Infinite Harmony

Chapter 2

        A marshmallowy white unicorn strolled through the large Jewelers building, enamored by the sight of the many jewels, gems, and crystals that laid about. The way that the gems would sparkle and shimmer gave the entire building an almost ethereal feeling that caused the fur on her skin to stick up, as if she had stepped into one of the older princess’s mane. “My word! All of this is absolutely amazing!”

        “Yes, miss Rarity,” the jeweler stated, his uptown voice matching the air of superiority that he carried about his person. “We do pride ourselves on being one of finest jewel crafters in all of Manehatten. Why, we have even made pendants for Celestia herself. But, I must interject and remind you that I did not ask you here to admire our gem cutting skills.”

        “Of course, Mr. Cutter,” Rarity responded to the teal green unicorn before her, “Your letter said that you had need of my ‘talents’?”

        “Yes, that is true,” Gem Cutter said as he led Rarity to the back room of the building to a large vault. “You see, I had noticed the unique placement of jewels that you had put into your dresses and figured that you must have a unique gift when it came to jewelcrafting. I figured you might be able to help with our latest ‘acquisition’.”

        “Acquisition?” Rarity asked as she watched the vault door open slowly.

        “Yes. It is a most unique item. One of our unicorns had found it on a rock farm not too far away from here. It was buried deep under some rocks when we had discovered it,” Gem said as he led Rarity deep into the vault, to a pedestal where a bright green gem sat upon a small cushion. As it sat on the soft red cushion, it glimmered and shone as if it was calling to all who could hear it.

        “You said, you found this?” Rarity asked, walking closer to the gem.

        “Yes, quite odd I know,” the jeweler said as he watched Rarity walk closer to the gem. “The cutting of it, the shape, and design all show the craftsmanship of one of the best jewelers in Equestria, but it was in the ground.”

        Rarity paid no heed to the stallion as she placed her white hoof onto the gem, admiring the finish. As her hoof lightly touched the green oval, her head pulled back as she let out a blood curdling scream. Pure purple light flowed from her eyes as she stumbled back away from the gem, unable to hear the screams of help coming from the jeweler. After stepping back a few feet, she collapsed to the ground, her eyes slowly closing.

        In her head, she could hear a small voice coming from the jeweler. “If I had one wish...it would be to get a moonstone for Luna and show her how much I appreciate her night.”

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A few short hours ago...

        The sounds of sparks and gears permeated throughout the small room as several machines began to craft their work on a suit of red and gold armor. The source of the sparks pulled himself away from the suit and wiped the sweat off of his brow.

“Ok Jarvis, I need you to set up the superconductor lightning gun,” Tony Stark said, taking the breastplate of the suit and placing it over his chest, the bright light in the center glowing luminescently.

        “Sir, I’m afraid I must warn you that--” a british computer voice said over a set of speakers in the room.

        “--yeah yeah yeah. What’s the human tolerance for electrocution again?” Tony said as he put on a pair of gloves.

        “Around 300 to 500 mA, sir. As I was saying though, electrocution is far more dangerous with your condition,” Jarvis said.

        “Eh. I’ve put myself in worse situations,” Tony said, taking off a panel of the lightning gun and adjusting the wires. “And I’m not exactly using a normal pacemaker, so in reality, the worst that’ll happen is that the reaction caused by my electrocution will cause a massive explosion.”

        “Of course. That makes it so much safer.”

“Ok Jarvis,” Tony said, standing in front of the gun, his eyes squinting with confidence, “hit me.”

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis said, making the gun glow with white hot energy. “Firing.”

Bracing himself, Tony stood his ground as the gun fired a surge of pure white lighting energy straight at him. Flowing through the air at an unbelievable pace, it struck him hard in the chest and sent him flying back towards the wall. After the gun successfully fired, it slowly turned off, cooling down to a low glow of fading energy. Slowly, Tony Stark got back to his feet and looked down at his smoking chest plate, a cunning smile on his lips as he looked at a meter on his gloves with a smile. “Whaddya know? It worked.”

