//------------------------------//
// Prologue: Warlic's Blunder 
// Story: Guardian of Equestria 
// by Armyidiot 
//------------------------------//

Why is it always me that has to do the lazy people's work around here? Why isn't Warlic himself doing this?

Heaross, Legendary Adventurer by trade, Guardian of Battleon, home of Adventurers, and personal pack mule to everyone who needs something arbitrary or time wasting done. He truly was getting sick of everyone's crap. Wearing his standard Ultra Guardian Armor, he trekked through the forest close to Battleon, wary of monsters, though with the close proximity to the town of adventurers, it would be surprising if there were any. The fresh meat always coming into the town, thinking they were hot stuff, normally kept the surrounding woods clear of most monsters, save the stray highly trained drakel or necromancer coming to take over town again. 

Warlic had gotten his time this day, informing him of a temporal anomaly taking place near the woods of Battleon. Fearing magic outlash, he had sent Heaross in his stead, deciding to stay in his shop and monitor things without fear of magical interference. Being well experienced in temporal events, the warrior himself knew the side effects of leaving a rift unsettled. If Warlic was wary of its power, then it had to be big. 

Aside from the stray BURP or Zard, Heaross met little resistance on the path to the strange magical flux. Soon enough, he came across the temporal anomaly, pure, unfettered magic lashing out against the surrounding area. Yeah, Warlic definitely had reason to fear something this powerful...

Using the magical spell Warlic had cast on him, Heaross sent out a thought to establish communications so he could report back to Warlic what he was seeing. "Testing, 1 2 3, testing, Warlic can you hear me?"

"I can hear you, Heaross. Are you at the anomaly?"

"Yeah I am. This thing is massive, Warlic, definitely bigger than anything we've seen before. Remember when the Devourer caused that rift?"

"How could I not? It was the size of my shop." 

"Think that, but with a lot brighter colors, and about twice the size."

"By the elements... How are you not freaking out? Don't you normally hate rifts?"

"I'm... not entirely sure, Warlic. I'm just feeling much calmer than I think I would. Not quite at peace, but definitely at normal non-war times. I'll try running some scans with the spells you gave me. See what I can find out."

"Roger. Report to me if you find out anything surprising or dangerous." 

"Got it. Keep monitoring the surrounding area. I don't want to be in the blast range if this thing goes off. "

"Will do, I'll keep a teleportation spell at the ready. Be safe out there Heaross. We haven't dealt with something this big before." With Warlic's warning sounding in his ears, the brave warrior set about casting the monitoring spells the warlock taught him, making sure to keep track of each line of info he was receiving. 

...holy shit, that is a massive amount of magic pouring out of this thing. And it's pure mana, too? Better switch to the Overlord set, the magic here could hurt me if it hits. Quickly switching to his more magic (and fire) resistant armor, Heaross continued setting the spells and monitoring what the flux was doing, all with that same sense of calm overriding his normal feelings of curiosity and wariness he normally felt when near such a massive amount of magic.

The primarily melee based fighter was glad he wasn't a mage or the like. He had heard from a couple fellow adventurers that mages could sometimes get overloaded with mana if they were near an unlinked source as large as this. The last thing he needed happening at this point was blowing up from mana overexposure. Even with his magic senses weaker than some other of his friends, he could practically feel the ebb and flow of energy rushing from this thing. 

After about 30 minutes of watching the rift and its magic output, Heaross decided he had garnered enough information to report back to base and inform Warlic of his findings. Restarting the Comm Link, as Warlic had named the spell, he called out to the wizard. "Warlic, I've found a lot of stuff in this thing. Some of it is alarming, but mostly its just really weird."

...The hell? He wasn't responding. "Warlic, do you read me? I repeat, this flux is massively different from what we've encountered."

"I can hear you Heaross, I'm just busy reading what it's doing to the surroundings. Come back to base soon, I'm getting some strange messages from my spells." 

"Alright Warlic. 2 things you should know now though, is that for one, the flux is spewing out pure mana. Unshaped and undirected. The second thing is that it's more than a simple flux. It's a rip in the continuum. I repeat, it's not of this world. The readings I'm getting are pointing it to way forward than where we are." This would be alarming, were it not the ambient magical calm forced by the portal. 

Just as the adventurer was about to leave the area, and try purging the massive amount of mana he had no doubt absorbed during his time there, all of his spells feeding him data started sending off massive warnings, while simultaneously Warlic contacted him, sounding very panicked. 

"HEAROSS GET OUT OF THERE NOW! THE PORTAL IS GOING TO BLOW!" 

"Warlic, stop yelling in my ears! I'm getting the readings from the spells right now, and it's not looking good! Do you still have that teleport spell ready?"

"I do, but I still recommend you start running! It will take a small moment to get it charged, and the flux will blow the entire forest to pieces!"

"Dammit Warlic! This is why I never like going on any missions for you!" The very brave warrior, now scared shitless, starts running as fast as he can, very quickly escaping the immediate area of the blast, but the forest is a massive maze. Weaving through the trees, trying to find a way back to town would take much longer than he had. He just hoped Warlic could get that teleport spell ready. 

"Heaross, I have the spell prepared! Stand still and you'll be directed to my shop!" Following Warlic's orders, Heaross stands stock still, hoping to every deity out there that the portal doesn't blow quite as fast as he was reading. Unfortunately, it appeared he must have especially pissed someone off, because as the teleport spell started taking effect, the portal from earlier blew, taking the surroundings with it. 






The way that Warlic had explained his teleport spell was that it took the current form of whoever was being teleported, as well as any followers they may have, and assimilated them into the spell to reform at the chosen location. The window of time is very brief, less than even a tenth of a second, but if timed correctly, an outside influence can change the destination of where the user was being teleported to. While this very rarely occurred in someone's death, there have been instances of being dropped into bottomless pits, spike traps, or, if the rumors were true, once even into a volcano. So, when the blast from the portal made contact with Warlic's teleport spell, the destination of poor Heaross changed dramatically.

Where? Well, dear reader, let's take a look.