Somewhere deep in the Maker Verse – Dimension 3071; Knightan

In a world of kingdoms, on a continent called Vestai, is a land known to those who reside in this part of the world as the Kingdom of the Damned; it is ruled by a being known to all far and wide, as the Soulless King. Here he commands over armies of undead creatures – ghouls, zombies, skeletons, and much more – and is followed by a powerful elite group known, as the Circle of the Corpse.

The Kingdom of the Damned is separated into several areas each controlled by the members of the Circle of the Corpse; from the south are murky swamps called the Swamps of Rot which are where the leader of the Army of Rot – Old One Maolces. Here resides the majority of ghouls and other rotting creatures; the ghouls are the blood-hounds or hunters of the kingdom and are also responsible with a majority of the construction that is done in the kingdom to build various structures or siege machines.

In the west is a vast open plain known as the Dead Plains, here one of the Circle of the Corpse dubbed – The Mind of Corruption – oversees a large portion of the army; zombies and undead creatures. These are the fodder of the military might of the army, but they also are important for swarming tactics or transporting materials and such.

By the north-west are two areas; one of these areas are called the Ancient Tombs were a city of tombs and crypts that hold numerous skeletal beings from simple skeleton footsoldiers to skeletal dragons, all under the rule of Skeleton King Geb. Also part of the military might of the kingdom, they are responsible as scouts and can infiltrate enemy territories and specially trained skeletal archers.

In the same area but further north within the surrounding mountainous area that curves around the kingdom, the Mountains of Decay; here various beasts that the kingdom use and train reside, as it is guarded by the king’s faithful stead, Decay.

Over by the rest of the eastern area where some of the three major cities of the kingdom resides – starting with the Temple of the Cursed, where Spirit Priestess Veano watches the ghostly entities that reside over the crashing waves of the ocean. The next city is the Dark Necropolis; here not only do every known being of the kingdom lives, it is where any non-undead may live, as the kingdom has gained varying occupants over the couple of months of the kingdom’s return. Those who live here wish a new life away from the other kingdoms who give their loyalty to the ruler of the Kingdom of the Damned; the one who represents the city is Dread Lord Scres – an abomination made of varying pieces of other creatures.

Finally, the last city is where the Phantom Horde and Hellfire Armada reside, two of the largest forces of the kingdom; Hell Spires of Vestai – also known as Port Voalur. The port city is responsible for trade and sending in forces by sea with the Hellfire Armada, or prepare an invasion force with the Phantom Horde, with their two leaders; “The Helm of Madness” and “The Armor of Annihilation”.

Within south-west of the kingdom is the only possible entrance to reach through the kingdom semi-safely… well, if you manage to gain entrance through the mysterious mist that shrouds both the forest and kingdom… it is as if something is watching you from the mist…

With all these territories, in the center of them all is a mountain that is larger and taller than any mountain known in the world; Mt. Scyeal. The mountain itself has a maze-like tunnel system that is impossible to traverse, were within the core of the mountain is a cavern called the Soul Cavern, a highway of sorts to travel to any of the several areas with ease. At the north-side of the mountain is a place of training for elite members or skilled warriors of the kingdom called the Trial of Souls; and finally, at the mountain’s peak, is a castle that is thrice larger than any known castle – as it reaches beyond the clouds, and covers every inch of the mountain’s peak; the Castle of Souls.

Within the castle, at its very center is a structure that’s surrounded by a garden that has been slowly regrowing, though at a very steady pace. Inside the structure is a throne with windows large and wide as moonlight slips through. The structure and castle itself has been going through repairs and refurnishing after the kingdom has returned; sitting on the throne with both his head adviser and right-hand follower, as they watched the castle being fixed after centuries of desecration.

The Soulless King, Xarcain sits with one armored gauntlet keeping his helmet up, as he gazes with two red glowing orbs where his eye slots are with a bored look. To his left is his lead adviser, Dark Mage Kaalgao; he was looking through a tome with information about what’s been happening around the kingdom. To his right was his apprentice and the newest member of the Circle of the Corpse; Corpse Knight Liliah; she sat on a large cushion with her legs crossed as she was sleeping drowsily as her head would dip down before rising back up.

