Return of the Pan
“You’re gonna burn it!”
“I’m not going to burn it.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve burned it.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“I’m also pretty sure hay bacon isn’t supposed to be black.”
“How would you know? You’re a dragon, you don’t even eat hay bacon!”
This banter had been going on for a while. Morning had risen and with it, the two permanent residents had as well. Twilight and Spike had come to make breakfast, and in the event that Neltharion had returned home, at least it was either that or a minor earthquake, Twilight had wanted to try and impress him with some equine cuisine as soon as he would wake up. And all the guys loved haybacon, so why shouldn’t he? Only problem being that Twilight had never made haybacon before.
Coughing, Spike turned away from the stove with tears in his eyes. The whole kitchen was starting to be full of smoke. “Can’t you at least magic away the smoke or something?”
“Don’t be silly, Spike. The smell of hay bacon is what will lure Neltharion here. If the smoke goes, so does the smell.”
“But at least we won’t choke!”
“Don’t be so melodramatic, Spike,” Twilight smiled.
Twilight had heard of Applejack cooking hay bacon before and how Big Mac would ‘magically’ appear seconds later to eat it.
Spike continued to cough. “I can’t take this. Every dragon for themselves!” He yelled and ran out of the kitchen.
Twilight rolled her eyes, but she had to admit, even her own eyes was starting to water. It didn’t outweigh her excitement to serve the frying pan full of Haybacon to Neltharion though, so it didn’t matter. She could hear Spike in the hall.
“Oh, hey Neltharion. Hey Flash. Twilight’s in the kitchen.”
A moment of confusion let itself dawn on Twilight. Flash? She was sure he was still at the hospital. Perhaps he had gotten released early? Nevertheless a smile drew itself on Twilight’s lips as the excitement bubbled close to the surface as she heard the metallic clinks of Neltharion’s steps, but she remained calm in front of the stove, fiddling with the frying pan.
Although he had only been gone for a day, a shiver went up her spine when he spoke.
“It smells like you’re trying to burn down your castle,” Neltharion said.
Twilight turned her head and there he was, terrifying as ever in his alicorn pony dragon-ish form, standing against the door frame with what she thought was an inkling of a smile. It was hard to tell because of the giant metal jaw, but Twilight had no doubt he was giving her a sly smile. She rolled her eyes. “You make it sound even worse than Spike.”
“That’s because I mean it.”
Grabbing the frying pan in her magical grip, she turned and smiled at Neltharion. “Come and sit down, Neltharion. I made this especially for you.” For a moment, Twilight thought she saw hesitation on Neltharion’s face. Then she heard someone whisper on the other side of the door frame.
Neltharion turned from his position and looked out on the other side of the frame. “It’s okay,” he said to the other person.
Confusion hit Twilight again at those words. What was okay? If it was Flash Sentry, it would be very weird for Neltharion to say that to him, especially in such a reassuring tone.
In walked Flash Sentry next to Neltharion, close, as if he was scared of Twilight. There were bags under his eyes and he looked like he’d cried all night.
Twilight’s mouth fell open at his expression. It was heartbreaking. “Flash, what’s--” she never got to finish the sentence before Flash Sentry erupted in green flames and Chrysalis stood in his place.
This time, Twilight’s jaw dropped completely and a barrage of emotions hit her. First a train of confusion, followed by a mountain of anger and hate that made her pick up her jaw and clench her teeth. Just looking at her made it ache in Twilight’s leg. She remembered everything. No thought went into her next action, it was guided by her emotions alone.
With a thought, the boiling hot frying pan, with hay bacon, flew towards Chrysalis with monstrous speed.
As if she anticipated it, Chrysalis ducked beneath the frying pan.
*Clunk*
Her former emotions having gone with the wind, Twilight took a hoof to her mouth in shock at what she’d done.
The frying pan was stuck to the left side of Neltharion’s face, it being occupied by a very unamused expression.
Silence filled the room as the changeling and alicorn princess stared and awaited the dragon’s next move.
Neltharion responded with scrunching his nose. “Let’s not make this a habit.”
“Sorry, Neltharion,” Twilight said, hurrying over to him and grabbing the frying pan with her magical grip, trying to get it off. “Now your breakfast is all ruined!”
“Breakfast?!” Chrysalis exclaimed. “You tried to hit me with a frying pan!”
Twilight turned to Chrysalis. “Can you blame me after the last time we met?!”
“Ladies, if you could both just---”
“Shut up!”
“Shut up!”
Neltharion’s wings flared at their sudden reaction.
