Author's Note

Maybe this should technically also be Endgame, considering it comes after the last chapter, but this made sense to me. So enjoy another chapter that only needed to exist for a few minutes but kept going because I couldn't figure out how to end it!

PS, something mentioned roughly in this chapter is a hook for my next story. No, it's not the obvious one. Anyone care to guess?

Captain Marvel

In the middle of a room full of high-ranking government officials who hated superheroes, trying to defend a superhero they already hated even worse than most, was definitely not where Tony Stark wanted to be right now. Yet here he found himself, and even Fury's presence for moral support didn't encourage him much. He felt happier about the fact that at least, once it was all over, he could go grab the journal and vent to Rainbow Dash about the whole mess.

"I'm telling you," he insisted, trying to remain calm and polite, "Rogers made a big difference in stopping Thanos. He and his team came a whole lot closer to saving the world than the rest of us."

Ross, at the head of the long table, looked unimpressed. "But he failed."

"And whose fault is that?" Tony snapped. "The Avengers were supposed to defend the world. But the Accords split us. If we were together, we would've stopped this thing in New York. We were supposed to fight together. Fail together, if it came to that, but it might not have come to that if we'd been the team we were supposed to be!" He took a deep breath, reigning himself in. "And that's why we need him back. So that we can stop the next Thanos in his tracks."

"Captain America is outside of the law-" Ross began, but Tony cut him off.

"The only reason the events of a few weeks ago didn't become the permanent state of affairs was because of an alien from halfway across the universe. And if you're scared of the Avengers, without accountability, being Earth's defense, then the idea of a sparkly alien princess doing the same thing should absolutely terrify you."

The door burst open behind him, and he whirled around to see a woman in the doorway. Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders in perfect curls, and she was wearing a blue and red outfit that looked like either a super suit or an alien uniform, he couldn't decide which. But he shoved that question to the bottom of the priority list, because spirals of strange, colorful energy were running all over her body and her eyes were glowing, and that really seemed like what he ought to be focusing on.

"Fury?" she asked. "I got your emergency signal. I also got a purple unicorn in my head fifteen minutes later, and she seemed to have a good idea of what she was doing, but I figured I should check in just to make sure."

"The situation has been resolved, yes," Fury said, "but thank you, Carol. And it's not a unicorn, it's an unknown alien-"

"I know a unicorn when I see one, Fury." She sighed. "But I would like to talk to her. It's not every day you see someone of that power level. She seemed like a good person, but it never hurts to double-check, and threat watch is part of my job." She gestured around the room. "You all seem like important people. You know where I can find her?"

"Nobody does." Fury shrugged. "She talked to the whole universe. There's no way to tell where it started from."

"Don't give me your nonsense," the woman demanded. "It happened on Earth. Over Africa. You could see the power surge from several galaxies over, if you knew how to look. Even Thanos's initial attack wasn't that visible."

Tony decided it was about time to get back into the conversation. "I know where she is. She's a good friend."

Every eye turned to him. "You mean to say you've been having contact with an extremely powerful extraterrestrial?" Ross demanded. "When were you planning to tell us this?"

"Oh! Um..." Tony pretended to think hard. "Never."

"The Accords," Ross said slowly, as if talking to a child, "require that everyone with superhuman abilities be registered-"

"Guess what, genius, the Accords' jurisdiction covers Earth. Not the galaxy next door. And it requires me to talk about me, not about my friends, no matter who they may be."

"You are treading on dangerous ground," Ross warned.

"Then arrest me." Tony shrugged. "Or try. I'll just go hang out with Steve, and the earth's best defense will be two purple aliens fighting each other with superweapons. Sounds like a great plan. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go show--was it Caroline?"

The woman folded her arms. "Carol."

"I'm going to go show Carol how to talk to some aliens. You're not invited. Bye." He pushed himself out of the chair and headed past her through the door. "Come on."

"You seemed busy." She hurried to keep up with his brisk pace. "I wouldn't want to interrupt."

"Eh, it was a waste of time. But tell me about yourself. You were on the news in '95 or therebouts, for just a few days. Then you vanished. Now Fury knows you? What's the deal, Sparkles?"