Just as Tony began to remove his chest plate, he heard an alarm sounding all throughout the room. “Jarvis, what is it?”

“It seems sir...that Sword has been picking up spatial anomalies all across the solar system sir and there is a message feed being fed in from the X-mansion.” Jarvis said, showing different monitors of small spacial tears popping in and out of space.

“Patch me in!” Tony said as he walked to one of the monitors, waving a few holographic displays away.

The voice on the other line came in garbled and static. “X--x--x--avier, Lyandra....Sh----ar-----, ne-eed help. Sp--- inini--- war--- te---- cal---.”

“The Shi-ar, but me and Charles were having some of them,” Tony’s eyes opened in horror as the realization came to him.“Oh god, no! Jarvis! Get any available on-duty Avengers here, NOW!”

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis said as one of his screens began to light up with the word ‘ASSEMBLE’ followed by the images of five people sprawling across the screen.

Tony, meanwhile, ran to the back of the room to a small door with a panel. Pressing the bank side of the wall, the real keypad flipped open to Tony. Pressing his fingers along the keypad quickly to write down the message ‘TSRULZOVRDKR2012’, the man with the goatee placced his eyeball to a retinal scanner. With these codes in place, the door slowly open the massive doors to reveal a walkway leading to a hall of armors. “Now then...what to take out?”

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A few miles away, at the offices of IDW, a blond man sat in front of the desk of an slightly older gentleman as he began to look over a briefcase of illustrations. “Hmmmm, I see you have done plenty of excellent art work for Captain America comics back at Marvel Mr… Rogers, is it?”

“Yes sir,” the blue-eyed gentleman said.

“And your portfolio on DC comics is also spectacular, so I must ask, why are you interested in working with us?” the editor asked, looking at Steve.

“Well, I kind of wanted to broaden my horizons a bit and I was a little tired of how Marvel was treating some of the other heroes besides Captain America in the comics. I felt like there needed to be a better representation in the comics than what they get. After that, I left to work at DC, found out they were doing the same thing, so I wanted to be here.”

“I see. Well...” the editor said smiling, “welcome to IDW, Mr. Rogers. We happen to have a position open for an artist on our latest property. Maybe you have heard of it? My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?”

“Uh....yeah,” Steve said sheepishly as he showed a picture from his portfolio. “I am a bit of a fan.”

The editor looked down at the photo and smiled at the picture of Applejack holding Captain America’s shield, smirking as her friends stood behind her, each dressed in a costume similar to an Avenger, “Applejack fan huh?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, smiling.

The editor smirked and showed off his Luna is best pony shirt. “I think you’ll do fine here. You can start tomorrow.”

Steve smiled as he felt a light buzzing in his pocket. Pulling out a small card, his eyes narrowed as he looked at it. “Excuse me, I need to go. I’ll be back!”

“Alright. Just have some art for me by the end of the month!” the editor said as he watched Steve running off.

Ducking behind an alleyway, Steve took a quick look around before pulling off his shirt.“ Excuse me, but I was using this alleyway,” called a voice next to Steve.

As he put on his gloves, Steve turned to look at the man next to him. “Oh. Sorry, Spider-Man. I didn’t see anyone using this alley.”

Putting on his red mask, the young hero smiled. “No problem. Always wanted to share an alley with an awesome guy.”

“Hey! What about me?” asked a voice from Steve’s right.

“Oh, hi Matt,” Steve said as he put his boots on. “You heading to Hell’s Kitchen?”

“Yeah, as soon as I...OOF!” Matt Murdock said as he bumped into a large orange person.

“GEEZE! Can’t a guy read and enjoy his paper in peace without a super-hero barging in and changing?” the orange guy said, balling up his paper and walking away. “Stupid town and stupid can’t walk five feet in town without bumping into a freakin hero.”

Steve, Matt, and Peter all looked embarrassed as they put the last bits of their costumes on. Underneath his mask, Steve shook his head and chuckled as he reached into his bag and pulled out a red, white, and blue shield. Standing up, Steve immediately went into his mission mode, now ready for anything as Captain America.

