Part 9

Today was Dusk and Nat’s first dark magic lesson. I was so excited to have personal students once again, even if they were from another version of Equestria. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on either of them but they seemed to be more than willing to learn. Tia offered to start their lessons to allow me to get some sleep but I was completely against it. I was too excited to sleep anyways. Ed was waiting with me in my chambers for Nat and Dusk to show up.

“I haven’t seen you this excited in quite some time Luna,” commented my husband with a smile. “I know, I can’t stay still. I just hope I don’t go overboard and expect too much from the two of them. It’s been a long time since I had my own students and one specializes in dark magic,” I said in a squee. “Ah, my ears Luna. You could stand to dial it back a bit on the volume. I don’t think Tia would appreciate the windows cracking from excitement and I know I don’t want to fix them after having only just done it only two weeks ago.”

“Sorry Ed,” I apologized place my hand over my mouth as I blushed a bit. There was a knock at the door. “Oh, they’re here. Come in!”

The door opened to reveal Nat, Sora, Dusk, and Twilight. I saw that Dusk and Nat were standing rather close to one another and Dusk had her tail slightly wrapped around Nat’s leg, and after checking with my magic, I sensed that Nat had a Vector around Dusk’s waist. Looks like Twilight’s little prank helped them out.

“Morning Princess, Ed.” Nat and Dusk say together with a bow. I chuckle a little at their formality. “Morning girls, I hope you three slept well. I’m guessing Polearm come with you but split off once you four got here to attend to his guard duties,” Ed said looking at the three new arrivals.

“Yup, he said that he had a couple rounds today so he couldn't come with us here. He is probably going into the lab to test out his Talent magic afterwards.” Nat says. “I wouldn’t put it past him. I guess I know how I’m going to be spending part of my day for a while. I leave you three with Luna as I need to Talent proof my lab now,” said Ed with worry. “See you three later, bye Luna,” Ed kissed me goodbye and he was out the door.

I looked to the girls who were only staring at me with large eyes, “What it there something on my face?” The duo shake their head after a second. “No, just waiting to get started. Are we learning here or in the library?” Dusk asks. “No, we won’t. Did you bring the key that Ed gave you last night?” I asked with a smirk. Dusk nods and takes the key out of her pocket, as well as the Sage Stone of Darkness.

“Good. Please follow me,” I said bringing the girls over to a large drape. I pull the cord to reveal a large mirror. “Can any of you tell me what type of mirror this is?” I ask looking to the three of them. Twilight and Dusk look over the mirror with curious expressions, while Nat seemed to focus on her Vectors for a second. “It’s a portal mirror,” Nat says suddenly.

“In a way yes. This is what’s called a Pocket Mirror. Starswirl was once able to create a portal to another world as you all know. This mirror takes the same concept but Ed restricted to only a pocket dimension with my help using mirror and mirage magic. Dusk place the key on the mirror to unlock the door the Dark Library,” I explain with a smile.

Dusk nods and places the key into the keyhole on the top of the mirror and turn it, the glass of the mirror rippling before turning into a reflective dark purple. I nod with a smile before stepping through the mirror with the trio close behind me.

“Now that you’ve passed through the main entrance with the key you can all come here by using it on any mirror you have nearby, but if you wanted to bring some other pony here it won’t let you. You’d have to use the original mirror in my room. A detail specific to you,” I said looking to Dusk and Nat as we come to the other side of the doorway. “You’ll be able to keep coming here once you go home as it’s in between worlds.”

“Sweet. I wonder if this is like the area Lex met Master Mavis.” Nat mumbles to herself, and I figure her sister met someone in the area between worlds in her own world. I smile and see the others gaining wide and excited smiles as they see the library itself.

“This, my young students and niece, is the Library of Darkness. It holds the collected knowledge of every dark magic type from light consuming dark magic to dark portal magic. Most would kill to be able to get their hands on a single tome of this collection. Which brings me to my next subject. You can’t bring the books or scrolls outside of this place,” I said in a serious tone as I see Twilight raise her hand with a question. “But why can’t we bring them with us just to study for a later date?”

“Dark magic is like gold to is too greedy ponies for mages. While Tia and I allow the dark magical practices we can’t trust them with these ancient spells due to corruptions. So, I place an object displacement spell on these tomes so if anypony tries to take one out of here it returns to its shelf. Over there you’ll find the practice area where I know you’ll be spending half your time while I’m resting,” I said pointing to a large open arena.

