The Forge Lord's Crusade

by Baroque

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, Violence, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Human, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other, Adventure, Profanity
Length: 4819

Spark can travel between Alternate Equestrias. He decides to take a "rational" approach to it.

(Yet another alt-timeline idea for Crucible Spark, in which he is capable of travelling through universes instead of ending up in Twilight's castle and decides to... um... cleanse the Ponyverse of its darker side... I guess.)

He realized his gift.
He realized the opportunity before him.
He realized his purpose.
...

"In the name of Harmony, I serve."

Spark travels to darker AU-s and "fixes" them according to his belief of what "True Harmony" should be.
Which meant going on a crusade through Equestrias that follow darker fanfic tropes.

On the bright side, at least a bunch of Sunsets from various universes are now a lot safer from getting harmed!

Cover art by Rocket-LawnChair

Published 2024-11-05 14:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-10 12:44:32 UTC

No Ending Today!

Somewhere near the edge of the Everfree Forest, a small mote of blue fire appeared out of thin air.

It hovered by itself for just a few moments before it flickered erratically. Seconds after, the mote grew into a flat elliptical shape, wreathed by incredibly hot blue-red flames that haphazardly writhed in place.

Following its sudden transformation, an armored hoof stepped through the burning rift. The limb itself was tipped with roaring red flames, burning the green grass as it made contact with the ground.

It didn't take long for the rest of the hoof's owner to come through.

The being was a quadrupedal creature, almost equine-like in its visage. Its charcoal-black coat was covered with heavy, thick, yet elegantly designed armor, and it covered the creature from the neck all the way to the tips of their flaming hooves.

The creature's head was covered with a similarly ornate helm, with slots for their jagged, curving horn, pointed ears, and burning mane.

Crucible Spark, the human-turned-wrathful nirik Forge Lord and self-proclaimed Warden of Harmony observed the surrounding area with his bright glowing eyes.

He sniffed the air a few times and furrowed his flaming eyebrows as he noticed a rather peculiar scent.

"Human... yes..."

The armored nirik turned towards the direction the scent came from, his eyes widened as he noticed a blue-coated and rainbow-maned pegasus gathering up a storm cloud above the tree line.

With a slight twitch of his legs, he channeled his flames from his hooves and propelled himself forwards in a blur, leaving a trail of scorched earth behind.

"Jason!"

"P-please, Rainbow Dash! I'm not a monster!" a human man pleaded to the cocky pegasus flying above him.

He was still quite young, perhaps in his early to mid twenties. His form however, was quite... pitifful.

The young man was fairly emaciated, his skin practically pulled taught against his skeleton. The clothes on his body were in tatters, with significant chunks ripped off, leaving tears and holes throughout the fabric.

Small scars and injuries were littered along his skin as well, possibly caused from living a rough life.

Jason Wright, one of the least fortunate Humans-in-Equestria to ever exist, looked at his favorite pony in fear as she was preparing to strike him down.

"I'm not falling for your tricks, monster! Prepare to- GAH!"

Rainbow Dash exclaimed, interrupting her own 'heroic' speech as something impacted her mid air, leaving a trail of red flames.

She was flung all the way back towards the outer reaches of Ponyville, and left a thin trail of smoke as her body plummeted towards the ground.

Jason gaped at the sudden interruption. What the hell just happened?

He turned to look towards the thing that had crashed into Rainbow Dash, and stumbled onto the ground as he noticed the demonic-looking creature descending in front of him using its rocket-hoof-things.

"N-no! Wait!"

"Jason Wright." it said calmly.

The man halted his squirming, "Huh?"

"Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you." the creature gestured a hoof towards him, "Rather, I am here to save you."

Jason didn't know what to think or do. This.. demonic pony-thing wanted to save him?

"W-what?" was all he could mutter.

The creature continued, "My name is Crucible Spark. I used to be a human too, from, ah, another Earth, I suppose. Where your existence is purely fictional"

The man slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, his eyes still locked on to the... person? In front of him. Once again, he was baffled by the individual's statements.

Crucible Spark's expression softened, despite being smothered by flames, "In my Earth, your story is known to be rather... controversial. I'll explain it later, but for now, I'd like to ask you to follow me."

