All Tied Up
The pain of cooking is to accidentally burn oneself upon the stove. There was just sharp pain, coating the entirety of my body. As though one had landed face first in the hot stove top and rolled around upon it. Waking moments in agony followed by dreamless sleep from either magic or medicine I did not know. Everything hurt and all I could remember was that brief connection. Where a single strand of energy had laced from the moon lit sky, and connected to me. With it, it had felt as if an ocean wave filled to the brim with crushed, dry ice had washed over me like a sneaker wave. Caught off guard, reserves filled far past maximum I had the feeling of being about to burst, like I would of exploded. Then a snap of my fingers and nothing.
It was this bleak darkness that surrounded me for this time. But it didn't seem like much time passed at all, as though a mere blink of the eyes had transferred me from the falling sensation of the ground rushing to meet me, to the hospital bed... Then an overwhelming feeling of tiredness, in combination with the headache of having slept far longer than one should. The pain was dulled, and I could see why. There was an IV in my arm, pushing into me what I supposed was painkillers into my otherwise mummy wrapped body. But I wasn't attached to my body, it was laying there on the bed, sure. But I was set upon the nightstand. Left to face it. Like a common piece of decoration. I couldn't see my own face, it was wrapped up as much as the rest of me.
I noted, with some disconcerting awareness that my usual clothes were gone, replaced with a loose and large nightgown over the heavy bandages and that also meant someone had undressed me as a logical conclusion. I didn't know who and didn't want to know how I had come to end up in the drab teal blue almost sickly green patient garb. But as I tried to move to recover my face, my body didn't move, still sluggish and waking up, I figured it must be whatever medicine they had me on and focused on regaining feeling in my limbs. After a few minutes I was regretting the decision as dull pains, and burns began to make themselves known, still rather numb I tried to move again, and managed to tug on a blanket enough to reveal the reason I couldn't move. Which was a quadruple series of metal and leather locks on the medical bed, keeping each limb stationary and held down, while another fifth and sixth band held down my waist and torso to the bed.
Now I was concerned... Well as concerned as one who felt barely anything could be in this state. Briefly I considered my options. Which were near none until some more of the medicine wore off. During the time between passing out and waking up, it had seemed a decent portion of my magic had recovered, the energy was there but without anything to use it with it was practically useless, unless I felt like trying to learn how to levitate the bed I was on. Wait maybe I didn't have to levitate the bed... If I could concentrate...
I felt a wave of nausea overtake me as I tried to do magic on my own disembodied face. Enough so that I lost concentration, and with similar results occurring repeatedly, I gave up after the tenth try. Perhaps someone would be nice enough to put my face back on my body if I asked politely. The farthest I got was about a quarter inch off the tables surface before falling back down into where I had been laid. Which was okay I guess, perhaps I could do that cliche thing where I pretended to still be unconscious if someone came in the room and told me either their deepest darkest secrets or gave a love confession. That seemed to happen all the damn time in anime and games if someone was hospitalized.
About an hour passed without incident as if just to spite me, and I contemplated trying to go back to sleep without anything to do but wonder and plot my own eventual escape. But my position away from my body disabused me of the notion considering it was still freaky to be able to watch myself wiggle. Was my hair always that messy? I needed to get a haircut soon. I did not have hair cement to try being an anime or JRPG character. It had always been a bit long for a guy, but the time within Equestria had lengthened my chocolate colored hair to just past shoulder length before I knew it. I'd either need to invest in a brush soon or cut it. I briefly wondered if I should also dye it, then wondered if Equestria had magical hair dye in consideration to the alicorn Princesses of day and night. Before I had mostly just kept my hair in a bun behind me while working or let it down for rest or occasionally when I wanted to feel dramatic, but that probably wasn't noticed at all with my hood constantly up.
As I contemplated how Luna and Celestia maintained such extraordinary hair; the noise of hooves on stone became faintly audible. Quickly, I pretended to go back to sleep, falling limp in body like a marionette cut from its strings and letting my approximation of eyes cease to move. Something that had horrified me now that I noted it as a physical reaction was that I had never needed to blink since my face was replaced, I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to look when asleep, when I had tried 'shutting my eyes' in view of my puppets, my vision had never faultered from the blue orbs of fire that occupied the masks hollows. And unfortunately I was a bit too paranoid of Amber and my other companions back at base to let myself rest to find out. Yoko was a valid option, but to bother her with such a trifling matter at the time had never crossed my mind. I settled for the famous 'thousand yard stare', focusing on a line where the corner met the ceiling on the opposite side of the room, the straight forward position of how my mask was laid as the door entered and a semi out of focus white with pink mane entered the room.
