> Gods of Equestria: Fuel For The Fire > by Fulgrim > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Ignite! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord was sitting in his chaotic house in his realm, sitting on his non-euclidean couch while rearranging a model car into a pencil and back again. He looked across his left thigh and out his rhombus-shaped window to see a spark of flame outside. His interest piqued, he swam outside his house, discarding his snorkeling gear and watched the flame grow from an ember into a raging blaze. It wasn't often that big events happened, but he decided to stick around. After a few more seconds, the fire didn't change, just stayed a fire, he started to loose interest until it dissipated leaving a figure floating in the chaotic breeze. It was a blue bipedal figure, with two heads and golden circlets on them. It wore cloth pants and had a metalwork chestpiece, also gold. He hadn't seen anything like it, perfectly chaotic, thought Discord. The creature expressed confusion, shaking its heads in unison and speaking as one. "What happened?" it asked in two different voices. Discord went over to it. "Quite simple actually, you were immolated by energy of chaos, took too long if you ask me," Discord replied. It shook its heads. "No, I was on Earth, I was overseeing prayers... I am no spawn of yours!" it said getting angry. "Really? I've never had a creation of mine express false memories before. But I don't think you understand insect, I am the god of Chaos." It laughed. "Then you must have noticed I am a god too." Discord was getting tired of this creature's antics, and tried to dissipate it. It expressed annoyance. "Hey! Stop trying to kill me!" it said. Discord didn't know what to do. He tried to morph it, and yet nothing happened. The creature growled and sent a flaming ball of fire from its hands at Discord, he narrowly avoided it. "How can you be a god, you're just a animal with identity issues," it laughed. "Oh yeah? Well you're just a blue two-headed fur-less Diamond Dog. How are you divine at all?" Discord asked. His joke was wasted on it as it stared at him. "This realm is stupid and childish. Who would want anything to be so random and so uncoordinated," he said as he vaporized a passing rubber duck. "Fire is always a constant. It can purify the tainted and burn the unclean. There is no changing that," it said. Discord was yet again struck with curiosity. "Who are you? Do you even have a name?" he asked. "Yes, Agni," he replied. "Interesting," said Discord. "Well, I do believe your time here is at an end, there is a much more exciting place I want you to go." Agni stabilized himself with flame from his sandals, staring at Discord with his arms crossed. "I will be back, and there will be a reckoning, creature of chaos," he said. "Yes I'm sure there will, but until then you're going somewhere else." Discord snapped his fingers and Agni dissipated, he could still see him though. "Yes, lets see how Celestia will deal with this," he said to himself. Agni was transported in an instant from the realm of the chaos-creature to a bricked city alley. The structures were vaulting and grand. Most of the city was white and the atmosphere felt strangely thin. But one thing that bothered him is that he couldn't feel other powers, he didn't sense gods like Shiva or Vishnu that he regularly ran messages for. Or his brother Indra, who kept the heavens. He also didn't feel prayers or sacrifices, but he felt fire. He walked out of the alley and crouched near a corner. Something was amiss, the chaos-creature had not sent him to Earth, and he had no idea if he could be hurt by a being who may have taken him off of it but he didn't want to make chances. He looked down a road with his left head and saw colorful horse-like creatures walking around in the setting sun. Truly the chaos-creature was playing with him now. He tried to summon a ball of fire, but he could barely make a few sparks. A commotion broke out on the street, as armored horses came into the street, speaking in a language that he understood, telling the populace that a monster was on the loose and they needed to go to their homes for safety while they searched for it, Agni assumed that the creature arranged this, and he went down the alley and through the back door of a small building, avoiding armored guards as they patrolled the alley he was in. He didn't know if he could even be hurt by these creatures but still, the chaos-creature had masterminded him this far, and if he were invulnerable now would be pointless. He heard the opening and shutting of doors inside the house, and Agni stealthy opened the door and went back into the alley, using trashcans and other objects to get him on top of the structures. They were mostly smaller than him, so it wasn't long until he was on the roofs of the houses. He observed a mountain to his back, and he didn't see a ground at the edge of the city, so he realized that