• Published 5th Apr 2013
  • 18,476 Views, 157 Comments

Where's the Fire? - Vin Diesels Go-Kart



Thomas was one of Comstock's elite guardsman. Battle hardened and devoutly loyal; nothing could prevent the fireman from reclaiming their lost lamb....

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Chapter 3: A Burning Passion

"Okay Applejack, you go left and I'll go right. If we go in together, we can easily take this thing out and send it packing." Rainbow Dash suggested. The two stood fast against the strange armored opponent in the Golden Oaks Library.

"I dunno Rainbow, this thing looks tough and I don't want the fillies gettin hurt if we can't take it down fast enough." Applejack replied.

Thomas couldn't help but laugh as the two spoke. Did they really think they had a chance against him? They didn't even have any weapons on them. He figured they would just try bucking him into submission, and the thought of that made him laugh even harder. He bent over as his gut began to hurt.

"And what are you laughing at!?" Rainbow Dash demanded, taking a step toward the Fireman.

"Well to be honest, I never imagined I'd be in a situation where I was 'threatened' by a couple of talking ponies." he stopped laughing for a moment to catch his breath. "But no, clearly you two would be more than a match for me if you took me on together." he barely finished the thought before exploding into another laughing spell.

Rainbow Dash's anger began to rise as the Fireman continued to insult her every time he opened his mouth. She was a proud pony, and no stranger was going to sit there, laugh at her, and get away with it.

"Keep laughing and I'll kick your lungs in!" she threatened in as harsh a tone as she could muster. She took another step toward the Fireman.

"Rainbow Dash, this is not the time for your petty remarks!" Rarity scolded, trying to calm everyone down.

"Are you kidding me Rarity? You saw what it did! This thing is dangerous and needs to be stopped." Rainbow Dash countered.

"Well you're right about one thing, pony." Thomas said as he stood up straight and began tossing a fire grenade up and down in his hand. "I am one dangerous son-of-a-bitch, and if you want to see just how angry I can get, then you just keep on stepping closer." he warned.

The games were over now and he needed results. This was a waste of time; he saw that now. If the Fireman wanted to get back to Columbia, it looked like he would have to fall back on his old tactics. Namely burning everything to the ground and sifting through the ashes that remained.

"Both of you stop it!" a new voice chimed in. Both Thomas and Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, who had teleported between the two, ready to intervene if necessary. Thomas would have to remember to ask the alicorn how she did that, if he didn't burn her to a crisp first.

"There's no need for violence, Rainbow Dash. This creature is a guest here and has done nothing to harm anypony." the princess continued.

"Plus he saved our flanks twice over!" Apple Bloom added.

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment, trying to come up with some sort of argument, before finally yielding.

"Fine, but don't blame me if it burns down the whole town." the pegasus huffed.

"Well pat yourself on the back, because you may have just stopped that from happening." the Fireman retorted, extinguishing his grenade.

He could easily go full meltdown and disintegrate the whole lot of them right now, but then he'd just be back at square one, and if Twilight was willing to cooperate, then he figured pursuing this avenue first couldn't hurt. Plus he was starting to develop a soft spot for the three fillies he'd saved; something the Fireman would never openly admit, not even to himself.

Twilight turned to Thomas and addressed him directly. "So you are not from this world, is that correct?" she asked, wanting clarity.

"Correct. I was sent here by another of my kind; a girl who possesses powers I can't even begin to understand. She opened a portal that dropped me into this dandy little children's book of a world." the Fireman harshly explained.

The alicorn simply closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After a brief moment of thinking, she quickly turned to her dragon assistant.

"Spike, grab me a quill and some parchment. I need to write to Princess Celestia and inform her of the situation." she ordered.

Spike nodded and quickly ran to the second floor. Twilight then turned back to the Fireman.

"I'm sure the princess will want to come to Ponyville and meet you personally. I'm sorry to say that there aren't any books in this library, or any library for that matter, that will be able to shed any light on the concept of travelling between worlds. Fortunately, Princess Celestia has been around for a very long time. If she doesn't know the best way to proceed, then no one does." the alicorn explained.

Thomas sighed. "And how long do you suppose it will take this princess of yours to get here?"

