Author's Notes:

This chapter was almost at 20k words and my editor think its best to cut it up for readers and newcomers to get into the story better so enjoy

Also give it up for my editor who helps huge time to make the story as good as it is right now. I only put at most 8k over with words

So go to

An-Twan Star

his work is just as good as this

As the gang entered the double doors that served as the entry to the main reception area, they all sighed in relief as the warm air washed over them. Once again, they were a creature short, with Sandbar having taken a detour to his home on the other side of town to gather his system.

“Wow, I'm sure glad to be out of that!” Silverstream exclaimed as she unzipped her jacket while looking back at the slowly closing entryway.

“I 'an 'inally 'ake my hoof 'own.”

“Um, what?” Smolder gave Silverstream a questioning look, but all she got in return was a confused shrug.

With a sigh, Ocellus pulled her jacket zipper down a bit and pushed her hood back. “I can do that.”

“Yeeaahhh,” Gallus drawled out before bringing his talons together. “Right. Our best bet for getting our systems down to the library without breaking anything is to borrow some service carts from the cafeteria. Dinner is in an hour, and we should have them back by then, not to mention with the break this place is gonna be a ghost town, so they probably wouldn't even be missed.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” Silverstream took wing and hovered ahead, the rest following right behind. Get several carts for the five of us, then meet up at the library.”

“I won't need one,” Ocellus interjected. “My system has wheels on it.”

Her four friends raised a collective eyebrow at that admission. When they thought deeper into the subject, they realized that none of them even knew what system their changeling friend ran with.

“What kind of rig do you have, anyway?”

Ocellus didn't bother hiding her wry grin from Gallus. “I could tell you outright, but where is the fun in that?”

The griffon's lit up eyes indicated that he would have rather liked to be told right then and there, but another's question put that notion on hold.

“Come to think of it,” Smolder scratched her purple crest. “Have any of us seen each others systems, or dorms for that matter?”

Each creature looked to their immediate neighbor for answers, but eventually settled on mixture of shrugs and I don't knows.

Yona had a more concrete answer. “Apart from me mentioning my Yakard today, and Gallus constantly raving about his, Yona doesn't think we have.”

“We haven't seen the inside of each others rooms either,” Silverstream added. “Oh, oh, I want to see your room, Smolder! Is it true that your floors are made of lava?!”

Smolder gently pushed the excitable hippogriff out of her face. “We don't have lava floors per se, but they are heated. That's about it for things that pertain to dragons specifically, but since we’re headed that way, you're more than welcome to come take a look around.”

“Alright, enough yapping.” With a blast of air, the griffon took to his wings. “As much as I'd love to hear all about our dorms and systems, I'd much rather see them in griffon. So let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

The rest of the trip to the cafeteria was completely uneventful, and with the halls devoid of any traffic, relatively quick as well. As they neared the entrance to the cafeteria, the sounds of a kitchen in use still rang loud and true despite the beginning of the break. Once inside, they beelined towards the back of the kitchen where the carts and other implements were stored, but when they saw the head lunchmare preparing food nearby they decided that asking before taking was probably the better option.

They were about to do just that, but the lunchmare noticed them before they could and greeted them with a smile and a wave. “Hi there, Yona! Dinner's not quite ready yet!”

“That's alright!” Yona shouted over the sound of the other happenings in the area. “What is it?!”

“Oh,” the mare gathered up her freshly peeled and sliced potatoes and deposited them into a giant pot of boiling water. “The main course for meat eaters is deep fried fish fillets, and for nonmeat eaters it’s a bean, leek, and mushroom stew. Sides are mashed potatoes with gravy, and green bean casserole.”

“That sounds great!” Yona smiled as she trotted closer. “Can we borrow some of your carts over there?”

The lunchmare put the lid over the pot full of potatoes and glanced over at the silver service carts all lined up in the back corner. “Don't see any harm in it. Just... bring them back as soon as you are finished – and still in working order.”

“Don’t worry, we will!”