it was a city on a mountain. He sighed, his escape was going to be much harder. He got up off of the ground, but two guards saw him from the street, and yelled to the others. Agni cursed himself for being so careless, and ran across the rooftops. Arrows from crossbows whizzed past him, and he still couldn't summon much more than a match-flame to deal with them. Eventually, he ran to the end of the buildings, and guards were coming up from a fire escape, surrounding him. He decided to take a chance on him not being hurt by them and ran at the guards surrounding him. Their spears stabbed through him, and he bled golden blood, he felt himself blacking out for the first time. The whole world fading until it was nothing but darkness. When he awoke, he saw he was in a metal bar cell, with damp brick walls and barred windows. A wooden door opened at the end of the hall of unoccupied cells, and two guards and a very large horse-creature entered and stood in front of Agni. He got up and faced the while horse with the flowing rainbow mane, it sighed. "Can we please stop finding strange beings in our cities and towns?" it asked in a feminine voice. "Let me guess," she started. "God-like being, don't know how you got here. I'm sorry for capturing you but we have a security problem." "Yes, I do not know where I am. But I must ask, what are you creatures?" asked Agni. "We are known as ponies, and I would also like to know what you are too. You are not the first being of great power to claim to have come from another world. And do not try to fool me, I know you posses great power." she said. "Huh, at least you acknowledge it. Now I assume you lowly pony creatures want to worship me and such, yeah yeah yeah lets get on with it." Agni replied. She laughed. "I don't think so, if you can be brought down by one spear than you can be brought down by many. And do not underestimate me, I am just as equal to you." Agni laughed again. "Now that's two of you creatures claiming to be divine. I can assure you, you cannot stand up against the flame." He lit his palm with small flames. Celestia nodded to her guards and one of their horns glowed, and before he could wonder why, a clank above him sounded and he was knocked out yet again from a large metal bar that was suspended feet above the ground. "Rush, send a message to Twilight," she said. "Tell them we have another god for her." > Bring The Heat! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agni awoke very angry and was not surprised to find himself in another cage. He saw that it was wooded, great, he could escape. But he looked around and saw bookshelves and desks with paper. He saw a loft with a bed too, what a strange prison. The rest of the structure was wooden, and he had to restrain himself to just enough to smash the cage with his bare hands and force his way out. He looked out a window to see a rural town location populated by the ponies that had managed to capture him. He still had no explanation on how a god could be subdued by a mere mortal, or how he got here, but he had to get out. He felt that the ponies only captured him because they feared for themselves but that wasn't going to be enough to subdue Agni's rage. He simply broke a small window and after a few minuets of burning he was able to get out of the... tree building facing towards fields and a large forest. Perfect for him to burn. He thought about using his fire to speed up his travel, but it would leave a very noticeable trail, but that's fine because he never retreats. After some effort he was able to get past the field with a flaming speed, but he simply didn't have enough to get all the way. He walked until he reached more fields of more orderly trees and a farm house. He figured that this was a source of agricultural supply to the town, and they could do without some apples for a while. He was a god after all, they might be able to hurt them but they couldn't kill him. He lit flaming balls of fire and he lobbed them at the trees, reveling in how they caught fire like dry brush, and he felt his power grow as the blaze raged around him. Now he could see figures coming out of the farmhouse to stop the fire, and he quickly sprinted away, laughing. Twilight had no idea how it happened. One day after the princess sent her a letter about another being like Ah Puch & Bakasura being found, and Applejack's farm spontaneously catching on fire. Applebloom, Big Mac, and Applejack ran around, trying to stop the fire with buckets of water, and Twilight and Rarity shot water at the flames with their horns while Fluttershy and Rainbow flew back to Ponyville for help. The blaze was too large, and in no time at all, a large portion of Sweet Apple Acres was a charred wasteland or still had cinders burning it. Applejack didn't say anything. Applebloom began to cry, but before she could Big Mac broke out in hysterical sobs and her and Granny Smith comforted him. Twilight could barely comprehend how this could