“Alright. At least this way we don’t need to head to the training yard to practice some of our dark spells.” Nat says Dusk nodding in excitement. I can just feel the excited energy around these two, so I decide it would be best for us to get started. I light up my magic and bring over a dozen books for the trio to read through first.

“Where for you three to start?” I ask with a large grin. “For you Twilight, I recommend that you start in the basic section just to be on the safe side.” She nods and grabs some of the books in her own magic. “Dusk, these books are on dark magic control and meditation, so you will be able to control it and not worry about corruption.” Dusk smiles and grabs them from the pile, reading immediately. “Nat, these three are for dark emotional control, so magically channeling anger, sadness, etc. I believe your Maguilty Sense magic would do well to learn them.” The Diclonius smiles and grabs them with her Vectors, opening all of them up to read.

I watch as the three girls begin to read through their respective books, Twilight on one of the couches and Nat and Dusk leaning against each other, back to back. I can’t help but allow a couple happy tears to fall from my eyes as I remind myself. I have two diligent students, both wanting to learn all they can. I realize how Tia felt whenever she taught Twilight during my imprisonment now.

Looks like I am going to have to ask for help with some lesson plans.

“Ok, one more try and then we can call it a day Twi,” I tell my marefriend, who nods and gets into her stance. She allows herself to be covered by a dark gold and black aura before flying into the air and placing seven magic circles into the air in the shape of the Big Dipper and then landing.

“May the seven stars bring judgment upon you. Grand Chariot!” I watch as the spell circles glow before launching several magic bolts at high speed at the target. The resulting blast blows back my hair but luckily Luna put up a magic wall to prevent the blast from messing up the library. I know both Twilights would be losing their minds if that happened. After the spell finished, the target was left none existent. I smile and grab hold of my tired marefriend.

“That was great Twilight. I think it is safe to say you have a firm grasp on the magic bolts, the Grand Chariot, Meteor and the Jui Leixing.” I say with a smile, helping her over to a chair while Selene brought her water bottle. “Maybe, but I am still having some trouble using Altairis. Plus you still haven’t let me practiced Sema or Pleiades.” She says, beginning to chug her water.

“That is because those spells are too dangerous to use in a closed off area. We’d need to head to the badlands to practice them, and even then, they are very powerful so they are difficult to control.” I say with a sigh. Over the last four days, Twi and I spend almost all of our free time in the Dark Library, learning all we could about controlling our darkness. It took a while for me, but eventually, I learned to imbue my magic weapons with negative emotions like dread and fear, so getting hit by one of my swords would both hurt and would make you scared along with how to use certain Equestrian dark magic spells.

Twilight took to the dark magic like a fish to water. After she read through all the material Luna assigned her, she practiced the mediation and control techniques for a full day. She learned how to channel her Equestrian Dark magic, then I began to teach her the Heavenly Body spells. She learned Meteor quickly since it was the tamest spell she had aside from the magic bolts. She actually stunned Shining Armor when he wanted to see the spell when we were taking a break in the training hall.

After that we spent the next couple days going over what we knew about controlling each of our darkness with Luna, then the two of us would work on our spells in the training area in the library. Of course, I check in on Sora every couple of hours, and so far she is just bored, with not being able to control our body. She was excited when she watched me and Twi practicing our spells though.

My pokemon have just been hanging around the castle for the most part. Artemis talked to Shining and started to help train some new recruits in archery. He was actually the second best if he was in the guard. Chance helped the recruits with learning how to subdue a wild animal, using himself as the target. Topaz has mostly just been hanging around the gardens and relaxing.

Selene and Pandora, on the other hand, got permission from Luna to enter the library and watched me and Dusk whenever we practice our dark magic, the two dark types extremely curious about what we could do compared to them. After a while, I actually made my own version of the Shadow Ball, much to Selene shock and pride.

I am brought back to the present as I sense the portal activating and this realm’s Twilight walks up with a couple books in her arms. She notices us as we get out of the training area and smiles.

“Hey Dusk, Nat and Selene. Finished your training session?” She asks. I glance over to Dusk who sighs and nods, grabbing her regular clothes from a chair. We figured using these spells could be a bit of a workout, so we ended up getting some exercise clothes from the boutique. Dusk was wearing a black tank top with a blue sports bra and black shorts. I have to admit since we started working on our dark magic, she had barely gotten a little more muscular, her right arm beginning to show some muscles. I can’t even lie to myself about it, she was hot.

“You three seem to be enjoying the library,” said a familiar voice from behind me. “Nyu,” I squeaked as I turned around to see Ed looking at the shelf that was behind me. “Sorry about the spook Nat. I came by to pick a few books few Pole on dark earth magic,” said the alchemist as he skimmed through the shelf. “But you can’t take the books out of the library. Luna said there was a spell that prevents it,” added Twi.

