//------------------------------//
// Episode 4: Alchemy 101 
// Story: A Bond Across Dimensions 
// by AuraMastermg 
//------------------------------//

It had been a few weeks since Aura and Gallant had their duel. Gallant was forced to step down as head of the Knight Family and give it to his niece Sagitta Knight. A gifted Unicorn who is skilled with magic and a bow.

Unfortunately Gallant was still the captain of the royal guard for some reason, but that was neither here nor there. But since the arrival of Aura Kaiser, the Knight brothers had finally been freed from the chains of their father and were free to do whatever they wanted.

Gladius signed up for a new guard unit that was just created. It was similar to the Wonderbolts, but more fit towards combat. As for Mystic, well...

"So let me get this straight; you want to become my appearance?"

Aura was relaxing on a hammock when Mystic came up to him and asked a rather bizarre question to Aura.

"Well there is nopony better then you. I mean, you are the only being who actually knows the real aspects of Alchemy. Plus..." Mystic drew circles on the ground with his hoof as he asked sheepishly. "I really wanted to spend more time with you."

Taking a deep breath, Aura put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "I'll need to think about it. In the meantime why don't you go get something to eat. It is pass 1 after all." He handed the colt a small bag of Bits and closed his eyes.

"Okay." Mystic nodded and went off into town, leaving Aura with his thoughts. 'It does make sense that he would ask me that question. But am I really the right choice? Sure I'm the leader of the Dimensional Guardians and I'm doing okay, I think. Come to think of it; am I a good leader?'

These thoughts continued to haunt the God's head until he fell asleep.





Aura was standing in a dark corridor with barely little light. He kept on walking slowly and started to hear whispers.

'Did you hear what just happened?'

'I did. Apparently the leader of the Dimensional Guardians passed away and gave their role to his student. What were they thinking?!'

'That team won't last a week with him as their new leader. I mean, he can't even fully control his powers, and they expect us to trust in him?'

'Many of the Gods seem to be on his side, but we know better, once a failure, always a failure.'

These words never really got to Aura before, but for some reason they were now getting to him, and he didn't like it.

The ground started to crack beneath his feet as a red glow emitted and the scene changed to a city that was falling apart. His eyes grew wide as he tried to use his powers to save it but they just didn't work and eventually the city collapsed entirely.

"No~~~"

Aura fell to his knees and started to hear voices again.

'You let us die.'

'You broke your promise.'

'What do you have to say to yourself?'

Aura looked up with tears in his eyes. "I~I tried to save you, but I wasn't~"

'LIES!!!'





Aura jolted up from his sleep sweating bullets and breathing heavily. He looked around and saw that he was still in south Canterlot then slowly calmed down.

"Again with that dream. This is the 3rd time this week I've had it. Just what's going on with my head?"

The God got up from his hammock and went into town. The residents had gotten used to him since he saved them from Gallant's iron hoof and treated him like a hero, much to Aura's dismay.

He didn't like to be treated like this, he preferred to be treated as if he was an equal, the same way he treats others.

But that seemed to be a lot to ask for to them. Since everywhere he turned he was being thanked by ponies left and right. So much for clearing his head.

He found himself at a small cafe and sat down. The waiter came up to him and greeted him. "Hello good sir, what can I get for you?"

"If you have a cheesecake I'll take that. Oh, and some lemongrass tea please."

The waiter nodded and written down Aura order, then went inside the building. Aura decided to pass the time reading a book that he recently checked out at the local library. If he was going to stay here for a while, he might as well be used to their customs and traditions.

'What am I doing? I'm a God for the Creator's sake. I'm not supposed to be so attached to one dimension.'

Taking a deep sigh, Aura looked up and got lost in thought. 'Maybe I can just tell the others that I'm using this dimension as an outpost. Been needing to find a new one anyway. But knowing my team they would start to make themselves home here and cause trouble, again. What to do, what to do?'

"Um, sir?"

Aura snapped back into reality and turn to see the waiter with his order. "Your cheesecake and tea."

"Oh, um... thank you."

The waiter placed Aura's order on the table and bowed. "Let me know if you need anything else. And don't bother paying, take it as a thank you gift for driving Gallant out of here."

And there goes his mood. He should of known that he was going to get special treatment just for kicking a corrupted lord's ass. "Geez thanks." Aura grumbled as he took a bite of his cheesecake.

As the waiter left and Aura enjoyed his cake, he got a ringing in his ear which made him groan. "Can't have a day to myself can't I?"

He pressed two fingers to his ear and spoke. "This is Aura Kaiser. What can I do for ya?"

'WHERE ARE YOU!'

A voice screamed into Aura's ear causing him to fall off his seat. 'You haven't sent a report in days! Are you in trouble? Did you get captured? Do you need backup?'

Aura's hand slowly rose back up and gripped the table as he pulled himself up and seethed through his teeth. "Still a worry wort aren't you Luco?"

The worried voice over the intercom was Aura's right-hand/best friend/student Luco Oricalcum. A jackal like creature called a Pokémon from dimension PKMN-37. Loyal to a fault, but can be a bit overbearing at times, but there was no one Aura trusted the most to take care of the team incase of an emergency.

