90
Earth
S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
2:22 p.m.
Celestia and the remaining leaders of the One United Species Army retreated to the Dragon Lands to prepare their forces for the ambush. Stygian went with her, already planning the ambush. So many ponies followed them. Trixie, Derpy, and Maud were the first volunteers. Capper and Friday were next. Then Sunburst with numerous Crystal Guard. The Wonderbolts followed their princess through every fire, every storm, and every end. They stood with her in the Dragons’ Lair.
Leaving just Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Sunset, Starlight, and Spike solidifying the plan with their tentative allies.
They were led and followed closely behind Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Stephen Strange, and T’Challa. Right into the main bridge where life bustled so organically and fluidly they almost believed it to be a living organism. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents pursued to their own journeys back and forth across the bridge’s floor, leaving a clear space that led directly to a round table and Nick Fury facing the windows and the endless, Earthen skies. With him stood Phil Coulson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as Maria Hill, Melinda May, Fitz, Simmons, Deke, and Shuri.
Back to Earth through one of Strange’s portals and the first thing the mares see is the inside of a floating battleship. Granted, Twilight and the others did catch a sneak peak of the ship three years prior when the Helicarrier entered Canterlot with reinforcements during the Ultron Offensive, but it was different back then. Everything was so different, so much easier. The mares and Spike were all in total awe when they stepped hoof and claw into the Helicarrier’s bridge for the first time. Starlight especially.
Sunset even more so. She looked like a child in the candy store, eyes sparkling wide and jaw refusing to close.
Trailing them was an army of heroes.
From the remaining Avengers including Thor, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Falcon, War Machine, and White Wolf. The Guardians of the Galaxy with Star-Lord leading, Gamora by his side, Drax, Mantis, Rocket, Groot, and Nebula directly followed. New York’s Defenders, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. The Punisher walked right with them, holding no name to their team but standing with them regardless. Daisy Johnson and Robbie Reyes led the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ready for war, from Mack, Yo-Yo, Hunter, Morse, Davis, Piper, and Deathlok.
The surviving S.H.I.E.L.D. agents during the Battle of Wakanda surrounded the army with the sorcerers in tow. Wong led the dozen sorcerers, following right behind Strange. The massive group walked ahead, some dispersing as they came across Fury and his conglomeration. They remained on the main bridge, but broke off to allow some breathing room, to give Fury more of an open look at who he was dealing with. Some went off with their own teams, others staying behind. But absolutely everyone watched the ponies stop just behind Stark, Rogers, Strange, and T’Challa. Even they stepped aside, allowing the mares a full glimpse of what awaited them.
Twilight gasped. Everypony did, including Spike. Fury, Coulson, Hill, May, Fitz, Simmons, Deke, and Shuri all backed aside once they heard the gasp emerging from behind them. And once they turned, once they unveiled the massive hologram displayed right in front of Fury’s command console, they truly did see the lights shimmer in all the ponies’ eyes. Even the young dragon’s own.
What was plastered on the holograms were an arrangement of maps, battle strategies, a headcount on every able-bodied individual who would be partaking for the last stand. The plan was laid out in extraneous detail, so much so that Twilight couldn’t even read the small letters as they rolled up the hologram’s screen. She didn’t need to. Steve already informed them they would get a rundown from Fury himself. All that left were the maps, locations of live footage from S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites showcasing Wakanda and the Dragon Lands. Both were tormented landscapes, torn from the constant scourge of warfare and desolation. Wakanda burned with an unnatural hurricane infecting it slowly, dozens and dozens of Chitauri Command Centers surrounding the borders and closing in. The Dragon Lands were infested with the carcasses of alien warships and dead Leviathans.
Both would soon prove to be the battlegrounds for the fate of the universe.
Twilight flicked her eyes over to Fury and Coulson. She opened her mouth, took in a breath to speak. The sliding doors behind them burst open, bending at an angle they weren’t supposed to allow the stumbling behemoth of muscle and low IQ to enter into the Helicarrier’s bridge.
“Bathrooms small!” the Hulk declared, pushing right through the table and knocking over each individual chair. Heads spun on pure reaction, nearly the entire bridge turning towards the bumbling Hulk. Twilight and her friends were especially taken aback, none of them having seen the Hulk in full glory for quite some time. Sunset even more so, having only heard of the green, radiated beast from Twilight’s stories.
Yet there he was, pausing before he could take another inch closer to Fury. Pausing when his eyes fell to Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and the seven remaining equines joining them. Twilight took a brave step forward, looking up to the Hulk expectantly, hesitantly. “Doctor Banner?” she inquired as calmly as feasibly possible. Not to worry him. Definitely not to anger him.
