Primal Nature

Shadow. That was the only thing they knew. They did not know where they were, what they were, or why they were; the only thing they could see or think about was the oppressive gloom that pressed down on them from all sides. One of them was starting to panic and shout, the other two were still trapped in a haze of semi-consciousness. Tentatively, they took small steps forward, towards the light. The light was frightening in its power, blinding two of their six eyes with the rays it cast. Regardless, they did not stumble. Stumbling was for prey, which was something they simply knew. It was a inarguable truth that seemed to be etched into their three minds; the knowledge that prey was weak, and that they were strong.

Why then, the leading head asked, is the light so painful? The others did not understand him. They did not know of this light. They shared in his fear, but did not recognise it. That is no problem, he thought, for I am the strongest. Emboldened, they continued towards the strange light, carried by the leader. The light continued to blind him, but the opposite head relieved him of his burden somewhat, guiding them with his own sense. He spoke of tingles and colours, things that held no meaning to the others. But eventually, the light exploded, and they saw the world.

It was so colourful. The sky was purest blue, the trees and grass a luscious green, and the earth a rich brown. The leader, who knew himself as Lion, could not see the Sun for its light, which made him sad. The second head, who called himself Goat, said the sun was so beautiful and bright, but did not know of its colour. The final head, Serpent, did not know either, but could sense so many other things: most of them prey. Serpent described his ability as "tasting", a concept that remained alien to his two partners of mind and body. As happy as the thought of the food was, they knew that they were still weak, which was not a good condition to be in when hunting. Goat started panicking again at the idea of other, perhaps even stronger, hunters and Lion felt his hind legs buck periodically. Serpent showed displeasure at this, due to his unfortunate configuration. Lion calmed Goat, and looked around with the sharp eyes of a true predator, albeit ones that were blinded from the too-bright light.

From what he could tell, they were in a large clearing somewhere in the midst of a colossal forest. The trees that crowded and hemmed them in on all sides obscured the rest of the world from his sight, but he caught glimpses of small creatures watching, stalking and fleeing from them, and his sensitive ears and nose picked out their scents easily amongst the undergrowth. Behind them, a great hole in the earth,  the entrance obscured by vines and plants, must have been where they… slept? None of them knew why they awoke in that burrow. Burrows were for those who hid, not those who hunt. When they tried to step forward to explore their home, they almost fell to the ground; Goat's and Lion's steps were out of synch from delirium. Lion felt irritation at this, but Goat was too busy panicking to notice. Lion didn't blame his other part for his behaviour, for it was his nature to act as such. Goat provided the alertness and caution that tempered Lion's sometimes lax and prideful attitude. Serpent, on the other hand, had the cunning and patience which, alongside his strange sense, proved to be deadly. When Goat, with help from Lion, Serpent and a reasonably large rock, eventually regained control of his faculties, they walked unsteadily along a worn, yet clear, path out of their grotto. Serpent occupied himself with snapping up the small ones: tiny rodents that were too quick for Lion and unsuitable for Goat, but proved to be an ample solution to the constant hunger pangs. Goat, for his part, chewed half-heartedly on his grass. The sensation of something that was not meat was still peculiar to Lion, even when they were united as one being for as long as they could remember. In fact, they didn't even know if there was a time where they weren't fused, and if they had ever been separate. The idea was simply too odd.

Suddenly, Goat stopped the three in their tracks and went into full-alert, clamping his mouth shut and staring intently at a patch of bushes off to their left, all while channeling his findings to Serpent and Lion: a bright orb of purple light, controlled but intense. Serpent tasted the entity, his own unique form of detection giving them a clearer impression of their prey. Lion turned his huge head to stare at the disturbance. He savoured the fearful gasp he picked up with his large ears when he bared his fangs. The signs were different, but it was undeniable: it was a pony.

