A powerful earth mare with a dark past seeks out the Element of Laughter to end all joy and happiness. Can one little filly stop her?
An earth pony mare with a mysterious dark power is bent on ridding the world of all joy and happiness and then cover it in total sadness and sorrow. But in order to do so, she needs to find and seek out the Element of Laughter... Pinkie Pie! What are the reasons behind this mare's ruthless actions; and can one little filly be able to change the darkness in her heart?
(This original story was inspired from an episode of the cartoon "Courage: the Cowardly Dog" called 'The Tower of Zalost'.)
(WARNING): Prologue is a bit depressing; not for the faint of heart
Laughter… what is… laughter? What does it even mean; laughter… it’s just a word to me, nothing more, nothing less. Sadness, sorrow, fear and strife; it’s all I’ve ever known my entire existence. The only moment of happiness that I could ever recall was the very day that I was born. But how can that moment bring happiness… when your very existence causes fear and grief around you?
During the period of my life, my home was located in a very poor town, and my parents… they weren’t exactly saints. However, my parents did love me and always cared for me; but sometimes… the need for money and profit made them drift slowly away from me as a matter of importance. The fact is a lot of ponies there would go through a lot and they would do almost anything to get profit. It was a rather difficult time. But me… I was just a normal little earth pony who was born into a world of risks, trials and tribulations.
Unfortunately… I was a lot less normal than I thought I was.
My loneliness, my sadness, and my pain; they seemed to grow bigger with every passing day, and a secret dark power hidden deep within me was soon making itself known.
As I grew up, I realized that everywhere I went other ponies were glaring at me and some were even shaking a bit from my presence. What was their deal anyway; I’ve never done anything wrong have I? No of course I didn’t; how could I?
But then one day, some ungrateful bullies came up to me and started pushing me around. They were calling me names like freak all because I had weird magic abilities and I was an earth pony. In my time, an earth pony with an unnatural power such as mine was a sign of evil. I did my best to ignore them, but at one point… I defended myself.
When the bout was over, the bodies of the bullies were in front of me almost motionless. They weren’t dead, but they suddenly wish that they were. Unfortunately for me, other ponies nearby saw what happened and became dreadfully afraid of me; and word spread throughout the town. I tried to tell the others that I didn’t mean to hurt the bullies like that, but they didn’t care; they neglected me, and no longer wanted anything to do with me.
This was so unfair; why did I have to be born like this. I was scared myself continuing to feel sorrow in my soul. I soon went to my parents to tell them of what happened; but to my horrible surprise, they decided to use the fear from the town to force more profit for themselves; to trick and scam other ponies to get what they want. To them, I suddenly became a miracle… but not of the sweet sentimental kind.
How could they; how could they use their own daughter like this?! They were being downright selfish! It was bad enough for everypony blaming me for being so strangely different, but now my own parents are just using me and everyone is learning to fear me even more… no matter how many times I try to deny it to them. Despite being named Amity (meaning love), the town even gave me a nickname, Gloom. Sweet Celestia, how did this come to be?! I was now nothing more but a weapon, using my own strange power to strike fear in others.
I begged my parents to stop using me in such a way, but they let the power go to heads and they no longer cared about what I thought about all of this. Pretty soon I just couldn’t take being used like this anymore. The very first chance I had, I ran away from my home; I mean there was no sense staying there anymore. The town ponies feared me and never wanted anything to do with me, and my parents were being selfish, greedy idiots! I had no friends, my family was now dead to me, and now… I’m all alone… with nowhere to turn to.
What has become of me; what kind of power do I have inside me? A power that causes others to cower before me; to make them gain a feeling that there’s no hope in the world; that all that exists is sadness and sorrow; fear and darkness. I don’t want that… at least… I don’t… think I want to.
I soon found myself wandering around the Equestrian grounds for a while; probably a few days, and I never bothered to make my presence known to anypony around; they would probably become freaked out by my unnatural power anyway, and totally fear me as well… causing me even more greif.
I soon found a deep cave where I could hide myself in and made that my new home. I knew that I was a little young to be living on my own, but I had nowhere to go; and the only place I could go was nothing worth going back to.
I didn’t know what I was going to do now and how I was going to live. What was my purpose; my reason for living? It couldn’t have been what I have been doing back at my home, could it? My heart grew lonelier, darker, and colder as I laid inside the deep dark cave; contemplating on everything that I went through back at home.
But then as I drifted off to sleep, I could hear a faint sound. It sounded like it was talking to me… whatever it was, and the info seemed important. This couldn’t have been a dream, could it? It told me of a purpose; my purpose, and what it meant. I don’t know, I thought that I was hallucinating… but I don’t think I was. What it was telling me… proved to be totally true. I’m different, and everypony is afraid me; and what my own parents were doing with me were unforgivable. Perhaps… my power does have meaning, and I really do have a purpose.
I’ve tried my best to be nice to everypony, and this is how they treat me?! And my parents should have treated me better. Soon it was all clear to me; I could feel that my sadness and grief was turning into dark hatred, and it was making me feel stronger… I liked it. I knew what I have to do; I had to share what I experienced to the same ones who wronged me.
I soon returned back to my hometown; but when I did, I found out that my parents were locked away like criminals since they no longer had me to cover them for their scams. Like I cared about them anymore; but now that I was back, fear returned to the other ponies. Good, keep feeling that way; if they feared me already, then now I’ll give them a real reason to fear me.
I used my power to cast a spell over the entire town that struck fear and grief into everypony’s heart; causing them to grovel and bow before me, and my parents… they were of no use to me anymore.
Pain, suffering, darkness… I used it all to show everypony what they had put me through; their abusive neglectness was now their undoing. Sadness, sorrow, fear and strife; I used to hate all of that and wanted to avoid it in any way I could. But now… I love it; I crave it; it’s what makes me stronger; it’s what makes me feel alive, and I wanted to experience it for the rest of my days. After all… if I can’t experience laughter… if I’m not allowed to feel joy and happiness… then no one can.
When living in a world filled with happiness and friendships, one must realize that not everything in life can be full of sunshine and roses. No matter how much of a bright personality one has; no matter how friendly your friends are in life; no matter how perfect your life may seem, everyone experiences sorrow and sadness in their own way. To some, their experience in sorrow might be more traumatizing than others; and they might hang on to that sorrow for quite some time, and it usually changes the way they act forever.
But when one is traumatized so bad that darkness has taken over their heart, is it ever possible for that heart to experience happiness again… especially when that heart has never felt happiness at all?
-----
In the little town of Ponyville, there are rather plenty of different ponies that have a lot to laugh and smile about; fillies, colts, mares and stallions alike. Ponyville has had plenty of ups and downs in the past and faced many challenges that may have left some scars on certain residents.
One certain little example is a young lavender unicorn filly named Dinky; Dinky Hooves to be exact. She is the daughter of none other than Derpy Hooves who was always doing her best to take care of her while working real hard at her job as a mail pony. Dinky was just outside trotting along on a warm, sunny afternoon wearing a little smile on her face. She caught some of the pony’s attention as they just greeted her…
“Good afternoon, Dinky.”
… and she greeted them back.
“Hello Miss Cheerliee!”
“What’s up Dinky!”
“Doing well, Rumble!”
“Looking good, Dinky; tell your Mother hi for me!”
“Thanks, and will do, Fluttershy!”
Dinky just seemed to be feeling a little happier than she usually is and that why she was getting noticed so easily. She didn’t know why, but she rather enjoyed the attention. She was carrying a little duffle bag on her side that held her recent allowance that she received the other day, and now she was headed to antique shop to see if she could finally buy something there that she really liked.
She got to the shop and the bell rang as she opened the door and walked inside; making herself known to the store owner named Miss Stone; Miss Emerald Stone.
“Ah… hello there Dinky; having another look-around in here again?”
Dinky just giggled a bit and shook her head, “Nope, not this time Miss Stone; I think I finally have enough to buy something special for me in here.”
The store owner looked at the little filly with an expression of astonishment, “Really, well good for you; make sure you pick out something nice and one that really calls to you.”
“Calls to me?” questioned Dinky.
“You know, one that draws your attention the most.”
“Oh, I get it now,” said Dinky, “Well don't worry, I’m sure there’s something here I'll like the most.”
Dinky was starting to have a little look around and was trying to decide a perfect little trinket for her to have; but it wasn’t going to be easy for her to decide.
“Ooh, this looks nice; but… it’s a bit expensive for me still.”
She kept on looking…
“Nah, this color is too bland for my tastes.”
… and looking…
“I like this one; ooh, but I like this one too!”
… and looking…
“Oh man, there are so many good ones!”
… and… looking. Pretty soon after some minutes, she just couldn’t make up her mind.
“Any luck finding something yet?” Miss Stone asked.
“No, not yet,” said Dinky while pouting a little, “I just can’t decide; a lot of things in here looks so good.”
But suddenly, her eyes suddenly started to light up as she suddenly caught a glimpse of something shinning in the corner of her eye, “Oh my Celestia.”
She walked up to a shelf near the front of the store where there were some beautiful crystal necklaces; but she used her magic to float a certain one down right in front of her. She was looking at it with such sparkling and bedazzled eyes.
“Wow, look at this; it’s… so beautiful.”
Miss Stone came over to her to witness her findings, “Ah, you found a pretty good one; you have a good eye.”
The necklace was very unique looking; in the form of three gold-colored rings overlapping each other and rainbow crystals glass all around with a sapphire stone smack-dab in the middle of it. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful trinkets she has ever seen.
“I think I found what I want; oh, I sure hope I can buy it,” Dinky hoped.
“You know, this is one of my favorite collectables that I am selling,” said the store owner, “In fact, there’s an interesting rumor about it.”
Dinky looked up at the store owner as her eyes shined brighter, “Really?”
She shook her head and held up the trinket giving it a good look, “An elder relative of mine gave me this when I was around your age and told me of how its symbol shape represents happiness. But nowadays I want someone to witness it too by selling it myself. However, rumor has it that it’s actually a magical charm that allows the bearer to feel more uplifting and is able to repel negative energies.”
Now Dinky was more interested in the necklace than ever; just hearing of what it could do for her was making her body all filled up with excited chills.
“You mean that this trinket… can help you feel more comfortable and happy around others?”
“Well yes,” the store owner chuckled, “that’s the rumor; but I highly doubt it’s true.”
“Well I still want it; so how much for… 35 BITS!!!?”
Dinky suddenly felt a little upset as she held her head down, “Aw man, I only have 20. I guess I can just wait a little more.”
Miss Stone knew how many times Dinky came into her store to look at the beautiful stuff she sells; she was technically a regular customer… sorta. She knew that she was really into that necklace, so she decided to cut her a break.
“Tell you what, you’re such a nice little filly and you visit my store all the time; so… how about I put this necklace on half-price, just for you. So what do you say?”
“Really, just 15 bits,” said Dinky excitedly, “are you serious?!”
“Of course, I understand how much you must want this necklace; after all… it’s the one that called to you, right?”
Dinky wasn’t quite sure what Miss Stone said about this necklace was true herself, but it definitely was making her feel happier the more she looked at it. Pretty soon, Miss Stone rung her up at the cashier and the necklace was now officially hers.
“There you go; I hope you really enjoy it, Dinky.”
“Thank you so much,” said Dinky, “I promise that I’ll take real good care of it!”
Dinky decided to not ask for a little bag because she decided to immediately put the necklace on around her neck; she just could. She then took her new necklace and happily walked out the door.
“Thanks again, Miss Stone!” she shouted out.
“My pleasure, Dinky;” Miss Stone responded, “Pleas come again soon.”
-----
After leaving the shop, Dinky couldn’t help but continue to look down at her new necklace; she felt so proud of herself for owning it. She was really looking forward to showing her friends what she bought... with her own money.
“Wow, this thing is so pretty,” she said to herself, “I can’t wait to show this to my Mommy.”
As she was walking down the street; skipping and prancing along, she suddenly halted in her step as a bouncy pink mare zipped right in front of her.
“Hiya, Dinky!”
“Oh, hi Pinkie Pie,” said Dinky as she looked up at the pink mare, “What’s up?”
“I hope you don’t mind me, but I couldn’t help but notice just how happy looked; smiling while skipping and prancing along in your path like that. So, what’s going on with you?”
“Well, nothing much,” Dinky said coyly, “except that I bought this beautiful necklace from the antique store!”
She suddenly held the necklace up into Pinkie’s view for her to see.
“Ooh, shiny!” shouted Pinkie with her eyes widen, “It’s so colorful and bright… and colorful!”
“Yeah, Miss Stone told me that it actually has the power to help you feel more comfortable and happy around others; and that it can repel negative energies. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but that kind of power sounds kinda awesome.”
Pinkie definitely agreed with her as she hopped up and down, “Wow that does sound so super duper excitedly awesome!” But then, something suddenly came to her memory, “Hey you know what? This trinket is somehow familiar to me; kinda reminds me of a story my Granny Pie once told me when I was just a little filly.”
Dinky was once again intrigued and curious of something she never knew, “What kind of story?”
Suddenly, Pinkie loomed over Dinky while waving her arms a bit and spoke in a spooky-like voice, “The story of… ‘Gloom, the Pony with no Laughter.’
Dinky became a little startled by Pinkie’s actions, but the level of her curiosity still didn’t change, “Oh my, sounds spooky.”
“Oh, it is;” said Pinkie as she continued to speak in spooky way, “It’s been said that a long time ago, in a far off land, there once lived a young pony who never experienced any happiness. She was shunned, picked on and feared by others because she was so different.”
“H-h-h-h-how different,” asked Dinky while shuddering as she was getting into Pinkie’s story.
“Well… she was just an earth pony, but she had strange ominous powers that no earth pony should have; some saw it as a sign of… EVIL. Some say that even her own parents mistreated her and used her.”
“That’s terrible!” shouted Dinky, “So, what happened?!”
“All I remember Granny Pie telling me is that the young pony soon grew in hatred and started to embrace her power; and before long she became evil! To this day she hates laughter; she hates happiness; she hates gleeful smiles!”
Dinky suddenly gasped upon hearing this, and she noticed Pinkie was starting to walk circles around her while continuing.
“They say that she still roams around these lands somewhere… looking for any signs of laughter and joy, and she’ll silence it… FOREVER!”
Dinky gasped even louder from Pinkie’s last line; this pony she was talking about definitely sounded scary. However Pinkie just smiled and started giggling.
“Hee, hee; but don’t worry, it’s just a story; it’s not real.”
Dinky was catching her breath and became slightly relived to hear that as she smiled nervously, “Oh, yeah; I-I-I-I knew that.”
“Besides,” said Pinkie, “if a pon like that really did exist, we’d be in a whole mess of trouble! I’m talking about Nightmare Moon spreading her darkness kind of trouble!”
“Yeah, that’s true,” said Dinky while sill catching her breath.
Suddenly, Pinkie looked up at the town clock and made a gasp sound, “Holey moley, look at the time! I gotta get back to Sugar Cube Corner!” She then skipped by Dinky to take her leave and waved back at her, “Catch ya later, Dinky; stay cheerful!”
“Bye Pinkie,” Dinky shouted back.
After Pinkie left, Dinky couldn’t help but ponder over Pinkie’s story. She lifted up her new necklace and looked at it; perhaps if the pony form Pinkie’s story was real, her necklace would protect her. It definitely sounded like a thought.
“Wow, I’m so glad Pinkie’s story isn’t real,” Dinky said to herself while smiling a bit, “A world without laughter sounds like such a total drag.”
-----
Before long Dinky walked all the way to her house feeling a major sense of excited joy; she couldn’t wait to see how her mother would react to seeing her with her new accessory. However, when she got there, it seemed like no one was home yet. She opened the door of her house called inside.
“Mom; Mommy, are you here?!”
A voice was then heard… behind her, “I’m right over… whoa!”
‘CRASH!’
Dinky quickly turned around only to look upward to see her mother dangling from a tree; her hooves and her mail bag straps all caught up in the tree’s branches. Derpy was wiggling around trying to get free, but became unsuccessful.
“Oh dear,” she said awkwardly, “not again.”
Dinky just sighed and smiled, “Oh Mom, you’re such a silly klutz.”
It was a slight strain for Dinky, but she was able to use her magic to safely float her mother and her bag down on the ground. Derpy just smiled at her daughter seeing how well she controlled her hold on her.
“Wow Dinky, you’re really getting the hang of your magic; I’m so proud of you!” She then frown a bit while looking at her own wings, “I sure wish I could a hold of my flying; where am I going wrong?”
“You’re a fine flyer, Mommy,” said Dinky while comforting her mother, “you just need to perfect it more; that's all. Oh, and by the way, noticed anything different about me?”
Derpy settled her screwy eyes on her daughter and was trying to figure out what she was talking about. She narrowed her eyes and was trying to figure it out.
“Hmmm… did you do something to your mane?”
Oh well, she tried. Dinky chuckled and shook her head, “No Mommy, it’s my new necklace that I bought from the Antique store. Well, it’s not new-new, but it’s new for me.”
Dinky held it up so her mother could have a good look at it. Its dazzling colors and brilliant design brought astonishment to Derpy’s yellow eyes.
“This is very pretty, Dinky; did you buy this with your own allowance?”
“I sure did;” said Dinky with a proud smile, “and I even have some left over that I’ll save for another time.”
Derpy was holding it with her own hoof to look at more of its details, “Hee, hee; I really like the gold colored rings; but there’s something about the whole design that brings a big smile to my face.”
“Well,” said Dinky, “the store owner at the shop did tell me that she thinks that this necklace has the power to repel and negate negative energies from the one who wears it.”
“Cool, that does sound pretty neat,” said Derpy; but then she let go of the necklace and sighed to heslef, “Well… there are definitely some certain things that I wish could be negated from my memories.”
Dinky looked at her mother concernedly knowing exactly what she was talking about, “A-are you talking about…”
Suddenly, Derpy covered her daughter’s mouth and shook her head while showing a bit of unsettledness in her expression “Yeah… but let’s not go into that, Okay?” Suddenly, a smile came back on her face as she led her daughter into their house, “Come on, I’m off for the rest of the day, so how about I make you a snack.”
“Oh, blueberry cookies; I love those!” suggested Dinky.
“Um… s-sure,” said Derpy while smiling awkwardly, “Anything for my little muffin.” But just when they were right at the door, Derpy looked down and smiled nervously at her daughter, “Umm… by the way, h-how do you make those again correctly?”
“Don’t worry Mommy,” said Dinky while giggling, “I can help you.”
Yup, Dinky and her Mother were definitely a very loving family together; probably one of the sweetest ones Ponyville has ever seen. But what exactly was that topic that Derpy was trying to avoid?
“Hey Mommy, I ran into Pinkie Pie today and she told a spooky story about a Pony who wants to cover the lands with sadness and sorrow.”
“Oh my, that sounds scary; I didn’t even hear the story!”
“Yeah, but don’t worry Mom, it’s just a story; it’s not like that pony actually exists.”
Sitting atop a giant Oak tree on top of a hill, a dark charcoal crow is gazing its surroundings around Ponyville. Its feathers were all ruffled and dingy, and its red eyes glowed with an ominous energy as it was sensing something from within the small town.
It made a dark low caw while flapping its wings in the air; it knew that what it was looking for was here. But just then, the crow heard someone call from below; someone with a soft, sweet and angelic voice.
“Why hello mister crow, are you searching for something?”
A yellow Pegasus mare with a pink flowing mane was looking up at it fascinated with it unusual look, “Do you need any help; I would be happy to…”
Suddenly, the crow looked down and stared intensely at the young mare with its red eyes catching her off-guard and causing her to yelp a bit in slight fear. The crow made a loud, harsh caw at her before spreading its wings and flying away from the vicinity.
“Aw, poor thing,” the mare thought to herself, “Something serious must be bothering him.”
The crow continued to fly off away from Ponyville; catching a drift in the wind to fly as fast as it could. It went so far as to fly at the far opposite edge of the Everfree Forest where a flat, rugged wasteland laid far and wide. Did someplace used to be here; no one could really say. The dark crow descended upon the rugged land and swooped into a dark tunnel inside a gigantic stone mountain that appeared to be just as dry and rugged as the land itself.
The inside appearance of the mountain was obvious; dark, spooky, ominous… and going in there would almost be a death wish. Dark energies engulfed the entire interior of the mountain; but it didn’t bother the crow as it continued to fly deeper and deeper into the mountain interior. The crow eventually descended onto the stone ground and walked the rest of the way until it came upon a warm, dark figure that almost felt alive; in fact, it was. A dark creature in a deep slumber and emanating a dark aura around its surroundings and it was not moving a single movement; that is until the crow came upon it cawed right up beside it.
‘Caw, caw, caw’
A slight movement awoke within the slumbering figure and it looked down at the bird that awoke it. A calm seldom smile came upon its face as it chuckled softly; not out of happiness but out of pure relief.
“Ah, it’s nice to see you again, girl,” it said while lightly patting the crow on the head, “Why have you come back?”
‘Caw’
The crow signified of what it has finally discovered.
“Really, you mean… you’ve found it; its power has finally returned?”
‘Caw’
The creature’s eyes glistened with pure menace and its body vibrating with excitement. It closed its eye and focused its power on its surroundings. She could still sense all of the pure positive energy around it and it was almost enough to make the creature want to puke. But when she felt a certain positive energy in Ponyville, a smile came upon its face. Not a happy smile, but a grim, evil smile.
“It’s been so long since I fed off fear and sorrow energies form others, and this place has shriveled up and died; it’s now nothing but a boring , lifeless wasteland. Good job girl; you’ve done well.”
The ominous creature slowly got up and stood upon its legs and flailed its mane around letting her powerful essence glisten all around it. It signaled the crow to come onto its shoulder and began to trot within the darkness and heads towards the outside. The creature almost winced in pain a little as it came out into the dark, dim light; it was so long that it saw the outside light. Once it regains composure, it raised its head out towards the distance ahead and lightly panted with anticipation.
“Finally… after waiting all these all these years… my destiny can finally go into effect. Happiness, joy… laughter… I can feel it all around me; it’s truly sickening. I have been allowing this to go on for far too long; but now it’s time for it all… to disappear.”
‘Caw… cooooo…’
“Come my pet; let’s go see what were up against.”
-----
Morning in the following day…
Dinky Hooves was trotting happily through Ponyville feeling excited for a new day at school; but today was a little special day at school. On her back she was carrying a little knapsack that housed a certain special item of hers and it was kept nice and snug. What was it; can’t you even guess?
“I really hope my classmates will like what I have for Show ‘n’ Tell,” she said to herself.
