Chapters Hearth’s Warming Eve was approaching — a holiday where you were supposed to gather with family or friends in order to exchange gifts, listen to good (and, in some ways, cautionary) stories, drink a pint of cider prepared for the winter, sing a couple of songs, and, of course, share joy, happiness, and endless fun with your loved ones, realizing your unity to spite the ancient Windigos. Of course, every nation living in Equestria and beyond had their own ideas about this special day, but that's how Sandbar — a young pony of light turquoise, mint, off-white color with a mane the color of the sea — saw this holiday.
The holiday had yet to come, so the atmosphere at the School of Friendship was relaxed. The students were already starting to pack their things, buying gifts for their relatives, and spending the last days with friends, hoping to reunite after the holidays.
Night. The full moon, filled with some mystical silver light, had just replaced the sun. Only occasional clouds, driven by a cool breeze, sailed past the night luminary. Maybe they were coming from Cloudsdale?
That night Sandbar, not yet suspecting that this night was a special one, crept along the hall of the school's now-dormant dormitory, trying not to stamp his hooves — Silverstream had a very light sleep, and any sound, even the quietest one could snatch her from the domain of the Princess of the Moon. He'd stayed too late today in the Sugarcube Corner, volunteering to taste dozens of Pinkie’s cupcake recipes. According to her, her friends were worthy of only the best cupcakes, so she did not let Sandbar go until every cupcake was tasted. Though, to be honest, the colt did not mind spending time with the professor — how can anypony refuse the hero of Equestria, the element of laughter, a good mentor and a companion to the princess, especially when all combined in one pony and, besides, the cupcakes were just delicious.
He was already at the door of his room when he suddenly heard the quiet but distinct sounds of guitar playing coming from another room.
Sandbar froze. Although the sounds were muffled, he realized that he had never heard someone play the guitar so beautifully and melodiously (other words he could not think of), as he had never heard such sad melodies, especially on the eve of one of the most gladsome holidays. Was Octavia holed up in one of these rooms?
Sandbar was surprised for a second time when he discovered that music was coming from the room of his friend Gallus, who had never been famous for his musical abilities.
Without any hesitation, the young stallion approached his friend's room and leaned his ear against the door. Then he was surprised for the third time because, as it turned out, the door was unlocked…
The door creaked open, and Sandbar, losing his balance, tumbled forward and awkwardly sprawled on the floor like a horse rug.
Gallus, who was sitting with his back to the door, turned around and tried to hide the guitar as if it was the evidence of some heinous crime.
“W-what are you doing?!” The griffon with blue plumage (only the belly and neck were white) tried to be indignant, but his voice broke. No matter how hard he tried to imitate anger, fright clearly got the better of him.
“How about you?” thoughtlessly blurted out the frightened and ashamed pony, still lying on the floor like a rug.
“None of your business!” The feathered one replied pugnaciously, turning away. The voice, despite the postured anger, still sounded somehow wrong. Sandbar had never heard such intonations in his friend's voice, just as he had never heard his guitar playing.
He slowly got up and stood in place. On the one hoof, the friend was clearly not happy with such a brazen invasion of personal space. On the other hoof, something was clearly wrong. But what?
“Are you still here?” Gallus raised his voice without turning his head.
Then everything became clear. Shortness of breath, changes in tonality, slight nasal twang…
Is he... crying? Sandbar guessed.
It became clear to him what he needed to do. He didn't know if he was doing the right thing, but he knew he couldn't do anything else. It was impossible.
After closing the door, the colt cautiously approached his friend and sat down next to him on the bed. He didn't say anything, didn't object, didn't try to kick him out. He just glanced from under his brows with his eyes wet with tears and sniffed softly. His paws clutched the guitar to his chest, like a mother her child.
“You play well!” Sandbar said, almost in a whisper, lightly nudging the feathered one. “Why didn't you mention this before? Professor Rarity said that you should be proud of your talents, and it's perfectly normal to show them.”
“Because I knew you'd pry...” the young griffon muttered angrily, then he took a deep breath and continued more calmly. “Or else, so that Silverstream doesn't make me tell the hippogriffs what a 'guitar' is. I'm not ready to pick up a million synonyms for 'strings', or whatever…”
Gallus turned sideways to the Sandbar and began to pluck the strings with clawed bird fingers. The room became filled with the sounds of a certain calm, melancholic, and incredibly sensual melody.
Sandbar had heard many songs in his hitherto short life, but neither the heady hits of Countess Coloratura, nor the tempestuous tracks of Sapphire Shores, nor winter carols, nor the spirited songs of Pinkie Pie, nor even the seriously solemn sanatas of Octavia had ever awakened in him such emotions as these three simple chords.
