//------------------------------// // Starting Anew // Story: Fall of Deathwing // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// Neltharion awoke with a start, having had another nightmare during his rest. It was a painful one this time, feeling from a disembodied state the full force of the dragon soul tearing off the bottom half of his body. It was really only the fact that the madness of the old gods was using his body as a puppet that allowed the severed front to continue fighting. Any mortal being would die from shock alone. 'A mortal being like me now.' he mused, feeling woozy merely from dreaming about it. He still internally chastised himself for losing his cool at the party, but deep down he was an isolationist, he oversaw the development of his flight from a distance, worked his duty as Earthwarder from behind the scenes. Dragon's didn't have parties where he was from, they rarely interacted with other flights, let alone mortals. Still all of these excuses did nothing to diminish the blow to his pride at being forced to flee. There was another reason he avoided dragons instinctively after arriving here. He was thankful dragons here appeared to come in no standardized form. For at the moment while he inhabited the body of an adolescent drake, he was reduced to a mere fraction of the size of a normal dragon, let alone an Aspect. Given his appearance when he stopped to look himself over, he was developed to the point where originally he would be the size of the cottage above him, where now he stood barely the height of a small pony. Crunching down a few choice gems he arose to face another day living alongside the ponies. They were curious creatures, but he had never had much interest in living things, those were more Alextraza and Ysera's domains. He'd always been more fascinated by the earth, all of the interesting interactions of minerals and tectonics, how delicate balances of conditions could shape a beautiful landscape, and later on in his life how gentle 'nudges' could reshape the continents. Even now the ground called out to him. There was a fault line nearby, that could cause a catastrophic earthquake for the town. It also ran close enough that it could open up into a fissure, the earth swallowing the town whole. There was a dam nearby that could break, sending gallons of water down upon the farmlands. And of course 'dragon mountain' was a dormant volcano. Still such idle thoughts wouldn't do, he was trying to turn over a new leaf here in Equestria. He gathered that was what his siblings had hoped for, sending him here. Surely it wasn't for punishment, unless they meant for the bizarre and twisted sort. While the world was far too bright and cheery for his taste, he found it to be more agreeable than some possible alternatives. From the way the ponies lived it appeared the world didn't have much in the way of violence. Griffons aside of course, although they intended to steal from him, he did not know if they meant to kill him then and there. He didn't have to find out of course, having lit their leader on fire. He'd seen before what coals that hot did to feathery down, she'd likely have scars for the rest of her life. Fitting punishment for stealing only a meager pile of his gems. After all, she did get to live. Rising out of the basement, once again the animals in the yard went silent, eyeing him with a certain wariness. Neltharion eyed them all, slowly turning his head to view the entire yard. A simple 'Boo!' sent them all scurrying, much to his delight. Even if it was simple critters, terrorizing something made him feel a little better about his little 'incident' the night before. At least his host was understanding, she seemed to share at least a few of his habits, given her quiet nature and choice of residence. Although both were quiet individuals she struck Neltharion as the 'butterfly' sort of quiet, only flapping hard enough to stay aloft. Neltharion liked to think of himself, outside of malicious influence of ancient evils, as the 'crocodile' sort of quiet, allowing prey to willingly walk to their demise. Her words danced around subjects, leaving the target to interpret her response as if deciphering poetry, where he attempted to cut straight to an inescapably clear point with as few as possible. He turned to head for Fluttershy's front door, finding it ajar from a pony just now leaving. The cyan pegasus swooped over to greet him. "Hey, missed you at the party. Heard you ran away from that too." She said smugly. "Ah, you're one of Fluttershy's friends yes? The flappy one." He recalled her of course, and knew she was prone to drawing attention to herself. "Were you at the party? I didn't see you." She fumed, as he expected she would at being both forgotten and overlooked. "Its Rainbow Dash, we were introduced, and you probably didn't see me because you left so quickly." "Parties really aren't my sort of thing. I prefer peace and quiet to obnoxiously loud things." He grunted, moving past the floating pony. She seemed to take unintended