The Unique Properties of Dark Magic

by Shadestyle

(Weiss Report) Believe It! [Shadow Clone]

Entry Number Twenty-Four, Day Four-Hundred-Fifty-Nine

I'm the fucking hokage, go home Naruto. For a while, I thought I was wasting my time trying to clone myself with dark magic, I had this huge chamber ready and everything to blast apart whatever horrible doppelganger comes out of my horn, but instead, It goes off without a fucking problem. I'm so excited. One of the grand-daddy busted powers is now in my grasp, and all I had to do was tap into the all-encompassing self-loathing every human has.

Sure as shit not writing this one in the Grimoire Noir. The last thing I want is for anyone to use this puppy against me, or even worse, find out that I can even do it. I'll have to make a point of pretending like my shadow clones are real. Something that isn't that difficult, considering I can only make one of them, and I black out while I'm controlling it. This is also my first attempt at cobbling together a new spell from just theories and guesswork, too. I've been stumbling onto plenty of magic spells when I want something and feel strongly about it, but this is the first time I've managed to actually take the time to plan it out, decide what emotions I need, throw them in the blender and hit frappe.

You take your average everyday hate, turn it in on yourself, mix it with a healthy dose of arrogant self-assurance, a hint of fear, two quarts of raw directed adrenaline and there you go. It took me a while to work out the exact ratios to cast the spell for the first time. That careful balance between self-loathing and egotism is absolutely necessary to both create something that isn't you and become it, but also make it become like you and remain in your control, and without fear, you can't escape your body to inhabit it temporarily.

That fear is the key component, turning the spell from a clone that might share your thoughts, or might deviate and become a problem, into a spell whose purpose is that of a true proxy, a "you" which can perform tasks without endangering the real you. I wonder if the mirror pool works anything like this? Questions for later. I really don't feel comfortable going anywhere near that thing, whether it requires magic words or not.

A side effect of controlling a body made entirely of magic is it's mutability and regeneration. As long as I don't fuck up the spell, even massive injuries just turn the clone to smoke, and if I can ignore how painful that is, I can simply pull the clone back together afterwards. I can even pull the smoke together into other shapes, though they all come out the same color as the smoke if I do that. Really, the only flaw with this spell is the sheer magical drain it imparts to cast it. Right now, even just making one leaves me almost completely drained.

This is thankfully mitigated by the fact that the magic I spend still exists in the clone. It takes even more concentration, but so long as I can maintain the shadow clone spell at the same time, I'm still able to cast other spells from the clone itself using some weird empathetic multitasking that I'm positive a human brain wouldn't be capable of. Normally, I might be worried by the fact that, by all means, I don't even have a human mind anymore, and can now feel multiple chunks of emotions at once, but to be frank, this spell is just too much fun for me to worry about that right now.

I guess that's how Muave Magician Twirlight Sparkler is able to cast like six different spells at the same time, even if it boggles my mind the sort of impossible, insurmountable talent that must require.

Yet another reason to never let this spell become known to the public. If there exists a pony with even half her power, I'm pretty sure they could just take over the planet with this spell. Probably. I'm not exactly an expert on what you'd need to take over the planet, get off my ass.

The uses of this spell are both obvious and varied. The ability to no longer risk my personage during experimentation, to send proxies to hostile foes for negotiations, It's ability to change shape when reforming from it's shadow state, all of these come together to form one glaringly useful power. Already, I've managed to perform experiments that previously were locked off to me, including rudimentary experiments with Migratory Iron, a substance so dangerous that my R&D dudes have violently refused having anything to do with it thus far.

Tests on it's ability to change shape aren't quite as pleasing as I had hoped. Destructive testing indicates that the transformed states are only as strong as my own magical power and pain tolerance, spikes bend like nails, and metal is no stronger than my own skin. Even so, some of the more practical transformations are still usable, such as simplistic vehicles, tools not reliant on their durability, and of course, transformations which integrate other physical objects.

I've begun filling my shadow clones with Rupture Drops accordingly, forming a nasty surprise for those that manage to slay one. For my allies, I've simply told them that I have discovered a spell which can remove me from danger when a lethal blow is detected. Of course, even though this is vaguely untrue, I certainly plan on developing such an enchantment as soon as is reasonable. As far as I can tell, it's bringing my little ponies some comfort to know I'm not just going to drop dead in combat.

And of course, the taunting and pranking potential are legendary. I've already gotten three people with the old "Rat leaps out of a picnic basket" trick in the Cacophony Zone.

The looks on their faces when they realized it was a prank... Ahh, it gives me life.

Comments

[nighters]

these little looks into his life are nice I wish we could see more of his antics in the coming story in present at times like him interacting with his friends

[Luminous Lead]

While lacking the world-cracking power that is the ability to train using multiple Shadow Clones, this is still pretty good for recon.

[hades21]

I'm the fucking hokage, go home Naruto. For a while, I thought I was wasting my time trying to clone myself with dark magic, I had this huge chamber ready and everything to blast apart whatever horrible doppelganger comes out of my horn, but instead, It goes off without a fucking problem. I'm so excited. One of the grand-daddy busted powers is now in my grasp, and all I had to do was tap into the all-encompassing self-loathing every human has.

lol

[Lightwavers]

tools not reliant on their durability

So, has he tested turning into a computer?

And hang on, in the present, at this point, he’s still in the lamp. Yet when Gilda hit him he resorted to covering up the mark rather than reforming his shadow clone. Why’s that?

[SPanDXltd]

10023215
As stated, the shadow clone is s perfect representation of him when done correctly. It must be down to the cutie mark, including damage, but he could physically change those aspects since it's just a magic construct.

However, it's likely he didn't have the magic to do that in the early stages of the story.