//------------------------------// // Chapter 100 – Grateful Universe // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// Not many of them arrived to Wakanda. Those who did came after the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the many who fully anticipated to face the Mad Titan on Earth and end him before he reached the Soul Stone. The ones that came after were slow, calm, looking about and seeing no Titan. Nebula carried Mantis by her arm, each of them limping forward and joining their fellow Guardians. Each of them feeling their hearts fall when they gazed onto Gamora. Nebula had to steady herself, her face nearly shattering but remaining strong. She closed her eyes and let her head fall instead. Elena Rodriguez, Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter, Michael Peterson, Alphonso Mackenzie, Daisy Johnson, and Loki all arrived shortly after, via portal by the last sorcerer amongst Wong’s army. They didn’t find any fight. They didn’t find Thanos. What they did find was the other Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. They did find Doctor Strange. They watched him fade away. It was so sudden, so unrealistically powerful that everyone took a step back. Out of fear. Out of shock. Out of all of the above. None of them were harmed by it. There was no gust of wind that pushed them away. It was the total surprise that pushed their nerves, watching with eyes wide with disbelief as Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts… just vanished. Worse than that, his skin, his clothing, his hair, every molecule on him disintegrated into ash. Into dust. Whatever it was, whatever Stephen once was, either faded away into nothing or fell upon the earth. He was gone. Tony held his breath as he was the only one among them to take that brave step forward. Not a sound in the world other than the rustling of the wind, the laughing of the lightning, the crying of the distant thunder. Natasha raised a palm over her stomach, almost hunching forward as if she was prepared to vomit, burning eyes gazing to what remained of Strange lying on the grass as flakes. Thor was the only other who could breathe, his breathing ragged, heavy, uncontrolled as his only remaining eye could hardly believe what he just witnessed. Everyone else felt the same. Everypony else saw the same. Twilight Sparkle flinched back, eyes wide with shock and horror once she witnessed Stephen Strange fade away before her. Before all of her friends. They all held the same expression of rising trepidation, mares gazing to the fading flakes of ash, eyes to the grass, to every which direction in hopes of searching for an answer. Once Twilight was able to breathe again, it came out so shaken that Twilight hardly believed she was able to breathe in the first place. Her mind was still reeling on what she and her friends and allies witnessed, Stephen’s last words still replaying over and over again in her head, the Alicorn trying to make sense of it all. She never could have before it was too late. Mantis’ voice arose, prompting nearly every head in her direction. The insectoid woman stared only to the storm-filled clouds, the bright blue lightning striking the heavens where she gazed with her large, horrified eyes. She gulped, whispering in a terrified voice, “Something’s happening.” Nebula, Stark, Twilight, and nearly everyone else held their breath as she broke apart, her body turning to dust. Just like Strange. Just so strange. It was even worse for her fellow Guardians, Nebula simply watching as Mantis faded from her side, the dust dissolving away from the Luphomoid. Nebula gazed in frozen silence, not even able to breathe as she and Drax stared at what was left. What disappeared from their eyes. And like a plague, it too consumed Drax the Destroyer. It started on his right hand, quickly rose to devour his entire arm. Drax did nothing but stare at it, his widened eyes glued to it. Until he finally broke away and turned to Star-Lord. “Quill?” he asked, his final words as that sickness overcame his body and let the rest fade in the slow wind. Peter never even looked back, his eyes only to his love. He didn’t witness what happened to Doctor Strange, or what happened to his fellow Guardians. Every sound to him was just his breaking heartbeat and his muffled cries as he cradled Gamora’s body against his chest, against his heart, longing to keep that connection through it all. Sunset Shimmer did not follow Quill’s actions, the unicorn practically shooting up from the ground once she witnessed Drax vanish. But it wasn’t only the disappearance of the Guardian that caught her attention. Her eyes were caught by the newfound dread filling her heart, escaping her gasp, and returning to her tear-filled eyes. Soon enough, everyone stared in the same direction Sunset Shimmer stared, almost all of them succumbing to the same treachery. “Pinkie, your hoof.” It was Pinkie Pie’s older sister Maud who informed her of that, even the elder sibling’s eyes wide with growing panic, further disbelief, and the uncontainable horror that followed. Curious to that, Pinkie Pie lifted her right hoof. Watched as it began to crack and fade to dust. She, unlike everyone else, actually began to chuckle. Very slightly, very suddenly, Pinkie observing her fading hoof and stating, “Heh… kinda tickles.” Her smile, too, faded from her face, the realization striking the pony when that dust trail continued to consume the rest of her foreleg. “Wait… Twilight…” Pinkie called out, turning to her best friend and meeting Twilight’s horrified eyes with her fearful ones. “Did we just lose?” A question that went without answer. A statement that faded in the wind alongside the rest of Pinkie Pie. Except it stuck around and captured everyone within it. Natasha felt all the color drain from her face when she witnessed Pinkie vanish before her, a silent gasp leaving the Black Widow. But perhaps the worst of it came from Twilight and her closest friends, most of them frozen where they sat and stood, but only Twilight fearfully approaching the remains of their bubbly friend. Maud Pie stood with her, both mares cautiously laying their hooves in the pile of ashes, shivering upon its touch. Twilight gasped for air, the tears falling freely from her eyes once that reality stabbed her right in the heart. The blade only pushed further, deeper, taking so much more. “Twilight… what’s happenin’?” the familiar voice arose from behind. And Twilight made the foolish decision to turn to it and witness it all for herself. Witness her dear friend Applejack gazing to her hooves as both of them began to fade away. “Applejack…” Twilight whispered, more tears falling and more ashes rising. The pony could only look at