Steve had no idea where he was. First thought was an alternate dimension. It was a good working theory, especially since Doctor Spectrum had just shoved him through a portal.
Hooking the shield on his back, Steve headed off down the mist-covered street lined with dark shuttered buildings. He was aiming for the large building spilling light and music over the pavement. He guessed it was a bar or restaurant.
He hadn't been rescued by the team yet. They were still fighting the Squadron Supreme or were in search of Doctor Strange. Either way, he was in for a long wait. A beer might be a good idea.
Steve entered the crowded bar. But he didn't recognize a single being – considering that the bar was full of candy-colored ponies at the tables or on the dance floor, furry creatures of all sizes and shapes, a few human-looking beings with wings or tails playing pool, a dragon in the corner sipping wine and so on. The house band, a collection of pixies and fairies with a rock creature on drums, played loudly in a corner. Steve, in full Captain America uniform with shield, was the most alien being in the place. At least no one glared at him as he made his way to the counter.
He sat down and ordered a beer. Steve had an infinite well of patience, but he would have preferred to be at home in front of the television watching the Dodgers. Assuming he'd be allowed to watch the baseball game, given how much Thor and Hulk played video games.
"Another cider, bartender," the pink girl next to him ordered. She had two empty mugs in front of her. Steve noted the straight pink mane and tail and the brightly colored party balloons on her flank. He wondered how she held up the mug to drink from it.
The girl turned to him. "Hi! I'm Pippi Longstocking. Glad to meet you." She held out a hoof for Steve to shake.
"Steve Rogers," he replied. He solemnly shook her hoof.
"You're dressed like you're going to a party, or came from a party or going somewhere fun and exciting," she said. "The circus? Hopefully the circus!" She tapped the counter, looking cross that her cider hadn't arrived yet.
"Uh, no," Steve replied. He had been brought up to be polite and courteous. Pippi seemed to be a decent person, uh, girl. "It's a uniform."
"A party uniform!" She peered closely at Steve. "Red, white, and blue with stars and stripes. OOHHHH - look at that shiny thing, um, shield thingy." She ran a hoof over the shield. "Wow - it's blue, red and white too with a star!"
Steve drank his beer and immediately ordered another. He wondered where the rest of the Avengers were. He hoped Tony wasn't insisting on finding a non-magical way of bringing him back from this place. He had to trust in Natasha and Sam.
Pippi looked closer at Steve and her hoof poked at his uniform. "Is that blood? Wow! The circus party is a doozy. I bet you play paintball and tag and eat candy and cake with the elephants and seals. Oh, that's what happened! You were playing paintball with seals and your friends slipped and scraped their knees and you saved them!"
"Do you know anything about this place?"
"Oh! The Bar? I come here all the time," Pinkie said, motioning with her hoof. "I'm a regular, right, guys?" she asked the other customers.
Amid clinking glasses and floor thumps, they all shouted back, "That's right, Pippi!"
"Sometimes you just have to get away," she said. "I love all my friends so much - they're all the greatest - there's Tommy and Annika and - . But you know …." She heaved out a sigh. "Sometimes a party girl just has to party without their friends. Especially if their friends were too busy to remember that big party that they planned for weeks with balloons and surprises and two special cakes and all the party games. We beat the dragon - he was sad and needed some hugs - and sent him off to sit in the naughty cave for a month and got the villagers to be friends again by lunchtime. Everyone still had time for that party! But noooooo, they all wanted to take naps, and showers and a spa day. And I had the best best glitter for my party cannon - ordered from all the way from a special confetti shop in Manehattan." She grabbed the newly delivered mug of cider and downed it all in one gulp. "Another!" she shouted at the bartender and pointed at her empty mug.
Steve understood part of what she said or so he thought. He understood dragons and saving a village, although not so much the whole party thing. He was more used to the team ordering pizza or takeout after a supervillain battle. "Fighting a dragon can be tiring."
"Ohhhhh. So you're not a paintball-playing-seal-friending-person-from-the-circus! You're like a superhero or something like that. Aren't you?"
"Yes, I'm part of a superhero team."
"I KNEW IT!" Pippi bounced back and forth on her chair. "My friends and I were superheroes once - I was Fili-Second." She struck a pose with her arms outstretched. "I could go anywhere in seconds, all around the world. Wait - where are your friends?"
"We were fighting a team of supervillains and I got shoved through a portal and came here. They should be coming soon."
Pippi wrinkled her nose. "I knew I'd make an exciting friend when I came here!" Her mane and tail suddenly bounced into tight curls. "We should try to find your friends."
