Afraid Of My Shadow

by Deyeaz

III - The Best Welcome Home Present (Jace)

Afraid Of My Shadow

Written by CraimerX and ShadowWeaver

III - The Best Welcome Home Present (Jace)

Weird... I could’ve sworn that cracking sound was coming from the pagoda... Must be my mind playing tricks on me. I let out a huff and straightened my beard out before heading into the gingerbread like bakery and seeing all the lights out.

I rolled my eyes and smiled wide before putting on my best confused face. “Hello? Hello, is anypony here?” I scratched the back of my head and looked over at the light switch on the wall and flicked it up, just to have ponies of all assorted colors jump out and yell ‘SURPRISE!’

I stumbled back lightly and looked around. “What’s all this then?! A party? For what?” I looked around the room and everyone just smiled at me. Pinkie bounced seemingly out of nowhere and rushed up to me in her... Bouncing haste.

“Silly Jace! It’s your ‘Welcome Back To Ponyville After Being Away For Four Years In Stalliongrad’ PARTY! WHOOO HOOO!!!” I chuckled lightly at Pinkie’s enthusiasm and heard the scratch of a turn table. I whipped around, expecting to see my wife but I gaped when I saw Wubsy on top of a vinyl record.

“Hey Dad!”

“Wubsy?! Son, what’re you doing on the deck?!” Vinyl’s face came up from under the booth and she just smiled at me as I stared into the big purple goggles she wore.

“Relax, babe! He’s just helping!” As if on cue, Wubsy hopped off the record and scratched on it with ease and I just gaped at the skill. It took me years to learn how to do something like that, and my four year old son knows how to do it! Holy crap, my son is amazing! “You wanna join in on this?” I smiled and was about to make my way to the booth when I felt somepony tug my hand. I looked over and was embraced in a big ball of cyan fur and technicolor mane.

“Oh my Celestia, it’s true! You’re back! This is totally awesome, we missed you so much!” I smiled and hugged the pegasus back while looking over her shoulder at the other five elements of harmony. Twilight was first to approach me.

“Jason!” I cringed slightly at the pronunciation of my full name, but I kept my composure set. “It’s so good to see you again! Four years and you still look great! That beard looks great on you as well!” I kneeled down to hug Twilight close and smiled lightly.

“It’s good to see you all as well, and you really think so? It took me those years in Stalliongrad to actually grow the darn thing! The radiation must’ve helped.” They all seemed to stare at me with some slight apprehension. “Uhm, is there something wrong?”

“Well, it’s tha fact that yer accent changed and ya look lots different...” Applejack did have a point, I have gained the gruff Stalliongradish accent. Well that’s the price you pay when you have to speak the language and be around the locals for four years of your life. But the beard? The beard was a bonus.

“Well, I’m still the same Jace you all know and love! Trust me!”

“Hey, I know! What if you do some of your super cool awesome magic skills that you used to do?” Pinkie bounced around at just the thought of me using my magic. I had to raise a hand to stop the chatter amongst the girls.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you ‘can’t’?! Of course you can! Just make it happ-” I shook my head at Twilight.

“I’m out of practice. I haven’t used my magic in all that time in Stalliongrad. I even left Eclipse with Zeke...”

“Eclipse is your scythe, correct?” I nodded at Twilight.

“That’s correct. I used what I was given. Good thing I have skills in fighting other than magic. Like when I get an adrenaline spike, I can use that to think faster than a normal being. For example: I could be standing two hundred meters away with a magic spell ready to fire. Twilight you would have already fired a spell and due to my adrenaline, I would be able to easily duck under your burst of magic and retaliate much faster than you can comprehend. A very rare thing to possess, but I’m lucky to have it.”

The girls eyed each other nervously and then back to me. “Well, I’m the real Jace. Just trust me. Not like a changeling or something can take the form of a human, right? Last time I checked, it was just ponies.” The girls agreed silently with each other before I stood from my kneeling position and wiped off my suit pants. “Well, I better go see the soon-to-be wife. I can all trust you to be at the wedding next Wednesday, correct?”

“Yup! We’ll all be there! Take care now ya hear, Jace?” I got a quick hug from each of the Elements before making my way to Vinyl who had possession of my iPod for the years that I’ve been gone. Seems she got ahold of the Katy Perry remix... Ho boy...

The song started to play as a few progressive synth sounds going up the scale at points and a voice resonating lightly from the speakers. The lights dimmed slowly and I quickly noticed the spotlight trained on my body.

There was a point where the beat started to pent up, then it was released with a modulated bass moving swiftly through the levels and Vinyl’s voice came through the speakers.

“You're so hypnotizing

Could you be the devil?

Could you be an angel?

Your touch magnetizing

Feels like I am floating

Leaves my body glowing

They say, be afraid

You're not like the others

Futuristic lover

Different DNA

They don't understand you

You're from a whole 'nother world

A different dimension

You open my eyes

And I'm ready to go

Lead me into the light”

When the chorus hit, Vinyl hopped over the booth to land right in front of me and get up on her hind hooves to in combination with her magic, pull my face to her’s and have our noses touch together as she sang.

“Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me!

Infect me with your love and

Fill me with your poison

Take me, ta-ta-take me

Wanna be a victim

Ready for abduction

Boy, you're an alien

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural

Extraterrestrial...”

As some notes played in the background, I could feel our lips just graze each other before she pushed me back and continued to sing with a smile on her face.

