Peace Celebrations

Scale looked at the door and then back to the paper floating in front of her. The white paper, which was enveloped in a grey glow, had the numbers 254 hastily scratched onto it. The pony on at the admissions desk had given it to Scale after she had been excepted into the music program by Mr. Ensemble, the music instructor.

The silver numbers on the door, 254, looked a lot like the numbers on the paper; they were not well taken care of and hastily put up. The door, as far as Scale could tell, was supposed to be made of oak but one could no longer tell. A number of deep scratches and gouges covered the once dark wood, making it one of the worst looking doors on that floor.

The top of Scale’s saddle bag opened and the paper floated inside. Scale took a deep breath and tentatively knocked on the door. There were a number of bangs, clangs, and crashes from the other side. Scale waited for almost an entire minute for whoever was making the ruckus to open the door.

When the door finally swung inward, a mostly black gryphon was standing on the other side. The creature’s features had a certain feminine quality so Scale assumed that the gryphon was of the female persuasion. The gryphon’s jet black feathers were sticking out in all directions and so was the fur on her backside.

The gryphon took a second to look at her grey claws while her grey spotted tail swished behind her in annoyance. Apparently finding her talons uninteresting, the gryphon looked up at Scale with bright blue, cat-like eyes.

“Can I help you?” The gryphon asked in a gruff, yet feminine voice, with no trace of an accent. Scale was impressed. The language that the majority of ponies spoke was not made for the mouth, well the beak, of a gryphon.

“Um, yeah. I think I’m supposed to be your new roommate.” Scale said. “The admissions desk directed me here.”

“Dude, they said I had a whole week to get ready. You’re early.” The gryphon said, leaning against the door frame. She lifted up her left talon and dug it into the wood. That explained how the door got so messed up “You sure you’re supposed to be here? Normally, they only put the same species together.”

Scale shrugged and pulled out the scrap of paper. The gryphon snatched it out of the air. She looked over it and frowned. Sighing, the gryphon moved out of the doorway. Scale could now see inside the room and was pleasantly surprised.

Though the room was set up to accommodate a gryphon, not a pony, it was well taken care of. Apparently, the current resident had only gone to town on the door and had left the rest of the room alone. Even the carpet was in good condition save a few stray feathers.

“You gonna stand in the hallway all day or what?” The gryphon called. “Your side of the room is over there. You can whatever you’d like with it as long as it doesn’t affect my side. You’re a unicorn so if you’re gonna practice magic or anything, don’t do it in here.

“Oh, and just for the record,” The gryphon said, poking her head back out into the hallway. “I am not going to be your friend. If I see you outside of this room, I will not say hi; I probably won’t even say hi to you if I see you inside this room. I will not be your wing-gryphon. If by some chance you manage to get a coltfriend you want to bring over, I need a 24 hour notice. Any less and I make no guaranties.”

Scale found these conditions a little harsh but didn’t really mind. With any luck, she wouldn’t be spending much time in that room anyway. Besides, friendship wasn’t what was on Scale’s mind at that moment anyway. She was more worried about the instruments she hadn’t been able to fix. She knew it was a strange thing to be thinking about but, never the less, it was what she was what she was worried about.

Trotting into the room, Scale dropped her saddlebag next to the empty bed. The gryphon closed the door and hopped up onto her bed. It was then when Scale noticed that the bed on the other side of the room was made out of a cloud. Scale supposed it was something to help remind the gryphon of home, wherever that happened to be.

“What’s your name? I can’t keep thinking of you as ‘the gryphon’ even if we aren’t going to be friends.” Scale said. She climbed up onto her bed and looked at the gryphon expectantly.

“Elina; the name’s Elina.” The black gryphon said. “An’ I suppose I can’t just think of you as ‘that pony.’ So what’s your name?”

“My name is Scale. It’s a pleasure to meet you Elina.” Scale said, mock bowing. “I take it that this isn’t your first year here. You really seem to know how things work around here.”

