//------------------------------// // (Past Chapter 16): Blast Day // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// The first time I had established a new holiday for an entire city of ponies, uhh... It was very awkward. Even though here on the surface, it should be blisteringly cold, it feels perfectly toasty here in the Shadow Realm with the veritable wildfire consuming the world around me. As I stand on the wide stone dais staring out over the blackened, flaming land that we've made our own, I feel pride. I bet the ponies who are standing behind me feel that way too. I turn around and face them all, spreading my arms wide as my cape flares in an invisible wind, and my dress armor glitters fabulously. "Today, we are all gathered here for one reason alone. To celebrate! We have won, we have struck the first blow against the Dark Tyrant. "No longer will we be afraid. No longer will we be frightened of the monsters. We will rage! We will scream! We will Hate!" The crowd's cheering and applause compel me to continue as soon as they quiet down enough for me to speak over the pounding of hooves on stone. "Today, I've brought you all here to do exactly that," I say, waving an arm towards the Crystal Empire, where a giant hole opens in the flames obscuring the horizon, putting the Castle in stark relief against the moon for everyone's viewing pleasure. "For this one night only, the unfortunately strict laws on military ordinance have been released. Those of you who were informed beforehand, please find a Guard Leader, who will guide you to your firing points. The rest of you, enjoy the banquets our good ponies have established. In three hours, it will be midnight, and we will be having a little show of force. "I'd hate to spoil it, so for now, you'll just have to hype yourselves up on your own recognizance!" I suddenly relax my posture, putting on a relieved smile as I let myself sag slightly with a sigh that is easily caught by my microphone. I perk back up and end this dramatic speech with a nice, casual invitation. "Now that we're done with that boring speech, let's have some fun! Welcome to the Shadow Realm's very first Blast Day Celebration!" The crowd erupts in stomping applause once again, as I hop down the stage and beeline towards one of the buffet tables. Iron Diamond takes this rare opportunity to unwind a bit, piling a plate high and finding somewhere to sit nearby. "Well well, if it isn't Pinkie! How the hay have you been?" Iron hears shouted at him, turning to look at Captain Helmsplitter. He smiles at the nickname, it might not have been an enjoyable one in basic training, but he's gotten over himself, when it comes to his mane. "I've been good Splithead. Doc's got me on the good stuff. I'll be back in action in a week," Iron says, swirling the goblet in his hand, full of some indistinguishably fruity punch. Helmsplitter looks concerned. "You sure about that? You got roughed up pretty bad." Iron grins firmly. "Yeah, I did. Might even happen again. I'm still going to fight, though." The other Guard Captain snorts at this. "I'll drink to that," he says, heralding the tinkling of crystal cups clacking together. Iron shifts uncomfortably, the weight not sitting quite right on his leg. "Yeah. I'll keep fighting as long as I can," Iron poses simply, trailing off. Helmsplitter decides to change the subject. "So, you're what, a bodyguard now?" "Something like that. I'm to ensure that Lord Weiss and a few other ponies become more capable in combat. He has an obsession with doing things himself that only serves to put his inexperience in the spotlight," Iron Diamond explains. Iron pauses for a while. "We're supposed to do some trial runs. To see if I'm still capable of fieldwork," he admits. "If this new junk isn't good enough for it yet, I'm going to be benched until it is," Iron says, setting his punch on the table, and plopping his new mechanical arm on the table. "I bet I can beat you in a hoofwrestle now, though," he says, lightening the mood as his mechanical limb's blunted claws wiggle in a challenging manner. I stare blankly at what's sitting right in front of me, tempted to ask a question, but cautious of it being a dumb one. "Is this... Meat?" I ask, staring at the steaming tray, filled with what looks absolutely like a titanic brisket. "What, are you one of those snobs who won't eat monster? It's very expensive, you know, real Tetralisk." Head Chef Crackle says, her eyes narrowing. "No, not at all! Sorry, I was just... curious?" I say, stabbing a fork into a few slices and dragging the almost cable-like... delicacy... onto a plate of my own. The chef's pleased smile sends a chill down my spine, and I hastily vacate the immediate area. It might be