With the lunchmare's blessing, the four went on over and wheeled out two of the carts into the hallway, Yona pushing one and Smolder pushing another. “Yona thinks that her and Gallus should team up, and Silverstream and Smolder should too.”

“Works for us, seeing as Silver is just down the hall from me.”

They soon split up, with the hippogriff and dragon going towards their dorms, and the yak and griffon stayed their course. It was a longer haul for them, and Yona quickly voiced her desire for entertainment.

“Yak bored! Music would help!”

“Music huh?” Gallus pulled his headphones down and clawed up the volume sliders to their maximum. “I can fix that.”

The fast paced electronica blasting out the speakers wasn't exactly the yodeling folk music of Yona's homeland, but it was still better than nothing. Her friend really seemed to dig it though, and that was what truly mattered to her.

Once they had reached Yona's door, Gallus scratched his headfeathers nervously. “So... should I just wait outside for you to unhook your system? It's your home away from home after all, and your right to privacy.”

Yona giggled. “It's no problem, Gallus. Yona have nothing to hide and you're welcome to stop by anytime. Just knock first, okay.”

“Alright, just making sure, y'know. Different cultures and all that.”

As the yak jammed her keys into the lock and none too gently twisted, Gallus noted that the door itself was a fair bit bigger than the average. He also saw the golden placard on the door just like all others, with Yona spelled out plainly, followed by a clan name that the griffon couldn't even begin to pronounce. With a mild creak, Yona pushed the door open and entered, cart and friend in tow.

The first word that came to the griffon’s mind as he took in the room’s features was cozy.

The architecture of the room was the same as the griffon's, but that was where the design similarities ended. The doorway he had just entered through was a fair bit wider than the norm, and instead of a double sized bed like the majority of students, her bed was a king size, and it was placed lengthwise against the left wall – a mountain of very fluffy wool pillows resting atop.

Directly on the other side of the room was a wardrobe with the most ornate carving designs he had ever seen etched into the woodwork. The intricate swirls and shapes immediately caught the griffon’s keen eye. The attention to the small details was the polar opposite of his culture, where you were lucky to just get something simple, and even luckier to get something that had been built well. A mixture of hoof-spun rugs and canvas paintings depicting Yona's rugged homeland lined all the walls, further alluding to the fact that the tenant wasn’t the average equestrian.

A wooden tabletop spanned the entire back wall just below the window, with a lamp in the far right corner and a a cup full of quills, pens and pencils right next to it. The next thing over was a set of bronze inkwells with pointed caps, with a little box of stationary sitting behind. Far on the other side of the table was a small digital clock and a tear-away calendar that only had a hooffull of pages left on it. And in the middle of it all was Yona's Yakard.

As the duo carefully guided the service trolley over the edges and seams of each rug, Gallus gave the gray desktop unit a quick once over to note its exterior features. The computer sat horizontally with a standard CRT monitor on top, and had two expansion bays just to the right of center. They were both populated, with the three and a half inch bay housing a standard floppy drive, and the five and a quarter had a CD drive installed.

The computer was interesting, but the peripherals were what really caught his eye. He had seen many different types of keyboards adapted for hooves during his stay in equestria thus far, but the one sitting before the computer was new to him. It looked like a cross between an arcade controller and a numeric keypad, and its twenty or so buttons were much bigger than the ones on the hand and claw models. The symbols and text on the keycaps revealed that each button had multiple uses, instead of one letter, number, or function as was the norm. A small trackball had also been incorporated into the design, and it was nestled in just above the arrow keys.

After taking in the – in his opinion – most important features, he spared a final look at the logo of stylized yak head with the YakardBell 500 label that came just before it.

“What does Gallus think?”

Once they had pushed the cart up as close as possible to the table, the griffon gave out his opinion of the room. “Gallus likes it very much.”

“Glad to hear that. Yona did best to turn boring box into traditional yak dwelling. Square walls are still a little strange…”

“Square… walls…?” the griffon shook his head. “Nevermind. You need any help unhooking or whatever?”

Yona was already leaning over her system and unhooking the monitor from its desktop and power strip. “Yak got this.”

