Rough draft

A long time ago, there had been a peaceful forest dimension, a world of lush green, fields of vibrant flowers, and endless shady paths. A paradise, some would call it. The most intelligent inhabitants of this dimension were a race of fae that were bound closely to nature, so much so that they seemed part plant. Beautiful, tall, thin, graceful men and women, with flowers blooming in their hair, or wound around with vines, or legs and hands that ended in rough bark. And these fae took care of the forests, and most importantly, tended to the Tree of Life, the massive, ancient tree that, legend told, held their world together.

It was to this world that the current Queen Butterfly came, as a child (PRINCESS Butterfly, at the time), to learn magic, from these very magically inclined fae. She was placed under the tutelage of one of their royalty, Prince Maedoc. From the moment she had stepped foot in their dimension, Maedoc had been wary of her. "Pleased to meet you, Prince Mydick," had been her first words to him.

The Princess soon proved to be a destructive terror. No matter the tutelage Maedoc had given her, her spells had wreaked havoc - forest fires, plagues of leaf-eating beetles, root rot. And the power of the wand she held meant that these disasters only got worse as time wore on. But no matter the pain she caused, she would simply laugh at him. "Get over it, Prince MadDork."

It wasn't long before Maedoc had put in a request that she be taken back to her dimension. The day she left, she had insisted on trying a particularly difficult and complex spell. Maedoc had wanted to forbid it. But he figured, she would be leaving that afternoon. Might as well not fight her on it. Just give her what she wants until she's gone. He had given her the go-ahead.

Moments later, Prince Maedoc was on his knees, watching in shock and horror as the Tree of Life burned down, as the fae tried, in vain, to combat the inferno. The Princess had approached him, honest remorse written all over her face, for once. "I am so, so sorry, Prince Michael," she had said, giving him a hug. "I'll have my parents send a new tree or something."

Prince Maedoc had just looked at her, dumbfounded, as a portal opened, and she slipped through, leaving his dimension.

That day, the Tree of Life had burned down. And deep in the ground beneath it, where its roots had dug deep, something awful had been living. The forests of Maedoc's world grew sickly, weak, began to die. He watched as his people withered, fell ill, and died off. All calls to the Butterfly royal family went unanswered.

In their desperation, the mages of Maedoc's court turned to Machine Magic, a long-scorned practice on his world. The horror that had lain beneath the Tree of Life was contained within a massive, mechanical dome. But still that did not stop the forests of his world from dying, and the fae with them. Finally, the mad mage Cessyl had come up with a plan to keep his people alive: implant the remaining fae within magical mechanical bodies.

Maedoc had given the reluctant order that had seen the forests of his world replaced with massive factories for the creation of these mechanical bodies, had seen his beloved trees chopped down for fuel. He had personally resisted the conversion for as long as possible, but in the end it was inevitable, as the flowers in his hair began to dry up and his vines turned black, he had been, himself, placed within one of these mechanical bodies, the most intricate, grand one the mad mage Cessyl could design.

But even this was not a real solution. Their entire world now a smoky haze of factories, concrete and steel, and all they had purchased was a temporary reprieve. For they still could not reproduce. Without the forests, without the tree of life, these fae could have no new children. They still lived long lives, well over a thousand years. But after the current generation died off, there would be no more fae. And their world would be an empty, dead one.

So Maedoc had begun his travels across the dimensions, looking for solutions to save his people. At first, he had thought that perhaps if his people could bond to plant life on a new world, that would save them. And for some of his people, it worked. They could bind to new plant life, on new worlds. But they still could not reproduce. Without the restoration of the Tree of Life on their original world, they were still barren. And many others could not forget the memory of the beautiful forests of their home, and could not bind to these new plants. And more troubling still, many others simply had lost the desire to leave their machine bodies.

Maedoc traveled for years, looking for a way to restore the Tree of Life. But nothing had seemed to have the power.

Until he had met her again.

Princess Butterfly, now Queen Butterfly, with the King at her side. Holding that wand of hers. He had thought it was powerful before. But now that he saw it wielded with more competence, he realized how powerful it truly was. Still, the mad mage Cessyl had told him, it would require the destruction of the wand to restore the Tree of Life. Maedoc had no problem with that. He was quite convinced the Butterfly family did not deserve to be holding a wand of such power, anyway.

But how to take it from her? Maedoc had an army of his machine-people he could use, if he bothered to summon them from his homeworld dimension, but he was loathe to pit their limited numbers against the wand's limitless magic, when he wasn't sure at all if he'd be successful.

So he formed a plan. He was on a necromancer's world at the time. The Queen and King were battling a horde of undead. He had contrived some way to show off his prowess in battle to them - one thing could be said about the mechanical bodies, they were fast and strong - and then he had introduced himself to them. The Queen showed no sign of recognizing him.

He called himself TickTock.

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His original plan had simply been to worm his way into their graces to steal the wand. But it wasn't long before he learned that the Queen was incredibly paranoid about the security of the wand, never letting go of it. It made sense. It was the most powerful wand in the universe. He was not the only one who wanted it.

He had, sometimes, tried to make common cause with other would-be wand thieves. But they were megalomaniacal to a fault, always wanting the wand for themselves. So, ironically, he found himself foiling their plots to steal the wand. His constant evaluation of the wand's safety had made him very good at detecting threats toward it, so he was more likely than most to detect plots to steal it and foil them. This eventually netted him the position of Guard Captain.

