//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Everything Burns // Story: Doomwar // by Boltstrike58 //------------------------------// Equis, Canterlot The nirik rampage could only be described as pure chaos. Raging, transformed kirin ran through the streets of Canterlot, carrying flames with them that leapt off their bodies and licked every surrounding object. Their maws were all opened, releasing terrifying roars as they charged down various other creatures, who fled screaming in terror. Dragon Lord Ember, Prince Rutherford, Queen Novo, and Thorax were trying to get their tribes under control, but everyone was too afraid to think logically. It was like a nightmare come to life. And the Avengers and the Elements of Harmony were caught right in the thick of it. "Twilight! What the hell is going on?!" Steve demanded, as he blocked a charging nirik with his shield. With a heavy push, he caused the beast to fly backwards into another of its kind, where they collapsed into a pile. Spider-Man, in an attempt to help, sprayed his webbing all over the burning creatures, but their flames were too hot, and they just caused the webbing to melt before it could completely envelop them. "Karen, how hot are these things?!" he shouted to his onboard A.I., as he dodged another fireball. "Scans indicate their body temperatures are in excess of three-hundred degrees," replied Karen. "I'd recommend not touching them." "They're kirin!" shouted Twilight, levitating another nirik off the ground, where it continued to struggle in her magic aura. "When they get angry enough, they turn into niriks! But somepony's cast a hate spell on them, and now they can't control their tempers!" Natasha and Sam dived to the sides, avoiding a pair of charging nirik. "That's great, Twilight!" Natasha yelled, drawing her taser batons. "But how exactly do we stop them?!" She rammed her baton into the neck of one of the niriks, and the beast roared in pain, sparking with blue electricity for a couple of seconds, but then it continued to attack. Fortunately, Applejack saved Natasha by bucking the offending creature away. "Twilight! Ain't there some kinda counter-spell ya can cast on them?! Or Starlight?!" yelled the farm pony. "I don't know!" Starlight yelled back. "Emotion altering spells are notoriously hard to undo! On the bright side, they only last for a couple minutes!" "That doesn't help us right now!" snapped Rainbow Dash, irate, as she flew above the chaos, dodging fireballs. "Normally, I'd be all for slugging it out with these guys, but not if they can't help themselves!" Tony dogged a fireball, throwing off his jacket as he did so. "Ugh, can't we have one day without an incident?!" He doubled tapped the arc reactor implanted in his chest. Within seconds, the nanites contained inside emerged, beginning to cover his body with the skeletal framework of the Iron Man suit. This was soon followed by the familiar red and gold armor plating, and in no time at all, Tony had donned the Mark L Iron Man suit, complete with supplementary magic batteries in glowing purple lights at various points of the suit. As another nirik stepped up to attack him, Tony activated the nanoparticles once again, forming a large shield over his arm to block the incoming charge. With another thought, two long, pointed metal cones, resembling unicorn horns, appeared on his shoulders, and and zapped the nirik with the Iron Man equivalent of a stasis spell. A flash of light emitted from his body, and an ordinary kirin dropped to the ground, unconscious. "One down, wish I knew how many more to go," Tony grunted, activating his jet boots and taking to the skies. Everybody else was faring much the same. They were perfectly capable of defending themselves from the nirik attacks, but fighting back without actually hurting their targets was another story. A large group of niriks were sending fireballs directly towards Canterlot Castle, but Thor was cutting the attacks off with his own lightning bolts, preventing them from doing any real damage. It wasn't the most viable strategy, unfortunately. There were just too many of them. One of the niriks, in the midst of backing up to get a better shot, bumped into someone. She tried to whirl around to confront whatever it was, but found herself seized by a massive pair of arms formed of pure stone, and lifted up into the air. "Boy, you guys are really angry, aren't you?" said Korg, in his usual relaxed tone of voice. "Let me tell you, it really helps to take a step back, and calm down, just look around you, and see—" "Korg!" yelled Valkyrie, as she dodged and kicked a nirik that attempted to impale her with its horn. "Now is not a good time!" "Okay, sheesh," Korg grudgingly replied, tossing the nirik aside. "I mean, I've started multiple revolutions, but I can appreciate the more wholesome approach sometimes. You guys oughta try it." "I know, right?" said Fluttershy, cowering behind the rocky humanoid. "If only they would calm down..." Meanwhile, Applejack was having trouble of her own. She was certain that she could at least talk Autumn Blaze down through the spell, or whatever it was, given the kirin's previous ability to control her temper, even when transformed, along with the connection they'd previously formed. The problem was that in the process of changing into