Chapters Stumbling across the hooves of Polis' high society I'm trying to carve through the row of seats to my place. I am a bit late and the music has already begun. Maybe that's the reason why everypony in my way is so unfriendly but I would rather say that they are just a bunch of rich ass... whatever.
My gaze wanders around the rows of the concert hall. It seems like half of the city came. Well everyone wanted to see Trusty, the pegasus who plays the harp with not only with her hooves but also with her wings ... though I think of them some doesn't deserve to be here. I force my gaze away from the many ponies who blocked my way to Trusty to keep myself from vocalizing my opinion on them and let myself become mesmerized by her wonderful voice.
Suddenly a concussion brings me back to reality. I don't know how much time had passed but she was already singing another song. Confused I look around. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who noticed it. Only some seconds later a second concussion wanders through the hall detaching some plaster from the ceiling. At that moment I noticed that Trusty stopped. Immediatly my gaze wanders back to her and our eyes meet. She looked concerned and I knew very good why. Everyone knew that Polis' shield wouldn't last forever. It was only a matter of time until he would destroy it. Expectant we wait for something to happen until eventually a royal soldier walks into the hall.
"Everybody, leave the building! We are under attack!"
Before he could even finish his words another concussion ... no ... a quake wanders through the hall. More plaster falls down from the ceiling and even one of the pillars seems to be moving somewhat. This building wouldn't last much longer. Immedietly I stand up and follow the crowd to the stairs where I change my direction. I'm not following them to the exit but fight against the stream to get to Trusty. While I see her flying towards me another quake shakes the building. The already loose pillar detaches itself falling down to the ground with parts of the roof. In the cloud of dust and the screaming of the fleeing people I lose sight of her.
Barely seeing anything I keep walking. I push myself through the ponies running up the stairs while I try to ignore their wounds and the whimpering coming from the dust.
"Trusty where are you?" I ask concerned but no one answers.
I keep walking further and further while the number of ponies passing my way decreases until I can finally see the broad outline of the crashed pillar. As I get closer I feel like my heart stands still. There are some ponies lying under it ... one of it is a female pegasus.
With tears in my eyes I run to her. As I reach her I realize who she is. Using my magic I lift up the pillar and pull her out. I shake her and shout to her.
"Hey, wake up! ... Trusty wake up! Please!"
Afraid I lay her down and try to check her pulse.
"No ... No!" I shake my head. "I'm not giving you up so fast."
I tild her head backwards, close her nose and put my lips on hers to blow a breath while I keep watching her chest moving up. I pull away to catch breath and do it again. Following that I lay my hooves on her chest and compress it again and again.
"I won't allow you to die here!" I say between compressing.
After 30 compressions I respirate her again and go on compressing. I repeat the process over and over while I try to hold back the tears in my eyes.
"Wake up! WAKE UP!" I scream at her.
Too exhausted to keep going eventually I sit down on the floor and bury my face in my knies.
"Why won't you wake up ..." I whisper sniffering.
Suddenly I notice a concerning cracking sound coming from the ceiling. Looking up to it I see some parts of the roof falling down to me. I jump over to Trusty to grab her and lean myself with her in my embrace against the pillar, protecting us with a shield while the hole hall is falling down on us, burying us under it.
I don't know how long I have been there like this but eventually I feel a hoof on my shoulder. I rise my head and see that the debris is gone and instead of it a tall white mare with a horn and wings stands now in front of me.
"I am sorry." She says.
*****************************************************************
I wake up in a seat surrounded by metallic panels standing before huge windows. After examining the area around me I shake my head to become awake.
“He will pay...” I whisper to myself.
After thousands of years I am finally ready. Today I will avenge you, my beloved Trusty Harp.
I stand up from my seat leaving my coat hanging over it. That ugly thing is almost as old I ... well at least some parts are. Over the time it became more holes and patches than actually coat but I just can't throw it away. Walking around the control panels I move closer to the window to get a better look at the city of Canterlot in the far distance. It will be only some minutes until my airship "Zephyr" is in range. While my gaze wanders around the landscape me I notice the reflection of myself in the glass of the window.
“Will they even recognize me anymore?” I murmur while I turn my head examing my face.
My appearance changed much since we last met. There's not much left of the cerulean unicorn they knew. All the augmentations I applied on myself to become stronger … I can hardly call myself a pony anymore. Ponies do not have the head of a wolf or griffin claws instead of forehoofs … and they usually don't have black crystalline wings on there back. Not to mention that they aren't permanently surrounded by cold, black flames … Oh, and what I almost forgot ... they aren't bipedal.
Well I don't intend to live among them anyways. Even though I am able to manipulate the minds of simple ponies to change their vision so I look normal for them, immortality has taught me to stay alone. Sooner or later everyone of my so called “friends” would become suspicious because I don't age and abandon me when I told them my story. Well and even if they didn't, some day or another they die eventually.
Okay … that's not entirely truth. I had a companion once. Never doubting me or my plans she stayed always by my side. For that I even granted her with the gift of immortality … she was a true friend … and maybe even more.
I shake my head.
No ... no, my heart belongs to Trusty Harp and nothing shall distract me from taking revenge for her! After all the time I sacrificed I must bring it finally to an end! The thousands of years I've been wandering around this world to find a way to fight him, to have a chance against him, visiting places that even my former masters haven't heard of, learning spells of civilizations fallen long before the arrival of the two sisters … it won't be for nothing!
But even while getting more and more powerful and even immortal I had to face one sad truth … the magic of a normal unicorn is limited and would never be enough to conquer the chaos. If I really wanted to have a chance against him I had to search for a different source of ... power …
On my journey I stumbled across many magical objects. Some more impressive, some … less. But they all had a common problem. Were it staffs, swords, pieces of armor or rings, they all kept their powers for themselves. If I would lose them I would lose their power. What I needed, was something that would give it's power to me … and eventually I made a find.
After hundreds of years I was able track down the location of an artifact so powerful that even the elements of harmony can't match with it … the "Black Heart of Amanjur" or how its creators called it, “Ichor - the blood of the gods".
Now it is a part of my body running through my veins and growing crystals on my back. I learned how to control them, how to form them. With them I was able to create my very own version of an alicorn. The flames around me a just a byproduct of its constant growth.
Thinking of that I have to giggle.
Building the Zephyr made me realize how useful these griffin claws are. These five digits on both of my hands with their phanlanges allow to work much more precise. The griffins don't know what an advantage they've got with them. If they weren't so stupid they could have conquered this continent long ago.
My gaze wanders to the ground under me to a little farm between huge fields of apple trees. This had to be the famous Sweet Apple Acres.
There he is with the element of honesty, Apple... eh - well who cares, I never was good with names - pretending to help … to be reformed.
I can't help but laughing by hearing this word and shake my head.
The friendly neighborhood draconequus who just wants to help. You must be kidding me! To give this monster a second chance … how could you come up with this idea, my princess?!
I smash my fist into on of Zephyr's control panels in front of me. Taking a deep breath I close my eyes.
No, I still have to wait. I can't afford to mess this up now.
At first I need to distract the princesses. Celestia might be wise and powerful but she isn't the most inventive pony. I followed the history of her nation. Whenever Canterlot was in danger she would use the same spell to defend it. The spell I invented to defend Polis from him . When she activates it Canterlot will be surrounded by a giant shield he cannot pass. He won't be able to even teleport closer than 5 kilometer to the city. As long as Zephyr keeps firing princess Celestia has to stay in Canterlot while her sister tries to fight it off.
The only ones who could cause some trouble are the her niece Cadance and this new princess. What was her name? Twilight Spa … Spa … god freaking damnit! Yesterday I already had it ... FU! ... *sigh* ... whatever … the element of magic.
I blow a raspberry.
Magic … What could this little filly know about magic? I shall show her true magic. I just hope they don't interfere too much. I want to end my mission as the slayer of chaos and not as assassin of kings. When he's dead I will finally achieve my goal and … and … I…I don't know ...
I shake my head in anger.
“It doesn't matter! Nothing matters until he's dead!”
I walk away from the window and leave the bridge to go to my chambers.
There it is … the first crystal of Ichor … the Black Heart standing on a pedestal on the wooden ground surrounded by the bookshelves of my library. It's still looking as powerful as on the day I found it.
I shrug.
Who cares? They were probably dead by now anyways.
I lay my hand on it to absorb some more energy. A tickling sensation runs through my body while I close my eyes ... it feels good.
My gaze wanders around the room until it gets stuck on an old picture. I walk to it and take it into my hand. It was a magically created photography of me and Trusty Harp. I will never be able to meet this beautiful mare again. I still remember how I could get lost into these blue eyes for what seemed like an eternity.
“You will not be forgotten.” I whisper pulling the picture close to my chest.
Suddenly I sense the presence of their majesty followed by the Zephyr's engines becoming silent. We are in range.
“So this is the new castle of my former masters.” I murmur to myself watching down out the window. “Hmpf … pretty obvious that princess Luna wasn't involed in it's designing. ... *Sigh* ... Even thousands of years later nothing can compare to their old castle in Polis.”
I walk over to one of the control panels and mark some empty places in the city for the cannons of the Zephyr. After all I only want to distract the princesses and not to hurt their people. After finding some good places I uncloak the ship and open fire. The magical beams of Zephyr's weapons are only hitting some empty roads and abandoned buildings. No one would to get hurt.
The bombardment only lasted some seconds until Canterlot's shield was activated followed by the counterattack of her highness Luna. I look down on the displays on the control panel before me. Seems like her magical beams aren't a real threat for Zephyr's shield.
Seeing the approaching troops on their way to help her in the corner of my eye forces a smile on my face.Awwww … they are sending some pegasus archers … how cute … and there are even some unicorns on the city's walls firing on me … so adorable … and so futile …
I stop myself from giggling and close my eyes to take a deep breath.
After grabbing my patchy coat I make myself invisible and teleport to Sweet Apple Acres where I end up between some trees seeing the draconequus with the element of honesty walking side by side in the distance. They seem to not have noticed me.
Slowly I walk towards them while murmuring to myself.
Author's Note
First story I ever published. I hope there aren't too many grammatical or spelling mistakes in it. English isn't my native language.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Flying at full speed towards Discord I punch him as hard as I can into his face throwing him away against a tree. Thou it wouldn't harm him very much it was something I was really looking forward to do finally.
Holding his cheek he stands up again.
"Now with what did I deserve such an unfriendly greeting, stranger?" He asks me.
A yellow pony runs to him.
"Yah all right?" She turns to me. "Ah ain't know what's yah problem with Discord, black one, but Ah won't allow yah to hurt one of my friends!"
Discord moves in front of her.
"I appreciate your help, Applejack, but I think I can handle him by myself." He says before snapping his fingers.
Nothing happens, only a black aura forms around my horn.
"Huh ..."
"What is it draconequus? Your chaos not working on me?" I mock him.
"Really?" Discord asks with a sinister grin.
I recognize a shadow under me and look up to the sky.
Phaseshift
The downfalling house falls just through me without causing any damage. While walking out of its remainings I hear Apple... *sigh* - god damnit - the element of honesty yelling at him.
"Damnit Discord, yah didn't need to crush him with a building. Yah could have at least tried to talk to him!"