As she got closer to the schoolhouse, Dinky noticed two of her filly classmates up ahead in front of her; Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She knew that they can be sorta mean sometimes… well, mostly Tiara; but she just kept a pleasant smile on her face as she continued to head towards them.
“Hey Diamond Tiara; hey Silver Spoon!” she called out suddenly.
The two rich fillies quickly turned around feeling curious to see who was calling them. Silver Spoon smiled a bit and waved.
“Oh; hey Dinky!”
Tiara just glared at Silver Spoon and then stared solemnly at Dinky.
“Yeah, hello Dinky; you seem to be a bit more… cheerful than usual.”
“Is it that noticeable,” said Dinky while wagging her tail and smiling more brightly.
“Hmph; well, seeing that you’re all happy and stuff, you must have a pretty decent something for show and tell today; but, I bet it’s not as good as mine.”
“Oh come on, Tiara,” Silver Spoon chuckled, “I’m sure what she has is something really good.”
“Oh yeah, it’s pretty good alright,” said Dinky with excitement, “Right here in this little bag is something that will knock your socks off!”
Diamond Tiara wasn’t buying it; she just thought that her speech was all for show.
“Oh really;” she said with a smirk, “then why don’t you show us what you have in that bag of yours.”
Dinky suddenly held her bag back away from Tiara hooves that were edging towards it, “No way, it’s for show and tell only. Just trust me okay?”
“Whatever,” said Tiara, “I still think that my presentation will be better.”
“Well I for one suddenly can’t wait to see what Dinky has to show us for today,” said Silver Spoon cheerfully.
“Of course you would, Silver Spoon,” said Tiara, “You’re being too soft; that may not get you too far in life you know.”
“Oh I don’t know about that, Tiara,” said Dinky.
Both rich fillies looked at her curiously, “Huh?”
“Yeah, if you be kind to others and look onward to the future with a positive attitude, you can do anything; at least that’s what my mother says.”
Dinky straightens her bag on her side and then walks on forward still wearing a smile, “See you two in class.”
Tiara felt a little dumbfounded, “Jeez, what a weirdo.”
-----
“Ah… ah… ahhhhhhhh… chooo!”
Pinkie shocked herself at Sugar Cube corner by sneezing so suddenly, and she gave Mrs. Cake quite a surprised shock herself.
“Are you alright Pinkie?” asked Mrs. Cake, “You’re not catching a cold, are you?”
Pinkie just calmly wiped her nose, “I don’t think so; I think somepony is just talking about me… or thinking about me.” She just chuckled a bit and snorted, “But I guess if that’s the case I would be sneezing up a storm in here because I’m sure somepony is always thinking about me.”
“Oh Pinkie, you don’t believe in that superstition, do ya?” questioned Mrs. Cake.
“Well of course I do; for all I know, Twilight could be talking about me, or Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash; or maybe it could be anypony… like… maybe Dinky.”
“Dinky Hooves?” said Mrs. Cake, “Derpy’s daughter? What makes you think it’s her?”
“Oh, I was telling that cute little filly just yesterday about a certain story I knew; a creepy and Spoooooooooooooooooooky story. Plus, she had the most beautiful little trinket I had ever seen. She even says that it has powers; maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagical powers.”
“Sounds like quite a trinket,” Mrs. Cake responded, “Any idea of what it might do?”
“Hmm… what was it that she said again?” said Pinkie to herself, “Something about repelling energy.” Then she remembered, “Oh yeah, it can repel negative energies… I think. If that were possible, we could end all of the wrong in the world!”
“But then this world would be too perfect,” said Mrs. Cake in a troubling tone, “Even you have to admit to that, Pinkie.”
“You’re right, I would; but it would still be kinda nice, right?”
Suddenly, Pinkie felt her tail make some soft and subtle movements that made her shiver underneath her skin. Mrs. Cake noticed as well as asked, “Are you sure that you’re alright?”
“Yeah I am, but I’ve been getting these similar weird vibes in my tail recently. I’m not sure what it means, but I feel like something about this feeling doesn’t feel quite right.”
Pinkie then started to smile while bouncing up and down, “But I’m sure it’s nothing; if I keep thinking positive, then the negativity will go away.”
“Well, I hope you’re right, Pinkie,” said Mrs. Cake, “That twitchy tail of yours really scares me sometimes.”
Trying to keep a positive attitude on her expression, Pinkie couldn’t help but think to herself, “Hmm, I wonder what Dinky is doing right now?”
-----
“Ah-chooo!”
“Genstunheight, Dinky,” said Sweetie Belle, “Are you trying to catch a cold?”
“Nah,” Dinky responded, “I think somepony is just talking about me somewhere.”
Dinky was in the schoolhouse in Cheerliee’s class; they were all in the middle of show ‘n’ tell and many of the fillies and colts had some neat little things that they brought to share with each other. Just now Diamond Tiara was just finished with her show ‘n’ tell presentation and it was interesting to say the least.
“Thank you Diamaond Tiara for your show and tell presentation of some of your family’s ancestral history,” said Cheerliee semi-nervously.
“Why thank you Miss Cheerliee;” Tiara said Proudly, “I would have been glad to share everything about it, but seeing that we have a 5 minute limitation I only pointed out the most important stuff.”
“Those were the important stuff?” whispered Scootaloo to Apple Bloom softly with a little chuckle.
After Tiara took her seat, Cheerliee looked on her sheet to see who was doing their presentation next, “Alright whose next; Dinky Hooves, do you have anything interesting to show us?”
“I sure do, Miss Cheerliee!” Dinky responded loudly as she was carrying her little bag up to the front of the classroom.
“Well… here we go,” said Tiara to Silver Spoon while rolling her eyes slightly.
“Originally, I still didn’t know yesterday of what I was going to do for show and tell today; there were so many possibilities that I could think of.”
“Oh I bet.” Tiara scoffed to herself.
“But just yesterday I went to the antique shop with my allowance and saw the most beautiful thing!”
Dinky laid her bag down on the ground, opened it and used her magic levitate her necklace that she bought the other day. The gold rings shimmered in the light and the reflecting rainbow glass astonished the other students.
“Ooooooooh,” they all said in awe.
“Serriously, a neckalace;” thought Tiara to herself, “That’s what is suppose to knock our socks off?”
“So what’s that neat little trinket, Dinky?” asked Cheerliee with curiosity.
“Well, according to the store owner, it’s not just a necklace; rumor has it that it can repel negative energies of different kinds from the one who wears it. Plus, look at how beautiful the rainbow glass is in it!”
Dinky held the necklace up higher so some others could get a better look at it, and she held it at a certain angle so the light was reflecting right off the rainbow glass on the necklace and caused some shades of colors to go around the room.
“You have to admit it, Tiara,” whispered Silver Spoon to Tiara, “she has a pretty neat necklace.”
Tiara just scoffed not daring to give in, “I don’t have to admit anything.”
“So you bought that with your own money,” asked Cheerliee, “impressive. Does anypony have a question to Dinky’s beautiful necklace?”
“Oh, oh I do!” shouted the red-head filly named Twist who was raising her hoof, “I wath looking at the necklathe’s form and dithinctive thape and I wath wondering; doeth that necklathe thand for anything?”
“Actually yes; according to some magical symbols that I looked up in the library last night, this symbol represents happiness. And you know what; I think I could feel its power coursing through me; like I have no worries left in the world.”
“A feeling with no worries;” said Scootaloo, “is that even possible?”
“Well, I’m sure it’s not perfect in that way, but it definitely has an extraordinary feel to it.”
“I have a question,” Tiara suddenly said with an arrogant smirk, “If that trinket of does what you say it does, then how much does it make you forget about what happened to you and your mother?”
All the classmates there suddenly gasped in succession upon hearing what Tiara said, and Dinky just looked at her with a questionable look.
“Now Tiara,” scowled Cheerliee, “there will be no asking about such…”
“It’s okay, Miss Cheerliee;” said Dinky suddenly “it’s actually a good question. The thing is… I really don’t care anymore, and neither does my Mom. Even if this necklace can repel negative energies and such, it wouldn’t really matter. All that really matters is that we have each other and our true love as Mother and Daughter keeps us strong; nothing can change that.”
The whole room was suddenly silent as they were all just looking at Dinky with amazement. They never knew just how calm she already was about her troubled moment; well, the ones who knew about it anyway.
Diamond Tiara stood there at her seat staring blatantly feeling a bit shocked and embarrassed; not knowing how to react, “Wow, I’m… s-sorry I asked.”
Cheerliee suddenly straightens her throat and thanks Dinky, “Um… thank you for your wonderful presentation… Dinky.”
“You’re welcome.”
Dinky placed her necklace over her neck and happily walked back to her desk. Some of her classmates got a little closer to her as she did to have a closer look at her necklace including Silver Spoon; but not Tiara. She just sat there feeling a somewhat guilt feeling in herself.
“Ahem, well then;” said Cheerliee to signify the students, “shall we continue?”
-----
After school ended that day, all the young foals went their separate ways doing what they usually do after school; and for Dinky… she was headed home to spend time with her Mother who should be off work by now.
On the way there, she just so happened to run into the same two fillies that she ran into before school this morning, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon; they probably left the school building before she did.
“Hey, girls;” she said semi-nervously, “Um… need something?”
Silver Spoon pushed Diamond Tiara a little closer to her, but she was acting all shy and embarrassed, “Well… tell her.”
Diamond Tiara didn’t feel comfortable about doing what she was about to do, but she knew that she had to get this weird feeling off her chest sometime. She took a big sigh and said, “Listen, um… s-sorry for bringing th-that topic of you and your mother in class. The truth is… I-I-I only did that because I was a little… jealous of your show ‘n’ tell topic.”
Dinky was kinda surprised but very impressed that Tiara would come to her… with a little help, and apologize to her like this. It seemed that Tiara really did find her presentation to be great.
“So you really did like it;” Dinky said excitedly, “Is it the best necklace you’ve ever seen?”
“What, no way;” Tiara suddenly scoffed, “I have dozens of necklaces back at home that are 100 times prettier than that thing!” Then she suddenly calmed down again and smirked a little, “But… it’s actually not too bad… I guess.”
“Well… I guess that is pretty nice coming from you,” Dinky responded.
“Yeah, just don’t get used to it, okay; this doesn’t make us best buddies or anything.”
And it didn’t bother Dinky one bit, “I can respect that.”
Diamond Tiara just stood there in front of her for a few seconds during awkward silence, and then she was taking her leave, “Well… we have to go now; come on Silver Spoon.”
As they left Dinky’s presence, Silver Spoon just smiled while patting her friend on the back, “See, that wasn’t so bad, right?”
Tiara just glared at her blushing out of embarrassment, “Oh, be quiet.”
Dinky was watching them walk off feeling a sense of victory like she accomplished something great. She held up her necklace and looked at it with curiosity and couldn’t help but smile and think to herself, “Wow, maybe this necklace doesn’t just repel negative energy; maybe it could change the hearts of others around the wearer too.”
-----
Once Dinky got to her house, she suddenly stretched feeling exhausted of a full hard day of learning. She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge; what did this mean? She took out the spare key that she had already and used it to open the door and walked inside.
“Mom; Mom, are you home yet?! Mommy?!”
Nobody seemed to be home yet as Dinky looked around, but eventually she came upon a slip of paper that was taped to the kitchen counter. Wouldn’t it been easier for the filly if it was taped to the door?
“Huh, what’s this?”
Dear Dinky
So sorry that I’m not at home right now; but the thing is… um, I have to work an extra shift today for… certain reasons, so I won’t be there with you do things with. I’m so sorry my little muffin; but don’t worry, you’re a big pony so I know that you can take care of yourself until then. There are muffins in the kitchen… well, they’re actually leftovers from yesterday, but they’re still tasty. Be good and always be of good cheer.
Your dearest mother
Derpy Hooves
The young filly suddenly felt a little disappointed; she was really looking forward to talk to her mother about her day and how it went. But she realized that maybe she had a really good reason for it.
“Great, now what; I was really excited to tell Mom how show ‘n’ tell went.”
She ate one of the leftover muffins and even made a little daisy sandwich to fill the rest of her appitite, and then she thought to herself of something she could do in her spare time.
“Maybe… I’ll just take a little stroll outside around Ponyvillie; maybe that will take this off my mind.”
After stepping back out and closing and locking the house door, Dinky stetted out for her little trot outside Ponyville. But just then, unknown to Dinky’s eyes the charm around her neck emanated a sudden glow effect for a few seconds. Dinky felt a certain uncomfortable feeling come over her and then it went away as fast as the glow in the charm did.
“Huh, what was that?!”
She looked down at her necklace again for a second wondering if it was the cause of her sudden uncomfortable feeling. Nah, impossible; she knew well that it would be a complete weird coincidence if that was the case.
A dark shadow was chasing Pinkie Pie though complete darkness; she couldn’t see a thing. But that didn’t stop her from continuing to run for her life. But no matter how fast she ran, the shadow was never slowing down; and it seemed to be getting closer every second.
Suddenly she felt herself get tripped up by something that was on the ground; she yelped as she fell forward and landed flat on her stomach. She groaned as she felt pain go through her brain; but then saw her friends down on the ground powerless, colorless… and their elements completely lifeless. It’s as if all their enthusiasm and vigor had left them and they showed no more determination.
“Gils, girls wake up! What are you doing just napping?! Come on; I can’t do this alone!”
But all seemed hopeless as they didn’t respond. A loud caw rang in Pinkie’s ear and Pinkie yelled out a bit in pain while holding her head in discomfort, and then she was held down by a magical dark force. She couldn’t get free and she could see the dark, ominous figure coming closer and closer to her. Fear and sorrow started to enter into her as she just looked up at the creature starring back at her with its glowing dark eyes.
“Wh-wh-what… what do you w-want,” said Pinkie cowering in fear, “Who are you?!”
The dark creature stood over Pinkie as it held up its hoof with dark magic emanating from it and a dark grin appeared on its shadow-casted face, “As of now… the sole being you’ll fear the most.”
The creature laid its hoof down on Pinkie’s defenseless body, and then suddenly she started to scream out in immense pain as she felt huge amounts of life energy being absorbed out of her. She felt a sense of dread and despair overcome her, and her will to laugh was no longer there.
“Soon… all happiness in the world will be no more.”
-----
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Pinkie suddenly found herself waking up in front of the cash register at the front desk in Sugar cube corner. Breathing heavily and holding her head; she was becoming overwhelmed of what she just experienced.
“Wha… wh-what was that? Sweet Celestia, that was horrible.”
Just then, Mrs. Cake came rushing from upstairs where she was tending to the twins with her husband; she came down after hearing the scream to see if something bad happened.
“Pinkie, what in blue blazes happened?!” she yelled out, “Are you alright?!”
“Sorry about that, Mrs. C.,” Pinkie responded groggily, “I sorta dozed off at the cash register and dreamt of something… horrible.” Pinkie appeared to be shaking a little, “Somepony was after me, and… a-and it wanted to rid the world of happiness and… laughter; no laughter.”
“You had a nightmare, dearie,” said Mrs. Cake tenderly, “there’s no need to worry about it. But you really shouldn’t just fall asleep in front of the cash register, don’t ya know.”
“Yeah I know, sorry. But you know, I have this weird feeling deep in my pink belly that this was no nightmare; what if somepony really is after me; what if our laughter really is in danger of becoming extinct?!”
Pinkie was becoming worried and doubtful of what could happen and what the outcome could be if it does happen. Mrs. Cake always knew that Pinkie plus feeling bad and frighten equals… well, things that are not normal.
She placed her hoof around her and said, “Now where’s that upbeat attitude of yours that you had a little while ago? Don’t worry about it; I’m sure it’s nothing,”
“Don’t worry about it?!” Pinkie protested out loud, “Some creature was draining me of my happiness, and it took my laughter away; my laughter! I had no happiness left in me, and neither did my friends; we were all useless! This is just like the pony in the story that I told Dinky; and it felt so real too!”
Mrs. Cake realized just how serious this was to Pinkie Pie; dream or not it must have had a serious toll on her, “Oh Pinkie.”
“Mrs. Cake,” said Pinkie with her voice trembling, “I know that I’m practically almost a grown pony already, but… I’m scared.”
Pinkie came over to Mrs. Cake and lightly held on to her while crying slightly; Mrs. cake then hugged her back and was trying to comfort her… as if she were comforting one of her own.
“It’s okay to be scared Pinkie, but its fine. Don’t believe what you dreamt, dear, and just claim that it will never happen. Besides, that story is just a story, right?”
Pinkie came out of the hug and thought about it for a minute; her tears subsided and a small confident smile came back on her face, “Yeah, I guess you’re right; it is just a story… only a story.”
It definitely seemed to Mrs. Cake that Pinkie was feeling a little exhausted and she might be feeling a little jittery from her nightmare, so she did what she thought she should do.
“Um… Pinkie, dear, why don’t you take a little break; you can continue to work when you feel better, alright?”
“Okay,” Pinkie replied, “Thanks Mrs. Cake; I’ll just go outside for some fresh air.”
Pinkie found it to be a strange coincidence of telling Dinky that story about a pony who hates happiness the other day and then having this terrible nightmare. As she walked outside, she was still pondering on the thought and was still questioning of whether it was real or not.
“It’s was just a dream,” she thought to herself, “Just a dream, just a dream, it’s not… r-real.”
But jus then, a light bulb turned on in her head (hypothetically speaking) and she figured out how to take care of this; she knew just the pony to see.
-----
Just on the outskirt of Ponyville, Dinky Hooves was taking a little walk across the small grassy hills that surrounded the town; all while still wearing her special necklace. She was a big pony and knew that she could take care of herself while her mother couldn’t be with her. She could’ve hung out with some of her friends, but she felt like she could use some alone time to keep her mind clear.
She stood atop a certain hill and was looking down at the town and the area around her while taking a deep sniff, “Ah, smell that fresh air; I almost forgot how beautiful things look like from here. This walk is really something that I need to get my mind off of things.”
She rose up her necklace and looked at it with much astonishment and was holding on to it as if it were part of her own being.
“I guess that I ought to look on the bright side; for a filly like me, I’m pretty lucky.”
Suddenly, the young filly felt an intense chilling feel come over her; similar to the uncomfortable feeling that she felt earlier when she left her house. The strange feeling quickly went away once again as Dinky held onto herself groaning from the sudden sensation that she felt.
“Wh-wh-what was that weird feeling all of a sudden? It just came and went so fast; what’s going on?”
Just then, her eye caught on towards another pony standing on a taller hill looking down at Ponyville with a lone, gloomy stare. A dark purple earth mare with a long silky mane that draped over her body, and there was a single charcoal crow that was sitting on her shoulder. But the strangest thing about this mare was her cutiemark; it was nothing but a cloudy puff of black smoke.
Dinky became quite curious of who this mysterious mare was and decided to carefully walk up behind this mysterious mare to get a closer look at her.
“Who is that pony,” she thought to herself, “She looks so calm, and serene; but there’s something off about her. She seems so sad, and lonely and the only friend she has is that musky crow on her should.” Dinky suddenly gasped, “Whoa, how could I tell all of that?” She then looked down at her necklace and wondered, “Could it have been… nah.”
The dark mare was continuing to stand in that single spot glaring over Ponyville with much angst in her heart, “So… this is the place, right girl?”
‘Caw, caw’
“Seems a bit small for a town; it kinda reminds me of home, yet it’s not as sad and pitiful as my home once was.”
A dark aura came from her essence as she studied the energies around Ponyville only to finally sense what she’s been searching and waiting for all this time.
“I sense too much happiness here; it’s definitely here somewhere.”
Suddenly, the mare heard a small voice behind her, “Um, excuse me, Miss; are you lost?”
The mare suddenly sensed the young filly behind her and she quickly turned around to see her standing and staring at her with curious eyes.
“What the…” she thought, “Why didn’t I sense this little filly coming from behind me?”
The musky crow suddenly swooped down from the mare’s shoulder and landed right in front of Dinky. It startled the young filly by cawing very loudly while raising its wings creeping towards her. Dinky was slowly backing away sweating and smiling nervously.
“Down sweetie,” the dark mare called out, “that’s enough; come back to mommy.”
The crow ended its threatening assault on Dinky and flew back on the mare’s shoulder. As the mare was glaring down at her, Dinky was looking up at the mare feeling a bit frighten and amazed at the same time as she held onto the necklace around her neck.
“Whoa, she looks kinda menacing up close.”
“What do you want, little filly?” the dark mare asked felling slightly annoyed.
“I-I-I don’t mean to intrude or anything,” Dinky said nervously, “but I-I saw you just sitting here all by yourself with your crow friend, and you seemed kinda lonely. So I j-just came over here to see if anything was wrong.”
It was obvious to the dark mare that this filly must have come from the town that was in her view. What was she doing here and how come she’s not running away from her? These questions were running through her head as the filly continued to stare at her constantly; it started to annoy her… more than she already felt.
“Sorry, but my business is none of your concern, child,” she responded as she turned away from the young filly.
“Oh…” said Dinky bashfully, “w-well, do you need help with anything? I can be really helpful you know.”
The dark mare looked back at the young filly that wouldn’t go away; but suddenly her eyes went shockingly wide as she noticed the necklace around Dinky’s neck.
“Where… wh-where did you get that trinket?!” she suddenly protested.
Dinky looked down at her necklace and held it up, “Oh, this? I bought this at an antique shop in my town down there; and with my own money too.” She then looked at the mare curiously, “Why; have you seen it before?”
The dark mare knew that there was something about the necklace around this filly’s neck that was very familiar to her; she was having a somewhat uncomfortable vibe about it. But she turned away once again while shaking the thought from her mind.
“N-never mind, it’s nothing; nothing of importance anyway.”
As the mare was looking away again, the crow was keeping a close eye on Dinky; but that didn’t frighten the young filly at all. She knew that this pony had no one else to be with and it was very sad for her to think so. But then she had an idea.
“Hey Miss mare,” she called out cheerful-like, “you look like you could use a friend.”
The mare slowly turned her head back to Dinky again with a slightly irritated look, “What?”
Dinky held out her hoof in a friendly way and smiled, “My name is Dinky Hooves and I want to be your friend; what’s your name?”
The dark mare still couldn’t understand; her very presence should be sending this little filly away cowering. Her cheerful nature was starting to irritate her and she did her best to stay calm and refuse.
“Trust me little filly, you don’t want me as a friend; not that I care much about it anyway.”
“What, that’s nonsense;” said Dinky in an amused tone, “Why would I not want to be your friend? I know you have that bird that’s with you, but you can have a lot more friends too… down there in Ponyville!”