It seemed as if he wasn't playing the guitar, but his soul itself was singing, filling the space with longing and sadness, mourning for something. Closing his eyes and listening to this melody, Sandbar seemed to feel himself in a boat surrounded by a solid wall of fog in the middle of the ocean, and there was no edge to the ocean, and there was nothing beyond the fog — he was forever doomed to a kind of loneliness in the void.
Sandbar looked from the griffon's paws, masterfully plucking the strings, to his muzzle, and back again. His eyes were closed, but there was still moisture on them. It was noticeable how tense his jaw was, with what efforts he kept his beak closed, how slowly his mighty chest rose and fell.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gallus noticed how his friend was looking at him with barely concealed admiration. At first, he tried to just ignore it and only clenched his jaw tighter, playing with his jaw muscles. Then he couldn't stand it and, stopping the game, opened his eyes.
“I can teach you how to play, too. Do you want to?” he asked, quickly wiping his eyes and smiling timidly.
The colt had many questions on the tip of his tongue, like why he was crying and whether everything was fine with him, but knowing the griffon and his habits well enough, he understood that now was not the best time. And, obviously, not everything was fine with him…
“Of course!” Sandbar did not hesitate to answer, taking the instrument from the bird's paws. “But I don't think I can do anything with it... my hooves are not suitable for this.”
“Huh, tell it to Appledash, or whatever her name is! She taught me how to play.”
“Professor Applejack? I didn't know could…”
“There’s something you don’t know about our teachers, huh? Who are you, and what did you do with Sandbar?” Suddenly amused, Gallus grinned.
He slid somewhere behind the horse's back, and now Sandbar was sitting between his friend's paws, pressing his back into his soft chest. He had no idea that griffon feathers could be so soft. The pillows could easily be stuffed with them.
“The guitar should be held like this,” he said, correctly placing the instrument in his friend’s hooves. “Although it will probably be more convenient for you to hold it this way. Now put your right hoof on the strings, pinch here, and…”
Completely different sounds filled the room. No matter how gently Gallus held the pony's hooves, guiding them in the right direction, the student could not really learn a single lesson. Any chord he played sounded rough, ragged, unmelodic. Trying to play on one string, he touched a couple of neighboring ones; all the mistakes that a novice guitarist could make, he made a hundredfold.
Despite the negligence and incompetence of the student, the lesson was surprisingly fun. They had never laughed as much as they did now. Alone, for sure.
When the Friendship School first opened its doors to Gallus, he, like many students, experienced problems with adaptation. This problem was particularly acute when it came to doing anything together — he was afraid of not being the best. The outwardly imperturbable griffon would sweat at the very thought that someone might see him from an imperfect side or might think that he was not the best of all. That's when Director Twilight told him that friends don't care if you're good at anything or not, what important is that you do it together, have fun, and get to know each other. After all, joint activities were supposed to bring everyone closer.
A lot of time had passed since then. Now Ponyville had become practically home, and the ponies didn't seem too weird, and Twilight left school in order to rule Equestria. But he remembered this lesson well, and more importantly, he put it into practice.
“Now try the same thing on an open string. Even you can't screw it up.”
“You don't know me well... where is it?”
“Here, I've already shown you.”
“I get it... how do I play it?”
“For starters, sit up straight.”
“Like this?” the colt stretched out like a string, resting the top of his head on the griffon's chin.
“Even Grandpa Gruff doesn't hunch like that, you stooping dog!”
“Hey, stop messing around!” The pony laughed, hunching over to spite his strict teacher.
“Okay, okay, just try to do it like this. Try to keep the sound clear.”
“Like this?”
“You didn't hold the string.”
“And now?”
“And now you've pinched them all, and... hey, you're just kidding around! It's not fair!” Gallus ruffled the stallion's mane that, even in winter, pleasantly smelled of something marine. And cupcakes. Marine cupcakes.
Another peal of cheerful innocent laughter came out, followed by silence. With the silence came the old atmosphere of incomprehensible apathy and melancholy. The stallion almost physically felt something gnawing at his friend.
Gallus changed his position, sitting next to Sandbar, and the colt immediately felt abandoned and orphaned without a comfortable support in the form of a griffon. He even felt a slight chill, even though the room was warm. He wanted to lean back against his soft fluffy chest again, get his flank covered with wings, feel warm breath on his neck, hear a kind laugh in his ear. Doesn't the true friendship mean to enjoy each other, to care about each other? Sandbar saw more than once how Professor Rainbow Dash would sit in an embrace with Professor Applejack, covering her with a wing and thinking that no one could see them. Neither of them guessed the invisible presence of a sharp-sighted student, trying to study all the habits of his idols, learn all about friendship, graduate from school with all honors, and, perhaps, get a job at the princess's court to bring the light of friendship to all who need it.