"Don't worry about me, little pony." I say before shifting back. "I am not here for talking."
I canalize energy in my hands and use it to form lighting claws of energy on their backs. Having them finished I jump towards Discord but shortly before I could hit him he teleports himself and the element of honesty away. My attack only hits the tree I smashed him against before and cuts it into two parts.
I turn around and see him with her standing on the field again. Again I jump towards him but he just floats backwards leaving me back hitting just the ground. I try it again and again getting angrier everytime I miss him until he eventually floats against the wall of a red barn.
Knowing that he would just teleport away if I try another time I teleport in front of him and grab him with my left on his throat heaving him upwards. Discord still tries it, but I'm blocking him with my magic. I form my right hand into a spear and strike out.
"This is your end, murderer!"
"Nope!"
Suddenly something hits me and throws me to the side. After hitting the ground I see in the corner of my eye Discord teleporting away. Suprised by this unexpected attack my gaze wanders around to find a big red stallion some meters away from me.
Angry I yell at him. "Stupid brute, you will not save him!"
"Nope!" He answers before starting to run towards me.
Before the impact I teleport after Discord, coming out in what seemed to be a ... library build into a ... tree? ... Yeah, looks like a tree ... huh ... cool.
After forming my spear back into a hand I start another attack while he's still suprised. Shortly before he can teleport away I grab him on his throat again causing him to teleport both of us. In the next moment we both crash through a window and fall down along a high crystaline tower. After Discord realizes he can't teleport in my grip he tries to slow us down by flying upwards but I keep pushing us towards the ground.
"Are you crazy you might kill us both ... or ... at least youself!" He yells at me.
Suddenly a portal appears under us. We fall through it crushing on its other side against a building smashing a wall of it. While we both try to recover from the impact Cadance and other one in purple land next to us.
"Leave ... Discord ... in peace!" The purple one shouts to me while catching for breath. Teleporting from Ponyville to the crystal empire must have been very exhausting for her.
"I will not allow any more fighting in my empire!" Cadance says.
"Stop interfering!" I warn them before I send a shockwave towards them throwing them backwards followed by Discord teleporting to them to help them up.
"Attacking me is one thing, strange creature, but attacking my friends is something I do not like very much." He says with a frown before shooting a energy beam at me. It just hits my magical shield without causing any damage.
"Finally ... I was afraid that was already all you got." I mock him.
We both fly into the air.
"I got a little suprise for you too." I tell him before I shoot a beam on him that he dodges.
"Then come and get me, my dark friend." Discord say before sticking out his tongue.
He flies backwards and I follow him while we both keep shooting beams at each other. Shortly after, Cadance and the purple one join us. Thou their attacks aren't very strong I try something to stop them from shooting. I form blades on the backsides of my hands and force Discord into a close-quarters combat so his "friends" are too afraid to hurt him and stop attacking me. He uses his powers of chaos to reform his body everytime I would hit it causing my attacks to miss him but at some point he isn't fast enough. Obviously surprised he backs off and covers the wound on his stomach with his hand.
Cautiously Discord takes his hand off the wound and examines it. After some seconds he gives me an angry stare. "Well, that's it, my dear friend. I am done playing games with you!"
He canalizes some of his power around his forearms and forms it into swords. Suddenly he storms towards me and tries to to hit me with one of them. In the last moment I am able to block it with one of my blades but the force of the impact throws me back.
Without giving Discord a chance for another attack I combine my two blades to a big one and attack him again with all my force. Shortly before his face he can block my blade with both of his swords. I keep pushing it bringing it closer and closer to his face when he suddenly kicks me back. Waiting for a chance for a good hit we keep distance and in fly in circles around each other.
Eventually I feel a strange sensation coming from one the pockets of my coat and pause. I grab into the pocket and pull out Zephyr's control crystal. It allows me to stay in contact with it over a far distance and to give simple orders to it. Now it was telling me that its shield would be failing soon.
"Damnit, not now! It's still to early!" I talk to angrily to myself. "Okay, then back off and cloak again!" I order it.
After that I look back to my enemies who are giving me a confused gaze. Only the draconequus seemed to understand.
"Looks like my dear princesses now have time for a visit." He say before teleporting away.
"You don't have a chance against the power of the four princesses and Discord together so back off now and walk away in peace!" The purple one warns me.
Backing off ... no, it is far too late for that now. Who knows wether I get a second chance for this. I must bring it to an end!
"We'll see about that ..." I say to them before following Discord.
After teleporting I end up in the throne room of canterlot shortly followed by the two princesses.
"What do you want, stranger?" A familiar voice asks.
I turn my head to find its source and my gaze wanders to princess Celestia walking together with princess Luna towards me. In the background I see Discord hiding behind a statue sticking out his tongue like a little kid that's happy that someone else is in trouble.
"Why are you attacking our ally, Discord?" Celestia asks.
"Ally?" I begin to chuckle. "There were times where this murderer where the biggest threat for all live in Equestria and YOU CALL HIM YOUR ALLY!?" I scream at them while point I at Discord.
"His sins were a long time ago. He regrets now what he has done and so we were willing to forgive him."
I chuckle even harder than before while I'm still full of anger. "Hehehe ... how generous of our highness to amnesty him after we had so much to suffer under him, ain't we?" I make a little pause. "DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT SUFFERING MEANS?!" I make a pause to calm down and my gaze wanders to the ground. "All the years we were trying to fight him back, to survive ... you weren't there to see it. It almost needed our total annihilation before you two showed up." I look into Celestia's face with tears in my eyes. "No, you do not have the right to make this decision."
A little breeze wanders through the room and lifts a part of my coat revealing my cutiemark, a book with a lightning, to them.
"Who are you?" She asks in shock.
I wipe off the tears of my eyes.
"Don't recognize me, my princess? Your old counselor?"
She doesn't answer.
"Though we have confidants whose opinions we appreciate we do not have official counselors. So what are you talking about, nightmarish creature?" Luna finally asks.
"But we had." Celestia says. "We had counselors ... in the beginning."
"Yes, but that is already thousands of years ago."
"Exactly." I say.
Princess Luna frowns at me.
"Maybe I can give you a little hint."
A black aura form around my horn while I cast a spell on me. After it's finished I harumph heavily until I finally speak again.
"Promise me to bring him justice!" I say with a lighter voice than before. It was my original voice that went lost after all the alterations of my body.
My voices changes to princess Celestia's. "I promise. He will pay for what he has done to your people ... done to your wife. Trusty Harps murderer will be punished."
I deactivate the spell and change back to my normal voice. "Has it finally sunk in?"
Slowly Celestia shakes her head eyes wide open. "No ... no ... that is impossible ... you can not mean ... that you are ..." She stops.
"Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I am Storming Bookshelf, archmage of Polis and your former counselor."
"No!" Luna says in shock. "What have you done to yourself?"
"This doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters now is that I will do what you couldn't." I form my claws again. "I will kill Discord."
Suddenly I am surrounded by a magical barrier. I look around and see that it is powered by Cadance and the purple one.
"Somepony help us while Discord gets out of here!" The purple one shouts.
Luna joins them strenghtening the spell.
"YOU ARE BETRAYING ME AGAIN?!" I scream towards Celestia while she opens a portal through which she and Discord escape. I try to follow them but the barrier is blocking me.
Enraged more than even before I bash like a beserker in the barrier and even shoot mutiple beams on it. After some time I realize that my attacks a futile and try calm down. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I sit down in the middle of the barrier. I deactivate all the restrictions spells I casted on the Ichor and let it grow. Slowly a dark fog forms around me growing bigger and bigger until it fills out my prison. At once I absorb the complete fog and use its power for a massive shockwave that breaks the barrier, throwing its maintainers away and destroying parts of the throne room.
"You will not stop me." I tell them while I try to follow Celestia.
A blockade?
"You can not go where my sister went!" Luna shouts to me victorious.
"Do not underestimate me..."
I cast a spell which opens a portal but it is blocked by some kind of invisible wall. With all my strengt I force my right hand through it causing lightnings around it. It utterly hurts but I keep pushing until at some point a tear opens in the barrier. I push my other hand in it too and slowly rip it open.
"No you must not go there!" Luna screams.
After the hole is finally big enough for me I walk through it.
*********************************************************
Uhhh ... this headache .
Slowly standing up I find myself in the partly destroyed throne room.
"Are you okay, Twilight?" Someone asks me.
I turn around to the voice and see Cadance standing near to me.
"Yes I think I am alright." I answer while holding my head. "Just a little dizzy."
Suddenly I remember.
"We must follow him and help princess Celestia!"
I try to teleport to her but it doesn't work for some reason.
"That won't be possible, Twilight Sparkle."
My gaze wanders to Luna walking over to me.
"My sister is now in a place only she can visit." She tells me. "Even if you would be able to follow her you would probably not survive for a very long time."
I examine the room in search for the stranger.
"Where is he?"
"He's ... he's with my sister."
"Does that mean he is ..."
"Dead? I'm afraid not but in this place my sister has some ... advantages over him. She should be able to fight him off, I ... I hope."
"Okaaaaaay." A say concerned. "But can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Who was that? You seemed to know him from somewhere."
Lunas gaze wanders to the ground.
"Yeah ... yeah we know him." She says before turning her head slightly to me. "You remember what my sister told you about Discord? How he reigned over Equestria before we arrived?"
"Yes."
"You have to know that he did not conquer Equestria in one day. It took him many years to spread out his influence over the country. In the end there was only one place left unharmed by him ... Polis, the former capital of the ancient Equestria. Protected by the shield of their unicorn magicans it stayed save for many year." She pauses. "Well ... one day Discord finally broke it and attacked the city. Me and my sister came in the last moment to draw him back and save its inhabitants, but we were too late ... Many ponies died that day."
"I'm ... I'm sorry ... Luna." I try to comfort her. "But what does this have to do with this stranger?"
"His name is Storming Bookshelf. He was the one who invented Polis' protection spell."
"What?" Me and Cadance shout simultaniously. "That is impossible! Only alicorns can stay alive for such a long time!" I say.
"Well back then he might not have been the most powerful unicorn but he was ... inventive."
"O...okay, so he found a way to stay alive for this long, but only to kill Discord? Does he want to avenge his people or what is his goal?"
"No, not ... not only ... I don't know everything about it but my sister told me that during the rescue work after the attack ... she found him under the ruins of an orchestra ... holding a dead pegasus in his hooves ... she was his wife."
"Oh my god ..." I say almost unhearable.
"After that he helped us whereever he could in hope that we would fight back Discord and avenge his wife but ... when we finally had the elements of harmony and turned him into stone ... he ... he broke ... he didn't want Discord to stay alive and pleaded us to finish him off but we denied his wish." Suddenly a sad smile comes upon her face. "I can still remember his last words to us: "I will come back." "
"Poor Storming, why can't you find peace?"
*********************************************************
I am not sure were I ended up. I see only darkness before me while I feel simultaniously a strange warmth. After I turn around I see its source.
"Beautiful ..." I whisper to myself.
Staying with its giant size before me. This is princess Celestia realm ... the sun.
Suddenly I notice something strange on me. My wings ... they are huge. In the endless energy of the sunlight they grew to massive size.
