Afraid Of My Shadow

by Deyeaz

V - Learning The Ropes (Jace)

Afraid Of My Shadow

Written by CraimerX and ShadowWeaver

V - Learning the Ropes (Jace)

I opened the mansion doors quickly, with Vinyl following close behind. “Jace! What’re you doing?! Just use your magic to get there fast!” Wubsy was coming in next to Vinyl who stopped at the stairs as I charged up them.

“I can't, Vi! I lost my mojo! I’m out of practice!” I stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down at her. “Still got my iPod?” She nodded and dug in her saddlebags to pull out my iPod and magiced it over to me. “Excellent! I need peace and quiet if you will...”

“D-Daddy... W..What are you... Gonna do?” Wubsy said in between intakes of breath.

“Well son...” I smiled wide, “Daddy’s gonna get a bit overpowered...”

---

Wubsy laid on his mother’s chest with a bored expression on his face. He grumbled lightly and his ear twitched slightly at the noises he heard coming from upstairs. Eventually, he let out a groan and looked up to look at Vinyl. “How long is Dad gonna be?”

“I don’t know... He has been up there an awful long time. Almost an hour now. Try and get some rest, sweetheart...”

“I can’t... That’s my problem.”

“Well, why can’t you go to sleep?”

“Pinkie...”

Vinyl facehoofed. “Oh, Celestia, what did she do now?”

“She gave me a taste of her Red Minotaur...”

“Ohhh, Lord. I’ll have a talk with her in the morning...” There was a loud THUMP tham came from upstairs and then some muffled shouts of Jace. Vinyl looked up at the ceiling and then to Wubsy. “Could you check on your father for me, sweetheart?”

“Yes, Mama...” Wubsy leaned up to put a kiss under Vinyl’s chin and squirmed out of her grasp. He started making his way up the stairs and to the room that Jace was located in, tapping his hoof against the door lightly. “Daddy? You alright?”

---

“Come on! Dammit!” I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I held my hand out in front of myself. I concentrated hard, trying to get the magic to flow into my hand.

“Come... On...” I narrowed my eyes and concentrated harder, until a spark jumped from my hand. “Yes...” Another spark. “Yeeess...” Another. “YES.” And then...

A little poof of magic.

“AGH, DAMMIT!” I threw my hands up in frustration and brought them back to my face, rubbing on it from the sweat that had accumulated in the process. “Just... Gotta calm down.” I reached next to me for my iPod. “Pick a song that can be gestured to with a beat...” I repeated, my words coming from the sessions of magic practice with Aksheal. “Use those gestures to make shapes of light... Then make them into something tangible...” My smile returned after I saw the song I had in my gaze.

I pressed 'play' and was instantly greeted with static. My eyes closed and I took in a deep breath as the music started to play in my ears. I made arm and hand movements to the beat of the song, opening my eyes a second later to make sure I could see what I was making.

I started off with a simple cube, moving my hands in the shape of a box and slowly a green seethrough box was formed in my hands. I moved my hands to float over the top and bottom of the cube and slowly pulled them away from each other, making it into a shape of a top.

I spun it, seeing the triangles in the pattern spin in the air as my hands started to move as if in instinct to make a shape of a ball and toss it in the air, only to catch it again with the same hand. I did the same with the other hand and slowly started to make them impale the two sharp ends of the top. I squished them on like a shish kebab and slowly turned the spinning top on its side.

I held out my hand and slowly wrapped my hand around it, and felt it smooth out and turn into a pole shape. I grabbed one of the balls on the end and smoothed it out to the same rod shape that I smoothed the top into.

I did this until it was quite long on each side and laid my hand on one end of the pole. I felt the familiar tingle of magic running through my hand and I smirked lightly. “Eclipse...” I slowly pulled my hand up from the pole and the blade of the scythe slowly started to rise from the pole.

“Ha-HAA!” When the blade was fully extended, I grabbed the shaft of Eclipse and rose to my feet, fast and swift. I swung the scythe around a bit, doing flourishes and spins with the blade, happy to have it back in my grasp.

I soon stopped after a while, striking a pose and smiling as I panted slightly. “I’m back, bitches...” Then, a rumbling could be heard from the bookcase next to me. I was currently in my study, a room that was completely unused by Vinyl for she never really read, but I found it to be a place of solitude when needed.

I pulled the earbuds from my ears and heard the sound was getting louder. “What the- Where the hell is that coming from?!” I scrambled around the bookcase, pulling books out and tossing them onto the floor, determined to find the source of the sound. “C’mon! This is driving me NUTS!” I pulled one book away from the shelf to see a box behind it, shaking and moving around violently. Wait... I know that box...

“YES!” I reached for it, grabbing hold and pulling it down from the shelf the box had golden patterns etched into the royal blue wood that coated most of the box. It was lined with gold on the sides and locked with a heavy duty padlock. “NO!”

I looked around the room, frantically, looking for something to open the box with. I turned and saw Eclipse still sitting on the table where I left it. “ECLIPSE! SICK THE LOCK, BOY!” I yelled, tossing the box on the ground.

Eclipse jumped up, and stood on the end of its stick, front of the blade looking around like a dog would when trying to find a noise. “Oh, FUCKIN’ SWEET.” Eclipse’s blade head moved down, and seemed to spy the lock on the rumbling box. A few revs of the razor sharp chain-blade later, and the lock was shattered.

“Good boy!” Eclipse revved up a couple times, seeming to acknowledge the attention and then hopped onto the table again, going back to looking like a non-living object. “That’s so freaking awesome..” I turned my attention back to the box, and picked it up. I opened the cover of the small chest-like box and inside was what I hid for so many years... The Calling Card.

It was pulsating red, and hot to the touch. At first, I dropped it on the floor and grabbed my arm, letting out a silent yell in the process. I looked back down at it and it hopped around on the floor before rolling away from me and standing up, the sand slowly trickling down into the bottom section of the hourglass.

When the sand ran out of top, I was greeted with a nice surprise.

A loud DING! rang out through the study as the top of the hourglass faded into a black void. It raised itself into the air, and flipped itself so the void was pointing down and the sound of yelling got louder and louder until...

THUMP!

“OW! My archmage behind! Agh...”

“Holy. Fucking. Shit. AKSHEAL?!”

Comments

[Stormy Sunrise]

lol epic summoning montage,also
UPDATE LETS PARTTTY!

[lolz anonymous]

hory shet!

[Rhulain]

but I don't care about Jace at all. I wanna read about Praxis. Praxis. Praxis. Do you read me? Praxis. please?

[ketcham9001]

1054059 I agree lol

[Deyeaz]

1057050
BWAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!