“Gallus, is something wrong?” he finally ventured the question that tormented him, and gently touched a friendly shoulder.
“Nothing,” the griffon answered unexpectedly sharply, frowning again and lowering his head.
Celestia's mane! Sandbar silently reproached himself for his haste. He won't say anything now for sure.
“It's nothing. Just think, on the eve of Hearth's Warming, everyone, including me, will go home, and this time I won't be able to detain all of you to clean. So, while you're all having fun out there, I'll have to listen to endless reproaches from Grandpa Gruff again, wander the streets, and — what's even worse — miss you, and wait for these stupid holidays to end!”
“You can always write us letters. Doesn't Gabby deliver them anywhere in the world?” Sandbar suggested after a moment's thought. The problem was by no means new, but the pony still didn't know how to react to it.
“No, you don't understand. I can't last that long... without you! I don’t care about this Griffonstone, if you aren't there! I don't care about everyone else! I need YOU!”
Gallus opened the window, letting in fresh, frosty air. Silvery moonlight filled the room, causing the tears to seem as if a trail of shimmering diamonds was flowing down the cheeks of a griffon who looked out of the window.
“...me?” the shocked colt could only answer, not fully realizing what he had just heard.
From the very first day of his stay at this school, griffon kept to himself, as, indeed, did Smolder. But if the dragon eventually, as it’s said, "thawed out" for her friends, Gallus always tried to behave with restraint to maintain the image of a tough guy who had prepared sarcastic phrases and grins for all occasions. It was only with Silverstream that he seemed to flourish — he smiled, laughed, made good jokes, talked about topics that he would not dare to start a conversation even with himself.
But with Sandbar, he always behaved especially coldly and did not miss a single opportunity to joke about his "eggheading" and reverence for professors, treated him with some kind of exaggerated disregard, blamed him for all the troubles and often argued aimlessly... yes, the things he did to the unfortunate colt. From the very first day. From the very first sight.
And how surprised the pony was when he heard such words from him. "I don't care about everyone... I need you..." Not Silverstream, not Smolder... him!
Gallus fell silent. He could not stop the gushing flow of bitter tears. He tried not to whimper, in case Sandbar thought he was a crybaby, Celestia forbid! Although Director Starlight taught that no one should hide their emotions from friends, Gallus has not fully learned this lesson yet.
“I... can I help?” The pony walked slowly towards his friend.
He had never seen any of his friends in SUCH a state before. His heart was breaking when he looked at the silhouette of the one he used to consider a friend shuddering in silent sobs…
Gallus clenched his fists and jaw hard. He wanted to drive this naive brat away, but at the same time... he didn't. And he couldn't.
“Shall we take a walk?” the griffon suddenly asked, turning sharply.
And without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his friend by the arms and flew out through the window.
"A-a-ah!" Sandbar shouted as the floor flew treacherously out from under his hooves. A terrible thought flashed through his head only for a second, He wants to throw me out of the window! , but the thought remained just a thought.
Gallus flew out through the window, and a wonderful new world appeared before the Sandbar in all its glory: Ponyville itself glowed like a massive festive tree, festooned with garlands. Everyone was preparing for celebrations and feasts; the Town Hall shone brightly in the distance, the Carousel Boutique sparkled with lights, the Sugarcube Corner attracted the eye. Against the background of the city blooming with lights, the shadowy Friendship School and Starlight Castle looked very gloomy and inhospitable, not decorated with a single ball, not even a single garland ribbon. Only the moon bathed these architectural masterpieces in silver light, giving them a gloomy majesty and mystery. From the outside, this place no longer gave the impression of being inhabited. On the contrary, it seemed as if an ancient castle that had disappeared in time, storing a great many universal secrets — terrible secrets, incomprehensible secrets — appeared on this special night to disappear again for centuries in timelessness, until some mad Saddle-Arabian prophet discovered it.
These thoughts flashed through the head of an overly impressionable colt with a romantic nature as quickly as the streams of cold wind blowing over the muzzle. Now his attention was drawn to the forest — Everfree Forest. The forest where he once hid with friends from the terrible prospect of separation, where he went hiking with his beloved professors; it was there that they breathed life back into the Tree of Harmony, there that he once ran after Yona. Then again, and again, and again... so many memories.
