//------------------------------//
// A Villain vs A Murderer 
// Story: Puppets of Tragedy 
// by Iridescence T Wind 
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There inside the shelf was a collection of objects. A mask, that was decorated in an almost tribal fashion. A Staff, of which was gnarled and twisted with a series of orbs that still hovered around it intact, and what could only be described as a red crystal heart the size of a ponies head. alongside it was a book, perfectly kept within its prison. I conjured a portal and transfered the statuefied starswirl and the rest of the rooms contents back into base before exiting, it could be investigated later, when I came back, but I wanted out of this creepy place, and to check out the library on the first floor before I left. 

That's when I noticed that the pile of molted snakeskin had moved. Starswirls words came back to my mind. A basilisk could survive to reach ages far beyond the range of a thousand six hundred, and this journal, no doubt, had been written right before the fall of Nightmare Moon. What had his assistant, no murderer, done over that time? Judging from the ponies petrified in stone around the large chamber, I was about to find out.

I shut my eyes, instead focusing on seeing through the eyes of my puppets as I called them to me, all the while slipping the mask I had intended for Rarity over another puppets head. A metallic framwork with a bandaged underside covering up the wooden puppet before it transfused itself with three glowing blue lights over its tan color scheme. Nox, villain from wakfu. Tragic loss of family over his obsession with the elia cube. Master of the time magic of the Xelors, and particularly skilled in draining magic from others in his attempts to fix his own clock.

My vision shifted to Aku, Undisputed being whos origin comes from a source of absolute evil, united a massive portion of the galaxy under his rule by crushing his opposition, resulting in only small revolts and gang operations as opposed to intergalactic warfare that would've be inevitable in the future had he not united the nations under one empire. He made the difficult choices for his good and ill and suffered through the consequences.

Then there was the support of the group, GLaDOS, also known as Caroline, who was experimented on against her will and turned into the robotic monotonous device that had been too smart for her own good. They attached intelligence dampening spheres to try and slow her down but it only ended up getting all the scientists killed in the end while she had full accessibility to Aperture science. All of this was as a large singular line slowly rose up, beginning to fold, then the two serpent eyes opened. I flinched, even through the gaze of another those all but flaming yellow eyes were terrifying slits. I dare not open my own eyes, instead relying on the fact that GLaDOS was made of metal, and unaffected, and that Aku was immune to such an effort. Nox, however, I had to advert his gaze. Already a plan was in motion, and I would just have to stall the giant snake long enough for it to start working. 

I'd have to hope this Lumiere was a conversationalist. I spoke up loudly, addressing the giant literal snake in the room, "You Must be Starswirl the bearded's killer." I stated, a cold clarity I didn't know I had in me, taking over my voice, my own eyes still shut tight as the basilisk took notice of me and my puppets.

"And what, are you....?" The snake hissed, slithering out of its pile of shed skin, its' forked tongue lashing out and in, no doubt tasting the air, he slithered out and around, surrounding us, "Sssomething equine? No, the scent of pony isn't on you..."

"I am no pony, yes it's true," I agreed, my voice barely not cracking into disgust, but instead taking the voice of a cold poet, "But you are no snake, that I know. Lumiere."

"How did you..." the snake looked momentarily surprised, before it realized, "Ah, you read the booksss, no?"

My tone was level as I watched small blue dots of light land on the snakes back from behind, mere insects in size, but their true purpose much more potent as a result, "Yes, I even read up to the point where you murdered your master. Why?" 

I asked her, and she just chuckled, it was ghastly to listen to, her response was enraging, however, "Why because of three reasonsss."

The response of his was delayed, and I waited to hear them but nearly didn't have time to respond as the snake lunged forward, fangs bared, and my shields rose, A dozen cards that hid me from view and scattered, his sight of me lost as I vanished into one of my creations. My dolls scattered in opposite directions, Aku taking the form of a giant honey badger as Nox continued his preparations. It was going to take a lot of energy that I didn't have in order to stop something as large of this, more energy than that I had. But it wasn't going to be my energy that fueled the effort.

I exited from my card, standing on top of it as it slowed down in the air, "And those reasons are?" I asked, a disgruntled edge entering my voice, and the snake whipped its head fast enough around that I was surprised it didn't get whiplash.

"Firssst," The snake awnsered, lunging for me again, and missing as I vanished behind another hand worth of cards and scattered, "The Massster is alwayssss succeeded by their apprentice."

"And that means murdering them to you?" I remarked sarcastically adding in, "Didn't seem like that at all."

