“So, Elspeth,” Began Jace. “What have I missed?”
“Nothing much,” Elspeth replied. “When you didn’t return to Ravnica on time, Ral Zarek showed up in Alara, and told me and Ajani that you had been gone all day. So Ajani went to tell Venser, Sorin, and Gideon. I haven’t heard from him, but they’re probably waiting for me, and if they don’t see me in a few hours. Venser is likely to correctly assume that I have obtained the same fate as you, and devise a plan to come looking for us. I’d give ‘em a few days at most,”
“Well, we don’t have a few days. At most, we have a few hours,”
“Until what?”
“Until Bolas and Tezzeret arrive. I can handle Tezzeret 1v1, but with Bolas, and lacking the element of surprise, I would need the help of at least two other planeswalkers. If I was to focus on offense, and you were to handle defense, then we’d stand a decent chance, but-,”
“But that’ll only buy us three minutes at most, giving us one minute to beat Tezzeret, and two to beat Bolas,”
“Exactly…Hmm…,” Jace leaned back, and looked at the ceiling. “Oh! What about Garruk? Has he been told?”
“Yes, Zarek said he was going to tell Garruk, Koth, and Nissa before he left,”
“He went to tell Koth?” Jace smiled, and moved his head so he could look at Elspeth. “Then we’ll be fine. That impulsive bastard will be here any minute,”
Elspeth sighed. “I hope so, there’s no way we can hold off both of them unless you-,”
“Yeah, and I can’t risk that here,” He looked at his right hoof. “Especially after what I did on Mirrodin,”
“You need to stop blaming yourself for that,” Elspeth leaned forward, and placed her hoof on his left. “It wasn’t you,”
“It was me!” Jace pulled his hoof out from underneath hers, and slammed his right one down on the table, violently. “I lost control, and I killed countless innocent ponies! It was completely my fault!”
Elspeth knew to not argue with Jace when he was like this. She stood up. “Well, if you really feel that way,” The mare stood up and walked up the stairs. Jace’s flashed an immensely dark blue.
Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a glance. Rainbow jerked her head towards the stairs. Twilight rolled her eyes, but complied. Perhaps she could figure out what was getting under both Elspeth and Jace’s skin.
When the door to the room Elspeth had entered closed behind Twilight, Rainbow walked up to Jace. “Jace?” The planeswalker looked up slowly.
“Yes, Rainbow?” His eyes looked enraged, but they flashed some fear to the keen eye.
“What are you afraid of?” He looked away, and his breathing very slightly quickened.
“You’d think it sounds cheesy,” He dismissed.
“Well you certainly don’t,”
Jace sighed. “Myself,” Rainbow cocked her head to the right.
“Come again?”
“I already answered a question. By logical process of thought, it would be your turn,”
Rainbow giggled at his seriousness. “Okay, shoot,”
“Who were your parents?”
Rainbow stiffened. “I…I don’t want to answer that,”
“It’s just, I am almost certain I know the answer, but I hate the possibility of being wrong,”
“But I-,” She stopped when she locked eye contact with Jace, who was now standing only a few muzzle-lengths from her. She blushed. “Well, it’s just-,” She broke eye contact and laughed nervously. “It’s just that I’ve never met my mom,”
Jace scoffed. “Impossible,”
“Excuse me?” Asked Rainbow, slightly annoyed.
“Everypony has met their mother at one point or another. You can be born without the father present. However, the mother is very involved in the process of birth,”
“Well…,” Rainbow giggled. “What I meant was that I never properly met her,”
“Ah, now that’s completely different,” Jace sat back down, and gestured for Rainbow to join him. “Do you remember what she looked like, at least?”
Rainbow set herself down next to him. “No, not in the least,”
Jace’s right roof became wrapped in a blue aura. “Would you like to?”
Rainbow smiled, hopefully. “You can do that?”
“Pfft, child’s play,” Jace dismissed. He reached his hoof up to Rainbow’s forehead, and upon contact, blue energy pulsed from the point of contact to the back of her neck, her eyes began to roll back, and she began to see black at the edges of her vision, when it all stopped.
“Do you remember her now?” Rainbow thought back to her childhood, and realized that she could put colors and a face to the formerly monochromatic, faceless shape. She was a white mare with a short, white mane that almost shined.