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Dr. Donald Blake was primarily a physician. Oh sure, he was more familiar with surgery than the common man given his background in medicine, but he was no Stephen Strange of the New York Metropolitan area.

Still, he had a big heart. Some people would say a ‘godly’ heart, and when an impoverished single mother had come to him, asking if he could please perform an operation on her daughter that she couldn’t afford or wait for, those people were proven correct. After a grueling three hours, he exited the operating room and faced said single mother.

Sighing, he took off his blood stained procedure mask and said, “She’s going to be okay.”

After a rather spine crushing hug from the mother, Donald told her that it would be a few hours before her daughter would be upright and walking again and changed back into a cleaner pair of scrubs.

On his way out of the changing room his nurse and secretary, Jane Foster, approached him and gave him another spine crushing hug. “Thanks big guy.”

“Any--time--Jane,” he said between gasps for breath. “Any--HUH--calls while I was working?”

She let go of him and he stumbled backwards against the door to the changing room. “Oh! Now that you mention it, there’s someone waiting to see you in your office.”

“Really?” Donald asked, massaging his aching ribs. “I’m not scheduled to see anyone else today.”

“Oh, it’s not about a check-up, Doc. Guy says he’s an old college friend of yours here to catch up on old times.”

Donald quirked a brow. “Who?”

“He says his name is Dr. Stephen Strange. You know: used to be the best Surgeon this side of the Washington bridge?”

“Strange?”

Funny that.

His a look on his face that telegraphed his immense curiosity, Donald walked into the office and saw his chair facing him. “Greetings, Thor. Oh. Sorry,” Dr. Strange, clad in a business suit, said as he turned around in the chair to face Donald Blake, waving his hand to close the door, “I forget that you prefer to be called Blake when you are mortal.”

“Strange. What is this about? Why are you here?” Blake asked.

“I am here, because there is something urgent that concerns every multiverse out there,” Strange said, standing up from the chair to allow his cloak to flow down to the ground.

“What is it?” Blake asked.

“It’s something that concerns Yggdrasil, or rather,” Strange looked down at his fingertips, looking at some of the magic flowing in between them, “some of the fruits of its saplings.”

“Yggdrasil had saplings?” Blake asked, gripping his cane.

“My dear friend,” Strange said, looking at the doctor in front of him, “do you think that the tree of life only sprouted in one world?”

“No, but I never would’ve have guessed,” Blake said, his mind brimming with questions.

“Well, as a matter of fact, one of the saplings is in the land called, Equestria, and it is there that a sapling is in the most danger,” Strange said, looking down at Blake’s pocket, “As a matter of fact, I do believe that you will have a call from one of your teammates about such an emergency.”

Blake was about to respond when he felt a vibration in his pants. “How did you--” Blake quickly stopped his questions when he considered who he was talking to. “I’m sorry. I forgot who I was talking to.”

With a smirk, Blake grabbed his cane and raised it up in the air. Then, with a swift movement, he slammed his staff to the ground to cause a lighting strike to surge forth and cover him in a blinding light. After a few moments, Blake had disappeared and in his place stood a tall muscular man. “Now then, shall I meet thee at the tower? Or shall we continue our talk on the way?”

Strange held up his hand in protest. “I am sorry, but I must decline. I have no desire to talk while flying next to a man with a hammer.”

“HA! You know not what you are missing my dear friend,” Thor said, smiling as he opened the window. Grabbing his hammer by the thong, he spun it in a circle until it became a blur. The mighty god then threw his hammer out the window, holding onto the thong as the hammer flew off into the air, taking the god off into said air with it. Strange watched and calmly put up a portal to teleport him to his location.

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Elsewhere in New York, a geeky man man dressed in a trenchcoat and a hood feels a vibration in his left pocket. Pulling out a small card, a frown comes to his lips as he sighed, reading the message “Assemble” on the front. Getting up, he placed a ten on the table and walked for the door. As exited the door, a large buff guy entering it pushed the geeky man aside rudely. The geeky man growled, but held his wrath in check as he turned to the mirror reflection of the slamming door to see himself...and the monster that he must always control.