Dinky was hoping up and down around the dark mare trying to encourage her more; then she pointed herself in the direction of her town, “Come on, I’ll prove it to you!”
She started to trot fast towards Ponyville; but after a few seconds she stopped and turned around realizing that the dark mare didn’t even move an inch. She wasn’t even looking at the young filly; she was still gazing intensely at the town trying to study its surroundings.
Dinky went back closer to the mare and looked up at her with pleading eyes, “Aren’t you coming?”
“Making friends is irrelevant to my interests,” the dark mare responded nonchalantly, “I have come here only to complete my destiny; something that a peppy little foal like you would never understand.”
“Wh-why would you say that?” asked Dinky as she got right in front of the mare continuing to plead, “Whatever your destiny is I could understand, and I could even help you. Come on, let me…”
Suddenly without warning, the mare used her power to pick up Dinky and bring her up to her face. She stared at her furiously having been fed up with her antics, “Listen to me you little brat; what part of irrelevant to my interests did you not understand!? I don’t need your help; I don’t want friends, I don’t want to be your friend, and I don’t need your damn kindness! Just stay out of my way and leave me alone… before I do something drastic to you.”
And with that, she tossed Dinky back on the ground sending her tumbling a few feet in front of her. After Dinky got herself back together, she slowly got back up and wiped some tears from her face from being treated so harshly.
“O-o-okay, I see your point,” she said softly, “All I wanted to do was show you some friendship and make you feel better; but I guess you really aren’t interested in that at all, are you?”
She turned around and started to slowly head back to her town while not looking back at the mare, “I’ll just go and leave you alone.”
The mare watched as the filly went on away from her. However for a few seconds, she couldn’t help but realize that this filly was the first pony to get this near to her and not fear her. Not that she cared or anything, but even she had to admire a little bit of the filly for her courage and foolish determination; after all, she knew that it would all change soon.
“A little piece of advice, little filly,” the mare called out suddenly, “if I were you I wouldn’t stick around here for too long.”
Dinky suddenly turned around and looked back at the mare with a confused expression, “Wh-why; wh-what makes you say that?”
The mare then made a small malicious smile in her expression as she turned away and began walking off away from Ponyville, “However, you may stay here if you like; it would all be for the better.”
The musky crow glared at Dinky and made another low caw at her, and then they disappeared out of sight.
“What was that all about,” Dinky thought to herself.
She was quite curious about this destiny that the mare was talking about, and she was wondering if the dark cutiemark on her flank had anything to do with it. If it did, it might not be a good thing.
“The way she was acting,” Dinky continued to ponder over, “and the feeling of her presence; it almost sounds like…” A slight shiver came over her body and then she just laughed it off, “No, no way; that wouldn’t be possible. It’s just a spooky story. There’s no way that pony could be real. But then again, Nightmare Moon didn’t seem to be real to us either.”
Dinky looked down at her necklace and suddenly noticed that it was emanating some kind of light within the colored crystals; Dinky knew something strange was definitely going on here, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
-----
At the Ponyville library tree, another obscure scene was going on. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were all in a slight state of panic inside the place; they were all storming up a huge conversation that was going in different speeds and directions of thought. Twilight was rustled up too but the panicked confusion was confusing her big time; so she tried to get things settled down and gain her friends’ attention.
“Everypony, calm down; this is definitely something serious but we have to calm down!”
“This is no time to calm down, Twilight!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “We need to be alert, at attention; we need to be sure that she’s safe!”
“Rainbow’s right,” Applejack responded, “Normally Ah would be calm, but we can’t afford to mess this up; somethang bad will happen if we do, I just know it.”
“Yes, I understand,” stated Twilight, “but we can’t be too rational about this; we need to think this through carefully.”
Suddenly, Spike walked into the room where they were all of the conversations were at and became curious himself, “What’s going on here Twil… oh. Is this somekind of friendship meeting or something?”
“More like an emergency meeting!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “What we’re dealing with right now is way worst than anything we have dealt with before!”
Spike was feeling worried already seeing how serious and freaked out Rainbow Dash was feeling; his body was getting the shivers.
“I-i-is it that bad; how can it be worst than anything we’ve faced already?!”
“Oh it can be worst,” said FLuttershy nervously, “especially when the situation deals with all of us recently sharing a similar dream. Well, actually they’re more like nightmares.”
“Wait, hold on;” said Spike, “Are you saying that all of you shared the same dream… um, I mean nightmare?!”
“Indeed we have, Spike,” said Rarity, “and it’s all so terrible!”
Twilight came over to Spike to explain the dilemma , “You see, just recently we found out that we each had dreams that are just about the same; and in all of them there’s… some evil dark creature, and it is after one of us.”
“Wh-wh-which one of you guys is it after,” asked Spike out of slight fear.
They all looked at each other worryingly and then Twilight answered, “Pinkie Pie.”
“Pinkie Pie; this thing was after Pinkie Pie?! Why her; did she do something wrong?!”
Twilight just shook her head, “None of us are really quite sure why this… thing is after Pinkie in our dreams, but the creature itself is so menacing; it’s in a whole new league of its own.”
“So what does it want?” asked Spike.
“What this thing wants is something from Pinkie that she holds most dear to; something that Pinkie treasures most in all of her life… her laughter.”
Spike was suddenly at a loss for words; a creature after Pinkie’s laughter? This was definitely something serious.
“Oh my gosh, that’s terrible,” he shouted, “If you take the laughter out of Pinkie Pie, she won’t be… Pinkie Pie anymore! She won’t be so cheerful anymore, and she won’t be able to cheer anypony up!” He started to pace back and forth out of panic, “Taking the laughter out of her is like… taking the nerdness out of Twilight!”
Twililight glared at Spike for his sudden comment, “Spike!”
“What, it’s the truth.”
“Well whoever this creature is,” stated Rainbow Dash, “it’s going to have to go through us! Together I’m sure we’ll be able to knock it down flat on its ass… if it even has one that is!”
“I-I-I guess we could,” said Fluttershy, “we have dealt with stronger enemies before, right?”
“I don’t know about that,” said Twilight, “but there’s no doubt that whatever is after pinkie we can stop if we work together as always.”
Spike looked around the room and it suddenly hits him that Pinkie was nowhere to be seen, “By the way, where is Pinkie? Does she know anything about this?”
“Nah, not yet,” Applejack responded while shaking her head, “but Ah’m pretty sure that we need to tell her about this as soon as we can.”
The conversation in the library suddenly came to a halt as the entrance door swung open and inside the doorway was…
“Pinkie Pie,” said Twilight out of slight shock, “we were just talking about you.”
As they all saw her, they soon realized that Pinkie was sweating and her face expressed that of one who desperately worried of something.
“Pinkie… are you alright?”
Pinkie just let it out while shouting and waving her hands in the air frantically, “Emergency, girls; major emergency!”
Things were just getting a little too weird for Dinky Hooves. Ever since she bought the necklace she has from the antique store in Ponyville, she’s been getting some weir vibes from it. Most of them were good feelings, but this very day she’s been getting this eerie feeling like something bad is going to happen; and after having a run-in with that mysterious mare, her theory might be true.
She was running towards the antique shop where she thought that she might get some answers. But something kept boggling her in her mind, “This is all too weird, and I can’t shake this feeling that this mare… she may be up to no good. What was it that she said again?”
‘I have come here only to complete my destiny.’
‘A little piece of advice, little filly; if I were you I wouldn’t stick around here for too long. However, you may stay here if you like; it would all be for the better.’
“I can’t ignore this feeling,” Dinky thought, “I need answers.”
Back at the antique shop, Miss Stone was carefully dusting her shelves and sellable items for any customer that would walk through her entrance door. But soon enough, her door did open and she was prepared to do anything to help this customer’s service. But as she looked up, she realized who it was.
“D-Dinky; you’re here again,” she said in a sweet tone.
Dinky’s head was down as she was breathing heavily and she shut the door behind her. Based on how tired she was and the troublesome look on her face, Miss Stone knew that something was wrong.
“Are… are you okay, sweetie?”
After a few seconds of catching her breath, Dinky finally spoke, “I’m… sorry Miss Stone, but yeah I’m… okay; I just had a very weird experience lately.”
“Weird how?” Miss Stone questioned.
Dinky trotted over to a small stool to relax and told Miss Stone what happened, “Just some minutes ago I ran into this mare pony just outside of Ponyville; she was quite strange and looked… pretty ominous.”
“Do you know who she was?” Miss Stone asked curiously.
“Not in the slightest;” Dinky suddenly held up her necklace that she was still wearing, “however, she seemed to recognize this necklace that you let me buy.”
Miss Stone felt a little uneasy of what Dinky was telling her; about the necklace and the mysterious mare.
“Sh-she did?” she said.
“Yeah, and even though she tried denying to not know about it, I could easily tell that she knew something about it; she almost looked like she was afraid of it.”
What Miss Stone was thinking about she wasn’t quite sure if it was possible; but she wanted to make sure, “Anything else you know about this pony; just asking.”
Dinky was fine with telling her what she knew, “She had a dark crow with her and her colors of dark purple and lavender definitely stood out. And her eyes… they seemed so sad, filled with some kind of pain like it was secretly calling for help; and her cutiemark that was a dark, puffy cloud was the most confusing thing about her. I mean… what does it even stand for?”
This more than confirm of what Stone was thinking of, but she still felt like this was too much of a coincidence to be real, “Y-y-you don’t say.”
“But the worst part is that she completely refused to be my friend when I suggested it; she refused my friendship! In fact, she said that she didn’t need any friends; who doesn’t want friends?! Also, she said that she was here on some kind of mission; I don’t know what it might be, but it didn’t sound pleasant.”
“So, why did you come here?”
“Well… I’ve been having some strange weird feelings from this necklace,” said Dink as she held up the trinket, “and it mainly happened when I was near that strange pony. Is there any chance that you know what all of this could possibly mean?”
Miss Stone was sweating slightly and became worried of what this could mean for Dinky… but she better not scare her more than she already might be.
“W-well, I wouldn’t know anything about that,” she said nervously, “but I did say that it may contain some kind weird power that was rumored. Now whether or not this… pony has anything to do with that I don’t know.”
Suddenly, Dinky noticed something on Miss Stone’s body that troubled her, “Um… Miss Stone, your hoof is trembling a bit; are you alright?”
“Oh, sorry about that,” the troubled mare responded with a smile, “it’s just a bit chilly in here; I should really turn up the heat in here.”
“Y-yeah… I guess it is a little cold in here,” said Dinky suspiciously.
Dinky soon realized that maybe Miss Stone couldn’t help her with her hypothesis so she decided to go ahead and head out the door, “Well, thanks again anyway, Miss Stone; I’m going to go home and rest my head.”
“Sounds like a good idea, you look like you need it.”
“If anything else comes up,” said Dinky as she looked back at Stone, “I’ll let you know, okay?”
“A-alright, take care, Dinky.”
At first Dinky was looking at her feeling a bit worried, but then she just smiled a bit and walked out the store. Miss Stone’s smiled suddenly dimmed down to a slight frown reminiscing over what Dinky had told her. The theory in her head seemed to be real after all.
“So she is real,” she thought to herself, “and she’s come here of all places; what in the world could she be looking for?”
-----
Meanwhile back at the Library Tree, Pinkie Pie was in a slight panic as she told her friends of what happened to her some minutes ago. After she told them, they were all a bit shocked and frazzled as they all shouted…
“WHAT?!!!”
Pinkie was quite surprised too when they told her about them having the same experience that she did before she told them her news.
“Are you freaking serious?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “You had the exact same dream too?!”
“Well actually, that doesn’t surprise me that much,” said Rarity, “seeing that the rest of us appeared to dream it too.”
Rainbow was still getting riled up, “So even you had the same dream; that more than proves that something is up!”
“So… what does this mean?” said Fluttershy nervously.
“It means that some creepazoid creature is after Pinkie here,” Applejack responded, “and we need to make sure that it never succeeds!”
“Does this mean that we have to guard Pinkie 24/7 now?” Rarity whined, “My dainty hooves aren’t up to that kind of task.”
Spike’s eyes brightly lit up looking straight at Rarity, “Oh, I could take your place Rarity; anything for you!”
“We don’t all necessarily need to guard her every single hour of every day, girls,” said Twilight, “But I do agree that each of us should be on the lookout for this creature… whatever it is.”
“I can cover the sky view, no problem!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “Whatever this creature is it won’t escape my eyes!”
“I could have my animal friends be on the lookout near the forest,” said Fluttershy, “… if that’s okay.”
“And we’ll be on the lookout too,” said Applejack; and then she glares at Rarity, “Right, Rarity?”
“Well of course I will help too; after all we all care about Pinkie and we should help her in any way we can… even if it is… ugh, strenuous work.”
Pinkie had a little smile on her face giggling a bit, “Aw, you’re so sweet Rarity.”
Twilight knew that looking for this creature was going to be a little tough and probably dangerous, and she knew that she needed more to go on to protect her friend, “I don’t want to put too much on you girls, but do any of you have any ideas of what this creature that’s after Pinkie is?”
All of them were at a loss for words; they saw the creature in their dreams but it was hard for all them to make out what it look like, and it surely didn’t remind them of anything they ever seen or heard of. But just then, Pinkie suddenly raised her hoof and gained her friends’ attention.
“I think I know.”
“You do?” said Rainbow Dash as she got in Pinkie face, “Who or what is it?”
Pinkie had all of her friends come close together and she whispered to all of them, “It’s… Gloom.”
“Gloom?” said Rainbow Dash confusingly.
“That’s right… Gloooooooooooooooooom.”
“Who the hay is Gloom?” questioned Applejack.
“Who is Gloom, you ask?” said Pinkie in a creepy tone, “She was a dark and grimly pony who grew up during a dark, tragic time in a town that used to exist on the very far opposite side of the Everfree Forest.”
All of her friends suddenly gasped and Fluttershy hid behind Rarity shaking in her hooves.
“Her heart grew dark, and her soul turned black; and now she’s so deep into her own self- darkness and sorrow that she’s become completely immune to the vibes of joy and happiness. And now she plans to plunge the world into total sorrow so she won’t be in her own darkness alooooone. If she can’t be happy, then nopony can!”
All of Pinkie’s friends were at a loss for words; how Pinkie described the creature seemed to be pretty spot-on.
“Wow, how charming,” said Rarity nervously.
“Awesome story, Pinkie Pie,” said Spike excitedly, “do you have another?!”
“H-h-has this p-pony… ever killed any other pony?” questioned Fluttershy while still shaking.
“I don’t know; for what I know about it she’s never tried to kill anypony intentionally.”
Fluttershy slightly smiled and sighed with relief.
“Except maybe her own parents!”
Fluttershy shrieked and once again hid behind Rarity.
“Would ya knock it off, Pinkie, and get serious!” boasted Applejack.
“But I was.”
“Why in the heck would this pony kill her own parents anyway?” asked Rainbow dash, “Did they treat her like garbage or something and got fed up with them?”
“Maybe, but I don’t know,” Pinkie responded, “My Granny Pie had told me that what happened that day was about a couple of a hundred of years ago and even she didn’t know much about it”
Twilight suddenly remembered something that she saw once in Canterlot, “You know, I did hear something about some creature that went by the name of ‘Gloom’ back in Canterlot when I was just a filly. When I heard about the story, I did felt a little frighten by it, but then it suddenly peaked my interest. However, I couldn’t find much when I tried to look more upon it. I wasn’t quite sure of who she was or what she was capable of; I didn’t even know that it was a she!”
“Hey Fluttershy,” said Applejack, “That crow ya saw yesterday; you don’t think this ‘Gloom’ is connected to it in any way, do ya?”
“Crow, what crow?” questioned Pinkie.
“Oh yeah, that crow; I-I-I surely hope not.”
“So what do we do now, Twilight?” asked Spike.
“Does anypony know about this besides us, Pinkie?” asked Twilight.
Pinkie knew the answer to that, “I did tell Mrs. Cake about my nightmare, and despite being concerned for me she didn’t really think that what I dreamt about was real; ‘not to worry’ she says.”
“Are ya sure no pony else knows?” questioned Applejack.
Pinkie had to think about it for a second; there was always a chance that she might have forgotten something. But then, it finally hit her.
“Oh yeah,” she exclaimed as a lightbulb turned on in her, “now that I think about it… just yesterday I told the story of ‘Gloom’ to Dinky Hooves; and she was wearing the cutest little necklace!”
“Dinky; you mean Derpy’s Daughter?” questioned Rainbow Dash.
“That’s the one, but she only knows about the story, not my nightmare; she doesn’t know anything about this.”
Twilight felt slightly relieved, “Well that’s good, I don’t want any filly like her to be worried about all of this.”
Twilight used her magic to bring out some paper and her quills onto her table and neatly organized it all, “I’ll check in with the Princess and see what we can do… and to make sure the Elements are safe. If our shared dream does come true, there may be no pony left to save us.”
-----
After the weird afternoon she had, Dinky Hooves was on her way home to calm down and rest. And knowing that her Mother was still at work she knew that she could take easy. As she was approaching her home, Dinky looked down at her necklace again and remembered how that mysterious mare was acting weird towards it. What was it about this necklace that made her so nervous, she wondered.
She opened the door and walked inside spouting a big yawn; but then suddenly her spirit sprouted back up when she saw a certain mare laying on the couch waiting for her. Her eyes went wide and a big smile came onto her face.
“M… Mommy!”
She quickly rushed over to her mother and dived right on top of her hugging her tight. Derpy smiled proudly hugging her back, “Hiya, Dinky; it’s nice to see you too.”
“What happened;” asked Dinky excitedly, “I thought that you had to work longer today?!”
Derpy smiled awkwardly, “Yeah, well… it turned out that the incident that happened at work that got me in trouble wasn’t even my fault after all; so they let me off a half hour after I was found to be innocent.”
“Wow, an accident at work and it wasn’t even your fault?” said Dinky, “Wow, that’s good Mommy!”
Derpy was quite curious of how the early afternoon had treated her daughter, “So what’s going on with my little muffin today?”
“O-oh… nothing much,” Dinky replied nervously, “just… enjoying my day; but now its better since you’re here.”
“And I see that you’re still wearing your little trinket; you really like it, don’t ya?”
“Yeah,” Dinky sighed, “I guess I do.”
Derpy was quite happy to see her daughter still happy and feeling well; she never wanted to see any of that go away.
“So, since I’m off now as usual and you’re here, you wanna do something?”
Dinky suddenly answered with a giant yawn that startled Derpy a bit, “Whoa, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were a bit sleepy.”
“Mmm-hmm,” said Dinky softly while wiping her eyes, “My afternoon did tire me out a little; can I just rest here with you, Mommy?”
Derpy pulled Dinky closer against her and covered her with one of her wings and said, “Well, if it makes you happy; I guess I’m a little exhausted myself.”
Dinky felt very safe around her mother ever since that certain time that frightened her most; but that was behind her now, and now all she wanted to do was be with her. Even if her necklace didn’t fully make her feel happy and safe, her mother sure did.
-----
Deep inside the dark seclusions of the Everfree Forest, the mysterious mare was laying and resting in a small clearing and none of the nearby creatures dared to get close to her. Her goal and true intentions were still the same, but she couldn’t help but ponder over Dinky, the young filly she came across earlier that day.
“Who was that filly,” she said out loud to herself, “and what was all that ‘friends’ nonsense? She wasn’t even afraid of my presence; doesn’t she realize who I am? She sure did show a lot of courage though, and she was being very brave and she had such strong determination. And what was she doing with that… trinket.”
The mare’s crow friend suddenly flew down on her shoulder feeling concerned about her worrying over such a thought. It called at her a couple of times to get her attention.
‘Caw’ Caw’
The mare looked up at the crow and a small, seldom smile came upon her face as she gave the crow a light pat on its head, “I’m sorry, you’re right, girl; I shouldn’t worry over such pointless distractions. What’s important now is that I finally fulfill my true purpose.”
The mare could feel her dark power burning deep within her soul and she used her hatred for all things joyful and happy and used it to surge herself with more strength. A dark creepy, smirk came onto the mare’s face as she stared at her crow friend again.
“Just you wait; soon all of the joy and laughter in the world will cease to exist. All ponies will learn to respect me out of sorrow and fear; and those who dare to defy me… their blood will flow… just like Mother and Father.”
In the dead of night, at the Hooves’ house, Derpy was fast asleep in her bed snoring away, probably dreaming of something that deals with muffins.
“Mmmm… yeah, that’s right; give me your delicious muffin… all of it…”
Yeah, it was something about muffins alright; but as she was dreaming away, the door to her room slowly creaked open and caused Derpy to groggily wake up from her… delicious dream as she perked her head up and looked around.
“Huh… whaazat?”
When her vision became a bit clearer, she noticed that the sound she heard was her daughter, Dinky who was standing in her doorway. Her body was shaking a bit and her eyes looked dreadfully sleepy. Derpy could tell that something happened that caused her daughter to come to her like this around 3am in the morning.
“Dinky, are you okay?”
Dinky softly shook her head as she wiped her eyes trying to stay awake, “I had a bad dream, so I couldn’t sleep.”
“A bad dream, what did you dream about, Sweetie?”
Dinky went over to her mother and whispered into her ear of what she dreamed about. What she heard caused tears to appear in her eyes and she reached over to pull up her daughter and gave her a comforting hug holding on to her tight.
“Oh sweet buttercream muffins; you poor thing!” She then placed her on her bed beside her and placed her under the covers, “Come on, you can sleep with me for the rest of the night.”
Looking at her daughter, Derpy suddenly realized that something was missing, “Wait a minute, what happened to your necklace charm thingy; weren’t you wearing it?”
“No, it pokes me while I sleep.” Dinky softly responded.
Derpy just had a little giggle while rubbing her daughter’s head, “Hee hee, I guess that does make sense.”
What Dinky had dreamed about was still causing her to tremble a bit; it was based on the traumatic event that happened to them in the past.
“Mommy, I never want that to happen to us ever again.”
“Of course it won’t happen again, silly,” said Derpy as she held Dink close to her again, “don’t think that it ever will. You just had a nightmare, and nightmares just express your worst fears. As long as you don’t give in to those fears, you have nothing to worry about. That’s how I get over my fears after all.”
Derpy’s words always seemed to cheer Dinky up no matter how down she felt. Sleeping with her mother was just what she needed to help calm her down.
“Thank you, Mommy,” said Dinky, and then she displayed a big yawn before falling back to sleep. Derpy just smiled seeing her daughter successfully comforted and then kissed her on her forehead.