“Yes, I do!” She turned to Jace, tears in her eyes. “Thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. However, there was an ulterior motive to that,” Rainbow cocked her head. “Her name was Shimmering Star. Or, as I knew her, Tamiyo,” He looked Rainbow right in the eyes, causing her to blush again. “A planeswalker,”
“Wait a second!” Rainbow retorted in disbelief. “You said that Equestria wasn’t in the Æther tunnels until just a few days ago!”
“Cleary, I was wrong,” Jace admitted. “But this is the most important bit. She obviously left before you were old enough to keep memories of her. But now that you can remember them, would you happen to know where-,” A loud thud echoed through the tree, accompanied by screaming.
Jace sighed. “You know, I’m getting really tired of getting cut off mid-sentence,”
“I bet,” The two burst out the door, and were soon accompanied by a flash of light signaling the arrival of Twilight and Elspeth. They looked around, and discovered the source.
An enormous dragon was approaching Ponyville. His horns were curved, and had some sort of stone floating between them.
Jace smirked. “And so he returns,”
“But Jace, we aren’t ready! If we can’t catch him off-guard we’ll lose!”
“But we will catch him off guard,” Jace turned to Elspeth. “He doesn’t yet know that you’re here,”
Elspeth paused, and then smirked as well. “You’re right,”
“Dash and I will go first, you bring up the rear, and, if she will fight, have Twilight help,”
“Waitwaitwait! You just automatically expect me to go up against that,” Interjected Dash, gesturing towards Bolas. “Again? Do you not remember what he did to my wing?”
“Because I had underestimated Bolas, and got cocky on top of that. Therefore, I wasn’t prepared for him to lob a fireball spell at us,” Jace smiled. “But this time, it’ll be different, and if for some reason you are hit, Elspeth can heal you in a snap,”
“I guess…but what if-,” Jace interrupted with a hoof on her shoulder, causing her to blush.
“You’ll be fine. I promise,” Rainbow looked up into Jace’s eyes, and unlike the last few times she had, she saw pride and trust. So she decided it was only fair to return it.
“Alright, let’s do it!” In immediate response, Jace summoned up a blue rune, and disappeared in a flash of blue along with Rainbow Dash.
When the two reappeared, they were about thirty feet behind Bolas, and Tezzeret was nowhere to be found. A blue manta-ray esque being appeared below them, a being that Rainbow had begun to call Jace’s Phantasm. A smirk spread across Jace’s face.
“Well lucky me, he didn’t notice,” A large blue rune appeared in his right hoof, larger than most of the others Dash had seen him use. After a few moments, it reoriented into a sort of bullet shape, and rocketed towards Bolas.
The sound of the impact was like listening to a mountain implode whilst forty dragons violently stomped on the ground. Shortly after, there was a deep-toned, agonized scream from Bolas, as the back of his head was pushed with great force, and the rest of his body was flung along with it.
He hit the ground hard, flailing, and screaming. His complete surprise brought such a look of happiness to Jace’s eyes. But there was another emotion mixed in with it. However, it was tough for Dash to name it.
Jace went to ready another blast, only to get none more than a sputter in response.
“What?” Jace brought his hoof up and examined it. “No! Not now!” The two emotions in his eyes were now replaced with pure panic.
“What’s wrong?” Asked Dash, desperately hoping to calm him down.
“I’m not able to access any blue mana!” Jace began to seem angry. “Which means that I can’t cast any of my spells!” He gritted his teeth. “Damn, I hate having to do this,” His left hoof lit up red, and he winced. He directed his hoof to sky, and soon after, a beam of red energy burst straight towards the sky. Jace collapsed, and Rainbow rushed over to comfort him.
“Every time I do that it hurts more,” Jace laughed nervously.
A bright white flash appeared near the library, and Elspeth showed up about twenty feet in the air. She pulled the sword on her back out of its sheath with her teeth, and a series of runes appeared in her left hoof. A small projectile flew down toward the recovering Bolas, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. But that was just the beginning.
As she fell, Elspeth placed her sword in the perfect position, so that upon near impact with bolas, she was able to cut a solid gash across his right shoulder blade. Following which, the dragon screamed in agony.
Elspeth repeated this process several times, and each time, she got a louder response. However, something was bothering Jace. “She’s taking too long,” And that’s when he noticed it.
He kicked the phantasm’s right wing joint, and it rocketed forward. The only thing Rainbow could do, was examine the scene for herself, and she discovered the same thing Jace had.
In Bolas’s right claw, there was a large black rune. And if what she had learned from Jace was anything to go off of, that meant a kill-spell. The two ponies were only ten or so feet away, when Jace screamed to get Elspeth’s attention.
