Gloom and Doom

by casualbrony10

United We Stand

Gloom sensed that his spell had found Princess Twilight. With a thought he commanded it to attack. As a side note he also learned that another bearer had been located. In another part of town his cloud entered the Carousel Boutique. Gloom aimed most of his magic at the princess but diverted a little to Rarity. 4 elements of harmony had already escaped him and he needed to get at least one to ensure his own safety. Gloom shivered as he recalled being he was shot by that rainbow, it was second of only two times in his existence that he really thought he would die. That brought back memories of the first time, which Gloom immediately shut out. "No! He refused to recall the first time. The burning, the blinding light, the screams of his dying brethren, that cloaked pony... NO! He would make sure that he would never again feel that. All the ponies will pay for that," he thought as he focused his hate into his spells.

Rarity jerked out of bed, her slumber interrupted by a sudden screeching noise. The sight that greeted her almost gave her a heart attack. Her cat Opal was shrieking and frantically trying to escape a large cloud of darkness that was filling most of her house. Thinking quickly, she grabbed Opal with her telekinesis and opened her window to climb out onto the roof. It wasn't very far down to the street below and her intention was to simply float herself down with telekinesis. Then she saw that the same darkness had covered Ponyville and there was nowhere she could go. In a panic, her first thought was if Sweetie Belle was okay, then she remembered with some relief that the filly was spending a few days out of town with their parents. Rarity screamed as the darkness surrounded her. It was the worst feeling she could imagine. The shadow was cold and constricting, it held her in place as a sinister presence entered her terrified mind. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't see. Somewhere nearby she heard Opal shriek. After what seemed an eternity a voice echoed in her mind. "Interesting. You really take the words shallow and delusional to whole new level Miss Rarity." The words came with a hiss and the voice was cold as ice. "You actually wanted to marry this Blueblood fellow, why, cause he's a prince? You hadn't even met him." A laugh echoed through her thoughts, but it had no mirth, it sounded like ironic or mocking laughter. "So much to work with here. You care more about the opinions of a bunch of snobs than your friends. It looks like the only thing you care about is money and pony's who possess it. That makes sense, I see a lot a of greed in your past. You're the element of generosity? Really?" Again the laughter. "I don't see a bearer of harmony. I see a spoiled, stuck up, little diva that wants to be better than everypony else and would give up anything for some shiny little trinkets. And what is this accent? You're the only one in your family that speaks that way. Oh, I see, you wanted to sound more cultured when you were a filly, so you adopted it. Not pleased with your family you ungrateful brat? I'm surprised anypony likes you, let alone loves you. This dragon, this Spike, you don't return his feelings at all. Understandable, he's just a kid, but you continue to lead him on, using his affection for you to get what you want. How cruel. I sense you are surprised. You never once thought about any of these things have you? No you've been content to make gaudy, ugly, overdone dresses!"

Tears flowed down Rarity's eyes. Everything she ever regretted was being thrown back in her face and mocked. What kind of horrible creature would do this? What made it all the more painful was that there was some truth to it's rant. This was not the illusions of Discord or the lies of the Nightmare. These were not what ifs born of fear or doubt, these were real memories, real actions that could never be undone. It was like she was speaking to herself at her worst, the darkest possible side of her personality, that petty, spiteful, selfish creature that she sometimes became. The unicorn slowly slumped to the ground, covering her ears in a desperate attempt to make the voice stop. "Rarity!" Suddenly a familiar voice called to her from above, stopping her mind from sliding into the abyss. She looked up in time to she Rainbow Dash barreling towards her at high speed. Behind Rainbow she could make out Fluttershy struggling to keep up. Rainbow shot right through the darkness and grabbed onto Rarity in an attempt to carry her out of the shadow's reach. However, Gloom was ready for a rescue attempt and the shadows clung to Rarity, pulling her down and threatening to engulf them both. Fluttershy swooped down and joined Rainbow in the tug of war with the dark fog. Liquid shadows, stronger than the gaseous ones, pooled around Rarity's legs and the three mares started to be overpowered.

"Leave me! Save yourselves! I'm not worth it anyway!" Rarity yelled, tears still streaming down her eyes.

"No way! I'd rather die than let you get caught by that thing!" Rainbow said as she flapped with all her might.

"Of course you're worth it Rarity." Fluttershy's voice was calm and comforting despite the fear in her eyes and the struggle taking place.

"But everything it said, I saw it, I remembered it. It's all true." Rarity's head hung in shame as the shadows slithered up her torso, pulling them all further down.

