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Set Sail

by Jack of a Few Trades

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Ruse

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Chapter 1: The Ruse

I looked up from my lunch when I heard a chair on the other side of the table pull out, the legs groaning loudly as they ground against the floor. A very ticked off orange dragon stood next to it, gripping her lunch tray so tightly that her claws were surely going to leave dents in it. Smolder took her seat with sass, not so much sitting down as throwing herself into it.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

She grumbled in response, but didn’t say anything. The scowl written across her face did most of the talking.

“Did you have any idea on number 47? I think it came from the chapter on—”

“Gallus, stop,” she snapped. “Five minutes. Give me five minutes before you make me think about anything.”

I closed my beak and, since there wasn’t anyone at the table who wanted to talk, turned my attention to the doorway at the far end of the lunchroom. Smolder and I finished Professor Twilight’s exam fast, and that spoke for how we both did. The others would probably take a little bit longer.

I drummed my talons on the table, the rhythm of it calming my stomach a bit. With the exam finished, I was nervous now for a different reason. I had a question for my friends, one that could change everything for me.

The school year and all of its craziness was now officially dead and buried, and everyone would head home for the summer over the next couple of days. The thought of returning to Griffonstone for three whole months was enough to turn my stomach, so I wanted an out. Odds were good that I’d get a unanimous “no” and go home anyway, but I still had to try. I needed them all here to ask it, though, so I had a few minutes to prepare myself.

Our usual table was near the front of the room, right next to the food line. Other students were slowly ambling in, but the room was mostly empty. My food didn't interest me much, so I spent my time awkwardly darting my eyes around the room, searching for something of interest to occupy my mind. A few more minutes dragged by, and the first one to join us was Ocellus, who climbed into her seat directly across from me with a quick buzz of her translucent wings after getting her food.

Now, I knew this was a school of friendship, and I just took an entire exam over friendship, but I couldn’t help feeling the slightest bit annoyed by that happy little smile on her muzzle. Nobody had any right to be that happy after having their brain run through a cheese grater. Not even the nerds.

I must have been giving her more stink-eye than I’d intended, because her smile quickly dried up as her pupil-less eyes settled on me. “What is it, Gallus?”

“Sorry.” I shook my head to try and reset my face. “Just... zoned out for a second,” I lied. Telling her what I’d really been thinking wasn’t the best idea.

The smile came back again, though less pronounced. “Oh, yeah, I understand. That test was a doozy, even for me.”

Sure it was, Bookbug. Sure it was.

“My brain hurts,” I said idly, scooping up a bite of my mashed potatoes. Living in Equestria was great by comparison to Griffonstone in just about every aspect except for the food. Living in a society composed of herbivores made meat a difficult thing to come by, if not outright taboo. The food here wasn’t terrible, but as I chewed over the bland mush, I longed for a steak, or at least something meat-based.

The table shifted under the arm I was leaning my head against, shaking the thought from my mind. Yona took the seat to Ocellus’ right, and Sandbar followed, sitting next to Yona and immediately to my left.

“School! Is! Out!” Yona shouted, banging a hoof on the table. The accompanying lurch made me more or less punch myself in the cheek, and that was when I decided to stop leaning on my elbow. Smolder noticed me pull my arm back and snickered to herself.

“How do you guys feel?” asked Sandbar.

“I don’t even want to think about it until I get my report card in the mail,” said Smolder.

Ocellus turned to Smolder. “Did you—”

“If you want to live, don’t finish that sentence,” Smolder snapped, pointing a claw directly at Ocellus’ muzzle.

Ocellus shrank back in her chair. “Sorry.”

“Hey guys!” There was the last straggler. I felt a small gust of wind as Silverstream claimed the final spot at the table on my right, hovering just above the ground. She vaulted over the back of her chair and sat down without ever touching the floor. “Now that was an exam! Professor Twilight said it was going to be hard, but wow!”

“I don’t get how you four can be so upbeat,” said Smolder. “Every time I take a test, my head hurts for like the rest of the day.”

“Did you study?” asked Silverstream. That must have been the same question Ocellus was going to ask, because it made Smolder snort derisively.

“Yes! I did!” Smolder threw her hands up, ready to start ranting, but then she went wide-eyed for a second, took a deep breath, and deflated. “Sorry. I don’t think I did well on that one. I spent most of my study time on the history of friendship, but the test focused more on friendship theory.” She sighed. “I’m frustrated; sorry if I’m snapping at you.”

“I bet you did better than you think,” said Ocellus. “Even if you didn’t cover theory that much in your studying, the fact that you’re sitting at this table is evidence that you’re not as bad at that as you think you are.”

