The Unique Properties of Dark Magic

by Shadestyle


(Present Chapter 9): Three's a Crowd

"Alright, I've got my copy of 'Everything you need to know about Las Pegasus', my backup copy of 'Everything you need to know about Las Pegasus', and my copy of 'Everything you don't need to know about Las Pegasus'. I think I'm ready," Twilight says to Spike, who had made a brief return to help her pack.

Spike just nods, knowing he won't be able to talk Twilight out of anything but the most erroneous inclusions to her travel kit.

"Don't forget your toothbrush," Spike points out blithely, making Twilight nod, as she levitates things out of her bathroom and into the already bulging suitcase.

Twilight nods. "Ok, I think that's everything!" She shouts, clicking the suitcase shut firmly. The suitcase lasts a whole twelve seconds before exploding everywhere, much to Twilight's shock and Spike's resignation.

"Maybe you should cut down your list a little bit, Twilight," Spike requests, making her blush slightly.

Twilight nods at that. "Right..."

She turns to Weiss, who had been sitting down reading the unabridged 'Spells for Ponies who wish to be immediately arrested upon casting them'. A book she is fairly certain Weiss either brought over from his own library, or wrote himself just to annoy her.

"I wish you would tell me why you're insisting on hanging around my Library while I'm gone, but let me assure you, if you cause so much as a creased page while I'm gone, I will personally make you more mindful of your actions," Twilight says insistently.

Weiss shrugs. "How was I supposed to know you were going on a trip? There's supposed to be an honored guest coming, and I thought you'd be here to greet them when they arrive in Ponyville. So now I have to do it myself, like some kind of peasant."

"Oh, also, enjoy your peasant trip, I'm sure it will give you a greater appreciation for peasantry," He adds as an afterthought.

Twilight doesn't dignify that with a response, turning to Spike instead. "Spike, I'm trusting you to keep the library managed while I'm gone, if there's any real trouble, send a letter to Celestia. Weiss, Spike knows what the rules are, so listen to what he says."

Weiss just shrugs, setting down his previous book in favor of the collective works of 'Twilight, you dumb Nincompoop, you absolute Ninny', which he pulls out of a portal he manifests with a snap of his fingers.

Ok, now he's just bucking with her.

With a dismayed groan, she's tempted for a brief instant to call the whole thing off and kick Weiss the Tartarus out of her Librabode.

No, Gilda and Trixie need her help, and by golly, as a friend she's going to do just that.

"Have fun, Ultraviolet Sprinkle," Weiss says, waving her off casually.

As the door slams shut with a muffled groan from the other side, Weiss sets down his book, turning to the young Dragon, who he had been training for the last few days on-and-off. "Say, Spike, it's getting close to Hearth's Warming. You ponies still trade gifts during that, right?"

Spike, who had been dusting, shrugs. "Yeah, sometimes. Why?"

Weiss grins as he got an idea. An awful idea. Weiss had gotten a wonderful... Awful idea.

"Well, then maybe you'd be interested in hearing the story of... The Grinch that stole Hearth's Warming," He ad-libs.


After reducing those statues to atoms last week, and personally tracking down the one she had flung into the badlands, retrieving it from some kind of damaged nest of bug-ponies, Celestia had spent her every free moment envisioning what sweet relief she would get by paying Weiss back for it.

Oh she knows exactly what's she's going to do to that spineless joker. She's going to find the tiniest lamp she can find, stuff him in it with brute force instead of magic, then stuff that lamp inside a tinier lamp, and then mail the whole thing to the sun, and then, construct an even tinier lamp, and shove the former lamp inside of this new one while he's on the sun.

No, no, that would cost too much postage. Exactly 462.8 Million Bits, in fact, at the current rate.

Oh, an even better idea! She'll trot right up to him, and buck him right in his smug face.

No, no. Not in fashion this season. And far be it from a Princess to not at least pay passing attention to fickle art of fashion.

Slowly, her gaze turns to the desk filled with neat stacks of the letters she had been receiving from Twilight and Sunset alike, on the subject of Friendship and Weiss's secrets, respectively. Two piles of papers she read and re-read night after night, drawing strength and hope from them like she had never felt before.

And while Friendship may a bit of a stretch, no offense meant to Friendship of course, she can absolutely see a way to pay Weiss back using the latter.

She flips through the notes and translations Sunset had been periodically sending over, before she spots the perfect one.

