Falling Hard
In a small clearing, in a small forest, in a small mountain range in Northern Equestria, a small dragon stirred in his sleep. A long thin black tail, pointed like a Phillips head screwdriver at the end, and barbed along its dorsal length, swished back and forth in the grass. A thicker, tubular body, with larger dorsal spikes, was connected to four stubby legs, with sharp claws that would occasionally flex. Large wings lay folded at his side, running the length of his torso. A serpentine neck extended outwards from the body, ending in an angular head. His head was rather triangular, flaring backwards over the neck slightly, and tapering down into a narrowed nose, that occasionally snorted puffs of smoke as he dreamed.
The dragon dreamed of many things. He dreamed of his early days, spent alongside his two brothers and two sisters. He dreamt of starting his own family, of seeing them grow into their roles. He dreamt of protecting the land, of communing with the elements, and of teaching his children to do the same. He dreamt of madness that overcame him, of foolish plans to gain power, of his own betrayal, and of his loyal children following in his footsteps. He dreamt of becoming a prisoner within his own mind, of watching through his own eyes as he devastated the land he was sworn to protect. He dreamt of enslaving the elements that once acted as good friends.
He dreamt of his brothers and sisters standing united against him, of the monster he became, of the pain of being torn apart. He watched as his true family tore away at him, with the power he once foolishly created, removing every scrap of corrupted essence in his body. He dreamt of them finding a small fragment of his essence, less than a fraction of a percent of the great dragon he once was, and with a vow of silence banishing it, that both the world and their wayward brother could recover without the other present.
In the small clearing, in the small forest, in the small mountain range in Northern Equestria, the little dragon ceased dreaming of Deathwing's final moments, and Neltharion opened his eyes.
He blinked rapidly against the bright sunlight that drifted down between the tallest grass he'd ever seen. With a start he sat upright, realizing the grass was merely overgrown, and he himself had shrunk. It was disconcerting to the dragon, who had not been this size in tens of thousands of years, to suddenly feel so insignificant. He worried a moment if some massive predator would swoop down upon him, and spirit him away as food, a fitting end for one who'd caused similar death to thousands.
Pushing painful thoughts of his past aside he inspected his body, it was eerily familiar, as if seeing himself as a whelp once more, which he supposed he was in a way. It seemed to be in order, his legs all worked, his tail swished without much coordination but he could work on that. His wings while large wouldn't be able to support him for long journeys, but everything seemed to point to him being a normal dragon.
No elementium plates were grafted to his body, no molten blood oozed form scars that would never quite heal, no constant threat of exploding in a blaze of glory. He winced at more painful memories, of the things he had done to desperately hold on to his power. How clearly he could see it now, without the caress of the old gods clouding his judgment, had it really not been obvious to him he was under their spell?
He would need help finding a place to call home for a while, wandering the mountain range at random was no good for a whelp. In this state even an errant adventurer would put him down for his scales, if not imprison him as a pet. Concentration he felt for his magic, and was left in shock to discover how little of it remained. No doubt it would replenish as he grew, but even as a whelp he held more power than this. Truly it was as in his dreams, the title of Earthwarder and all of its powers and responsibilities had been stripped from him.
He felt for what he did have, and let out a pulse of magic. It was a spell he had used frequently his entire life, a call to the elements themselves, like shouting 'hello' into a system of caves. At the moment he could not reach far with it, only elementals in the immediate vicinity would hear, and without the mantle of Earthwarder, the elements were free to ignore him.
Seconds ticked by and Neltharion waited in silence. It was awkward, like ringing a doorbell and being forced to wait outside, fighting the urge to peer through a window and see what's taking them so long to answer. To his surprise two elementals appeared at once, one with a rumble of earth and another in a shower of flame.
"Hello!" Said the earth elemental, peering around into the grass.
"He-whoa! Bad bad baaaad!" the fire elemental began, before catching the field on fire. It began flailing, trying to stop the spread of the flames on the dry grass. The earth elemental rumbled over and stamped out the flames, leaving the two in a small scorched circle.
Neltharion stepped forward, letting the two see who had summoned them. To his surprise he was met with blank looks. "Hello." He began, seeing them both nod with understanding. "I summoned you." He said, attempting to prompt some sort of response.
"Yep! You summoned us, we answered." the earth responded.