Twilight wasn't the most athletic pony in the world, by any means (bar that one time she placed 5th in the Running of the Leaves, but that's an entirely different story). However, over the few years up to and the few months since the Princesses' offer to become Magister and Grand Vizier to the throne, she had kicked her lazy habits somewhat and managed to maintain a reasonably fit physique as a result, a small achievement she took pride in, even if she was nowhere near her friends' Rainbow Dash and Applejack's level of inequine speed and strength. The lavender mare was doubly pleased with her newfound athleticism as she galloped at a steady speed towards the site of the Flare she had spotted earlier. At least, she thought it was a Flare: the uncontrolled power of the released energy lent credibility to this observation, but the nature of the magic was radically different to any style she had encountered, it was more like Disc-

Twilight stumbled slightly as a wave of anxiety and fear washed over her. It wasn't him. It COULDN'T be. She regularly checked on the statue in the Canterlot gardens for this very reason, and the Harmony seal that kept him locked away in his stone prison was as stronger than ever. Still, it would not be unreasonable to consider that something had managed to release him… Twilight wished she had her friends alongside her, like the old days, but they weren't around. Rainbow Dash was gallivanting off around Equestria in a tight spandex uniform with the Wonderbolts, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were still busy back in Ponyville as always (none of them were quite sure how Pinkie managed to become mayor, but they had to concede that tourism had boomed massively since her election), while Fluttershy had joined a political party in pursuit of a greener Equestria and only sporadically came back to Canterlot for political reasons. Only Rarity seemed to stay around in Canterlot with her, and that was liable to change what with Sweetie Bell's rapid rise to singer super-stardom on the horizon. Twilight loved them all, and always will, but it seemed her new status in the nobility had all but quashed her social life. Spike, the faithful little dragon that he was, had hung around the castle with her for a while, but she knew he itched to travel to Draconis, the land of the dragons, to learn about his own species. She worried about the idea, as was her duty as his mother/big sister, but he had proven himself to be more than capable of handling himself now that he had gone through his first true growth spurt. He had reached the point now where he stood nearly as tall as Princess Celestia at full height, and the small green flames he belched in his younger years were now roiling emerald infernos that Twilight used to great effect when dealing with stubborn and self-important nobleponies.

Twilight sighed. Nobleponies. That was what she dealt with mostly nowadays. She was incredibly proud of her achievements, having become the first Magister and Grand Vizier to the thrones in centuries. She had been confused at the revival of such ancient titles at first, until Princess Luna revealed to her that they were simply brought back so that Twilight's skills as a bureaucrat and incredible magical ability could be put to good use for the good of Equestria. Twilight half-suspected that Luna used that truth to cover up the fact that she was the closest friend to both monarchs, and they would like to keep her around, but she didn't mind: Celestia was practically a second mother to her, and she had become very close to Luna after she returned to Canterlot. Despite all that, her workload most days was mostly dealing with arrogant unicorn aristocrats who wouldn't take no for an answer. She was a Magister; she had more raw power and skill in her shortest eyelash than the inbred upper-crust of Canterlot society would ever obtain in their entire lives, yet she had to prostrate herself just to get them to understand that neither the Princesses nor her cared about their mostly petty concerns.

The purple unicorn stopped as she picked up something huge on her magical senses. Quickly, she brought out her maps and cast a scrying spell on herself, projecting her location onto the parchments relative to their size. What she found was unsurprising: a small purple 6-pointed star shone near her destination which, when superimposed with the colour-coded map, sat in the middle of the red blotch of unspeakable horror. Stashing the documents back in her null-space and withdrawing a pair of binoculars, the Magister creeped towards the presence, scanning her surroundings intently with a practised eye. She lifted the binoculars to her eyes with her telekinetic grip and peered through the trees at the being. She caught a glimpse of a colossal yellow-black mass of fur, which made her pause: was it a manticore? No, she thought, no manticore has ever felt so… ancient. Frowning, Twilight kept sneaking up on the entity, eventually stumbling upon a patch of bushes that would provide a good vantage point to finally see what had been awoken in this crazy fore-

