Infinite Harmony

High above the pacific, above a rather large squall line in the air above the scenic Big Island of Hawaii to be precise, was a jet. Sleek, aerodynamic (as comes with the territory), and extremely fast, the jet was as top of the line as they came. The Ferris Aircraft logo was prominent on either side of it as it flew through the air at mach five, pushing itself to the limits of what it was capable of.

Funnily enough, this was not necessary. The real test was just for maneuverability, not speed.

That fact escaped the man inside the plane. He was all for pushing things to their limits and beyond. He was always for taking the risk of flying and seeing what he could live through. This was how the man, Hal Jordan, lived. This was he lived for.

 “Ok, Hal, just a bit more. Lets see what this baby--” He was knocked out of his reverie by a beeping in his ear. “What is it, Bruce?”

“I need you to report to the Watchtower, now,” the dark voice commanded, the reverbations of his tone making it sound like he would kill if he was disobeyed. Hal knew better though. “And don’t EVER call me that on this frequency again. We’ve been over this.”

…

…

…okay...maybe he didn’t know better.

A bored sigh escaped the pilot’s lips. “Fine, I’ll be there.” Raising his right hand, the pilot began concentrate on a ring that laid miles away in a locker. Glowing, the ring lifted itself up and flew off into distance and landed onto the pilot’s hand,  soon covering his body in an emerald glow. Within moments, Hal Jordan pilot was gone, and in his place was Hal Jordan, Green Lantern. “Just let me park this thing before you ‘port me up there this time, please? Last time Carroll gave me an earful when this bird’s prototype suddenly found itself crashing in Baja without a pilot.”

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If there are two things that one can count on in Central City, it’s:

1) The comic book shop will always get the latest issues a day late.

2) To be mindful of very sudden wind gust at 12:30 when lunch break arrives.

The latter was something to pay special attention to, for that’s usually a sign that the city’s resident hero was passing you by. Said hero, of course, is the fastest man alive, The Flash! Or, Wally West to his friends and family, and he was currently on his other important job beyond being a hero to the people: being a good father. “So, the twins still haven’t told you what they wanted for their birthday?”

“Nope,” his wife, Linda, said on the other end. “They just keep saying to ‘surprise them’.”

“Well, that leaves it wide open,” Wally snarked as he felt a beeping in his left ear. “Sorry, Linda. Work’s on the other line. Talk to you later.”

“Fine,” Linda sighed, “Talk to you after you’re done saving the world from another apocalypse, eaten by a sun eater, trapped in the future with your uncle’s grand-children, stopped a mad former hero from resetting the universe, or stopping a resurrected demon from using his daughter to gain control of the world.”

Wally could only smirk as he signed off. “You forgot to add: ‘mentor replaced with evil double to frame him’. Bye.” Turning a corner, the fastest thing alive went through a small park, pressing the button on his left ear.“Titans or JLA?”

“JLA,” a feminine voice from the other line said. “Bruce is busy getting Hal, so I thought I would relay the message to you.”

“Did Bats say what the deal was?” Wally asked, pulling out a ring from his pocket.

“No,” Oracle said. “Just that he needs the on duty JLA members to meet at the watchtower, yesterday.”

Pressing a button on the ring, a scarlet costume unfolds before him and in a second, he puts on the garb. “Ouch, testy. Old Bats being grumpy today?”

The red-head chuckled. “No more than usual.”

“Right, I’ll be right there Babs. Nice cookies by the way,” Wally said, dressed in the red garb of the flash, as he stood behind Oracle.

“Try to leave some of those for Dick,” Barbara said, not turning around to look or ask at how the speedster was able to get to her secret HQ so fast or know where her cookies were.

“RUGH,” Wally said, muffled by a mouth full of cookies before being beamed out.

Oracle rolled her eyes as Wally was beamed out, not noticing the blue and black gloved hand taking one of the cookies and sneaking out.

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Legend has it that it was Sir Francis Drake, not Ferdinand Magellan, that was actually the first to circumnavigate the globe. Of course, it was only considered a legend because Drake’s ship sunk before he could make it back to Europe to brag about his accomplishment. That is, until today, at the bottom of the strait of Gibraltar.