her friend one last time as her face and body disintegrated, leaving just her hat floating to the ground and resting over her dust. “AJ…” Rainbow Dash gasped, taking a stumbling step forward, her own mind unwilling to fathom the events unfolding before her. Before them. She practically crumbled had it not been for her hooves pressed into the dirt, into Applejack, keeping her steady. She heard that whimper behind her, Rainbow refusing to turn around to face it. She did anyway, the tears already filling the edges of her vision when she saw it. When she said it. “Fluttershy…” Twilight followed in that same direction, gazing onto the sight with her own shattered expression. She shook her head, shaken breaths escaping and muttering, “Fluttershy… no…” Her mane shielded half of her expression, half of the fear that consumed her before the dust consumed the rest. Fluttershy whimpered, “Oh, my…” Every shred of her being faded alongside the wind, her fearful eyes no longer holding that terror, that dread, the knowing of what she felt would happen. They no longer held anything, not even life, because she was gone. Her eyes were the last that shattered and turned to dust. It was a plague shared not by the select few, but everyone. At random. Everyone and everypony turned to one another, fearfully waiting for what would happen, for what might become of them. Looking to one another for an answer to the nightmare they were trapped in. A way out. A way to understand what was happening and why it was happening. Dispassionate and fair to all. Trixie Lulamoon stared at her hoof when she felt that odd sensation overwhelming it, her eyes widening when she saw it fading away. And unlike the alarming expressions that filled Derpy, Maud, and Starlight, Trixie simply chuckled to herself. Chuckled through every second of her body breaking apart. She even managed to say, “Disappearing without command. A magician’s exit…” She closed her eyes the exact moment it consumed her face, the final portion of Trixie vanishing into the air. Derpy and Maud stared in disbelief. Starlight’s jaw refused to close, the unicorn approaching the two mares and staring in the only direction they could. Where Trixie used to be. She didn’t even notice Capper Dapperpaws clutching his stomach and groaning at it. The anthropomorphic cat gazed to the mares and stumbled their way. It was all he could do before he fell to his knees, stared to them all, and held out his paw to them. Reaching for them. “Girls…” Capper muttered, his paw the last thing that turned to dust. Every last one of the mares stared on in unanimous terror. But it was Twilight who eventually broke away, turning to her older brother and gasping, clutching her mouth and trying desperately to keep in the screams. Never able to keep in the tears as she witnessed Shining Armor breaking apart as he stumbled her way. He never even made a sound, just approached Twilight and fell the same moment she rushed forward to catch him. She only managed to catch dust, the Alicorn lying on the grass and staring wide-eyed onto her forelegs, her lips trembling, her eyes unable to contain all the tears she shed. He didn’t hear their cries, nor listened to the panic that ensued. Peter Quill clutched Gamora with every shred of his fading strength, cradled back and forth, and whispered words of denial, of comfort to himself and the one he lost. Unable to accept it. He disappeared anyway, Gamora’s body softly returning to the grass. The sun shone heavy in the Dragons’ Lair, the darkening storm clouds ravaging the skies and slowly beginning to consume that afternoon star. In the heart of the devastation, scattered about and lying in total disarray, the ones who fell slowly began to rise again. Even when it took the help of another to rise back to his hooves, Thorax accepted it nonetheless. He smiled appreciatively to see Ember limp his way, her Bloodstone Scepter tight in her right claw while her left shot out to him. “Come on, no one wants to see their leader in the dirt,” Ember grunted, gripping Thorax by his right hoof and fading right before his eyes. Shattered into nothing but dust. Thorax’s expression shattered alongside her, the king of the changelings falling back to the gravel and gazing horrifically to his hoof, to the Bloodstone Scepter that fell to the earth without its bearer. His eyes returned to that very hoof and gazed to the dust particle lying upon it. It wasn’t Ember. Thorax could only give his last breath as his hoof, his wings, his body, and his head were taken away by that same dust. Leaving nothing else. Leaving just Pharynx flying nearby, scanning the battleground and calling out, “Thorax! Thorax, where are you?! Brother!” His calls went without answer, filling the deathly-silent landscapes with that hopeless cry. Gallus watched as that pitch-dark changeling flew over his head, his own eyes narrowed as he observed the landscape, as the terror-filled cries soon became louder and louder. He only wondered as to why, the lone griffon standing by himself, onto the endless Dragons’ Lair as he heard the sound of the helmet clanging against the rock behind him. “Gallus… what is this?” Her voice was so weak, unlike anything Gallus ever heard from his friend. The young griffon turned around, his beak falling and his eyes shooting open when he saw Smolder stumble towards him. Yet her eyes didn’t meet his own. They could only gaze to her claws as they vaporized before the young dragon, joining her tail and armor as they all vanished mere feet in front of Gallus. As she vanished and left him all alone. Once again. That panic began to set in, the griffon shooting out his wings and clutching the dirt and dust that Smolder became, Gallus looking for some fading hope to save her, to understand what he just witnessed. To deny what fate had set upon him again. It didn’t matter anymore. She was gone. And he couldn’t do anything about it. The screams filling the Dragons’ Lair only grew louder and more profound, perhaps more than ever before. And all Gallus could really do was lay there. Trapped in it. Abandoned. For every mile and even beyond, that sickness carried over and consumed the living population. Nothing was spared of it. Hippogriffs, griffons, dragons, and changelings all stumbled about and witnessed their own kind beginning to drift apart, their bodies flaking into ash and disappearing right before their very eyes. It was the Hippogriff to their right, the changeling to their left, the dragon and griffon right before them. All of them scattered about, forced to watch as dozens and dozens of those who had survived the cataclysmic battle simply… faded away. Just turned to ash and that was it. Gilda spun around when she saw Greta fade from