+*+ A/N +*+
I doubt anyone would notice that I added an author's note here.
It's only going to be new readers reading this.
I doubt there would be anyone who liked to reread this.
I doubt there would be anyone who liked to read this neither
Oh well
I'm at last finally going to place trigger warnings at the start of the chapter with triggering stuff because I had actually been triggered a little bit recently. I didn't really see the reason for trigger warnings before, but now I do. I know it's insensitive to just add a trigger warning now, but eh. Now, I can't really go through all the chapters and see if there's a potential trigger so just comment at the place that triggered you, alright?
+*+

+*+
TRIGGER WARNING:
HOMOPHOBIC SLURS
HOMOPHOBIA
+*+

The bell rings, signalling the end of Sandbar's second period, his Kindness Class, which he enjoys since Fluttershy is the best teacher ever. He votes for her every. Single. Month. And is one of her biggest fans. Well, that time when he had to vote for Professor Rainbow Dash and Professor Applejack is one of the hardest things he has ever done.

He was even tempted to not vote for them. But since his friends were being his friends and amazing as usual, and that Sandbar was truly a nice Pony, he changed his vote. It's not like he regrets it, though. His two professors deserved it. That one time. Then he went back to voting for Fluttershy.

+*+ TRIGGER WARNING +*+

He approaches his violet locker to see a note stuck on it with tape. It reads Sandbar is a faggot.

Sandbar doesn't really feel offended. He did not know the deal with the f— word. As far as he knew, it just meant that other creatures thought he was gay. To him, nothing is wrong with being gay. He never really saw anything negative with it. He's actually bisexual, but that could be an easy mistake to make seeing as some creatures are ignorant.

+*+ END OF TRIGGER +*+

Sandbar curiously and carefully removes the tape. Very slowly. He is about to get the entire tape off until it rips the paper. Just a tiny rip, but it is enough to shake the mood of the young green Earth Pony. He says a curse then continues to rip the tape all the way.

He carefully folds it then places it into his saddle bag where he keeps all his materials for school. He then arranges his notebooks and folders in his bag so well that it could make Princess Twilight Sparkle fume with jealousy. If their old headmare is the type to do that, that is. Twilight Sparkle is a friend to all her students, which made her the perfect headmare.

     Speaking of friends, Sandbar remembers that he is supposed to meet them in the school garden. They do this everyday whenever they have break, which they begged Headmare Starlight Glimmer to let them have it together. Starlight Glimmer, being one of Twilight's finest friendship pupils, has allowed them to change the time of their breaks with a chuckle.

Sandbar smiles at the time, laughing when he remembers that Smolder even threatened to scorch Starlight with her fire and bring her all the way to the Dragon Lands, putting her on trial whether or not she is a qualified headmare for the School of Friendship. Sandbar can't help beaming so wide. But he's used to this. And it's not like his smile is as wide as his other energetic friend Silverstream anyway.

    As he arrives in the garden, he sees a flash of blue and yellow among some flora. Curious as he can be, Sandbar walks to the blue and yellow, assuming it is his Griffin friend, Gallus, but he wonders what he is doing among the plants. Instead of approaching him directly like how Sandbar originally planned, he walks to the side, where tall shrubs cover the walkway with their bushy green leaves.

He walks and walks around the perimeter of the vicinity where Gallus is, stopping where his Griffin friend appears closest. Holding back a giggle, he peers through a gap in the leaves. There he sees his best friend with his eyes closed. Gallus appears serene. His blank facial expression leaves him at peace, and his breathing whispers calm. Sandbar steps back, then laughs harder than he thought he can possibly laugh.

     Gallus, nearby, as it turns out, is indeed meditating. A very un-Griffin thing for him to do, but after the past horrors of his life, from the day they were underneath the school because of the Tree of Harmony to the temporary reign of the three villains, he needs a way to calm himself down. He went to Guidance Counselor Trixie for this and she suggested to try meditation, which Gallus did, and it worked.

Ever since that faithful day he has been meditating whenever he can. But of course, not in front of his friends who could potentially laugh at him, like this green Earth Pony whose laugh is very distinguishable. The laughter rings through Gallus' ears, destroying the peace and quiet that meditating has brought to him.

