Chapter 1
The deep dark depths of Canterlot Castle lay quiet, undisturbed from the rest of the structure. Laying only barely lit with the only source of light coming through the bars from the outside world. The big room was surrounded by cold metal bars, damp stone floors and the horrible smell that could only be some sort of rotting scent.
A wooden door opened at the far end of the room, making a long screeching noise as it moved. Two white coated royal guards walked into echoey, narrow and dimly lit room, both of them trotting in place next to each other as they made their way through the Dungeon.
“You believe what they said?” Asked one of the guards.
The older guard looked at his partner and shrugged. “Of course do, it's not often we get one of these guys down here. But the report doesn't lie” said the guard.
His partner nodded. “Of course,I'm not implying that! But maybe it was exaggerated a tad bit?”
The older guarded signed. “This must be your first time dealing with one of these huh? we rarely have many ponies who commit the act of attempted murder. But when they do, the report is the same as any other. There are no exaggerations”
His partner gulped. “Yikes! And to think he was one of us too”
The older guard shook his head. “It's a shame, but we have a job to do. Princesses orders”
The two finally approached another wooden door, only this time it was guarded by two more guards holding spears, standing in place.
The two guards saluted the two other guards as the approached the door. “Good evening sir”
The older guarded saluted back. “Good evening, how's the prisoner holding up?”
“He's been quiet sir, nothing unusual to report” said the guard on the left.
The older guard signed in relief. “Well that's one thing less to deal with, at least he's calm and quiet”
The two guards guarding the door nodded and stepped aside, letting the two other guards pass through. The older guard motioned his partner to follow him as he opened the door to the room that had been guarded. The two ponies stepped into the room and shut the door behind them.
I'm the room was a little bigger than the outside, and was a little darker but enough to see fairly well, the room only had one large jail cell. One only used for ‘special’ prisoners. On the inside of the cage was a lone dark gray Pegasus stallion, with both of his forelegs chained up to the wall above him and his back hooves chained to the ground. He was sitting with his head facing down, almost like he was passed out.
The two guards slowly approached the front the the cell and stared at the pony. “Soooo, enjoying your evening so far boy?” The older guard called out.
The pony in the cell didn't react immediately, but after a couple seconds passed he slowly lifted his head up glaring at the two guards.
The older guard chuckled. “There you are. You had quite the episode didn't you boy?”
“Hey Star” he started toward his partner. “Hand me the report will ya”
The Guard snapped out of the trance that he had been starring at staring at the prisoner, but then nodded. “Y-yes sir”
The guard then handed his higher up a scroll. “Thank you” said the older pony.
The prisoner only continued to stare at the two guards as they were taking their time doing whatever they were sent here to do.
The older guard opened up the scroll and studied it carefully. “Huh”
“What's wrong” said Star.
The older pony looked back at his partner. “Ah it's nothing, jus’ the more I read this report. The more I can't take my eyes off it”
The older pony then closed up the scroll and looked back at the prisoner with a grin. “It's kinda a sight, once a dedicated member of the royal guard and now a cold blooded criminal”
The prisoner looked back down at the ground yet his expression didn't change.
“You know you have quite a few charges on your hooves, 1st degree assault and battery, and even attempted murder” said the older pony. “Now that's something you don't see everyday”
The prisoner stayed silent.
“You know” the older guard started. “We rarely get ponies who do these sorts of things, in attempted murder you could say. Not saying I could entirely blame you for your actions, But what's happened can't be changed right?”
The prisoner still continued to stay silent and stare at the ground.
“Not much of a talker huh?” said the guard. “Either way you're coming with us, courtesy of the princess herself”
The guard then pulled out a set of keys and opened the cell door. The two slowly stepped in approaching the dark gray pony, being careful and alert in case he tried anything. One they were finally in front of him they started unhooking his current chains on his forelegs and started hooking up another pair that was portable.
“Alright you get up” the older pony ordered.
The gray pony complied and stood up, but continued to look at the ground below him. Not batting an eye at either gaurd
The older guards partner looked at the pony in in suspense, he looked like he was acting perfectly fine. Though, regardless of how he was acting. This whole experience was giving him chills.
“Uhh sir” said the guard.
