Tony stayed silent as he flew, too busy working with his onboard computer to pay much attention to the land below. Even though Jarvis had already tried, Tony spent his time flying trying to communicate with anyone from his world. But just like Jarvis had said, there was no wifi or internet of any kind, though he did pick up the faintest of radio waves. But there was another signal in the air, one so oppressive that it overshadowed anything else.
‘You can feel it, can’t you sir?’ Jarvis asked.
“Yeah, it’s everywhere. In the air, in the water…fairly certain I can even feel it through my suit,” Tony said. “Magic. There’s magic everywhere in this world. If I wasn’t so busy trying to get back to my world, I wouldn’t mind studying it for a while. Then I could have a trick up my own sleeve the next time Strange gets arrogant with me.”
‘How interesting. Perhaps this world deviates from ours as they chose magic as their primary source for advancement instead of technology,’ Jarvis said.
“Well, I’ll say this: their magic world is a heck of a lot cleaner than ours. I’m barely picking up any traces of pollution in the air,” Tony noted. Then he let out a sigh. “Alright, time to stop avoiding the elephant, or should I say horse, in the room. Horses. There are talking horses in this world.”
‘I fail to see how this would bother you. You have seen and fought far stranger during your time as Iron Man.’
“The rainbow colors on them, the cutesy little marks on their butts, the magic they wield and not to mention that’s the fifth rainbow we’ve flown by…Jarvis, we’re in a girls cartoon world.”
‘And again sir, even if that were the case, this would still be far from the strangest thing we have encountered. The Living Tribunal, sir?’
“I know, it’s just…so you think Doom may be here with us?”
‘If you managed to survive sir, then I have no doubt he did as well. He is just as cunning and far more stubborn then you are, as impossible as that may seem. His desire to live is terrifying.’
“Then we need to meet with these…princesses as soon as we can. I don’t like the odds of me against Doom without the entire armory at my back. Put as much juice into the thrusters as you can.”
‘Already done.’
The thrusters fire tripled in size and a moment later Tony shattered the sound barrier, rocketing towards the mountain ranges in the distance. He kept a careful eye on his power as he flew, yet to his amazement he found that despite flying at supersonic speeds, his energy levels still slowly increased. The sun in this world was far stronger than in his.
His scanners beeped a few times and brought up a scoped in version of the mountain ranges ahead, circling in on a large city that was built near one of the peaks. “And that must be the city that creepy old centaur was talking about. Alright Jarvis, wager time. Hostile or friendly?”
‘With you sir, they always start out hostile.’
“Remind me to make you more positive when we get back.”
Tony poured as much juice as he could afford into the thrusters, gaining ground on the city rapidly. Within minutes the city went from a speck in the distance to right in front of him, giving him a moment to see just how large it was.
CRUNCH!
Iron Man came to a dead stop as he collided with a barrier of magic that seemed to appear out of thin air. A tiny gasp of pain escaped Tony’s lips before he began to slide down the barrier that was now surrounding the city. He quickly shook it off and took to the skies again, scanning the barrier.
“One hundred percent magic and pretty tough to boot,” Tony observed. He raised his hands and fired a few repulsor blasts into the shield, only for them to bounce off in different directions. “And are capable of repelling energy-based attacks. Hmm, how to do this?”
‘Sir, it seems you have attracted a crowd.’
Tony looked through the barrier to see that a massive crowd of ponies had gathered to stare at him. A lot of them wore fancy attire, while others wore armor and carried spears. A lot of the ponies pointed at Tony and were talking, but he couldn’t pick up what they were saying through the barrier.
“Hey there! Name’s Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man. Maybe you’ve heard of me?” Tony called down to them. None of the ponies responded. “Okay, how bout this? I was told to come here to meet with your princesses. Um, I’m with Tirek! Does that help?”
His scanners made a beep and flashed again, this time with a red light. Tony snapped his head to the side of the city, where five pegasi were rapidly approaching him, a stream of thunder clouds trailing behind them. “Ah good, the welcoming committee. See Jarvis, all I have to do is explain what’s going on to them and then we can get this all sorted out.”
