Of Myrs, Fire And Mindby BowtasticChaptersParty time!Rising action.The battle.Another survivor?A taste of power.A party for the assassin.A moment of peace.In the heat of the battle.So it begins...The rise of the king of blades.Party time!As everyone was walking towards the library, Malik decided to have a personal talk with Twilight. “So this library… what can you tell me about it?” He asked. “It’s quite a large tree that serves as both Ponyville’s library and my house. I guess you can say I am very thirsty for knowledge. Do you mind telling me how you got here, to Equestria?” Twilight replied. “Well we planeswalked.” He answered as if it was obvious. “Planeswalked?” She asked. “Me, Chandra and Jace are planeswalkers. We are one in a million that has the spark, and when the spark is lit up we gain the ability to travel freely through the planes of the Multiverse. So yeah, we planeswalked.” He explained. “Where is a notebook when I need one?” She muttered in disappointment. “You do know I can just repeat everything, don’t you?” He asked with a smirk. “Oh, right. What are those machines? You said they have feelings and they’re, what do you call them, myrs. Is there anything else you can say about them?” She asked. “The myrs are a strange form of machinery. They first appeared in Mirrodin, created by some insane half-machine guy called Memnarch. I managed to create a personality core, giving the myrs feelings, personalities and critical thinking. They are more like living beings actually.” He explained. “So does that mean they were alive but you turned them?” She asked. “Quite so, but I make sure to only turn them if they want to. You see Alpha there? He was part of the Vulshok spear-tribe in Mirrodin, Gama was also from Mirrodin and he was one of the few honorable Morioks, and Omega was a Ravnican Vedalken. Shimmer however… he doesn’t talk much about it, it’s like he hated his life before he was a myr.” He continued. “I see… Can you explain me what you are? No offense of course.” She said “Well me, Jace and Chandra are all humans. In case you’re wondering Vulshoks are mostly humans but their arms are rocks and lava, Morioks are really mysterious and well… there isn’t much that can be said about them and Vedalken are a very smart and cautious race, they think twice before doing anything.” He said. Twilight was amazed at the influx of new information, there were so many questions, there was so much knowledge. “Woah… That is amazing.” Was all she managed to say, her mind going into overdrive. “I think that’s enough for now, we don’t want your mind to overload with all this new knowledge, now do we? By the way where is Pinkie Pie? She just disappeared.” He said “You’ll figure out soon enough.” She said barely containing her laughter. Malik just shrugged and sped up his pace to catch up with the other planeswalkers. “So what were you and Sparkly over there talking about?” Chandra asked. “Wow, you’re quick with the nicknames! But anyway, I was just explaining her what we are, more information on the myrs, that kind of things. And remember Chandra, don’t burn anything!” Malik replied. “No promises. I just hope we get to wherever we’re going to soon.” Chandra said as they approached the small town. From this distance they could get a clear look at it. The wooden structures of several colors with hay roofs were everywhere. “So many wood, so many hay, so much fuel… I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold on.” She said slowly as she took in her surroundings. “Huh… Jace?” Malik asked reluctantly. “On it.” He said resting his hand on Chandra’s forehead, taking away her need to burn things until it was needed. He knew the spell wouldn’t last very long because of Chandra’s passion for fire but it was worth a shot. “I just remembered. If we bring you with us everypony’s going to panic. Unless you can stay hidden you can’t come.” Twilight said, her hears hanging low. “I think I know what to do.” Jace said. “I think I have enough mana for this but I’m not sure.” He continued. As in response Malik summoned three Silver myrs and one Palladium. “Does that help?” He asked with a smirk. “Yes that should be enough.” Jace answered absorbing the mana from the myrs, which fell to the floor inactive. “What the hay was that?” Rainbow asked. “Some myrs keep mana reserves within them, this mana can be used by whoever their summoner desires but it deactivates them for a while.” Chandra explained and was met with curious looks from the other planeswalkers. “What? Am I not allowed to know anything about artifacts?” She asked in response to the stares. “You said that these artifacts have personalities and feelings yet you treat them this way!” Twilight said with anger. “I do not have many personality cores, the ones I just summoned are just machines, programed to blindly follow orders.” Malik said with an expressionless face as he looked at the metal carcasses on the ground. “He’s right you know? He treats us with outmost respect. He is a nice guy, and that is one of the reasons I accepted to be a myr. He knows we are more than artifacts. We’re living beings inside a metallic shell and he treats us like he would treat a friend.” Came the voice of Alpha. Gama and Omega other myrs nodded. Twilight blushed a little once she realized how wrong she was. “Putting that little incident aside. What are you going to do Jace?” She asked trying to get the attention away from her. “It’s simple: for a mind mage illusion is very important, so I’ll make us invisible.” Jace said with a grin. “Wait wha-” Twilight tried to protest but was cut short by a blue flash. “Are you there?” Rainbow asked. “Jace… wasn’t this the spell you weren’t sure would work?” Chandra asked reluctantly. “Kind of. But it worked, didn’t it?” Jace said with a nervous chuckle. If looks could kill Jace would’ve been killed by Chandra ten times over. Even if it couldn’t be seen the tension in the air was clear. “Moving on. Lead the way and we’ll follow. Does that sound good?” Malik asked, attempting to move to another subject. “Yes but there is one problem. The myrs are not invisible.” Twilight answered as she looked at the constructs. “Alright guys you know what that means.” Malik said glancing at the myrs. “See ya’ real soon, I’m sure.” Gama said before transforming into gray energy and being absorbed by Malik’s gauntlet. He was followed by the other myrs. “So, shall we go now?” He asked. The ponies watched in awe. Twilight managed to recover from the vision of the myrs transforming into energy right before her very eyes and nodded. They started walking and they reached a very large tree. A red door was the way inside the living library and a balcony could be seen on its side, along with the previously stated there were also several windows adorning the tree. They walked in and it was pitch black. Jace, unable to hold the invisibility spell, dropped it causing the planeswalkers to be visible. Jace was panting. “That was more difficult than I thought. Maybe it’s this plane’s mana.” He said. Suddenly the room lit up and revealed several ponies yelling one thing and one thing only. “Surprise!” The planeswalkers’ minds went into overload. Malik tried to run for his life, Jace was trying to think of any barrier spell that could help him, as for Chandra… she panicked. “Ah! What the hell is happening!?” Chandra shouted as she jumped back and prepared for battle. Only when she noticed a banner with ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ written on it, the balloons, the streamers and other party materials did she realize. That realization came with a facepalm. “I freaked out because of a party.” She muttered. A few seconds passed and the room was now in silence except for some ponies who whispered something about monsters and how they would be eaten. They were interrupted by Chandra bursting into laughter. “Alright who was the genius who set this up?” She asked. Jace and Malik exchanged confused glances at Chandra’s sudden change. “I did!” They heard Pinkie Pie shout from the middle of the crowd. “Nice one! Not many can surprise me like that! You and me, are now friends.” Chandra said, resulting on a big grin from Pinkie. “Now let’s get this party started!” She shouted in glee. The artificer and mind-mage looked at the other ponies. “Does this happen often?” Jace asked. “Ya’ll better get used to this.” Applejack said with a chuckle. “That means: yes, it does happen a lot.” Rarity explained. Jace spotted a white unicorn with blue mane walking to a DJ stand. The purple shades she wore reflected the lights from the library. “Who’s that?” He asked. “That’s Dj-Pon3 also known as Vynil Scratch, she’s the local DJ.” Rainbow explained. “I’ve had enough of this back on Earth, if you need me I’ll be outside.” Malik said as he headed towards the door. “What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow asked. “I think it has something to do with bringing memories of Earth, his home plane. Or maybe he simply doesn’t like it.” Jace explained shrugging at the end. Malik was outside and his gauntlet was glowing with intensity to match the Sun. “I’ll show you. I’ll show you all what I can do.” He said as a massive steel structure appeared in front of him. “Alpha, Beta, Gama, Epsilon and Omega come on out.” He summoned some of the myrs with personality cores installed, all named according to the Greek alphabet. He summoned three guitars, each landing on Alpha’s, Gama’s and Epsilon’s hand’s. Epsilon’s red metal glimmered in the moon light as he looked down at the stringed Instrument in its hands. Then Malik summoned a set of drums in the stage he had built and Omega without hesitation sat down and prepared to play. Last but not least was the bass guitar which was given to Beta. The pure white metal that composed its body made him a beacon in the night. “Lemme guess, we’re gonna teach them how to rock, aren’t we?” Beta asked. “Pretty much.” Malik answered summoning a microphone for himself. “Let’s do this!” Came the voice of Alpha. “Which song should we start with?” Beta asked. “Follow my lead.” Malik answered with a smirk. Chandra was rocking the dance floor, breakdancing to the beat and Jace was simply talking to Twilight. “Could you repeat that? You defeated a spirit of chaos with friendship?” Jace asked with disbelief. “Why yes. We have done things of the sort many times.” She said. “This truly is an interesting plane.” Jace chuckled. Then a yell broke the conversation. “AIEEEEE!” “Could it be?” Chandra muttered. Looking towards the door. “Come on Jace we don’t want to miss the show!” She shouted with excitement as she ran off the door. “You lead me on the path Keep showing me the way I feel a little lost A little strange today” “Yeah this is awesome!” Chandra shouted. “He sure loves that band.” Jace said with a chuckle. “I think I'll take a hold Of whatever comes my way Then we'll see what happens Take it day by day I thought I had it all I had it all worked out Just what my future held That there would be no doubt But then the card came up And I took another turn But I don't know if it's Fulfillment that I yearn Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn” By the end of the chorus almost every pony from the party was outside, rocking out to the band of myrs and the human. “Don't want to be here Somewhere I'd rather be But when I get there I might find it's not for me Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn Don't want to be here Somewhere I'd rather be But when I get there I might find it's not for me Don't know what I want Or where I want to be Feeling more confused The more the days go by” When the music was over there was a lot of cheering from everyone. “Mission accomplished. We taught them how to rock!” Malik said triumphantly before heading towards the myrs and high-five every one of them. “We want more! We want more! We want more!” Chandra started chanting before all the ponies and even Jace joined in. “The show must go on am I right?” Malik asked the myrs before turning to the crowd. “Hello! I’m Malik Arcanus and I have one question and one question only for you: Can I play with madness?” He shouted. Rising action.*Insert whatever songs from Iron Maiden you want here* The party ended with one of Iron Maiden’s greatest hits. As the final note sounded, marking the end of ‘fear of the dark’ the ponies started dispersing talking about how great the party was. “Alright guys! Time to pack everything!” Malik shouted as the stage, myrs and instruments got enveloped in a faint gray light. In a torrent of energy, everything got sucked by the gauntlet of unsummoning. “You still cease to disappoint me! That band is just freaking amazing!” Chandra said with a grin. “Yes Iron Maiden is a very good band but we have other worries at the moment. It’s already night time and we have no shelter.” Jace said. “We could just go to some plane where one of us has a house.” Malik replied. “Not really. The mana here is a bit… confusing. I need some time to figure out how to use it to planeswalk. Our other spells, however, work the same.” Jace concluded “Huh… well what now?” Chandra asked Jace. “That was awesome! I never heard music like that before!” They were interrupted by Rainbow. “It’s called metal, the band however is Iron Maiden. It’s a band back from my home plane, it is one of the few memories I have. But if you don’t mind we are trying to figure out what to do now.” Malik replied, still thinking about the situation. Rainbow left them alone and a few seconds passed. “Light bulb!” Malik exclaimed. “I’ll summon a place we can stay in!” He said. “You can do that?” Chandra asked. “It will not look pretty but it’ll do.” He was met with stares from the planeswalkers. “It will be a metal box. It’s the best I can do with what I have.” He said with a shrug, as rest of the ponies approaching them. “Fine, just summon that thing already, I’m getting tired and God have mercy on your souls if I don’t get any sleep.” Chandra said impatient as ever. “Noted.” Malik replied with a grin. He started the spell, gray strands of mana were circling around him as he molded the building from the energy surrounding him. His eyes and the gem on his gauntlet were glowing with astonishing intensity in a gray hue. His brown cloak and hair were being blown by an invisible wind and were flailing around wildly. He slowly rose his right hand, as he did so a big iron cube started emerging from the ground. Soon the cube was completely out of the ground, but Malik wasn’t finished. Using the remnants of his energy he managed to create a door and some windows on the box, as well as hollow out some rooms to make it a regular two floor house. “That is amazing!” Twilight shouted out staring at the iron box. “That was waaaaaaaaay more tiring than I thought it would be.” Malik said before passing out from exhaustion. “Well, I guess we’ll see you all tomorrow.” Jace said picking up the unconscious artificer. “Good night.” Chandra said idly waving at them while heading towards the door. Most of the ponies were still in awe because of what they had witnessed. A few seconds passed before they snapped out of it and said their goodbyes. “So Malik is here… Time to finish what I couldn’t before. But, then again, there is no fun in not having the opponent fight back. I shall reappear one day, and the last survivor of Earth will die at my hands.” A figure wrapped by shadows said before being swept away by the very darkness that made its body. … Malik woke up as the Sun was already over the horizon. ‘I wonder if Jace and Chandra are awake.’ He thought before looking for them. “Malik wake up, breakfast is ready!” He heard Chandra shout. “You’re lucky I was already awake… Where did you get the food?” Malik asked as he arrived downstairs. “It was on a basket outside, along with a message from Pinkie Pie. Apparently it’s a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ gift basket.” Jace said. “Well that’s nice, that’s a nice way of doing things.” Malik replied sitting down on the metal table “Note to self: Learn some nature magic. Wood is much more comfortable than metal.” He looked at the food in front of him. “Apples and cupcakes… sure why not?” He muttered before eating. Breakfast went by rather uneventfully. “Well, I think we should probably head for the library. We are supposed to tell them in a more detailed way what we are and stuff like that, aren’t we?” “Yes we are. We’ll leave as soon as everyone’s ready.” Jace said. “That means we’re waiting for you.” Chandra said tapping her fingers on the table. “Well, I’m ready. I don’t see why we’re still waiting.” Malik replied with a smirk. As they exited their metal home Malik failed notice something. “Huh… Malik? There’s a spell bomb at your feet.” Chandra said. Malik looked over at it and saw a note on its surface. ‘Missed me?’ He tried to say something before the spell bomb flared to life and blew him against the library. “Ah! What the hell is this?!” He shouted before getting stuck halfway through the library wall, scaring Twilight and her dragon assistant Spike. “What just happened?” He asked still dazed. “What just happened is that you scared me and Spike half to death when you appeared through our wall!” Twilight said glaring at the planeswalker. Malik examined the hole he was in. “Doors are for people with no imagination.” He said with a grin. Twilight couldn’t resist the urge to facehoof as Jace and Chandra appeared through the door. “What the hell was that all about?” Chandra asked. “I’ll explain it at another time. Now… can someone help me?” He asked. With a sigh Twilight picked him up with her magic and got him in. “Guess we’ll deal with that later.” “I got it. I know a bit of green magic. Just in case I need it.” Chandra said before repairing the hole in the tree. “You’re welcome.” She completed with a smirk. “Well… thank you anyway. Now, I arranged a meeting with the princesses to save you the work of repeating yourselves. The carriages should arrive soon.” Twilight said while she lowered Malik. “Well that’s… convenient. Thank you.” Malik said dusting his brown cloak and white shirt. “Not a problem.” Twilight replied. “Now we play the waiting game.” Jace said taking a book from one of the shelves and beginning to read it. “Did someone mention game?” Pinkie said, coming out of nowhere. “For God’s sake Pinkie how did you get there?” Malik asked, very startled. “You underestimate my sneakiness silly!” She excitedly answered. “Does this happen a lot?” Chandra whispered to Twilight. “All the time.” Twilight whispered back. The next few hours went by rather uneventfully unless you count the arrival to Canterlot an event. “Big castle… I hate it already.” Chandra said with a frown. “May I ask why?” Rarity asked. “Because it’s too easy to get lost in it. Why do people need big palaces and stuff? Why not have a little house that’s way more comfortable and easier to navigate in? And besides, it’s made of stone… stone isn’t easy to burn.” Chandra answered leaving everyone a bit uneasy with the last part. Hastily, Jace renewed the spell that stimulated the part of Chandra’s mind that needed to burn something, resulting in a much calmer Chandra. “By the way, where the hell did Malik go?” She continued. “Wait what? Wasn’t he right behind us?” Twilight asked. “Well not anymore silly!” Pinkie pointed behind Twilight and a blinking white outline of Malik was there. “How does she do that?” Chandra whispered to Jace, starting to question everything about the pink pony. “No idea. I can’t detect any mana, the type of magic… I, for the first time in my life, have no idea.” Jace whispered back. With even the mind mage clueless about the mysteries of Pinkie Pie, Chandra gave up in trying to understand the bubbling ball of energy. “If he wants to he’ll catch up to us with no problem at all.” Jace said. “I guess you’re right. Let’s go.” Twilight said. … “This place is a freaking labyrinth! How do you even get around in this castle?” Chandra asked to the guard escorting them. “Years of practice miss.” He deadpanned. Soon they reached a big pair of double doors. “This it?” Chandra asked. “Yes this is the throne room, just go in.” Twilight said. “Way ahead of you…” Chandra said with a grin, kicking the doors causing them to open at breakneck speed and causing the two rulers of the plane to become startled. “Sup?” The white alicorn tried to calm down as did the dark blue one after the scare. “My student told me you would come.” The alicorn with green, blue and pink mane said. “I’m terribly sorry for this but it appears my partner doesn’t know how to behave in front of royalty.” Jace said glaring at Chandra. “And it also appears we are missing one of us.” Jace continued. … “They are approaching… myrs are you ready?” Malik asked hiding beneath the windows of the throne room from outside of the castle. “Sir yes sir!” They shouted in unison. Malik spotted a black cloud moving towards the castle. “Cloak now!” He hastily whispered. Almost instantly the myrs and himself became invisible, a function installed by Malik in every one of his myrs. The cloud soon revealed to be a swarm of bug-like equine creatures, with several holes in their bodies. Their blue eyes were filled with hatred, hatred for whoever lived in the castle. They burst through the windows, breaking them with no effort. Malik heard a triumphant laugh and conversation from inside. “With you all inside that barrier there’s nothing stopping me from ruling Equestria.” An unknown voice said in triumph. “Move in!” Malik shouted. At that single command the myrs flooded into the throne room and Malik landed in the middle He saw the army of bug things and everyone else in a green barrier. “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but you’re surrounded, so give up maybe?” Malik said with a victorious grin. The leader of the bug like creatures turned to him, a black alicorn with blue mane, and her green eyes examined him. “And you are?” She asked. “I’m Malik Arcanus, artificer. And, excuse me but...” Malik looked around at his small army of myrs. “… I win.” “Not so fast.” All heads in the room turned towards the being in the wooden beams that supported the roof. “Hey… missed me?” The being spoke in a monotone that could only be described as creepy. Seconds later a blue blast of energy landed in front of Malik. “Zetto? How did you manage to planeswalk?” Malik asked, shocked at the newcomer. Zetto examined his mechanical arm. “Oh it was nothing really. I just made an agreement with someone.” He said supporting a grin. This grin, however showed no signs of happiness, it just showed his sharp teeth. The orange clothes were now visible as he jumped to the ground along with a large, blue Z adorning the neck piece of his armor. His pale skin contrasted with his piercing red eyes and he had a wrist blade in the shape of lightning bolt on his regular arm. His hair was unnatural, with a blue color not normally seen anywhere. “I hope you’ve gotten stronger, because I want a challenge.” He finished. “So be it! Myrs, you deal with the bug creatures, Zetto is mine!” Malik said preparing for battle. The battle.Zetto vs Malik BATTLE ON! Malik rushed forwards, rearing his left arm back. As he reached Zetto he noticed his target was preparing to dodge. Reading Zetto’s movements he punched with his right hand, landing a hit and sending Zetto flying through the room. As in response Zetto’s mechanical arm morphed and launched a chain, which tied itself perfectly around Malik’s leg. Zetto spun in mid-air, carrying Malik with him. Releasig his hold on Malik, he sent the artificer crashing against the wall above the barrier in which the ponies and planeswalkers were in. “Just destroy the barrier already Jace! Malik needs help!” Chandra said, genuinely worried about their friend. “He has a few tricks up his sleve. Just trust him.” Jace replied. Malik set his feet on the wall behind him and pushed with all his might. He blasted off against Zetto but the latter saw it coming and launched a blast of energy. Malik quickly summoned a thin metal sheet and used it as a platform to avoid the blast, the loss in momentum however, gave him no other choice but to land. Determined not to end his assault he ran towards Zetto and kicked him in the gut, causing him to stumble back. “You’ve gotten better.” Zetto said in his monotonic voice. “You’ve seen nothing yet.” Malik replied with a scoff before summoning a sword similar to the one he used in Ravnica, designed specifically for fast attacks. With speed thought impossible Malik disappeared and reappeared next to Zetto who, in his surprise, barely had time to dodge the flurry of attacks. Zetto jumped back and rushed into the battle again with a combination of slashes from his blade and energy blasts. Malik took a beating during Zetto’s last attack, but he had a plan. <…> Myrs vs Changelings BATTLE ON! “Galvanizers, I’m gonna need you to charge everyone! Superion and Enforcers, you take them head on! Omega and Epsilon, we’re gonna need covering fire! Everyone else on me!” Alpha shouted as he ran towards the battlefield after the Superion and Enforcers, using their size to hide himself and flank the changelings. Alpha moved through the battlefield like the wind, his movements precise, gracious and deadly. He dodged an attack and found himself back to back with Gama. “Strike fast, strike hard?” He asked. “Of course.” Gama replied. With that they dispersed and resumed their dances of death. Meanwhile Beta swung his massive axe around, taking out many changelings with each attack. “Get in range, I dare you!” He taunted. Changelings charged him from all directions. Beta began spinning, killing everything in the circle. “That’s how you do it!” He said, pleased with his work. While this happened, Epsilon was taking out as many as he could with his bow. “There’s too many for me! I need backup!” He said, almost panicking. Omega heard his comrade and rushed to his help. As he reached Epsilon he overloaded the beam projectors, causing a very big energy explosion, taking out Epsilons assailants. “Much appreciated.” Epsilon thanked him. “It was no trouble at all. Keep an eye out for the sneaky ones.” Omega replied. Superion and the Enforcers were clearing the path, taking magical blasts, bucks and anything those changelings could throw at them. Then they reached the queen. They moved slow, but what does speed matter when your enemy is frozen in fear? They were preparing to crush her, but were interrupting by the outcome of the other battle. <…> “Wasn’t expecting to use this against you… but I guess I’ll have to. There’s something I haven’t told all of you, even my myrs.” Malik said as the gauntlet started glowing purple. Even the myrs and the changelings stopped fighting to listen to him. “You see… in my travels I found a race of beings, the zerg. And I’ve met their queen. Kerrigan, the queen of blades as they call her. They have done some research on my power… in trade of me being able to access a bit of Kerrigan’s great magical power, or psionic as they call it. Prepare to say hello to…” The light of the gauntlet completely enveloped him. When the light dissipated Malik was very different. He had skeletal wings and his skin resembled an exoskeleton of some purple material. Half his face had marks that glowed in a faint purple light. “…The king of blades!” He completed as the light completely faded away revealing in totality the horrifying sight. “I have met the zerg before. They’re absolute jerks! Why do you do this?” Chandra asked. “You know me Chandra, I’m always one for progress but it was not the case this time. I wanted the power. Flynt was right, I was too weak to protect my plane. No longer! As the king of blades I will protect all planes, even if it means one must fall! You might not understand my reasoning but I don’t care!” Malik explained, his tone reflected anger and annoyance. After the little speech only Zetto dared to talk. “Did you just say Flynt?” He asked. “Yes. Flynt, the destroyer of planes. Name fits him perfectly. Tell me how you know him!” Malik said in a threatening tone. “Well he was the one who sent me here.” Zetto replied. Malik’s eyes glowed purple and Zetto started to float, strangled by some invisible force. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.” Malik said with a grim tone. “All I wanted was to find someone worth of my skills. I wanted a challenge.” Zetto managed to choke out. Jace immediately broke the barrier and stopped Malik from doing anything further. “That’ll be enough Malik.” He said. “The king of blades is powerful, but you can’t control it.” As Jace said this the others approached. He then turned towards the changelings and channeled massive amounts of mana to control the entire invasion force. “And you’re gonna stop this. Right now!” He said in a tone of voice that could intimidate a Thundermaw Hellkite. That, mixed with the mind magic made them all flee. “Now… where were we?” Jace asked as if nothing had happened. Another survivor?Malik’s POV… I woke up in my human form, still thinking on how many levels the previous day could have gone better. But well, what’s done is done. They know now that I am the king of blades and the ponies are skeptical. I’m still not sure if they or Chandra wanted to even talk to me. Chandra… she reacted very strongly to this, she seems to have a deep hatred for the zerg. I hope that, in the end, she realizes I am still Malik and I’m still her friend. I decided to walk downstairs and have breakfast, it’s not good to think with an empty stomach. So I walked down and spotted a note stuck to the door. I approached it but decided to only check it out after I had breakfast, which consisted on three apples, guess I was a bit hungry. While eating I remembered I had to get a job, which would not prove so hard because of my, seemingly rare, expertise with hextech. I walked to the door and read the note: ‘I’m sorry about how I reacted yesterday Malik. You see… I have a bit of history with the zerg, which caused me to hate them. Forgive me if I choose to avoid you for some time but I need time to think. You’re my friend but you’re also part zerg and what has been seen cannot be unseen. I will need some time but when my mind settles if I continue to treat you as a friend or if I treat you like I would treat any other zerg (that would mean burning you). Ps: That Zetto guy planeswalked in the middle of the night. Something about settling some unfinished business in a tournament of sorts. -Chandra’ My mind was on overload. Chandra apologized, which was a rare ocurrence, Zetto left, she had some mysterious reason to hate on the zerg and it was very likely I was going to make it out of this mess without a burn of sorts. I started writing. ‘Don’t worry Chandra, I understand you need time to think. It was quite a lot to take in after all and taking into account you hate zergs it was even more. I just hope that, in the end, you remember the good times we had as friends. I think those would make up for at least a part of it. But, when you’re willing to talk, I’d be interested in what made you hate the zerg. Taking my time to meet Kerrigan, she wasn’t that bad, she just wanted revenge, and that can happen to the best of us. Revenge is something beyond our control and I’ll admit it: a small part of the reasons I’m determined in killing Flynt is revenge. But I’m afraid I’m digressing now. I guess I’ll see you when you make your decision. -Malik’ As I finished I couldn’t keep a smile from my face. I was managing to reason with Chandra, quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. I walked out, headed towards the library. Why? Twilight seemed the most… understanding for lack of a better term the previous day. The ponies I had met at the party the other day waved and greeted me, oblivious as to whom my true self was. I reached the library and, unsurprisingly, Jace was there. “Hey Jace. Any progress on figuring out the mana of this plane?” I asked. “I got nothing.” He sighed in defeat, closing his book and picking up another. “You have done things more difficult than this Jace. You’ll get it eventually.” I encouraged but Jace did not hear me as he was enraptured in the book. Twilight wanted me to teach her about artifacts, which gave me another reason to come to the library. I spotted Spike walking around, reorganizing books. “Hey Spike! Do you know where Twilight is? I’m here to teach her about artifacts.” I asked. “Yeah she’s right downstairs.” He replied. I nodded my thanks and began my descent. As I arrived to the basement I saw Twilight examining some sort of blueprints. I coughed to get her attention, which failed horribly. I tried coughing louder, still to no avail. I approached her and tapped her shoulder, giving her a bit of a scare as she jumped and looked around frantically. “Woah calm down! It’s just me!” I said, trying to calm her frenzied mind. Apparently it worked. “You gave me quite a scare there. You could be a bit more… subtle.” She said. “I tried.” I deadpanned and Twilight blushed with embarrassment. “Oh… sorry then. I just get so enraptured when it comes to learning something. I just can’t get my mind off it.” She explained. “It’s alright. Now let’s see what you have here.” I said picking up the blueprints. A simple mana coil, still a bit complex for a first lesson. “Where did you learn to make one of these?” I asked. “It was all in the books.” She answered. “Well not bad at all. It seems perfectly functional, the drawing is just right, and everything seems to be in order. Rather impressive taking into account I haven’t actually taught you anything.” I said, congratulating her on her magnificent work. This resulted on a blush from the mare. “Well thank you. I just want to know, tough. Is everything alright?” She asked. The question took me by surprise. Was my slightly different mood that noticeable? “What do you mean?” I asked back. “Since that thing yesterday happened I noticed you’ve been… sadder, regretful and other things like that. I want to know if you’re ok.” She said with genuine worry in her eyes. “This whole situation is a bit stressful. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Chandra showed some signs of either fear or anger towards me. I don’t know if my agreement with the zerg was that great any more. What I did two years ago is starting to seem like a bad idea.” I said. “We may have met only a few days ago but I’m sure you did it for all the right reasons. You said it yourself that you wanted to protect. As soon as Chandra understands your reasoning and remembers you are her friend, she will instantly forgive you. You may be the king of blades but you’re still Malik. All it takes is for you to give Chandra and the girls some time to think.” She reassured. I knew that but I still had no idea of how much I needed to actually hear it. “Thanks Twilight. But now… shall we get going with the class?” I asked. <…> ???’s POV “Finally I tracked down the other survivor, I still have to find him though. Maybe I could use the tricks I learned with the Dimir to sneak around the castle and get some more information.” I muttered to myself. I had a perfect cover in the shadows, no one would be able to detect me, something you had to learn with the Dimir mastermind as your teacher, and my black cloak helped too. There were few agents that were as sthealty as me. I blinked to an alley nearby the one I was hiding in. I had a feeling that sneaking into the castle in this equine world was gonna easy. Using a mix of shapeshifting and blink I managed to get to a balcony. It was still morning but to someone like me it doesn’t make a difference, at the end of the day no one can catch Rythian, student of Lazav. And in the off chance someone did find me I had my trusty dagger at my side, and when they found the body I would be miles away. I walked inside and overheard a conversation. “You should have been there! The machines took care of the changelings like they were nothing! And the strange creature became even weirder when it grew a purple and boney exoskeleton kind of thing! He was about to kill another creature with blue hair and a mechanical arm before another, this one in blue robes, stopped him and drove the changelings back!” A voice exclaimed. “Sure they did. I’m sure that you’re not making any of this up and that the creatures are actually nothing special.” Another voice said, dripping with sarcasm. Through the information I realized there had been some sort of battle recently. I heard something about machines. Maybe they were Malik’s. The question, however, was where was he? I have heard from rumors from the other Dimir agents that the other survivor went by the name Malik. An artificer that was learning to planeswalk from Jace Beleren, one of the most skilled mind mages out there. “I’ve heard the creatures are staying in Ponyville and that they have befriended the wielders of the elements rather easily.” The first voice continued. So Ponyville it is. Once I find Malik we can take Flynt down and avenge Earth. Blinking away and towards Ponyville I had a feeling things weren’t going to be that easy, but I set them aside. Luckily I wouldn’t be a fool when those prove to either or not be true. A taste of power.Still Rythian’s POV… The abundance of mana in this plane is amazing! I can just blink around repeatedly and I barely use any of it. The tree tops of a small forest gave me a perfect cover for me to get to this Ponyville town. Thanks to some, very oblivious, scholars I knew exactly where I was headed to. Let’s just say that Lazav’s lessons on mind magic can come in useful when extracting info. So I was travelling and I came across a large metal box, right outside the town. This was definitely Malik’s work. I summoned four Deathcult Rogues, just in case something happened. They were gazing at me through their skeleton masks, awaiting orders. I gestured for them to keep hidden while following me, we had to find him without alerting any of the townsfolk. I eventually came across a clearing, in which, to make the situation even worse, was the very known pyromancer Chandra Nalaar. Clearings are not good for assassins, there’s not enough cover, and having someone who could burn you to a crisp in seconds made it that much worse. I did not want to take any chances, I was there to find Malik and no one else. I heard some commotion and spotted some myrs, black as the night. I had heard from other agents that Malik used myrs but these seemed different, they seemed a bit more… dark. Physically they were a perfect copy but they had a mind, different than the AI cores I learned to deactivate to sabotage some Izzet experiments, just pure evil. I decided to stay low. I examined the surrounding area, spotting three ponies: An excessively pink earth pony, a blue pegasus, who was currently going back to the town, and lastly a yellow pegasus cowering behind her pink mane. I also noticed Chandra taking an offensive stance, just daring the myrs to come closer. Back with Malik… “It’s almost finished but we need to charge it.” I said, standing in front of an uncharged mana coil me and Twilight built. Before Twilight could reply the door to the basement slammed open, revealing a worried Jace. “Attack. On a clearing right out of Ponyville. We need to get there now!” He said in a hurry. I quickly morphed into the King of Blades and puled Jace in with my psionic grip. Before anything could be said I had teleported us there. “Just warn me next time you do that.” Jace said, annoyed at my course of action. “You were the one in a hurry.” I replied with a sly grin. “Sorry to interrupt but we have a bit of an issue here!” Chandra yelled out while bursting a group of dark myr down with flames. “On it!” I replied, channeling one of my most powerful attacks, Apocalypse. “Get out of the orange circle!” I yelled out, and Chandra did so. The following blast took out some of them but there were many, many more. “They’re still coming!” Twilight warned. “Those poor bastards.” Chandra said with a grin before enveloping her body in flames. Every punch and kick she landed lit one of their opponents on fire. “Utterly is my favourite way to destroy things.” She said before summoning a massive ball of fire and destroying some more of our assailants. The rest of us joined the fight. I started by summoning my elite team: Alpha, the striker; Beta, the tank; Gama, the assassin; Epsilon, the archer and Omega, the sharpshooter. Each assumed their positions in battle, Alpha and Beta charged while Gama vanished into the shadows, and from the backlines Epsilon and Omega shot down everyone in their way. Meanwhile me, Twilight, Rarity and Jace were using Telekinesis to crush the constructs and send them against others, causing a domino effect. To this day I’m still confused about where Pinkie got the cannon to shoot the myrs but I just went with it, while this was happening Rainbow was distracting some of them while Applejack tied them up in groups and bucked them into oblivion. Fluttershy unsurprisingly was cowering. There were many of them but then again, I am the King of Blades. I rushed in and used my ‘wings’, much like I had seen Kerrigan do all those times in the past. I stabbed two myrs and used my claws to slash some more. I backed away and stabbed the ground with my wings, causing spikes to come out of the ground, a mix of psionic powers and a spell I learned in my travels. “These myrs are corrupted. There’s only two planeswalkers I know that use artifacts: Tezzeret, and Flynt. Flynt must’ve corrupted some AI cores with evil intentions.” I said, growling at the mention of the one who destroyed my plane. “What are you doing you useless Myrs?!” A voice boomed throughout the battlefield. “We got direct orders from our master to kill them. GET TO IT!” The voice called as a giant black and humanoid construct came out of the sky and with a mettalic screech all the other myrs grew slightly stronger, as their increased size would tell. “Bring it!” Chandra said before charging against one of the myrs. She was stopped, however as the myr got slashed in half. “Wha?” She was genuinely confused. The myrs around her also got slashed in half. “Wait just a second…” A somewhat familiar voice said. Then, as if carried by the wind, five warriors appeared. I didn’t see their faces but I knew one of them by the cloak he was wearing and his brown hair. “Guess Rythian survived. Or at least his Minecraft skin.” I muttered with a grin. “I have had a lot of work trying to find another survivor. I will not let it go to waste.” Rythian said pointing a dagger at the metal construct. “AH! You think you can defeat me fool? I am construct model prisoner nº 5 codename: D34TH! I shall destroy you!” The construct boomed before punching the ground where Rythian and the other warriors were. When the dust settled they were all on top of D34TH’s arm. Yellow eyes glared at the warriors on its arm. “How will you kill me when you can’t land a punch?” Rythian taunted. Somehow he knew the construct had feelings, such as anger, and he also knows anger make people predictable. Quoting Rythian ‘The day you become predictable is the day you die.’ “Why is he taunting a robot?” Rainbow was confused. “I can sense the magic of a personality core. That means D34TH has feelings. He’s trying to make it angry.” I replied. “And why would he want to do that?” She asked. “Anger causes predictability.” I answered with a grin. “You know him, MaIik?” Twilight asked “Sort of. He made videos back in my home plane. If he survived, there might be others. But the thing is… he’s got this.” I said. We all turned back to the battle seeing Rythian and, the now identified, Deathcult Rogues dodging blow after blow from D34TH. “JUST DIE!” It called out in anger trying to crush its opponents with a devastating punch. The following shockwave almost knocked me off my feet. A rift was opened on the ground and it was headed towards Twilight. I quickly rushed over and caught her right before she fell. “Don’t worry I got you!” I said pulling her up. “Thanks for that.” She thanked me. “Not a problem. Just try to be careful from now on, Flynt isn’t someone you want to underestimate.” I said. “Well look over here. What is this?” I heard Rythian ask while standing on the back of D34Th’s head and opening a panel. That is where the processor and personality core is situated. By destroying them both, the robot would no longer be a threat. Rythian stuck his dagger in both and the metallic body fell limp to the ground. “Get owned son!” He let out a victorious laugh. He looked behind and saw a field of destroyed myrs, as well as the rogues disappearing into the shadows. “Hey! how’s it going?” He greeted. “Well thanks for taking care of this robot. But who are you?” Twilight asked. “Joakim Hellstrand. Call me Rythian. I came here searching for Malik, anyone seen him?” He said. I morphed into my human form again. “I’m Malik. I’m impressed that you actually survived. Did anyone else of the Yogscast make it out?” I asked. Rythian’s look fell and his voice saddened. “Unfortunately no. But now that we are together as survivors in this, we can possibly avenge Earth and stop Flynt from destroying any other plane.” He said. “That was my plan. But let me guess: Dimir?” I asked. “Is it that obvious?” He asked with a chuckle. “Very. But let me introduce you to my friends: You might already know Jace and Chandra, because let’s face it, the Dimir know everything. But anyway, these are Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and that’s Fluttershy cowering behind Rainbow.” I said introducing them all. “Well it’s nice to meet you all but I believe me and Malik need to have a little talk and we would very much appreciate if we could talk in private.” The others agreed and bid Rythian farewell. Soon it was just me and Rythian in the clearing. “So… recognized me and asked for the Yogscast, so I assume you’re a fan.” He said. “I was a big one, yes. You had some memorable moments in your videos, and I love how you did your Dishonored playthrough.” I said. “Thanks. As for that purple exoskeleton I got one question: Zerg?” He asked. “Pretty much. It appears that some events from videogames back on Earth are very ahead of their time. I was in the Korhal assault, for example.” I answered. “I helped Kerrigan and she gave me power in return. From the way we worked as a team I got the title King of Blades.” “I have actually been in Dunwall and partnered up with Corvo.” He said. “Do you have any information on any other survivors?” I asked. “Our next destination.” He said getting a piece of paper he was hiding in his clothes. “ Is called Runeterra.” “League of Legends… I used to play that game. Anything else?” I asked. “He goes by the name Dion Andersen. He is the only survivor besides us, at least that I know of.” He said. “PaperBatVG, also known as PBat. I used to be a fan of him too.” I said. “I just realized that Flynt takes the term sore loser to the extreme. I mean, we didn’t give Earth to him and he destroys it!” This resulted on a chuckle from Rythian. “We should go back now. I have an extra room over at the place I’ve been using as a home. You probably came across it, a large metal box.” I said. “I remember seeing it. Let’s go.” He said before we started walking away from the battlefield. “By the way, why are you on your Minecraft skin?” I asked out of curiosity. He laughed. “Oh this? I just think it looks cool.” He said. We both laughed as we were headed towards Ponyville. Meanwhile in Runeterra… A red-headed woman walked through the luxurious halls of the Institute of War. The daggers attached to her legs and waist jingled as she advanced. Rows of summoners watched her as she was looking for someone. “Hey Katarina, how you doin’?” She turned around and saw a black man in the standard purple robe with golden trims that summoners wore. “Dion, just the one I wanted to see! I have a message from Jayce. He knows you summon me often so he gave this to me.” She said handing over a letter. “Alright, see ya’ on the fields.” Dion waved Katarina goodbye. “Let’s see what we have here.” He muttered opening the letter. As he read line after line his eyes widened. As soon as he finished reading he started running. “You saw that right champs and champettes?” He asked to seemingly no one. All the summoners and champions however, knew better. Heimerdinger, a great inventor from Piltover had heard a rumor that Dion had a large fan base which he cherished a lot before his plane was destroyed. Feeling pity for the latest summoner he dedicated a lot of his time to create a lens that let him communicate with them. They would see what he saw and hear what he heard. Everything the champs and champettes said appeared as comments in the livestreams he was so used to recording. Loads of comments from excited champs and champettes filled the lens. Soon Dion reached Jayce’s workshop. “Hey Jayce. How’s it going?” Dion greeted. The defender of tomorrow turned to greet the summoner. “Ah Dion! You’re here, and I assume you know what for.” Jayce said. “Well if what you said in the letter you gave to Kat is true, there are more survivors. And you said you have found them.” Pbat said. “That’s quite true but I’m afraid only a planeswalker can go through. Once you get to the plane where they are, however, you can summon a champion of your choosing. All you need is to give whoever you choose this.” Jayce pulled a circular white device. “This allows a champion to traverse the Multiverse as long as there’s a planeswalker summoning he or she at the destination. By the way, the name of the plane you’re going to is Equestria.” Instantly the chat was filled with brony champs and champettes, excited at the idea of seeing Equestria. Jayce saw Dion’s eyes looking at all the comments. “And a friendly advice, try to keep your fans calm.” He said with a smirk. “Thanks Jayce. I will get Kat, me and her make a good team. Then… well I’ll see you when I’m done in Equestria.” Dion said. “Have a safe journey friend!” Jayce waved goodbye. A party for the assassin.“Huh… Dion? I think it would’ve been a better idea if we spent a bit more time in preparations. We don’t know what is living in this place.” Katarina said. “Yeah I know. But what’s done is done, let’s keep moving.” Dion replied while navigating through the thick undergrowth that populated the ever ominous Everfree forest, identified quickly by him and the other brony champs/champettes. He had requested Heimer for a few changes in his afterlife lens before leaving, making it look like a scouter from Dragonball, which came with the function to measure his opponents’ power level, a little something he liked to joke about. His attire changed drastically, from the purple robes with gold trimmings of the summoners, to a casual grey hoodie and jeans. “Wait Dion… I hear something.” Katarina stopped him. “Yeah I hear it too. It sounds like there is… a party of sorts. Wait, a party?! That means we’re near Ponyville.” Dion said. “It amazes me how much you know of this place.” Kat said. “Remember when I said you were part of a video game back on Earth? Well this was a cartoon.” Dion said. “I dunno. It looks kinda childish.” Kat said. “Tell that to all my brony champs.” Dion muttered. “But what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Dion said breaking into a sprint. A few minutes earlier… Malik and Rythian were now walking through the streets of Ponyville, all eerily empty. “So let me get this right: You like being called Rythian better than Joakim?” Malik asked “Rythian sounds cooler. And I want to know what your real name is. Malik Arcanus is not a regular name that I know of.” Rythian said. “Fine, I’ll tell you. My name is Francisco Fonseca, but Malik sounds cooler and rolls off the tongue better. ” Malik said. “Francisco, huh? Isn’t that a Portuguese name?” Rythian asked. “Yup! Portuguese and proud of it!” Malik answered. “So where is this library place?” Rythian said changing subject. “It’s that big tree over there. Do you see it?” Malik asked, to which Rythian nodded. <…> Rythian entered the giant tree and found it pitch black, something he was quite comfortable with. His comfort, however, was short lived as the lights lit up in a blinding show and revealed several ponies and party decorations. “A party? You didn’t have to really.” Rythian said rubbing the back of his head. “Of course I had to. I throw one for everypony new!” Pinkie said coming out of the crowd. “Well thanks, I was never treated this way while I was Lazav’s student.” Rythian said with a smile. “Come on outside, I got everything ready.” Malik said leaning on the door frame. “What have you -” Rythian stopped talking as soon as he saw the stage with five myrs on it. “What is this?” Rythian asked. “A concert. We have Alpha on the guitar, Beta on bass guitar, Omega on drums, Delta for vocals, she has a female personality core by the by, and we have Phi on keyboard. I summon them to play a variety of songs but this combination I use for Nightwish.” Malik said. Rythian responded with a whistle. “Nice.” He said. “Are you ready?” Beta bellowed, met with sounds of agreement from the crowd. “I don’t know about you but, I wish I had an angel.” Delta said. <…> In the end of the song Twilight called Malik over. He complied and they entered the library’s basement. “Is everything alright?” He asked. “It’s just that. I want to thank you for saving my life earlier.” Twilight said. “You don’t have to thank me. You would’ve done the same for me.” Malik said. “Could you stop being so humble?! I’m being serious here.” Twilight said with annoyance. “But I’m telling the truth. I know that, one day, you’ll save my life, much like I saved yours.” Malik said resting his hand on her shoulder. “That’s how we work. Until the end.” “What?” Twilight said confused. “I’m sorry, but that line got stuck in my head ever since a friend of mine, Valkyrie Cain, told it to me.” Malik said with a sheepish grin. “Thank you anyway.” Twilight said wrapping her hooves around Malik’s neck, pulling him into a hug, catching him by surprise. He returned the hug right after he got over the initial shock. Twilight before ending the hug gave him a quick peck on the cheek, resulting in a slight blush by both. “Oh, and I almost forgot.” She levitated a pouch of coins to Malik. “The princess wants to make you a sort of defense force while you are in Equestria. It saves you the trouble of looking for a job.” Twilight said with a smile before both headed upstairs. <…> When they got outside, another song was ending. “Hey Malik! What were you doing inside?” Chandra asked. “Apparently we’re some sort of Equestrian defense force while we stay in this plane, that is if you accept the job.” Malik said. “Well, that’s some of the time tomorrow I got freed.” She muttered. She then hesitated as she continued talking. “Look I-I’m sorry for the way I reacted. Guess that fighting against the zerg during the time I spent on that plane scarred me a bit. But I realized that you’re still the Malik I befriended so… I’m sorry.” “Hey, it’s alright. Once you get to know Kerrigan you begin to understand that she is much more controlled now. But you haven’t met her, or you met her before she got rehumanized, so I don’t blame you.” Malik said. “Well, that’s good to hear.” Chandra said. Rythian approached both. “I think I heard that bush rustle. Be ready for anything.” Rythian whispered through his scarf. “I got this.” Malik said as a green light formed in his hand, he then turned towards the bush. “You know you’re not in the fields of justice, don’t you?” He asked as the green light shot out and impacted the bush, placing a sight ward there, making it reveal the people hidden in the bush. “So… how long have you been there PBat?” All heads turned towards the two in the bush. “You must be a champ then. And for you to be a champ that means you’re a survivor, which means my mission is complete. I’ve finally found the survivors.” Dion said standing up. “So, this is one of your fans Dion?” Kat asked standing up too. “You bet I am. I swear on the champs and champettes.” Malik said. “He’s telling the truth. No one swears on the champs and champettes if they’re lying.” Dion said, looking at Kat. “Yeah whatever. Malik can you just swap Delta? We need Gama and Sigma to play some Dragonforce.” Alpha said. “See you later I guess.” Delta said before vanishing in Malik’s gauntlet. Giving her place to Gama and a blue myr. “About frikin’ time! Let’s do this!” Sigma shouted. <…> “So let me get this right… You have spent the last two years in Valoran, working as a summoner?” Malik asked. “Yup. What have you been up to?” Dion asked back. “Let me see… I met Steve from Minecraft, befriended Jace, Chandra and Ral Zarek, battled against robots with the RED mercs, I helped on the assault against Korhal with Kerrigan, I’ve met Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, I’m in this world of ponies, tried to fight Phyrexia in Mirrodin, failing horribly… and I think that’s it.” Malik replied. “I really have seen very little of the Multiverse huh?” Dion asked. “I know absolutely nothing of what you said, but it seems interesting.” Kat said. “Oh and by the way, how’s Xerath?” Malik asked. “Still imprisoned.” Kat replied bluntly. “Right… Now I must have some foresight or something because I made the house big enough for six people. Don’t know why I thought it would be necessary, but whatever.” Malik said shrugging. “Wait you have a house here? How long have you been in this plane?” Dion asked confused. “He’s been here for three days. He summoned the block of metal he calls a house on the first day.” Rainbow said. “So you live on a metal cube?” Kat asked. “You been playing too much Minecraft.” Dion said, causing him, Rythian and Malik to laugh. “I can’t do much, trying to summon something that big can make a spell very unstable so I avoided complex shapes.” Malik said. “Well I found other survivors… what now?” Dion asked to no one in particular. “The guy that destroyed your plane is here. It is my opinion that you should find him, and kick his ass!” Chandra said in an encouraging tone. “So what do you say Dion? Wanna avenge our plane, while protecting another one?” Rythian asked. “Sounds dangerous… I’m in! For the champs and champettes, for these ponies who do not deserve annihilation, and for the Multiverse!” Dion exclaimed, making Kat sigh. “I’ll help you if Dion doesn’t make a fool out of himself, I can’t handle stupidity well.” She said. “Fair enough.” He replied. <…> A figure cloaked by shadows stood before an artifact of unfathomable power, the same he had used to literally explode a plane of existence. “It is almost finished… But I need more time, and those survivors will mess with my whole plan. I need to get them distracted. Hmm… what to do, what to do?” The figure mused. “Maybe I can take advantage of the growing ‘relationship’ between Francisco and the Element of magic. No it’s too soon for that, but eventually. On the other hand, I can just wreak some havoc as usual… Yes, that would do just fine.” The figures red eyes glimmered in evil glee as it cackled, it then turned towards a humanoid being made of paper, its blue eyes were staring at its master. “What is your wish master?” It asked. “Who would be best to unleash havoc? Kalistrat or a good old iron golem?” The figure in the shadows asked. “The mind controlled cursed dragon would bring more destruction, but the resilient iron golem would last longer, it’s your call master Flynt.” The paper being answered. “Very well. Kalistrat! Time for destruction!” Flynt said with a cheery tone. A dark green dragon, wielding two blades and with a breast plate made from the skull of a dragon stepped forward. Above his head was a small blue orb, signaling Flynt’s power over it. “As you wish, master.” It said slowly. A moment of peace.