"Yes... I believe this should have him chomping at the bit," she curses to herself.


Sunset sits in the black tower's library alone, quietly reading to herself. This whole place is a treasure trove of magic both dark and old alike. But the book in front of her is quite interesting as well. She had decided to get in some more translating of the Grimoire Weiss, when she reached an entry that gave her pause.

"The tree seemed to have picked my brain enough to offer something substantial of its own, and I was guided to one of the places where the plunder vine seeds had taken root. The tree fighting them off had turned a few of the corrupt, chaotic seeds to harmony, and I knew then what I had to do. I carefully dug up one of the Harmonic Plunder Vine Seeds, and took it back to the Shadow Realm in my most powerful sealing arrays," Sunset mumbles to herself.

Her eyes widen with curiosity. The Tree of Harmony? Is that what he was referring to? And on the pages preceding that, an encoded map of the Everfree Forest.

What exactly are Plunder Vines? Celestia never mentioned those when she was teaching Sunset about Harmony, and the Elements.

Closing the book softly, and placing a bookmark in that page, she decides it might be worth investigating herself.

"It's not too far from here, either, according to that map. I'll make a short trip there and back, I've never seen the Tree of Harmony before, after all. It'll be fun," She says cheerfully to herself, packing up a few things and trotting out the door with a curiosity to sate.

Less than an hour later, she is slowly trying to make her way to Ponyville in horror. She has to... She has to tell Celestia.


Tempest stares out from the ship's bow. Seeing the small, humble town that she's seeking, a mere speck on the distance for anyone but her.

Grubber, the short and squat hedgehog, hobbles over to Tempest, with a fluffy pastry in hand, some sort of pink frosting abomination with a cherry on top.

"So why are we going out here in the middle of nowhere anyway, Commander?"

Tempest's stormy expression fails to change at Grubber pestering her yet again for information she thought she had very clearly denied them in no uncertain terms.

"I told you, I'm here to correct a mistake. And that's it. You know, if I were a less merciful individual, I might hear suspicion in your words."

Grubber shrugs. "What, did you find another quack offering horn ointment or something? You know we can't just take a detour every time someone thinks you're dumb enough to fall for that."

Tempest snorts. She had heard that joke often enough that it had stopped hurting and started being, perish the thought, a bit funny. She supposes it's true what they say, the difference between comedy and tragedy is timing.

"This isn't for catharsis. This one knows too much for their own good, and I'll have them tell us why, even if I have to get creative."

Grubber cringes at that, scarfing down the last of his snack. "Jeeze, when you get 'creative', things get messy. Should I get the tarps to put over the deck?"

Tempest chuckles. "It shouldn't be necessary. If I don't like this pony's answers, I won't leave a mess."


Trixie takes a deep breath. "Trixie is really here, in the showbiz capital of Equestria! This has... Always been a secret dream of Trixie's" She says, staring out over the floating city of Las Pegasus, and its numerous attractions.

Twilight nods. "Now we just need to get to our hotel rooms. I've already talked to the manager, and we should be able to have your show at the Buckxor tomorrow."

Gilda nods. "After we get everything set up, what say we enjoy a bit of what Las Pegasus has to offer? I'm sure there's some fun we can get into around here."

Twilight nods. "I don't have a list ready, but... I think we can squeeze it in."

The trio wander their way through the bright lights and bustling of Las Pegasus, eventually finding the Buckxor Hotel, a gigantic rainbow-colored pyramid-shaped building.

As they reach the entrance, Trixie is suddenly frozen with dread at the... pony... she sees.

Twilight is the first to notice. "What's wrong?"

Trixie continues staring, leading Twilight and Gilda to trail their own eyes over to where a group of three identical twins with orange hair and a tan coat are talking to the manager of the Buckxor.

They're so identical in fact, that they all have the same cutie mark of a green horseshoe with four leaf clovers woven into it.

"Who're they?" Gilda questions, making Trixie gulp.

"Trixie's old rival, Full House. Don't be fooled, that's just one pony. But there's enough of her to form her own dance troupe," Trixie explains.

Twilight has a brainwave. "I've heard of that! Spontaneous Division Syndrome, right? It's a birth defect that afflicts unicorns and makes their bodies duplicate when they hiccup."

Gilda quirks an eyebrow. "So all those ponies are just one pony?"

Twilight nods. "Normally, ponies take medicine to re-merge, I've never heard of a pony willingly staying split up like that before."

