Gloom and Doom

by casualbrony10

Old, Far Off, Unhappy Things Part 1

Earlier, in Ponyville, Gloom silently directed his mist. As it overtook more of the townsponies he gathered information from their memories. The locations and basic information about the six bearers of harmony were among the first things he searched for. He focused intently as his fog of despair found some of his prey.

Rainbow Dash woke up in her bed, feeling uneasy. Something was wrong, she had a bad feeling in her gut and her gut had never steered her wrong. She looked around, nothing seemed to be out of place, just her normal cloudhome. The feeling persisted and she flew out her window to get a look around. The sky was the same as always and she started to relax as a cool breeze caught her wings, maybe she had just had a bad dream. Then she looked down and her heart skipped a beat. A huge black cloud had covered the area below her house and was starting to grow upward towards her. Now Rainbow knew the weather schedule by heart, and there wasn't supposed to be fog in Ponyville for weeks and her first instinct guessed that another dragon had decided to take a nap near town. Then she noticed that the smoke was only rising beneath her cloudhome, everywhere else it clung to the ground. Then the mist reached her house and seemed to penetrate and fill the little cloud. The mist shot out of the windows and moved towards her with surprising speed. Rainbow flapped her wings hard in an effort to blow it back and disperse the fog, but it only slowed it down and the mist almost reached her. Rainbow flew upward and barrel rolled to dodge the apparent attack.

"Okay, you're definitely not a normal cloud," Rainbow said to the mist as it attempted to reach her yet again, "But at least you're slow." She smiled as she evaded the fog's grasp, her skill in the sky was unmatched and she wasn't about to let some evil cloud catch her. Then she noticed that the cloud had covered most of Ponyville and realized that the earth ponies and unicorns might not be so lucky. With a look of concern, she flew off to find her friends. Meanwhile, Gloom growled in frustration, the pegasus was too quick for his clumsy mist, oh well, he will get her when she comes for the others.

Fluttershy was petrified. The huge, dark fog cloud surrounded her humble cottage and dozens of small animals cowered in fear behind her. She had no idea what was happening, only that animals had suddenly rushed to her home, fleeing the advancing cloud from nowhere that was consuming Ponyville. She shook in terror, as the fog closed in, only able to make a frightened squeak. As the fog came closer, she could hear whispers in her mind and she felt as if she was being watched. She had seen the fog seize hold of an unfortunate squirrel and put it into some kind of trance where it cried dark tears and was unresponsive to the rest of the world. This was definitely magic fog. She turned to look at the woodland critters that huddled behind her and saw that they were just as frightened as her. She had no idea why the animals came to her for protection, she was even more helpless than most of them, but they depended on her nevertheless. Fluttershy felt new determination flow through her, momentarily easing her fear. She couldn't let them down, she had to do something. She could fly away but there was no way to carry all the animals with her. That left just one thing. Fluttershy took a deep breath, steeled herself, and stared into the fog. To her horror, something stared back. It was as if her gaze had gone through the fog back to where it came from, she knew that the thing she stared at was responsible for this. She could see nothing of what it was or what it looked like, only cold blue eyes. At first she saw surprise in its eyes, then anger.

"You dare to force your will upon me little girl?" Fluttershy felt a will far stronger than her own bore deep into her head. She tried to scream as it tore open her deepest thoughts and shoved them in her face. "Wow! Are you sure you're the element of kindness? I see so many acts of hate here. Hmmm, where to start? Attacking animals in a mad attempt to force them to 'love you', becoming a bully just cause some minotaur told you, verbally abusing your friends, being turned into the element of cruelty, the list goes on." As Gloom spoke Fluttershy relived her worst moments and was terrified of what she saw. Was that really her saying all those things? No, Iron Will and Discord had made her that way, that couldn't have really been her. "Such denial, Iron Will did nothing, that was all you my dear. Discord did influence you, but he simply enhanced what was already there. You have always had that hate and cruelty in you. That's the reason you act so shy you know, it's your way of subconsciously suppressing your true nature. What I've shown you is the real you without inhibitions or cares. You're on your way to becoming a real sociopath Fluttershy, always the quiet one isn't it?" Fluttershy slumped to the ground, a small trickle of foam dripping from her mouth. She shook as if in a seizure then went still, out cold. Her mind, unable to handle the trauma of Gloom's influence, had shut down as a last defense. Gloom was slightly disappointed, he was denied the thrill of breaking her further, but he was still satisfied that his fog could move in to cover her. In an instant he seized the remaining animals and just as he was about to get the unconscious pegasus he was denied. Rainbow Dash swooped in through the final remaining hole in the fog above Fluttershy and in one motion scooped her up and flew off. Some of the fog clung to her, but the sheer speed at which she moved quickly dispersed it. Gloom roared in frustration.

