Gallus

Gallus is a male griffon and one of the Young Six who first appears in season eight of the show as a student at Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship.

Development and design
Gallus is one of few unrealistically-colored griffons, preceded by S04E24 Unnamed Male Griffon #1 and S04E24 Unnamed Female Griffon #3; in late March 2018, Jim Miller was asked "Any comment on Gallus the Griffon being bright blue when all [sic] other Griffons to this point have been natural-toned? I understand the importance of color identification for children's show characters, but this one really threw me. No alternative options like a hat?" and answered "Hasbro brand wanted more eye catching colors."

Season eight
In the season eight premiere School Daze - Part 1 and Part 2, Gallus enrolls in Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship as a student, having been brought to Ponyville by Grampa Gruff to represent the griffons. In his debut, he acts sarcastic towards Sandbar and teases Rainbow Dash over her supposed coolness. When Twilight's strict adherence to the Equestria Education Association's guidelines causes the school courses to be dull and boring, Gallus antagonizes his fellow students out of frustration, only getting along with the equally standoffish Smolder.

When Gallus later cuts class with Smolder, Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus, and Silverstream, the six hang out together and end up becoming good friends. When they return to school for Friends and Family Day, they accidentally ruin the event and cause damage to the school, Chancellor Neighsay of the EEA perceives their fun and games as an attack orchestrated by non-pony creatures, and the offended tribe leaders pull their students out of school, including Gallus.

Not wanting to say goodbye to each other after the school is closed, Gallus and his friends go into hiding at the Castle of the Two Sisters. Though the six have fun together at first, they soon come under attack by ferocious puckwudgies, and the Mane Six save them. When Gallus and his friends are asked to come back to school, they are reluctant to continue their boring lessons, but Twilight and the others assure them things will be better and more fun than before. After Twilight defies the authority of Chancellor Neighsay and reopens the School of Friendship, Gallus successfully pleads with Grampa Gruff to let him re-enroll.

In Horse Play, Gallus takes part in Twilight's play about Princess Celestia. In The Parent Map, Gallus appears flying outside the Castle of Friendship.

In Non-Compete Clause, Gallus and his classmates go on a teamwork field trip with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but due to their teachers' arguing, the students become irritated as their activities result in disaster. When they reach a ravine on their nature walk, Gallus suggests that they fly everyone over it in order to get back to the school as soon as possible, but Applejack and Rainbow are so determined to show their students about doing teamwork to build a bridge, that they end up dangling over a river full of bite-acudas. Though Gallus slightly jokes about leaving them, he agrees to help rescue them, assisting Silverstream to carry them back to safety. At the end of the trip, Gallus and his classmates tell Twilight that Applejack and Rainbow taught them how to work together by showing them the opposite of teamwork, and vote for both of them for the next teacher of the month award.

In Molt Down, Gallus briefly appears on the balcony of the School of Friendship, alongside Silverstream and Yona.

In Marks for Effort, he attends one of Pinkie Pie's friendship classes, being given a cupcake. Before he can eat it, Pinkie interrupts, telling him the object of the lesson is to share the cupcakes with his fellow students. He is later seen exiting the school with his friends after a big test.

In A Matter of Principals, Gallus and his classmates are shown various magical artifacts by Twilight just before she is summoned by the Cutie Map. During the Spell-venger Hunt, Gallus is paired up with Silverstream. When they find the crown of King Grover, they are chased by portraits enchanted by Discord. He and his friends are present when Starlight Glimmer apologizes to Discord for not including him and offers him the job of "vice headmare".

In The Hearth's Warming Club, Gallus sabotages the Hearth's Warming celebrations at the school and keeps it a secret in order to stay with his friends and not have to go home for the holidays. When his friends start arguing and accusing each other of causing the sabotage, he confesses to them, not wanting them to fight over what he did. It is also revealed that he has no family in Griffonstone. After the truth about his actions comes out, he is punished by staying at school over winter break for extra friendship lessons, and his friends offer to stay with him.

In Friendship University, when Gallus and his classmates hear about Flim and Flam's Friendship University, he suggests going there on a road trip. In The End in Friend, Gallus and his classmates observe Rainbow Dash and Rarity as part of Twilight's lesson on compromising in friendship.

In The Washouts, Gallus and his classmates attend the Washouts' shows. In A Rockhoof and a Hard Place, Gallus is one of the students in Rockhoof's class, and he attempts to use the opportunity of having a substitute teacher to get out of homework assignments (something he tries again when Spike briefly subs for Rockhoof).

In What Lies Beneath, Gallus and his friends start to question their friendship due to comments made by Cozy Glow. During their studies for an upcoming test, they discover a cavern beneath the school, where the Tree of Harmony interacts with them. As part of a test, the Tree traps Gallus in a small room and forces him to confront his fears of small spaces. He later helps Silverstream overcome her fear of the Storm King, and they escape with the rest of their friends.

In the season eight finale School Raze, Gallus and his friends go on a field trip to Cloudsdale just before a crisis in Equestria causes magic to start disappearing. After Twilight and her friends leave for Tartarus to investigate, Gallus and his friends discover Chancellor Neighsay taking over the school in their absence, and Neighsay captures them under suspicion of stealing Equestria's magic themselves.