“Look out!” However, his shout came too late. Bolas flipped over, and a black mass was sent flying towards a completely helpless, falling Elspeth. “No!”
The blast impacted, and sent the armored pony flying into a nearby building. Jace transported himself and Dash into it, and they both saw Elspeth in the worst condition they could’ve imagined.
Her armor was blackened, dented, and cracked, her previously clean and kempt cloak was covered with black dust, and tattered. To make matters worse, blood was running down the left side of her face, and was thusly keeping her left eye shut. Her breathing was ragged, and she was sitting in a large pile of rubble to boot.
“Son of a bitch,” She muttered.
“Elspeth,” Jace dashed over, and immediately began examining her wounds.
“Sorry Jace,” Elspeth began. “I should’ve paid more attention,” She coughed, and blood landed on Jace’s right shoulder.
“Just stay still,”
“Don’t worry Jace, I can heal myself. You need to…focus on…dealing with…Bolas,” Her head fell limp on her shoulders. It was apparent that she was still breathing, but she wasn’t moving.
The fear that had been present in Jace’s eyes was gone now, replaced with two other emotions. Rage, and another emotion which Dash had only seen a few times before. Bloodlust.
Blue lines appeared trailing down Jace’s cheeks. They were almost tear-like in design. In addition, his eyes were starting to glow blue, and the silver runes and lines on his cloak began to do the same. When the glowing aura in his eyes stopped growing brighter, the energy started to leak out into the air, where it slowly dissipated.
All in all, he looked like some sort of god.
“What in the-,” Began Rainbow, but she was cut off by Jace placing his left hoof on her right shoulder, and walking right past her.
Once he was near the exit from the building, he actually levitated through the gap. Rainbow quickly followed, although she flew.
Once outside Jace levitated up to Bolas’s eye-level, and spoke in a low, gravelly voice.
“Bolas. I will give you one chance. Retreat,”
Bolas snorted, somewhat amused. “Not a chance, Mind Sculptor,”
“So be it,” Deadpanned Jace. An enormous blue and black rune appeared in his right hoof, and then morphed into a swirling ball of blue and black energy. He raised his hoof so that it was only a few feet from Bolas’s forehead. Once it was at that point, there was a loud crack, and a bright blue blast.
When Dash’s vision cleared, Bolas was reeling back, and Jace was hovering before him, unfazed.
“Damn you…,” Began the dragon. “Damn you to the Endless Void!” The dragon screamed at the planeswalker, while launching a black rune towards Jace.
Jace simply scoffed, and swatted it aside, and once it was thrown off-course, it began to dissolve.
Seeing his attack fail, Bolas’s angered expression changed to a panicked one. Another rune just like the last one Jace had used appeared in the planeswalker’s right hoof, and morphed into yet another swirling ball of energy. Which caused another crack, and blast, which again sent the dragon backpedaling onto the ground.
Upon seeing his opponent collapse, and fail to recover, Jace began to float down onto the ground, but was interrupted by a flash of blue and black energy, and an angered Tezzeret rocketing towards him.
Jace looked up at the enraged planeswalker, and once he neared him, he swatted the Agent of Bolas aside. When Tezzeret collided with the ground, he bounced up from the ground and rolled into a nearby house, his armor smoldering.
When his assailant again didn’t stand up, Jace turned away and looked towards one of the countless spectators. Their eyes filled with a strange mixture of fear and intrigue. Jace’s eyes, however, were filled with contempt.
“What might you be watching?” He deadpanned, his glowing eyes peering into those of every single pony who was watching.
“Are you curious as to the extent of this power?” He lifted a blue mare from the back of the crowd, who had until just now been backing away. “Or do you silently judge me? I can easily show you the former,” His eyes narrowed. “I can take somepony’s memories,” The mare’s eyes began to glow blue, and her body began to twitch occasionally. “And scatter them to dust,” Blue particles of energy flew out in all directions from the mare’s head. “Or I can reverse the process,” Jace picked up a gray stallion, but this time particles of energy converged on his head, and when he was set down, his eyes began to dart around, as if they were examining a million different things in his scope of vision, after a few seconds, he began to mutter to himself.
“Was that what you desired to see?” Jace asked, sarcastically.
It took about two seconds for every pony to comprehend what they had just seen, after which, it became complete and total chaos. Screams and hoofsteps echoed throughout the town, followed by wailing foals and slamming doors.