His name is Bruce Banner, but what Stark needs is the creature of rage and anger inside of him.

The Incredible Hulk.

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On a grassy knoll, a jet cycle was parked next to a picnic basket. A young blonde woman watched an archer ready his bow in admiration and love. She watched in fascination as the archer stretched his muscles taut, flexing his pecks as he released the arrow from the bow, sending it flying into a tree a hundred and fifty yards away.

A smirk came to the archer’s lips as he walked over to his wife and embraced her, kissing her deeply.

A small vibration is felt in his pocket that breaks his kiss.

He shot his lady a confident smile before walking to his bike and pulling out a purple uniform. The woman smiled back and blew him a kiss, to remind him of what he was coming back to.

The lady is code-named Mockingbird, currently off active duty for SHIELD.

Her husband, Clint Barton, is codenamed: Hawkeye. He is currently ON SHIELD’s active duty list, but more than that, perhaps more than even his husband-hood, he is an Avenger.

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A red-head crawled through the ventilation system of an old building, keeping herself as quiet as possible. A sly smile graced her lips as she found her opening, a grate, and looled down at a bunch of men dressed in bright yellow uniforms plus a few men dressed in outfits that she had never seen before.

Ready to stealthily remove the grate and make her way into the room, she felt a small vibration in her pocket. Pulling out the card, she rolled her eyes as she read the words ‘Assemble’.

Forgoing all pretenses of covertness, she kicked the grate open and landed in the center of the room of thugs, looking at the men dressed in the uniform of yellow and the uniforms of the men that had the words “COBRA” on it with a look of exasperation and boredom.

A few minutes later, the redhead walked out of the building with the men all lying broken behind her. Relaying a communication to one of her superiors, she looked up at the tower before her with a smile.

Her name is Natasha Romanov: Black Widow, an Avenger.

Though a mere mortal like Hawkeye, she too is destined to be a prominent player in the games of gods and men...and women...to come…

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Rarity’s eyes opened to find herself floating in a green void, surrounded by blue spectral ponies. Swishing her head back and forth, she could hear the voices of each pony making a small wish to themselves or a small desire known.

“I hope the stallion on level three asks me out.”

“I hope it’s a unicorn or maybe a pegasus! Oh, I hope my husband will be happy!”

“Please let me get that promotion, please let me get that promotion.”

“I wish that my girlfriend will get better, please...”

“Oh, I do hope that I will graduate with honors!”

“W-What’’s going on?” Rarity asked herself as she looked at all of the blue spectral ponies, “Why am I hearing all of these ponies? What’s going on here? Oh, I wish Twilight could help!”

As if the world could hear her prayer, the land beneath Rarity sped past her, taking her across the land, to the castle of Canterlot, and to a small purple specter in the shape of an Alicorn. “I wish that my friends will always be ok. I hope that we all stay together no matter what.”

“Twilight! You’ve got to help me! I touched this stone and--” Rarity explained as she reached out to touch Twilight,

only to her hoof pass through the Alicorn’s body. “--WHAT?!”

**************************************************************************************************

        Twilight suddenly felt a small pain in the side of her wings, soon becoming an electrical tingly feeling on her neck. “What was that?!” Twilight asked, looking around her. “Rarity?” she whispered under her breath

****************************************************************************************************

“What’s happening to me?” Rarity asked, looking up to see a passing by red specter. An eyebrow raised in curiosity. Rarity whispered, “Rainbow Dash.” Much like before, she found her body being flung through the walls and into the sky. As she soared, she found herself hovering next to the red specter.

“Come on, Dash! You can do this! Break the speed barrier and you can break into the speed force! You can do it!”

“The speed force? Rainbow, what are you talking about?” Rarity asked, putting a hoof onto Dash’s back.

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        With a combined yelp of surprise and shock, Rainbow Dash’s flight was abruptly stopped, causing her to stop her high speed flying and begin to descend in a tailspin. Seeing Dash fall like a rock, Spitfire flew up high into the sky with the speed of a fireball to catch her. Grabbing the cyan mare in the air before she could crash into the ground, Spitfire looked down at her with a concerned look, “You ok kid? You almost took a nasty crash up there.”