"We really didn't have anything else to do. We haven't been summoned in..." The fire elemental trailed off.
"Ever!" The earth elemental finished.
"Ah... I'm Neltharion." the dragon said, hoping his name would at least prompt a response. Two elementals who hadn't ever been called upon was truly bizarre.
"I'm Flint, he's Tinder." The earth elemental introduced with a bow, the fire elemental gave a small wave.
They didn't recognize him, not even the name, how was that even possible. He'd half expected when he called on them for there to be yelling and violence after what he'd put some of the elementals through. "Right, well, first things first... Where are we?" The dragon asked.
"We're in the Drakenridge mountains, plenty of dragons around here, but none have ever spoken to us before." Flint supplied, turning to the fire elemental. "You ever hear of an elemental talking to a dragon?"
"I've never heard of an elemental talking to anyone, even those magical ponies, with the antlers." Tinder said, gesturing vaguely.
"Horns, Tinder, they're called Unicorns and they have horns." Flint said.
"What color of dragons live here?" Asked Neltharion warily.
"Oh all sorts of colors, bronze, silver, gold, copper, platinum." Flint listed off.
"You're just naming the metal colored ones, there's plenty of others too, like red and yellow and orange and black." Tinder said, rambling away.
"Wait wait, there are that many colors of dragons?" Neltharion interrupted, getting odd looks from the two elementals. "Where exactly am I?"
"We told you, Drakenridge mountains, Equestria." Flint said.
"Equestria..." Neltharion repeated, the term 'banishment' floating around in his head. He figured he'd been flung through time by Nozdormu, a thousand years or so into the future, to a time when his deeds were lost to history among mortals. It was highly unlikely however, that Azeroth had renamed a land Equestria, or had suddenly gained magical Unicorns, and such a wide variety in dragon flights.
He was in a whole new world, it dawned on him how lucky he was that there were elementals for him to call, or magic in the world in the first place. He was also lucky the elementals were bored enough to answer, and seemed to enjoy his company. "I need to find a cave, to live in."
"Most of the dragons live to the northwest of here." Tinder supplied. "They have natural lava pools and everything."
"I'll start looking southeast then, I don't get along well with others." Neltharion sighed, he remembered even when he was sane how he had disliked crowds. Even Malygos had called him both cynical and antisocial, and he spent most days locked in a tower doing research.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts he began walking in the direction, indicated by the earth elemental, as being southeast. The two kept pace behind him, yammering away among themselves.
"Are we supposed to follow him?" Tinder asked.
"Would you rather go back to doing what you were before?" Flint said.
"I wasn't doing anything before, just waiting for some source of fire to play with, like the last time campers came through, or the lightning strike before that." Tinder shrugged.
"Exactly. Hanging out with the boss seems like it'll be a nice change of pace doesn't it?" Flint said.
"Boss?" Tinder asked.
"What else would he be?" They both paused a moment to think, and then shrugged.
"Hey boss, Dragon Mountain is up ahead, there's an awesome cave up at the top that's empty. " Flint called, rushing to catch up with the dragon.
"Why would an awesome cave be empty?" Neltharion asked.
"The dragon who used it before snored, and he was so big it created a massive smoke cloud. Then some ponies came and beat him up, and sent him away crying because of it." Tinder said.
"That's not what happened!" Flint argued.
"Yeah huh, Waft said he saw the whole thing, this yellow pegasus knocked the dragon silly all by herself and made him cry." Tinder said.
"Waft wasn't there, he told me himself he hated the smoke and wouldn't go near the place. Either way the cave is empty, I'm not sure if any of the treasure is still there though." Flint said.
"I'll need gems, I need to regain some of my strength." Neltharion commented.
"There's plenty in the ground all over, I can gather some for you once we get there Boss." Flint said. Tinder grumbled something about suck ups, and the two began arguing again.
It was a long trip, and the sun had nearly set by the time the trio reached the cave on Dragon Mountain. As Flint had said, there was no longer a dragon living there, but any trace of treasure was long gone as well. Sighing Neltharion crawled to a darkened corner and curled up, he'd have to redecorate in the morning, but spending all day walking had sapped his strength. Within minutes he'd fallen asleep.
