

“Ya, almost wor, ya wazzuck,” Pound Sterling added, flicking a hoof behind Nicknames’ ear.

“Guys, I’ll be fine,” Gallus finally firmly asserted, “just need to have a word.” He then took off for the South beaches to find General Seaspray.

He flew across the golden beach, bridging the gap between the sea and mountains on the island’s south side, which was empty with hardly a hippogriff or weaponry in sight. Luckily the crew on the ship were correct in their speculation; along the vacant shores, Gallus spotted a lone figure in the distance and began his descent towards it.

Gently he landed on the ground and proceeded to walk towards the figure. As he moved closer, he noticed a line of black pillars sticking out of the sand, each an equal distance apart, with carved white inscriptions. As he walked past pillars, each towered over him; it turned a calm scenery into an eerie one.

Then he saw General Seaspray himself. The stoic hippogriff sat on the beach, his sights fixed towards one of the pillars. He looked at it gravely, holding his profound emotions, but his eyes glistened. It turned out that Gallus wasn’t the only one who wasn’t feeling well from the sights of these pillars.

When the griffon stopped a few metres, Seaspray closed his eyes. “Yes, what is it?” he asked with a broad sigh.

Gallus was slightly startled, surprised Seaspray could’ve seen him with how focused he was. The griffon had to compose himself and act professionally. He didn’t want to appear like he disturbed the General with something not important.

He stood up, back straight, and gave a salute. Specifically, with his palm down, assuming by now that’s what Seaspray would prefer. “Sir, here to report that Captain Celaeno and her ship departed earlier this morning,” said Gallus in a clear and authoritative voice. “The crew are currently all waiting for you at the docks.”

“Good,” Seaspray replied calmly but didn’t move his head away. “Now, what are you here for, Gallus? I doubt you came here to give me a status report.”

Gallus decided to drop his salute and drop his act. “Sir, if you’re still mad at me for what went on yesterday, fine,” he said firmly. “But, just for the journey back, could you not take it out on my friends? They wouldn’t be the ones who called you out, even if they took my side.”

There was a pause; Gallus could hear the waves, “I wasn’t planning to”, was Seaspray’s answer, which caused Gallus to raise a brow. “One of the crew would’ve told you I was here, but did they tell you why?”

“Not really.”

“Before I depart, I always have a conversation with the greatest naval commander I’ve ever known, “Seaspray explained. He pressed a single talon onto the pillar, pointing to one of the inscriptions that appeared larger than the others. “Admiral Aerosalt, my father,” he clarified; those pillars were a memorial, and the inscriptions were the names of the deceased.

“He saw his work as a sacred calling; he would take any opportunity to ride on ships, train with the crew, and make sure every part of the ship was to the highest order. Most importantly, he always knew to make the right call in any situation, no matter how dangerous,” he spoke with his head high and a glisten in his eye. He turned to face the sea. “Those who survived the Storm on Ludo told me he ordered his fleet to circle the island and bait any enemy ship they could find to follow them to this side of the island,” his outstretched arm spanned across the horizon, picturing his claws as a ship sailing across the wave in top speed until the arm was parallel with the pillar behind him.

“The fleet then fired everything they had to hold them and have the remaining hippogriffs evacuate from the docks towards Mount Aris to safety.” He sighed, and the corner of his mouth curled up slightly. “What it would have been like to take action in one of his ships….”

“Probably not good considering how it ended….” Gallus muttered, wiping Seaspray’s subtle smile clean off.

“Yet there are hippogriffs who were saved, grateful to those who risked their own”, he retorted forcefully. “Anygriff that didn’t were captured, destined to die for resisting, or be enslaved and build the Storm King’s empire, including that monstrosity that yeti supposedly called his holiday home,” he grimly described as he turned back around and stared up at the dilapidated dark palace poking out from between the mountain tops. “I’d have it obliterated in an instant if it wouldn’t cause harm to the environment surrounding it.”

The air felt cold and quiet; no wonder the palace was left to deteriorate. Reusing the charred rocks for buildings and headstones was the safest way to take them down. The hippogriffs hiding in the ocean to have the closest semblance to freedom made sense when the alternative was forced labour or worse.

Hoping to lighten the mood and move Seaspray away from his glib remark, Gallus attempted to move the conversation. “So, what were you two talking about?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.

“Often, I seek his advice,” he answered, referring to his dad on the pillar. “Advice that has helped me rebuild the Navy and reclaim the islands and oceans to the Hippogriffs. As my mentor, it’s only right I tell him about what I’ve been doing.”

“Including what happened yesterday?”

Seaspray then gave a long and deep breath. “Yes, I was at fault,” he confessed in a slow and restrained tone, holding back some frustrations. “When my focus was on not letting Equestrians cause any danger, one of my crew made an error in judgement.” He turned to Gallus with narrowed eyes and a sharp stare. “But it will not happen again...”

Gallus was unphased.

“One of your crew told me the Rockhoof Incident only happened because you made the order to follow stars during a fog. Is that true?”

While he remained fixed towards Gallus, Seaspray’s eyes glanced to the side towards the pillar before switching back. It was as if his father was actually standing next to him, watching him. “Yes, it was,” he answered with a grumble, much to his chagrin.

“Let me guess, merely an error in judgement.” Gallus’ eyes narrowed, “Every other species causes danger.”

“My duty is to protect the hippogriffs and sea ponies; anything that impacts their safety is on me.” Seaspray snapped back. “Admiral Aerosalt would have never let any of this happen.”

“Had he ever worked with ponies?”

Another exasperated breath. “No. In Aerosalt’s time, the Navy was solely the work of hippogriffs,” he admitted. “They may have helped other avians, maybe griffons at some point. But, when the Navy’s biggest hindrance was avian pirates, there was hardly a reason to work together.”

“With all due respect, I don’t think your dad will be much help.”

“Well, with all due respect,” Seaspray repeated with force, “I gave you some responsibility over your friends, and look what happened. Am I to expect a griffon to know how to work with other creatures?”

“Maybe not, but the School of Friendship does.” Gallus quipped. “They’ve worked with griffons, yaks, changelings, dragons, hippogriffs. I bet you wouldn’t be happy if Silverstream were treated like you treated my friends and I.”

Although ready to argue back, Seaspray halted, his beak open to speak. He reclaimed his composure, silently admitting that he wouldn’t dare want any creature to be rough on Silverstream, especially not anygriff in his Navy.

Then, Seaspray remembered something Gallus had said when calling him out the day before. “And I recall you saying you have problems with ponies yourself?” he remarked.

Gallus did remember saying that.

“Of course, not all ponies are all about friendship, not even the military” he admitted begrudgingly. “I wouldn’t be in trouble with Silverstream if some pony wasn’t taking our letters for months.”

The information that Gallus confessed caused Seaspray to raise a brow; he’d been curious about what compelled him to come all this way. While relieved, it wasn’t any physical harm, depraving communication so brazenly he deemed concerning. “Sounds like not even the Equestrians get it right. Perhaps in hindsight, you’d have a better time at the Griffon Army,” he suggested.

“Doubt it; I’d be further away from Silverstream and the others.”

“Take it from a hippogriff who’s lived their life at sea: No matter how far away you are, your friends and family won’t forget you,” he said with his head held high and pointed towards the ocean, those he routinely traversed gave a certain softness to his voice.

“Besides, I’m sure that griffon elder that I met at the School of Friendship, what with emboldened claims of bringing the Griffon Army with him to fight any creature, would’ve helped put in a good word with one of their units,” referring to Grandpa Gruff, a name that still didn’t sit well with Gallus. “As a griffon in an army of griffons, no doubt you’d be treated better; I’m sure he’ll agree.”

“Take it from a griffon who lived and worked for him; there’s no way in Tartarus that I’m going back home!” Gallus snapped, his fists clenched and dug into the sand.

The outburst surprised Seaspray; he didn’t initially realise his comments produced such anger. Then it dawned on him. “Ah, I sense you’ve had this conversation before?” Gallus responded by sulking and staring at the sand; Seaspray felt affirmed in his suspicions.

“I’ve had the same anger in my youth,” he admitted. “I joined the Navy to be Captain. In command of my ship in my father’s fleet. But when my hard-earned promotion was in my sights, he transferred me to Mount Aris. We argued for hours, I asserted my aspirations repeatedly, but he told me the transfer was final and someday I’ll understand it was for the best. After that, I refused to speak to him. The Storm came on my second day as a ship captain in Mount Aris.” There was no need for Seaspray to repeat what happened to Admiral Aerosalt.

“Do you think your time is best including yourself into the Equestrian Military?” he sincerely asked Gallus.

As Gallus stared at the sand, he thought about what led up to that moment. There were the moments with that snobbish bully Coalstone, the bossy Commandant, but then there were those in the academy who were good. Westland, his platoon, even Razorwing was tough on everypony, not just him.

“I think so, at least I know who I can count on,” Gallus answered, staring in the direction of the docks where his friends were waiting. “Not to mention, I think their military can do better with some non-ponies in it.”

“How so?” a curious Seaspray asked.

“Because at the School of Friendship, I was told the Storm King and his army weren’t defeated just by ponies. They were defeated by a hippogriff, an Abyssinian, Captain Celaeno and her crew, and ponies.”

Something clicked in Seaspray’s mind, he remembered the news that the Storm King was defeated, how the same ponies Queen Novo banished for attempting to steal the pearl had banded together with unlikely allies, like Celaeno and Princess Skystar, to petrify and shatter the beastly king. The jubilations were so loud and widespread that Queen Novo and himself didn’t realise Princess Skystar had snuck out. Seaspray felt reminded that enemies can be defeated when all creatures work together.

“Perhaps you’ll be fine,” Seaspray acknowledged with a subtle nod. “However, don’t let anger or aspirations get in the way of those who raised you,” Seaspray advised Gallus. “Because of mine, I won’t truly know why my father had me transferred instead of fighting by his side or if he thought I was a good commander of the seas, all I have is my memories of him and this pillar.”

“One way to think of it, if your dad didn't transfer you, you wouldn’t be here as head of Queen Novo’s Navy to rebuild it and reclaim the south seas. It sounds like he just made the right call,” As Gallus looked back towards Seaspray, he felt his heart stop as Seaspray had a perplexing look as if Seaspray just saw a ghost before him. “I said something bad, didn’t I?”

“No”, Seaspray answered, maintaining his questioning look, “Somehow, what you said was the same thing said by the last officer cadet who stood up to me.”

“Oh really?” Gallus remarked nervously. “Must not have lasted long, I bet!”

Then Seaspray smirked, a rare expression from the hippogriff that didn’t relieve Gallus. “It was back in the Sea Fleet; I doubt he could last a day without me,” he gibed. “Unlike you, he had no prior training whatsoever.” Seaspray then chuckled. “In fact, on the first day we met, he told me, in all his life, he hadn’t worked on anything larger than a fishing boat.”

That was a weirdly specific point to bring up about someone, Gallus thought as he furrowed his brow. It’s not like Gallus could know who this inexperienced Sea Fleet cadet could be, yet Seaspray found it so bemusing to be significant. Why?

The only other creature Gallus could remember talking about not working on anything more significant than a fishing boat was… Prince Skybeak, Silversteam’s Dad, former Captain of the Sea Fleet. It suddenly dawned on Gallus that Seaspray was talking about, he was slack jawed and stunned. Did Seaspray suggest he has something in common with Skybeak?

“Now, I think it’s time we should be heading to the docks,” said Seaspray, stretching out his wings to prepare for flight, “I shan’t worsen my example by staying here too long.”

It took until Seaspray started elevating off the sandy surface for Gallus to break out of his frozen state. “Uh, yes, sir!” he exclaimed as he hurriedly followed Seaspray towards the docks.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t much going on at the docks. Scythe, Nicknames, Lightning Dust, and Pound Sterling joined the hippogriffs playing card games. They discovered that they called a favourite game among hippogriffs naval hippogriffs, at least, Nommie.

It consists of making bids on who starts and setting up four cards of the same suit to do the trick, with the player who dealt the highest card winning that trick. The player who gets the same schemes as their bid wins the round.

The ponies tried a few rounds to get the hang of it, but the crewmates kept beating them even when they understood it. If one bid a high amount, like 13, they’d start first but could barely reach 12 tricks before one of the hippogriff players. If they bid a low amount, like 10, they’d begin last and could scarcely get ten tricks.

Being fed up with losing so much, Nicknames got all the other pegasi to join as one team in the hopes of winning one round. They ended up bidding 12, the second highest in that round, and put their heads together to decide which cards to place down to get the needed tricks.

Their collective strategies got them the first trick, the second, and the third. Their system was working. Seven, eight, nine, they were getting close. Their opponents were struggling but kept calm, knowing they were playing against a severe handicap. Ten, eleven, and twelve. They won the round!

Nicknames Pound Sterling and Lightning Dust were hugging and cheering with elation. Scythe was pulled in, overwhelmed in the victory. The three hippogriffs watched on, bewildered by the celebration on display.

“Didn’t they all come last in the last five rounds?”

“Yeah, and there’s four of them”.

“Just let them have this before the General arrives….”

Almost as if on cue, the hippogriffs could see Seaspray return with Gallus following behind. He landed majestically, and every hippogriff stood up and faced Seaspray as if on command.

“Everyone! I apologise for making you wait, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer,” General Seaspray announced. “Before we can return to Mount Aris, there is an important matter to attend to.” Seaspray then walked towards the four ponies, still in celebration mode from winning the card game, failing to notice that the hippogriff General was standing behind him.

Once they caught a glance of Seaspray, they quickly became alert. Scythe quickly pried himself out of the hug he was trapped in and stood to attention first, followed by Sterling, Lightning Dust, and Nicknames last. “I’m aware your first impression of the Queen’s Navy was poor; as the head of the Navy, I take responsibility for that. Rest assured. I’ll make sure to remedy, starting with…” he then quickly scanned the docks until he caught the eye of the yellow hippogriff with the red mane. “Solar Flare.”

There was a moment of realisation; neither Gallus nor his friends asked the crew’s name, which made them feel sheepish. “See to it that we have an additional stock of vegetables for the return journey”, General Seaspray ordered, “I seem to recall not all our crew like eating meat?”

The other ponies looked at each other, but Lightning Dust grinned; more veggies sounded like a good start.

After another half hour, the dockworkers stocked the ship with supplies, and all crew had boarded. Gallus, Scythe, Nicknames, Lightning Dust, and Pound Sterling were surprised when instead of being given mops and buckets, Seaspray gave them the task of raising some of the sails so the ship could depart from the docks.

With the assistance of some of the hippogriff crew, Gallus, Scythe, Nicknames, Lightning Dust, and Pound Sterling were all tying the ropes and unfurling sails as a team. They raised the anchor, and the ship set sail. Everyone was exhausted but felt satisfied doing hard work to get the entire ship moving.

Then it was lunchtime. There was the usual roasted fish, but steamed cabbage and carrots for the ponies! Even the other crew members enjoyed having something other than seaweed and kelp; Solar Flare also had a good time cooking with different ingredients.

It was as if, by some miracle, the Naval journey turned from somewhat miserable to actively social. The crew of the ship were free to show the ponies and griffons as much about how their ship and naval practices worked. No one knew what caused Seaspray to change his mind; he remained in his quarters for the return home.

When Gallus was asked by his friends what he did to change General Seaspray’s mind, Gallus just shrugged.

“I just had a word with him.”

The Hidden Cavern

I thought I heard the Old Bird say:
"Leave her, Johnny, leave her."
Tomorrow, you will get your pay,
And it's time for us to leave her.
Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her!
For the voyage is long, and the winds don't blow
And it's time for us to leave her.

If there is one thing that ponies and hippogriffs have in common, they love to sing. The hippogriffs in the Navy had songs for work, meals, and even a piece for when they reached land. Impressively, they sang in pitch-perfect harmony and, unlike ponies, without any music in the background.

Apparently, they call those songs shanties. It was a wonder why the hippogriffs would name their songs after the dilapidated house. However, Scythe thought it came from the Prench word for singing, chanter.

Regardless, the gang were glad to be back on land in Mount Aris, exhausted to the point none of them could fly. After walking through the streets, they returned to the familiar haven of their translucent tree apartment.

“Ah, finally back, ahm knackuhd,” Pound Sterling breathed with relief as she opened the door and fell onto the long, comfy sofa inside.

“You know what, when you’re not scrubbing the decks or stuck being lookout, working on a ship ain’t that bad,” said Lightning Dust.

Nicknames shared her sentiment, sort of…“I’ll miss those guns…” Nicknames reminisced.

“Dunno abou’ you, but ah think ahm gonna sleep all day.”

Both Scythe and Gallus agreed.

“I can do with a rest, too.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Before any of them could reach the door, Gallus could feel a claw prodding his shoulder. In response, he turned around to see a familiar hippogriff.

“Hey Gallus, nice place you’re staying at!” remarked Solar Flare, somehow as upbeat as ever despite the noticeable creases under his eyes. “Did you and the ponies have any plans today?”

Curious, Gallus turned back to his buddies. None of them thought about what would happen during the rest of the day, apart from sleeping. “No, doesn’t look like it,” Gallus answered as he turned back and shook his head.

“Well. Was talking to the other griffs and wondered if you wanted to have some fun later this evening?” Eyebrows were raised; all of them had spent three full days at sea, and Solar Flare was suggesting some fun. The Navy Hippogriff must be used to these long trips if he looked tired but still raring for more. Still, the gang all turned around to listen. “There’s a bar in Sequestria called the Hidden Cavern, nothing like you’ve ever seen. We're gonna hang out there tonight. There will be music, dancing, booze, you name it, all at the lowest depths of the ocean…”

The ears of the ponies perked up with intrigue one by one.

It started with Lightning Dust. “Bar?”

Followed by Pound Sterling. “Music?”

“Booze?!” Nicknames elated with a grin on his face.

“So, you in?”

“Wait, hold on…” Before Gallus could bring things down and consider Solar Flare’s offer, Nicknames blurted out an answer.

“Heck yeah! We’re in!”

“Great!” Solar Flare exclaimed. “I’ll be heading down to Seaquestria after lunch. Meet you there!” Eager to tell his Navy buddies, Solar Flare flies off. Gallus didn’t have time to stop him to ask any more questions about this suddenly planned night out.

He then turned to Nicknames. “I thought we agreed to sleep all day,” he reminded him with a sharp glare.

“Come on, Bluebird,” Nicknames rolled his eyes, “we can’t pass up on an opportunity to check this place out.”

“An’ ahm not missin’ out on a night out.”

“Yeah, plus we get to hang out with the Navy birds without doing hard work this time.”

With Pound Sterling and Lightning Dust on board, Gallus looked to Scythe for at least some reason, given their fatigue from the long journey they had just returned from.

“It would be nice to visit Seaquestria while we’re here.”

Scythe did have a point. After spending most of their days out in the sea, it’d be worth sightseeing. Their entire trip didn’t have to be for the Academy after all. With a unanimous decision, Gallus faked a smile.

“Well, it’s too late to change our minds anyways…”

After a few hours of napping and food, the gang went to the coast. As they arrived, they witnessed Hippogriffs diving into the ocean from above. Still, not before being enveloped in a bright glow, their wings and fur were replaced with fins and scales in a flash.

This display of hippogriffs changing into seaponies wasn’t new to Gallus. He’d seen Silverstream do it on as many occasions as he’d seen Ocellus transform into many creatures. However, he still recognised the beauty of the transformation as his pony friends did overtly with awe.

They hoped they’d be able to try out being seaponies, too, when Solar Flare turned up. They hoped by arriving midday, they’d be able to catch up with him. However, as time passed, he was nowhere to be found.

“Can ya see ‘im, Dusteh?”

“Nope.”

“Ugh, we’ve been here for ages,” Nicknames complained, rolling his head back and groaning, “can’t we just go to Seaquestria without him?”

“Depends. How long can you hold your breath underwater?”

Nicknames were about to answer Gallus’ question but only realised when Lightning Dust snickered that the griffon made a joke and grumbled.

“At least the ocean looks nice here…”

Scythe quietly admired the midday ocean, the peaceful sounds of seaponies swimming in the sea as it stretched beyond the horizon. His impatient compatriots were waiting for their Navy Hippogriff friend to turn up without success. “Well, if Solar Flare ain’t showin’, a’ are we s’posed to nip on down?” asked Pound Sterling.

Their problem could have been avoided had they planned this earlier with Solar Flare without letting him fly off. With that option gone, the ponies turned their heads to their griffon friend. A few seconds later, Gallus realised at least three ponies were all staring at him and furrowed his brow.

“What?”

“You know the most hippogriffs, Bluebird.” Nicknames argued.

“So?”

“So… could you ask one?” Lightning Dust suggested. “General Seaspray, Captain Skybeak…”

“Ladybird…” Nicknames added sardonically, with a wink and a nudge, only stopping when Scythe gave a nudge of his own and a glare.

Gallus narrowed his eyes. After such a long trip, he wasn’t keen on going down to Seaquestria in the first place. Seaspray probably wouldn’t be a good idea after the work he’d been doing. Skybeak was probably busy in Aris to help, and Silverstream was perhaps somewhere else, assuming she’d want to see Gallus.

There was another issue with his friends’ idea as well.

“Even if they’d be willing to help us out, how would I be able to find them?” he pointed out rhetorically. “Do you think I could make a hippogriff or seapony who knows me appear on command?”

“Oh! Gallus! Is that you?”

The angelic voice had called out from the ocean. Gallus recognised it immediately and pinched his beak with frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said with a gravelled hush tone, not expecting his words to come true.

Regardless, he turned to face the seapony with a huge grin. “Hey, what a surprise!” Gallus called out and waved. He tried to sound as friendly as possible. It was Silverstream’s mom, after all.

“Indeed! And you have some friends with you.”

Gallus sighed and introduced his friends. “Yeah, from the Royal Guard Academy. Guys, this is Princess Ocean Flow.” As he gestured his friends towards the elegant seapony, whose yellow scales glistened in the sun, she suddenly had a bemused look.

It didn’t take long for Gallus to figure out why. “They’re bowing at you, aren’t they?” He quickly turned around and got his answer. All four ponies, their forehooves stretched forward, their heads lowered underneath their shoulders, facing the princess.

“Novo did say ponies have their customs like all creatures do.” Ocean Flow remarked, understanding as other members of Silverstream’s family. “Hope you all are having a good time in our nation?”

Each one of the ponies popped their heads up to answer with glee.

“Yes, Your Highness! Great time!” Lightning Dust started. “We’ve just gotten back on a Navy ship.”

“We getten ta draw sails 'n sing shanties.” Pound Sterling followed.

“We met hippogriffs on Ludo Isle. They were nice.”

“I got to fire a cannon!” Nicknames jumped in.

Ocean Flow giggled in response to the answer. “I guess ponies and hippogriffs aren’t that different after all.” The ponies turned their heads back towards Gallus, some with a half-lidded glance as if to tell him so. Gallus glowered before shifting back to a friendly smile and explained on their behalf.

“We’re hoping to meet up with some hippogriffs from the ship later tonight at a bar at the bottom of Seaquestria…”

“The Hidden Cavern?”

Suddenly, Gallus was derailed from his explanation. “Uh, yeah,” he said with surprise. Some of him didn’t expect Silverstream’s mom to know about this bar.

“I love that place,” she chirped. “Many young hippogriffs and seaponies go down there for a good night out.” She then quickly covered one side of her face with her fin and softened her voice. “Don’t tell my sister, but Skybeak and I always used to sneak out of the coral reefs to go there when we were your age.”

Knowing that Ocean Flow could lead them to this bar, Gallus got a few nudges of encouragement. Gallus sighs and begins to ask begrudgingly. “Well, we kinda need help going down to Seaquestria, so would you be able to…?”

“Oh, of course!” Ocean Flow beamed with glee. “Why didn’t you say so sooner? If you all come into the water, I can help change you.”

Without skipping a beat, with grins stretched from ear to ear, the ponies ran towards the coast's edge and jumped in. Lightning Dust dove into the water hooves first, wings tucked in and body straight and thin. She barely made a splash as she pierced the ocean. Pound Sterling followed with a similar attempt, but more of her body hit the water, causing a bigger splash. Nicknames just tucked his hooves in and cannonballed.

All that was left was Gallus and Scythe, standing on the edge, looking at the calm sea beneath them. Although Scythe wasn’t keen on drinking, he was preparing to jump in to follow the herd if it meant checking out Seaquestria. The only thing stopping him was concern, as he noticed Gallus was suddenly rigid and uneasy.

“Are you okay?”

Gallus could swim. He’d never learned until he was at the School of Friendship, wearing a life vest for the first year, but he reminded himself he could swim. It didn’t help that the thought of swimming instinctually caused his heart to accelerate and his body to turn stiff. “You can do this. It’s just water…” he shakily reassured himself under his breath.

“Bluebird! Mumbles! Hurry up!” Nicknames called out: waiting by Ocean Flow, Lightning Dust, and Pound Sterling. “You’re not afraid of water, are you?”

That heckle from Nicknames caused Gallus to snap out of his anxiety, and a sudden fire ignited inside him. Suddenly, Gallus dashed to the edge and leapt right into the water. The last part of sense left in control of his body had enough time to emulate Lightning Dust’s dive for him to land in the water as smoothly as possible. He felt the water flow through his feathers and fur just long enough before he had to kick and push the water away for him to resurface.

As for Scythe, he stood in surprise that Gallus went from being motionless to throwing himself into the water. When he saw Gallus’ head emerge from underneath and heard a massive gasp of air, he simply leapt like jumping off a ledge, landing hoof first into the water.

With all of them in the water, around a circle holding hooves, fins and claws, Ocean Flow clasped the pearl shard around her necklace, and it started to glow. As they were all about to change, Gallus was left thinking one thing: he hoped he wouldn’t look weird.

Being a seagriffon wasn’t half bad. While Gallus felt lighter around the back with the absence of wings, and his fur was replaced with a smooth, scaly surface, he looked like his comfortable blue-griffon self, at least the top half of himself.

“Hey, look at Bluebird! For a moment, I thought he’d turn into a catfish,” remarked Nicknames, kindly as ever, as Gallus stared daggers at him.

“Check It art! Ah’m a sea-bobbo!” exclaimed Pound Sterling, reacting to her new seapony form.

They had a similar change. The top half seldom changed while sporting a smooth, hoofless posterior with a large fin at the end. They handled swimming with them naturally, as they pictured their hindlegs being tied together.