She was replacing the drips that were in my arms, which signaled she was a medical pony. Boring. Alright, this was going nowhere. I guess I could wait or get some answered, so once she was done and about to leave the room I gave my best snarky opening line I had in a while, "Hello, there! I don't suppose you can put my face back on my body can you?"
The mare for her part jumped visibly and ran out of the room before I could say anything else, but my eyes managed to focus on her cutie mark, a red cross, as she quickly exited and slammed the metal door shut. Well that was fun. It was another hour before another came, and this time it was a white and Blue pony. I turned my gaze to him, "The armored Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. Is this a pleasure visit or business?"
Shield-butt gave my body a disdained scowl completely ignoring my face, as he walked up to my bedside form, before addressing my body, "You're awake."
"Eyes over here Sir Fluff." I drawled out annoyed, which caught his attention at least.
"Ah so it seems that I am addressing the wrong person then, Puppet." Shining commented as he went to the other side of the bed, picking me up in his hoof, and bringing me to eye level.
"Technically the same, just happens my face is away from the rest of myself. Guess you could say I've lost my breathe at this endeavor," I tried for a pun just to get a reaction but without receiving one, I joked, "Get it? Cause my mouth is not connected to my body at the-"
I was interrupted as he lightly thwacked my face into the side of the stand, leaving me to groan in pain as he held me back up, "You think this is a joke?"
That got a smile out of me, with a dry chuckle at that, "I very much believe this is above your pay grade captain. Why do they call you a captain anyway? Do you command a naval vessel? Shouldn't it be something along the lines of 'Base Commander' or Colonel?"
My good point was answered with a deadpan expression, "It is a term used for military guardsmen of the royal defense. Not the matter at issue here, you have been placed under arrest and strict guard by the Diarchy of Equestria for multiple broken laws within its lands."
"Hah, tell that to heroes as well as villains do you?" My grin was a bit forced, "Though I bet you've made it personal considering the incidents on the train and Museu-" Another face full of table, and this time I bit the damn leg of it. That caught his grip sliding off me for a moment before magic enveloped me and drug me off it. Stupid cheater magic.
"Continued talking can and will be used against you in the monarchs trial. Your right to a lawyer has been approved of by Princess Luna, and you will be able to appoint one by letter. And in case you are thinking about being rescued by your allies..." Shining Armors gaze narrowed, "We've found the location of your base and are currently undergoing the raid of it as we speak."
My heart skipped a beat, forcefully concealing my shock, and thinking it over. How had they found it? My thought skimmed through my mind, circling back through the chain of events that had lead to me being here. It couldn't of been Luna, in my mind I didn't ever see her trying to force herself into my memories. Which meant further back. And I realized that there had been a new exit and entrance made into my base before the battle had started. My eyes hardened into a glare, and Shining Armor's magical grip almost faltered at the pure venom in my voice, "Rainbow Dash."
It made sense, the hole in the mountain made by that 'Android' lady, a beam meant to kill me in its first strike had instead opened a half-person sized hole that could of been climbed out of if desired. She probably saw it as a perfect chance. So much for being loyalty, though I had doubted that allegiance at the start. No doubt when she saw that my base wasn't in the woods but rather at the mountain, she had flown back and done the loyal thing to her nation and friends and made my base of operations public. To think I had just armed her with a sword as well. Well there was a bit of my plans to make Rainbow a witness to tragedy into a different tragedy. There was likely going to be casualties for this, Yoko and her group of space marines would cut a lot of folk down before they could be brought down. Though I hoped they saw the subsequent loss of power as a reason to evacuate. I had no longer any control over the GLaDOS puppet mask I had early on noted, and with the mask there they should be able to escape instead hopefully.
"She came directly to the castle and told the entire day court where your base was. Did you expect her not to?" Shining Armors face was neutral, "You endangered several of her friends, and on your first meeting knocked her unconcious with a shovel." Shining Armor pointed out, and I sighed.
"Yeah, well I was hoping after the disaster with your sister and her friends, that her position would of changed somewhat. After the ill advised idea that was Mare Do Well."
Shining armored Tsked at me, which was mildly surprising. So I asked, "So when are the rest of the element bearers going to get arrested?" Which got me a raised eyebrow.
"Why would I arrest my sister and her friends?"
