Primal Nature

When Twilight and her guards appeared out the other end of the portal, in the Ponyville market street, the sight that greeted them was unpleasant to say the least. Panic-stricken ponies were practically stampeding through the streets, and several houses in the vicinity were ablaze. Twilight shuddered as she felt that familiar alien magic that permeated the air. It was here, but it was different too. She quickly counted the guards she had brought with her: three squads of five; one unicorn, two pegasi and two earth-pony. They stood in their squads behind their leader. Establishing a telepathic link with the unicorns, she gave them their orders: Teams on the left and right, gather up all civilians and lead them to the centre of town. Anypony remember the Summer Sun Celebration several years ago? The one where Nightmare Moon returned? There were a few affirmatives. Take them to the building where she made her appearance. It's hard to miss. When you're done, one team stay behind to cover them while the other contacts me and moves to my position. A chorus of "yes ma'am"s traveled back over the link, and she addressed the third group of soldiers. Bulwark, your squad comes with me, for back-up. It shouldn't prove to be a big problem, it went down last time without much of a fuss. All the same, be on the lookout for the acid breath. She chose to ignore the bemused expressions on their faces at that last sentence.

"Twilight! Twiliiiiiight!" The purple unicorn turned back at the sound of her name, and wasn't surprised to see the rosy features of Mayor Pinkie Pie. The unnaturally frightened expression on her face unnerved her more than she cared to admit, however.

"Twilight, this big scary monster just showed up in Ponyville and set fire to loadsa buildings and Applejack hasn't showed up and Blue Moon and Sweet Scent-" Pinkie choked out a sob and stopped rambling for a moment. "Blue Moon and Sweet Scent... you don't know them, they moved here a couple of years ago, but they were the best magic-users in town. They tried to help, held back the monster for a while, but... They- they-"

Twilight cut off her friend by wrapping her up in a hug. "Pinkie, I'm sorry, but I need you to be strong for me, OK? Help calm everypony down, keep their spirits up." She smiled softly. "That's your talent, after all!"

The pastel-pink pony lips curled upwards into a sad smile and her flamboyant cotton-candy mane regained some of it's  regular poofiness, clearly pleased that she was able to help. "Okie-dokie-lokie, Twi. I'll do what I can!" Pinkie ran off to assist the guards with her unmatched ability to calm the spirit with joy and cheer. Twilight turned to look at her soldiers, who nodded stiffly: they were prepared. The Magister nodded back at them, grateful for their bravery, before running off to the source of the chaos, dousing fires with her magic as she went.

As they navigated Twilight's old hometown, the purple unicorn was glad that Bulwark and his team-mates were here with her. Bulwark was very talented with shield spells, thought not quite as masterful as Twilight's brother Shining Armour. The other soldiers in his team, though she didn't know them nearly as well as their leader, she knew to be extremely skilled at working as a team, as well as individually. Hopefully, by working together they could fix the mess she created... Twilight quashed the rising guilt instantly: now was not the time for pointless regrets. Choosing instead to focus her mind on more practical things, she considered the situation she had found herself in once more. The group of stallions with her were trained and skilled at defence, but should be able to easily take down the Chimera with her help. This time, however, it will almost certainly be wide awake and, if the latent energy she could feel was anything to go by, significantly more powerful than before. But why wasn't it attacking them? Maybe it's playing with it's food... Twilight shuddered at the thought. No, it's probably being held back by some brave ponies to let the others get away.

The sight of Twilight's old library tree home sent waves of nostalgia through the purple unicorn's mind, a sensation that was dispelled at the sight of a colossal chimeric monster engaging in a fight to the death with a familiar purple-green dragon right in front of it.

"Spike!" The sight of her best-friend/brother/foster-child/assistant threatened to overwhelm Twilight with elation and dread. Spike was a ferocious fighter, but her maternal instincts compelled her to reject the idea of him in pain.

"Twilight, stay back!" Spike roared as he spat a jet of viridian flame at his adversary, who leapt to the side to avoid it. The drake swiped with his serrated claws, but the Chimera ducked under the blow and retaliated by biting into his leg. The goat head pelted Spike with bolts of lightning as he screamed in pain, but he managed to disengage from the monster by attacking with a desperate blast of fire. The Chimera let go of Spike, leapt back and inhaled deeply, making a sound like a steam train as it did so. Spike, who was severely wounded and unable to get to his feet, flapped his wings in an attempt to escape, but it wasn't enough. The Chimera released a huge gout of orange flame from its jaws, a roaring inferno that dwarfed even Spike's draconic breath.