happen, how it just magically caught fire. If Ah Puch was with them he might have been able to help, but he was in the Everfree talking to Zecora, who he had an interest in. "A-Applejack... L-lets go back to the library," Twilight said to her. Applejack responded with a dead gaze and they walked back to Ponyville. Ponies were still rushing to the farm when they arrived, and many offered Applejack her condolences but she ignored them. When they got back to the library, Twilight was shocked to see the wooden cage Celestia had shipped to her overnight was charred and broken. And a fiery path led from a broken window. Straight to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack wasted no time in running back to the farm, this time her face bright with anger. She returned in no time flat and surveyed the path, dismissing the burned trees, she saw it led into the Everfree forest, and before Twilight could even catch up, she sprinted in. Forgeting her fear of the forest and whatever burned her farm, it would pay for what it did. Agni wandered through the forest in boredom, he figured he'd take a break from burning things and explore part of this world. He just kept walking though the overgrown trees and brush when suddenly, a strange figure leapt out in front of him. It looked like a wolf, but it's body was completely made of wood, with glowing green eyes and sharpened twig teeth. Agni snapped his fingers and the wolf went up in flames, yelping before its body turned into ash, Agni kept walking. He soon became bored, and started thinking again about igniting this forest, but he decided against it. Some things must be spared the fire's wrath for the good of all. He eventually got to a part of the forest where the trees blocked out most of the sun, and was surprised to find a small wooden shack with green smoke wafting out of a window. His interest piqued, he tried to inch forward, but before he could get to the window the door flew open and a gaunt figure exited. He was a skeletal humanoid with black skin and a threatening mask with glowing eyes. It grumbled to itself before walking along a dirt path back the way Agni came. He had never seen this individual, but it was the closest he had seen to a human in this place, and the aura of power that he gave off was extremely strong, much like a god. He instead followed the god back to the village, he decided that a few more bonks on the head if he got caught was worth learning more about this thing. Anyways, he was already going to repay the ponies for their folly the first time. Applejack bounded over broken logs and overgrown brush following charred footsteps that led deep into the forest. Fear and exaustion tried and failed to bring her down as she searched for the evil creature that had burned down her farm. The farm was her life, the one thing that she had to hold on to was now gone, burned by some uncaring devil. They had never expected anything of this severity when Celestia sent Twilight that letter, but apparently Celestia hadn't seen the worst of the creature, and Applejack vowed to stop it. She finally reached Zecora's hut, and she saw that the steps led back down the path they take to get there, and wasted no time following them back. She doubled her speed, obviously the creature thought it hadn't finished them off and went back to complete the job. She had to try to reach Ponyville before it and warn Twilight or catch it on the way. Whichever came first. Agni had been stealthily sleuthing his way to the tree-house, and it was working fine until someone screamed. He was halfway from where he started and the tree until some pastel horse-creature spotted him and let out an ear-piercing scream. Agni flinched and his body engulfed itself in flames in his anger. Fortunately, the screaming pony was also the smart pony, as she ran as soon as Agni turned his burning gaze (literally) toward her. Agni calmed down, but it was too late. The entire town had heard him and seen the smoke, now horse-creatures were screaming and running around in a panic. The door of the tree-house flew open and out sprung a purple horse and the thing he was following earlier. Agni was flipping through his options now. He didn't want to burn innocents any more, and at this point, flight was the only other choice. He tried making a run for it behind some small colorful buildings. He was blasted off of his feet, and landed into a smoldering pile of rage. The purple horse had hit him with a beam from its horn, and he prepared to set the thing on fire. But the other being had other ideas. From his staff, a small, smokey form emerged from it. Agni tried to follow it as it flew towards him and started to take the form of some sort of bird. Too late did Agni realize the distraction, he looked down at his feet where a green circle glowed below him. Suddenly a amalgamation of bones sprung up from the ground, encircling Agni in a cocoon of rib-bones and femurs that he couldn't escape.