Liliah was a recently resurrected body that Xarcain found interest in, and would hope become a successful Corpse Paladin. Liliah had stitches covering her body, one across her neck, one that covered her body and three scars on her back, as one part of her torso had a piece missing while one of her legs was just bone. She was snoring adorably before snorted loudly as she woke with a sleepy gaze before yawning as she stared up at Xarcain.

“Master Xarcain? Is there anything we can do today; we’ve done nothing but sit here for hours… I want to do some training,” said Liliah, wiping the sleepiness from her eyes.

Kaalgao looked away from his reading to face Liliah. “Sadly we can’t, apparently one of the members of the Circle of the Corpse has something important to tell us… I believe its Dread Lord Scres; one of his scientists have found something… that would interest us. Isn’t that right King Xarcain?”

Xarcain grunted, before leaning back on his throne. “Well that’s why we’re here… BUT HOW FUCKING LONG DO WE NEED TO WAIT! I’ve been siting my metallic ass here for several hours waiting for him; why couldn’t we have done something while waiting!?”

“We would… if the ghouls hadn’t caused the tunnel to the Trial of Souls to collapse while simultaneously making an explosion by the western wing of the castle by accidentally spilling a mixture of the Head Alchemist’s concoctions together… good thing nobody were killed… well… nobody that could of died in the blast – we still need to clean ghoul pieces off the walls… I swear one of them moved.”

At that same time, two ghouls who were covered in bandages looked at one another before laughing stupidly – both at not understanding a single thing Kaalgao said, and… that their just being ghouls.

Just as Kaalgao listed off why they were in the throne room, the doors opened to reveal Dread Lord Scres and an unnamed Plague Doctor. Plague Doctors were the equivalent of researchers and doctors in the Kingdom of the Damned; this particular plague doctor was carrying some sort of device that was a mix between a mirror and a rune teleporter.

“I am sorry for being late, I am still not used to traversing through this place,” said Scres. Scres was of a similar age to Liliah – well they were both un-aging undead beings, but you get the gist. While Scres was an abomination, he was smaller and thinner than the usual abomination… and smarter, as to why he had his own personality and some coherent thought. “Anyway – my king, one of my plague doctors found something… interesting when he was experimenting with his new device.”

The doctor in question stepped forward; his mouth was stitched closed, but he simply showed his device and turned it on. This peaked everyone’s interest, as they examined it – the device’s mirror-like part glimmered before revealing something that only Xarcain recognized.

“Are those… realms?” Before Xarcain was a device that showed the location and details of various realms – dimensions that were littered across the Void. It wasn’t just realms of the multiverse he resided in but also other multiverses… other realms. “Explain what this thing can do!”

“Well from what I was managed to understand, this device allows anyone to see other worlds, with the device gathering what information it can about it. Simply enter some numbers and it shall show you that realm,” said Scres.

Any realm… hmmmm… With that, Xarcain inserted a random set of numbers, before a world came to view – it was a world of harmony and magic, full of mythical sentient beasts… it was… “interesting” would be the words Xarcain would use. “Noice.”

“Can we visit these worlds?” asked Liliah.

“Well...” Scres gazed to the plague doctor who looked back and shook his head. “No… but I think – with your permission my king – we can make a similar device that can let us do that.”

Xarcain thought of this, and after some thinking – which was only two seconds – he made his decision, with a kingly mind… “Meh, we got nothing else to do; go ahead and make this gizmo or what not.”

The plague doctor and Scres bowed as they went off to do just that; Kaalgao watched them leave and sighed. “I have a feeling this is going to end horribly,” said Kaalgao with some doubt.

With everyone awaiting for this device to be built, the previous device still showed the window view of this other realm; it showed a beautiful land full of peaceful creatures – a name was shown on the device, called Equestria.

Somewhere across the Void – Equestria; Ponyville

In the center of Ponyville Park, the newest princess; Princess Twilight Sparkle, was working on one of her newest experiments. The device in question was capable of allowing anyone to see into other worlds, as after her return from the human-world version of Equestria, she had the idea of seeing what other worlds are like.

