//------------------------------//
// Yarn-ing For Attention 
// Story: Puppets of Tragedy 
// by Iridescence T Wind 
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	After two days and an civilian mask that I had made out of the blue to imitate one of Amber's species, we were quietly infiltrating a museum during its daylight hours in order to get a layout of the place. The plan was simple, infact it should be considering the time of day we had planned the raid. Unlike most cliche criminal cases, in order to draw attention to myself. We were going to perform the heist in broad daylight, maybe knock a guard or two around, undermine prince plot hole again, and make a flashy getaway. But until then we were mapping out what was valuable in the museum. Aside from the diamond itself there was a number of other objects of historic importance to Equestria, though only a few of them caught both of our eyes. Though it was sure interesting to find out some relics that belonged to Ambers country was on display here, prizes of the war between the legendary Commander Hurricane when he fought against the griffins in the war so long ago.

It was a certain old gold tiara with a variety of fang shaped bones jutting out towards the top that drew Amber's ire though, "That's the crown of the high king!" she muttered angrily under her breath, and I looked to her, my light blue feathers brushing against her own as I nudged her.

"Keep calm, and carry on Amber." I suggested, my eyes glancing from her to a pair of guards across the hall. Their eyes narrowing at the two of us as we were in front of the exhibit. I guessed it wasn't the first time someone got mad about one of their exhibits.

with a slow pull I managed to pull her away from the case and into the tribal sections of equine lore, where dozens of ponies were gathered around a crystal stand that had a thin rope barrier surrounding it from a five meter diameter. Inside the circle was a large blue ring of arcane symbols that surrounded the stand, upon which held a gemstone that had to be at least as large as my own natural head of muddled ice blue that was in the shape of a sphere. The room itself felt chilly and around the stands stood no fewer than four guards who made sure no one crossed the rope. Shining armor himself was one of the four.

Amber whistled, muttering to me, "That's a big gem, and a big trap they have under it."

"Pardon?"

"That's a binding, and fire trap." Amber muttered, "Whoever steps on it would either get bound in sealing magic, or if found to be below a certain temperature, burned to a crisp. Same goes for anything that tries to go over it either by wing. Magic wont help either since the case is enchanted against unicorn magic."

"Good thing I'm not a unicorn then." I muttered back, "Any weaknesses?"

Amber shook her head, "Short of digging under the rune and breaking a part of it from underneath, or covering the top of it with something that obstructs its ability to detect heat..."

I nodded, "Digging it is. Give me a second to put things in place."

This was going to take an coordinated effort on my part. Aku was already dwelling in my shadow, and it was a simple matter to work him underneath the black and white tiled floor as we broke off from the crowds, the room itself had a skylight, but the museum itself had a gem based security network of cameras. In order to protect this civilian mask in case I needed it again, that would mean me changing back somewhere private. I asked Amber, "get to the skylight, and watch my back when I make my entrance."

"Whatever you say boss." I grinned, as she did the same, and I walked casually to a bathroom. From there it was a simple portal behind a locked bathroom door to an unlit storage room and a change of face back to the star of this heist. 

Someone with experience at robbing diamonds from museums, and a story most sad. A husband who would do anything for his poor unfortunate wife. One who first sparked my affections for the stories of tragedy among villains. All the while Aku was carefully disrupting the magic circle from beneath, turning and in two cases flipping some of the magic runes tiles in order to disrupt it. Once it was down, it was time to party.

the rooms ahead of me dropped to the point where the populace shivered in their coats, questioningly some of the ponies looked both confused and startled as Ice started creeping up the glass windows that separated them from history. I could hear someone call out, "what's with the air conditioning? Did it break?" and I but chuckled as I went into the role of the villain I was playing. Each step was a click clank of metal on freezing stone, and the guards started to feel uneasy. Shining Armor's voice was clear above the crowd, "Calm down everypony, it's probably just the diamond acting up."

The doors opened from the employee only area, and I walked out, an intimidating height rivaling that of the princesses from foggy glass dome to the similar height of Celestia given a comparison. Two red glowing eyes peered from within, goggles that only added to the mystery that was my childhood villain remade. Cold metal suit continuing to whir with cryogenic technology and predictably my unnatural appearance from other ponies caused an uneasy silence as I strode through them, they walked out of my way. The guards gathered between me and the jewel. Shining armor at  their front, "Halt, who goes there!"

A voice that echoed out of my mouth, a deep monotone that barely held but a spec of emotion to it, "The ice man commeth, for the diamond of blue."

Shining Armor snorted, "This is the property of the museum of Canterlot, not yours..." he paused, "Ice Man."

I would grin if I wasn't in character, "It is Mr.Freeze, Mr.Armor. And I would brace yourself."

He quirked his head to the side, curious since my character did not bear the trademarked magic horn of a unicorn, he would not see this coming, "Why?"

"For winter is coming early this year." I leveled the weapon that was held within my other hand, and pulled the trigger.

