• Published 29th Jun 2013
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The Strongest There Is - Onomonopia



Banner (and Hulk) in Equestria. What else to say?

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Worse Than Rage

"For the last time Twilight, the answer is still no," Pinkie said as she scooped up one of the Cake's foals into her arms as she tried to escape through the front door. Twilight had dropped by Sugarcube Corners in the morning after the party, with a plan in her head to try and free Banner from the wrath of the Hulk. She had talked to the other Elements of Harmony about it, and they had all seemed on board with it, but then she hit a roadblock when she tried to get Pinkie in on the plan as well.

"But this could be the only way to free Banner from the Hulk!" Twilight protested, while Pinkie looked up at the ceiling with a frown, seeing the Pound Cake was once again up there. "He's been trapped in there for at least three days now and we don't know what kind of shape he could be in, even if he's still alive."

"He's still alive," Pinkie assured her as she dragged out a trampoline and started to bounce up and down on it in an effort to jump up to where the foal was. "Hulk would never kill him, Hulk doesn't do things like that anymore."

"But how do you know that?" Twilight asked, as Pinkie jumped up to grab Pound Cake, who shot out of the way right before she could grab him, which resulted in Pinkie missing the trampoline and landing on her face. "Banner might be in pain or the Hulk might be keeping him in a painful memory! He could be in danger!"

"Hulk smashes things and yells," Pinkie said calmly as she ran into the closet to grab a ladder, placing it under Pound and started to climb it. "Hulk doesn't do things like trap somepony in an endless circle of pain or within their worst memories. He smashes things." Pound Cake hissed as Pinkie got close and tried to jump away, but Pinkie leapt after him and grabbed him in the air, both of them crashing to the ground. "HA! Got you." Pound Cake began to giggle as Pinkie picked him up and brought him over to the playpen in which she had placed his sister, Pinkie sighing in relief as the two began to play again.

"Look Pinkie, I have done days of research and I am ninety-eight...ninety-nine percent certain that this plan will work," Twilight pleaded with her. Pinkie sighed as she walked back behind the counter of the shop. Twilight placed both hooves on the counter and looked into Pinkie's eyes with desperation in hers. "Look, I know that you don't want to do this, but from what we saw with the Elements of Harmony in the past, Hulk should be fine. When we used them on Nightmare Moon, it turned her back into Luna because it dispersed all of the evil in her. From what you've told me about the Hulk, he isn't evil, just angry. So at the very most, as long as Hulk remains calm and doesn't get angry, the Elements of Harmony should only change him back into Banner, not destroy the Hulk." Pinkie looked at Twilight with uncertainty in her eyes.

"I don't know..."

"The process is also one hundred percent painless," Twilight said as she showed Pinkie the book she had been carrying. "The spell we are using was used back in the days of the great war--to calm foes that were angry to the point where they would listen to reason. All we're going to do is calm him down. Nothing more."

"Twi...why do you hate the Hulk so much?" Pinkie asked her. "Yeah, he's a little rude, but he's really a nice pony once you get to know him. It takes a little work, but once he trusts you, he'll tear apart Tartarus to protect you. Remember what happened with that robot the other day?" How could Twilight forget, she had what remained of it in her basement. "So all I'm saying is maybe you should give him a chance. Please?"

"Pinkie...I don't hate the Hulk, but I'm worried about Banner. What if the reason he hasn't taken control is because he's gone for good? You remember what Luna told us, about how he tried to kill himself multiple times. What if this is finally the act that gets rid of him for good?...What if my friend is gone?" Pinkie looked at Twilight as she wiped her eyes on her arm, her sympathy for her friend overcoming her worries.

"Alright Twi, I'll tell you what. I'll go talk to Hulky and if he doesn't know anything about Banner, I'll ask him to come down with us. But if he says no, there is nothing else I can do. Are you going to come with me?"

"No. Since you're the only one who can talk to him without fear of getting crushed by him, you have to be the one to tell him what's going on," Twilight explained when she finished wiping the tears out of her eyes. "Tell him everything, because I fear if we leave anything out he'll probably get angry at us, if he isn't already. Tell him that we are using the Elements to try to see if Banner is still alive inside of him, that we are not trying to hurt him. Can you do that for me?" Pinkie looked at her for a moment before letting out a sigh of resignation as she stood up.

