*/---*/

"You won't believe what I just saw!" Grubber exclaimed as he ran up to tempest.

"What" Tempest replied in an uninterested tone as she looked over at him.

They had been walking for multiple hours, and eventually made it to the beach near mount aris.

They were going to camp out there tonight, and would continue to venture out into the city at first light.

The plan was that they should arrive at hippogriffia by tomorrow afternoon.

"Ok, so, 'pant' I was looking for a spot to take a leak right? 'pant' and I was about to-" Grubber began to say as he catched his breath, but was interrupted by tempest.

"Just get on with it"

"Ok, well, that queen novo lady that you mentioned we were gonna be stealing something from, I saw her!" Grubber said, making tempest actually start paying attention.

"You saw her? Why was she out here? Is she still out here? What was she doing?" She asked quickly.

"Uh, I don't know why she was out here, but I did see what she was doing! She was in a fight!"

"A, a fight?" Tempest asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, it was totally awesome! They were throwing each other around, throwing punches, attack spells, man, you shoulda seen it"

"Did you see who she was fighting?"

"Uhh, I couldn't see that well since it was dark, but I'm pretty sure it was some guy in a metal suit" Grubber said, making tempest's eyes widen a bit.

"Grubber, were you able to see what color the suit was?" Tempest asked with a serious tone.

"I actually did yeah, his suit had some glowy parts on it, so I was able to see it was painted red and gold"

"And who won?"

"Nobody, some other girls showed up and stopped the fight, that's when I decided to come back"

...

"Change of plans, were heading out now" Tempest said as she started standing up.

"Wait, what? why? I thought we were supposed to do it later, so it would coincide with the attack"

"Well, not anymore, the hippogriffs might acquire a powerful ally, we need to weaken them now"

"An ally? You mean the guy she was fighting? Why would they work together?"

"Right now, I'm not sure, but he's the same stallion who escaped me, so he might be warning them about me, or the fleet" Tempest said as she started walking towards the mountain.

"So c'mon, might as well knock two birds with one stone"

"Alright" Grubber said as he started to follow tempest.

*/---*/

"I must say Mr Stark, your armor is truly impressive, to come out of a fight against me with only scratches and dents" Queen Novo said as we climbed quite possibly the longest staircase ever.

We had arrived at the foot at the mountain, and started climbing the staircase embedded in it, because apparently skystar's home is at the peak.

It kinda feels like the stairway to heaven.

"Honestly, I should be the impressed one here, you've got to be the most badass queen I've ever seen man" I say, making novo chuckle.

"A charmer are we? Hm"

"So, I'm curious, why were you out there in the first place? If you thought your daughter had been kidnapped, why didn't you send guards or something?" I ask, to wich novo sighs.

"I felt it would have been faster if I went and confronted the alledged kidnapper myself, wich in this case, was you. Again, my apologies for attacking you"

"All good, I would have probably done the same"

"Oh? Do you have children?"

"No, but uh, I do have a cousin, she's actually why I'm out here in the first place, I'm looking for her"

"A cousin?"

"Yeah"

...

"Well, we can speak more in the morning, we're here" Novo said as we arrived at the end of the stair case.

I couldn't see much, since it was still dark, but I did notice a bunch of .. trees? Why are there a bunch of trees and grass at the peak of a mountain?

"Finally, will we be going to the palace?" Trixie asked as she walked up to us.

"Yes, just follow me" Novo said as she continued walking straight.

"Ohh I'm so excited! You guys will love it here!" Skystar exclaimed as she walked up beside trixie.

"Man, todays been crazy huh?" I ask amira, to wich she nods.

"Yes, it's certainly been hectic, I am just looking forward to a good rest" She said as her eyelids drooped a bit.

"Yeah, me too" I say as I continue walking.

That definitely sounds like a good plan, leave all of the discussions and talks until after I've slept.

...

I look around my surroundings.

Darkness.

Wait...

