No Strings Attached

“Hmm? Where exactly am I?”

The owner of the voice raised itself off of the snowy ground, the tall biped shaking its head to clear the drowsiness from its mind. The biped was tall and lean, standing ten feet tall and dressed in very bright clothing, flaunting his appearance for any that might be around. He wore a white shirt with red stripes, a green belt and orange pants with white stripes. He also wore a bright pink coat of feathers with purple tinted glasses. The biped rubbed the sleep from its eyes, pushing the glasses above its eyes, before scratching behind one of its ears, messing up its blond hair in the process. When it was fully awake, the biped scanned its surroundings, the snowy wasteland definitely not the sort of hell he thought he would end up in.

He was  Donquixote Doflamingo, the “Heavenly Demon”, one of the seven warlords of the sea, the infamous Joker who ruled the underworld, a pirate with a bounty of 340,000,000 beli and a former Celestial Dragon. His habitual smile no longer present on his face, he tried to recall his final moments before he had awoken here. As he recalled his memories, he slowly began to snarl over the whole debacle. He thought he had everything under control. There was simply no way that a pair of brats could actually defeat him and ruin all of his plans, but that was exactly what had happened to him. Law and Strawhat Luffy had landed on his kingdom of Dressrosa in the hopes of destroying the SMILE factory and while he was sure he and his family could easily crush them, the rookies had defied all of the odds and succeeded, forcing him and his family to flee in defeat. Not long after his escape, he and his family were pursued by Kaido, one of the four emperors because he had managed to find out that he couldn’t produce anymore SAD. He was proud to say that he and his family had cost Kaido a fair amount of losses for hunting him down, but he knew that he was only helping Law and Strawhat by giving the chance they needed to take Kaido down themselves. Doflamingo snarled, veins quickly appearing as his anger threatened to overwhelm him. In the end, Kaido had come for him and his crew himself and they had unfortunately been wiped out by him. He could remember the innumerable wounds he suffered at his hands as he met his end, but his anger slowly receded as he realized that the wounds he had before his death were no longer there.

He checked his entire body and confirmed that there weren’t even any scars on him anymore. Was he truly alive? If so, how? Doflamingo frowned as he took in his surroundings. He noticed a large hill of snow near him, shielding him from the constant blizzard around him, the cold not bothering him in the slightest. He stared at the hill until he made a sudden swipe of his hand at it, five near invisible strings shooting out from his fingertips, aimed at the hill of snow as it was promptly sliced five times horizontally. Eyebrow raised, he stared at his hand until he slowly began to smile. Apparently, his ability had not left him, even though he knew that upon death, a devil fruit user’s power would be reborn as its original fruit somewhere in the world afterwards. Doflamingo began to laugh, a slow chuckle as it slowly rose in volume as his laughter echoed across the frozen landscape.

Apparently luck was still on his side. He may have lost everything due to unfortunate chance, but he still had his life and powers and he would make great use of it all in order to get his revenge on everyone that had ever crossed him. His laughter died down, he smiled softly as he began to think.

‘fufufufu! I will get my revenge on those brats! Even if I have to do it all on my own! Now, I need to find out where exactly am I before doing anything else. I need to find some sort of civilization in this wasteland.’

Doflamingo scanned the horizon, revealing an endless expanse of nothing. He turned around, nothing but more snow and rocks, until he spotted a sliver of … something in the distance. Doflamingo leaned forward and squinted, trying to bring the elusive object into focus. He saw a tall tower that seemed to shine in this dark, desolate place and nodded to himself.

“Guess it’s as good a place as any to go to. Fufufu, guess it’s time to meet the inhabitants of this island.”

With a flourish of his hand, he shot a piece of string at the closest cloud and launched himself high into the air. The jump took him 50 feet up into the air, as he relished the sensation of floating high up in the sky once more, and began to propel himself toward the tower. His flight was essentially swinging through the air and launching himself as far as he could, before attaching another string to the nearest cloud, and repeating the process. The sky path was clear as it led him to the tower and possible city it held. The constant snow and clouds in the air making him think he was on some winter island. With a big smile, Doflamingo was eager to start his journey anew. He may have experienced a major setback, but he was determined to start fresh and take out his frustrations on the luckless humans of the unsuspecting city.

