With a snap of his fingers Doom willed the ponies out of existence, yet to his annoyance the rainbow ponies didn’t even budge. They did, however, fire back with a beam of rainbow energy that it was in Doom’s best interest to avoid. Doom did so by shifting space so that the beam moved past him.
“Sorry pal, but you’re in my airspace!”
Doom had enough time to register the words before Rainbow Dash slammed into his side, hurtling him down towards the ground. He spun on her and fired a blast of pure power at her chest, but a moment later AJ was there and took the full blast herself.
“Call that power? Mah little sister hits harder!” AJ roared as she swung a hoof towards Doom.
Doom responded by constructing a barrier of reality, yet to his horror he found that he had created a barrier of cheese instead. Which AJ then punched clean through. Doom saved himself by warping away, only to find a pink pony resting on his shoulder.
“Looky here, mister, I don’t like to get violent but-“
Doom grabbed the pink pony and blasted her with all of the power he had. Yet with a snarl he looked down and found that she was standing amongst her friends. Doom snapped his fingers and froze time solid, yet a moment later a violet light went off and time resumed its course.
“You are beginning to annoy me, creatures,” Doom spat, crushing his hands together to crush the reality around the ponies. But their light glowed as one and a moment later his power was pushed back against. The two sides were even.
“Well we’re well past annoyed with you,” Twilight spat, she and her friends drawing forth their infinity strength and hurling it all towards Doom. Doom created another barrier and deflected the attack, though from the way he shook in the process it was clear to the girls that he was struggling.
“Rarity, anything?” Twilight asked as the pushed Doom back.
“I…I can’t, Twilight. Even with all of my power, I can’t see into his mind,” Rarity gasped, amazed by what was happening. “He’s not even using my stone’s power to resist me. It’s…pure willpower.”
“Well then that’s out of the equation,” Dash said. “What’s the plan, Twi? We’re pretty evenly matched here!”
“No, we’re not,” Fluttershy muttered, turning her friends gaze towards them. “We hold the true power of the stones, so we should have an advantage over him. But even though he has less power, he’s matching us with sheer cunning and skill. The longer this goes on, the less I like our chances. It’s like Tony said. Doom’s smarter than us all.”
“Then how do we outsmart him?” Twilight asked.
“We don’t, Twi. Ah say we do the opposite…and get a little crazy.”
All five sets of eyes turned towards Pinkie all at once. And she smiled in reply.
“You ponies have annoyed me for long enough!” Doom roared, momentarily stopping time so that he could build up a ball of collapsed reality fueled by multiple big bangs. “Doom was willing to simply return to the past and let you be wiped out, but now I will make you suffer! Now I will-“
Doom was ready for almost anything. The power of the stones. Thor’s hammer choosing a new host. Even the Ghost Rider. But what Doom was not ready for was when he looked to the side to see a gator riding a cheesecake that was the size of a moon.
“What the f-“
Doom was quickly buried by all the cheesecake he could ever want (he didn’t want any), which also gave the ponies a moment to collect their thoughts and plan out their next move.
“That won’t hold him for long!” Pinkie called out to her friends, using her power over reality to keep the cheesecake from being destroyed by Doom.
“Twi, we need a plan!” Dash yelled.
“I don’t have one. We need Tony to…wait, where’s Tony?” Twilight asked, looking around.
“I don’t see him. He didn’t get caught up in the battle, did he?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe he-“
“Thar she blows!”
An explosion of cheesecake went off and Pinkie was knocked out of the sky, landing herself next to her friends as Doom ascended into the sky. The tyrant glared down at them, his power radiating at the same intensity as the ponies. Twilight and her friends didn’t give him an inch, glaring back at him as they channeled their own power and matched his might. For a long moment, both sides stared at each other. Then Doom nodded his head.
“Ashgrove. Now.”
A wave of…something exploded from Ashgrove, causing the ponies to cry out in pain. Their infinite power faded and they clutched their hooves to their heads. The pain faded after a moment, but to their horror they looked down at themselves to find that their power was gone. Twilight snapped her eyes towards Doom to see that he too had lost the stones power. Yet he was still smiling.
“What did you do?” Twilight asked.
“The Infinity Stones only work in their own reality or dimension. So I infused Ashgrove with the power to warp the multiverse. At least in the area equivalent to the size of a city,” Doom explained, pointing to Ashgrove who looked like a hundred different beings all in one. “My last resort in case I could not find a way to defeat your stones power. Now neither side has the power of the stones.”
“Are you an idiot? Those stones were the only chance you had against us!” Dash laughed, stretching her neck. “Now we can take you down without-“
Dash’s head snapped back as Doom appeared in front of her, driving his knee into her skull. He whipped around and lashed out with a kick that caught AJ in the side of the head, knocking her flat to the ground. Yellow bolts of energy slammed into Pinkie and hurled her across the street, before Doom punched Rarity in the jaw with such force that her horn cracked. Then he turned towards Fluttershy.