The Hulk hadn’t arrived to the Castle of the Two Sisters. He was surprisingly absent for the big reunion, but there were so many people present that Twilight and the others never even took notice of Bruce’s absence. Now they understood why.
Huffing their way, Hulk grumbled something incomprehensible, refusing to meet Twilight’s or anypony’s stare for long. “Ponies smaller…” he mumbled, turning aside.
Another one stepped forward, the butter Pegasus. Hulk flinched at her, eyes widening to match her own. “Since when did you and the Hulk sort things out?” Fluttershy asked, sincerity and peace ripe in her stare.
“No!” Hulk shouted. The ponies took several steps back in response, a yelp escaping Fluttershy, Sunset's horn burning with a bright intensity. She realized she didn’t need it soon enough. He stumbled away back into the halls, waving his hand as he did so. “No ponies!”
He forcefully closed the sliding doors behind him, both breaking off and falling to the floor. Hulk didn’t even care, already gone and vanished through the Helicarrier’s corridors. As silence returned alongside normality within the bridge, the ponies could only turn to their allies for support on that one.
“Banner’s going through some stuff right now,” Natasha commented. She stood with her arms crossed, a weary sigh leaving her heart. “He made it very clear—very loudly—not to bother him unless it was time for ‘big fight’. His minimal words, not mine.”
“And a big fight it shall be,” a voice called out, heads swiveling and necks turning to the owner.
The young lady wore a bright orange, decorative dress and a gorgeous necklace dangling around her throat. Her hair was tied into two buns, her dark skin wrinkling into a smile on her face as she approached the group of mares. She offered a short hug and a kiss on the cheek to the Black Panther, surprising Rainbow only momentarily. Explanations soon came.
The young lady stopped just ahead of Twilight and the others with her. She smiled sweetly to them, folding her hands against her abdomen and bowing out of respect for the Equestrian royalty. “My name is Shuri, brother to the Black Panther, and princess of Wakanda,” she stated at long last, easing the ponies’ many questions. She rose up, still holding that smile to them. “I have heard stories from Coulson and Fury. You must be Princess Twilight Sparkle. It’s very nice to meet you.”
Her hand extended, fell to the Alicorn princess. Although somewhat uncertain at first, Twilight laid those uncertainties to rest and responded with her hoof and a smile. Shuri gripped her violet hoof rather softly, shaking it and bringing the two together at long last.
“Twilight, it’s a pleasure. And these are my friends; Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Starlight Glimmer, and Sunset Shimmer… but… you’re probably not gonna remember any of their names.”
“Already got it down,” Shuri replied with a smirk, tapping softly on her temple. Unsure of what she meant, Shuri broke the hand/hoofshake and stood up tall. That finger then adjusted to point to each pony specifically, land on each one as she said, “Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer, and Spike!”
She exclaimed proudly on Spike’s name, playfully poking the chubby dragon in his belly. Spike giggled at that, rubbing the spot where she poked, obviously ticklish. Rainbow smirked her way, Applejack doing the same and tipping her hat to the Wakandan princess. Rarity was in awe to the vibranium necklace around her throat, but bowed respectfully alongside Pinkie, Fluttershy, Sunset, and Starlight.
Twilight was busy trying to close her jaw and breathe again. “That’s impressive,” she told her, watching Shuri shrug to the compliment, as if it wasn’t the first one she got in that regard. “You’ve got quite the mind there.”
“Nothing compared to what she’s capable with it,” T’Challa interrupted their little discussion, stepping forth to stand side by side with his younger sister. He laid his palms against his own chest and body, the black suit tight against his muscles and frame. “The Panther Habit suit which you see… flawlessly designed with vibranium weave.”
“Can also store any foreign impact, transform it into kinetic energy, and redistribute it upon any impact given by the wearer,” Shuri explained further, bending down and pointing to specific regions on the suit where she spoke of. Mainly the biceps, the claws, and the chest.
While most of the ponies—mainly Rainbow Dash—simply nodded to that bit of information they probably wouldn’t need nor remember, Twilight Sparkle was caught. Trapped in her old, scientific ways. Even Sunset was taken aback by that information, ears perking up in wild interest. But nothing compared to Twilight, the Alicorn struggling to even maintain her breathing patterns.
“Kinetic energy?” Twilight gasped, observing T’Challa’s Panther Habit from top to bottom. “Wait, you mean to tell me that this suit is made of the same metal from Steve Rogers’ shield, can bend and mold as easily as any suit, and can store kinetic energy and use it as an offensive means?!”
