cloudominium Gally Day Care (Closed: SteelEagle, Foxxy)

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                                   


Juice, of course. "Got it," he said with a nod as he went into the kitchen and the foal departed for the living room. He looked inside of the fridge and lo and behold, he wasn't shocked to discover that there was apple juice. He was shocked to find other types of juices, but he guessed it made sense since this wasn't the apple farm. Did Professor Applejack know? Was this leverage, or simply a beverage? He didn't know but he knew what he saw and would file it away for later. He could always use it to turn a failing grade into a passing grade. Or just have it be nothing. More like that. He didn't think Applejack would care quite that much. He poured a nice cup and made his way into the living room.

 

The show was certainly picking up steam, with one of the highlights being Daring Do's tense encounter with the legendary Decaptus of the Forbidden City. This large, evil visage creature resembled an octopus. It was mean and cruel, poisonous and vicious and very hungry. And it knew it wanted the explorer. Its disgusting tentacles, barbed and poisonous, tried to squeeze and rip her. It also used its tentacles to pull itself forward at great speed, its many-toothed mouth bellowing a trilled barking sound as it moved swiftly towards Daring Do. The explorer did her best to avoid it. Smoke bombs, small explosives, arrows, caltrops- the works. But a tentacle here and a tentacle there started to blood her up.

 

It was only when she used a small bomb that exploded with colored liquid, much like ink, that she noticed that it couldn't see some colors of the spectrum. And so she tried to hide, her blue-color-covered body slinking against support beams and trying to maintenance as much as silence as possible. The Decaptus tried to find her, searching out the space with its tentacles, a sickly, angry trill echoing deeply from its killer's body as it inched around her, blind but always on the hunt, the tentacles always just missing her by inches...

Gallus hovered next to Zap Apple, placing the glass of juice on the table a little bit away. "Scary, isn't it?"

[Hippo]

 

Zap began to be fixated on the film as the monster grew more and more terrifying. The shots with Daring Do being beaten up, but then also the thrill of her narrowly escaping the certain death of the vicious tentacles the monster hurled at her started to vex Zap's inner colt. He was not a stallion, not yet. Gallus set the apple juice on the table next to Zap and mentioned the film's scariness with chill tones. He jumped slightly at the voice as he was not expecting the half-cat creature to use his feline sense to silently sneak up on him during the tense part of the film. However, it helped that the noise of the film was drowning anything else in the home that could squeak, including Zap's soft involuntary whimper.

 

The film progressed as Daring Do was able to escape the monster by evading the trap through the trickery of color. She climbed back through the floor she fell through and ran to a doorway that would lead her to a large room with a calm pool of water. She then jumped in, the colors that painted her were washed away and the default color of the character emerged, though wet and sporting many bruises and red marks from scratches. She also seemed to have a problem with her wing, which she wrapped with medical tape to protect from further injury. Zap exhaled.

 

Daring Do found her assistant, a pony with a strange accent named Guile Move who was happy to see her mentor. "The temple is coming apart, we need to get out of here." Sure enough the short break of easing had ended and the film became a tense watch for Zap Apple again. The two ponies ventured through dark tunnels and sprinted across sharp blade traps, narrowly escaping certain death. They happened upon a trench that had no obvious way across. Daring Do lassoed a rock on the other side of the trench and pulled it tight to form a reliable knot. Guile Move jumped on the rope, swung to the other side and climbed up the other side safely. "Throw me the rope!" Daring Do yelled as the temple continued to crumble, large rocks and sidings behind her caving in. "Throw me the idol first." Daring Do pulled out the idol she had acquired from deeper in the temple and threw it to Guile Move. "Now throw me the rope!" Without doing so, Guile Move saluted to the pegasus her demise. "So long, ol' friend." The untrustworthy pony then disappeared further down the temple halls.

 

Zap Apple looked back at Gallus. "Gally?" He asked with concern. In the film, Daring Do grunted with annoyance. "This is why I work alone." She took a few steps back from the trench and proceeded to jump across it to the other side. She barely grabs the rope and climbs up the side safely, but only after several terrifying seconds. "Gally?" Zap asks again with more worry in his voice. The next shot shows Daring Do turning a corner in a hallway, and having to jump to the side and over many metal spikes. But then in a moment in the film edited for shock value, she happens across her former assistant, now lifeless, who had been impaled by several spikes that all protruded from her head and torso, leaving no room to the imagination of anyone watching it as to what had happened. Zap started crying. "Ahhhh!!! No!" He covered his eyes but it was too late.