Although his primary goal had always been to get the wand, being in close proximity to Queen Butterfly had awakened within him a black hatred that he didn't know existed. Yes, he had always hated her, hated what she had done to his world. But seeing her every day, taking orders from her, this monster who had bought his people to the brink of extinction, had twisted him in ways he hadn't predicted. His plans expanded. He no longer simply wanted the wand. He wanted her to suffer. He wanted her world to suffer like his had. He wanted to see her face as her world died and her wand turned to dust in his hands.

He used his position as Guard Captain to slowly turn the men against her. Yes, it would take a while, but what were a couple of decades to him? He began planting seeds of dissent among the peasants through proxies. They found fertile ground. Slowly, TickTock began maneuvering for a coup. But he had always lacked something that could counter the power of the wand.

When Star was first born, he had originally been filled with dark thoughts of glee at how, one day, he might butcher her in front of her mother, to her endless despair. But it was difficult to watch something grow and not become at least a little attached to it. As a small child, she had been simultaneously fascinated and terrified by the mechanical Guard Captain, staring at him with wide eyes, then hiding behind her mother's skirts.

TickTock had tried his best to keep his distance from her. He didn't need this sort of attachment. But it had been so long since he had seen a child grow. Finally, he had given in, and given her a wooden play sword as a gift. From that moment on she had always greeted him with a smile. He kept a rose garden in the castle that she would help him tend sometimes. He had been the one to show her the secret passages in the castle walls. When she had been going through her troublemaking phase with Flying Princess Pony Head, he had always been awake to greet her with a wink and a nod as she snuck back into castle grounds. When she broke up with Tom, he had sardonically suggested an invasion of Hell, eliciting a small smile from her as she cried. Without any children of his own race, he had found himself treating Star with affection.

When Star had been sent to earth, he had tried to put away some of the darker thoughts of his revenge. His takeover of the Guard and threat of peasant revolution were nearly complete. With the wand away on earth, it would be much easier to overthrow the monarchy. His plan, then, had been to take down the King and Queen, and ransom their lives to Star for the wand. He would banish them from the dimension, confiscate their dimensional scissors, and put away all thoughts of murdering them. He would heal his world and leave the de-powered Butterfly family alone.

But then this business with the warlock had happened, and Queen Butterfly had taken back the wand. He had thought all his plans undone, for a while. The revolution was happening soon - he could not put it off for another five years or so, which is how long he figured it might be before the Queen let Star touch the wand and go to another dimension again.

But then he had figured out how powerful the warlock was, and decided it was still a good time to roll the dice. A powerful magic ally, and as an added bonus, he could order all the guards that were still loyal to the Queen directly into death at the warlock's hands. The only problem was getting the warlock and the Queen to actually fight each other. He had given Star the means to escape her room and rescue Mrs. Diaz, even drugging the guards that had been guarding the warlock's wife, figuring that once her hostage and her daughter were gone, the Queen would NEED to attack. But her husband had convinced her of the possibility of a diplomatic solution.

So TickTock thought of something that would preclude any possibility of diplomatic resolution: Convince the Queen that the warlock had killed her daughter.

TickTock, when he went out hunting for Star, had never actually intended to kill her. If he wanted to do that, he could have cut her down the minute he saw her in the farmhouse, or spiked her head like a lolipop when he threw the pitchfork at her. He wanted to capture her, keep her somewhere in the woods, and tell her mother she was dead. Unfortunately, the warlock's son had unexpectedly shown up. Although that had been turned to his advantage, too. There was no way the Queen and the Warlock would find a peaceful solution when they BOTH thought the other had killed their child. Sure, Star had escaped, but even if she showed up, it wouldn't stop the Warlock's blind rage.

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And now, all his plans had come to fruition. TickTock stood, holding the wand, feeling its power.

"TICKTOCK! YOU IDIOT ROBOT, PUT DOWN MY WAND!" screamed the Queen, her voice hoarse, panicky.

TickTock smiled, then raised the wand, pointing it at the Queen. When he used its magic, he could almost smell the sweet forest breeze of his home on the air. Oh god, it had been so long.

Thick rose vines burst forth from the rubble beneath the Queen, curling around her wrists, lifting her into the air, bringing her face-to-face with TickTock. "My dear, sweet Queen," he said, "As I have told you countless times before. I. AM. NOT. A. ROBOT." With each word, the rose vines constricting around her tightened, thorns digging into her skin. With a whirring of gears and a hiss of steam, TickTock's faceplate fell back, revealing the handsome, but sickly, face of the fae beneath it. "Do you recognize me?"

Queen Butterfly winced, squinted down at the Guard Captain. "Prince M...M...Meghan?" she said, incredulously.

Maedoc stared at her, impassive. Finally, the faceplate clicked back into place, hiding his true form again. "It's okay, Queen Butterfly," he hissed, "Once I'm done here, there won't be anyone left to remember your name either."

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them. Mr. Diaz was there, a towering darkness. The crowd of peasants and guards that had gathered around screamed and fled. "I'M GOING TO BE THE ONE TO KILL HER, ROBOT," he said, in a voice that seemed like it could turn bones to dust.

"Sir," said TickTock, not even bothering to brandish his wand, "Your son is not dead. He's safe and sound, and will be returned to you once I'm done here."

"Marco...he's alive?" And just like that, the shadows fled; Mr. Diaz was just a man again. The sky turned from pitch black to merely dusk, and the burning eye taking up most of the sky shrunk to a much more reasonable size.