Story draft: Puppets of Tragedy · 6:47am January 3rd
With my leaving of the fandom, I'm leaving behind my notes, written and otherwise regarding the story I had in mind before I more or less left the fandom, the list of reasons can be found why, here, but with my passion for MLP; and Hasbro as a whole has taken a massive hit over the years, I don't want to leave too many things unanswered for fans of my writing. So I'm going to give folks the story outlines and writers notes that I had for my various stories, this one addressing Puppets of Tragedy.
Spoilers below, if you haven't had a chance to read through the entirety of the written fic.
Alexander Red Herrington, Puppet Master of tragedy, had a lot of work I was going to break into him. Namely; the shattering of the mask that was his face(And pscyhe) and the loss of body was going to be a fun part of writing. With numerous Goals in mind, which were the following:
Luna encountering bits and pieces of Xander's (as he hated being called Alex due to the 'self percieved' genericness of the former); fractured psyche from various points in his life embodying how he saw himself as she, and friends, collected pieces of his mask from the villains they became by defeating them with the proper power of Words (In villain cases such as the Ice King), or combat(Sauron); or mixture thereof.
The first fragments coalesing into the unhappy childhood before he met what would be his best friend, Yuko, an emotional more or less toddler who had only television as a comfort. A scene in mind of the outside world as dangerous, with bullies flooding the 'outside world', dramatized and nightmarish, Luna getting the kid some comfort in the way she could only do best, (Given she has helped numerous foals with their nightmare issues; and adult ponies as well, this is right inside her comfort zone), and comparing the Child psyche's nightmares to her own experiences that lead up to her becoming Nightmare Moon. Eventually the two ending up fighting each others mental demons with a hug and held hands. Causing the mask shard to 'wake up' a bit, albeit, bodiless, to start acting as another voice in Luna's head while she wears the shard of the mask.
Luna having her own issues with the mindwashing having been broken, and fighting that inner turmoil as well was going to cause issues down several chapters, the 'personifcation of Nightmare Moon bothering her, only for that Nightmare aspect to be bothered in turn by Child. Child was going to get the normal name of Alex, as well.
It was up in the air and undecided to whom I was going to make the cast go after first, given my writing style for the Puppet of Tragedy was to put main plot (Character Growth) above subplot(Villains being villains.), so I had more notes on the other shards first and foremost in mind; regardless of the convience, My first goal was going to be throwing them towards the Crystal Empire (Normally where you'd go LAST on the journey,) while the Wendigo King personality that took Xanders original body and changed it to his own needs used the Puppet Masters knowledge of events to go after 'gathering' more power. This being an announcement and subsequent branding of the Princesses and Main Six as traitors to the very ideals they embodied across the nation via magical announcement, and pulling on Celestias chains all at once so that *everyone* could feel it. The idea being, 'The curse Celestia has laid upon you has damaged your own magic, so naturally, breaking those chains and freeing your thoughts are going to leave you a little weaker afterwards' to safely harvest massive amounts of magical power while on the lookout for the other 'shard's of the mask.
The villain would dub themselves the 'True' Puppet Master for publicity, but take a new name as the Temporary Soverign of Equestria, and further boost that fact by using show knowledge to get ahead of numerous disasters for his own gain. Namely being, dethroning and taking over the Storm King, eating Sombra alive(Who the heroes would barely avoid getting caught while grabbing Saurons mask shard and escaping) and getting involved in multi-national politics (if one nation had the Elements of Harmony, who knows what other nations might have to arrange to be stolen).
All that aside, the other shards were more my plot goal written wise.
The Second shard, Dubbed 'Child X', who is more a curious nerd with a love for books to rival Twilight, who met his first friend and was dragged into Tabletops by them. The two becoming the lifelong friends they are today.
The Third shard, dubbed 'Inquistor D.' in my notes, who was the side obsessed with Roleplaying, and battlefield tactics. Entirely stuck 'in character' even after waking up.
The Fourth Shard dubbed 'Hobby Master', which was where Xander's passions for the table became a passion for costume designs, a bit of a fashion critic but with a curious; if reserved delight.
The fifth shard being 'Overworked Puppet', detailing the life lead in the real world as someone who has to make props for a profession rather than a hobby, I'll spare you the amount of time I searched regarding making that a profession (Even years later, I still get adds about getting into the prop making industry and hobby stores).
And the sixth shard being acquired at Canterlot during the final confrontation, with high risks at the stake, the shard being Xander's experiences with all his friends and (more or less adopted by that point) family that far.
All ages hand in hand would reunite and the day would of been saved, but the magic gathered and reward given hinted by the 'Merchant' would get the Puppet Master to transcend into the multidimensional barrier shortly afterwards.
He'd bring naught but his new wife(planned Luna,) singular non-equestrian origined friend, and magic into the void and I had a short scene planned where Alexander took up becoming a merchant himself of 'transdimensional wares', and the merchant giving a coy smile with brief alusions to that the Puppet Master was gradually on his way to becoming another multi-dimensional entity similarly to the Merchant to finish off the main 'overaching story' of villain to hero, hero to rebel, rebel to god that I had in mind.
Main plot aside, I had some more stuff in mind, atop that goal.
A Ditzy and Blueblood Romance, with the two becoming the Queen and King of Equestria in the end instead of restoring Celestia or installing the main six as the ones in charge.
Giving each of the main six a chance to 'Grow' outside of the bonds of their shackle and find their own friend groups naturally rather than artifically; usually with the locals of the area they were brought into. Eventually the main six would reconcile, have a bit of a bitter chapter where they each talk with each other about their differences, and estabilish a light friendship naturally over the difficulties they had rather than off the pretense of the Elements keeping them together, and find some other common ground besides their overall professions.