"Stark" A voice speaks from behind me, making me turn around and face a familiar looking dark blue pony.

"Oh great, it's you again, listen, I'm pretty sure I've already hopped and skipped your countries border so you can't do shit to me, so what do you want now?" I ask as I cross my arms.

"I just want answers, stark, I doth not want any conflict"

"Ok, I can maybe do that, what do you want to know?" I ask.

After a bit, Luna speaks up.

"Why are thou claiming to be twilight sparkles cousin?"

"Uh, cuz I am? Duh?" I say with a bit of a mocking tone, making luna squint her eyes at me.

"Do not try fooling us stark, you cannot physically be her cousin"

"Us? Dude we're the only ones here. Uh, anyway, you believe whatever the hell you want, but I'm telling you right here, right now, I'm twilight sparkles cousin, on god" I say.

Luna just sighed.

"You are truly a confusing one stark, but be warned, whatever scheme you are planning, will not work"

"Scheme? Man, I'm just trying to find my long lost family member, is that so wrong?"

...

Luna shakes her head.

"Well, I will leave you to your dreams, I leave thou with another warning, if you come back to equestria, you will be captured, understood?"

"Yeah, whatever, listen, if your anything like queen novo, than I'll actually take your threats seriously, cuz she can throw some hands bro" I say, making luna eye me questionably.

"Novo? You've met her? You're in hippogriffia?"

"Yeah, we fought you know, it was pretty cool"

...

"T- thy fought Queen Novo?! Y-" Luna began to exclaim, but stopped when I interrupted her.

"Wait! Quiet! You hear that?" I ask, to wich luna grumbled in response.

"Hear what?"

"Nunya"

"What is-"

"Nunyabuisness!!" I scream as I quickly mess with my arc reactor to shock myself awake.

'Zap!

"Ah!" I scream as a quick yolt of electricity courses through my body.

"That Luna lady better stop trying to interrogate me in my dreams man, this shit doesn't feel good" I say to myself as I sit up from the bed I was currently sleeping on and rub my face.

I wasn't wearing my armor anymore, as I had unceremoniously shoved it in my rooms closet.

Speaking of rooms, I had my own private one, as did trixie and amira.

The guest rooms of the hyppogriffian royale palace were pretty nice, all things considered.

I stand up and walk over to the window, seeing that it looked a bit early in the morning.

"Might as well check this place out' I say to myself as I walk over to my rooms door.

"This place nice as hell" I say to myself as I walk down another corridor.

The palace was a bit similar to the saddle arabian one.

But like, ten times better.

...

After walking for some time, I eventually come across a set of doors.

I head inside, and see that I've walked into what looks to be a dining room.

I look around the room, seeing that it was empty, and a long rectangular table in the middle.

I walk over to the table and take a seat at one of the chairs at the end of it.

I look around the room again.

Is a waiter gonna like, appear, or do I have to call them?

"Waiter?" I ask as I snap my fingers.

...

"Probably asleep" I say to myself as I sink into my chair.

...

I decide to take this moment of solitude to think back on recent events, like, say, my iron man armor.

Why did I get the mark seven, but not the mark six? Where did my mark five go? Will I know when I'll get new armor? Who knows.

And what about that purple pony from that weird ass town? Is she part of an army or something? Why was there a fleet there? Are they planning on invading a city?

...

Hyppogriffia is kind of close..

"Oh, stark, what are you doing here?" Asked a voice, that I recognized as queen novo, making me look over to the rooms entrance at the other side.

Queen Novo was standing there, giving me a curious look.

"Uh, I had a weird dream, so I decided to walk around a bit, and I eventually found this room, so I decided to chill here" I say as novo walked over to the chair at the other end of the table.

"Hm, well, I usually wake up and eat early here, I wasn't expecting company"

"I can leave..." I say as I point behind me at the door.

"No, it's fine, we might as well chat a bit, I do have some things I want to ask you" She said as another hyppogriff walked into the room.

"What can I get you?" The hyppogriff asks me.

