Prime

As the enormous mass of dark shapelessness emerged, Spike found himself crawling backwards as fast as he could.  Standing up hastily, he regained what little shred of composure he had left and unfurled his large green wings.  The black smoke cast a shadow over him, bringing with it a freezing cold that drew ice from the cracks in the ground.  The flames all around them were extinguished; turned into solid blocks of ice.  Spike stared in horror as the dark form reached a point of stillness, small protrusions beginning to appear along its outer edges.  They quickly turned into sharp, metallic spines.

"What... what are you..." Spike murmered.

The surface of the figure began to morph, the wisps of smoke around it becoming thick and condensed like massive ropes, overlapping and moving inwards to form a distinct shape.  The being seemed to almost be wrapping around itself, twisting and turning to produce the final mold of its image.

"I... am Black Shadow..."  The creature continued to grow.

"Harvenger of Darkness..."  Its shoulders were broad and grew covered in shiny, razor-sharp protrusions that continued down its back.

"Bringer of Death..."  The head emerged as the cloud of dark essence washed over its back and stemmed up through the space between its still-forming arms.

"The very evil that haunts your worst nightmares..."  It materialized like roots folding and smokily cascading over one another.

"Carrier of famine and pestilence..."  Blacker and blacker the creature seemed to grow.

"Messenger of Evil..."  Dark, muddy liquid seeped through the open space at the tip of the torso where its head was forming.

"And the end of you, and everything you have ever known and loved."

Through the terror, Spike saw this as an opportunity -- possibly his last.  He beat his wings as hard as he could downward, suddenly skyrocketing upwards.  His muscles were old and weak compared to what they used to be, but they were still strong enough to exert enough force to blow a house away.  Right now he used this to the best of his ability.

The creature, despite its head still forming, reached up to him as he took off.  He aimed a fiery ball of powerful magic at the monster's chest, hoping to cripple it with a fatal blast to the heart.  However, when it made contact with the beast's pectoral shrine, it simply dispersed around the black, shining surface of the various features and perforations still forming.

He let loose another and another.  As one last contingency, he shot a Time Blast forth.  This particularly tricky -- not to mention extremely dangerous -- spell was designed to slow time in a controlled, specific area.  As it hit, the creature was stopped almost instantly; frozen in place.  Suddenly, the mass inside of the prison stirred and cracked the new realm of time.

It's obviously more powerful than I thought!  I'd better take this somewhere higher, where I'll at least have the advantage...  He now watched the creature disappearing below him as he rocketed into the sky.

I've got to tell Celestia about this immediately!  Wings flapping as hard as they could, he brought himself level to the clouds, evening out his pace so as not to exert himself too quickly.  The distance is roughly 30 miles, he calculated, I should be able to make it to the castle in ti-- "URGH!!"  Suddenly, a massive chunk of scale and flesh was knocked off of him as black spines were shot through the air.  The beast was back.

From below, he saw the colossal monster gaining altitude.  It was certainly going faster than he was, and now its spines flew through the air at incredible speeds.  Gah!  I can't take another hit like that! he told himself.  It was not long after, however, that a small group of them pierced several holes straight through the fabric of his wings.  He beat them harder and harder, flying high into the Equestrian atmosphere.  However, it hardly made up for the rapid increase of height his nemesis was building, and the new holes certainly weren't aiding in his escape.

Spike was struggling to gain any altitude, his elderly body refusing to cooperate with the sudden arduous labor, albeit the fact that something far more powerful was on its way up, all the while shooting giant black barbs at him with its ascent.

Come on, Spike, think, THINK!!  He ruled out every possible scenario in his mind, desperate to work out some sort of an escape plan.  The light bulb flickered on as an idea came to mind.  He didn't like it.  In fact, he hated it... but it would just have to work; it was his only option.

*****

Looking down upon the mountains -- his home -- he had made a mental land map of the surrounding area.  The Draconequis Mane was coming up on his left, which meant he was near Halfmoon Valley some one or two miles ahead.  Turn...right! he thought, banking steeply to the side.  Just then, one of the spines whizzed past his head, causing an involuntary jolt.  "OH, COME ON!!" he yelled.

The wind was extremely loud at this point, causing Spike's hearing to be of no longer use to him.  There was the frequent close call with one of the hundreds of barbs that were now being shot at him as his enemy closed distance, but that was about it, as far as the slits in the side of his head could pick up.

That's right, he thought, just go ahead and follow me, I'll lead you there.  Yeah, I'll lead you there, alright... straight to Tartarus, where you belong!  He was nearing his destination.  I just hope this works...

He spotted his target location, tucking in his wings and any other appendages that could shorten the flow of air around him or cause him to drag.  With his new torpedo-like shape, he dove headfirst from the sky, compressing his neck as much as he could to increase velocity.  The monstrosity that was once creeping up from below him was now following suit as the two hurtled downwards toward the mountains in a race that would define life or death for either one.

