105
Space
The Benatar
Earth Upper Atmosphere
“Do you have any clear idea where this… ‘Garden’ is?”
Tony Stark’s question nearly went without an answer. Even as the Benatar broke through the atmosphere and entered into the pitch-blackness of space, it was a question that lingered still. The group enjoyed a few short moments of weightlessness within the zero-gravity environment, Twilight and the ponies especially, before the artificial gravity activated and their feet and hooves touched the floor once more.
And with that stable ground achieved, one of the pilots finally answered Stark. Nebula tapped away on her console from where she sat, occupying Star-Lord’s empty seat and the secondary pilot’s seat. “Most likely where your world calls the Andromeda Galaxy,” Nebula finally answered, readying the Jump Point and tapping repeatedly on her console resting before her chair.
“All right, progress is something,” Tony mused, tapping his fingers against his own seat’s arm rest. Strapped in and secured, Tony counted the seats and spotted only eight, each of them occupied by Rocket to Nebula’s left, Thor sitting in the bottom chair right next to Groot, and Twilight taking the seat on Tony’s left. The extra seats in the back of the cockpit were filled with Starlight and Sunset. Tempest Shadow was the only one of their group to remain on all four hooves, hardened eyes gazing out the windshield and armor-plated hoof resting on Twilight’s chair in order to stabilize herself. Sunset was appearing green from the recent launch, Starlight and Twilight instantly mesmerized by the blank canvas and shimmering diamonds of open space surrounding them.
Tony turned away from the ponies only momentarily, eyes retiring to the front of the ship. “Thor, what about this… whatever the hell you called it? The place where we’re gonna make a new hammer for you?”
“Nidavellir,” Thor corrected, slapping his control console, not really knowing how it worked. He eventually gave up, staring out the same windshield. “We don’t have to make another hammer. Maybe a shield like Rogers, or maybe a sword. I would like a sword…”
“Whatever you need so we can kill Thanos,” Tony replied with a nod, turning away to his far left.
It was there did he witness an event that would forever remain in his memory. It was the event of Twilight Sparkle staring out the windshield and seeing Earth. Not only Earth. In the glare of the sun, Twilight could see her home world resting over Earth’s horizon, the fragments of the two moons drifting aimlessly about the twin worlds. The mere image caught Tony for a second or two, but it was Twilight and the others’ reactions that held him there longer than it should have.
Sunset’s queasy stomach began to calm when Starlight tapped her shoulder and prompted her attention to their left, each mare’s eyes bugging open and jaws falling. Not a single breath shared between them. They leaned forward in their seats as far as their seat belts could allow, joining Princess Twilight in gazing to the pure awe and majesty of the two worlds in near-orbit of each other. There was a considerable distance between Earth and Equus, a slight gap so perfectly aligned so neither planet collided with the other. The perfect distance to lock both worlds in eternal orbit, certainly not a safe orbit by any means… but it was better than collision and total annihilation.
Still, seeing her home world from space was a moment Twilight would remember forever. Not many ponies got to witness the image she, Sunset, Starlight, and Tempest gawked upon. The only other pony that came to mind was Luna, and… well… Twilight didn’t want to think too heavily on the pains of the past. She tried to ignore Luna’s shattered moon and instead stare to vast, blue oceans, the sprawling, green and brown landscapes, and the gorgeous storms and clouds covering Equus’ surface. The shimmer of the sun was caught between the two worlds, the windshield of the Benatar strong enough to shield their eyes from any harmful rays. Allowing them to take every second in.
“First time, huh?” Rocket called, leaning over his seat to stare to the four ponies.
Twilight, face frozen in a state of everlasting awe, blinked rapidly and managed to break away from the sight of her world and Earth. She turned and met Rocket’s eyes, the raccoon somewhat smirking on his end. The other mares continued to gaze out into the beauty of it all.
“In space,” Rocket continued. “You look like you’ve never been to space is what I’m saying.”
Sighing, Twilight adjusted herself in her seat, hooves nervously gripping her seat belt as she turned back to the windshield on her left. “Yeah, I guess you could say that,” she whispered, still loud enough for the entire bridge to hear. “Then again, none of us have ever really… been to space.”
Rocket nodded, able to understand their plight. He offered his concerns to them by stating loudly, “Just don’t throw up on my ship. And don’t forget to hang onto something.”
“Hang onto something?” Tempest repeated softly, her lone hoof quickly tightening onto Twilight’s arm rest.
