Twilight yawned with the grace of a hippo as she woke up. Her first thoughts were to get out of bed, but her body protested with extremely lazy and tired limbs at that idea. The past week hadn't been great for her with all of the tension that was in Ponyville and Equestria in general. Papers had spread what had happened during the changelings attack on Ponyville and she had received some blame for the attack, and some other rumors that had spread during the week. In short, Twilight felt sad and as if she had done something wrong. Whenever she would walk into Ponyville the citizens would shoot her glances and start to whisper about her and probably Neltharion as well.
She also missed her friends. She felt like she needed them now more than ever, having almost been made an enemy of the public. And they had even taken a little distance from her, trying to comprehend what had happened that day. Thoughts had also been running wild in Twilight’s mind, searching for a solution and maybe a map or a checklist on what to do next. She just wanted everything to go back to the way they were before. She blamed Neltharion for ever having come to Ponyville and making everypony turn against her, but at the same time she knew that wasn’t fair. It was never Neltharion’s choice to have been sent to Equestria in the first place.
Twilight turned in her bed and looked around her enormous room. There were lavender banners with her own cutiemark over her bed and on each side of her window. There was a lavender rug that covered most of the floor, also with her cutiemark, a large mirror with golden frame in the other end of the room, a bed counter beside her with several pictures of herself with her friends, her brother and Cadance and one of Twilight and Celestia.
Twilight sighed in sadness and slowly got out of her bed. Looking out of her window, she could see the sun was starting to rise over the horizon. She could have stayed in bed for as long as she wanted, but she needed something to occupy her thoughts other than the events of the past week.
Walking out her room, she noticed just how quiet the crystal castle was. The only thing she could hear was a barely noticeable snoring coming from the room opposite of hers. It was Spike’s room. Peeking inside, she saw the baby dragon snoring in his very own bed. He laid curled up on the middle of it like a cat that had successfully conquered the bed for his own. His snoring brought a smile to Twilight’s face even though Spike hadn’t been very happy with her the past week either. Under the attack she had left him despite his protests and even used magic to make him fall asleep and to protect him from harm. When he had finally been awoken, he hadn’t exactly been happy as he knew exactly what Twilight had done to him. Spike had been very mad at her the first two days but was now starting to warm up to her.
She closed the door and began walking through the castle. As her hooves sounded against the crystal floor, Twilight began to realise just how alone she was. The castle was seemingly abandoned, which it shouldn’t be. Where were all of the guards? In search of an answer Twilight began checking around the castle to try and find anypony, but there was no one besides herself and Spike in the castle. Suddenly she heard something. It sounded like wing beats coming from outside of the castle. Curious, Twilight walked towards the entrance and was met with a familiar pony having just entered through the doors.
“Neltharion?”
The pony in question turned his head and a small smile picked up on his black coated mouth as he saw who had called out his name. “Ah, good morning Twilight.” He greeted, his deep voice reverberating through the walls of the crystal castle and causing a slight temperature rise in the room.
Twilight instinctively almost gulped as his eyes met hers. Her nightmares had stopped, but every time she looked at Neltharion, all she could see was the dragon despite his current form. “Good morning.” She greeted back, looking Neltharion over. He was breathing faster than usual, his mane and tail was ruffled and at the same time slick as if it had been exposed to high speed. “Were you out?” She questioned.
“Yes, I couldn’t sleep so i tested out these wings.” He spread his black leathery wings and looked over them proudly. “By all logic I shouldn’t have been able to fly because of the wings size proportioned to my body and yet I could. Though it still puzzles me how.” He said and put a hoof to his chin, his plating scraping against itself as he did so.
“Pegasi are able to fly because of the magic that courses through them.” Twilight supplied with information. “But you’re not originally a pony so you shouldn’t…” A thought caught Twilight and she instinctively stepped closer. She began inspecting Neltharion’s body. His wings, horn, hooves--
“Ugh, Twilight, what are you doing?” Neltharion asked while looking oddly at her. Normally she would stay at a reasonable distance from him, but this was new.
“I have a theory, now hold still!” She commanded and began stretching out his wings with her hooves, spotting the fiery liquid running through the veins of the thin leather in his wings. Then she went on to his horn and yanked him so hard that he almost fell over in the process. She heard an annoyed grunt escape Neltharion’s mouth, but ignored it and continued her inspection.
