163
Upstate New York
Remains of the New Avengers Facility
5:51 p.m.
The switchblade continuously fell out of balance. Thanos was always there to correct it. As its watcher and guardian, Thanos had not only a responsibility, but a destiny to see the balance be brought into fruition. Yet it continued to tip one way… shortly to the other. Never stopping. Never yielding despite his efforts. Thanos’ expression showed his mild aggravation to that, to the weight placed on his shoulders, and seeing the continued resilience to his efforts.
It was the footsteps that brought his eyes away from his left forefinger, from the switchblade, from the great imbalance… and instead onto them.
Their feet and hooves fell in tandem upon the shattered battleground. In a shared conglomeration of bodies that moved so very cautiously forward, the six Avengers approached the Mad Titan with their guard on high alert. Their movements were exact, slow and calculated. Not too fast and not too slow. Just enough to earn his attention and ready themselves for absolutely anything.
Among them, Thanos knew. Though he had watched them over the past five years, seeing them all walk before him in the true flesh and blood somehow made it feel as if it was the first he had seen them since he destroyed the Stones. He knew all of them, some more than others.
Thor, the God of Thunder and the Asgardian he had conquered on his own ship. He wielded a hammer and an all-too-familiar axe. It made Thanos’ skin crawl, the Titan’s expression hardening slightly. Captain America, brandishing his shield and armor and leading the team of six onto him. Such noble efforts and valiant sacrifices. True heroes. Thanos could have smiled. Iron Man… Stark… the man who had earned Thanos’ respect a war ago. His latest and most impressive armor to date was scratched, his forehead bleeding, but his Arc Reactor burning brighter than any other he had seen. Tony’s expression mirrored Thanos’ own, the hardened acceptance and determination all shared among them.
Even the equines. Rainbow Dash walked beside Stark, her own suit of armor clutching her body but revealing her glare to the Titan. Armor-plated wings extended in an attempted showing of intimidation. Thanos simply stared. Rarity was a curious case, a unicorn who had quivered simply at the sight of him now steadfastly approaching him with a glare that could kill. Her dark purple armor suited her, the Arc Reactor similar to that of Stark’s, of Rainbow’s, and of Twilight’s.
The Element of Magic. The Princess of Friendship. Now the ruler of Equestria… Twilight Sparkle caught Thanos’ eyes just as long as Stark had. Such a worthy showing of pride and bravery, especially from the Alicorn. One of the very few of Earth and Equus’ inhabitants to have earned his respect, Twilight followed right beside Captain America, leading her friends just as well alongside the leader of the Avengers. Unlike Rainbow, her wings rested against her sides. Like Rainbow, like Rarity, like them all, she held a glare that only intensified as the distance between them was broken. Thanos could actually feel the raw magic radiating off of her, telling the Titan silently that she had grown even stronger since their last encounter. In a way, they all had.
And Thanos finally smiled because of that.
Sanctuary II and the world of Equus were nearly concealed by the clouds and smoke infecting the evening skies. Not even the sun could fully shed its light upon the torn landscape, the shattered remnants of the moons high above everyone’s heads. The sound of the wind and the fires surrounding them was silenced once Thanos spoke.
“You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me,” he said, his voice drawn-out, low, and so, so heavy. He let his gaze fall to his finger. “And back to me you came… in victory, it would seem.”
They were silent. Steadfast in their approach and unwavering in their expressions. They broke off into three pairs, Tony and Rainbow walking to the far left and eyeing Thanos with wide and hardened eyes. Steve and Twilight took the center, their foot and hoofsteps cracking the rubble, dirt, and glass beneath them. Thor and Rarity took the deep right, the unicorn hopping over a piece of concrete in her path while Thor simply stomped over it. None of their eyes left him. None of them turned away from the Titan.
Just as Thanos didn’t turn away from the switchblade on his finger. Thinking only of her momentarily, the sadness that had encompassed the Titan’s expressions melted away and only aggravation began to set in. He muttered, “You did it. You snapped your fingers, you ‘saved’ the universe.”
They did not say a word. They took their stance before the Great Titan, all of them stopping simultaneously and covering a vast patch of earth around Thanos. A silent standoff had begun and only continued to infect the scorched battlefield like a pestilence.
Thanos’ smile slowly fell, his eyes rising to meet them. “I thought… that by killing half of life… the other would thrive. I’d be saving the universe… but you’ve shown me… that’s impossible. For if there are still those who remember what was, there will always be those who are unable… to accept what can be. They will resist.”
Iron Man breathed in, his coarsened gaze latched onto the Titan of his nightmares. “Yep, we’re all kinds of stubborn,” he stated aloud.
Thanos managed a weak chuckle at that and continued. “I’ve noticed. I’m thankful. Because now… I see what I must do.”
With a drop of his left wrist, Thanos relinquished the pent-up grief that had tormented him so and ultimately… he let the switchblade go. He let her go. The only relic of which he could hold a semblance of his daughter still. The blade struck the earth and kicked up a remnant of dirt before resting against it. Unmoving. Dead. He let go and the balance he held fell away. Thanos let go of that balance he once believed in. There was no balance to believe in. Not anymore. He stood up.
“Half of all life… and the other half still resists. Still succeeds. My destiny has been fulfilled, has been stripped, and now it has left me with no other choice. You have left me… with no other choice. This universe doesn’t need balance. It doesn’t need a savior. It needs dominion. Since you have shown your continued resilience, rejected the order I tried to bring to the universe, to help it escape the chaos it has become… there is simply no other choice.”