“Anytime… sweet dreams, my little muffin.”
-----
Twilight and her friends didn’t fully confirm to themselves that the creature going after Pinkie was ‘Gloom’, a rumored pony that lived about 200 years ago, but that didn’t stop them to make the necessary precautions. During that exact night, Twilight had notified Celestia of what they had witnessed, and Celestia immediately placed the Elements on constant watch. She also put a high alert in Canterlot just in case anything major happened.
In Ponyville, Twilight had stayed with Pinkie in Sugar Cube Corner and was lending her magic expertise to protect her in any way necessary. When morning came, Pinkie was wide awake and ready for the brand new day; and Twilight… was still fast asleep. She was up a lot of that night trying to study some necessary spells that could help against this hypothetical threat and tired herself out. Pinkie decided to let her rest for as long as she could to gather strength.
After a while in the late-morning, Twilight finally woke up from her deep sleep and came downstairs from Pinkie’s room where Pinkie was looking over the shop for the Mr. and Mrs. Cake and babysitting the twins.
“Morning Twilight,” Pinkie called out happily, “you’re finally up!”
Seeing Pinkie still alive and well was a huge relief for Twilight as she yawned and smirked, “Yeah, I guess I overexerted myself last night making the necessary precautions.”
“Whatever that means,” said Pinkie
Pinkie suddenly took a look outside and noticed that the magical barrier that Twilight had up since last night was still up and had no signs of wearing down. Pinkie was impressed but still a little concerned about her friend.
“Hey, um… Twilight?” she said semi-worryingly, “I am much appreciated that you stayed here with me last night while Spike and Owlicious watched over the library, but… isn’t that giant shield outside a bit too much? Maybe that’s why you’re so sleepy.”
Twilight disagreed to Pinkie and told her why, “Hypothesizing on what we might be dealing with, doing this is hardly too much. Besides, Celestia suggested doing this when I contacted her yesterday, remember?”
“Oh yeah,” said Pinkie chuckling a bit, “I almost forgot. But wait… what about the Elements of Harmony?”
“They’re locked up safe and sound in the Canterlot sun locker for a last resort. Celestia will have eyes looking all over Canterlot and we are looking here. This Gloom, if it is her, she will not escape.”
Pinkie suddenly rushed over to Twilight and gave her a big tight hug… not knowing just how tight she was doing it, “Thank you so much Twilight, I feel much safer already!”
“Too tight, too tight!”
Pinkie quickly let and smiled at Twilight sheepishly, “Whoops, sorry.”
The two Cake twins, Pumpkin and Pound were flying and floating over to where Pinkie and Twilight were and were babbling in their baby talk smiling and seeking attention.
“Can’t those two ever just crawl or walk like normal babies?” said Twilight smirking, “But then again I shouldn’t be quick to judge.”
“Hey Pumpkin and Pound;” said Pinkie as she bent down and smiled at the twins, “don’t worry, your ol’ Auntie Pinkie Pie will be alright!”
Pinkie stepped all the way outside to take a good look at the humungous shield covering the place and was pretty fond of it, “Wow… you know something, it actually looks prettier during the day; the way it shimmers in the sunlight.”
Twilight was fond her own work as well and she did her best to explain it to her pink friend, “I studied up on this spell with a little help from my brother; it’s a spell similar to the same one my brother casted during his wedding with Cadence. It can sense any dark energy that tries to pass through here, so if that dark mare comes here, we’ll know for sure. I just never thought that I would be using this spell so soon; but I guess it’s a better time than ever.”
Suddenly, Pinkie was bouncing up and down while pointing up in the sky, “Ooh look, there’s Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy!”
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were working together that morning to see if they find any suspicious activity along with a few other pegasi. They flew down to Twilight and Pinkie to report them in what they’ve seen.
“Have you girls seen anything suspicious yet,” said Rainbow Dash, “because Fluttershy and I got nothing. A few other pegasi are helping too… even though they think we kinda lost it… about this Gloom creature I mean.”
“Nothing suspicious here, Dashie,” said Pinkie happily, “just me, Twilight and the Cakes!”
“Well we can’t give up nor can we let our guard down; that creature could be lurking around anywhere.”
“Um… do you think we could take a break, Rainbow Dash?” said Fluttershy panting from exhaustion.
Feeling on the edge for action, Rainbow Dash refused, “Sorry Fluttershy, no breaks; we can’t be laid back even for a second!”
“Come on Dashie,” said Pinkie, “just relax a little bit.” She zoomed into the house and then zoomed back out holding a tray of cupcakes, “Have some cupcakes… on the house.”
Rainbow Dash just looked at her feeling slightly annoyed, but then just sighed and smiled as she gave in, “Well… I guess that having a couple of sweets wouldn’t hurt.”
Pinkie Pie was happy, Fluttershy was relieved and Twilight was amused of how easily Pinkie persuaded Rainbow into taking a break. But as they started to walk back inside Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight suddenly felt a little twinge in her horn; and she stopped for a second to groan from the slight discomfort.
“Ugh, whoa… now I know how my Brother felt.”
“Twilight, Twilight what’s wrong?” asked Fluttershy worryingly with others looking at her too.
“I-it’s the shield,” Twilight responded, “It has been breached.”
‘Caw’
Suddenly, they all turned around and just outside the door, a single black crow was standing on the ground staring back at them with glowing red eyes.
“What the… what’s with the creepy crow?” questioned Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy started to shudder in slight fear as she looked upon the mysterious creature, “It’s… it’s that crow, the one that I saw the other day!”
Aside from it red eyes, Rianbow just chuckled at how harmless it looked… to her, “Heh, what’s so dangerous about…”
Just then the crow gave them a slight scare as it raised its wings in the air a let out a gigantic…
“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “I stand corrected.”
The crow’s eyes suddenly fixated right on Pinkie Pie as it started to flap its wings and dashed right at her. Pinkie yelped a bit and hid behind the counter and Twilight got in the crow’s path with her horn at the ready.
“Get back,” she shouted, “I got it!”
She successfully repelled the crow away from them, and then trapped it under a little barrier. Unfortunately, as its eyes glowed it suddenly penetrated right through the shield and broke free of its confinement.
“What the… it broke Twilight’s shield!” Rainbow Dash said out of shock.
“Now that is one tough birdie!” added Pinkie.
After shaking itself off, the crow rose up in the air again but this time started to fly away from them towards outside.
“It’s trying to get away!” shouted Rainbow Dash angrily.
Twilight made a little scowl with a deep intent to protect Pinkie, “No it isn’t.”
She suddenly turned to Fluttershy who was shaking slightly from the creepy crow and asked, “Fluttershy, think you can stay here with Pinkie?”
As the crow flew off, Rainbow Dash was right on its trail, “Follow that Crow!” And Twilight followed right behind her.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie just stood there in silence and the Cake twins were just sitting nearby staring blatantly at them wondering what was going on.
“So… what now?” Fluttershy finally said.
“What else,” Pinkie responded, “you must guard me… like a hawk!”
Fluttershy was sweating out of being so nervous, “Oh yeah, I can do that… I-I think.”
-----
Many Ponies were getting out of Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s way as they were on pursuit of the fleeing crow that they need to catch if they wanted to know what was going on. However, they just so happen to come across their other two friends.
“Look out!” Rainbow shouted.
However, it was too late to stop in their tracks and all four ponies ran into each other… literally.
“What is the meaning of this,” Rarity complained as she got up from the fall and was brushing herself off, “you almost ruined my wonderful self-pedicure.”
“Worry about your wonderful looks later, Rarity,” shouted Rainbow, “We have a serious situation on our hooves!”
“What are ya ramblin’ on about, Rainbow,” asked Applejack; and then she looked over at Twilight, “What’s goin’ on, Twilight!?”
“That’s what’s going on!” she responded while pointing out in front of them.
Standing on the ground just watching them was the crow that Twilight and Rainbow were chasing. It just stood there… glaring at them with its red eyes and cawing deep and lowly.
“Whoa, there’s somethin’ mighty creepy about that crow,” Applejack stated.
“Indeed,” Rarity added feeling slightly creeped out, “just look at those eyes… doesn’t it give you the heebie jeebies?”
“That’s the same crow Fluttershy claimed that she saw,” Rainbow protested, “… and it tried to attack Pinkie!”
Applejack then started to glare back at the crow and was staring it down intensely, “Really; well that just won’t stand.”
“Rarity, Fluttershy is back at Sugar Cube Corner with Pinkie;” Twilight instructed, “she might need your assistance.”
“No need repeat, Twilight,” Rarity responded, “I’m on my way.”
Rarity soon took her leave of her three friends to help out her other two friends, running as fast as she could and not strand of her mane out of place. Afterwards, the other three mare turned their attention back to the taunting crow in front of them.
“Now where were we?” said Rainbow Dash, “Oh yeah… get him!!!”
As they dashed towards it, the crow took off again keeping itself from their reach… well, AJ and Twilight’s reach anyway. As they continued forward, they just so happened to come across Dinky who was out for late-morning walk. As they galloped by, Twilight quickly greeted her and then left.
“Hi Dinky, bye Dinky!”
After they went by, Dinky was a little shaken by what just happened in front of her and she noticed the strange bird they were chasing… the strange… familiar bird.
“I wonder what they were doing;” she wondered to herself, “and that crow that they were chasing… could it have been… nah, it couldn’t be.”
-----
Rarity finally got to Sugar Cube Corner and noticed Fluttershy sitting just outside the barrier that surrounded it.
“Ah, there you are, Fluttershy,” she said with relief, “glad to see that you’re doing well.”
Fluttershy smiled and was glad to see one of her friends come back to help her, “Hey Rarity, did you see…”
“Yes I did;” Rarity interrupted, “Twilight asked me to come over to assist you and assist you I shall. So, where’s Pinkie?”
“Oh, she’s inside. I just thought I could stay out here a bit while she handled things in there.”
Rarity was on high alert despite being who she is, but she was willing to look out for Pinkie even if it meant working hard, “Well, while the others girls chasing after that creepy bird, we better be on the lookout for anything else that might be suspicious. Pinkie is depending on us to protect her at all costs.”
“Of course,” Fluttershy agreed, “we don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”
Just then unknown to both mares, a small little dark-purple colored filly was slowly approaching towards the building. Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t notice her yet, but that’s exactly what she wanted. She slowly held up her hoof up to the barrier and made a little small opening appear in front of her and she was able to get through without touching it. Once she did, Fluttershy and Rarity quickly turned around feeling that someone was nearby.
“Huh, what was that?” said Fluttershy.
“Halt, who goes there?!” said Rarity; and then she giggled to herself, “Oh I always wanted to say that.”
Once they realized that it was just a little filly and she was staring at them with cute heart-broken eyes, they backed down and fondled over her cute appearance.
“Oh… false alarm,” said Rarity nervously, “it’s just a little filly going in for a sweet treat.”
“Oh my goodness, she’s so adorable,” Fluttershy squealed softly.
Rarity smiled and waved at the young filly, “Don’t mind us darling; do go on with your business.”
After turning her head around, a grim smirk grew under her muzzle as she successfully entered into the building.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Rarity, “… did that filly seem oddly suspicious to you.”
“Only that she’s suspiciously cute,” Fluttershy responded while smiling brightly, “I sure hope that we didn’t startle her; we meant no harm.”
“She’ll be fine, Fluttershy, just keep your eyes. If she almost got past us, who knows what else could.”
-----
Pinkie Pie was inside playing with Pumpkin and Pound and keeping them feeling happy and cheerful. But then her ears suddenly perked up and she looked behind her at the door as it slowly started to open
“Ooh, a customer!”
In the doorway, she saw a single dark purple filly walk in, and she was starring blatantly at the pink pony who smiling brightly.
“Hey there little filly, I’ll be right with you!”
As Pinkie hopped away in the kitchen, the small filly was slowly walking toward the front counter and went past Pumpkin and Pound. Suddenly, the two toddler foals started to tear up and then began to cry out. A small little smirk came onto the filly’s face as she thought to herself, “Heh, such noisy little brats.”
Pinkie heard Pumpkin and Pound’s cries and came out to see what was going on, “Pumpkin, Pound, don’t cry; what’s wrong?”
She picked up both of them with her mouth and carried them over to the crib in the family room and laid them down. Pinkie looked at them with pleading eyes, “Come on; don’t be like that, you’ll upset the little filly here. Rest in here, okay?”
Pinkie walked back into the main room where the little filly was waiting and watching her every move. She just smiled at her and said, “Sorry about that, those two usually like other company, especially other foals. So, what can I do for you?”
The little filly stayed silent, and wasn’t saying a word as she just sat there leaving Pinkie feeling kinda confused of what was going on, “Wow, you’re pretty silent, aren’t you. Come on, don’t be shy; show me a smile.”
Suddenly, the filly raised her head up and stared at the pink pony and spoke, “Excuse me… pink pony; are you one of the Elements of Harmony?”
“Huh?” said Pinkie confusingly, wondering why she asked that kind of question, “Well… yes, yes I am. Four of my best friends and I all represent the Elements of Harmony! I personally represent the Element of Laughter! I love to smile and laugh and use my upbeat personality to cheer up other ponies and make them feel happy; doesn’t that sound great to you?!”
Pinkie was expecting a cheerful response from the filly, but instead she heard her said in a low, trembling tone, “No… I hate laughing.”
“Wait, come again?” asked Pinkie
“I said I hate laughing,” the filly repeated, “I despise it and it makes me sick… since I’ve never felt happiness at all.”
This suddenly caught Pinkie’s attention; how could a filly like this never experience any happiness? “What, that’s crazy; everypony experiences happiness in their life sometimes. Even you must have at some point.”
“Then you don’t understand me at all;” said the little filly solemnly, “My world is nothing but an endless black void with no thoughts or vision of a laugh, a smile, or any senses of happiness at all. My heart feels so dark and alone.”
“Wow, you really sound like you had no happy life at all,” said Pinkie sadly, “That’s just sad.”
“It really dosen’t matter to me now anymore. The only happy moment of my life that I can almost recall is the day I was born… but I wouldn’t exactly call that a happy moment.”
“By the way,” Pinkie said curiously, “you’re kinda reminding me of somepony that I have heard of before, but I can’t quite put my hoof on it.”
Unknown to Pinkie, the little filly knew exactly what she was talking about; and as her back was turned, the little filly felt something inside her reacting from this pink pony’s happy aura. It was no doubt that this pony was the Element of Laughter and her quest had finally come to an end. It was finally time for her to make her move.
“Tell me…” said the little filly in a softly manner, “have you ever experienced deep sadness and sorrow; have you ever experience the true essence of fear?”
Pinkie heard her and thought to herself for a few seconds, and then came up with an answer, “Hmm… I’m pretty sure I have, I think I experienced some just recently in a scary dream I had. However, I do my best to not think about things like that all the time because it would make me sad and totally depressed… and we can’t have that.”
Pinkie suddenly heard a little muffled chuckle coming from the young filly. She turned around and saw a little menacing grin in her expression, and the way she was looking at her made her feel a little uncomfortable.
“Heh heh, well… we’re just going to have to change that… aren’t we?”
-----
“Dang it,” shouted Rainbow Dash as she, Twilight and Applejack were on the outside of Ponyville pursuing the musky crow, “that’s one freakishly freak of a bird; it keeps taunting us!”
“Have ya girls noticed somethin’ else,” said Applejack, “this crow isn’t even tryin’ to fight back, it just keeps dodgin’ us!”
The three ponies stopped to take breather from running so much; but it was okay, since the crow flew back down on the ground and was waiting for them to give chase again.
“What is that bird trying to prove running away from us?!” said Rainbow Dash feeling peeved, “We’re going to catch you one way or another, and then we’ll make you talk… to Fluttershy anyway.”
A thought suddenly came across Twilight’s mind, “Wait a minute girls, I think there’s a reason for all of this. If my hypothesis is correct, this crow may not be our main target.”
“Are you kidding Twilight,” Rainbow protested, “it attacked Pinkie, and it tried to claw out her eyes; how can it not be what we’re looking for?!”
“Ah‘m afraid that Ah have to agree with Rainbow on this one, Twi,” said Applejack, “How can ya be sure of yer hypothesis?”
“Because this all seemed too easy; it started fly off away from Pinkie right after I easily repelled it away. And ever since we started to chase it, it never tried to attack any of us; it just got us further and further away from Sugar Cube Corner! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that this crow is just being...”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”
“... a distraction!”
The three ponies suddenly a huge scream in the distance inside Ponyville, and it sounded a lot like their pink friend, Pinkie Pie.
“We were tricked that easily...” said Applejack frustrated, “and by a bird?!”
“Damnit, we're such idiots!!!” shouted Rainbow Dash.
The crow cawed at them in the form of taunting, and then flew off back towards Ponyville.
“Shut up,” Rainbow shouted at the fleeing bird, “we didn't ask for your opinion!”
Twilight knew that didn’t have much time now. Whatever was after Pinkie probably went after her when the bird lured them away, but she wasn’t going to give up yet.
“Come on, we gotta move... Pinkie is in danger!”
-----
A few seconds after hearing the scream of Pinkie from outside, Rarity and Fluttershy panicked as they both quickly rushed inside to see what happened; and they were in for a big surprise.
“Pinkie,” Rarity shouted, “we heard a scream and...”
Once they got inside, the first scene they witnessed Pinkie being held up in the air by some kind of dark aura, and below her staring up at her with a menacing glare was the little dark purple filly that Fluttershy and Rarity saw walk in earlier; they were in complete shock!
“Pinkie!!!” shouted Rarity. “Oh my goodness!” said Fluttershy being frighten out of her mind. In the midst of being in danger, Pinkie saw her two friends come to help her out; but she looked scared for their life, “Fl-Fluttershy... R-Rarity!”
“It’s that little filly who came in here?” said Rarity, “How on earth is she doing that, she’s not even a unicorn!”
Fluttershy took a couple cautious steps towards the filly and pleaded, “What are you doing, little filly; you're hurting our friend! S-s-stop right now, you're doing a very bad thing!”
Suddenly, both mares jumped back in slight fear as the filly slowly turned her head around and an intensified glare at them, “Who cares what you cheery peasants think.”
“P-p-p-p… peasants?” Fluttershy stuttered.
“That was very rude, young lady!” Rarity shouted in anger, “Somepony needs to teach you a lesson.”
“Girls, watch out,” shouted Pinkie, “it’s... its Gloom!”
At that moment, Fluttershy and Rarity were trying to recall of what their friend just said to them. Then looking at the filly now and how it was staring at them and holding up Pinkie against her will, it was clear to them that she was right.
“Gl… Gl-Gloom?!” they both shouted.
“Th-this little filly is... Gloom;” said Rarity, “and she's real?!”
Seeing the slight fear on their faces, the little filly made a little cynical smile as she fully turned to face them, “I guess the cat is out of the bag. However, this isn't my true form, this is.”
A cloud of dark energy suddenly engulfed her body and the mares held their ground to not be swept away by the powerful wind. Once it stopped, standing before them now was no longer the somewhat cute filly they saw just a second ago but a tall dark, purple earth mare with a wavy black mane with her strange, ominous magic holding on to their pink friend.
“Oh... oh my,” said Flutershy staring into the dark mare’s evil eyes.
A tiny chuckle was heard from Gloom’s throat as she stared intensely at the two ponies, “What's wrong, not dawing and cooing over me anymore are you, now that you see me for what I really look like?”
“W-well... it doesn't exactly help that you're purposely hurting our friend,” said Fluttershy softly with her head down.
“And aside from that,” said Rarity, “a pony that can spread fear into other pony's hearts is standing right before us!”
“Good of you two to know who I am;” Gloom replied, “and since you do you must be aware that you're completely powerless to raise a hoof against me.” While being suspended in the air, Pinkie noticed the Cake twins standing in the doorway seeing what was taking place and they both started to cry relentlessly. Pinkie was worried about them and didn’t want them to be so upset. “Please, just release me and go away;” she pleaded, “you're upsetting the twins!”
Gloom tilted her head and leered at the Cake twins. With that, Pumpkin and Pound suddenly silenced their yelling, but tears were still pouring from their eyes and their bodies were shaking from Gloom’s dark stare.
“Let them wail,” Gloom lightly chuckled, “their cries of aura of fear just gives me more strength.” Her stare then returned to the pink pony that she had in her grasp, “By the way, why don't you take a quick nap for now.”
Pinkie suddenly felt a huge power surge radiating over her whole body that caused her to yell out in pain; and in minutes she was completely unconscious. Gloom laid her limp body on her back as she felt satisfaction, “There you go; rest easy now... you won't be for long.”
As she started to make her way out of the building along with Pinkie, Gloom suddenly found herself being blocked off from the entrance by Rarity and Fluttershy. The sight of them trying to block her off was a bit amusing to Gloom, but she didn’t smile. “Are you two going to continue to stand in my way even though it’s completely hopeless?” “Um... maybe?” said Fluttershy shaking behind Rarity
Rarity’s courage suddenly overcame her fears as she got into an offensive position was willing to do anything to save her friend, “If you think we’re going to just sit back and let you take our friend Pinkie, then you can just forget it! I may be a lady, but I’m not afraid to get my hooves dirty every now and then.”
Rarity surprisingly gather enough energy in her horn and fired it at Gloom in hopes it would cause her to lose her hold on Pinkie long enough to grab her and try to escape. It did make a huge impact against her and caused her grunt a bit, but her body didn’t budge and was completely unscathed.
“Well… that didn’t work,” Rarity said hesitantly, “I guess my magic isn’t strong enough.”
Gloom’s eyes suddenly turned crimson red as she was glaring intensely at the two mares, “You dare attack me; a grave mistake.”
Suddenly, Rarity and Fluttershy felt their bodies freeze up as an un-seeable powerful aura swept over them. Their hearts were beating fast and they were slowly losing their will to fight.
“Wh-what’s going on?” said Rarity, “I… I-I c-c-can’t move.”
“I’m t-too s-sc-sc-cared to move,” said Fluttershy feeling overly frighten.
As the dark power was taking over their minds, they both fell to the ground unable to do anything to stop Gloom.
“Those who choose to underestimate my dark power will suffer a fate so great; know your place.”
Gloom used her power to explode the door into pieces and literally scared some curious bystanders that overheard the commotion that was from inside the building. As Gloom walked out, the residents all suddenly backed away feeling scared for their lives; but it didn’t make anything better seeing Pinkie on her back unconscious.
“That’s right,” she said with an evil gleam, “cower in fear of my presence; it’s all you simpering weaklings are good for.”
“That’s as far as you go!” said a sudden nearby voice.
Gloom’s crow companion soon came back and landed back on Gloom’s shoulder; and she was glad to see her back. But when she turned around, what little speck of happiness she might’ve had disappeared as she saw the other three friends of Pinkie standing in her path; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle.
“Do you all mind saving us the trouble and remove your bodies from my path;” she said solemnly, “I have a destiny to fulfill.”
“You mean to enshroud fear and sorrow all over Equestria,” shouted, Rainbow, “I don’t think so!”
Twilight saw Pinkie out like a light on Gloom’s back, and she became a bit furious of what’s happened, “Very amusing having you’re your little crow friend taking us on a little wild goose chase, but enough is enough! Drop our friend right now or powerful or not, we’re going to do something about it!”
Gloom seemed to be unaffected by Twilight’s words and showed no hint of consideration, “Is this a joke, because I’m not laughing.”
“As if you ever could, Miss Gloom ‘n’ Doom!” shouted Rainbow again.
“It really doesn’t matter how much of a tragic past ya had;” Applejack stated, “we know what you’re up to and we’re not goin’ to allow that to happen!”
“As I clearly expected, the owners of the so-called ‘Elements of Harmony’ are trying to be such brave heroes in rescuing their friend and defeating me… how pathetic.”
Rainbow Dash got easily angered by Gloom’s and shouted, “How’s this for pathetic!?”
As she raced up high into the sky, Twilight tried to call out to her, “Wait, Rainbow!” Unfortunately, she didn’t hear her.
“Let… her… gooooo!”
Once she was high enough, she raced backed down towards Gloom and went so fast that she caused a sonic rainboom to ignite causing her to ricochet even faster towards the dark mare. Everyone backed away as Rainbow made impact on Gloom and a huge dust cloud came up and covered the surroundings with strong winds.
Rainbow thought that her action was a little risky but did the trick; however when the dust settled she found her suspended in the air right above Gloom, and it turned out that she didn’t even touch her. Her action was completely wasted.
“So that was your famous sonic rainboom;” Gloom spouted, “pretty pointless if you ask me.”
Gloom then raised her hoof and threw Rainbow straight into a wall of a building and her body fell down inside.
“She stopped her rainboom,” said Applejack feeling slightly scared, “that’s just plum crazy!”
Rainbow climbed herself out from the damaged building and held onto her head feeling the slight pain while some blood was leaking from her nose, “Holy crap that hurt.”
“It was futile to think that such a weak effort was going to faze me,” said Gloom as she witnessed the fear that she instilled in all of the surrounding ponies, “as of anything else you might be planning as well.”
“Weak; we ain’t weak, sister!” Rainbow managed to say.
A small smirk appeared underneath Gloom’s expression as she gained the attention of twilight and her friends to Sugar Cube Corner, “Your other two friends tried to stop me as well, but I’m afraid that they’re now both… scared stiff.”
They saw what she was talking about; Rarity and Fluttershy on the ground and their bodies shaking, and their minds were filled with induced fear that was freaking them out constantly.
“Fluttershy, Rarity!” Twilight cried out to her friends as they made their way to them.
“What the hay did ya do to them?!” shouted Applejack while glaring at Gloom.
“They’re just in a paralyzing state of fear, just a small taste of what’s to come upon this unfair world.”
“S-s-so much p-p-power,” Rarity softly whimpered.
Fluttershy was easily manipulated and was freaking out the most, “N-no, please don’t hurt us; have mercy!”
“Girls, get a hold of yourselves!” shouted Twilight.
Rainbow turned around and noticed that Gloom was no longer paying attention to them and was making her way out from their presence, “Hey, where do you think you’re going?!”
Gloom stopped and without turning back to them, she responded, “The 5 of you can try to follow me if that is your wish, but do know that it is futile to try and stop me. All of this newfound happiness in this world mean nothing to me; fear and sorrow is what I am, and thanks to this pony friend of yours, so will all of Equestria. I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole existence, and all of you are lucky enough to be the first ones to witness this glorious achievement! All shall learn to dwell in sorrow… and the whole shall bow down to me.”
Just then from the corner of her eye, Gloom noticed a certain filly that was standing amongst the crowd. It was that filly that she encountered the other day; the one named Dinky Hooves. She was still wearing the necklace that made Gloom a little uncomfortable. Dinky was looking at her with slightly frighten eyes and she was looking at her feeling a tiny sense of unsettledness. But then she just narrowed her eyes at her and turned away, and then disappeared out of sight.
“Pinkie; dang it, she’s gone!” Rainbow cried out.
Dinky couldn’t believe what she just witnessed, what she feared of what might’ve happened did happen, “Holy Celestia, I was right; that was really her! She’s really real… and she took Pinkie!”
Just then, the words that Gloom said to her the other day was now becoming to make sense.
‘I have come here only to complete my destiny; something that a peppy little foal like you would never understand.’
‘A little piece of advice, little filly; if I were you I wouldn’t stick around here for too long. However, you may stay here if you like; it would all be for the better.’
And what she heard Gloom say to Twilight and the others more than proved her theory.
‘All of this newfound happiness in this world mean nothing to me; fear and sorrow is what I am, and thanks to this pony friend of yours, so will all of Equestria. All shall learn to dwell in sorrow… and the whole world shall bow down to me.’
“So that’s what she meant by all of that;” Dinky thought to herself, “Man, I hate when my gut is right!”
Dinky wasn’t as scared as she might’ve been thanks to the necklace that she was still wearing, but she knew that this was no laughing matter. She ran off knowing who she needed to talk to about this event.
“I have to hurry to Miss Stone; she needs to hear about this!”
(Note): Twilight uses a spell in this chapter, but I couldn't think of a good name or description for it; so you can use your imagination for that.
The one named Gloom finally revealed herself in Ponyville and successfully tricked Twilight and her friends in order to capture her target… Pinkie Pie. Twilight and the others tried to stop her, but they were caught off guard and were easily outmatched. Gloom got away with Pinkie Pie leaving the others to wallow in their failure.
In other business, Dinky Hooves saw almost everything, including seeing Pinkie get captured and taken away. Everything that she feared of what could happen did happen; this was something that she needed to tell Emerald Stone about right away. She ran as fast as she could to Miss Stone’s store, but once she got there and went inside…
“Miss Stone, Miss Stone; you won’t believe what has happened! Gloom is…” … the store seemed closed and silent. The lights were out, and no one was around.
“Miss Stone; Miss Stone, are you here?!”
Dinky was wondering why Miss Stone had her store closed this early and was nowhere to be seen, “Where in Equestria could she be? I sure hope that I didn’t scare her off with the story that I told her yesterday or something.”
But knowing about her special necklace and her somewhat encounter with the dark mare, she figured that maybe she could be of help somehow.
“Maybe… maybe there’s something I can do about this.”
-----
After Gloom’s dark effect wore off on Fluttershy and Rarity, Twilight and the others helped them up on their hooves making sure that they were alright.
“I’m so sorry that we failed, girls;” said Rarity feeling upset and guilty inside, “but that mare’s power was just too overwhelming.”
“We all failed, Rarity,” lamented Twilight, “after all, Applejack, Rainbow and I were the ones who were purposely led away from here; the responsibility is not all on you two.”
“Poor Pinkie,” Fluttershy sobbed, “she must be absolutely terrified right about now.”
Despite still being a bit sore, Rainbow Dash kicked some wooden debris that was nearby out of frustration of failing to protect her friend, “That ungrateful creep; I can’t believe she got away with Pinkie! She’s not going to permanently get away with this, right Twilight?”
“Of course not, Rainbow, she just caught us off guard way too easily. I do believe we can stop her if we all work together.”
“And how is that goin’ to work?” Applejack protested, “No offense, Twilight, but did you see her immense power?! How the hay can we possibly stop her?”
Twilight had a little smirk on her face as she walked into Sugar Cube Corner and brought out a book that was bookmarked at a certain page, “Don’t worry, I was up a lot last night researching through some of my books; and unknown to Gloom, I have a spell that could possibly work against her, but… I need my friends there to help me. We’ll rescue Pinkie, you’ll see; so who’s with me?!”
“Well… you seem pretty confidant, Twiliight,” said Applejack, “I’m with ya!”
“So am I,” said Rarity
“I-I-I guess I’ll do it too,” said Fluttershy hesitantly, “… for Pinkie!”
“Well duh,” said Rainbow Dash, “it’s not like Pinkie is going to save herself! Gloom is going to regret ever messing with us… especially me!”
“Well since everypony on borad,” said Twilight, “let’s go save Pinkie!”
“Wait!!!” shouted Fluttershy suddenly, “What about the Cake Twins?”
They all turned around and saw Pumpkin and Pound sitting in the broken doorway staring at them blatantly. Twilight gave a little sigh and said, “Okay… first, let’s find these two a foal sitter.”
-----
Dinky Hooves was confused; she saw and talked with Emerald Stone just the other day mentioning about a mare that possibly was Gloom. But now that Gloom has actually made herself known, she couldn’t find her anywhere. She became quite worried that something happened to her or maybe Gloom had something to do with her disappearance; it was all so nerve-wrecking.
However, she wasn’t giving up yet; she began running all over town asking other ponies if they seen Emerald Stone anywhere.
“Have you seen Miss Stone?”
“Nope, sorry.”
“Have you seen Miss Stone?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Please tell me that you’ve seen Miss Stone?!”
“I haven’t; why, is she missing?”
“Maybe.”
Dinky must have asked over a dozen of ponies there about Emerald Stone’s whereabouts, but none of them knew anything.
“How could she have disappeared?” she wondered to herself.
Suddenly at some point, Dinky noticed Twilight and her friends running off nearby and was quite curious of what was going on.
“Miss Sparkle!” she called out.
Twilight suddenly stopped and looked behind her to see the young filly who was calling her, “Huh? Oh, hello again, Dinky; nice to see you again.”
“Are you guys going to save Pinkie?”
“That we are,” Twilight responded with a straight smile, “we have to save her no matter what; the fate of Equestria depends on it.”
Feeling antsy and jumping up and down, Dinky asked, “Perhaps I could help: can I come with you?”
Twilight’s body tensed up a bit and she was being careful not to disappoint Dinky too much, “Um… sorry, Dinky, but this is too dangerous; have to stay here.”
“But I know that I could help,” Dinky whined a bit, “I… kinda met that mare once.”
This brought Twilight at full attention to her; she was quite surprised that she was still in one piece after crossing Gloom’s path, “You what; when did this happen?”
“Yesterday and she didn’t hurt me… well, not too much anyway. But I felt like I could get through to her.”
“Well thank Celestia you’re okay and still alive,” said Twilight with much relief, “but this mare is beyond help. She has to be stopped before all of Equestria falls to her power.”
“But still, I…”
Twilight crouched down to Dinky’s level and placed her hoof on Dinky’s should as she looked at her straight in the eyes, “No Dinky, stay here. I know you mean well, but you’ll be safer here; trust me, okay?”
Dinky lightly nodded her head and sighed, “Yes, Miss Sparkle.”
As Twilight went back to her friends who were waiting for, she looked back at Dinky and smiled sincerely, “Oh, and tell your mother I said hi! Let’s go, girls!” Dinky just sat there as she watched Twilight and her friends race off in the distance on their rescue mission. All she could do now was wish them luck and hope for the best; but right now, she needed to try and find Emerald Stone.
-----
Pinkie couldn’t remember much after she was knocked out by Gloom’s power, but she could sense that something went wrong in her sub-conscious mind. Suddenly at this point she was starting to come to and was getting feeling in her hooves again.
“Ugh… wh-ere… where am I?” she thought to herself as she woke up. But just then, she felt her hooves being constrained in the air, “Huh, what’s this?! I-I-I can’t get out of this whatever it is, I feel like I’m stuck; what’s going on here?!”
Pinkie was totally confused; she was floating in midair being held up by a magical entity, and her surroundings looked like the inside of a cave. She definitely wasn’t feeling very cheerful at this moment.
“So… you’re finally awake,” said a familiar voice nearby within the dark shadows of the cave, “good; now I can commence with my plan to conquer over this pathetic world.”
Pinkie recognizes the figure to be Gloom, and the same creepy crow was still sitting on her shoulders keeping its creepy gaze on the pink pony. Seeing how she couldn’t escape, Pinkie was rapidly sweating feeling scared of what was going to happen to her.
“Um… excuse me, Miss Gloom;” Pinkie nervously called out to the dark mare, “Um… if I remember correctly, your plan is to engulf the world with sorrow and sadness, right?”
“What’s it to you?” Gloom retorted.
“W-well… why do you need me; what do I have that will benefit to this plan of yours?”
“The Element of Laughter,” Gloom responded in a lowly manner.
“Huh, my elelment?” Pinkie questioned.
Suddenly, Gloom had the urge to explain everything, “For years I’ve embraced this silent void of my loneness, but over time I sensed the spirit of joy and laughter begin to fill up all around me; it began to make me sick.”
Pinkie not being able to understand Gloom’s reason said with a smile, “But didn’t you know, laughter is the best medicine!”
Gloom just gave her a dark glare, “That lie is as old as time itself.”
“Hey, it’s no lie!”
“All laughter did to me was hurt, ridicule, and insult me, and it was a signification to my pain. I no longer wanted to laugh, but the world doesn’t deserve to laugh either… not after the way it treated me.”
“Come on, give it a chance,” pleaded Pinkie, “Everypony is not a big ol’ meanie pants like back in your time, every pony will be nice to you now if you give them a chance.”
But Gloom still didn’t care about what Pinkie said; it came out one ear and out the other, “Says the one who is always happy and is always laughing! I’ll see to it that no pony in all of Equestria will ever laugh again. Unfortunately even my freakishly unnatural power is not enough to cover the whole world.”
A light bulb went up in Pinkie’s head and she finally was beginning to understand, “And that’s why you need my element?”
“That is correct; with my power, I can change the element’s positive energy into the opposite energy. With that much power, no pony will be able to escape my darkness!”
Gloom was acting very sure of herself, but Pinkie was even more confident. She just looked at Gloom with a little smile and responded, “Well I hate to rain on your parade, but you’re out of luck! I’m afraid that my element isn’t here; I don’t have it. So sorry, better luck next time.”
The musky crow could tell that Gloom felt a little annoyed, so it flew up in Pinkie’s face caw right in her face to upset her… and it worked.
“Ugh, rude!”
Gloom was a bit curious of what Pinkie had said as leered at her, “Is this true?”
“That’s right,” Pinkie responded, “along with the other elements, its somewhere where you’ll never find it!”
“At Celestia’s castle in Canterlot, located in the sun locker at the highest tower point.”
Pinkie’s jaw dropped open and her eyes became really wide, “What, you know?!”
“I’ve always known where it has been, darling. However, there was no need to go through the hassle of fetching it. That’s why I have you, because technically…” She walked over to Pinkie and smirked as she placed her hoof on her chin and held her head up, “you are the Element of Laughter.”
The terrifying realization came to Pinkie as tears suddenly came from her eyes, “Oh-no.”
Gloom walked away from her then suddenly used her power to connect her energy with Pinkie’s. Pinkie was shaking as she felt something pulling on her inner soul like it was being forced out.
“H-h-hey, maybe there’s another way to go about this!” she cried out.
But Gloom didn’t listen; she looked up at her sporting a heartless expression, “Don’t scream and try not to struggle; it’ll be less painful that way.”
Suddenly out of nowhere, a beam of light shot out and collided with Gloom as she grunted in slight pain, “Augh!” And this caused her energy link with Pinkie to break, and the pink pony could relax again. The crow came over to Gloom to see if she was alright, but she was as she rose back up on her hooves and looked around in frustration.
“Who dares… challenges my power?!”
“I have!” shouted a demanding voice.
Gloom turned around to the entrance of the cave only to see Twilight and the rest Of Pinkie’s main friends standing before her presence.
“How on Equestria did you find me so fast?!” Gloom protested.
“Gee, I don’t know,” said Rainbow Dash sarcastically, “maybe it’s because of the huge swirling dark clouds emanating above the mountain of this cave from your magic; it’s kinda hard to miss.”
Not that Gloom didn’t know that fact, but it wasn’t amusing to her to be showed up and insulted in such a way.
“I’ll give you a single warning, Gloom,” said Twilight while brushing her hoof against the ground, “release Pinkie… now.”
“Oh man, I ‘m so happy to see you, girls!” shouted Pinkie with tears in her eyes.
Gloom just stood her ground while glaring at the group of ponies before her scoffing under her breath, “So… you’re all still trying to play hero; how cute… and irritating.”
The crow felt a bit irritated too and was about to swoop down towards Twilight and her friends, but then Gloom held up her hoof in its path to cease its plan, “Stand down, girl; they pose no threat to me… no matter how strong they might think they are.”
“I’m afraid that is where you are wrong,” said Twilight as she lifted a spell book from the bag on her back with her magic, “We may not understand the existence of your power, but I understand how it works.”
“What?”
“And I have a spell that will work very effectively against it.”
“Aw yeah,” shouted Rainbow Dash, “I’d listen to her if I were you.”
“Pinkie is our friend and we’re not leaving here without her!” said Rarity.
“Don’t worry Pinkie,” Fluttershy called out, “we’re going to save you!”
“I sure hope so!”
Gloom had enough of this group believing in false hopes; their friendship between them was making her furious, “Don’t be such damn fools! If I wanted to I could take you all down in an instant! My power is feared by all and none have dared to intimidate me!”
“Until now,” said Twlight as she laid the book down on the ground and began to open it, “Last chance.”
Seeing this scene, Gloom could remember how back in her time others were treating her like a major threat to the world and she chuckled while sporting a hidden sarcastic smile under her expression.
“Heh, look at all of you… planning to take me down, probably because you fear my power and think that I don’t deserve to live… just like those fools did all those years ago.”
“What?!” Applejack scoffed, “Don’t ya get it already; we’re here to stop ya so we can rescue our friend, and because we won’t allow our world to be drowned in your evil!”
Gloom was still lost in her dark past and it began boil her up inside, “No pony… no pony understands… what I have been through… what I’ve felt… and no pony will understand the deep, dark depths of my lonely sorrow; and none of you will understand either!”
Feeling a slight bit of sympathy for Gloom’s past and remembering what Dinky said, Twilight tried to reason with her, “Gloom, everypony in the world has gone through different forms of sorrow; it’s not just you! Maybe… maybe if you can give friendship a chance… our friendship, perhaps we could do anything we can to help you.”
But unfortunately it still didn’t work; Gloom glared at Twilight with so much hate and disgust in her eyes and she didn’t care for a single word she said, “It doesn’t matter; once I erase all source of laughter from this world, no pony will care about anything anymore.”
Before any of Pinkie’s friends could react, Gloom bonded her energy with Pinkie’s once again and was instantly draining the pink mare of her energy of laughter. The process felt harsh, painful, excruciating; Pinkie was screaming in constant pain as she felt her very essence leaving her body.
“Pinkie!” all of her friends shouted.
Rainbow Dash went and commanded the others, “Come on, ponies!”
Seeing the ponies’ rushing towards Gloom, the musky crow was about fly at them again; but also once again, Gloom held up her hoof in front of it, “No, don’t…”
Pinkie’s friends were rushing all around Gloom trying to confuse her and break her concentration.
“Please stop, Miss Gloom!” shouted Fluttershy one side.
“Yo, Gloom, over here!” shouted Rainbow Dash on another.
“Nah, over here!” shouted Applejack.
“Oh no, you must pay attention to me!” teased Rarity.
All of their flying and running around antics was working… slightly. Gloom was getting annoyed as some of her power was dissipating from Pinkie’s body.
“None of you fools will distract me with your horseplay; it is futile to stop me!”
“Oh yeah,” said Rainbow Dash pointing in the direction behind Gloom, “then what about that?”
“What?!”
Gloom turned around and noticed Twilight had a spell ready in her horn as it surged from the power of the book she had.
“Here goes nothing; Disperse!”
Twilight’s friends suddenly got out of the way just in time for her spell to hit its mark. The spell surrounded Gloom and engulfed her in a tight bind and caused her connection on Pinkie to dissipate. Pinkie took a huge sigh of relief; it seemed that her friends’ plan worked.
“You okay, Pinkie darling?” said Rarity.
“Heh, never better.”
Twilight felt good about this; all she needed to do now was to complete the spell and Pinkie and all of Equestria would be safe.
“I got her, girls,” Twilight shouted, “now to…”
Suddenly, Twilight felt a slight resistance in her hold on Gloom as the dark mare glared at her with pure black eyes, “You think this annoyance of a spell will stop me?!”
Just then, the spell book that Twilight was drawing her power from suddenly shot up in the air and burst into flames. Twilight groaned from the sudden action and she yelled as she saw the book overhead. “Ahhh, the book!” she cried out.
“Oh no!” Pinkie shouted.
The spell book fell down on the ground in a pile smoldering ashes, and Twilight’s means to possibly beat Gloom burned away with it.
“None of this amuses me in the least;” said the dark mare gazing her hatred upon the other 5 mares, “you’re all too boring.”
“Can somepony please tell me of how an earth pony can be this powerful?!” shouted Applejack in frustration.
A tiny grin appeared on Gloom’s face as she dared to tell the truth, “You want to know how?”
Suddenly, all 5 ponies were suddenly surrounded by an orb of dark energy and their ability to make movement was brought to a halt. “Whoa, what’s this?!” shouted Twilight. Gloom then brought them all together in a huddled pile, and now they were all stuck together on the ground and could break free of Gloom’s magic.
“If you wish to know of what makes me so invincibly strong,” Gloom said in a maddening tone, “It’s not what you think. All of the pure anger, angst, sadness and pain I had endured in the past, I hated every single moment of it. But soon, fate forced me to accept who I was what I was seen as; and then, I used all of that negative energy from this world and I made it my own. I fed it to the dark power that I possess… and it’s made me strong, and I only grow stronger over time! So don’t you see I am invincible; no pony alive will be able to stop me.”
Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe what they were hearing. This mare lives and powers on pure hatred and sorrow for almost her whole life for nearly 200 years; and now she was about to unleash all of that stored emotion and cast it all over Equestria.
“Now where was I?” she said as she turned her attention back to Pinkie, “Oh yes, making your friend’s element power mine.”
Pinkie’s body was trembling as Gloom made her way back to her; and once again she connected her dark energy with Pinkie’s energy and immediately began to drain it out of her again. Pinkie could feel it again; that excruciating pain from before. Feeling the very essence of her being was causing her to scream out uncontrollably in immense pain. Her friends were crying out to her, but that’s all they could do; they couldn’t do anything more to stop Gloom.
