It was deeper than she had ever gone.

Daring Doo tried to keep that thought from her head as she slid down a rope, descending farther down into the darkness than ever before. She was a professional, an adventurer that had seen and done countless impossible things. But this time was different. Something inside of her told her that. Something that was warning her that whatever was below should remain there, not be disturbed. But her caution was offset by her desire to explore, to learn about the world. So she pressed on, wary of any danger.

Her headlamp illuminated what it could, but it was clear at this point she wasn’t in a tunnel anymore, but a whole cavern, maybe larger. The sinkhole had opened up a few days ago, nearly sucking in a caravan of ponies. A few of the braver residents had tried to explore it, but all who went down were never heard from again. The guard had been called in and the area sealed off. Then she was called in.

Daring’s thoughts were interrupted when her headlamp discovered something she thought she would never see. Solid ground. She slid down and gently pressed a hoof against it, deciding it was solid before she let her full weight down. The mare quickly glanced around to get better view of her surroundings, but all the light could show was darkness. Wherever she was, it was far larger than a cavern.

“Okay, this is new,” she muttered. She poked the ground with her hoof, noticing that it was made of a material she had never seen before. She was tempted to taste or sniff it, yet her encounters with numerous poisons over the years changed her mind. Instead, Daring Doo began to walk forward, looking left and right to try to illuminate as much as she could.

It was hard to see in the dark, but there were definitely shapes in the darkness. Giant pillars that rose into the air, shattered and destroyed. Cracks in the ground that went on for miles. Fossilized plants that where more stone than foliage now. And other shapes, lumps of metal that she couldn’t make out.

Light reflected back at her, telling the mare that there was something of value up ahead. She trotted over to the spot, peering down into a crack to see something. She poked a metal rod she carried with her in first, just to make sure there were no traps, spiders or other lethal forces, before she stuck her hoof inside and grabbed hold of what was within.

She pulled her hoof back to see she had grabbed a small, rectangular box, slightly bigger than her hoof. The front was made of glass while the back was pure metal. The glass was all cracked and eroded and she could see that the elements had not been kind. Yet it had somehow managed to persevere.

“Okay, you’re interesting,” she said. She poked at the rectangle, noticing a very well-hidden button on the top. She pressed it and flinched, but nothing happened. Cautiously, she pressed it again. Nothing. Daring looked at it for a moment before she shrugged and put it in her bag before resuming her exploration.

Aside from the rectangle, there was not much of interest for her. Whatever secrets this place had once held had long since been lost to time. She wasn’t sure if this had been an ancient pony civilization or not, some of the lumps did look like buildings, but everything was far to damaged for her to know for sure. Except for one place.

It looked…almost like a mansion, like one of the mansions that those rich ponies that hired her would flaunt in her face. Of course, she could just be guessing, but from the structure and the design it was her best guess. She walked closer and found that her suspicions were beginning to be rewarded. Three stories, what remained of a large roof and the layout of what remained of the land added weight to her idea. This was an ancient mansion. Which made no sense at all.

“How could an ancient civilization build a mansion? And one that could last this long without losing its integrity?” she asked. She walked forward into the mansion, on guard in case something was living inside. When nothing jumped out at her, she lowered her guard slightly.

Disappointment was all she found. Despite the resilience of the outside, whatever had been in this mansion had not survived the years. Ash and dust was all that greeted her, along with a few bad smells. Nothing that could be of any value to her or to historians. The only good thing was, aside from the rectangle, that none of her rivals had shown up yet. She could take her time.

She explored the place from top to bottom, finding what remained of some rooms, a kitchen and even a room she couldn’t explain. All that was left was the basement, which, to her disappointment, held no secrets either. Just ash and dust.

She was just about to leave when a sound greeted her. The faintest of sounds, like something moving. Not something alive, but something. She had been snuck up on so many times that she had an ear for this sort of thing. Something in the room had moved.

Daring slowly moved to one side of the room, barely able to hear the sound. She moved to the other and heard it again. It was following her movements. She moved towards the stairs and the sound weakened. She moved towards the backwall and the sound grew louder. Barely, but louder none the less. She searched everywhere until she found what she was looking for. A single, tiny hole in the wall, where the smallest of lights could be seen.

She poked her rod at it, just to be safe, before she leaned up and pressed her eye close, hoping to get a better view. The moment she did so, a flash of light went off and she leapt back with a yelp. Instinctively, she clutched a hoof to her eye, afraid that she had lost it. But a few blinks revealed that she had just been blinded for a second.

“Ac---- --ni---”

Daring Doo shook her head and blinked twice. For a moment, she thought she had heard somepony speak. Yet after listening for a few moments, she heard nothing. What she saw, however, was that the hole was now gone, filled in by metal and stone. She looked at where it had been for a few seconds before shaking her head and heading for the stairs. There was plenty for her to see down here and she didn’t have time to explore this mansion forever. Maybe she could come back with a team to help her excavate it. But not today.

Yet had she stayed a little longer, she would have heard the voice speak again. More clear, more concise and sending out a message that, while meaning nothing to hear, once struck fear into the hearts of evil everywhere.

“-ve—er- A—em---”

“Ave-n-er- As-em-le”

“Avengers Assemble.”

“IT’S CLOBBERIN TIME!”

The ever-loving Thing followed up his catchphrase with a punch to the side of a robots head, cracking it open like an egg and spilling its wires everywhere. The stone man let out a laugh before four more robots jumped him, attacking with laser knifes and sonic cannons. A giant wave of fire washed over the robots, melting them off of the Thing while he remained unharmed.

“Dangit Johnny, ya nearly set my trunks on fire with that!” Thing yelled up at the burning man flying around overhead.

“You’re welcome!” Human Torch called back as he flew off to engage more robots.

“Focus team. Castle Doom is far more fortified than we thought,” Cap said to the rest of the team. “He has an ion shield preventing us from getting close to his chambers and his tech is far more dangerous than our intel believed. Carol is already out of commission and he dropped Abomination and Juggernaut on Hulk, so we’ll have no help from him.”

“Captain, Beast reporting. His Doombots in the left quadrant have weaponry that can temporarily negate mutant abilities,” a calm voice responded. “Logan is out cold and Jean is doing what she can, but we need backup over here.”

“Torch! Thing! Get over there and support the X-men!” Cap ordered. The captain then raised his shield and deflected a blast of pure sound that tore him from his feet, hurling him into a wall. He rose back up in time to deflect a volley of lasers. Six Doombots lunged at the Captain, but before he had time to throw his shield the bots were struck down by repulsor blasts that rained from the sky.

“You’re getting slow in your old age, Cap,” a metallic voice said. Captain America smiled before he looked up to see Iron Man, who floated above him. “What would you guys do without me?”

“Have more quiet days. What’s going on in the sky?” Cap asked.

“We’re losing, that’s what’s going on,” Tony replied. “Doom used some kind of pulse to knock more of our fliers out of the sky. Thor’s been busy creating thunderstorms so that Doom’s satellites can’t lock onto us, but he’s been assaulted from every side. Even a god can’t keep that up forever. If we don’t get in there soon, we might not make it in at all.”

“Right. Reed, this is Cap. Are you through the shield yet?”

“Negative, Cap. This…this is beyond anything I’ve ever seen Doom do before. It could take me weeks to figure out how to crack this encryption.”

“You’ve got ten minutes. Well, that’s not going to work,” Cap said to Tony. “Any idea?”

“Throw your shield at it?”

“Any helpful ideas?”

“Perhaps I can be of assistance.” Cap and Iron Man looked behind them to see a man in a long cloak appear out of a portal behind them. “The ion shield he is using to guard the upper half of his castle is composed of science and magic. Perhaps that is why Mr. Richards cannot get through on his own.”

“I thought Doom banished you to the realm of Dormammou. How did you escape?” Tony asked.

“I bargained with him. Now stand back.” Strange held his hands up to the barrier before the three, muttering incantations and weaving spells with his fingers. Then, with an effort that shook the very castle, Strange let out a roar and pulled a gap in the barrier. “Hurry. Can’t…hold it…long.”

“Let’s go old man, time to toss a tyrant off his throne!”

“Close the shield after us and support the rest of the heroes!” Cap ordered. Tony led the charge into the upper area of Castle Doom, with Cap right behind him. The two advanced slowly at first, with Tony using his suit to scan for traps, yet found nothing that wanted to kill them. “You’re saying that there are no death traps, army of robots or magical monstrosity that wants to kill us? That can only mean…”

“Yeah, Doom’s letting us enter. Stay on guard or-“

Tony’s words were cut short by a massive explosion that went off above the castle. The two Avengers ran to the window just in time to see a figure pierce the cloud cover as he fell from the heavens, his hammer trailing behind him like a comet.

“Thor just went down, meaning the satellites will be operational shortly,” Cap said matter of fact. “We need to hurry.”

“Follow me. My scanners have picked up where Doom is,” Tony replied. Cap and Tony raced through the castle, past hallways and the throne room, before finally reaching the stairs that led down into Doom’s personal chambers. To his stronghold.

‘Sir, if I may?’ Jarvis said from within Tony’s helmet. ‘Doctor Doom is an S level threat, one that would require all of the Avengers to stand against. Yet it is only you and Captain Rogers. I would advise waiting for backup before going to confront him.’

“If we don’t confront him now Jarvis, there may not be anyone left to back us up,” Tony replied. He and Cap shared a nod before the two headed down, Tony leading the way with Cap behind him. The stairs led to a massive chamber, one that was nearly as big as the hallways they had passed. Shelves full of potions decorated one side of the room while computers that would make Ultron look obsolete were stacked up against the other. Yet both Avengers eyes were drawn to the figure who stood before a massive, green vortex of energy nearly the size of a house. He wore a green hood and cloak over a metal suit that covered everything. Everything except for his eyes, which were mad, powerful and filled with nothing but sheer confidence.

“Doctor Doom,” Tony spat, walking forward towards the villain.

“Tony Stark. Captain Rogers. I am surprised. Not that you have managed to reach Doom, but that you would be so foolish as to come alone,” Doom replied. His hands were spread out over the vortex, green tendrils of energy descending from his fingers into the spiral. Behind him a control panel flashed as it registered Doom’s actions. “But where are Doom’s manners? Please, sit and rest. You must be weary from storming a foreign country without consent from the U.N. How will you attest for your crimes?”

“Our crimes?! How about what you’ve done in the past week alone! Espionage, slavery, endangerment of human lives, assault on foreign soil, near global annihilation and an uncountable number of murders!” Stark seethed, before his voice dropped to a whisper. “Including Charles Xavier, Amadeus Cho and…and…May, Mary Jane and Peter Parker.”

“Doom regrets that their lives have been lost, but Doom needed the scientific secrets that only their minds held,” Doom replied. He then crossed his arms and stared down at the vortex, smiling beneath his metal mask. “And they died knowing that their sacrifice will help Doom. Help Doom ascend to the godhood that has been denied to him for too long. And in doing so, I shall save the world. They would be proud.”

“Proud? PROUD?!” Stark roared, but before he could attack a shield was placed to his chest to hold him back.

“Five innocent people, including two non-powered civilians. I don’t need the U.N., the ability to see the future or even the Avengers to know what to do next,” Cap said, crouching slightly and lifting his shield. Behind it, he moved his fingers in a certain way for only Tony to see. “Today you answer, Doom. Answer for all the crimes you have committed.”

“Ever the idealist, Captain. Doom answers…to no one!”

Doom raised both of his hands and shot blast of both magic and science from them. Cap was already in motion, placing himself between the blasts and Tony, taking the attack right on the shield. The blasts couldn’t even scratch the shield, but it was enough to rip the Captain from his feet and throw him into the wall.

But that opening was all Tony needed to activate his repulsors and hurl himself at Doom, tackling the doctor and driving him into the wall. Iron Man aimed a palm at Doom’s head, yet with ease Doom grabbed Iron Man’s wrist and aimed it at the ceiling, where his repulsor blast fired. Doom slammed his mask into Tony’s helmet, knocking him back before a kick to the gut sent Tony skidding backwards.

Iron Man raised both palms and fired them at Doom, only to be halted by a green barrier that formed around Doom. The doctor laughed as Tony fired again and again, only to be met with more mocking laughter.

‘Mr. Stark, I would recommend we reconsider our plan of attack,’ Jarvis said. ‘We cannot win this fight. Doctor Doom is your superior in nearly every way.’

“Way to be the wind beneath my wings, Jarvis,” Tony spat. His repulsors on his hands and feet fired up, rocketing him into the air in time to avoid an attack from Doom. Tony flew around the doctor, blasting him on all sides to no avail

‘Please listen to me, sir. Doom has a better suit, more advanced technology, access to magic which can rival Doctor Strange, and, as impossible as this may sound, his ego is even greater than yours.’

“But is he better looking than me?” Tony asked as he narrowly avoided a magical blast.

‘Um, considering Victor’s face was burned and mutilated when he attached his mask, I would have to say no.’

“Then we’ve got an advantage. And all I need is one advantage to turn this around!”

“Why both, Stark? Listen to your butler. Despite his status it seems he is smarter than you,” Doom mocked. “Your weapons and suit are outdated in my home. The only reason Doom has not slain you is because I show mercy to my guests, even if they do not deserve it.”

“Like the same mercy you showed to May and Mary Jane?!”

Doom turned around in time to take a red, white and blue disc to the face, cutting through his shield and staggering him. Doom’s shields could stand up to anything possible within the universe. But Cap’s shield was simply impossible.

Doom rallied and aimed a hand at Cap, but before he could fire a red and gold suit slammed into him from behind and flew the doctor into the ceiling. Tony gripped both of Dooms arms with his own, while his chest glowed with a blinding light.

“UNIBEAM!”

The concentrated repulsor blast hurled Doom across the room and into his computers, which exploded as their master crashed through them. Yet an instant later, Doom stood up without so much as a scratch on him.

“Very well Stark, know that Doom’s mercy is at an end. For now you shall die-“

“Warning. Power Cosmic syphon deactivated. Self-destruct commencing. “

Doom’s eyes widened as his head snapped towards his vortex. The one responsible for shutting down his vortex stood at the control panel…and Captain America saluted him with a smirk.

“But…but you…technology…”

“Doom, I’ve been in the twenty first century for over a decade now. I’ve had plenty of time to learn.”

“Self-destruct imminent. One minute.”

“Fools, this will not be the end! Doom will rise again!” Doom roared. Thrusters erupted from his feet and he flew towards the ceiling, only to be stopped once again by the armored avenger.

“No Doom, it’s like the old man said. Today you answer for all that you’ve done!” Tony roared. He and Doom battled in the air, dragging themselves closer to the ground. Cap tried to get close, but the vortex began to explode and prevented him from helping.

“Fool! Doom will simply kill you and escape! You are no match for Doom!” Doctor Doom roared, slamming a magic infused fist into Tony’s face.

‘He’s right, sir. You cannot defeat Doom.’

“I can’t…but I bet that can!” Tony then grabbed hold of Doom and activated an energy pulse, blasting Doom’s suit with repulsor energy. While it couldn’t damage Doom, it was enough to stun him. Which was all Tony needed. Tony dragged the dictator down to the vortex, giving it everything he had to take Doom down. And it was right before he succeeded that Cap realized his plan.

“TONY! NO!”

“Sorry, Cap. Whatever it takes.” With one last push, Tony drove both he and Doom into the vortex, the two of them instantly consumed by it.

And then the whole vortex exploded.

Tony awoke with a start.

He wasn’t sure what had caused him to wake up so suddenly. Was it the pain that burned nearly every inch of his body? Was it the voice of his robotic butler, whose words Tony couldn’t make out? Or was it the fact that he was dangling, upside down nearly a hundred feet off the ground, suspended only by a single vine that was clearly working overtime to support the suits weight?

Whatever the reason, still wasn’t the worst way he had started a morning.

“Good morning Jarvis, what seems to be the problem?” Tony asked.

‘The problem, sir, is that you are currently suspended one hundred and five feet off the ground, held up by a single piece of foliage and your suit is running only on emergency power. If you fall from this height, even you might finally die.’

A hundred and five feet? Now Tony knew he wasn’t doing too good. If he couldn’t make out a simple calculation like that then things clearly weren’t good.

“How much power are we working with?”

‘About five percent. Emergency only.’

“Good enough. I’m gonna cut the vine.”

‘What? Sir, I must-‘

“Doing it.”

A small blade extended from the suit around the wrist area and Tony slashed through the vine with ease. Gravity immediately showed it was still working and a moment later Tony landed flat on his back, the Iron Man suit absorbing most of the impact. Of course, pain still rocketed through Tony.

“Oh, that was a bad idea. Put that in the bad ideas folder Jarvis.”

‘Which one of the bad idea folders, sir? There are so many.’

Tony slowly forced himself up to his feet, his sluggishness showing him just how damaged the suit was. He started to look around, smirking when he saw his scanners were offline as well, noticing that he was in some kind of forest or jungle. One of the forest that surrounded Latveria? No, there was nothing trying to kill him, which was the main attraction in Latveria. A neighboring country, perhaps?

‘This forest does not match any in my known database. However, there may be an even greater problem at the moment.’

“What’s that?”

‘I cannot connect anyone. There is no wifi, no radio waves…no trace of any kind of technology that would be easy to find on our Earth. I have even tried contacting the Avengers on Doctor Strangers glyph stones and even those do nothing. No contact with anyone we know. Therefor, sir, I can only come to one conclusion.’

“Don’t say it.”

‘We have been transported to an alternate reality.’

“Aaaaand you said it,” Tony sighed. “An alternate reality? Great, perfect way to start off Tuesday. Alright, so we have little power, no connections and I think I landed on my keys. We’ve done more with less. Jarvis, activate the solar panels. The sun is high and I want this suit recharged as quickly as I can.”

‘I activated them the moment I came back online,’ Jarvis replied.

“Good. Now then, let’s see if my boy scout training can help us figure where we are,” Tony said. He looked left, then right, then shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, I’ve got it. We’re lost. Okay, pick a direction Jarvis.”

‘North.’

“North it is.”

Tony started to trek through the forest, moving awkwardly as he did so. The Iron Man suit was near unbeatable in the air and an incredible force of might on the ground. But, with so little power in such uneven terrain, at the moment all it seemed to be was an extra weight on Tony’s shoulders for him to carry.

“Hey Jarvis, did you happen to see what happened after we went into Doom’s vortex? I remember dragging him in there, a massive explosion and then I wake up upside down.”

‘Negative, sir. I went offline around the same time you did…however, if you managed to survive the explosion…’

“Then Doom might have also. Alright, we need to start moving a little faster. Can I go airborne yet?”

‘No sir, we are at seven percent power. Enough for maybe a few repulsor blasts, but flying is still beyond us and…and…’

“Jarvis?”

‘I am picking up a strange energy reading sir. Similar to the energy readings of Doctor Strange. Magic. Not far from here, just up ahead.’

“Intelligent?”

‘I cannot tell.’

“Well then, let’s go an introduce ourselves. A man in a giant suit of armor with a helmet covering his face walks out of the woods and extends his hand. Can’t see anything going wrong with that.” Tony picked up the pace a bit, and then was immediately slowed down by tripping over some roots, until he spied a clearing at the edge of the forest. Despite Jarvis warning him to take it slow, he walked straight out into the sunlight and got his first look of the sentient beings of this world.

And it still wasn’t the strangest thing he had seen.

Staring up at him were five, multicolored horses. Two had horns, one had wings and the other got the short end of the stick and had nothing. The one with wings carried a spear and wore armor, if Tony could even call it that, while the others wore robes. The one with nothing was dragging a sack on the ground, with the rope tied around his waist. And again, they were horses.

For a moment both sides just stared at each other. Then Tony had the good idea to open his mouth.

“Greetings. I come in peace. Take me to your leader,” Tony said to break the ice. The horses responded in an appropriate manner.

“Monster! Attack!”

“No, not a monster! Human! I’m human!” Tony argued. The horses carrying the spear lunged at Iron Man and struck him in the chest, which did exact what one would expect. Tony grabbed the end of the spear and snapped it off, leaving the horse to see how Donatello constantly felt.

“Kill the golem!” one of the unicorns said before firing a blast of energy into Iron Man. Tony grunted as the suit took the impact, getting him to stagger back. So that was the magic Jarvis had been talking about.

“Not golem! Human!” Tony replied. He dodged a blast of magic, impressive given how slow he was moving, before he lifted a hand and blasted the unicorn in the chest with a repulsor blast. The blast was on a low setting, and Tony didn’t have the power for a higher blast, so all it did was knock the pony back and drop him to the ground. Of course, this show of power didn’t go over too well with the others.

“By the princesses, what dark magic was that?” the boring, regular pony asked.

“I do not know. I felt no spells, heard no incantation and see no relic for it to be using! This…human…is an abomination of nature!”

“Now you’re just being mean. Look, I keep trying to tell you, I’m not a monster, I’m…”

Tony’s words died off when he noticed that the sack seemed to be moving. He rerouted more of his power into his helmet to activate his scanners, which showed him that there was another horse in the sack. One that was bound, gagged and was slightly bleeding. Then he turned his gaze to the remaining horses, able to now see strange knives, vials of something and books that looked like they belonged in the pits of hell. He put two and two together real quick.

“So that explains what you were doing out in the middle of nowhere looking like you missed a wizard convention. You’re cultists. And that there is your sacrifice,” Tony said. He nodded his head for a second before the inside of his helmet and his suits eyes turned red. “You’re dead.”

Iron Man fired a repulsor blast from his feet, rocketing him forward so he could slam his fist into the jaw of a cultist. Bone shattered from the impact and the cultist went spinning away, leaving only two left. The winged horses attacked with his stick, but this time Iron Man caught it and ripped it from the pony’s grasp. He then grabbed the horse by the neck and slammed it into the ground, knocking both the air and consciousness from his body. All that left was one of the unicorns.

“I call upon the power of Celestia!” the unicorn roared. His horn began to glow with an otherworldly power and the air around him began to boil. Iron Man was debating if he should simply take the blast or dodge it when the unicorn decided for him. Vines erupted from the ground and wrapped around his feet, rooting the Avenger in place. “Now die!”

“Well this sucks,” Tony grunted before he crossed his arms. The magical blast caught Iron Man in the chest, bombarding the armor with a continuous beam of magic. Yet mixed within the magic was solar energy, stolen directly from the sun itself. And the Iron Man suit absorbed that sunlight hungrily.

‘Sir, power is at fifteen percent and rising. It seems that whatever this horse has mixed in with his magic is fueling the suit,’ Jarvis reported.

“Alright, how about we show this glue stick what a real beam looks like!” Iron man then threw his arms to the side and fired out a beam of blue energy right from his chest, piercing through the unicorn’s magic and blasting the unicorn away. The pony slammed into the side of a tree, where his smoldering body slumped to the ground. The scanners showed he was alive, but only just.

“Another day, another group of cultists that I’ve stopped,” Tony said. He stretched himself out, his mobility returning now that the suit had more power. He then walked over the sack and fried the knot on top, before ripping the sack open to see the pony underneath. She, it’s always a she the cultists sacrifice, wasn’t anything special, a green mare with a yellow mane and a weird pencil tattoo near her rear.

“Hey, are you alright?” he asked. She groaned and started to move, which Tony aided by ripping off the ropes and gag. He scanned her injured head to find it was only a mild bruise, nothing life threatening. She finally opened her eyes and looked up, right into the metal face of Iron Man.

“Hi, name’s Iron Man. Just saved your life from those cultists that kidnapped…marenapped…that grabbed you. You’re welcome.”

For a full five seconds the mare just stared at Iron Man. Then she let out a shriek and scrambled to her hooves, tearing off in the opposite direction of Tony.

‘That does not seem the appropriate reaction to one who just saved your life,’ Jarvis commented.

“Hey, she just got to meet and get saved by Iron Man. Poor thing probably panicked and ran off. She’ll be embarrassed when she calms down later,” Tony said, shrugging.

‘Warning. Another life form approaching.’

Tony glanced over his shoulder at the approaching figure, an eyebrow raising under his mask when he saw what it was. It was a small, frail centaur with red and black fur, and a brown cloak covering the upper half of his body. His head came up to Tony’s chest and Tony couldn’t see his face, though his scanners worked out a replica a moment later.

“A centaur? Ah great, is this another one of the pranks from the Olympic gods? Did they send me to one of their bizarre worlds again?” Tony asked, looking up at the sky. “Alright Zeus, jokes over. Bring me back right now or else I’m going to bust out the armor I’ve saved for Thor the next time he challenges me.”

“Greetings, stranger,” the centaur greeted. His voice matched his body. Old, frail and something hidden underneath. “I have traveled these lands for many years yet I must admit that you surprise me. It is not everyday that one meets an armored human such as yourself.”

“Finally, someone who knows what a human is,” Tony replied. “Yeah, I’m kinda new around here and am apparently a long way from home. Like, a dimension or two removed. You know an interdimensional vortex or cosmic wielding being that I can talk to.”

“Um, no, I am afraid I do not know anypony with that kind of power. But I must say, you are quite strong yourself to deal with those cultists with such little effort,” the centaur said, motioning to the bodies. “I saw that they had taken that poor mare, so I followed at a distance. Alas, my strength is not what it once was, so I could not free her myself. Good thing you came along when you did.”

“Yeah, saving people is kinda my thing. So back to the dimension problem, is there no one that can help me?”

“Well…the princesses in Canterlot may be able to help you, but they are a surly bunch and do not like to be disturbed. They won’t see anyone without a reference or appointment,” the centaur muttered, stroking his beard. “But since you seem like a good soul, I’ll tell you what. Just tell them that Tirek sent you and they’ll drop everything to see you. Trust me.”

“Tirek, huh? Alright, you creepy, old goat, I think I’ll do that. Which way is…thanks,” Tony said when Tirek pointed a finger.

“City on a mountain. Impossible to miss.”

“Alright then, I’m taking off,” Tony said. His repulsors roared to life and a moment later he was airborne, floating over Tirek. “And you should probably take off too. I clobbered these guys good, but they will wake up eventually and I have no idea how law enforcement works in this world.”

“Do not worry, I will make sure they do not harm anypony. I was quite the fighter back in the day,” Tirek smiled.

“Uh-huh. Welp, see you.”

Iron Man pointed towards the sky and rocketed off, leaving Tirek with both eyebrows raised as the armored man flew away. He then shook his head. “A human in this day and age. Truly must be a sign of the end times.” Then the centaur looked at the bodies all around him and he opened his mouth hungrily. “But it would be such a shame for their magic to go to waste. And I am…hungry.”

“Hey Jarvis?”

‘Yes, Mr. Stark?’

“That Tirek guy was a total weirdo, right?”

‘Absolutely.’

It was a perfect day for Ashgrove. He had graduated the top of his class, his antlers were finally starting to grow in, he could nearly perform magic and Serenity had agreed to go to the Forest Festival with him. The young deer held his head high as he walked through the forest, knowing nothing could take him down.

Then he smelled something. Something that gave every deer pause for concern. The smell of something burning. Concern flashed over his face as he followed the smell, afraid that the forest may have caught fire. But the burning smell wasn’t of smoke. It smelled more like…metal?

Ashgrove walked into a clearing in the forest and found the source of the burning smell. Laying face down in the center was a figure the likes of which he had never seen. It wore a green cloak, had a metal suit that covered nearly its entire body and gave off a magical aura that made the young deer very nervous.

Yet he could also hear it breathing and occasionally gasping in pain. And despite the creature being like nothing he had never seen, his mother had raised him to help all in need. So he swallowed his fear and walked over to the creature.

Tony stayed silent as he flew, too busy working with his onboard computer to pay much attention to the land below. Even though Jarvis had already tried, Tony spent his time flying trying to communicate with anyone from his world. But just like Jarvis had said, there was no wifi or internet of any kind, though he did pick up the faintest of radio waves. But there was another signal in the air, one so oppressive that it overshadowed anything else.

‘You can feel it, can’t you sir?’ Jarvis asked.

“Yeah, it’s everywhere. In the air, in the water…fairly certain I can even feel it through my suit,” Tony said. “Magic. There’s magic everywhere in this world. If I wasn’t so busy trying to get back to my world, I wouldn’t mind studying it for a while. Then I could have a trick up my own sleeve the next time Strange gets arrogant with me.”

‘How interesting. Perhaps this world deviates from ours as they chose magic as their primary source for advancement instead of technology,’ Jarvis said.

“Well, I’ll say this: their magic world is a heck of a lot cleaner than ours. I’m barely picking up any traces of pollution in the air,” Tony noted. Then he let out a sigh. “Alright, time to stop avoiding the elephant, or should I say horse, in the room. Horses. There are talking horses in this world.”

‘I fail to see how this would bother you. You have seen and fought far stranger during your time as Iron Man.’

“The rainbow colors on them, the cutesy little marks on their butts, the magic they wield and not to mention that’s the fifth rainbow we’ve flown by…Jarvis, we’re in a girls cartoon world.”

‘And again sir, even if that were the case, this would still be far from the strangest thing we have encountered. The Living Tribunal, sir?’

“I know, it’s just…so you think Doom may be here with us?”

‘If you managed to survive sir, then I have no doubt he did as well. He is just as cunning and far more stubborn then you are, as impossible as that may seem. His desire to live is terrifying.’

“Then we need to meet with these…princesses as soon as we can. I don’t like the odds of me against Doom without the entire armory at my back. Put as much juice into the thrusters as you can.”

‘Already done.’

The thrusters fire tripled in size and a moment later Tony shattered the sound barrier, rocketing towards the mountain ranges in the distance. He kept a careful eye on his power as he flew, yet to his amazement he found that despite flying at supersonic speeds, his energy levels still slowly increased. The sun in this world was far stronger than in his.

His scanners beeped a few times and brought up a scoped in version of the mountain ranges ahead, circling in on a large city that was built near one of the peaks. “And that must be the city that creepy old centaur was talking about. Alright Jarvis, wager time. Hostile or friendly?”

‘With you sir, they always start out hostile.’

“Remind me to make you more positive when we get back.”

Tony poured as much juice as he could afford into the thrusters, gaining ground on the city rapidly. Within minutes the city went from a speck in the distance to right in front of him, giving him a moment to see just how large it was.

CRUNCH!

Iron Man came to a dead stop as he collided with a barrier of magic that seemed to appear out of thin air. A tiny gasp of pain escaped Tony’s lips before he began to slide down the barrier that was now surrounding the city. He quickly shook it off and took to the skies again, scanning the barrier.

“One hundred percent magic and pretty tough to boot,” Tony observed. He raised his hands and fired a few repulsor blasts into the shield, only for them to bounce off in different directions. “And are capable of repelling energy-based attacks. Hmm, how to do this?”

‘Sir, it seems you have attracted a crowd.’

Tony looked through the barrier to see that a massive crowd of ponies had gathered to stare at him. A lot of them wore fancy attire, while others wore armor and carried spears. A lot of the ponies pointed at Tony and were talking, but he couldn’t pick up what they were saying through the barrier.

“Hey there! Name’s Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man. Maybe you’ve heard of me?” Tony called down to them. None of the ponies responded. “Okay, how bout this? I was told to come here to meet with your princesses. Um, I’m with Tirek! Does that help?”

His scanners made a beep and flashed again, this time with a red light. Tony snapped his head to the side of the city, where five pegasi were rapidly approaching him, a stream of thunder clouds trailing behind them. “Ah good, the welcoming committee. See Jarvis, all I have to do is explain what’s going on to them and then we can get this all sorted out.”

‘If you say so, sir.’

One of the pegasi flew up to meet Tony while the rest circled around him, creating a sphere of thunder clouds around him. The pegasi approaching him wore a blue suit with yellow lightning bolts and had an orange mane sticking up from the top of her suit. Tony did find the aviator goggles she wore on her head adorable.

“Hey there! You wouldn’t mind letting me into the city, would you? I really need to talk with your princesses! Kind of important,” Tony said.

“You said you’re with Tirek?” the pony asked in reply.

“Yup. Names Tony Stark, but Iron Man is what most people call me. Here from another reality, would really like to get back, world to save and everything. You know, that old song and dance.” The pony looked at Stark like he was crazy, before she shook her head and narrowed her eyes.

“Whatever you are, Iron Man, leave now! The Wonderbolts protect Canterlot from all strange and dangerous intruders and if you are with Tirek then you are trouble.”

“The Wonderbolts? Oh that’s adorable. Jarvis, when we get back to Earth, remind me to legally change Ross’s name to Thaddeus Wonderbolt Ross. He’ll love it,” Tony said, before facing the pony again. “Look, I don’t want any trouble, but I really need to meet with your leaders and I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Then we’ll remove you by force,” the pony said. All around him Tony noticed the thunderclouds turning black,

‘Don’t say it, sir.’

“I’d like to see you try.”

All at once the pegasi swarmed Tony, barreling down at him with pretty impressive speeds. Tony crossed his arms over his chest, before throwing them down to his sides and creating a pulse of energy that knocked the pegasi back. His thrusters kicked into full power and he rocketed straight up, the now recovered pegasi following him.

‘Good job sir, this is another foreign species that you’ve managed to turn against you within moments of meeting them.’

“What can I say, Jarvis? I have that effect on people.”

Iron Man slowed just enough so that the pegasi could begin to close the distance on him, before he cut his thrusters entirely and plummeted past them. He grabbed one of the pegasi as he plummeted, before he reactivated his thrusters and took off with the pegasi in tow. The bluish pony with the blue mane struggled as best he could, but Iron Man’s suit could contend with Thor. It could handle a pony.

“Let. Me. GO!” the pony snarled as he struggled.

“If you say so,” Iron Man replied. He swung the pony around a few times before letting him go, watching as the pony sailed into the shield with a splat. The crowd behind the shield winced at the impact, but Iron Man’s sensors told him the pony was fine, if not a little bruised.

‘Behind you.’

Iron Man turned just in time to be rammed by one of the faster pegasi, driving him downward a bit. Unfortunately for the Pegasus, it had gone full speed into a full suit of armor, so the pony knocked itself out on impact. It had barely begun to fall before Iron Man grabbed hold of its tail and threw it over to join the other.

‘Sir, may I ask what are you doing? This show of force will not get you into the city any quicker.’

“No, but perhaps it can draw out the princesses. I mean, some weirdo in a metal suit shows up and starts knocking their air force out of the sky? I’d want to be there for that.”

Firing his thrusters at full power, Iron Man rocketed right past two of the remaining pegasi. They had just enough time to realize what had happened before Iron Man grabbed the both of them by the back of their heads, flying them over to the shield and hurling the both of them into it. They bounced off the top and laid there, beaten, but mostly unharmed.

“And then there was one,” Iron Man said. He turned around to face the leader, the one with the orange mane, who glared daggers at him from beneath her goggles. “Would you let me in if I said please this time?”

The pegasi let out a yell as she lunged at Iron Man. Iron Man braced and allowed her to tackle into him, driving him into the barrier. She pounded on his suit with a fury, but Tony felt none of the blows. He grabbed hold of her forehooves and rolled over, grabbing her face and pinning her to the shield.

‘Sir, to the left.’

Tony glanced over to his left side to see that the shield had been opened a little bit and the unicorns below were using their magic to pull the beaten Wonderbolts inside. The barrier closed almost instantly behind them, telling Tony a few things.

‘Sir, I believe this is them.’

Tony turned his head to see that two more ponies had shown up, but these two were far different from the others he had seen. For starters, the crowd parted to let them through, bowing to them as they passed by. They were also much taller, with one of them as white as snow with a rainbow mane, while the other was a midnight blue with a galaxy for her mane. Then he noticed that they had both horns and wings.

‘Sir, scans show that these two have a massive amount more magical power than any of the other horses we have come across so far,’ Jarvis pointed out. He didn’t need to. Tony could feel the magical power radiating off of the both of them. It was indeed like nothing the other ponies have given off. These had to be who Tirek was talking about.

The white one’s horn flashed and the pegasi disappeared from Tony’s grasp, appearing within the barrier next to the princess. Tony flew himself to the part of the barrier that was closest to them, waving his hand in a greeting.

“Hey there. Sorry about that, but I needed to get your attention and I figured a massive brawl in the sky would do it. You’re the princesses, right? Well I need a favor from both of you. See, I’m from another reality and I’ve been brought here by mistake. So if you wouldn’t mind letting me in so we can talk…did I mention that Tirek sent me here? Said that would get your attention.”

The princesses didn’t say anything in response. The midnight blue one did cup a hoof to her ear and lean forward in a mocking tone, telling Iron Man that he wouldn’t get along with this one. Then the white one then began to speak.

“Creature, I know not who you are or where you come from, but hear my words,” she spoke in a loud booming voice. One that was strong enough to pierce the barrier. “If you were truly sent here by Tirek, then know that this entire city shall be your enemy. You have already hurt my Wonderbolts, an act that should warrant your death here and now. But I will give you one chance. If you try to force entry into my city again, I will have no choice but to strike you down. Leave and return to whatever rock you crawled out from. This is your only warning.”

The barrier then flashed again and this time became solid, preventing Tony from seeing inside any further. His scanners showed them that the princesses were still there, but the crowd was beginning to disperse. He figured that they could see him, even though he couldn’t see them.

‘Sir, if I may. It is possible that with enough shots from a concentrated unibeam and the right place, we could pierce that barrier and gain access to the city within.’

“…no, that wouldn’t get me anywhere,” Tony said with a shake of his head. He then turned around and took off, leaving the protected city behind him. “Clearly Tirek and the princesses have a bad history and my brilliant plan of flattening their forces to draw the princesses out backfired. Fighting the two would only get them to want to help me less. We need a new approach.”

‘Then allow me to offer one for you, sir. While you were talking with the princesses, I scanned the surrounding area in case there were any more forces lying in wait for you. What I discovered is that the two princesses in the city are not the only ones giving off that kind of power.’

“Meaning?”

‘There is another pony nearby who radiates both the same magic and presence as the two princesses,’ Jarvis continued. ‘If I had to wager sir, that would mean there is one more princess close by. One that doesn’t hate you yet.’

“Then what are we waiting for?” Tony said before he turned and rocketed towards a location Jarvis marked on his H.U.D. “Let’s go meet her and give her the chance.”

‘Sir, I would advise you to reconsider your plan.’

“It’s a great plan, Jarvis. You just don’t have as much faith in others as I do.”

‘It is not a matter of faith, sir. I just believe that these ponies will respond to you the same way those in Canterlot did. With fear, distrust and magic.’

“So just another Wednesday for us, then.”

A small town came into view on Tony’s H.U.D, with an energy that matched the two princesses nearby. Even if Tony hadn’t been a super genius, he would have still been able to figure out that the source of energy was most likely living in the giant, crystal castle at the edge of the town.

Tony could have just flown over to the castle and knocked on the front door, but that wasn’t how Tony Stark did things. So instead of heading right to the energy source, he instead cut his engines and landed right in the middle of the town…in front of the ponies who were going about their day.

“Hello, horses!” Tony said with a wave. “No need to panic, just here to talk to your princess to figure out how to get home to my own dimension. You know, regular, superhero things. If any of you wouldn’t mind pointing me in the right direction, it would be a big help.”