"I don't suppose you have popeyes.. right?"

...

"Yeah, figured, just.. just get me a dam salad..." I say in a morbid tone.

The other hyppogriff nods, then leaves.

After a moment, novo speaks up.

"So, mr stark, you mentioned you had a cousin that you were looking for?"

"Yeah, shes kind of the reason why I ventured out here in the first place"

"I assume shes also of your species?" I must say, I have never seen someone like you, might I ask what your kind is called? And where your from?"

"We're called Humans, I'm from Arkansas, and also, my cousin is actually a pony"

"Really?"

"Yep, her names twilight sparkle, she's the protege of some, princess celestia or something"

"Celestias protege?.. your her cousin?" Novo asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"yep"

...

"Hm"

...

After an awkward moment of Novo staring at me with the calmest scrutinizing stare ever, the hyppogriff from earlier reentered the room with two plates.

As he laid my salad in front of me and left, I look over to see what Novo got, and see that she also got a salad, except hers had what looked like chicken in it!

"Wait, you guys eat meat?" I ask as novo forks up some of her salad and eats it.

"Yes, we eat meat, why, do you not?" She responds as she swallows her serving.

"I actually do, godammit I wish I knew that so I could've had that added in my food" I say as I fork up some of my own salad and eat it with a sigh.

.....

"I'm curious mr stark, who made your armor? They must be of unique talent to make suit of armor that channels magic" Novo asked after some time of eating our meals.

"I made it myself" I say, to wich novo hums in response.

"Is that so? What use do you have for such powerful armor?"

"Uh, to be awesome?" I say, making novo chuckle.

"You are an interesting one tony, you remind me of my daughter" Novo started to say as she finished her meal.

"Well, I'll be attending my duties then, hopefully we can talk more later. Skystar should awake soon, maybe she could give you a tour?" She said as she headed out of the room.

"Sounds good" I say as I stand up from my seat.

*/---*/

Princess skystar woke up in a chipper mood that morning.

She had friends! Actual friends!

They were nice, interesting, and awesome!

'Especially Tony' she thought to herself as she practically jumped off her bed.

He had that cool suit of armor! And he fought her mom, and didn't lose!

Skystar left her room and headed over to tony's guest room.

On her way though, she could have sworn she heard someone walking behind her.

"Huh?" Skystar said as she turned around.

She didn't see anything, except a flash of what looked to be purple.

...

"It's probably nothing" She said as she resumed her journey.

Eventually, she reached tony's guest room, and knocked on the door.

"Tony? Are you awake?"

There was no answer.

Was he still asleep?

...

"Wake up sleepyhead! We've got so much to do!"

...

She turned the nob, and found the door unlocked.

She opened the door to find the room empty.

"Oh, he's not here?" Skystar asked herself as she walked into the room.

'Does he wake up early like my mom?' She thought to herself as she looked around the room.

She noticed the closet door seemed to be bulging a bit.

Curiously, she walked over to it, and opened it.

She was met with Tony's armor, as it started falling forward.

"Wah!" Skystar screamed as she moved out of the way.

The armor fell with a loud :Clang!; Onto the floor.

To wich it proceeded to break apart into multiple pieces.

"Oh no!" Skystar exclaimed as she went up to the disassembled suit and bent down over the parts.

She broke Tony's armor! Now her new friends would be mad at her!

'Its fine, I can fix it!' Skystar thought to herself as she got to her knees and picked up two parts of the armor.

"Uh, this goes, here, and this goes, here!" She said as she tried remaking a leg.

It immediately fell apart.

"Hnnn" Skystar whined as she felt the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes.

She finally got friends, and now she was gonna lose them! And they would hate her!

As skystar started to panic more, she heard hoofsteps approaching the room.

She looked over at the door, and saw stark standing there.

"Oh, hey sky-" He started to say, before skystar interrupted him.

"I'm sorry! I- I didn't mean to break it! It fell and.. please don't hate me!" She screamed, making stark go doe eyed for a moment.