"The deal is, you call me Sparkles again and I punch you in the face."

He gave her a quick sideways glance. She was dead serious. "Noted."

"But if you want my story... short version? Some aliens accidentally messed me up and gave me powers, so they kidnapped me and took away my memories of Earth. I fought with them for years. Then I came down here for a while and found out what had happened, but I had to go again. Help a group of refugees escape my captors. Then... well, the universe is a big place. I did my best to keep as much of it safe as possible. But it seems like I missed a lot. What 'Accords' were they talking about?"

Tony ran a hand through his hair. "The Sokovia Accords. Their job is to keep heroes accountable. It seemed good in theory... some of us didn't think it worked in practice. If we refused, we were in trouble. Some of my friends are on the run for trying to act outside of the Accords. After the whole Thanos thing--the reason Fury called you in, I'm guessing--I'm trying to get them to let my friends come back. They don't see it that way."

Carol nodded sympathetically. "They seemed like stubborn people. I wish you luck. You'll need it."

Tony pushed the door open, and they exited the building. "So... have you not been on Earth since the 90's?"

"Meh, I pop in now and then to say hi to Fury. Last time was almost ten years ago. He said he was trying to create a team, called it the 'Avengers'. How'd that go?"

"You're talking to one." They reached the car, and Carol instinctively slid into the passenger seat. Tony hopped in the driver's side. "Friday, take us home, please."

"Sure thing, boss."

Carol glanced at the dashboard uncertainly as the ignition started on its own, but she clearly didn't want to ask about it. Maybe she didn't want to seem out of touch with new technology, Tony reflected. Instead, she asked, "So, whatever communications device you use... it's at your home?"

"No, actually, it's right here." Tony reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small journal. "Just didn't want to tell them. And there's cameras on every inch of that building. Probably bugged, too."

"A notebook?" She gave him an uncertain glance. "Is this a joke?"

"Nope. It's magic. Watch."

"Magi-"

"Watch." He uncapped a pen and scribbled:

Hey, Dash, you there?

Within seconds, the reply scrawled across the page in blue ink.

Sure, what's up?

Not an emergency or anything, but I need to talk to Twilight. How fast can you get this to her?

Is that a challenge?

"I don't understand."

"Magic. I told you. Give it a few seconds..." Tony paused and checked his watch. "She should be there now."

It had been about ten seconds. A new writing style, neat and small, began to appear.

What's going on? Rainbow shoved this at me, told me you wanted to talk to me, and then darted off. Is something wrong?

Not at all. There's just someone who wanted to meet you.

He offered the notebook and pen to Carol. After a brief hesitation, she accepted.

Um... hello? How does this work?

How deep do you want me to delve into the magic theory? I could write pages! But that usually overwhelms people...

"Uh..." Surface level for now, please.

The journal is magically linked with one in my castle. Whatever you write appears in mine, and vice versa. It's almost like just one journal, which happens to be located in two different places.

That still didn't make sense to her, but one word in particular stood out to her. Castle?

Of course! How rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself! My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. Yes, I live in a castle. It's also magical, and to be perfectly honest, it's a bit of an eyesore.

Beside Carol, Tony snorted. "That's an understatement," he muttered. Carol ignored him.

I'm Carol Danvers. But I don't understand what you're talking about. Magic? You can't be serious.

Yeah, a lot of humans have that problem. Want to come over and talk in person? It'd be easier to explain with a full chalkboard instead of these small pages. Plus, then I could demonstrate.

Sure. Where are your coordinates? If you're out of galaxy, like Tony said, it might take me a week or two-

Twilight interrupted before she could finish writing. No need for that. Let me just pop over to a friend and I'll have you here in just a few minutes.

Carol bit her lip. If she could do that, this really was a powerful person. She'd definitely been right to be on guard.

A flash of teleportation signaled Twilight's arrival in the court of New Asgard. "Twilight!" Thor called enthusiastically, rising from the throne. "Nice to see you. You like what we've done with the place? It's almost finished!"

Twilight glanced around the room. Behind the construction scaffolding, she could see white and gold climbing up the walls in intricate patterns. "It's beautiful. But I didn't come just to chat, unfortunately. Can I borrow the Tesseract? Or else Stormbreaker? I need to get someone from Earth to Equestria."

