//------------------------------// // (Past Chapter 34) Mad // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// Luna found herself once again alone in Night Court, her thoughts churning with unease. There had been no funeral, private or public. Her sister and herself had of course publicly stated their dismay, and expressed their sympathies to what remained of the Shadow Realm, but Weiss had not. He only claimed that grieving would lessen the pain when pressed. He spat the words out as if the idea personally offended him, as if the pain were indispensable. She looked to her guards, who sat to either side of her throne. The nights were lonely, in a kingdom of ponies who lived under the sun, but her precious draugr, her 'batponies', were in a unique position to endure the nights alongside her. They made for poor company, perhaps, but company nonetheless. Next to her, a small table held papers which she dealt with in the long empty silence of the night. She lifted up a stack, and with a flash of magic, pulled a loose feather from her wing, cutting the tip of the feather to turn it into a usable quill. It was budget concerns. Equestria faced a unique problem in economic matters, due to its proximity from the Dragon Lands, and the few hidden dragons who called Equestria home. The twin diarchs had the power to repel foolish dragons that saw their country's wealth and coveted it, but over time, learned that simple discretion in the concentration of that wealth minimized the need, as fewer dragons found the risk to be worth the reward. That reasoning was one tool among many that the princesses used to hold the nobility in check. By using the threat of dragon attacks, ones that would certainly target the vaster stores of Equestria's wealth, the nobility saw the utility in spreading out their wealth, and inadvertently letting more of it slip down into the hooves of the peasants who deserved it. Luna, of course, was the one to offer up the clever idea to her sister that made this work so well. The plan was simple. Simply do not make such a big deal of the fact that they once defeated the Dragon Lord, Torch, a few centuries ago. If ponies thought too hard about that fact, then their confidence in their princesses might grow into overconfidence. Instead, by simply brushing off the feat for a few generations, it simply fell into one myth among many. Sufficient to bolster the strength of their mysterious mythos, without making it too clear that the feat was more than repeatable, if the need arose. She finished the last of her writing, and set aside a new tax reform that accounted for some of the changes the world had undergone in the past century. As she did, she felt a pulse that radiated through the court. One almost invisible due to the sheer distance between its source and her. However, her senses were sharp, and the court was empty of things to pollute them. She could sense, miles and miles away in the frozen north, another massive surge of dark magic. She was sorely tempted to check up on the sage. 'Ever since then, it's as if he forgot how to act like a person,' she thought to herself, remembering the various times she had seen him since that day. "Weiss?" Luna asked, cresting one of the metallic cliffs of the Shadow Realm. The land was empty, for the most part. The only ponies in the land were those who returned from their travels, or who had failed to evacuate. When she saw him, her slow trot turned into a more frantic gallop. Weiss was standing at the edge of the cliff, staring out over the cooling rivers and darkening ashes. "I want to wake up now Luna. I don't like this dream anymore," he said in an empty tone. Something critical was missing from his voice. In fact, nearly everything was. No signs of grief, or sadness. None of his sly or clever turns of phrase. The hatred and anger he expressed had run dry. He didn't react, even as she sat next to him. His body was cold, and she felt the disturbing texture of ash where there should have been fur. It was a vast departure from yesterday, when Weiss's anger was so incandescent that he spent entire hours before she eventually left, doing nothing but repairing the damage done to the Shadow Realm and constructing weapons, in complete darkness no less due to the uncontrollable flames snuffing out all the light. "I can't do that Weiss. This isn't a dream," she said. "Oh. Ok," he responded emotionlessly. She expected resistance, anger, anything other than bland acceptance. He didn't react to anything she said or did after that, staring out over the smouldering hellscape with no particular expression. The next visit a few days later was perhaps worse. She found him in his laboratory, but he wasn't researching, or constructing some arcane device. Instead, he was screaming like an animal, smashing everything around him in blind fury. "Weiss! What are you doing!?" she yelled. When he looked at her, he didn't seem to recognize her, simply turning on the spot and rushing at her with his claws outstretched. Shocked, Luna teleported away, and watched as he didn't even seem to process her movement, attacking the blank wall behind where she once was ferociously. He kept casting dark magics, but they fell apart before she could see what they were, Vances erupting from his horn one after another. He was experiencing a magical surge, the emotions flowing through him too unstable and unpredictable to form any one spell, and with the vast empty space in his spirit carved out to house hatred and greed, his