Right now, she wanted to show her friends what she’s been doing for the last couple of weeks after the fiasco with the Plunderseeds. Spike was with her, helping her re-calibrate the machine, and making sure everything would go alright.

“Spike can you check if the monitors are connected properly?” asked Twilight, looking through her notepad.

“You got it Twilight,” said Spike. As Spike examined the monitors, at the very same time, the rest of Twilight’s friends arrived to see what their bookworm-friend was working on this time.

“Darling, what exactly are you working on this time?” asked Rarity, wearing a sunhat.

Twilight turned to face her friends, with a large grin while her mane and tail were frazzled and her eyes were bloodshot from endless nights and days of working on this experiment; her friends noticed and cringed at the state she was in.

“Twi… you alright?”

“Huh, uh yeah Applejack… I’m fine… but I finally been able to complete it!”

“Complete what exactly Twilight?” asked Pinkie, appearing behind her.

Twilight didn’t seemed that fazed – either because she was too tired to notice or gotten used to it – as she decided to show her friends the device she had been working on. It look like a miniature observatory, without the dome or large telesope, instead replaced by a metal frame, and several screens and buttons around it, that were on a metal platform.

“Behold, I give you, the Inter-Dimensional Window Device or IDWD for short! This device allows anypony to look at other worlds other than the one that I went to; imagine, alternate timelines where things happened differently – like what if Luna never became Nightmare Moon in the first place, and ruled beside Celestia for the last thousand years or if all our personalities were swapped like Pinkie acted more like Fluttershy and Fluttershy acted more like Pinkie! The possibilities are endless!”

The idea was interesting, but it was when Rainbow Dash asked a question that made her pause. “That’s cool, but can it look into other worlds than just an alternate Equestria?”

Here Twilight made a loud pshhh noise with her mouth and gazed at Rainbow like she said that magic is what keeps the world spinning – which was semi-correct, but it mostly involved more scientific knowledge than magical knowledge. “Rainbow, there is no such thing called ‘other worlds’; many of the worlds that are connected what I’d call ours, ‘the Primary Equestrian’ world are just alternate versions of ours. The idea of completely and solely unique worlds that have zero signs of any relation to Equestria is… preposterous; it would shatter Starswirl the Bearded’s explanation to the idea that time is like a tree, starting from the stump and branching off like branches on a tree.”

“Oh come on Twilight, you keep telling us that the idea of outer life existing is possible – considering there’s life on the moon, when Rarity became Nightmare Rarity,” said Rainbow. Rarity rubbed her leg in embarrassment at the memory while Fluttershy rubbed the back of her neck in a comforting manner. “There’s got to be worlds than just an alternate Equestria, right?”

“Well… if the existence of other worlds being out there is real… Well then I suppose everything I’ve learned would be useless, as some worlds would have tech and magical advances that way exceed ours… again though, the idea of other worlds is impossible. Something would of have to made all those worlds, just as how ours was built by Faust herself.”

As the two friends talked-argued with one another, Spike sighed and made sure the device was at peak condition. Unnoticed by anyone, the device had pinpointed the coordinates of a mysterious world – a world of mythical proportions… and entities that are beyond what the peaceful world could handle.

Dimension 3071, Knightan; Castle of Souls, Throne Room

As Xarcain awaited for the device to be done soon, elsewhere in the castle, a few members of the Circle of the Corpse came to the castle for their own business; these members were “The Mind of Corruption” – Oarleo The Fanged – leader of the forces situated in the Dead Plains. He was here… actually he had no reason to be here, half the time he’s a nuisance, the other half he can be extremely unpredictable, while in the rare case… he’s outright terrifying if he were your enemy – you do not want to be with him alone in a room.

The second member that was at the castle is “The Spirit of Curses”; Guardian of Spirits, Spirit Priestess Veano – she had come to see Xarcain about a strange vision that has come to her and has come to see him for guidance… that and to have an excuse so she can be alone with him and do something… risque.