Nebula zeroed in on her console, both hands gripping the steering handles for the Benatar. With eyes hardened and focused forward, Nebula declared, “Coordinates set. We jump in 3… 2…”
Tempest’s eyes widened when she witnessed the same sight that the rest of the Benatar’s occupants had. She raised her right hoof and joined it with her left, holding an iron grip with Twilight’s chair. Nebula stared out the windshield, eyes reflecting the glinting energy of the wormhole quickly forming before them. The Jump Point was ready.
“… 1.”
Nebula and Rocket gunned it.
As the engines to the Benatar burst forth and sent the ship skyrocketing into the approaching wormhole, every occupant reacted either differently or indifferently. Those like Thor, Groot, Nebula, and Rocket had faced the jump numerous times and it was all mere frequency for them. Others, like Tony, Twilight, Sunset, Starlight, and Tempest were instantly pushed back into their seats, hands and hooves gripping the arm rests and eyes widened to the point of exertion. Tempest did not have that luxury, the unicorn nearly flying back had her grip on Twilight’s seat not been completely solid. She was strong enough to hold her own, and surprisingly hold herself against the vast power of the Jump Point.
They quickly approached what appeared to be a shimmering hexagon amongst a mighty portrait of the same shape. It only grew larger as they slipped instantly within and past it and entered the wormhole. Twilight’s eyes only grew even larger, the flowing lights of red, purple, blue, and orange zooming past her with speeds that were incomprehensible. It ended sooner than any of the mares had thought. The jump was shorted than expected. By the time the wormhole had ended, they passed another hexagonal wall and exited on the other side of… nothing.
Just miles and miles of black, open space, stars dotting the limitless canvas.
“Jump successful,” Nebula stated loudly, bringing forth her console and analyzing the ship’s response to the jump after their recent repairs. “Current status is nominal. We are situated just inside the east quadrant.”
Undoing his seat belt and rising from the chair, Tony apprehensively approached the front of the ship, hanging between Rocket and Nebula as all three of them gazed out into the wild, black yonder. Tony breathed, “Welcome to Andromeda.”
“A whole other galaxy,” Starlight gasped, gazing out alongside the other mares to the universe beyond the windshield to their left and right. The remaining mares each took a moment to release themselves from their seats and take those necessary steps onto the Benatar’s floor. With that freedom, they moved about the cabin and either joined Stark or went off to gaze wondrously to the galaxy beyond. Ripples and waves of alien stardust painted the skies and colored every hue imaginable. Distant galaxies became brighter, more visible from their distance, Twilight already recognizing several galaxies right off the bat from her times stargazing back on Equus. There were constellations they recognized, others completely new and just waiting to be discovered.
“… Wow.”
It was all Starlight could say to keep breathing again.
Twilight turned to Tempest, seeing the look of awe plastered on her once stone-cold face. “Really far from home now, aren’t we?” she said with a smile.
Tempest shut her mouth, shook her head, but refused to look anywhere else but out there. “I’m used to it.”
“All right, Thor, you’re gonna need to be our eyes for this one… or… eye, I should say,” Rocket explained. The raccoon’s sudden intrusion to the minimal conversations sparked a certain interest amongst the mares, each of them turning to the front of the cabin. There, they could see Tony walking over to Rocket’s left, the seat twisting over to face a navigation panel displaying countless star systems and planets across a vast, black map. “Tony and I’ll handle the navigation, so all you have to do is point us in the right direction.”
Just before the real work could even get started, Starlight’s voice rose up, prompting the attention of the cockpit to shift back to her. “How… how are we even gonna know where to go?” Starlight asked. “We’re in space. There’s no one way, up or down, left or right. It’s just… nothing.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” Thor calmly stated, climbing the stairs from his lower position and ruffling Starlight’s mane with his palm. With a strand of turquoise hanging over her vision, Starlight blushed mildly and blew it out of her eyesight. She and the others watched as Thor snuck in-between Rocket and Stark, pointing to the map laid before them. “Our first stop is Nidavellir. You’re going to want to reach the edges of the ninth quadrant, there we shall find the realm of the World Tree. In its heart, the rings of the Dyson sphere will be visible for hundreds of thousands of miles. The neutron star will keep it bright. It’s impossible to miss.”
“Locked in,” Rocket said, working as Thor talked. Finishing the same time Thor had.
“Got the ninth quadrant on our radar,” Tony observed, nodding to that. “We should probably save our jumps for the trip back home. You girls better settle in for the long-run.”
“How long are we looking for this journey?” Sunset asked.
“A day or two. Maybe longer,” Thor answered, stepping back to make room for Groot stepping past him. He turned to the mares, smiling quickly to them, then returned to the main windshield of the Benatar, gazing out to it alongside Nebula. “Then begins the real journey: finding Thanos.”
“It will be long,” Nebula intruded. “But we will return to Earth.”