"Once I send the letter, it shouldn't take more than a day." Twilight replied. "In the mean time, would you like to take that armor off and grab some lunch? I'm sure you must be famished." she offered.

The Fireman considered the proposal. He hadn't eaten anything all day, and now that the subject of food came up, he could feel the familiar emptiness of hunger in his stomach, which became apparent to everyone else when it began growling.

Twilight smiled. "I'll take that as a yes."

Thomas simply nodded, and was then directed to a guest room to change. While he began the annoying process of removing his armor, the ponies began talking among themselves.

"And just what the hay are we suppose to do while we wait for the princess to come?" Applejack asked Twilight. "Who knows what that thing looks like underneath that suit? We can't have it walkin round town and scarin everypony half to death!"

"Applejack's right. We have to keep it in the library until we can do something about it." Rainbow Dash agreed.

"Are none of you listening to us?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Thomas saved our lives and hasn't done anything 'harmful' since we brought him into town. Sure he kind of got mad when you called him a furnace, but that's just because he isn't one."

"You three should leave now, I don't want you around this thing anymore." Applejack ordered.

"No way!" Apple Bloom argued. "He's our friend, and we aren't gonna leave him alone."

"Yeah well we'll see about that when it comes back out without the armor on. I bet the thing is hideous; you three'll probably scream and run away when you see it." Rainbow Dash smirked.

"Will not!" Scootaloo defended.

"Will too." the pegasus smugly countered.

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Will not."

"Will...."

Rainbow Dash was interrupted by a cough coming from the other side of the room. Everypony turned to see Thomas standing by the entrance of the guest room. The Fireman had taken off everything except for a white t-shirt and overalls that he wore underneath his armor. He was a handsome, tough looking man in his mid-thirties with a clean shaven face, jet black hair and brown eyes.

"So.." he started, with a voice that, without the distorting helmet, sounded much easier on the ears. "Where are we going for lunch?"

* * *

Scorn walked over to the tied up stallion that had wandered into his camp that morning. He grabbed an iron rod out of a nearby fireplace and held the red hot tip close to the captive's eye. The stallion whimpered in fear as he tried his best to move away from the rod.

"Now I want you to tell me real slowly what you saw before you blundered into our camp." the bandit leader commanded.

"I told you! I saw this weird looking creature fighting a giant dragon. I thought the thing was toast, but then it started using fire and smoke to take the dragon down, then the dragon flew away. Now please, for the love of Celestia let me go!" the colt pleaded.

Scorn brought the rod close to the stallion's face one final time, before throwing it into a bucket of water. A cloud of steam rose up with a sizzle, which could be heard along with the captive's sigh of relief.

"Alright, I'll let ya go just as soon as you tell me where this thing was headed last time you saw it." he offered.

"Yes, Ponyville! It was headed there with three fillies!" the stallion said eagerly.

"Three fillies huh?" Scorn pondered. He nodded to two of his subordinates who had been watching from the other side of the large tent. They promptly lifted the captive and took him to the exit.

"Make sure you treat that one real nice." the the bandit leader jested. He wondered how long it would take the stallion to realize he wasn't leaving the camp alive. After all, Scorn had to feed his pet something, and hay just wasn't going to cut it.

He looked down at a map of Equestria spread out on a wooden table.

"Ponyville eh?" the earth pony said as a grin formed on his face. He grabbed a spear out of a nearby weapons chest and examined it, admiring the sharpness of the tip. "Well I guess it's time to pay that little town a visit."

* * *

"You don't have anything with meat!?" Thomas asked as he looked over the menu.

"Certainly not sir! What kind of establishment do you think this is?" the server pony asked, almost offended.

"What's this? Peanut butter and jelly? What kind of twisted combination is that?" the Fireman demanded as he saw the PB&J sandwich on the menu. "Mixing salty and sweet together? It's blasphemy!"

"Oh will you just pick something already?" Rainbow Dash snapped from the other side of the table. They had been sitting there for fifteen minutes waiting for Thomas to make a decision.

"Give me the PB&J sandwich." the Fireman mumbled, reluctantly.

"Very well, sir." the waiter replied, taking his menu and bowing to Twilight before going back inside the restaurant.

Thomas was sitting at an outside table of the establishment with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sitting on either side. They were joined by Scootaloo, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Spike.

