//------------------------------// // Plans In Motion // Story: What Happens in Terraria // by BioChemicalWolfGear //------------------------------// I stood beside a more cheery Celestia, as the chariot neared our destination. We were returning to my tower, and from our vantage point it looked finished. Pearlstone outlined the whole tower, which made it look beautiful as it glistened in the sunlight. Radiant Garden was still clinging to my neck when we touched down on the top of the tower. Its flat surface allowed us to have sufficient room to act as a landing pad to touch down safely. I assisted Radiant Garden down, and I flew him through the skylight. When I landed on the outcropping, staircase I was greeted by none other than Darkness himself. Celestia descended with me out of curiosity, and was stunned at the beautiful décor inside. “My Lord, Hunger and Celldric has returned, and they are aware of you. They wish to meet you soon. I’ve also finished with the improvements you wished for.” “Ok, two things, I need you to… no three. First, create a mine at the bottom of the tower and make sure the supports will hold up the castle. Then, create an underground corrupt biome so I can have access to corrupt worms. Finally, when you are done with that, create a large jungle biome for Radiant Garden to give me access to giant wasps.” “On it, my Lord. Oh and...” he pulled out a golden crown. “For you, my Lord. I finished it immediately and did the castle after I was finished with your crown, to prove my work.” “You don’t need to prove yourself to me. You’ve already done more than I could ask from any Thane of mine.” “Thank you, my Lord. I will begin work immediately.” he flared his wings, but I stopped him by holding up a hand. “Before you go... create a few guest rooms for any acquaintance of mine who would wish to stay here. Also, is my room finished?” “Yes, my Lord I already created beds for all known Thanes and several for guests already. Your room is the most impressive of them all.” “Good. Bring Radiant Garden to his room, and build guest rooms for any NPC’s that will show up.” “Yes, my Lord. Radiant. It’s good to see you're alright.” He stated, taking Radiant Garden from me. Celestia broke out of her stupor long enough, to watch the spectacle of a former dark Lord caring for the needs of others. Once Darkness carried Radiant away, down a few levels into his room, Celestia walked with me into my Throne Room. “Well Puppet Master, you’ve officially impressed me with how you treat your Thanes. To be honest, I’ve wanted Thanes of my own, and once I got them I’d probably send them all over the place. You’ve been keeping them close to you for longer than I expected.” “I like to take inventory of everything I hold dear. Just as you did with Twilight. Speaking of which, where are your guards and Twilight?” I questioned, looking back at my double doors that were now made of gold. “They are on their way back to Canterlot and Ponyville. I’m here alone.” “I’m honored you trust me enough to keep you safe.” “I’m more honored that you would come to my aid, when asked.” “And I’ll do it again. And I want you to know that your citizens safety is important to me as much it is to you. I’m building an army. Not to take Equestria, but to defend it when the time is right. I suggest you prepare training sessions for your soldiers, so they have real battle experience with each other. Now, there’s more than one reason why you would send your guards away and talk to me in private, right?” “I don’t know what you think is a threat, but right now I do wish to know and want to convince you to tell me what is the danger.” “Sorry. Can’t do that. Remember Celestia, I work for you in my own way. Oh, and welcome to the Red Rose Empire. This tower is my capital.” “An impressive one at that. Though it’s in my borders, so we may have a bit of a problem.” “Then, we shall have a treaty to share the land. I will not tax the citizens, because I have no need for currency. My laws are simple. Live, love, and prosper.” “Those are the guidelines to a great life. I’ll remember them well.” Celestia happily replied. “I have a castle to build… actually, I have to meet up with a mare first.” “Rainbow Dash?” questioned Celestia, knowingly. “Rainbow Dash.” I confirmed. “I have to get back to my royal duties as well. Goodbye, Guardian of Equestria.” “Goodbye, Princess of the Sun.” I replied, sitting down on my throne and watching her leave. She flared her wings and took off. When she was out of sight, I waited several minutes in thought. “Sir? Master?” questioned a very noble voice. I looked up to see none other than Celldric and Hunger watching me from the entrance. “Please come forward, Celldric, Adventurer