“You're so supersonic

Wanna feel your powers

Stun me with your lasers

Your kiss is cosmic

Every move is magic

You're from a whole 'nother world

A different dimension

You open my eyes

And I'm ready to go

Lead me into the light...”

She made her way over to me again, this time just nuzzling on my legs and I kneeled down to caress her cheek lightly.

“Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me

Infect me with your love and

Fill me with your poison

Take me, ta-ta-take me

Wanna be a victim

Ready for abduction

Boy, you're an alien

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural

Extraterrestrial!”

She pulled on my tie to pull my face close to hers again, just like before, our noses were touching and she was slowly pulling her glasses up so I could gaze into her red eyes. She sang slowly and sweetly, putting emotion behind the words she sang.

“This is transcendental

On another level

Boy, you're my lucky star

I wanna walk on your wavelength

And be there when you vibrate

For you I'll risk it all

All...”

“C’mere you...” I whispered lightly as the bass began to drop and I pulled Vinyl into a big kiss. The crowd of ponies in the room exploded when our lips made contact and it was like the first time we had publicly came out with our love for each other all those years ago. I could feel that spark was still there as we kissed, that spark of pure love and care that I oh so wanted to feel again.

But what was strange... Is that I felt a different spark. A spark that flicked something on in my head... I can’t quite pinpoint it...

She pulled from me, tears running down her cheeks as she sang the final bit of the song as I embraced her in a large hug.

“Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me

Infect me with your love and

Fill me with your poison

Take me, ta-ta-take me

Wanna be a victim

Ready for abduction

Boy, you're an alien

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural

Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial

Boy, you're an alien

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural

Extraterrestrial...”

When the lights came back on, the ponies in attendance at the party exploded in cheers and hoof stamping as me and Vinyl shared yet another kiss. I opened my eyes to look over at the DJ booth to see Wubsy with a hoof pointed to his mouth as he pretend gagged. I smiled and went back to kissing on Vinyl, who was showing no mercy with her tonguing, not caring if she was in the middle of a public party.

What seemed like hours flew by as we were sitting there, lips locked together in a passionate kiss. I never wanted it to end, to be honest. I wanted to sit here for the rest of eternity with my lover and just feel like this forever. The feeling of being whole again. Not having a giant hole where my heart used to be. It felt like I left my heart with Vinyl, and now that I’m back, I have my heart back. I was a cold motherfucker in the zone. To make me smile was only a thing Vinyl or Wubsy could do through the power of the Journals. It didn’t matter if I was killing, surviving, hunting, or whatever. Never smiled when I did stuff like that. If I did smile at some point, then I don’t remember it happening.

We soon pulled from each other after we were pretty much going blue from the lack of air. I hugged Vinyl close and buried my face in her neck and took in her scent of... Hold on...

*SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFF~*

Ahhhh, blueberries~

Anyway, as we moved from each other’s embrace I stood and looked out around the crowd. “Thank you all for showing up! This means so much to me that everypony is here to welcome me back home. I’ve thought of all of you every day, and I’m actually so glad that I can see you all here!”

The crowd applauded again, smiling widely at my words. “Well, don’t just stand there! This is a party! Have fun! Go nuts!”

---

TEN HOURS LATER

---

My God, that party was long as shit... I’d seen Pinkie Pie orally destroy cupcakes before, but seriously? I had reason to suspect that she was capable of denying all the chances of getting diabetes.

And Vinyl... Holy crap. I didn’t know she could do that with a banana! I mean my word! I had to shield Wubsy’s eyes from what she was doing to it.

I also think Berry Punch spiked the punch... I don’t know if that was true or not, but I felt more alive than I did when I proposed to Vinyl!

Eventually, I did leave Sugarcube corner with Vinyl and Wubsy and decided to just take a nice walk home.

As I walked through the town’s desolate streets as the peak of morning was becoming more evident than before.

Sadly, when me and Vinyl walk by the Pagoda, Vinyl screamed in surprise.

“Jace, look!” She wailed, pointing a hoof at the pagoda. I was in the middle of stargazing when she had yelled out, and I instantly got defensive and moved in front of Vinyl out of instinct. I looked back to see what she was pointing at and my gaze was drawn to the pagoda. I gasped lightly at what I saw.

What I saw, was nothing.

Nothing was IN the pagoda! Praxis was MISSING.

“Vinyl, Wubsy, stay back. I’m gonna go check this out...” I took tentative steps towards the pagoda and looked around the inside of it, seeing nothing. I looked down at the stand where Praxis stood upon and kneeled down to pick up what looked like a chunk of cement. “What the hell?”

Hang on... chunks of cement? Missing satyr?

I started smiling like an idiot at what my brain was formulating. “Erm, Daddy?” Wubsy said as he made his way to my side. “What’re ya smiling about?”

“Well, Wubsy, the best welcome home present I could ask for...”

Comments

[Deyeaz]

1021949
FIXED IT.

[lolz anonymous]

now i want to know what celestia does.

[Stormy Sunrise]

By Jove! I MUST see the reaction of Celestia!

[the other sans]

Kiss me, kiss me!
Kiss me, kiss me
Kiss me, kiss me

All these lines (pardon me i'm just being a... precise... dickhead here) are supposed to be Kiss me, Ki-Ki-Kiss me.

I am pitiful sometimes...