Thor slammed the library doors open, every footstep holding a powerful, thunderous stomp. The remaining Avengers; Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner all followed suit, many exhausted, all furious.
Twilight and her six friends all entered behind them. They watched with worried expressions all around as their extraterrestrial visitors prepared to remove their tattered garments, having already acquired their original outfits cleaned and dried from Rarity’s boutique.
Even then, the scowls on Thor’s and Captain America’s faces were as hard as they were in Canterlot.
Many of them took their seats in open crystal chairs, Banner and Romanoff respectively. Others like Tony Stark, Thor, Rogers, and Barton stood their ground, frowning as the mares and baby dragon entered Twilight’s massive library. Twilight and the others caught those frowns, mirroring off of one another with their own.
Closing the library doors with her magic, Twilight began with a sigh.
“Look, I know you’re all pretty mad right now, but there’s no reason to direct that at any of us,” Twilight told them, watching as all attention from the six Avengers shifted to her. She placed a hoof against her chest, pressing it down. “If we had known…”
“If you had known then we wouldn’t be mad,” Captain Rogers interrupted. “But what Celestia and Luna have done, hiding it away, locked down for years… I can tell each and every one of you that we’re far beyond the point of being just ‘mad’.”
Rainbow Dash stepped forward by Twilight’s left. The Alicorn was soon to realize that her friends, Spike by her right, had lined up beside her, all facing the Avengers. Like a standoff. Just in case, Twilight was ready to intervene if it ever got pushed too far. No matter the rage, no matter the conflict, she couldn’t bring herself to actually harm them in any physical way. She was ready to hold back Dash.
Speak of the mare; she hovered a good few feet above the crystal floor, frowning and saying, “You think you’re the only ones who are more than just mad? What about us? We’ve been told all our lives that Equestria was founded over harmony and friendship. Now look...at us. At what we really are.”
“What was that you said back in Canterlot, Steve?” Applejack questioned, earning the soldier’s interests. Slowly, she repeated his exact words. “‘If yer not willin’ to embrace yer past then yer doomed ta repeat it’? Just what did ya mean by that?”
Steve tightened his jaw, eyeing the orange mare cautiously. He felt the others push their colorful gazes to the lone soldier, waiting for an explanation. He clenched his fists, telling them: “Exactly what I meant. None of you were ever given the truth, nor has the rest of your country, according to your rulers. Again, we don’t blame any of you for not knowing the horrors of Equestria’s past, but your princesses weren’t willing to accept that truth and tell others of it.”
He took a step forward, the darkness of over seventy years frozen solid building in his eyes.
“With Ultron seeing it with his own eyes...then it’s bound to happen again.”
Rainbow Dash snorted, landing on the ground. “None of this would have happened if you didn’t bring Ultron with you,” Rainbow Dash mumbled under her breath, earning a smack to the back of the head from Rarity.
“None of this would have happened if your rulers were honest to begin with,” Thor retorted, standing beside the soldier.
As Rainbow rubbed the back of her head, Twilight sent her Pegasus friend a glare, quickly returning back to the argument. “Ultron still would have known,” she said, “and he would still most likely be plotting to destroy Equestria even if Celestia and Luna had been honest all along. Like you said, Stark, he was programmed to save humanity, only to see the faults in your race and try and save the world from itself…by destroying it.”
“That’s not what we’re talking about,” Stark said, shutting his eyes and holding out a hand. “Okay, yes, that’s what we’re talking about, but not about Ultron. Your princesses still refused to share Equestria’s past with the rest of the country, and Ultron was lucky enough to have stumbled right into it. If everypony had known about their country’s past like they’re supposed to, then we wouldn’t be here arguing with you about it. We’d be here arguing with you about how to stop Ultron from wiping out Equestria…and the rest of the world.”
“So it’s true then,” Rarity mumbled, earning the attention of the room. She sighed, staring up at them with unnaturally worried eyes. “That monster is going to try and destroy our world.”
“Try,” Barton growled, his knuckles pure white.
Steve brought his head back forward away from Barton’s direction. “He’s not going to,” he assured the ponies.
Tony returned to the conversation, addressing the group after noticing the heat from their eyes beginning to cool.
“So, yes…none of this,” he jammed his finger down, all around, at the angry and saddened faces of the mares, all of which had witnessed a past they believed to have come from a nightmare, to express that anger towards their friends instead of the ones responsible, “would have happened if your rulers were honest to begin with.”
He and the other Avengers watched as their crestfallen expressions only worsened, many dropping their gazes or looking away, anywhere except where the six aliens stood. Minus Twilight Sparkle. Minus the princess who slowly looked up to him, each eye narrowed, mouth a straight and curious line.
“What about all of you?”
Tony was taken aback. The Avengers followed in his actions, their current actions halted as their uneasiness in the air boiled and blew. With great distrust in her stare, Twilight Sparkle stood her ground and asked one more time. One more assurance. One final push.
“Were you all honest to begin with?” she asked.
The question, reworded, seemed to catch each one of them off their guard. All that was heard, all the Avengers were able to manage, were silent breaths. Others dropped their heads away, Captain America being one of them. Thor and Tony stared on; Barton, Banner, and Romanoff welcoming members.
When they didn’t answer, Twilight pushed on.
“Back at Canterlot, the Princesses were really trying to break through that shell you all have. They asked about lies, trust. You’re always asking if you can trust us, but can we trust you?”
She pointed her violet hoof forward. Right at Tony Stark. He almost took a step back.
“You have nothing to hide, Tony?” she pressed on, turning to the next one. “What about you, Thor? You’re always contemplating about preventing a great tragedy…as if it occurred before. Captain Rogers?”
He looked up.
“A soldier like you would know right from wrong. You seem to lay that pretty heavily when coming across our problems. So what about your own? All of you?” She was addressing all of them now, all eyes on her, on the Princess of Friendship. “Protectors of Earth, the heroes that stand for what are true and just, only to act like a bunch of little foals who stole cookies from the world’s biggest cookie jar. I’ve seen it constantly. I’m seeing it now.”
“You do not want to know,” Thor began, the tone in his voice urging.
“And why shouldn’t we?!” Rainbow Dash yelled, frightening everypony around her. She took off, hovering several feet as she slowly began to grow closer and closer to the God of Thunder, eyes burning for an answer.
She said, “You’ve already seen it all! You’ve seen what we truly are! So why can’t we? What’s the big secret behind the Avengers anyway? Why do you keep trying to push this simple question away?!”
“Because we are not who you think we are!”
The power in Thor’s voice boomed throughout the library, launching the Pegasus back to her group of friends, caught by Rarity and Applejack. Having quickly recovered from the outburst, Rainbow joined her friends in staring silently on the Asgardian, on the Avengers that watched him fearfully, not for his actions…for what he was about to say.
He looked back at them, waiting.
They all looked at Stark.
Stark looked at Rogers.
After several seconds of deathly silence, Captain America brought his gaze onto the god, eyes full of every aspect of dread and foreboding. He nodded. Through it all, he nodded. After all, they deserved to know. After everything they’ve done for them.
They deserved the truth.
The truth of the Avengers.
And so, it was him who said it.
“The Avengers were meant to be different. In the end…it never was. Like we were told, it was a failure from the start. Heroes coming together to fight the fight that couldn’t be won. And maybe…to encourage others. To bring hope. It’s just an old-fashioned notion,” Steve stated with every word being a pain for him, with the sentence cutting into the soldier’s heart and everything he believed in. It was so much worse because it was true.
The mares stood silent, jaws agape, breaths silent. Spike’s eyes shifted from one hero to another. To each one that spoke out.
His reptilian gaze fell on Thor.
“Here we stand before you as testaments of our failure to protect the world we love. For even as I speak for all of us that the weight of hundreds, possibly billions of innocent lives hang like a demon over us, like the demon that cries of the loss of such life.”
