Horns, Hooves, and Fur

by Deyeaz

XIX - Quite A Bombshell (Jace Arc: Part II)

XIX - Quite A Bombshell

Jace Arc: Part II

I knew I was falling. The wind that whipped my hair, stung my eyes, and made my clothes billow in it told me so. I reached for my Chain Scythe, but couldn’t find it there. Instead, it was freefalling next to me, along with the Calling Card. The two items were spinning wildly, like out-of-control tops. I tried to channel my magic to levitate me and my objects. I stuck my hand out and concentrated...

...Only to have feeble crimson sparks shoot out of my palm.

‘Did Insanity temporarily take my powers away?!’ I thought furiously and worriedly. That push he gave me... it wasn’t just a push, was it? Did it REALLY stop me from channeling my magic and blocking my chakras? If I couldn’t perform magic, I couldn’t levitate myself. And if I couldn’t levitate myself....

Yep: Time to scream.

“FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!”

I roared as loud as I could, hoping that someone would hear me. The ground was getting eerily closer. I know how Praxis felt when he jumped out of the castle to escape.

As a matter of fact, screw him. He may have done a little bit of falling, but his fluffy ass was lucky that he didn’t have to fall from right outside the thermosphere.

The ground was now so close, I could make out the trees, the ant-sized ponies, and many other things.

I shut my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. Even if I died, I’d still be resurrected back in Markarth... right? But since my powers were briefly removed from me... I still had my doubts.

That’s when a Neighpanese bonsai tree, right in the middle of the garden, had grown to an astronomical height and caught me in its grandeur bush of pink leaves.

“Alright, it worked!” said a familiar voice. I looked up and saw Praxis holding his flute. Princess Luna had gone inside to get her bedrest before getting up to watch over the night, yet Princess Celestia had remained.

“Excellent work, Praxis,” she congratulated. “I didn’t think satyrs were capable of magic.”

“They are, but it only works with nature and life, not anything else,” he informed her as I hopped out of the bundle of leaves and slid precariously down the dark brown trunk of the now gargantuan bonsai tree.

Running over to Praxis, I hugged him like he was my life. “THANK. YOU.” It was a quick hug, but it was strong. He released a bleat in surprise from the embrace, but he got over it quickly. Hearing the familiar clang of metal on the ground next to me, I turned to find my scythe, still broken in half. “Ahhh, fuck. I can’t repair this...” I let out a sigh and tried my powers again, but to no avail. Only sparks were emitted. “DAMMIT!” I throw them at the ground, rubbing my temples.

“This is pissing me off...” Then, came the worst noise I’ve ever heard. The shattering of glass from behind me, and sound of tiny pieces of gravel shifting. “Oh...No...” Turning slowly, my eyes met the most horrible of scenes: my destroyed Calling Card. The glass and black sand were everywhere, a victim of a crash collision. “No, no, no, no, NO!” I ran to it, mind racing if I’ll be able to go to Markarth or see Zeke ever again.

I fell to my knees in front of the card, picking up the sand and trying furiously to get it back into the shattered hourglass. “No! No, you bastard! Stay in the glass!” Frantically trying to get the sand into the glass, I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Praxis staring at me with worry.

“Jace! What happened?!” I pushed him away, still trying to get the card together. “Jace! Stop! It’s broken!”

“IT CAN’T BE BROKEN!” I shot back, turning to the satyr. “It can’t! That’s the only thing keeping Markarth tied to Equestria!”

“HELLOOOO, WEAKLIIIIINGS!”

We looked up at the sky for what had boomed in that voice, and our hearts raced in our chests before they plummeted into our stomachs, dissolving in the acid.

Insanity’s face had appeared in the sky, lipless mouth formed in a wicked grin. His red glowing eyes leered at the ponies, griffins, dragons, and other creatures that dwell the land of Equestria. Celestia’s, Praxis’s, and my faces were contorted in rage as we stared up at the transparent image in the atmosphere.