her sight, the griffon rushing forward only to see those ashes vanish. Gone. In the blink of her eye and Gilda did absolutely nothing to stop it. Queen Novo and Sky Beak stood side by side and watched with grim shock plastered on their faces as their people faded away all around them, leaving just a handful of survivors. Even Stratus Skyranger, one of Novo’s greatest royal guard, collapsed in front of his queen, crumbling into dust by her claws. Neither one of them could say a word but gaze to it all, the sun growing dark and the shadows overcoming their horror. Princess Celestia raised her armored hoof and dug it in the gravel to pull herself forward. A pain-filled gasp of air entered and escaped her, the Alicorn princess lying in that agony, that blood, that tattered armor and broken soul. Her wings were missing several feathers, the armor that cracked across her body showcasing the scrapes and cuts and drawing the blood upon her filthy, white coat. Even her mane refused to flow, not finding the strength or the magic that came with it. All Celestia could really do was gaze upon the sunset. The burning sunlight showered over her and gave her some semblance of ease… before it was overtaken by the dark storm clouds, the ash, all of it ever-consuming and ever-growing. Even with that darkness settling over her heart, Celestia stared on anyways. That sun darkened and all she could really think about were those same words given to her before. How she didn’t own the sun anymore. The sun that wasn’t hers faded behind the clouds. Then she gave her last breath and faded with it. Though they never even knew it, the Wonderbolts soon joined their ruler. Left and right, side to side, the Wonderbolts clutched onto one another or stumbled aimlessly as that plague captured them and took them away, leaving just Spitfire and Soarin as the last remaining Wonderbolts breathing, alive, gazing to their fallen comrades and wondering what the hell just happened. Soarin faded right next to her, leaving Spitfire to stare into his ashes. When she finally came to, when Tempest Shadow shot up from the dirt and rock and darted her head in every which direction, the first thing she truly saw was the destruction. The remains of the Dragons’ Lair were consumed in chaos, burned in it, forced to contain the catastrophic battleground for the fate of the very universe. Then she saw the smoke, the fire in the sky that originated from her airship. Tempest gasped, head swiveling across the skies and following her burning airship further down… down… coming to a horrific crash several yards away. Despite every agonizing nerve ending in her body crying out to her and declaring no, Tempest Shadow ignored it all and raced over to the fire and flame. She dodged the wreckage and leapt right into the remains of her airship, gazing onto the deck to find the survivors. Only there were none. Not even a body. Just ash scattered all over the deck. The unicorn’s eyebrows furrowed at that, her ear twitching when she heard that groan, shot her eyes over in the direction near the cabin and screamed. “Celaeno!” But to her horror, the parrot captain hardly acknowledged her. She lay pinned beneath the support beam of the airship, weakened eyes shifting over to Tempest, watching the unicorn gaze over to her. She held out her claw, but even that began to fade away. Her voice being the last thing that did. “My crew… they’re gone.” The deck to Tempest’s airship was barren. Nothing but ash scattered upon it. When the lightning clashed alongside the thunder over the Castle of the Two Sisters, the shared populace of Ponyville and the Crystal Empire had every right to be frightened. The unknown showered over them, their screams falling under minimal protection, not even Princess Cadance able to protect them from what came next, like a thief in the night. It was beyond even her understanding, anything she was ever trained or prepared for. From her elevated position on the balcony, Princess Cadance held her only daughter close to her heart as she overlooked the Great Hall to the ancient castle. At first, it was just one pony. Then a second. A third. Ten. Twenty. The number only rising as the screams grew higher and higher… then began to dwindle. As did the numbers… Several civilians from Ponyville began to crumble where they stood, stallions and mares gazing to their hooves, their bodies, each other as they faded away into nothing, leaving just particles of dust as their last remnants of existence. Their screams were silenced soon enough, their pain nonexistent as they were taken in an instant, leaving everything they loved and held dear to their hearts behind to wonder… why? How? Then it fell upon the Crystal Ponies, even the guards stationed to protect them, none of them safe as that unknown power consumed them and left nothing but ash in its wake. Among them was Sugar Belle, the terrified mare falling into Big McIntosh’s embrace. Begging, crying, wanting to know what was happening to her and looking to Big Mac and telling him to never let her go. He couldn’t even utter a word before her face broke away, leaving just her ashes scattered over his forelegs. The stallion was silent. Unnatural, burdened, guilt-ridden silence that was not him nor ever would have been. The power he did not know, the power that took away his marefriend struck him with that unknown quiet and he could do absolutely nothing to respond to it. Just gaze in horror like everypony else at the ashes that he now held, his terrified breaths joining the few that survived. The very few… that were lucky enough to. Scootaloo was among them. The others… Apple Bloom coughed rather violently, stumbling forward and nearly falling flat on her chin. She realized the fault in her actions as she gazed to her hoof and gasped to see it completely gone. As did Sweetie Belle, the young unicorn staring wide-eyed, in terror-stricken silence, as her hooves before her vanished alongside her forelegs. Alongside everything else. “Girls! Girls, what’s happening to…” It was all Sweetie Belle could utter before the dust took away her voice. Leaving nothing. Then came Apple Bloom, her best friend Scootaloo rushing to her side and holding her close, refusing to let her go. Even when she laid her upon the stone floor and met the Earth pony’s shivering pupils, those tear-dotted eyes shifting over to the trembling Pegasus kneeling over her. Apple Bloom’s face contorted, feeling that numbness crawl up her chest. “Scoots…” “Apple Bloom…?” Scootaloo cried, her blurry vision falling on her friend’s terrified expression. Watching as even that faded away and left nothing but dust resting on the floor. On her hooves. Leaving just Scootaloo. “Apple Bloom!” The last Cutie Mark