“You wanted to know what we’re hiding, well you got it,” Banner finally spoke out, earning the attention of the six mares and baby dragon. Clutching onto the towel around his shoulders, he sent a far-off glance to the ponies, shaking his head. “We’re killers, murderers, failures. Monsters.”
Natasha placed her hand on Banner’s cold, cold shoulder.
“We’re the Avengers,” Tony Stark said, his voice contemplating whether to believe that or question it. Shaking his head, he eyed the mares that stared at him and his team. He mumbled, “Protectors of Earth. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And here we are…not even knowing if there’s even an Earth to go back to. And everyone on it, if there’s even anyone on it…what do they think of us now?”
“We tossed away lives like they were just an obstacle,” Rogers followed up, all heads shifting to him. He placed his shield on the crystal table, his palm and fingers slowly caressing the slick frame of the red, white, and blue. Of the star.
He breathed out through his nose, not even bothering to turn towards Twilight and the others. “Like they were nothing. It’s not what we’re about, not what we make ourselves out to be. So no, Twilight, we were not being honest to begin with. But at least we’re willing to accept who we are, try harder and become what The Avengers were supposed to be…even if the world that might not exist anymore doesn’t.”
They deserved the truth.
Now, Twilight was contemplating whether or not she wanted it.
The shield of deceit was gone, and learning the truth of the ones they believed they could trust was out there, right in the open, ready to be understood. Twilight understood plenty. The Avengers failed in some way to prevent Ultron’s reckoning of Earth, resulting in the deaths of possibly billions of lives. And it was all on them. On the six that stood mere feet in front of her and her friends.
She could hardly bear to think of her own nation’s history, now she could not even fathom the truth behind Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Who they were. What they were about.
And how she could ever trust them again.
“So, that’s it?” Twilight asked. Steve nodded to her, causing the Alicorn to droop her head. Fluttershy managed a sad whimper.
The uncomfortable silence, the one that clouded everypony and everyone in the library within Twilight’s castle with dread and unjust realization finally came to a screeching halt. Applejack stepped forward past Twilight, breaking the line that stood between the Avengers and the Elements.
The Element of Honesty took off her hat and looked at them.
“Ah’m thankful ya’ll finally told the truth. Now there’s nothin’ we can’t all hide that we already know ‘bout each other. It takes real courage to accept who ya’ll are, somethin’ Ah wish we could’ve done a long time ago. Jus’ like the Captain said…be better in all that ya do…and Ah can surely guarantee ya’ll will.”
The words of western mare managed to bring a smile to Steve’s face. No one else. That didn’t matter to Applejack. She offered her friendliest smile back to the Super Soldier, placing her hat back atop her head. As she did so, she shifted her head back and forth between the two forces in the room, the two negatives. No positives.
“Now, we can sit here and argue ‘bout this all buckin’ day or we can get down and dirty with the real business, with the real problem. Ultron,” Applejack finished, hoof held out to both forces.
With a heavy sigh, Tony crossed his arms and shook his head. His weary eyes fell on Applejack.
He said, “We’re left with nothing, Fruit Loops. Ultron left no tracks, no clear indication where he was going or what he was doing. Tracking him is gonna be harder than finding a needle in a haystack…and we don’t have any magnets this time.”
While Applejack was about to retort on the “Fruit Loops” nickname, Twilight beat her to the punch and answered back. Rubbing her chin in thought, the Alicorn mused, “Well, we can most likely assume that he’s with Starlight Glimmer—”
“Yeah, about that Starlight Glimmer character,” Barton interrupted. Twilight shifted her gaze to the man sitting by the largest table in the library. With an interesting rise of the brows, Clint said, “She surely is an interesting one, isn’t she?”
Twilight just shook her head, snorting. “She’s just some radical pony whose beliefs are far from being true. And if Ultron is working with her, then that opens so many more possibilities. Would they be hiding in Starlight’s village, in the mountain caves where we last saw her, or somewhere completely different?”
