//------------------------------//
// Dark Heart of the Wood 
// Story: My Little Planeswalker: Glimmering Oil 
// by Zennistrad 
//------------------------------//

“Recruit the Dazzlings!? Are you nuts!?”

“Look, Rainbow,” said Sunset, “I know it sounds crazy, but—”

“Because it is crazy! They brainwashed the whole school and tried to take over the world!”

Sunset crossed her arms, and pointedly raised a single eyebrow.

“H-hey! Don’t give me that look!” said Rainbow. “At least you were sorry! They probably went right back to bullying people after we drove them off!”

“Maybe,” said Sunset. “But they have just as much an interest in saving their own skin as we have saving ours. And there really isn’t anyone else with the power to sow discord among a hive mind...” Sunset paused, reconsidering her words. “Okay, I guess there’s the Discord, but from what I can tell he spends very little of his time actually in Equestria. He could be literally anywhere in the entire multiverse right now, so the Dazzlings will have to do.”

“Well, that’s all well and good, Sunset,” said Rarity, “but aren’t you forgetting something rather important? Namely, the fact that we destroyed the source of their magic? Even on the unlikely chance they would want to help us, I highly doubt that they could.”

“Not necessarily,” said Sunset. “You remember the astral projections they used when they fought us?”

“Well, no, actually...”

“Not you, Twilight,” said Sunset. “The point is, those astral projections were what their true forms looked like, and you could see that each of their amulet gems was embedded within their chests. That would likely mean that a siren’s gemstone is their core magical organ, similar to a unicorn’s horn.”

Fluttershy let out a horrified gasp. “Oh my goodness! A-are you saying we... we... dismembered them?”

Sunset couldn’t help but cringe. “I... I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but basically, yeah. Thankfully, that’s where you come in. If a siren’s gem is a part of her body, then that means your healing magic might be able to restore it. Once their magic is restored, we can have Twilight broadcast their song over a radio signal. With a bit of luck, it should be able to disrupt the Phyrexians’ hive mind.”

“We’re going to need a whole lot more than just a bit of luck if we’re gonna pull this off,” said Applejack. “Ah can think of at least a dozen different ways this plan of yours could blow up right in our faces.”

“Yeah! And don’t think she means the fun kind of blowing up, either!” Pinkie added.

Sunset sighed, letting her arms hang loosely by her sides. “I know. It’s a long shot, and there’s no guarantee it’ll work at all. But right now, it’s all I can think of. If any have any better ideas, I’d like to hear it.”

The room went silent, and a series of uncomfortable glances were exchanged among Sunset’s friends.

“I’ll do it.”

“What?” said Applejack. “Now just wait a darn minute, Fluttershy!”

“There’s no use trying to talk me out of this, Applejack,” Fluttershy replied. “I’ve already made up my mind. The least we can do after injuring those poor sirens is help them get their gems back.”

“Really, Fluttershy?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed, causing Fluttershy to shrink backwards beneath the force of her sudden glare. “Are you honestly trying to suggest that you feel sorry for them? That you’re willing to put all of our lives at risk for the sake of those... those monsters that tried to tear us all apart? Just what exactly is wrong with you?”

“Hey, back off!” Rainbow interjected. In a single stride, she placed herself next to Fluttershy, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “If Fluttershy wants to go along with the plan, she can go along with it! And you know what? You can count me in, too!”

Applejack stepped forward and looked Rainbow Dash in the eye. “Now hold on just a minute there, Rainbow—”

“No! You hold on!” Rainbow shot back. “Fluttershy’s magic is the only reason I’m even alive right now! So if she’s in, I’m in too!”

Another silence hung over the room, with tension so thick that the air itself had nearly snapped in two.

Applejack exhaled sharply, her hand anxiously fidgeting with the brim of her hat. “Well, Ah can’t say Ah like it. But Ah ain’t gonna let you two risk your hides without any backup. Might as well count me in, too.”