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                             

 

The show was pretty sweet. A lot of the Daring Do books made for pretty cool shows and this was no exception, especially with the killer special effects and the more mature tone. Most of the Daring Do shows were made specifically to appeal to an all-ages audience. Sometimes the material could get a little scary or intense but the heroine always found her way out of danger and the bad guys always lost. That was true here, but this story featured a higher than average number of bad ends. If Gallus had been using his brain when he picked the show out he would have remembered that Zap Apple was a foal and that a ot of material was unsuitable for ponies his age. Unluckily for the pair of them, he hadn't been thinking that deeply on the subject.

 

"Whats up?" He asked nonchalantly. It was then he noticed Zap Apple saying his name with no small amount of concern, and then the worries started to filter in. Maybe this had been a bad idea. A cool idea perhaps but a bad one. Still, maybe it would be okay. The dawning realization of what was about to happen struck the older bird just a few moments before it happened, his mind running for something to distract the foal with. A bead of sweat as he looked around, trying to find...and then it happened. It was graphic enough to stick out in a young mind and while Gallus probably would have thought it was cool. But yeah, apparently not Zap Apple. He pulled the foal in close and pat him on the head awkwardly. "Hey, stop the crying. It's okay. It's all fake, just a show!" He said in a desperate bid to keep the fella calm. He looked around- juice, ready to go?
"Hey Zap, want some juice?"
Clearly the perfect way out. Colts loved juice like hippogriff mares like plumbing!

[Hippo]

 

"No!" Zap refused the juice offer. He was wise enough to know it was only a distraction from what he was so upset about. The projector suddenly had a malfunction. It clicked a couple times, and then stopped clicking, but the light source was still projecting. On the screen, which took up a good portion of one side of the living room, was showing a still image of a pony with spikes protruding from his face and body, all with chocolate syrup to illustrate to a black and white audience exactly how blood spills from a creature's sinew. Zap accidentally looked at it again, and cried even louder.

 

*knock* *knock* *knock* *knock*

 

The front door of the Cloudominium had a knock on the door. With the absence of the film's soundtrack, the pounding echoed loudly throughout the cloud house. Whoever this was, they were urgently trying to get the attention of the homeowner, or they had little understanding of what an appropriate knock on the door sounds like. Zap heard the knock, but could not be bothered by whoever might be trying to get inside. He was too busy wailing on account of witnessing pretend death.

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                                         

 

 

Gallus sighed inwardly as Zap Apple denied the juice. He placed the cup down and rolled his eyes, though he couldn't help but smile. It was kinda funny seeing a little pony colt get so unnerved by even fake violence. He knew better than to say it though. Pony mothers certainly had a strange way of appreciating the foibles of their offspring and Gallus wasn't going to made an example of. Then the projector show started to fail. He got u and flew over, giving it a light tap. Nothing happened. He looked at the rolling part of the projector and saw that it was half-rusted. Maybe Rainbow didn't bother having one that was weather proofed? That sucked. With Gallus yelling out again at the horrible (cool) image being shown on the wall, he stopped the projector and then used the latch to pull the spool of film out, ending the show and ceasing its deployment of horrible images directly into Zap's brain. 

 

*knock* *knock* *knock* *knock*

 

Who could that be? It seemed urgent. Probably because of the lack of noise now that the screaming and movies were over. He left the projector film on the table as he flew down to the door. "Be there in a second," he yelled out so whoeever was at the door could hear. He slicked back his feathers ever slightly as they had become disheveled over the course of the day. With himself being a little bit more presentable than before he took a breath and opened the door.

[Hippo]

 

Silverstream was excited for Gallus. She felt a little slighted she wasn't asked first to foalsit one of the professors' kids, but she was glad the griffin might be assigned something that would require him to loosen his feathers a little. She had found out he was doing the task when they were studying in the library the afternoon before, and wanted to be with him to help him, even if she wasn't invited. So she decided to wake up extra early in order to deliver the pie Applejack had asked her to send. When she finished the delivery, she hurried back to Ponyville and looked for Rainbow Dash's cloud above where she assumed Gallus would still be.