“What part of your theory includes you having to yanking me like i’m a ragdoll?” Neltharion asked, his face pointing towards the ground.
“All of it, now hush.” Twilight simply answered and began running her hoof over Neltharion’s crooked horn and even putting her own horn against his.
“Hush?” Neltharion asked, almost offended, with the whole situation as more blood was starting to go to his head. “You’re telling Neltharion the dragon aspect of the earth, the former titled ‘Destroyer’ to hush?”
“Yes, now be quiet.” Twilight simply answered, let go of his horn and started inspecting his hooves instead.
Neltharion grumbled something under his breath, but other than that he let Twilight do whatever she had to do.
Twilight’s eyes widened as she made a discovery. What? But how? She backed away from Neltharion and inspected his body in its entirety. “Try focusing on your horn.” She said.
“Ugh, why?” Neltharion asked with a raised eyebrow. Her request was weird. There was no reason for him to do such a thing. He had a faint suspicion, but there was no way it was possible.
“Just do it.” Twilight replied, slightly annoyed at his continuing lack of wanting to corporate.
Neltharion stood up straight, closed his eyes and started concentrating on his horn. Behind Neltharion’s eyelids there was darkness, but as he kept concentrating, painful memories began to resurface in the darkness. Neltharion could feel a growing heat in his horn. The memories didn’t just bring pain with them, but also anger, rage, a seething hatred that had been sparked from beings so evil and twisted that their very names and language was maddening. Neltharion’s heart began beating faster in his chest. The heat kept getting stronger and stronger in Neltharion’s horn, but he didn’t notice, all he could hear was a voice of rage and ruin. His own voice.
With a yell, Neltharion let out the emotions inside him and he fell to the floor, panting from the emotional pressure. His heart felt like it was about to jump up and out of his throat. He heard nothing but a ringing for his ears, the dark emotions had completely suffocated his senses and threatened to take away his control over his destructive magic.
Groggily Neltharion struggled to sit up, but he felt so dizzy and couldn’t make his body do as he commanded. He opened his eyes and immediately closed them again as his vision was so blurry and wobbly that he felt his stomach churn. He could he hear a muffled voice calling his name. It was familiar, female. He felt someone poke him.
“Neltharion! Neltharion are you okay?”
Neltharion once again opened his eyes and were met with a purple blurry mass talking to him. And as he kept staring at the mass, his vision focused, his dizziness disappeared and the ringing for his ears died out. He was now staring at a worried Twilight Sparkle’s face.
“Twilight?” He asked, his throat feeling dry and voice overused. “What… What happened?”
“Well…” Twilight looked up and around the room. “I think you had a magical surge. I had one similar to your’s when I was a filly, but mine wasn’t as… Destructive.”
Neltharion sat up. “Why, what happened?” He then looked behind Twilight and his eyes widened.
The entire upper side of the crystal room and doors where black with a giant blast mark. There were cracks in the floor where he had stood.
“How could this have happened?” Neltharion asked bewildered. Such a thing had never happened to him before. He had always had complete control over his magic, it was first when he let his emotions take control that a thing such as this could happen.
Twilight took a hoof to her chin. “Regular unicorns only experience surges under extreme emotional pressure or stress. What happened when you closed your eyes?”
“Well…” Neltharion thought back to when he closed his eyes. “I… I saw memories and then…” He remembered the rage. Above everything he remembered his overwhelming hatred. “I woke up on the floor.” He lied. There was no way he could tell her about it without her getting worried or suspicious.
“Hmmm… That is strange…” Twilight began pacing around Neltharion while staring intently on the floor in thought. “There have been rare cases of unicorn fillies and colts having surges because of a lack of control over their magic, so maybe…” Twilight stopped and looked to Neltharion once more. “Have you ever had issues controlling your magic?”
Neltharion felt almost offended by her question. “No, I’ve always had complete control.” He simply replied as he stood up once more.
Twilight began pacing again while mumbling a lot of words Neltharion didn’t understand. She stopped again. “Then there is only one remaining possibility. Your dragon magic and pony magic must be separate from each other.”
“But why do I even have pony magic to begin with?”