"I told you that I was going on vacation to relax after the fiasco last month. Remember?"

'Of course I remember! But you also said that you were going to take a week off, as in 7 days! It's been 10 days so far!'

Aura sighed and pinched the bridge between his eyes. "Dude, you really need to calm down. I've been thinking about placing an outpost here for a bit since it is in a perfect spot in this sector of the multiverse. I just need to get the okay from the council and place the thing here then I'll be back home in no time. Just don't come over here, I don't want anyone to know about my title."

'Understood Master! Luco over and out!'

With the call ending by a click, Aura sighed and sat back down, noticing that every pony in the cafe was watching him.

"It was just a simple call. No need to mind me." Aura stated and went back to eating.





With his stomach slightly filled up, he returned to the Knight's mansion and saw Mystic eagerly waiting for him.

"How long were you waiting for me?"

"Only about an hour." Mystic said with a smile. "So did you think it over? Can I be your apprentice?"

Mystic started to give Aura puppy dog eyes as he moved closer to him. But it didn't have any effect on the God.

"Kid, I am really flattered that you asked me to take you on, but I'm not sure if you are ready to learn the fundamentals of Alchemy." He started and saw Mystic's ears flop down as he slumped.

"However..." The colt perked back up with that one word. "If you are willing to dedicate yourself to learning then I might be able to take you up as my apprentice, but only if you swear that you will never use what I'm about to teach you for your own desires. Understand?"

Mystic rapidly nodded yes as his smile grew.

"Great. We start tomorrow morning. Just don't expect to learn some high-level technique at the start." Aura stated. "You will have to learn the basic building blocks before you can even attempt to use a spell."

"Yes sir!" Mystic happily responded then jumped for joy. While Aura smiled slightly and watched.

'guess I'm staying here a bit longer.'





That night Aura had to sneak out back so that no one could hear him. He had to make a quick call to his team and give them the rundown, but he had to do this where no one could heat him.

Now was not the time to reveal himself as a God, and as if anyone would believe a claim like that, that would end up as a one way trip to the nut house while being held down with a straitjacket. Or in this dimension's case, call the guards to lock him up in a dungeon for questioning. And while he could easily escape, doing that would only make things way worst, he had to learn that the hard way in one certain dimension.

What he didn't notice was that Mystic was watching him, waiting til he was out of sight. He wanted to make a simple transmutation spell but knew that Aura would never allow him just yet.

And once Aura was got of sight, Mystic rushed over to the makeshift lab that Aura created and closed the door.

"It's just one spell, after that I will wait til after I got all the basics down. I just want to know how it feels to actually [preform] magic." Mystic said quietly.

He placed the book down and turned the page to creating a circle. Then he grabbed a piece of chalk and traced the symbol out very carefully, not missing a single detail.

He then placed an old block of wood in the center of the circle and thought of what he wanted to happen in his head. He wanted to turn this thing into something metallic, something like iron or silver. Could he turn it into bits?

He shook his head and focused. 'None of that Mystic! You swore to Aura that you wouldn't use this for your own gain! Now... focus.'

He planted both of his hooves on the circle and thought out loud. 'Become metal. Become metal. Become metal.'

The circle started to glow and rotate as the block glowed too and started to change shape.

"It's working." Mystic was lost in thought as he felt magic flowed through his body from the circle. "So this is what magic feels like."

But he snapped back when he saw the circle spin faster and faster and drawing in random things like a vortex, and then he started to panic.

"This isn't supposed to happen." He pressed his hooves down harder and pictured it stopping in his head, but it still kept going. "Why isn't it stopping!?"

He then noticed that he couldn't remove his hooves from the circle. "I'm stuck! GLADIUS! AURA! HELP ME!"

He shut his eyes and cried. "Why did I do this? I should of waited til I was ready like Aura said." Mystic buried his face in his hooves and cried some more. "Now I'm going to die just because I wanted to feel what magic is like. I just wanted..." A tear fell from his eye and was drawn into the center.

"Was to show that even somepony like me can be something amazing."

The mass in the center of the circle glowed brighter and brighter that it's light enveloped everything in the room until it...





"And that is the whole story. I'm going to make an outpost here, and monitor the entire sector. So I'll be gone from the sacred realm more then usual." Aura finished his report.

"Hm. It seems promising." One of the Guardians said. "Was there any reason why you decided to place an outpost there?"

Aura sighed. "Simple Chrono, the dimension is close to the center of this sector so I can monitor the other dimensions from here and relay information much more effectiv..."

The God felt the ground shake vigorously then he heard a large explosion from behind him. When he turned he was what looked to be a massive tree rising rapidly and expanding.

"That looks like it coming from..." His eyes went wide as he realized. "Mystic!"

Aura quickly closed his call and bolted back to the Knight's mansion as fast as he could.

When he did get out of the forest he was tree roots growing and expanding. "That looks like the alchemic spell for rapid growth. How did..."