The group sat at the table in an awkward silence. A few of the ponies were having conversations while Thomas began burning a hole through a napkin with his index finger.

"How do you do that?" Rarity inquired, seeing the flame harmlessly burn on the Fireman's hand.

"Well I couldn't tell you exactly how it works. The egg heads from my world made these things called vigors that grant the user special powers, like the ability to create and manipulate fire. This one is called Devil's Kiss." he explained.

"Oh, so it doesn't have anything to do with magic?" Twilight asked.

"No, it has more to do with genetic augmentation, but I really don't know the specifics. All I know is that when I drank a bottle of the stuff, I could suddenly light myself on fire and it didn't kill me." he said smiling.

"So does everyone have these powers in your world?" Rainbow Dash asked, admittedly interested.

"No, only people in Columbia use vigors. Most people use them recreationally, but some people like me are trained to use a specific vigor for combat purposes." he informed.

"Columbia?" Applejack asked quizzically. Thomas smiled as he was about to wow the ponies with good o'l American ingenuity.

"Columbia is an amazing city that was constructed by America, which is the greatest nation in the world. But the kicker is that the city floats in the sky like a cloud!" he beamed, expecting to hear gasps from the ponies. However, they simply sat and stared, as if wondering what the big deal was.

"The city floats." he repeated, wondering if they'd heard him.

"And?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Does that not impress you?" the Fireman asked, a little cautiously.

"Well Thomas, we also have a floating city called Cloudsdale, which is actually made up of clouds." Twilight explained.

Thomas slouched in his seat and hung his head, defeated. He didn't anticipate this place would be so bizarre as to have a city made out of clouds, but in hindsight he probably should have seen that coming.

"So why did this girl send you here in the first place?" Apple Bloom asked.

Thomas didn't answer right away. He wasn't going to sit there and tell these ponies every detail about his plight. Maybe he would if he thought that the possession of such knowledge would assist them in helping him get back home, but he could'n't see how that would be the case.

"It's complicated." he finally said, hoping they wouldn't pursue the matter any further.

Luckily, they didn't get a chance as the waiter arrived with everyone's meal. Thomas looked at his sandwich suspiciously as he investigated the food item.

"Pfft, peanut butter and jelly. What idiot came up with that ridiculous idea?." he asked himself in a low tone. The Fireman took a cautious bite of the sandwich, chewed and swallowed.

"Oh my God...." he said as the full flavor of the sandwich graced his taste buds. He took another bite to confirm that the first one wasn't an anomaly.

"Dammit." he muttered as he realized the sandwich was delicious. He quickly scarfed down the remainder of it and then chugged the glass of milk that was sitting next to his plate.

He looked at the ponies, who were giving him strange looks. None of them had even touched their food yet.

"Umm....it was....pretty good." he admitted.

"So Thomas, do you have any family in this floating city?" Twilight asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"A brother." the Fireman replied. "He's actually the reason I got into Columbia in the first place."

"Why? Is it an exclusive place or something?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Kind of. Something happened in the past that caused the city to become more....independent. Call it a disagreement between Columbia and America." the Fireman responded, trying not to get too detailed about Columbia's dark past.

Suddenly, Thomas heard screaming coming from another part of town. The group looked around to see ponies running away from some unseen threat.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked a fleeing mare.

"BANDITS!!!" she screamed as she continued to run.

As if on cue, a group of sinister looking ponies rounded a corner of one of the buildings. They carried spears at the ready as they continued to chase the town's inhabitants away. A few of the bandits threw spears in Thomas' direction; some barely missing Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and another impaling the chair right between the Fireman's legs.

"That was a mistake!" Thomas yelled as he grabbed the spear and held it in his hand, quickly covering the weapon with a fiery aura and whipping it back at the throwers. The spear struck one of the bandits' legs and he was instantly consumed with fire. Nearby bandits immediately jumped away from their screaming compatriot; not attempting to aid him, but instead grabbing more spears to throw.

As more bandits entered the market square, Applejack quickly ordered her sister and the other two fillies to go with the rest of the townsponies. There was no objection as the three quickly moved out of harm's way.

Thomas watched as they followed other fleeing ponies out of the marketplace. When he was sure they were safe, he turned back to the attackers just as more spears came raining down.