“I can’t believe I let Dion drag me into this…” Katarina said as she got up. To say she didn’t get any sleep would be an understatement, as the whole night her mind was filled with memories of Valoran. “But to be fair, Dion is my friend and he needs all the help he can get.” She descended the stairs and found both Dion and Rythian. “Hey Kat. How you doin’?” Dion asked, munching on a toast. “Couldn’t get any sleep.” She groggily answered. “Don’t worry, first time I planeswalked, I was like that too. Ya’ know, memories of home, don’t let you sleep very well.” Rythian reassured, sipping on a cup of tea. “Hopefully I’ll get used to it before any big battle.” She said fetching some food. “By the way, where are the others?” She asked. “I think Malik is teaching Twilight about artifacts, Chandra said that she needed to burn something, so she is helping the town by clearing part of a forest, which will be used for a building. As for Jace, he’s deep in whatever book he is reading now at the library.” Rythian answered. “That reminds me, any thoughts on what we can do for the day?” Dion asked. “Well, from my point of view we could either explore the town or train. Your call.” Kat said. “It would be for the best if we explored town. Besides, the champs are all wanting to go to Ponyville.” Dion said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this last night, but I forgot. What’s my power level?” Rythian said with a smile. “It’s over nine thousand, but there’s no way I’m smashing this.” Dion replied. “Is this another inside joke for the survivors?” Katarina deadpanned. “Yup” both planeswalkers replied in unison. <…> “So we got the myr’s body setup, but for the actual machinery we’ll need to be more tactical. Now, which of these is more practical: a Mana, a Mizzium, Aether or a Blistercoil generator?” Malik asked. “The Mana generator would be pratical due to its power source being everywhere but an Aether generator would generate more power, with the sheer energy of, as you call it, the Blind Eternities. This could backfire, however, causing an overload and making the myr dissipate from existence.” Twilight said. “Very well done! You’re a very fast learner Twilight, for it is, indeed, the Mana generator which would be more practical.” Malik complimented. “Thanks…” Twilight said with a slight blush. “But I guess we’ve been here for a bit too long. What do you say to catching some fresh air?” Malik asked. “Sure, let’s go.” Twilight said, walking out of the basement. As Twilight left Malik was left with his thoughts. ‘Where are you Flynt? And what are you planning? Well, whatever you do I am not letting you hurt any of these ponies. No one should have to go through what I, Rythian and Dion went through.’ He thought. “Are you coming or not?” He heard Twilight ask from upstairs. “I’m going!” He replied, running up the stairs and closing the door behind him, plunging the basement in darkness. <…> “This was not supposed to happen…” Chandra said looking at the forest fire, she caused. “… But it’s still pretty awesome!” She completed earning glares from the nearby ponies. “You surprise me almost every day. Your need to burn things is stronger than I expected.” Jace said. “Don’t worry, I got this.” He told the ponies. With a wave of his hand a torrent of water appeared, materializing from the blue mana, and put out the fire. “You never let me have fun.” Chandra said, with an annoyed look on her face. “When we’re in battle, you can burn as many things as you want, but while we’re in this town you must control yourself, understood?” Jace asked. “Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, how have things been between you and Emmara?” She asked. “We’re doing fine. Speaking of, I should go back to Ravnica to check up on both her and the maze situation.” Jace said. “No attacks today it seems…” Chandra started. “…This is gonna be boring as hell.” “It’s good to have a little break from fighting. And I almost forgot why I came here in the first place. I figured out how to planeswalk from this plane.” Jace said. “That’s cool. But the question is… do we want to leave just yet?” Chandra asked. “What do you mean?” Jace replied. “We have a lot of friends here, and Malik is gonna need more than those survivors to defeat whatever they’re facing. I just wouldn’t feel right leaving a friend behind. Besides, I can’t just let whatever-his-name-is hurt Rainbow or Pinkie.” She answered. “Already developing great friendships I see.” Jace said with a smile. “But, returning to the topic, I agree with you. And I’m gonna stay, to help you all. Let’s just hope we’re strong enough.” “We’re gonna kick his ass, you’ll see Jace!” Chandra replied with excitement. “Now let’s hit the town, this clearing is getting boring.” She said walking away. <…> “Two new survivors… Can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that yet. They’re not going to be that much of a problem either way.” Flynt muttered as he turned towards the paper creature. “Pages, what is the current progress on the army?” He asked. “Army should be built and ready by tomorrow at exactly three hours, forty minutes and fifteen seconds PM. Kalistrat will be sent first, followed by the tanks, which are carrying the strikers and archers to the battlefield. The ‘iceberg’ myr will go right behind the tanks, along with the ‘inferno’ and ‘rift’ myrs, all equipped with their designated weapons.” Pages responded in an almost mechanical voice. “There’s an eighty percent chance we will come out victorious.” “I like those odds, but we can do better… Send out the Cleavers we picked up at the alternate Earth too.” Flynt said. “Acknowledged, sending command now.” Pages replied. Flynt stepped into the light his artifact created while charging, showing his grey robes and white hair. The small stone with arcane inscriptions sat in front of him, strands of all possible colors floating around. “Just a few more weeks…” He muttered. During his years he learned to be a very patient man, so a few weeks didn’t bother him, after all it takes a long time to charge a doomsday artifact. A man appeared behind Flynt, his face obscured by the black visor of his white helmet and his body covered by a long brown trench coat, attached to his back there was a scythe, slowly releasing a pink smoke. The man spoke not a word as Flynt gave him a command. “You and the other Cleavers are going to go on an assault to Ponyville tomorrow, understood?” The man simply nodded and walked away. “For how long do you plan on being in this cave master?” Pages asked. “Until it is the time to reveal ourselves.” Flynt replied. <…> “So… where to now?” Rythian asked. They had spent a lot of the day going around town, meeting ponies and helping them if they could. “A great majority of the champs is pretty much begging us to go to Sugarcube corner, the place where Pinkie Pie works. Guess they want to see either her or the building.” Dion said, looking over the comments on his afterlife lens. “She’s a baker, isn’t she? ‘Cos it’s past lunch time.” Rythian said. “If she’s even half as good at baking as Morg I think we’re gonna get along just fine. Let’s go!” Kat said walking towards the candy building. But she was stopped as she noticed the storm clouds above her. “Huh…?” “Sorry but we have a storm scheduled for today. You have about ten minutes to get to cover.” Rainbow said from the clouds. “Ah, ya’ fuckin’ wanka’!” Pbat muttered with a British accent, just like he used to in his streams. “Guess we’ll have to go back…” He said walking in the direction of the metal boxes, where he lived now, followed by Kat. “How long will the storm last?” Rythian asked. “All night. It’s to make up for the past few days without rain.” Rainbow replied. “Well that sucks. See you tomorrow I guess.” Rythian said as he jogged to catch up with Dion and Katarina. <…> Malik was returning to the library with Twilight. “Twilight?” He asked looking up. “What is it?” She asked. “Was there supposed to be a storm today?” He replied. “Oh my! I completely forgot! We have to get under a roof quickly!” She exclaimed grabbing Malik’s hand and dragging him to the library. <…> Meanwhile, the planeswalkers and Katarina were sitting in a room of the metal box. “You guys are asses, you know that?” Chandra asked, annoyed about the fact that Rythian and Dion were gathered around her flaming hair for warmth. “Yup. By the way has anyone seen Malik?” Dion asked. “I assume he’s in the library with Twilight.” Jace said, no taking his eyes away from the book he was reading. “Makes sense. They must’ve been having one of their classes when storm began.” Rythian said. “Are you really that oblivious?” Jace asked looking at the others. “What do you mean?” Kat replied, causing Jace to chuckle. “Have you not noticed how they reacted towards each other? Their body language as well as the way they speak when around each other? Malik can be very good at hiding his emotions when he wants to but I always catch those small details in his attitude. Ever since the ‘zerg incident’ he has been developing feelings at an astonishing pace for Twilight, as she was the only one, me excluded, that was beside him.” “So that means…” Chandra started. “I’m not over yet.” Jace interrupted. “The same applies with Twilight. Since the moment Malik saved her life during the battle, in which Rythian appeared, she also began to have feelings for him. Basically, this is perfect for them. I suspect that, right now, they’re having some sort of conversation and that, by the end of this day, they will start dating.” He said with a smug smile. <…> “So where’s Spike?” Malik asked as he and Twilight walked into the library. “He mentioned something about digging up gems with Rarity so he’s probably at the boutique.” Twilight answered. “Wanna go downstairs and finish the myr?” “Sure, let’s go.” Malik started descending the stairs, followed by Twilight. As soon as they reached the basement Twilight hopped onto the work table. Malik then started teaching her on how to build myrs but, for what possibly was the first time on her life, she didn’t care. She was distracted, her mind focused on Malik. Her reverie was broken as Malik spoke. “Are you alright? You seem distracted.” He said. “Oh it’s nothing really.” Twilight replied. Malik stared straight in her eyes. “I can tell that you’re lying, just tell me what’s wrong Twilight. I may be able to help you.” He said. Without a moment to prepare she lunged forward, causing their lips to connect. After a few seconds into the kiss Twilight backed away. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know what got over me! I just-” Twilight was stopped as Malik put a finger over her mouth. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Malik asked. “I don’t’ really know. Fear of rejection I guess…” Twilight slowly said with a saddened look. “Well that’s funny because… The very same thing happened to me. I was afraid that you would turn me down, and I would be left broken hearted. So many things happened to me that I grew kinda scared of getting hurt again. I lost my friends, my family and even my world. I didn’t want to risk our friendship.” Malik said, almost in tears. He was caught by surprise as he felt a pair of hooves wrapping around him in a tight embrace. “It’s alright now.” Twilight said as Malik hugged her back. A few seconds later they backed away. “I have a spare bed you can use if you want to.” She said with a warm smile. “Thank you Twilight.” Malik replied. In the heat of the battle.It was late into the night and Malik paced nervously around Twilight’s basement. He was deep in thought as he walked to each side of the room. He finally stopped and sighed. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this because of a pony I’ve met four days ago! But… there’s something special about her. She’s everything I ever wanted from a girl back on Earth, she’s the girl of my dreams. Oh for God’s sake I don’t even know her that well!” He said in frustration. “Maybe there is a future for us. Maybe… she’s worth it. I know enough to cast this spell but I can’t reverse it. I’ll give it a shot and if it doesn’t work… well I can ask Jace for help, hopefully he’ll understand.” Malik said as the gem on his gauntlet began to glow. <…> In the morning Twilight woke up to a smell she enjoyed very much. “Pancakes… He really didn’t have to.” She muttered with a smile as she got out of bed. As she reached the kitchen of her house she expected to see Malik, but instead only saw an unicorn. A grey stallion with short brown mane and green eyes, his cutie mark were two gears clashing, completed by a spark in the place where they connected. “Who are you?” She asked taking a defensive stance. “Calm down Twilight, it’s me, Malik!” The stallion said. “Prove it!” Twilight glared at the intruder, who showed a gauntlet with a grey gem, adapted to fit a hoof. “This is my gauntlet, one of a kind and made by me. If this doesn’t prove I’m Malik then I don’t know what will.” He said. “W-What happened to you?” Twilight asked in disbelief as she saw the gauntlet. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Jace’s library. I’ve learned a lot of spells, including shapeshifting. I couldn’t handle the interspecies barrier between us. I turned into a pony because of you. And to be honest… you’re worth it.” Malik said as he approached Twilight. “You did this… for me?” Twilight asked, again in disbelief and on the edge of tears. “Is everything alright Twilight?” Malik asked back. He was caught by surprise as a pair of hooves wrapped around his neck and pulled him in a tight embrace. “You didn’t have to do this, but yet you did. Why?” She slowly asked. “I only know you for four days, it doesn’t matter though. Because, either way, I would do anything for you.” He answered returning the hug. After a few seconds Twilight backed away and looked into his eyes just before both leaning in for a kiss. The kiss lasted for a few seconds before they both backed away. They stood in silence until Malik spoke. “Well… I’ve done breakfast and if we don’t eat soon it’ll get cold.” He said, pointing with his head to two plates with pancakes. “Well, let’s see how well you cook.” Twilight said with a giggle before heading towards the table. <…> In the previous night… Rythian found himself in the middle of a floating piece of Ponyville. “This place… Why am I in the void?” He asked himself. “Life is an interesting thing, isn’t it? Your world is destroyed but it opens a door to an infinity of them. And now, here you are, on a world populated by ponies on a quest to avenge your world with the survivors by your side. Tell me Rythian, in your wildest dreams, have you ever thought of this?” The voice of The Outsider was something familiar to Rythian and so was his appearance. “You know the answer is no. Is there anything you need from me Outsider, or will you keep stalling?” Rythian asked. “Straight to the point are we? Very well, I ask of you to give me a show. There will be a large onslaught against Ponyville tomorrow. All I ask is for you to entertain me. After all, you were very good back in Dunwall.” The Outsider said. “That’s it? All you want me to do is to put up a show? I’ll warn the others and consider it done.” Rythian replied. “I see you have still got my gift. I expect you to make the most of it. The truth is, you impress me more than Corvo and I have very high expectations. Try not to disappoint me.” The Outsider said before disappearing. <…> In the morning… Rythian sat down on a chair with the other humans in front of him. “I have information that there will be a great onslaught against Ponyville soon. It is of the greatest importance that we start setting up our defenses!” He told them. “Why should we trust in this piece of information you were given?” Jace asked. “Because it was The Outsider who warned me.” Rythian answered. “The Outsider?” Katarina asked. “The Outsider is a being of untold power. He can control everything, everywhere and at any time. He is much more powerful than we can ever hope to achieve, even more powerful than the elder dragon Nicol Bolas.” Rythian showed a strange mark on the back of his hand. “This is the mark of The Outsider. It has helped me greatly before and it serves to prove that He finds me interesting. He will give me certain information for as long as I can ‘entertain’ him, through my prowess in battle.” “Seems legit. I’m in!” Dion exclaimed. “I guess all information is useful.” Jace pondered. “As long as I get to burn stuff, you can count on me!” Chandra said. “Well, I got into this mess with Dion, so I’m gonna help him.” Kat sighed. “Very well. We need to get to the library and warn Malik.” Rythian said as he walked towards the door. <…> Malik and Twilight had just finished breakfast when there was a knock on the door. “I got it.” Malik said as he opened the door, revealing the planeswalkers and champion. “I don’t know who you are, but we’re looking for Malik. He there?” Chandra asked. “That’s me.” Malik answered showing the gauntlet. This resulted in a variety of expressions. Confusion from Kat, disbelief from Dion, surprise from Jace, shock from Ryhtian, as for Chandra… It was outright laughter. “Hey Malik, why the long face?” She continued her laughing fit. “Do you mind?” Malik asked. Chandra’s laughter was slowly dying down until it was gone. “I’m sorry but that’s too damn funny!” She answered. “Malik… when did you learn shape shifting magic?” Jace asked. “And why are you a pony?” “For the first question, I answer with another one: How many times have I been in your library? As for the second one, I did it for Twilight.” Malik said. “This is not the right time! Flynt’s troops will attack soon and how do you expect to fight as a pony?” Rythian asked. “Calm down Rythian! Look, Malik I can do something that will come in useful. I can turn you back into a human when the moment requires it, but you can be a pony through the remainder of the time. What do you think?” Jace said. “I guess you already know that I still haven’t learned how to turn back into a human. I’ll take the deal.” Malik said with a smile. So, now that you are a wittle horsy, you should have a wittle horsy name. How about Fluffy Hooves, no wait, Moon Pie, or, or even Mr. Cuddly Poof. Nah, that doesn't sound good either. How about… ‘Spark Light’?" Chandra rolled on the ground from all the laughing. “Anyway, what do you need me to do?” Malik asked. “Wards. They’ll be useful so we have something to fall back on.” Rythian explained. “How will wards help us?” Dion asked. “You do know that there are more than just Sight and Vision wards, right?” Kat asked, making Dion blush with embarrassment. “You heard nothing champs and champettes!” He scolded them. A bunch of comments appeared immediately, making Dion smile. “So what do you want? I can make unsummoning, incineration, lava pools, aetherizer, you name it.” Malik said. “We need unsummoning and incineration wards the most. We can have some aetherizer too and maybe some of those Tesla wards you invented.” Jace said. “I’ll get to work right now! See you on the battlefield.” Malik said closing the door. “Is everything alright?” Twilight asked as Malik opened the door to the basement. He turned around and walked towards Twilight. “There will be a large assault on Ponyville today according to Ryhtian. Listen to me closely. I don’t want you to follow me, you almost died in the previous battle. Just stay here in the library during the attack. I, the planeswalkers and Kat have got this, alright?” He said. “You know I can’t stay here and let you fight! What if something happens to you?” Twilight replied. “Promise me Twilight… Promise me that you won’t go to battle. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt and I could’ve stopped it.” Malik slowly said. “Is there any other way I can help you?” Twilight asked. Malik pondered for a moment. “Well… You can help me make wards.” He said pointing at the basement. Twilight approached him and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Very well then. Shall we?” She said descending the stairs. <…> “You did a good job with these Malik.” Jace said, examining the wards. “Did you doubt my skills?” Malik asked with a smirk. “When you’re a pony, yes. And speaking of such I should transform you back shouldn’t I?” Jace asked before casting a shapeshifting spell. With a blue flash Malik was back to human. “Alright let’s do this!” Malik said summoning his elite team and a sword for him. “Another battle already? Fine then, bring it!” Alpha exclaimed. “Not yet Alpha, but they’re approaching.” Malik said, before Chandra, Katarina and Dion appeared. “The wards are set, we’re ready!” Chandra said. Rythian suddenly blinked into view. “They are almost here. There are three carrier tanks, three elemental myrs of fire, ice and rock. There are also mysterious men in helmets carrying scythes. They are all led by a dragon, which is being mentally manipulated by Flynt.” He said. “Good job. Get ready everyone! Dion, you have no weapon so have this.” Malik summoned a revolver with the word ‘Reaper’ written on the barrel. “I made it myself. It’s fueled by magic so you can fire any type of projectiles you know how to make from there, and it gets rid of the need to reload.” “Thanks a lot Malik, I needed a weapon of sorts. But now let’s do this!” Dion exclaimed as the dragon appeared, leading Flynt’s troops. “Is that… Kalistrat?” Katarina asked. “What is he doing here?” Dion asked. “He was supposed to be back on Valoran.” “You know this dragon?” Rythian asked. “He’s a champion from the League of Legends. Jace, try to get rid of whatever Flynt is doing to Kalistrat. Me and Kat will take out the guys in the helmets, Rythian and Chandra, you deal with the Elemental myrs. As for Malik and the myrs, you deal with whatever is on those carrier tanks.” Dion commanded. “Got it!” All said as they prepared to take down their respective targets. Youtube Video Rythian & Chandra vs. Elemental Myrs Rythian charged on against the giant rock myr. The elemental myr reached for its back and took out a hammer of stone, swinging it against the ground. Before it hit, however, Rythian blinked out of the way. To Rythian and Chandra’s surprise, the massive hammer opened a rift on the ground, which closed when the hammer was lifted again. Then the ice behemoth attacked, forming an ice spear from the moisture in the atmosphere. The air around the spear was freezing cold making the water around it almost freeze. The myr swiped and jabbed with the spear, but to no avail as Chandra and Rythian dodged all its attacks. Rythian noticed an open spot during the myr’s assault on Chandra. Blinking up to its shoulder, Rythian drew his dagger and struck the construct as hard as possible, resulting on no reaction from the myr. Rythian attacked over and over, before he was hit by a flame beam from the fire myr. Rythian got up with difficulty as searing pain ran across his body. The rock myr was about to strike before Chandra quickly picked Rythian up and got him to relative safety. “Are you okay?” She asked. “I can still fight! But my attacks seem to do nothing.” Rythian replied, getting to his feet. “Then I’ll just melt them to the ground!” Chandra bellowed as she let out an Inferno of flames, hitting the three myrs, The rock and fire ones barely winced, but the ice one let out a high-pitched screech of pain as its arm melted into water. “Why can’t they be made of glass? Wouldn’t it be easier if they just shattered with a punch?” “Shatter… That’s it! Chandra you’re a genius!” Rythian exclaimed. “Wut did I do?” She asked. “I used this in Dunwall to break down doors, but with enough mana I can get rid of the rock one!” Rythian explained. “Well what are you waiting for? Go! I’ll take care of the ice one!” Chandra said, summoning and jumping on top of a phoenix. Rythian nodded and began running, dodging the fire blasts of the fire myr and blinking away from the rifts made by the rock myr. It struck once again with its mighty hammer, smashing the ground. Rythian, this time, was close enough and jumped on top of the hammer. The myr tried to shake him off as Rythian ascended, aiming for its head. The mark on the back of Rythian’s left hand was glowing brightly as he set it on the myr’s head. A second after, Rythian released the energy he had stored, causing the rocks that made up the myrs body to instantly shatter, destroying it. He looked to his side to see Chandra send the Phoenix on a dive bomb against the ice myr. “Hey jackass! Time for you to meet your fiery doom!” She jumped away as the phoenix hit the myr, resulting in a massive explosion, and instantly melting the myr. “Hells yeah!” “Now for this guy.” Rythian said as the mark started glowing again. The myr, not willing to be destroyed yet, released a giant burst of flames from his flamethrowers. Rythian, however jumped to the side and dodged it. The mark stopped glowing as, with a thrust of his arm, Rythian threw a mass of wind against the myr, putting out its flames and crushing it from the sheer strength of the wind. “And that’s that!” Chandra said with a grin. Dion & Katarina vs. The Cleavers Dion quickly closed in on one of the clevers, kicking him in the gut. The cleaver stumbled back a bit before receiving a fireball in the chest from Reaper, killing him. Five other cleavers advanced and drew their scythes. Katarina, then appeared behind one of the cleavers slitting his throat and throwing a dagger that bounced between the other four of them. “This is frikin’ easy! Those wards took out so many of them! The lightning ones did some work too!” Dion exclaimed, firing an icicle from Reaper, impaling a cleaver. “You’re right. This is too easy…” Kat said throwing a blade, hitting a cleaver on the chest. She turned around and saw a scythe going in her direction. “Look out!” She said ducking and dragging Dion down as the scythe passed over them. A second later the scythe appeared again, going back to its owner. In front of Dion and Kat stood eight cleavers, clad in white. “What’s with the uniform change?” Dion asked. “They must be stronger versions of the others.” Kat concluded. “Well, let’s see how they like a lightning bolt to the face!” Dion fired Reaper at the white cleavers, who didn’t as much as wince at the impact. “What?! Did they really not even react?!” Dion asked in shock. “Maybe they’re immune to magic…” Kat pondered. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice Dion picking up a scythe from a fallen cleaver and starting to spin it. “Well… then I guess we have to get close and personal!” Dion exclaimed. “Let’s do this Kat!” He said as he charged against one of the white cleaver and engaging in combat. Kat followed and began attacking the white cleavers too. Slashes were traded between scythes and blades as Kat and Dion fought valiantly. Attacks were parried and countered, as both sides tried to gain the upper hand. Finally, Dion spotted an opening on one of the white cleavers and swung downwards as hard as he could. His scythe pierced the helmet and killed his opponent. A white cleaver closed in from behind, but he did not notice Katarina in time, as a blade went through his heart. “Thanks, Kat.” Dion said as they were both back to back. “No problem. What do you think about finishing this?” She asked. “Let’s do this!” They both started spinning around, Katarina was throwing blades to everyone who got close to them while Dion slashed everyone in range with his scythe. When they were done there were only the bodies of the cleavers left. “And remember kids, spin to win!” Kat joked as she looked at the afterlife lens, resulting on a laugh from Dion. Malik & Myrs vs. Carrier Tanks The tanks opened revealing an army of dark myrs, some with swords, and some with bows. The bow myrs drew back the strings and immediately fired a volley of arrows, which rained down on Malik and the myr elite. Malik easily blocked this attack by summoning a shield, which absorbed all damage. “Alright guys, let’s do this!” Malik shouted. Alpha was the first to charge, his incredible speed getting him to the frontlines rather easily. Alpha rushed through the sword myrs taking out as many as he could on his way to the archers. As he got to the bow wielding myrs he started slashing as many as he could, taking down a quarter of them before Gama got there. Gama and Alpha worked brilliantly together, for with the striker going at blinding speeds across the battlefield, no one noticed the sneaky assassin. Taking out a target at time, Gama did a number on their troops him and Alpha taking care of half of the archers while Beta was swinging his massive axe and taking out the sword-wielders. Malik, watched as his myrs did some work, taking out many of his opponents. Suddenly, he started running against the army, with a mighty jump he got into the fray. Malik unleashed hell on the myrs unlucky enough to cross him, slashing everything on his way in half. He got surrounded but quickly dispatched his assailants by summoning spikes from the ground to impale them. His sword turned into grey light, absorbed by his gauntlet. He enveloped himself in grey light. When the light dissipated Malik was in a full set of iron armor, his hands, replaced by wide and sharp jousting lances. “Come at me!” He taunted. He rushed forwards and thrust the lances forwards, taking out one myr with each. He had found a new strategy. “Wipe them out!” He ordered his myrs. “Sir, yes sir!” They all responded. Epsilon jumped over one of his enemies with several arrows in hand. He prepared his bow and unleashed a volley of arrows upon his enemies. When a sword-wielder got close to him, he jammed a beeping arrow on its head and kicked it backwards, taking out a squad of them with the explosion of the arrow. He looked upward and saw Omega pass overhead. Omega touched the ground and placed his laser generators in a circle, facing outwards. With a swift motion, the lasers fired and started moving making a circular, field of death around Omega. Omega himself took upon his hands to shoot all the heads he could, he was a very good sharpshooter after all. “Everyone but Gama, retreat!” Malik suddenly said. “Why? Don’t you see we’re winning?” Alpha asked, through the frenzy of battle. “Yes, but Gama has absorbed enough sunlight!” Malik responded. With that only Gama and the opposing myrs were left on the battle field. “Initiate process! Solar blades!” Gama shouted as his elbow blades caught on fire. Going faster than even Alpha, he destroyed every single enemy myr, his flaming blades cutting through them with ease. “Good job myrs, you truly are my elite!” Malik exclaimed. “You did well too Malik! We completely owned them!” Alpha replied. Jace vs. Kalistrat Jace was nervous as he met face to face with the dragon. “You’re so cold blooded… let me fix that for you!” Kalistrat bellowed with a grin as chains of fire surrounded his blades and arms. ‘Where have I seen that before?’ Jace thought as he summoned a phantasmal bear to hopefully damage, even if slightly, the dragon. Kalistrat, however dispatched it easily by throwing his blades. “Your illusions will not save you, mage!” Kalistrat bellowed before jumping high in the air, blades at the ready. Jace stood motionless until Kalistrat was within attacking range. The dragon sent a blade forwards, bound by the flame chains. Jace smirked as a sudden gust of wind caught Kalistrat off guard, and looked over at the wind elemental he just summoned. “Wind is able to put out fire isn’t it?” Jace asked with a smug grin. The wind elemental, blew a mighty gale of wind against Kalistrat, putting down the flame chains. The dragon growled angrily. “Prepare to die!” Kalistrat charged against the mind mage. Suddenly, instead of striking in front of him, Kalistrat attacked to his right with the hilt of one of his swords, revealing an invisible Jace and making him stumble backwards. The Jace standing in front of Kalistrat faded into nothingness. “You really thought I would fall for that?” Kalistrat taunted. “Not really. But I expect you to fall for this!” Jace said as a mist began forming behind Kalistrat. The mist lifted him up and smashed him hard against the ground. The mist formed into the shape of an angel, pinning Kalistrat down with punches. Kalistrat decided he had enough. The heat around his body began to rise and, in a matter of seconds, he burst into flames, destroying the ‘angel’. “You’ll pay for that!” Kalistrat surrounded his blades with flames again and threw them to the ground in front of Jace, pulling himself towards the mage. Jace jumped backwards but was still hit by the waves of searing heat coming from Kalistrat’s body. ‘I won’t last long like this… Guess I gotta use that.’ Jace thought while in mid-air. Upon landing he bellowed one single word. That word, however, was enough to strike fear on Kalistrat. “Enough!” A shockwave caused Kalistrat to trip. Blue mana was circling around Jace, gales were wildly blasting around the battlefield and Jace’s cloak flapped out of control in the wind. Jace’s eyes glowed with the intensity of the sun as chains of blue mana wrapped themselves around Kalistrat. Jace rushed the dragon and set his hand on Kalistrat’s forehead. “I don’t know what kind of power Flynt has to control such a strong-willed being, but IT. ENDS. NOW!” With that the blue sphere floating above Kalistrat’s head disappeared and the dragon fell unconscious to the ground. Jace was gasping for air as he looked around, seeing all their enemies dead or destroyed. “It’s done…” He then looked at Kalistrat. “We need to find Flynt and finish this!” So it begins...Nervously running a pale hand through her fiery hair, the woman eyed the other planeswalker. "Malik, where is this guy?" She asked tapping her fingers on the table impatiently. “I have no idea, Chandra. It still confuses me, however, why you’re here. Usually you’d be burning something somewhere in the Multiverse.” Malik said with a chuckle. His green eyes locked with Chandra’s orange ones. “Well you see… We were kind of enemies but in a trip to Innistrad he saved me from becoming werewolf food, so I started reconsidering my thoughts about him. The second time we were in Zendikar, or what’s left of it since the Eldrazi, I thanked him for saving me in Innistrad and we worked together trying to find out more about those… things, we managed to close the eye of Urgin to stop the flow of Eldrazi. It kinda helped and the plane is slowly recovering. Eventually we started hanging out together and came to friendly terms. I don’t want to burn the place my friend calls home.” Chandra explained still nervous from Jace’s absence. “Woah… that is pretty cool! It was you and Jace who closed the eye! That’s awesome!” Malik said with excitement. ‘She is way too nervous. Maybe she has a crush on Jace. Nah, that’s just stupid, they will not end up together. But what if they do?’ He thought. But soon Malik was broken out of his reverie by a new voice. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.” Jace appeared and set his cloak on a chair. “Well at least you’re here. Next time be faster.” Chandra deadpanned “I’m sorry but I received the letter just now and I came here as fast as possible. I promise.” Jace said in self-defense. “Doesn’t matter. I think we’ve been waiting long enough so stop stalling.” Chandra said, partially glaring at Jace. “So… changing subject. How are you doing Jace? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.” Malik said trying to drift the conversation to a more pleasant theme. “I’ve been doing quite well here in Ravnica. Things have calmed down a bit since the race through the Intricate Maze started but the battles between guilds are still happening. What about you? How are you doing in your quest to be a master artificer?” Jace said chuckling at the end. “I’ve been making quite a lot of progress. My latest invention is an unsummoning/mana draining gauntlet. I can use it to gain direct access to any plane’s mana reserve, it also lets me unsummon creatures and receive the mana back from them. Kinda like a refund!” He said enthusiastically as he showed them a leather gauntlet with a grey gem on the back. “Come back when you manage to build something that ignites water. Then you’ll be as awesome as me.” Chandra said in her usual cocky tone. “Show some respect Chandra! He is our friend and this is a very important revolution in hextech.” Jace said annoyed at his friend (Hextech: the art of combining technology with magic). “Thanks Jace! But really, it’s not THAT big of a deal. Anyone could’ve done it.” Malik said with a slight blush because of the compliment. “Of course it is a big deal! Being able to get a mana refund on creature is gonna be huge, just you wait!” Jace said. Suddenly a loud roar was heard in the distance followed by the ground starting to shake a few seconds later. Then without warning a rock landed beside them. “I am officially startled.” Malik said, still shocked by the near death situation. “Oh that’s it! Ain’t no one gonna throw no rock at me!” Chandra said, her hands surrounded by searing flames. “Seems like the Gruul are attacking! Malik you should begin summoning your myrs.” Jace said putting on his blue cloak with white markings and preparing the spell bombs that rested on his chest just in case. “On it!” Malik replied. He held his gauntlet in front of him and the gem started glowing with a grey light. The light morphed itself into several constructs. The sleek metallic creatures with lights of several different hues streaking across their bodies slowly stood up awaiting orders from their master. “Alright myrs we have a Gruul attack on our hands so fight with everything you’ve got!” Malik ordered the constructs with an ant-based body, which nodded and prepared the talons on their hands, ready to attack. “Charge!” With that word from their master, the small army rushed the oncoming assailants “Don’t you dare show your face around here again!” Chandra yelled out as she let out a fire burst causing a Gruul Minotaur to ignite. She let out a victorious laugh as a phoenix she summoned flew by, taking out a few goblins. While this was happening Jace was doing some work turning some of the assailants against their guild mates, erasing their memories and driving them to insanity with his mind magic. He was so concentrated that he didn’t notice a viashino (think of a sentient lizard) warrior showing up behind him. As it was about to strike a golden myr with blue lights, a skeletal figure, sharp talons and beak (Alpha myr) appeared taking the lizard out with its sharp talons. It let out an high-pitched metallic screech, acting as a war cry. Malik showed up on the shoulder of a black myr whose size could rival the height of the Gruul giants. This mechanical powerhouse with a bulky figure and red lights in several parts of its body (myr Superion) began fighting a Cyclops in a surprisingly gracious battle. Blows were exchanged as each one tried to take the other one out. The Cyclops swung his fist at the Superion and the myr barely dodged. This left the Gruul fighter open for a finishing blow. The myr Superion kicked him in the gut and immediately after punched him in the face knocking him out cold. Malik jumped off his unconventional transportation method and summoned a sword to aid him in this battle, the silvery blade reflected the sunlight as he descended into battle. Malik swung his sword in a wide arc, hitting a goblin in the process. Omega myr was by his side. The silver, and slightly bulkier than alpha, myr sent off several beams of blue energy leaving deep gashes on some troops. Omega didn’t like fighting and only did so to defend himself and others, much unlike alpha, which would jump in excitement at the chance to fight. Chandra, however, got a little too excited and was starting to run low on mana. “Iron, Palladium! Mind giving me some mana?” She shouted at the two myrs. They quickly rushed forward, towards her location. They kneeled down and allowed Chandra to gain access to the mana inside of them. “Thanks a lot! You guys are lifesavers!” Chandra said to the, now inactive, myrs. “We won’t last much longer! We need to planeswalk away from here!” Jace said in a hurry, still trying the best he could to take out as many of the attackers as possible. “As much as I hate to admit it you’re right! But how do you expect to have enough time to focus with these guys?” Chandra asked blowing up a goblin to smithereens. “It’s easy! We ‘blink’!” Malik said with a grin slashing a viashino warrior. “Do you have any idea how dangerous ‘blinking’ is? We won’t have control over where we will end up!” Jace said, not believing what Malik just said. “Well I don’t hear a better idea coming from you!” Chandra said quite annoyed at the trade of words between Jace and Malik. “Fine! Let’s do it on three! One…” Jace said focusing a bit of mana on his spark, the other planeswalkers following suit. “Two…” Chandra added, the mana quantity being directed to their spark increasing. “THREE!” Malik shouted as they drifted away from that plane headed towards wherever their sparks would take them. They appeared with a faint shimmer on a lush green hill. The hill overlooked a small town not too far away from where they appeared. Malik was the first to realize that his plan actually worked. “We did it! We’re not dead!” He said in triumph. “We got lucky. It’s not very common to survive ‘blinking’.” Jace said. “Screw the odds! I’ve never felt so alive! It feels awesome!” Chandra said before looking around. “Waut a second... WHERE THE HELL ARE WE? AND WHY IS IT NIGHT TIME?” She asked analyzing her surroundings, something she rarely did. But she was only met by the other two planeswalkers giving expressions as confused as hers. This was a new plane for all of them. “Well… there is a town there. I can probably send a Shimmer myr to scout ahead and try to figure out something about this place. What do you think?” Malik asked. “The Shimmer myr’s capability to teleport short distances should help him get away from danger and avoid detection. I think that’s a great idea! I’ll find something that we can eat. Chandra get started on a fire pit.” Jace said assigning tasks to his companions. Malik summoned a blob of quicksilver (think silver but more liquid) that took shape into a silver myr with blue lights. Malik gave it his orders and the myr nodded quickly teleporting away. “Done.” Chandra said with a smirk as she stood over a fire pit she lit up using her magic. Jace simply ignored her as he went into a nearby forest to search for food. Meanwhile Malik summoned three myrs to defend him and Chandra, Alpha, Omega and Gama, a design of his own, the light black metal of the Gama myr made him capable of easily blending in with the darkness of night and the two silver blades attached to his elbows allowed for quick attacks making him one of the fastest warriors of Malik’s arsenal, along with Alpha. “I really hope that this plane isn’t like Innistrad.” Chandra said sitting on a log by her fire pit. “That makes two of us. That place gives me the creeps, just like that forest over there.” Malik pointed to an especially ominous looking forest not too far away from them. The forest itself was covered in shadows, the trees were tall and the plants were entangled in an eternal struggle for sunlight. It felt out of place in this plane, something that wasn’t supposed to be there, something… evil. Just then the Shimmer myr appeared, its lights were now red. “ Boss… there was a problem. I screwed up and got detected by small and colorful equine creatures when I miscalculated my teleportation range and I’m pretty sure I got followed. Sorry boss.” Shimmer said “Stuff like that happens, don’t worry I summoned a defense squad in case we need it. Is there anything else you can tell me about these creatures?” Malik replied trying to figure out more of what was happening. The gem on his gauntlet let out a faint glow as it reacted to a very powerful magical source nearby. He looked behind Shimmer. ‘If I recall correctly these beings are called ponies. But what are they doing here?.’ He thought. One of them was a lavender unicorn with a purple mane, the mane itself had a magenta line streaking through it. Right beside it was a blue pegasus with a strange mane with the colors of the rainbow. On the other side was an orange pony, neither wings nor horn. It had a blonde mane, and it also wore a hat. Another one was also a pegasus, its coat was a dull yellow and it had a pink mane. The last one that was visible was also an unicorn, a white one at that, with a purple mane. “Hey guys! I’ve found some plants we can eat but-” Jace said as he came out of the forest, just to stop on his tracks as soon as he saw the ponies. "Uhm... hi?" The purple unicorn squeaked out, violet eyes flashing between them as a nervous smile adorned her face. Malik could tell Alpha and Gama were getting ready to attack, if they had to, with Omega there for backup. ‘The artificer/artifact bonding spell works here… this will be useful.’ He thought. ‘Prepare to attack at any movement you consider hostile.’ Malik ordered them telepathically. “Hey… how’s it going?” Chandra reluctantly asked, not lowering her guard. “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie! Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from?” The planeswalkers jumped back and looked over at the newcomer, which had appeared behind them, with surprise on their faces. The pink pony who spoke at a thousand miles per hour stood there with a big smile on her face. The myrs, also surprised, considered the pony with pink poofy mane a threat and quickly advanced. Alpha and Gama jumped from the brush they were on, the moonlight reflecting off the golden and black metal shells respectively, while the silvery Omega myr charged a beam of energy from a nearby brush. “Stop!” Was the command Malik shouted to stop the myrs actions, Alpha stopped with a talon an inch away from the pony’s neck. The golden, skeletal myr looked over at his master and kneeled down, the same applied to Gama and Omega, which was out of the brush by now. “Alright I’ve had it! I want some answers NOW! I’m not willing to put up with this!” Chandra angrily said igniting her fists. “Chandra calm down! They are not hostile! If we have a chance for peace let us take it!” Jace said trying to calm down the raging pyromancer. “And how do YOU know that? Oh right, you’re a mind mage.” Chandra said calming down a little. “But I still want answers.” She continued glaring at the ponies. “I do too Chandra. Now… would you kindly tell us who you are?” Malik asked. “R-Right! I am Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia.” The purple unicorn said snapping out of the shock she received from Chandra’s outburst. “Name’s Rainbow Dash. Best flier in Equestria!” The pegasus with Rainbow mane continued. “Your parents were very creative.” Chandra muttered, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm. “Howdy. Ah’m Applejack, owner of Sweet Apple Acres.” The orange pony said. “I’m Rarity, fashionista. Charmed.” The white unicorn said. “What about the scared one right there?” Jace asked. “That’s Fluttershy, and her name fits her perfectly.” Rainbow Dash said. “And we already know the pink one is Pinkie Pie. So… moving on. I am Malik Arcanus, an artificer. These guys over here are myr model Alpha, Gama, Shimmer and Omega. They are constructs but they have a personality, critical thinking and feelings so they aren’t the usual machine you might be used to. Believe me you don’t want to get on these guys’ bad side. Nice to meet you all by the way.” Malik said, introducing himself and the myrs. “My name is Jace Beleren, also known as the mind sculptor, the architect of thought and the memory adept. A pleasure to meet you.” Jace said. “I’m Chandra Nalaar, firebrand. How’s it going?” She introduced herself. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions but is there anywhere else where we can discuss this? Because, let’s face it, that forest ominous as hell.” Malik said pointing at said forest. “Huh… maybe we could go to the library…” Twilight said. “And bring those things to Ponyville?! I don’t think so!” Rainbow interrupted. “First off: Do you have no creativity? And second: If we wanted to hurt you Malik over there wouldn’t have stopped Alpha and Gama.” Chandra said annoyed at the pegasus’ suspicions. “She does make a point. Alright, you can come with us.” Twilight said beckoning to the planeswalkers and myrs. “Jace… we’re going to a library on an unknown plane. Best. Day. Ever!” Malik whispered to the architect of thought. “Thirsty for knowledge as always, Let’s see what we can learn of this plane. Who knows, maybe we will get a break from the Multiverse.” Jace replied with a smile. “Yeah it can be stressful to be a planeswalker. Well… we just have to move on with our lives. Come on, we have to catch up to them!” Malik said as he ran towards the others followed closely by Jace. ‘Right you are Malik… right you are.’ He thought The rise of the king of blades.“Concentrate… that’s all you need to do, channel the mana into your spark.” Jace said. Both him and Malik were standing in his library situated in the plane of Ravnica. Malik was still new to being a planeswalker at the time. Being the nice man he is Jace took him in and taught him several things, and now he was going to teach Malik how to planeswalk. “A-am I doing this right?” Malik asked nervously. “You’re doing just fine.” Jace reassured him. After a few moments a white light began to form around Malik. “You’re doing good just use a little less mana.” Jace said. His words, however, were lost in the light as it grew bigger and brighter. “Alright, that’s enough. Malik, that’s enough! MALIK STOP!” But alas, it was too late as Malik planeswalked to an unknown plane. <…> The queen of blades stood aboard the leviathan. The massive organic structure capable of transporting the Zerg swarm between planets served as a home to her. She had one of those rare moments of peace when she could just stare into outer space and think. Thoughts about revenge were the recurring theme, but this time she was interrupted. Interrupted by a very powerful psionic charge right next to her. It was so strong she could’ve mistaken it for a Hybrid. With a flash of light a dazed Terran appeared next to her. She could’ve killed him with no effort, but she wanted answers. She used her psionic powers to push the Terran against a fleshy wall of the Leviathan, then lifted one of her skeletal wings and pointed an edge sharp enough to pierce diamond towards the intruder’s throat. “Who are you? And how did you get into the Leviathan?” She asked with anger. “I don’t know what this Leviathan is. How can I know how I got in it?” Malik asked still dazed. “Do not play with me! I have no patience for beings like you!” She replied. “I am Malik Arcanus, and guessing that I am in this thing you call Leviathan right now, I planeswalked here.” Malik said. “What do you mean by planeswalked here?” The queen asked with genuine curiosity. Malik then procedded to explain planeswalkers, from the spark to their ability to travel between planes of existence, and also explaining how his training got him to the Leviathan. “Now if I may ask. Who are you and why are you covered in that purple exoskeleton?” “I am the queen of blades, leader of the Zerg swarm. And this exoskeleton, as you call it, is a natural armor the Zerg part of my DNA developed.” She answered. “You are currently aboard the Leviathan, an organic structure capable of transporting the swarm between worlds.” “That explains a lot. Is there anything I can call you besides queen of blades? That’s a pretty long name.” Malik said chuckling. “How can you laugh at this time?” The queen asked with indignation. “When my spark was lit up, when I became what I am now… I learned that even life or death situation need some comic relief, it helps us take the mind away to a happier place. Moping around will do nothing, we have to move on and take action. My plane was destroyed and now I’m on a quest, a quest for power.” Malik replied. “And why do you want this power? Is revenge what you seek?” The queen asked. “No. Such petty things mean nothing to me. No one should go through what I’ve gone through. No, I will use my powers to protect the other planes of the Multiverse. Be it against the Phyrexian, the Eldrazi or anyone else. I will not let revenge get in the way of my quest. I will kill Flynt to protect the Multiverse, not to have revenge.” Malik explained. “I see… I already scanned your mind and you don’t seem to be threat to the zerg. In another note I’ve detected a large psionic potential within you and I think we can work a deal out.” The queen said releasing her psionic grip on Malik. “What have you got in mind?” Malik asked dusting himself. “I help you control your psionic powers and I get you started on your so called quest, and in turn you help the swarm. Do we have a deal?” She asked. Malik pondered on it for a few seconds and finally he extended a hand. “You got a deal.” He said before the queen extended her own hand for a handshake. “Excellent. We shall begin as soon as possible.” The queen said. <…> Three weeks had passed since his training begun and Malik was already close to mastering his psionic powers. He trained often on the battlefield against Protoss and Terran soldiers the swarm fought. He and Kerrigan, as he found out she was called, made an incredible team, using their attacks in devastating combinations. There was no stopping the queen of blades and her sidekick. Due to his battle prowess, Malik quickly earned the title king of blades from the other races. “You’ve made amazing progress since we started. You are a valuable ally to the swarm, but how would you like to be part of the swarm?” Kerrigan asked. “You want to make me zerg?” Malik replied with a raised eyebrow. “It will greatly increase your power and someone like you could prove very useful for the zerg.” She said. “I’m sorry but I have to refuse. I have to go to the other planes to protect them. The swarm would spend most of the time without me causing me to be virtually useless to you all. Although I can visit from time to time to help the swarm in a time of need.” Malik said. “Either way we want our allies to be as strong as possible. If you step in the breeding pool we can make you worthy of the title king of blades. And don’t be worried about others such as your teacher or another planeswalker finding out you are zerg, if you stay for about ten minutes in there your body can change between your Terran and zerg forms by a simple psionic command.” Kerrigan said. “Very well. I’ll take it!” Malik replied, happy with the terms of being half zerg. “Step into the breeding pool and the mutation will start.” She pointed at a pool of green liquid. Malik nodded and walked through the creep-covered fleshy ground. Once he reached the center of the pool he let the chrysalis cover him to mutate his form. When he got out of there he would be the king of blades, protector of planes. But then a thought crossed his mind. ‘What will Jace think of me being king of blades? What will everyone think when they find out I accepted to be half zerg? There’s only one way to do this… for now I still am Malik Arcanus, but one day, I will rise and the king of blades will be revealed. One day…’ He thought. <…> “That’s how I became the king of blades. That’s how I became what I am now. And this is the power I’ll use to kill Flynt.” Malik said with unparalleled determination as he finished his story. “For how long did you know about this?” Chandra asked Jace. “Ever since he became it. Two years ago.” Jace answered. “And you thought this wasn’t worth saying?!” Chandra asked with anger. “I knew what Malik planned to do with his power and I agreed with it.” Jace said. “If I may have a word.” All heads in the room turned towards Zetto, who had an unusual serious expression on his face. “I can see why Malik chose to hide the fact that he is the king of blades. He was afraid everyone would leave before he even had a chance to explain. Not many would like to be friend of a half-zerg being.” He said. “Well both sides have learned a lot today and I think it would be for the best if we finish this meeting now. Too much information at a time can prove harmful.” Celestia said, to which all agreed.
