Everything was going to be perfect. That which he dreamed since he was small. In power that was. Not small in stature- and you get the idea.
Everything was as it should have been. Everything was perfect. Everything was right.
He was standing in the middle of the throne room that now belonged solely to his mistress. Creatures of all kinds were gathered, all to see her in all her great dark power.
She was sitting on the throne she once shared with her sister, looking out at her new subjects with a cool calm. Her slitted green eyes ever watchful of those around her. She took her time to get together in her head what she wanted to say, and when she opened her mouth to speak, a hushed silence fell over the massive crowd.
“My loyal servants, though it took us far too long to achieve our victory, we beseech you all, cherish this celebration, you have all earned it!” A massive cheer arose from many of those present, himself included. He did all he could to ignore the angry stares of those whom were still unhappy at his master's defeat of their princess.
He was cheering so hard that he almost knocked over the dark coated pony standing next to him.
“My little ponies, eat, drink, and be merry! For things have changed, and those changes are here to stay, thou wouldst not want to pass up such an opportunity!” Gazing upon his mistress in her moment of triumph, he couldn't help but smile. She was the victor, she was happy. She was loved by her subjects just like she always wanted to be. And he had been a part of making that dream become a reality.
“For such a glorious occasion we shall declare this night the “Night of the Full Moon!” Such wonderful celebrations shall be had on this new holiday!“
Now darkness reigned supreme over everything. Eternal night had finally arrived, and it was here to stay.
He was the happiest he had ever felt in his life.
He awoke to the sound of beeping.
Opening his eyes was far harder than he expected it to be, and he barely opened them enough to see that he was in a white room of some kind before he had to shut his eyes from the blinding light above him.
“Ah, a hospital, how wonderful.” He rasped out loud in a bitter tone, though not through any real effort. He barely even recognized he had spoken. The events of yesterday, possibly even longer, played out in his memories. Scrunching his closed eyes even further, he attempted to speak in as serious a tone as was possible.
“Blinding light, my old nemesis, we meet again.” He may have been more than a little delirious at the time. If his allegiances and general dislike of the sun on principle hadn't clued everyone in, he was not a morning person. He also wasn’t an evening person, or even a general all around day person.
With a tired sigh, he rose up into a sitting position. He blearily blinked at the tubes in his arms, and followed them up to see he was connected to an IV. He took this opportunity to examine the room they had deemed worthy for their newest prisoner.
It was a very nice, modern hospital room. Looking out of the nearby window, he could see that night had fallen while he was asleep. The moon was visible, and a quick glance at the clock told him it had just begun. He sighed in contentment.
He took another glance around his room and came to another conclusion. There was way too much white for his tastes, but he couldn't help but feel relaxed. It was quiet. Not the soul crushing quiet of his stone prison no, this was comforting, relaxing. He almost smiled.
Almost.
As the minutes ticked on, he felt his mind awaken from it's dreary state somewhat, and his mind became clear in an instant. He was injured enough to warrant an IV.
It didn't make any sense, he couldn't have been harmed enough by the accursed day princess to warrant the condition he was in. Thinking back to their confrontation, he tried to remember if he perhaps had been like this even before then. Had he been injured a millennium ago, and simply forgotten about it? He quickly came to the most logical conclusion he could fathom given the circumstances.
“I am still dreaming.”
It was as if everything outside of his little hospital room washed away into nothing, and he felt the never ending weight of nothingness close in around him from all sides. With a scoff, he turned his head to the side and whispered his opinion on the situation.
“Dreaming is not as nice as I imagined it would be. Can I go back to the happy dream?” When absolutely nothing changed he let out a tired sigh. Perfect.
“I do hope I've not fallen into a coma.” He muttered aloud to himself. The last thing he could remember was the blast by that accursed day princess striking him in the head. Which made him wonder if perhaps she was unfamiliar with just how delicate mortal heads were...
Putting those thoughts on hold, he laid back down into the not-real hospital bed.
As he felt sleep pull at his consciousness again he briefly wondered who was beside him, as he could see a dark coated pony out of the corner of his eye. It took a moment to recognize them from the nicer dream. How long had they been there?
Through a half-lidded gaze he watched as they opened their mouth to speak, but found the words coming out in a muffled mess.
“You are [...]ol you [...]nt. Why must you f[...]ight!”
No, he was mistaken. He simply couldn't hear them.
