Stelimus was limply tossed into a large room by his 'escort' and locked in it. He felt like a bird in a glass cage despite the guard having enclosed himself with the young stag.
"You're here to meet he daughter of Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadenza. Please do not be too rough and do not exaggerate your position. You might be a royal guest, but if you hurt her highness...!" The stallion shook his hoof aggressively at the young stag.
"What? What is that? You're going to get arthritis?" he taunted.
The guard ignored the remark and remained silently and stoically standing next to the door. Stelimus turned around to see that he was in a rather big play room full of several hundred stuffed plushies of various size, one looking like a giant, white, winged unicorn with a severe case of anorexia. It nearly reached the ceiling that was, mind you, high enough to still be impossible to hit with a soccer ball no matter how hard a young foal would kick it. A literal playground with slides and the set was actually built into the room for some reason. One would think that a young child would be forced outside so they would develop a more social life or at least get the necessary in terms of immune system development and body durability from falling down and scraping their knees and elbows. The entire ground was covered in a carpet with various colors and figures sown into it. The most prominent were happy looking ponies all hold ha-hooves. Others were on the hills playing ball, others flying kite. Basically, something you would find in a preschool. Stelimus leaned in closer to get a better look of the carpet and narrowed his analyzing eyes.
"Who drew these things? A one year old. They look terrible by even stick men figures!"
"Stick...men?" a young girl's voice spoke out.
"Who's there?" Stelimus wondered.
"I'm..here, but I'm hiding."
"She's very young. That voice is enough to indicate it, but...I can remember my daughter doing the same when she was in trouble or something 'horrible' by her standards would occur. Judging by this girl's almost suicidal tone, I would say that something rather huge happened."
"Did something happen that you're hiding, or are you just playing hide 'n seek?" Stelimus asked with a gentler voice.
He started pushing the stuffed plushies around while looking for the source of the voice.
"No. I just want to be...left alone."
"Hmm. I am a young child right now...I could take advantage of that and act like a kid who just wants to play. That should help coax her out of the demon portal she's hiding in. Why don't you want to play? I'm betting you'd love it. It's fun. Maybe play hide 'n 'seek? Monkey-in-the-middle with the guard's helmet?"
The guard in question held his helmet in fear at the words.
"What's...monkey-in-the-middle?"
"It's when you grab something, like a ball, and toss it over a person's head to another player while the one in the middle tries to catch the ball. When they catch it, the person who threw it must go in the middle. It's sometimes fun to play. I would suggest dodge ball, but there's not enough people around."
"Don't you mean 'ponies'?"
"No. I'm not a pony."
"Huh?"
"I'm a reindeer from the north. Haven't you ever seen one?"
Stelimus stopped searching through the stuffed animals when he heard ruffling in one of the plastic toy houses. A stuffed animal was slightly pushed aside and a small filly came out just enough for the young stag to see her face and mane. Her coat was a bright, dandelion yellow with amber colored freckles on the bridge of her muzzle. Her eyes were turquoise and her mane was colored like her freckles, although it was in shambles.
"You're a reindeer?" She's asked curiously with still an undertone of depression.
To Stelimus, she was just a pony, a filly in fact, but to Gregary, she looked so cute and tiny that he just wanted to grab her and hug her tight. If only he were still human. She looked very fluffy for a pony, too. Perhaps they all needed proper grooming or they would turn into llamas?
"Yes."
"Why is your fur only white? You don't have any colors?"
"No. Most of us are shades of brown, white, and black. We wouldn't be the best subject for artists." The filly tilted her head in confusion. "So, how come you were hiding?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because I want to."
"But if you don't tell anyone, wouldn't it make you feel worse? If you tell someone, they could help you out."
"I don't want to be helped out!"
The prince tapped his chin pensively and started to run through a list of possibilities of her being sad. "Did you lose a pet?" The filly shook her head. "Did you lose a toy?" Again, she shook her head. "Were you grounded? Didn't get to go where you wanted to? Can't see a family member you like?" She shook her head until the end where she started to tear up."Looks like I found the problem. Come to think of it, she doesn't look anything like her parents, although I don't exactly think that's how it works here considering the ponies came from ze curly locks of a rainbow." He went closer to her to try and apologize. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Do you want a big hug?"
The filly nodded and slowly approached Stelimus for a hug. The immediate reply surprised the young stag. Ponies sure were trusting, although it might be because he was tiny like her that she trusted him. At least he hoped so. If her parents didn't tell her not to talk to strangers, then they'd certainly warrant the 'Parents of the Year' moniker.
