A Promise Not Forgotten

I cracked my eyes open to feel a wave of pain in my head. Yep, definitely a hangover, damn. Wait, better question, where the hell am I? I was lying in the drain of a street. Looking around I saw a few houses, a fountain, and a large statue. The houses were a little bigger, as if to accommodate something bigger than a pony. My head ached as my eyes adjusted to the bright morning sun, wait that isn’t a normal statue. Oh no, that was a gryphon statue. How the hell did I manage to get into gryphon territory anyway? I can’t remember anything from last night. The houses around the park had broken windows; I think we had a little bit too much fun last night. I looked closer at the statue and saw that someone had drawn all over its face, and on its shoulder rested Luna. Great, how did I manage to get her involved?

She looked like hell, really, not the princess like mare I’m used to. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had a bit too much to drink. She walked over to me. “Aidan?” She asked as if she was surprised I would do something stupid. “How did we get here?”

“I honestly have no idea; ya know your way back to Canterlot?” I asked.

“Yeah, but we have to get out of gryphon country, our relations aren’t exactly the best with them,” She said. The royal tone in her voice was gone; this was the tone she used with friends.

I remembered the conversation with Celestia about political tensions. “Ok, we better get moving before anyone starts anything, I’m not in the mood to kick someone’s face in,” I said, this hangover was really a mood ruiner.

“Right, let’s go,” She said, beginning to walk as I followed her.

Luna and I talked hoping to remember something about that night, but we couldn’t piece together the puzzle. I managed to gather that we were pretty far into gryphon territory in a small town called Petoria, kind of near their capital of Gryphondor. At our rate it would probably take the whole morning to walk to the outskirts where Luna can get us a carriage. I felt bad for Luna, she was princess of the night, probably should be sleeping now and I ballsed that up. She sent her sister a letter explaining our predicament; I was really hoping to avoid that. I have a bad feeling that this will blow up into something bigger than it really is. Celestia might not be that understanding of the new addition to her kingdom going on drunken adventures with her sister, but hey, who would?

Celestia walked down the halls of her castle toward Luna’s room, she was a little worried that she didn’t see her at breakfast. Celestia opened the door to find the room empty, not a problem, but Luna seldom went anywhere else. Luna wasn’t exactly a social butterfly and Celestia worried because of that. Being lonely like this isn’t healthy, for anypony.

Shrugging off the absence she decided to see if the humans knew where she was. Celestia liked them, they were her friends. She opened Aidan’s door to find his room empty as well. Now she knew something was going wrong, she just didn’t know the scope of how bad Aidan messed up. She walked across the hallway to Colin’s room and knocked.

Colin was awoken by knocking at his door, “Who the hell could that be, Aidan better not be waking me up now…” He walked to the door and opened it to reveal the princess standing there with an unimpressed look across her face.

“Good morning, Colin,” She said surprised at the frown on Colin’s face. He likes his sleep, can you really blame him? I usually kept him up with something stupid on Earth.

“Oh, Princess, didn’t know you were coming. What did you need?” He said, still keeping up the respect act. In truth, he didn’t care much for the ponies, they were like normal people, but he knew who to respect and who didn’t deserve it. He was crafty like that, can be normal around one person and completely change in a moment’s notice.

“Well, Aidan and Luna are missing, do you know where they might be?” Celestia asked knowing that a sleeping Colin wouldn’t know anything. He didn’t even talk to Aidan yesterday.

“No, didn’t you go to Ponyville for a welcome party or something?” He asked.

“Yes, but I left when it was late, I don’t stay up too late,” Celestia replied.

Thinking to himself, he knew Aidan wouldn’t just up and go. He would have to have a really good reason, have been taken, or have gotten drunk and wandered off as unlikely as it seemed. Colin ruled out being taken, as odd as it sounded Aidan was a bit of a bad ass now. After the dragon not many people would challenge him, he reasoned. Leaving isn’t possible because he would have told someone in Canterlot before he left. So that’s it, he must have gotten drunk.

“Was there booze at the party?” Colin asked.

“Applejack was brought in some cider before I left,” The princess said worriedly.

“The lightweight probably got drunk and wandered off,” Colin said yawning loudly.

“What?” Celestia said with panic in her voice.

“Well is it not a possibility at all that Luna and Aidan could have gotten drunk and thought it would be a good idea to go on some adventure whilst drunk?” Colin asked.

“I guess it could happen, but Luna? She doesn’t really do anything,” Celestia replied.

“She considers Aidan a friend. They have been hanging out at night when Luna finishes her work,” Colin stated. Just about every night since their first meet Colin was woken up by loud talking or laughter.

“Will you help me look for them?” Celestia asked.

“Umm, can’t fly or anything, so I don’t know how much help... HOLY HELL!” He ducked under a fireball that shot out a letter right at him. “What was that?”

“A letter from Luna!” She said excitedly.

“And?”

“She said Aidan is with her, but… oh no,” She said looking to the floor.

“What?”

“They are in gryphon territory, we aren’t on friendly terms right now. They might act hostile!” Celestia said with growing worry.

“Well, balls,” He said, knowing that this would cause some sort of problem and that Aidan would involve him in some stupid way.

“Get lost buddy, im in no mood,” I said to a gryphon who was trying to cause us some trouble.

He gave me a stark glare, “You in the wrong neighborhood human…”

It seems that gryphons knew more about us than I thought. With the strained relations of Equestria and these morons I’m know Celestia didn’t mention us. Perhaps we pop up in their history; I’ll have to look into that sometime.

My hangover was gone now. Regeneration is awesome! Luna still suffered though, so if things went sour I’d have to protect her. I’m not scared of a few stupid bird-lion things, they can’t be much compared to the dragon.

“Back up, bird,” Obviously they either hated being talked to in a condescending nature. “I don’t want to fight anyone.”

The gryphons didn’t buy it and five of them surrounded me and Luna. She was worried and in no means to use her magic or fight, I’d be on my own.

Vis?

Don’t worry, everything will be just fine. I’ll help you.

Nice.

Knowing Vis was on my side gave me a huge confidence boost, not that I worried before. It was just unfair for the poor gryphons now, I almost felt sorry for them, almost. Now point the pissed off morons started to charge me.

The first gryphon, who I assumed to be the leader, charged in first. He was big and slow to swing, not that hard to take advantage of, breaking his arm was nothing. Another two ran up to me, I didn’t know what Vis did to me at the time, but I knew I was definitely pulling some Jackie Chan type stuff. Dodging punches and scratches like it was my job, and throwing in my own counter attacks when I could. I made sure none of them touched Luna, who was cowering with the still massive headache.

After a few quick minutes the gryphons either ran off or lay in the street. Sad really, they shouldn’t mess with random people. I was with the princess of the night, what else could they expect. Then again, I was here because of a party, and the princess was hung-over. Ok, I see how the idiots could mistake me for easy prey

“Was the arm breaking really necessary?” Luna asked.

“The stupid morons should have known better. Is there something you aren’t telling me? Those gryphons seemed awfully fond of humans,” I asked, hoping to find the truth.

Luna looked to the floor, “Its better we not talk of it now, it isn’t my history to reveal, you would have to ask Celestia.”

“Fine by me, as long as I get answers,” I said looking ahead trying not to seem annoyed at the lack of truth being thrown my way. I don’t know who to trust now, Celestia said she didn’t know what I am, now all the sudden she has some big secret. Seems a little odd to me, there is definitely something big going on here and these gryphons are in on it.