Shuri shrugged again, hands held tight behind her back, that adorable smile burning on her lips alongside the crimson on her cheeks. “Little side project of mine. It’s brother’s favorite pair of pajamas.”
“Quiet,” T’Challa mumbled to her with his native tongue, nudging his little sister playfully with his elbow. She nudged back, the two siblings smiling to one another. Finally finding some form of peace after the treacheries they and their people endured.
Twilight was no longer in the same boat, struggling to wrap her head around such technology. “That is… absolutely mind-blowing!” she exclaimed, hoof once pressed firmly against her forehead now shot out to express her anxieties. “How… h-how did you even manage with the tensile strength, craft vibranium into individual and flexible strands? How did you even handle the energy absorption process without it—?!”
“Your Majesty!” Fury called. He shattered whatever form of bond was beginning to build, all heads turning back towards the front of the bridge and reasoning for their presence there in the first place. Fury leaned against the railing, his one good eye holding absolutely no humor and his face completely devoid of any sort of emotion. Save for impatience. “Clock ain’t waiting for us.”
The Alicorn’s ears fell, flopping sadly against her head. She drooped her head and snout low, sighing. “Right… sorry,” Twilight mumbled, almost shamefully. As she dragged her tail and herself closer to Fury and the others, Shuri bent down and halted Twilight momentarily.
“I’ll tell you later,” she whispered into the princess’ ear.
That alone got the smile to return to Twilight’s lips.
As the mares gathered around and the silence returned to the bridge once again, Nick Fury returned to the holograms and began tapping away at them, showcasing the map of Wakanda laid out flat. He sighed, facing forward and leaning back against the railing once again.
“And since the clock ain’t waiting for me, either… I’ll make it short,” Fury announced. He swiped right at the hologram. Several live body cameras sparked to life, showcasing burning and darkened landscapes. Numerous soldiers in black traversed those lands, silenced assault rifles and snipers in tow as they pushed through dense trees, burning grasslands, and seemingly-endless valleys. Fury continued. “We got S.H.I.E.L.D. scouts entering Wakanda as we speak. They’ll be our eyes and ears, tell us when Thanos brings his purple ass to whatever… ‘Typhon’ is guarding. The big dragon and his demons seem to be digging for something beneath Mount Bashenga… but I’m fairly sure we all know what it is.”
One look from Fury to Gamora was enough to confirm that. A second glance to Shuri and a nod that followed offered that assurance.
Fury pointed his finger back to the maps, an aerial view of the seven-headed beast stomping forth towards Mount Bashenga barely visible. “You see, satellites have shown that the dragon—”
“Kinda looks like King Ghidorah.”
Everyone fell back into silence and turned towards Spider-Man.
Peter Parker smiled nervously to them all. Tried to at least, already offering up his support for the claim. He held up his hand, dangled it out towards the camera footage and muttered, “From… Godzilla? The really old… Right, shutting up now.”
He, too, fell back into that silence and remained by Natasha’s side. The Black Widow patted his shoulder comfortingly.
With that out of the way, Fury returned to the hologram. “The dragon doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Thanos is gonna want that Infinity Stone underneath Mount Bashenga, so if he tussles with Typhon—and somehow manages to come out on top—Strange will be there to meet him before he can take another step.”
Stephen Strange took over, stepping up to the plate and holding his bat for all to see. His fist shivered with the Sling Ring large and obviously visible on his fist. He pointed to it, saying, “I’ll use my Sling Ring to transport Thanos to the Dragons’ Lair. At that moment, the second you all see Thanos, that’s when you enact the ambush. He’ll never see it coming, and when he does it’ll be too late.”
“We will have the dragons trap Thanos within a blanket of molten lava,” T’Challa said, stepping forward and pointing to the holograms changing by his word, showcasing the small animations of the Mad Titan being encased within the lava spewing forth from the dragons’ maws. “Have the changelings become windigos… and freeze the Titan where he stands.”
The animation did just that, bringing forth numerous Avengers and ponies rushing towards the contained Thanos. Steve Rogers stepped up, hands on his belt, his right one rising to point to the screen.
“After that, I’ll be leading the teams to work on getting that gauntlet off of Thanos’ hand,” Steve said, he and everyone else watching as the animation followed through, ending with Thanos eradicated and the gauntlet removed. Despite that mild ease of seeing what was possible, Steve still held a grim look in his eyes, turning that expression to everyone who stood behind him, Every step of the way. “By any means necessary, if any of you see an opening… you don’t hesitate to take it. That gauntlet needs to come off.”
