//------------------------------// // Complications // Story: Deathwing in Equestria // by SoaringCoal //------------------------------// "Ponies, Ssseriously?" Neltharion muttered as he facetailed himself, still in the guise of a snake. He had slithered through the forest for hours and on his journey he had encountered an old castle, a peculiar tree made of crystal, and scared a various number of  mythical creatures. He found nothing odd of the forest at first, but that was until he encountered a zebra. Neltharion had prepared to pounce the zebra and eat it at first, but was rudely interrupted by it seeing him, screaming, and running off while yelling nonsense in rhymes. Now, Neltharion was very old and had seen many strange things, but he had never seen a zebra screaming like a human and running off rhyming. First he had dismissed it thinking he was still recovering from his former insanity. Then he came across a cottage with a butter colored pegasus with a pink mane talking to...animals? Urrgh... so apparently ponies of all creatures seem to be the dominant species on this world. Could I be hallucinating? Neltharion started arguing with himself in his mind whether he was going insane again, but was put back into reality when he heard a shriek. It turned out the pegasus had spotted him and had run into her cottage, followed by all the animals. Neltharion rolled his eyes at the display and was about to advance towards the town, but then he realised that the other inhabitants would probably have the same reaction. He knew what he had to do, he just didn't want to. "Of all the placess I could have been sent to, I just had to be sent to the most embarrassing one. A world of ponies... I sswear, when I get back i'm gonna have a ssseriouss conversation with my ssiblings about this," Neltharion said annoyed, still as a snake while looking at the sky like it was its fault. He moved out of eyesight and focused his magic again and transformed into... A pony.     Neltharion felt utterly disgusted by his new form as he trotted into the small village. He had transformed into an orange earth pony with a black mane and blood red eyes. Metal pieces were sticking out from his flesh, all over his torso and sides. It looked like shrapnel from a large explosion. He also had the same kind of metal around his legs and neck but there it was bolted and burned to his flesh just like in his dragon form. Neltharion was unamused by the sights of the town. It looked like a normal village, just slightly more colorful. The buildings around him were in all types of colors with all types of pastel ponies trotting around them. Pretty, but not overwhelming in any way. Neltharion also noted that the ponies had marks on their flanks, each one different. He was slightly intrigued by this, but shrugged it off as being tattoos of a sort. Seeing something glinting in the distance, Neltharion looked towards it, and caught eye of a castle made of crystal. A crystal castle? Neltharion thought with a raised eyebrow well... that's new. He kept on walking and not seeing where he was going he bumped into someone who gave a "oof" and fell on her rump. Neltharion looked at the one he had bumped into with a raised eyebrow. It was another pony. Orange, dragging a carriage full of apples, blonde mane, wearing a stetson hat and obviously female. "Hey, watch where ya go-" Applejack looked up at the stallion that had bumped into her and gulped loudly. It was the most frightening looking stallion she had ever seen. He was taller than Big mac. His mane was black as night, he was the same coat color as applejack.  He looked like he was stitched together with metal instead of bandages and thread. His eyes were red as blood. "My apologies" Neltharion said with a deep and smooth voice that sent shivers up Applejacks spine both with fear and calming her at the same. "I was caught in my own thoughts, and did not watch where I was going. Allow me to assist you." He raised a hoof for her to take. Reluctant, Applejack took it and was pulled up. The stallion had a stern look on his face. It made her feel uncomfortable. "Eh, it's okay ah' guess I coulda watched where a' was goin as well". Applejack began to stare at the stallions face with interest. New ponies in Ponyville were rare, but ponies looking like this? She had never seen anything like him. "Applejack dear, are you alright?" A white unicorn appeared with a voice full of concern. Right behind her were a purple reptile walking with the hands full of sewing supplies. “I saw you get knocked into that dirty mud and thought that I might be--” She stopped abruptly as she saw the stallion and gave a shriek. "A-a-and who might you be?" Rarity said as she looked over the stallion, while visibly shaking at the sight of him. The reptile had dropped the supplies to see what was going on and was staring at the stallion with wide eyes. Neltharion rolled his eyes at the white unicorn as she shook beneath him. He started walking over to the unicorn with a frown on his face. This seemed to make the unicorn shake even more. He stopped a few feet away when the purple reptile from before stepped in front of the unicorn. "I'll save you Rarity!" Spike yelled as he ran over and began punching the mysterious stallion anywhere he could. Neltharion raised an eyebrow. What does it think it's doing? he thought. *Clonk* He heard a yelp from the reptile, and a crack from it hand as it hit one of the metal plates on his legs. The reptile fell to it's knees and screamed in pain as it tried to move its hand. Neltharion was