• Published 21st May 2019
  • 19,451 Views, 2,036 Comments

The Unique Properties of Dark Magic - Shadestyle



Stranded in Equestria's far past in the body of a unicorn without any magical knowledge, the self proclaimed "Weiss Noir" fights for survival in the Frozen North by indulging in sorcery most foul.

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(Present Chapter 18): The Fastest Thing Alive

"Now, what have we learned?" Weiss says, arms crossed behind his back as he walks past Tempest, Grubber, and the two supposedly best members of the Fizz Guard.

"Loss of control," One of the guards, a hulking hedgehog named Chunker, says.

Weiss nods. "Good."

"Screaming and hollering!" Grubber shouts, fists raised to the sky.

"Yes, and most importantly?" Weiss questions.

"Passion," Tempest Shadow deadpans.

"Right! So now that you know the elements of a good transformation sequence, let's see what you've come up with."

Grubber, Chunker, and a far bulkier, taller hedgehog named Puncher step forward, revealing their crayon drawing.

"So, I turn all gold and spiky, and I can fly, but I fly so fast that I just crash through stuff in my way like a wrecking ball!" Grubber describes, gesturing to his crayon diagram.

Weiss tries to distinctly ignore certain familiar undertones to the trio's idea, but for once, actually fails.

"So where did you get the idea from?" Weiss questions, making Puncher raise their hand.

Weiss inclines his head, gesturing them to speak.

"Old story about the fastest hedgehog dunno where from. Ma told me about it."

Weiss nods. "Right. That figures. Shame I was never able to get those Chaos Emeralds up and running."

Their jaws drop at that as he moves on to Tempest, who notably doesn't have a crayon drawing.

"My plan was to just go down the list of combat augmentation spells. I'll send you the list later on," Tempest explains.

Weiss shakes their head. "Nope. That's not good enough, Tempest. If you don't have passion and investment in your abilities, you'll end up missing crucial flaws of it, or fail to capitalize on their strengths. That's why we're making up dumb transformations. So we can learn how ridiculous plans are made workable through research and focused development.

"Now give me something over-the-top and unreasonably zany."

Tempest gives a quick sigh, before making an attempt with a roll of her eyes. "Flight, invisible invincible armor, exploding horseshoes, and a gigantic spiked ball, which explodes every time it hits something, but the explosions don't hurt it, so it can explode repeatedly."

Weiss nods. "We'll use Grubber for the ball to encourage teamwork. Everything else, I have the technology to produce at your leisure."

Tempest coughs slightly at the fact that Weiss took that seriously.


"So, uhh, Sir, not that I'm ungrateful for the help, but..." Twilight begins, placing the last scroll in its bin, marking the end of Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie organizing the library, with the assistance of a plainclothes Fizz Guard.

"Why exactly are you here, again?" She finishes, as the burly hedgehog brushes off a book with a clearly pleased expression.

"Boss wanted Gofer to get cloudwalking spell. Wants to go see the flying ponies competition." the thus-named "Gofer" says, scratching his sides awkwardly.

"Ooh! You mean the Best-Young-Fliers competition?!" Pinkie shouts, hopping up with excitement.

"Oooh, so exciting. That's where the best fliers in all of Equestria go to strut their stuff and try for the gold! Some are fast, like-!" Pinkie zooms around at high speed.

"And some of them are all graceful and careful, like-!" She stands up on her hooves and stumbles around like a drunk, before plopping over onto her face, giggling.

Gofer, confused at the pink pony's odd behavior, just scratches his head. "Uh, yeah. Gofer probably meant that."

Twilight looks sympathetic at the uninitiated one's first exposure to raw Pinkie Pie, but also confused. "Why would he care about a pegasus pony flying competition?" She asks hypothetically, already pulling out the tomes on unicorn-cloud-magic, and flipping through them until she finds the book Gofer was looking for.

"Here, be sure to bring it back within the week," Twilight insists, making Gofer nod rapidly, taking the book gently and jogging out the door with a bit of contortion to fit through the pony-sized doorway.

"Perhaps we should investigate, It could be fun," Rarity offers.