capacity for emotion had risen to make the surge incredibly dangerous to his surroundings. She didn't know what to do, and could only watch as he slowly came down from whatever insane bloodlust had overtaken him, and both his magic and his emotions faded to nothing. She noticed his mane and tail had actually returned to being plain, ordinary hair, lacking the magic to remain ethereal and ablaze. His coat, meanwhile, had seemed to flake in places. When he began quietly repairing and reassembling the machinery and enchanted items he broke, she tried again. "Weiss, what was that all about?" Luna asked, and only then did he seem to notice her, giving her a glance before failing to answer. Again, he didn't respond to anything she said or did from that point forward, and once he completed the repairs, he just sat in front of his desk silently until she left. While his anger was frightening, the alternative was so much worse. What few visits she made after that only helped exaggerate how helpless she felt in the face of his behavior. He fell into fewer bouts of bloodlust, and had fewer magical surges, and more of her visits seemed to be to the empty-eyed husk that would just stare off into the distance. The one who, when she forced herself between him and whatever fantasies danced across his vision, would simply squeeze his eyes shut and shiver until she left. "Begone. We wouldst speak with our sister," Luna heard, shocking her out of her memories. Her guards looked at her nervously, and she gestured for them to obey. As they left, Celestia came up to the throne where Luna sat. "He's having another of his tantrums, Luna. Do you plan to scurry off to spectate again? It has been an entire year, and he shows no signs of improving," she exclaims. Luna frowns. "What can I do? He refuses to interact with me. He pretends as if I am not there when he is aware, and attacks anything that moves when he is not." Celestia nods, and it's clear to Luna that her sister seems to have come to a decision. "Allow me to take care of this, Luna. You've informed me of what goes on in his realm. The time has past for silent support. Do you trust me?" she asks. Luna balks. "Sister, Weiss hates you. And you certainly do not favor him." "Precisely." The solar princess smiles in a soft way that is uncharacteristic to the normally brash alicorn. "I am asking for your trust, Luna. Perhaps, if I do not favor him, then if nothing else, I favor the unique challenges he presents to my patience. I would ask of course, that you never mention such a horrific thing to anypony. I would hear no end of it if he thought I considered him a fine rival, rather than a mere annoyance." Luna tries to consider what it is her sister is planning to do, and Celestia fills the silence, speaking once more. "He is your friend, sister. I will respect your wishes, but at the same time, he needs this." "...Very well. I don't know what you're planning, but I trust you," Luna finally admits. Celestia grimaces as she arrives to the site of Weiss Noir's latest gaff. He stands in the middle of the frozen wastelands surrounding the Shadow Realm, silently glaring as energy builds up inside him, hatred potent enough to drive any other unicorn insane in an instant. After a few moments, however, he lets out a bitter tear of failure as the energy and emotions slip away from him. As she nears, she can hear him muttering a word, over and over. "Destroy. Destroy. Des..." he whispers, blind to the alicorn's approach. When he sees her land in front of him, he snarls. "Go away," Weiss growls, black embers escaping him as he tries to fill the hollow in his mind with hatred. "No. I'm afraid I won't. It's time for you to wake up and face reality, Weiss. I know what you've been trying to do. You're never going to reach it like that, you know." Celestia says, stepping forwards threateningly and transforming as if preparing for combat. He twitches at her serene expression plastered over her demonic face, before with a scream of rage, he leaps at her, bloodlust in his eyes as his mane and tail blaze wildly. Celestia just stands there, unmoving as the unicorn wails on her. He throws punches, stabs at her with blades, fires at her with dark curses, and shouts out the names of various Vancian Spells that all splash harmlessly against her. Perhaps he could harm the alicorn with some clever tactics, but instead he opted to act like a wild animal. As one of his claws bounces off of her eye harmlessly as he tries to gouge it out, Celestia finally frowns, and pins him to the ground with a hoof. "You're losing control." the princess hisses, leaning down to the sage pounding away at her legs with a series of daggers that refuse to pierce the enchanted flesh. She waits until his anger begins to fade, before continuing. "I use my anger, Weiss. Yours is using you. That is why you'll never get the power you're trying to reach. You're going to lose what little remains of your kingdom. Then, you'll lose your life. You aren't even using the spells that made you strong. You aren't using what made me respect you, Weiss. Your mind," she hisses, feeling Weiss's anger fade away into cold hatred toward her and what she is saying so bluntly. "I have heard tell that the dragons you frightened in times past have grown bold. Your insanity, and the loss of your populous have made them bold. The old 'zones' you are so proud of are being probed for weakness, and weakness is being found," Celestia states, pushing on his chest harder, until she can sense