Implicit Neighs
“And what... find yourself... danger...?”
Stirring from the depths of unconsciousness, visions and voices spun within Twilight’s mind, like snapshots of her life that had been cut to pieces and sent swirling at the edges of her awareness. Thoughts and memories of a world she called home, yet could not have felt farther away.
Her head still throbbed from the assault she’d suffered, as she became painfully more aware of by the second. She felt a cold, hard stone floor pressing against her side, loose pebbles becoming uncomfortably wedged between her feathers.
As her eyes pried themselves open, she found herself lying on the floor of a jail cell. The walls were built from bricks in an oppressive shade of grey, and the single barred window only allowed the smallest sliver of sunlight through. A wooden bench suspended by chains hung on the wall opposite the bars, and a simple latrine was dug into the corner, its stench making it clear that it hadn’t been cleaned in a while.
As Twilight apprehensively stood to her hooves, she attempted to cast a simple light spell as a test. A rune that had previously escaped her notice on the ceiling began to glow sky blue in response, and her horn was encompassed by a similar glow, drilling a sharp burning sensation into her skull as the spell was forcibly suppressed.
Twilight’s body started to tremble, as her utter helplessness began to truly sink in. It was exactly as Princess Celestia had feared. She was trapped and detained in another world, completely alone, and there was no one who could possibly help her. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she gave off a series of quiet, pained sobs.
————————
Jace loudly sipped his coffee, finishing the last of the hot drink. In the days since becoming the Living Guildpact, caffeine had virtually fueled his entire existence on Ravnica, keeping him awake through long nights of bureaucratic work. Being the embodiment of Ravnica’s foundational law had proven to be remarkably tedious.
He shuffled the papers laid out on his desk, digesting the legalistic information they presented. The documents were messily scattered about the desk in much the same way his belongings were scattered about his personal library, a collection of stray books, charts, and illusory diagrams from his projects. Despite looking like an utter mess, it was far from disorganized: Jace knew exactly where he had left everything at all times.
He was quickly distracted by series of steady, dull thuds that started sounding in the background, no doubt Gideon practicing on a punching bag. It had been a fairly major adjustment learning to live with three other planeswalkers (and Liliana, who lived elsewhere but frequently barged in like she owned the place) but it was a change that he quickly learned to accept. Despite their differences, their common oath had bound the Gatewatch together, and Jace had to admit he had grown fond of having them around.
There was a sudden knock on the door. Or, more accurately, a knock on a door in another part of the city, carried through one of the many Izzet teleportals that connected his home to multiple disparate locations. From the direction of the sound, the knocking came from a door that currently led elsewhere in the Tenth District, around two miles away.
Jace scooted out of his chair and pulled his hood over his head as he approached the door. Since his return from Innistrad, he had allowed rumors of the Gatewatch to spread across other planes, passing along different planeswalkers who may require their services. The visitor could be someone who sought their help, but it could just as easily be one of the many enemies that Jace had made in his lifetime. He instinctively gathered enough mana for several counterspells, just in case.
Sending out a mental probe that would allow him to see through the door and past the teleportal, his fears were seemingly confirmed. Standing beyond it was Ral Zarek, a man whose ego had frequently brought the two into conflict. He knocked on the door again, much more forcefully this time.
“Dammit, Beleren, answer the door! I swear to the stars, if you’re not on this plane...”
Jace sighed, and reached for the door handle. He’d briefly considered turning himself invisible and having an illusory doppelganger answer the door, but the last time he’d tried that it had utterly failed to fool anyone. Ral Zarek knew his abilities and was clever enough to see right through them.
Jace cautiously opened the door and stepped outside. “Ral Zarek,” he greeted. “I’m curious to know how you managed to find this door.”
“You’re using an unauthorized network of Izzet teleportals based on my own personal design,” said Ral. “I’m almost insulted you thought I wouldn’t notice.”
Jace arched an eyebrow. He’d made sure to purchase the teleportals from third-party vendors on the black market, and had erased their memory of the transaction afterwords. “That raises a lot more questions than it answers. But most importantly, just what are you doing here?”
Ral breathed in deeply, his face distorting into a pained expression. “I can’t believe I’m saying this a second time, but I need your help.”
Now this was starting to get interesting. Ral Zarek was a bitter rival of Jace, and a particularly sore loser. The one time he had requested help before was when the very political stability of Ravnica was under dire threat.
“I’m listening,” said Jace.
“There’s a strange equine in the Tenth District,” said Ral. “And it’s currently in the custody of the Azorius. And as crazy as it sounds, I believe this creature is a planeswalker. I need your help getting it out of there before any of the guilds realize what it is.”
Jace blinked. “An equine. Like a horse.”
Ral let out a frustrated sigh. “Yes, I know how absurd it sounds.”
“And you think it’s a planeswalker,” Jace deadpanned.
“It’s bright purple, has the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn, and looks like it came straight out of a children’s picture book,” said Ral. “And it’s not only sapient, it can disguise itself as a human with advanced illusion magic. It has its own equine language, Beleren. Do you expect me to think that a creature like that is native to Ravnica?”
Jace paused. It certainly didn’t sound like any creature from Ravnica. Even the Simic wouldn’t think to engineer an equine that was capable of higher thought. “No, probably not,” he admitted. “But I’m not entirely sure if I believe you. This story still sounds more than a little bit far-fetched.”