Crusader cried out to her friends over and over again, her voice lost within the chaos. But only one managed to hear her, gazing through the rushing bodies and utter madness to see an old friend crying over the dust, rubbing her hooves through it, as if trying to find some last-ditch hope that they were still there, buried deep and just out of reach. Only there was nothing for her. Sandbar could do nothing but watch that chaos unfold. “Son…” Then his heart dropped. Sandbar slowly spun around, his head spinning with him, unable to process events unfolding before him. The first thing he saw was his baby sister disappear from his mother’s forelegs, that petrified expression filling every inch of her face and freezing her entire body. Then that same dust overpowered his own father, the stallion holding out his hoof to his wife, but even she wasn’t able to turn his way, unable to look anywhere except to the dust on her forelegs. “No… no, no, no!” Sandbar cried, galloping forward and jutting his hoof out to the fading ash in a worthless effort to stop it. It came anyway, whether he wanted it or not. It came and took away half his family right before his eyes. Sandbar and his mother gazed onto that fading ash, the young Earth pony shaking his head to it all. “Dad…” Not even Princess Cadance was able to protect them from what came next. She and her daughter, the little bundle of blankets resting in her forelegs, stared out into nothing, saw nothing… but the chaos. Flurry Heart cried, hooves reaching for her mother, and that mother lowering her snout and soothing her child, whispering calming shushes to her. Then that chaos took her away, Princess Cadance vanishing into ash and leaving the balcony empty. Flurry Heart cried out, the blankets falling to the stone floor and holding nothing but dust. The Horn of the Hippogriffs filled the air with impending disaster, approaching panic, and ensuing forth when that unknown disease began to consume the kingdom of Hippogriffia. It was everywhere, Hippogriffs flying right into the air and dissolving into dust and ash, others stumbling out of their homes upon the mountain or erected upon the rock and succumbing to the same fate. Dust filled the air alongside the screeches of terror from the Hippogriff people. Ocean Flow witnessed it all alongside her children. She, Silverstream, and Terramar once stood on the edge of their mighty mountain kingdom, gazing to the fearsome storm brewing over planet Earth and seeing another storm begin to build around their oceans and surround their home. They stepped aside to begin pushing Hippogriffs back into the safety of their homes, maybe even into the catacombs of the castle’s basements and deeper within the mountain, but realized soon enough that they had much more pressing matters on their claws. It all began with the Hippogriff keeling over, clutching his heart and disintegrating into nothing but ash. At that moment, Ocean Flow realized there was something wrong. It only grew from there, spreading from one Hippogriff to the next, that unknown force devouring countless others and only proceeding to do so. Even as Ocean Flow and her two children raced to the castle. Even as they tore through its front doors and flew as fast as their wings could carry them to the throne room. Even as they tried everything in their power to get the current ruler of the Hippogriffs to safety. Even as they cried out, called to her, and searched the throne room for Princess Skystar. Only to see that pile of ashes resting on her throne. Ocean Flow began to feel sick, the Hippogriff slowly backing away as her world began to teeter in every direction that wasn’t natural. Her children followed suit, joining their mother in stunned silence and resting beside her, eyes plastered to the throne and seeing absolutely nothing else. Silverstream asked, “What happened?” She turned that question to her mother, beak following and resting on her. Ocean Flow and Terramar slowly turned to that question and gazed on it, staring into the young Hippogriff’s eyes without an answer, without even a response. Their gasps came later when Silverstream turned to dust right before their eyes. Yakyakistan was in shambles. Buildings crumbled and terrified, angry, confused, and unknown cries filled the air alongside the flaking snow. Yaks charged in aimless directions, uncertain courses, roaring with terror and pain inflicting their hearts and forever damaging their souls. Not even Prince Rutherford could control them. He couldn’t control them because he was gone. He and half the entire yak population. Without a leader, they were directionless, watching their loved ones fade away into nothing but dust and ash and leaving the yaks unable to do a thing about it. When everything was taken from them, they expected an enemy to be standing on their gates responsible for the tragedy brought upon their home and their very way of life. There was no enemy on their gates. That unknown force simply took them away beyond their control. And they suffered because of it, knowing not where to turn, knowing not who to hurt, knowing only they lost so much of themselves in the end of it all. No retaliation onto an enemy that deserved. No resistance to the force they couldn’t harm. They simply ran wild and cried, roared, screamed to the heavens and the alien world and everyone else who dared to. Broken-hearted and utterly devastated… watching their own children fade away. Yona was the first yak taken, the first to fall and take everything else down with her. Ocellus dropped the lumber and stones from her hooves, everything shattering once it hit the ground. She couldn’t care less what happened to the supplies meant to be rebuild her home. All she could stare at with those wide, horrified eyes were her people beginning to fade away before her. Changelings big and small, young old, rich and poor alike all taken and leaving only half of what remained. The cries on the edges of the Badlands, in the heart of what remained of the Changeling Empire, amplified tenfold. Above and around her, all Ocellus could see was the flaking death overcoming her people and silencing their screams. Then she turned those widened eyes onto her family, crying out to see her parents fall to the same death and leave her alone. Leave her screaming out and reaching for them. It was already too late, the young changeling bursting forth through the dust and coughing heavily. When she opened her eyes, all that stood before her were her two younger siblings, gazing up to their older sister with mixtures of curiosity, confusion, and naïve innocence. Ocellus really wished she still had that, but even that was taken. That and half of everything she loved. It was a day unlike any