Cut Strings

by 0XIxIX0

the fall: part 2

Pain.

My eyes were forced open from dreamless sleep, and my body shook from the shock. A pair of purple eyes with bags under them greeted my vision from my current position. I was lying on my side, with the cold metal of the contraption attached to my back folded up next to me. I clenched my teeth and blinked several times, trying to dissipate the pain. After most or it was gone, I tried to get up out of the small bed I was currently resting in. I lifted my head up, the eyes in the mirror matching my movements. The now familiar hydraulic sound of the arms rang as I moved them out of the way to get up.

I lost balance due to the weight and my unstable body and toppled over the side of the bed, directly on my face. I slowly lifted myself with the aid of the arms, and preformed a routine that I had been using for the time I had been here.

I turned around to face the sink, and used the arms to stabilize myself as I tried to wash myself in an attempt to keep myself clean. I punched the handle on the sink, not caring how much or how hot or cold it may have gotten, and simply dunked my head under the faucet. The water ran down my mane and neck, cooling as it went by. The water was rather luke-warm, which I suppose was lucky for me.

I pulled my head out after a minute or so under the small torrent of water from the sink. My mane felt gravid from the water it carried. I grabbed a towel from the showering unit next to the sink and tried to dry off as much as I could.

I remember attempting to use the shower the first day, and spent a little too long in there. The result was a large shock while wet. I refused for that to happen again.

I continued with my morning activities. I brushed my teeth, leaving a minty taste in my mouth. Then I picked up a small pinkish-blue bowtie that I had left on the corner of the sink from the previous night and put it on.

I wondered why I even bothered to put it on after all I had been through so far. There was no point to it. I assumed I simply put it on though habit.

I walked out, still using the help of the arms. The chamber was empty, as usual. I yawned, still extremely tired. I made my way to the board, and used one of the arms to pick up a piece of chalk.
I had gotten much better at using them. Over the time I had been here (which I assumed to be around two weeks), I had made massive strides in using this curse to my advantage. Originally, it would just be dead weight and get me around when I became fatigued. Then I tried to start using it, although it was never my intention to. It helped me complete more work in less time.

Not that I wanted to work at all... Sighing, I picked up a piece of chalk and started to work. A tune started to play in my head, and the world seemed to drown out behind me. It played a soft tune on a piano, reminding me of a breeze in the middle of a summer afternoon.

It was during these moments where I zoned out, and let my memories swim free within the confines of my mind... Turning back the gears of the clock and going back to better days...

------------

"Hey, hey! Octy, are you listening?" a hoof clap in front of her face brought her attention back into focus. The world came back into focus as a brown shaded colt stood in front of her.

"I am sorry to say that I lost track of what you were saying. It is very hard to grasp concepts of space and time when one does not know the basics." I rested both hooves under my chin, setting down my front legs parallel to the table in front of me. The room they were in was a rather large one, with a single light shining high on the ceiling, and various parts cluttering the floor. A water heater-esk device stood in the corner of the room, and a pony seemed to be tampering with its insides, the sound of a turning wrench jumping around the room.

The brown colt across from me rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his already messy mane. "I am very sorry about that, my dear. But, this is just so... Cool!" he pointed down at a black cloth which had been tied around his neck in a fashionable manner. "Like bowties! Bowties are cool!"

I giggled. "Yes, bowties are cool. But, you were saying?"

He started to talk once more. "Yes, as I was saying, I have theorized that black holes emit a kind of energy. For the sake of understanding, I shall call it time energy."

"Yes, yes, you told me this several times before. What is new this time?" The pony in front of me confused me on occasion, but I knew he truly meant well, even if he did manage to boggle the minds of those around him.

"Well, you remember my brief explanation on it, yes?" he looked at me with an analyzing eye.