“I’m not sure.” Twilight replied. “But it seems you have no control over that magic.”
“So? I’m not going to use it anyway.”
“But it might trigger randomly if you don’t learn to control it. And as you can see here--” Twilight gestured around the blast marked room. “I don’t think we can afford to risk it.”
“Is that so?” Neltharion asked. “Then what do you propose we do?”
Twilight smirked. It was the kind of smirk that made Neltharion feel uncomfortable. Especially since it widened into a smile that very much resembled that of Pinkie Pie’s. “I’ll teach you how.”
“Thank ya kindly for coming everypony.” Applejack said. She having gathered up all of her friends beside Twilight in the Sugarcube corner.She was still bandaged on her for and back leg. She and her friends, missing Pinkie and Twilight, was sitting around a table each on their own chair.
“Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow Dash yawned from a chair, careful not to press her bandaged wing against the chair back. “This better be important, its freaking 5:30 in the morning!”
“Oh come on, Rainbow darling, it's good for you to get up a bit early you have been getting awfully lazy as of late.” Rarity said, having brought a mirror and checking her make up. She grimaced, having noticed there was still a faint shade of green in her mane.
“I have not!” Rainbow Dash protested.
“Girls, now is not tha time to discuss such things.” Applejack said while rubbing her head in annoyance.
She was promptly ignored.
“Like you haven’t been slacking off yourself, Rarity! I saw you send customers away yesterday!”
Rarity was slightly taken back by hearing that Rainbow knew about that. “Yes, well, a lady has her right to take some much needed personal time. And besides, it is not like i’m doing nothing but sleeping on clouds all day and night!”
“Uhm… Girls?” Fluttershy tried to join the conversation.
“Alright you two, stop it!” Applejack yelled.
“Or what AJ? I heard you have been slacking off as well falling asleep in the middle of working!” Rainbow Dash taunted.
Applejack felt her face heat up, but didn’t reply.
“Oh come on you guys!” Pinkie said, entering from the kitchen with a tray containing a dozen cupcakes and started handing them out and put the remaining on the table. “Turn those frowns upside down!” She grabbed Rainbow Dash’s face and pulled on her face until she wore a smile so big it could rival Pinkie’s own. “There, do like Dashie!”
As soon as Pinkie let go of Rainbow Dash’s face, it fell back into a frown. The rest of the friends except Fluttershy looked at Pinkie with a deadpan look.
Applejack shook her head. “Anyhow, I gathered y’all here so we can talk about--”
“Ooh, Ooooh!” Pinkie interrupted. “I know! We’re here to talk about the next grand galloping galla!”
Applejack shot her an odd look and was about to speak when Pinkie appeared in her face.
“No! Don’t tell me, I wanna guess!” Pinkie began pacing and then she abruptly stopped and once again appeared in Applejack’s face with a ridiculously large and expecting smile “Is it about Nelly’s ‘Welcome and thank you for saving, even if you kinda destroyed, ponyville party’?!”
Applejack was about to answer when Rainbow Dash interrupted her.
“Wow, wow, wow. You actually want to hold a party for that monster?”
Pinkie simply smiled at her pegasus friend. “Of course, silly, he is a new resident here in Ponyville and they all deserve a special Pinkie Pie PARTY!” Confetti flew from behind her as she finished.
“Rainbow does have a point, Pinkie.” Rarity nodded. “Can’t you make an exception this time, besides I doubt many will come to a party celebrating that monster.”
“He did also save us, Rarity.” Applejack said.
“And he destroyed Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash protested.
“But him and Discord also fixed Ponyville afterwards…” Fluttershy muttered.
“Yeah… Well…” Rainbow Dash had run out of ammunition.
“Besides, this brings us ta why I brought y’all here today.” Applejack announced. “I wanted ta discuss that day last week with y’all.”
“Oh don’t remind me.” Rarity shivered. “My mane is still green from the goo I got in it that day.”
The rest of the friends looked at her oddly. To them she had her normal purple stylish mane she couldn’t help but touching every other minute as usual.
“I wanted to talk about Twilight.” Applejack finished.
The whole room seemed more gloomy after Applejack finished that sentence. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity had all shifted their attention to the floor while Pinkie Pie was shifting her eyes between them with sad eyes although her mane remained poofy and big.