The older guard took eyes away from hooking up the prisoners wings with metal bindings and looked up at his partner. “What is it Boy?” he asked while taking off his back leg cuffs and started escorting the prisoner out of the cell, his partner quickly following.
“I knew that he committed an act of attempted murder, but I didn't really read the report. I only went off what I heard. So do you know what lead him to do it?”
The older pony stopped for a brief moment and looked back at his partner grinning. “Why don't you ask him yourself?”
“I uhh..”
The prisoner then looked back the younger rookie guard, glaring at him. Not speaking, no jesters, just staring making the rookie gaurd uncomfortable.
After a moment of staring back at him, the rookie looked back up at his higher up. “I think it would be best if I didn't”
The older guard chuckled. “Well since you insist” he started.
The older pony then continued forward with the prisoner behind him and his partner by his side.
“It all started about 2 days ago” he said Opening the room door.
The 3 ponies walked out of the room with the two other guards still standing watch as they continued walk.
“According to the report he came home from his daily job here at the castle, and when he got home he found his wife sleeping with another stallion”
The rookie's eyes widened. “Wait seriously”
The older guard nodded. “Yes, and once he saw the sight he went ballistic. He nearly beat the other stallion to death and wouldn't stop Until authorities arrived and restrained him”
The rookie looked down. “That's awful, I can't believe some pony would have that much anger. Don't get me wrong I get that he was been cheated on and I feel bad, but trying to take another ponies life?
“Indeed” said the Older guard. “But I may have not know him personally, but if I would have know he was that psychotic, I probably would have divorced him a long time if it were me”
The prisoner gritted his teeth at the sound of that comment. Everything on the inside of him was boiling up, ready to burst and then finally after all the silence between the two guards, he spoke softly.
“I didn't deserve this…”
The two guards stopped and looked back at him. Both were confused by his statement.
“What did you say boy?” The older guard asked.
“I don’t deserve any of this…”
The older guard huffed. “You think I'd believe that after you nearly ki-
*BANG*
The older guard was suddenly cut off by the prisoner slamming into him, full force, into one of the dungeon cells. Knocking him out on impack.
The rookie guard quickly reacted as the prisoner turned back to him jumped at him.
“He’s making a break for I-
The rookie’s shouts were cut off by being kicked in the head with the prisoners back hooves. As he was near close to falling over . The prisoner wrapped the chain from his hoovecuffs around the guard's neck and proceed to slam the rookie into the nearby stone wall, bringing him down for the count.
The prisoner finally let go of the unconscious pony and quickly looked up to see the two guards who had been guarding the room where he had been held were coming at him with their spears ready to attack.
The prisoner couldn't do much moving; with the exception of jumping, due to the hoovecuffs on his forelegs, So making a run for it was out of the question. He stood his ground and positioned himself for the oncoming guards. The first guard thrusted his spear forward, but the prisoner quickly dodged it, just barely Enough so his head wouldn't get pierced and grabbed the upper part of the spear with his mouth and jerked it forward toward him.
The guard was caught off guard by the action stumbled forward, only for the prisoners forehooves to slam into his head with both his hooves, knocking him down.
The second guard swung his spear, but the prisoner ducked letting the spear hit the stone wall instead. The prisoner leaped at him, and punched him in his snout. the guard hit the floor with a hard thud, holding his snout as he did. The prisoner then reached down and forced the guards helmet off his head with both of his hooves.
He then spun in the opposite direction to see the first guard getting up, the prisoner quickly reacted by swinging the helmet and bashing it into the royal guards head, knocking him back down on the stone floor. He did the same again and swung back around to hit the other guard with the helmet he had taken from him, bashing his head with the gold metal armor.
Both guards were now laying flat on the stone floor, out cold. The prisoner took a deep breath and then exhaled, as looked down at the four unconscious guards around him. he then looked around to see if anypony else heard the commotion or was coming to intervene. but no pony came.
“hmph...and they say my way isn’t proper”
The prisoner then trotted over to the older unconscious guard, he knelt down and grabbed his set of keys from him and undid the hoovecuffs that were on his forelegs and the binding keeping his wings folded. Once all the cuffs and bindings were off, he decided he’ll hold on to the keys for a little while longer. just in case he needed them again to get out of the castle.
