//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Baneful Omens 
// Story: My Little Planeswalker: Twilight's Spark 
// by Zennistrad 
//------------------------------//

“...And that concludes my report, Lord Bolas.”

Nicol Bolas scratched his chin thoughtfully as Ral Zarek finished his story, kneeling in a pose of complete supplication. Seeing a planeswalker bow before him was yet another reminder of his own power, and his Meditation Realm was already a masterwork of self-indulgence, an entire plane of monuments to his image. Even Niv-Mizzet would find his vanity excessive, a thought which only served to further his own pride.

“Interesting,” said Bolas. “This... ‘Twilight Sparkle’ sounds eerily similar to mythical creatures I’d heard stories of in my youth.”

Ral raised his eyebrows, still unmoving from his submissive pose. “Your youth, Lord Bolas?”

“Indeed,” said Bolas. “The alicorns were a race native to the plane of Concordia, or so the apocryphal legends had told. If the stories are to be believed, Concordia was destroyed in a cataclysm two-hundred thousand years ago, long before even I had graced the multiverse with my magnificent presence.”

Ral Zarek’s eyes went wide. Bolas grinned, knowing he had the Izzet Guildmage’s full attention. “Two hundred thousand?”

“Yes, I know. It’s hard to imagine a time when reality didn’t exist to cater to my whims. But it was there nonetheless.”

“And what should we do with this information, Lord Bolas?” asked Ral.

Lord Bolas paused. Ideas circulated within his mind, swirling with a scope that would rupture the brains of lesser beings who tried to comprehend them. That was to say, all beings not named Nicol Bolas.

“Send for Tezzeret,” said Bolas. “Tell him to report to me on the Gitaxians’ progress in New Phyrexia. If their planar portal is nearing completion, then I believe I will have another task for him shortly.”

Ral Zarek bowed his head. “Yes, Lord Bolas.”

 ———————— 

Your Entire World Forsaken

Ongoing Scheme

(An ongoing scheme remains face up until it’s abandoned.)

As you set this scheme in motion, choose an opponent.

Whenever the chosen player taps a land for mana, that land doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.

At the beginning of your opponents’ end step, they may pay any amount of mana. If the total amount of mana paid this way is 8 or more, abandon this scheme.

 ———————— 

Tezzeret’s etherium surveillance drone zipped through the bowels of the Lumengrid, winding itself through the nightmarish maze of pipes, wires, contraptions, and gleaming metal. Eventually, guided by the extensive map Tezzeret had imprinted on it, it made its way to the deepest chamber, where all the of the most important tests were conducted.

There, standing on a large darksteel balcony, Jin-Gitaxias himself oversaw a massive chamber where an inactive planar portal lay in the center. Right in the portal’s nexus, a captured Neruok human, still miraculously untouched by the Glistening Oil, was bound in chains.

“Initiate test number four-thousand, three-hundred and seventy-six,” said Jin-Gitaxias.

At his command, a grotesque, vaguely humanoid abomination of equal parts flesh and metal walked over to the far wall, where a massive lever was embedded. The horrific Phyrexian ignored the Neurok’s shouts for mercy, and flipped the switch with a ker-chunk.

Then, in a blinding flash of crackling energy and an ear-shattering scream of agony, the human was annihilated.

“Begin recording,” said Jin-Gitaxias. “Test number four-thousand, three-hundred and seventy-six. Results: failure. Researcher’s commentary: Another test subject annihilated by the energies of the Blind Eternities. In more than a year since the first prototype, we have made no signs of progress. I am beginning to fear—”

Jin-Gitaxias interrupted himself, the space that might have been his eyes turning towards a glittering silver shape. “Cease recording,” he said. “There is an unidentified object in the portal nexus. Bring it to me.”

A hoverdrone with a single eye glided from the ceiling, towards the portal nexus. It grasped the item in its six insectoid legs, before flying over and dropping it into Jin-Gitaxias’s awaiting palm.

The praetor’s jaws split open into a rictus grin as his spindly fingers caressed the artifact, a silver amulet without a chain, forged into a very distinctive shape.



“Fascinating,” said Jin-Gitaxias. “Very fascinating, indeed...”

 ———————— 

Planar Amulet	5

Legendary Artifact

7, T: Search your library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

“Our tests show that this artifact will shield its wearer from the chaos of the Blind Eternities. When paired with our portal technology, there is no plane we cannot reach.”
— Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur