//------------------------------// // Chapter 91 – Endgame // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 91 Equus The Dragon Lands Dragons’ Lair 4:40 p.m. Littered with dead dragons, Chitauri ships, and deceased Leviathans, the battleground was set. Princess Celestia and Queen Novo were in charge of the ambush on Equus’ front, with obvious word and input from Dragon Lord Ember, considering whose land they were soon to be fighting on. Sunburst represented the Crystal Empire and stood with those various guards, leaving Princess Cadance to remain in Equestria with Flurry Heart just in case the ambush failed. Just in case… Celestia or Twilight didn’t return. Equestria would need a leader. Thorax and the griffon generals stood alongside them, each and every leader from the various nations surrounded by their personal guard. Celestia was backed by Spitfire and her Wonderbolts, Stygian joining her. Novo stood with Skyranger and Sky Beak by her sides. Seaspray was gone, awaiting orders alongside the rest of the naval fleet. Ember was surrounded with numerous dragons, big and small, young and old. They were with their Dragon Lord and watched the skies, intent on keeping their leader safe. Her golden armor shimmered under Celestia and Novo’s own, the three leaders radiant under the fading glare of the sun. Thorax’s brother Pharynx stood with him, he being the more dominant force in the changeling rule. Pharynx commanded several changeling guards to be at the ready, an entire army hiding in plain sight and in waiting. The several griffon generals were scattered across the Dragon Lands, commanding larger groups of griffons while Gilda, Gallus, Greta, and many more stuck with their more personal allies. Gallus stood close by Smolder’s side, both seemingly aware of their missing friend. Sandbar remained with his family back in Equestria, by his request. Probably for the best. There were the more unruly of the various races, as well. Tempest Shadow watched from the fading clouds to the impending battlefield below them. Her airship hovered ominously overhead, silent as a whisper with her own army awaiting on deck for her word. A platoon of Storm Creatures were as still as statues, Grubber amongst them and standing in hardened, heavy armor a few sizes too big for the hedgehog. Captain Celaeno piloted the airship with her crew surrounding her, swords by their sides but claws gripping their handles. Always at the ready. The wind blew softly into Tempest’s face, shaking her spiked mane. Not too strong. Just a whisper. She slowly turned back to Celaeno, the parrot captain meeting Shadow’s gaze and hardening it with her own. A nod between the two. Ready. Back on the shattered earth, a group of remarkable people were scattered and uncertain. Unsure of the future, of what truly awaited them, but readied themselves nonetheless. The Avengers consisted of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, the Hulk, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Peter Parker, James Rhodes, and Bucky Barnes. Various couples standing together, staring off, trapped in their own conversations while the Dragons’ Lair burned around them. They could only talk about the plan. Again and again and again. Nothing else to know except what to do. And to do it right. Loki and T’Challa stood with them, only one of them truly wanting to be there, truly wanting to get vengeance on the Titan who took away his people. Loki never looked so nervous as he gripped his twin daggers and stood behind his brother, under his shadow. Like always. In the distance, the Defenders with the Punisher hardly looked any better. Matthew Murdock was constantly on patrol, listening for every possibly sound, every possible threat that could come to them. Within their team—whatever they could call a team—everyone seemed to assume that Daredevil would be leader. He took that position silently, explaining their role in the ambush as carefully and quietly as possible. The Dragon Lands was a near-graveyard of silence. Pure, unsettling, haunting silence with distant roars and crying winds. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, and Frank Castle were constantly scanning alongside Murdock, none of them really listening. All of them tightening their fists, hardening their hearts, and cocking their pistols. Waiting for the Titan to show his face. The Guardians of the Galaxy were a different story entirely. While the Defenders were more reclusive, they stood amongst their alien allies, more so the equines. Peter Quill and Trixie stood together with Gamora, Drax and Mantis looking over to Rocket and the pony alongside him. The raccoon was currently engrossed with the Pegasus’ Domino Gun, adjusting the metallic vest with a couple more enhancements. Most importantly, he fixed it so it could hurt organics, namely the purple Titan kind. Derpy looked sick to her stomach as the Domino Gun adjusted and whirred to life on her body, the twin guns rising on her shoulders and resting there. Groot gently patted her mane to ease her worries. A weak smile soon found its way back on Derpy’s face, but it never could have lasted. Nebula sat alone, on a rock, with Maud by her side. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were standing by and waiting for orders. Led by the Inhuman Quake, Daisy Johnson, she was surrounded by Mack, Yo-Yo, Deathlok, Hunter, Morse, and the eight faceless agents, the eight soldiers who had survived one war and were ready for another. Mack loaded in a fresh shell for his Shotgun-Axe, Yo-Yo Rodriguez tightening her metallic fingers over and over again. Deathlok scanned the battlefield, spotting no other life forms but their own army. Hunter and Morse were side by side, husband and wife conjoined with rifles and knives on their person and at the ready. Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider, stood with them, his glare focused to the world above them. To the African continent. To the Helicarrier hidden in the skies. With the camouflage active, the massive flying fortress was practically invisible to the naked, mortal eye. Within it, Nick Fury was standing by with Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Shuri, Melinda May, Fitz, Simmons, Deke, Piper, and Davis watching alongside the many other agents to the screens displayed on every computer. They all watched, in silence, as the scouts traversed the devastated hellscape that was the Wakandan capital. No Typhon. No demons. No Mad Titan. Because they weren’t at the capital. Fury already ordered the scouts to search where Shuri told him of, to Mount Bashenga. The scouts replied without a word—as not to give their position away—and went off in silence, towards the next objective. Everyone awaited word from the scouts on the current state of Wakanda and when to give Stephen Strange the word to act. Upon the surface of the Dragons’ Lair, Doctor Strange and Wong stood together, an army of a little more than a dozen sorcerers right behind them. In silence alongside the Sorcerer Supreme. The whispering wind tugged at the Cloak of Levitation, making it sway while Strange was so still, unable to move. Frozen where he stood. Wong gripped the Wand of Watoomb tighter and tighter as he glared at the Earth within the clouds, the growing storm over Wakanda growing fiercer by the second. It wouldn’t be long now. Stephen Strange stared with a settled gaze, his face pale, his chest rising and falling at a steady, cautious pace. But every now and again he would sometimes flick his gaze over to his far right, let them settle on a particular group of ponies he just couldn’t take his eyes off of. Mixed amongst the groups of Avengers and Guardians, Twilight Sparkle and her friends had never been more nervous in their entire lives. Rainbow Dash trotted back and forth, creating a small trench with her hoofprints in the dirt and rock. Applejack tightened her lasso and settled it on her backside, then focusing on her father’s hat and tightening it, as well. She needed to have that assurance that she truly wouldn’t be alone for the battle of the very universe. Pinkie Pie was consoling a weary and worried Fluttershy, not even Pinkie holding her usual, bubbly attitude considering what awaited them. Rarity stared at the ashes that forever rained within the Dragons’ Lair. Stared in silence. Not a word left her nor a single movement. Each Element of Harmony remained with their rightful owner, held tightly around each mares’ neck and secured on Twilight’s head. They had faith the plan, the ambush would work, but knew that if all else failed… the Elements would be on-site, ready at a moment’s notice. Even if prior moments to test the Elements hadn’t ended in the most satisfactory of ways… Twilight and the others had confidence they would work out in the end. They always have in the most unlikely of times. Today would be no different. Celestia approved their use of the Elements for the awaiting battle, though Twilight could have sworn she sensed a bit of hesitation in her voice. Something she kept it mind, further back and unimportant at the moment. Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer, Spike, Capper, and Friday were amongst them. Everyone was in position. Ready for Fury to give the word to Strange. Then ready for absolutely anything that followed. Nebula sat alone on the cracked rock and stared solemnly at her Electroshock Baton. Her robotic fingers caressed the weapon, her few nerve endings hardly feeling the electricity coursing through the baton. The cyborg of her never truly held that same sense she once possessed, the Luphomoid she still contained feeling the shock course up her arm. Still feeling that sense of impending doom, the part of her untainted by her father. Out of anything she was or would be, Nebula would always place her trust in that part of herself. Knowing she couldn’t with the rest or anyone else. Even when Maud Pie sat right next to her, upon the dirt and not on the rock, Nebula showed little to no interest or emotion. Despite their history. Despite their past. Despite what they built before. “Hey.” Nebula sighed, keeping her gaze tightly locked with her baton. Maud was unperturbed, staring to the Luphomoid and asking, “Are you nervous?” It was nearly a minute of silence between them. A silence filled with distant dragon roars, the cry of the wind, and the near-silent airship engines courtesy of Tempest Shadow high above the clouds. Finally, Nebula sighed again, lowering her Electroshock Baton. “If you knew my father, you would know how I feel,” she replied at long last. “I don’t know your father,” Maud retorted just as fast. She looked nowhere else but to Nebula, seeing that apprehension slowly eat away at her, consume her like the parts of her that didn’t belong. Like a monstrous infection. Only Maud didn’t see that. She didn’t see a monster sitting before her. “But I know you.” She laid her hoof softly on Nebula’s leg, Nebula finally turning her eyes lower to the Asteroid Glove and the hoof it belonged to. Those eyes trailed forward and met the pony’s, a somewhat solid sense of assurance in that dull look in her eyes. And Maud told her, “I’ll be with you every step of the way.” With her voice, it should have hardly sounded convincing, but Nebula didn’t hear that. She didn’t hear that dead tone that any average person would have. They were not average by any means. They were torn, broken people, species who didn’t belong, who were rejected, seen as outcasts. To her, Nebula heard that sincerity. The part of her that wasn’t monstrous started to tear at that, having not felt such a sensation since Gamora offered her a hug so long ago. So alien. So unlike anything she had ever known or experienced prior. It tore her. It made her turn away. But not again… Nebula reached down with her right hand, dug softly into her boot, and retrieved a small slip of paper. Almost taken aback at first, Maud stared onto it almost curiously, her eyes widening by centimeters. To some, it was just a folded, torn, worthless slip of paper. But to them, it was the Rock Soup recipe Maud gave her so long ago. Still with her. “You always were,” Nebula told her with a whisper. Maud smiled softly at her, a tiny one, a smile that hardly existed. Nebula mirrored her and smiled back. And no one experienced that smile but them. Nebula’s sister could not experience such a tremendous event, the Guardian standing with her arms crossed, hair blowing softly in the heated wind, and her eyes latched with planet Earth high above her. But mostly, she could only stare to the growing storm surfacing around Wakanda, nearly blotting out the entire continent of Africa. The eye of the storm glowed a dark and hellish red, glaring down right at her. The entire cosmos rested on their shoulders now. Whether they lived or died didn’t matter, but they could not, they absolutely could not let Thanos get his hands on that last Infinity Stone. It was hard for Gamora to trust others outside of her team. It all relied on Nick Fury and his agents to relay the message of Thanos’ whereabouts to them, to where Doctor Strange would then transport himself to Earth so he could bring Thanos to Equus, where so many others would fight for their lives as well as so, so many others to ensure that gauntlet was removed. Destroyed. All of the above. It was so hard for Gamora to trust them with that. One mistake and it was all over. Despite the warmth in the wind, Gamora shivered where she stood. She prayed no one saw any from of weakness from her, not needing it now of all times. A hoof softly patted her leg. Dammit, Gamora cursed mentally, knowing someone saw that weakness. Somepony to be exact. Closing her eyes and shifting her head to the mare arriving to her left side, Gamora stared onto the golden coat, the fiery red and yellow mane, and the brilliant eyes of Sunset Shimmer. She stared onto Gamora with more than enough hope, the kind that just didn’t exist at the moment. The Guardian was somewhat eased by that, knowing at least one of them held it. Yet what Sunset told her made Gamora nearly lose her balance. She practically read her mind, saying, “You don’t have to worry, Gamora. I know it looks bleak now… but things always turn out the way they should. They’ll turn out all right…. even with so many odds stacked against us.” They barely knew each other. They were two completely separate species of alien and yet