Afraid Of My Shadow

by Deyeaz

XIV - The Age of Shadow (Praxis)

Afraid Of My Shadow

Written by CraimerX and ShadowWeaver

Proofreaded by the onlyoneofmeisyou

XIV - The Age of Shadow (Praxis)

‘He’s not looking any better...’ I thought as I looked at Jace before walking into the halls. “It takes a lot to scare Jace... And if something scares Jace, I should be scared....”

I walked around the room, my ears trained to pick up the slightest irregularity, my eyes sharpened well enough to try and catch anything that would betray the frivolous and exuberant environment of the wedding party. In the end, I spotted nothing. I walked up to a nearby luncheon table set up outside and sat down in it, sighing heavily as I placed my chin in my hands. “Ah, hello! Bonjour! What may I serve ze lovely couple?” said the unicorn waiter with the fakest of French accents as Trixie sat down across from me; Riku was off with Vinyl, Wubsy, and the Cake twins (who have grown exponentially after my four years of inactivity).

“W-We’re not a couple,” stammered Trixie.

“And please, drop the faux pas,” I groaned. This dude’s accent was faker than Snooki’s boob job, that’s for sure. “Your accent isn’t even good.”

“Oh, alright,” the stallion said irritatedly, this time with his regular accent - a Manehattanite one. “What can I get youze two?”

“Light salad with extra tomatoes and croutons, as well as a dash of Parmesan cheese and some ranch dressing,” I said as I examined my nails boredly.

“Trix- er, I will have what he’s having,” Trixie said.

“Anythin’ else?” The waiter’s khaki horn was encased in a light green aura as a pencil jotted down our order on a notepad.

“May I get a glass of water, and a glass of your finest wine for the lady?” I finished. Trixie was about to retort, but smiled in the end.

I smiled back at her and watched the pony make the salads and pour our drinks. It gave me a bit of time to think as I watched him do a seemingly mindless task. What exactly... are we dealing with...? Jace told me it was a reaper gone mad with power... and being a reaper, Jace took down Insanity, and he was fairly new to the whole ‘reaper’ thing.

I sighed. A minute later, the salads were prepared and the drinks were poured. I ate it, but slowly, crunching the meal with my sharp teeth. The taste was satisfactory, the ranch dressing giving it an extra kick. “How is it?” I asked.

“Good... thank you,” she responded.

“Don’t mention it,” I said once I finished eating (my plate of salad wasn’t exactly abundant), waving a hand to dismiss the matter. “It was nothing.”

“No, I mean it. Thank you, for everything; showing me mercy, giving me a place to stay, food to eat.” Leaving her plate of half-eaten salad and emptied wine goblet, Trixie got out of her seat and walked over to me. She got on her back hooves and wrapped her forelegs around me in a warm embrace. “And thank you... for being my first friend.”

“First friend?” Was she serious? She... didn’t have friends?

“Yes. My first friend in my whole life.” She relinquished her hold on me, to my slight disappointment. “Could we talk about this somewhere private?” I nodded. I downed my water in one go, the chill of it soothing my slightly cracked throat. We walk out of the area of where the wedding is bustling and towards the gardens; last I checked, that area was the least occupied. Perhaps it was still less occupied.

As we passed by, I looked around the room and spied Jace on the far side. He tapped on his watch and raised both hands, with each finger extended. “We got ten before the wedding actually starts....” he seemed to tell me nonverbally; just a glance and hand motions.

That’s the thing about the male species. So much could be said in only a mere second of glancing. The thoughts of the two men that make eye contact flow consistently and smoothly, and are easily deciphered with just a simple second or two of eye contact.

I am getting too caught up on this subject, and I am starting to creep myself out... Moving on!

I put my hand over my eyes and move my head to and fro: “Did you find Umbra yet?”

Jace shook his head, then raised a brow. “Did you?” I shook my head in retortion.

