Deathwing in Equestria

by SoaringCoal


Golden Rubies and Fiery Smoke

Silence. Everything was still. The sun was beginning its cycle, risen by Celestia, and was ascending up from the horizon while the moon was on its way down, descended by Luna. Morning dew laid spread across every plant and surface, the morning light reflected across the cold drops, making it look like small stars everywhere on the ground. The animals of Equestria were all gently asleep, the ones who embraced the day and its light laid silent, resting while cuddling close to the kin they held dear, while the ones who roamed the night had just settled in to rest until the darkness once more fell. This moment of the cycle was one of perfect silence. A moment where everyone and everything was at peace before the creatures of the day began their activities.

*Flap*

But something is not at rest at this peaceful hour.

*Flap*

A great shadow glided over the silent landscapes, passing over deserts, forests and mountains in mere minutes. A process that would take days for a pony.

*Flap*

The previously peaceful dew was spread, thrown away from its former position as a powerful wind current appeared out of nowhere.

*Flap*

Golden and ruby light was reflected across everywhere the shadow went, like a warning.

*Flap*

Something is approaching.


In Ponyville there is a familiar castle. The morning light reflected across its crystal surface and made a particular friendship princess sigh as she watched the dormant town from her window.

Twilight hadn’t been able to sleep the night before. There was so many things she didn’t understand, so many things she needed answers to, yet she could not get answers. It had kept her up, thinking. Her thoughts had drifted towards her friends several times during that night. It had been eight days since she had seen them, and she had a feeling that her friends weren’t happy with her after the events of the changeling attack. After Neltharion had turned into a new pony form, she had tried to talk with them, but they had either excused themselves, been nowhere to be found, or had gone home right after the attack to tend to their traumatised families and friends. Twilight felt sorry for them, but most of all the foals and colts of Ponyville. The horrors they had seen that day must have and still give Luna overtime helping them with their nightmares.

Thinking back to what had happened in the last few weeks, Twilight felt a sting in both her cheek, leg and wing. So much had happened in just those two weeks. So much pain had been brought to Equestria since Neltharion had arrived. Over the last week, she had come to understand just how it truly felt to be alone and had only come to respect Neltharion, Discord and Luna more for it. When everypony has their backs turned against you, and all they can do is talk of you with resentment or doubt. That is when you’re truly alone.

From her window, Twilight noticed five familiar shapes approaching her castle. Without further thinking she walked out of her room and downstairs to greet the ponies that were approaching. On her way, Twilight noticed that her guards had returned to the castle, many of them standing upright with closed eyes and others barely keeping themselves awake.

Arriving at the hall, Twilight noticed Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had already entered, entry being granted by a tired guard. Silence fell on the room and it got awkward quickly. The guard sensed it, so he gave a quick bow and left the six friends to themselves.

Applejack opened her mouth to speak but Twilight interrupted her.

“No, first I just want to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks and that I haven’t explained myself properly.” Twilight felt her throat close up as she looked over her friends. She had missed them more than she had even realised. “I-I just wanted to…”

“Sugarcube, ya don’t have ta explain anything.” Applejack stepped close and gave Twilight a hug, the rest of the friends joining in one by one.

“Indeed. You must know that we will always support you, Twilight.” Rarity said.

“We’ll always be your friend, Twilight.” Fluttershy supplied with a smile as she joined the hug.

“Yeah! Some stupid overgrown lizard ain’t gonna change that!” Rainbow Dash agreed, hugging her alicorn friend tightly.

Pinkie Pie also bounced over and joined the five friends in the hug.

Twilight could feel tears starting to sting in her eyes. She hadn’t realised just how much she had missed her friends. There they sat, hugging, for a minute in complete silence, just being happy to finally having moved on when a sound, almost inaudible, was heard from outside of the crystal castle. The hug broke as they all heard the strange sound.

*Flap*

“Uhh, girls, do you hear that?” Fluttershy asked, having noticed the sound of something flapping.

The entire room went silent as the flapping slowly got louder.

*Flap*

“What in tarnation is that sound?” Applejack asked as the sound continued to get louder.

“It sounds like...wings?” Twilight concluded. Sweat started to form on Twilight’s forehead as the flapping became louder and louder. But the wings would have to be humongous to be heard from such a distance? Her thoughts only alarmed her more.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she picked up a sound. “D-do you girls hear that?”

The five other mares started to listen closely and soon they started to hear it. Low screams started to be heard from the town outside. As if something was attacking.

From out of nowhere, the guards that stood watch inside the crystal castle started yelling and running into and out through the hall the six friends were standing in.

“Battle positions!” One of the guards that had stopped in the hall yelled, commanding the other guards outside. “Protect the town at all costs!” He stopped one of the running guards. “You! Contact Canterlot and get reinforcements. We’re gonna need them,” the apparent leader commanded.

The guard saluted and ran outside as well.

Twilight recognised the guard giving orders as Silver Shield, one of her first guards. “Lieutenant Silver Shield, what is going on?” She yelled.