now slightly amused. "SPIKE!" The unicorn identified as Rarity cried as she ran over to Spike. "Are ya alright?" the orange pony identified as Applejack ran over to them as well. Spike's hand appeared to look fine, but she could faintly see the visible bone in spike's hand was bend out of shape. She looked up in anger at the orange stallion, who was looking at them with a raised eyebrow. "What is it? He attacked me and hurt himself." Neltharion defended himself casually. "HOW DARE YOU ACT SO CASUAL ABOUT THIS YOU MINDLESS BRUTE! YOU FRACTURED SPIKE'S HAND!!" The angry fashionista yelled as she walked with fury in her steps up to the stallion, stopping right in front of his face. "WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?!" Neltharion was getting annoyed by this. All this yelling and accusing were starting to get on his nerves. In his mind he was deciding if he should burn them alive for their insolence, but decided against it. He would however give them a small lesson in knowing their place. "My name is Lord Neltharious Prestor." he announced bowing before looking at Rarity with fire in his eyes. “And you will treat me with respect.” He said sharply at the Rarity whose apparent anger was replaced by fear at his sharp tone. Walking past the fear struck mare, Neltharion sat beside Spike who was laying on the ground crying. Applejack scowled at him, but Neltharion ignored it. He inspected Spike's hand with his strong eyes. It was clearly fractured. Neltharion put a hoof to his chin in thought. Dumb whelp must have hit my plating on a bad place, but it is nothing a little basic healing magic can't fix. "Besides." Neltharion turned to Rarity. "The bone is not fractured, it's just out of place." He lied. Turning back to Spike, Neltharion rose a brow as he saw the drake was trying to crawl away from him. "Now i'm not gonna lie whelp, this is going to hurt." Applejack looked at Neltharion in confusion before she realised what he was gonna do, but too late. Neltharion moved like lightning over to Spike and stepped on his tail to keep him in place. He took Spike’s hand in his hooves faster than Spike could react. In an instant, Neltharion focused his magic and with a disgusting crack and a yelp from Spike, Neltharion healed the fractured bone. Healing something with magic is a very painful process if you haven't mastered it, and Neltharion had never bothered, but he knew the basics. Healing bone was whelps play. Regrowing bone, now that's hard. Rising from the, unconscious from the pain Spike, Neltharion turned back to the two mares. Rarity and Applejack just stood dumbfounded by his Neltharion's actions. A few bypassers had stopped, and had hooves over their mouths at the display. "He will need rest for now," Neltharion said in a calm tone as he swung the unconscious baby dragon onto his back. "Show me where he lives, and I shall take him there," he said to the shocked mares. Rarity took a step back while Applejack adjusted her hat and took a fighting stance in case she needed to, but they didn’t speak. Neltharion rolled his eyes and turned to a nearby bystander. "You!" A brown stallion pointed at himself and looked nervously to some others near him who started to back away. The stallion gulped as Neltharion walked closer. "Where does this one live?" Neltharion asked, nodding at the unconscious dragon on his back. The stallion pointed at the crystal castle in the distance. Neltharion smiled to himself Perfect and began trotting towards the castle. Rarity and Applejack shared a look of slight confusion and then ran after the stallion. Twilight was in her new castle library. She had just finished reading her 28th book on Dracology, trying to find out something about the dragon that was coming, and she was getting increasingly frustrated. The dragon that princess Celestia had described was nothing like any Equestrian dragon. It was just too big and too different in appearance. Even in Equestria black dragons were a rare sight. They, as the only of their kind, hunted at night and was much smaller than normal Equestrian and Draconian dragons. Twilight was missing something and she knew it, but she could not put her hoof on it. She had studied for hours and had found nothing of even a similar being to this monster, Discord was out hunting for. She picked up the next book and began reading. It knocked on her door. "Come in," She said, still keeping focus on the books. A guard stuck his head in. A month after the Tirek incident, Celestia had assigned guards for Twilight to keep her, and her new castle safe. Twilight didn't mind, but sometimes she got really tired of all that royalty stuff. She just wanted to be treated like a normal pony, a wish that seemed to be harder and harder to have by the day. The guard spoke. "Your highness, there's a weird looking stallion here. Accompanying him are Spike, lady Rarity and lady Applej--" "Ah' Ain't no darn lady!" A familiar southern accent voiced pony interrupted him. Twilight smiled widely and laid down book Nr. 29. "You may send them in," she said, now excited. She hadn't seen her friends that much the previous weeks, other than the depressing visit to canterlot that had happened the same day, and their monthly friendship meeting. She had a lot of work to do and so had they, but that didn't make her miss them less. They need to visit me more often she thought, smiling as she stood up. The Crystal doors opened and in came Rarity, Applejack and a weird looking stallion with Spike on his back. Twilight's blood froze as she looked over the