With a muffled grunt, he fell back into the hospital bed, and watched as everything around him faded into nothing. Darkness claimed him once again.
He awoke to the sound of hooves clopping, muffled speaking, and a blinding light that could have come only from the accursed sun.
He struggled to open even a single eye, and found that he couldn't hold it open for more than a few seconds. Though a quick glance around had told him all he needed to know.
It was a very clean hospital room, though nothing like the one he saw in his second dream. At least he thought it wasn't, the memory of the dream was already fading, so he instead grunted in annoyance. He found this to be a mistake, as all around him became quiet for a moment, before all of the noise from earlier came crashing back, only this time directly next to him.
Forcing his eye open for another moment, he saw it to be a pink unicorn stallion with a light blue mane. He couldn't see his cutie mark, but he assumed it had something to do with medicine. As this pony was a doctor. Or maybe a nurse. But he was going to assume doctor. He had the strange stereotypical metal thing he did not know the name of on his forehead. After immediately shutting his eye again from the bright light, he heard the pink stallion take a deep breath.
He sounded young. “He seems to be awake nurse Heart Throb, and based on how he reacted to the princess he might react violently to us. I need you to either hold him down, or give him something to make him sleep for a while longer as I insert the thermometer.”
It took him a moment to realize why he would need to be held down, and when he did his eyes opened in a panic. He focused magic into his fingers and tried to lift his arms to defend himself from the ensuing probing. He couldn't lift his arms.
The spell completed, he felt the room's temperature drop significantly, and also felt a slight numbing in his legs. Attempting to raise up, he only managed to raise his head, and found himself strapped to the bed he was currently in. He also discovered the reason for the numbing in his legs, he had frozen the bottom half of the bed, and himself. He could already feel the heat rush to his cheeks from such an amateur mistake.
“I don't think he likes that doctor.” He heard whom he assumed was the nurse say through chattering teeth. To which the doctor only grunted in annoyance. Glancing at each of them, he found the nurse to be a dark brown earth pony with a blonde mane, and a syringe for a cutie mark. And now that he could see the doctor properly, he found a stethoscope cutie mark on his flank. It only took him a moment for him to decide what to do, and he had to fight off the smirk that almost spread across his lips.
He narrowed his eyes and took great pleasure as both ponies flinched.
“No, I don't.” His voice came out cold, exactly as he wanted it to. And it seemed appropriate. He knew exactly what they were going to say to him even before they said it. First they would offer their apologies, and then they would call for backup.
“You can talk!?” They both shouted at once. To which he simply blinked in response. He hadn't been expecting that.
“Of course I can speak.” He was confused, and it showed on his face. The two ponies suddenly looked a lot more nervous than they did before.
“But the legends say that you were a mindless bea-” The nurse stopped cold as the temperature dropped even more, and one glance at the human's face told her everything she needed to know.
He was livid.
In the back of her mind, the part that currently wasn't frozen with fear, she realized what a strange combination it was. Such freezing cold coming from pure emotion and magical instinct, while the human looked as if he could burst into flames at any moment. She didn't voice it, of course.
He took several deep breaths to calm himself down. That was something he hated about himself. Just how hot his temper could be when it came to his intelligence being questioned. Normally his anger came out in a cold, tranquil fury, or at least he thought it did. With a final deep breath he could feel his emotions coming back under his control. He lessened the freezing cold air coming from him to a slight chill, and then finally it faded away into nothing.
“A word of advice.” He stated, looking directly into the eyes of the brown earth pony nurse. His voice had turned cold. “It would be in your best interest to not assume the magical monster is no longer a threat once it is strapped down, especially if you have made no attempt at limiting it's magic. Doubly so if said monster is from what I can only assume are legends and monster myths.” If what the nurse had said earlier was true, he was in at least a few legends.
“Noted.” She squeaked out.
“Excellent.” He nodded to her once, before taking a glance out of the nearby window and saw that he was in the same city as before. He turned his gaze back to the nurse, and he wondered why he felt that something was off.
His eyes widened in horrified realization when he noticed the pink stallion doctor was missing. That would mean...
“What is the meaning of this?” A naturally melodious voice called out.
Oh god damn it.
A glance to his left revealed the owner of the voice, exactly who he was dreading it to be. There she stood in all of her usual glory. Her horn was as sharp looking as ever, her wings were tucked to her sides, her mane was just as ridiculous, and majestic he grudgingly admitted, as it always was. It was Princess Celestia, ruler of the sun, queen of the day. The sovereign ruler of Equestria. And the very person he had tried to murder.