‘If you say so, sir.’
One of the pegasi flew up to meet Tony while the rest circled around him, creating a sphere of thunder clouds around him. The pegasi approaching him wore a blue suit with yellow lightning bolts and had an orange mane sticking up from the top of her suit. Tony did find the aviator goggles she wore on her head adorable.
“Hey there! You wouldn’t mind letting me into the city, would you? I really need to talk with your princesses! Kind of important,” Tony said.
“You said you’re with Tirek?” the pony asked in reply.
“Yup. Names Tony Stark, but Iron Man is what most people call me. Here from another reality, would really like to get back, world to save and everything. You know, that old song and dance.” The pony looked at Stark like he was crazy, before she shook her head and narrowed her eyes.
“Whatever you are, Iron Man, leave now! The Wonderbolts protect Canterlot from all strange and dangerous intruders and if you are with Tirek then you are trouble.”
“The Wonderbolts? Oh that’s adorable. Jarvis, when we get back to Earth, remind me to legally change Ross’s name to Thaddeus Wonderbolt Ross. He’ll love it,” Tony said, before facing the pony again. “Look, I don’t want any trouble, but I really need to meet with your leaders and I’m not leaving until you do.”
“Then we’ll remove you by force,” the pony said. All around him Tony noticed the thunderclouds turning black,
‘Don’t say it, sir.’
“I’d like to see you try.”
All at once the pegasi swarmed Tony, barreling down at him with pretty impressive speeds. Tony crossed his arms over his chest, before throwing them down to his sides and creating a pulse of energy that knocked the pegasi back. His thrusters kicked into full power and he rocketed straight up, the now recovered pegasi following him.
‘Good job sir, this is another foreign species that you’ve managed to turn against you within moments of meeting them.’
“What can I say, Jarvis? I have that effect on people.”
Iron Man slowed just enough so that the pegasi could begin to close the distance on him, before he cut his thrusters entirely and plummeted past them. He grabbed one of the pegasi as he plummeted, before he reactivated his thrusters and took off with the pegasi in tow. The bluish pony with the blue mane struggled as best he could, but Iron Man’s suit could contend with Thor. It could handle a pony.
“Let. Me. GO!” the pony snarled as he struggled.
“If you say so,” Iron Man replied. He swung the pony around a few times before letting him go, watching as the pony sailed into the shield with a splat. The crowd behind the shield winced at the impact, but Iron Man’s sensors told him the pony was fine, if not a little bruised.
‘Behind you.’
Iron Man turned just in time to be rammed by one of the faster pegasi, driving him downward a bit. Unfortunately for the Pegasus, it had gone full speed into a full suit of armor, so the pony knocked itself out on impact. It had barely begun to fall before Iron Man grabbed hold of its tail and threw it over to join the other.
‘Sir, may I ask what are you doing? This show of force will not get you into the city any quicker.’
“No, but perhaps it can draw out the princesses. I mean, some weirdo in a metal suit shows up and starts knocking their air force out of the sky? I’d want to be there for that.”
Firing his thrusters at full power, Iron Man rocketed right past two of the remaining pegasi. They had just enough time to realize what had happened before Iron Man grabbed the both of them by the back of their heads, flying them over to the shield and hurling the both of them into it. They bounced off the top and laid there, beaten, but mostly unharmed.
“And then there was one,” Iron Man said. He turned around to face the leader, the one with the orange mane, who glared daggers at him from beneath her goggles. “Would you let me in if I said please this time?”
The pegasi let out a yell as she lunged at Iron Man. Iron Man braced and allowed her to tackle into him, driving him into the barrier. She pounded on his suit with a fury, but Tony felt none of the blows. He grabbed hold of her forehooves and rolled over, grabbing her face and pinning her to the shield.
‘Sir, to the left.’
Tony glanced over to his left side to see that the shield had been opened a little bit and the unicorns below were using their magic to pull the beaten Wonderbolts inside. The barrier closed almost instantly behind them, telling Tony a few things.
