Prologue chapter: What awaits beyond
Canterlot
Legendary Land
Canterlot enters the battlefield tapped.
(Tap): Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
(1),(Tap): Add two mana in any combination of {W}, {U} or {G} to your mana pool.
Whenever Canterlot is tapped for mana, you gain 1 life.
Canterlot University
Land
(Tap): Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
Cycling (2){U}{U} - Discard this card: draw a card.
When you cycle Canterlot University, you may search your library for an artifact, instant, or sorcery card. If you do, shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
Princess Celestia walked through the halls of Canterlot University with a pleasant smile on her face. Her 'School for Gifted Unicorns' had expanded far beyond unicorn magic, and into the realms of Pegasus weather research, Earth Pony engineering, and even Zebra alchemical science. The amount of knowledge gained from this branching out of studies was quite staggering to say the least. Granted, most of it was pretty useless when it came to actual application, but she was proud of it all the same.
A pair of younger students skidded around the corner before her, no doubt late for their class in one of the academic wings. The Pegasus mare barely stabilized herself with her wings before she crashed into the wall in front of her. Her Unicorn friend was not so lucky, and stumbled right into her, causing them both to fall to the ground as her levitation spell popped, covering them both in a mountain of text.
"Oh my. Are you two alright?" Celestia asked as she gently levitated the books off the two and arranged them in a stack.
"Yeah, we're good. Thanks for he- he- helping... Princess Celestia." the Pegasus gasped when the final book was removed from her face, allowing her to see the towering white Alicorn smiling kindly down at them.
"I'm glad to hear it. Do be more careful in the future." Celestia said and floated the books to the pair as they maintained their awe-struck stares. "Farewell my little ponies."
Princess Celestia sighed to herself. It had been quite some time since she'd been able to simply take a casual walk through the school and merely observe as her subjects went about their day. Though she had to admit, it was a bit disheartening to her whenever everypony would drop whatever they were doing in order to bow before her, or gaze in reverence. A simple invisibility spell would have solved that, allowing her to move about unseen, but she knew that such behavior was unbecoming for somepony with her title.
And besides, she had an appointment to keep.
"Ah, Princess Celestia! What a pleasant surprise." a Unicorn stallion with a wild white mane and a dark blue coat greeted Celestia when she entered through a set of double doors into a large laboratory.
"I believe you invited me here, old friend." Celestia reminded him with a calm smile and a raised brow, "Something about 'kicking down the doors of the universe', or something to that effect? I'll admit I'm quite curious about this project your told me about in your letters." she said, deciding not to mention how sparse the actual details were.
"Yes! That's correct. I'd completely forgotten! Right this way please." he motioned with a wave of his hoof before quickly trotting ahead. Then he turned right around and went in the opposite direction. "I just remembered it's actually this way."
Celestia gave a mental chuckle at his antics.
World View (2){U}{U/R}
Legendary creature - Unicorn Pony Wizard (2/2)
Whenever you would draw a card, draw three cards instead. Then choose two cards from your hand at random and put them on the bottom of your library in a random order.
"Crazy?! You think I'm crazy?! Well then tell me, would a crazy pony create a toaster hat so he could eat his breakfast on the go?
~World View: crazy pony inspired intellectual
His name was World View, and Princess Celestia remembered when the old stallion was only a colt. With genius level IQ from a young age, he'd been admitted to her school years before most of his colleagues, and coupled with his rather erratic behavior, he was never truly accepted in many social groups. But, as he would often tell her, that didn't bother him in the slightest, as all he had everything he needed in his books and in his mind.
The two of them reached a pair of double-doors with huge cables snaking through it. The room on the other side was large and had a high ceiling, and was filled with all sorts of metal towers, boxes, and more of those cables running everywhere and hooked up to every thing. Much of the large space was darkened, with only the light from a few magic-powered lanterns to see by, yet the many ponies in white lab attire and protective goggles made due just fine. Most of them carried clipboards or small tools, tuning, rewiring, or double and triple-checking the numerous components.
"Your highness." one of the lab ponies approached her and bowed respectfully before giving her a pair of dark goggles like they all wore. "I must ask you to wear these during the demonstration."
"A demonstration of what?" Celestia asked as she strapped the goggles securely over her eyes.
"Come up here Princess, I'll show you." World View called from an observation port that overlooked the entire floor below.
Celestia charged up her horn and teleported up to him in a flash of golden light.
"GAH! Princess please don't do that in here! Any magical disturbance might interfere with the calibrations of our magical flux stabilizers." World View told her, flailing his hooves in her face in rapid gestures as he spoke.
"My apologies Professor. But what exactly is all of this?" Celestia asked.
"Something that could change life on Equestria as we know it." World View said, his voice full of pride and giddiness. "Lower the containment shields!" he called below, and the panels that made up an egg-shaped dome in the center of the room glided down into the floor, revealing a giant arch held in place by claw-like arms, with a great many cables attached along its surface.
Extraplanar Bridge (5)
Artifact
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player searches their library for a creature or land card and puts it into their hand, then shuffles their library.
"The idea came to me in a dream. Scientists and philosophers have theorized about there being other worlds for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But with this device, which I designed, we'll be able to find those other worlds, and even travel to them!" World View explained before signalling to the many teams working below. "Prepare to activate the portal, viewing mode only!"
The ponies immediately got to work, moving in near synchronized patterns preparing each device for use. Levers were thrown, magical energy coils were powered up and sparked with energy as it was channeled into the large arch.
World View watched with sweat dripping down his forehead, unconsciously counting the seconds as they passed through taps of his right foreleg.