"Well lets see..." I rolled my eyes, "Do you want individual accounts which will take a while, or the rough approximation? No wait don't answer that I'll begin with your sister," Shining armor went to open his mouth and retort but I interrupted him, "Attempted extinction and mass genocide of an entire species through use of magic. The mass brainwashing and mind rape of the use of the 'Want it Need it spell'. Neglect and mild abuse of a minor, as well as complicit in robbery of gemstones of a tribe of Diamond Dogs with Rarity, among unlawful use of magic and other things. If you give me a sheet of paper and a pen I could write a complete list given a day or two."
Shining armor paused, "You're lying."
"That's the fun thing with people like you Shining Armor. I don't need to. Heroes are just Criminals with a moral high ground." I laughed, and laughed hard, "You lot are blind to the crimes as long as the villain or monster of the week is brought down in the end. They could demolish a barn with a Rainboom without a permit and no one would care because they are 'heroes'. The alternative is the Villain wins."
"They are heroes of Equestria, having beat both Nightmare Moon and Discord, the spirit of chaos, even if they commit minor crimes, its for the greater good of all of Equestria..." Shining armor started to say before he realized where I was going with this.
I felt particularly smug when his white face mildly cracked in horror, and continued on, "And you now realize it, don't you? That no matter how you answer you lose. Ignore me and crimes go unpunished, revealing what sort of government is at this core. Prosecute them, and you sentence your sister to jail time as well as me. Because letting someone go on from minor crimes based on benefit means a dangerous precedent." My smile cracked, edges of my mouth turning into a particularly demonic grin, "And I'm willing to bet with two major threats as well out of the way, as well as having Aided in the return of a certain so and so, and the other net benefits of my existence, that if leeway is given to the Elements of Harmony, for what rules they have broken. Some will be forced to apply to me as well."
"You're a monster. You'll never get away with this." Shining armor murmured, placing my mask down on the table face down, probably just to annoy me, "I'll make sure of it."
I rolled my eyes, as he left. The boy was painfully predictable. And I did mean boy instead of man. His maturity was flawed and he was doomed to being tricked by Chrysalis soon anyway. Vaguely I wondered when my next visitor appeared, and hoped to gain some better amusement from them while I was confined to this bed. Pondering about the fate of my friends, and hoping against some odds that they would get away to safety. A lingering sense of dread in my heart.
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It liiiivvvvvveesss!
Finally a new chapter! Hopefully the wait won’t be as long for the next one.
Fucking morons
aaand it's in the featured box again, what is it every update now?
the use
I'll break them down one by one
1) if you mean the Parasprite that probably wasn't the entire species,
2) I agree the "Want it Need it" spell is horrid
3) I wouldn't call most of the abuse spike goes through "mild".
ignoring all the times it couldn't be helped, twilight still smacked him a few times, didn't teleport him to safety letting him crash on the house, and left him on a piece of ice to possibly drown when it melts. Have you ever been dropped in water when asleep, here is a hint to what happens you freak out and try to breathe in, he could have died! Plus no one ever apologizes even when they literally beat him with things like doors they just ignore him in pain which might technically be mental abuse as well.
4) technically it wasn't a robbery it was extortion, which legally might be worse. Ok so I looked it up and robbery is a maximum of 5 years while extortion is a maximum of 20 years... so yeah it's pretty bad.
Can't wait to see a pissed signing armor if the MC gets out of this without any major penalties.
media0.giphy.com/media/3oEjI6hkw6nbYNQkz6/giphy.gif?cid=19f5b51a5c711f027269734973c3c03e
YES YES new chapter haha more MORE
Please
I'd simply hand Shining Idiot the following:
"Feel free to drag me into a court of law and try me. I'll make DAMNED certain that everything I know about your sister and her five idiot friends is made part of the official court record. Then what, Shield-boy? Gonna break the law yourself by staging a cover-up? Ignore the law by getting an 'official' pardon from Princess Celestia - which everypony will know means the system is corrupt? Or will you simply have me 'shot while trying to escape'? Please choose one. Take your time, I'll be busy healing here."
I love breaking idiots who believe the world is a nice, shining, good and kind place.
I wonder if this time we'll be getting daily uploads. Or at the very least Weekly.
But no, it will probably be another 6 months to a year before the next chapter, which will have very little going for it.
9472494
Heh heh heh. Signing Armor.
Brilliant simply brilliant!
9472714
It's possible I shouldn't make comments so late at night... but hey now someone can make a story about the deaf guardsman signing armor. How would ponies with hooves even speak sign?