‘Sir, I believe this is them.’
Tony turned his head to see that two more ponies had shown up, but these two were far different from the others he had seen. For starters, the crowd parted to let them through, bowing to them as they passed by. They were also much taller, with one of them as white as snow with a rainbow mane, while the other was a midnight blue with a galaxy for her mane. Then he noticed that they had both horns and wings.
‘Sir, scans show that these two have a massive amount more magical power than any of the other horses we have come across so far,’ Jarvis pointed out. He didn’t need to. Tony could feel the magical power radiating off of the both of them. It was indeed like nothing the other ponies have given off. These had to be who Tirek was talking about.
The white one’s horn flashed and the pegasi disappeared from Tony’s grasp, appearing within the barrier next to the princess. Tony flew himself to the part of the barrier that was closest to them, waving his hand in a greeting.
“Hey there. Sorry about that, but I needed to get your attention and I figured a massive brawl in the sky would do it. You’re the princesses, right? Well I need a favor from both of you. See, I’m from another reality and I’ve been brought here by mistake. So if you wouldn’t mind letting me in so we can talk…did I mention that Tirek sent me here? Said that would get your attention.”
The princesses didn’t say anything in response. The midnight blue one did cup a hoof to her ear and lean forward in a mocking tone, telling Iron Man that he wouldn’t get along with this one. Then the white one then began to speak.
“Creature, I know not who you are or where you come from, but hear my words,” she spoke in a loud booming voice. One that was strong enough to pierce the barrier. “If you were truly sent here by Tirek, then know that this entire city shall be your enemy. You have already hurt my Wonderbolts, an act that should warrant your death here and now. But I will give you one chance. If you try to force entry into my city again, I will have no choice but to strike you down. Leave and return to whatever rock you crawled out from. This is your only warning.”
The barrier then flashed again and this time became solid, preventing Tony from seeing inside any further. His scanners showed them that the princesses were still there, but the crowd was beginning to disperse. He figured that they could see him, even though he couldn’t see them.
‘Sir, if I may. It is possible that with enough shots from a concentrated unibeam and the right place, we could pierce that barrier and gain access to the city within.’
“…no, that wouldn’t get me anywhere,” Tony said with a shake of his head. He then turned around and took off, leaving the protected city behind him. “Clearly Tirek and the princesses have a bad history and my brilliant plan of flattening their forces to draw the princesses out backfired. Fighting the two would only get them to want to help me less. We need a new approach.”
‘Then allow me to offer one for you, sir. While you were talking with the princesses, I scanned the surrounding area in case there were any more forces lying in wait for you. What I discovered is that the two princesses in the city are not the only ones giving off that kind of power.’
“Meaning?”
‘There is another pony nearby who radiates both the same magic and presence as the two princesses,’ Jarvis continued. ‘If I had to wager sir, that would mean there is one more princess close by. One that doesn’t hate you yet.’
“Then what are we waiting for?” Tony said before he turned and rocketed towards a location Jarvis marked on his H.U.D. “Let’s go meet her and give her the chance.”
Twilight. Yus!
Tony... Why are you so bad at basic diplomacy?
9832843
Because he has never had to use it. He has always had a position of power or was quickly able to turn things to his advantage. Here is is in the complete unknown and he is applying his usual bravado and it is completely backfiring. Plus he did name drop the name of Public Enemy Number One and had no clue of why using that name was a bad idea.
9832843
He's an arrogant rich dude. Only now he finds himself confronted by two beings who care for neither his wealth nor his attitude, and have the power to make his life very miserable if they wanted to.
Hmmmmm. Main character arrives in Equestria. First thing that happens is a fight with other ponies. Where have I see this before?
(hint, hint, nudge nudge.)
...Yep, they're starting out hostile. Congratulations, Tony.
9832922
He doesn't even have any of his wealth here, and even if he did there's no currency conversion; the ponies would stare blankly at the 'plastic rectangle' (credit/debit card) and 'cotton/paper rectangles' (American dollar bills).