Morning came far too quickly for Neltharion's tastes, he had tossed and turned all night with more nightmares. He awoke to an interesting sight, however, piled at the center of the cave were gems. The pile was as large as he was, each gem was cut and polished, sparkling appetizingly in the sunlight. "Flint? Tinder?" He called, causing both elementals to rush into the cave.
"Yes boss!" Both gave a sloppy attempt at a salute.
"Where did you get these?" the black dragon asked, waving a tail in the gem's direction, and wincing as it went wide, knocking a few gems across the cave floor.
"The ground around here is full of them boss, I just dug these ones up." Flint replied.
Neltharion was skeptical. What kind of strange world had precut polished gems in the ground? Still, regardless of how he got them, they certainly looked delicious. Resisting the urge to start gobbling them up, he went over the pile, sorting it into several categories, first by color, then by purity, and finally by cut.
The ones with obvious flaws were placed back into a central heap, a dragon must have a hoard after all. A dragon's diet was mainly Aluminum, gained through gems such as rubies, sapphires, topaz and turquoise. The lightweight metal was integral to the growth of a dragon, with other minerals playing supporting roles. Eating gems with impurities resulted in impurities in things like teeth, claws, bones, and scales. Places where impurities meant exploitable weaknesses. The rest of a dragon's nutrients came from the magic that naturally collected in gemstones over time, and a healthy variety of gem cuts promoted the growth of the three M's, Muscles, Mind and Magic.
He'd given the lecture to his whelps, tens of thousands of years ago, when he took an active role in their developments. Different gems held different flavors, and often dragons avoided ones they didn't take, much as mortal children avoided vegetables. Some of the tastiest gems were almost entirely silicone, and were as bad as eating ice-cream for every meal.
So, like a child sorting through candy after Hallow's End, he selected those that would be food, put together an assortment that would fill his needs, and ate a very satisfying breakfast. He absently noted the lack of turquoise, which obviously didn't form naturally within the mountains, but pushed aside that craving as being petulant. He had what he needed, it was now just a matter of getting the cave up to his standards.
Flint and Tinder were outside of the cave, playing guard or harassing the local wildlife no doubt, if what they'd said about never being summoned before was true. He moved to one corner of the cave, clearing his mind as he felt out his magic. It was an exercise used among black dragon children, to teach them how to better channel their natural magic, they would use their senses to locate a vein of lava, and then manipulate the earth to create a vent.
It didn't take long for Neltharion to locate the lava beneath the cave, the mountain had all the properties of a dormant volcano. With a deep breath he rattled the rock beneath him, opening small cracks that connected the surface to the flowing heat beneath. A sudden updraft of hot air told him he'd accomplished the task, but it left him drained. He settled on only having one heat source for now, and left the cave to explore the area.
The view from the cave entrance really was spectacular, he hadn't stopped to appreciate it the day before. The land opened up into a valley below, sporting a rather rural village, and a farm. The village was bordered by a forest, that ran up to Dragon Mountain and circled around it, vanishing out of his view to his left. In the distance he could make out a massive cloud formation, that hung too low to the ground to be natural. Likely a city, like Dalaran, enchanted to float above the ungifted that toiled below.
He snorted at that, letting a small puff of smoke drift away on the wind. This world was likely the same as his last, so full of senseless conflict, so uncaring of the world around it. Looking back at all that mortals had wrought upon the history of Azeroth, was it any wonder he succumbed to the madness? He did regret his actions, he had abdicated his duty for his own selfish reasons, there was no 'greater good' in what he did. Still it had felt good, at the time, to remind the squabbling masses, the Alliance and Horde of their place in the pecking order. It felt good to remind them as they bickered over territory, that the territory could fight for its freedom.
What he wanted now, most of all was his isolation, to dwell on his past and his mistakes. As much as the memories pained him, he felt he could better deal with the situation if he sorted them all out, as he had the gems. Separate the good from the bad, the idle from the important, the grand from the megalomania.
His musings were interrupted by the sound of rhythmic flapping of wings, with a sigh he returned to the cave. "Flint, Tinder, guard the entrance, I do not want to be disturbed. Be as rough as you need to be." He said casually, returning to rest on his hoard of gems.
From outside he heard the sound of three things landing, followed by several voices. "See Ardon, it's like I said, some new dragon moved in here."
