I had the blessing that at least my scream wasn't enough to be heard from the elevator Amber was in. A statement to the growing lair's sheer size as I dwelled within my bathroom, staring in horror from the viewpoint of the mask in my hand. This wasn't real was it? How was I alive?
I bit myself. and winced, dropping my face. Double ow. Yep not a dream, I was still connected to my body, that was for sure at least. Though it was hard finding my face with blind hands when I had landed face first into the tiled flooring. Once I had picked it up, I reattached it to my face again, finding panic mixed with relief as my body and face were rejoined, tying the strings back into place. How else did my body change? I scanned myself over, five toes on each foot? Check. Nothing growing out of my back? Check. Magnificent mess of raven colored hair? Check.
I sighed, maybe something else internal then, though I wouldn't dare go there. I was no scientist or doctor. Heck I wasn't even a full time employee at my own job back on earth. It was better to just not dwell on it, right Xander? I groaned,feeling my lungs exhale through my mask's mouth. How did it do that? I didn't know. Don't dwell on it.
My shower took longer than I expected, a busy mind left a busy body. Exiting from underneath the hot water only after the bathroom was full of steam, and everything had been rubbed clean. I ran my clothes through a light cleaning, sticky tape and steam to be more precise, surprisingly enough, there wasn't much dirt on it after the past few days. In my clothes place was an orange and white trimmed attire of a classic jumpsuit mixed with a hoodie and gloves, couldn't really afford to wear any less, else I expose how... Alien... I was in this world. Though I had already liked baggy loose fitting clothes in general.
Distractions, distractions, distractions... I started extending the growing network of aperture underground towards the nearby village of Ponyville. Needed more distraction, I went to my workshop, and began to work on an new project. it still wasn't enough, had to keep working, a busy mind meant a busy body. Puppets got pulled into being, masks on as they helped me with the project, the extra hands of three puppets accelerating the project immensely, it was enough.
A flurry of activity, and several new props were made before I stopped, the sound of talking, no where near where I was, but still close enough. The voice of a foal muffled through the dirt as the tunnel itself had progressed, squeaky yet firm, "Ugh, I can't believe her! This is the eighth time in a row that my sister canceled on us due to work!"
"Ya can't really help it 'Belle." a young country twang responded, "Even Applejack has a lot of work to do before fall comes, it's nothin' personal."
"She's been too busy since spring though, can you really tell me that your sister is so busy that she can't even come to the sister-hooves social tomorrow. We've waited for months to be able to attend that."
A third, tomboyish voice entered the conversation, "At least you have sisters, me and Rainbow aren't allowed to compete together do to the rule being sisters only."
"True Scoots." Applebloom apologized, "Well it seems like its goin' to be another borin' game, darn shame. Was hopin' to see at least one of my friends compete against me this year."
"Well we could always try our luck at running our own competition instead Sweet's." Scootaloo said excitedly, "Get our cutiemarks in game making!"
"I think I'll pass." Sweetie replied, downtrodden.
"Ah promised ma sister we'd hang out tomorrow." Applebloom also shot down the idea, "Besides we've tried that last month with making a board game..."
"I still don't understand what was wrong with using a hundred sided die in order to move across a board of ten thousand spaces." Scootaloo remarked.
"Ah think it had more to do with the fact we all kept rolling a one over and over again and all the cards were unbalanced as that statue in Canterlot."
The fillies wandered out of earshot and I was left both bemused and concerned. Alright, so things weren't going canonically. Sister hooves social wasn't supposed to happen until after nightmare night. Nor did I recall Rarity being busy during it, but rather her calling it 'Uncouth' and refusing to go until she got into an argument with her sister due to it. Well it did give me an opportunity to use one of my villains in the stockpile...
I picked up one of the newly made masks, and prepared myself to leave, it was time. Well time for the first lesson anyway. And after putting it on, it would take less than a few seconds of manipulation through the stream of time in order to reach the home of Rarity, even if I had to search the whole town first in order to find that unique residence of the villages number one fashionista.
"Wouldn' do dat if I wer' you." an brutish voice echoed throughout the room, "Ye ain't the only one in da world who would take note o' da manipulation."
I searched around the room rapidly, but the source was evident enough, there was a void rift similar to the one I had thrown my trinket into. Only instead of throwing something in, or a trinket coming out, I was looking at the disembodied head of a green, bald mostly humanoid face, which had an massive underbite and a pair of tusks jutting out from it and up to its jagged, almost comically large nose. In other words, I was looking at an orc.
