Rainbow Dash awoke in the library, to the sound of conversation.
“So, what were those…things that you summoned?” Asked Twilight, trying to find the right word.
“They’re called leviathans. They’re some of the most powerful creatures in the multiverse. The two that I summoned were Inkwell Leviathan and Stormtide Leviathan, two of the most powerful,”
“Wow,”
Dash sat up, and cringed. Her wing felt like all the feathers had been burnt off, and new ones had been stabbed in. Which was more or less the case. She groaned. Her head felt like it was going to explode.
“Oh, you’re awake! Good!” Said Jace, enthusiastically. “I was worried that flickering while you were unconscious would drop you into a coma,” He smiled.
“What happened?”
“Oh, right. Well, you probably remember Bolas’s fireball hitting us. It destroyed the phantasm we were on, singed your wings, and knocked you out. I summoned another phantasm, and flickered us on up. I then summoned two of my closest friends, Inkwell and Stormtide Leviathan. With their power, I defeated Bolas. But, he isn’t dead, and he’ll probably be back,” He sighed. “And when he does, I’m going to need some help to beat him,”
“But, you beat him on your own. Why do you need help?” asked Twilight.
“I only beat him this time because I caught him off-guard. Since I got the first hit, I was able to take an advantageous position, and hit him several times without getting hit myself. I would’ve lost had I not been able to do that,”
“Okay, so what’s this ‘flickering’ you keep referring to?” asked Dash.
“A spell that I discovered when I visited Innistrad, It allows me and up to one other being to teleport a short distance. I used it to get us over to Bolas when we first saw him, and I used it to rescue from a deadly fall,”
“T-Thank you,”
“No problem,” He turned back to Twilight, and then immediately turned back to Dash. “Oh yeah! You started to something before Bolas showed up. Would mind finishing the sentence?”
“Oh, right. I’m alright with it,”
“Really?” Jace’s excitement was obvious.
“Yeah,”
“Great! Although, we should wait until you’ve healed a bit more. It would be the first time for you, so physical pain is definitely a possibility,”
Twilight’s mouth fell open. “Sweet Celestia! Rainbow Dash!”
“What?”
“I thought you said there was nothing going on between you two! So now not only did you lie to me, but you consented to such-,” she shuddered. “Vulgar actions in front of me?”
Rainbow Dash blushed. “Nonono it’s not like that!”
Jace rewound his thoughts, and realized the hidden meanings to what he had said. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I did not mean it like that,”
“I’m going to leave you two alone for a bit. Don’t talk like that ever again!” And with that she slammed the door shut behind her.
Jace sighed. “Well that could’ve gone better,”
“Or worse,” said Dash.
“Optimism. Yet another emotion I’ve lost over time. Perhaps it is one I should regain. It certainly seems to do you well,” Jace suddenly thought of something else. “You know, if Twilight was attempting to prevent us from doing anything of…that nature…then she probably shouldn’t have left us alone,”
“So, do you mean?”
“One could infer it, yes. But let us cross that bridge in the future. For now, we will deal with the matter at hand,” A white rune appeared in his left hoof.
“What’s that?” Asked Dash.
“Primitive healing spell. I can’t cast anything better. You’d be lacking feathers on you wing if it wasn’t for this,”
“Oh, alright,”
“It’s unfortunate that I can’t use anything more powerful. I have no gift for white magic,” Almost the moment he finished speaking, there was a loud whooshing noise, followed by a sharp crack.
“Dammit! Rainbow, come on!” The two blasted out the door, and out into the streets. “Rainbow, are you any good at finding sound location?”
“Yeah, it came from the eastern side of town!”
“Got it,” A runes appeared in his right hoof. He crushed it, and the two ponies suddenly appeared on the eastern end of Ponyville.
There was a lightly cloaked, lightly armored figure standing a few feet away from them, a fairly large sword was sheathed on it’s back.
“First you, then some guy with a fake arm, then a dragon, and now somepony with a sword? Seriously?”
The figure spoke, and its voice betrayed its gender to be female. “I assume you mean Tezzeret, Bolas, and myself, correct?” She did not move.