"Alright, I'll do it, but you have to watch the foals while I'm gone," Pinkie said happily as she started to hop out of the shop. "Oh, and watch out for Pumpkin's magic; she's starting to use fireballs."

"That all you need me to do?"

"Yup. Oh, your tail's on fire," Pinkie sang as she hopped out of the shop, smiling when she heard Twilight scream. She bounced away from Ponyville at her fastest hopping speed, heading for the mountain where Hulk normally slept. But as she started to hop up the mountain, she started to have her doubts about Twilight's plan. True, the Elements only banished the evil in Luna and turned her back to normal, but that was because there was another pony inside of her. When they used the Elements on Discord, he had been completely turned to stone, since he was an Element of chaos. In fact, the Elements seemed to destroy anything that wasn't positive emotion, like what it did to Nightmare Moon. And Hulk was a hero made of rage, so what would the Elements do to him? Her train of thought was derailed when she heard a loud roar, followed by the sound of something being shattered apart. Pinkie immediately feared for whatever had angered Hulk and raced up the mountain at speeds that would make RD hate her. She ran into the mouth of the cave to find Hulk tossing around a number of cockatrices, with a few more laying flattened on the ground from where he stepped on them.

"Ugly chicken snakes try to hurt Hulk, but Hulk too strong!" he roared as he threw one over Pinkie's head and out of the cave, stepping on another one of them. One of them managed to slither up Hulk's arm and stared into his eyes, forcing Hulk to stare into them as well. Pinkie cried out as Hulks' body started to turn to stone...until his eyes started getting greener and the stone on his body shattered when he moved. The cockatrice didn't even have time to realize what had happened before Hulk grabbed it by it's head and crushed it in his grasp. Only after he had finished off all the cockatrices did he finally notice Pinkie standing at the cave entrance.

"So, are you making new friends or is that how you treat all your guests?" Pinkie asked the Hulk as she walked inside, stepping past the bodies without looking at them.

"What puny pony want?" Hulk asked her as he picked up the corpses and threw them out of the cave, walking back over to a rock and sitting himself back down. Pinkie jumped over to him and hopped onto his head, smiling when she noticed that he still had the stuffed animal she gave him in his pocket.

"I wanted to ask you about Banner. Is he still...alive in there?"

"Hulk...don't know. Hulk haven't heard from Bannner." Pinkie frowned as Twilight's fears were verified. Banner had said that the two of them could talk while the other was out, but for him to be silent wasn't good.

"Will you let him out?"

"No."

"Then I wanted to ask you, if you wanted to come on down to Ponyville and help out Twilight with an experiment of hers," Pinkie said. "All we're going to do is use the Elements to see if Banner's still alive, that's all."

"Hulk no trust stupid pony, stupid pony try to hurt Hulk," Hulk growled to himself. "Just like white pony. But not puny pony. She Hulk's friend."

"That's right. And Twilight's my friend. So you can trust Twilight by trusting me!" She looked into Hulk's eyes as he thought about it, and she could see the distrust building in them. She wouldn't blame him if he didn't come down, and she would simply tell Twilight that he said no, despite her best efforts. But the distrust in his eyes gave way to something she had never seen in his eyes before: trust.

"Alright, Hulk trust pony. Hulk also curious about Banner. He never stay quiet." Hulk had no idea how hard Pinkie had to contain her excitement when she heard him say that. To hear that Hulk trusted her was the greatest thing she had ever heard, even better than when she found out about the Cake twins. Hulk got to his feet and lumbered out of the cave, Pinkie hopping alongside him with sheer joy as they descended down the mountain, not even noticing the rain clouds that loomed overhead. Twilight had told her earlier where the group was supposed to meet if they got this plan to work, so that's where she lead the green beast.

"I don't believe it," Twilight said to herself as Pinkie and the Hulk showed up at the meeting place outside of town, joining the other Elements who were equally shocked at the sight. "You managed to convince him to come? How did you manage to do that?"

"Silly filly, Hulk trusts me, so I had no problem," Pinkie said with a smile. "But the cockatrices that fought with him weren't so lucky. We really need to put up a notice about bothering Hulk." Pinkie didn't see Fluttershy glare at Hulk as she said this, but Hulk ignored her. Twilight told all the ponies to gather around as she placed the Element of Magic on her head, the rest of them following suit as they placed their own Elements on as well. Pinkie was the only one who didn't do so, she had to talk to Hulk first.

