Elements of Infinity

"I think something's coming."

Before Peter had even finished speaking, a group of strangers burst into the remains of the spaceship. Rainbow Dash hastily pulled her helmet on and took a moment to glance over the group. One was grey. One had antennae. The last one was wearing a mask--unless that was his face. Rainbow tried not to assume, with aliens. He was flying, and also shooting at them, so Rainbow's attention locked onto him. He seemed to be the only one with guns, so he was the most pressing threat. Next was the grey guy with knives. The girl with antennae seemed relatively harmless.

Rainbow kicked on her thrusters. The suit was too heavy for her to fly by wingpower alone. Rising into the air, she chased after the masked man. She had to draw his fire before one of his shots hit a weak spot in Tony's suit, or broke through Strange's shield, or anything else! "Hey!" she shouted. "Why don't you pick on someone your own height?"

"Huh?"

"Like, flying- Yeah, that came out badly. But that's not the point!" She lunged forward, firing her rays at him. He dipped to the side and dodged easily, then came back up, shooting at her. She tucked in her wings and rolled, appearing to dive out of the way, only to pop back up right in front of him and ram her armored head into his chest. The air went out of his lungs with a WHOOF! and he flew backwards against the side of the ship.

She glanced down very briefly at the battle below. Scootaloo had just kicked the grey alien with both back hooves, though it didn't seem to have done much. He was tougher than he looked. He slashed out at her with a knife, but Tony reached forward and blocked it with an armored hand. Across the room, Peter was scrambling away from the one with antennae, firing webs haphazardly. Doctor Strange was standing back, allowing the others to defend him and the Infinity Stone, but Rainbow didn't doubt he could handle anyone who broke through.

She turned her attention back to her own fight. She couldn't risk her attention wandering. The masked man launched off the wall and soared into the air, aiming his guns down below, so she charged upwards to intercept him. He turned his guns from her friends and trained them on her. She didn't even bother to dodge. She had her suit, after all, and nothing could get through it.

But her wings were outside of the suit.

A bullet grazed her right wing, and she yelped in pain, tumbling. She took a deep breath, kept her head about her, and fired her thrusters again, rising back to the man's level with wings folded. The injury didn't feel too serious, but she wasn't going to push it. Without her wings to balance her, she wobbled slightly in the air.

He looked surprised, but kept firing. She leaned to the side, and the thrusters responded, launching her to the side and out of the way. She turned perpendicular to the line of fire and kept going, circling the man. He turned after her and continued to fire, but he never actually caught up. "Come on..." she whispered. "Run out of ammo, run out of ammo, run out of ammo..."

And then, finally, he did. He muttered a curse word and shook his gun, and Rainbow, no longer concerned about him, dove to join the battle below. It seemed to be very close to a draw, with Doctor Strange still hanging on the sidelines, so her joining it should easily shift the balance.

Something whooshed past her on one side, and through her suit, she barely felt something slap onto her back. She had barely time to wonder what it was before she felt herself yanked aside as if by a giant hand and pinned to the side of the ship. A magnet. She couldn't do anything but wiggle like a turtle flipped on its back. At least she had a good view of the fight.

The woman with antennas had climbed onto some kind of second floor balcony, and Scootaloo was swinging towards her. Meanwhile, the man in the mask had hit Tony with a similar kind of magnet and was currently fighting with Peter, giving the grey one free room to advance on Doctor Strange.

Rainbow still wasn't too worried. Doctor Strange could probably take all three of them. She was more worried about the rest of her team, so she glanced back across the room, just in time to spot Scootaloo reaching the antenna girl. She swung towards her, back legs extended, but the alien dodged nimbly to the side, touched her head with one hand, and whispered, "Sleep."

The word, soft as it was, had a strange quality to it that echoed across the room, even over all the noise of battle. Scootaloo's body went limp, and she seemed to fall in slow motion.

Rainbow's frantic hoof pressed the button on her arc reactor, and her suit retracted. Free of the magnet, she leaped into the air, teeth gritted against the pain in her wing. Her hooves caught Scootaloo, wrapping gently around her, and she cradled her as she glided back to the ground. She laid Scootaloo down and pressed an ear to her chest. Steady breathing. Steady pulse. She really was just asleep. Thank Celestia.

Tapping her wrist again, she glanced out over the battlefield. Doctor Strange was defending himself quite handily--since when did his cape do that? She had to get one! Tony pried himself off the wall as she watched, and went to distract the grey man, just in case.

The helmet closed over her head, and a red alert on her display screen caught her eye. 15% power. Flight not recommended. Seriously? Stupid magnet. Stupid magic resistance. Stupid suit retraction system. She really had to get an electrical system, instead of a magic one. Fine. So she couldn't fly. So what? She charged forward on hoof instead.

Then the man in the mask grabbed Peter and put a gun to his head.

