Author's Note

Hey everycreature!

I hope you all haven't been waiting too long for the next chapter and well so far 24 likes and still zero dislikes, so doing rather well so far, call me very impressed!

Also, I hope you all had a good Nightmare Night, full of spooks, along other things! (And praise thy Princess of the Night!)

One Fateful Day

It has been a week since Silverstream and her brother visited Gallus in Griffonstone, in his new home in the griffon kingdom and Gallus has since than left his home, but not before making sure to leave a note behind for Gabby to find, so she wouldn't be worried about where he was. Taking his friend's advice, Gallus visited the towns and cities across Equestria, seeing if there was anything he could do for his future, but after several days, it was starting to look like a losing hope...

Either everything was already occupied with enough employees or they simply had no use for a griffon, turning him away. Now Gallus could have asked his former teachers if they would be willing to give him something like the rest of his friends have, but he didn't feel all too comfortable with that, working with his teachers seemed odd to him. And it's not like he didn't want to work with his friends, but he didn't want to slow them down or anything like that.

So Gallus was simply left at a dead end as Gallus was currently in the large and busy city of Manehattan, a place one could expect to find a job, but well with a day and night already passed in the city Gallus found nothing as he was currently at a small cafe, which was close by the large park in the center of the city, looking through the newspaper.

"Come on Gallus, it can't be this difficult to find something, can it..." Gallus told himself as he looked through the job ads on the paper, which were things he already tried in the big city.

After looking through and without success, he put down the paper and finished his little breakfast and after paying for it, Gallus saw he didn't have much more bits than he started out with at the beginning of the trip. Pretty soon Gallus would only have enough for the trip back home and well he didn't think Grandpa Gruff would give him more, remembering Grandpa Gruff's attitude when he asked the elder for some bits for the trip. After exiting the cafe and taking a deep breath, Gallus looked to his right to see the large public park and decided it was best to do some thinking in there, where it was quieter and he could have a little more privacy.

Entering the park, Gallus saw many ponies enjoying the sunny day, happy as they walked, chatted, munched on snacks, fed the ducks by the pond, along other things. Taking a seat on an empty bench by a small pond, Gallus watched as a mother duck led her little chicks in a line, practicing their swimming, as Gallus watched, he saw one get left behind, not being able to catch up with the rest of his siblings. Eventually the mother noticed and came back for her duckling, pushing him along until he caught up with the rest of his siblings.

"Yeah, that's how I feel buddy..." Gallus sighing as he felt like the duckling that got left behind as he continued watching. "Maybe I should ask one of my teachers if they will offer me something, I could help at Professor Fluttershy's animal sanctuary or maybe at Professor Egghead's Wonderbolt Academy." Gallus putting a claw to his chin as he thought long an hard about it.

However a couple minutes later his thoughts were rudely interrupted by an elderly mare shouting out something close by...

"Help!" The old mare could only shout out. "He's got my purse!"

As Gallus turned to see where the shouting was coming from, he saw a kindly old mare with a cane looking at someone as Gallus followed her gaze to see a middle aged earth pony stallion, with a bowler hat gallop as fast as he could away, with the strap of a little purse roll his neck. The past Gallus would not have minded at all, but now...

"I might regret this..." Gallus said as he chased after the thief himself since no one else seems to have paid much attention or simply didn't have the courage to chase after the thief themselves.

As the thief rushed out of the park and onto the streets, dodging other ponies and rushing taxis, Gallus kept up with the thief, making sure to not lose sight of him as Gallus had the advantage of being able to fly and thus was not blocked by other objects in his way as much as the thief was. However the thief surely had some strong legs and had experience at making getaways before as he noticed Gallus coming after him, putting more muscle into his legs as he galloped even faster away.

"Can't let him get too far..." Gallus told himself as he flapped his wings harder to fly faster, careful to not fly into any buildings or the few pegasus ponies that were around.