“GET READY TO ENJOY THE LAST TWO MONTHS OF YOUR PETTY LIVES!” he bellowed at us all. “BECAUSE WHEN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT COMES, ALL SHALL BE PURGED IN FIRE! THIS LAND... SHALL BE WREATHED IN FLAMES AS THE MOON WILL DESCEND UPON EQUESTRIA, DESTROYING EVERYTHING! ALL... WILL... DIE!”

The image faded away, yet the monster’s message still rang in my ears. “All... will... die.”

“This is not good,” Celestia muttered, pacing back and forth.

“Praxis, Celestia, how long was I out?” I was desperate, I wanted to know how long I had been gone for. What if Insanity was joshing us, and the three months had already passed?

“You’ve been gone for almost two days,” Praxis answered. When I saw his eyes, there was no shine. No joy. No hope. He knew that it would be inevitable.

“Praxis... two days?!” It just seemed impossible. “That’s bullshit, man!”

“Don’t believe me?” He lifted up his undershirt, where I gasped and almost shuddered from the sight. The satyr’s entire front torso was plagued with the black markings, stopping at his chest. I was filled with fury for the deity of madness and darkness almost immediately.

“It’s true,” Celestia told me. “Whenever he doesn’t shed any blood while being the weresatyr at night, the Corruption begins to get worse and worse, while any violence he performs quells the Corruption and causes it to fall back. Last night, I heard screams while I was sleeping. Me and Luna found him there on the ground in the gardens, right next to a tree that he had been sleeping in. He was screaming bloody murder, and was twitching uncontrollably. It took hours to quiet him down. Luna was nearly in tears from it all.”

“So why can’t you fix your staff?” Praxis asked me.

“Because of Insanity. He took me away from you guys and into the Graveyard of Dreams, where all hope dies. He pushed me away after revealing me his plans, and the push he gave seemed to have sapped me of my powers... but only temporarily... I hope.” Sure enough, I tried to pick up Praxis’s flute telekinetically, and a faint crimson aura shrouded it. I lifted it up for about seven seconds before the mental and magical strain.

“Dammit...” I released the magical hold on it and shook my head. “This is bad, Prax. Real bad. Without the card, I can’t do anything!”

“Are you so sure, Jason?” I turned around, expecting to see something but I didn’t. “You forget that I reside in your mind.”

“Oh, thank Celestia, Aksheal. You’re alright.” I let out a sigh of relief and listened to Aksheal.

“You’re welcome,” Celestia said wryly.

“Yes, but as of now, Markarth is in a state of panic. What ever happened in the Graveyard sapped my powers as well, but the Magic Well in my tower is helping me cope with not having any magic in my internal well. Your powers are going to come back to you in a day’s time. But in the meantime, conserve your energy. It will take longer if you keep using it in your current state. The Scythe will stay broken, but at least you will be able to pick it up and use the one with the blade. You still have Reaper magic in your blood, only a tiny amount, but enough to show that you’re a true Reaper.” I nodded in understanding as I picked the bladed half of the Scythe back up.

“Will I be able to collect souls with it?”

“Yes. That will never change about the scythe. The thing you cannot do, is use your Chaos Reaper power. Be aware of how many souls you collect, the more souls, the longer you stay in Chaos Reaper form.”

“Then, why would I have to worry?” I could feel the eyes on me as everyone just stared at me.

“Because when you do get your powers back, and decide to use the form, you will be using the souls stored in the Scythe. Have too many, and you’ll be stuck in the form for days, months even.”

“That, doesn’t sound so good. Is Markarth still accessible if I’m too wounded?”

“It will be. But I will be as weak as you since I’m linked to your body.”

“Well, that’s fan-fucking tastic.” I sighed again and kicked the giant bonsai tree. “Piece of shit, Insanity...” Another smirk played on my lips. “I know I’m more powerful than that piece of shit.” I whispered to myself with a slight chuckle. “I got a little trick up my sleeve. Praxis, come here. I need to tell you something.”