With that information settled and stored for safekeeping, Twilight and the remaining ponies with her nodded to it. Then, the undeniable sound of a belly gurgling caught their ears, Thor and Tony and everypony turning to Twilight. “Guess we better start making some lunch then. Getting kind of hungry myself,” Twilight said with a weak blush, softly rubbing her stomach.
“I am Groot.”
Finally noticing the adolescent standing directly behind her, leaning over with a wide smile to the Alicorn, Twilight instinctively took a step back, brow furrowed and expression confused. “Uhhh…” Twilight mumbled, hoof risen, voice trailing away.
“He said he wants to help,” Rocket explained. He didn’t even look away from the map.
With that brief respite of understanding finally achieved, Twilight nodded slowly, returning her eyes to the young Groot and smiling up to him. “Of course you can help, Groot,” she told him, Groot seemingly pleased with that. Twilight turned to the rest of the cabin. “All right, who here wants a sandwich?”
Nearly everyone raised a hand or hoof. Even Nebula, slowly being the last one. “No daisies, please,” Stark called from his face glued to the navigation console.
Nodding to that, Twilight faced the rest of her two friends, Sunset and Starlight. “Okay, girls, let’s get started,” she told them, each mare offering a slick smile in return. Twilight nearly returned that smile, stopping short when her gaze shifted over to the broken horn. “Tempest?”
The former lieutenant of the Storm King’s armada stared only to the vastness of space directly ahead of her. “You go on ahead,” she replied, barely turning her head.
“You don’t want to help us?” Sunset asked, stepping forward and nudging Tempest’s armor-plated ribs with an alluring smile to go with it. “It’ll be fun.”
Unfortunately, Tempest didn’t see the quality of making food with “friends”. The concept of friendship alone was still new to her, the unicorn mainly having been making allies as of late instead of friends. When faced with the opportunity for the calming bonding moments such as preparing lunch with others, she simply didn’t know how to confront it. Instead, she blocked herself and said, “There’s nothing ‘fun’ about making sandwiches. I would rather stay in the cabin and help anyway else I can.”
“You’d be helping us,” Starlight said, smirking the unicorn’s way. It hardly worked a second time.
“I’ll pass,” Tempest argued, her mild mood quickly turning sour the longer the ponies behind her continued to pester. “Besides, we’re going to need eyes everywhere on this journey. There’s no telling what we’ll…”
Her voice instantly stopped dead. She froze right on the spot, head tilting just slightly. A spark of her horn, a gasp in her voice, then nothing more than that. Her eyes were wider than they ever were prior or after the jump.
Brow hardening, Twilight turned from Sunset to Starlight, slowly finding her way back to Tempest Shadow. “What we’ll… what?”
The light from the nearest star slowly vanished. All four mares and Groot turned cautiously to the front windshield, watching that light disintegrate and only a dark shadow overcome the cockpit and the Benatar as a whole. The darkness was so profound that it pried Tony and Rocket’s eyes away from the navigation console, Nebula from steering the ship, and Thor from his own deepened thoughts. All of it soon encased in shadow from above.
All of them soon encased under the shadow of Sanctuary II.
Thor’s eye popped open. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Then the chaos struck.
Starships began to bombard them from the underbelly of the massive spaceship, attacking them in waves and waves of incomprehensible numbers. There were not only Chitauri in the assault, but hundreds of Sakaarans flying Necrocrafts. Their green and blue blaster bolts fired across the Benatar’s hull in a volley of light and destruction, impacting the ship and causing it to fumble about amidst the intense pressure. It didn’t take forever for Nebula and Rocket to react, both Guardians ramming down on the controls and sending the Benatar right out of the heart of the enemy fire.
It was simply no use. Despite dodging and weaving and flying in every which direction, the train of starships and Necrocrafts followed close behind, unleashing torrents of blaster fire that mainly missed their target, luckily striking it every few seconds longer the Benatar was chased. In the distance, Sanctuary II gave chase, its menacing, colossal size hovering slowly behind the insignificant ships directly ahead of it.
Within the Benatar, it was nearly if not more chaotic. Ponies were rolling and sliding and falling and tripping over one another as the ship swerved and dodged the blaster fire intended to blow it into the death-filled cold of space. Groot situated his hands onto the nearest console, wrapping his roots tightly around it and keeping himself steady. As for Thor and Stark, the two Avengers tried to find their stability, as well, eventually hanging onto the seats for dear life as the Guardians piloted the ship like madmen.
“They’ve been tracking us!” Nebula screamed after analyzing her console. “Thanos knew we’d try to find him!”
