Scar gave a yawn as he watched the landscape pass outside. They had left Ponyville early, far too early for his liking. A gnoll should be asleep at this time of the day. Instead, he was traveling in a train packed with ponies along with Purple Haze, Twilight and Spike. If he had understood correctly they were going to visit the pink pony and the shiny pony he had met before. He wondered why he had to come along,... wasn't he supposed to hunt rats instead?
At least he didn't have to ride inside a cargo cart again. The carts of this train were big enough to accommodate him, even if he took up two seats and had to be careful not to bump his head. He looked around the train cart he was in. There were many ponies here, all of them chatting merrily. Some of them had passed him disturbed glances at first when he had entered the cart, but by now all of them had settled down and didn't seem to mind his presence. Still, sometimes he would catch some of them eying him with curious glances.
Across him, Twilight was chatting happily with a bored and sleepy looking Purple Haze. Next to him sat a snoring Spike. How the little lizard could sleep with all the talking ponies around him was beyond Scar's understanding. Something nudged one of his legs. Scar turned his head, nothing. There was another nudge, the gnoll looked down. It was a very tiny pony. The little filly was holding a bunny rag doll half as big as herself.
"Are you a monster?" the little pony asked him with huge eyes.
Scar thought for a moment, was he still a monster? Many ponies had used that name for him in the past but that was a long time ago... He shook his head, "It is gnoll."
"What's a gnoll?" the little pony asked with confusion in its voice.
"Scar is gnoll." he pointed at himself.
The pony giggled, "You're big!"
The gnoll chuckled, "Only because pony is small."
The little Filly laughed, "I'm Sunshine..." she held up her rag doll, "This Smilypants. Say hello, Smilypants."
The gnoll chuckled as he greeted the little doll, "Scar is happy to meet little doll."
"Can I touch your fur?"
Scar wasn't sure why the little pony wanted to touch him but if it made her happy... He held out an arm for her to touch. The little pony shook her head, "No, on your head." This was an unusual request. Would it really be okay? Wouldn't it seem threatening if he got his mouth too close to her?
He looked down at the little filly, she was giving him the biggest pleading eyes he had ever seen. The gnoll gave a sigh, the things he did to make tiny ponies happy... He bent down and carefully put his head in front of her. The filly reached up with both hoofs and started to pet his head. "Hihi, you're so fluffy!" she giggled as she squished his cheeks and face together.
"Sunshine! Where are you?" a voice called out from the back of the wagon.
"I'm here mommy!" the little filly called back as she continued to play with his face, "Remember how I always wanted a puppy?" Scar didn't like where this was going...
"What? Why are you..." a mare stepped up to them, "Oh my..." she said as she saw him.
"Can we keep him?"
---
It had taken a lot of soothing words from the mare and much of the gnoll's patience to talk the filly out of her idea of adopting the gnoll. After the initial whining she had finally calmed down and understood that Scar wasn't a pet. When she had told her mother she could dress him with bows the gnoll had nearly choked on his own breath.
Now that the filly had finally calmed down the mare turned to Scar, "You're Scar, the gnoll. Aren't you?"
"It is." he answered with surprise as she approached him. There wasn't the slightest sign of stress on her. He couldn't even smell a trace of fear coming from her. "Has it met pony before?"
The mare smiled as it stepped up to him, "We haven't. But I have seen you a few times in Ponyville. My husband is one of the guards accompanying princess Celestia on her duties. He's been telling quite some stories about you."
"Scar hopes good stories." he said with a tiny smile, careful not to show his teeth in front of the tiny pony.
The little ponies face suddenly lit up, "Mommy, is he the one that hit princes Luna with a hammer?"
"Hush now, it's not polite to talk about gossip." the mare warned her foal. The gnoll was about to tell her it was more than gossip but thought the better of it. Luna had accepted his apology and he had even given her a big hug to show that he was sorry. Her reaction to his embrace had been... interesting. "Come now, we need to get off at the next stop. Say goodbye to Scar."
The tiny pony beamed him a smile, "Goodbye, Scar!"
The gnoll waved a goodbye as the two ponies left, "Goodbye, tiny pony..."
When he turned around again he found that Purple Haze and Twilight had stopped talking. Instead they were watching him with smiles on their faces. How long had they been watching? "What?" Scar asked as their smiles grew bigger.
"Nothing..." Purple Haze answered with a grin, "Fluffy..." both she and Twlight barely suppressed their giggles.
Scar gave a groan, this would be a long ride.