that never stopped Gamora from finding a family. From finding a lover. It didn’t stop her anymore, especially from finding a friend. That hope, that spark of strength was so radiant in her voice, her tone, her expression. Everything that Sunset was… was a beacon. A fire. They needed that more than ever. Gamora was glad to have a smile return to her lips at the assuring words. She rubbed Sunset’s mane, gently caressing the unicorn’s ear. Smiling at that, Sunset was glad to see that assurance return to Gamora once again, but it was completely overshadowed by the necklace glowing right over her heart. Her geode softly glowed, softly cried, almost as if in some kind of response to Gamora’s touch. Sunset’s smile slowly faltered, fell apart and turned to the geode resting on her chest. And when her hand drew away from the mare, the geode softened. It silenced. Sunset furrowed her brow at it, stared nowhere else even when Iron Man sighed. Standing in his Mark 50, Tony stared aimlessly about the Dragon Lands, the wasteland already burning and resembling more of a garbage heap than the lair of the Dragon Lord. Whatever. He sighed, responding to Sunset’s words with, “Well, we have one advantage; he’s coming to us. So that’s what we use.” While the mares, Spike, Capper, and Friday broke away from each other and turned to Stark—Sunset included amongst them, somehow breaking away from her geode but keeping it in mind—there was one among them… who didn’t. Rarity caught her breath, keeping her head low and whimpers even lower. Thanos was coming to them. Right… she still needed to convince herself of that. Sooner or later, she needed to realize that. “You got the Avengers in position?” Twilight asked, she and her friends approaching Stark and his cluster of Avengers. The Guardians turned their way, joining Gamora alongside Sunset. “Rogers’ll handle that,” Tony replied, pointing off somewhere, probably to Steve. Probably not. Steve and his group turned in their direction either way, eyeing Stark. Tony didn’t take his eyes off Twilight and the girls. With another sigh, he let his hands rest on his hips, dropping his head and shaking it softly. “Just gotta say, Twi… you and your friends… we wish you the best of luck. We may have more numbers than we did before, but if you go out there without the intent to do what’s needed, if we fail…” Rarity closed her eyes, breathing in shakily. Painfully. The next words hurt even more. “We know the stakes, Tony,” Twilight said, a fierce nod joining her alongside Rainbow’s confident smirk, Applejack’s assuring grin, Pinkie’s naïve optimism, Fluttershy’s weak smile, Starlight’s fearsome scowl, Sunset’s convincing stance, Spike’s supportive thumbs-up, Capper’s slick leer, and Friday’s stoic posture. “We know what we have to do. Everything’s going to turn out fine by the time the dust settles. It always has. Always will.” Rarity bit her lip, slowly shaking her head and keeping in that scream. Stark smiled at that, at all of them. It was gone the second he turned away from them. “That’s what I like to hear,” he said, eyeing home and watching the darkness and the fire swirl around Wakanda. Turning back to his Avengers, Tony pursed his lips and nodded. Uncertainty all around. “Storm’s picking up. All right… Parker, I want you and—” “WE CAN’T DO THIS!” Tony dropped whatever he was going to say and wheeled sharply towards the shriek. Every Avenger flinched at that, Steve’s teams included, the Guardians that weren’t paying their group any heed suddenly finding them to be the center of attention. But it was the mares who nearly jumped out of their coats, the scream originating directly behind them. Friday stepped aside alongside Capper, Spike and the girls getting front row seats to the near-mental breakdown occurring before them. It hurt so much more to see Rarity under that spotlight. She didn’t hesitate, turning her wild, feral, and tear-filled eyes towards them. “I should have told you all long ago, before any of this madness ever happened! I should have said it the second you came for us in that cave on Foal Mountain!” She pointed harshly at Stark and Thor, then turned her crazed and wounded expression to Steve and Natasha, Bruce Banner under the influence of the Incredible Hulk, the beast huffing her way. But they understood what she meant all the same. Some of them. Her closest friends were still puzzled by the looks on their faces, each mare turning to one another for support, none of them having it. “Foal Mountain?” Rainbow inquired, her eyes suddenly widening. “Wait, Rarity, are you talking about—?” “Yes, I’m talking about that!” Rarity screamed, her glare reddening. Rainbow instantly recoiled, her face practically scrunching back alongside her body. She didn’t interrupt again. Rarity continued, everyone silent. “When