other for the Kirin. After the storm subsided and the explosion of orange shattered forth across the alien planet, all they could really do was sit and wonder what would happen next. They never saw it coming and was never prepared for it. They especially weren’t ready for their leader—Rain Shine—to dissolve into ash and leave them all alone. But they weren’t alone. Not in the way they expected it to be. Kirin started fading away one by one, the mythical creatures bounding about and rushing over to their neighbors and asking them what was wrong, how they could help, and so forth. Everything was answered in silence, the fading Kirin turning to dust before their neighbors. Even those neighbors were welcomed into the crackling embrace of that dust, leaving just Autumn Blaze and a select number of Kirin alone, in the village heart, gazing out to it all and wondering what had just happened. That dreaded silence returned to her village, and not even Autumn Blaze could bring that life back. She was just as numb, just as silent, just as frozen as every other Kirin that survived. Wakanda trembled under the weight of the growing storm and the wicked lightning. Sorcerers began to tremble under that weight as well, but it was greater than even that of mother nature. Greater than even the universe itself. The power that overcame them fueled the universe and there was no magic they could create to save them. One by one, each member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts began to fade away, leaving just Wong alive and breathing, alone and abandoned by his fellow sorcerers. As if he couldn’t even imagine witnessing Stephen Strange fade away before him, now he was left to gaze upon the aftermath of annihilation, the last lone survivor amongst his people. That desolation only further grew amongst the remaining populace, and not even an experienced sorcerer like Wong could stop it. He just stood there and watched it all happen faster than he could breathe. Matthew Murdock caught his breath, his head flicking to the side when he heard that wretched sound of crackling dust and crying wind. Slowly, he spun around, not wishing to see it for himself but doing so regardless. Hearing it all the same, witnessing the world burning away and his friend Jessica Jones burning away alongside it. Murdock exhaled shakily at that, eyes wide and gazing to her. “Jessica…” Though confused as to why Matt was staring so wide-eyed at her, Jessica quickly realized what it was when she lifted her right palm and saw it completely gone. Vaporized alongside the rest of her arm and only consuming what remained. Her expression fell apart, that signature frown somehow finding its way onto her painless expression. No pain. No horror. Just that forceful acceptance as the dust ate away at her and consumed her entire being. But not before she could groan, “I… fucking hate you guys.” She faded away right next to Luke Cage, he and Danny Rand gazing horrifically to where Jessica Jones once stood beside them. She wasn’t alone. It started on Rand’s fingertips, the Iron Fist shooting his eyes downwards to his right fist and watching it leave him. His left arm—which was draped over Cage’s shoulders for support—started to fade as well, leaving Danny a shivering, petrified mess in Luke’s embrace. “Oh, shit,” Danny breathed, whispered, gave it his last and turned to dust on Luke’s right. The dust washed over Luke. He refused to breathe and simply watched that dirt crawl over his bright yellow shirt and stay there. Flow away all the same when that same unknown power took him along, too. Luke caught his breath at that, watching his arms fading away into particles of ash. He stared forward, to Matt’s awestruck expression, and whispered, “Matt…” Not even the Daredevil could utter a word in response to that, forced to watch the fire fade into flakes and burn away, leaving nothing. Leaving just the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen as the last Defender among them. Matt breathed heavily, his eyes that just couldn’t blink slowly circling the landscape and seeing those fires only further spreading. Alongside the Punisher, it was all they could do. After having witnessed all of Murdock’s friends turn into dust, Frank slowly gazed to his right hand, then to his left. His legs. His body. Clutched his heart and held his breath, expecting something, anything to happen. Almost wishing for it to. But nothing did. “No!” Starlight Glimmer cried out, bringing that loud, shrill voice and sound back to the deathly-silent Wakandan fields once again. Not many turned her way, but the ones that did paid witness to the unicorn galloping forward with tears streaking down her face and flowing freely onto the ground she ran past. All to reach her bestest friend in the whole world. Sunburst reached his hoof out to her, but even that shattered once it made contact with Starlight’s. Alongside the rest of him. Starlight Glimmer crashed right into a wave of dust and ash, the particles falling from her person and descending to the wilting, burning grass by her hooves. She wasn’t able to join that dust. She stood breathing, panting, a heart still beating and a pony spared. Her face crumbled, teary eyes welling up to the breaking point and the unicorn dropping her head. Right to the earth. “N-no…” she whispered painfully, gazing to the dust painting her hooves, that awful revelation stabbing her in the heart once more. More forcefully than ever before. Starlight Glimmer wailed to the heavens, falling to the grass and resting her forelegs over her face, trying to conceal the cries, the anguish, but always failing. Bringing sound to the deathly-silent Wakandan fields once again. It started on Agent Peterson, even the cyborg unable to resist the effects of the powers that be. Deathlok gave his last look to Bobbi Morse before the two of them faded away. Lance held out his hand to his wife’s ashes, then witnessed it beginning to crack and shred into nothing. Everything that just broke away from him and dwindled in the air. Hunter joined the likes of Elena Rodriguez, Yo-Yo reaching with her robotic arms to be caught by her boyfriend. Mack reached forward to catch her, catching nothing but dust that, too, faded away on his arms. Leaving just the two agents, Mack and Daisy rattled, sickened, and alarmed by what they just witnessed. Alarmed… but unmoving. Daisy’s face was streaked with tears, slowly turning to that undeniable voice of Bucky Barnes calling out to the madness, reaching for that friend. Simply saying, “Steve?” It was all he could say. So many heads turned to him and witnessed James Barnes gazing to his new S.H.I.E.L.D. arm dissolving like snow. His final glance, his final breath taken as he stared