“DOOM!”
Somehow, even within the time stream, Doom turned around to look at Tony. His eyes went wide for a moment when he saw the Iron Avenger coming towards him, but that lasted for only a moment. Doom let out a roar as he lunged towards Tony, who responded in kind. The two of them collided within the time vortex, creating shatters of light and reality that swirled around them.
“What is your game, Stark?!” Doom roared as he slammed a fist into Tony’s face. “You failed to stop me in the future. And even if you follow me to the past, destruction for Equis is all that awaits! There is no way to win!”
“Of course you would think that! If it’s not your way, then it’s the wrong way!” Tony yelled back, blasting Doom in the face with blast of energy. “You may be the smartest man I know, but you’re so blinded by your own ego that you never pay attention to the world around you!”
“I care not what you think of me! All I care about is saving humanity!” Doom roared, tackling Tony in the gut and rocketing them both into the side of the time vortex. Tony roared with pain as time ripped through him, doing things to his body he didn’t even want to know about.
Tony broke free from Doom’s grip and grabbed him by his face, which he then drove into the time vortex. Doom roared as time slashed through his face, aging or reversing it as time saw fit. Tony planted a hand on Doom’s chest and unleashed all of the electricity in his suit into Doom. Doom roared in pain before he reached up and ripped Tony’s metal arm off of his body.
Tony looked down at his exposed hand before he slammed his other fist into Doom’s chest, turning up the heat and burning Doom. Doom retaliated with blasts of plasma that tore of chunks of the Iron Man suit and knocking Tony back in the process.
“You were always jealous of my intellect, Stark,” Doom seethed as he stared down his foe. “Jealous that I always did what you could not. Build, design…rule…I can do it all. You cannot even manage one.”
“You’re right. I am jealous of your intellect. How you can make things that defy logic, how you can master the mystic arts in ways I wish I could wrap my head around,” Tony replied, before narrowing his eyes. “But the one thing I will never envy is how you treat others. How you see yourself as so far above them. That they are nothing more than pawns in your game.”
“As you all are.”
“But do you know what happens to a pawn when it reaches the end of the board? It becomes so much greater. It becomes the strongest piece. All those people you put beneath you, all those that you criticize…they have the potential to be greater than us.”
“You cannot be-“
And then a flash of white consumed them both.
=====----=====
Tony awoke with a groan. He coughed up something that he knew wasn’t blood and forced himself to get up. Everything in his body hurt and his muscles screamed in defiance when he pushed himself upwards. He had been laying face down in a grassy field, with what used to be the Mark 1 scattered around him. Tony raised his head slightly…and saw a jet pass by far overhead.
“I’m home,” he whispered.
“Not long before Gaea get’s the stones,” Doom corrected.
Tony snapped his head down to see Doom was also getting up. The metal armor of his suit had also been torn away by the time travel, leaving him with only his green cloak to wrap around himself. He glared at Tony with his scarred face, his eyes still blazing power.
“It is over, Stark. We are in the past. And regardless of who stops Gaea, the ponies will be erased,” Doom said as he rose to his feet, Tony mirroring him. “All that is left to do is be rid of you and then I can finally save humanity. I can save them all.”
Doom made a move towards Tony, but Tony held out a hand to stop him.
“Yeah, you can probably kill me in the shape we’re in. But before you do, I just want you to hear me out,” Tony said. Doom didn’t move for a moment and then he narrowed his eyes.
“Your last request, Stark? Very well, what do you have to say?”
“I figured it out. How to save both ponies and humans. The Aesir, the aliens and everyone else who Gaea wiped out,” Tony said, getting Doom to raise his eyebrows. “And that’s…by recreating the future exactly the way it happened.”
“…you have gone mad. That is the only way you could possibly think a plan like that would work,” Doom replied. “Letting it all happen again? By letting him wipe out humanity? How does that possibly save everyone?”
“Simple. We recreate it,” Tony replied. Doom silence spoke volumes. “We make everything that happens happen again, but just slightly different. Gaea doesn’t have to wipe out humanity in order for Equis to come into being. Humanity just has to be gone. To not be on Earth. Then Gaea can create the world, create Equis, and all of his ponies. We make things play out exactly like they happen on Equis. It doesn’t matter what happens before Equis comes into being, because once it comes into being it’s like a fresh start. And so-“
“Enough! I see what your plan is,” Doom snarled. “You wish to recreate the events of their world. By removing humanity from Earth, you wish Gaea to remake and lead their world in exactly the same way? Do you truly believe that to work? With how many infinite possibilities there are for any future within a day? And you want to do it with over ten thousand years? You are mad! Your idea is impossible and you-“
“Do not for a moment say this is impossible!” Tony snarled at Doom. “Impossible? For us? I could give you a piece of string and a paperclip and you could somehow tear down reality with it! What other people call impossible people like you and me call and afternoon challenge! For us there is no impossible! There is only what we haven’t achieved yet!”
