Jace Beleren, master mind mage, and Planeswalker, is pulled into the world of Equestria by an unknown force. Upon arrival, he is transformed into a pony, and loses his ability to planeswalk.
Immedeately after the events of Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Beseiged, and New Phyrexia, Jace Beleren, master mind mage and Planeswalker, is pulled into the world of Equestria by an unknown force. Upon arrival, he is transformed into a pony, and loses his ability to planeswalk. Now he must face an old foe with unimaginable power in order to return his.
A cloaked figure walked forward, his navy blue boots scraping up charred dirt, and his matching hooded cloak putting out fires as it flew around gently in the wind. He approached another figure lying on the ground, and stopped a few inches away.
“Had enough?” Asked the first figure in a low, gravelly voice.
The second figure coughed, and attempted to pick himself up, only to collapse back into the dirt.
“I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long. Most other mages would have already given up or sunken into madness at this point. However, you and I both know that you can’t keep up this tough guy act forever,” He kneeled down and looked his opponent in the eyes. “So I’ll cut you a deal. You hand over the summoning spell you took from me, then leave this plane, and I promise your mind will remain largely intact,” He smiled. “Should you choose to continue to fight however, I will destroy what’s left of your mind,” He stood up. “Your choice,” He moved back a few steps to give the second figure room to stand.
The second figure weighed his options. He could attempt to leave with the spell, but he would probably be followed, he could give up, but he would have wasted an entire seven hour operation, or he could fight, and probably lose. He stood up.
“Alright then, my turn,” Said the second figure. Strands of translucent red material began to flow from the ground beneath the two, and form a swirling ball of the stuff in his left hand.
More red mana? Thought the first figure. What does he need that for? The second figure generated seven translucent red runes, and crushed one of them in his right hand. The other six vanished from sight as he combined the mana in his left hand with the rune in his left, creating a fiery ball that began to grow rapidly. When it finished growing, the mage threw it at the first figure.
At first, the first figure didn’t move, but then he generated a large blue barrier in front of him. Once the fireball collided with the barrier, the figure enclosed it within the barrier, and shrunk it down to about the size of a baseball.
“You know,” He crushed the sphere in his hand. “I thought you would do better than that,”
The second mage collapsed to his knees. “Shit. They don’t call you ‘The Mind Sculptor’ for nothing,” The first figure summoned forth three blue runes, and crushed one in his right hand.
“Please, call me Jace,” He placed his hand on the second figure’s head, and a blue pulse blasted forth, knocking the second figure onto his back.
His eyes stared blankly into the storm clouds above them, his breathing quickened, and he began to laugh nervously. A state that Jace had seen all too many time before. He had gone completely insane.
Jace reached into the madman’s jacket, and pulled out a parchment scroll sealed with a blue and red wax. The symbol resembled a dragon with its wings folded.
“Now then, Niv-Mizzet is probably going to want this back, although I suppose he owes me for assisting him in the maze…Oh well,” He placed the scroll in his pocket, and called upon the power of his spark. He became surrounded by a blue aura and then vanished
Jace felt the multiverse flying past him at an incomparable speed. If there had been air in the Æther, then his clothing would be plastered to his skin. So thankfully, there was none. He was surrounded by swirling blues, blacks, and greys. Every so often there would be a burst of lush green, saturated blue, and vibrant yellow, lasting about three seconds.
He did some quick calculation in his head. He had just left Dominaria. Which meant that he was about to pass Innistrad. After that would come Alara, and then Mirrodin. Or, that’s what it used to be called. What did Elspeth say it had become again? Ah, yes. New Phyrexia. Well, at least it was still a plane. The same could not be said for Zendikar. Those damned Eldrazi consumed the whole thing.
Jace shook the off-course thoughts from his head, he had to focus on traversing the Æther, or else he’d get lost, and have to ask for directions. And that would just be embarrassing. He passed by New Phyrexia, and made note of the unusually high concentration of what appeared to be red mana. He would examine it after he returned this scroll to Niv-Mizzet.
However, upon reaching the void that used to contain Zendikar, the planeswalker was greeted by something most unexpected.
There was a new plane here. He had never seen any sort of mana concentration like this one, and it seemed as though it had just appeared. He decided that he didn’t need to waste his time in an empty plane, and chose to move on.
However, as he was about to leave its range of influence, he froze in place. It was somehow stopping him from planeswalking. Well, that’s how it seemed, until he realized he was planeswalking. Backwards.
He struggled pointlessly against the unidentified and invisible force. And as he was about to cross the border between it and the rest of the multiverse, he wasted further energy by shouting for help. Despite his knowledge that he was the only one who could access this portion of the Æther.
It was at the moment before he was immersed in the new plane, that he blacked out.
White. That’s all Jace could see at first when he opened his eyes. That meant he had been out for a few hours at least, and that it was light out. That’s two pieces of knowledge from one solid color. The next thing he noticed was the features of this new plane. It appeared as though it was all…hand-drawn. He had no idea what that meant, so he tracked his analyzation score to 2-1. He stood up, and immediately fell backwards in surprise.
There were two things wrong with him. Number one: he no longer had feet or hands, they had been replaced by hooves. Number two: He had four legs. As he was about to get up, only to discover yet another thing about him had changed. He had a tail. Plus, he had no idea what any of that meant. That meant this game’s score was 2-4. Which meant he was losing. Jace hated losing.
So that meant he was going to have to learn a bit more about this place, and even the score a bit.
He stood up, and carefully walked forward a few steps, only to fall forward. He looked around, and found that there was another…creature…like himself nearby. He walked up to the confused being.
“Hello, might I ask where the nearest town is?”
The creature pointed towards what he assumed to be north.
“Thank you Miss…,” he said, waiting for her name.
“Umm, Derpy, Derpy Hooves,”
He looked her over. She was a grey…pegasus, perhaps…with golden eyes and hair. And he admitted to himself that she was somewhat cute.
His thoughts froze. Then reversed, and replayed. Somewhat cute? Now he was sure he was losing it. He had decided that this pegasus was cute. Meaning that his mind had been altered by this new form as well.
“Well, thank you Miss Hooves, now just one more thing I need from you…,” He summoned up seven runes and crushed one in his hoof. Ugh, that was going to take some getting used to. He then placed his aura cloaked hoof on her forehead, and drained a few memories from her, causing her golden eyes to face in odd directions, and absorbed them himself.
“Don’t worry,” He said, calmly as she passed out and collapsed on the forest floor. “You’ll be up and about fairly shortly,” He quickly reviewed the memories, and began to walk flawlessly, as if he had done it his whole life.
“Now then, let’s see. It’s about a quarter mile in this direction,”
Jace looked around the town that the pegasus had called Ponyville. It wasn’t large by any standards, but it was decently populated all the same. The memories that he had collected led him to believe that if anypony in this town was worth talking to, it would be Twilight Sparkle.
He stopped, and rewound his thoughts. Had he just said anypony as opposed to anybody or anyone? He decided to think about it later, and focus on finding out as much about this world as possible.
Supposedly, this Twilight lived in a library built inside of a tree. And she was also probably the most intelligent pony in ponyville, to boot.
He looked over the directions from the stolen memories, and ended up in front of the building before he knew he that he was walking. The planeswalker walked up to the large, circular door, knocked twice, and waited. After a few moments, there was a click, and the door opened revealing a…purple unicorn. Of course, it had to be a purple unicorn.
“Umm, hello,” Said the, he searched his newfound memories for the right word, pony, with a certain amount of confusion. “Who might you be?”
He abandoned his frustrated thoughts for a moment in order to answer her question. “My name is Jace Beleren. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment,”
“Uh, yeah, I guess,” She opened the door and stepped aside, allowing Jace access to the library.