What does one say to such a person? A person whose very life you had attempted, rather futilely though not that it mattered, to kill? They gazed into each others eyes for several long moments before he decided to make his move. He raised his hand, still strapped to the bed after all, and made a slight movement using his fingers. He almost laughed when he noticed the spell she immediately prepared in response.
“Hello.” He stated in a flat tone.
The magic gathering within her horn blinked out of existence once the pony princess realized that he was greeting her. And he felt a moment of personal triumph as he witnessed something he was sure not many creatures had been granted the privilege to see. Princess Celestia's normally calm exterior melted away for just a moment to give way for outright shock. He thought he even saw her jaw dropping, when it was suddenly back just as soon as it had left. He watched with rapt attention as she took a moment to gather her thoughts before opening her mouth to speak.
“It would seem you are in a much more reasonable mood now. Some of my little ponies were worried that you were rabid. You put on quite the show back there.” After a thousand years and that was what she had to say? Well, two could play that game.
“Yes, well. Do not downplay your enemy's intelligence and you won't have that problem.” They both knew he was sidestepping his violent first impression on the rest of Equestria after a thousand years. And he felt the slightest bit grateful that she seemed to ignore it. She simply met his steady gaze with her own.
“I will not limit the imaginations of my subjects.” That had come out in what for her would be an icy cold tone. He simply nodded in acceptance. “Good.”
They continued on in silence for more than a few moments, the nurse was attempting to get rid of the ice that had sprung up in the room, and the pink doctor looked nervously between both him and the princess. The human ignored him.
It took five minutes for them to crack through the ice that had formed around him because of his botched spell. And with a gentle nod from the princess, the doctor and nurse took their leave. It took a few more moments for the frost-covered human to gather his thoughts enough to speak. Normally he would have owed her for freeing him, yes. But she was also the one who had imprisoned him in the first place. And had left him to rot for a millennium.
“I apologize for the mess.” He commented offhandedly. “But they were going to do something everyone in this building would regret.” He finished, his steady gaze never leaving hers. He owed her nothing.
“Be that as it may,” He caught the briefest hint of a frown, though an outside observer would notice nothing wrong. “I have to insist you consider the position you are in.” Wow, she almost sounded angry. That was never a good sign. But of course that didn't stop him.
“Yes yes, I know.” He tried to wave a hand to emphasize his understanding, but he only barely managed to make it turn to the side. “The great and terrible human, enemy of all creatures that frolic in the sunshine, returned at last a millennium after being defeated by their generous and extremely kind monarch. Why, I even had the audacity to attempt to straight out murder you at the first chance, I can only imagine the rumors going around about me.” He allowed his calm expression to slip slightly, a smirk forming across his lips as he spoke the next part.
“Please tell me I'm featured in trashy romance novels. I have always wanted to be featured in a work that tries to cast my self admittedly, unashamedly dark behavior in a “lighter” outlook, and be “redeemed” through the power of love and kindness. Oh oh, let me guess, I also turn into a pony, right?” He guffawed in amusement at the thought.
“I am sorry to say that the idea of inter-species romance is not as popular as it once was.” He thought he saw the barest hint of a smile on her face as she spoke.
“Ah well, can't win 'em all.” He decided to attempt to shrug. He failed to shrug.
“I really must insist you take this more seriously.”
“And why would I go and do something like that?” He asked, almost caught off guard at how gravely she had spoken.
She seemingly ignored him. ”I would very much like for you to answer a few of my questions.” He responded by raising a single eyebrow, obviously asking why he would do something like that after all that had happened.
“If you are cooperative, you may have a much greater chance at leniency.” He wanted to ask if she meant his past crimes, or the more recent one, but he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut, at least concerning that topic.
“An interrogation then.” He stated, the princess frowned, but did not object to the term. After thinking it over for a few moments, he decided with a vocal “Fine.” As soon as the words left him, he felt himself being enveloped, and he could see bright yellow at the edge of his vision. Just to tell if he was lying, he guessed.
Before she could start asking questions, he laid down one ground rule for the interrogation “If you make sure I do not go back to my forever prison, I shall answer any question you have for me.”
She paused a moment, seemingly thinking over any way he could use such a term to hinder the questioning, and after deciding that any way would be too obvious for one of Nightmare Moon's tactical advisers, she reluctantly nodded in agreement. “Of course.”
