Here comes a stupid epiphany/theory that has a 90 percent chance of being wrong. I thought I should share it though, and maybe discuss how this could affect certain events in FiM and fanfiction.

What if light and dark magic didn't work in the way we expected at all?

So, as far as we know, both are used exclusively by unicorns, though there have been various debates over whether pegasi do or don't have magical abilities at various stages. Light magic appears to be a case of "think about what you need to use your magic for and zap," whereas dark magic... Oh, we don't really know how that works, except that you have to have REALLY strong wills, otherwise, instead of you controlling the dark magic, it's the other way around. At least, we were told that in FiM.

Headcanon time!

First of all, I want to say that everypony in Equestria and beyond has some kind of magical ability, and that there's a good chance that other creatures do too. Secondly, I want to propose the idea that anypony (perhaps anycreature, but I haven't thought about that yet) can use either light or dark magic to some extent. Let me explain in a bit more detail.

For light magic, I think unicorns use it to cast spells, pegasi use it to control the weather and walk on clouds, and earth ponies channel it into, well, the earth. To elaborate on that last point, they can send magic into any tangible object to produce certain effects, either on command or involuntarily. For example, when it comes to growing crops, healing, looking after animals and caring for other living things in general, I think they can send their magic into others through their hooves. When farming, their magic could be transferred to the soil and get absorbed by plants, which become healthier and live longer. However, I think this could have other benefits too. I think it could be sent into the ground in short, sharp waves of energy, like sonar or echolocation, to tell an earth pony more about their environment and possibly warn them of certain events that are about to happen, which explains Pinkie Sense.

Now, for dark magic... This is where I'm going into the unknown and Elsa would you please stop singing in the background?! My theory is that it isn't dark at all. In fact, I have a new name for it, though I don't have one for light magic just yet. I think emotion magic sounds better, and that leads onto my theory. You know I was talking about the Pinkie Sense in the paragraph about light magic? Scratch that, I think that's emotion magic. You see, I think that light magic relies on rational thought, as in I need to teleport to Donut Joe's Donut Shop and bang, you're there, and emotion magic relies more on, well, your feelings and emotions. It's easy for our emotions to swallow us up anyway, so it makes sense that emotion magic is unpredictable and hard to control. So, you might be thinking of going to Donut Joe's Donut Shop because his prices are cheaper than some other café which serves tastier donuts that happen to be more expensive (sorry Joe), but you reallyreallyreallyreallyREALLY want to go to that other café, you're using dark magic to teleport to Joe's and bang, you're at the other café because you wanted to be there more that you wanted to go to Donut Joe's.

So, now I'm going to do a Sawtooth Waves and say, what do you think? Could the two types of magic work in this way? Does my hypothesis actually make any sense? Is there a better name for light magic? How does this affect what we already know about magic? Have I forgotten something? Share your thoughts in the comments!

7402468
HMM. Interesting theory. Canonically, I can see this being a thing. It would explain Nightmare Moon, Sombra, and the PoS (hehehe 'Pony of Shadows'). Since there you have jealousy and greed at work. It should be noted though, that never do we see 'emotion' magic being used for good. It's always represented as an evil, all-consuming force.

7402468
I belive originally the difference between light and dark magic was that light magic was everything that could heal or give you a buff while drak magic was everything that could harm or give a debuff.
I personally don't think that dark magic is necessarily evil, but is easy for creaturees to lose themselves in their power and end up giving it a bad reputation. Is sort of like Necromancy, is a generally frowned upon type of magic but you don't necessarily need to use it for something nefarious, but for every good deed someone does with it, there are like three bastards that abuse the power and become an evil lich

I think your theory could work emotions are clearly a source of power in the MLP universe, like love, hate and friendship

7402468
I'll be honest, I wasn't aware light magic was a thing at all in MLP. Actually same for dark magic now that I think about it. If anything it just seems to be magic that is heavily influenced by emotions. Rage, jealousy, envy, fear and other traditionally considered dark emotions seem to empower users greatly at the cost of their sanity like Nightmare Moon, Pony of Shadows, Starlight Glimmer (she actually said one time that reason he who could go toe to toe with Twilight was her rage) and well probably all EqG villains. On the flip-side you have friendship and love magic. No clue where Discord's chaotic magic fits in.

