Mages of Etheria: The Infinity Matrix

by Nova Arc

Day 1: Trial 1

"So, what now?" asked Sunset. The team looked around, trying to understand what had happened. The landscape hadn't changed, with the exception of a wall that left the Sparks apparently facing off against the Supersonics.

"Welcome to your first trial," said Celestia's voice as a giant image appeared between them. "This round is called Ultimatum. The rules are simple: Teams have thirty minutes to be reunited to move on. All of you progress... or be eliminated. BEGIN!" With that, the image vanished.

"But we're all together," said Sunset. Suddenly, each of them began to glow and in a flash of light, were transported to a different location. Sunset looked at her new surrounding. It wasn't too different... except for that odd breeze. When the alls came down, she realized the cause of the breeze. She gasped in awe as she saw the stadium floor had been shattered and was now levitating in pieces, far above the ground. "Wow. Must've taken a lot of magic to pull this off... then again, she throws the sun around like a trained puppy."

"I know, right." Sunset turned, surprised to see, and hear, Vinyl Scratch, sitting on the ground behind her. "Sup."

"Oh, hi Vinyl," said Sunset, cautiously. "You got zapped here too."

"Yep. Kinda weird. But you were lucky to get me. Octavia and Breezy are cool and Shred liked your bad girl attitude, but Meadow's... well, you were kind of a jerk to him back before freshman year."

"Oh... yeah. How bad is it?" Sunset asked, fearful of the response.

"Well, his good side remembers you tried to change. His bad side also remembers that you shoved him into the school sewage system... three times... in the same month."

"Hey, he threatened to stab me one of those times. I took that seriously when he attached a knife to his ukulele like a bayonet the next day." Sunset paused. She knew about Meadows... problem. Most kids in school did. He had a horrible case of MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) which gave him a kind, gentle side, and a maniacal, homicidal one... and it was sometimes hard to tell the two apart due to the occasionally smooth transition. "Great. Well, gotta go." She waved Vinyl goodbye as she took of to find her teammates.

Vinyl waved back. "Later. Good luck," she said as Sunset ran off.

---

"You..." Trixie stood face-to-face with a traitor: Mirage. The red-haired girl stood, shaking in fear, but trying to put up a bold front. "My team... my name... HOW DARE YOU?!"

"HEY!" She yelled back with as much courage as she could muster, "Y-You left us for those losers. We couldn't exactly wait for you." Trixie growled in anger. Mirage stepped back. "It was mostly Mesmer's idea. She got impatient waiting for you to leave your new group."

"So, that yellow-haired bitch decided to try to take over, huh?" Trixie turned to pace, not knowing Mirage was taking the opportunity to escape. "Then I, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall make sure she suffers for her-"

"Give it a rest, will ya." Trixie turned to see Nox and Amethyst. "She's gone," Amethyst added, pointing to the empty spot initially occupied by Mirage. "Besides, we've gotta find the others. I do not want to get eliminated on the first day."

---

"Yeesh." Digit stood at the edge of the landmass he had reappeared on. He had been walking for a while from somewhere around the center of the landmass and was now looking at the sea of scattered islands. "It had to be floating islands. It couldn't just be an obstacle course or something."

"The Princess knows that that is way too easy." Digit turned to see a girl with ice blue hair and matching eyes. She wore a light blue skirt and skirt and blue and white high-tops. She also wore a ribbon around her waist. "Why don't you use your other powers?"

Digit smirked. "You and I are different, Star Shine," he said. "Everyone already knows you're half dragon. Those who know about my... condition are either scared or pissed at me."

"Yeah, well none of that's your fault."

"They don't know that." Digit brought up some runes and tapped them. His body glowed with a bright blue aura. "Y'know, you're one of the few people outside my family who actually get me."

"Ain't you lucky. Now get going. I really wanna get the chance to kick your butt later on. For now, I'll let you warm up for it." With that, Digit took off, jumping down to the platform below. He landed with a mighty CRASH that probably rattled the little island.