annoying, managing my newfound capacity for greed, but I have to admit, I've never gotten off this much on solid-emerald silverware before. It even tickled some part of me in the back of my mind when the chef mentioned that it was a pricey dish that I was about to dig into. And dig in I do. I immediately detect a practically overwhelming amount of flavors, the spices, and sauces far more intense than anything I've tasted back home. I immediately notice a deep spicy flavor, carefully balanced with... Citrus? Oh yeah, that's citrus. It's almost like some sort of peppercorn, but with an acidic tang in place of the warm spikes. My jaw actually starts to hurt in that wonderful way that a jaw does when someone bites into something that is just too rich. Before long, I've dominated the slice of brisket, and have no choice but to look for more food to sample. I spot a clearing in the festival area where a bunch of ponies have actually started to dance, but I shy away from that. I suspect it would be embarrassing at best to get caught up in any sort of dexterous activity, even excluding my newfound limbs throwing my balance off. Suddenly, a very large and familiar individual is bodyblocking me. "Well, well, if it isn't the Sage himself, down amongst us ordinary folk," The gigantic mare known as Drop Kick exclaims, pushing me dangerously close to the group of ponies dancing. No, she can't be... "M'am, I assure you this is treas-OOON!" I yelp, tossed into the fray. "You sure that was the right thing to do there?" Glitter Bomb says in response to Drop Kick's questionable decision to, well, dropkick Weiss into the crowd. The hefty mare chortles. "Well duh, that boy needs to loosen up. Poor kid's got diamonds in him, as wound up as he is. "It ain't like we get a lot of chances to see the sky nowadays. So you're dark right I'm going to make the most of it." Glitter Bomb's eyebrow raises. "Dark right?" Drop Kick coughs. "Slip of the tongue." The two watch Weiss bumble around in the crowd, flailing his arms around while everyone mostly laughs with him as he succeeds at making a fool of himself. Before long, Whittle and Glitter Miss Priss meander around to watch the show, Priss's smugness grows to extraordinary new heights, before popping in the face of the overwhelming ridiculousness of watching the unicorn closely imitate a fish out of water. "Oh, he's never living this one down," Priss says, before Whittle huffs, making her grin sheepishly. "Ok, maybe maybe not never." A determined set to Weiss's face follows a humiliating attempt to flip over onto his arms, which just results in him bashing his face on the floor. He seems to be taking it well, though, if his laughter is anything to go by when Transmittal helps him up and they return to dancing. The music playing, Priss notes, is a lot cooler than the music she usually hears. She honestly didn't think she was much of a fan of music, with how snobby it was, but the music here was a lot more energetic, something she's perfectly fine with, honestly. A particularly bold musician starts playing a complex piece on the piano that had been modified to play other instruments with a bit of creative magic application. It might look strange, hearing some metallic wail come out of a piano, but the sound, now that's something else. 'Oh what the hay,' Priss thinks to herself, stepping out from the edges of the crowd to do some dancing of her own. Eclipse isn't one for these big loud parties, so the first building built on the surface works just fine for her, where some of the quieter attractions are going on, attractions like the huge table that her friend Oil Slick has commandeered for their gaming. Normally, Eclipse would be inside, curled up with a good book and a dry snack, but Slick had convinced her to come along, and when he mentioned that Heavy Hauler would be there, she was curious enough to cave to her friend's demands. Honestly, Heavy Hauler was... Quite the sight. Easily taller than the burliest guards, the pale green earth pony with the Cutie Mark of three filled bins of stone stacked precariously on top of one another stood head and shoulders above everyone else, his long ponytail bunched up under his metal hard hat. "Yeah, bro, I bet if we put Time Wizard in, we can do some crazy plays with your Spare Apparent. Maybe put in the Gate Guardian set, so you'll have something with some extra attack power to balance it out?" Heavy Hauler says, poring over a messy spread of cards with Jerryrig in the background, while Oil Slick loses his third rematch in a row against Cabal Counter. "Man, I just can't figure out how to take out that Elder Windigo. Is there a trick to it?" Oil Slick questions, scratching his head as he stares down at the board. Cabal