As for Pinkie well I don't think even magic can explain her. She has the power of cartoon comedy, can do anything as long as it is funny for viewers but is just a regular pony when things are serious. Explaining her abilities in story is kinda missing the point. Actually every character occasional does something impossible just not as frequently, like Rarity being able to drag her couch of screen when needed for example.

7402468
I have my own theory:

There is Positive magic fields and Negative magic fields, like electricity in a way, where every creature generates a certain amount of magic in their fields. Different types of magics are made based on their type subcategories and race subcategories.

7402476

It's always represented as an evil, all-consuming force.

Hmmm, yes I can see the evil in her eyes.

7402468
Do you mean eastern darkness metaphors? Because wetstern darkness is evil or is not darkness.

Anyway, MLP magic is not structured at all, there are almost no laws, no types, no forms. So there is no distinct dark and light magics in canon. You don't explain them, you create.

7402490
There's no greater horror than marriage. That shit changes a man.

Though Cadance's magic seems to work along the confines of regular 'light magic' tbh. That's why I didn't consider it within the 'emotion' magic. It's never shown to spiral out of control.

7402537
So, emotion magic is not magic powered by emotion and is instead magic that spirals out of control? That's kinda weird, it seems to focus excluivly only on negative emotions. But then, Cadance did teach Twilight that love spell that made everyone in Ponyville start loving Mr. Smarty Pants, so does that count as spiraling out of control?

Also, I kept trying to find a fanart of Cadance zapping Lyra and Bon Bon to fall in love with two guys and Twilight telling her that she can't do that because they are gay. Damn my poor art-search-fu skills.

7402556
Oh my God, you're right. Cadance is a Sith!

7402580

Sometimes I really love this fandom.

7402583
'To love by choice or by force there is. Nopony can not love'- in the style of Yoda

7402468
In my headcanon, dark magic actually has nothing to do with emotions. The whole class of magic referred as dark is actually magic that is dangerous to wizard. Not in 'don't mess spells if you wanna stay alive way' but in 'unless you take appropriate precautions it will either destroy or dominate you'. In similar manner black magic is class of magic where you specifically risk nothing, but other pay the price for you.

As for the light magic... it is magic that represents no danger for caster. Mainly because it isn't theirs to begin with. The energy and the knowledge, sometimes even act of casting spells is gift from some higher power to you. Usually on some conditions. Also if your Benefactor is of less benevolent sort most things classified as light magic would fit rather well in black magic instead.

Of course with such system different spells from one school could fit in several categories. Shadow magic, for example, is mostly dark magic (it subverts your mind if you are not careful) with some examples of neutral spells (usually wards, working against mind control) and sizable repertoire of black magic spells (mainly different types of shadow possessions, sacrificial rituals and the like).
On the other hand shamanism is mostly neutral (spirits aren't malevolent most of the time) with some black spells closer to demonology or necromancy.

7402468

What if light and dark magic didn't work in the way we expected at all?

The what and the what now?

Bitch, we ain't 100% sure what the earth pony magic is, and you think there's light and dark magic? What is this, Might and Magic? Do we have fire magic, air magic, water magic, earth magic, light magic, dark magic, spirit magic, body magic, and mind magic? If so, make sure you get Lloyd's Beacon. That shit is OP. Starfall is great for clearing groups. And always keep up Heroism and Hour of Power.

7402480

If anything it just seems to be magic that is heavily influenced by emotions.

I'm gonna go against the flow and say that it's intent influenced. And no, I don't mean whether you want to do good or bad. It's about what is the intent and focus behind your magic. Do you do this for your friends and friendship? Rainbow Lazerz love you. Do you work together with the pony you love, in order to protect and defend those you do? Love asskicking shields. Do you want to show everyone how miserable and forgotten you felt? Nightmares gallore.

Though most probably it's just common magic (I mean, why do you feel you need to make magic more special than it already is? This is like that Harry Potter fanfic where some students of Hogwarts thought that if you were really special you got a letter and became a double witch/wizard) and emotions and causes play a small role like a boost of adrenaline.

7402617

what the earth pony magic is

It's on the same level as 'participation' ribbons.

7402632
...The legendary Boomer Magic!!!

7402617
Magic is magic. At least as far the show ever cared. I don't remember it ever making distinction, except for chaos magic since only Discord and Pinkie are the only ones insane enough to use it.