‘Sir, you already know where they are.’

“Yeah, but I want to see how these ones will respond,” Stark muttered. For a long minute the crowd of ponies just stared at the metal man, confusion and disbelief written on their faces. Then the crowd began to disperse, some shaking their heads with a sigh while others grumbled under their breath. Tony picked up at least three ponies saying how it was going to be another one of those days and several others were talking about how they needed to move out of Ponyville, which he assumed was the name of the town.

Once all of the ponies had gone about their day, only one, small filly was left. A yellow pony with a red mane with a bow in it looked up at him, awe and amazement written on her face.

“Well welcome to Ponyville, stranger! Yer here looking fer Twilight, that right?” she asked with an accent.

“That’s right, my little friend. This…Twilight is the princess around here?” Tony asked. He got down on one knee so that he could be eye level with the filly, who was gazing in awe at his faceplate. “Would you mind taking me to her? It’s a matter of great importance.”

“Of course, just follow me!” she replied. The foal began walking towards the crystal castle, confirming what Tony knew, before she looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Ah’m Applebloom, by the way! Cutie Mark Crusader and sister to Applejack. And ah gotta say, ah love yer armor. Especially the coloring ya gave it.”

“I can see why,” Tony said with a smile. He then glanced around at the ponies they were passing by, who either didn’t pay any attention to the metal man or simply gave him a look and moved on with their lives. “So are you the only friendly face in this town or do the rest of the horses just reserve the silent treatment for their guests?”

“Oh don’t mind them, they’re pretty used to strange things happening in Ponyville,” Applebloom said. “A long time ago they would all panic over the slightest thing, but after Discord, Chrysalis, Tirek, and all of the other crazy things that have happened, they’ve grown numb to the weirdness. Maybe if ya started flying around and blasting them they’d show a bit more interest.”

“Wow, sounds like New York,” Tony replied.

“And ya were flying, right? Ya didn’t just fall out of the sky and manage to land perfectly, did ya?” Applebloom asked. She heard a quick roaring sound and spun around to see that the metal man was hovering above the ground, blue fire erupting from his hands and feet.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

“That’s incredible! How did ya manage to generate enough propulsion to overcome the weight of you and the armor without the need for a massive engine?” Applebloom asked, circling Tony and staring in awe at his thrusters.

“That would be the result of the arc reactor in my chest,” Tony replied. “This little baby right here generates enough power to fuel this suit for nearly a day, provided I don’t do anything too dangerous. Which is almost never.”

‘Sir, should you really be telling her about how your suit works? You know nothing about her.’

“Come on Jarvis, These are the people…ponies of tomorrow. What kind of scientist would I be if I didn’t feed her hunger for knowledge?” Tony asked.

“Who are ya talking to?”

“A little voice in my helmet that yells at me whenever I do anything. I call it Jarvis. Say hi, Jarvis.”

‘Hello, Applebloom.’

“Hi, Jarvis! Are ya really small or something?”

‘Or something.’

“You are taking meeting an alien awfully well for someone so young,” Tony said.

“Yer not an alien, yer a human. At least, I think ya are. Hard to tell with the armor. Twilight’s told me all about your kind! She used to go see them all the time, but she got busy lately and had to stop.”

A smile crossed Tony’s face at Applebloom’s words. Twilight had visited humans before, meaning that she had a portal or some kind of spell that could travel between dimensions. Tony would be back in his world before the day was done and without having to fight his way through another reality to do it. That was a first.

“Your instincts are right. I am a human,” Tony said, before his faceplate moved up and allowed Applebloom to see his face. “I’m Tony Stark. A.K.A. Iron Man. But please, call me Tony.”

“Okay, Tony, but why would others call ya Iron Man. Ah mean, ah can see why, but why?”

“That’s my superhero name. And what my enemies call me.”

“Oh mah gawsh, yer a superhero?! No way!”

“Flying armor, on board A.I., incredibly good looking…what more is there to say?”

“What’s yer superpower?! Is it super strength? How about metal manipulation? Energy pulses?”

“That’s the coolest thing about me, Applebloom,” Tony said with a smile. “I don’t have a superpower. All I’ve got are my wits, my will and this suit I’ve built. And I’m still one of the best.”

Applebloom’s jaw dropped at that revelation, but any further conversation was cut off as the two reached their destination. A massive, crystal palace that shimmered like rainbow up close. Tony didn’t need his sensors to feel the magical might radiating off of this place as well as the faintest trace of an energy that his sensors couldn’t identify. Something unique to this world?

“Don’t feel nervous, Twilight is super friendly! She’s the princess of friendship, after all.” Applebloom then raised her hoof and banged it against the door. “Twilight! It’s me! Applebloom! Ah’ve got something ya will want to see!”

“Applebloom, if you’ve brought me another weird looking apple,” the voice of Twilight said as she opened the door, revealing a purple unicorn with wings who stopped dead when she saw Tony. She looked like a small version of the princesses up at Canterlot, telling Tony that his scanners had been on the mark. For a long moment Twilight just stared at him, before she sighed and glanced at AB. “No, you can’t keep it. Put it back where you found it.”

“What…no, that’s not what-“

“Come on Twilight, she’d make a great owner,” Tony added, getting Twilight to snap her head back towards him. “And I don’t need much. Some food, water, multi-billion-dollar tech workshop. See, I’m easy to take care of.”

“Great, not only did a human somehow end up on my doorstep, it’s a human that thinks he’s funny. This is going to be a long one,” Twilight sighed, before she moved to the side. “The two of you better come on in. I have a feeling this is going to take a while.”

Tony made himself right at home.

At first, he had been somewhat surprised to see that not only was the interior of the castle crystal as well, but so was the furniture, the stairs…everything really. Even the couches that Twilight motioned for him and Applebloom to sit on. He did so, imagining that they would be very uncomfortable if he wasn’t already wearing a suit of armor. He popped open his helmet so Twilight could see his face, hoping that it would calm her down.

“Do you have to put your feet on the table?” Twilight asked, looking down at the two red, metal boots that were atop her table.

“I’ve been traveling for miles today, Twilight. My feet are killing me.”

“Ah thought ya flew here?”

“Yeah. And my feet are killing me,” Tony said with a smile.

Twilight rolled her eyes at Stark, but quickly her eyes returned their gaze to his armor. Tony found himself smiling as Twilight looked over every inch of his suit, muttering to herself and jotting down notes on a clipboard she had. Every once in a while, Tony would open a compartment, startling her for only a second before she rapidly observed the compartment and how it worked.

“See that, Applebloom. Here I am a gorgeous billionaire who has saved the world numerous times, yet all she cares about is my suit. I swear people are so shallow these days. Are you listening, Twilight? I’m making fun of you.”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, I got…distracted…” Twilight muttered, taking one last look at the suit before she made her clipboard vanish in a flash of light. “It’s just that I’ve never seen a suit as advanced as this before. Even with magic we probably wouldn’t be close to making something like this for at least…another five hundred years. It’s incredible.”

“Like a caveman seeing a rocketship for the first time. He can’t even process what he’s looking at,” Tony said with a smile. “But enough studying and jokes. Twilight, I’m here for two reasons. The first is because I need to get back to my own reality. The other is because the two princesses in Canterlot made it very clear I’m not welcome there. So I’ve come to you for help.”

“I know you’re from another dimension. Humans don’t exist in this one. Can you give me any more information to help?” Twilight asked.

“Sure. I come from Earth four seven eight, a world filled with heroes, villains and everything in-between. I’m a part of a group of heroes called the Avengers, Earths mightiest heroes, yadda yadda yadda, who were taking down a supervillain when his portal exploded and dragged me to this world. That help?”

“Hmm,” was all Twilight said in reply as she started to scan Tony with her horn.

“I heard from my little friend here that you have visited the humans before and I’m guessing that you either have an interdimensional portal or are capable of creating one. If I could just borrow it, I’d be out of your hair…mane…and would let you enjoy the rest of your day in peace.”

“That’s not going to work,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “My mirror portal allows me to cross over into the human world, but that world is one dimension next to ours. Yours is however many hundreds away and that’s if my dimension happens to be one. We could be dimension one thousand or something like that. You’d have to go through hundreds of mirror portals and even then, we aren’t sure you’d be going the right way.”

“That makes sense. But if I go to your human world, perhaps I could use the tech of the Avengers in that reality to build something to help locate my own dimension?”

“Sorry, but I’ve been to the other human world many times and I’ve never heard of anyone called the Avengers…though that might have been a dvd I saw in the library,” Twilight muttered. “In any case, I don’t think that world would have the technology you would need. I mean, my human self is the smartest person in that world and what she has built pales in comparison to your suit. If you need something more advanced than what you’re wearing, she’ll be of no help.”

“I hate to say it, but what you’re saying makes sense,” Tony sighed, placing his hands together and looking at the ceiling. Then he shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “Welp, looks like I’m crashing in this dimension for a little while. So which one of you lucky ladies would like the honor of having a real life superhero in your home?”

Applebloom let out an excited squeak and raised her hoof, but Twilight lowered in with her magic while shaking her head. “Sorry Applebloom, but I’d better take this one. Who knows what trouble he’ll get into while he’s here?”

“It’s like you know me. Are you sure you can handle it, though? Even my closest allies get fed up with me at least twice a week.”

“It’ll be easy. All you need is some food and water, right?”

“And a multi-billion-dollar tech workshop. You telling me you have one of those?”

“Mine is multi-million at best.”

“So you expect me to live in poverty. Well beggars can’t be choosers. Very well Twilight, I will stay with you until we’ve figured out how to get this all sorted,” Tony agreed. He extended a hand to Twilight and she shook it with her hoof, before a devious smile crossed her face.

“And I look forward to figuring out how to build a suit of my own like that one.”

“Ah, your true motives revealed. I see now that I am at the mercy of a villain,” Tony smirked.

“Come on, let me show you around,” Twilight said with a laugh. “You too, Bloom.”

Applebloom hopped off the couch and followed after Twilight, leaving Tony alone for a moment.

‘Sir, a word?’

“Yeah, Jarvis?” Tony asked, his faceplate closing once again.

‘Sir, even if it does not have the Avengers, wouldn’t it be better to go to the human Earth and use the tools there? At least they would have technology and people that you understand.’

“I considered that, Jarvis. But remember, I wasn’t the only one that went into the portal back in Latveria.”

‘Doom.’

“He had to have survived. I know it. And from what little I’ve seen of them so far, these ponies wouldn’t be able to handle him. We could barely handle him. I brought him to their world. I will not leave them at his mercy. We both know he has none.”

“Tony, ya coming?”

“Coming. Just had to talk with the voice in my head real quick.”

Sunlight beamed through the window of the crystal castle, bathing the sleeping alicorn in its warm glow. Twilight let out a small yawn before she opened her eyes, stretching out her limbs as the warmth filled her body. A small smile crossed her face as she listened to the sounds of the morning. Chirping birds, laughing foals and…power tools?

Her eyes snapped wide as she realized what that meant and she leapt out of her bed, racing towards the door. She just barely registered that Spike’s bed was empty as well as she passed, the sound of the tools getting louder as she raced down the hallway. The sound was coming from her own personal workshop, which she threw open the doors to and rushed inside.

The culprit of the noise was one Tony Stark, who was not wearing his armor. Instead he was wearing a black shirt with the name A.C.D.C on it, while black sweatpants covered his legs. A welding mask was down over his eyes and both gloved hands held a power tool, a drill in one and something she’d never seen before in the other.

And on her workbench lay the Iron Man suit, completely taken apart and laid out in some kind of order. It took Twilight a second of looking to realize the parts were split up by anatomy, arm pieces in one pile, leg pieces in the other, before she noted that Tony was currently working on the helmet.

Finally, she spied Spike sitting in a chair not far from the door, a drink in one claw as he watched the genius work. Twilight walked over to him and sat down, a nod from Spike showing he had noticed her.

“So, how long has he been in here?”

“Since two in the morning. Woke up to use the bathroom had found him hard at work,” Spike replied.

“How did I not hear him before now?”

“He only started with the power tools a few minutes ago. He spent most of the night taking apart the suit and looking over the pieces, before conversing with his…Jarvis about what needed to be done,” Spike said, before he looked at Tony’s face and stroked his chin. “You think I could grow a beard like that? And do you think Rarity would like it?”

“Socket wrench, size six, if you wouldn’t mind,” Tony said. Twilight looked from the man to Spike, not sure what to do.

“Um, is he talking to you, or…”

“Oh no, he’s talking to somepony else. Wait for it, you’re going to love this.”

A whirling sound grew closer and a moment later a small, mechanical device hovered into the room. To the unobservant it would look like a metal rectangle with helicopter blades, but Twilight’s eyes widened when she saw what it was.

“Is that my toaster?!” she half screamed. Her toaster floated into the room, lowering a small claw that held a wrench at the end of it. Tony snatched the wrench and went back to work, with the toaster hovering next to him as he did. Deciding she had enough for one morning, Twilight stood and walked over to Tony.

“Tony, a word if you wouldn’t mind,” Twilight asked through gritted teeth. Tony stopped his work and raised his mask, the grim and sweat covering his face telling Twilight he had indeed been at this all night. “Tony, I am more than happy to have you in my home as my guest while we focus on getting you home. However, we need to establish some rules.”

“Ask before you touch my things. Check with me to make sure that it’s alright to use my shop. Talk to me if you have any questions about the world. And for the love of Celestia, don’t turn my toaster into a floating kill bot!”

“Kill bot? Scorcher? Nah, he’s my little assistant,” Tony said and Scorcher let out a beep. “I built him when I needed help getting a tool, holding something or to get food from the fridge and was too lazy to get it myself. By the way, there is way too much healthy stuff in there.”

“Where did you even get the materials to build a…helicopter toaster?” Twilight asked.

“Well, your toaster, for starters. But pretty much everything else I needed was in a strange device I found collecting dust in your closet. Took it apart and repurposed it.”

“The Pinkie sensor? You took apart the Pinkie sensor?”

“Yeah, it was clear you weren’t using it,” Tony said, before he lowered his mask and fired up his tools once more. “Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work. There are numerous structural fails and openings in the suit thanks to my battle with Doom. You can watch if you want, but I need to focus.”

Tony returned to his work, ignoring all the other questions Twilight put forward. After giving up, she walked over to Spike and sat down next to him. “Why didn’t you stop him from taking apart my appliances?”

“Look Twilight, I do a lot of things around here, but fighting toasters is not one of them. And I know better than to interrupt mad scientists. I live with one,” Spike said with a smile. “Besides, watching Tony work on that suit is…fascinating. I’m not one for science, but what that thing can do is…amazing. You know that early he had each individual piece fly around by itself? How do you make something that can do that? And without magic, no less.”

Even Twilight had to admit that it was impressive. The two watched Tony work for a while in silence, Twilight learning far more than Spike. The way the Iron Man armor was put together, the way it could fold and bend without compromising integrity, all of the little pieces that made the whole work. It was fascinating to her. The pair lost track of time as they watched, until finally, Tony reassembled the suit, smiling down at his work before he pressed a button and the eyes and chest of the suit lit up, showing that Iron Man was alive once again.

“And that takes care of that,” Tony said. The man took off his welding mask and wiped his brow, smiling over at Twilight and Spike. “Hope that wasn’t too boring for you two.”

“It’s incredible,” Twilight replied, walking over to the suit and looking over it. If she hadn’t seen it disassembled with her own eyes, she never would have believed that it came apart. Now that it was whole, it looked like the most solid suit of armor she had ever seen. She was about to compliment Tony on his suit, but then her nose picked up on another issue that needed addressing.

“Ugh, okay, you’re suits fixed, but now we need to fix you,” Twilight said with a slight gag. “When was then last time you bathed?”

“Um, considering the attack by Doom, our counterattack, being blasted to this world…three days, at least. And I’ve been doing a lot of fighting since then,” Tony added up. Twilight gagged in response before using her magic to throw open the door.

“Alright, come with me. We’re taking you to the spa so you can get yourself cleaned up. I’ll contact Rarity and see if she can get you some clothes made in the meantime,” Twilight said, before looking at the armor. “Um, do you just want to leave that here or…?”

“Hang on. And now for my next amazing trick,” Tony said, pressing a button on the suit. To the amazement of both Twilight and Spike, the suit began to fold and collapse, in ways that Twilight had never thought possible for armor. The limbs retracted, the legs folded in and even the helmet came apart into numerous pieces. And when the armor was finally done compacting, all that was left was a metal backpack resting on the table with the same colors as Iron Man.

“Pretty cool, huh,” Tony said. He picked up the backpack and swung it over his shoulders, before motioning to Twilight. “Alright, princess, I believe we were going to visit the spa?”

Twilight led the way, leaving Spike in the castle to watch over it. Twilight tried to ignore the fact that Spike was riding around on the toaster after they left and decided to talk with Tony while they walked.

“So you said you were fighting somepony called Doom before you came here,” she began. “Is Doom like their supervillain name or is it their actual name?”

“Victor Von Doom. That’s right, his family name is literally Doom. Poor guy was pretty much doomed to be a supervillain from the day he was born,” Tony said. “But yeah, he’s a real bad customer. Tyrant of a foreign nation, one of the most powerful suits on the planet, master of both technology and the mystic arts. He’s not a villain I would ever want to go up against by myself unless I had to. And even then, I would want every advantage I could get.”

“Is his suit better than yours?” Twilight asked, goading Tony on a bit.”

“Yes,” Tony replied without any hesitation. Twilight’s eyes widened a bit at his honesty, before she tried changing the subject.

“I’ve sent a letter to Celestia explaining your situation and why you’re here. She sent me one back, asking me to tell you she apologizes for the way she treated you yesterday. After seeing you defeat the Wonderbolts and hearing the name Tirek, she assumed you were bad news.”

“Please Twilight, what she did was far from the worst thing a woman has done to me. One time a woman stole nearly all of my suits and brought down my building on top of me to try to bury me with my legacy. And that was just the first time my suits got stolen.”

“You’ve had your suits stolen before? That’s terrible.”

“Yep, one of the worst things to happen to me. As well as had my friends mind controlled to attack me, being mind controlled myself, fighting alien invaders, fighting the actual Invaders, a civil war between heroes, not proud of that one, battling cosmic horrors, Thanos and his gauntlet, that was a day, Galactus, the Living Tribunal and the One Above All. So yeah, good times.”

“And you’ve gone up against all of this, from aliens to cosmic beings, with just your suit?” Twilight asked. “No magical powers, no super strength…just you in a suit of armor against the cosmos?”

“Yep. Alongside the other heroes, of course. I may be a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, but I’m no idiot. Alone, I’m pretty great. But with my friends, we’re unstoppable.” Twilight gave Tony a smile at that, the most genuine smile he had seen out of her yet.

“You know, I think I get what you mean,” Twilight said with a nod. Tony’s further questions were cut off when he realized they had reached the spa, a large building where he could see two mares standing inside, inviting the pair in with large smiles.

“Think this is how a horror movie I saw started,” Tony muttered, before Twilight pushed him through the door.

“The only horror around here is how you smell. Now come on, we need to get you cleaned up. The second half of Celestia and Luna’s letter said they were coming to visit this afternoon and we’ve got to get you decent.”

“So keep pants on then?

It was a better day than Ashgrove could had hoped for.

He was sitting at a massive, oaken table with the other deer from his village all around him. All of them were drinking, eating and singing out as one, with laughter filling the air all around them. To his left sat Serenity, who rested her auburn head on his shoulder, smiling up at him with her hazel eyes. For today was a day of celebration, as their greatest foe had been slain.

The elder at the head of the table, a massive, leaf green buck with huge antlers, stomped his hoof and the table fell silent, all eyes on him. He cleared his throat before he lifted a wooden mug, a smiling spreading across his face.

“My friends, it gives me great pleasure to sit here with you today. For our greatest foe, the Chimera Devil, the beast that has claimed so man of our own, is finally dead. From this day forward, we are free of its evil!”

The whole table let out a cheer at that and the elder had to bang his hoof again to get them under control.

“There are numerous beings that deserve a toast, but first, let us start with our guest, the one responsible for saving us. The man in the metal mask, Doctor Doom!”

The gathering of deer all cheered together as one and looked towards the other end of the table. Sitting at the end was the man in the metal mask, his green cloak fully restored and his armor shining. He nodded his head at the cheers but said nothing otherwise.

“Thank you, stranger, for all you have done for us in such a short time,” the elder said, before turning his head towards Ashgrove. “And let us raise a toast to Ashgrove, who not only found this savior from another world, but, despite Doom being an alien, chose to show mercy instead of fear and risked his own life to save Doom’s. And in doing so, save all of us! To Ashgrove!”

The deer’s let out another massive cheer for Ashgrove, who wasn’t sure if he was blushing under all the praise. Then Serenity kissed him on the cheek and he knew his face was red. But suddenly the cheering stopped and all had gone quiet. For at the end of the table, Doom had risen to his feet and was staring at Ashgrove.

“Yes, you, young deer, aided Doom in his hour of need, risking yourself for Doom. Doom knows this. Doom will remember it,” Doom began, before he lifted his own mug towards Ashgrove. “And know that just as you aided Doom, one day Doom will aid you. For Doom always repays his debts.”

“This is Doom’s promise.”

Tony had to admit, he did feel slightly better having taken a bath and shaving. Felt like a few of his worries had been washed away. The sunlight was also nice, as well as the fact that he could smell no pollution in the air. That was something he could never say about New York.

He was also pretty surprised at how well the ponies had warmed up to him. Twilight had taken him to meet the rest of her friends at a café and they had greeted him warmly enough. The rest of the ponies in Ponyville, he loved that name, either looked at him with interest or outright ignored him. Which was nice, considering most times he ended up on foreign planets, most of the time he had to fight his way off of them. This was a nice change of pace.

Rarity looked to be wrapping up her long and boring story that she had been telling, so Tony refocused his attention on her and smiled as she finished. “Rarity, you are quite the storyteller. And to be able to make human sized clothes so quickly. Truly you are a gift from above,” Tony said with a wink. Rarity’s face turned crimson and she stammered out something that wasn’t in any English Tony had ever heard, so he turned towards Applejack instead.

“And Applejack, this apple juice is just divine as you are. You must tell me your recipe,” Tony asked.

“Nice try, but flattery doesn’t work on me,” Applejack said, but it was easy enough for him to tell that his words made her happy.

Stark then shifted his gaze towards the other three of Twilight’s friends, not sure how to approach them. Rainbow Dash was a competitive horse, who only seemed interested in racing Tony’s suit. Fluttershy was, well, shy, but a nice enough pony who didn’t say much. But Pinkie really interested Tony. Within two minutes of talking to her, she had teleported out of existence, appeared in several different locations at the same time and even guessed how several of Tony’s stories would end as if she had been there. She reminded him of someone.

“What’s up, Tony? You’re staring,” Pinkie asked as she finished twisting her neck around several times. Tony shook his head and broke free from his thoughts, realizing he had been staring.

“My apologies Pinkie, it’s just that you remind me of someone from my world. He’s a h…a vil…you remind me of a person named Deadpool.”

“Oh, you mean Wade? Yeah, I know him! He’s one of my bestest friends in the whole universe!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Of course he is.”

“Yeah, we even saved Equestria from an evil pirate one time!”

“Of course you did.”

“An evil pirate? How come I’ve never heard about this?” Twilight asked.

“Come on Twilight, I don’t tell you guys everything that goes on in my life,” Pinkie said with a giggle. “A girl’s gotta have some secrets.”

“That scares me more than a pirate ever could,” Twilight sighed, before turning to Tony once again. She had opened her mouth to say something, but then she looked up at the sky and a smile crossed her face. “Ah! They’re finally here! Princesses, down here!”

Tony turned his head to see the two princesses from Canterlot landing just outside the café. The moment they touched down, everypony within sight knelt down and started to praise the princess. The white princess sighed and started to explain they didn’t have to do that while her sister told them they weren’t bowing hard enough. But Tony could tell she was joking. She was acting like he did whenever his fans adored him.

“Hello…Tony, was it?” Celestia asked as she pulled up a chair, sitting across from Tony. “It is nice to meet you face to face. I admit that you seem a much nicer fellow when you are not covered head to toe in a flying suit of armor.”

“Dress to impress, princess. I wanted to make a strong, first impression on you,” Tony said with a smile. “I hope though that we can move past what happened yesterday. You tried to have your forces knock me out of the sky and I embarrassed your fliers in front of the entire city. I’d say we’re even.”

“Even. Very well,” Celestia said with a smile. “Then if we are starting over, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Celestia, Princess of the Sun.”

“And I am Luna, Princess of the Moon. Where is your suit, by the way?” Luna asked. “I was wondering if I could get a better look at it. Flying armor would be a great boon for our more grounded forces.”

“I let Applebloom borrow it. She said she wanted to take it crusading,” Tony said. When he saw the looks of absolute horror Celestia and Luna gave him, he smiled. “Kidding. It’s around, waiting for me to call on it.”

“So you’ve designed the suit to come at your call? How interesting,” Celestia said.

Twilight looked between Tony and Celestia, before she looked at the backpack. She opened her mouth to point out where the suit was, but Tony kicked her under the table before she could. She glared at him and he slightly shook his head. Tony wasn’t sure if he could trust these princesses yet. He remembed having issues with royalty in the past and he didn’t want to give away all his secrets right away. Twilight was a kindred spirit. These two…he needed more time.

“So why are your titles the princess of sun and moon? Aside from your names, which tells me your parents weren’t very creative.”

“It is simple. I have full control over the sun and my sister has full control over the moon,” Celestia said with a smile. “In fact, it is my power that is moving the sun across the sky even as we speak. It rises when I say it does and it sets when I say it does.”

“So you move the sun?” Tony asked. “Neat.”

“Neat?”

“Neat,” Tony replied, before turning to Luna. “So are you the reason I saw the moon doing circles in the sky last night? Because I thought I was going crazy.”

“Even I get bored sometimes. And it was worth it to see the look on my sister’s face when her counselor ran into her room, screaming about the end days,” Luna laughed.

“One day, sister. One day I will get you back for everything you have done to me,” Celestia promised, before returning her attention to Tony. “But for now Tony, I believe Twilight sent a letter saying that you are simply looking for your way home? If that is the case, then we have several ideas that may work.”

“The first is a being called Discord. He has…chaotic powers and sending somepony to a different reality does not seem out of the question for him. The other is a mirror portal that Twilight owns, but given how she hasn’t used it for you I assume it does not work?”

“You assume correctly, princess,” Twilight said.

“Then there is one other option, but honestly, it is not worth it,” Celestia began. Tony sighed. Not worth it meant that it would be the one he needed. That’s how it always went. “Deep in the forbidden lands, there are rumors of a strange source of power, one that bends the very fabric of reality. While I have not seen it myself, my sister has and can confirm that she has seen the reality distortions. But she could never find the source.”

“Why couldn’t you find the source, Princess Luna?” Twilight asked.

“Simple. Magic does not work in the forbidden lands. At least, not like it should,” Luna explained. “Spells are random, maps go blank and even the most navigation savvy pony finds themselves lost within minutes. Then there is…the wall.”

“The wall?”

“Yes, a wall of a material so strong and durable that not even on greatest spells or mightiest tools can even make a dent in it.”

“Then why don’t you just go over, around or under?” Pinkie asked.

“Well we call it the wall, but it’s more like a sphere, covering above and below ground,” Luna explained. “Digging or flying doesn’t work. The only way is through and nopony on my team was able to get through. Even I couldn’t, it was that tough. We would have stayed and run more tests on it, but the jungle seemed to be against us at every turn. Then there are the fearsome beasts around the wall. We lost many ponies out there. Too many.”

“I had planned to go with my sister the next time she went to the forbidden land, but more issues kept arising and needed our help,” Celestia finished, before looking at Tony. “I can’t promise you that an answer lies in that land and honestly, I would exhaust our other options first before I recommend a visit. However, should everything else fail, I will guide you myself to the forbidden land.”

“Well thank you princess for the offer. I think I will take your advice and go see Discord first, and then maybe mess with that mirror a bit and see if I can figure anything out,” Tony said. He smiled like there was no problem, but he was already preparing for his trip to the forbidden land. His answer would be in the hardest place to reach. It always was.

But a part of him was grateful that it would be a while. There was still the issue of Doom to deal with. Jarvis had been running worldwide scanners nonstop for the better part of a day and nothing have come up. But Doom was out there. Tony knew it. And if he couldn’t find Doom, then the next best option was to tell Doom he was there. They would find each other eventually. Why drag things out?

“Thank you again, princesses. Can either of you tell me where Discord is at the moment?” Tony asked. “I’d like to try my luck with him.”

“Oh I can,” Fluttershy said. “He’s not home right now, but he promised me he would be back by the end of the week. So in about two days.”

“Okay, two days. I can live with that,” Tony said with a smile. “So what to do for two days while I wait?”

“I’ll tell you what you can do. You can race me,” Rainbow Dash said, placing a hoof on the table and glaring into Tony’s eyes with a smirk. “Your suits supposed to be pretty face, but I’m the fastest flier in Equestria. Also, I have to avenge my Wonderbolt Comrades. So let’s race. To Canterlot and back.”

“A race, huh? What do I get when I win?” Tony smirked. Rainbow Dash blinked and thought about it for a moment, before she shrugged.

“Anything from Twilight that you want.”

“Hey, hold on a second-“

“Deal. And if you win?”

“I get to say I beat Iron Man, the so called great hero of Earth.”

“Deal,” Tony said as he stood up, with a smirk of his own.

“I did not agree to this,” Twilight argued, but neither were listening to her.

Tony shot a quick glance at Celestia and Luna, before he shrugged. They seemed nice enough and he had more tricks than this one if he needed to take them down. He pressed a button on his backpacks strap and within ten seconds, the backpack folded out around him and formed the Iron Man suit. He smiled beneath his faceplate at the stunned looks of the ponies, before he turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Alright Dash, put up or shut up.”

Tony then rocketed into the sky, Rainbow Dash right behind, yelling at him how they didn’t do a countdown. Tony smirked as he tore off towards Canterlot, a loud boom telling him he had broken the sound barrier. Yet Dash was right behind him. Impressive.

“Alright Jarvis, deploy the signal pulse. Let’s tell the world we’re here,” Tony said.

‘I would advise against that, sir. Letting a foe such as Doom know that you are alive is a very dangerous gamble.’

“He would figure it out soon anyway, if he already hasn’t. Why prolong this?” Tony asked in a dead serious tone. Jarvis said nothing in reply, but a moment later fired off a scanning pulse that would reach the entire planet. “Alright Doom, you sunnovabitch. Come and get me.”

Tony then put all power into the thrusters and shot ahead even faster, leaving a baffled Rainbow Dash to try and catch up.

“So, Stark survived as well.”

Dooms sensors had picked up the planetary scan from the Iron Man, with his own suit keeping him hidden. For a moment Doom thought Tony was a fool to reveal his position as he did, but Stark was a brilliant man. Not on par with Doom, but brilliant none the less. He had done it on purpose. To draw Doom out. To come and fight Stark.

But Doom did not come when others called. Doom would fight Stark and destroy him, but in his own time and on his own terms. Heading off to kill Stark now would mean he would be playing to Stark, giving him the advantage. Doom did not become the ruler of Latveria and a god numerous times by giving others an advantage. So Stark could send out challenges all he wanted. Doom would wait.

Ashgrove burst into the tent they had made for Doom, drawing Doom from his thoughts as he gazed upon the panting deer. The deer could hardly be called intelligent and was far too kind for his own good. It would get him killed. But he had saved Doom. And Doom always repaid his debts.

“What troubles you?” was all Doom said.

“Remember how you told me to keep an eye out for anything strange? Well there was a pony, a tan pegasi with an explorer’s outfit, who was sneaking around near our feeding grounds. I tailed her and she went to a secret area in the wood, a place I’ve never been to. There was a small hole in the ground she went down, one that goes down for a long while.”

“Did you see where it led?”

“No, I came back to tell you right away, like you asked me to.”

Seems the deer had some brains after all. Doom didn’t care in the slightest for the pony or the problems of the deer, but he had to keep appearances. And it had been a while since he had made another kneel at his boots. So he rose, ignoring the look of joy on the deer’s face.

“Lead the way.”

“Anything Jarvis?”

‘No sir. Still no traces of Doom whatsoever.’

Tony let out a small sigh and leaned back in his beach chair, which had been generously provided to him by Twilight. He sat resting on said chair in her front lawn, keeping himself out of trouble like she had forced him to promise. No bothering others, no causing mayhem and no more flying through numerous Canterlot buildings because he made a tactical error while racing Rainbow Dash. Whoops.

Not that he would complain. The sun was shining, the winds was a gentle, cool breeze and the sounds of Ponyville calmed his nerves. He needed a bit of a break, especially with the life he lived. So Tony let out a small yawn, put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, taking in the sun. Or he would have been, if not for the layers of titanium and gold that covered his entire body. He normally didn't keep it on this often, but earlier a massive tidal wave of pudding had exploded out of Sugarcube Corners and nearly drowned the whole town. The armor stayed on.

He was also doing is best not to pay attention to the three sets of eyes that were watching him from the bushes.

“So when is he going to do something cool?” he heard one of them say. And that was without his suits enhanced hearing.

“Ah don’t know. Ah guess whenever danger shows up or something. He did say he was a superhero,” Applebloom replied. The lack of stealth these three possessed was incredible.

“I don’t see why either of you find him so impressive. He lost to Rainbow Dash in that race they had yesterday. If anything, we should be watching her.”

“Only reason she won was because Tony crashed through those numerous buildings to avoid that old pegasi that had been flying in their way.”

“Details, Sweetie. Dash won, Tony lost.” Tony wasn’t sure he liked this filly.

“Look, the man built a suit of armor that flies. And not with wing or magic, but with some kind of…propulsion technology. Ah’ve never seen anything like it and neither has Twilight, so ya know it’s gotta be advanced.” Applebloom got it.

“I get that. What I don’t get is why is he sunbathing with the armor on. That defeats the whole purpose.”

“Guy challenged Rainbow Dash to a race. He clearly isn’t as smart as either of you think.” Tony lowered his hand that they couldn’t see to the ground after she said this, a smile crossing his face. “We’d be better off asking Twilight about fixing our catapult because I know for certain that this guy can’t-GGGGAAAAHHHHH!”

Scootaloo burst from the bushes screaming, running around in a blind panic. Her friends chased after her, trying to grab something that had clamped on to her tail. That something was actually the Iron Man suits left hand, which Tony had detached from the suit and the had silently crawl over to her. The rest was for him to enjoy.

“Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!” Scootaloo screamed as she ran.

“We would if ya would just stop running!” Applebloom replied. Tony watched the three chase, stumble and crash into each other for a moment, before he made a motion with his exposed hand. The metal hand released Scootaloo and flew back over to him, reattaching itself. The three fillies took a moment to regain their composure right in front of him and Tony rose from his seat.

“Hey you three. Whatcha doing?” Tony asked.

“Um, we were…we were just walking by…and thought we’d say hello,” Sweetie said.

“From the bushes?”

“Yeah, because…we wanted to observe ya and see what cool stuff yer suit could do,” AB said.

“From the bushes?”

“Ugh, we were going to ask you if you could help us with our catapult, but Applebloom here got all nervous and couldn’t meet you face to face. So we hid in the bushes until she could muster up the courage to talk to you,” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“You three built a catapult?” Tony asked, slightly amazed when they nodded. “Show me.”

“Okay, but it’s a bit of a walk. Our clubhouse isn’t far from where may sister lives, so we gotta-“

Applebloom never even got the chance to finish her sentence before Tony scooped them into his arms and rocketed across the skies of Ponyville. Sweetie screamed, Scootaloo howled with laughter, and Applebloom kept her eyes up and away from the ground. A minute later the three of them landed near a treehouse Jarvis had spotted, along with the catapult Tony had spotted.

“Did…did ya really have to do all those barrel rolls on the way here?” AB asked, staggering away and looking a bit more green than she had before.

“Aileron rolls. So this is your catapult, huh?” Tony asked, looking the contraption over. It was pretty well built, despite most of its components looking like they came from an arts and crafts store. Zip ties, plastic tubes and a whole assortment of strange parts made up the catapult. What really impressed Tony was their genius idea of using a wok to serve as the basket for the catapult.

“Gotta say, I’m impressed.”

“Thanks. But we can’t get it to work properly,” Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. “Every time we pull the lever, it either doesn’t fire at all or fires so hard that we never find whatever it is we launch.”

“What have you lost so far?”

“A bowling ball, several apples, Spike…and we couldn’t find any of them,” Scootaloo replied, while Tony got his scanners to work looking for a young dragon. “We just can’t figure out what the problem is.”

“Well, let’s see what I can do,” Tony muttered. He took a quick look over the components, still amazed that it did work, and found the problem pretty quickly. The band they were using for tension was loose. But he wagered that if they tried to tighten it to compensate, it would become too tight and launch the next unfortunate victim much further than they wanted. He was just about to point that out to them when AB walked over and her eyes lit up.

“Oh, it’s the band. That’s where our problem is! Sweetie, ah thought ya said ya checked the band earlier?!”

“I did! It’s on, isn’t it?”

“Ah swear to Celestia, Sweetie…”

“Alright, problem fixed,” Tony said. The three turned to look at him as he finished adjusting the band, not having seen him reinforce the supports, hammer a few bolts back into place and numerous other adjustments the catapult had needed to keep from breaking down. “Should be all good to go.”

“Sweet! But we did bring anything to fire out of it,” Scootaloo noted, looking around.

“I’ve got this,” Tony said, before he took off his helmet and placed it in the wok. “You can fire Jarvis.”

‘Sir, I must strongly recommend against this.’

“Don’t crush these girls dreams, Jarvis. Did you stop me when I was being a mad scientist at their age?”

‘Numerous times, sir.’

“Well, this is for stifling my creativity all those years. Let her rip!”

Applebloom pushed down on the lever and a moment later the red and gold helmet of Iron Man was sailing out of sight. Tony and the girls watched it go, with the fillies celebrating their working catapult. Tony looked down at his wrist, which popped up and showed a small screen that was tracking Jarvis. For a home made catapult, it got some distance.

“Uh, would you like us to help you find your helmet?” Sweetie asked.

“No need, I have a tracking device in every piece of my suit so that I know where it is at all times,” Tony replied, before looking up with a smile. “Besides, Jarvis should be coming back in three, two…”

Just as Tony had predicted his helmet was slowly flying towards them. The fillies gasped in shock at the sight of a flying helmet while all Tony noticed was that thruster three wasn’t working in the helmet. He must have missed something when he took it apart. He extended his hand and the helmet landed in it.

“So Jarvis, how was the flight?”

‘Far more relaxing than whenever you fly, sir. I have also located Spike. He was walking towards Ponyville, grumbling under his breath about what lunatics the Cutie Mark Crusaders were and how he was going to sleep today off like it never happened.”

“What a trooper. Glad to see that he’s not letting this get to him,” Tony said, before turning back to face the fillies. “Well girls, you should be excited. Your first successful catapult test run. Ah, I remember when I built my first ancient siege weapon.”

‘The cat was never seen from again.’