Man, he could probably obliterate that shield, and the princesses, all by himself. The sun, according to him, gives off more power than their own, so his suit already has an upgrade, and these ponies, magically gifted as they are, from what we've seen in the show anyway, are nowhere near as gifted in magical use as someone like Strange.
The most they got going for them is basic Asgardian citizen level durability, but not nearly as much as someone like Thor. Energy wise, Their "magical wells" are finite, while Iron Man's recharges rather swiftly, meaning that in a battle of attrition, he is stronger. Of course, they could use unique magics to hold him in place, and seal him, but I doubt anything could match the jet strength his suit has that isn't made of solid steel. Plants would be ripped apart, and while he could be placed in a shield bubble to lock him off, I'm guessing, like he said, a uni-beam could probably pierce the thing, especially with the now excess energy in this world to use. The elements of harmony are also "one shot kill" strong, but what they seem to do is nullify energy and magic, not so much actually attack.
I say this because what it does to Discord is turn him to stone, but he breaks out when chaos occurs nearby, which implies that he's been drained of chaos magic, rather than physically forced into stone. Other entities like Nightmare Moon instead have the "dark magic" purged from their being, and therefore gain a restored mental state. Plus the finale, where Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy have their magic purged entirely, reducing back into their base forms.
I'm guessing if Tony were hit by the elements of harmony, his suit would simply lose all of its power, but then immediately start to charge back up again, much to the dismay of the ponies. Where as if Doom were hit by them, he would loose access to his magical gifts temporarily.
9832990
Well that's my point. Beyond his suit, he has little influence in this pony world.
Wait, what's EMH?
9832985
Doesn't even realize that the fighting started when he mentioned Tirek
Tony Stank really isn’t that smooth
9833088
A tv show called Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes!
This portrayal of Stark is aggravating, to say the least. He’s arrogant, yes, and has an ego the size of two galaxies, but he’s not stupid. This story seems to portray him as being such, what with his disregard of how the ponies would react, as well as his idiocy in not noticing the reaction Tirek’s name was getting, excusing the fact that he trusted Tirek in the first place.
I’m assuming by the death threats and the inexplicable shield over Canterlot that this is an AU, especially given it was the Wonderbolts of all ponies to fly out to meet Stark. They’re often portrayed in fics to be military in nature but I’ve seen no proof of that fact in the show, and the fics I’ve read always portray them as “special forces”. So like, not the ponies that would respond to this kind of thing.
9833000
You’re making a rather sizeable amount of assumptions here, and honestly I think you’re completely wrong.
In a straight fight, Stark vs Ponies, Stark would lose every time. Yes, his suit is powerful technologically, but he’s still nothing more than a smart asshole rich guy.
Thing is, you’re assuming he’s getting a significant boost from the Sun, Superman style. He’s not, he’s just charging faster. That doesn’t affect the strength of his suit at all, it just affects how much power he has available.
Second, you’re forgetting that the charging boost from the sun can be ripped away with, literally the wave of a horn. Put him in shade, boom no charge boost. Set time to night, boom no charge boost. It’s solar power. Remove the line of sight to the sun and he no longer gets that boost.
Thirdly, Jarvis said a unibeam fired at a weakness. And he didn’t say it’d be fast. He can’t just fire a unibeam Willy billy and break in, he has to find a weak spot and maintain the beam, and while he’s doing so he’s vulnerable unless he stops.
Fourthly, his suit is technological in nature. Not magical. While I’m sure he’s come up with a way to resist it, an EMP or a large shock (lightning) to the suit would knock it out flat, and he’d be defenceless.
Fifthly, you’re forgetting about the most basic pony spell. Telekinesis. All a unicorn has to do is lift him up in the air and hold him in such a way that using his boosters would do more harm than good. Bam, easily restrained.
Sixthly, the suit is not indestructible. It’s been shown plenty of times getting dented, scratched, broken, they’ve even fallen apart completely before. Enough pressure could crush the suit. Enough force could bend, break or dent it. A sufficiently sharp object combined with either... The suit isn’t exactly thick. Doesn’t take much to get to the completely mortal man underneath.
