Primal Nature

Princess Celestia looked out from her balcony with a solemn gaze, her mouth curled into the small, knowing smile that had seen as many joyous births as it had deaths; a smile that knew the rise of gods as well as it did the fall of great civilisations. It was the half-sincere mask she wore to protect her ponies. Her kingdom. Her jewel of creation. She had heard once, a long time ago (to any normal pony; a blink of an eye to the Sun herself), that some races, including the proud battle-born Gryphons of the mountains, saw her Equestria as a paradise that was reserved only for the greatest to be reborn in as a pony. Absolute bollocks of course; the idea was so preposterous that Celestia found it very unlikely that any creature could have faith in such a thing. But now, seeing the beautiful bustling city of Canterlot, not to mention the gently rolling hills and gorgeous fields of the distant Meadows under the light of her setting sun... it suddenly made much more sense.

"Don't bother trying to ignore my handsome face, my pretty pony princess..."

Celestia's mood immediately soured at the sound of Discord's sultry voice from behind her. She turned to face the hideously amusing statue that stood in the centre of her chambers, allowing a small growl to escape her muzzle at the sight of her nemesis.

"Be silent, abomination," she said in disgusted monotone.

"Ooooo, naughty. Is that your pet-name for me, honeybunch? You did request for me to come up here to your chambers, aloooooone after all..."

"By request, I assume you meant 'order your keepers to drag you from the garden, making sure to bang you against as many hard surfaces as possible on the way".

"And here I was thinking you were just being feisty."

"Oh yes, Discord. I can't help falling for your infinite charm. All those times you twisted and corrupted my ponies, water under the bridge, you twisted insane monster."

A gleeful cackle. "Oh, how I've missed you Celestia. You never fail to put a smile on my face. Granted, said face is a little bit stiff at the moment, but you know what I mean."

"Enough idle banter," Celestia stood tall over the petrified spirit. Her alabaster form glowed with heavenly light, while her billowing prismatic ethereal mane ignited into lustrous golden flame. "We, Princess Celestia, Sol Invictus, hereby punish thee for thy crimes. Plead for mercy, tyrant."

The draconequus chuckled. "Banishment, my dear Celestia? I'm disappointed that you honestly expe-"

"SILENCE." the Alicorn stated simply, the pure power of her magic transforming the command into a inescapable law. "Discord, Lord of Chaos, for your crimes against ponies, the world, and all that is Good and Order..." The floor around Discord's statue glowed brightly in the shape of an impossibly intricate rune.

"No..." For the first time in the aeons of his existence, Discord was truly frightened.

The Solar Princess gazed at him without any trace of pity or sympathy. "We banish you to non-existence. The world will no longer have to bear the weight of the countless atrocities you have committed. All will be free from your madness. Forever."

"You can't."

A small smile. "I can."

Immediately, the inlaid rune blazed into life, constraining the statue with chains of white hot energy. The air thrummed with energy as the God of Chaos faced his end. The binding stone cracked and sizzled, the technicolor form of Discord writhing in pure rage.

"NO! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED. I AM CHAOS INCARNATE. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!" The restraints were pulled taut as the enraged spirit of Disharmony frantically resisted the colossal might of the Sun.

The room exploded.

The Everfree forest has always been, and likely always will be, an unexplained phenomenon. Most ponies say that the chaotic behaviour of the weather and wildlife is a result of the God of Chaos, Discord's, reign, while others claim that it is related to the still unexplained desertion of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters about 1000 years later. However, there are a few who believe that the Everfree predates both these events, a relic of a time where the world was in a permanent state of controlled chaos. A world that was as static as it was mobile. A free world.

Despite the mysteries surrounding the cryptic copse, no pony dared venture far into it, for the beasts and monsters that had become synonymous with the treacherous jungle only became more aggressive and violent. Though the creatures and plants that call the Everfree home are almost infinite in variety and evolutionary complexity, there are far more than just powerful predators; creatures of the supernatural are the true rulers of the forest. Among these almost legendary monsters are the Star-Beasts, incarnations of the constellations that rival gods; wraiths and revenants, lost souls that are said to have been summoned from Hell itself; and the chimera, magical amalgamations born from Chaos.

Twilight Sparkle was more than aware of the dangers of the Everfree forest, but the risk of agonisingly painful death paled in comparison to her insatiable appetite for learning, her curiosity reflecting that of a pony less than half her age. Trotting warily through the undergrowth, horn beating back the encroaching shadows with a warm violet glow, the lavender mare's eyes, burning with a fierce intelligence, flicked back and forth between a mostly empty map, the constantly flipping pages of a book, and a document, stamped with the Princesses royal seal; all floating casually in the air a leg's length in front of her, held in her magical grip. Twilight scanned the area around her before looking back at the map in front of her, bringing it right up to her eyes, before huffing in frustration. As pleased as she was that her lifelong friend had finally given her a task besides the usual humdrum activity that was usually give to her as Magister and Vizier, the information she had been received from Princess Celestia to work with was subpar at best: a map that was based mostly on popular belief, an equally-speculative summary of the phenomena she was to investigate and a jungle survival guide… for dummies, as the title unashamedly declares. The Element of Magic sighed, but she couldn't help smirking. If anyone could appreciate the Sun Goddess' sense of humour, it was her faithful protégé. She wasn't too bothered; she still had the poison joke on standby for the next Grand Galloping Gala, after all.

A sudden crunch snapped Twilight out of her musings, and she whirled in the direction of the sound as she simultaneously prepared both an energy shield and a stun spell, her lean muscles tensing in preparation for flight or fight, as the shadow of the beast swelled and stretched, huge jaws gnashing and crunching a pitiful. mutilated orange--

A small white bunny rabbit hopped out into the clearing and chewed on a malformed lump of carrot, before bolting with terrified shrieks at the sight of a panicked unicorn who was surrounded with a corona of magical energy. Twilight just stared, dumbfounded, for a moment, before releasing the built-up tension with a long exhale. She closed her eyes and began to breath in a steady rhythm, entering a semi-meditative state with practised efficiency, and reached through into her pocket dimension. Twilight reached out with her mind into the storage space, picked out another roll of parchment from a filing cabinet and receded back into her body, the chosen paper materialising in front of her.

Twilight unfurled the parchment, yet another map, providing a rough guide to what, and where, wildlife could be found within the Everfree forest. The forest was coloured green in the areas nearest the edges, meaning that the wildlife was mostly harmless, though that could mean anything from bunny rabbits to city-sized ethereal bears in the Everfree. A vast plane of white ringed with varying shades of red took up the remainder of the representation of the wood; red areas meant "danger" and the white translated as "people with bigger balls than you have tried, buddy". Glancing back at the map which showed her route, the irritatingly pessimistic voice at the back of Twilight's mind couldn't help but point out that her destination sat on the very edge of the white area… right in the middle of a bright red welt.

The purple pony slumped back onto her haunches, yelled out "Well, look on the bright side, at least things are merely life-threatening and not a complete disas-" and was promptly thrown forward onto her face as a colossal burst of primal magic erupted from between the trees in the vague direction of her destination. Twilight Sparkle lamented the direction her life was taking as she galloped off to the source of the disturbance.

Deep, deep within the forest, where the soil remained untouched by the Sun's blessed light, 3 pairs of eyes cracked open.