Zuko stared at the sight before him, uncertain what to make of it. He'd left Iroh in charge of the ship for a few days when he'd come down with a head cold that made it painful to be out in the open air, keeping himself in his room. At his request, Cadence hadn't been allowed in to prevent her from getting sick as well. When he came out, however, the first sight that greeted him was Cadence, bound to the wall in the brig.
Her wings were bound tight to her sides with leather wrapped chains, preventing her from spreading them. Braces had been riveted to the wall and locked around all four of her hooves, affixing her spread eagled against the metal behind her. Even her tail had been locked down so it couldn't be moved. And a full helmet covered every inch of her head, shaped around her horn and muzzle, with only her eyes visible, glaring at him pugnaciously.
"Is...is this some kind of joke?" Zuko asked in confusion.
"No joke, Zuko," Iroh stated as he approached. "Cadence is grounded."
Zuko's eyes popped. "All this for grounded? Why not just lock her in her room?"
"She broke out five times," Iroh replied. "I believe she was...upset about not being allowed to tend to you in your illness."
"Just what did she do?" Zuko demanded.
Iroh sighed. "She slipped some herbs in the food, giving the entire crew explosive bowel movements," he began, counting off Cadence's crimes. "She reversed the flow of flame through the engine pipes, causing the ship to go backwards. She hid the maps we've been using to maneuver, replacing them with inverted ones so we went the wrong direction. She switched labels on the food stores, so we couldn't tell which was which. She slipped fish into the deck crew's pockets so sea birds would go after them. And ignored her grounding in her room three times before we started putting her in the brig, which she escaped twice."
Zuko's jaw had slowly lowered as he heard the list of Cadence's crimes. "All that...because she wasn't allowed to nurse me back to health?"
"We assume so," Iroh allowed. "She's refused to explain herself."
"And why such strong restraint?"
Iroh managed a chuckle. "The first time she broke out of the brig, she used her bending. So we sealed off any methods by which she could use her bending."
Zuko nodded. "I see...and the metal diaper?" he asked, pointing to the most curious of Cadence's restraints. He sniffed the air. "Also, what's that smell?" He held his nose, glad that it was still stuffed from his head cold.
Iroh nodded, glad he'd dabbed some sweet smelling oil under his own nose. "Her second escape from the brig."
Cadence's giggle was distorted through her mask. "I invented fart bending!" she called out happily.
"So that's why she's affixed to the wall instead of chained to it," Zuko murmured. "But where did you get such an idea?"
"The sailors call it 'breaking wind' for a reason, after all," Cadence pointed out logically.
Zuko couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeesh, so much effort to lock someone up when they can bend all four Elements." He blinked for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "If it's this much trouble to lock up a child with these abilities..."
"...how much more difficult will it be to contain an adult with such abilities, having mastered them over the course of a century?" Iroh finished the question, his mind having reached the same conclusion his nephew's had.
Cadence let out another giggle. "Okay, you can let me down now," she said happily. "I'm done being a bad girl."
"Wait, what?" Zuko demanded in shock.
"You mean your misbehavior wasn't about not being able to nurse Zuko back to health?" Iroh asked in shock.
"Well, the herbs in the soup were," Cadence explained. "Then while I was locked in my room, I was feeling rather petulant, and grumbling about not being allowed out of my room or to tend to Zuko, and I found myself grumbling that the crew was lucky I was so well behaved, and that I could bust out of my room at any time if I really wanted to, adding that four elements gave me all sorts of possibilities for mischief. When I said that, I realized that the Avatar also can bend all four Elements, and likely far more efficiently than I can, since he's probably mastered them all.
"And if you can't keep me contained, what hope do we have of containing the Avatar?"
Zuko nodded as he took this all in. "A valid point. I'll get the crew to make up another cell like this, with restraints sized to an adult human. That way we'll have somewhere to lock the Avatar up once we have him." He paused as he started to walk away. "Or her. The Avatar has been female in the past. We only know for a fact that the Avatar was born to the Air Nomads."
"The Fire Sages did inform us that the Avatar was male, Zuko," Iroh corrected him.
"Are we sure they'd know?" Zuko asked.
"Why not just look for anyone old with arrow tattoos?" Cadence asked. "That's pretty distinctive."
Nodding, Zuko continued his march out to get the crew's assistance in refurbishing one of the cells in the brig.
Iroh turned back to Cadence. "Why didn't you tell me about this thought?"
"Because you weren't talking to me until my grounding was up," Cadence pointed out logically.
Iroh lowered his head. "That is true-"
"Besides, I'm the only one who could test if these bindings would actually work as designed," she added. "Would you have bound me so tight unless you were genuinely trying to keep me contained?"
Iroh couldn't help but chuckle. "Also true."
"So does this mean I can get down now?" she asked eagerly.
Iroh scratched his chin for a time. "...no," he said at last, turning to leave. "You still have eight more hours of grounding to sit through."
Cadence stared after Iroh in disbelief as he walked away, then hung her head. "This stinks..." she grumbled into the helm.
inb4 cadence causes the whole series to relativly mean nothing by being there in the next chapter or so.
And thus Cadance used her alicorn TK to simply unlock all her restraints and walk out.
Bad Cadie!
This was unexpected, but totally hilarious.
how much longer until we see Aang??
6519608
While she could that sorta defeats the purpose of what she was trying to do, and at THIS point, she's staying there because Iroh told her to.
Damn it Cadance, quit making it harder for the Avatar! You are supposed to be helping him not hindering him!
Okay, Cadance is a freaking troll to the poor crew. Also, they are going to be annoyed when they find Aang because they are going to have to resize every thing for a kid. It's only going to be worse if they realize he can only airbend. The diaper is still going to get used to prevent fart bending though.