 

Silverstream beamed her patented wide smile, which was much larger than it normally was, and it was normally pretty wide. When Gallus opened the door, she saw Gallus and squealed. "Heeee! I made it Gallus! I was able to complete the delivery to Goldie Delicious' for Applejack and be back in time to help you!" The hippogriff had the appearance of a creature who had seen some action. Her mane was a little frazzled with a leaf here and there caught in her locks, and smudges of dirt had smeared on a couple of her limbs seemingly in an inadvertent fashion, but she was still presentable for the most part.

 

Silverstream slipped passed Gallus and flew into the cloudominium. "Where is he?" She looked left and right and then down before seeing the sights and sounds of the crying Zap Apple. She hovered to a landing. "Aw, what's wrong? Why is he crying?" Silverstream looked at Gallus and briefly guessed he probably didn't have the maternal instincts to cover such an explanation. She leaned over Zap. "What's wrong?"

 

Zap didn't really have a good barometer in order to express why he was so upset. The way Gallus treated his misery seemed to suggest Zap just needed to grow up and didn't require him to feel anything but slight embarrassment. So he couldn't speak his mind honestly, but he instead uttered nonsensical words to express what replaced the wailing and crying he did seconds before. "Eheeww, heee, hahhh, wahhhahhahh. *sniff* hehhhhh heh."

 

Silverstream hugged him as he recovered from his session of crying. "It's okay, little guy. It's going to be alright."

 

Zap then looked up at Silverstream for the first time, seeing the happy loving cheery expression on her face, the pink hues reminding him of the fascinating pink bird from earlier and comforting his soul with the peace of mind from what seemed like a natural caretaker. "Pi- pink bfirdy!?"

 

"Yeah! Well actually it's Silverstream, but you can call me pink birdy if you want to." She gigglesnorted. "Actually that sounds kind of fun. Pink birdy! What's your name?"

 

*Sniff* "Sach Abol."

 

Silverstream could see that Zap's utterances were not clear enough for him to properly say his own name correctly for others to repeat it properly. So she turned to Gallus and mouthed quietly her words to him. "What's his name?"

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                               

 

Gallus sighed in relief, at least momentarily. Silverstream was the lesser of many evils when it came to who he feared would be at the door. He had wanted to show off a little more than he could now for her but at the very least he thought that was doing a reasonably good job watching Zap so it wouldn't be an embarrassment. She, however, looked like she had been through an ordeal of some kind. She was less than her normal levels of presentability. A stray leaf in her mane, scuff marks, some mud here and there. What in the wide world of Equestria had she done to deliver a pie that quickly? He wasn't aware that pie deliveries were near the top of the most dangerous jobs in the world or anything.

 

"Well, that's good to hear. Fight a manticore or something along the way?" He asked, using a talon to pick away one of the leaves from her mane and tossing it out of the door with a laugh. "Thinking you need to wear armor or something next time?" He asked sarcastically, though he was honestly pretty curious as to what exactly had taken place that necessitated she end up this way. Of course, he wasn't going to get the answer to that burning question. She pushed past him quickly to find Zap Apple who didn't make it hard in the slightest. It took just a single scan of the home's sound to pinpoint that the loudest noise ever made was emanating from wherever he was at, at any given moment in time.

 

She flew over to Zap Apple and engaged him in some fine mothering. At the very least he stopped wailing inconsolably over some blood in a movie. Geez kid, grow some feathers already. He knew that it was probably wrong of him to show the movie in the first place but really, this all seemed like a wild overreaction. He wasn't sure why he was coddled so much but it was freakin' Daring Do. Wasn't she an Equestrian icon or something? He caught her mouthing, asking what his name was. Rather than make it obvious he was answering a question, the oven dinged- providing him an easy way of doing it. "That's the food. Zap Apple buddy, wanna eat?"

[Hippo]

 

"Zap Apple? Oh that name is so adorable!" Silverstream turned to Zap, her pupil's enlarged and glossy. "You hungry, little guy?"