"Enough." There was a burst of light, and a dome of solid violet energy  surrounded Spike and the five ponies who teleported between the two combatants. Bulwark reinforced Twilight's barrier with his own, while the four other soldiers got into position and readied their weapons.

"I'm so sorry, Twi, I couldn't do it, I… I failed you…" Spike sobbed, cradling his leg and folding in his wing.

"No, Spike. I'm the one who failed you. All of this is my fault. I'm going to teleport you to the town hall now, and you're going to get medical attention," Twilight turned to look at her friend with a sad smile "Please, don't worry. We'll fix this."

Spike looked up at the unicorn, expression unreadable. "Pinkie Promise?"

"Pinkie Promise." Spike smiled as he vanished with another burst of purple magic. Twilight turned to look back at where the Chimera stood glaring at them. "Everypony ready?"

"Yes, milady!" Bulwark and his team confirmed, standing firm. The pair of earth-ponies stood in a jousting position, spears at their sides. The pegasi hovered above the ground, covering the left and right flanks with their hoof- and wing-blades extended, while Twilight and Bulwark stood at the back of the group, horns glowing in anticipation.

"On my mark." Twilight closed her eyes and thought of Luna's beautiful night, of the infinite void between the stars and the sleek silver surface of the moon. Her magic changed, becoming darker, heavier, colder. Shadows creeped along her fur as she remembered her training with the Moon Goddess; of how she mastered the darkness in her heart and made the void itself bend to her will.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I wield my Shadow.

The Magister's eyes snapped open, and her allies stared in awe: the purple unicorn's shadow swelled and writhed as if it were truly alive, some times it even reached up out of the ground and danced along her body. Her eyes were cold and detached, completely focused. They all recognised the sensation of this magic. She had shifted magic styles into that of Darkness, the power of the Lunar Princess herself.

"Begin the operation." The barrier dissolved, revealing the Chimera's features in all their gruesome detail. It snarled once, then twisted its feline maw into a grim mockery of a smile. Then it spoke.

"Twiiiii-liight. Spaaaarkle." The Chimera's lion head rumbled in a voice that had clearly not been used in a very long time. It was not so much a voice as a half-snarl, yet it did not give the impression of just hate; rather, it was more of mocking welcome. Twilight didn't give it the satisfaction of seeing her squirm, nodding slightly to the earth-pony soldiers. They leapt into action, barreling side by side into the monster. The Chimera reared back in order to bring its paws down on their heads, when a thick tendril of pure black reached up out of the ground, wrapped around its neck and pulled it back down to the earth with enough force to crack the cobblestone beneath it. The earth-ponies speared the monster with their weapons, trapping its front paws with their lances, before calling upon their innate magic. They stood firm against the Chimera's incredible strength. With another nod from Twilight, the pegasi took to the air, spiralling around each other as they slashed at the Chimera with their hoof-blades. The huge snake tail reached up to snap at them, but they moved too quickly. Flying high up into the air, they dove at blistering speed down onto the Chimera's back, drawing a bleating complaint from the startled goat head. Bulwark levitated multiple shards of razor-sharp steel from a pouch on his armour, and hurled them with the incredible telekinetic strength and precision of unwavering self-discipline.

Enraged, the Chimera countered the relentless assault by abusing one simple fact: they had three heads. The lion head released a small fireball, deep crimson this time, at the flying shards. The fireball exploded, blowing the shrapnel off trajectory and embedding them in the earth. The goat's horns were wreathed in brilliant lightning, its eyes blazing with power as it called a miniature thunderstorm to blast at the pegasi. The flying ponies twisted in the air to land on all four hooves, but failed to notice the pools of seething acid at their feet. Before they could register how close they were to death, two shadows  reached out and plucked them from the air, with audible sighs of relief. Using the lull of combat to its advantage, the Chimera jerked its entire body upwards, breaking the shadows binding its lion head. The ponies realised that their opponent was not to be trifled with, and promptly moved back and circled the beast, a more cautious approach that would allow them to strike from all sides while maintaining a strong position. The Chimera made to lunge toward one of the pegasi, who was cradling an injured wing, and the earth-pony standing directly behind it swiftly attacked. The serpent tail uncoiled and stretched out to intercept... and immediately recoiled just as a colossal blade of black, shaped like a guillotine, crashed down where its neck was about to be, avoiding death by inches. The lion turned to attack Twilight, angry at the near-decapitation of its tail, and buckled as 6 razor-sharp shards of metal embedded themselves in its side, courtesy of Bulwark. The goat head's eyes and horns crackled with power as it grabbed the shards with its telekinesis and threw them at bullet-speed back along their previous trajectory. Twilight's shadows stopped them a split-second before they chewed through the other unicorn's neck.

