Weiss rolled his eyes as a party of untold scale and scope raged through Equestria. Ponies had been living in chaos for over a decade, so the return of the princesses and the defeat of Discord came as something mind-numbingly euphoric.
There were foals who had been born and raised in the nightmarish fever dream, ones who were astounded by things like simple consistency and object permanence that their parents had once taken for granted, and it seemed they had no intention of doing so ever again.
For some reason, he had been invited to the party at the castle. It stumped him, frankly.
'I'm honestly surprised I'm not receiving another angry visit at my part in all of this,' he thought to himself, sipping at a glass of cider. It was no soda, but at least it was fizzy and crisp.
Despite this, the princesses seemed almost overjoyed to see him after they gained the elements and defeated Discord.
"Lord Weiss, we art pleased to see you. Be ready, for soon, we shalt call upon you for a short announcement," Luna said, giving him a quick hug. Celestia smiled in a way that made the sage deeply uncomfortable. It seemed to have lost the tension and sass that he so adored. Clearly, defeating Discord had left the princesses a bit more buzzed than any mortal wine could manage, or so he thought.
They walked away to hobnob with ponies and reassure the masses in that regal way they were so familiar with. Children were a focus of their efforts, among those who had never seen the princesses while old enough to comprehend them.
Weiss ignored this, and slunk his way to the most interesting part of the throne room. The place of honor where the Elements of Harmony rested.
The magical artifacts were set atop a fancy marble statue, a sort of planetarium in which they sat in an inert form, waiting for the next time they would be called upon.
They made his teeth itch, just to be in the same room as them.
"Harmony. So here it is," he said, standing near enough to observe the elements, without daring to approach them fully.
He had immersed himself in his role for a very long time, living a life filled with deception and compromise. Either the elements didn't approve of him, or it was psychosomatic.
Both options were discomforting, and yet... Reassuring. Clearly, his plans were coming along nicely.
'It's any wonder. Is there a single element I haven't opposed?' he thought to himself with a snide smile.
The lies, how he hid away his worst enemies so that they could be enslaved to make him stronger and more villainous.
The cruelty, his new hobby in luring criminals to his court so he could offer them clever torment in place of kinder measures of reformation.
The disloyalty, in betraying everything he once stood for. Nothing else needed to be said, on that front.
The isolation, which he used to prevent backsliding in his transformation as much as was possible without making unnecessary enemies. Friendship is magic? It isn't Dark Magic, and so it would only distract him, like it is even now.
The greed, which he lived and breathed, until even the greatest of dragons had no choice but to consider him one of them...
Weiss shrugged. 'Eh. I think I get a pass on that, you lil macguffins, you. It isn't as though I'm not generous too,' he thought. He was more focused on creating treasure than amassing it.
He turned and began to walk away from the elements with a neutral expression that disguised his frown. The last one, then. That had to be the ticket to what seemed to push him from the magical artifacts in a subtle, warning fashion.
It was the hatred, that damn hatred most of all, then. His anger and rage, which were his sole motivators in life. There was no fun and merry laughter in his future. He wouldn't allow it.
As he made his way back into the crowd of ponies, he noted the griffon delegates, who eyed the Elements of Harmony with intrigued expressions. They seemed rougher than normal, and with the scare of Discord, he couldn't blame their ragged appearances one bit.
Even pride and surety must have faltered with a creature of humiliation and confusion on the prowl.
He bit his tongue as he had a realization. Celestia's lack of her usual anger and disdain, Luna's insinuation that he would be called forth.
He frowned. If they planned on using those damn elements on him...
'Damn. I might need a way to avoid that, assuming I survive today,' he thought bitterly. He had absolutely no confidence that a mere Shadow Clone proxy would be enough to prevent the Elements from reaching over and slapping the shit out of him like a diapered half-court shot.
He blinked for a moment. "It seems like metaphor is the first to go in the pursuit of evil," he said quietly, before Princess Celestia's booming voice rang out over the room.
"Lord Weiss Noir, of the Shadow Realm! Step Forwards!"
He was prepared. Thanks to his training with Black Angel, he knew that biting through his tongue was painful enough to disperse his Shadow Clone, if he wasn't on guard. Here, it may prove crucial, should this be what he thinks it is.
Nonetheless, he approaches, and begins going over speeches of his own to throw in their faces.
The crowd is silent. This wasn't on the itinerary for the celebration, and it left many individuals, both local and foreign, bemused.
"Lord Weiss, I have called you here before all gathered for a very important reason. As you prefer the common speech, so shall I honor you with it, for these words must come from the heart," Celestia says, as Luna walks up and beside her.
He tenses. Is this the heroic 'Sorry I gotta kill you' speech? Because wow, he did not see that coming from the princess of al ponies.
The two sisters lower their heads, something lost between nod and bow. "Thank you."
'Have to admit... Wasn't expecting that one either,' he thought, dumbfounded.
"You risked everything to help us defeat Discord. I know there was little you could have done, and yet, when we came to you, in our darkest hour, you helped us. Without the knowledge you gave us, the hints you laid before us, we could have spent centuries, trying and failing to locate the Elements of Harmony. You told us where to look, even after informing us of the threat it meant to you, and your rule," Celestia began.
She turned her head to the side. "I am... Ashamed. I know we have not seen eye to eye. Your choice of magic, no, to a greater degree, your very way of life... Grates on me, and truthfully, you are rarely intent on easing the burden of bearing your personality," she admits.