"I do remember the conversation quiet well, for you information." I reached back into my memory and pulled it to the forefront of my brain. "Time energy. A kind of energy made from the compression of the fabric of space-time. It has strange properties, and somehow has the ability to transmute itself to any other kind of energy, similar to how magic works."

"Bah. Magic. Time-space manipulation field, more like it. But that's a conversation for another day. Spot on, octy!" he put on a huge grin. "Yes, that is what I told you, although rather abridged."

"So, as you were saying?" I shifted position, changing my hoof position so that my face rested on one hoof, while the other rested perpendicular to the other, yet parallel to the table.

He started to appear extremely giddy, and his smile grew by a few centimeters. "I have conceived a machine that could, possibly, create a stable black hole and let us observe the flow of time energy!"

I simply stared at the pony in front of me. "There are several things wrong with that sentence." I gazed directly into the pony's eyes. "One, you said stable black hole. Two, you said possibly. And three, you said observe time energy."

I could visibly see the sweat start to form on his brow. "Well... Yes... But-"

"No. No. Just no. An artificial black hole? What are you thinking, doctor!" I slammed my hooves on the table. "and was it not you that said that time energy would be impossible to view because it instantaneously converts itself into the nearest available source of energy?"

"Now, now, do not think for one moment that I would not have thought of the possible scenarios that could result in our death and the destruction of this sector of the galaxy..." One of his eyebrows rose a bit and he turned away from me, beginning to talk to himself. "Well, actually, if it did fail then that would be rather catastrophic, wouldn't it?"

"Doctor!" I brought him back to reality from his thoughts. "About this black hole...?"

"Ah yes! Well, I have taken certain precautions..." he turned his head towards the device in the corner, where the pony was still working on it. "Minuette! How does it look?"

A blue head popped out from the inner workings of the machine, covered in bits of black grease. A horn peaked out from the multiple strands of two different hues from the blue mane, indicating the pony was a unicorn."It's almost ready! Perhaps a few more weeks, at best..."

"Thank you, Minuette!" He turned around and face me once more. "That's Minuette. A cousin of mine. She great, you know? Wants to go into dentistry, but she seems to have a knack for machinery like I do. She also-"

I cut him off before he went off on another tangent. "Doctor, you do realize you are introducing me to a pony who you yourself introduced me to a year ago and is one of my best friends?” I raised an eyebrow at that. He laughed nervously before I continued. “Back to the topic, Doctor!”

"Oh... Yes... That..." he cleared out his throat before continuing. "Well, that over there is a device Minuette and I designed together. It is made out of a special alloy that is highly conductive to what you call magic. We plan to amplify Minuette's magic using an amplifier and channeling it through the chamber, which should create a barrier on the inside which should prevent the black hole from collapsing on itself or getting any larger. It should also provide a buffer of time-space distortions to allow time energy to flow free into its natural form, and not converted directly into gravitational energy."

"Should?" I lifted an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Yes, should. All the math is correct, and I trust Minuette to provide an adequate time space field for this."

"You also mentioned something about an amplifier of sorts?"

He pulled out a small gem from a bag that sat on the table. "I got this, pardon the pun, gem from a gem field not far from ponyville, actually. It will suit our needs just fine."

I examined the rock in his hoof. It was a smooth sapphire ruby, from the look of it. It had the dimensions of a perfect sphere, most likely the doctor's work. The inside of the gem held a strange star-like pattern, which made a stunning shadow on the table.

"... I still think this is a ludicrously stupid idea. There are just too many things that could go wrong here, doctor!" I took the gem he was holding. "And I will be taking that so that you will not find a way to kill yourself in your dumb quest for science."

The doctor reached for the gem, but I kept it out of his reach. "Listen, Octy, I know this sounds dangerous-"

"Because it is!" I said.

"-but this is a perfectly safe procedure! This building is well hidden away from any ponies, there are several shutdown mechanisms I have put in place, and the most catastrophic thing that could happen would be that the black hole would simply collapse on itself! Trust me, I checked the math thrice!"