Trixie shrugs as one of the "Full Houses" trips, and her assistant has to help pick them up, as the rest of them are too synchronized to do it themselves.

"She always said it was an advantage in showbiz. Clearly she was right if she's also got a show at the Buckxor tonight." Trixie gestures to the gigantic poster in the lobby of the hotel as they enter.

"See the amazing Merry Mares of Full House! Tonight Only!" the poster reads, showing off ponies dancing in unison on it.

"We aught to check it out. See where the bar's set, yeah?" Gilda says, uncowed by the idea of watching a by-proxy rival's show.

Trixie looks nervous, but nods. "It would be prudent to test the waters, Trixie supposes."

Twilight giggles as she returns with their hotel keys. "But first, I believe we have a date with a luxury room, if we could?"

The girls both nod with a happier smile, and they go up the elevator to their rooms to check them out.

Gilda scoffs. "Well, it's no cloud bed, but it'll do," She says, bouncing up and down on the fluffy mattress.

Twilight, meanwhile, looks at the coffeemaker in the room with hunger in her eyes.

Trixie, however, just looks nervous as she sits on a plush chair, staring out the window.

Gilda rolls her eyes, and walks over. "What's eating you, Trix?"

Trixie shudders slightly. "Trixie doesn't think she can do this."

Gilda shakes her head. "You just need some boldness, some courage! We know you've got this."

Twilight nods as well, as she fights with the Coffee Maker to create the elixir of life that she desires.

Finally, Trixie's mood improves again. "If that hack Full House can entertain these ponies, then Trixie can wow them utterly."

Gilda's grin widens. "You got it in one Trix."

Twilight receives a letter from the manager's go-fer, tearing it open and reading it promptly.

"Good news, girls, we got the spot! Tomorrow at nine-pm, The Great and Powerful Trixie, her lovely assistant, the High-Flying Gilda, and their Magical Flight show."

Gilda pumps her fist. "Yeah! See that, things are looking up already."

Trixie nods, emboldened.

Gilda continues, arm around the two mares and shoving them out the door with her. "Now, let's kill some time before 'That Hack's' show, yeah? We've got a whole city to tear through, so I say we do it!"


"And what happened then? Well in Whoville they say, the Grinch's small heart... Grew three sizes that day," Weiss explains, nearing the tail end of his little story.

A door opening interrupts the ending, however, as Weiss quickly grabs some sacks of dye from various portals and dumps them into his dissolving smoky form.

The newly disguised and recoalesced Weiss, now disguised as a certain bookish unicorn, trots over to the Library's entrance, intent on getting some good pranking in, much to Spike's consternation and slight amusement.

"Oh, Sunset, what brings you here?" Weiss says in a rough approximation of Twilight's voice.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Las Pegasus? Well, nevermind, I need to send a letter to Celestia, it's about Weiss and it's urgent."

"Urgent?" Tweisslight questions.

Sunset nods. "Urgent."

"Emergency?" Tweiss grins.

At this point, Weiss's attempts to lead into a Foreigner song are interrupted by Celestia's chariot arriving.

For whatever reason, Celestia's chariot is filled with bolts of bright yellow cloth, and she herself is wearing a large yellow sun-hat over her crown.

"Greetings, Weiss," She says cordially filling Sunset with confusion, and making Weiss emit a disappointed groan at his plan being ruined as he discards his magical disguise.

"Hello, Celestia. Might I ask why you're here? Oh god, please don't tell me you smashed up my tower," He says, putting a hand to his face while Sunset's expression turns violent.

Sunset, having more important things to do than chew out Weiss right this minute, turns to the princess with no small amount of desperation. "Celestia, thank goodness you're here, there's an emergency. I don't know what to do, can we discuss this somewhere privately?"

Weiss mostly ignores them as he spots an airship rapidly approaching, and shifts back into his disguise. "Gasp! She's here! Both of you, fuck off!"

Celestia shrugs. "Fine, then I'll just take this cloth to Twilight's friend as I planned, and we can discuss your problem there. What do you think, Sunset, is it Royal enough?"

Weiss's ear perks up at Celestia's words, and he takes a more careful look at the load of cloth Celestia is packing with her. Surely she didn't somehow..?

"I don't have time for this. If you plan on taunting me, you'll have to get in line at the tower, Princess," Weiss says, his tone slowly turning dangerous as he begins piecing together puzzle pieces in his head.

