"So... any superpowers?" Spiderman asked.

Scootaloo sighed. "No. But I do have this cool suit!"

"What's it do?"

"...just shoots webs..."

Peter blinked. "Really? No other features? AI? Extra legs? Able to breathe in space?"

"No. Rainbow said she was going to upgrade it, but she ran out of time. And Twilight won't let us make AI. She's afraid of what it might do in such a magic-rich area."

"Well, at least you can fly, right?"

"...no."

"What?" He threw his hands up. "Then you might as well just be a civilian! Your suit isn't any kind of armor, and it doesn't even cover your wings! You're only putting yourself in danger by being here! You're just a kid, and you're completely unprepared for-" He froze. "Oh. Now I get it."

"Huh?" She blinked and looked up at him.

He scrambled to explain. "It's just--when I was first starting out, Mr. Stark used to say all those things to me, that I was too young and inexperienced. I guess I get why he said that. I'm scared you're gonna get hurt, 'cause everything that happened when Thanos's people came to New York was really scary, and the older pony said nobody was allowed to die, and I guess I sort of freaked out that you might. But I can't assume that you aren't gonna be helpful. I mean, loads of people with no superpowers are still superheroes."

"Really?" Scootaloo perked up. "Like who?"

"Well, there's Hawkeye, and Black Widow, and... um... uh..."

"Two?"

"Look, there's only, like, ten superheroes anyway. And I wasn't counting all the normal people with cool suits, like Falcon--he can fly--and Iron Man, and I think I heard about this guy called Ant-Man who could shrink really tiny, but I've never met him."

Scootaloo pouted. "They still have cooler suits than me, though."

"Hey, it's not the suit that matters. It's what you do with it. That's one of the first things I learned. And I bet you can do a lot, even if you are kinda young..."

"I'm an adult!" she protested. Then, as he looked between Rainbow Dash and her in confusion, she added, "Legally speaking. I've still got some growing to do."

"How old are ponies when they reach adulthood?"

"Well, it varies-"

"It varies?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, basically it's when you discover your destiny. You get this little marking on your flank--here, I can show you!"

He held out a hand. "Um, maybe don't do that. It's probably not the same for you, but on Earth you're not supposed to go around showing your rear to people."

She tilted her head. "Weird. It's probably because you guys don't have fur. And you don't get Cutie Marks, so what would even be the point, right?"

"They're called what now?"

"And once you discover your destiny," she continued obliviously, "you can start a career! It takes a while to build it, though, so you still live with your family until you can get on your hooves. By that point you've usually grown all the way."

"Neat. I wish humans had those. It'd be a way easier way of figuring out what you're supposed to do."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't be able to keep your secret identity. For most superheroes, your mark would probably be in being a superhero. Ooh! What superpowers do you have?"

He shrugged. "Nothing too fancy. My webs are artificial, like yours, but I have extra strength, speed, endurance, all that good stuff. Oh! And I think I can tell when something is about to happen, but it's not very useful, because I can't tell what."

"But... something is always about to happen! Like, I was about to talk, and then I talked, and then you're about to, and then-"

"No, it's only for something significant, something bad. Like someone is about to hit me, and then since I know it's coming I can dodge the hit, only I don't actually know it's going to be a hit, so I just end up dodging randomly. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't."

"That's still really cool!" Scootaloo jumped up and down. "I can figure out what someone's destiny is, but I have to know a lot about the person and find out their interests and stuff. It takes me a while, and I'm sometimes wrong. But since my destiny is helping other ponies--and other creatures--find their destinies, I'm better at it than most people."

"Cool! What's my destiny?"

She shrugged. "I mean, I haven't known you for that long, but I'd guess it's probably being Spiderman. You've got these superpowers, and you like being a superhero and using them, so that should be what you pursue most!"

"Makes sense."

From the front of the ship, Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, "If anybody knows how to steer this thing, now would be a good time to say so!"

Tony raised his hand. "I saw what Thanos's guy was doing. He had one arm in that thing, and one in that thing-" he pointed- "and he steered with them."

Doctor Strange whistled. "I don't think any of us can do that."

Rainbow tossed her mane. "Shows what you know. Watch and learn." She trotted confidently up to the left arm and put her right front hoof in it. Then she flapped her wings, rising to a hover with her right front hoof stretched out perpendicular to the rest of her. Her back hoof kicked out, feeling around. "Where's the other thingy?"

"You're a little short," Peter admitted.

"Aw, dang it. Okay, grab my tail instead. Put that in the arm thingy."

"Are you sure?" Tony asked.

"Just do it!" she snapped, and he complied. "Aw, thunderheads. I can't see out the window now."

"Thunderheads?" Peter asked.

Tony looked out the window. "Go right."

She flapped forward, pulling both her arm and her tail along. They, in turn, yanked along the steering mechanism, turning the ship. It worked perfectly. Except for one problem.

"That's left!"

"Oops." She shot backwards again, but they'd already collapsed half a rock formation. The ship turned rapidly, almost spinning around, as they soared over a lake.

Tony kept hollering out directions, but he changed them to make sure Rainbow understood. "Forward! Back! Forward!"

"I think I'm getting the hang of this!" Rainbow called cheerfully as the ship nearly went into yet another spin.

"You're steering too hard. You need to soften- Forward!"

She flapped her wings gently, only moving forward a little ways. "Better?"

There was a dull crash as they hit another column of rock. "Not really, no."

"Like you could do better. What do you want from me?"

"Right now? I want you to go backwards." As she obliged, he leaned over the window to look at the ground. The lake had long passed, and the much harder ground below them was getting closer. "Yikes! Go up, go up!"

"I don't think this thing does 'up'!" she protested, straining her wings.

"Ground's getting closer! I think we've got maybe ten... nine... eight..."

Doctor Strange reached out his hands, and magic glowed orange around them, creating a barrier over the whole room.

"Three... two... one!"

With a mighty crash, the spaceship slammed into the ground, shattering itself across the landscape. The control room they were in stayed roughly intact, but the noises they heard left no doubt about the rest of the structure. The arm holders popped open, spilling Rainbow Dash out onto the floor. "Ugh. If I ever see the inside of one of these dumb spaceships again, it'll be too soon. We should just travel by tesseract all the time."

"Not really an option," Tony remarked.

Scootaloo hopped up and down, wings buzzing. "Can we do that again?"

"Can we not?" Rainbow complained.

Doctor Strange shrugged. "Even if we wanted to, I don't think the ship's intact enough to fly."

Tony nodded. "Even this room is only intact because of Doctor Strange."

There was a sobering pause, as they realized that they were only intact because of Doctor Strange. It was an uncomfortable thought, to say the least.

Then Peter felt his hairs stand up, goosebumps rising on his arms. He knew what that meant by now. "Guys? I think something's coming."

Author's Note

In case that one throwaway line of Peter's (and the lack of mentioning him earlier) didn't tell you, Ant-Man was replaced on Team Cap by Quicksilver. He still hasn't met any of the Avengers except Falcon in this timeline.