Dark Magic: Can it corrupt you?

Well this a concept that is as basic as light and darkness itself, in some senses. Dark Magic is a form of magic that can ultimately corrupt the hearts and minds of it's users if they are weak willed. Such magic will play with your fears, use your anger as a weapon, and ultimately turn you against the pony race. A instance of the magic being used for fear was when Twlight peered into one of the doors she tried to open which was powered by Dark Magic. She saw her worst fear. This was obviously due to Sombra's Magic since it was his castle at one point. If spike didn't come to snap her out of it, she would of been consumed by the very dark magic that consumed Sombra. The power can be only wielded by few that can handle the power it holds, either to master it with a strong will, or to be turned by it's power. Celestia shows that she can cast it. She doesn't do it often due it's corruptive properties, also how it messes with your mind and soul. Her demonstration of what Dark Magic can do in the episode made her look frightening. The only time that somepony as soft and gental, yet authoritative as Celestia can be turned to look frightening. It's a sight to see, but one you would not want to encounter.

The fears of the door that Twilight forced open with Dark Magic. It's enchantment created by Sombra to show your worst fears.


Celestia demonstrating Dark Magic's power.​

 

Pretty much what Chrysie said, Dark magic can corrupt anyone, you need a strong will to fight against it corrupting you. Even Celestia could probably fall for dark magic, you'd just have to do it in the correct way, by outsmarting her in some ways, attacking her fears and nightmares. I mean, Luna already got captured by the dark magic once, as we all know

 

Judging by how it's been portrayed, one could definitely be consumed and corrupted by the dark magic.

 

The funny thing is, I talked about this on MLP Forums and the conversions was rather enlightening. Only a few were being jackass posters. My point is that we ended talking about the possibilities with Dark Magic and what gifts you'd get with it, if you could master it and control it. Dark Magic can corrupt you, but this means true control is harder to attain. Those that are magically inclined may find his a challenge and engage it. But one thing is required to gain true control, strong will. The possibilities with such power could end up being endless. It's a forbidden art for the unruly nature for those who have tried to control it and failed.

@Sorunome: Actually, there is no found evidence of Dark Magic in Nightmare Moon. In fact, her original drive in being Nightmare Moon is take down her sister. It was a combination of jealousy, anger and compassion in her place as Princess. Her actions lead to her becoming power hungry, but she never succumbed to Dark Magic. It was her own choice to try and overthrow her sister, not the power of a Dark Magic entity.

Unless you were being silly, then my rant was for not. lol

 

Huh. Well, we've already seen magical artifacts with the power to corrupt those who use it, like the Alicorn Amulet or the book from Inspiration Manifestation. Even Twilight's old crown had the power to corrupt its wearer, as we saw when Sunset Shimmer tried harnessing its magic for selfish purposes. To my knowledge, none of these objects were specifically said to contain dark magic, so I guess that any sufficiently strong kind of magic has the potential to corrupt its users.

 

Yes. These things maybe true, but we are not talking about various artifacts that corrupt based on intention. We are talking about Dark Magic specifically.

 

I'm pretty sure yes. It's pretty much like the Dark Side of 'The Force' in Star Wars.

 

Honestly, I don't see much of a difference here. If any kind of powerful magic can potentially corrupt its user, this also includes dark magic by extension.
And if the question is "Will dark magic inevitably corrupt its user?", figuring out an answer arguably becomes even easier: no. We've seen Celestia use it. We've seen Twilight use it. And so far, there haven't been any obvious negative side effects.

 

This is a fair observation. But those whom become corrupted is a question of intention, morals, and ultimately strong will. It is unknown if Sombra became corrupted by the magic itself or if he willingly became corrupt from merely being power hungry. Those who use such magic will be susceptible to what the magic could do to them, but it's up to them as ponies of what they want. Twilight may of fallen like Sombra did if she had no one to save her from the Fear Doorway's enchantment. Or it maybe possible that she would of eventually figured it out on her own. Celestia herself may of been afflicted by the fear sight in different ways as Dark Magic does seem to tap into your subconscious and surface your worse fears. Though, when Celestia and Twilight used it, it was controlled in a way they didn't notably changed them too much. Celestia looked like Sombra in some respects, but she lacked the red eyes. Proof her will is stronger than the magic she wields. Though there is no garentee that it couldn't corrupt her in the long run if used far too much. This is maybe why she personally forbid it from general use. The type of power Dark Magic has can make a pony hunger for more of it. It can come in many forms, either from the heart or from the magic itself. So I suppose the artifacts could hold some pliable relation, though through intention more than anything else.

 

Sorry, but I'm not sure I follow. For all we know, the door that traps ponies in their worst nightmares was designed by Sombra for this specific purpose, so it's not really indicative of any corruptive properties of the magic itself. And we've already established that dark magic is not the only source of corruption in existence, so it's really nothing special in spite of its ominous name. Why single it out?
Unless, of course, we are going the other way round and dark magic is called this because it can corrupt and any magic that does so is called dark magic. In that case, the question itself becomes moot. It's like asking "Fire: Can it burn?" Well, if it doesn't burn, chances are it's not fire.

And I don't seem to recall Celestia explicitly forbidding dark magic. When did that happen?

 

Oh, thank you, I guess I got my facts wrong >.>

I think this is a perfect opportunity to look at Equestria Girls:
As pointed out by some analyst on youtube (I watch too much, sorry i can't link :S) Sunsets goal was to take over Equestria, not to destroy the school and turn everybody into a zombie-teenage-armee, that goal only formed after the magic got her. Also while the magic was "consuming" (sorry for a lack of betterwords) her she actually showed regret / fear on her face, which might be a sign of great power corrupting her as she initially doesn't want that, but has to give in.
We see something very similar in the third movie happening to Twilight. Again, she shows fear when being "consumed" bythe magic. Before being consumed it was never her intention to harm anybody at all, but after that she became wreckless and just wanted to learn more about magic, not caring about anything else.
So it might be quite fair to say that a too quick gain of too much magic can lead to you becoming wreckless, some may call it corrupt.
Now while writing this post, I actually noticed that that also fits well with the allicorn amulet trixie got, her goal was to show off twilight, in season 1 she didn't seem to actually want to harm anypony, she just went along with it to fulfill her one greater wish.

Looking at this it seems to me right now (again, correct me if i do an obvious mistake like the one where chrysie pointed me out) as if magic can corrupt anybody, what it requires is a quick gain of a lot of magic, though. Celestia and Luna are easily able to handle their powerfull magic, probably because they gained it gradually, and not all at once. Something maybe similar to money, if you suddenly got 20 million dollars, you probably wouldn't be able to handle so much money at once, because you never learned how to do so. But gradually getting more money teaches you how to handle it and you'll be able to pull it off later on.