Wanda forced her magic into my head, I saw something I had kept down for nearly three years now. Something I didn’t want to be real so I forced myself to believe it wasn’t. But I was wrong. I was wrong to keep it hidden from all of you, pretend it didn’t exist, and act like all of this is just a coincidence!” “Rarity, what are you saying?” Twilight asked, her voice growing more and more soft. The wind tugged at her mane, nearly shielding her hurting eyes. Never hiding the tears burning in them. Rarity tightened her jaw and looked away, frustrated grunts and painful breaths entering and leaving her soul. She couldn’t open her eyes, nor turn them to every other eye. It hurt too much for that. She continued anyway, forcing herself through every agonizing syllable, each one a flash of horror striking across the darkness in her eyesight. “What I saw… in that vision… w-was… w-w-was all of you…” It was quiet now. Rarity knew what that meant. The world was watching. No turning away like she wanted to convince herself. No more keeping it down and hiding it from the world like she so desperately begged for. It ate away and killed whatever form of spirit or strength she had left in her body and mind. She could only dread what it would do to the rest of the world. The rest of her friends… Rarity opened her eyes. “All of you dead.” She forced herself to turn to them to say it, tears streaking down her filthy cheeks in polluted rivers of soot and sorrow. And she saw every Avenger, every Guardian, every one of her closest friends staring at her with as much disbelief as there was shock. Just as much horror infecting their expression like it had infected Rarity since the beginning. She didn’t stop. She couldn’t anymore. “My home was destroyed… Ponyville in shambles, everything gone. In the skies, there was another planet… another planet burning. An alien invasion… the road filled with… with all of…” Rarity was visibly shaking like a wounded animal, whimpering like one, too. Her lips quivered and more and more tears fell from her eyes and painted her cheeks. But it needed to be said. She was too far into the darkness to stop then. She needed to find that closure, reach the light and find peace. That part was always the hardest, and Rarity dreaded that part would never come. “With all of you,” she finished. Tried to. There was more. With no more tears, Rarity simply stared at them all with an expression so dead it was like she was hardly in control any longer. Her expression hardened, eyes red and having nothing more to hide. “And there he was… staring at me and smiling from his throne.” Not many understood who she referred to. As the silence pestered like waning buzzards, it become apparent, to some quicker than others. But to a select few… they knew exactly what she meant. “Thanos,” Gamora whispered painfully, her heart falling. Who she meant. Rarity nodded and dropped her eyes, her head, everything. Though slightly shaken by her words—especially when Rarity looked at him when she talked about the bodies—Star-Lord kept his composure somewhat strong. The strongest he could manage. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Peter asked. Rarity looked away in shame, admitting, “I was so afraid. Like before, I didn’t want to believe it was real… but now I realize that what I saw was slowly becoming reality. Truth.” That shame quickly changed into a call to action, Rarity rising back up to all four hooves and declaring to all of them, “If we go into this battle… I’m afraid none of us are coming out.” “No.” Now it was her turn to drop whatever she was getting at and wheel towards the one who spoke out. The one who replied to her call, her warning, and faced that fire with a powerful step. Then another. Then many more that Doctor Strange approached them with. Wong was by his side, the two sorcerers stopping just short behind Rarity. Rather, in front of Rarity, considering the mare had fully faced them and they had earned the attention of every Avenger, every Guardian, and every mare. Spike, Capper, and Friday, too. Stephen didn’t let that stop him. Not even for a second. He couldn’t allow that. “What you saw… that vision…” Strange began, eyeing them all but Rarity more importantly. She needed to know most of all. “I promise it won’t come to pass.” A spark of hope flashed in her eyes, quickly doused and killed by the confusion. She took a step forward, gazing with wide, curious, and tearful eyes to the Sorcerer Supreme. “How… how do you know?” she asked. Doctor Strange turned away from them and stared up to the Earth, away from Wong and the people he lied to. He stared into the storm, into the eye of it, the red. And deep within, he saw the glow of orange. Not right at that moment… but he did see it. Once before. He said, “We’re in the endgame now.”