Just as she said that, a mechanical noise that the griffon wasn’t even aware of sputtered out of existence – leaving the room dead silent.

Yona laughed sheepishly. “Oops, don’t want to disconnect that one.”

The blindly unplugged cord was plugged back in, and as the mystery sound came back Gallus quickly pegged it as coming from the mini fridge next to the right table leg.

“Want something to drink?” Yona asked once she saw him eyeing the appliance.

A dismissive wave was all she got in return. “I’m still a little wired from all the Rush I drank, so I’ll pass.”

“Alright.”

As Yona once again set about unplugging, she opted to go for the peripherals first this time – starting with the speakers – and finishing with the mouse designed with cloven hooves in mind. With all the devices cradled in her arms, she then hoofed them over to Gallus.

“Here, you can roll up cables while yak figures out rest of this mess.”

Gallus took the items into his own arms and sat down on the edge of the bed with a soft crunch to begin his task. He started with the mouse, carefully wrapping the gray cord around it and then placing it on the top shelf of the cart. He followed that up with the speakers, but paused when it was the keyboard’s turn. He held it up to eye level and experimentally pressed a button, and marveled at the amount of force required for actuation. It may have been a strong force, but it was also smooth, and bottomed out with a distinctive and satisfying click. With his curiosity now truly satisfied, he too wrapped it up and set it by everything else.

Without any more items to play with – or tasks given out by Yona – the griffon decided that it was high time to try and relax, but as he laid back onto the pillow pile the mattress crunched again. He could also feel things prickling painfully into his lower back, almost like it was made out of…

Gallus quickly sat up and grabbed the corner of the sheet, pulling it away to reveal a mass of tough, golden fibers underneath. “Umm, Yona?”

Yona turned to face him with the monitor in her arms. “Yes?”

“Why is your mattress a pile of hay?”

“Because yaks love to sleep on hay! It is best bedding for yak!”

Yona placed the monitor onto the lower shelf and resumed her work on the computer. The final piece – the desktop unit – was now quite easy to get at, and it only took a moment for the yak to undo that plug and pick it up off the table. She crouched down and made to slide it onto the bottom shelf, but a problem presented itself. Straightening back up, she balanced on one leg and used her free hindhoof to violently shove the already shelved components to the farthest end.

The sound of expensive components smashing together brought Gallus back to his paws in startled awe. “Wow! You really don’t give a shit about that computer, do you?”

The scraping and crunching ended as Yona removed her hoof and placed her computer into the freshly opened space. “Yak computer built tough!” she exclaimed with an air of self-assurance. “Yak computer can take yak hoof!”

“Emph. Fair enough, I guess. Just, ah, let me take care of my system when we get to it, okay?” Gallus shuffled his paws slightly. “No offence, of course.”

“Don’t you worry. Yona knows to treat belongings of others with respect.”

With everything accounted for, and any errant cords tucked away, Yona flicked off the wheel brake and pushed the cart back over her rugs and back out to the hallway. Gallus trailed behind dutifully a few steps back, watching for any peripherals or components trying to jump ship. But after a few quick turns the griffon was sure that wasn’t going to happen, so his thoughts drifted back to the little slice of Yakyakistan known as Yona’s room.

“I gotta admit, your room is pretty epic. I wonder what kind of crazy things the others have in theirs.”

“Maybe when this is all said and done, you could visit their rooms. Just make sure to ask first.”

“Of course.”

On the other side of the academy, Silverstream and Smolder were ready to go through the door to the latter’s room. The dragon turned her key and muscled open the oversized door, and dragged their cart inside.

“It’s a good thing our rooms are really close, otherwise this may have taken way longer.”

Silverstream nodded. “Tell me about it. The yaks and griffons practically live on opposite ends of the academy. It could take Gallus and Yona forever to get their systems to the library.”

“Hopefully they can pull off a miracle and get there before us.” Smolder chuffed. “I hate waiting on that griffon.”

Smolder’s room was the same standard size as all the others, but instead of an off white carpet lining the floor, the duo’s heavy winter boots thudded against a smooth gray stone. The way the casters on the cart chinked every few feet told that the stone wasn’t a single piece, but was comprised of many hexagonal chunks with tiny cracks between them for the heat to rise between.