Stark finished for him, adding, “If anything goes south, we stick to the plan. We don’t go off on our own. We don’t waste our efforts unless it’s on the gauntlet. If you can’t do it alone… find someone to stand with and distract Thanos long enough for us to get that gauntlet off.”
“With the gauntlet and Thanos’ source of power taken care of, we can finish the job,” Fury finalized, letting out a breath of pent-up unease as he sat on the railing and crossed his arms. It wasn’t a full-proof plan by any means, but it was the best they could come up with considering the type of time they had left. Still, he left it open for discussion, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director holding out his hands to the many eyes and the many blank expressions.
He asked, “Any objections?”
No one did. Either they didn’t have the strength, they agreed to it, or they were just indifferent. When it came time to voice their opinions, right then and there mattered more than ever before. It was nearly a full fifteen seconds of utter silence before Peter Quill cleared his throat. Almost every eye in the room shot in his direction.
He didn’t even notice it. He just stared at Fury and asked, “You think we have what it takes to stop this?”
Fury opened his mouth… then promptly closed it. By his own will or by some external force that he never knew—or perhaps he possibly did—it was there. It was real and it needed to be addressed. The doubt. The fear. The horror of what awaited them if anything went wrong in the plan. They could handle some hiccups, they could deal with a minor injury, with cuts and bruises and broken bones. Deaths… those were always harder. But if they did nothing, if they sat back and admitted to themselves that they let half the universe die… then who were they?
Not who they believed they were.
Fury leaned back and crossed his arms, eye low and facing to the floor. “For as long… as I’ve been in this business, Mr. Lord,” he began, already stretching Quill’s nerves by that name. Peter let it slide and remained silent. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things. Aliens falling from the sky… word of a billionaire fighting out of a cave in a metal suit… a Norse god decimating a small town… a seventy-year-old soldier frozen in ice… This may just take the cake if Thanos finishes what he started. We may not be the biggest army in the universe… some of us may not be the strongest, the smartest, the most well-equipped to handle a job like this. But if we don’t… who else could? I can’t guarantee any of us will come out of this alive… but that’s the risk we’re all willing to take.”
He stepped up, closed the distance between his side and theirs, and stared with a fiery intensity onto those who still doubted, onto those who didn’t know the outcome and could only trust his word. Each other. Hopefully themselves. He stared at Star-Lord, at all of them, and finished, “I hope… it’s the risk.”
Then silence from their end. Every body unmoving, every eye centered on Fury, unwillingly to break away and undoubtedly uncertain for what remained ahead of them. But in the end, that’s what truly made them human, mortal, so unlike the external forces commanding fate.
And in the end… it was the First Avenger that stepped forward. “I’ll take that risk,” Steve Rogers declared, nodding once to Fury. Nick stared straight into his eyes, saw no sense of quit and only the fight. Just as alive and bright since the day they pulled him out of the ice.
“Me too,” James Barnes added, stopping just short of Steve’s left.
“Me three,” Rainbow Dash uttered, flying over to hover on Steve’s right. Both Rogers and Barnes met her eyes, saw her smirk, and joined her.
One by one, everyone slowly came together. Knowing not what lied ahead but knew they would face it together. Knowing who they stood against and realized the outcome was never truly certain, never truly resting in their favor. They needed to fight for that outcome, reach it with as much strength and unity as any of them could muster. And when the time came, when it needed them most of all to do what none others could—what no remarkable individual could accomplish—they would be there. Facing it. Even when they didn’t know what was coming.
Rarity knew exactly what was coming.
It plagued her the moment she stepped hoof into that life, experienced what the universe was capable of. And it terrified her. It struck her so deep that no healing was possible. No treatment could ease the wound inflicted on her mind, her soul, her very understanding of reality, time, and fate. She refused to step forward with her friends because she knew that what awaited did not lie in their favor. She refused to stand with her friends because…
Because she couldn’t agree to die.
And they needed to know that.
Slowly, she turned her eyes shakily to Twilight’s backside. Raised her hoof to her. “T-Twilight—”
She was interrupted when the entirety of the Helicarrier buckled.
It was so sudden, so brief but so powerful. Agents toppled over in their chairs and fell to the steel flooring filling the bridge. Almost everyone fell, held onto someone close, or grabbed the nearest object to steady themselves. Others like Tony and Rhodes already activated their masks, the bright red and blue eyes igniting and scanning their environment for threats. Once the tremor filling the Helicarrier ended, everything stabilized. Everything returned to normal.
Rarity really wished it had. Instead, she lost her voice yet again and let the inevitable continue to unfold. “What the hell was that?!” Daisy shouted, she and May exchanging wild and uncertain glances before turning them to Coulson, hopefully for answers. The expression on his face said it all, Phil already moving towards the security footage and flicking through it on the main hologram.