“But the way you spoke signified that there was another, who might that-,” She stopped when she saw Jace. “Jace!” She dove forward into a hug.
“Hello Elspeth. How have you been?” She slapped him across the face.
“What do you mean ‘how have you been’? You left without saying anything. You’ve been gone for two days! We thought you were dead!”
“Well, I-,”
“Don’t even try making an excuse! Come on! Garruk, Venser and the others are waiting!”
“But that’s just it. I can’t,”
Elspeth froze. “What do you mean you can’t?”
“I mean that in this form, I can’t planeswalk,”
“That’s ridiculous! I can-. Then again maybe it’s not so ridiculous,”
“You can’t either right?”
“Shut up!”
“Rainbow Dash. Allow me to introduce Elspeth Tirel. The best white-magic planeswalker I know,”
“Oh come on, you know that Ajani is better,”
“That’s a lie,”
“Wait, white magic? Does that mean she can fix my wing?”
“Huh, I guess you’re right. Elspeth? Did you finish learning that spell?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just follow our trail,” Jace and Rainbow Vanished from sight.
Elspeth sighed. “Dammit Jace,” And she disappeared.
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Elspeth’s glowing hoof hovered over Rainbow’s outstretched wing, slowly mending the damaged tissues.
“I’ve never seen burns this intense before. What happened?”
“Nicol Bolas happened,”
“Oh, well that explains it,” Her hoof stopped glowing. “There, try that,”
Rainbow flexed her wing. “Wow, that’s incredible!”
“Thanks,” She got up and turned towards Jace and Twilight
“So, how do you two know each other?” Asked Twilight.
“Alara,” They said in unison.
“Oh, that’s the plane that’s separated into shards right?” Said Rainbow.
“It was shards, but it’s become one plane again,” Jace replied.
“Oh,”
“Well, since Rainbow is healed, we have something to take care of. I think we would both appreciate some privacy,” Jace turned toward Twilight and Elspeth, an almost creepy smirk on his face. “Unless you want to watch,”
Twilight was unfazed, but Elspeth shivered. “Trust me, you don’t want to watch. Come on,”
Twilight made a motion with her hoof referencing that she didn’t want doing anything “interesting”, and then brought Elspeth upstairs.
A large blue rune appeared in Jace’s right hoof. “So, since you have never had somepony enter your mind, I can almost guarantee that it will hurt. A lot. And it’s unlike any other pain you’ve ever experienced. It isn’t unlike having your mane burned off and replaced by a full helm made entirely of barbed wire,”
Dash’s eyes widened with fear. “Oh, and you’ll also pass out, but, then again, so will I. Just part of the process. Are you ready?”
She swallowed audibly. “I-I guess,”
“Alright then,” The rune in his hoof condensed into a sphere, which he then crushed. His hoof began to radiate a blue aura, accompanied by swirling navy blue smoke. He raised his hoof, and placed it on Dash’s forehead.
Jace was wrong it was unlike having her maned burnt off and replaced with barbed wire. It was more like getting a hole drilled in her head, having napalm dropped in, then having her entire head tightly wrapped in sandpaper, which was then lit on fire.
So, naturally, she screamed in agony.
Hearing her friend scream, Twilight burst the door open, and saw a very misleading scene. Rainbow’s eyes were slowly drifting closed, and Jace’s glowing hoof was on her forehead.
“Jace!” Twilight teleported down the stairs, and Elspeth jumped down after her. The moment she made it down, both Jace and Rainbow collapsed to the ground. She immediately went to check Rainbow’s pulse, and upon doing so, discovered that her heart was still beating. She was also still breathing. She then checked Jace, and found the same result.
“That’s odd,” She decided that whatever had happened, they would want to be comfortable when they woke up. She went to set up two beds, and then remembered she only had one extra bed.
“Well, if what they were discussing earlier was any proof. They won’t mind sharing a bed,”
“Wait, what were they discussing earlier?”
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Rainbow “awoke” to find herself completely surrounded by black. She stood up quickly, and looked around frantically.
“Jace? …Jace? ...Jace!” A blue-cloaked pony appeared from the shadow.