"I did not trust you. How, then, could I let this stand, when your foresight prevented the worst, and your actions risked everything you had worked so hard for?"
She draws herself up, steely resolve in her eyes.
"Let it be heard, before all Equestria, then, that I give you my trust! That I lay my fears to rest. You, Weiss, possess the will to do right, even in the dark, even when at risk to yourself, and with nothing to gain but our thanks. I will strive to mend the gap between us, as rulers... And I hope, as friends." The princess says, with another short bow.
Weiss blinked, and, on autopilot, he bowed in turn. "Of course. I would be honored. I hope we can speak more of this soon, in private," he responded blankly.
With that, he smiled and waved automatically at the cheering crowd, who seemed quite taken with the princess's words.
As soon as his request for privacy was granted, some hours later after the celebration, which continued to stretch on through the night and spill out onto the streets, he looked at Celestia and Luna with a sneer.
"What the fuck was that all about? Why did you..." he gestured angrily.
Luna looked confused. "Weiss, all Celestia spoke was truth. I was able to see the hints you gave us, you risked so much to give us all we needed to find the Elements of Harmony!"
Weiss's lips drew up even higher as he barked out in response.
"No I fucking didn't! I told you both to fuck off! I have literally no idea what you're talking about!" he screamed.
He jabbed a finger in the direction of the ballroom. "When you two called me up there, I was ready to hightail it out of here because I thought this was the part where you turn those damn elements on me! Luna, when you came to me, I absolutely did not help you, I threw you out on your ass and blocked your calls!" he exclaimed, heaving deep breaths.
The two sisters shared a look. "Weiss... Are you certain? The way you spoke, the things you said... If your plan was for us to bumble blindly through the world without knowledge of the Elements' location, then why did you insist that we should give up and go home? We had no home to go to, save the very Everfree that the Elements lay within," Luna responded softly, trying to be sympathetic to the neurotic unicorn.
He blinked. "I... I just."
He didn't have an answer. Why did he say that? It risked everything! It flew in the face of his own rationale for not helping them!
Celestia stepped forward. "I still mean what I said, Weiss. A part of you clearly wished to do the right thing, and I cannot help but honor that."
His breathing shuddered, and twitches wracked his body.
With a quick bite through his own tongue, his Shadow Clone burst into smoke, and he awoke in his inner sanctum, thrashing and snarling at holograms filled with diagrams and diatribes on the nature of the heart, and of emotion.
Celestia's words stabbed at him over and over. A part of him that still wished to do the right thing. That wished to risk everything he had worked towards.
"Where is it!" he screamed, swiping through the holograms.
"Where is the part that will not succumb!" he howled, gripping the entire computer and heaving it onto its side, shattering the display irrecoverably.
Heaving, he whipped his head towards the secret chamber. Stalking towards it, he summoned a Shadow Clone, slumping to the ground as his duplicate teleported into his council chamber with a hellish expression.
"From the depths of Tartarus, I summon you! Come, Black Angel!" he screamed, holding aloft his Black Materia.
A black smoke erupted from it, and formed into a shadowy double of the brawler.
"What's wrong, my lord? Rough night?" the stallion asked, leaning coyly to one side.
"Shut up. Go fetch whatever weapon you please. I would train with you today," Weiss demanded.
With a shrug, Black Angel walked over to the side, where a variety of weapons lay. One in particular stood out to him, a magical laser, too weak to cut through the room, as Weiss had so insisted and mocked. And yet, it was perfect, downright perfect, for leaving marks on the council chamber.
He turned to the sage and opened fire, the two fought for several hours, and slowly, so slowly, Black Angel had left a subtle and crude message etched into the walls of the room. One in a code he should not have been able to know, without outside help.
He was dismissed once Weiss's shadow clone was destroyed. His summon could only survive so long as its caster remained awake and alive, unfortunately, and while he never dared to summon both Black Angel and Councilman Oh Goodness at the same time, for fear of the two working together and disrupting his manipulations...
That was insufficient for two clever individuals to find a way.
The next week, Councilman Oh Goodness was summoned. Weiss provided a suite of data on the Elements of Harmony, what little he could glean. He wanted her to tell him all she could about the relics, and indeed, ways he might thwart them, should the worst come to pass.
She did of course. She was no magician, but she could do math and emotional dynamics as well as need be for a biologist. The sage received her recommendation flat out. If he is so frightened of harmony's disapproval, then he must simply be approved of.
But while he ranted and raved to himself, making theories of his own and performing experiments to prove them... She examined the scorch marks on the floor. The scorch marks which laid out in a code she hid in the council chamber's walls and floors, messages from a mysterious "Black Angel". A fellow prisoner of Tartarus. A fellow slave to the Sage of Darkness.
Today's message read thus: "Foolish sage didn't kill the changelings. One of my mind-controlled ones reached the gates of Tartarus and confirmed its survival before leaving. An asset?"
She communicated a response hidden in scratches on the floor, slowly, oh so slowly. She communicated, and thus, was not completely isolated from others.
She was not isolated in the way that Weiss Noir required, in order to work his magic of manipulation properly.
In that way, they did what anyone would do in their position. The one thing that would slow, halt, and reverse Weiss's manipulations that kept them docile and loyal.
As coworkers do, they shit-talked their boss behind his back. The death-knell of worker compliance.