The ponies blinked at this. Discord flashed and appeared in front of him. "You kinda just tore the world apart." The massive dragon blinked at the mismatched creature.
"Who and what are you?" the titan of a dragon asked.
"Well let's get to the introductions. I am Discord, God of Chaos and Disharmony... and you are?" he asked. The dragon searched his memories – he found dozens of names and yet they all were not his own. He couldn't remember his own name.
However he decided to respond with who he was now. "I am Neltharion the Earth-Warder, but you may call me Deathwing."
Twilight and the others gasped, except for Discord who whistled. He thought it kind of fit, seeing what the dragon was capable of, not to mention the sheer size. Recovering from her shock Twilight flew up to him.
"Why were you flying towards Ponyville?" she asked.
The now dubbed Deathwing or Neltharion looked over to the small village. "All I remember was pain and anger. I didn't even realize where I was heading or that I was flying at all."
He turned his attention back to the group of really colorful ponies. He couldn't quite put his claw on it, but something inside his head told him ponies weren't supposed to look so colorful. He ignored that bit of information for now and focused on the task in front of him.
"I am sorry if my awakening caused any trouble. Also, I want to thank you for helping me regain my senses. You have my deepest gratitude." He bowed his head.
Celestia, and most likely everypony else, was relieved that the dragon didn't turn out to be one of those arrogant dragons, from which existed too much in her opinion. She definitely preferred the name Neltharion over his nickname. She dreaded to find out how he actually acquired the nickname, but focused on the matters at hoof.
"My name is Celestia, one of the princesses of Equestria. This is my sister and fellow princess Luna, and another fellow princess Twilight Sparkle and finally Fluttershy." She gestured at each named pony in turn. "Both Twilight and Fluttershy are part of the Council of Friendship."
The pegasus instinctively got closer to Twilight, when the earth-warder focused his gaze on her. She had not panicked as of yet, because the dragon was so polite.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all."
"The pleasure is all ours, mighty one," Luna replied. "Though we must ask, what caused such pain to thou that it led thou to the brink of insanity?"
The dragon shook his head. "Again, I am sorry. I do not remember anything. Even my awakening is still blurry inside my mind."
"Perhaps we asked too early. Forgive us mighty Neltharion. Our curiosity got the better of us. Let us hope your memories will return in due time."
The dragon gave a laugh at this. "Don't worry about it," Deathwing said.
Discord gave a laugh. "Yes, because the whole world's been changed by your awakening," Discord said holding in his talons an image of the world as it was now.
The titan dragon looked at it. "It seems I caused a cataclysm." the mighty beast said.
"Well, you do hold the power over the very ground we walk on, so yeah," Discord said.
"Discord why art thou guilt-tripping Neltharion?" Luna asked the deity.
Discord turned away. "Well, no reason, if you ask me it's an improvement."
Twilight was the one to answer. "Don't try to understand Discord."
Deathwing still couldn't help but think: 'My doing was an improvement? But then again he is supposed to be the lord of chaos. Though if he is the lord of chaos and their friend then shouldn't... I probably shouldn't think about it too much, for now anyway. I can ask my questions later at a more appropriate time.'
"It seems your subjects are getting restless." The black dragon pointed towards Ponyville, where the ponies were watching with anticipation and fear.
"Twilight, would you be so kind as to tell everypony that the situation is under control? You can go too, Fluttershy. I am sure your animal friends are... a little on edge after everything today."
"Of course," Twilight replied, while Fluttershy let out a 'thank you', which was barely heard by the sun deity.
"Which reminds me," Celestia mused. "Luna?" The older sibling motioned the younger one to step out of earshot. "Could you go back to Canterlot and check the damage? Also send a Wonderbolt to every corner of Equestria and see what damage has been done."
"At once sister. We trust you will take care of our... guest?" the darker alicorn replied.
"Of course. I'll see you later."
Luna nodded and teleported away. Celestia turned back to the leviathan, only to find him staring in wonder at a really big stick with tons of cotton candy around it. Discord was talking to the drake.