“Correction Twi, you can’t take the tomes out but I can,” Ed said as he moved to the other side of the shelf. “But how?” asked Dusk tilting her, so cute. “I helped build this place, guys. So as one of its founders I’m not limited to the same restrictions you are. Oh, Nat, Adam says hi,” says Ed with a smirk. “You talked to Adam?” I said in surprise. “A little while ago through my watch. I told him to start prepping the castle in Everfree for us. I don’t want to run into any problems while we perform the transmutation. Seeing as how you and Dusk a progressing so well I thought we’d spend the last week of her rehab in Adam’s world. That way you can see Adam and Lex and Dusk can see how they use their variant of dark magic. Lex will be able to help out too. Can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing them under these circumstances though,” Ed said with a shake as he grabbed the books he pulled of the shelves.

“FYI, girls,” Ed said as he looked to the smoking arena. “If you need more space simply ask the librarian and she’ll make more room based off what you tell it. See ya,” Ed says as he steps through the door mirror.

“How are we supposed to tell the Library we need a bigger training area?” I asked in confusion. “Hey Nat,” said Twilight. “What’s up, Twilight?” I asked. “There’s a ball of light on your right side,” answered Twi pointing out the light next to me.

“Hello, visitors my name is Dark Light. I am the Librarian to the Library of Darkness. I was informed by Edward to have the arena expanded for a more suitable size for your spell practicing. If you require anything else simply call my name,” explained the little ball of light before it popped and faded into nothing.

I stepped through the mirror of the Library to the one I kept in my lab. I quickly looked round to see if Polearm was practicing his Talent Magic, as I didn’t want the books damaged. Dark magic scrolls are hard enough to come by let alone a whole book. Thank god he was working with his plants for the time being. The fella had a green thumb and could do just about anything with a plant. Had some of his brew the other night and it was fantastic and non-alcoholic to boot. He noticed me as I come out of the mirror and commented.

“Sir, how is it that you can use mirrors to travel?” Polearm asked scratching his head. “I can’t use them to travel in the way you’re thinking Polearm. I’m merely using the key in my possession to unlock a pathway to Luna’s private library,” I said walking over to his desk. “Here I want you to study these dark earth magic books when you get a chance. They’ll help you get a better feel of how to better control your baser dark type minerals. Like the onyx you used to make the armor and naginata the other night.”

“Ye-ss-ir,” He said as his face light up. “I can see that your time on that date was well spent my friend,” I say as i can’t help but laugh.

It had only been four days since the date and three since Twilight told him that she like him and wanted to give a relationship a try. So the officially become a couple and ever since Polearm has been the one to get nervous just from mention anything related to the subject. Even if it was just a minor detail. He still focuses quite well on his studies too. I even had Twi come in and help me analyze some of the data I collected on Talent magic. She was the eager beaver on this but Polearm was eager to try out the new magic he’d invented. It was astounding. Talent magic was a totally new form of magic in its own right. It needed no spells or incantations to use it. You only need to channel the magic in your body externally instead of internally. After the magic reaches sufficient mass it starts to form around what the wielder’s talent is and based on what their think at the time.

“Alright I need to speak with Adam to see if I can find the necessary elements for a human in his world,” I say as I look for my watch. “Why sir? I thought you were never going to attempt human transmutation,” stated my assistant. “That’s because this isn’t going to be human alchemy but alchemagical cloning instead. They share a same base yes but cloning isn’t trying to create new life, aka a soul, but just trying to make a copy off any already pre-existing body. The technique is going to rely more on my arc of embodiment magic than on my alchemy as a whole. So it will be much safer to use.”

As I was looking for the watch Polearm had made his way to the books I brought him. “Sir if I may ask, why do you want me to study dark earth magic?” he asked picking up the first book on the stack. “Call it a hunch Pole. Don’t forget what happened on your date. When you used the Talent magic it first appeared as black lightning which is a man indicator of dark type magic. Ah-ha found you, you little bastard,” I said as I pulled out my token. “Anyway, I want you to study earth and dark earth magic because it seems you have a natural affinity for both types of magic after a while we can move on to plant magic. Now study and if you feel up to it use the key next to the books to go to the Library and practice with the girls in the arena. I’ve got an important call to make now don’t disturb me.”

