Sky looked his foe squarely in the eyes. Or one pair of eyes, at the least. It was almost exactly as he remembered: three fearsome heads that could spew flame; a large, muscular body; razor-sharp teeth and claws. Even the voice (or voices) was the same, but the one thing Sky had dreaded the most was absent.
Those eyes.
“Miss me?” Sky asked in a mocking voice as the Chimera approached at a leisurely pace.
Sky saw, in a rather unnerving display, each of the Chimera’s faces changed into a different expression. The snake’s head scowled at him angrily, while the goat smiled innocently. The lion’s face was neutral, but Sky could sense the rage underneath the mask. “We’ve all missed you,” the heads said in conjunction as the Chimera stalked closer and closer.
“Whoa. Now that’s creepy,” Sky replied, backing away as his wings kept him afloat. All around him, the windigoes were dashing back and forth, panic in their voices and terror on their faces. As ironic as it was that creatures that fed off negativity should be subject to such fear, Sky took no pleasure in it. He had other things on his mind.
“We’ve been waiting for you to appear again. We owe you,” the heads said again.
“Hey, when’d you start referring to yourself as ‘we’?” Sky asked mischievously. “I must have hit you pretty hard to turn you into a schizophrenic.”
A bolt of flame erupted from the snake’s head, sending Sky into an evasive nosedive. He broke out of it and shot away from the platform in an instant as a second stream of fire scorched the air where he had been heading. Sky watched helplessly as the flames crashed into the walls of the cavern, shattering the ice sculptures and decorations and dropping them to the floor as little more than melting shards.
To add to the chaos, the fire had come close to many of the windigoes, who were ill-prepared for the sudden heat. They dropped to the floor unconscious as a shower of razor-sharp ice fragments rained down on them.
Sky skidded to a stop on an adjacent balcony. The Chimera was still facing him with two heads, while the snake head was still spewing flames in all directions, amplifying the sense of chaos in the chamber. “What, am I boring you so much that you think you only need two heads to deal with me?” he taunted, trying to force the Chimera to focus on him so the windigoes could regroup.
The lion smiled so widely that Sky thought its face would split. “We were not able to give you an appropriate display of our power last time,” it said by itself. “But here, in the heart of the mountain, perhaps you will better understand.” The Chimera lifted its front paws and slammed them into the platform dramatically. Almost immediately, the entire mountain seemed to shake as though it were about to collapse in upon itself.
“Oh, no…” Sky said as the terrible reality struck him. “EARTHQUAKE!”
Huge chunks of stone and ice began to fall all around him. The platform beneath him rocked dramatically before it broke cleanly from the wall and plummeted to the floor of the cavern where it exploded in a cloud of frozen mist. Sky caught himself and managed to take to the air as it began its descent. He thought he was safe for the moment when a crash from across the chamber drew his attention to where one platform had crashed into another as it had dropped from its place.
Which meant that more were probably on their way.
Sky barely had a chance to look up before the corner of one platform went whizzing past him, missing him by mere feet. He ducked through a cluster of platform fragments and nimbly bounced from surface to surface as three more balconies went spiraling by.
Suddenly, a deafening crack flooded the chamber, overwhelming all other sounds. Sky instinctively turned towards the source of the noise and was stunned to see one of the four massive central pillars give way at one point, causing it to burst, sending fragments of frozen shrapnel in all directions. He could only watch in awe as the column collapsed and crashed towards the debris-ridden floor. The roar of the column’s passing was like a tornado in Sky’s ears.
As he watched, he could distantly hear the voices of the Chimera, laughing hysterically as it wrought destruction upon the once-beautiful chamber. His chest swelled and his heart began to pound in his head. OK, I’ve had enough of this thing!
But before he could make a move, another sound caught his ear. It was barely audible against the deafening roar of the column’s collapse, but he heard it. He knew it too well. It was not the wail of a windigo, but the panicked scream of a pony.
Lily!
He spotted her, running frantically between the deadly shower of shards and spikes that came as the column hurtled towards the cavern floor. In a flash, Sky was streaking like a meteor, outpacing the doomed column to the ground. Not waiting for an invitation, Sky caught Lily in his outstretched legs and pulled upwards, racing to get to a platform before—
Too late!
The column collided with the ground with a crash that Sky thought would certainly cause his eardrums to burst. All around the chamber, most of the remaining balconies exploded as the cacophonous sound shattered them to pieces. The etchings and carvings in the walls of ice disintegrated into the air, creating a veritable airfield of dangerous floating debris.
The shockwave of the crash knocked Sky straight out of his trajectory, sending both he and Lily careening through the air. They made a rough landing on a mercifully mostly-intact platform that had been on one of the lower rings of balconies. They bounced wildly for a few meters before sliding to a stop. Sky felt sore all over, and he didn’t need to take a look to know that his coat was probably in tatters and his face was scratched and nicked all over. A thick frozen mist veiled his view, so he figured he was safe from the Chimera’s sight for the moment. He quickly scanned the platform for Lily, who had landed about twenty feet away. He scampered over to her, dodging the still-falling debris.
