Due to him being taller than the average stallion, Sol had to keep himself a little lower in order to not draw any unwanted attention to himself as he followed Twilight and her friends further into the city. As they continued onward, he would look around at all of the different ponies walking around about their business. While the sight of common and nobles ponies brought a sense of familiarity to him, his eyes soon caught something completely new to him.
"Excuse me, but what is that thing?"
Sitting on Twilight's back, Spike turned to where Sol was looking at and smiled.
"Oh. That's a changeling."
Surprised by this news, Sol looked inquisitively at the changeling. He remembered that their carapaces were supposed to be black, minus their backs, which were a dark-blue, and that their eyes and wings were a turquoise-blue, the former paler than the latter. But now, the changeling he was seeing was of an assortment of colors. While this one still had the same eye color he remembered them having, the carapace on the changeling's legs were a lighter green color, along with its head, its neck changing colors to pink near the base of the neck. A few other things he noticed were the yellow body it had, and most interesting was the translucent, pink bug-like tail and pink elytron shielding its wings.
Realizing that he'd been staring, Sol blinked and turned back to Spike, who had a slightly amused look on him.
"You're joking," Sol said, figuring that Spike was messing with him.
"Nope. He's not," Starlight confirmed for Spike. "I was right there when it happened and saw everything."
Sol glanced over that the changeling. "How?"
"We'll explain it in better detail later, but the short version is that me and three of my friends infiltrated the Hive and essentially overthrew Queen Chrysalis."
"'Overthrew'? How"
"One of my friends who came with me was a reformed changeling named Thorax. He's currently in the Changeling Kingdom trying to get them back up and running while teaching them about friendship and how to interact with ponies."
"But why was it you and your three friends who went after her, and not Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, or the Element Bearers?"
"Probably because they were all captured, including me," Spike said, earning him a look from Sol. "Yeah. Like Starlight said, we'll tell you more about it later. Probably while we're eating."
Silently following them, Sol's thoughts danced around how that could've happened in the first place. Granted he'd encountered the ex-queen and her changelings before he was sealed away, but he never would've expected Chrysalis to have been able to successfully capture so many different and powerful ponies.
I'm going to need more details about this, he thought before glancing back to the changeling. Although, I have to admit that they do look far more approachable than they used to be. And if Chrysalis really was overthrown and replaced with somepony new and trustworthy, then perhaps things will indeed be better.
As he thought about the reformation and new peace with the changelings, Sol accidentally bumped into Twilight as she suddenly stopped in front of him.
"Oof. Sorry, Twilight."
"It's alright," she dismissed. "Anyway, we're here."
Watching her push the glass doors open, Sol went inside the building with her and the others. Taking a look around, he saw tables lining the windows and a few scattered across the floor, while also noticing sitting stools lining up against the counter where a single stallion stood with a grin on his face.
"Twilight Sparkle. Been a while since I've seen you here in my store," the stallion said with a chuckle.
"Hello, Joe," Twilight greeted him before turning to Sol. "Sol, this is Doughnut Joe. He runs the doughnut shop here in Canterlot."
"Best doughnuts in Equestria," Joe proudly proclaimed. "Although, I'm sure that Pinkie Pie's are about as good as mine are."
Pinkie giggled. "They are good, but not as good as yours. Now, if we were talking about cakes, then I'd have you beat easy."
"I have no doubt about that." Joe's smile widened as his eyes drifted from Pinkie over to Daring. "Miss Yearling. It's good to see you again."
"Thanks. It's been a while since I've been here. I was starting to miss your doughnuts, Joe."
"Wait, you two know each other?" Rainbow questioned.
"I like to come here whenever I'm in Canterlot," Daring shrugged.
"That she does," Joe nodded. Looking around their group, he then squinted at Sol. "So, I take it that the pony beneath the hood is Sol?"
"He is," Twilight confirmed. "We're showing him around Canterlot before we meet with Princess Celestia. But first, we thought that we'd get something to eat after the train ride here."
"Well then, in that case, what can I get for you all?"
Twilight looked back to the others. "Is everypony alright with a mixed batch?" Hearing their words of agreement, Twilight looked over to Sol, who didn't respond. "Sol? What about you?"
Sol gave her a curious look. "What's a doughnut?"
There was a pause of silence as all eyes were now upon him, particularly Joe's.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you quite right," Joe said as he cleaned an ear with a hoof. "Did I just hear you ask what a doughnut is?"
"... yes?"
Joe slowly glanced over to Twilight. "Is he for real?"
