CHAPTER THREE

MY LITTLE TONY

Rainbow Dash blinks her eyes, trying to dissipate the numbness of her mind. She tries to move, but her hooves seem to be tied down to a chair.

"Huh…? HELP!" Dash cries

"Ms. Potts, he's awake"

Oh, no! Dash was hoping it was all a dream…

"KIDNAPPERS! RAPTORS! HAIRLESS BIPEDAL FREAKS!" Dash shouts angrily at the walls

From a door, Pepper Potts enters the room. She carries a cup with a straw. "Tony… Look, I don't know what's wrong with you, but you're really agitated right now… Here, I brought this for you" She offers the cup to Dash, who looks mistrusting at her, but decides to drink anyway.

Dash quickly turns her head and spits all the drink on the floor "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?! You're trying to poison me!"

"It's applejack" Pepper said "You asked for it before falling unconscious. I thought…"

"You think I'm stupid?" Dash yells angry "This is not Applejack!"

"Yes, it is" Pepper insists "A brandy made of fermented cider: an applejack!"

"Look, you" Dash says with repulse "I don't know who 'Brandy' is, but this is not Applejack. Applejack is a pony and she's my friend"

"I… I'm sorry, what?" Pepper would be laughing right now if she wasn't so worried.

"I want to know what you've done to me, you witch! Where are my friends?"

"Tony, calm down…"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT! I'M NOT A 'TONY'! I'M A PONY! A PEGASUS! Or at least I was until you turned me into one of you freaks!"

"Tony, please…" Pepper said with tears on her eyes "You are Tony Stark, you are a man, and you are among friends"

"I'm Rainbow Dash, I'm a Pegasus, and I don't know who you are" hissed Rainbow Dash on Tony Stark's body, who, from now on, will be called Tony Dash

Pepper shook her head and left the room, crying. Tony Dash couldn't help but feel bad for her, despite all the mistrust and contempt she felt earlier.

"So, let me see if I got this right" said Bruce Banner on the Stark Tower's living room "Tony woke up and tried to attack you and now he's in a containment cell convinced that he's a pony called Rainbow Dash?"

Clint Barton snickered. He's been smiling ever since the beginning of the reunion.

"Exactly" Pepper said "I don't know what to do, he lost his mind"

"He could be suffering from PTSD" suggested Steve

"Well, maybe, but I don't know of any PTSD cases that made the patient think he was a unicorn"

"Pegasus" Pepper corrected "He said he was a Pegasus…"

"Well, whatever it is" Banner continued "it's clear that he needs to talk to a doctor"

"Well, then" Natasha said "Talk to him, Doctor"

Banner looked at Natasha "I'm sorry, but I'm not that kind of doctor…"

"Well, you're not a medic either. That didn't stop you from treating people in India" Natasha remarked

Banner was about to protest, but gave in "Okay, you win. I'll talk to him" He then left the room and went to where Tony was being kept.

"I don't understand" said Thor, who was silent through the entire thing "Is this some kind of Midgardian jest?"

"No, Thor" Pepper answered "I wish it was"

"Hello there"

Tony Dash lifted her head to meet the friendly smile of Bruce Banner.

"Hi" Tony Dash answered with derision

"So, uh, Rainbow Dash, right?" Banner asked, taking a seat in front of Tony Dash

"Who wants to know?"

"Name's Banner. Bruce Banner. I'm a good friend of the guy who used to be you"

"What do you mean 'the guy who used to be me'?"

"Where are you from, Rainbow Dash?" Bruce asked, his eyes down on the Tablet on his hands, searching for something.

"Where I'm from? Equestria, of course"

"Tell me about Equestria" Bruce requested, still looking at his Tablet

"I ain't gonna tell you squat!"

Bruce gives her a quick look, and then goes back to his Tablet "Have you ever heard of New York?"

"What?"

"That's what I thought" Banner mumbles "So, if you ain't gonna tell me about Equestria, maybe you will tell me about your friends like, how was she called, applejuice?"

"Applejack! What have you done to her?! Is she okay?" Tony Dash cries with fear on his/her eyes.

"Does she look like this?" Banner asks, showing her the picture of a pony on his Tablet.

Tony Dash's face gets pale as her eyes widen with horror "Y-you soulless monsters! What have you done to that poor pony?"

"What have we done?" Bruce asks, confused "We didn't do anything. This is just a normal pony"

"Normal?" Tony Dash asks, enraged "In what twisted world, would somepony with an atrophied elongated head, small eyes and an empty stare like that be considered normal? How could you do something like this? How could anypony be so cruel?" Tony Dash debates herself on the chair, crying.

"Tony! Ton— Rainbow Dash!" Bruce shouts "Rainbow Dash! Calm down! Look, I'm just as confused as you are! We're not in Equestria! We're not in Equestria!"

Tony Dash stops debating herself and looks at Banner.

"We're not in Equestria" Banner continues "You asked in what twisted world that could be considered normal? Well, in our twisted world! This is how ponies are here and how they've always been. This is not Equestria. Nobody here ever heard of Equestria just like you never heard of New York. I don't know how this happened, okay? But we lost a friend too and we can only assume he's in Equestria in your body. We don't wanna hurt 'anypony', okay? We just want to understand what's going on"

"He's kidding. Tell me he's kidding" Pepper says, watching Banner and Dash through the security camera "He doesn't actually believe this, does he?"