“Lily! Lily, talk to me! Are you alright?” he asked hurriedly.
He heard a groan as she lifted her head and shook it for a moment. Her eyes opened slightly before they grew wide again. “Sky, this is terrible! Look at this! This is...” She stopped short. With a quick gasp, she said in a hushed voice that Sky barely heard over the lingering sounds of the unfolding disaster, “Where is it? Where’s the…the Chimera?”
Sky never got a chance to answer. A deep, rumbling voice broke through the wails of the windigoes and the maniacal laughter of the Chimera. “Prepare yourself, creature! For none may come to my home unbidden and live to walk out again!” the King said.
The Chimera’s laughter stopped. “We seem to have thoroughly destroyed this place. What home is it that you are defending?” it sneered.
“Fool! You will perish here! For I am King Icevein of the windigoes, and here, my word is law!” the King bellowed. A bright blue flash pierced the mist where Sky and Lily were waiting.
A brilliant burst of yellow answered in return. “Hahaha! Our flame burns brighter than any ice can extinguish! It is you who are the fool, King Icevein, for there are none now that can stand against us!” The yellow glow grew painfully intense, and Sky could feel the heat radiating against his body. He clambered to his feet just as a deep roar echoed throughout the chamber.
“How…how can you be…this powerful?” The King’s voice was weak now, as though it took an effort to talk.
“Enough!” Sky shouted. His voice came out strong again, and it filled the chamber. “Your quarrel is with me, and I’m eager to see it done!”
There was a pause. “Ah, so he lives still? Good. We had hoped that you would still give us some entertainment.”
“Oh, I will.”
“But tell us…how will you summon the storm? We are underground now, pegasus.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that.”
The mist around Sky began to swirl around him, tightening up into a whirlwind. He turned to Lily, who was looking at him with concerned eyes, and he felt his heart beat within his chest as each breath made him feel like he was going to burst with energy. He felt his courage and determination rise as he stared into Lily’s ever-widening eyes. He spread his wings, causing electricity to arc from them to the icy platform beneath his hooves. “I am the living lightning. The Chimera’s Bane. I am the pegasus Sky Streak, and I am the storm.”
The Chimera’s silhouette appeared as the mist dissipated. “You talk big, pony. But what’s the rush? It’s been so long…why don’t you tell us how you’ve been?” it mocked with a trio of cruel grins.
Sky snarled. But then, a thought occurred to him. There are still a few things I don’t know. Let’s just see what I can get this thing to tell me. “Alright, fine. Why’d you come to Polarmino?” he asked, lowering his wings, but not his guard.
The Chimera sat down and looked at Sky with three pairs of disinterested eyes. “We believe we asked you a question first.”
Seriously?
“I’ve…been alright,” he said in an irritated tone. “You?”
“Splendid!” the Chimera shouted with glee. “Now, to answer your question, we thought that would be obvious. We sought to utilize the windigoes, of course.”
“And you took the form of one of them to be able to hide away in their colony?” Sky asked.
“Hide? We think not. We were biding our time.”
“Sorry, I misspoke,” Sky replied coolly. “And of course you tried to create strife between the ponies and the windigoes by imponiating two of the leading figures of the town.” He decided to change the conversation’s direction for a minute. “So tell me, what exactly happens when you copy a creature? What happens to them?”
The Chimera reared back with a howl of laughter. “You still haven’t figured that out? Why, it’s so simple! They simply become a part of us.”
“What?!”
“That’s right. That windigo that we copied, the shattered remains of Night Mare Moon, and even those two old geezers from your precious village are all part of our existence now.”
Sky’s vision went red with rage. “You MONSTER!!!” His wings extended instantly as he prepared to charge.
The Chimera seemed to ignore him. “It was a perfect scheme. It would ignite a war between the windigoes and ponies that would weaken both kingdoms to the brink of collapse. Who knows, maybe we could have gotten more lands involved, leaving them perfectly vulnerable to our plans for their demise.”
The beast rose back to its four paws. “But the only thing that could have gone wrong—the only possible weakness—did go wrong. You came.”
“Of course,” Sky realized. “I would see the evidence and piece it all together. I was the only pony that knew about you and your ability to change form. I could see the evidence properly because I was the only one who had all the facts. I was the only pony that would understand everything and come to the proper conclusion.” He gazed at the Chimera as he began to realize how infuriating it must feel to have been foiled—twice—by the same pony.
“Which reminds us…how did you know where to find us?” the Chimera asked.
“Because the windigoes were there, duh,” Sky mocked, enjoying the chance to turn the tables on his enemy. “The windigoes had never been known to bother the colony before, so they essentially had no reason to travel to it now. They had to have some way of knowing that there was a conflict worth travelling there for. And the only way they would know that is if something told them about it. And the only creature worth listening to would be a windigo. Which meant that you would need to take the form of a windigo to get them to travel to Polarmino. And there’s hardly a better place to hide out than in the home of your enemies, am I right?”