Keeping his eyes on the ground as much as possible, Gallus saw the thief take a sudden turn into an alleyway, hopefully to lose Gallus for good, but Gallus stayed right on him, going lower to the ground as he flew into the alleyway. As Gallus turned into the alleyway, he didn't see the thief, most likely hiding behind one of the piles of trash and boxes that laid on the ground. Gallus landed down, bringing his claws back on the ground as he slowly walked through the alleyway, checking behind any hiding spots the thief could be.

"Where are you..." Gallus said quietly as he wondered if maybe the thief was not in fact here anymore and was long gone.

Coming up on two piles of trash next to each other on either side, he guessed the thief must be behind one of them and Gallus could't check both of them at once. Taking a chance, Gallus looked to his right to find the thief not there, he should however, looked to the left...

"Who are you and why are you following me griffon!" The thief shouted as he surprised Gallus from behind, knocking the griffon into the pile of trash.

Gallus, however, quickly recovered and did his own kick against the pony, knocking him against the pile of trash he came from, Gallus then appeared above him with a very angry expression, showing the pony one of his claws which was ready to pounce on him.

"My name is none of your concern, but I think you have something that belongs to somepony else." Gallus stated, the thief now very concerned at seeing the angry griffon who had him pinned down.

"You can't make me give it up!" The thief snapped back.

"Try me..." Gallus bringing his claw closer to the pony's face, the thief starting to sweat a little as he became scared.

"Alright, alright..." The thief gave up, grabbing onto the purse's strap with his teeth before taking it off from around his neck.

As Gallus let his guard down for a split second, the claw that was close to the pony's face, grabbed onto the purse's strap, as the thief used this moment to get away before Gallus could maybe harm him or bring him to the police, kicking off the griffon as Gallus fell down, but still managing to hold onto the old mare's purse as the thief made his getaway, disappearing as he reached the other end of the alleyway.

Gallus just let him go, he didn't succeed in stealing the purse anyway... The purse... Gallus realized he had a purse full of bits that he could use to replenish his own and continue his travels, he could get away himself and no one would know...

"No Gallus... Come on now, that's the old griffon in you talking..." Gallus reminding himself of his lessons in such topics like kindness, loyalty and honestly. "You're better than that..."

So while it was so tempting to just take the bits himself, with the purse around his own neck, Gallus flew back to the park, to look for the old mare which the purse belonged to. After some searching, Gallus found the old mare, having found a couple of police ponies who she was talking to, reporting her stolen purse. Gallus landed down behind the old mare, clearing his throat before speaking up.

"Excuse me miss, I believe I got your purse." Gallus said as the police ponies and old mare turned around to see Gallus holding out the purse for the old mare to take.

"My purse!" The old mare said happily as she took it from Gallus's open claws. "Oh thank you so much young man."

"It was nothing, happy to do it." Gallus replying modestly as he turned to leave, but the old mare stopped him.

"Wait..." The old mare called out to him as Gallus turned to see the old mare offering a few bits to him for his efforts. "Please accept my generosity for you in bringing back my purse."

"Oh no, I can't..." Gallus began, but the old mare cut him off.

"No, I insist, you must have gone into some trouble to take it back from that thief." The old mare refusing to cancel the offer and well as Gallus remembered from Professor Rarity's classes, you should never refuse a generous offer, plus Gallus could use some more bits.

"Well thank you miss, have a good day." Gallus said as the old mare gave him a smile before he once more left.

As Gallus walked away, he looked down at the few bits the old mare gave him, it was enough for one final train trip to another city before he really had just enough to return to Griffonstone. And well thinking about how he helped the old mare, returning her purse with all her bits inside, maybe he had a future in helping others by protecting them, as he thought about it he knew there was one pony who could maybe help him figure out what laid ahead in the future for him.

So going to the Manehattan train station, he approached the ticket seller, paying for the ticket with the bits the old mare gave him as the ticket seller asked him his destination.

"So where are you headed?" The ticket seller asked as he gave Gallus his train ticket.

"Canterlot." Gallus answered.