 

Zap seemed indifferent overall. He was being torn by his emotions and his excitement and didn't really know how to feel. The film was still very upsetting to him. He might have nightmares about it, or even scary daydreams that make him stressed. He still wasn't satisfied with being foalsat by a griffin, especially one that smelled funny. Zap had been pressured to deal with him, but still didn't trust him completely. And then there was the angel. The pink birdy. Zap was really fascinated with Silverstream. She was very pretty, had a lighthearted profile and stance, and had a bubbly personality that made his heart float. She wasn't as brash or as athletically attractive as his mother, but he was entranced by the hippogriff's ability to charm him. "Mmhmm."

 

Silverstream followed Gallus into the kitchen. "No manticores, but you should have seen it! There were some amazing waterfalls and forests with big trees, caves that had millions of bats in it. It was crazy! Fortunately though I just flew over all the danger." Silverstream was interrupted of her trip by the realization that Gallus was cooking something. "You know how to cook!? What did you make?" While Silverstream asked and listened, she went looking into the cupboards for a toolbox.

 

Zap sat in the living room, letting his teared-up cheeks air dry. He could see the winged students in the kitchen talking amongst themselves about something he didn't care about. And when he turned his head, he could see the front door of the house wide open. He started thinking about what would happen if he left right now. Would he find his mothers? Could he safely hover to the ground without getting hurt?

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                             

Watching Zap Apple's attitude improve by leaps and bounds with Silverstream around was pretty cool. He always figured she'd be good with foals, chicks, and kittens. She was bright pink and energetic and based on what he saw from Pinkie Pie that seemed to check most of the boxes that infants and whatnot required. Still, it was ever so slightly lame that he was doing his best to help him and Zap Apple was still giving him so much trouble. Annoying. Well, no use crying over spilled milk. Better this result than screaming and crying and the gnashing of teeth and hoof. 

 

He flew into the kitchen, excited to get a move on. Maybe he'd be in a better move with some food in his belly. Or at least less energetic as he digested all of it. Either strategy would be great as long as it worked. He pulled the roasted eggplant lasagna out, putting it on the top of the oven while taking a deep smell. Yep, that smelled good. Pretty good. Not bad for being a quick cooker in the oven. He brought out two- no, three plates- and associated cutlery before he sliced into the food. In just a few moments there were three plates ready to go. As he had worked, however, he had listened.

 

It was kinda lame to hear about all these possible adventures but...also, ya know, they flew. So it was good. He often wondered how boring Daring Do would be if the character didn't break her wings all the time and need to be grounded. Still, sh had done more than he had today. "Sounds fun. Well maybe not fun. But at least you did it, right?" He asked offpawedly as he was made the food. The food which peaked her attention a little bit. "Oh, this? Roasted eggplant lasagna. Kinda blah but something to eat," he said with a shrug as he turned around, giving her a plate. "I bet you're hungry. Now to feed Zap- he's probably hungry too. Or almost as hungry. Or hungrier. I don't know, foals."

"Zap! Got some...probably...yummy lasagna for ya!"

[Hippo]

After rummaging through five cupboards, Silverstream finally found a toolbox underneath the sink. She pulled it out and set in on the kitchen table. She intended to use the tools and her knowledge of modern pulleys and rotary machines to try and fix the broken projector. But having eggplant lasagna fill the room with warming smells that advertised it's ability to be eaten, Silverstream resigned her impromptu task, at least for now. "I can't believe you made this! This looks amazing!" She took a fork and softly cut a piece of her entrée, and then put it in her mouth. It was hot. Delicious, but hot. "Owh wow!" She motioned as she ate. A quick swallow later and she smiled. "It tastes amazing. How did you get the ingredients? Did you go shopping before you came here to watch Zap Apple?"

 

Silverstream was pretty impressed at Gallus' ability to find his way around the kitchen. It was almost as if he had lived with Rainbow Dash this whole time and no one knew because he snuck into her home when she was away on week-long flight missions with the Wonderbolts. And if this was true, Silverstream would be pretty upset at him for not inviting her over so she could see if she could possibly fit into the rainbow pony's old Wonderbolt reserves uniform. How stretchy were those uniforms? One day she hoped to find out. While waiting for her steamy lasagna to cool, she asked Gallus about his day. "So what did you guys do today? Go on any adventures? Teach him any flying tricks?"

