The Rise of Passion

The school was locked down now more than ever. The whole town was absolutely crawling with guards. A fair few of the students, almost a hundred of them, had either been brought home by their loved ones or left of their own accord, thinking that the school was no longer safe.

Every single hippogriff student with the exception of Silverstream had left. While Silverstream had been told to leave, she'd opted to hold fast to Ocellus and Yona, and after a big fight, had been left behind. Twilight thanked her for the vote of confidence, but had still asked Silverstream to consider leaving an option to keep her from becoming outcast by her own society. Twilight was okay with her leaving, if doing so meant her safety, and saving her relationship with her family. Still, Silverstream stayed, not wanting to leave Ocellus here alone, as none of the changelings were being called back home.

In fact, Thorax had encouraged the changeling students to stay and use their abilities to seek out any strong source of hatred to combat whoever was causing such harm. Starlight had left right away, as her services of mediating between Twilight and Applejack were no longer necessary, and she wanted to make sure her child was absolutely safe in the Crystal Palace. That left the biggest source of anger and spite in the whole school as Applejack, pacing around in her cage under constant guard.

Applejack wasn't always angry, of course. When Big Mac came to see her, she was in joyful spirits, licking his hoof as he rubbed her shoulders, trying to cheer him up. The same could not be said of Twilight's first few visits. After three days, Twilight opted to come in alone, and that made Applejack happy. She still hated Gallus, though.

Speaking of, this was the only time he ever left Twilight's side for the first week. She knew that he would have taken the shot for Applejack if given the chance, or at least would have kept her from being so exposed. At the very least, she wouldn't have been alone at that moment if Gallus had gone with her. To that end, he was not to leave Twilight's side, ever, with the exception of this one room, as he upset Applejack.

Gallus was still becoming more and more pent up, unable to relieve himself due to lack of privacy with his friends. Sandbar had Yona, at least, but Gallus had been on his own since he started protecting Applejack. It had been almost a month since he'd been allowed to spend time with his friends outside of the view of his charge.

He even slept in Twilight's room. There were guards posted outside the door and the windows were replaced with tempered, laminated glass to prevent anything coming through, but she still had him sleeping on Spike's bed while he was away with Ember. He should have been back last week, but she'd bidden him stay to keep him safe.

They were having lunch in Twilight's office one day when it all hit her at once. "Is your sandwich too spicy?" asked Gallus, looking up at her grimace. "You can take my milk carton."

She shook her head, then hid her face in her hooves. "It's all gone wrong, hasn't it?"

"What has?"

She gestured all around her. "My dream. This school. The magic of friendship. It's all crumbling around me, and I don't know what to do..."

As a tear rolled down her cheek, Gallus put down his lunch and walked over to her, giving her a big hug. "The magic of friendship isn't crumbling. It's not even weakening. It's stronger than this." As he looked over her shoulder, a smile came to his face. "Come here a second, take a look at this."

He escorted her over to the window and looked down into the courtyard. "Tell me, what do you see?"

Twilight looked around. "Clusters of students separated from each other. They're not interacting, and they're distancing themselves from each other."

Gallus shook his head. "Don't concentrate on the whole forest, look at the individual trees." He pointed to his own friend group, eating lunch separate from most of the other students. "I see Silverstream making sure that Ocellus doesn't eat alone, and inviting Yona to sit with them. Yona, of course, brought tea and Sandbar, and none of them need fear when Smolder's watching them from the tree branch. Even amidst this terrible fear, there are smiles on their faces, because they're together. Something that could not happen without you. You gave them the protection that is the magic of friendship."

Twilight knew what he was doing, but she wasn't buying it. "My friendship couldn't protect my friends. That they came to protect me made it so that they were killed, or forever changed. Now I'm afraid to let Spike anywhere near me because I'm afraid of what will happen to him. I don't think I could live with myself if he were to suffer the same fate as Rarity and Pinkie Pie."

Gallus snorted. "What are you talking about? You're still protecting him. You're just doing it from afar. It's a long-distance relationship."

"It still feels bad, shutting him out of my life like this."

"It does, doesn't it? But don't worry yourself too much. He'd want you to smile. And you can smile, knowing he's unharmed."

That brought a smile to her face. "Thanks, Gallus." she hugged him in return. "You're a good friend."

Everypony else in Gallus's position would have balked at that. To be considered a friend would have pissed off an older stallion that was trying to sleep with her. To be a friend would set a precedent, making him incapable of reaching the status of a boyfriend.

Luckily, Gallus knew better. He even had evidence to back up his claim. He had been good friends with Sandbar. He'd been close friends with Smolder. He'd been friends with Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus. And while he'd been building up for the past month away from them, they had crossed that uncrossable barrier. He had done the impossible before with a little bit of help.

He had set himself up for it this time, as well. And now he was ingratiating himself to the headmare. She would come to rely on him, and he would be there when she needed him. If he had to go another month to make that happen, then so be it.