“Me three!” said Pinkie. She leaned in from just beyond the edge of Sunset’s peripheral vision, her apparently disembodied upper torso seemingly hovering in midair. “I mean, what else have we got to lose, right?” She finished her sentence with her characteristic giggle, but Sunset couldn’t help but a slight, uncomfortable twitch to her left eye.

Everyone turned their heads towards Rarity, staring at her expectantly. She bit her lower lip, her eyes shifting back and forth across the room.

“Oh, alright, fine,” Rarity relented. “If you’re all going to die doing something stupid and reckless, you might as well have someone make sure you look good doing it.”

“I’m sure we’ll all be very grateful for your positive attitude,” said Sunset with roll of her eyes. “Twilight, what about you? You don’t need to feel pressured, we don’t have to do this if you don’t feel like it.”

“Oh, um... that’s not a problem, actually,” Twilight replied. “I was just, uh, wondering about something. I don’t recall if you’d mentioned it before, but, um...” she paused, adjusting her glasses by the nose. “...how exactly are we supposed to find these sirens?”

In that moment, somehow, Sunset could feel her pupils dilating. She opened her mouth to reply, her lips moving before a complete thought could reach them. “Uh... um... W-well, uh... You see...”

“Well, much for that plan,” said Applejack. “Got any more bright ideas?”

“Wait, hold on,” said Sunset. “Let’s not give up on this yet. There has to be something...” Her mind raced with possible answers, most of them ridiculous and nonsensical. Yet even still, there was one idea that shone bright among them, one that she latched onto at the earliest opportunity. “Twilight. You were able to detect my presence by detecting some magical signal, right?”

“Oh! That’s right!” said Twilight. “I detected a magic signal that was extremely similar to our own harmony-aligned magic, and sent Pinkie to track it down. I was hoping we’d find something that we could use to combat the Phyrexians. I, um... I know it sounds stupid, but I’d even hoped we might be able to use it to find a cure for the Phyrexian contagion.”

Sunset placed a hand against Twilight’s, letting the warmth of her skin seep through. As Sunset shared a smile, she could practically feel the tension in Twilight’s body melt away. “There’s nothing stupid about trying to find hope in a situation like this. More than ever, we need to give ourselves a reason to keep going. That’s what I’m here for, after all.”

“Oh, um... gosh.” Twilight’s cheeks flushed, her lips quivering as they curved up into the most adorably anxious smile Sunset had ever seen. “Thank you, Sunset.”

Rainbow suddenly gave out a very loud, conspicuous cough. One that sounded suspiciously similar to the words ‘get a room.’ As Sunset whipped around to glare at her, Rainbow noticeably avoided making eye contact.

“What? I didn’t say anything!”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” said Sunset. “So you found me by detecting harmony-based magic. Can you detect other kinds of magic?”

“Um... well, theoretically yes, but I don’t see how that would help.”

“Easy,” said Sunset. “The Dazzlings may have lost their magical cores, but they’re still ultimately magical beings. It’s entirely possible that there’s some trace of them you can detect. But you won’t find them by searching for magic like ours, because their magic is based on causing disharmony.”

Twilight’s pupils suddenly dilated. In the center of each eye, a glittering spark appeared deep within her gaze, as her jaw dropped open in sudden epiphany. “...And if our magic comes from harmony, then we can find them by searching for magic with the opposite properties! That’s it! Sunset, you’re a genius!”

Sunset felt a swelling in her chest, one that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “Well, yeah. Of course I am. How else do you think I became Princess Celestia’s personal student?”

Another tense moment of silence. This time, all eyes fell squarely on Sunset herself.

“I’m sorry, but did you just brag?” said Rarity.

“Um... yes?” said Sunset. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Rarity coughed into a closed fist. “Ah. Well. It’s just that, er...”

“That last time you had anything resembling an ego, you weren’t really the nicest person,” said Applejack. “Just puts us a bit on edge, that’s all.”

“And the last time I repressed my sense of pride, it split off from me along with my anger and stole your soul,” Sunset replied, too annoyed to care which Applejack she was referring to. “I think after dealing with that, I’m entitled to a little bit of self-confidence.”

Applejack moved a hand behind her head. “Right. Sorry.”