He lit his horn, which caused an elliptical disc of fire to form behind him.

"Come. It's not safe here for either of us, especially after I pulled that stunt. Though I really hope I gave that RD variant some serious burns." Spark ended with a sinister chuckle.

Jason finally found the courage to shakily stand up. He looked between the smirking nirik and the portal before him.

Every part of his being screamed at him to bolt into the portal as quick as he can, but his logical side reminded him of how he got into this mess in the first place.

The ragged man looked at the transformed human with clear suspicion.

"How... how do I know you're not just tricking me?"

Spark turned back to him, "You don't. But I know that your options are between staying here and continue to mimic Bear Grylls, or following me back to my place, which has a nice heated shower and internet." the transformed human bluntly answered.

Jason stood quietly for a moment, weighing his options. He considered Spark's words and played them again in his mind. The nirik had mentioned Bear Grylls and the internet, more evidence to him possibly being an actual human who had transformed.

He looked back up at Spark, who was looking over towards Ponyville, likely observing if Rainbow wanted to come back for round two. Or perhaps even the Mane Six as a whole.

Jason sighed, "Alright. I'll come with you. I've got a feeling things won't end well if I stay here."

The armored nirik smiled, "You won't regret it!"

Jason rubbed his eyes as he and Spark exited the portal. The human had been absolutely bewildered by the infinite expanse of burning portals and pathways that the two had to pass through to enter Spark's 'headquarters'. And don't even get him started on how the flames weren't harming him!

He looked around the room that they had entered. Jason assumed it was some sort of armory, with various—mostly melee–weapons and armor adorned the walls. Each item was intrecately crafted; a beautiful, balanced bond between form and function.

The young man turned to his... savior? And saw what he assumed to be his normal form.

"What did you turn into?"

Spark placed his armor on a ponyquin before turning to him, "I became my OC. He's a kirin, a species introduced in season eight." he raised an eyebrow, "What season was the show in before you went to Equestria?"

Jason's eyes widened, "I... came when season four was still airing..." the man shook his head, "MLP ran for eight seasons?"

"Nine, actually. With a bunch of stuff in between."

Spark proceeded to open the room's door with his magic, Jason couldn't help but feel a little envious.

"I'll explain everything I can when we all settle down. Come on, I'll show you where the bathroom is. No offense, you smell like a Nurgle daemon."

Jason furrowed his brows. He lifted an arm and took a sniff.

"Hurk!" he gagged.

"Yeah... let's just go."

"Jesus... I... I don't even know what to say to that! This is insane!"

Jason exclaimed as he finished reading his own story on Spark's phone. The kirin had decided to take their discussion to the living room after the human was done cleaning himself. To say that Jason finally felt relieved would be an understatement.

Spark had given him a new set of clothes, and had served him a footlong sandwich that had a suspiciously familiar yellow-green logo on its wrapping. It was the first time the human had felt truly full in months.

Jason also noted the odd insistence for him to wear the Chrysalis shirt specifically. He wasn't going to complain, though. It was pretty comfortable.

Spark took a sip from a cup of tea in his magic, "Pretty big revalation huh? And there's a bunch of revenge stories about you as well. Pretty cathartic reads, those are. Maybe if you're willing, I could help you, hm?"

Jason looked up from the mobile device, "Uh... maybe some other time."

He glanced around the adimittedly cozy room, despite being in fairly close proximity to a smithy and workshop. Spark must clean often, the young man mused.

"So..." he took a breath and leaned back on the couch, "What now? For me, I mean."

The kirin in front of him shrugged, "It's your call. Oh, and I can't bring you back to your Earth, by the way. My portals don't connect to our version of humanity, only to the ones with Sunset Shimmer in them. I honestly don't know why."

Jason wilted slightly. So he's trapped for good, huh?

"Okay. So, uh, maybe I could live with... you instead?" He asked hesitantly, not trying to push his luck.

Spark gave him a smile, "Hey man, if you want to stay here then by all means. We Humans-in-Equestria gotta stick together, y'know?"

Jason breathed a sigh of relief. It seems like all of that suffering wasn't for nothing.

