//------------------------------//
// Strings 
// Story: Up to Fate 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

Cheese let out a sigh of relief as Pinkie reached up and removed the helmet, the golden light leaving her eyes and returning them to the blue Cheese knew. Pinkie shook out her mane, which poofed right back up, before placing the helmet inside her bag. He gently placed a hoof around her shoulder as the family began to look around the train.

"Wow! We teleported!" Lil' Cheese said. His eyes were wide as he looked around the train car. "I can't believe that I'm actually on a train! I've never been on a train before! I've only heard about them in stories!"

"I know. And it seems that nopony saw how we arrived," Cheese muttered. He cast a quick glance at the other ponies and creatures in the train car with them, but none of them paid the group any mind.

"You think somepony would have," Pinkie muttered. "Did you have anything to do with this, Nabu?"

'Erasing what they saw was child's play. I also twisted the minds of the guards on this train so they won't pay your family a second glance. You are welcome.'

"That sounds like something a villain would do."

'Incorrect. A villain would kill them all. I would know. I've seen the act countless times.'

Pinkie shivered at Nabu's words. She wanted to ask if he was joking, but if there was one thing she'd learned about Nabu in the short time they'd been together, it was that he never told jokes. Lil' Cheese hopped off his cushion and began running up and down the aisle, poking his head out open windows occasionally with the biggest grin on his face that Pinkie had ever seen. Cheese and Pinkie stayed on guard for a few minutes, just in case, but when it truly seemed like none of the others would bother them they allowed themselves to relax.

That was until Pinkie caught the look Cheese was giving her.

"What?" Pinkie asked.

"Nothing. Just checking to...make sure you're you," Cheese replied.

"What do you mean like that?"

"It's nothing..." Cheese tried to say. But when Pinkie rested her forehooves on his shoulder and stared at the side of his head, he felt his will caving in. "What I mean is, when you teleported us onto this train, when you put on that helmet, for a brief moment...you weren't there. I couldn't find you in your eyes."

"Couldn't...find me?" Pinkie asked. "But I was still there, silly."

"For a moment you weren't. And that...Nabu was," Cheese muttered. "I thought that you said Nabu chose you to wield his power, not for you to be wielded by him."

'Tell your fool of a husband that I momentarily took control. You have had my helmet for less than a day, so you have no clue on how to wield my power. That is why we are heading to Stalliongrad. So that you can learn to control the small percentage of my power that I will allow you to wield.'

Pinkie relayed the message.

"Well tell that helmet that if he ever takes over my wife again without her permission, I'll dump him in the nearest trash compactor and make a golden plate out of him," Cheese snarled. "God or not."

'I could blink you out of existence, pony. And within seconds forgot that I ever had.'

"Listen here, you-"

"Cheese, it's not worth it," Pinkie said. She placed a hoof on his arm and he bit back whatever he was going to say, leaving Pinkie to glare at her helmet. "Do you ever get tired of being a jerk all them time?"

'I am a god. I will not be spoken to in such a manner by a no one like him.'

"You know, if you want ponies to like you, how about you try something else than the angry god. Maybe some compliments. Or how about jokes? Ponies like jokes."

'You wish for me to tell jokes? That is the most-"

Then Pinkie began to bounce in her seat, her tail snapping out straight. She and Cheese immediately locked eyes, fear on both of their faces. Cheese leapt out of his seat and raced over to their son, scooping him into his arms.

Then the entire train was ripped off the tracks.

Pinkie let out a scream as she was sent tumbling down the car, her Pinkie sense barely allowing her to avoid hitting anything too dangerous. The car came crashing to a stop, giving Pinkie a chance to lift her head and look around.

She had to bite down to avoid throwing up.

All around her were the bodies of the other passengers. Some were moving. Most were not. To her side she could see the other train cars, looking similar to hers. For a moment fear gripped her heart as she looked around for her family, only to sigh in relief when she saw Cheese and her son, both waving at her from beneath some luggage. Then she looked up at who had done this.

A being in a black cloak with a wizards hat floated above the ripped open train car, his face hidden beneath a large jack'o lantern that he wore over his head. From beneath the cloak extended two frail hands, which had numerous, nearly invisible strings coming out. The strings were attached to both train cars and what looked like puppets of a creatures Pinkie had never seen. Then the creature began to giggle.

"Come out, come out creature of magic. I know that you are here. My master has sensed you," the creature called out. Pinkie swallowed hard, her senses blaring at what she was looking at. "If you show yourself now, I promise that I will make your demise quick. Would it help if I said please?"

Pinkie needed to grab her family and run. She needed to make sure that this thing didn't find them. She had no clue what it was, but what she did know was that it was powerful and was evil. She needed-

'Pinkie. Don me.'

"What?" she whispered. "No, we need to run. We-"

'Look around Pinkie. This creature is the evil I was just talking about,' Nabu said. Pinkie did as he asked and looked at all the loss of life, sorrow clawing at her heart. 'If we flee, your family may survive, but I guarantee he will kill more in his search for you.'

"But he's..."

'Are you not the mare that smiled everyday in the face of invasion? Are you not the mare that managed to keep color and laughter on your family's face in a world of gray and suffering? Do you expect me to believe that you would abandon those who need you? Cease wasting my time and don me.'

Pinkie grabbed the helmet and stared at it for a moment, looking at her reflection. And then she slid Nabu over her face.

"Come out, come-" An explosion of golden light nearly knocked Jack out of the air and he spun around to see something that made even his eyes widen beneath his mask. A pony wearing a golden helmet was rising out of the wreckage, with a golden cape, gauntlets and grieves to boot. A black body suit covered it's body, but after a moment planets, stars and galaxies began to swirl across the black suit. And then there was the pony's eyes. Eyes that were the purest of blue.