Ocean Flow leads them into the caverns underneath the island and into Seaquestria. It was enchanting, leaving the seaponies in awe. It was a vast cave made of jagged rocks and stalagmites and was lit up by an array of houses with pink lucid walls hung from the ceiling like chandeliers.

The gang took advantage of the afternoon they had and their friendly tour guide and swam around the underwater city. The ground was covered with coral reefs and seagrass, with kelp forests scattered around. Seaponies had crafted tables and chairs for adults to sit around and chat. At the same time, their fry played around the open seabeds, emulating the relaxing park environment on the surface.

There were some unique activities underwater. A group of seaponies were having a music session, with music made from clam shells tied together with sea foam in between. The gang enjoyed listening to the rhythmic tones that travelled across the water.

Ocean Flow then took them all to her hanging house, and it was easy to see why the places looked so bright from the outside. The interior was an open floor plan with a ceiling light shining up the room, and all the walls of the octagonal room were primarily translucent.

As host, she provided food for the guests. She served kelp fritters, Silverstream’s favourite. The gang were surprised at how much kelp tasted better underwater. Perhaps changing into part sea creatures had some role in it.

While everyone was busy having lunch, Gallus took time to look out one of the windows. Ocean Flow’s house was one of the closest ones to the largest hanging house in Seaquestria, the underwater palace. It was shaped like a jellyfish, with several layers. The largest one appeared to bloom outwards. He thought it must have been nice for Queen Novo to have her own house with such a view.

Its glow made all the Sea Fleet Guards swimming around it visible from a distance, silhouettes on patrol carrying their diamond-shaped spears. But then, he could see seaponies swimming between where he was at the palace. It was two seaponies with sea fleet guards in front and behind them.

He recognised the tall and elegant white figure with the vibrant purple mane flowing out of her crown as Queen Novo herself, gracefully swimming along with a smile as she looked at the peaceful settlement below her.

What surprised Gallus was his instant recognition of the other seapony she was with. He had a slightly shorter, sleek pink body with a bright blue mane that flowed like a river, a seapony he’d seen many times by the lake near the School of Friendship. It was Silverstream.

Gallus hadn’t seen her since the night before he went out sailing with the Navy. He couldn’t help but wonder if she missed seeing him as much as he missed seeing her. He snuck outside the house to get a closer look. She looked calm, smiling and nodding along to whatever her aunt appeared to be saying. He thought it must be casual, given how Silverstream used to talk about the two of them being close.

Then, one moment, Silverstream turned her head and looked in his direction. Gallus felt his heart jump, another surprise for him. He wondered if she could see him. Maybe she’d be happy to see him back? He smiled as his hopes arose and gave a big wave.

Sure enough, she noticed. She grinned and waved back. However, it wasn’t a big wave, and her head and body contracted as she smiled, appearing more like an uncomfortable wince.

It wasn’t the reaction Gallus hoped for. His smile and wave slowly faded as Silverstream and Queen Novo turned around and swam further away from him. He continued to watch them, unaware that Ocean Flow noticed the scene from the window and laid a fin on his shoulder with a disappointed sigh.

“I’m sorry Silverstream isn’t her usual happy self. She’s been all over the place since she’s got here,” she confided.

“Yeah, I think I know why…”

“We figured with how much she adores both of her homes, she’d be excited about taking up Royal Duties, but something has changed…”

“Royal Duties?” Gallus became puzzled. He heard that phrase before… Skybeak said it about being unable to join the Navy.

“Did she ever tell you about them?”

“No…?”

“Well, Seaquestria and the Hippogriff Isles are ruled by a monarch such as my sister Novo, but it’s tradition for the monarch to delegate their family to care for the country and its citizens.” Ocean Flow explained. “As such, when a family member becomes an adult, they are assigned Royal Duties. Silverstream was supposed to get hers after turning eighteen. Still, she wanted to stay in Equestria as a teacher, so I convinced Novo to postpone until the end of term.”

It intrigued Gallus; the entire country was managed mainly by a whole family, with each member playing a part. It would explain why Silverstream was here. It wasn’t just to help him and his Academy friends out. However, it also brought up a concerning thought. “So, when the term ends in the summer, does that mean she’ll have to move back here and stay?” he asked.

“That’s for Novo to decide, but if we’re going by tradition, Silverstream will have duties either down here or on one of our islands.”

“And what about her friends in Equestria?”

Ocean Flow’s eyes started to wonder. “There may be times to go abroad, but again, that’s for Novo to decide.” She answered, rubbing her arm uncomfortably.

His eyes widened, and it quickly made sense to Gallus why Silverstream wasn’t her overly cheery and excited self. It seemed strange at first, knowing she always loved this place as her home and never passed up a chance to share her stories of it. However, Gallus also knew how much she loved her friends, not just him. Even in the letters he had gotten from her, she loved to share what each had gotten up to.

But sounds like she’s being forced to live away from her friends by taking up these Royal Duties. Gallus felt a familiar resentment brewing up in him. “Does she get a say in any of it?” he pressed her, his arms folded and eyes narrowed.

Impressively, Ocean Flow held her calm and positive form. “As much a say as her parents did once the Storm was gone. I wouldn’t worry, though; my sister is far more lenient than our parents.” She pushed back. “Skybeak had always been close with Mount Aris, and he feels so proud of his hard work making it such a happy and vibrant place for the hippogriffs. As for me, I’ve always found the ocean so calm and free. I’d like to think I’ve done well brightening up this place, don’t you think?”

“True, this place looks much better than how Princess Twilight described them before the Storm King’s defeat.” Gallus conceded the pair of them have made the two cities a happy place from the offset. He then shook himself back to his irritated self to argue further. “Though, is that kind of system fair for Silverstream? No offence, but even for you and Prince Skybeak, it doesn’t sound perfect. I mean, you do live apart…”

As if a light was switched off, Ocean Flow’s mood was changed; her smile had evaporated, and her voice deepened. “When Skybeak was in the Sea Fleet, there were occasions where he’d ‘Go to the Surface’.” She began to explain, making a quoting gesture with her fins.

“He’d lead a squad to one of the islands, survey the land, take resources, rescue hippogriffs, and bring them back to Seaquestria. In the seventeen years of the Storm, Skybeak surfaced ten times. He’d be gone for a week usually, but the longest was six months, and not every seapony who went to the surface came back. He could have said no, but as a prince, how would it have looked if he didn’t go while others were ordered to?” She asked rhetorically, but in her brief pause, Gallus was speechless with his eyes wide and his beak locked open, unable to say a word.

“As a family, there are times when our duties make our lives difficult, but when we have hippogriffs and seaponies who look up to us, we help them. Living apart means our situation isn’t perfect. Still, whenever I go up to the surface now, I know my dear is on Mount Aris, safe and making our hippogriffs happy.” Gallus wasn’t sure what was more terrifying, Silverstream’s mother staring him down, the stress Ocean Flow had to put up with seeing her husband go into danger so often, or how she suddenly sprung back to her cheery self afterwards like the light was switched back on.

“Not to mention, it’s gotten easier ever since Princess Twilight Sparkle brought those three fillies who suggested hippogriffs and seaponies should have picnics on the beaches. We’ve made them a regular thing, and our citizens love spending time together. So, why do you think Silverstream isn’t happy?”

“Uh, um… yeah”, Gallus reacted in a panic, almost missing the question that was asked. “I thought it’s just a lot on her mind, what you said and stuff…”

Ocean Flow chuckled and patted Gallus on the back. “I’ll talk with her once she’s finished meeting with Novo,” she said. She didn’t appear to be upset with Gallus, even if her approach to giving him some perspective was a little on the scary side. She then turned back into the house where the rest of the gang had long finished eating. “How about I take you all to the Hidden Cavern? It’s getting late, and I’m sure the Navygriffs are waiting for you.”

The Hidden Cavern was an incredibly apt name. It was a literal cavern hidden in the bottom corner of Seaquestria, hidden behind rocks and moss. If it wasn’t for Ocean Flow, the gang would have had no chance of finding it. Fortunately, coming out of the hidden cavern, they could hear the signs that the Navy hippogriffs were there.

“Oh, we’ll be alright if the wind is in our sails,
We’ll be alright if the wind is in our sails,
We’ll be alright if the wind is in our sails,
And we’ll all hang on behind!

And we’ll roll the old chariot along
We’ll roll the old chariot along
We'll roll the old chariot along
And we’ll all hang on behind!”

Everything inside the bar appeared to have been chiselled from the rocks inside: the bar, the tables, and even the stage where the Navy hippogriffs turned seaponies were hogging to sing shanties. Near the front of the group, a yellow seapony with red fins face glowed within the dark cave as he recognised the gang and swam over every seapony to approach them.

“Hey! You’re here!” exclaimed Solar Flare, with a mixture of joy and relief.

“No thanks to you.”

The noise of chatter and music drowned out Scythe’s glaring remark. “We were able to get a lift down after we couldn’t find you.” Gallus almost shouted so he could hear himself.

“Ah, sorry! Lost track of time, but I’ll make it up to you.” he quickly swam up to the bar, “Hey, barkeep, five deep lagoons for my buddies, please, on my tab.”

The barkeep then poured out five drinks from five carved-out cups. At least the gang assumed they were drinks. When the gang looked inside the cup, it was just one giant bubble. “Just down it like it’s booze from the surface!” Solar Flare advised.

One by one, each downed their drink. The bubble fell into their mouths and burst once closed, filling their insides with flavour.

“Woah, this stuff is amazing! I’ll take another!” Nicknames shouted, clearly enjoying the drinks. With that, the party started.

Once more drinks were had, the party was in full swing. Seaponies filled up the bar and tables, and music was playing so loud that the vibrations travelled across the water. It was impressive how any seapony could hold a conversation.

The gang joined the Navygriffs on a stage, sharing more drinks and singing along to the music while the lights inside the dark cave pulsed and changed colours. That is except for one.

Scythe stood away from the stage and sat on a table alone. Unlike his friends, he still had the first drink that was given to him. He stared into the bubble, bouncing around the cup's rim, the alcoholic mixture swirling around. He doesn’t drink alcohol, and he’s not confident about going up on a stage, so he feels stuck in the sea of seaponies having a fun time with each other.

Taking a deep breath, he considers taking the drink. One side of his mind tells him it might make him relax, have fun, or forget about his nerves. It’s not like he can go anywhere else while his Academy buddies are all here, and he doesn’t have a way of returning home.

However, not only does he not like the taste, but the other side of his mind is also warning him that he might have less control over himself, he might want more drinks, he could end up in trouble, and what if he got caught, what if it could affect his career…

Suddenly, he felt a fin tap him on his right shoulder. It caused him to seize up briefly in shock.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“What?

Scythe heard something in that direction, but because of the music and crowds cheering around the cavern, he couldn’t listen. He turned towards its direction and saw a white seapony, at least as far as he could tell from the coloured lights bouncing off him.

The seapony also had a bright blue mane that looked like blades of seaweed going from the top of his head to the back of his neck. Scythe tilted his head; the seapony seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn’t put a hoof on why.

Then, his eyes widened as recognition dawned on him. He swore he looked like a timid royal hippogriff he saw in that tourist guide omnibus. He just had to be sure…

“Are you Terramar?”

“What?”

“You’re Terramar, right?”

The seapony looked just as puzzled as Scythe was, incapable of hearing what was being said. As such, he pointed towards the cavern's entrance and slowly began moving in that direction.

Quickly understanding the visual cue, Scythe left his drink on the table and swam out to follow the seapony. The pair pushed and squeezed through the crowd until finally seeing the light at the cavern's end and the noise fading to a volume low enough to try another attempt.

“Terramar, right?” asked Scythe. “Silverstream’s brother.”

The seapony gave a slanted grin. “Yeah, that’s me.” He answered, coyly rubbing the back of his neck. “You’re one of Gallus’ friends?”

“I’m Scythe.” He nodded, then held out his fin. Terramar took the offer and gently shook fins.

“I figured, just couldn’t help but notice you felt left out.”

“Yeah, I’m not a fan of these loud parties,” Scythe admitted, glancing down as he felt discouraged.

“Yeah, I get that. I’m only here because a few friends dragged me down,” Terramar confessed. “Can’t blame them. Silverstream likes coming here, but I’m not like her. I prefer calm places, the Harmonizing Heights above the surface of the coral reefs.”

They both looked up and away from the caverns, witnessing the full scope of the underwater city. The houses and palace appeared to float in the sky, shining a soft pink glow in all directions that touched the walls and ceilings. Sometimes, fish would swim by, blocking the light and leaving a beam of natural light in its place.

Scythe smiled as his eyes shimmered while watching the view. “Yeah, this part looks nice”, he agreed.

“Any other parts of our nation you like?”

“Well…” Scythe recalled his experience with the Navy and the journey they took. “Ludo Isle was nice”, he answered. We got to fly around the mountains for a bit before sailing back. There was one local we met that spoke a language that I hadn’t heard before.” He awkwardly attempted to pronounce the phrase that the shopkeeper used in reaction to his presence: “Lio mah-kaa-eeka-ee”.

Terramar’s ears perked up. “Ah, that’s Olelo” he replied. “It’s how hippogriffs used to speak before…” he winced as his voice trailed for a bit. “I was born, at least. I know a few words myself.”

Scythe felt his heart skip, a rare moment to hear a foreign language from another speaker! “Like what? Can you tell me?” he asked with intrigue.

“Sure! So…” Terramar pats his chest. “Lio Kai.” He then points at Scythe. “Lio”.

Scythe pauses to figure out the words. He recognised they referred to Terramar and himself directly. “So, I’m Pony, and you’re Sea… Pony?” he guesses.

Terramar nodded as Scythe got it right and then continued by pointing his fin upwards. “Lani.” Then, with both arms, he spread them out and around himself. “Wai.”

It was more challenging. With the first word, Scythe briefly glanced upwards as he assumed it referred to direction. Still, the second had a gesture suggesting something around Terramar. What’s upward and is similar to what’s around him.

He then recognised that Wai was close to Kai, the word for Sea. What can be found upwards, and what does the sea have?

“Sky and Water?”

Terramar nodded again. He was right.

Scythe was fascinated and leant in closer with curiosity. “How about hippogriff?” he quizzed.

“Lio Manu”

Scythe could feel an excitement brewing up, like a child playing with a brand new toy.

He recognised there was a pattern with the names. “So, if Kai is sea and Lio is pony, hippogriff would be manu pony. Manu being…”

“Bird,” Terramar answered with a content smile. “Hippogriffs are part pony, part-bird.”

“Well, if griffons are part bird, part lion, then they’d be Lion Manu…?”

The question stumped Terramar. The naming would fit the pattern, but when he recalled his parents talking about Gallus’ arrival on Mount Aris, he clearly heard them say griffon. “I don’t think there’s a word for griffons…” he conceded.

“How about what that hippogriff from Ludo called us?” Scythe pressed for clarification, wanting to understand the phrase that started this intrigue. “Mah-kaa-eeka-ee?”

Terramar returned another coy smile. Unfortunately, he recognised the phrase himself. “Mākaʻikaʻi”, he produced a more precise pronunciation. “it’s a word for tourist.”

There was a slight pause. The shopkeeper saw four ponies with a griffon and remarked that they must be tourist ponies. Suddenly, Scythe started to laugh, the first time he felt such humour for the first time in a long time.

It broke the awkward tension Terramar felt as he caught himself laughing, too.

“Heh, yeah, that makes sense,” Scythe sighed. “Do you have a book on how to learn Olelo?”

Terramar shook his head and gave a defeated sigh. “Aunt Novo says we lost much of our history thanks to the Storm King. I only pick up what I can from the older hippogriffs and seaponies,” he said, confessing his shamefully limited understanding of the language. “With us having more ponies to visit and do business with, I don’t think many are interested in any language not spoken by them.”

“I’m interested,” he insisted, but then hesitated. It occurred to him that he doesn’t share his interests with many ponies. Gallus only figured it out on his own. What would Terramar think about it? “I study languages, mostly through books. I like the different ways creatures speak to each other.”

Terramar raised an eyebrow with intrigue. He hadn’t heard of someone with such an interest, especially not a pony. “Cool, that’s a start,” he replied enthusiastically, which relieved Scythe. “Do you want to work in some communication job in the Equestrian military?”

Scythe hesitated again and bit his lip. He knows he already has his job as an officer in the Royal Guard, but wasn’t sure if it’s what he wanted. He also didn’t want to break any hope Terramar had, but he also didn’t want to lie either.

“Well…”

Unexpectedly, a seapony saved him. “Heeeey, Mumbles!” exclaimed Nicknames, slurring his words as he held a cup of deep lagoon beverage in his fin. “There you are. Wha’ are youz doin’ out here?” he asked as he slumped onto Scythe, who was unhappy with the new predicament.

“Oh... Nicknames, this is Terramar.”

“Whozat?” he queried as he tried to hold still and look at the blurry-looking white seapony before him.

“Silverstream’s brother”, Scythe answered before pulling close to his ear. “As in ladybird,” he whispered harshly.

Terramar gave a small wave and a forced smile as he looked on, confused and slightly concerned about the state of Scythe’s apparent friend. He looked like he had a few too many of the drinks he could barely hold in his cup. “Hey, uh, why did you call him Mumbles?” he asked.

Scythe tried to divert the conversation.

“No reas- “

“Is what ponies call him; heez had it for years ‘cuz he mumbles and talks gobbledygook when reading books.” Nicknames yelled out, pushing Scythe down to prevent him from taking over.

“Okay…?” Terramar’s voice trailed as Nicknames started to weird him out. Scythe didn’t look too comfortable either, with his reddened face pointing towards the floor.

“Come on, Mumbles, less bring you back inside where the partay is so you don weird thiz kid out.”

Terramar's forehead creased, annoyed at being called a kid. “I’m seventeen…” he refuted, as Nicknames pulled Scythe back into the Hidden Cavern. Scythe felt too ashamed to fight back. “Lio ‘ona” he remarked under his breath as his eyes narrowed.

Inside the Hidden Cavern, the Navy seaponies were about to sing another shanty as Nicknames joined in, and the party in the cavern continued for the rest of the night.

“What do we do with a drunken’ sailor?
What do we do with a drunken’ sailor?
What do we do with a drunken’ sailor,
Early in the morning?

Way-hey up she risin'!
Way-hey up she risin’!
Way-hey up she risin’
Early in the morning!”

Author's Note

Did you know the word for a baby seahorse is Fry, and the plural of the word is Fry? It took Javarod and me part of an evening to figure that out!

Thank you all for your patience, and let's hope I can get some work so I can get back to writing stress-free!

Last Night on Mount Aris Part 1

“Well, everypony, I think I can speak for all when I say this week in Mount Aris and Seaquestria, not bad.”

“‘ere ‘ere!”

The gang were all relaxing in the apartment, having a celebratory meal on the last night. Lighting Dust and Pound Sterling grabbed a load of ingredients from the market in Hippogriffia and made full use of the kitchen. Everypony had fresh carrot burgers, much sweeter and crunchier than the hayburgers they would have had at home.

The only exception was Gallus, who insisted on having a plate full of sushi. Knowing the griffon would be heading back to Equestria, only Grover would know when he’d have fish again. His Academy buddies might not have been fans of eating fish. Still, they did find the Hippogriff’s favourite beverage of salmon juice to be quite lovely, especially when chilled.

Lightning Dust raised her glass, “Cheers to our buddy Bluebird and his “friend” Silverstream for setting this up for us.” She gave Gallus a sarcastic smirk. At the same time, the other ponies clinked their glasses. Gallus said nothing but let out a frustrated sigh.

“So, wha’ does everyone wanna do t’neet?” Pound Sterling asked the group. “Last evenin’ ‘fore we ‘ead home.”

There was a brief pause as the ponies tried to think of ideas.

“Maybe check out the Harmonizing Heights…”

Scythe’s suggestion fell on deaf ears. “Well, we’ve checked out Seapony nightlife. It makes sense to check out Hippogriff nightlife.” Lightning Dust cut in, and Scythe returned to eating his meal.

“Whatever you’re doing, I’ll have to pass,” said Gallus with a slightly gravelly voice. “We’ve already spent the day going around Hippogriffia, and I need to rest, especially after that Screeching Contest…”

Despite the sounds of a sore throat and a frustrated glare down at his sushi plate, Lightning Dust scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Bluebird, are you still complaining about that? You won that contest, after all.”

Several hours earlier, it was a sunny spring day in Hippogriffia. Gallus and his friends were going through the market when loud screeching caught their attention. A crowd of colourful hippogriffs gathered around a round stage in the main square. A hippogriff would come up on stage one by one, and everything went quiet. Then, the hippogriff would give a loud, high-pitched screech.

The sound would echo across the square, followed by applause and odd cheer. Each cheer was measured by volume, length, and quality, distinguished by medals with blue, red, and green ribbons.

Sky Beak emerged on stage after six more hippogriffs screeched to their hearts' content. “That’s all our contestants for this year, folks, all incredible performances”, he proclaimed, followed by generous applause. The princely hippogriff then eyed the four ponies and griffon in the back of the crowd. “Now, we do have some esteemed guests from abroad. Does any of them want to come up and give it a go?”

Nicknames, who had been half-asleep through most of the trip around the market and the contest, suddenly got a naughty idea. “Oh, Bluebird wants to!” he yelled out. He figured impressing Silverstream’s dad at the screeching contest would surely help him win his bet.

Gallus didn’t have time to realise what he was being forced into until Nicknames held up his arm. “Wait, what? No, I don’t,” he objected, but other ponies had latched on.

“Yeah! Go, Bluebird!”

“Bluebird! Bluebird! Bluebird!”

He was lifted and carried by Nicknames towards the stage, over a crowd of hippogriffs chanting his Bluebird in unison. “Nick, get off me!” he protested, trying to fidget and flap his wings to get out of Nicknames’ hugging grip. Nicknames on the other hoof held on and tried to put him on the stage so he could give a screech himself.

“Hey, stop moving about, or we’ll fall!”

“Let go of me, or I’ll tell the whole Academy your real name is Moniker.”

Nicknames panicked at the thought. “Alright, geez. I’ll take your place!” Unfortunately, as he was about to let go, he lost his balance. Dragging Gallus with him, he fell onto the stage. He landed Rump first, right on Gallus’s tail.

The sudden shock and pain caused Gallus to screech. His extended eagle cry echoed throughout Mount Aris, bringing it to a complete standstill.

Once he finally stopped, Nicknames and Gallus looked out onto a stage, a sea of wide-eyed hippogriffs in shock and awe of what they just heard.

Then, they all cheered.

Lightning Dust wasn’t wrong about Gallus winning, as evidenced by a medal hung around the griffon’s neck with a blue ribbon. Yer, she still felt disconcerted at the eagle eyes staring at her like daggers.

“…Okay, that could have gone better.”

“Shouldn’t have forced Gallus in the first place,” Scythe murmured.

“But Nicknames does dumb things all the time,” she excused as if his antics were just expected and accepted. “I’m sure he’s sorry, right Nick?” She then looked along the dining table to realise that her defence wasn’t holding water. “Nick?” She scanned the entire apartment floor to discover Nicknames wasn’t present.

This was even a surprise to the others, as they looked around from their seat to discover he was nowhere in sight.

“Wasn’t he with us when we got here?”

“Ahm sure he was. Ah made him some scran.” Pound Sterling looked across the table before returning to the kitchen to notice an uneaten carrot burger sitting on the kitchen counter, with a glass of salmon juice on the side. It then dawned on them they had spent all day going around Hippogriffia and had lost Nicknames.

“When did we last see him?” asked Lightning Dust.

“The Screeching Contest…” Gallus muttered.

“Any time after that?” There was silence as no one had an answer. Lightning Dust then rested her head in her hooves. “He wandered off sometime within the last four hours. Where could he be?”

Scythe quietly listed possible locations around Hippogriffia.

“The palace, the coast, markets, Harmonizing Heights, nightclubs…”

“We’re not gonna leave ‘im out there, reet?” Pound Sterling asked with concern.

Further silence before Lighting Dust groaned and stood up from her seat. Although she hoped to do something fun on the last night in Mount Aris, it looked like one missing pony meant other plans. “Okay, looks like our final night is gonna be a search mission,” she begrudgingly declared. “Here’s the plan; I’ll go up near the top of the mountain and search for him from above. Steppy, you can search around this spot since you know your way around the trees.”

Pound Sterling gave a stoic salute, “On it!” she said, then flew up to the bedroom to grab a torch as Lightning Dust turned her attention to Gallus and Scythe.

“One of you two should go down to the coast”, she instructed, “and the other should stay here in case the stupid, careless jerk comes back while the rest of us are out.” Both Scythe and Gallus look at each other, perplexed at the well-reasoned plan given spontaneously. Lightning Dust furrowed her brow.

“What? I pay attention in classes, you know.”

As Lighting Dust and Pound Sterling exited the apartment, Scythe got out of his seat. It quickly flew towards his bedroom to get a satchel. He then returned to the kitchen to grab the uneaten food and drink.

“Why are you grabbing those?” Gallus queried out of curiosity.

“He might be hungry or thirsty…”

“Good point, you know. I can go out to look for Nicknames”, Gallus offered as Scythe approached the door. “I’m not hurt that bad”, he assuredly added.

That was when Scythe opened the door and stuck his head outside. The pegasus was frozen for a few seconds, long enough to arouse suspicion from his griffon friend. When Scythe’s head re-emerged from the doors, his eyes were wide.

“Uh, I think you’re better off staying here.”

“Why?” questioned Gallus, tilting his head.

“Just something you need to handle, bye!”

Scythe rushed through the door, leaving it open before Gallus could press further. He furrowed his brow. What was so worrying outside that Scythe felt he needed to stay in?

To get his answer, Gallus went straight for the door. He pulled it open, and there she was. Silverstream was standing on the other side. “Hey, Gally…” She had her smile, her eyes glistened under the moonlight, and she had a familiar citrus aroma on her.

Yet, she looked exhausted. Her hair was a mess, and her necklace needed to be aligned. Gallus wasn’t sure what to make of it, except theorising she rushed to get here.

“Hey…”

She looked behind her and saw Scythe fly down to the coast. “Is this a bad time?” she asked softly with an air of disappointment, suspecting Gallus was about to head out too. Fortunately, with all his friends out, this was probably the best time the two of them had had. He smiled back and stepped to the side, leaving the doorway open.

“Not at all, come in.”