9472969
I imagine by bending their front hoof and upper leg into different spots. Unicorns and Pegasus ponies might have an easier time of it considering unicorns could just use magic to 'write' in the air with their telekinetic fields to 'hold' air. While Pegasus ponies have their wings to add as 'arms' for spelling easier.
He has two options either he sees RD and says " I knew you couldn't be trusted or he could go full drama to make a point. Here is a me representation of what that would look like.
PM- I see betrayal isn't just something your friends do.
RD- Hey I was loyal to my friends.
PM- I gave you somewhere to turn after they betrayed you, I showed you the truth of who they are and gave you an option. I showed you the good I was doing with Cassette and the civilization I saved from a mad king. I gave you every reason to trust me and didn't betray you, even when I could have used you as bait to throw the princesses off of my trail I refused and let you live in peace. You can sit there and think you did the right thing but I will not let you lie and claim you were loyal. You betrayed me and everyone under my command who might have called you a friend. You the opposite loyal, you have betrayed everyone on all sides at least once.
nice
9473449
Comments like these make my day.
9473548
There was a long episode on this indeed. Where the gods were both tasked with the creation of the shows universe(Implying they also made Aku's 'mom' with the sole purpose of fighting it) and fighting the giant black space blob of whom a sliver of escaped and landed on earth. A poisoned arrow was fired into the resulting tar pit granting the mindless goo that was slowly poisoning the land sentience, and Aku was born. Only to be nearly immediately attacked by Jack's dad again and cue the show intro.
9472522
9472494
Both of these show some very clear insight to what's going on. Gotta love the national hero problem. I mean imagine if heroes were held accountable for crimes committed during their path to defeat the villain? A lot of games would end in massive lawsuits prosecuting the hero for one thing or another.
9473753
thanks oh and I have one other point I forgot to mention, I don't remember at what point the PM is in the show's timeline, but I just want to remind everyone about tank's hibernation. I don't think that happened yet, but it shows she is willing to break into a government building and sabotage equipment. That had nothing to do with a bad guy, she just committed federal sabotage becouse she wanted to.
oh and I have to ask, it's been a while since the update before this, is that your update schedule or was there just a lot of ... "Life" going on the last few months?
9473853
Its been a combination of life and lack of a 'good place to write'. Recently moved and yet to get a proper desk set up for a good 'writing mood' situation. Work and life in combination with this has slugged me down to a crawl of what I was before. Back when I started my two prinary fics I had a college environment and a good time to write between classes or during classes when I had already finished the days material. Now that I'm working, I don't have that anymore. Which leaves me with my days off (Which life likes to drain) or post work when I'm dead tired from physical labor and mental labor of dealing with customers for 8 hours. I try to update it when I can but so far trying to find the time and energy to write has been like finding a pincushion worth of needles in a semi-large haystack.
9473912
Wait a minute... I'm at college right now, and you are telling me it gets harder... GOD DAMNIT.
After reading this amazing fic I have only one thing to say I now ship puppet moon
9473548
Aku is never portrayed as anything other than a being made of pure evil that seeks to rule the world as a tyrant.
Aku was Evil Incarnate; he embodied the very essence of an evil overlord. Cruel and domineering to all that he met, it was obey or be obliterated with Aku. Arrogant, temperamental, callous, and sadistic by default, Aku ruled the Earth for thousands of years and did not take kindly to disobedience. Aku was responsible for countless genocides, with cities, towns, villages, and small settlements being completely destroyed, alongside all their inhabitants, while nature itself was left to rot or was decimated in order to make room for Aku's strongholds. It was likely that religions were also affected, given Aku's loathing toward all that was good and sacred. Furthermore, the complete lack of divine intervention from the Gods allowed Aku to conquer Earth and rule its inhabitants with a iron fist. While Aku had recreated numerous lands into his own image, he was often just as satisfied with leaving entire areas barren wastelands and saw the carnage as reminders of his power to the general populace. Atrocities were a daily occurrence since Aku's rule, as he welcomed wanted criminals from across the galaxy, provided them with areas that were still fully occupied, and entrusted the new arrivals to wipe the populaces from the Earth. When he was faced with opposition, Aku found enjoyment in slaughtering thousands of rebel armies with ease, and often made one's circumstances even worse than death if they still longed to fight him. Such was the case of the Lava Monster who fought against Aku, even as Aku decimated all of his warriors. As punishment, Aku encased the man in a crystal and forced him to watch as he slaughtered everyone that he loved, destroyed his kingdom, placed him within the depths of a