"I know, it did the same thing to me. But trust me, it only shows the bad things, if you don't give in then it'll go away. We are good ponies. You are a good pony. If you weren't, then you wouldn't have friends who love you. Please Rarity." Fluttershy's eyes were pleading and tears welled in at the corners, but a small loving, sincere smile was on her face.

"OH CRUD!" Rainbow yelled as the darkness opened up to engulf the three ponies. Rarity looked at her friends, then at the darkness. For a moment she was unsure, then she wiped the tears from her eyes and glared at the darkness with new strength. If her friends supported and cared for her that much then she refused to give up. Her horn glowed and a flash of light shot from it, surprisingly powerful for a unicorn with modest magical talent. For an instant, the shadow's grip on her loosened. Rainbow and Fluttershy gave a final tug and pulled her free of its grasp. The three flew off as fast as they could, Rainbow carrying Rarity and Fluttershy close behind.

Gloom had no idea what had just happened. He had the unicorn almost fully under his power, and yet somehow she broke free by drawing on some inexplicable well of mental strength. Was this harmony magic?

"Pinkie?! What's happening? What is that fog? How did ya go through it?" Applejack stammered as she spoke, then she gasped,"Applebloom! Granny, Big Mac! We have to go back for em!"

"Sorry Applejack, that fog had covered all of Sweet Apple Acres as we left. I only had the chance to save you. Don't worry though, it just puts ponies in weird sad trances. I'm sure once we friendship up whoever or whatever is doing this everypony will be fine and we can have a victory party. Oooh! I'll think of a song we can sing, or maybe we can sing 'Let the the Rainbow Remind You' again, I liked that one." Pinkie was chipper as always as she started walking, or rather, bouncing, towards town.

"And another thing, how were ya able to save me? You walked through that stuff like it was nothin."

"Well you see I couldn't sleep so I went to the edge of the forest to pick bluebells since my supply was running low. Then my Pinkie sense started tingling and that's when all this black stuff started covering town. I ran in and tried to help ponies, but once that stuff covered them they wouldn't listen. A lot of them didn't even notice I was there. Then the fog tried to grab me and this scary voice started saying mean things, but I didn't pay attention. I mean, why would I pay attention to a voice with nothing nice to say. The black stuff was all gross, but I found out that if I run really really fast it just slips off. I still can't go into the really thick parts of the fog, but I can run through the edges no problem. I decided to look for you and the others so that we could do our harmony thing and fix this. Sorry I left your family back there but it was hard enough to carry you and run fast at the same time. Hey, maybe I should start working out! I heard Bulk Biceps is trying to start a gym."

"Pinkie, focus! How were ya able to just ignore that. I mean that's dark magic if ah ever seen it."

"Don't know. Whatever it was seemed to want me to be unhappy, but how can I be unhappy when I have so many things to be happy about?"

"Positive thinkin? That's it? Hmmm, maybe you being the element of laughter and all makes it harder to get you down. Whatever, we need to find the others. We should go to Twilight's first, if anypony knows how to fight dark magic it's her." The two galloped off towards town.

There was no time to think, no time to react. One second Twilight was looking at a peculiar mist seeping in through a window, the next she was on the ground. It was like an explosion of shadow and darkness. Tendrils of liquid shadow smashed through her windows and hurled her backwards into a wall. Twilight struggled to her hooves, battered and disoriented. By instinct she cast a basic shield spell around herself. The darkness pressed against the small violet bubble which began to crack. The shield bought Twilight a few precious seconds, enough time for her to shake off the initial pain and shock at the surprise attack and defend herself. She cast a much stronger shield and focused on maintaining it against the onslaught. Her multitasking skills developed through years of organization and making extensive checklists came in handy as she managed to keep up her shield and quickly analyze her adversary at the same time. She recognized the school of magic she was facing, obtenebration, not just dark magic, but literally the magic of dark. Obtenebration granted power over shadows, darkness, and the ability to snuff out light. It was a very old school of dark magic that few knew of, the only reason Twilight knew was through her studies into dark magic. She also heard whispers, thoughts that were not her own, something was trying to enter her thoughts.

