//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Rumors // Story: Return of the Ancient Mage // by Zoshe //------------------------------// Twilight made her way down into the archives, curious what she might find here today. She was by herself today since Spike already had plans to go help out Rarity at her shop. She marveled at the store of knowledge that had been contained right under her hooves all this time and still felt a bit overwhelmed as she looked out at it all. "So Random said Whisper could help me find something..." She muttered under her breath. "I wonder where I can find her?" As if she were summoned, Twilight heard a light tinkling chime off in the distance followed by a melodic humming that flew towards her through the air. Shortly there after, Whisper appeared floating above her. "Well..." The little fairy crossed her forelegs as she drew closer. "If it isn't the princess of near disasters." Twilight was a bit taken aback, "excuse me?" "Oh I felt that little spell you were warping upstairs," she gave her a stern look. "I'm just glad C... *Cough cough* Random was able to fix it before I had to... again." Twilight winced at the reprimand, "what do you mean again?" "Oh I've been stopping you from blowing stuff up since you got here," Whisper flew in and bopped Twilight on the nose, causing her to wiggle it and give a small sneeze. "The worst one was probably that glimmer spell you mucked up." Twilight remembered that spell. She had given Rarity a pair of butterfly wings for the day. Granted they had burned up when she flew too close to the sun, but Twilight remembered how hard that spell had been, how much resistance she had felt... wait... "I see the gears turning in your head, bookbutt," the fairy landed on a nearby shelf. "Tell me, what did you just figure out?" Twilight stopped breathing as the dreaded pieces fell into place, "I really could've hurt Rarity with that spell!" "Yes you could have," the fairy showed some small approval. "Tell me, Miss Sparkle. Did you ever get around to trying that spell on yourself?" Twilight shook her head, "no, I just remembered how hard it was and decided to wait until I got better at magic." Whisper scoffed, "pfff. You're already plenty good at magic. You just need to sort out what Random's trying to teach you. I was sort of hoping you would've tried that spell on yourself later. If we're lucky, it would've left you asking the right questions when you saw how easy it suddenly was." "So do you have a... OW!" She fell forward as a thick volume flew out and smacked her in the back of the head. "You're welcome," the little troublemaker gave a wide grin as she watched the purple princess pick herself back up. Twilight groaned as she pick up and looked at the book that she had just been clobbered with. "Mana Flows for the Grotesquely Uneducated? Hey!" She protested. "Did you just give me a 'magic for dummies' book?!" Whisper made a rude gesture before zipping off into the distance. "See if I help you again!" She shouted before Twilight heard the distinct sound of laughter. Twilight took another look at the book in her hooves. Well, it was one she hadn't read. It couldn't hurt to take a look. An hour later found Twilight back upstairs, still pouring through volume that the fairy had "given" her. Albeit not as gently as she would've preferred. She made it through several sections on basic spellcasting, honestly just more review for her. She read it anyway, just in case there was something different in there or it started using unfamiliar terms later in the book. She was just making it to the part she was hoping to find about utilizing magic from outside sources when the door opened and Applejack walked in. "Howdy Twi," declared Applejack as she took a moment to fan herself off with her hat. "Applejack," Twilight greeted her cheerily as she put the book down. "What brings you here?" "Just checkin up on ya." She said as she sat down at the table before pulling a couple daffodil sandwiches from a bag. "Also figurin Ah'd join ya fer lunch. If'n you don't mind the company." Twilight's stomach gave a rumble as she eyed the sandwich hungrily. "Heh heh, Ah'll take that as a yes," the farm pony said as she slid the sandwich closer to the alicorn. Twilight floated the sandwich up to her mouth, her body giving a little shiver as she took a few bites. Without realizing it, she had devoured the rest of it a few moments later. "Hot dang, Twi." Applejack gave an astonished look at the now sandwich-less spot. "You eatin fer two or somethin?" "No," Twilight said, feeling a bit red behind the ears. "Apparently it's an alicorn thing. I asked Princess Celestia about it and she said it was completely normal. It seems the other three princesses also got increased appetites for the first couple years after ascending." Twilight seemed lost in thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, that sort of explains the extra large meals I always saw Cadence eating whenever she was foalsitting." "Well, it sounds to me like you need this more than me," she said as she slid the other sandwich over. Twilight looked at it hungrily but was hesitant to take her friend's food. "Ah won't hear of it," Applejack said as she reached up and pulled an apple out of her hat. "Ah'll have to remember that if Ah ever find myself with a lot of extra food." She took a big bite of the apple. "Ah'd still be sure you get some proper exercise though. You been outside at all today?" "I was going to stretch my legs after a little while longer," she poked at the book in front of her. "I found a new book