“I’ve lived here for practically forever. I can’t even remember where I lived before the Neutral. Heck, if you want to get technical, I’m the ward of the Neutral Council; they’re my family. Though, for a while, I was the only non-pony student but that’s all ancient history now.” Elina squawked. She flopped on her back and stared at the ceiling. “I’m not even sure I ever lived in the Gryphon Empire. It’s quite possible my parents lived in the Solar or Lunar; I don’t really know.”

“You don’t know who your parents are?” The gryphon nodded. “If you ask me you’re lucky. I know both of my parents and my life stinks because of it. You wouldn’t believe the pressure that’s put on you when your parents are practically famous where you live.”

Elina glanced at Scale out of the corner of her eye with barely masked curiosity. While the gryphon normally hated learning anything more than necessary about somepony, Scale intrigued her. Flopping back onto her front, Elina looked at Scale questioningly.

“Well, I’m from Farrar.” Scale said. After seeing Elina’s confused expression, she explained that Farrar was a village in the Badlands of the Lunar side of the border. “So, anyway, Farrar isn’t all that big but it isn’t all that small either. It’s small enough that everypony knows one another but big enough that no pony ever really needs to leave.

“For most everypony that lives there, they only leave so that they can go to their one year at the Neutral and then they never leave again. My family is one of the few that has had ponies actually do something with their lives. My grandmare was a famous cellist and my father an accomplished diplomat. Even my mother, who isn’t even from Farrar, is the filly of a noble stallion.

“The ponies of my village expected me and my cousins to do something special. They really expect me to because of this.” Scale tapped her horn and sighed. “They’re all zebras out there, you see. They use potions and such but true magic doesn’t really happen out in the Badlands.

“I know it sounds silly but the ponies in the outskirts of the Lunar Republic don’t really come across other types of creatures, pony or not, so they tend to be very closed-minded. The thought that one of their own had married somepony outside of the Badlands was a foreign idea. The fact that that zebra had had a foal with that pony was simply unthinkable; I was unthinkable. But I’m getting ahead here aren’t I.

“Like I said earlier, my dad is a diplomat. Despite the fact that the Badlands are a part of the Lunar Republic, the villages aren’t really part of the country. Sure we follow most of the laws and practices but we work through our own systems. So, to keep everything friendly, a representative is elected and placed on the Republic’s general counsel.

“My dad was elected and lived in Artemis for almost six years. When he came back to Farrar, he had a wife and a bouncing baby foal in tow. Needless to say, ponies were surprised. No pony really knew how to react. For a long time, they just avoided us.

“I was still a filly at that time so I didn’t really understand. Anytime I wanted to play with the other foals, their parents would usher them away. It was hard. Thankfully, after a little while, ponies in the village began to warm up to us. They stopped hating me but, at the same time, they began to expect things from me.

“I mean, with my ability to use magic, everypony thought I should be able to do more. They thought I should be the “Pride and Joy of Farrar,” you know they actually called me that for a while. I just couldn’t get away from it. Leaving, oh Luna, leaving is the best thing that’s happened to me yet. I can get away from that oppressive hoof that’s been shoving me into the ground since I was three.”

Scale took a deep breath, felling slightly better than she had before. She looked at Elina and waited to see her reaction. For a while, the gryphon just stared at Scale. Then, after what seemed like forever, Elina began to laugh; one of those deep throaty laughs that only a gryphon could manage. Scale, while she wasn’t surprised, was just a little shocked.

“You’re really something. You really are something.” Elina said still chuckling. “You finally get away from all crap and the first thing you tell somepony you hardly know is how much you hated it. If you ask me, which I know you aren’t, you miss it; you’re probably one of those crazy ponies that only works well under pressure.”

Scale looked at Elina with a mixture of anger and inquisition. Ponies had called her a lot of things in the past and Elina definitely wasn’t the first pony to hear Scale’s story but she was the first one to suggest the Scale liked being under pressure. Scale was at a loss for words.