“How dare you come here after you did to Ponyville!?”
“How dare I come here!? How dare you adress me this way after you broke into my home and made me a prisoner there!?
“That was because you ponynapped my friends little sisters!”
“I only did that because you humiliated me at your brother’s wedding!”
“You were trying to take over Equestria!”
“That is besides the point!”
“Quiet!”
The voice of Neltharion shook the castle and their bickering seized. They both focused their attention on Neltharion.
“I’m not in the mood to hear you two bickering. Now get this frying pan off of my face!”
Twilight focused her magic around the frying pan. The metal protested as she tried to wrestle it off of Neltharion’s face. It took some effort, but with a pop, it came off.
“Thank you,” Neltharion said, the left side of his face was completely soaked in oil, and it seemed to be boiling on his face from the sheer heat starting to emanate from him. Neltharion took a deep breath and the heat disappeared from him, although that didn't stop the oil from dripping off of the left part of his face. His eyes fixed on a small piece of burnt black coal looking substance on the floor. With hesitation he dipped his head and took it into his mouth. It crunched in his mouth as he bit down on it, and his face contorted into one of shocked disgust shortly, before going back to his unamused face. He turned to Chrysalis. “You, go back to bed and stay there. I’ll get you later.”
At that, Twilight’s eyes widened as she shifted her gaze between Neltharion and Chrysalis continuously.
A little hesitant, Chrysalis nodded and walked out of the kitchen in the direction of Neltharion’s room.
“You… and, and her?” Twilight stammered, as her face turned red at disturbing thoughts entering her mind. “How? When?”
Raising one of his scarred eyebrows, Neltharion looked at Twilight in confusion. “Last night. She tried to ambush me, I calmed her down and let her stay in my room.”
Twilight’s brain was close to a meltdown. None of this made sense. “But it’s Chrysalis! She tried to kill me and my friends!”
“And because of it, she has lost everything. She is no longer a threat,” Neltharion calmly replied. “She is in a pit of despair, unsure of what to do with herself. Leave her be.”
“I-I can’t do that,” Twilight said, shaking her head, her eyes filling up with anger. “She has to pay.”
“She already has. As far as she knows, Chrysalis is one of the few changelings left, and there is a very real chance she won’t find solace amongst her own kin ever again. If you were thinking of punishment, I have given her one that will haunt her to the end of her days,” Neltharion said, looking almost through Twilight.
Silence sat in the room like the cloud of smoke in the ceiling, crushing any words that could be said before they even left Twilight’s throat. There was nothing more to be said, at least not about the changeling queen.
Neltharion turned around to leave, to let everything else unsaid linger in the room to whenever they could talk again, but Twilight wasn’t willing to let it be done there. He felt distant and unfocused. Something had happened while he was in Draconia. Something he clearly didn’t want to talk about.
“I think I’ve figured out why you have pony magic.”
The crystal beneath Neltharion protested as his armor scraped against its surface as he moved his hooves. It was hard to lie on, but it was better than lying on a pillow and shredding it.
Sitting beside him sat Twilight Sparkle, looking through a multitude of books as she shifted between them, the rest of them hanging in the air.
She had lead him to the library within the crystal castle and had started to pull down several books from different bookcases trying to find one in particular.
Neltharion was tired, very tired. All he wanted was to go back to sleep. Since Chrysalis had been sleeping in his bed, Neltharion had opted for a corner on the floor. Surprisingly, he’d slept better there than he ever had in his bed. Although he was interested in Twilight’s new discovery, the last few days had been taxing. And he wanted to sleep it away. It was easier.
“Here,” Twilight suddenly said and levitated a book in front of Neltharion. It was filled with infuriating pony writing, but there was a picture that made it a little easier to understand. On the picture was one pony of each race and energy entering their respective bodies, focusing on horn, wings and legs.
“What is this?”
“It is a depiction of where ponies get their magic from. Earth-ponies get it from the earth beneath them and it centers on increasing their strength and durability. Pegasi get their magic from the air, and it centers around their wings. It is because of it that pegasi can even fly. To a lesser degree it also increases their leg strength and dexterity. Then we have unicorns. They get their magic from both the air and the earth, but it doesn’t increase their physical nature, instead it empowers their minds and lets them project the magic into the world through their horns.”
“And what about alicorns?”
“They have everything enhanced. Strength, dexterity, flight and can project magic differently than unicorns, and can channel much more than any unicorn ever could.” Twilight gave Neltharion a questioning look. “And somehow, you are able to absorb the magic like any other pony. I bet that was why you have a cutiemark.”