He opens his eyes then furrows his eyebrows. He flies then looks for his friend, who is easy to spot. Gallus lands dramatically in front of his unsuspecting Pony friend.

     "You should've seen that coming," Gallus says with a huff. Sandbar can't help but laugh some more.

    "Me? It's you who should think twice before trying out meditation!" Sandbar says, wiping tears that formed on the corner of his eye from all the laughing.

"Well, with all the things happening, I needed to relax. And you should tell that to Guidance Counselor Trixie! She's the one who first suggested it to me!" Gallus says.

"Well, look what I have," Sandbar says, changing the subject.

     Sandbar places his saddle bag down on top of a nearby picnic table. Gallus follows him there and takes a seat. He is intrigued with what it can be. Is it good or is it bad? He doesn't know. Yet. His feathers are itching to know. His Earth Pony friend is also itching to show Gallus. If he can find it in his neat bag. Sandbar opens his saddle back and looks through it, not quite finding the paper.

Sure, he is able to make his bag very neat and presentable, but he doesn't bother to remember where he places what. He supposes it is as good as a messy bag where you know exactly where is what, which used to be the state of his bag. But he prefers his neater bag. Even though he is having trouble finding the paper. At long last, the slight rip catches his eye, then he pulls it out of the bag.

      Sandbar gives the paper to Gallus, who immediately snatches it, crumpling it slightly. The green Pony winces, and Gallus gives him an I'm sorry look, then quickly unfolds the paper. He reads the paper. Then laughs. He laughs so hard that he doubles-over then falls to the ground.

+*+ TRIGGER WARNING +*+

     "Great Griffin's beak! Are you actually gay?" Gallus asks his friend, standing up.

    Sandbar rolls his eyes. He knows his friend is mostly against gays, but he thinks it is because of being brought up in a heteronormative, not to mention homophobic, society. Griffin weren't exactly the gayest creatures around.

Gallus has tried to be obsessed with a specific female creature since he met her and will refuse to feel attracted to anycreature else. The moment he feels the slightest bit attraction to some other creature, he locks himself in his room during breaks and Sandbar can faintly hear him chanting her name and all the great things about her over and over again.

Talk about some hardcore loyalty. Sandbar has consulted Gallus plenty of times before about how liking guys was completely okay, but Gallus will usually deny it all. Typical Gallus, Sandbar thinks as Gallus picks himself up from the floor, Always so stubborn.

     "Well, I'm not gay, but I am bisexual," Sandbar says calmly, not realising how bad the note actually was.

     "Gosh, how could you be so chill in being an abomination?" Gallus asks, "At least bisexual is a tad bit better"

     "I'm pretty sure you're bisexual, too," Sandbar says. Gallus flinches at this.

     "Am not!" Gallus shouts.

     "Is it because of your 'crush' on this certain Hippogriff?" Sandbar asks, moving his hooves to sign quotation marks in the air. He knew better. That crush was nothing but something that was really forced, not natural at all, but it didn't seem to affect them too negatively.

    "I have no idea what you're talking about," Gallus says, then looks away. He can feel an angry blush creeping up his cheeks, and he refuses to let anyone see. He did have a crush on a certain female Hippogriff, and he refused to believe otherwise. And yeah, he did pretend that is part of the reason why he hates being gay.

    Gallus closes his eyes and gives himself time to the calm down, then when he thinks he's calm enough, he takes a deep breath then faces Sandbar once again.

     "What you guys doing?" a familiar voice says.

    Gallus turns around and Sandbar peeks from behind him. An orange Dragon and blue Changeling are walking towards them. Gallus realizes he is still clutching the paper and gives it to them. Their Dragon friend tentatively snatched it, and the Changeling reads it over her shoulder.

     "How dare they call you gay!" the Dragon shouts, fuming with anger.

    "Woah, there," Sandbar says, "Chillax, Smolder. I'm actually half-gay"

     Smolder's cheeks turn a bright shade of pink. She feels embarrassed and guilty for saying that. She scratches the back of her neck and laughs nervously. She just indirectly insulted her friend, and that made her insides twist. She is feeling sick from all the friendship stuff she needs to do.