While there are plenty of other factors you can’t really account for that would go into the fight, it’s certainly not as far in Tony’s favour as you seem to think.
9835721
First off, not superman style, but rather the recharge rate being increased alone would give him the edge in a fight in attrition, not necessarily in a fight of raw power. That belief in strength is just from my belief in the power of steel rather than Tony, granted Tirek tanked a shovel and it shattered. The ponies couldn't do anything to Tirek though, save for the elements of harmony/power of friendship, and I think Tony's iron man suit is easily comparable, and much sturdier than a magical shovel with it being capable of taking hulk punches without crushing Tony inside.
Secondly, the ponies would first have to learn that its the sun that gives him power to begin with, and while he's "just a rich asshole" he's still a genius who wouldn't give away tactical information to a potential enemy. Keep in mind that he's the guy who sided with the government of his country because he saw how dangerous the heroes were, I have no doubt that says a lot about how much information he'd give to a potential enemy. Sure they COULD figure it out, but considering how little they know about him as a whole, he needs to give them tons of information to refer upon first.
Thirdly, They don't know the strength of these shields as a whole, and can only infer how strong it is. Its quite possible that they'd just smash right through it if they used a unibeam, and likely at that to, if you remember that changelings by the hundreds faceplanting against it was able to shatter the shield of the strongest shield user in Equestria. I'm pretty sure Tony's unibeam is far stronger than a bunch of changelings. Granted, it does seem like the shield has to be recharged, and that making it so Shining didn't continue to charge it seemed like part of Chrysalis's plan, so the durability between that time and Tony trying to break through could be vastly different.
but let's say the strength of the shield is quadrupled when freshly charged compared to that time. Something that can melt and blast through solid steel? a 1000 changeling skulls would be shrimp tail compared to a unibeam, so it should be fair to say that no shield could block a unibeam unless its magically charged by literally hundreds of unicorns. Which, considering that had ONE unicorn maintain that kind of shield through out the show, and no others, I'd say that's unlikely. (less you count the clear shield at the season finale, I have no idea what the hell was going on there. Maybe smaller area is easier to protect and make a stronger shield, seemed to me like it had "starswirl" written all over it personally)
Fourthly, again, the ponies would have to come up with that plan of attack.... And again, they know next to nothing about how his suit works, or even technology in general, so that's a poor argument.
Fifthly, its been show that telekinesis does have limits, for instance Twilight, one of THE STRONGEST TELEKINESIS CASTERS AROUND, struggled to hold up an ursa minor and a water tower with her magic, to the point of exhaustion, and that was just from the pure weight alone. I'd imagine something actively pushing against the bonds are far harder to carry than weight alone, but let's give a rough estimate of the strongest unicorn that blows every other unicorn outta the water. She can carry roughly 17 thousand pounds worth of weight, as an ursa minor is about 10 grizzley bears, and water towers usually weigh a ton. Tony's suit has been estimated to weigh between 200 pounds, which is next to nothing, but he can manage the ability of propulsion from his thrusters alone to speed through the sky faster than sound. roughly 741 MPH, and that's the MINIMUM, as Tony has been shown to keep up with fighter jets of sleek design known for going even faster than that.
Now imagine something moving at 741 mph, that weighs 200 pounds. To put how much that is in perspective, a piano moving at 38 mph, weighing in at 700 pounds, creates twelve thousand pounds of force. Tony weighs less than a piano, but his propulsion has the capability to push him at 200 times that speed. This means tony could create easily 100 thousand pounds of force, and that's EXTREMELY low balling it mind you, just from his rockets strength alone. Twilight Sparkle trying to hold Iron Man would be easy, but the second his thrusters turn on? Her grip would shatter, easily, because anything that is moved that fast via thrusters, would easily exhibit more than 10 thousand pounds force of thrust, and telekinesis is a grip mechanic. If a light couch you were carrying suddenly started trying to spin at even a minimal 10 times its weight, good luck carrying that.