"Hey, calm down, I'm not angry, it's fixable anyway" He says, making skystar break into a tearful smile and rush over to him.

"Oh thank goodness! I promise I'll try not to make you angry mr tony!" Skystar exclaimed as she gave him a hug and pushed his head into her chest.

After a bit, she broke the hug, and noticed that stark's cheeks were a bit red.

"Ai carumba" He muttered, making skystar raise an eyebrow.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothin, don't worry about it" Stark said quickly as he waved one of his hands around.

"Anyway, your mom said something about a tour?..." Stark said, making skystar gasp as her eyes went wide.

"A tour! That's the perfect way to start the day! C'mon!" She said as she grabbed stark's hands and started to guide him through the castle.

*/---*/

'Trixie has finally gotten a good night's rest!' Trixie thought to herself as she stretched out her morning tiredness.

As she started changing back into her suit, she noticed the fingerless glove still on her hand.

"Ah, yes, tony did not teach trixie how to take this off" Trixie said to herself as she flexed out her fingers.

...

"Eh, it's fine, trixie doesn't mind it"

It could help her in a potential rematch with twilight.

Trixie smiled at that thought.

...

"Still, trixie should probably learn how to remove it"

She would like to take baths without a metal glove on.

Trixie decided that would be one of the things she finds out today as she finished slipping on her suit, cape and hat.

As trixie exited her room, she decided to wake up amira.

'Might as well' Trixie thought to herself as she walked over to the room across from hers.

'Knock knock knock

"Amira, are you awake?"

...

A response came after a moment.

"Yes, I am awake, do you need something?"

"No, I was just gonna ask if you would accompany me to find stark, I think he should be awake by now'

"Oh, yes I'll go, just let me put my clothes on"

"Alright" Trixie said as she leaned back on the wall next to the door.

...

After a bit, amira exited her room fitted with her suit, as she rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning amira, sleep well?" Trixie asked as she walked up beside her.

"Considering this is the nicest room I've ever slept in, and actually had a nice bed, than yes"

"Isn't that a bit morbid?" Trixie asked.

Amira just shrugged.

"Well, that doesn't matter, let's just try to make our way through this palace" Trixie said as they started walking down a seemingly random hallway.

The two mares continued to walk for a while.

They eventually came across somebody, more specifically, a hyppogriff guard, who was currently on the ground.

"That's probably not good" Trixie said out loud as the two of them approached the fallen guard.

Amira crouches down and places two of her fingers on the hyppogriff's neck.

"Is he?.." Trixie asked, a bit hesitantly.

"He's fine, just knocked out it seems" Amira says, as trixie let's out a sigh of relief.

"Thank Celestia, well, lets try to find stark quickly, huh?" Trixie asked as amira stood back up.

"Yeah, we probably should" She responded as the two of them started resuming their trek down the hallway, now at a faster pace.

*/---*/

"Oh, and this is one of the balcony's of my house! You can get a pretty cool view from here" Skystar says as we step into said balcony, and, yeah, views pretty cool.

"Looks nice" I say as we look out into the city.

Those trees I saw last night? There actually tree houses.

Like, literally tree houses, I'm pretty sure homes are embedded into the inside of the tree.

How does that even work?

"So what's next in the tour?" I ask as I look over to skystar, who was funnily enough, already looking at me.

"Um, how about the throne room?" She responds as she looks away.

"Isn't your mom like doing her queen business right now? Can we just like, walk in?"

"I'm pretty sure we can, yeah"

"Alright, let's see what this throne room about" I say as we head back inside the place, and start walking deeper into the palace.

"Hopefully this isn't rude to ask, but, what exactly is that glowy circle in your chest?" Skystar asked as she pointed to my arc reactor.

"It's uh, kind of like my second heart? It helps me live, and, it stores my magic" I say, coming up with that explanation on the fly.

I don't actually know how this reactor works In terms of my body, like, if something happens to it, am I dropping dead?