"Are you sure this is a good idea Sterling? I mean, won't the dragon be mad if we take its treasure?" the one named Ardon replied.
"Are you part lion or part mouse? Honestly, from what I saw it's just a baby, this'll be easy." came another voice, this one likely female.
"Whoa, that rock just moved, on its own. This place is freaking me out." Whined Ardon.
"Hi there!" Came the voice of Flint, met with three sets of shrieks, making Neltharion grin. "Sorry, but the boss doesn't want to be disturbed at the moment, you'll have to come back some other time." His grin faded, he'd have to have a discussion with Flint regarding his policy on dealing with unexpected guests.
"You think some talking pile of rocks is going to stop us? We're professional treasure hunters, and we're here for what's in that cave." the female of the group growled.
"Uh, if the treasure already belongs to boss, doesn't that just make you thieves, not treasure hunters." Came the response of Timber, also eliciting a trio of surprised squacks.
"You insulting our griffon honor? Ardon, Sterling, show these mooks how we conduct our treasure hunting business." The air was quickly filled with the sounds of a scuffle and several shouts, it was quite obvious his chosen bodyguards had never really fought before, outside of perhaps wrestling other elementals. They seemed to rely more on banter and boasting than raw physical strength, and it wasn't working out for them.
Within minutes Neltharion found his cave graced by the unwelcome presence of a trio of griffons. He'd always hated griffons, from back when mortals would ride them, to compete with dragons over the right to rules the skies. It was often a constant battle to remind them of what the food chain was. Here before him stood an interesting sight, however, in that the griffons appeared to be fully sentient and intelligent, and indeed capable of speech.
"I suppose you're here for my gems, thieves? You thought robbing the lair of a whelp would make you a hero, that they'll sing songs about how you bested a dragon half your size and took a paltry sack of low quality gems home to spend on griffon wenches?" Neltharion reverted to his instinctive condescending nature, despite all rational thought urging him to surrender. He still had his pride, as a dragon, and as an ex-aspect.
"You have a big mouth, for such a small dragon, shouldn't you be back in your nest with mommy?" The leader, the female spoke, for some reason feeling the need to taunt him.
"Yes, we've established that I am small and young and weak, and that you are big and strong and here to steal from me. Truly the nation of griffons is full of honor, if that makes you worthy of heroic fame." the black dragon snarked, still not raising his head from his gem pile.
"I think he just insulted us, boys." The leader said, looking to her cohorts for support.
"I think you're right Ora." agreed the one on the left.
"I think the lot of you are dense, having only figured that out just now, for what my opinion is worth. I take heart in knowing I'll likely outlive your entire species, if you three are a measure of the average intelligence."Neltharion replied, standing up and stretching out to his full size. It wasn't intimidating by a long shot, he was roughly half the size of the smallest griffon present, but it would be necessary for what he was about to do.
"I don't think you'll be outliving anything dragon." Sneered the leader, taking an intimidating step forward in response. Neltharion focused inwards, feeling out the lava flows far beneath the cave. It was an amateur trick, meant to provide heat to a dragon's lair, but a warm breeze to a dragon was far more than that to normal mammals.
With a rumble and crack a vent opened beneath Ora, the leader of the griffon gang, the searing wind and flecks of glowing embers immediately igniting the delicate down of her face and wings, causing her to scream and roll on the floor, her flunkies leaping to her aid. Feeling drained from that simple spell he settled on doing the only rational thing. Taking the blow to his pride as a dragon, and an ex-aspect, he ran.
He had reached the edge of the cliff outside the cave by the time the griffons got up and began pursuit. He noticed the elementals were beginning to pull themselves together, far more difficult and time consuming than simply returning to their own plane of existence, but perhaps they really were that determined to stay. Regardless they'd be no help against the now angry enemies, and so Neltharion spread his black wings wide, and leapt.
As expected, he could barely maintain a rough glide, the wings slowing him only enough to ensure he'd survive the landing, but likely not unharmed. He heard a roar of anger behind him, the griffons had given up chasing him, likely so they could loot his cache of gems instead. It wouldn't be safe to return there, not when the same trio would likely return every time he did, to steal from him again. It stung to know how weak he was, but he knew in time he'd return to his original strength, he just needed to give it a few thousand years.