“We are excited! Ah can’t believe it worked!” Applebloom said, before staring down at the ground. “Too bad we can’t do this that often.”

“Why’s that?”

“Our sister don’t like us building and testing things. They say that it’s too dangerous or that we could get somepony hurt,” Sweetie explained. “They’re right and we have, but still, we love doing this. Group projects, spending our day building something, watching with terror as it nearly destroys the town…it’s how we bond.”

“So young, so destructive. They remind me of me,” Tony said, before a smile crossed his face and he knelt down in front of them. “How about this? I’ve got nothing better to do expect lay about while waiting for Discord to get back. How about I be your supervisor?”

“Really?” All three of them said at once with huge smiles.

“Yeah, I’d be perfect. I know a lot about building things and nearly destroying a city with the things I built. That way if your sisters ask, you can say that you have somebody watching over you while you work.”

‘And I will supervise you while you supervise them.’

“See, everybody wins.”

“Really, Tony? You’d do that?” Sweetie asked.

“Sure. What kind of mad scientist would I be if I didn’t help expand the minds of students willing to learn?” Tony asked. “Not to mention I’m curious to see what else you can come up with. How long did it take you to build that thing, anyway?”

“Last night.”

“Wow. That is impressive.”

“This is so cool, girls! We can finally do all the stuff we wanted to do and say that we have a responsible adult watching us!”

“I never said I was responsible.”

“Yeah! Now we can build another magic powered super car to replace the one that we crashed into a mountain last year!”

“You built and crashed a what?”

“Come on girls! To the treehouse!”

The three fillies raced off to their treehouse, shouting all of the different ideas and things they were going to build. Tony stared after them for a moment before sighing and walking towards the tree house as well.

‘You may have bitten off more than you can chew, sir. All three of them are like you when you were little, meaning that you shall be dealing with three of you.’

“And if that’s the case they drive me to be a villain before the week is done. Well, at least you’ll be here suffering with me, right Jarvis?”

‘On the contrary, sir. I will be enjoying every moment.’

Spoilers for endgame in this chapter

“I can’t do it,” Discord said.

“Bullshit,” Tony replied.

Fluttershy winced at the language, but otherwise stayed silent. She had taken Tony to her home the moment Discord got back, forcing him to promise to stay there until he had met Tony. Both Iron Man and Discord had raised an eyebrow when they saw the other, but both had seen stranger in their life and they quickly moved past it. Then Tony brought up what he was there for and Discord didn’t have the answer he wanted.

“I’m being serious. And trust me, that isn’t a sentence I say often,” Discord replied, now shaped like a lamp. “Can I send you to another dimension? Yeah, it be easy. All I’d have to do is snap my fingers.”

“You snap your fingers at me, I blow your head off,” Tony warned in a dark tone.

“Okay, you don’t like beings that snap. Weird,” Discord muttered. “But back to my point. Yes, I can send you to another dimension. However, I am nearly a hundred percent certain that it wouldn’t be your dimension. Do you know just how many dimensions there are in the infiniverse? Infinite. That’s why it’s called that.”

“I know what the infiniverse is.”

“And I am a god of chaos. If I sent you to another dimension, it wouldn’t be with a target in mind, it would be random. Chance. Chaotic,” Discord continued. “Maybe you’d end up in a world similar to your or maybe you end up in a place with talking monkeys.”

“That world sounds nice,” Fluttershy added.

“The point is, you’d have a one in infinite shot at returning to your own dimension. I’m freaking insane and even I know those are bad odds. And I might not be able to get you back if I did send you away. Maybe you land in a dimension where my magic doesn’t work…you’d be surprised how many of those there are.”

“Hate to say it, but your logic makes sense, and coming from a god of chaos that is terrifying,” Tony muttered, leaning back on the couch. Then an idea came to him and he lifted his metal head once more. “But maybe there’s something else you can help me with. I’m looking for a person. Another human that may have come to Equestria with me. Do you think you could find him?”

“Find another human? Of course, nothing would be easier,” Discord said with a toothy grin. “I am an expert at tracking down things that don’t belong and you humans are certainly that. Give me a day at most and I’ll have your man.”

“Thanks, Discord. But a word of warning. If you do find him, stay clear of him,” Tony said. “This man…is dangerous. One of the most dangerous beings from my world. Do not go up against him, whatever you do.”

“Tony, Iron Man, I appreciate the concern. But I am a god. I can handle a human. Bye.”

Before Tony had a chance to say anything more, Discord vanished with a snap of his fingers. True to his word, Tony had instinctually fired a repulsor blast right where Discord’s head had been a moment earlier, but instead of striking a god, he instead punched a hole through the wall of Fluttershy’s house.

“I can pay for that,” Tony said when he saw the look Fluttershy was giving him.

“That’s alright. Sorry Discord couldn’t be more of a help to you,” Fluttershy said.

“Nah, I was kind of expecting that. Nearly every god I’ve ever met is either egotistical or useless. The other likes to solve his problems by whacking them with a hammer,” Tony said as he stood up, stretching. “Welp, glad that wasn’t my only option.”

“The mirror?”

“The mirror. Time to go fly to Twilight and see just what this other human world is like.”

Tony resisted the urge to throw up in his helmet as the swirling light died down. Twilight had warned him that traveling to the human world would be weird, but she hadn’t warned him it would his make his lunch the second food related threat that wanted to kill him. Yet after a few more moments of nausea, he forced himself to stand and looked around.

‘Cars driving by. Lines of suburban houses. The scent of pollution. Yup, this is the human world,’ Tony noted. He looked behind him to see a large school, a place that Twilight said he could start his search if need be. That wasn’t a bad idea, but he had a better one.

“Tony Stark to Avengers. This is Iron Man calling the Avengers, do you copy?” Tony said into his comms. When all he heard was static, he let out a small sigh. Twilight had been right, there were no Avengers on this world. At least, none that used the same comms as him.

“Hey loser, it’s about five months too early for Halloween!”

Tony turned his head to see a couple of kids on their bicycles near the curb, two of them pointing and laughing at him while the third made a face. “Nice cosplay, moron. How much money did you waste putting that piece of crap together?”

“About the same amount of money you’ll spend in college and still end up flipping burgers,” Tony snapped back. “And too earlier for Halloween? If that’s the case, why are you out here wearing that ugly mask. Oh wait a second, that’s your face. Sorry, it’s just so hideous that I thought for sure it had to be a mask.”

“Why you…” the kid snarled as he and his friends approached Tony. Tony smirked and raised an arm, before firing a repulsor blast right past them. Their eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as the blast exploded behind them, with none of them daring to look. Tony then slowly rose into the air, the arc reactor in his chest starting to hum.

“Oh yeah, about how much money I spent on this? About twenty-five million. And it’s all authentic,” Tony said, raising his hands once more. “Buh-bye.”

The kids let out a scream and pedaled away as fast as they could, leaving Tony to chuckle as he lowered himself to the ground once more.

‘Sir, if I may. It would most likely be best that you lose the suit. It seems that superheroes are a rarity in this world.’

“Alright, alright,” Tony said, collapsing his helmet and feeling the wind across his face. He was just about to fold up the rest of the suit, when he heard the faintest of sounds behind him. Letting out a sigh, Tony turned to see what looked like the school’s track team stopped behind him, having just jogged out from behind the school while practicing. Twenty sets of eyes all stared at him in amazement and Tony did what he did best. Made it worse.

“None of you saw anything, okay?” he told them. “I did not just fire a blast, fly into the air and then chase off a couple of kids. We cool? Yeah, we cool.”

None of the students responded. None of the students moved or said anything at all. A full minute passed and Tony was just about to ask Jarvis to check to make sure they were still alive, before all of the kids erupted at once.

“It’s him!”

Suddenly, Stark was surrounded by twenty kids, all of who were talking, shoving paper and pens at him or admiring his suit with wide eyes.

“It’s Robert Downey Jr!

“What’s he doing here?!”

“What’s he doing in an Iron Man suit that actually works?!”

“Come on, if anybody would buy a fully working Iron Man suit, it would be RDJ!”

“I bawled my eyes out when you died! I am Iron Man!”

“Stop it man, you’ll get me to start crying.”

“I love you three thousand!”

“SIGN MY FACE!”

‘It seems that they have mistaken you for someone else, sir,’ Jarvis said from inside the suit.

“You have a working Jarvis?!”

“Yup, it would seem like it,” Tony said as he took a piece of paper and signed “Iron Man” on it. He did this with everybody else that offered him paper, even taking a few photos. Then a kid raised his hand and snapped his fingers. “Woah there, no snapping! Don’t you know what happens when someone snaps? Half the universe goes!”

To his amazement, the crowd of kids all laughed at this. He shrugged his shoulder and went back to taking photos, before he spied someone he hadn’t expected to see. There was a human version of Twilight Sparkle at the top of the school stairs, motioning for him to join her.

“Alright guys, it’s been fun, but I’ve got to go,” Tony said to them, before waving one last time. “Stealth mode.”

And with that, Tony and the Iron Man suit turned completely invisible, and the students lost their minds even more.

“Another bust?” the pony version of Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Another bust. Your other self is a lot more timid than you, did you know that?” Tony asked.

He was back in Twilight’s castle after a long day of failure, even though he had a lot of fun in the process. So now he just sat in one of Twilight’s crystal thrones, which were uncomfortable as heck, and was throwing a tennis ball back and forth with Spike. His suit was retracted into its backpack form and rested on the table, surely scuffing the crystal.

“I’m sorry. I thought for sure that the other me and her friends would be able to help you. I mean, Sunset Shimmer once tore apart reality. I thought she might have an idea on how to do it again,” Twilight said.

“Good kid, reminds me of someone,” Stark replied. “Also, you were right about other you. She’s smart, but she was way in over her head with the stuff that I brought up. Surprisingly, Pinkie understood all of it and we had a good conversation. She suggested that I collapsed space and time until all dimensions fold into a single one. Then, technically, I’d be home.”

“That’s crazy.”

“It is,” Tony agreed, not telling Twilight he had put the idea in his “maybe” folder. “You know what was really cool about your world? Apparently, the Tony Stark of that world is a movie star and has stared in numerous movies about my life and the lives of the other Avengers. I mean, they got somethings wrong, but it’s still cool.”

“You didn’t watch any, did you?” Twilight asked.

“Of course not, I didn’t have time,” Tony replied, deciding not to tell her that he had downloaded every single one using other Twilight’s account. Highest grossing movie and one of the most beloved actors? Tony won in every reality.

“So what next?” Twilight asked. “We’ve exhausted all of our options.”

“Eh, I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Tony said with a shrug. “I always do. It’s kinda my whole gimmick. Get into danger, think my way out of it. Give it time.”

“If you say so,” Twilight said, before a thought struck her. “Hey Tony, Celestia told me when you first met her you were sent by Tirek. But if you had just gotten to Equestria, how did you know who Tirek was?”

“Oh, I met him not long after I got here. Centaur dude, right? Yeah, he was the one that pointed me in the direction of Canterlot and the princesses. Why, you know him?”

Tony had thrown the ball back to Spike, but the dragon was so stunned by what Tony said that it whacked him in the face. He and Twilight shared a long look, before Twilight decided to take a page out of Tony’s book.

“Shit.”

“Um, Doctor Doom, sir? You’ve been…you’ve been staring for over an hour now. Is something the matter?”

Ashgrove was nervous. He didn’t like how deep underground they were or the large, ruined structures that lined the place. Yet even if he didn’t know where they were, Doom clearly did. He hadn’t been down there for more than ten minutes before he had fallen to his knees, silently staring at the large structures for hours.

“And what about that mare you knocked out? Is she going to be okay?” Ashgrove asked once more, but Doom didn’t respond. Ashgrove sat down next to the doctor and waited, waited for him to say anything.

“It all makes sense now.” Ashgrove turned to look at Doom, whose eyes were shining behind the mask with both sorrow and rage. “Why I couldn’t find it. Why, even with my dimensional scanner being able to scan across the infiniverse, I couldn’t find my home. My dimension.”

“W-why is that, Doctor Doom?” Ashgrove asked.

“Because, my deer friend, this is my dimension. This is my world,” Doom whispered.

“No actually, it’s mine. And if you’re who I think you are, I’m not going to let you take it.”

Doom and Ashgrove both snapped their heads around to see a mix and match creature floating above them, eyes filled with hate and knowledge. And power. Doom could see the power flashing in the god like beings’ eyes.

“Doctor Doom. One of the greatest villains across history,” the being said, before it smiled. “I look forward to erasing you from that history.”

“And you’re sure this is where you met him?”

“Yes Twilight, for the hundredth time, this is where I met him. I remember the place, Jarvis remembers the place and the dried up husks of ponies over there tell me this is definitely the place.”

Tony shook his head slightly as he stared down at what had once been the cult members he had defeated a few days ago. They laid lifeless on the ground, jaws slack, eyes blank and they all looked like they hadn’t taken a drink of water in a few dozen years. But what slightly unnerved Tony was that Twilight had told them Tirek had the ability to drain lifeforms of their natural magic, like a vampire would blood. That he would suck another beings lifeforce dry.

It wasn’t the idea of fighting a magic sucking vampire that bothered Tony. It was that he had a chance to stop Tirek, to save these ponies lives. And he hadn’t. More names to add to his list.

‘Sir, scans are not picking up a trace of Tirek in the nearby vicinity,’ Jarvis informed Tony.

“Alright, keep scanning. We’re not letting him get away,” Tony snarled.

“How did Tirek escape Tartarus this time?” Applejack asked. “Fluttershy trained Cerberus so that the do would never abandon their post. And how did the princesses not notice?"

"Tirek left a magical clone in his place. The moment after Tony left Canterlot where he first me Celestia, she checked up on him," Twilight said with a shake of her head. "She thought he was still there. Turns out he wasn't."

“As for Cerberus, maybe they got lonely and wanted to find somepony who would give it lots of hugs and kisses,” Fluttershy said. “For such a scary looking dog, they’re nothing but a big sweetheart.”

“Sweethearts aren’t the kind of dog you want guarding one of the most dangerous criminals in the world,” Rainbow said as she floated down from above. “Sorry Twi, but I’ve searched in every direction and I can’t find him. A few more…bodies, but no centaur.”

“Great, he’s hiding. Which means he won’t reveal himself until he believes he’s strong enough to take us on,” Twilight snarled.

“You’ve fought Tirek before?”

“Yeah, a couple times. Not only is he incredibly strong, especially after absorbing enough magic, but he’s cunning as well. He never makes the same mistake twice. One of the reasons we managed to beat him last time was because he got cocky. He won’t make that mistake again.”

“Well, you guys have nothing to worry about. You’ve got a founding member of the Avengers on your side, so you’re guaranteed to win,” Tony told them with confidence. The looks on their faces told them they were anything but confident. “Friends, I’ve dealt with everything from evil gods invading my planet to an army of killer robots that wanted to replace humanity. Trust me, a magic sucking vampire is on the low end of things I’ve gone up against.”

“Don’t underestimate Tirek, Tony. He’s dangerous. Maybe the most dangerous villain we’ve ever fought,” Twilight warned.

“He’s not Thanos, or Galactus, or Hulk. I can handle him,” Tony repeated. Twilight opened her mouth to argue, realized it would be pointless, and just shook her head before continuing to search. “Besides, it’s kinda my fault that he’s on the loose right now, so to make it up to you I’ll be the one to bring him down. Sound fair?”

“If you say so.”

Twilight broke the team into groups to better search the area. Tony was assigned to Rainbow and the two took to the skies, using a combination of Tony’s scanners and Dash’s eyesight to search the surrounding area once again.

“Think you’ll be able to keep up this time?” Rainbow Dash asked as the two flew over the land. Tony, who was more interested in watching a hoard of small, round, fairy looking things devour a garbage dump, took a moment to respond.

“You know Dash, you remind me of another asshole that I know back on my world. Quicksilver,” Tony said. “He’s very fast, very annoying and his mouth gets him into trouble faster than his legs can outrun it. And do you know how many times he’s beaten me? Zero. Because for as fast and as cocky as he is, he’s an idiot. And brain beats muscle every time. Remember that.”

“Oh yeah? Well how about you prove it and-“

Whatever Dash was going to ask Tony to do he would never know, because at that moment Dash collided head first with a blimp that was passing by. As the ponies on board began to yell at Dash and got sticks to scrape her off their airship, Tony chuckled to himself before rocketing on ahead.

‘Sir, I’ve found something down below. You…be ready, sir. It’s not a pretty sight.’

All the mirth left Tony’s body as he descended down towards a small, farming community that Jarvis had pointed out. He landed in the center of a small marketplace and looked around, his heart already sinking into his stomach. All around Tony lay ponies, in the same shape as the cultists they had found earlier. Husks. Husks of what once were ponies just living their lives.

“Jarvis, scan for survivors,” Tony instructed. He heard Dash land behind him, but to his gratitude, she didn’t say anything. She just sighed and shook her head before looking up at Tony.

“I’ll check the west side, you look east.”

“Agreed.”

Tony and Dash separated, though Tony made sure to eject a tiny drone from his suit to follow Dash, just in case she ran into Tirek before he did. Tony and Jarvis searched the village, but all they found was more of the same. Husk like ponies and some amounts of destruction, such as a barn door that was kicked in or some overturned stalls. Some of the ponies had pitchforks or sickles next to them, in a futile attempt to defend themselves. Their bodies showed the results.

‘This is not your fault.’

“How is this not my fault? I could have stopped this. I could have ended Tirek when he was weak and helpless,” Tony spat.

‘You did not know what he was capable of. You and I both thought he was just a strange being in a strange world. If you believe that you are the one to blame for all of this, then the blame should clearly fall to me.’

“Why on Earth would you be to blame for this, Jarvis?”

‘Because I am the smart one.’

Tony felt the corners of his mouth attempt to smile at that, but his guilt fought the smile back down. He heard hoofsteps and turned around to see Twilight walking towards him, a look of sorrow on her face as she gazed at the bodies.

“I’m sorry. I should have stopped him,” Tony said.

“You didn’t know. I am the one to blame. As their ruler, I should have been aware to their plight. Instead I was too busy try to figure out you,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “But this is bad. This is worse that just a missing village. Tirek will be much more powerful now, and the stronger he becomes the faster he’ll start to drain more magic across the land.”

“Well we know he went this way. We’ll split up and search in a triangle formation, checking nearby cities and towns to see if he’s been there. Once we’ve done that, we should be able to pinpoint his location and where he’s heading next,” Tony suggested. Twilight gave him a kind smile before she shook her head.

“It’s a good plan, Tony. But it won’t work. Tirek will be strong enough now that he can teleport. There is no pattern to learn where he is or tracking his movements. He will go where he wants to. The best course of action is for me and the other princesses to use our power to try to see if we can feel where magic is being drained in large quantities. That will be our best bet.”

“Oh. I see. That makes sense,” Tony replied.

Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Tony stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt. But he still felt anger simmering beneath his surface. He had failed these ponies. He was a hero, a hero who battled evil on a daily basis. How could he had not seen that Tirek was evil? He had even jokingly said to Jarvis that Tirek looked evil. Just another mistake Tony made that others had to pay the price for.

“No!” Twilight screamed as she snapped her eyes open, panting heavily. Dash and Tony were both at Twilight’s side in an instant, helping her as she regained control of herself. “The princesses are under attack!”

“Tirek?” Dash asked.

“I don’t know, I couldn’t find out. But we need to get there now!” Twilight snarled. Her horn glowed with an incredible power and the next thing Tony knew, his world was filled with a flash of violet light.

The teleportation nearly made Tony throw up again, but he didn’t have time to wait for his stomach to settle down. Twilight had teleported him and all of her friends to a courtyard in the city Tony had visited. A courtyard that had guards laying everywhere. Some of them were alive. Most of them were not.

“Come on, the princesses are in the throne room!” Twilight yelled. She and her five friends charged ahead, but Tony took a moment to kneel down next to one of the bodies and examine it quickly. It wasn’t Tirek who had done this. The guard’s body was perfectly fine, aside from the scorch mark of energy on the side of it. An energy mark he knew all too well.

“Twilight!” Tony yelled as he poured everything into his thrusters and rocketed off after the ponies. He passed by more bodies on his way to the throne room, all of them in a similar state as the guards outside. He tried not to notice that the maids and staff had been struck down as well as the guards.

Tony managed to overtake the group right as they reached the final hallway to the throne room, rocketing ahead of them and landing with his arms outstretched to stop them.

“Twilight, wait,” Tony warned. Twilight and her friends skidded to a halt, the edge in Tony’s voice bring them to a stop. “This isn’t Tirek. None of the bodies have been drained of their magic and the rest of the city is untouched.”

“Okay, so it’s not Tirek. I don’t care. Somepony in is there battling the princesses and they need to be stopped!” Twilight yelled. She tried to slip past Iron Man, but he held out his arms once more.

“Twilight…I know who’s in there. So trust me when I say, let me go in first and let me do the talking,” Tony warned as he turned towards the doors. He grabbed hold of the handles and looked back at the group. “And also…shoot to kill.”

With that warning, Iron Man pulled open the doors to the throne room.

Guards were scattered all over the room, having clearly been dealt with first. The two princesses, Celestia and Luna, were both laying beaten and bruised on the ground, yet Iron Man was amazed to see that they both still breathed.

Yet it was the figure that sat on the throne that gained Iron Man’s full attention. The metal suit. The green cloak. And the eyes that looked out from under his mask devoid of any mercy or understanding.

“Tony, is that…?” Twilight began.

“Allow me to answer for you, Stark. Yes, murderer. I am who you rightfully fear,” Victor cut in.

“I am Doom.”

Iron Man didn’t waste any time starting the fight.

Fire erupted from his boots as he launched himself towards Doom, fists outstretched to knock the tyrant off the throne. Yet with an almost bored look on his mask, Doom watched as the Iron Avenger slammed into a barrier of green magic that conjured around Doom.

Iron Man snarled as he floated backwards, firing up his repulsor beams and unloaded them into the barrier. Despite having enough power to knock the Hulk on his ass, the beams did nothing to the green shield. Twilight let out a yell as she fired a blast of magic strong enough to burn the color from the air, yet it fizzled harmlessly against the shield. From the look of sheer disbelief on her face, Tony guessed that was her strongest spell. Not a good sign.

Her friends tried to join in, but Stark knew how that would end. So he flew forward ahead of them, crossing his arms over his chest as he prepared to bring out the big guns. Doom then raised a hand to stop the “fight”.

“Enough, Stark. If Doom had come here to destroy you, you would already be dead,” Doom told Tony, who had to bite his tongue to keep from disproving Doom. “I am not here to fight. I am here to open your eyes.”

“Look Doom, if you’re trying to get me to convert to the Church of Doom, you’re too late. I’m more of a believer in Norse Mythology,” Tony replied. Doom ignored him.

“You have been in this world for a few days, same as Doom. A world which I am certain you believe is in another dimension,” Doom began. The ponies began to advance on Doom, but Iron Man held out a hand to stop them. “That is what Doom thought at first, but Doom quickly learned the truth. This is not another dimension. This is our own…in the very distant future.”

The ponies let out a gasp at the reveal while Tony narrowed his eyes behind his faceplate. “Doom does not expect you to believe his words. That is why Doom has brought proof.”

Doom tapped a button on his wrist and the room was filled with a holographic projection of what Doom had seen. To the ponies, all they saw were a bunch of large shapes and a dark cavern, filled with ruin and nature.

But Tony had seen what Doom had seen. Ruined skyscrapers, streets now cracked and choked by weeds and, worst of all, the ruins of Avengers Mansion. Jarvis even picked up in the holographic recording the code that the mansion would send out to summon the Avengers. Despite the horror of what he was looking at, Tony felt a small sense of pride that the mansion had managed to keep transmitting even to this day.

“But…but how can this be?” Twilight asked, stepping up next to Iron Man. “Suppose what you’re saying is right, and this is your distant future, how is it we’ve only just now uncovered evidence that humans once lived in this world? You think we would find your cities or records or other things like that. And we’ve used our magic all over the-“

Iron Man caught on to Doom’s intent just in time and threw himself between Doom and Twilight, taking a blast of energy that erupted from Doom’s eyes right in the chest. The impact hurled both him and Twilight backwards, where they crashed into her friends.

“You dare to stand before Doom, peasant? You, who are not worthy to look upon Doom, dare to speak to him? After all you and your kind have done?” Doom asked, now rising to his feet.

Iron Man pushed himself back up and fired blast after blast at Doom, but Doom’s barrier was far too strong. In fact, if Tony were to wager a guess, he would say that it was even stronger than when they had fought at castle Doom a couple of days ago. That was cause for concern. But there were other matters Tony needed to clear up first.

“What they’ve done? What are you talking about, Doom?” Iron Man asked, his shoulder armor popping open to fire a volley of mini missiles towards Doom. The barrier dealt with those while Doom dealt with Tony’s question.

“Is it not obvious, Stark. I have pieced together what happened to our world, why humanity is gone and these creatures now take our place,” Doom snarled. “For we did not die out million or even hundred of thousands of years ago. Humanity vanished…exactly ten thousand years ago. When the first of these ponies appeared. Yes Stark, these ponies…wiped out humanity.”

Iron Man came to a dead stop in the air and slowly lowered himself down to the ground, keeping his eyes glued to Doom the entire time. “So let me get this straight. You’re saying that these ponies, ten thousand years ago, wiped humanity off the face of the Earth.”

“Correct.”

“And, judging by the markings on the buildings you found, you’re saying that our extinction was due to their magical power?”

“Truly you are Reed’s equal in intelligence.”

“So what you’re telling me is these ponies, who panic at the first sign of a strange creature or if they chip a hoof, based on Rarity, managed to defeat and eradicate all of the heroes and villains on Earth that we’ve both fought, including Thor, Doctor Strange and Sentry?” Iron Man finished. Doom nodded in response and for a moment there was nothing but silence. Then Tony threw back his head and began to laugh.

“You find this funny?” Doom seethed as Tony fell to his knees, pounding on the floor hard enough to crack it. His face plate opened and allowed Doom to see that Tony’s face had tears streaming down it and his mouth was in a full smile.

“Oh god…oh…Doom, never let it be said that you don’t have a sense of humor,” Tony wheezed, struggling to get his laughter under control. “Flung to a distant future where humanity has been wiped out and a civilization of crayon box ponies have taken our place. Sure, I can believe that. Bad futures are kinda our thing. But you honestly expect me to believe that these Saturday morning cartoon horses are the ones responsible for our downfall? Ugh, if you’re trying to kill me by getting me to laugh myself to death, let me tell you it’s working.”

‘As much as it surprises me to say, Doom, I cannot understand how a man of your intellect came to such a conclusion,’ Jarvis added in. ‘While the ponies and alicorns do posses strong magic, nothing that we have seen them use would lead to any thought that they could defeat Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and it’s most dangerous villains. Then there are the other alien races and the Asgardians. Would they not be here if this was the far future?’

“Doom is never wrong. I have seen the buildings. I have studied what remains of our records and history. And I know that these ponies are the cause of our demise,” Doom said. He then raised a hand towards Twilight and her friends, but once more Tony stepped between them. “You would save them? These creature that you have no attachment to?”

“To answer your question, yes. As a professional curtesy. But even though it’s only been a few days, I’ve grown rather fond of these ponies,” Iron Man smirked, raising his arms towards Doom. Twilight and her friends stepped up beside Tony and even the princesses managed to get back to their hooves as well. “And while you may have a better suit and stronger magic than me, I’ve got them backing me up. And if you’re right and they did wipe out the most powerful beings we’ve ever known…then you’re screwed, Victor.”

Doom narrowed his eyes behind his mask and for a moment Tony thought Doom would call his bluff. As strong as the ponies magic was, Doom was far stronger, smarter and a better spellcaster. He also had far superior tech and was even more ruthless than Tony. Even together, Tony didn’t like their chances of having to go up against Doom. But to his relief, which was hidden by his faceplate, Doom lowered his arms and floated towards the window.

“Doom came here to bring you the truth, Stark. Nothing more. But know this, in the future, when you have finally accepted Dooms words, we shall meet again. Whether it be as enemies who seek to destroy each other or as allies who wish to prevent the destruction of humanity, that is on you. But Doom will undo what has been done…and he will strike down all of you to do it.”

Doom turned and flew out through the window, Tony smirking when he saw that Doom’s suit traveled even faster than his. Rainbow Dash snarled and prepared to take off after him, but Tony held out a hand to stop her, shaking his head.

“Trust me Dash, he’s not a foe you want to take on by yourself,” Tony warned. “Hell, even with all of my allies I’d still rather not take him on unless I have to. The only thing greater than his ego is his skill. And coming from me, that’s saying something.”

When none of the ponies said anything, Tony turned to see that they were all giving him a look of uncertainty. “What’s the matter with you guys? We just confronted Doom and didn’t get our colorful asses kicked. This is a win in my book.”

“Tony…weren’t you listening to what Doom said?” Fluttershy asked. “He said that this is the future of your world. A world in which we…in which ponies wiped out humanity.”

“Yeah, I heard him and I’ve come to the conclusion that Doom is full of shit,” Tony replied. “His story was believable up until that point. Could you guys be the species that takes over long after humanity is gone? Sure you could, I’ve seen weirder. But do I believe that any of you would be able to defeat the heroes of my world? Hell no. And I mean that in a nice way.”

“Hey, we’re pretty powerful!” Rainbow said.

“I don’t doubt that. What I doubt is that any of you, all of you, even with your magic would stand a chance against the people I work with. Even on his worst day, Doctor Strange would still mop the floor with your entire species. I don’t mean that to be rude, but it’s just true. Guy kicks my ass on any day that ends in y.”

“Then why would he say any of that if it wasn’t true?” Pinkie asked.

“That’s just who Doom is. He’ll look for any excuse, any chance to gain the upper hand or maybe turn heroes against one another. It’s not the first time he’s tried to get me to side with him against a common enemy and I doubt it will be the last,” Iron Man said with a shrug.

“And there is evidence against his claim,” Celestia said, having regained enough strength to speak. “Doom said that the buildings he found date back to being destroyed ten thousand years ago, but we have records going back well over five thousand before that. The timeline just doesn’t add up.”

“See, another point against him. He’s just up to his old tricks,” Tony said with a smirk. “Best not to put too much stock into what he says. But just to be safe, Celestia and Luna. You two have access to all records across history, right?”

“That is correct, Tony. So long as the records were saved and preserved, we should have them in the castle library,” Luna confirmed.

“Good. Go through them and see if you can find anything that collaborates Doom’s story or disproves it further,” Tony said, stretching his arms. “While they’re doing that, I need to find a way to upgrade my suit.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked. “It’s already a marvel of engineering.”

“It is, but it’s not enough to contend with Doom. I need to find a way to get around his magic.”

“Well, in the Crystal Empire there are crystals they use to make jail cells that are said to be able to drain a being of its magic,” Celestia said. “Perhaps you could use those to upgrade your suit?”

“And just like that all is forgiven, Celestia,” Tony said, before smiling at the ponies. “So, who wants to take me to meet an empress?”

Upgrades

An entire empire made of crystals that constantly shifted color. A marvel of magic and engineering. And far from the strangest thing Stark had ever seen. Not even top ten.

Twilight had taken him to the Crystal Empire while her friends helped the princesses and Canterlot regroup. Instead of flying they had teleported, allowing Tony to enjoy his PBJ a second time, and the moment they appeared in the Crystal Empire Twilight marched off towards the huge castle in the center.

“Woo, would you look at this place?” Tony said with a whistle. “The buildings are crystal, the streets are crystal…even the ponies are crystal. Cool.”

“Cadence and Shining Armor are this way. Let’s go,” Twilight said in a no-nonsense tone.

“Come on Twilight, I’m literally looking at a crystal fountain shoot out crystal water. I don’t know whether to be impressed or baffled,” Stark joked.

“Later. Let’s get you those crystals so that when Doom comes back we can be ready for him.”

“…it’s eye opening, isn’t it?” Twilight turned and looked back at Stark, who had lowered his helmet and was giving her a sympathetic look. “To believe you’re the best, to have all this skill and tech, stuff no one else can match…and then you go up against him and it’s like you’re a preschooler against a rocket scientist. That you don’t even stack up.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, but her eyes showed that Tony had struck true with his words.

“Doom is, quite possibly, the smartest man on my world. Maybe one of the smartest in the multiverse. His magic, tech and skills are all beyond us. Don’t worry about feeling inadequate or like a failure around him. He’s Doom. He makes everyone feel like that. Even me and I created a device that can transport antimatter across time.”

“Then why are you so calm?” Twilight asked. “His suit’s stronger than yours, his magic is better than mine and, by your own admission, he is twenty steps ahead of us at all times. How are you not freaking out at the idea of fighting him? You can’t win.”

“You’re right. I can’t. Not even with all of my best suits with all of my genius and know how would I be able to beat him,” Stark replied, before he placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and smiled. “But thankfully, I’ll also have your magic to rely on. And the princesses powerful abilities. And everything else you and your friends bring to the table. You and I can’t beat Doom alone…but luckily we aren’t alone, are we?”

“Heh, with a speech like that you sound like you’ve spent all your life in Equestria,” Twilight smirked, before letting out a small sigh. “You’re right. We can take him together. With my friends at our side, we will prevail. We always do.”

“That’s the spirit. So why don’t you introduce me to these royals who took time out of their day to come and meet us.”

“Twilight!”

Twilight looked up to see that Cadence and Shining Armor were walking towards her, with Flurry fast asleep in a stroller they were pushing. Twilight waved back before she raced over, hugging Shining before doing a strange dance with Cadence that Tony recorded to blackmail her with later.

“What brings you here? Normally you send a letter when you’re going to drop by,” Shining asked.

“Oh the usual. A new evil has risen in Equestria and they seem far too powerful for us, so we’re allying ourselves with a stranger so that together we can overcome. That song and dance,” Twilight shrugged, before waving over Tony. “Speaking of allies, brother, Cadence, this is Tony Stark, a superhero from another reality who is here to help us fight the threat.”

“A superhero from another reality? Ugh, it’s going to be one of those days,” Cadence said as Tony walked over. “Though I admit, the red and yellow armor is new even for me.”

“Red and gold, princess,” Tony corrected as he shook her hoof, before doing the same with Shining Armor. “And just like Twilight said, I’m here for your help. The foe we’re against is called Doctor Doom, yes really, and he’s got a magic barrier that my best weapons and Twilight’s strongest spells can’t even scratch. Twi told me that you happen to have crystal that might be able to put a dent in said shield.”

“Crystals that can nullify magic? Yeah, we have some of those. Generally we wouldn’t hoof them over to strangers…but if my little sis says she needs them, then we can make an exception for you,” Shining said. “Give me a minute, I’ll be back.”

“Well that was easy,” Tony muttered, getting Twilight to look up at him.

“Why wouldn’t it be? They’re my family, of course they’re going to help.”

“I just mean that…this isn’t my first time trapped in another dimension. This trip actually puts me in the double digits. But in every one of those realities, I had to fight my way through legions of whatever the dominate species was, hook up with the resistance or rebellion or whoever it was that was willing to aid me, risk my life in some ultimate battle to the death stopping a doomsday weapon and then barely make it back home by the skin of teeth. It’s nice to just ask and get help for a change.”

“You lead a bizarre life.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Tony said as Shining reappeared, holding numerous white crystals in a basket. “You wouldn’t happen to have any of those in red or gold, would you? White just doesn’t work with my suits.”

“Of course. I’ll just go back down to our very small supply of super rare crystals and see if we have any in a matching color for your armor,” Shining mocked in reply.

“This is what I mean, Twilight. Everyone is just so nice and helpful here.”

“Just take the crystals,” Twilight grumbled as she reached for one, but Shining pulled them back.

“Whoa Twilight, careful. Touching these will sap the magic out of any pony, even an alicorn. Use the basket,” Cadence warned. “And also, you can’t teleport them back with you. You will either have to fly, ride or open a wormhole to your castle to get them back.”

“Thank you for the warning,” Twilight said as she pulled back her hoof. Tony, who had neither magic nor common sense to stop him, reached out and grabbed one of the crystals, feeling his hand tingle even through the armor as he lifted it to his visor.

“Jarvis, what do you make of this?”

‘It is hard to describe, sir. The material composing the crystal definitely draws in magic, but for what purpose I do not know. Perhaps it gathers it to maintain its shape or maybe it’s just a byproduct of being around so much magic. Either way, it suits our needs.’

“Glad to hear it. Now we can take these bad boys back to Twilight’s castle and get started on making some weapons out of them,” Tony said as he grabbed for the rest, but Cadence pulled them back.

“One moment, Stark. I know that Twilight says you are on our side and her word means a lot, but these crystals are deadly against magical beings and as nearly all of our race is magical, I trust you do not need to be a super genius to do the math. I will give these to you only on the condition that you swear on your very soul that you will use them only for aiding our kind. Am I clear?” Cadence asked.

“That’s fair. You’re only doing what’s right for your ponies. Alright Jarvis, I swear only to use these crystals to keep the ponies safe from Doom,” Tony said, holding up a hand as he did so. “Should I use them to harm them in any way, lock me out of the suit until I come to my senses. There, that good enough for you?”

“I guess,” Cadence replied.

‘Do not worry, your highness. I will make sure he keeps his word. It’s what I’ve been doing for the past ten years, after all,’ Jarvis added.

Cadence offered the basket of crystals to Tony and he took them, waving to the royals as he turned to leave.

“Also, Twilight…we found more places where Tirek has struck.” That stopped Stark dead in his tracks and he turned around to hear more. “Numerous towns and even a couple of cities. He’s growing stronger at an incredible rate. At the rate he’s going…he may even be stronger than the last time you fought him.”

“But how can that be? He doesn’t have any of our magic nor Discord’s. How could he be stronger?”

“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess…I would wager that he’s not just absorbing the magic from Ponyville, but also from the other beings that were with him in Tartarus,” Cadence said.

“But that would mean he would have drained the magic of some of the most dangerous beings in the history of Equis,” Twilight whispered. Cadence nodded and Tony felt his stomach tighten. He had the chance to stop all of this before it began. And he hadn’t. “So not only do we have this new villain to deal with, but a stronger Tirek as well. This day just gets better and better.”

“Don’t worry, you and your friends will stop him. You did it before and you’ll do it again. Besides, those crystals that Tony have will be just as effective against Tirek as they will be against Doom,” Cadence said with a reassuring smile. “Just trust in your friends and I’m sure you will prevail.”

Twilight smiled at her sister and hugged her, before doing the same for her brother. She then waved at the sleeping foal before nodding to Stark, telling him it was time to go. Twilight took off into the sky and Tony fired up his thrusters to do the same, only to wake Flurry who immediately started crying. With an apologetic wave to the two royals who were now glaring at him, Tony’s helmet slammed shut and he took off after Twilight, holding the crystals tight.

When he reached a high enough point, he turned and looked back at the empire, as well as the rest of the land that stretched out in all directions. In the past he would have looked upon a view like this and believed himself to be above all of it, that he was somehow better than all those beneath him. That he was above their concern. But his inaction and carelessness had hurt so many, more than perhaps Tony would ever make up for. Like how his carelessness had led to Tirek being allowed to go free. But he would try. He would never stop trying.