In the far distance I see something moving over the suns surface and fly towards it. As I get closer I see that it's Discord. Immediatly I shoot a beam at him but before it can reach him a eruption from the sun blocks its way and forms a protecting dome around him.
"I control this realm." I turn my head and see princess Celestia hovering in some distance. "If you want Discord you must defeat the power of the sun first!"
"Hand ... him ... out." I say to her as my final warning.
"No."
"So be it."
I fly into her direction as suddenly she shoots a giant, extremly powerful, continuously beam at me. Under normal circumstances she probably would have turned me into ashes immediatly but with the massives amounts of energy my wings are absorbing from her sun I am able to withstand.
"How is this possible?" She shouts surprised.
"Your sun is working against you, your highness."
Slowly but steady I move closer to her while my wings become smaller.
I will not fall!
As I reach her they were already shrunken to the half of their size but still intact. I grab her on her throat but she keeps shooting.
I begin to strangle her. "Stop it NOW!"
She keeps struggling but after some time she gives up and stops the beam but keeps up the dome around Discord.
Maybe I should strangle her until she passes out?
I shake my head.
Coming up with another idea slowly I fly with her in my hand to Discord's dome.
"Discord is no ... threat anymore ... He has changed!" Celestia says while trying to breath.
I don't answer her.
"He is helping us ... Equestria needs him."
"That doesn't matter to me."
"What do you ... hope to get from this, ... Storming?" She asks after a little while.
"Vengeance..."
"Vengeance ... won't bring her back."
"Letting this monster staying alive either."
"Exactly."
"Huh?"
"No matter ... whatever you do ... you can not ... bring her back. ... His death ... won't change that. ..."
"Shut up! I have nothing left if I don't do this."
"What do you have left ... if you do it? ... Tell me."
"I ... I ... don't ... just shut up!"
"The only thing ... you will achieve ... is to harm ... Equestria ... and its ponies!"
"ENOUGH!"
I put more strength in my grip to keep her from talking.
What do I have left? ... Killing Discord was the only thing that gave my existance purpose.
Finally at Discords dome I give her a hard punch into the stomach. She groans in pain and the dome slowly falls apart. I throw her to the side and teleport to Discord. I grab him and open a portal back to canterlot where we come out on a square in the city shortly followed by Celestia, Luna, Cadance and the purple one. Soon after my arrival the hole army of canterlot approaches and surrounds us. I can hear Celestia shouting to me but I ignore her and encase us both with with my still enlarged wings. With the outer surface of them I can feel that the ponies outside start to shoot at me.
If she said the truth ... Am I willing to harm Equestria just for my revenge?
"Please, I am a different now, I don't mean any harm anymore, really!" Discord says pleading. "I am sorry for what I did. If I could I would make it undone but I can't. No one can bring her back!"
As I look into his eyes I realize this aren't just the words of someone afraid to die ... It was genuine sorrow.
He really has changed ...
"I ... know ... I know ..." I eventually say with tears in my eyes while I strike out. "You aren't the one I was searching for all the time anymore and it doesn't matter whether I kill you or not ... She's dead ... no matter what I do ... my actions won't change that ... the only thing I can do now ..."
I lift my wings and disable my shield leaving me without any protection.
"... is to join her." I say with a grin.
Suddenly everything feels numb.
See you on the other side, Trusty.
Becoming weaker I loose my grip on Discord and immedieatly he teleports away. My sight becomes blurry while I begin to tumble. For some reason my gaze wanders to my hoof covered in blood and wounds.
Looks like even my blood is black now.
Then everything goes dark.
Slowly I walk down the stairs towards Trusty while the people around us are fleeing in the opposite direction. They seem to scream in panic but I can not hear them. The only thing that matters for me in this moment is Trusty.
There she stands on the stairs waiting for me. As I come closer to her her gaze wanders to me and she gives me a warm smile.
"Finally we are together again." Trusty says as I embrace her.
"Sorry, that I kept you waiting." I answer.
We both look to the left on the pillar that is coming loose.
"See you on the other side, Storming."
Trusty gives me a kiss while we both close our eyes in await of the death.
"Your time still hasn't come, Storming Bookshelf."
I open my eyes again and see that Trusty disappeared and that I am surrounded by a black emptiness. Confused I search for the source of the voice as suddenly princess Luna walks out of the shadow.
"Your highness ... was ... was that only a ... dream?" I ask her.
"Yes it was." She responds calmly with a warm smile on her face.
"No, no, no!" I shake my had wildly as I remember what happened. I give her a glare so full of hate, full of anger that she even flinches a little. "You ... you kept me alive?! HOW DARE YOU?!" I scream while I use my powers to create lighting swords of energy on the back of my hands.
The friendly expression on her face vanishes and is replaced by a serious frown. "Are you threatening a princess?"
"If this is only a dream it probably won't kill you."
"Do you really think you defeat me in my own realm?"
"I'm not planing to defeat you. For what you have taken from me I will dismember you PIECE FOR PIECE WITH MY BARE HANDS!"
I jump towards her but suddenly the hole scene vanishes. I blink with my eyes and find myself in a dark room. As I finally manage to keep them open I begin to examine it. It was very small with stone walls and only contains a small mirror on the wall and the cot I am currently lying at. My head hurts terrible but it doesn't keep me from standing up. I intended to go the prison bars but I get distracted from my picture in the mirror and move closer to it to examine my face.
The flames were gone and my eyes have changed from there coal black to there original purple. Well maybe it was somewhat darker than originally which was probably caused by the rests of Ichor in my blood.
The Ichor...
I turn my head and take a look on my back. Unbelieving of what I am seeing I turn my back to the mirror to get a better look at it.
"My wings..." I murmur to myself.
They were gone, only their holes in my coat remained ... next to the many, many other holes.
"Probably must have used all it to regenerate."
"Hey Clover, get the princess down here! He's awake." A voice suddenly brings me back from thoughts to the real world.
It was a guard standing behind the prison bars shouting to someone.
"That won't be necessary." I say before trying to teleport out of my cell which for my surprise doesn't work. out of curiousity I try to lay my hand on the bars but some kind of magical force field flickers up and stops me.
"Sorry, but the princess ordered precautions. You won't get out of there by your own."
"We'll see."
I form my swords and bash into the field but after some futile hits I begin to tumble and have to stop. To keep myself from falling I lean myself against one of the walls.
"You alright?" The guard asks.
"Yeah ... just a little dizzy." I answer panting heavily and walk back to my cot to sit down on it. "I think I rather wait for her."
Escaping or even fighting the princesses is probably not possible at this moment and with this low amount of power it seems like I'm not going anywhere soon. What I need is some kind of energy source I could harvest but while I study the room I can't find anything suitable. I don't even have windows, so sunlight is not an option. Maybe the guards?
I shake my head.
"No, they don't deserve something like that ... but maybe ... hm ... yeah that could work." I murmur to myself while I feel a sinister grin forming on my face.
*****************************************************************
"I know that this is very much I am asking you for, but you two are probably the only ones who can help him." Celestia says while we walk down the stairs to the old dungeon under the castle of Canterlot.
"I will try whatever I can pri... Celestia but I can't promise anything ... even if that means that he might ..." Twilight suddenly stops her words and turns her head to me. "What do you think, Fluttershy?" She asks me. "Are you alright? You have been very calm ... even ... even for your standards."
"Uhm ... I don't know ..." I stutter. "I really want to help him but I'm so afraid. What if we fail?"
"Try better not to think about that too much, my little pony." Celestia says with a calming voice. "You are only trying to help. If you wouldn't he would probably kill himself immediately after we set him free. So every minute you keep him here is a win, okay?"
"Okay." Me and Twilight nod though I'm not really convinced by her words.
As we reach the end of the stairs we walk into a dark long stony corridor. The only light sources in it were some torches on its wall. As we go farther along it, it seems to become colder and colder with every step.
Suddenly Celestia stops and as she breaths out her breath becomes a visible fog in the cold air.
"It's not supposed to be this cold down here." She says.
A guard is running in our direction. "Your highness, the prisoner, he is casting some kind of spell!"
He gestures us to follow him and so we do. Coming closer to the prison cell I recognize ice on the ground and the walls and try carefully not slip and fall.
Arriving at it I see a strange creature in it. It was holding a glowing orb in its bird like hand before its chest while fog coming from all over the place streams into it.
"Hello, your highness." The creature says while its blue eyes over its wolf muzzle slowly turn coal black.
"Storming, what are you doing there?!" Princess Celestia asks angrily.
"Harvesting..."
Suddenly the orb disappears and the creature takes down its hand.
"My ... resurrection was rather exhausting. The thermal energy of this place must be enough for the moment ... though the life energy of your guards was also rather ... tempting." The creature said with a sinister grin on its face causing a shiver to run down my spine. "But now you're here tell me one thing ... WHY AM I STILL HERE?!" The creature punches with extreme force with its fist against the barrier causing the hole building to quake and some dust to fall of the ceiling.
"You are here because I won't allow my soldiers to help you committing suicide!"
"Then set me free and let me do it by myself!"
"I will, but first you have to listen to me. I want to give you an alternative."
The creature sceptically raises a brow. "I'm listening."
"I won't force you to stay alive, but if I shall set you free, you have to promise me, that you will give us time to show you, that you still can find happiness and a purpose in this world."
The creatures folds its arms, turns away from us and walks to wall on the opposite site of the cell.
"Two weeks." It says after some time. "I will give you two weeks to ..." It slowly turns back to us and gives us a mocking grin . "... convince me." Its face suddenly becomes serious again. "After that I will do whatever I desire."
"Well then let me introduce you to my two companions..."
"Oh I think I know them already." The creature points at Twilight with its index finger. "You are the wielder of the element of magic. Twi ... " His gaze wanders along the ceiling. "Twilight ... ehhhhh ..."
"I am Twilight Sparkle." She says friendly.
It faces her again and punches with its right fist in its left palm. "Sparkle! I had it on my tongue!" It shouts excited.
Now it points at me. "And you must be the wielder of the element of kindness ... " It is making a pause. "...ehhhh..."
I really want to give him a hint, but I don't dare to interrupt him.
"Her name is Fluttershy and yes, she is the wielder of the element of kindness." Princess Celestia says at some point.
The creature scratches the back of its head while looking to the ground murmuring to itself. "Fluttershy ... Fluttershy ... " It faces me again. "Okay ... I will try to remember that but I can't make any promises. I'm really bad with names."
"My little ponies that is Storming Bookshelf, former archmage of Polis and curator of me and my sister."
"And present prisoner of yours." Storming adds with frown on his face.
"Oh, of course." A greenish aura surrounds princess Celestia's horn and the prison door before it goes open.
Slowly Storming walks out of his cell, but before Celestia could say something he snips and disappears.
"Did he really trick us so easily?" Twilight asks.
"I'm afraid yes." Celestia answers with a sad face.
Suddenly Storming reappears next to us holding a cat in his arms and recognizes our surprised face. "What? I had to get Bunky." He pets the cat on its head. "Had to leave that little guy back in a village before my attack."
Twilight rolls with her eyes. "You could have said something."
"Oh ... yes ... I'm not used to have other ponies around me." He answers with a sheepish grin.
"Wait a moment." Princess Celestia says while she moves closer with her face to Bunky. "You aren't really telling me that this is ..."