“Maybe,” said Smolder, the faintest hint of a smile forming at the corners of her mouth. “I guess all I can do now is wait. My fate’s in Twilight’s hooves now.”

The conversation hit a lull while everyone focused on their lunch. I let it sit for a minute, but when chatter didn’t pick back up, I decided it was time. I chose to use a soft approach and start with a slight misdirect, working around to the actual question.

I didn’t want to seem desperate or anything.

“So, how much longer are you guys staying?” I scanned around the table, watching faces for their responses.

“Like, another hour,” said Smolder. “I barely have anything to pack, so I’m flying back pretty much right after this. I’ve got a lava pit with my name on it back home.”

“Yona leaves tomorrow morning,” she said. “Prince Rutherford is coming to pick Yona up.”

“Same here,” said Silverstream. “Well, Prince Rutherford isn’t coming to pick me up, but my dad is!” Her grin widened. “I haven’t seen my family in so long.”

“I’ll be around until tomorrow afternoon,” said Ocellus.

“I’m leaving tomorrow too,” said Sandbar, earning looks from everyone at the table.

“Uh, you live here,” said Silverstream.

“That was the joke.”

I rolled my eyes, and I assume a few others did too. I couldn’t see them while my vision traced a circle around the room.

“What about you, Gallus?” asked Ocellus.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got… plans,” I said, a pit of dread opening up in my gut. I’d known my friends for the better part of a year, and yet for some reason, I still felt the need to cover up exactly how little of a life I had back home in Griffonstone. That topic was about to come up again, and even though it was necessary, I hated it.

The lie was as paperthin as I’d intended. Everyone, with the exception of Smolder, had picked up on the implication and was looking at me with eyes full of sympathy. The attention wasn’t particularly pleasant, and I squirmed in my chair before letting out a sigh of defeat. “Fine. I don’t know when I’m leaving. I don’t even know what I’m doing this summer. It’s not like there’s much waiting for me back home.”

I heard two of the girls say a muddled combination of “oh” and “aww”, but I didn’t pay attention to exactly who it was. I took another bite of my potato mush while I waited for the spotlight to move off of me.

It didn’t, exactly as I’d hoped. When I finished chewing, I glanced around to see expectant looks across the board. Even Smolder looked a little concerned. “Guys, it’s not a big deal.”

“But it is!” said Silverstream. I hadn’t looked directly at her, but I was forced to when she draped an arm over my shoulders. “We can’t just leave you alone for three months.”

“I’m used to it,” I said, the words tasting faintly acidic on the way out of my beak. Really, this was no different from the tricks I used when haggling at the markets in Griffonstone. Downplaying things, acting like I wasn’t desperate, leading the others in. After the incident over Hearth’s Warming when I’d opened up and told everyone about my home life, I’d seen a subtle shift in how my friends treated me. They pitied me and my situation, and I could use that.

Maybe friendship school hadn’t taught me that much after all. Here I was, manipulating my friends into saving me from a miserable summer. Disgust washed through my mind, but I kept it to myself. I could live with a little guilt if it meant not going home. “I’ve spent most of my life alone. I can handle another three months.”

That was the final act I needed to make the pity party a success. Silverstream swung herself around in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes, her beak just an inch from mine. “I’m not taking no for an answer,” she said. Then she turned to face the others. “Come on guys, we can figure something out if we put our heads together!”

“I can already tell you I’m not gonna be any help. I know you griffons are tougher than you look, but I don’t think you could handle the Dragon Lands for more than a couple of days,” said Smolder. I couldn’t argue with that, and neither could Silverstream.

“Same here,” said Ocellus. “The Badlands are fine for Changelings, but we don’t really depend on regular food all that much.” She gestured to her tray, which held only a few morsels. “You’d have a tough time staying fed out there,” she said, offering a shrug and eyes that screamed “sorry”.

“I know my parents would let you crash at my place for a while, but I don’t know if they’d be good for three months,” said Sandbar. “I can ask though.”

“Yaks will take Gallus!” Yona shouted. “Yaks best at hospitality! Griffon can stay with Yona and learn smash like real yak.”

I gulped. A whole summer living with yaks, most of them much bigger than Yona. And they loved to smash things; I could easily wind up in that category.

“No offense, Yona, but I’d like to survive the summer,” I said. Yona looked a little disappointed, so I added a white lie onto it. “I don’t like the cold that much anyway. I appreciate it, though.” She nodded, which made me feel a little better about it.

“So that leaves me. Hmm...” said Silverstream. “I don’t think I have any room with my dad. And my mom lives underwater, so you don’t want to do that. Trust me.”