For it is there that Aquaman has discovered Drake’s long lost ship, and along with it, a treasure trove of jewels and gold deep within. However, this paled in comparison to the information that was in some of the books that could be conceald. Granted, it would take time to repair the books and to fix them. Some might even say it would take magic to do so. So, it was lucky then, that the king of Atlantis knew several mages and had a few in his court. Not so fortunate though, was the psychic message that his mind had just then to received. “Arthur, are you there?

“What is it J’ohn?” Aquaman asked, swimming under the wreckage and lifting it towards the surface with his bear hands.

“Batman is calling for a JLA meeting in the watchtower, and he is expecting all available on-duty members to be there,” the psychic voice of J’onn J’onz, the Martian Manhunter, said on the other line.

“Understood. Just let me finish raising this ship and I’ll--”Arthur responded, only to be interrupted.

“Batman has said he has it covered,” J’ohn said.

Aquaman raised an eyebrow at this before turning his head to see a sub coming close to the wrecked ship with a giant ‘WT’ logo on the side. “Thanks Bruce,” he said with a smile before swimming up to the surface.

Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, Batman, The Martian Manhunter...

Alone, these people are heroes. But together, they are legends to man known as the Justice League!

They are guardians, selfish beings meant to bring the triumph of hope to a world filled with the follies of darknesses.

And they too, will have an effect in the upcoming between men, equines, and gods.

 After all...they are like unto gods themselves.

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Twilight was unsure of how her former teacher was taking the news she had delivered to her thanks to the book. That was something about her Twilight had picked up long before becoming a goddess herself: when Celestia was mulling over information brought to her, nopony could ever tell if she thought it was important, silly, bad, good, or nothing to be concerned about until next she spoke. The centuries of study and politicking she had over Twilight had made her a master of masking her true feelings on the fly and, as Twilight was also reminded of when she arrived in the throne room a few minutes ago, of ferreting out the true feelings of others despite the mask they themselves wore.

Twilight, for all the wisdom and knowledge she had accrued over the past few years, was still a rank amateur to Celestia when it came to those two subjects amongst  friends, complete strangers and even worse, enemies. She hoped to have a poker face and eyes that could gleam through poker faces like her some day.

“Twilight...prior to today’s sojourn into the royal library, tell me, what is it you knew about death?”

Twilight struggled to look at her former teacher for a second before turning her head to the side and toward the ground. Such an inherently morbid topic wasn’t something that made her feel the warm fuzzies. She hadn’t ever met anypony who would feel that way about it.

“It’s quite alright with me if you don’t wish to get too...personal, Twilight. I would not ask such a thing of you if you felt uncomfortable.”

That was good. That meant Twilight could do her best to suppress the funeral processions at Ponyville Old Folk’s home and Applejack sobbing as quietly as she could in front of a picture of her parents from her memory. Now, shejust had to give technical, textbook like information. She was good with textbooks. Comfortable with them. The topic at hoof...not so much.

“Well...I know that it has numerous natural causes like diseases or somepony just simply growing too old...”

“And?...”

With even greater trepidation, Twilight said, “And...I know that accidents and...killing can cause it…”

“Go on…”

Twilight found the ceiling and the double doors adjacent to her and Celestia rather interesting as sweat began to pour forth from her brow and she gulped. “But in all of my studies, all of my experience, and all of my imaginary speculation...I never...never...EVER…”

“Ever what, Twilight?”

“Ever could imagine a point in my life when I would...take my own,” Twilight let out a sniffle as she wiped a tear from her eye. “You’ve always taught me that life is important, that no matter how small a life is, or how big it may be, living is one of the greatest things on Equestria. Pinkie,” Twilight chuckled, “once told me that, ‘To live, is thee greatest adventure of all.’ ”

“So you have never thought about suicide?”

“Never! I’ve never even heard the word or thought of the concept until today! Now, I can’t stop thinking about what happen if I took my own life, but then I remember what will happen. Sure the rest of the world won’t notice a princess dying. Maybe I’ll get a footnote in the books or something.”

Celestia let out a small gasp as she heard her student say something so belittling about herself, and pulled Twilight in a little closer and embraced her in a motherly hug, saying all she needed to with that small gesture. Despite herself, she had to do her best to keep from crying like Twilight was.