Counter chuckles primly. "Well, your deck wouldn't do well with it, but my father told me he plans to release a new pack with Slifer the Sky Dragon in it. If somepony combined that card with something to lower attack power, Elder Windigo could be destroyed with that effect." Oil Slick takes this to heart, gears turning upstairs. "Maybe if I removed Sludge Belcher and replaced it with Meepo?" Cabal pauses at that. "It... Could work. You're taking a big risk, though. It just takes one Meepo being destroyed to destroy all the others in your deck. Seems like a bold way to get the sacrifices for Slifer." Eclipse looks out the window, where Weiss seems to have gotten back up on his stage, speakers ringing out as he tests the microphone. My legs are burning as I trot up the stairs, but not nearly as much as my face is. That was exactly as embarrassing as my calculations implied. I tap the microphone a few times, mostly just to make the squealy noise before I begin to speak. "Well, it's been an exciting couple of hours, everyone, but now it's time to finish this party with a bang!" At this, several large platforms are wheeled in, each one packed to the brim with blast shields and thick enchanted crystals blocking them from having sightlines to anywhere other than the towering city far in the distance. All of them, when they are wheeled into place, click with finality as the wheels lock to prevent any recoil from pushing them backward. "We may not be able to retake the Crystal Empire today," I admit. "But tonight, we will remember why that is. We will remember our enemy. For this night, Blast Night, we'll be firing everything we've got. We'll unleash our hatred. We'll show those in the Crystal Empire that a reckoning is on the horizon. We'll show Sombra that a reckoning is on the horizon!" "So enjoy the pretty lights, because there's about to be a lot of them!" I finish, turning to face the Crystal Empire myself. I wonder if you can be sued for making a bootleg holiday? Well, even if I could, it's not like anyone can exactly reach me to do so. I point to one of the platforms, which is being swarmed by a group of ponies doing last-minute checks. "Group One, 'White Lightning', Fire!" With that, the platform unleashes waves and waves of Earth Pony Ordinance, gigantic diamond ballista bolts flying into the skies, fired towards the Crystal Empire, despite the fact that it could never reach it from here. That's not the point though, as the ballista bolt explodes at the height of its arc, unleashing a glorious eruption of elemental magic. In this case, gigantic lightning bolts crashing down, sending sprays of soil and snow flying from the ground nearly a kilometer away. The ponies ooh and ahh at the display, but I can feel it growing in the air. They've cottoned on, and their hatred is growing. I can practically feel it. Is this a pony thing, or am I alone in feeling this sense of... Destiny? After the last Lightning Bolt explodes in the air, the ponies are all whooping and cheering at the display of our military might. The land is growing darker, even with the full moon directly overhead. One thing that isn't dimmed even slightly are the lights that came from the ponies here. From the torches to the explosives, those aren't absorbed by the black flames, instead displayed in brilliant contrast against the blackness. I motion to the next platform. "Group two, 'Pyroclasm'..." "Fire!" I shout, this time, the crowd shouting along with me in unison. The second platform unleashes a single gigantic cannonball, which flies almost as far as the Lightning Bolt. The obsidian sphere halts in midair, somehow, before igniting like a second sun in the sky. Or, afirst sun, I guess, since the actual sun isn't actually up. The Fire Ball slowly descends, periodically erupting, sending blades and lashes of fire at the ground below it, before with a heaving crash, the Fire Ball explodes, sending a pillar of fire into the sky that completely obscures sight of the Crystal Empire from here. I doubt there's a single pony in the entire Shadow Realm who isn't imagining it right now, imagining Sombra trapped in that instead of empty air. Hell, I'm imagining it. I point to the third, and final platform. "Group three, 'Diamond Dust'..." This time, I opt for a countdown, so the entire crowd can shout along with me. I hold up three fingers. "Three!" Iron Diamond and Helm Splitter shout, their hearts aflame with memories of past battles, and blazing with the promise of future ones. "Two!" Glitter Bomb, Whittle Miss Priss, and Glitter Miss Priss all shout together, relishing in the warm freedom they've worked so hard to help preserve, each in their own ways, whether it meant digging up gems, carving gems, or even just