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 ground his teeth in frustration. “Shit,”