After defeating Sombra, Twilight gained permission from Celestia to study the old archives in Canterlot, including the tomes on dark magic. Celestia felt that Twilight needed to understand dark magic to better combat it. The restrictions Celestia gave were that Twilight could only read the tomes, not use any spells in them, and that Twilight must not read any of the words aloud as that could activate hidden spells. It wasn't that she didn't trust Twilight, it was that dark magic could do terrible things to a pony, like what happened with Rarity and the inspiration spell. Another restriction was a list of books Celestia gave her that she must not read. Celestia explained that those particular books held secrets that are better left forgotten. When Twilight asked what kind of secrets, the answer was chilling. Celestia said that those books held instructions on how to enter and attack the minds of others. Twilight at first thought she meant hypnotism or mind control spells, but Celestia explained that it was possible to dominate others through sheer force of will without complex spells. What made it dangerous was that while conventional domination spells simply suppress consciousness, mind magic can alter it on a fundamental level. Nopony should possess that kind of power, regardless of intentions. Celestia then instructed Twilight on how to defend herself if she ever felt her thoughts were being invaded or read.

That lesson came in handy and allowed Twilight to utilize her own willpower as a defense against her assailant. But she wouldn't last long against an assault like this, not without tapping into dangerous amounts of magic. She tried to move, but the slightest lapse in concentration allowed the enemy to force it's way deeper into her consciousness. Seconds passed, then minutes as the two wills battled physically and mentally. Twilight began losing ground, her attacker seemed to get stronger by the minute. Her shield shrank until it was only a few inches from her fur. It started grasping at her memories, it called her a tool, mocked her devotion to Celestia and her friends. It gloated over her ocassional bouts of obsessive compulsive disorder, her insecurities, her weaknesses. It sought to break her, and slowly it did.

"Twilight!" Spike stood in the kitchen doorway with Sunset. They had come to investigate the crashing noise and found Twilight fighting for her life. Sunset cast a spell and a wall of light sprang up between Twilight and the darkness. Spike ran to Twilight's side. "Twilight are you okay!? What is that?"

"I'm okay, just exhausted. We need to get out of here, whatever dark magic this is, it's powerful. We need to find the girls and use rainbow power." Sunset was sweating and cracks were forming in her shield, but she had bought Twilight the time to cast a teleport spell. The three friends reappeared on the outskirts of town.

"Woah. It's everywhere." Sunset whispered as they looked at the fog covered Ponyville.

"Who could have done this?" Twilight stated with tears in her eyes.

"There they are!" Fluttershy flew towards them with Rainbow carrying Rarity close behind. The white unicorn was crying.

"It got Opal, my poor Opalescence!"

"Thank Celestia we found you. Ponyville has gone to Tartarus, that black stuff is putting everypony in some kinda trance." Rainbow set Rarity down and landed beside them.

"Has anyone seen AJ or Pinkie?" Spike asked.

"HERE WE ARE!" Pinkie yelled from about a hundred yards behind them. Applejack was galloping next to her.

"We gotta find what's causing this, those clouds have mah family!" Applejack begged.

"I hope it's a horrible monster. I always wanted to have an awesome epic battle with a monster" Rainbow cheerfully stated.

"This is serious! Whatever we are up against is a powerful magical being. It can manipulate thoughts and control darkness at a level rivaling or even surpassing Sombra and Nightmare Moon." Twilight said decisively.

"She's right, that was obtenebration, high level magic," Sunset agreed.

"How do you know about obetenebration?" Twilight wondered.

"Oh, well I kinda dabbled in dark magic back when I was still Celestia's student," Sunset was embarrassed, "I snuck into the archives and stole books on it. It sounds bad, I know, but I stopped a while ago."

"Did you ever read books on mind magic?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, that was when I really started to go to some dark places. I wasn't good at that one though. I needed to use a lot of magic to make it work. In fact the only time I sorta used real mind magic was when I was a she demon and I seized control of all those students." Sunset looked down, ashamed.

"Don't feel so bad, your knowledge might do some good now. When I was fighting that darkness, I think it tried to use mind magic on me. I could only try to shut it out, not counterattack, but maybe you can if we need to," Twilight comforted her.

"Psshh, we'll be fine, all we gotta do is find whatever is doing this and blast it to stone, or send it to the moon, or turn it good, or whatever it is rainbow power does. I just like all the pretty colors," Pinkie bounced around and continued to chatter as the others began to discuss what to do next. Twilight conjured some parchment and a quill and promptly sent a letter to Celestia informing her about the situation. Rainbow flew up high above town to see where the smoke was coming from. Rainbow returned after she saw plumes of smoke coming from beyond the other end of town. The seven mares and one dragon rushed off together around the outside of town, avoiding the dark clouds and heading for the source.

"So, they come for me," Gloom brooded from his hilltop, "Let them, I am ready."

Author's Note:

Yay! New chapters finally done.

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