I thought over his explanation. It seemed like the doctor knew what he was doing (although really, it was impossible to tell). I conceded to his plan and lowered my hoof.

"Fine. Build your machine. But do note that I will be holding on to this," I tucked the gem away into my personal saddle bag, "and I will be here to make sure you don't get yourself into too much trouble."

I knew the doctor's record. He was constantly getting involved in things he shouldn't be getting involved in, and I usually had to bail him out of such situations.

"Right. I wouldn't do it if you were not there, Octavia." He flashed a smile before turning around and walking over to his cousin. "Oh Minuette! How is she fairing?"

I turned around and walked out of the building, leaving the doctor to his machines.
------
White. A bleak color. A color that was there and not there at the same time. It was this color I saw when I opened an eye.

“hmmm…” I groaned out. It strained my vocal cords, but at least I knew they still worked.

The distant beep of a life support unit reminded me that I was still alive. The rhythmic beating of my heart playing out the tempo to the song of my life.

The sound of hoof steps entered the scene, and I swiveled my eye in my socket in the direction of the noise. A white unicorn with a red mane and a cutie mark resembling a red cross was determined o be the source of the noise. She glanced at me, and then rushed over beside me.

“Oh thank Celestia you are awake! Wait here and try not to perform any strenuous movements. I’ll get the doctor!”

‘What am I doing in a hospital?’ The past was a large puddle of mud, and I could not make out the memories that lay underneath. ‘The last thing I remember… what was it?’

The face of a brown colt came to mind. Then I was struck by a flood of hazy memories. Golden dust. Noise. An explosion. The doctor…

“DOCTOR!” My voice was incredibly raspy, and it hurt to try and talk at that volume. My voice only produced a slight whisper. “No no no no no no…”

The sounds of hoof steps hitting marble were reintroduced to me as I thought about the startling information in my thoughts. The nurse from before was now accompanied by a bespectacled red maned colt with a red coat and a cutie mark of a yellow wavy line.

“Octavia. Finally awake, I see. Do you remember what happened?” I was sure my memories were correct, but I wanted confirmation. I shook my head. “Responds to words. Good. Responded to her name. Even better. Slight memory loss. A common occurrence, nothing too detrimental…”

As he rambled on, I ventured back into my thoughts. The doctor… no, it is just not possible… he promised me… he promised…

“Octavia? Are you still with us?” The doctor in front of me said. I nodded my head and he continued. “Now, tell me, how many pens are in that cup over there?”

“Wha- what… doctor…” I tried to voice my worries, but it came out warped and I started to cough.

The doctor sighed. “Listen, you have been in a coma for around a month, so it is integral that I get these results so I can measure your current status. Also, please do not strain yourself. It’s not healthy.”
I took a breath and decided to relax and process the new information. One month…. I was in a hospital in a coma for one month?! This was unreal…

The doctor continued to talk to me, spouting out yes or no questions. I answered them to the best of my ability, mostly just shaking my head in the proper direction. I was still trying to comprehend how long I had been here. It would usually take just a few days to maybe two weeks to completely heal a patient or pull them out of a coma. I had been out for a month… What kind of damage had been done to me?

The doctor got up, finishing his questions, and made for the door. “Oh, that’s right. Octavia, you have a visitor. Somepony by the name of Minuette? She asked us to alert her when you woke up. She’s in the hall at the moment.”

Minuette was here? Had she been waiting for me? Perhaps she could explain what had happened…

The blue unicorn cantered in slowly, with a solemn look on her face. “Hello, Octavia….”

“The Doctor… What happened?” I managed to wheeze out between breaths.

Tears. I saw tears stream down her face, glittering slightly in the light. She moved a hoof to remove the salty liquid from her face, but they continued to poor from her eyes. “He’s… he’s gone…”

I had feared this. I knew deep in my heart that he had left this world, but I did not want to believe it.

“Dead…” I whispered.