But to me it is nitpicky to say it is intent and not emotions. Intents themselves are more often than not influenced by emotions to begin with. And characters that were consumed by negative emotions tended often to end up all rawr monster like. At the very least emotions boost magical power and boosting is influencing. And there even is one random line said by Starlight in one random episode so it must be true! For that single moment at least. I mean, it is MLP magic so it can do whatever it wants, like it's magical or something.

7402647
We can't rule out daemonic possession either, since the PoS kinda makes it canon that it can happen. It seems like 'darkness' is an intelligent force to an extent in horseworld. I don't remember if it's ever stated that NMM was a separate entity to Luna. But if so, then there'd be that.

7402640
In the Age of Boomer Magic, wizards had their wizard tower by the age of 160 and could already support a cult of Tzeentch with just their one gig as Court Wizard. None of that 'magic college' crap, either! Damn new novices. They're killing the magic wand industry!

7402655
But we can keep it secret and shoot anyone who dares to make such heresy public. No such thing as daemons or ruinous powers. Though I do wish if we had any idea at all what that shadow thing was. I mean, it always talked like it was Stygian. Is it a demon, a fantasy split personality? Maybe it was even worshiped once. Or was it made for something but it turned out horribly wrong or right.

And of course Nightmare Moon was never confirmed or denied as a separate person. Unless we count comics, then Nightmare is definitely not Luna. And you can also use laso to reach the moon.

7402647
It IS kind of nitpicky, but in the same time it is kind of needed. See it like this. Cinder Vel is a mighty wizard, who seeks power in order to protect his home village, San WriGro. If Cinder Vel wants to cast fireball in order to scare away the pack of timberwolves rushing for the village, he gets to roll the spell as a higher slot than he casts it as and rolls a 1d20 to hit with advantage. If he casts fireball in order to scare the timberwolves away from his own position, he gets no advantage. If he wants to cast it with advantage because he's mighty pissed at timberwolves in general, he gets to roll a 1d20 with disadvantage as his anger makes it harder for him to aim but he might be getting bonus damage. Roleplay tied to mechanics, my dude!

7402666
*The Ponequisition Has Entered the Chat*

So many things left unanswered... Imo, Shadowmere's uncool cousin is the embodiment of negative emotions. She tries to prey on the pones who feel left out, sad, or are just greedy bastards to try and possess them and acquire power for herself, in what is essentially an abusive relationship where she just constantly feeds the negativity loop of the pone in question while giving them the power to lash out, while at the same time stripping them of their own free will by taking over their minds.

The alipone amulet would be like, a physical artifact of its power? Maybes.

Oh yeah. They did that lasso bit. HUH.

7402670
And now all I can think of is how to try and abuse that mechanic. See, timberwolves killed Cinder's parents so the extra hatred motivates to have revenge, that's a plus. Also it just happened that today is the anniversary of their death so that's a plus too. Oh, also fire makes Cinder happy so creating fire with an intent to spread love and joy should be a bonus too. Yeah I don't buy it either.

7402671
Nobody expects the Trixie's inquisition! Which actually should piss her off, how dare they not expect her.

Also, ponies sure are great emotion batteries, an all you can eat buffet. But the big revelation is that Smokey should have just fed on her own emotions, just like how changelings do now!

7402938
Turns out the real power was inside her all along! D'aww!

I've heard of "dark magic," but I've never to my memory heard of "light magic" in the show itself as being a term, let alone for general usage.

7402479
Yeah, the way I see it, it's not the emotions itself (that they'd use to power a dark magical spell, or to boost "normal" magic, if it isn't another emotion fueling it, like courage/confidence) that are evil, but the reasoning behind it that can be. They can be addicted/dependent on the power that it brings you, and go down a dark road, but it is also not inherently evil to say, hate a ruthless tyrant, in and of itself. Fluttershy, for instance, was boosted by her anger and determination towards Discord for being a "big dumb MEANIE," and managed to catch up to Rainbow Dash in flight, aside from the oft-cited case of Starlight.

It does, however, look like some artifacts more strongly correlate to being evil/corruptive than actual spells, though, between the Alicorn Amulet and the Inspiration Manifestation book (explicitly said to be "dark magic" on the latter by Twilight, at the end of the episode; the Alicorn Amulet admittedly was not specifically classified as anything other than "one of the most mysterious and powerful of all the known magical charms") being more corruptive than Twilight and Celestia using dark magic seemed to be.

