//------------------------------//
// Chapter 22: A New Problem 
// Story: Return of the Ancient Mage 
// by Zoshe 
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"Uhhh," Twilight moaned as her eyes slowly fluttered open.

"She's waking up," came the voice of Fluttershy from beside the bed she found herself in.

"Ah'll go tell everypony else," came a small voice from the doorway. "Hey Applejack!" Shouted the voice she now recognized as Apple Bloom. "Twilight's awake!" She shouted through the house as Twilight heard the rumble of hoofsteps running up the stairs.

Applejack entered the room and looked concerned at Twilight, "ya feelin ok there, sugarcube?"

"What happened? How long was I out?" Twilight moaned as she pushed herself up from the bed.

"You've been outta it fer a couple hours," Applejack stood beside her and rubbed a hoof on her back. "We was kinda hopin you could tell us. After you showed up and disappeared, there was this fancy light show out over the Everfree forest. I was bout to go check it out, but then you went and showed up passed out on our doorstep."

Twilight pushed herself up to a sitting position, her head pounding slightly with the sudden movement. "I don't know," she finally answered. "Too much of what I saw doesn't make any sense."

"Was it the Shade?" Asked Fluttershy, who had been mostly quiet up to this point. "Rainbow Dash mentioned something about him."

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight perked up as the rest of the earlier events came rushing back. "Where is she? Is she alright?"

"She's downstairs with the others," said Applejack. "She's alright, but Ah think her pride is a bit hurt though." Applejack said solemnly. "What exactly happened to you two?"

Twilight slowly climbed out of bed, still feeling a bit groggy, "let's head downstairs. I'll tell you all what happened."





"Heh," Rainbow Dash gave a small chuckle after Twilight finished telling her story. "Sounds like I got off easy."

"You still don't sound like you're ok, darling." Rarity said, still looking a bit concerned for the prismatic flyer.

"No," she pouted. "I'm supposed to be the element of loyalty and that's twice now I've let my friends down."

"Awww, cheer up, Dashie!" Said Pinkie Pie shortly before scooping her up into a bone crushing hug. "Nopony likes a pity party." She gasped. "Unless the party's got cake and punch and streamers and..."

"Not helping," said an annoyed Rainbow as she attempted to squirm out of Pinkie's grasp. "Anyway, Twilight. What's the plan? We're not gonna just take this laying down, are we?"

"RD's right," Applejack cut in. "We need some kinda plan, but..." She hesitated a bit. "Ah dunno Twi. Ah mean, after what you just gone and told us, bout King Sombra and all that. Ah know we usually take care of our own problems." She took off her hat and rubbed at the back of her head. "Don't ya think this is somethin we should go to the princess about?"

Twilight winced at the suggestion, "I really don't want to bother her, but... Yeah, you might be right. We just lost a particularly dangerous artifact to somepony who was not only able to destroy it, but if what King Sombra claimed was true, then the Shade actually created it in the first place."

"The fact he was able to overpower you so easily is worrisome as well," said Rarity. "I mean, you were already a cut above the rest back when you were still just a unicorn. Look at you now, darling." Rarity gestured to Twilight with both hooves.  "You're a dang blasted alicorn," Rarity burst out only to realize what she said and look embarrassed. "Pardon my language."

"What about the Elements of Harmony?" Asked Pinkie, finally contributing to the conversation. "They work on all the meanies we've dealt with."

"I do have them back at the library," Twilight perked up. "Could be worth a try."

Applejack looked a bit uncertain. "Didn't you just finish tellin us that you thought that feller Random was actually the Shade?" She asked.

Twilight nodded, "he did seem to respond when I called out to him."

"Well... Doesn't he also live at the library?" She asked.

Silence washed over the room while what Applejack said had a chance to sink in. A moment later all six of them were scrambling to get out the door.





"No, I haven't seen him for a while. I haven't seen Whisper either." Spike said as he looked up from his comic book. "Did Random do something?"

Twilight was panting and out of breath from dashing across town at a mad gallop. She was certain that she was going to find something amiss when she made it back to her home.

"No time to explain," she said once she could breathe again. "Where are the elements? Are they safe?"

"They're right where they always are," Spike went over to the stairs and started pulling a large chest out from under them.

Twilight pulled the chest the rest of the way out with her magic, causing Spike to trip in the process. He quickly bounced back up and ran to Twilight's side, although he was looking a bit annoyed.

She threw the lid open and looked over the chest contents. Five necklaces laid inside the chest within velvet alcoves, each of them bearing a different colored gemstone cut to resemble the cutiemarks of each of her friends. When she looked up to where the crown that bore her mark was supposed to lay, she was greeted with only an empty space.

"It's gone..." Twilight sat back in shock. "The Element of Magic is gone."

"What?!" Came the collected voices of everyone else in the room. They all pushed to huddle around the chest, none of them being able to believe their eyes.

"Oh my," said Fluttershy.

"Darling, are you ok?" Said Rarity.

"I don't understand," said Rainbow Dash. "I thought Princess Celestia cast a spell so they couldn't be stolen again?"

"Oh..." Twilight still stared at the empty chest. "I think she said that spell was only to keep Discord from stealing them. There's nothing stopping anypony from just walking off with one of them."

"So what are we gonna do, Twilight?" Asked Pinkie Pie. "We can't use the elements if one of them are missing."