Minuette seemed to cry even more when I said that. “No… It’s worse than that… He never existed…”

What did she mean, he never existed? Of course he existed! “What…Are… you… talking about?”

“HE NEVER EXISTED! HE WAS WRITTEN OUT OF TIME AND SPACE AND IT’S MY FAULT!” She continued her downpour of tears on the bed I had been resting on, creating a wet splotch.

“What..?” Her fault? How was any of this her fault? Another question to be added to the list of growing questions…

She sniffed a bit and took out a picture she had been keeping. It was a photo that contained a machine in the background, and two ponies, with one being herself, and the other being minuette. There was a key piece missing from the photo though.

The doctor had been with us, standing in between us when we had taken the photo. He was nowhere to be seen.

“There are no photos… nopony remembers him…. He just… never existed…”she managed to choke out in between sobs.

“Then… Why do we…?” I remembered him. I still had a pristine memory of the time we had spent together. The times we had tea. The times he took me to explore Equestria. The times he accidentally blew himself up with one of his contraptions. The times where he would comfort me when I was lonely… depressed…

“I don’t know… I don’t know…” She said.

Tears engulfed my eyes as I began to cry as well. The doctor was gone. He had promised us, he promised us it would be okay! He abandoned us….

Eventually, we fell asleep, falling into the river of dreams and despair.
-------------
"Octavia." The sound of many voices speaking in tandem hit my ear. The sound brought me out of my memories and back to reality.

"Yes, zero?" Zero. That was what I knew about the voice. Zero. A name I had conceived. I knew nothing about him or her, so I simply called the voice zero one day, and he or she didn’t seem to mind.

"I must commend you on your work so far. Not only is it poor, but I could have made such strides in an hour." Zero was truly an enigma. Some days (or what I assumed were days) he or she was as flamboyant as a flamingo, while other days he or she was a narcissistic bastard whose only sole desire was to raise himself up higher a peg. Today, it seemed to be the latter. "It does bring me so much joy in seeing another pony suffer and grovel at my hooves, so I suppose you are not such a complete waste of space..."

I told myself to not get angry at zero's remarks. I knew nothing good could come out of them. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, Octavia. Nothing at all." Zero left, leaving me puzzled. Zero's visits had an agenda. They always have an agenda. I ignored it, deciding to simply continue working.

I stared at my work, looking it over. I had come up with a theory over the time I had been here. It was incredibly convoluted, but I figured that the harder it was to pull off, the more time it would take me to build and the higher of a chance I would have to escape.

The original formula had a form of gamma radiation convert it to magic. There was a problem though. All known forms had at least some radiation escape. Radiation had a profound effect when mixed with magic. A rather explosive effect. I knew that if I tried to do that and blow up the machine with zero piloting, zero would know, so that was immediately thrown out. I had to find a way to not leak radiation. The solution came to me quite a while ago. Time energy. I recalled the rather strange properties that the doctor theorized. Time energy, when it touched another form of energy, spent a few nano-seconds in a state that was an amalgam of both time energy and the other source, creating something brand new. Time energy, if put in an area where two kinds of energy existed, always went for the one that was the strongest. The doctor represented it as a rather simple equation. B>A. TE+A=A+A. TE+B=B+B. TE+A+B=B+B+B. Theoretically, magic was the strongest kind of energy out there, so if I put magic, gamma radiation, and time energy in the same location, it would all be coverted to magic.

I could have simply went from time energy to magic, but that would not have given me enough magic. I planned to use magic to stabilize the black hole into a manageable form, while also using it to separate the time energy from the black hole's grasp. The magic would also convert air to uranium, to begin the reaction.

The problem with this was, too much uranium, and it will not meet the magic in equal amounts when it hits the time energy, causing complications and the collapse in the process. To little, and the reaction would not give enough magic, and the black hole would destabilize and spiral out of control, or collapse.