stallion. He looked like he had been in the middle of an explosion, and had used metal to stitch himself together. Other than that he was actually quite handsome and muscular, but his appearance took that away fairly quickly. She noticed the unconscious Spike on the stallions back. He was wet across his face from crying. Twilight's eyes widened and she sprinted over to him. "What happened?" She asked bewildered. The stallion put down Spike on the floor and spoke. "He's fine. I am Lord Neltharious Prestor and I will explain, but you should probably find him a better place to rest first." Twilight levitated the baby dragon into his room that he had gotten with the castle and into Spike's basket putting a blanket over him. "Explain." She said sharply at the stallion while narrowing her eyes. Normally if she said anything like that to a pony, it would flinch and look away, but this stallion simply rolled his eyes. "This reptile-" he started. "His name is Spike and he's a dragon" Twilight said sharply, cutting him off. The stallion raised his eyebrow, shook his head and spoke. "Spike attacked me, or well he tried," Neltharion said smiling at the memory. "He hit my plating and hurt his hand." he said casually. Twilight was listening intently. "Your friends, as they call themselves, started yelling at me for no reason. I gave them the courtesy of not yelling back and silenced them both and relocated the bone in Spike's hand. He passed out from the pain." "YOU WHAT!?!" Twilight screamed at the stallion. "I did what I found necessary at the time," Neltharion said scowling at the princess. First now had he noticed that she had both wings and a horn. He could feel a strong magic presence emanating from her. It nowhere near his level, but it was strong. Neltharion had cast a spell on himself shielding others from finding out just how powerful he was. The mages of kirin tor on Azeroth had before discovered him by detecting his magical presence, he was not going to make the same mistake again. "Be glad I relocated it." "I am. But that doesn't excuse you from the pain you've caused him." Twilight said with an angry look on her face. Neltharion was getting tired of this. "You make it sound as if I should care about such petty things.” Twilight was practically fuming at his words. She had met many different personalities in her life, but never one with so little respect for others. “You should. I don’t know who you think you are, and where you are from, but here in Ponyville we treat each other with respect and kindness.” Neltharion raised an eyebrow. Ponyville? How original. This purple winged and horned pony was annoying to say the least. She had a castle and guards, but that could just mean she was wealthy for all he knew. What interested him was that she had both wings and a horn. Hadn’t he seen that before somewhere? “You speak as if you have some kind of authority here.” Neltharion said.  Applejack stepped forward "She's da' princess of friendship and ya better treat her with respect." She said scowling at Neltharion. The more Twilight thought things over, the more she had to admit that the stallion had done her a favor. She should be grateful that he actually bothered putting Spike's hand back into place, although she had never heard of such a thing as relocating bones in a dragon’s hand. Dragon’s bones were much more dense and harder to break than pony’s. As far she knew, it was practically impossible to dislocate anything on a dragon. It was far more likely to break than dislocate. Perhaps she should take another look on dragon anatomy? As Twilight thought it over it seemed like a better and better idea. But first she had to resolve this current matter. "Applejack, that's enough. He's right." Twilight said looking less angry. "Thank you for relocating Spike's hand. Is there anything I can do for you while you're here?" Neltharion was a little surprised to win the argument so easily, but it seemed as if the pony had others things to be concerned about. "Yes, I need a place to rest for a few days. I'm not from around here, but i’m guessing you had already figured that out." "Oh? You're from outside of Equestria?" Twilight was now interested. She had never seen a pony from outside Equestria before, other than the emissaries from Maretonia, but they were much different, both in appearance and in way of speaking. "Equestria? So that's where I am?" Neltharion asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, yes you are. Where are you from?" Twilight asked. All of her anger was gone and had been replaced with excitement and interest. "I'll tell you some other time, now where will I be residing?" "Oh...Uhh, you could stay here?" Twilight smiled sheepishly. She normally didn't let anyone stay in the castle, but a pony from outside of Equestria? She couldn't pass up this chance at learning about a culture from the other side. "Twilight, dear? Are you sure it's a good idea?" Rarity whispered to Twilight, glancing at Neltharion. "We don't know him." "Yea' and besides, he put Spike through all that pain without any hesitation. Ah' don't like this Twilight. Ah' think he's dangerous," Applejack joined in. "That may be, but we owe him the benefit of the doubt," Twilight whispered back while smiling at her friends. "Besides, he's not powerful enough to overpower me even if he tried," Twilight winked at her friends as she walked over to Neltharion. "Follow me, I'll show you where you will be staying," Twilight said smiling to Neltharion as she began trotting down the hall, with him following close behind.