//------------------------------// // Chapter 02 // Story: Power of the Dominia // by Senbonbanana //------------------------------// So here it is, the second chapter. I'm planning on having the story being split into two different parts; revealing the world of Sunder. First off is the journey to find Arkadious. The second is Arkadious's journey inside Equestria. So here's to the second chapter of Problems of a Dimensional Traveller. Chapter 02 Butler awoke from its sleep, having begun to formulate a plan to locate and recover its master. Everything had been rather busy yesterday after Arkadious’s unexpected disappearance, with Butler being left with the result which was having been left with complete responsibility over the Estate. Being the creature it was, Butler didn’t dream at all that night. Instead, it simply fell into the dark abyss of unconsciousness as the Umbra-series Sentinels patrolled the grounds during the late hours of the night. Of course the drones would be gone during the day, but it wouldn’t have mattered if Butler had gone out regardless; they were programmed to attack everyone except Butler and his master. Butler floated downwards, illuminating the walls with the miniature maelstrom residing in the centre of its chest. Butler had never assumed it possible that Arkadious’s spell would ever have had the chance of backfiring. It was just how he was; how they both were. And yet the impossible has just occurred, Butler thought. I’ve looked through most of the contingency plans my master created during his lifetime. So far, I’ve only found one plan which seems rather tedious. Butler stepped outside of its chamber, having decided to travel to the Estate Library, thinking perhaps that there might be some clue as to what else Arkadious might’ve planned for. Butler’s chamber was rather large for a single person, cylindrical in shape. The inside was gold and red, windows lining the upper walls. A spiral staircase lined the wall interior, leading to the top of the room. The top floor was circular with a medium sized hole in the centre. Runes laced the ground around it, a stream of mana rising from the bottom floor and through the hole above it. It may have been a fair walk, but that didn’t bother Butler—it couldn’t be bothered by anything, created and living under a single prime directive. “I live to serve,” it said, quietly. Channeling mana from the storm inside it, Butler began to float as its body erupted with light. It felt is flow out, of of his body and into wings on its back which flared from the sudden mana output increase. It flew, heading towards a castle-like structure directly ahead. Butler had always wondered why its master had chosen to build certain things in the Estate as he did; it never asked. Finding his master would be a difficult task. The first thing Butler and his master’s students had tried to do was contact him via Red’s P.C.D; they’d received an out of range error—a first time for everything. A P.C.D worked using the same principles as a Planar Portal but instead of sending people, it drew mana from the surrounding environment to send signals. The issue they’d had getting it to work was making it two way. Without his spark, Arkadious was just an extremely powerful mage, unable to traverse the different planes of the Multiverse. Essentially, he was stuck. It also meant that he’d be unable to draw mana from the Blind Eternities, leaving him to run solely on the mana of the land around him, and his own mana reserves—as big as they were, they’d eventually run out. Butler scratched its metaphorical chin. Either where Arkadious was now didn’t have enough mana to communicate or possibly worse; something was blocking the device.The problem wasn’t getting there—that part was already sorted—it was finding the specific place out of all the infinite universes out there. The contingency Butler hoped it’d find would serve as the basis. The doors to the Library glowed with power, Butler pushing with his magic. The Library was one of the grander buildings in the Estate, it’s walls made from the finest materials in the Multiverse, various arcane designs—plated in gold—covering the exterior. It was circular, four smaller buildings branching off in each direction. Being various stories tall, it looked similar to a gigantic drill reaching towards the heavens. “This place never ceases to take my breath away,” Butler said, slightly in awe. “However, that’s impossible considering how I don’t have a mouth, or lungs for that matter.” The inside was even more impressive, a stained glass window above the door—and along the sides of the walls—providing a religious and silent atmosphere. Tables littered the floors various floors surrounded by shelves of books reminding Butler of skyscrapers. The floor was covered by a long red carpet while the interior walls were covered with various pieces of art and tapestries. People were scattered across, reading from the vast collection of books or browsing the walls. They turned as Butler entered the building, conversations dying down. They always did when Butler showed up. A few people bowed—they knew who it was—while others gave Butler weird looks. Ironically appropriate considering that’s what Butler technically was. Technically. I need to get up there, Butler told itself, looking up. This shouldn’t take long. The top of the Library was the oldest part of the building, also being the smallest