The Math portion was hard enough to figure out, but the dynamics of the machine would be even harder.

I returned to the equation at hoof, puzzling out the minute details.

-------------------

Dun---------dun---------dun
-----Dun---------dun---------dun
---------dun----------dun
-------------------------------------------dun
--------------------------------------dun-----dun

Bells. Today it was bells. Ringing in my ear. Ringing in my soul. Playing in tandem with the strokes of the chalk on the board. Or perhaps it was the other way around, with my being synchronizing with the tone of the deep, hollow bells...

They rung out in a slow, sad tune. Soon this tune was accompanied by a piano and a cello. The tune drifted in and out, bringing sadness and melancholic feelings in waves. It was a song for the soul, a song that ripped open old wounds and then stitched them back together.

Time had passed. So much time, yet no concrete way to measure it. The concept of time had long since left me in this white walled place where she had been held. Time had been replaced by work. Work meant music. And music meant escape from reality.

My mane had become disheveled, unkempt. The bow tie which I usually wore had become faded, stained white from chalk. My gray coat had started to pale. Dry, unblinking tired eyes stared at the black hole of science, drawing in one's need to sleep, eat, or breathe. My eyes darted all over the board, the extra set of arms doing their own calculations in the margins.

Drums. Drums were added to the trifecta of instruments. I could feel the snare power its way from the background to the front as she erased a few more lines and replaced them. The tune, although not speeding in any way in tempo, swelled under the power of the drums, bringing it to the forefront of my mind.

“Hello again, Octavia.” The instruments stopped. This was the second time in what I had guessed was a week he had called me. Strange. Visits were usually rare and infrequent. This was something different.

“What do you want?” I kept my response the same as last time. Short, simple, and to the point.

“You have new company.” Zero ended his message. So he found another pony to do his bidding…. I was unsure whether to be happy or angry. On one hoof, I now had somepony to keep me company in this place. On the other hoof, Zero had gone off and kidnapped somepony else for what dastardly deeds he needed to perform.

A door to the left of my current position made itself known. I had noticed a slight indent on that side of the wall several times before, but thought nothing of it. The doors swooshed to the side revealing a pony in what appeared to be a cloak and mask ensemble. Light seemed to be absorbed by the dull brown cape that covered most of his form, and the dark gray mask he wore only showed a pair of dark brown eyes.

He slowly walked out of the room he had been in, taking shifty glances of his new surroundings, a metal clinking noise sounding out wherever he stepped. I noticed the metal that made up the mask was not solely confined to his face. It seemed to cover his entire body, from what I could tell.

He noticed my presence, stiffening slightly before continuing forward, stopping directly in front of me. He had to look up slightly because I had been using the arms to raise myself a bit to reach the parts of the board which I had trouble reaching normally.

“Hello… Who are you?” It seemed he wasn’t briefed on his situation like I was. Pity. Zero had left him in my care.

“Octavia. Zero took you too, it seems. I don’t have much time to chat, and the faster I get this done, the faster I get out of here.” I ignored the colt below for now and returned to the board. I probably should have been excited, or elated at the thought of contact with the outside world after so long. I wasn’t though. Perhaps this place was getting to me, but I truthfully just wanted to work. That thought scared me. What had zero done to me?

He took a step back after looking at me carefully. “Octavia? You mean that criminal who has been stirring up so much trouble?!” This peaked my interest. What was he talking about?

“Criminal, you say? I have been stuck down here, same as you are now, for who knows how long. What has happened to make you say so?” I decided to ask another question while I was at it. “Also, who are you? You must have done one thing or another to grab zero’s attention.”