"Sounds like a plan." Steve looked around the bar. He didn't know what Pippi could do, but it beat waiting for the team. And why hadn't he hadn't heard from Tony or Sam by now?
Pippi hopped off her stool and trotted confidently towards the door. "Come on!" she said to Steve, indicating the door with a head bob.
They walked down the street. Or Steve walked and Pippi bounced and skipped. She told Steve about her friends and what they did and that they worked to save friendships around the world and why she had party balloons on her flank. "If your friends are saving the world, and my friends are saving the world, I think we're superheroes too!" she concluded.
"We don't have a princess though," Steve offered. He wondered if Tony would call himself the princess of the Avengers. The idea of Tony in a tiara and pink and purple dress nearly made him laugh, although he had to admit Tony would have carried it off well.
"Oh, Tommy and Annika wasn't always a princess. We had a lot of adventures before that happened." Her nose twitched and she stopped at an intersection. "No, that's not it. And that's not it."
"What are you looking for?"
"The gateway to your world. This is where I go back home. Look - you can see through the portals as I tap them."
Steve examined each portal as Pippi tapped at the air with her hoof. "No, not that. No! Definitely not that one! Gosh, that place looks fun and exciting! Is that your home? No? Darn. Oh, wait, did you land here or at the other end of the street? Or the street over there?"
"Let's try the other end," Steve suggested.
They headed back down the street, as Pippi chattered on about her friends and the party. "They knew that we were going to have a party - we always do something for Third Wednesday of the Month. But we get back to the castle, they all bailed. Went back home or something."
Steve had no idea what to say. He couldn't quite imagine having parties all the time or even having one large party after spending the morning fighting supervillains. Usually the team was nursing injuries or debriefing with SHIELD or assisting in the clean-up. "Maybe your friends would appreciate the party better tomorrow? When there's no dragon?"
Pippi stopped in her tracks and frowned. Then she smiled broadly. "You would know, wouldn't you, Mr. Superhero Steve? Do you and your friends have parties?"
"Um, we've had a party or two - when someone's joined the team, or a birthday. But not after we've defeated a supervillain."
"Oh, I see." Pippi fell quiet for a few minutes. She said reflectively, "I could have the party tomorrow. It'd be more fun that way. I could make cupcakes!"
Steve nodded. The nagging worry about where the team was growing. It felt like he'd been in this nowhere for about an hour.
"Your friends haven't forgotten about you, if you're worried," Pippi said. She patted his arm. "We'll find your friends, Captain Steve!"
At the end of the street, Pippi tried to find the portal that brought Steve here. She tapped the air again and again. "No, no, no." Her shoulders slumped and her head dipped down. "That's not working. If only Tommy and Annika was here - she can do magic."
"How do you find the portals?"
"Oh, I just know about my portal - I found it by accident. I'm just guessing that you came the same way I did." Pippi brightened up. "I could get my friends to come here and we could get you home, Steve!"
Steve calculated how long that might take. "Hmmm, that might be the best option."
"If I had to write a letter to Princess Celestia, this would be the best letter ever! I could tell her about making friends with a superhero after I rescued him."
Letter to Celestia? "Sounds like my debriefings with SHIELD."
"Do you have to report on friendship to someone?"
"Um, no. Generally what I did and what went wrong and went right and what we learned."
"Same thing that I had to do!"
Pippi jumped into the air when a portal opened up in front of them with a startling mechanical whooshing noise. Steve grabbed his shield, ready for whatever would be coming out of the portal.
"Hi, hi, hi!" Pippi said, clearly expecting friendly arrivals.
"Hello. So, that's where you went," Tony said. Steve relaxed and put the shield away as Tony flipped up the visor on the helmet. He could hear Doctor Strange chanting faintly somewhere behind Tony. "Would have been here earlier but, you know. Magic." Tony shuddered.
Steve turned to Pippi with a smile. "Thank you for your help, Miss Pippi."
"Always glad to make a new friend, Steve!" Pippi said confidently. Steve blinked and there was a small cannon next to the girl. She touched the cannon, which shot out a pile of glitter, confetti, and balloons all over Steve. "Bye!"
He waved good-bye and entered the portal. He brushed some glitter off his eyelids. "Thanks for coming to get me."
"What was that all about?" Tony side-eyed him. "If you get any of that glitter in my lab -"
Steve smirked at him. "Like you aren't thinking that a party cannon isn't a good idea."
Tony grinned. "Well, you're not wrong. I am a genius. I bet I could make the best party cannon ever."
"I'm not reporting this to Fury. I don't want to answer questions about the bar I was in or that I met a talking pink girl."
"Steve, I saw it with my own eyes, and even I'm not sure I believe it."