pain from the thrashing stallion. She leans in and grabs Weiss's head in her aura, forcing him to look at her. "My sister told me you chose revenge over the failings of mortality. Perhaps I don't approve of that, but it is what it is. You think you can remain sane and focused long enough to slay Sombra? Then prove it. "If you don't pull yourself together and take care of your ponies, I will conquer your realm and do it myself, before the dragons do so instead. Perhaps you don't care that your precious empire is falling apart to its enemies while you fail to prune your insanity of less-productive outlets, but I do. It's a suitable threat, is it not? You hate me enough to deny me this kingdom, do you not? Make your kingdom strong again. Begin using your mind again. Show me you are prepared for eternity again... Or I will be back, and I will take this from you before you can squander it. "Are. We. Clear." Weiss, for a moment, looks absolutely insane with hatred and anger, before in his mind, something clicks back into place, and he smiles, his emotions bubbling into a new, stable configuration. Old feelings begin to emerge into the empty space that the revenge death ball carved into his mind, and he finds the sensation familiar. It reminds him of the day when he stole the limbs of dragons, and his new capacity for greed left his mind decaying, his new capacity for hatred had done the same, until now. Amusement and annoyance. Those were the two new feelings he felt towards Celestia as she played bad-cop with him. Of course, there was also gratitude, but admitting that would be admitting defeat to the annoying cream-colored crownheaded cheval. He smiles in a snide, humorous way. "Crystal." She takes her hoof off of Weiss's chest and steps back with a smile of her own. "Start using your cowardly escape spell again, Weiss. You're not strong enough to ignore threats to your person... Yet. I will be displeased if your arrogance has you poisoned sufficiently to end you," Celestia muses, turning and wandering off a few steps before flapping her wings and bursting into the sky. It would be difficult to claw his way out of the yawning hole in his chest and stay out of it, but he had no choice now. She gave him an ultimatum. With a sigh, Weiss shakes his head with a relieved smile on his face, his head clearer than it was in the entirety of the last year. "God I hate her." He turned and walked towards the nearest functioning gateway. It was time to begin a plan he had come up with a few seconds ago. If he was going to fill himself with hatred and somehow endure it for centuries... He was going to need a suitable hobby to pass the time. Something that could let him cope with what he could feel growing inside him. The next day, Luna and Celestia were invited to bear witness to Weiss Noir's new 'court'. Unlike the sisters, who used their Day and Night court as a way to see to the needs of the common pony, Weiss explained that his court was exclusively for the use of criminals. It was unusual, considering they both remembered Weiss himself complaining that their courts were a waste of their precious time. "Blister the dragon, you have opted to face judgement in my new court, having deemed for yourself that any fate is a suitable alternative to the imprisonment you were sentenced to, or the tender grip of Tartarus," Weiss Noir said, sitting on a large beanbag chair made of a glowing, magma-like substance. "Yeah, that's right. I got better things to do than sit in a jail cell dumb pony," the dragon retorts, scoffing. Weiss smiles, and Luna, in the stands off to the side, is shocked by his new demeanor. He looks almost happy, in some strange, tilted way that makes her uneasy. "I'm glad. Everyone needs something to do with their time, after all. I won't waste any more of yours, Blister. Instead, I'll ask you one question. You were proven to have violently robbed several Longma in their homes, breaking and entering into the surface outpost above Angel Island Zone. This is indisputable, but, as I am perhaps sentimental, I would like to know something of your motive," he begins, taking a drink from the glass next to him. "Were your actions born of selfishness and greed, two things I have come to respect dearly? Or did you do it to harm my realm? My ponies? Did you rob them to, in some small fashion, aid King Sombra?" he asks calmly. The dragon looks confused. "What? I just wanted free gems. They were ripe for the taking, and no little ponies were gonna stop me," he says, unsure where this is going. Weiss seemingly sighs with relief. "Thank goodness. It does my heart good to know that. Very well. I'll give you two choices. Alternatives to a century in prison. The first option is for me to drain the life from your body until I am satisfied, a fine paid in life-force equal to your sentence," he begins, reveling in the dragon's sudden shift in demeanor. From dismissiveness to fear. "The other option is to indulge in something I find a bit more entertaining. Fitting with the theme of my realm, you could face a Shadow Game. You will be gifted a curse, a teeny tiny little curse. Just something to help you rehabilitate, and only for the duration of your old sentence. Endure the curse, and you may wander free once more. The prize of your victory over this little challenge. Remove the curse before your time is up, however, and you will instead face a Penalty Game for cheating." Luna swallows heavily at the polite, playful way that the dark lord put it. She could see his