Party time!As everyone was walking towards the library, Malik decided to have a personal talk with Twilight. “So this library… what can you tell me about it?” He asked. “It’s quite a large tree that serves as both Ponyville’s library and my house. I guess you can say I am very thirsty for knowledge. Do you mind telling me how you got here, to Equestria?” Twilight replied. “Well we planeswalked.” He answered as if it was obvious. “Planeswalked?” She asked. “Me, Chandra and Jace are planeswalkers. We are one in a million that has the spark, and when the spark is lit up we gain the ability to travel freely through the planes of the Multiverse. So yeah, we planeswalked.” He explained. “Where is a notebook when I need one?” She muttered in disappointment. “You do know I can just repeat everything, don’t you?” He asked with a smirk. “Oh, right. What are those machines? You said they have feelings and they’re, what do you call them, myrs. Is there anything else you can say about them?” She asked. “The myrs are a strange form of machinery. They first appeared in Mirrodin, created by some insane half-machine guy called Memnarch. I managed to create a personality core, giving the myrs feelings, personalities and critical thinking. They are more like living beings actually.” He explained. “So does that mean they were alive but you turned them?” She asked. “Quite so, but I make sure to only turn them if they want to. You see Alpha there? He was part of the Vulshok spear-tribe in Mirrodin, Gama was also from Mirrodin and he was one of the few honorable Morioks, and Omega was a Ravnican Vedalken. Shimmer however… he doesn’t talk much about it, it’s like he hated his life before he was a myr.” He continued. “I see… Can you explain me what you are? No offense of course.” She said “Well me, Jace and Chandra are all humans. In case you’re wondering Vulshoks are mostly humans but their arms are rocks and lava, Morioks are really mysterious and well… there isn’t much that can be said about them and Vedalken are a very smart and cautious race, they think twice before doing anything.” He said. Twilight was amazed at the influx of new information, there were so many questions, there was so much knowledge. “Woah… That is amazing.” Was all she managed to say, her mind going into overdrive. “I think that’s enough for now, we don’t want your mind to overload with all this new knowledge, now do we? By the way where is Pinkie Pie? She just disappeared.” He said “You’ll figure out soon enough.” She said barely containing her laughter. Malik just shrugged and sped up his pace to catch up with the other planeswalkers. “So what were you and Sparkly over there talking about?” Chandra asked. “Wow, you’re quick with the nicknames! But anyway, I was just explaining her what we are, more information on the myrs, that kind of things. And remember Chandra, don’t burn anything!” Malik replied. “No promises. I just hope we get to wherever we’re going to soon.” Chandra said as they approached the small town. From this distance they could get a clear look at it. The wooden structures of several colors with hay roofs were everywhere. “So many wood, so many hay, so much fuel… I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold on.” She said slowly as she took in her surroundings. “Huh… Jace?” Malik asked reluctantly. “On it.” He said resting his hand on Chandra’s forehead, taking away her need to burn things until it was needed. He knew the spell wouldn’t last very long because of Chandra’s passion for fire but it was worth a shot. “I just remembered. If we bring you with us everypony’s going to panic. Unless you can stay hidden you can’t come.” Twilight said, her hears hanging low. “I think I know what to do.” Jace said. “I think I have enough mana for this but I’m not sure.” He continued. As in response Malik summoned three Silver myrs and one Palladium. “Does that help?” He asked with a smirk. “Yes that should be enough.” Jace answered absorbing the mana from the myrs, which fell to the floor inactive. “What the hay was that?” Rainbow asked. “Some myrs keep mana reserves within them, this mana can be used by whoever their summoner desires but it deactivates them for a while.” Chandra explained and was met with curious looks from the other planeswalkers. “What? Am I not allowed to know anything about artifacts?” She asked in response to the stares. “You said that these artifacts have personalities and feelings yet you treat them this way!” Twilight said with anger. “I do not have many personality cores, the ones I just summoned are just machines, programed to blindly follow orders.” Malik said with an expressionless face as he looked at the metal carcasses on the ground. “He’s right you know? He treats us with outmost respect. He is a nice guy, and that is one of the reasons I accepted to be a myr. He knows we are more than artifacts. We’re living beings inside a metallic shell and he treats us like he would treat a friend.” Came the voice of Alpha. Gama and Omega other myrs nodded. Twilight blushed a little once she realized how wrong she was. “Putting that little incident aside. What are you going to do Jace?” She asked trying to get the attention away from her. “It’s simple: for a mind mage illusion is very important, so I’ll make us invisible.” Jace said with a grin. “Wait wha-” Twilight tried to protest but was cut short by a blue flash. “Are you there?” Rainbow asked. “Jace… wasn’t this the spell you weren’t sure would work?” Chandra asked reluctantly. “Kind of. But it worked, didn’t it?” Jace said with a nervous chuckle. If looks could kill Jace would’ve been killed by Chandra ten times over. Even if it couldn’t be seen the tension in the air was clear. “Moving on. Lead the way and we’ll follow. Does that sound good?” Malik asked, attempting to move to another subject. “Yes but there is one problem. The myrs are not invisible.” Twilight answered as she looked at the constructs. “Alright guys you know what that means.” Malik said glancing at the myrs. “See ya’ real soon, I’m sure.” Gama said before transforming into gray energy and being absorbed by Malik’s gauntlet. He was followed by the other myrs. “So, shall we go now?” He asked. The ponies watched in awe. Twilight managed to recover from the vision of the myrs transforming into energy right before her very eyes and nodded. They started walking and they reached a very large tree. A red door was the way inside the living library and a balcony could be seen on its side, along with the previously stated there were also several windows adorning the tree. They walked in and it was pitch black. Jace, unable to hold the invisibility spell, dropped it causing the planeswalkers to be visible. Jace was panting. “That was more difficult than I thought. Maybe it’s this plane’s mana.” He said. Suddenly the room lit up and revealed several ponies yelling one thing and one thing only. “Surprise!” The planeswalkers’ minds went into overload. Malik tried to run for his life, Jace was trying to think of any barrier spell that could help him, as for Chandra… she panicked. “Ah! What the hell is happening!?” Chandra shouted as she jumped back and prepared for battle. Only when she noticed a banner with ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ written on it, the balloons, the streamers and other party materials did she realize. That realization came with a facepalm. “I freaked out because of a party.” She muttered. A few seconds passed and the room was now in silence except for some ponies who whispered something about monsters and how they would be eaten. They were interrupted by Chandra bursting into laughter. “Alright who was the genius who set this up?” She asked. Jace and Malik exchanged confused glances at Chandra’s sudden change. “I did!” They heard Pinkie Pie shout from the middle of the crowd. “Nice one! Not many can surprise me like that! You and me, are now friends.” Chandra said, resulting on a big grin from Pinkie. “Now let’s get this party started!” She shouted in glee. The artificer and mind-mage looked at the other ponies. “Does this happen often?” Jace asked. “Ya’ll better get used to this.” Applejack said with a chuckle. “That means: yes, it does happen a lot.” Rarity explained. Jace spotted a white unicorn with blue mane walking to a DJ stand. The purple shades she wore reflected the lights from the library. “Who’s that?” He asked. “That’s Dj-Pon3 also known as Vynil Scratch, she’s the local DJ.” Rainbow explained. “I’ve had enough of this back on Earth, if you need me I’ll be outside.” Malik said as he headed towards the door. “What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow asked. “I think it has something to do with bringing memories of Earth, his home plane. Or maybe he simply doesn’t like it.” Jace explained shrugging at the end. Malik was outside and his gauntlet was glowing with intensity to match the Sun. “I’ll show you. I’ll show you all what I can do.” He said as a massive steel structure appeared in front of him. “Alpha, Beta, Gama, Epsilon and Omega come on out.” He summoned some of the myrs with personality cores installed, all named according to the Greek alphabet. He summoned three guitars, each landing on Alpha’s, Gama’s and Epsilon’s hand’s. Epsilon’s red metal glimmered in the moon light as he looked down at the stringed Instrument in its hands. Then Malik summoned a set of drums in the stage he had built and Omega without hesitation sat down and prepared to play. Last but not least was the bass guitar which was given to Beta. The pure white metal that composed its body made him a beacon in the night. “Lemme guess, we’re gonna teach them how to rock, aren’t we?” Beta asked. “Pretty much.” Malik answered summoning a microphone for himself. “Let’s do this!” Came the voice of Alpha. “Which song should we start with?” Beta asked. “Follow my lead.” Malik answered with a smirk. Chandra was rocking the dance floor, breakdancing to the beat and Jace was simply talking to Twilight. “Could you repeat that? You defeated a spirit of chaos with friendship?” Jace asked with disbelief. “Why yes. We have done things of the sort many times.” She said. “This truly is an interesting plane.” Jace chuckled. Then a yell broke the conversation. “AIEEEEE!” “Could it be?” Chandra muttered. Looking towards the door. “Come on Jace we don’t want to miss the show!” She shouted with excitement as she ran off the door. “You lead me on the path Keep showing me the way I feel a little lost A little strange today” “Yeah this is awesome!” Chandra shouted. “He sure loves that band.” Jace said with a chuckle. “I think I'll take a hold Of whatever comes my way Then we'll see what happens Take it day by day I thought I had it all I had it all worked out Just what my future held That there would be no doubt But then the card came up And I took another turn But I don't know if it's Fulfillment that I yearn Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn” By the end of the chorus almost every pony from the party was outside, rocking out to the band of myrs and the human. “Don't want to be here Somewhere I'd rather be But when I get there I might find it's not for me Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn Tell me what you can hear And then tell me what you see Everybody has a different way To view the world I would like you to know When you see the simple things To appreciate this life It's not too late to learn Don't want to be here Somewhere I'd rather be But when I get there I might find it's not for me Don't know what I want Or where I want to be Feeling more confused The more the days go by” When the music was over there was a lot of cheering from everyone. “Mission accomplished. We taught them how to rock!” Malik said triumphantly before heading towards the myrs and high-five every one of them. “We want more! We want more! We want more!” Chandra started chanting before all the ponies and even Jace joined in. “The show must go on am I right?” Malik asked the myrs before turning to the crowd. “Hello! I’m Malik Arcanus and I have one question and one question only for you: Can I play with madness?” He shouted.
Rising action.*Insert whatever songs from Iron Maiden you want here* The party ended with one of Iron Maiden’s greatest hits. As the final note sounded, marking the end of ‘fear of the dark’ the ponies started dispersing talking about how great the party was. “Alright guys! Time to pack everything!” Malik shouted as the stage, myrs and instruments got enveloped in a faint gray light. In a torrent of energy, everything got sucked by the gauntlet of unsummoning. “You still cease to disappoint me! That band is just freaking amazing!” Chandra said with a grin. “Yes Iron Maiden is a very good band but we have other worries at the moment. It’s already night time and we have no shelter.” Jace said. “We could just go to some plane where one of us has a house.” Malik replied. “Not really. The mana here is a bit… confusing. I need some time to figure out how to use it to planeswalk. Our other spells, however, work the same.” Jace concluded “Huh… well what now?” Chandra asked Jace. “That was awesome! I never heard music like that before!” They were interrupted by Rainbow. “It’s called metal, the band however is Iron Maiden. It’s a band back from my home plane, it is one of the few memories I have. But if you don’t mind we are trying to figure out what to do now.” Malik replied, still thinking about the situation. Rainbow left them alone and a few seconds passed. “Light bulb!” Malik exclaimed. “I’ll summon a place we can stay in!” He said. “You can do that?” Chandra asked. “It will not look pretty but it’ll do.” He was met with stares from the planeswalkers. “It will be a metal box. It’s the best I can do with what I have.” He said with a shrug, as rest of the ponies approaching them. “Fine, just summon that thing already, I’m getting tired and God have mercy on your souls if I don’t get any sleep.” Chandra said impatient as ever. “Noted.” Malik replied with a grin. He started the spell, gray strands of mana were circling around him as he molded the building from the energy surrounding him. His eyes and the gem on his gauntlet were glowing with astonishing intensity in a gray hue. His brown cloak and hair were being blown by an invisible wind and were flailing around wildly. He slowly rose his right hand, as he did so a big iron cube started emerging from the ground. Soon the cube was completely out of the ground, but Malik wasn’t finished. Using the remnants of his energy he managed to create a door and some windows on the box, as well as hollow out some rooms to make it a regular two floor house. “That is amazing!” Twilight shouted out staring at the iron box. “That was waaaaaaaaay more tiring than I thought it would be.” Malik said before passing out from exhaustion. “Well, I guess we’ll see you all tomorrow.” Jace said picking up the unconscious artificer. “Good night.” Chandra said idly waving at them while heading towards the door. Most of the ponies were still in awe because of what they had witnessed. A few seconds passed before they snapped out of it and said their goodbyes. “So Malik is here… Time to finish what I couldn’t before. But, then again, there is no fun in not having the opponent fight back. I shall reappear one day, and the last survivor of Earth will die at my hands.” A figure wrapped by shadows said before being swept away by the very darkness that made its body. … Malik woke up as the Sun was already over the horizon. ‘I wonder if Jace and Chandra are awake.’ He thought before looking for them. “Malik wake up, breakfast is ready!” He heard Chandra shout. “You’re lucky I was already awake… Where did you get the food?” Malik asked as he arrived downstairs. “It was on a basket outside, along with a message from Pinkie Pie. Apparently it’s a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ gift basket.” Jace said. “Well that’s nice, that’s a nice way of doing things.” Malik replied sitting down on the metal table “Note to self: Learn some nature magic. Wood is much more comfortable than metal.” He looked at the food in front of him. “Apples and cupcakes… sure why not?” He muttered before eating. Breakfast went by rather uneventfully. “Well, I think we should probably head for the library. We are supposed to tell them in a more detailed way what we are and stuff like that, aren’t we?” “Yes we are. We’ll leave as soon as everyone’s ready.” Jace said. “That means we’re waiting for you.” Chandra said tapping her fingers on the table. “Well, I’m ready. I don’t see why we’re still waiting.” Malik replied with a smirk. As they exited their metal home Malik failed notice something. “Huh… Malik? There’s a spell bomb at your feet.” Chandra said. Malik looked over at it and saw a note on its surface. ‘Missed me?’ He tried to say something before the spell bomb flared to life and blew him against the library. “Ah! What the hell is this?!” He shouted before getting stuck halfway through the library wall, scaring Twilight and her dragon assistant Spike. “What just happened?” He asked still dazed. “What just happened is that you scared me and Spike half to death when you appeared through our wall!” Twilight said glaring at the planeswalker. Malik examined the hole he was in. “Doors are for people with no imagination.” He said with a grin. Twilight couldn’t resist the urge to facehoof as Jace and Chandra appeared through the door. “What the hell was that all about?” Chandra asked. “I’ll explain it at another time. Now… can someone help me?” He asked. With a sigh Twilight picked him up with her magic and got him in. “Guess we’ll deal with that later.” “I got it. I know a bit of green magic. Just in case I need it.” Chandra said before repairing the hole in the tree. “You’re welcome.” She completed with a smirk. “Well… thank you anyway. Now, I arranged a meeting with the princesses to save you the work of repeating yourselves. The carriages should arrive soon.” Twilight said while she lowered Malik. “Well that’s… convenient. Thank you.” Malik said dusting his brown cloak and white shirt. “Not a problem.” Twilight replied. “Now we play the waiting game.” Jace said taking a book from one of the shelves and beginning to read it. “Did someone mention game?” Pinkie said, coming out of nowhere. “For God’s sake Pinkie how did you get there?” Malik asked, very startled. “You underestimate my sneakiness silly!” She excitedly answered. “Does this happen a lot?” Chandra whispered to Twilight. “All the time.” Twilight whispered back. The next few hours went by rather uneventfully unless you count the arrival to Canterlot an event. “Big castle… I hate it already.” Chandra said with a frown. “May I ask why?” Rarity asked. “Because it’s too easy to get lost in it. Why do people need big palaces and stuff? Why not have a little house that’s way more comfortable and easier to navigate in? And besides, it’s made of stone… stone isn’t easy to burn.” Chandra answered leaving everyone a bit uneasy with the last part. Hastily, Jace renewed the spell that stimulated the part of Chandra’s mind that needed to burn something, resulting in a much calmer Chandra. “By the way, where the hell did Malik go?” She continued. “Wait what? Wasn’t he right behind us?” Twilight asked. “Well not anymore silly!” Pinkie pointed behind Twilight and a blinking white outline of Malik was there. “How does she do that?” Chandra whispered to Jace, starting to question everything about the pink pony. “No idea. I can’t detect any mana, the type of magic… I, for the first time in my life, have no idea.” Jace whispered back. With even the mind mage clueless about the mysteries of Pinkie Pie, Chandra gave up in trying to understand the bubbling ball of energy. “If he wants to he’ll catch up to us with no problem at all.” Jace said. “I guess you’re right. Let’s go.” Twilight said. … “This place is a freaking labyrinth! How do you even get around in this castle?” Chandra asked to the guard escorting them. “Years of practice miss.” He deadpanned. Soon they reached a big pair of double doors. “This it?” Chandra asked. “Yes this is the throne room, just go in.” Twilight said. “Way ahead of you…” Chandra said with a grin, kicking the doors causing them to open at breakneck speed and causing the two rulers of the plane to become startled. “Sup?” The white alicorn tried to calm down as did the dark blue one after the scare. “My student told me you would come.” The alicorn with green, blue and pink mane said. “I’m terribly sorry for this but it appears my partner doesn’t know how to behave in front of royalty.” Jace said glaring at Chandra. “And it also appears we are missing one of us.” Jace continued. … “They are approaching… myrs are you ready?” Malik asked hiding beneath the windows of the throne room from outside of the castle. “Sir yes sir!” They shouted in unison. Malik spotted a black cloud moving towards the castle. “Cloak now!” He hastily whispered. Almost instantly the myrs and himself became invisible, a function installed by Malik in every one of his myrs. The cloud soon revealed to be a swarm of bug-like equine creatures, with several holes in their bodies. Their blue eyes were filled with hatred, hatred for whoever lived in the castle. They burst through the windows, breaking them with no effort. Malik heard a triumphant laugh and conversation from inside. “With you all inside that barrier there’s nothing stopping me from ruling Equestria.” An unknown voice said in triumph. “Move in!” Malik shouted. At that single command the myrs flooded into the throne room and Malik landed in the middle He saw the army of bug things and everyone else in a green barrier. “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but you’re surrounded, so give up maybe?” Malik said with a victorious grin. The leader of the bug like creatures turned to him, a black alicorn with blue mane, and her green eyes examined him. “And you are?” She asked. “I’m Malik Arcanus, artificer. And, excuse me but...” Malik looked around at his small army of myrs. “… I win.” “Not so fast.” All heads in the room turned towards the being in the wooden beams that supported the roof. “Hey… missed me?” The being spoke in a monotone that could only be described as creepy. Seconds later a blue blast of energy landed in front of Malik. “Zetto? How did you manage to planeswalk?” Malik asked, shocked at the newcomer. Zetto examined his mechanical arm. “Oh it was nothing really. I just made an agreement with someone.” He said supporting a grin. This grin, however showed no signs of happiness, it just showed his sharp teeth. The orange clothes were now visible as he jumped to the ground along with a large, blue Z adorning the neck piece of his armor. His pale skin contrasted with his piercing red eyes and he had a wrist blade in the shape of lightning bolt on his regular arm. His hair was unnatural, with a blue color not normally seen anywhere. “I hope you’ve gotten stronger, because I want a challenge.” He finished. “So be it! Myrs, you deal with the bug creatures, Zetto is mine!” Malik said preparing for battle.
The battle.Zetto vs Malik BATTLE ON! Malik rushed forwards, rearing his left arm back. As he reached Zetto he noticed his target was preparing to dodge. Reading Zetto’s movements he punched with his right hand, landing a hit and sending Zetto flying through the room. As in response Zetto’s mechanical arm morphed and launched a chain, which tied itself perfectly around Malik’s leg. Zetto spun in mid-air, carrying Malik with him. Releasig his hold on Malik, he sent the artificer crashing against the wall above the barrier in which the ponies and planeswalkers were in. “Just destroy the barrier already Jace! Malik needs help!” Chandra said, genuinely worried about their friend. “He has a few tricks up his sleve. Just trust him.” Jace replied. Malik set his feet on the wall behind him and pushed with all his might. He blasted off against Zetto but the latter saw it coming and launched a blast of energy. Malik quickly summoned a thin metal sheet and used it as a platform to avoid the blast, the loss in momentum however, gave him no other choice but to land. Determined not to end his assault he ran towards Zetto and kicked him in the gut, causing him to stumble back. “You’ve gotten better.” Zetto said in his monotonic voice. “You’ve seen nothing yet.” Malik replied with a scoff before summoning a sword similar to the one he used in Ravnica, designed specifically for fast attacks. With speed thought impossible Malik disappeared and reappeared next to Zetto who, in his surprise, barely had time to dodge the flurry of attacks. Zetto jumped back and rushed into the battle again with a combination of slashes from his blade and energy blasts. Malik took a beating during Zetto’s last attack, but he had a plan. <…> Myrs vs Changelings BATTLE ON! “Galvanizers, I’m gonna need you to charge everyone! Superion and Enforcers, you take them head on! Omega and Epsilon, we’re gonna need covering fire! Everyone else on me!” Alpha shouted as he ran towards the battlefield after the Superion and Enforcers, using their size to hide himself and flank the changelings. Alpha moved through the battlefield like the wind, his movements precise, gracious and deadly. He dodged an attack and found himself back to back with Gama. “Strike fast, strike hard?” He asked. “Of course.” Gama replied. With that they dispersed and resumed their dances of death. Meanwhile Beta swung his massive axe around, taking out many changelings with each attack. “Get in range, I dare you!” He taunted. Changelings charged him from all directions. Beta began spinning, killing everything in the circle. “That’s how you do it!” He said, pleased with his work. While this happened, Epsilon was taking out as many as he could with his bow. “There’s too many for me! I need backup!” He said, almost panicking. Omega heard his comrade and rushed to his help. As he reached Epsilon he overloaded the beam projectors, causing a very big energy explosion, taking out Epsilons assailants. “Much appreciated.” Epsilon thanked him. “It was no trouble at all. Keep an eye out for the sneaky ones.” Omega replied. Superion and the Enforcers were clearing the path, taking magical blasts, bucks and anything those changelings could throw at them. Then they reached the queen. They moved slow, but what does speed matter when your enemy is frozen in fear? They were preparing to crush her, but were interrupting by the outcome of the other battle. <…> “Wasn’t expecting to use this against you… but I guess I’ll have to. There’s something I haven’t told all of you, even my myrs.” Malik said as the gauntlet started glowing purple. Even the myrs and the changelings stopped fighting to listen to him. “You see… in my travels I found a race of beings, the zerg. And I’ve met their queen. Kerrigan, the queen of blades as they call her. They have done some research on my power… in trade of me being able to access a bit of Kerrigan’s great magical power, or psionic as they call it. Prepare to say hello to…” The light of the gauntlet completely enveloped him. When the light dissipated Malik was very different. He had skeletal wings and his skin resembled an exoskeleton of some purple material. Half his face had marks that glowed in a faint purple light. “…The king of blades!” He completed as the light completely faded away revealing in totality the horrifying sight. “I have met the zerg before. They’re absolute jerks! Why do you do this?” Chandra asked. “You know me Chandra, I’m always one for progress but it was not the case this time. I wanted the power. Flynt was right, I was too weak to protect my plane. No longer! As the king of blades I will protect all planes, even if it means one must fall! You might not understand my reasoning but I don’t care!” Malik explained, his tone reflected anger and annoyance. After the little speech only Zetto dared to talk. “Did you just say Flynt?” He asked. “Yes. Flynt, the destroyer of planes. Name fits him perfectly. Tell me how you know him!” Malik said in a threatening tone. “Well he was the one who sent me here.” Zetto replied. Malik’s eyes glowed purple and Zetto started to float, strangled by some invisible force. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.” Malik said with a grim tone. “All I wanted was to find someone worth of my skills. I wanted a challenge.” Zetto managed to choke out. Jace immediately broke the barrier and stopped Malik from doing anything further. “That’ll be enough Malik.” He said. “The king of blades is powerful, but you can’t control it.” As Jace said this the others approached. He then turned towards the changelings and channeled massive amounts of mana to control the entire invasion force. “And you’re gonna stop this. Right now!” He said in a tone of voice that could intimidate a Thundermaw Hellkite. That, mixed with the mind magic made them all flee. “Now… where were we?” Jace asked as if nothing had happened.