Fluttershy barely had time to let out a yelp before Doom grabbed her by the throat and twisted, smiling as he did so. Yet instead of hearing a snap, Fluttershy vanished from his hands and appeared next to Twilight, the only pony still standing.
“And so it comes down to you. Your kind is nothing without the power of the stones,” Doom snarled.
“Do not think for a moment that I am afraid of you,” Twilight said, crouching down. “And do not think for a moment that you are going to win.”
“You are right. It will not be for a moment. For Doom always wins.”
Twilight let out a scream as she fired a beam of magic at Doom, but Doom took to the air to avoid the blast. He then stuck out both feet and rocketed down towards Twilight. Twilight shielded herself from the footdive, but when Doom hit he bounced off and fire plasma beams into her shield. Twilight gritted her teeth as her barrier began to fall, but she buckled down and infused it with even more power.
Then the bug on Fluttershy’s neck let out a massive amount of electricity and Twilight screamed as all of it went into her. Twilight let out a gasp before she fell to the ground, her body shaking in pain. Doom looked around at all of the defeated ponies before he marched up to Twilight, driving his boot onto her chest and glaring into her eyes.
“It is over. Your princesses are bested. Your friends are beaten. And soon you and the rest of your world shall die,” Doom told her. Twilight spat in return. Doom channeled his gauntlet with energy and aimed it at Twilight’s heart. “So in your final moments, I want you to know this is what happens when you mess with humanity. When you mess with Doom. You lose.”
Rainbow Dash was the only one who was getting up. The only one who saw what Doom was about to do. She needed to get there. But she wasn’t fast enough. She knew this. Doom would kill Twilight before she had gotten off the ground. The world slowed to a standstill as her brain fired as quickly as it could, trying to think of an answer. She needed to go faster to save her friend.
So she would. Whatever it took.
Faster than ever possible, Dash poured every ounce of herself into her speed. Her natural magic. Her Elements magic. What ever power she had left of the stone. And she poured it all into her wings. She kicked off…and was at Doom in an instant.
Doom whipped around and lashed out with his hand, but Rainbow Dash weaved around it and drove her head into Doom’s face. Normally flesh lost to metal, but Dash had been going headfirst through nearly everything all her life. This was nothing. Dash gritted her teeth and slammed her skull once more into Doom’s face, getting Doom to stagger.
She came around again and Doom lashed out, but his hand went clean through her…before she vanished. He had struck her after image. Dash then began to bombard Doom from all sides, at speeds that even she could barely keep up with. At speeds that made tore her muscles apart, that made her body scream in agony…and made even the light around her blur. But she couldn’t keep it up for long. And she wouldn’t have to.
A lasso wrapped itself around Doom’s leg and pulled hard, ripping Doom from his feet and dropping both him and Twilight. Doom snarled as he snapped the rope before he spun and lunged towards AJ, slamming his fist into her hooves. He channeled all of his plasma might into her body, yet she refused to budge. Refused to fall. For despite all the pain Doom was inflicting upon her, in that moment AJ was thinking of the family she lost and the family she might lose if Doom won. An agony unmatchable. And compared to that, Doom’s energy was nothing.
“What is happening?” Doom asked before a blast of magic caught him in the back, knocking him away from Applejack. Doom swung around to see Rarity grab ahold of Twilight, helping the princess to her hooves. Rarity’s horn was cracked, blood was pouring from her nose, yet as Doom shot plasma bolts at her she maintained an elegance and grace as she summoned crystals that deflected the attacks.
“What’s happening, Doom? What’s happening is that you’re losing,” Twilight spat, but a smile was on her face.
They were going beyond his calculations. Doom had learned about them, studied them and figured them out perfectly. The stones they wielded were the only threat. But now, as Dash somehow pushed herself to speeds Doom couldn’t react to, as AJ reached a strength that he never could have seen, as Rarity deflected each of his attacks perfectly, he realized the truth. They were more than their stones. And he had underestimated them terribly.
But he was Doom. And Doom never lost.
“Doom is not losing! Doom never loses! Especially to a group of ignorant, weak ponies!” Doom roared as he lifted his hands, conjuring a massive ball of plasma the size of a house. “And in a moment, Doom shall erase you from-“
Doom’s words were cut off as his chest piece began to crack. A single crack began to form up the center, the metal began to bend outward…before a pair of pink hooves ripped the metal wide open.
“HERE’S PINKIE!”
Doom roared as Pinkie emerged from his chest, spewing frosting, before she leapt out and landed in front of him. Doom aimed his hands at her and fired his energy beams, but only bubbles came out instead. Doom looked at his hands in disbelief before he looked up at Pinkie.
“No, I know I deactivated the stones power. So how can you…?”
“Please, like I need some stone to mess with you,” Pinkie giggled. “I’ve been messing with reality long before I got my stone. Let’s get em girls.”
The ponies attacked all at once. Doom raised his hands and fired blasts of energy at them, but Twilight created a shield that blocked all of his attacks. Somehow her shield was even stronger than before. With all her friends at her side, she was gaining a new strength.
