//------------------------------// // Escape? [Slightly updated] // Story: Equestrian Phoenix Prologue // by Zachary Pyromaniac //------------------------------// Zachary sat on the foot of the bed in his cell snapping his fingers repeatedly. He had been sitting here doing this for three days straight. However, when he turned into a pony every so often, he just walked back and forth from one side of the cell to the other, occasionally running to get used to moving in this form. He had gotten used to it rather quickly over the past three days to the point he could move as if he were himself. The sun was just setting as the moon rose and plugged Equestria into the night. Zac sat waiting, waiting for something. In the past three days, Celestia tried to interrogate him to get answers out of him, but it was no use. He sat doing the same things for three days, completely silent, waiting. But not once did they ever try to torture him. He wondered what Twilight was doing right now at this moment. But the only question that ringed in his mind was WHY, why did she try to stop Celestia from harming him? A question he never got to ask her, and probably never would. "I've probably just scared her for life." He said to himself quietly while still snapping his fingers. His thoughts were interrupted however when he snapped his fingers again, and felt something happen. The breeze outside had suddenly stopped and everything went silent except for the sound of fire crackling, which caused him to stand up. He looked out the window and saw that everything had stopped completely and was on fire, which in turn, brought a smirk to his face. "All right, now to get out of here." He said after noticing he suddenly felt invigorated. He walked over to the bars and placed a hand on two of them as he pulled them apart easily. "Back in business." He said, stepping between the bars, he walked to the door, opened it and looked out. The two guards on each side of the door were frozen and were completely unaware of it. He wandered through the dungeon as he casually searched for the way out. Eventually, he found the door out and climbed up the stairs to it. He threw the door open and closed it behind him as he looked around. Surprisingly there was no one around. He strolled casually through the castle taking in the wonderful scenery as he looked for the way out. Turning a corner, he saw some more guards frozen in place. As he casually walked by them, his watch started to beep again. "Oh shit." He said alarmed. He saw a staircase on his left and dashed up it. Just as he got to the second floor, A green light engulfed him again. When it cleared, he was a pony again. "This is gonna get annoying real fast." He said. Luckily, he had deducted the times between transformations while he was in his cell. Every transformation happened every 2 hours. The only problem was he couldn't fight back if he was found since he couldn't use his powers in this form, and he couldn't exactly snap his fingers to resume time seeing as he didn't have fingers. But he didn't have to worry about this because as he was thinking about it, he heard people talking. "So much for a casual stroll out of here." He said. "This just became a video game stealth mission." He moved quietly through the castle avoiding anyone he saw as to not alert them. He decided he was just gonna jump out a window again. But he had to go higher for that. As he climbed a staircase to the highest level, he noticed the hole he made three days before. Even though it was now covered up, he still recognized the area he was in. "Now to just retrace my steps." He said as he approached the door. After struggling a little bit, he managed to open it and continue down the hall. Stopping at a turn, he looked both ways. To the right was the window he jumped out of. So naturally he walked in that direction. As he prepared to jump out, he noticed right next to it was a balcony overlooking Canterlot. He thought for a second, and then turned to head for the balcony. "Well at least I won't have to break the window again." He said. He stepped out into the cool night air as he surveyed the landscape beyond Canterlot. It was more beautiful than he realized it was even though it was night. The light from the moon shined down over all of Equestria and lit up the sky in a beautiful image. "How can this place be so beautiful?" He asked himself. As he stared into the night sky, he felt tears forming in his eyes. "I know you're out there somewhere bro." He said trying to hold back the tears. "I'll find you if it's the last thing I do." He was so lost in thought that he had completely forgotten that he was trying to escape. And someone he couldn't get out of his head, was about to find him. Twilight wandered the halls of the castle, still a little shaken up from the last time she talked to Zac. What he had shown her was more than messed up. All she had seen was violence, bloodshed, death, destruction. But at least, she knew who he was now. But she still wasn't afraid of him. Even though he had done all those terrible things, he had done so many good things to. But he had lost so much as well. Apparently, he had a brother he lost fairly recently, the multiverse theory was true, he was tracking down shards to some nexus, and on top of all that, he was a Phoenix, with the appearance of something called a human. Which explained why he had survived up to this point. Also his full name was Zachary Pyromaniac and he was at over 1000 years old. She realized that she couldn't stop thinking about him. If anything, she felt sorry for him. He was trying to fix what he had broken as well as find his lost brother. But her thoughts were interrupted when she passed by the window he jumped out of three days ago. Looking out to the balcony, she saw Zac sitting there in his pony appearance. She knew it was him by the red coat he was wearing. She stopped dead in her tracks. "He got out?!" She thought to herself in a panic. Her mind told her to tell someone he had escaped. But her heart told her to just talk to him, apologize for running away so abruptly. So she took a deep breath and walked towards him. He must have been so lost in thought that he didn't hear her walk up on his left. "Zac?" She said quietly. Surprisingly, Zac didn't flip his shit. "Gonna go tell someone I escaped?" He said coldly, not taking his eyes off the night sky. His voice was shaking slightly. "Cause go ahead, I'll be gone long before they get here." Twilight just put a hoof on his shoulder. "I just want to talk to you." She