The third and final member that was just arriving at the Main Gate – the entrance to the foot of the mountain to the maze-like tunnels to the core of the mountain – is Xarcain’s loyal steed, “The Boots of Decay”; Decay the Demonic Horse. Decay had just returned from a small errand to gain more beasts for their military force and to test their newest siege weaponry. Right now he was coming back to report his mission… and receive a good ear scratch from his master – slash, best friend ever for all eternity.

As Oarleo was wandering the castle, he bumped into Veano, or in this case simply caused her to go flying and smash into a wall… which was odd since she was a part ghost. After removing herself from the wall, she floated herself to Oarleo and gave him a venomous glare in return. Oarleo was no ordinary undead but a very rare one called, a Blight – Blights were the highest form of any undead, as they were extremely powerful… but the reason Oarleo was a rare one was because he was a Blight… that can use transformation magic, an ancient type of magic not used by many except for druids.

Oarleo was an undead beastman that Xarcain had encountered; stories say that Oarleo was some kind of criminal that was executed by humans for massacring scores of humans. It was only after using his powers did Oarleo went berserk until he realized he was dead… well undead; now he just does what he wants and is sent wherever he’s pointed to go – he isn’t that bright.

“Oops, sorry Vea, yeh alright?” asked Oarleo.

“ALRIGHT! WHAT IN THE DARK POWERS ARE YOU DOING LUMBERING AROUND YOU IDIOTIC BRUTE!?” screamed Veano. “AND MY NAME IS VEANO, NOT VEA!”

“...I’ll assume yeh not alright.”

While Veano was giving off a red glow, she was smaller than Oarleo, though you know what they say – don’t judge the book by its cover. Veano screamed and ranted at Oarleo like any petite yet explosive girl her age… well she was thousands of years old, but nobody needed to know that, as she looked around the age of fourteen… which is both sad and… well just sad.

It detail were to put for the two it looked like this – Oarleo was currently a undead beastman-wolf, with some of his fur matted, his flesh rotting, both his eyes were fine while his head was exposed showing his fleshy brain, as his claws were bare bone and sharped to the point, as his legs were covered by light leather armor. On his waist was a large knife as big as the castle’s doors, and on his back was a large weapon that was custom-made for Oarleo – it had two points making it appear like a pair of horns while ending with a long blade with several spikes covering it, the handle was thick and covered by a cloth that was dirtied to a dark brown as a skull of a dragon was made as a the handlebar.

Veano was wearing the clothes she died with, a slightly torn and ghostly priestess gown, while a priestess crown adorned her head, with several trinkets around her neck. She wielded no weapon but was shrouded in ghostly power, as her lower body brought out a ghost-like tail, but she can appear with two legs. She looked very… eastern, as she mentioned back when she was alive she came from the east from a land of warriors of honor and swords that were made with a unique smith-technique called “tempering”.

She is unsure what has happened at her homeland, but she is happy where she is now; the two were glaring at one another or rather Veano was glaring while Oarleo just laughed it off without a care.

Entering the same time was Scres with some plague doctors and ghouls who carried a device on a cart. The three parties saw one another, and after gazing at each other, Scres sighed and stared at everyone present.

“Are you two seriously fighting again?”

“Oh look, isn’t it the new guy? So how your new position as the representative of Dark Necropolis doing; I heard you let a spy into the city and nearly infiltrate out with some of our secrets? Must of been so embarrassing that King Xarcain had to fix your mess. HA!”

Scres ignored Veano, but she new it riled him up inside, however the atmosphere changed when Oarleo picked both up into a hug – even though one of them was a ghost. “Oh come now, lets go and see Xarc, and see what this goo-gay of yours can do!” Scres tried to convince Oarleo to let him down while Veano screamed and writhed about in his grip. Coming around a corner was Xarcain’s stead, Decay who watched the three head to the throne room; with a snort of flame, the demon horse followed.

After getting Oarleo to let both Veano and Scres go, Scres managed to set up the device that should allow anyone to traverse worlds without problems… hopefully. As Xarcain finished hearing his report from Decay – and giving him a good ear scratch, a happy neigh from his horse – he gave his focus to the device.