“Pinkie, no!” Twilight cried out with tears in her eyes.
Before long, Pinkie’s screaming stopped as Gloom brought out the last bit of her Element’s essence out of her and she moaned lowly as her head hung down and her mane and tail lost its fluff. Pinkie’s friends gasped seeing the essence of Pinkie’s laughter and joy trapped in a round orb and Gloom smiled menacingly upon her success.
“Yes… yes! It’s finally done;” she shouted, “the power to change the world in my image is now mine!”
Just like that in a flash, their plan failed and Pinkie’s essence of laughter was extracted from her being. They all looked in vain as Pinkie just hung there groaning in pain and her body feeling weak and limp.
“Pinkie,” shouted Fluttershy, “say something to us… anything!”
“Show us a smile!” shouted Twilight.
Pinkie suddenly rose her head up slowly and looked upon her friends with cold dead eyes. She somehow couldn’t understand the meaning of their words and their supporting spirits were no help, “A… sm-mile? I… I-I-I c-can’t; I don’t remember… how.”
“Your friend has now lost her ability to laugh;” Gloom said with a nonchalant smirk, “not a single smile will shine upon her ever again.”
“What is there to laugh about anyway;” said Pinkie suddenly as she hung her head back down in dismay, “too many bad things that could happen in this world.”
“Pinkie, what are you saying?!” Rainbow Dash protested.
Gloom removed Pinkie from her shackles and then tossed her at her friends in which Twilight quickly caught her with her magic.
“Take her; I have no more use for her anymore.”
“You monster;” Applejack shouted in anger, “yer not goin’ to get away with this!”
Gloom was tired of them being aggressive towards her, she found it to be… an annoyance, “I do believe that I just did, peasant. Now… get out of my sight.”
Without warning, Gloom stomped her hoof on the ground and a bright light washed over the six pony friends, and they suddenly vanished from Gloom’s sight.
‘Caw’
Gloom’s crow friend flew onto her shoulder after their company disappeared and was curious of what she was going to do next.
“That’s right, my little girl,” said Gloom as she stroked the crow under its chin, “It’s time for me to finally fulfill my destiny… to drown this wretched world in sorrow.” She then wore a smile of malice as she held up the bright orb in front of her and then it slowly turned from bright pink to dark violet, “And then all will learn to finally respect me.”
-----
Just like that, Gloom fulfilled her self-task; and then without breaking a sweat, she teleported Twilight and all of her friends out from the mountain cave that they were in and back to the grounds of Ponyville. The resident around them jumped and were very surprised when they appeared out of nowhere, but they knew that something was wrong. “That little…” Rainbow groaned while getting up, “she just teleported us out of there back here just like that without lifting a hoof; showoff!”
Twilight was trying to get herself together too; experiencing that magical move kinda threw her and her friends for a loop, “Well I’ll give her credit… that pretty impressive for an earth pony… or whatever the heck she might be.”
Suddenly, the six of them heard a nearby voice calling out, “Twilight! Twilight!”
“Dinky?” wondered Twilight.
The young filly saw their returning and was galloping towards them as fast as she could. She had complete faith in them so she thought that everything was alright, “So… what happened; were you guys able to beat her?” However, when the others dispersed from around Pinkie, Dinky saw the terrible state that she was in, “Pinkie; you look terrible! What happened to you?!”
“We… we couldn’t stop her, Dinky;” said Twilight sadly, “she was just too strong, and now Pinkie has lost her ability to laugh.”
Dinky couldn’t believe it and she didn’t want to believe it; but it seemed that Pinkie did lose her laugh. Pinkie didn’t smile, laugh, chuckle, and not even a hint of a smirk was found on her face, nothing there but an expression of sadness and total sorrow, “What; no, that’s terrible!” Being a dear friend of Pinkie, Dinky tried to cheer her up, “Um… come on Miss Pinkie; what can we do to make you laugh?! Um, pull some pranks; tell jokes… throw a party?!”
But nothing she did proved to be effective; Pinkie just looked at her and groaned in dismay, “No thanks, that’s just a waste of time anyway.”
Everyone gasped upon hearing the party pony say such a thing, it was incomprehensible.
“That’s just not right,” said Rarity
“No… her laughter really is gone;” Dinky whined while trying to hug Pinkie, “she’s not herself anymore! Pinkie, please come back to us!”
Everything that had transpired already just made Rainbow Dash angrier and angrier, seeing that she does get angered easily, “That Gloom is seriously going to pay for this!”
“But how; ya saw what happen,” said Applejack, “How are we goin’ to stop her now?”
“I-I-I don’t know, but we have to do something!”
Suddenly, all pony residents stopped to a halt when a loud sounded from the top of the mountain nearby the town.
“What was that?!” said Fluttershy.
Just then, they all noticed the huge plume of smoke over the mountain getting bigger and bigger; its dark, foreboding presence was causing a lot of them to stand on end.
“Wait,” wondered Twilight, “isn’t that…”
Then much to their horror, a huge stream of the dark smoke launched form the cloud and was approaching Ponyville at a fast pace.
“INCOMING!!!” shouted Rainbow dash to warn everyone.
Unfortunately, it was no good; the stream of smoke was going faster than anyone could react. Twilight and her friends knew what it was and feared what it would do, and Dinky was tearing up inside knowing that this might have been the last moment of their lives.
“It’s… too late.”
The stream soon met its mark and all of Ponyville was covered in its dark plume of smoke, and other nearby places like the Everfree Forest and Cloudsdale were engulfed as well. The spell had taken effect on impact, and no one could escape its grasp. Gloom faintly smiled upon her success and knew that she could relax; for her plan could be completed with no hinderance.
“I just love the smell of fear and sorrow of others in the air,” said Gloom solemnly, “Don’t you think so?”
Gloom had won; no light or shine or any auras of happiness was left in Ponyville. Everywhere you went, there was no pony that was laughing, smiling, giggling; not showing the smallest hint of a smile. However, amongst the newly dreary town a sole foal was not affected by the dark magic; the kind-hearted filly, Dinky Hooves. Unfortunately, seeing everything that’s happen right before her eyes, she wasn’t exactly happy herself.
“No… no, this is terrible! Ponyville is now trapped in a state of sorrow; what am I going to do now?!”
Eventually, she came across Twilight and her friends who were all down on the ground feeling miserable with no spirit and joy in their hearts. She ran towards them feeling scared and afraid of what happened to them, but she still tried to get them to get back up on their hooves.
“Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie; come on guys, you can’t give up now! We can’t just let Gloom win!”
“This world is doomed,” Fluttershy whined, “No pony is safe anymore, not even the poor little critters. They’re going to suffer too!”
Dinky was tugging on Fluttershy’s mane trying to get her up, “No Fluttershy, the animals are safe! Go see for yourself; you’ll see.”
“I don’t think even my magic can get us out of this one;” stated Twilight, “n-not even a miracle can save us.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth, egghead,” Rainbow Dash responded, “It’s all hopeless; I give up.”
Dinky couldn’t believe what she was hearing from the mane 6; it was making her upset, “No, not you two as well; snap out of it!”
“This is worse that a fashion disaster; way worse!” shouted Rarity, “I-if she finds out about anything cheerful from us, it’ll be terrible!”
“If who finds out?” wondered Dinky.
“Well, I can honestly say this,” said Applejack sadly, “all hope is lost; darkness has engulfed us all.”
Dinky didn’t want to give up on any of them; she tried her hardest to try and reach them, “You’re all being ridiculous; hope isn’t lost, it's still here! Come on, we can still fight!”
But suddenly, Pinkie rose up and blew up at the young filly, “Be quiet, little brat!”
Dinky was suddenly silent while she stared at Pinkie feeling a bit frightened seeing her in such a upsetting state, “P-Pinkie?”
Pinkie then just sulked back down on the ground and her wavy hair hanging in front of her miserable expression, “Quit… trying to be a hero; it’s over. There’s nothing left that’s worth fighting for anymore; just accept it.”
The light in the heroes of Ponyville were suddenly out; they had no courage to fight anymore. It seemed that all hope was lost, “How could Gloom do something like this; it’s terrible! But wait… why am I not affected like every other pony here?”
Dinky suddenly felt a warm sensation coming from below her neck. She looked down and lifted up her little trinket that she was still wearing and realized her answer, “Of course, it must be my necklace, its protecting me; amazing.”
But as amazing as it was to her little young mind, Dinky still didn’t feel any better about her situation. She wasn’t even sure that the necklace was even helping anymore; maybe it had its limits. As she pondered this she was walking around her town seeing all the sad and miserable residents. She wondered if there was anything that could be done.
“What do I do now;” she wondered to herself, “this is all too creepy for me. If every pony here in this town is affected, then…” Just then, a thought came to her mind realizing something very important to her, “… oh no, Mom!”
It finally occurred to Dinky that her mother, Derpy, was probably affected by Gloom’s spell as well. She didn’t want it to be true, but it was highly possible. She ran all the way to her home as fast as she could because she was sure that’s where she might be. When she got there, the atmosphere seemed dark and dreary; like there was no light of happiness shinning upon it.
She went inside and nothing was there at first. It was her house but it seemed so barren. She called out to see if anyone was there, “Mom, mom where are you?! Are you here?! Mom!”
Dinky kept calling out desperately hoping that her mother was alright. But then, she heard a familiar voice nearby, “Is… th-that you, Dinky?”
Dinky’s attention turned her towards a nearby couch; and when she got to it, her mother seen laying on it. She seemed to be alright, but she didn’t appear to be as cheerful as she usually is.
“It’s me, Mommy,” Dinky said as she placed her hoof on her mother’s head, “I’m right here.”
Derpy raised her head up and looked at her daughter who was slightly smiling. But her expression didn’t have a hint of a smile as she gaze sadly upon her, “I-it’s nice to see that you’re o-okay. But it doesn’t matter; none of us are safe anymore.”
It was clear to Dinky now that her mother was affected by Gloom’s spell just as she expected. However, this was her mother and she wasn’t going to give up on her so easily, “No mommy, we’re all just fine; you just don’t see it. You’re all blinded by Gloom’s magic; your feelings are not real!”
Although nothing Dinky was saying to her seemed to be working as Derpy was still feeling miserable, “I’m nothing but a failure and no pony likes me; they all hate me. If that’s the case, then why do I even exist?”
“Mom, you’re scaring me,” said Dinky, “stop saying that!”
Dinky knew that if there was one thing that made her mother happy it was muffins. So tried her luck by rushing into their kitchen and fetching a little glass bowl of muffins that her mother made before all of this happened. She carried it over to Derpy and placed it beside her; and then she hoped for the best.
“Um, here, have some of the muffins you made earlier, Mommy; they always cheer you up.”
Suddenly, Derpy got up and gasped. Then shockingly, she stared at them and yelled, “NO!!!” She then quickly whacked it away with her hoof and sent it flying and then it shattered against a nearby wall causing the muffins to scatter everywhere, “Get those away from me!”
Dinky was suddenly scared from her mother’s action, and watched helplessly as the blonde mare laid back on the couch with her hooves over her head shaking in fear.
“M-m-mom, what’s wrong with you?” asked Dinky, feeling worried for her mother.
“She’s watching; if she sees me… h-h-h-happy, he’ll come back.”
“Who?”
“Th-that… stallion; he’ll come back… to hurt us… to hurt… you.”
Dinky felt frightened knowing what her mother was talking about; just thinking about it was bringing bad memories back into her mind, “S-s-stop speaking nonsense, mommy; I don’t like seeing you like this! Please, just go back to your normal self… please?!”
Derpy didn’t look back at her daughter; all she did was say, “Just… leave me alone, Dinky. Just… leave.”
Dinky backed away a bit from her mother showing some tears, and she just ran out the house crying. After getting back outside, she let it all out and was trying to clear up her tears. She was fed up of what happened and was ready to do something about it.
“That’s it,” she said to herself semi-angrily, “Gloom has taken this too far. My Mommy doesn’t deserve this; no pony here doesn’t deserve this!”
She took one more look at her necklace and could still feel it’s warm magic coming from it. She closed her eyes and it against her heart; and then she came to an important decision, “I guess it’s up to me now; I’ll go face her myself.”
-----
At the city of Canterlot, inside the palace, Princess Celestia was sitting calmly on her perched throne completely unaware of the dark deed that was taking place. However, as she was sitting there deep in thought, she could sense that something was wrong.
“What is this strange negative aura I’m feeling?” she thought to herself, “It feels a bit familiar; but what could it be?”
“Princess, are you alright?” asked one of the stand-by guards who noticed her troubled expression, “Is there something bothering you?”
“I’m not quite sure,” Celestia responded while shaking herself out of it, “b-but… I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Suddenly out of nowhere, a random note roll materialized in front of Celestia. She looked at it curiously wondering what Twilight could have learned today about friendship. But as she levitated it up in front of her and rolled it, her face turned to a somewhat disturbed expression as she saw that the writing on the note was in crimson blood and it spelled out a few simple words.
“What’s this? I… have… returned?”
And then another surprise came after as a huge gigantic orb formed in the middle of the throne room. All the guards there were suddenly on high alert and were ready to defend the Princess in any way. Celestia could suddenly see a figure forming inside the orb and it came into clear view with a expressionless stare.
“Salutations, Princess; I’m sure you haven’t forgotten my face.”
Celestia definitely recognized the mysterious mare that was suddenly in front of her; her voice slightly trembled at the sight of someone from her past, “It’s… it’s you; Gloom!”
“Who is that menace, your highness,” asked one of the Royal Guards.
Celestia was hesitantly holding back from talking about her knowledge of Gloom, but she did anyway, “An earth pony… who turned dark over 200 years ago through an abusive and hash life. Many ponies in her homeland were afraid of her strange powers that she was born with, but unknown to them… their harshness towards her just made her power grow stranger. Her heart grew cold and she eventually used her powers to spread her sadness and sorrow throughout her town and she planned to do the same to the rest of Equestria. Once I learned of this I had to stop her, but surprisingly her power was immensely strong; I had underestimated her. In the end, I had no choice but to trap her inside a large stone mountain and sealed her within it. But now it seems that my spell didn’t last forever; and she has returned to finish what she has started.”
The guards were quite shocked by Celestia’s explanation of this strange mare, and were a bit frightened of what she was capable of. Something told them that fending off this mare if she attacked wouldn’t be easy.
“It wasn’t very nice to do that to me you know,” Gloom said with a slight scowl, “but I did learn something while I was trapped inside that mountain. I learned that I can’t trust anypony in this world, and that I’m alone in my pain. That is why I will spread my power to the world, so that it will feel and experience the sadness I had to bear.”
Celestia remembered everything that happened to Gloom and understood her pain, but she wasn’t planning on that happening again, “I know that you’ve been through a lot, but you gave me no choice back then and today it won’t be any different. I will not allow you to do anything of the sort.”
A tiny grin appeared on Gloom’s face as she had a good chuckle from Celestia’s words, “I’m afraid that you’re already too late, Princess; see for yourself.”
The scene inside the giant orb suddenly switched over to the view of Ponyville where Celestia and all of the Royal Guard saw how dark and dreary it was, and all of the ponies suddenly wandering and lounging around living in fear and their hearts filled with sadness and sorrow.
Celestia’s eyes grew wide upon seeing this event happen right under her nose, “No…” She remembers seeing Gloom’s hometown in the same, and now it seemed that it was too late for Ponyville as well.
“Ponyville is now under my spell,” said Gloom while smirking at Celestia’s shocked expression, “and it shall be for all eternity! Not even your precious bearers of the Elements of Harmony can stop me now!”
Celestia could see what she meant; Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all sulking around together and the joy in their hearts no longer present.
“Do you have any idea what chaos you’ll bring out corrupting the Elements?!” Celestia shouted at the dark mare, “End this nonsense, Gloom; Ponyville has nothing to do with your misfortune!”
“No, but I couldn’t stand the sight of their happiness. If I can’t have happiness in this world, then neither should any other pony; and your home is next, Princess.”
Gloom’s intimidation didn’t make Celestia falter one bit. She raised her wings and prepared magic in her horn to show off her magnificence to Gloom, “That will not happen; you will be stopped by then.”
“Oh I don’t think so,” Gloom grimly disagreed, “take a look outside.”
Outside the palace window, Celestia could already see a stream of Gloom’s power stretching over the lands and was almost at the city of Canterlot. Not fully prepare at that last minute, Celestia knew that there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“I win,” Gloom scoffed, “This world will drown forever in eternal sorrow.”
Celestia scowled at Gloom for playing her like this and couldn’t help but watch as the spell impacted into the city and spread rapidly. As the glowing orb in front of Celestia slowly faded away, Gloom made a creepy little smile as she said…
“Farewell, Celestia.”
“Curse you, Gloom!” shouted Celestia as her voice echoed throughout the palace; and then in mere minutes, the Princess of Equestria was trapped with every other pony there… amongst the dark clouds of sorrow.
----
“Today is the start of a new world,” said Gloom grimly to her crow friend.
The crow responded by flying onto Gloom’s shoulder and caw lowly as it rubbed itself against her. Gloom slightly smiled as she looked through her orb at the other places across the land; they were all ready for her to purge with her power.
“Imagine a world without any laughter or happiness at all. It’s going to be beautiful, for I will no longer be alone.”
All seemed calm and quiet for, but then a single voice nearby shouted out and it echoed her name.
“GLOOOOOOOOOM!!!”
Gloom turned her attention to the entry way behind her and saw a single little purple unicorn pony standing there huffing and puffing while fixating an angered glare at her.
“What the…” Gloom thought in confusion, “That’s the same young filly that I encountered the other day; as well as the same one that I saw amongst the crowd today. What does she want now?”
As the angry filly walked towards the dark mare, the crow looked down at her and raised its feathers as it cawed at her harshly. It then raised its wings and swooped down at Dinky; but before it made contact, the crow suddenly stopped in its tracks as it was caught and being held up by Dinky’s magic. Dinky glared at it and then swung it behind her, smacked it against the wall and knocking it out unconscious.
“Shouldn’t she be down there in that town with the rest… affected by my spell?” Gloom thought feeling irritated, “She’s so persistent.”
Dinky then continued to approach Gloom while the dark mare scowled at her even more for knocking out her animal companion. She calmly asked, “What business do you want with me no, child?”
Dinky stopped as she got a close enough distance to Gloom and responded, “It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? I demand that you turn my home back to the way it was!”
“You demand me,” Gloom scoffed while almost smiling, “how cute. How are you not under my spell like everypony else?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything!”
“It’s that trinket around your neck, isn’t it?”
Dinky gasped a little and covered her necklace with her hoof glaring at Gloom again. Gloom just lightly chuckled under her breath, “I thought as much.”
Dinky’s necklace was becoming more and more familiar to Gloom every time she looked at it and she didn’t know why; but she knew that she didn’t have time to dwell on that fact.
“No matter, there’s nothing you can do to stop me; and if all of this makes you feel miserable, then that’s fine by me.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer!” Dinky shouted in protest, “You will return my friends, my Mom, and the rest f the town’s happiness back or else… o-or else unlike last time, I won’t be so nice!”
“Just who do you think you are?” said Gloom looking down on the young filly, “Give me a good enough reason why I even should?”
“Because we don’t deserve this; living sad, scared and miserable for the rest of our lives; that… completely blows!”
Gloom still remained unmoved by Dinky’s reasoning and didn’t care much for her feelings, “It is my judgment to the world for treating me like a monster. If your feelings can’t handle it, then too bad; I don’t care about them anyway.”
Some tears started to roll down Dinky’s face as she quietly pleaded, “Please… I beg of you. My Mother… she’s the best thing that has ever happen to me. So caring, loving, sweet and uplifting; I love my mommy very much.”
Gloom suddenly looked over at her and noticed how badly she was crying. All of this crying for her Mother; Gloom just couldn’t understand, mainly because of how her Mother wasn’t caring or loving in the end.
“But… but your spell,” Dinky continued while glaring at Gloom, “Your stupid spell has ruined her; she’s a total train wreck! It breaks my heart to see her like this and I don’t want it to stay this way! Please, just stop this and turn everything back to normal.”
Gloom was caught off a bit by the way Dinky was acting, but no matter how much she pleaded Gloom didn’t give in, “Begging won’t do you any good either. You will never understand the kind of life I lived back then; no pony ever will. Just give it up and accept this world’s fate.”
The more Dinky kept hearing Gloom’s excuses, the upset she got with her. She just couldn’t understand why somepony would even do something like this and not feel a little bit of guilt. She understood what Gloom has been through, but that only made her remember the ordeal that she had to endure.
“You say that no pony will understand the pain you had and of how lonely and sad you felt,” said Dinky suddenly, “but… I do understand.”
“What?” said Gloom feeling confused.
“You’re not as alone as you may think you are. We may all seem so happy all the time to you, but we all had our share of pain in our lives including me.”
“What are you trying to pull here?” questioned Gloom as she glared at the filly, “Are you trying to play a trick on my mind or something?”
“What, no! I’m just trying to make you understand that doing this won’t change anything; revenge isn’t the answer!”
“And what gives you the right to tell me that?” Gloom once again questioned.
“My Mom,” she said sadly, something… terrible was done to me that made her furious and… and she wanted to get payback at the pony who was abusing me and… and…”
Dinky suddenly stopped in her speech as she started to cry a bit and she sorta turned away from Gloom to wipe her eyes.
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk about it; it’s too painful.”
Gloom just sat there staring at young filly after almost hearing what she was talking about. It seemed that she had gone through some pain like she did; she didn’t look like she was bluffing.
“Your eyes, young filly,” Gloom said calmly, “they… suddenly remind me of mine back in my youth. Are you saying that you lived a life similar to mine?”
Dinky stopped crying and looked back at Gloom seeing that she was being strangely curious, “N-no, it’s not as bad as what you went through, but it was still pretty scary.”
“I… I understand what you’re going at,” Gloom suddenly said.
“You do?”
Dinky thought that she was finally speaking some sense into her and maybe she would consider taking back the spell on her home.
“Yes, I do.” However, “But unfortunately for you it doesn’t change anything for me; because unlike you, I can never experience happiness ever again.”
“What, that’s not true!” Dinky pleaded, “You could still…”
“Silence!!! My mind is made up and it can’t be changed. All that is left for me is to share with the world of what I have endured. However… if I spare you, you could join me and we could spread our pain together.”
After all of that, Gloom still wasn’t convinced… and she even tried to get Dinky on her side. Dinky was getting fed up with her, but she still wasn’t giving up.