He sat down on the floor and faced her. “Now, what I’m about to say is-,”
“I would just like to warn you that I am expecting company. My friend Rainbow Dash said she would be dropping by for some new books so this conversation could be interrupted at any moment.
“Thank you for the warning,” He said, with a small concentration of annoyance. “Anyway, what I am about to tell you is completely true, no lies, no tricks, and I’m not insane. I know what an insane pony-,” He stopped his thoughts briefly and then ignored it. “Looks like, and I don’t match the profile, got it?”
“Yes,” Replied Twilight with absolute confidence.
“Alright then, well…I’m-,” Jace was Interrupted by a loud crashing noise, some angered mumbles, another loud crashing noise, and then the sound of hoofsteps coming down the stairs.
“Ah, that would be her,” Said Twilight, standing up and walking over to one of the bookshelves.
At that moment, a cyan pegasus with a prismatic mane and tail began trotting down the stairs. She was quite obviously athletic, and fairly attractive-. Jace rewound his thoughts, and paused. If he still had fingers, he would close his eyes and rub his thumb and fore-finger over his eyelids. After that moment of confusion, he noticed that his head was aching at the temples. He paused yet again and thought to when that last happened, but he couldn’t place it.
After speaking shortly with Twilight, Rainbow walked towards the door, but stopped when she saw Jace.
“Who’s this guy, and what’s with his getup? And his cheeks?”
Jace looked into the nearest mirror, and noticed that he had light blue streaks running form his eyes down his jawline “Oh sweet, I still have those!” He shouted excitedly.
Twilight and Rainbow both adopted looks of confusion.
The planeswalker sighed. “Do you want the simple, short, or long version?”
“Well…I kinda wanna read this book, but I don’t wanna miss too much…How about the short version?” Said Rainbow, eyeing the book in her saddle bag
“I’m from another world, and I have the ability to travel between worlds, but I was forced to show up here and when I did I lost the ability to travel between worlds,”
Twilight’s jaw dropped, along with Rainbow’s, and neither pony moved for a few seconds, before Twilight spoke, with an amount of shock in her voice.
“S-Seriously?”
“Well, yeah,” said Jace, calmly.
Another few seconds of awkward silence passed, but this time it was broken by Rainbow Dash.
“That. Is. Awesome!,” She suddenly ran up and started looking him over, causing Twilight to laugh a bit at her curiosity.
“How do you do it?” she asked still examining his clothing.
“Well, I usually get some personal space,”
“Huh? Oh! Right! Sorry. Twi’ here got me to read this Science fiction book about alternate worlds, and it’s kinda like it’s happening right in front of my eyes,” She backed away, and Jace made note of a slight blush on her cheeks.
“Anyway, and then I would just kinda-,” He interrupted himself by attempting to access his spark, causing blue and blackenergy to begin to form around him, only to vanish suddenly. He collapsed onto the floor. “Well, do that. And it would normally take me to a section of nothingness called the Æther, which I would use as a sort of high-speed transit,”
“Woah,” said both ponies at once.
“Twilight, that looked like magic!” said Rainbow.
“Well, that’s cause it was, although, it works differently than most magic. That stuff comes from within me,”
“How is that different from normal magic?”
“Well, normal magic works like-,” He pulled blue energy from the ground and condensed it. “That,”
Both pony’s jaws dropped again.
“Huh,” said Jace. “That was odd,”
“Odd?” Asked Twilight. “That was fantastic! I didn’t know that earth ponies could use magic!”
“That would explain a lot,” Said Jace, as though he should have thought of it himself. “Such as the insane surplus of mana,”
“Okay, hang on,” Interrupted Rainbow Dash. “Mana?”
“ Okay, we have a lot to discuss,”
“Okay, wow,” said Twilight, after about an hour of explanation. “Your magic is way more complicated than ours,”
“Yeah, it shows,” said Jace, with a tinge of frustration in his voice. He could’ve explained this in twenty to thirty minutes if it wasn’t for all the questions he kept having to answer. “But, at least you understand it all, right?”
“Yeah, somehow,” said Rainbow, still slightly confused. Jace noted that he was still feeling the strange headache. He dismissed it as a rejection of the memories he had stolen from Derpy. “Well, I’d better get going, before this book goes out of print,” She and Twilight both giggled, but Jace was unfazed.
“Oh, uh…reader’s joke. Trust me it’s funny,” said Twilight, nervously.
“I observed as such,” said Jace, blankly.
Twilight and Rainbow exchanged a look, and then Rainbow spoke, with an air of fear combined with confusion. “Are you always this serious?”
“Yes,” He replied immediately, and with a sense that he had been asked that exact question before. It was at that moment that Twilight noticed a sort of blue shimmer in his eyes, and a slight freeze in motion from Rainbow Dash. She dismissed it as a coincidence. It was not.
Magic of Jace’s sort can be done in two ways. The first, being the most commonly used, is a full frontal variant, and is often more powerful than the second. The second, is concealed, and invisible to the untrained eye. What had just occurred was of the latter. He had entered, and searched, Rainbow Dash’s mind, to see if he could discover the source of his headache, and found nothing. And he had done it all in a fraction of a second.
On account of this failure, he obtained a troubled look. While he searched his own mind for a reason. Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a nervous smile.
“Well, I had better get going,”
“Hmm? Oh yes, if you must,”
She trotted toward the door, opened it and stopped before exiting. “Later Twi’, Jace,” she unfurled her wings, and took off at a speed close to that of a falling boulder. And, as soon as she was gone, his headache vanished.
“Hm,” he commented.
“What is it?” inquired Twilight.
“Nothing, just food for my thought,”
“Oh,” Twilight paused awkwardly for a moment, then grabbed a book, and turned to the marked page.
“Oh, um, Twilight?” asked Jace, interrupting his and Twilight’s thoughts.
She put her book down, and sighed. “Yes?”
“It occurs to me that I lack a place to stay. Would you perhaps be able to accommodate me?”
“I suppose. There’s a spare room on the ground floor. Make yourself at home,”
“Thank you,” He got up from his spot on the center of the floor, and moved toward the door behind Twilight, and stopped just before the doorknob. His eyes flickered blue, and Twilight froze for a fraction of a second. He then opened the door, and walked into the room.
Jace opened his eyes, and was surprised to see that he was surrounded by black. No solid objects, no ponies, and no mana. He then looked himself over, and discovered that he was human again, his mental projection of himself. Which meant…
“I’m dreaming. Well, I suppose it is time that I explored my mind a little,” He took a few steps forward, and a scene began to form in front of him. First there was just a hollow, wooden structure. But then several bookshelves formed, followed by several thousand books. He didn’t have to be told where he was.
“Twilight’s library. So why here, as opposed to the Æther tunnel, or the place where I entered this plane?” After that statement. Three ponies began to form. A cloaked one which he assumed was him, a violet unicorn with an indigo mane, and a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane.
“Ah yes. Rainbow Dash, and her connection with that strange headache,” He looked the scene over for a bit, and decided to make a few adjustments.
“Since I we know it was specifically because of Dash that this occurred, Twilight isn’t necessary,” The unicorn disappeared. “And I doubt one of these books has some sort of gem of power, so…,” The books vanished off the shelves, and then the shelves vanished as well.
“Let’s see some auras,” At that moment, two blue spheres extended around Jace, one smaller than the other, and two red ones extended around Dash. “Huh, I should’ve guessed she’d be a red type. Anyway, since it didn’t occur until she was within my line of sight, it must have been an interaction between our central auras,”
Jace stopped and surveyed the new scene that had been created. “Let’s see, it was an ache that began at the base of the back of the neck, and moved up to the base of the back of the skull,” He thought for a moment. “What other times have I experienced this headache, I wonder,”
Three memories appeared in front of him. “So then, my first interaction with Venser, my first combat with Karn, and my most recent encounter with…Sorin. Hm,” He reviewed the scenes again, and ensured that they were what he thought they were. “It couldn’t be that, could it? No, that wouldn’t make sense,”
Suddenly the scene vanished from around him, and all he could see was black. “Well, shit,”
Jace opened his eyes again, but this time he was greeted by a ceiling, and tangible objects. “Then I’m awake again, good,” He attempted to recall his dream but failed, he would have to dig for it later. He had more pressing matters to deal with.
