It had to be said, Griffons weren't exactly the most patient of creatures, and Gallus was, admittedly, a typical example of this. Tapping his claws against the floor of the hallway, he leaned against the wall just next to the dormitory door beside him. A groan of irritation escaped him, and he occasionally glanced to the many other students of the School of Friendship as they passed him by. Every once in a while, they'd give him a wave and a smile, and to his credit, he'd always return the gesture. But, as soon as he was all alone, he'd return to his prior look of discomfort. Turning, he looked to the dormitory door, and could hear his friend moving about on the other side. Sadly, she had yet to finish what she'd gone in there for, leading to a long sigh on the part of the young Griffon. Eventually, and after having a lot of uncharacteristic restraint, Gallus finally groaned in annoyance, walking over to the door and banging on it a couple of times.

"Hey! You finished in there, Smolder?! Suagr Cube Corner's not gonna be open forever."

Mere moments passed before he got an answer.

"Give me a break, will ya? I told you I'd be out when I found it. It can't be far off now."

Gallus slapped his forehead.

"Okay, that does it! I'm coming in!"

The young Griffon unceremonious barged into the room, much to the surprise of Smolder, who was right in the middle of rummaging around one of the drawers next to her bed. The dormitory room, technically assigned for female students only, was pretty much identical in appearance to the males' quarters. A pair of bunk-beds in a moderately-sized room that led to a nice balcony beyond, which gave them a nice view of the Friendship Palace. Everywhere one looked, they could see little touches that told of the ones who dwelt here, from a bowl of gems for Smolder, to a pile of neatly-ordered books belonging to Ocellus. And speaking of Smolder, she understandably looked to her blue friend with a degree of indignation.

"Hey! Dude! Do I need to remind you that this is one of the girls' rooms?!"

Gallus rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, like you dragons ever did separate room stuff like this before now."

Smolder folded her arms and frowned at him.

"It's the principle of the thing!"

Still irritated, Gallus shook his head slightly, taking a moment to lean against a nearby dresser as he regarded his dragon companion.

"And you're sure you left your notebook in here?"

Snorting a little, Smolder looked back to the drawer she'd been looking through.

"For the last time, yes! I swear it was right here!"

In the silence that followed, Gallus took a moment to glance around the place, and it was here that he noted that the dresser he was leaning on had a rather unique object resting on top of it. It was a small wooden figurine of some sort, about the size and height of a small lamp, with a narrow "trunk" that led up to what appeared to be a carved imitation of a Yak's head. Doubtless, this belonged to Yona, and the young Griffon looked to it with interest, though only for a few moments. For after he'd looked to it, he let out a sigh, walking over to Smolder and casually tapping her on the shoulder.

"You know...you can admit you need help, if you like. I promise I wont make too much fun of you over it," he said with more than a little smugness.

Here, Smolder's patience with him finally ended, and without even looking, she gave him a quick shove to his chest, knocking him back slightly. Unfortunately, she had been a bit more forceful than she'd intended, and as Gallus stumbled backwards, he ended up knocking into the dresser he'd been standing next to before. The impact of this caused the aforementioned Yak carving to topple, and then, tumble over the edge. Both youths looked on with horror as this happened, with Gallus trying desperately to get a hold of it. But, alas, his efforts came too late, for the idol fell straight down to the floor, snapping straight in half. A deathly silence fell over the two of them, and they looked to one another with pale faces.

"Um..." Gallus began.

"Um..." Smolder mirrored.

It was clear just from looking that neither of them knew what to do here, and Gallus, taking hold of the now-broken belongings of their friend, started to speak up nervously.

"We...we can fix this."

Smolder, shaking herself out of her stunned state, walked beside him, nodding frantically.

"Y...yeah! We can totally..."

But, before she could finish, they both found, to their continued dismay, that the idol now broke apart into even more pieces as Gallus held it, and soon, the two of them were looking at nothing more than a pile of wooden fragments on the ground. Gallus, seeing this, gulped loudly, before shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"You know...no offense to Yona's people...but that was some pretty shoddy construction."