He looked down at his watch. "Ten minutes gone. Time sure flies when you're having fun." He saw the dust cloud and put on his goggles. He clicked a button on the side and changed it to a scanner. He searched and searched and eventually picked up and identified Sunset running towards him. "Hey, Sunny," he said, walking towards her. Suddenly, a ball of fire whizzed past his ear. He cupped his ear and reeled back. "Whoa, Sunset, it's me." But couldn't see him through the unsettled dust cloud. At closed range, she threw flaming punches, still unable to see her opponent, but not willing to take any chances.

"Sorry, but I need to find my team, but slowing you down may give us an advantage. Nothing personal." She lunged at him repeatedly, trying to land a knockout blow. Finally, Digit jumped back and put some distance between them. He snapped his fingers and a number of runes appeared in the air around him. He tapped some rapidly and crossed his arms. The runes spun, the untouched ones faded, and a strong wind blew away the cloud. Sunset now saw who she was attacking. "Oh... sorry about that."

"Look before you leap, especially if the leap is followed up by a punch," Digit said, taking off his goggles and dusting himself off, his aura fading. "Have you seen Zest?" As Sunset shook her head, and bolt of bright red and orange crashed between them. Both were knocked back several feet. Digit looked up to see a smiling Zest crawl out of the crater. "Never mind. His timing is always convenient."

---

"Are you sure?" Celestia asked the image of Pixel, Digit's sister, on her comm-stone.

"Yes. I advise you keep an eye on him. He's... acting up again."

"Okay then."

"What was that about?" asked Cadence as Celestia put the stone away.

"It's nothing. Don't worry."

Back in the stands, Rainbow Dash was getting worried. She knew Fluttershy was hiding something but still couldn't figure out why she wouldn't tell her closest friends. The tension was made even worse when began to get the feeling that Rainbow was onto her. She knew she promised to keep it a secret, but she found it difficult to keep things from her friends. So Rainbow decided to help her out. "I know about your little... date with Digit."

Fluttershy froze for a moment. "W-What do you mean, Dashie?"

"You know, how he flew you home." Fluttershy was shaking now. "What's wrong? Anything you'd like to say?" Fluttershy shook her head wildly. "Okay." Rainbow leaned back in her seat, slowly loosing her patience. "So, how're his wings?"

Fluttershy's heart stopped for a few seconds. She looked at Rainbow, then ran off. Before Twilight could asked Rainbow said, "Probably bit a popcorn kernel. I'll go check on her." Rainbow trailed the shy girl to one of the bathrooms.

"You... You know?" Her eyes were filled with tears. "You followed us?"

"I don't trust him. He's keeping too many secrets. I mean, Star Shine was pretty open about being half dragon. What's his problem? Besides, the guy seemed like a jerk and-"

"JUST STOP IT!" Rainbow jumped at Fluttershy's cry. "I get you're worried about me. Everyone's always worried about me. But there are people who need to be worried about more than me... like Digit." Rainbow stared in awe and confusion. "I get it. You think he's a jerk, but he isn't. You two got off on the wrong foot, but did it ever occur to you that maybe you rubbed him the wrong way?" She calmed down and Rainbow walked over to her. "He told me not to tell you girls, and I only said yes because at least he was honest with one person: me. And I don't know about you, but that's a step forward in my book."

Rainbow sighed. "Fine, but does his team know?" she asked. "Why would he tell you, but not even his own teammates? That does warrant a little suspicion."

"Rainbow, please." Fluttershy held her friend's hands. "Just do this for me. He'll explain when he's ready. Until then, just drop the topic. Okay?" Rainbow nodded, but her mind still wasn't at rest.

---

"TIME!" Celestia's voice echoed across the scattered arena as it began to reconstitute itself. "Well done," said the large image of Celestia. "You have all been able to rejoin your teams. But keep in mind, future challenges will not be so easy... not even close. Now, there will be a thirty minute intermission before we continue on to the next event of the day, so use it wisely."

The teams dispersed to their locker rooms, but Sunset grabbed Digit before he could leave with the rest of the team. "Hey, um, Digit, can I talk to you?" she asked. Digit nodded and she added, "In private?" Digit nodded a bit more slowly now.