segment. Butler ascended, rising to the top of the tall facility. Each part of the building was enchanted to stop unauthorised personnel from accessing knowledge his master believed would they’d either abuse or weren’t ready for. Butler flew up past various stories, the circumferencing walls around him gradually getting smaller; more ancient and filled with history. Eventually Butler rose over a platform, touching the ground of the highest floor. Everything around it was covered in dust, having been neglected for quite some time. If there’s anything else that I can use, it’ll be here, Butler thought. A section of books lifted out of their resting place, dust filling the air. There has to be something else. Afterall, Master always hated being confined. “Well that’s certainly interesting,” Arkadious said, looking at the figure in the distance. After a rough arrival in this strange new land—landing head first into a tree—he’d made it a priority to figure where in the hell he was. Using Geomancy, Arkadious had created a pillar of earth to stand on as he viewed the surrounding landscape above the clouds. Arkadious activated his mana sense, eyes glowing, viewing the world from an entirely different perspective. This was something he rarely did, only really ever used for observation purposes. He saw the flow of magic in the world; where it went, what it nurtured, what harnessed it. He looked gazed down, observing all which lay beneath him. Various lights moved moved around, small and crawling around like ants. What he saw right in front of him made him lose his breath for a moment. Mana churned around the distant entity, red and crackling like a storm. It bent and curved in unnatural ways as it flowed into the earth and sky around it. Whatever that thing was, something was going on. “I wonder if any of the local species are magic sensitive?” Arkadious said, shrugging. “It would help me make a little sense of what’s going on here.” Something caught his attention; purple light—magic—coming from what looked a town of sorts, dwarfing the twinkling lights around it. Suffice to say, no one else would actually notice it. He channeled some of his power, feeling it flow into the earth beneath him. Glad I’m rather practiced at this, he thought, scratching his chin. I don’t want to accidentally destroy what’s left here. Now, let’s have a closer look at that light. The unnatural pillar lowered, descending like a fear tower; Arkadious folded his arms, clearly unperturbed by the sudden g-force increase. The earth rumbled it flowed back into the dirt beneath it. As he lowered towards the ground, Arkadious began to make out features of the native inhabitants. They had what looked like four legs, having an equine body covered in very different colours of fur—colours that Arkadious decided were rather unusual for any animal to have. On their their flanks, he noted that they seemed to have different symbols. “So… the local sentient race on this world are… ponies…” Arkadious said, unsure about his current situation. A wave of anger flashed across Arkadious’s face. “How far in the name of Karona did that bloody thing send me!” Pain rocked his head, memories trying to force their way to the surface. Memories of a different place, different time. The screams and then darkness. Arkadious clutched his chest, breathing ragged. He attempted to cool down. “Calm down, you’re not that same person anymore. You're better than that. Come on, okay, seeing as what the local species are, let’s find who that pony is— “ Arkadious cut himself off, realising where the source of the magic was coming from. “Is that a house inside a tree? A living tree? That’s a weird place to live.” He chuckled. “Red would have a field day, seeing how so much of this is made from wood. He’d set it on fire by accident, then go around trying to fix everything while chased by angry mobs.” Arkadious’s feet finally touched the ground. Proper ground. Looking around from a normal height rather than from stratosphere view, everything looked so more dire. It looked as if the town had become a child’s playground; a patchwork project. In other words, it was utter chaos. Leisurely, Arkadious walked up the door of the house, turning the doorknob. Without even knocking, he entered the house, hundreds of books lining the walls of looked to be the main room and first floor. “Who’s there?” a small voice asked, coming from the ceiling, filled with despair. “Applejack? Rarity? Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash? Go away, just leave me alone.” Arkadious moved towards a shelf, fully inclosed inside glowing emission of energy. It was blinding. He deactivated his mana vision, the glow of magic fading away, and began scanning the walls for a particular book that might give him some insight. The person upstairs could wait if possible; he’d just found a library, something he could greatly use to his advantage and use it he would, even without this ponies permission considering how the lives of potentially thousands of creatures was at stake. “Let’s see here,” he said. He pulled a few books out before finally exclaiming in joy, coming across a promising text. Equestrian History: A detailed looked at the past of Equestria. This might be exactly what I’m looking for, Arkadious thought, humming along as he began to flick through the contents of the book. He began to read, time passing by in a flurry. Something