What qualifies as dark magic? We’ve seen it a few times but what makes something dark magic?

When the animators use black colours

7970542
Necromancy?

7970542
The meta answer is, as gapty said, when the animators use dark colors for magic.

The in-universe answer, I'd assume at least, is when the magic is used with negative emotion for ill intent.

For example, as GamePlayer64 said, necromancy might be considered a dark magic, since it's explicitly meant for the intent of interfering with the cycle of life and death.

The kind of dark magic that Sombra used, on the other hand, would be hypnosis with intent for domination.

7970542
I think this is one of those times where you have to make up your own rules.

7970542
Magic that corrupted the user, I guess. Assuming said user isn't already evil in the first place.

7970542
Like the dark side of Force from Star Wars.

7970542
Well, there's plenty of different interpretations. I tend to separate it like so in my stories.

Shadow Magic: Using shadows to physically attack or restrain your enemies. Sometimes even becoming a shadow yourself or traveling through them. It's not inherently evil, but it is essentially dipping your toe into Dark Magic. So tread carefully.

Necromancy: The art of raising or manipulating the dead. Sometimes by summoning spirits or by animating dead bodies. This one straddles the line between regular and dark magic, as there have been times when necromancers use it for good, such as speaking with dead loved ones or getting information from the fallen. However, it's easy for one to go mad with the power, and also easy for novice spellcasters to be possessed by evil spirits or demons if their protections spells or their mental fortitude aren't strong enough. So use at your own risk.

Death Magic: Spells that cause death through various means, such as killing the physical body or draining/erasing the soul (may overlap with Necromancy.) This one is definitely Dark Magic and is almost always used by those will ill intentions.

Demonic Magic: Self-explanatory, harnessing the power of demons or becoming a demon themself and using their hellish magic. This one is more open to debate, because there have been some demons who are on the side of good, but more often than not they're evil.

Hope that's helpful.

7970544
7970553
7970558
7970560
7970562
So let’s say rainbow was to use her super speed for bad intentions. Does it count as evil magic?

If it turns the caster's eyes a different color, then it's probably dark magic.

7970580
In the loosest sense of the definition, yes.

7970542
7970544
7970553
7970558
7970560
7970562
Meanwhile the only canon colors of dark magic in the show is green and black, right?

Also would any unicorns or Alicorns tend to have a green like glow always have to say that they're not using dark magic? So that they wont be accused of being a changeling or something else? (Even though I'm assuming after the changelings reformed, I guess some ponies are not discriminating them anymore?)

7970580
I mean, depends on the intentions. Using her super speed to steal things, cheat at sporting events, or minor crimes like vandalism... not really what I would call evil. Bad, yes, but it's not crossing any serious moral lines. Unless she was stealing from poor people, but still.

Using her super speed like an evil version of The Flash (like the Reverse-Flash or Zoom) to hurt or murder people, or try to take over the world... yeah.

But I think that would count more as someone using magic for evil. It's not inherently evil, it's just someone's using it for evil purposes.

7970585
I think it depends whether or not they got the glowing purple around their eyes like Sombra did. Other than that and the dark crystals he was fond of, it's hard to say. G4 MLP didn't give us enough to work with.

7970587
That’s interesting. So what’s the difference between someone using dark magic and someone using magic for dark purposes?

7970585
That would be kind of funny.

7970589
Yeah, it’s a shame they didn’t.

7970597
Like I said, it mostly depends on how you interpret "dark" and how your system of magic works. So in that cast, it depends on the writer.

7970603
Oh ok