Such as, what was that chattering noise coming from outside the room he was occupying?
He opened the door, and saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash, as well as four other ponies standing around a table that had not previously been there. There was a pink earth-pony, a white unicorn, a yellow pegasus, and an orange earth-pony.
Jace stopped and rewound his thoughts. Earth-pony, that must be a term that came with the memories he stole.
“Oh, so this must be that other-worlder you told us about,” said the white unicorn, indicating Jace.
“Yes. Although Rarity, his name is Jace,” said Twilight.
“Ah, yes. Hello Jace, my name is Rarity,”
“Umm…Hello. Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“I’m assuming you and Rainbow didn’t just tell everypony in ponyville that there’s a being from another world in your library,”
“And you would be right. Only the ponies in this room and Spike know about your other-world-y-ness,”
“Good. Wait, Spike?”
“Yes. He’s-,”
“I’m a dragon!” said a purple baby dragon with green spines.
“Hm, cool. Oh and Twilight, state of being from another world: immigratocity,”
“Really?”
“Partially, I needed a term for it a few months ago, so I created that one,”
“Hang on,” interrupted Spike. “You’re introduced to a talking dragon, and you shrug it off?”
“Yes, I know two others,”
“Hm, well okay then,” And with that, Spike walked out of the room.
“Anyway Twilight, Rainbow, would you please introduce me to your other friends?”
“No prob’,” said Dash. “This is Fluttershy,” she said, indicating the yellow pegasus. “Applejack,” she indicated the orange earth pony. “Pinkie Pie,” she indicated the pink earth-pony. “And Rarity,” she indicated the white unicorn.
“Hello all,” He lightly bounced his hoof off of the upper right side of his forehead.
“Umm, excuse me?” asked Fluttershy, quietly. “Do you really know two talking dragons?”
“Yes, although, they are not fledglings like Spike. And one is even a planeswalker,”
“Cool!” said Dash and Twilight in unison. The other ponies just exchanged glances.
Jace planted his hoof between his eyes and sighed. “It appears that there is a lot of explaining to do,”
You Ra
It had been a full two hours since he started explaining, and so far, Pinkie Pie was the only pony who actually understood it. But Jace gave up. His explanation worked with Twilight because she already partially understood how magic worked, It worked with Rainbow because she was a very visual pony, It worked with Pinkie Pie because, well, he didn’t know that yet, but it obviously wasn’t working with the other three.
“You know what? How about you guys just mull it all over, I’ve got something to investigate,” All five of the ponies who didn’t live in the library headed for the door. “Except you Rainbow, I actually need your help,”
She looked quizzically back at him, and Rarity giggled, earning her a glare from Rainbow Dash. Rainbow walked back toward him, and stopped at the table. The door closed behind the four ponies, and Jace turned to Twilight.
“Leave us, please,” Jace commanded.
Twilight looked a little insulted, but left the two ponies alone.
“Alright then, step two,” A series of blue runes appeared around his right left hoof. He crushed one in his right hoof, and a barrier formed around the two.
“W-What was that?” Asked Rainbow, astonished.
“Simple barrier spell. Soundproof, virtually indestructible. I use it mainly to isolate combat and protect those not involved. However, in this situation, I am using it to prevent eavesdropping,”
“What? Who would be listening in?”
“Your friends. Specifically Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack,”
“Those three…,” Rainbow ground her teeth against each other.
“Anyway, on to the reason I requested a private audience with you,” Jace stepped into her line of sight. “Yesterday, upon our first meeting, I noticed an…anomaly,”
“What kind of anomaly?”
He exhaled audibly. “Some sort of interaction between our central auras,” Dash cocked her head. “Our souls, if you will,” Dash blushed.
Jace ignored it. “I’ve narrowed the possibilities down to three, and I have discovered how to determine which,”
Silence. “So…,”
“All three of them have one test in common, so I would like to try that first. The second test for each is unique to that outcome,”
“So what are they?”
“That is one detail I cannot grant, out of risk of either raising your hopes, or tearing them down,”
“Ah, so how would you test them?”
Jace exhaled audibly again. “I would enter your thoughts and memories, and see if I could find evidence to support one of the possibilities,”
Rainbow blushed again. “Oh…I see why you wanted to ask in private,”
“Yes,” Jace looked down. “The main thing you must keep in mind is that if I was to enter your mind, there would be no filter, I would see every thought that popped up, every memory, even if you only barely remembered it,”
Rainbow’s blush covered a large portion of her face, and her wings were slightly unfurled. “Oh,”
Jace pointed at her wing. “Is that supposed to happen?”
“Uh, yeah, technically,” Dash was starting to sweat.
“You ponies have some really weird physiology,”
“Maybe compared to yours,” Her wings were slowly returning to their original positions, and her blush began to disappear.
“Alright, well, if you don’t want to go through with it, you don’t have to, and I’ll find an alternate form of research. You have as long as you need to decide,”
“Okay, thanks,” The barrier around the two disappeared.
“Farewell, Rainbow Dash,”
“Just…Just call me Rainbow,”
“Alright then. Farewell, Rainbow,”
“Later Jace,” She opened the door, and Applejack and Rarity fell into the library. “Oh grow up!” shouted Rainbow.
Jace closed the door behind the three of them, and turned toward the guest room door. He swung it open. “Alright, Twilight, stop hiding!”
The purple unicorn stepped out of the closet to his right, looking rather ashamed.
“Enjoy your lack of intel?”
“You used a noise dampening spell didn’t you?”
“More of a barrier spell, actually,”
“So, did you…you know…do anything?”
Jace looked at Twilight with an air of annoyance. “If you are implying a relationship between Rainbow Dash and myself, there is none,”
“Oh…Alright then…So what did you talk about?”
“If you wish to know, you are welcome to ask Rainbow, it is more her matter than my own. Therefore I will make no-,” A loud wooshing noise whipped through the house, followed by a loud crack.
“What was that?” asked Twilight.
“That was the sound of a wormhole being torn through the plane and then rapidly collapsed,”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Jace looked at Twilight, angrily. “That another planeswalker has arrived,”
Jace ran outside, and looked around. Many of the ponies in the area were looking for the source of the sound he and Twilight had just heard. He closed his eyes, and called on his spark. This spell of his enabled him to see recently closed rifts, it was about a mile away.
Twilight closed the door behind her. “Jace? Where is he?”
He pointed his hoof towards the north. “Over there,” He vanished in a flash of blue light.
Twilight muttered to herself, and then she vanished in a flash of purple light.
When she reappeared, she found herself standing next to Jace, and surprisingly Rainbow Dash. Jace was staring, teeth gritted at a figure on a nearby hill.
“Jace?” asked Dash. “Who’s that?”
“Tezzeret,” He said through his gritted teeth. He shouted at the pony to get his attention. “Tezzeret!”
The pony turned around. He had a long, unkempt mane and tail, was fully suit in armor, and had a right foreleg made out of some kind of stone.
“Jace Beleren, The Mind Sculptor, The Memory Adept, The Architect of Thought. So nice to see you again,” said Tezzeret, mockingly.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“The same thing I was doing on Mirrodin, the same thing I was doing on Ravnica, and the same thing I’ll eventually do in Theros,”
“In that case, what does Nicol Bolas want with this plane?”
Rainbow leaned over and whispered to Jace. “Who’s Nicol Bolas?”