The mood at the table fell, everyone except Silverstream settling down to eat their lunch. She hovered next to me, eyes fixed on the ceiling with a claw hooked under her beak, deep in thought.

“Well, this is promising,” I said. It sounded better in my head, but my half-hearted attempt at a quip fell flat, doing nothing to break the silence. After another minute or so, Silverstream went back to her seat and started eating, though her mind was elsewhere, pondering something as she chewed. It seemed that the conversation was over, so I shoveled the rest of my potatoes into my beak and swallowed them as quickly as I could, letting my mind wander toward thoughts of home.

It just soured my mood.

I was about ready to excuse myself and head back to the dorms when Silverstream spoke up. “Sandbar?”

“What’s up?”

“Are you sure Gallus can stay with you for a few days?”

“Yeah, totally.”

“Sweet!” Silverstream turned to me next. “Ok, Gallus. I think I figured it out.”

“What is it?” My heart jumped. Had my plan worked after all?

“I’ll tell you later.” She hopped up from her seat and collected her tray. “I’ve got some planning to do. I’ll see you guys back at the dorms!” And with that, she immediately raced off with a big grin on her face.

I looked around at the rest of the group incredulously. “I’m scared.”

That leavened the mood a bit, earning a few chuckles. “I’ll see you guys up there,” I said, hopping up from the table. I dropped my tray off at the dishwasher’s window and left the lunchroom.


After Smolder left that afternoon, we found ourselves with a little free time to hang out around Ponyville, so we decided our last act as a semi-together group for this school year would be bowling. It was fun, but we all sucked. The afternoon passed in what felt like the blink of an eye, and then we spent most of the evening packing up our belongings to be out of the dorms before the deadline the next morning.

Well, the rest of them did. I spent a lot of time bouncing between rooms, talking to everyone to keep myself distracted. Silverstream didn’t make any mention of her plans while we hung out, so I was anxious. Once I ran out of conversations to have, I retired to my room and started reading one of the books Ocellus gave me for Hearth’s Warming.

It was more bittersweet the next morning when Yona and Silverstream left. Whereas Smolder had taken off without much fanfare, Silverstream spent the better part of half an hour going around and saying her—sometimes tearful—goodbyes to everyone she seemed to have ever met at the school, including all of the teachers. I was the last one she came to, and instead of the tears and sadness I was expecting, she looked to me with a big grin.

“Bye, Gallus!” she said, wrapping me in a hug that was tighter than I’d normally expect from someone as light as her.

“Have a safe trip back,” I said, patting her once on the back and then stepping back to cut the hug short.

She didn’t let go immediately, but she took the hint quickly enough and let go. “So, question: do you mind working this summer?”

“What?”

She rolled her eyes. “Remember yesterday, we were trying to figure out what to do for your summer?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, work’s fine.”

“Great!” she said, clapping her hands together. “I’m going to send a letter to Sandbar’s house for you sometime next week. I’ll let you know what I find out!”

She turned to leave, but I stopped her. “Wait, you’re getting me a job?”

“I’m gonna try to, yeah.”

“What kind of job?”

She giggled and waved her claw dismissively. “Oh, Gallus, you don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

I deadpanned at her. “Uh, Silver. That’s kind of important. I need to know what kind of job it is.”

She deflated, but nodded. “I guess that’s fair. I don’t know all of the specifics, but I’m going to ask my dad if he can find a temporary spot in the Hippogriff Navy for you.”

“The… the Navy?” I stammered. “Like the ‘sailing around, fighting pirates’ Navy?”

“Yep!” she said. “If my dad says no, I can just ask my aunt. She’s the queen, so she’ll be able to make something happen.”

I took a second to mull it over. I’d never been near a boat bigger than a canoe before, and I didn’t know the first thing about sailing. I didn’t know how dangerous the job was, what kind of hippogriffs I’d be around, or really anything. It’d be a major step outside of my comfort zone.

She picked up on my hesitation. “Well, does that sound okay?”

I looked her in the eyes, and then I nodded. “Boats are pretty cool, I guess.”

“Great!” She pounced on me with another hug, but this time pulled away quickly enough that I didn’t have to break it myself. “I’ll try to get it all figured out as quick as I can.”

“Sounds good,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “So, I guess I’ll see you next week?”

“Next week.” She turned to leave. “I hope,” she added. “See ya!”

Silverstream left me alone, and I spent the next hour or so cleaning my room and packing. It was just me, Sandbar, and Ocellus for the rest of the afternoon, and when she left that evening, I gathered my stuff and headed to Sandbar’s house.