The lieutenant turned to his princess and held a determined look on his face. But there was sweat visible on his forehead, dripping down. He was nervous, scared. “It’s another dragon.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “WHAT?!” Her mind began to race. Why would a dragon come to Equestria and what kind could it be to get this reaction from her guards? All Twilight knew was that it had to be huge.

*Flap*

The creature outside had gotten painfully close, just outside of Ponyville guessed Twilight.

Silver Shield gulped at the sound of the flapping and then turned back to his princess. “Don’t worry, princess Twilight. Stay inside with your friends, we’ll handle this.” Everypony in the room picked up the nervousness in the stallion’s voice even though he tried to conceal it. With a shaky sigh Silver Shield ran out of the gate to join the rest of the guards.

As they ran out, a frantic Spike arrived into the room. “Twilight, what’s going on?!”

“I-I’m not sure,” Twilight shakily replied.

Feeling her heart beat faster, Twilight tried to think of what to do. Should she go and find Neltharion? He could probably come to terms with this dragon one way or another. Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked to it. It was Applejack and the rest of her friends looking at her with support. Twilight felt herself become more calm as she looked at her friends smiling faces.

With a nod of confidence, Twilight and her friends exited the castle, ready to face whatever horror that had arrived.

“Hey guys, wait for me!” Spike yelled as he ran after his friends.


*Ba-dum*

A loud noise was heard through the darkness, echoing into the ears of a particular being as he laid there on the cold nonexistent floor. He barely registered it at first, but it still made him react. A tug in his cheek, a fast squeeze of his eyes, a limb twitching uncontrollably. The sound was familiar.

*Ba-dum*

It was the sound of blood pumping through a body.

*Ba-dum*

And every time it sounded it got louder.

*Ba-dum*

Neltharion twitched once more at the sound and rose from his position in the darkness, looking through it. He recognised it. But there was something different. It was empty. Looking down at himself he saw that he was still in his current pony form. And it was still confusing him.

*Ba-dum*

“Hello?” Neltharion called into the darkness, his only answer being his own echo ringing throughout the darkness. “I know you’re here,” Neltharion stated, scowling at the darkness.

*Ba-dum*

But nothing answered him, but the sound of the beating heart. “Strange,” Neltharion noted. He began walking through the darkness. There was no sound.

*Ba-dum*

Other than the beating heart. His own footsteps didn’t even leave sound. As he walked he noticed a flicker of light in the distance and went in its direction.

*Ba-dum*

As he approached, he raised an eyebrow. He could see a dark red shape with molten lines across it suspended in mid air.

*Ba-dum*

His eyes went wide as the shape lit up like, fire being set to oil, and twitched, the sound coming from it. It was a heart. A heart bigger than Neltharion himself and recognised it for what it was instantly. It was his own heart. A sizzling came from it as molten blood ran around the it.

“So you do recognise it.”

Neltharion’s ears splayed back as he recognised the dark voice. He hadn’t heard that voice for over a week. He had hoped it was gone for good, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “Why is that  here?” Neltharion asked, looking to the burning heart.

Just as he asked, the heart’s beating stopped completely.

“It is a reminder.”

“Of what?”

“To make sure you don’t forget what you are.”

At the voice’s reply, Neltharion could feel his own chest pump once, a great heat spreading into his body. Neltharion snorted, “I know perfectly well what I am. I get reminded every day by these ponies.”

“And are you ashamed?”

“Yes,” Neltharion quickly answered. But he wasn’t sure. “No...I don’t know!” He bowed his head in defeat. “Why are you even here?” Neltharion snarled.

“Did you really think you could keep me away?”

The voice laughed heartily.

“How naive. You will never be rid of me, Neltharion. And soon I will be all you have left in this world. All I have predicted will come to pass.”

Gritting his teeth in anger, Neltharion scowled at the suspended heart, but didn’t say anything. For he knew the voice was right.

“You feel it, don’t you? The anger and hatred in your veins. The destructive power that wants to be unleashed.”

Neltharion wanted to deny it, but kept silent. The voice grew dry and unamused.

“You know that these ponies will turn on you. It is just a matter of when.”

“...”

“But perhaps it won’t even come to that. Perhaps they will meet their demise beforehand.”

Neltharion’s head shot up. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t you hear it? The flapping of wings so large they could belong to one of our siblings?”

Neltharion gasped awake, feeling sweat on his forehead and him noting that his bed was on fire. The first sound he heard was his own heart beating and with every beat he could feel a warmth going through his body. A reminder... He lingered on what the voice had said for a second and then closed his eyes and listened. He could hear wingbeats. Enormous wingbeats followed by a loud female voice. “Oh no…” Neltharion rushed out of his bed and began running towards the exit.


Running out of the castle, Twilight and her friends was met with a blinding golden and red light.

“Argh! Ah can’t see a thing!” Applejack complained, holding a hoof over her eyes but it didn’t help much.

“Me neither!” Rarity looked away to spare her delicate eyes.

Defiantly Spike tried to look into the golden light only to retract with a yelp. “It’s burning my eyes!”