(Also this is aside from cases of corruption like Nightmare Moon [which was Luna burying her envy until it reached critical mass as far as we can tell with the show, since there's no evidence of a foreign entity outside of the comics] and the Pony of Shadows, the latter of which involved a foreign entity. Also perhaps worth noting that the Tantabus seemed to be a part of Luna herself, judging from how it behaved in accordance with her emotional state as part of the resolution, and she then absorbed it into herself)

7402476
That's really what made me think about this originally. We have NMM, Sombra, the PoS, in Rainbow Roadtrip there is this supposed Hopeless Magic that sounds a lot like emotion magic to me. You're right about us never seeing this in canon, but just because it isn't shown in canon, doesn't mean it isn't true. *scratches head* Changelings eat love, and used to steal it. This may or may not be an example of emotion magic being used. If it is, though, it shows it can be used for good because they go from this

to this.

Who knows?
7402479
Now I'm trying to decide if the Elements of Harmony are light magic or not because friendship is magic.
7402480
I forgot about chaos magic. To answer your question of where it fits in, it doesn't. It's pure, cold, hard chaos. I am confused how you didn't know that light and dark magic were different, though. I like being able to explain Pinkie Sense, too.
7402487
Hmm, interesting. I've tried fitting the different forms of light magic into different categories, but I've thought of something. What if all the magic is the same, but it's used differently?
7402519
I think anything can be explained, it's a matter of how hard you try and whether you have the right tools and enough evidence to explain them.
7402537
I agree with 7402556 here. Emotion magic doesn't always have to spiral out of control. It's just harder to control than light magic. (I REALLY need a new name for it.) Twilight in The Crystal Empire, Part 2 is a perfect example. She revealed the secret staircase and could use dark magic perfectly fine when she was calm and focused. However, when she had to deal with the door, she got frustrated with being unable to open it, and blasted it with emotion magic without really thinking about what she was doing, which led to her having to relive her worst nightmares due to Sombra's trap.
7402605
I need to think about that. *scratches head* The problem is, I don't think the normal rules of magic in various fantasy universes apply to FiM.
7402617
Rewatch The Crystal Empire, Parts 1 and 2. It revolves around the fact that dark magic exists.
7402671
The Alicorn Amulet, by show standards, should be the Amulet of Dark Magic, because Zecora in the season 4 premiere calls dark magic alicorn magic, though its use is clearly not limited to alicorns. Perhaps it's because alicorns are usually strong enough to control it.

7402948

I am confused how you didn't know that light and dark magic were different, though

Of course they are different, I never said otherwise. But in specific settings that actually have light and dark magic, and also usually the wide selection of nature, elemental, spirit, mental whatever magic. And it's mostly video games, as someone mentioned Light magic buffing and Dark magic debuffing. On TV and in books I am having hard time remembering a setting that actually uses light and dark magic as specific types of magic, unless it's a video game adaption.

It is far more usual to just have magic and evil dark forbidden magic. Less about different type of magic and more the case of magic being used with terrible consequences. Using magic to make bread? Just magic. Using magic to bind tortured souls to rotting bones or curse someone to dance forever? Now that's evil magic. It's even the original case with the force in Star Wars. There was no "light side" or even gray side originally, it was just the force and the unbalanced corrupt use of it called the dark side.

7402962
Ohhhhhhhhhh. However, FiM is not most franchises. I look at other stuff and it works just how you said. It has magic and it has magic used in the incorrect way. FiM doesn't have that.

Celestia using light magic:

Celestia using dark magic:

She doesn't do anything evil with the dark magic, she just makes a few black crystals on the floor. It still clearly works in a different way to if she was using light magic to make crystals appear out of thin air.

7402968
Actually all you are doing is calling regular magic "Light" and I don't know why. Because Celestia's magic is yellow?

And as far as we know those crystals are dark concentration of fear itself or something, made out souls trapped forever yadda yadda. Sombra mostly seems to be all about fear anyway, forcing his population to be consumed by fear, have traps that make you see your darkest fear etc. Think about it, emotions in MLP are something that you can literally eat or bottle up, heck maybe emotions literally are magic. Of course the truth is that we don't know and neither does the show and it's mostly just fans arguing whose rationalization is the correct one.