Jace facepalmed, and I thought of what he was thinking next... and no, it wasn’t intercourse with Vinyl Scratch. “Fuck... Keep looking,I’m trying to get Zeke here to stalk around. Sound like a plan?”

I nod. “Got it.” I looked back forward and was shocked that Trixie was still going on; Hell I’m surprised she didn’t realise I wasn’t following her. With a small spasm of speed, I crossed the slightly vast distance and caught up with her.

“Are you alright? You were falling behind a bit...” She said, curious as to why I was pretty much ten metres away before catching up to her.

“Jace wanted to talk to me about something.”

“...I didn’t hear you two talking.”

“Males don’t need to speak to convey words; besides, Jace can use telepathic magic.”

“Oh, that explains it,” she finally concluded. We entered the gardens and walked around, observing its botanical beauty. We eventually stopped by a bonsai tree; a mammoth one, at that. It was about fifteen meters high, with... pink leaves. The rosy foliage provides us a large, cooling shade that protects from the sun’s warmth and bright rays.

I remember this tree all too well: when Jace was taken by Insanity, to this “Graveyard of Dreams”, the latter threw the former into the sky back over where we are right now. When I heard Jace screaming (like a girl) from the sky, I had quickly formulated a plot. When I spotted the bonsai tree, I played the flute as quickly and as best as I could. Sure enough, the small shrub became a massive and proud tree within a matter of seconds.

And here it still stands... Four years later, and it still looks the same it did. I took some time to walk around the tree, and saw some markings carved into the trunk. I took a closer look and realized it was a heart carved into the tree with the markings ‘J + V 4 EVER.’ Hmm, looks like it was something Vinyl made after Jace left... Or before he left they had their last date here.

“Is this good enough?” I said. Trixie nodded. “So what do you mean, ‘First friend’?”

Trixie sighed, cleared her throat, and began to talk. “Back when I was a filly, I was constantly teased for being.... inept at magic. I was horrible at it; I couldn’t even do the simplest levitation spell. They all called me even worse names: ‘loser’, ‘failure’, ‘nitwit’; any and all that you can think of. Because of my ineptitude at magic, I couldn’t have admirers or friends. I eventually got sick of all the teasing and bullying, and so I asked my parents if I could be homeschooled.

“That wasn’t any better, either. My parents were severely harsh on me in terms of studies. Every single hour I was awake, I devoted myself to magic. Slowly, but surely, I got better at it. Eventually, it earned me my Cutie Mark in magic; illusion magic, to be precise.

“But still, I was trained, tested, and pushed into learning magic: my father wanted me to be the best. Soon, I cracked when he pushed me too hard in one lesson; I almost lost my life during it. He scolded me, talked down to me, called me pathetic and unable to be half as good as him. So I ran away....”

I wiped a tear that was falling down her cheek as she was speaking. “Now that I was basically homeless, I traveled abroad, trying to show off my magic to others. But no one cared for a showpony, especially a terrible one like me. I was losing money, and was reduced to nothing but my carriage and the clothes I wore.

“So I started lying to try and heighten my popularity and welth. Once I lied to everyone about vanquishing an Ursa Major, my name was spoken everywhere almost immediately! The fame, the fortune, the popularity; it all went to my head. I had dug myself into a hole I couldn’t get out of. Soon, my own hubris controlled me. I had evolved from a meek and pathetic filly to a powerful and mighty mare... or so I’d like to believe.

“It stopped, however, when Twilight Sparkle... humiliated me!” Trixie went to punch the bonsai tree, but I stuck out my hand, her azure hoof instead plowing into my black palm. While I was used to this pain, it still hurt a bit. I shook my head, silently telling her that violence isn’t the right way to deal with it. Trixie calmed down shortly after. “Everywhere I went, for the past two years, I was humiliated and ostracised for being a fraud. I even had to work on a rock farm to keep myself from going in debt!” She ‘grabbed’ me by my shoulders and shook me as she said, “A bucking rock farm!”

“Calm down,” I said, putting my hands on her hooves and removing them from my shoulder. “Now, please continue.”