said trying to calm him down. "How can you even still look at me the same!" He snapped pushing her away abruptly. Twilight notched there was tears in his eyes. Was he, crying? "You've seen what I am, what I've done, what I've become! I'm no hero, I'm nothing but..." He paused for a second trying to hold back tears. "I'm nothing but a mon-." Before he could finish his sentence, Twilight slapped him so hard he felt his jaw crack. "Zachary Pyromaniac, you are not a monster!" She shouted at him. This stopped him completely. He stood there just, lost. "Why?" He whispered quietly, still shocked by her sudden action. "Why do you still care? I've killed, I've destroyed, I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of. And yet you're still trying to help me. Why?" Twilight took a deep breath and hugged him which in turn, confused him so much he was completely speechless. "W-wha-what are you-" "Because now I understand your pain." She whispered in his ear. "You've been through so much your whole life. You've seen so much happen with your own eyes. So you've killed people, destroyed cities, and done a lot of questionable things." Zac stayed silent, wanting to hear it all. Twilight shifted her gaze to stare straight into his eyes. "But you're not a monster. You've saved more people than you've killed, saved entire worlds, entire galaxy's, entire universes. You've done more good than bad." She paused for a moment, holding back her own tears. "You're an amazing person Zachary. And nothing will ever change that." That did it. Zac sobbed uncontrollable as Twilight hugged him again. Why? Why did she care about him so much? She was looking past all the bad things he had done and only looking at the good things. He felt like... He felt happy. The only other person who cared about him this much was his brother. The only family he had left. And he was lost out there somewhere. "Even after seeing everything I've done." He said in a shaking voice. "You're still comforting me?" "Of course." She said staring into his eyes again. "I understand you're were just lost and confused." And I would be to if I was thrown into a world I'm completely unfamiliar with." Zac felt his heart warm up more than it ever had before. The fact she cared about him this much, he couldn't blame her seeing as he had shown her his grief. "You've lost so much, so I gonna help you find what your looking for here." She declared abruptly which surprised him. "Y-You'd do that, for me?" He said still processing everything that she had said. "Of course I would." She said smiling at him. "I'll always help someone when I can. Especially yo-" This time Zac was the one that hugged her unexpectedly catching her off guard. "W-What?!" "Thank you." He said still shaking slightly. "That's the first time that anyone has said all that to me." He eventually let go of her after what felt like 5 minutes but was only a few seconds. "So on that note, I'm giving you a second chance." She said after regaining her composure. "Wait, seriously?" He said surprised. "You deserve a second chance Zac." She replied. "But, I don't think your friends trust me like you do." He said with doubt in his voice. "I'll try to explain everything to them." She reassured him. "I can't guarantee they'll trust you. And if they don't, you'll have to earn their trust. But I believe you'll be okay." "I sure hope so." He said. "Come on, we should head back to Ponyville. I have a place you can stay." She said smiling. "But how can we get there without getting seen?" He asked. "I'll teleport us there." She responded. "Ponyville is a long way from Canterlot though." He said with a puzzled look. "Well I can't take us all the way there. But I can put us just outside the castle grounds to make it a little easier." She reassured him. "Okay." He said nervously. "I trust you." Twilight's horn began to glow with a lavender aura. "You might want to hold still." She told him. "Why?" He asked nervously. But before his question was answered, her horn flashed in a blinding lavender light. When it cleared, they were standing outside of the castle grounds. He realized why she told him to stand still as his vision and head said it all. "I told you to hold still." She said giggling "I'll remember that next time." He said swaying on the spot trying not to puke. He shook it off quickly. "Come on Zac, let's go." Twilight said happily as she started down the road. Zac ran to catch up with her. However, both of them had no idea who was watching them from the top of the castle at that moment. "Twilight, I hope you know what your doing." About 30 minutes later, Zac and Twilight were standing outside of the library that he woke up in. "You live in a library?" He asked with confusion. "Yep." She said smiling happily. "I used to live in Canterlot, but I came here a week ago after Celestia send me here to try and make friends. That's how I met my friends." "I will say, their a interesting bunch of people." He complemented. "I won't blame them if they don't trust me. But I'm gonna try my dam hardest to earn their trust." He vowed. "That's the spirit!" Twilight responded cheerfully. "let's head inside, you must be exhausted." She opened the door with a flick of her horn and they both walked inside. It was how Zac had remembered it, books were everywhere. For a library this small, it sure had a lot of books. "Do you need help to the second floor?" Twilight asked him "Appreciate it, but I got this." He said as he backed up to the wall. He took a galloping start and ran up wall, above the door, and right to the second floor. "Wow, that was amazing!" She said congratulating him "Yeah I always been the athletic type." He said with a smirk on his face. "Mostly because I've had a lot of practice as a pony for the past three days." In a flash of her horn, she appeared next to him. "Well I don't know about you." She said yawning slightly. "But I'm tired." She walked over to the window and hopped into the small bed next to it. " Yeah I should probably get some sleep too." He said walking up next to her. He climbed into the window and plopped down looking out. "Good night Zac." She said slowly drifting off to sleep. Zac turned to look at her as her eyes closed. "Yeah, good night." He said laying down in the window, not taking his eyes off her for even a second. he couldn't stop thinking about everything she had said to him. "I hope because of that pep talk you gave me I have a good night sleep for once." He said smiling. And with that, he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off.