“Check all scanners, Agent Hill!” Fury shouted, finding his balance once again and facing the front windows, trying to look for whatever had struck them. “Find out what hit us!”
“Nothing hit us, Fury,” Coulson immediately responded, even faster than Maria Hill. His eyes were practically glued to the screen, facing away from it to meet Fury’s eye, just as wide as his own. “But we do have a visitor.”
Phil stepped aside to allow everyone to get a closer look at what exactly he was referring to. They all saw it, almost all of them unable to believe it. Except… for a select few. Daisy and May shot each other the same horrified glance, Fitz and Simmons doing the same. All four of them slowly, painfully turning back to the live security footage on the deck of the Helicarrier.
Standing outside within the foggy clouds and blistering wind, Glenn Talbot smiled directly into the camera’s face. Even from so far away, he stared directly into the near-minuscule camera. He somehow saw it. The lone human being stood in the center of the Helicarrier’s landing pad, the remainder of the ship deactivating its cloaking mechanism from where he stood, spreading out and infecting the rest of the ship. His torn jacket and jeans swayed in the wind alongside his large beard, yet nothing could conceal that smile, that smirk, that known sense of power practically flowing through his eyes. No one moved a muscle from within the Helicarrier’s bridge, everyone seemingly fixated on the live camera footage of Glenn Talbot just staring at them.
And smiling. It was the only thing that gave Twilight a chill of unease to flow down her spine. The other mares and Spike, too, a certain aura of unsettling power practically radiating off of the man’s essence. For too long, nobody made a move, everyone seemingly frozen by the man and his smile. Yet it was Phil who finally acted.
“Can I borrow that?” he asked Fury, pointing specifically to the small microphone on his jacket. Fury didn’t object and pried the device from him and handed it to the Phil. Adjusting it right next to his mouth, Coulson leaned forward and stared directly into the camera footage, meeting Talbot’s eyes. Glenn’s smile grew even wider. “Hey Talbot… we missed you at the Lighthouse. Mind telling us where that Gravitonium went off to?”
Talbot almost looked like he chuckled at that, his eyes softly closing, lost in a state of bliss, before returning with that otherworldly stare.
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that. It’s in good hands,” Talbot responded. He spoke so calmly, but his voice seemed amplified somehow, as if he was secretly wearing a similar microphone on his jacket that allowed him to speak over the high winds and especially the distance from the deck to the bridge. Yet there was nothing that they could see. Just him.
“We’re in quite a mess, aren’t we, Phil?” Talbot continued. “Just got my family somewhere safe… saved the city from the Chitauri… but it looks like we got bigger fish to fry this time around.”
Everyone in the bridge remained silent, held their breath. Fury leaned forward alongside Coulson. Steve and Tony took a single step closer, neither one refusing to drop their guard. Not even for a second. Not even when Talbot said the very next words…
“I wanna help,” Glenn announced, slightly louder than before. He held up his palm. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll kill Thanos for you.”
Now if that wasn’t the most asinine thing they had ever heard. Rainbow scoffed, looking to Applejack and Sunset and rolling her eyes at that. Pinkie held her hoof to the side of her head, rotating it and rolling both pupils in more of a “crazy” sense. Even some of the Avengers appeared unconvinced. But it was the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who actually shuddered at that statement, knowing the sincerity behind it. The promise and the strength that he laid thick. It was even stronger than they remembered.
“How are you…?” Phil began to question. Then Phil noticed the deck surrounding Talbot. He watched—everyone watched with complete astonishment as Glenn slowly closed his palm into a fist. Instantly, the nearby generators and deck floor began to fall apart, pure, hardened metal crushed like tinfoil, the cement of the deck curling and cracking like glass beneath his feet. It didn’t end there. The bridge began to shudder, the glass windows showing definite signs of tension and stress pressed against it. The glass began to crack, computers and chairs crushed slowly, painfully, as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents rose up and backed away in shock to the phenomenon occurring before them.
And before it could get any worse… it stopped. Right when Talbot released his palm and let it fall slowly to his side.
There was no questioning it anymore. There was definitely no questioning him… any longer. Phil Coulson returned to the footage, met Talbot eye to eye, man to man, and stated the obvious. “Talbot… you absorbed all the Gravitonium.”
Glenn smirked at that. “I don’t like ‘Talbot’ anymore…”
He held out both of his arms, his palms faced to the heavens, as he slowly rose from the Helicarrier’s deck and hovered directly in front of every single eye. And they all saw him now.
“Call me… Graviton… and get me a new uniform.”