“No... What gave it away?” He replied, chuckling at the day he’s been having. “Let’s just say I’m from somewhere far away and have to get home, fast.”

“Alright, I can take you into town in the morning if you would like.” Isabelle asked, a small smile on her face, “Don’t worry, not everypony will behave like I did.” She added, blushing at the embarrassment.

Aidan chuckled, “That would be kind, thank you.” He looked about before realising he still had his boots on. He leaned down and undid his laces before sliding off the boots, laying them neatly next to the settee.

Isabelle looked on in wonder at his fingers as they worked the strings, “What are they called?”

Aidan leaned back up and looked over, “Say again?”

“Those things there, what are they called?” Isabelle asked, motioning to his fingers with a hoof.

“These are called fingers. You don’t have any creatures with these?” Aidan asked, holding his hand up and wiggling his digits about.

“Nope, first time I’ve seen something like these.”

“Hmm, okay.” Aidan put his hand down and looked about, “Do you have a toilet in here?”

Isabelle shook her head and looked away from Aidan’s hands, “Of course, it’s up the stairs, second door on the left.”

“Thanks.” Aidan removed himself from the settee and away from his source of comfort. He traversed through the doorway and into the hall.

The hallway ran through the middle of the house. To his left was the front door, to his right was the second door to the kitchen, and in front of him, leading upwards, was the stairs to the second floor.

Aidan made his way up the stairs and counted two doors, opening the second, and walking into the bathroom.

He came back downstairs after doing his business and saw Isabelle in the kitchen, cooking. “Hey, what are you making?” Aidan asked, scaring her.

She turned around after making sure nothing was spilled or broken. “Oh Aidan, you really scared me.” She backed up so she didn’t have to raise her head too high. “I’m just making some pasta for dinner.” Isabelle looked at the pasta and back to Aidan, “I guess I made a little too much, would you like some?”

“Sure, I lost almost all of my food on the way here.” Aidan replied, grabbing a plate and placing some pasta on it.

Isabelle and Aidan walked over to the settee and sat down, “Not that you being here hasn’t made my day, how did you get here?”

Aidan took a deep breath, "Some if this might sound a bit crazy, but bare with me... Okay?" Aidan looked over at Isabelle, waiting for her answer.

Isabelle nodded then picked up her fork in her forehooves. Giving a mighty twist, she picked up an impressive amount of pasta before shovelling it into her mouth. "gow um," she says between chews. Covering her mouth to shield Aidan.

Aidan sat there, looking at Isabelle for a couple of seconds before shaking his head, "Alright, I was asked to..." Aidan recalled his last couple of days to Isabelle, who listened on in half interest. Half for the story, and the other half being directed at the scrumptious plate of food in front of her.

Every so often she would look over and either nod or mumble "uh huh" then go back to her plate.

"I had to backtrack and find another passage, I hoped that a different one would lead the same way, but unfortunately it didn't." Aidan shuddered at the memory of falling down the hole.

"What happened then?" Isabelle curiously asked, picking up on the gesture. She moved her plate and Aidan's, moving them to the floor before shuffling slightly closer to him.

"Haha, It's nothing really. I just fell down a small hole." Aidan rubbed the back of his head, looking away. "When I came to and found my way out of the caves, I found the savanna."

A look of realisation slowly fell on Aidans face, "I'm not getting home, am I?" He leaned forwards and placed his face in his hands, "Not only that, I don’t know where the caves are now... Even if I did, I wouldn't know what to do."

Aidan turned to Isabelle, "Thank you."

She looked confused, "What for, I didn't do anything."

"For letting me in. You could have let me stay out there. It was very kind of you, I am in your debt." He said this with clear gratitude in his voice. Isabelle looked Aidan in the eye before turning away, embarrassed.

"Please, it was nothing." She couldn't bring herself to look him, so she just settled with a small smile.

"We can talk about this later. For now, you can tell me about yourself, where do you hail from?" Aidan asked, leaning in a bit closer and getting ready to listen.

"Heh, where to start... I've been all over, never really stopped in one place too long. I think the longest I've stopped for, other than this house, is in Ponyville... That was for a couple of months." Isabelle let out a couple of tears as she finished.

"Hey hey, don't cry." Aidan cooed, "What happened there? If you don't mind remembering."

"I... can't, it's too painful to remember..." She buried her face in her hooves, mostly to hide her tears.

"It's okay, I think it's best if we turn in for the night anyway..." Isabelle rose her head and nodded.

"Yeah..." She sniffed to clean her runny nose and got up, "Follow me, I'll show you where you're sleeping."

"I'm not sleeping on the settee?" Aidan asked, confused as to where he was sleeping.

Isabelle rolled her eyes, "I'm sure we can find something better than that old thing, come on." She gave a small grin and turned the corner, small beats signaling that she was ascending the stairs, "Come on, we don't have all night!"

Aidan shot up, bolted for the stairs, and quickly climbed them. He turned at the top to find Isabelle waiting for him outside one of the doors. "Here we are, your room." She motions for Aidan to go inside and moved back a little, letting him pass.

“This is it, not much to look at, but it should be okay for the night.” Isabelle said, moving in behind him, “You know where the bathroom is, I’ll wake you up bright and early so we can get going. I’m sure you’ll want to get back as soon as possible.”

Aidan merely nodded, preferring to leave his reply unsaid. He sat down on the edge of the bed and bent down to remove his socks and trousers.

“I guess I’ll leave you to it then, I’ll see you in the morning.” Isabelle mumbled as she closed the door to his room.