“Then ask away.” He stated. His face back into his icy cold stare.
“What year do you believe it to be?” He would have facepalmed if he could, being asked such an obviously trapped question. He owed her nothing.
“No idea.” He answered truthfully. And he really didn't. He knew how long he had been imprisoned, around a thousand years, but he didn't know the exact date.
“Elaborate.” She all but commanded. So answering in such a way would only make her angry. He needed to be more direct in his answers then.
“Looking out the window,” he glanced out of said window. “I see a city I have never seen before, a big, important, snooty looking one. I was freed in your throne room, yet I did not recognize it. I surmise that this city did not exist back before you imprisoned me.” He turned his icy cold stare back on Celestia. “If I would have to guess? More than a couple centuries. Nurse...Heart Throb was it? She mentioned that in those legends, I was said to be a mindless beast. It has been a good long time, princess. A thousand years at the very least.”
An answer that gave no mention to his awareness, yet gave exactly what she had asked for. A simple escape when one thought about it. She likely believed him to be a bit out of it after so long. And she seemed to be mulling over his words. Before finally she turned her gaze back to him, her mouth opening to ask another question.
“Why was your first action upon being freed to attack me?” She likely knew all of the possible answers he could give to this one, and just needed him to clarify which theory was correct. Too bad he owed her nothing.
“I was pissed off at you. Very, very pissed off.” When he realized what the obvious conclusion was, he added as if it were an afterthought, “You did almost single-handedly, hoofedly, destroy my most sacred dream, and banish the one person, pony, I adored above all others. If it weren't for these bonds, and my self-preservation screaming at me right now, I would be attempting to freeze you again.” He admitted with no shame. And he even visibly startled the princess with how resolute his reply was.
“I see. One last question.” Well, that had been a short interrogation...or questioning, as he was forced to admit. It wasn't like an interrogation at all.
“How much can you recall about your species and the culture you come from?” That question had caught him off guard. But it didn't stop his mouth from answering faster than he could realize that he should keep such information to himself.
“A lot.” He then scowled at her. “Why do you need to know this?” She didn't answer his question, she simply turned towards the door to his hospital room, trotted halfway out, and turned her head towards him to say a few parting words.
“I thank you for your cooperation.” And with that, she left. The doctor and nurse came back into the room shortly after. And while he was distracted they drugged him, sending back into the darkness of sleep.
A couple of hours later, loud cursing could be heard all throughout the building after the lone human awoke to find himself alone, still strapped down. He was cursing something about thermometers, though no pony would go anywhere close to what was making such dreadful threats. He was particularly threatening what he would do with said thermometer to the doctor who had drugged him when he was able to move again.
It was two days before he worked up the nerve to ask for a mirror. And he had to physically strain to keep his mouth shut when they actually brought him one. Seriously though! Why the hell would they just give the legendary horrible monster something like that? Mirrors tended to be very sharp when broken.
He wasn't going to harm anyone of course. Not only would it just be a confirmation of their assumptions to his morality and intelligence, but it would also only end in him being trapped in his stone prison again. He would play the good little prisoner on parole, and he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize his freedom...Unless he was reasonably sure he could get away with it.
And he was stalling. He realized with some frustration. His bonds long removed under the condition he not leave the bed, he was sitting up in the bed, his back was against the wall the bed was resting parallel to.
He was nervous.
Nervous about what his appearance was. How could he not be nervous over such a thing? He had no memory on what he looked like, other than that he was rather thin (he could confirm this every time he looked down), he had pretty much no muscle on him. And he knew he had black hair, long enough to be visible at nearly all moments. He was thankfully wearing clothes, just as the mare named Twilight had unintentionally informed him.
Looking down again he had a black robe of some material. It felt a bit like silk, though he had his suspicions that it was made of something completely different. It was rather large on his surprisingly sickly-looking frame. It went all the way down to his ankles, where he could see black shoes of an undetermined material. On the back of the robe, which he had to contort into quite an uncomfortable position to see, had a giant white crescent moon. Inside the crescent were two word, "Eternal" and "Moon." In German. Which was strange, as he hardly knew any German, other than a few words here and there. He had to have put those words there though, German was not very common in Equestria, or any of it's neighboring countries. It was, however, one of the core languages in human society.