Rainbow Dash gulped as he began to move, her pupils shivering and unable to break contact with the Titan before. A stream of sweat slowly eased its way down her head. The others flinched mildly once Thanos rose, watching as he reached for his blade and placed his helmet back on his head.
“With the Stones you’ve collected for me, I will… shred this universe down to its very last atom… and begin again. Create a new universe, teeming with life… that knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given. Even if it kills me… I would have died to know what was always meant to be.”
Thanos ripped his blade from the earth. Thor ignited the lightning coursing from his veins and onto his weapons, a rippling display of energy, fire, and electricity encompassing the God of Thunder. Steve’s fists tightened behind his shield. Tony’s breath began to quiver, every inhale and exhale a struggle for the Iron Man. His stare intensified, as did Rarity’s. As did Twilight’s.
As for Thanos, he turned to fully face them all, armor donned, helmet attached, and Double-Edged Sword gripped in his right palm. Turning from each Avenger, he sent an irrepressible smile to them all, showing them his decision, his grand scheme. His final solution. One that he ultimately accepted in the end.
“A grateful universe.”
And they resisted. Until the end. Thanos’ smile only widened.
Especially to Twilight Sparkle. The Alicorn lowered herself steadily, her expression solidified and relentless. With voice as a rising flame, eyes fires of pure malice, she hissed, “Born out of blood.”
Thanos faced her, his sinister smile only continuing to grow. “They’ll never know it… because you won’t be alive to tell them,” he whispered back, the threat laid bare. Twilight didn’t flinch. She didn’t quiver. She just breathed and glared. Fully and finally ready to face her demon head-on.
“There’s only one God of this universe,” Steve said, shaking his head. “Pretty sure He isn’t you.”
Thanos turned to Captain America, smirking at that. “Gods… titans… heroes… villains… They’re all the same. See me however you wish, just as I see all of you. Know me... as I know you. The arrogant, unable to accept what I can offer. Unruly wretches, fighting only the inevitable and falling all the same.”
He turned to the mares. Finally, to Twilight, and said, “Broken spirits…”
The Alicorn caught her breath and remained silent for only a moment. Just long enough for the Titan to continue on his tirade of madness. He stared only at Twilight as he spoke, and yet with every word he uttered, the metaphorical distance between them was breaking down. An attempt to reach her to a closer, more personal level, perhaps. A way to break her down even further. Twilight kept every possibility close as she listened.
“Having lost it all, forced to take a mantle we do not want yet are destined for. Cannot turn away… cannot fight it… but becoming what we were truly meant to be. You upon a throne… and myself upon the universe. Perhaps there is more similarities between us than we fail to realize, Your Majesty.”
Despite such logical comparisons, Thanos found himself denied. After five years of letting Thanos torment her mind and letting him continue to win, it was that moment that Twilight took her stand. It was that moment where she didn’t let her demon win. Upon that choice, the Twilight Sparkle she thought she had become had turned into a distant memory like the past five years. The real Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, the Element of Magic, what she was always meant to be… was all that remained.
“You don’t know me,” Twilight whispered, the Alicorn bending low and her armor-plated wings extending. Her eyes and horn glowed with raw magic, the growl that left her lips sending an equally-terrifying threat back. “I’m nothing like you.”
With their true selves laid bare like the threats they offered, all that was left was simply them. Just Thanos and the six Avengers brave enough to stand against him. Thanos acknowledged that, every word of it, and nodded.
To Twilight, he said, “And perhaps you’re right. Perhaps you will dread what is to come. As for me…” His eyes fell away from the Alicorn, washing slowly over each Avenger and analyzing their stance, their determination, their ferocity, and whatever they might have believed themselves to be. He was ready. “To whatever shall come next… I will enjoy it…”
Tony Stark breathed.
Thanos bent forward, his smile gone, and only the power of will left. “Every… last… second.”
All was quiet on the Earthen front. Save for Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity’s masks all closing fiercely over their glares.
Thor roared.
They charged. Leaping from the air, Tony Stark let his mask wash over his face as he brought forth an energy blade from his right wrist. Rainbow Dash jetted forward all the same, two energy blades extending from her hooves. Captain America sprinted ahead with his shield leading him, Twilight right by his side and flying over his head with two Repulsor Cannons materializing onto her hooves. Thor and Rarity charged and galloped together, upon the earth, as they collided against the Titan.
In a wave of rushing bodies, the Avengers collectively assaulted Thanos with strikes, slashes, beams, and everything they had and ever were. Thanos retaliated just as furiously, blocking the slash that Iron Man had intended across his throat and knocking Stark to the earth. Rainbow managed to slice at his abdomen with her blades, the sparks shooting off his armor and Thanos slicing at her own with the end of his sword. The strike sent Rainbow teetering through the air, eventually crashing into a pile of rubble and rebar.
Raising his sword, Thanos blocked Captain America’s shield and swung down below for the First Avenger. Steve, once he retrieved his thrown shield, quickly raised it in a vain attempt to block the strike. The force of it sent Steve vaulting backwards, the Captain crashing and disappearing through the mountains of debris in the distance. Barely dodging Mjølnir by inches, Thanos reared back from the swing of Stormbreaker intended for his neck and kicked back the God of Thunder. Thor crashed as Rarity slid under his body, she and Twilight meeting Thanos with magical and repulsor beams. Tony joined them, flying high above and creating a Repulsor Cannon on his left arm. He fired. Thanos blocked them. They fought their hearts out.
The Battle of Earth had begun.