"Dat's an Ork to ye, with an K, not an C." The green-skin grumbled, as though reading my thoughts. "It's Cause I am." He replied again, and I shook myself back into a cohesive state.
"An actual Ork? Like from 40k?" I questioned, feeling rather stuipd when he nodded, pulling the rest of himself out though the portal, now that I had full view of him, he was indeed, dressed in the atypical crude red heavy metal armors and cybernetic enhancements of a warboss, towering too. Considering he had to crouch by the time he was fully in the room, however he lacked an iron jaw across his face, his most noticeable feature being from a scar that resided on his jagged nose, that curled right beneath his right eye.
"The same, Skargor Duffwort's the name. Unoffical ork god of Time and Waargh starting. Friend's call me Skart 'cause it sounds like fart." he chuckled, holding out a massive hand that looked like it would crush my rib cage with ease, let alone my hand.
I reluctantly accepted, bracing myself for the probability of a broken arm, "Xander, Puppet Master and Storyteller of Tragedies."
Surprisingly, he was quite firm, yet not bone breakingly so. Though It was getting absurd with dealing with the massive Ork in my bedroom, "So, uh, what are you doing here?"
"Ah, Straigh' to the point, you." he chuckled again, "Refreshingly so in fact. I got your message from da mask ya sen' out, and I decided to check and see who ya were. Hard worker true and true, my ol' mek boyz would just love to have a go at your craftin' supplies..." He paused for a moment, forgetting where he was before realizing, "Ah, for da reason I am here, it'd be a shame if the same thin' happened to you as it has happened to me and ma boyz."
He frowned at me, or what I assumed was a frown, it looked more like a terrifying war face to me from where I was, "You wanted to use chornomancy when the major sources on this world for tha' particular blend of magic are on your enemies side."
"Pardon?"
Skart did an deadpann, "They ain't called the princesses of the night and day for nothin' ya know. Usin' tha' sort of magic when their domain is over it would be like..." He paused, searching for the right expression, "Rolling a one while inside the deepest portion of a necron tomb at trying to not wake them up."
I winced, getting the memo. Necrons were a rather brutal synthetic race whose infantry units were famous for being able to fry other factions most advanced tanks to inoperable state in one shot."So if I want to use magic that affects time, I should do so only when I have enough strength in which to challenge the sisters?"
"Almos' exactly." He nodded, "That and to tell ye, though you probably already know, this ain't the timeline from da show ya been rambling on about, and your planned lessons would go up in smokes."
My turn to look incredulous, "How do you kno-" Wait, he was a time god, of course he did, "You read my future..."
He nodded, "Tryin' to show them each villains past from da get go is going to make it all fall on deaf ears, the next plan you make, however..." he shut his eyes and nodded slowly, "Mhmmmm.... yes. That works quite nicely, given a little push."
"Push what?" I asked, was he having a conversation with me, or without me?
He started grumbling to himself, "Hmm... So many pathes he could go down, but none are definite. But there are certain things here..." He looked to me, "You wanted to become a big villain eventually, correct?"
He didn't even give me a chance to respond, as he continued rambling while tracing metal scribbles into my newly made floor, "of course he does, not exactly warboss material but... Oh, theres a little..." He looked back to me, "You're a very interesting fellow, you know that? Certainly not universal conquest like my place, but the futures, you could hold would still make my battle brother, Fork, laugh with delight."
I deadpanned, "You conquered your universe?"
He shrugged, "Accidently started an Ork Warrgh, and won."
My deadpan nearly broke as an eye threatened to twitch, "you started an Warrgh. In your Universe, and won?"
His grin grew wider, "How did ya think I became an god, boy. Apparently it's what happens when a warboss conquers everythin'. Though now it be all borin' with nothin' left to fight but a few last dregs of pony imperial forces scattered throughout the worlds, but its pretty much Ork land now."
I sighed, "Continuing on... What did you mean by a 'little push'?"
He grinned, "You're goin' to need to master three arts if your goin' to want to succeed in this here world boy," he held out three fingers, each one dressed up differently, a barbarian,a vampire, and a... smiley face?