Twilight groans. "Well, I wish you had said that earlier. Gofer just walked out with the cloudwalking spell we would need to actually go to Cloudsdale."

Rarity scoffs. "Twilight, darling, I'm certain you've got an alternative spell somewhere laying around."

Twilight hums, pulling a tome out of the shelf. "Well, there is the Wing Spell, it grants an Earth Pony the ability to fly for three days, by binding naturally pegasus-magic filled dewdrops in a matrix of gossamer to produce a set of wings. It should be within my skill level to cast."

Suddenly, a wave of raw force and color blasts the library into disarray, all of the books they had spent time organizing spraying everywhere as the chromatic aberration rushes in.

Applejack is the first to recover, looking at the mass of colorful light erupting in the distance. "What the muddy hayseed was that?!" Applejack curses, fastening her hat more firmly on her head.


While his troops enjoy some much-deserved R&R, Weiss Noir stalks into the deepest depths of The Tower, where, suspended by thick iron chains, his ultimate golem rests, dead and inactive, it's chest opened, revealing a spread of mechanical limbs inside that gently and carefully hold a gemstone, made of two crystals that shimmer with pale rainbow colors, bound together in a yin-yang shape.

"I can't let this creation fall by the wayside. The third Relic of Darkness, and yet, the most important one," Weiss mumbles to himself, running a hand along the smooth metal curves of blue alloy armor plating.

The window nearest to him suddenly shatters, as a gigantic mushroom cloud of rainbow energy erupts in the distance.

"What? No!" Weiss shouts desperately, running to the window, staring out in horror. "Surely I didn't miss it!"

After a moment, Weiss's breathing levels out, and he chuckles, more relaxed.

"Oh thank goodness. That's nowhere near Cloudsdale. Although, it is a bit annoying that I could have saved myself the trouble."

His eyes glance back to the golem behind him, where, in its chest, it's Againte Reactor begins to flicker madly, resonating with the Sonic Rainboom's energy as it continually emits the energy, and then absorbs it from it's partner-gem.

Weiss's eyebrows raise, curious if even at this distance, the rainboom could activate the reactor, but, with some disappointment, Weiss watches the reactor slowly flicker and fade out.

"That's a shame. Looks like I will have to get the reactor closer to the second one."

Weiss approaches his machine, staring into its black visor.

"It won't be long now. Rainbow Dash goes to the young flier's competition, performs the Sonic Rainboom and then..."

The Againte Reactor's gemstones flicker in the low light of the torch-lit mechanical dungeon.


"Yay!" Fluttershy shouts quietly into the megaphone, her gentle lilt turned into a deafening gentle lilt by the amplifier which Gilda had bought at a nearby sporting goods store in response to the butter-pegasus's pitiful cheering volume.

"Woo! You got this Dash, let's see it!" Gilda roars, throwing her fists in the air in a much more natural cheer.

The potency of her friends' cheering fills Rainbow Dash with determination. She may have failed the Sonic Rainboom three times in a row, but by all that is flappy and windy, she will not fail again!

Leaping into the air, Dash's wings beat like concrete dividers thrown by Godzilla in a frenzy, sending her high into the air as she loops around and swoops down into the trees.

At each moment of peril, Dash's wings tilt the perfect amount to send her gracefully swooping around each tree, weaving through them like it couldn't be easier.

She breaches the treeline, rising up into the air where her flight path takes her straight into three different clouds, which she grazes with her hoof before deflecting off with a rapid series of wingbeats, tearing the clouds out of their lazy path and into each other, where they form a swirling donut of cloudstuff.

Dash engages in a complex maneuver that distorts her arc, taking her around and through the donut's hole, sending it spinning in on itself as it breaks apart into a series of rings.

Finally, Dash's wings begin to beat even harder than before, taking her high into the sky for the final part of her act.

'I can do this. I know I can!'

"You can do it Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy whispers into her megaphone, piercing all the way up to the chromatic flier like a laser pointed up at air traffic by a belligerent child with too much time on their hands.

Dash's body tenses and she drops like a stone into freefall, diving and compressing herself to minimize her profile as much as possible.