“He’s the only dragon in the multiverse with a planeswalker spark, and Tezzeret’s master,” He whispered back.
“The same thing he wants with every plane, another piece of the puzzle,” answered Tezzeret
“So what are you going to steal this time?”
“Oh come now, I don’t always steal things,”
“Oh yeah, I forgot that you destroy things,”
“Well then this must be the first time I’ve shown up just gather information,”
“But it’s not the first time you’ve made the claim,”
“True, but alas, I must be getting to work, farewell,” And with that, Tezzeret disappeared.
Jace swung the door to Twilight’s library open, and ran over to the bookshelves. He pulled several books off the shelves, flipped through them rapidly, and then tossed them aside.
“What is it?” He asked himself, furiously. “What could Bolas be after? Is it an existing artifact? A future event? What is it?”
Twilight and Rainbow burst into the library, interrupting Jace’s search.
“Jace, who was that?” asked Dash.
Jace put the book he had in hoof down on the table. “Tezzeret, the Seeker. Previously a fellow planeswalker, but he became enslaved by Nicol Bolas, and he now works for the most dangerous planeswalker in the multiverse,” Both of the ponies in front of him noticed a severe form of anger emanating from is eyes. “If he is here, then Bolas wants something with Equestria. And that cannot be anything good,”
Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a glance, then looked back to Jace. Jace returned to his search, and continued to pile books on the table.
“Umm, Jace?” asked Twilight.
“Hm?” He didn’t look up.
“Is it possible that he is after some sort of powerful, magical artifact?”
Jace stopped, and closed the book. “Yes,”
Twilight sighed. “Then I think I know what he’s after,”
Tezzeret walked forward into the cavern ahead of him, and sat down. Jace’s presence here would complicate things, but he would have to continue as planned, and adjust things as he went along.
“Talk about unlucky coincidences,” He muttered to himself. Although, if he was to crush Jace, it would certainly please Bolas. “Perhaps I should search him out,”
He suddenly remembered his last encounter with the Mind Sculptor. He only barely escaped with his sanity, and that was because Bolas had rescued him at the last moment. If he was to even try, he would have to make full use of his black spells. But if Jace was to counter them, he would be left in a bind.
“Perhaps not,” Tezzeret looked at his etherium arm, it was surrounded by a bluish purple aura. “But it is likely he will attempt to interfere. I sure hope I can finish this job first,”
“The Elements of Harmony?” Jace cocked his head.
“Yes,” said Twilight “They are the most powerful item in all of Equestria,” Jace raised an eyebrow.
“Really? What do they do?”
“In a nutshell? They destroy entities,”
“That’d about do it,” Jace closed his eyes and sighed. “How protected are these ‘Elements of Harmony?”
Twilight and Rainbow exchanged glances. “They’re right behind you,”
Jace turned around and looked at the display case containing the six artifacts. He laughed nervously. “Ugh. You put the most dangerous and powerful items up on display? With no real protection from theft or destruction? Are you ponies out of your minds?!”
“…No…,” Dash and Twilight looked at the ground.
“Ugh,” Jace summoned up a series of runes, and crushed one in his hoof. Immediately after he did, a blue rune looking exactly like it appeared on the glass case. “There, now only one of you six can open it, destroy it, or otherwise affect it,”
Dash’s mouth hung open. “How did you do that?”
“I placed an isolating lock that only responds to given auras, and I gave it your auras as the patterns,”
“That’s…awesome,”
“Thank you,” He turned towards the case. “Still, for Bolas to want to come here, and send Tezzeret first, that can’t be everything,”
Rainbow looked at Twilight, and tapped her on her shoulder. Twilight turned head in response. Rainbow jerked her head toward the stairs. Twilight paused for a second, but then complied.
“Jace?”
“Yes?”
“I made my decision,”
“Oh?” He froze, and rewound his thoughts. He spun around with an extremely excited look on his face. “You did?”
“Yes,” She giggled at his enthusiasm. “I did,”
“And?”
“I’m-,” A loud wooshing noise followed by a loud crack rang through the library.
Twilight came bolting down the stairs, and stopped at the base. “Was that?”
“Yes, come on Rainbow,” The three ponies blasted out the door and looked around. Twilight and Rainbow were searching the streets, but Jace was searching the skies, and he discovered exactly what he feared.
There was a large, golden dragon with two curved horns, and an oblong stone floating between them. It was the Elder Dragon, Nicol Bolas.
“Dammit!” Twilight and Dash looked at the figure in the sky, and both their mouths fell open.
“It’s enormous!” Said Twilight. Rainbow just stammered.
A very large rune appeared, encompassing Jace’s right hoof. He vanished in a flash of blue light, and brought Rainbow with him. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the two reappeared, they were falling toward Bolas.
“Rainbow!” Jace shouted at the pegasus. She shook her head out, and flew down, grabbing Jace’s left hoof. “Bring us around to the front.
“Right,” Dash made sure to avoid the huge wings as she flew around towards the dragon’s head.
“Bolas!” Jace screamed at the top of his lungs, somewhat surprising Rainbow.
The moment the dragon turned to face Jace, Jace unleashed a powerful blast of blue energy, which knocked the dragon off balance, and caused his right wing to clip the ground. What happened next was complete chaos, the dragon rolled into his right side, flinging large chunks of dirt and rocks in all directions. As he continued to tumble, he began to try to right himself, or at least stop his somersault, when he finally did, he had left an enormous gash in his wake.
Bolas got up from the pile of dirt and stone, and turned to face his attacker, he was only able to make out a streak of rainbow and a blue cloak before he was hit with another blast. However, this time, he did not fall.
“Damn,” Jace muttered. He selected one of his five remaining runes, and crushed it in his hoof. He threw it towards the ground, but it stopped halfway, and formed into a stingray-esque creature. It rose up to meet Rainbow and Jace, who both set themselves down on it’s back.
“What’s this?” asked Rainbow, astonished.
“A phantasm of my own design, if I can hit Bolas with another one of those blasts, it should become powerful enough to harm him. He readied the rune in his hoof, crushed it, and began to charge the spell.
Bolas was just recovering from the last blast, and finally got to see his assailant. But only barely for long enough to recognize him. After which he was hit with another blast.
At that moment, the creature Jace was on grew a fairly decent amount.
“Perfect,” said Jace, a smirk growing on his face. It was then that Dash realized just how powerful Jace Beleren really was.
Bolas decided that he had had enough. He powered up a spell of his own, and targeted Jace. Looking the rune over, Jace immediately knew what it was.
“Rainbow, get down!” He crushed his fourth rune, and charged the spell.
His suspicions were correct, a gigantic fireball blasted forward from Bolas’s right hand. Seeing he was correct, Jace created an enormous barrier between him and the fireball. Once it collided with his spell, the fireball dissipated.
Rainbow looked up after she heard the disintegration of the fireball, and stood back up. She looked into Jace’s eyes, and saw a different sort of gleam then she had when they were in the library. It was somewhere between anger and satisfaction. Whatever it was, it was almost scary. She looked away quickly, and noticed their speed, and direction.
They were charging right at Bolas. She ducked back down, and prepped for impact, but none came. They had pulled up just before a full collision. She looked back, and saw that the phantasm was actually going to hit Bolas with its tail. She didn’t think that it would hurt the dragon , but was she ever wrong.
The dragon recoiled in severe pain from the collision, and only barely kept himself from falling.
“Three more of those, and he should go down,” Jace said, so only he and Dash could hear. The phantasm circled around Bolas, and Jace readied his third rune, he crushed it in his hand, and three more appeared.
“That’s not good,” He muttered, eyeing his now five runes.
“What?” Rainbow asked. She had not heard the words, but she heard the sounds.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” He prepared another rune, and released another blast at Bolas, although this one was more powerful than the last few.