He then proceeded forward until he came upon a Wooden door, opened the wooden door and trotting through it. Proceeding up the stairs through the Castle halls.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The throne room was quiet, while a guard was sitting by the throne and two by the door keeping watch. Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne levitating a scroll and a quill, working on her daily routine of documents and paperwork. she had just about finished the final sentence on the scroll she was working on, when she heard a knock on the throne room door.
“Come on” she said briefly looking up and setting the quill and scroll aside.
A Sky blue pegasus guard suddenly came sprinting through the throne room doors and up the the throne of the princess. “Princess! The Prisoner you had requested for has escaped from our custody!” The guard exclaimed.
Princess Celestia looked at the guard more carefully, now with a more serious tone in her voice. “What?”
“He’s gone” the Guard breathed heavily. “He managed to leave four guards unconscious in the dungeon and is somewhere in the castle”
Princess Celestia took a deep breath and exhale with calm non-shaky tone. “Alright, I want every guard in this castle on the look out for him, I want to ensure that he doesn’t leave the Castle grounds”
The guard nodded and smiled at the Princess. “Already one step ahead of you princess, I have my best colts and about every guard we can spare on the lookout for him”
Before Celestia could respond to the guard, another one came storming in the room. “Vice Captain Sky Lighter” the guard Exclaimed.
The Blue pegasus turned around to face the oncoming guard. “Yes, what is it?”
“Sir, we’ve searched the Castle, but there is no trace of the prisoner anywhere!” the guard said.
“Thats impossible!” Sky Lighter said. “Are you sure he’s not here?”
“The guard has checked every inch of the Castle sir, even the gardens” said the Guard. “he’s not here”
Princess Celestia then stood up from her throne and looked down at the two. “I want the guards to move into Canterlot” she ordered with a little more concern into her voice. “Don’t allow him to leave Canterlot”
The two guards nodded. “Shall we warn the citizen’s about his escape princess?” The blue pegasus asked.
Celestia shook her head. “No, we don’t want to cause a panic. His intent isn’t to and hid in canterlot, he’s trying to escape”
The two guards bowed. “Yes your majesty” The two them scurried out of the room to headed out into the streets of Canterlot. Once they were gone, Celestia lowered her head and signed.
“What are you doing Truculent?” she said to herself. “Don’t you know that this is foolish, what is this going to accomplish for you?”
she then paused and started to walk to the door of the throne room. “Please don’t do anything extreme….”
~~~~~~~~~~~
It was now dark out and the dark grey pegasus was carefully but quickly making his way through the now lit city of Canterlot. He continued forward carefully but occasionally stopped and hid whenever he heard a voice, or even spotted guards. He had finally made it to a big Open area of the town, with a fountain, a clock tower on one of the side of the buildings and what seemed like a market place all around it, only nopony was around and market was only open for business during the day. He quickly dashed across the area as fast as his hooves could carry him, as much as he wanted to stay out of open area’s, going through the main part of town was the only way to freedom.
Once on the other side from the Open market place, he quickly slid into the nearest alleyway he could find and sat down.
“Okay let’s see, I just made it past the marketplace so guessing I’m about getting close to the edge of the city” He thought. “Now I just need to see what's the best way for me to get out of Canterlot”
He pondered for a bit wondering which would be the best, He could try escaping by hoof and heading down the mountain. But if he did he would probably end up tiring out and eventually getting caught. He then figured if he wanted to get anywhere, there was only one way he could
The train...
“Yes, that's my best bet. The train, I could easily sneak on the back of the train and eventually get off before the train reached another city. That way I’ll be in the clear” he started. “But let’s see, getting to the station shouldn't be too hard. I could fly, but I would indeed be spotted for sure. only my hooves can get me there. Now from what I recall the train leaves every hour on the hour from 6 am till around 10 pm so I should see when the nex-
His thought were interrupted when he heard guards shouting nearby, he quickly peered around the corner to see 3 royal guards in the center of the market place in a small circle. One was barking orders at the other two to search area. The Pegasus then leaned out a little bit farther to see if could see the clock tower without being Seen. He efforts weren't without reward as he was finally able to see the big bright clock
it was five minutes till eight….
He quickly darted back to his alley way and thought for a second, could he pull this off? “Alright 5 minutes till the next train leaves, can I make it?”