“Not trying to be ‘that guy’ who wants to steer away from the conversation, but I wanna know something, Twilight.”
The Alicorn almost groaned. “Yes, Mr. Stark?”
“Why is your butt glowing?”
After he said those words, the remaining members of the Avengers tilted their heads either left or right to catch the sight that Stark spoke of. Twilight, on the other hand, stood frozen with a mild red hue growing in her cheeks, eyes wide and pupils the size of pebbles. Why would he be staring at her butt in the first place? Placing those thoughts aside, she turned her body right, eyes gazing on her rear-end. Her friends eyed her behind, gasping.
The Avengers all relaxed on the left side, brows furrowing in confusion.
Her cutie mark was glowing, pulsating, shimmering. All at the same time. But it wasn’t just her. That same sound was amplified five times, each mare spinning their necks around to gaze at their individual cutie marks. They were all glowing, following Twilight’s own.
“Is this like a once a month thing or…” Tony began.
“Throne room! Now!” Twilight interrupted. She led the charge alongside the others, easily blowing past the library doors with Spike racing to catch up. He skidded to a halt by the entrance, having noticed that the Avengers hadn’t moved.
“Come on!” Spike urged. “It could be something important this time!”
He sped off, once again leaving behind six very confused heroes.
Tony Stark just nodded.
“If once a month things are important…”
The Avengers followed the baby dragon’s trail and entered the throne room of the Princess of Friendship. Upon arrival, the six were greeted to a very interesting sight. Six thrones, each decorated to the corresponding pony’s cutie mark that sat upon it, surrounded a circular crystal table in the center of the room.
“So, this is your throne room, Twilight?” Stark questioned, eyes gazing upwards to the hanging lights from what appeared to be the roots of a tree. He nodded, puffing out his lower lip. “Not bad.”
Twilight didn’t even respond. She, as well as the rest of her friends, was far too focused on the stability and reaction of the table in front of them. Soon enough, their cutie marks ceased glowing, and that light shifted to the centerpiece in the room.
A holographic map appeared over the entirety of the smooth, crystal surface of the table. The Avengers moved in closer, studying the map upon their intervention. It showcased several landmarks and settlements. Cities sprawled across numerous locations, but that wasn’t what captured their intrigue.
Their pony friends’ cutie marks all hovering over Ponyville caught their intrigue. Then, in a circular spin, the cutie marks all shifted across the map directly right, across what appeared to be an ocean, and stopped over a tree on top of a mountain.
“What are we looking at here?” Captain America asked, leaning forward and studying the image quizzically.
Twilight answered. “The…the map seems to be calling all of my friends and I to Griffonstone, the very heart of the Griffon Kingdom. But…why would it—?”
A burp, green flame, and roll of parchment smacking Twilight’s cheek cut her off. Nervously chuckling, Spike rubbed the back of his head while Twilight only rolled her eyes, unraveling the letter and reading it quietly.
She gasped.
Her jaw fell.
Eyes filled with horror and realization.
“Griffonstone,” Twilight breathed, chest heaving in and out. “…It’s…it’s…”
“It’s what?” Steve pressed on, now worried with her expression.
“It’s being attacked…” Twilight gulped, lowering the letter from Princess Celestia, “…by metal monsters falling from the sky. Sightings confirmed…Ultron is leading them.”
There it was.
The trail.
“Avengers…” Captain Rogers began, turning towards Stark. The man nodded, spinning around and facing the rest of the team.
“Time to suit up,” Tony Stark ordered. Thor and Barton both nodded, making their escape back to the library with Steve Rogers leading them. Stark turned to Natasha and Banner, saying, “We need a code green, you two.”
Banner groaned. Natasha nodded, practically dragging the weary man out of the throne room.
“As for the rest of you, I have no idea where Griffonstone is,” Stark mentioned and faced the six mares once more. He smiled too, nodding to Twilight. “So lead the way.”