The dragon recovered slower than before, but that was only natural. Every one of those blasts brought him one step closer to madness. He lost about 30% of his active consciousness, it would take several more of these blasts to bring him down.
Jace turned towards Rainbow to see how she was holding up. She looked excited, but also, despite being fairly well concealed, frightened. He assumed it was directed toward Bolas, he assumed wrong.
He spun around as quickly as he could, and was greeted by a swirling red fireball. He reached for a rune, and went to crush it, but he was too late. The swirling mass collided with the right wing of the phantasm, and the flames exploded outward, knocking both him and Dash off of the burning blue stingray.
Jace opened his eyes, and immediately shot to full consciousness. He looked around and noticed that he was still falling. Good, then it isn’t over yet. He looked up, and saw a few embers where he had been only moments before. It was then that he remembered.
Rainbow! He looked in all directions for her, and his eyes fell on the rainbow-maned mare. Her left wing was singed, and her eyes were closed. He grabbed one of his rune and crushed it in his hoof. He vanished from view, and then reappeared just below.
He put her over his left shoulder, then used the second stage of his spell. He reappeared about a hundred feet above Bolas, and prepared another rune.
He threw it down below himself, and landed atop another phantasm.
“It’s time to end this,” He said, darkly. He selected a fairly large rune from his collection, crushed it, and threw it to the ground.
Water came rushing forth from the place where the rune had landed, and it soon gathered to be up to Bolas’s knees. Once the water stopped flowing, two colossal leviathans exited the wormhole, one was whale-like, and the other was reminiscent of an enormous mollusk.
“Surrender Bolas!” Jace shouted at the dragon. “You’ve lost this fight,”
“I would never surrender to a worm like yourself,” Scoffed the dragon. “Do what you will,”
“So be it,” The two leviathans leapt into action, the whale diving under the water, and the mollusk charging towards Bolas through the air.
The latter collided first, knocking Bolas off of his feet, and down towards the water, where the former breached the surface, blasting right through Bolas’s side. The immense dragon fell backwards into the water, and it quickly began to turn red with blood.
The battle was over, Jace had won. The water vanished, along with the leviathans. Jace brought the phantasm down to level ground, and once he was off of it, it disappeared as well. He set Rainbow down on the ground. And noticed that her right eye was concealed by her mane. He brushed the chromatic locks away, and just sat there for a moment.
Shaking his head, he inspected her injured wing. It was pretty badly burned, but nothing irreparable.
“I have no gift for white magic, but it appears to be plentiful here, so maybe it will work better than usual,” His usual blue runes morphed and turned white, he selected one, and crushed it. The white rune became a series of white ribbons of mana that wrapped themselves around her injured wing, and removed the external damage. It would take time to heal the rest.
Jace stood up and walked over towards the still-breathing dragon. “What do you want here?”
Bolas coughed and sputtered. “I’m surprised you don’t *cough* already know,”
“The Elements of Harmony?”
“No. I want nothing of *cough* those children’s toys,”
“Then what?”
“First *cough*, your friend, I assume you noticed she was different from the other *cough* inhabitants of this plane,”
“Yes,”
“Do you yet know *cough* why?”
“No,”
Bolas smirked. “Then you’ll probably be surprised to learn, she has-,”
Twilight appeared in a flash of purple light. Instantly, she noticed Rainbow lying on the ground. Directly in front of Rainbow was Jace, and past him was Bolas.
“That still doesn’t tell me what you want from this plane though,”
“You’ll know soon enough,” The dragon began to become surrounded by a red, black, and blue aura, and after a few seconds, he disappeared.
Twilight walked up to Jace. “What did he say?”
Jace smiled. “He simply answered the most important question I’ve had since I got here,”
“Which was?”
He nodded at Dash. “What was so different about her,”
“So what was it?”
Jace chuckled. “That’s the funny bit, I can’t tell her, or anyone who might tell her, otherwise she’ll never awaken her power,”
Jace dropped down next to the cyan pegasus. “All she needs know is that she has a very important role in the destiny of Equestria.
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,”
“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.
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,”
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.
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.
“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,”
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?”
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.
“Hang on,” Began Rainbow, after firmly placing her hoof between her eyes. “What in Equestria is a Hedron?”
Jace sighed, angrily. “It’s a metallic object designed by an ancient race of beings,” He turned away from the Hedron and locked his newly darkened expression on Rainbow. “A race that had a habit of devouring entire worlds,”
Rainbow wore a look of shock. “So then-,”
“It means that the Eldrazi are coming to Equestria,” Jace began pacing. “I thought that maybe, since Zendikar had 100,000 years to prepare, we’d have a lot more time. Apparently not,”
“Hang on, Jace,” Interjected Elspeth. “This time we know what it means, so this time we can-,”
“Do what?!” Shouted Jace. “Beat them? We had an army and seven other planeswalkers at our backs last time, and we didn’t even slow them down! Do you actually expect to beat them with a handful of stones and only two planeswalkers?”
“But the others are on their way,”
“That isn’t enough!” Jace was screaming so loud that Rainbow thought he was going to lose his voice. “We’d need at least 12 planeswalkers, four for each of the tribal leaders! Any less and they’ll be destroyed!”
“Jace,” Said Dash, calmly placing her hoof on Jace’s shoulder, causing him to jump. “We have time to prepare, don’t we? We shouldn’t waste it arguing. We have to at least try,” Jace’s eyes flickered, as though he had just remembered something.
“Right,” He turned to Elspeth. “Sorry, I kinda flew off the handle there,” He turned back to Rainbow, and smiled. “Let’s get ready for war,”
Rainbow Dash walked slowly towards the shade in front of her. She was so hot right now thanks to Celestia’s sunbeams. Jace had kept everypony willing to be involved in this thing (which wasn’t many) working constantly. Meanwhile, Elspeth had been drawing up strategies in Twilight’s library, and Twilight had gone to visit Celestia and Luna to ask for their help. Despite the fact that Rainbow had no gift for strategy, she desperately wished she had Elspeth’s job. At least then she’d be out of these tortuous sunbeams. She sat down on the rock to her right, only to quickly discover that it wasn’t actually a rock.
“Hey!” The “rock” struggled and pushed Dash off.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” She turned around and got a good look at the pony, and blushed when she realized that it was Jace. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”
“Hey, you didn’t hurt me. I was just surprised,” Jace brushed dust off of his shoulders, and smiled.
Dash blushed, and rubbed the back of her head with her right hoof, as her blush spread across her cheeks.
Jace cocked his head. “Are you okay?” Rainbow nodded, but Jace wasn’t buying it. He raised an eyebrow, and pressed his hoof to her forehead. “No, you’re not,” His right hoof glowed blue, and a swirling ball of blue energy rose from the ground, a moment later, a small chunk of dirt rose up from the same piece of ground, and glowed bright red. The magic disappeared from the blue ball, and it fell into the now cooling glass. “Drink this,” He handed the home-made glass of water to Dash, who, despite initial confusion, drank it.
Her eye’s widened. “Whoa!” She licked her lips. “I never knew water could taste so good!”
Jace smiled. “Only if it’s imbued with the proper magic,” He winked.
Even though Rainbow was no longer overheating, she quickly found herself feeling flustered. “Well, uh, I guess I’d better get back to work!” She said, hurriedly and avoiding eye contact. “Thank you for the glass of water!” She flew off at close to the speed of a Sonic Rainboom.
When she was out of earshot, she sighed to herself. “I am such a mess,”
“Hm…,” Elspeth leaned her head on her right hoof, and tapped the table with her left. “If I factor in Sorin…plus have Jace take the left wing…then put Koth at point. We might just be able to make it work,” She wrote down the new thoughts with the pencil in her mouth. “But Jace is right, we will need something else…,” Elspeth’s thoughts settled on Rainbow Dash for a moment. “Hang on, didn’t Jace say that she was Tamiyo’s daughter? Does that mean that she could have…,” Her voice trailed off.