‘Don’t worry,’ he silently said to all below. ‘I will protect you.’

“Tony? Come on, we need to get back,” Twilight said as she appeared next to him.

“Sounds good, Twilight. We’ve got a couple of supervillains to stop.”

“Doctor Doom! You’ve returned!” Ashgrove exclaimed.

Doom raised his eyes, shifting in his seat as he turned his gaze upon the deer. The young male was looking at him with both awe and surprise, with a hint of curiosity. Doom knew he would. After all, he had said that he would be heading to Canterlot to confront the princesses and their race for a terrible crime they had committed. One that they had denied. He had expected that. Stark hadn’t believed his words. That he hadn’t expected. Stark was supposed to be a genius, yet he was still a fool.

“Yes, Doom has returned. Without the results that he wished,” Doom replied in a calm voice. “Not that it matters. The ponies mean nothing to Doom. All that matters is finding a way to undo the damage that they have caused. Finding a way to undo their crimes.”

“Of course, Doctor Doom. Is there any way that I can help you?” Ashgrove asked. Doom found himself smiling at the young deers proposal. He had no idea who Doom was yet was so keen on helping him. If more people were like Ashgrove, they perhaps humanity wouldn’t have been destroyed.

“No. There is nothing you can do to…” But then something stopped Doom. A recollection. About how when Doom had confronted Stark in the castle, Stark had six ponies with him, each of who had a strange reading coming off of them. Stark had already found allies…allies like the Avengers, X-Men or Reed and his infernal family, who always managed to stop Doom. Allies…like what Doom never believed he needed. And if those ponies were strong enough to destroy humanity, like Stark had suggested, then even Doom’s own might would not be enough.

“Actually, Ashgrove, perhaps Doom can have use for you,” Doom replied, getting Ashgrove’s eyes to go wide with excitement. “Tell Doom, how do you feel…about becoming a superhero?”

With careful precision, Tony took a small chunk of the crystal and placed it atop his right arm, in front of a small laser. He grabbed a small crystal fuser, something Twilight had given him, and used its light to attach the crystal to the metal. He let out a sigh as the crystal shimmered slightly before going dim, telling him that it wouldn’t explode. This time.

“Okay, the crystal seems to have bonded to the metal. Now to see if it works,” Tony said. He rose to his feet and turned from Twilight’s workbench. He glanced over to see Twilight and Spike taking cover behind a crystal table, both wearing goggles and Twilight holding a clipboard. They were being smart, considering both of Starks previous attempts had caused him to blow up.

“Taking aim and preparing to fire new, magic killing crystal laser,” Stark announced. His faceplate slammed down as he lifted his arm, taking in a deep breath before counting down. “Three…two…on-“

BOOM!

The crystal exploded in a flash of light and ripped Tony’s arm back. Tony snarled as pain flared through his arm, fairly certain that if he hadn’t been wearing his suit his arm would be gone. Twilight leapt out from behind her cover and raced over to Tony, conjuring water with her horn to douse the flames that covered the Iron Man armor.

“Tony, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“Urg, progress. We’ve made some progress,” Tony said, gritting his teeth. “We’ve learned that these crystals explode if they aren’t attached properly, explode if you drop them, and explode if amplified light is channeled through them. That’s a lot of ways to make a crystal explode.”

“Tony, I’m not sure if this is the best idea,” Twilight said. “I’m all for testing these crystals, but constantly blowing yourself up with them doesn’t seem like the best way to weaponize them.”

“Nonsense. If worse comes to worse, I can just hurl them at Doom and have them blow up on him. Or me be Hulk and hit Doom hard with rock,” Tony joked, before gritting his teeth again as the pain came back.

“Isn’t this too dangerous?”

“Twilight, this isn’t anything close to the most dangerous I’ve ever done. Doom is dangerous. He’s incredibly dangerous. Have neither of you notice that Discord hasn’t come back yet?” Tony asked. Twilight and Spike shared a horrified look between the two of them, telling him that they had not. “Yeah, if I had to guess, Discord is either dead or dying. Or stripped of his power, Doom likes to do that. Point his, he’s one of the most dangerous foes I’ve ever fought. Even if I have to blow off all of my limbs to find a way to beat him, it would all be worth it.”

“Spike, send a letter to Celestia and Luna to tell them to find Discord,” Twilight quickly said to Spike, before turning back to Tony. “Okay, there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your obsession with Doom. He’s been your biggest focus since getting here. Yes, he’s dangerous, but wouldn’t it be smarter to return to your own dimension and gather your allies to come back to face him? You should be going to the jungle that Celestia mentioned, focusing on how to go home. But you’re staying to fight him. Why?”

“…he killed Peter,” Tony said in a whisper. Twilight motioned for him to continue and he did so after a sigh. “Peter…Spider-Man as he was better known as, is one…was one of our greatest heroes. Both Cap, another hero and close friend, and I both agreed that Spider-Man was the future of superheroes. He would be the guy who could unite the different heroes and factions and bring them together to become the greatest defenders of life across the cosmos. Maybe he could even bring an end to the discrimination against mutants or get the kree and skrull to truly ally with us. He always had a way of making friends and bring the world together. Even when the Avengers, X-men and others were at each other’s throats, Peter could bring us together, almost as well as Cap could.”

“And now he’s gone. He was killed by Doom, because Doom thought only he could be the worlds savior. And so he took the knowledge in Peter’s mind and the process killed him. A noble sacrifice, as Doom put it. Noble. Nothing noble about. Another pointless death in a world full of them. Another good kid gone. Another friend’s death on my soul.”

Twilight looked at Tony as he said this, seeing him in a different light. His body seemed weary, his armor had lost it’s luster and for a moment she realized she wasn’t looking at a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist who also happened to be a wisecracking hero. She was looking at a man pushing sixty who had been fighting a never-ending war for a long time. Then Tony turned to look at her and the old man was gone, replaced by one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

“So to answer your question Twilight, I’m here to do what I do when I can’t save someone. I avenge them,” Tony said. He then stood up again and walked over to the workbench, grabbing a full crystal this time and staring at it for a moment. “Alright, let’s try this again. Might want to get behind-“

“Hey ya’ll! What ya doing?!”

Tony and Twilight turned to see Applebloom running down the stairs, carrying a small basket filled with vials and potions.

“Hey Applebloom, you’re here early,” Twilight said to the young mare. Applebloom smiled up at her before looking over at Tony, her eyes widening as she saw his scorched arm and the ash marks along the ground, one that was Iron Man shaped.

“Aw come on, if ya were going to be blowing stuff up, ya should have called me over sooner!” Applebloom pouted.

“Sorry Bloom, but we are in a bit of a rush,” Tony said as he placed the crystal on his left arm, next to another laser, and stared to attach it. Before he could, Bloom dashed over and snatched the crystal from him. “Hey! Give it. I need that to stop a genocidal villain from destroying everything and man do I say that sentence often.”

“Yer using it the wrong way,” Applebloom replied.

“What do you mean?” Tony asked, crouching down next to her.

“Well, it’s pretty simple. Yer trying to use this crystal to do something that it can’t do. Yer trying to focus a light through it like a regular crystal, but this ain’t a regular crystal. This crystal is used to absorb, to to…give off? Ah can’t remember the other word.”

“No no, I get what you’re saying,” Tony replied, taking the crystal from Applebloom, who had started to look a little pale. “I can’t get it to shoot magic nullifying lasers or anything like that because it is meant to absorb energy or magic, not expel it.”

“That’s the word.”

“So I can’t use it as a focal point for my lasers. So I’ve got to get creative and figure out a new way to get them to work. Hmm, this is going to take some time.”

“Well, while you’re doing that, I’m going to take Bloom here and give her a lesson,” Twilight said. Applebloom hopped over to Twilight and followed her up the stairs, leaving Irong Man alone in her basement. For a moment Stark stared at the crystal, racking his brain with how to weaponize it, before he let out a sigh and followed after the pair, figuring that he would try again later. He needed a break and he was curious to see how Applebloom was going to do. The crystals could wait for now.

Doom wasn’t going anywhere.

“Sister, we have just received a letter from Twilight,” Luna said.

She and Celestia were in a very old castle, far from Canterlot and even further from the castle in the forest near Ponyville. This castle had been home to their grandfather, Lord Terra, who had been one of the first rulers of the world. He kept an extensive library, but, much to the disappointment of Celestia and Luna, there was not much in regard to information about before his time. Out of all of his books, only a few made references to the time before his reign and even then, it was passing mentions.

Celestia was going through the books with a precise focus, while Luna had tried for a bit, grown bored and had started trying on different pieces of ancient armor when a letter appeared before her. She had read it quickly and with an even faster speed gave it to her sister.

“Can this be true?” Celestia asked once she had read the letter. “Could Discord have truly fallen to Doom? Discords power is unimaginable. To think that he might fall to a mere man…”

“According to Twilight, Tony thinks Doom may have outsmarted Discord and stolen his magic. While that may sound unlikely, it has happened before with Tirek,” Luna reminded Celestia.

“You are right. Discord often is beaten by being outsmarted and if Doom can outsmart Tony, then it is believable that he can outsmart Discord,” Celestia agreed. “Faust, we also have Tirek to deal with as well and we have made no progress with this either. How did things come to this?”

“A new day, a new threat to our world. Things never change, eh sis?” Luna asked. Celestia smirked at her sister before closing her eyes and causing her horn to glow.

“Nothing. I cannot sense Discord anywhere on this planet. That may not mean much, he travels between dimensions all the time, but as he just went after Doom I am worried.”

“Should we go and confront Doom, sister? It should not be too hard to find a being with an ego that large,” Luna suggested.

“No. Tony says that he is a very dangerous being who is skilled with magic. As he is Tony’s foe and Tony has more knowledge about him, I will trust his words that we would be at a disadvantage. If we must fight him, we will do so together.”

“Agreed, sister. So, what should we do now?” Luna asked, looking around the room. “We have found plenty of information about our world and our past, but there is not much info about before our grandfathers time. What now?”

“Now you fall to me!”

Celestia and Luna turned just in time to take a massive blast of magic, which tore them from their hooves and hurled them both outside of the castle. Luna and Celestia rose back up to their hooves just in time to see a massive centaur land in front of them, a wicked smile on his face as he glared them down.

“Tirek. I was wondering when you would reveal yourself,” Celestia spat.

“You are a fool, Celestia, leaving the safety of your home and your precious protectors to come all the way out here. You have led you and your sister to your demise,” Tirek laughed.

“Nice try, Tirek, but you are the one to have blundered,” Luna smirked. “You are nowhere near as powerful as you were the last time you ran rampant. We know that you have not taken Cadence or Shining’s magic, so even with all of the ponies magic that you have stolen you are nowhere near our level.”

Celestia and Luna then both fired beams of magic towards Tirek, but to their surprise Tirek shifted into a black cloud of magic, swirling around them as he laughed.

“Maybe not, but I have absorbed the magic of every being in Tartarus, including all of the foes that you two barely managed to defeat over the years!” Tirek bellowed, before the clouds consumed the princess. “So now I wield the power of every villain you have faced in one body. And nopony, not even Twilight and her friends, can match me!”

“Alright, if you add three drops of mercury into the elixir, what should happen?”

“The potion should turn…golden!” Applebloom exclaimed as her potion did exactly that.

“Very good. Now if we were to add beetroot…”

Twilight continued to give instructions to Bloom and the young mare continued to perform them nearly perfectly. While she did this, Tony watched, a small smile on his face the entire time.

‘You have been sitting silently for over an hour now. I cannot remember the last time you were so silent,’ Jarvis said. ‘Is it because you are impressed with young Applebloom’s natural genius? Or is it because you are starting to realize that sandwich you swiped from Twilight’s fridge was meant for pony consumption only?’

“Mostly it’s Applebloom, but that sandwich was a bad idea,” Tony replied. “You’re seeing it too, right Jarvis? How quickly she’s caught on to what Twilight’s been teaching her. She even caught onto the trick Twilight pulled with trying to get her to put the wrong concoction together. She reminds me…she’s a fast learner.”

‘Indeed sir. She reminds me of him as well,’ Jarvis replied, before going quiet for a moment. ‘Sir, what happened to Mr. Parker wasn’t your fault.’

“Oh really? Well gee, it must have been some other billionaire in a metal suit that had promised to protect him and his family, only for them all to be killed while he was away. Well whoever that guy is, he has a real bad habit of failing to keep his promises,” Tony scowled.

‘You and the other Avengers were saving India from an Ultron uprising when Doom attacked the compound. Peter gave his life making sure the workers there could get away. Both of you were being heroes. There is only one soul to blame for this and that is Doom.’

“Doesn’t matter! I still made the promise and I was the one who failed!” Stark yelled. “He looked up to me, trusted me and when he needed me most I wasn’t there!”

“…Tony…are you okay?”

Tony forced a lid onto his anger as he turned to look over at the two ponies, both of whom were gazing at him with looks of concern. Tony sighed as his faceplate slammed down, blocking his face from them.

“Terrific. I feel great. Scoot over, I want to play mad wizard too.”

Applebloom moved to the side and Tony sat down beside her, grabbing one of the potions and looking over it for a moment.

“Okay Tony, since you’re knew at this, what I want you to do first is…”

Whatever Twilight said next, Tony never heard it. He picked up a red vial and poured a single drop into his beaker. As the liquid inside shifted to a blue color, Tony picked up some powder that was beside Bloom and added a handful, placing his armored hand overtop the lip of the beaker as a small explosion went off.

“Tony, I think you should listen.”

Tony could still smell the smoke. The fire that burned the compound was burned into his mind. The desperation and fear that clawed at his heart as he and the Avengers tear through the rubble, praying to Thor and whatever other gods were listening that they had lost only the building. And for a few moments, he and his friends thought that they had gotten lucky. But luck never favored them.

Cap had been the one to find the bodies. Amadeus Cho. Charles Xavier…and then the Parkers. All of them. Peter, Cho and Xavier had all been found with strange markings on their heads, which Scarlet Witch had confirmed to be how Doom had drained their knowledge from their minds. A procedure that had killed them all.

T’Challa had taken the lead and began to instruct the Avengers on what to do. Hulk and Ant-Man on search and rescue. Thor to circle the surrounding area to find anything they may have missed. He and the others would report to the UN what had happened. But Tony hadn’t moved. He stayed put, kneeling at the bodies of those he had failed, with only a mourning Captain to keep him company. Tony had sworn vengeance then and there. Vengeance on Doom. And to make sure that-

“TONY!”

Tony snapped out of his flashback and looked at Twilight, who was glaring at him with her horn glowing. He blinked a few times before he looked down at his hand, finding that his now smoking beaker was enclosed in Twilight’s magic, that magic being the only thing preventing the potion from exploding.

“I zoned out and built something dangerous again, didn’t I?” Tony asked Jarvis.

‘Judging by the expression on Twilight’s face, I would say so sir.’

“Tony. Let. Go,” Twilight said calmly.

Tony did so and Twilight removed the beaker, before she set the magically contained beaker down next to her. She let out a small sigh of relief before she shook her head and looked at Tony. “Well congrats, Tony. Not many beings can make a disintegration potion on their first try.”

“I thought it felt especially dangerous,” Tony joked, but when he saw Twilight’s face he held up his hands. “You’re right. Not time for jokes. Sorry, I just got…lost.”

“Yeah I could tell,” Twilight said, before nodding to Bloom. The young mare came out from behind a table and sat down next to Twilight, looking at Tony with curiosity. “You weren’t listening to either of us and you seemed totally zoned out. It was kinda scary.”

“But it was also kinda cool! Ya should have seen how fast yer hands were moving! Ya made that potion in no time at all! That’s a master class level potion and ya made it while ya weren’t even paying attention!” Bloom exclaimed. “Ya have to teach me how ya did it! Oh, speaking of…”

Bloom dashed off, leaving Tony to give Twilight a confused look.

“Hang on, she’s been wanting to show you this all day, but I promised to make her wait.”

Bloom returned a moment later, carrying in her hooves a small device. Tony looked over at Twilight for some kind of clue as to what it was, but aside from a smile Twilight didn’t give anything away.

“Okay, Twilight and ah have been working on this fer a few weeks now and ah think it’s finally time ah show it to ya,” Applebloom said. She pulled the device apart, revealing two, violet colored circles. She attached one to each of her back hooves and stood up on her hind legs. She closed her eye and clicked her hooves together…and rose up into the air.

It was only a few inches off the ground, but Tony could help his jaw from going slack. Bloom and Twilight had managed to create a prototype version of his Arc repulsors in just a few weeks which, judging by the energy the discs were outputting, used magic instead of Arc energy.

“Well, what do you think?” Twilight asked Tony with a proud smile on her face. Stark managed to tear his eyes away from the floating filly to the princess, unable to contain the smile that was spreading across his own face.

“I’ve got to admit…I’m impressed,” Tony admitted with a smile. He walked over to Applebloom, who took a moment to land, before receiving the discs from her. He examined them quickly, impressed with the level of skill that would be required to make something so similar to his tech. Maybe he had underestimated the skill of these ponies after all.

“They’re nowhere near as advanced or powerful as your repulsor tech, though,” Twilight admitted once Tony was done. “Those have enough magical power stored in them to give Applebloom enough lift to hover for about twenty seconds. Yours both allow you to fly and shoot beams of energy from them. We’re still years away from catching up to you.”

“Well it’s not like I built mine overnight,” Tony admitted. Years away. How long had it taken him to perfect his own tech? Sometimes he felt like he was still upgrading his armor, despite how far it had already come. And yet these two ponies, one of whom was a child, were catching up. The genius of youth.

Tony then caught that Applebloom was giving him a strange look and Twilight seemed to be encouraging her to say something. Normally Tony would ruin the moment with a lame joke, but common sense won out this once and he waited until Bloom was ready to speak.

“Hey Tony…can ah…can ah ask ya something?”

“Like what? What’s it like being so brilliant? How do I constantly get the crap kicked out of me and keep my award winning smile? Where I hide my keys in this suit? The trick is the keys fold into the suit,” Tony whispered to her. Tony stopped when Twilight zapped him with her magic.

“Ah was wondering…if ah could be yer apprentice!” Applebloom managed to blurt out.

For a long moment there was nothing but silence in the room. Even Tony, who usually had a wisecrack or a dumb joke to always fall back on found that he had no response. Applebloom gazed up at him with uncertainty in her eyes, unable to read his face behind his mask.

Stark couldn’t respond. An apprentice. Tony had never been against the idea in concept. Having a willing victim who had to stand there and listen to Tony talk about himself and his accomplishments gave his life meaning. And Applebloom was far from the worst candidate. She had already shown an incredible gift and had a desire to learn.

But fear held him back. Fear of someone evil getting ahold of his apprentice and torturing them for the secrets of his Iron Man armor. Fear that they might one day become corrupted by the power, like he had once been a long time ago, and Tony would be forced to battle the very being he had sworn to train.

But the greatest fear and the biggest force that was holding him back, was that he had an apprentice until recently. A young teen who loved to learn, held great responsibility and had jokes that were even cornier than Tony’s. An apprentice who had been perfect in everyway. And he was gone.

“Look Applebloom, it’s not that I wouldn’t love to take you on as an apprentice, but…” Tony began, already seeing the young mare’s face start to fall. “I’m not the best teacher and I’m far from a perfect role model. Not to mention once I bag Doom and return to my own dimension, we probably won’t see each other again. Why don’t you become Twilight’s apprentice instead?”

“Because ah don’t want to be taught by Twilight. No offense, princess. Ah need to be taught by you,” Applebloom replied.

“Why? Twilight is a far better teacher than I would ever be.”

“Because ya have no magic. Ya have no wings, magical horn or ancient gifts. But despite all that, with nothing but yer wits alone, ya created a suit that allowed ya to fight alongside the greatest heroes of yer world!” Applebloom exclaimed and Tony figured it out instantly. She was like him. No powers, no abilities: just a desire to help and a mind that wouldn’t stop. But since she had no powers or abilities, she needed something to even the field. Like his armor.

“Applebloom-“

A massive explosion rocked the castle, cutting off Tony’s words and nearly throwing him to the ground. His armor went into lockdown and prevented him from being thrown, but two mares weren’t so lucky.

“What the hell was that?” Tony asked.

“Some kind of…magical shockwave,” Twilight grunted as she got back up to her hooves. “Most likely caused by two or more powerful magics colliding. But what could cause…”

Twilight gritted her teeth and tried to get her magic to work, but aside from a few sparks nothing happened. “No good, the shockwave knocked out my magic. And I’m an alicorn. I’d hate to see what happened to the rest of the town. Tony, I want you to check the town. I need to send a message to Celestia and-“

Her magic had been knocked out. Twilight’s magic was down. Which meant so was every spell she had cast recently.

With a speed that nearly gave himself whiplash, Tony spun and hurled himself towards Bloom, who looked up at him in confusion…just as the disintegrating potion exploded in a ball of fiery, magical death.

“…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.

“Ah, Tony Stark. I was wondering when we would-“

“UNIBEAM!”

A massive blast of red energy collided with Tirek, who snarled as he raised his arms to block the blast. The full force of Iron Man’s unibeam drove the centaur back, but after a moment he threw his arms to the side and created a barrier of magic that deflected the attack upwards.

Iron Man didn’t waste a second. His shoulder panels opened and rained a hellfire of napalm missiles upon Tirek, who howled with pain and rage as the fire began to consume him. Tirek slammed his hands together and created a magical shockwave powerful enough to extinguish the flames.

“No pleasantries? Even after I helped you to meet the princesses?” Tirek asked with a laugh.

Iron Man didn’t respond. He rocketed around Tirek and began to pelt him from every direction with repulsor blasts, machine gun fire and hi frequency sound blasts. Tirek roared as he was bombarded from all direction, clutching his hands to his ears to try to block out the sound waves, leaving the rest of him open to attack.

Two blades made of adamantium extended from Iron Man’s wrist and he lunged for Tirek’s exposed throat, planning out mounting his head on the front of the Helicarrier. But right when he got close to Tirek, he saw the centaur smile.

A colossal blast of magic went off from Tirek, hurling Iron Man backwards and crashing him through several buildings. Iron Man snarled as he shook off the blast and looked back towards Tirek, only to see that the centaur was gone. He was just about to begin scanning for the villain before Tirek appeared behind him in a flash of light, slamming a fist into the back of Iron Man and driving him through the crystal streets.

“I knew that I would have to deal with you eventually. Your lack of magic does make you a unique foe to fight, but luckily for me I decided to wait a bit before confronting you,” Tirek said. Tony was starting to push himself back up before another fist drove itself into his body, driving him deeper into the ground.

“Your suit is tough, filled with all sorts of weapons that I’ve never seen before. But I have the magic of three alicorns. I have the magic of every criminal that was ever sent to Tartarus. You are nothing more than a minnow in a tin can compared to me.” Tirek then grabbed Iron Man and gripped him tight, slowly crushing the armor. “And like all cans, you pop open if enough force is applied. Now let’s here you scream!”

Tony gritted his teeth as his suit was slowly crushed, his hydraulics and servos screeching as they strained against the centaurs might. ‘Sir, suit integrity compromised. We have about ten seconds until he crushes you.’

“Activate the short range pulse!” Tony roared.

Jarvis complied and a moment later a burst of arc energy erupted from Iron Man, causing Tirek to roar as the energy burned his skin. While not enough to really damage the centaur, it was enough to get him to release his grip enough for Tony to fly out.

‘Sir, we are already at fifty percent power,’ Jarvis informed Tony. ‘I recommend we fall back until we come up with a better plan of attack.’

“I have a plan,” Tony snarled. “Attack.”

Tony let out a yell as he threw his arms down, unloading with everything he had in his arsenal. Missiles, mines, firebombs, plasma cannons, repulsor shots, vibranium tipped toxic darts: he held nothing back. There was enough firepower unleashed to sink a small island into the ocean.

And then Tirek unleashed a massive beam of magic that tore through all of his weapons and blasted Tony out of the sky.

Iron Man nearly lost consciousness as he crashed into the ground, barely able to focus on the screen in front of him. Or at least, the half of his screen that was left. Half of his helmet was missing, his armor was torn and ripped and both his arm pieces were gone, with his leg armor barely fairing any better.

‘Sir, we are on reserve power. Whatever he hit us with nearly wiped out our power supply. We have enough left for thrust. Please sir, allow me to get you out of here and-‘

“Channel all power into the arc reactor. Set it to overload,” Tony spat out.

‘Sir…please no, sir. If you do that-‘

“It will create a blast of arc energy so powerful that it could take out a city. It will kill me. And take Tirek down with me,” Tony replied. “Jarvis, aim the explosion upward as much as you can. Don’t let any of the ponies die. And thank you. For watching over me all these years.”

‘…yes sir. Voice confirmation, please.’

“Tony Stark. Code E.D.I.T.H. Second code, sorry Pepper. Arm arc rector.”

‘Yes sir. Arming the arc reactor.’

“What is the matter, Stark? Don’t tell me that is all the hero of Earth has to offer me?” Stark rolled over to see Tirek walking towards him, cracking his knuckles. “Because that was disappointing. I want a fight. I want a battle that will be told about in legends.”

“Jarvis, prepare to fire,” Tony whispered.

“But sadly, I was just given you. Perhaps when I am done drinking the magic from this land, I will visit your world. I wish to see if those heroes are any more of a challenge,” Tirek laughed, raising a fist towards Tony.

“Fire in three, two-“

A violet light slammed into Tirek, ripping him from his hooves and hurling him backwards across the crystal streets. Tirek slammed his fist into the ground to stay upright, his smile turning into a scowl when he raised his head to see who had attacked him.

The six of them stood in front of Tony, placing themselves between the wounded hero and the villain. All six mares radiated a power the likes of which could not be matched, creating a rainbow energy that bathed the area around them. Twilight turned to look back at Tony, a smile on her face.

“Twilight…what…”

“I told you Tony, you should have waited for me and my friends. Alone we’re strong. Together we’re unstoppable.” Twilight then turned back to Tirek, who roared at them. “Let’s make this quick.”

Rainbow was on Tirek in an instant, moving so fast it was like she was teleporting. She raced around Tirek, bombarding him from all sides with attacks that made lightning look like it was standing still. Then she went even faster, moving around so quickly she was tearing holes in space, driving Tirek further and further back.

“Damn you!” Tirek roared, slamming his hands together and creating a blast of magic that knocked Dash back. As Rainbow recovered in the air, Applejack was up next. With a whoop she drove herself at Tirek, who hurled a punch towards her with all of his magical might infused in it. Her hooves collided with his fist…and her power completely overwhelmed him. Tirek howled in pain as he staggered back, holding his broken fist.

Fluttershy flew around the outside of the battle, using her power to sense the souls of all who had been attacked by Tirek. She landed next to them and gently placed her hoof on them, restoring their life and magic instantly. Then she was gone, off to the next one.

Tirek turned and lunged towards Rarity, believing that she would be the weakest and easiest to crush. He was wrong. Rarity gave him a smirk as her creative mind calculated every attack Tirek would try. With an elegance that could not be matched she ducked, weaved and spiraled around all of Tirek’s attacks, making him look like a fool. She was completely in his head.

Tirek then heard the sound of a thousand voices and turned to see a tidal wave of Pinkie’s crashing down on top of him. He bellowed as the sea of Pinkie consumed him, blasting and swatting with all of his might. But even he crushed a Pinkie, she would pop back up unharmed. When he blasted one to ash, she would reform without any injury. Because poor Tirek didn’t know that our rules meant nothing to Pinkie. It was her plaything.

“Essentially I reject your reality and substitute my own,” Pinkie giggled.

Exactly. Thanks Pinkie.

“Enough. ENOUGH!” Tirek bellowed, teleporting away from the ponies towards the center of the Crystal Empire. “I don’t care how strong your Rainbow Power is! I am a god! I wield the power of the alicorns, of the greatest villains of the world! I will not fail again!”

Tirek then channeled all of his power into a single point, before, with an unholy roar, threw his arms to the side and unleashed all of his magical power in a single blast of magic. The blast was so powerful and so mighty that it would have destroyed the entire planet…and then a moment later the blast went back into him, his arms recrossed and the words he spoke returned to his mouth.

“Enough. ENOUGH!” Tirek bellowed, only to look down at his arms in confusion. “Wait what…what just happened?”

“That was quite the attack, Tirek. We would have been in trouble if that went off…good thing I can just rewind time to negate it,” Twilight said with a smirk. Tirek looked up in horror to see that Twilight and her friends were floating next to one another, the light created by them outshining the sun. “And it’s a good thing that this is over. Bye, Tirek.”

Then, with all six powers combined, the mane six unleashed their Rainbow Power into Tirek. In one last act of defiance, he fired all of his magic at them…only to be instantly overpowered and wiped out of existence in the next moment. The light show ended and Twilight looked down at where Tirek had been standing, where only nothing remained.

“You think he would learn by now. Come on girls, let’s fix his mess.”

The six ponies rocketed across the land, undoing all that Tirek had done. Leaving the ponies of the Crystal Empire to cheer their names, leaving Shining and Cadence to weep into one another shoulders as they held their daughter, knowing that they were all safe. And leaving one Tony Stark to stare at where they had been floating…with absolute horror in his eyes.

“Jarvis…did you…see that?”

‘Yes…yes I did.’

“And you…felt that?”

‘I did. Sir, our scanners were damaged in the fight with Tirek. It…it is possible that-‘

“There is no mistake. That…that…that means he was right.”

‘Sir?’

“Doom was right.”

“And with that, the last of Tirek’s evil has been undone,” Twilight said.

She and her friends were standing atop Canterlot, looking down upon the land of Equestria, whose residents had all been restored thanks to their combined powers. All of the ponies had their magic again, the buildings and cities that had been lost were restored and the Crystal Empire had finally stopped burning. It was a good day.

“Let’s hope it’s for good this time,” Rarity said, shaking out her mane and cancelling her Rainbow Power. “I hate having to fight brutes like that all the time. It is so unlady like.”

“Ha, bring em all on! Nothing like a good battle for the sake of ponykind to get the blood flowing,” Rainbow replied while taking some jabs at the air.

“I swear Dashie, sometimes you are such a brute.”

“I’m just glad we were able to save all of the lives that were lost to Tirek,” Fluttershy said with relief.

“Yeah, who knew blasting that dang centaur to ash would return all of the magic that he had stolen?” Applejack asked. “We should have done that the last time we fought him, avoid this whole mess and maybe keep our friends safe.”

“Speaking of friends, have any of you seen Tony?” Pinkie asked, looking around. “I mean, here we are celebrating our victory and yet he’s nowhere to be seen! We wouldn’t have arrived in time to stop Tirek if Tony hadn’t fended him off! He should be here with us.”

“Tony…something is wrong with him,” Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “Ever since Tirek he’s been off. He locked himself in my basement so he can repair his suit and when I teleported down there to talk to him, he gave me a look. Not cold, but…uncertain. Like he’s trying to figure something out but he doesn’t know what. But whatever happened with Tirek has shaken him.

“I’m not surprised. He was almost killed by Tirek. Even for a hero like him that has to be traumatizing,” Fluttershy said.

“Not to mention his suit, which he takes so much pride in was ripped apart like it was nothing. I now if I made an outfit like that and some manic ruined it, I’d be devastated,” Rarity agreed.

“Yer devastated if somepony says yer suits look alright.”

“How could you say that about my outfits?!”

“Pinkie’s right. Tony raced off ahead to face Tirek all on his own to protect us. Yeah, he pulled something the old me would of done, but he was trying to save us all the same,” Rainbow said. “He should be here with us celebrating.”

“Alright eveyrpony, give me a moment and I’ll-“

Twilight never finished her sentence. A flash of light went off, with Celestia and Luna appearing within it a moment later. “Ah, you are already gathered,” Celestia said. “That makes this easier.”

“Easier for what, Princess?” Twilight asked.

“Tony. He’s at our great-grandfather’s castle. And he…he seems mad,” Luna said. “He’s tearing apart the place, muttering to Jarvis about something and he won’t talk to any of us. Since you are his friends, we were hoping that you could talk to him. Maybe snap him out of this.”

“Of course, princesses. Let’s go.”

Celestia’s horn glowed once more and a moment later the eight ponies were at the castle. Twilight looked up with wonder at the ancient structure, about to ask if they could take a moment to study it. But Celestia shook her head and motioned for the others to follow her inside.

“There’s not much here, is there?” Pinkie asked as they walked through abandoned halls.

“Nearly everything of importance was moved out centuries ago, when our family left this castle for the one in Canterlot,” Luna explained. “The only reason the library was kept here was because the books could not be moved with magic and burst into flames if removed from the room. My sister and I are also the only ones that can take the books from their shelves. Apparently a kind of security feature our great-grandfather made to make sure nopony aside from family could read the books.”

“There must be a lot of important information if there are so many security features,” Fluttershy said.

“It is the history of Equestria,” Celestia said. “The history of our world and our timeline. But…there is not much information regarding before Gaea began to write down our history. The time before him…we have almost nothing.”

“Odd. Why would King Gaea not keep more detailed records?” Twilight asked.

“He was…ashamed of something in his past. What little he wrote about himself made that clear,” Luna said. “What he never said but it was there. We could read it in his notes and his words.”

“Do you have any idea what it might be?” Pinkie asked.

“All we know is that he said in his youth he acted out of vengeance and it would haunt him for the rest of his life,” Celestia said. “Alright, this is the library. Remember, my sister and I are his family, so only we can remove the books without them going up in flames. So no touching anything.”

“Why are you looking at me?”

“You know why, Dash.”

Celestia opened the door and led the group inside. The library was a two story paradise of books, scrolls, maps, letters and all other sources of paper and information that had been gathered over the millennia. Each piece was labeled and sorted with peak efficiency, with nothing out of place. None of the books even hung out of their shelves a bit. Everything was categorized so well that if Twilight had been looking at the books, she might have thought she had gone to heaven. But she wasn’t looking at the books.

She, like everypony else, was looking at the hole in the floor with a staircase that headed downwards.

“I take it that wasn’t there the last time you were here?” Twilight asked.

“Everypony behind me,” Celestia said as she took the lead. “Incredible. This staircase was hidden from all magic and senses. How could anypony find it?”

“Because they used technology.” The group all turned back to look at Pinkie, who was pointing at a boot print on the ground. A boot print that matched the size of only a single person…as their was only one person in Equstria.

“Tony found it? Figures. Let us see what he discovered.”

“I am kind of nervous, sister. If King Gaea had hidden this room, he must have done so for a good reason. What do you think it is?”

“We will find out soon.”

The group headed down the simple stairs, each of them wondering what they would find on the other side. The princesses thought of knowledge of the past. Some of the ponies thought of wealth. One hoped it was a new friend. Another hoped there was nothing at all. But all of them knew there was something down here. The staircase opened into a decent sized room, made with a stone the likes of which none of the princesses had ever seen. But, much like the library, nopony was looking at the room. The were looking at what immediately caught their eyes.

In the middle of the room sat a single table, with a single book in the center of it. A circle of magic surrounded it, preventing any from taking it. But it wasn’t the book that drew the attention of the ponies. It was everything else.

There was a map on one of the walls, a map of a world that was unfamiliar to the princesses, with cities and continents that didn’t match anything that had ever been known.

There was a glass case, with shattered shards of something metal inside of them. Iron Man was kneeling in front of this case, one hand placed up against the glass while his head was hung in grief and shame.

But none of the ponies went to comfort him or to see what was wrong. None of the ponies moved from the moment they had stepped into the room. For all at once their gaze had all been drawn by the mural that took up the entire back wall. For on that mural was an image that created an infinite number of questions while chilling the ponies to their core.

The mural was of a battle. Or rather, the end of a battle. On the right side was an alicorn of gray color with a fiery red mane and a look of absolute fury and hatred on his face. Around him floated the six Elements of Harmony, but in a shape that was unfamiliar to the ponies. They looked more like spheres or eggs. The pony looked like he was descending from above, with a beam of light shining behind him, creating the image of divinity. They all knew who it was. King Gaea, when he was very young.

But this paled in comparison to what was on the other side. The other side depicted burning cities in the background, with skeletons of humans scattered across the ground. Numerous children, some looking normal while others had mutations and powers cowered behind a single figure. A single figure who was standing against Gaea and all of his power, with a look on the humans face as if he knew this was his end, but would go down fighting regardless.

The man had white gray hair and was clearly very old. He wore a red suit with some purple armor and had a purple cape hanging behind him. In one hand he held a shield that was colored red, white and blue. In his other hand was a hammer, one that had lightning coming out of it and, even though it was only a painting, radiated a power that made the ponies shiver. And he stood alone, alone against a power the ponies knew all too well.

At the bottom of the mural, on a plate, was a single sentence.

‘The Last Stand of Humanity.’

“W-what is this?” Luna eventually managed to stammer out, looking around the room with disbelief. “What is all of this doing here? Why is there that image? And what…what is in that case? Tony, what have you found?”

Tony didn’t say anything. He simply mourned.

“Okay, let’s…let’s try to figure this out,” Celestia said, taking a breath to calm her nerves. “What we are looking at is…is a secret room that belonged to Gaea. And in here he has a book, some metal and a mural depicting him fighting humanity. If the title is anything to go by, this is…this is when he wipes out humanity.”

“But that can’t be,” Twilight interupted. “Because it looks like he’s using the Elements of Harmony to wipe out humanity! But the Elements can’t do that! They can only be used against evil or rage, and even then they don’t kill them. In the worst case all they do is turn them to stone! And it can’t be our Rainbow Power, because once again that magic only works on-“

“Not magic.”

All eyes in the room turned towards Tony, who was slowly getting up to his feet. He gazed for a moment at the glass case before he turned towards the ponies, his faceplate hiding his emotions. “Your Rainbow Power isn’t magic. Not the same kind as the Elements or the magic unicorns use. It’s so ungodly powerful and unstoppable that I’m not surprised you’d think it was magic. But it’s not, just like those six colors up there aren’t the Elements. Those are the source of your Rainbow Power. Those are what allowed the greatest heroes and villains of the universe to be defeated. Those are the most destructive and powerful sources in all the universe. Twilight, you and your friends power source is the very same thing that Gaea used to wipe out my species.”

“The Infinity Stones.”

“The Infinity Stones?” Twilight asked, not liking the way Tony was acting. “What are those?”

“What are those? Oh not much. Just the six most powerful, most destructive, most do whatever the fuck you want with reality stones to have been created,” Tony chuckled, but there was no joy in his laugh. “Created at the same time as the universe, with all of its powers housed within. Power, Soul, Time, Reality, Space and Mind.”

“And you’re say that those…stones, as responsible for our powers?” Rarity dared to ask. A moment later she wished she hadn’t when Tony snapped his head to look at her.

“Of course. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“How easy it all is?” Tony asked. When he was answered with confusion, he chuckled. “How easy everything becomes when you’re in your rainbow mode. Impossible foes turned to dust with ease. Thousands dead or dying brought back with a wave of your wings. Haven’t you noticed it? How you could stomp a hoof and the sky would fall apart? You could blink an eye and an entire species would fade away? How could you just-SNAP-your fingers…and all your problems would disappear? You see?”