He was cut off when a root moved towards him but he drew his sword and sliced it apart. "I can figure this out later. Right now, Mystic needs me"

And so Aura resumes running, cutting down roots that blocked his path as he vigorously rushed in to save Mystic. But then...

"Is that you Aura?!"

The God looked up and saw Gladius in his armor flying down and landed right in front of him.

"Gladius, what happened?" Aura asked, grabbing Gladius and shaking him.

Once Gladius got out of Aura's grip, he'd shrugged his wings. "Beats me. One moment I was asleep in my room after work, then the next moment I found myself in an overgrown forest that was growing so fast that it would make the Everfree Forest blush." He responded, clearly as confused as Aura was.

"And Mystic? What about him?"

"Should be out too. I mean, he wasn't in his room so it should all be good." His face then instantly dropped. "But I did see him up later then usual, carrying an old block of wood and that book you gave him. You don't think he...?"

The two then heard Mystic scream and they immediately went to him.

At the mansion it was a disaster. Tree roots were growing out the wazoo with no sign of stopping, and the tree was getting bigger and bigger by the minute.

When the two of them stopped in front of it all they could think was 'you have got to be kidding me.'

A few guards were tangled up in the roots, struggling to get out. Both Galdius and Aura nodded at each other and cut them free.

"Thank you general and Sir Aura. If you two weren't here we'd be goners."

Gladius stood tall and looked at the guards. "What of the others, are they still inside?"

"Negative! They are keeping the roots from reaching the town. But for how long is another question." 

Gladius looked back at the mansion where his brother was and back at the town, feeling conflicted on what to do. Until Aura placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll get your brother. Right now the town and your comrades need you." Aura reassured him.

Gladius putted on a serious face and turned to the town. "Lead me to them. We won't let a single root through."

The guards nodded and flew off with Gladius, but not before he turned to Aura. "Make sure that you get my brother out."

Aura gave a thumbs up and went inside the mansion.





The inside of the place was exactly like his Gladius said; it looked like an overgrown forest with thr roots sprouting trees of their own and a few plants growing as well.

Aura had no idea where to go as he looked through each root covered hallway. He took the first one to the left but it lead to a dead end. As he tried to get out he notices that the roots that he was cutting down were starting to grow back.

This was very bad. Just where could Mystic be? If only there was a trail that he could follow.

Aura eyes widened and he facepalmed. "Why didn't I think of that?"

He stabbed his blade at the nearest root and carved out an alchemic circle then pressed his palm against it, making it glow and creating a light that lead down a certain path.

"So it is that spell. Then as long as I follow the traces of magic in it, I should find the source of this madness, and Mystic as well."

Aura then followed the light trail til he stopped in front of a large tree trunk that was still growing. He heard muffling and created an entrance from the trunk and entered it before the hole closed up.

While it was too dark to see, Aura clapped his hands together and created a ball of light and saw Mystic covered in small roots with his hooves anchored to a alchemic circle.

He walked up to the colt and gave him a disappointed look. "Tried to use Alchemy while I was gone?"

Mystic looked down in shame. "Yeah."

"Thought that you could follow some instructions and automatically preform it?"

"Yeah."

"So, you've learnt your lesson?"

"Yeah. I learned that I shouldn't rush into things until I am 100% ready instead of trying to copy something from a book." Mystic answered and looked up at the God.

"I just wanted to know what if felt like to finally use magic." The colt closed his eyes and tears started to leak out. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Aura gave Mystic a warm smile and kneeled down to him. "It's okay, we all make mistakes." He ruffled the colt's mane as he comforted him. "What's important is that you learned from them, and can use this as a experience for next time."

Aura got up and cracked his knuckles. "Now that I know what this is, this should be a piece of cake."

Aura then started to draw two circles on the main trunk, a large one, and a small one inside of the large circle. Then he drew the lines in them and placed the symbols on them.

And finally, he pressed his hands on it and the circle glowed. The tree then stopped growing and began to glow as it disintegrated into particles. Then those particles swirled into the smaller circle and merged together to create a large chunk of gold ore that was the size of Aura's head.

He then turned to the circle that Mystic made and shook his head. "No wonder your spell went haywire, you used different runes for it." Aura began to explain as he pointed to the five runes on the circle.

"Each rune is used in a pattern for different spells. You got the first two correct, but you got the two of them wrong and added a fifth one, turning it from a convert spell to an alternation spell, one that accelerates the growth process of plant-life."

Mystic was breathing heavily. "I-I see. Good... to... know"

He then started lose consciousness and collapsed into Aura's arms. The God couldn't help but smile as he watched the colt doze off into dreamland.

"Sleep well Mystic. Cause tomorrow is your first lesson."





The next morning all the guards were cleaning up the aftermath of the tree's destruction. Luckily none of it made it's way to town but it was close.

Aura used his Alchemy to fully repair the Knight's mansion, plus added a new room to teach Mystic. The two were inside it as Aura was explaining the basic fundamentals of Alchemy to the colt as he vigorously scribbled down some notes, getting every last detail that his mentor was saying.