His thoughts were interrupted as he hit the tree line of the forest below. The landing was rougher than expected, and he wound up cracking several scales and bruising much of his forelegs and torso. Cursing the weakened state he was left in, he began hauling himself forward, resolving not to rest in the middle of some unknown forest. As he crawled he considered how far he had fallen, not just physically in that last flight attempt. With the dragon soul in his possession he had risen to the very peak of power a dragon could hope to achieve, and in the past few days that had all been stripped away, leaving him here crawling through the underbrush of an admittedly spooky forest.
He must have hit his head, when he fell, as the world began to seem foggy. He imagined he was crawling towards Deepholm, pursued by dozens of would be heroes, and his siblings. He felt that terror well up in him once more, urging him to quicken his pace as he crawled forward. He felt the sun at his back, and imagined it was the dragon soul, charged and ready to end him. A bird flew overhead and he imagined it was that infernal airship, circling overhead, racing him towards his destination.
He broke from the tree's in a maddened frenzy, desperately searching for the safety of the portal that would take him home. Instead he recoiled in horror, as something leaped onto his back. The sensation nearly stopped his heart, remembering the feeling of heroes scrambling about, cutting and tearing the grafted plates of elementium from his skin. He tried to shake it off, pulling every maneuver he could think of in his fear addled state, thrashing about wildly with his head and tail and claws. Another blow to the head, likely caused by himself in his seizing, and he grew still as the world grew fuzzier.
From ahead in the clearing, he could make out the chirping of birds, and a soft voice drifting towards him on the wind. "Angel! Angel bunny you get off of him right now!"
A bunny... How the mighty have fallen, that Deathwing the destroyer was brought down by a bunny rabbit. Then his world went black.
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This is going to be interesting, I can feel it.
"I have faced the ravages of time, the curse of nightmares, and the mists of sorcery, thanks to the others! What weapons do you bring?"
A soft, White, bunny apparently.
By my ever so fuzzy beard this looks to be brilliant! Fav
Aye, it brings me back to the good old days of Azeroth. Props for your deep knowledge of the Aspects and of Azerothian lore.
"molten blood oozed form scars that would never quite heal"
should be "from scars"
"How clearly he could see it now, without the caress of the old gods clouding his judgment, had it really not been obvious to him he was under their spell?"
Grammatically odd sentence - consider re-wording
I could also spot some grammatical errors (I think).
Very good overall though.
This story is great, not only because its been well written so far (one chapter is hard to base on, but so far so good), but also because it doesn't punish me for my lack of knowledge of the Warcraft universe. Also nice to see stories of the other races. Wonder how Spike will react.
I find it extremely difficult to imagine Nelthy without his armor or without the molten cracks between said armor.
Also I can't stop reading Flint and Tinder's quotes in Ork voices.
"The drag' 'ooh used it before snored 'lot, an 'e was so big it made a 'uge smoke cloud. Then some ponies came and beat 'em up, and sent 'im away cryin' cos' ah it."
Oh i like this, i never play world of Warcraft i tried it once but never got in to it, but im still a fan of the warcraft rts series.
those games are awesome and what i like most about those games are the lore, it doesn't matter what game it is, starcraft diablo or Warcraft Blizzard always make the best story line and lore, you really gotta give them credit for that, and as such i'm looking forward to this story.
I like how you made Deathwing/Neltharion´s personalty in this, i don't know how accurate it sens i have nothing to compare against but regardless i like it.
I found a few thing a bit confusing which were probably mean to be wow references, like the dragon soul, or Deepholm, but that nor relay a problem when you have a warcraft wiki on a separate page
Lastley the elemental´s.. i don't really know anything abouthe them except there humanoid in appearance, and im a bit unsure as to why they who'd serve him, is it because he's the first to ever summon them or are they just bored and have nothing better to do?
601240
In answer to your last question, it would be both. They weren't doing anything and by all accounts, shamanism doesn't exist in pony society so no one would be around to summon elementals anyways. (maybe zebra, but thats more likely witch doctorism)
OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOMYGOSH A deathwing fic
Oh, finally.
A decent WoW MLP crossover fic.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!
Ok... this is good. The style is interesting, it's more serious than MLP but retains its goofy charm at times, and Neltharion is very well written. I can defiantly see a grumpy Aspect talking like this.
Will continue to read, now that we get to the most important part;
Pony interaction.