"Hulk, before we do this I just want to explain what's been going on one more time," Pinkie explained to Hulk. "Twilight thinks that the Elements of Harmony might be able to tell us about Dr. Banner, who she is really worried about. So we are trying to...get him out." She saw the rage flash in his eyes and knew that she only had seconds to divert his wrath. "But it won't be permanent! We only want to see if he's alright. After that, you can change right back into the big green friend of mine." She saw that Hulk was once again thinking about it, the doubt flashing in his eyes again.

"Will it hurt Hulk?" he asked her.

"No, I promise that it won't hurt you," she responded with a smile. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Hulk knew what the Pinkie promise meant to Pinkie and that it meant her word was bond, so he shrugged and stood in the grassy field, waiting for the ponies to start. Pinkie walked back over to the ponies and up to Twilight, giving her a look. "This won't hurt him, right?"

"No, it shouldn't," Twilight confirmed. "What did you find out about Banner?"

"Hulk hasn't heard from him and that's not a good sign. I may not agree with this, but I do know that we have to find out about him." Pinkie looked back at Hulk one more time before she joined her fellow Elements in the circle they formed whenever they prepared for the Element Storm. Hulk watched with narrow eyes as a white light connected all of the ponies together and started to float them into the air, where their power seemed to grow as the ground began to shake. Then the six ponies opened their eyes to reveal white pupils and fired a rainbow beam up into the sky, which came crashing down towards Hulk, who brace himself for the magic. It struck him with the ultimate power known to the ponies and started to wrap around him.

"See Pinkie, he's perfectly fine," Twilight said to her friend as the magic seemed to do nothing to the Hulk. Hulk looked at the elements that surrounded him, feeling a warmth course through him that soothed him a bit. He closed his eyes and allowed the peaceful magic to start to wrap itself around him. The Elements began to calm his great wrath and slowly but surely, he was changing back into Banner.

"Hulk feel...happy," Hulk muttered. However, a certain god of chaos just so happened to be watching from the shadows and he smiled at what he saw.

"Oh this is too good. The little ponies think that their little Elements can help Hulk," he said with a snicker. "Let's change that. Messing with the Elements is the best way to create chaos. I can't wait to see how this turns out." Discord snapped his fingers and sat back to watch from a distance. Just as Hulk began to get comfortable with the magic, the pain started. What was happening was that Discord had messed with the Elements a bit, making them now think that they were firing at Discord instead of Hulk. Hulk opened his eyes to see some weird creature floating in front of him that gave him a wink, then the pain started. While the Elements had sensed the goodness inside of Hulk all along, the sudden change in personality from Hulk to Discord had sent them into their secondary function: to trap him in stone. Hulk's body was starting to glow as bits of his skin started to come off, and for a brief moment both Banner and Hulk could be seen side by side as the stone began to form around him. Hulk roared in rage and pain as he put a hand up to stop the Elements, but their power was too strong.

"Shut it off!" Pinkie screamed at Twilight, who closed her eyes.

"I...I can't! The Elements have taken hold of his sudden rage and are trying to destroy it!" Twilight screamed as the magic continued to pound the Hulk, not knowing that Discord had used his magic to prevent the Elements from being turned off. Then they heard the roar, the roar that reminded them of the first time they had watched the Hulk destroy. In response to being hurt, Hulk had gone from angry and unsure to feeling full on 'pissed' and betrayed. His body began to glow green as his rage began to overpower the magic that was hurting him. And the angrier Hulk gets...

"HULK SMASH MAGIC!" Hulk raised a glowing green fist and slammed it into the Elements, the power of his punch knocking the Elements back. He then started to swing, each hit knocking the Elements further and further back.

"He...He's overpowering the Elements! This shouldn't be possible! Nopony is that-!"

"HULK IS STRONGEST!" Hulk roared as he punched the Elements one last time, breaking the magic beam and sending the six ponies flying in opposite directions. Twilight groaned as she hit the ground and sat up rubbing her head with pain in her eyes, eyes that slowly began to shrink when she realized that a shadow was looming over her. She slowly rose her head to look up at the Hulk, who was towering over her with a look of wrath upon his face.

