The Unique Properties of Dark Magic

by Shadestyle

(Noir Report) Indirect Data Gathering [Merciful Bulwark]

Entry #7, Day 52

Unfortunately, today's entry shall be one that I can only describe to you secondhand, with the help of my student, who had unearthed a dark spell unusable to any who lack the potent magic of a Crystal Pony. As the discoverer of this magic, I allowed her to call it what she wished, instead of calling it the Evil Containment Wave as I had originally offered as a suggestion. She was extremely unenthused with that name, and instead demanded It be recorded here as the Merciful Bulwark.

Indeed, when observing both the spell and it's results, my senses told me without a doubt that the spell was beyond my ability as a unicorn, that it was a spell that could only be realized by a pony like those who now inhabit the Shadow Realm. It forces me to wonder what other spells may be locked off to me, and who would be a worthy assistant to drive forth a true study into dark crystal magic.

Thus, I will now relay to you what I have managed to learn of the Merciful Bulwark, a spell which forms a potent barrier against attacks. I must warn you, however, that as I personally cannot cast it, what you will now learn from this entry is vague, and not to the standards of my usual work.

When Eclipse Flash, my student, had required magic sufficient in strength and form to prevent an unjust attack from striking a pony, she had turned her outrage at the injustice, and her desire to correct that injustice into the magical strength needed to summon up pillars of crystal, within which the black flames of hatred were swirled into, like dye in resin.

Despite my best efforts, I cannot offer you more than that, in describing how the spell had been achieved, as my student currently lacks the vocabulary with which to describe her exact feelings in that moment, the memories of which have already begun to fade slightly as the days wear on, and, since that day, she has been unable to replicate it. I plan to begin her training in the dark arts immediately, and will follow up this entry when she has a grasp of magic that is firm enough to allow her to realize this magic once again, with consistency.

What components of her outrage, of her desire to see justice done, and her even stronger desire to prevent injustice being done. To what emotions do these notions truly correlate to, and how might one evoke them outside a time of great need? If Dark Magic contains spells from both Crystal and Unicorn ponies, then are there other, even more potent spells hidden within the depths of our world's other denizens? Pondering things like this, I feel, is worth doing, to progress the study of the art, and perhaps, to progress the study of magic itself.

The crystal itself is unique, combining the best parts of Crystal Pony armor with the most destructive aspects of the Black Flame. Physical blows are deflected, and magic is destroyed as it encounters the frozen fire embedded in the stone. The spell, composed of emotions other than mere hatred, cannot be fully realized within the depths of dark emotion, which is reflected in the Crystal's color, a deep golden amber unlike any dark crystal I have yet discovered.

This may have been a consequence of the circumstances, but at the moment it had been used, it was able to deflect the destructive magic of an extremely powerful foe dead in it's tracks, with no signs of damage to the crystal. The samples recovered from the site retained this ability, to a lesser degree, withstanding several potent attacks before eventually, we discovered it's limitations, on both the front of physical force and combat magic. Though, the limits we found did not match even slightly to the blow it had withstood during it's creation, something that suggests that the Merciful Bulwark is much stronger when it is fresh.

Although, at the same time, it may suggest a deeper meaning to the barrier's purpose. Perhaps, instead of it's defenses merely weakening with time, it is simply tailored to defend against an attack of a different sort. Lacking access to powerful light magic or destruction magic aside from my Black Flame, I have no way of testing this, which leaves me with the simpler assumption that it weakens with time.

Another thing worth noting, the Merciful Bulwark does not correlate to any crystals that were in the room it was made in, this suggests that the spell either transmogrifies it's source material so thoroughly as to be unrecognizable, or that it simply does not function like Royal or Dark Crystals. It could also simply be that Eclipse does not understand the composition of the flooring, but as I have been tutoring her in such things, I believe this to be an unlikely answer to that quandary.

With no further testing that can be performed at this time without the ability to replicate the spell, the substance, or the conditions in which both emerged, I end this account thusly, with the hopes that I may revisit the topic of this spell when my student has matured in their study. While there may be tests I could yet perform, they would destroy our only existing samples of the substance, and therefore, I cannot afford to perform them at this time, for fear of the unknown time it will take to obtain more.