Holding a hood over her eyes to shield herself from the light, Twilight looked around, noting the steady sound of wingbeats sounding through the air, to her guards who were also standing in a formation, but they couldn’t see anything either. The wingbeats kept sounding, the wings themselves pulsating with golden and ruby light as they flapped with surprising grace. Looking past her guards, Twilight could see some ponies in Ponyville shielding themselves from the light, other hiding or cowering beneath or inside anything that they could find.

“You seem to have a problem seeing, little ponies,” a deep female voice chuckled throughout the air, its tone playful and almost coy. “Let me help you with that.”

A powerful wing beat almost knocked Twilight back as the enormous glowing beast above flew over her castle and gracefully landed behind it, making surprisingly little sound as it landed. As the dragon folded its wings onto her back the blinding light dissipated.

As everypony turned towards the beast, the jaws of them and one small dragon in particular dropped in awe.

Behind Twilight’s castle they could see an enormous dragon body easily as big as her castle, its head hidden behind the castle but unlike other dragons this one body wasn’t bulky and vicious like looking. No this dragon's body was sleek and elegant. Her scales ruby red and gently giving off a weak light that made her look like she was glowing. Her wings were massive in size, both red like the rest of her body with the thin skin in between golden in color. Her long tail grazed the crystal castle gently as it almost laid curled around it. It was then she playfully stuck her head out from behind the castle, her poison yellow eyes looking at the ponies the same way a cat would look at a mouse. Her head was just as elegant as her body with two long golden horns sprouting from the back of it with a spinous golden fin starting at the start of her neck and ending at the start of her tail. Her underside skin was also golden like the skin in her wings and so was the claws that sprouted from the end of her limbs.

The dragon looked serene, almost godlike in the presence of the ponies who just looked in awe and terror of the dragon.

A white toothy grin appeared on the dragon’s face and she giggled softly at the ponies. “Did that help, little ponies? Can you see now?”

A shiver went down everypony’s spines at the dragon’s choice of tone. Again it was coy and playful. It seemed completely unnatural for a dragon and adding to the fact that this dragon was so big only made it all the more confusing.

“W-who are you?” Twilight asked the dragon with a yell, it merely cocked its head as it looked at the little pony princess.

Its eyes widened a little and her smile grin grew into a warm smile as she got eyes on a small reptile behind Twilight staring wide eyed at the dragon. “Hello, little whelp,” she said.

Spike cowered behind Twilight as he looked into the yellow eyes of the dragon.

“Don’t be afraid, little one,” She said, keeping her warm smile. “I won’t bite.”

Shakily, Spike went out of his cover, noticing Twilight having turned to him and shaking her head and wanting him to keep down, but he wouldn’t.

“Ahh there he is, and what a handsome little one you are.” She cooed.

Spike blushed heavily but couldn’t help but smile at the compliment.

Behind him a certain fashionista huffed at the whole ordeal.

“For the sake of being polite, I’ll ask again. Who are you and what are you doing here?!” Twilight yelled in frustration at the dragon.

Raising an eyebrow at the pony princess the dragon extended her head towards Twilight. “I’m surprised your princesses haven’t told you about me, princess Twilight Sparkle.” She said with a smirk as Twilight’s eyes widened at the dragon pronouncing her name and title. “Hmmm… How rude of me, I know everything about you, but you know nothing of me.” The dragon stood up straight, almost taking a regal posture, and lost the smirk. “So allow me to introduce myself,” she said, her voice growing stern and serious, louder and more vicious. “I am Valissa the golden, third queen of Draconia, and oldest dragon in this worlds history.”

The ball seemed to drop and Twilight gulped in nervosity. The dragon queen...the dragon QUEEN?! This is bad, this is really bad!

Everypony else also started mumbling amongst themselves, the guards unsure of what exactly to do. Attacking the dragon queen could be a political disaster and what would be worse was that Draconia would most likely declare war against Equestria if they did.

“And I am looking for the one you call Neltharion, or does he prefer Deathwing?” Valissa continued, taking a claw to her chin in thought before settling back in a smug smile. “No matter, I wish to meet him.”

Twilight was about to deny Neltharion’s existence entirely when she heard faint fast iron hoofsteps from inside of her castle and her eyes turned to pinpoints at the sound. 

Jumping out of a window, the black alicorn spread his torn leathery wings, black smoke and fire appearing him in a trail. He ascended into the air and turned towards the red dragon who was looking at him with curious eyes, his own having been consumed by a red raging inferno. The air crackled as electricity and fire began to consume the black stallion and he beat his wings towards the dragon queen, black smoke emanating from him and growing around him.

The dragon queen merely watched in confusion as the stallion approached, to her he was nothing more than a pebble. That is when she got a feeling. A feeling of something ominous as the stallion was consumed by the black smoke, and fire that quickly spread to a much larger shape.

Valissa’s jaw dropped and her eyes were reduced to pinpoints as a dragon much larger than herself slammed her onto her back with a roar.

The first thing she noticed was the dark metal jaw, his twisted scarred face and a primal growl sounding from his mouth that made her skin crawl. She felt her forelimbs being held down tight by the beast and noticed all of the metal spread across his enormous body, but the worst were the eyes that were staring into her own and keeping her in place. What her dignitary had told her had been true about them. They were a maelstrom of fire and rage.