“Anyway,” said Sunset, “Twilight, can you search for the Dazzlings’ magic signature?”

“Already on it,” said Twilight. True to word, she had already sat herself down at the chair by her makeshift computer, diligently tapping away at a keyboard recycled from an old typewriter. The monitor lit up with a map of the Canterlot metropolitan area, zooming in an area to the southeast.

“I’ve got it! If what I’m seeing here is correct, they’re in... in...” As Twilight’s mouth worked, her jaw suddenly went limp, and she had to push up on her glasses to keep them from falling off. “I don’t believe it.”

“What is it?” said Sunset.

“The Everfree Forest,” Twilight replied. “They’re in Camp Everfree.”

“Camp Everfree?” said Fluttershy. “B-but that’s more than twenty miles away! Oh, we’ll never be able to make it there!”

“Not without a car, at the least,” Applejack added. “And since we ain’t got any of those, we’re pretty much stuck here.”

“Just what the heck are you talking about?” said Rainbow. “There’s tons of abandoned cars on the streets!”

Rarity brought a hand to her chest, letting out a soft gasp. “Rainbow Dash, you’re not seriously suggesting that we actually steal a car, are you?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “It’s the end of the world! Who cares?”

“She’s got a point there,” said Applejack, “not like the owner’s gonna be missing it anytime soon.”

“W-well, maybe so,” Rarity huffed. “But nobody’s going to have just left their keys in the car for us! How in the world do you expect us to be able to drive one of them?”

One last time, the room went silent, and all eyes turned towards Sunset. A sly smirk crept its way onto her face.

“Come on girls,” said Sunset. “I think it’s time I taught you a thing or two about hotwiring.”

————————

Carjack	1R

Sorcery

Gain control of target Vehicle until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn. If it’s not a creature, it becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.

”Where did you learn this, Sunset?” Twilight asked.

“I should probably speak to a lawyer before answering that,” Sunset replied.


————————

The street, thankfully, was mostly deserted by the time Sunset and her friends managed to reach the surface. Pinkie conducted reconnaissance ahead of time, until they’d managed to locate a good spot to emerge from the sewer. When they crawled out of the manhole, they found themselves in a suburban neighborhood, where the industrialized construction of the inner city had largely faded.

That wasn’t to say that Phyrexia’s influence hadn’t been felt in its own way. The skies were still blackened and choked with smog, but the houses themselves were altered in an entirely different fashion. While the houses of the neighborhood were largely uniform in their construction before, now their uniformity had been exaggerated to the point where they were all completely indistinguishable from one another. Rows upon rows of houses, each made of bony pseudo-porcelain, arranged in a perfect grid structure, with identical white porcelain picket fences, identical mailboxes, and identical lawns with razor-blade grass and identical Phyrexian lawn gnomes in identical arrangements. Were it not for the occasional cars within the identical chrome driveways, somehow still untouched by the Phyrexian transformation, there would have been no way of determining where they were.

Eventually, they managed to find a large red three-row SUV, one with more than enough room to fit all seven of them. They quickly packed themselves into the vehicle, and Sunset ducked down below the drivers seat as she intently began pulling at the wires beneath the pedals. After several minutes, a series of electric sparks jumped out from the cables as she finished the job. There was a sudden engine noise as the car jump-started to life.

As she positioned herself in the driver’s seat, Sunset took one last cursory glance at her passengers. Twilight had taken the front passenger seat, of course, and behind her sat her other five friends; Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow in the second row, and Rarity and Applejack in the third. She adjusted her mirror one last time, and the engine hummed as she backed out of the driveway.

“So why haven’t the cars been transformed, anyway?” said Sunset. “It seems a little bit too convenient that they haven’t been made Phyrexian like everything else.”

“Oh, that’s easy!” said Pinkie. “They don’t transform the cars, they have the junkers scrap them for parts!”

Sunset blinked. “The what now?”

KER-CHUNK!

With a deafening mechanical noise, the entire car suddenly lurched, launching Sunset up with so much force that her seatbelt nearly strangled her. Then, suddenly, the vehicle began lifting upwards off of the ground. Sunset’s chest tightened as her eyes glided over to the rear-view mirrors, and she saw what had caused the sudden motion.