and Savior of Terraria. Please step forward Hunger, also Adventurer and Savior of Terraria.” They both respectfully walked forward and stopped near my throne. “Puppet Master.” stated Hunger. “I would like to know how you control Darkness so easily.” “It’s because he’s obligated to obey me. I’m the one who created him, and I’d do it again if he were gone. He serves a greater purpose than you would believe. Right now he’s been changing my castle and building my forces. I’m going to have eyes and ears all over Equestria.” “What purpose does this serve?” asked Celldric. “Good question. If I know everything Equestria as a whole knows, then I can respond faster and far more effectively than Celestia. And if ever we do come to blows, I will be able to cut off her units and eventually take her Capital.” “So... you’re doing this for conquest?” questioned Celldric, a hint of anger in his voice. “No. I’m doing this just in case conquest is necessary. It’s not my primary goal. Before we arrived, many ponies died in the attack on Equestria, that Darkness mounted when he was corrupted. I’m going to find a way to return to the past, and undo that future. I believe that when I created the portal between Terraria and Equestria, Darkness was able to send a corruptor through, and corrupt this world. If I destroy the portal when all of them are on the other side, then this world will never have to go to war.” I waited and let the information sink in. “There’s only one problem.” confided Hunger. “We don’t have any form of time machine.” “But the ponies have a time spell. If we can make it more powerful and longer lasting, then I can send myself to the past and eventually stop the portal from ever being created. Once that’s done, then I’ll live the rest of my life in peace, I guess.” I finished, leaning back in my chair. “Maybe I should get married when my objective is over...” I pondered out loud. “Well, I can only see one hole in your plan. You’re asking us to mess with magic we know nothing about and expect it to work?” “Well, also I’ll need a pony body. But... I’ve got that handled. Radiant Garden is currently resting and when he’s ready, I’ll ask him to create a body of a pony that I can use to blend in and keep Celestia off me, basically. Though, there’s a problem. True, we don’t have any knowledge of the magic ponies use, but I can get help. Our main problem, is what we are going to do now.” “Umm... get the spell?” Hunger offered. “Yes, but we don’t have Shadow Master. I know he’s here and he’s basically the stealth of the operation. Without him… I don’t think I can keep my intentions hidden long enough, that Celestia won’t find out.” “Should we search for him?” inquired Celldric. “Knowing him, he already found a way to get to us. Or he’s away from civilization, and both parties can’t do anything to get him back, until he finds some sort of settlement.” “Then we have to wait.” replied Hunger. “Yes, we do. You are free to do as you please, but as long as you are only away from the castle for five or six hours. I need to make sure you can take my orders when I need you. I’m off to learn a new language from a little purple dragon. If you need me I’ll be in Ponyville’s library.” I bolted out of my chair and took flight while on my way out my throne room and out the skylight. “… A purple… dragon?” questioned Hunger. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Celestia was making her way back to her Throne Room, after she arrived back at her castle. Two guards stood beside her, as she made her way to her throne. Once she was on her throne, her advisor walked in and gave her some paperwork that she lifted with her magic and started to review. “Princess Celestia.” came a voice from in front of her. “INTRUDER!” the guards defending her shouted. She lowered her documents, to reveal a bipedal figure with purple menacing armor. “GUARDS, STOP!” Celestia reflexively shouted. Her two guards froze at her words, and the calm and collected creature remained in a neutral stance. Celestia realized just how many guards heard the call. Twenty guards have already arrived in the Throne Room, and surrounded the bipedal creature. “I’m sorry, but are you looking for Puppet Master?” “Yes I am. I assume you’re the Princess?” “Indeed I am. You can find Puppet Master at his tower, you can see it from here, but I recommend you go to Ponyville first. He told me he had business there.” Celestia hid her face behind her documents once again. “Thank you.” A collective gasp overtook the room that emanated from the guards present. Celestia lowered her documents out of curiosity, and saw the slack jawed guards looking at the location of the bipedal creature. He was gone. No evidence he ever existed, other than the fact her guards saw him. It intrigued Celestia so much, that she put the documents aside for later. “Bring me a quill.