Spark decided to continue, "Ah, and if you want, you can join me in my crusades every now and then! I can make you some nice armor and weapons if you'd like."

It took a moment for the human to snap out of his reverie, "Wait, what do you mean by 'crusades'?"

Spark waved a hoof, "Basically, I go around the Equestrian multiverse or whatever it's called, specifically to dark, grim, or grimdark AUs and do my best to save it or prevent things from going to shit or becoming shittier. You were just a part of one, and I'd say I was pretty successful."

Jason blinked. And then blinked again.

"Huh."

The kirin smirked once again, "So, you up for it?"

The young man looked off to a window in contemplation, and noticed a streak of rainbow in the sky from this Equestria's Rainbow Dash. He sighed, remembering that his favorite pony had tried to fry him alive no more than a few hours ago.

He looked back to Spark, "What do the ponies think of humans here?"

Spark shrugged again, it seemed like he does that a lot.

"Like they do with all the other creatures. 'Oh, you're a human? That's neat!' and then they're off again, doing Harmony-knows-what.

"Twilight's also a lot more familiar with humanity in this Equestria. I guess her relationship with Sunset helped with that."

Jason almost jumped out of his seat, "Wait wait wait, roll back, her what with Sunset?!"

The kirin looked at him like he had grown another head, "What? They're together here, like, y'know, romantically and stuff." he chuckled, "I practically squealed like a fangirl when I heard my OTP was real. Almost fainted too, I think..."

The human rested an arm on the couch, "Well, uh, good for them."

"Anyway, yeah, you won't get the same treatment here as you did back there. This is my personal 'best' version of Equestria, after all."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Jason turned his gaze towards Spark again. The kirin noticed the determined look on his face, which caused his smile to widen.

"Okay. I'm in."

Spark offered a hoof towards the human, to which he responded by shaking it.

"Welcome to the team, Mr. Wright!"

In another version of Equestria, located far from the blessed light of Harmony, a variant of Rainbow Dash had been declared permanently incapable of flight.

Spark sighed in satisfaction as he continued to forge Jason's personal armor.

He lifted the yellow-hot metal close to his goggles to check for imperfections.

"You don't mess with my people. Not anymore..."

He continued to strike the metal with his hammer.

"Ave Harmonia, morituri te salutant."

Author's Note

So Spark went straight to the Ending-Verse and saved Jason Wright! Right after he set up an HQ in his favorite version of Equestria and forged his own equipment, of course!

Just a disclaimer, while this story does feature Jason as one of the main characters, this isn't an Ending-verse story. Because it's set in various AUs, obviously.
Both him and Spark are going to collect more buddies as the story goes on.

This'll essentially be the replacement for The Interlopers, which means that this story will not be a part of my focus, and will be randomly updated when I'm not feeling like writing my light-hearted and comedy-centric stories.

As you can see by the tags, this won't be my typical, happy-go-lucky story. In this one, we'll see just how relentless and ruthless Spark can be when he's absolutely livid. Prepare to see him slaughter entire armies and disembowel villains just to save his favorite characters.

And also, I'm mainly doing this because I'm having too much fun with writing nirik-Spark lol.

"THE FORGE LORD HAS CAST HIS JUDGEMENT UPON YOUR REALM, AND HE IS NOT PLEASED."
- Crucible Spark, trying to exterminatus a creepypasta Equestria

True Terror

"Alrighty! You ready for your first crusade, Jason?" Spark asked as he donned his armor.

Jason adjusted his own enchanted armor, which had been designed to resemble a smaller version of a certain Overlord's adventurer disguise. Unfortunately, since the next mission was right around the corner, it was left unpainted. Rarity was also still too busy working on other commissions for Spark to order a cape.

"Uh... I think so? But I'm telling you, I won't do any good with those weapons you've got. I don't think I've got the muscle to even swing your, um, 'knives'." he replied. Discreetly glancing towards the arm-length blades that Spark had referred to as knives.

The kirin waved a hoof, "Don't worry, I've got just the thing you need!"

He proceeded to approach a large wooden chest tucked away in a corner and brought it between the two of them. Spark then opened it, swinging the lid towards Jason.