————————

Phyrexian Junker 3

Artifact Creature — Construct

Reach

1, T, Sacrifice another artifact: Proliferate. (You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.)

2/3

————————

There, on the road just behind the driveway, was a massive wheeled machine. Jutting straight out from the front end was a single mechanical arm that reached dozens of feet into the air before curving back down, ending in a single pincer that lifted the SUV straight into the air. Below the arm, between the machine’s two front wheels, was a gigantic mechanical maw that opened into a thick carpet of shredding sawblades and whirling razors. A maw that, to Sunset’s horror, was getting closer.

“That’s a junker,” said Pinkie. “And we’d better get out of here, or else we’ll be junked!”

“Leave it to me!” said Rainbow.

“Rainbow, wait!”

Sunset’s cry fell on deaf ears, as Rainbow by then had already unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. Her ears disappeared into her hair as a second, pony-shaped pair emerged from the top of her head, and a pair of feathered wings sprouted from her back. Then, in a blinding prismatic blur, she flew outside.

Sunset’s eyes tracked the blur as Rainbow flew upwards, to the very top of the junker’s mechanical arm, where she hovered in place. Then, as she cupping her hands together by the side of her hip, a swirling sphere of white-tinted wind formed between her palms. Rainbow let out a powerful cry and thrust her cupped palms forward, and the wind blew out into a crescent-shaped blade. The blade of wind cut severed the junker’s arm effortlessly, cutting at off at the base of its pincer and releasing the SUV from its grip.

And then gravity happened.

Sunset screamed out as the car fell to the ground, landing with enough force for the car to bounce on its wheels before settling. With her tailbone now thoroughly bruised, Sunset winced and rubbed her backside. A quick glance around showed that her friends had fared the same. All of them except for Rainbow, who quickly flew back into the door and shut it behind her, before a pair of impossibly long pink arms stretched out and buckled her seat belt for her.

“Don’t ever do that again,” said Sunset.

“What?” said Rainbow. “You mean save my friends from being shredded into pulp?”

A grating, mechanical roar came from behind the car. Sunset’s spine tingled, and she looked in the mirror to see the junker’s ‘teeth’ mashing and whirling with even more ferocity than before.

“Sunset!” Twilight cried out. “Floor it!”

“R-right!”

The engine roared, and Sunset shot forward, the car driving off into the horizon.

————————

It had taken much, much longer than Sunset would have liked to find Camp Everfree. Navigating the uniform suburbs had proven to be nearly impossible, as without any street signs or addresses there was virtually no way to reliably tell where they had been. Paired with the occasional junker forcing them to make detours, and it took more than an hour before they could started to see a change in scenery.

Eventually, however, the surroundings began to shift. The houses became spaced further and further apart, and the metallic facsimiles of domesticated plant life gave way to genuine greenery. The trees became thicker and thicker, less cultivated and more untamed, and eventually the designated patches of forestry gave way to an actual, living, breathing forest. Eventually they reached a point where the road and itself was the only sign of civilization, everything around them grown wildly and free.

The more Sunset took a look at it all, the more she realized how far removed from Phyrexia they truly were. Though the skies were dark, and the trees themselves crawled with choking shadows, there was a strange sense of peace to it all, like this was what the forest was meant to be.

She was so awestruck by how untouched the Everfree was by Phyrexia that she almost missed the camp’s entrance. As they pulled into the driveway, the car’s engine sputtered. The wheels slowed to a stop, before a horrible clanking sound came from the engine, breaking down entirely.

“That, uh... doesn’t sound good,” said Sunset.

“Don’t worry, I can fix the engine later,” said Twilight. “For now, we should get out and search for the sirens.”

“Do you even know what part of the camp they’ll be in?” said Sunset.

Twilight’s eyes gleamed, and her lips curled into a smirk. “I... might have something that can help.” She reached into the pocket of her skirt, and pulled out a very familiar item, a circular purple device hung around a necklace string, its outer edge divided into multiple segments. Twilight held it outward, and the segment pointing to the south-southeast lit up.