Neltharion looked at her in confusion. “I don’t have a cutiemark anymore, not after I changed to this pony form.”
“I didn’t think so either, until I saw you this morning. Yes, you do,” Twilight replied, moving her gaze to Neltharion’s flank. “It’s just not as easy to see.”
Turning his head, Neltharion looked to his flank, and in the cracks between the plating there, he could see it. The same black sphere with molten cracks, almost completely hidden away by his plating. “But...how?”
“I’m not sure,” Twilight said, “but I have a theory. You have a strong connection to the earth because of your inherent magic. It isn’t hard to believe that you have a connection to this world’s earth as well. Yet there is a chance it can present some issues.”
“Like?”
“Well, I think that the longer you stay in your pony form, the more magic it absorbs. Unlike normal unicorns and alicorns, I don’t think your body will stop absorbing magic. It explains why it exploded from your horn when I asked you to use your pony magic the first time.”
“What are you implying?”
“Uhh, well, eventually you might absorb too much magic and…boom.”
“Boom?”
“Boom.”
“I will explode?”
“Maybe.”
“Well that’s reassuring.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Eventually the magic will have to discharge from your body and it could choose many different ways of doing so. It could also be triggered by a lot of things. There’s no telling what it could do. When I was a foal, sheer surprise made me accidentally hatch Spike and turn him into a fully grown dragon.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I’m not sure. You’ve only remained in pony form for a few weeks at a time at most. It could take months, maybe years for your body to accumulate enough magic to force a discharge. I don’t even know if that magic disappears when you turn back into a dragon, or if your plating slows the process, but I recommend you don’t stay a pony for too long at a time, so you don’t accidentally blow up Ponyville.”
Great, more to think about. Neltharion rolled his eyes in annoyance at the whole situation. As if things couldn’t get any worse.
Neltharion barely got to finish that thought before a guard stuck his head inside the library.
“Princess Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“You have guests.”
“Guests?
The guard stood up straight, looking down the other end of the hall with a stoic face. “Announcing: Princess Celestia, princess Luna,”
In behind the two princesses walked Discord.
“And the spirit of chaos, Discord. May he fall in a pit somewhere,” the last part came in a low mutter.
“I heard that,” Discord said, giving the guard a stink eye before continuing past him, his tail whipping the guards snout.
“Princess Celestia, Luna, Discord? What are you doing here?”
“We heard Neltharion had returned from Draconia and wanted to welcome him back,” princess Celestia smiled.
It was easy to see that it was forced. Maybe not to Twilight but it was easy for Neltharion to see.
“But that is not the only reason,” Luna said.
“Is that so?” Neltharion asked, looking over the princesses with suspicious eyes, noting Discord standing in the background with crossed arms, ears splayed back, and keeping his eyes on the ground, a strange frown occupying his features.
“Quite,” Luna replied, keeping her expression stoic and serious. “As you know, we have been doing an awful lot of research on your predicament while you were absent.”
At that, Neltharion’s ears perked.
“We managed to look through all of the books in our old castle, and even those in Canterlot library, and the closed wing,” Celestia said.
“And?” The word blurted out from Neltharion’s mouth, hazy and almost a whisper. First then did he realise how hopeful, and almost pleading, he sounded.
Celestia avoided his gaze. “I’m sorry, Neltharion, but we have found nothing. We can’t help you get home.”
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Yay, new chapter!
7709458 exactly praise the writing gods. And that cliffhanger of an ending.
If I were Neltharion this would be the point were I'd go "Hmmmm well shit"
Zero to jealous misunderstanding in ten seconds flat. Rainbow Dash will be proud.
Another excellent chapter. I know that it's unlikely, but I can't help hoping in the back of my mind, that when the magic finally discharges that it just might heal Neltharion's wounds. Unlikely I know, but I the guy is starting to grow on me.
I thought you meant "pain" and pan was a typo.
Always great to have a new chapter.
Also:
Deathwing/Neltharrion:
Wonderful!
Please more!
I really want to see Twilight taking Neltharion with her to investigate Starlight's town, it will be fun!
This made my day.
Why do I get the feeling that if he blows up, he'll make the Tsar bomb look like a small firecracker.
Oh those poor poor fools. I hope Neltharions reaction is... Cataclysmic..
Hmmm heated nuke incoming?
heh he got hit with a pan again! This was a great chapter!
I have a feeling that they are not telling Neltharion something here...
You dont lie to a god