"Yes he's still the same tomcat as you met him the last time."
"Miau!"
Amused Celestia chuckles. "Of course ... with all you achieved an immortal cat is really no surprise."
After Storming sat down Bunky on the ground we walk together out of the dungeon.
"So, what now?" Storming asks after some time.
"Well we thought, that it might be better if you would come with us back to Ponyville and live there for some time with us." Twilight says.
"You could stay at my place until you find something for yourself. " Oh my ... was I too loud? "... if that is okay with you."
"Oh, thanks but I think that won't be necessary."
Suddenly he stops. As I look to him I see his eyes widened while he is searching desperately for something in his pockets.
"What are you searching?" Twilight asks.
"Something very important." Storming answers concerned.
Eventually he pulls out a violet crystal. He holds it before his body as it vanishes into dust.
"What was that?" Twilight asks.
"The control crystal." He says shocked while looking on his now empty hand. His frightened gaze wanders to us. "Have you seen my airship somewhere?"
*****************************************************************
"Which direction now?" Storming asks panting heavily as he sees that the corridor we are running along splits up in front of us.
"Left!" Princess Celestia shouts to him.
We fly as fast as we can along the violet carpet and white wall of the corridor but even with Storming now bound to the ground we are barely able to follow him.
Next to mine a flash of light attracts my attention, but as I look in its direction, I can't see anything that might have caused it and turn my face back to Storming before us, where I recognize Bunky sitting on his shoulder.
"Your cat is able to teleport itself?" Twilight shouts.
"Ehhh ... yes." Storming answers.
I can hear Twilight murmuring next to me. "You must be kidding me."
"And he is a tomcat!" Storming shouts back at her.
"Now could you finally slow down Storming?!" Celestia shouts to him. "It is still some time until the night. My sister probably isn't even awake by now."
"Oh I am very sure that she is already awake ... or that she has nightmares of me." Storming answers murmuring the last part.
"Why would you know that? What have you done?" She asks in a concerned tone.
"I might have said to her in my dream that I would ..." Stormings becomes quieter and quieter with every word until his voice is almost silent and gives the princess a sheepish grin. "... dismember her piece by piece with my bare hands."
"You have what?!" Celestia asks angrily.
Storming explained us that the crystal that vanished before was his connection to the airship he used to distract the princesses. Without it he wouldn't be able to track it down. Now he hoped that princess Luna might have seen where it was heading after it broke off the attack.
"But why do we have to run like that? What could be the worst to happen if we find it later?" Twilight asks to change the subject and defuse the situation.
"Three thing." Storming raises his left hand over his shoulder keeping it closed before he points out with his index finger. "First thing: It might be dangerous for the one who finds it. The Ichor is absolutely poisonous if you don't know how to use it." He adds his middle finger to his index finger. "Second thing: It could be a threat for hole Equestria. If someone manages to control the Ichor and/or the Zephyr he or she would become extremely powerful." He adds his ring finger. "Third thing: I need its power to activate a portal to my home!" He says before he takes his hand down again.
"Wait a moment. You managed to teleport from Ponyville to Crystal Empire, from there to Canterlot and even to the sun! Why would you need a portal?" Twilight asks him.
"A: The sun was a hole different thing. B: My home is very ... very ... very far away from here and C: Do I look as powerful as you as I was when we first met?" Storming says pointing with his thumb on his back.
We end up in a small round tower with almost endless wooden stairs attached to its stone walls. They had small windows in equal distance to each other all along the stairs spending the only but sufficient light in the room.
"Up there?" Storming asks pointing upstairs.
Celestia nods. "Yes, my sister should be up there in her chambers."
"Okay." He says as he slowly bends his knees like he was preparing for a jump.
Slowly a skeptical frown forms on princess Celestia's and Twilight's faces as they look to each other.
"What are you doing?" Twilight asks.
"Aiming." Storming says before he jumps upstairs. I follow him with my eyes and see him jumping again and again from one side to another of the tower while he keeps ascending the stairs. After he finally reaches the top of them and stops I look down to the others around me.
"Was that really necessary?" Twilight shouts irritated to the top.
"Ehhh ... no ... but it was at least faster than walking." Storming says in response.
"Grhhh!" Twilight grunts while glaring angrily at him forcing me and princess Celestia to giggle.
"Come my little pony." Celestia says laying her right wing on Twilight's back. "Let him do it his own way."
Twilight sighs. "Okay." She says before we follow Storming to the top of the tower.
As we reach it Storming awaits us already leaning with his back against the wooden balustrade of the little platform in front of the door to princess Luna's chambers. Startled I look down the stairs. The balustrade follows them down to the ground.
"How could you jump so easily with the balustrade in the way?" I ask him.
Storming stops leaning against it and turns in our direction before he reaches out with his right hand to it.
"Phase shift." His hand just goes through it. He moves repeatedly up and down but everytime it just goes through.
"And what did prevent you from walking to my sister?" Princess Celestia asks with a mocking grin on her face.
Storming puts his hand down again. "Ehhh ... I think it might be a bit ... safer if you would go in there first." He says nervously.
Princess Celestia rolls her eyes before she walks to the door and knocks on it.
"Come in." A voice answers from the other side.
Celestia opens the door and walks in shortly followed first by Twilight and then me. On the floor of the room we enter lies a maroon carpet. The place itself isn't as big as I have imagined but this makes it somehow cozy I find and it seems like it offers everything a princess could need in her private time. On its right stands a big luxuriant bed next to a window in the dark stone wall while a bit left to it a giant bookshelf begins which stretches to the other side of the room where a little seating area, containing corner bench and two chairs around a small table, is installed next to a glass door to a balcony between two windows.. On the opposite wall to the bookshelf stands another line of bookshelves which stretches to the door we went through to enter the room. Next to it on the right side is another door but it is closed preventing me from seeing what lies behind it.
As I study the the palatial looking room I get the feeling that something is missing ... or better someone.
"Where are you, my sister?" Celestia asks.
"Here!" A voice answers before suddenly the closed door opens revealing princess Luna in the bathroom. "What is it that you come to me so early?" She asks as she enters room.
A warm smile forms across her face as she notices me and Twilight. "Oh hello, my little ponies, what brings you to me?"
Me and Twilight bow for her. "Greetings princess Luna." We both say.
"Good morning your highness." A male voice adds shortly followed by the vanishing of princess Luna's smile.
I turn around and see Storming behind me entering the room.
"Why did you bring him here?" Princess Luna asks her sister while she keeps her eyes at Storming. "Do you want to continue what you have started, Storming?"
Storming clears his throat. "Your highness though I like a challenging fight, I am here to ask for your help."
Celestia stares at him. "And?"
Storming sighs and rolls with his eyes. "And I hereby sincerely apologize for threatening you." He says with monotone voice.
"Well though we aren't exactly convinced by the genuineness of your words we are willing to accept your apology." Princess Luna says. "So how can we help you?"
"Have you seen where my airship was heading after the fight?" Storming asks before he walks over to princess Luna.
As they both walk together with princess Celestia to the balcony to discuss the expected position of his airship, Bunky hops of Storming's shoulder and teleports away mid air. I search for him in the room and find him strolling along the top of bookshelves in front of us. As he reaches their end he looks down to Luna's bed before teleporting down to it to lie down on it.
Suddenly Twilight's voice attracts my intention. "Is it just me or does Storming's tail look exactly like Luna's?" She whispers into my ear.
Confused I turn my face to Twilight. "I ... I don't know."
Out of curiosity and probably because we don't have anything better to do at the moment, we sneak closer to them to get a better look and indeed they look very similar. Storming's tail has exactly the same form and color of Luna's, it almost even looks like they are blowing in the wind synchronous. The only difference I can tell is that instead of the night sky on Luna's tail, his was most of the time just black with a lightning between some clouds from time to time looking like a thunderstorm in the night.
"Yes, it really does look like princess Luna's." I say to Twilight.
Suddenly princess Luna turns around. "Have I heard my name?"
Oh my ... was I too loud?"
Me and Twilight look in each others faces as we got caught.
"Ehm ... it's nothing ..." Twilight says quietly. "... we just saw your tail next to Storming's and ... were a bit suprised."
Suddenly Storming covers his tail with his hands and turns his back away from us while princess Celestia and Luna keep their skeptical gaze on it.
"Storming ..." Princess Celestia begins. "... is there any particular reason for that?"
"Ehhh..." Storming's looks wanders to the ground while he nervously fidgets around with his index fingers. "... it might be caused by one of the ingredients of my ... immortality potion ..." He says with a sheepish grin on his face becoming quieter and quieter with every word.
"Uh-huh? And that ingredient is what?" Celestia asks.
Storming gives out a heavy sigh and moves his head into the back. "Okay." He looks forward to us again while me and Twilight walk at the balcony to the rest of the group. "Let me explain what it takes to become immortal without turning into an alicorn." Storming holds his hand before his chest with its palm to the top. A black aura forms around his horn followed by a picture showing multiple flowers and herbs appearing over his hand. "Like all mighty potions it needed some rare plants of course."
"I don't recognize any of these." Twilight says.
"Yeah they are all extinct by now." Storming says. "But the main ingredients were something more special. To give its user immortality it needed parts of three different immortal creatures."
I already expect something bad and by the looks in the faces of the rest of the group, I am not the only one.
The picture changes to a giant brown wolf standing in a forest.
"The first I found was Tiberius the guardian of Greenwood. You don't have to know this place. It was destroyed long ago." Storming makes a pause and looks in our faces. "What? It wasn't me? I wasn't even close to kill him. I got lucky that I survived my encounter with him. The best I could do was to punch him one of his teeth out, grab it and run for my live."
The picture over his hand vanishes and is replaced by an giant skeleton of a bird like creature. "The second one was way more easier because its owner was already long dead ago. A hand from the Allmother - mother of all griffins."
Suddenly the picture vanishes completely and Storming takes his hand down.
"And third one ... ehhh ... you know ... as mage and alchemist you tend to ... collect everything that looks like it could be useful one day." Storming looks into Twilight's face. "Isn't that right, wielder of the element of magic?"
"Ehh ... yes, yes ... I have indeed a big collection of magical ingredients I found over the time, too." Twilight says.
"Well then tell me, in all the time you spent along the princess, did it never occur to you that parts of her might become in handy?"
Suddenly Twilight becomes absolute silent while her face turns almost crimson.
"Twilight?" Celestia asks concerned.
"What? Alicorns are a miracle. Everything of them filled with magic. You never know if you might use some of it one day!" Twilight argues.
"Exactly." Storming says.
"But how?" Princess Luna asks.
"Do you really want to know how I collected parts of your body?" Storming eyes widens excited. "Wait that remembers me of an old story." Storming says pointing wildly with his index around. "I once met a merchant that claimed to sell alicorn parts. He got absolutely everything you could imagine in his store but the best was ... " Storming began to chuckle. "... he sold alicorn ... excrements!"
"Is it what I think it is?" Twilight asks.
"Eyup ... he was offering alicorn poop." Storming breaks out in loud loughter. "And the ponies were actually buying it!" Storming continues between his laughter. "As it turned out he was actually selling cow pats mixed with glowing paint!" He almost collapses with laughter and had to hold his stomach with his hand. "Me and Myrrah were laughing for days! Hahahahahaha!"