Sunset’s eyes went wide. “Wait, that’s—”

“Don’t worry, it’s not like the first one,” Twilight reassured. “It can’t absorb magic, but it can detect its presence. I cobbled it together before we left to help get a more precise location.”

Sunset let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Jeez, you had me worried there for a second. Come on, let’s go out there and find these sirens.”

As Sunset led her friends out of the car, it became immediately apparent that something was wrong. The entire camp was dark, far darker than even the smog-choked skies should have allowed for. And as they moved out of the driveway and into the central clearing before the lake, the shadows themselves seemed to flicker and writhe on the edge of her vision. In the distance, the waters of the lake churned and sloshed like a stormy sea, as though pulled by tides far stronger than should have been possible.

But none of that compared to just how utterly silent the camp was. All around them there wasn’t a single sound to be heard; not the rustling of the leaves, nor the crunch of gravel beneath their feet, nor the chittering and chirping of the local wildlife.

“U-um, I-I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this place,” said Fluttershy, voice trembling.

“Yeah, this place is giving me the heebie-jeebies!” Pinkie added. “And not like in the city, either. It’s like... something else. Something bad.”

“Ah can feel it too,” said Applejack. She clutched her forearms in her hands, holding them steady. “In the soil, in the lake, in all them trees... Ah don’t like it one bit.”

“Don’t worry Applejack, we won’t be here long,” said Twilight. As she stared intently at her amulet, she began walking ahead of the group, leading the way as they traveled across the clearing. “Let’s see here, if we keep heading to the southeast...” Twilight’s eyes trailed upwards from the amulet...

...it was then that she let out a terrified, ear-piercing scream. Her hands went limp, and the amulet fell loosely around her neck, tears trailing down from her eyes as her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

Sunset immediately ran up to Twilight, holding her steady by the shoulders. Twilight shook beneath her grip, her entire body becoming wracked with shivering, quaking sobs.

“Twilight! What’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong!”

Twilight’s arm quaked. Slowly, she raised it in up and pointed, aiming her finger at a patch of soil a dozen feet in front of her. Her head turned in the opposite direction as she did, as though unable to look.

And when Sunset looked, her entire body became gripped in the icy claws of terror. Immediately, she understood Twilight’s reaction.

There, lying on the dirt, were a pair of desiccated, dried, skeletal corpses. On the bare skull of one corpse were tattered, dried tufts of green hair, and wrapped around the other’s was a wilted laurel of daisies.

“We have to get out of here.” The words came out of Sunset’s mouth without hesitation or thought. “We have to get out of here right now.”

“No!”

Sunset was startled by the ferocity of the words coming from beside her. She turned to see Twilight, her entire body still shaking, but now her fists were clenched by her sides, and her teeth were forcibly clenched together.

“Twilight?”

“We can’t leave!” Twilight’s words, though choked through sobs, smoldered with a rage Sunset had never seen before. “We have to find the one that did this! I... I’ll never forgive them! I can’t! I... I...”

Sunset felt her heart clench within her chest. She steadily reached out and held Twilight’s hand. Twilight responded almost immediately, instantly collapsing onto Sunset. She buried her head into Sunset’s shoulder, shuddering with every breath. Sunset’s arms wrapped around Twilight’s midsection, and she gently rubbed her back, letting her gentle touch soothe as much as she could.

When Twilight’s sobbing died down, she pulled herself out of the embrace, removing her glasses to wipe away the tears. Sunset gave an expectant look at the rest of her friends, yet none of them could offer any words. It was Sunset herself that ultimately decided to break the silence.

“I’m sorry.”

“No,” said Twilight. “Don’t be. I... I should have known the Phyrexians would have already gotten him. I shouldn’t have let myself stay attached.”

Applejack suddenly cleared her throat. When Twilight turned to face her, Applejack struggled to meet her eyes. “Um... hate to interrupt, Twi, but Ah just wanted to say... Ah don’t think it’s a Phyrexian that done this.”