Slapping a cheerful expression on his face, he trots over to meet the parking airship, where a small spike-haired, uniform wearing creature walks out of the opening ramp, a plum-colored unicorn slowly pacing out next to them.

"Hello! Welcome to Ponyville!" Tweisslight belts out cheerily, unable to hold back his enthusiasm at what is to follow.

Tempest, confused at the overly happy greeting, slowly drawls out the most obvious question. "Are you Weiss Noir?"

Weiss in Disguise slaps a confused, dumb expression on his face. "You're looking for the amazing, incredible, magically talented, never-failing, and extremely handsome Weiss Noir? He lives in that tower over there," He says, pointing to the black spire poking its way out of the Everfree.

As Tempest stares over at it with an inscrutable expression, lightning can be seen thundering around the tower, as if to dramatically accentuate the point.

"Right," She says dryly, ignoring this bumbling village idiot in favor of shouting back to her troops still on the ship.

"All of you. Into the forest. We'll deal with this quickly and then we can get out of here."

At her words, several large, ape-like creatures slowly make their way out, their full armor covering their faces and true species rather well.

As she makes a beeline for the Black Tower, Weiss giggles to himself, allowing the disguise to fade.

With a softly spoken "Avidus", a bolt of lightning strikes him, and whisks him away to the tower.

He fails to see Celestia and Sunset Shimmer flying at high speed in the same general direction in Celestia's chariot, just slightly askew of flying directly towards it.


As Celestia and Sunset walk into the hidden cave, Sunset's eyes begin to water up, for reasons she can't exactly explain.

The feeling in the air is almost too much to bear for the unicorn mare, and Celestia understands why as they enter the chamber of the Tree of Harmony, and see what has happened to it in the eons she has left it unobserved since Discord's defeat.

"It's dying, Princess Celestia, what are we going to do?" Sunset chokes out, her magical talent letting her know exactly what's going on with the tree, as black vines slowly creep around the chamber and the tree itself, Plunder Vines that had been growing for over a thousand years without intervention.

Celestia, unaffected by the sight by any means other than by what her own eyes and active detection and analysis spells tell her, gently drapes a wing over her could-have-been student.

"My sensory magic tells me that we have more than a year before the vines threaten the Tree's integrity, Sunset. We have time. Time to figure this out, and time to fix it."

"You said that you discovered this from his book. So we will get our answers from him."


This has to be the dumbest thing Tempest Shadow has ever seen in her life, she can't help but think as she looks at the honest-to-Celestia throne of clearly fake skulls before her, on top of which is sitting her latest annoyance.

"Welcome... To my lair!" Weiss says dramatically, his lack of extra arms and his ordinary black hair a shock to anyone who might know him, as he had unplugged the arms and enchanted his hair to suppress its flaming effect for this meeting, leaving him nothing but a seemingly ordinary unicorn with six conspicuously smooth metal pads attached to his body.

Tempest Shadow deadpans, as her guards take point. "I'm impressed. Not with your ridiculous little chair, of course. I'm impressed how you can sit there so confidently, after taunting the Storm King's top Lieutenant with the fact that you know too much about her."

Weiss nods. "You're a busy mare. I knew that unless I sent something substantial, I'd never get you here to hear my offer."

Tempest laughs, a dark, satisfied thing. "'Offer'. That's a good one. I was thinking more... Enhanced Interrogation. Anything you can offer me, you can do from inside the prison aboard my ship after I extract every last secret you have."

Celestia, walking in and realizing that Weiss's throne room doors are already open, slams them shut behind her and Sunset, so she can then throw them open hard enough to crack the crystalline walls for dramatic effect.

"I'm afraid I've got dibs, madam. You'll have to scrape up what's left after I'm through with him." Celestia says politely, stepping in front of the stunned commander.

'Princess Celestia, here?!' Tempest thinks in shock. This could get ugly.

Sunset, meanwhile, takes a step even further in front of Celestia. "Why?! Why didn't you just tell us that the Tree of Harmony was suffering!?" She shouts at Weiss, whose expression goes from smug to shocked.

"How do you know that? What makes you think that I know anything about that?" He says insistently, hopping down from his throne with a tense expression.

Sunset pulls the white, ornate book with its smooth marble binding out, and throws it to the ground in front of him in disgust. "Because you wrote about it a thousand years ago and didn't tell anypony!"

Tempest slowly backs up to the entrance. She can deal with some haughty unicorn who thinks their magic makes them so special, but she's not ready for Alicorn yet. Not with only one of those prototypes in her possession.