One-hundred meters per second...

Two-hundred...

By now, the vapor cone is interacting with her pegasus magic, the magic propelling her body working against her as it solidifies the clouds forming in front of her.

For a split second, Dash can feel the literal sound barrier tensing up as she presses into it, the elastic surface ready to launch her back.

And then she tears through it.

The world turns into light and sound as she breaches four-hundred meters per second, trailing a pure, natural rainbow behind her as her body ripples from air friction, and her wings spread out now that she's broken through the hardest part of performing a Sonic Rainboom.

Feeling her energy draining fast, Rainbow Dash pulls around and slows down, landing in a spray of light in front of Gilda and Fluttershy, who had dropped her Megaphone in the heat of the moment as she whoops and hollers with actual volume.

"Heheh, thanks girls, I couldn't have done it without you! I knew I could do it again. Now I just gotta show it off at the competition, and I'll be the winner for sure!" Rainbow Dash says, face hurting from how hard she's smiling.


Weiss pouts, unable to figure out how to cast this damn cloudwalking spell.

With an annoyed sigh, he passes off the book to Tempest Shadow, who casts the spell with relative ease, granting him and the Fizz Guard the valuable ability to walk on clouds.

"I'm surprised you can't cast a spell like this. It's not really a complicated one," Tempest claims, closing the book and setting it on a nearby table.

Weiss glares. "We all have our talents and shortcomings, Fizzlepop. I'm the Sage of Darkness, not the Sage of Other Stuff. The number of spells I have mastered that don't involve some kind of Dark Magic can be counted on one hoof."

He shakes his head. "At any rate, let's make our way to Cloudsdale. I've got an itch to show off the modifications we've made to your ship."

The ship in question opens its side ports, four gigantic bat wings unfurling from it as it's hellfire engines rev up and it's bay doors open to allow them in.

"Oh I'm so excited. Celly is going to be Jelly when she realizes her little chariot ain't jack shit compared to the Halberd," Weiss says, trotting aboard and marveling at just how much the vessel had changed since the last time he had gone inside properly.

When he reaches the helm, he dramatically points forward. "Alright Fizzy, give the order. Onward to Cloudsdale!"

Tempest rolls her eyes. "You heard the pony. Let's get this bird off the ground."

The doors open and the Halberd undergoes its first voyage after it's retrofit, engines roaring proudly as it leaves Mt. Krakatroda behind and begins its journey towards the city in the sky.

Weiss turns to his second-in-command. "Remember the plan, Fizzy, we lay low and play nice. All that we need to do is make sure that the golem is hidden near the arena when the event happens.

"If anything goes wrong, I'll provide a distraction, but it shouldn't come to that. Twilight and Rarity will be too busy with their own problems to deal with ours."


"Sorry you couldn't come, Applejack," Twilight apologizes, her gigantic butterfly wings fluttering nervously as Applejack shakes her head.

"Aww, it ain't nothing, Twi. I'm just too darn busy writin' letters to the other Apple family farms to go hoofin' it up to Cloudsdale right now, don't worry bout' it," Applejack says, tilting her hat in goodbye as she leaves Pinkie, Rarity and Twilight herself to the business of heading up to investigate and possibly cheer on Rainbow Dash, who claimed she was also entering the competition.

As the trio of ponies climb into the basket of the hot-air balloon, Twilight begins to gush.

"Oh I'm so excited, this spell was incredibly complex, due to the way it actually invokes Sympathetic Metamorphosis in the subject by using artificial wings made from dew, which as we all know contains trace amounts of pegasus magic, while we're investigating, I'll get the perfect opportunity to properly study this spell in action! Sympathetic Metamorphosis, secondary emotional resonance, and harnessing ambient magic using ordinary substances that anypony could get ahold of? This spell has it all!" Twilight shouts, jittering in place while her gossamer-bound wings buzz with excitement.

Rarity is also overwhelmed by the change. "They're so fabulous too, dear, practically dazzling. A pony could get used to this." The unicorn says, staring intently at her back, engraving the sight into her memories.