Despite their greater numbers, the ponies realised over the course of the fight that the monster they were fighting was more than they could handle; every time they attacked it, it never gave them an inch in return, as every attack on it was knocked aside or countered. Every time they managed to scratch it, it would deal a far greater injury in return. This wouldn't be a big problem if this was any other monster... but the Chimera had three minds, each capable of thinking for itself, as Twilight had learned from their previous encounter, and that meant it learned quickly. Very quickly, unfortunately; every tactic they used in their attempts to harm it were only successful half the time, and the creature never left room for mistakes after that. Eventually, the battle was reduced to a pissed Chimera, covered in scratches, against a mostly unharmed, albeit quite drained, Twilight Sparkle, with five wounded ponies occasionally getting in the way. Eventually, the inevitable occurred.

The armoured pegasus, bleeding and burnt, snapped his bladed wings at the Chimera, who turned and released a jet of white-hot flame in his direction, all in the blink of an eye. Twilight, mortified, watched the foolishly brave stallion scream in agony as his golden armour, the pride and joy of the Equestrian Royal Guard, fused to his flesh under the incredible sizzling heat, his body turning to ash and his ragged mane evaporating to thin air. Twilight's focus faltered briefly as she turned away from the horrifying sight, and her eyes caught the sight of two other pony corpses. Blue Moon and Sweet Scent, two ponies who gave their lives to protect their home and friends, resting for eternity in one another's arms. Twilight turned back to face the monster, who hadn't even given his fallen opponent a second glance. She used her prodigious mental prowess to capture the seething anger at her friend's sacrifice, and turn it into power.

For the first time, Twilight Sparkle combined the natures of her magic, the cold, controlled Shadow merging with the passionate element of Fire. With a roar, the purple unicorn gathered a colossal ball of greasy black flame, large enough to consume a house with ease, and hurled it with wild abandon at the Chimera. It barely registered the attack before it was ablaze in the freezing burn of the magical fire, and was unable to resist when a barrier of force, two powerful earth-ponies and a pegasus in the throes of a grief-fuelled rage sent it flying through the air into a thankfully deserted house. Twilight, exhaling slowly, extinguished her Flame, and reluctantly released her hold on the Darkness. Looking around, she realised that they had managed to defeat the Chimera before the other squad of guards arrived. She was glad that no other ponies had to get hurt now, besides them. In fact, she almost sighed loudly in relief... before a soul-rending roar of pure, primal rage tore the air apart. The sound seemed to come from every direction, and reverberated through the bones of all who heard it. Twilight's heart nearly stopped entirely from the despair she felt, at the realisation that the monster they had battled was nowhere near finished yet. All heads turned to look at the crumpled house which they had thrown their enemy at, and watched with fascinated dread as the Chimera stalked slowly towards them, heavily wounded yet alive. Without warning, it immediately broke into a sprint towards a paralysed earth-pony and pounced, digging its huge feline claws into flesh, carving through metal and bone like knives through butter. The pony was eviscerated, taken down with hardly a scream.

The rest of the soldiers, upon seeing their comrade die so suddenly, jolted out of their fear-fuelled paralysis and moved in to attack. The pegasus reared back onto his hind legs, using his wings to balance himself, and with a downward flap of his wings, flew across the ground towards the Chimera at breakneck speed. He attacked with a flurry of blows, snapping his bladed wings and slashing with his hoof-mounted swords, but was stopped in the middle of his assault by a bolt of white lightning from the goat head's horns. The stallion was thrown to the ground and was struck by two more blasts before Bulwark intervened with a magical shield, but it was too little, too late; yet another Guard had fallen to the beast. Twilight desperately tried to find her emotional centre in order to command the Shadow once more, and succeeded. The Chimera was hit by a series of solid black spears of darkness. However, the Magister, in her haste, only had a fraction of the control she normally wielded, and so her attacks were weak and shattered upon contact with the Chimera's stony hide. Meanwhile, the monster's serpent tail struck the last earth-pony soldier repeatedly, denting armour and breaking bone. The stallion, despite his exemplary mastery of inherent earth-pony magic, crumpled under the blows and succumbed to the toxic fangs of the creature.

Twilight turned to look at her last remaining companion, with a grim expression. "Bulwark, run. Now." She turned back to face the creature before he could respond, slashing at the monster with blades of darkness and smashing it with shadows. The Chimera was largely unfazed, simply batting most of the attacks aside with relative ease and continuing to stride towards them. The Chimera responded by inhaling deeply, the foreboding steam engine noise sounding like death to Twilight's ears, and blasting a colossal firestorm at her. Twilight, on the verge of a breakdown at this point, reached out to call up a shield, but the Shadow pulled away from her panicking mental grasp. Twilight had forgotten that the darkness was not hers to own, only to command if she showed restraint over her emotions, something that was far beyond her capabilities as she faced her end.

