Old Wrath

A strange smell catches my attention, it is kind of musty, but somehow strangely familiar to me. I open my eyes and find myself in a dark and cold cavern. The ceiling is filled with stalactites while some of the stalagmites on the ground are broken of, forming a trail.

I choose to follow it and after some minutes I can see what seems to be an exit. In hope that I could leave this place I run as fast as I can towards it, but as I reach it I have stop abruptly. In front of me is a giant abyss in another cavern. Slowly I walk to the edge to dare a glance. I can't see through the fog on the ground, but then I notice a small greenish glowing point in it. I try to figure out what it could be, but then the greenish glowing point suddenly starts growing. It's getting bigger and bigger until the hole ground is filled in green light.

"What is this place?" I whisper to myself.

Suddenly I hear a distorted female voice behind me. "Don't you recognize your family, Storming?"

I turn around, but before I can see the source of the voice, I wake up sitting in my bed. Being all sweaty and panting heavily I look down on my hands, only that one of them ain't a hand anymore, my left hand was replaced by a black hoof!

With widened eyes I roll up my left sleeve.

No, nonono, not now!

My arm ... it ... it is full of holes.

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It was a rather normal morning this day for me. I woke up shortly after princess Celestia rose the sun and started to feed my animals. It was quite nice outside. The sun shone bright and the sky was clear of clouds.

After I checked on everyone of my little friends and ascertained that they all got their breakfast, I went back into my cottage to make myself breakfast, too.

Just after sitting down on my sofa and taking a sip from tea, I notice Angel coming into the room. He runs directly to me, jumps on the table and drags on my hoof.

"Fast, come out!" He says panicky.

"What is it? Did something happen?" I ask while I follow him to the door.

"In the sky ... falling down!"

After we reach the doorstep Angel turns to me again and points with his right paw into the sky.

My eyes widen in shock. "Oh my ..."

He meant the Zephyr. She's falling down from the sky with its front ahead.

"Oh my ... oh my ..."

Unable to move I look at her while she is coming closer and closer to the ground, but then suddenly a black aura surrounds her and stops her close above the ground.

I look to Angel, who hid huddled and completely frightened behind my hoof. "Angel, I want you to wait here. I need to help Storming."

Suddenly all the fear in him seems vanished and he moves next to me to salute me.

I fly as fast as I can to the Zephyr where a group of ponies already rallied round her, shouting in a mix of anger and fear. As I reach the scenery Twilight was already there together with the rest of my friends.

"Oh thanks Celestia, that you're hear, Fluttershy. We could really use your help." Twilight says as she approaches me. "Could you go into there and look for Storming while we try to calm down this angry mob?"

I nod and fly into the the airship.

"Storming?" I ask while hovering on the bridge. My attempts to land fail. The airship's nose was still leaning to the ground and so I can't get a good grip on its floor.

After waiting in vain for an answer I fly into the rear section. There are some books lying on the ground and the door at the end is wide open. I fly closer to it and to take a look into the room behind it. What I see there seriously worries me. The hole rooms is an absolute mess.

"Storming, are ... are you okay?" I ask carefully.

"I'm up here, in the engine room." A voice answers from behind.

After following the stairs I approach the engine room, where I finally encounter Storming who somehow stands perfectly perpendicular to the ground, even despite the fact that the ship is tilted by almost 45 degrees. He is working on the terminal in front of the crystal with his left hand in a pocket of his long coat, while a strange black fog is flowing from the crystal to his horn. The air in the room is filled with all kinds of tools, which are working on the conduits and gears around us. They are all surrounded by a black aura, the same aura that surrounded the airship and, as I notice now, Storming's horn too. On the opposing side of the crystal is something that wasn't there yesterday, a light pillar.

"Hey Fluttershy." He says keeping his gaze on the terminal with drops of sweat are running down his face.

"Hello Storming ... ehm ... is everything alright ... I mean you ... eh ..."

"I almost crashed? Yeah ..." He scratches the back of his head."... What you see there on the other side of the crystal is the portal to my library. I opened it this morning and drew too much power of the systems of the Zephyr in the process, which caused a complete shut down." He explains, still not facing me.

"So, you are okay?"

"Yes, yes, I only need to get this thing working again ..." He answers sounding more and more impatient with every word. "... this tiny, annoying, god damn piece of JUNK!" Suddenly he punches with his both fists on the terminal. "Now work again, I don't have the time for this!" He yells at the machine while he strikes out with his left arm.

I run over to him and grab his arm before he smashes the machine. "Stop it, Storming, calm down!" I beg him as suddenly the machines around us start working again and move the ship into a horizontal position.

Some seconds later he lowers his left arm again. In this moment I notice something strange on him.

"Storming, what ... what happened to your hand?" I ask after I land while still holding his new black hoof.

"I explain it on the way." He says before he walks to the portal, where he turns around and motions me to follow before he disappears in the light pillar.

I go to the portal but hesitate to walk through it. Cautiously I move my right hoof closer to it as suddenly a hand appears out of the portal, grabs my hoof and drags me, while I let out a loud "Eeeek!"-noise, into it.

