Devil
“…and yer sure yer perfectly fine?” Applejack asked once more.
“Ah told ya sister, ah’m fine. Mah leg no longer hurts if that’s what yer wondering,” Applebloom said with a sigh.
The two sisters were in Ponyville hospital, which was unusually busy. The magical blackout had caused a large amount of issues across the town, including a lot of Pegasus injuries as the blackout had knocked them out of the skies. No casualties, but a lot on injuries, including Applebloom. Applejack and Twilight were both there while the rest of her friends were searching the town and nearby area for more wounded.
“We got lucky that she was shielded from the blast by Iron Man,” Nurse Redheart said to the ponies. “A disintegration potion of that caliber could have wiped her from existence, but lucky it is designed to destroy magical objects, such as ponies. Iron Man, being pure human, most likely got off with some minor bruises and injuries.”
“That Celestia that Tony was there,” Applejack said with a small sob of relief. She raised her head and started to look around for the human, but couldn’t find him. “Where is he, anyway?”
“He’s back at my castle. He came to check up on Bloom earlier, but he left when he found she was alright,” Twilight said with a hint of worry. “I haven’t seen him like that before. He looked…devastated. The smile was gone and he…shut himself in the basement.”
“Ah don’t know why he would be so upset. If it weren’t fer him, mah sister would be gone,” Applejack said, hugging Bloom close. While the sisters bonded, Redheart approached Twilight.
“Princess Twilight, do you have any idea what could have caused that blackout of magic?” Redheart asked. “We have never had anything like that happen before. It knocked out life support and stopped numerous surgeries that our unicorn doctors were performing. We almost lost a great deal of lives.”
“I don’t know for certain, but I’ve got a couple of ideas,” Twilight muttered, before shaking her head and bowing slightly to the nurse. “I will look into it. Thank you for working so hard and for keeping all of these ponies alive. You’ve done a great deal of good today.”
“There’s no need to thank me, princess. I was just doing my job,” Redheart replied.
“Indeed. Now I must go and do mine. But first, I need to check up on someone.”
------====-----
Tony sat alone in the darkness of the basement workshop, with the only light in the room coming from the disintegration potion that sat in front of him and from the light of the arc reactor. He stared at the potion, having spent the last three hours learning everything he could about how it worked and what made it tick. Three hours would be enough for a regular pony to maybe figure out what went into it. Tony could now teach a college lecture on potions.
Something hadn’t been right. Twilight’s magic failing shouldn’t have caused it to explode. Something else, something in the air when all of the magic went down, that was what caused the potion to go off. Like a shockwave would or some other kind of force. Like the force generate from two powerful beings battle. He had seen it before. Hulk and Sentry. The two of them colliding had detonated explosives on the other side of the world. But what on this world could have caused a similar effect?
Tony stretched his neck, turning his neck to the side to see a bottle of pure apple whiskey sitting on a table next to him. Thirty proof. When had that gotten there?
Tony shook his head before placing his fingers to his temples, trying to fight down the guilt. Bloom was in the hospital. Because of him. Because he had gotten so caught up in the past that he had created a weapon of destruction that had nearly cost Bloom her life. He was still doing it. Even after all of the years of being Iron Man and all of the good, he still would focus only on himself and cause problems for everyone else. How many else had he hurt this way? How many more would he fail before the day was done?
The whiskey said apple on the front, but his scanners showed that there was also a hint of berry and a tiny percentage of hay. Someone hadn’t been paying attention when they bottled it and let some hay slip in. Of course, these were ponies and maybe they preferred hay in their drink? Might taste good to them.
Tony snarled and returned his focus to the problem in front of him. A potion of death. A clash that could rival the Hulk. A magical blackout. One problem at a time. The blackout most likely meant Tirek. He could absorb magic, so Tony didn’t doubt that he could mess with it in other ways. But who could he be fighting that could cause such a force of power? Discord? No, Discord had most likely fallen to Doom. Doom? No, Tirek would already be dead? The princesses? Yes, that was the most likely option.