To that, Smolder snapped her head in his direction.

"This is no time for jokes! Do you realise what we've just done?!"

Gallus, as before, let out a long sigh.

"Yeah...we've just broken something that means a great deal to one of our closest friends...and all while bickering with each other."

He slowly nodded to nobody in particular, then looked over to his fire-breathing friend.

"Just a guess here...but if this was one of Princess Twilight's friendship assignments, this would probably be a straight up F."

Smolder frowned even deeper to that.

"I don't know what that thing was, Gallus, but it was probably some super-important Yak cultural thing! If Yona finds out what we've done..."

Gallus nodded, understanding fully the bad mess they'd gotten themselves into.

"So...what do we do?"

Smolder, again looking down to the broken idol, started pacing up and down.

"Well...we can't fix it. The thing's too smashed for that. We could try and make another, but it'd just look like some cheap imitation that she'd see through in a heartbeat."

Stopping, she looked to her Griffon colleague.

"Any ideas?"

Gallus shrugged his shoulders once more.

"We could try telling her somebody else did it?"

Smolder considered that, then shook her head.

"No...no! If we did that, she'd think some stranger was creeping about in our room! Then she'd go to the Princess, and before long we'd have the whole school in a panic over some sneaky-creepy guy going about!"

Gallus tapped his chin.

"Yeah...good point. The ponies do have a knack for panicking at stuff like that."

The two stood together in silence for a time, trying to figure out how best to handle this situation. But, as thoughts and ideas passed through their minds, they were interrupted by the one sound that sent a shiver of fear through their spines. For on the other side of the dormitory door, they could hear hoofsteps. And moreover, they were far too loud and heavy-sounding for them to have belonged to a pony. As such, they knew instantly who it was, and so turned to one another with wide eyes.

"She's here?!" Gallus stated.

"What do we do?!" Smolder asked, panicked.

Gallus scratched the back of his head, trying desperately to think on what to do, but, as he slowly looked down to the broken wood upon the floor, he stopped. Moments passed, and he slumped his shoulders, letting out a very long sigh.

"Smolder...we both know what we have to do here."

In truth, Smolder looked like she already knew what her friend was talking about, though it brought her no joy to consider it. Kneeling down, Gallus picked up the broken wood, holding it behind his back, and together, he and Smolder awaited the opening of the door. And open it did, revealing a happy-looking Yona on the other side. She gave a nod of greeting to Smolder, but as soon as she noted Gallus' presence, she paused, tilting her head slightly.

"Um...Gallus? This girls' room."

Gallus exhaled, nodding.

"Yona...we...I have something to tell you."

Yona looked confused, as indeed did Smolder, who looked to her friend with a raised eyebrow. Slowly, the young Griffon pulled out the wood from behind his back, presenting it to Yona.

"I...accidentally broke your idol."

Yona blinked at what had been shown to her, her eyes slightly widening as she looked over to the dresser, where the thing had been standing before. As for Smolder she was utterly stunned that Gallus had taken full responsibility for this, and so, mere moments afterwards, spoke up for him.

"No! It wasn't all him! I...I kinda pushed him into the dresser and it...fell over."

Gallus looked to her, silently giving her a look of appreciation, before promptly turning back to face Yona.

"We're really sorry, Yona. I...I know this...this whatever-it-was was probably really important to you. We should have treated this part of your culture with more respect."

A pause, and then, they both looked to their Yak friend with genuinely apologetic expressions.

"We're sorry. We won't blame you if you're angry with us."

Yona, who had been staring at her dresser for a few moments now, now finally looked back to her two friends, seeing the remorse with which they looked back to her. Then, she glanced again to the broken wood in Gallus' claws, and appeared to be deep in thought over something. Then, to the utter shock of both Gallus and Smolder, she actually cracked a smile. And afterwards, in an even more bizarre move, she started laughing. Naturally, the other two weren't quite sure why she was doing this, but after waiting for her to finish, the listened as she spoke to them.