being one. "One!" Eclipse, Oil Slick, and everyone else in the building shout alongside one another, their imaginations caught on fire more in the past months than they have been in years. So many things to learn, so many games to play, and they'll have their whole lives to do it. "Fire!" I shout, feeling something like a thread snapping in my chest, as the final platform simply unleashes a wave of glistening frozen scythes. They just keep going, and going. As they reach the height of their arc, the Ice Sickles begin to multiply, scythes growing from scythes in flashes of light and sound, the popping and cracking of ice filling the air. In mere minutes, a storm of frozen razors is raining down on the land, blades embedding themselves in every square inch of the surrounding area. When the final one lands, all of the scythes combine their energy, suddenly growing a forest of glowing frozen spikes that reach to the skies, as if praising the heavens with righteous fury. The entire world turns into flames, as I had expected to happen when I made every pony in the Shadow Realm summon up all the hate they could possibly manage, but what I really, really did not expect was the color. The entire Shadow Realm, and the cells miles away all erupting in a rainbow of flames, a chromatic conflagration that spurts out in waves. I feel my mind and spirit changing again, but in a way that feels so right, as though I'm becoming more me than I've ever been before. When it ends, I hear a faint crackling noise that I realize is coming from my own head. I look up, seeing black flames. Obviously, this causes me to panic, screaming at the top of my lungs as I run for the nearest pool of water and dunk my head in it. I hear a lot of panicked screams, and, to be honest, I should have figured out after the first few seconds that these flames aren't exactly the ones I've been familiar with, since it didn't actually burn me, and it also didn't extinguish. Ever. What really solidified it though was the fact that everypony else's hair was on brilliantly color-coded fire too. After everyone has calmed down and stopped trying to dunk their heads or rears in water or snow, and the last pony has been convinced to stop trying to pat out the flames with their scale-clad hooves, I tiredly stumble back up onto the stage, grabbing the microphone. "Ok, look, I'm going to level with you all," I say, my voice being amplified to reach the rest of the confused populous. "I have no fucking idea what the hell just happened," I admit. "I'm pretty sure Blast Day accidentally turned us into dragon ponies? Uhh, Longma, let's go with that," I state. The crowd murmurs, generally unsure. I sigh. "Look, if any of you feel like amassing gigantic piles of treasure, please contact the nearest medical center, and we'll work this out, otherwise, it's been a long night, yeah? "We are ponies of the Shadow Realm, and we will prevail! "...Even if prevailing, in this case, means going the fuck to sleep and worrying about this in the morning. Until then, please do not try to remove the scales on your legs, I'm told they don't exactly feel good to just yank off, and don't try to dunk your head in water, or anything flammable. Have a good night folks, I'm going to go crash..." I say, trying to improvise. I'm not very good at improvising. I go ahead and get off the stage, and the ponies disperse, making their way back into the tunnels of the Shadow Realm and to their various homes. Dr. Real tramples his way towards me in a panic, but I stop him with a raised palm. "It can wait until morning, Doctor." "If you insist, sir," he acquiesces. "If it helps, I am fairly certain I know what has occurred and will prepare a report in the morning for you." I shrug tiredly. "Are we going to blow up or otherwise die in the next twenty-four hours?" He shakes his head. "Not at all." "Then it can wait till then," I finish, making my way into one of the entrance tunnels, intent on returning to my auditorium sized bed made of Royal Vibranium, Sapphire, and Emerald-filled softness-enchanted beanbag chairs. Luna performs an honest-to-god Facehoof. "Do you have any clue what you've done, Weiss Noir?" she pleads. I shrug, cutting my eyes to the Arcana Liber screen, where ponies are rating Blast Day as "Mostly Enjoyable". "No, but if you do, I'd love to be let into the 'knows-what-I've-done' club." She sighs distressingly. "Weiss, you may be the only pony not in that club. You've changed the course of destiny for the entirety of the Shadow Realm. They are still Earth Ponies, but from this day forward, they are Crystal Ponies no longer." I sweat at this. "Does that mean they're going to start sucking at crystal stuff?" She shakes her head, looking at me like I'm