Scythe arrived at the coast. He remembered where the fishing docks were, the long beach, and even the naval base. He made sure to scan across the entire edge of the island. It would be bad news if Nicknames were in the water. Celestia forbid if he turned back into a seapony.

He had a plausible theory of where Nicknames was, though he was bored for most of the day, only finding fun dragging Gallus onto that stage. He did, however, have fun at the Hidden Cavern down in Seaquestria the night before. It was a lot of fun.

Back in their early teens at the Cloudsdale Junior Cadets, Nicknames was always one to party. Scythe remembered how he would make jokes, play games, get songs going, even during lights out. He had a hard time sleeping on some nights.

Ergo, what place on Mount Aris was potentially the likeliest place Nicknames would be in the late evening of the last day on the island? Scythe's ears perked up, detecting the muffled sounds of music, the kind with drum and bass thumping across the air. Sounds like another club.

“That sounds like it…” He followed the music, and the muffled thumping got louder until he noticed flashing lights coming from a giant round building. Like a colourful beacon or lighthouse, it stood out brightly from the jagged rocks around it.

He also noticed a silhouette of a hippogriff standing outside, perhaps a bodyguard. When he made his approach, more details of the figure emerged. The details were more concerning. The hippogriff was a guard alright, but one in a purple-coloured suit of armour that shimmered off the flashing lights.

“Uh, excuse me, sir…” Scythe warily got the attention of the guard. “Sir, you wouldn’t happen to have seen a pony go inside?”

The guard raised a curious eyebrow, which seemed better than a simple no, but not the response that gave Scythe confidence. “Come with me,” the guard said in a surprisingly deep voice to emphasise the assertion with their instruction.

“Yes, sir”

Scythe hurriedly followed behind the guard, flying above the translucent building. Above the flashing lights was a separate room that had a warm golden glow from the outside. The guard opened the door and revealed a bland environment.

It was a manager’s office. A female hippogriff with brown fur, features, and a short wave of a purple mane was sitting behind a desk. Before Scythe and the guard emerged from the door, she seemed more preoccupied with giving stern glares with a lit cigarette held in her beak.

That manager glared at a cyan pegasus, slowly rocking in a chair. His mane was messy; oddly, a rope was tied around his forehooves. The guard asked Scythe, “Is this the pony you’re looking for?” but Scythe knew immediately, with dread, that it was Nicknames. And Nicknames, with a glance, smiled as soon as he saw Scythe.

“Eeeey, Mumbles!” he exclaimed with a hiccup. “I waz wonderin’ when somepony would show!”

The glaring manager hippogriff shifted her hawk-like gaze to Scythe, resting back in her chair with her arms folded. “So… you two are friends?” she questioned him.

Nickname's big drunken mouth made it difficult for Scythe to avoid the question without lying. “We know each other…” he answered uncomfortably.

“Well, your friend here has a problem”, she stated with a frustrated sigh. “On top of drinking way too much, he decided to sing on the stage, and then when security dragged him off, he was yelling about being a soldier and friends with the Navy…”

“I haff friends in the Navy tho…” Nicknames interjected, slurring his speech and nearly falling off his chair. “Am from the royal guard academy…”

“Not helping Nick…”

“Do you still want me to take him?” the security guard asked the manager. Scythe tilted his head.

“Take him?”

“I called the palace guards to let your friend sober up in the cells”, the manager claimed casually, “you can pick him up in the morning.”

“What?!” Scythe exclaimed in a panic. Nicknames in trouble for being drunk is one thing, but going to a dungeon or jail? The hassle of getting him out the following morning before the train arrived was the least of his worries at that moment.

He Imagined newspaper headlines floating around in his mind about a pony with connections to the E.U.P. Guard being arrested. It’d be bad news not only to Nicknames but to Gallus, who brought him here, and to him. His family knows he’s in Mount Aris. What if his dad or grandad read a newspaper with that headline?

“No! Please don’t do that!” Scythe pleaded with the security guard. “I’ll take him instead.”

“You know it’s not that simple”, the manager refuted. “He’s drunk, caused a disturbance, and racked up a tab he can’t pay off.”

“I’ll pay the tab then.”

“You haven’t seen the tab”, the manager scoffed. “I doubt you can afford it.”

Scythe ignored the arrogant comment. He was smart enough to bring his satchel. He dug his hoof inside and pulled out a burlap sack that rattled with each move. The bag had some weight to it, as despite attempting to chuck it towards the manager, it landed on the wooden floor.

The bag opened on impact, and several gold bits fell out in front of the manager. Her beak fell over agape, and her cigarette fell out as she could count several dozen coins lying across the floor in front of her hooved hind feet.

“There, that should cover it”.

“Woah, Mumbles, you’re loaded!” remarked Nicknames, as his eyes were locked on the shiny gold coins.

“We’re taking a train back to Equestria first thing in the morning”, Scythe followed up. “If my friends and I pick him up from the cells, we’ll miss it.” He looked the manager dead in the eyes and pleaded. “Let him go, please.”

The manager picked up one of the gold bits, followed by her cigarette. Something about the bits made her reevaluate the situation she put herself in. Perhaps it was a bit of an overreaction to get the island’s security to deal with a drunken pony. It’s not like she would ever be that rough to a hippogriff. She’d just kick them out and bar them.

She exhaled as smoke billowed from her beak and nodded to the security guard. “Alright, you heard the pony,” she said before turning to Scythe with another glare and a simple order. “Get your friend out of here before I change my mind.”

After untying Nicknames’ hooves, Scythe got Nicknames out of the office and away from the club. The pair took an extended trot back to the coast as the music faded in the distance. Unable to balance himself, Nicknames leaned on Scythe as he trotted, much to Scythe’s chagrin, considering the weight and the constant interruptions.

“Hey, hey, Mumbles, that waz so cool what happened” said Nicknames, still with the drunken, slurred speech and occasional prodding. “That jerk was all like ‘, you can’t afford it’, and then all that money was dumped at her hooves, and she was like, ‘whaaaat?’”

“Yes, I was there,” Scythe said irritably. “That was my emergency money.”

“Hey, Mumbles,” Nicknames kept prodding, “why are we walking back to the house? We haff wings! Let's fly home!” Nicknames then spread his wings, carelessly pushing Scythe out of the way, and leapt into the air.

“No!” Scythe said assertively, jumping up and grabbing onto Nicknames’ hind hooves to drag him back down. “You’re too drunk to fly.”

“Ugh, youz like my mom”, Nicknames loudly groaned, rolling his eyes. “Grumpy all the time and telling me not to do stuff.”

“After tonight, I don’t blame her.”

Even though Scythe was murmuring, Nicknames could tell there was hostility. “Jeez, wass the big deal?” he moaned. “I juss thought we could spend the lass day doin’ somethin’ wild, but the rest of you went ‘round those markets and contests, and then you all wanted to go home”, he excused himself. Scythe only responded with a grumble.

“You can’t just spend your life on your own being bored. You need to live a little, buddy,” Nicknames added as he practically rested his entire body onto Scythe, leaving the pegasus with no personal space.

“I’m not your buddy!”

Scythe shoved Nicknames away, causing him to nearly fall over onto the sandy beach. Although he was slightly surprised to hear Scythe get snappy and see him with creased brows and gritted teeth, his drunken intuition thought it was a joke. “What you talkin’ ‘bout Mumbles?” he laughed. “We’ve been friends since Junior Cadets in Cloudsdale, remember?”

However, Scythe wasn’t joking around. He had enough.

“I remember being picked on at Junior Cadets by you and YOUR friends. I hated being there because of it! You called me Mumbles to make fun of me, pretended not to hear me whenever I said anything, and told other cadets not to go near me. Somehow, I would have forgiven all that if you had changed for the better, but you haven’t,” he ranted, which left Nicknames befuddled.

“Is it actually possible for Mumbles to shout? What’s that Mumbles? I can’t hear you!” Scythe mimicked, recalling the times at the Academy. “Even last night at the Hidden Cavern in Sequestria, I was getting along with Silverstream’s brother when you swam over and humiliated me.”

“Wait,” Nicknames paused, his slow mind forming a picture of when they were seaponies and telling what he thought was a funny story to a white seapony. “You mean all that about you reading books and talkin’ gobbledygook? That’s how you got your name,” he argued. “Why would you do that stuff if you didn’t want ponies to call you that?”

“I study languages!” Scythe blurted out. “I read books in different languages to relax, and reading aloud helps me learn.”

“That’s why you did that?” Nicknames raised an eyebrow. “How was I to know?”

“How about asking?” Scythe snapped back. “Get to know me. I mean, you think we’re friends, and yet I didn’t know your real name was Lightning Moniker until a few days ago. Do you know my real name?”

“Course I do!” Nicknames refuted harshly. He raised his right hoof and prepared to answer. “…it’sssssssssssssss…”

Although he could excuse Nickname’s blank memory because of his booze intake, Scythe remained angry. “It’s Scythe! Scythe Ma…” Despite such anger, Scythe managed to control himself enough not to blurt out his family name. Still, he figured Nicknames might have gotten suspicious. He stopped making a steam-like sound and tilted his head. “Never mind, it’s not like you’ll remember,” he excused himself.

“Okay, I don’t know everything about you, so what?” Nicknames admitted callously, dismissing Scythe’s complaints. “If we’re not friends… why did you come and find me?”

“Everypony is out trying to find you, you careless, stupid jerk!” Scythe exclaimed loud and clear. “If we didn’t, we’d leave you behind, making me look bad!” Immediately, he put both of his front hooves to his mouth, his face in horror. He didn’t intend to go into Nicknames as much as he did.

But it was too late. Nicknames heard what was said loud and clear. He felt his heart crumble, and his eyes started to water. Clearly, even Scythe saw him more as a pain than a friend. “Fine. I’ll save you the trouble.” He spread his wings once again, leapt, and flapped upwards.

Still in shock, Scythe didn’t have time to stop him.

“Nick, don’t. I’m sor-“

“No, no! You’re right. We’re not friends, and I’m out here being a careless, stupid jerk,” he yelled at Scythe. “Just go find the others and tell them to quit looking for me because I’ll be back at the house when they return.”

He then started flying off towards the mountain, aiming for the apartment. Unfortunately, the alcohol in his body was still in effect. Unbeknownst to him, he was flying further and further off-centre. It was far too late for him to realise he had lost control of his flight pattern and started falling towards the ground in the dark.

He then felt the right side of his body hit the ground, quickly turning into a tumble. He was eventually stopped by a thorny bush, which was poking its way into every part of his body.

“Owww…”

The apartment was silent for several minutes. Gallus and Silverstream sat together on the sofa. No words or sounds were uttered apart from the crickets outside. Gallus pondered why, repeatedly tapping his knee, he was not saying something after several days of being unable to speak with her.

In fairness, he doesn’t want to mention why his pony friends are not around, imagining she’d get involved in a search and rescue. He doesn’t want to bring up the letters so soon that might drive her away. Same with the whole royal duties, she hadn’t told him directly about those yet.

His tapping got faster as the anxiety grew. He needed to say something, anything, casual or not. Anything but this awkward, uncomfortable silence.

“So…” Silverstream said suddenly, “have you gotten time to go around Mount Aris?”

Gallus breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, we checked out the market in Hippogriffia, the Harmonizing Heights, the fishing docks, and the beach”, he answered, counting the different sites they visited that day. “Even checked out a screeching contest in the main square…”

Suddenly, Silverstream’s ears perked up. “There was a screeching contest today?!” she began to beam, “I love those; some of us are really loud when we’re not underwater!” She said in a raised, excited voice. She showed no concern for personal space as her break was inches from Gallus’s face. “Did you take part? PLEASE tell me you took part.”

Even if it was a bit much, Gallus couldn’t help but smile. It was the behaviour that brought him back to their youth in Ponyville. As much as it pained him earlier, he wanted to encourage it. “Even better, I won a prize, " he answered, holding his medal.

She squee’d, and her grin grew wider. “That’s amazing! You did even better than Headma-I mean Princess Twilight! Daddy told me they gave her a ribbon when she participated in “research”. They only give out medals for the best screechers!” she explained with hardly any breath in between. “A griffon like you must be a natural!”

“Guess I am…” Gallus rubbed his still-sore tail. After starting the conversation, Gallus figured it was time to return the favour. “H-how about yourself? What have you been up to…?”

Silverstream started to rub her neck. “Oh, I was just in the palace all day,” she admitted sheepishly, sounding nowhere as exciting as a screeching contest. “I did see General Seaspray, though. He talked about you.”

“Really!” Gallus kept a fake smile as he felt his heart stop. “Hope he said good things?” he nervously scratched the back of his head.

That was when Silverstream oddly decided to run her claws through her mane like a comb. She hurriedly stylised her hair until it was a puffy plume, almost like Seaspray’s mane. She held up her beak high, held a stoic expression, and mimicked his tone and mannerisms.

“Gallus and his Equestrian military colleagues demonstrated diligence in their duties and integrating with the naval crew. There were setbacks, but we persevered and found new perspectives that could help improve our Naval ships' working environment.”

“Oh,” Gallus wasn’t sure if he was more impressed by the comment or Silverstream’s impressive impersonation skills. “That sounds good, right?”

She nodded gleefully. “Mmhm, he even said he’d consider inviting ponies from the Royal Guard Academy to the Navy in the future” She sounded so proud. “He’s so sweet, right? He’s always worked hard and been supportive. He’s only my godfather, but I’ve always thought of him like an uncle.”

“That’s one way to describe him.”

After a few seconds, neither knew what to say, at least not optimistic. The silence returned, and both of their smiles faded away.

“Apparently, you have to go back to Equestria early tomorrow?” said Silverstream, her voice petered out.

“Yeah, I’m afraid,” he admitted in defeat. “It’s gonna take a day to get back, even longer for Pound Sterling, given she lives in Trottingham.”

When she heard that, she started to slump. Gallus felt he needed to say something, but then…

“Sorry I haven’t been able to spend time with you,” Silverstream apologised. Gallus’ beak was left open; he didn’t expect her to apologise. “I wanted to get to know your new friends, show you around Mount Aris and Seaquestria, but…” she sighed. “I’m not home just for spring break. I’m here mainly because my family wants me to think about…”

“…your Royal Duties.” Silverstream's head rose up. She didn’t expect Gallus to know, but he knew he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Your mom told me that in the summer, you’ll be leaving Equestria to work either in Seaquestria or one of the islands.”

“I haven’t told our friends yet; I should, but what if they want me to stay? It’s already hard enough being reminded by Aunt Novo and my parents that I’m wanted here.”

Hearing what she was saying reminded Gallus of his conversation with Ocean Flow. How it was up to Queen Novo that hippogriffs and seaponies look up to Silverstream’s family, no matter if it makes their lives difficult. Queen Novo might be lenient, and Silverstream could make it work like her parents did. He knew one other detail mattered.

“Well, what about what you want?”

Silverstream huddled herself into a ball while she thought of her answer.

“I love it here. My family is great, and there’s a lot of fun in the skies and underwater. It’s my home. But, after spending time at the School of Friendship, I’ve been to new places, done new things, and made new friends. If I have to stay here and spend less time going to Equestria and other places worldwide, it’ll feel like I’m…”

“Trapped?” guessed Gallus.

“Exactly… And sure, it turns out being a teacher isn’t all that’s cracked up to be,” she conceded. “I mean, each day I wake up incredibly early to prepare for the day, help Professor Pinkie Pie with her laughter classes, do my own studying so I know the answers that students have, and long after all the students have finished classes for the day, I’m helping grade tests and assignments.” Gallus couldn’t help but smirk. The early start, going back and forth, and lots of studying even after finished classes sounded like the Royal Guard Academy.

“Not to mention, it’s hard to know every student and get them to like you. It’s even harder to get their parents to like you, too. Most of them are ponies; there are a few yaks, dragons, changelings, even kirins, but I haven’t met a hippogriff student, so it does feel lonely sometimes.”

Alas, that moment sounded a lot like the Royal Guard Academy for Gallus, too. “I know what that’s like…” He put his claws on her shoulder to comfort her.

She reciprocated with a smile. “That being said, I have friends who help me out. Professor Pinkie has been a great mentor in her quirky way, and when I feel really down, I would read one of your letters.” Gallus felt his heart skip. She brought it up before he could. It even broke her out of her ball.

“They make me think ‘Wow! Gallus came from Griffonstone and is now in Canterlot, training to be a Royal Guard Officer. He must be going through a lot, but he’s fighting his way through it for his friends.” Silverstream turned to look Gallus right into his eyes, inches from his face.

“I may not know a lot of griffons, and I know your life hasn’t been easy, but you’re one of the greatest griffons I’ve ever met. You’re funny, thoughtful, smart. You showed me that no matter how scary things can be, you can face them and show them what you’re made of.”

An awestruck Gallus started to feel some tingle inside after she said all those things. He thought it was the most admirable words he’d ever heard. He could feel his head getting warm, his heart beating and his claws tightened.

Then he looked down and discovered that Silverstream was holding his claw. Silverstream also looked down and noticed and quickly let go. She hid her talons between her legs, and roses bloomed on her cheeks.

“Uh yeah, happy to help”, Gallus replied, scratching his head. Guess it was time to finally have that talk he wanted. “So… last winter… I heard you say something like… I love you. How long have you…?”

“Let’s just say too long,” Silverstream admitted, the redness of her face became stronger. “It sounds silly, but as much as I like to talk, I didn’t know how to tell you. I mean, I think any creature would wanna go out with you, but you’re also cool, sharp, and laidback.” Gallus could feel his head getting warmer with each compliment. “What does a ditzy, silly chatterbox of a hippogriff like me tell a griffon to show how she feels?”

Both eyebrows were raised. Gallus didn’t think an optimistic, cheerful, hyperactive hippogriff like her had insecurities. “I don’t know a hippogriff like that,” he attempted to reassure her, “but you told me… twice even.”

“Yeah, I just didn’t think about it…” she said, twirling a strand of her mane around a talon, “ at least until after I said it.”

“Not thinking, clever.”

“At least the train left before you saw anything else.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Well…”

Meanwhile, last winter back at the train station platform of Ponyville, Gallus’ train to Canterlot had departed. From the perspective of all his friends on the platform, it appeared to shrink as it went further from view.

Meanwhile, said friends stood side by side, frozen aghast by what had just happened, except for Silverstream, who held her beak shut. The train was long gone before Sandbar finally spoke up.

“Did Silverstream just say…?”

“Yay! Silverstream, you finally told him!” softly cheered Ocellus.

“Yeah, it took her long enough,” Smolder grumbled.

“Smolder, let it go…”

“No ‘cel, I won’t. You didn’t share a room with Silverstream at the School of Friendship, hearing in our dorm for years, ‘Oh, he’s so cool and dreamy. I don’t know how I should tell him.’”

“Uh, dudes…”

“Could have saved my sanity by telling him immediately, but nooo… ‘King Thorax’s Rule number 3: Never spoil another creature’s love,’” Smolder continued to argue.

“Dudes…”

“Silverstream needed to tell Gallus herself like you needed to tell me, so please be happy that now they both know.”

“Dudes!" Sandbar finally got everyone's attention, and the argument stopped. "Is Silverstream okay?”

Everyone stopped to see Silverstream had not moved a muscle. A concerned Yona gave a gentle poke, hoping for signs of life.

“He said he loved me too…” whispered Silverstream.

A grin emerged from behind her talons, drawing caution from her friends.

“Yona thinks friends need to run.”

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE"

“I guess I got a little excited.” Silverstream excused nervously, not wanting to divulge the screeching of joy and dangerous flying she did around Ponyville.

“Uh-huh”

“Speaking of, before the train left, I recall you saying, “I love you too”. Is that true?”

Gallus’ heart stopped again…

“What is?”

“Do you love me too?”

Author's Note

Sorry about the long delay. Most of my time was spent adjusting to a new work routine.

Please do not fret; I'm already halfway through writing the next chapter!

Last Night on Mount Aris Part 2

“Do you love me too?”

That was the question Silverstream asked Gallus. Everything else was silent. When he felt his heart start beating again, Gallus could think of an answer. It was true. He did say “love you too” back that winter, but he wasn’t thinking when he responded to what he heard.

But that was months ago; things have changed since then. After taking a deep breath, Gallus looked Silverstream in her glistening eyes. “To tell the truth, I wasn’t really thinking at the time either, but… not getting your letters for the last few months, I realised how much you meant to me.”

Gallus then remembered and quickly went into his room to grab the stack of envelopes he had brought to show Silverstream. Some in his stack were torn open from the top, with the letters safely inside them. Others remained sealed, just as he promised her. “I missed how you wrote, how you were doing, our friends, what you thought about me. You made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”

Silverstream smiled, pleased to see he kept each letter she sent. She pulled out and revealed a stack of envelopes to Gallus, some visibly opened and some not. Still, each Gallus recognised as being written by himself. “Me too.”

It filled Gallus with content that Silverstream kept all the letters he wrote, as he had with all of hers. He even found it sweet that she kept them safely stored under her wings, like how he’d sneak in letters through the Academy.

As he sat back down, he noticed again how both their piles of envelopes had some unopened. “Why didn’t you want me to open these?” he asked curiously.

That was when Silverstream’s smile faded. “Well, remember how you wrote to me saying you wanted to meet up in Canterlot?” she said before her eyes narrowed and her voice deepened. “Then I went to Canterlot, and you didn’t?”

That was the moment Gallus was dreading, Silverstream staring daggers at him. “Yeah, Smolder filled me in on that,” he timidly answered, rubbing the area of his shoulder where the young orange dragon punched him. He lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you in Canterlot, but it’s not entirely my fault that that postal worker took the letter that said you were gonna be there…”

“I know, doesn’t change the fact I was upset… that after finally saying what I feel, I felt humiliated…” she huddled up into a ball on the sofa, her voice started to break as she continued. “Doesn’t change the fact that I got mad not knowing why you didn’t show up or write back to me,” she confessed. “I didn’t want to blame you, but I didn’t know what happened until Yona got that letter.”

Her eyes widened.“I was worried if you read my letters now, you wouldn’t want to be friends anymore.”

Gallus looked down at the envelopes in his claws, shuffling through them. He couldn’t tell which of the unopened envelopes was which, but it was clear one of them was written when she was sad, but the others she was mad at him.

His lower break quivered. He appreciated the honesty, but he also felt concerned. The pair had been writing to each other without delay for several months, but the moment there was no response, she assumed the worst. Who knows how long he was hated before he managed to tell her and everyone else the truth.

But he turned to see Silverstream, still huddled in her ball, crying but trying to hide it. It was clear she didn’t want to hate him; she didn’t want to blame him. It made him feel like he wasn’t the only one who made a mistake.

He held the unopened letters in front of Silverstream at her eye level. She looked at them before turning to Gallus and revealing her watery eyes. “Forget about these ones”, he said, “I’d rather read the letters you write when you’re happy.”

She smiled and wiped away her tears. “I’ll find the time to write some more.” She took the envelopes from Gallus’s claws and put them aside before looking down at her pile of envelopes. She picked through the unopened ones. “Do you want any of yours back?” she offered, holding them before him. “It’s only fair I’d give you a chance before I’d read something you regret writing.”

“Actually, now you mention it, I put a photo of me in one of those envelopes…”

Gallus reached over to the envelopes, but Silverstream’s ears launched upwards when he mentioned a photo of him. “There is?!” she exclaimed, pulling the envelopes away and growing a wide shimmering grin with glee. As she hurriedly held up the envelopes to the ceiling light, she shifted through each one by one until she discovered one with a noticeable dark spot that most likely held more than a single sheet of paper inside. “Oh, I’m keeping that one!”

“Wait, what?!” A shocked Gallus tried to reach for the envelope in vain to take it back, but Silverstream managed to hold him back and keep it beyond arm’s length, giggling the whole time. “You said it’s “only fair” to have mine back!”

The cheeky hippogriff stuck her tongue out. “I said it for writing, not taking pictures”, she quipped. “Besides, I bet your friends saw the photo I gave you.”

There was a brief hesitation; Gallus remembered his friends snatching the photo of her when they were on the train together. “Maybe?” The hesitation was short-lived as he went back into trying to grab the envelope back before Silverstream opened it and witnessed the photo of him dressed in a fancy military uniform. He didn’t want to think of the untold things Silverstream would do with that.

Suddenly, the pair lost their balance and fell over in the ensuing struggle. Silverstream landed on the sofa on her back across the cushions, her head barely missing an armrest. Meanwhile, Gallus was on top of her, his outstretched arms and his knees digging into the cushions, the only parts holding him up to avoid pressing into Silverstream.

Exhausted, their eyes locked, beaks inches from each other. Each could feel a spark ignite and a warming glow. All the unease had drifted away then, and a sense of comfort took place. They were alone, yet together and close together. They were motionless, yet they felt like they were floating in space, being pulled closer and closer and…

“BLARGH!”

Meanwhile, Nicknames wasn’t doing so well, even after spewing out the contents of his stomach into the thorny bush he crashed into. On top of his dizziness, he felt pins and needles across his body and his wings limp. “Ugh, I shouldn’t have tried flying,” he lamented regretfully.

He tried to walk away from wherever he had landed, but every step forward veered to his left. Every step back shifted him right, and the directions would reverse on every other step. He couldn’t tell what part of the island he was on. He could hear flowing water, but the ground was neither sand nor stone, so he couldn’t be near the coast.

There was another sound he could hear, a calm and soothing hum. Its pitch changed ever so slightly, as did its direction. It gave the sound of a gentle and slowly evolving melody. If Nicknames was in heaven, he wondered why it was so dark and why he was walking on grass instead of fluffy clouds.

“Hey!”

Nicknames’ ears perked, and somepony else was nearby. He looked up and saw the silhouette of a creature with wings making a descent. Could this be an angel?

“There you are,” Scythe said in relief as he landed on the grassy surface. Clearly not an angel.

“Where am I?”

“Harmonising Heights, by the sounds of it. You look rough,” he remarked, seeing the dirt, grazes, the vomit drooling off his lips and how crooked both his mane and wings were.

Disappointed, Nicknames leered. “I’m fine…” he pouted. He could only assume that either Scythe came to find him because he had to or to criticise Nicknames further. As such, he tried to walk away from him.

Yet Scythe persisted and flew in front of him. “You’re not. Sit down,” he advised calmly.

“I said I’m fi- “

“You’re drunk, hit the ground hard, and I can see you’ve thrown up,” Scythe asserted, boring his eyes into Nicknames’. “Sit. Down.”