“What?” said Sunset. “Applejack, that’s ridiculous, what else could possibly—”

Twilight raised her hand, cutting Sunset off. “No, she’s right.”

“Huh?”

“Let me explain, Sunset,” said Twilight. “The Phyrexians... t-they don’t like wasting anything they could make use of, and that includes corpses. They wouldn’t have left a pair of bodies out like this.”

“But... darling, if it wasn’t a Phyrexian that did, what could it be?” said Rarity. “What could possibly have done something so gruesome?”

“I say we search for clues!” said Pinkie. She had suddenly sported a bubble pipe and deerstalker cap, seemingly out of nowhere. “And I hereby deduce that pile of glitter over there had something to do with it!”

“Glitter?” said Sunset. “Pinkie, what are you...” As her eyes drew to where Pinkie was pointing, a patch of glittering, sparkling material on the soil caught her eye. She walked up to the patch, and leaned over, rubbing her finger against the substance. As she brought a pinch of the material to her eye, her jaw went limp from sudden realization.

“This... this isn’t glitter. It’s gem dust.”

“G-gem dust?” said Fluttershy.

Unclean...

“Gyah!” Rainbow let out a shriek, jumping backwards in shock. “Applejack! Don’t startle me like that!”

“Don’t look at me! Ah didn’t say nothing!”

Unclean...

Rainbow Dash’s entire body went rigid. “O-okay, now I know that wasn’t one of us.”

Unclean...

The voice came from all directions, soft as a whisper, yet harsh and reverberating, like a chorus of buzzing locusts.

Unclean. Tainted. Befouled. Poisoned. Soiled. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. Filth. F͙͖̲i̬̼l͉ţh͓. ̶̻̲͈̱F̮̻͙̭̭̕ͅį̤̼l̸̹t̘̹̗͓̫̣̣͞h҉̘̪͕̰̫͍̦. ̡͇F̤̟͚͔̼i̼̜̩̩̞̠͡ͅl͎̭̜̖͔̭͉t̲̻̜̱̪̻h̷̯͈̬. ̧̜̥̤͔̜F̤̱̲i͈̖̮̤l͇̬̪͇̫t̺̻̟̟h̟̮̗͔̥̣͜.̩̩̥̳͍F̨͏̳̪͕͕̀ͅi̜̝̫͉l̡̤̱̯̥͎̰͚̘t͏͏͕̱̪͉̣̺h̨̪̼͢͠.͏̧̳͈̯͉̦͙ ̱͓̘̺̫́͜ͅF̶̡̮͈̱͖̞͝ͅį̵҉̬͕̖̪ļ̡̥̰̬t̠̘̪͈͜͢h͚̲̦̳̣̟̫́͟͢.̡͖̣̹͙͔̺͉̰ ͍̫̪̻͔̩͔̻̼F͙̜͞i̗̘̦̹̮̣͎̱͟l̩̮̹̗͉̖͟t̶҉̖̬ḩ̛̱͍͙.̮̟̘͡F̧̟͕̹̰̕͝I͡҉͞҉̵̰̬̟̖̩̭̮L̀͏̧͙̠̘͓͉̦͓͇͎̬̰͉͍̪̫T̷̨̡̧̹̙͎͔̳̦̼̗͚Ḩ̢̛̀͏̻̥͚͇̲.̴̧̙̱̭̖͕͚̥̖̀ͅͅ

From all around them, the flickering and writhing shadows began to slither and ooze, congealing into solid masses as they pooled into a thick sludge before their eyes. The pool of darkness dripped upwards from the ground in front of them, defying gravity as it coalesced into a solid, monstrous shape. Hair like the roots of a tree, teeth like jagged rocks, eyes like pools of black tar, and an aura of darkness that paradoxically gleamed like the light of a diamond.

“No way,” Sunset whispered, “it can’t be.”

————————

Gaea Everfree 1BGG

Legendary Creature — Elemental Horror

Hexproof, menace

Players can’t get counters.

Creatures can’t have counters placed on them.

Death’s shadow walks on shards of glittering earth.

4/3