Due to the angle that the chest was placed in, the human wasn't able to see inside. It took a moment for Spark to rummage through the contents, but with an excited exclamation, he showed the item he found in front of them.

Jason genuinely didn't know how to comment on it.

"Is... is that a-"

The now armored kirin ran a hoof along the weapon's barrel, "A modified Changeling Empire-Era MG42! Also known as The Queen's Buzzsaw! I nicked this baby off of a War-Verse when I was still testing out my portals."

He levitated a large rectangular 'backpack' with a belt that connected an opening to the machine gun.

"And with my OC's knowledge in gunsmithing, I was able to modify it to be hand or magic-held! Imagine those mobile miniguns from movies, but, well, a machine gun instead."

Jason held his hands up, "Woah, hold on. You are aware that I'm still basically a twig, right? One burst on that thing, and my arms'll fly right off."

The ex-human took a step closer and tapped his companion's armor, causing it to release an ethereal blue-red aura.

"That's where your armor comes in. I've forged it with strength and agility-boosting enchantments, along with a few smaller buffs between those. Add that with the featherweight and knockback resistance enchants on the gun, and you won't even feel the slightest bit of recoil."

Jason turned to the machine gun again and sighed. Surely Spark knows what he's doing, right?

"Fine... I'll try it on."

He decided to wear the backpack first, which had apparently been filled to the brim with live rounds. The young man found it to be rather light, despite its bulk.

"Doesn't weigh anything at all. Are you sure this isn't empty?"

Spark sniffed in amusement, "It took me well over two hours to fill it up, it better be."

'Neat.' Jason thought. So it seemed like the enchantments were indeed working as intended.

He then continued on to gun itself, and fiddled with the belt to better position.

"Safety's on, right?"

The kirin gave him a confused look, "Safety? The hell's that?"

"Uh..."

At Jason's sudden look of fear, he snickered, "Yeah, yeah, safety's on. It's close to the grip."

"Jeez dude, don't do that..."

"Uh-huh. Now put on your helmet and let's go. We've got an assassination to prevent and terrorists to slaughter." Spark said, like it was the most casual thing in the world.

The human sighed again, "I don't know how you're just fine with the concept of killing ponies like it's nothing."

Spark turned to him as he picked up a myriad of polearms and swords from the wall.

"You try reading a bunch of fanfics about your favorite characters getting beat up, learning that it's all real in a bunch of other universes, suddenly getting powers to go to said universes, and realizing that you have the necessary means to exact revenge by saving the aforementioned favorite characters."

Jason raised his hands placatingly, "Okay, okay, I get it. You're doing this to save peop- um, ponies. That's good! But judging from the way you talk about these crusades for the last few days, I get the feeling that revenge isn't the only reason you're doing this."

The kirin nodded, "Correct. I'm also doing this to cleanse darkness from every version of Equestria I can visit in my lifetime and bring back Harmony to its rightful place for each world. MLP was... is a series and franchise about love and friendship, and I despise anything that tries to corrupt its innocence. When I learned that I had the ability to stop all of that from happening, I swore a vow to Harmony, to purify the Equestrian multiverse of its treacherous side by any means necessary."

He floated a keris closer to himself, and brushed a hoof on its wavy blade.

"I know for sure, that They don't fully agree with my methods. It's crude, brutal, and barbaric; not exactly things you'd normally associate with Harmony."

Spark twirled it around and balanced it on its tip upon his cloven hooves.

"But They haven't tried to stop me yet. Which likely means that Harmony agrees with me to some extent. And that's more than enough of a motivation for me to continue casting out Their judgement upon those corrupted worlds."

After the kirin was done with his explanation, a moment of silence passed between them. Spark fidgeted his weapon with an unreadable expression, and Jason mulled over the former human's motivations.

Revenge... was something the young man had considered every now and then during his time in the Equestria he had been transported to. There were days where his mind would start to drift towards the versions of the ponies who had shunned him away and tried to hurt him, and how satisfying it would feel to at least do something to get them back for what they'd.