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                             

Gallus didn't want to take credit for work he didn't do. After all, it wasn't like he worked at the magi-food factory where some earth ponies and unicorns worked together to make these cheap heatable meals. He didn't even buy it. Oh. Wait. Would Rainbow Dash be upset? Probably not. Still, he at least did some of the work. He did pull it out, operate the oven, and finish it off. He could have messed it up. If he had then all of the work that those ponies had done would have been wasted. So if you really thought about it (for a while), then yeah, he did deserve at least some of the credit for this meal. He took a bite after blowing on it, allowing Silver's experience to inform his as he locked down a smile. Hey, if she was going to go ahead and give him the opportunity, he'd take it. "Oh, it was easy. Just got it ready in a snap and bam, oven," he said, shrugging. "Not a big deal, ya know. Got it under control."

 

The subject switched to Zap Apple. Yeah, it hadn't been as cool as it could have been. He was a rambunctious and cranky little colt with a lot of energy and Gallus was anything but a very strong flier. No adventures, no tricks, a bunch of less than successful trips into entertainment and all that had come of it was a foal that was less impressed with him than the start of the day. Still, he wasn't a bad colt. Just, ya know, not cool just yet. Maybe someday he would be one-tenth as awesome as Gallus was, if he got lucky. "Nah, nothing too much. He had a hard time coming around to me. really missed his moms. But..." he sighed, "I guess he's just a kid. I can't get too angry at him. Speaking of...uhhh, Zap? Zap Apple, your food's ready," he said as he looked around with growing worry.
"Where is he?"

[Hippo]

Gallus was sometimes too much. Silverstream could see how often he was clueless and confident at the same time. And she liked that about him. As long as she could detect when his feathers were full of lint, she could trust him when things needed to be said. All that really needed to be said right now was that Gallus was taking care of things pretty well. Watching a foal may not have been as tough on the griffin as Silverstream had thought. In any event, she was glad to be here now to see how the rest of the day with the professors' kid would go, and perhaps provide some relief to Gallus if he decided to take a break.

 

When he had mentioned Zap and called for him, Silverstream left the table to look back in the living room where she was. The projector stood there lifeless, as she hadn't gotten a chance to attempt fixing it, yet. Zap was not on the couch or the floor where he sat on a pillow earlier. Silverstream lifted a couch cushion to look underneath it, but there was nothing there but a loose coin. She looked around the room to see if possibly he was hiding behind a plant or a cloud pillar that decorated the outsides of the cloudominium, but found no visual evidence of the young pegasus' whereabouts. And then she looked at the front door, which was left wide open from the moment Silverstream was let inside. She looked at Gallus. "Does he know how to fly, yet?" Silverstream reciprocated Gallus' concerned sound in his voice.

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                                  

Gallus felt one of his head-feathers grow on edge as he joined her in looking around. Oh sweet Celestia how could e be so stupid? And how could Zap be so quiet? That foal was anything other than quiet normally. But of course when he decided to get himself into trouble- Gallus had no doubt it was trouble- he decided to not make a damn sound. Gallus looked into cupboards, into the closets, under Rainbow's bed. Nothing. He was a deadgriff.

Gallus didn't know whether or not his head would be removed from the first buck that Applejack would deliver to him but he assumed it would be the second one at the very least. And even if he wasn't killed by that mom, Rainbow Dash would never not track him down. She was just too fast to stop and could probably rainboom Gallus into a pile of goo. And either way he was sure he would deserve whatever it is they decided to do if he managed to lose their child for no good reason while inside Rainbow's own house. And that wasn't even considering the grade he'd get from Fluttershy, which wasn't as big of a deal but loomed large in his subconscious anyway.

 

"I...think so?" He tried t think as he fluttered around in increasing panic. He had heard something about his flying around in the cafeteria not too long ago, when the mothers were discussing him while taking their turn as the lunch ladies. As he flew around he caught a glimpse of the door- wide open! His heart sank. Kinda of like a foal that suked at flying maybe.
"The door! We didn't close it!" He said in a panic as he flew like a griffon out of tartarus out of it, looking desperately around for the foal. Including down, because thats the worst possible outcome so why wouldn't he assume it?! 