Thor scratched his beard. "I trust you, Twilight, but I think it best not to let the Tesseract out of Asgard. Not after last time."

"Of course, I understand. A good idea. But I promise you," she added with sudden vehemence, "I'll never let something like that... that walnut-chinned son of a grape ever happen again!"

"I know. And I appreciate it." He sighed. "You can borrow Stormbreaker. If you could handle the Gauntlets of both Infinity and Harmony at the same time, you can surely handle the power of one axe."

She took it gratefully. "Thank you." She turned to go, then turned back. "Oh, by the way. Have you found a student to send to the school yet?"

Thor nodded. "Ingar, son of Magnus. He's only two hundred and thirty-two years old, about the right age for your school, I'd say."

"Excellent. I look forward to seeing him." She waved and teleported back to her palace and the book she'd left behind.

Where are you now?

The car just pulled up to Stark's house.

Great. Ask him to show you somewhere you can't be seen from outside, and then let me know.

A few minutes passed. Twilight trotted out of her palace to a clear area behind it--according to Doctor Strange, the Bifrost had smashed right through his roof, and she had no desire to destroy the palace Harmony had gifted her, eyesore or not. In time, the journal buzzed again, and she opened it to see a single brief message.

Ready when you are.

Twilight lifted Stormbreaker, crackling with energy, high above her head. She focused on the magical signal coming from the book. If she focused hard enough, she could feel the location of its partner. The energy in the axe swirled, ready to be commanded. She took a deep breath, let it out. A whooshing beam of rainbow light shot into the ground in front of her.

Two figures emerged from it after only a brief pause. "Hey, Twilight," Tony said. "Ross knows I know you. I was in a meeting with him when Sparkles here showed up looking for you."

The woman punched him in the face.

He winced and shook himself. "Yeah, I deserved that."

Twilight blinked a few times, but decided to ignore it. "Don't beat yourself up, Tony, I've been meaning to make contact with Earth for a while. This just pushes it up a little."

He nodded. "Don't expect an easy task. Anyway, I'm gonna go hang with Dash. Later." His suit rippled out over his body like water, and he launched into the air over Ponyville.

Twilight stared up after him. "Well, he's going to freak out some locals. Humans haven't come over in a while. But, whatever. Anyway, nice to meet you face to face." She had to rear up to shake hooves with Carol. "Or... have we met before? You seem familiar. But I'm saying that to a lot of ponies lately."

"Well, I've certainly met you," Carol said hesitantly. "But I doubt you'd remember me. You were talking to quite a few others at the time."

"Yeah, I figured it was that. I was... aware, I guess, of everyone I was talking to. But of course I can't remember them all, trillions or more. So I just get this feeling of deja vu, like I know them from somewhere, only now it's half of all intelligent life, so I vaguely recognize complete strangers. It gets surprisingly old."

"Well, speaking of... that event... that was what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Of course!" Twilight reared eagerly. "I hear you're quite a hero, Carol." Her horn sparkled briefly, and Carol felt a funny feeling pass over her, a tingle that went from head to toe. "And powerful! Easily as much energy there as Starlight, maybe me!"

"Maybe you?" Carol repeated incredulously. "But you brought me all the way out here in seconds! You talked to half the universe and revived the other half!"

Twilight nodded in agreement. "Sure. But I didn't do any of that alone. It's not my raw power that matters, it's my friends. Together, we're strong enough to handle anything!" She posed dramatically for a brief moment, then coughed. "...and some of them were able to help me get my hooves on some incredibly powerful magical items, which, in practical terms, was the more useful part."

"...magical?" Carol repeated uncertainly. "I'm still not convinced."

"Oh! Yes, I remember you wanted more explanation. Again, how deep into it do you want me to go? Ponies usually complain when I go too far..." Her ears drooped against the side of her head.

"I want to know everything you can tell me. Take as long as you need."

Twilight perked up. "Really?" She hopped from hoof to hoof excitedly. "Ooh, I never get to do that! I've got flash cards! Pie charts! Pages and pages of notes! And I finally get to use it!" She reared all the way into the air, her wings spread wide. "This is going to be so much fun!"