Fart bending... I know I -should- be too old to laugh at that... I'll give myself an allowance for this. BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!
Okay, it's obvious that Toph was a bigger influence than we thought. Because she would find that hilarious.
South Park, anyone?
I know i shouldnt laugh so much at this line but Bahhhahahahahahahahaha
''Fart bending'' ahhh man good to know im still not to old for these jokes
Great chapter can't wait for more
6519675 Don't you mean Boomi? P.S.
6519608 RUbbing the horn.
This is the best.
When is Aang going to come in?
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Next chapter.
6519642where is the fun in that?
What did she do?
Ah.
... Wow.
I've been staring at this for the past few minutes. I got nothing. This is just great.
Fair point.
Correct...
Also correct.
She's not wrong.
True...
Also true.
You brought it onto yourself, kid.
Fart bending was invented and perfected by Aang's grandson in the Legend of Korra.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Hooray for toilet humour!
6519922 quickmeme.com/img/5a/5a594c30c37db765a820796ab96b94d3283cbd143afe0af99ba0480d6ae0f7c8.jpg
t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcReiptxWenaseFz6tB1imLdKH945P9UzYVQe0vriAQJkEJxWy-y
Want.
Nice chapter! :D heheheehe.
i just relisd that candinc will be abul to beat the crap out of aage with out needing to opin her eyes i just hop that she will be abule to tell the difrinc beetwen good and evil dreams PS im not saying that the fiear lord is evil but his grand dad was
As a human being and an American besides, I feel absolutely no shame is laughing at or making fart jokes. Accordingly, fart bending is hilarious.
I take it that fart bending (tee hee) is a mixture of earth and air? Add in water for the juicy ones, and maybe fire if the chilli was good...
Surely this is the true art of the Avatar.
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0:40, i laughed so hard mom ran into the room. Fart bending should become a thing and cause butterfly effect somewhere along the story and after ending.
6519895 wow... Didn't notice this comment before posting. Okay, then it is a thing.
Oh that was funny. But geez I didn't think Cadence would cause so much trouble but at least it was for good reason.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
Fart bending. Everyone and their grandmother is too old for that humor.
...
...
...
But that was the funniest line in the entire freaking book so far.
The first thing the title of this chapter brought up was the image of Cadence in biker leather and chains giving a no holds barred beat down to Chrysalis for me. The second was Iroh downing hard tea and lamenting "Where did I go wrong????" with anime waterfall tears running down his eyes.
Very amusing chapter, I honestly feel Cadence and Aang will get along great and cause much chaos. Especially after she finds out he can currently only air bend. I bet she goes, "Will anyone even believe he's the Avatar if he can't bend all the elements?" so Iroh and Zuko become his Fire Bending teachers and travel with Aang's group. Plus, I can just see her wanting to try out Aang's air scooter trick.
Huh... Good advice Cadance. But just to be safe, we'd best not to look the gift horse in the mouth.
I wonder if this can be counted as a... Chain reaction punishment?
Well oil be... She's one tenacious pony isn't she? I'm starting to worry for Shining later...
Seems that Cadance can be a real stinker when she wants to be.
6520943
You, my good sir, just won the internets. I freaking love you for this.
6521005 It's good excercise for me too in order to bend the language as I need to. Some are harder, some flow better. I'd have to ground myself hard to come up with some in this chapter though. Good thing I have a burning passion that doesn't put my head up in the clouds for the puns at least.
6520943 i.ytimg.com/vi/-5AxFlmK9uI/hqdefault.jpg
6520056 You mispelled a lot...Heretic!
Seriously, though, ya did that on purpose or not?
Welp, that's fucking disgusting.
6521085 Those puns were absolute *Puts on sunglasses* shit
6521171 What a crappy sense of humor.
Imagine if Cadence mixed Fartbending and Firebending... The world is not yet ready.
6521115 no im dilexik but i luve riting if you know a pre reader pleas tell me im asking evryone
6521444 Are you a native English speaker? Are you good with English? What are you writing on? No one really want to proof read comments because proof reading stories make more sense.
I barely understand your comment.
You really need to check your spelling and grammar after you are done writing a comment.
Ask anyone you know at your place to proof read also work.
6521475 No i meant a story im wrecking on and i'm dyslexic
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Fartbending exists in the setting, although it hasn't been invented yet by this point in the original storyline. Meelo (Aang's grandson) does it frequently in Legend of Korra:
38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5urev0eu01qg3g8c.gif
Including in combat:
stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/3928694/fartbending-o.gif
6521566
t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRNRCzuWy5HlbF3nlDmvRvZhCv_9fFRTKQsf7W468y0BdUkr3dgFQ
omg, must watch now
6519956 So, you're okay with the loss of "optionals." That's about the strongest argument against your sense of values there is. I also notice you said nothing about genocide. And you're talking to us about morality.
6519794
and when is that?
6522010
Genocide is bad, very bad. From civilized point of view. Problem is that Avatar World never reached society level necessary to consider it bad. Because of Avatar.
Also, about loss of optionals water tribes live and not genocided by fire, earth nation lives. Air nomads are absent but that were small bunch of people killed to stop Avatar. Bad, very bad but with Avatar loss of lives will be much greater. For that era not killing Air Nomads was wery strange choice. Great War was normal and natural thing for newborn empire which was necessary for progress. Not good but necessary. As far as i remember that worlds history every nation tried to progress beyond their cage and expand. That's one of the popular theories why Air Nomads were so underpopulated - they were quite recently killed by Avatar for trying to break from their cage and not recovered their numbers yet.
Fartbending...
Shit will soon be directed at the fan with style in future chapters.
6521566 NAGASAKKI!!!