“He doesn’t have to be so rude...” She muttered, blowing a strand of mane out of her face. She stopped walking and sighed, “He’s probably missing his home right now, how could I be so insensitive...” She shook her head and carried on to her own room.

Isabelle wandered over to her dresser and picked up a small picture frame. In the frame was a picture of what looked to be a younger version of herself, being held by an earth pony couple. One was a dark shade of red with a blue mane and the other was light green with a white mane.

“Mom... Dad... I miss you.” She whimpered as a tear dropped from her eye, landing on the frame and rolling down the glass. “I should never have left Manehattan. If I stayed... everything would be alright...”

Aidan awoke sluggish and annoyed, “By the suns...” He rose from bed stumbling from his clothes underfoot and closed the curtains which, for the large part of the morning, had neglected to stop a small beam of sunlight from landing on his eyelids.

“Alright, now that that’s taken care of...” He stepped over his stuff and shuffled over to the door. Listening out for his Pony caretaker and hearing nothing, he opened the door slowly, and stepped out.

Aidan tip-toed down the stairs and grabbed his bag. He rushed back up and into the bathroom, “Phew... Time to get sorted.” He stuffed his hand into the pack and took out a few items, such as bags of powder and soap, plus a bag of leaves from a new plant only recently found called Mentha. “I don’t know how these will cure bad breath...” Aidan looked at the bag skeptically, but shrugged nonetheless and closed the pack, pushing it over into the corner.

After he had finished with his business in the bathroom, Aidan wandered out and back into his room, putting on his gear from yesterday.

“Aidan, are you up?” Isabelle shouted from her room.

“Yeah, give me a second to put on my stuff.” Aidan shouted back, “and… done.” After he had sealed the last buckle on his chest piece, he left his room, feeling secure to go out into a world of ponies.

He made his way downstairs and waited for Isabelle to come down, a couple of minutes later, she had come down and was starting breakfast, “I can help if you would like?” Aidan asked, hoping that she would let him to save himself from the awkward silence that was going on.

“No no, it’s alright, I can do this myself.” Isabelle waved Aidan out of the kitchen and continued, “You’ve had a rough couple of days, please relax.”

After Aidan and Isabelle had finished breakfast, they got their stuff together. Aidan tied up his boots and strapped his pack to his back, taking care to keep the sword’s blade away from where ponies might be walking.

He made his way over to the front door and waited for Isabelle to get her stuff, “Where are we going to first? Apple...”

“Appleloosa, It’s just down the path and doesn’t take long to get to.” She looked Aidan over from head to toe, “Well, for somepony travelling light anyway.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve done long distance before, I’ll be fine.”

Isabelle gave him a look, but shrugged and opened the door, “I don’t doubt it, but from what you’ve told me, you’ve only done it in the cold.” She turned back to him, “This is anything, but cold.” She grinned.

A wave of warm air hit Aidan in the face as he stood there waiting for his eyes to adjust to the brightness.

Isabelle grinned some more, “Told you so.”

Aidan took a step out onto the path, he took a breath, feeling the warm air fill his lungs. “Let’s go,” He said to nobody in particular as he took another step.

“Woah, wait for me.” Isabelle exclaimed as she galloped up to his side, “I don’t know where you’re going without me.”

“Sorry, got lost in the moment...” Isabelle nodded and Aidan continued, “How come you’re all the way out here on your own?” Aidan looked about, seeing nothing but trees and the path they were on.

“Oh... no real reason, I’m not really good with other ponies...” Isabelle replied with a bit of uncertainty in her voice, “They don’t get on with me for some reason.”

“Strange, you seem fine to me.” Aidan looked down to her, she looked away and moved slightly in front of him.

“Yeah, because you’re not a pony...” Isabelle was starting to regret helping Aidan at this moment, “Look, this thing happened in Ponyville, and ever since, I’ve kept away from other ponies.” She was barely keeping back her tears, having to silently stop and wipe them away.

“Isabelle... Please, let me help...”

Isabelle stopped and turned around to Aidan, she couldn’t stop herself and broke down in tears. “I-i...”

Suddenly, a voice rang out behind the pair. “Well now, what do we have here!” Aidan turned around to see a pair of gryphons in front of him, brandishing swords.

“By the suns!” Aidan jumped back and landed on his pack, “What are you doing here, foul beasts?!” He shouted at them, causing them to chuckle.

“I’m going to make this as simple as possible, even that pony can understand.” Aidan gave a small glare and rose from the ground. “Give us all of your supplies and we’ll let you live.”

“Isabelle, stay back.” Aidan said, looking down to her, “I’m trained for this.” She nodded and stepped back, well away from the three of them.

Aidan looked back to the two gryphons, “You picked the wrong week to mess with me.”

The gryphons looked to each other and grinned slyly, “I doubt it.”

Just as Aidan was about to pull out the sword from his back, another gryphon swooped in from above and tackled him down, knocking the wind from him and knocking the sword away into the bushes.

“Just as I said, I doubt it.”The first gryphon said, he looked to the third gryphon, “Take his stuff and tie him up, he might fetch a good price. Tie the other one up as well, we’ll take them back to camp.” Just as he was about to lift off, he stopped and looked about. “Find that sword as well, I want it!”

As the gryphons went about tying the two up, Aidan looked over to Isabelle and could see fear in her eyes as the gryphon approached her.

Author's Note

Thanks to Zeta040 for helping me with all of the chapters so far : D