"I don't know," she sighed as she sagged her shoulders. "But we better at least tell the princess about this. Spike, take a letter."

Spike stepped up proudly and pulled out a parchment and quill, "on it."

"Dear Princess Celestia..."





Several minutes later, they all stepped back out of the library. Spike had just sent a very lengthy letter to her mentor about the recent happenings and more importantly, to inform her that the Element of Magic was currently missing.

"So what happens now?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

Twilight looked around at her friends. They all looked expectantly at her, hoping for answers that she wasn't even sure that she had.

"It might be a while before we hear back from the princess. In the mean time, we need to find Random," she said as she steeled her determination. "I'm still convinced that he's the Shade and we need to find out what he's up to."

"Are you sure he's capable of everything that's happened?" Rarity asked. "You said he was a perfect gentlecolt during his welcome party."

"He behaved himself just fine at the party," said Applejack. "But Rares, we still barely know anything about him."

"Aw come on, he can't be all bad," complained Pinkie. "I did get this awesome cake recipe that night he showed up."

"Pinkie..." Facehoofed Rainbow. "Just because he had a book with a cake recipe you like, that doesn't mean anything."

"Well, Ah know the first place we could check fer him," said Applejack, getting the conversation back on track. "Remember Ah saw him hanging around Cloud Kicker the other day. Might be a good place to start."

"I'll go check that out," Rainbow volunteered.

"Now RD," said Applejack. "Ah know yer still awfully sore bout him kickin yer flank, but ya shouldn't go picking another fight. Especially if he's as dangerous as all that. You shouldn't go alone."

"She wont be... Alone... I mean," said Fluttershy, breaking her silence she'd kept up to this point. "Eep," she flinched once all eyes landed on her. "I'm going with her. Besides, Cloud Kicker may have a bit of a temper but Blossomforth's a bit on the shy side. It would make her really uncomfortable to have so many ponies show up all at once."

"That's not a bad idea," said Twilight. "We can cover more ground that way. I'll go check..." She staggered a bit, shaking her head in an attempt to dispel a light dizziness that took her over for a moment.

"Darling, are you quite alright?" Asked Rarity, looking concerned.

"I think so," said Twilight. "I'm not sure what that was just now."

"You've had a bit of a traumatic day, Twilight. You should probably go to the hospital and have them check you out, just to make sure you're all right," said Rarity

"I'll be fine, Rarity. I just..." She started, only to be cut off.

"No buts," Rarity cut in. "As important as it is to find out what is going on, it's equally important that you take care of yourself."

Twilight looked to her other friends for support only to find them all nodding along with Rarity.

"Don't you worry yer little head, Twi," said Applejack. "Me and Pinkie can look around the town, see if we stumble cross anythin. Ah need to find where mah brother's run off to anyway. He went to do a delivery this mornin and Ah ain't seen him since."

"Just be careful," said Twilight as Rarity started herding her in the direction of the hospital. "If anything happened to you girls, I don't know what I'd do."





"As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with you Miss Sparkle," Doctor Horse said as he looked her over.

"Are you sure?" Asked Twilight. "I don't usually get lightheaded like that."

"You have been through a particularly traumatic experience today," Rarity offered. "It might just be stress."

The doctor shined a small light into her eyes as he inspected her pupils, "that would be my prognosis. Excessive stress can have that effect on some ponies and you do have a history of letting stress get the better of you. Tell me, princess, are there any gaps in your memory?"

Twilight thought it over, "no, I don't think so. Unless you count the time I was unconscious."

"Then as far as I can tell, you're in perfect health." He put his light away and scratched away at a clipboard. "I'll be perfectly honest with you, we don't have any records on what an alicorn can be afflicted by, what they're sensitive to, or even if they have any unique allergies."

Twilight shook her head, "sorry. I don't really know any of that." Twilight thought it over for a bit, "maybe I should ask the princess about this. Oooh," she started getting excited. "Maybe I could start my own study on it."

"I'm sure that would help at some point," said Doctor Horse. "We can always use more ponies adding to the studies of medical science."

"I'll think about it," Twilight scratched her head. "Princess Celestia has kept me pretty busy lately learning about castle politics."

"I see. Well, I'm sure she knows best. Now if you excuse me, we've had a very busy day." He turned to leave and made it a few steps to the door before he seemed to get lost in thought. "Actually," he said, turning back again. "Maybe you could help us with something."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "what is it?"

"We've actually been spending the better part of the day making sure we didn't have a new disease on our hooves. We have an unusual patient in today and we were just about to contact the family about him now that we know it's not contagious." He explained.

"Oh? Anyone I know?" Twilight asked.

The doctor nodded as he led her down to a room at the end of the hall, "we had an out of town physician drop him off this morning. No one I recognized, but he was a bit unusual himself."

"How was he unusual?" Asked Rarity who was still tagging along.

Doctor Horse raised an eyebrow as he looked back at them, "he smelled like he had been smoking. It's very unusual to find any ponies in our line of work that would do that to their own bodies. Here we are," he said as he opened a door at the end of the hall.

He led them in to a bed with a curtain draped around it, "we're completely stumped as to what has happened to him. It's most likely magical in nature." He then pulled back the curtain.

A shocked gasp escaped both of the mares as they saw the stallion on the bed. His large frame was unmistakable, but his colors... It was like something had drained all the color out of him, not even sparing his cutiemark.

Applejack's older brother, Big Macintosh, lay unconscious on the bed in front of them.