touched Arkadious’s back, something rather pointy. He turned around, slowly. A sharp object was pointed directly at Arkadious’s stomach, enveloped in that same purple glow he’d originally come here searching for. A pony; a female unicorn to be precise stood in front of him, drained of colour as if touched by an Eldrazi. “What are you?” the unicorn asked. Twilight Sparkle woke up, feeling utterly defeated. It had all started a couple of days ago after a witnessing strange phenomena occurring in Ponyville. She was a bookworm, scientist, but first and foremost a mage. Using her magical intellect, Twilight had invented a new spell to fix everything. It failed. After her assistant Spike, a young dragon, fireballed up a message from Princess Celestia telling her to assemble the other Elements. “What’s that Twilight?” Spike had said. “I don’t know,” Twilight had replied, “but it must have something to do with what’s going on.” Honesty; Kindness; Laughter; Generosity; Loyalty; and finally, Magic. Twilight had gone to Canterlot with her friends to meet Celestia who’d explained that Discord had broken free and was planning to retake the world, throwing it into chaos. It was shortly after being informed of the current situation that Discord himself turned up, stealing the Elements and forcing Twilight and her friends to play his little game, leaving them with a little message: twists and turns are my master plan. Assuming Discord was referring to the Canterlot Maze, Twilight and her friends; Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, had run in a hurry, eager to stop Discord. However, this had all been part of Discord’s plan, using the maze to divide the bearers of the Elements. She understood that now. Having finally given in to the well of despair inside her, reinforced by Discord’s constant taunts, Twilight walked home and begun to pack up her things. Her once purple coloured mane turned grey and lifeless, having shed a single tear. Ponyville was gone; there was nothing left for her here. “What’s going on Twilight?” Spike asked, walking in. He was surprised Twilight back, having thought she was dealing with the threat outside. This was rather unusual. “Pack your things Spike,” Twilight replied. “We’re leaving.” Her horn glowed as she pulled out a suitcase from underneath her bed, various assorted objects floating into it. “Don’t ask where yet, because I don’t know. Just not here.” “I don’t understand,” Spike said. “I’ll try but it’s rather hard to move right now. The princess has been sending me all these since I came back upstairs.” He belched, green fire roaring from his mouth. Letters formed which slowly fluttered towards the floor. Twilight and Spike’s room was rather small compared to the rest of the house. The floorboards were made of a different coloured wood to the rest of the tree which made up the walls. A couple of windows faced towards the direction of the rising sun. However this time, the windows only showed rain and sorrow, looking down on the rest of the town below. Twilight picked one up, taking a quick glance. She crumpled it before dropping it on the floor. “Those are my old friendship reports,” Twilight said, a hint of disdain in her voice. “Why would she send them back? What’s the point? Friendship couldn’t stop Discord, so what are these supposed to do?” “Well I don’t know, but friendship stopped Nightmare Moon so maybe it is the key to defeating Discord,” Spike suggested. He’d never seen Twilight so down before. This wasn’t like her at all. There was a noise downstairs, someone taking slow steps. “Wait Twilight, did you hear that? Sounds like somepony has come inside. Maybe it’s your friends!” Twilight looked at him, confused. “Why would anyone be here. Who’s there?” she called out. “Applejack? Rarity? Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash? Go away, just leave me alone.” Twilight continued to pack her things. “Spike, can you go check who that is?” Spike huffed. “I’ll try.” He turned around, opening the stairway door and began to climb down into the main room. I think first we’ll head to Canterlot, Twilight thought. We can think of something else once we’re there. She heard panting. Turning around, she saw Spike, apparently having ran back up as quickly as he could in his current state. “Who was it?” Twilight asked. “Forget about who was it. What is it!” Twilight looked at him confused. “Spike, I don’t understand.” “There’s a monster down there!” Spike answered. “See for yourself.” Twilight walked out of the room, taking a careful look. What she saw surprised her. Standing there was a creature she’d never seen before nor read about in any of her books. It was bipedal, kinda like a minotaur. It was rather hairless, the only hair she could see being white on it’s head. It wore some rather strange clothes, along with a hat that looked like something from Neighpan. Strangely, it didn’t seem to be attacking anything. If anything, it seemed to be preoccupied, reading a book. Was it also humming? “Spike,” Twilight said. “Stay up here. I’ll try and get rid of this thing.” Spike nodded before heading back into their room. Twilight, as quietly as she could, walked down the stairs, heading towards the kitchen. There might be something there she could use frighten it. Deciding on a cutting utensil, she made it levitated, poking the creature on what she assumed to be its back. The creature turned around, its