"I'm sorry, Celestia." It was a cloudy afternoon, and Phoenix was standing outside of the gates to the royal castle.
"I heard you the first time, and I don't care if you're sorry, now leave!" He turned around, and Celestia closed the gates behind him.
"I didn't mean to..." he whispered, and walked away from his former home. Earlier that week, Phoenix had done something he had come to regret. Far behind him, the Star-swirl the Bearded wing in the Canterlot archives lay charred and destroyed. He was messing around in there one day, when a match he was holding slipped away from him. Normally, it wouldn't do much damage, but the match landed on one of the many scrolls lying at ground level. It was a tiny fire, and he didn't notice it at first, but it quickly grew into a roaring inferno. He tried to put it out, but only made things worse. In the end, he fled the scene, leaving chaos behind him. As he walked through the forest, he thought about what he could have done to stop this incident from happening. "I should have stayed there, I should have helped more; I shouldn't have even bothered bringing those stupid matches!" He kicked a stone, and it landed into a nearby pond with a splash. He looked up to the sky, and shouted "There, I'm not Celestia's assistant anymore. Happy, Equestria?" Phoenix continued walking. He stayed on the trail until he came up to Ponyville. With nowhere else to go, he sighed and walked in.
He could feel the citizens' eyes gazing at him, full of detest. He headed towards Sweet Apple Acres. Maybe Applejack could help him. He was about to knock on the barn door, where she would most likely be at this time of the day, when he glanced over and saw her running away from him as fast as she could. That's one down. The same thing happened with Rarity, as well as Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and even Pinkie. There was only one place left to go. As he approached the library, he felt as if he should just turn away. He knocked on the door, and when Twilight opened it, he knew he should have listened to his gut.
"What do we have here? It's the pyromaniac. Come to burn down my library as well?" She was always nice and friendly, but after hearing what happened, she gradually changed over the days that followed.
"Listen, can I come in?" he asked.
"Celestia, no! After what you did, you think I'm going to help you? Find somepony else to bother." Phoenix looked puzzled.
"I thought you were my friend..." he said.
"Yeah? Well I thought you had a sense of control, but obviously I was wrong." With that, she slammed the door in his face.
Well, if Twilight won't help me, I guess nopony will, he thought, and flew away. Somepony on the ground below threw a rock at him. He saw it coming, but let it hit him anyway. He deserved it.
He didn't know where to go next, so he went back into the forest. It was getting dark now, and without the castle to shelter him, he had to sleep under the trees. If he was going to be forced to do that, he figured he might as well go to a place he knew better than any other: his father's grave. He walked to the center of the forest, and found the wooden cross standing upright in the dirt.
"I'm sorry, father. I let you down." He hung his head in shame. "I know you wouldn't have started that fire." A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he slowly walked over to one of the trees. He sat against it, and glanced at his cutie mark. A permanent reminder of what he had done. He just wanted it to disappear, or change into something less fire-like. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, until he looked up and saw the moon hanging above him. He tried to get some sleep, but couldn't stop thinking about the archives. These thoughts kept coming back every time he started to doze off. "Just leave me alone!" he shouted. Phoenix didn't know it yet, but he made a big mistake. Something growled in the distance, and started rustling in the bushes. Due to his reckless nature, he couldn't refuse the fight. "Come at me!" he yelled, jumping up.
Out of the bushes came a manticore, and it wasn't too happy. Phoenix flew at it, but it effortlessly knocked him out of the air. He landed on the ground hard, and tried again. He knew that this tactic would never work, but he didn't want to admit it. He kept trying and trying, and the result was never any different. Eventually, he didn't get up when he hit the ground. He has many, many scratches all over his body, and one of his back legs had finally cracked due to it being hit so many times. "Somepony, help me..." He struggled to say. The manticore growled once more, and began to pounce. This is it. I'm going to die here, right next to my father. he thought. He closed his eyes and prepared for the worst, when something caused the manticore to whimper and run away in fear. Realizing he wasn't dead, Phoenix opened his eyes and looked up at the tall figure coming towards him. "Who are you?" He asked. When it stepped in the moonlight, though, he knew exactly who it was, and he didn't like it. It was Discord, god of chaos.