“Yes sir,” acknowledged my assistant

I left and went to the back of the lab where no one would disturb me. I looked down to my token and thought for a bit then I closed my eyes to think. Every time I talked to either Lex or Adam they always had the tone of distrust in their voice, and it was a tone I hated. They had every right to take it though. I won’t deny that it’s my fault, even if Sora and Nat agreed to the terms of our match. I open my eyes back up and look to the watch ‘Here goes, again’.

“Call Adam and Lex,” after I said the watch popped open and the hands started spinning violently. After around a second a split display screen popped up revealing a tall red and red-haired man with silver eyes on one screen and a woman with blue hair with gold highlights and mismatched eyes. “Hey, guys. Sorry to bother you two. Especially you Adam since we just spoke a few hours ago,” I say nervously.

I plop down on the couch in the library after I finish changing and sigh. It has been rough, learning all this darkness. Especially since some of it is contradictory to what I was taught as Celestia’s student. The more I think about it, the more I can see why Nat was so scared about unlocking my Heavenly Body magic. If I was told before I had met Nat that I would become a super powerful dark mage in the near future, I probably would have sent a letter to the princess without a second thought. But know, I am starting to think about what I could do to spread this dark knowledge across my home, likely without Celestia’s knowledge.

Wow, that sounded tyrannical.

I look to Nat as she sits next to me and hands me one of the dark magic books I have been reading through. It was of Umbrum dark magic spells, but with my training, I couldn't be corrupted by them that easily. Some of these are actually really helpful, like turning to mist or shadow and controlling my anger and sadness into beams of pure magic. There was a sudden pop again and the librarian was floating before us.

“Sorry to interrupt your studying, Ms. Dusk but I was informed by the mistress to monitor your thoughts as a precaution to prevent corruption and to inform you and the mistress of such signs. While you show no such signs, I had caught wind of your thought of tyranny. Please do be mindful that this is the state of mind you must not full too. You have shown great progress over the past four days. Much more than any before you but do not let the success cloud your head,” said Dark with concern.

I look to Nat and Selene, the duo just looking to me with raised brows, not appearing worried, but intrigued. “I was just thinking about how I am supposed to spread this dark magic knowledge through our home, probably without Celestia's influence if it ends up like I think it will. I guess I phrased it kind of tyrannically in my head.”

Selene shrugs and lays against the couch on the floor while Nat scoots closer to me, taking a long look into my eyes before nodding. “Alright. I can tell you aren’t lying at least. Just remember that you aren’t the only one who would be spreading this info around our Equestria. Also, remember our deal, you start getting tyrannical, I Invasion Link you.”

“If I may make a suggestion Ms. Dusk and Ms. Nat. The mistress once had a school of darkness here in our Equestria. Why not found one of your own with help from your version of the Mistress. I must point out that all variants of the Princess of the Night use the same base dark magic. If anyone will help you two she would. If anything else, then go to her before the sun princess when you return home,” explained the glowing orb.

I look to Nat again as she seems to ponder this, something akin to a spark of memory appearing in her eyes. Then she blushed again. “Shut up Sora!” She whisper yells to her sister. Unfortunately for both of us, Sora decided to listen to Ed and was teasing me and Nat constantly, especially now that she has new ‘ammunition’ from the both of us sleeping together every night since the festival.

“I must say Ms.Nat, that your sister is a rather enjoyable conversationalist. And the renovations to the arena have been completed. I also included a new series of Dark Crystal Golems that were used in the armies of King Sombra during the Crystal Wars. Please enjoy your new arena,” says Dark Light as she pops away once again.

I sigh again and continue to read through my book, Nat taking out her own book on dark wind magic. I am not sure how long the two of us were reading for when I hear the entrance activating again. I glance at the entrance and see our dark magic teacher entering, a smile on her face as she sees me, Twilight and Nat absorbed into our books.

“How are you three enjoy your studies today?” sung Luna in joy. “Very much so, Princess. This has really come in handy for controlling some of my powers, as well as making some new ones.” Nat says, marking the page she is at. “That’s great to hear Nat. How about you Twilight?”

“I found so many spells that I never knew could be used for such a variety of things. Then there are some of the training methods that have helped me in my alchemy studies for Ed too. It just so much-” said Twilight as she face plants in mid-sentence. I look to her for a second before laughing at the perfect timing.

“Wow! I hope I wasn’t like that when I was younger!” I say with a laugh, Twilight looking to me with a blushing glare. “Come on Twi, you have to admit that was funny.”