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Doflamingo had made great time flying towards the structure, the sun barely visible in the sky due to the clouds shrouding the land in shadow. He looked towards the spire, the shaft of what appeared to be crystal reaching high into the sky.

He glided down and landed on a small snowy ridge. He stopped, taking in the sight arrayed before him. The spire appeared to be part of a large crystalline structure, the structure possibly some sort of citadel or palace. A blizzard of snow was raging at the top of the structure, hiding it from view. Arranged around the crystal structure was a large city, multiple buildings that also appeared to be crystalline in nature surrounding it, forming a star shaped pattern in the snow.

Doflamingo decided to walk towards the city, deciding to hide his abilities from the residents that may have been living in the crystalline city. It was not long before he reached the start of a long road, no gates or walls barring his way. He advanced towards the citadel, the buildings around him at first looking like they were empty, however upon closer inspection, Doflamingo could see frightened eyes staring out at him through closed windows, shades and blinds covering those who dwelled within. The majority of the buildings seemed to be residential dwellings, with a few smattering of shops in a few places. The buildings possessed smaller doors than what he was used to, more and more evidence pointing to the possibility that whatever lived in this city was not human.

That was something that puzzled him. He didn’t think they were fishman or any other sentient beings he knew of for he could see that the eyes staring at him in fear from the buildings were too big, almost comical despite the situation. His anger gave way to curiosity, and he decided to refrain from causing a scene by destroying anything.

‘If the beings living here aren’t human, yet still have sapience, then maybe it would be good to show them that I’m not a threat.’ He smiled, fully knowing that he could toy around with the lives of these beings in any way he saw fit. Maybe he would treat them like his former subjects in Dressrosa, with kindness and only punish those that would actually defy him.

‘fufufu. Before that, I should find out who’s in charge and ‘persuade’ him or her to hand over control to me.’ Chuckling to himself, he continued to walk towards the large tower in the center of this little city.

Doflamingo reached the base of the citadel, four long legs holding it off the ground. There were no guards or sentries to block his way as he entered via a door set into one of the tower legs, as he ascended the staircase he found within. He strolled through a lavish entrance hallway, the walls covered in black crystal, no sign of life present at all in the lonely rooms. He reached a large spiral staircase, the circular walkway leading upwards, towards the top of the castle. Doflamingo began to ascend, muttering to himself.  “I wonder if anything in this palace can provide me a challenge. I doubt it though. I’ll have to figure out the rest after I see exactly what I’m dealing with here.”

He reached the top of the staircase and was confronted with a large pair of double doors, the brown oak they were constructed from appearing firm and strong. The smile on his face dimmed a little as he could hear multiple sobs, filtering out from the other side, overlaid with maniacal laughter, the crystals growing out from the walls pulsing with a black glow every time a peal of laughter was released.  His smile grew after realizing what the situation was like behind those doors.

“Well, it looks like I can play the hero here while violently killing the fool laughing like a madman. Fufufufufu, I hope he’ll beg me for his life… ” Doflamingo chuckled before pushing open the doors and striding into the room.

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King Sombra was having a good day. Having escaped from the banishment that was imposed on him by those wretched Equestrian Princesses, he had returned, his Empire of slaves returning with him. It had been easy regaining control of the empire, the citizens all fleeing from his presence, hiding in their pathetic excuses for homes. A few were not so lucky, however, a multitude of Crystal Ponies were chained up in his throne room, reminding him of the good old days. He glanced down at the six young mares chained to his throne, all of them huddled together as far as possible from him, another twenty ponies chained to the walls surrounding the room, black crystals locking their chains in place.

Sombra eyed one of the mares, his former personal servant by the name of Sparkling Scroll, the mare having functioned as an assistant back before his banishment. Sombra flashed a grin before levitating Sparkling up in his magic, the Mare beginning to thrash around, the chain attached to her neck clattering as she tried to escape. Sombra levitated her closer, stopping only when her face was right before his. Her eyes were clenched shut, tears streaming down her face before Sombra once again used his magic, forcing the mare’s eyelids open, revealing dull green eyes. The mare continued to sob as Sombra began to levitate her closer, the other ponies chained to the throne, looking on in horror. Sombra began to open his mouth, revealing a forked red tongue as he began to lean for-

SLAM!