"Who?" Celestia asks trying to ignore the disgusting facts about her people.
"Myrrah, my ..." Suddenly his laughing stops and serious expression forms across his face. "... no one." He says with his face turned to the side avoiding eye contact.
We all exchange concerned gazes.
"O...okay." Celestia finally says. "And why did you use parts of her?"
"Oh your highness, jealousy really doesn't suit your kind, don't you think?" Storming says in a mocking tone. "But there a very simple reason for that." He holds his index finger before himself. "I just tend more to dark colors."
We all roll with our eyes.
"Well enough of the talk." Storming announces suddenly. "I need to find an airship."
Author's Note
Sorry that it took so long and that there isn't much happening in this chapter. I try to get some more action into the next one or at least the one after that.
"Damn princesses..." I mutter to myself while I walk next to Fluttershy through the, thanks to princess Luna, which in her stubbornness insisted on rising the moon, dark streets of Ponyville. Well, I could cast a night vision spell but ... yeah ... to be honest ... it ... it sucks. It might be useful when walking through a dark cavern, but is pretty much useless when flying through the night sky.
Flying...
I turn my head to take a look on my back where two small black crystal are visible. It will still take some time until they are grown to wings again though at a pinch I still have a levitation spell.
As we keep walking our way from Twilight's library, where I teleported the three of us before, because it is the only place I know in ponyville, to Fluttershy's place, we pass a couple of earth ponies. Fluttershy follows them with her gaze before turning forward again, a pensive frown on her face.
I turn my head to her. "What is it, Fluttershy?" I ask, causing her to flinch a little.
She really is easily scared.
"Oh ... I was just surprised that they seemed like they didn't notice you." Her eyes widened and she flinches again. "Not that I have anything against your appearance ... but ..." She becomes quieter and quieter with every word until I can't hear her anymore.
"Ah ... you mean because I don't look like a pony." I say in warm tone trying to calm her down.
"Yes." She says excited before she flinches again and hides her face under her mane. "I mean ... I didn't ... sorry..."
I shake my head slightly amused about this ridiculous fearful pony before I lay my hand on her back causing her to stop walking with a high "Eeeek!"-sound.
Before she falls into some kind of fear induced coma I just start talking. "Fluttershy, calm down. Everything is okay. I know that you meant no harm."
Slowly her body relaxes and she gives me a sheepish grin. "O... okay." She says before start walking again.
"To come back to the subject: I am currently using a disguise spell so I don't attract too much attention - force of habit." I explain to her with a shrug.
"But you shouldn't be hiding yourself anymore if you are going to stay with us in Ponyville, Storming." Fluttershy says.
"Yeah ... you probably right ..." I answer. "... but do you really think it is a good idea if I would disable my spell now? Ponies are already scared of me during the daylight. How do you think they'll react when they meet me in the middle of the night?"
"Oh ... well then maybe tomorrow?" She asks carefully.
I nod with a grin on my face. "Yeah ... tomorrow might be better."
Following Fluttershy we cross a small bridge to a cottage with a roof made of grass and some aviaries attached to it.
"Is this your home?" I ask her.
She nods. "Yes."
"Huh..."
"Anything amiss?" She asks concerned.
"No ... no ... I kinda like it ... it looks so peaceful." I answer a bit astonished.
After opening the door we are greeted by a little white bunny staying in the floor with his arms folded, giving us a serious frown while he taps with his right hind paw on the floor.
Fluttershy immediately walks over to him. "Oh, my little Angel Bunny. I am so sorry that I couldn't make you dinner, but I had to help princess Celestia."
The bunny seems to be yelling something at Fluttershy.
Damn, my book with the animal language spell is in the library.
"Angel, this is Storming Bookshelf." She gestures at me. "He is going to sleep here tonight."
The bunny examines me carefully keeping his serious frown.
"Storming, this is Angel Bunny." She says.
"Hey Angel." I shortly wave with my hand.
He just raises one of fore paws in response and then turns back to Fluttershy to say something to her.
"Oh, of course. I can't let my little Angel go to bed with an empty stomach." Fluttershy answers him.
After she feeds Angel, gives me a pillow and a blanket and hides her Discord lamp, we all go to bed. Lying on the couch I try to find some sleep, but even after turning from one side to another again and again, I am still awake. I don't how much time has passed, but at some point I feel something crawling along my belly.
"Miau!"
Carefully I reach out with my hand for Bunky and pet him on the head.
"Hey, where are you coming from now?"
"Miau!" He says as lies down on my chest and begins to purr while I keep caressing him until he falls asleep.
"Well at least someone here with a good sleep." I murmur to myself.
I close my eyes and make another futile attempt to sleep, but my head just won't shut up and with Bunky on my chest I am even unable to move very much.
"Screw it." I say eventually to myself. "Phase shift."
Slowly I fall down through the couch so that I lay down Bunky carefully on it. After I am finally free I float to the side out of the couch and shortly after that out Fluttershy's cottage over to the bridge where I shift back. I land on it and take a deep breath of the cold night air.
What now? ... A stroll ... or maybe a drink? A drink would be great now.
In my thoughts I follow the path back into Ponyville.
Even if I find the Zephyr and manage to reopen the portal, what will I do after that?
I stop walking look down to my right while which I form to a fist.
All the time I wanted to kill Discord. It was thing that kept me walking all of the time.
I pull my while down and turn my head up to the night sky.
What do you think, Trusty? Should I stay here after the two weeks or should I follow you?
I let out a heavy sigh.
Myrrah might have had a point in her farewell letter ... I would perish of my goal one day.
I feel something warm running down my cheek and touch it with one of my claws. A sad grin forms on my face.
I wonder where you are now, old friend.
"Hey stranger!" Suddenly a female voice shouts to me.
I wipe the tear from my face and turn around to see a cerulean pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail standing in the light of a lantern behind me.
"What is it colorful lady?" I ask her.
"You are Storming, huh?"
What the?!
"I have seen your cutiemark during the attack." She gestures with her fore hoof on my cutiemark, forcing me to chuckle.
"Okay ... using my cutiemark in my disguise form, after you all have seen it, is, when I think about it, pretty stupid." I say before I lift my disguise spell for the pegasus. "So what do you want?"
"Oh I just saw you and wondered what you might do here. I heard you would stay with Fluttershy."
I shrug. "Couldn't sleep."
"Can't get any rest after all that happened?"
"Yeah that too, but mostly because I was unconscious for a while after my attack and only woke up some hours ago. Screwed up my biological clock, I'm afraid." I explain to her. "But why do you actually care? Aren't you the wielder of the element of loyalty? I would have expected that you would hate me utterly after I tried to kill your friend."
"Wouldn't call him a friend ..." The pegasus says shortly. " ... though I am happy that you didn't kill him. But I think that might at least tell him a lesson."
"So your credo is the enemy of my enemy is my friend?" I ask confused.
"Hm ... yes I think you could describe it like that." She holds out a hoof. "I am Rainbow Dash."
I take it and we shake hands ... or hoofs ... or both ... whatever. "I am Storming Bookshelf."
As we stop hand/hoof-shaking I ask her: "And why are you still awake?"
"I got a little ... disagreement with Applejack. You know, from the Apple family, the ones who own the farm, where you attacked Discord?"
"Yes ... yes, I know them." I answer.
"Oh ... yes, sorry about that, but well, they do make this awesome cider, but Applejack won't give me anymore of it, because is it out of the season. Gladly I know where their secret cider stash is."
I raise an eyebrow. "So you intend to steal it?"
"You can hardly call it stealing if you only drink a glass, don't you think?"
A small grin forms across my face. "Sure."
"Actually I could use a helping hand with that. Applejack installed a big lock on that thing, after she noticed that I secretly drank some of their booze."
"Well I have nothing to do at the moment and could use really a drink right now."
Rainbow Dash's eyes widen excitedly. "So you help me?"
"Show me the way to the booze!" I order.
"Follow me!" She says before she flies off and guides me out of Ponyville until we reach a field of apple trees behind a small wooden fence.
She gestures with her hoof into the direction of the trees. "It's somewhere there."
After I climb over the fence, Rainbow Dash lands on the ground and we walk together to the trees. With the moonlight as our only source of light slowly we move deeper and deeper into the field of apple trees until eventually she excitedly points out with her hoof at something in front of us. "Over there!"
"Where?" I ask confused. "I can only see grass and trees."
She walks some meters in front of us and removes some grass on the ground with her hoof and reveals a double winged door with a big lock protecting it.
"Cool." I say as I move closer to the door.
Rainbow Dash takes up the locket with her hoof. "Can you open it?"
I move down to it to examine it. "I think I have a better idea." I stand up again and grab one of her hooves.
"What do you plan?"
Phaseshift
Dragging Rainbow Dash behind me, we move through the door and walk down the wooden stairs.
"Did we just walk through that door?" She asks confused after I shift back.
"Yes."
"Awesome!"
Following the stairs we reach a small basement filled with barrels on its left and a shelf full of bottles on its right.
I grab one of them and examine its content.
"Jackpot!" Rainbow Dash announces full of excitement watching over my shoulder.
A black aura forms around my horn and the cork of the bottle before I pull it out with my magic and hand the bottle over to Rainbow Dash. After that I take another one and repeat the procedure with it before we both chink glasses.
"Cheers!" We both say before we take a big belt of cider.
**************************
"But this ... this is really the last bottle!" Rainbow Dash slurs while she wobbles from one side to another sitting together with me on the ground of the basement surrounded by some empty bottles.
"Yeah ... this is definitely the last one." I manage to answer with hard concentration before I open another bottle and hand it over to her.
"What in tarnation!" Suddenly a female voice yells at us.
We turn our heads to the source of the voice and see Applejack staying on the stairs with Fluttershy behind her and Bunky next to her.
"Bunky, how could you betray me like this?"I turn to Rainbow Dash and grab her hoof. "*hic*Run!" I shout at her before I teleport us out off the basement. Unfortunately in my slightly drunken state I teleport us a bit too far and we end up in the air where I loose my grip on her and fall to the ground while she stays in the air.
"Ow!" I say on impact.
We both hear the sound of footsteps coming out of the stash's door next to me. I stand up and turn my head to Rainbow Dash. "I said RUN!"
She flies ahead while I run as fast as I can but soon after we reach the end of the trees I hear someone shouting at us. "Freeze!"
I turn my head and get a glimpse of Applejack standing in front of the trees with the end of a lasso in her mouth before I feel a sudden impact with something and fall over it ... or at least a part of mine does ... my face hits the ground while my legs keep hanging over the fence.
Ow...
After turning on my back I crawl away from the fence so I get my hooves off of it and keep lying on the ground. As my gaze wanders to the sky I see Rainbow Dash hovering over me with a rope bound to her hind hoof struggling against something dragging her to the ground.
"Keep fightin', buddy!" I shout to her.
She gives me an angry glare. "Stop lying around and help me!"
Suddenly I feel something nudging against my right arm. "Miau!"
I look over to Bunky and pet him on his head. "Hey, little traitor."
A moment later Fluttershy appears in my vision with a concerned face.