“My mind scan shows that Ms. Sparkle has shorted out, mistress,” said Dark as she popped up next to Luna. “Oh dear, it looks like information overload again,” said Luna as grabbed the bridge of her nose. “Tia said she can get like this if she’s been up for too long, or if she’s constantly reading. I’m going to have to ask you two to move so we can ‘reboot’ Twilight as Ed would say.”

Luna picked her niece and brought her over to the couch where we’d been reading while Dark Light followed her closely behind. Nat and I move from the couch and grab our things while Selene helps Luna place Twilight onto the couch for her to rest.

“I really hope this never happened to me when I was studying under the princess. I don’t remember it happening.” I mumble, trying to remember if this has ever happened to me. “I can scan your memories for you Ms.Dusk,” said Dark as she shot over to my face. “No, thank you.”

“This is reminding me of Sheila from RvB a bit.” I hear Nat mumble. What the heck is RvB?

“Anyways, was there something you needed princess?” I ask after a second.

“I came by to see how you three were doing is all. I haven’t had students since I since returned from being banished to the moon, let alone personal students. You have no idea how happy it makes me, to see you three studying here. I wanted to see if I could help you with anything, but from what I’ve read from Dark Light’s reports and watching the recordings of your training sessions I don’t think there’s much I could do at this point,” said Luna as she turned to face us with tears in her eyes.

“Are you alright princess?” I ask, moving in closer to Luna who then pulls us into a hug. I can’t help but smile. “I’ll be fine Dusk. These are tears of joy is all. I think it’s time you two moved into higher the higher level spells,” Luna says as she dries her eyes. “I thought we were already on high-level stuff. These spells a pretty strong in their own right. Then if you combine them with another spell they can do some pretty serious damage,” Nat comments.

“These are only the spells and techniques for basic control, Nat. You two haven’t even touched the spells that Starswirl created. There are also the ancient spells, the alicorn spells, and the ones I wrote myself. I think you might be interested in ‘solid state shadow magic’ in particular. Oh, before I forget, Ed asked me to tell you three to be sure to start getting ready for our trip to your brother’s world within the next three to four days,” explained Luna with joy.

“Did somepony say something about a collection of Starswirl spells?” asked Twi who popped back to life on the couch. “Tia was right when it comes to her recovery, whenever it comes to books,” Luna said jumping back from shock. “Have I ever been like that Nat?” I asked. “Not from whenever I was around. Maybe you did when you were studying under Celestia, but otherwise, no.”

“Mistress you can’t be serious about giving them access to the Forbidden section of the library!” exclaimed the librarian next the princess. “I am very serious Dark Light and you will not hinder them in any way shape or form. Girls as long as you don’t try and take the tomes from the Library I give you the unlimited access to this place and if Dark gives you any trouble simply send me a scroll. No matter the time. Now you’ll have to excuse me as I’m going to check up on Ed and Polearm’s training.Have a wonderful afternoon my students,” Luna says stepping back through the mirror.

I look to Nat who looks shocked that the princess would give us that much freedom. I have to admit I am shocked as well. First I was taught that dark magic is pure evil, now I am about to learn several forbidden spells in another dimension. Guess this come with the territory of dating a Displaced.

“Sooo….wanna head over to the restricted section?” I ask blankly. Nat nods to me and we head over to an area we saw was closed off earlier, the barrier in the way now gone. I gain a small smile as we enter the section, seeing tonnes of books, scrolls, and tomes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs. I go through the shelves for a bit before grabbing one that is labeled as ‘Advanced Umbrum Darkness’. I look to Nat who grabbed one that didn't have a title, but the cover had a skull made of rubies with the eyes being sapphires.

“Hmm, dark healing rituals. This could come in handy.” I hear her mumble to herself, before glancing to the side, probably talking to Sora again. “Be careful with this tome in particular Ms.Nat. It was the one that had lead to the downfall of the crystal king,” said Dark as she popped up next to Nat’s head. Nat looks to Dark with wide-eyes for a second before conversing with Sora and shrugging, grabbing the book anyways. “Thanks for the warning Dark. I can see what it is about at least, and then see what happens.”

“As long as you understand my warning. As you know, even the evilest of things can come from purest intentions. There is a table and chairs around the corner. Now you must excuse me as Ms. Twilight is about to have another overload in the Starswirl section,” says Dark as she pops away.

“Selene! Be sure to keep an eye on Twilight please!” I call to my Zoroark. “On it!” I hear her call back. I smile and go over to the seat nearby and begin to read through the new book. I glance over to Nat and see her sitting on her Vectors like a chair, seeming to converse with Sora again before opening up her own book.

Looks like we have more to learn before we head over to Adam’s world. I wonder what magic Lex gave him and Penny.