She and Rocket swerved the Benatar in a complete 360 degrees turn, firing off as many rounds of ammunition they could before being forced to face forward and fly off yet again. The damage they inflicted was minimal, but it wiped out three to four Necrocrafts and Chitauri starships in the aftermath. By the time the ship was stabilized, Stark pressed his palms firmly into the metal floor, pushing himself back to his feet and gazing out the windshield to see the army that trailed them. He saw Sanctuary II.
He saw what needed to be done.
“Good!” Tony shouted.
Nebula wheeled on him, turning harshly from where she sat. “How is any of this good?!”
It was just then did she witness it for herself. Everyone, from Groot, Thor, and even the mares could witness it. Tony Stark pulled down on his jacket’s twin straps, tapping not once but twice on his Arc Reactor. In an instant, a swarm of nanobots consumed Stark’s body from his heart, to his toes, and eventually to his head, the mask of the Mark 50 sealing tight and the blue eyes lighting to life.
Iron Man stood up fully, turning back to Nebula and staring into her expression of pure shock. “Just means we’re on the right trail,” he told her, voice audibly lower from the mask.
With Rocket yelling at Nebula to focus on helping him steer, Tony turned over to Thor and helped him to his feet. Noticing the visible change to Stark’s appearance, Thor didn’t have time to admire it when Tony turned back to the two pilots.
“All right, I’m gonna need someone to open the airlock for me,” Stark told them, seeing both Rocket and Nebula’s heads twist around to him, watching as he suddenly faced the God of Thunder once more. “Thor, get you and your band off this ship. There’s gotta be an escape pod somewhere.”
“We got one!” Rocket called back, firing at a Necrocraft and blowing it in a flurry of orange and yellow. “What are you gonna do?!”
The Benatar sustained a powerful blast from above, everyone inside lurching forward and back. Just as the ponies maintained their standing, they were nearly pushed back to the floor before Groot caught them. Giving silent thanks with a few nods—Tempest more so pushing herself away from them—Twilight and the others turned once more to Stark and Thor.
“We’ll keep the fire focused on us!” Tony shouted, his head darting over to the rest of the ship. He saw the bridge diverge into different areas, the signs hanging from the ceiling reading “Drax’s Room”, “Rocket’s Room”, “Quill and Gamora’s Room”, “Bathroom”, and eventually “Escape Pod” in bright red letters. Tony took that with a solid nod, turning back to his team. “Right now, that weapon Thor needs is top priority! Thor!”
“On it!” Thor responded, pushing past the mares and making his way for the appropriate room. “Rabbit, Tree, follow me!”
Rocket strained against the steering controls, screaming as he did so and eventually breaking off and jumping out of his seat. “Nebula, it’s all yours!” he called back, rushing on all fours right behind Thor. Nebula responded by grinding her teeth together, trying desperately to keep them alive.
“So what are we supposed to do?!” Sunset shouted, stepping back to allow Rocket to rush past her. The raccoon paused only for a second, turned to Groot and nodded him along. He then approached the nearest supply container beneath the many control consoles strewn about.
Rocket furiously checked his supplies scattered across the Benatar’s bridge. He eventually pulled out a small, circular device, no bigger than his own paw. He shook his head, cursing with a following bellow, “There’s only one holographic spacesuit left on this ship! Unless you all just want to sit on your asses here, I suggest three of you come with us!”
Sunset, Starlight, Tempest, and Twilight all froze, all took several short seconds to turn to one another. Before any of them knew it, their journey had gone from awe-inspiring to horrible in less than a few minutes. Not only did they have a trail of Thanos’ own army eating away at them slowly, deliberately, but now they had to be separated in order to finish that journey. None of them could comprehend it, and even a couple amongst them were already ready to take that brave step forward, namely Tempest and Sunset. They never could have suspected who spoke out.
“I’ll stay,” Twilight finally said. All their eyes suddenly fell on her, the disbelief mixed with the doubt. Then the pain, filling Sunset and Starlight’s eyes most of all, prompting them to take action.
“No, Twilight, you can’t,” Starlight tried to argue, tried to take her place, but was ultimately shut down early. Even Sunset and Tempest had no room to speak or offer their place in return for Twilight’s safety. The Alicorn had already made her decision, had already stamped her hoof in the metal flooring and stared onto her friends with a fiery intensity none of them had seen before.
“That wasn’t an offer,” Twilight stated fiercely. “That was an order.”
Arguably as the strongest and most competent magic user amongst them, Twilight had a stronger position to hold her ground and fight. As the ruler of Equestria, Twilight had a higher say and authority than any other pony on that ship. And as their friend… as the Princess of Friendship… she made that choice and would proudly give it all for her friends’ safety. The hurt was evident in everypony’s eyes, mainly surprise in Tempest’s own. Surprise and a hint of admiration.