After Sandbar and the Cutie Mark Crusaders help them escape and reveal Cozy Glow's true sinister nature, they try to free a magically-trapped Starlight Glimmer, but Cozy catches them and convinces the students to turn on them. Gallus and his friends get trapped with Starlight and are nearly sucked into another realm with all of Equestria's magic, but they are saved by the Tree of Harmony, and they succeed in foiling Cozy Glow's plans.

Best Gift Ever
In the holiday special My Little Pony Best Gift Ever, Gallus and the rest of the Young Six appear at the beginning boarding the Friendship Express.

Animated shorts
In Mystery Voice, Gallus and his friends attend Rarity's lesson on how to make Hearth's Warming dolls. They are later seen listening to Applejack telling the story of the first Hearth's Warming. In Teacher of the Month, he and his friends are shown, first in flashbacks depicting how Fluttershy earned her awards, then in the present, attending Applejack and Rainbow Dash's "Student Appreciation Day" party. In Starlight the Hypnotist, Gallus is seen in a flashback eating pudding with Smolder during lunchtime, only to have the pudding splattered over them when Twilight freaks out over a ladybug.

Season nine
In Uprooted, Gallus and his friends are contacted by the Tree of Harmony in their dreams. When they return to the school, they learn from Twilight and Spike that the tree was destroyed by King Sombra. After getting permission from their kingdoms to return to Ponyville early, the Young Six each work on their own individual ways of honoring the tree's memory, with Gallus creating a museum, with a glorified story of the tree's origins. In the end, they agree to form a clubhouse out of the tree's remains. The tree, responding to their friendship, grows anew, forming an even bigger house that grows through the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. After being thanked by the spirit of the tree, Gallus and his friends are joined by Twilight and Spike in exploring the new structure.

Gallus makes a background appearance with Smolder and Silverstream in The Point of No Return.

In She's All Yak, Gallus and his friends are present when Twilight announces the Amity Ball. He agrees to Smolder's invitation (on the grounds of trying the food at the event). During the ball itself, he and the others tease Sandbar over Yona going "full pony" to impress him, and show disdain at her new look and demeanour. When Yona accidentally goes out of control while dancing, he and the others try to help her. Afterwards, he, his friends, and the rest of the school all dance the Yakyakistan Stomp with Yona.

Gallus briefly appears in Student Counsel as he shows Smolder the book she burnt.

IDW comics
Gallus appears in celebrating Nightmare Night with his friends. In, he appears with Smolder on page 1.

Storybooks
Gallus appears on the cover of the adaptation Meet the New Class.

Commercials
Gallus appears in the promotional videos Saved by My Friends and My Little Pony Established 1983 "Foal House".

Software
Budge Studios' mobile game Pocket Ponies.

My Little Pony (mobile game)
Gallus is a character in Gameloft's mobile game. w:c:mlp-gameloft:School of Friendship LTS. His bio states, "Look past that sarcastic exterior, and you'll see a Griffon who really cares about his School of Friendship classmates!"

Appearances
Starting with The Maud Couple, Gallus also appears in the theme song.

Personality
Among the Young Six, Gallus is portrayed as sarcastic and rude, similar to most griffons. Like Smolder, he is resistant to the idea of friendship and openly ridicules others like Sandbar and Yona. After getting to know some of his fellow students, however, he acts more friendly and warm but maintains some level of nonchalance (and has a tendency to tease and play pranks on his friends).

Gallus seems to prefer coming off as non-studious, as suggested in A Matter of Principals. After talking about the history of King Grover's crown, he tells Silverstream not to tell anyone he actually pays attention in class. In What Lies Beneath, it is revealed that Gallus is claustrophobic.

Merchandise
Enterplay collectible card game Friends Forever #1 U, #6 C, #59 R, and #62 R.

Gallus is featured on a magazine card.

Quotes
"Rainbow Dash, right? Gilda told me about you. Huh. Thought you'd be... cooler."

- School Daze - Part 1

"Is after class. Relax. This is just a quick... mental health break."

- School Daze - Part 1

"And that's why griffons breathe fire when we get mad."

- School Daze - Part 1

"Griffons shouldn't be the only ones enjoying the view."

- School Daze - Part 1

"I had no idea our teachers were actually cool."

- School Daze - Part 2

"Impressive... if you can call an apple shed impressive."

- Non-Compete Clause

"You've been underwater a long time, haven't you?"

- To Silverstream, A Matter of Principals

"I said, stop fighting! That's not what the holidays are about! No matter what you call them or how you celebrate! D-Do you know how lucky you all are? With your stories about sharing and-and kindness and getting together with everycreature that you care about?"

- The Hearth's Warming Club

"If Professor Rarity lets us skip her sewing class – road trip!"

- Friendship University

"Another sub? Let me start by telling you we don't get homework and we only do field trips."

- To Spike, A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

"Hello, oh maaaaagical Equestrian tree! Can you tell me everything I need to know about friendship?"

- What Lies Beneath

"I'm afraid of being trapped, too! I'm scared of small spaces."

- What Lies Beneath

"You get the feeling Cozy's trying too hard to make us like her?"

- School Raze - Part 1

"Guess our friendship is pretty magical after all."

- School Raze - Part 2