“This is the heated floor I’m sure you’ve heard about,” Smolder tapped the floor with the tip of her boot. “It’s nowhere near as spectacular as the rumors, but it should be warm enough to feel through your hooves.”

“Cool! Can I give it a try!”

“Sure, knock yourself out.”

Silverstream let go of the cart handle and leaned down to undo her bootlaces, deftly pulling the knot and then the entire boot off. She kept it in in her talons as she touched her socked hindhoof to the floor. She didn’t feel much at first, but a feeling of heat rising up her hoof slowly set in, and the hippogriff sighed in pleasure.

“Ooohhh! That’s nice.”

“At least you like it.”

Silverstream’s eyes bulged at Smolder’s implication. “The floor is heated! What is there not to like?!”

“It’s a nice feature, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just a little too fancy for my tastes.”

Silverstream dropped her boot to the ground near the entrance, and the other one joined. “Well I love it, so I think I’ll enjoy it while I take a looksee around.”

And look around she did. The first thing that grabbed attention was the biggest piece of furniture, which was the bed. The head was unmade, with the mattress uncovered and pillows that sat crooked. The sheet and blanket were both bunched up at the foot of the bed, the former being bright orange like Smolders’ scales, and the latter was black with the tips of what Silverstream believed to be flames sewn into the fabric.

Across from the bed was a dresser, and mirroring the unkept state of the bed, all the drawers were pulled out to some degree. On top were a couple of framed pictures on either side of a tiny tube television, one being of the young dragon showing off her wings, and the other was one of the whole gang on picture day a few months back. The small woodgrain appliance that was the television was old to the point that the user would have to get up and adjust the multiple dials on the right side whenever they wanted to change something. And sitting atop it was a rabbit ear antenna that connected it with local Ponyville broadcasting.

Back on the bedside were several wall shelves with an assortment of books and other items related to education. The shelf that captured the attention of Silverstream however was the one that contained almost nothing but empty drink cans and bottles. The myriad of brightly colored labels along with the few odd gems in between reminded her of a fact that she had learned about dragons, which became a question that she voiced with the least amount of excitement possible.

“Is that your hoarde?!”

Smolder followed Silverstream’s raised claw to the shelves above her bed. “Nah. My family’s hoarde – if you can call it that – is back home. That’s just my can and bottle collection.”

“What about the-?”

“Impure gems. Not so good for consumption, but still nice to look at.”

The two gave the shelf a few more seconds of their attention before the dragon went over to her desk – hippogriff right behind.

Smolder’s desk was built out of a sturdy wood frame with an ebony stone top that was similar in grain and coloration to the floor. On its far left was a very cheap looking brown desk lamp that had it bulb looking down upon a sizeable geode with a thousand tiny aquamarine shards glistening within. Straight on the right side was a bag of half eaten potato chips that had been rolled up and resealed with clothespins to preserve the freshness, and it was ringed by a fortress of forgotten empty cans. And in the center – as per most setups – was the dragon’s chosen system.

The Amimmodore 6400 – as it was so labeled – was a comparatively modest platform compared to the competition. The desktop unit was made of all white plastic with a rectangular shape that tapered down into the front panel. A band of three lines went horizontally across the bottom of the faceplate, but Silverstream couldn’t tell if they served an actual purpose, or were just decorative. Above that on the right side were the disk drives, and a silver lock was directly in the top center.

“Oh wow! I didn’t know that you actually held onto these, and even wear them, too!”

Smolder’s first attempt at fishing for her power and display cables was cut short when she heard the excited squeal from behind. She immediately had a sneaking suspicion as to what Silverstream had found, and a rapt glance over her shoulder confirmed it.

Held in the hippogriff’s claws were a pair of purple panties with some very pink frills. The way she held them revealed the entirety of the backside where Bad Dragon Girl was embroidered – also in hot pink.

“H-hey! Put those down!”