He then peered back around the corner for quick second to see where the guards. two of them were on the other side of the market place in different area’s….however one of them was starting to ease his way over in the dark gray Stallions side of the market, closing in on his position.
The Pegasus quickly hid himself behind the alley once more, breathing more heavily than he had before. “Can I make it?”
The stallion then took two deep breaths and then made his decision. “Yeah….Yeah I can make it”
The pegasus then started Sprinting full speed from alleyway, down the main streets of Canterlot. The guard who was closest to him heard what sounded like hoovesteps and jerked his head in the direction they were coming from only to see the shadow of a pony running away.
“HEY! I think I see him, after him!” he shouted dashing off after him. “Inform everypony else”
The Pegasus heard the commotion coming from behind him but didn’t stop none the less. He continued forward dashing with all his might, he would make it to that train station if it was the last thing he’d do.
As the Stallion continued through the streets of Canterlot, he could only tell that the guards behind him were more than when he first took off. He looked behind him to see that there were now six guards on his tail, he must of passed more while he was running but must not have payed enough attention to notice. He quickly turned back around and tried thinking of a way to shake them off.
Before he could think of a proper way to get rid of the guards behind him. Three more guards had jumped out in front of the upcoming intersection, blocking his path from going any further. He's reflexes kicked in and he opened up his wings and jumped in the air attempting to fly over the 3 guards.
This would have worked, only for one of the guards on the left was also a Pegasus and jumped up with him attempting to tackle him back down to the ground below. The Stallion quickly hurled himself off the the right barely avoiding the Pegasus guards grasp, but ended up landing kinda sloppy due to his maneuver, but quickly regard his composure and continued onwards.
The Pegasus knew he was getting close to the train station by now, he had to be, he needed to get rid of these guards following him. Either that or see if the train could prove faster than his chasers, but he couldn't take that chance without having a bigger head start.
“All I need is to confuse them and by myself some distance and time” he thought. “No doubt that these guys will still on my trail if they're tailing me from behind all the way to the station, they might even inform others to cut me off at the station, trapping me”
He thought for a second, thinking of something that just might work. But then he had it, he could confuse the guards by thinking he's going another direction but actually continue in the same way he is going now.
He saw an ally way up ahead and quickly made his way to it, heading into it. The second he made his way into the 4 way Alley he saw a huge stack of wooden crates on his left, stacked up in a pyramid like order, This was his chance.
The Pegasus ran up to the edge of the crate on the ground closest to him, passed it, then stopped and bucked the crate. Make the whole stack collapse behind him causing the alley way to be blocked. The guards had just turned the corner of the alleyway, only to see the remained of the crates fumbling from the Pegasus making them collapse behind him.
“Quickly go around! Don't let him get out of your site!” He heard one of the guards shout.
The Stallion quickly took action, and quickly flew to the other end of Ally, he knocked over a trash can, and started to arrange the scene the best he could to make it look like he continued onwards. He was praying that this would actually work.
Once he heard the voices coming from one of the other alley entrances, he quickly flew up on the one of the roof tops and hide from sight. The guards quickly flooded the alley way looking for him or a closet trace of him.
One guard spotted the dumped over trash cans on another end of the alleyway, with trash leading back out into the main streets. Concluding that he must have gone through that way, to try and throw them off
“Hey look, he went that way. This was quickly!”
The Guards quickly scurried in the direction that they assumed the dark grey Pegasus ran off in. one by one, running out of the alley way.
The Stallion waited for just a tad bit longer just to be safe and then when he figured the coast was clear, quietly glided back down to the alleyway below. He chuckled to himself when he landed and then sprinted off further in the direction of where the guards had came from down the Alley and headed further toward the train station in his original direction.
As the Stallion continued to move forward, he could feel that he was home free, for now at least. He knew that he could only be on the train for so long before being discovered, so his goal was to stay on for as long as he could and NOT get off at another station.
He had finally made it to the Station, just barely with not any time to spare. He could see the train from a distance getting ready to pull out of the station and leave him behind. The Stallion picked up his speed, running with all that had left in him. He was exhausted from all the running he had done already, but that wouldn't stop being this close to his goal.
The train was now in motion and slowly pulling out of the station. He started to get closer just as the train started to pick up more speed, easing his way to the caboose car and continued to keep up with it the best he could, eyes narrowing the railing of the back car.