"But...we don't have fingers," Pinkie said, looking at her hooves.

"Always the jokes. Always making light. Even in the face of genocide."

Twilight and her friends began to narrow their eyes, not liking how Tony was acting. His speech was soft and his movements were janky, as if it was taking all of his restraint to keep himself still.

“Tony, you’re grieving. You just found out that…our grandfather did indeed have a hoof in wiping out your species,” Celestia calmly said. “Do not do anything rash in a moment of grief.”

“Grief? Oh no no no, I’m well past grief. I went past grief, past anger and went straight into reckless fury,” Tony replied, glaring at Twilight and her friends. “And if it wasn’t the fact that I’m currently staring down the six wielders of the Infinity Stones, we would not be having this conversation. I would have attacked long ago. But as I know…I know…full well what those stones can do, my survival instinct kept me here. For the moment.”

“Tony, we didn’t have anything-“

“Open the book,” Tony cut Luna off. “Open it and read it. I can’t, they can’t, but you two can. Everything in here is your legacy. The books. The remnants of his shield…the genocide. Go on. Read it.”

Luna and Celestia shared a look before Celestia walked over to the book, picking it up without any issue. For a moment she felt magic pass over her, identical to the magic that every book gave off, but it passed a moment later. She was blood. She was worthy.

“There…there are a lot of pages in here,” Celestia said as Tony sat, Luna creating cushions for the ponies. “We could be here for days.”

“Well go ahead and get started,” Tony said before motioning to the mural. “All my friends are dead and I’ve got nothing but time now.”

Celestia nodded and opened the book to the very first page, afraid of what she would find within. She cleared her throat and began to read.

===------======

Hello.

If you are reading this, then you must be one of my descendants or a being whose power surpasses the stones. If you have made it this far, you know what those are. But if you are my descendant and you have found this room, then you have learned of our worlds secret. And of my shame. I am King Gaea, the first king of Equestria…and the being responsible for creating Equis, along with nearly everypony in it. Everypony…heh, what a language they made up. If this seems a bit strange, I am dictating to a quill and it writes down all I say. If there is anything strange, that is the reason. Focus fool.

I write this in the twilight of my years, after millennia of ruling and living in Equestria. As my own life nears its end, I find myself looking back over the years to see my joys…and my failures. The things that I have done…and what I wish I could do over. You have seen the mural. You have seen me at my darkest. I do not ask for forgiveness. All I ask is that you hear my story from the beginning. I have compiled all the notes I have ever taken in my life in this one book. It has as many pages as I needed. If there was one part of the Hydra programming that stayed in me, it was taking good notes. I have a feeling one being in your room will know that name.

Tony snarled in the corner.

But right. The beginning.

I had no name when I was created. My first memory was of being in a test tube, surrounded by men in strange masks with a symbol on their suits. A symbol of a skull with tendrils coming out of it. Hydra, as I later learned. I did not take many notes or entries during this time, so I must talk about them as I am now, not when I first experienced them. I am sorry.

Right. The story.

I am not a natural pony. I was created by Hydra, infused with a number of psionic abilities one might call magic. Telekinesis, telepathy and a bit of pyrokinesis. In order, I need to go in order. Hydra created me to a new line of pets, a pony with fun abilities. Once taken home, my true objective would kick in and I would use my abilities to learn and control. Credit cards, secrets, files and locations. Control the kids to control the parents. Hostages for money, if necessary. I was not created to end the world. I was just another scheme to fuel Hydra.

I had no voice. I could whinny and that was it. When they first let me out, I could barely move. The electrocuted me a lot when I failed. I remember the pain well. But thanks to my abilities, I learned very quick. While some of their members had their minds shielded, some did not. They would come by for only a little while, but it was enough. From their minds I began to learn language. From there I learned of their goals, their plans…and their morality. All of them were evil. Their thoughts…terrified me. This was my first introduction to humanity.

I was smart when I first started. I did what I was told. I acted like a horse. And I learned. I learned so much. Passcodes, names, schedules…and as I learned, I became smarter. I began to evolve. But it wouldn’t be until a few months later that I would truly change.

Hydra made another pony, a female this time. They actually gave her a name. Twinkle Shine. Their thoughts told me that little girls would eat it up, make it easier to get her inside their homes. She could create light, fireworks…all sorts of fun distraction. They kept her in a tube next to mine. At first, she was like me, blank. But over time, she grew a personality. One that I quickly fell in love with. She had a golden mane, fierce, fiery blue eyes…her pink coat…focus, focus.

I used my powers to contact her. For hours, in our minds, we would speak. I brought her up to speed about where we were, who these people were-are and told her everything I learned. A year went by in this bliss. We even were allowed to spend time together, without supervision. I notice that Hydra had a habit of doing stupid things like that. We even found out it was possible for us to procreate. I was to be a father soon.

I was fine with our captivity. I had food, a home, a mare I loved and soon, a foal. But she was different. She had…fire. And she hated where we were. I do not know why she had such a strong desire to be free, but she knew we had to get out. We could not be their slaves any longer. And I agreed. Not because I cared, but because I simply wanted to be with her. And she wished to be with me. But we had to wait for our chance.

It came a month later. Hydra recovered something that would turn the whole world on its head. A stone. An infinity stone. The stone of power. And it was in the same place we were being held. This was our chance. And we took it.

Thanks to me masking my real abilities, we quickly broke free and made our way to the stone. I had long since surpassed the mental protection these people had, but as I had hidden it they had never thought to upgrade their tech. It worked in our favor as I quickly took control of the minds of those in our lab. We had them free us and take us to the next group, where I controlled their minds. We went on like that until we reached the stone. Twinkle took it. And sealed our fates.

We were confronted by another being. One I couldn’t control. He was a giant floating head in a chair with weird energy attacks. I never learned his name. Shine used the stone to disintegrate him before I could. At first I was horrified by her actions, but our actions alerted the base. All the humans in it were coming towards us. And they all wanted us dead. Twinkle told me we would have to fight our way out. And we did.

It was amazing how quickly she learned to use the stone. With its power she blasted through the base. Men, giant mechs, green monster clones: all were nothing compared to its power. We fought our way to the top floor, blasting through and making it to the street. And there it all went wrong.

Out in the open, we were naturally the center of attention. With all of the Hydra gear we had strapped to us, it was no surprise what came next. In the middle of the night, during a downpour, we were confronted by police, who started shooting at us. Shine erased them all with the stone. I felt nothing. At this point, I had assumed all who shot at us were bad.

Our actions brought the attention of a few costumed people, who I see now were heroes. One was dressed like a devil. Another had a yellow shirt and chains on his body. The last was made of fire. All attacked. All died within seconds to the stone. At this point I was starting to think all of humanity was against us.

Shine told me that we had to run. It wouldn’t be long before we attached more attention. She told me she would lead the way…and then a gun cracked and my love lay dead at my hooves. I can…still see her now. Her mane still golden. Her coat a beautiful pink. But the fire in her eyes…it was gone. She was gone. As was my foal. I…can’t talk about them anymore. I must continue.

With agony in my heart, I looked up to see who had done this. A man approached. He wore all black, save for the white skull on his chest. He held a gun in his hands, the gun used to slay my love. And his eyes. God, I will never forget those eyes. They snapped me from my trance and I grabbed the stone, realizing it was my only chance. He shot at me, but the stone saved me, for the moment I grabbed it, it fueled me. I learned sometime later that simply holding the stone increased my own abilities, so when I grabbed it my telekinesis became strong enough to stop anything. But it also had the effect of increasing my telepathy. I looked once more into the man’s eyes…and I saw everything.

The horror. The sickening horror. Not just at what had been done to him, to his family, but what he had done to others, to other people, in his pursuit of revenge. To this day, thousands of years later, I still hear the screams in my nightmares. In that moment, I saw my first glimpse of the worst of humanity. It would be far from my last.

His eyes widened as he saw the stone. His last act. I erased him a moment later. I wanted to grieve my love, but I needed to move. She would want me to live. I fled down below into the sewers, as she had instructed. I thought I would be safe. I was wrong.

The stone increased my powers, to the point that I couldn’t control them. I could hear the thoughts of anyone nearby. I would rip chunks out of the wall at random. But that wasn’t anything close to the worst. In my second day of being in the sewers, I faced something terrible. This time I learned its name. Carnage. I met Carnage.

He tried to sneak up on my, but my powers detected him. I tried to mentally reason with him, but I quickly learned that he was not a being to be reasoned with. He was something to be exterminated. The things he had done made the man with the white skull look like a saint…no, made him look sick, but not a saint. He did it in a sick desire for vengeance. Carnage…did it for fun. He tortured and slaughtered…for fun.

That was the first time I remember getting mad. When I erased Carnage, I vaguely remember erasing most of the city with him. I learned then the terror of using a stone while angry. It would be a few years before I would be smart enough to restrain myself.

I remained hidden for a few more days, using my powers to mask the stone. I figured it could be traced, powerful as it was. But as I hid, my powers continued to grow. Soon, it wasn’t only nearby minds I could read…but minds all over the planet. And as I traveled, I started to scan these minds, to learn…to see what the rest of humanity was like.

And I was appalled.

I will spare you the details. Even I hesitate to recall them. But there were so many, many voices. Anger and hate. Bigotry and violence. But it was the cries for help I heard the most. Those starving. Those being slaughtered. Those being hunted for their powers. I heard it all. And I couldn’t shut it out.

I ran for a few weeks, but eventually I learned I could teleport. That was then the only way I traveled. Teleporting from place to place, places I hoped would be abandoned. Most of them were. Some were not. In one I found a giant, green monster, also seeking to be alone. Aside from a nod, we went our separate ways. For a year, I survived this way, keeping the stone with me. Hope to just…live.

Hydra eventually found me. They tried to bait me with a clone of my love, of my Twinkle Shine. But I knew instantly. Not only could I see that it was not her mind in there, but I read their minds to learn their motives.

I remember my mind going blank. When I came to, the clone and all of Hydra were gone. Dead. Hundreds of lives. And I felt nothing. Nothing for the lives I had taken. I was…numb…at this point. I just wanted to live. I just wanted to be alone. But they wouldn’t let me.

S.H.I.E.L.D. were the next to find me. They attacked with their choppers, their soldiers, their monsters…I cut them all down. I blasted the Helicarrier from the sky and burned all of their best. One of them, an archer, managed to nick me in the shoulder. I dropped the Helicarrier on him to retaliate. But one of them, a robot of a man named Fury, told me that they would never stop hunting me. They would hunt me till the end of time. And I knew he was right.

I came across a fight in another city a few days later. A group of people were shooting, beating and killing a small group of teens. Teens who had strange bodies, while others had fire hands or fins. Mutants. They were begging for mercy, but received none. Only more violence. I had just began to lift my stone when it turned. A beast with claws and a wild attitude appeared, slaughtering the regular people like the animals they…sorry…slaughtering them without mercy. For a moment I thought he had come to save them, this Sabertooth. And then, once he was done with the people, he started to kill the mutants too.

I erased the whole city from the face of the planet.

My journey’s continued and my wrath grew. Wherever I went, I saw the same things. Hatred, fear, violence. All of it angered me. And wherever I saw it, I wiped it out. Looking back, I believe that looking into that man’s mind, the one with the skull, he left something in me. His mind taught me violence. His mind taught me vengeance. And he stayed with me for a long time. But I was also the one to blame. I sought out the anger and the hate. I sought out those who would fuel my rage. There was so much…good in humanity. I had chose to ignore it.

The Hulk was the first of Earth’s heroes to try to stop me.

After wiping out a city, he confronted me. He roared in his limited language about what I had done. About the people I had hurt. I was a bit surprised. He had been hunted and hurt like I did, but he still fought to protect them. No matter what they did to him, he was still a hero. Heh, all these years later I see that he truly was stronger than me.

I tried to wipe him out, but he had experience dealing with the stones. His strength was incredible and his healing factor was amazing, but it wasn’t enough. I knew all of his thoughts. I could teleport if he got close. And with the stone, even the strongest there is was overpowered by me. But from him I learned of something that would change everything. I learned of what would lead to the downfall of humanity.

In Hulk’s mind I learned that there wasn’t just one stone, but six. And when brought together, they could rewrite all of the world. I tried to force the location of the others from his mind, but he never gave in. He was strong until the end.

But when I erased him from reality, I had an idea of where to go. And what my purpose was now. Hulk had shown it to me. He fought to protect the world, having saved it plenty of times from his memories, and they hunted him. They hated him. They tried to kill him. Just like they had me. Just as they had my love. They would never stop hunting me. Never stop going after me just for existing. They wanted to end me…so I would end them first. God…I was such a fool.

Hulk had thought of a man named Reed. He was my next target. His family went down quick, but I kept him long enough to tear into his mind. He was mentally strong enough to resist me at first, but with the stone he caved. That was when I learned the location of the Reality Stone. On Earth.

It took me a few minutes to get it. It was hidden in the depths of Latveria. Which was easy to get into, with Doom having died a few weeks before. And with the Reality stone, the rest were child’s play to get. Using the Power stone together with the Reality stone, I tore open holes in reality to the location of each stone. I’m amazed other villains hadn’t tried this. Villain. I just called myself a villain. I suppose I am.

Soon I had all six stones. And then it was time. Time to wage war on the world that had created me, taken from me, and hunted me. And waged war I did. With the full power of the six stones, I was unstoppable. If I had wanted to, I could have wiped them out with a clap of my hooves. But I chose to fight them. I chose to make them despair. I am a villain.

All the while I wiped them from the world, I kept my telepathy open. I heard their last thoughts as they perished, wondering how they would act and think in their final moments. Nearly all of them died only trying to save themselves. Only a few in costumes died trying to save others. The war didn’t last long. A few days. Doctor Strange came close to beating me. Even with the power of infinity, that man had a grasp on magic that no pony has ever come close to, to the point that he fought me to a near draw. But he fell trying to save others. Like most the other heroes.

I remember when I finally did it. When I finally finished off humanity. The scene haunts my nightmares. There was only a handful left. Eight children and Magneto. Wielding Steve’s shield and Thor’s hammer. I still remember their names. They had been some of the only truly noble humans at their core.

I remember Magneto confusing me. All of his life, he had tried to wipe out humanity to save mutant kind, similar to what I was doing to save myself. Yet here he was, the last man standing. The last being who could stand up to me. And he was protecting three mutants…and five regular humans. The very beings he hated. And he was defending them.

I asked him why he would do this. He asked me why I would do what I do in reply. I told him that humanity had taken everything from me, had hunted and tried to kill me, all for existing. They had to die so I could live. He chuckled and said that he felt the same. I asked they why he stood against me. He replied because he saw himself in me…and it showed him how far he had fallen. He then raised Thor’s hammer, saying that there was only one chance at him to set right his wrongs. To stop me. And then he would rebuild the world, this time building one where humans and mutants would coexist. A world without hate.

He fought well. He was crafty. And he put everything he had into beating me. I defeated him in minutes. But there was something that he had said to me. About creating a world of coexistence. A world where this hatred, evil and pain didn’t exist. A world that I could create. A world my Twinkle Shine would have loved to live in. So I focused on this world in my mind, clapped my hooves…and Equis was born.

Celestia stood in the corner, staring at the stone. She couldn’t read anymore. The Ambassadors of Harmony were each taking what they had heard in different ways. Twilight constantly shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. Fluttershy had her face buried in her hooves, trying to block out the words. Pinkie’s mane had long since deflated and she stared at the ground. Rainbow and AJ both had grim looks on their faces. And Rarity lay passed out on the ground.

Tony hadn’t moved at all.

“Keep going,” was all he said.

Seeing that her sister could no longer continue, Luna walked up to the book, taking a moment to brace herself before she picked up the ancient text and continued Gaea’s tale.

======--------======

Equis was the world Twinkle had always spoken of.

Full of magic, wonder, a hint of danger and filled with color. I remember for a moment, being happy with what I had created. But this is the part of the story where I began taking more detailed notes. Once I am done speaking about the creation of Equis and my first couple of months there, I will start to put in the notes and entries I had made that day. Be…fair with my past self. He was an angry fool. Perhaps I am no better.

The very first thing I did after creating Equis was to bring my love back. With another clap of my hooves, Twinkle was back. Her smile, her man, her eyes…it was wrong. She was a perfectly replica, with all of her memories. But it wasn’t her. I could tell. With the stones powers, I could see that. The real Twinkle Shine, the one I had fallen in love with, was still dead. And even the stones couldn’t bring her soul back.

I erased the copy before giving it sentience. It didn’t deserve a fate like the one I would give it. But then I had an idea. With another clap of my hooves, I brought back the man in black with the skull on his chest. I made sure that he couldn’t do anything before I sensed him. And my pain grew.

It was the same being. Identical in every way. Even his soul was there. I blasted him to ash, making sure it was painful. But I learned something that day. Those slain by the stones can be brought back by the stones. But those who die by other causes…cannot be brought back. Only recreated. Identical in nearly every way…but to those who wield the stones, the copy is easy to see.

Which posed an interesting question to me. If I were to create a race identical to me, as was my plan, would they be alive? Or would they just be copies made by the stones? Only one way to find out. I clapped my hooves once more.

They appeared before me. Two foals. One a male, one a female. Both perfect versions of what I considered my species to be. And they lacked the problem my love had. They both were…alive. A son and daughter to call my own. Both a potential for the foal I had lost. And while I could not replace my love…I could still have my family.

This may be my most grievous sin. I played God in the worst way. I didn’t stop with them. They would need a world to grow up in. Beings to interact with. Creatures from myth, things I had learned…all of it would be for them. With a clap of my hooves I created new continents and oceans. With a wave I populated the world with all sorts of creatures, whatever I could think of.

Dragons, monsters, changelings…anything I could think of, I made it. Yaks in the north. Seahorses in the ocean. I didn’t just stop with them. I created societies for them, gave them memories and back stories. Lives that they had never lived. Stories that weren’t theirs. I didn’t care about any of them. Only my foals. This whole world was for them.

They would also need others of their kind. So I created ponies. I created the land that would one day be Equestria. And I made sure it was the most dominate nation on the planet. The strongest military. Magic that could not be matched. Unicorns that could not be overcome. Pegasi that controlled the weather. Earth ponies that could work the land in a way other creatures could not. It was my foal’s world. I built it all for them.

I established myself as the king of the world. I made towns, cities, castles and kingdoms. I set the world up perfectly. And then, with one last clap of my hooves, my world began to turn. Cities ran as if they had for years. Ponies working the fields talked about the harvest and seasons as if they had been there. I have a chancellor who spoke to me as if we had worked together all our lives. It was perfect.

A perfect world for my little Twinkle Star and Erik Steelheart.

But even with all of this, I remember the last words of Magneto. How he wished to create a world without hate. A world where everyone could live in peace. He died defending his enemies for that peace. A statement that I agreed with. The only human I respected. So, I swore I would maintain the peace. I would make sure my world did not become one of hatred and rage that humanity had been. It would be better. And with the power of infinity in my hooves, I could make it be so.

From here on out, most of the pages you read will be from me written in the past. The next one deals with where I…began to change. I will see you once more at the end of this tale. All I will say is that it takes place ten years after I created the world. When my world turns against me for the first time. I had spent those ten years wiping out any threat to my world, be it aliens, Asgardians or even the species I had created, while teaching my ponies how important it was to be kind and loving. The biggest hypocrite of them all.

====------=====

Entry 1034

She defied me. She stood against me. For the first time in our lives, my little mare stood up to me today.

I was meeting with my advisors when I had sensed a disturbance. Someone, gah, pony, was messing with my daughter. I was there in an instant, ready to bring down the full force of infinity onto them. Twinkle Star was in a forest, surrounded by Tmberwolves, and in front of a wounded kirin about her age.

I clapped my hooves. The wolves were no more.

I landed in front of my daughter. She had a black eye and some bruises. A quick look into her mind revealed what had happened to her. During a walk through the forest, this kirin, this…ungrateful creature had attacked her. I was going to make sure that it never bothered her again. But as I looked towards it, my daughter did the unthinkable. She placed herself between us.

She screamed at me not to hurt him. That he was starving and desperate, as well as wounded. I told her that he had tried to kill her. She screamed that he didn’t need to be killed, he needed help. He needed her help. That was why she had come out. I was about to push past her, when she said something that shook me to the core.

“Where is the love and friendship that you’re always telling us about? Were you just lying to us?!”

Those words. That single sentence shook me to my core. I stopped and looked towards her. She was looking at me not as my daughter…but like I was a threat. And I was. If I wasn’t, she wouldn’t have needed to stand up to me.

I looked down at the kirin and this time chose to look at him, not at what he had done. And it was as my daughter had said. He was desperate. His family was dying and he needed food and medicine. He needed help. I had missed it. I had all the power of infinity, and yet I had missed this desperate creature’s need for help.

But she hadn’t. My daughter hadn’t. She had seen past the hurt and the pain. She saw the good beneath. And she had chosen to help him.

I told her she was right. I opened a vortex to our castle, the hospital wing. She picked up the kirin and took him to it, flashing a smile back and me and thanking me for being the kind father she knew I was. That tore my heart out.

I created a mirror and looked into it, at myself, for the first time in what felt like…forever.

My eyes were dark. My mane was slicked back underneath my warhelmet. My armor was black…all aside from a white skull on my chest. I looked…just like the human who claimed my love. How long had I dressed like this? And how many…how many loves had I claimed just like him.

I…I saw myself for the first time today. What I had become. What I had allowed myself to be influenced by. I had promised to create a world without hatred, a world better than humanity where all the species lived in harmony. And I thought I had. I thought I had gotten rid of hatred and violence. But how could it…when I exist in this world?

When all of the hatred and pain…was being caused by me.

My daughter was right. I am a liar. To the world…and to myself.

-----======-----

Entry 1564

My son made me so proud today.

A confrontation downtown took place, between a unicorn who believed that a pony had stolen from him, against a pegasi who said that he hadn’t done anything. The unicorn hadn’t believed him and used magic against the pegasi. A punishable offense under my law.

My son had been the one to respond. He saw what happened, but instead of dealing out my justice, he dealt out his own. What had been stolen was medicine that the unicorn was taking to his foal. The pegasi hadn’t stolen it. But rather, another thief had and framed the pegasi.

Erik stayed patient and calm. He bought another vial of medicine for the unicorn while helping show him why what he had done was wrong. The unicorn, after explaining why he needed the medicine, apologized to the pegasi and swore he would make it up to him. And the pegasi had laughed it off, saying that if he had been in a similar boat, he would have likely reacted the same way. By the end of the day, my son told me they had become friends.

He will be a far better king than me. I think on how I would have reacted. Most likely with scorn and distrust. I can read minds and I know I would have just punished both. But my foals…my prince and princess…they are so much better than me. They use kindness and trust. And in turn, the nation loves them far more than they ever will me.

They see the best in others. I can only see the worst. I always have.

====------=====
Entry 1656

Aquarius, the kirin Twinkle Star saved all those years ago, became my son in law today. It was a beautiful ceremony. My…my little girl looked so beautiful. For a moment…she looked just like Shine had. The same fierce fire in her eyes…for a moment I thought I saw the soul of my love living on through my daughter. Perhaps I was.

Aquarius walked over to me as my daughter was being thanked by our extended family and friends. He…thanked me. Thanked me for letting him marry my daughter. For keeping the nations at peace all these years. And for…saving him, when he was young and suffering.

My heart is in shreds. He should have thanked my daughter. She saved him. I would have erased him without a second thought. But she saved him. And now she’s happier than I have ever seen her. Had I done things my way, I would have never seen my daughter so happy. So…loved.

I have the stones laying on the table next to me, feeling their power. I have not been just. I have not been kind. I have been this way long before Equis was ever created. I…I do not deserve to wield these stones.

------======-----
Entry /666

I watched Equis burn for the first time today. I lay in the hospital as I write this, barely able to move. The burns…the pain…it is so much. I cannot remember the last time I felt pain. Or terror. A terror that goes down to my very core. I thought I had dealt with all the remnants of humanity. I was wrong.

The eastern seaboard exploded into flames. I could hear the screams of my ponies without the use of the stones. I was awoken from my slumber, along with the rest of my family. I told them to stay at the castle before using the stones to teleport to the coast. I was not ready for what I found.

Amidst the burning cities, with the ponies trapped within screaming out in pain, sat…a being. A being in a black leather jacket with leather pants. Chains were wrapped around his arms and he sat on a motorcycle that burned with…fire. But his head is where my eyes were drawn. He had no face…or skin. Just a skull. A skull that blazed with all the fury and might of hell.

He said he was the Ghost Rider. And that I had an uncountable number of sins to answer for.

I…never, in my twenty five years of having the stones, have I ever been pushed so far or forced to fight with all the stones might. I blasted him apart with power. He reformed with a laugh. I hurled him through space. His motorcycle brought him back moments later. I tried to rewind him through time. He said he came from before time was even an idea.

And his power. His flames went through my defenses. My stones…couldn’t protect me from his wrath. His flames burned my very soul. His chains ripped my skin from my bones. And I didn’t dare look him in the eyes. If I did…I knew it would be my end.

Even…even all of the stones together couldn’t stop him. I stomped my hooves and erased him from existence, like I had everything else that had tried to face me. And for a moment I thought I had beaten him. And then he came back. A tornado of fire. The roar of an engine. And the laugh of a being that said I had not yet paid my dues.

My sins had finally caught up with me, he said. And he was do nine billion souls worth of vengeance upon me. I knew I was dead. He grabbed me by the throat and forced me to look into his eyes. And in there I saw the life of every soul I had ruined. The families I had torn apart and the suffering I had caused. It should have killed me. I wish it had. Living with this guilt…

My daughter and son saved me once more. They threw themselves at the Ghost Rider, piercing through his flames and his gaze, freeing me from his grasp. The Rider’s flames didn’t touch them and they never flinched at his gaze. Because they did not have the sins I had. Because they had heeded my words even when I hadn’t. They lived love and kindness. For me…it was lip service.

I got him in that moment. That moment when he tried to judge them, but found them practically sinless. I used the stones not to kill him, but to rip his soul from his body. It worked. All of the stones together created an urn, one which I trapped his very soul in. I sealed it with every stone, spell and trick I knew of. And it was over. We were safe.

My children had saved me…from my sins. From what I had deserved.

====-----=====
Entry 1700

I cannot wield the stones. Not anymore.

I see that now. I see now that it was a mistake for me to ever get them in the first place. I am old now, much older than when I first took up these stones. My son and daughter rule the land now, with Erik’s wife and Star’s husband aiding them. And their children…how their children love me. Love to hear my stories and what I’ve done. If they heard what I had really done, they would hate me. I would deserve it.

But after having my own children…and now grandfoals…and seeing this world of mine grow and grow, being apart of all of the lives within it…I see now what a monster I was. That I am. I had known it for a while. The Rider had been the final straw.

The ponies that I feared losing during the Rider attack…to humanity, I was the Rider. The heroes of humanity had tried to stop me to save their families, just as I had fought to stop the Rider. All that pain the Rider had inflicted on me…that was what I had done.

I cannot make amends. I cannot bring back humanity. If I brought them back, they would seek vengeance upon the world. My world of ponies. Ponies who have done nothing wrong. I cannot let them suffer for my mistakes.

But maybe…I can make up for it.

===----===
Entry 1727

I am working with a young unicorn named Starswirl. Together we are using the stones to forge something new. Something that will protect the world for eons after I am gone. He calls them the Elements of Harmony. He believes that they are the physical embodiments of the lessons that I have taught the world. But there is another secret within. Within each of these six Elements is a fraction of the stones power. As well as a test. A test for whoever wields the Element.

It is something I never told him or any of his chosen friends about. If the six ponies, or whoever wields them, should prove worthy of the Element, if they are able to wield it without evil or malice, without the desire to conquer or destroy, then they will be found worthy of the true stone hidden within the Element. It will become a part of them. And when those six noble souls are together…then they shall be an unstoppable force of good.

I pray this plan works.

===--===
Entry 1730

Starswirl created a being called Discord with some of the power of the Reality Stone or whatever it’s companion among the Element’s of Harmony is called. After being brought to life, the creature tried to turn the seas to cheese and make the sky rain soda. I trapped him in stone.

I believe I need to put some safety features in these Elements.

-----======-----
Entry 1734

Tonight is the last night. The last night before I pass on the stones. Before I trust the fate of the world to the hooves of others. To those who are better. The last night I wield the power of infinity.

It’s…scary, I must admit. For so long, for hundreds of years, I’ve been so used to being untouchable, being a god. And now I will simply be an old alicorn. I will not be able to clap my hooves and erase any threat. I will not be able to shape the stars to my choosing. I will not be able to harm anypony else. This is for the best. Anypony…heh, the words they have come up with.

One last time. I shall use the stones one last time. To help my land. And to finally lay to rest the billions of souls I claimed. Those who wield these after me should not be burdened for my mistakes. Tonight I release these souls into the heavens. I give them peace. I shall let them all rest.

And then I shall be all mighty no more.

=====----======
Entry 1735

I was....outmatched.

He came from the sky. In the middle of the Sahaddle Desert, far from any pony or land. I heard his voice in my mind. He came specifically for me. I took the stones and, after telling my family to stay back, I flew off to confront him. And there, in the middle of the desert below a machine the likes of which I had never seen, stood a giant. A giant whose power matched that of my stones.

Galactus. He called himself Galactus.

I asked why he had called me out. He said that he wanted to see the being that had crushed humanity, when even he had failed. I showed to stones and said that if he didn't leave, I would show him what I did. He looked at the stones...and then smirked. He wasn't impressed. He then said he was there to devour my world. I attacked.

Our power shook the cosmos. I gave everything I had...everything the stones had. Power that could rend the heavens. I tore reality apart. Time was completely on my side. I was God.

And Galactus bested me.

His power...the power cosmic, was impressive. It could match most the stones. But it was his knowledge, his intelligence, that was my downfall. He outsmarted me, he countered my stones with powers and strategies I could never dream of. And then...he trapped me in a sphere that resided in an alternate dimension. And my stones ceased to work. I was at his mercy. I was ready to die...along with my world.

But he didn't kill me. He seemed...impressed with me. That I had managed to do what no one else had. Defeat humanity. He simply asked me how had I dealt with the heroes and villains of humanity. I told him. At his mercy, there was nothing else I could do. I told him of my fights with Hulk, Thor, Magneto...all of them. He lowered his head and thought for a minute. Then he asked me about Iron Man. I told him Iron Man had vanished weeks before I had grabbed the stones.

He smiled at that.

Then he dropped me. Let me go. Turned and headed for his ship. When I asked why, he said that he did not like to eat planet's with intelligent species in their infancy and he could tell that we hadn't been there long. He also said that this planet was tainted with the toxin of the stones and he hated their taste. My world was safe.

But then he turned to look at me and said one day, after everything had been fixed, would he be back. And he would feast.

And then he was gone.

Entry 1937

Celestia and Luna were coronated today. My great-grandfoals are now the rulers of the land. I am so proud. Never before have I seen such champions of friendship and harmony than in those two. They will most likely be able to draw out the full power of the Elements of Harmony. Both of them can wield all six by themselves. They will protect the land.

I find harder and harder to write in my old age. I have taken to dictating to myself, my magic writing down what I say. My wounds of old bother me. The Rider. Galactus. But I cannot rest. There is too much to do. I need to speak with the lords of the dragons. They have been having problems and they need my help. Then I must meet with the kirin’s. Our relationship has fallen off a bit in the past hundred years. And then there’s…there’s…

Heh, look at me. Practicing what I preached. Maybe…maybe even the worst can change. Maybe…everyone deserves the chance. Magneto…you were right. I am sorry.

===----===
Final Entry.

So there you have it. Everything I have ever done. My whole story. Go ahead and damn for what I did to humanity. I will not blame you. But if there is anything you have gained from reading this, it is that…hatred breeds hatred. Violence breeds violence. And if you are who I think you are, then you should know this. You should be better than me.

But if you are somepony else…or there is somepony else with you, then please take the words of an old fool who made an uncountable number of mistakes to heart. My violence brought violence. My children’s kindness and love brought peace. Created a world that I never could. Learn from my mistakes. That is what I beg of you.

Even now…in my twilight…I fear harmony being threatened. My dear Luna…is trapped on the moon. Celestia…is forced to rule by herself…when she always had her sister by her side. She is not ready, but she tries to be…Tirek…Sombra…so many evils. My sins coming back to haunt my nation, when I will no longer be here to protect it. But…twilight…Twilight Sparkle. Yes, I can see…she and her friends…will be worthy of the stones. Of the legacy my children left. They can set right…what I did wrong.

…and I see…a motorcycle? A skull? Ah, the Rider…I’ve kept you waiting, haven’t I? Come. I’m ready to face my sins. Let us go.

------===------

“That’s where it ends,” Luna whispered. She looked around at the ponies and Tony with horror and disbelief in her eyes, unable to comprehend what she had read. The group had been there for days, teleporting food and water to them, all of them entrapped by the tale of Gaea. Some were confused. All were horrified. And for one alicorn, she was even angrier than the human who had his world taken from him.

“So that’s how it all came to be,” Celestia whispered, breaking the silence. “That is how this nation of love and harmony, values that I swore to protect, was created. It was built on the blood and bones of billions. Of innocent and children. And I…I…Stark…I am so sorry.”

Tony said nothing in reply.

“I guess…I only have one question,” Rainbow Dash said, turning all eyes to her. “What do we do now?”

“What do we do? That’s obvious! We have to fix what Gaea did!” Fluttershy said. “I don’t care his reasons or whatever was done to him, what he did…it’s unforgivable! We have to set things right!”

“Ah agree! All those lives…we have to fix it!” Applejack agreed.

“We can’t be rash,” Luna cut in, turning all eyes to her. “We are dealing with powers far beyond anything we’ve ever encountered. With a wrong thought...we could cause even worse damage.”

“I…I can’t believe that everything I ever read about the history of this world…all of the culture and mysteries…they were all lies,” Twilight whispered. “Everything before Gaea he made up. The cities, the creatures that live in this world…all of us. We’re all apart of his lie. Of his sins. We are all created by the same things he used to destroy. Our power of Harmony…comes from blood and death…”

“Tony, what should we do?” Pinkie asked Tony.

All eyes turned towards Iron Man, who had been the only being in the room that hadn’t said anything. He had simply sat on a rock and listened, taking in everything that Gaea had written. For a long time, he didn’t even register the ponies. But then he slowly lifted his head, taking in each of the eight ponies with his hidden eyes. No pony knew what he was going to do next.

“We have several options,” he said at last, no tone in his voice. “The first should be the most obvious. Gaea mentioned that he had all of the souls of those he killed inside the Soul Stone.”

“Then we could use their power to recreate the Earth, at least humanities Earth, and restore them all there,” Celestia said. “We just have to put it on the opposite side of the solar system from where we are and that should, hopefully, not affect either!”

Tony looked like he wanted to say something, but then he sat back down and waited.

“It could work,” Twilight agreed. “If we get the other Earth’s position right…we have to try. We owe it to Tony. We owe it to all of them.”

“Can we do this, though?” Rarity asked. “Can we recreate a planet and an entire species?”

“We have to try.”

The six friends nodded to each other before they linked hooves, the Rainbow Power, the Infinity Stones, glowing amongst them. Together they each focused on their respective stone, using all six powers to do what they wanted.

“I…can feel it,” Dash said, with her connection to space allowing her to sense what was going on. “The other Earth, it’s been formed! It’s almost exactly like Equestria!”

None of the ponies saw Tony shake his head in the corner.

“Okay, that’s good! Now let’s focus on getting the people back!” Twilight said. The group nodded and focused, with AJ, Pinkie and Twilight focusing on rebuilding their bodies. Fluttershy was focusing on their souls.

“Okay everypony, let’s all-GAH!” Fluttershy screamed, light erupting from her eyes. “N-no! I wasn’t…I didn’t…please, no! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow screamed, breaking the connection and dashing over to Shy. Fluttershy began weeping, rainbow tears streaming from her face as she continued to apologize. Rarity walked next to Shy and unleashed her power, freeing Fluttershy from her own mind. Fluttershy collapsed to the ground, shaking from how hard she was sobbing.

“What happened?” Twilight asked.

“There were…so many of them. So many souls,” Fluttershy whispered. “And they were all angry. They all wanted vengeance. And when they saw me, they made me see…everything…I can’t bring them back. I’m sorry. I’m not strong enough. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Rarity whispered, cradling Fluttershy’s head.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered, before she noticed Tony shaking his head. “Tony. What’s the matter?”

“This isn’t going to work,” Tony said, his voice quiet. “What the stones can do is dependent on those who wield them. Building a world is easy with them. But restoring billions of souls who were unjustly killed…who want vengeance on your entire species…it’s a recipe for disaster. Fluttershy can’t handle it. I doubt any of you could.”

“So we can’t bring them back?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s more than that. The other Earth you created…Dash said it. It’s like Equestria. That’s because all you’ve known is Equestria,” Tony continued. “My world was nothing like Equestria. To bring it back, you’d have to understand everything about my world, how it worked, how the people worked. None of you know anything about that.”

“But Gaea created a world,” Luna reminded him.

“He created this world from scratch. He wasn’t trying to restore a world he knew nothing about, he just created a new one. One that worked the way he wanted it to. The sun and moon being controlled by Alicorns. Magic that could manipulate the weather and other fundamental forces. Our worlds work far differently than each other. And none of you know how my world worked. Only I do.”

“Well…what if we gave you our power?” Twilight asked, walking towards Tony. “What if we gave you the stones and-“

“NO!” Tony yelled, backing up. The ponies (except Fluttershy) looked at him with surprise and after a moment he shook his head. “No. I shouldn’t be given the stones. No one being should ever hold all the stones. Look at Gaea…look at Thanos. That is far too much power for one being to wield. Gaea got one thing right, splitting them into six. It’s smarter that way.”

“Well what if we had you use the soul stone. As one of the humans champions, maybe they will let you restore them?” Pinkie asked.

“No, Gaea made it so the stones picked you. They would never pick me. As they shouldn’t. The stones are bonded to you,” Tony said. “I don’t think you’d be able to give them to me if you wanted to. Or you could, using all of them. I mean you can do anything. But you shouldn’t. I can’t be trusted with one of them.”

“Can’t be trusted? Tony, you’re-“

“I. Can’t. Trust myself,” Tony finished, looking away.

“Then we are at an impasse,” Celestia said, sighing. “We cannot restore humanity, as we do not know enough about your world and kind Fluttershy cannot face eight billion peoples worthy of hatred and fury.”

“Even if you did, my race is a vengeful one,” Tony added on. “They would never forget what Gaea did to us. They would come after you. They would never stop trying to wipe you all out for what Gaea did. And we would find a way. It’s what we do best. Then there are the other races. The aliens. The Asgardians. Those guys would hold a grudge for the rest of eternity. I’ve seen them do it.”

“Okay, but what if we erased their memories about everything that happened?” Rarity asked. “Made it seem like only a day had passed?”