“No way, there is no way that I would join you to do what you are doing; it’s wrong, and you should feel wrong doing it!”
Gloom scoffed knowing that it was a waste of time to talk to the young filly, “If you do not wish to join me, then leave my presence; I’m done with you.”
“Well I’m not done with you!” Dinky shouted; and then she firmly sat her flank on the ground and refused to move as she glared up at Gloom, “I’m not leaving until you cease your stupid spell!”
Ignoring her, Gloom turned away from Dinky not minding her anymore attention, “Do what you wish, young filly; I really couldn’t care less.”
As Dinky sat there completely still, not moving a muscle, she was remembering everything that she saw in Ponyville and how miserable all of the residents were; but none of that sadden her more than remembering her mother and how she acted.
“I have to do something,” she thought to herself, “If I don’t then everypony will live forever in sorrow. Oh Mommy, what do I do?”
Dinky eyed the glowing orb that housed the corrupted energy of Pinkie’s element power and was brainstorming of how to stop it. But then she looked down at her necklace again and noticed that it was softly glowing. And then… Dinky had an idea; she wasn’t sure if it would work, but she thought it was worth the try.
“If you really are magic and powerful,” said Dinky softly as she closed her eyes and placed her hooves over the necklace, “then… give me the power… to stop her!”
Then suddenly, a big burst of power surged from the necklace and caught Gloom’s attention as she quickly turned around and exclaimed, “What?!”
The power rose up to Dinky’s horn as it shined with an immense glow that brightened the whole enclosed area. Dinky’s eyes then went back to the orb and then she took a shot.
“Oh no you don’t!” Gloom shouted as she rushed in front of the beam’s path and began to push it back with her power. Gloom was getting tired of all of this as she made sure nothing happened to her orb.
“Didn’t I tell you to give up; it’s hopeless!”
Dinky was struggling a bit, but she refused to back down, “I… will not! All of my friends, my Mother and Equestria… all of their hope of happiness is riding on me! So… I will never… GIVE UP!!!”
Suddenly, Gloom could feel her power faltering against Dinky’s and she became a bit distracted feeling shocked, “What’s this; how is th-this filly fending back my p-power?! Could it be… that necklace; no… its impossible!”
Dinky gave it all she had and then finally, she penetrated through Gloom’s defense and knocked her to the side. Gloom winced in slight pain as she rolled down on the ground; and when ehs looked back up, Dinky;s attack already made contact with the orb.
“No!”
Dinky knew that she was finally going to end this whole thing and return everyone’s happiness back as she added more pressure on the orb, “Come on, come on. Al-lmost … got it.”
But just when she assured victory, Dinky suddenly felt a struggled force against hers and it made her falter, “What the…” Then suddenly, a repel reaction ricochet from the orb and immediately dispersed Dinky’s beam and came at her in full force. Dinky braced for impact as the orb’s power smashed into her forehead; and there wasn’t even a scream, she was automatically knocked unconscious as she propelled through the air and her necklace was released from around her neck. She landed front side on the ground and her necklace landed right beside her still in one piece.
Gloom slowly got up and slightly groaned as she felt the pain in her head. Suddenly, her crow friend, now conscious again, flew up to her and landed on her shoulder. Gloom was quite glad that she was okay and that her plans were not thwarted.
“Ugh, that was… way too close, right girl?”
‘Caw’
“That filly sure was persistent, I’ll give her that.”
She looked over at Dinky who was out but still breathing lying on the ground as the dark power started to engulf her body. She had a slight sigh of relief after everything that had happened and thought to herself…
(WARNING: part of this chapter contains mild foalcon, mild rape, and mild abusive words; yep, all of it mild.)
It had been done; Ponyville and Canterlot had fallen to Gloom’s dark power, and their only hope left, Dinky Hooves, was knocked unconscious with her necklace off her neck and the dark power was now overcoming her. It was most certain that Gloom had finally won at last with no other hindrance to hold her back.
Gloom was looking down at Dinky wearing a small smirk as she saw her body being engulfed by her spell completely, “Not so high and mighty without that necklace, are you?”
‘Caw’
“Come on, girl, it’s time to finish what I started.”
She turned away and was heading back to her orb to continue her dark deed; but just before she even got halfway to it, Gloom stopped as she sensed something. She turned back to Dinky’s direction and noticed something on the young filly.
“What’s this?”
She saw a small flow of red liquid running down Dinky’s face and it seemed to be coming from underneath her horn where that beam knocked her out at. Gloom couldn’t help look upon her and feel a little troubled.
“She’s… bleeding…”
She didn’t know why but something about seeing Dinky in such a state made her have a certain feeling that she had never felt before. She slowly walked over to Dinky and hesitantly used some of her power to partially heal her head wound and then bandaged it up so it could be protected as it healed. Once she was done she wasn’t changed or anything but she just looked at the young feeling some sort of calmness. But suddenly, she realized her actions and became confused.
“Why… did I just do that;” she wondered in frustration, “and… why did I even care? As far as I’m concerned I would’ve just let this little filly suffer from her pain… like I had to suffer from mine.”
The feeling of doing something kind was foreign to her ever since her mind turn dark when she was just an older filly; so she didn’t understand why she committed such an act. But it didn’t matter to her as she decided to forget it.
“Forget it; I don’t have time to dwell on this.”
Just then, her attention went to the familiar trinket that was lying beside Dinky and held it up with her dark aura to quickly observe it.
“Hmph, just what’s so special about this anyway? It doesn’t look all that powerful.”
Gloom looked at its weird shape and the light glow it still had made her a little uncomfortable, but she thought that maybe she could use this to her advantage somehow… even though she didn’t really need it.
“I suppose… I could try it,” she said looking at her crow friend, “just to see what makes it so powerful.”
Gloom slowly placed Dinky’s necklace around her neck, but nothing happened; not right away anyway. But before Gloom knew it, a huge power surge started to ignite throughout her body. She gasped out loud from the sudden shock. The crow itself couldn’t even move; its body suddenly stiff and trapped by the necklace’s power.
“What’s… going on?!” Gloom shouted in shock.
Just like that it’s like the necklace’s power was sending Gloom’s mind back in time, but not too far back. She was suddenly seeing many different moments in the town of Ponyville; but that was impossible. Why was she seeing moments in this place if she wasn’t even around during its existence. Plus, these moments seemed too cheerful and happy to be any of her memories. But then it finally hit her of what was going on when she saw a certain filly in each moment that her eyes were seeing. It was different lovable memories of Dinky, the same young filly that was trying to befriend her.
Suddenly seeing all of these memories of Dinky were making Gloom feel something different; similar to what she felt when she healed Dinky, only this time it wasn’t going away. It’s almost as if she was suddenly in Dinky’s place feeling all of this love and friendship that she experience. To Gloom it was a bit frightening but also quite exhilarating.
“All of these… memories,” Gloom thought to herself, “These joyous and happy moments; this filly… has a lot of them. So this is somewhat of what I used to feel; happiness, love, affection, and friendship. It feels so… warm and comforting.”
Gloom never thought that she would ever experience this kind of feeling ever again in her whole miserable life. However, she still didn’t understand what purpose this moment served for her or how it was to make her feel any stronger. But just then after Gloom saw all of these happy memories of Dinky, she began to see something that was completely different from everything else that she saw.
“Wait, what’s this?”
-----
Gloom was suddenly witnessing a scene inside Dinky’s house. Most of the lights were off so it seemed a bit dreary and empty. But just then, she saw a younger version of Dinky run down from upstairs looking for her mother; she looked to be about 6 years old at least.
“Mommy mommy, can you play a game with me?! M-M-Mommy?!”
She didn’t see her anywhere amongst the darkness, but someone was standing nearby; a unicorn stallion wearing a little smile and looking down upon her. Dinky’s body began to slightly shake when she saw who it was.
“D-D-Daddy?”
“Sorry, sweetheart,” the young stallion said while approaching her slowly, “your mommy is out to take care of some business. But don’t worry; I’ll play a game with you.”
The creepy look in his eyes and the tone of his voice; Dinky knew what her father was up to as she slowly cowered and began to back away from him.
“N-n-n-nevermind, I-I’ll just play w-with my toys.”
Before she could get away, the stallion used his magic to drag her right next to him and he said, “Aw, what the matter; you want to play with your ditz of a mother… but you don’t want to play with your dad?”
“N-n-no,” Dinky said hesitantly as she looked away from him, “but… I-I don’t like the way you p-play with me.”
Suddenly, the young stallion sat down in a chair and brought Dinky over to him as he leaned her against him facing away. Dinky panicked a little as the stallion held her closer and started to run his hoof through her mane.
“You don’t necessarily mean that, do ya?” he said to her, “I love playing with my little girl and you should feel the same way about me.”
“D-Daddy, please don’t…”
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that; I can only have this moment with you when your Mother is out.” The young stallion then began to move his fore hoof down Dinky’s side enjoying the feel of the soft fur, “You’re becoming a big girl, and your body is turning out nicely.”
Dinky was blushing from what her father was doing to her, but she didn’t want to enjoy it. Even at her age she knew what her father was doing was wrong and was struggling a bit trying to make him cease.
“P-please, Daddy, I-I-I don’t want to do this anymore.”
The stallion held her down tighter to keep her from escaping and slightly bit her ear to keep her in check. It caused her whine a bit and stopped her from struggling; he knew that it worked every time.
“We’ve already been doing this for a week and you’re still saying that you don’t like this? Well… that’s too bad; I love you, Dinky, and I’m going to continue to show you just how much I mean it.”
And with that, he gave Dinky a little light yet prolong lick on her horn. He kept on doing that for a little bit and Dinky was just sitting there embarrassingly blushing; no longer resisting his actions even though she didn’t like.
After that, the stallion looked down and chuckled as he placed his hoof on top of Dinky’s that were placed in between her legs.
“Now then, let’s remove these delicate little hooves.”
“N-no, please stop; s-stop it!”
Suddenly, Dinky was spared any further uncomforted feelings when the house door suddenly swung open, and in the doorway was Dinky’s Mother, Derpy. She came back because she forgot her mailbag… again. But as she stood there, she began to curiously tilt her head as she was trying to comprehend the situation between her Daughter and her stallion friend.
“Huh, what’s going on here?”
“Oh, hey Derpy; I was just playing a little game with our lovely daughter. Isn’t that right, Dinky?”
Dinky had her head down not looking at any of her parents feeling hurt and scared. Derpy noticed a few tears trickling down her daughter’s face and was wondering what was wrong.
“Dinky, you’re crying… like you have been recently every day. Is something bothering you?” She then looked at her stallion lover, “You aren’t doing anything mean to her, are you?”
Trying to act innocent, the young stallion smiled and said, “What, don’t be ridiculous; I’m a stallion of my word. Even you should know that only a sick monster would be mean to our cute little Dinky.
Just then without any warning, the stallion felt Dinky bite down on his hoof so hard that he yelp from his pain and loosen his grip on her. She stepped down and turned back around towards the stallion that was her father while glaring at him with tears still in her eyes.
“You are a sick monster!” she shouted at him in anger, “I… I-I-I don’t want to play with you anymore; I hate you!”
“Dinky!” Derpy shouted as she saw what had happened.
The stallion partially glared at the young filly feeling the after pain from her bite and responded, “Dinky, you better calm down right now.”
But Dinky ignored him as she looked at her Mother and had the courage to finally tell her everything that was happening, “He’s been fooling with me, Mommy!”
“Huh?” Derpy wondered; she didn’t quite get what her daughter meant by that.
“Be quiet, Dinky,” said the stallion as he raised his voice, “I mean it.”
Dinky was literally shaking while getting her words out, but she wasn’t going to be held back from telling her mother the truth anymore; she had enough.
“Every time I’m home alone with Daddy he keeps forcing me to play with him and I don’t like it! He… he licks my horn, Mommy!”
Derpy suddenly gasped hearing what her daughter said; she fully understood that situation, but why would the stallion she fell in love with do something like that?
“That enough out of you, Dinky,” the stallion suddenly shouted in anger, “Don’t make me tell you again.”
The tone in his voice did make Dinky cower a bit, but she still didn’t stop; she was going to tell her Mother everything, “H-h-h-he even t-told me that he doesn’t even like you and would rather have me as a…”
Dinky suddenly found herself being slapped across her face by her the stallion’s hoof sending her down on the ground. The pain was immense to her and she began to sob lightly where she laid. Derpy couldn’t believe her eyes as her mouth gaped opened; she wasn’t going to let this stand. She knew that foals had to be disciplined every now and then, but her lover just took it too far.
“I tried to warn you,” the stallion said to Dinky as he stared down at her, “but you didn’t listen. Learn to respect me and obey your fa…”
Just then, Derpy spread her wings and slammed herself right into the stallion, and he went flying into a wall. When he looked up, he saw Derpy standing in front of Dinky while huffing and puffing and glaring at him with an angered expression.
“Wh-wh-what’s gotten into you honey?” he said trying to act innocent.
However, Derpy was not being fooled anymore, “Don’t… d-don’t call me that, not after what you just did in front of me! Is what Dinky said true?!”
The stallion was about to tell her another lie, but he could tell in her derp-eyed expression that it wasn’t going to work anymore.
“Answer me! Do you really hate me; do you think I’m too stupid to know what’s really going on here?!”
Suddenly, an amused smile came onto the stallion’s face as he decided to stop acting nice to her, “You never seemed to noticed it yourself so far; so I say that you are pretty stupid… not that you never were.”
The stallion’s true colors were finally starting to show in Derpy’s eyes and she was getting furious in her own way, “I… I can’t believe you!”
Dinky was still lying on the ground watching the event unfold in front of her. She saw how her mother was reacting and tried to speak up, “M-Mommy?”
But Dinky was so mad she just shouted, “Be quiet, Dinky!”
Dinky pulled back a bit feeling a little terrified of how her parents were suddenly acting towards each other. She wasn’t feeling very happy.
“I don’t understand; I cared for you, I dated you and played with you! I did all of that because I loved you; and now I find out that you did something like this! What did all of that mean to you anyway?!”
“Oh quit your whining already,” the young stallion said, “can’t you take a hint? The fact is that you’re dumb; no scratch that… you’re downright retarded; you always have been and you always will be. I’ve tried my best to tolerate you and your screwy eyes and clumsy idiocy, but now… I can’t stand you anymore.”
Derpy was crying a bit herself, but her anger didn’t falter while hearing everything that her lover said to her, “And so what, you decide to hit on Dinky… your own daughter?!”
The longer Derpy and young stallion kept yelling at each other, the farther Dinky inched herself away from them. She didn’t realize what she started, but she was soon going to see what it was.
“It’s a shame, really,” the stallion spouted, “Dinky just turned 6 two weeks ago and she’s already smarter than you; and cuter.”
“Why you…”
“The only good thing I liked about you is your giant iron ball of an ass. Once I got past that, nothing about our time mattered to me anymore; heh, that is… until our sweet little Dinky was born.”
Derpy was a mare who sometimes seemed a little too friendly and never was easily angered by anyone; but this time, Derpy was furious. Dinky never saw her mother so mad before; it kinda scared her. Derpy however wasn’t going to let this fake lover of hers get away with his actions.
“You… you sick bastard! You just used me, and now you were planning to use our… our…”
Suddenly, Derpy ceased in her words as she just began to break down and was on her way to crying. The stallion didn’t really care though; he rather liked seeing her being so upset; she seemed like such a baby to him.
“Aw, what’s the matter; you’re upset now? You going to cry, little ret…”
Suddenly, Derpy slammed her hooves down on the ground to silence the young stallion. She raised her wings out to her sides and threw a threatening glare at him to intimidate him.
“Get… out… now. The way you really feel about me is bad enough, but the way you’ve been treating Dinky… n-never mind. Get out, and leave our… no, MY Daughter, MY little muffin alone… YOU SICKO!!!”
The young stallion was a bit surprised of how different Derpy was acting and the fact that she was truly ma; but he wasn’t moved at all. He looked over at Dinky with a little smirk and Dinky whimpered a bit and scooted behind Derpy and out of his view.
He looked at Derpy with a nonchalant smile and told her off, “Do you really think that I’m going to take orders from a dumb, clumsy mare? And besides, if I’m going to leave this dump… I’m taking Dinky with me.”
Derpy couldn’t stand him anymore; the way he was acting toward Dinky was making her pissed off. She prepared to do something that she never would’ve thought she would do, “Would a dumb, clumsy mare do this?!!!”
Gloom, the dark mare who was witnessing all of this in her mind thanks to the necklace that she placed on herself couldn’t believe what she was seeing with her own eyes. She witnessed Dinky’s mother literally tackle her now ex-lover and began to wail out on him. The stallion however did defend himself, but in the end he did way less damage to her than she did to him. She punched him, kicked him, and bit him in a rough, dirty scuffle; and she did all of that repeatedly until he was covered in bruises and blood soaked wounds.
As the memory went on, Gloom saw Dinky cowering in a corner trying not to watch what her mother was doing to the stallion; but even then it was like she could tell what was happening. Never in her life did she see her mother this out of control before just to protect her; it frightened her so much and she just wanted it all to be a dream. Before things got too out of hand however, some other ponies who heard the scuffle nearby came in and stopped the fight. The two ponies were soon brought to court for the situation that they made; and while in the end the stallion was found guilty and charged for sexual rape against a foal, Derpy still had to serve a two week sentence for assault; because technically she did overdo it and the stallion was the one covered in all the wounds. Dinky had to stay with a certain pony that she knew very well during that time; and to Gloom, she seemed somewhat familiar.
-----
By her sheer willpower, Gloom used her dark power to quickly ricochet the necklace from around her neck to release herself from the memories that were flooding her mind. She stood still breathing heavily as she was recovering from the strong energy that came from the necklace trying to recall what had happened.
“So… that is what this… little filly has gone through,” she said to herself, “I can’t believe it. How can somepony like her go through something like that and still be so caring and… happy?”
“Because despite what she witnessed,” said a sudden nearby voice, “she has too strong of a heart to permanently give up hope.”
Gloom suddenly turned to the entrance of the mountain and saw a certain earth pony mare make her way inside. The mare just stood there and gave Gloom a little calm smirk.
“It quite a pleasure to finally meet you… Gloom, or should I say… Amity.”
Gloom’s eyes widen as she realized the name the random mare called her, “Who the heck are you, and how do you know my re… that name?”
Gloom also realized that it was the same pony that she saw in Dinky's memory; the one that she had to stay with while her Mother served her sentence. Just then, Gloom felt a familiar vibe coming from the mare and became curious, “Wait… do I… know you from somewhere?”
“I’m afraid not,” the mare responded, “but I’m sure you know my Great Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Stone.”
That name was completely known to Gloom as she thought of something from her past, “What… those two?”
She remembered two particular ponies of her hometown that were fighting against her and were planning to do something bad to her; at least… that’s what she thought.
“I am Emerald Stone; their Great Granddaughter,” the earth pony mare said, “I’ve heard everything about you from my parents, and they heard it from their parents, and they… well, you know.”
Gloom was wondering where this mare came from and why she wasn’t under her spell. But her mind was soon blown when she saw a second identical trinket around Emerald’s neck. Where did she get it and how did she know about it?
“I’m sure you also know that it was them that made these trinkets,” Emerald said seeing Gloom staring at her trinket, “They made them out of special light crystals mainly to try and use them to purify your dark heart. However, you found out about their plan and had them imprisoned, but not before they successfully hid the two trinkets so you wouldn’t destroy them. Then eventually, Princess Celestia heard about you and what you had become and imprisoned you inside a mountain because your power was too great. And since then the town was free from your power and everypony there praised Celestia and truly regretted what they drove you to. But now here you are again up to your same tricks.”
Hearing Emerald talking to her about her tragic past annoyed her just as Dinky annoyed her talking about it, “Why are you telling me all of this; are you here to make fun of me?!”
“No,” said Emerald solemnly, “I’m here to apologize.”
“Ap… p-pologize, for what?”
“For what my family’s birth town did to you. When I heard about you and of what happened to you back then; I was appalled. All I could think to myself was… who would do such a thing to a cute and beautiful young filly.”
Gloom thought that she was trying to kiss up to her, but she refused to give in, “Humph, what are you talking about; I was neither cute nor beautiful.”
“Yes you were!” Emerald protested as she held up the trinket around her neck, “As I wear this necklace, not only is it repelling your dark power, but its allowing me to see exactly how you look like back then. You were a gem; a special young filly with a power that was unnatural to your kind. And your parents… they should’ve treated you better, as in setting an example for the rest of the town.”
Gloom scowled thinking about her parents and how they went from caring for her to using her. However, now she slightly began regretting of ever killing her own parents no matter how cruel they were.
“You know,” said Emerald, “if you choose to love the world again, there are many ponies that would love you back and want to become your friend.”
“Yeah,” Gloom scoffed, “and who would that be?”
“Well… I would be for one and many others in Ponyville as well. And Pinkie Pie, the pony you mercilessly snuffed out the Element of Laughter out of, she wanted to be your friend too I bet.”
Gloom’s head began to hurt as she bent down and groaned in pain. It’s like there was a battle going on in there on what she should believe; but after what she went through, how could she expect something like that?
She looked at Emerald with her body shaking and giving her a bothersome glare, “Look at you; you fail to realized the type of world I have lived in. They all hated me, loathed me, and feared me! Every time I was around any pony they would run away from me, screaming in fear.”
“Did SHE run away from you?!” Emerald shouted as she pointed to Dinky who was still out of commission.
Gloom looked over at Dinky and suddenly felt a slight feeling of remorse remembering those different moments when the little filly was trying to befriend her and be nice to her. Sure she was a little scared at first, but she never ran away from her except when she herself shooed her away. Just what was this positive aura she was suddenly feeling?
“This little filly bothered you, pestered you and probably annoyed you because she wanted to be your friend. She was even willing to risk her life to fight you just so you could come to your senses; even I was quite surprised when I saw the length she went to stop your plan. So tell me… would somepony who hated you do all of that?!”
Gloom realized that Emerald was right; if Dinky was truly terrified of her she wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble.
“You still have a kind heart in there somewhere, Amity,” Emerald said sincerely, “why else would you stop for a moment to heal this filly’s wound?”
Gloom began to feel a sense of calm in her heart. She couldn’t explain it, but her heart was softening and was beginning to make her realize just how lost she really was in her darkness. She tilted her head away while hesitantly asking Emerald a question…
“S-so, this young filly… Dinky is it; tell me, how is she this way… after everything she had gone through with her parents?”
“Well… believe it or not,” Emerald started to explain, “She went a bit more than that.”