“What about you? Shining? My friends? If I were to die, then all of you, would be sad. I would hurt you so much, I would break your hearts worse than anything somepony would throw at you. I could never bear the thought of never seeing you guys again, that while I was gone, you would be in so much pain. It hurts too much. It doesn’t make any sense,” she sniffled into Celestia’s fur. Gently, she pulled herself out of her mentor’s embrace and looked up at her. “Yet, despite all of these negatives associated with it, I still can’t shake the idea out of my head, because I know from that book that somewhere, sometime, somepony, another living thing, committed it, and the thoughts start cycling all over again!”

This time, it was she who embraced Celestia.

“And to make things worse, I also can’t stop imagining what it would be like to be the type of monster that would have such a burning contempt for life that it would snuff it all out if it acquired those gems no matter how hard I try not to, either!”

Celestia looked down at the mare that was snuggled into her side, and smiled softly. For a brief moment, she did not see the strong mare that helped to free an empire, topple chaos, and bring her sister home. She saw the little filly who would run to her at night when the nightmares became too much. the little filly who wanted to know everything about magic.

Her little filly.

Letting out a sigh, she brushed a hoof along Twilight’s back comfortingly. “You have just spoken of that type of monster, my faithful student, and why you can NEVER become like it,” Celestia said, as she wrapped a wing around Twilight. “The entities you mentioned were filled with so much loneliness and rage, that they sought and seek out death as a substitute for living. For them, death was the only solution left.”

Celestia gently broke off from Twilight’s embrace and placed both of her hooves on her shoulders.

‘That is where you differ from them and why such a thing would never happen to you. The friendships that you have made, the bonds of love and togetherness that have been forged around you are the exact opposites. In turn,” a smile crossed her face, “you have become the opposite of death: life. They couldn’t understand why life was worth living, but you do. Your friends: Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike, your parents, your brother, your sister-in-law, and so many more. I once worried that you would fall into that hole because you focused so much on your studies that you would never live or worse...become like Sunset. But you did not, and that is why you make me proud everyday. Because you have learned how to live, and bring an inner light to so many. Besides...it is an old legend, right?”

Twilight wiped what was left of her tears, sniffled what was left of her snot, and smiled, genuinely, for the first time in what felt like the longest time.

“It was an old legend that led me to getting these!” Twilight snarked at her mentor, flapping her wings for emphasis.

Celestia giggled a little as she nuzzled Twilight again, “Yes, that is true.”

“And lets not forget, for a millenium, your sister--”

Before she could finish, Twilight was then interrupted by the incursion of a tall light blue alicorn into the center of the throne room via teleportation spell.

An Alicorn that began walking towards the other two in the room with what looked like a rather severe limp to her gait.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked.

“Sister? What is--?” Celestia asked.

After taking no more than five steps, Princess Luna collapsed, wordlessly, a few feet away from the hooves of Twilight and Celestia. It was then that they noticed that the Lunar princess was afflicted with looked like rather severe bruises, cuts, burns, and gashes. She looked like she went three rounds with her darker and former alter-ego, and lost. A lot.

They each let out a gasp of complete panic and shock.

“Princess!”

“Luna!”

With a leap, the two of them were by Luna’s side, and supported her with their bodies to allow her to stand up again.

Perhaps this was a bit premature, as their proximity to Luna meant that their coats were speckled with warm blood coughed forth from her throat as she attempted to speak in a hoarse voice. “I’m sorry sister…” Luna said. “I attempted to...combat him...combat IT…but I was too weak...far...far too weak…”

Now, both Celestia and Twilight shared equally in how broken the flood dams holding back their reservoirs of tears were.

“Though he broke my body...I thought my mind could hold out…” Luna said, her words getting fainter and fainter with each wheezing breath she took. “I was more right on that assumption...but still wrong...so...so...wrong...far...far...too...weak…”

With one final inhalation, Luna’s entire body slackened and lay limp in Twilight’s and Celestia’s hooves.

Motionless.

“Lu--Lu--Lulu?” Celestia asked, the tears blinding now.

It was then that a voice was heard, seemingly echoing off of the very castle walls as it cackled with sickening, bone chilling glee.