Sombra jolted back, his magic dissipating, the mare falling down, colliding with his armoured body before coming to rest at the foot of the throne, her head bleeding from a gash above her right eye. Sombra glared at the doorway, a strange bipedal figure dressed in a white shirt with red stripes, a green belt and orange pants with white stripes. He also wore a bright pink coat of feathers with purple tinted glasses.

“Sorry to interrupt,” the figure announced, “but I was wondering who was in charge here so I can kill them.”

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Doflamingo glanced around the room after his opening statement, the forms of what appeared to be small ponies chained up against the walls of the room. In the middle of the room on a throne constructed of black crystal sat a black horse, a red horn lodged in the middle of its forehead indicating that it was a unicorn. The horse was wearing a crown and armor that appeared to be made of silver, a red flowing cape topping off the whole evil villain look. The horse glared at him intensely, its abnormally large eyes sporting red irises tinged with green around the edges.

At the foot of the throne was a prone pony, blood flowing from a cut to its head with color of the vital fluid matching its crimson mane. It was attached to the throne via a chain, along with five other ponies that were currently gazing at him in terror and Doflamingo noted that they were straining the chains around their necks, trying to get as far away from the seated horse as possible.

“Creature,” the black horse hissed, a forked tongue flickering out from between its lips, “why do you disturb me with your disgusting presence?”

Doflamingo only chuckled, his smile growing wider at the black horse’s insult.

“I’ll have you know Horsey, I’m quite the catch for any female of any species, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still going to kill you.”

“I AM KING SOMBRA CREATURE!” The horse roared, jumping of the throne over the injured pony, landing in front of Doflamingo “I AM RULER OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE, MASTER OF ALL THESE WORTHLESS SLAVES!”

At the word ‘slaves’ Doflamingo’s brow furrowed, he may have employed slaves himself, but they were usually enemies or the citizens who decided to speak out against him. He never enslaved anyone who followed him loyally though. Also, it appeared that the sapient life on this planet were ponies, as strange and humorous as that was, he could tell that the majority of these ponies were not completely like the filthy humans of the old world. He wasn’t sure why that was exactly, but he could tell they were an innocent race, with the exception of the so called ruler in front of him. At the moment, he decided to play the hero in this, to be adored by these strange creatures after killing this arrogant fool who dared to face him. “Fufufufu. So, you're King Sombra, huh? Well I don’t really care because you are NOTHING compared to me. So why don’t you stand still so I can kill you in front of your so called subjects!”

Sombra’s glare intensified, he didn’t think that some ugly biped would have the audacity to challenge him, but he was determined to make an example of the foolish being.

“YOU IGNORANT PEASANT! I’ll HAVE YOU FLAYED ALIVE FOR SUCH MOCKERY! ILL HAVE YOU PUT IN A ZOO, FOREVER DOOMED TO AMUSE ME LIKE THE FILTHY ANIMAL YOU ARE!”

“Heh heh heh. Pretty big talk for a coward who is too full of himself to do anything.” Doflamingo taunted with a laugh.

That was it; Sombra could take no more; despicable, slave-driving tyrants had an immense amount of pride and arrogance to go with their egos.  “DIE YOU IGNORANT FOAL!”

Sombra’s horn became wreathed in black smoke before a black spike of crystal shot from the tip, aiming to strike at Doflamingo’s heart. However, the spike was dodged with an almost contemptuous ease by Doflamingo, his smile growing bigger at the display. The surrounding ponies gasped, the creature had managed to avoid death from the most powerful and evil unicorn tyrant in history. Sombra stood in shock at how his attack failed to hit its target and with a roar, Sombra unleashed a hail of black crystals at the biped, eager to turn it into a pin cushion for daring to challenge him. Doflamingo held his coat in his right hand and swung his arm over himself to guard against the barrage as his coat covered his form. The spikes collided with their target, each one embedding itself into its mark and propelled Doflamingo towards one of the crystal pillars until his body slammed into it. His form slumped a little on the pillar as he sat there unmoving. The crystal ponies gasped and cringed in fear as the tyrant had made his first kill upon returning from his exile. Sombra turned around triumphantly, facing the ponies chained to his crystal throne.

“SEE WHAT HAPPENED SLAVES! SEE WHAT BECOMES OF THOSE WHO DISOBEY YOUR MIGHTY KING!”