They stood in the corridor leading to the lockers. "What's up?" Digit asked. "Must be really important."

"It is." Sunset hesitated. Should she really be doing this now? She knew she had to focus on the trials, but she couldn't focus with all the questions bouncing around in her head. "Are you... okay?"

"Yeah, great. Why?"

Sunset felt a lump in her throat. "Well, um... I... uh..." Digit looked confused as Sunset struggled to form words. "I was worried. I kinda... saw... something... last week." At those words, Digit froze. His eyes narrowed. Whatever kindness and warmth Sunset was used to feeling around him suddenly vanished.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, calmly. "Something like?"

"Um... another side of you?"

Digit kept a straight face while Sunset kept one of mixed terror and anxiety. He smiled. "We'll talk later." As he walked off, he thought to himself, "If anyone, she may be able to help me. Being overtaken by evil and an evil entity are different, but similar enough. Besides, Pixel can't blame me for this one."

---

In the locker rooms, Trixie was livid. Nobody was sure whether this was real of if she was just hoping for attention, because if she was, she got it... from Amethyst. "Okay, seriously Trixie, SHUT UP! For the love of Faust, we get it! You're pissed 'cause your former bandmates made a team without you and didn't call you back in. Big whoop! Get over it!"

Trixie turned to Amethyst. "Oh, yeah, like you get it. Trixie has been humiliated in many ways, but this is just over the top! Twilight Sparkle was a worthy opponent and Sunset Shimmer was a fair challenge. But Mirage and Mesmer? That's just... just... GAH!"

"Yeah, we get it. But you don't have to bitch and moan about it every single time."

"You're the bitch you rejected blockhead!"

Amethyst froze. She glared at Trixie with a stare that could scare off a cockatrice. "What did you call me?" She was calm, but the rage was audible.

"Unwanted has-been."

Amethyst tackled Trixie against the locker behind her, holding her up with one hand, keeping her legs suspended in mid-air. "Say it again. Just insult me one more time." Trixie said nothing, though that could also be due to her struggling to breath. The purple Gaian tattoos on Amethysts arm started to glow a bright purple. "Go on. Piss me off!" It was then Trixie realized that Amethyst only looked average height, even though she was two inches short of six feet tall. Three inches is a lot more significant than she thought.

At that moment, Sunset walked in and saw the commotion. "What the...?"

"Sunset," Trixie said, turning to face her, "Could you tell this ape to get her hands off of Trixie?"

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Amethyst drew her fist back.

"Amethyst, wait!" Amethyst froze at Sunset's voice. "Just put her down." Amethyst lowered Trixie...roughly. "And Trixie," she added before Trixie could say anything, "Apologize."

"What?!"

"DO IT!"

Trixie jumped. Ever since the Elements purged the darkness from Sunset, people hardly ever saw the louder side of her. Trixie turned to Amethyst, avoiding eye contact, and said, "Sorry."

Amethyst relaxed and said, "Yeah. Me too." She turned to Sunset. "You'd better not say we should hug."

"Nah," Sunset said. "I was gonna say you two should kiss and make out."

"WHAT?!" they shouted in unison. Amethyst continued. "Okay, first of all, it's "kiss and make up,". And second, I know that you did that on purpose, but I say again, for clarity, I. Don't. Swing. That. Way."

"Trixie could never reduce herself to such."

"Really back to the third person? And as if you could even arouse me if I said you could do whatever you wanted to me for 24 hours."

"Are you insinuating your sexuality? Because I think you made that clear with all the boys you've chased off."

"You want to apologize to each other again?" Sunset threatened. "This time, more... intimately?" They two kept quiet. "Thought so."

"Wow. Looks like we found our team leader." They all turned and saw Digit standing at the door. Sunset blushed at the comment.

Nox sat up to face Digit and asked, "Hey, have you seen Zest? He didn't come to the locker room with us."

"Actually, I was about to ask you guys about that," he replied. "The next part of today's trial will be starting soon."