I dug around in my pocket, looking for just the right thing. At last, I found it. A small necklace, wrought from silver, was clenched in my hands. At the end of it, was a small pair of silver hands clutching an empty crystal ball.

“We could imprison Insanity in this,” I told him. “It’ll be simple. I know a small incantation that would trap him in this small glass ball, and it’ll act as his tiny prison forever.”

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy but, how do we get him weak enough to not be able to break out?”

I wave my scythe a bit and chuckled. “Chaos Reaper. You and Me.”

“...Are you fucking kidding me?” Praxis was incredulous to my answer.

“Nope. Chaos Reaper and Weresatyr will join together to stop the giant dickhead, Insanity. I think it might be a good idea.”

“Well, it’s easier said than done, dude.” Praxis just shrugged. “Aw, but why not? I wanna get back at that asshole for cursing me, and the monster he created is perfect for the plan.”

“Good! Now, here’s the plan. When my powers come back to me, I’ll fix the Card. You go in for a few days and Zeke will teach you what you need to do. The process will take a good three days, but it’ll be worth it in the end. You’ll become a Reaper like me and get your own scythe to be able to turn into a Chaos Weresatyr. With both of those powers together, you can stir up some serious badassery. I also found a little trick I could’ve done the first time I transformed. I’ll teach you later, but for now, we gotta sleep on it.” A thought then entered my mind. “How’s Vinyl doing?”

“She’s great, man. She’s waiting in the castle for you. The baby’s almost here...” The look on my face gave Praxis even more permission to continue. “What, you didn’t ACTUALLY think that equines develop foals for a whole nine months, did you?”

“I, uh... I kinda did.”

“Dude, even I know when horses have kids, and I NEVER paid attention in my biology class...come to think of it, I still don’t.”

“Indeed so,” Celestia interjected. “Ponies only breed for about usually one or two months, but your case is rare. What with human genes mixing with pony genes, the human time of birth is halved. So your little pony will be born in two-and-a-half months.”

“Two-and-a-half months?!” I was scared. That was about 15 days after the Moon of Destruction descends upon Equestria. I told her this.

“You think THAT’S bad?” Praxis said. “Princess Celestia? Do you care to break the news to our friend Jace?”

“Very well, but I hate being the bearer of bad news.” Celestia bit her lower lip and shut her eyes, emotions getting ready to break through her infamous poker face.

“Why, what’s going on?” I was curious and nervous as I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable.

“I analyzed the Curse Seal on Praxis this early morning. It's not good. It’s not good at all. I tried to analyze more of it, but when I tried to get deeper in the situation, the Seal just... deflected my magic! It’s as if the Seal caused by the parasite in Praxis’s brain is repelling any intruders!

“Whoa, parasite?” I was a little grossed out at the idea of Praxis having worms.

“Yes. Insanity’s sword, Dementia, is the parasite. It’s what’s been causing Praxis to become a monster at night. But I’m digressing. Before the Seal rejected me, I got a small amount of the Curse Seal’s intentions. No matter what Praxis does to stay alive, it will all be futile. The Corruption will eat away at him, getting stronger every day... until it’ll be too much.”

Praxis raised a hand up to silence the princess. Celestia shot him a look, but she obliged by keeping silent.

“Basically...” he started. “I’m going to die.”

Comments

[Deyeaz]

680937 Which flavor of cheese?

[MarmiteLover]

The plot thickens.
Elementary my dear Watson.

[Orrkon]

680942 mmmmm cheeeese

[the other sans]

The wind that whipped my hair, sting my eyes, and made my clothes billow in it told me so.

1. Stung?

Soo... Prax is gonna die no matter what... only solution is... to imprison him after imprisoning Insanity thus (maybe) stopping his transformation and if not, its time to kick the bucket.

[Deyeaz]

683935
In good time... you will discover the answer to that. *DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUN*

[dragenfire68]

680942 power with a price....... nice concept for the OC being OP as hell

[megamataman]

1293051
how does that comment relate to what you repied to?

[dragenfire68]

3208650 its not supposed to

[kingmoonwar85]

3865725 baaaaa