Return of the Ancient Mage

by Zoshe

Chapter 5: Whisper Wanders

Whisper lazily floated between the shelves of the archive. It really had been quite the party and she had thoroughly enjoyed watching that stallion scared halfway out of his mind by Pinkie Pie's antics. The cake had been really good too, the fairy still licked her lips at the memory of the taste. She had never been one to turn down easy sweets and frequently snuck out into the town to pilfer a few of the succulent goodies. That wasn't to say there weren't plenty of opportunities to grab a midnight snack from the kitchen upstairs. Spike was a better baker than he gave himself credit for, and there was always a jar of something hiding somewhere out of sight. It was never hidden well enough to keep her from finding it, though. This was her tree after all and she got more than a little joy from watching the dragon wonder if he had eaten the last cookie himself, or if Twilight had finally found his stash.

Speaking of stashes, Whisper sighed as she found the pile of unread books that Twilight had pulled down for herself and were now collecting dust on the floor. The girl had a habit of leaving a mess behind her, she had seen it happen more than a few times upstairs. Fortunately, she usually returned to clean it later, and if she didn't, Spike would usually come by later to do it for her. Maybe she should stop messing with the earnest little drake so much... But then she'd have to give up on those delicious cookies he made. Oh well, his sacrifice won't be forgotten.

With a playful wink, the mess on the floor floated into the air as the books shook off the small layer of dust they had gathered and closed themselves up. They shuffled among themselves before finding a shelf they liked and sliding back into place. It didn't even take a minute before everything was as it had been before the attack of the bookhorse. Satisfied with the results, she returned to her wanderings.

Whisper made her way upstairs as her thoughts turned to her old friend. How dare he make her worry?! She had seen the lights race across the sky from the north and had her suspicions as to what they were, but it wasn't until she had peeked on Twilight during a boring afternoon that she knew for sure. When she found out that her and her friends had defeated King Sombra, but had heard nothing from the pony that kept him prisoner, she feared something, somehow, had happened to him. She couldn't see how, but after several moons of silence, she had started to give up hope.

The sun was just barely peeking in through the windows when she made it up to the first floor. The main floor of the library had been completely trashed and was even now being tidied up by a Pinkie Pie, who was sweeping away without bothering to wake up. Everyone just kind of assumed that Pinkie lived parties day and night, but it was doubtful that very many knew that the "night" part of it was just her cleaning up her own mess while she caught up on some sleep. It wasn't really her fault that the ponies had partied harder than normal, it was Whisper herself that could be thanked for that.

Sure, it was turning out to be a fun party, but all it took was a little dash of fairy dust discreetly deposited into the punch before it turned into a great... no... a fantastic party.

Nothing was really safe from fae magic. Not dogs or cats, not dragons, and certainly not ponies. Not even the legendary constitution of alicorns protected them from it, as evidenced by the lampshade that had found its way onto Twilight's head and she started giggling like a maniac.

Speaking of Twilight, Whisper zipped up to the newly crowned princess' bedroom to see if she couldn't get some sort of hint as to what might've happened after Berry Punch had shown up to crash the party. She never got tired of watching that mare's antics and while her randomness wasn't as wild as Pinkie's, it had a certain refinement to it that never ceased to be amusing.

As it turns out, Twilight had somehow managed to make it to her own bed, but she wasn't the only one in it. A pair of cerulean wings were poking out from beneath the sheets along with stray bits of rainbow mane. The grin that spread across Whisper's face upon seeing this was trumped only by the joy of seeing that the young alicorn was just starting to wake up, and she was just in time for the coup de grace of this little scene.

"Morning sunshine," said Whisper as she met Twilight's eyes. "Sleep well?"

Twilight sat up as held a hoof to her forehead. "What happened last night?" She groaned as her bedmate reached up and pulled her back down, unwilling to give up the comforting warmth of another body.

Twilight seized up when she realized she wasn't the only pony in her bed. She slowly tilted her head downward to find a set of magenta eyes looking back up at her. Both ponies remained frozen for the longest time, unwilling to be the one to break the silence.

"Awww," cooed Whisper, deciding it should be her that broke the tension. "You two are such a cute couple."

Both Ponies turned beet red as a cackling fairy fled from the room and back down the stairs.

Oh, that had been amazing. She was a little disappointed that she had missed the events leading up to that situation, but that had more than made up for it. Speaking of situations, she really needed to go check up on the other one. She had caught a glimpse of the direction that was heading, but... yeah... Berry Punch happened.

She zipped all the way back down to the archive and around a few bends before she found what she was hoping for. Random Fact was peacefully sleeping in his own bed for the first time in ages, but he also had two pegasus mares curled up on either side of him. Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth, if she remembered correctly.

The fairy touched down on the bedpost, same as she had with Twilight, and watched the sleeping stallion. He had definitely had his fair share of the fun last night, if the current setup was any indication. She had always hoped that he might finally find some peace in this crazy world, but fate had a way of conspiring against him.

He was his own worst enemy more often than not. Years ago, she had warned him that casting that spell could have unseen consequences, but of course he didn't listen. Contrary to her advice, he had created the artifact anyway and then gone off wandering into the world until he finally returned years later with said artifact now missing. It hadn't taken long to see the side effects as they started taking hold. He wouldn't admit it and she had never gotten through to him, but it had left his empathy in such a damaged state, that she felt genuinely sorry for any creature that might stand in his way.

Same as with Twilight, Random began to stir from his slumber as Whisper watched. But unlike Twilight, when he realized he wasn't alone, instead of panicking, he looked up at the troublesome fairy while the other two snuggled up closer to him.

"Finish having your fun?" He asked her, a barely subdued look of irritation gracing his features.

"Oh," she said while thinking it over. "I've just barely gotten started. Just wait until next time. I'll be sure to..."

Whisper leapt out of the way just in time to avoid Random as he lunged at her. She had almost forgotten how fast he could be when he really wanted to be. He had moved like he had just been shot out of a cannon, which left his two nighttime companions to tumble off the sides of the bed in his attempt to catch her.

"Attempt" being the operative word. Not once had he been able to catch her when she got up to her antics. Not now, not then, not even if he went another thousand years of trying would he ever get close to catching her.

She gracefully twirled through the air, making a mocking pirouette as she made for the door. "Catch me if you can!" She shouted behind her, laughing all the while.

Author's Note:

First of my revisions to bring this story back down to a Teen rating.
The scene I had described before felt like it distracted from everything else that was happening and the lewdness felt a little too out of place with everything else that was happening.

Comments

[mysticbynd]

Yeah I think this edit makes the story flow better