“Oh, come on, y’all!” Applejack yelled, slightly frustrated. “Ah know most of ya don’t wanna, but we need to ta talk ‘bout it.”
“What is there to talk about?” Rainbow Dash yelled and looked Applejack right in the eye. “Twilight is supporting that homicidal maniac and protecting him!”
“Now Rainbow, we don’t know the details.”
“And we don’t need them!” Rainbow Dash replied angrily. “She still allows him to live with her, that should be evidence enough!”
“Rainbow does have a point. Why would Twilight allow him to live with her if she didn’t support his actions?” Rarity questioned. “The truth of the matter is that we just don’t know why Twilight would allow Neltharion to stay with her after what happened with the changelings.”
“Maybe she was scared?” Fluttershy almost whispered, but the rest of the girls still heard her.
“Fluttershy, darling, why do you think she was scared?” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, Shy, what do you mean?” Rainbow asked, more than eager to hear her oldest friend’s view on the whole affair.
Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane, not wanting any attention. She was half tempted to dive into the corner the room or maybe hide behind the glass counter filled with delicious treats. She gulped. “W-well, uhm, maybe she was scared of Neltharion, he is a big and scary dragon, and was afraid of what he might do?”
“We had the ENTIRE equestrian royal guard, princess Celestia and Luna, Discord and Twilight herself there.” Rainbow Dash stated. “I don’t care how magical that flying lizard is, there is NO WAY he could take all of them on!”
“Rainbow, have you forgotten what princess Celestia told us happened in her vision?” Applejack asked with a scowl.
“Of course not!”
“Then what happened in it?”
“Well she…” Rainbow Dash fell silent as she remembered princess Celestia’s words. “She said that he burned Equestria to the ground…”
“And with that information, what do ya think would have happened if they started to fight him?”
Rarity gulped as she contemplated Applejack’s question. “It could have meant the end of Equestria…”
The room went silent with Rarity’s words. To think that just a week ago, Equestria as they knew it could have ended. It was a terrifying thought to them all.
“Girls, I don’t think we’re asking the right questions.” Fluttershy said, breaking the silence.
“Yeah, This conversation is making me sad.” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes catching on to the tray with the remaining cupcakes.
“What do ya mean, Fluttershy?” Applejack asked, a sad expression on her face.
“I mean--”
“OMNOMNOMNOMNOM!”
Everypony’s attention was drawn to the pink cupcake monster now occupying the middle of the table, frosting and crumbs being all that remained of the poor defenseless cupcakes. None of them were spared.
“Ahh, all better now!” Pinkie smiled, rubbing her now oversized belly.
Her friends couldn’t help but giggle at Pinkie’s behaviour.
“So you were saying, Fluttershy?” Rarity asked, shying away from the table and the disturbing amounts crumbs and frosting that were on it.
“Oh, right… Isn’t Twilight still our friend?”
Her friend, minus Pinkie, stared at Fluttershy almost in shock.
“Of course she is!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“She’ll always be our friend.” Applejack said.
“Why would you even ask such a thing?” Rarity asked.
“Because shouldn’t we trust her?”
The room went silent once more.
“She has always been there for us, no matter what, she has always wanted to help.” Fluttershy continued. “Don’t we owe her the same?”
Draconia. The land of the dragons. It is an enormous desert wasteland filled with mountains and rock formations. But the land itself is filled with gems of all kinds so no one starves. Not many ponies have dared to cross the threshold into Draconia. Wild dragons are known as cruel, greedy beasts that only care about their hoard, but in Draconia all dragons serve their queen one way or another. And no dragon wants to disappoint their queen.
Razorscale flew over the wasteland, spotting a few creatures venturing through the scorching hot sand. But he did not care about them. He had a goal, a destination he had to reach and he was already several days late.
As he continued flying over the wasteland, the desert thinned out and left only rock in its place. All around him were mountains filled with caves which harbored dragons of all kind. The rocks started to become more jagged and sharp on the ground as he continued. And then he saw it in the distance. His destination.
It was an enormous sand colored mountain that stretched far into the sky. There were caves all around it, tactically laid out where many dragons laid, guarding the mountain. Several dragons kept entering and exiting through the caves, some flying to the other side of Draconia. At the bottom was a ring of jagged rocks around the mountain and a enormous gem filled gate.