Applebloom. God, he had nearly killed Applebloom. The young filly that wanted to be his apprentice, to learn how to build suits like him. And he had nearly killed her with his carelessness. Just like his carelessness had gotten Peter killed. And his wife and Aunt. All people and ponies that could have been protected had Tony been smarter, had Tony just paid closer attention, considered all of the angles. And now she was hurt. And they were dead. He had failed again.
Tony looked down to see that the whiskey was in his hand, the top removed. When had he picked it up? And why had he…?
Tony placed it down beside him, shaking his head with a snarl. Focus. He needed to focus. Tirek, princesses, trouble. If Tirek had confronted Celestia and Luna, then odds were he had beaten them or was in the process of beating them. They had no back up. They were out at their grandfather’s old castle. Looking up information for Tony. They were hurt or dying because of him. Another group of good individuals who lives were ruined because of him.
He wondered how strong thirty proof on this world was. Would it be enough to get him to forget? To forget all of the pain that he had caused? Maybe he could forget about Peter and Bloom entirely and-
BOOM!
Tony breathed hard as the remains of the whiskey sprayed across the wall, a blast from his palm decimating the bottle. He took a moment to regain control of himself before he lowered his head onto the table, closing his eyes for a moment.
“So besides using my gift for Applejack’s birthday for target practice, was there any other reason you came down here?”
Tony lifted his head and turned to see Twilight standing behind him. He hadn’t heard her come in. She might have teleported. He spied a small ring of magic at her hooves. Definitely teleported. Tony didn’t say anything in reply, he simply lowered his head back down onto the table.
“Oh please don’t tell me you’re pitying yourself. You’re just wasting time if that’s the case,” Twilight said. She walked over beside Tony and conjured a stool to sit on. “Applebloom’s fine. Broken arm was the extent of her injuries.”
“She’s crippled because of me.”
“She’s alive because of you,” Twilight corrected. “Yeah, she might take a while to heal, but she’ll heal. You saved her life.”
“I’m the one who endangered her. I’m the one that made a potion that kills anything magical it comes into contact with. Even if it didn’t kill her at first, it would slowly corrode at her body over time. All that, because I lost focus for a second.”
“You sure learned how that potion works quick. But knowing all that, the fact that she’s alive shows that you protected her,” Twilight said. “And if we’re going to be naming blame, I’m more to blame than you. I’ve handled dozen of those potions and yet all I did was cast a shield spell around it and call it a day. I should have disposed of it immediately but I didn’t. I knew what I was doing. You didn’t. The blame is mine.”
“Twilight, listen-“
“No, you listen. This isn’t just about Bloom. It’s about Peter. It’s about the others that Doom killed. It’s about you blaming yourself for what you consider to be screw ups. Blaming yourself for those you couldn’t save,” Twilight cut him off. “Well don’t. Blaming yourself doesn’t solve anything. If anything, overburdening yourself with guilt causes you to make even worse decisions in the future. Trust me, I know.”
“Instead of spending that time blaming yourself, spend that time learning. Spend that time improving. Because like it not, you’re going to mess up again. How badly depends on what you do now, how you prepare yourself. That’s the hardest lesson we can learn,” Twilight finished. “That we’re going to mess up and that…we can’t save everypony. But if we surround ourselves and do nothing…”
“Then maybe no one gets saved,” Tony finished with a smirk. “Ugh, how is it I’m how many dimensions away from my Earth and yet I’m still getting one of Steve’s speeches? From a talking alicorn, no less? There’s someone like him on every world, isn’t there?”
“I wouldn’t know. I heard those words from Sunset in the human world. Think she saw it in a movie,” Twilight replied with a smirk. “But the message is clear enough. Focus on what we can do, not one what we’ve done. Tirek is still out there, Doom is bound to show up eventually and you owe me a new bottle of liquor. Come on, time to move.”
