//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 - Preparations. // Story: Terraria: Friendship Is Magic // by Pomp-Neigh //------------------------------// -TERRARIA, OUTSKIRTS OF THE DESERT BIOME- To say that fate can sometimes play a practical joke wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate as the trio of ponies, especially Twilight, couldn’t believe what they were seeing before their very eyes. This Terrarian was practically what would happen if Celestia had been born into this world rather than Equus or If the Celestia from Sunset Shimmer’s world came here instead. The female Terrarian’s hair changed passively from one color to the next, most notably was the fact that she had a pair of large angelic wings. “Are you all ok?.”, Celestia asks as she then smirks and says: “Why the long faces?” “...” “Eh, get it?” “...” “Oh come on, that was good...”, Celestia says as she pouts sadly. What happens next shocks the terrarian as Twilight, with tears coming down her cheeks, trots over to Celestia’s right leg and nuzzles against it. Starlight and Rainbow Dash lower their heads with a saddened expression, some of the other adventurers sees Twilight’s tears and comments: “Nice goin Celestia, you made her cry.” “How could you make such a joke like that?” “You probably offended them!” “Why do I feel like this is a ‘too soon?’, joke.” Celestia’s eyes twitched as she responds back to her fellow adventurer’s: “Oh, and you’re all golden children huh?!”, Celestia then looks down to the weeping Alicorn and puts a hand onto her head. “I’m sorry if I offended you dear, If what Tanner told me is correct you’re... Twilight correct?”, Twilight looks up and wipes her tears away, she then nods and takes a few steps back. Starlight and Rainbow walk up to Twilight with Starlight saying: “I’m sorry Twilight, words can’t express how awkward this situation must be...” “I... I know I suck when it comes to these kind of things but, this isn’t... Our Celestia. If that helps in any way...”, Rainbow Dash says with slight hesitation which causes Starlight to wince. Twilight surprisingly managed to recover from her sorrow and takes a deep breath before saying: “I’m sorry Pri- I mean, Celestia. You remind me so much about someone we... Lost.”, Twilight’s words causes Celestia to look upon the ponies with pity. In an attempt to change the subject Celestia clears her throat and says: “Well then, let’s get down to business shall we? you all made perfect timing. Follow me and I’ll take you over to the meeting we’re about to have in a few minutes.”, The ponies all nod in understanding as they follow Celestia throughout the encampment. Along the way to the meeting, Celestia introduced the ponies to various adventurers of all types. Twilight was especially happy when she met other mages and despite how badly she wanted to just conjure a quill with some papers to take notes the Alicorn knew that time was of the essence. Finally, they all reach and attend the meeting which was positioned only mere inches away from the very first grain of sand of the Desert Biome. A mysterious male terrarian donned in armor that was completely new and unknown to the ponies stood in front of the adventurer’s facing towards The Desert. He turns around and notices Celestia approaching him with the ponies behind her. “Aw, there you are Celestia. I presume these are the ponies Tanner was talking about?, got to say I wasn’t expecting them to look like unicorns and pegasus. Hell, one of them is both combined.” “That’s right Sai, the very same ones.”, Celestia says as she walks over to Sai and turns back to the ponies. “Everyone, this is Sai Sahan. He’s probably the next best thing to a leader here. Sai these ponies are... Wait, oh Terra damnit. I know Twilight is the lavender colored pony but I’m afraid Tanner didn’t mention you two.”, Celestia says as she points to both Starlight and Rainbow Dash. Both ponies grunt in annoyance as they took offence to this. Rainbow Dash, being her ever boastful self, smirks as she says: “I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer on Equus and the future fastest flyer in Terraria. Hold your applauds, I know, I’m awesome.” “...” “What?”, Rainbow asks in confusion as everyone looks to her with a blank expression. She got her answer as a sudden uproar of laughter from everyone in attendance envelops the area causing some of them to comment: “Bwahaha, that’s a good one!” “I like this pony, she’s hilarious!” “You should take notes from her Celestia!” “Hey!, my joke wasn’t that bad!” “She might be the fastest wherever this Equus is, but Terraria?, bahahaha” Rainbow Dash’s face went red with both embarrassment and anger, she crosses her two front legs across her chest as she mutters: “Jerks...”, Starlight chuckles to herself and says: “Keep a cool head Rainbow.”, Starlight then turns to everyone present and as soon as the other adventurers recover from their laughter she says: “I’m Starlight Glimmer, Princess Twilight Sparkle's student and, if I’m being honest, a rather powerful unicorn mage. It’s nice to meet all of you.”, Starlight’s words causes some of the mages in the crowd to raise an eyebrow and