“We’d find out. And there are beings that wouldn’t forget. Those who are strong enough to find out. It would only end in bloodshed,” Tony whispered.

For a long time, all of the ponies looked at one another, each of them trying to figure out what to do. Then Luna looked at Twilight, remember what power she wielded and an idea came to her. “What if went back in time? What if we prevented any of this from ever happening?”

“Time doesn’t work like that,” Tony said. “If you went back in time to stop Gaea from wiping out humanity, then humanity wouldn’t be wiped out. Equestria and all of you would never be created. Therefor, you could not go back in time to stop him. So he would destroy humanity. So you go back to stop him. Time loop.”

“…Then what if we sent you back?” Celestia asked and all eyes turned towards her. “You are from the past. You are from that time. Even if you change the past, you will still exist. So the changes will stick. There will be no time loop. You can save them!”

“Yeah! Tony is from the past, so him going back shouldn’t break time!” Pinkie added, knowing more about time breaking than anypony. “You go back, stop Gaea, and then happy endings for all!”

“Except it wouldn’t be,” Twilight said, turning her friends gaze towards her. “Didn’t you hear Tony? Go back and stop Gaea, Gaea doesn’t destroy humanity, doesn’t create Equis, doesn’t create…us. If Tony goes back and stops Gaea…then the past would be changed. And we would all cease to be.”

“Wait…” Luna began, taking a moment to think about it. “So if Tony goes back to stop an entire species from being wiped out, his actions…”

“Would cause all of us to be wiped out. Every pony, changeling, and anything else that lives in this world,” Twilight nodded, before a bitter smirk crossed her face. “Of course, in the past we never existed to begin with, so he technically wouldn’t be wiping us out as we wouldn’t exist. Nopony would ever know that we ever lived at all to be wiped out. This is probably the best out-“

“I would.”

All of the ponies, even Fluttershy, turned to look at Tony.

“I would know. I would know that I wiped you all out. I would be stopping one genocide…by causing another.”

“Tony, you would be saving your race,” Celestia said. “You would be…saving those who are supposed to exist. You heard what Gaea had written. All of us…none of us were supposed to exist. Not naturally. We were all created because of the stones. We only live because he created us with the stones.”

“But we’re still alive. Ah still have mah brother and little sister. And ah love them. Stones or not, that feeling, our love, is real,” Applejack said. She was shaking slightly, fear creeping into her eyes. “And ah…ah don’t want anything to happen to them! They don’t deserve to be erased, right?! They did nothing wrong!”

“Applejack is right in that regard. We may have been created because of the stones wielded by a maniac, but do not burden his sins. Twinkle Star and Erik’s battle with the Ghost Rider showed that we make our own destinies!” Luna said fiercely. “We may not be naturally created, but we live none the less! How is it fair to us that we should be punished for the sins of our great grandfather?!”

“It’s not. We shouldn’t be punished for his mistakes. But it would set things right,” Dash said. “I would rather give my life to save billions than live knowing that I could undo it, but live for my own sake.”

“But it wouldn’t be just you! It would be everypony! Regardless of age, race or if they’re good or evil!” Pinkie said. “All of our families…our friends and loved ones…gone. Yeah, it would be right for humanity…but would it be right for us?”

“How can we decide?” Fluttershy asked, finally lifting her head and looking at her friends. “How can we choose one over the other? Humanity or Equis? Who were unjustly killed in the past or those who be unjustly killed now? Which one is right? Do we let the billions that were lost stay dead…or do we kill billions more to save them? How can we choose?”

“We…we can’t,” Twilight said, hanging her head. “We owe it to humanity to try to bring them back…but we are the defenders of our world. We swore to everypony to keep them safe. We…we can’t choose either.”

“As it should be.” All eyes turned to Celestia, who had a gaze on her face Luna had only seen at Celestia’s most dangerous. “We should not be the ones to make that choice. We do not deserve it. After everything our great grandfather did, all we can do is ask for forgiveness. There is only one being on this world who should be allowed to make that choice…the only one who can weigh both options.”

All eyes turned to Tony, who was staring at the floor again.

“So sadly, Stark, I must leave this choice to you. Only you can make this choice. Do you go back and save humanity, only to prevent us from ever coming into being? Or do you allow us to continue to exist, and let humanity’s unjust destruction continue?” Celestia asked, before she shook her head with tears falling down her face.

“I am so sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. But those…those are the only two options. Those are your choices.”

Tony knew she was right. He knew these were his two options. Two ironclad options. But what he didn’t know…was how to choose. Who should live…and who should die.

The sun was just barely beginning to rise over the town of Ponyville. The birds were roused from their slumber, the wind began to blow softly, and the sound of singing was carried over the air from the center of town. A day of peace and laughter was in store for all the ponies in the town.

A feeling of peace that was wasted on the Iron Avenger.

Tony sat alone in a park bench, his suit retracted into its backpack form. He had sat there all night, with only the company of the moon to watch over him. It had been a full day since he had heard Gaea’s tale. A tale spelling the end of his people, the birth of a new world and the choice that Tony would have to make. A choice he couldn’t make.

He didn’t blame Celestia for placing this burden. He would have asked to make it anyway. It was his people that had been lost. It should be his right to decide. But it was the deciding that he could not make up his mind on. Who should live. And who should die.

‘You haven’t moved in a while sir. Have you expired?’

“No, I’m alive. And you’ve been quiet for the better part of a day. That’s unlike you, Jarvis,” Tony replied. “I’m surprised you haven’t told me what to do or how I’m handling this all wrong.”

‘That is because I do not know what to do, sir,’ Jarvis replied. Tony had never heard hesitation in his robot butler’s voice before. It unnerved him far more than anything this world had thrown at him.

“Well, I’m open to ideas.”

‘I am programmed by you to protect humanity. That is priority number two, right behind making sure you don’t do anything you’d regret. But I am also programmed to protect all those who cannot protect themselves. And these ponies…they are guiltless. They are not the ones who destroyed our world. How can we punish them for Gaea’s actions?’

“Congratulations, you just summed up what I spent all night debating,” Tony sighed. “It’s supposed to be easy. I protect the world. And if I can’t do that, I’ll be damned sure to avenge it. But there’s no world to protect. No one to direct my vengeance at. What do I do?”

“What you do best. Save the world.”

Stark was out of his seat in an instant, his armor already half formed around him as he spun towards the voice. Standing behind him was Doom, in his green cloak with metal suit. But as Iron Man’s helmet slammed down, he scanned something different about Doom. He had a different kind of magic radiating off of him. A magic that reminded Stark of Discord’s magic.

“Doom,” Tony snarled. “Finally shown up to finish me off? Well go ahead. Just another body to add to the billions.”

“You have learned the truth,” Doom said, nodding his head. “I figured it was about time that you did. The truth that these ponies wiped out our species. Wiped humanity off the face of-“

“Gaea! Gaea…wiped out our species. Not these ponies. Gaea,” Tony corrected. Doom looked at Tony for a moment, before he nodded once more.

“Yes. As men of science, we must make sure the facts are accurate. Gaea was indeed responsible for wiping humanity out of existence. Using the Infinity Stones. The same stones of power that those six ponies you have befriended now use to protect their world.”

“You knew that? What am I saying, of course you do. When did you figure it out?”

“Not long after I followed a mare underground to find what remained of New York. It was all too similar to what I knew for it to be a coincidence. Then a few moments later, a being bearing the same power of an Infinity Stone appeared to face me. Discord.”

“So he did face you. And you…”

Doom lifted a hand and magic crackled along it, Tony’s scanners telling him that it held the same power Discord had wielded. The same power of the Infinity Stone.

“He attacked me with the intent to kill. But I have dealt with beings like him before. He stood no chance against my intellect,” Doom told Tony, who added another name to his list. “But to answer your question, I am not here to kill you. I am here to offer the same chance to I offered you back at Canterlot. Before you knew everything that had happened. The chance to join me. To set this right.”

Doom extended a hand as he said this, looking Tony in the eyes the whole time. Tony looked at Doom’s hand for a moment before he lifted both of his hands, aiming them at Doom.

“Do you really think I would trust you? You’ve tried to kill us multiple times. You tried to conquer humanity yourself dozens of times! You killed…you murdered one of the brightest, most noble superheroes that I’ve ever known. Do you possibly think I could forgive you…work with you…after what you did?!”

“I do not ask for forgiveness. Nor do I want it. But I know you, Stark. I know that after what you did in your youth, you put defending humanity above everything else. Be it Thanos, Ultron or whatever villain of the week tries to tear our world down, you are always its strongest defender. That is why I know you will do what’s right. I know you will do what it takes to save our world. And I will support you. I will work with you. Together…together we can ensure humanity survives.”

“…where’s the speaking in the third person, Doom? Where’s the part where you stab me in the back?” Tony spat.

“It is past the time for hero vs villain. We must unite to save the world,” Doom replied. “You know me, Stark. I am a deceiver, I am a genius, I am one who uses every trick in the book to get what he wants…but you also know that I am one of the greatest defenders of humanity. Yes, I want to rule over them, but that is because we both know my rule will keep humanity alive.”

“That’s a load of shit.”

“Look at the facts. The two of us are removed from the equation and the world falls. Humanity dies. We were two of the most important pieces on the board and we were removed. And then all we sought to protect was lost. You know me, Tony. You know that I will do whatever it takes to save humanity. As would you.”

Tony wanted to tell Doom he was a fool. He wanted to laugh in the face of Doom before taking him down, saving the day as he always did. But there was no day to save. No cheering of the crowd or a return to his fellow heroes. They were all gone. And the only one left, the only one who could help him ensure their survival, was one of mortal enemies.

And Tony did know Doom. Knew him better than he wanted to admit. Doom was a reflection of Tony. A genius who had an incredible suit who used his genius to achieve his goals. Stopping evil. Saving his company…and for both of them, a twist on saving the world. So he knew Doom was telling the truth. Doom would prioritize saving humanity over all else. Doom would betray Tony eventually. But not until after humanity was saved.

“Every day your friends risked their lives to save the world. Never asking for anything in return. Simply knowing that the world was safe was enough for them. And they died defending it, in a hopeless battle. Dying knowing that nothing they did mattered in the end. Is that how their legacy should end? Is that how the heroes should be rewarded for their sacrifice? A hopeless death? When it can all be fixed?”

Once more, Doom extended his hand to Tony.

“…what is your plan?” Tony asked in a whisper. Doom raised an eyebrow and Tony smirked. “Don’t give me that look, I know you. You have a, if not several, plans for how to save humanity. If you want me to work with you…you will need to tell them to me.”

“Several of my plans have been failures. I planned to take the stones from your pony friends, but then I learned they were bound to them based on a test that I cannot undo. Then I planned on blackmailing them into using their powers to restore humanity, but after hacking your suit and hearing about how Fluttershy was weak, that will not work. Don’t give me that look, you know I would hack your suit eventually. So there is currently one plan left.”

“Time travel,” Tony deduced.

“We return to the past. Stop Gaea. Prevent humanity from ever being destroyed. Ensure no evil comes to pass. Save the day. Just like heroes always do.”

“And wipe out billions who never did anything wrong,” Tony countered, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“Billions who were never supposed to exist in the first place,” Doom replied. Tony looked down to avoid looking at Doom. “You know it to be true, Stark. You know that these ponies were not supposed to exist. You know they were created by a madpony who had used the stones to create his own perfect world. Galactus would not eat this planet. That is how badly it has been ruined.”

“Doom…I...”

“I know I am asking a lot of you. And I know that this will not come easy to you. But I know you Stark, better than you think. You will struggle with this. But you will ultimately make the right choice. You will save humanity…just as you always have,” Doom said, backing up from Iron Man. “I will wait for a week until you decide to help me. I will be waiting in what the princesses referred to as the forbidden lands. That is where I will wait for you.”

Doom ascended into the sky and Tony did nothing to stop him. Doom turned to leave, before he looked back down at Iron Man. “You will save them. You always do. It is one of the things I respect most about you. I will see you in a week and together, we shall save them…Tony.”

And then Doom was gone. A snap of fingers. On instinct, Tony shot the spot where Doom had been. And then he buried his head in his hands. Hating himself. Hating himself because he knew Doom was right about him. He would always save humanity. It was who he was.

Which meant he would have to erase billions of other beings. Beings who were never supposed to exist. That was it. They weren’t supposed to exist. Which meant when they vanished, the world would be set right. Everything would be fine. That was how-

“Hiya Tony!”

Tony lifted his head and looked down to see Applebloom, who was smiling up at him. Her leg was still in a cast, but if it was hurting her she wasn’t showing it. “Are ya done talking with yer friend? And if ya are, can ya come with me fer a few moments? Me and mah friends want to show ya something!”

“Applebloom…I can’t at the moment,” Tony replied, trying to get ahold of himself. “I’ve…got an important decision to make and I can’t…I can’t…”

“Please? It won’t take long,” Applebloom begged.

Tony wanted to say no. He wanted to simply go to Celestia and tell her that he planned to go back, to undo Gaea’s evil. Celestia would understand. And everything would be set right. But once he did that, all of this would be gone. Including whatever Bloom wanted to show him. He would go with her. He owed that much to her, right?

“Okay, Bloom,” Tony said with a smile, his heart breaking as her smile widened. “Lead the way.”

“Applebloom, where are you taking me?” Iron Man asked. “And are you sure you don’t want me to carry you?”

“Ah’m fine. This ain’t the first time ah’ve broken a limb and ah doubt it will be the last,” Applebloom said with a smile. Tony tried to ignore the pain in his heart.

She led him into a small forest at the edge of Ponyville, where a treehouse hung in a tree and a few familiar faces waited outside with something covered in a cloak. Tony recognized Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, but the pink filly with the tiara on her flank was new to him.

“Hey girls! Look, ah got him!”

“Good job! I would hate for us to put in all of this work and it to be for nothing,” Scootaloo said, flicking her head towards the covered…thing. “I mean, we nearly killed ourselves six times when trying to make it, so thanks for showing up Tony.”

“I’m glad to see that you’re alright. We heard that you had been hurt pretty bad by Tirek,” Sweetie Belle said, checking over his armor. “You seem to be alright, though.”

“Yeah, I’m a superhero. It takes a lot more than a blast of magic stronger than a nuke to keep us down,” Tony chuckled, trying to smile. He then looked at the last filly, who was looking up at him with awe in her eyes. “And I don’t think I’ve met you, little empress. What’s your name?”

“I’m Diamond Tiara. We would have met sooner, but I’ve been out of town,” she replied, looking up and down Tony’s armor. “Alright, how much do you want for the suit? I need something like that.”

“More than you could ever make. Well, now that introductions are out of the way, what say we see what’s under here?” Tony said as he went to grab the covering, but Bloom slapped his hand. After she was done snarling in pain, she glared up at Tony.

“Don’t just go and ruin the surprise like that! Ya know how hard we worked on this?!” she yelled at Tony, before backing up with her friends joining her. “Eh’m, Iron Man, after seeing ya suit and all of the cool stuff ya could do with it, ah really wanted to see if we could duplicate yer suit. And in doing so, ah hope…ah hope to become yer apprentice.”

“Oh Bloom, listen…”

“But knowing how foolish it would be for her to do something like this by herself, we all got together to help her,” Scootaloo cut in, lifting a hoof that had a bandage on it. “I mean, she’s already got a broken leg, and her she is trying to build a flying suit of armor.”

“But thankfully, we can do anything when we work together,” Sweetie continued. “So with her smarts, my magic, Scootaloo’s muscle and Tiara’s funding…”

“Hey, I did more than just fund the thing!”

“We actually managed to make this!”

The three ripped down to cover as they said this and Tony’s eyes went wide. There, standing on a box, was a filly size version of his Iron Man armor. It was designed for a filly instead of a human, but the rest of it made it look like it was something that he could build. The armor moved and shifted the way his did, Applebloom’s propulsion tech was worked into the hooves, a magic crystal in the chest powered the rest of it and it was even the same red and gold coloring as his suits.

“Well, what do ya think?” Applebloom asked.

Tony walked past her, patting her on the head before he knelt down next to it, examining it closer. The armor was woven together and inter layered, giving it strength without compromising durability. Thin fields of magic lined the wires and hydraulics, so they wouldn’t be the first thing to go in a fight. And finally, there was the fact that the crystal, according to his scanners, allowed them to draw power from the very magic in the air. Had he ever tried that? Drawing power from the planet? Why hadn’t he?

“This…this is incredible,” he said at last, turning to look at the four fillies with a baffled look on his face. “Just…replicating my suit would be one thing, but to have it be…improved in these regards. Magical shielding for the weakest parts. The woven armor underneath the folding plates…it’s brilliant.”

“Ya really think so?! Ah spent days trying to get it right!” Applebloom exclaimed.

“Days. You built this in days?” Tony asked, amazed.

“Well, we had yer suit as the base design, so we didn’t design it from scratch. Ah just built it based on what ah remembered of yer suit and made a few…adjustments.”

“Improvements.”

“Ah didn’t say that.”

“Well that’s what they are,” Tony replied, looking over the suit once again. She had to have a photographic memory. That was the only way she could have replicated it so well. Of course, the energy system was a mess and he wagered that if she tried to fire off those thrusters the whole thing would explode. But still, to come so far in such a short time…she might even be a better inventor than him.

“You’re all incredible. All four of you are,” Tony said, looking down at the CMC, before he turned his head towards the crystal in the center. “Especially your idea to use this crystal to take the magic from the air. That’s something even I’ve never thought of before. Genius.”

“Well I’m glad you like it, because it was my idea,” Tiara said with a smile. When Tony gave her a look, she looked offended. “What, it was! When those three wondered where they would get enough magic to fuel their suit, I asked why they just didn’t take it from the air. Faust knows that there’s more than enough magic there.”

“You thought of that? Are you a genius yourself?”

“Not in the traditional sense, but I know how to manage resources,” Tiara said, before smiling at the other three. “What would you three do if I hadn’t joined your group?”

“What’s that?”

“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know, but for a while Diamond here was our most bitter enemy,” Sweetie explained. “She constantly belittled us, ruined our plans and made us feel like crap.”

“Wow, way to paint such a nice image of me.”

“Well it was true,” Scootaloo said, before smirking. “But now look. We buried the past, became friends and now together we can do things we thought were impossible together. Enemies to friends to beyond. Kinda sappy.”

“Enemies to friends to do the impossible…” Tony muttered.

“What was that, Tony?” Applebloom asked.

“Nothing. Hey, how about I look over your suit and make sure that it doesn’t blow up and kill all of you?” Tony asked. “Jarvis can even tell you four what I’m doing so you can make these improvements on your own.”

“Really?! You’d do that?!” Applebloom asked.

“Sure…anything for my apprentice.”

The look of sheer joy that took up Applebloom’s face made Tony’s words worth it. With a squeal of delight she bounced over next to him, watching as he explained how to properly wire their propulsion system while teaching her all of the tricks to avoid when making a suit of war. Especially about how to install cupholders in the suit.

=====----=====

Tony watched with his helmet down as Scootaloo gently flew through the sky in the Iron Mare suit they had made. Applebloom couldn’t fly with her broken leg, Belle had agreed to go second and Tiara didn’t want to be stuffed into a sweaty suit. But all of them were laughing. And that was what was important.

‘Sir, may I ask you something?’ Jarvis said.

“You just did.”

‘Don’t be that guy.’

“Fine. What is it?”

‘Sir, considering what our plan is to save humanity…did you agree to take her on as an apprentice to make her happy before you undo this future? Leave her with a happy memory? Because if you did sir, I would consider that cruel. Considering…what you’ve-‘

“I can’t do it.” Tony sobbed slightly and placed his head in his hands “I can’t do it, Jarvis. I can’t erase them. They didn’t do anything wrong. They shouldn’t be punished.”

‘Sir…while noble…we are still left with a dilemma. Even if you spare them, you will be stuck here. If you go back to your own time, the past will be changed. Even if you do nothing to stop Gaea, the past will be changed. Things will be different. These ponies you care for…may not come to be regardless. If you truly wish to keep them safe, you must stay here. And to be honest…I do not think that is the right choice. Humanity…our allies…they deserved to be saved as well.’

“I can’t, Jarvis. Look at those four. Look at this world. Yeah, it was built on violence, but they managed to make it a world of peace. A world where friendship and kindness is valued more than money and power. They did what we…what I never could. They saved their world.”

‘Perhaps. But perhaps we could too. But humanity’s chance was taken from it.’

“They’re children, Jarvis!”

‘So were the children Gaea killed.’

“What are you asking of me?!” Tony screamed at Jarvis. “Every time I think I have an answer, you make an argument for the other side! Why can’t you just tell me what to do?!”

‘Because I want you to fully think about what you’re doing, before you end up doing something you will regret’.’ Jarvis hadn’t raised his voice, but Tony felt like Jarvis had just screamed at him. ‘I want you to consider every angle, every possibility, weigh both sides equally. We are not talking about a few people or some aliens. This is trillions of lives, possibly more. And my prime directive the one I have held steadfast to over all these years, is to make sure you don’t do something you regret. So yes, I am not giving you a clear answer because there is no clear answer. There is just an impossible choice. But you must make it. Do not let Doom or the ponies sway you. The choice must be yours…and like all the other times you’ve been here, I know you’ll pick the right one.’

“I need more time. Maybe…maybe after years of research, I can find a way to bring back everyone,” Tony thought. “Maybe I can…I don’t know, create robot bodies or something?”

‘…I see where you are coming from sir, but sadly you must make a definitive choice…or Doom will make it for you,’ Jarvis reminded Tony. ‘He gave you a few days of reprieve. He will not give you longer. The fact that he has not waged war on pony kind out of revenge is proof that he respects you. But that will not last. You have seven days to decide. Do what you think is right. And I will stand by you. As I always will.’

Tony closed his eyes and lowered his head, thinking it over once more. The robots wouldn’t work. Vengeance ran deep. And Jarvis was right. If he returned home, it would most likely erase all of these ponies. That was how time travel worked. He couldn’t figure out a solution.

For the first time in his life, he wasn’t smart enough.

====----=====

Doom stood alone overlooking the village of the deerfolk. Down below him the entire village was racing around, each of them using the abilities that Doom had granted them for fun. Some used their super strength to toss rocks around. Others used their telekinesis to lift others into the air. Some teleported around. And one, Ashgrove, stood beside him, radiating a power that Doom had given to him and him alone.

“You’ve brought peace to our village,” Ashgrove said to Doom. Doom looked down at the deer, who looked like himself. Then he flickered for a second and he became a she. The Ashgrove flickered again and he was a pony. He flickered once more and he was returned to normal.

“Of course. Doom promised he would, did he not?” Doom asked. “With these powers, you should fear threats from beyond no more. A single deer in your village would be strong enough to slay even an Ursa. Together, you are all unstoppable. Especially you. You who received the greatest gift.”

“You’re our hero, Doom. You saved us.”

“And you can be your own heroes, now,” Doom replied, before he sighed and looked over at a giant device the super genius deer were building.

“You’re thinking about the forbidden lands, aren’t you?”

“I am indeed. I am worried. I know Stark. I know that he values humanity over everything else. I know that saving it became his personal mission. That saving the is what drives him. But I cannot shake the feeling that he will do something I could never predict.”

“But aren’t you the smartest man in the multiverse? How could he do something you couldn’t predict?”

“Because despite being a scientist, he will always follow his heart. Even if he knows that will lead him to ruin. And in doing so, he will achieve something I could never dream of,” Doom replied, before he slightly shook his head. “No matter. I will be ready. If he joins me, we shall save humanity together. If he does not, I simply must best him once more before saving humanity. Easy.”

“Do not worry, Doom. I will be by your side, no matter what happens!” Ashgrove promised, now nearly the same size as Doom. “Always.” Doom looked at the deer for a moment, before he nodded his head.

“Yes…yes you will be. You have proven to be a most trusted ally. A…friend,” Doom said, before he looked towards the horizon and the rising sun. “Thank you.”

It was amazing to Stark how quiet the castle was with both Spike and Twilight gone. The only sound came from Tony bouncing the back of his armored head off of the floor, as well as the propellers turning on the toaster that he told Twilight he would destroy yet never did.

“You don’t have any idea what to do, do you?” Tony asked it. The machine made no reply. “That’s right, I stopped giving my machines the ability to think after the whole armor uprising thing that happened. Jarvis is the only A.I. I’ve got left.”

‘It’s for the best. Remember when Friday took control of your satellites and rained hell down on Africa? I thought for sure T’challa was going to have your head removed.’

“I would have deserved it,” Tony replied.

‘And then there was the time we accidentally uploaded Ultron to the internet and he had control of every computer on the planet. I recall you bringing back the Mark 1 to fight him.’

“When we had to have Thor fry every computer on the planet to get rid of him? Man, I remember that like it was yesterday.”

‘That was six years ago.’

“No.”

‘Correct. And since then, Ultron wasn't seen until recently. Vision got corrupted, though.’

“I’ve never seen the Hulk smash something intangible before and I hope to never see it again,” Tony laughed, before his face fell. “Man, me and the other Avengers have been through so much together. So many battles, with villains, each other…and yet we always came out stronger. Came out together. No matter what, win or lose…we did it together.”

‘Brought together to fight the foes that no lone hero could best by themselves. Earths mightiest heroes,’ Jarvis finished.

“They’re my friends…it should be an easy choice. Bring them back. Screw everything else…but I can’t, Jarvis.”

“Can’t what?”

Tony looked up to see a pony standing over him. She had a light purple coat and a purple mane. Yet Tony was drawn to her eyes. Eyes that shone with intelligence and kindness. He rolled over before his thrusters pushed him up.

“About how to save the past, future and everything in-between. You know, Tuesday,” Tony smirked.

“It’s Wednesday.”

“It’s a joke.”

“Not a good one.”

“Who are you, anyway?”

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Starlight Glimmer. I’m a friend of Twilight’s,” Starlight introduced. “No need for you to introduce yourself. Everypony knows who you are.”

“I should hope so.”

“So you’re trying to save the past, present and future? You’ve got a problem that involves time travel?” Starlight asked.

“How do you know that? You inside my mind? Well let me tell you, get out now because that place is weird.”

“No, I mean…I’ve messed with time before. Not too long ago, as a matter of fact.”

Tony’s jokester attitude vanished upon hearing that. With a sigh he walked over to one of the couches and sat down, the armor cracking the crystal. “It’s not a guarantee, but I might be having some issues with time travel.”

“Not surprised. You either came from the past, future, or an alternate timeline. Unless a human just popped up out of nothing,” Starlight said, sitting beside him.

“Would it surprise you if I said I’ve seen that happen?”

“I would say nothing could surprise me at this point, but here you are,” Starlight said with a smirk. “So, what part of time travel has you worried?”

“The…is it the right thing to do?” Tony asked. “Change the past to save the past, but erasing the future? Or leave the future as is and leave the past in the past. What’s the right thing to do? How can I save everyone?”

“…Tony, from my experience…look, not too long ago, I wasn’t the nicest pony. In fact, I was a villain,” Starlight admitted. “And I hated Twilight and her friends. So to get rid of them, I went back in time. Back in time to erase them or at least make sure that they never became friends.”

“Wow, that is petty.”

“Don’t interrupt.”
“Sorry.”

“My plan worked most of the time. Twilight and her friends were no longer friends. They couldn’t stop me. Nor anypony else,” Starlight said, her face falling. “But each time I changed something in the past, the future grew worse and worse. Sombra waging war with the ponies for power. Discord tearing apart the world to make it his own personal plaything. Tirek straight up destroying all the magic in the world…each change to the past made a worse future.”

“I knew about none of this. Not until Twilight dragged me into one of the bleakest futures of all. A land where Luna and Celestia used the powers in the Elements to not only destroy themselves…but the whole world as well. There was nothing left. Nothing but dust and decay. All because of me.”

Tony said nothing.

“As you can see from everything around you, we undid what I had done. But I learned that sometimes what you might think would improve time…only makes it worse. That maybe the timeline we’re in is the best one…and that the others are even worse. Maybe time moves the way it is supposed to for a reason. Maybe we were never meant to mess with it.”

“You and Twilight set it right?” Tony asked, getting Starlight to look at him with some confusion. “I thought the two of you hated each other. Mortal enemies and all that.”

“We did. Kinda. But when I saw how bad everything was…and how I was the one making it worse…I agreed to work with her. To set everything right. And we did. Together we fixed the time stream. And we’ve been best friends ever since. Not to mention, she let’s me crash at the castle whenever I want. Sweet deal.”

“Why didn’t Twilight fix it?”

“Look, she has all the powers of an alicorn, but I knew more about time than her. But I lacked the power to properly fix things. So we did together what neither of us could do alone. And tada, day saved. What do you think about that?”

Tony didn’t respond. He didn’t even look over at Starlight. He had his hands under his chin, with his eyes looking off into a place only Tony could see. He didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Didn’t even breathe. For a worrying moment Starlight thought she had killed him, but a moment later he shot up and started to head for the door.

“Tony, where are you going?!” Starlight asked.

“To get somethings. Things I’m going to need,” Tony replied. “Gather all Twilight, her friends, and the princesses here by evening. I should be back before then.”

“Why are we gathering them?”

“Because they need to get ready. We all do.”

Tony closed the crystal doors behind him, leaving a very confused Starlight.

-----=====-----

“Tony, what is this all about?” Celestia asked. “We have been waiting for hours.”

She and her sister stood near the center of the room. Twilight and her friends resided on the couches and chairs. Spike was off to the side, having seen this sight many times before. And Tony stood in the center of all of them, having just arrived, with a sack in one hand and a basket of anti-magic crystals in the other.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, but I needed all of these,” Tony said, motioning to the items in his hands. His helmet retracted and allowed the ponies to see his face. “As for why I’ve called you here, it is because…I met with Doom yesterday. He offered me the same thing he did when he confronted us in Celestia’s throne room. A chance to save humanity together.”

“It’s also my throne room,” Luna added.

“In seven…six days time, he will head to the forbidden lands. There he will, most likely, open a portal to the past, go back in time and save humanity from Gaea. There’s probably bits I don’t know, but that is what he told me,” Tony informed the group. To his surprise, they didn’t look shocked or worried. They all looked at Tony with sad eyes.

“Isn’t…isn’t that for the best?” Celestia asked. “It is our fault humanity is gone. So, going back to save it, that was the plan, wasn’t it? Be it you or Doom, saving humanity from us is the best solution. I thought we were in agreement?”

Most of the ponies nodded their heads, but Tony noticed that Applejack, Luna and Pinkie averted their gaze. That sealed his decision.

“I’ve made up my mind,” Tony admitted, getting surprised looks. “Not about who to save. There, I don’t know what to do. But I do know this. I don’t trust Doom. Whatever his plan is, it’s most likely a lie. Do I believe he plans to go back in time and save humanity? Yes, I do. Do I believe he will let things continue as they were? Not in a million years. He has a hidden plan, a hidden agenda…he always does. And I can’t let him get his way.”

“What does this have to do with us?” Luna asked, stepping forward. “You wouldn’t have gathered us to tell us this unless you expected us to do something? What do you need?”

“I can’t beat Doom. Not alone. But together…we can,” Tony said, looking into each of the pony’s eyes. To see their thoughts reflected in them.

“But don’t you and Doom have the same goal?” Fluttershy asked. “Why will you have to fight him? I thought you were on the same team?”

“Just because our goals intersect does not mean we are on the same team,” Tony replied. “He has hurt so many, all in the name of doing what he believes is right. If…if I stoop to his level…if I allow all of you to die without trying everything else out just to save humanity…then I will be no better than him.”

The ponies shared looks and he could tell they weren’t entirely convinced.

“We don’t trade lives. That is what I was told by a man far wiser than I will ever be. Which means I won’t trade yours for humanity unless I am certain…unless there is no other way,” Tony said, before looking at each of them with pain on his face. “I know that I can’t ask anything of you. I’m the man who holds the fate of your entire species in his hand. All of you might not exist if I make a certain choice. But…I need your help. I need…my friends.”

For the longest time, none of the ponies moved. They didn’t speak or even look at one another. They simply took a moment to think. And then Pinkie walked forward and placed her hoof on Tony’s hand.

“Of course I’ll help you, silly. Regardless of what the outcome is, be it us or humanity, no matter what you do to the time space continuum, that won’t change the fact that we’ll always be friends,” Pinkie said with a smile, even though Tony could hear the fear in her voice. “And friends always help each other. Together.”

Pinkie’s words inspired the other ponies, who all walked over to Tony and placed their hooves over top of Pinkie’s, each of them smiling up at Tony as they did so.

“You’ve helped keep us safe.”

“Ya saved mah sister.”

“You are such a charmer.”

“You’re not too bad for a slow flier.”

“You helped reveal our past to us. And while it was painful, at least we now have the choice to set it right. To do what Gaea could not.”

“To make sure that my words about love and harmony were not based on a lie. Not based on the blood of billions. Regardless of your choice, I stand by you Stark. You are right. I would never trust Doom with a decision like this. But I trust you.”

Tony then looked to Twilight, the only one who hadn’t joined them. For a moment, all she did was stare at the floor. Then she looked up at Tony with a smirk on her face.

“Of course I’m with you. We’ll get to the forbidden land. We’ll stop Doom from making things worse. And then…we’ll make everything right. Whatever it takes,” Twilight said, walking over and placing her hoof atop the pile. “But according to you, Doom has a better suit, stronger magic and is far more intelligent. How do you plan to beat him?”

“Well having beings who can move the sun and moon and the literally embodiments of the Infinity Stones doesn’t hurt. But for everything else, that’s what the crystal is for,” Tony said, placing the basket on the table. “Cadence and Shining know enough. And they know that to do this, I’m going to need every last ounce of crystal they can spare. Enough to trick out my entire suit. And a little more…to reforge something.”

“Reforge? reforge what?” Twilight asked.

Stark smiled at her before he turned the sack over, spilling out a bunch of metal shards onto the table. Shards that had paint on one side…in the colors of red, white and blue.

“This. Reforge and make even stronger than it was before,” Tony said before looking at each of the ponies. Here they were, standing on the precipice of their entire existence. Not knowing if Tony would decide that they would live or die. And yet the stood by him. Because they trusted him. Because they believed in him. Because he was their friend. And he would not fail them. He would make sure of it.

“So Twilight, I’m going to need your workshop. I’m going to need every resource that you can scrounge up. And finally,” Tony said, as his mask slammed shut. “I’m going to need some music.”

He headed for the workshop, passing by Spike as he did so, who was reading a comic book.

“You have a plan, don’t you?” Spike asked him.

“What makes you say that?” Tony asked. Spike raised the comic he was reading and waved it. “I wouldn’t call it a plan. I wouldn’t even call it a dream. It’s an impossibility. There’s no chance in a billion years, even with the stones, that this would work.”

“Then why risk everything on it?”

“Because I have to. Because I have to try. For all of them.”

Tony walked past Spike, who smirked as he returned to his comic.

“What do you know? He actually sounded like a superhero there.”

Sparks flew from the end of Tony’s hammer as he struck down, the resounding clang echoing throughout the workshop. On the table in front of Tony lay his Iron Man, which he was in the process of infusing with crystals that could cancel any magic. Normally, this would not be possible. Fortunately for him, he had Pinkie with him.

“Ready for the next wave?” Tony asked as he raised his hammer again.

“Bring it,” Pinkie replied.

Tony struck once more and Pinkie activated her power, infusing the crystal perfectly where Tony struck it down. Tony let out a sigh as he wiped his brow on the back of his hand, looking down at his suit, which now had crystal armor and weaponry, forged together that only the realty stone could make happen.

“Y’know, I’ve never seen somepony make armor like you have. Did you have to do it shirtless?”

“It gets my blood flowing,” Tony replied, nodding down at his new suit. The crystals had been bonded perfectly. There wasn’t a spot on the armor that would allow magic to get through. Of course, Doom now wielded the power of Discord, who had wielded some of the power of an infinity stone. Details.

“Will this suit really allow you to stop Doom?” Pinkie asked.

“It will give me a fighting chance. And that’s all I’ve ever needed,” Tony replied, pressing a button to fold up his suit. It did so, allowing Tony to move it to the side before he placed his remaining crystals and some shards of metal on the table. Shards of metal that had once belonged to one of the greatest heroes…and one of his best friends.

A few strikes from the hammer. Some assistance from Pinkie. And the shield was repaired…and then some. The crystal had perfectly bonded with the metal. Tony had also sacrificed his adamantium blades to reforge the shield. And Pinkie had left some of her stones power inside of it. Tony was confident that it could even take some hits from an infinity stone now.

“And just incase my suit fails, I’ve got someone looking out for me with this,” Tony said, lifting the shield. He felt heavy in his hands, like it belonged to someone else. But he needed it. He needed this small bit of comfort. He was fairly certain going up against Doom meant marching to his death. And even if he could somehow best Doom, his plan was an even greater impossible task. He needed the shield. He needed a friend on his side, even if he wasn’t there.

“Give me wisdom, Steve,” Tony whispered to the shield, before he slung it over his back. He started to head for the stairs, before he looked back to see Pinkie looking at the ground. “What’s the matter, Pinkie? Fate of the world and everything in it got you feeling butterflies? Don’t worry, I felt the same way the first time I had to save reality.”

“Is everything a joke to you?” Pinkie whispered. Tony curbed his jokes and knelt down next to her. “Sorry…sorry…I’m just…scared. Three weeks ago, my biggest concern was if this stallion I like likes me back. Now here we are, with the fate of my entire species at risk. They might be erased…gone…never to exist. I…I don’t think I can smile with that weighing over me.”

“Pinkie…I know we haven’t talked that much since I first got here, but trust me when I say you and all of your friends are some of the best people…ponies I’ve ever met. I promise I will do everything I can to make sure you don’t get erased,” Tony promised.

“How?” she asked in a whisper. “How can you expect to save humanity without wiping us out? You heard Twilight. If you change anything in the past, you wipe us out. How do expect to save us all?”

“Because I’m a superhero. And a superhero always saves the day,” Tony promised. Pinkie stared at him for a moment before she let out the smallest of giggles.

“Only you would have the confidence to say that with such a straight face,” Pinkie said. Her smile returned to her face and she nodded to Tony. “Okay. I trust you.”

“Thanks…I needed to hear that,” Tony replied. The two headed upstairs, where the rest of the ponies had been waiting for Tony and Pinkie.

“Why do you have your shirt off?”

“No time to explain,” Tony said, before the Iron Man suit folded out around him. Within seconds, his crystal suit had completely covered him. Some of the ponies whistled at the new suit, while Celestia and Luna retained their serious faces. “We need to get to the center of the forbidden lands. That is where Doom will be.”

“Didn’t he say that you had five more days? Why go now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because I know Doom. He’s already there. And he’ll be setting up. Defenses, traps and anything else in case I don’t go alone with him. And I won’t. And he knows this. So he’ll be ready.”

“So what? We’ve got the infinity stones. He’s got no chance of beating us,” Rainbow said.

“Stop that right now!” Tony snarled at Dash, who back up as if he had slapped her. “Never, and I mean NEVER, underestimate Doom. This man has taken down gods, robbed the Silver Surfer of his powers and once managed to become powerful enough to…to destroy the infinity stones.”