"Stupid pony try to hurt Hulk," Hulk seethed, his fist clenched so tightly that he could have shattered adimantium. "Pony try to lock Hulk away, just like the humans and other beings. But Hulk too strong for magic, for you. Now," Hulk began as he lifted both hands over Twilight. "Hulk smash."

"NO!" Pinkie yelled as she placed herself between Hulk and Twilight, stopping Hulk from smashing Twilight. "Hulk, this was an accident, she didn't mean any of this!" Hulk looked down at her with the same seething eyes with which he had been glaring at Twilight, but then the wrath slowly started to fade as Hulk lowered his arms.

"Pony lie to Hulk," Hulk said softly. "Puny pony say that Hulk no get hurt, that Hulk be safe. But Hulk hurt."

"What...no, Hulk I didn't mean-" Pinkie began, but Hulk turned around and started to walk away, pain showing in his eyes as he walked away.

"Hulk thought that Hulk's friend could be trusted, that she was different. But Hulk should know better, no matter where Hulk go all try to hurt Hulk. Hulk go be alone now," Hulk said quietly as he leapt into the air, leaving the area.

"HULK WAIT!" Pinkie screamed as she raced after him, ignoring her other friends that had just gotten back to their hooves. She managed to catch up with Hulk on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, where he had made a massive crater from landing. "Hulk stop!" she yelled again, this time Hulk did stop but he didn't turn around. "Hulk, what happened was an accident, Twilight didn't mean for the magic to hurt you. All it was supposed to do was tell us whether Banner was alive or not, it wasn't meant to hurt you."

"But it did hurt Hulk," Hulk said in a cold whisper, his words sending chills up Pinkie's spin. "Pony lie to Hulk, said that Hulk wouldn't be hurt. Promised that Hulk wouldn't be hurt. But Hulk was hurt."

"Hulk, I didn't mean for that-"

"PUNY PONY TRY TO HURT HULK!" Hulk screamed as he turned around to face her, allowing her to face the full brunt of his wrath. "Hulk thought that pony would be different, hoped that pony would keep word. Hulk trusted pony! Hulk didn't want to be experimented on, but puny pony tell Hulk that it be alright. But it not alright! Hulk almost trapped again and Hulk was hurt again! Hulk trusted pony!"

"Hulk please, I'm-" Pinkie tried to apologize, but another roar from Hulk drowned out what she was trying to say.

"NO! Hulk no want to hear more of your lies! Hulk don't want to see pony anymore!" Hulk screamed at her. "Hulk thought you friend but you try to hurt Hulk! Hulk tired of being hurt by so called friends! Hulk tired of the pain. Puny pony better leave Hulk alone for good or Hulk smash pony! And if Hulk can't smash pony, then Hulk smash all of pony's friends, then Hulk smash town! Hulk will keep smashing until pony finally LEAVES HULK ALONE!" Pinkie opened her mouth to try to apologize, but Hulk slammed his hands together and created a massive shockwave that blew Pinkie off her hooves and kicked up a massive dust cloud. She groaned and got back to her hooves, running into the dust cloud to find that Hulk was gone. She looked around for where he might have gone before she tore off through the forest, never noticing the rain that started to fall onto her face as the clouds began to let loose. She ran for miles until she found something that stopped her as if she had been shot. It was the stuffed animal that she had given him, laying in a crater that Hulk had made when he impacted. She slowly walked over to it and picked it up, the tears that started to fall from her eyes beginning to mix with the rain that fell down her face.

"HULK! I'M SORRY!" she screamed into the storm as the rain came down in force, drowning out her cries. "I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT YOU! PLEASE COME BACK" Pinkie continued to scream until she could no longer hear her own words under the force of the rain. She curled up into a ball on the ground, clutching the stuffed pony close to her chest. "I'm sorry...I'm so, so sorry..." Pinkie whispered to herself as she clutched the pony close to her, slowly beginning to weep silently to herself, never noticing the crack that appeared in the Element around her neck.

Far away, Hulk landed in the center of a desert, picking himself out of the crater that he had made as he slowly began to walk forward.

"Hulk no need ponies, Hulk no need anyone." Hulk continued to walk further into the desert where the heat beat down on him. And since his skin was so thick, he never felt the single tear that fell down his face. "All Hulk needs...is to be alone. It's all Hulk needs."

Author's Note:

Think Nightmare Moon.