golden eyes looking at her straight in the face. “What are you?” Aww crap, Arkadious thought, realising the circumstance he was in. You’ve found what you came here for, and already you have something trying to kill you. Just act calm. He raised his hand to his throat, clearing his mouth before deciding to speak. “Oh hello, don’t mind me. I’m just here reading this book. I was trying to find out where I was, and happened to find a library which was rather—” Twilight jabbed him with the utensil. “What are you?” “—lucky. Oi, stop it,” Arkadious said. “That’s annoying.” He looked at the metal object, deciding he’d had enough. The metal bent, before forming a liquid metallic blob, gobsmacking the purple unicorn in front of him. It morphed, changing into a small replica of Arkadious. “Here, a gift from me to you.” “That was my cutting utensil!” “Yeah? And now it’s a statue probably worth more than what you originally bought the thing for. You could buy, oh maybe five of them if you wanted to.” Arkadious looked the unicorn. “I noticed this was a library when I walked in. Nice place. Mind if I borrow this book? I promise to return it as soon as I’m done—” Arkadious stopped talking. He looked at Twilight, observing her. A small arc of red lighting crossed her body before quickly disappearing. It looked similar to red storm of mana that was coming from that figure in the distance. Something in Arkadious’s brain made a connection, his face lighting up. “Strange that I didn’t notice that before. Don’t be alarmed alright, but I’m going to do something.” “What do you mean?” Twilight asked. The creature wasn’t explaining much to her. If anything, it just made things more confusing for Twilight. It wasn’t explaining what or who it was, and it could use magic. Arkadious closed his eyes for a second, his hands glowing white. His mana sense activated, revealing the red lighting he hadn’t been able to notice the first time round. She’s been enchanted by that thing I felt earlier. I’m doing her a favour. Then, without warning, he pushed his arm forward, a bolt of white lightning shoot from his open palm. It struck Twilight, arcing through her body. The lighting around her began to disintegrate—eventually completely disappearing. Colour began to return to her body, her mind clearing. She got up, stumbling slightly. “What… urgh… did you do?” she asked. “Erase,” Arkadious replied. “You were enchanted. I removed it. A little spell I learned from a sage called Zoyge. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to borrow this book and take care of whatever is happening up there.” He pointed upwards. “You’re in no condition to say otherwise.” Twilight looked at him, trying to speak. She felt weak. Tired. “Wait…” she said, falling into unconsciousness. “Who are you?” Arkadious smiled. “Why I’m Arkadious, you’re resident Planeswalker. Now sleep. When you wake up, this should all be over.” He looked towards the staircase. “Hey, you up there. Take you friend upstairs.” Spike walked out of the shadows, running down. “I’ll try.” “Good enough for me.” Arkadious walked out of the library, tucking the book in his kimono. He raised his arms, the rising as the air underneath him shimmered, light bending around his feet in a circle as if through a through a prism. He shoot forwards into the raging storm ahead that only he could see, reaching the centre. A figure stood, floating in the centre, drinking what looked like tea from a cup. It had a body made from an assortment of different creatures, consisting of but not being limited to the body of a dragon; a lion's paw; an eagle claw; and a snake tail. “A chimera,” Arkadious said, surprised by the figure in front of him. He’d never known a chimera to have such power of magic. “That’s a first.” “Indeed,” Discord said, amused. “I am Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony. You’re that presence I felt for a brief moment down in Everfree. You know, I felt a little insulted when you started moving away. Also, I’m a draconequus and I shall be referred to as such.” So that place was called Everfree, Arkadious thought. That’s nice to know. He smirked. “Pssh posh, potato patato. Doesn’t really bother me. I'm going to keep calling you a chimera. Say, are you the one responsible for everything going on at the moment?” Discord grinned at him. A glass appeared in his hand, filled with chocolate milk. Discord drank from it, only to realise the glass had disappeared rather than the liquid inside. Disappointed, he threw it behind him, exploding. “Why whatever do you mean?” “I’ll take that as a yes,” Arkadious said. “Nice work, love what you’ve done with the place, but I’m afraid I can’t let you continue.” “Oh, and why might that be?” the chaos spirit asked. “We were getting along so well.. why I thought we might’ve been able to have lunch or something.” “What you’re doing is a threat to the very balance of not just this world, but potentially the whole plane itself. Rather unfortunate actually—I mean don’t it personally, it’s just my job.” “Well, you’re welcome to try and stop me.” “Oh I shall,” Arkadious said. His held his hands out, sword and shield materialising. However, it didn’t stop there. Armour fromed, beginning to cover his entire body, giving the appearance it was made of thousands of scales, runes engraved on every single one. “You see, killing gods is my business and it seems today that business is booming.”