Griffon the Glow-Up

That was what brought Gallus to be standing outside of the apartment that Smolder and Ocellus had taken, one half of a duplex that Yona and Silverstream had bought the other half of.

As it turned out, a royal allowance and a hoard of gems worked wonders at convincing ponies to overlook their usual concerns about unusual neighbors.

And right now, despite his jeans and t-shirt, Gallus felt pretty unusual, standing on the porch with a bag from the Carousel Boutique hidden inside his duffel bag. It should just look like he was coming to spend a night with his friends, but he couldn't help the nervous twitch in his tail every time somepony walked by.

Don't let it get to you. Sandbar knows what he's doing, and he isn't going to set you up with… someone he doesn't trust. It took more mental effort than Gallus liked to remember that this wasn't the same type of situation he'd left behind in Griffonstone. He's going to be right there anyway, and you know you can trust him. Now, let's get this over with.

He reached out and knocked on the door. Smolder opened it almost immediately, smirking down at the griffon. Not that he minded; there were perks to being chest high with her, though he had to wonder sometimes just why it was that dragons even had tits.

"About time,” she joked. “I was about to check if you forgot how to knock!"

"Nah, just deciding if I wanted to do this with you in the house to watch Ocellus get smitten," Gallus shot back.

"Psh - sure, tell yourself that, bird-brain." Smolder snorted a small smoke cloud. "I'm not worried unless you rock a negligee like I rock a uniform. Come on in, just watch your head and don’t go into any of the blocked off rooms.”

“How are the renovations going?” He asked as he followed her in, looking around the duplex and the rooms that were mostly blocked off from the main living room and kitchen.

“Not bad. We should be ready to take in some more students before the next year starts. Looking to trade places with Yona?” She smirked back at him. “Silverstream’s going to be all on her lonesome….”

“Except for the new students she’ll have in her half,” Gallus said dryly. “Besides, I hear she has her own stuff going on that’ll keep her from being too ‘lonesome.’”

“Fair enough. Still going through with this ‘Royal Guard’ idea of yours?”

“Just got back from basic training last week. I’ll be part-timing it between finishing out my last credits and getting up to speed next year. You still going through with this ‘teaching’ idea of yours?”

“Because teaching at the same school I went to is clearly on the same level of crazy as becoming the first griffon guard and making it my job to jump in front of pointy things aimed at royalty.”

"Glad you agree!"

"If you two are finished flirting?" Ocellus called out to them. "I've got your stuff together, Smolder. Are you sure you want to use your palette? Wouldn’t mine work better?”

“Color theory, lovebug.” Smolder smiled as she led Gallus into the master bedroom the two shared. “I just need to use my contrasts as Gallus’ complements, with yours I’d have to tweak everything to make sure I get the right change in all the blues.”

“I guess you’re right.” Ocellus shrugged a bit, then hopped up to give Gallus a hug.

“So, did you bring your things?” She asked him eagerly.

“Heh - brand new from ‘Rarity’s for Two!’” He unzipped his duffle and pulled out the bag. “Should I go change in the bathroom or something?”

“If you’re feeling shy, sure. But it doesn’t bother us - nothing we haven’t seen before, after all!” She winked at him, Gallus and Ocellus both blushing at the memories that brought up.

“Yeah, but we’ll all be sober for this, unlike your graduation last year.” All the same, Gallus sat the bag down on their bed, starting to strip down to change. “Silverstream offered to loan me a few things, but I figure if I’m going to start doing this again, might as well do it right.”

“Again?” Smolder asked, raising an eyeridge.

“Yeah. I should probably warn you guys, since Ocellus might pick up some of the background. Back when I was kind of professional, I had a couple of clients who liked this sort of thing. One of them was actually happy just using me like a doll, it was kind of nice working for him most of the time. I always looked like a clown afterwards, but he wasn’t looking to work out any frustrations. And Gruff wasn’t involved with any of that,” he added, giving Smolder a quick look as he unzipped the boots wrapped around his canted feet and slipped out of them and his jeans.

“Gotcha, so I only have the standard reasons to want to pummel the old buzzard,” she said casually, turning around to set out her makeup and give Gallus a little privacy at least.

“Are you going to be okay with all of this?” Ocellus asked him gently. “You know Sandbar wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable. Or anyone he’d try hooking any of us up with.”

“What I did doesn’t bug me,” Gallus shrugged, slipping into a pale violet thought and rolling up a pair of sheer red-striped leg warmers to put them on over his paws. “Who I did? Sometimes, yeah, but not the what. Besides, I’m the one who talked about getting all dressed up like this.”

He rolled one of the legwarmers up a long, leanly-muscled thigh, the elastic top snapping into place. Under the sheer red cloth, his fur gave it more of a purple color, stripes of the same light violet as his thong alternating with a darker purple-red all the way down to his mid-paw, leaving his clawed toes sticking out the end.

“Are you both going to be helping out with the makeup?” He asked them curiously, starting on the second legwarmer.

“I’ll be doing your makeup, Ocellus is just my reference model. It’s how I learned to do my own,” she admitted. “It was matching what she showed me, or asking someone to teach me. I wasn’t up to that yet.”

“So we do it like this!” Ocellus smiled as Gallus slipped into a violet negligee with a layer of sheer red silk on top. She flashed with fire, changing form to match his and starting to shift color on her new cheekbones and eyelids, occasionally pausing to consider her results in the mirror before tweaking something new.

“I think we want to go for a more natural look?” She asked Smolder.

“Oh yeah, nothing too heavy,” the dragoness agreed. “Sandbar’s the only one we have for a reference point right now, and Yona is totally not into the heavy stuff when Rarity isn’t going overboard. More orange on the highlights, like his crest?”

As the two lovers bounced ideas back and forth, Ocellus adjusting her colors to show the results, Gallus got up and stretched out, taking a practice strut around the room to get back into practice. He padded around the short carpet, hips swaying side to side in smooth counterpoint to his tail as he quickly found his proper balance. It took him a few moments to realize that the room had gone silent, and Ocellus and Smolder were both staring at him.

Smolder reached over and pushed Ocellus’ jaw up, closing the changeling’s mouth before letting out a low whistle of her own.

“Okay, so maybe I should be worried about you making me look bad,” she murmured. “If the three-way doesn’t work out, come on back here after, we’ll be happy to comfort you all night long.”

“I take it I’ve still got it?” The griffon smirked.

The purple striped leggings came most of the way up Gallus’ thighs, clinging to him smoothly without any lumps where his fur had bunched up. There was a gap of blue above them, before the eyes followed naturally up to the violet thong that just covered - and perfectly nestled the bulge of - the griffon’s sheath and balls. Above that, the negligee left his abs exposed, buttoning over his chest and hugging his upper body nicely.

“Oh yeah, you’ve still got it,” Smolder agreed, eyes still roaming up and down his body. “I’m not even really into guys, and you’ve got it.”

“I am definitely going to the Carousel tomorrow,” Ocellus muttered to herself, quickly turning to cover up for her staring.

“And I’m going with you,” Smolder grinned. “But let’s get loverbird here under the brush and show him what we can do to make him look even better!”

With that, Gallus was promptly sat down in the chair Ocellus had been occupying, and Smolder was doing her best to take ‘jaw dropping’ and move it up to ‘irresistible’.