mountain, and refused to grant him a warrior's death. A similar action was performed shortly after Aku's true birth: he forced Jack's father, the Emperor, to watch him begin his reign of terror on his homeland. To increase his already formidable power, Aku also plundered the world, and countless other planets of their riches and resources and enslaved surrounding species to do the heavy lifting. Those that refused were often tortured and executed, as with the case of Jack's people and the Canine Archaeologists. Numerous scientists were recruited, so that Aku may leverage their intelligence in order to create an unstoppable army of robots to take over various lands considerably quicker and eliminate more carefully hidden pockets of resistance. Aku's powers were even able to conjure up demons and monstrosities, who were then unleashed upon the land in order to create further sorrow and misery. Aku was cruel, merciless, and inhumane, to say the least, but had enough of an understanding of humanity in order to manipulate the feelings of others: Aku often blackmailed others to perform his will and then betrayed his promises to them once they fulfilled their services. Aku was as intelligent as he was powerful, and his cunning knew little end, from taking the form of a woman in order to trick Jack or manipulated various races into serving him. Aku was also dishonest and had no shame or remorse, and routinely went back on his word either to serve himself or simply for amusement. Aku took pleasure in slave labor and enslaved countless races across the universe. Those slaves were often forced to build monuments in Aku's likeness and mined precious resources. When they failed to do so, the slaves were punished terribly and were sometimes executed, such in the case of the talking canines. The slaves of Aku's empire often died due to exhaustion and lack of food and were replaced with more slaves. Aku particularly enjoyed doing that to great and powerful people such as the Emperor and saw it as the ultimate insult to have them live the lives of revered and respectable figures and spend the rest of their lives as helpless slaves later.
He is in no way a tragic or sympathetic villain.
9475897
Alternate ship name: MasterMoond. Like mastermind, get it?
When next AWESOME chapter!?
This is a awesome fanfic cant wait for the next chapter and it look like things are going to be interesting.
I love it when the villain points out a painfully obvious flaw. It makes it so ironic!
But seriously, Puppet Master makes excellent points which makes me wonder if they would even give Puppet Master a harsh punishment.
It's good to see that this villain train is still going, because damn do we not have enough of these kind of stories.
With the gloves gone I have prop?/replacement suggestion. Mark of the Outsider from Dishonored series. Don't know about upgrading the powers it grants but only way to lose it would be with the hand it is painted on.
I truly hope you consider this… if you even notice my comment.
I love this shi
when next AWESOME update?
I'm very curious about what other tragic villains will show up.
Ralph the wolf from the movie Rampage?
Pitch Black from Guardians?
Magneto from xmen?
Darth Vader from star wars?
Ninetails from Okami?
Tempest Shadow from my little pony...…….???
xp
Congratulations dude! out of hundreds of faved stories in my collection you made the Top 5!
More please
9515435
Ah, it’s from long ago, without an editor focused on rooting out those little mistakes, they are easy to miss
9515440
Yeah, unfortunately every single editor I've ever had seem to die around 0-2 chapters worth of editing due to various reasons. My Fallout fic had roughly 16 'editors' of whom only 3 of which editted any number of chapters. 1 edited 3 chapters, the second edited 6 and the third lasted 1.
Most of the ones after that point just
'I want to edit'
'OK, let me send you some contact info on skype/discord so we can chat'
*Poof. Gone.*
So I occasionally backtrack instead, re-read some fics, even play the chapter on one of those fake 'synth voices' while taking the occasional bath to listen for anything odd flowing now and then. Usually before I submit a chapter as well I will run it through my spellchecker to make sure only things like names are seen as incorrect. How I missed this detail is hilarious to me as a result.
9515477
I feel like I offered to edit for you. Maybe. Maybe not, but my offer is here, if you need an editor, I'm here. If you are interested, PM me.
Puppet Master, you magnificent bastard!
9573320
I was actually hoping for the seaquestrians to sing that song in the movie.
9475935
Exactly, aku is literally made of evil. He is fundementally incapable of (intentionally) doing anything even remotely good, even when it would clearly benefit him. But Iridescence has acknowledged that fact and given an explaination for it in one of his comments. I'd link it, but I don't know how to. Still, I think Dr. Doom would have been a better choice to use.
Ooooh, I can't wait to see what happens next.
This is to the author: I love your story, out of all Displaced-themed stories, this is one of the several that I read and enjoyed entirely, at some point I may add this to my "Reread Collection" I would read this again in a heartbeat given the chance!
9473026
Either that or using their legs–or arms, if they're anthro–to stomp out a pattern. If you want an example of this, just search "Your Human and You" and give it a read. It'll take a few chapters, but you'll get there eventually.