“Not that I don’t love all this mushy gunk, but I don’t want to be listening to it to the rest of the day.” A third voice chimed in, startling Scale. “Now where are my manners? Elina, are you going to introduce me or what?”

“You always pick the best times to chip in don’t you, Shi?” Scale watched as a long, thin, pure white creature wound its way up onto Elina’s bed and up her grey forearm. It finally came to a rest around Elina’s neck. “Scale, this is your other roommate, Shi. He’s a pipe fox from Canter. Specifically, he’s my pipe fox.”

Scale looked at the duo with a look of pure fascination, all thought of what Elina had said a few moments earlier thrown out the window. From what she had heard about gryphons, Scale had assumed that a creature like a pipe fox wouldn’t be a friend, it would be lunch. When she expressed such thoughts to Elina, that throaty chuckle returned.

“I was pretty much raised by herbivores. If I were to eat a sentinel creature, why, I don’t think anypony here would ever forgive me.” Elina laughed. “The closest I’ve ever gotten to eating meat was fish.”

“Not to mention I probably would have been the first thing on her menu.” Shi said in a light, high voice. If Scale didn’t know better, she would have said that the fox was a girl. Scale looked at the pipe fox in wonder. She’d been watching him while he spoke but, though no part of his face moved, sound came from his body. Shi sure was something. “I met Elina about the same time those hunting instincts starting kicking in. In fact, she practically tried to eat me.”

“I did not.” Elina cried, swiping at the fox around her neck. “I found you out in the woods and was nice enough to take you in. Do you know how long it took me to get the Neutral Council to let you stay?”

“Close to 30 seconds if I remember correctly. Even back then, the Council had a soft spot for its one and only ward.” Shi giggled (is it possible for a pipe fox to giggle?) and did the equivalent of squirming off of Elina’s shoulder. “This gryphon could get away with murder if she batted enough eyelashes.”

Elina smiled at Shi’s teasing. It was obvious, even to somepony as out of touch as Scale, that those two were really good friends. Perhaps, under different circumstances, the two creatures’ relationship would have taken a different turn. Their personalities seemed to mesh fairly well.

“So, pony, why don’t the three of us go take a look around campus?” Shi asked. “I’m positive you have no idea how to find anything and Elina and I know how to find everything; sounds like this was a match made in Asylum.”

Scale looked at Elina, expecting her to interject, but, the gryphon chose not to speak; Scale nodded her head in agreement. It would be nice to have somepony who actually knew where things were. It had taken her almost half an hour to find the dorms and another hour to find the correct room. Scale groaned aloud at that thought of having to find the cafeteria or the bathhouse on her own.

“Well then, allons-y!” Shi called, slithering off of Elina. He wriggled across the floor, up the post of Scale’s bed, and onto the mare’s leg. Scale giggled; the fur on the pipe fox’s body tickled. Once Shi settled in around Scale’s neck, oddly enough in the same place he had wrapped himself around Elina, and the mare had stopped chuckling, Elina gave a snort and hopped off her bed.

“I suppose it’s dinner time anyway.” The creature huffed. “You can follow me there if you want. And, just for the record, I’m not helping you. I’m only letting you follow me because of Shi. If he likes you then maybe, just maybe, you might be ok.”

Now done with her spiel, Elina strutted out of the room like a peacock. Once Scale was sure the gryphon was out of earshot, she let out a small giggle of delight. While she hadn’t been trying to win the creature’s approval, having it gave the mare a slight jolt of delight. At that point, Scale didn’t even care if the pipe fox heard (which he did. Shi understood though. Elina tended to make ponies want her approval without them even realizing it.)

“You coming or what?” Elina hollered from down the hall. “I think Shi wants to eat even if you don’t. So if you don’t mind, move you hinny!”

Scale shuffled out into the hallway and slammed the door behind her. She turned the deadbolt and ran off the catch up with Elina.