So I'm on yet another one of those speculation moments.

I wonder. The magic displayed by King Sombra is called dark magic. Yet that same magic is used by Twilight and it's called alicorn magic?

I'm curious as to what, why and how. So I've got a fresh new head-cannon to share with everyone.

Okey, so this powerful type of magic is called alicorn magic. Named after Alicorns such as Celestia and Luna. So I think it could be divine or something. I'm fine with it either way.

King Sombra uses alicorn magic, but it's called dark magic. Why? I don't know, but I like to speculate.

I think King Sombra was creating his own brand of alicorn magic. A corruption of alicorn magic. Maybe regular alicorn magic is raw and pure, then King Sombra comes around and refines it. Adding something into it that's not supposed to be there. Which is why it's referred to by Celestia as dark magic. It's not because it's inherently bad, but because it's been tainted, and thus, no longer pure. What he added to it could be anything. Is it negative emotions like hatred or fear, or maybe he poured his very soul into it?

So what do you think?

4211800

Maybe regular alicorn magic is raw and pure, then King Sombra comes around and refines it. Adding something into it that's not supposed to be there. Which is why it's referred to by Celestia as dark magic. It's not because it's inherently bad, but because it's been tainted, and thus, no longer pure. What he added to it could be anything. Is it negative emotions like hatred or fear, or maybe he poured his very soul into it?

Seeing as how Sombra is a fearmonger, it's probably fear.

4211800 It's an animation error, I'm pretty sure they weren't suppose to use dark magic to represent alicorn magic.

4211800
I figured it was because Celestia didn't want anyone to know that the alicorns used dark magic.

Maybe regular alicorn magic is raw and pure, then King Sombra comes around and refines it.

Refining something is how it becomes pure.

4212058
Then why did they do a close-up of her horn when she did it? If they wanted to emphasize that, they would have caught an error.

4213003 Meghan either didn't notice, or didn't care that the close up exposed a plot hole. Season 4 in general seemed to indicate that Meghan was losing her edge as an editor and was just accepting whatever was turned into her. I mean no disrecpt for saying this, and I still say she's a good writer and show runner, but I think she has too much on her plate. She should give the editing job to someone who can devote a lot of time and effort into correcting any noticeable holes or errors in a story.

Sorry for not clarifying. When I said 'pure', I meant that alicorn magic had no other elements within it. It's like the difference between pure water and polluted water.

I don't know how to do that thing with the green names, so I'll just say I'm referring to Banchoking.

4213094
I still think it was intentional.

4213161
Just click the arrows in the top right of whatever comment you're replying to.

4213844 I'm pretty sure they would've made a big deal out of it if that was the case, having Twilight's friends and Zecora and Spike not bat an eye when she uses dark magic doesn't make logical sense. Especially since Spike saw for himself what kind of powers dark magic has.

4214243
But she had been an alicorn for a while at that point and she immediately knew what to do when asked to perform alicorn magic.

If she knew alicorn magic was dark magic, she definitely would have told her friends. They didn't react because she told them already.