    She is familiar with the feeling. Any other creature will think that Smolder got all the friendship things covered, since she helped save Equestria twice and rebuild the Tree of Harmony, but there is a lot of things Smolder is yet to learn. She wishes there is a shortcut to learn friendship, but she knows that friendship involves a lot of trial-and-error.

     She mentally congratulates herself for being herself and attempting to defend Sandbar, but there is something for her to do.

    "Yeah, sorry 'bout that," Smolder says, "Didn't know"

    "It's okay," Sandbar says, always trying his best to have nothing against anyone, not even his worst enemies, "I guess being gay isn't the norm for Dragons"

    "Nor sappy stuff," Smolder says, giving a weak laugh, trying to diffuse the tension.

    "That's what I relate to," Gallus says, pointing his claw at Smolder. He supposes it means he also agrees with Smolder with the gays thing, but he sees what she's trying to do.

     The four friends chuckle in unison.

    "How about you, Ocellus?" Gallus asks the Changeling, "Got anything to say?"

    "I'm straight but I think there's nothing wrong with being who you are," Ocellus says, encouraging Sandbar.

    "Unless, of course, you decided to invade Equestria," Ocellus adds as an afterthought. The friends laugh again.

    "Did I miss anything?" a bubbly voice asks. A pink blur is headed right for the center of the group, resulting in a huge crash. The blur reveals itself to be a pink Hippogriff, who is lying on the ground, with the rest of her friends, and with a wide smile.

    Gallus quickly brushes himself off and approaches her, holding out his claw. She gleefully takes it and he helps her up to her hooves - er... - claws - er... - whatever. Hippogriff anatomy is just as challenging as the anatomy of Gallus' species.

     "Are you okay, Silverstream?" Gallus says, diverting from the usual nickname he gave her, saying her full name instead.

     "I feel great!" Silverstream says, hovering a few inches off the ground and clasps her claws together.

     "I wish I could say the same for the rest of us," Smolder says, as she and the rest of their friends stand up. She brushes some dirt off her arm.

     "Well, there was this bully who wrote something on paper and gave it to Sandbar," Ocellus says then looks at Smolder, nodding. Smolder seems to have understood it and nods back. She gives the paper to Silverstream, who curiously takes it.

     "Oh. My. Novo!" Silverstream exclaims, furrowing her eyebrows in anger as she hugged Sandbar, "How dare they call you a faggot!" She winced as she said it, as if the word contained poision.

    "You sound like a mom," Smolder says, "A mom who supports gays"

    Smolder realizes that she sounds offensive then adds, "I mean, I definitely support you, too, and all that what-not" Smolder subtly rolls her eyes.

     "Chill, Sil," Sandbar said, finding it hard to talk in the Hippogriff's warm embrace, but also chuckling at the rhyme he made, "It's nothing. He just called me a faggot. So what? Last I checked, I'm half-gay, and there's nothing wrong with that"

    Silverstream gave a weak laugh as she lets go of Sandbar then places her backpack on the picnic table along with everyone else's. She shakes her head quite aggressively, her eyebrows furrowed. "The thing is... creatures have been using that word to offend gays for a long time

    "Sure, us Hippogriff are very accepting, but there are still those few jerks, and they irritate me so much! Faggot is a terrible word to use! Especially when it's used against gays..." Silverstream said, looking down at the ground with fury. Angry tears were forming at the corner of her eyes as she stomped on the ground aggressively.

+*+ END OF TRIGGER WARNING +*+

"I... I can't believe they used that on you. Who was it? I'm gonna kill them!" Silverstream shouted. They all stepped back in fear. They had never really seen the Hippogriff so angry before. She was already tucking out her wings, prepared to scour the school for whoever sent the note to Sandbar.

Without much thinking, Ocellus leapt forward and used her Changeling abilities to turn into a bear and restrained Silverstream, preventing the Hippogriff from going any further. She was kicking and squirming, but struggling against the Changeling bear's strong arms.