"Wow. Tirek wasn't joking. You are something else," Jack smiled. "But by the end of the day, everypony is going to remember the name Jack the puppeteer! The being who beat you!"

"Listen here, you meanie. I don't want to hurt you, but-"

Two train cars were hurled at Pinkie before she had the chance to finish her sentence. She threw up her forehooves to protect herself and the thought hadn't even crossed her mind before a golden barrier was erected around her. The train cars smashed into the shield and crumpled instantly. As they hit the ground, Pinkie looked down at her hooves in amazement.

'I...I didn't even think. It just instantly protected me,' Pinkie realized.

'How many times must I say this? If you will it, so shall it be,' Nabu's voice said in the back of her mind. 'Now finish this, or I will.'

With confidence now blazing through her body, Pinkie thrust her forehooves forward and created two giant cupcakes, both of which were the size of skyscrapers. Jack's eyes shrunk as he saw the colossal cakes heading for him, before he drove his strings into the ground and ripped up chunks of the planet. He hurled them into the cupcakes, which detonated in a flash of golden light.

"So you've got some power. But can you handle my dolls?!" Jack yelled. He thrust his hands forward and dozens of strange dolls lunged towards Pinkie, razor sharp claws extending from their hands. "Jack, by the way. The soon to be number one partner of Tirek! How bout that?!"

Pinkie's response was to slam her hooves together, summoning spinning cookies that she hurled towards the oncoming dolls. Chocolate chip, peanut butter and chocolate mint collided with the dolls, blasting them apart into nothingness. The oatmeal raisin she sent hurtling towards the puppetmaster, as those flavors were reserved for evil.

Jack leapt back as he ripped up another train car to defend himself, wincing as the cookies embedded themselves into the metal while the others ripped through his dolls. Jack glanced out from behind his shields to see the golden pony conjuring more magical sweets to hurl at him, before he looked down at got an idea. More strings flew from his fingers, wrapping themselves around the ponies that were still alive and hoisting them in front of him. Including Cheese and his son.

Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her family dangled in front of her.

"Careful pony, I wouldn't toss around any of those spells if I were you," Jack taunted from behind the ponies. "After all, I've found puppets tend to break if you cut there strings."

Pinkie was normally a very nice pony. She always smiled, always saw the best in others and tried her best to not let the cruelness of the world get her down. But if there was anything that could draw out the monster within, it was her husband and son being dangled infront of her as pony shields. And her fury erupted to the surface with a vengeance that not even hell could match.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Pinkie bellowed. Golden magic exploded from her body as she thrust a single forehoof into the sky, which suddenly went black before it turned golden. All eyes across the planet look up at the golden sky, unable to make out what was happening. But if they could see the planet Equis from a distance, they would see a massive, golden cannon that had appeared next to the planet...and happened to be five times larger than the world itself. Aimed right at Jack. None of the ponies, griffons or other creatures could make our what was happening. But Jack most certainly could. And the sight broke him.

"That...that's not...that can't," he sobbed, lowering his arms to his side, which in turn lowered the ponies to the ground. For he was looking at true power. And he knew there was nothing he could do in the face of it.

'And this is where I intervene.'

Pinkie's eyes snapped to gold and a moment later the cannon vanished, returning the sky to how it was supposed to be. Then Nabu waved a hoof towards Jack and freed all of the ponies from his grip. The moment they were free Cheese and Lil' Cheese ran over to Nabu.

"Nabu. What are you doing?" Cheese Sandwich snarled at the god.

"Fixing what that puppetmaster has done," Nabu replied in Pinkie's voice.

"You can fix this, mommy?" Lil' Cheese asked. "You can...wake these ponies up?"

"Oh Lil' Cheese..." Cheese Sandwich began, only to snap his eyes to Nabu when the god began to laugh.

"So I will it," Nabu began as he outstretched a hoof. The train cars placed themselves back on the tracks, the ponies were all returned to their seats, including the Cheese's, and the entire scene was returned to the way it was right before Jack had attacked. The ponies opened their eyes, began to resume what they had been doing...before Nabu froze them all in time. There was one last thing that needed to be done.

The master of fate floated over to Jack, the only being he had not moved or frozen. The broken creature looked up at Nabu, barely able to make coherent words.

"You are not in any other story across the multiverse," Nabu stated. "You were created by the being that has messed with this world. You are an agent of chaos. A being created to sow discord. And as a Lord of Order...I will not let chaos go free."

Then Nabu blinked and Jack vanished, erased from existence. Nabu returned to where Pinkie had been sitting on the train, allowing time to continue while masking his presence. The ponies continued their conversations as if nothing had happened. And, as far as they knew, nothing had.

"Nabu, what are you doing controlling my wife?" Cheese Sandwich snarled when he saw the golden eyes. For a moment Nabu seemed to think, before he gave his answer.

"Knock knock," Nabu replied.

"Knock knock?" Cheese repeated, baffled.

"Oh, I know this one! Who's there?" Lil' Cheese asked.

"Jack the puppeteer." Both father and son shared a look of confusion.

"Who's Jack the puppeteer?" they asked.

"And that is the joke," Nabu replied. Nabu said nothing else, but a moment later the golden light faded and Pinkie's eyes returned. She lifted her shaky hooves and slid the helmet from her face, which was a pale white. 

"Hey honey bun, are you-?"

Pinkie then ripped open the window and vomited outside.