He grasped at the neckline of his robe and saw that he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt underneath with no symbol, words, or images of any kind of it. Which felt wrong somehow, though he didn't know why that would be. And black pants made of what felt like the same material as the robe.
Other than these two things he had become mostly aware of while he had been strapped down, he had no idea what the rest of his appearance would be. And he was stalling again.
Sucking in a deep breath, he slowly raised the mirror to face him, and gasped at what he saw.
He wasn't ugly! Relief flooded him the moment he realized he wasn't a hideous mutant or something, and he took another good look at himself.
The first thing he noticed was that he was right about his hair. It was a dark black, and fell around his eyes, over his ears, and down to the beginning of his upper back. He then noticed that he was in fact wearing glasses. He assumed the reason he hadn't realized since being freed was that he was simply too used to wearing them to notice. The next thing he became aware of was that his eyes were blue. Light blue.
And finally he saw that he had a fairly normal looking face, at least he assumed so. He wouldn't call himself handsome by any means, but his face had no irregular bumps or grooves. And his eyes seemed oddly piercing. No matter how much he tried to relax his face, his eyes never lost their piercing gaze staring back at him. Another thing about himself that didn't feel right, though he chalked that up with the millennium he was so cruelly left to rot in an immortal prison.
Yes, he was still bitter. Just because he had been almost pleasant with his hated enemy meant nothing. It was called self-preservation. He wanted to keep his new freedom.
It was another two hours before he was given food. No meat, of course. It was quite a lot of food, though he could just attribute that to the hospital having no idea what the hell the strange ape in their care could actually eat. At least fifteen different fruits, there were more bananas than anything else, some grains, vegetables, dairy products, and even a small slice of cake. Just in case.
Then there were the things he just simply could not digest. Some hay fries, pure grain, a few seeds that he could not recognize as any of the few seeds humans could digest. A sandwich full of flower petals, and even a small bunny.
A small bunny.
A. Small. Bunny.
A small, baby, bunny.
They weren't very subtle, were they? Looking down at the frightened creature, which was currently hiding behind a particularly large grapefruit, he glanced at the door to his hospital room/holding cell, and strained to keep the grin off of his face when he saw that they weren't even trying to hide the fact they were spying on him.
Keeping a close eye on them out of the corner of his eye, he slowly reached out towards the small white rabbit, which was frozen in place by the undiluted terror running through it's veins, and let a small smirk pass his lips as he watched the doctors and nurses gathered outside his door momentarily panic.
They almost instantly calmed down when they saw him gently pick up the creature, pat it on the head a few times, and offer it one of the carrots that came with their little dietary experiment. The small bunny instantly warmed up to the human, eagerly biting away at the food it was being given.
“I'm keeping him.” He said to them, he never took his gaze off of the white rabbit, though he did let his eyes wander slightly downward. “Or her.” He finished with some amusement.
He later found out the small bunny belonged to one of the nurses whom had reluctantly allowed her pet's offspring to be used in the experiment. Under many assurances that if it looked like the bunny would be harmed they would stop it, of course.
When asked to give her back to the nurse, the robed human simply glared at her until she whittled her demand down to letting him buy the baby bunny from her. Which he paid with a light silvery-blue gem he had found in his pocket, which had turned out to be worth quite a bit more than he had expected. Something about such gems becoming rare after princess Luna had been banished, they offered no name for the gem, and he couldn't remember anything about it. He had even refused to allow the hospital staff to remove his new pure white baby bunny from his hospital room.
“I think I'll name you Nightmare.” He stated, looking down at the newly named Nightmare, who looked up at him with wide innocent eyes. Seemingly satisfied with the name. "Be proud of it, you are named after someone I look up to very much."
It was another day before he heard a small shout come from outside of his room. Not one of pain, but of surprise. “Oh, princess!”
With a sigh, he perched the baby bunny up onto his shoulder, positioning her so she would faced the door to his room. That was when he heard many hoofsteps approach his room. And then the door clicked once before opening.
Royal guards of one shape and size poured into the room, surrounding him. The unicorns had spells at the ready, while those of the other two pony races had conventional weaponry pointed at him. Namely spears and swords. And in the middle of it all was the princess of the day, Celestia, with a very serious look on her face.
Nightmare sneezed.
Half of the guards present managed to refrain from reacting. The other half had to go outside of the room as to not embarrass their princess.
Celestia now looked amused.
He grinned.
He was standing in the throne room he had been freed in, a thin layer of frost formed along the edges of his clothes and hair, simply because of how annoyed he was.