The downed bipedal figure gave a twitch, going un-noticed by the evil King, Sombra being too preoccupied with his monologue. The feathered coat also began to fade back into its pink color after having just changed to a jet black color, which had occurred just before the spikes hit the biped. This little detail was also ignored by the arrogant king.

“I AM SOMBRA, MOST POWERFUL OF ALL UNICORNS!”

The biped picked itself up, the black crystals still sticking to its coat as it rose to its full, intimidating height, the unsettling grin still plastered on its face as it slowly crept up behind the king.

“I HAVE OUTGROWN ALL MORTALS! MY POWER UNMATCHED! MY STRENGTH BEOND REACH OF ANYTHING ELSE ALI-“

Sombra was interrupted by a tapping on his shoulder, the King turning around to view what dared intrude on his victory gloat.

Before him stood the bipedal creature, its appearance unchanged despite the assault he had just inflicted upon it, his crystals imbedded in the pink feathers, seemingly unaffected by his crystal spikes.

“BUT HOW!?” Bellowed Sombra, incredibly confused as he saw his attack strike his target. The biped’s smile grew until it spread across its face, displaying its teeth for all the ponies to see. It swiftly lifted its foot high into the air and promptly brought it down on Sombra’s head, pushing the unicorn down onto the ground without enough force to send a web of cracks around the floor.

The ponies around stared with slack jawed expressions, as Sombra coughed up blood, immobilized by the biped’s foot. Doflamingo raised his foot again and began stomping at Sombra’s body, each impact making the ponies wince and the king to cry out in pain. Doflamingo drew his foot back and kicked Sombra high into the air and with a wave of his hand and quick positioning of his fingers, he managed to suspend the pony in midair with his strings, invisible to practically all but himself.

“fufufu. You are quite pathetic, you know that. You should have at least tried to follow through with your attacks and actually make sure to finish me off, but you never had a chance against me anyway.” Doflamingo laughed while Sombra slowly opened his eyes to stare hatefully at the biped.

“YOU INSOLENT WRETCH! RELEASE ME AT ONCE!” Sombra screamed in rage unable to move at all. He tried to focus his magic to set himself free, but something was preventing him from accessing his magic.

“Nonono…We can’t have you escaping your punishment now…” Doflamingo smiled at the king. “After all, I want to see if you can beg for your life.” Doflamingo swiped his right hand in the air, aiming his strings at the unicorn. “Pentachromatic Strings!” Instantly, five wounds appeared across Sombra’s body, his screams echoing across the throne room as the five cuts began to bleed freely as the drops fell to the floor.

“How does that feel? I will grant you a swift death if you beg me for your life.” Smiling widely, Doflamingo swiped at Sombra again with his left hand, inflicting more wounds across the king’s body. The king could only glare hatefully at him, not saying a word. Still smiling, Doflamingo raised a single finger pointed at Sombra’s forehead.

“If you can’t even beg for your wretched life, I’ll just end it all now for you. Bullet String” answered the biped, before a force suddenly shot out from the biped’s claw and impacted with Sombra’s face, aimed right between the eyes as the projectile burst from the back of the king’s head, blood gushing out as the light slowly dimmed away from the king’s eyes. Doflamingo released the strings holding the king aloft and let the body fall to the ground, a pool of blood slowly forming underneath the corpse.

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Sparkling Scroll watched through the stream of blood flowing down her head to the floor as the strange biped stood tall as it looked down at Sombra.

“This is why you never turn your back on an enemy unless you make sure they’re dead.” Doflamingo smiled down at the pathetic tyrant, dead before him after a simple shot of string. He chuckled to himself. “That’s what you get for being a villain with a complex. Still, I should have made your death as slow as possible, maybe torture you a bit more so you could beg me for your wretched life. Oh well…” He gazed upon the group of ponies that were all chained up, their expressions conveying pure terror over what they just witnessed. ‘Guess they’re in shock…Oh well, too bad for them, but this empire is mine now. The first step to a second chance at life!’

“So,” the blood-stained King-slayer began, “I’m your new emperor. Let’s try to get along with one another.”

Sparkling Scroll fainted, the blood loss from her head wound combined with the violent display sending her into unconsciousness, the last thing she saw was a beam of sunlight piercing through the clouds, shining light into the bleak throne room.