Fury stood in the center of the bridge of the Helicarrier, watching as the carrier flew higher into the sky. One could hear various people saying things as they worked at their stations. Fury could feel as three very important people walked into the bridge. That, and he could see them in one of the screens around him. "We are clear." Agent Hill started, backing away from her console and turning to face Fury. "All engines operating. Shield emergency protocol 193.6 in effect. We're level sir."
Fury nodded, and responded with a command. "Good. Let's vanish." Hill turned back to her console, and gave out the order.
"Engage retro-reflection panels." Fury turned once he was given the all clear that all the panels were operational. There he saw a very well built man looking in awe of everything around him and another man, who was Bruce Banner. Fury started to walk towards them, and as he did so did the man everyone knew all too well. Steve pulled out a roll of cash, and gave Fury a 10 dollar bill. Fury took it, and looked at it for a few moments before putting it in a pocket. Hill turned her head to look back at the quiet attractive Captain behind her, and watched as he walked past her to gaze out of the large windshield in front of them.
Meanwhile Fury had walked up to Bruce Banner. "Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury said, holding out his hand to shake the doctor's. Bruce hesitated for a second, before reaching his hand out and accepting the friendly gesture.
"Thanks for asking nicely." Fury could hear the hint of sarcasm in his voice, but waved it off. "So uh, how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hand on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Bruce nodded, turning to look behind Fury at the many consoles in front of him.
"And where are you on that?" Bruce asked. Instead of Fury answering him, it was Agent Coulson.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell Phones, Laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." The next person to speak was Natasha Romanoff, who was crouching beside a console that had a picture of Clint Barton's face in one of the corners.
"It's still not gonna find them in time."
"You have to narrow your field." Bruce spoke up, making Fury turn to look at him from where he was looking at Natasha. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are out there?" Fury asked, wondering where the doctor was going with this as he crossed his arms.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof." Bruce said as he took off his jacket. Looking at Agent Coulson. "Have them calibrate them for gamma rays." Bruce turns back to Fury as he folds his jacket over his arms. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we can rule out a few places." Fury nodded, liking the sound of that. "Do you have somewhere where I can work?"
"Agent Romanoff," Fury said, turning to his best spy, "could you take Doctor Banner to his laboratory please?" Romanoff stood up, and made to walk past Fury. She was stopped however when Fury whispered into her ear. "She's awake, after he gets the tracker done, take him down to see her." Romanoff gave a slight nod as she continued to walk away, walking up to the doctor who began to trail behind her.
"You're gonna love it doc, we got all the toys."
Once Banner had finished making the tracking algorithm, Natasha escorted him down to the med-bay, where a very annoyed Nightmare Moon had her mouth open as a dentist looked inside. "Remarkable cleanliness, aside from your recent meal, and not a tooth out of place. Though these fangs here don't really look like they belong in the mouth of a herbivore." The dentist said as he backed away.
"Yes, well, Alicorns tend to always have or be in perfect shape. Though, my sister's flanks are a little on the big side from sitting on that throne of hers all day and eating nothing but cake. The only reason she isn't as fat as a cow is because our metabolism is incredibly high." The dentist blinked a little before stepping away, trying to process what he had just been told.
"She can talk." Banner said, completely stumped. It was one thing to think a winged unicorn had suddenly appeared. It was something else completely to figure out that it was as sentient and sapient as a human.
"Yeah, she can talk alright. Has quite the mouth on her muzzle. She isn't afraid to speak her mind when something is annoying her. Take a guess on who she has pointed her barbs at." Bruce nodded, guessing that the Alicorn dispised doctors.
"And I can hear quite well, thank you very much." Nightmare said, looking at them with a 'fuck around and find out' expression on her face. Both Natasha and Bruce were shocked, seeing as they were on the other side of the room. Deciding they wouldn't get anywhere standing there, they walked up to the irate Alicorn.
"I'm sure Fury has told you my name, yes?" When Bruce shook his head, she looked at Natasha expectently.
"Her name is Nightmare Moon. The first word making me think that, where she is from, she's a villain." Nightmare winced a little at that, but stayed resolute.
"That is… partially correct." Nightmare admitted. "I did not actually rule Equestria alone. I did so alongside my sister. She raised the sun every morning, and I the moon for the night. Our subjects played in her day and worshipped her. At night, they hid in their homes and slept. My sister may not know this, but I had many a spy working for me. Nobles would come, asking my sister to get rid of the night. They… feared me. They wanted me gone, just because they loved me sister more than me." At this point tears began to build in Nightmare's eyes, he ears laying flat on her head.
Both humans listened in rapt attention, wanting to know what had happened. "I tried everything I could go make the nights less scary, make them more beautiful. But how could they see my work when they hid in their homes and slept. I tried to ask my sister if the nights could last just a little bit longer, or have our subjects stay up just a bit later to see what I had done for them. She denied me everytime. I became so angry, spiteful, that I eventually snapped. I attacked my sister, and after a long battle, she banished me."
"That doesn't sound so bad compared to-" Bruce started, only to be cut off.
"On the moon, for 1000 years." Nightmare said with a glare that wasn't really directed at anything.
"... How are not insane right now?" Bruce asked, wondering how it is possible the Alicorn before him isn't a brain dead mess. Heck, how is she not dead outright!?