comments: “Eh, you don’t look like much.” “I doubt she could cast a water-bolt spell.” “Water-bolt?, could she even use a Wand Of Sparking?” Starlight’s eyes begins to twitch, suddenly, a cyan hoof is laid on her shoulder which causes her to turn to a snickering Rainbow Dash. “Keep a cool head, Starlight.”, Rainbow says which causes the unicorn to glare at her. “Alright everyone, now that introductions are over with let’s get to the meat of this meeting.”, Sai Sahan says as he then takes a deep breath before he continues: “Tanner The Guide has informed me that the time to strike back at The Moon Lord is soon at hand, the ponies who are accompanying us today have fought against and beaten Razeem back in their world.”, Sai Sahan’s words causes some of the adventurer’s to say: “What?!, they did?!” “Ok, maybe there’s more to these ponies after all...” “But they’re wearing silver armor and robes, there’s no way they fought Razeem in those!” Little did the crowd know, the ponies were helped and supported by Celebes The Dryad in addition to being powered up by the Terra Blade. Rainbow Dash and Starlight simply smirked towards the crowd with looks on their faces that could be translated to: “Yeah, that’s right. Get on my level.”, Sai Sahan raised his hands to calm the crowd down before he continues: “Now that you know what these ponies have been through I expect all of you to respect them the same way you would to your fellow adventurer. Now, our objective is The Crimson Biome. However, in order to get to it we need to trek through this here desert. Luckily for all of you, you’ve got me as your guide.”, Twilight raises her hoof which catches Sai Sahan by surprise. Sai chuckles to himself as he says: “I appreciate that Twilight but you don’t need to raise your hand, er, hoof. What’s your question?” “Yes, well, you said that you can guide us through the desert and reach The Crimson Biome however the way you say it makes it sound like you’ve made this journey before. Did... Did you, well, visit the living flesh in your travels before?”, Twilight tried to be very careful with her question as she winces the moment her words left her mouth. Sai Sahan was taken back by this inquiry, some adventurer’s in the crowd were obviously curious themselves as they focused their attention. Sai sighs sadly as he responds: “Yes Twilight, I’ve been there a fair amount of times in my life. I wish for no living being to go there unless it was absolutely necessary, the monsters who thrive there are things straight out of a nightmare. I’ve lost and seen many good adventurer’s who tried to brave The Crimson, but I swore that I’d avenge them and luckily for us I happen to be wearing the very thing that will aide us in our fight. You see, retrieving The Bloodbutcher for you ponies and Tanner is our main objective however we also have a secondary goal: To harvest the materials we need to make crimson armor and weapons.”, This causes the crowd to erupt into cheers however this leaves the ponies confused. Twilight and her friends couldn’t fathom what they just heard, how could one turn The Crimson into armor and weapons for their own use without any dangerous side effects?. Twilight was about to press the issue until Sai Sahan unknowingly cuts her off and says: “However, before we even reach The Crimson there is another matter we must address. The desert isn’t without its fair share of threats, the very sun itself will be against us but thanks to some of our mages we have ways to deal with the excruciating heat. Our biggest problem however, and I mean that literally, is a monster who stalks these deserts looking for its next meal: The Desert Scourge. -TERRARIA, UNDERGROUND JUNGLE BIOME, HORNET’S HIVE- “Well done 626, you say that these two were among those who tried to steal my blade?.”, Queen Beezma asks as she glares at the unconscious ponies, Applejack and Fluttershy. “Yes my Queen, If I may be so bold I’d like to end their lives myself. Especially the orange pony, I’ll throw them into a chamber and seal them within. Once they come to I’ll torture them into giving me the location of their allies.”, 626 says as the hornet lowers itself to the honeycombed floor. Truth be told, the hornet was taking a gamble and what happens next is all up to The Queen. Queen Beezma ponders on it for a moment and finally comes to a decision: “Very well 626, I suppose I shall reward you for this by granting your request. Take comfort in knowing that you’ve redeemed yourself after yesterday’s incident, now be gone, I have my blade to attend to.” “Yes, my Queen.”, 626 replies as the hornet grabs both ponies and leaves the royal chamber. After a short while 626 flies to a very secluded portion of the large hive and begins to construct a chamber that was smaller in comparison to the chambers that littered the rest of The Hive but the perfect size for the two ponies. The hornet, having finished constructing the chamber, gently sat Applejack and Fluttershy inside. 626 then brings out a vial and says: “This is my antivenom, I’ll have you both drink it and once you come to we can enact our plan. I’m sorry my Queen but I must do this, for the glory of The Hive.”