The room went cold at that.

“Doom finds a way. No matter what he’s up again, Doom will find a way to prevail. The only chance we have of beating him is his arrogance and his showboating. But you all listen and listen well. When we’re out there, I want you to fight with everything you have, no matter what he throws at you. Because if you don’t, then you won’t have to worry about what choice I will make. Doom will make it for me. Are we clear?”

Tony waited until every pony in the room nodded to him, before he looked off to the side where Starlight and Spike were standing. “I want the two of you here. Doom might try to take family as hostages and I don’t want to leave this place unguarded. Can I trust the two of you?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Spike asked, pointing towards a flying toaster that had been refitted with a stun stick. “He burns more than toast now. Trust us Tony, we’ve got this.”

“And the robot uprising begins,” Tony smiled before turning to Celestia. “Alright. Portal us.”

Celestia did just as Tony asked, opening up a portal to the forbidden lands. Twilight tried to go first, but Tony wasn’t going to let any of them fall into Doom’s traps. He leapt in first, landing in the middle of a forest that was…bizarre.

The trees reached out in all directions, but they all seemed to reach towards him once he landed. The air was thick with an unknown substance, one that even Jarvis didn’t recognize. But something about this place was familiar to him. He just couldn’t place it.

“This is it. The forbidden lands.” Tony turned to look back at the eight ponies, all of who were looking around. “You can all feel it, can’t you? How it messes with your magic? See, my portal has already fizzled out.”

“How can a place like this influence our magic so heavily?” Twilight asked as she held a hoof to her head. “It feels like my magic is being sapped away. How is that possible?”

“I do not know,” Celestia said.

“I do,” Tony said.

“How?”

“Follow me.”

Tony lead the group, using his suit to push through the foliage that reached out to grab him. He was right. The forest was trying to grab him. To stop him from advancing. He had seen this before. But after all this time? Tony continued to be surprised.

“What is the plan, Stark?” Celestia asked.

“Doom will most likely have robots or henchmen. I want you eight to deal with them,” Tony instructed. He held up a hand when the ponies started to argue. “Leave Doom to me. I have to be the one to face him…I need to. Trust me.”

“Alright. Doom’s all yours,” Twilight agreed. “Anything else we should know?”

“Doomsday machines. Doom loves those. If you see it, confer with me and then destroy it. But whatever you do, do not engage Doom. He has a portion of the Stones power after he…after he killed Discord.”

“HE WHAT?!” Fluttershy roared, shaking the forest. Everypony and person turned back to look at her. “He…did…what?”

“Well I’m glad surprise isn’t one of your Elements, because I’m fairly certain we just lost it,” Tony said, before sighing. “Yeah, Discord took on Doom. Doom won. And now Doom wields his power. Be angry after this is all over. Do not go in pissed against Doom. Trust me. If you want vengeance, then defeat him first. There is nothing Doom hates more than losing to those he sees as weaker than him…which is everyone.”

“Back to the subject at hoof, you said you knew how the forest was draining our magic? Can you elaborate on that detail?” Luna asked. Tony’s response was to look around the forest for a moment, before he fired a blast of crystal energy at something. He hit it and a moment later a stone that had been invisible fell to the ground.

“Anti-magic stones. I’m sure Strange had an actual name for them, but it was long and boring,” Tony replied. The moment the stone had been destroyed, the ponies felt like a pain had been alleviated from their heads.

“This…was something left by your ally from the past?” Luna asked, baffled. “How? How could it survive all these years? How could it survive Gaea and the infinity stones?”

“Strange was the craftiest bastard I had ever known. He would have found a way. The only reason I knew where it was hidden was I knew what to look for. Even with the stones, Gaea would have to look for them to see them. And I can see that he didn’t. Which means they’ve protected these lands for all this time.”

“Protected? Protected what?” Rarity asked.

The question was never answered, because at that moment the group walked upon a massive sphere dome. The dome was made of a black and purple material, that shimmered and pulsed as if it was alive. Celestia and Luna snarled while the rest of the group just stared.

“What is that?!” Applejack asked.

“That is the sphere. Or dome, if you’re Celestia,” Luna explained. “That is the sphere I talked about. That is what has kept ponies out for centuries. It goes all the way around and even underground. We cannot teleport past it. We cannot blast it. Whatever it is, it is beyond our power. But maybe with the power of the stones we can…”

Luna stopped talking as Tony walked up to the sphere. A smirk crossed his face as he placed a hand against it, chuckling to himself. “Even after all these years and the infinity stones, you still stand. The kingdom is still protected. Truly you were a brilliant man.”

“Tony…what are you doing”

Tony retracted his armored hand and placed it against the sphere. The sphere turned red for a moment in the area he was touching, before it turned into a bright blue.

‘Tony Stark. Iron Man. Access Granted…be behaved, Stark.’

And, to the utter amazement of the ponies, the sphere retracted a bit, allowing an entrance inside. Stark turned towards the amazed ponies, and motioned for them to come in.

“Welcome, everypony. Welcome to Wakanda.”

---=====---
Despite the land having been ruined a long time ago, Wakanda continued to impress Tony.

All around the group stood what had once been the mightiest nation on Earth. The buildings still stood strong, the roads were not touched by plant or floral life and Tony could pick up some machines that were still able to work, just having shut off due to lack of power. He had to hand it to T’Challa. When that man built something, he built it to last.

“Take a good look, girls. This might be the last human city still standing in the world,” Tony told the eight.

“Yet there are no traces of humanity,” Twilight pointed out, using her horn to scan the area. “Which meant that Gaea managed to get in here even with that impenetrable shield up. How would he…?”

“Again, even a shield of vibranium is no match for the stones power,” Tony sighed. “The space stone alone would allow him access. All six would make that shield fold like paper. My guess is he either snapped the people here out of existence or…”

Tony drifted off, his scanners telling him something. Something that he had never expected to sense. There something that was still giving off power. Something that, even after all this time, still burned. Was still working to this day. And if the scans were right…then he knew exactly what it was.

“Tony…why did you stop?” Pinkie asked.

“Because Gaea picked quite the place to throw out his trash,” Tony replied. But then his scanners picked up something else. A very familiar signature. One that could only belong to a single person. And as there was only one other person in this whole land… “Come on, he’s up ahead. And he’s not alone.”

The ponies nodded and followed after Tony, who lead them to a massive courtyard. There, sitting on the courtyard steps, sat Doom. Around him were numerous deer like beings, each of who was giving off a power that Tony didn’t like. The one at Doom’s right hand Tony liked the least. But the giant machine behind Doom? That was priority number one.

“Stark. I believe that I gave you five more days until we were supposed to meet here?” Doom asked. “The only reason that you would be here so early is that you have already made up your mind. You have come to a decision. So if you would please, Stark…”

“Tell me what your choice is.”

There wasn’t a single sound in the courtyard. Every being there, the deer, the ponies and even Doom silent awaited to hear what Tony had to say. For a moment, the Iron Man was silent. Then he looked up at Doom and a laugh escaped from him.

“Yeah, you gave me a week. And yeah, I came to a conclusion quicker than even I thought possible,” Tony admitted.

“And I take it by your tone that it is not what I wish to hear?”

“When is it ever. My answer, Victor Von Doom, is that I will not go along with your plan,” Tony spat. The deer next to Doom bristled, but Doom held up a hand to stop him. “I’m still going to save humanity, but not at the cost of the ponies and this world. At the cost of so many innocent. I’m going to save them all.”

Doom stared at Tony for a second before he shook his head, a sigh able to be heard.

“And how, will you manage that?” Doom asked. When Tony stayed silent, Doom rose to his feet, the power his stole from Discord blazing in his hands. Fluttershy went into her Rainbow mode at the sight, but Tony held out a hand to stop her.

“There are only some solutions that could save both and none of them are going to work. Create an alternate Earth and bring back everyone. That will not work. Fluttershy doesn’t have the strength and humanity would come back to wipe the ponies out, if Asgard or one of the other alien races unjustly killed finishes them off first. Both would still exist, but it would be a never ending cycle of violence and bloodshed. That is not how you work.”

“Bring the humans to Equestria? The two worlds could never coexist. We slaughter our own species. We could never live with those who wiped us out. Bring them back but erase their memories? No Stark, that would not be right. And even then, eventually it would be found out. No secret stays secret in our world for long.”

“Use the stones to create an alternate universe for one of our species to live in? The stones only work in this universe. The moment you sent either us or them to another universe, their power would end and whatever the stones had created or brought back, be it a pony world or a new humanity, would be gone.”

“And do not get me started on time travel. Any changes to the past would guarantee that these ponies you cherish so much would never come to exist. Even if they did, it would not be them. They would be different. Saving Gaea and stopping him from committing his actions would save humanity and possibly pony kind, but they would not be the same. You know this.”

“You’re right, I do,” Tony agreed.

“So is there any other outcome that I missed? Any grand plan of yours that I have not foreseen and utterly decimated?” Doom asked. “Unless you plan to use the stones for yourself? Oh ho ho ho, that would be something to see. How would Tony Stark recreate the world in his own image?”

“Tony would never do that! He’s a way nicer person than you!” Pinkie called out.

“No, I am just more honest than him. If I got the stones, I would save humanity and create the world in my own image. Tony would say he wouldn’t…but the stones do what the user desires…and you have some improvements you want to make, don’t you?”

Tony didn’t respond.

“That is why you haven’t tried to take them. Or why you denied allowing the ponies to give them to you. Because you know that no one should have that much power…except for me, off course.”

“So then we are right back where we started. With a single choice. Not the ponies or humanity. Before this day is done, humanity will be saved,” Doom promised. “But a question for you, Tony. Will you aid me in saving humanity, our people…your friends and loved ones? Or will you die trying to save a species that never deserved to exist at all?”

“So you’re not even going to hear my idea out?” Tony asked.

“No, Stark. Whatever idea you have come up with, Doom has already thought of and found useless,” Doom spat. “Now, decide. Will you be one of humanities greatest heroes…or will you die protecting those that soon no one but Doom will remember?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely-“

Iron Man lifted both arms and fired blasts of crystal beams towards Doom. Doom’s magic shield shot up, but in an instant the beams tore through the shield and blasted Doom in the chest. The dictator was ripped from the ground and hurled through the building behind him, while the deer watched with shock.

“That device is what Doom is going to use to open a portal into the past!” Tony roared to the ponies as his thrusters came to life. “Destroy it at any cost! I’ll make Doom-“

“No one makes Doom do anything,” Doom said as he reappeared in front of Tony. Iron Man had just enough time to let out a curse before Doom slammed a fist into Tony, tearing him out of the sky and sending him tumbling through the streets. The ponies let out a gasp as they tried to rush to his aid, but Doom snapped his fingers and a moment later six vortexs opened next to the wielders of the stones. The moment the portals appeared, each of the six deer tackled one the stone wielders through the vortex, which closed behind them.

“What did you do to them?” Iron Man demanded as he flew back up.

“Simple. The stones would only cause complications for this fight,” Doom said before he snapped his fingers. The machine next to him came to life, spinning and whirring in a way that made Tony’s teeth shake in his skull. “And even with the most powerful weapons in the universe, they are not fighters. They are not killers. My allies will hold them off just long enough for what needs to be done. Which gives me ample time to deal with you while you’re alone.”

Doom raised both hands and fired blasts of reality warping power towards Iron Man. Even with all of his suits upgrades, Tony knew getting hit by that much power would most likely kill him. But he had never intended for his suit to take the blast. Tony reached back and pulled out the shield he had re-forged, placing it between him and the blast.

Reality shaking power collided with a shield that would never yield and, to the amazement of both parties, the shield completely withstood the attack. Iron Man raised his eyes from behind the shield, their light going from blue to red.

“And that’s the one thing you’ve always gotten wrong about us, Doom. Is that just because we face you by ourselves means that we’re alone,” Tony began, before he fired a blast of his unibeam right into the back of the shield. The crystal parts of the shield glowed with an incredible light before firing a colossal blast of crystal energy into Doom. Doom had just enough time to swear before the blast hurled him through the city.

“But an Avenger is never alone!” Iron Man roared, firing his thrusters and taking off after Doom.

Doom met Tony in the air, unleashing blasts of energy from orbs that he summoned around him. Tony blocked each and every attack with the shield, Jarvis informing him where to block and at what angle. Missiles erupted from the back of Doom’s cloak and sailed towards Iron Man, but Iron Man pointed his wrist towards the oncoming missiles and fired a red laser that sliced them all out of the sky.

“FOOTDIVE!”

Iron Man raised the shield just in time to receive two boots to the shield. Doom engaged his own thrusters and sent the both of them plummeting down to the ground. Iron Man tried to fire his own thrusters to even things out, but it was clear he was being overpowered. The two slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of concrete and smoke.

Doom was back on his feet first. He lunged towards Tony, kicking the shield out of the way before grabbing hold of Iron Man’s head. Tony let out a scream as lightning and power flooded into his body, frying both his suit and him.

“One last chance, Stark! Aid me or die! It matters not to me!” Doom roared at Stark.

“But it matters to us!”

Doom looked to the side just in time to see a combined blast of lunar and solar magic collide with him. Doom snarled as he was driven back, constructing his magical shield around him to halt the princesses attacks.

“Stark, can you still stand?” Celestia asked Tony while they continued to pour their magic into Doom.

“Don’t…worry about me…stop the machine,” Tony spat out as he got back up.

“No. We shall not abandon you,” the sisters said. “You have stood by us all this time. Allow us to stand by you.”

“You two. Leave my sight,” Doom demanded. The princesses never got a chance to reply. Doom snapped his fingers and the two princess were hurled backwards, becoming one with the walls they were flung into. Doom then aimed his hand at Tony, but a crystal disc caught him in the chin and Doom staggered backwards with a snarl.

“This is between you and me, Doom!” Iron Man roared as he slammed into Doom, dragging the both of them through a building.

“No! You are an annoyance! They are the ones who took my world!” Doom snarled, backhanding Tony back out into the streets. Tony rolled up and fired his unibeam, but this time Doom appeared behind Tony and drove his hand through Iron Man’s back. Tony roared with pain as he felt metal being stripped away.

“Jarvis! NOW!”

Two plates on the back of the suit opened up and a moment later Doom’s face was consumed with blue fire. Doom roared as he staggered back, before Tony slammed the shield into Doom’s skull. Even Doom’s suit couldn’t protect completely from the blow and the tyrant staggered backwards.

“Time to end this,” Tony snarled, clasping his hands together. The armor began to fold together, forming together and growing large and larger until a massive, silver cannon rested on Tony’ shoulder. “PHOTON CANNON!”

Doom recovered just in time to be consumed in a blue pillar of energy, which ripped him from the ground and exploded in a pillar of light. Iron Man stared at the massive crater that he had created, returning his suit to normal with a wary expression on his face.

“Can you detect him, Jarvis?” Tony asked.

‘No, sir. It seems that you…behi-!’

Jarvis never got the chance to finish. Doom grabbed Tony by the helmet and ripped it clean off. Tony staggered backward and lifted his shield, but Doom stomped a foot and the ground wrapped up around Tony. With a roar, Tony freed himself, but not before Doom grabbed Tony by the face and threw him into the side of a building.

Tony coughed hard after he hit, spitting up blood onto the ground. He raised his shield for Doom’s follow up, just barely blocking the beams of yellow power that Doom rained down on him. The wall exploded behind him and a moment later Tony was hurled through the air, crashing down hard on the ground, the shield clattering away from him.

Tony reached out for the shield, but a boot slammed down on his hand. Tony slowly looked up to see Doom glaring down at him.

“You have chosen poorly. And here I thought,” Doom stared, pointing his hand at Tony. “That you were smarter than that.”

“I’ve got something better than smarts,” Tony spat. Doom titled his head, before a blast of power rocketed him back. Doom regained his fitting, creating a barrier just in time to barely deflect numerous attacks. “I’ve got friends.”

Doom snapped his head to the sky to see six ponies floating them, each of them glowing with a rainbow power. The power of the Infinity Stones. And even Doom, who had face beings like Galactus without a trace of fear, felt a single bead of sweat roll down his face.

“What…but how? I was certain-“

“We were told not to underestimate you, Doom. But it seems you made a blunder yourself. You underestimated us,” Twilight said, her voice warping time around her.

“You thought that just because we’re a bunch of friendly and peace loving ponies that we wouldn’t do whatever it takes to save our world. Like killing your allies,” Fluttershy said and Doom felt every word in his soul. “Well you’re right. So we didn’t kill them. We talked to them.”

“We showed them what was on the line. And when they realized what yer actual goal was, how ya didn’t care for them…well, they jumped ship pretty quickly,” Applejack snarled, her power shaking the heavens.

“We know what’s on the line. And we’re ready to sacrifice ourselves to save humanity if need be,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice being heard all through space. “But not if it’s you. Never you.”

“We could never trust you. But we trust Tony,” Pinkie said, her voice ripping reality to pieces. “He’s nice. You’re not. End of story.”

“So enjoy your final moments, darling,” Rarity growled and Doom saw what was about to happen to him within the depths of his mind. “Because in a moment you will see what it’s like to cease to be. It’s better than you deserve.”

“You…you would use the stones power to erase me?” Doom asked, fear in his voice. The ponies all nodded down at him, no mercy on their faces.

“You threaten all of us. And unlike Tony, you don’t care what your actions hold. You seek not to save humanity, but to subjugate it. Like Sombra. Like Chrysalis. Like Tirek,” Twilight snarled as she and her friends began to glow even brighter.

“So you unleash the power of the stones,” Doom whispered…before a cold smile crossed his face. “Finally.”

Tendrils of energy erupted from the machine, stabbing each of the six in the back. All six ponies screamed as the tendrils ripped into them, causing their light to be pulled into the machine. And then, to the absolute horror of Tony, Doom began to glow slightly…in six different colors.

“No…” Tony whispered.

“Indeed, Stark. This device was designed to look and give off the same energy as a time machine…but in reality it is so much more,” Doom began as he looked at the power radiating from his hands. “And now reality…can be whatever Doom wishes it to be.”

“NO!” Tony roared, hurling himself towards Doom. Doom waved his hand and blasted Tony back, the Iron Avenger crashing into the ground as his suit crumbled away into dust.

“Hmm, that was supposed to erase you from existence. It seems that Doom does not have the full power yet…but he has enough,” Doom said, before pointing his hand at Tony. “Goodbye, Stark.”

Doom fired a rainbow-colored blast towards Tony, but a moment later Tony vanished. Doom sighed before he turned to face the princesses, who were glaring at him with Tony on Luna’s back.

“You two,” Doom said. “Why bother? You know the power of the stones. You know what they can do. Just as you know you have no chance of stopping me, just like you failed to stop all of the other threats that attacked your lands. You may be the most miserable excuse for leaders that Doom has ever had the pleasure of crushing.”

“Spit your words all you like, villain. You will fall,” Luna snarled. She tried to take a step forward, but Doom held out his hand and Luna was suddenly frozen in place.

“Silence, vermin. Allow Doom to explain what he is about to do,” Doom said. “Doom will use the power of the stones to tear apart your whole world, slaughtering each and every one of you just as Gaea did when he had the stones. Each and every one of your subjects will feel the same fear and pain that my people felt before they were erased.”

“You…monster…” Luna spat. Doom waved his hand once more and Tony floated off of Luna’s back, where he hung beside her.

“Do unto others. A phrase from my world. And I will do exactly to your ponies what was done to us,” Doom snarled. “I will wipe them all out while you two watch. The two of you, who descended from the pony who wiped out a race far better than he would ever be, will watch helpless as your world burns. As your subjects die screaming. As your six precious protectors…are burned away by the very same power they used to protect you.”

“And you Stark, you shall watch it all. Cursing your weakness. Cursing yourself for daring to stand against Doom. For if you had joined me, you would have lived. But now you will die with them. You will watch along with the princesses as this world is-“

“Enough.”

Doom turned his gaze to Celestia, who was staring at the ground as her whole body shook. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet Doom. And her eyes were filled with a fury that could match the sun.

“Enough. I am tired of hearing this. How Gaea’s sins are our fault. How somehow my ponies are responsible for what happened to humanity! How we must be punished for Gaea’s sins!” Celestia roared. “Am I sorry for what happened? Do I believe that humanity should be brought back?! The answer is yes to both! Ever since learning what Gaea did my heart has been ripped apart into pieces as I debated what should be the call. What would be the right thing to do. And to know that my kingdom of friendship and harmony was built of pain and death is something that will haunt the rest of my life, however long that is.

“But if you think for a moment I will allow you to make my ponies suffer, to make my beloved student watch as you tear apart her world, as you destroy the human who was willing to fight for us…then you are clearly as insane as Tony said! We may be erased by Tony, but until then I am still protector of this world! I am still their princess! And I will fight you!”

“Hmph, nothing but words,” Doom snarled, aiming a hand at Celestia before he fired. “Die.”

The sky opened up as the earth exploded and a massive bolt of lightning detonated on Celestia, consuming the princess in a torrent of lightning and power. Luna and the other ponies screamed out for Celestia, but then, to their amazement, the princess of the sun did not seem affected by the thunder and lightning. Then something burst forth from the ground beneath her, tearing apart the area, and flew into Celestia’s grasp. Something that looked like…a hammer.

“No,” Doom whispered.

“Indeed,” Celestia said as all the thunder and lightning was sucked into her body, forming armor around her. Her body was covered in a silver armor with black covering, a red cape flowed down her back and she wore a helmet with wings on either side. She took a moment to gaze down at the hammer, before a wicked smile crossed her face and she returned her gaze to Doom.

“And it seems the gods are in agreement with me. That you must be stopped. Now then, Doom…HAVE AT THEE!”

Celestia let out an unholy scream as she hurled herself towards Doom, who had just enough time to raise his arms before solid uru slammed into his, sending him rocketing across the city. Doom returned a moment later, firing blasts of infinite power towards Celestia. He wasn’t worried in the slightest about Mjolnir. He had planned a long time ago how to kill Thor if the day ever came and he was ready for her.

Then Celestia used her magic to teleport from his sight and his plans went out the window.

The hammer slammed into Doom from behind and he whipped around to face Celestia, only to find that she wasn’t there. Confusion spread across his face before magic blasted him in the back, getting him to curse as he spun around, only for Mjolnir to slam into his face. He glanced around to see that not only was Celestia teleporting around, but she was also teleporting around Mjolnir as well, making it impossible for him to figure out where it was coming from. Not that he needed to.

Doom slammed his hands together and his body glowed red, rippling reality all around him. He lashed out with his hand and ripped the Princess of Thunder from her spell, grabbing her by the throat. He raised his other hand, which shifted to green, before he plunged his hand towards her heart.

Then a colossal blast of magical lightning obliterated him and sent him plunging to the depths of Wakanda. Celestia took only a moment to grab Mjolnir from the air before she plunged down the crater after him.

“Ha! Go Celestia! Show that Doom what happens when you mess with Equestria!” Luna laughed, cheering on her sister. She then looked down at Tony, who was struggling to get back up to his feet. “Lean on me Stark, you are injured. We should find you someplace to hide. Doom completely destroyed your suit.”

“Should be dead…Doom doesn’t…have full power,” Tony wheezed out.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked, her heart going cold.

“Doom was trying to kill me there. And if he had the full power of the stones, I’d be dead,” Tony explained, looking down the crater where Doom and Celestia had vanished. “Which means he can only access a fraction of the power right now. It’s the only reason Celestia is able to fend him off. Maybe Twilight and her friends are holding him back. Maybe Gaea’s spell of worthiness is buying us time. But either way, in a few minutes, he’ll have the full power of the stones…and then this is over.”

“What do we do?”

“I need to deactivate that machine…but that will take me at least five to ten minutes at best. And by then…” Tony began, looking down at the floor as he pushed his mind to its limit. Then a bitter look crossed his face and he turned to walk off.

“Where are you going?”

“There’s something here that might give me the chance to fight back against Doom, even with the stones,” Tony explained, before he wheezed and collapsed to his knees.

“Tony, you are injured and you are needed to turn off that machine. Let me take whatever it is that can hold off Doom,” Luna said, but Tony looked at her with fear.

“No! What I am about to do…I could never ask of anyone. Especially not someone like you,” Tony wheezed.

“Then do not ask it of me. Tell me where it is and how to get to it while you save Twilight and the others,” Luna demanded, sighing when Tony hesitated. “Tony, we do not have time for this. Every second we argue is a second Doom grows stronger. You could get this item yourself, but then you wouldn’t be turning off the machine. And even with this item, there’s no guarantee you will win. And if you fall, we’re all goners. So please. Let me do this. Let me make up for trying to destroy my sister all those years ago.”

Tony heard the tone in her voice. The very same tone that he felt echo in his soul everyday. Ever since his eyes had been opened to the pain he had caused. With a bitter sigh, he pulled out his Avengers card and handed it to Luna.

“Tallest building in the city. Not to far from here. Floor twenty. You’ll know it when you see…and Luna? I’m so sorry.”

Luna took the card without saying anything in reply. She used her magic to move Tony closer to the machine before she took to the skies and followed his directions. Tony watched her go for a second before he hobbled over to the machine, looking for any access point. A keyboard on the exterior was his only way in, so he narrowed his eyes and began to get to work.

He hacked the computer as fast as he could, but Doom’s tech was leagues above his. Every time he thought he had a way in, the system rerouted and forced him to start at the beginning. Each failure frustrated him, as well as told him the seconds were ticking down.

What also didn’t help was the way the ground shook and cracked open as Celestia and Doom continued their battle beneath the city. Lightning exploded around Tony, things vanished as if they had been snapped, and reality warped around him. Tony had been around Thor long enough to not jump at close lightning strikes, but he was still getting unnerved. Both at the world changing by Doom’s power around him and how the lightning seemed to be striking less frequently.

Then there was the deer standing next to him who constantly shifted between forms.

“Not going to try to stop me?” Tony asked, making sure the Deer knew Tony was keep an eye on him.

“I am not here to fight you. And I know you’re not smart enough to stop Doom,” the deer replied, until he looked like a seahorse.

“I’m not smart enough? Do you even know what Doom plans to do?” Tony spat. “Doom is going to go back in time to stop your entire world from being created. He is going to prevented Equis from being made. You and all of your friends and family will never exist!”

“…My mother was killed when I was three by a dark wolf,” the deer replied. “My father followed suit a few moments later. And then my older sister. My entire family gone, in just a matter of seconds.”

“Oh.”

“And the worst part was, while I was sad, I got over it quickly. Because that is how it’s always been in our land. Just a few days later, my best friend and his father were killed while they were hunting berries. That’s how it’s always been for our kind. And how I thought it always would be.”

“But then one day I found a metal man lying unconscious on the ground. And I helped him. My mom always told me to help others. It’s all I remember about her. And so I helped him. And Doom saved us. He struck down all of our foes. He drove the predators from our lands…he gave us the power to save ourselves.”

“And yes, I know what Doom is trying to do. He’s going to go back and prevent this world from being created. By saving humanity. By ruling over them so they will never have to suffer like I did. He will create a better world. A world where a beings family isn’t slaughtered in front of their very eyes.”

“…I’m sorry about your family. I should have been there. I should have saved them.”

The deer looked at Tony for a long moment before he let out a small chuckle, shaking his head as he did so.

“You truly are sorry. Sorry about a tragedy that took place so many years in the future. Something you couldn’t have possibly prevented.”

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have been there.”

“Yeah, you’re exactly like Doom said you are. Brilliant, charismatic and a fool who follows his heart even when his brain knows what to do…I like you, Stark. That’s why I’m not going to stop you,” the deer said, before he looked slightly past Tony. “That and because, this is already over. But I enjoyed talking with you.”

Before Tony could answer, Doom burst forth from the street and hurled a bloodied Celestia onto the ground. Celestia came to a stop a few feet away from Tony, who didn’t dare look up incase his latest hacking attempt was ruined.

“And with this, it ends,” Doom snarled, floating down next to Celestia before glancing over at Stark, who didn’t look up at him. “Ah Stark, defiant to the end. I predicted you would try to get into my machine, so I made sure to have it designed specifically to keep you out. However, it seems that once again I have underestimated you. You made it farther than I believed you would.”

Tony didn’t dare answer. He needed just a few more moments. A few more minutes. And he could reverse it. He could save the ponies and cut off Doom’s connection to the infinity stones. So he prayed. Prayed that Doom would monologue. Pray that Doom would boast and brag and…heaven forgive him…take his time killing Celestia. Because Tony needed time. And he knew it was about to run out.

“But it all ends the way I knew it would. With the ponies champions broken at my feet. With their princesses revealing just how useless they are. And you Stark, desperately trying for one more chance to stop me,” Doom sneered, glaring at Tony as he did. “I gave you a chance, Stark. A chance to finally make up for you past. To be the hero you truly wished to be. But you had to follow your heart. You had to try to save these vermin. And you will die with them because of it.”

Just a little longer. Tony just needed a little longer.

“Doctor Doom?” the deer said, turning Doom’s gaze towards him. “You’re monologuing. You need to finish them off before Stark gets into your system.”

“Hm, thank you Ashgrove. You have always stood faithfully by my side,” Doom said, before he pointed his hand down at Celestia. “And as for you, die knowing that you have failed. You world will be erased, your human ally will die for you and your precious ponies will be slaughtered by my hand. And best of all, your sister has run off, abandoning you in your hour of-“

A colossal explosion shook not only the city, not only the world, but the entire cosmos to its core. Doom whipped his head around to where the explosion had come from, his eyes going wide with terror as he realized what had just happened. And even with all the power of infinity at his fingertips, even he didn’t know if he was ready for the midnight alicorn that floated above him…with her flaming blue skull.

“VICTOR VON DOOM OF LATVERIA! YOUR SINS ARE INNUMERABLE! I AM HERE TO WREAK VENGEANCE UPON! YOUR! SOUL!”

Hellfire erupted from Luna as she screamed towards Doom, blue fire blazing in the sky behind her. Doom unleashed all of the might of the power stone he had absorbed into her, but the Ghost Mare plowed through it and slammed into him, rocketing the both of them into the sky.

Doom snapped his fingers and escaped her grasp, appearing away from her before crushing his grip together as he collapsed space and time on top of her. Yet from the depths of the universal collapse, all Doom could hear was the sound of Luna laughing, a laugh that sounded like the combined voice of every person he had killed. And it did not phase him. The blue hellfire that nearly burned off his right arm did give him a moment to pause.

Tony watched the battle for a moment with sad eyes, knowing he was responsible for Luna’s fate…what she had to give up for that kind of power. He then shook his head and returned to the machine, which he still had yet to crack.

“Come on,” he growled, trying everything he knew. “Come on! Work, dammit! I have done everything right! Figured out all of his coding and bypassed it perfectly! So how in the hell does this machine still-?”

“GRAH!”

Tony yelped and leapt back as Celestia drove Mjolnir right into the keyboard, shattering it and powering off the machine. With the machine deactivated, Twilight and her friends fell to the ground, where they all let out a weak groan. Tony tried to head over to them, but Celestia held out a wing to stop him.

“My sister…what has become of her?” Celestia asked weakly.

“She…she has become the Ghost Rider,” Tony replied, looking away. “The Spirit of Vengeance. To save you from Doom she acquired a near unbeatable power…at the cost of her soul. Celestia, I am so-“

“She sold her soul once before when she became Nightmare Moon. And I was unable to save her. I was not even there for her,” Celestia spat, before she looked up towards the sky, where Doom had Luna entwined in chains. “But I can be there for her now. I will not let her be alone in this fight. I will save her…no matter the cost.”

Celestia then swung Mjolnir and ascended into the sky to fight alongside her sister, causing the entire cosmos to be illuminated by flashes of lightning and blasts of hellfire. Tony watched for only a moment before he was at Twilight’s side, shaking her awake.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Tony asked her. Twilight let out a groan as she opened her eyes, the rest of her friends following suit.

“Tony…ugh, what happened to us? And why are you out of your suit?” Twilight asked.

“Doom stole your power. He has…some of the power of the infinity stones in the palm of his hands. And even though it might, at best, be half, he it still by far the most powerful being here,” Tony explained. As if to prove his point, a moment later Celestia and Luna came crashing down out of the sky. Celestia crashed through a building in the distance and Luna exploded through the Wakandan capitol.

“Yeah, ah can feel it. Feel mah power in him,” Applejack agreed.

“I can feel all of our power in there. And it is terrifying,” Rarity added on. “Is that what our full Rainbow Power feels like. It’s like…he can split open reality with a thought. Rewrite the whole cosmos in his image. Become a god.”

“He pretty much is,” Tony agreed.

“Doesn’t matter. We’ve taken on beings like him before and won…and we’ll do it again,” Rainbow Dash promised.

“Against that kind of power? How can we win against that?” Fluttershy asked. “He’s a god. He has all of our power and he knows how to use it! And unlike us…he is perfectly willing to kill every being on this planet to win. How to we win against that?”

“I know it seems impossible, but trust me, you’ll have-“ Tony began.

“The same way we beat Sombra. And Tirek. And every other meanie that has tried to ruin our Saturday’s. Together,” Pinkie said as she stuck her hoof out. “Yeah, he’s got infinite power, control of space, able to do all sorts of timey wimey stuff and a whole bunch of others things. But I’ve got you girls with me. And that’s all I’ve ever needed.”

Her friends all smiled at her and placed their hooves together, all six, sharing their infinite power between them. A rainbow light erupted from them, revealing their rainbow forms. All of the ponies ascended to the sky, save Twilight, who turned to look back at Tony.

“Tony? What were you going to say?”

“Nothing Twilight. Nothing you guys didn’t already know,” Tony replied with a smirk. “Go on. Beat him. Save your world. And do it together. Because together, you can beat the forces of evil that no lone hero can handle. Avengers Assemble.”

“Avengers Assemble? What does that mean?”

“It means good luck. And together…you’ve got this.”

Twilight smiled back at Tony before she ascended to the sky next to her friends, the six of them staring down Doom. Doom opened his mouth to begin to say something, but Twilight held out a hoof to stop him.

“Save it. Let’s get this done.”

“For the first time, pony…I agree with you.”

And then all of infinity was let loose.

With a snap of his fingers Doom willed the ponies out of existence, yet to his annoyance the rainbow ponies didn’t even budge. They did, however, fire back with a beam of rainbow energy that it was in Doom’s best interest to avoid. Doom did so by shifting space so that the beam moved past him.

“Sorry pal, but you’re in my airspace!”

Doom had enough time to register the words before Rainbow Dash slammed into his side, hurtling him down towards the ground. He spun on her and fired a blast of pure power at her chest, but a moment later AJ was there and took the full blast herself.

“Call that power? Mah little sister hits harder!” AJ roared as she swung a hoof towards Doom.

Doom responded by constructing a barrier of reality, yet to his horror he found that he had created a barrier of cheese instead. Which AJ then punched clean through. Doom saved himself by warping away, only to find a pink pony resting on his shoulder.

“Looky here, mister, I don’t like to get violent but-“

Doom grabbed the pink pony and blasted her with all of the power he had. Yet with a snarl he looked down and found that she was standing amongst her friends. Doom snapped his fingers and froze time solid, yet a moment later a violet light went off and time resumed its course.

“You are beginning to annoy me, creatures,” Doom spat, crushing his hands together to crush the reality around the ponies. But their light glowed as one and a moment later his power was pushed back against. The two sides were even.

“Well we’re well past annoyed with you,” Twilight spat, she and her friends drawing forth their infinity strength and hurling it all towards Doom. Doom created another barrier and deflected the attack, though from the way he shook in the process it was clear to the girls that he was struggling.

“Rarity, anything?” Twilight asked as the pushed Doom back.

“I…I can’t, Twilight. Even with all of my power, I can’t see into his mind,” Rarity gasped, amazed by what was happening. “He’s not even using my stone’s power to resist me. It’s…pure willpower.”

“Well then that’s out of the equation,” Dash said. “What’s the plan, Twi? We’re pretty evenly matched here!”

“No, we’re not,” Fluttershy muttered, turning her friends gaze towards them. “We hold the true power of the stones, so we should have an advantage over him. But even though he has less power, he’s matching us with sheer cunning and skill. The longer this goes on, the less I like our chances. It’s like Tony said. Doom’s smarter than us all.”

“Then how do we outsmart him?” Twilight asked.

“We don’t, Twi. Ah say we do the opposite…and get a little crazy.”

All five sets of eyes turned towards Pinkie all at once. And she smiled in reply.

“You ponies have annoyed me for long enough!” Doom roared, momentarily stopping time so that he could build up a ball of collapsed reality fueled by multiple big bangs. “Doom was willing to simply return to the past and let you be wiped out, but now I will make you suffer! Now I will-“

Doom was ready for almost anything. The power of the stones. Thor’s hammer choosing a new host. Even the Ghost Rider. But what Doom was not ready for was when he looked to the side to see a gator riding a cheesecake that was the size of a moon.

“What the f-“

Doom was quickly buried by all the cheesecake he could ever want (he didn’t want any), which also gave the ponies a moment to collect their thoughts and plan out their next move.

“That won’t hold him for long!” Pinkie called out to her friends, using her power over reality to keep the cheesecake from being destroyed by Doom.

“Twi, we need a plan!” Dash yelled.

“I don’t have one. We need Tony to…wait, where’s Tony?” Twilight asked, looking around.

“I don’t see him. He didn’t get caught up in the battle, did he?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he-“

“Thar she blows!”

An explosion of cheesecake went off and Pinkie was knocked out of the sky, landing herself next to her friends as Doom ascended into the sky. The tyrant glared down at them, his power radiating at the same intensity as the ponies. Twilight and her friends didn’t give him an inch, glaring back at him as they channeled their own power and matched his might. For a long moment, both sides stared at each other. Then Doom nodded his head.

“Ashgrove. Now.”

A wave of…something exploded from Ashgrove, causing the ponies to cry out in pain. Their infinite power faded and they clutched their hooves to their heads. The pain faded after a moment, but to their horror they looked down at themselves to find that their power was gone. Twilight snapped her eyes towards Doom to see that he too had lost the stones power. Yet he was still smiling.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked.

“The Infinity Stones only work in their own reality or dimension. So I infused Ashgrove with the power to warp the multiverse. At least in the area equivalent to the size of a city,” Doom explained, pointing to Ashgrove who looked like a hundred different beings all in one. “My last resort in case I could not find a way to defeat your stones power. Now neither side has the power of the stones.”

“Are you an idiot? Those stones were the only chance you had against us!” Dash laughed, stretching her neck. “Now we can take you down without-“

Dash’s head snapped back as Doom appeared in front of her, driving his knee into her skull. He whipped around and lashed out with a kick that caught AJ in the side of the head, knocking her flat to the ground. Yellow bolts of energy slammed into Pinkie and hurled her across the street, before Doom punched Rarity in the jaw with such force that her horn cracked. Then he turned towards Fluttershy.

Fluttershy barely had time to let out a yelp before Doom grabbed her by the throat and twisted, smiling as he did so. Yet instead of hearing a snap, Fluttershy vanished from his hands and appeared next to Twilight, the only pony still standing.