It was huge. The monster easily dwarfed Princess Celestia, who, due to her status as one of the only two Alicorns, was already twice as tall as Twilight herself. The creature had the front half and forelegs of a oversized lion, which fused seamlessly with the rear end and cloven hooves of an equally proportioned charcoal-black goat, with the head lying just behind the lion's, on its back. The tail of the creature forced Twilight to quash the bile rising in her throat: a seemingly mile-long snake, coiling and writhing as it devoured an unfortunate mouse whole, grew out from just above the chimeric beast's rear end. Peering closer at the serpent, Twilight noticed bony ridges along its jaw and brow, as well as small spines travelling up the length of its back. Even when she was reeling with shock and fear, Twilight's inner scientist was immutable: she immediately drew comparisons to dragons, although the pointed tongue that flicked out from between its lips momentarily meant that it was closer-related to a snake. The goat was even more confusing. Looking at it as a practised negotiator, the constantly shifting gaze showed confusion and anxiety, which must mean it was… frightened? The lion showed no such emotion, just the calm and prideful glare of a predator that triggered an instinctual urge to flee in herbivores like Twilight and her kin. Resisting the traditional fight/flight response that had been deeply ingrained in her psyche, the purple unicorn simply sat and observed the perplexing creature. Twilight noticed that it seemed somewhat unsteady when it walked, and that the head of the lion was hanging low to the ground. The behaviour reminded her of herself in the mornings, and considered the possibility that it was newly awoken. The goat's hind legs bucked erratically on occasion, which made the dragon-snake-tail snap out in irritation. Did that mean that they acted independently of one another? Twilight wondered in horrified fascination. Setting down her binoculars, she closed her eyes and looked through her inner library of information that she had gleaned through her years of devouring every book that crossed her field of vision. She realised that this monster was not new; rather, it was incredibly ancient. This was not just a chimera, it was THE Chimera. Unfortunately, other details of her findings escaped her at this point in time, which made her horn spark in annoyance.

Twilight's eyes snapped open as the deafening silence hit her like a sledgehammer. She realised that she had been subconsciously listening to the irregular breathing pattern of the Chimera, a sound that had stopped abruptly. Trembling, she lifted the binos to her eyes, and was greeted with 3 pairs of eyes staring intently in her direction. She had been noticed. But how? She had suppressed all sound with a spell, and shrouded herself with a camouflage enchantment long before she encountered this monster. The only thing she could have done was… Shit. The spark. Were Chimera magically sensitive? The lion practically answered that for her as it bared its huge razor-fangs at her. Twilight gasped as she looked right into it's eyes: they were not the same as any manticore she had encountered, despite the other external similarities. The Chimera's gleamed with savage intelligence, the eyes of something that knew EXACTLY what it was doing. But that also gave Twilight a shred of hope: could it be reasoned with?

The Magister slowly got up, stashed the binoculars in her pocket dimension, and trotted carefully out into the clearing. None of the Chimera's heads made any sign of moving closer, they simply remained where they were and appraised her silently. Twilight pounced on her opportunity, clearing her throat softly before speaking.

"I'm not sure if you can understand me, but I mean you no harm…" Twilight wasn't a fool: she tapped her pool of shadow magic while she spoke and moulded the energy into a spell that would force the Chimera to fall unconscious if it attempted to attack her.

"… I simply wish to know why you are here in the Everfree forest, and what your intentio-" She didn't get any farther. Despite the stealth benefit of shadow magic, the goat head seemed to detect the black energy that slowly slithered towards them. Sparks of electricity danced between its horns, and Twilight was blasted with a huge bolt of magical lightning. The purple prodigy immediately called the shadows back and altered them fluidly into a pitch-black shield that deflected the attack. The lion, bemused curiosity shifting into primal anger, leapt forward and shattered her barrier with a single crushing blow. Twilight cried out as a claw cut into her foreleg, spattering blood over the grass at her hooves. With a blinding flash of light, she reflexively teleported away out of reach, but the snake tail caught her off guard by spraying acid from its mouth right where she appeared. Twilight yelped and lifted herself into the air with a powerful gust of wind, where she used her new-found height to her advantage by quickly taking stock of the situation.

The lion was incredibly fast and strong, even when disoriented, while the snake and goat could track her movements with a combination of powerful chemosensory devices and magic detection, respectively. Not only that, but the goat had access to lightning magic, which it could use to devastating effect, and the serpent could spray a torrent of highly corrosive acid, if the decaying shrubbery was anything to go by. The only way to end this fight - besides killing it, Twilight reminded herself, as she was more than capable of doing if she let her emotions get the better of her - would be to restrain and to calm it down and learn of it's intent. Frantically, she searched for something that could help, but only found trees.