Though, for some odd reason, he was never able to dwell on those thoughts for long. Maybe it was just because he needed to focus on his own survival? Or perhaps was it because he couldn't push himself into directly harming the characters he cared about?

Whatever the reason might have been, it seemed like Spark doesn't have one. If what the former human had told him was true, then he had essentially crippled Rainbow Dash, and genuinely felt happy—and possibly even proud—about it.

A part of him was thankful that Spark's ire wasn't directed towards him, and another part was trying to warn him that the individual in front of him had just given off multiple red flags.

But... he felt like he couldn't really complain about it. It was either going with the potentially murderous lunatic who just so happens to give a shit about your wellbeing, or end up attempting to take your own life after two years of living in what would essentially be hell.

Between those choices, he already knew which one he was going to pick any day of the week.

The human grabbed his helmet, "Okay. Let's go."

As the duo quietly walked through the outer fringes of the Everfree forest close to midnight, Jason couldn't help but feel a sense of dread wash over him. The sight of the damned forest, even in Spark's Equestria, always brought back horrible memories of trying to live off of scraps from larger predators and the occasional garbage bin.

He took a deep breath, and continued to remind himself that it's all over now. Maybe he should go see a therapist after this. Can pony therapists even work with humans? He could ask Spark later, he supposed.

Jason was snapped out of his thoughts when Spark began to speak in his admittedly intimidating nirik voice.

"I almost forgot to tell you, but we're in an anthro world, so they're gonna look a lot more similar to humans than usual. Just a heads up, since I know that detail will probably affect the way you see them."

Jason shifted the weapon in his hold. The modifications made it look like he was holding it like a handheld minigun.

"I'm trying to picture them as irredeemable bad guys. Since they are trying to assassinate Twilight."

Spark gave him an affirming nod, "Wonderful! Now get ready, we're sneaking up on the ones closest to the castle. I'm gonna take them out first. Don't shoot until I give the call, since I want it to be a surprise."

Jason resisted the urge to facepalm. Of all the reasons for him not to fire, it was because he wanted to show off to the bad guys...

"After all these months... we'll finally show the world of the false one's folle- Ah!" a cloaked figure exclaimed as their companion slapped their head.

"Quiet, you idiot! I'm not going to have this plan fall apart just because of your stupidity!" the other hissed.

The shorter figure rubbed their head, "Okay! You didn't need to do that, sheesh..."

The taller figure shook their head and took a glance at the surrounding area.

"Coast's clear. Let's move."

The two figures, accompanied by seperate groups of two to three individuals, quietly encircled the Castle of Friendship.

The groups consisted of members of an underground—literally and metaphorically—terrorist organization whose goal was to stop the lies and deception spread by Twilight Sparkle, referred to as 'the false one', and ensure that she won't intervene with the 'heroic' goals of Equestria's noble houses.

An organization of prideful and delusional fools, Spark thought. The Twilight of this AU was no more 'treacherous' than the one in True Canon. The info rune on his portal made sure of that.

The nirik sighed, releasing a puff of flames from his nostrils. He observed the encroaching terrorist alongside Jason from behind a nearby building.

"Ave Harmonia."

Many of the figures turned their heads to search for the source of the unkown noise.

The short figure, the same individual who had almost blown their cover, shakily raised a finger.

"U-um... did anypony hear-"

SLICE!

In the blink of an eye, the head of the figure had been cleanly removed from their body and thrown to the ground with a meaty thud!. The stump upon the remains of what used to be a neck was alight with blue-red flames.

As the decapitated body of their ally fell, the rest of the groups began to scramble into their own defensive positions with weapons drawn and horns lit.

The tall figure, the grumpy one, held a dagger in their hand and prepared a lethal bolt of magic. Their eyes darted here and there, trying to find their attacker.

It didn't take them long to see the pony... creature? That had beheaded one of their own.

The monstrous burning creature took slow yet confident steps towards their messily assembled formation.

"What the tartarus is that?!"

"Monster!"

"I knew it! The false one employs demons!"

As the assorted individuals continuously spouted nonsense, the tall figure turned their gaze towards the numerous weapons that surrounded the beast. From their perspective, they were able to count at least a dozen melee weapons. A mix of swords, polearms, maces, and more levitated around it, wreathed in the same fires that covered the creature itself.