I guess considering I have an arc reactor lodged in my chest, I'm assuming that it's vital to my health.

"Oh, really? That's cool!" Skystar exclaimed happily as we continued walking.

"Yeah, guess it is"

"You'll love all the stuff we get to do here tony!" Skystar exclaimed as she pressed her face against mine.

We were currently in what looked like a courtyard, since we were walking to another part of the palace.. castle... Is there a difference?

I noticed that there seemed to be dark storm clouds in the distance.

Probably gonna rain later.

"I'll bet, but uh, I'm actually gonna leave, like, later" I say as we kept walking.

"Y- your leaving?" Skystar asks in a distraught tone as she walked up infront of me.

"Yeah, I gotta continue my little crusade to equador.. no, sorry, equestria, and find my cousin" I say as I stop walking.

"Oh.." Skystar said sadly as she looked at the ground.

...Man, now I feel ba-

"Can.. can I go?" Skystar pipes up after a bit, interrupting my thoughts.

"Go where?"

"With you! You know, on your adventure!" Skystar said with a cheery tone as she pressed up against my side.

"Um" I said, before skystar spoke again.

"Please?" She asked as she gave me the saddest face ever.

You would need to be a war criminal to say no to that.

"I mean, I would probably let you, but like, what about your mom? I'm assuming she won't be too eager to sign the permission slip" I say as I raise an eyebrow.

"I'm sure I can convince her!" Skystar exclaimed in a happy tone.

"Alright, if you say so" I say as we started walking again.

I notice the clouds were closer.

Is it me, or are they moving kind of fast?

As were walking, I catch what looks like a flash of purple quickly hide behind a pillar.

It almost looked, like a tail.

I stop walking and stare.

...

"Tony? What is it?" Skystar asked as she stopped walking and turned around to face me.

"Uh, I don't know, maybe it's just me" I say as I stretch one of my arms out and my bracelets started glowing.

"Oh, what are your magical bracelets doing?" Skystar asks, and almost like an answer, multiple pieces of my armor flew over to me, and started forming my armor.

Being my boots, chest plate, back plate, and gloves.

I didn't call the entire suit, since, well, I could just be imagining things.

"Whoa, you can summon your armor?" Skystar asked.

"Yeah"

"That's awesome!.. Why'd you do it?"

"I thought a saw someone" I say as I gesture towards the pillar and start walking towards it.

"Is someone there?" I ask as my gloves finish forming.

...

I slowly walk towards the pillar and raise one of my arms.

I shoot a repulsor blast at the pillar, receiving no response.

...

"Guess I was just imagining things" I say as I lower my arm and turn around.

"You weren't" said a familiar voice, making me quickly turn around and raise both of my arms.

Standing there, was that same purple mare from before, now joined by, .. what, an anthropomorphic possum?

"You again?! Did you follow me all the way here?" I ask as skystar walked up next to me.

"Who is she?" Skystar asked as she gestured towards her.

"She's some crazy lady who tried to attack and arrest me and my pals" I say, making skystar gives a small gasp.

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, she crazy or something" I say as I shrug.

"I'm standing right here" The purple mare says, making us turn back to face her.

"What the hell are you even doing here? Wouldn't this be like out of your jurisdiction if your a cop?" I ask, making the smaller guy grin at us.

"We're here to invade ya suckas!!" He says, making the purple mare slap him upside the head.

"Quiet!" She exclaimed as the smaller dude rub the back of his head.

"What?!" Skystar exclaimed as her eyes went wide.

"Invasion? Fat chance crazy s.o.b" I say as I raise one of my arms and have my palm start glowing.

"Skystar! Go get yo ma bruh! Warn her the russians attacking!" I scream as I shoot the purple mare with a repulsor blast, wich she dodged.

"Ok!" Skystar exclaimed as she spread her wings and quickly flew off.

*/---*/

"Can you explain what you saw?" Queen Novo asked as she walked down her thrones steps over to where stark's companions were standing.