Learning from moments ago, Nicknames sat down, his flank creating a loud thud onto the grassy floor.

Scythe then began to move around him, prodding him around his body. His arms, his sides, his wings, his head. “You feel that?” he asked each time, but Nicknames gave nothing but a small groan.

Scythe figured Nicknames still had feeling in most parts of his body. Whilst standing behind, Scythe tried to poke his ear as one last test. Each time his hoof touched the ear, it flicked his hoof away, an automatic response. Scythe sighed in relief, figuring Nicknames’ psychological responses worked fine.

“Does this hurt?”

“No…”

No obvious pain. Scythe reached into his satchel, pulled out the flask of salmon juice that he picked up at the apartment and placed himself directly in front of his fellow pony.

“See this?” he asked, holding the flask to Nicknames’ face.

Furrowing his brow, Nicknames could see the flask in front of him. He wasn’t sure why Scythe was slowly moving the flask from side to side, but his eyes were indeed following it.

“Yeah?”

“Good, you need to drink this.”

“It’s not a ‘ghost drink’, is it?” Nicknames asked cautiously.

“Ghost drink?” Scythe tilted his head to one side.

“You know, it looks like nothing, smells like nothing, but drink it, and you’ll get drunk in seconds.”

“You mean Spirits?” Scythe noticed Nicknames glaring and assumed there was a joke. But to Scythe, this wasn’t a joking matter; he knew Nicknames needed to be hydrated, or he would get worse. “This is salmon juice. It’s safe. Drink it.”

Not wanting to start another argument, Nicknames grabbed the flask, held it up, and drank it all. He could taste the salmon juice instantly. It was lightly cold but left a pleasant palate down his gullet. In a matter of seconds, Nicknames could notice his vision started to clear, and his head felt lighter.

“Better?” Nicknames nodded. “Good, I also have a carrot burger in here. It’s probably cold, but your system also needs food.”

Nicknames raised an eyebrow. “How did you become such a medical expert?” He was perplexed at how detailed Scythe was being just checking on him.

“We learned first aid in the Academy and Junior Cadets, remember?” Scythe replied.

“I remember classes on treating stab wounds and broken bones, but not anything about handling drunk ponies.”

Scythe paused; he hoped Nicknames’ memory was fuzzy enough not to catch him out. “My mum was in the Medic Corps, army doctor,” he answered.

A bulb lit up above Nicknames’ head. “Oh yeah, military family,” he remarked, recalling a discussion they all had during Exercise Self-Reliance back in the first term of the Academy.

Scythe continued. “I watched her care for my older brother when he celebrated too hard at his graduation party years ago,” he admitted. “She was mad at him because he nearly got in trouble and hurt himself. It’s why I don’t drink myself, in case I get carried away too.”

As Scythe sat beside him, Nicknames looked down at the empty flask. He knew he got carried away. He looked at the scratches along his arms because he was selfish, even to the one pony who went out of his way to help him. “I really am a careless, stupid jerk…” he somberly accepted.

“Nick, I didn’t mean- “

“‘Hey, see that pony over there, speaking gobbledygook to his book? Yeah, that’s Mumbles. Stay away unless you want to be weird like him,’” Nicknames blurted out in a mock imitation of another Junior Cadet. “That’s what the other ponies said about you, and I believed them. I thought they’d be my friends. Except none of them were after junior cadets were over. Even Wind Breaker hasn’t written back to me since he D.O.R’d ages ago.”

Scythe remembered Wind Breaker, the Manehatten Pegasus that quit the Academy after four weeks. Both he and Nicknames shared a dorm together. Nicknames wasn’t happy that he left but was surprised they stopped talking.

Nicknames continued. “Now here I am, and the only ponies who put up with me all think I’m stupid,” he threw the flask on the ground in frustration.

“They don’t think that.”

“Course they do. They all know better. Dusty was in the Wonderbolt Academy, Steppin’ Time has a University degree, Bluebird has his wit and street smarts, and you… well, you know all the answers, even back at the Junior Cadets. Remember the name of that tightass drill sergeant?”

It didn’t take Scythe to guess the name. “Bullhorn…” Sergeant Bullhorn was a strict pegasus who lacked restraint even when working with teenagers. He recalled how, before break time, he’d make the cadets line up and pick a pony at random to ask a question based on a lesson that day. If the pony got it wrong, every pony had to do sit-ups.

“That’s the one,” Nicknames said. “I remember when Sergeant Bullhorn would make us all stand in a line to do that stupid question game of his? He asked: ‘What’s the sixth general order of an E.U.P. Guard?’ and you knew the answer right away.”

Putting aside the gravelly impersonation of the Sergeant, the story made Scythe curious. “I did?” he queried, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’d see you mumble it in the corner of my eye”, Nicknames pointed out, which only caused Scythe to lower his head in embarrassment. “So, I gave you a whack of the flank to get Sergeant Bullhorn’s attention. He’d say, “Scythe, answer the question or start doing wing-ups!” and you say…”

“The sixth general order is to receive, obey, and pass on to the sentry who relieves me all orders from the commanding officer, command duty officer, officer of the day, officer of the deck, and officers and petty officers of the watch only.”

Scythe recited the answer exactly how he would have said it back in the Junior Cadets. “See! You still know it,” Nicknames acknowledged, although he left out how Scythe's voice would have trembled at the time.

“I remember. I thought you only did that so other ponies would make fun of me.”

“Nah, I just wanted Bullhorn to let us go and have a break. It was easier to make the smart ponies give the answers,” Nicknames admitted with an awkward laugh before shifting to a bitter grumble. “Probably why that tightass caught on to it. No idea how ponies like you could remember all those answers.”

Scythe thought for a moment. He was tempted to shrug, but he remembered already telling Nicknames about why he reads books the way he does. “Languages were what helped me”, he began to explain. “I used to write down things and work out how to say it in another language. I studied enough to say whole sentences in most pony ones.”

This made Nicknames curious. “Like what? If Bullhorn told you to give the answer in… I don’t know, Espoñol?”

“La sexta orden general es recibir, obedecer y pasar al centinela que me releve todas las órdenes sólo del oficial al mando, del oficial de servicio al mando, del oficial de día, del oficial de cubierta y tanto de los oficiales como de los suboficiales de la guardia...” Scythe didn’t even skip a beat when he nonchalantly recited the sixth general order in Sponish. He turned to see Nicknames’ widened eyes and gave a casual salute. “Señor.”

“Woah, that’s freaking cool.”

Scythe didn’t expect that reaction.

“Is it?”

“Yeah, you really know your lingo,” said Nicknames, giving Scythe a friendly light punch in the arm. “That’s a talent, right there.”

“I figured you’d find it weird.”

“Why would I think that?”

Scythe’s eyes narrowed. “You thought taking Prench classes at school was boring, useless, and those who could recite stuff in Prench were weird.” He felt Nicknames needed another reminder of what he had been saying at the Academy.

Nicknames gave a nervous chuckle. He did remember. “Honestly, I only said that ‘cause it’s easier than saying I sucked at school,” he admitted as his excuse. “Kept getting bad grades. Mom said I’d be pulling levers at a weather factory for the rest of my life unless I did something about it.”

“So, your mom is why you got into the Royal Guard Academy?”

“Not exactly”, Nicknames replied, scratching his head again. “Don’t laugh, but I first applied to Cloudsdale University in Engineering…” Outside the Harmonising Heights' rhythmic hums, there was an odd silence. Nicknames furrowed his brow as he saw Scythe with an incredibly neutral, humourless expression.

“You’re not laughing.”

“You told me not to.”

Feeling sheepish, Nicknames continued. “Yeah, I didn’t like reading books on engineering, so I didn’t get in. But I liked reading comic books about soldiers fighting battles, using big cool weapons to fight bad guys. It reminded me why I wanted to attend Junior Cadets, so I applied for the Royal Guard Academy and barely passed the entrance exam.”

Realisation dawned on Scythe, “Ah, you can go into the Royal Armoured Brigade,” he figured it out. It made sense with how much Nicknames liked the cannons on the Navy ship, given they were more accurate than the ones in the comic books Scythe had seen him read from time to time.

But Nicknames had a disappointed look on his face. “Nah, I didn’t put them down as a choice. It’s an earth pony regiment, after all,” he grumbled with his arms folded. “How would any pony expect a stupid, careless jerk like me to handle heavy weapons?”

Knowing that their friend is a griffon who wants to be a Canterlot Royal Guard, Scythe wasn’t sure if Nicknames didn’t see Gallus as a griffon or was so discouraged he didn’t think the logic could apply to him. He could point it out but had a better idea to change his mind.

“Hey Nick, how did you figure out how far the cannonball fired out of the cannon?”

Nickname raised his head, thinking, what on earth was Scythe talking about? “You mean on the Navy ship?” he asked, and Scythe nodded. “I guessed?” Unsure of what Scythe was playing at, he shrugged.

“I mean, that gunner Sonicboom told me the weight of the round and the amount of gunpowder in the chamber. From that, I knew the force being pushed against the round when the cannon goes bang, meaning I knew the speed. Combined with gravity, I figured a 16-kilo stone cannonball would go one and a half miles before it hit the water. Even then, I could have been off since the cannon was above the water, and I didn’t know what the wind was like outside that gunnery room.”

After he finished talking, he noticed something weird in the corner of his eye. Scythe was smiling, hiding it poorly behind his hoof. Nicknames was concerned by the rare sight. “What? Why are you smiling at me like that?”

Scythe put his hoof down. “You’re not stupid,” he stated, raised and as clearly as he could. “You know more about heavy weapons than most ponies. It’s a good start for the Royal Armoured Brigade.”

While unsure at first, Nicknames slowly realised Scythe was right. He may have struggled at subjects he didn’t like, but when it came to weapons, they were as clear and detailed to him as the pages of a book. All this time, he felt the one pony that understood him was one he’d long pass off as a quiet, timid weirdo. “Heh, now I wish we talked like this ages ago,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, me too,” Scythe replied, wishing he had friends like Nicknames years ago. He probably wouldn’t have been bullied.

Empathising, Nicknames put an arm around Scythe’s shoulder and pulled him in. “Look, I’m sorry about picking on you and stuff,” he said sincerely. “Maybe from now on I could help you out if other ponies are being a problem, and maybe you could help me be not stupid?” he then held up his other hoof towards Scythe, inviting him to bump it. “Friends?”

Scythe bit his lip at first. He wasn’t sure if Nicknames was serious. It’s not like Nicknames was this nice before. But then again, after their talk, he figured Nicknames would benefit from helping Scythe out. He’d probably have to share his secret with him at some point, but that could wait. “Friends,” Scythe answered, bumping Nicknames’ hoof.

The two continued to sit in the grass, taking in the melodic harmony of the heights while stars glistened in the night sky. Two stars appeared to move, with dark-winged figures following them. Both winged figures swooped down and landed hard on the grass.

Scythe’s eyes went wide as he recognised both from the dark; those “stars” were torches, and the two figures were pegasus ponies.

“There you are!” exclaimed Lightning Dust, her face creased with anger after spending hours flying around the island's peak. Pound Sterling was beside her, staring daggers at Nicknames for making her look around every tree in Hippogriffia.

Nicknames felt his heart stop and sweat pour down his head. He thought he was about to get killed by two angry mares if he didn’t say the right thing. “Oh, hey Lightning Dust, Pound Sterling, sorry I wandered off,” he said with a slight wave and a shaky smile.

“Oh, you better be sorry! We’ve been looking…” Suddenly, Lighting Dust stopped, and her jaw hung open. Something didn’t feel right that just caught up with her. “Wait… what did you call us?”

“Your names?” Nicknames answered nervously, but then he paused and tilted his head with doubt. “Those are your names, right?”

The two mares looked at each other, confused at what they heard from Nicknames. “Yeah, they are.” Neither had heard Nicknames refer to them by their real names, let alone anything other than the same nicknames they were used to hearing from him.

They also knew something else was amiss, given the rough state he appeared to be in. He tried to stand up from his seated position but tilted so far to one side that he almost stumbled into the nearby stream had Scythe not caught him. “I really need to head back to that apartment and sleep,” said Nicknames, aware of how tipsy and exhausted he was.

“Hey, if you want to have fun tonight, though, there’s a cool club down the coast,” he then recommended to the two mares, pointing towards the flashing lighthouse at the edge of the coastline, “just be nice to the manager because she’s not had a good evening so far.”

First, he was polite, then offered his friends a good night out to make up for it. Both Lighting Dust and Pound Sterling weren’t sure if Scythe was standing by an imposter. Still, they couldn’t pass on a chance to party on the final evening. “Uh, sure. Guess you’ll carry him home, Mumbles?”

Scythe was about to answer, albeit timidly. But Nicknames had another lightbulb shine above him. “Oh yeah! That reminds me. Scythe, Mumbles is a dumb nickname for you,” stated Nicknames, giving Scythe a gentle prod. “You need something better.”

He then pulled Scythe in and hosted him with his forehooves dangling on the ground as he pitched the new nickname. “Here me out, how about Lingo!” He tried to give the name some pizazz with a smooth voice, spanning a hoof across the stars like a grand reveal. All he got instead was a confuzzled audience. “Since you know all the lingo, ‘cause it’s in that big head of yours,” he complained, unfazed as he ruffled Scythe’s mane.

Scythe couldn’t help but laugh. “That sounds corny. I like it...” he confessed. It was weird, not very cool, but no one in the pony military gets a cool nickname, and at least he felt more like a Lingo than a Mumbles.

“Alreet?” Pound Sterling still couldn’t wrap her head around what she was seeing, but there was that fantastic plan that Nicknames and Lightning Dust brought up. “Uz two are gonna check out this club. See you an’ Lingo tomorrah mornin’, ah guess.”

Nicknames gave a nod and a wonky salute. “Goodnight, ladies~” both he and Scythe walked out through the entrance of the Harmonizing Heights.

Both Sterling and Dust continued to watch until the other two were no longer in sight, still puzzled at Nicknames’ sudden change in behaviour.

“What the hay was that about?”

“‘Ow should I know? Maybe Nick was ‘napped an’ replaced with a nicer pony?

Later the following morning, everyone, along with Gallus and Silverstream, was at the train station. Each of them was up and awake, although Nicknames had a bad headache, not to mention the aches and pains, needing both of his wings bandaged from the crash and burnout last night.

The station platform was virtually empty, which made the experience calm and peaceful. It also made an opportune moment for Silverstream to hear many fun stories at the Royal Guard Academy. From their tough sergeant to the obstacle course, flying through thunderstorms, wandering onto an acorn orchard, and even meeting Gallus’ “sisters” Gabby and Gilda.

In the distance, a single train approached the station, cutting through the low tide and making waves on either side. “There it is,” Silverstream remarked as the train stopped and opened its carriage doors. “Hope you tell all your friends how amazing Mount Aris and Seaquestria are!”

She held her gleeful grin as she turned to Gallus. “As for you, I want to read every update about what you and your buddies get up to,” she said, pressing a talon on his beak and sticking her tongue out. “That’s an order.”

“Got it,” Gallus replied. He was glad he had a chance to make amends. He had an idea of what he could write once he returned to the Academy and had a few ways of sending it to her just in case.

“It was great to see you,” said Scythe politely.

“Aw, it was great to see you too. Have a safe journey back~” Silverstream glowed as she waved them goodbye. The gang all made their way through the carriage door to get on. Suddenly, Silverstream had a smirk on her face and quickly grabbed Gallus’ arm with both sets of claws. “Oh! Gally! Next time I see you, I want you to do something…” she told him.

Gallus tilted his head. “What?” He didn’t expect what happened next.

Suddenly, he was pulled in closer and felt Silverstream’s beak pushed right into his cheek. A wave of heat spread from the epicentre of contact across his entire head. His heart pounded at double speed, his wings extended to a whole span, and his eyes froze wide in surprise.

After sneaking Gallus a kiss, Silverstream pulled him closer to where her beak was right next to his ear. “Wear your uniform,” she whispered softly and intently.

Gallus was so flustered and mind-broken that he could barely get the words out, let alone construct them into a complete sentence. “Uh, s-sure yeah okay…” Silverstream giggled, finding his reaction cute.

His military friends also found it cute but in a slightly different way. “AWWWW!” Sterling and Dust exclaimed sardonically, their hooves pressed between their cheeks. They couldn’t wait to take the opportunity to embarrass their griffon comrade.

“Poor Bluebird. Jammi sodd, feeling mithered by his luvbird’s kissers.”

“You miss your bird already, don’t you? You sweetheart…”

As the two mares helped carry Gallus onto the train, Scythe was being nudged. He noticed that Nicknames was giving him a smirk, by which Scythe furrowed his brow in response. Then, it dawned on him, the bet. He sighed frustratedly, “Okay, you win,” he conceded. Silverstream did kiss Gallus, and it was just before they were about to leave.

“You bet I did!” Nicknames celebrated, pumping a hoof into the sky. “Well, Lingo, we shook on fifty bits. How soon can you pay me?”

That was when Scythe revealed a smirk of his own. “About that, remember how I paid that club your tab so you could leave?” he asked Nicknames rhetorically.

Nicknames tilted his head. “Kinda?” he was left confused and, for some reason, a little concerned.

Then Scythe followed up with another question.

“Guess how many bits were in the bag I gave them?”

Nicknames paused for thought; he vaguely recalled the bag being hefty with several coins rolling out, but he never counted them. But the answer dawned on him when the wires connected in his brain.

“Oh Twilight…”

Several days had passed, and the Royal Guard Academy’s final term had begun. Ponies were preparing to give presentations about their adventures over the spring break for the Academy Adventure Award.

Gallus and his friends were on the stage of a lecture hall. They had decorated it with souvenirs from their time at Mount Aris and Seaquestria, including the sizable homemade country flag that Pound Sterling had bought.

The group insisted Gallus do all the talking. At the same time, three company commanders acted as judges, watching from the front row of the audience seats. Pound Sterling controlled the slides, each containing relevant photos she had taken.

“Afternoon, staff of the Royal Guard Academy. We are here as part of Larson Company First Wings to present our Adventure to the Hippogriff Isles and Seaquestria. We had chosen this location for two reasons: ponies hardly visit it, yet they’re one of Equestria’s valued allies. As such, it was a good opportunity for us to explore and understand their culture.”

So far, so good, Gallus thought. The judges wrote down their notes and listened intently. He could hear Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling whisper and snicker, but nothing suspicious. He continued.

“During our time there, we explored the grand mountains of two of their four main islands, Mount Aris and Ludo Isle. We visited the markets and took in their festivities. We swam down the deepest depths of Seaquestria, where the coral reefs showed a peaceful atmosphere, and the caverns held a vibrant nightlife.”

He quickly glanced back; the slides showed impressive scenic photos. Some even showed the squad as sea ponies. He also saw Lighting Dust and Nicknames holding their muzzles as if to refrain from laughter. Gallus continued.

“The main part of our adventure was a rare opportunity to sail and work alongside a crew of a ship of the Royal Hippogriff Navy. We learned some basic tasks, rubbed shoulders with the Navygriffs on the three-day journey, and learned what it takes to defend a vast ocean. Ultimately, we had a once-in-a-lifetime experience with amazing sites and lots of fun, and the scenery change helped us better understand ourselves. We think any pony seeking adventure should visit these islands.”

As he concluded, he noticed the judge’s expressions had all changed. One was confused, another bemused, and the last hid his face behind his notepad. Gallus tried his best to hold a confident smile, hoping one of them would acknowledge that the presentation was over.

The bemused judge then cleared her throat. “Um… yes. That was a fascinating lecture,” she complimented. “Am I right to assume you got along well with the Hippogriffs and Seaponies on your adventure?”

The griffon sighed with relief, “Yes, ma’am, we did our best to leave a good impression on the locals whenever and wherever we were.” He answered calmly and proudly.

“I see. Judging by the photo, it seems you left a very good impression on the hippogriffs.”

In response to the bemused judge’s remark, Gallus raised a curious eyebrow. He turned around, and what he saw left him in horror. Up on the lecture screen was a massive projection of the moment Silverstream gave him a kiss on the cheek, highlighting his flushed and stunned reaction, one that left him unaware that Pound Sterling caught the moment on camera.

That was when all of his friends in front of him burst out laughing. Looks like he could not hide the fact anymore.

Author's Note

Imagine this pic having Mount Aris in the background (artwork by ConfettiCakez)

Finally, this Mount Aris arc is complete! I'll need to start writing about the last term at the Royal Guard Academy. 😉

Learn their own way

Nicknames was needed in the Platoon Commander’s office. He galloped briskly; this was the second time he went to see Captain Westland in less than a week since term started. While he hoped the urgent request was for good news, given his past behaviour, he couldn’t avoid the prospect of being in trouble somehow.

As he made it to the office, he knocked on the door, wiped away any sweat he gained, and was called in. He promptly entered, stopping shy of the captain’s desk and saluting for formality.

“Good morning, Nick.” Captain Westland had her stonewall expression but with relaxed open eyes and a raised intonation in her opening. A subtle hint that it wasn’t detrimental. “I’ve called you here because you wanted to change your choices, so the Royal Armoured Brigade was your priority,” she explained. “I assume that’s still the case.”

Finally, Nicknames could stand at ease. He wasn’t in trouble. “Yes, ma’am”, he answered confidently. He had to be.

Westland simpered. “Well, telling me on the first day back was one of your smart moves,” she remarked. “I talked to Captain Heavy Fire yesterday. He runs the advanced weapons module and might have a last-minute spot for you.” Nicknames started to grin, an entire module that’d get him one hoof closer to his dream unit. “You’ll just need to meet him before we can confirm it. His office is in the Fullerton block. See him after your last class today, don’t be late.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he glowed at the thought that he was one hoof closer to his dream unit. Then, the rest of Westland’s comment caught up to him. “Uh, what’s the meeting for?”

“Captain Heavy Fire knows his students from last term. He’d most likely want to talk things over with you directly,” she clarified. “He might ask about your knowledge of weapons, which, given your time firing cannonballs with the Hippogriff’s navy, shouldn’t be a problem for you.” She then hunched over her desk, resting her elbows and pressing her hooves together as she stared deeply at Nicknames. “Just try to take this a little seriously. If you don’t get in now, then it’s either your original choices or deferment,” she said as a calm warning. “Anything else?”

“No, ma’am.” Nicknames hesitated slightly, and the warning tone hung onto him. “Thank you, ma’am.” Westland then rested her head and smiled, partly out of being appreciated and partly out of knowing her warning had set in.

“You’re welcome, dismissed.”

Upon finishing his Buckball training at the gym, Nicknames quickly washed himself off. They began his study hour at the Brigadier Inkwell Library, taking a comic book from his room.

The library was small, the size of two classrooms. Still, all four walls were covered with shelves as high as the ceiling containing books on wars, battles, officers, soldiers, and, most importantly, weapons. Nicknames grabbed the thickest books on military weapons to refresh for his meeting with Captain Heavy Fire.

If he were to take this meeting seriously, as Westland warned him, he would need to prepare to show that he knows about all the weapons and is interested in learning about them.

He dropped a stack of books on the nearest table, where they made a heavy thud, and sat beside them. “Okay, Nick,” he spoke to himself with a firm whisper, rubbing his hooves with readiness. You know these weapons; you just need to jog your memory on them.” After his self-pep talk, he picked up the first book and began to read.

A few minutes later, and not too far away, Gallus was reading a new letter from Silverstream. He was smiling, partially because he got the letter directly, assuring that the whole letter fiasco was in the past, but mostly for how it was written with the same cheerfulness that he adored her for.

Hey Gally, <3

I hope your first week back at the Academy is going okay. I imagine the final term has a lot of pressure coming with it, but I’ve seen you handle much worse.

I’ve let the others know about my “Royal duties.” The news is kind of sad, but they’re understanding and supportive. Ocellus thinks maybe I should convince Aunt Novo that I should do my duties here in Equestria, but I’m not sure how.

We’ll figure something out. Hope your friends are there to help when you need it; maybe they need your help sometimes. Be sure to write back ASAP if you get this; we don’t want to hear what happened last term.

Love you!

Silverstream <3

His engagement to her writing almost made him miss Scythetrotting past in corner of his eye. He hastily hid the letter in the underside of his wing and hurried himself until he was walking with Scythe side by side. “Hey Scythe! What are you up to?” he asked, hiding his sudden urge to catch his breath.

“Oh hey, Gallus. I’m just heading to the library.” Scythe answered, “Looking for a book on the Battle of Foalkirk, I’m thinking of making that the subject of my War Studies history report.”

“Oh yeah, I need to think of one, too,” Gallus remembered that one of the assignments for the final term was on the history of a particular battle or war. It had to be about how it was carried out in a leadership role, what went right, what went wrong, and what would have been done differently.

“Any that come to mind?” Scythe asked Gallus. He knew about many wars and battles, so it was his way of offering help.

As grateful as he was, Gallus already had a mental list of battles he remembered from the War Studies lectures. However, narrowing it down to one he’d be into writing about was the challenge. “I’ve crossed out ones that involve dragons, yaks, and changelings…” Gallus admitted with a grumble. He’d imagine Smolder, Yona, and Ocellus not being happy if he had to write a report that made them look bad.

“Doesn’t help that the ones taught in class are the ones ponies have won.”

Scythe paused to think. A lack of wars and battles that had nothing to do with ponies was discussed. Given the Academy had been entirely taught by ponies for ponies, there clearly was more favour for ponies being the heroes. Given his own family history, plenty would fit that category. He pondered, what kind of war or battle would a griffon be interested in writing about?

Then, a spark of realisation ignited. “Maybe there’s a war that griffons fought in? I’m sure that’d make a good report,” he suggested. It sounded apparent once said out loud.

That realisation transferred to Gallus quickly. “Could you do it if there are any books on them?” After all his years doing classes based on pony stuff, he didn’t think he could do griffon stuff. “Maybe I could write mine on…” his trail of thought cut short as they entered the library.

He noticed a light blue pony with a jagged manecut inside the library at a table, surrounded by books. Still, instead of reading, it looked like he was sleeping with his face planted firmly in an open book. He quickly stopped Scythe from stepping further, as the pony seemed awfully familiar. “Is that Nicknames over there?”

Once he stopped to look at what Gallus was pointing at, Scythe recognised Nicknames immediately. He raised an eyebrow. He’d never seen Nicknames in the library before, and why was he asleep?