“No, that’d be ridiculous, it’s a one in a million chance. Plus we don’t even know if ponies have that capacity,” She assured herself. She leaned back in her chair. “But still. What if…?”
Jace looked around the library, hoping to spot a book to prove his theory, but there didn’t even seem to be any history of mana, much less planeswalkers.
“Come on! There’s gotta be something,” He slammed his head into the bookshelf, causing a large book to fall on his head.
He rubbed the now-swelling spot on his head, and looked down at the book. “The Age of Discord and the Rise of the Equestrian Diarchy?” He picked up the book, and opened to the table of contents. “Who the hell is Discord?”
“The God of Chaos,” Replied Twilight, dissmisively. “He’s a Draconoquus,”
“A what?!”
“A mish-mosh of several different creatures. Part ram, part snake, part-,”
“I know what a Draconoquus is, I’m just surprised that there is one! Not to mention hopeful!”
“Hopeful?”
“Draconoqi can see and manipulate rifts in space! It means that if we can get him to work with us, he very well could make for a perfect early warning system,”
Twilight looked startled. “Wait, you want to-,” Twilight cleared her throat. “‘Work’ with the God of Chaos?”
Jace beamed. “Absolutely!”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Well. Even so, it isn’t under my power to decide where he is and isn’t. Of course, you could always ask Fluttershy if she knows where he is,”
“Wonderful!” Jace moved towards the door. “Um, where does Fluttershy live?”
Twilight sighed and shook her head, attempting to hide her amusement. “Just outside of town, east side, near the Everfree,”
“Thank you!” And with that, Jace galloped off towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
Jace entered the dark, damp cavern, being careful not to step on anything that might take offense to that. Which he quickly found was more difficult than initially expected.
One thing he didn’t understand was…well, why? Discord was, quite literally, the god of chaos. He would probably have no trouble finding somewhere far fancier than this.
“Discord?” He called out into the empty darkness, and received no response. “My name is Jace Beleren! I was told I could find you here!” Again, Jace got no response. He sighed.
“Perhaps I’m in the wrong cave. I have to go ask Fluttershy-,” Jace was prevented from finishing that sentence by the sudden, and rather flashy appearance of a certain eccentric Draconoquus.
Discord placed his forelimbs on Jace’s shoulders. “Did you say…Fluttershy?”
Jace smiled. “Indeed I did,” He carefully removed the two asymmetrical claws from his shoulders, and straightened his cape over them. “I understand that you are the only Draconoquus in this world?”
Discord puffed out his chest. “Why yes! I am,” He bowed. “Discord, god of chaos, at your service,”
Jace scoffed. “You and I both know that you are at nobody’s service but your own,”
Discord’s expression darkened. “I take offense at that, planeswalker,” He stood upright. “Of course, we all have our flaws. Me, my chaotic and independent nature, and you-,” He paused and smirked. “Your aggressive outbursts,”
Jace chuckled, and pulled down his hood, revealing the blue, runic symbol over his left eye, then he looked up into the eyes of Discord. “You know about planeswalkers, that’s impressive,” The rune began to glow. “But don’t think that gives you the right to criticize my actions on Mirrodin,”
“You made for quite the protector,”
“I did what I had to,” Jace turned away from Discord. “If given the choice again, I would’ve done the same, even if I hated myself a bit more for it,” He turned back. “But that’s irrelevant. What’s important is-,”
“What you’re here for?”
Jace nodded. “Tell me, have you noticed any large-scale disruptions of magic,”
Discord thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, there was one a few days ago, just-,”
“Just north of Ponyville, right? Almost a temporal disturbance?”
“Yes. I thought it was odd, but there wasn’t anything there,”
“Did you actually look?” Discord shook his head. “Of course not. You couldn’t detect it because it’s technically not there. Another plane is bleeding over into this one, and it’s bringing with it the single worst threat the multiverse has ever seen,”
“And what is that?”
“The Eldrazi,”
Discord cocked his head. “The what?”
“Eldrazi, a race of monstrous creatures that made a hobby out of devouring entire planes,” Jace’s expression darkened. “And they’re on their way,”
“How long do we have?”
“At least, a day. At most, two,”
“I see…then I suppose you’ve come to me for help,” Jace nodded. “I suppose I can offer my services, but on one condition,” Discord leaned in close to Jace’s face. “You leave this plane once it is over. I don’t care where you go, but you may not remain on this plane,”
“If it were that easy, I would’ve left long ago. This form does not allow me to access the power of my spark,”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, for now, there are preparations to be made,”
Suddenly, the cavern around them dissipated rapidly into a white blur, then reorganized itself into the center of Twilight’s library. A bemused Rainbow Dash nodded her head towards them then resumed staring at the wall. The two took very different approaches to this, as Discord had more important things to deal with, and Jace didn’t believe anything could be. Thusly, Discord took off, but Jace went and sat down next to Dash.
“What is it?” Asked Jace with an almost empathetic tone.
“Huh? Oh…nothing,”
Jace sighed. “You know, I understand that this is something that you don’t normally cope with…,”
You have no idea. Thought Dash.
“…but we need you…,” Jace paused. “I need you,”
Dash’s heart skipped a beat. “R-Really?”
“Listen, you’re impulsive, a little pushy, and arrogant,”
“Thanks,” replied Dash, sarcastically.
“But for some reason…there’s just something about you…I don’t know what, but I’d like to think I will know soon,” Jace placed his hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “First, you need to live through this, and I need your help to make that happen,”
“S-Sure,” Dash swallowed, audibly.
“Now then, you need to get out of this slump, and then I’ll teach you a few things that you’ll need to know, okay?”
“Yeah…no problem!” Dash sat straight up, and smiled. “I’ll be back to my pushy, arrogant, impulsive self in no time!”
“Great,” Jace stood up, and walked up to the balcony on top of the library, where Discord awaited.
“Nice thinking! A few sappy sentences and you got your frontrunner in prime condition!”
