….Fairy Tail was a Dark Guild?

Magnolia wasn't a safe place, plain and simple. Especially after the Dark Fairy, Mavis Vermillion worked her way into the town, and usurped Blue Skull as its ruler. Now, the people of Magnolia tip-toed their way through the town, so as to avoid the gaze of Fairy Tail. And anyone who hoped to visit Magnolia had to be careful as to not draw their attention. It was constantly raining in the town, due to an enchantment by one of the guild's members. The message was clear for the people: you have no hope.

The guild hall was in the center of town, towering over all the buildings, including the Cathedral that once served as Blue Skull's head quarters. Mavis had it placed the blue dragon skull of Blue Skull upside down on top of the cathedral to remind the people of who now ruled them. Inside of the guild hall, the building was quite large, with an open drinking hall, with the banner of the guild draped over it. There was a throne beneath it, where the Mistress of the guild, Mavis, sat.

The hall was currently bustling with people. As a dark guild, they didn't receive jobs; instead, they got income through racketeering, and subjugating the dark guilds. There was talk about Mavis having a larger plan, but nobody dared to question the Lady. So, Fairy Tail generally spent their days going about bullying others into giving them proper tribute, or drinking and brawling in their hall. Fortunately, no one died, but that was mostly again because of Mavis keeping the guild members all in line.

"Those punks down in Gorgon Hair have been skimping on the protection payment lately," a purple haired man named Macao said, looking over the records.

"Those bastards are a bunch of idiots," a guy with a cigarette in his mouth named Wakaba said, "Don't they realize their only alive by the grace of the Lady?"

"Don't worry," Macao said with a dark grin, "They were just sent a 'reminder', about payment."

(somewhere in Fiore)

The dark guild, Gorgon Hair was located deep in a forest, opposed to a town like Fairy Tail. Supposedly it kept them hidden, but for someone with experience tracking, finding it was quite easy.

Now Gorgon Hair was among Fairy Tail's vassals. It gave Fairy Tail tribute, and supported Fairy Tail when it was needed. In exchange, Fairy Tail didn't come and kill every last member. It was a pretty good deal, especially considering the kinds of people Fairy Tail had on its side.

Standing before the guild hall were two people. One was a woman with long scarlet hair, wearing armor with the symbol of Fairy Tail on it. She was carrying a long scimitar. The other was a man wearing a black, sleeveless trench coat, and white pants, with spiky pink hair. He gave a massive grin and cracked his neck.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Do you even need ask that?" the woman answered. With that, the man suddenly launched forward, and slammed his fists into the door, which burst open. The members inside were caught completely off guard when a torrent of fire consumed several of them, leaving nothing but charred bodies. Shortly after, in a scarlet flash, several men were cut down. It didn't take long for everyone to realize what was going on.

"You're Natsu, the Burning Serpent!" one guy said, pointing at the man.

"And Erza, the Scarlet Bane!"

"Congratulations," Erza said sarcastically, "You can relay what people have told you." With that, she held up her sword.

"We'll have the money for Fairy Tail soon I swear!"

"Not good enough," Erza said calmly, "Besides, we can't have the others thinking that we've gone soft. All it took was one swing. Meanwhile, Natsu was clearly having the time of his life, as he roasted just about every guy who was too slow. What was going on couldn't even be called a "fight", it was more like a one-sided slaughter.

"Isn't anyone going to give me a challenge?" Natsu roared, steam leaking from his mouth.

"We need to leave some of them alive," Erza said, as she put a boot down on the head of another thug, "Its more efficient to keep them as a vassal."

"But that's no fun," Natsu said, baring his teeth.

"Its me who has to tell the Lady about losing tribute," Erza said, "Its basic math, more vassals, more tribute."

"Math is for wimps," Natsu said, cracking his neck, "Let's just raid their stash and take it all ourselves!"

"Aye sir!" Natsu looked down as a blue shape crawled up his leg, and onto his shoulder. It was a lizard with a long tail and blue scales. It had a red fin going down its spine.

"Let's just get it now!" Happy, Natsu's lizard partner said. Natsu named him that after Happy hatched, since after he hatched, he attacked and killed a mouse, and looked quite happy eating it. Mavis would later put a spell on him, allowing for Happy to talk.

"No, and that's final," Erza said, before looking around, "Now where's the Master?"

"Got get 'em, Happy," Natsu said.

"Aye!" Happy said. With that, he slithered off his partner, and into the shadows. After a minute or so of waiting, Gorgon's Hair's master stumbled out of a closet, Happy bitting his hand. Natsu moved to get him, but Erza beat him to the punch, literally, as she slammed an armored face into his schnoz.

"Care to say why your tribute is about two weeks late?" she then asked, picking up the master by the collar.

"Buis… Business is slow," the master forced out.

"How hard is it to just rob a train or something?" Natsu said, "Or a bank?"

"There's nothing good in the area!"

"Are you offering excuses?" Erza inquired, arching an eyebrow, as she spun her sword through her fingers, "You know our Lady doesn't like excuses."

"No Ma'am!" the master forced out, "I'll have your tribute next week, I promise!"

"Then its a shame I don't put any stock in promises from rats like you," Erza said, before holding up her sword, "And I'm afraid that and examples have to be made of men like you. Can't have the other vassals thinking that they can get away with this, now can we?" Before the man could even scream, she swung her sword. The master fell to the ground, in two pieces.

"I thought as much," Erza said with a sigh, as she wiped her sword clean, "What a pity, the Lady actually kind of liked you." She then pointed to one of the thugs on the ground.

"You!" she said.

"Y… Yes Ma'am!"

"Congratulations, you'e just been promoted!" Erza said, "Don't make the same mistakes!" After getting confirmation that it wouldn't happen again, which neither Erza nor Natsu believed in the least, they took their leave. Natsu tossed a black necklace to himself.

"What's that for?" Erza asked.

"For Lucy!" Natsu said with a dark grin, "You know how much she likes treasures like these!" Erza sighed.

"You have seriously poor priorities," she said. As they were walking by, the passed a dark mage who managed to escape by crawling away from the carnage. Natsu snapped his fingers, and the man promptly ignited.

"Do you have to do that?" Erza asked.

"What do you care?"

"I don't, but it smells terrible."

Note: A pet project I've been mulling about in my head. I would like to site Tales of Fairies as a point of inspiration in this. These will pretty much just be one shots, brief experiments with ideas. Though if some ideas prove popular enough, or interesting enough, they will be continued to an extent.

This idea was completely on a whim, and I'm honestly surprised there aren't more stories using this concept. Of course this concept does offer a series of limitations if you want to go all the way with it. But seeing as this is just a one shot, there's no need to go into complex detail like that. I understand this is short, but again, this is just a brief what would a dark guild version of Fairy Tail be like. Its not an attempt to do a full length story out of this.

There is no idea that is too outlandish or too silly. Any "what if" concept that one can think of is fair game. Though there are things I may not be able to do, but no guarantees either way.

Be sure to review, and prompt.