"My, my. I never thought I'd see you like this, Phoenix. You always said you were fierce and fearless, might as well add reckless to that list," he said, crouching to look him in the eyes.
"How are you even here? Didn't my friends pe-" He was cut off.
"Ex-friends. I know what happened." Phoenix tried to stand, but fell back down due to his injured leg. He kept trying and trying, as if he was trying to prove his body wrong.
"You just don't know when to give up, you never do..." Discord said, almost smiling. Phoenix, after the eleventh try, stopped himself from going any further.
"I don't know how you're free, or how you found me, but when Celestia hears about this, you're going right back into your stone prison." This made Discord laugh until his lungs started to hurt.
"Do you really think Celestia's going to even let you speak to her after what you did? Even if you did somehow manage to tell her, she won't believe you. You burned down the Star-swirl the Be-" He suddenly stopped, and looked away.
"What? What is it?" Phoenix was growing angry, between Discord coming back without anypony knowing, and his injured leg not allowing him to tell them.
Discord slowly turned back around, and, with a wicked grin on his face, said "That fire wasn't entirely your fault."
Phoenix's anger quickly turned to confusion. "What do you mean? Did somepony intentionally leave those scrolls to be burned?" Without hesitating, or any sign of guilt in his voice, Discord told him what had happened.
"You see, I've been free for some time now. No normal match can create a fire that large without another factor coming into play. Heck, your 'special' matches can barely do that." Phoenix didn't like how he said 'special.'
"What do you mean my 'special' matches?"
"I'm getting to that. Now, using chaos, I messed with the fire that the match created, making it so large and so hard to put out. If I didn't do that, you would have easily spotted it, and life would have stayed the same for you. I've done the same thing with your matches, which is why the fire doesn't go out, and why it grows while in the air." Disbelief wouldn't allow him to see that Discord was behind it all.
"No, you're wrong; Celestia taught me how to make them."
Discord brought him into the air and told him "No, no, no. I made you BELIEVE Celestia taught you. They were never special, just me messing with the fire." Suddenly, realization hit Phoenix like a ton of bricks. Disbelief no longer kept him from seeing the truth. He knew it all now.
"You were behind that fire! Do you know how messed up my life is now?" he shouted. Discord, unmoved by this sudden outburst, simply nodded his head.
"Isn't chaos wonderful? Now, before you freak out on me, I want to help you get your life back together."
Phoenix calmed down, then asked "Why would you help me? I was Celestia's assistant, I thought you hated her."
Discord set him down, then replied "You are pretty much the closest pony to one of my creations. I mean, everypony already seems to know everything about you, and most of them don't even know where you live, uh, used to live." Phoenix walked up to him so he could yell about it, but quickly looked down and realized something. He WALKED up to him.
Looking back up, he asked "Did you fix my leg?"
Discord crouched once more and said "Of course I did. You need to be able to walk to get your life back. Now listen to me, we have some business to take care of."
Once again, Phoenix walked into Ponyville, and once again, those same eyes were there, gazing at him. This time, however, he didn't mind the eyes. He walked to Sugarcube Corner, and knocked on the door. Pinkie opened it, and when she saw him standing there, went to close it. Phoenix's hoof blocked the way.
"Let me in," he demanded.
"Don't burn anything, you crazy pyro..." Pinkie said coldly. Like Twilight, the incident had changed her over the following days.
Phoenix walked to the center of the room, and said "I think you lost this." He pulled out one of the Elements of Harmony, specifically hers.
"Where did you get that? Give it to me!" she shouted, running to take it. Just then, Discord materialized by his side, causing her to stop.
"I'm afraid I can't," Phoenix said. "I'm just a crazy pyro, after all. You said I was, so it must be true." He handed the element to Discord, who then immediately disappeared.
"What was that for?!" She asked, angered by the fact Discord was back, and that Phoenix had pretty much just granted him the right to stay.
He began to walk out the door, when he turned around and said "We may not be friends anymore, but I still expect you to respect me. Got something to say? Keep it to yourself."