And this forest, which seemed impenetrably black from above, and the magically twinkling Moon, whose light seemed to be absorbed by ominous trees, and the clear, star-studded sky the color of indigo corduroy, and this refreshing and cool head-clearing wind that beat right in the muzzle and hurt the eyes, and all this unprecedented lightness, emancipation of the spirit — everything reminded Sandbar of a book he had picked up in the Twilight Library and that instantly became his favorite one. It was the book about the nameless virtuoso and the beautiful Margaret, about their love, about miracles, about the Princess Luna, who creates a judgment on the vicious Canterlot townsfolk, and, of course, about the unfortunate philosopher Ponishua Neigh-Neigh and the cruel tyrant, the fifth captain of the royal guard Ponia Pankrat ("...in a white cloak with a bloody lining..." he remembered so vividly). And to Sandbar, no matter how stupid it sounded, it seemed as if he was the beautiful Margaret who had gained wings, and Gallus was his beloved virtuoso.
Sandbar was so carried away by the successive landscapes that he did not notice how he found himself in a crystal treehouse 'built' by Tree of Harmony.
He felt so good, felt such an unprecedented lightness in his soul, that all thoughts flew out of his head. He went out onto a small balcony and fixed his gaze on the forest. Memories came alive in him.
Gallus perched next to him, side-by-side. Or flank-by-flank? Didn’t matter.
"Do you remember how we hid here? From the whole world?" Sandbar asked, fascinated.
"Yeah, it was cool," Gallus replied, pulling his friend close with a warm wing, overworked from a long flight. "Until those mallards, or whatever they were, showed up…"
"Yes, that wasn't very cool…"
"And then Professor Rendledesh appeared, and WHOOSH, and Twinkie was firing a cannon, Flutershay was glaring at them, and the Princess was conjuring... It was so cool!"
"Yes, I guess it sort of." Sandbar smiled hearing the griffon’s interpretation of the professors’ names. Perhaps there was no point in asking if he deliberately distorted them so amusingly, or if some aspects of pony culture still hadn't been understood by him.
Again there was silence, and again it poisoned the fun with longing, and again they both felt it. Sandbar woke up from his half-nap, threw off the veil of nostalgia and distracted thoughts, and remembered the recent conversation.
That was the last time they didn't like silence.
"Right away, I disliked you. Right from the first day of school. I heard your voice and figured you for an egghead. A half-baked smartass. An arrogant guy, like, 'ooh, look at me, I'm so friendly, I'll show these stupid griffons how to behave.' Gallus spoke in an indifferent tone and pulled away from his friend, depriving him of the warmth of his wings.
Sandbar felt something prickle in his heart, his front hooves trembled nervously.
Pain, resentment, misunderstanding boiled in him with a vigorous, soul-burning mixture. He remembered his first day of school, as well as a certain feathered arrogant lout. He remembered how proud his parents were that their son — an ordinary provincial colt — entered the school of Princess Twilight herself. Not only were they proud, but he himself felt an incomparable delight then. He remembered how he didn’t know where to look first when he saw such a great abundance of various creatures, how glad he was that he would be honored to study with them under the watchful eye of a young princess. The very fact that he could freely make friends and communicate with griffons, changelings, dragons, about which his parents had once read scary fairy tales to him, was a great gift. And now this very griffon, which the friendly stallion considered as his friend, was saying such words to him. Insulting words, devoid of a grain of truth…
Did he bring him here to take out his anger on him? To express everything that has accumulated in his soul? To humiliate? To scold? To hurt him? All together?
Sandbar was silent. He raised his head high and looked somewhere over the forest, his eyes clouded with resentment, preparing to break off at any moment and run out of the treehouse on shaky, unsteady legs. He knew that if he cried in front of Gallus, the ridicule would never cease.
"... But I realized that I was wrong. You know, the ponies weren't as weird as I thought. And you... you're an amazing friend that I never dreamed of, I couldn't even think of at Griffonstone. No, really. Do you know that you're nice? I would even say... cool," Gallus continued his speech, also fixing his gaze somewhere in the distance, as if looking beyond the horizon. "Well, now you know."
Sandbar shuddered. Anger and resentment subsided from his soul as quickly as they surged, giving way to confusion. Did he hear right? Gallus called him cool? The same Gallus who rarely called him by name, preferring to call him egghead and nothing else? The one who never took him seriously and found fault with his every word?
"It was great hanging out with you. And then... I do not know how it happened, but I... Celestia, what have I come to..." Gallus sighed sadly, closed his eyes, and lowered his head. Then he clenched his jaw and inhaled more air, his muzzle distorted with some kind of suffering grimace.
"I fell in love with you!" he blurted out sharply so loudly that the echo kindly picked up his words and carried them all over the forest. "I can't believe I've said that…"
"I..." Sandbar opened his mouth, shocked to the depths of his soul, and closed it without saying any other word.
"I... I was scared!" the griffon chattered, sitting right in front of his friend and blocking his view of the forest. It was as if he was afraid that his friend was going to say something that would change his life forever, or perhaps escape from the balcony, so he tried to speak faster. "I thought that if I fought with you, it would pass, but... Discord damn me, everything got even worse! I was thinking about you all the time, I couldn't take my eyes off you. Recently, I dreamed you had wings, and I was teaching you to fly, and then, on the ground, I found myself under you... I can't stand it any longer! Sandbar, I love you!"