He was being sentenced.
Everyone he knew that were still alive was there. Twilight, Pinkie, and the other Element of Harmony bearers that he had not heard the names of yet. He was bound magically a good nine or so feet away from Celestia's throne. The other ponies in the room standing off to the side next to her.
The day princess had already gone through a long list of his crimes toward Equestria, and he was once again straining to keep his mouth shut. Once they listed everything, which went from slight property damage from freezing the hospital, to grand treason against the throne by attempting to assassinate their ruler princess Celestia.
Equestria was technically a principality, wasn't it? Because he had heard it referred to as a kingdom more than once in this grand speech of hers. They had been calling it that for a long time then, as it had been called a kingdom even back before his imprisonment. A principality was ruled by either a prince or a princess, and a kingdom was one ruled by either a king of a queen.
So was Celestia a queen officially, and only took the title princess to better connect with "her little ponies?" And why had he not once ever thought about these things in his millennium trapped in stone, all alone with his own mind which tended to go off on tangents at the slightest provocation to do so.
Like right now, he was so doing it now as well. Snapping back to attention he tuned in just in time to hear the most important part.
“I hereby decree that you, young human, will be sent to...” He almost screamed at her to hurry it along, only stopping because he realized she might decide to change it to something worse. “...a small town by the name of Ponyville. Where you shall serve out your time of three years banishment. You are not to leave that town under any normal circumstances no matter what.” He almost asked what the hell a Canterlot was, and he attempted to smack himself at how stupid that question was. It was most likely the name of the city they were currently in.
“Normally the sentence for attempted assassination would be much more severe, but given that we have determined you were not in your right mind,, we are willing to grant a measure of leniency.” He raised his hand to ask why his sentence would still be so short, and princess Celestia almost seemed to read his mind.
”You will also be contributing a great deal to the Canterlot library, by giving as much information on your species and culture as you can to be written down and published by my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, with no compensation for yourself. In exchange for a more lenient sentencing.”
He almost felt like crying. He had the distinct impression he was somehow part of a cliché now. Though he couldn't for the life of him remember why that would be. Pushing down those thoughts, of course he accepted those terms. It could have been much, much worse.
He was unprepared for the amount of noise that accompanied her proclamation. The entire throne room erupted into chaos. Every single pony present was shouting and-baby dragon...there was a wingless baby dragon with the purple mare known as Twilight. Huh...he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. Namely that everyone in the room was shouting at each other.
"Princess, I strongly object to this! Why Ponyville? Why now? Why-" Her voice was then lost in the sea of shouting.
With a roll of his eyes he loudly cleared his throat. That got no reaction. With a sigh he raised his arm, his hand already glowing an icy blue.
Now that everyone in the room had a thin layer of frost covering them, and were glaring at him so hard that he could already see the frost melting off of most of them, he finally had their attention. “So I won't be returning to that awful prison of yours, great. Now where's my bunny?” He demanded, his arm outstretched as if asking them to hand his new pet over. They had taken Nightmare from him when they arrived at the palace.
Many of the ponies whom would have probably looked at him as if he were a monster couldn't keep a straight face at the sight of the scary human with a baby bunny riding on the top of his head. He had walked through the city proud and tall.
He saw more than half of the Element bearers mouth the word “bunny” to themselves in obvious confusion. Only to have looks of comprehension replace those dumbfounded expressions when the small pure white baby bunny he aptly named Nightmare scurried out out from a nearby doorway, and he picked her up and crossed his arms around her mid-section to keep her there.
Well, at least they weren't openly disapproving of the new arrangement, though they all obviously still didn't like it. They all agreed to trust the princess, especially when the yellow one with the pink mane mentioned that they hadn't actually seen him do anything bad yet. They of course added right after that they couldn't trust him either.
He almost made a snarky comment towards them when the entire conflict was swiftly avoided when the purple mare known as Twilight confidently informed them that based on the one-sided fight between the human and princess Celestia, he could easily be overpowered by herself alone.
He chose not to take the bait.
He stepped out of the throne room, a thin layer of ice forming along the way he went. He stepped passed a dark coated pony who was entering the throne room, though he didn't pay them much mind. He had a hand covering his eyes, attempting to massage them to stave off the coming headache.
Once the human was gone, Twilight Sparkle shot off question after question for princess Celestia. Who simply cleared her throat to cease the noise.