Tony smirked at Twilight and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could Spike burst into the room, a look of horror on his face.
“Twilight…from Cadence,” he said weakly as he held out a letter in his shaking claws. “It’s Tirek! He beat Luna and Celestia. And now he’s in the Crystal Empire! They need you!”
Stark was on his feet before Spike had even finished his sentence, his thrusters powering up to max. He was about to take off before Twilight raced in front of him.
“Tony, wait! We need to get my friends! We need to take Tirek as a team!”
“And in the time we’re waiting for them to get together ponies are dying! No one else dies or get’s hurt on my watch. No one.”
Tony was gone a moment later, tearing across the Equestrian skies as he rocketed towards the Crystal Empire. He had left sound behind a long time ago. He would be there within moments. It wasn’t enough.
“All power to thrusters, Jarvis.”
‘Done sir.’
Tony’s scanners picked up the Crystal Empire before his eyes could and he zoomed in to see what had happened. It made his blood boil. Cadence and Shining Armor were laying in the streets, their magic gone and their vitals low. The crystal that made up the empire was burning and the bodies of many ponies lay in the streets. But there was something else. Something that enraged him so much the Hulk would be proud. It was Tirek. He stood in the middle of the empire with an alicorn in his hand. A small, crying, baby alicorn. And he was laughing at her pain.
“HEY FUCKER!”
With how fast Tony was going, his words would take a few seconds to catch up to Tirek. That was fine. Tony’s fist that he slammed into the side of Tirek’s face delivered the message faster than the word could. Yet despite hitting Tirek with enough force that Sentry would be sent backwards, Tirek staggered slightly in surprise.
Tony ignored that before he snatched Flurry Heart from Tirek’s grasp, snatching up her parents and flying them out of range of the centaur.
“Wait here,” Tony told her as he set the foal down next to her mom and dad. He turned to go confront Tirek, but a hoof grabbed hold of his boot and he looked down to see Flurry staring up at him with tears running down her face. Tony crouched down and raised his face plate, smiling at her as he gently wiped her tears away.
“Hey, no need to cry. Everything is going to be alright,” he promised her, giving her his most confident look. “I’m a superhero, right? And a superhero always saves the day.”
Flurry looked at him for a moment before a small smile crossed her face. Tony patted her gently before he rose up, his faceplate slamming down as his arc energy went from blue to red.
‘Kill mode engaged.’
Iron Man stalked towards the centaur, who smirked at the metal man. As he approached Tirek, Tony realized he was going to break his promise.
Someone was going to die. And he would make damned sure it was Tirek.
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Engage instant kill.
!!! H...holy crap.. I like this and I am scared. Iron Man going to kill someone.
Pissed off Tony is best Tony.
Well this won't be as nasty as the time Tirek picked a fight with the Doom Marine, but other than that I'd say he's about to have a historically bad time.
9875097
Cue Megalovania
Gee, I wonder which movie series that could have been.
9875161
The VERY SECOND I read that , Megalovania started playing on my "random songs I like" playlist. That's some crazy coincidence XD.
Damn that's an epic sentence . I feel like Tirek will have a time has good has when he angered The Hulk for real and that's saying quite a lot for him .
(Yes , I keep making references to JDPrime's stories but they are sooo good ! Seriously , when you have the time , go read them !)
9875847
:P
I can't wait for this battle. This side of Tony even Doom fears, and that's saying something. This Doom might not, but I know that other Dr. Doom's do fear this side of Iron Man.
“Karen, activate Instant Kill!”
That was a reference to Spidey’s suit in the MCU, right?
Considering how many ponies are dead. Death is the only option
9875097
Link please.
9926307
Sure thing mate!
- MLP: FiM
- Adventure
Tirek has claimed the power of the alicorns from Twilight Sparkle, and now all is lost ... Or is it?