Pinkie Pie, however, is simply struck with a sense of profound wrongness. "I don't know girls, I feel kind of funny, myself. And not 'Bozo' funny either, more like 'Pagliacci' funny."

Twilight pauses at this as the hot air balloon reaches flight altitude. "Do you feel sick Pinkie? This spell isn't supposed to do anything other than give you temporary access to a pegasus's magic."

Pinkie shakes her head. "No, but doesn't it seem kinda wrong, just floating around with those big honkin' wings on your back?"

Twilight pulls out a measuring tape, idly marking down her own wingspan as she ponders the question. "Well, the spell is supposed to cause temporary and intense feelings of freedom. Maybe that's not settling well with you?"

Rarity chuckles, entranced by the sight of her dazzling magical wings. "Well, I think it's a nice change. So beautiful!"

Twilight nods, pulling out a mirror and a magnifying glass that she uses to study the wings further. "They are rather intriguing, aren't they?"

As Rarity yanks the mirror out of Twilight's telekinetic grip, Pinkie manages to shake off the funny feeling and focus on other things, like why she feels like throwing a birthday party for some reason, even though nopony she knows has a birthday today.


Tempest Shadow adjusts her cardboard-and-enchanted-shadow-mass wings and tilts her hat a little further up on her head.

"Hello boys, think you could tell a mare where she can buy some rainbows?" She says, strutting up to a pair of pegasi currently using a jackhammer to pound loose clouds into hardened ones.

One of them finds their jaw dropping, while the other one nods rapidly.

"Right over there m'am!" they say, pointing a hoof over to the rainbow factory while their jackhammer runs off without their grip on it, and falls off the edge of the city.

"Thanks," Tempest smirks, walking past them just as their foreman arrives and begins shouting them into submission for their incompetence.

She continues on to the weather factory, intent on obtaining her quarry, and furthering the chances of Weiss's success.

Entering the factory with confidence, she adjusts her hat again, a plain white cap that all the other workers are also wearing. Disguise in place, she's able to easily trot past Twilight and her friends, who seem to have also been on the tour, walking all the way into the liquid rainbow processing room.

She approaches one of the workers. "My name is Tempest, I'm here for a surprise inspection. Could you get me a bottle of this batch of rainbows, friend?"

The stallion nods mindlessly, too busy to think about it too hard as he grabs one of the bottles nearby and fills it with the fluid, before passing it off to Tempest.

"Thanks," She smiles blankly, walking out without so much as a single question.

She once again can't believe this idiotic plan of Weiss's had actually worked.

Walking back to the ship, she smirks at the obvious plainclothes guards set to watch the Halberd at a distance.

"Weiss, I got the bottle. What did you need this for, again?" Tempest says, handing off the goods.

Weiss's expression is surprisingly serious, as he takes the bottle and looks at it carefully.

"I need it for a sidequest. I'm going to create the Ultimate Hot Sauce. Tell no one," Weiss states firmly.

He carefully places the bottle inside of a summoned portal, where it slides into the unknown void, never to be seen again.

"Now, let's sneak us in a golem," Weiss says, pulling a tiny capsule off of the nearby table, and slipping it into the pocket of his vest.

"After that, we just sit back and enjoy the show."


"Alright girls, with you two here, this is going to be the easiest flight show of all time!" Rainbow Dash says moments before a certain balloon rises up through the clouds and lands gently on them.

"Whoa, Twilight? Pinkie?!" Rainbow Dash shouts, flying over to her friends as they hop out of the balloon and land firmly on the clouds below them, much to Dash, Gilda, and Fluttershy's shock.

"And moi as well," Rarity says, fluttering down from behind the pentio.

"Yup yup yup! Twilight wanted to do some sleuthing, but we figured we could watch you do your thing at the competition too while we're at it!" Pinkie shouts, bouncing on the clouds like a trampoline while Rarity idles off, distracted by her dazzling appendages.

Twilight nods. "I've got reason to believe something might be going on at the competition, judging from a Fizz Guard making some strange inquiries at the library."

Rainbow Dash hums at this. "That makes sense, I guess. Well, while you're all here, we might as well show you around!"

Gilda and Fluttershy nod, herding the three mares towards some interesting locales.

