He couldn't believe what he saw as he was literally pulled away from his "home" for the past millennium. Give or take a year or two.
The castle, the glorious castle that his Master had once lived within was in...ruin. Literally. It was a pile of rocks and stone in the vague shape of what had undoubtedly been a magnificent castle...Okay, it wasn't that bad. But it wouldn't last another millennium, that he was sure of.
'I guess Master's sibling couldn't stand to be in the place where Master had "turned against her," or something to that effect.' He thought to himself. Though he would have voiced it if he were able.
He had been expecting to be brought to the same throne room he had sworn himself to the Eternal Night, the one used by his Master and her sister. The accursed Day.
And as luck would have it, it was just that. Day. The sun was high above him, at least he assumed it was, based on the position of shadows, and how bright it was. If he could, he would sigh out loud. He much preferred the cool dark of night over the blistering heat of the sun.
If he hadn't already made that obvious.
And it seemed as if a forest had grown where Her Magnificence once called home, and even within his magical prison, he could sense the ambient magic, just pure magic, in the air. Had the final battle done that? The weapon the accursed Day had used against his dark Goddess?...And why was she so quiet?
She referring to the purple unicorn mare with the purple cutie mark currently moving him with her magic. She had been...incredibly quiet. Considering her first reaction to finding him was to talk to herself. He guessed no one knew he was still conscious then. Or she was just a bitc-
"I must admit, you aren't at all what I was expecting." Brought out of his thoughts by the purple mare's words, he turned his attention to her again, and found her looking back at him as she walked. Him naturally in tow. Occasionally glancing in front of her to make sure she was still going in the right direction.
"The only creature known to have joined Nightmare Moon not through fear, but through agreement with her," as she paused to take a breath, he couldn't help but seethe inside his stony prison. Of course he did! She was the only creature to ever earn his respect. And there had been others...at least he thought so..."and to stand by her even as she was being sealed..." He thought he saw her shiver momentarily.
"I honestly thought it would be scarier looking."...So he wasn't scary looking...Why did he feel so disappointed by that? And what did she mean by "it?" It was considered rude to say that right to someone's...face...She didn't know he was conscious. She was simply talking to herself. Trying to pass the time. His mind boggled as she took another deep breath. She was still going to talk? He also dimly noted that she wasn't even looking at him anymore, just the path ahead of her.
"I wonder what Princess Celestia wants with it...maybe to reevaluate..." And the rest was just mumbled nonsense that he couldn't make out. So it was the Day Princess who requested his presence. And for her to send just one civilian looking mare instead of an armored guard...She thought highly of the prison he was in. And he couldn't help but agree with her, it had held him for a millennium after all. And didn't seem to have weakened any in that time.
The rest of the trip through the forest passed in relative peace. He couldn't make out what the purple mare was mumbling to herself about, and they did not run into any dangerous creatures along the way. So when they emerged out of the forest, he realized just how wrong he had been. That forest had been heavily shaded. This was blinding. And he couldn't even blink! How was the young mare not rolling around on the ground in pain from this!?
The logical part of his mind, which he was still surprised had survived with as much of it as intact as it had, noted that she would have to be used to such sunlight. And that he wasn't used to so much light after so long being imprisoned. He promptly told that part of his mind to go stuff it...Whatever that meant. Was it supposed to mean something? Why had he thought it?
He noted they were approaching a town. A relatively small town. One that, if he were remembering the area as well as he thought he was, wasn't there back before his imprisonment. It seemed like a nice place, based entirely on appearances. The kind of town everyone knew everyone else, and everything that happened was soon known by the entire town.
And they were headed straight towards it.
They passed by a nice cottage on the way into town. It was close to the forest they had just left. And it seemed to be owned by some sort of veterinarian, or a meat eating creature, if the number of animals surrounding it was an indication of how many must have been inside it. It was right then that he realized something...troubling.
He missed bacon.
Even his dark Mistress had been disgusted by his omnivorous nature. So he had attempted to give it up...Yeah, he discovered that wasn't going to happen. Ever. So he discreetly ate meat when no one was around to see it. They knew he was doing it, but didn't comment on it. Better to just ignore it altogether.
And they were in the town, he realized with some frustration. His thoughts over food having distracted him long enough for them to enter the town itself. Ponies stopping to stare at him as they passed. The mare responsible for his freedom from the metal prison, said a few words to nearly every pony they passed. Assuring them that everything was fine. And it was during one of these brief conversations that he discovered something that just outright horrified him. Something so terrible he couldn't believe his ears.