"Actually, Ms. Potts" Jarvis says "Under the circumstances, Dr. Banner's theory is quite sound. I've completed the tests. Mr. Stark's brainwaves are not his. Someone else is using Mr. Stark's body"

"How can that be possible?" Pepper cries

"Honestly, after everything that happened" Steve says "I don't think 'impossible' is a valid word anymore"

"I will free your hands now, okay?" Banner says, untying Tony Dash from the chair "Ain't gonna hurt you…"

"'Hands', huh?" Tony Dash says "Oh, so these must be 'fingers'! Spike has those!" Bruce couldn't help but smile.

But Dash wasn't feeling so cheerful "Spike… Twilight… I'm never gonna see them again…"

"Don't say that!" Banner reprimanded "If there's something I know very well is desperation. Don't ever lose hope. We're gonna find a way"

Tony Dash gives a small smile "You know, I guess you're not a monster like I thought…"

Banner chuckles "If only you knew… There! You're free"

"So" Tony Dash rubs her wrists "What do I do now?"

"Well, you could take a shower" Banner answers with a smile "Bathroom is that way"

"So, Tony is a pony?" Pepper asks Bruce, who have returned to the living room with the others "That's what you're saying?"

"I'm not saying anything" Bruce answers "Whether Rainbow Dash is real or just a fragment of Tony's personality is irrelevant. In the state he was, insisting that he was Tony Stark would have led us nowhere and only made him more hostile"

"And I thought you wasn't a psychiatrist" Clint said

"Psychologist" Banner corrected

"Whatever"

"Anyway, we need to keep humoring him until we get more information" Banner continued "But I have to say: Equestria? Spike? Applejack? The things he said are too oddly specific to be the result of sudden delusions, and he reacted negatively to a picture of a regular pony, which means that his idea of ponies are a little bit different than ours right now. All of this summed to the brainwave data that Jarvis compiled indicate that, as ridiculous as it sounds, Tony has, in fact, changed bodies with an inter-dimensional, intelligent pony"

The room stood silent for a few awkward minutes.

"So, Tony's a pony" Pepper said again "That's what you're saying"

"I miss the 40's" Steve mumbled

Banner was about to answer her, when Jarvis interrupted "Incoming call from Nick Fury"

"Sorry for interrupting your breakfast" the Director of SHIELD said from the hologram screen on the wall "But we need to discuss the Loki situation. Where's Stark?"

"I-I'm afraid he's not here, sir" Banner answered

"I can see that, Dr. Banner. That's why I asked where he is"

"That's the problem, sir. I… We're not sure"

Suddenly, the doors of the living room burst open, and from it stepped in a soaked, butt-naked Tony Dash.

"Guys, look!" Tony Dash said "I have another finger in between my legs, but I don't know how to make it move" Dash stopped what she was saying when she saw Nick Fury on the screen "Is that a pirate?"

"What? No, I'm not a pirate!"

Blushing, Pepper grabbed Tony Dash by the arm and led her out of the room "Don't they wear clothes where you come from?" Pepper asks, embarrassed.

"Only on special occasions"

"Well, here we always wear clothes!"

"Really?" Dash asks, astounded "Rarity would make a fortune here!"

"What the hell was that?" Fury asks, as soon as Pepper and Dash left the room "What's wrong with Stark?"

"I'm not sure that's Stark"

"Explain yourself, Doctor"

"Uh… Well, this will be hard to believe, but… evidence suggests that Tony's brainwaves were swapped with those of an inter-dimensional po…"

"…BEING!" Natasha cuts Banner off "An inter-dimensional being. It may have been caused by the Tesseract, we don't know"

Nick Fury stood silent for a moment as if digesting the information "Well, find out as soon as possible. Over." He says as the transmission ends.

"Roger that" Natasha says with a sigh.

"No, really" Thor says "This is a jest, isn't it?"

MARVEL FUN FACTS:

There is a race of aliens in the Marvel universe called the Kymellians. The Kymellians have a very equine appearance and their planet was destroyed by an energy generator gone wrong. Most Kymellians escaped alive, drifting the cosmos aboard spaceships. One of them, Aelfyre Whitemane, was very interested on Earth and spent most of his time studying it. One day he found out that Earth scientist Dr. James Power was about to test a new generator, the same that destroyed the Kymellians world. Aelfyre flew to Earth to warn them, but crash landed. He was found mortally wounded by the four Power kids Alex, Julie, Jack, and Kate. He warned them about the "Snarks", a malicious alien race, enemies of the Kymellians, who wanted to use the generator as a weapon. He also transferred his powers to the kids, like Kymellians are able to do before they die, turning the kids into the Power Pack. After the kids defeated the "Snarks" and rescued their father who was kidnapped, they were visited by Byrel Whitemane, Aelfyre's father, who symbolically "adopted" them as his grandchildren. Kofi Whitemane, Aelfyre's cousin, would meet with the Pack and join their adventures every now and then.

The Whitemane clan debuted in Power Pack #1 in August, 1984. Kofi debuted in Power Pack #15 in October, 1985