niriks, kirin lost their unique appearances. All the niriks looked exactly the same, with black coats covered with fire and blank white eyes. The only one who could be told apart among the beasts was Rain Shine, and that was because she was twice the size of the others. Well, Applejack thought to herself, pulling out her lasso, it's better than nothing. Quickly tying a loop in the rope, Applejack charged towards Rain Shine, twirling the lasso high above her head. With a skilled toss, she hooked the rope around Rain Shine's horn, the only part of her that wasn't blazing like an inferno. The nirik grunted, pulling against the rope, but Applejack stood firm, grasping the rope with her teeth. "Cap! Gimme a hand!" she yelled. Steve immediately rushed over, grabbing the length of rope and helping Applejack pull. With a few sharp tugs, they yanked the nirik onto her side. "Now Rain Shine, y'all need to calm down! Remember all that ya learned about controllin' your temper—" She didn't get to finish. Rain Shine lashed out with a blazing hoof, striking Applejack in the middle of her chest. Applejack screeched with pain as she was driven back, only to be caught by Steve. "Oh, come on," she groaned, looking down at the fresh burn imprinted on her chest "This isn't going well." The Hulk hadn't wanted to be at this conference in the first place, but now he was even more irritated than before. Because now, he was surrounded by dozens of attacking monsters, and he couldn't smash any of them. The Hulk wasn't stupid, he knew what was going on around him. He knew these niriks were being controlled by some sort of magic, and it wasn't their fault they were attacking everything. Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't smash them. Even worse, they were starting to climb onto his massive body, their burning hooves leaving prints in his skin, their fangs tearing at his flesh, even as his healing factor repaired the damage. He tried swiping his arms through the air to shake them loose, but the things just wouldn't leave him alone. "Get off Hulk!" he growled, clenching his teeth and getting angrier by the second. "Or else Hulk will...will..." He was saved from having to come up with a threat, as a wave of red energy washed over him, pushing all of the niriks off his body. Wanda Maximoff (of course it was her) gathered them all in one large ball, before sending the niriks rolling across Canterlot, knocking down several others like bowling pins. "You alright?" she called to the Hulk, as she used her magic on another nirik that tried to charge her. Hulk grunted, shrugging his shoulders before moving off to another part of the battlefield. Wanda decided to accept it. After all, who was going to argue with someone that strong. Nick Fury was beginning to wish he'd brought some big guns to this little conference. As it was, all he had on him was his pistol, and if Twilight was to be believed (and he had no reason to doubt her now), these niriks weren't in control of their own actions, meaning that he couldn't use lethal force on them. The Avengers were handling things just fine, for the moment, but Fury himself was forced to keep rushing around the battlefield, avoiding bursts of flame every few seconds or so. At the moment, the most useful thing he could think of was to get out of the area and out of the Avengers' way. So he glanced around as fast as he could, looking for shelter. "Why ponies invite angry fire monsters?!" yelled Prince Rutherford. Fury turned to look at the leaders of the various tribes. They'd managed to pull a good chunk of their people away from the fighting, and were now slowly retreating from the center of the conflict. However, he didn't like the words that were coming out of their mouths. "What were they thinking?!" demanded Ember, her grip on the Bloodstone Scepter tightening even further with rage. "How dare they place all of our lives in jeopardy?!" "Clearly, they didn't consider the potential consequences before they acted," replied Queen Novo. "But they're under a spell!" shouted Nick Fury, but he couldn't make himself be heard above the chaotic clatter. Some among the group, like Skystar and Smolder, did manage to hear him, but they were too freaked up to speak up to their leaders. Fury cursed, realizing that somebody had likely planned for this reaction, meaning their goal had been to sabotage the Friendship Conference all along. But what he couldn't figure out was the reason behind it. Fluttershy, meanwhile, had lost track of Korg in the fight, and was now looking for somewhere to hide so she wouldn't have to face any of the niriks. She didn't even want to use the Stare on them, reasoning that they couldn't help themselves, and they didn't deserve to suffer that at her hooves. She crouched as low as possible, trying to remain unnoticed, which really wasn't difficult, as the niriks were far too preoccupied with the Avengers to truly notice her. Of course, there are always exceptions, as a burning hoof stomped down in front of Fluttershy's face. The shy pegasus let out a terrified squeak as she fell on her rear, looking up into the face of her attacker, who let out a threatening hiss. Something about the hiss caused Fluttershy to stop where she stood. The tone of voice was far too familiar. It couldn't be, could it? "Autumn Blaze?!" she