“I’m right here, stop yelling,”
“Oh, thank Celestia, I thought I was alone, or something had gone wrong, or-,”
“Something did go wrong. Twilight interrupted the spell. We should be in you central memories, instead we’re at the edge of your consciousness,”
“So…How are we going to get there?”
“Fairly simple really, just imagine a doorway of some sort, and then picture it opening to reveal every memory you’ve ever had,”
Her eyes widened, and her ears fell back. “I-Is that everything?”
“Yeah. I’d do it myself, but I don’t want to risk damaging part of your mind,”
“A-Alright then,” She sat there, her eyes closed, for a good minute or so. After which, a door appeared, just large enough for a pony to walk through.
“Wow, not bad,”
“Thanks,” The two walked up to the door. Jace opened it.
“After you,”
“Well,” Joked Dash. “Aren’t you a gentleman?”
“Why thank you kindly Miss Rainbow,” Jace replied, returning her joking manner. They both laughed.
“You know,” Said Dash, wiping a tear from her eye. “I think that might be the first time you cracked a joke since you got here,”
“You know, I think you’re right,” He turned his head forward. “Well wouldn’t you know,” In front of the two ponies was a large, swirling mass of red energy.
“What’s that?”
“Your mana center. Everypony has one. It gives you the source for magic,”
“So, why is it red?”
“Because you’re a red type. The color that you best match is red,”
“Oh, cool,” They walked up to it, and Jace stopped her about a foot away from it.
“I would recommend against touching it. If you do, you’ll overflow with mana, and it will likely drive you insane,”
“Oh,” Jace walked forward. “Hey, I thought you said it would drive a pony insane!”
“No, I said it would probably drive you insane if you ever touched it. There’s something within it that I need to check,” He vanished into the sphere and came out a few minutes later. “Just as I thought,”
“What?”
“Nothing you need to know yet. My third theory was disproved yesterday, so that leaves the second theory. And I don’t need to test that in here anymore,”
“So…what?”
“Well, we can’t just walk out thanks to Twilight. So we just have to bide our time,”
“Well, How about we trade life stories?”
“I guess, but I go first, and I’ll omit a decade or so,”
“Fair enough,”
“Well…when I was ten years old, my home was attacked for reasons I have yet to know. I was backed into a corner along with my brother and mother, and just as we were about to be killed, my spark ignited, and took me into the Æther…,”
Jace looked around, and saw that he was surrounded by swirling blue and black.
“W-Where am I? What is this place?” His eyes started darting around. “Mother? Brother? Someone? Anyone!” The only answer was the low pitched, wind-like noise echoing from all around.
Then suddenly, everything around him began moving backwards, meaning that he was going forward. He flailed his arms and legs, desperately trying to grab hold of something to stop him, or even slow him down.
But it didn’t work, and he found himself being thrown into what looked like a portrait of a giant city.
“That city was called Ravnica, and I later grew to call it by another name, home,”
“Wow. Did you ever find out what happened to your family?”
“Not directly. Once I gained control of my spark, I returned to Dominaria, the plane where I was born, and found the village I grew up in. Or, what was left of it. Everything was burned, even the skeletons. They probably died,”
“I’m so sorry,”
“Don’t be, I can barely remember what they were like. I don’t miss them too much,”
There was a loud tearing noise, and a rift appeared in place of the door that had brought them in. “Huh, that was fast. Perhaps Twilight didn’t mess it up as bad as I thought,” The two ponies walked towards the rift, and stopped a few inches away.
“You first,” Said Dash.
“If you insist,” Jace spun around, and jumped through backwards.
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Jace opened his eyes, and then slowly closed them. He rubbed his forehead with his hoof, and then rolled over to his right. He opened his eyes again, and froze. He was literally face-to-face with a cyan pegasus. He noticed that his face started to warm up. He was just about to get up, When Rainbow Dash woke up. Her reaction was the same as his.
She was blushing, enough to make most of her face red.
“Well, uh, I-,” Jace stood up. “D-Dammit Twilight,”
Rainbow got up out of the bed and walked over to Jace. “No, wait, I don’t think-,” She pulled him into a hug. “Oh,” He returned it.
“That was for the story,” She broke the hug.
“So,” said Dash, smirking. “How about we go tell off Twilight?”