White went as fast as he could without his hood falling back revealing the tufted-tip thestral ears he possessed, but upon exiting the train he was struck with the realization that he had no idea where anything was in this strange town. As white came to a stop, Braeburn merely trotted off the train happy to be home again. Brae then took notice of White who was nervously looking every which way and back.
"You know you've made friends with a native of our little town, I'd be happy to show you around. Ya interested?"
White eyed him cautiously, nopony had ever been so nice to him before. He was a little skeptical of the sudden kindness and being called a friend for the first time since he was a little colt. However he needed to find a hotel, or more likely an inn judging by the rustic nature of the town.
"Um... could you please point me toward the local inn?" He asked the unusually chipper stallion.
"Inn? son, Apploosa only has near 50 ponies counting the 2 of us. We ain't got an inn cuz nopony ever comes all the way out here." Braeburn said matter-o-factly.
If it was possible White's face seemed to pale further at this remark.
"But where am I supposed to sleep? I planned on staying at the inn until i could get a house built!" White was visibly shaking at this point. Braeburn had already decided to let the poor pony stay with him but Braeburn was a bit playful as he wanted to learn more about this mysterious pony standing before him. So he said: "Weeeell i suppose if'n you tell me a bit about yourself or take off that big cloak o' yurs we wouldn't be so unfamiliar and i could see it in my heart to let you stay with me?"
White weighed his options, and the scale tipped Braeburn's way considering it was the only option he had.
"I-I suppose I can take off the cloak when we're in the privacy of your home, but whenever i go out the cloak goes back on. O-ok?" White said as he feigned an indifferent expression. Braeburn being a member of the Apple family could spot falsehoods miles away and saw White's true, frantic, nervousness. But being a gentlecolt he payed it no mind and motioned for White to follow as he started walking down the main (& only) road in Apploosa. Since they were still in the open, though there were no other ponies out at this hour of night, Braeburn decided not to press White further but pointed to each building along the way explaining who lived there or what business it was. After a walk that took less than an hour they arrived at a charmingly rustic wooden house with a bright red apple painted on the door. The apple looked exactly like the one on a certain pony's flank that he berated himself for thinking about a few too many times in their short time knowing one another.
"Here she is! Casa de Braeburn! That's fancy donkey speak for "Braeburn's house" if'n what that burro told me was true."
"It is, I had to take another language as a prerequisite to get into the acad-" White at this point shoved his own hoof into his mouth before he could finish. He did not want to get too close to anypony, he was too afraid of being mocked & losing control again. However Braeburn was not only a gold-medal winning speaker, but also a silver-medalist in listening. The seeds of curiosity had been planted and Brae was not about to let them wither away.
"Academy you say? Where you from that has such fancy schools?" Braeburn asked with his "you will tell me everything I want to know" smile.From this point on White made a mental note not to look directly at Braeburn if you're trying to hide something.
"Canterlot..." White admitted woefully as he tried and failed to resist Braeburn's charm.
"Well ain't that somethin'! never had a pony all the way from Canterlot wanna stay here before. But I'm a stallion o' my word so let's get you inside." He said as he unlocked his home with a key taken from his vest.
"If'n you ever wanna step out late there's a key taped to the back of the inside of the mailbox." He said as he urged White inside. The words confused White, "how long does he expect me to stay here?" White thought to himself. After a moment of similar thoughts he took in his new surroundings. The house was not as glamorous as any of the homes in Canterlot but none of them had ever seemed that much like a home. Now that he was seeing such a cozy warm setting he felt as though he had never been in a house before.
"This feels so much more real than Canterlot apartments." He unknowingly said out loud.
"Well I've never been to Canterlot but i reckon that was a nice compliment." Braeburn said. White immediately blushed turning a pinkish color. Braeburn noted that the blush coming from this mysterious emotionally distant pony was possibly the most adorable thing he had ever seen.However Braeburn stared just a little too long leading them both to renewed redness. After most of the initial awkwardness had passed Braeburn showed White to the guest room. After Braeburn had left the room White quickly deposited all his belongings aside from the cloak in the dresser in the room. White decided that he wanted to see his new hometown as only a creature with wings could. He knocked on the door to Braeburn's bedroom and waited till he heard movement. He said through the door: "I'm going out to see the town for myself, don't bother getting up. I'll be back before sun-up." This statement confused Braeburn as it was past midnight before they arrived at "Casa de Braeburn". "It's much too dark to see anything properly." Braeburn thought to himself. Just as Braeburn was about to push the numerous questions out of his head he remembered he still hadn't seen White without the big black cloak hiding all but the stallion's face. He decided to ask him to do good on their promise before White left so he crept down the stairs slowly in the darkness of his home. He stopped halfway down the stairs when he heard the guest bedroom door open. Strangely enough White avoided every piece of furniture without turning the light on. Braeburn couldn't claim that & this was his home! There was enough moonlight coming through the front room's windows to see White stop in front of the coat-rack.
"Why would he wanna leave his cloak here to traipse around in the the dark when he treated it like his own skin earlier?" Braeburn asked himself silently. His train of thought was quickly derailed when he saw White begin to remove his hood, underneath was obviously some sort of pony head. what Braeburn really took notice of was the ears they were a tad longer than his own and were furrier at the tips. At this point Braeburn merely thought white had a poor self-image because of his ears, but Braeburn noticed that White was now preparing to remove the garb entirely. What he saw when the robe dropped left him speechless, beneath the robe was a glorious ghost white coat of fur whiter than anything Braeburn had ever seen before. It took a moment for Braeburn to notice there was something hanging at his house guest's sides.
"Wings? Is he a pegasus? We don't got anything other than earth ponies here." Brae thought to himself. As he continued to watch his new friend, White hung the discarded cloak upon the rack and made for the door. Once White was out the door Brae looked out the moonlit window and saw White stretch seemingly preparing for takeoff, as soon as he stopped stretching he unfurled his wings. Braeburn was no bumpkin but he knew that pegasi are suppesed to have feathers, White on the other hand had webbed powerful wings as white as the rest of him. Braeburn could only say one thing as he saw this seemingly alien creature begin to lift into the air: "Beautiful."