One massive surge shot through the arch, the lights dimmed even further around them, and then an image flickered into existence within the arch.
Princess Celestia watched with rapt attention at the desolate volcanic wasteland that sat between the curved beams of polished steel. World View made a few adjustments on a console and the image zoomed in to get a closer view of one of the rocky chasms. From the steaming fissure in the earth, several small, furry creatures emerged. They had sharp teeth poking out from under their lips, and strings of bones and rocks around their necks. In their small hand they held primitive spears and hammers, and one grunted to the others, pointing in various directions; a leader perhaps.
"What are those?" Celestia asked as she watched them.
"I believe the correct category for their species is... goblin. They are just one of the many creatures we've been able to see through this portal." World View told her as he kept adjusting the camera, swapping between the four furry goblins, "In fact there are so many that we've put together a veritable bestiary from all of the-"
World View's speech was cut of at that moment from a tremendous roar from beyond the portal. The goblins looked frightened, and quickly dove back underground. But one wasn't fast enough, and got grabbed by something that swooped past the portal's view. World View zoomed out quickly in order to see what it was.
A dragon, far larger and more ferocious than many in Equestria soared through the air with the captured goblin dangling in its jaws by a leg. With a flick of its head, it tossed the goblin into the air and comped down on it, neatly rending it in half before swallowing it down.
"Ah... yes. Well... not all species we find, nor all world for that matter, are guaranteed to be friendly." World View said awkwardly.
Celestia's eye however, were on the dragon. "Professor, are you certain that nothing on the other side can see us?"
"But of course. Why would you think-... Oh."
World View got his answer when the dragon turned and beat his wings, racing towards them form the other side of the portal.
"No... no that's all wrong! Shut it down, shut it all down!" World View cried to the ponies below.
But try as they might, they weren't quite fast enough, and the dragon caught up to the portal and breached his roaring head through, mouth already ablaze.
Hard-light Prison (2){W}{W}
Enchantment - Aura (Enchant creature or artifact)
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant)
Enchanted permanent can't attack, block, or activate abilities.
It was then that Celestia sprang into action to protect her subjects, and a golden beam lanced from the tip of her horn and struck the dragon's chest, pushing it back through the portal. The rays of light formed a solid wall, blocking the dragon's advances.
While ponies scrambled for a way to shut it all down, the dragon crashed and slammed itself against Celestia's shield again and again. It tried breathing fire, temporarily filling the portal's view in bright orange and yellow, but Celestia held strong against the assault.
"You will not pass!" Celestia shouted, "Be content with your own world, dragon. For you shall not trespass into mine!"
She had no idea if the dragon could understand what she was saying, but if it did not, it would get the message for sure when she blasted even more of her power into the barrier and turned it into a scorching wall of magical fire that hit the dragon like... like a scorching wall of magical fire.
Celestia glared stoically through the portal, watching the giant flying beast limply flapping its wings as it retreated out of sight until finally, the portal closed. "Is everypony alright?!" she called out.
A few long seconds later, somepony called out to her, "We're okay your highness! A little toasty, but okay thanks to you."
She let out a sigh of relief before just as quickly rounding on World View. The stallion was down on the work floor where he'd just ripped several cables from their housings in order to disable the machine, and was looking forlornly at the now smoking arch.
"I do hope that you have an explanation for what just happened, Professor." She said calmly as she glided down to him, yet there was a certain tenseness in the calm of her voice that hinted at her true feelings at the moment.
"Y-yes... indeed. I'm sorry Princess, that wasn't supposed to happen." World View said shakily, looking to the portal more than Celestia, "It was a problem I encountered early on. You see, other worlds are barely farther away than our own shadows, and there is a very fine line between creating a window to another world... and a door. I thought I'd worked out the issues by involving some more complex channeling equipment, but... I..." World View looked over to the Princess, who had removed her goggles in order to look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry Princess. The project was so close to being a success, and I thought that if I could just find one other world that we could safely inhabit, or even visit- just one! Then we could... oh I don't know what I thought Tia. I don't know anymore."
"World View," Celestia spoke to him with true calm in her voice, no animosity lingering now, "Perhaps you need to take a break from all this. You've talked about nothing else in your letters for months. I suggest that you take some time to let yourself recover, and perhaps you can... reestablish your world view."
World View looked at her quizzically for a moment, and then let out a short laugh. "That was terrible Tia. But I think you're right. Maybe I do need a vacation. I'll shut everything down until I return, and maybe then I'll get it all sorted out."
"I'm sure you will my friend. And do let me know if there's anything you need." Celestia told him as she turned to leave and let him be.
Hours had passed, Celestia had set the sun, her Sister Luna had risen the moon. Canterlot was dark, and the University was quiet.
The large room that held World View's portal arch had been securely locked and sealed with a powerful ward spell. The arch itself had been powered down, it's components packed into wooden crates to be moved to storage the next day. On the control console was a cruedly hoof-written note reading, [Extraplanar Bridge Generator - Property of Professor World View. Dangerous: do not touch unless you're a smart pony. And if you are a smart pony, then you wouldn't think of using it anyw-] and then they had run out of space on the paper.
The note was picked up, glossed over, and just as quickly discarded.
"A portal to the multiverse huh?" a dark, raspy voice muttered as the shadows in room seemed to bend and twist towards the machinery, "Well how about that?"
Diabolic Appropriation (3){B}{B}
Sorcery
Search target opponent's library for a card and exile it face down. Then that player shuffles their library. You may look at and cast that card without paying its mana cost as long as it remains exiled.