meaning from his words, as a large grin appeared on her face. "Well I'll get out of your way then, your 'peace and quiet' is in the kitchen." She said with an exaggerated wink, and flew off into Ponyville. The dragon was left wondering which part of the conversation he had overlooked, as he knocked on the door. It opened moments later, Fluttershy poking her pink maned head through the doorway. "Oh, Nel, you don't have to knock you know, you practically live here." She said, backing out of the doorway to let him in. "I thought it appropriate, I know I don't enjoy others intruding upon my space." He said simply, moving inside. "I was just making breakfast, I can make you some as well, if you want me to I mean." She said softly, heading back over to the stove. "No need I've already eaten. I can feed the animals again today if you like." Neltharion said, moving to take a seat at the table. "That would be a big help, it's a spa day for me and Rarity." Fluttershy admitted, spooning herself out some oatmeal. "Spa day?" The dragon asked. "Yes, once a week we get together and go to the Ponyville spa for a hot bath and massage. Occasionally we get a hoof-a-cure or our hair done as well." Fluttershy admitted. "It's delightful, and it makes it worth overcoming my anxiety to go out and get it done. I almost wish I could go more often, but it's a bit expensive to go as often as I do." "Ah well, you go and enjoy your day at the spa, I've come up with a project to occupy my time." Neltharion said, moving to the back door to feed the animals. Feeding the critters took next to no time, just like yesterday, and Neltharion moved off to the edge of the woods to call his lackeys. "Flint, Tinder!" "Yes boss!" Came dual responses as the elementals manifested. "We have a project to do. Follow me." He ordered, moving off into the woods. Less than a hundred meters in he found a suitable location and called the group to a stop. "Alright you two, here's the plan." O~O~O~O~O Around noon Neltharion took a walk over to Sweet Apple Acres. He figured a farm would have tools he could use, especially one operated by ponies. Despite the hammer-like properties of Flint's fists, they still required nails. A Rainbow colored blur shot past him as he approached the farm, but he paid it no mind. "Well hey there partner, Apple Bloom just ran by shoutin' about a dragon on tha farm an' I figured it'd be you." Applejack's voice sounded as she marched out of the apple orchard. "What can I do for ya?" "I need tools for a project I'm working on. Nails specifically." He said, desperately hoping this wouldn't turn into a daylong excursion of performing one menial task after another. He never understood how adventurers could do it. "Nails huh? What are you building?" The orange mare asked. "It's a surprise." Neltharion said, holding a poker face. "Building something for your 'peace and quiet' then?" She asked, giving a slight smirk. Neltharion figured he was missing some meaning behind the phrase, but passed it off as some bizarre cultural thing. "Something like that. I just need nails really, Flint can do the hammering." "Alright, I'll go grab a bucket full from tha barn, be back in a jiffy." She said, hustling away. Neltharion passed the time by fondly remembering a rant by Nozdromu regarding the meaning of the term 'jiffy'. Apparently the term was an actual measurement of time, but varied greatly depending on the context. Nothing irritated the guardian of the timeline more than someone tossing around the term as merely an unspecified length of time. "Alrighty, here's your bucket of nails." Applejack said, handing over an old bucket with a wooden bar on the handle to make holding it in your teeth easier. He was glad that, clumsy as they were, Flint and Tinder had hands, otherwise making use of these nails would be an exercise in frustration. "If you can do me a favor though..." 'Quest chain here I come.' the dragon thought, inwardly grimacing. "I need to bring this book back to Twilight's library, but I've got a lot of work to do." She said, looking away suspiciously. "Why didn't you bring it last night, at the party?" Neltharion asked. "I didn't finish reading it until last night, after the party." She said, still not making eye contact. With a toss she unceremoniously dumped the small paperback into the bucket, rushing off to the orchard before the dragon could object further. "Thanks, that'll pay me back for the nails!" With a sigh Neltharion left the farm, dropped the nails off at their impromptu construction sight, and headed into Ponyville, book in mouth. He kept his head low, and make a direct route to the Library, it wouldn't do to get sidetracked and somehow forced to spend extra time in the village. The occasional look he received was bad enough. Giving a quick knock on the door to the great library-in-a-tree, he wasn't at all surprised when the door opened to reveal the purple unicorn. "Oh, come in, come in, I was just doing some research." She said, moving over to a table covered in books. He placed the book down on a nearby table, explaining it was from Applejack, and made to leave, but was too late. "While you're here, I was doing a bit more research on dragon behavior, but like I said, this sort of thing is heavily undocumented. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" 'At least it isn't some inane task like fetching her books from across the room.' Neltharion thought before nodding. "Is it unusual, for a dragon to like a pony?" Twilight asked seemingly at random. "Not insofar as two sentient creatures can get along." the dragon replied, confused as to the nature of the question. "I mean in the romantic sense." Twilight said. "Ah..." Neltharion paused to consider it. In Azaeroth there were stories of course, of adult dragons assuming the forms of 'humanoids' and having affairs. While it was rare for a humanoid creature to attract a dragon's attention, but dragons tended to focus more on a person's nonphysical qualities, and treated race as merely an obstacle. He honestly wasn't sure how things worked in Equestria, likely dragons didn't have the magic to shape shift, but with dominant species being sentient quadrupeds... "I'm not entirely certain how common it is for a dragon to fall for a member of another species. I suppose it's more of a cultural thing." He admitted to the unicorn. "Ponies tend to be open minded. Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies are all able to interbreed. Same sex relationships don't have the same cultural taboos as they do in some cultures. There's even the occasional romance between different races, like griffons and ponies. But there has never been a recorded romance between a dragon and a pony. That's not to say it's never happened though." Twilight said, she had begun pacing during her rant. "Is this about your apprentice?" Neltharion asked, seeing the unicorn flinch. "Are you and he..." "No! No, no, I see him as a little brother. But... well I shouldn't be telling you this but I could use your advice, he seems to have a crush on Rarity." Twilight said. "Ah well, he is just a whelp at the moment, and he will be for many years, dragons age slowly. Dragons are creatures of Greed, not Lust, Twilight, you have nothing to worry about. Dragons of all ages covet beautiful things, it comes from our instincts, hoarding precious gems makes us stronger. He likely sees you, as a unicorn, as something of great value, and Rarity as the 'most beautiful unicorn', as that and more. He isn't at the age where the attraction would get into 'romance' and he likely won't reach that age any time soon." Neltharion said, and Twilight gave a slight sigh of relief. "What about you then?" She asked, before catching herself and covering her mouth. "What about me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Uh..." She stalled, thinking of an answer. "If Spike is a whelp, what are you?" "I'm a drake, an adolescent dragon. I'm actually quite small though, a normal dragon would be much, much bigger." He admitted. "So if you were... attracted to a pony, it would be a romantic attraction?" Twilight ventured. "I suppose it would?" He replied, once more lost in the conversation. "Don't worry Neltharion, I've gotten better at keeping secrets lately." She said with a smile and wink, leaving the dragon wondering what part of that conversation he needed kept secret. He left the library, and the incredibly cryptic librarian behind, and headed back to the forest where his minions were hard at work. O~O~O~O~O Fluttershy sat soaking in a large pool of steaming water with her dear friend Rarity. "So tell me, how are things with your new house guest?" The unicorn probed. "Nel is nice enough, he's been helping feed the animals in the morning, while I have breakfast." Fluttershy replied. "It's good to see you're getting over your fear of dragons." "Oh well um... He doesn't bother me much, since he's still small, not as small as Spike of course but.. There are times, like when I see his teeth that I feel faint." Fluttershy admitted. "He does look a bit scary doesn't he? He seems a little... what's the word... abrasive. Like even speaking to him wears on his patience. Still he does know quite a bit about dragons, and gems. He seems to prefer yours and Twilight's company most of all of us." The unicorn commented. "I kind of admire the way he says exactly what he means." Fluttershy whispered. "I think the personality comes from isolation actually, he has a bad reaction to crowds." "Ah the party incident, I didn't see you two leave, what happened?" Rarity asked. "He had an anxiety attack." "Oh dear, you used to get those all the time." "I still do sometimes. I don't think he's used to getting them, so he's probably lived alone his whole life, which for a dragon can be a very long time." The pegasus sighed. "Psst Rarity! Over here!" Came a not so quiet whisper from an open window. The unicorn rolled her eyes and excused herself to go speak with a certain cyan pegasus for a moment. She returned minutes later looking scandalized. "What did Rainbow Dash want?