Tony Stark stood back up.

“Jesus,” he exclaimed, “Can’t I get one minute to myself?”

“Heads up Dom!” Marcus and Dom whipped out their Lancers, prepared to feed lead to whatever thought it could ambush a couple of certified B.A.s. “Show yourself or we’ll unleash hell!”

A green pair of eyes appeared from the darkness surrounding the voice, followed by another, and another, and…

“Okay,” Stark said, “Dom, you take… those hundred, Mark-“

“-It’s Marcus.”

“You take those hundred, and I’ll take the remaining thousand. Good plan? Great plan. Let’s go!”

“Wait!” The voice stepped forward to reveal a tall, lanky pony-like creature. It had a black carapace like the hearts of villains. Her insect wings and hair were curiosities as well, but what really did it in for the three was how bent her horn was, and how… bizarre its legs looked.

“Looked like someone didn’t heed the Golden Rule,” muttered Marcus.

“What are you?” the creature asked.

“We could ask the same of you,” said Dom.

The creature chuckled. “Me? I am the Queen of the Changelings. I am Chrysalis!” she flew up into the air for emphasis.

“Yeah, that’s nice. I’m king of the Downtown Los Angeles Bar,” Stark said.

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. I’ve got my picture up on the wall and everything.”

“Enough! Why have you come here?”

“We represent the lollipop g-“Stark started.

“-We are here, taking a rest from the massive war over in Equestria,” explained Marcus.

“War? In Equestria? Did Discord get free again?” an amused Chrysalis asked.

“Nah, this big freakin’ army. And it’s threatening to completely destroy this entire planet. So far, I would say they’re doing a pretty solid job of it.”

“Wait, what?” Chrysalis wasn’t smiling anymore. She walked up to Marcus. “What do you mean ‘completely destroy the planet’?”

“He means exactly that,” butted in Dom. “This army has superior technology, numbers, weapons, a complete disregard for life, you name it.”

“Except for style. We have them beat.”

Chrysalis cocked her eyebrow at Stark.

“And what, pray tell, is your part in this?” she asked the three.

“We were promised there was going to be a free buffet.”

Dom whirled around and looked at Stark. “For the love of- Can you be serious for just one minute?”

“Uh… no. No I don’t think I can. As a matter of fact I-“ Stark was cut off when an earth-shattering quake reverberated in every corner of the castle. The sunglasses Stark kept on him shattered into a thousand pieces, while every Changeling doubled over in pain, clutching their ears.

“What are you doing to us!?” Chrysalis moaned in agony.

“Me? I’m not doing anything!” Stark shouted.

“Holy shit. Guys, you’re not gonna believe this.”

“What is it Dom?” Marcus walked over to the window his friend was looking out of. While normally the Superportal could be seen, albeit just barely, this time it was completely unnoticeable as a massive black and grey plume bellowed from the ground. Although it too was far away, one would swear they were right next to it.

“Holy mother of God,” said Stark as he looked at the mushroom cloud before him.

“That couldn’t have been us, could it?”

“I think it was,” confirmed Stark. “Why would they do something like that? We need to get back now.”

“I agree.”

“Me too.”

“What is that thing?” The three soldiers turned around to see Chrysalis standing behind them, looking at the harbinger of death before them.

“That… is the sign that things are truly worse than we thought, which is saying something,” Stark said morbidly. “That was an explosive device, and a big one at that. Who knows where that one was detonated?”

“I believe the city in that direction is Manehattan,” Chrysalis told him. “It’s a fairly big city.”

“Not anymore,” said Dom.

“Is that the work of your enemy you’re fighting?” Chrysalis was evil, but she was not a killer. This sickened her.

“No, that is us. That means that so many of our enemies were there that they decided to take all of them at once, regardless of anyone else that may have been in the vicinity, be it civilian or ally.” Stark kept staring up at the cloud. It just hung there, like cotton balls. From their distance the whole thing looked very still and calm. In reality, the winds inside the cloud were still probably high enough to rip just about anything apart.

“As much as I hate to say this… do you need help?” Chrysalis offered.

“Why would you hate saying that?” asked Dom.

“We… may have attempted to conquer and enslave all of Equestria to suit our devious needs,” Chrysalis sheepishly admitted.

“Is that all? Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask the princesses if they would accept your offer,” reasoned Marcus.

“Then perhaps it would be best to leave as soon as possible. When can you be ready to ship off?” Stark turned back to Chrysalis.

“Immediately.”

Author's Note

New strategy. I, for whatever reason, generally write short. Why? Who knows. What I do know is that I've been putting off finishing this story for forever. So, new strategy. Most of the time, all chapters are going to be short. There are going to be a lot of them, but all are going to be (probably) less than 1500 words. The way I see it though: A story's quality should not be gauged based on how many words one can spit out at any given time. However, if enough people do not like the short chapter concept, I will change back. The length of the entire story is going to be about the same, I'm just going to have less words per chapter. Anyway, I will update much more often now as well.