Once he felt that the train was starting challenge his running speed. He leaped up into the back railing of the caboose and pulled himself over it, landing flat on his back in exhaustion and relief.
He slowly turned his head back in the direction of the station, only to see the empty station slowly getting small as the train continued forward. The Pegasus could only assumed that they probably think since he ‘changed’ directions, that he'd probably be heading toward the city entrance gate. To bad they would only be left with disappointment. However he probably wouldn't have made it if he hadn't directed the guards in another direction earlier, that was more than likely why there wasn't much activity toward the train station.
The Stallion then looked back up, half of his vision staring up at the cabooses roof and the other half at the night sky. Since he figures he was in the clear for a while, he might as well sit back and relax. So he leaned up against the outside wall of the caboose and started resting his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Princess Celestia was in her quarters looking out over the city of Canterlot and further toward, Equestria. She was thinking of various thoughts about the day's events, entering her mind and refusing to leave no matter how hard she tried. Her thoughts though we're soon interrupted by a knock at the doors.
“Come in”
The door slowly open and vice captain Sky Lighter popped through the door. “Is this a good time Princess?”
She turned to him and nodded in response. “Yes, please come in”
Sky Lighter proceeded to enter the room and slowly approached Celestia. “We have an update on the prisoner Princess, we have guards all over the city looking for him. We've even gotten news that he was spotted over by the market area, but the guards seemed to have lost his trail.”
Celestia contained look at him not taking her eyes him for a second or even her expression changing. This only made Sky Lighter a little more concerned.
“But uh…. We have Some of Princess Luna’s guards searching the skies and ground too trying to help pick back up on the trail” Sky said. “I'm sure we’ll find him princess”
Celestia sighed and turned her gaze back to the city below her. “Your efforts are greatly appreciated vice captain, and I can assure you they're not in vain” she started. “However if you can't find him by sunrise, I'm afraid he’ll already be long gone”
Sky Lighter nodded. “I understand Princess. If that becomes the case then I can assure you, I will conduct the search to all nearby towns and cities”
The Vice captain noticed something seemed off about the Princess, she wasn't normally like this. “Is something troubling you princess?”
Princess Celestia stood in silence for a moment before responding softly. “No….nothing's troubling me really, you are dismissed”
The Sky blue Pegasus looked at her in concern for a second, still not convinced. But he shook that feeling off, bowed to her and walked out of the room.
It was now quiet again in Princess Celestia’s quarters. Her original thoughts flowing back into Her. she couldn't shake the thought of the prisoner out of her head no matter how hard she tried. “Please don't make things worse than they already are Truculent Brust” she started.
“Nothing good is coming from this…”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Truculent jolted up out of his deep sleep, waking up from a bump that the train car had made. He looked around before it took him a second to realize he was still on the back of the caboose of a train he stowed away on.
He then looked up at the stars, they sure were beautiful tonight….or this morning. He hadn't known how long he had been out but however long it was, he knew now he was far enough from Canterlot that he had to look up the see it up on the Mountain side. He sighed in relief from that, But he didn't have much time to spare.
He need to find a perfect opportunity to get further away from Canterlot or at least a good place to hide, maybe somewhere east toward the manhattan area or even west toward Las Pegasus. He couldn't just go through some town where he could can be easily be identified if guards came through the next day. Quite frankly he didn't even know where he was currently other than he was south of Canterlot by the looks of it. He needed to skip around, maybe even sneak past an entire town hidden.
Truculent looked in both directions left and right to see what would be the best option to get a good start. But something on the left side caught his eye, up ahead looked like a darker shade than the rest off the rest of the field, bushes and trees they were passing by. It almost looked like a forest, but something was off about it.
The Pegasus shook it off and decided this was his stop, he spread his wings and then took off the back of the train car. He flew up as high as he could so that no pony that could have no pony awake inside would notice him take off.
Once the train was a distance away, he slowly flew closer toward the now more visible Forest. If he could he would fly across, but then again he was still exhausted enough as it is and flying over an entire forest didn't sound too fond at the moment.
A minute past and flying over a few acres of field. He landing a couple yards away from his destination. Now that he was a lot closer and had a better look at it he know knew that this was no ordinary Forest.
It was the Everfree Forest.