Something pricked the colt's heart. He looked at the griffon, who was slouching with his whole body, eyes cast down at the floor, and could not find words. If instead of words it was possible to simply convey feelings, he would convey a whole hurricane of feelings…
"I love you, Sandbar," Gallus said again, almost in a whisper, looking up shamefacedly at his beloved.
The pony's eyes searched his friend, expecting that now a smile would stretch across his muzzle, his eyes would sparkle with a mischievous gleam, friends who were waiting in advance would jump out from behind the columns, a confetti cannon would be fired, and Gallus would announce that the naive boy had been fooled by such an obvious prank. But it didn't happen, not after seconds, nor ten, nor twenty, thirty... sixty…
And then moved to tears, the colt hugged his feathered friend tightly... or was he no longer just a friend?
Sandbar never thought he could fall in love with a guy, because he never thought about love.
He had everything he could only dream of: a loving family, wonderful friends, the best teachers in the world, and, of course, the sea — he devoted himself to them all without reserving a trace. Somewhere in his subconscious, he knew that someday he would have a new family like his old; someday he himself would become a parent and have his own foals, and they would someday have their own. He knew it, but he never thought about the details. Love always seemed to him to be something «adult», something that would one day just come to him as something inevitable. And so, it came. Caught up with him at the most unexpected moment, caught him by surprise, forced him to shed a couple of tears.
Yes, Sandbar never thought about the possibility of having a love union with a griffon or with anyone of the same sex, but after listening to Gallus, he did not feel disgust or contempt, did not feel shame, did not see anything wrong or reprehensible in it. Only one feeling possessed him at that moment.
Love.
Love hit him in the head so abruptly, so insidiously and meanly that the poor pony even forgot how to breathe. He wanted to share his love. Love did not break him, nor his beliefs and principles, but filled him with something inexplicably pleasant and necessary. He wanted to take poor Gallus by the paw and never let go, he wanted to whisper all sorts of cute nonsense in his ear, swim in the sea with him, fly him over Canterlot, and most of all, hug him as tightly as his strength allowed.
That's what "friendship turned into love" means.
The griffon hugged his beloved in response, covering him with his wings.
"Purr…" he suddenly made a sound reminiscent of contented cat.
Sandbar, obviously not expecting this, laughed — the vibrations of his laughter passed through the entire body of the griffon.
"Are y-you making fun of me?" Gallus asked, startled, recoiling.
"What? No! I'm sorry, but that sound was just hilarious. But… yes. I love you too, in fact."
"Oh? And when did you realize that?" the feathered one replied in an incredulous tone.
"Well... just now, I guess?"
"You ponies are such weirdos."
"Why?"
"Be friends with everyone, love whoever for no reason at all…"
Sandbar approached Gallus. He kept looking at him and couldn't get enough of him. After the declarations of love, it seemed to him that the griffon had somehow transformed. His light blue eyes may have indeed changed slightly: their gaze has become softer, more tender, and a warm light seemed to play in them. The face was frowning no more.
Probably, the colt just never looked at him so carefully and so up close — he'd kept his ironic distance every time he'd held his gaze on Gallus a little too long. And certainly until this moment, he had never so wanted to kiss him on the corner of his beak or bury his hooves in the soft feathers on his chest…
"No, you're not just anyone. You’re... you're an idiot!" Sandbar said without malice, looking the griffon in his tender eyes.
"Why's that?"
"Why didn't you tell me right away? Didn't Professor Applejack teach us to be honest?"
"You're talking about your professors again!" Gallus flapped his wing indignantly. "At least now-"
The kiss didn't let him finish.
Sandbar carefully pressed his lips to the corner of the griffin's beak, pleasantly burning the guy's cheek with intermittent, confused breathing, betraying an extreme degree of excitement.
This kiss, if it can be called such, was so sincere and childishly innocent — very mush like how children first kiss — that the pleasantly surprised Gallus only licked his nose in response and broke into a happy silly smile. He tried to cover his head with a wing, but the first kiss was followed by a second, even longer one.
For the third time, the couple tried to kiss like adult stallions and mares, or like some of their particularly loving and tactless peers, but no matter how they tried to realize this romantic gesture, which was a staple topic of any book about love, their efforts were in vain — the colt's mouth and the griffon's beak were a bad combination, on account of either their dissimilar physiological features, or their poor knowledge of the practical art of kissing. In any case, after a few awkward, though very pleasant, attempts, both silently promised themselves to «catch up» on the subject. It’s curious if the venerable professors knew about the science of interspecies kissing, or if the young couple were to become pioneers in this field? Or maybe they should have gone to Princess Cadence? She was the princess of love, after all.