Rainbow’s hoof hovered just a few inches from her face, her eyes wide with horror, her wings beginning to flap slower and slower until she landed on the ground. “What in Equestria…?”
“This is just like what happened on Mirrodin,” Rainbow searched frantically for the source of the voice, and discovered Elspeth, supporting herself with her sword, blood keeping her left eye closed. She collapsed, and Dash galloped over to help her.
“Listen *cough*, Jace is not himself right now. You need to find a way to change him back to what he was like a few minutes ago *cough*,” Elspeth convulsed, and spat out slightly diluted blood into the dirt. “I can’t describe exactly how to do it, as I don’t *cough* perfectly grasp the situation, but if anypony can, it’s you,”
“What do you mean?”
Elspeth rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. *cough* I’ve seen the way you look at him,”
Rainbow blushed, nodded, and took off.
“Good luck,”
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This was bad. No, that was a severe understatement, this was terrible. Twilight galloped from the library towards the edge of town filled with smoke and fire.
One minute she’s researching possible interactions with planeswalkers in the days of early Equestria, the next she hears screaming coming from where Jace was. She had just hoped nothing bad had happened to him.
She took a sharp turn down an alley, and saw a blue flash on the other end. She picked up speed, and galloped into the street. She looked around for the source of this widespread fear, but could not find it. That is, until she looked up.
“Hello Twilight Sparkle, come to be the next demonstration?”
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Rainbow looked around, frantically. She had almost caught up with Jace, and then he had warped away. To make matters worse, she hadn’t seen where he had gone to. She flew up into the air, and looked around from her high vantage point, until she spotted the planeswalker a few blocks away. She dove downward, and rocketed towards Jace.
She was about ten meters away when she saw the pony he was levitating upwards this time.
Twilight.
Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes, but she fought them back. She had to stop Jace, now more than ever.
She flew down at near the speed of a Sonic Rainboom, and stopped when she was in between Jace and Twilight.
At this point, tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her shoulders were beginning to shake.
“Jace…you need to stop this…please,” Jace hesitated for a moment, and dropped Twilight, but just as Dash was beginning to relax, she found herself immobile.
“Poor little Dashie,” Said Jace, an almost devilish grin spreading across his face. “Too bad you can’t just fly away. Oh what I wouldn’t give to see what makes you tick,”
Slowly, Dash felt pressure coming at her head from all angles. It was now that tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, her eyes filled with fear and sadness. She looked into Jace’s and spoke two words.
“Please…no…,” She spoke quietly, and solemnly.
Jace paused, unchanging for a moment, but then, he seemed almost surprised at what he saw, the energy around Rainbow dissipated, and the two ponies floated down to the ground. Jace, even more so than every pony around him, seemed horrified.
Rainbow looked up at him, as her crying eyes began to shift to a state of happiness. “Thank you for coming back,”
Jace’s expression shifted to relief. “Perhaps we should head to the library,” He said hurriedly
Dash laughed nervously. “I would, but I can’t stand,”
Jace smiled. “Not a problem,” He picked Dash up in his hooves, threw her onto his back, and began to walk towards the library.
“Hey, uh…couldn’t you just teleport us on over?”
“Out of mana, remember?”
“But then how did you-?”
“In that form I use mana within myself, and black mana from around me. It goes to my head pretty quickly,”
“Oh…hey Jace?”
“Yeah?”
“Is it bad if I can’t feel my legs?”
“Not really, it’ll subside,”
They were nearing the library, when a white flash appeared in front of them, and Elspeth, who seemed like she had made a major recovery. Her eyes were filled with panic, and her voice quivered with fear.
“Jace!”
Jace turned around. “Don’t worry, I’m back,”
“No, that’s not it…,”
Jace looked puzzled. “Then what is?”
“I went to interrogate Bolas, and when I asked him why he was here, he scoffed and told me to check the south fields, and when I did, I found…well…you should see for yourself,” She wiped tears from her eyes, and prepped two white runes, then crushed them.
In a flash of light, they appeared in the southern fields of Ponyville. Nopony was anywhere nearby, and there weren’t any structures either, except for on large piece of metal, with runes carved over its entire surface. Jace stared for a moment in confusion, then shock, and lastly, anger.
“No,” He galloped over to it, and Dash desperately held on to him, as she didn’t want to get a concussion. “No no no no!”
“What’s wrong? What is that?”
Jace set Rainbow down in the grass. “A sign of the end of the world,” He slammed his hooves onto the surface, causing a hollow clang.
“It’s a Hedron,”