Ice, Ice was what covered the floor now, coated two of the four guards from foot to waist in half a meter of thick solid frozen water. In an instant half of them were immobilized to the point where they couldn't fight back, and Shining armor and his remaining guard dodged to the side and ran towards me, Shining armor's own barrier spell starting to raise up. I couldn't have that, so up went a tendril from Aku and the unicorn promptly fell flat on his face as the heavily armored unicorn came to a screeching halt not feet from me, his spell interrupted. It took a quick two shot to coat his legs and horn in ice as the still standing guard bounced his spear off my armor. It took a simple grab and throw to then lock that guard in a block of ice.

Shining Armor struggled still, however, but I simply marched onward. Pushing aside the glass case with my own hand, and bagging the diamond while various portals also robbed the other exhibits behind their foggy glass.

"Why are you doing this?!" Shining Armor shouted, as he banged his fore-hooves against the ice on his lower legs, and I but grinned in secret as Mr.Freeze slowly turned around and began walking towards the exit. Other guards appeared but it mattered naught for pegasus guards were glued to the ceiling after a shot, and the other two types of ponies more often than not got froze in place.

"Snow is beautiful don't you think?" Freeze monotoned, "Clean, uncompromising...."

"And cold..." one of the guards muttered, but both of us ignored him.

"Like the cold grip of vengeance." Freeze said, "Though it is not you who needs to suffer it Mr.Armor."

"What are you intending to do?!" Shining Armor voiced in dismay, finally working out how to get his horn free, but judging from the state of it, I still had a few minutes before it was warmed up enough to do anything.

"To teach a lesson, Mr.Armor." I smiled, as Aku slipped out of the area, still unnoticed, "The Puppet Master sends his regards." With that I walked out of the building and into an alleyway.

Briefly I heard Shiny yell, "You won't get away with this you fiend!"

I refused to answer, already out of sight it took another pair of portals to return myself back to base as well as Amber and the rest of my puppets, several of which hadn't even gotten the chance to see action but waited in hiding none the less. For what it was worth, the heist had been easy, almost too easy. That was suspicious, to say the least. But then again, Shining Armor was no Batman, and these guards lacked the technology that even basic security guards of that universe had. I had to remind myself that not every unicorn was as proficient in magic as Twilight. According to Amber most unicorns only learned a few spells related to their cutie mark, and I highly doubted many of the unicorns cutie marks were actually to be a guard, that would be an extremely dull personality stereotype if that was true.

I also had to remind myself that I had ambushed them from out of the blue, so it wasn't as coordinated as the real guards full capacity. It was a popular tactic in both strategy and war games to hit and run. I began to approach Amber only to see her snickering, "Wow that was awesome."

"Oh? How so?" My voice droned, crud forgot I was still wearing the mask, quickly I took it off, and repeated my question.

"Boss did you see their faces, they were all 'who's this chump' and then when you began freezing them, they all were utterly shocked!" She guffawed loudly, holding her sides, as she spat out, "Especially their Captain, whatever you said to him certainly rubbed him raw!"

I rolled my eyes and waited for her to calm down before speaking in turn, "Yeah, I simply told him that I sent my regards."

"We need to do three things then." she chuckled.

I dug through the new pile of stolen goods, giving her a curious glance, "And those are?"

"Well for one I'd like one of those ice beam things." 

She asked, and I shrugged at the suggestion, "Perhaps if you can promise to remain nonlethal with it, I'll craft you a freeze ray sometime."

She nodded, "Deal."

"The second thing?"

"Well..." she picked through the few trinkets and artifacts that had been in the Griffin section of the museum, "I think you could garner favor with the Griffin kingdom if you ever needed to go there by returning these to them."

I rolled my eyes, "Right, like we want to start a multinational incident between your kingdom and Equestria."

She shrugged, "Guess I'll keep them in safe custody until we need them then."

" 'kay." I replied, "The third?"

"Well you have a gem of potentially potent magic, don't you want to gain its power for yourself?" She asked, "After all, that would be the villainous thing to do, no?"

"That or revive one of the greatest threats to Equestria." I spoke one of the other options, "But do you have any ideas how to do such a thing?"

She paused in thought, "I have a few contacts, perhaps if I could use a few of the other stolen goods, I could help you find an Unicorn who could explain the exact process for a price."

I wasn't really interested in the black market, or whatever it was called in Equestria, but there was really little other options to be had than to hire help. It wasn't like companions just fell from trees or anything. "Where did you have in mind," I asked, "And if you know anyone who is loyal to their contract long term, go ahead and add that to our list of potential recruits as well."

Amber nodded, "There's this tavern in the slums of Manehatten that serves as one of the more central locations to recruit some of the less savory types, but the real juice, so to speak, is underneath it."

I rose an eyebrow, "Underneath?"

She nodded, "Yeah, its entrance is in the sewer."

Now it was time to deadpan, "Of course it is."

"Hey its a minor inconvenience in any case, as for individuals, we could hold tryouts down there given a good enough price."

"We have a dragons horde." I stated.

"True enough." Amber replied, "Wait, question, did you deal with the dragon who owned it Boss?"

"Its been gone since the mane six scared it off to take a nap somewhere else."

The confused look on Ambers face made me clarify,"Mane six, Ie: Element bearers."

"Ohhh...." 

I sighed, "Lets just go to Manehatten."