The two approached Nicknames from either side to investigate what he was doing. “Nicknames, is that you?” Gallus prodded the pegasus.

“Uuuuuuugh….” A muffled groan was the only response, so he was alive at least, but something was up.

“You okay, buddy?” Scythe attempted to get Nicknames to move by pushing around his shoulders.

“Words…” Nicknames moaned as he pushed his head up from the book. He was dazed. His eyes swirled around like spirals. “So many words…” his head fell back into the book.

Gallus and Scythe looked at each other with concern; whatever was up with Nicknames, he looked like he was struggling. “Do you need help?” asked Gallus.

Once they understood the situation, Gallus and Scythe got to work trying to help Nicknames study for his meeting with Captain Heavy Fire. Scythe picked up one of the books and scanned it for information that made sense.

Meanwhile, Gallus got some cards and drew weapons on them based on the few illustrations he could find, using Scythe's notes to quiz Nicknames.

“Okay, what’s this?”

Nicknames recognised the weapon immediately from the crudely shaped barrel and carriage. “A cannon, duh,” he answered quickly.

“Good, what does it use for ammunition?”

There was a pause. Nicknames’ rubbed his chin. “Cannonballs,” he eventually answered.

“And what chemical does it need to fire cannonballs?”

There was another pause. Nicknames was thinking, and thinking… “It uh… it needs…” and thinking… He pounded his head with both hooves as he fought his mind to find the answer.

“You couldn’t stop talking about cannons a few weeks ago,” Gallus pointed out, trying to encourage him. “You know this.”

“Uhhhh… magic dust?”

Gallus shook his head. “Gunpowder. Cannons need gunpowder.” Nicknames got it wrong. His head became so heavy he fell face-first into the table.

“I’m gonna fail…” he groaned.

His two friends looked on concerningly as they realised studying was not simple. “He’s burned out,” Gallus observed in a whisper. Scythe nodded in agreement. Are you sure you must memorise every weapon in a book before this meeting?”

“I dunno, maybe? I mean, it’s the advanced weaponry module. Who knows what Captain Heavy Fire will ask me…” He raised a good point because he needed to take this seriously. Scythe recalled Nicknames Drunkard talking about failing to enrol at universities and barely passing the Academy’s entrance exam. “Lingo, how do you get good at reading those books?”

The question made Scythe jump; he was still getting used to being called Lingo. He glanced down to see the open book in front of him. In the few minutes they had been at the table, he was already twenty pages in, and it was a pretty verbose textbook. “Practice?” he guessed. “I’ve been reading books since I was a foal, and I always got new ones whenever my dad came home from work. Guess it’s easy for me to pick one up.”

“I wish they were as easy as comic books for me,” said Nicknames in a dour mood, “you’d probably pass this test like a breeze.”

“I… wouldn’t be so sure,” Scythe tried to reassure Nicknames with some humility. “Gallus had to push me into speaking with Major Babel to do language classes, and I didn’t know what to say.”

Gallus took a second to realise what Scythe was doing. He recalled the day he dragged Scythe to Major Babel’s office to get him the private tutoring he wanted. “Oh yeah, he could hardly open his mouth for most of it, but he got through in the end”, he chuckled. “Look, you’ve got time to prepare, so we’ll figure something out so you’re ready in no time.”

The pep talk started to work. Nicknames held himself back up, smiled, and started reading one of the weapons books. Things began to look up.

“Ay Bluebird, Lingo, Nicknames!” Suddenly, a loud, thick-accented call emerged. The three turned around to see a wide-grinned Pound Sterling poke her head out from the library entrance. “Check out wha’ ah bowt wi’ my share of th’ prize moneh!” She made her way, gleefully skipping on each step as the pegasus had something wrapped around her shoulders.

As she reached the end of the desk, she pulled out a sharp red longbow. It looked brand new as it brightly shimmered across the varnished red coating. “It’s gotta ‘undred-poun’ drawin’ weight to shoot far and an aimin’ sight for more accuracy,” she proudly showed off, pulling back on the thick black drawstring, seemingly unaware of the enclosed indoor space she was standing in, holding out a weapon.

Along with the brand-new bow, she had a black cylindrical quiver strapped to her front leg, sporting a set of long red arrows. “These arrows are steel tipped wi’ goose feather fletchins, so they’re sharpa and last a lifetime.” She apparently spent her share of the Academy Adventure Award prize well.

“Oh wow, that’s awesome.” Nicknames exclaimed.

“I know, right? This is the best thing I’ve ever bought in my life.” Pound Sterling excitedly hugged her bow like it was her child.

“Stepping Time can talk about weapons better than I can, too.”

Unfortunately, Nicknames felt his confidence drain as his head slammed back onto the table. Pound Sterling looked confused as to why, especially given Gallus and Scythe glared at her for her poorly timed celebration.

“Did ah miss summa’?”

Once Pound Sterling was explained the situation, Pound Sterling had an idea. The four of them went outside towards the far edge of the field, near the river, where a group of earth ponies were doing some rowing exercises.

As the warm afternoon breeze floated through, Nicknames and Scythe went through a book whilst Gallus and Pound Sterling took notes and drew more cards to quiz on.

“Okay, Nick, you’ve done some reading. Let’s try this again.” Gallus held up a card. “What’s this weapon?”

“A crossbow,” Nicknames guessed immediately.

“Close, think bigger.”

Nicknames furrowed his brow. “…A big crossbow?” he guessed.

“No, it’s a large siege weapon that fires bolts.”

“A… bolt thrower!”

Gallus sighed and pinched his beak. “No, it’s a Ballista”, he responded in disappointment.

“Actually, he’s right”, Scythe piped up and showed Gallus a page on the ballista. “It’s also called a Bolt Thrower, see?” Gallus saw the first sentence on the page read “Ballista” followed by “also known as a Bolt Thrower” wrapped in parenthesis. Nicknames gave a smug grin.

“You see, all Nick ‘ere needed woz ‘ome fresh air,” said Pound Sterling, who felt smug as she rested back on a nearby tree, fully relaxed. “Reminds me o' mi days at Trottin'h'm campus.”

Nicknames went back to the book to read further. “A ballista is like a crossbow, but instead of a string being held back by a pin, it uses torsion springs,” he read aloud. As he read further, his stress built up. His eyes widened, he began to sweat, and he wasn’t stopping to breathe.

“Torsion springs are subject to torque that deforms it, creating angular displacement and stress that, when released, creates a projectile force for the bolt. The greater the spring's torsional stiffness and rigidity, the stronger the force…” He stopped mid-sentence; his eyes swirled again as he lost all focus and energy.

Unsure what was so complicated, she picked up the book and looked at the page Nicknames was reading. “Oh, it twists asteead o’ pulls!” she figured out what torsion engines do instantly, not that it helped Nicknames as he collapsed and burned out for the second time.

“I’m impressed Nicknames has gotten this far, honestly.”

A new voice had emerged, a familiar mocking tone at that. Gallus, Scythe, and Pound Sterling looked around confusingly, wondering where it came from. That’s when Gallus noticed it was Lightning Dust, chilling at the top of the tree, and Pound Sterling was resting again. “Good Grover, how long have you been there?” he questioned with surprise, his feathers puffed out.

“Long enough to figure out Nicknames needs to study but can’t to save his life,” she answered as she smirked sardonically. She noticed four frowns, looking directly at her and not liking her tone. “Relax, I’ll show you the most awesome way to study, the Pegasus way.”

The squad were up in the sky, Lightning Dust doing laps around the perimeter of the field and the academy. In her mind, she was going at her usual pace, but when she whizzed past the rest of her friends the fifth time around, she figured out her friends were taking it slow.

But she could see Nicknames having no problem reading like he did a few minutes ago, so it must be working. “See, this is how you do it,” she gloated, flying in a laid-back pose. Studying outdoors is fine, but nothing gets your brain working more than multitasking!”

“One problem, though” Gallus interjected. “How is this meant to help Nicknames study on weapons?”

Lightning Dust tilted her head in confusion. “Weapons? How would I know? I’m into flying.” Gallus pinched his beak. Lightning Dust should have noted what Nicknames was studying before dragging everyone into her idea.

Meanwhile, Nicknames was having a hard time trying to read while in the air. The pages kept fluttering, and his hooves kept shaking the book around. It was almost impossible to read about a single weapon. “Trebuchet is a siege engine… long arm… leverage… launch projectiles… The projectiles… held in a sling… other end… counterweight… held up… and is released…”

“Nicknames!” Scythe called out to him. “Look out for that…!” Crash! Nicknames felt himself collide into a sea of branches and leaves. “…tree.” Nicknames ended up in a daze as he slowly and naturally slid down from the tree and back onto the grass, impressively with the book still in his hooves.

“You okay?” Scythe asked to check on him.

“I’m fine”, Nicknames answered after closing the book and shaking himself. “I think that’s enough studying today.”

“What do you mean? We’ve got 40 minutes of study hour left.”

“I know, but these books aren’t doing anything.”

As Nicknames was about to walk off, Lightning Dust swooped before him. “Hold on a minute, you’re just gonna give up, no joke?” she said as she was directly in front of him, with a bewildered look.

Pound Sterling joined her, equally surprised. “We can try something else,” she suggested.

But Nicknames moved them both aside. “No, I’m glad you wanna help me, but these books, flashcards, going outside, flying, aren’t working for me.” Everyone else felt disappointed; they all wanted to try and help, but in the end, Nicknames felt worse and defeated. “I’m heading back to the dorm.”

He made a slow, sombre walk back towards the Academy building. As everyone else looked glum, Gallus noticed Nicknames had left the books behind near the tree.

He thought someone should return them to the library, but he tilted his head. “What’s this doing here?” He noticed one book looked very different from the other.

It was a comic book with many soldiers on the cover, screaming and pointing spears in different directions. It looked worn, the paper was creased, and the colour on the front cover was faded. The page had “Issue #216” printed, higher than any copy of Sandbar’s Power Pony issues. Whatever comic book series this is, it must have been old.

The comic book title was in big red font, with sharp corners and rough marks, like a metal structure. “Sergeant Storm and his Whinnying Commandos?” he read aloud.

That was when Nicknames stopped, his head sprung up, and so did his ears. He turned his head around and looked panicked as he rushed back. “Oh, I forgot my lucky comic book!” he exclaimed, swiping the book from Gallus’ claws.

“That’s the comic book you read?”

“Yeah, every month since I was twelve.” He proudly opened the comic to a two-page spread, showing the same soldiers from the cover in the same pose, except this time there were angry-looking diamond dogs in armour giving angry looks towards them. “It’s about a squad that goes on special missions, fighting evil forces using all kinds of weapons to protect Equestria,” he explained as he pointed to the soldier above in the middle.

The pony was noticeably different. They wore an eye patch and had a rugged lower jaw. It was also the only one crazy enough to hold its spear outwards with one hoof, using the other one to point as it screamed out.

“Sgt Nick Storm is the tough, confident leader who always refers to his soldiers by goofy nicknames. You should check it out, Bluebird. There’s this cool shady eagle squadron that Storm’s squadron helps with a few times.”

Although Gallus squinted his eyes at using the term “shady” to describe an eagle military squad he was being recommended to check out, something else Nicknames said caught the attention of the other ponies.

“Wait… ’Nick Storm’, and he refers to soldiers by nicknames” Lightning Dust’s eyes widened as she connected the dots before planting a hoof into her face with frustration. “Good Celestia, that explains so much…”

“This must’ve been your inspiration then…” Scythe added with a chuckle as he figured it out as well.

Gallus noticed that Nicknames said he’d been reading issues every month since he was twelve, which means he has at least 84 issues, likely more given his passion. They felt thicker than an average Power Ponies comic book. Being a fan, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he knows these in detail and if this comic goes on about weapons…

“Hey, does this comic have Trebuchets in them?” Gallus asked, playing out as if he was curious.

“Not this one exactly,” he shook his head. The series hasn’t used one since issue 272 when Sgt Nick Storm’s squad needed to break through a giant wall to get into an evil fortress. It makes sense that they destroy it with a siege weapon that can hurl 300-kilo boulders from a mile away.” He then looked puzzled as to why his friends were looking at him funny, given that he had just answered a simple question Gallus asked him about the comic.

That’s when Gallus smirked.

“Nick, there is one more idea for you to try.”

The entire squad followed Gallus through the building until they made their way back to the library, where they had started, “Why are we back here?” Nicknames groaned, dreading the book-covered walls.

“Yeah, what’s this idea of yours…”

“Back in the School of Friendship, Professor Dash told us how she struggled to study for the Wonderbolt Academy entrance exam.” Gallus began to explain. “Her friends tried different methods, none of them worked. That’s when Headmare Twilight discovered that Professor Dash learned best while she was flying.”

“Rainbow Dash learns while flying like me?” Lightning Dash quietly realized to herself, discovering an aspect of her rival that mirrors hers.

“What’s the point of this story?” queried Nicknames assertively.

“Rainbow Dash passed her entrance exam by studying her way. You struggle to learn by OUR ways when you need to learn YOUR way.”

“And what’s my way?”

That was when Gallus made a quick dash around the library, scanning through the shelves until he found what he was looking for, hidden away in the corner. He picked up a massive stack and dropped them onto the nearest table with a sizable audible thud.

“This”

The squad was dumbfounded, a row of furrowed brows. “Comic books?” Not just that, but a massive pile of military comic books.

“You struggle reading text-heavy books, but you know what weapons look like, their names and basic descriptions from the pages of these.” Gallus continued to explain. “You even recognised weapons based on my simple drawings.”

While the rest of the squad wasn’t sure what Gallus was on about, Scythe‘s inner lightbulb went off. “Oh, he learns from pictures!” he uttered in shock.

He was correct. He nodded, rested his arm on the stack of comic books, and focused back on Nicknames. “If you put the pictures in these comics to the words, you’ll have a better shot learning them than if you were going off the words alone,” he explained as he placed his other arm on the books Nicknames struggled to read through, “and impress this Captain Heavy Fire in the process.”

Sceptical at first, Nicknames twisted his lips, but those lips curled upwards at the idea he could study while enjoying his comics. “Okay, I can give this way a try…” As he approached the stack of comic books, awe transformed his face as he recognised the front cover at the top of the pile. “Holy Twilight! No way!” he exclaimed as he grabbed it off the stack for a closer look.

“This library has an original 50th issue. ‘The Lost City of the Seahawks’”. Given its perceived scarcity and age, the cover looked no more worn than his ‘lucky comic’ issue. It showed a beachfront setting with Sgt Storm pointing in astonishment at a group of silver-coloured ‘seahawks’ with a row of cannons pointed outward. It looked eerily familiar.

Filled with excitement, Nicknames quickly sat at the table and opened the comic book. “Could you find the page on those in the books, Lingo?” he asked Scythe. There were a lot of issues to get through, and they had plenty of time to study.

His friends were on board to help.

“On it”

It was time for the meeting. Nicknames was outside the Platoon Commander’s office in the Fullerton block. He had arrived a few minutes early to ensure he wasn’t late, his mane tidy, his uniform straightened. Yet, he could still feel the bead of sweat going down his face as he paced between the sides of the corridor.

As a nearby clock showed the minute hand reaching the top, he took one deep breath in and one deep breath out. His heart soothed, his mind had the notes he had made, and he was ready.

He moved his two front hooves forward into the office. “Captain Heavy Fire, my platoon commander said you wanted to see me today, sir,” he stated firmly, making sure he stood upright and gave a solid salute—the utmost formality.

“Ah yes, Officer Cadet Moniker, come in”.

“Call me Nick, sir.”

Captain Heavy Fire was a noticeably large earth stallion. He was bald yet had a very rugged chin. His voice also had a deep accent that was as heavy as he was.

“I am told you want to join class of Advanced Weaponry, Nick” He leaned forward, his desk creaking under the weight. “Changed mind over spring break?”

“Sort of, sir,” Nicknames answered, remaining chill. “I always thought weapons were cool, and I was talked into trying out for the Royal Armoured Brigade after spending time with the Hippogriff Navy.”

Heavy Fire was intrigued. “You’ve seen their cannons, then?” Nicknames nodded, knowing he had to fire one as well. “Such beautiful barrels of engineering,” he whispered in admiration, imagining the thick iron barrels in his mind. He then remembered he had an officer cadet before him and shook himself to regain focus.

“I was Senior Officer at R.A.B. for seven years. They don’t let ponies play with weapons like toys,” he warned. “Officers must know weapons in detail to command ponies to use them to make the right decision when things go wrong. You think you could do that?”

Nicknames nodded slowly and subtly. He wasn’t sure if he was meant to say something as Heavy Fire’s eyes narrowed. He thought it would be good to demonstrate the knowledge he gained from the study hour, but he wasn’t sure of the opportunity.

Then he noticed in the corner of his eye what looked like a crossbow standing above a filing cabinet. Except he saw it didn’t look exactly like a crossbow, especially with the stand it was on. “Is that a ballista?” he guessed.

Heavy Fire turned to see the model. “Good eye, this is a replica of Mighty Helm Bolt Thrower,” he explained, taking the model off the cabinet and putting it on the desk. I use models to prepare for the real thing; this one sadly does not fire anymore.”

It was a very intricate model. Nicknames could see all the functioning parts, including the joints that made it possible to adjust angles, the drawstring used actual string instead of rope, and a tiny wheel as the winch. It reminded him of issue 127 of the Sgt Storm comics, where one of his commandos wanted to shoot at an incoming dragon with a bolt thrower. Still, it wouldn’t draw back, ready to fire.

When he tried turning the wheel, he noticed the same issue. “Oh yeah, the winch isn’t turning with the lever”, he pointed out. “It looks like it no longer bites with the spool the drawstring wraps around. You can’t tighten the drawstring back to create the necessary tension to fire the ball bearing.” Nickname explained.

Heavy Fire’s eyes widened. He knew why it was broken. Hence, he kept it in his office until he had time to replace the broken spool, but most of his students didn’t figure it out as quickly as Nicknames did. If that wasn’t an answer to whether he was capable of understanding weapons, nothing was.

“Okay, let’s get down to brass tacks.” Heavy Fire took a sheet of paper and a pen from his desk drawer. The paper had days and times and the names of rooms. He wrote down the titles of books underneath it before pushing it towards Nicknames. “Here’s the schedule for where and when Advanced Weaponry classes will be. I will add reading lists to help you catch up. In three weeks, there will be practical courses on live weapons. Pass exams, and say hello to a future in R.A.B. Do you have any questions? If not, I’ll see you next week.”

Nicknames took a moment to let what Heavy Fire explained sink in. There was a mixture of surprise and confusion at how suddenly the conversation shifted. “Wait, does that mean I’m in?” he asked as he picked up the schedule paper.

“Yes, you’ll be in class next week.” Heavy Fire nodded and folded his arms, hoping the meeting would be over. "Any more?”

Nicknames could feel a spark ignite in his chest. He got in. He wasn’t sure how, but he had an idea. “…was the bolt thrower replica the test?” he questioned.

“What test?”

“Uh, never mind. Thank you, sir.”

Nicknames hurried himself out of Captain Heavy Fire’s office, not wanting to squander his victory. He was still in disbelief as he walked down the corridor to find the rest of his buddies waiting for him. His expression didn’t give them much hope.

“That didn’t take long…” Lightning Dust remarked, noting how short the meeting went.

“How’d it go?” then asked Gallus.

Nicknames wasn’t sure at first, but when he realised the schedule paper was under his wing, signed, and everything else, he knew he hadn’t dreamt of it. He flipped it out to show it off with a massive grin.

“Nailed it!”

Relief was felt all around, with a few filled with joy. “Ay! Gran’ job, Nicki-lad!” Pound Sterling rushed up to give Nicknames a headlock and a mane ruffle. “Now you’re our weapons expert!”

“Yeah, Steppy, soon you’ll ask for his archery expertise someday.” Lightning Dust teased with an added sardonic smirk.

“Oi, watch it!”

The three laughed and played around as they returned to the dorms to rest for another day. Meanwhile, Scythe and Gallus followed behind, pleased that their efforts worked out.

“You know, I’m glad we helped him out.”

“Me too.”

“I like that story you gave about Rainbow Dash.”

“Well, that story helped motivate me to pass the entrance exam, that and a few friends.” Gallus smiled, recalling how Professor Dash taught that there was no perfect learning method and that every creature learned its own way.

It was meant to encourage students to prepare for the final exams at the School of Friendship, but Gallus found it had other uses. He had spent days in the library reading with Ocellus and Sandbar and physically training with Smolder and Yona, with Silverstream cheering him on in the background.

“I figured that support could help a creature pass anything.”

Before You Go

There was a knock at the door, three to be precise in a moderate rhythm, the sound spread through the living room of the brick and oak house.

“I’ll get it!” called out one of its residents, a young adult sea-green earth pony stallion. He wasn’t sure if he was the first or only one to hear it, but he was curious enough to find out who it could have been at the other end of the door.

A peek behind the closed curtains of the nearby window revealed it was too dark and heavy with rain to make out, and it wasn’t like they were accustomed to having guests that late on a Friday. His parents and younger sister were already upstairs, and his significant other, Yona Yak, was preoccupied in the bathroom.

Answering that door was the only way to get his answer, and so he used his jaw to turn the handle and pull the door open. On the other side was the presence of a griffon, whose cerulean feathers and furs were damp dripping with rainwater. Even while the griffon was drenched, the pony could recognise who it was immediately, his eyes gleamed with joy at the encounter of an old friend.

“Gallus!” the stallion called out with glee, quickly pulling the griffon in to wrap a hoof around his friend’s eagle-like head.

“Sandbar!” the griffon returned with an air of relief, “Mind if I come in?” Sandbar was eager to oblige, it wouldn’t feel right to keep a friend of his out in the wet and cold outdoors and entered the griffon indoors before making a quick dash towards the kitchen. “So is Yona around, last I checked she was moving in with you?” the griffon followed up as he waited patiently.

“Yeah, she moved in a few weeks ago” answered Sandbar as he returned with a towel to help Gallus dry off his feathers and fur. “She’s having a shower, so she won’t be a while. How’ve you been, dude? It’s been a while…”

Gallus gladly accepted the towel offering. “I’ve been busy, preparing for the move to Canterlot,” he described nonchalantly, his voice muffled by the towel smothering his face. “Was hoping to spend some time in Ponyville, since it’s nearby y’know, spend some time with my friends before I head out.”

Sandbar was quick to remember what Gallus was on about, he was soon to start at the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy, the prestigious institution of the E.U.P. Guard where ponies train to become officers. Knowing a chance for their group to be back together before Gallus would be off, Sandbar was eager to take the opportunity.

“Yeah, I’m totally up for that” he grinned with glee, “We can go to Silverstream’s house tomorrow, Smolder and Ocellus have already moved in, we can get the whole gang together again, they’ll love it.” They were fortunate that both of their friends not only knew each other from school, but most stayed in Ponyville. As they both sat down on the living room sofas to warm themselves up by the hot air of the fireplace, Sandbar recalled the last time the pair got to see each other. “Crazy to think the last time we did that was when we graduated from the School of Friendship, I know it’s three months ago, but it feels like it’s been ages.”

On the other hoof, Gallus didn’t see the time go so quickly. “Seriously? I still feel like three months ago that we all camped out at the Castle of the Two Sisters and got into trouble with Puckwudgies during our first week.”

The pony slyly raised an eyebrow, “Oh yeah? How long ago does it feel it’s been since we explored the caverns under the school? Or when we stopped Cozy Glow from getting rid of magic? Or built a massive clubhouse from the Tree of Harmony? Or got every creature to save the world from Cozy Glow and her evil friends?” he listed.

But in return, all the griffon did was shrug. “Still feel like months and weeks for me…”

Sandbar laughed in response, “Wow, dude. I know you tend to sleep through class, but it sounds like you missed a lot” he teased.

The griffon saw this as a challenge, “Oh yeah? How long ago does it feel it’s been since you first asked Yona out to the Amity Ball?” he smirked.

The laughter stopped, and was replaced with a flushed blank face, “…yesterday…” he quietly muttered, trying to avoid showing his reddened cheeks but unable to avoid glancing over to catch a smirk off Gallus' bright amber beak. “Fine, you have a point” he admitted, before recovering with a smile. “We have a lot of good memories of that school.”

Gallus calmly nodded, “…yeah, we do.”

“What’s great is that we’re all living together in Ponyville… I mean, except for you going to the academy in Canterlot.” Sandbar continued, before starting to ponder. “Now that I think about it, we haven’t had any letters from you in several weeks, been wondering what you’ve been up to since you went back to Griffonstone.”

“Just the usual…” Gallus flatly answered a short and awfully familiar answer that didn’t provide much help. Sandbar already knew about where he lived, but he also knew Gallus was never a fan of returning to his home. The “Just the usual” was often a sign to his friends that his time away was neither good nor bad, but Gallus’ flat response made Sandbar suspect something.

“Dude, you say that after we come back from every school holiday.”

Gallus turned to look longingly toward the fireplace, “Well, the last three months have been no different…” he added, his voice deepened, which only added to Sandbar’s concerns and suspicions.

“Did something happen in Griffonstone?” asked Sandbar.

But his friend didn’t answer, he just kept looking towards that fireplace. “…Can I ask you something?” he asked in turn.

While unsure of where Gallus was going, Sandbar nodded “Of course, dude” he responded cautiously.

“Do you still think it was a good idea for me to sign up for the academy?”

Sandbar was flummoxed by the question, it was only the year prior that he could remember Gallus being more dedicated than he had ever been towards getting into the academy, and now he was being asked if it was a good idea as if he had a doubt.

“Of course, it was, you told us you always wanted to be a military officer,” Sandbar argued, “you worked hard in sports and even began to study in the library for hours without falling asleep behind a book just to prepare for the entrance exams. You were over the moon when you got the acceptance letter.”

As encouraging as Sandbar tried to make it all sound, Gallus ended up turning further away from his friend to hide his dulled face. “Yeah, that was all great… but I wonder if it’s worth it.”

His friend was certain something was up and resting a hoof on the griffon’s shoulder. “Seriously dude, what happened?” he asked more directly. There was another moment of silence, but Gallus then started to turn back forwards towards the fireplace with his head down and proceeded to open his beak.

“Hey dudes!” an excited voice with heavy drawl called out from behind the two, and an older green pony with greyish blue dreads emerged from behind the sofa in between the two, pulling them together with a pair of hooves. “Don’t mean to drop-in, but us folks were wondering where Gallus was gonna be staying for the time being?” Sandbar’s dad asked as he looked towards his son, before turning to Gallus, “you could crash in the spare room for a couple nights if you’d like.”