“Have you given it a name? We can’t just call it ‘the device’ forever, you know,” said Xarcain.

“Well the plague doctors are dubbing it; ‘the Realm Warp Transporter Gateway’ or the RWTG for short-”

“I’ll just call it the Rowatoga, it sounds catchy,” said Xarcain.

...And he named it already…

While Kaalgao rubbed his eyes at the thoughts, Scres ignored the interruption and signaled the plague doctors to activate the device. Elsewhere at the same time, just as the device was being turned on, something else was happening.

Equestria; Ponyville, Ponyville Park

As Twilight asked for everypony to stand back as the device was being turned on, Spike flipped a switch and ran to everyone else; as the device began to hum and lights and various noises began to be heard, the whole machine came to life.

“Hey Twilight, does this thing got a name?” asked Rainbow, having already forgotten.

“Its called the ‘Inter-Dimensional Window Device’, or the IDWD for short, remember?”

“Oh oh, can I name it!”

“But Pinkie… didn’t Twilight already gave it one?”

“That’s not a name; how about the Window-Maker, I think its a good name!”

Twilight thought about it and it was an actually good name for the device, but as the device was beginning to turn on… something… went wrong. The device began to spark and shake until magical energy began seeping like lightning trying to escape a jar. The ground shook as cracks began to spiderweb outward with the device in the center, the sky began to darken as the blank frame of the device began to show and endless black emptiness… until a massive blast of pure energy – pure unfamiliar energy.

The girls, Spike and any pony nearby had to hold onto something as the blast caused a shockwave of magical energy to spiral out of control and cause a maelstrom of chaotic magic. The fringes of the device began to shatter and crack, but as the device was slowly self-imploding a voice could be heard echoing across the area from the nothingness.

“Morf eht tsepeed egde fo eht diov, llahs emoc htaed dna raw; enon llahs eb devas, enon llahs eb detas rof htarw etanracni lliw emoc! EH SEMOC – EHT SSELLUOS GINK SESIRA ECNO EROM!”

Without so much as a single noise, Twilight’s machine was consumed by the unstable magical energies, as it self-imploded into a miniature explosion that to the common sight look like it blinked out, and was replaced by a small crater. Everyone stared dumbly at the crater before Spike was the first to speak.

“Well… that ain’t good,” said Spike.

Elsewhere at the same time…

Just as the device was beginning to turn on… things started to go south… well that was right after Veano came to give Xarcain of the vision she received; as the device beginning to turn on, Veano spoke to Xarcain about a coming danger – a warning.

“My king, a vision came to me about some terrible happening… all I managed to gain from said vision was of mysterious land – Mt. Scyeal was surrounded by a wasteland, alone without no outside help to come to our aide… A bright vortex of power and magic would consume us and send us through the Warp, leaving us stranded and confused… But the most confusing thing is that it starts with… a single unending noise,” said Veano.

Xarcain listened carefully, and after carefully piecing the vision together came to his own conclusion. Vortex… Warp… Warp… wait a second, is it referring to Scre’s machi-

Immediately he stood up and stared at the now out of control device with a mix of horror and irony. “TURN OFF THAT DAMN THING NOW!”

One of the plague doctors who didn’t had their mouths stitched and wore a weird crow mask faced with two green glassy eye slots. “De vachine von’t turn uff, de inneah core is von ovvar-drive! Power levels ovar nine-”

“Yeeeah I’m gonna stop ya right there before the memes start coming by,” said Xarcain, turning to face Scres. “Scres! Is there a way to turn it off?!”

“I… We could try reversing the polarity that allows it to see other worlds, if I just...” Scres entered some commands and for awhile the device was beginning to turn off, when a large boom was heard outside. Quickly gazing skyward was a giant wormhole vortex of… something; it looked to be another world but one unfamiliar to any present.

Soon gravity started to act weird and as everyone within the castle, around and in the mountain began to float up and be consumed by the vortex to this strange world.