Another survivor?Malik’s POV… I woke up in my human form, still thinking on how many levels the previous day could have gone better. But well, what’s done is done. They know now that I am the king of blades and the ponies are skeptical. I’m still not sure if they or Chandra wanted to even talk to me. Chandra… she reacted very strongly to this, she seems to have a deep hatred for the zerg. I hope that, in the end, she realizes I am still Malik and I’m still her friend. I decided to walk downstairs and have breakfast, it’s not good to think with an empty stomach. So I walked down and spotted a note stuck to the door. I approached it but decided to only check it out after I had breakfast, which consisted on three apples, guess I was a bit hungry. While eating I remembered I had to get a job, which would not prove so hard because of my, seemingly rare, expertise with hextech. I walked to the door and read the note: ‘I’m sorry about how I reacted yesterday Malik. You see… I have a bit of history with the zerg, which caused me to hate them. Forgive me if I choose to avoid you for some time but I need time to think. You’re my friend but you’re also part zerg and what has been seen cannot be unseen. I will need some time but when my mind settles if I continue to treat you as a friend or if I treat you like I would treat any other zerg (that would mean burning you). Ps: That Zetto guy planeswalked in the middle of the night. Something about settling some unfinished business in a tournament of sorts. -Chandra’ My mind was on overload. Chandra apologized, which was a rare ocurrence, Zetto left, she had some mysterious reason to hate on the zerg and it was very likely I was going to make it out of this mess without a burn of sorts. I started writing. ‘Don’t worry Chandra, I understand you need time to think. It was quite a lot to take in after all and taking into account you hate zergs it was even more. I just hope that, in the end, you remember the good times we had as friends. I think those would make up for at least a part of it. But, when you’re willing to talk, I’d be interested in what made you hate the zerg. Taking my time to meet Kerrigan, she wasn’t that bad, she just wanted revenge, and that can happen to the best of us. Revenge is something beyond our control and I’ll admit it: a small part of the reasons I’m determined in killing Flynt is revenge. But I’m afraid I’m digressing now. I guess I’ll see you when you make your decision. -Malik’ As I finished I couldn’t keep a smile from my face. I was managing to reason with Chandra, quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. I walked out, headed towards the library. Why? Twilight seemed the most… understanding for lack of a better term the previous day. The ponies I had met at the party the other day waved and greeted me, oblivious as to whom my true self was. I reached the library and, unsurprisingly, Jace was there. “Hey Jace. Any progress on figuring out the mana of this plane?” I asked. “I got nothing.” He sighed in defeat, closing his book and picking up another. “You have done things more difficult than this Jace. You’ll get it eventually.” I encouraged but Jace did not hear me as he was enraptured in the book. Twilight wanted me to teach her about artifacts, which gave me another reason to come to the library. I spotted Spike walking around, reorganizing books. “Hey Spike! Do you know where Twilight is? I’m here to teach her about artifacts.” I asked. “Yeah she’s right downstairs.” He replied. I nodded my thanks and began my descent. As I arrived to the basement I saw Twilight examining some sort of blueprints. I coughed to get her attention, which failed horribly. I tried coughing louder, still to no avail. I approached her and tapped her shoulder, giving her a bit of a scare as she jumped and looked around frantically. “Woah calm down! It’s just me!” I said, trying to calm her frenzied mind. Apparently it worked. “You gave me quite a scare there. You could be a bit more… subtle.” She said. “I tried.” I deadpanned and Twilight blushed with embarrassment. “Oh… sorry then. I just get so enraptured when it comes to learning something. I just can’t get my mind off it.” She explained. “It’s alright. Now let’s see what you have here.” I said picking up the blueprints. A simple mana coil, still a bit complex for a first lesson. “Where did you learn to make one of these?” I asked. “It was all in the books.” She answered. “Well not bad at all. It seems perfectly functional, the drawing is just right, and everything seems to be in order. Rather impressive taking into account I haven’t actually taught you anything.” I said, congratulating her on her magnificent work. This resulted on a blush from the mare. “Well thank you. I just want to know, tough. Is everything alright?” She asked. The question took me by surprise. Was my slightly different mood that noticeable? “What do you mean?” I asked back. “Since that thing yesterday happened I noticed you’ve been… sadder, regretful and other things like that. I want to know if you’re ok.” She said with genuine worry in her eyes. “This whole situation is a bit stressful. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Chandra showed some signs of either fear or anger towards me. I don’t know if my agreement with the zerg was that great any more. What I did two years ago is starting to seem like a bad idea.” I said. “We may have met only a few days ago but I’m sure you did it for all the right reasons. You said it yourself that you wanted to protect. As soon as Chandra understands your reasoning and remembers you are her friend, she will instantly forgive you. You may be the king of blades but you’re still Malik. All it takes is for you to give Chandra and the girls some time to think.” She reassured. I knew that but I still had no idea of how much I needed to actually hear it. “Thanks Twilight. But now… shall we get going with the class?” I asked. <…> ???’s POV “Finally I tracked down the other survivor, I still have to find him though. Maybe I could use the tricks I learned with the Dimir to sneak around the castle and get some more information.” I muttered to myself. I had a perfect cover in the shadows, no one would be able to detect me, something you had to learn with the Dimir mastermind as your teacher, and my black cloak helped too. There were few agents that were as sthealty as me. I blinked to an alley nearby the one I was hiding in. I had a feeling that sneaking into the castle in this equine world was gonna easy. Using a mix of shapeshifting and blink I managed to get to a balcony. It was still morning but to someone like me it doesn’t make a difference, at the end of the day no one can catch Rythian, student of Lazav. And in the off chance someone did find me I had my trusty dagger at my side, and when they found the body I would be miles away. I walked inside and overheard a conversation. “You should have been there! The machines took care of the changelings like they were nothing! And the strange creature became even weirder when it grew a purple and boney exoskeleton kind of thing! He was about to kill another creature with blue hair and a mechanical arm before another, this one in blue robes, stopped him and drove the changelings back!” A voice exclaimed. “Sure they did. I’m sure that you’re not making any of this up and that the creatures are actually nothing special.” Another voice said, dripping with sarcasm. Through the information I realized there had been some sort of battle recently. I heard something about machines. Maybe they were Malik’s. The question, however, was where was he? I have heard from rumors from the other Dimir agents that the other survivor went by the name Malik. An artificer that was learning to planeswalk from Jace Beleren, one of the most skilled mind mages out there. “I’ve heard the creatures are staying in Ponyville and that they have befriended the wielders of the elements rather easily.” The first voice continued. So Ponyville it is. Once I find Malik we can take Flynt down and avenge Earth. Blinking away and towards Ponyville I had a feeling things weren’t going to be that easy, but I set them aside. Luckily I wouldn’t be a fool when those prove to either or not be true.
A taste of power.Still Rythian’s POV… The abundance of mana in this plane is amazing! I can just blink around repeatedly and I barely use any of it. The tree tops of a small forest gave me a perfect cover for me to get to this Ponyville town. Thanks to some, very oblivious, scholars I knew exactly where I was headed to. Let’s just say that Lazav’s lessons on mind magic can come in useful when extracting info. So I was travelling and I came across a large metal box, right outside the town. This was definitely Malik’s work. I summoned four Deathcult Rogues, just in case something happened. They were gazing at me through their skeleton masks, awaiting orders. I gestured for them to keep hidden while following me, we had to find him without alerting any of the townsfolk. I eventually came across a clearing, in which, to make the situation even worse, was the very known pyromancer Chandra Nalaar. Clearings are not good for assassins, there’s not enough cover, and having someone who could burn you to a crisp in seconds made it that much worse. I did not want to take any chances, I was there to find Malik and no one else. I heard some commotion and spotted some myrs, black as the night. I had heard from other agents that Malik used myrs but these seemed different, they seemed a bit more… dark. Physically they were a perfect copy but they had a mind, different than the AI cores I learned to deactivate to sabotage some Izzet experiments, just pure evil. I decided to stay low. I examined the surrounding area, spotting three ponies: An excessively pink earth pony, a blue pegasus, who was currently going back to the town, and lastly a yellow pegasus cowering behind her pink mane. I also noticed Chandra taking an offensive stance, just daring the myrs to come closer. Back with Malik… “It’s almost finished but we need to charge it.” I said, standing in front of an uncharged mana coil me and Twilight built. Before Twilight could reply the door to the basement slammed open, revealing a worried Jace. “Attack. On a clearing right out of Ponyville. We need to get there now!” He said in a hurry. I quickly morphed into the King of Blades and puled Jace in with my psionic grip. Before anything could be said I had teleported us there. “Just warn me next time you do that.” Jace said, annoyed at my course of action. “You were the one in a hurry.” I replied with a sly grin. “Sorry to interrupt but we have a bit of an issue here!” Chandra yelled out while bursting a group of dark myr down with flames. “On it!” I replied, channeling one of my most powerful attacks, Apocalypse. “Get out of the orange circle!” I yelled out, and Chandra did so. The following blast took out some of them but there were many, many more. “They’re still coming!” Twilight warned. “Those poor bastards.” Chandra said with a grin before enveloping her body in flames. Every punch and kick she landed lit one of their opponents on fire. “Utterly is my favourite way to destroy things.” She said before summoning a massive ball of fire and destroying some more of our assailants. The rest of us joined the fight. I started by summoning my elite team: Alpha, the striker; Beta, the tank; Gama, the assassin; Epsilon, the archer and Omega, the sharpshooter. Each assumed their positions in battle, Alpha and Beta charged while Gama vanished into the shadows, and from the backlines Epsilon and Omega shot down everyone in their way. Meanwhile me, Twilight, Rarity and Jace were using Telekinesis to crush the constructs and send them against others, causing a domino effect. To this day I’m still confused about where Pinkie got the cannon to shoot the myrs but I just went with it, while this was happening Rainbow was distracting some of them while Applejack tied them up in groups and bucked them into oblivion. Fluttershy unsurprisingly was cowering. There were many of them but then again, I am the King of Blades. I rushed in and used my ‘wings’, much like I had seen Kerrigan do all those times in the past. I stabbed two myrs and used my claws to slash some more. I backed away and stabbed the ground with my wings, causing spikes to come out of the ground, a mix of psionic powers and a spell I learned in my travels. “These myrs are corrupted. There’s only two planeswalkers I know that use artifacts: Tezzeret, and Flynt. Flynt must’ve corrupted some AI cores with evil intentions.” I said, growling at the mention of the one who destroyed my plane. “What are you doing you useless Myrs?!” A voice boomed throughout the battlefield. “We got direct orders from our master to kill them. GET TO IT!” The voice called as a giant black and humanoid construct came out of the sky and with a mettalic screech all the other myrs grew slightly stronger, as their increased size would tell. “Bring it!” Chandra said before charging against one of the myrs. She was stopped, however as the myr got slashed in half. “Wha?” She was genuinely confused. The myrs around her also got slashed in half. “Wait just a second…” A somewhat familiar voice said. Then, as if carried by the wind, five warriors appeared. I didn’t see their faces but I knew one of them by the cloak he was wearing and his brown hair. “Guess Rythian survived. Or at least his Minecraft skin.” I muttered with a grin. “I have had a lot of work trying to find another survivor. I will not let it go to waste.” Rythian said pointing a dagger at the metal construct. “AH! You think you can defeat me fool? I am construct model prisoner nº 5 codename: D34TH! I shall destroy you!” The construct boomed before punching the ground where Rythian and the other warriors were. When the dust settled they were all on top of D34TH’s arm. Yellow eyes glared at the warriors on its arm. “How will you kill me when you can’t land a punch?” Rythian taunted. Somehow he knew the construct had feelings, such as anger, and he also knows anger make people predictable. Quoting Rythian ‘The day you become predictable is the day you die.’ “Why is he taunting a robot?” Rainbow was confused. “I can sense the magic of a personality core. That means D34TH has feelings. He’s trying to make it angry.” I replied. “And why would he want to do that?” She asked. “Anger causes predictability.” I answered with a grin. “You know him, MaIik?” Twilight asked “Sort of. He made videos back in my home plane. If he survived, there might be others. But the thing is… he’s got this.” I said. We all turned back to the battle seeing Rythian and, the now identified, Deathcult Rogues dodging blow after blow from D34TH. “JUST DIE!” It called out in anger trying to crush its opponents with a devastating punch. The following shockwave almost knocked me off my feet. A rift was opened on the ground and it was headed towards Twilight. I quickly rushed over and caught her right before she fell. “Don’t worry I got you!” I said pulling her up. “Thanks for that.” She thanked me. “Not a problem. Just try to be careful from now on, Flynt isn’t someone you want to underestimate.” I said. “Well look over here. What is this?” I heard Rythian ask while standing on the back of D34Th’s head and opening a panel. That is where the processor and personality core is situated. By destroying them both, the robot would no longer be a threat. Rythian stuck his dagger in both and the metallic body fell limp to the ground. “Get owned son!” He let out a victorious laugh. He looked behind and saw a field of destroyed myrs, as well as the rogues disappearing into the shadows. “Hey! how’s it going?” He greeted. “Well thanks for taking care of this robot. But who are you?” Twilight asked. “Joakim Hellstrand. Call me Rythian. I came here searching for Malik, anyone seen him?” He said. I morphed into my human form again. “I’m Malik. I’m impressed that you actually survived. Did anyone else of the Yogscast make it out?” I asked. Rythian’s look fell and his voice saddened. “Unfortunately no. But now that we are together as survivors in this, we can possibly avenge Earth and stop Flynt from destroying any other plane.” He said. “That was my plan. But let me guess: Dimir?” I asked. “Is it that obvious?” He asked with a chuckle. “Very. But let me introduce you to my friends: You might already know Jace and Chandra, because let’s face it, the Dimir know everything. But anyway, these are Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and that’s Fluttershy cowering behind Rainbow.” I said introducing them all. “Well it’s nice to meet you all but I believe me and Malik need to have a little talk and we would very much appreciate if we could talk in private.” The others agreed and bid Rythian farewell. Soon it was just me and Rythian in the clearing. “So… recognized me and asked for the Yogscast, so I assume you’re a fan.” He said. “I was a big one, yes. You had some memorable moments in your videos, and I love how you did your Dishonored playthrough.” I said. “Thanks. As for that purple exoskeleton I got one question: Zerg?” He asked. “Pretty much. It appears that some events from videogames back on Earth are very ahead of their time. I was in the Korhal assault, for example.” I answered. “I helped Kerrigan and she gave me power in return. From the way we worked as a team I got the title King of Blades.” “I have actually been in Dunwall and partnered up with Corvo.” He said. “Do you have any information on any other survivors?” I asked. “Our next destination.” He said getting a piece of paper he was hiding in his clothes. “ Is called Runeterra.” “League of Legends… I used to play that game. Anything else?” I asked. “He goes by the name Dion Andersen. He is the only survivor besides us, at least that I know of.” He said. “PaperBatVG, also known as PBat. I used to be a fan of him too.” I said. “I just realized that Flynt takes the term sore loser to the extreme. I mean, we didn’t give Earth to him and he destroys it!” This resulted on a chuckle from Rythian. “We should go back now. I have an extra room over at the place I’ve been using as a home. You probably came across it, a large metal box.” I said. “I remember seeing it. Let’s go.” He said before we started walking away from the battlefield. “By the way, why are you on your Minecraft skin?” I asked out of curiosity. He laughed. “Oh this? I just think it looks cool.” He said. We both laughed as we were headed towards Ponyville. Meanwhile in Runeterra… A red-headed woman walked through the luxurious halls of the Institute of War. The daggers attached to her legs and waist jingled as she advanced. Rows of summoners watched her as she was looking for someone. “Hey Katarina, how you doin’?” She turned around and saw a black man in the standard purple robe with golden trims that summoners wore. “Dion, just the one I wanted to see! I have a message from Jayce. He knows you summon me often so he gave this to me.” She said handing over a letter. “Alright, see ya’ on the fields.” Dion waved Katarina goodbye. “Let’s see what we have here.” He muttered opening the letter. As he read line after line his eyes widened. As soon as he finished reading he started running. “You saw that right champs and champettes?” He asked to seemingly no one. All the summoners and champions however, knew better. Heimerdinger, a great inventor from Piltover had heard a rumor that Dion had a large fan base which he cherished a lot before his plane was destroyed. Feeling pity for the latest summoner he dedicated a lot of his time to create a lens that let him communicate with them. They would see what he saw and hear what he heard. Everything the champs and champettes said appeared as comments in the livestreams he was so used to recording. Loads of comments from excited champs and champettes filled the lens. Soon Dion reached Jayce’s workshop. “Hey Jayce. How’s it going?” Dion greeted. The defender of tomorrow turned to greet the summoner. “Ah Dion! You’re here, and I assume you know what for.” Jayce said. “Well if what you said in the letter you gave to Kat is true, there are more survivors. And you said you have found them.” Pbat said. “That’s quite true but I’m afraid only a planeswalker can go through. Once you get to the plane where they are, however, you can summon a champion of your choosing. All you need is to give whoever you choose this.” Jayce pulled a circular white device. “This allows a champion to traverse the Multiverse as long as there’s a planeswalker summoning he or she at the destination. By the way, the name of the plane you’re going to is Equestria.” Instantly the chat was filled with brony champs and champettes, excited at the idea of seeing Equestria. Jayce saw Dion’s eyes looking at all the comments. “And a friendly advice, try to keep your fans calm.” He said with a smirk. “Thanks Jayce. I will get Kat, me and her make a good team. Then… well I’ll see you when I’m done in Equestria.” Dion said. “Have a safe journey friend!” Jayce waved goodbye.
A party for the assassin.“Huh… Dion? I think it would’ve been a better idea if we spent a bit more time in preparations. We don’t know what is living in this place.” Katarina said. “Yeah I know. But what’s done is done, let’s keep moving.” Dion replied while navigating through the thick undergrowth that populated the ever ominous Everfree forest, identified quickly by him and the other brony champs/champettes. He had requested Heimer for a few changes in his afterlife lens before leaving, making it look like a scouter from Dragonball, which came with the function to measure his opponents’ power level, a little something he liked to joke about. His attire changed drastically, from the purple robes with gold trimmings of the summoners, to a casual grey hoodie and jeans. “Wait Dion… I hear something.” Katarina stopped him. “Yeah I hear it too. It sounds like there is… a party of sorts. Wait, a party?! That means we’re near Ponyville.” Dion said. “It amazes me how much you know of this place.” Kat said. “Remember when I said you were part of a video game back on Earth? Well this was a cartoon.” Dion said. “I dunno. It looks kinda childish.” Kat said. “Tell that to all my brony champs.” Dion muttered. “But what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Dion said breaking into a sprint. A few minutes earlier… Malik and Rythian were now walking through the streets of Ponyville, all eerily empty. “So let me get this right: You like being called Rythian better than Joakim?” Malik asked “Rythian sounds cooler. And I want to know what your real name is. Malik Arcanus is not a regular name that I know of.” Rythian said. “Fine, I’ll tell you. My name is Francisco Fonseca, but Malik sounds cooler and rolls off the tongue better. ” Malik said. “Francisco, huh? Isn’t that a Portuguese name?” Rythian asked. “Yup! Portuguese and proud of it!” Malik answered. “So where is this library place?” Rythian said changing subject. “It’s that big tree over there. Do you see it?” Malik asked, to which Rythian nodded. <…> Rythian entered the giant tree and found it pitch black, something he was quite comfortable with. His comfort, however, was short lived as the lights lit up in a blinding show and revealed several ponies and party decorations. “A party? You didn’t have to really.” Rythian said rubbing the back of his head. “Of course I had to. I throw one for everypony new!” Pinkie said coming out of the crowd. “Well thanks, I was never treated this way while I was Lazav’s student.” Rythian said with a smile. “Come on outside, I got everything ready.” Malik said leaning on the door frame. “What have you -” Rythian stopped talking as soon as he saw the stage with five myrs on it. “What is this?” Rythian asked. “A concert. We have Alpha on the guitar, Beta on bass guitar, Omega on drums, Delta for vocals, she has a female personality core by the by, and we have Phi on keyboard. I summon them to play a variety of songs but this combination I use for Nightwish.” Malik said. Rythian responded with a whistle. “Nice.” He said. “Are you ready?” Beta bellowed, met with sounds of agreement from the crowd. “I don’t know about you but, I wish I had an angel.” Delta said. <…> In the end of the song Twilight called Malik over. He complied and they entered the library’s basement. “Is everything alright?” He asked. “It’s just that. I want to thank you for saving my life earlier.” Twilight said. “You don’t have to thank me. You would’ve done the same for me.” Malik said. “Could you stop being so humble?! I’m being serious here.” Twilight said with annoyance. “But I’m telling the truth. I know that, one day, you’ll save my life, much like I saved yours.” Malik said resting his hand on her shoulder. “That’s how we work. Until the end.” “What?” Twilight said confused. “I’m sorry, but that line got stuck in my head ever since a friend of mine, Valkyrie Cain, told it to me.” Malik said with a sheepish grin. “Thank you anyway.” Twilight said wrapping her hooves around Malik’s neck, pulling him into a hug, catching him by surprise. He returned the hug right after he got over the initial shock. Twilight before ending the hug gave him a quick peck on the cheek, resulting in a slight blush by both. “Oh, and I almost forgot.” She levitated a pouch of coins to Malik. “The princess wants to make you a sort of defense force while you are in Equestria. It saves you the trouble of looking for a job.” Twilight said with a smile before both headed upstairs. <…> When they got outside, another song was ending. “Hey Malik! What were you doing inside?” Chandra asked. “Apparently we’re some sort of Equestrian defense force while we stay in this plane, that is if you accept the job.” Malik said. “Well, that’s some of the time tomorrow I got freed.” She muttered. She then hesitated as she continued talking. “Look I-I’m sorry for the way I reacted. Guess that fighting against the zerg during the time I spent on that plane scarred me a bit. But I realized that you’re still the Malik I befriended so… I’m sorry.” “Hey, it’s alright. Once you get to know Kerrigan you begin to understand that she is much more controlled now. But you haven’t met her, or you met her before she got rehumanized, so I don’t blame you.” Malik said. “Well, that’s good to hear.” Chandra said. Rythian approached both. “I think I heard that bush rustle. Be ready for anything.” Rythian whispered through his scarf. “I got this.” Malik said as a green light formed in his hand, he then turned towards the bush. “You know you’re not in the fields of justice, don’t you?” He asked as the green light shot out and impacted the bush, placing a sight ward there, making it reveal the people hidden in the bush. “So… how long have you been there PBat?” All heads turned towards the two in the bush. “You must be a champ then. And for you to be a champ that means you’re a survivor, which means my mission is complete. I’ve finally found the survivors.” Dion said standing up. “So, this is one of your fans Dion?” Kat asked standing up too. “You bet I am. I swear on the champs and champettes.” Malik said. “He’s telling the truth. No one swears on the champs and champettes if they’re lying.” Dion said, looking at Kat. “Yeah whatever. Malik can you just swap Delta? We need Gama and Sigma to play some Dragonforce.” Alpha said. “See you later I guess.” Delta said before vanishing in Malik’s gauntlet. Giving her place to Gama and a blue myr. “About frikin’ time! Let’s do this!” Sigma shouted. <…> “So let me get this right… You have spent the last two years in Valoran, working as a summoner?” Malik asked. “Yup. What have you been up to?” Dion asked back. “Let me see… I met Steve from Minecraft, befriended Jace, Chandra and Ral Zarek, battled against robots with the RED mercs, I helped on the assault against Korhal with Kerrigan, I’ve met Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, I’m in this world of ponies, tried to fight Phyrexia in Mirrodin, failing horribly… and I think that’s it.” Malik replied. “I really have seen very little of the Multiverse huh?” Dion asked. “I know absolutely nothing of what you said, but it seems interesting.” Kat said. “Oh and by the way, how’s Xerath?” Malik asked. “Still imprisoned.” Kat replied bluntly. “Right… Now I must have some foresight or something because I made the house big enough for six people. Don’t know why I thought it would be necessary, but whatever.” Malik said shrugging. “Wait you have a house here? How long have you been in this plane?” Dion asked confused. “He’s been here for three days. He summoned the block of metal he calls a house on the first day.” Rainbow said. “So you live on a metal cube?” Kat asked. “You been playing too much Minecraft.” Dion said, causing him, Rythian and Malik to laugh. “I can’t do much, trying to summon something that big can make a spell very unstable so I avoided complex shapes.” Malik said. “Well I found other survivors… what now?” Dion asked to no one in particular. “The guy that destroyed your plane is here. It is my opinion that you should find him, and kick his ass!” Chandra said in an encouraging tone. “So what do you say Dion? Wanna avenge our plane, while protecting another one?” Rythian asked. “Sounds dangerous… I’m in! For the champs and champettes, for these ponies who do not deserve annihilation, and for the Multiverse!” Dion exclaimed, making Kat sigh. “I’ll help you if Dion doesn’t make a fool out of himself, I can’t handle stupidity well.” She said. “Fair enough.” He replied. <…> A figure cloaked by shadows stood before an artifact of unfathomable power, the same he had used to literally explode a plane of existence. “It is almost finished… But I need more time, and those survivors will mess with my whole plan. I need to get them distracted. Hmm… what to do, what to do?” The figure mused. “Maybe I can take advantage of the growing ‘relationship’ between Francisco and the Element of magic. No it’s too soon for that, but eventually. On the other hand, I can just wreak some havoc as usual… Yes, that would do just fine.” The figures red eyes glimmered in evil glee as it cackled, it then turned towards a humanoid being made of paper, its blue eyes were staring at its master. “What is your wish master?” It asked. “Who would be best to unleash havoc? Kalistrat or a good old iron golem?” The figure in the shadows asked. “The mind controlled cursed dragon would bring more destruction, but the resilient iron golem would last longer, it’s your call master Flynt.” The paper being answered. “Very well. Kalistrat! Time for destruction!” Flynt said with a cheery tone. A dark green dragon, wielding two blades and with a breast plate made from the skull of a dragon stepped forward. Above his head was a small blue orb, signaling Flynt’s power over it. “As you wish, master.” It said slowly.