The snake of Lumiere searched for me with its gaze, hissing as Aku grappeled with it, trying to hold it down to no avail. The snake lunged, burying its fangs in the giant black imitation of a honey badger.  Aku didn't care, he was a puppet that was immune to such things as poisoning, and with his ability to change shape, biting him was an even worse error. Aku filled its mouth, forcing it open as more and more flooded within it. a small torrent of poisonous liquids splashing down like a fire-hose left on as the snake was forced to eject Aku out of its mouth or suffocate.

The poison had an unexpected affect on Akus body, however, slowly his large mass was turning to stone where it touched, silently I cursed, withdrawing the doll and salvaging the mask back into my base. Now it was just me, Nox, and GLaDOS vs the giant snake, but luckily I only needed  a few more moments. Blue gel splashed out of an newly opened portal, knocking the snake off its guard as suddenly its coated mid section began bouncing off everything it touched, throwing the snake off balance as it lurched sideways and threw its next bite off course that if I had been the side of a large barn, it would of missed entirely regardless.

It hissed as it adjusted itself to look at the coated part of itself, and I felt myself smirking as an message bleeped out in an familiar voice, "Hey y'all, I have a message from my scientists for if you got covered in the repulsion gel, 'do not get covered in the repulsion gel'. We aren't exactly sure what element its made of yet, but its a lively one, and it does not agree with the skeleton."

The snake hissed, looking for where the voice came from, failing to find it, it lunged towards me again. This time I vanished into a portal, and reappeared on the opposite side, as the snake crashed into a wall, sending the entire room rumbling from the force of impact. Causing several statues to tip over, and large cracks to appear on one of the walls, I was given an excellent momentary gaze over the snakes backside, which was now covered in blue mechanical dots, and I smirked, it was time. As the snake turned around and lunged I snapped my fingers. For I know, emphasis.

Nox's magic came into play as the snake was frozen in mid air. Lumieres own energy being rapidly drained to keep up the process of a psuedo time stop. With it, the snakes magic stopped stone cold, and I could now look into the eyes of the snake without being petrified. Slowly I walked up to the airborne fanged menace and bemused to myself, "You're probably wondering why you can't move, if you are wondering at all."

Elsewhere I found a mirror with a mechanical arm, and polished it, preparing it for the end of my speech, "This is a time spell, used by an inventor who is called by the shortened version of his name, Nox." I gestured to the dressed up doll who I had maintaining the spell, a massive amount of energy flooding through him from the snake and back out to the maintained spell, "The interesting thing about Nox, he became a villain from a rather tragic set of circumstances in his world that caused the indirect death of his beloved family because he was just a little too obsessed with a blue magic cube that was of his studies. He spent the remainder of his extended life trying to drain enough energy to rewind time and fix his own futures clock, but to no avail. Hundreds of years of gathering and he only rewound time by twenty minutes with all that he had collected." 

The snake alternated his glance from me to Nox, as if trying to will itself to move, it didn't. I answered his unspoken question, "You're probably wondering why I am telling you this, well, time moves forward as it doesn't move backward, actions done in the past cannot be undone by the present. That includes criminal charges like murdering your teacher and employers."

The snakes eyes looked at me with contempt, and I continued, "But, I am not a man of the law, or prosecution, nor are we part of an assigned government, so you do not have to fear jail. No, but I am a man much worse to deal with as a result. I am a villain, a villain who teaches the lessons of tragedy, and as such I only have two rules. The first, is to only use villains of tragic origins. The second? Well, that makes the difference between you and me, a lesson after all is wasted upon a corpse, but judging from what you told Celestia... Being petrified isn't death, now isn't it?"

That got a look of shock out of her, and I smirked, Lumieres struggles continued, "Good thing you're a snake as well, heavens forbid I be petrifying a pony instead of a monster." I commented idly as a portal opened, with it coming a pair of mirrors modified into a giant pair of goggles that had been made with a piece of metal that was heated and bended into the proper shape. Once it was on, no matter which way she faced, she would be looking into her own gaze, and the best part about snakes? They had no eyelids to obstruct the sight.

Once it was secured, Nox released his magic, and a deafening yell filled the cavern, it was a hissed shriek of the word 'No' as the snake thrashed, its own magic turned upon itself as the drained snakes own reflected gaze petrified it. I watched with a mixture of morbid curiosity as vengeance and justice for a moment worked in tandem with each other as the snake thrashed, slowly turning into stone.

I took a moment to appreciate my handy work, before leaving. I wasn't going to risk sticking around to see if anything or more precisely anypony else showed up from that massive use of power, my mind had gone numb, now that the adrenaline had worn off, from  managing all the energy Nox was acting as a conduit for, as well as plenty of other questions that had arisen since I had entered this damned castle. It was time for a rest, and perhaps dinner before I went back to planning. I left a camera in the main room, in case I needed to revisit the area for one reason or another, and left.