Maybe more than just a hint.
Rocket offered the device to the Alicorn, to which she took and slapped it over her heart. The holographic spacesuit instantly swarmed over the entirety of her body, the bright blue wave concealing her within a safe containment of which she could breathe, even in space. That wasn’t all. Tony slapped an Aero-Rig on her backside, the metallic jetpack forming tightly over her back and finally covering her chest and stomach. Twilight took in that cautious breath of air, feeling the spacesuit and the Aero-Rig clutch her body rather soundly.
That hand never left her back, Twilight looking up to see the mask of the Iron Man nod down to her. “Glad to see you flying high with me,” Tony told her.
Twilight smirked with brimming confidence his way, nodding once.
After a quick hug from Sunset and Starlight, Twilight had to break away given the limited time they had left. Sunset, Starlight, and Tempest eventually followed close behind Rocket, he and Groot meeting with Thor within the escape pod. Tony was right behind them, Twilight hesitantly following to see where he would go. The duo paused just short of the escape pod, seeing Thor, Rocket, Groot, Sunset, Starlight, and Tempest Shadow all packed in and ready to go. A nod of affirmation from Thor to Tony. A look of hope from Sunset to Twilight. A powerful nod and a snort from Tempest.
They ejected. Tony and Twilight jumped out right after them, Tony calling to Nebula, “Smurfette, you’re gonna need to patch in to my comms!”
“On it!” Nebula shouted back, now burdened with the opportunity to pilot the entire Benatar on her own. She raised her console. “Asteroid field incoming! I’ll try to shake them off!”
The instant Twilight jumped into the vacuum of space was an experience she would never forget. The weightlessness was expected, but with no solid ground to stabilize herself, Twilight found it to be even more difficult to move around. It really didn’t help to know they were being swarmed and shot at from all angles from over a hundred different enemy ships. Flailing about, Twilight screamed out until she saw Tony coming to her rescue, his metal palm slapping against the Aero-Rig and igniting it.
The rest came almost instantly natural to her.
The Aero-Rig felt almost too natural, like a second skin if anything. The way it reacted to Twilight’s instincts allowed for nearly flawless flight patterns that her wings had no control of in the harshness of space. Soon enough, Tony left her on her own, engaging with the Chitauri spaceships and Sakaaran Necrocrafts that swarmed behind Thor’s pod. With that absence, Twilight took a short moment to adjust to the Aero-Rig, what it wanted out of her, what she needed out of it. She ran out of time when the asteroid came hurtling her way.
Screaming, Twilight shot up with a blast from the Aero-Rig’s propulsion thrusters, the Alicorn barely dodging the massive piece of space rock. With her breathing loud and ragged, Twilight focused forward to see what awaited her. Hundreds upon hundreds more asteroids filled the vastness of open space directly before her, Nebula flying the Benatar directly into the madness. She was a surprisingly skilled pilot, the Chitauri and Sakaarans that trailed her unfortunately not so. Their ships impacted the rocks in fiery eruptions, the Benatar making it out unscathed every time.
It never lasted. A lucky asteroid would strike the hull of the ship, one of the Necrocrafts would manage a shot on the Benatar, more and more every time adding even more damage to the ship and adding to Nebula’s frustration. Just as the flashing lights appeared overhead, Nebula growled and practically ripped the steering controls upwards, managing to barely dodge the largest asteroid she had ever seen. She flew straight up its body, the cluster of Necrocrafts trailing her smacking right against its face and exploding upon impact.
As Nebula nearly escaped the wall of fire, she appeared on the other side with a fresh wave of Chitauri starships meeting her. “You both need to protect me!” Nebula screamed, unleashing several rounds of ammunition into the enemy fighters and hastily making an escape back into the asteroids.
“Don’t worry! We’re coming back for you, Nebula!” Twilight responded in kind through her comms. Blasting off into the minefield of asteroids, Twilight carefully considered her options as she dodged and flew above and around entire hurtling pieces of space rock. Her considerations ended shorter than she would have liked when a Necrocraft shot past her, nearly blowing into the Alicorn.
Twilight shot back, flying past the Necrocraft and unleashing a magical beam from her horn. The spell passed harmlessly through her spacesuit and struck the ship, destroying it in a bright, blossoming orange. She soon became the next center of attention, several more Necrocrafts and starships turning to the asteroid field to pursue the Benatar and the flying Alicorn. Almost every single time, Twilight would take them out, firing the same spell and a volley of other spells into any spacecraft she saw firing at her. Almost every single time she came out on top. Almost every single time Twilight would escape their wrath.