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean if you don't mind telling me." "Oh just a bit of gossip, I know how you dislike that sort of thing." Rarity waved it off. "I think we've soaked long enough, why don't we go back to your place for tea?" "Oh yes, I just purchased a lovely blend." O~O~O~O~O Neltharion loved having minions, adored it really. One more reason he refused to believe he was in Equestria as punishment was the fact that he had minions, bumbling as they were. They hadn't gotten much done, left unsupervised, but that was to be expected of minions. He didn't want to hire a capable taskmaster for merely the two of them, so he played supervisor himself for the rest of the day, helping out where his expertise was needed. They actually completed the project sooner than Neltharion had planned, leaving him time to spruce it up, with several torches and a stone walkway. Leaving the two minions with instructions to put the finishing touches on it and then make themselves scarce, the dragon headed towards the cottage to collect a certain pegasus. It was dusk when he arrived, knocking at the door to the cottage. A soft 'come in' was heard and the followed it to the kitchen where Rarity and Fluttershy sat drinking tea. "Oh, Nel, how was your day?" Fluttershy said. "I've spent it making a surprise for you." he responded bluntly. "Oh a surprise? May I join you two?" Rarity asked, rising from the table and giving Neltharion an odd look. "I don't see why not." the dragon grunted, turning to lead the way. "He does seem rather abrasive, but I think you're right, he just doesn't use unnecessary words." Rarity whispered to her friend as they followed along. Soon they had reached the edge of Fluttershy's back yard, and the two ponies noticed a new stone walkway lined with lit torches. The path continued for about 100 meters until it ended at a rather large wooden wall. The entryway was a gap in the wall, with a short wall behind it, blocking the view of what was behind it, but leaving no actual door. Leading the pair through the entry way he stopped to wait for their reactions. Behind the wall was a rather large pool of water, with steam rising from the surface. It had a natural feel, with plants growing along the edges, and a small stairway leading into the water from the entryway. "A hot spring?" Rarity gaped. The dragon had somehow built a hot spring. Here. Just outside of Ponyville. In a single day! "Naturally heated. You won't have to go into Ponyville for spa days now." The dragon said proudly. "I enjoy my trips into Ponyville Nel, but thank you all the same, I love it. It will be good to be able to relax without spending money on the Ponyville spa all the time." Fluttershy said, as Rarity dipped a hoof into the water. "The temperature is lovely, however did you find a natural hot spring though?" The unicorn asked. "I located a thermal vent a few hundred feet below this area, and connected it to about thirty feet below us, enough to heat the ground but not boil the water." the dragon said simply, getting a blank stare from Rarity in response. "Dragons can do that?" She asked. "I can." Neltharion shrugged. "Well, you should invite your friends over tomorrow for a dip Fluttershy, no doubt they'll all appreciate Neltharion's work as well. In the mean time, I must be off. Ta ta for now." She said, and exited the newly made structure. "Not that I don't appreciate it Nel, but why did you build this for me?" Fluttershy asked quietly, dipping a hoof into the water. "You said going into Ponyville makes you anxious, but you do it anyways to go to the spa." He said. The yellow pony nodded. "I thought if you had your own hot springs, you wouldn't have to deal with the anxiety." She turned and gave him a small smile. "Thank you Nel, but we can't always run from what makes us uncomfortable, or we miss out on some of the more enjoyable parts of life. My friends have been teaching me that, working to get me out of my shell." "There's nothing wrong with being in a shell, it's safe there." Neltharion muttered. To his shock he received a gentle nuzzle in response. "By taking tiny steps outside of your comfort zone, bit by bit we make it bigger, and the bigger our comfort zones, the more we enjoy life." She said, her voice quiet but clear in the night air. "Still, this was a very thoughtful gift." "I owe you for letting my live in your cellar." He mumbled. "I don't like being in debt." "You don't really have to pay me back you know." She said, as the two began walking back to her cottage. "Then I'll stop trying." He growled. "You also don't need a reason to be kind." She added. "I'm not a kind dragon." "You seem kind enough." Neltharion remained silent, thinking back over all he had done with his life. 'Kind enough' didn't really describe the horrors he had inflicted on Azaeroth. "I'm going to bed." He said, feigning sleepiness. The pony at his side gave him a nod. "Sweet dreams Nel." She said softly. "And you as well, Fluttershy." He said with a low rumble.