"Sad to say, Joe, he is," she sighed.
Joe snorted in annoyance of somepony never having heard of a doughnut before.
"Well then, we'll just have to change that. You all go take a seat and I'll be right out with your order."
Listening to him, the group went over to one of the booths near the back and sat down in it. With a sigh for how comfortable the seat was, Sol laid back and pulled his hood back just enough so that his horns were still covered.
"I can't believe that you've never had a doughnut before!" Pinkie exclaimed in horror. "Didn't you guys have doughnuts a thousand years ago?!"
"We didn't," Sol replied, shaking his head. "We had cakes, pies, and some other pastries, but not these doughnuts."
"What about cupcakes?"
"A what?"
Pinkie blinked owlishly before she facehoofed and slowly dragged her hoof down her face with an exasperated groan.
"A cupcake is more-or-less like a miniature cake," Spike answered Sol, who nodded in understanding.
"Alright. Still, cupcakes didn't exist during my time, but they do sound good."
"So you'll try one?" Pinkie hopefully asked.
"Most likely," Sol smiled. "After all, I did inherit my mother's sweet tooth for cakes, so I'll probably enjoy these cupcakes as well."
"And how do you know that your mother had a sweet tooth for cakes?" Starlight questioned.
Sol paused briefly when he noticed Starlight's look of suspicion. "Because I was told that."
"Great!" Pinkie beamed. "That means that when we get back to Ponyville and I throw you your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, I get a legitimate reason to make as many cupcakes as I want!"
"But before you try those," Joe said with a grunt, "you should try out my doughnuts. I'm sure you're gonna love them, especially if you do love sweets like you claim."
With a heavy thud, a large tray filled with a pile doughnuts landed in front of them.
"You sure about this?" Applejack questioned Joe.
"It is a lot of food," Fluttershy said, her eyes looking up at the pile of doughnuts sitting in the middle of their table.
"I know, but if it's really this guy's first time eating a doughnut, then I'm not gonna hold back," Joe stated.
"But the cost for this-"
"Don't you worry bout that," he interrupted Twilight while glancing over to see Spike already downing his first doughnut. "Since it's his first time, this meal comes with the Joe Discount, along with the one that you and Spike have. You remember what I said after the first time you brought Spike here, right?"
Twilight blushed as she glanced over to Spike, remembering the ridiculous amount he ate while still at a very young age.
"You said that you were impressed by how much he ate and decided to give us a lifelong, half-off discount."
"Yep. Of course, I made the mistake of not setting a maximum doughnut limit after that, and had to quickly fix it before Spike ate everything that I had in stock."
"Ugh. Please don't remind me of that," Spike groaned. "I still remember the stomachache that I had afterwards."
Laughing, Joe was about to leave them be when he saw Sol's draconic eyes.
"Whoa. What's going on with your eyes?" he asked Sol, who now realized that Joe could see his eyes.
"I was born with them. These are my natural eyes."
"Huh... neat."
With their order delivered, Joe returned back to the counter and let them eat in relative peace. As the ponies all began picking at the doughnuts, Sol followed their example of using their hooves by reached up with a claw and taking one from the pile. Bringing it up to his nose to take a curious sniff, he instantly recognized the smell of chocolate and quickly found his mouth watering at the thought of eating it. Taking a experimental bite, Sol sunk his fangs into it and hummed to himself as the flavor flowed over his taste buds, finding the doughnut to indeed be similar to a cake, but instead in the shape of a ring. Swallowing the piece in his mouth, Sol licked his lips with a smile.
"I can see why you all enjoy them so much," he said before taking another bite.
"Glad that you're enjoying it," Twilight smiled.
A few minutes of eating later, Daring looked up at Sol.
"You know, I just thought of something," she said, getting their attention. "Hey, Sol, how old are you?"
Sol was about to answer, but stopped himself as he thought about it for a moment. "Twenty-one?"
"... you don't sound very convinced."
"That's because I'm not sure if I should include the years I've been sealed away in the Underkingdom."
"Nah, it's fine," she said waving it off. "Anyway, it just came to me that you may have some descendants living around here." Everyone stopped eating and gave Daring their undivided attention. "I mean, it's been over a thousand years, and I'm sure that at least one of them is somewhere around Equestria. So, I just thought that if you wanted to, you could give us a name of one of your kids and we could look them up in the records."
"Is that even possible with a thousand years of descendants?" Twilight asked.
"I've got a pony who can help me get it if I need it."
All eyes now turned to Sol as they awaited his answer, only to see a sad frown on his face.