The next few days at Sandbar’s house were uneventful. His family was pretty nice, but I could see just a little bit of unease on his little sister’s face when she was around me. I caught her staring wide-eyed at my beak and talons a few times over the weekend that I was there.

I seemed to get that fairly often from ponies, especially young ones. I didn’t think of myself as intimidating, but I guess thousands of years of civilization still couldn’t quite put the old predator/prey dynamic all the way to bed. Nothing ever came of it, though, so I didn’t spend much time worrying about it.

We all took a trip on Saturday to a place called “Hare’s Foot Falls” out somewhere in the middle of Whitetail Woods and spent the day hiking around and sightseeing. It was a peaceful day, and I managed to break away from the group on occasion to allot myself some alone time. Free from the distractions of the group, my thoughts shifted to my summer plans.

I was nervous about Silverstream’s letter and what it might say. She sounded confident in her ability to find a job for me, but I was skeptical. Even for as well-connected as she was, she was just a teenager like me. I had my doubts about how much sway she actually held, so I had to prepare myself for the very real possibility that I’d be heading home to Griffonstone next week.

That scared me a lot more now than it had just a few days ago. Going home shouldn’t have been a big deal; it was familiar, a place I knew like the back of my hand. I’d have been fine whatever the outcome, but now, I had hope. I knew they all pitied me because I was an orphan, and I’d milked their sympathy for my own personal gain. Well, maybe it wasn’t all personal gain. Now Silverstream would get to spend the summer with me around! Who wouldn’t love that?

I grimaced. Narcissism wasn’t a luxury I often afforded myself, but here I was, trying to use it to justify manipulating my friends. I wasn’t graduating from that damned school anytime soon, not doing stuff like this.

Regardless of whether or not it was ethical for me to play my friends fairly harmlessly to my advantage, now I had a real shot of staying out of that hole, and I was excited for it. But it wasn’t a certainty. Silverstream’s letter could very well just tell me that the plan was off, that she couldn’t make it work. Better luck next time, try again.

I wasn’t prepared to have my hopes dashed.

The weekend came and went, as did Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was Thursday morning, and I was sitting in the den, eating a bowl of sugary, marshmallowy cereal. It probably had as much nutritional value to me as sawdust, though I couldn’t deny that it still tasted good. Dumping that amount of sugar into just about anything would probably make it delicious.

Today had to be the day. I’d expected her letter by Tuesday, but my hopes were still intact. I told myself that if she didn’t get a letter here by the weekend, then I could assume that meant “no” by default. I was starting to sense my welcome running a little thin, anyway. I figured Sandbar’s family would be sick of me by Saturday, and so that would be when I threw in the towel and went home.

The front door opened, and in walked Sandbar’s dad. He was wearing a robe and carrying a cup of coffee in one hoof, the day’s mail tucked under his arm. He disappeared into the kitchen, and I trained my ears on the doorway, listening for any signs of good news. After a few minutes, I heard his slippers shuffling on the linoleum floor, and then he entered the den holding a letter.

I immediately jumped up, as did my heart rate.

“And one for Gallus,” he said with a smile, passing the letter to me.

I took the letter and immediately sliced it open with a talon. I felt a knot of dread in my stomach, but I didn’t particularly care. Anticipation outweighed any anxiety I felt, and I unfolded the letter. It was a bit shorter than I’d expected.

Hey Gallus!

Sorry it took so long, but things got a little more complex than I figured they would. Apparently there was some international law stuff that we had to take care of in order to get you here (and trust me, my dad was not happy about all the hoops he had to jump through. Maybe bring him a thank you note or something), but it looks like we’re all set now. I think they’re going to make you a “temporary cadet” or something like that. I didn’t catch all of the details. They want you here on Saturday to meet with the General and get a few things worked out. I can’t wait to see you!

~ Silverstream

My grin grew steadily as I read, and by the end of it, I was positively beaming. My little scheme had paid off royally, and now I had a plan for my summer. I couldn’t help it when I jumped in the air and shouted, “YES!” at the top of my lungs.

When I landed back on the floor, I was greeted with the sight of Sandbar’s dad clutching a lamp that had fallen toward him and he was shooting me a glare. I guessed one of my wings bumped it when I jumped.

“I know we didn’t go over this in the house rules, but can you not do that again?” he asked.

I deflated and folded my wings in, but the smile didn’t leave my beak. “Sorry, got a little carried away.”

He chuckled. Apparently Sandbar’s mellow attitude ran in the family. “I take it that’s good news?” he said, leaning the lamp upright.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m going to Mount Aris!”

My grin only grew wider as I dashed down the hall to the guest bedroom so I could gather my things. I had a train to catch.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Settle In Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 11 Minutes
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