"We found one of your guards unconscious on the floor" Amira said.

"You did? By chance did you see what happened?" Novo asked.

"We did not see anything, but trixie is certain he was attacked!"

"Well, this is rather confusing, from what I know, few kingdoms know of us, and even fewer consider us enemies" Novo said as she placed a claw on her chin.

...

"Maybe-" Amira started to say, before skystar suddenly burst into the throne room in a panic.

"Mother!" Skystar screamed as she flew over and practically crash landed next to novo.

"Skystar, what is it?" Novo asked with genuine concern.

She doesn't really see her daughter like this.

"It's tony! He's fighting someone!" Skystar exclaimed, making everyone else's eyes go wide.

"Who is he fighting?" Novo asked.

"Uh, he said they were russians or something? It doesn't matter! They said they were going to invade us!" Skystar responded.

"What?!" All three other individuals responded.

"Yeah! C'mon, follow me!" Skystar said as she took flight once again, while being followed by novo, amira and trixie.

*/---*/

Tempest shadow narrowly dodged the multiple beams of light that stark shot at her.

She noticed that his armor wasn't actually complete, and she had seen how it just flew over to him.

She wondered how that worked.

After dodging another beam, tempest rushed over to tony, sending a kick to his left side.

The kick connected with a :klang; making tony stumble.

Tempest winced a bit at the pain, but otherwise ignored it as she threw a punch to tony's exposed face.

He narrowly dodged it, but tempest just threw another punch, hitting him on the cheek.

Stark stumbled backwards as tempest quickly lit her horn and sent a short bolt of purple lightning at his chest, sending him backwards.

Before he could hit the ground though, stark ignited his thrusters, catching himself.

Before either could do anything else, a bright flash of light blinded tempest for a moment, before she was tackled by novo.

*/---*/

I watched as the purple mare was tackled by queen novo.

"Stark!" Exclaimed three voices, making me turn around to face my three friends approach me.

"Hey girls" I said as they walked up to me and I raised hand to rub my cheek.

That girl packs a good punch...

"Stark, are you alright?" Trixie asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I try saying reassuringly as I wince from the bruise on my cheek.

"Are you sure? It looks like you have a bruise tony" Skystar said as she gestured towards my cheek.

"Yes, I'm good, I'll just walk it off or something"

"Who attacked you?" Amira asked.

"You remember that purple mare from that weird town?" I start saying, to wich trixie and amira nod.

"Well, It was her" I finish as I turn around and see that multiple hyppogriff guards had joined in on the apprehension of the purple mare.

"Really? She followed us all the way here?" Trixie asked as novo started approaching us.

"Stark, do you know of that mare?" Queen Novo asked as she walked up to us.

"I know shes of some military, and an asshole"

"Skystar mentioned something about an invasion?.." Novo asked as she looked over to her daughter.

"Yep, her little friend said that they were going to invade us!" Skystar responded.

"Speaking of, where is that little dude? Your guys catch him too?" I ask.

"No, we've only apprehended the mare, we haven't seen any.. little dude" Novo responds.

"Oh, well, we should ask her right?" Trixie asked as I noticed that the storm clouds from earlier were practically on top of the city now.

It almost looked like there were... Things inside of the clouds.

"Uh, yo, novo, you might wanna mobilize your national guard my guy" I say, making all four females look over to me.

...

"The military" I say, making all of the females give an :o; of understanding.

"Why?" Novo asked.

"Cuz I think the invasion force is right there" I say as I point towards the clouds with one of my hands and stretch my other out to call the rest of my armor.

Author's Note

https://youtube.com/shorts/BDo8JJ8eKtU?si=K6Ivi3Al0faHUcum
(Mark seven partial suit up)

It was literally like the only video I could find of that clip.

https://images.app.goo.gl/KbLbdwxeXe8VqA118

(Iron Man mark seven)

It did not let me add the image, so I just put the link.