Smolder was quick, running around the cart in a bid to intercept the pilfered thong, but as soon as she did that Silverstream ducked around the other side. This back and forth carried on for some time, with the dragon constantly reaching over the parked obstruction but coming up short each time. “Come on Silver! Give them back!”

Getting tired of fighting over a metaphorical barrel, Smolder clamored onto the cart and managed to secure the lingerie before the surprised hippogriff could take wing and cause even more embarrassment. With them safely in claw, she stood up straight and stuffed them into the pocket of her hoodie – they could be dealt with later.

“Wow, the big tough dragon is shy about her panties!” Silverstream calmed her laughter enough to continue speaking. “There’s no reason to be ashamed Smolder, I wear them too. See?”

Any composure regained was doused when the dragon saw her friend turn away and grab the top of her pants. Knowing what was to come, she held up her claws and tried to convince her otherwise. “There’s really no need to-”

The plea got stuck in Smolder’s throat when Silverstream dropped her pants to her knees, revealing her own lacy thong. It was black with purple trim, and it was embroidered with Boy Toy across the back – a word on each side. To drive it home even further, the hippogriff gave her tush a little wiggle, which in turn caused Smolder to gag loudly.

“Okay! Okay!” The dragon coughed several times before clearing her throat. “You’ve made your point!”

Silverstream pulled her pants back up and spun around to face Smolder. “There’s no shame in it. Like I said, they feel great – soft too-”

“Details!” Smolder hissed while making a slashing motion across her throat.

“I don’t see what you’re so upset about,” the hippogriff giggled. “We are girls hereafter.”

Smolder grumbled. “Alright, fine. They’re great. Can we get my system unhooked now?”

They both set about dismantling Smolder’s rig, and with the two of them working were able to move all the components in a few minutes time. With everything loaded up and secure, they guided their cart out of the confined space and into the hallway. Smolder pulled her door shut and then locked it, and they both began the ridiculously short jaunt to the hippogriff dorms – and Silverstream’s room.

Unfortunately for the dragon, that jaunt wouldn’t be over fast enough.

“So, Smolder?”

“Hm?”

“Did you get them because they look nice, or did you get them because they feel nice?”

The weight in Smolder’s pocket grew a little heavier. “Are you seriously still on about that?”

“Inquiring minds would like to know.”

Smolder wanted that particular line of discussion to end, but she really didn’t want to give out any more information than necessary. So she chose what she hoped was the lesser of two evils. “Fine. They feel nice. Happy?”

Silverstream giggled. “Heh, that’s why I got mine too. They just felt so great. My dad flipped out when he found out what a thong was, but he also says that I’m old enough to make my own choices.”

They both rounded the corner that led to the hippogriff dorms, and Silverstream stopped the cart next to the lowest numbered door. She then pulled out her keys with a Ponyville themed lanyard attached to the ring and unlocked her door.

The room within was surprisingly clean for such an eccentric tenant, but the shelf running along the left wall full of weird and bizarre things reflected that notion much better. The standouts were a miniature waterfall with little rivulets that trickled down strategically placed rocks and into a ceramic bowl, a gigantic hourglass that hadn’t been flipped in some time, and a newton’s cradle that was still were all on display.

And probably collecting dust as well, the dragon thought.

Next to the well made bed was something that was equally, if not more enticing; a neat stack of all the great tech magazines, with the latest issues resting on the top. If it looked like it would be a while for Silverstream to get her rig transferred to the cart, Smolder would ask to look at a couple during the wait.

Across from the bed was a freshwater aquarium that bubbled away without a care in the world. Smolder knew next to nothing about fish or aquariums, but something spectacular within the glass habitat instantly drew her eye. Completely overlooking the multicolored inhabitants, she gawked at the mossy rock structure in the back where what she believed to be a waterfall of sand was trickling down the face and following every crack and contour. The sand fell somewhere out of sight, to know doubt be taken into a mechanism and recirculated to the top.

Wanting to know more, the dragon looked to Silverstream and pointed at the aquarium. “What is that?”

“My aquarium?” the hippogriff asked. “Wait. You’ve never seen an aquarium before?!”