“Okay. So on a dark and rainy night, I visited a shop that held ancient magic artifacts. One such artifact, the Alicorn Amulet, caught my eye, and when I had purchased it, I swore I would take vengeance on the pony who did this to me: Twilight Sparkle.

“So I returned to Ponyville, challenged Twilight to a magic duel, and beat her at it, with the help of the Alicorn Amulet. Soon, she was banished off into exile due to the terms of my victory. However, she made a comeback while I was busy controlling her one-horse town.” Trixie growled low, then shook her head and sighed. “She returend with an amulet from the Everfree Forest that she claimed was more powerful than the Alicorn Amulet. So because of my hubris, I accepted the rematch she wanted.

“However, despite my efforts, she managed to beat me! Me, the Great and Powerful-”

“Ahem.” I looked at her and raised a brow, my arms crossed. Trixie stopped mid-sentence and giggled nervously. “Ehehe, sorry. Anyways, as I was saying, with her power and magic of friendship, she managed to beat me at the rematch.

“But instead of being a sore loser about it, I took this loss with dignity; I even helped make fireworks for Twilight’s performance for the delegates of Saddle Arabia.” I refrained from chuckling at the play on words. “And while it felt nice to help her out, I was once again poor, since the Alicorn Amulet was confiscated from me. Sure enough, I was poor again. I had to resort to living in the streets once more; I couldn’t stand that rock farm I was working at.

“And it’s been like that for a long time. I hopped from town to town in the hopes of work, but found none that I neither liked nor believed payed me well. So... once more, I was a bum.” Trixie shied away from me. Her emotions screamed ‘sorrow’, ‘pain’, ‘unhappiness’... maybe even ‘suicidal’. “I’m sure you see me in a worse light than before....”

I looked at her with a raised brow and a confused look. “Now why would you be sure of that?”

“Huh?” A few of her saturnine emotions start dissipating.

“I don’t dislike you. Not in the slightest.” I offered her my hand as I stood up. “There’s no need to be so sad about it. It’s over, and you’re living in the here and now, right? If you dwell too much on the past, then what’s the point of living long enough to create your future?”

Trixie’s last depressing emotions slowly melt away like ice in the presence of a warm fire. Soon, her face broke into a large smile as she took my hand with a hoof and stood up. “Right,” she said. “Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.”

“Don’t mention it,” I responded. I was going to say more, but something stopped me. In the very far distance, I could hear something. It was soft... Like some beating of some sort.

*clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop-*

It sounded familiar... Like I heard it before.

*clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop, clip-a-clop-*

Wait... That sounds like...

*CLIP-A-CLOP, CLIP-A-CLOP, CLIP-A-CLOP, CLIP-A-CLOP-*

“INCOMING!” I yelled, diving to the ground as the sound got super close. I heard a scream from Trixie, and then silence. I was afraid to lift my head, but I had to do it.

I lifted my head in the direction of the sound and saw two pink hooves. Looking up the legs, I saw the familiar face of Pinkie Pie and the skull masked face of Zeke riding atop the pony. “I got here as soon as I heard there was trouble.” His voice was stern, not like his laid back gay-toned voice. “Hello, Praxis.”

“Hello, Ezekiel,” I said as I got up and shook his hand. Zeke returned the gesture, and shockingly, I didn’t suffer the Touch of Death.

Then I realised: I shook Zeke’s hand with my right hand. Won’t my Black Magic arm sap his magic away?

"Black Magic arm... Seems you have it under control though. It doesn't matter where the source is, it flows through the whole body. But it didn’t hurt me; shows you are in control." He looked to Trixie and nodded, but she was too shaken up to acknowledge his greeting. He turned back to me, and removed the mask on his face, showing the true skeletal face of Death. "And it's your arm that took my Death Touch and absorbed it. It's trying to kill the magic, but it's not going to. Look at the eye."