A moment of peace.“I can’t believe I let Dion drag me into this…” Katarina said as she got up. To say she didn’t get any sleep would be an understatement, as the whole night her mind was filled with memories of Valoran. “But to be fair, Dion is my friend and he needs all the help he can get.” She descended the stairs and found both Dion and Rythian. “Hey Kat. How you doin’?” Dion asked, munching on a toast. “Couldn’t get any sleep.” She groggily answered. “Don’t worry, first time I planeswalked, I was like that too. Ya’ know, memories of home, don’t let you sleep very well.” Rythian reassured, sipping on a cup of tea. “Hopefully I’ll get used to it before any big battle.” She said fetching some food. “By the way, where are the others?” She asked. “I think Malik is teaching Twilight about artifacts, Chandra said that she needed to burn something, so she is helping the town by clearing part of a forest, which will be used for a building. As for Jace, he’s deep in whatever book he is reading now at the library.” Rythian answered. “That reminds me, any thoughts on what we can do for the day?” Dion asked. “Well, from my point of view we could either explore the town or train. Your call.” Kat said. “It would be for the best if we explored town. Besides, the champs are all wanting to go to Ponyville.” Dion said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this last night, but I forgot. What’s my power level?” Rythian said with a smile. “It’s over nine thousand, but there’s no way I’m smashing this.” Dion replied. “Is this another inside joke for the survivors?” Katarina deadpanned. “Yup” both planeswalkers replied in unison. <…> “So we got the myr’s body setup, but for the actual machinery we’ll need to be more tactical. Now, which of these is more practical: a Mana, a Mizzium, Aether or a Blistercoil generator?” Malik asked. “The Mana generator would be pratical due to its power source being everywhere but an Aether generator would generate more power, with the sheer energy of, as you call it, the Blind Eternities. This could backfire, however, causing an overload and making the myr dissipate from existence.” Twilight said. “Very well done! You’re a very fast learner Twilight, for it is, indeed, the Mana generator which would be more practical.” Malik complimented. “Thanks…” Twilight said with a slight blush. “But I guess we’ve been here for a bit too long. What do you say to catching some fresh air?” Malik asked. “Sure, let’s go.” Twilight said, walking out of the basement. As Twilight left Malik was left with his thoughts. ‘Where are you Flynt? And what are you planning? Well, whatever you do I am not letting you hurt any of these ponies. No one should have to go through what I, Rythian and Dion went through.’ He thought. “Are you coming or not?” He heard Twilight ask from upstairs. “I’m going!” He replied, running up the stairs and closing the door behind him, plunging the basement in darkness. <…> “This was not supposed to happen…” Chandra said looking at the forest fire, she caused. “… But it’s still pretty awesome!” She completed earning glares from the nearby ponies. “You surprise me almost every day. Your need to burn things is stronger than I expected.” Jace said. “Don’t worry, I got this.” He told the ponies. With a wave of his hand a torrent of water appeared, materializing from the blue mana, and put out the fire. “You never let me have fun.” Chandra said, with an annoyed look on her face. “When we’re in battle, you can burn as many things as you want, but while we’re in this town you must control yourself, understood?” Jace asked. “Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, how have things been between you and Emmara?” She asked. “We’re doing fine. Speaking of, I should go back to Ravnica to check up on both her and the maze situation.” Jace said. “No attacks today it seems…” Chandra started. “…This is gonna be boring as hell.” “It’s good to have a little break from fighting. And I almost forgot why I came here in the first place. I figured out how to planeswalk from this plane.” Jace said. “That’s cool. But the question is… do we want to leave just yet?” Chandra asked. “What do you mean?” Jace replied. “We have a lot of friends here, and Malik is gonna need more than those survivors to defeat whatever they’re facing. I just wouldn’t feel right leaving a friend behind. Besides, I can’t just let whatever-his-name-is hurt Rainbow or Pinkie.” She answered. “Already developing great friendships I see.” Jace said with a smile. “But, returning to the topic, I agree with you. And I’m gonna stay, to help you all. Let’s just hope we’re strong enough.” “We’re gonna kick his ass, you’ll see Jace!” Chandra replied with excitement. “Now let’s hit the town, this clearing is getting boring.” She said walking away. <…> “Two new survivors… Can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that yet. They’re not going to be that much of a problem either way.” Flynt muttered as he turned towards the paper creature. “Pages, what is the current progress on the army?” He asked. “Army should be built and ready by tomorrow at exactly three hours, forty minutes and fifteen seconds PM. Kalistrat will be sent first, followed by the tanks, which are carrying the strikers and archers to the battlefield. The ‘iceberg’ myr will go right behind the tanks, along with the ‘inferno’ and ‘rift’ myrs, all equipped with their designated weapons.” Pages responded in an almost mechanical voice. “There’s an eighty percent chance we will come out victorious.” “I like those odds, but we can do better… Send out the Cleavers we picked up at the alternate Earth too.” Flynt said. “Acknowledged, sending command now.” Pages replied. Flynt stepped into the light his artifact created while charging, showing his grey robes and white hair. The small stone with arcane inscriptions sat in front of him, strands of all possible colors floating around. “Just a few more weeks…” He muttered. During his years he learned to be a very patient man, so a few weeks didn’t bother him, after all it takes a long time to charge a doomsday artifact. A man appeared behind Flynt, his face obscured by the black visor of his white helmet and his body covered by a long brown trench coat, attached to his back there was a scythe, slowly releasing a pink smoke. The man spoke not a word as Flynt gave him a command. “You and the other Cleavers are going to go on an assault to Ponyville tomorrow, understood?” The man simply nodded and walked away. “For how long do you plan on being in this cave master?” Pages asked. “Until it is the time to reveal ourselves.” Flynt replied. <…> “So… where to now?” Rythian asked. They had spent a lot of the day going around town, meeting ponies and helping them if they could. “A great majority of the champs is pretty much begging us to go to Sugarcube corner, the place where Pinkie Pie works. Guess they want to see either her or the building.” Dion said, looking over the comments on his afterlife lens. “She’s a baker, isn’t she? ‘Cos it’s past lunch time.” Rythian said. “If she’s even half as good at baking as Morg I think we’re gonna get along just fine. Let’s go!” Kat said walking towards the candy building. But she was stopped as she noticed the storm clouds above her. “Huh…?” “Sorry but we have a storm scheduled for today. You have about ten minutes to get to cover.” Rainbow said from the clouds. “Ah, ya’ fuckin’ wanka’!” Pbat muttered with a British accent, just like he used to in his streams. “Guess we’ll have to go back…” He said walking in the direction of the metal boxes, where he lived now, followed by Kat. “How long will the storm last?” Rythian asked. “All night. It’s to make up for the past few days without rain.” Rainbow replied. “Well that sucks. See you tomorrow I guess.” Rythian said as he jogged to catch up with Dion and Katarina. <…> Malik was returning to the library with Twilight. “Twilight?” He asked looking up. “What is it?” She asked. “Was there supposed to be a storm today?” He replied. “Oh my! I completely forgot! We have to get under a roof quickly!” She exclaimed grabbing Malik’s hand and dragging him to the library. <…> Meanwhile, the planeswalkers and Katarina were sitting in a room of the metal box. “You guys are asses, you know that?” Chandra asked, annoyed about the fact that Rythian and Dion were gathered around her flaming hair for warmth. “Yup. By the way has anyone seen Malik?” Dion asked. “I assume he’s in the library with Twilight.” Jace said, no taking his eyes away from the book he was reading. “Makes sense. They must’ve been having one of their classes when storm began.” Rythian said. “Are you really that oblivious?” Jace asked looking at the others. “What do you mean?” Kat replied, causing Jace to chuckle. “Have you not noticed how they reacted towards each other? Their body language as well as the way they speak when around each other? Malik can be very good at hiding his emotions when he wants to but I always catch those small details in his attitude. Ever since the ‘zerg incident’ he has been developing feelings at an astonishing pace for Twilight, as she was the only one, me excluded, that was beside him.” “So that means…” Chandra started. “I’m not over yet.” Jace interrupted. “The same applies with Twilight. Since the moment Malik saved her life during the battle, in which Rythian appeared, she also began to have feelings for him. Basically, this is perfect for them. I suspect that, right now, they’re having some sort of conversation and that, by the end of this day, they will start dating.” He said with a smug smile. <…> “So where’s Spike?” Malik asked as he and Twilight walked into the library. “He mentioned something about digging up gems with Rarity so he’s probably at the boutique.” Twilight answered. “Wanna go downstairs and finish the myr?” “Sure, let’s go.” Malik started descending the stairs, followed by Twilight. As soon as they reached the basement Twilight hopped onto the work table. Malik then started teaching her on how to build myrs but, for what possibly was the first time on her life, she didn’t care. She was distracted, her mind focused on Malik. Her reverie was broken as Malik spoke. “Are you alright? You seem distracted.” He said. “Oh it’s nothing really.” Twilight replied. Malik stared straight in her eyes. “I can tell that you’re lying, just tell me what’s wrong Twilight. I may be able to help you.” He said. Without a moment to prepare she lunged forward, causing their lips to connect. After a few seconds into the kiss Twilight backed away. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know what got over me! I just-” Twilight was stopped as Malik put a finger over her mouth. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Malik asked. “I don’t’ really know. Fear of rejection I guess…” Twilight slowly said with a saddened look. “Well that’s funny because… The very same thing happened to me. I was afraid that you would turn me down, and I would be left broken hearted. So many things happened to me that I grew kinda scared of getting hurt again. I lost my friends, my family and even my world. I didn’t want to risk our friendship.” Malik said, almost in tears. He was caught by surprise as he felt a pair of hooves wrapping around him in a tight embrace. “It’s alright now.” Twilight said as Malik hugged her back. A few seconds later they backed away. “I have a spare bed you can use if you want to.” She said with a warm smile. “Thank you Twilight.” Malik replied.
In the heat of the battle.It was late into the night and Malik paced nervously around Twilight’s basement. He was deep in thought as he walked to each side of the room. He finally stopped and sighed. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this because of a pony I’ve met four days ago! But… there’s something special about her. She’s everything I ever wanted from a girl back on Earth, she’s the girl of my dreams. Oh for God’s sake I don’t even know her that well!” He said in frustration. “Maybe there is a future for us. Maybe… she’s worth it. I know enough to cast this spell but I can’t reverse it. I’ll give it a shot and if it doesn’t work… well I can ask Jace for help, hopefully he’ll understand.” Malik said as the gem on his gauntlet began to glow. <…> In the morning Twilight woke up to a smell she enjoyed very much. “Pancakes… He really didn’t have to.” She muttered with a smile as she got out of bed. As she reached the kitchen of her house she expected to see Malik, but instead only saw an unicorn. A grey stallion with short brown mane and green eyes, his cutie mark were two gears clashing, completed by a spark in the place where they connected. “Who are you?” She asked taking a defensive stance. “Calm down Twilight, it’s me, Malik!” The stallion said. “Prove it!” Twilight glared at the intruder, who showed a gauntlet with a grey gem, adapted to fit a hoof. “This is my gauntlet, one of a kind and made by me. If this doesn’t prove I’m Malik then I don’t know what will.” He said. “W-What happened to you?” Twilight asked in disbelief as she saw the gauntlet. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Jace’s library. I’ve learned a lot of spells, including shapeshifting. I couldn’t handle the interspecies barrier between us. I turned into a pony because of you. And to be honest… you’re worth it.” Malik said as he approached Twilight. “You did this… for me?” Twilight asked, again in disbelief and on the edge of tears. “Is everything alright Twilight?” Malik asked back. He was caught by surprise as a pair of hooves wrapped around his neck and pulled him in a tight embrace. “You didn’t have to do this, but yet you did. Why?” She slowly asked. “I only know you for four days, it doesn’t matter though. Because, either way, I would do anything for you.” He answered returning the hug. After a few seconds Twilight backed away and looked into his eyes just before both leaning in for a kiss. The kiss lasted for a few seconds before they both backed away. They stood in silence until Malik spoke. “Well… I’ve done breakfast and if we don’t eat soon it’ll get cold.” He said, pointing with his head to two plates with pancakes. “Well, let’s see how well you cook.” Twilight said with a giggle before heading towards the table. <…> In the previous night… Rythian found himself in the middle of a floating piece of Ponyville. “This place… Why am I in the void?” He asked himself. “Life is an interesting thing, isn’t it? Your world is destroyed but it opens a door to an infinity of them. And now, here you are, on a world populated by ponies on a quest to avenge your world with the survivors by your side. Tell me Rythian, in your wildest dreams, have you ever thought of this?” The voice of The Outsider was something familiar to Rythian and so was his appearance. “You know the answer is no. Is there anything you need from me Outsider, or will you keep stalling?” Rythian asked. “Straight to the point are we? Very well, I ask of you to give me a show. There will be a large onslaught against Ponyville tomorrow. All I ask is for you to entertain me. After all, you were very good back in Dunwall.” The Outsider said. “That’s it? All you want me to do is to put up a show? I’ll warn the others and consider it done.” Rythian replied. “I see you have still got my gift. I expect you to make the most of it. The truth is, you impress me more than Corvo and I have very high expectations. Try not to disappoint me.” The Outsider said before disappearing. <…> In the morning… Rythian sat down on a chair with the other humans in front of him. “I have information that there will be a great onslaught against Ponyville soon. It is of the greatest importance that we start setting up our defenses!” He told them. “Why should we trust in this piece of information you were given?” Jace asked. “Because it was The Outsider who warned me.” Rythian answered. “The Outsider?” Katarina asked. “The Outsider is a being of untold power. He can control everything, everywhere and at any time. He is much more powerful than we can ever hope to achieve, even more powerful than the elder dragon Nicol Bolas.” Rythian showed a strange mark on the back of his hand. “This is the mark of The Outsider. It has helped me greatly before and it serves to prove that He finds me interesting. He will give me certain information for as long as I can ‘entertain’ him, through my prowess in battle.” “Seems legit. I’m in!” Dion exclaimed. “I guess all information is useful.” Jace pondered. “As long as I get to burn stuff, you can count on me!” Chandra said. “Well, I got into this mess with Dion, so I’m gonna help him.” Kat sighed. “Very well. We need to get to the library and warn Malik.” Rythian said as he walked towards the door. <…> Malik and Twilight had just finished breakfast when there was a knock on the door. “I got it.” Malik said as he opened the door, revealing the planeswalkers and champion. “I don’t know who you are, but we’re looking for Malik. He there?” Chandra asked. “That’s me.” Malik answered showing the gauntlet. This resulted in a variety of expressions. Confusion from Kat, disbelief from Dion, surprise from Jace, shock from Ryhtian, as for Chandra… It was outright laughter. “Hey Malik, why the long face?” She continued her laughing fit. “Do you mind?” Malik asked. Chandra’s laughter was slowly dying down until it was gone. “I’m sorry but that’s too damn funny!” She answered. “Malik… when did you learn shape shifting magic?” Jace asked. “And why are you a pony?” “For the first question, I answer with another one: How many times have I been in your library? As for the second one, I did it for Twilight.” Malik said. “This is not the right time! Flynt’s troops will attack soon and how do you expect to fight as a pony?” Rythian asked. “Calm down Rythian! Look, Malik I can do something that will come in useful. I can turn you back into a human when the moment requires it, but you can be a pony through the remainder of the time. What do you think?” Jace said. “I guess you already know that I still haven’t learned how to turn back into a human. I’ll take the deal.” Malik said with a smile. So, now that you are a wittle horsy, you should have a wittle horsy name. How about Fluffy Hooves, no wait, Moon Pie, or, or even Mr. Cuddly Poof. Nah, that doesn't sound good either. How about… ‘Spark Light’?" Chandra rolled on the ground from all the laughing. “Anyway, what do you need me to do?” Malik asked. “Wards. They’ll be useful so we have something to fall back on.” Rythian explained. “How will wards help us?” Dion asked. “You do know that there are more than just Sight and Vision wards, right?” Kat asked, making Dion blush with embarrassment. “You heard nothing champs and champettes!” He scolded them. A bunch of comments appeared immediately, making Dion smile. “So what do you want? I can make unsummoning, incineration, lava pools, aetherizer, you name it.” Malik said. “We need unsummoning and incineration wards the most. We can have some aetherizer too and maybe some of those Tesla wards you invented.” Jace said. “I’ll get to work right now! See you on the battlefield.” Malik said closing the door. “Is everything alright?” Twilight asked as Malik opened the door to the basement. He turned around and walked towards Twilight. “There will be a large assault on Ponyville today according to Ryhtian. Listen to me closely. I don’t want you to follow me, you almost died in the previous battle. Just stay here in the library during the attack. I, the planeswalkers and Kat have got this, alright?” He said. “You know I can’t stay here and let you fight! What if something happens to you?” Twilight replied. “Promise me Twilight… Promise me that you won’t go to battle. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt and I could’ve stopped it.” Malik slowly said. “Is there any other way I can help you?” Twilight asked. Malik pondered for a moment. “Well… You can help me make wards.” He said pointing at the basement. Twilight approached him and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Very well then. Shall we?” She said descending the stairs. <…> “You did a good job with these Malik.” Jace said, examining the wards. “Did you doubt my skills?” Malik asked with a smirk. “When you’re a pony, yes. And speaking of such I should transform you back shouldn’t I?” Jace asked before casting a shapeshifting spell. With a blue flash Malik was back to human. “Alright let’s do this!” Malik said summoning his elite team and a sword for him. “Another battle already? Fine then, bring it!” Alpha exclaimed. “Not yet Alpha, but they’re approaching.” Malik said, before Chandra, Katarina and Dion appeared. “The wards are set, we’re ready!” Chandra said. Rythian suddenly blinked into view. “They are almost here. There are three carrier tanks, three elemental myrs of fire, ice and rock. There are also mysterious men in helmets carrying scythes. They are all led by a dragon, which is being mentally manipulated by Flynt.” He said. “Good job. Get ready everyone! Dion, you have no weapon so have this.” Malik summoned a revolver with the word ‘Reaper’ written on the barrel. “I made it myself. It’s fueled by magic so you can fire any type of projectiles you know how to make from there, and it gets rid of the need to reload.” “Thanks a lot Malik, I needed a weapon of sorts. But now let’s do this!” Dion exclaimed as the dragon appeared, leading Flynt’s troops. “Is that… Kalistrat?” Katarina asked. “What is he doing here?” Dion asked. “He was supposed to be back on Valoran.” “You know this dragon?” Rythian asked. “He’s a champion from the League of Legends. Jace, try to get rid of whatever Flynt is doing to Kalistrat. Me and Kat will take out the guys in the helmets, Rythian and Chandra, you deal with the Elemental myrs. As for Malik and the myrs, you deal with whatever is on those carrier tanks.” Dion commanded. “Got it!” All said as they prepared to take down their respective targets. Youtube Video Rythian & Chandra vs. Elemental Myrs Rythian charged on against the giant rock myr. The elemental myr reached for its back and took out a hammer of stone, swinging it against the ground. Before it hit, however, Rythian blinked out of the way. To Rythian and Chandra’s surprise, the massive hammer opened a rift on the ground, which closed when the hammer was lifted again. Then the ice behemoth attacked, forming an ice spear from the moisture in the atmosphere. The air around the spear was freezing cold making the water around it almost freeze. The myr swiped and jabbed with the spear, but to no avail as Chandra and Rythian dodged all its attacks. Rythian noticed an open spot during the myr’s assault on Chandra. Blinking up to its shoulder, Rythian drew his dagger and struck the construct as hard as possible, resulting on no reaction from the myr. Rythian attacked over and over, before he was hit by a flame beam from the fire myr. Rythian got up with difficulty as searing pain ran across his body. The rock myr was about to strike before Chandra quickly picked Rythian up and got him to relative safety. “Are you okay?” She asked. “I can still fight! But my attacks seem to do nothing.” Rythian replied, getting to his feet. “Then I’ll just melt them to the ground!” Chandra bellowed as she let out an Inferno of flames, hitting the three myrs, The rock and fire ones barely winced, but the ice one let out a high-pitched screech of pain as its arm melted into water. “Why can’t they be made of glass? Wouldn’t it be easier if they just shattered with a punch?” “Shatter… That’s it! Chandra you’re a genius!” Rythian exclaimed. “Wut did I do?” She asked. “I used this in Dunwall to break down doors, but with enough mana I can get rid of the rock one!” Rythian explained. “Well what are you waiting for? Go! I’ll take care of the ice one!” Chandra said, summoning and jumping on top of a phoenix. Rythian nodded and began running, dodging the fire blasts of the fire myr and blinking away from the rifts made by the rock myr. It struck once again with its mighty hammer, smashing the ground. Rythian, this time, was close enough and jumped on top of the hammer. The myr tried to shake him off as Rythian ascended, aiming for its head. The mark on the back of Rythian’s left hand was glowing brightly as he set it on the myr’s head. A second after, Rythian released the energy he had stored, causing the rocks that made up the myrs body to instantly shatter, destroying it. He looked to his side to see Chandra send the Phoenix on a dive bomb against the ice myr. “Hey jackass! Time for you to meet your fiery doom!” She jumped away as the phoenix hit the myr, resulting in a massive explosion, and instantly melting the myr. “Hells yeah!” “Now for this guy.” Rythian said as the mark started glowing again. The myr, not willing to be destroyed yet, released a giant burst of flames from his flamethrowers. Rythian, however jumped to the side and dodged it. The mark stopped glowing as, with a thrust of his arm, Rythian threw a mass of wind against the myr, putting out its flames and crushing it from the sheer strength of the wind. “And that’s that!” Chandra said with a grin. Dion & Katarina vs. The Cleavers Dion quickly closed in on one of the clevers, kicking him in the gut. The cleaver stumbled back a bit before receiving a fireball in the chest from Reaper, killing him. Five other cleavers advanced and drew their scythes. Katarina, then appeared behind one of the cleavers slitting his throat and throwing a dagger that bounced between the other four of them. “This is frikin’ easy! Those wards took out so many of them! The lightning ones did some work too!” Dion exclaimed, firing an icicle from Reaper, impaling a cleaver. “You’re right. This is too easy…” Kat said throwing a blade, hitting a cleaver on the chest. She turned around and saw a scythe going in her direction. “Look out!” She said ducking and dragging Dion down as the scythe passed over them. A second later the scythe appeared again, going back to its owner. In front of Dion and Kat stood eight cleavers, clad in white. “What’s with the uniform change?” Dion asked. “They must be stronger versions of the others.” Kat concluded. “Well, let’s see how they like a lightning bolt to the face!” Dion fired Reaper at the white cleavers, who didn’t as much as wince at the impact. “What?! Did they really not even react?!” Dion asked in shock. “Maybe they’re immune to magic…” Kat pondered. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice Dion picking up a scythe from a fallen cleaver and starting to spin it. “Well… then I guess we have to get close and personal!” Dion exclaimed. “Let’s do this Kat!” He said as he charged against one of the white cleaver and engaging in combat. Kat followed and began attacking the white cleavers too. Slashes were traded between scythes and blades as Kat and Dion fought valiantly. Attacks were parried and countered, as both sides tried to gain the upper hand. Finally, Dion spotted an opening on one of the white cleavers and swung downwards as hard as he could. His scythe pierced the helmet and killed his opponent. A white cleaver closed in from behind, but he did not notice Katarina in time, as a blade went through his heart. “Thanks, Kat.” Dion said as they were both back to back. “No problem. What do you think about finishing this?” She asked. “Let’s do this!” They both started spinning around, Katarina was throwing blades to everyone who got close to them while Dion slashed everyone in range with his scythe. When they were done there were only the bodies of the cleavers left. “And remember kids, spin to win!” Kat joked as she looked at the afterlife lens, resulting on a laugh from Dion. Malik & Myrs vs. Carrier Tanks The tanks opened revealing an army of dark myrs, some with swords, and some with bows. The bow myrs drew back the strings and immediately fired a volley of arrows, which rained down on Malik and the myr elite. Malik easily blocked this attack by summoning a shield, which absorbed all damage. “Alright guys, let’s do this!” Malik shouted. Alpha was the first to charge, his incredible speed getting him to the frontlines rather easily. Alpha rushed through the sword myrs taking out as many as he could on his way to the archers. As he got to the bow wielding myrs he started slashing as many as he could, taking down a quarter of them before Gama got there. Gama and Alpha worked brilliantly together, for with the striker going at blinding speeds across the battlefield, no one noticed the sneaky assassin. Taking out a target at time, Gama did a number on their troops him and Alpha taking care of half of the archers while Beta was swinging his massive axe and taking out the sword-wielders. Malik, watched as his myrs did some work, taking out many of his opponents. Suddenly, he started running against the army, with a mighty jump he got into the fray. Malik unleashed hell on the myrs unlucky enough to cross him, slashing everything on his way in half. He got surrounded but quickly dispatched his assailants by summoning spikes from the ground to impale them. His sword turned into grey light, absorbed by his gauntlet. He enveloped himself in grey light. When the light dissipated Malik was in a full set of iron armor, his hands, replaced by wide and sharp jousting lances. “Come at me!” He taunted. He rushed forwards and thrust the lances forwards, taking out one myr with each. He had found a new strategy. “Wipe them out!” He ordered his myrs. “Sir, yes sir!” They all responded. Epsilon jumped over one of his enemies with several arrows in hand. He prepared his bow and unleashed a volley of arrows upon his enemies. When a sword-wielder got close to him, he jammed a beeping arrow on its head and kicked it backwards, taking out a squad of them with the explosion of the arrow. He looked upward and saw Omega pass overhead. Omega touched the ground and placed his laser generators in a circle, facing outwards. With a swift motion, the lasers fired and started moving making a circular, field of death around Omega. Omega himself took upon his hands to shoot all the heads he could, he was a very good sharpshooter after all. “Everyone but Gama, retreat!” Malik suddenly said. “Why? Don’t you see we’re winning?” Alpha asked, through the frenzy of battle. “Yes, but Gama has absorbed enough sunlight!” Malik responded. With that only Gama and the opposing myrs were left on the battle field. “Initiate process! Solar blades!” Gama shouted as his elbow blades caught on fire. Going faster than even Alpha, he destroyed every single enemy myr, his flaming blades cutting through them with ease. “Good job myrs, you truly are my elite!” Malik exclaimed. “You did well too Malik! We completely owned them!” Alpha replied. Jace vs. Kalistrat Jace was nervous as he met face to face with the dragon. “You’re so cold blooded… let me fix that for you!” Kalistrat bellowed with a grin as chains of fire surrounded his blades and arms. ‘Where have I seen that before?’ Jace thought as he summoned a phantasmal bear to hopefully damage, even if slightly, the dragon. Kalistrat, however dispatched it easily by throwing his blades. “Your illusions will not save you, mage!” Kalistrat bellowed before jumping high in the air, blades at the ready. Jace stood motionless until Kalistrat was within attacking range. The dragon sent a blade forwards, bound by the flame chains. Jace smirked as a sudden gust of wind caught Kalistrat off guard, and looked over at the wind elemental he just summoned. “Wind is able to put out fire isn’t it?” Jace asked with a smug grin. The wind elemental, blew a mighty gale of wind against Kalistrat, putting down the flame chains. The dragon growled angrily. “Prepare to die!” Kalistrat charged against the mind mage. Suddenly, instead of striking in front of him, Kalistrat attacked to his right with the hilt of one of his swords, revealing an invisible Jace and making him stumble backwards. The Jace standing in front of Kalistrat faded into nothingness. “You really thought I would fall for that?” Kalistrat taunted. “Not really. But I expect you to fall for this!” Jace said as a mist began forming behind Kalistrat. The mist lifted him up and smashed him hard against the ground. The mist formed into the shape of an angel, pinning Kalistrat down with punches. Kalistrat decided he had enough. The heat around his body began to rise and, in a matter of seconds, he burst into flames, destroying the ‘angel’. “You’ll pay for that!” Kalistrat surrounded his blades with flames again and threw them to the ground in front of Jace, pulling himself towards the mage. Jace jumped backwards but was still hit by the waves of searing heat coming from Kalistrat’s body. ‘I won’t last long like this… Guess I gotta use that.’ Jace thought while in mid-air. Upon landing he bellowed one single word. That word, however, was enough to strike fear on Kalistrat. “Enough!” A shockwave caused Kalistrat to trip. Blue mana was circling around Jace, gales were wildly blasting around the battlefield and Jace’s cloak flapped out of control in the wind. Jace’s eyes glowed with the intensity of the sun as chains of blue mana wrapped themselves around Kalistrat. Jace rushed the dragon and set his hand on Kalistrat’s forehead. “I don’t know what kind of power Flynt has to control such a strong-willed being, but IT. ENDS. NOW!” With that the blue sphere floating above Kalistrat’s head disappeared and the dragon fell unconscious to the ground. Jace was gasping for air as he looked around, seeing all their enemies dead or destroyed. “It’s done…” He then looked at Kalistrat. “We need to find Flynt and finish this!”