“What? No, I’ve seen aquariums! Just, never seen one with a sand… waterfall.. Thing...”

Silverstream was immediately next to Smolder, and joined her in gawking at the feature. “I know, Isn’t it rad! The sand just keeps falling, and falling, and falling-”

The dragon held up her claw. “Alright, I get the picture. Where did you find it?”

“Just in town. Ponyville might be small, but they have, like, a ridiculously well stocked pet shop.”

“Huh, a store in town that I didn’t know about. I may have to check that one out sometime.”

They both pulled away from the aquarium and moved over to the white painted desk, which Smolder noted was bigger than her own. Just like the rest of the room, the desk was very cleanly kept, with a monitor that was positioned centrally and its accompanying peripherals positioned around neatly. The monitor itself had been stickerbombed at some point in its life, with the entire housing covered in bright, bold images. As the dragon examined it closer, she could see a mixture of comic book characters, band names, and other pop figures either fighting for space in the forefront or peeking out from the lower layers.

The peripherals were next, and apart from a pair of aftermarket bookshelf speakers, they were roughly the same as the dragon’s own set. Outboard of this setup were two objects that filled up the rest of the space; the left one being a miniature staircase with a bright silver coiled up spring sitting on the top step, and the right one being an ant farm with light shining through the back to show off their tunnel system.

All in all, it was a fine desk setup, but one crucial element was missing. It didn’t take long for Smolder to locate the actual computer, which was tucked up next to the right leg of the desk. A tower of white steel and plastic, the machine had a very basic and utilitarian design, with the only somewhat special feature being its vertical mounting of the disk drive. She only got a quick shot of the manufacturer’s tag before Silverstream blocked the view, and was only able able to see a big T at the end.

As the hippogriff crawled under the desk to undo her nicely managed cables, Smolder could see that another creature huddled under there to help would only hinder the process, so she opted to find something else to pass time.

“Seeing as the two of us crammed under that desk would only cause things to take longer, mind if I crash and flip through some of your magazines?”

Silverstream’s reply came slightly muffled. “Sure! I got the latest issue of Microchip Monthly over there.” She grunted as she struggled to undo an errant velcro strap. “Should be on the biggest stack.”

With the final go-ahead, the dragon crawled onto the bed and grabbed the topmost magazine off the stack. It was the magazine that had been mentioned, but she wasn’t really concerned with that fact. As she idly paged through, she became aware of a repetitive, metallic sound that wouldn’t stop. Looking up from the magazine, she could see that her friend had finished up with her tower and was tending to the other things on the desk.

But in typical Silverstream fashion, she had become sidetracked by something else – in this case the slinky that she was moving up and down in her palms. Then she started to sing.

“What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs-”

With a sudden start, Smolder almost threw the magazine down as she launched off the bed towards the singing hippogriff. She was about to start the chorus when the dragon roughly grabbed her shoulder and wrapped her claws around her beak.

“Silverstream, I like you as a friend, I really do. But for the love of everything that is flipping fucking good for my own mind,” Smolder fixed her with a death glare. “Don’t sing that song! It took me a whole month to get it out of my head last time I heard it!”

“Mmphkay, I mont.”

“Promise me!”

“I mromise!”

Smolder relaxed her grip and backed away from Silverstream, who in turn placed her slinky back on it’s step and crouched back down to place her unhooked tower onto the cart. With her go ahead, the dragon pulled the monitor cord up from behind the desk, then moved the monitor itself over. The final components to come were the peripherals – with the mouse and keyboard finding the last little bit of space on the bottom – and the wooden speakers went on the top.

With everything secured, they pushed out of the room and made for the library,

“This room is just one huge mess.”

Unlike Yona’s heavily decorated but relatively clutter free room, Gallus’s room looked like a tornado had ripped through the area and had strewn the griffon’s dirty laundry and some other belongings about. A fact that Yona had no problem voicing.

“Hey, it’s home to me, and I can still find everything I need.”

As Gallus marched the cart over to the desk and set about tearing down his setup, Yona got better view of the machine that the griffon had constantly raved about. Unfortunately, the aged and deeply yellowed plastics combined with scuffed up metal raised some questions.