While Twilight rambles on about the spell she used to grant them wings, and Rarity relishes in her own, Pinkie acts surprisingly down to earth, acting as if the wings aren't even there unless she's outright using them.

"So, uhh, Pinks, you don't seem as interested as Twilight and Rarity are with your... Add-ons," Gilda points out while a bunch of pegasi try to ignore Rarity, having gotten chewed out once already for letting a pretty mare distract them.

Pinkie's ears droop as she shakes her head. "Yeah, those two have just been going on and on about it. I guess they just really like them or something!"

"They still feel super weird to me, though. And kinda itchy!"

"Well, I think they look pretty neat at least!" Gilda laughs, patting the mare on the back as they make their way into the weather factory.


Weiss waves pleasantly to Celestia from his floating hoverchair, who looks at him with barely restrained suspicion, as she lazily lounges on a pile of pillows next to Luna, who has taken up a seat more befitting of royalty.

"Hi, Celly!" Celestia sees his lips enunciate, even from the distance she's staring at him from. Her eyes narrow into blazing slits for a moment as her eyes roam over Cloudsdale, checking for anything out of the ordinary with a lifesign and threat-level scan.

Unfortunately for her, no such thing exists for her to see. Even Weiss's own soldiers are simply snacking and watching from the civilian seating areas, doing little of note.

As obvious as it may seem, the Weiss sitting up there is a fake, she immediately notices.

"Luna, I believe we're being played," Celestia says simply.

Luna rolls her eyes. "If Weiss is here smirking like that, then whatever plan he is using has likely escaped our notice and been executed already. He knows that if he does anything overt and harmful to our ponies that he'll get clapped in HD," she threatens simply.

Celestia hums, sipping at a tall glass of tea. "I suppose."


Meanwhile, in the bowels of Cloudsdale, Weiss's bubble butler sneaks unharassed through the hall, before pulling out a small blowdart, which it uses it's bubble breath to shoot at a passing Rainbow Dash, who barely even notices.

It's also around this time that Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie confront him.

"We finally found you. Now hand over the capsule!" Twilight shouts, jabbing a hoof out at the bubble-elemental doppelganger.

"Bluble blub pop," the duplicate says, pointing at Twilight.

"What? My wings? Oh, well, they're a specialized gossamer matrix, containing-"

Twilight's rambling continues, even as Pinkie and Rarity continue to try and chase down the bubble clone, forced to leave the distracted Twilight behind.

Turning the corner, Rarity spots a mirror and decides to take a few moments, just to make sure her wings are straight, of course.

This leaves Pinkie as the only focused person able to stop the Bubble Butler that Weiss created, and put an end to whatever it is he's trying to do.

Pinkie, however, comes face to face with Weiss himself as she turns down the hall, and spots the Bubble Clone dispersing, dropping the white and pink capsule into Weiss's outstretched hand.

"Hi Pinkie! I'm just doing evil, don't mind me," He says, tossing the plastic pill up and down, catching it repeatedly.

"Uhh, yeah, I'm kinda supposed to stop you doing that. Could you pretty please hand over that hoi-poi capsule?"

Weiss balks. "Oh, this thing? But I need it! Besides, you've actually already lost this battle, when your friends used the Wing Spell. You won't be able to get their heads on straight enough to cheer on Rainbow Dash, and stop me at the same time. And we both know that supporting your friend is much more important than stopping me."

And the annoying thing is, once again, Weiss is right. Pinkie has noticed her friends' odd behavior.

"Ugh, fine! But I'm extending your lifetime ban from Sugarcube Corner's soda machine," Pinkie threatens, before bouncing off to retrieve her friends.

As she leaves, Weiss simply giggles to himself, clicking the button on top of the capsule twice before throwing it down onto the ground, his golem appearing in a flash of smoke, positioned perfectly in front of a window pointed at the arena.

Pressing several buttons on its chest at the same time, the golem's chest opens, and its reactor slides out, exposed to the open air.

Nothing to do now, but wait.


While it is a bit odd that Pinkie is holding two huge folding fans, and keeps smacking Rarity and Twilight with them from time to time for some reason, the fact that almost all of her friends are here to cheer her on is gratifying beyond belief.