Meanwhile, behind the stands, a certain fiery-haired boy was chatting with someone who was supposed to be competition. Standing in front of him was a girl with dark blue hair and eyes wearing baggy dark purple shorts, and black tank top, and black boots. "Look," Zest said, "I don't know what it is you want out of this. The only way this is going to work is off the field. But what do you have for me?"

"Why should I give you anything?" asked the girl. "We want the same thing, but knowing you it's not that cheap. Five thousand bits." Zest smiled. "Now, what do I get."

"A plan," he said. "Digit will have to fight too. I suggest we wait after his fight, when he's still weak."

"Okay. But it'll have to be fast and precise. He tends to recover quickly."

---

Meanwhile, back in the hospital, Discord sat next to the bed Cherilee was laying on, watching the trials from his tablet. "Looks like everyone made it," he said. "How boring. No fight, no one got hurt." As he scrolled through to see the next matchups, Cherilee began to stir. "Oh, look who's awake."

Cherilee opened her eyes slowly, gradually adjusting to the light, and saw Discord. "D-Discord? ... DISCORD?!" She jumped. "What the heck are you doing?" She groaned in pain.

"Watching you. And take it easy. You'll break something else." He used his magic to recline her back into the bed. "Do you remember anything from when you were attacked?"

Cherilee sifted through the info in her head and explained what happened. "After that, he just left me in the car park and vanished."

"He only took books. All your other personal belongings are still here." Discord wondered what was so important about the books for the person to have gone so far. "What were the books for?" He did not like the answer.

---

Five minutes until game time. Celestia was looking over the roster for the next part when her comm-stone started ringing. "Yellow?" An image of Discord appeared. "Oh, Discord. Is Cherilee awake?"

"Yes. And I asked her about the attack," he said franticly.

"A bit early, but what did you get?"

"She didn't see his face and all he seemed to care about was the books. But the disturbing part is what he was researching."

"What?"

"The same thing we don't want people to be registering." Celestia's face froze with shock. "Yeah. But my reaction was a bit more comical. On the other hand, I expected a slightly more hysterical reaction from you. Don't worry, I'll get to work on searching for the books and the culprit. I've already informed Spellbinder. Just relax and deal with your little tournament. But try to make it a bit more interesting, okay? Tah!" With that, the image vanished. Then the bell rang.

Celestia stood and said, "Welcome back to the Trials. First, the teams had to remain teams. Now, a member from each team will be asked to fight against a member from another. This will occur after every trial and combat will either be single, double, tag, royale, triple threat, and so on, randomly chosen. Today's match: Amethyst of Sparks VS Savannah of Travelers!"

---

"Wow," said a surprised Amethyst as she got up. "Did not see that coming."

"You'll be great," said Sunset. At that moment, Zest walked in. "Where have you been?"

"Trying to find us a good seat," he replied. "And snacks," he added, holding up a bag of snacks.

"Cool. Amethyst is up."

"I heard." He turned to her. "Good luck."

"Thanks." As she left, the others followed. For some reason, Sunset had an uneasy feeling about her team. What was up with Digit? Why is Nox so quiet? What do Trixie and Amy have against each other? And why does Zest always seem to be watching Digit?

"Too many questions," she thought as she walked with them to the stands.

When they arrived, they took a seat next to Harmony, who congratulated them. "But it wasn't that tough a challenge," Rainbow pointed out. "I could've found our team in ten seconds flat!"

Twilight leaned towards Sunset and asked, "How's the team?"

"Yeah... about that..." Sunset said nervously.

"What?"

"Um... I'll tell you later. Meet me at my apartment after the trials."

"I thought you were staying at the dorm."

"Didn't see the point anymore now that I have my own place."

---

In the judges panel, a comm-stone was ringing, but it wasn't Celestia's. "Excuse me," said Creed, "I need to take this." He stepped away from the panel and answered when he reached the entrance to the platform. The caller's image came up. "Discord?"

"Surprised?" he replied. "I always thought you were the closest person to me aside from the Princesses and Team Harmony."

"Yes, well, I wasn't expecting your call. What is so important that you couldn't have just called my cellphone?"

