Gloom and Doom

by casualbrony10

Prologue

The ground shook as Lord Tirek stomped through the Everfree Forest. He smiled to himself as animals ran and hid from him. He felt his new magic surging through him. The combined magic of those 5 ponies and Discord had more than doubled his power, even the little dragon had a small measure of magic. He understood why Discord was powerful, after all, he was the spirit of chaos, and dragons, even babies, were naturally powerful, but he wondered why the ponies had boosted him so. Discord had called them the element bearers, what did that mean? He shrugged off the thought, it didn’t matter, he had their power now, and soon he would have the alicorn magic, then he would be a god.

He continued through the forest, following his magical sense to Twilight’s location. He didn’t like going through Everfree, the forest always seemed to shift and nothing was ever where it was before. The only constant was that old ruin in the center. Tirek sensed an incredibly powerful magic emanating from there, he couldn't wait to consume it, but he dared not challenge such unknown power until he had the alicorn magic. Tirek could only take magic from something that was weaker than him, anything of equal or greater strength was immune to his draining ability, unless of course it gave of its own free will. He pondered what could radiate such power, it still surpassed him even with the magic of thousands of ponies and discord powering him. Was it some sort of primordial magic or maybe a ley line channeling the energies of Equestria? Whatever it was it felt ancient, older than Celestia or Starswirl, maybe even as old as the land itself. Tirek smiled as he thought of what he could do with such power, maybe it would even make him omnipotent.

Suddenly Tirek came upon a clearing. It looked like a small meadow with a large rock in the center. Tirek was about to walk right through without hesitation when he sensed something. The rock seemed to radiate an old, powerful magic. He moved closer and examined it. The rock was stone, smooth to the touch. It resembled a large sphere, about 8ft high. It was featureless except for a small, but intricate carving of ponies crying into huge lake of tears. The lake and tears were colored black. The most disturbing part was a large face formed by the waves on the lake's surface. It was simple, just two sockets/whirlpools for eyes and a large wave forming a mouth, but the face was twisted as if the lake itself was sobbing uncontrollably. Tirek felt the magic within the stone. The surface felt warm and brought feelings of happiness to mind, he probed deeper, but was met with resistance, as of the stone was trying to hide whatever was within. Tirek prepared to consume the magic, normally he would have been more cautious, but his new found power greatly dwarfed that in the stone and he reasoned that whatever enchantment it had would be dispelled without magic to power it. The stone was drained within a few seconds. Tirek smiled as he grew another few inches and glowed. He walked away, eager to finish his conquest of Equestria. What he didn't notice was that the magic he had taken from the stone was only the outer part, a spell meant to conceal and contain the core. The center of the rock still held something within, something that was now free.

The stone cracked and a trickle of black liquid oozed out. It pooled around the base until it formed a large puddle. The ooze thickened and began to take shape, building itself up into a mound. Some parts hardened into bone-like structures dripping with the liquid. It stopped once a skeletal structure had formed. The upper skeleton was equine, but that of a full sized horse instead of a pony. The skeleton was only of the frontal half of a horse, with the spine ending in a pool of the thick, black ooze where its pelvis and legs should have been. Its arms ended in clawed hands instead of hooves and from the empty eye sockets thin streams of the liquid flowed down the skull like tears. The creature was about twice as tall as the average pony. Once it had finished forming it started making quiet sobbing noises, as if it were crying uncontrollably. It dragged itself by its claws, leaving a trail of the black liquid which evaporated into grey fumes that rose into the air. The liquid never seemed to run out no matter how much it left behind.

A huge explosion from the edge of the forest drew the creature's attention and it moved to investigate. A huge centaur suddenly grew in the distance, getting bigger and bigger until it towered over the trees. The creature watched as the centaur began to destroy everything around it before a bright light rose up from the center of the forest. Six small figures could be made out in the multicolored light. The creature watched with interest as the centaur lost a short battle with the light and shrank before vanishing in a rainbow. Immediately the creature traced the spell that teleported the centaur with a thought, for this was no mere animal. It could think, and right now it thought that the centaur would be miserable after losing. There was no misery as deep and satisfying as that of broken pride or humiliation.

The creature continued to watch as the light exploded outward across the sky. It cringed as it felt a wave of happiness and warmth spread over the land, righting all that was wrong. A rainbow soon arced from the center of the forest to a distant town, where a crystal castle sprang up out of nowhere. The creature felt a surge of joy spread across Equestria and recoiled in pain. It stood still, shuddering until the feeling subsided. Then it turned, noted the town's location, and started its journey to Tartarus.

Author's Note:

This was from an idea that popped into my head. I've never written fan fiction before and I have no idea where this will end up. I don't own MLP:FIM, that belongs to Hasbro and they do a better job with it than I ever could. Criticism is welcome and encouraged! I thank the Fim fiction community for letting me express my creativity.