        “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just ticked that happened before I could hit mach three and...”Rainbow Dash stopped herself as her eyes opened up in fear. “RARITY! She’s in trouble! Sorry, Spitfire, I gotta go!” With that, Dash brushed the Wonderbolt to the side and flew off into the sky.

********************************************************************************************************

“How odd,” Rarity said as she looked down at her hooves. “I said Rainbow Dash, and I was sent to her. I wonder...” She looked up and towards the direction of Ponyville and then commanded, “Show me Pinkie PIE!”

Following her command, the power of whatever it was that had held her, flew her off to the direction of the small town that she had called home. It then took her to a small gingerbread house in the middle of town and to a bright blue specter of a bouncing pony, “Oh,I--hope--that--Rainbow--Dash--and--Twilight--get--home--soon--so--I--can--welcome--them--back--and--have--a--big--party--for--them. I--want--the--cakes--to--be--successful--Alchemy--student--to--finish--his--stories--by--the--end--of--next--year--I--hope--that--the--readers--like--this--joke--I--want--a--cake--full--of--sweets--I--want--a--huge--plushie--for--my--sisters--my--friendst--to--be--happy...”

Rarity giggled as the blue specter rapidly went through a mountain of wishes. “Oh Pinkie, you must slow down. I could barely hear you.”

With a smile she put a hoof through the bubbly mare.

******************************************************************************************************

Pinkie Pie let out a giant shudder as her body shook and spun in place for a few seconds before her mane began to bounce around and then her hoof began to itch. “That was a new one! I never had a Pinkie Sense...OH MY GOSH! I need to go!” Pinkie Pie said, putting down her cake making tools and running out the door.

*******************************************************************************************************

Rarity closed her eyes and smiled. “Now Applejack.”

Once again, the world below her zoomed past in a high speed flight through the town and to a large apple farm. It allowed her to hover there for a few moments before taking her to an orange specter, kicking a few trees. “All of these changes lately. Twilight becomin’ a princess, that new empire out there, Rainbow’s almost a Wonderbolt now. It just seems that the world is changing too much and too fast for mah taste buds and its done leaving me behind. Ah hope that our friendship’ll stay strong and that we won’t split up.”

“Oh Applejack, don’t worry. We won’t forget you, ever. And we will never break up,” Rarity said, wrapping her hooves around Applejack and giving her a hug.

********************************************************************************************************

Applejack stumbled back, her eyes wide in shock as she felt a weird electrical feeling course through her body. Turning her head to the train station, she adjusted her hat to put it over her eyes. “Rarity! HANG ON GAL! AH’M COMIN!”

********************************************************************************************************

Turning her head towards a small forest, Rarity let out a small contented sigh. “ I should check up on Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle.” Smiling, the white unicorn felt as her body was sent flying to a small cottage where a light violet pegasus specter sat in front of a small light blue unicorn filly as she began to sing in front of her birds. Landing next to the pegasus, she could hear the soft voice coming from her, “I just want everypony to be happy and to be all right.”

“I hope that when I get my mark, we’re all going to stand together,” the light blue specter said.

“She sings so beautifully, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, smiling and putting a hoof to Fluttershy’s back.

********************************************************************************************************

        “Oh my,” Fluttershy said, feeling a small electric shock going through her body. “Sweetie Belle, I am so sorry, but I need you to go home now.”

        “Is something wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked, as she watched Fluttershy taking off.

        “I don’t know,” Fluttershy said, her voice unsure. “But I need to head to the train station. I hope you don’t mind.”

        Sweetie Belle shook her head and ran off in the direction of home as Fluttershy flew off in the direction of the train station.

        As she flew to the station, she saw two of her friends standing at the platform and waiting for the train themselves, “Fluttershy! There you are! Ah guess you felt something too?”