The one time she didn’t was when she got shot in her hind leg.
The blaster bolt courtesy of the Chitauri starship struck Twilight when she wasn’t looking, scraping the edge of her hind leg and nearly severing her wing. It hurt all the same, Twilight screaming out as she dodged and lost control of her flight pattern. She landed on the nearest asteroid she could find and proceeded to clutch her wound, hiding within the rock’s structure to avoid contact with anymore enemy ships. They came upon her anyway, firing a volley of rockets on the asteroid she clung onto, Twilight screaming for help.
“Twilight!” Tony screamed, hearing her cries in the comms. He turned from Thor’s escape pod and back to the asteroid field, noticing the oncoming waves of starships beginning to swarm the pod. For a moment too long, he hesitated. He turned rapidly back to the pod, then to the asteroids, then to Thor. Then to Twilight.
The cluster of starships surrounded the asteroid, Twilight peeking over the rock structure she hid behind and watching those final moments of the starships’ blasters lighting up. A different fire lit up in the darkness of space, the repulsor blasts filling the asteroid field until every last starship within Twilight’s vicinity was annihilated. Twilight looked up, seeing that suit of armor fly over.
He arrived to her position on the asteroid, firing at any ship that drew near to them. “Should’ve never let you out of my sight!” Tony exclaimed harshly, palms outstretched and blowing away any Necrocraft or starship that drew near. Gritting her teeth and fighting through the pain, Twilight got back up and shot up her head, her horn igniting and firing blast after blast of magic, joining Stark in his return fire.
Sooner rather than later, the odds were quickly shifting against them. The enemy ships kept on piling on top of them, the asteroid they stood upon was quickly getting decimated further and further by the blaster bolts. Even Stark didn’t have eyes in the back of his head, several shots striking his backside, shoulder, rib cage, and even the side of his helmet. Twilight suffered equally as much, forced to fly off the asteroid as a volley of rockets struck the ground she stood upon. Following that eruption that Tony was caught in, pieces of his suit began to break off, his thrusters beginning to fail him as he escaped the remains of the asteroid.
“We’re getting overrun!” Stark shouted, trying desperately to direct himself in the weightless void, simultaneously firing at the crowd of ships trailing him and further tearing apart the Mark 50. His HUD flashed dangerously red, showing the loss of precious oxygen. Stark’s adrenaline was shifted to overdrive, his Iron Man suit shooting off several flares and missiles in every which direction. Most struck the ships tailing him, others impacted nearby asteroids.
Missing that last Chitauri starship that made it through it all. By inches. It shot Stark right in the chest.
He was blasted back, floating aimlessly until his body struck the nearest asteroid. The back of his head struck the solid rock, Tony’s HUD turning dark as his oxygen depleted. Leaving nothing. Stark took in that last deep breath as his suit quickly failed him. As it died even faster.
“Tony!” Twilight cried. She flew as fast as the Aero-Rig would allow, slamming on the rock with all four hooves. Cringing under the pain her hind leg carried, Twilight ignored it and used her own body to shield Stark. She hardly even noticed the Chitauri starship hover slowly behind them, her full focus only on Tony and praying he was still alive.
It was all she could do before the starship charged up its blasters.
Then both her ears and Tony’s were filled with Nebula’s shrill cries.
The Benatar hurtled forward at top speed, Nebula screaming through every second of her ramming the ship right into the Chitauri’s backside. The starship exploded, the Benatar tilting awkwardly as the fire consumed its exterior and large chunks of the ship itself broke off upon impact. Twilight could only shield herself and Tony as the debris sprayed over them before fading off into the zero-gravity void. When she was able to breathe again, she witnessed the Benatar float over them, Nebula’s voice returning to her eardrums.
“It’s no use to fight them off now! Thor and the others have already jumped! We need to retreat!” Nebula explained through the comms, opening the airlock for Twilight and Tony below her.
Already seeing the approaching, reinforcing swarm of Chitauri quickly entering the asteroid field, Twilight returned her concern to Stark and wrapped him delicately in her aura. She carried him back up into the Benatar. The airlock was open for them, but only for so long as the damages the Benatar sustained had its unquestionable side effects. The airlock failed, sucking out several pieces of machinery, repair tools, and supplies before Twilight forcibly closed it with magic, crying out as she finally settled herself on the metal floor and pried the Aero-Rig off of her. Tossing the jetpack away and ripping free the spacesuit, as well, Twilight gasped for air and took in several gasps, having been in space for no more than five minutes but already missing what it felt like to breathe natural air. As natural as it could have been. Twilight took it for whatever it was worth, finally being able to realize…
She was the only one breathing.