towards his best friend and fell forward, nothing but the ashes hitting the grass. He wasn’t alone. He never would have been. Sam Wilson clutched his chest as he stumbled forward, his face melting away and the ashes joining Bucky’s on the grass. Steve Rogers planted his right foot forward. Then his left. Then proceeded with the weight of the world on his shoulders as he finally gave in and fell to a knee. Fell to his knee and gazed to the ashes of his two best friends lying before him. A gaze that sauntered back to the God of Thunder and looking for that answer. Thor held his breath, his last remaining eye as wide and just as clueless, just as hopeless as Steve. The First Avenger slowly stared back with that hopelessness following, his glove falling to the dust and gracing it softly. “Brother…” Thor raised his head at that, spinning about madly and only seeing that madness display before him. He shook his head to deny it all he wanted to, but reality would not be denied forever. It took so much endurance for Thor to realize that Loki stumbled his way, his body cracking and breaking apart before him. Falling just like all the others. And Thor stared through it all, finally breathed again when those ashes dissolved in front of him. “Brother…” “Brother! Brother, can you hear me?” Shuri’s voice cried in T’Challa’s earpiece. The Black Panther did not hear or did not pay attention to her words, his gaze locked to his open palm. Despite the zero response she received, Shuri was persistent, declaring loudly, “Brother, we have your position; we’re coming for you now! Do not move!” He didn’t. T’Challa stayed right where he was as he broke apart and shattered into dust. The vibranium shard fell from his palm, lying in his ashes. As the ashes rained from the skies of the Dragon Lands, a lone palm gripped the earth and pulled forward, the body with it grunting in a pain it never once knew before. A pain it thought it could never experience. A pain that Glenn Talbot would have rather done without. The idea of Graviton, of being that last defender of Earth even if all else failed, seemed more and more bleak as the sun darkened as the storm raged over his head. And even then, Talbot pulled himself from the crater and dragged his own body several yards towards nothing. Towards anything he could hardly see and hoping for a miracle. Because even when the Gravitonium failed, that was all they could hope for: a miracle. That miracle finally dawned on him, Talbot gazing up to the clouds and spotting his home world of Earth resting within them. But something blocked that miracle, something that emerged from its cloaking mechanism and hovered over the war-torn battlefield below. The Helicarrier began to approach Talbot before making a slow 180 towards Earth. And that was all Talbot could really stare at, the Earth behind it. More importantly, at what lied beneath it. “I can fix this.” That was all Talbot could really say before the ash overcame him, too. The earth burned and was tattered in warfare, something Nick Fury knew and witnessed from pure experience countless times over. Even then, it was no different. Perhaps even worse. Far worse to anything Fury had ever known. Since Thanos had vanished and the Avengers trailed slowly behind him, there was nothing but silence on the other ends of the line. No word from Stark, Rogers, Strange, anyone. Everyone had gone silent. Too silent. It was only until Fury and the remaining agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. witnessed the sickness engulf the world below them did they finally come to grips with some semblance of understanding. They lost several signals at once, no more contact with the world of Equus or its leaders. It was so sudden. Almost instantly did they lose a majority of their contacts. To one of their questions answered, a thousand more took its place, thousands of others swirling and filling each agent’s head with the countless possibilities, theories, and uncertainties that still remained. Shuri caught T’Challa’s signal and that was their only lead, the only thing they could actually follow. But by the time they turned the Helicarrier around to make that journey back… that sickness made its way up and engulfed them as well. They couldn’t even escape in time. “Nick…” Maria Hill called out, staring to her arms and meeting Nick Fury’s gaze one last time before she disappeared before him. She left a startled and disturbed Nick Fury and Shuri in the heart of the Helicarrier’s bridge, the two of them whirling back to the front of the bridge and witnessing the rest unfold. Agent after agent, one by one all vanishing into nothing but dust, but even that vanished, too. Nothing was left as but a handful of agents remained surrounding the control consoles and gazing to where their fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents once stood with them. Davis and Piper were two of those agents, still handling the controls of the massive Helicarrier even as they watched their friends turned to dust by their sides. Even they, for a moment, let go of the reins to jump to their feet just like all the others. The Helicarrier froze in mid-air. And then, that swallowing plague only continued to take away. First it was Leopold Fitz, revered and respected agent amongst all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s now shadow organization. The man broke away right next to his wife and grandson, Jemma Simmons unable to witness the horrors that filled her heart. Then she, too, was taken by that sickness, leaving just a scared, desperate, and utterly confused Deke Shaw to stumble about, looking nowhere. Moments before turning into ash himself. He witnessed every second of it, watched as each of his closest friends and allies simply disappeared into thin air. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phillip J. Coulson, just watched it all happen before a breath could even be taken. From him or anyone else. Until only a handful of agents remained in the Helicarrier, until his eyes fell on Piper and Davis and eventually turned around to Melinda May, that was when Phil could breathe again. But even that was taken from him, leaving a man dissolving into ash right in front of his friends. He quickly shot his eyes down to his torso, his arms, watching as they shattered and broke into nothing but dust. Then his eyes rose up again, holding that wretched loss as the last person he saw was her. May felt her heart stop as Phil Coulson died right in front of her. It didn’t start again until she saw Nick Fury begin to panic in the corner of her vision, but even then, she hardly paid heed to his actions. The moment she finally broke away from the shock and terror of what once was Coulson… was the moment she finally saw what Fury was doing. But even then… she didn’t understand. Just watched as he reached into his back pocket, deep into his back pocket and pulled forth an old device that looked like it belonged in another era. On closer analyzation, May noticed that it was a pager. A pager of all things for the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be carrying with him. Something he always carried with him. It didn’t make any clearer sense as Fury fumbled with the device and pressed on it. Just one button. Just one button and then his hand started to fade away. “Oh, no…” Fury exhaled at that, the disarray overcoming his facial features when he realized that even he wasn’t going to make it out of it unscathed. He shook his head, grumbling, “Motherfu—” He faded away before he could finish that statement, his vanishing palm releasing the pager and letting it smack against the Helicarrier’s steel floor. And that was it. He was gone. The Helicarrier had never been so quiet and so lifeless before, even with the minimal lives still stumbling about the bridge, gazing to one another and searching for an explanation on where everyone else went. While that silence pestered on, something managed to slip through it, to cry out amongst the quiet and earn the attention of only two individuals. The lone pager, lying against the cold, metal floor, beeped rhythmically. So quiet that it could barely even rise above the silence. But she still heard it. Melinda May bent down and lowered her shivering palms cautiously around the ancient, bruised, and scratched pager. She worried that she would further damage it in some way, stop whatever form of message it was sending. That was all that May saw on its face, the word “SENDING” before it, too, vanished. Three little dots… Then the white star resting over the red and blue streaks. “What is happening?” Shuri asked, staring at the same symbol. May turned away from the pager and stared at her. Not even knowing herself. The few that remained, that were randomly chosen—randomly spared—stood in disbelief. They were not many, but they stood all the same. Under the face of the burning orange light that resembled a star high above their heads. Under the flashing lightning and the roaring thunder that clashed against the distant mountains of Wakanda. Under the fires and smoke that rose even higher than them, leaving them all trapped in that perpetual state of frozen stupor. Even under such odds and even greater circumstances, they stood all the same. The few that remained. The randomly spared. “Mr. Stark…” How they wished it was that simple. Tony felt his blood curl when that voice arose behind him, his skin freezing and his heart ready to fail him. Ready to finally give in to what the shrapnel never could finish. If only fate, God, anything else could have granted that mercy. But no. Cursed as he was, forced onto another uncertainty, Tony Stark slowly turned to the voice and stopped breathing. Only stopped when he saw Peter Parker fumble over his own two feet, hold his own body, and struggle with his own words. So many things did Peter want to say. So many things he felt coming onto him and still managed to resist for so long. So long… but ultimately falling to them. Like he always had before and only continued to do now. And worst of all, he fell right in front of his hero, the man he looked up to the most, and brought that weakness with him. A kind he never once felt before and couldn’t dare to fight against. His stomach churned. His mind felt woozy. That tingling sensation washed over all his limbs and all Peter could say was… “I don’t feel so good.” The first thing that came to his mind. He could think of nothing else to say, felt nothing else but that. He stared at his hands and even they started to become blurry, saw the Iron Spider suit start to crack. Crack… but hold. Only momentarily. Peter Parker felt every single moment of it, his eyes stinging with tears, his bones and muscles crumbling before the overwhelming pain that devoured him. Never let him go. Every excruciating second as he stumbled his way towards Tony Stark. Tony saw that pain ripe on the kid’s face. Never more so profound than that moment as his knees buckled and the distance between them was severed. Tony wanted to tell him something, anything to calm his nerves, to keep him safe, but all he could say was, “You’re all right.” He never felt more wrong in his life. Those words hit Peter and still he continued to fall. “I do-I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know, I don’t—!” He clutched onto Stark once his strength finally gave away. His arms wrapped around Tony’s body, his right palm gripping onto his shoulder and Peter holding there. His heart ached, started to break, the pain finally reaching a level he never even thought was possible. But even worse did Peter realize what had happened to everyone else was slowly, surely… happening to him. He saw it through his tear-stained vision as his right arm was beginning to crack apart, slivers of dust fading away in trails. All Tony could do was hold onto him, clutch the brave, brave child as he trembled, whimpered, started to fade away right in his arms. “I don’t wanna go.” Begging for his life. “I don’t wanna go, Stark, please. Please, I don’t wanna go… I don’t wanna go.” Tony fell forward, the insurmountable weight pushed upon him making his knees tremble and quake, making him fall and release his grip around Peter. He knelt above him, Tony nearly cradling the young Peter Parker in his hands, his right hand resting beneath Parker’s head and holding him there. Refusing to let it hit the grass and dirt. He met his eyes, the burning red and the tears meeting the shell-shocked and the fearing. The pain was gone. Peter didn’t feel anything. Not anymore. That must be what it felt like. As that lone image of Stark hovering over him began to fade away, Peter gulped, whispering under a shaken, broken tone, “I’m sorry, Tony... I’m sorr...” The last of his strength given for that apology. The last of it fading away as Peter Parker gazed to Heaven and his face fell apart, the dust dissolving right into Tony Stark’s right palm. Into the air, he vanished, Tony staring only onto the pile of ash that remained upon the earth, nearly collapsing himself. He rubbed his palms together once, but the dust was there. Still painted on his hands and unable to come clean. From where she stood, Twilight Sparkle only wanted to fall. She paid witness—she and the remaining few of her friends—to the heartbreaking final moments. The fleeting, fading strength of the Spider-Man gone alongside the wind that carried him. Twilight especially felt her heart crack when Peter fell into Tony’s embrace, feeling