Dash was on him before he could react, driving her hooves into his exposed chest with the fury of a hurricane. Applejack followed suit, leaping into the air and driving both of her hind hooves right into his chest. The sound of ribs breaking could be heard for miles.
Rarity stomped her hoof and crystals came out of the ground, entangling Doom’s feet and rooting him in place. Fluttershy and Pinkie both ensnared his arms, one with vines the other with licorice, and held him in place. With his strength he would be free in just a moment. But a moment was all Twilight need.
With a scream that could be heard in the heavens she unleashed all of her magic into Doom’s chest, causing him to roar as he was sent rocketing back. He crashed into the side of a building made of vibranium, causing him to stop dead. He then fell to his knees, using all of his willpower to keep from falling over completely. He raised his head and glared at the six, who were standing triumphantly across from him.
“I…am impressed,” Doom admitted, hacking up some blood. “The Avengers…the X-Men…even Reed and his family…yet you did something they could not. You managed to best me, for a moment. I am curious to know how?”
“The same way we’ve handled everything else thrown at us. Together,” Twilight said. For a moment Doom looked at them, before he let out a small chuckle.
“I see. Ashgrove, return the stones power to me.”
The ponies snapped their head over to the deer, who let out another scream as he thrust his appendages forward, a rainbow circle appearing around him. But before any of the ponies could do anything, two repulsor beams struck Ashgrove in the back, slamming him to the ground and canceling out his power.
“What in the blazes is that?” Applejack asked.
Twilight and the others looked over to see a suit walking towards them. It was massive, composed of a very old metal and was held together with motors, gears and hydraulics. Compared to every other suit they had seen, it was a hunk of junk, but there was no mistaking the blue circle in the chest or the faceplate that covered the man within.
“Tony?” Twilight asked. “That’s an…uh, interesting suit.”
“This is the Mark 1. My very first suit. And the only suit of mine to survive all these years in the future without maintenance,” Tony explained, looking down at it with a smile. “The only one to answer my call. Just took it a while to get here. I call her old reliable.”
“Call it whatever you want Stark. For in a moment it shall not matter!” Doom said, racing towards Ashgrove. “For once I have the stones power-“
Doom was tackled in the side by the Iron Avenger, who used his suits weight to pin Doom. Doom struggled and would be free in a moment, but Tony only needed a moment.
“Girls! Take your power back!” Tony roared. “Gaea set it all up so that it would be yours and yours alone. Doom managed to take a piece. Show him what the original looks like!”
The girls all nodded to each other before they focused on Doom, willing the stones, it’s power…their power out of him. Doom began to howl with agony as rainbow lights erupted from his eyes and mouth, the power returning to those that truly deserved to wield it. After a few moments Doom collapsed and the ponies burned with their full power.
“Oh yeah, it’s good to be back!” Dash laughed. Fluttershy let her stones power glow and a moment later her friends were all healed from their injuries. Then the six ponies glared down at Doom, who had just managed to hurl Tony off of him.
“And you even got the stones power back. I very clearly underestimated you,” Doom said before he nodded. “Ashgrove.”
Ashgrove let out a snarl before his body shifted once more, creating a rippling blast that stopped the stones power for a moment. And in that moment Ashgrove shoved his hooves forward and ripped open a portal in time, a portal back into the past. Doom was at the portal in a moment, taking only a second to glare back at the ponies.
“Doom may have lost the battle. But he shall win the war!”
Doom was gone a moment later. Ashgrove then collapsed to the ground, having spent everything he had. For a moment it looked like the portal was going to close, but then Twilight’s horn glowed and she managed to keep the vortex open.
“I’ve…got it! I can stop this! I can crush Doom in the time rift,” she told the others. She then looked up at Tony uncertainty in her eyes. “Should I do it?”
“We don’t have time to wait around! Every second we delay is another second Doom gets closer to his past and when he gets there, it’s over!” Rarity exclaimed. “Close it now!”.
“Tony?” Twilight asked with a bit of fear.
“Don’t, Twilight. Let him go back. Let me go back,” Tony asked. The ponies looked at him like he was crazy. “I know this is asking a lot of you. I know that by all rights you should close the rift and be done with it. But I’m asking you to trust me. I have a plan. And if it works…then maybe I can save everyone.”
“If…how much of an if are we talking about here?” Rarity asked. When Tony didn’t answer, she glared at him. “In terms of percentages, how much of a chance are we talking about?”
“Let’s just say most calculators don’t go that far into decimals,” Tony replied with a smirk. Tony then snapped his head towards the portal, seeing things begin to go white around it. “Twilight, please. Trust me. As your friend, I promise…I promise I’ll set things right.”
Twilight looked at Tony for a moment, before looking at her friends. One by one, they all smiled and nodded to her. Twilight smiled back, a bitter but happy smile, before she looked up to Tony and nodded.
“Go.”
Tony turned and took off towards the portal, firing up his thrusters and diving inside. And everything went white.