When Twilight realised she wasn't a burning husk, she opened her eyes and saw a sight that struck at her very soul: a dying Bulwark, focusing his last remaining strength on maintaining a flickering shield. He looked up at her with resignation, and spoke softly. "I swore my life to the Princesses, and you are their closest friend, as well as my comrade. I would lay down my life for you a hundred times over, my Lady." He grunted, and his horn sparked as he cast one last spell before his shield flickered and died. Twilight teleported back a few metres as the Chimera leapt onto the defiant Guard and devoured him. The purple unicorn felt a familiar coldness at the edge of her consciousness, and reflexively pushed it away as she tried to unlock another restraint, to no avail. The coldness resisted her efforts, as if something was forcing it into her mind, and Twilight was overwhelmed by the one emotion she was warned to never rely on. The one emotion that served only itself, and, in the distant past, turned one of the most powerful unicorns alive into a soulless tyrant.

Hatred built up within Twilight, a terrible wrongness that bubbled along the length of her horn and seeped out of her eyes, turning the violet orbs bloody red and her sclera a poisonous green. The pressure at the base of her horn increased until she did the only thing she could do to release it: use it up. Twilight's mind crafted the spell instantly, and a stream of pure, pulsating black hatred spat out of her horn and struck the Chimera in the chest, sending it flying through the air once more as black crystals erupted from its flesh. Twilight quashed the spell immediately, but the damage had been done: black crystals formed on her horn, effectively disabling all her magic until they were removed. Twilight lost all hope as the Chimera got back to its feet, glaring at her spitefully.

The Chimera was furious. They had come to this pathetic settlement in order to settle a debt with Twilight Sparkle, but they had nearly been defeated several times. All because she brought 5 pathetic pieces of trash to annoy them while she sat back like a coward. That was why they were so excited when she had hit them with that odd black fire, the rush of battling a true opponent dulling the agonising pain of the infernal flames. Then they had been knocked into a building and disregarded immediately, which was they saw as a grievous insult, and they made sure to repay them in full, cutting them down like the prey they were. All that was left was the lavender unicorn herself. Lion could hear her ecstatic heartbeat and the whimpers of fear as she looked into their eyes. It was thrilling.

Suddenly, Goat went quiet, the fairly-constant chatter of information regarding the magic being thrown at them ceasing.  Lion was about to question him, before they were hit by that. They didn't need Goat's ability to feel the pure desperation in the attack. It felt wrong. It permeated their body and ravaged their skin with black crystals. When they got back to their feet again, Lion saw Twilight Sparkle for what she really was: a battered and broken mare who's power had deserted her, leaving behind a burnt husk who would resort to using such twisted magic to save herself. Enraged, the Chimera crushed the crystal growing out of their skin and walked slowly up to their final remaining enemy, licking their lips in preparation for the feeding.

Goat went from silent to ballistic as he sensed something huge. Something infinitely dark and cold, not unlike Twilight Sparkle's shadowy magic from earlier. In fact, it was almost identical, if not for the sheer scale. Even Serpent was stunned by the power behind it. Despite all their combined senses telling them to run and never look back, the monster continued to move toward their prize.

That was a mistake.

The world was plunged into darkness as tendrils of shadow wrapped around the Chimera and lifted it into the air, crushing him with unimaginable force. Panicking, the Chimera caught sight of a midnight blue pony, this one with both wings and horn, and significantly larger than the ones from before. Her eyes were glowing a brilliant green, anger rolling off of her like a wave. The Chimera suddenly understood: where Twilight Sparkle had wielded the Shadow, this goddess before them created it. They pushed against it with all their limbs, searching for an opening to escape. In desperation, they blew a streak of golden flame at the immobile lavender unicorn, distracting the Dark One long enough for them to break their restraints and reveal their ace-in-the-hole.

Huge leathery dragon wings unfurled from the sides of the Chimera, magical appendages that had sprouted after they had been set on fire and thrown into the house, but kept hidden for security's sake. They took to the air like a rocket, the air currents sliding over their form easily as they flew towards the Everfree forest. Glancing back, they watched the Dark One attempt to catch them unsuccessfully for a few moments, before dashing over to her fallen comrade and embracing her. The two vanished into blackness, and their enemy escaped, heavily damaged, but alive.