"Have you even left the castle since you've been here?"
The young filly shook her head.
"Then we should go outside so you can see the festival, even if some of them are weirdos." Stelimus looked to the side in horror.
The filly hesitated a bit then agreed to grab Stelimus' outstretched hoof and tried her best to follow his quick steps, although she ended up tumbling quite a bit due to said speed. The trip was short lived as the guard stepped in front of the doors and blocked it with his body and spear held aloft by magic.
"You're not getting out of here with her majesty, reindeer."
Stelimus jerked his head slightly to the side and taunted the guard. "Yeesh. I didn't know she was a prisoner. You should've told me so I could come to see her during visiting hours."
The guard in question wasn't fazed in the slightest by the taunt and continued to speak in a calm manner. "I protect her majesty from potential threats. She's very easily influenced at this age."
"Except a child who lives in captivity their whole lives never knows of the disease and strength acquired from the outside world."
"Wh-That's precisely the reason! Disease!"
"And what about strength?"
"Uhhbauhhh..." The guard was stuck in a rut.
"Either you accompany us to the festival or I find a way to knock you out without you noticing."
"...That's a terrible threat coming from a foal one-eigth my size, but I will accompany you as will another comrade-in-arms."
"Great! Let's go!" Stelimus tugged the filly's foreleg.
"W-wait! Should we do this? What if the prince and princess worry?"
Stelimus stopped tugging and looked at the filly with a nonplussed expression. "Pffff. We're with one of their guards, soon to be two, so we don't need to worry. They're guards for a reason and I'm certain they're trustworthy." Stelimus looked at the guard from the corner of his eye. The gaze had something unnerving about it.
"I...never asked you your name," the filly whispered under her breath.
"Stelimus. Yours?"
"Copper Blossom."
"Sounds like a second form of tetanos. That's a lovely name," Stelimus lied.
Meanwhile, the 'Crystal Couple' and Grimliss were in a small dining room talking about events in their life in drinking some tea and coffee. The deer looked out of the window briefly to see Stelimus, a yellow pony, and two guards walking out from the base and into the festival. A little smile formed at the corner of the deer's mouth before returning to his prior activities.
A few hours later, when the sky was getting dark, the Stelimus and Blossom returned into the castle and went directly to the throne room where Cadance and Shining were vibrated like crazy from fear and anger. Grimliss was just standing to the side with a look that simply said 'I'm not with these people'.
"Copper Blossom! There you are!" Shining shouted.
He barreled towards the four that had returned and rammed into the two guards escorting the two, quite literally ejecting them through the throne entrance doors. The stallion hugged his daughter then pulled her out, his hooves still on her shoulder.
"We were worried sick! Where were you?!"
"I was just looking at the arts in the festival with Stelimus."
Shining looked at the young stag with a rage-filled glare and let go of his daughter too slowly and menacingly approach the prince. He grabbed Stelimus' shoulders roughly and the stag remained stoic and uninterested in the whole event and let himself be shaken a bit.
"How did you convince her to leave her room? We've tried for years and she never did. How?"
"Oh. How original. The shaking-when-angry-but-turns-out-to-be-joy thing. If this was a story written by an author, he or she must be terrible at writing. I just talked with her." A thought just passed through Stelimus' mind that he was more than willing to share. "You're not that good with children are you?"
Shining opened his mouth but immediately closed his mouth, clenched his teeth, looked away, and let his ears fall to his head. "I would speak about it with you, but you're too young."
"Riiiight." Stelimus nodded with a bit too much excessive force, but it was enough to let Shining think that the prince was sincere.
"Well, thanks a lot for helping her." Shining pushed Blossom with a gentle hoof nudge and moved forward with her towards Cadance.
"You went outside? Great for you, sweetie!" Cadance cheered. "How was your day?"
"A little better, thank you."
Grimilss sneaked up next to Stelimus and said: "So, used your fine diplomatic skills, I see?"
The prince yiped and bounced away in surprise. "Y-yes. Don't sneak up on me like that."
"Too late."
Stelimus pouted at his uncle's teasing attitude but quickly calmed himself down.
"So...what now?"
"Well, it seems we're going to be staying here a bit longer because of the giant, then we'll return to the capital when the tundras have been considered to be 'safe'."
"Alrighty then..."