Ral rolled his eyes. “Alright, you’ve caught me. I’m lying to the plane's most famous mind-reader. I don’t know how you managed to foil such a foolproof plan.”
He had a point beneath the sarcasm. Ral Zarek was understandably offended by the prospect of having his thoughts read like an open book, but there was nothing stopping Jace from doing so apart from his own sense of common courtesy.
Of course, the possibility that Ral was using his sarcasm to deflect suspicion never left Jace’s mind. He could be leading Jace directly into a trap, possibly out of spite for being beaten in the Implicit Maze, possibly as a part of some grander scheme. Yet it still seemed unlikely that Ral would deliberately harm Jace, knowing his importance to Ravnica. And if it were a trick, Jace couldn’t imagine Ral coming up with such a ridiculous story to set it up.
There were risks to trusting Ral, just as there were the last time they had worked together. Yet the possibility that he was telling the truth meant not getting involved carried an even greater risk. Ravnica’s guilds had been kept in the dark about the nature of the planeswalkers for a very good reason.
“Alright,” said Jace. “I’ll humor you for now. Lead the way.”
————————
Tenuous Alliance 1W
Sorcery
Cast Tenuous Alliance only during your precombat main phase.
Choose target opponent. Until your next turn, creatures can't attack you, that player, or planeswalkers either player controls.
“Don't think this means we're friends.”
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So Liliana is screwing around with Jace's bookcases then.
booo hiss boo thats only half a chapter
The idea of the Living Guildpact using an unauthorized anything feels kind of ridiculous. Can't he authorize it just by saying so?
Zegana? It's Agent Foam. I'm pushing up the development of Hans the talking aquus steed by two months. I want to see the look on the Guildpact's face.
Tenuous Alliance is certainly interesting from a political stand... Wait. It only affects the planeswalkers? Okay, no. Especially not when compared to Moment of Silence. I recommend the following:
Tenuous Alliance 1W
Sorcery
Cast Tenuous Alliance only during your precombat main phase.
Choose target opponent. Until your next turn, creatures can't attack you, that player, or planeswalkers either controls.
That aside, Twlight has... well, not friends, but certainly people with a vested interest in her well-being. Pretty much the best she can hope for right now. And she may end up joining the Gatewatch as a result.
Yay, Jace is on the case! Finally. Hopefully he can understand Twilight's thoughts.
Again, use Domri. What better distraction could there possibly be for helping Jace and Ral break Twi out of prison than a Gruul Ragebeast with an anarchist teenager riding it randomly deciding to smash Azorius stuff for fun? Spoiler: there isn't one.
(Obviously you don't have to, especially if this whole story is outlined already, but that doesn't make me want to see this happen any less.)
The chapters are just too short, just as you get invested in the chapter it ends abruptly. :(
Hmm... so the entire Gatewatch is on Ravnica. Interesting development... it seems like a group that Twilight would be attracted to, morally. I wonder what a card called "Oath of Twilight Sparkle" would do...
8463739
Thanks, I've balanced the card a bit. I wasn't quite sure how to make the mana cost quite work since it's a bit of a unique ability.
The teleportal network exists specifically so Jace can move about Ravnica quickly and quietly without anyone knowing how. If he authorized it, then Azorius would likely have to keep a record of it somewhere, which would diminish the mystery of the Guildpact.
I really enjoy the way you bring Ravnica to life and make it something actually comprehensible.
Also, Jace lives with three other planewalkers? There's gotta be a sitcom in that.
If there's any complaints I had about this fic, it's that there's not really any conflict. Twilight is lost and wants to go home, but the trouble she's in feels sort of nebulous and undirected since all the named characters have vaguely benign intentions, or at least want her freed, and you get the impression they have all the real power anyway.
8464366
I can understand this complaint, but this fic was never intended to be some sort of epic adventure on the scale of my other major works. I actually initially wanted to tag this with both "adventure" and "slice of life" since this fic will contain elements of both, but FiMFiction seems to think that these categories are mutually exclusive and won't let me do that.
If there's any consolation, I am planning a sequel which will ramp up the conflict by a very significant amount, but I can't say any more about that at this point.
It's like a way less evil version Disrupt Decorum. I like it.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/51/d9/29/51d929a28c428b0f8270f31936169dce.gif
afterwards
Ahh, this part in the MTG storyline is actually exactly where I've stopped reading!
I really need to catch up sometime...
I guess this means no Ajani for now? Not that I had any expectations for any particular planeswalker appearances. Though maybe Narset would be cool.
Ok one thing: equestria girl is not anthro, anthro is the animal with human characteristics, like twilight but she walks on 2 hoofs an has hands and breasts, and I have to get up to date with the MTG cannon to understand this or not?
8467448
Personaly I am expecting bolas at some point.
8470559
"Anthropo-" is a word root derived from ancient Greek meaning "mankind" or "humanity," so "Anthropia" would roughly mean "world of humans."
The "anthro" you're probably thinking of is short for "anthropomorphism," which means attributing humanlike characteristics to things that aren't human (hence the term's ubiquitous use among furry artists.) That has nothing to do with this fic, I'm afraid.
I think it would be nice to have the info in this chapter’s a/n in the story description. I mean, this is really the only period of time in the recent mtg timeline with enough breathing room for a story like this, but it would still be nice to know before jumping in.
Well that was a short chapter. I was pretty surprised when I was at the card already.