They were still using the pony specific terms of "everypony" and "anypony!" That had annoyed him to no end, being called a pony when he clearly wasn't, every time someone wanted to lump him together with more than just himself. No matter the creatures involved. It had been just sheer coincidence that none of the purple mare's speech had included the need for lumping multiple creatures together.
Screw whatever he had been planning to say to the accursed Day Princess if...when they met face to face. He would be heard, he would tell her exactly what he thought of the practice! Other creatures deserved to be included! Ponies weren't the only sapient creatures in the world! Terms like "everybody" and "everyone" weren't species exclusive like "everypony" and "anypony" were.
The purple unicorn mare somehow affiliated with the accursed Day Princess stopped in front of a rather...strange building. One that he didn't even notice because if his tirade about grammar and racism...specism...Whatever it was called. Anyway, it was a building that looked like it was actually made out of sweets of all kind. And he wouldn't be surprised if it actually were, given how just downright innocent and eccentric some ponies could be.
His logical side reminded him that if it were, animals would make short work of it. Making such a building unnecessarily flashy, needlessly expensive, and completely pointless.
So it was just unnecessarily flashy then.
With a roll of his eyes, if he could do such a thing that is, he was pulled along by the purple mare up to the front door...and promptly set down off to the side, just to the left of the door. He pictured how a glare might look, and then pictured himself giving the oblivious purple mare the hardest one he could imagine. She simply walked through the doors, and he heard some excited...screaming? Screaming. As the door closed behind her. Cutting off whomever that had been.
Leaving him alone. In the middle of town, full of curious ponies whom had never seen anything like him before. Whom were probably just being polite by allowing the purple mare to pass without much question about himself.
Oh look, there were already some ponies approaching him. Some of them were even kids.
She was going to pay, he swore. Once he was free. She. Would. Pay.
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He would have breathed a sigh of relief if he were currently physically capable of doing such a thing, as he heard the door to the strange...he guessed it was a pastry shop. He heard the pastry shop door open behind him. And he heard the distinctive footsteps of a pony, er, hoofsteps of a pony, walking his way. The fillies and colts playing with the "strange ape statue" were already going back to their own business.
So it was with considerable surprise that he noted the color that approached at the edge of his vision was not the lavender-ish purple he had been expecting, but a bright pink.
Soon he was face to face with yet another new pony who undoubtedly wanted to see the strange statue the purple mare had been toting around town. He prepared for the usual prods and strange terms he did not understand he had come to expect in the, maybe ten minutes? Twenty minutes at the most, that the purple mare had been gone. And he inwardly cringed as the pink mare took in a deep breath.
And then he was floating again. He could see the purple glow at the edge of his vision again, giving him a pretty good idea of who was responsible. And lo and behold, there the purple mare was again.
"Pinkie, please. I asked you not to draw attention to it." She was lecturing the pink mare whom he now knew was named "Pinkie."
"Aw c'mon Twilight! Just look at him! I've never seen a statue like him before!" That was good, he supposed. That meant she had never encountered any humans before...but why was that good again? Was it good? And did he just finally learn the name of the mysterious purple pony? Twilight huh...fit. Somehow, he knew it fit. Just as much as the name "Pinkie" fit the pink mare.
"-and then Discord looked kind of like him when we used our super awesome powers to defeat him, and then I saw something that remind me of Discord in my coffee, it said f. k. which are letters in the alphabet and Discord seemed like the kind of guy who would rearrange the alphabet just to mess with teachers, or at least I got that impression-" Wait, she was still talking!? He decided to patiently wait for her to finish before starting his usual tirade he had developed within his time as a-'What did she just say!?' Discord!? As in, chaos incarnate Discord? Discord, whom had been so terrible that he had been turned to stone by the accursed Day Princess and his Master back when her Moon was still subservient to the Sun?
Ah, he understood now. His shoulders would have sank if they had been made of flesh and bone at the moment. But he stood in the air, unmoving as ever. He didn't notice anyway.
They were simply going to reinforce the spell put on him, to make sure what happened to Discord doesn't happen again. At least for a long, long time.
He bleakly noted that they were on the move again, Twilight walking just ahead of him, and himself being forced to follow, being pulled along by her magic. The pink one, Pinkie, was following them. Spouting off some nonsense about cupcakes and frosting. He paid both of them little mind.
He pulled his mind from all thoughts aside from what his fate was to be. And he noted that they were moving into a train. And he only noticed because his head knocked against the top of the door as he was pulled in.
He briefly wondered if the train ride to wherever they were headed would be interesting.
It wasn't.
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