Gallus refused to walk, allowing his friends to push him across the hallway floor.

"This would go a lot faster if you got off your tail and hauled some ass," Smolder grunted, pressing against his back.

The griffon didn't respond and allowed his weight to be shoved forward unwillingly.

"Not to be blunt, but I agree with Smolder. Get off the fucking floor," Ocellus breathed tiredly, not used to moving so much bulk. Gallus wasn't fat, but as a guard, muscle and mass was a requirement. "There are trucks lighter than this."

Silverstream propelled him forward as well, not panting as heavily as the changeling, but still struggling nonetheless.

"Gallus, please, please, please cooperate. Our arms are becoming noodles."

The captain of the royal guard nearly changed his mind upon hearing Silverstream's pleas, but the thought quickly vanished as his ears picked up on a distant sound.

Laughter.

And it wasn't just any laughter. It was deep, carefree, relaxed laughter. And then the smell of saltwater and gardenias and vanilla. And then a huskier, near indescribable scent that Gallus knew all too well.

He immediately stiffened, making the girls' task even harder.

"That's it!" Ocellus exclaimed, backing away from the griffon. For a second he'd thought he'd won, that he wouldn't have to confront what he'd been avoiding for years. He whipped around to make a smug comment, only to be met with a flash of colorful fire, and then a large Bugbear. Fuck.

Smolder and Silverstream backed up instinctively, allowing their friend to take the lead. She gathered Gallus up in her arms, and flew towards the laughter. When they'd reached the lounge, she happily dropped Gallus onto the cold floor and transformed back into her normal self.

"Look who wanted to say hi!" Ocellus' fib was declared triumphantly and bluntly, every creature knowing good and well Gallus hadn't ended up here on his own merits.

After a moment of grumbling and dusting himself off, the blue creature realized he was the center of attention. He stilled.

Yona took initiative. "Gallus," the yak greeted, rushing over. She clearly wanted to tackle him, but decided against it, shoving down the urge. "Long time."

Yona's ponish had improved greatly, but she often felt more confident saying less to ensure that nothing came out structured weirdly, unless she was with her friends. She knew they'd never make fun of her, but at the moment she felt self conscious. She hadn't spoken to Gallus in what felt like forever, even if it had only been a year or two.

"Yeah, it has been. Good to see you," he replied, hugging her out of instinct, and then backing up as he mentally acknowledged the elephant, or rather, pony in the room.

He cleared his throat. "Hey, Sandbar...how's it hanging…?" Though he was trying to use the double entendre to defuse the situation, maybe even get a laugh himself, the room was dead silent.

Sandbar's face shifted from surprise, to discomfort, to disbelief.

Gallus became anxious. Eighteen year old Sandbar would've picked up on his humor immediately. But his twenty-something year old counterpart didn't budge.

"Are you kidding me?"

Gallus felt as cold as ice, frozen under the weight of the question, the inquiry crushing his spine and forcing out all the air he had stored in his lungs. Four words. Four words had rendered him breathless.

Sandbar walked over slowly, leaving his place on the couch. He came so close to Gallus that he could analyze every detail, every little strand of fur or feather out of place.

His poker face broke as a huge grin spread across his face. The earth pony looked beyond ecstatic.

"I'm great! I cant believe you're here!"

The griffon's eyes widened, unprepared for such an anticlimactic welcome. This is what he'd been avoiding for five years?

"Uh, y-yeah. On official guard duty. I'm Princess Flurry Heart's personal protector," he stuttered nervously. How could Sandbar be so cheerful? Had he forgotten what happened? Because Gallus sure hadn't.

"That's amazing! Glad to see you moving on up in life," Sandbar congratulated, staring into the griffon's eyes.

"Th-thanks."

They stared at each other for a moment. Sandbar had definitely grown in five years, and his facial features had matured as well. But he still had this calmness to him, this energy that expressed just how happy he was to be awake and alive and breathing, but in a wordlessly serene way, as opposed to Yona and Silverstream's loud, obvious way of expressing how much they loved everyone and thing. Sandbar was practically glowing. Suddenly it was hard to breathe again.

"Great! Griffon and pony acquainted again. Can we move on?" Yona asked jokingly, happy to see that her ex boyfriend and friend were getting along for the time being.

Gallus stuttered in response, tearing his eyes away from Sandbar.

"We have so much catching up to do," Ocellus said, taking a seat on a chaise. Smolder flew over beside her, allowing for the changeling to lay her head on her lap.

Gallus eyed them quizzically as he plopped onto the couch next to Silverstream and Yona, while Sandbar gingerly sat on a floor cushion.

"Yeah, I have a feeling that I.." He stared as Smolder played with Ocellus' hooves.

"...missed some things."

"Well, I have the perfect game for catching up," Sandbar said, gaining the attention of the rest of the group.

"How do we feel about some good old fashioned truth or dare?"

Flurry Heart and her friends had covered the expanse of the school surprisingly quickly, Lunette deciding to write down architectural facts at a later date. Honey Canvas only really stopped to admire the art across the school, some made by students, some by professor Silverstream, others by famous artists.

The group came across creatures of all kinds, the number near equal to that of the equine that inhabited their learning environment.

They'd met the choir and theatre director, Sweetie Belle, who was just as opposed to honorifics as Gallus, and a few other teachers as well.

Now that they were done, the group had dispersed to further inspect the school in sections that interested them.

Though he was incredibly shy, the sight of art seemed to have the same effect on Honey Canvas that Flurry and Lunette did, opening him up and making him feel calmer and more comfortable. He trotted towards the art room in excitement.

Lunette had decided to take a trip down to the front office to see if Sunburst and Starlight had any idea what building techniques had been used to create the school.