downstairs that's been recommended I read." Applejack looked at the cover of the book and gave a small snort after reading the title, "somepony havin a go at you? C'mon Twi, we all know yer smarter than that. Ah may not be the readin type but even Ah can tell when a book is mockin ya." "Normally I'd agree with you, but it's come to my attention today that I've missed something big about magic," Twilight reflected while placing a hoof on the cover. "How'd ya figure?" Asked Applejack. "I saw Random cast an age spell on Blueblood when he showed up on my doorstep... Again," Twilight said flatly. All her friends knew by this point how much that pony was getting on her nerves. "But when I had a chance to ask Random about it and he had me try casting one on a flower, he was downright furious. Said I was doing it all wrong." "Speakin of Random," Applejack started up. "You missed quite the show in the market, today." "Hmmm?" Twilight wondered, "What happened?" "There was some kind of scuffle between him and Cloud Kicker," she went on to say. "Ah'm not rightly sure what exactly happened, but Ah heard folk's sayin they heard her shoutin at him something fierce about Blossomforth and takin responsibility or somethin. Ah don't rightly know all the details. Maybe he went and got somepony knocked up." Twilight blushed so hard and so fast that her face quickly resembled a bright red cherry. Words failed to leave her mouth as her bottom lip trembled in shock. "Heh," Applejack chuckled as she gave her a friendly nudge. "Relax Twi, Ah'm just messin. Ya know how ponies can git when there's somepony new in town. Besides," she gave her a small wink. "It'd be way too soon to tell if'n that happened anyhow." "Applejack!!" Twilight exclaimed, shocked on how casually she was discussing this. "It's probably just some big misunderstandin. It usually is with stuff like this," Applejack finished off the rest of her apple before she got a bit more serious. "Listen Twi. Ah want you to be careful around that Random feller." Twilight eyes lit in curiosity, "how come?" "Well, Ah asked the mayor if'n she ever heard of anypony by that name, especially if there was one who lived here before. She went and dug through them records dating all the way back to the founding of Ponyville and there ain't ever been nopony named Random Fact as far as she can tell, plus there's also..." Applejack went quiet for a moment. "There's also what?" Twilight looked at her friend in concern. "Now Ah don't wanna scare you, Twi, but did Fluttershy come round tellin you bout her scared animals?" The farm pony asked. "She did..." Twilight said apprehensively. "It sounded really scary." "Well, she came round to our place tellin the same story and Ah tell ya what." She scooted a bit closer and dropped to a whisper. "Granny had quite the story of her own to tell. Seems she remembers seein a pony like that one Fluttershy saw way back when she was round my age." Twilight swallowed hard, a bit nervous to hear more. "And?" She tentatively asked. "Well," she continued, a bit more relaxed. "Back when there was no Ponyville and it was just us Apples gettin their start. You heard the story of how she found them zap apple trees?" Twilight nodded as she finished off the second sandwich. "Well that wha'nt the only thing they saw in the Everfree that they couldn't really explain." Applejack fell into storytelling mode. "She said that every once in a while, the forest would get unusually quiet. It scared em at first but eventually they used it as an opportunity to gather up the wild herbs in the forest since the more dangerous critters wouldn't bother em." "Sound's like the Apple family was very resourceful in the old days," Twilight commented. "Heck, we're still pretty resourceful now," Applejack quipped. "But anyway, a couple times this happened, they'd run into the corpse of a manticore or a broken timberwolf or some other monster you can find out there. They thought bout it a couple times, askin the princess for help, but they knew what they were gettin into with settlin so close to the forest. Well anyway, one of the days it got all quiet, they ended up wanderin in a bit further than normal, and that's when they saw it." Twilight swallowed hard, "saw what?" "A unicorn," said Applejack. "His fur was a golden color and you could just barely make out a brown mane and tail from under the green cloak he be wearin. But the biggest thing granny said she remembers... Was his eyes. Bright and green they were. Glowin with the kind of light that made you think that something wasn't quite right with that one. And when he looked at ya, his gaze just seemed to look straight down into yer soul." "That sounds like what Fluttershy saw!" Twilight noticed. "Ah thought so too," Applejack nodded. "They saw him every so often after that. He never got close and they weren't bout to test their luck that much. But with the way he looked when they saw him wanderin through them woods, they took to callin him the Everfree Shade." "The Everfree Shade?" The alicorn questioned. "Yeah, and fer some reason it bothers me," Applejack concluded. "That this here Shade shows up fer the first time in so long, the same time this new feller comes to town." "That reminds me," Twilight remembered. "I saw Random's eyes glow green for a moment when he got mad. He also got really scary. Do you think it means something?" "Ah dunno. Maybe," Applejack gave this some thought. "Ah wouldn't worry bout it too much if he hasn't tried to hurt ya, but Ah'd still be careful, Twi. Celestia only knows what might actually be goin on here."