"Friends no worry about wooden thing! Wooden thing no important!"

Gallus blinked, looking down to the former possession of his friend.

"But...isn't this, like, some sacred Yak idol? For, like, worship or something?"

Yona rolled her eyes.

"Why Southerners always think old wood is important Yak stuff?"

She grumbled slightly, then took a single step forward and pointed to the wooden fragments.

"It cheap novelty knick-knack! For tourists! Yona only have it because she found it in pony shop! Yona find it funny, so she got it!"

The other two, blinking slowly, looked down at the thing they'd spent so much time worrying about, and when they looked back to Yona, Smolder took on a somewhat confused tone.

"Wait...so it wasn't even made by Yaks?!"

Yona shook her head, clearly amused by her friends' position.

"Nope! Yak stuff much better made!"

A minute or two passed, and when it did, the other two let out simultaneous sighs of relief.

"That...wow! You have no idea how much better we feel about that now, Yona!" Gallus confessed.

Giggling, Yona reached forward, taking the two of them and, much to their slight worry, held them in a tight hug.

"Yona no care about broken thing! Yona happy! Friends honest with her! That's what's important! Professor Applejack always say so!"

The other two chuckled.

"Yeah...guess so," Smolder admitted.

Then the young dragon gained a look of curiosity, looking over to Gallus, who was similarly struggling against the cuddly embrace.

"I was surprised you were so willing to be open with her about this."

Gallus, though largely restrained, nevertheless managed to shrug his shoulders at his friend's remark.

"Meh, back when I lived in Griffonstone, when I was way younger, I accidentally knocked over one of Grandpa Gruff's old vases. He didn't even care that much about the vase, but I lied about having done, it, and when he found out...well..."

He chuckled.

"...let's just say he didn't let me forget it for some time afterwards. I swear that guy could hold a grudge. If you thought his complaining on the first day of school was bad, whoo-boy!"

A pause.

"...Oh, and I guess being open and honest with your friends is just good in itself and all that, right?"

The three laughed together at that, but, after a time, Gallus and Smolder very much wanted to get free of Yona's grip on them. Unfortunately, as they tried to do so, they found that she was holding on somewhat tighter than normal.

"Um...Yona? You might want to let go now?" Smolder noted.

But Yona, looking down to her, shook her head.

"Nope!"

Gallus, blinking slowly, looked back up to her.

"Um...nope?"

Again, Yona shook her head, before then glaring down at them both.

"Friends no break important stuff, but still break Yona's stuff. So friends stay...until Yona get tired of hugging!"

The two, realising that this was now their comeuppance for their actions, looked to one another with a degree of melancholy.

"Well...since we're stuck here....I'm...sorry for shoving you earlier," Smolder said, sounding like she'd meant it.

Sighing, Gallus nodded.

"Yeah...and I'm sorry for being difficult and annoying and making you want to do it," he returned.

The two smiled.

"Still friends?" Smolder asked.

Gallus chuckled.

"Yeah, still friends."

Then, before any of them could say anything else, the dormitory door opened once more, revealing, of all people, Silverstream on the other side. The young Hippogriff, who had entered with her eyes closed, was holding up what appeared to be a small book in her claws.

"Hey, Smolder! Sorry I didn't tell you, but I needed to borrow your notebook earlier and..."

It was here that her eyes opened, and she finally took note of what was going on in the room. Though clearly confused as to why Gallus was here or why Yona was holding both him and Smolder, the pink female simply blinked and looked over to Smolder for clarification. The latter, though a touch irritated at finding out who had her notebook this whole time, let out a deep sigh.

"Silver...could you do me a favour? Go and get Gallus and me some tea or something."

Slowly, she looked up to the still-committed face of Yona.

"...Because I think we're gonna be here a while."

Next Chapter: Community Service Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 53 Minutes