He looked up to the sky once more, and yelled "That goes for you, too, Equestria! I am who I am, and I'm not changing any time soon." Another rock sailed through the air at him. Déjà vu. He caught the rock, and glared at the pony who threw it. It was none other than Rainbow Dash. She tried to dash behind a passing cloud, but he had already spotted her. "I'll deal with you later," he said, and flew off.
"No good pyro..." she muttered, and flew off in the opposite direction. Phoenix went back into the forest, and Discord appeared next to him again.
"That was good, but..." With a puff of magic, 2 bars appeared in front of them. "What do you see here?" he asked.
"Red," was Phoenix's response.
"That's bad. That means ponies aren't going to like this." Phoenix walked up to the bars.
"Well, obviously. I just teamed up with the god of chaos and stole the element of laughter."
"Hmm, I suppose you have a point there..." The bars vanished. "...but still. If we're going to fix your life, we need positive feedback." They heard something in the bushes move. "Hold on, I think I heard something." After that comment, the main six jumped out in front of them.
"Wow, Pinkie, you were right!" Twilight exclaimed. "I can't believe we didn't notice that Discord was back!" Phoenix stepped forward. Seeing them all there, standing in front of him, made his anger return.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be in the library, thinking of more ways to try and hurt me?" Discord stepped over to him.
"Calm down, they can't do anything without all of the elements." He laughed menacingly. Phoenix walked over to Pinkie.
"Just to be sure, I'm gonna have to strike one of them down," he called behind him. He raised a hoof, and she ducked in fear.
"Make it quick..." she whimpered. He brought his hoof down, but before he struck her, he reached back and pulled something out from behind him. It was the stolen element.
"Gotcha!" He laughed. Pinkie gasped, and took the element from him.
"What?" Discord said in shock. As the main six were preparing to attack, He turned to Phoenix. "You traitor!" he shouted.
"I knew you weren't really going to help me, so I decided to betray you before you could betray me." Phoenix explained.
"Hmm, you're smarter than I thought. I still think you're reckless, though." Phoenix looked back at the Elements of Harmony, which were almost ready.
"I guess I am, and I can't change that."
"That's cold, Phoenix." Discord said, his wicked grin returning.
"Yeah, it is. You might even say..." A familiar rainbow shot at Discord, who was terrified, but managed to strike a pose. "...stone cold." The beam wrapped around him, and within minutes, Discord was petrified once more.
Phoenix, with the help of the others, pushed Discord's statue up to the gates of the royal castle. He has accepted the fact that he can't do everything alone, and it's OK to ask for help. He was still reckless, but a little less self-destructive. The guards blocked the way.
"Halt! Princess Celestia does not wish to have visitors at this time." One of them glanced at Phoenix, who gave a weak smile. "Especially you." His smile gradually grew larger and larger.
"Hey, I gotta tell you something," he said.
"What is it, pyro?" both of them responded.
"Sometimes, you have to break the rules to fix what you've done." He flew over the gates and stopped outside of Celestia's window. He carefully opened it and landed inside. "Morning, princess." Celestia looked over to him. She was about to call for the guards, when Phoenix raised a hoof. "Don't bother, they already know I'm up here, which means I don't have much time."
"What do you want, pyro?" she asked. Phoenix opened her door, and told her to follow him. He opened the main doors, and showed her the statue.
"He had come back without anypony knowing, which is why the fire went out of control. He tried to trick me into helping him, but I saw through it. So, can I come back to the castle?" Celestia stared at him, her anger clearly visible.
"You haven't earned the right to be my assistant again, but you can still live here." Phoenix walked outside of the gates, his grin still present. He stopped in front of the main six.
"Friends?" he asked. There was no response. Eventually, Rainbow Dash stepped forward.
"What you have done is way past messed up, but you did help us beat Discord..." She thought for a minute. "We're not going to be friends again for a while, but at least you've earned our respect." Phoenix walked past them.
Good enough, he thought.
"Wait!" Twilight called after him. With another puff of magic, those same two bars reappeared.
"Red," he said instinctively.
"Right..." Twilight replied. "That means ponies won't like this too much, but look." She pointed a hoof at the other bar, which had a small green dash on it. "At least somepony liked it." Phoenix continued walking.
"Good enough for me!" he called behind him. He didn't know where he was headed, but at least now he knew he had a place to come home to.