"Alicorns have well fortified minds, and we are immortal. Many have tried to kill us, either via poison, blade, or magic. But our bodies work too quickly for a poison to do any real harm, other than some irritated bowels. Our magic can overwhelm any unicorn that tries to kill us with magic. And all that has tried to kill us with a blade didn't anticipate the numerous wards we have placed on ourselves against physical attacks."
"Okay, but how were you breathing in an oxygen deprived atmosphere?" Bruce asked, intrigued. Nightmare blinked, and looked at him in confusion.
"That… I don't know. Never really thought about it." Trying to get the conversation back on track, Natasha spoke up.
"So you're a tyrant." Natasha's voice was filled with hate and suspicion. Though she was surprised by the regretful look Nightmare gave.
"I… suppose so. I just wanted to be appreciated like my sister was, is that really too much to ask?" Nightmare asked rhetorically. Natasha thought for a moment, before speaking once more.
"What if you were here?" Natasha asked. Upon seeing the confused looks, she elaborated.
"What if you were appreciated here? If you can help us with what we're trying to do, I'm pretty sure a lot of people would appreciate it." Nightmare thought about it, when Natasha continued. "You'd be a hero, and heros are kinda like celebrities right now. Just look up Iron Man or Captain America on a computer. I'm sure once you've helped us prevent a war here on Earth, a lot of people would appreciate you, maybe even look up to you." Natasha knew what she was doing, trying to build a case that was completely true and encouraging. She didn't know about any of the abilities this horse had, but if she could use magic, then the possibilities are endless.
"Leave me. I have much to think about." Nightmare said, turning away from them. The two didn't want to, but knew they wouldn't get anything more out of her. This left Nightmare alone to think. 'A hero. Is that… truly an option? I have fought for my ponies many a time in the past, but it only made me fear them more. But these humans, they apparently love those who protect them, if that woman is to be believed.'
'Maybe it is.' Nightmare jumped, having not heard the voice in 850 years. 'I didn't leave, I just knew I wouldn't get anywhere trying to convince you that ponies would only fear us more. But these humans, they have shook you enough that you finally may listen to me.' Nightmare growled internally, but conceded that Luna was right. 'Good. I have had a long time to think, and while our ponies may not like us, they need us. I'm sure there are many thankless heros here, who do the right thing, but never get anything in return. That might be the same with us, or, as Natasha said, these humans would thank us. Nick, he can give us a home, food, everything we'd need. I'm sure he would be very thankful to have us help him.'
Nightmare sighed, and nodded. This was all most likely true. Maybe they really could get a new start here. 'Fine, but I want all the glory.' Nightmare could feel Luna roll her eyes, but agree nonetheless. Deciding nothing would change by doing nothing, Nightmare lit up her horn, and searched for Fury's magical signature. Nightmare and Luna were quite surprised that all humans had a magic core, some brighter and stronger than others, however all of them were untapped, like magic was a forgotten teaching. They quickly found Fury's magic signature, and locked onto it as their teleport destination.
"We got a bit, 67% match." An agent that looked to be of Asian descent said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Wait, cross match, 79%" The agent said after he typed a few things into his console.
"Location?" Agent Coulson asked as he walked up to the console the other agent was at.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstraße."
"He's not exactly hiding." Agent Coulson said, a twinge of disbelief in his tone.
"Captain-" Fury started when he was cut off by a flash of light right behind him. Startled, everyone reached for their guns as they turned to see what had caused the flash. All were surprised to see Nightmare Moon there with a raised eyebrow.
"Quite the welcoming." She said with an irritated tone.
"Everyone, stand down. Ms. Moon I don't know what the hell you are thinking but you best have a damn good explanation for doing… whatever it is you just did." Nightmare scoffed, rolling her eyes at Nick.
"Fine, if you don't want my help, then be that way." Nightmare turned to leave, but stopped by Fury's sigh.
"I'm sorry, but we're in the middle of something." Fury said as he pointed at the console Agent Coulson and the other agent were at. Nightmare looked at the screen and saw a picture of Loki next to a different picture of Loki.
"You're searching for an emo adult?" This got a few chuckles from a few agents.
"His name is Loki, he stole the thing that transported you here by accident. If we get it back, you might have a shot at returning home." Fury didn't know if this was true, but by the way Nightmare seemed to get more determined, he knew he had said the right things.
"I see. And you have located him I presume?" Fury nodded.
"I was about to send the Captain here to get him." Fury said, gesturing to the man who was looking at her in disbelief. Nightmare gave the man an appreciative glance, taking in his muscular build underneath his clothes, and then sent a sly grin and wink his way, causing him to blush.
"I'd like to go with him. I can tell that this character you're after isn't exactly a normal human." Fury nodded, and pulled up a recording of all the abilities Loki has shown so far on one of the screens that surrounded him.
"Hmph, an Illusionist at best. He will tremble at the magical might an Alicorn can bring to bear. Though that staff of his does cause some worry." Fury was a bit surprised that she passed off Loki's abilities as if they were sub par.
"Really? How so?"
"Even from this recording, I can almost feel the energy coming from the jewel at the head of it. The staff channels it safely, but the jewel itself is what gives it so much power."
"So if we removed the jewel from the staff, everything affected by the staff would return to normal?" Fury asked, intrigued hope colouring his voice. Nightmare nodded.
"Most likely, yes."
"Hmm, Captain, suit up. I'm going to talk to Nightmare here to see if anything she knows can help us further." The Captain nodded, and left to put on his suit.