I am thinking a power/knowledge hungry pony decides to pursue dark magics. Maybe them starting out as a filly. Prolly grimdark, but I also want psychedelic things. Like drug magic to boost cognitive capacity, and hallucinate colors/distortions of shape. They become a monster and keep pursuing. Also pursue other things~.

Maybe tie it into nightmare or tantabus, maybe not.

But they alter their bodies permanently with rituals and magic, constantly, if its a 'pure upgrade', like a virtually no downsides physical change. Like if they sprout extra horns, as long as it doesn't impair mobility, they will keep them. Same with tentacles, eyes, mouths, aberrations. They may pursue shapeshifting.

I want it to be basically an 'evil pony done right'. With no 'craziness' no stupidity, and to actually not be overpowered.

Someone with humanity, that still gave into the greed/fear/curiosity for power, sin, and immortality.

5908916 Well having a good themed fowl to rival the main character would be good. Some pony that serves as a counter for the main character.

They can share simular abilities just use them for good. Think sherlock holmes and morearte (Im sure I spelled it wrong).

5909894 *Foil, but yes. I am not read up on alot of writing strategies or terms, I just do whatever I think is interesting, gets a message across, or is immersive usually. Any other terms I should know about?

Well writing something from the villain's perspective is always interesting like you don't know that their actually the bad guy until the end.

5908916

I'm coming into this a little late, but as someone who adores darker works of fiction, I can't help but recommend adding some bits of light heartedness into the story, albeit, appropriately placed. Stories like SiS (all 4 of them), Split Second, and other long dark stories all have bits of light hearted, not necessarially comedic moments, but moments of reprive for the audience. Audiences can be quickly desensitized to the violence and great authors and playwrites like even Shakespeare, knew this and included comedic moments such as the porter scent after Macbeth murders the king and queen. This isn't necessary in a good fiction, as seen in COUNTLESS works, physical or electronic, but it does help to build and establish a 3 dimensional character

Second piece of advice, you are writing a story that needs to walk a very careful line. One about someone who falls to darkness. There MUST be a reason for this or it will fall apart at the start. You will end up with an Anakin Skywalker (movies not clone wars), who commits themselves to the darkside for a very stupid reason. At the same time, you have to make them fallible as well. You have to develop your character before they descend into 'darkness' or else we (readers) don't have an ideal to base this darkness off of. Researcher Twilight is a great example of this done well, as we can see what she used to be and how her ideals led to her falling from sanity

Ok, thanks!