Gallus was already shaky from the sudden greeting and now taken aback by the offer. “Oh… I was gonna see if I could get a room at the Ponyville Inn,” he shakily attempted to be humble, “I don’t want to be a bother, you’ve already got Yona staying with you and…”

“Nah, it’s all good Gal.” the dad interrupted, “Spare room’s always ready for friends and family, ‘sides the rain outside is heavy.”

“Sure, thanks…” Gallus answered, both relieved and faintly upbeat as he forced a smile until the chill dad was no longer in view. The grin sank back down as he looked back towards a worried Sandbar. “I think I’m gonna sleep early tonight, I’m still tired from flying all the way over here” he expressed apologetically.

“Goodnight…”

He hopped off the bed, leaving Sandbar sitting alone on the sofa, taking in the warm air from the fireplace. Internally he was annoyed that his dad interfered, regardless of how intentional it was, while externally felt a bit defeated that he couldn’t get through.

“Sure… goodnight…”

On the following late morning, Sandbar, Yona, and Gallus all made their way to Silverstream’s new house. Her parents bought a large three-story house with bricks painted purple, flowers on the windows, and a straw-thatched roof. The house was placed conveniently in view of the School of Friendship, the Castle of Friendship, and the mountainside where Canterlot Palace could be seen in the distance.

After Sandbar knocked on the door, he couldn't help but notice Gallus sporting a grouchy look and felt compelled to cheer his friend up. “Well dude, it won't be long until the others are here, you should be excited!” he encouraged.

“I’m fine,” he countered, keeping his jaded expression, “just got a monkey on my back.”

Sandbar and Yona looked at each other in concern, Sandbar being reminded of the conversation the night before. “Wanna talk about it?” asked Sandbar, as he moved warily towards the griffon, hoping he might open this time.

Instead, Gallus glared as he turned towards the green pony. “Yeah, why is your sister on my back?”. Sandbar blinked before looking beyond his friend's eagle-shaped head and noticed one more creature that was in their get together, a bright green pony with beady sea-blue eyes with pink and blue waves in her mane. His five-year-old sister was happily sitting between Gallus’ wings.

“Oh, Coral wanted to join us.”

“Yona and friends no leave sister pony out.” Yona contributed.

“That doesn’t answer my question…” Gallus continued his glare.

“Back rides are fun!” Coral gleefully answered, “I’ve missed Gallus back rides!” The pair snickered as Gallus groaned, expecting she won’t get off any time soon. He carefully lowered his hind to the ground, allowing the lower half of his body to take away the weight on his spine, even if it caused Coral to hook herself around Gallus' neck to stay on. This would have been the only clingy creature Gallus would have to deal with until the door started to open to reveal a surprise.

"GALLY!" a high pitched squee emerged as a large ball of pink feathers and talons flew out and pounced onto Gallus, the force causing him to move backwards. Silverstream, a bright pink hippogriff with silver hair was in front of him, with talons around Gallus' chest and her hooves locked around his legs leaving him unable to move.

"I haven't seen you in ages! I've been waiting to give you this welcome back hug since graduation!" The ecstatic hippogriff then spotted the filly over his shoulder. "You brought Coral with you too?! That means the whole gang's back together with BONUS fun!"

The filly and hippogriff giggled amongst each other, unaware of the griffon remained trapped. His rescue from the smothering affection came in the form of an orange dragon and a cyan blue changeling companion, Smolder and Ocellus. "Sup Gallus, need any help?" asked Smolder with a smug grin on her face, Ocellus held a hoof to her mouth to hide her giggle.

The changeling and dragon managed to pry away Silverstream's grasp on Gallus so that everyone started to make their way to the park. Although Gallus was glad to be able to move again, he still had Coral happily resting on his back, much to his chagrin. “Hey Gallus, guess what?” The little filly proceeded to poke the griffon’s cheeks for his attention.

The griffon reluctantly conceded, “What?” as rotated his head towards her.

“I’m gonna be starting school on Monday” the filly pridefully boasted.

Gallus raised an eyebrow, “I thought you’re already in school by now?” It had been a few years since Gallus has first met her as a toddler, but now she was slightly bigger and able to speak in proper sentences, and so he could only assume she was already learning.

But Coral shook her head, “Nuh-uh, I was in pre-school. This is a big pony school, with Miss Cheerilee” she continued to boast. “I can’t wait to be around other big ponies and know things the big ponies know. Are you gonna see me on my first day in school?” she asked with glee.

“No,” the griffon shot back, disappointing the filly. When Gallus turned his head back around, he could see five frowns and glared looking back, compelling him to correct himself out of discomfort. “I mean, I would, but I can’t!” Tomorrow I need to head off early to Canterlot so I can move into the academy at a good time.”

Fortunately for him, Coral was no longer saddened, but that was only because she was puzzled over a single word. “Ah-Kah-Dah-Mee?” she slowly spelt it out, before turning her head to her big brother. “Sandy, what’s an Ah-Kah-Dah-Mee?”

The helpful big brother provided the answer, “It’s a kind of school for grown-ups.”

Coral became more puzzled than ever, “Grown-ups go to school?” she asked herself, raising her own eyebrow before turning back to Sandbar. “I thought you don’t need to go to school anymore.”

Sandbar explained further. “Well, even though we’re adults now, that doesn’t mean we stop learning, just not all of us learn in the same way now.” He began to use one of his forehooves to gesture around the group, starting with himself. “I mean, I’m gonna be training to be a lifeguard, so I’m gonna have to learn things. Yona is living with us because has an apprenticeship at Rarity’s Carousel Boutique, which’s both a school and a job.”

“Yona want to be best at making clothes for other yaks!” boasted Yona, her head held highest amongst the group. The lowest held head being Gallus as he began to smirk.

“And spend more time with Sandbar…”

Hiding his blush, he forcefully continued. “ALSO there's Silverstream and Ocellus, both are staying at the School of Friendship to work as teaching assistants for Professor Pinkie Pie and Headmare Starlight, so they’re learning to teach!”

“I’m also staying at the School of Friendship too, don’t forget,” Smolder butted in, “I’m working for Professor Dash to help her with coaching for sports and cheerleading.”

“And to work closely with Ocellus…”

“Watch it, Gallus!” she snapped at this, blushing and aiming to glare a hole into his feline behind before her changeling companion stepped in to calm her down.

“Smolds, there’s no shame in wanting to work with your special someling” she said as she nuzzled the pouting orange dragon.

Silverstream blissfully beamed at her own work. “I’m just happy I can teach students about fun and laughter, it’s gonna be so great!” she remarked, giddy in every bounce of her step.

“And then there’s Gallus, who’s going to the Royal Guard Academy, so he can learn to be-“

“Gallus go be griffon knight for pony Royal Guard!” Yona blurted out, cutting Sandbar from his conclusion.

“Military officer in E.U.P. Guard…” Gallus quietly corrected Yona.

Coral’s eyes glistened and her face started to glow with awe, her mind picturing a blue griffon in shining gold armour.

Everyone had a great time at the park, with a large plaid blanket laid out on the grass and a basket filled with food. Silverstream supplied most of the entertainment by hosting games like charades and tag, while Ocellus provided tea for everyone to drink. Lots of laughs, lots of trips down memory lane from their antics at school.

Silverstream was riling everyone up to start a new game when Gallus noticed a particular small pony was missing. He caught sight of her on a hill, and decidedly flew up to her, and noticed her stare longingly at a bright pink schoolhouse with a bell tower and a bright red flag.

“What’s up Coral?” Gallus asked curiously, “You know the others want to play some more games soon…”

“Gally, do you think I should be going to school?” Coral asked in return with her soft voice.

“Sure, don’t see why not” he answered briskly with a shrug. “You seemed excited to be one of the ‘big ponies’ and meet the other ponies at the school.”

Coral slowly nodded, “I do wanna, but what if they don’t like me, what if they don’t wanna be my friend?” she continued to ask, rubbing her hoof nervously.

“Pfft, of course, ponies would want to be your friend” he chuckled it off, having been accustomed to ponies in Ponyville for so long made it seem almost impossible to avoid finding a friendly face. “You're positive and easy-going, you like getting involved and having fun, even with other creatures. You’re kinda like a little fillyfied version of your older brother.”

The compliments didn’t seem to satisfy Coral, as her head lowered. “Sandy didn’t have friends at school though.”

A confused griffon looked back at Sandbar, seeing him cuddled into Yona’s shaggy fur, laughing along to some joke Smolder was uttering along with everyone else. “You sure you’re talking about the Sandbar over there?” he asked Coral out of curiosity.

“Sandy was only happy around mama, papa, and me because no other pony wanted to be around him” she explained dourly. “That’s why he went to the School of Friendship, so he could make friends…” Gallus returned his gaze to Sandbar once more, he rarely talked about his time before the school of friendship, and when he did it was around his family. Even then, Gallus struggled to believe that the green pony he was looking at, someone open-minded, thoughtful, and willing to look out for another creature could be someone that ponies wouldn’t want to be friends with.

His moment of thought was then distracted by the feeling of one of his talons being wrapped around, “Could I just stay at home, wait until I could go to School of Friendship too?” Coral asked, hugging his arm tightly.

He started to get wary, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Gallus answered bluntly, “I never went to a proper school before the school of friendship, and a part of me wishes I did. Also, if Sandbar didn’t go to that school, he may not have ended up at the School of Friendship, let alone ending up being one of my best friends.” Coral started to make sense of what Gallus was saying, but it wasn’t making her feel confident. After a long sigh, Gallus pulled Coral off his arm and placed her sitting down in front of him.

He looked down on her seriously and attempted to teach her something. “I don’t know what the other ponies will think of you when you go to that school, but you won’t know unless you give it a try. You may not even need the School of Friendship like your brother. “

He then looked back at the rest of the group at the picnic, feeling the distance apart as he stared longingly towards them. “I honestly don’t know if the Royal Guard Academy will be worth it, but even if it means being away from my friends for a bit longer, I’m still gonna give it a try, because I know I’ll miss out on this if I don’t.”

As Coral slowly nodded and turned to look back at the school with uncertainty. That was when Gallus’ headshot upwards, his eyes grew wide, his head started to shine as if a lightbulb had emerged above him. He then crouched down behind Coral, with a new idea.

“Hey, how about a game?” he whispered. Coral turned around to see Gallus’ face close to hers with a confident smile.

“Game?”

“Yeah, a secret one” he whispered once more. Coral turned around fully and leaned in with intrigue. “We’re both going to schools with lots of new ponies, if you can make more new friends than I can by the time I come back to visit in the winter, I will join in on any one game or activity you want me to.”

“Any?” Coral asked, her voice elevating and her eyes starting to glisten.

The griffon returned a defiant nod. “Yep, no holds barred.” The little pony started to light up again, getting to play a game with Gallus, with the prize of another game, sounded like the best game ever.

At least, until a thought occurred. “But how is this fair? You went to the School of Friendship, not me” she folded her hooves and moped.

Gallus then lowered his lids level, “Let’s be real, no creature needs to go to a special school to make friends.,” he stated bluntly, “You made five friends when you were two years old just by being a cute baby sister, even getting in on Smolder’s soft side… “

He holds out his closed talons for a talon shake. “So, we got a deal?”

The moping filly thought about it for the moment, until she figured that a game between friends would be fun. She smiled and held out her own hoof to shake.

“Deal.”

Now both were happy, they both made their way back down the hill and returned to their friends.

It was Sunday morning, and the sun was slowly getting closer and closer to the top. The gang all watched as a train made its approach to the station, the next stop was Canterlot. “Well, this is it,” said Gallus towards his friends, the closest he was going to get to say goodbye. “Thanks for yesterday.”

Sandbar was the first to go up to him. “Of course, we look out for each other, right?”

“Yona want Gallus to be strong out there.” Yona followed.

Then it was Ocellus. “You’ll do great, I’m sure.”

Gallus then got a light punch in the arm. “Yeah, see you around, pigeon.”

After one last look at all his friends, Gallus made his way through the doors of the train coach. Silverstream, who had remained silent for the entire time, was getting prods from both sides. On one side, Ocellus was looking at her with a supportive smile, tilting her head in encouragement. If Silverstream was hesitant, she could turn her head to the other side and Smolder doing the same thing, except with arms folded, eyebrows raised and deadpanned.

“Oh, Gally! Gally wait! Before you go!” she called out frantically as she flew towards Gallus. The griffon recognised the call and prepared to brace himself for another tackle and hug on the ground, but when he turned around, he was taken aback to seeing her stand close to him with a downcast look. Before he could open his beak to ask if she was okay, she wrapped her claws around his head and pulled him in. She held onto him just tightly enough so that Gallus could move his arms, although his confusion at how comforting and calming the embrace was left his arms dangling motionless. That was when she whispered.

“Promise you’ll write to us, okay? We’ll miss you… I’ll miss you…”

It felt like a bad time for it to dawn on Gallus that his friends miss him going away, just as he missed them. “Yeah… uh… I will” he promised, trailing before he managed to move his arms around her back to make the hug complete. The conductor’s whistle signalled the train was ready to depart, and for the two birds to let go.

As the train made its move towards Canterlot, all his friends waved at him from the station platform. Silverstream smiled contently, which was caught by both Ocellus and Smolder and their narrowed eyes, who were expecting a more energised hippogriff to answer.

“You didn’t tell him, did you?” Ocellus asked candidly, but instead of answering verbally, Silverstream tried to avert her gaze from the pair. All Smolder could do was groan as she planted her claws across her face, all that effort for nothing.

Tryouts - Part 2

It wasn’t until after all classes had finished that Gallus had time to look for the buckball coach, he needed an explanation for his exclusion. Deep down, he believed he should do what he liked doing, it was what he told Scythe to get him to do the course he wanted. It didn’t make sense how after playing defence in a team that had a near-perfect streak, he was the only player to not make it even as a reserve.

Fortunately, he was able to find him, the large earth pony stallion was at the gymnasium, coaching a game of basketball. Strangely, he continued to wear his sunglasses, despite it being indoors. Surely it wouldn’t make his eyesight any easier. After clearing his throat, Gallus made his way towards him. “Excuse me, Coach?” Gallus called out politely, one of his arms raised to gain his attention.

The coach’s ear flicked upwards, and he turned his head around to see the blue griffon standing by a few metres away. He turned back towards the ongoing basketball game, placed the whistle around his neck between his lips and gave a strong yet quick blow. The loud beeped echoed down the hall, everypony in the room stopped and turned towards the coach’s direction.

He then raised one of his forehooves and moved it in a pushing motion, gesturing the players to take a short break on the other end of the hall. As they began to move off the court, the coach moved his attention back to the griffon. “Yes, what is it?” he asked with a frustrated sigh.

Gallus anticipated the kind of annoyed reaction, whether it was because he interrupted the game or just because Gallus was right there and lifted the corners of his mouth to counter. He moved his arms behind his body and rested on his hind legs as he looked up at the inpatient coach. “I the list earlier for the buckball team,” he opened, jutting his head towards the main exit of the gym where the noticeboard was outside, “and I noticed my name wasn’t on the list. Any reason why I didn’t make the cut?”

“You weren’t buckball material…” answered the coach, his tone was abrupt and nonchalant as he turned to look over towards the players lounging around the opposite end of the court.

The griffon furrowed his brow, an odd statement to make considering how hard he was playing during the tryouts. He at least did well enough to impress Eastwood, the self-proclaimed high school champion offensive player, even if he had to be prompted to do so. “You saw how I played as a defender in the tryouts, right?” asked Gallus as he tilted his head.

“I did.”

“Did I let the other teams score any points during the games I was in?” Gallus tilted his head further, to get a better look at the coach, who was starting to frown.

“You missed one…” The coach’s voice had gotten deeper and quieter, it gave Gallus an odd sense of relief, the coach was trying to restrain himself from admitting that he recognised Gallus’ efforts on the buckball pitch.

If only the coach pointed out anything other than the one goal against Coalstone’s team, the only ball Gallus was unable to block thanks to the inconvenience of being hit from behind by some form of electricity.

The reminder was enough for Gallus to drop his smile and was luckily able to avoid the coach witnessing his clenched claws as his arms remained firmly behind his back. “So, I missed one and that doesn’t make me buckball material?” he questioned, “I saw other cadets make it on the list who’ve clearly missed more than I did.” There was a moment of hesitancy when he made the argument, knowing one of the ponies who made the reserves were from his own platoon.

The coach rebutted, “Well, those other cadets aren’t likely to cause…” he paused as he turned his head back around to remind himself who and what he was talking to, “issues… when they miss.”

Galus knew what the coach was implying, his eyebrows drew together, and he moved his arms around into a folded position. By “issues” he means complaints because griffons are not polite enough to play along, something he also had with Eastwood referring to him as a good team player for once.

“I called foul because Coalstone zapped me in that game to get a point” he affirmed; he could see the coach’s face scrunch up upon hearing the unicorn’s name. “Yet you allow him on the team, but not me since I complained?”

“Look, Griffon,” the coach snapped back, “buckball is a popular sport at the Academy, and there is a limit to how many ponies can be in the club. There’s more to buckball than being able to block or get a ball in a bucket, it means being a good team player.” There it is, that “good team player” remark again, Gallus’ face remained fixed towards the coach as he raised his voice. He would have made a fair point if it were not doubling down against Gallus’ argument.

“I don’t want cheaters, but I also don’t want cadets who are temperamental and cranky. If you think you are not being treated fairly, you can make a complaint about it to the twenty other ponies or so who weren’t picked.”

And the cracks began to show, he may not have meant Gallus directly, but the griffon knew exactly what he meant. With heavy sarcasm, Gallus internally wondered if those twenty other ponies or so were also rejected for being temperamental or cranky.

“I need to be in a physical activity as part of my course, and I want to play buckball.” Gallus stated, before gesturing his arms into a shrugging motion. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You’re free to play buckball with your friends in your own free time, other than that, find another activity to do.”

The conversation ended abruptly when the coach loudly blew his whistle and gestured his hoof to bring the basketball players back onto the court. Gallus glared at the back of the coach’s head one last time, before making his exit out of the gym and into the dorms.

As he slouched on his desk, disappointment and frustration filled his mind as his talk with the buckball coach went nowhere, and yet he was unsure how he could be surprised. He peaked at the latest letter from Silverstream, how happy she sounded from seeing the photos, and happily asking about buckball. He let out an exasperated sigh and pushed the letter to the side of the desk, urging himself to avoid thinking of how to respond to it.

He then heard a click, the door creaked open, and Scythe emerged from the room. Having done an afternoon run with the cross-country club, he had returned from the showers all cleaned up and draped in a towel. As Scythe looked at the chagrined face resting on the desk, he knew that not even he unkempt mane and puffed out coat wasn’t going to lift his friend’s spirits.

“Guess it didn’t go well with the coach?”

Gallus lifted his head off the desk, only to shake it. “Thinks I’m too ‘cranky’ for the club,” he replied, with an added nasally tone and bending his talons to imitate quotation marks. “He also doesn’t want cheaters but Coalstone’s still on the team.”

The moment Coalstone’s name was mentioned, Scythe shut his eyes and breathed heavily out his nose. He too could only share in Gallus’ disappointment as he closed the door behind him and took off his towel to fit a brush onto his hoof. As Scythe sat on his bed and started brushing his mane and coat to be tidier, Gallus remembered the altercation between the two ponies before the tryouts, how Scythe’s mood shifted the moment Coalstone caught up and “talked” with him. Clearly, they had a past, but Gallus wondered how far back it went.

“So, who’s Coalstone? He clearly knows you.”

Scythe’s brushing hoof stopped mid-motion, the arm conveniently covering the dread on his face. “He’s in a military family, our dads work in the same regiment.” He answered hesitantly, fidgeting on his bed. “He was never in Cloudsdale,” he added with a slight lift in his tone as a sense of relief, but it went back down as he continued in an irritated huff “but whenever I was outside of Cloudsdale, he would turn up, make fun of me, and get away with it because he acts like he is a big deal.”

“Well, is he a big deal?” Gallus asked further, recognising Coalstone’s snooty arrogant attitude and condescending remarks as some self-entitlement and claim of superiority.

Scythe fidgeted some more as he looked up to think of how to answer, “Remember the name of the obstacle course?” Gallus in turned leant against his desk and rested his head on his claws, staring out the window to remind himself. Even after several weeks, he could still picture the wooden beams, the murky lakes, the long winding dirt paths, and the towering wall that blocked the end of the course. He then finally lifted his head when an image emerged in his mind of the signpost, with the name and a unicorn engraved emblem at the top.

“Winstone’s Trial Training Ground” he answered.

Scythe slowly nodded, indicating that Gallus was correct. “Winstone was a former Commandant of the Academy… and the former Mayor of Canterlot… and Coalstone’s Great-Grandfather…” his voice trailed off as his head sunk lower as he listed each one.

On the other hand, Gallus grew more frustrated, “That means he is a big deal, wonder what else he gets away with...” he remarked, frowning at the thought, the coach’s reaction to Coalstone’s name made more sense knowing he was related to someone recognised in the Academy.

Scythe finished brushing up his coat, his mane was still a partial mess, but the bad memories left him unwilling to continue. “So, what are you gonna do?” he asked Gallus, who was glowering out of the window as he slouched in his chair. “You could talk with Captain Westland,” he suggested to try and reassure him, “maybe she could have a word with the coach.”

Gallus shook his head, “No, even if it makes a difference, I’m not gonna join the buckball club anytime soon.” The relaxed confidence in his answer left Scythe tilting his head, curious as to why Gallus was giving up so easily. He remembered what Gallus told him when he thought there was no chance, he could do the languages course at the Academy.

“But what about ‘you should be able to do what you like’?”

Gallus affirmed his decision, he turned to face Scythe with a grimaced look. “Spending more time around jerks like Coalstone and that coach isn’t what I like…”

Scythe looked down and sighed, nodding in agreement, being around Coalstone for hours wouldn’t be a good idea. Not to mention, if Gallus got onto the team, the coach wouldn’t change his tune to make it worthwhile. However, that still leaves a problem, “But you still need to do a physical or extra-curricular activity, right?” he asked Gallus, “It’s gonna be a while to join one if you’ve been rejected by the only one you signed up for.”

After an exasperated sigh, Gallus closed his eyes tightly and pinched the top of his beak, as he remembered something else.

“Actually, buckball wasn’t the only physical activity I signed up to.”

On the following afternoon, several ponies were in one of two places in one of the side rooms of the gymnasium: They were either hanging onto the array of climbing walls surrounding the room or on the ground holding onto the ropes of those climbing to avoid a nasty fall.

That was except for two earth ponies, Fountain Blue and Whipper, the two staff ponies that lead the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club. For their day of tryouts, they were tasked with reviewing each cadet’s performance on the wall, and make sure they were safe.

That was until Fountain Blue caught sights of a blue griffon making a slow entrance, who stood out amongst the earth ponies and the fewer unicorn and pegasus ponies in the gymnasium. Even if he had a jaded lack of enthusiasm, the earth pony could barely contain his excitement. “Ah! If it isn’t Gallus the Griffon!” he exclaimed in his nasal Prench tone, followed by an impromptu hug. “You arrived just in time for the tryouts!”

Resisting the urge to peck the stallion’s face, and his invasion of personal space, Gallus returned a half-smile. “Yeah, well, not like I have anything better going on” he replied, unable to hide his lack of excitement at something he reluctantly signed up for and is using now as his backup.

“Well, the tryout is not too complicated,” Fountain Blue reassured Gallus, as he began to direct his attention towards one of the climbing walls. It was nearly vertical, angled slightly enough towards the wall of the gymnasium to make it appear incredibly steep. It was too tall to simply run-up, so coloured rocks were fitted in seemingly random places of varying sizes for ponies to place their hooves onto. “Zis is our starter wall, the easiest wall on the difficulty scale. All you need to do is get an harness, get to the top, and to ring the bell.” His outstretched hoof pointed upwards towards the very top of the wall, where a large bell hung against the ceiling, although judging from the distance it looked tiny from where the pony and griffon were standing.

Fountain Blue described the task with upbeat passion, displaying no doubt at Gallus’ ability to take on the wall. In contrast, Gallus looked on deadpanned, maybe he wasn’t under any intense pressure, but not even the height of the wall felt intimidating or impressive at that moment. Fountain Blue called over a pegasus pony to act as his spotter, and Gallus made his way to approach the wall.

Fountain Blue then looked on as the griffon put on a climbing harness, his wings strapped down, the rope was fitted to the harness. As confident as he was at seeing Gallus challenge the wall, his colleague Whipper moved over, focusing on the white-maned stallion with narrowing eyes. “Is there something wrong Whipper?” Fountain Blue asked curiously.

“Okay Fountain, what game are you playing?” confronted Whipper, unable to share the enthusiasm over Gallus in the tryouts.

Fountain Blue shrugged, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” His focus remained fixed on Gallus, who remained grounded looking upwards at the wall, possibly studying it.

“The moment you see this griffon at the bazaar, you want him in the club,” Whipper explained, finding the sudden urge heavily suspicious. They both know the club was not as popular as other physical clubs like buckball and boxing, but they were also not desperate for signups each year. As such, Fountain Blue’s persistent behaviour was unusual, not just to Gallus. “It’s not like you to be eager to recruit a cadet on the spot, so what’s up?”

Fountain Blue, on the other hand, remained coy as he kept his eyes away from Whipper. “I just hear the rumours of a griffon that can climb up a vertical wall with ease, I figured he’d make a good addition to the club.”

“Right,” Whipper responded, unable to buy his colleague’s reasoning. They both heard a few pegasus ponies talk about how a griffon easily jumped the final wall of Winstone’s Trial, but that is all it was, a rumour. Just because there actually was a griffon at the academy doesn’t mean it’s true. “You hear one rumour, and the griffon is more than qualified.”

“Non,” denied Fountain Blue with a rising intonation, “I hear the rumours and I want to see if they were correct.” He saw Gallus finally begin his ascent up the wall, reaching and pulling up from rock to rock with ease, making short breaks with each move.

“And when they’re true, you’re just gonna let him in?” asked Whipper, having decided to play along. As Fountain Blue’s head tilted upwards to follow Gallus’ movement up the wall, he sat up and folded his arms, his eyebrows drew together, disliking what his colleague was insinuating.