The floor in the treehouse, despite the winter, was warm, but not as warm as the sides of the interspecies couple pressed against each other.
Sandbar lied pressed against Gallus and tucked his legs under him — only his head stuck out from under the soft wing that covered the colt.
Both of them were already tired-eyed, both felt drawn to sleep, but neither thought of sleeping — that night they wanted to spend as much time with each other as possible, to make up for wasted time. Both understood this, though they did not say it out loud.
Sandbar looked up at the starry sky, untouched by a single cloud. It seemed as if the Moon had become larger, and the indigo cover of the night had lightened, acquiring purple shades.
He looked up at the sky and remembered night-hikes with Professor Pinkie Pie.
At nights, while hiking, Pinkie liked to stay up for a long time. As soon as the Moon rose into the sky, she called everyone around the campfire and told various amusing, sometimes creepy stories (one particular scary story about how she and Professor Dash cooked cupcakes was especially popular — after hearing this story, Silverstream could not so mush as look at Professor Dash or cupcakes for a long time), treating her students with so many sweets that it was almost impossible to fall asleep afterward. When the stories ended, and the sugar overdose set in, everyone laid themselves down under the open sky and looked at the stars. The cheerful professor loved to invent constellations. Firstly, she'd spot a cupcake in the sky, then Starswirl The Bearded, then Celestia's hoof, then the big six-pointed star, a trombone, a record player, a toothbrush, a hippogriff's tail, and so on. And listening to her chatter, everyone involuntarily began to see in this bunch of heavenly bodies everything that comes to mind of a strange, but friendly, cheerful and caring pony.
So Sanbar tried to recall the invented-by-Pinky-Pie constellations, and he succeeded a little.
Gallus listened semi-attentively to the little pony's recollections, occasionally burying his head in that mane smelling of the distant sea and salt. Sometimes he thoughtlessly agreed — the stars did not care much for him. Except for one star... the one that was lying, snuggled up to him.
This bliss felt like it could go on forever, if suddenly a thin golden-pink streak of dawn did not inevitably loom on the horizon. Twilight was raising the sun, without any mercy, ruining the fragile and elegant beauty of the night. The stars faded, waned, disappeared…
"Join my silence, and listen to the wind that will begin this morning with the rays of dawn..." Gallus suddenly uttered with sadness in his voice.
"The morning has broken, a new day has begun…" Sandbar, who had almost dozed off, replied. "How do you know that? You…"
"Well, Octavia's operas were not as boring as I expected. But... don't you tell anyone."
"What's up with you, Gallus? Or, as the song goes... 'tell the truth, my dear — where did these tears come from?' Sandbar, who caught the sad intonation, asked directly, not wanting to beat around the bush. Today they both learned what hiding their own feelings could lead to.
"Don’t pretend you don't know. We're going home today, and we won't meet... for a while. Why did they want to raise the sun so early?"
The Sun had finally driven away the darkness of the night and has established its power over the firmament, only to fall once again when the Moon gained back its strength. The sunrays pleasantly warmed the feathers and blinded the eyes. Why had Sandbar never noticed before how beautiful Gallus was in the rays of dawn?
"How naive you are to think that I would let you go to Griffonstone." Sandbar said, snuggling closer to his friend.
"But we have to leave? For our families. We can't stay…"
"You're my family now," Pony said defiantly. "Which means you can come with me. Of course, if you want to visit Griffonstone, then..." The pony looked away.
"What about your parents? What are you... what are we going to tell them? I don't want you to get in trouble because of me…"
"Don't be afraid, they will understand everything, I know. We'll be glad to see you at our celebration. I've already prepared a couple of stories. I'll even knit you a sock! Well, If I have time…"
"But how... what if the griffons lose me and attack Equestria? What if they find out about us and disown me? And what if Headmare Starlight finds out? Or Princess Twilight? And what will the guys say? And..."
"They would never do that! Now hush," Sandbar whispered affectionately, not without a kind smile, watching the excitement of his almost-boyfriend and touching the griffon's beak with his hoof. "Do you remember what was next? 'Silence speaks to us so tenderly... let it be.' All right, it sounds better in Ancient Equestrian, but it's still great."
"Angel of my dawn, take my hand, and your morning star-" Gallus picked up, but did not have time to finish.
"They're here! Holy Celestia, how did we not think of it right away! It's the same story!" Voices ranged out from somewhere behind.
The guys jumped up synchronously and turned around. Standing in front of them were Headmare Starlight, her Vice Principal Sunburst, and Advisor Trixie, who had appeared out of nowhere. The complete set, so to speak.