"Enjoy it."
Not wanting to appear impolite, Deathwing tried a bite, noticing how sticky the strange pink substance was. The next thing he noticed was that it tasted like strawberries and was really sweet.
"This is... good." He ate the rest of it with a single bite.
"Of course it is! Still, Celly down there won't let me fly cotton candy clouds in the air, with chocolate rain. I mean, come on! Cotton candy clouds with chocolate rain! How can you say no to that?!"
Deathwing gave a laugh at that. He looked around where he was. "I don't think I can be anywhere in this size? Perhaps a more suitable form?" he asked, as he didn't want to cause any more problems.
"Well yes, but how could you do that?" Celestia asked.
Neltharion had a smile. "I at least remember how to do this." He closed his eyes and a burst of magic surrounded him. The magic soon became a ball covering him. As the ball got smaller a burst gave way. Neltharion's form had changed completely. He was now an alicorn. His wings were metallic and with the metal morphed into skin armor, finally his horn was made from metal as well. His mane was ethereal and had the color lava would have with heat radiating from it. His cutie mark was the very planet itself. "I believe this is better?" he asked.
For Celestia this was unprecedented. Dragon magic was based on greed and there were flames but Neltharion/Deathwing just cast a transformation spell on himself. That took a lot of magic to cast on something his size, but to do it to himself would mean he had to be a master with those kinds of spells.
In the meantime several ponies in Ponyville wondered where the hay the dragon disappeared to.
Neltharion looked down at himself and flexed his wings. "Hmm... interesting. Still (why do I have the distinguished feeling my wings shouldn't be made out of metal)... never mind. Though I have a question. What is with symbols among my flanks? Or rather, along all of our flanks?" he asked.
"The symbol is your cutie mark," Celestia explained.
'That sounds... just wrong. So wrong, in so many ways.'
"A cutie mark represents the destiny of a pony, or in other words their special talent. A pony obtains his or her cutie mark after discovering his or her special talent. Their meaning is sometimes a little abstract." The white alicorn continued. "For example, my cutie mark is as clear as day. Excuse the bad pun. My special talent is raising and lowering the sun."
"That sounds like a high responsibility," Deathwing commented. "But, deciding when the day begins and when it ends, sleeping in doesn't seem like a problem for you."
Celestia snorted at the comment. "I admit there are days when the temptation to do so is overwhelming. But I would never allow disharmony just for my personal comfort."
"This again? Come on, Tia," Discord groaned. "A little bit of chaos won't be the end of the world."
Celestia just gave Discord a look. "Yeah, yeah, we had that talk like..." he snapped his fingers and let a multiple calculators appear. He tipped some random numbers, but in the end threw them all away. "Eh, who cares? I'm going to visit Pinkie Pie. I'm pretty sure she'll be excited to meet a new friend."
Discord disappeared, but not without dowsing Celestia in chocolate milk. Deathwing didn't even try to hold back his chuckles. The sun deity sighed and got rid of the milk with a quick spell.
"So, you use your magic via your horns," Deathwing noted. "This will take some getting used to in this form."
"I see. Before we go to Ponyville, there was something else I wanted to explain before Discord so rudely interrupted... what was it? Ah yes, more abstract cutie marks. You have seen the cutie mark of my fellow princess Twilight. It shows her talent for magic, but also her love for stargazing. There's even more to it, but I think we should go now, wouldn't you agree?"
"...Why are you smiling like that?"
"Oh, I just can't wait to see the expressions on my subjects' faces. Monotony has the tendency to really get to you. You start to look forward to everything unusual."
"And you still disagree with the lord of chaos?"
"That's... something else."
"Uh huh..."
The dragon in the form of a pony laughed at this. Celestia decided to ignore the laughter. The two walked into the town. "Princess, where did Neltharion go?" Twilight asked. However she saw the alicorn with her. She just knew. "What? How did you do this?" Twilight asked Celestia.
"Actually, it was my own magic," Deathwing replied to the Princess of Friendship.