"Let go of me!" Silverstream screamed as she continued to kick the bear, but it was a fruitless endeavour. Nevertheless, she was still squirming aggressively, more angry tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she struggled against Ocellus' strength.

"It's not worth it, Silverstream!" Smolder yelled. The Hippogriff turned to look at the Dragon, panting heavily, but she seemed to have calmed down as well. Slowly and unsurely, the Changeling bear released the pink Griff and stepping back slowly before it turned back into Ocellus.

Silverstream let out an angry groan as rummages through her assortment of art materials in her backpack, then pulls out a bracelet with beads every color of the rainbow. She puts on a happy smile, but it didn't take Pinkie Pie to see that it was extremely forced.

Silverstream hands it over to Sandbar. The beads make soft clicks as the bracelet falls on Sandbar's hoof. Sandbar curiously looks at it. Gallus just laughs.

     "You have one of these for every occasion, Silvy!" Gallus says. Silverstream blushes angrily when he says Silvy. She was not in the mood to endure any more fake crushes from Gallus. Her friend was bullied, for Twilight's sake. When someone would talk like that against her friends, she would not let it slide.

"Come on, Silvy," Gallus says in what he may have assumed was a charming tone, but Silverstream didn't like it. All her friends usually just calls her Sil, and Gallus uses the same nicknames for their other friends as the rest of the squad. So hearing Gallus call her that angers her just a bit. Or maybe Gallus just prefers that nickname.

Silverstream scoffed in her head. As if. Maybe she's even less special than anyone else which is why he chose her to have his forced crush on, to make her feel special. Silverstreams gives an angry laugh and she feels beads of sweat forming on her forehead. That always happened when she would get mad, especially over something so false.

But her friends pay no attention to her, because Silverstream isn't important enough, and just blends into the crowd. Silverstream has been suffering from anxiety, she remembers her doctor and therapist saying that to her mother. She knew this wasn't anxiety. She has met an actual Hippogriff with that, and it was very far from what she was feeling.

      Gallus, meanwhile, just continues speaking. "Even that one time when I told Sandbar I love him. As a friend"

    Silverstream chuckles angrily once again, but she puts a little more effort to make it sound teasing. Because that's what her friends want. That's what her friends notice. The Silverstream that is always happy and bubbly and is never too mean or rude to anycreature because that would just be awful.

     "What friend laughing about?" They all hear a familiar voice say.

     The friends turn to see their Yak friend walking over to them. Silverstream touches her Pearl necklace, something she usually does when she feels a bit anxious. It's like she's praying. A prayer that the magic in her Pearl necklace will make everything turn out okay. She breathes in, long and deep, then breathes out. After regaining her composure, she waves quickly and excitedly at Yona. But Silverstream's nerves are still alert.

     "Hi, Yona!" Ocellus says.

     "What kept you?" Smolder asks. Yona leans in.

     "Yona pretty sure Yak not supposed to tell you, but friends will never believe how hard Headmare Starlight's obstacle course is. With Geo and Clay Pot," Yona whispers to them, her eyes wide and her tone dripping with worry.

     "Oof," Gallus says, "That must've sucked"

     Before Sandbar can say anything about it, an unfamiliar, unfriendly voice interrupts him.

     "There's the loser we all know and hate!"

+*+A+*+U+*+T+*+H+*+O+*+R+*+
+*+N+*+O+*+T+*+E+*+
First thing's first. I think it's obvious enough I support LGBTQ+ I, myself, am a demi homoflexible genderless. I hope you did not feel offended. I love my community.
🌈🏳️‍🌈❤️🧡💚💚💙💜🏳️‍🌈🌈

Second, whoo! We reaches 1k views! I never imagined this! Thank you all so much for reading this! I love you all! <3 Even though you're all silent...

Third, so this is just part one of my mini-series The Edge of Friendship. This is probably not going to be a two-parter, but an entire mini-series in here. I will be alternating this with my regular uploads, and making a few changes to the description, and maybe other stuff. If anyone has advice to give on writing, please tell me! And I'm just wondering, who is your favorite of the Young 6? Mine is either Gallus or Silverstream. I relate to Gallus so much, and Silverstream is very lovable! Remember to spread the Magic of Friendship!