"Oh, hey Fluttershy." I slur to her while I hear Applejack yelling in the background.
"Oh my goodness, are you alright?"
"I'm okay ... probably. Ask me when when I'm sober again."
Fluttershy offers me a hoof and helps me up where Rainbow Dash and an angry orange earth pony already await me.
"Oh, hi ... you're probably Applejack." I slur to her while I wobble forth and back.
"You ..." She whispers threateningly before she starts yelling at me. "After you caused so much mayhem and almost killed Discord, we promised princess Celestia to befriend you and you requite it like that, by breaking into my stash and stealing my cider? Is that how you make friends?"
I hold up my index finger. "First: If you don't want people to steal you cider, you shouldn't make it so awesome." I slur. "Or what do you think Rainbow Dash?"
She nods in agreement. "Oh yeah!"
"You..." Applejack grunts before I interrupt her, preventing her from venting her anger.
"Second one ..." I add my middle finger to the already raised index finger. "... I never asked to be befriended. It was a condition for my liberty!" After that I add my ring finger. "Third one: You said it yourself: You promised the princess to befriend me. This whole thing only happens on her demand and not because you wish to save me, ain't I right ... wielder of the element of honesty?" I give her a winning smile while she gives me an angry glare that looks like she would punch me in the face again and again until stop moving any moment. "And last but not least..." I add my pinky to rest of my fingers. "I think this night I was quiet successful at befriending Rainbow Dash, ain't I right, buddy?"
"Absolutely!" Rainbow Dash says before we perform a hoof ... fist ... hoof/fist-bump.
"But because I am a nice guy, I hereby want to apologize for destroying one of your apple trees, some of your fields and for drinking way too much of your cider. *hic* As I said It is just too awesome." With the last word I fall backwards and pass out.
No pony there...
Standing in the kitchen I take a look at the clock on the wall. It is already past my feeding time and everyone is still asleep.
I shake my head and let out a heavy sigh. "Damn ponies ... I have to do everything by myself.."
"Hey!" Someone shouts to me.
Confused I search in the kitchen for the source of the voice.
"Up here!"
I look up and find a grey striped cat standing on the kitchen cabinet over the sink on the right side on the room.
"Any idea where to get something to eat here? I'm starving." The cat asks me.
"Me too. You see that big thing over there?" I point at a big white metallic box standing at the end of the kitchen unit on top of a cabinet. "There's food stored in it."
Suddenly it disappears in a flash and reappears next to the white box.
"What was that?" I ask confused.
"How does this thing look from the insides?"
"It has multiple levels. I think fish was in the middle."
"Huh..." The cat says before it disappears in the wall of the box.
My eyes widen. "What the...?" I ask before I run to the box. As I reach it, its door opens and reveals the cat sitting on the grid in the middle of it with a fish in his mouth, that it shortly after throws out of it in the ground before me.
"What do you want for breakfast?" It asks me.
"Eh ... carrots ..." I answer astonished. "They are at the bottom."
The cat looks down before it suddenly falls through the grid under his paws and lands on the lower grid of the box, where it pushes out the with vegetables filled, transparent box below it with its mouth, before it pulls out two carrots that it shortly after throws down to me. "Here!"
I take one of it and look up to him. "Thanks."
With another flash it suddenly stands before me. "No problem."
It reaches out with its paw. "My name is Bunky. I'm with Storming."
I shake it. "I'm Angel. I belong to Fluttershy."
"Angel, Bunky, what have you done? This is not how to behave!" Suddenly a female voice shouts at us.
We turn to the kitchen door and see Fluttershy standing in its frame, staring at us angrily.
***************************
Soon after the two paw shaking animals notice me they teleport away.
After I close the door of the refrigerator I hear a loud yawn coming from the living room. As I enter it, I see Storming sitting on the sofa scratching the back of his head. He blinks with his only half open, bloodshot eyes as he examines the room, not noticing the drool under his mouth.
"Good morning." I say in warm tone.
He rubs his eyes. "Mornin'..."
With his now clear eyes he studies the room again.
"Eh ... Fluttershy ... how did I exactly end up in here?" He asks eventually.
"You passed out after you and Rainbow Dash drank Applejack's cider, mister." I explain to him with a serious frown.
"Huh ... that would also explain my headache." He says before his eyes widen and he looks into my face. "Oh my god, Fluttershy, I am so sorry ... I, I just ran into Rainbow Dash and - I don't know - drinking some cider sounded so good and ... " Storming says rapidly. "... and ... it somewhat escalated." He gives me a sheepish grin.
Storming notices my angry stare at him and flinches. "Okay, okay, I will atone for it and apologize to Applejack."
"You better do that, mister!" I say to him.
He holds his arm in a protecting way before his face. "I said I'm sorry. Could you please stop with this stare now?"
"No?!" I shout at him. "You could have left a note!"
He takes his arms down and looks confused to me. "What?"
"I was worried sick because of you." My serious frown vanishes as tears begin to well up in my eyes. "After all that happened, you just disappeared. I was so afraid that you would ..."
Storming walks over to me and crouches down in front of me before he lays a hand on my shoulder.
"Fluttershy ... I ... I'm sorry ... I really am. I didn't mean to scare you ... I just needed some fresh air and didn't thought about it."
I sniff and look him in the eyes. "Promise me to not do something like this again."
"Fluttershy, I promised princess Celestia that I would give you two weeks and I abide to this promise."
"But what after that?"
He chuckles a bit. "Fluttershy, you should be concerned if you get a letter from me after this two weeks. I promise you that I won't just leave and never come back, okay?"
I nod with a small grin forming on my face. "Okay."
"Is there anything else?" I ask him after he keeps staring in my eyes for a little too long.
Surprised he shakes his head. "No ... eh ... no ..."
"Eh and Storming ..." I point at the drool on his face. "You have there something."
"Ugh!" He says before wiping it off his muzzle.
***************************
"Don't you have some kind of anti-hangover spell or something like that?" Rainbow Dash asks behind her sun glasses while we fly along the landscape.
It's quiet a nice day. The sky is free of clouds and according to Rainbow Dash this isn't going to change any soon.
"I have..." I answer, wearing sunglasses too. "Its written down in one of my spell books, which unfortunately lies in a bookshelf in my library.
"Uhh... my head is killing me."
"At least you didn't need to cast magic to restore your wings with a hangover."
"Serves you right!" Twilight shouts behind us. "Stealing Applejack's cider and trying to flee." She shakes her head.
"Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash what I almost forgot: Thank you for that awesome night." I say to her.
Rainbow Dash made a frown and looked down to the ground below us.
"For that matter ... I ... I wasn't completely honest with you yesterday."
"You mean that you only talked to me, because you needed someone who could help you with that lock?"
She gives me a surprised frown. "You knew it?"
"Of course I did, but it sounded like fun and so I helped you." I look at her with a warm smile. "You don't need to apologize. It was a real funny night, I don't regret it and you shouldn't regret it too."
"I bet Applejack sees that different." Twilight mumbles behind us forcing us both to chuckle. "But what I'm still asking myself is how you got out of that basement. I mean Applejack probably didn't just let you walk out and gave you a headstart."
I shrug. "Teleporting."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" She yells at us causing me one of the worst headaches of my life. "DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS DRUNKEN TELEPORTING IS?!"
"Twilight, please calm down. You are worse than a banshee." Rainbow Dash begged.
"I AM NOT WORSE THAN A BANSHEE!"
"Actually, Twilight I already had to deal with banshees before and they weren't giving me such a headache." I say forcing even Fluttershy to giggle slightly while Twilight becomes only more angry.
"YOU ... wait, you dealt with banshees?" She asks interested.
"Yes, banshees, trolls, manticores, valkyries, demons, draugrs, zombies, changelings, strange bug-monster, giant animals and plants, pixies, pirates, dragons, hydras, a leprechaun-"
Twilight suddenly interrupts me. "Anything you haven't seen?"
Reflectively I scratch my chin. "I've never seen a bonnacon - not that I ever searched for one."
That finally caused even Twilight to giggle. "Yeah, I wouldn't search for one either."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy give us confused gazes.
"What is a bonnacon?" Rainbow Dash asks eventually.
I shake my head. "You don't want to know that."
"Believe him, you really don't want to know that." Twilight adds still giggling.
"Ooookay..." Rainbow Dash says before her eyes turn forward again. "... so how far is it?"
"We should reach her any moment." I explain.
Or at least I hope so.
With the information from princess Luna I could determine the course of the Zephyr - she was flying home back to the library. For our luck the control crystal should have triggered a complete shut down of all of her systems, so she shouldn't be gone too far.
We keep flying in silence until eventually Fluttershy stops and points at something with her hoof. "I think she's over there."
In the distance is a small plateau between a mountain chain, where a big, elongated object is visible.
"Finally! Good work, Fluttershy!" I say to her causing her to blush slightly before I fly off at full speed towards it, leaving a black trail behind me in the sky.
As I get closer to the plateau, I see a long trail in the grass behind the Zephyr with some glass shards in it. Concerned I fly around her to examine it. The black, metallic elongation of its long round rump seems intact which meant that at least the gas-bags aren't leaking and four of her five rotor seem undamaged too. Only one of the rotors on the left side has some minor damages.
After finishing my examination of the rump I land on the grassland before her, shortly followed of the arrival of the other ponies.
"Really, you attacked Canterlot with a zeppelin?" Rainbow Dash asks while her gaze wanders along the Zephyr. "I mean, don't these things tend to burn or at least loosing gas or something like that when damaged?"
"Well before my control crystal was destroyed she had a magical shield protecting her very good." I answer as I walk closer to the bridge. It's windows are broken and some of the metallic girders between them are a bit bent, but besides that, it looks mostly intact.
Inside of it more glass shards are spread over the grey metallic floor and I remove them with my magic again so that the others can walk safely.
"Are these the controls?" Twilight asks standing before one of the terminals.
I walk over to her and see that the screen of all of the terminals are completely black. "Well they were..." I tip with one of my fingers on the screen but nothing happens. "The machines are probably dead." I say after a moment of thinking before I walk to the exit of the bridge. After leaving through it, we move along a short corridor until it splits up in metallic stairs on the right side and a wooden door in front of us and another one on the left side.
"This way." I say before I walk up the stairs, guiding us onto a small metallic platform surrounded by giant gears and conducts. In the middle of the room stands a big crystal of Ichor which stretches to a huge chamber below us, which is almost completely filled by it. It is surrounded by a balustrade with a single terminal in front of it.
"Wow!" Rainbow Dash shouts out after seeing the crystal. "That thing looks awesome!"
"Is that the material you used to create your wings?" Twilight asks.
"It is called Ichor and yes I use it for my wings, but what's more important is that it is capable of using every form of energy to grow." I say standing in front of the terminal before I turn around to Twilight and give her a sinister grin. "The ultimate source of power if you know how to use it."
I turn back to the Terminal which for my surprise was still working.
"And how does it work?" Twilight asks.
"What?" I asked irritated while I try to use the terminal to start the systems of the Zephyr.
"The Ichor."
"Wrote a book about it. Lies in my library. You can read it after I got this thing working again." I answer to her rapidly to get my peace.
I can't see it but I'm absolutely she's making a pout behind me.