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Puppet Master flew toward the cloud palace that the egotistic Rainbow Dash called home. He was rethinking his idea of getting involved with her, after taking out the fact she was his favorite pony in the show. She’s pretty yes but she’s too self-centered to be the best girlfriend material Hell, even Rarity would make a better choice, because when she's not slaving away filling orders in her boutique, she's generous enough to spend her time with you, even if you happen to be in trouble. All you need to do with her, is ask. Though, Rainbow isn’t all bad. After all, she is a good friend. I swooped down to the front door and knocked politely. Almost immediately, the door swung open. “Puppet Master? What happened with Celestia?” questioned the Rainbow-maned Pegasus. “Basically, the forest was growing without ponies interfering. I thought my friend was to blame, and I was right. Not only did I find out that he was there, but I potentially saved him from being killed by Celestia. She actually thought he could be some sort of threat, before I assured her on our way there.” “Whoa, that’s pretty cool. Oh hey, want to get some lunch? I’ll buy.” “As generous as that offer, is I’m going to have to refuse. Spike’s teaching me Griffonian and I need to learn that language to read my spell books.” “Aw man, I was really hoping we can hang, you know?” “Yeah, maybe another time. Oh, and if you want you can go to my tower and ask for one of my Thanes to give you a room. We don’t have much when it comes to food, but we’ve got very nice beds that will top your cloud any day.” “Really? I’ll check it out later then! But seriously, even though Equestria’s in danger, it’s not actually in immediate danger. So you should seriously relax. I don’t know if you know this, but you seem a bit tense.” Well that’s nice of her. Maybe I was wrong about Rainbow; she seemed to care about me. And now I feel bad. “I’ll catch up with you later, ok?” I turned to leave. “Sure. And Puppet Master?” questioned Rainbow. “Yes Rainbow?” I responded, looking back at her. “The Gala’s coming up again. I was wondering if you’d… you know, go with me?” she queried, a little bashfully. “Always Dash, always.” I shot off towards Twilight’s library, leaving my date behind to watch me fly away. I approached the town and went toward Twilight’s library, since I’ve done this so many times I basically know exactly where it is now. The moment I stepped down, I got this weird feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around and came face to face with none other than Shadow Master himself. “Shadow.” I stated. “Master.” he responded. “I’m glad you’re here. Go to the castle and await my official instructions. You should locate your room, it’s comfortable and the castle has all the equipment your heart should desire.” “Thank you, my Lord. But I’d rather not be idle for too long.” “Then help Darkness set up a network of eyes, so I can see and listen on Equestria. I want nothing escaping my eyes. Oh and…” I motioned him to come closer to me. He did and he stopped and listened into what I was going to say. “I need an ear in Celestia’s throne room. I want to know all of her moves. I trust her, but I’m still unsure of what to make of her. Any messages she sends out you send me one in kind, detailing me what was in that message. However if a message is too difficult to read, then don’t risk it. I’d rather have you close to her for as long as possible, than have her actively hunting you down.” “Yes, my Lord.” “Oh and the bed should work as a spawn point. If it doesn’t I’ll ask Darkness for an adjustment on them. Now go back to the castle, and get that straightened out. Also figure out how to get a corruptor invisible to deliver letters between us.” “Yes, my Lord.” And just like that, he’s off to get me the greatest spy network the corruption could offer. I stepped into the library. “Spike! You here?” “Yeah!” yelled the purple dragon, who stood atop a ladder that leaned against the book shelves. “Hey buddy. I’m here for more Griffonian lessons. I’m sorry I didn’t bring anythi-… wait.” I searched through my inventory, and found exactly what I was looking for. “Well, would you look at that. A stinger from the wasps that I fought in Whitetail woods.” “Cool.” he responded, jumping down and taking the stinger from me. “Let’s get to the lessons now. I’ve got some things to do in the morning, and a book that still needs reading. I’ll make it up to you when this is over all right?” “Sure thing. Let me get the note cards.”