A spell such as this one should not be consigned to obscurity merely because it refuses to appear with ease, a sentiment that, thankfully, my student has found herself possessing as well. I look forward to future experiments on the topic, and no matter the time it takes, this spell represents something I had once thought impossible, the existence of a spell whose dark portent lies within the realm of justice and good. Something as precious as a "Good Dark Magic" is worth striving towards.

Comments

[Mix-up]

Well looks like Weiss' student/teacher relation is a more of a two way collaborative one, and not one directional one where they both seems to share each others thoughts and theories on their experiments and can't aren't really hiding anything from one another in their pursuit of learning more about dark magic and it's applications, and rely on each other to keep a more critical mindset on their research. I wonder how it turned out with each other and if something horrible happened to her later down the road to make Weiss bitter pony?

[nighters]

oooh, an eclipse report? good dark magic might be law magic in eclipse future!
do you think windigo can eat hate fire I know some of them are intelligent

[ibeachu]

Something as precious as a "Good Dark Magic" is worth striving towards.

So... Gray magic?

[thefroggyninja]

9717200
Dark magic isn't about being evil in this setting. It's a specific subset of magic defined by the emotions that power it and the fact that it can amplify those emotions where other types of magic can't.

[Warrior Kitten]

I find I’ve lost interest in this. I keep finding ways to not read it. The story idea seemed good and it was interesting, but I think it’s these kinds of chapters that killed it for me. The pace is slowed a lot and they kind of drone on...

I found that whenever I left a bookmark on one of these chapters, it took me longer to come back to read. Whereas if I left a bookmark on one of the non-magical-theory chapters, I’d be back to reading it basically immediately.

But it also feels like the story jumps around a lot. I was sceptical of this kind of chapter flow from the start, but then it kinda grew on me. But over time it started to feel like a lot of time skips were happening between each past chapter, and each present chapter. There were also a lot of different things happening at once, making me impatient to see what happens next with multiple different scenarios, which would normally be a good thing. But with this kind of past-present chapter thing it made me want to skip chapters to either keep reading the past or keep reading the present - something I hate doing outside of CYOA or story-each-chapter fics.

Right now I can honestly say that I want to see what happens with Sombra. But I also want to see what happens with Sunset. But I also want to see what happens with the Mane 6. But I also want to see what’s happening with the Princesses. Seeing my point? Too many things at once.

[Shadestyle]

9749315

Sorry to hear it.

When writing this story, one of my concerns is ensuring that it isn't all about Weiss. I'm trying to show that the world is a living one, with agents acting independently and actively on their own.

While Weiss's actions have had a large effect on the world, it is still a world.

As for the frequent timeskips, there is roughly 300 years of Weiss in the past, and I've been following the Episode List in the Present. If followed a narrower timescale for every single chapter, we would literally not get anywhere, or, I would have to make it so something wacky happens every single day.

I don't quite understand the timeskip complaint, needless to say. Since If I didn't timeskip, things would either get weird, or boring. I'm covering things worth covering. The construction of Snack Attack, while it could be INTERESTING, wouldn't meaningfully contribute to the action, characterization or the progression of the plot.

I keep thinking, "Which character am I not giving enough screen time?" "Which characters am focusing on too much?"

I genuinely disagree with this criticism, because it feels to me that the alternative would be to not give these characters the attention and time they deserve, to characterize them, and justify them being more than just pawns that appear during scenes with the sole purpose of orbiting around Weiss and whoever else the scene is focusing on.

Now, the reports themselves? That's valid, I can understand people who dislike the way the Noir and Weiss reports break up flow. I won't address or deny that particular critique. It's very fair to say that they are an aquired taste, or even to say that they're simply bad. I get that much.

I suppose, the only thing I can assure you with is, this fic is going to be long. At minimum 100 Chapters in both the Present and Past, (excluding Reports). That's more than enough time for me to satisfyingly conclude what I want concluded. More than enough time for Sunset, Eclipse Flash, Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Gilda, Trixie, and even Weiss to come together and conclude their respective story arcs.

Everything's connected, and all the scenes so far are important, because they're going to justify what happens next.

[Holydude]

This story has so many angles happening and i love it. I like how it bounce from the personal information from the journal. To the story of both past and present

[Akanu22]

9773265
Kinda reminds me of Bram Stockers Dracula.

[Khanathara]

9773265
It is off-putting at first, for me at least, but I have to agree with you. It is different, and a good different at that.