In surprise, Sandbar's feet slipped on the slippery floor, and he again flattened himself like a rug.
"Uh... Рeadmare? Advisor... What... are you doing here?" Gallus asked warily, for some reason standing in front of Sandbar, who was trying to get up.
"What are WE doing here?" shouted the blue mare in a cape and hat, Advisor Trixie, "The great and powerful tracker Trixie was looking for you all night through the Everfree Forest instead of preparing for the performance, and you were HERE all this time?! What the hay?!" Her face twisted into an angry grimace, as if she was going to bite someone.
Trixie was approached by another mare of light purple color with a purple mane — Рeadmare Starlight Glimmer, the viceroy of Princess Twilight herself. She touched Trixie’s neck with her hoof, who sighed and calmed down, although her angry snuffling could still be heard in the silence.
"Okay, maybe I'm not such a great and powerful tracker…"
"Look, Silverstream said that some kind of winged monster dragged Sandbar into the forest," Starlight spoke in a calm but agitated voice. "Gallus, you were missing from your dorm. So naturally, we have herded all the students into my castle, informed the Princess, and sent the royal patrols to search for you all over throughout the forest…"
"So... neither of you were kidnapped?" Sunburst finally guessed — an amber-colored stallion with an enviable mane and beard of titian color. His body was covered with a blue star-spangled cape, without which no one had ever seen him. It was said that if you saw the Vice Principal without clothes, you would go mad.
Sandbar finally got up and stood by Gallus.
"Well, where do we start…"
Night, room, bed, couple; warm candles’ light.
The couple was laid on a soft bed, covered with a warm blanket and pressed cheek-to-cheek. The bed, belonging to Sandbar, was a little cramped for an already grown-up pony and a large griffon, whose wing had gone numb from lying on his back, but they did not notice any inconvenience. They were together, in no danger of separation, and nothing else mattered.
The feast of Hearth’s Warming was a success. Windigo did not come. Equestria was not on the verge of destruction. Twilight and Starlight deigned not to punish them with a thousand years hard labor for the panic they caused (although Silverstream was mostly responsible for this, because that fateful night she too had suffered insomnia, to her misfortune). Gallus played guitar. Sandbar even managed to knit a sock for Gallus as he had little else to do on the train besides holding a griffon’s paw.
"Your parents are cool," Gallus said not enirely without envy, adjusting his wing. The griffon was still amazed by the warmth of his reception.
When he first arrived at Sandbar's house, the colt’s family greeted him as if it was not their first meeting, as if the son had not spontaneously brought home his brand new boyfriend but had returned with his own brother.
Why didn't anyone tell him right away that everyone in Equestria was indifferent to sexual orientation?..
And what a surprise when it turned out that in a family you could take care of each other without constant abuse and reproaches. You could even make your relative feel good, without demanding a reward in return. As he learned, there are a lot of nice things to do with a family like that!
Sure, griffons are cool, strong, proud, self-sufficient... but who needs all this when there is no one to wait for you at home? When you don't even want to go home?
"I know. I also have a cool boyfriend."
"Ha! I know. What would you do without me? Wait, let me guess... you’d crush on Twilight?"
"Perhaps... or I would be waiting for a griffon who would ask to marry me straightaway, and not wait for years for an opportunity to play the guitar with me."
"Try to find the griffon as cool as... what?" Gallus rolled his eyes before almost choking on surprise. "What did you say?"
"I said you could immediately confess your feelings, not dream about me all night, every night, hiding from your love of me under your blanket," Sandbar dared, smiling. It wasn't until recently that he realized how cute Gallus became when he was embarrassed and how easy it was to bring him to such a state.
"N-no! You said…"
"Marry?" Sandbar turned on his side, muzzle to his interlocutor, propping his head with a hoof and smiling slyly. "What do you think this is? I presented you to my family. We're lying in the same bed... technically, you now have to marry me! This is an ancient pony tradition, after all."
"But we're both... guys!" Gallus spread his claws helplessly, as if trying to convey ideas for which words had not yet been invented.
"Both Lyra and Bon-Bon are mares," Sandbar riposted.
"I'm a griffon, you're a pony!"
"Great, I love griffons. Or, I should say, one particular griffon…"
"Our parents will be against it!"
"Well, mine won't."
"We're not... adults yet!"
"Excuses, excuses. Gallus, are you trying to break an ancient Equestrian tradition? Or you... just don't want to marry me?" The pony pretended to make a sad muzzle, but the simple pretense was too mush; the feathered one bought it without a second thought.
"Yeah! I mean... no! I mean... I want to be with you, but... how are we going to live together? How do ponies get married? What…"
"Shush, honey." Sandbar moved close to Gallus and instantly felt his hot, excited breath on himself. "I'm just kidding." He wanted to laugh, but the confused griffon's expression caused such a wave of emotion in him that the laughter disappeared at once. Instead, he just smiled broadly and gently ran his hoof over the soft feathered breast.