“We told you, we were not hiding,” the Chimera hissed.
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting that. Must be the look of fear in your eyes.”
The Chimera looked like it was about to foam at the mouth after Sky’s final remark. “You will die, pegasus,” it growled. “But not before we have caused you as much pain as we possibly can.”
Sky smiled smugly. “I accept that challenge.” He quickly glanced around the chamber. “So, I guess that means it’s time for me to do my thing and beat you again.”
“We know as well as you do that you were nothing more than lucky to survive last time. You will not be so fortunate again.”
“Said the loser,” Sky replied as he shot across the chamber, leaving streams of electricity in his wake.
He closed the distance to his foe in a split second. The Chimera had barely had a chance to raise a single claw before Sky slammed into it, discharging a surge of magic as he made contact. The Chimera reeled backwards from the force of the blow, roaring in pain. Sky brought his hind legs forward and kicked, simultaneously sending the beast crashing onto its side and launching himself high into the air. He twisted into a somersault, then, calling upon his determination and will, shot towards the platform like a thunderbolt, hoping to smash the Chimera right into it.
But the monster surprised him by rolling away with startling speed, sending Sky right into the platform. It whined and cracked upon impact, opening a hole in the middle. Sky tore through the hole at an alarming speed. He barely managed to pull out of the dangerous nosedive before he crashed into the ground, then turned upwards to re-engage his foe.
He nimbly dodged a blast of searing flame that greeted him as he approached. The Chimera spewed its deadly breath in all directions, effectively creating a nigh-impenetrable grid of flame to shield it from attacks. Wow…it HAS gotten better.
Sky shifted positions in the air, searching for some way to get past the wall of flame that held him at bay. He watched every move, looking for a window to make a pass. Finally, after waiting several tense moments, he saw his chance. Gathering his wits and power, he shot straight for the Chimera, moving like he had been fired out of a cannon.
As expected, all three heads moved to intercept him as he approached. He twisted his body away from the fire just long enough to reach the Chimera’s body. Instantly, he flattened himself as much as he could as his hooves made contact with the icy surface. He skidded along beneath the Chimera, popping up behind it and planting a hoof into the face of the serpent head.
By the time the goat head had managed to turn around, Sky had already gotten above it. As the inevitable inferno erupted from its mouth, Sky fixed his hooves on both sides of its head and twisted it forward, where the third head had now turned to give chase to the pegasus. In a blinding blaze, the lion’s head was engulfed in the fires of its own making.
“Now THAT’S giving you a piece of your own medicine!” Sky shouted triumphantly, releasing the goat head and rising into the air. But his ecstasy gave way to disbelief as the goat ceased its flaming assault and the lion’s head reappeared, looking completely unharmed (and a little peeved). Well…that was disappointing.
“Did you truly think that we could be harmed by our own flames?” the three voices said in unison, though they spoke with a threatening chill that caused Sky’s stomach to clench like a fist.
He dodged to the ground as more flames erupted past him. He narrowly avoided a vicious kick when he felt something coil around his rear right leg. Looking back, he saw a serpentine body wrapped around his leg, with its head drawing in breath for what Sky could only imagine as a burst of flaming death.
Sky twisted back and smashed the head into the platform with a free hoof, causing it to release his leg. He hesitated for just a moment, trying to calm his nerves as he got over just how close he had been to an unpleasant fate.
And he realized, too late, what a mistake that had been.
Something solid and powerful slammed into his body, sending him careening through the air and sending his senses reeling. His sense of direction evaporated as the only sensation his brain registered was the pain of the sudden impact of the Chimera’s paw. His trajectory came to a sudden stop when he crashed into something, but in his barely conscious state, he wasn’t sure if it was the floor or a wall…or the ceiling, for that matter.
He was dimly aware of a shrill ringing in his ears. He could feel something pressing up against his stomach, so he assumed that he was lying face-first on the ground, though that hardly mattered. His mind was spinning like a top, and whenever he opened his eyes, all he could see was one big blur.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt an impending sense of danger, as though something was urging him to get up and move. He tried to bring his world into focus, though the most he could do was make out a mixture of ugly colors in the center of his field of vision that seemed to slowly grow bigger with each passing moment.
Somewhere amidst that incessant ringing in his ears, he heard a voice—no, a group of voices. “And so it ends, pegasus.”
I…I know that sound.
The warning in his head burst into color as about a million red flags rose at the sudden recollection of his situation. But no matter what he did, Sky’s brain simply could not make his body respond. He was totally vulnerable. The Chimera had him.
“You fought well, but it could end no other way. Farewell.”
Sky saw the Chimera’s blurry form rear back for a moment before a blast of yellow and orange engulfed his vision. He could feel the heat from the fire as it hurtled towards him. He closed his eyes and let his head fall.
I’m sorry, everypony.