Gloom didn’t understand; how could it be worse than what she went through at just 6 years old?
“There were other certain ponies that weren’t very fond of Dinky’s Mother to begin with because of how clumsy she is and her weird behavior; and they would even mock about her behind her back. But after what she did to her ex-lover, some of them even became a little scared and weary of her and that made Dinky feel very sad.”
Gloom was starting to understand the similarity of her tragic life and Dinky’s moment of sadness as Emerald continued her explanation; but she wanted to hear more than that to be convinced.
“In Dinky’s School it was no different. Some of her classmates always said mean things about her Mother calling her names like stupid and big butt, and they always ridiculed and made fun of Dinky because of her situation and because of the two ponies she was born from.”
Town residents disliking her Mom and classmates making her feel miserable; Gloom was starting to think that maybe there was more to Dinky’s past she let on.
“Dinky wanted everypony to not be scared of her Mother and continued to try and be friendly to her classmates, but there were times that she thought it was all hopeless. Sound like somepony you know?”
Indeed she did, it was just like when she gave up all hope and ran away from her home… only to return to it, full of hate and pure anger. Perhaps she and Dinky were more alike than she thought. But what happened; what was it that didn’t allow Dinky to take the dark path like she did?
“But luckily despite those who were awfully cautious around Dinky’s Mother and those making Dinky’s life seem meaningless, she still had friends that still loved her and her Mother and were always nice to her no matter what; and that included me since I offered to help look after her. Pretty soon Derpy realized that it didn’t really matter what any pony thought about what had happened; but what did mattered was forgetting the past and be glad for what she had. And now as of today, ever since the last Summer Sun Celebration and the return of the Elements of Harmony, the residents soon got over everything and became fonder of the both of them and Derpy has been shown more respect… mostly.”
“Friends…” Gloom thought to herself, “So that’s what it was; that… is what saved her… from being corrupted like me. But me, I never looked; when I ran away I assumed right then and there that the whole world hated me, and I chose to hate it back without any concern or second thought. What a complete fool I was.”
“So you see,” said Emerald, “the whole world doesn’t hate one single individual. It may seem that to some, but you always have somepony who would still love you and respect you; even if it’s not your own parents.”
“I… I… I really had no idea,” said Gloom with tears of sadness in her eyes, “I was so frustrated and upset that I never knew of that possibility. I never knew that somewhere in the world, friendship would be waiting for me to accept it, even if it wasn’t my own home.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” asked Emerald, “I would be glad to be your friend too, along with Dinky here.”
Gloom just slumped down on her flank feeling completely guilty of everything she‘s done, “What does it matter, I’ve already done too much damage and I can’t change it back.”
“You mean… there’s nothing you can do?”
What could she do; it’s not like she had the power to make everyone happy again and full of laughter. Her power only brought sadness and sorrow and only that.
“What have I done; why did my dark power blind me for so long?!”
Suddenly, Gloom’s crow friend was cawing in her ear trying to tell her something.
‘Caw caw’
“Wait, what was that, girl?”
‘Caw’
“Yes… yes, of course; there is still a way. I can still bring back the happiness back… like… Dinky wanted.”
Emerald felt quite relieved to hear that there was something Gloom could do to fix everything.
“So there is a way for you to fix all of this; that’s great! So go on, do it already!”
But unfortunately… it came with a possible price.
“However… what I have to do is pretty risky for me. This orb that absorbed the energy of the laughter element and turned it into negative energy was created by my own darkness. If I concentrate enough, I can reverse the effects and give the Element of Laughter its power back. But… there’s no telling what doing this will do to my dark essence… the power that has kept me alive for all these years.”
A deep, dark sense of fear arose in Emerald’s bowels afraid of what Gloom was talking about, “What; you mean you could…”
Gloom didn’t say anything, but she just closed her eyes as a single tear ran down the side of her cheek. She looked back over to Emerald and ordered…
“Take Dinky; take her and get out of here… now!”
“But… what about you?” Emerald asked in concern.
“What about me? I need to be here to right the wrong that I have done… and what I could have done. Consider it my debt to Ponyville and all of Equestria for drowning in darkness and letting it control me for so long.”
It pained for Emerald to listen to her, but she understood. She slowly placed the still unconscious filly onto her back and looked over at Gloom before walking out.
But at the last moment, Gloom stopped her, “Wait… do me a favor, would ya? When that little filly wakes up… tell her that I said… I’m sorry.”
Emerald smiled and nodded, “See, we knew there was a kind heart still inside there somewhere.”
After Emerald left in a flash, Gloom looked over at her crow friend who was still staying with her. It was rubbing itself against her and softly cooing knowing what she was going to do. For the first time ever, Gloom made a little chuckle out of her calm heart and gave her crow friend a little pat on the head and pleaded…
“You need to get out of here too. There's no need for you to share my dark power anymore. Leave now while you still can.”
‘Caw caw’
“Go on, girl; please, don’t make me ask anymore.”
The crow rose up its wings and began to float up in the air while still staring at Gloom, and then it sadly flew away. After Gloom calmed her nerves, she walked up the floating orb that housed her dark energy feeling a slight sense of doubt; but she refused to let that stop her for what she needed to do. She searched deep into her heart and found the light that began to shine within her; with that, she summoned her power using the source of her new happiness that she discovered.
And before anything else was done, Gloom made a little calm smile thinking of everything that she went through… and the new friends that she had in such a short time.
“Thank you, Emerald Stone, and thank you… Dinky, for bringing me back to the light.”
And with that, a bright light suddenly burst forth from within the mountain, and Gloom’s new found light shinned all throughout Equestria; and soon the curse from Gloom’s power was lifted and happiness and laughter returned to the land. It was then and only then, that Gloom fulfilled her true purpose.
Dinky Hooves was still out like a light and the darkness was still overcoming her body. Deep in her subconscious mind, she was experiencing what she mostly feared all over again. She wanted to get away, she wanted to all go away, but nothing she did changed anything and was forced to relive her nightmare. The whole terrible experience caused her to writhe in fear and feel pain and agony; exactly what she didn’t want to feel ever again. She felt so cold, so lonely, like no one was ever going to come to her rescue. Was this truly the start of her eternal life in sadness and sorrow?
But suddenly at some point, he felt her nightmare world start to fade away and she was surrounded by nothing but total darkness. Then after that, there was a voice… a voice she knew very well.
‘Dinky… wake up, Dinky…’
It kept getting louder and louder and Dinky was wondering where it was coming from. But she felt her mind about to finally wake up as she followed the familiar sound of the calling voice.
‘Come on, Dinky, you have to be okay. Wake up… please? Dinky…’
-----
Dinky could finally feel herself waking up from her inner darkness as her eyes began to slowly open. But what was the point, she would just wake up to a world covered in darkness and there would be nothing she could do to stop it. But as her vision came to, she suddenly saw the owner of the voice that was calling her earlier.
“M-M-M-Miss… S-Stone; i-is that you?”
“Oh thank goodness, you’re awake… finally.”
Dinky was wondering to herself of what was going on, how did Emerald Stone show up so suddenly; and… why was she wearing a necklace similar to hers? But what shocked her more was that as she began to look around her, she noticed that she wasn’t in that mountain cave anymore; and not only that, she saw that the entire town was all bright and lively again, as if Gloom never casted her spell.
“W-wait a minute, what happened? Last thing I remembered was Ponyville in deep darkness… and… I failed to save it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that you completely failed,” Emerald said with a little smile, “In fact I’d say that you succeeded very well.”
Dinky felt confused; if she failed, how could it be that she didn’t fail also? However, she didn’t have time to dwell on it as she suddenly felt someone glomp on her from behind.
“Dinky, you’re okay!”
“Pinkie Pie?”
“Give me a hug, little filly!”
What’s up with Pinkie; why was she being like this all of a sudden? These questions were pondering in Dinky’s mind while she was being hugged. Just moments before, her Element of Laughter was stolen from her and was reduced to nothing but a depressed mess.
“What’s going on, Pinkie?! Where are the others?!”
“Don’t worry about them,” Pinkie responded, “they’re all going around town and checking on everypony to see if they’re alright!”
“I don’t understand; what happened? I thought your element was taken, and you were… down in the dumps.”
“We all were, silly; but everything is back to normal now, and it’s all thanks to you!”
Now Dinky felt even more confused than she was already; she figured Pinkie was just being herself again, “But… I-I didn’t do anything! I mean I tried to do something, but… I failed! How can all of this be back to normal because of me?”
“Miss Emerald told us everything!” said Pinkie excitedly.
“Sh-she… what?”
“She told us of how even though everything seemed hopeless, you chose to go off and face Gloom yourself! You never backed down and you never gave up.”
Dinky was suddenly wondering of why and how Emerald Stone witnessed all of what happened. She thought that she was under the spell just like everypony else.
“But even though you failed to stop her, that necklace around your neck made her see some… certain parts of your life. With that and a little persuasion from Miss Emerald, Gloom finally realized her mistake and fixed everything! Isn’t that awesome; ooh I sound like Rainbow Dash.”
Dinky couldn’t believe what she just heard; all of that occurred while she was out?
“Wait… certain parts… of my life?” Dinky questioned, “Does that mean that she saw…”
Dinky knew exactly what Pinkie meant as her eyes went wide from realizing the truth.
“It was the main highlight to bring her to an understanding,” said Emerald, “and now everypony is back to normal; including your Mother.”
That was the best piece of news that Dinky thought she ever received. Thinking of how she was earlier, Dinky was thrilled to know that her mother was not deep into depression anymore.
“Wow, that’s great! I’m so happy that everything is back to normal and that Gloom had a change of heart!”
But then… the obvious thought came to her mind, “But wait a minute; where is Gloom.”
Pinkie and Emerald look at each other with slight disappointment in their eyes and then looked back at Dinky; the young filly knew something was up.
“I’m sorry, Dinky,” said Emerald sadly, “I’m afraid… she’s gone.”
“G-g-g-gone…” said Dinky hesitantly, “What do you mean by… gone?”
Emerald explained everything to her, “Well you see… that giant dark orb that she created by transforming Pinkie’s laughter essence into dark energy, it was made up by Gloom’s own physical essence; it was technically a part of her. So… when she figured out to how to destroy it to return what she took, it was like she was attacking her own life energy. She knew it was a huge risk, but she decided to do it anyway; she… sacrificed herself to make everypony happy again… to make you happy again.”
Dinky may have not known Gloom her whole life thus far, but she knew her enough to have a good enough understanding towards her pain. But now she was never going to see her again.
“You mean… I didn’t even get to say…good bye?” Dinky said sadly.
As she hung her head down in sadness, she suddenly felt a faint touch of a hoof on her shoulder… and she heard a familiar voice. “I believe you still can.”
Dinky quickly perked up and turned around behind her only to see the face of the one who sacrificed her life; although her body was glowing white light and she didn’t appeared to look dark and evil anymore.
“Gl… Gloom… is that you?”
The mare looked down on her with a peaceful smile seeing that she was alright. Dinky however was filled with joy as she turned to Pinkie.
“Pinkie, look who it is?! Do you see her; do you see her?!”
Pinkie looked at Dinky feeling confused as she tilted her head and asked, “Um… who am I supposedly seeing exactly?”
“You mean… you don’t see Gloom standing right here?”
“What?!”
Suddenly, Dinky noticed her necklace showing off a faint glow from its center, and then immediately she knew what was going on.
“My necklace,” she thought to herself, “it’s allowing me to see her one more time?”
“What’s going on, Dinky?!” shouted Pinkie, “Who are you talking to; and did you just say… Gloom?!”
“Calm down, Pinkie,” said Emerald as she held Pinkie back, “why don’t we let Dinky have this moment; it’s obvious that her necklace is granting her wish and is allowing her to see Gloom again.”
“Wow… I didn’t see that coming.”
“Are you really not evil anymore, Gloom?” Dinky asked her.
“Please, call me by my original name,” said the mare with a smirk, “Amity.”
“Amity? Wow, that’s your real name; I really like that a lot.”
“So do I.”
Dinky went up to Amity and gave her a hug around her fore leg as she looked up at her feeling overjoyed, “I’m so glad that you brought everything back to the way they were; it was truly a nightmare.”
“Well I think that was the whole point,” said Amity chuckling a bit, “but it was all thanks to you, Dinky, that I was able to change. Because of that necklace of yours, I realized that you were right all along; the fact that everypony goes through pure tragic times, and none pf them are any less important than the other, no matter how big or small. I only wish that I realized that sooner.”
“Its okay, Miss Gl… um, Amity;” said Dinky, “Don’t blame yourself over it. You were surrounded by ponies who hated you or didn’t love you appropriately; I don’t blame you one bit. If I were an earth pony like you and I had a dark, dormant power lying inside me like you, experiencing the stressful days like you had, I probably would’ve done the same thing. If I can’t have happiness, then no one shall; see, I totally get you.”
Amity still couldn’t get this little unicorn filly. Even after everything she put her through, she was still be nice to her; she was her friend.
“You really are the most unusual filly I’ve ever met; and your mother,” she said thinking about what she saw in Dinky’s memories, “… you’re very lucky to have her.”
“Well of course!” Dinky said proudly, “She’s the best mother ever! If it weren’t for her and… what she did, I-I-I don’t even want to know what could’ve happened to me!”
Pinkie and Emerald were just sitting together watching Dinky having a conversation with Amity; and even though they couldn’t’ see nor hear her, they could tell that by the expression on Dinky’s face, everything was okay.
“Hey, I still wanna know all about what happened to you in the past; I’m very curious!”
But suddenly, the light around Amity was suddenly giving off a light glow, and her body started to slowly fade away.
“Huh,” said Dinky feeling worried, “what’s happening?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that I must be going; my spirit can’t last too much longer in the material world."
Dinky began to tear up a bit again as she suddenly grabbed on tightly to Amity, “No, I don’t want you to go; there was a whole lot of things I wanted to ask about you!”
Amity bent down and patted Dinky on the head feeling at ease, “Unfortunately, that’s not possible; it’s just the way it has to be. Besides, I think you know quite enough about me, and… I’m very glad that I could make a friend… like you.”
“Will I… e-ever s-see you again?” Dinky pleaded while still crying.
“I can’t promise anything… but, do know that I will still be with you…” Amity then pointed her hoof too Dinky’s chest area, “in here.”
Dinky smiled a bit and wiped away her tears while sporting a soft giggle, “M-my Mom always says that cheezy line to me at times… and sometimes it actually works.”
Amity looked over at Pinkie and could feel the power of her Element flowing through her once again; she was quite glad to see her back to normal as well.
“Hey, Dinky,” she said, “do me a favor, will you?”
“S-s-sure,” Dinky responded, “anything!”
“Make sure to give my condolences to your pink friend over there, as well as the rest of her Element wielding friends. And as for your Mother…” she suddenly teared a bit remembering what she went through with her parents, “well, you two keep on loving each other and live a wonderful life; for me.”
Dinky smiled and nodded while raising her hoof in response, “You have my word.”
Right at the last minute before before Amity went away, Dinky decided to give her one last laugh, “Hey, Amity… can I tell you a joke?”
“Um… sure,” Amity responded curiously.
Pinkie and Emerald noticed what she was about to and were wondering what was going on about that.
“Why can’t a dragon get a dry throat?”
“I’m not quite sure,” said Amity after thinking for a few seconds, “why?”
“Because if it did, it would be a little… hoarse!”
Pinkie smiled and was jumping up and down while looking at Emerald, “Ooh ooh, I told her that joke; I told her that joke!”
Amity was pondering on the joke trying to get the pun, but then she suddenly got and began to lightly chuckle while showing a bright smile.
“Wow, that’s actually kinda funny.”
“Thanks, Miss Pinkie told me that one!”
“I’m sure she has you keep working on that, okay?”
Amity’s body was almost faded out of existence; but right before then, she gave Dinky a hug from herself and felt a slight tear run down her cheek as Dinky hugged back.
“Bye, Amity.”
Amity smiled and waved her hoof at Dinky, and then… her spirit vanished.
As Dinky just stood there still looking in the same direction, she heard Pinkie ask, “Is she gone?”
“Yeah… she is,” she responded as she turned around and wipped away a tear from her eye.
She suddenly looked down and held up her necklace staring at it with astonishment, “This necklace is amazing; I had no idea that is was capable of so much.” She then gave Emerald Stone a little sly look, “But… I’m sure that you did, right?”
“Well, I knew of its possible capabilities, but trust me, I’m just as surprised as you are.”
“And again, what’s with the second necklace?” Dinky asked pointing to the similar accessory around Emerald’s neck, “You didn’t tell me that there was two of them.”
“I know,” said Emerald with a smile, “but maybe I’ll you more about that another time.”
Pinkie came up to Dinky feeling very curious and asked, “So, did Glo… I mean Amity say anything about me?”
“She did; she said she thanks you and the others for trying so hard to help her, and… she apologizes for everything she did.”
“You’re welcome, Amity;” Pinkie yelled out up to the sky, “and apology accepted!”
“It is sad that she sacrificed her spirit at the last minute to save us from her darkness,” said Dinky as she held a smile on her face, “but… I’m glad that I got to help her change her life and made her my friend; and at least now her spirit can rest in peace. She was just an earth pony and 200 years old after all.”
“I still don’t understand that,” said Pinkie feeling confused.
Suddenly, Dinky heard another voice calling out her name; and this voice she was no stranger to.
“Dinky!”
She turned around and a wonderful sight coming towards her from the sky. “Mom.”
Derpy was in such a rush to get to her that she almost stumbled and crashed, but she was able to catch herself as she landed beside her daughter, “There you are, Dinky, I was looking all over you and couldn’t find you anywhere! I very worried about you!”
Without a single word, Dinky ran up to her Mother and began to hug her very tightly and she wasn’t letting go. Derpy knew that her daughter was glad to see her, but she was feeling a bit pressure from the hug and was beginning to worry a bit.
“Are you okay; did something happen? ‘Gasp’ Did I do something wrong?!”
“N-no, Mom,” said dinky as she suddenly let and wiped away more tears from her eyes, “I… I’m just happy to see you… just the way you are supposed to be.”
Dinky gave her another hug, but not as tight this time. Derpy looked at her and was feeling a bit confused about what she meant by that, “Um… thank you; and I’m happy to see you too.”
As her daughter continued to hug her, Derpy looked up at Pinkie and asked, “Did I miss something?”
“I’d say that you missed a whole bunch of somethings!”
Derpy suddenly noticed that Emerald was nearby and greeted her as well, “Oh, hey there, Miss Emerald; how are you doing?”
“I’m doing quite well,” Emerald responded with a light chuckle, “but your daughter… she has a lot on her mind right now.”
“Really?”
“Boy do I;” said Dinky vibrating with excitement, “Can I share ‘em with you, Mom?!”
Derpy was always up for a good story whether she was telling it or someone else; so she smiled and nodded, “Okay, sounds exciting to hear.”
Dinky began to walk off beside her Mother all set to tell her tale; but then she turned back shouted, “Oh… bye Miss Emerald; bye, Pinkie!”
Both Pinkie and Emerald waved good bye to Dinky for now, and they both watched as Dinky walked of happily and talking with Derpy.
“So what’s on your mind?” Derpy asked.
“Remember that pony I told you about earlier, Gloom; well its Amity now. Anyway, she’s real… was real.”
Derpy was shocked, “No way!”
“Yeah, but if you think that’s shocking, just wait till I tell you what happened with me when I met her!”
“Oh…”said Derpy feeling concerned. Judging by her daughter’s face, she knew that she was in for a huge story, “I’m gonna need a lot of muffins for this, aren't I?”
“Well I don’t know about you,” said Pinkie looking at Emerald, “but I think I had enough excitement for one day.”
“Hey, you two,” said a voice to Pinkie and Emerald.
They both looked behind them and saw Twilight and the others approaching with pleasant expressions on their faces.
“You’re back!” Pinkie with glee, “Is everypony okay?”
“Everything is back to normal,” said Twilight, “and so is everypony. So how’s Dinky?”
They all looked around and didn’t see the young filly that they last saw out cold; they were becoming a bit worried.
“Um… where is Dinky?” questioned Applejack.
Pinkie suddenly turned their attention up ahead to where Dinky was just taking off in the air riding on her Mother. Both of them being happy without a care in the world.
“How sweet,” said Fluttershy, “she’s back and spending time with her mother.”
“Heh; Derpy maybe a dope a lot of times,” said Rainbow Dash with a smirk, “but I’ll give her one thing… she’s an excellent mother where it counts; Dinky is lucky to have her, and I kinda hate it that we doubted her back then.”
“So what whatever happened to that Gloom character?” questioned Twilight.
Pinkie turned her head around to wipe a little tear away, then turned back around with a good ol’ smile and said, “Don’t worry, we won’t have to worry about her ever again; she’s finally at peace. Oh, and by the way, her real name is Amity!”
“Amity?” all her friends questioned.
“It’s a long story.”
“Well… we’re all just glad that you’re your happy and cheerful self again,” said Rarity, “We were beginning to miss that… from what I can remember.”
“But you know,” said Pinkie as something crossed her mind, “the strange thing is that Dinky hasn’t even realized the bandage that Amity wrapped around the huge wound on her forehead… and neither has her Mother apparently.”
They all looked up and saw it faintly, but the bandage was still on there; but Dinky and her Mother was having too much fun to even notice. Twilight smiled not worrying at all, but just glad to see the two united again.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure one of them will notice it sooner or later.”
-----
That was the story of how one little filly helped change the heart of one who never experienced happiness in their life. Dinky Hooves’ memories proved to the dark mare, Gloom, now known as Amity that not everypony’s life is perfect, and that everypony goes through tough, and tragic times at some point in their life. And because of that, she finally saw the light and felt happiness for the first time when sacrificed herself to make everything right again.
Her spirit disappeared, but it has been said that she now wanders all over Equestria witnessing all of the happiness and friendship it had to offer, and she could now cherish it forever. As for Canterlot, Celestia was eventually aware of what happened to the mare that she once sealed inside a mountain and dedicated her devotion to Amity and wished that she would live forever in peace. Plus, Amity’s bird friend was always seen soaring across the skies by many watchful eyes; but they noticed that it never stops at a permanent location. With its friend’s spirit now wandering all over Equestria, the skies was now its home.
As for Dinky and her Mother, they just continued on with their life together; and lived to their fullest as Dinky promised Amity. Dinky never knew of what was going to happen in her future; but after everything she experienced recently, she felt like she was ready for anything to come her way. And she always holds onto her necklace to remind herself of the joys of laughter and happiness… and to always look toward the light.