        “Yes,” Fluttershy said, nodding softly. “It was weird, like somepony was shocking me a little and then I had a feeling that Rarity needed my help, like she was in trouble.”

        “Ah felt the same thing. It was like, if I didn’t get to her soon, ah would never see her again.”

        Pinkie Pie jumped in between the two friends. “It felt different to me. It as more like a voice telling me that Rarity needed a pick-me-up, so I decided to head to Manehatten to see what was wrong.”

        “Seems like we ain't the only ones,” Applejack said as she looked to the sky to see a blue dot followed by a rainbow contrail. “Ah hope Rarity’s all right.”

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Twilight made her way to Celestia’s throne room, the thoughts of the book still strong on her mind. However, she also had the feeling of something bad happening to her friend now coupled with such thoughts. Being a mare of logic and reason, she was not one prone to giving into unexplained intuitions of worry and dread, but she couldn’t help feeling like Rarity was in trouble. With a quick shake of her head, she quickly shook the feeling from her mind as she  walked into the royal throne room.

“And so, it is with my deepest regret, I must rescind the proposal from Cloudsdale,” Celestia said as she dictated to a nearby pegasus.

        “Princess, can I talk to you?” Twilight said as she walked into the throne room.

        A smile graced the sun queen’s face as her student walked in, trying her best to not show her appreciation for Twilight’s interruption of the doldrums of royal duty. “Of course, Twilight. I always have time for you.”

        Twilight watched as Celestia waved a hoof to dismiss the petitioners from the room. Walking into the room with apprehension and a pensive look about her, Twilight looked over her shoulder before speaking to her long time mentor. “Prin--” Twilight stopped herself, still having problems seeing Celestia as an equal and not a mentor. “Celestia, I’ve discovered something in the library that I need to speak with you about.”

        Celestia looked deep into her student’s eyes and noticed something in them that told her more than what Twilight was saying. “What is really troubling you, Twilight?”

        “Wh-what do you mean, Princess?” Twilight asked, looking over her shoulder.

        “The look in your eyes, the way your wings flutter, and how you look over your shoulder...they are all tell tail signs that you have a heavy weight on your shoulders,” Celestia said, a soft and comforting smile on her lips as she looked down at her former student. “It is just like when you were a little filly and would hide a mistake from me.”

        Twilight blushed at the memory. “I-I can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

        Celestia stepped down from her throne and walked to the new princess. “Now, tell me what is the matter.”

        Twilight let out a sigh as Celestia put a wing over her body. “Before I came here, I felt a weird tingly feeling on my back, plus a jolt of pain near my heart. Since then, I can’t help but feel like that Rarity is in trouble and needs me.”

        Celestia looked down at her little Twilight. “What do you think about these feelings, my dear Twilight? Do you think there is something to them?”

        “I don’t know princess. I’ve never felt something like this before,” Twilight said. “My friends have been in trouble before, but I never felt it like this. It’s like...Rarity went away. Gone! Vanished! Like, one second, she just poofed away from Equestria...but at the same time, she hasn’t and she’s still here and she need my help and--”

Twilight, overcome with emotion, broke down into a sob. Celestia quickly put a comforting hoof onto Twilight’s shoulder before pulling her into a full on hug. “It’s all right, my faithful student. I can understand these feelings well. Sometimes, I can feel that you are in trouble and worry about you when you go off on an adventure. The important thing you must do is prioritize what you want to do. What you feel is right.”

Twilight let out a sigh and wiped her tears away. Her mind began to think of a lesson she learned not too long ago, about how a lady can handle herself, even from a pack of greedy diamond dogs. “Rarity is strong enough on her own. I’ll just have to believe that she can handle whatever problem she’s facing right now. I trust her.”

Celestia smiled at her former student, a sense of pride beaming from her, “The trust you have in your friend’s strengths is remarkable, my dearest Twilight. I could never be more proud.”

“Thank you, Prince--Celestia.”

“Now,” Celestia said, looking down at her student with a smile, “what was this other matter you wanted to bring up.”

“Oh, yes,” Twilight said, bringing out her notes from before. “I found out about these stones and this...creature--”