Celestia's sidelong glance freezes Tempest and her soldiers in place. "I thought you wanted a crack at that blustering fool? I was very serious about my offer, after all. I'll gladly let you take a swing at him."

At this, Tempest's confusion grows, in the past two years, Celestia had been sending an endless cavalcade of spies and outright assaults into the Storm King's ranks, there was no way she didn't know who Tempest Shadow was, and yet she's angry enough at this pony to ignore that?

She looks at the growingly incensed Weiss Noir, deciding that the Princess's offer was worth taking, if only to figure out how one pony could tick off a princess that much.

"How. How did you translate it? That should be impossible, even if you did have it! There's no frame of reference!" Weiss shouts in confusion.

Sunset barks out a laugh. "I spent years in the human world, Weiss, did you just assume I didn't learn English? Also, impossible? That's kind of idiotic for you to assume, considering there's also an English copy of the Grimoire Noir in Celestia's possession. Have you ever heard of the Rosetta Stone? Because you left one, idiot!" She shouts, trying to upset Weiss more.

Weiss's face twists in rage, and for a moment, Tempest expects this to turn to violence, before his body's tension flops out of him bonelessly.

"Sunset, that book is dangerous. It contains knowledge not meant for pony eyes," Weiss explains.

"If you had read it, instead of merely scanning it over, you would know that. Did you ask the tree what it wanted? Because I did. Let me guess, you read halfway through the entry, and then rushed over without finishing it."

He picks up the book, dusts it off, and opens it to the bookmarked page, calmly looking through before passing it back into Sunset's grip firmly, forcing her to look.

Sunset's expression changes to a blush when she reaches the point of the entry where Weiss explains that the Tree itself requested he not interfere.

Weiss walks up to Tempest, who had been watching this exchange, and trying to piece out the situation from it. "Now, you're making me neglect my guest. Celestia, whatever you're planning, it needs to wait. This lovely mare has business to attend to with me," Weiss says, smiling disarmingly.

Celestia internally shrugs. She's got all the time in the world to pay back Weiss's humiliation.

Tempest glares, making his smile widen.

"Tell you what, Tempest. Ponies like you and me, we have a unique way of talking. So let's talk."

"If I defeat you, you hear my offer. If you defeat me, then you can interrogate me in as enhanced a manner as you like," He grins smugly.

Tempest considers his words carefully. Either he's a fool, or he has a plan. In both cases, breaking him with her own two hooves sounds like a good time. "Fine, though... I have a few conditions."

Weiss shrugs. "Lay them out."

"We fight on neutral ground," Weiss's smile doesn't change as Tempest states her first demand.

"No targeted unicorn magic. Armor, Blast and Beam Spells, and Artifacts only," She's surprised when Weiss nods at this as though it's something obvious.

Tempest tries to think of something to bring him up short, before spotting the Princess, who looks particularly serene. "...And Princess Celestia will judge."

Oh that annoyed him.

Weiss's small frown eventually returns to an apathetic smile. "I accept."

Celestia, meanwhile, to Sunset's trained eyes, looks like she's trying to hold back laughter.

Sunset leans over to whisper her question to the Princess. "What's so funny, didn't you say Weiss was a harmless coward?"

Celestia giggles demurely, and whispers back. "He was a harmless coward because I didn't give him the time to plan. This poor mare's given him an entire week to plan every moment of what's to come, making him a very very dangerous coward."

Celestia straightens to her full height. "Your fight will be had at the Ponyville Sporting Field. I would have you all there immediately, as I don't have all day."


The Ponyville Sporting field looks odder than it usually does, its stands filled with Storm Creature Soldiers, Grubber with a #1 Foam Finger, and Spike, who didn't have anything better to do and is thus snacking on some popcorn while watching the show.

Weiss, slightly larger than he usually is and wearing a simple armored vest, smiles at the glaring Tempest, while Celestia, hoping that Weiss will at least get a bloody lip or something, stands impassively over them both in the judge's booth, Sunset taking a seat next to the princess.

Tempest finds herself confused when the pony summons two arms from seemingly nowhere, plugging them into the metal pads on his back, and ignites his mane and tail with some kind of magic black fire.

No matter, any fancy tricks he thinks he has will fall before her superior strength and speed.

Before the fight starts, Weiss speaks plainly, holding his arms out like an invitation. "Just think of this like... A trip to the dentist."