[Hippo]

 

Silverstream had gotten ahead of herself in thinking Gallus was completely on top of everything he was doing today. Of course, she couldn't fault him, it seemed like everything was fine until she showed up. Still, she was a little impatient at the lack of knowing the foal pegasus. "You think!?" She remarked on Zap's ability to fly. "How could you not know for sure? He wouldn't just jump off the cloud would he?" Silverstream said it so bluntly, it was almost as if she enjoyed the sound effect that one could hear in their own mind while such an expression was insinuated. She hurried to the side of the cloud just outside the front door and looked down. Through a few spare clouds below them, she could see the vast array of patchworked farmland sewn into the grassy green fields with the occasional building to house the ponies that tilled it. No dark orange specs could be seen. She looked back to Gallus. "What are you going to do?" She hadn't included herself part of the problem. Not yet, anyway.

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                                

Gallus was panicking. Okay, how to explain this to Rainbow Dash? 'oh hey yeah I lost your son in the clouds oops hahaha'. No, that would get him killed. 'I was distracted by Silverstream she's real pretty', okay he'd get killed but only after being laughed at. And he didn't even want to imagine what it would be like with Applejack. He would be killed and his body never found because it was ejected into the sun, he knew that one already. So it was probably best for his health if he didn't tell either one of them what happened, and that was best accomplished by finding the little trouble maker. Gallus held a claw to his head, breathed in deep, and slicked back his head feathers out of habit.

 

"He didn't fall and hit the ground. We know that. And he couldn't have gotten far," he said as he looked around. His eyesight was rather keen for a Griffon, who already had very good eyesight. He didn't see him anywhere close by, either. "Okay. He was crying earlier for his moms...maybe he wants to find them. On the ground. Hovering..." he muttered as he looked down. New cloud cover made it hard, but he'd bet some Equestrian coin that Zap was below, trying to find them. "Alright. Keep your eyes sharp, we're gonna hover down," he said with a nod before he started hovering and fluttering towards the ground, eyes peeled for the runt. "Zap Apple! Hey, where are you?" He yelled out into the aether as they broke through the clouds, his eyes darting to try and find Zap Apple the way he would a swallow back home.

[Hippo]

 

Silverstream did not like this plan. However, she could not think of anything else. She followed Gallus' lead slowing gliding and flaking downwards, checking for hiding young ponies in the clouds she passed. The descent seemed illogical. If he had come down this far, it was likely he went all the way down. The sky and ground underneath Rainbow Dash's place was mostly empty, a small pool of rainbow water that fell from the cloudominium was the only feature worth mentioning. "Do you think he fell in the rainbow water? Can he swim? Can you even swim in rainbow water? Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever touched rainbow water before." Fluttering next to the rainbow fall, she stuck her claw out and made contact with the stream. Her talon instantly turned multiple colors. The water ran off her claw easily, but the stain from the water stayed momentarily longer than it felt. She sniffed her talon, it smelled like nothing. She licked her talon and immediately got a tangy sensation all over her mouth. "Wow! That is not what I expected." She rubbed her neck. "Probably not something you mix into your drinks."

[SteelEagle]

 

 

They hovered further and further down, though Gallus knew that the foal was likely along the ground. He wasn't gonna take any risks though, find out later that he got cold feathers and hid in a cloud bank so he didn't get in trouble from his foal-sitter and parents. He was going to be in trouble no matter what if he failed to find him in a timely manner, so he may as well be thorough. But it was proven rather quickly that he was right to disbelieve in a simple solution to this growing concern of his. He wasn't in these cloud banks. That's fine. He didn't think Zap would be. He was just naïve enough to try and have that hope.

 

At least it came with a show. Silverstream decided to very literally taste the rainbow and based on her reaction Gallus was certain he could live his life without trying. He laughed. "Yeah, that doesn't look so good. Was it really spicy? I bet it was spicy," he said while looking around. He'd rather just hang out with Silverstream rather than have to find this little troublemaker but he liked having a functioning spinal column. His griffon eyes were sharp and he cocked his head around from position to position, like a hawk looking for a mouse to catch.

 

Then he spotted a critter that had every bit the look of little Zap Apple. "I think I see him!" He whispered excitedly before shooting towards the target, outstretched and ready to put an end to this spree of Gallus avoidance!