Xarcain only had one thing to say about all of this… and it summed up what was currently happening.

“Well… shit hit the fan fast,” said Xarcain, arms crossed in a non-surprised demeanor.

Soon the whole of Mt. Scyeal – the Castle of Souls, the Soul Cavern, and a half a kilometer diameter around the mountain vanished, leaving behind a blank piece of land in the center of the Kingdom of the Damned. Only one being witnessed it up closed, a simple necromancer who was ordered to get more scrolls for Kaalgao, dropping his payload onto the ground. “...Fuck.”

Some time later – Equestria; Badlands

Noise started to return back to Xarcain, everything was pain and agony… or in this case, all it did was get him pissed and annoyed. “For the love of fucks that bloody hurt… I swear if I found half of the castle and the mountain missing, I’m going to wring someone’s neck… probably one of the plague doctors… or maybe Scres.”

As Xarcain stood back up, he found himself alone in the throne room, though this reason was answered quickly as he found a majority of everyone out in the garden, either face-first into the dirt or in some sort of puddle which used to be either a fountain or pond for fish… if they had any fish.

The plague doctors were fine, Scres was stuck in a tree, Veano and Kaalgao were in some bushes, while Oarleo was in the pond… comically in fact as he had one of the bird baths on his head like a hat. The only ones that weren’t present was, Decay and…

“...Oh shit… Where’s Liliah?”

After searching the castle and around the mountain – which was done by going to the Overseer Room, and sending in scouts – the mountain itself was transported in some sort of wasteland in the middle of nowhere. No signs of any life for the next dozen of kilometers… or any signs of his apprentice or stead.

“My lord, we may not even be on Vestai anymore as the Overseer’s abilities are being blocked, and considering there is no nearby active magic, my assumption is that we’re in a completely new world,” said Kaalgao examining the current static picture above the Overseer orb.

“Well that’s fantastic; not only did the device transported us but the mountain to some strange world, but my horse is missing and my apprentice as well – half a quarter of our forces are back at Vestai, we’re all alone with only a quarter of our forces, with zero chance of backup and we got at least a majority of the smart ones here instead back at the kingdom to fix this problem!”

“Hopefully Maolces can figure something to contact us from the kingdom… and hopefully the fog is still keeping the kingdom shrouded,” said Veano.

“Don’t worry, the fog has always been self-sustaining, as it was the only thing that never required King Xarcain’s power,” said Kaalgao. “Though that means we are at a disadvantage without it.”

“If that’s the case, why do I see that?” asked Oarleo. Everyone over the edge of balcony overlooking the mountainside to see a mysterious fog rolling out from the foot of the mountain.

It appears some of the fog managed to come with us… this may not be as horrible as I first imagined.

“Well we can worry about finding a way back home! We need to find Liliah and Decay; SO GET SEARCHING!” shouted Xarcain, storming off to do… ‘something’.

As the rest of the members of the Circle of the Corpse watched their king leave in frustration, things would begin to spiral… in more ways than one.

Somewhere in Equestria – Everfree Forest

Liliah – Corpse Knight of King Xarcain, and his loyal apprentice – was waking up from a very bad coma; she remembered a large noise and light before being engulfed by said light. What happened… where…

After getting up Liliah found herself in a castle… an unfamiliar one unlike the Castle of Souls. “Am… I?” said Liliah to nobody.

Tapestries of a sun and moon could be found above two twin thrones, as well as steps to some sort of lobby, as the walls were cracked and covered in moss and plant-life. The castle felt empty, but not the empty she was used to… like empty-empty…

It was after realizing that nobody was nearby or any signs of anyone being near her was discovered… she realized she was alone… and somewhere she didn’t know where.

“By everything that’s holy… Where is everybody?”

Author's Note

And behold, as the story begins; this is a two parter chapter as originally it was to be longer, but couldn't put the effort to make a lengthy chapter. This chapter is to just explain a majority of why, how, and where questions. Now onto the when, who, and what questions next - PROLOGUE PART 2 COMING UP!

Thoughts: Xarcain
Kaalgao
Liliah