Suddenly the conducts around us begin to glow purplish and the gears start to turn with a booming noise.
"Great! Now we only need to get this thing into the air." I say before another tap on the terminal ... which apparently did nothing. Irritated I push the button on the terminal multiple times before I finally kick against it, which, according to the altimeter, actually seems to got it working.
"Stupid high-tech stuff. Should have used plan b." I mutter to myself.
"What was plan b?" Twilight asks in a slightly concerned tone.
"Using an undead army to fire with siege weaponry at Canterlot."
***************
"Well..." I say to the others smearing with my stained hands over my coat as I enter the bridge. "... in current state she should bring us at least to Ponyville without falling down like a stone."
While my gaze wanders around the bridge I see that Twilight and Fluttershy have put on some pullovers to protect themselves from the cold wind that blows on the bridge.
Flying in 10km height without windows can get pretty cold, I have to admit.
As I finish my thought I recognize one pony missing.
"Where's Rainbow Dash?"
"Oh, she said that she wanted to take a nap." Fluttershy answers.
I raise an eyebrow. "And where did she intended to do this?"
"Uhm."
I let out a sigh and lay my hand on my face. "Don't tell me she is sleeping on the top side of the Zephyr."
"Would that be ... bad?" Twilight asks.
"Well - besides that even a slight concussion could cause her to fall down from there into the rotor at the back - no, not really." I answer with a shrug.
With a concerned expression on their faces Twilight and Fluttershy run to the windows.
"Uhm... Rainbow ... could ... could you come down ... please?"
"Rainbow Dash come down immediately!"
Suddenly a concussion runs through the ship.
"What was that? I almost fell into that stupid rotor!" Rainbow Dash yells as she lands on the bridge.
Another concussion runs through the ship followed by a deep growl and flames on the left side of the ship.
We all share concerned gazes.
"Storming?" Rainbow Dash asks. "That shield you mentioned before, did you got it to work again?"
"Yes, but ... it's still only at 10 percent of its capacity."
We hear another loud growl.
I sigh. "Screw it, I'm going to see what's out there."
I turn around and walk to the window I cleaned before of shards as suddenly I feel somepony grabbing my hand.
"Let me help you." I look over my back to see Twilight's face. "I'm an alicorn. I'm sure I can be useful."
"And I am the one that defeated four alicorns, the master of chaos and the army of Canterlot. I think I can handle this by myself." I get my hand free and jump out of the window as suddenly I feel teeth grinding into my torso. I look down on my body and find myself in the mouth of a middle sized red dragon.
"Okay, I can not handle it by myself!" I yell at Twilight while the dragon drags me along the windows of the bridge.
As the dragon takes me away from the Zephyr I can see more dragons that fly around her while shooting fire at her.
"Let go of me!" I demand before I punch the dragon with my fist on its nose causing it only to put more strength in its bite. I grunt in pain as a sudden idea crosses my mind.
Am I stupid? I can teleport.
I shake my head with a light chuckle before I teleport myself out of the mouth of the dragon.
It turns around to face me. "You and your machine will serve our nest!" It says before it attacks me with its fire breath.
After the flame disappears I blow a raspberry in response. "I already defeated far greater ones of your kind. Believe me, you and your partners don't stand a chance against me." I send out an energy beam as a warning shot. "So BUCK OFF!"
The dragon flies towards me and hits me with its claw causing some deep cuts in my flesh, which for my luck heal immediately - perks of being an immortal. After its attack the dragon flies in circles around me and heads out for another one, but before it is able to get me, I hit it with a strong punch against its muzzle and It passes me while I follow it with my gaze. It turns around with an angry snort and glares at me.
"Still not enough?" I mock the flying lizard. "Good."
We both strike out and fly towards each other, but shortly before I can give the dragon the final hit, a voice interrupts us.
"Stop it now, both of you!"
Confused we look to the side to the source of the voice, which for our surprise was a yellow pegasus giving us an angry stare, that causes us both to flinch.
"It is enough, misters!"
"But ... but he started it!" I point with my hand at the dragon.
"I do not care who started this but I am the one who ends this ... now . Do we understand each other?"
Me and the dragon share a scared gaze before we look to Fluttershy again.
"Okay." We say simultaneously.
"Good." She nods satisfied and looks to the dragon while keeping her stare. "Well, now you mister dragon fly back home to your friends ..." Fluttershy turns to me still with her stare on her face. "And you, mister, come with me."
The dragon fies off while I and Fluttershy head back to the Zephyr.
I make a pout. "He was the one who started this."
"I already said, I do not care."
I let out a grunt in response. "I want my undeads again. No one cares if I punch them." I mutter under my breath.
After we reach the airship again we continue our journey.
Many hours later, shortly after princess Luna rose the moon, me, Twilight and Fluttershy arrived at Ponyville. Rainbow Dash already went off after I showed her and the others the remainings of my kitchen, which for her disappointment contained no booze, and asked them to tidy it up, while I would continue with the repairs.
It became very calm after Twilight left. The bridge was illuminated by the faint glow of some candles standing on the terminals.
"Are you alright?" I ask her.
She turns to me. "Yes, I was just thinking." A sad expression forms on her face. "Do you really think you should keep hiding like this?"
I scratch the back of my head. "Yeah, I already thought about that too, but I think its too early for this."
"Maybe you're right. You are new in Ponyville and probably should get to know it a bit better before you show yourself to its inhabitants."
"Oh ... ehh ... actually I meant, that we should wait for the daylight before uncloaking the Zephyr. I mean, the airship that attacked Canterlot appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the night might cause some trouble."
Fluttershy's eyes widen slightly as it sinks in "Oh, yes of course." She gives me an irresistible puppy-eyed gaze. "So would you give it a try tomorrow then?"
"*Sigh* ... We'll see." I answer slightly irritated.
Hopefully she forgets that fast again.
Happily Fluttershy turns back to the window and looks down to the ground. "Oh, we're already there." She looks over her shoulder to me. "Thank you for bringing me home. See you tomorrow?"
"Sure ... and Fluttershy, thanks for helping me finding her."
A smile forms on her face. "That's what friends do for each other."
"Sure..." I answer before I look away from her.
... friends ...
"Storming... are you ... okay?"
"Huh?" I ask surprised as she drags me out of my thoughts.
"You ... you are weeping."
I examine my left cheek with my hand as I suddenly feel something warm and wet. I take a look at my wet fingers and wipe the tears out of my face.
"It's ... it's nothing. I ..." I pause and take a deep breath. "... you know my last friend ... she abandoned me 300 years ago, after I scared her off."
"Oh my ... I'm so sorry."
I shake my head while I look on the ground. "You don't have to." My gaze wanders to her again and I look her directly in the eyes. "Believe me, she had a good reason."
"What ... what happened?"
"Let's just say, I've ... gone too far."
If you would know it, you would leave me, too. My biggest mistake - the mere memory of it hurts.
"Fluttershy, maybe we should call it a day."
A sad expression forms on her face. "Oh ... okay ... yeah, I really should head home. I need to feed my animals." She answers before she flies to the window without the shards.
Standing in front the window she turns to me. "See you tomorrow."
I wave with my hand. "Bye."
Fluttershy flies off leaving me behind with my thoughts.
And what now?
I examine the bridge. There were still some glass shards left on the ground and the terminals and some of the lights in the ceiling were broken.
That's gonna take some time tomorrow. First I have to clean up the place, all these glass shards must be removed. Then I have to get some new windows and install them. The lights can wait."
I let out a loud sigh.
But for what? Even if I actually get along with these ponies, what do I have in my live that keeps me here? All this time I had a clear goal in my mind. What am I without it?
I lay a hand on my face and close my eyes.
"Broken..." I whisper with slight chuckle to myself, before I open my eyes again and look over the bridge. "Just like you, old girl."
I stand up from my chair, extinguish the candles and walk in the back of the Zephyr to my chambers.
"I could continue with my research or tour the world or maybe help the princesses with protecting Equestria or something like that." I mutter to myself while I walk along the corridor with my gaze on the ground, before I stop in front of the door to my chambers. "But for what?"
12 days left...
I pull down the handle and walk through the door.
The room is an endless mess. I seemed like almost every book in the shelves was fallen down to the ground during the crash. Even the black heart lies on the ground together with some pictures and - my gaze wanders to my desk on the other side of the room in front of another broken window - my pens, my documents and even the novel I was reading before the attack. Of course the bookmark fell out of it during the crash and landed next to it.
I let out irritated sigh. "Oh come on..."
I decide to take care of that tomorrow and walk around the bookshelf, that went from my personal library on the right to the middle of the room, working as a room divider, to my bed ... which - how could it be any different - was covered in books and all other kind of stuff.
"Screw it..."
Using magic I levitate the blanket and the pillow and shake them out over the ground.
"That must do the job for now." I say as I lay them down again and go to bed.
Storming grabs the vials and the book and puts them somehow into one the pockets of his coat, which actually should be way too small for something like that.
"Transdimensional pockets - I needed a way to stay mobile after hundreds of years of collecting magical stuff." Storming explains before he teleports us back to the portal and drags me through it.
On the other side we almost stumble over Twilight and Applejack who were standing before the portal together with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
"So this was indeed a portal." Twilight says curiously. "Was this the reason that you almost crashed?!"
"Yeah, what was this stunt? Yah could have seriously hurt someone!" Applejack continues.
"And what is this for a terrible peace of fabric you're wearing? This is against all laws of fashion!" Rarity complains.
"Uhhhh! What is on the other side?" Pinkie ask. "I hope its an ocean made of chocolate with islands of cake!"
"NOW SHUT UP!" Suddenly Storming screams before he approaches Twilight and grabs her on her shoulders. "Twilight do you know where I can find the flower of Liguacum retusa magica ?"
"Liguacum retusa magica ?" Twilight repeats confused. "You mean nirnroot?"
"YES I DO! WHERE CAN I FIND IT?!" He yells while shaking her.
"Hey, hey, enough of that!" Applejack shouts as she goes between them and tries to drag Storming on his arm away from Twilight.
Storming lets go of her and moves a step backwards. "You're right, you're right. I'm ... I'm sorry." He says looking to the ground.
"So, what is yah problem and what in tarnation happened to yah hands?"
"Nothing if we can find the flower, otherwise I will soon be the servant of queen Crysalis."
"What?!" Applejack asks confused.
"Does that mean you are turning into one of these bugs?" Rainbow Dash asks.
"Yeah, I'm turning into a changeling. Now can we please get this flower? I'm running out of time!"
"The only place I know, where the flower grows is the Everfree Forest. Maybe Zecora has got some samples, but she lives directly in the forest." Twilight says finally.
After a flash we stand before my cottage.
"Huh?" Storming says confused as he notices my cottage. "I planned to bring us closer to the forest."
"The Everfree Forest is a magical place. Some things don't work there as expected." Twilight explains to him.
"Huh, great... well let's go. You lead the way, Twilight."
"Okay, follow me."
We march into the forest. The leafs of the trees doesn't let pass much of the light through to the ground making it, even though its only just noon, dark like in the evening. The sounds of the animals in the forest just add to the creepy mood.
"Well..." Rainbow Dash says eventually flying next to Storming before her gaze wanders to him. "... how is this even possible?"