[Hippo]

 

Silverstream was unable to remove the color from her claw. She was hoping that later it might wear off, or that it came off with soap and water. She certainly hoped it didn't turn her tongue rainbow colored, but she was too distracted to ask for an outside view. Gallus began darting downward towards prey. Prey in this instance was the foal he was watching, but with no context, the activity seemed the same. Silverstream had never seen Gallus hunt before, and she wondered if this was what it was like. "Wait, where? On the ground?" Silverstream bolted after Gallus, attempting to streamline her wings for speed, but Gallus was faster than her.

[SteelEagle]

Gallus' entire body may as well have been a sharp dot, his wings behind him as he extended his talons out to catch his prey (strike) Zap Apple. He wasn't going to hurt him, just catch him. Though his hunting instinct in the back of his head was stoking the hunger within him. Small prey? Big meal for a smaller bird like him. But no, he just wanted this to end. As he got closer though it became clear he was wrong. It was a really bright bird, reflecting sun, and a healthy imagination and desire to see this resolved. He pulled up and avoided the bird, flitting just around the suddenly terrified creature, and peeling off and skimming the water with his paws, an annoyed look on his face as he started ascending once again.

 

He was getting angry, but the presence of Silverstream helped calm him. Having somecreature to talk to made it easier but he couldn't help it all. He dialed down his anger at being fooled and bottled it, shaking his head and turning to her as he continued his ascension. "Uggh. I'm starting to get really frustrated," he said, downplaying the rising emotion. Why the hay was this colt being such a pain? He had bent over backwards to take care of the flying lunchbox and all Gallus was getting out of it was trouble. He would rather have had the schoolwork. "I'm dead if I don't him. Where is he?" He asked in equal parts worry and fear. He ascended faster, looking every which direction. "ZAP! ZAP APPLE! WHEEERREEE ARREEEEE YOOOOOOOUUU?"

[Hippo]

While Gallus was returning to his raptor-like instincts for a short moment, Silverstream realized something that made her retreat. "Oh, no! We left the door to the cloudominium open again!" Silverstream retreated back upwards, leaving Gallus by himself during his failed attempt at finding Zap. Silverstream flew back into the cloudominium and closed the door behind her. But shortly after, she came out of the home again and screeched to Gallus. "Gallus! You gotta see this!"

 

Once Gallus returned to the front parlor of the cloudominium, he could see Silverstream and what she was talking about.

 

Spoiler

 

"What do you think? I can't believe it fits me!" Silverstream shifted her hind quarters a little. "A little snug behind the wings, though."

 

 

[SteelEagle]

 

 

Gallus' mind was in a pretty awful place for a few moments. He was feeling like a frustrated failure of a Griffon who was letting everycreature down, and all on account of this wildly energetic and wanderlust driven colt. His professors were going to hate him and why would they not? They had every reason to think that he was an inconsiderate, irresponsible bird brain. It was exactly what was going on in his at the moment after all. And if they couldn't trust him, who else could? He'd have to slink back to Griffonstone and settle with a life better left forgotten.

 

Then she mentioned that the door was left open. Well, there was always a chance, right? It didn't take long for the pair of them to make it back to Rainbow's house. She vanished inside while he zipped around, looking for the colt. No, he didn't see him. Defeated after a brief moment of joy, he left the house and took his position back outside, lazily looking around. Luckily, somegriff decided to take his attention and what an attention taking heroine she was. She came out wearing one of professor Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolts uniforms and he didn't mind saying- "Wow! You look really good in that," he said, giving her a right-talon'd shooting approval. It was enough to give him a few moment away from his doom and gloom as he ate up the contours. 

[Hippo]

 

Silverstream attempted to pulled the goggles over her face, but the shape of her beak made it uncomfortable around her head. "I don't like these goggles, though. I'm gonna go upstairs and see if there are different sizes of goggles." As she started hovering up the cloudominium stairs she shouted, "Hey Zap Apple, can you find me a different pair of goggles?" Silverstream disappeared up the stairs and then poked back down at Gallus. "Oh. By the way, I found Zap, he was rummaging through Rainbow's Wonderbolt stuff this whole time." The hippogriff said matter-of-factly.