Razorscale landed before the gate.
“You’re late.”
Razorscale looked over trying to the find the owner of the voice. “I was delayed.” He simply replied, noticing a giant boulder his own size beside the gate.
The sand colored boulder began to stir. It lost its sand color and returned to a dark green. A giant lizard rose and several cracks sounded as the dragon unfurled its body from its previous position. Before Razorscale stood a wingless dragon a little bigger than himself. What made the dragon scarier was that it was a lot more bulky than Razorscale.
“Too bad. I heard some pretty interesting things happened in Equestria while you were there. Wanna tell me what happened?”
Razorscale smirked. “Not now, old friend. Our queen is awaiting me, we can talk later.”
“Hmmm… Okay.” The dragon walked over and banged his tail against the gate three times. “Just be careful Razor, you know how impatient she can be, and you being this late ain’t exactly helping.”
Razorscale sighed. “Oh believe me, I know.” The gate opened and Razorscale walked inside.
Inside were several dragons stationed on each side, them having opened the gate. They were wearing ruby red armors and helmets. The hall was enormous with no particular interior, but it was filled with dragons, discussing, trading, and arguing with each other to which some was escorted out by a few guards. The only source of light being the holes in the mountain that made way for the sunlight which reflected onto many gems which further lit up the mountain.
Razorscale decisively kept walking through the mountain, encountering a few dragons on the way. Eventually he came to another gate. This one was just as big as the last, but it was made of a dark metal, obsidian and filled with rubies. There were also several guards stationed at this gate.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t dignitary Razorscale.” One of the guards began. “How was the trip to pony land?”
“I’m sure you already know.” Razorscale replied with a deadpan look.
“Maybe, but it is always better to hear from the one draconian dragon that was actually there.”
“You can read about it in my report later, but now I believe you know why i’m here.”
The guard’s expression hardened. “Yes.” He signaled the guards behind him and the gate behind opened. “ The queen hasn’t been in the best of moods lately, so be careful.”
Razorscale nodded and walked inside. The gate closed behind him. He began walking through the dimly lit room and stopped when a voice resonated through the room.
“Ah, my faithful dignitary returns although five days late.”
It was a playful and powerful female voice. Razorscale bowed deeply and kept his head down. “Im sorry, my queen. But i’m sure you have heard about what happened while I was there.”
Razorscale heard something rumble and turn, but he kept his head down.
“Yes I have. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I found out those ponies had been lying to us. But it still doesn’t explain why you are so late to return.”
Razorscale kept his voice calm as he spoke. “With the recent events I found it appropriate to get some intel on our possible adversary, so I stayed behind and found out as much as I could without the Equestrians even knowing of me still residing in Equestria.” Razorscale felt the female voice come closer.
“I would expect nothing less from you, Razorscale. What did you find out?”
“Our adversary has resided in Equestria for almost a week prior to the incident and he still resides there now in a town called Ponyville in the newest princess’ castle. They only recently found out about him themselves. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any further details. The princesses keep what they know very close to heart and I didn’t get a chance to speak with our adversary at any times.”
“I see.” There was a hint of disappointment in her voice, but it was quickly replaced by interest and curiosity. “Now tell me about him, Razorscale, tell me about the beast you saw that night.
Razorscale was slightly confused at his queen’s choice of tone. For her to be so interested was rare. He thought back to that night. “Words cannot describe the terror that beast filled me with when I looked at it...” He began. “His eyes were a neverending inferno of rage, his body black and held together by some sort of metal and he was enormous. The size of Canterlot. And he commands some sort of magic...”
“What is his name?”
“He was called two names by the ponies. Neltharion and…”
“And?”
“Deathwing…” Razorscale felt his chin get pulled up and saw it was an enormous ruby red arm with golden claws. He saw glinting white teeth in the dim light and giant yellow eyes
The queen chuckled. “Deathwing.” She repeated. “What an interesting name.” The ground shook as the queen rose and walked over Razorscale with ease.
Razorscale gulped and looked after her with confused eyes as she reached the door. “My queen, what are you going to do?”
The dragon queen smirked. “I think i’ll go pay this ‘Deathwing’ a visit.”