"Combat experience, outside of those pesky little masks that is." he waggled his barbarian clad finger, "The ability to drain magic into your own body, rather than a puppet medium." He waggled his second finger, "And lastly, a group of friends in evil." he waggled the smiley face finger most energetically.
Now that got a chuckle out of me, "Because Friendship~" I twanged, and Skart rolled his eyes before joining in, both of us completely out of place in this world but tunes matching perfectly, "Is magic."
we laughed for a solid minute before he said, "Enough, as amusing of an boy you are, there is one book your going to need to find as soon as possible. Search the castle of two sisters, particularly underneath the library, and below the dungeons. That is all I can reveal without mucking about your time stream too much."
I nodded, It was a common trope in television shows back home that involved time travel. It was a common theme that giving away too much of the future could wreck the timeline entirely as a different outcome occurred instead of the proper one. I had been hoping to be able to use the mask I had made as a definitive advantage over everyone else through the rather unique abilities of that particular villain. However, with this new information, I'd need to rethink my plans entirely.
He continued on, "Now with the know-how I have given you, I know, someday, you'll return the favor. In the meantime..." He stepped back into the void portal, "I bid you a cheerful blood filled slaughter, I have to tend to my universe before another blood feud between warbosses start. Later." and he left, leaving behind a... blood stained axe... as his token. Well, that thing is going under the bed... I sighed, and turned back to my workshop. Alright, maybe I couldn't teach them a series of lessons as I had planned for them, but that meant more leeway I think. Well, perhaps some mischief could be managed in the meantime.
But first things first. What was under the ruined castle of the two sisters?
The black and white robed figure in that picture... Is there a source for that? It looks neat.
Well, took your time with this one. Good chapter with some nice development there and hardly a single mistake. Good job!
Hmm. Interesting. I look forward to the next part. :-)
I don't know why but I see when the P.M. is going to make friends chrysalis he going to sing 'be our guest' when he invites her to aperture, I really don't know why but it sounds cool.
Hmm.. If he's going to need friends, then he should probably do something to up Amber's arsenal.
Crysis armor or shielded armor from Mass Effect? She'd probably kill for an Omnitool.
hm very interesting so far wonder whats under the castle....wait isn't the tree under there? hmmmmmm
also I vote yes to the lechku and nechku story for obvious reasons
These villain league stories, in my personal opinion they start going waaaaay downhill when the cross-story summoning starts and unrelated bad OCs flood the character roster. Your story is great so far and I hope you keep it as clean as possible from those things. It's way more interesting when it's just the main human character and characters from the actual world he found himself in, made by the author with a clear vision on how to fit them all together (meaning not a bunch of OCs with each one made to be the most interesting badass dude you can imagine)...
Although, to be quite honest, with how much Glados allowed him to do, he already feels a bit OP.
This is a terrible chapter, quality wise.
I love warhammer so yes green skins
Am I the only one who bothered by the fact that the Anthro ponies lack hands?
It just makes me twitchy.
4757054 i agree, i almost cried when i had to kill sif, almost.
( just to say, only one other game has got me that far.)
4757054 YES! BRING IN SIF!
4682522 meh, I just blocked it out and replaced the word with hands. If anything from the description, their ponies walking bipedally and females having a single set of mammary glands. That's all it really is.
I have had a question since these masks were introduced, but how are Bowser tyranical sorcerous king of the koopas, and Aku, fragment of a being of PURE EVIL tragic?
4960383 Well two things...
1: he always kidnaps Princess Peach, who has been seen repeatedly in the series to be the unreturned love interest of his life. Despite his constant downfalls, Princess Peach was always his primary concern. The sad matter is that Princess Peach has only eyes for mario, which brings me to my second point.
2: Since his introduction into the mario franchise, he hasn't lost to a 'hero' or a 'warrior'. The sad matter is, is that he was losing repeatedly to a fat Italian plumber, or other villains in general. He never gets a real happy ending, at best its lukewarm when he decides to work with mario against some greater evil.
4961491 From what I can tell that is a recent development. He initially kidnapped her to prevent her from undoing his curse on the people of the Mushroom Kingdom/ stopping him from taking over the kingdom. The infatuation came from later characterization and can be put down as "mental Influence from Peaches anti-evil magic." And for the part of Mario not being a hero, he was apparently destined to be the one to beat Bowser, he took down armies to rescue people, as well as other feats are decent reasons that one could give Mario the title hero, if not just for saving kingdom(s)/the world/the multiverse at one point or another, admittedly with the occasional helping claw of Bowser, though most of the time against Bowser. I also notice you have not given a justification for Aku being tragic. Also sorry if I sound like a jerk, but I just would really like to understand the thought here.