Spoiler

 

 

For several minutes, Zap had been going through some of his mother's old Wonderbolt uniforms. Prior to this episode of mischief, Zap had been pondering going outside, since the other two seemed preoccupied with each other. But after looking at Silverstream and how approachable Zap found her, he decided that what she needed was a cool outfit. And he knew exactly where to get one, so he ran upstairs and started digging. When Silverstream came back, Zap presented her with one of his mother's old flight suits, and suggested she try it on. What, was she going to say no?

 

"Goggles?" He asked. He had different goggles, but they were probably too small for the pink birdie. He wasn't sure where there were different goggles around, but he opened a new box of stuff and began looking for what the hippogriff asked for, all the while making a mess out of Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolt fitting room.

 

 

[SteelEagle]

 

 

There was a brief second in time when Gallus thought that Silverstream had gone insane. Or that he was insane. Or that he was just too distracted to really understand what she said. But said it she did. And understand it, well, he did after a moment. Zap was here the whole time. All that panic over nothing. Well, the first thing he did was close and lock the door. No reason to make the previous horror a reality. Then he, calmly and without reservation, put the cooling food away. Then, and only then, did he sort his way back upstairs in the proper mood to deal with this lousiness.

 

Gallus wanted to be angry but he couldn't summon the righteously deserved fury at being deceived by absolutely nothing. Mostly because who was he gonna be angry at? The colt for being a colt? The air for being the air? Silverstream for being Silverstream? The only one he could be really upset at would be at Gallus for being Gallus, but Gallus was angry at himself enough so he didn't see the reason to make it any worse than it already was. Plus he was absolutely relieved to see that Zap Apple wasn't hydra food or getting himself caught in a cloud bank and scared. As completely annoyed as he was, and as right he was to be so, every other possibility was worse so he'd take this outcome. "There you are, Zap Apple," he said as he flew on over to be near the colt as he made a terrible mess of his mother's stuff. "Was looking everywhere for you," he said, looking around. he took a deep breath and sighed. he would have to clean it all up later, but that was a later Gallus problem. "Need any help finding goggles?" he asked positively. The colt didn't seem to like him much and he'd like to at least get him in an even mood before the parents returned.

[Hippo]

 

When Gallus approached the foal exclaimed on his whereabouts, Zap issued a very practical yet mature look on his face, one that raised an eyebrow and bounced his eyes around like he was surprised it took them this long to find him. "I'm... right here," he said with a little attitude before continuing his rummaging through his mother's stuff. Eventually, he pulled out a pair of subscription goggles intended for Rainbow. At some point, the Wonderbolt might have been recommended a pair of goggles that corrected her farsightedness, but as time would tell, the goggles would instead be stored and forgotten. The goggles were way too big for Silverstream, but they might fit Gallus. "Here, Gally, put these on." He tossed the goggles to Gallus to catch and then continued looking for more eyewear.

 

 

 

Silverstream was looking in a mirror in the same room, checking out her posterior with the flight suit on. "I can't believe how amazing I feel with this on, no wonder they always have them on, even when they aren't doing a performance." Silverstream noticed in the mirror, Gallus holding a pair of goggles. She turned around quickly and gasped. "Huh! Gallus, you want to play dress-up, too!?"

[SteelEagle]

He had kind of wanted a big deal made out of Zap Apple being around this whole time, but the fact of the matter was that he had been here and they were the tumbling dorks that had missed him the whole time. With all that in the back of his mind, he'd just feel happy enough that the colt was safe and he wasn't about to get kicked right in the face. Or Sonic Rainboom'd out of existence. This was all looking up on sheer virtue of not having to look down. Not that he was really all that happy about the fact that it could have happened in the first place. With that out of the way, he finally took stock of what was being said. He had a pair of goggles thrust upon him. he rolled his eyes and smiled. Well, this seemed awfully innocent and less dangerous than other possibilities.

 

He put the goggles on. A bit tight, but he had worn worse. He re-arranged it and tried to make it more comfortable as he heard Silverstream and turned around. Sweet Boreas he had to take a very deep breath because she looked absolutely golden in that uniform. Did they design the uniforms for athletes or cheerleaders because it was hard to imagine doing anything all that athletic in them when you were too busy posing. Then she saw him in the goggles and asked if he was doing something or the other and he wasn't paying too much attention, so he just nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, that," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "That sounds like fun."