"Oh, you... you..." Gallus made a disgruntled face, but it didn't last very long — the griffon burst out laughing and forgot what he wanted to say (or he just couldn't).
The winged one suddenly turned over abruptly and hovered over Sandbar, pressing his hooves into the bed. Although the pony had grown up, he was still too small to resist the griffon, so his lover effortlessly pinned him to the bed with his weight.
"For this heinous joke, I sentence you to... a kiss!" Gallus leaned towards his friend, looking defiantly into his mischievous eyes.
"So what are you waiting for?" Sandbar replied, enduring the captivity with fortitude.
Gallus, not letting go of the pony, bent even lower, touching the colt’s lips with his beak. Then he freed his slave, and both of them, slowly falling on their sides, timidly, as for the first time, directed their mouths towards each other. The griffin gently supported the colt's head, fingering the tendrils of the softest mane between his fingers, and Sandbar, having lost the remnants of audacity and mockery, held his breath and with trembling hooves anticipated the sacred moment with his eyes closed.
Apparently, they were not destined to experience this moment. That night, at least.
A scroll that came out of nowhere fell on the couple's heads.
"Celestia! What's it? Where is this from?" The griffon jumped up, almost flying up in surprise.
"Hmm, it looks like dragon-mail…"
"Dragon-what?"
"Princess Twilight taught me that…"
"Yeah-yeah-yeah, you memorized everything the Princess ever told you ever forever, I got it. What's it say?"
"Expensive paper... the royal seal..." Sandbar said in an undertone, turning a rolled scroll in his hooves and licking his lips. He unsuccessfully tried to tear off the seal with his teeth, but Gallus snatched the letter and tore off the stamp with one deft movement of his paw.
Sandbar snatched the scroll out of his boyfriend's paws and began to read the letter out loud.
"Dear Sandbar!
I have already been informed about what happened the night before the Day of Hearth’s Warming. I apologize for the fact that I personally did not have a chance to take part in the events thereof and that I neglected to meet with you, my most faithful student, and your friend personally — during these events known to all of us, I was occipied by the undertaking of an important diplomatic mission, negotiations which dragged on for many hours. Before anything else, let me express my joy at the positive resolution of this problem.
I have been additionally informed of the activities in which you were observed to participate. I hasten to assure you that Equestria welcomes any form of mutual love, so you don't need to fly into the woods to show your feelings. No one will blame you for your connection.
This news spread amazingly quickly through the scientific circles of Equestria. Until now, there has not been a single documented case of mating between a pony and a griffon…"
"What is 'mating'?" Gallus interrupted. "Is it when you become good mates with someone?"
"... and since little research has been conducted hitherto on the reproductive system of griffons, much less their sexual interaction with representatives of other species, I would like to ask of you the following: to write me a detailed, first-hoof report describing the whole process. In the report, among other descriptions, the following items should be described in detail:
1. Preliminary rituals;
2. Which partner was in the dominant and submissive role, and whether there was a roles-switching;
3. Anatomical details of the process;
4. Sounds made by both partners (phrases, words, etc.);
5. The ejaculation process;
Such a report should be compiled after each copulation process, in order to identify common features for each process and highlight specific patterns.
If you wish, you can inform me directly — I will arrange your travel to Canterlot, and as part of a group of scientists, I should be able to personally observe this truly unique phenomenon (an experimental group of dragons has already submitted to this kind of direct observation).
I request thay you give an answer immediately.
Equestrian Science is reckoning on you!
With great respect,
Twilight Sparkle, Princess and Mistress the All-Equestrian, ruler of Canterlot, Vanhoover, Fillydelphia, Baltimare; lord of Las-Pegasus, sovereign of Manehattan, mare-in-chief of Cloudsdale; patroness of Ponyville, Appleloosa…"
— I think you can skip this part.
"P.S. Spike, rewrite this letter in normal language, I accidentally sent it to the Department of Diplomacy. Also remove those titles. Don't let Discord read it like the last time."
By the end of the reading, Sandbar's body temperature had risen by several degrees — he was quietly burning with embarrassment, shame, and indignation. They'd had a couple of awkward kisses, and now the whole Equestria "knows" about their intimate relationship? How does that work?!
He wanted to fume out loud, but he stumbled upon meeting the gaze of Gallus, and the outrage stuck in his throat: the griffon was grinning and piercing the pony with a wild look full of desire.
"You heard the Princess! Let’s go ahead, and make discoveries! Scientists all over Equestria are counting on us!.."
***
Yona sad, Yona sing sad song…
***