asked, looking into the eyes of her attacker. There was no mistaking that voice. The nirik seemed to freeze where she stood, her hoof raised as though to strike Fluttershy, but making no effort to follow through on that action. Fluttershy hesitantly reached for her, but pulled back, realizing the intense heat would burn her hoof. However, the scene was interrupted by T'Challa tackling Autumn Blaze, his panther habit providing some protection as he tried to wrestle the enraged nirik to the ground. "Fluttershy!" shouted the king, as he grappled with Autumn Blaze's horn. "Get to somewhere safe, we can handle this—" "No!" replied the pegasus, filling with determination. "I can't just run away! Not like this! Just hold her still!" She jumped over to where the two were still wrestling, looking straight into Autumn Blaze's blank, white eyes. "Listen to me! You've gotten past your anger before, you can do it again! Just calm down! Autumn Blaze, please!" The angry nirik snarled and spat a few more times, but it was clear they were half-hearted. As she looked directly into Fluttershy's bright green orbs, Autumn Blaze ceased her struggling, falling limp in T'Challa's grip. Something seemed to fade from her expression, like one who is filled with rage, but when they really stop to think about it, can't remember why they were angry in the first place. With a pulse of fire and light, the nirik transformed, leaving an ordinary kirin in its place. T'Challa breathed a sigh of relief, climbing off of Autumn Blaze and helping her to her feet. "Fluttershy?" said the kirin, her voice filled with trepidation. "W-what happened?" "It wasn't your fault," Fluttershy insisted. "Somepony cast a spell on you..." Unfortunately for poor Fluttershy, she might as well have been speaking to a wall. Autumn Blaze's focus had wandered around, discovering how her entire tribe had once again undergone the terrible transformations into the beasts of fire and rage. The Avengers were keeping them from attacking the creatures who couldn't defend themselves, but Autumn Blaze only had eyes for the niriks. "No...not again..." she whispered, as her entire body began to shake. Fluttershy seized her by the shoulders. "It wasn't your fault. You hear me? It. Wasn't. Your. Fault," she declared. Autumn's gaze was forced onto the pegasus, as though she were channeling the Stare into her words somehow. "Somepony cast a spell on all of you. But now we need to calm all of the kirin down. Can you help us?" Autumn Blaze still looked afraid, but she nodded in affirmation. "Good," said Fluttershy, "Then let's—" But she didn't get to finish, as a stream of orange sparks suddenly appeared in the air. Autumn, Fluttershy, T'Challa, and all those in the area not currently occupied had their attention drawn to it, as the sparks began to swirl, forming a circle. Inside the circle, the air seemed to distort, changing from a view of Canterlot to something else. In seconds, one looking through the circle of sparks would get a view of an entirely different location. And from that location, two human men stepped, the portal sealing behind them. "Well," said Dr. Strange, staring around him, the Cloak of Levitation fluttering in the breeze, "I think we're in the right place." "Good," replied Wong, forming his Tao Mandelas on both hands. "Uh, who the hell are you guys?" asked Tony. "Earth wizards!" yelled Thor. Celestia and Luna watched all of the carnage unfold, their jaws dropping open. Luna was the first to recover, her horn igniting with blue light and seizing both Neighsay and Cinch in her magical grip. "What were you thinking?!" she demanded, slamming the offending unicorns against the walls repeatedly. "Why would you do something so...so...stupid?!" "You don't understand!" snapped Neighsay. "We're doing this to help you! Princess Twilight has brainwashed—" "Shut up," Celestia replied, her voice terse, as though she passed beyond the boiling rage point into tranquil fury. "Just shut up." Her horn glowed gold, and a large length of golden rope appeared, tying up the two unicorns. "We're going to deal with this. Then we'll be back to talk about just how badly you've betrayed Equestria." She looked to Luna, who nodded. The two sisters spread their wings and flew into the battle, preparing for damage control. A good distance away from the city, on a small mountain peak, Barney Barton and Amora stood, Barton watching the nirik rampage continue with a pair of high-powered binoculars. "Sir," he spoke into his earpiece. "The niriks are going nuts, but the Avengers are starting to contain them. Should we interfere?" "Negative," replied Dr. Doom on the other end of the line. "At this point, every creature present will have turned against them. The negative emotions should suffice on their own. Release them." "With pleasure, master," replied Amora. The duo turned behind them, where a massive cage, constructed of titanium bars enchanted with eldritch magic, sat. Inside the cage were multiple transparent creatures, looking as though they were composed entirely out of icy mist. They resembled horses, but had no lower halves, their bodies trailing off into more mist-like material. They howled with dark voices, echoing like a sound bouncing around in an icy canyon. These were the windigos. With a wave of her hand, Amora unlocked the cage.