Spark only glared at them with his glowing eyes before he launched himself with a burst of nirik-fire.

His weapons followed suit, easily keeping up with the nirik's blinding speed.

In a flash, each weapon swiftly made contact with their targets, swinging, stabbing, spinning, and twisting as they flew through the air. Too fast for the group to react accordingly.

The first casualty was caused by a broadsword that stabbed through the chest of one terrorist and pierced through their back, burning their innards with enchanted flames all the while.

It then proceeded to aggressively swing upwards, vertically splitting the top half of their torso and head in two..

A rocketing pike was able to penetrate through the heads of three aligned ponies with ease, and went right through them before turning around to continue its misson. The flames burned off any leftover cranial fluids that dared to taint its glorious form.

On another side of the massacre, a flanged mace had struck one pony right in the forehead with such force that it caved in. Leaving a bloody, burning crater behind as it went to another target.

And to top it all off, the two closest to Spark were seared alive by a simple burst of fire breath.

There were a few terrorists who were quick enough to realize that they were, in fact, getting absolutely slaughtered, and decided to retreat back into the shadows.

Unfortunately for them, another, more mechanical 'beast' had been patiently waiting for them.

"We've got runners, Jason!"

A few of them actually halted their movement, baffled by the fact that the demon could speak.

That only made them easier targets.

"Did... did that thing jus-"

That pony will never get to finish their question, nor will they ever get an answer.

Jason jumped out of his hiding spot, with safeties off and feeder loaded.

He squeezed on the lever attached to the trigger and fired.

BRRRRRRT!

The three runaways didn't have time to react as they got showered by a hailstorm of enchanted bullets. Piercing through flesh and bone like paper.

No more than three seconds passed when the shredded remains of the terrorists fell to the ground, with chunks of their bodies lit with nirik-fire.

"Holy shit..."

Jason lowered his weapon to assess the carnage he had caused. To his surprise, it seemed like the shots had only damaged their intended targets, leaving the surrounding buildings unscathed.

The sound, however, had very much alerted all of the previously slumbering ponies nearby.

And specifically, the one pony that him and Spark were intending to save.

An anthropomorphic variant of Twilight Sparkle barged through the castle doors with a frantic expression.

"What in Equestria is going on here?!"

Many of the town's residents had also decided to show up. Sleepily peeking through windows and doorways.

Spark bisected another terrorist with a burning greatsword before turning to the very surprised and very frightened princess.

"Ah, Princess Twilight! I'm glad you decided to join us tonight! We apologize for taking the lion's share, but we did spare a few of them just for you!" the nirik happily greeted her.

Still dazed by the sight of dismembered and mutilated pony parts, she turned her gaze towards two cloak-wearing individuals, bound and gagged by magical chains. They squirmed away from the quadrupedal creature as he approached them.

"Be good, and I might consider keeping you two alive." he threatened them with two kukris digging lightly into their necks.

They could only nod feebly.

Spark turned back to the princess who was still looking at him and Jason with clear trepidation. He also noted the growing crowd surrounding them

He smiled, showing off his sharp teeth.

"Now, I believe, is the time for a few explanations!"

Author's Note

Have another chapter of this while I'm working on Part 2 of the Cutie Re-Spark, titled the Kinship Games! It's basically just Kevin and Cracker documenting the Friendship games for Spark and confusing Crystal Prep, a minor B-plot in between Spark's field trip. It's really only taking this long because I need to find the time to re-watch Friendship Games again.

For those who are curious as to what Jason's MG42 looks like, whatch this video. Imagine that, but the belt is connected to a large blocky back pack.

Here we also see Spark's fighting capabilities. Starlight should be grateful that he's not taking her seriously in canon. We'll see a less lethal version of that in Part 3, where he's going to participate in the Crystal War and possibly turn that version of Sombra into a lucky charm. Stay tuned for that!

Anyway, keep an eye out for the other Sombra's story in the future. I might release it once the Cutie Re-Spark arc is done and Fire Horse gets to chapter 9 or 10. I just feel like it'd be better that way.