“I’m sorry,” the voice said. Suddenly, the glow of something else teleporting into the Castle could be seen. Instead of depositing an Alicorn, though, this time, something much, much, much different was left.

To Twilight and Celestia, it looked like an oversized gorilla with rough, deep purple skin and a frilled chin. It was covered from head to toe in armor that was primarily blue with golden shoulder pads, golden boots, and a golden helmet. It sat upon a gold throne that somehow floated off the ground through some unseen means they knew not of. The side of its head rested upon one of its fists, both of which were clad in golden gauntlets.

It stared at them with an empty look in its eyes as cold and merciless as the grave, a grim smile plastered on its face. “Is this a bad time?” it spoke with the same voice from moments before, save the echoing quality. With said quality, they might have been able to dismiss the creature as a mere figment from some long forgotten and twisted nightmare, rather than the horrifying reality he was.

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In the city of New York, a giant mansion laid before its famed Central Park and towered above the trees and small houses that surrounded it. To the passerby, it might seem to be just a large mansion belonging to a guy with a huge ego...and they would be right. However, the public at large knows the mansion to be home to the team known as The Avengers. At the moment, the mansion was housing a meeting of this group of heroes.

“Glad you all could make it,” Tony Stark said, his work clothes now replaced with a black full body suit.

“What’s the emergency Tony?” Captain America asked, watching the screen come up behind Tony.

Tony  wiped his hand across the holographic screen to show a few images of satellites. “About a few hours ago, the SWORD satellites began detecting small disturbances in space, and with a few minutes of research thanks to Jarvis, I found out that they were transdimensional warps.”

“How did you figure this out before SHEILD, Stark?” Black Widow asked.

Tony only had a small smirk on his face as he continued, waving another picture across the screen. “Jarvis then intercepted a call to the X-mansion from the Shi'ar, something that I had him keep an eye on, just in case anyone was going Gem hunting.”

Bruce had a look of shock on his eyes as Tony mentioned the word ‘gem.’ “Gem...you don’t mean that--”

“Yeah.” Tony looked down as he swiped his hand to a small pedestal on the table. “Someone is hunting the infinity gems.”

“I had thought you said that they were lost to the ages, Stark,” Thor said, standing in the back with his arms crossed.

“They sort of are, and sort of aren’t.” Tony activated a hologram of him and Strange fighting a large titan. “A few months ago, me, Stephen, and Richards, fought a galactic madman named ‘Mongul’ who had gained the gems. Luckily for us, and the universe at large, the guy didn’t know how to properly use them. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t even exist much less have this conversation.” Tony then wiped his hands over the hologram to show him and Strange at a portal. “Me, Reed, and Strange figured that the best way to keep everyone safe was to--”

“Allow me Anthony,” Stephen Strange said, small bits of magical energy fading as he teleported in. “We decided to split the six gems up across three Universes in three multiverses...”

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“Whoa, Whoa...hold it! Three multiverses?” Wally West asked, looking confused at the man dressed in a bat suit.

“Yes, three,” Batman stated, his deep gravelly tone never changing as he pressed a button on the computer’s console. The computer hummed to life as a blaze of blue flashed across the screen, showing a map of Earths circling each other. “This is a map of our multiverse. There are hundreds of them, all centering around one focal point. However, transdimensional theory states that there can be more than one multiverse out there. Whoever Darkseid is helping came from one of these multiverses: one that we’ve had encounters with before.”

As Superman looked at the second multiverse that appeared on the screen, this one tinged with red, he said, “Bruce, how do you know its Darkseid?”

A tall green man, The Martian Manhunter, stepped forward, looking at the table full of heroes. “Because Orion informed me via psychic link. He saw some increased activity coming from Apokolips and after acquiring information from one of Darkseid’s drones, he discovered that Darkseid had recently discovered a powerful gem from another dimension known as an ‘infinity gem.’ He’s been using that gem, it seems, to communicate with his equal from that multiverse to hunt down the rest.”

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“Wait, so you’re saying that whoever this putz is that’s helping Thanos find the gems already knows the location of the other gems? How can you be sure that the gems here are safe?” Hawkeye asked.