So it begins...Nervously running a pale hand through her fiery hair, the woman eyed the other planeswalker. "Malik, where is this guy?" She asked tapping her fingers on the table impatiently. “I have no idea, Chandra. It still confuses me, however, why you’re here. Usually you’d be burning something somewhere in the Multiverse.” Malik said with a chuckle. His green eyes locked with Chandra’s orange ones. “Well you see… We were kind of enemies but in a trip to Innistrad he saved me from becoming werewolf food, so I started reconsidering my thoughts about him. The second time we were in Zendikar, or what’s left of it since the Eldrazi, I thanked him for saving me in Innistrad and we worked together trying to find out more about those… things, we managed to close the eye of Urgin to stop the flow of Eldrazi. It kinda helped and the plane is slowly recovering. Eventually we started hanging out together and came to friendly terms. I don’t want to burn the place my friend calls home.” Chandra explained still nervous from Jace’s absence. “Woah… that is pretty cool! It was you and Jace who closed the eye! That’s awesome!” Malik said with excitement. ‘She is way too nervous. Maybe she has a crush on Jace. Nah, that’s just stupid, they will not end up together. But what if they do?’ He thought. But soon Malik was broken out of his reverie by a new voice. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.” Jace appeared and set his cloak on a chair. “Well at least you’re here. Next time be faster.” Chandra deadpanned “I’m sorry but I received the letter just now and I came here as fast as possible. I promise.” Jace said in self-defense. “Doesn’t matter. I think we’ve been waiting long enough so stop stalling.” Chandra said, partially glaring at Jace. “So… changing subject. How are you doing Jace? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.” Malik said trying to drift the conversation to a more pleasant theme. “I’ve been doing quite well here in Ravnica. Things have calmed down a bit since the race through the Intricate Maze started but the battles between guilds are still happening. What about you? How are you doing in your quest to be a master artificer?” Jace said chuckling at the end. “I’ve been making quite a lot of progress. My latest invention is an unsummoning/mana draining gauntlet. I can use it to gain direct access to any plane’s mana reserve, it also lets me unsummon creatures and receive the mana back from them. Kinda like a refund!” He said enthusiastically as he showed them a leather gauntlet with a grey gem on the back. “Come back when you manage to build something that ignites water. Then you’ll be as awesome as me.” Chandra said in her usual cocky tone. “Show some respect Chandra! He is our friend and this is a very important revolution in hextech.” Jace said annoyed at his friend (Hextech: the art of combining technology with magic). “Thanks Jace! But really, it’s not THAT big of a deal. Anyone could’ve done it.” Malik said with a slight blush because of the compliment. “Of course it is a big deal! Being able to get a mana refund on creature is gonna be huge, just you wait!” Jace said. Suddenly a loud roar was heard in the distance followed by the ground starting to shake a few seconds later. Then without warning a rock landed beside them. “I am officially startled.” Malik said, still shocked by the near death situation. “Oh that’s it! Ain’t no one gonna throw no rock at me!” Chandra said, her hands surrounded by searing flames. “Seems like the Gruul are attacking! Malik you should begin summoning your myrs.” Jace said putting on his blue cloak with white markings and preparing the spell bombs that rested on his chest just in case. “On it!” Malik replied. He held his gauntlet in front of him and the gem started glowing with a grey light. The light morphed itself into several constructs. The sleek metallic creatures with lights of several different hues streaking across their bodies slowly stood up awaiting orders from their master. “Alright myrs we have a Gruul attack on our hands so fight with everything you’ve got!” Malik ordered the constructs with an ant-based body, which nodded and prepared the talons on their hands, ready to attack. “Charge!” With that word from their master, the small army rushed the oncoming assailants “Don’t you dare show your face around here again!” Chandra yelled out as she let out a fire burst causing a Gruul Minotaur to ignite. She let out a victorious laugh as a phoenix she summoned flew by, taking out a few goblins. While this was happening Jace was doing some work turning some of the assailants against their guild mates, erasing their memories and driving them to insanity with his mind magic. He was so concentrated that he didn’t notice a viashino (think of a sentient lizard) warrior showing up behind him. As it was about to strike a golden myr with blue lights, a skeletal figure, sharp talons and beak (Alpha myr) appeared taking the lizard out with its sharp talons. It let out an high-pitched metallic screech, acting as a war cry. Malik showed up on the shoulder of a black myr whose size could rival the height of the Gruul giants. This mechanical powerhouse with a bulky figure and red lights in several parts of its body (myr Superion) began fighting a Cyclops in a surprisingly gracious battle. Blows were exchanged as each one tried to take the other one out. The Cyclops swung his fist at the Superion and the myr barely dodged. This left the Gruul fighter open for a finishing blow. The myr Superion kicked him in the gut and immediately after punched him in the face knocking him out cold. Malik jumped off his unconventional transportation method and summoned a sword to aid him in this battle, the silvery blade reflected the sunlight as he descended into battle. Malik swung his sword in a wide arc, hitting a goblin in the process. Omega myr was by his side. The silver, and slightly bulkier than alpha, myr sent off several beams of blue energy leaving deep gashes on some troops. Omega didn’t like fighting and only did so to defend himself and others, much unlike alpha, which would jump in excitement at the chance to fight. Chandra, however, got a little too excited and was starting to run low on mana. “Iron, Palladium! Mind giving me some mana?” She shouted at the two myrs. They quickly rushed forward, towards her location. They kneeled down and allowed Chandra to gain access to the mana inside of them. “Thanks a lot! You guys are lifesavers!” Chandra said to the, now inactive, myrs. “We won’t last much longer! We need to planeswalk away from here!” Jace said in a hurry, still trying the best he could to take out as many of the attackers as possible. “As much as I hate to admit it you’re right! But how do you expect to have enough time to focus with these guys?” Chandra asked blowing up a goblin to smithereens. “It’s easy! We ‘blink’!” Malik said with a grin slashing a viashino warrior. “Do you have any idea how dangerous ‘blinking’ is? We won’t have control over where we will end up!” Jace said, not believing what Malik just said. “Well I don’t hear a better idea coming from you!” Chandra said quite annoyed at the trade of words between Jace and Malik. “Fine! Let’s do it on three! One…” Jace said focusing a bit of mana on his spark, the other planeswalkers following suit. “Two…” Chandra added, the mana quantity being directed to their spark increasing. “THREE!” Malik shouted as they drifted away from that plane headed towards wherever their sparks would take them. They appeared with a faint shimmer on a lush green hill. The hill overlooked a small town not too far away from where they appeared. Malik was the first to realize that his plan actually worked. “We did it! We’re not dead!” He said in triumph. “We got lucky. It’s not very common to survive ‘blinking’.” Jace said. “Screw the odds! I’ve never felt so alive! It feels awesome!” Chandra said before looking around. “Waut a second... WHERE THE HELL ARE WE? AND WHY IS IT NIGHT TIME?” She asked analyzing her surroundings, something she rarely did. But she was only met by the other two planeswalkers giving expressions as confused as hers. This was a new plane for all of them. “Well… there is a town there. I can probably send a Shimmer myr to scout ahead and try to figure out something about this place. What do you think?” Malik asked. “The Shimmer myr’s capability to teleport short distances should help him get away from danger and avoid detection. I think that’s a great idea! I’ll find something that we can eat. Chandra get started on a fire pit.” Jace said assigning tasks to his companions. Malik summoned a blob of quicksilver (think silver but more liquid) that took shape into a silver myr with blue lights. Malik gave it his orders and the myr nodded quickly teleporting away. “Done.” Chandra said with a smirk as she stood over a fire pit she lit up using her magic. Jace simply ignored her as he went into a nearby forest to search for food. Meanwhile Malik summoned three myrs to defend him and Chandra, Alpha, Omega and Gama, a design of his own, the light black metal of the Gama myr made him capable of easily blending in with the darkness of night and the two silver blades attached to his elbows allowed for quick attacks making him one of the fastest warriors of Malik’s arsenal, along with Alpha. “I really hope that this plane isn’t like Innistrad.” Chandra said sitting on a log by her fire pit. “That makes two of us. That place gives me the creeps, just like that forest over there.” Malik pointed to an especially ominous looking forest not too far away from them. The forest itself was covered in shadows, the trees were tall and the plants were entangled in an eternal struggle for sunlight. It felt out of place in this plane, something that wasn’t supposed to be there, something… evil. Just then the Shimmer myr appeared, its lights were now red. “ Boss… there was a problem. I screwed up and got detected by small and colorful equine creatures when I miscalculated my teleportation range and I’m pretty sure I got followed. Sorry boss.” Shimmer said “Stuff like that happens, don’t worry I summoned a defense squad in case we need it. Is there anything else you can tell me about these creatures?” Malik replied trying to figure out more of what was happening. The gem on his gauntlet let out a faint glow as it reacted to a very powerful magical source nearby. He looked behind Shimmer. ‘If I recall correctly these beings are called ponies. But what are they doing here?.’ He thought. One of them was a lavender unicorn with a purple mane, the mane itself had a magenta line streaking through it. Right beside it was a blue pegasus with a strange mane with the colors of the rainbow. On the other side was an orange pony, neither wings nor horn. It had a blonde mane, and it also wore a hat. Another one was also a pegasus, its coat was a dull yellow and it had a pink mane. The last one that was visible was also an unicorn, a white one at that, with a purple mane. “Hey guys! I’ve found some plants we can eat but-” Jace said as he came out of the forest, just to stop on his tracks as soon as he saw the ponies. "Uhm... hi?" The purple unicorn squeaked out, violet eyes flashing between them as a nervous smile adorned her face. Malik could tell Alpha and Gama were getting ready to attack, if they had to, with Omega there for backup. ‘The artificer/artifact bonding spell works here… this will be useful.’ He thought. ‘Prepare to attack at any movement you consider hostile.’ Malik ordered them telepathically. “Hey… how’s it going?” Chandra reluctantly asked, not lowering her guard. “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie! Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from?” The planeswalkers jumped back and looked over at the newcomer, which had appeared behind them, with surprise on their faces. The pink pony who spoke at a thousand miles per hour stood there with a big smile on her face. The myrs, also surprised, considered the pony with pink poofy mane a threat and quickly advanced. Alpha and Gama jumped from the brush they were on, the moonlight reflecting off the golden and black metal shells respectively, while the silvery Omega myr charged a beam of energy from a nearby brush. “Stop!” Was the command Malik shouted to stop the myrs actions, Alpha stopped with a talon an inch away from the pony’s neck. The golden, skeletal myr looked over at his master and kneeled down, the same applied to Gama and Omega, which was out of the brush by now. “Alright I’ve had it! I want some answers NOW! I’m not willing to put up with this!” Chandra angrily said igniting her fists. “Chandra calm down! They are not hostile! If we have a chance for peace let us take it!” Jace said trying to calm down the raging pyromancer. “And how do YOU know that? Oh right, you’re a mind mage.” Chandra said calming down a little. “But I still want answers.” She continued glaring at the ponies. “I do too Chandra. Now… would you kindly tell us who you are?” Malik asked. “R-Right! I am Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia.” The purple unicorn said snapping out of the shock she received from Chandra’s outburst. “Name’s Rainbow Dash. Best flier in Equestria!” The pegasus with Rainbow mane continued. “Your parents were very creative.” Chandra muttered, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm. “Howdy. Ah’m Applejack, owner of Sweet Apple Acres.” The orange pony said. “I’m Rarity, fashionista. Charmed.” The white unicorn said. “What about the scared one right there?” Jace asked. “That’s Fluttershy, and her name fits her perfectly.” Rainbow Dash said. “And we already know the pink one is Pinkie Pie. So… moving on. I am Malik Arcanus, an artificer. These guys over here are myr model Alpha, Gama, Shimmer and Omega. They are constructs but they have a personality, critical thinking and feelings so they aren’t the usual machine you might be used to. Believe me you don’t want to get on these guys’ bad side. Nice to meet you all by the way.” Malik said, introducing himself and the myrs. “My name is Jace Beleren, also known as the mind sculptor, the architect of thought and the memory adept. A pleasure to meet you.” Jace said. “I’m Chandra Nalaar, firebrand. How’s it going?” She introduced herself. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions but is there anywhere else where we can discuss this? Because, let’s face it, that forest ominous as hell.” Malik said pointing at said forest. “Huh… maybe we could go to the library…” Twilight said. “And bring those things to Ponyville?! I don’t think so!” Rainbow interrupted. “First off: Do you have no creativity? And second: If we wanted to hurt you Malik over there wouldn’t have stopped Alpha and Gama.” Chandra said annoyed at the pegasus’ suspicions. “She does make a point. Alright, you can come with us.” Twilight said beckoning to the planeswalkers and myrs. “Jace… we’re going to a library on an unknown plane. Best. Day. Ever!” Malik whispered to the architect of thought. “Thirsty for knowledge as always, Let’s see what we can learn of this plane. Who knows, maybe we will get a break from the Multiverse.” Jace replied with a smile. “Yeah it can be stressful to be a planeswalker. Well… we just have to move on with our lives. Come on, we have to catch up to them!” Malik said as he ran towards the others followed closely by Jace. ‘Right you are Malik… right you are.’ He thought
The rise of the king of blades.“Concentrate… that’s all you need to do, channel the mana into your spark.” Jace said. Both him and Malik were standing in his library situated in the plane of Ravnica. Malik was still new to being a planeswalker at the time. Being the nice man he is Jace took him in and taught him several things, and now he was going to teach Malik how to planeswalk. “A-am I doing this right?” Malik asked nervously. “You’re doing just fine.” Jace reassured him. After a few moments a white light began to form around Malik. “You’re doing good just use a little less mana.” Jace said. His words, however, were lost in the light as it grew bigger and brighter. “Alright, that’s enough. Malik, that’s enough! MALIK STOP!” But alas, it was too late as Malik planeswalked to an unknown plane. <…> The queen of blades stood aboard the leviathan. The massive organic structure capable of transporting the Zerg swarm between planets served as a home to her. She had one of those rare moments of peace when she could just stare into outer space and think. Thoughts about revenge were the recurring theme, but this time she was interrupted. Interrupted by a very powerful psionic charge right next to her. It was so strong she could’ve mistaken it for a Hybrid. With a flash of light a dazed Terran appeared next to her. She could’ve killed him with no effort, but she wanted answers. She used her psionic powers to push the Terran against a fleshy wall of the Leviathan, then lifted one of her skeletal wings and pointed an edge sharp enough to pierce diamond towards the intruder’s throat. “Who are you? And how did you get into the Leviathan?” She asked with anger. “I don’t know what this Leviathan is. How can I know how I got in it?” Malik asked still dazed. “Do not play with me! I have no patience for beings like you!” She replied. “I am Malik Arcanus, and guessing that I am in this thing you call Leviathan right now, I planeswalked here.” Malik said. “What do you mean by planeswalked here?” The queen asked with genuine curiosity. Malik then procedded to explain planeswalkers, from the spark to their ability to travel between planes of existence, and also explaining how his training got him to the Leviathan. “Now if I may ask. Who are you and why are you covered in that purple exoskeleton?” “I am the queen of blades, leader of the Zerg swarm. And this exoskeleton, as you call it, is a natural armor the Zerg part of my DNA developed.” She answered. “You are currently aboard the Leviathan, an organic structure capable of transporting the swarm between worlds.” “That explains a lot. Is there anything I can call you besides queen of blades? That’s a pretty long name.” Malik said chuckling. “How can you laugh at this time?” The queen asked with indignation. “When my spark was lit up, when I became what I am now… I learned that even life or death situation need some comic relief, it helps us take the mind away to a happier place. Moping around will do nothing, we have to move on and take action. My plane was destroyed and now I’m on a quest, a quest for power.” Malik replied. “And why do you want this power? Is revenge what you seek?” The queen asked. “No. Such petty things mean nothing to me. No one should go through what I’ve gone through. No, I will use my powers to protect the other planes of the Multiverse. Be it against the Phyrexian, the Eldrazi or anyone else. I will not let revenge get in the way of my quest. I will kill Flynt to protect the Multiverse, not to have revenge.” Malik explained. “I see… I already scanned your mind and you don’t seem to be threat to the zerg. In another note I’ve detected a large psionic potential within you and I think we can work a deal out.” The queen said releasing her psionic grip on Malik. “What have you got in mind?” Malik asked dusting himself. “I help you control your psionic powers and I get you started on your so called quest, and in turn you help the swarm. Do we have a deal?” She asked. Malik pondered on it for a few seconds and finally he extended a hand. “You got a deal.” He said before the queen extended her own hand for a handshake. “Excellent. We shall begin as soon as possible.” The queen said. <…> Three weeks had passed since his training begun and Malik was already close to mastering his psionic powers. He trained often on the battlefield against Protoss and Terran soldiers the swarm fought. He and Kerrigan, as he found out she was called, made an incredible team, using their attacks in devastating combinations. There was no stopping the queen of blades and her sidekick. Due to his battle prowess, Malik quickly earned the title king of blades from the other races. “You’ve made amazing progress since we started. You are a valuable ally to the swarm, but how would you like to be part of the swarm?” Kerrigan asked. “You want to make me zerg?” Malik replied with a raised eyebrow. “It will greatly increase your power and someone like you could prove very useful for the zerg.” She said. “I’m sorry but I have to refuse. I have to go to the other planes to protect them. The swarm would spend most of the time without me causing me to be virtually useless to you all. Although I can visit from time to time to help the swarm in a time of need.” Malik said. “Either way we want our allies to be as strong as possible. If you step in the breeding pool we can make you worthy of the title king of blades. And don’t be worried about others such as your teacher or another planeswalker finding out you are zerg, if you stay for about ten minutes in there your body can change between your Terran and zerg forms by a simple psionic command.” Kerrigan said. “Very well. I’ll take it!” Malik replied, happy with the terms of being half zerg. “Step into the breeding pool and the mutation will start.” She pointed at a pool of green liquid. Malik nodded and walked through the creep-covered fleshy ground. Once he reached the center of the pool he let the chrysalis cover him to mutate his form. When he got out of there he would be the king of blades, protector of planes. But then a thought crossed his mind. ‘What will Jace think of me being king of blades? What will everyone think when they find out I accepted to be half zerg? There’s only one way to do this… for now I still am Malik Arcanus, but one day, I will rise and the king of blades will be revealed. One day…’ He thought. <…> “That’s how I became the king of blades. That’s how I became what I am now. And this is the power I’ll use to kill Flynt.” Malik said with unparalleled determination as he finished his story. “For how long did you know about this?” Chandra asked Jace. “Ever since he became it. Two years ago.” Jace answered. “And you thought this wasn’t worth saying?!” Chandra asked with anger. “I knew what Malik planned to do with his power and I agreed with it.” Jace said. “If I may have a word.” All heads in the room turned towards Zetto, who had an unusual serious expression on his face. “I can see why Malik chose to hide the fact that he is the king of blades. He was afraid everyone would leave before he even had a chance to explain. Not many would like to be friend of a half-zerg being.” He said. “Well both sides have learned a lot today and I think it would be for the best if we finish this meeting now. Too much information at a time can prove harmful.” Celestia said, to which all agreed.