"Number fourteen, you're up," a coffee-sustained zombie of a mare says, mindlessly pointing her towards the open arena.

Rainbow Dash steps out into the sun, ready to perform her best stunt flying act that she's ever done before.

"You got this Rainbow Dash!" Gilda says while Fluttershy shrieks incoherently with cheer.

With a deep breath and a thunderclap-inducing flap, Rainbow Dash leaps off the edge of the ring and begins her act.

She weaves through the cloud pillars, inches away from some painful smacks.

She spins around the three gigantic clouds, ripping them into a donut shape.

She tears through the donut, turning it into a tunnel of hazy cloud rings.

She flies high into the air, sunlight beaming off of her wings.

And finally, with all her might and ears full of praise, Rainbow Dash rushes down through the rings, smashing through the vapor cone in front of her, and the sound barrier itself, unleashing her third and greatest Sonic Rainboom!

The crowd's cheers are deafening, their hair is blown back, and her former hecklers are wide-eyed and frozen in shock, just the way she likes them.

Princess Celestia herself jerks up in shock at the feat, having never seen it performed unaided quite like the pony in front of her had just done.

Less than half an hour after the pegasus lands and concludes her act, Princess Celestia and Luna themselves approach Rainbow Dash and her excited friends.

"Rainbow Dash! For your supreme mastery of the skies and incomprehensible feats of speed, I and my sister are more than happy to declare you, without a doubt, the Best Young Flier," Celestia says proudly, plopping the golden wreath on Rainbow Dash's watery-eyed head, before turning to her student.

"Twilight, do you have anything to say for yourself? I'm certain that spell wasn't designed with a unicorn's magic in mind," Celestia chastises, with an odd gleam in her eyes.

Twilight has the decency to look ashamed. "I'm sorry, princess, I suppose I didn't quite process the finer details of this spell before I cast it, and afterwards, I was... Distracted."

Celestia chuckles lightly. "Yes, well, as long as you've learned your lesson. Perhaps next time, you should ensure you have a weekend free before indulging in potentially mind-altering spellcraft," she says as if assuming there will be a next time.

Twilight nods dutifully, trying to ignore the wings on her back and their supernaturally distracting effects on her.


Weiss watches with care as the tiny microportal dart attached to Rainbow Dash's body activates, shunting just enough of the Sonic Rainboom into the Againte Reactor to trigger its critical phase.

One of the Againte Gems in the reactor glows with blinding rainbow light, before radiating it even stronger than before.

The other gem fitted right next to it absorbs this radiated magic and changes, turning rainbow in color and emitting the same type of magic itself, a powerful aura of energy wafting off of it.

This feedback loop eventually concludes its lightshow with the round core sliding into the golem's chest and it's metal plating closing shut, sealing the magical gems inside of itself.


Metal Dash OS 1.56

>Drawing System Specs... Good.

>Drawing Miltek Specs... Good.

>Sensory Suite Online.

>Emotional Suite Online.

>Regulatory Suite Online.

>Autocamo Active.

>Collating Life Data... Good.

>Collating Memory Data...

>...

>Good.

Shadowcorp Dual Golem Core, Shadow Realm Year 262.

She opens her eyes blearily, staring at Weiss Noir, who looks concerned and worried.

"Dash, I know you don't know me as a very good person, but you need to listen," he says, as she narrows her eyes at the Dark Sage.

"Someone is trying to infiltrate the Element Bearers, someone who thinks that they're the real Rainbow Dash, and you're the only one who can help me."

She looks down at her hooves, seeing metal instead of fuzz, which makes her jump back in shock.

Weiss shakes his head sadly, at her confused, angry glare.

"I'm sorry. This was the best I could do, after the Sonic Rainboom did what it did."

Metal Dash's confusion fails to abate, even as Weiss begins explaining in his own words what has happened to her. Describing an entity that is going to cause major problems for her friends if they aren't stopped.

Author's Note:

The Song of the Day is "Lookalike", from the Sonic The Hedgehog OVA Movie.

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