Heart of Ice

Heart of Ice

Chapter Eight: Settling In

Sub Zero stared at the ceiling, occasionally glancing to the clock on the wall. The time read 7:05 in the morning and he had just woke up from a very unrestful sleep. He had barely slept during the night as he was busy contemplating his current position.

He had no idea what to do.

He was stuck in a land very far from Earth-Realm and he had now found himself the charge of six pastel coloured, talking ponies. He snorted at the thought.

'This is ridiculous. I'm an assassin! Not a common house pet!' He thought to himself, letting each raging thought come into his head, only to make way for the next one.

He took a calming breath. Getting angry was not going to solve any of his problems, only through staying composed did he have a chance of getting home, one way or another. A faint knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts.

"H-Hello? Are you awake Sub Zero?" Twilight said from outside his room, sounding much like her yellow coloured friend.

He sighed. The pony was still terrified of him. He couldn't blame her really, he would be too if he was in her position. Unfortunately though, he was not. He was the alien here. He would have to tread lightly if he wanted to at least win this ones trust.

"I am. I will be with you shortly." He called out to her, trying his best to sound as level as possible.

"Okay, me and Spike are downstairs, we'll have breakfast ready for you if you're hungry at all." She said back to him, still sounding very unsure of herself.

The sound of hooves going down the stairs followed. Sub Zero got out of bed and got himself ready for the day. This simply consisted of putting his armor back on. He slipped on his last bracer and made his way downstairs. He entered the library and smelled the food being cooked in the room across. He made his way over and he entered where he found Twilight reading a newspaper and Spike cooking. He coughed to get their attention.

"Good morning Sub Zero!" Spike said cheerfully to his new found friend.

Sub Zero bowed respectfully to them both

"Good morning Spike, good morning Twilight." He said, eyeing the chair at the table. It looked as ridiculously small as the one yesterday.

"Good morning Sub Zero, how did you sleep?" Twilight asked politely, trying her best to keep her composure.

"I slept fine," He lied. "What are your plans for the day?" He asked, trying to find something to make himself useful.

"It's reshelving day today, that's when I take all the books out of there shelves and make sure they're all in their place." Twilight explained, smiling politely.

"Do you need assistance?" He inquired.

"Heck yeah we do!" Spike jumped in before Twilight could answer. "There's a ton of books in the library."

"Spike, it's rude to put our guest to work, besides you'll be all the help I need." Twilight gently scolded him.

"I do not mind aiding you Twilight, I do not have much else to do around here." Sub Zero said truthfully.

"Well... Alright then, I suppose it's okay" She said to him with a smile.

With that the group ate their breakfast, consisting of cereal, toast and oats, Sub Zero politely turning down the latter, and got to work. There really wasn't a lot of work for Sub Zero to do as Twilight could effortlessly move all the books into their correct places using her magic. This left Spike and him to clean the shelves and the library. The inly problem was is that there was so many books for them to sort, he knew he was going to be doing this for a while and that was fine with him. He wanted to at least be useful to keep the boredom away. Sub Zero noticed that the scorch, marking his arrival was gone, upon asking he found out that Spike had cleaned it up as he went to bed. The morning was passed with idle chatter between Twilight and Spike and some questions towards the icy assassin. He did his best to answer to the best of his ability without revealing too much about himself or his life with the Lin Kuei, why start telling his life story to someone he had no interest in sharing it with?

As the last book slid into place, Sub Zero glanced at the clock. It read it was midday and he had finished the only thing he considered to be useful for the day. Sighing, he realised that he would be having many day's with little to do while he was stick here, what use was there having an assassin around if there was no one to fight? All he could do is hope that the princess would find something of use in the 'Canterlot archives'.

"Well that took quicker than I expected." Twilight said, shifting the assassins attention to her.

"Yeah thanks for the help Sub Zero." Spike agreed, heartily.

"You need not thank me. I will do what I can to help if I am to be staying here." He said to them, really wondering if that was considered hard work around here.

"You don't need to worry about that, the princess told me to watch out for you and that's exactly what I'll do. You don't need to strain yourself for our sake." Twilight replied pleasantly to him.

"I would rather do something that is of use around here, just tell me what needs doing and I'll earn my keep." Sub Zero said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Okay... if you insist." Twilight said, not really meeting the assassins eye's.

"What else were you intending to do today?" He asked trying to find something else that would keep him busy. He hated being too complacent. It bothered him.

"Well, nothing else to do around here, I was going to meet the rest of the girls for lunch if you wanted to join us?" Twilight said, trying to make a new friend out of the assassin.

Sub Zero, however, did not share the sentiment.

"I meant something that isn't pointless and trivial." He said to her, slightly colder than he meant to sound.

Twilight put her hoof down. She stared Sub Zero straight in the eye and spoke sternly.

"Well Princess Celestia told me herself that I am to be keeping an eye on you and I'm going out to meet my friends. So I guess you've not really got a say in the matter." She said, not trying to sound too commanding, she did not wish to anger him.

Sub Zero stared her down with his chilling blue eyes and Twilight gulped. He stared her down for what seemed like a century, but Twilight stood her ground and stared back, looking much braver than she felt. Spike tip-toed upstairs, wanting to avoid any potential arguments... Or ice balls. To both of their surprise, he started laughing, a rich, baritone chuckle that seemed really out of place for the person it belonged to.

"You are a brave girl," He said, smiling behind his mask, "lead the way."

Twilight sighed a breath of relief.

"This way, we're going to Sugarcube Corner!" She happily announced, followed by a cheer from Spike, who promptly jumped on her back.

Sub Zero hung back a bit before making his departure behind them.

'This should be interesting.' He thought to himself before marching to catch up with Twilight.