I looked down at the cerulean eye. It was flashing a sort of dim glow at a pulsating rate, like a heartbeat. It was also looking around frantically, and the veins in the eye were slowing turning bright red. It was being overworked bigtime.

The eye seemed to water, and tears of black started to pour out of it. After a while, the light stopped and the eye spazzed out more. Then, it closed, and a shockwave of pain went through my body, like a thousand needles in each square inch of my flesh were pressed in at the exact same time. The pain took me to my knees.

“The magic of the Grim Reaper is much, MUCH more powerful than the arm is used too...”

“Didn’t need to demonstrate it,” I groaned. “You could’ve just told me.” Trixie helped me get back to my hooves while I flexed and relaxed my arm in the attempt to let it, as well as my body, remove any pain that still lingered: after all, if I’m technically laced with Black Magic, maybe it’ll heal me shortly.

“Are you alright, Praxis?” Trixie asked.

Sure enough, in about half a minute, I was feeling better. “So Jace briefed you on the situation?”

“Yes; why else am I here?” Zeke responded. “and by what Jace tells me, you don’t take this problem as a big deal...” Zeke shook his head and then looked at me as he donned the mask again. Why he wears a mask is a mystery; maybe it’s to hide his terrifying face. “You pray that your soul is saved...” He said, digging his bony heels into Pinkie’s sides. “Onwards, Pinkie!”

With a giggle and a realistic horse whinny, Pinkie Pie galloped off. “Sure thing, Mr. Zeke!” she giggled as the two started getting smaller and smaller.

“Praxis?” Trixie began. “Who was that?”

“Just a friend of me and Jace’s.”

Then the thing I never wanted to hear. The thing that will always haunt me, to this very day.

A scream. From inside the castle.

“What the hell?!” I ran for the doors at high speeds and kicked them open to get inside. I ran in, going from corridor to corridor until I got to the throne room. Apparently, the wedding had already started, but up on the throne, shocked me.

There was the dark figure again, holding Celestia’s neck with a knife to her throat. He was shrouded with darkness, and the aura around him was spewing evil auras, and blackness. It drifted down from the throne and had the effect of a fog machine, the black fog rolling down into the crowd of scared ponies. I saw Jace standing there, with Vinyl right behind him, his scythe drawn and he was ready to strike.

“UMBRA!” I heard Jace yell, and then saw him lunge for the dark creature. He took a swing, but Umbra just swatted the scythe out of his hand with a simple backhand and then trapped him in a magical hold. He brought him close to his face, and I could hear the wails of Vinyl as he did.

“The time of reckoning...” The shadow began, then turned to face me. I couldn’t move, I was too in shock to move my legs. He stared right at me, the two glowing purple eyes boring into my very soul. “Starts... Now...” In one swift movement, he threw Jace at me and we collided, both of us being bowled out of the room, the large doors being slammed behind us.

The sounds of screaming echoed through the halls as ponies scattered and banged on the doors to get out.There were more screams that followed, and then a laugh that made me shake with fear. Then, there was silence. No sound at all.

I scrambled to my feet and banged on the doors, trying to get inside, but the magical locks held fast.

“Dammit! No! NO!”

This was the beginning... of the Age of Shadow.

~End of Chapter XIV~

Comments

[Deyeaz]

1707350
Actually, that can't happen. Now that Praxis is practically laced with Black Magic, he can neither be an Order Reaper nor a Chaos Reaper, even though the latter is more lenient about it. Before, he proved he wasn't evil by selflessly using those glowing sands that make any wish come true to bring back Big Mac; This is only also because the Black Magic was not only uncontrollable, but is the very epitome of hatred, rage, and evil.

[the onlyoneofmeisyou]

Why do you write faster than I can proofread?

[the other sans]

I feel like... I feel... like... My head... it spins with all the Praxis x Unicorn shippings?! WHY, OH DEAR CELESTIA WHY?!

[kitsuneito]

"not like his laid back gay-toned voice."
so his voice is ^ normally like that?