"Sol?"
Hearing Twilight call him, he looked up to see everypony looking at him and sighed. "I'm sorry, but I don't have any."
There were a few gasps, some of them believing the worst had happened.
"You don't mean they all... died... do you?" Twilight fearfully asked.
"No. We didn't get quite that far."
Spike blinked. "Wait. 'We'?"
"Yes, Spike. We."
"You mean to tell us that you had a special somepony in your life?" Rarity asked, leaning over the table with her head propped up on her hooves in interest.
"I did, but... things didn't work out..." Sol let out a sad sigh as he thought back to her. "It's a shame that it ended like that. She was truly one of a kind. I doubt that there will ever be another one like her. She was smart, physically and magically strong, beautiful, elegant, funny, and admittedly a little crazy at times, but she always found a way to make me happy and smile again."
"If you don't mind my asking, what happened between you two? Did you break up because of you being sealed away?"
A flash of anger crossed his saddened face. "No. Her father is what happened." Seeing that Rarity was about to further ask him, Sol raised a claw. "That is all I wish to say about it right now."
Though she was curious to know more about what happened with Sol's fallen romantic life, Rarity ceased her questioning and helped herself to another doughnut.
"So, Sol," Twilight began, trying to steer them away from their previous topic, "I believe that we told you that we'd fill you in on what's happened during the time you were asleep?"
Being reminded of that brought a small smile back to his face. "I believe you did. So, other than Nightmare Moon, Tirek, and the changelings' new ruler and reformation, what all has happened?"
For the next hour, Twilight and the others told Sol about what happened. While he found most of their adventures interesting, and was glad to hear that Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot and Sombra's return to retake the Crystal Empire were both foiled, when they brought up Discord, Sol's eyes immediately lit up in anger. Though he was pleased to hear that he was turned back to stone after he escaped and failed to tear Twilight and her friends apart, when they told him about Celestia's plans to release him from his stone prison and reform him, Sol cut Twilight off before she could finish, telling them that Discord is better off remaining sealed in stone.
"After what he did to everypony, being turned to stone is nothing less than what he deserves," Sol growled.
"But Discord-"
Fluttershy squeaked and went silent when Sol's fist slammed on the table and his eyes darted to her.
"That monster is better off in his stone prison! And I swear, if I ever see his face again, I'll pierce him with a Holy Lance and seal him in stone with the lance still embedded in him!"
"Hey! Quit shouting at her!" Rainbow barked. "Fluttershy didn't do anything wrong, so knock it off before I knock you off!"
Hearing Rainbow reprimanding him, Sol's eyes darted over to her as she scowled at him. Looking away from her, his eyes then began to roam over the others watching, all of whom had varied expressions of worry on their faces. Regretting having lost his temper like that, Sol eyes fell over Fluttershy before sitting back down in the booth seat.
"I'm sorry for my outburst, Fluttershy, everypony," he apologized with a sigh of regret. "Even before we received news of him coming to try and take over Equestria, Discord had already caused a lot of pain, suffering, and misery for so many others."
"You really do hate him... don't you?" Fluttershy quietly asked.
Sol's eyes downcast as he tried to avoid looking at Fluttershy out of shame for his outburst.
"I do," he reluctantly admitted. "Tell me, does Griffonstone still stand to this day?
"Yeah, barely," Rainbow grumbled. "Me and Pinkie went there a while ago, but what does that have to do with your problem with Discord?"
"Because before I was sealed away, I found out from a friend of mine that Discord had convinced Arimaspi to go to Griffonstone and steal the Idol of Boreas."
Everyone looked at Sol with shock over the new news.
"You're kidding," Rainbow said. "Discord was behind it?"
"But why?" Fluttershy asked sadly.
"According to what Talon, my griffin friend from back then, told me, Discord thought that it would be fun to see their society collapse into anarchy with their idol gone."
"And how did he know that?" Twilight wondered.
"Because after Arimaspi fell into the Abysmal Abyss with the idol, Discord caught Talon alone and told him about them, just for the sole purpose of taunting him. Of course, when Talon tried to tell the other griffins, they were all too depressed over the loss of their coveted idol and ignored him." Sol sighed and pinched the bridge of his muzzle. "Though I thoroughly despise Discord, I will admit that he was actually a fairly decent guy at one time, despite how random and goofy he was."
"If he was good back then, then what happened to him that made him turn evil?"
Sol looked up and stared at the ceiling. "Nopony knows. One day, Discord just up and turned evil on us... and without any warning either."