“Are you sure your system can even run the game? It looks quite old.”

Gallus immediately straightened up and whirled around to face Yona with a defensive claw pointed in protest. “Don’t you be talking shit about about my system!”

Anypony would have felt threatened with a griffon almost roaring in their face, but when you came from a culture where yelling was a core principle, the griffons never phased her. In fact, the way they puffed up when angry always brought a giggle up instead.

“It’s cool, Gallus. Yona understand if you can’t buy something new.”

The griffon’s puffed feathers flattened slightly. “I could go and buy a new computer, but I don’t want to. Everybody thinks that what I have is too old for modern games when its still plenty good.”

“Yona supposes that it’s good to get as much use as possible out of tool before replacement. But Yona never expected such mindset from griffon who is in love with latest technology.

“Still.” The yak bent down, scooped up a small article of clothing off the floor, and tossed it right at Gallus. “You need to clean your room.”

Gallus growled deeply as he pulled the underwear off of his face. “What are you, my mom?” he asked before turning back to the arduous task of undoing his system.

Yona offered her assistance, but the griffon adamantly refused, so the yak found her way over to his bed. When she sat down on the edge of the mattress, she was surprised to hear no sounds of protest emanating from either it, or the bed frame underneath. Determined to find a weakness in the bed that wasn’t made by yaks, she began bouncing in place, and she was rewarded with soft metallic squeaks every time she landed.

Then something brushed against her side.

Yona looked down to see the corner of a magazine sticking out from under Gallus’s pillow. Thinking that it was just another tech magazine that hadn’t been finished yet and was being kept there for later, she tugged it out. However, as she did so, the color and the text on the cover started to give the yak a sneaking suspicion that the magazine was geared more towards pleasure than hobbies.

When she pulled it out fully and had it in hoof, the image on the cover caused a heat to blossom through her face and muzzle. A female griffon – a very well endowed female griffon – was staring back with a lidded gaze and was wearing a set of dark blue lingerie that seemed to expose more than cover. She quickly averted her eyes, and briefly contemplated shoving it back under and pretending that she had never seen it, but when she saw that Gallus was way too busy to notice, the young yak decided to cave to her growing curiosity and give it another look.

Gorgeous Griffon was the title that dominated the top of the magazine, in bold and neon pink lettering. There were several subtexts that ran in columns down the sides, each giving a very brief summary of the major articles within. With a trepidation unbefitting of a yak, Yona began hoofing through the pages, occasionally stopping when something interesting caught her eye.

After about ten pages of advertisements for some very distinctively shaped objects and other adult themed memorabilia, Yona had grown tired of flipping one by one. She went to flip several pages and get to the main articles, but she then noticed a folded over corner of a page a little further in. Hopefully that’s where boring advertisements end and gorgeous griffons begin.

Yona opened up the page that was earmarked, but when she did so, a folded up poster began to unfurl itself. The image – or rather – the griffon displayed on the paper felt vaguely familiar. Wanting to figure out who she was, the yak pulled the poster out fully and examined her features more closely than the one on the cover.

She had a body of light brown fur, and and her outstretched wings were of a darker brown hue. Her crest of headfeathers that hung down over her face were bright white with purple highlights, and mirrored purple patches also surrounded her piercing golden eyes. She was also sticking her tongue out through her yellow beak in a teasing manner.

Her biggest feature of course were the pair of gigantic breasts that were held by a metallic purple bra that somehow helped to make them appear even bigger. This was compounded by the fact that she was crossing her forelimbs below her breasts, squeezing them together to fully expose the words Mega on the left, and Milk on the right.

“This must be Gallus’s favorite one,” Yona commented as she flipped even further into the magazine. The rest of the griffons were also just as spectacular, and Yona really found herself enjoying the odd angles they were achieving. Self indulgence of this caliber was generally frowned upon in her culture, but she wasn’t in Yakyakistan anymore...

Gallus was oblivious to all of this, his music and system taking precedent over situational awareness. But after a few more seconds of jimmying plugs out of their sockets, he was ready to move his computer over to the waiting cart.