"Sorry, but I'm running out of time." I hear Storming saying to me while my eyes are adjusting to the bright light of the new place.

After blinking multiple times I can finally examine my new location.

"Wow!" Is the only thing I can say in this moment.

We are standing on a hovering metallic platform which is connected by long trail to a wall in the middle of a huge hall.

As I look down I see very far in the distance under our platform a square ground made of some kind of bright grey stone. In its middle stands a gigantic Ichor crystal, which reaches into the air even beyond our platform, while the rest of the ground is filled with bookshelves as high as a house. In the walls is a trail, which stretches from the ground up to the ceiling and is filled with additional bookshelves. As my gaze wanders along it I notice that the walls are not completely perpendicular, causing the room to become wider to the top.
The ceiling is made from the same material as the ground and has a big hole in its middle. On top of the hole is a glass dome, which is partly covered by sand. From there goes a small metallic trail which connects it to the upper end of the trail in the wall.

With a flash we are suddenly between two rows of bookshelves.

"Have you built this all by yourself, Storming?" I ask him.

"Only some parts of it. Most of it was already there when I found this place." He answers hastily while he runs along the bookshelf. "Be ... Bi ... it has the be here somewhere." He turns away from the bookshelf and turns to me. "Fluttershy, search for a book with beginning with "Ch" on the other side of this shelf, would you?"

"Ye... yes."

I fly over the shelf and try to find it.

"D... no." I mutter to myself before I walk to the left. "Cx? What does begin with "Cx"?

After I keep searching for some minutes I notice a shadow behind me. I turn around and stand suddenly in front of a big creature made of the same stone as the hall. It has a narrow, streamlined head with a small disk of red light in front of it, which looks like an eye and is standing on three long and thin legs, which were connected with the bottom of its head. It seems to examine me with its two, to its bottom connected, tentacles.

"Intruder, explain yourself." It says slowly with a deep booming voice.

"I ... I'm with Storming." I stutter.

"Unlikely. The librarian didn't bring a visitor since 327 year and 45 days." It focusses me with its eye. "You are an intruder, you are a thread." Suddenly its eye starts to glow.

"Storming? STORMING!" I scream in fear.

With a flash Storming appears between me and the creature.

"Leave her alone, collector!" He tells the creature.

The creature backs off and its eye seems to widen before it turns white.

"Librarian ... your return was very ... unlikely. Have you been successful and who is this pegasus?"

"This is a long story, okay? For now only have to know, that she is a ... friend and ain't a thread for the library."

"This is not your decision, librarian. The index ..."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't have time for this now, okay? Here!"

Storming rolls up his left sleeve and reveals that his arm is filled with holes, before he holds it demonstrative before his body.

"We understand." The creature says in respond before it takes a book out of the shelf with its tentacle. It open its and hands it over to Storming.

"Thank you." Storming says. "You know, what you have to do. If I fail, make sure this place doesn't fall into her hooves."

"Understood."

With another flash we are suddenly in much darker room. It does not seem to have any windows and the only light in it comes from some kind of magic torches on the walls. The room itself is filled with an endless amount of shelves which are full of all kind of stuff.

Looks more like a warehouse than a library. Comes up to my mind as I examine the place.

But what was this creature earlier and what was that with Storming's hoof?

As I continue to examine the room I see Storming searching something in a shelf filled with vials, while the book from earlier hovers next to him and is surrounded by a black aura.

"Come on! Where is it? Where is it?" He mutters to himself while searching desperately in the shelf as I approach him.

"Storming?" I ask him but doesn't even seem to notice me.

"God damn it, where is it?!" Storming shouts getting more and more nervous.

"Storming, clam down! What is it?"

"Need to find the ingredients!"

"What ingredients?"

Storming moves the book in front of.

"Suppressing Potion?" I read read from the heading of the pages. "Is it against what happened to your arm?"

"Yes."

"But what's happening to you?"

"Guess! ... What black holey creature with hooves do you know?"

Suddenly I understand. "Are ... are you turning into a changeling?"

"Exactly." He says. "Ah, there they are." He runs off to another shelf while I follow him and takes two small vials with a liquid in it and a bigger one with a flower out of it.

With another flash we stand in front of a desk with all kind of alchemistic devices. Storming grabs a mortar and pestle before he open the big vial with the flower and uses his magic to pull it of it. He reaches out with his right hand for, but before his fingers can touch the flower it vanishes into dust.

I look up to Storming. His eyes are wide open and even despite his black fur he seems pale.

"Oh no ... noooo ..." He whimpers.

"Storming?" I ask as I grab his hoof. "Are you alright?"

"No, no I'm not." He answers without looking at me before he turns to me. His face tells me, that he is absolutely desperate. "If I don't find a replacement for this flower, I will soon turn into a changeling and obey the will of queen Crysalis."

Suddenly Storming contorts his face in pain and holds his right arm before his chest, while he lets out a painful grunt. His hand is clenched to a fist as his fingers slowly begin to melt together and form a hoof. After transformation is completed holes open all along his arm.

"I don't have much time left." Storming says panting heavily as the process is finally finished.