"Well, I was doing some thinking about my magic. I think I know where the next jewel may appear." Creed's eyes shot open. "But before you celebrate, know that this is an educated guess. I may be right, I may be wrong, I may wish I was wrong-"

"Wait, what? Where do you think it will appear?"

"In the Royal Chantalot Garden."

Creed was speechless for a few seconds. "We're talking about the garden maze behind the royal castle and the Academy, right?"

"Of course not, silly you. I mean the one in the middle of the ocean. OF COURSE I MEAN THE ONE BEHIND THE CASTLE!"

Creed jumped at Discord's outburst. "Wow. I have never seen you this edgy before."

"Because three of the most dangerous items on the planet weren't being sought out by some unknown force before."

"Whoever they are, they can't be planning to do any good with it if they were willing to harm Cherilee in the way they did. How is she, anyway?"

"First of all, no one, good or bad, would ask about items that dangerous in the first place, mostly because they would be treated as suspicious or ignored for everyone's safety. Second, she's fine and awake... and apparently she wants to speak with you."

Cherilee's image appeared over the stone. Before Creed could ask how she was, she said, "I'm still in pain, but at least I'm alive. But I also have bad news. The man that attacked me said he was also doing some research on the Trinity Jewels. He didn't specify, but by the way he slammed me around like a ragdoll, I can take a guess on how bad it will be if he finds it. The books he took were limited edition; the only ones in the public library. All the others are in the Chantalot Archives, which he obviously can't access himself."

Creed scratched his chin in thought. "What of your own research?"

"It's back at my house."

"Okay. Just to be safe, I'll go with some guards to retrieve it. Whoever this is may decide to get a second opinion." She nodded and the image shifted back to Discord. "Have you heard from Spellbinder?"

"Yes. He said he had gone back to his lab to check the vines. Apparently, not all of them were magic, some were actual vines in the ground."

"Why would the attacker use two different entanglement spells?"

"Who knows. Maybe he was trying to confuse us. Or perhaps just to make sure Cherilee couldn't break free or phase through. Each one seems to make up for the other and he probably didn't know Cherilee if he had to take that precaution."

"Meaning he saw her as a threat?"

"Meaning he wanted to send a message. Probably something along the lines of, 'This is what happens when your weak ones get in my way. I'll leave the consequences of the strong to your imagination.' or something." He suddenly burst into laughter. "Sorry. I couldn't help it. The typical cocky bad guy line was just begging to be quoted." Creed was worried, because Discord might actually be right. "Anyway, SB said he'd get back to us when he gets anything."

"Okay then." He switched off the stone and headed back for the stands. He felt a presence behind him. "You? I thought you were still back at the Everfree Forest." He turned to face the man in a black cloak, with pitch black hair. "Forest life too rough for you, Bane?"

"Not at all, Creed," Bane replied. "In fact, it's quite peaceful."

"Then why are you here?"

"I just decided to visit the city. My Lady gave me some time off."

"Y'know, I'd love to meet this Lady of yours. She sounds interestingly mysterious."

"You are not worthy," Bane snapped. "But that isn't what I came here for."

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"No. I could never stoop so low and I couldn't care less about your problems. I just wanted to see how much you've changed in the last ten years... and I must say, you don't look a day over thirty... even if you are much older than that."

"You don't exactly put your real age on document, do you? Does you Lady even know how old you really are?"

"That is on a need to know basis, and she hasn't asked."

"But I see you're enjoying the lack of aging?"

Bane stretched his shoulders. "It is nice to enjoy being in my prime for as long as this."

"You do realize you are still very much mortal."

"Yes, but so are you. And unlike you I intend to do as much with it as possible." An alarm on his watch went off. He turned it off and said, "Well, I must be off."

"I'll be watching you." Creed said as Bane vanished in a plume of shadows. "Something is up with him," Creed thought out loud. "Perhaps I really should be keeping an eye on him. He isn't a typical Umbramancer."

---

Back in the dark, crystal meeting cave, Symbol Spell appeared from a gold rift that opened in the middle of a throne room. It was dark, lit up only by the glow of the light crystals. Statues of armors and beasts lined the walls. At the end of the room was a throne made of black steel with blood red crystals adorning the top of the backrest with a shadowy figure in armor and a royal red and white cape seated on it. Symbol approached and said, "My report, sir."