He was extremely nervous, and probably in some sort of panic. I knew talking to him so that he could try and calm down was probably the best course of action so that he could at least have some semblance of mind while he was here.
“Well, you, or somepony that looks like you, has been going around, stealing objects of high value, destroying major facilities, and being a general menace to society. First, ponies thought that you had been kidnapped by the fiend, but evidence came to light that it was you who was doing all those things.” Somepony had been impersonating me and turning me into a criminal. I wanted to know why, but I knew I would not get the answers I sought here and now. I pushed the questions to the back of my mind and let him continue. “Oh, I’m Vector by the way. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Vector. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place where I had heard it before. I asked him a few more questions.
“What is your history? Why did you wind up here?”

“Well, I-“ He clutched his head. “Ouch…. My head hurts…”

I realized that he was probably under the same sort of system that kept me here. Zero had most likely kidnapped a family member of his as well, forcing him to put on the metal suit of his. This was likely his first warning that he should start working.
“Listen, I think that we should start. That headache is something zero probably implemented to keep you working. That suit, too.” The suit intrigued me slightly. What reason could zero have had to give him it? What did it do? What purpose did it serve?

I turned to face the board. He looked up at the board as well and marveled at the ominous mathematical formulas written on them.

He looked around a bit, before turning back to me. “You did this all without a computer?”

I blinked, and laughed. “Oh, no. I had some help, but not in the way you would think. I don’t know how zero did it, but these arms…” I tossed my head in the direction of one of the four appendages. “They are strange. I’ll think of a formula, the arms will have them written down already, with most of the math written down. It’s weird… in a sense. It’s like somepony ripped a piece of your mind and put it in these arms so that they know what to do before you know yourself. You know it’s there, but you’re not really paying attention. It’s like unconsciously breathing and consciously breathing, I suppose.”

Truly a remarkable feat in engineering these arms, I hated to admit. I had asked for a computer before, but zero ranted about how computers took imagination out of the scheme of things. I had not been paying attention.

He picked up a piece of chalk, and started to write out mathematical equations. And so the music returned, and all was well in a land where nothing was in its correct position, including my mind.

Computing away numbers…. To the sound of drums….

“Listen, I know that it seems hopeless now, and I’m sure that you have already thought about this or attempted it, but trust me, I will find a way out of here, for the both of us.”

Escape… Ha. I couldn’t leave if I tried, but perhaps… maybe…. There were two of us now…

And so the music returned to enrapture my mind, and all was forgotten, except the strange shapes on a field of black that my mind transformed into calculations.
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alright! author's note time! Now, this is just a quick heads up that this story does not update all that quickly, and i still do need someone well versed in marvel lore to help me sort all this out. Also, if anyone can guess any music i put up here (Which is really cool if you can) then i might give you a spoiler or two.

On a secondary note, i have some story ideas i have posted up on my blog on my page. I tend to have a lot of ideas, so if anyone wants to check them out and anyone wants to see them, then i might have the inclination to type it out.

Please leave a comment! ...if that's okay with you....

Comments

[Neon Icy Wings]

Really interesting!

[0XIxIX0]

949016 finally, a comment! Thanks... Since YOU are first to comment.... i really dont know what to say. have a yay.

[Neon Icy Wings]

949034 Well, I don't see why people haven't posted comments yet! This is an original story in all it's glory! I can only hope a Spider Pony comes in at some point! Or Mare-Do-Well. Ah! But there's still so much to go! ... Wait. Vector can either be Iron Man or that Shock villain Spider Man fights sometimes, can't think of his name right now. So I eagerly await more!

[0XIxIX0]

949111 vector has a very similar name to a certain marvel character... and i wont just stick to spider man, no, it's going to go for the entire marvel cast... hopefully, if everything pans out correctly, this arc should be done in 2 to three more chapters, then the actual fun stuff begins.

[Neon Icy Wings]

949175 ... When I heard 'Entire Marvel cast' The Joker on my T.V said: "Here. We. Go."

[Warman1138]

Good story, I'd like to see more.

[0XIxIX0]

949219 why thank you

[MiddaySolace]

I believe the character you're looking for is Dr Doom.

[Avenging-Hobbits]

DAT COVER ART