"It's the consequence of a failed experiment from a long time ago." He answers without meeting her gaze.
"What kind of experiment?"
"I tried to create a potion that would give me the ability of shape-shifting to ... well ..." He points with his hoofs at his body. "... you can probably see why. So ... yeah ... it didn't turn out as expected. Now I turn every 30 to 50 years into a changeling and have to take -" Before Storming can finish the sentence, he suddenly stumbles and falls to the ground, causing us all to stop.
"Are you okay?" I ask him concerned.
Storming turns around and sits himself up while holding his knees.
"No." He answer before multiple holes appear on his legs.
"Oh my..."
"Can you move?" Twilight asks.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine again." Storming answer while he, supporting himself on his right knee, stands up with the help of me and Rainbow Dash.
We are about to continue our way as Storming notices something on his leg and looks down, where he is greeted by Pinkie Pie, who is pushing a twig in and out of one of the holes in his leg while letting out a happy "Uhh!".
"Could you please stop that?" Storming asks her slightly confused and surprised.
"Okaydokeylokey!" She answers him happily before she removes her twig and bounces off deeper into the forest followed by Twilight, Rarity and Applejack while I and Rainbow Dash stay a bit behind with Storming.
"That was ... strange." Storming says as Pinky is out of earshot.
"Don't be mad at her. She ... she's just Pinky." Rainbow Dash tries to explain.
"Yes, I'm sure she didn't meant to harm." I say.
"Uh-huh." He says before suddenly three big timberwolves jump out of the bushes to our right.
Before they can even land on the ground, they are surrounded by a black aura and shortly after thrown back into the forest.
I and Rainbow stare with wide eyes at Storming.
"I don't have time for stuff like this." He says before he moves on.
"Did something happen?" Twilight asks after we are united with them again. "I thought I heard something."
"It was nothing." Storming answers.
During our further trip we run in more ambushes by the flora and fauna of the Everfree forest. At first Twilight and Storming are fighting them off together but the further we move into the forest the more Twilight seems to take over while Storming is becoming more and more exhausted and kind of absent-minded. As eventually the alicorn-magic in his tail and mane vanish and its colour changes to a dark blueish green he doesn't even seem to care about it.
Some time later we are attacked again, this time by a carnivorous plant, but Storming just keeps walking like he doesn't even noticed it. After we finally have fought it off, we run after him.
"Storming!" Twilight shouts as we reach him before she takes his left roof and drags on it so he turns to us. "Oh Celestia..."
Storming is showing symptoms on his face. His right eye has a slit-shaped pupil and its usually black iris has got a greenish tint.
"What?" He asks.
"Your ... your eye!" Twilight says pointing with her hoof on it.
Rarity pulls out a mirror and hands it over to Storming.
"Huh, seems like I overestimated my time." He says almost uninterested as he looks into the mirror.
"That doesn't seem to bother yah very much." Applejack says to him.
"Well I'm currently too busy with fighting off Crysalis to care about my appearance." He answers while he gives the mirror back to rarity.
"What do you mean with fighting off Crysails?" Rarity asks.
"I mean that it becomes harder and harder for me to disobey her commands." Storming walks over to a big stone and sits down on it. "You know what? I'll do now, what I already should have done in the first place." He grabs in one of the pockets and pulls out a scroll, a feather and a glass with ink. "I'll warn the princesses."
"What do you mean with warn?" Twilight asks concerned.
"Girls ..." He looks up to us and shakes his head. "... We won't make it in time and that means ..." He starts writing on the scroll. "...I will soon become a thread for all Equestria."
After he finishes his letter, he rolls it up and casts a spell that creates a seal on it.
"We have only two options now." He holds his hoof before his chest, but then looks disappointed at it. "Oh, yes I don't have fingers, so this won't work." He takes the hoof down again. "Well, first, I move back to my library and use the Ichor I've got there to resist Crysalis a bit longer with the disadvantage, that when I eventually fall into her hooves, I will be extremely powerful. So not very good. Second option, I stay here, remove as much Ichor from my body as I can and let Celestia, Luna and Discord imprison me, when I loose control." With the last word the scroll disappears in a flash.
Shortly after the two princesses and Discord appear in a flash next to us. Princess Celestia and Luna run immediately to him while Discord, visibly uncomfortable, stays behind.
"Oh, no, it already this far." Celestia says examining his face.
"Yeah, nice to see too, your highnesses." Storming answers. "Twilight, take this here." He grabs in one of his pockets and pulls the book with the recipe together with the two vials out of it and levitates them over to her. "You'll need this. Its page 238."
After Twilight puts the book into her bag, Celestia turns around to her, a serious expression on her face.
"Twilight, you and your friends should go now. We will take care of him from this point."
Twilight nods. "Yes, we will hurry."
"Wait!" I shout for the surprise for the others. "I ... I think I should stay here. He really could use a friend in this situation."
Twilight looks over to Storming who is still sitting on the stone with his gaze on the ground and then back to me.
"You might be right ... Okay, stay with him, but if anything happens ... please be careful, okay?"
I nod. "I will."
Twilight and the others are almost gone as Storming suddenly calls for them.
"Girls ... thank you."
They all nod in response before they move on.
Suddenly I hear Storming chuckling behind me.
"What is so funny, Storming?" Celestia asks him.
"I just realized, I forgot to apologize to Applejack." He says with a weak grin on his face. "Me and Rainbow Dash raided her cider stash some days ago."
"I'm sure she will forgive." I say to him.
"Yes, Storming calm down. You have other problems to worry about." Suddenly a distorted female voice says.
Storming eyes widen in fear and he covers his mouth with his hoofs.
"Was that she?" I ask him concerned.
Storming nods with his eyes still wide open before he slowly takes his hooves down.
Ohhh, afraid that I might babble your secrets out?
"SHUT UP!" He shouts at her angrily while I walk over to him.
As I reach him I sit down next to him on the ground and lay my hoof on his.
"Its okay, Storming. You are stronger than her, don't let her control you!" I say to him.
Suddenly his eyes start to glow green and he turns his head to me with a sly grin on his face.
"Oh my little pony, I'm afraid that he is more concerned of all the things he didn't tell you than me taking over."
As the green glow vanishes Storming covers his mouth again with his hooves and turns his head away from me. His eyes are even more widened than before and and wander nervously over the ground.
"Don't..." I hear him whisper to himself before the green glow in his eyes returns and he takes his hooves down.
"Don't be so afraid, my dear Storming. I'm sure they will forgive you. After all they are your friends and didn't your last friend forgive you, too? Oh my, I forgot, you scared her off. Hahahahahahaha!
After Crysalis is gone Storming grits his teeth and stands up.
"HOW DARE YOU! I swear to you, when this is over, I will find you and DESTROY YOU AND YOUR HIVE!" He screams.
"Hahaha, what an empty thread. You had more than 400 years since you broke free from my control and you didn't do anything.
Angrily he sits down on the stone again.
Celestia walks closer to him and lowers her head so that their eyes meet.
"Storming what does she mean? Did ... did you serve her once before?" She asks him.
He turns his head away from her and does not respond but after a moment Crysalis takes over again.
"Oh how cute - the brilliant mind that even achieved immortality doesn't know a good excuse. Maybe you should just tell them the truth. Crysalis turns his head to Celestia and looks her directly in the eyes. "Does your highness want to know how we first met - me and her former counsellor?"
The green glow in his eyes vanishes as Storming takes over again. With panic in his eyes he covers his mouth again and looks away from us.
I lay my hoof on his again and look to him. "You can tell us - really. It is okay." He isn't reacting and so I turn my head to princess Celestia.
"It is okay, Storming." She says to him.
Slowly he turns his head to us. He has tears in his eyes as he takes down his hooves.
"No, it ain't ... it was all my fault!"
"What? What was your fault?" Celestia asks him calmly.
"THE HOLE GODDAMN CHANGELING-INVASION!" Storming screams before he lowers his gaze. "I studied the changelings in hope to find a away to turn back to my old form. This got me the attention of Chrysalis. She offered to help me, give me knowledge and changeling ingredients in exchange for my services. She asked me to take out other Changelings. At first it were single rogue ones but over the time the targets changed to the queens of other hives. After I ... liquidated them, she took over their hives. And after I thought I finished my potion ... I fell into her hands. She needed me to continue my research, so that she could conquer Equestria without having to fear Discord, and for ... worse things."
Princess Celestia and Luna have both blank expressions on their faces and don't respond.
"So, yeah ... I made Crysalis what she is today and I am responsible for her invasion." Storming looks up to princess Celestia and Luna with tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm sorry ... I really am. I was such a fool and thought in my hubris that I could handle - ARGH!" Suddenly he screams in pain and falls forward to the ground.
"Oh my god, Storming!" Celestia says to him as rushes to him, but he stops her with a wave of his hoof.
He supports himself on his left hoof and holds his forehead with his right hoof while slowly his horn deforms gnarly.
After a while the process is completed.
"We need ... to start ... the preparations." Storming says panting heavily as me and princess Celestia help him on the stone again.
"But before that, I want to do this one thing. Step back."
We do as he says as suddenly out of nowhere a blueish flame grows around him and forms a circle before a pillar of fire shoots out from it into the sky.
After the fire has vanished it reveals a blue unicorn with a short maroon mane and black crystalline wings sitting on the stone. He is examining his fore hooves with a weak chuckle.
"This was all I wanted." He says looking me in the eyes as I and princess Celestia move closer. His right eye is purple while his left remained black.
"Is ... is that you ... Storming?" I ask him.
"This is who I was." He says. "We should begin."
Storming holds his right hoof before his chest and closes his eyes.
Hovering over his hoof appears a small black point that quickly grows in size. It becomes bigger and bigger while Storming's wings slowly disappear. After it is finished, he opens his eyes, which are now both purple, and slowly walks with the black crystal in front of him over to Discord who is leaning against a tree.
"Hey, Discord." He says as he approaches him.
"Hey, Storming."
"Am I right, that you are the one, that brought the princesses to this place?"
"Yes, I am. Somehow even their alicorn magic didn't allow them to teleport to this place."
"Would you be so kind to make this crystal disappear? The farther away the better."
"I take care of it." Discord says before he snips and the crystal disappears.
"Thank you."
Storming takes off his coat and hands it over to him.
"I'm afraid this trick won't work on this thing, but you should be able to teleport away from here together with it."
With a flash Discord vanishes and after some seconds he reappears.
"Thank you. I've got enough stuff in those pockets to arm a small country."
"No problem."
What has happened to you? Discord - the lord of chaos, the one who ruled Equestria once - is now helping the one who tried to kill him.
After Chrysalis disappeared again everyone is silent for a moment.
"I probably really have to thank you for coming here, Discord."
"It's okay, Storming."
"Well, then there is only thing left, I can do." Storming says before he stands up on his hindlegs. A black aura surrounds his horn as his right hoof is covered in bright light creating a white flame on its end. He strikes out with it while pointing on his chest with it.
"What have I done to you, that you would go so far to escape from me?"
We all share concerned gazes.
"You might want to look away." He says to us.
"What are you doing?" Celestia asks him with wide eyes.
Storming looks her directly in the eyes. "Do you know what 'scorched earth' means?"
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.
*****************************************************************
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.
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.