Applejack trotted to her room, ready for a good nights sleep. She had just finished tucking in Applebloom and said goodnight to Big Mac and Granny Smith. She put her trademark hat on her nightstand and leaped into bed with an eager "Geronimo!". As she settled in, the window caught her eye and she noticed something strange. Normally the moon and stars shone brightly through her window, but instead it was pitch black. Last she checked it was a clear night. She got up to look out the window and to her shock there was nothing visible, not even the nearby barn. It was then that she realized that it was some kind of thick fog. Black mist began to seep through the windowsill and Applejack looked at it closely, it didn't smell like smoke from a fire, what was it? She touched a hoof to the mist. It reacted to her touch as if it was alive and wrapped around her leg. She felt something in her head, grasping for her thoughts. With a shout, Applejack jumped backward and pulled her hoof free. The fog actually attempted to hold on to her hoof and its grip was like iron, but Applejack's great strength aided her. The mist advanced with greater speed, trying to seize the earthpony. Applejack ran for her life. She dashed to Applebloom's room.

"Applebloom! Wake up! Somethin bad is happe-" Applejack stopped short as she came into her little sister's room, the mist had already surrounded Applebloom and it caressed her still form. The filly's eyes were wide open, but stared blankly at the ceiling with streams of black tears dripping down her cheeks. She was breathing but it came in ragged gasps. Applejack charged into the fog in a desperate rescue attempt, but it seized her and forced her to the ground. The presence invaded her mind again, this time stronger. It penetrated her deepest subconscious and laid her memories bare.

"Well if it aint honest Applejack," a voice pierced her thoughts and even adopted a mocking southern drawl. "So noble, so strong, and so dependable!" Applejack winced as the voice scraped in her head. "So selfish and proud, you really were willing to leave all of them, weren't you?" Her memories of the rodeo tournaments and subsequent self-imposed exile flashed before her eyes. "You placed second in so many events and felt you had failed them, so you refused to come back or even explain yourself. Do you know how worried your friends were? The lengths they went through to find you? And when they did what did you do? You coldly refused to come home and even broke a pinkie promise."

"Ah didn't break it, I ju-!"

"LIES OF OMISSION!" The voice roared, angered at her interruption. "You led your friends on a dangerous chase for the sake of your own pride. And did you even consider your family? What of them? Applebloom, Granny, and Mac not seeing their sister again? Do you even care about the feelings of others over your own stubborn pride?" The vision shifted again to the day she tried to harvest all of Sweet Apple Acres herself."Apparently not, considering you would rather work yourself half to death than accept help from anyone." As the voice spoke, it seemed to make more and more sense. Applejack felt dejected, was it true? Was she really a bad pony? NO! She was good, she may not be perfect but she was an Apple and Apples were good through and through, no ugly black cloud would convince her otherwise. Applejack started to rise off the floor, fighting against the magic holding her. She got to her hooves and thought about running for it, but she couldn't leave Applebloom. She inched towards her sister's comatose form, the fog's resistance intensifying as she got closer. She was almost within hoof's reach when suddenly a whip cracked in her skull. She saw visions of anguish that were not her own. Ponies all over Ponyville and the denizens of Tartarus wailed in her mind and under the strain she finally broke, collapsing to the floor. Just as she was about to give up hope, a crash sounded through the room. A pink blur smashed through the window and cut through the smoke. Applejack felt herself being thrown across somepony's back and carried swiftly through the broken window. Whomever had saved her was able to move through the smoke as if it wasn't there. It took AJ a few minutes to fully regain consciousness and by then she and her rescuer were at the edge of the farm, beyond the smoke cloud that had engulfed it. Her savior slowed to a trot then stopped, panting furiously. AJ dropped off her rescuer's back and stumbled to her hooves. Her vision was blurry and she had a splitting headache but was otherwise unharmed.

"Sorry about the window but it sure was dramatic!" A familiar voice said. AJ's vision cleared and she was able to see her rescuer clearly for the first time.

"Pinkie?!"

Gloom concentrated on his mist as it consumed Ponyville. His targets continued to elude him but they could not hide forever. Over half the town was in his grip now and with every bit his power grew. The sky darkened as he felt the success of his Canterlot counterpart. Luna had fallen and soon so would Celestia. He noted with satisfaction that his assault on the Crystal Empire had also begun.

Author's Note:

What do you think? Originally this was to be one big chapter but I decided to split it into parts to keep the chapter length fairly consistent. Please don't hate just cause Gloom points out the faults in the characters, what he says is not my opinion, it's just his character.