Celestia huffs slightly with amusement, and waves her wing to signal the fight's start.

Tempest immediately runs forward, slipping into Weiss's open guard and shoving him back with her front hooves as she rapidly rears up and slams forward.

Weiss, who had his extra two arms open mockingly, hasn't changed his pose, inviting her to try again after he's done skidding back.

This leaves Tempest a bit angrier, as she runs forward again, mindful of those extra arms, and, turning in place, bucks him in the chest, sending him skidding back again.

Again, Weiss doesn't even look harmed, still wearing that stupid look on his face.

Again and again, Tempest smashes away at that darn unicorn, his face, chest, sides, and even his horn at one point, before leaping into the air, and bucking him right in the head with enough force to emit an audible crack.

"Woo, go Tempest, Kick his butt!" Grubber shouts, before swapping some candy with Spike in return for some Popcorn.

Spike, shrugging, goes along with the hedgehog's cheers. "You got this Tempest!"

Finally, Weiss does something, moving a hand to his face, and wiping at his lip, he shows her the blood on his thumb.

"All that for a drop of blood," He quotes casually, as hints of graphene are revealed by the small amount of damage, mixed into the shadow clone's body for durability.

With this, Tempest's fury reaches new heights, and she unleashes a spray of explosive magic from her horn, throwing him into the wall of the Sporting Arena and leaving his coat singed in places.

Rolling his dragon arm in its socket as he drops free from the wall, Weiss's grin turns predatory, and he trots over to Tempest with twin summoned swords in hand, swinging them haphazardly at the mare, who dodges with ease, weaving kicks and explosive spells in-between her dodges and leaving him looking more and more brutalized as she chips through his strangely tough skin.

Finally, panting without a wound on her, and staring down the heavily damaged, but still grinning Weiss, she dares to let out a smile of her own.

His next words, however, wipe the smile right off of her face. "I'm going to be honest with you, Tempest. You will never... ever... defeat me with those ridiculous attacks."

Tempest snarls. "And why, pray-tell, is that?"

He chuckles. "Because you haven't hurt me once."

Tempest's snarl turns apoplectic. "Then what do you call that," she says, pointing to the battle-damaged Weiss.

Weiss's smile doesn't fade by even the smallest amount, and in a wash of smoke, he's left untouched and seemingly unharmed, save for the scuffs on his vest and armor.

"Pity." He says, mindful of the amount of magic he had been burning through to dismiss and regenerate this clone fast enough to make it look like healing.

A few more minutes of her wailing on this shadow clone, and he might actually be in danger of running out of magic entirely.

As the mare's wounded pride forces her to pull a round, crackling object from her belt, however, he is forced to hide just how much more he wants to grin. Exactly as he had been hoping, she's brought out her trump card.

Tempest takes a few deep breaths to regain some small amount of strength, and stands up tall as she holds up the dark orb filled with crackling green energy. "Then I guess that's that."

Rushing inside of Weiss's pitiful guard again, she once more twists around and bucks him into the air, before kicking the orb after the stunned unicorn stallion, where it strikes him in the chest and explodes into a cloud of green smoke, rapidly transmuting his body into obsidian as he crashes to the ground, petrified.

Breathing heavily as she herself lands, she chuckles in no small amount of relief, closing her eyes. "I got him."

"Well, it's certainly a handsome visage, but what about the location!?"

Her eyes snap open in horror as she spots Weiss staring at his own, petrified face, scratching his chin and chuckling as though he hadn't just been hit by the Storm King's unstoppable petrification bomb.

Weiss glances over to her. "Now, you see, if I were going to petrify somepony, I'd probably do it a bit more like... This!"

Tempest shouts, trying to dodge out of the way of the vile green magic streaking towards her, but despite knowing that she successfully dodged the beam, she feels the cruel, dominating magic somehow hit her in the back, black crystals already spreading over her body.

Weiss walks over casually as she struggles against the curse climbing up her hooves like an infection, turning her into crystal.

"Good night, Tempest Shadow," Weiss says softly.

Before it can spread up over her head and broken horn and end this, Weiss suddenly grabs her by the neck, his claws preventing the curse from spreading up further before he can get his last words in with the struggling, panicking mare.

"Shhh... Just relax, and think about-"

He ponders for a moment, before finishing as he lets go of Tempest's neck. "-Fireworks."

And with that, Tempest Shadow was no more.