Spike hit the mountain crevice first.  In a swift upward pullout, he steadied himself to begin the tight maneuvering between the mountains and cliff faces.  Should he run into any of them, he would not be able to warn the Princesses of this impending and the very real evil that now pursued him.  He would fail her... he would fail them all.  I'm afraid I cannot allow that to happen,. he thought to himself.  I won't!

He kept his wings close, angling and dodging, spiraling and spinning, all resulting in the beast growing ever closer as it smashed through the rock ledges that Spike had to avoid.  He whipped around the last bend in the rocky maze, beating his wings as he rounded the tight corner.  Hardly a second later, he heard the ear-popping explosion of rock and stone as the creature trailing behind him broke straight through the edge of the mountain cliff.  He looked back.  The impact didn't even slow it down.

Come on... he thought.  He turned around to face it for an instant.  "COME OOOONNNN!!!!" he screamed.

It seemed to taunt it.  He faced forward again, trying his best to pick up some speed.  He forced his body in the shape of a bullet, tightly pressing all of his appendages save for his wings to form a compact tear drop.  The monster continued to catch up.  Ahead of him was the destination:  His cave.  He filled his belly with a combustible gas, preparing to fire just in front of himself to provide a cloak from being seen, and dodge the entrance, whereas the abomination that was barely 20 hooves behind him would destroy the support of the entire mountain and be crushed under it.

At least that was the plan.

If I want to live, the creature shot of a burst of blackened crimson magic that exploded with titanic force against the mountain side, I'm going to have to time this just right...  The mouth of the cave approached rapidly, his enemy about to swallow him whole.  It had gained proximity to him.  He tilted his head slightly, glancing back for an instant.

Time seemed to slow down as the massive black goliath closed in on him, opening its extensive, razor-filled jaws to devour him.  He turned forward, the world around him seeming to fade from the outer edges and center around his focal point.  With a flick of his tongue, he ignited the ball of magical energy in his stomach, flexing his stomach and forcing the orb with astounding speed up his throat and out of his mouth.  He caught a glimpse of his home through the tunnel opening as it rushed toward him in the slow-motion that was now occupying his perception.  His heartbeat seemed to slow until it felt like a minute had passed in the time that it took to make its double-thump interval.  The mouth of the beast was closing in on him... it was now or never.

The searing sphere of green flame ruptured a few feet in front of him, bursting in an explosion of lime flame that blocked out any view in front of them for some good 100 hooves.  This was his only chance.  With a final beat of his wings, a flap harder and more strained than he had ever exerted in his life, he heard a loud pop, to which he looked and saw that he had broken the sound barrier.  The wave expanded through the jaws of the beast, forcing its mouth to open slightly wider.  As he left the confines of its teeth, he was sent hurtling through the air, passing through his own bright green flames.  The first thing he saw on his arrival out of the flame column was the surface of the mountain, which was now maybe a few dozen hooves or so in front of him.

He opened his wings as far as he could, readying his legs and arms for a hard push-off from the rocky exterior.  This was going to hurt, he knew, but it was certainly better than being flattened.  At first, he barely felt the impact, but as the receptors from his ligaments reached his brain with the neural code for "extreme pain and/or damage", he noticed otherwise.

It was a shocking feeling, like jumping into an ice-cold lake after spending hours in a steaming hot-tub.  His muscles contracted as he leapt off of the face of the mountain, giving him a full-headed response to his recklessness.  Time suddenly caught up in his mind; below him, the creature smashed through the heart of the cave, removing the support of the whole mountain.  The rocky landscape shifted slightly as his former home was completely obliterated in the head-on collision.  The mountain crumbled on top of his foe, sending huge slabs of rock splitting and scattering across the disfigured section of terrain.  The resulting noise was deafening.  The area became unrecognizable through the large eruption of plumes and dust from the tundral collapse, making it difficult to tell if Spike's plan was successful.

He flew upwards, trying to get a view on the destruction.  His home was now a ruin, and there was nothing he do... this was the one place he had felt refuge in for the past one and a half millennia.  It was all but utterly crushed; gone.  All of the pictures, the memories, the old books of Twilight's were lost in a pile of rubble... but the plan had worked.  There was no movement as far as he could tell, meaning that he was safe to begin his journey to warn the Princesses.  A small voice inside of him shouted an eerie warning that the creature may not have died; but he wasn't going to wait around to find out.

"I have to tell the Princesses... must... warn the Princesses... must... get to..." he stuttered as he flapped awkwardly.  Suddenly, his breathing was very heavy, every movement becoming ridiculously tiresome as he struggled to remain airborne.  He tucked his arms and legs in, feeling his muscles and joints agonizingly protest as he did so.  He had a long way to go.

Despite his sudden exhaustion, alerting the regal sisters of the impending doom was his number one priority.  And so, with all of his remaining strength, he cupped the air with his torn and battered wings, flying west-bound to the city of Canterlot.