“And so it comes down to you. Your kind is nothing without the power of the stones,” Doom snarled.

“Do not think for a moment that I am afraid of you,” Twilight said, crouching down. “And do not think for a moment that you are going to win.”

“You are right. It will not be for a moment. For Doom always wins.”

Twilight let out a scream as she fired a beam of magic at Doom, but Doom took to the air to avoid the blast. He then stuck out both feet and rocketed down towards Twilight. Twilight shielded herself from the footdive, but when Doom hit he bounced off and fire plasma beams into her shield. Twilight gritted her teeth as her barrier began to fall, but she buckled down and infused it with even more power.

Then the bug on Fluttershy’s neck let out a massive amount of electricity and Twilight screamed as all of it went into her. Twilight let out a gasp before she fell to the ground, her body shaking in pain. Doom looked around at all of the defeated ponies before he marched up to Twilight, driving his boot onto her chest and glaring into her eyes.

“It is over. Your princesses are bested. Your friends are beaten. And soon you and the rest of your world shall die,” Doom told her. Twilight spat in return. Doom channeled his gauntlet with energy and aimed it at Twilight’s heart. “So in your final moments, I want you to know this is what happens when you mess with humanity. When you mess with Doom. You lose.”

Rainbow Dash was the only one who was getting up. The only one who saw what Doom was about to do. She needed to get there. But she wasn’t fast enough. She knew this. Doom would kill Twilight before she had gotten off the ground. The world slowed to a standstill as her brain fired as quickly as it could, trying to think of an answer. She needed to go faster to save her friend.

So she would. Whatever it took.

Faster than ever possible, Dash poured every ounce of herself into her speed. Her natural magic. Her Elements magic. What ever power she had left of the stone. And she poured it all into her wings. She kicked off…and was at Doom in an instant.

Doom whipped around and lashed out with his hand, but Rainbow Dash weaved around it and drove her head into Doom’s face. Normally flesh lost to metal, but Dash had been going headfirst through nearly everything all her life. This was nothing. Dash gritted her teeth and slammed her skull once more into Doom’s face, getting Doom to stagger.

She came around again and Doom lashed out, but his hand went clean through her…before she vanished. He had struck her after image. Dash then began to bombard Doom from all sides, at speeds that even she could barely keep up with. At speeds that made tore her muscles apart, that made her body scream in agony…and made even the light around her blur. But she couldn’t keep it up for long. And she wouldn’t have to.

A lasso wrapped itself around Doom’s leg and pulled hard, ripping Doom from his feet and dropping both him and Twilight. Doom snarled as he snapped the rope before he spun and lunged towards AJ, slamming his fist into her hooves. He channeled all of his plasma might into her body, yet she refused to budge. Refused to fall. For despite all the pain Doom was inflicting upon her, in that moment AJ was thinking of the family she lost and the family she might lose if Doom won. An agony unmatchable. And compared to that, Doom’s energy was nothing.

“What is happening?” Doom asked before a blast of magic caught him in the back, knocking him away from Applejack. Doom swung around to see Rarity grab ahold of Twilight, helping the princess to her hooves. Rarity’s horn was cracked, blood was pouring from her nose, yet as Doom shot plasma bolts at her she maintained an elegance and grace as she summoned crystals that deflected the attacks.

“What’s happening, Doom? What’s happening is that you’re losing,” Twilight spat, but a smile was on her face.

They were going beyond his calculations. Doom had learned about them, studied them and figured them out perfectly. The stones they wielded were the only threat. But now, as Dash somehow pushed herself to speeds Doom couldn’t react to, as AJ reached a strength that he never could have seen, as Rarity deflected each of his attacks perfectly, he realized the truth. They were more than their stones. And he had underestimated them terribly.

But he was Doom. And Doom never lost.

“Doom is not losing! Doom never loses! Especially to a group of ignorant, weak ponies!” Doom roared as he lifted his hands, conjuring a massive ball of plasma the size of a house. “And in a moment, Doom shall erase you from-“

Doom’s words were cut off as his chest piece began to crack. A single crack began to form up the center, the metal began to bend outward…before a pair of pink hooves ripped the metal wide open.

“HERE’S PINKIE!”

Doom roared as Pinkie emerged from his chest, spewing frosting, before she leapt out and landed in front of him. Doom aimed his hands at her and fired his energy beams, but only bubbles came out instead. Doom looked at his hands in disbelief before he looked up at Pinkie.

“No, I know I deactivated the stones power. So how can you…?”

“Please, like I need some stone to mess with you,” Pinkie giggled. “I’ve been messing with reality long before I got my stone. Let’s get em girls.”

The ponies attacked all at once. Doom raised his hands and fired blasts of energy at them, but Twilight created a shield that blocked all of his attacks. Somehow her shield was even stronger than before. With all her friends at her side, she was gaining a new strength.

Dash was on him before he could react, driving her hooves into his exposed chest with the fury of a hurricane. Applejack followed suit, leaping into the air and driving both of her hind hooves right into his chest. The sound of ribs breaking could be heard for miles.

Rarity stomped her hoof and crystals came out of the ground, entangling Doom’s feet and rooting him in place. Fluttershy and Pinkie both ensnared his arms, one with vines the other with licorice, and held him in place. With his strength he would be free in just a moment. But a moment was all Twilight need.

With a scream that could be heard in the heavens she unleashed all of her magic into Doom’s chest, causing him to roar as he was sent rocketing back. He crashed into the side of a building made of vibranium, causing him to stop dead. He then fell to his knees, using all of his willpower to keep from falling over completely. He raised his head and glared at the six, who were standing triumphantly across from him.

“I…am impressed,” Doom admitted, hacking up some blood. “The Avengers…the X-Men…even Reed and his family…yet you did something they could not. You managed to best me, for a moment. I am curious to know how?”

“The same way we’ve handled everything else thrown at us. Together,” Twilight said. For a moment Doom looked at them, before he let out a small chuckle.

“I see. Ashgrove, return the stones power to me.”

The ponies snapped their head over to the deer, who let out another scream as he thrust his appendages forward, a rainbow circle appearing around him. But before any of the ponies could do anything, two repulsor beams struck Ashgrove in the back, slamming him to the ground and canceling out his power.

“What in the blazes is that?” Applejack asked.

Twilight and the others looked over to see a suit walking towards them. It was massive, composed of a very old metal and was held together with motors, gears and hydraulics. Compared to every other suit they had seen, it was a hunk of junk, but there was no mistaking the blue circle in the chest or the faceplate that covered the man within.

“Tony?” Twilight asked. “That’s an…uh, interesting suit.”

“This is the Mark 1. My very first suit. And the only suit of mine to survive all these years in the future without maintenance,” Tony explained, looking down at it with a smile. “The only one to answer my call. Just took it a while to get here. I call her old reliable.”

“Call it whatever you want Stark. For in a moment it shall not matter!” Doom said, racing towards Ashgrove. “For once I have the stones power-“

Doom was tackled in the side by the Iron Avenger, who used his suits weight to pin Doom. Doom struggled and would be free in a moment, but Tony only needed a moment.

“Girls! Take your power back!” Tony roared. “Gaea set it all up so that it would be yours and yours alone. Doom managed to take a piece. Show him what the original looks like!”

The girls all nodded to each other before they focused on Doom, willing the stones, it’s power…their power out of him. Doom began to howl with agony as rainbow lights erupted from his eyes and mouth, the power returning to those that truly deserved to wield it. After a few moments Doom collapsed and the ponies burned with their full power.

“Oh yeah, it’s good to be back!” Dash laughed. Fluttershy let her stones power glow and a moment later her friends were all healed from their injuries. Then the six ponies glared down at Doom, who had just managed to hurl Tony off of him.

“And you even got the stones power back. I very clearly underestimated you,” Doom said before he nodded. “Ashgrove.”

Ashgrove let out a snarl before his body shifted once more, creating a rippling blast that stopped the stones power for a moment. And in that moment Ashgrove shoved his hooves forward and ripped open a portal in time, a portal back into the past. Doom was at the portal in a moment, taking only a second to glare back at the ponies.

“Doom may have lost the battle. But he shall win the war!”

Doom was gone a moment later. Ashgrove then collapsed to the ground, having spent everything he had. For a moment it looked like the portal was going to close, but then Twilight’s horn glowed and she managed to keep the vortex open.

“I’ve…got it! I can stop this! I can crush Doom in the time rift,” she told the others. She then looked up at Tony uncertainty in her eyes. “Should I do it?”

“We don’t have time to wait around! Every second we delay is another second Doom gets closer to his past and when he gets there, it’s over!” Rarity exclaimed. “Close it now!”.

“Tony?” Twilight asked with a bit of fear.

“Don’t, Twilight. Let him go back. Let me go back,” Tony asked. The ponies looked at him like he was crazy. “I know this is asking a lot of you. I know that by all rights you should close the rift and be done with it. But I’m asking you to trust me. I have a plan. And if it works…then maybe I can save everyone.”

“If…how much of an if are we talking about here?” Rarity asked. When Tony didn’t answer, she glared at him. “In terms of percentages, how much of a chance are we talking about?”

“Let’s just say most calculators don’t go that far into decimals,” Tony replied with a smirk. Tony then snapped his head towards the portal, seeing things begin to go white around it. “Twilight, please. Trust me. As your friend, I promise…I promise I’ll set things right.”

Twilight looked at Tony for a moment, before looking at her friends. One by one, they all smiled and nodded to her. Twilight smiled back, a bitter but happy smile, before she looked up to Tony and nodded.

“Go.”

Tony turned and took off towards the portal, firing up his thrusters and diving inside. And everything went white.

“DOOM!”

Somehow, even within the time stream, Doom turned around to look at Tony. His eyes went wide for a moment when he saw the Iron Avenger coming towards him, but that lasted for only a moment. Doom let out a roar as he lunged towards Tony, who responded in kind. The two of them collided within the time vortex, creating shatters of light and reality that swirled around them.

“What is your game, Stark?!” Doom roared as he slammed a fist into Tony’s face. “You failed to stop me in the future. And even if you follow me to the past, destruction for Equis is all that awaits! There is no way to win!”

“Of course you would think that! If it’s not your way, then it’s the wrong way!” Tony yelled back, blasting Doom in the face with blast of energy. “You may be the smartest man I know, but you’re so blinded by your own ego that you never pay attention to the world around you!”

“I care not what you think of me! All I care about is saving humanity!” Doom roared, tackling Tony in the gut and rocketing them both into the side of the time vortex. Tony roared with pain as time ripped through him, doing things to his body he didn’t even want to know about.

Tony broke free from Doom’s grip and grabbed him by his face, which he then drove into the time vortex. Doom roared as time slashed through his face, aging or reversing it as time saw fit. Tony planted a hand on Doom’s chest and unleashed all of the electricity in his suit into Doom. Doom roared in pain before he reached up and ripped Tony’s metal arm off of his body.

Tony looked down at his exposed hand before he slammed his other fist into Doom’s chest, turning up the heat and burning Doom. Doom retaliated with blasts of plasma that tore of chunks of the Iron Man suit and knocking Tony back in the process.

“You were always jealous of my intellect, Stark,” Doom seethed as he stared down his foe. “Jealous that I always did what you could not. Build, design…rule…I can do it all. You cannot even manage one.”

“You’re right. I am jealous of your intellect. How you can make things that defy logic, how you can master the mystic arts in ways I wish I could wrap my head around,” Tony replied, before narrowing his eyes. “But the one thing I will never envy is how you treat others. How you see yourself as so far above them. That they are nothing more than pawns in your game.”

“As you all are.”

“But do you know what happens to a pawn when it reaches the end of the board? It becomes so much greater. It becomes the strongest piece. All those people you put beneath you, all those that you criticize…they have the potential to be greater than us.”

“You cannot be-“

And then a flash of white consumed them both.

=====----=====

Tony awoke with a groan. He coughed up something that he knew wasn’t blood and forced himself to get up. Everything in his body hurt and his muscles screamed in defiance when he pushed himself upwards. He had been laying face down in a grassy field, with what used to be the Mark 1 scattered around him. Tony raised his head slightly…and saw a jet pass by far overhead.

“I’m home,” he whispered.

“Not long before Gaea get’s the stones,” Doom corrected.

Tony snapped his head down to see Doom was also getting up. The metal armor of his suit had also been torn away by the time travel, leaving him with only his green cloak to wrap around himself. He glared at Tony with his scarred face, his eyes still blazing power.

“It is over, Stark. We are in the past. And regardless of who stops Gaea, the ponies will be erased,” Doom said as he rose to his feet, Tony mirroring him. “All that is left to do is be rid of you and then I can finally save humanity. I can save them all.”

Doom made a move towards Tony, but Tony held out a hand to stop him.

“Yeah, you can probably kill me in the shape we’re in. But before you do, I just want you to hear me out,” Tony said. Doom didn’t move for a moment and then he narrowed his eyes.

“Your last request, Stark? Very well, what do you have to say?”

“I figured it out. How to save both ponies and humans. The Aesir, the aliens and everyone else who Gaea wiped out,” Tony said, getting Doom to raise his eyebrows. “And that’s…by recreating the future exactly the way it happened.”

“…you have gone mad. That is the only way you could possibly think a plan like that would work,” Doom replied. “Letting it all happen again? By letting him wipe out humanity? How does that possibly save everyone?”

“Simple. We recreate it,” Tony replied. Doom silence spoke volumes. “We make everything that happens happen again, but just slightly different. Gaea doesn’t have to wipe out humanity in order for Equis to come into being. Humanity just has to be gone. To not be on Earth. Then Gaea can create the world, create Equis, and all of his ponies. We make things play out exactly like they happen on Equis. It doesn’t matter what happens before Equis comes into being, because once it comes into being it’s like a fresh start. And so-“

“Enough! I see what your plan is,” Doom snarled. “You wish to recreate the events of their world. By removing humanity from Earth, you wish Gaea to remake and lead their world in exactly the same way? Do you truly believe that to work? With how many infinite possibilities there are for any future within a day? And you want to do it with over ten thousand years? You are mad! Your idea is impossible and you-“

“Do not for a moment say this is impossible!” Tony snarled at Doom. “Impossible? For us? I could give you a piece of string and a paperclip and you could somehow tear down reality with it! What other people call impossible people like you and me call and afternoon challenge! For us there is no impossible! There is only what we haven’t achieved yet!”

“…this is your grand plan, Stark? To save both the humans and the ponies?” Doom asked. “You want to eject us from Earth and then hope that everything happens in Equis exactly the same as before. What about Gaea’s rage? What about him wiping out every other race? The Ghost Rider, the death of his love? All of it would have to happen. Everything that happened in Equis would have to happen the exact same way. How would you make that happen?”

“..I can’t…I’m not smart enough to figure out something like that,” Tony admitted, getting Doom to scoff at him. But then Tony raised his eyes and rested them on Doom. “But you are. Out of everyone on this planet, in this multiverse, you are the only one both smart and insane enough to be able to do something like predict the near infinite outcomes for a future. And then figure out a way to have it happen the exact same way.”

“Perhaps I could. Perhaps I could somehow figure out how to work out a future where everything happens the same and your ponies are recreated. There is still the problem of getting Gaea to cooperate with the stones. For him to go along with our plan. Hell, how do you expect humanity to react to the news that we need to abandon our planet? What you are asking Stark is impossible…even for me.”

“Yeah, impossible for both you and me. But not if we work together.” If Doom had thought Stark was mad before, now he thought he was a raving lunatic. “You can figure out the probability, the details, how everything would go. I can convince humanity, Gaea and everything else. You have the brain. I have the people skills and plans. Together…we can save them all.”

“…together? Us? After everything I have do to you? After all you have done to me?” Doom laughed. “You have destroyed my home on several occasions. I killed your allies and your Spider-Man. Can you truly forgive me for that? Can you put the past behind you?”

“…I don’t know if I can every truly forgive you for what you did,” Tony whispered. Then he walked forward towards Doom and narrowed his eyes, before letting out a sigh of acceptance. “But I can put it behind me. To save humanity. To save the ponies. To save them all.”

“And how can you trust me Stark? In fact, what is in this for me? I only want to save humanity. I have no desire to save the ponies. Why should I work with you, pull off the impossible with you, for them?”

“Remember what I said about people and pawns? How they can be greater than us?” Tony asked. He waited until Doom nodded before he continued. “Well the only way those pawns can become greater…is if they have the right leader. Is if they have someone who can lead them to their true potential.”

“…and you’re saying you want it to be me?” Doom asked, unbelieving. “Why? You hate me. You hate how I rule, how I lead and everything about me. Why would you allow me to lead humanity. No Stark, I do not need you. I can save the world all on my-“

“There it is! There’s your one weakness! Your refusal to work with anyone!” Stark snarled. “And how does that work out for you? We managed to stop you time and time again. We stormed Latveria not too long ago! Hell, you lost to six rainbow colored ponies! For the love of God Doom, for once in your life, look past your own ego to see what needs to be done!”

Doom lowered his head for a moment and thought about Starks words. Then Doom slowly raised his head and narrowed his eyes at Stark.

“You would truly allow me to rule? You would allow me, the man who took so much from you, to lead humanity across the heavens?”

“Not by yourself and only with a group of my most trusted friends, but…Twilight couldn’t save her future, but together with Starlight she did. Applebloom couldn’t figure out how to power her armor, but Diamond Tiara did,” Stark muttered. When Doom raised an eyebrow, Tony sighed and looked at Doom. “If there is one thing that I learned in my time in Equestria, it’s that sometimes, to do the impossible, you have to work with your enemies…and maybe make them your friends. To be willing to find a way to work together for the good of everyone. And that maybe even the worst of us deserve one more chance.”

And as Tony said this, he extended a hand towards Doom, making sure to look him dead in the eyes as he did so.

“We evacuate the planet. We help Gaea establish Equis. And we make sure everything happens the exact same way so that Twilight and her friends come into being exactly the same as they were. And if you agree to help me, if we put our past behind us to save them all…then I’ll give you your chance. Your chance to lead humanity to a better future like you always said you could.”

Doom stared down at Tony’s hand for a long time, never taking his eyes off of it.

“I believe it to be impossible, Stark.”

“I was once given two ironclad options. Build weapons or die. You were given two options. Accept that your mother was dead or trade your soul to save hers. But we didn’t pick either of those options, either of those two impossible choices. We picked door number three. We chose to go beyond the impossible. To do something even crazier. And we succeeded. For us the impossible is only another challenge.”

“So it’s time, Doom. Put your money where your mouth is. Are you just another supervillain? Or are you the best? A man who can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, no matter the impossibility? Are you Doom?”

Doom stared at Tony’s hand for a moment…and then he grabbed hold.

The portal closed behind Tony. Ashgrove let out a weak gasp and collapsed to the ground, where he weakly coughed. Fluttershy rushed over to him, using the return of her stones power to start treating his wounds. While she did that, all of the other ponies looked to Twilight, who stared at the spot where Tony had vanished.

“So…what happens now?” Rarity asked.

“Well, if I understood what Tony and Doom were talking about,” Dash began, taking in a deep breath. “Then we’re about to fade. Tony and Doom will change the past and…and we’ll cease to be.”

“So what do we do while we wait?” Pinkie asked. Twilight’s response was to hold out her forelegs and all of her friends came together into one big hug, all of them just…waiting. Waiting for the end to come. For a long time the group waited…until Fluttershy walked over to them.

“So…will it be instant or will our entire world turn white or…or what?” she asked.

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, looking around. “The only way we can still be here is if Tony didn’t change anything. But there’s no way he would let humanity die. Just by going back to the past with Doom, the future would already by changed and…and…”

Twilight looked over at the spot where the portal had been, noticing a small piece of paper laying on the ground. One that had not been there before. She walked over and picked it up, reading what was written upon it.

‘In the toaster.’

“In the toaster? What does that mean?” Rarity asked.

“I…I think it means to check inside the toaster Tony made,” Twilight said. She then looked over at Ashgrove, who looked back to his regular self. “Are you going to be a problem?”

“My sole goal was to help Doom return to the past. Now that he has, I have no desire to fight with you six any longer,” Ashgrove said, before he sat down with a sigh. “I’m…going to rest for a bit. Then I am going to find the rest of my friends and take them home. If that is alright with you.”

“It is. And…”

“Ashgrove.”

“Ashgrove, when all this is over…we can talk about how to help your nation and make sure that you and your people never suffer again,” Twilight promised.

“I would like that princess. Thank you.”

Twilight nodded to Ashgrove before using her magic to teleport the two princesses to her. Both were still unconscious, thought it was hard to tell with Luna’s flaming skull. With them safe, Twilight got all of her friends around her and cast a spell, teleporting them all back to her home. To Ponyville.

They arrived and looked around, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

“Hey princess Twilight, back already?” Lyra asked as she walked by. “Did Iron Man go home? Darn, there was so much I wanted to talk to him about.”

“Hey Pinkie, glad to see you’re all safe,” Mrs. Cake said as she walked by. “Fighting the forces of evil has to be so tiring. And where is that charmer Tony? He said he would stop by before he left?”

“It’s…all them,” Fluttershy said. “I can see it. It’s all their souls. Nothing changed about them. But how? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. But there’s only one way to find out.” Twilight’s horn glowed again. They appeared in a flash of light in the middle of her castle, where a dragon and another unicorn raced over to them.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled as he tackled the alicorn. “You’re all back! Does that mean Tony beat Doom? Are all of us safe?”

“Yeah Twilight…how are we all safe?” Starlight asked, giving Twilight a look that Twilight understood. “Because if he went back to the past…then shouldn’t things be…”

“I don’t know. But we’re figuring it out,” Twilight said. “Starlight, take Luna and Celestia to my room and…help them as best you can. They might look a little different, but it’s still them.”

“Still them,” Starlight said, looking at Luna’s flaming skull. “Right.”

“Just do what you can,” Twilight said. She spied the toaster floating in the corner and she walked over to it, where it beeped at her approach. “So according to this sheet of paper, you have something for me. Care to hoof it over?”

“What is the password?” the toaster asked.

“Excuse me?”

“The password. What Stark left you with. What only the Twilight Sparkle of the correct timeline would know. When a foe arrives when no sole hero can best by themselves.”

Twilight lowered her head for a moment and thought about it, before she looked back up with a smile.

“Avengers Assemble.”

A ding was heard and a moment later a book popped out of one of the toast slots on the toaster. Twilight grabbed it with her magic and looked at it, her eyes going wide when she saw what it was.

“Twi, is that…?” Applejack began.

“Girls, meet me at the crystal map. And get Celestia and Luna when they wake up.”

----====----

Twilight sat at the head of the table, with her friends and allies all around her. The Ambassadors. The princesses. Spike and Starlight. All of them sat and waited for her to read from the book. The red and gold book with a blue circle in the middle. Twilight looked to her friends, each of whom nodded. She looked to Spike and Starlight. They nodded as well. She looked to the princesses. Celestia nodded.

Luna just sat and burned.

“Okay…here we go,” Twilight said as she opened the book. There were no pages inside. Instead, a hologram of Iron Man popped up and he waved to them.

===---====

Hey Twilight,

If you’re hearing this then my plan worked. It’s you hearing it. The you I know. The you who took me in, allowed me to mess with your toaster and stood with me against Doom. Who showed me the values of not only what friendship with close allies can accomplish…but also making friends with your enemies. That Twilight. And if you are her, then you’re probably wondering why you’re all still there. Why you haven’t been erased. Maybe I didn’t save humanity and let Gaea continue to run rampant? Well, allow me to enlighten you.

I followed your advice. Or rather, Applebloom and Starlight’s advice. About working with your enemies. Making them your friends. So I did that. I found a way to work with Doom. And together we did the impossible. We recreated everything.

Let me start at the beginning. I found Gaea, out on his own and bitter against the world for what it had done to him and his love. Right after Hydra. Before SHIELD. You know what I’m talking about. I met him and talked to him, talked to him to try to tell him about the good in humanity. About how despite all of our failings, we still try to do better. And some days we do. He didn’t buy it.

So I introduced him to Magneto. And Magneto handled it perfectly. He told Gaea his life story. How he had suffered, been hated and scorned just for being him. He and Gaea hit it off. Became friends quick. And really…that was all Gaea wanted. Someone who understood him. His pain. His struggles. Someone who wouldn’t hate him for being…him.

I helped Gaea get the rest of the stones not long after. Soon he had the power of infinity. But this time, he was more willing to hear me out. More willing to listen to what I had planned. And what a plan I had.

I asked him to use the stones to look into the future, to see the future that would become. He did that and explained it to me. It wasn’t anything like yours. So we got to work. I spent near two weeks telling him everything. About how he acted once Equis was form, the things he created…all of it. It was easy for him to learn. He just used the stones to read my mind when he didn’t understand. Not only did he realize what the future held, but also my goals. That I was trying to save all he had built. He really got on board with me after that.

Now came the hard part. The part with Doom. See, Doom had the toughest job of all of us. He had to figure out how to string events together over ten thousand years so that it all ended up properly. So that you and your friends not only came into being, but ended up exactly the same as you were when I went back in time. This…is where it gets complicated.

Evacuating the planet wasn’t as hard as I thought it was. Using the stones Gaea created a near identical solar system on the other end of the cosmos. A perfect place for us to live. As for the reason we needed to leave? Galactus took care of that. He swore to destroy the world and came at it will all of his might. He kicked our asses something fierce.

I suggested we leave. Using the ships that were conjured for us (thanks Gaea), within a matter of days we managed to get every person on Earth onto the ships and launch them across the stars to the new Earth. The one that would provide for us the way the old one had. Except…maybe we could be better this time. Maybe treat our world better…and each other.

The Avengers knew the plan, btw. At first they weren’t keen on it, but when I told them everything that was on the line. All the lives I was trying to save. Both on Earth, and those yet to come. They went along with it, made it all happen. The power of team-work, huh. And I got really good at convincing them. Considering how many times this plan failed and we had to go back to do it all over again. Don’t ask me how many times Doom and I had to retry. I stopped counting after we reached ten digits.

It was the trusting humanity to Doom part none of them would agree with. Evacuating the Earth? Sure, we’ve talked about that before. But letting him be one of the guiding forces? They would never agree to it. Not until Magneto once again saved the day. He talked about what it was like to be him, his struggles, his suffering and then how he had caused so much pain. To the point that he had been branded a villain. Yet a man named Charles had never given up on him. Had always given him a chance to be better. To be the hero Charles knew he could be.

And Magneto extended his had to Doom, saying that if Charles had been there, he would ask him to do the same. To give Doom a chance to be better. Cap was the next to agree, though with a lot of supervision for Doom. And the others followed suit. Even Reed, Doom’s archenemy. Hulk agreed only if he got to smash Doom if he got out of hand. We all agreed on that.

Doom. Man did he really step up. He did everything he promised. Calculated it all. Figured out the best chance of success. And, eventually, we got it right. And I know we got it right. Because when the time came on your world for Iron Man and Doom to show up, we both did. Well, he was a Doombot and I was a lie in my own right, but we were there. We did everything exactly the same as before.

If you and your friends are confused, think about it like this. I met you guys for the first time when I arrived in the future and met you. Together we did everything you remember. But the me you met, and this is where it gets confusing, was the second time I met you. Was me re-enacting everything that Doom and I remember. Doom was doing that as well. Well, a Doombot was. The only reason it doesn’t feel any different to you is because, since everything happened exactly the same, your memories are, and I hope I’m right, still the same. Does that clear it up? Probably not.

As for Gaea, he did everything perfectly. Since he had the time stone and all of my memories of how to make things go the way they were supposed to, he recreated Equis to perfection. He also revived all of the heroes he had slain with the power stone, so that was nice. Except Punisher. He’s still gone and Gaea refused to bring him back. But yeah, with the time stone he could look into the future and make sure everything happened perfectly. And when it didn’t, he’d travel back a bit and make sure it did.

Right. Fixing it. See, I came to a realization that it didn’t matter what happened on Earth before Equis, because the moment Equis is created Gaea creates a whole new world. And as long as those events happen the same way, your future might happen the same way. Humanities destruction or humanity fleeing to space. Doesn’t matter which one as long as their gone by the time Equis is created. Same goes for Discord. Doom didn’t kill him this time, just robbed him of his powers and trapped him in an alternate dimension. He didn’t need to die to keep the timeline the way we wanted it, he just had to be out of the way. Don’t worry, he’ll pop back up tomorrow perfectly safe.

That’s not to say everything worked out perfectly the first time. Even with the stones, things kept popping up that ruined what we were going for. Dark Elves invading now that humanity was gone. Cosmic forces at play. All that good stuff.

Eventually, the best thing to do was use the stones power to make it look like to the rest of the cosmos that Earth had been destroyed by Galactus and there was no reason for there to be anything here. Seriously, no matter what power you use, you can’t find Equis. It’s well and truly hidden. I only know where it is because the stones weren’t used on me to hide it.

As for the rest, that was all left in Gaea’s hooves. And since you’re listening to this now, you clearly know how it turned out. And it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t kidding about those ten digits worth of attempts earlier. But since this recording has been found, I know that it’s all of you. Because only the Twilight who was with me would not only know the phrase…but also find the paper I left when you guys weren’t looking.

Humanities doing fine, by the way. Doom led it well, alongside my friends who kept him from going too nuts, and…we actually managed to do it. To bring near world peace. Of course, there will always be problems, but for the most part…harmony reigns. Thanks to the Avengers. Thanks to Magneto. Thanks to Doom. And…thanks to what we learned from you and your friends. In a way…all this is possible because of Equestria. And those I met while I was there. I…even managed to forgive Doom. Eventually. After a couple dozen years.

So, to wrap everything up, there is what I had planned. The hard part wasn’t making sure both humanity and ponies would exist at the same time. That would be easy. It was making sure to save both all of humanity and you guys. Not ponies that were similar to you, not ponies in general, but all of you. Making sure that the Twilight, Spike and all of her friends that I came to know continued to exist exactly the same. It took a long time, billions of attempts and a whole lot of cosmic bargaining…but it finally worked. And for all of you, you probably never even noticed anything was different. Good. That’s how it should be.

I know I’m leaving out details. I know that you guys want to know everything. But it’s for the best you don’t. Doing this billions of times, making sure everything went right…it nearly drove me insane. If it wasn’t for Galactus, it might have. Doom handled it fine because, well, he’s Doom. But all of this…I’m glad it worked. Through a combination of the stones power, working with Doom, a couple billion attempts and one very patient planet creator…it worked. Because like I told Pinkie…

“A superhero always saves the day.”

The ponies all turned and found Iron Man standing next to the doors. But he wasn’t the same Tony they remember. His entire body was golden and he radiated a power the likes of which they had never seen before. But his smile was the same.

“Tony!” they all screamed as they ran over to him, pulling him into one, big hug. Except for Luna, who sat there burning.

“But…how are you here?” Twilight asked. “If this really is the same you, then you would be-“

“Older than dirt? Yeah, I am,” Tony said with a smile, before he looked up at Luna. “One moment.” He walked over to the Ghost Rider and held out a small item. “Alright Zerathos, time to go home. Blaze says he wants you back in hell with him.”

Luna narrowed her eyes in reply.

“Look, you’re the spirit of vengeance. And if you stay around here, there’s not going to be a lot of vengeancing to do because this is Equestria. I’m sure you can feel just how nice and happy it is here,” Tony said. The Rider looked around and snarled. “But if you come back to Earth…”

Luna snarled again before the fire and vengeance left her, returning to the amulet and causing the princess of the night to pass out on the ground. Celestia knelt down next to her sister and tended to her as Tony turned back to the others.

“Back to what I was saying, yeah, I am that old,” Tony said with a smile. “But see, I found a pretty good way to become immortal. I work with Galactus now. We travel the cosmos together.”

“Work with him? How does that work?”

“See, back in the old days, Galactus would use a herald to find planets for him to eat. In turn, he would give them some of his power, which grants incredible abilities as well as immortality. That’s how I’ve managed to stay alive so long.”

“So you help Galactus eat planets? Like, ours?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, I always found in uninhabited ones. But about five thousand years ago, a brilliant mind realized that Galactus was broken. He hadn’t been birthed properly. And, after an incredibly long and complicated story, we fixed him. Now he is no longer the devourer of worlds. He is the creator of them. Pretty cool, huh? And now I help him find places in the cosmos to create new worlds. It’s…nice.”

“But wait, for you to be this old, that would mean that you’ve out lives all your friends. All those you went back to save,” Pinkie pointed out.

“Well…yeah. But I needed to live a long time. Needed to make sure that all of you ended up the way you were supposed to,” Tony said with a smile. “And hey, Strange is still alive. I swear he’s survived all this time just to mess with me. Jerk.”

“Tony, don’t tell me you did all this…fer us?” Applejack asked. “That’s not right. To have to live longer than yer friends and family…”

“Don’t you remember what I promised you all?” Tony asked. “Because I haven’t. I swore that, unless it was the only way, I wouldn’t trade your lives to save humanity. That I would find some other way. And I have. Just like I promised I would. Whatever it takes.”

The ponies looked up at Tony in disbelief, unable to believe, unable to comprehend, all that he had done for them. Tony noticed this and smiled.

“Why, right? Why would I do all this and go so far for all of you? Simple. You guys are my friends. And like Pinkie said, it doesn’t matter if it’s humanity or ponies, no matter what happens to space time. Friends always help each other.”

“Oh…wow,” Twilight said before Pinkie stepped forward.

“So I guess you’ll want the stones back. Now that everything has been set perfect,” Pinkie said. Tony thought about it for a moment, before he shook his head with a smile.

“Keep em. You six have been the most responsible users of the stones I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of different timelines. You earned them. Gaea was always right about that. You six deserve them. Not to mention we already told the rest of the universe that Galactus destroyed them, so there’s that.”

“Then what about this?” Celestia asked as she held out Mjolnir. “Won’t Thor be wanting this back?”

“Yeah, he was real upset with having to leave that behind at first, but don’t worry. We built him a bigger one with an axe head on one side. He’s happy with it.”

“And the shield?”

“Cap was all too happy to give that up when I told him what was at stake. You guys would have liked him. He was a lot like you.”

A massive rumble shook the castle and Tony looked up at the ceiling, a smile crossing his face. “Looks like the big guy says it’s time to go. Sorry, I wanted this to be longer, but that’s how it is. But before I go…”

Tony pulled out a briefcase and offered it to Applejack, who took it with some confusion. “In there is everything Applebloom will need to learn how to build her own armor. Or maybe she’ll build something even greater. I wouldn’t be surprised. And let her know that I’m sorry that I didn’t have time to say goodbye…but I will be back. I promise.”

“Tony,” Twilight said, turning Tony’s gaze towards her. There was so much she wanted to say, to let him know how grateful she was. The want to offer him whatever she could. To promise that one day she would make it up to him. But all she said was what everypony was thinking. “Thank you. For saving us all.”

Tony smiled in reply.

“Always.”

The castle shook again and Tony sighed, before he started to float into the air. The ponies all waved at him, even Celestia and Luna, who was up now, and Spike, who hadn’t noticed Tony sighed his copy of Power Ponies number one.

“How can we ever thank you?” Celestia asked. “How can we make it up to you for what you did for us? After what our ancestor originally did to you. After all you’ve sacrificed?”

“Simple. Live your lives.”

And then Tony took off, leaving the ponies behind and reaching the upper atmosphere in a matter of moments. There sat Galatcus, who gazed at his herald as he approached.

“You have said your farewells?”

“Yeah, I think everything is good to go,” Tony said.

“And the world is as it should be?”

“Yes. Yes, I think it’s all right,” Tony said, before smiling up at Galactus. “And thank you too, Galactus. For watching over them all these years. You’re a surprisingly nice guy.”

“Hmm. Come, Stark. Something is amiss is the Omega Quadrant. Something I have not felt in a long time. We are needed.”

“The never-ending battle, eh Galactus?” Tony said as a golden faceplate slammed shut. “Well, let’s not keep them waiting.”

Galactus and Tony were gone a moment later, leaving the world that only they could find. Leaving a world of peace and harmony exactly as the way it had been. The way it should be. In peace.

===--===

“Come on, open it!” Scootaloo said.

“Ah’m trying!” Applebloom grunted as she tugged on the case. A moment later a beeping sound went off and the case opened, folding out into a full workbench of tools, gadgets and materials, along with guide and books on how to use them. In the corner, unbeknownst to the ponies, was a pocket of hammer space that would have all the materials Applebloom would ever need.

“Wow, look at all of it! There’s so much!” Sweetie exclaimed.

“Geez, my dad could go out of business trying to get his hooves on all of these,” Diamond said with a whistle.

“What are you going to build first?” Scootaloo asked. “A new Iron Mare suit? A giant robot? No, a giant Iron Man robot!”

But Applebloom didn’t respond. All she did was read the note that had been left to her, with a smile on her face.

‘For my one and only apprentice. Build a better future than I ever could.’

“Ah will, Tony,” Applebloom promised, before looking at her friends. “Now then, what do ya say we work together and-?”

A tear in the fabric of reality appeared next to them, causing the four to jump, before a moment later Discord was spat out and landed face first on the ground. The vortex closed as he lifted his head, spitting out some dirt as he shook his head with a sigh.

“Ugh. Superheroes.”

----====---

Ashgrove sat alone on a small hilltop, overlooking his village. Down below his friends showed off their strength to the others, telling them tales about the battle with the ponies. Of course, they made it sound a lot closer than it actually was, but Ashgrove didn’t mind. He had even made peace with Doom losing. That’s what had to have happened. Or else everything would be different.

“I’m sure you did all you could, Doom,” Ashgrove whispered.

“Of course Doom did.”

Ashgrove spun around to see Doom standing behind him. Ashgrove rose to his hooves and was about to ask Doom what he was doing there, but then he looked behind Doom and his eyes went wide. Standing there was Ashgrove’s mother, father and sister. All of who looked at him with wide and tear filled eyes.

None of them said anything to one another. They simply raced towards each other and collided in one massive hug. Tears were spilled, words of amazement and love were garbled together and there was a lot of crying all around. Doom watched the scene for a moment before he turned to leave.

“How?” Doom looked back to see Ashgrove looking up at him. “How? They were dead? How did you bring them back?”

“Stark is a fool. He wanted to recreate this world exactly as it was, believing that it would take everything we had just to manage that. And for his inferior mind, it would,” Doom said, before he turned with a swirl of his cloak and headed towards a vortex. He stopped at the vortex and turned to look back at Ashgrove, a true smile on his face.

“But I am Doom. I did not make this future exactly the same as Stark wanted. I made it better. For there is nothing Doom will not do…for those he calls his friends.”

Doom then walked into the vortex and vanished, leaving Ashgrove with his family. He closed his eyes with a smile as he pulled them all close, laughing in-between his sobs.

“Thank you, Doom. Thank you.”

And with that, this story of time winds to a close. I thank all who stuck with it and I apologize for the delay in my stories. I just needed a break for a while. I promise that at some point I will finish the Muay Tiger, but for now...we move from one Equestria where things managed to get back to normal to another where things aren't as they should be. A tyrant sits on he throne. Magic is nothing but a distant memory. And not even family and friendship is enough to save the ponies.

Luckily for them...Fate is on their side.