that hug he never truly experienced with him just one time. One last time. She watched it all with streaks of tears falling from her face, the Alicorn ready to give in and fall apart right then and there. “Twilight…” Spike muttered. Her eyes shot open, a breath of air filling her up and refusing to leave. The young dragon shambled forward, staring at his fading claw. “What’s going on?” “No…” Twilight whispered, shaking her head. She said it again. “No.” Again. “No, no, no…” So many times and forever on until she forced herself to spin around and meet Spike’s expression of confusion and turmoil. All she needed to see was his missing limb for her to rush over as fast as her wings could push her, clutch onto the dragon with as much strength she could muster, and begging, praying not to open her eyes again. Praying that what she saw wasn’t real. Spike fell into her hooves, his large, teary eyes gazing only straight ahead. His remaining claw found its way around her, holding Twilight close as that unnatural sensation continued to crawl. The young dragon narrowed his quivering eyes, his chest rapidly rising and falling as that horrifying realization finally struck him. Dead in the heart. “Where am I going, Twilight?” he asked, voice shaking as his claw clutched deeper into Twilight’s back. The Alicorn shook her head and only tightened her grip around the dragon. The baby dragon. The little, helpless life she hatched so many years ago and took under her care, under her love, and saw only that. Even right then and there. She held onto the little hatchling then and she held onto Spike now. Constantly whispering those promises into him and into herself. “You’re not going anywhere. I have you, Spike. I’m never letting go… Don’t be scared… I’m not letting go, Spike… I’m not letting go.” “Twi…” In her hooves, around her forelegs, she felt only crumbling. That voice was cut off and faded away alongside the ruin that painted her body. When Twilight opened her eyes and breathed again, all she could stare at was the pile of ashes resting in front of her, lying over her forelegs and sprinkled over her chest. Over her heart. The breathless tears fell from her face and soaked into the dust that remained, that frozen state of perpetual shock trapped on Twilight’s expression. Never letting go. Starlight and Sunset stepped forward with Rainbow Dash, Derpy, and Maud. All of them seemed to step out of a dream, a wretched nightmare, the darkest and most damnable parts of reality they never knew existed. All of them expressed that, the darkness filling their eyes and consuming their hearts. They stared only to their friend, Twilight Sparkle, sitting alone with that pile of ash. That pile of ash they knew to be… Nebula stood alone and gazed to the burning grass. She paid no heed to Rocket or Groot kneeling behind her, their own hands pushing through the dust that was once Drax and Mantis. No. Nebula kept her eyes focused, forward, as far away from the unending pain and torment that came whenever her father got his way. But it was inescapable that time. And she wasn’t alone to experience it that time. “He did it,” she stated, plain and true. Everyone heard her. The lightning cackled under the face of Heaven, the thunder growling above. Tony’s expression showed it all, the realization. The horror. The grief that would only last an eternity. He dropped his head and laid his palm to rest on the grass, his entire being crumbling under that failure. He lived through it all. Saw his friends die… Knowing the worst of it was that he didn’t. Nebula sat down alongside Maud, both of them in silence, in mourning. Friday stood still after pulling herself together, the Mark 45 armor gazing into the madness within Wakanda. She watched Steve fall on his rear and surrounded by his team, surrounded by Thor, Rhodes, and Romanoff. Sitting there and breathing, “Oh, God…” Then her eyes fell to Tony, watching as he sat down and closed his eyes, ash-covered palms covering his mouth, the man slowly rocking himself back and forth until everything went away. It was all Friday could see from her creator. Rarity fell on her rump. Her forelegs gave away and she fell right there, right on her rump and let that dreaded revelation finally kick in. It may not have been completely accurate, but it was more than enough of a reality for her to accept it all the same. Closing her eyes and letting the tears fall, Rarity whimpered pitifully, heartbroken and soul shattered as she saw nothing in that darkness. The visions finally stopped, but it didn’t matter anyway. Her friends were gone. It all came true. It was morning. The first day. Life sprang forth as the early sunrise peaked above the horizon. Birds chirped in the distance, the wind rustling the swaying tree lines and the rushing river smacking against the solid rocks. Fish leapt out of the waves, catching their breakfast and returning to the waters. Hills upon hills of grassland, farmland, scoured the world and filled the valley below. Resting in the heart of the farmlands, a small hut stood erected against the grass, made of the earth itself. A dark entrance to the hut was cast in shadow from the sunlight. Within that hut, something stirred. Something awakened from its slumber. Out of the shadows, a limping Thanos proceeded into the light. His arms swayed by his sides, his left arm scarred beyond repair and his right reaching for the grass, reaching low so he could find that rest. Settling himself upon the grass, Thanos grunted softly as he adjusted to a sitting position, his eyes rising and flinching under the heavy brightness. The welcoming warmth of the sun shining directly into his face. Thanos stared onto it, narrowed eyes finally relaxing. He breathed in and sighed, the sun’s light hitting his eyes and warming his worn body and soul. A fulfilled and satisfied essence entered his spirit. He gazed out onto the world and saw the rushing river waves, saw the swaying tree lines, all of it leading up to the farm, to the grass, past the scarecrow and finally onto him. That sunrise washed over all of it, the gleaming brightness completely otherworldly, a kind he had only experienced on his home world. In that orange light of the sun, he saw only her. He saw Death and his daughter. One asked him once before how far his love could reach, and he proved truly how far it could. His daughter was what really captured his heart and took his breath away. He stared right into her, listening intently with pain in his face as she asked him again. As he recalled that question. She asked him if it was all worth it. In the end, gazing into the sunrise and seeing all he had done, that with a simple smile and a soft nod, Thanos knew… Yes. It was. End of Part I