“Hmph, I’m sure even if they were false, Gallus can make a good climber.” Fountain Blue took offence, he may have high hopes, but he wouldn’t lower his standards. “Zose griffons live high in the mountains, they fly around them day by day, enjoying the scenery. Surely they know what it feels like to grasp those nooks and crannies with their claws.” As he talked of mountains, he quickly regained composure, closing his eyes and imagining a cool breeze in the air and a chill from the height and jagged terrain.

As he opened his eyes again, he caught Whipper smirking at him at the edge of his vision, “I knew there was something else…” Whipper remarked.

Fountain Blue groaned, realising he’d been caught. “Fine, there are these mountains across the border in the Griffon Territory, and I’m bored of the mountains and rocks here in Equestria,” he explained begrudgingly. “They won’t allow ponies to climb there, after one nearly fell to their death down some Abysmal Abyss. If we had a griffon on our team, the griffons would be willing to change their minds, and then, we can go somewhere new and interesting over the winter break. Happy?”

He turned his head around to see Whipper facing him, his arms folded and holding his enigmatic smirk. Whipper was smug at the fact his suspicions were right, but the more he thought about it, their winter breaks were becoming very mundane as they always did routine trips around the Frozen North. The two of them haven’t been in active duty in their regiments for so long that neither of them has been out of Equestria, so a chance to go climbing in Griffon Territory.

“Not a bad plan, too bad you couldn’t find a skilled climber who happened to be a griffon.”

As Fountain Blue looked back towards the wall, his head leant back as far as it could go. “I would not be so sure, mon amis.” He haughtily remarked. Before Whipper could ask why his ears caught the sound of a bell ringing above him. He shot his head upwards, and sure enough, he caught Gallus at the top of the wall, ringing the bell as he held on with the tight grasp of his claws.

As Gallus made his descent, Whipper was the only one dumbfounded in silence as other ponies politely clopped their hooves together to congratulate a successful climb. When Gallus reached the bottom, he spent no time relaxing as he got out of his harness and made his way towards Fountain Blue and Whipper. “Alright… climbed your wall,” he said, breathing heavily as he needed to catch his breath. “Are you… happy now?”

As the griffon slowly regained his breath, Whipper turned back to the sight of Fountain Blue smirking at him. Much to his chagrin, he only had two words to give to Gallus. “You’re in.”

Those two words were the first Gallus heard in a while, with one of his eyebrows had risen in uncertainty. “I am? I don’t need to wait for anything…” Considering his time at the buckball tryouts, getting accepted couldn’t be this easy.

That was when Fountain Blue cut in, “You reached the top in good time, welcome to the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club”, he praised with grand gestures, making the griffon’s acceptance sound easy. “We have our training sessions the afternoons with these real walls, and we do excursions to climb the real things over the breaks. You can have a go on one of the other walls today, that is if you’re up to it…”

It might not have been what he had wanted, but Gallus finally found a club that he could join. It might take some more time for him to get along with the other earth and unicorn ponies, but at least he had a time and a place where he could try. He turned to look back at Fountain Blue, giving a slight smirk.

“...which one should I try next?”

Hearth's Warming at a Friends - Part 1

Hey Gally!

Just writing to say congrats on passing your first term of the Royal Guard Academy, sure we all know you would do it, but we’re all happy for you!

Bet you’re glad to have a break after all the hard work, the school is also starting their break away for Hearth's Warming and New Year’s, so the rest of us have got time off to celebrate the holidays back at home too!

Since you asked about having a place to stay in Ponyville, I had a word with the others and both Ocellus and Smolder have said they’d be more than happy to wait for you to arrive so you can spend a few days at the house. We cannot guarantee you a bed, but our sofa is super comfy.

I know these winter holidays aren’t the best times for you, but trust me when I say you’ll really enjoy it this year~

Looking forward to seeing you!

Silverstream

It felt strange, even as Gallus was reading the letter for the fifth time that week, realizing the fact that that he passed his first term of the Royal Guard Academy. Even stranger was thinking that he would now take a week break back home in Ponyville, beginning on the Equestrian holiday of Hearth's Warming Eve. If he needed any proof of such an occasion, all he needed to do was look up and around, as snow-covered all the buildings and the ground, and he and his platoon cadets were carrying their belongings, making their journeys home.

Most of the cadets were picked up by family members, with some bringing wagons to help carry the belongings. The noticeably wealthier ponies had more luxurious transports home, as Coalstone and Commandant Arthurdox were carried in a gold brimmed chariot that required two pegasus ponies to move. It was a sight that brought awe to most, but revolt to a few at the snootiness and class.

One by one, ponies of Gallus’ platoon departed once they recognised their parents had flown in. Pound Sterling was the first to say “Tarah” as departed with her overly cheerful dad, followed by Nickname with his mother who was not so much. Lightning Dust was of the few who left by herself, capable of carrying her bags on her own as she made her way to Cloudsdale. The last ones staying by were Gallus and Scythe, watching the other ponies wait or make their own way home.

“So, you got any plans for the next week?” asked Gallus, starting the dialogue as Scythe checked through his bags.

The pegasus looked up to recall his plans for an answer, his eyes flashed when they emerged in his mind. “Oh yeah, after Hearth's Warming I go out to the Galloping Gorge with my family” he answered. “We do a lot of camping, sightseeing, cross-country…”

Gallus nodded and simpered as Scythe listed the outdoor activities as if his family were continuing some of the training, they did but for fun. “Cool, guess you don’t have to worry about what the sarge said right?” He then placed his claws behind his straightened back and broadened his shoulders, imagining Staff Sergeant Razorwing giving a stern look and a firm brief towards the cadets. “You better not spend the next week lounging around, make the most of your break to work on your military skills, we can’t help you if you get rusty”.

The impression garnered humour from Scythe, who held his mouth shut in a desperate attempt to conceal his laughter. “Yeah, that is true. What about you?” It was Scythe’s turn to ask Gallus about his winter break plans.

“Well after I see my friends in Ponyville” answered Gallus, having relaxed from his impersonation, “I’m going with the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club on a planned expedition for a few days, so yeah, I’m not worried either” he confidently answered in succinct detail. “After that, I can see my friends some more before the next term starts.”

As casual as Gallus was, Scythe tightened his lips as he noticed something missing about his friend’s plan in contrast with his own. “Hm, so you won’t be home that much?” he calmly pointed out. He could tell that Gallus recognised he was referring to Griffonstone, his confident demeanour faded as he sighed. What felt more concerning was when Gallus stared eastward, despite any mountain or inking of Griffonstone being impossible through the clouds and fog that filled the sky. “Is your family…?”

Scythe was interrupted, “Oh… yeah… they understand” Gallus tentatively answered, looking at the carpet of snow inches from his feet. “They know I’m not a fan of going back home for long…” Inside he felt a mix of anger and sorrow as memories of past winters in Griffonstone started to bleed into his thoughts.

He needed something to distract him, and a good one would not come sooner. He looked past Scythe as the figure of a pegasus pony flew low towards their direction at a moderate speed. No other pony seemed to be paying attention to it, so under his assumptions. “Well, I better get a move on” he urgently excused himself, quickly thrusting his claws into his bag to rummage from it.

Despite Scythe’s concerns, he nodded. “Yeah, I should get moving too”, he agreed as he picked his own bag up with his hooves. “It’s gonna take me a while to get back to Cloudsdale with all this stuff on my own.”

Gallus had just finished digging through his bag, an item held firmly in his claws as Scythe made his comment. “Before I… Wait,” he paused, turning to raise an eyebrow towards Scythe. “You’re not being picked up by somepony?”

Scythe shared his own raised eyebrow in confusion. “No, why?”

“Because somepony is flying towards us.”

Gallus lowered his head, gesturing towards the pony that was approaching them, its figure had become much clearer to be a mare whose wings were flapping quicker to pick up speed. Scythe did not have enough time to turn around to see who it was before he was pounced on. His cheeks were puffed up and he felt winded, as a pair of forehooves wrapped around and clasped his body.

“There’s my stallion!” the pegasus mare gleefully exclaimed. The mare was roughly the same height and amber coat as the stallion tight in her grasp, and yet her slightly faded brunette mane and subtle creases around her eyes indicated she was older. “I’m so glad you waited for me ‘cause I couldn’t spare one minute without seeing you!”

“Mum!” Scythe cried out whilst kicking the ground, desperately shuffling his arms and wings out of her grasp. “Other ponies can see us!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m your mother. Am I not allowed to love my own son?”

The smothered stallion begging for mercy and freedom from the affection would have had relief that the ponies waiting around paid no mind, giving no more of a grin at the site. Unfortunately, Gallus saw more of the humour much to his chagrin.

Even though he used his talons to clamp his beak shut and hide the wide smirk on his face, Gallus was unable to cover up the snorting from his snickering. The mother had finally loosened her grip when she caught a glance at the blue griffon.

The site was questioning for her. “Oh... hello… Can I help you?” She then lowered her glance, and noticed both Scythe’s bag and his own, and then looked down at her son. “Scythe, you shouldn’t make somecreature carry your bags for you” she calmly accused, finally releasing him dig into her pockets and pull out a small number of gold coins. “Here you go, griffon. This should make up for your troubles.”

The griffon looked at the coins, aware that his own kind often had a tendency of asking for money first before providing services of any kind, except he furrowed his brow. He knew he wasn’t a servant, or providing a service, and yet a mare was giving money for apparently carrying Scythe’s bags.

Scythe’s eyes widened in panic, “Uh, mum!” he hastily called out, turning around, and trying in vain to push the coins towards her mother. “This is OFFICER CADET GALLUS,” he introduced with a hoof over the griffon’s shoulder with an uncomfortably wide grin. “He’s my friend in my PLATOON at the Academy.”

The mother tilted her head, initially uncertain why her son was showing anxiety, assuming she was being courteous. She then finally caught on that the griffon wasn’t a servant, but a cadet like him. Her face when pale, and the gold coins were hurriedly returned to her pocket. “Oh dear Twilight, I’m so so so sorry!” she frantically apologised. “First time meeting one of Scythe’s friends and I’m already making false assumptions.”

“It’s fine.” Gallus tried to reassure her, accepting a misunderstanding felt much easier to deal with than witnessing her beg for forgiveness.

“No no, please, let me start over” she relented, grabbing one of Gallus’ arms to shake it with both hooves, presenting a calm and friendly smile. “My name’s Cherry Bomb, Scythe’s mother, but friends call me Cherry.”

“It’s good to meet you, ma’am” responded Gallus in relief.

“Aw, so formal! I should have believed those rumours about a griffon at the academy sooner, must be lucky to be friends with my little clever clogs” Cherry cheerfully remarked, ruffling her son’s mane. “Still though, you’re probably looking forward to a break as much as Scythe is. Are you heading back to see your family for Hearth's Warming?”

“Actually, I- “

“Sorry! Sorry! Assuming things again” she quickly apologised, holding a hoof to her face, before taking a deep breath and restarting. “Are you heading back to see your family for the holidays?”

“…Actually, I’m spending the holidays in Ponyville, it’s what I did last year.”

Cherry’s smile began to fade. “Oh, so you’re not seeing your family?” she asked with concern, Gallus’ silence didn’t give much assurance and Scythe didn’t want to answer himself. “I mean, you must have friends in Ponyville, right? You’ve got to be seeing your friends, right?”

“Well yeah, I have friends in Ponyville, but it might be a little while since I’ll see them since they’ll be away… with their families… for the holidays…” his voice trailed off as he turned his head away from the group, downcast with the fact about the issue of having friends of different countries.

Every year since the School of Friendship, every creature would go home for the holidays. Sandbar could stay in Ponyville, but Yona would go to Yakyakistan near the Frozen North, Ocellus to the Changeling Hive south of Equestria, Smolder to the Dragon Lands, Silverstream to Mount Aris, and himself to Griffonstone. All far away from each other, and it made him miserable. Despite being used to it, he still felt dejected at the reality, even after once setting off a prank to prevent any of them from going home during his first year at the school.

“So… you’re gonna be on your own for the holidays?” asked Cherry, yet the question felt rhetorical as her eyes began to well up, keeping a hoof over her mouth. “You poor thing…” Even Scythe was feeling sympathy over the admission.

“It’ll be alright,” he attempted to reassure both. “I’ve got a place to stay tonight, and I know where I can go...”

But before he could finish, Cherry’s face lit up, she had gotten an idea. “Why don’t you spend some holiday time with us?”

“What?” both Gallus and Scythe exclaimed in unison, their faces darted towards the mare as their eyes widened.

“You can spend Hearth's Warming Eve with us, some of the family will be over, we’re having a big, cooked lunch together.”

As Gallus was stunned by the eager offer, Scythe panicked again. “Mum! Wait!” he called out, getting close to her to whisper with caution.

"Gallus already has plans, this might not be a good idea."

Cherry chuckled, “Nonsense, we make plenty of food and have a big enough table for one more” she happily brushed off the concerns. “And it’d be nice to spend a bit more time with your friend, right?”

“Yeah, but- “

“And Gallus, it’d be nice to have at least one day to celebrate the holidays with friends, right?”

“Well, yeah, but- “

“Then it’s settled!” Cherry proudly declared. “You are coming with us for Hearth's Warming Eve. Now let’s go!”

As Cherry made a smooth about-face turn with a bright smile on her face and arched brows, Gallus and Scythe were standing with jaws agape. With both too afraid to object, one at the fact her idea was too kind and insisted upon, and the other contending with a doting mother, the two grabbed their bags and followed.

The three made their short flight over to the sky city of Cloudsdale, and although Cherry Bomb was cheerfully humming as she led the trip, her two companions. Scythe’s eyes were darting and had his own hum, which was shaky as his anxiety would grow the further, they got to their destination. It was confusing and awkward to Gallus seeing Scythe worrying, presumably over Gallus coming along to his house.

Talking to him was out of the question, therefore Gallus flapped his wings harder to move closer to his mother. “So, Mrs Bomb?” he called out to get her attention, hoping to have some small talk, to acquire some detail to prepare for this family gathering.

“Please, call me Cherry!” she called back with friendly glee.

“Okay… Cherry… Your family… Scythe said it was a military family? As in, you’re all in the military?”

Cherry looked back with a smirk, “I see he told you all about us, huh?” she remarked slyly towards Scythe, whose sole response was a nervous grin. “Yes, we’ve all served or are serving in the E.U.P. Guard to some capacity” she acknowledged towards Gallus, confirming what Scythe told him and the others during the self-reliance exercise. “For instance, my sister and I were captains serving as army doctors” she added, “we treated injured officers and soldiers, it was how we met our husbands.”

It took a while for Gallus to process the example given, it confirmed not only that Scythe’s mother and aunt were in the army, his dad and uncle as well, and they all met on the job. Either that was one hell of a romantic situation they were in or an incredible coincidence. Either way, if they were all military, Gallus suspected they might act similarly to cadets in the academy, albeit with more experience.

The three finally made their way over the city of Cloudsdale, Gallus had only properly visited the place on one field trip, although it was the day that magic started to fail in Equestria. Apart from the cushioned feel of walking on the clouds and the long height below, the memory of school ponies falling through said clouds that lead to their field trip ending abruptly was what he remembered most.

Seeing it again, he was impressed with how bright the city shone, even in the winter. The city’s main export, apart from the Wonderbolts, was the weather, with factories for each kind making up the largest of the buildings and rainbows streaming out like waterfalls. Eventually, Cherry Bomb finally started to descend, as the three landed on the padded ground in front of the family home.

At least, one would assume was home, but the building felt much grander than that. Like other houses in Cloudsdale, it was marble grey and bright cyan in tone and structured with pillars three stories high, with large windows and numerous styled engravings. It was nowhere near as big as a palace, but the scale, cleanliness, and antiqueness were immense.

“Woah, this place is huge,” he remarked in awe, “I had no idea you can make houses this big up here.”

Cherry Bomb gave a humble smile, “Yep, it’s had several dozen repairs and additions here and there over the years, but officially it’s still the original Magnus estate.” Gallus’ entire body froze with wide eyes at that exact moment, eyes locked at the front door as Cherry Bomb made her way to open it, his beak hung open unhinged in shock.

He wanted to be sure he heard her correctly, but he felt the air trapped, unable to emerge from his throat to speak. It was only when he caught Scythe in the corner of his eye, that he could finally clear his throat. The pegasus stallion had his head held low in defeat, it was visibly apparent that he was facing exactly what he was worried about on the journey.

“Did… your mom say Magnus?” whispered Gallus, his eyes remained fixed but could visibly witness Scythe nodding his head to confirm. “As in… Flash Magnus…?”

“Mm-hmm…”

All at once, small moments he could recall from the past several weeks. The older brother previously attending the Academy, the military family, the outspoken interrupt at the mention of a descendent over one lunch, his near verbal slip when he excitedly gave his name to the language teacher, Major Babel, all lead to one answer.

“That means you’re…”

“My name is Scythe Magnus; Flash Magnus is my ancestor.”

“Come on in!” called out Cherry Bomb, having opened the front door, oblivious to the revelation that occurred outside. “You two don’t want to get cold, do you?”

When Gallus and Scythe eventually made their way through the front door and into a long hallway, it wasn’t long before another family member made their presence. “Cherry! Good, you’re back!” a pegasus mare called out from a kitchen on the other side of the hallway, similar in appearance outside of a more reddish mane. All current information pointed towards this being Cherry Bomb’s sister

“Current update on the lunch situation, we have shepherd’s pies in the oven, red cabbages have been cut with the rest of the vegetables needed to be stir-fried, and the dining table is laid out with drinks ready. Most of the family are in the living room, yet Birch is still upstairs in his study, if there is anything else, let me know.”

“Ariel Bomb, you’re amazing!” complimented Cherry, satisfied with the thorough list. “Just make sure to set out another chair at the table and I can take over, we have a friend of Scythe’s spending lunch with us.” As the sisters saluted each other, along with a quiet giggle, Cherry turned around to face Scythe and Gallus. Wanted to give simple orders, she first looked to Gallus. “Make yourself at home, Gallus.” She then turned to Scythe. “Be sure to say hello to everypony while I find your father, ‘kay?”

As Cherry briskly went upstairs, and Ariel moved out of view in the kitchen, Gallus and Scythe dropped their bags to the side of the hallway, underneath a rack filled with coats. The two made a slow walk down the hallway, for what could better be described as a narrow history museum. Space was covered wall to wall with framed photos, drawings, and medals.

Some of the photos were of family holidays, a familiar sight even to Gallus from his visits to Sandbar’s home in Ponyville, but others had ponies in military uniform, whether it jackets with medals or suits of armour. The same would be found with the framed drawings, all figures of stoical pegasi in uniform, each feature an artist’s signature and the year it was drawn, all more than a century old at least.

Yet it was a group photo of a large family reunion that caught Gallus’ attention for him to stop in place to inspect closely. It featured several ponies in the shot, all looking happy with grins and smiles throughout, with the backdrop of a vibrant green garden. As he scanned through, the central figure was significantly recognisable, Flash Magnus sat with a wide grin and both his hooves resting on the shoulders of two elderly ponies. Bizarrely, he wasn’t wearing any armour, revealing his short dark and scruffy looking amaranth mane that would have been hidden under his helmet.

As Gallus scanned further, he recognised Scythe, smiling at the far end of the photo beside Cherry with a hoof wrapped around his shoulder. He looked to be in his mid-teens, young enough to be a first-year student at the School of Friendship, he assumed the group photo was taken at least a year after the legendary pegasus returned from the limbo created to imprison the pony of shadows.

There was no doubt that the connection between Scythe and Flash were true, which made Gallus question why Scythe would hide that fact. “Why Rosewood?” he asked Scythe, who stopped to turn around, his head remained pointing towards the floor with no answer. “You said Rosewood was your family name.” he pointed out, attempting once more to get the pony to explain.

“Yeah, I did” Scythe confessed shamefully, “you’re mad at me, right?”

There was a pause to consider, he would be mad since Scythe lied to him. However, Gallus quickly shook his head. “Not really, I just want to know why.” Although there was a breath of relief, Scythe kept his head low.

“I don’t like the way ponies would treat me if they knew my real name.”

“What’s wrong with being called Scythe Magnus?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow at the reasoning. “I mean, I’d think being a twentieth generation- “

“Thirtieth…”

“-thirtieth generational descendent of one of the Pillars of Equestria would be an awesome thing to brag about, right?”

While Scythe wanted to disagree, there was a more urging matter facing him. From behind, another stallion jumped onto him and pulled him into a headlock, “Ack! Help!” he called out for help, but Gallus stood by, accepting that this kind of behaviour seemed to be a common thing in this family at this point.

“There's my little brother with the big brain!” the other stallion jovially exclaimed before ruffling Scythe’s mane. The older brother was slightly bigger in stature, and a voice slightly deeper. He continued to sport a wide teasing grin while Scythe was trying in vain to pull himself out of the hoof locked around his neck. “Did you miss me, Scythe?” he asked, but there was no answer.

Then the older brother started to push and prod into Scythe’s ribs and abdomen, evoking a fidgeted laughter. “Come on! Admit it!”

Scythe tried his best to fight out of the tickling that he was being subjugated to. “Stop! Haha!” he exclaimed with laughter as his kicking, twisting, and squirming did nothing to break himself out of it. “Yes! Yes, I missed you!” he called out, finally surrendering.

“Knew you did!” the older brother claimed victory, finally releasing the headlock before pulling Scythe in for a hug from behind. “Missed you too, little bro.” With the rough reunion finally over, and Scythe remaining trapped with nothing to do but pout, the older brother caught his attention to Gallus. “So, who is the blue falcon?” he asked with a sardonic stare.

Finally, a cool nickname is what Gallus initially thought, and yet he was left jaded. Something about the name didn’t sit right, as if it was a sneaky jab of some kind. “Officer Cadet Gallus” he answered, making sure to reduce the ambiguity in comparison to the interaction with his mother earlier that afternoon, “one of Scythe’s friends at the academy.”

The older brother caught on quick, his face lit up. “No way! That's awesome!” Whether his excitement was over Gallus being a griffon or being a friend of Scythe’s was up to debate. Noting the stallion hadn’t given his name yet, Gallus was quickly reminded that there was a familiar Magnus name back at the academy.

“You’re Tomcat Magnus, right?” Gallus decided to guess.

The brother gave a short nod and smirked, “Guess Scythe told you about me?”

“Yeah, you can say that. Also saw your name on the records board at the Winstone’s Trial obstacle course.”

“Oh really, that’s still there? Guess it’s waiting for somepony will beat it, eh?” He slyly remarked, looking down towards his little brother, who had no answer. Leaving no time to prepare, Tomcat decided to force the moment to introduce them both to the rest of the family, by pulling Scythe along into the living room. “Hey! Look who I found! Scythe even brought a friend with him from the academy!”

Gallus casually made his way into the living room, although he was quick to regret it. It turned out the family photo didn’t exaggerate how large the family was, there was only a fraction of them in the room, and yet that still consisted of a few aunts, uncles, and cousins all packed in a single room. The ambience of the room was of a pleasant conference until the grown-ups caught sight of him.

There were oohs and aahs of curiosity. Both Tomcat or Scythe were unable to defend Gallus from their relatives, as they gathered around the griffon and tried to strike conversations, giving little time to respond to one. It didn’t help that, for all their polite intrigue, their comments felt invasive and narrow-minded.

“Hello, Corporal Lance Magnus. Must say, a griffon at the Royal Guard Academy? That must be incredibly challenging for you.”

“Nice to meet you, I'm Lieutenant Ida Magnus. How does it feel to soon become the first griffon in the pony's military?

“Hi, my name is Harpe Magnus. So, is it true what they say about griffons and socks?”

“What's up? Name's Blue Angel, Major of the Wonderbolts. We could do with a griffon flyer, so if you wanna join us after graduation, let me know.”

"Oh, hello again, I'm Ariel Bomb, excuse my husband, he works for the Wonderbolts like he's their biggest fan sometimes."

Fortunately, their rescue finally arrived. “Everypony, lunch is about to be served,” Gallus could breathe a sigh of relief as, the crowd no longer focusing their attention onto him, as Cherry Bomb called out from the kitchen. “Make your way into the dining hall to be seated!” The family members happily continued their discussions and remarks, as they slowly vacated the living room to make their way into the dining room.

Tomcat pulled Scythe along with him, despite the younger brother being tired of being carried around. Gallus followed behind, but as he made his way out of the living room and back into the hallway, he was once again distracted by a framed item on the wall. Instead of a photo, it was a medal, consisting of a bright pink gemstone shaped like a heart, surrounded by a gold brim and tiny pegasus wings. Compared with the other ribbons and medals, it was large and vibrant, its appearance felt oddly familiar.

The frame was professionally tailored to fit the medal, casing it with an inscription below. As Gallus inspected the inscription, he found it included the pony who had received it. Oddly, the word Magnus was not featured, instead, the only word featured in the name was “Rosewood”, so that must have been where Scythe got the name from.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

His feathers puffed out, Gallus felt his heart skip a beat and turned as an older gamboge pony he had yet to meet was standing beside him. His tall, straightened, posture with his arms crossed behind his back and stoic downward stare made himself intimidating, but he quickly smiled in amusement at making Gallus jump in surprise. “Forgive me, I thought it would be fair to properly introduce myself.”

The pony then reached out his hoof to introduce himself, “Colonel Birch Magnus, Cherry told me you’re a friend of my youngest son at the academy.”

Quick to recognise he was talking to Scythe’s dad, Gallus firmly shook the strong hoof. “I am, it’s good to meet you, sir.” He felt his muscles relax as he saw Birch silently appreciate the formality. The colonel turned their attention back to the wall of framed photos.

“Like I was saying, it’s impressive, isn’t it?” he reiterated. “One name, carried for over a thousand years, protecting this country. No matter how big this house is, we can’t fit every semblance of the family history on the walls, most of it has been loaned or donated to many regiments and museums over the years.” He looked heavenward, calmly basking with pride over being part of the history he was talking about. “Are you part of a military family, Gallus?”

“Uh, I don’t know, sir” answered Gallus, taken aback by such a question, knowing he couldn’t compare to the family estate he was standing in.

Yet Birch furrowed his brow, he observed Gallus’ straightened stance, his claws and paws parallel to the floor, his upright posture. "Hm, you come off being raised by one.” He quietly muttered to himself in thought, Gallus might have been in the academy for a few months, but to the colonel, his behaviour gave the impression of something more. Birch shook the thought off as he noticed Gallus set his eyes back to the pink heart-shaped gem. “The medal you’re looking at is unique amongst the collection,” he boastfully remarked. “The Pink Heart of Courage, awarded by the Ruler of Equestria to citizens and non-military personnel for demonstrating great acts of bravery and heroism.”

