//------------------------------//
// Fire and Fury in Canterlot 
// Story: Avenging is Friendship 
// by Boltstrike58 
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Equis, Canterlot

The small carriage made its way up the pathway to Canterlot Castle, pulled by a pair of royal guards. Originally, Tony and Steve had disliked the idea of a royal escort, reasoning that they could just as easily take the train, but Celestia had reasoned that the person they were bringing with them was rather important, and it was better not to take risks. The passenger in question didn't think he needed it either, but he wasn't complaining.

The carriage finally pulled up to the castle walkway, where Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight waited patiently. Twilight had been in Canterlot when the Tony had sent the request for this meeting across the journals, and she'd jumped at the opportunity to meet another human, one who'd she'd heard quite a bit about. Celestia and Luna, eager to form relations with Earth and its people, were receptive to the idea, and Cadence had agreed. The door opened, and Steve and Tony stepped out, wearing casual clothes, though Steve still had his shield slung across his back, and Tony still had his suitcase containing his compressed armor.

The third man who came out of the carriage was different. He had a darker shade of skin, a completely bald skull, and an eyepatch slung over one eye. He wore black clothes, including a long black coat that hung down to his ankles. Luna, ever the observant, could see that this was a human with determination and a will of iron. He was comparable to the Avengers, from what she could guess, although he was older than they. Then again, from what she'd been told of this human, these facts were unsuprising.

Tony bent down to give Twilight a small hug. "Good to see ya, 'Twily,'" he said. "Pinkie hasn't burned down Equestria yet, I see."

"Oh come on, that's just pessimistic!" Twilight scolded him, but her smile betrayed her true feelings. Even if they always had the journal to communicate, the times they could be face-to-face were always welcome.

Steve, formal as always, gave a small bow to the remaining alicorns, despite their insistence that he didn't need to. "Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight," he announced. "Meet Colonel Nick Fury."

Fury gave a bow of his own. "They've told me a lot about your world," he told the ponies. "And I'm happy to be your guest. Though I don't hold much power anymore, I'm always willing to step in for the sake of planet Earth. It's what I do."

"Glad to hear it," said Celestia. "What was your position again, Mr. Fury?"

"Head of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," said Fury, a note of bitterness creeping into his voice. "Defunct now, thanks to Hydra."

Cadence blinked. "I'm sorry, head of the what?" she asked.

"Shield," said Twilight simply, then as the others looked at her perplexed. "It's a acronym. It spells out Shield."

"You know, I think you're the first one to get that without being told beforehand," said Tony. "Considering how much of a mouthful that name was." That earned him a glare from Fury.

"Shall we take this discussion inside?" asked Luna. Now came the harder part.





"So," Fury began, once all the participants were seated around the conference table, "from what I've heard, you want to open diplomatic relations with Earth. However," he gave Tony and Steve a glare, "you're concerned about taking a position on the Sokovia Accords, considering that could reveal what happened here, with that Sombra freak."

"We get it, okay? We screwed up," Tony protested, covering his face with one hand. They'd already had this conversation, for Pete's sake. "It's not like we said 'Hey, let's all take sides in this controversial issue, dividing us and leading to a mini-civil war that ends with most of us on the run.'"

"We want to help with the Accords process," said Luna, "but our interference in Earth laws could be seen as an attempt to consolidate our political power on another planet by making the Avengers indebted to us, or some such nonsense, and that's not something we want any part of."

"I can see that," Fury replied. "Tony, what's the situation like?" 

"Well, the good news is that the majority of the U.N. are starting to wake up from the shock of Lagos, Sokovia, and all those nightmares," said the billionaire. "They're realizing that the whole knee-jerk reaction wasn't the best. There's talk of giving amnesty to all rogue Avengers once the Accords get modified. Of course, progress is slow. Thanks, Ross."  

"When you say amnesty, you don't mean Bucky, do you?" asked Steve, looking somber. Luna immediately felt a pang of sadness for her closest human friend.

"Well, I did give Ross—Everett, that is—the evidence that proved Zemo was behind everything. The biggest problem is gonna be getting past all the Winter Soldier crap." Tony sighed quietly. "No matter how many times we point out Hydra brainwashed him, something we have physical evidence of, everyone's all like 'We can't let this go unpunished' and other garbage. It's ludicrous. Too bad we don't have Wakanda backing us."

"You know we can't ask T'Challa for that," said Steve. "He's already done so much for us already. Not to mention he's not even officially king yet. His coronation ceremony isn't for another few months."