Flurry Heart had wandered around some more, making her way into the courtyard.

It was beautiful.

There were a wide variety of flora and fauna that decorated the ground and trees, providing peace and beauty. Flurry hadn't a doubt in her mind that Fluttershy could take credit for this portion of the school.

She sat at a table and began to absentmindedly pull rocks, twigs and flowers out of the ground, weaving and chipping and snapping them in order to create a sculpture. Though it wasn't her special talent, sculpting came naturally to her and was something the princess enjoyed to do in her free time. Sure, she'd only started it to cope with her loneliness, but now that she had friends to talk to, it was more of an impressive skill than a disturbing pastime.

The alicorn worked diligently and patiently. When a rock took a little longer to crack than she'd wished for, she didn't yell. She continued at her steady space and blocked out the outside world.

As the night inched across the sky, a gradient of blues and yellows and oranges and pinks coloring Flurry's face, she decided it was time to go back inside.

Before getting up, she turned towards the horizon and watched the sun set fully, Luna's moon rising quietly.

Flurry had only been here for a little while, but she had a good feeling about this school.

She loved it here. Despite its flaws, bullies, classes and all. Flurry audibly affirmed her thoughts, whispering into the warm night. "I love it here."

"I hate it here," Gallus groaned.

It'd been three hours since he parted ways with the princess and he had been put through ridiculous dares. He'd reluctantly chose truth a few times, and been forced to open up about things he'd rather not talk about.

The real icing on the cake was when he was faced with the question,

"What's going on between you and Silverstream?"
The excitable hippogriff had been using the bathroom, and the question was left hanging in the air the second she left.

"What?"

"You guys flirt every ten seconds. Are you gonna ask her out?" Smolder said, clarifying her question.

"Believe it or not, I don't see Silverstream like that. She's like a sister to me. Kind of. I flirt with everyone, it's all in good fun."

"Gallus don't flirt with anyone else in this room," Yona said teasingly, backing up Smolder.

"Well let's analyze this. I would never hit on Smolder, I value my life too damn much. I used to flirt with Ocellus, but she's dating Smolder, so that's out of the question. Yona, you don't usually flirt back, so I just quit after a couple attempts. And Sandbar…" his voice grew quiet. He didn't dare look up from the claw he'd been counting creatures off of, allowing the silence to consume him. He used to flirt with Sandbar far more than anyone else in their friend group. But then The Incident had occurred, and then they didn't talk for five years…

He coughed uneasily, trying to recover. "Um, anyway, since I don't flirt with any of you, Silver picks up some of the slack. It's all in good fun, we both know I'm just venting my emotions via mindless innuendos and claw kisses. Besides, I'm pretty sure she's seeing someone. And when they become exclusive, I'll find someone else to flirt with. Plain and simple."

The creatures nodded but all began to look at Ocellus, looking for confirmation that their griffon friend wasn't harboring any romantic attraction towards Silverstream.

The blue changeling shrugged. "He's telling the truth." Though this was something Ocellus had known for years, unintentionally analyzing her friend's emotions since she'd met them, this seemed to be a genuine surprise to the rest of the group. "He did have a crush on her during the first two years of school, though."

The guard blushed but tried to hide his embarrassment. "That's true, unfortunately. I stressed myself to death over not looking like an idiot in front of her."

"In front of who?"

Gallus jumped, unaware that Silverstream had entered the room. Gallus racked his brain for someone he could mention as a scapegoat, knowing his lie would be detected immediately if he mentioned anyone in this room. "Uh, Apple Bloom. Had a huge crush on her back in the day. Moving on."

"Aww! You should've told me! I would've helped set you guys up."

"Pass. Trust me, I've seen your attempts at setting people up. Leave it to Ocellus, will you?"

"Hey! I am an impeccable matchmaker."

The entire room erupted into fits of laughter, including from the hippogriff herself.

"I could barely keep a straight face as I said that."

The group asked a few more questions, all far too tired to give or receive any dares. The night began to wind down, and it was time for the professors to get their sleep in preparation for dealing with hundreds of students.

As the creatures said their goodbyes and exited the room, Ocellus pulled Sandbar to the side.

"Are you okay?"

Sandbar blinked. "Yeah, I'm–"

"Okay, let me rephrase this. I know you're not okay. Don't lie, there's no point."

As Sandbar looked around the room, empty except for the changeling that stood before him, he let his facade fall.

"I've never lied so much in my life," he said quietly, allowing his emotions flow out. "How can he just show up like this? And he wasn't even going to say hi? I'm tired, Ocellus. I'm so, so tired." Sandbar sighed and ignored his watering eyes before fixing his expression.

Normally, Gallus would've caught the fake smile. Normally, he would call Sandbar out on it and they'd talk until he didn't feel like a miserable clump of mismatched cells. Normally, things were normal and they didn't ghost each other for extended amounts of time. But maybe half a decade corrodes your bond with someone, maybe it rusts like metal. Maybe he couldn't tell what was real and fake anymore, and he'd have to learn Sandbar all over again, analyze him all over again. If he even wanted to, that is.

Sandbar walked out of the room, right passed Ocellus. "Yona, wait up," he called, pouring what little happiness he'd had left into his words, his energy suddenly sapped. Ocellus now stood alone in the lounge. Thinking about the emotions she'd tasted today. Acrid, sickening emotion. Hurt. Fear. Confusion. The only things that prevented her from vomiting it up was Smolder stroking her coat softly, and two flavors that were far from foreign creeping their way onto her taste buds. Hope and yearning.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! Sorry there wasn't much Flurry content, I'm trying to leave some of the drama for the future rather than shove it all into the first few chapters