“It wasn’t planned out, I meant every word,” He looked up to the sky, and pulled his hood back up. “Even if there were two meanings for each,”
“Rainbow?” Asked Jace, cautiously. “Are you sleeping?” While the pegasus had been sleeping previously, the opening of the door and voice of Jace had jolted her awake. She pushed her back up from the bed and slid herself back into the pillows behind her. “I guess so…what’s up?” She rubbed at her eyes. “Oh, my mistake, I didn’t mean to wake you,” “Don’t worry about it,” Her voice was a bit slower and deeper than usual, but was recovering quickly. “I should have been up…what time is it?” “I believe it is approximately 9:00 am," “Am? What does that mean?” “Ah, I forget that you have a different time setup here. It is the same as your Celestial Cycle,” “Oh, so 9:00 cc. Then I should have been up about 2 hours ago,” Dash swung her hind legs to the side of the bed, and got down, landing on all four legs. “I see. In that case, are you interested in some training in magic? “Sure, just let me do my morning routine,” “Not a problem, I’ll be outside,” “Okay,” Jace exited the guest room, shutting the door behind himself. Shortly after, it could be clearly heard that he had exited the library through the front door. It was then that the place that Dash had spent the night in finally hit her. She had fallen asleep in the library, and had ended up in the second floor guest room, she did not remember moving herself up to the second floor, and she certainly didn’t find her way up here whilst she was asleep, that meant that she had been carried. She had no need to venture a guess as to who had brought her here, it had ben Jace beyond any doubt. She became rather uncomfortable at the thought of being picked up and carried to bed. The thought of her asleep in his arms like a filly brought warmth to her cheeks. She shook the thought out of her head. She had more important things to focus on. She headed into the guest bathroom, and grabbed the spare brush from the counter, and got to work on her mane. She put a great focus on brush her mane out properly, as this was the only cosmetic part of her morning routine, since she didn’t dress up, didn’t wear makeup, or style her mane. This left her more time to focus on stretching and warm-ups for her morning flying practice. However, this morning, there was much to do, and she didn’t think she would get the time to practice her flying, so she skipped that section of her routine, once Rainbow had finished brushing her mane, she pushed it out of her eyes, and headed for the outside world. The pegasus bolted down the stairs, sung the door open, stepped outside, and closed the door behind herself. Contrary to her expectations, Jace was not immediately visible, awaiting her arrival, and a quick look around, unfortunately, did not reveal the planeswalker’s hiding place. “Jace?” She asked, hoping that he would reveal his location with a response. “Yes?” Replied Jace from directly behind Dash, placing the unsuspecting pegasus on the verge of a heart attack. “Don’t…” Dash took a deep breath in to calm herself. “Do that, please,” Jace laughed to himself. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were so jumpy,” He teased. “Shut up,” She returned with a joking tone. “So,” He began. “How about we get started?” “We may as well,” Dash smiled. “Good,” Jace smiled back. “Then let’s begin,” He formed a red rune in his hooves, and passed it to Dash by pushing it through the air. “I have no gift for red magic, not like Koth, or Chandra moreover, but I will show you what I can,” “Um, alright,” She held the bright crimson rune in her hooves. “Wow…it’s so…awesome,” “Well, go ahead,” He watched with anticipation. “Hm?” “Just, crush it,” “Oh, right,” She pressed her hooves against the rune, but it didn’t give way to the pressure as she had expected. Instead, the rune held strong against the force. “I…I can’t,” She made another attempt, pouring all of her strength into her hooves, but to no avail. Jace smiled. “Here,” He stepped forward and placed his hooves on top of Dash’s, eliciting a blush across her face. “Just takes a little magic,” With the application of a minimal amount of force, Jace guided magical energy through the pegasus’s hooves, and the strength of Rainbow Dash, the rune gave way, and swirling, shimmering, red energy flowed up to her head. Jace stepped back from Dash as the energy coalesced in the pegasus’s head It took no more than a fraction of a second for the rune to take effect. Fresh, powerful knowledge flowed through her mind. It was not unlike remembering memories of ages long past. It was as though she had always known the spell, ever since the day she was born, but she couldn’t remember it until just now. “Fireball…,” Rainbow muttered under her breath. She looked up and smirked, as she drew red mana from the ground beneath her hooves, collecting it in a swirling crimson sphere of energy in her hooves. “Fireball!” The massive amount of power held in Dash’s hooves was released into a huge, swirling mass of raging flames, which rolled across the grass directly towards Jace. He reacted quickly, forging a bright blue barrier between the spell and himself. The barrier absorbed the kinetic energy behind the fast-moving ball of flames. The heat and fire licked around the edges of the barrier, but rapidly vanished as the barrier drained the power from the spell. “I knew it! You have an innate talent for magic!” Dash smiled in response, but then he face shifted to a look of confusion. “I just don’t get it, here in Equestria, only Unicorns and Alicorns are able to do magic,” “That’s because the magic that Unicorns and Alicorns use is drastically different from the magic that the rest of the multiverse uses. Now, I gather that around here, magic draws its power from within the caster, and from the bonds they share with others, right?” Dash nodded. “Well, in the rest if the multiverse, magic is powered by mana, and mana is drawn from the land, from mountains, islands, plains, swamps, forests, and even from relics of civilizations past. Once you have become familiar with a place, you can draw on its mana from across the multiverse. Does that make sense?” Rainbow paused as she thought for a moment, then, however slowly, nodded in conformation. “Sort of, yeah,” Jace smiled. “So, now that you’ve had a taste of magic, are you prepared to learn a whole library of spells?” Rainbow Dash returned the smile. “Hell yes!” This was the most excited as Jace had ever seen the pegasus. While that wasn’t really saying much given that he had only known her for about a week, Dash’s other friends would likely say the same. “Well alright then. Let’s try a summoning spell next,” Jace sifted through his memory. As a gifted blue mage, he knew the components of countless spells from the other four colors that he could not cast, but he was capable of teaching to those who could cast them. That was what made blue mages such exceptional teachers of magic. The greatest scholars in the multiverse were masters of blue magic. “Here we go, a nice, strong spell for an introduction to summoning, Dragon Hatchling,” A new rune appeared in his hooves, shimmering with latent power. Dash aught the rune as it sailed through the air, and turned it over in her hooves once she had a firm grasp on it. After a brief moment of admiration, she crushed it, releasing the knowledge from its prison, and letting it flow into her mind. Unlike the Fireball rune before it, the Dragon Hatchling rune brought with it an unfamiliar feel, it was not so easily mastered. However, Dash was unfazed, she called upon the world beneath her hooves yet again, drawing incredible power into herself, and gathering it to prepare the spell. A moment later, she released the spell, forming a rift which pulled the creature from beyond the Æther. The pegasus was rooted to the ground with awe as she watched the youthful dragon form before her eyes, its scales, legs tail, and fledgling wings forming quickly, and its blazing, golden eyes opening less than a moment later. This young dragon was a far cry from the dragons that she had encountered in Equestria, but of course, she had not seen too many up close. Jace admired the summoned hatchling, circling around it, looking over every inch for flaws and possible signs of recoil. “Impressive work,” He said upon finalizing his study. “The Dragon Hatchiling is far from impressive in and of itself, but you’ve certainly been able to impress me with it. Your mother clearly passed on quite the gift,” Dash blushed. “Shut up…,” “Well, we had best move on to some more involved work. You may be new to this, but you have the skill of an intermediate. We had best get to work as soon as possible,” “Right”
Elspeth watched from the library window as Jace and Rainbow Dash trained, admiring their carefree mannerisms, despite the fact that they were only training together in hopes of repelling the Eldrazi. She tried to maintain some sort of hope, but she had seen what they had done to Zendikar she and Jace had fought tooth and nail to try and defend the plane, and yet, they were forced to abandon it to prevent being destroyed along with it. It killed Jace to do it, and she knew that leaving this plane behind to die like Zendikar had would tear him apart. “Enjoying yourself, planeswalker?” Asked a somber, but humored voice from behind her. “Not in the least, but I’m trying. I really wish I could just enjoy this world while it here but-,” “But you have seen the Eldrazi in action, and you have little hope for the survival of this plane,” Discord finished her sentence for her, and frowned. “I have never encountered the Eldrazi myself, but I have heard tales during my travels. Honestly, I’m a little afraid of them,” Elspeth raised an eyebrow. “A god that feels fear?” “Strange compared to the gods you know of isn’t it? Here in Equestria gods a born from powerful mortals. Once a mortal becomes immensely powerful, they experience something called Ascension, transforming them into a god. Since I was once a mortal, I feel emotion,” “How about pain? Are you familiar with pain?” Discord hesitated. “Yes, I have known my fair share of pain,” “Pain is what made me a planeswalker. Pain gave me this intense desire to escape the world I lived on,” Elspeth returned to looking out the window, watching as Dash practiced the newest rune, and Jace gave her tip on her form. “Has he told you about Dash yet?” “Yes, he has. I didn’t even know that ponies could-,” “Do you think he is right?” Discord sighed. “I think it’s possible that Rainbow-,” “Do you think he is right,” The last word dripped with annoyance. Discord hesitated again. “Yes. Yes I do,” “I hope he is. We need all the help we can get,”