“Because while he might know our two are in this universe, he doesn’t know their exact pinpointed locations inside,” Tony said. “Believe me: the Space and Time gems here in a place no one is going to steal them.”

“How can you be sure?” Captain America asked.

“Because I gave the Shi-ar the space gem and had Namor bury the time gem deep within the Marianas Trench AND THEN had Strange put enough security spells on the area that it would make the Hulk wince,” Tony said with a smirk. “They’re both safe. What worries me is that, according to a trace spell, Thanos is going to another multiverse and ignoring the gems here.”

“But why would Thanos ignore the gems here? Would not they be an easier boon than gems that lay universes away most literally?” Thor asked, looking at the map confused.

“That’s what worries me,” Tony furrowed as he looked at the others, “IT could only mean that he made a deal with whoever gave him the location of those two gems he’s after in exchange for something just as powerful...”

“Or more,” said Dr. Strange.

“So, where did you send those?” Captain America asked.

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“A multiverse called, ‘Equestria,” Batman said as he brought out a map of another multiverse, this one tinged in purple.

“Equestria...” Wonder Woman said to herself before asking, “You mean as in ‘horse’?”

Batman solemnly nodded. “From what I’ve gathered, this multiverse is high in magical energy like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Superman looked closely at the purple tinged multiverse before him. “How can you be sure that whoever this guy is, he’s heading there?”

“Because I Batman had my aid,”  a voice said as a chair teleported into the tower. “Before you arrived, I came into the tower to help Batman with tracking the man that Darkseid helped.”

“Metron,” Hal said as the man made himself known.

Metron nodded in response before looking back at the map, “I was curious as to where the man that Darkseid was talking to was headed and what Darkseid was planning, so I followed him to the outskirts of that particular multiverse and watched as he warped to the asteroid belt of a particular world. Apparently, this ‘Thanos’ is not just going to grab the gems, but something even more important.”

“If Thanos is anywhere near the monster that Darkseid is, we need to go that world in order to stop him right now,” Superman said, placing his palms on the table and getting up from his seat.

Flash turned his head to look at the man in blue. “Ok...HOW? The cosmic treadmill can only go so far and not even the Justice League ‘porters can get us across the multiverse.”

“I have seven such teleporters that can get you to Equestria,” Metron said, producing seven small bracelets with a series of buttons on it. “They were ‘gifts’ from a friend of mine who can travel the different multiverses almost as freely as myself, despite his assertions to the contrary. In any event, they’ll allow you to go into the world and travel back. But I should warn you--”

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“--That when you go there, it’ll take a few moments for your body to get used to that world,” Dr. Strange said as he stood in front of a large gleaming portal.

The others nodded as Tony placed the last piece of his red and gold armor on. Like a machine several times its size, the armor hummed to life as the faceplate of Tony’s helmet came down. “Right. Now don’t forget that comm I gave you will alert you to when it’s time to get us home. If the locals are as creepy looking as Beta Ray Bill’s folks, I’ll wanna get out as soon as we’re done...no offense Thor.”

“None taken to myself,” said Thor. “If Bill were here though, I cannot guarantee that your armor would be as...clean as it is now.”

“I wish you luck Avengers,” Dr. Strange said as he moved to the side to allow the team to walk to the portal.

Hawkeye smirked, “Hey, traveling to another world, fighting mad gods...typical tuesday for us, right?”

Captain America could only smile, the fact that he was excited to be heading into the world that he had been sketching and watching hidden deep within his stoic face as he lead his team through the portal.

And thus did the heroes of this world: The knight, the captain, the thunder god, the behemoth, the archer, and the spy, walk off into the portal and into a grand adventure.

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Elsewhere, the seven gods of another world: The god of light, the god of vengeance, the goddess of truth, the god of emerald will, the god of speed, the god of the sea, and the god of the mind, activated their devices to descend upon Equestria for a battle of both death...

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“...and life,” a tall man with a large head said as he finished his narration, turning to see Metron at the other side of the chessboard. “This meetings between the three worlds will be quite interesting, won’t it Metron?”

Metron smiled as he placed his piece down, “Indubitably, Uatu. I cannot wait to see how these three worlds will benefit from each other. For better... or for the worse.”