“…this is your grand plan, Stark? To save both the humans and the ponies?” Doom asked. “You want to eject us from Earth and then hope that everything happens in Equis exactly the same as before. What about Gaea’s rage? What about him wiping out every other race? The Ghost Rider, the death of his love? All of it would have to happen. Everything that happened in Equis would have to happen the exact same way. How would you make that happen?”
“..I can’t…I’m not smart enough to figure out something like that,” Tony admitted, getting Doom to scoff at him. But then Tony raised his eyes and rested them on Doom. “But you are. Out of everyone on this planet, in this multiverse, you are the only one both smart and insane enough to be able to do something like predict the near infinite outcomes for a future. And then figure out a way to have it happen the exact same way.”
“Perhaps I could. Perhaps I could somehow figure out how to work out a future where everything happens the same and your ponies are recreated. There is still the problem of getting Gaea to cooperate with the stones. For him to go along with our plan. Hell, how do you expect humanity to react to the news that we need to abandon our planet? What you are asking Stark is impossible…even for me.”
“Yeah, impossible for both you and me. But not if we work together.” If Doom had thought Stark was mad before, now he thought he was a raving lunatic. “You can figure out the probability, the details, how everything would go. I can convince humanity, Gaea and everything else. You have the brain. I have the people skills and plans. Together…we can save them all.”
“…together? Us? After everything I have do to you? After all you have done to me?” Doom laughed. “You have destroyed my home on several occasions. I killed your allies and your Spider-Man. Can you truly forgive me for that? Can you put the past behind you?”
“…I don’t know if I can every truly forgive you for what you did,” Tony whispered. Then he walked forward towards Doom and narrowed his eyes, before letting out a sigh of acceptance. “But I can put it behind me. To save humanity. To save the ponies. To save them all.”
“And how can you trust me Stark? In fact, what is in this for me? I only want to save humanity. I have no desire to save the ponies. Why should I work with you, pull off the impossible with you, for them?”
“Remember what I said about people and pawns? How they can be greater than us?” Tony asked. He waited until Doom nodded before he continued. “Well the only way those pawns can become greater…is if they have the right leader. Is if they have someone who can lead them to their true potential.”
“…and you’re saying you want it to be me?” Doom asked, unbelieving. “Why? You hate me. You hate how I rule, how I lead and everything about me. Why would you allow me to lead humanity. No Stark, I do not need you. I can save the world all on my-“
“There it is! There’s your one weakness! Your refusal to work with anyone!” Stark snarled. “And how does that work out for you? We managed to stop you time and time again. We stormed Latveria not too long ago! Hell, you lost to six rainbow colored ponies! For the love of God Doom, for once in your life, look past your own ego to see what needs to be done!”
Doom lowered his head for a moment and thought about Starks words. Then Doom slowly raised his head and narrowed his eyes at Stark.
“You would truly allow me to rule? You would allow me, the man who took so much from you, to lead humanity across the heavens?”
“Not by yourself and only with a group of my most trusted friends, but…Twilight couldn’t save her future, but together with Starlight she did. Applebloom couldn’t figure out how to power her armor, but Diamond Tiara did,” Stark muttered. When Doom raised an eyebrow, Tony sighed and looked at Doom. “If there is one thing that I learned in my time in Equestria, it’s that sometimes, to do the impossible, you have to work with your enemies…and maybe make them your friends. To be willing to find a way to work together for the good of everyone. And that maybe even the worst of us deserve one more chance.”
And as Tony said this, he extended a hand towards Doom, making sure to look him dead in the eyes as he did so.
“We evacuate the planet. We help Gaea establish Equis. And we make sure everything happens the exact same way so that Twilight and her friends come into being exactly the same as they were. And if you agree to help me, if we put our past behind us to save them all…then I’ll give you your chance. Your chance to lead humanity to a better future like you always said you could.”
Doom stared down at Tony’s hand for a long time, never taking his eyes off of it.
“I believe it to be impossible, Stark.”
“I was once given two ironclad options. Build weapons or die. You were given two options. Accept that your mother was dead or trade your soul to save hers. But we didn’t pick either of those options, either of those two impossible choices. We picked door number three. We chose to go beyond the impossible. To do something even crazier. And we succeeded. For us the impossible is only another challenge.”
“So it’s time, Doom. Put your money where your mouth is. Are you just another supervillain? Or are you the best? A man who can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, no matter the impossibility? Are you Doom?”
Doom stared at Tony’s hand for a moment…and then he grabbed hold.