“Okay, that’s it. You take the screen, I’ll handle the sys-”

“Oh wow, Yona didn’t think griffons were that flexible.”

With confusion in his mind from Yona’s strange statement, Gallus turned around to see what she was on about, only to almost choke on his own tongue when he saw his all time favorite dirty magazine in her hooves. It was the one that he not only hid from the staff of the orphanage for some time, but also had smuggled into the academy.

Of course those were the furthest things from his mind at that point.

His initial feelings of shock and surprise were quickly eclipsed by shame which only deepened as he watched Yona innocently flip through the pages, and his face quickly became redder than Big Macintosh from carpentry class.

Yona – hearing strange sounds coming from her griffon friend – looked up from her reading and grinned when she saw him standing aimlessly.

“Oh, you’re done? Great! Yona can now help Gallus move… his…”

With a small note of concern, the Yak closed the magazine and set it on the bed – neglecting to tuck in the centerfold poster, and went up to her unresponsive friend.

“Umm, Gallus? You okay?”

Only getting a blank, unfocused stare in response, she rapidly waved a hoof in front of his face. After a few seconds of that without change, she got a little more physical and lightly poked him in the arm.

“Is something the mat-?”

All it took was a gently prodding hoof to cause the griffon to crumple into a twitching heap on the floor. Apart from the fact that he was still breathing, Yona had no idea what was going wrong with Gallus. After a few more seconds of deliberation, she shrugged and scooped up his limp body and placed him on the top shelf of the cart. If the griffon needed some kind of medical attention, he would need to be transported there, and the infirmary was near the library.

After negotiating her way out of the griffon’s room, and the griffon dorms themselves, Yona found herself pushing the fully laden cart down the hall that led to the library. At the very far end of the hall – past the library entrance – she could see Smolder and Silverstream rounding the corner, and she quickened her pace.

Both parties soon arrived at the entrance to the small seating area and drove their carts in. Once they had stopped, Smolder was the first one to reach Gallus’s side.

“What did you do to him this time, Yona?” The dragon accused while pointing at the unconscious griffon, who was mumbling incoherently.

“Mmm… Gilda…”

Yona shrugged. “Beats Yona. He was just unhooking his system, yak was reading magazine, and then…”

Smolder gave her attention to Gallus’s limp form for a few more seconds, than took a step to see all the systems on the bottom shelf of the cart. Her eyes immediately gravitated to the oldest, and biggest machine present, and a questioning look graced her features.

“Can that old thing even run it?”

As Smolder spouted off her question to nocreature in particular, Silverstream flew over to check on Gallus.

“Don’t you be talking shit about my system!”

The dragon jumped back in shock and surprise and the hippogriff nearly hit the ceiling as Gallus suddenly came back to life, his entire body arcing up like something out of a horror movie as he pointed an irate claw in her general direction. He then grabbed the edge of the cart and pulled himself into a sitting position, looking around in bewilderment at the different surroundings.

“Umm, how did I get to the library? And why am I on the cart?”

There was a quick, wordless exchange between yak and dragon, which was settled when Yona cleared her throat. “Yona have no idea why you passed out like that. She was just reading your magazine when you seized up and collapsed. Yak placed griffon on cart to take him to library, or doctor if need be.”

“But your good now, right?!” Silverstream came back down from the ceiling to hover awfully close to Gallus’s face. “How many claws am I holding up?!”

The griffon dismissed her claws with a wave of his own. “I don’t know, all of them?”

Silverstream cheered. “Great, that means your fit as a fiddle! We can carry on without wasting time at the nurses’ station!”

“Nice to see you care about my wellbeing, Silver.” With a groan and a huff, Gallus gently slid himself off the cart and onto his paws. “Let’s just get this over with so we can all game in peace.”

“Yona once again agrees! Let’s get to work!”

With Gallus still too winded to fly, and Yona and Smolder as designated cart pushers, that left Silverstream to hover over to the double doors and hold them open for the rest to pass through into the S.O.F. library.