I had notes for: Rainbow Dash/Applejack and fitness, Fluttershy and Rarity, with Style, Fluttershy and Applejack, regarding farm animals, and pests, Pinkie Pie and Rarity with 'Ladies tea and pastries and formal events(Read: Parties), And Twilight Sparkle getting a little bit shafted of her ponyville friends but finding a natural friendship within the other Unicorns of the Unicorn College now that she had 'opened up' a bit more than Season 1 start.
Twilight Sparkle had a planned subplot that was going to start where she finds it hard to find any common grounds now that the magical chains binding them together are gone, where she would have a crisis regarding how to stay friends with her friends and what interests they share common grounds with, only to realize she doesn't share much in common with any of them, But have a small realization that its okay 'not to have a shared interest' with things in your friend group, and slowly break away to find her own social circle rather than being roughly thrown into a square shaped hole as a round peg and suffer for it; with the epiologue holding a cute scene in mind where she stops doing work in a Magical Research Lab, to go have a coffee with a few friends. With hints that she is looking into multidimensional travel, as well as that the friend thats taking her out for coffee might be flirting with her too a few years past the end of the main story.
Discord, Celestia, and Chrysalis, were going to become a trio as part of a 'dungeon' plot more or less, within Canterlot, with Celestia being held hostage with her magic (mostly) in tact, and the other two being drained to powerlessness. Celestia being needed to continue to 'Raise and Lower the Sun' being a center plot point since the Wendigo-King doesn't know the spell to do so themselves; Discord, because killing him would only free him as a problem down the line, and has information regarding multi-dimensional travel, and Chrysalis as 'awaiting trial' before international politics as well as to wrangle the changeling hive into helping the villain as a hostage. The three would first devolve into an argument with each other, but eventually relent into a 'We are forced to need each other, if we want to have any hope of escaping this predicament', which would each of the three attempts they made, fail hilariously. Aside from that, I was going to address Celestia's need for control over her ponies, compare her to Chrysalis, using Discord, and have the princess slowly come to a realization of just what she has done these last thousand years. Chrysalis, in the meantime, would get verbally torn down by the wendigo king about the fragile nature of a rule by fear, get laid into by some of her own subjects, when some converts of the changeling army gets better fed than they had in Chrysalis's reign and turn genuine traitor to her; and Chrysalis is forced to reconsider her life when she has no hive to rule.
Discord, in the meantime, just continues to be Discord; albeit one that is perhaps a tiny bit too smart ass, and gets in trouble for it, the Wendigo king eventually deciding to 'do away' with the Draconequus by throwing him into Tartarus, after re-shackling him; having spent some time as a spirit, the wendigo goes into the nature of Hell, and long story short, Discord won't be leaving that place ever again. (Bright side is: Post story, Discord may still be magicless and stuck, but it was in mind that he would improve his circumstances by just being his introductory self as a member of the 'Jailing Team', more or less rather than remaining jailed.)
My more minor notes, mostly ones that were more 'If I can make it happen, it happens:'
-Getting Fluttershy to befriend the Cerberus guardian of hell, to get the group to have a conversation with Discord in hell.
-Chrysalis eventually getting filled with genuine friendship and having a redeeming arc with Celestia.
-Celestia staying in prison for the mass brainwashing, (No exiling here), but eventually getting community service and having a bit of parole post-main events; albeit under heavy supervision.
-Tempest Shadow getting recruited by the Wendigo king post storm-king destruction, promising them the restoration of their horn, and 4 Mask Shard Xander giving them a prosthetic, as well as a certain Cyberized former wonderbolt earning a quick friendship, and potential(undecided) romance.
-Storm King getting Dethroned rather violently by Wendi in a 'Strongest rules' type of government. (Thunder and Lightning Vs Ice and snow +Gimmick type battle).
-Resolving the Pony of Shadows villain arc entirely early and by accident, given that Starswirl was written before canon events occured to bring him in the show, I was going to do one of those 'they bust out of a stone statue/binding curse/etc, to cause havoc' situations that the show is known for.
-Lots of casual scenes of the different views of Equestria locales stylized after the locations the show horse-punned after. Using them to build relations both friendship/romantical between Puppet and Luna, Neighagra Falls being primarily on the list of 'passing through but spend a night here' kind of event, with a giggle of Ditzy and Blueblood also having a moment there as well as a romance that 'Neither of them saw coming'. A comment to how Prince Blueblood and Ditzy had grown, and Puppets comments on Bluebloods actual personality rather than the one he lets off around mares interested in him for his prestige rather than personality.
-Exploring magical artifacts a bit more regarding Daring Do and her Indiana Jones antics; Namely, the Wendigo king being unimpressed by the self-destructiveness of the lot, and just eating them. Horse Pun versions of each movie included.
-Daring Do getting wrecked by a copy of Indiana Jones made of compact ice, when the Wendigo King goes on ahead and more or less eats her artifacts that she worked hard to secret away; and getting arrested for 'Grave Robbing, and numerous other crimes' with a trial more or less rigged with Daring Do's various enemies. Said enemies also getting arrested shortly thereafter for much the same reason.
-Daring Do and Co. getting on the same community service group as Celestia post-main story after review.
That, ends my notes, regarding the story of Puppets of Tragedy's main and substories. A lot of planning went into it, but unfortunately, a combination of Hasbro and Covid induced workloads has brought me out of the fandom well and good, The workload has lightened a smidgen now that covid is done, but I won't be continuing to write this story, so thank you for your readership, and if you're interested in continuing to read my works, I'll be looking into joining the Royal Road somewhat soon, so keep an eye out for a post on the blog regarding it. Thank you again.
-Sincerely Irid.
We will see them again, I am sure of it
good luck in your life