4963132 Aku, might be considered the "ultimate evil" but really, if you look into his origin story episode, it looked like he didn't even have a chance to be good, and overall, Aku put down the death of most of humanity, sure. But doing so, he also managed to unite the universe under his reign, effectively ending all real wars, wars that would kill countless had he not taken control by force. Its a paradox in a way. Without Aku, some random aliens probably would of murdered the humans off anyway. With aku, sure they are having a hard time, but at least they exist. Guess what I'm trying to say, Aku is a villain to jack, however by their government, you could consider Aku the good guy and Jack the most wanted criminal in the world for plotting to overthrow their liege.
As for the mario being a hero thing as well as the princess peach undoing bowsers curse, Peach really didn't even do anything yet. Considering that would mean that every single brick mario breaks is a toad he's killing... And that's not very heroic, is it? That and the fact that bricks are still around means that Peach hasn't done much to resolve the problem, in fact in the few games you can play as peach, you can have her be just as murderous to her own cursed subjects.
4963934 Where do people get the idea that ALL the bricks EVER in the Mario verse are the subjects? Perhaps the bricks they were transformed into were used in those first castles and fortresses, which were not destroyed. and by fortresses I mean those things behind the flagpoles at the end of levels in the first game. Now I will grant you that it is entirely possible that SOME of the blocks Mario broke in the first one were citizens, I will not argue that, I will also not argue on the possibility of Mario knowing about the curse beforehand or not, because I have not found anywhere that says conclusively one way or another. But I think it is absurd to think that the mushroom kingdom/beanbean kingdom/dinosaur island/sasaraland(hope I am spelling that right)/OTHER DIMENSIONS/THE TIME BEFORE BOWSER WAS EVEN BORN's only source of bricks was the curse placed upon the mushroom kingdom in the first Super Mario game. Remember, time travel did not occur till after that game and the curse was supposed to be broken before then.
On to Aku. Admitedly, your opening statement does have some merit to a minor amount, but since he was a fragment of PURE EVIL, he probably would never choose good, as he had none in himself. And there is still war that goes on in the world, remember the episode where Jack meets the future Spartans? I think that classifies as war. and without Aku wiping most of mankind out and keeping it extremely weak they likely would have had the strength to defend themselves from hostile aliens by that point, and peaceful cooperation, or at least treaties of non aggression could have been achieved. And as for government, Aku is an absolute dictator with the ability to see ANYWHERE and is unlikely to even have a government besides, DO AS I COMMAND OR I DESTROY YOU. After all, the only thing that can hurt Aku is Jack's sword, the most anyone else can do is keep him away; what hope does anyone else have at defense aside from an extremely small few who are designed precisely to ward away supernatural beings/guard object of godly might. that is not to mention how many alien species Aku has treated like he treats humanity.
4965508 We could argue like this all day, but their roles will be explained in the future, if you're wondering who is going to be drawing parallels to whom... Let me oblige with a spoiler warning. (note this is who vs who, the rest is secret for now)
Aku's match is Celestia, Whereas Bowser is going to be involving The 'love' Duo of the crystal empire.
Their lessons so to speak, are something I've figured out for different characters, each villain has a role intended for the greater whole. Some may be more clear cut than others, but never the less they are still there.
I have one sort of in the works, not done yet, but do you have any interest in another token?
I've been experimenting privately with an idea for my own, and have been messing around with his design and token. It's a story with element's that I've been Frakensteining together, with parts constructed, and pre-existing parts altered. It's a bit of a messy hodge podge at current, but I'd be more than happy to lend the token (once it's been resolved).
4965599
Could you make Lechku and Nechku's stories?
I'm interested...
Could we have a link to the stories mentioned?
8748926
Neither the Skargor nor Lechku and Nechku are actual stories sadly, though they shall play a role in this fiction just fine.
Hold on, is this book Skargor is mentioning the Inspiration Manifestation book from that one episode... well this will be interesting, first dark artifact was the Alicorn Amulet which PM ignored, but a book that allows one to manifest anything through their imagination... now that sounds like a pretty good combo for PM... though he needs to figure out the whole, corruption quality to the book.