"I know, I know, but a guy can dream."

"There are other things to consider," Fury spoke up again, laying his teacup down. "Once Equestria is fully exposed to Earth, it'll become a target."

"Fury!" Steve admonished him. "We're a better species than that!"

"An individual is good, Cap," Fury countered. "Think about it. Hydra. Any number of power hungry crime lords. If Equis becomes public knowledge, there will always be people looking for ways to exploit it. Especially since they have magic. That's not me being cynical, that's just logic."

Twilight sighed as she processed this fact. Nopony would claim humans were a bad species (though in the aftermath of the Sombra fiasco, there had been some dissent among the nobility, regarding the Avengers receiving the highest honor in the land), but it was a fact that they were an imperfect species, with good and bad individuals. Then again, that was one thing they had in common with ponies. After all, ponies had given birth to monsters like Sombra, Nightmare Moon, and Starlight Glimmer before she was shown the light. Would anything really change once they opened themselves to Earth?

Before Twilight could speak, Celestia voiced her thoughts.

"We are prepared to deal with the consequences," she said. "The Avengers stepped in to help us deal with a threat entirely of our world, asking for nothing in return. If Earth should be threatened, or an Earthly danger should come to Equis, we shall do our part in stopping it." She spoke clearly and confidently, never wavering from her conviction. Princess Celestia had always been a reassuring figure, which was one factor that pushed so many ponies to trust her.

"Of course, we've got problems on our end, too," Twilight admitted, sadly. "Some of the Canterlot and Crystal Empire nobility wants nothing to do with humans. There are these ridiculous claims that Sombra wouldn't have attacked if not for the Avengers. Then there are the extremists claiming we should go on a crusade to forcibly and permanently transform all humans into ponies. It's ludicrous." She groaned at the thought. "Fortunately, nopony takes them seriously."

"It's just the way things work," said Tony. "There'll always be xenophobic idiots who think that anything different than them equals the devil, or some crap like that."

"Could be worse, I suppose," said Fury. "We've got a period of peace now, that's something. God only knows how long that'll last."

"Well, I think we should take a break," said Cadence. "We've outlined all of our problems, we just need to figure out how to fix them...somehow."  

At the prompting of the Princess of Love, four alicorns and three humans stood up from the table, setting off to rest for the next few minutes. Princess Celestia, however, kept her eyes on Nick Fury. She had some things she wanted to ask him.





Nick Fury would be the first to admit he wasn't fond of cute. Yet, as he stood on Canterlot Castle's balcony, he realized Equestria held a strange and fascinating allure to him. The countryside was gorgeous to look at, and from what he could tell, the ponies themselves were more than characters out of the fantasies of small girls. There was real power behind them, pushing them to heights even humans could reach. If Earth had this planet among its allies in the future, perhaps they were better off than he'd believed.  

"Twilight told me you were one of those who initially brought the Avengers together," came the voice of Celestia, as she trotted up next to him. "I suppose I should thank you for that."

Fury chuckled lightly to himself. "I suppose. Though we didn't do it with ponies in mind, of course."  

"Fair enough. That does beg the question: What made you bring them together in the first place? Thor and the others haven't told me much about that."

Fury looked off into the distance, his hands relaxing as his sides. It had been less than a decade since the inception of the Avengers, yet it still felt like an entire lifetime. They'd been together long enough that the idea of a world without them felt empty. That's why it hurt so much to see the Accords split them apart.

"The world was changing back home," he recalled. "People—extraordinary people with abilities we'd never seen before—were popping up everywhere, and they couldn't be controlled. And not all of them were good. Eventually, somebody had the idea to bring together a group of them. A group of people who would do the right thing and would fight the battles normal people never could. A group of people that would always be there when we needed them." His single remaining eye stared across the horizon.  

Celestia mulled over his words. "Odd. That was basically the same reasoning that went into finding the new Element Bearers. When we needed a group of remarkable, capable ponies, they'd be there for us. Perhaps there are more similarities between humans and ponies than I suspected."

"Maybe," said Fury. "And they have the potential to make us better. Captain Rogers was the one who pointed out how bad the idea of Project Insight was. I didn't fully get it until we realized Hydra was planning to capitalize on it."  

"I agree," said Celestia. "Twilight's done so much more than I ever could've expected of her. Maybe...maybe we need them as much as those they protect."

"Well," said Fury, "we could always use more friends. I hope that Equestria eventually forms a close alliance with Earth, Princess Celestia."

"Likewise, Colonel Fury."