"I know this all seems very confusing, and I know you have many question." An affirmative "Yes!" was her response. "As you have likely already guessed, he is not being punished for his actions when you and your friends freed him. But I have good reason to keep him away from Canterlot for the time being."
Before the Element bearers could ask what this was, the dark coated pony whom had escaped the human's notice stepped into the room. Revealing herself to be the alicorn princess Luna.
Twilight understood instantly.
It was within the hour that he found himself back on the train that had taken him to this Canterlot. Only this time it was with eight other creatures with him. The six mares that represented the Elements of Harmony, the baby dragon, and his new pet bunny Nightmare.
None of them would sit next to him, so he gave the window seat to Nightmare. He was no longer wearing the black robe, he had that folded neatly in his lap. Everyone seemed less nervous around him now that he was no longer wearing it.
They sat in silence for several long minutes, no one daring to break the tension filled mood without good reason. Finally, it was the purple mare, princess Celestia's personal student, Twilight who broke the silence.
“So um, human.” She started in an obviously intentional business-like tone. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.” She introduced, offering her hood to shake. He hesitantly took it.
“Nice to meet you.” He stated in a calm tone, his expression betraying nothing.
Everyone was now staring at him. Even Nightmare was curious as to what his name was. He had given her a name, but never told her his own.
“Aren't you gonna...introduce yourself?” Asked the blue element bearer, he became acutely aware of her rainbow colored mane for the first time.
“No.” He admitted, though he didn't mention why he wouldn't.
“But we cannot just keep referring to you as “human,” now can we?” Asked the white one with the purple mane.
He mulled over this for a moment, before deciding to just give out something to end this conversation. He could set it straight once he remembered.
“Eis.” He gave the German word for “ice.” He pointed to the baby bunny that had now crawled into his lap. “This is Nightmare.”
They all fell silent as they realized where he got the bunny's name from.
"Oooh, he's just adorable!" The white one finally exclaimed, playing with the baby bunny's ears.
"She." two voices rang out. He had spoken at the same time as the yellow one.
“Well, Eis.” Twilight started, and he could already tell that would get very annoying having to look out for as his name. “I have already introduced myself, so these are my best friends.” She stated with pride in her voice. Pointing to each one with her extended hoof as she named them.
“Pinkie Pie.” The annoying pink mare from before waved excitedly at him, babbling about nothing. He hadn't even noticed, he was tuning her out like before.
“Rainbow Dash.” The blue one with the rainbow mane and tail grinned at him in a confident way.
“Applejack.” Th orange mare with the blonde main tide to the side tipped the, admittedly very nice, stetson she had on her head as she nodded to him. "Howdy there."
“Rarity.” The white one with the purple mane stuck a pose and turned her head to the side and up slightly. She gave off the same kind of vibe as the ponies is that “Canterlot” had about them. "Charmed, darling."
“And this is Fluttershy.” The yellow one then. Unlike the rest, she simply retreated back farther into her seat, her head hanging down, her long pink mane obscuring most of her face. She squeaked.
A few moments passed before the purple baby dragon elbowed Twilight to get her attention. “Sorry Spike.” She stated sheepishly, and finally pointed a hoof at this “Spike.”
“This is Spike.” And now the baby dragon was flexing in triumph...Strange. He concluded. They were all very strange.
He sat there for a few more moments, mulling over what he had learned. And then he was attacked by a pink blur.
“Ohmihosh ohmigosh ohmigosh!” She screamed happily. “We're going back to Ponyville which means you're new to Ponyville, which means you haven't gotten a party yet have you!? Oh you poor poor thing you, don't worry, your auntie Pinkie Pie will take care of everything!”
“I am over a thousand years old, I don't think you would qualify to be my auntie.” He stated in a serious and grave voice.
Everyone was now laughing. He nearly froze them where they sat. Didn't they understand what that meant? They couldn't possibly...but he...
With a mental kick to himself, he realized that he had barely even hinted at him being conscious in his stone prison, and he felt his anger disappear.
“Ooooh, this is the bestest week ever!” Pinkie cried out, a huge grin on her face. “First Nightmare Night, and now I get to throw a party for something I've never even heard of!” It took longer than he would later admit for the words to sink in.
“What in tartaurus is Nightmare Night?” He asked, his stomach twisting up with dread. No fucking way...
They explained. He covered Nightmare's ears and said a very, very bad word.
It was now snowing inside the train car.