Recognition dawned on Gallus’ face, “I’ve seen it before…” he quickly glanced at Birch and saw him return a curious glance in return, “at the School of Friendship, I’ve seen it in the Headmare’s office, the Guidance Counsellor had one too.”

Birch twisted his lip, he figured whoever those two ponies were, must have been awarded for an exceptional act of bravery, much more recently. “The one you’re looking at happens to be mine,” he spoke with a sense of pride.

“What did you do to earn it?”

His pride faded as he recalled moments from his past, his ears lowered, and he wrapped his arms around himself. “I was on a hiking trip with friends in the Frozen North, during my days at the Royal Guard Academy, and there was an avalanche” he explained briefly, his voice gradually going sombre. “I was the only one to avoid being buried deep in the snow.”

Gallus’ shoulders slumped, realizing it might have been a bad idea to ask. “Sorry to hear that…” he uttered.

The colonel drew a deep breath and sighed, before regaining his smile. “I continued to trek along the mountains alone until I found the help needed to provide rescue, so the good news was my friends survived and received that very medal for my bravery.” The contemplative silence was ended as the sound of chattering in the dining hall caught the pair’s attention. “I think we’re better off joining the rest of the family, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yes, sir.”

The dining was long, able to fit more than a dozen ponies. The table was draped with a silk white cloth, with plates, cutlery and crystal glasses laid out, with most of the family sat around it. The room also had a fancy chandelier hanging overhead and a large window looking over a cloud-covered garden.

Colonel Birch didn’t take long to make his way around the table, making himself friendly towards the other guests with pats on the back and shaking hooves as he travelled to the open seat at the end of the table. The other family members would give calm smiles back and polite nods, showing the mutual respect he had.

The only pony who was oddly showing anything but happy to be at the table was Scythe, he sat with his head low, staring at the empty white plate in front of him. He had a vacant chair next to him, to which Gallus slowly approached to take his seat. There was a sense of suspicion with what was bothering Scythe at that time, as all things considered so far, the meal arrangements were going fine.

The one pony confident of the situation was Scythe’s mother, as she quietly went through an internal checklist. “Okay, so food is ready, table laid out, drinks being served, Ariel and Blue Angel seated over here, Gallus sitting with Scythe and Tomcat over there, what am I missing?” she asked herself. Coincidentally, her answer would emerge from the entryway.

“Cherry, Ariel, I can smell that this feast is the finest you’ve ever made,” an uplifting yet gravelly voice emerged from the entryway. “You girls make food just as good as your mother…” as an amber coated bald-headed elderly pony made his way through the entryway, his voice trailed off once his sharp eyes noticed Gallus sitting at the table. His thick dark grey eyebrows levelled as he questioned the sight, “Girls, there’s a griffon at the table”, he remarked.

“Oh, Dad!” Cherry called in surprise, rushing towards the elderly pony. “This is Gallus, he’s one of Scythe’s friends from the Academy.” She openly pointed with an outreached hoof towards Gallus and Scythe, her cheerful glee contrasted heavily with her father.

“Is he now…” the older pony uttered in a deepened voice; his eyes narrowed as he glared at the griffon. Both Gallus and Scythe looked back with wide-open eyes, the judging stare shifted the tone for the pair of them. Scythe was the only one to respond, drawing a nervously wide grin, slowly waving one of his hooves from side to side.

“Hey… Grandpa Patton…”

An Island Full of Surprises

Hey Gally,

Glad that Smolder and ‘Celly gave you this letter. Of course, they did, if you’re reading it right now. Hopefully, Sandbar and Yona are doing well. I appreciated their help in writing to you. <3

Right now, we’re getting the last things prepared on Mount Aris. Daddy has filled in and filed all the paperwork, so it should be ready when you arrive. All you and your academy friends need to do what you’ve trained to do. Daddy had to talk with Seaspray for hours to convince him this was a good idea, even longer than Aunt Novo.

I’ll meet you at the station when you arrive.

Silverstream

Gallus read the letter at least a dozen times, not that he could do much else. Mount Aris was so far south of Equestria that he had gotten on a train in the evening, and by the following day, the train had yet to arrive.

Fortunately, he had caught up with his friends from the academy, and they all stayed in an overnight coach with bunk beds, but that didn’t mean there was much to do. Having travelled from Trottingham, Pound Sterling had only woken up and was still tired from the long journey.

He looked outside the window to see a clear blue sky over a long calm sea stretched for miles. The fact Equestria built an entire train line that went across the ocean was impressive in itself.

Lightning Dust had read the magazines she brought, Nicknames brought a bunch of comic books, and Scythe had been reading through the thick hardback novel of a tourist guide left in their compartment.

Considering it was the only letter he was allowed to read, it was the only reading material he had to pass the time. And yet, reading Silverstream’s writing filled him with content, with its positive buzz and warmth.

She included a photo of her giving the camera a cute wink and a v sign, with the giant mountain out of focus in the background. She looked almost perfect; her silver hair was immaculate and appeared to sheen off the sun, her eyes glistened like amethyst stones, and her bright pink fur was fair around her face and thickened as it went down to her chest.

“Oh, what do we have here?”

Unfortunately, his appreciation for the portrait distracted him from the fact he was still sharing a compartment with his Academy comrades. Nicknames managed to snatch the photo from Gallus’ claws sneakily.

“Hey!”

He tried to reach out to take the photo back, but Nicknames had quickly employed an outstretched forehoof to hold Gallus away while another held the picture out for him to look at and react with a whistle like he was a wolf in a wacky cartoon. “So, this is the ladybird we’re finally gonna meet,” Nicknames remarked.

“Come on, give it back!” Gallus demanded, but Nicknames continued to hold it out, so the other ponies could see it, and most decided to pile onto the humiliation.

“Phwoar, Bluebird! She’s a beaut’!” exclaimed Pound Sterling.

“No surprise because you wanted to meet her so bad,” remarked Lightning Dust with a sarcastic smirk.

“Yeah, when do you plan to ask her out?” Nicknames couldn’t help to ask.

After minutes of flailing, Gallus fought back and grabbed the photo from Nicknames’ hoof. “Guys, stop it!” he said with a sharp stare. “We’re just friends, at least, I hope.” His voice was reduced to a disheartened grumble as he looked down at the photo. He used the ends of his talons to straighten out the creases that had formed from the ordeal.

It was enough reminder for the camaraderie to stop and the coach to quieten, but Lightning Dust remained sceptical. “Sure, we go through all that work so you can send a letter to her; when we bring her up, you’re red in the face, but you think you’re just friends”, she pointed out with her front hooves gesturing air quotes.

“He just has doubts”, Nicknames defended, in a way he could sneakily tease as well, as he wrapped an arm around Gallus’ shoulder. “Think of it like this, you’ve been friends for years, and you know what each other likes. With our help, we messed with the postal system so you could write to her, and she still wants to see you. Best of all, you’re both bi- “

“You’re not gonna say we’re both birds, are you?” Gallus cut in with a hawk-like stare. Nicknames paused to think before continuing.

“…you’re both berserk for each other.”

“Real smooth…”

“She’s also pretty”, a quiet voice ushered from the corner where Scythe was sitting, catching everyone by surprise. When Scythe looked up from his reading, he noticed four sets of curious eyes staring at him in response, including Gallus’, whose stare was annoyed and concerned at the implication that Scythe was joining in with the teasing.

“NICE! She's also pretty nice,” Scythe added hastily before burying his head back into the Mount Aris tourism book.

“You know, considering what she’s doing for us...”

“Aye, that’s a good point. ‘Ow much ‘as ya friend set up for all ov uz?“

Nicknames smugly provided the answer. “One week in Mount Aris, with travel, accommodation, and expenses all paid for,” he listed, with the uncanny ability to count on a single hoof. “PLUS, we get to experience being cadets on one of the Queen’s Navy ships, something Hippogriffs rarely provide for outsiders. I highly doubt an ordinary hippogriff could pull off a sweet gig like that, even for a friend. See, she’s really into you,” he nudged and winked towards Gallus as his face turned rosy.

“OR she asked her family for help. Her dad was in the Seaquestria’s military Sea Fleet, and her godfather runs the Navy.”

“Godfather?”

Suddenly, Scythe skimmed through the pages of his book, the phrase igniting a lightbulb in his mind. He then found a page titled religion and promptly read it aloud. “Hippogriffs and Seaponies have their own religion, believing that they are watched and protected by gods of the skies and the ocean...” he skimmed through a paragraph or two while mumbling before he continued.

“Newborn hippogriffs and seaponies are often ceremonially blessed by the gods, with a trusted friend of the parents assigned as the godmother or godfather to the newborn. They must witness the blessing and ensure they live a fulfilling life….” He skimmed to the bottom of the page. “The gods ordained the Royal Family to rule over the ocean and the Hippogriff Islands.”

Despite the firm argument from Gallus, backed by a detailed descriptor from Scythe, the other three remained doubtful. To them, Gallus was making more excuses that were harder to believe. “Okay, sure, so your ladybird just happens to have a veteran for a dad AND a God dad who runs the hippogriff’s main ocean defence,” Nicknames said sarcastically, mocking the way Gallus was propping up Silverstream. “Next, you’ll say she’s royalty or something….”

“Well…”

“Uh, Gallus…” Scythe picked up, with a sudden shakiness to his voice and a wide-eyed expression as if he had seen a ghost. “Isn’t that Silverstream on this page?” He held up the book and pointed his hoof to the page in question, but the distance and the hoof shaking meant Gallus got up from the bed and approached Scythe to take a detailed look. As he concentrated, the other three each stood up and walked closer to get a closer look at themselves.

The page was titled “The Royal Family of the Ocean, Hippogriff Islands, and Seaquestria” Below was a large and colourful picture of hippogriffs standing almost in a line on a stone-carved balcony, the image encompassing half the page. Each hippogriff had a name written underneath them to say who each was.

A light pink hippogriff with striking purple eyes and a thick mulberry mane covered by a glistening gold and cerulean feathered crown was shown above “Queen Novo”. Standing in the middle, with the aid of perspective and a naturally tall figure, she was the photo's largest and most prominent figure as a sign of her importance and authority.

A slightly shorter yellowish hippogriff stood close to the left with a light sea-blue mane. The proximity to the queen and a tender arm around her shoulder indicated a close familial relationship like a mother and daughter. The name “Princess Skystar” was printed underneath.

Standing slightly behind the queen on her right was another yellow hippogriff, sporting a bright pink mane that flowed like an ocean wave, wearing necklaces resembling kelp and seashells. The name printed underneath was “Princess Ocean Flow”.

Ocean Flow had her arm around a sapphire-coloured hippogriff with a silver mane shaped like a mountain, with an arm wrapped around her. The name printed underneath was “Prince (Cpt) Skybeak”, hinting at royalty and military links to his name.

Standing in front of both was a white hippogriff with a light blue mane, just above the name “Terramar”. Unlike the other hippogriffs left or right of the queen, who stood tall and confidently towards the camera, Terramar had a timid smile and waved to whatever or whoever was below the balcony.

There was only one other hippogriff whose attention was not on the camera, another bright pink hippogriff with a bright sea blue mane, with an overly excited expression as she appeared to hang over the balcony railing and wave frantically down below. Underneath was the name “Silverstream”.

“Yep, that’s her”, confirmed Gallus, but as he looked away from the photo, his friends met him with wide-eyed and aghast looks towards him. He furrowed his brow. “What?”

“YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH A PRINCESS?!”

The gang finally arrived at Mount Aris. The air was warm for spring, thanks to the tropical climate down further south, with barely a cloud in the sky. The five stood in the station, waiting for the arrival of Silverstream.

Gallus stood calmly, tapping his talons on the wooden platform as he waited patiently. His only worry was if she wouldn’t show up; Silverstream only had an issue with punctuality in the mornings. Then again, there were only two trains between Mount Aris and Equestria, given the distance between the two countries. There was a fifty-fifty chance she’d miss the arrival if she did intend to show up.

His current state was relatively calm compared to his companions.

Pound Sterling stared in awe at the mountain, with buildings going all the way up it with the palace at the top, all surrounded by a giant stone wall that resembled wings. She was glad she brought a camera just to snap a photo of it.

“Jono if we’re goin’ oop there? Ah di’nt bring anything fancy.”

She got no answer, especially not from Nicknames, who stood motionless like a statue with wide-open eyes.

“Is my mane alright? I really should have combed it while we were on the train,” asked Lightning Dust, using the window of the station building in a self-conscious urge to make herself look good.

“Social norms, social norms, social norms….” Scythe was frantically flicking through the pages of the tourist guide, trying to figure out what it recommended on how to interact with hippogriffs.

“Ah dun see any carpet or guards….”

After seeing his friend’s behaviour, Gallus rolled his eyes. “Guys, can you chill? It’s not a big deal,” he said.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, not a big deal”, the nervous Nicknames muttered. “It’s not as if we’ve just arrived in another country to meet one of the monarch’s princesses!”

“She’s the Queen’s niece.”

“Aye, that still make ‘er a duchess or sumthin’, yer coulda told us ‘bout that ages ago!” Pound Sterling added.

“I didn’t think it mattered that much.”

“Of course it does.” Lightning Dust refuted. “Who wouldn’t be shocked that they’re about to meet the princess of Mount Aris?”

“The ponies who were excited to meet Prince Blueblood at the Royal Guard Academy?” rebutted Gallus. Lightning Dust tried to respond but paused, recalling the evening ball where the prince was a special guest. “Also, haven’t you met Princess Twilight Sparkle before?”

Lightning Dust grumbled, “Sort of….” Along with refraining from admitting Gallus had a point, it was also from her time at the Wonderbolt Academy, when the yet-to-be princess was in a hot air balloon cheering on her friend before crashing down thanks to Dust’s reckless flying.

Gallus smirked. “So did I,” he remarked. “As well as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna at Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship. Considering how far and wide Twilight travelled across Equestria, you ponies seemed to see princesses all the time,” he explained.

“So fine, Silverstream is a princess, but she never made a big deal out of it, nor did anyone else at the School of Friendship. Everyone I knew treated her how she wanted to be: a young, pretty, kind, happy-go-lucky hippogriff who’s a little obsessed with mundane stuff that can’t be found underwater, like stairs, birds, or indoor plumbing.”

“Hey, Gally!”

“So, don’t be weird, be yourself, and you won’t have to worry about SilverstrEEEAAAAM!” It took Gallus a while to realise that Silverstream had flown in and stood next to him as he talked. Her sight caused him to flail in surprise and his feathers to puff out. “Hey, Silver… you’ve arrived,” he nervously remarked in a high-pitched squeak while held in a frightened pose.

Remarkably, Silverstream was unfazed by the stance, standing still and looking radiant. “Of course, I have, silly. You know I’m always on time to see you,” she replied, narrowing her eyes as she stared into his while inching closer.

She suddenly snapped away and looked at the stunned ponies wide-eyed. “Plus, I finally get to meet all your new friends!” she cheered in an overly excited fashion, throwing her arms in the air for joy as she fluttered off the ground for a few seconds.

The four ponies were left oddly relaxed, Silverstream didn’t act like any princess they imagined, and she was just there while other Hippogriffs walked past casually, not batting an eye that a monarch was nearby.

Silverstream slowly returned to the ground and stood by Gallus as if she was patiently waiting while there was nothing but the sounds of the ocean. “Well, go on, aren’t you gonna introduce them?” she asked, nudging him with an elbow.

The nudge helped Gallus break free from his firm stance, shocked that Silverstream was still so joyous as if all the letters and the emotions their friends described. Was she hiding it because his other friends were there, or maybe she had recovered as quickly as he thought?

At the very least, he tried to compose himself, cleared his throat, and carried on. “Everypony, this is Silverstream,” he said to the gang as he pointed to her with a claw. The ponies cautiously gave light nods, unsure how best to greet themselves.

He then turned to face her, “Silverstream, these are my friends from the Academy,” he said, gesturing to them one at a time.

“Lightning Dust, Pound Sterling, Scythe… Rosewood and Nickna- “

“Moniker.” Suddenly, everything went silent, except all eyes and stunned expressions were on Nicknames. Upon noticing, he quickly realised the confusion and stepped forward. “I’m Lightning Moniker, and let me say we are honoured to be invited to your island, your highness.” He then bowed at Silverstream’s claws and hooves with the grace of an upstanding Canterlot gentlecolt.

The revelation that Nicknames had a name other than Nicknames, and his sudden acting, was challenging. Silverstream giggled in response. “Hippogriffs don’t do that here. A little excessive. Guess it’s a pony thing?” She questioned, looking at Gallus with a single raised eyebrow.

“But I’m super happy to meet you all! So many new faces, except….” She shifted her focus to Lightning Dust, beamed and flew towards her, stopping inches from her face. “I’ve seen you before! You’re one of The Washouts!” The reaction was enough for Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling to regain their focus on the pink hippogriff.

“Uh… yeah, WAS one of the washouts. It’s a long story.”

“I love stories! Think you could tell me!”

“I guess…”

Lightning Dust started to tell how she was kicked out of the Washouts and ended up in the Academy. It brought the focus off Nicknames, who breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back. Although as he tried to listen, he couldn’t help but notice that at least one pony was still staring at him.

Scythe had a look of disbelief, although instead of a surprise, it was of annoyance.

“What?”

“Lightning Moniker?” Scythe said with an aura of scepticism.

“Yeah, that’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“I thought your name was Nicknames.”

“No, that’s just a name ponies call me.”

“All the officers and instructors call you Nick.”

“Yeah, Nick, as in short for MoNIKer.” Nicknames justified, although the explanation didn’t do any favours as Scythe furrowed his brow. “I’d rather be called Nicknames, anyway. Could you imagine how ponies in the military would treat me if they knew a stallion named Moniker?”

“Makes me wonder why you call us all names we don’t like….”

“What’d you say, Mumbles?”

“I mean… why use your real name now?” Scythe hesitantly asked to evade his previous murmured comment.

“Because we’re in the presence of a princess, it should be formal”, answered Nicknames. “Plus, being friendly to Bluebird’s crush will make Bluebird look good. He’ll thank us on his wedding night.” He felt smug when he saw Gallus looking towards Silverstream; the griffon smiled as she followed the emotions of Lightning Dust’s story.

However, Scythe let out an exasperated sigh. “This again? Gallus made it clear that they’re just friends. Can’t you leave it at that?” he asked.

“Course not. It’s an opportunity too good to miss.” Nicknames scoffed. “They’re lovebirds, and you know it.”

“Just because they’re both old friends and birds doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to be a couple.”

“Wanna bet?”

When Scythe turned to look back at Nicknames with a curious glance, he saw the pegasus stallion look down confidently with his forehooves folded. “Fifty bits says they’ll kiss or say they love each other before the end of the trip”, he proclaimed.

“You’re betting on our friend’s relationship?”

“If they just stay friends as you say, you get fifty bits”, Nicknames followed, trying to egg Scythe on. “It’ll be easy money for you unless you’re afraid of losing.”

His initial instincts were to refuse. Scythe was already reluctant to be part of the teasing between Gallus and Silverstream. Unbeknownst to the others, he did have enough bits on him, with the intent to buy a souvenir, but his mind couldn’t let go of that last part, saying he was afraid.

It dug into him, surrounded by sounds of laughter and jeering that surrounded him. It wouldn’t let go unless he did the one foolish thing. “Fine”, he relented with a groan, “but we can’t encourage them to do anything that will make us win.”

Nicknames grinned, Scythe’s condition added more challenge to his bet, but he was confident he’d win. The lovebirds’ feelings were obvious, even if it wasn’t explicit. They shook hooves and shifted their focus back onto the hippogriff.

As Lightning Dust finished her story, they saw the hippogriff with her happy face except with tears in her eyes. “Aw, that’s so sweet,” she said, clearly finding the story emotional. Having wiped away her tears, she fluttered back towards Gallus. “It’s good that you have friends to help you along the way. Ain’t that right, Officer Gally,” she said with a sly grin as she prodded his chest.

Gallus quickly found the prodding made him ticklish. “Yeah, okay, please stop”, he tried to protest through his laughter, despite not trying to defend himself or escape. It was as if he was possibly enjoying it.

“Who’s a helpful, friendly griffon? That’s you, isn’t it?” she teased rhetorically, talking to him like a child.

Being playful around a friend, Nicknames concluded in his mind that he’d easily win the bet without even trying. As such, he turned to a bothered Scythe and arrogantly asked: “So how soon can you give me those bits?”

Once all the antics on the train station were over, Silverstream took them from the station to the mountains. They all flew over the beach, where they saw hippogriffs and even a few seaponies above the water, which was shallow.

Those that noticed the group pointed them out, smiled and waved towards them, with looks and awes of fascination. Having a look around, Gallus couldn’t find any other ponies or griffons around. It was likely they were a rare sight.

Then again, he could see Silverstream in front. They could equally be excited to see one of their members of royalty. It was a refreshing setting change, with friendly and upbeat denizens.

Everyone got their look into the island’s central city, Hippogriffia. It was a relatively simple and open city, with loads of grass and cobbled floors, surrounded by trees and the occasional bushes. Some trees stood on a giant column-like structure with ramps swirling around to the top. It made a bit more sense why Silverstream was so fascinated by stairs in their younger days; even on land, the hippogriffs never seemed to use them.

And yet, there was something more peculiar about those trees. “Aaaand here we are~” Silverstream proclaimed in song as she landed in front of one of them. The trees had several coloured holes going up to the top, with several large carousel-shaped structures. Upon closer inspection, the holes weren’t holes, but glass, translucent frosted coloured sea glass.

Then there was a tall oval-shaped door at the bottom, to which Silverstream opened. The pegasus ponies were in awe. “Woah, this is where we’re staying?” remarked Nicknames upon realising their accommodation was a giant tree.

They went inside, going up within the giant tree to the inside of the coloured carousel. The room was immense: a big room with a kitchen on one side, a dining area with a large oak table and seats, and a long arching sofa around the side. Crystal lights shone all around it, making it glow like a lantern from the outside.

In the middle was a spiral ramp that led up to private bedrooms, although fitted to the ramp was a giant clock.

“So, do you like it?” Silverstream asked after she witnessed the jaws drop.

“This place is sick!” an ecstatic Pound Sterling proclaimed. “This livin’ room is bigger than my house!”

Silverstream beamed. “That’s great! Aunt Novo wanted to make sure you’re comfortable on your stay.” Gallus smirked; Queen Novo could afford to set this up.

Lightning Dust swooped right in and sat on the sofa to test it. “Yep, this is the kind of pad I want,” she said as she spread her body as wide as possible.

As all the pegasus ponies admired the place, Gallus was finally within close reach of Silverstream, with nopony to distract them. He took side steps towards her, carefully taking the chance for a little chat.

Finally, he stood by her side, and a quick scan of the room showed the ponies weren’t paying attention. He cleared his throat. “Hey, Silver” Silverstream’s ears perked up, and her head snapped towards Gallus. Gone was her smile; thanks to the surprise, Gallus knew he needed to follow it. “Thanks for your help setting this up.”

Silverstream let out a short breath of relief. “Oh, you know, all I did was get a few family members on board with the idea. I didn’t do much,” she humbled herself, twirling the end of her silver hair with a single talon.

“Pretty sure when family members include Her Majesty, you did a lot”, Gallus smirked, although the cheek did lift Silverstream’s spirits a little as she stopped filling with her hair and raised her chin. “How did you convince your family, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Let’s say I’ve gotten really good at painting my ideas. Mom said I could open a gallery with the pitch I made.”

Gallus quietly chuckled at the thought of large piles of canvas paintings sent one after the other in front of her parents and aunt. He remembered how painting was one of Silverstream’s many hobbies she discovered during school.

“Did any of those paintings include me?” he cheekily asked. Silverstream started to puff up and hold her breath. “As long as you got my good side, I don’t mind.” He puffed out his chest and held his head up, giving a sultry stare to appear photogenic.

Silverstream giggled, giving Gallus some relief that he could be amusing. It gave him some hope of how forgiven he was.

“You know, since we’re here, there has been something we’ve been meaning to talk about-“

Suddenly, Silverstream seized up, and her feathers puffed out as some form of anxiety took over. “Oooh, look at the time. I better get going!” she abruptly said out loud.

“Wait, already?” Gallus asked, taken by surprise. “It’s not even late.”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m needed back at the palace.” She said nervously and hastily before frantically waving towards the ponies in the living room. “Have fun! Enjoy Mount Aris! See you soon!” She quickly turned towards the spiralled ramp and started flying to the front door.

Something wasn’t right; Gallus wasn’t sure what had happened. Maybe he said the wrong thing? He followed her, able to catch her.

“Did I say something? I thought we’d have some time to talk about… Y’know… the last few months.”

He could gradually feel Silverstream’s talons slowly relax along with her body, and her ears flattened as she turned to look at Gallus with sadness. “Gally, there will be time to talk, just not now.” She whispered, but there was still some force to her voice. “I’m supposed to be on Mount Aris for family and royal business. I need to catch up on that and… I need some time.”

Gallus felt his heart sink. He felt stupid for not realising there were still rough patches. Not to mention that his visit wasn’t the only reason she was here. As he began to loosen his grip, Silverstream curled a small smile beneath her saddened eyes. “Besides, you and your friends must prepare for the Navy tomorrow.” She quickly used her other claw to lightly hold down Gallus’, keeping him from completely letting go.

“Meet Daddy at the base entrance before 0730. You’ll find it south of the train station. When you come back in a few days, we’ll talk. Okay?” She instructed.

Gallus took a deep breath, “Okay”, he answered, his tone deep and gravelled. Her claws slipped away as she made her way out of the door.

He made a slow stroll back up to the living room, finally reaching the top as the others noticed his return. “So… what did you guys talk about?” questioned Nicknames with a cheeky smirk on his face, unaware of how gloomy Gallus looked.

“Nothing, she’s just busy,” Gallus asserted as he avoided looking at the others. “I’m gonna get something to eat.” The others looked at each other with concern as Gallus headed to the kitchen, quickly knowing that their talk didn’t go well.

“Uh, good plan. I am famished,” Pound Sterling remarked as the room was encouraged to start preparing dinner together. While there was fun to be had, they had to be ready for the following morning.