7402948

The problem is, I don't think the normal rules of magic in various fantasy universes apply to FiM.

I think they do. Or at least there are some consistent rules. Because Twilight clearly thinks that Pinkie Sense or curses are impossible. And in my stories it is just classification.

7402468 I feel like describing all of magic as either light or dark is, like, super reductive. It takes away a lot of the weird nuance that each type of magic has.

For real, there's like half a dozen different 'types' of magic, with differences between how each manifest and how they get used. Starting with Earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn magic. Each of these manifests differently and we know they each have their own brand of magic. Unicorn magic looks like spells cast using the horn. Pegasus magic looks like a sort of conscious ability to affect the environment. Earth pony magic be crazy and largely subconscious. Then there's alicorn magic, which I personally think is linked to or synonymous with Harmony magic, which itself manifests through friendship and love and seems to originate from some big-ass sparkly tree.

Then there's chaos magic, which you've already noted in this thread which is pretty fuckin' weird, but it's not as weird as changeling magic because I have no clue whether that's its own thing fuelled by love or whether they're actually leeching off harmony magic which itself is getting beamed into ponies. Then there's whatever the dick Sombra uses, which is probably the closest this show is going to get to dark magic but fuck me if I know how he does it; it's possible he's just leeching magic from his various slaves similarly to how Tirek does his magic, which involves sucking the magic out of virtually everything else but doesn't seem inherently dark or light. Then again, Celestia seems to be able to do something similar so maybe it's just channelling some dark, poisonous aspect of magic? I don't know what's up with that. Again, Sombra seems to come closest to what we'd probably associate with actual 'dark magic', whatever that means. Fitting, considering his name.

But I guess we can throw all that away to call stuff a binary dark/light system. Yey.

Obviously there's stuff that ponies would call 'dark magic' because it does evil stuff. You could argue that Discord's magic is 'dark' because it tends to work counter to harmonious magic, which people might associate with light magic, especially if you were a pony and you digged the Harmony vibe. But from a world-analysis perspective, I don't really dig that there's only two broad magic types, at least, not without being reductive to the point of losing all this interesting stuff that happens in Equestria.

7402981
7403010
I've thought of something else.

But from a world-analysis perspective, I don't really dig that there's only two broad magic types

7403010 is half right here. I've made a couple of errors with my hypothesis as well. After reading all the comments in this thread, I'd say there's three known types of magic - light, dark and chaos - and rather than there being loads of branches of magic, each individual creature has adapted to use it differently, so the way magic is used can vary even amongst a group of creatures who are all the same species. Light magic is, as 7402981 sort of said, the most common and easy to use one. Dark magic - well, if you can't control it, it dries you crazy and makes you evil. Chaos magic doesn't follow a pattern at all. It can be hard to control, but doesn't actually do anything. It's chaos magic because it doesn't even fit under the umbrellas I've attempted to create.

Here's the main thing I've found: no creature appears to stick to one type of magic. Tirek is able to use all three types. He draws magic out of creatures and objects, but this doesn't work in the same way as Sombra's dark magic. That is his own emotions: fear, anger, greed, that kind of stuff. Basically what I said when I started this thread is that I don't think those emotions are the only ones used in dark magic, and that it might be more common than we think.

Here are some of the anomalies I've found that make little-to-no sense (to me, anyway):

1. When the Elements of Harmony are used, Twilight does this whole glowing-eye thing, which is very similar to dark magic.
2. Sunset also has the glowing-eye thing when reading minds.
3. (not sure as this one's related, but it's still weird) The power of 4 alicorns matches the power of all of the ponies in Equestria and Discord's magic exactly, yet NMM and Chryssie defeated Celestia with ease
4. Any magic revolving around love seems to act like dark magic. That big explosion when Cadance and Shining Armour broke the hypnosis spell Chryssie had cast on him. The magic of light and love basically obliterating Sombra in Season 3. The Mane 6 do this again in season 9. There's all the glowing eyes and the strange magical light/mist everywhere. Love potions.

In short, magic is weird. Perhaps it really is impossible to explain.

7403027

In short, magic is weird. Perhaps it really is impossible to explain.

That is exactly what magic is, the whole point. And in MLP it manifests in many many many ways as Hap pointed out.