Catching that gasp, Twilight turned back to the ruin of the Mark 50 lying beneath her. Entire portions of the armor were either torn or missing, even a small chunk of the mask broken and revealing Stark’s motionless lips beneath it. Twilight took the time to gasp then.
She ripped off Tony’s shattered mask, tossing it aside and begging him to wake up. Prying even harder at the shreds of armor resting over the Arc Reactor, Twilight proceeded to send harmless jolts of electricity into his chest through her horn. His chest jolted upwards, but he remained motionless. Breathless. Maybe even lifeless. With sweat pouring down her tear-filled eyes, she slammed her hooves into his chest and began to compress downwards, hoping by some slim chance to kick-start his heart again. Another failure. Time was running short, Twilight looking rapidly from Tony’s chest to his face again, his nose, his lips, hoping to see them move or take in that precious oxygen. But he wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t breathe.
Twilight knew what she had to do. Closing her eyes, she breathed in sharply through her snout, scrunched her face, and pressed her lips right onto Tony’s. Ignoring all the red flags, Twilight expelled a helping of oxygen into Tony’s mouth, breaking off and driving her hooves into his chest once again, diving down and pressing her lips to his. Again and again until…
Tony gasped for air, crying out as his eyes bugged open wide and he nearly scrambled to his feet right then and there. Only he stopped in a sitting position, managed to take in that precious breath of air, then slowly turned his eyes to her. To the pony sitting there, staring at him with tearful eyes wide with hope. Hope and…
“Oh, God, did you just give me mouth-to-mouth?” Tony breathed.
Relief. Twilight cried, a widened smile joining her tears as she wrapped her forelegs around Tony and hugged him as hard as she could. Stark gasped out a grin, reaching upward and wrapping his right forearm around her backside and hugging her even tighter. It was a tearful embrace for both of them, one that unfortunately couldn’t have lasted any longer than they would have wished.
Because they listened to Nebula scream, “Jump in 3, 2, 1!”
The ship shot forward, sending both Tony and Twilight hard on their backs and rolling across the ship’s flooring. The Jump Point didn’t last as long as the last one, perhaps a second or two shorter before the ship sauntered to a brief and unexpected halt. Tony and Twilight shared a look with one another before pushing themselves back up. They limped together into the cockpit to see Nebula frozen in her seat, visibly shaking.
“Nebula?” Twilight whispered. She tried to approach the Luphomoid’s side only to see her robotic eyes plastered with the windshield, hands gripping the steering controls so hard they could have shattered right then.
“Oh, no…” Tony muttered. He approached the navigation console, it alongside most of the control consoles in the cabin heavily damaged and beyond repair. The ship’s tracker and map were dead, joining the Benatar as dead in the water. “Do we have a read on Thor?” Stark asked.
Nebula brought up her console, shaking her head pitifully. “Most of the ship’s systems are down… heavy damage in the navigation controls from the impact sustained earlier. Engines at 14% stability… fuel running low.”
From the strength in her voice, both Twilight and Tony could tell she felt absolutely crestfallen. Unquestionably defeated. As she weakly shoved the console away from her face, Tony stepped closer to Nebula with Twilight laying a hoof on his thigh. He shot his eyes down to her, pieces of his Mark 50 still hanging off his person.
“He jumped, Tony… They’re safe,” Twilight told him, assuring Stark of Thor’s position following the surprise attack. That alone earned a helping sigh of relief from the Iron Man, all of it taken away when he finally took notice to their current circumstances.
Nebula leaned forward in her seat, metallic hand resting on her forehead as she gazed into the seat’s control console. “I shouldn’t have driven the ship into that Chitauri,” she muttered weakly.
“You saved our asses,” Tony retorted. It mattered little to Nebula either way.
Twilight limped forward, blood seeping down her hind leg. She didn’t pay heed to that, instead focusing to the outside universe beyond the windshield. “Where are we?”
“I tried to get us back to the Milky Way Galaxy,” Nebula answered, her eyes rising from her console and gazing straight above and even straighter ahead. “But we came up short.”
When Tony turned to it, he caught his breath and refrained from breathing for several seconds on end. Twilight followed suit, her eyes wide and teary when she stared into the blackness and saw the light. They all followed her eyes directly ahead, gazing into the heart of the spiral galaxy of the Milky Way. Millions and millions of miles away.
With the ship damaged, fuel low, and not even a jump left to their name, the possibility for tracking Thor and the others was a helpless effort. Trying to somehow find Thanos with his monstrous behemoth searching for them in the Andromeda Galaxy proved to be even more so. The mission was over, finished, killed before it could ever really begin. Their only chance left to even make it out of their situation alive was dead ahead. Somehow, all three of them knew what needed to be done and fast. Before it was too late.