stupid. "Do you think they're just going to forget what they know? None of their Cutie Marks have changed, so of course not. But there is no way of knowing just what their new forms will afford them in the future. Especially among the youngest." She glares lightly, making me shrink metaphorically, as I also shrink very literally. "Sorry," I apologize, not sure what else to say. Her tension depletes. "Do not feel guilty. If the ponies did not desire it on some level, it could not have happened. Some aspects of the world you cultivated for them must have been growing with each passing day. It could have been anything. Living in almost total darkness, the abundance of dark magic flames, your status as their leader, paired with your own theft of draconic traits." "I cannot guess at much beyond your celebration being the straw that broke the pony's back." I think long and hard about that. I had been trying to cultivate their hatred. Is it that simple? I doubt it. The ponies haven't been growing more hateful, just more... More. Certainly more violent, but the only pony that has borne the brunt of their hate is Sombra alone. Even the fighting that had been growing steadily since I began using Black Flames for heating was resulting in increased camaraderie, not less. "How do you know so much about this?" I ask, making her chuckle. "I'm honestly just reciting most of what my sister had said when I had created my own Draugr," she responds smoothly, making me tense up slightly at the idea that Luna might be indulging in necromancy. I wasn't even willing to mess with that. "Uhh... The undead kind?" I say nervously, unsure if Luna is admitting to being some kind of necromancer. Luna snorts. "That is what the rumors would have you believe. No, there is not a single member of my entire guard who was made from a reanimated corpse." She says firmly. "Oh... Sorry? For the record, I didn't think you were slapping the undead template on everything," I say quickly, trying to backtrack. She ponders something. "Template?" I shrug. "Is there a better name for it?" "I suppose not." she concedes. "I notice that your mind is looking particularly more-" she pauses to think of a good word. "Stable." And indeed, my virtual-dream has increased in stability since Blast Day. Where previously, the unstable spikes of greed could ruin my vances or other projects with sudden realizations of my new opulent obsessions, this latest transformation has evened out my emotional state drastically, at the cost of intensifying it. I don't feel comfortable sleeping on anything but shiny jewels now, but if that's the cost of my newfound status, I'll take it. "Yeah. I'm feeling a lot better. Different, but better." Luna smiles at that. "I'm glad you haven't gone mad. I think the world would be a, er." "It would be a brighter place without your dark mind in it," she jokes, prompting me to laugh loudly. Yeah. I can work with this. While Eclipse is nervous and cautious of the changes she's undergone after a good night's sleep, Priss couldn't be happier. "Do you have any idea how cool this is?!" Priss shouts, hopping up and down with her scaled hooves. "Watch this." She exclaims, before holding her breath and tensing up. Her hair erupts larger than before, cherry-red fire rushing upwards before shrinking back down. "As you can tell, I consider this change to be the best possible one." Eclipse is skeptical... But that might just be because her own mane and tail look strange as a conflagration of barely-shaped red and yellow energy. Priss, noticing her best friend's apprehension, throws the final bone. "Weren't you the one who was talking about recoil management? Watch this." Priss pulls out her Foxfire and Force Redirection Materia, before casting them. Her hoof glows with veins of magical energy between the scales, while the ground between them ignites with crimson fire. Priss thrusts her hoof into it, and her enchanted hoof goes to work redirecting the kinetic energy all the way up to her mane, which, no longer being a physical object, just thrashes around as it absorbs all of the recoil force. Eclipse's eyes widen, as she hesitantly sticks her own hoof into the fire, feeling the raw force and heat. "Priss, our manes being able to absorb force aside, that fire's got to be as hot as an oven, we shouldn't be able to just jam our hooves in it." Priss shrugs. "Our hair is on fire too, and I don't have so much as a heat blister." "But the ones on our head are lukewarm at best, Priss. Water didn't even steam when I dunked my head in it." Eclipse complains, but can't muster any real bite into it. Eclipse's awe-filled look fails to abate during the next few hours as they stick their hooves in various superheated things with ease.