Trees. Better than nothing.

Twilight landed on all four hooves, a feat Rainbow Dash would be proud of, and tapped her knowledge of elemental magic. Fire blossomed at the tip of her horn and she ignited the forest around the still reeling Chimera; not enough fire to cause any lasting damage, but enough for her purposes. The beast looked around at the flames curiously and backed away from them warily, too distracted to notice the blade of solid shadow that manifested in mid-air and slashed along it's side. Howling in pain, all three heads turned away to reveal it's other side to Twilight, who gathered a ball of pure force on the tip of her horn. With a cry of effort, the shimmering wave crashed into the creature's side and launched it into the air. Twilight immediately strung together of a series of spells while the Chimera was still airborne, and unleashed them in rapid succession.

Shift to water magic. Cast on ground beneath lion-goat-snake-thingy. Create mud slide. Shift to arcane magic. Decrease friction, shift direction of gravity. Direct towards giant tree, tap nature magic. Result…

None of them were quite sure what just happened. The purple pony had stepped out to meet them off it's own accord, which confused Lion greatly: they were huge and powerful. Was the pony stupid, Lion wondered. Goat warned him that she was very bright, painfully so, which gave Lion pause. Bright things tended to be very dangerous, they had learnt that lesson the hard way. Serpent felt it's fear, but also it's confidence. When the pony's mouth opened and she spoke to them, Lion was even more confused, for no prey they could remember ever tried speaking with them before. She spoke of how she meant them no harm, but Goat saw through the trick: he was not to be fooled by the bright pony, who intended to harm them with a dirty spell. Lion was angered by this ruse, and went in for the kill, but only managed to scratch her. The pony blinded them with another trick, but Serpent had her taste; no prey ever escaped after Serpent had tasted them. Annoyingly, she had escaped with another trick, and then she had hurt them. That wounded Lion deeper than the small scratch on his side, for he was a creature that prided himself on being the strongest.

When they found themselves flying through the air after being struck by some invisible fist, they didn't know what to think. Even Serpent's food thoughts were silenced temporarily. They hit something very hard, right on the top of Goat's head, silencing him. When Serpent and Lion recovered from the shock, they were trapped in a shell of wood and grass, and weren't able to move at all. The purple pony had walked over to the Chimera, and looked them right in the eyes. Then they FELT her.

I'm sorry, she said in their minds.

Why are you sorry, Lion thought back, you bested us.

She looked surprised by Lion's reply, much to his amusement, but she quickly answered: Despite what you may think, I never meant to hurt you. I needed to know what… who you are.

Images flooded their shared minds, images of them destroying homes, killing ponies, devouring them.

Food, Serpent thought diplomatically.

Shut up, Lion thought back. He wouldn't have cared what Serpent was thinking normally, but the anger that spiked from the lavender mare that spoke to them convinced him that she could easily destroy them now if she wanted.

Goat chose this time to awaken, and subsequently panicked when he felt the alien conscious in their minds. The purple pony who bested them did some bizarre trick, and all three components of the Chimera's mind immediately calmed. The outsider probed their thoughts gently (but kept away from Serpent's) and spoke to them again.

You are obviously unaware of your situation, she thought pityingly, which annoyed Lion. I represent our monarch, she may be able to help you, she told them.

When she showed them an image of her leader, all three minds seethed with rage. They knew this princess. They weren't sure how they knew this, but she was the Enemy. She was not to be trusted.

Twilight gasped as the telepathic connection shattered abruptly, and stumbled back as the snake snapped at her frantically. The serpent then sprayed acid on their wooden prison, dissolving the bindings and allowing them to tear themselves free. The Chimera barged past Twilight and roared as it fled deeper into the woods.

The Magister lay prone on the ground for a few minutes, though it seemed more like an hour, reeling from the flood of new information that she had gleaned from her brief interaction with the Chimera. She couldn't help herself; she SQUEE'd for the first time in years. As she got back to her feet, the aches and pains from her battle almost knocked her over again. Gathering what energy she had left, she visualised the gates of Canterlot castle, and teleported away with a flash.