The sun was beginning to set, and after nearly 12 straight hours of vigorous training, minus a little time to eat, Rainbow had been taught 16 different spells, and she had mastered 13 of them. “Alright, are you ready for the final event? Dash gazed back, bewildered. “What do you mean?” Jace placed his hoof on his chest. “You versus me, one on one. Are you up for a challenge?” Dash was taken aback by the sudden offering of competition, but she couldn’t refuse a challenge. Her competitive spirit had been ignited, and there was no going back now. “Yeah! I could never turn down a challenge!” Jace turned to the library window. “Hey, Elspeth!” A moment later, Elspeth appeared before the two ponies, accompanied by a bright white flash of light. “What do you need Jace?” “Would you mind being our judge?” Elspeth was bewildered at first. “Your judge, what…oh!” She smiled. “Yeah, I’ll judge for you,” Elspeth backed a good, long distance away from the two, before conjuring a few runes, and fusing them together. She drew a massive amount of energy from the ground beneath her hooves, until the strange amalgamation of runes glowed pure white. After a moment of gathering her focus, Elspeth crushed the runes, releasing the energy all at once. A large, translucent dome of a barrier formed over the land around Jace and Dash, keeping the any magic energy flung around inside from damaging the land and structures nearby. “The barrier is active! I will now present the rules. The two of you will duel using whatever magic you like, with a few exceptions. This is a direct 1 on 1, summoning the assistance of planeswalker’s is prohibited. The summoning of legendary-class creatures is prohibited. The Activation of legendary-class artifacts is prohibited. The duel will last for a maximum of ten minutes, and will end when the time is up, when one of you concedes, or when I judge one of you unfit to continue the duel. If time runs out, I will select a victor based on your physical conditions, the state of your summoned creatures, and how exhausted your magical libraries are. If one of you concedes or is judged unfit to continue, the other will be declared the victor. Are the rules clear to both participants?” Jace nodded. “Yes,” Rainbow thought for a moment, then answered in kind. “Yes,” “Do both participants agree to abide by the rules?” “I agree,” Jace replied, positioning himself in a combat-ready stance. Dash also positioned herself for combat. “I agree,” “Both participants have acknowledged that they understand and agree to the rules…I now declare this duel…begun!” Upon Elspeth uttering the final word of the sentence, Jace lept into action, slightly faster than Dash, prepping a favorite rune of his, and drawing mana from across the Æther, in order to complete the channeling of his Mind Sculpt spell. A moment later, he pushed off the ground, flinging himself towards Dash. Spotting the aggressive move, Dash realized she needed a simpler spell in order to beat Jace to the punch. She called forward an inexpensive Fireball spell. Her spell was, just as she had hoped, ready sooner than Jace’s. She crushed the fully charged rune in her hooves, forming a ball of embers and sparks roughly the size of her own head. Not a moment later, she threw the ball at Jace, and it ignited midway to its target, changing into a raging mass of fire. Jace had not expected her to strike first, he wasn’t prepared to counter the spell, so he had to take the brunt of the spell. It wasn’t lethal, or even very painful, but it stung just enough to stutter Jace’s aim. He had to move closer in order to ensure that he hit his target. He did indeed hit his target, and his spell was far more painful. Mind Sculpt was a specialty blue spell colloquially known as a “mill spell”. It was specially crafted to rip the knowledge of magic from the target’s mind, piece by piece, by attacking their memories. It ripped the memories of spells to prevent the target from damaging the caster. Mill spells are, however, used for other, less than kind methods. The mill spell can be used to rewrite the minds of unfortunate, or fortunate depending on the intentions, subjects by erasing good or bad memories as if they had never existed in the first place. Rainbow was surprised to feel no pain, at least, not at the point of impact, instead there was an unbearable agony within her head. The pain paralyzed her for a moment, but no more than a moment, as she still had a duel to focus on. Dash had no chance of winning, she knew that from the moment the duel began. The purpose of this duel was to hold out against Jace’s onslaught for as long as possible, and bring Jace as close to defeat as she possibly could, she knew that it would be impressive if she even got him a quarter of the way to defeat, or even make him consider conceding. She quickly selected another rune from her now somewhat smaller collection, and charged it with as much mana as she could gather. “Try this on for size!” She shouted as she released the rune, creating a summoning matrix for her Flame Servant spell. It was a lackluster spell by nature, but it was enough for her to either damage Jace or defend herself. The fiery energy formed by the mana she collected gathered itself into a swirling, vaguely bipedal mass, which immediately and angrily lashed out at Jace. Jace leapt back to avoid the strike and readied a blue rune of his own. This one, upon its release, revealed Jace’s signature manta ray phantasm. He followed the summoning of his creature by blasting Dash with another burst of blue mage, reigniting her agony, and causing her to stumble backwards. As she did, Jace’s phantasm glowed brighter, and grew in size. Dash gazed up at the recently strengthened creature with fear in her eyes. She straightened herself and stood, extending a hoof towards Jace as a command for her Fire Servant. It angrily charged forward. Jace smiled, and his phantasm descended on the Fire Servant without wasting a second with delay. Dash’s Fire Servant fought bravely, but it did no serious harm to Jace’s phantasm. In a few moments, the Fire Servant fell to the ground, and vanished. Rainbow was completely open to Jace’s assault. Jace took his opening with vicious eagerness, sending the phantasm straight at her. The creature barreled her over, knocking the Pegasus onto her back. It flew back to Jace’s side, as he summoned forth a duplicate of the phantasm. The two angled themselves at Dash, and Jace sent them both to strike her. The combination attack sent Dash flying into the edge of the dueling zone. She fell onto her stomach, and tried to get back up, but failed. Elspeth raised her hoof. “Rainbow Dash is no longer fit for combat. I declare Jace victorious!” The dueling zone vanished, alongside Jace’s phantasms. Jace rushed to Dash’s side. “Sorry, I think I got a little carried away,” He offered a hoof to help Rainbow up. “It’s fine,” She noted, flatly. “Nonetheless, you’re clearly very skilled at this already,” Jace smiled. “Thanks,” Replied Dash with a smile of her own, clearly proud of herself. “I’m not good enough to beat you though,” “No, not yet,” Jace laughed, softly. “You’d probably need to be a Planeswalker to beat me,” Dash punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Shut up,” Jace looked out onto the field before them, remorsefully. Dash stared out onto the field as well. “So,” She began. “Do you think we’ll win?” “Well, I believe we have a good chance to,” “I asked if you think we will win. Not if you think we can,” Jace paused and looked at Dash. She was attempting to hide heremotions, but it is difficult to hide fear. “Yes, I believe so,” Some of the tension separated itself from Dash as he fears were denied. “Me too,” Her eyes became more reflective. “I just-,” She stuttered, and a few tears slipped down her face. “I just don’t want to lose my home,” The thought echoed through Dash’s mind, and broke down her resolve. She wept, quietly at first, but the volume escalated quickly. Jace hesitated, unaware of the correct response, before pulling Dash into a hug, The two stayed that way for the longest time, as Dash cried and cried until she finally ran out of tears. It was very different from her usual manner, but sometimes, ponies do weird things under stress. “H-Hey Jace…?” Asked Dash, as she relaxed a bit. “What is it?” “Could I…maybe…stay in the guest room tonight…with you…?” Jace froze. “It’s just, I don’t wanna go home, it’s too far, and I don’t wanna sleep alone either. It’s going to be a long night and I want someone nearby…just in case…,” Jace remained unmoving. “Plus, that way Discord will wake me as well if he wakes you,” Jace was still frozen. “Jace?” “A-Alright, I…,” He gulped. “…I guess that…could work,” “Thank you!” She squeezed the remaining air out of Jace’s lungs. “Dash,’ He began, short of breath. “May I please breathe?” Dash let go immediately. “Sorry!” “It’s okay,” Jace caught up on the air he had missed over the past few seconds. “Seriously though, thank you,” Jace smiled. “Not a problem,”