Sixth, while his suit is not indestructible, the amount of force needed to seriously damage it is something I don't think the ponies have. Twilight, fueled by all the alicorns magic back when she was fighting Tirek, was thrown into a mountain and left a crater, and then impacted THROUGH the whole thing. Tony could easily go through the same level of punishment, as he has left craters MANY times, and smashed through the top of a mountain? Can't remember a time, but he could easily have that done and be fine when you consider the fact he's been thrown through solid metal that exploded around him. So he's at LEAST just as durable as Twilight and Tirek during their first major fight, because those impacts never really dented Iron Man's suit, but the solid hits from Hulk and Thor certainly did. (Captain America punching his armor was the stupidest shit though back in Civil War, his shield should be able to damage his armor, but he should've broke his damn hands, so we can't use that as an example of how weak Iron Man is when its very clear the writers were having a piss)
So yes, I've put thought into this, enough to even do calculations, and none of it, I promise you, is based off assumption. You could TRY to say that maybe Alicorn charged Twilight could dent and break his armor, but she relied heavily on her magic to do damage rather than raw strength, and Tony's suit is designed to withstand outrageous temperature changes, so a huge powerful beam should just knock his ass around rather than do damage. Tirek's blast of magic destroyed a massive tree, something like a hulk smash would turn the tree into a crater.
If you think its in the ponies favor despite their absolute lack of A) Knowledge. B) durability C) Adaptability and D) Feats, you better believe I firmly think Iron Man could single handedly beat them down. Now, if Victor Von Doom were to give them information on the other hand, THEN we've have a fight on our hands, especially if he assisted them. Just knowing Iron Man's weaknesses isn't enough, you also have to contain 10 thousands of pounds of force, capable of lasting for a couple hours even without any light. as for electric attacks, they'd need more than THOR lightning to really disable Tony's suit. You know, an actual God's attack, controlling the very elements to a near infinite degree.
If anything, I'd say YOU didn't put much thought into this when you made this argument, as its just, "Well he has weaknesses, and he's not superman, GOSH."
9832914
There's that... but also, just from these first few chapters, nobody in this story seems to possess much in the way of basic reasoning skills or even the ability to say, "Slow down and explain yourself." Tirek is also weirdly out of character -- I don't think I've ever heard him say "um" in canon, and he seems to have no reason for wandering around in the woods in his weakest form without trying to fix it (and if he was blocked from stealing magic somehow, I would expect some indication of this -- he's not a subtle dude). On top of that, nobody wonders where the hell this alien met Tirek, given Tartarus is supposedly impossible to escape, or, if he mentions him, why he doesn't seem to know who that is.
This is a really interesting crossover concept and Tony is fairly well-written, but too much of this plot hinges on everyone ignoring basic questions like "who are you" and "what the hell are you doing" and "why didn't Tony just stand in the sunbeam laser until the suit was at 100%" and "how come nobody bothers him until he hits Canterlot, one third of the population can fly" and "tf were the cultists trying to accomplish, given that they swore by Celestia and she's easily petitionable in person, how dumb are they."
If the gimmick is that they're not speaking the same language and so the only thing they recognized out of Tony's whole speech was "Tirek," then it's utterly failed as a plot device because there's zero indication of that, so all the characters just look like they refuse to listen to each other because... they're stupid? They're hard of hearing? I'm hoping later chapters improve substantially.
OKAY yes... Celestia might have a few more pounds, but that's no reason to ... oh.. you were talking about the one in the sky!?
I do like the idea of tony learning a bit of magic here. Nothing major, but maybe some parlor tricks and maybe a low level telekinesis.
So... is this comic Tony?
9894719
Cartoon, actually. Closer to the comic than live action, but still somewhere in between.
9922995
Which cartoon, there so many Marvel cartoons it be hard to tell which Tony this is?
ALRIGHT, WHO GAVE TONY ACCESS TO NIRN?!?
Stark being the most observant crossover character