anticipation clear on his face. The dragon rightfully pales at the first option. "T-the second one, the teeny tiny curse p-please." Weiss smiles. "Then consider your sentence in prison officially shortened. We'll let you out in a few months after the paperwork is done," The dragon starts to let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, before in a brief flicker of movement, Weiss flung a dart of black crystal at the dragon that stuck into his neck and seemed to melt away. Suddenly, Blister screamed in panic, looking himself over. "What did you do?! Why am I a pony?! Turn me back!" he shouted, thrashing in the chains that seemed to be holding him far more than they were before, as if something were limiting the dragon's strength. Despite his panicked screams as the guards came to drag him away, Blister's body hadn't changed in the slightest. "That's really heartwarming to see," Weiss smiles as the two sisters walk to his throne, Luna uncharacteristically furious, while Celestia merely looked appraisingly at him. "What have you done, Weiss, that dragon, you put some sort of spell on their mind!" the lunar princess exclaimed. He waves her off. "I didn't manipulate his mind. Only his perceptions. You know full well how difficult it is to manipulate emotions, and how amoral it is to manipulate a pony's actions and thoughts. All I did was make his senses tell him a fun little fib about his body and strength, is all. Practically a prank," Weiss explained. What he hadn't explained, of course, was that it also made Longma look like actual, far larger dragons to him, to help truly establish the irony. Celestia raises an eyebrow. "Is this the path you're going to take, Weiss? It may be reserved for criminals now, and perhaps they must choose to face you instead of prison, but you're playing a dangerous game." Luna glares at her sister. "Weiss! This isn't a game! Perhaps the wicked should be punished, but what I saw was every bit as cruel as it was unusual." Celestia nods, but her expression is carefully blank, and she withholds any visible judgement. "We cannot allow evil to rule over ponies, Weiss, no matter how well it takes care of their needs. Can you keep yourself under control, or is this merely the beginning of something we should be concerned about?" Weiss thinks genuinely on this for a few moments, and they watch as he slowly seems to remember himself. "I..." he begins, blinking as the dubious morality of what he did seems to come to light. "Weiss, are you alright?" Luna finally asks, stepping forward. The moment slips away, and Weiss's expression changes to something colder. Something sinister. "I'm great." he grins widely as his mane turns from its hesitant and hasty flickering to a slow, ominous wave. He seems to realize something, looking at the two princesses, who feel a chill as he seems to see something they do not. "Princess Luna. Princess Celestia. You are afraid for the future, aren't you?" He stands from his seat. "Please, would you walk with me, just for a moment?" the sage asks, opening the gigantic doors of his courtroom with a gesture as he looks back to them. Taking one last look at one another, Celestia and Luna follow the sage as he appears to think over his next words carefully. "You are worried that I will become a villain, but what if I could be more than that?" he muses. "A rival. Practice. How long will it be, before your skills grow dull?" he asks. "What if I told you I've seen what could be? I could never justify the knowledge of course, but I'll claim it nonetheless. I believe one day, your skills may dull. I have seen it, in visions." Luna's brow furrows. The ability to see the future was dangerous. She was tempted to disbelieve that Weiss of all ponies had it, but she remembered something that appeared to surprise him, long ago. 'What about the Elements of Harmony? The Elements of Harmony, you know, the relics you used to defeat Discord. Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter and Magic?' she remembers Weiss asking, asking why they hadn't used those so called "elements" against Sombra. She remembers having no earthly idea what he was talking about, and how stunned he was that she didn't. Before she or her sister can think about this further, he continues, weaving together words fed to him by his talent, as he could see the fear slowly building in the two sisters. "I could be a practice-villain, Princesses. When the years grow long, and your kingdom grows lax with peace, I could be an annoyance. A foil, of sorts. Something to keep your skills sharp, and your armories from rusting." He glances back at them. Luna, who seems to be listening out of concern for him, and Celestia, who already quite enjoyed Weiss's rivalry so far. "A Symbol of Evil," Weiss says. "I'll put your heroes to the test. I'll dangle prizes in front of them, and I'll roar in anger when they slyly snatch them from my jaws," he grabs at the air with a grin. "I'll make a nuisance of myself potent enough that ponies throw aside their petty differences to stand against me," he explains, holding out his arms in a challenging manner. "I'll find the ponies that are teetering on the edge, and I'll scare them so badly they leap the other way," he continues, grinning as his face seems lit from below, and smoke bleeds from his eyes and joints. "But more importantly, I'm going to make preparations for Sombra's return..." He pauses, staring out the window at the slowly recovering Shadow Realm. "And then I'm going to murder him."