...also I kinda feel need to point out that "Light Magic" is frequently Holy or Divine magic, used by priests and clerics as a gift from their gods. It is why I find it so weird to call the casual magic "light". Well, ok there is also literally magic of manipulating light but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, bit weird to use light and dark terms while changing the meaning entirely. You could as easily call your magic order magic, emotional magic and chaos magic. Or material, spiritual and primordial.

7402468
What makes you think the other stuff is "light magic" in the first place? (Well, besides all the star symbology...) I just figured it was just...magic - actual light magic would be something like the Elements.

7403056
7403035
*in the voice of Twilight Sparkle* I'm sure it's called light magic in the show somewhere, but I'm beginning to think I'm the only one who calls it that...

7403057
Yeah, maybe kind of?

(Fun fact - neither the original nor prequel Star Wars trilogies mention a Light Side of the Force.)

I do have some thoughts of my own - might post them in a bit.

And here we are - a mix of my existing headcanon and new stuff my brain is squeezing out as I write.

Magic - a "semi-fundamental" force, as if the Creator had got everything balanced with the basic four and then realised they had an extra left over and didn't want to waste it. May be related to sentience, since it's both responsive to the wills of thinking beings and can even bring them forth on occasion. Can have all sorts of effects based on it's "flavour" shaped by circumstance.

Pony magic - many species in their world are magical, but of those not actually made of it, ponies are quite possibly the most suffused with it. It lives in their every cell, granting them all sorts of passive perks (like the impact toughness and healing rates of cartoon characters). Of course, besides all the minor but essential extras comes the most indivdual and yet universal manifestation - the cutie mark, a reflection of the pony's inner self.

In fact, I think pony magic in general reflects their individual will - obviously unicorn spellcasting, but also more instinctual pegasus and earthpony abilities. (Even the more passive abilities reflect the instinctual will to live.) It's not light or dark, but totally neutral - a selfish kind of magic, which can be used to help or harm according to the user's will. (Although healing of others seems to be rare to nonexistent...)

Dark magic - as noted, seems to be mainly associated with negative emotion. Magic seems quite responsive to emotion in general (see Twilight's self-ignition, Starlight in general), but negative emotion in general might be "stickier" and cause more feedback. Or perhaps there are forces out there which use it as a foothold to taint and corrupt...

It is still magic at the end of the day, so the sufficiently skilled can duplicate it to some degree without negative emotion of their own - like Celestia and Twilight in the S3 premiere. But you still have to be careful...

7403206

It is still magic at the end of the day, so the sufficiently skilled can duplicate it to some degree without negative emotion of their own - like Celestia and Twilight in the S3 premiere.

That doesn't appear to be what happened.

If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold... Which is why I need your help finding a way to protect it.

The way her statement about "hatred and fear" coincided with her casting the dark magic, it felt like Celestia was hinting/implying to Twilight "here's how you use this dark crystal magic, it could be useful later," and the second time Twilight casted it, she did so more easily compared to the first time while she was annoyed regarding the door.
Also in the loose canon (admittedly retconned by the show with how differently it handled Sombra) Siege arc, the spell is said to need true rage in one's heart to cast, which is why Cadance had trouble casting it (tried and failed a hundred times) until Radiant Hope frustrated her by trying to get Sombra (used to lock the pathway in her case).

7403457
Well it's possible Celestia is good at controlling and channeling her emotions like that. I think the first time Twilight did it, she was just copying the spellwork - but if she put her feelings of frustration into it the second time, no surprise it worked better. Once probably won't hurt too much, but hopefully she doesn't play with it more...

Light, dark, chaos... Harmony and Disharmony, anyone? Like, Harmony was a thing in times of Faust, it even was even portrayed divine, as Celestia believed that magic in Twilight alone was enough for her "plan" to succeed, and the rainboom-cutiemarks plotline was probably considered an omen. Also, the friendship lesson of that episode was straightforward "friends are connected by magic even before they meet" and it gets an award for being the most useful friendship lesson of all. As for Disharmony, it strangely has a single manifestation - Discord. And windigoes to some extend, but then Faust left, and these things were never mentioned again.

(Just realised I hadn't actually addressed "light magic". We don't see as much of it as dark, but inferring, it would be spells filled with and amplified by positive emotion - like the "love bomb" in the Season 2 finale. It's relation to Harmony magic, if any, is unclear.)