She froze, hooves skidding to a stop on the metallic floor. Tony, thankfully, did not freeze, but instead leaped into action, grabbing the grey guy as a counter-hostage. Then everyone stopped.

Rainbow took a few breaths. "Don't worry, he's out of ammo."

"I reloaded."

She paused. "The question is, are you lying?"

"Doesn't matter," Tony interjected. "You're supposed to treat every weapon as if it's loaded. This is basics, kid."

She sighed. "Okay, never mind. Back to square one, I guess."

The man touched something at his ear, and the mask--Aha! She was right!--rippled and vanished. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

Tony's mask flipped back as well. Was that a thing? Were they all unmasking now? "I'll do you one better! Who's Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better," the grey one added. "Why's Gamora?"

Rainbow shrugged and joined in. "What's Gamora?" A little humor never hurt to ease the tension, and this tension could use some easing.

Peter raised his hand. "Ooh! Ooh! When's-"

"Enough!" He shoved his gun harder against Peter's head, just to emphasize it. "Where is she?"

Rainbow did some quick thinking and stepped forward, pulling back her own helmet while she was at it. Everyone else was doing it. "Hold on! I think we have a miscommunication here. Tony, you said Thanos was the only Titan, right?"

"Yeah, but I fail to see how that's relevant."

She smiled. It was great to be the one figuring things out for once. "Well, if they're looking for a friend, and they're here on the Titan planet, and Thanos is the only Titan, then their friend must be with Thanos."

Doctor Strange nodded. "That follows."

"Well, then we don't have to be fighting each other at all! Instead, we should go fight Thanos, together!"

Tony nodded. "That also follows."

"No it doesn't," Doctor Strange protested. "These guys were trying to kill us thirty seconds ago!"

"Yes, but that was a mistake, so we can all be friends now." Rainbow turned to the guy with the gun. "See, next time, you should try talking, instead of bursting into a crashed spaceship and just shooting people."

"You were in one of Thanos's spaceships on Thanos's planet!" he protested.

"Yeah, but we crashed it, so we obviously don't have much experience handling that sort of ship. Anyway, since we're all friends now, can you let Peter go?"

"Who's Peter?"

Peter raised his hand. "I'm Peter."

"But I'm Peter!" the man protested.

Rainbow ran a hoof through her mane. "Oh, boy."

"I can go by Spiderman," Peter offered.

"You can call me Starlord," Peter added.

Rainbow nodded. "Okay. So can we stop with the whole holding-people-at-gunpoint thing now?"

"Sorry." He let go of Spiderman, and Tony stepped away from his friend.

"No, seriously," Doctor Strange said. "We're just going to work with these guys who we were fighting a few minutes ago?"

"Uh, yeah? What about that is weird?"

Tony sighed and stepped forward. "Look, Rainbow, humans aren't quite like ponies."

She snorted. "No duh!"

"No, I mean we're not as forgiving as you guys. It really surprises me how much you guys are willing to forgive, and most people on Earth would think you're an idiot for doing it."

She shrugged. "I mean, as long as someone is genuinely sorry for their actions, can't you give them a second chance?"

He sighed. "No, not usually."

"Really? Because way more often than you'd think, the meanest and scariest ponies--and other creatures--really just need a friend. And if you offer that forgiveness, they'll usually take it."

"How can you tell if they're really friendly and really sorry for their actions? What if they're just pretending so you don't suspect them?" Tony demanded.

"Then you have to offer it anyway! Even if you get bit once or twice by a faker, the real and lasting friendships you get the rest of the time are worth it! And isn't it better to have a friend than an enemy?"

"A policy like that is going to get you killed!"

"Is that why you're too scared to even call Captain America when you need backup?" she shot.

He froze. "How did you even hear about that?"

She gestured to the book. "My friends caught me up on everything that happened on Earth. Look, if we could make friends with Discord, the literal spirit of chaos himself, who once stranded us on another world in other people's bodies, why is Cap so hard?"

Doctor Strange's head jerked up. "You did what?"

"Yes, we befriended Discord, and he helped save Equestria several times, so you don't get to tell me it was the wrong choice."

He threw up his hands. "What's next? Befriending Thanos?"

She tapped her chin. "Now that you mention it... It's worth a shot."

He groaned. "How are you guys not extinct?"

Ignoring him, Rainbow Dash turned to the others. "I almost forgot. If we're going to work together, there's one rule you guys should know about."

"I'm not super great with rules," Starlord admitted.

Rainbow glared. "You'd better be great with this one. No dying is allowed."

He paused. "You know, that's actually a good rule. I'm afraid Gamora might not know that rule, though..." His face fell.

Rainbow smiled, hoping she looked as reassuringly confident as Tony always did. She didn't know how he did it. "Well, then we'd just better find her so we can let her know."