"You're early," said the figure, his voice echoed with growls. "I like that. Proceed."

"I was able to... retrieve some useful books from the library. She was nice enough to let me borrow them without even having a library card." The figure grinned at this. "After doing a little reading, I discovered that there is actually a fairly easier way to get the jewels than waiting for them to appear and then trap them in a containment field. It will save us time and resources and allow you to even accelerate your timetable as you see fit." Now, the figure's interest was piqued. He leaned forward as Symbol brought up a holographic diagram of the jewels, which were constantly switching places. "My deduction is that a powerful spatial distortion spell is causing the jewels to only be present in the physical plane for no longer than three seconds at a time, docking in subspace, with the addition of the randomizing effect which makes it harder to predict when and where they will appear next. However..." He snapped a finger and only two jewels were moving. "With a powerful enough magic jammer, we should be able to halt the process in at least one of the jewels when it appears. I've reconfigured my scanners to pick up on the magic ripple they produce when they appear. With one, we can find the rest."

"How?"

"The jewels cannot be tracked by magic or technology while in subspace, but each jewel can be used like a magnet or compass to predict where the other jewels will appear next and even give a fairly accurate timeframe of when it will appear."

The figure smiled. "Excellent work." Then, a green portal opened and Chrysalis stepped out.

"My Lord, I... oh... you're here," she said, spotting Symbol. "Anyway, I come with some good news. I was able to find the mine where the shadow crystals are located."

"And the bad news?" he growled.

"What? What bad news?" Chrysalis asked, feigning ignorance. The figure growled and she cracked. "Um, well, the problem is that the entrance to the mine is rigged. It doesn't allow Necromancers or Umbramancers or anything that has a dark magic presence to cross. Even my Changelings can't get through."

"Symbol?" The figure looked at the robed man.

"I suppose I could try," he said. "But I still need to finish a test I'm running in my lab for the magic jammer, and that could take another day or two. But the shadow gems should actually provide enough power for it for when it's completed." He looked at Chrysalis. "So lucky for you, we have a common interest in that mine. But what do you need those gems for?"

"None of your business," she snapped. "So will you do it or do I have to go hire some thugs to do it for me?"

"Come now, Chrysalis," he said, walking past her, "We all know you don't hire." He drew a rune in the air and a golden portal opened around him. He turned to her and said, "You seduce, mind-control, and manipulate," before vanishing in a flash of light.

"What are you planning to do with those crystals, Chrysalis? And I mean besides strengthening your drones."

Chrysalis froze. She turned to face her master. "Well, I was just hoping to help you."

"With what?" he growled.

"Well, um, after your... expulsion from the Crystal Empire, you were severely wounded." At this, the figure scratched a gray diamond-shaped gem on his forehead. "I believe these jewels can not only restore your magic, but also enhance it ten times over, at least! That is, in addition to repairing your arm and returning your physical form."

"Why would I want my physical form back?" he snarled, causing Chrysalis to jump back. "That weak form is the reason I'm missing my arm in the first place. It's the form that's missing an arm."

"What if I said the crystals could give your physical form the power of an archmage and extend that power to your shadow form?"

The figure leaned forward. "Then I would say you have done well. Come." Chrysalis approached his throne he pulled her onto his lap.

"OH!" she exclaimed, flustered. "Now, now my lord. Wouldn't want the others to walk in on us." He snapped his fingers and the crystals in the walls gloved a sinister shade of red as runes formed in them. "Ah. Lockout runes. I guess that could work." She kissed him deeply and pulled out suddenly. "I will always be yours," she wrapped her arms and legs around him, "Lord Sombra."

Author's Note:

Wow. Sorry for the wait, viewers. I was hopping summer holiday would kill my writer's block, but it actually made it worse. Not sure how, but it did . Anyway, next, you'll see the first fight of the first day:
Amethyst Luster VS Savannah Wild. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned and stay awesome!