They needed to get back to Earth.
Present Time
Nebula hadn’t heard a single sound from the cockpit of the Benatar for over an hour.
As she cautiously traversed the darkened and empty halls and rooms of the ship, the lone Guardian could only see the amount of work that had been accomplished the past twenty-two days. So much done to repair the ship without the devices she and Rocket used to repair it so long ago. Pieces of flooring remained upturned, wiring and innards of the Benatar lying beneath her feet as Nebula carefully proceeded over them. As she entered the bridge, the cabin, found the cockpit and saw its occupants, Nebula’s metallic heart slowly fell to the sight of it.
There lay Tony Stark and Twilight Sparkle, the man resting on his right side as the Alicorn lay right under his warming arm. The shattered mask of the Mark 50 rested beside them, that cool, blue and green tint of light showering over the couple in a cold, cold blanket. Like an embrace. A kiss of death. Nebula’s face nearly fell apart to see them share their final moments together, her heart aching to see all that effort gone to waste. Tony had done his best to repair the ship, get them home, and save their lives. But like Nebula, he came up short. They all did in the end.
Stepping forth as quietly as she could, Nebula knelt down and laid her fingers on both Stark and Twilight’s necks. A pulse for each. Faint, but certainly still alive. Her heart fell even further when she realized it wouldn’t be much longer. Not wishing for them to leave her while lying on the dirty floor, Nebula carefully moved Stark’s arm and pulled the limp form of a man back up to his feet. She laid him in the pilot’s seat, watching as his head went slack to the left and remained that way. Eyes shut and not even a breath, at least not anything she could hear. Nebula’s eyes fell, her arms carefully falling around the Alicorn and cradling her close to her chest.
She laid her right into Stark’s lap and arms. Taking a step back, Nebula watched what she had created, where she had left them with waning pain in her expression, burning in her eyes. No tears. Unable to make them. With a single hand still resting on his shoulder, Nebula grazed Twilight’s mane and rubbed it softly, a final grasp for each of them. One last touch before she turned away and refused to look a second longer.
Left them in peace.
And in peace, the two souls felt it, a giving in and giving up of that life and the spirit and taking them away to whatever form of afterlife was real and what wasn’t. Twilight felt it as the pain she felt for days on end finally began to drift away, only the memories of her past life finally resurfacing and playing before her. From her childhood with Shining Armor and Spike, to moving to Ponyville and meeting her best friends, through every trial and tribulation and always coming out on top. In victory. With her friends. That was how it always ended and even then… she was still with a friend. The darkness was cold but Tony Stark was warm against her. She felt only that as she allowed that darkness to win.
As for Tony, he didn’t have much of a legacy to be proud about. He didn’t see his life flash before his eyes, he didn’t see God or any other deity he didn’t believe in. He only saw her, Pepper Potts, the woman he loved and swore to marry the moment he got back from saving the world. That was all he saw. He only saw her as he drifted off and dreamt away.
It was so very cold, even with Twilight in his arms.
It was so very dark… even with the approaching light.
Only that light grew brighter. Stronger. More and more powerful as Stark seemingly came back to life and flinched against it. Whatever it was, it was rude enough to stop Tony from dying peacefully, forcing him to open his bloodshot eyes and gaze into the heart of lightness with his very own fading vision. Even Twilight’s eyes began to flutter open, a weak mumble leaving the Alicorn as her eyes shifted upwards to the light. Then they bugged open. As did Stark’s.
Gazing into the light and seeing a person hovering within it.
A human, eyes a fiery yellow beneath the bright red of the mask they wore. The suit they wore also bore the same hue, a golden star resting over the chest and joining the red and blue streaks painted on the suit. A golden, flowing mohawk shot up from the top of the helmet, the rose lips of the human marked in a look of slight hesitation. A frown, perhaps. But something deeper, holding obvious signs of wonder… and concern.
For the helpless lives spending their final moments adrift in space.
For those who had given up hope of ever being rescued.
For those who had only thought death was the only escape.
But for Captain Marvel, she knew it wasn’t.
She further approached the windshield, slowly as not to startle them, staring softly onto the pair. Tony followed suit, pushing himself with as much strength as he had left to hold Twilight in his left arm and walk the distance between his seat and the windshield. He proceeded down the stairs to the lower level, practically falling over and catching himself and Twilight with a palm pressed to the glass.
The light only grew brighter. Both Tony and Twilight lifted their weary heads and stared straight into it. Watched as her gloved-palm fell onto the glass just the same.
Meeting his.